Chapter 14: Lost in Time

I looked at the girl in shock. She snarled at me and tried to slash at me with her knife again. She couldn’t cut through the barrier. I looked at her and then walked away. I went to into the forest where the girl came from and after I had walked a safe distance I released the barrier. I walked further away and saw a castle. I walked towards the castle and saw a wall erected. I walked through the gate and saw one man standing on a podium. He looked at the crowd and said: “Hello dear peasants. You all know how much we of the royal family work to help you. And for that, all we ask is you giving one gift to one of the aristocratic sons when he turns 17. But what do you do? You refuse to give me a wife! I will make sure that my family will never again support you! I will also execute those who had refused me of my wife and will still take that girl as my wife.” I looked at the facial expressions from every one of the people and they all wore grim expressions. I saw the family members having nooses around their necks and shuddering in fear. I saw a girl next to the aristocrat son. I sighed and burnt down the gallows without anyone noticing. Everyone stepped away from them and I acted along. The ‘aristocrat’ eyed everyone suspiciously and then said: “Whoever that was, I challenge you to a duel of magical skills.” [You will have to accept or you will be branded by Fates magic.] I sighed and thought: What a hassle. I walked up to the platform and said: “I accept.” The boy smiled and said: “If I win, you will serve me forever.” “But what if I win?” The ‘aristocrat’ laughed like a stupid ape and said: “That will never happen, but if it does, I will grant you three wishes.” I sighed and said: “Well let’s get this rolling.” The ‘aristocrat’ said: “I am Nicola Lemiare, who are you?” “Hmm, a traveler I guess.” Nicola looked annoyed at my answer and then said: “If you had introduced yourself normally I might have spared you but now I will kill you. Let the phoenix rise, ashes shall burn and humans shall prosper, I call upon the power of the almighty fire; Fleriolix.” A flame enveloped me but never hurt me. I smiled and looked at Nicola. He was grinning like an idiot thinking that he had won. The flames died down and his face turned pale. He looked at me like an idiot and said: “Monster, Blue haired demon!” I stared and said: “My turn. Flames shall burn but wind shall blow, weapons shall slice but water shall hit, light shall illuminate but darkness shall cover: Minareste.” Nicola was covered in flames and was being cut down by wind. He screamed and I said: “You won’t die so stop screaming.” I walked away and everyone stared after me. I asked Ray: Is there a way for me to materialize a cloak or something? [There is, but you shouldn’t do it yet. Wait until you’re in an alley and then materialize it.] I was about to walk into an alley but then some soldiers surrounded me. One of the men stepped forward and said: “My little brother had promised you three wishes, and I will see them fulfilled. Follow me.” I followed him through the roads and alleys and we stopped at a huge mansion. By huge, I mean really huge. It looked like the part of the castle next to which it stood. I followed Nicola’s brother into the mansion and we went into a room. Nicola was sitting in a chair and once he saw me he jumped up and hid behind a man with a well built body. The man looked up and saw me and Nicola’s brother. “Who is that boy, Mikael?” “He had won against Nicola in a duel but Nicola refused to give him his reward, father.” The man turned to Nicola and said: “Is this true Nicola?” I sighed and said: “I didn’t accept the duel to get the reward.” The man turned to me and opened his mouth but was stopped by the door being opened by a beautiful girl and a beautiful woman. The man turned to the woman and said: “Well, I thought you were in the gardens.” “We were but then we saw Mikael and this boy here so we walked in,” she replied. The man sighed and then said: “Fine but do not disturb us.” He then turned to me and said: “Well, you are one of the most interesting people I have ever seen. You had the chance of receiving any reward within my power but you refused, why is that?” “Well, I guess I want to earn everything I receive.” He looked at me and smiled: “Well, well, you are indeed different from my son. Although he is a good-for-nothing he is incredibly skilled in magic, so how did you defeat him?” I sighed, another mean person just like my music teacher. “I just did,” I answered. He eyed me suspiciously and then said: “You look like you are well trained in