Guardian: Protectors of Light (53 page)

“
All I need
is Samira and Violina’s aid,” Madeleine replied. “Together, our
powers might just be strong enough to bring James back.”

Samira and Violina joined
her quickly; Thomas and Bella brought James to
them. 

“
All right,
on my mark,” Madeleine said. “There is no specific spell for this –
just think about James and what you remember of him.

“
Akilah,
don’t let him down,” she added underneath her breath.
But unfortunately, even all three their powers weren’t strong
enough to return James’ soul in charge; the Master’s spell was too
strong, as Madeleine had already predicted.
Thomas let out a sigh as he saw the spell hadn’t had any effect; he
was slightly discouraged, but knew that they weren’t to give up
hope until night-time arrived. He’d discussed the plan with
Antonio, who’d agreed to work along, despite not knowing whether
the sceptre would work on the clouds hanging over the Land of Void
or not.
Since the spell didn’t work, there was nothing left for the Bond of
Light and Protectors to do but to keep moving and getting to the
castle.

After they’d made the
five kilometres away from the Master’s Castle, there were less than
two kilometres left to cross to get there; it would not be much
trouble to get there, unless the Master would reopen attack as soon
as they crossed the five-kilometre line.

Without any
further ado, they could possibly reach the castle within less than
two to three hours; not that exact time mattered. The only real
problem was that everyone had been so worn down by the events of
the past few days, that moving quickly wasn’t really that easy
anymore.
“Antonio,” Thomas whispered. “I think now’s a good time to give it
a shot.”

Antonio nodded at Thomas.
“Gotcha,” he said. He took his sceptre from his belt, concentrating
on raising the moon and clearing the sky as hard as he could.
“MADELEINE!” Thomas yelled. “We’re finally going to see the
Guardian of Night and Day in action; Antonio’s going to raise the
moon so you can cast your spell!”

Madeleine turned around in shock. “What!? NO!” she yelled.
“DON’T! A FULL MOON 
TRIGGERS
 THE
THIRD STAGE!”
“Antonio, WAIT!” Samira yelled, but it had already happened.
Antonio laughed happily as he saw the sun going down, getting
replaced by the moon as the sky cleared slightly.
At the same time, James’ body started to tremble. 
Samira stared at her brother in horror. This couldn’t be
happening. 
She’d
 caused
this, because she’d refused to listen. It was her fault that James
was now transforming into a ...
monster
.

Something purely evil,
with no free will or whatsoever at all. 

Everyone got
the same idea to take a step or two away from James as the
trembling got worse and started to breathe heavily. The stones on
his cape and the glowing pattern on his clothing started to get a
bright red glow instead of their usual turquoise colour. Samira let
out a scream of horror as black smoke started to surround the boy,
leaving him yelping out in pain.

As the smoke died out, so
did all noise. Even background noises seemed to have been sucked
out of the air.
And the look in James’ eyes when he opened them was enough to
unleash fear inside of everyone – even inside of Thomas.

“
Why, hello,
my fellow Guardians,” an evil and twisted version of James’ voice
said. “It’s such a pleasure to meet you.”

Nobody said anything in
response. They probably weren’t able to, or didn’t want
to.

James looked up at the
moon and grinned; with a wave of his hand, the clouds drove back in
front of it, making the place where they were standing nearly pitch
black; James looked even scarier with his red, glowing eyes and
glowing red clothing. “So, which one of you dumb-nuts did that?” he
said, referring at the rising of the moon during the middle of the
day. James looked at Antonio, then at his sceptre and pointed at
it. “You?” he said. “Well, congratulations! You’ll be the one I’ll
take down first!” 
James lunged forward at Antonio, attacking him with his sword; but
Antonio’s reflexes were fast enough to block James’ attack with his
silver sceptre. “Come on, dude! This is nuts! First, your sister
gets turned over to the Dark Side, and now you! This has got to
end!”

