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.

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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.