Chapter 37: Unholy
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“The plan was to just trap him there,” a flirtatious voice rang in his ears. Xana turned back and saw Marabonta in a bright pink bikini.

“What in the world are you wearing?” Xana smirked in disgust. “This is indeed indecent.”

“I heard it’s an ‘in’ thing in the twenty first century,” Marabonta got up from her seat near the oval stone table and wrapped her hands behind Xana’s neck. “For men, you don’t even need the top.”

Xana pulled away from her embrace and took his place at the end of the stone table. None were in the room except for them both. He distinctively remembered that he called for a meeting earlier, and it looked like no one obeyed. “Oh don’t be rough on the edge,” Marabonta leaned against the table. “You were an hour late, and they do have their various assignments to accomplish, also by your orders. Who told you to play around with the boy?”

“Then what about you?” he balled his fingers into a fist. “You have an important role to play as well.”

“Currently, there are no orders to infiltrate yet. You started to forget about me and didn’t give me any tasks so far,” Marabonta blurted and folded her slender arms. “Anyway, your recent doing may have exposed us. It doesn’t matter whether he’s already dead. That mouth still functions even seventeen years later! And we don’t even know when –”

“Patience, is what I see that you lack most in, Marabonta,” Xana shot up straight, walked to her and gripped her wrist. “If you want a task so much, then I’ll give you one right now!”

♥

“What do you mean you can’t find my brother?!” Cornelia shouted too loudly in Tiadora’s ear as she was kneeling over Cornelia, healing the wound at her stomach.

Tiadora stood up back, looking at both Kiara and Cornelia who sat on David’s bed. Without having a clue of what to answer, she didn’t make eye contact. Instead, Tiadora faced David who was leaning on his study desk, silent with downcast eyes with Mokona by his side. It was necessary though. David was losing control, and Mokona was the only one who could mentally ‘ground’ him with her ‘shared’ gift.

David felt like letting it go, but it’ll only injure his friends. He remembered fainting earlier due to an unfamiliar stench, and the next thing he knew, Mokona was patting on his head and he didn’t feel bloodlust anymore. He can’t recall how many times he had apologized to Cornelia, but she’d just shrug it off saying that it was normal. Which part of that was normal?! He thought deeply to himself.

“Like I said earlier, I thought he was with you after transporting the barrels because I couldn’t enter the opening,” Tiadora explained. “So I ran back here and found you in a mess.”

“Yeah well thanks anyway,” Cornelia rolled her eyes and winced at the pain. “Without you, we wouldn’t have controlled vamp dude over there. Thanks, Mokona.”

“Without her?!” Kiara suddenly fired. “Heck she didn’t even tell us that Mokona could! I mean the job would have been hell of a lot easier if she did! Cornelia wouldn’t have to even suffer that cut!”

“Kiara,” Cornelia was taken aback.

“No! I’ve had it! Really!” Kiara almost screamed. “I really have no qualms about taking on the role as a guardian of Water now. I know that in all these years of generations, we’re the only ones suitable blah blah blah. But if you really want our fullest devotion and whatever, you got to fill us with everything! We’re not stupid peasants you can fool! Since you didn’t know, Kadic is one of the most prestigious academies in the world!”

Tiadora looked down, feeling afraid of Kiara’s temper. “What’s this I heard about Amerix? Depleting energy from the Sun? Would you rather have our Sun die?!”

“No, of course not! Mokona needed to be with you because it could help control David…”

“Then why didn’t you tell us this when you were sending a telepathic message to Cornelia, huh?!” Kiara seethed, standing in front of Tiadora to get the message through. “Answer me! Jason is blindly following your orders without considering anything that is realistic or detailed. To him, as long as people are happy, he is too, regardless of whether it affects him negatively or not. And you’re just some…bitch you just plopped from the sky and ‘boom!’ all four of us have powers! And I hate it if I do not get all the facts!

“Having powers is one thing,” Kiara lowered her voice, but still filled with fury. “Controlling it, is another, but knowledge is always power.”

