Chapter 33: Monochrome Factor
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"And... Checkmate!"

"No way!" Gaia squeaked in its zebra-voice, "You cheated! My bishop was diagonally in front of your knight! It should have been killed already! You moved the piece!"

"C'mon, Gaia. Don't be such a sour-puss," Mokona patted the black-king piece on the chessboard, "Just admit that you're suck at chess more than I do."
The little keychain zebra folded its tiny arms in disagreement, sticking its tongue out at Mokona, acting like little kids. It leaped from the wheeled-chair and hoped on the mattress, burying its head in the soft pillow. The only two sacred animals were stuck in Cornelia's room, having not a clue on what to do when their guardians were busy with their everyday school lives, and this time, Mokona remembered, David had passed her to Cornelia to keep Gaia company. But it was quite strange, Mokona thought. David had given her to Cornelia because he said that he was heading to the party too, but he had gone in the opposite direction.

Mokona pouted, devastated. David seldom came to his room, unless it's for reading or sleeping. He had played with Mokona one or two times, but Mokona thought that it was still not enough. She missed Sir Galahad, whom which had showered her with much tender-loving care, bringing her everywhere, instead of being cooped up in a room. Mokona climbed up onto Cornelia's desk and reached for the big red tin at the far end. It was easy to open the metal lit and dig in for some 'Heart' biscuits that David had left for her in Cornelia's room. It then plopped down on the wheeled-chair and saw Gaia sniffing the air. “What’s wrong?” Mokona took a bite from the pink biscuit.

“The Air,” Gaia rubbed its nose and sniffed again, “It’s polluted.”

“The 21st Century is corrupted, remember?” Mokona carefully picked up the crumbs that littered the desk. “All these stupid technology stuff that’s buzzing about. With the grey smoke fogging off this huge tube that I saw in the telly.”

“It’s television.”

“Oh yeah,” Mokona pouted and took another biscuit from the tin, “Hey, do you think Excalibur and Dakota will be coming? I mean, what are they waiting for? The guardians are still at a mediocre level, and it’d be good if they’d come.”

Gaia replaced back the chess pieces to its original position before answering, “Excalibur said that he wants to observe the guardian first. He says that this way, he will be able to adjust quickly once he has joined the guardian of Water and know her weaknesses thus preparing. But normally Sir Arthur will do the teachings. So Excalibur has to do the opposite and teach her Sir Arthur’s skills instead. I have a feeling that he will join us very soon.”

“And so that leaves Dakota,” Mokona rubbed its little paws together and joined back at the opposite seat from Gaia at the chess table, “I have doubts that he will come.”

“Yes,” Gaia responded, “The boy seems to have a different aura from the rest. Quite similar to Sir Lancelot, that is why I have my uncomfortable vibes around him.”

“Me too!! When David let Jason hold onto me during their training, it was like as if he sent painful sparks into my puny body and it hurt so much!” Mokona said as it pinched its white belly, “Dakota is much wiser than all of us. If he were to come, he’d be risking the tortures that Sir Lancelot has bestowed him, and that’d be most unwise.”

“That may be true, Mokona,” Gaia sighed its tiny female squeaky voice, “However, it is not necessary that a descendant were to follow the footsteps of his ancestor.” Gaia said as she began moving her knight to the front killing off Mokona’s bishop. Suddenly, its head shot up high as Gaia sniffed the air again. This time, Gaia panted in panic. “The air again?” Mokona asked.

“This is serious, Mokona,” Gaia puffed out a cloud of air, “Blood. I can smell blood in the air being spilled.”

★

Cornelia pressed against her wound made by David. It was bleeding quite badly as it was a long line stretched across her shoulder. Once Cyrus had uttered those words, David was on full mode, Cornelia recalled. He made no hesitation or reluctance to the situation and just bounce off into attacking them. It was so fast that no had time to react. David drove in with lightning speed towards them, outstretched his hand and immediately, his fingers grew long, sharp and silver. And once he was just a few feet away, he striked with his extended metallic arm at them. Missed Jason and Tiadora, but Cornelia got hit at her shoulder. Without a moment to lose, he jumped right at them, unleashing hell. Tiadora pushed Jason aside and shielded with her silver band when the blow came in. Zing! The metals scratched against each other.

Tiadora thought fast and kicked David in the stomach and blasted, with left hand, at him. The deafening blow threw him off guard and to the ground. He staggered up and bared his fangs at her, hissing roughly as his eyes glowed with red intensity. Suddenly, he pushed his long fingers into the ground and his whole arm glowed bright yellow into it. All of a sudden, the ground exploded, splitting it in half and rumbling through an earthquake. The crack spread all the way to Tiadora. She felt the ground separate beneath her, and lost her footing. "Tia!!" Jason yelled, grabbing hold of her hand. The endless dark depths below her seem endless. Tiadora tried to grip onto a rock but it slipped into sand when she held it. "He's using Earth against us," Tiadora exclaimed, as Jason struggled to pull her out, "If it's conjured with his vampire abilities as well, it'll be disastrous."

