INTO THE VOID

CHAPTER 15:gODS AND HEROS

Petrichor charged forward towards Master Lu Ming. As she ran towards the monk, the distance between them seemed to widen. It was as though, the harder she ran, the farther away he was. It was like she was on a treadmill that was gradually pulled backwards. After her attempt to reach him failed, she tried a different approach. She took her sword and banged twice on the shield. As she did this, the sword changed form and became a spear. She ran a few paces forward and flung the spear at the monk. She had very good aim. The trajectory of the throw was perfect and direct towards Lu Ming’s head. A few inches to the intended target, the spear just stopped right in midair; it was suspended.

“You are in my world. You cannot kill a god in his heaven.” The monk said after which he moved forward towards her. He was floating with a very high speed. All he did was stretch his arms forward and pushed them backwards. He was approaching her very fast. He opened his palms and two huge Shoa Lin swords appeared in them. He was about to strike down Petrichor who held her shield up with intents to stop the floating monk. He was about to strike her down when the most bizarre thing happened.

“We are in The Soulish Realm. We can’t fight him like we are in the physical one.” Xaviere shouted after a freight train appeared and rammed into the monk. “Channel your thoughts, use your soul.” He told Petrichor.

Xaviere touched the knuckles of both his hands together. After he did this, a suit of armor appeared around his body. He was fully clad in Samurai armor. The attire looked traditional and authentic and he had two swords strapped to his waist. Xaviere then hopped on top of the train and drew the katana in wait of his unknowing assailant.

Master Lu Ming lay on the ground, weakened, trying to get up to his feet again. He was barely standing when the battle ready Xaviere jumped at him with the Katana with intents to flash at the monk. Instinctively, the monk held his swords out and clashed with Xaviere’s blade. Sword fighting was one of the many combat forms monks learnt during their training and Master Lu Ming was about to show Xaviere why he had the appellation, “Master” with his name.

Their confrontation was heated, the two clashed swords a lot. Master Lu Ming had two and was quite skilled with it. Xaviere was equally battle worthy and gave his opponent a hard time. Suddenly, Master Lu Ming stepped back a few paces from Xaviere creating separation between them. He then took his swords and scrapped their surfaces together. As he did this, a huge wave of fire appeared and was hurled towards Xaviere. At the site of the flames, Xaviere quickly thought about a tornado. The huge wave of wind appeared and consumed the flames and then moved in the direction of the monk.

Master Lu Ming spread his hands wide open and then the ground split open. The tornado fell into it and Master Lu Ming went air borne again. He shot quickly through the air in the direction of Xaviere. As he was still midflight, a hoard of arrows appeared and moved quickly towards Xaviere. Xaviere gripped his katana and then stabbed it into the ground with both hands. At this gesture, a giant wall suddenly appeared from the ground right in front of Xaviere. The flying arrows rammed into the wall. Unfortunately, as Xaviere conjured up this wall, Master Lu Ming used it as a decoy and then appeared behind Xaviere.

“Xaviere watch out.” Petrichor screamed. Before Xaviere could react, Master Lu Ming hit him across the head with a big mace. The force of the blow pushed Xaviere off the ground and flung him towards the wall he thought up a few moments ago. He crashed into it with a loud thud and then fell to the ground, unconscious.

“Noooo” Petrichor screamed. She stomped on the ground and instantly she was airborne. She swooshed quickly towards the monk and hurled a bunch of rocks towards him. At first he was able to easily evade the stony projectiles, simply swaying from side to side. Subsequently, the projectiles became larger in size; some as big as houses and others as big as tall buildings. The monk struggled with these ones but was still successful in escaped unscathed.

“Is that the best you can do?” Master Lu Ming asked Petrichor tauntingly. He stood looking at her with a smirk on his face. She looked at him with so much intensity and then she lifted both her arms upwards and then forcefully dropped them. As she did this, Master Lu Ming saw a big shadow suddenly appear. He looked upward and saw a big rocky structure descend rapidly. Petrichor had conjured up a mountain and it was dropping fast. There was no way Master Lu Ming could escape that. He ran as fast as he could. He jumped and attempted to fly as he had earlier done but all to no avail. The mountain landed with a loud, echoing thud.