Kiara paced herself and looked at David, who was still as silent as ever before shouting again, “My David suffers. He was left there at the beach alone with that sick pure-blood vampire, and was not fully-prepared to be able to defend himself! He kept quiet all the time, making excuses to go to the Principal’s office because he’s practically Cyrus’ coka-cola or champagne for god sake. If you’d had told us earlier about everything, he could have…”

She was caught short when David suddenly appeared in between them. He looked up to me her amber eyes and shook his head. “No, Kiara,” David said it in a sad whisper. “There wasn’t…enough time. And at that day, it was only three days after we found out that we have these powers. It would have been a shock to all of us to compile all of these ‘magical’ information all in those three days.”

He saw her face change, from anger to mixed feelings as he touched her cheek and pleaded with his eyes. There were already in a difficult situation themselves, and David knew that making it worst wouldn’t help. “Please,” he stared into her amber eyes. “I am…grateful that I’m a vampire. It’s a punishment for everything I did to you and to others in the past. At that time, I didn’t trust Tiadora either, but she’s now our only hope of keeping all of this together.

“Don’t let me being a vampire, affect you,” he continued, trying to reason. “I…deserve it.”

“For what?” Kiara, flared up by her anger once more, shot back. “Don’t act dumb with me. There’s something about you, your retribution, and I’m not surprised if Austin is involved!”

“Austin?” now Cornelia was really confused. “That new kid who got you to the hospital when you were bitten? How does he fit into the situation?”

“He attacked David once, remember? That evening after we sent Ulrich to the infirmary because of that giant sea creature, he attacked him for no reason. So it’s either he’s a villain dolling up as a student and randomly trying to hurt David or he’s an old friend of David’s whom he doesn’t have a good relationship with. I’ve never heard you talk about this Austin guy before, but when he saved me from you that night and from the way he spoke about you, it’s quite obvious that you and him, ain’t pals!” she blurted all at once.

Kiara could see that she had hit a nerve as David looked almost stunned. "You don't need to know about it..."

"No, you're wrong. I want to know about it. I want to know everything about your problems, and even this magical shit," Kiara began to blaze her fury feelings even louder, looking back at Tiadora as she pushed David aside to face her. "How can we, as a group, proceed, if all of us are keeping secrets from one another?! There would be no connection!"

"Stop!!" Cornelia shouted, silencing Kiara and breaking the demonic tension in the room. "Have all of you forgotten that Jason is missing?! You want to do this as a group? Fine. But the group is currently missing a member, so can we please just look for Jason first!! And then we discuss it, as a group!!"

Everyone turned silent and looked around guilty. Soon, Kiara was the first to exit.

★

A melodious tone rang in the air. Jason couldn't make it out what was it but all he saw was just blank void. Then, the sound turned symphonic and it grew in crescendo so soothingly. He thought maybe, it was heaven's welcoming party. But it didn't matter, it was beautiful to hear, as it was the string sounds of a violin, an instrument he plays. Although he knew and played millions of violin pieces worldwide, Jason couldn't recognise the particular tune. It was like as if it was created unknowingly.

When he could finally flicker his eyes open, Jason gazed upon the turquoise sky. It was obvious that it's the sky as the clouds were all puffing about in midair. "I'm alive?" Jason muttered, not believing himself that he had made it out of the basement. "But that would mean..."

"You talk to yourself often?" a female voice halted Jason's thoughts. It wasn't Tiadora's, hers would be more soothing, and Kiara's would be a high-pitched voice like Sally's. He had heard it before but couldn't recall, so he braced himself, sat upright and turned around.

There, standing up with a violin on her shoulder, was a girl with a long straight blue ponytail that pushed her fringe all the way to the back. She wore a normal simplicite white blouse and blue jeans to match. Jason squinted his eyes properly as the Sun was behind her, she was awfully familiar. The girl then kneeled forward towards him and gave a small smile, "Hello there, violin buddy!"

"Do I know you?" Jason scratched his head. "It's like I've seen you before."

The girl giggled, "I'm Melody, remember? We ate nachos to gether the day after the Snow White play."

"Oh yeah!" Jason snapped his fingers. "You're that French girl, right? Sorry I kinda forgot."

"It's ok. I'm not so used to mixing around your crowd so much," Melody sat on the floor, cross-legged like Jason to be on the same level. "What were you doing up here?"

"Me?" Jason asked himself again too. He could only remembering on the verge of dying in the basement. How did he end over here? "What do you mean by up here?"