"Well, so how do we attack a vampire then?" Jason asked, "He's still David."
"GAAAAAAAAAHH!!" David howled and stared at them both. His eyes suddenly glowed a lighter red as if commanding, and all of a sudden, Jason felt a jab plunged through his shoulder. The pain exploded, and Jason could feel his bones shattering inside. His grip on Tiadora tightened, not sure if he still had the strength. "Jason, what's wrong?!" Tiadora saw it through his face.

"David... He dislocated my right shoulder from the right arm bone. Don't worry. I'm not going to let you go," Jason bravely said, as both noticed that it was his right hand that was holding onto Tiadora, who was still at the edge of darkness.

"What?! Let me go, Jason! My weight will tear your arm at this rate!"

A laugh cracked among Xana's apprentices. Cyrus was the loudest. "Such dignity, Princess! Honestly, the descendants are not as indifferent as the knights, don't you agree?" she cursed and floated in the air, "David, what are you waiting for?! Kill them, like you did to the Guardian of Water!"

By those last three words, Jason could see David staggered back and suddenly gasping. Cornelia came forward and helped Jason haul Tiadora out. Jason clutched his joint, trying the feel the Sapphire Crimson in him. "Talk to him," Tiadora spoke as she touched Jason's shoulder gently, trying to heal it too, "David still has his humanity and has not turned into a Level E yet. If we can get some sense into him, he will be able to control himself to not kill us."

"What about Kiara?" Cornelia nudged, "Is she really dead?"

"No. She's just fainted... I hope..." Tiadora wondered aloud.

"Ooi, Dave. Not looking so hot now, ain't ya?" Jason stepped out of the row and boldly stood slightly closer to David, "Eh, those red eyes don't match you at all, dude. Seriously, how are you gonna attract the ladies?"

"Jason! Don't intimate him! You're making him want to kill us more!" Cornelia punched his affected shoulder, making him loose focus slightly. "I think the best way," Tiadora held onto his other shoulder this time, "is for him to remember his 'happy' moments."
"But the only one who knows David very well inside-out is Kiara whom apparently is still unconscious at the moment," Jason said, spotting Kiara on the floor diagonally behind David. And before they knew it, David leaped three storeys into the air and unleashed a huge yellow boomerang-shape blast down towards them. All three separated but the blast was long and spread all the way to the girls' dormitory, crashing several windows. Jason got up and charged his right hand, forming a smooth red metal blade in his palm. He placed his left hand onto the grip and released the 'strength' energy into the sword, making flames lick the long blade.

Without hesitation, Jason charged towards David the moment he landed back on the ground. But David was much faster. He noticed Jason moving more in slow motion rather than charging, and, too, formed a sword in his hand, ready for Jason's attack. In a split second, their swords interlocked, scraping their metallic blades with mini sparks. David released and did a forward blow trying to swing his blade from above. Jason had to keep dodging from his head as defence, and he didn't had a chance for offence. Tiadora and Cornelia sneaked up to Kiara's side, trying to wake her up. Her skin was pale white and cold once Tiadora gripped her hand, trying to heal her too. Instantly, the normal colours flowed back into Kiara's face and her hand tightened against Tiadora's. "Tiadora?" Kiara managed to only whisper her words, "Where's David?"

"Oh don't worry he's over there trying to kill off my brother. Nothing special," Cornelia sarcastically commented at the same moment that Jason fell to the ground beside them. He held his sword again just in time when David swung his blade down to Jason and pushed it down deeper. The sword came down easily, trying to break through Jason's red blade. Struggling, he tried to maintain it but David's sword came closer and closer, and eventually near his neck. Cornelia panicked and blasted at David with her left hand, sending him crashing at the damaged clock tower. "Argh," Jason moaned, tossing his sword away. Cornelia came to his side and saw blood dripping off a long thin line of blood stretched across his neck. "His sword scratched against my neck when you blew him off," Jason said, rubbing the line and staring blankly at Cornelia.

"Oh god, Jason! I'm so sorry!! I didn't..." she stopped halfway when she saw the line glowed light blue and small crystals jutted out of the wound, acting like blood clot. Finally, it sealed the scratch like as if it wasn't there at all. "What the..."

"Don't worry about it. I have the Sapphire Crimson inside of me, remember?" Jason smiled and turned his gaze to Kiara who had looked confused, "Kiry, you're alive? Or are we all dead?"

"Jason, you nin-ka-poop!! I'm going to help David kill you too," Kiara finally gathered the strength back to tease.