Petrichor went to where Xaviere was. She held him in arms. She could feel his heat beating; he was still alive. She cuddled him and cried. “I am so sorry, this is my fault.” Petrichor said as tears round down her cheeks. She held his head in her arms. She was still gathering her emotions when suddenly she heard a large cracking sound. She turned her head to the direction of the sound and saw a very shocking sight.

Master Lu Ming was standing there with his fist clenched and held up above his head. There were broken pieces of mountain debris all over the place. Master Lu Ming had somehow broken out from under the huge structure.

“Impossible” Petrichor whispered.

“I have trained by mind and body for years. I have suffered unbearable pain. Like an ore place in a furnace to be forged into a sword, I have been beaten, struck with a hammer. I have been sharpened. All my life I have dedicated myself to one thing; to this course and now, when I am so close, you think you can take this away from me? You have to think again.” Master Lu Ming said breathing heavily.

Petrichor looked at the necklace and only one bead was left, the rest were all glowing a bright red. Petrichor walked forward and approached the monk. He also took a battle stance. Petrichor picked up the pace and continued towards him. He also did the same. As they were coming closer, Petrichor wondered how she was going to stop him. He was so skilled and so dangerous. He also had a strong resolve. As she contemplated this, all of a sudden she heard a swooshing sound and felt a heavy wind blow past her. She turned but all she could he was a beam of light. Suddenly, she heard a scream.

“What have you done?” Master Lu Ming shouted. He looked upwards at Xaviere who was not floating and holding the necklace that the monk was wearing. “You fool, can you not see that I only want to help. There is no saving this world. I must create a new reality…”

While he still spoke, he began to gasp for air. He looked at his chest and saw the edge of a sword. While he was distracted, Petrichor took the opportunity and stabbed him from behind. Xaviere was shocked. All he could do was watch. The monk dropped to his knees and held his hands to his chest. As he weakened, the things he conjured up earlier began to fade; his soul was dying.

“Why?” Xaviere asked. He just watched his sweet Petrichor drive a sword into a man from behind.

“There was no other way. Some thoughts are just too dangerous to exist.” Petrichor responded very sternly. She tapped on her bracelet and said, “Come in, Zero”

“I read you loud and clear.”

“The threat has been eliminated.”

“Good work Desertwind. We await your arrival at HQ.”

“Thank you sir, over and out” Petrichor said.

She tapped on her bracelet and a beam of blue light appeared around it. In an instant, they were transported back into the physical realm. Master Lu Ming was still seated there in his yoga pose.

“What do we do with him?” Xaviere asked.

“Nothing, we will leave him here and a hundred years from now some monks will come looking. He will be celebrated as a hero. He wanted to be a god; we can at least let him be a hero in their eyes.”

Xaviere said nothing. He simply just got into the pod, Petrichor did the same. They fastened their seatbelts and then she asked, “Are you good?” to which Xaviere respond, “Yeah… let’s just go.” Petrichor tapped in the coordinates and as quickly as they came, the pod disappeared. Within seconds, there were back at the HQ.

The pod came into the hanger with a swooshing sound. The top came off and Petrichor took off the seatbelt and came out of the pod.

“Wow… well that never gets old.” Xaviere said as he stepped out of the pod with the surprised look on his face.

“It takes some getting used to.” Zero said with a smile on his face. “Welcome back, you did a stellar job.” He said. “Desertwind have the Mission’s Report sent to me. X good work, we will be in touch.

“We need to get you to the medic. You took a pretty bad hit.” Petrichor said to Xaviere.

“I am fine… really.” Xaviere responded in a reassuring tune to a worried looking Petrichor.

“There’s nothing to fear; really. I know how much you hate taking drugs and all; trust me, I learnt that lesson the hard way during The Ice Rink incident. How ironic is that; doctor that hates the taste of his own medicine.” Petrichor said smiling at Xaviere. He chuckled.

“C’mon, what’s there not to hate? The bitter taste of those analgesics, the smell of hospital wards, and let’s not forget the unemotional school nurses. ” Xaviere said.

“Well the medics here at The VOID are actually caring and use quite different methods. Trust me; there are no bitter drugs here.” Petrichor said.

“Ok then, if you say so.” Xaviere responded.