"Duh, we're literally on top of the auditorium. Can't you see that it is four-sided and that there's no building around us but the skies," Melody spread her arms wide as if hugging the wind. "Normally, I'd sneak here to practice my violin almost every evening. No one knows about it. And so, after about ten minutes of playing, a blast of light came from behind there."

Melody pointed to a generator not far from their position. "I was so worried when you were unconscious and I kept on trying to wake you up. I thought you were dead because you weren't even breathing," Melody looked down with a mixed expression. "What happened to you? Why are you like this?"

Melody's thrusted her finger at Jason. He was confused and looked down at himself as well. The rusted poles were no more and all his wounds had healed. There wasn't even a single ugly scar. But he understood why she was shocked. His clothes were ruined, torn and battered. No wonder he could see his bare skin easily. There were jagged holes all over. It seemed that the Sapphire Crimson didn't sew back his shirt or jeans. Even his exclusive jacket was destroyed. And what was worst, there were the blood stains on his 'remaining' clothings. Melody got impatient and asked again, "Did you like, get into a gang fight or something?"

"Erm no," Jason got up and scanned himself. Not a good sign at all. He wanted to give an answer but he himself didn’t know what had really happened. If Dakota had saved him, Jason didn’t notice. And there was also another factor to consider, how did the poles get pulled out from his body and he didn’t feel a single thing? "Really. I just woke up and found myself here."

"Are you..." her voice was interrupted with a song. Melody fished out her phone from her bag pack and answered. After a few 'yes' and 'alright's, she snapped her Samsung shut and started to carry her bag. "I'm sorry. The delivery man is here for my dinner. I'll have to speak with you another time. Goodbye."

Jason nodded, letting her go. He didn't wish to answer any more questions, but as she trotted to the exit, Jason called out, "Hey! What song were you playing just now? I've never heard of it before."

She stopped in her tracks and looked back. "I made it yesterday," she chimed cheerily. "I call it 'Knights of the Round Table'."

In moments, Melody trotted off through the exit, leaving Jason alone to his thoughts. Dakota, did you save me back there? If so, then why up here? The moment he thought of that, he’d figured it was ridiculous. Dakota was a dragon. Of course, it will drop him somewhere high. Jason chuckled at his thought and stared into the skies hoping that Daokta could hear him, “Wherever you are, thank you.”

♫

"Mokona," the white creature's ears shot up when its name was heard from its master. "May I ask you something?"

"If it doesn't involve anything regarding the cause of nature, sure," Mokona beamed at David from his shoulder.

"Remember the flower, Vitani?" David continued as he walked along the deserted corridor. "She can grant any sorts of wishes, am I right?"

Mokona nodded slightly, "Yes, but she's still young and therefore can grant only three wishes. It'll take probably another few million years until she can grant as much. Plus, her powers now are not as vast. It is necessary that whatever you wish for must be within her capability. You're not thinking..."

"No, I was just curious," David said almost too quickly.

"Most people misunderstand this but, a human vampire’s physical form is very different from a pure-blood’s," Mokona tried to see if David flinched, but he made no drastic expression. "Once a pure-blood bites a human, its saliva or rather its venom, gets into the blood streams of a human. Now the genes in the venom are normally used to a pure-blood’s physical body but once it’s in a human, the genes get confused and instead, changes all of your ‘human’ parts into a vampire’s one. However, since it’s not as pure, it’s defective, and that’s why humans don’t live very long once they transform into one. The body just can’t support vampire functions.”

“So it looks like I got about five more days left since Tiadora said normal human vampires live for only a week,” Mokona was surprised that David looked like as if he was smiling while saying that. It really didn’t understand what David was thinking. “Why did you tell me all this?”

Mokona sighed, “That’s because…there’s a cure to turn you back into a human, but it became extinct ten years ago, Anastasia time. It’s a golden clover. A petal can cure anything, and sometimes even prolong death. I have heard that it can destroy the venom within you, but…”

David smiled and kneeled until he was close to Mokona from the ground. “It’s okay, Mokona,” David patted it on the head. “I don’t mind being a vampire. The only thing that irritates me is that wild lustful hunger whenever I look at people. I’m glad that you are able to stop it by just touching me.”