“
Yes, indeed
it does,” James replied, bashing his sword against Antonio’s
sceptre multiple times, trying to break Antonio’s defence. “Why
don’t we end it right here, right now!”
Antonio’s eyes flashed toward the others behind James. “Help me!”
he mouthed. 

Luckily, his friends didn’t take too long before they
snapped out of their mind-numbness and ran forward to help Antonio.
Thomas used a smooth, quick move to cause James to drop his sword,
but they all seemed to have forgot one important thing about James
- 
his
Magic.
 
Black fog formed thick, strong ropes around Timothy’s limbs; the
same happened to Samira, Madeleine, Bella and Violina. But for some
reason, he forgot to tie Thomas as well. Was it because he still
had a hunger for a good fight?

Probably.
“You’re no match for me,” James hissed. “None of you
are.”

While he’d been so
focused on the others, James hadn’t paid too much attention to the
two enemies he had left on the loose behind him – Antonio and
Thomas.

James summoned his sword,
and turned around. “Now,” he said, “let’s dance.”

He attacked Thomas, who
skilfully blocked the attack and stood his ground fighting back.
“Stop it, James,” he said. “I’m serious. This is
madness!”

“
You’re
right,” James said, while lashing out at Thomas violently. They had
always trained together; his father’s fencing lessons, Gabriel’s
advanced fighting lessons; they were equal. The only thing that
seemed to make James stronger was his hate, which fuelled his
magical abilities.

But James had forgot one
thing; Antonio was still there. He snuck up on the two sword
fighting teenagers, and threw himself around James’s legs when he
saw the opportunity to. James fell, dropping his sword in the
progress.

He quickly got on all fours, wanting to summon his sword,
but was stopped by Thomas, who pulled him against his chest,
holding his sword against James’s throat.
“One move,” Thomas whispered, “and you’re done. Also, don’t
even 
think
 about
using that dissolving trick, because...” He simply moved one of the
blades a little lower, toward the stones around the pin holding
James’ cape together. “You can’t.”
Antonio appeared in front of James with a smug grin. “You might
have transferred some kind of different soul into my friend,” he
said, “that has made him become twisted and evil, but you’re still
inside the same body. And if I know James well...” He paused for a
second to lift up his sceptre and hit James against the temple with
it, knocking him out. “...I believe to remember that he was easy to
knock out!”

Thomas carefully let
James slide to the ground. He laid there, silently and immobile, on
the hard, soil ground.

“
Well, that
should take care of him for now,” Antonio sighed and nodded at
Timothy. 
Timothy nodded back at him. “Now let’s free the others and see if
Madeleine can still fix this.”

Castle
Clash

Timothy and Antonio were quick to untie their friends, who
all then attended to James, who was still laying knock-out on the
ground.
“So, what are we going to do with him 
now
?” Samira
said. “As soon as he comes to, he’ll be right back on that killing
spree the Master has sent him on again.”
Madeleine knelt down beside James and examined him. “Akilah spoke
to me inside my head,” she said, while putting a hand on the stone
that rested on his chest; it was still glowing red, but it’s glow
had slightly weakened. “She spoke of the Soul Separation Spell,
suggesting to use it on James.”

“
And... does
that spell do what I think it does?” Bella said, but from the faces
of his friends, he quickly found out he’d just been stating the
obvious.
“It separates one soul from another, yes,” Madeleine said, raising
an eyebrow. “It’s the reverse version of the spell Akilah used to
combine the souls of the Spirits of Light with ours. It’s tricky...
And I’ll need that sceptre of you, Antonio.”

“
But I’ve
used all of its power!” Antonio said. “There’s nothing
left.”

Madeleine smiled as she
stood up, looking at him. “I can take care of that.”

She folded her hands
together, and all of a sudden, Akilah appeared beside
her.

Silver and golden
sparkles surrounded Antonio as he got lifted a few centimetres off
the ground, leaving his friends gasping in awe while Akilah
spoke.