the arts of the blade, fight against my son Mikael.” I sighed and asked: “Is there a way I can avoid this?” He shook his head and I sighed again. I was lead out to the courtyard and I looked at the spring in the middle of it. I smiled and turned to Mikael. He drew his double edged sword and said: “We will bring you a blade.” “No need, I have my own,” I replied and then materialized two blades in my hands. Mikael arched his eyebrow but didn’t say anything. He charged and I blocked his overhead slash. He tried to attack me with a backhand slash but I dodged and disarmed him in one quick move. My blade was at his throat and I said: “Dead my dear sir.” I heard blades leaving their sheaths and quickly blocked one slash after the other. Whenever I found openings, I attacked and knocked the attacker unconscious. There were around three more guards left and they seemed well trained. I concentrated and looked at them. Opened Dragon Sight and saw their aura concentrating onto their swords. I looked at them and charged. They tried to intercept my attack but I let the blades disappear and then materialized Void and Abyss. I melted one sword with Abyss and I disarmed another guard. After that I quickly knocked them unconscious and turned to the third guard. He held his sword in a different manner and I jumped back. Something about that person was different. I opened Blood Vision and looked. The stance was a fencing stance but her left hand was holding onto something. I materialized Emerald and Flora and let them attack. The guard blocked the blows but was getting desperate. I charged and she threw the thing which was in her right hand at me. I phase walked and it flew through me. I disarmed the guard and looked at him. The visor was down but I noticed something. The guard was a woman. She was relatively skilled. I let my blades disappear and walked to the father of Mikael and Nicola. He was smiling and said: “Well now this is a surprise, you beat Mikael and my elite guards.” “Cut the crap and tell me why you brought your strongest fighter into this who is a woman as well.” The man smiled now from one ear to the other. He then asked: “Well, how did you find out her gender?” I pointed to my nose and then stared at the woman. She pulled of her helmet and asked: “Why didn’t you attack with your full power?” “Because my power isn’t meant to attack normal humans, you would never have survived it.” She looked at me puzzled but then Nicola said: “You must have used your full power against me because I am not a normal human.” “Not at all, you are even weaker then that guard over there,” I said, pointing at a random guard. Nicola fell silent and I could hear some of the guards’ chuckle. Nicola’s father looked at me and said: “I would like to hire you.” I considered the offer for a moment and Ray said: [Why not? It will take me some time to unlock enough seals so that you can time travel.] Wait what, time travel? I can do something like that? I went to the man and said: “I accept your offer um…” “Oh yes, I haven’t formally introduced myself yet: I am Duke Lemiare, best friend of the King himself and this is my mansion I live in when I have business in the capitol. Who might you be?” I looked at him and after a moment answered: “I am a traveler.” The Duke laughed a laugh which sounded like it came right out of the belly. He then looked at me and said: “Well you are refreshing, you offer no talks about honor and such, will you tell me your name?” [Give him a fake name; it will be better that way.] Easier said than done “My name is…” A name popped into my head and I ended the sentence: “… Jester, my name is Jester.” The Duke looked at me surprised and said: “A peculiar name, why did you call yourself Jester?” “My lord, every man needs a secret. I have mine and you have yours.” The Duke smiled and turned to the female guard: “Show Jester here around and give him a position as you see fit.” “Your command will be fulfilled with the best of my ability,” she replied. The Duke grunted and walked away with the others. The unconscious guards groaned and turned. The female guard turned to me and said: “My name is Captain Elena, I am the guard captain and will show you around now, follow me.” I couldn’t help but grin and then followed her. We walked further towards an open area and arrived at something which looked like training grounds. I saw guards being drilled and something caught my eye. There were fighters who fought in different art styles but one of them just stood between ten men who had different weapons. The one fighter only had a knife but I knew that he would win. I