At that moment, David spotted a podgy man running across the corridors in a hurry. David didn’t really notice it but it was a long time since he’s seen Figis. The short man with the familiar small black eyes, wobbled hastily towards the main gate as if he was running away from the school. At first David wanted to run after him and ask him why, but then he had an idea. With a snap of his fingers, a wide brown wall immediately emerged from the ground, making Figis almost crash into the blockage.

The dwarf-like man turned around to face David. He was fumbling with the CL uniform, and shivering as if in fear once David started to walk towards him. “No! Stay away from me!” he leaned against the wall so hard David thought he made a dent. “You and that other boy are filthy! Unholy creatures who taints the guardians’ title, release me before I call forth Lord Xana!!!”

“Lord?” Mokona and David said in unison. They were finally nearer and even more confused. Figis was supposed to be on their side. “That thing ain’t a god, you know? I know that I’m a vampire, but that doesn’t mean that you treat me indifferently.”

Instantly, David, using his new quick ability, thrust his hand out and strangled Figis with one hand. He lifted Figis above ground and felt his green eyes scorch red. Even with Mokona by his side, David could feel his ‘hunger’ growing hot inside, but this time, he wasn’t so much triggered by the scent of Figis’ blood. David just felt angry. “Please!” Figis choked his words. “Help!”

Suddenly, the wall disappeared, and a puff of black cloud formed at the gates. With the wall gone, Figis began to struggle, but David looked like he didn’t need much effort to still hold him there, but there was something about the smoke that caught his eye. When he saw the moving figure walking towards them, David’s smile turned into a frown.

With hair so long that it touched the ground, David recognized the hypnotist strutting her way towards them. David stared angrily, as if Figis had summoned her here. However, the very moment she came up close, Marabonta pulled Figis’ back with such a strong force that when she released him, Figis crashed all the way to the next block after the school gates, which was several metres away.

“A message from my master,” she smiled cunningly and her eyes turned from blue to silver as if pulling David into a trance. Marabonta came closer to David’s ear and hissed, “Come and elope with me.”

“That’s sick!” David pushed her away in disgust, shaking his head. “Mokona, my head hurts.”

“I’m sorry,” Mokona looked at David pleadingly. “But I had to give you a headache so that you won’t get hypnotized. Your brain will be ‘preoccupied’ to not be caught.”

“Scum!” Marabonta got up and brushed her mini-skirt. “Anyway, Xana will be having a Venetian ball after the Summer vacation, and he is inviting you and the rest of the guardians. You need not fret. All of the citizens of Anastasia who has stumbled upon this time zone are invited. It will be on the sixteenth of June at the Heritage. Until then, let’s hope our paths cross again.”

With that, she quickly disappeared, leaving glitter on the ground. Mokona rubbed the texture and sneezed. “It’s the same powder that Kiara used this morning.”

“What?” David’s eyebrows raised. “How did you know what she was wearing?”

“It is similar,” Mokona patted the glitter. “Although, this one smells slightly different. My nose can’t stand this type of smell.”

“Sixteenth June,” David muttered to himself, totally ignoring Mokona.

“Do you think it is a trap?” Mokona wondered aloud.

David shook his head and scratched, “Some other event happens on that day too, but I can’t seem to remember what.”

“Hrmm, according to this time’s calendar that is about,” Mokona, too, scratched its furry head. “Two months and three weeks time.”

David didn’t reply immediately. Instead, his expression grew more serious and tense. “Figis called me and Jason filthy.”

“Wow. You sure know how to change the topic fast.”

“That’s no the point,” David run his fingers through his hair and sighed, as if he was worried. Mokona thought he looked as if he was panicking. He then stared back at Mokona and gasped, “The sixteenth day of June is Jason's birthday."

Chapter 36: Dead or Alive?
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A sharp electrifying pain zapped through Jason's mind. He was about to teleport the last barrel over to the storeroom when it happened. It was so surprising that he nearly lost his grip on the barrel. It felt contained, like as if the pain was running to and fro within his head. Jason's knees wobbled, having no control due to the pain in his brain, and fell to the ground struggling as if there was an invisible force acting on his head. He tried to scream, but all that came out were soft gasps of agony, then he tried calling out to Tiadora.

She was nowhere to be seen in the underground basement.