“
Antonio Bellucci, you have shown incredible willpower
against your anger issues and aggression by not fighting either of
your friends.

For this, you
are rewarded with your Guardian’s Totem; Willpower.

This unlocks
your Sceptre of Light. You could use it before, but back then it
had limited power. Now, it will give you full control over the
Light.

Use it wisely, just as you used your
willpower.
”
“Whoa,” Antonio gasped as he got back on the ground. “I...
feel... 
stronger
,” he said
“Stronger than I’ve ever felt before.”

“
Because you’ve overcome your fear, Antonio!” Bella laughed.
“You were always afraid to actually 
hurt
 us
because of your anger, but now you know how to control it! You did
it, buddy!”

Antonio turned his head
to look aside, where Bella was standing. “Yeah,” he said, grinning
broadly. “I did it. You’re right, Bella.”

“
Antonio,
we’re so proud of you!” Samira smiled and started to applaud, in
which the others joined quickly. However, the applause was short;
they had a short moment to feel happy and proud of something, but
time was running out, and James still needed their help.
“There’s no time to lose,” Madeleine said. “Antonio, make sure that
moon gets out here! Violina, Samira, join me while casting the
spell. It goes pretty much the same as what we tried last time;
focus on all the good things inside James. If we’re with the three
of us, it will speed up the process and enlarge our chances of
success.”

Samira, Violina and
Madeleine gathered in front of James, at his feet. They waited for
Antonio to use the sceptre and clear the sky; the only preparation
necessary for this spell.

“
Ready?”
Madeleine said. “Remember the spell! Now, CAST!”

Concentrating as hard as they could, Violina, Samira and
Madeleine each cast the spell. “
Separanimo
!” they
shouted; the effect was instantly visible on James. 
He was still unconscious, lying on his back; after the girls had
cast the spell, he was lifted off the ground, and a mix of a red
and blue glowing light was drawn from the stone on his chest and
the pattern on his clothing. They twisted and swirled, until
finally splitting apart into that same, black fog as with Thomas
before, and a bright, white light.

The light went back
inside the stone that rested on James’ chest as his body was
lowered back onto the ground, while the fog disappeared into the
sky.
As soon as the light of James’s soul had returned to its rightful
owner, he started to cough. Samira rushed toward James to help
him.

“
Are you
okay?” she said, helping her little brother to sit and eventually
stand up.

“
Y-yeah,”
James replied. His voice sounded slightly shaky and he had to lean
on Samira with pretty much all of his weight, but at least he was
okay.

Samira grabbed her
brother’s shoulders, turned him so that they were be facing each
other, and pulled him into a bone-crushing hug.
“I’m so sorry, James,” Samira whispered. “I’m so terribly
sorry.”

“
What are you
talking about?” James whispered back. “I don’t
understand.”

“
Never mind,” Samira whispered as they pulled out of the
hug. “It doesn’t matter.”
It wasn’t until they’d let go of each other, until the two boys
noticed their friends standing around them, with both unbelieving
looks and smiles.

“
Group hug!”
James shouted, and his friends laughed agreeing as they hugged each
other; with James and Thomas in the middle.
As the group hug dismembered, James suddenly noticed something odd
about his surroundings. “Say,” he said, “how come we’re not inside
the Nightmare Castle anymore?”

“
He...
just... let us go,” Bella said. James raised an eyebrow.

“
What do you mean, 
he just let us go
?”
he said, sounding more or less unconvinced. “That doesn’t seem like
the Master at all.”
Timothy shrugged. “Do you think 
we
 believed him
at first?” he said. “We didn’t. But he kept admitting defeat and
insisting he should let us go.”

“
Without 
any
 consequences
at all?” James said, rubbing a hand against his lips. “Huh.
Odd.”

“
He probably
let us go because he was convinced you’d take care of us,” Samira
said. “He’d cursed you, James.”