stopped following Elena ad watched the man (well, he looked like he was my age) fight against the ten men. The men charged and I predicted each slash and each counter from both sides with an accuracy of 98%. I felt something change and every one of the soldiers was lying on the ground. I heard Ray chuckle and quickly raised a freshly materialized blade. The knife of the fighter hit it and a rich metallic sound was heard. The fighter smiled and entered Jester mode. I was surprised but entered Jester mode as well and opened Blood Vision. We jumped into the air and clashed blades. He was incredibly fast and I was struggling to keep up with him. We fought and our blades clashed. I let my instincts take over and the world turned black. My instincts had taken over and a cloak of light materialized in my hand again. I changed it into a blade which was completely white. I disappeared from the fighters view and slashed at him. He was hit and was falling. I caught him and landed with him. I went out of Jester mode and closed Blood Vision. I stood straight but felt the fatigue wash over me. I sat down and heard the fighter laugh: “Nice to meet you, my name is Loid; I am a King like you.” I looked at him and laughed as well we looked at each other and I offered him my right hand. He took it and stood up. “Geez Ray, what have you done to this boy? He hasn’t even achieved Joker stage but is in Harmony?” [Loid, don’t tell the boy unnecessary facts.] “Wait, what do you mean I reached Harmony?” “Oops, I overstepped my boundaries; Ray will make me pay so I won’t tell you.” I looked at Loid and saw his determination so I just sighed and let it go. I heard the clattering of iron boots hitting the ground and turned around to see Elena running towards us. She looked at both of us and had a scary facial expression. When she was right next to us she shouted: “What were you thinking? Fighting so close to the other guards, Loid have some responsibility please, and what if Jester here hadn’t been strong enough to fight you?” “Don’t worry Elena, I know how strong this ‘Jester’ is now, I saw that he was strong enough to fight me.” I watched the discussion between the two of them with slight amusement and then Loid turned to me: “So, Jester is what you call yourself? You resemble Ray so much.” “What do you mean?” “Ray’s alias was always Jester or something else, that’s why he called it Jester mode.” Wow, you’re a genius Ray. [Be quiet.] What? I was complementing you! Loid smiled and said: “Okay, enough chit-chat, why are you here?” “The Duke brought him into this group,” Elena answered. Loid grinned and said: “So I’m your superior.” I sighed and asked: “So, what’s your element?” “Mainly it’s Time; I can control Time through sheer will.” “Wait, you can control Time? Could you then send me to my Time?” “I could, but not without you doing something for me. Sorry Ray, I may owe you a bit but I don’t owe him anything.” [Its fine, he needs to learn that nothing is for free.] I sighed: Yeah, but I know that already, would’ve been cool if he had done it though. “Okay, what do you want from me?” “Easy, I want you to teach the smiths how to create the best weapons known to mankind.” “How am I supposed to do that? I can only create blades!” “You inherited Kaizer’s skill right? Kaizer was able to create any weapon as long as he wanted so you can do it as well.” I stared at him and thought: What the heck? He smiled at me and said: “Well then; good bye! Elena, show him the way to the smithy.” Elena and I watched him walk away and then I quickly turned to Elena: “The Smithy is the Smithy of the capitol right?” “Of course, you can’t have a smithy in a mansion,” she replied. Of course, I thought. I followed her through the city and we arrived at a smithy. Well I say smithy but it looked like a mansion (average size mansion). We walked in and were struck by a heat wave. I heard hammers forming metal and metal cooling in water. The whole smithy was a sound box. I walked around and saw the big smiths hammering at the hot metal and throwing it into the water. I looked at the different metals and saw something which I didn’t expect to see.

It was a memory, I saw Kaizer standing next to a furnace and Ray leaning to a wall beside him. Ray watched Kaizer silently and Kaizer worked silently. After a few moments of silence Ray asked: “How do you know, which metal is good for which weapon? And which metal can be enchanted more than others?” “You know the answer.” “Just tell me.” Kaizer pointed at his right eye and mumbled under his breath. His eye turned from a normal eye into a completely black eye.