As the pain continued to torture his mind, Jason suddenly saw flashes of images appearing in his mind. It was fast-moving and blur like being played on a broken recorder. As painful as it felt, he couldn't help but concentrate more on the weird images. It looked awfully familiar.

The surroundings of the images were of a very dark blue, as if he was in a dark room. As the images blinked quickly, he managed to catch a glimpse of what was showing. There was a couple. Formally dressed people who were crouching against a wall, it was hard to see them. They seemed to be in a dark room but the moonlight shining over them, gave Jason a clearer vision of the two. But what shocked him was that both had blood stains on their faces and also on their torn clothes. Both seemed to be holding onto something, as if it was a precious treasure.

It got even blurrier when a sword was lifted from where he saw it. It looked like as if he was the one holding the sword. And without a moment's hesitation, the sword in 'his' hands in the image, moved liked lightning speed towards the couple. Immediately, in that split second, blood spurted out from the couple's necks as if a hose fired through it, before the heads of the two fell off like balls.

Without any head, the bodies of the couple fell lifelessly on the floor, and in the hands of the woman, was a baby. That was when it ticked him. It was the very same thing that occured in that particular dream, the dream that he had when he first introduced Tiadora to Ms. Hermoine. He now remembered when he was waiting outside for Tiadora as he sat on the chair outside the flower shop. Jason clutched his heart tighter, knowing what will come next. The sword in 'his' hands will kill the small child.

The rapier then lifted and came down towards the infant.

Blood splattered all over the floor. There were so much blood that Jason could only see just red even though the night's darkness was enveloping most of everything.
The lightning pain instantly died off, and so did the images. Jason stood up back and run his fingers through his blond hair, wondering again about the strange nightmare.

All of a sudden, he heard footsteps behind, but as he turned around, Jason came face-to-face with Xana. Well, it wasn't exactly face-to-face since Xana still had his cloak over his head, acting like some hood that cascaded down all the way to his feet. Jason staggered back, almost tripping over the last blood barrel from the basement and looked awkwardly at Xana. It was he who spoke first.

"Enjoying life?" Xana hissed in his deep voice. Jason thought he might be a man rather than a teenager.

"What are you doing here?" Jason fired back. "Haven't you already caused enough troubles for me and my friends? Just yesterday, I found out that David was a vampire!"
"He turned a vampire several weeks before yesterday. It was just your foolishness of you not to notice even though you were there when he turned into one"

"What?" Jason's palm began to sweat. "I wasn't there. If I were, I'd knew right away!"

Xana then broke into an evil laughter, "Think, you ignorant boy. Now you know that Cyrus is a pure-blood vampire, when was the time you left her and David alone? Can't you remember, Jason?"

Jason tried to crack his brain for the answer. Did I ever l eave David and the new principal alone? Since when? He thought again, but got nothing. Xana didn't seem to look impatient, but Jason knew that he was testing him. Maybe it wasn't even true that he was there. "You're lying," Jason smiled and lean against the barrel. "David has never been alone with her when I'm around."

With that, Xana just chuckled, "Are you more concerned about taking the blame?"

"What?"

"I said that you were around when he was bitten," Xana started to amble across the now spacious basement, "However, instead of being concerned about your friend, you're worried that it was your fault that resulted him in this way. Well, it was your fault anyway. You even dragged Princess Tiadora away when she wanted to stay with David."

Tiadora? When did she--?

"Try and recall," Xana pressurized him again. "Remember the very first time you and I meet..."

"The beach?" Jason flashbacked to that very moment, and gasped when he remembered. That's right. Cyrus caught Tiadora, David and I, saying that we weren't sleeping in our dorms right after Tiadora allowed Xana and his goons to leave. She had wanted to talk to him alone, and told me and Tiadora to go back.

At that time, we didn't know that Mdm. Marinda was Cyrus.

Jason clenched his fist, before punching it on the barrel. He couldn't face Xana because he was right. It was his own fault. Jason looked down in defeat, silenced by the dark mage.

A soft sizzling sound rang. Jason lifted up his head to see a blade form in Xana's right hand. His heart almost skipped a beat. It was the exact sword that was in his hands in the dream just now! Had he dreamed that he was Xana? "Phase your sacred sword, new guardian of Fire," Xana instructed, pointing his blade in Jason's direction.

