The Phantom Riser

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE - ONE

“We can’t hurt him. The heart we need is not this way,” Karenia said.

“Right. And you became the representative for all things beastly when exactly?” Victor asked. Karenia was already weird enough to him. Now she had to go and top it up by talking to weird creatures.

“Since I gained this ability turtle brain. Besides, it just started a few seconds ago. I can hear him clearly. Very clearly.”

“Oh, so now I’m turtle brains. That’s interesting. Kiro can you… Kiro?” But Kiro was anywhere but with them. “Kiro!” Victor snapped him out of his reverie. “What’s the matter? Are you that surprised?”

“As a matter of fact, yes.”

“This didn’t happen before, in the future? Past? Future past?” Karenia wasn’t too sure herself. She could only imagine how mumbled up the memories were in Kiro’s head.

“Not this early, it didn’t. You are growing faster than last time. You both are.” And for some reason, that thought scared Kiro. There was the question of ‘was it only the three of them that was experiencing this change’ or ‘was it everyone’?

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Karenia asked, noticing Kiro was at an impasse.

“Why would you ask that? Of course, it’s a good thing, right?” Victor retorted.

“I don’t know. He looks off,” she replied, staring at Kiro.

“I really don’t know. My worry is what the root cause is and how many were affected. It’s important---”

“Relax Kiro, we’re stronger now. I’m sure we can handle it,” Victor assured him as he wrapped his arm around Kiro’s shoulder.

Yes, they were stronger. Way stronger than they were supposed to be at that time. “I told you this would happen,” Aaron spoke within Kiro’s mind. Kiro made sure to keep a straight face. The last thing he wanted was for them to start questioning him. Especially Karenia. Her senses were getting keener by the second and it was too early to reveal anything. Once they crossed the hurdle that was keeping him from talking, he would reveal everything to them. But only after then.

“What do you mean?” Kiro responded within his subconscious as well.

“Our interference… mine to be exact, tampered with a few things. They were the elements that held you to this time. It was with their essences that I was able to lock on to the past and bring you back. I did mention that there would be consequences but I didn’t know they would be this dire.”

“Dire? How is this a bad thing?” Kiro blurted out loud by accident. The stares he received from his friends made him realise his error.

“Who are you talking to?” Karenia asked.

“No one,” Kiro sharply responded. He had an awkward smile on his face. A confession of guilt if you may say. But it was so weird, that Victor didn’t even want to get involved. And Karenia decided to give him his space. She knew he was hiding things, things of importance. But she wouldn’t push him until he was comfortable enough to talk about it… them, whatever it was.

“Am I the only normal person here?” Victor asked.

“Please, you consider yourself normal? Besides, how you can call any of this normal, baffles me,” Karenia scoffed.

“Please, this is the new normal.” And Karenia and Victor continued their little spat, forgetting what had just happened with Kiro. Or at least it looked that way.

“The Ascient is stronger now. But it’s still early. We can stop him before it gets too late,” Aaron continued.

“He didn’t do anything!” Kiro yelled. This time, Victor and Karenia were really concerned.

“Yo man, are you okay?” Victor asked.

Kiro looked dim. He sat on the ground with a hand on his face. “Yeah, I just need to rest a little. We’ve been at it for a while now.”

“Your memories?”

“Something like that.”

Karenia walked with Azulon towards the end of the room. They were conversing in a language that even Kiro didn’t understand. It was her special gift after all. “So, princess beasty, what are you two talking about?” Victor teased.

“He is telling me about the Mesh. Most of what he says are things that Kiro has already told us, or we’ve already experienced, but I’m sure I can learn something.”

“So, beauty and the beast. What a start to a truly wonderful relationship,” Victor gloated and for the first time, Karenia chuckled at his tease. He had an accomplished expression on his face, but Kiro made no comments. In fact, he didn’t even acknowledge their presence at the time. But something ticked off Karenia’s senses. There was a team approaching them. Most probably for the same reason that brought them there. But now, their goal was to protect Azulon. Kiro wanted to pull up his shield, but Karenia gestured for him to wait.

“You may have gotten here before us, but we will be the one leaving with his heart,” one of the team members threatened.

“Isn’t that sweet? The little Riser over there thinks he actually stands a chance,” Karenia teased.

“Karenia, take this seriously. We don’t know what they are truly capable of,” Kiro said.

“Well, I can tell very clearly now,” she said with a grin. She could clearly gauge her opponent’s strength and she was far from intimidated.

“You won’t be so smug once I’m through with you,” one of her opponent’s replied. He teleported to behind Karenia. He went straight for a punch from behind, but Karenia made no efforts to evade his attack. He landed a clean hit on her face. It stung, but rather than cringe, she relished in the pain. She was grinning from ear to ear.

Her opponent stumbled out of shock. It was a clean hit. He was sure he made contact. But she was smiling. She was toying with him. He landed a barrage of attacks on her, teleporting around her in case she tried to counter, but she didn’t. All his punches and kicks hit clean, but she didn’t move. She didn’t frown. Nothing. Kiro and Victor did nothing as well. when he noticed that he was getting nowhere, he retreated. “You’re crazy!” he cried.

“Is that all?” – she was slightly bruised, but she was enjoying it. Every sting, every pain she felt was pleasure to her. Another of her opponents tried to crush her between two boulders that she raised from the ground below them. But the boulders crushed thin air. For Karenia was already behind them. “That’s two out of three. I think I’ve seen enough,” she said and that was the last thing the three heard.

“Now you have added crazy to your list of accomplishments. Why did you have to get hurt that much?” Victor complained.

“It’s no fun if I didn’t see what they were capable of. Besides, it’s over,” she replied. But it wasn’t. And in a few seconds, they were surrounded by a dozen of teams. Kiro made an attempt to defend them but Karenia stopped him once again. “No, I’ve got this. I can’t let this rush go to waste,” she said with a wide grin.