"Speaking of which, he's coming back for more!!" Cornelia shouted, pointing to the debris of the analog clock. Everyone could see David emerging from them with his left hand twisted one hundred and eighty degrees its original position. He re-twisted it back with the bones echoing the cracks. "David, listen to me. What do you think you are doing?" Kiara shouted as she stood up among everyone, "Why did you let that crazed old hag bite you?"

"Cyrus' words are law," David muttered again after he made eye contact with Kiara, "Kill the guardians."

"Hey David, do you remember that day? Oh what day was it... Remember, November eleventh? When we were only ten?" Kiara put her hands forward with sad eyes and reached for something in her jeans pocket. "Remember that you somewhat 'propose' to me on that day? We didn't know what it meant until my dad found out. I still kept the ring. It's one of those rings where you suck the sweet and, poof, a toy is attached to it. Remember? You got one with the diamond shape on it and gave it to me."

"Silence, human! Cyrus' words are law!" David hissed and phased another sword in his left hands, making two. He kneeled slightly, pushed himself forward towards Kiara and held his swords at her, swinging it from her left.

At first, everything seemed to pause for a micro-second. One moment, Kiara knew that David's sword was going to smoothly slice her neck as she could feel the strong sharp pressure pressing against her veins through her skin, and the next thing she knew, was that everything froze in motion. The blade was still stuck in place there, with David at his awkward position, left leg bent forward and right straight to secure his posture with his left hand outstretched to her neck. "Ki..a..ra, for..give me.." David's eyes softened from his hardened face, and he immediately dropped both his swords, staggered backwards from Kiara. He then brought his hands to his face and arched his back, screaming, "AAAARRGGHH!!"

And immediately, yellow glow formed on the ground, circling around David's weak self. Automatically, a tower erupted from the ground around David to about three storeys higher than the clock tower, sealing it tight at its brim. A thought flashed through Tiadora's mind, he's shielding himself from attacking us! And before anyone could react, somebody from the side gasped. Everyone directed their attention towards Shaniqua. The two ponytailed-blondie seemed surprised and shocked by the whole situation. She stared at Jason first, then to the others, followed by the weirdly-dressed strangers standing at the far end near the damaged clock tower and then to the earthly greyish tower beside it. "Jay, what's going on?" Shaniqua exclaimed, "I didn't know that there was another tower beside the clock tower."

"Shaniqua, get out of her!" Cornelia yelled when she saw Artemis forming a gun beside him, and then aimed for Shaniqua. Once she realised, she let out a tiny squeal and quickly ran behind the pillar when he finally fired the gun. The bullet grazed against the cream-coloured pillar, missing its target. Everyone turned to Artemis, waiting for his reaction, but then Cyrus took him by the collar and seethed, "What do you think you were doing?!"

"Controlling the situation," Artemis hissed back and pulled her skinny white hands off. Then, before Tiadora and the gang could stop them, the villains began to phase, turning translucent and eventually disappeared into thin air. Jason ran off towards the pillar while Kiara broke down to her knees as Cornelia comforted her. Tiadora just stood there analysing. The night gave way to its darkness, and without even knowing the time, she knew that it was already past midnight. He doesn't want magic to be exposed? Then, what is Xana up to? Tiadora thought deeply. She kneeled down to Kiara and patted her softly, “Come on, we’ve got to get out of here now, Kiara.”

“What?!” Kiara’s eyes were swollen red and terrified, “What about David? Aren’t we going to get him out of there?”

“Kiara, understand the situation!” Tiadora gripped her by the collar the same way Cyrus did to Artemis, “David is a vampire. The sound of that fired gun will send students coming here, curious to see what happened. Sorry, scratch that, they’re not just students but humans! If we were to save David now, your classmates will see us and our magic will be exposed. Plus, even if we got him out with them as the audience, how do you think David will react with all of them?! They are humans and so are we! David won’t have the mind to control himself just yet, Kiara. He is doing both us and himself a favour. Leave him there to calm down for the rest of the night!”

“But…But what if Cyrus took him away? I mean, can’t she go through walls or something?” Kiara cracked by her broken unstable voice.

“No, I don’t believe so,” Tiadora pulled Kiara up to her feet while Cornelia handed to her a tissue, “But what I know is that if we do not get out of here, it’ll just make the situation even worst.”

Kiara nodded and managed to bring herself to walk back to the corridor. Jason came form behind the pillar and Shaniqua was there lying down beside it, unconscious. “She’s asleep. I don’t think she saw the fighting scenes, if not, she would have screamed.”

“Leave her there. If not, she’ll wonder how she managed to sleepwalk all the way to her room,” Cornelia suggested, looking at Shaniqua’s slim figure.

And when the dim-lighted corridor was filled with the empty noises of buzzing students, the guardians were already no where in sight.