"Sacred sword?" Jason was confused, eyeing the intricate design of Xana's sword. It was gold in colour.

"You don't know?" Xana sneered as he lifted his sword slowly higher in the air with his left hand. "This must mean that your sacred animal has yet to approach you, or if he has, then Tiadora has yet to reveal how to use the sacred animal's powers to you guardians. Pitiful. Well, let me enlighten you."

At the same moment when Xana said that, he hurled his sword in Jason's direction, head first. It was quick, but Jason managed to dodge the blow in time. However, Xana was just as swift and continued slashing the blade towards Jason.

"Why dodge?" Xana hissed in between blows. "Your blood will turn back into Sapphire Crimson anyway, and with that, the enzyme that is released from your blood platelets has been infused with the crystal. Making your fibrin threads form at an excessive rate, enabling your skin to heal near than perfectly."

"But it won't be as healthy as how it once were, right?" Jason managed to say, after dodging several blows from Xana's rapier. "Hence and therefore, it's better to be safe than sorry."

This time Xana cut his sword through the air, missing only centimeters from Jason head. With that split moment, Jason took advantage, grabbing hold of Xana's exposed wrist as Xana lost his balance. Jason began to focus, squeezing Xana's left wrist until the sound of the sword could be heard from the ground. "Now now. Since when did you, an old bag, learn biology," Jason sneered as he pushed Xana hard at where he thought would be his chest.

Xana's head got forcefully pushed back, letting his hood fall off revealing the masked face. His features, as how Jason could remember from the day he saw him at the beach, was still the same. Xana had that neat crimson-coloured hair, nothing like the wild blood red outlook Oberon had. He even had the same mask worn across his hidden eyes, preventing anyone from knowing Xana's true identity. Without hesitation, Jason went for Xana's face, feeling the temptation of seeing the villain's physiognomy regardless of whether he would recognise him or not. However, at the moment when Jason's fingers touched the material on Xana's face, Xana smiled cunningly, “Visca Escatus!”

A bolt of white static sizzled on the mask’s surface, literally pouncing onto Jason’s fingers. Groaning from the Jason instantly removed his fingers away. This time Xana slapped away Jason’s left hand away and went for Jason’s neck. Xana’s white fingers wrapped around the slender neck of Kadic’s soccer captain, lifted him up slightly before throwing Jason to the other end of the basement room.

Jason crashed into the metal shelves that once had the vampire syrup he had transported. The clouds of dirt fogged his sight, as he tried to stand up once again, but when he did, Jason was struck with pain and collapsed back to the wall. He looked down at his state, blood smeared across his body, making himself look filthy. And just when he was cursing his Sapphire Crimson abilities for being so slow, Xana slowly approached.

☆

As I stumbled into the racks of crooked rusty metal, the weak steel gave way to the impending impact, crashing alongside with me and snapping apart from its joints as well. I could feel the sensation of pain when a pole struck right through my chest from my back. The pain was terrible as I coughed out splashes of crimson blood in the air. But my pain didn't end there. Moving so slowly in my mind, more poles pierced at me from behind. I couldn't even let out a scream of agony because it may have probably been ultrasonic.

By the time I crashed at the wall, there were two poles protruding from my abs, one slighty to the right of my chest, one in my left thigh and another short one that had stabbed right through the very silvery band on my right arm. My vision was quite vague, as if a translucent red blanket had covered the surface of my eyes. Only cloudy images reflected in them, but I was more than certain that the approaching figure was Xana. Heck, he was the one who'd bash me in the first place. I couldn't turn away, what more give that crazed lunatic a taste of his own medicine by letting him feel hell like how I am now.

However, there's one problem. I don't know why, but the sapphire crimson doesn't seem 2 be healing me. Instead, every slight movement I made, was like millions of needles with acid nib poking in my skin. Shit. I couldn't do anything but lay slumped on the floor looking like some lifeless doll. I finally noticed that he was right in front due to his shoes that I was only able to stare, at the floor. The surface of his golden blade lifted my head up as it tipped at my chin, so that I'd face the masked demon. "You know, Jason. With the power of the Sapphire Crimson, you are almost immortal," he sneered gleefully. "But there's always a limit to everything, including immortality. Like for example, wounds can't heal if the cut has an obstacle blocking both sides of the slits, and for this case, you'll have to remove those filthy poles to get those blood clots to start working."