I looked at the metal and stared. How could I change my eye from normal into that black eye? I mean, I have already used my life energy and my aura, what else is there? [There are tons more, but humans can only access half of them. The only creature which can access all of them is a Dragon.] What, Fate can’t access all of them? [Idiot, of course he can. It’s just that I don’t count Fate usually because he can do everything.] I sighed and went back to thinking. Hey Ray, a little Help please? [No, I won’t tell you.] I sighed and Ray explained: [This skill is only effective if you find out how to use it by yourself. I helped you already with the eye hint. Have fun searching.] I looked at the hot fire and stared. The heat was maddening and I started to sweat. The sweat ran into my eyes and I wiped it away. I heard the sizzling of blades being thrown into water. My eyes closed and I listened to every sound coming from this place. The sound variety was astounding. Suddenly, someone tapped on my shoulder and I turned around. It was Elena, looking at me as if I was weird. “What’s wrong?” I asked her. “You were surrounded by this weird aura. I felt something cold creep down my spine.” “You must’ve imagined it,” I replied. I turned around and saw Loid grinning at me. I jumped in surprise and he said: “That’s right! That’s the aura Kaizer had when he worked!” I looked him in the eyes and saw his eyes twinkle like small stars. Loid looked at me expecting something and I looked at the furnace. I closed my eyes and let the scene seep into me. After a bit, I opened his eyes again and walked to a furnace. I grabbed a piece of coal from the furnace and crushed it in my hand. After a bit, I used that coal dust and let a bit fall into my eye. I closed my eyes and poured magic into that eye. The eye started to get hot so I opened my eyes and could see something I had never seen before in the smithy: It was life. I saw the life getting formed and so on. I looked at the different metals and then took an ingot of one. I then grabbed a hammer and went to an anvil. I held the ingot and then let it melt. After a bit I manipulated the wind so that the metal would be held in the form of a sword. I hit the metal with the hammer and a loud noise echoed through the smithy. I hit on the metal again and again and then I threw it into the cool salt water. I let it cool down a bit and then took it out. I grabbed it and put a hilt on the blade. I grabbed the sword I just made by the hilt and then threw it to Loid saying: “There, examine it, I kept my part of the deal.” Loid smiled and said: “You did indeed.” Elena looked at Loid and then asked: “How in the world did he keep his part of the deal?” “He just did that. You just needed to concentrate. Now to my part of the deal, I cannot personally send you back to your time. You need to go to a certain location where a portal opens every now and then. Enter that portal and you will be back.” I looked at Loid, skeptically. Loid smiled again and threw him a piece of parchment. I looked at it and saw that it was a map. I put it into my pocket and then left the smithy.

After a few days of travel, I arrived in the location named by the map. I sat on the ground, waiting for the portal to appear and then I asked Ray: “So, you trust Loid a lot?” [As much as I can, but you shouldn’t trust people you don’t know even though I do. It’s good to be skeptical.] I looked around for a bit and sensed something dangerous. I materialized my full armory of weapons and looked around again. Twenty six men stood around me. Well, I say men but they looked like they were my age. Every one of those twenty six had the aura of a Fallen. Hey Ray, what is going on here? [I don’t know, but it seems like Destiny has broken the rules.] One of the men who surrounded me came forward and said: “Kaizer Nova, by the will of our master, Destiny, we will destroy you and the Kings along with you!” “Wait, what?” I asked. I looked at them and then asked: “Can’t we do this… peacefully?” “No,” was the answer I got. I saw no point in fighting but there was one thing I knew; if I didn’t fight, they would kill me without me resisting. So I entered Jester mode and charged. They attacked me as well and I wielded both of my blades, blocking and slashing. Suddenly, one of them knocked me on the head and I started falling. They all charged at that point and I couldn’t help but let my instincts take over. I conjured the cloak of light and shaped it into a spear. I let go of the spear and it hovered in the air. I then let it fly towards my foes and it duplicated. It created so many of itself that each and every one of them was impaled by a spear. Then, the twenty six were healed. I looked around and saw another twelve, healing. I recreated the cloak and shaped it into a katana. I held the katana sheathed and charged. I ran across the earth and slashed. I dodged some hits and countered. My katana sliced through the flesh of so many enemies so many times but every time my blade didn’t touch one body that body was healed. I was exhausted. I was forced to go to the defensive and all I hoped for was the portal to finally open. The Fallen noticed me fighting passively so they charged; they attacked me relentlessly and never stopped. I blocked many attacks but some got through. I was exhausted, wounded and nearly depleted of energy. Then I felt a surge of energy behind me and saw the portal open. I jumped through and saw Dragon academy on the horizon. I turned around to see the Fallen, trying to follow me but I closed the portal with all that was left of my power. Exhausted I fell to the ground and looked at Dragon academy, so close and yet so far.