Guardian: Protectors of Light (54 page)

“
You mean
like Sabrina?” James said, grimacing. “Ouch. Sorry
guys.”

“
Nah,” Antonio laughed. “You
weren’t 
that
 much of a
pain in the butt... To be honest, we had you knocked out quite
easily.”

James grinned. “You sure
about that, big guy?” he said. “By the way, nice fairy wand you’ve
got there.”

Antonio
rolled his eyes.  “Haw, haw. Shouldn’t we keep
going?”

“
Sure,” James said. “But honestly. I prefer calling it
“finding out how the Master wants to kill
us 
this
 time”,” he
snickered, receiving a smack on the back of his head from Thomas as
they proceeded on their final quest.

*

“
So... they
managed to cure him. They’re clever children. That, I cannot
deny.”

The Master was sitting on
his throne once again, shrouded in darkness, while closely watching
or examining a vision of the Bond of Light and the Protectors,
which was floating in mid-air, right in front of him.

“
Jason!
Sabrina!” he called. 
His two loyal servants came in straight after hearing their names,
and knelt in front of their master’s throne. 

“
You called
us, my Master?” Sabrina said. 

“
I did,
Sabrina. Indeed,” the Master said, still looking at the vision
floating in front of him. 

A group hug. How... 
adorable.
 

“
I called you
in, because I believe it’s time for us to execute the Castle
Clash,” he said. “And I want you two in charge of
it.” 

Jason smiled; clearly proud of the fact that his master was
showing faith in him to lead an operation, but didn’t manage to
gather the courage look up. “I am truly honoured, my Master,” he
said. “We’ll make sure there’s no need for you to get your hands
dirty; their numbers are declining every time we fight them. I’m
sure we can eliminate them all before they can complete the
Ritual.” 
“I have no doubt in your abilities,” the Master said. “I’ll watch
everything closely from a distance. When I, and
only 
I
 think all else
we have in store will fail, I’ll come help you to make sure
it 
won’t.
”

He rose up from his
throne, spreading his arms forward toward the door. “Now, go, lead
your troops to the castle! Make sure those Guardians are soon-to-be
history!”

Jason and Sabrina nodded
at their master as they stood up and left, shutting the heavy
throne room doors behind them, leaving the Master alone to watch
his vision of the Guardians in peace.

As he watched them travel
while laughing and talking, something resembling anger and hate
boiled up inside him. They were foolish teenagers, and that’s all
they’d ever be. They were no match for him or his power; they’d be
crushed as if they were annoying bugs underneath his
boot.

“
It’s about
time someone put a stop to their shenanigans once and for all; and
I believe that I’m the best possible man on the job.”

Although the Master
wasn’t fond of showing his emotions, he could clearly feel the
frustration boiling inside of him, making it hard for him to stay
calm.
He should’ve taken more risks; he should’ve gone out into the
lighter Realms of Lunaria to take these children out himself. The
forces he’d set up in these Realms to do it for him clearly weren’t
competent enough to do so.

But there was nothing left to do about it now. He’d have to
count on his two most loyal servants; only if they failed, he’d
have to solve the problem himself.
After all, how hard could it possibly be to take out
just 
one
 of them? If
they were with four, they wouldn’t be able to complete the
ritual.

They were with only eight
left. The Shadow Walkers and Evil Spirits were now stronger than
ever; they could be outnumbered easily. It’d be an easy job... if
done right.
And doing it right was what seemed to be the problem with his
servants. But soon they’d learn; they would teach those pesky
Guardians a lesson.

*

It was the last walk to
the Castle of Light. The Bond of Light and their Protectors were
almost there.

There hadn’t been much
talking since their “victory” on James’s and Antonio’s behalf, but
James still felt the need to settle things out.

“
Hey,
Samira?” he said, while they were walking behind the group. “About
what you said earlier today...”

“
Yes, James?”
Samira replied. “What’s the matter?”

“
I just
wanted to say I understand now,” James said with a smile. “I mean-
I understand why you apologized... But in reality, the only one who
owes anyone an apology is me. I’m sorry, Samira.”

Samira lowered an eyebrow
in confusion. “What do you mean? Why should you
apologize?”

“
It’s just-”
James said, lowering his eyes to the ground in shame. “You saved me
so many times in the past few weeks and all I did for you in return
was being an ungrateful brat. I’m sorry I acted that
way.”

Samira smiled at him,
laying a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay,” she said. “You’ve been
under a lot of pressure. We all have... I can
understand.”

“
Really?”
James said hopefully.

“
Really.”

James looked forward into
the distance, and suddenly noticed something. “Are you all blind or
something? Why didn’t you guys say anything? We’re here!”
Nobody had noticed until James did. The Castle of Spirits was right
there in front of them!

“
We- we’re at
the castle already!” Thomas gasped. “But-

“
Maybe it’s a trap... The Master’s
minions 
should’ve
 shown
up by now, don’t you think?”

“
Don’t you
get worried now, bro! I’ve got your back!” Samira shouted laughing
and jumped on her brother’s back.
James found himself surprised by her sister’s weight, yet laughed
while quickly clamping his hands around Samira’s legs to prevent
her from falling off.

“
We’re going
to finish this once and for all, guys!” James shouted, while toward
the castle with his older sister on his back. “It all ends
today!”

Thomas shrugged, smiled
and ran after them, followed by Antonio and Bella. 
The Protectors followed them shortly, also with wide grins on their
faces, despite being more careful and aware of any possible
attacks.
Things were about to get tricky now.
There wasn’t much left of the castle; most of it had worn down over
the years at the influence of the darkness and evil it’d been
surrounded by. But luckily, the Ritual Chamber was mostly still
intact.