I just looked at him, although it was like a black cloud talking to me. Damn, I just feel like kicking his butt and answering him back, but my throat seems to be choked, probably with blood, that undelightful taste. Not to mention, my lips were burning, as if it was swollen so badly I'd couldn't speak. All I could do was, stare and wait.

"Even if I were to pierce you here!" Xana hissed and suddenly moved his blade so swift and close to my head, that it was a shock was it stabbed through my neck. I was even more speechless, gasping for air, as if my windpipe had been blocked. It was too unbearable that I'd feel like kicking the crap out of him, but no nerve seems to respond.
Before I knew it, Xana pulled the blade out slowly on purpose. After a split second, I could feel the Sapphire Crimson, beneath my chin, forming back, letting me feel clean again. Xana then kneeled near my face and laughed, "You're pathetic! Imagine if it was your sister whom I would have decided to bash. She would have died."

He stood again and flickered his hand in the air before speaking again, "Now, Jason. I've placed an extremely strong magical barrier around this place so that no one can save you except for your own sacred animal, Dakota. That means that Tiadora can't even enter this basement to save you!"

I couldn't take it. I was so frustrated with this maniac. He was the main trouble of Tiadora's troubles, and her trouble was mine as well.

"Why don't you just kill me here and now?" I finally puckered up enough strength to shout as he seemed to be leaving. "Won't it make it easier for an obstacle like me to be out of your devilish plan?"

Xana stopped in his tracks and did a sharp turn back, making his black cape flow drastically. He then began to walk back slowly while hissing, "Good point, Jason. However, why do I need to kill you when I already have?"

What?

"Look at your face!" Xana bellowed. "Full of plain confusion! You've died, Jason. It's just not time for your soul to leave your body container yet. You're still part of my chess board, and I will transform you into a knight. But I'll let you in on a little secret about my plan. If I win, this world will bow down to me. Nevertheless, if my plan were to backfire, I will still win the war because the backfire will have enough power to destroy the world."

Man, if I had the strength, I would have flinched. If what he said is true, that would mean that the battle with Xana would be fruitless. But he could be tricking me, influening me to think that it's true when it couldn't be. "When the world is destroyed, my soul will remain and it will linger until the very next era. Now, this new era will be EXACTLY the same as the era that we are living now. You and your gang will still be hovering at Kadic Academy and it will replay back once again, but this time, I'm around for all those millions of years of waiting. Next time, I will separate all four of you. And everything will fall into place again. But this time, I have the advantage as you and the rest will never ever meet. Well, that is, if my plan now were to backfire which currently looks quite impossible. Haha."

He then turned and ambled his way quickly through the opposite wall, leaving me strandard here. It looks like only my sacred animal can save me now. Maybe it's a punishment for being too reliant on the Sapphire Crimson. I tried to move my left leg as the damage was the least there, but it won't budge. Damn it. My eyes are starting to get heavy. Was this how it feels like to die? Honestly, once the pain's sips in, everything feels quite numb actually.

A squeaky voice sounded near my shoe, and a rat emerged from the rubbles. Its tiny pink paws scurried its way to my left hand, poking my fingers as if they were playthings. And before I knew it, the little furry grey thing bit my middle finger. Dirty creature. But I couldn’t feel its bite. The pain all around me was already enough to cover its small bite. Question was, am I ready to die?

Xana said that I already have. Ah, hell. He’s just making me more confused than ever. I myself don’t understand half of the magic I cast from my hands. How can I be still moving if I’m dead? And if so, what did he mean by saying that my soul wasn’t ready to leave my body? Well, thinking about it right now doesn’t seem to matter since I’m going to die anyway.

Great! An hour after having the most beautiful girl as my girlfriend, and I’m already going to move on.

Xana was right. I am pathetic.

I heard the sizzle of the Sapphire Crimson. Initially, I had thought my body was healing, but it turned out, it was only the rat moving onto the next finger after nibbling onto the first. Damn, I’m getting no where.

That’s when my eyes felt incredibly heavy, and as much as I wanted to fight on to keep awake, darkness triumphs.