“
It’s so...
huge in here,” Samira said, as they walked into the Ritual
Chamber.

“
ECHO!”
Antonio shouted; his voice resounded all the way to the tall
ceiling and back.

“
SHH!”
Timothy hushed. “Be quiet! We don’t know who or what is hiding in
here. Be careful.”

“
Yeah, yeah,”
Antonio grunted. “Sure thing, Captain Sparkles.” That last comment
made Timothy’s head turn fiercely, throwing Antonio an angry,
squinted-eyed look.

Antonio still didn’t seem
very impressed, though.
“It’s beautiful in here,” Samira said, while gently stroking her
hand across a marble banister.

“
Despite it’s
been in decay for years... It still has some of its previous
beauty.”

“
Yeah,”
Madeleine said, watching the ceiling with her hands on her hips.
“When I entered this place for the first time, it looked less
broken-down, though. It’s sad.”
“Don’t worry. You can consider this as your last visit.”

The eight teenagers
turned around in a flash, finding themselves surrounded by Warlock
Spirits, Shadow Walkers, and Sabrina and Jason.

“
Welcome,
Guardians, to the big finish of it all,” Jason said triumphantly.
“As you can clearly see, our Master has sent us out here to finish
you off. We’re stronger than ever... Give up now or meet the
consequences.”

James scanned the crowd; the Spirits looked like demons,
nothing like the Warlocks in their dark, purple robes. And the
Shadow Walkers, which usually represented wild animals... Well,
they looked like a mix of beasts. A few of them looked like... A
dragon mixed with a wolf, perhaps? All in all, they looked, in one
word, plain 
terrifying
.

This would not be an easy
fight. But they had to try.

“
You know what, Jason?” Timothy breathed, before roaring his
next sentence out loud. “I’d rather 
die
 than
give up on this world!”
Jason’s face remained expressionless. “Then so be it,” he said. One
move of his hand was enough to let his army know that it was time
to attack.

They stormed forward all
at once, but the Guardians stood their ground. Underneath a cloud
of thick, back fog, the battle was heavy and deadly.

Clothing was torn apart, flesh was gutted, and blood was
spilt. But nobody gave up fighting. 
Ever.

Samira kept shooting
arrows until she ran out, and then continued to rip Warlock Spirits
apart with two of Bella’s daggers

James and Thomas stood
their ground with their swords, while Timothy swung his katanas
around.

Even Violina managed to
bring up enough power to shoot powerful blasts of light at the
Shadow Walkers, which caused them to dissolve almost instantly as
they were hit.

But Antonio had the best
idea out of everyone. The Ritual Chamber’s ceiling was made of
glass, so the energy beams from the altar could spread through
Lunaria more easily. All Antonio would have to do was help the sun
to rise a bit faster.

As he brought himself to
safety, Antonio lifted up his sceptre, slowly clearing the sky
above the Chamber and raising the sun, allowing its rays to shine
over the Ritual Chamber.
There was nowhere to hide. The light was disastrous for the Evil
Spirits and Shadow Walkers; Sabrina and Jason were able to stand in
the light due to their mortal bodies offering them protection, but
their army, which consisted entirely of shadows and black fog,
dissolved almost instantly.

“
Game, set
and match,” Antonio laughed, as he watched the evil army disappear
in front of his eyes.
Jason, however, wasn’t too happy. He stormed forward toward
Antonio, yelling in anger.

“
You
Guardians keep messing everything up! It’s about time one of you
paid for all you’ve done to me!” 

He lifted up his sceptre,
transforming the orb in the front into a sharp blade. But just as
he jumped into the air, ready to stab Antonio, who’d defensively
raised his sceptre in front of his chest to block the blade,
Timothy jumped in between the two, stabbing Jason in the
chest.

...While, unfortunately,
also getting Jason’s blade between his ribs, piercing his left lung
and probably a part of his heart. The blade hit him with enough
force to end up sticking out at the back; the teenagers who’d been
spectating the event, pulled faces of horror as they saw what was
happening.
The two dissolved before they even hit the ground. Jason into black
fog, Timothy into light.

They’d killed each other.
Everything went silent, as both the Bond of Light and Sabrina
stared silently at the spot where Timothy and Jason had just
disappeared.
“No,” Madeleine mouthed, as tears streamed down her cheeks.
“
No.
”
Sabrina didn’t seem to be able to comprehend what just happened.
She had a confused look on her face, as if she was questioning
herself and her own choices.

“
I’m sorry,”
she whispered, before fainting from what seemed to be exhaustion –
or something else.
“Life is but a dream to the dead,” Antonio said. “After all, how
often do we get a second chance?”

He decided to ignore the
confused look Bella gave him, who seemed to have heard
him.

The
Ritual

Some time passed. Nobody
knew how much time; all they knew was that everyone was still tired
from the battle. Samira had been able to heal a lot of the wounds
the enemy had inflicted; the deeper cuts had been reduced to
scabs.

A decision had to be
made; they could either just sit there and wait for the Master to
show up and finish them off, or complete the Ritual now, while they
had the time to do so.

Except... there were
certain things about the Ritual that were different from what
Madeleine had told the Bond of Light when they first arrived in
Lunaria; the biggest difference was that there were five altars
instead of just two. Three low ones and two high ones; one for each
Guardian.
“So, before you begin, there are some things I haven’t told you
yet,” Madeleine said. “I wanted to wait telling you this until we
got here. The five of you need to get the Ritual started together.”
She gestured at the three slightly lower altars below the high ones
while talking. “As soon as you’ve fulfilled your part, you’ll know
by getting awakened from the trance the Ritual will bring you in.
The same thing goes for you, James and Thomas,” she said, shifting
her attention to James and Thomas in specific.