16. The Rightful Master

Alex stood leaning against the main mast with his arms folded across his chest puzzled by Baden and his odd behaviour. Baden had dressed himself up in his favourite orange suit like he was about to meet a very important person. He had his cane out, using it like a utensil to draw a pattern in the snow covering the deck. Every now and then he squinted up at the open book held in Kurome's hands.

Alex had no idea what Baden was planning but Kurome seemed to know and understand, so that was enough for Alex to trust Baden and his sudden spout of madness.

"You can read that gibberish?" Alex pointed towards the Spirit Realm book within Kurome's hands. The black spirit had been stood like a bookstand for the past half an hour, holding the book open for Baden.

"Gibberish?" Baden stopped drawing in the snow, offended. "I'll have you know that gibberish is the Golden language, my native language," Baden scoffed in outrage and continued with his drawing. "The author, Mr Compass, wrote this journal over three hundred years ago and left it with my people but it went missing over a century ago."

"It must be fate it caught up with you." Kurome smirked and Baden eyed him sharply.

"What did he mean by that?" Alex confronted Baden. "You've been acting weird ever since we arrived at the island and what was that power earlier that scared off my spirits and healed Kurome's mind?"

Baden coughed and continued with his drawing, not daring to make eye contact with the first mate. Instead he changed the topic of conversation to one which would have Alex distracted.

"I don't only speak Aquarian and the Golden language. I've recently had Mirella teach me a little Hivian after I heard Jude speak it to Jess on Monster Island." The bait worked like a charm.

So that's what that language was? Alex found himself lost in deep thought from the memory of when Jessica chased after Jude. To this day it still hurt when she had chosen Jude over him. Since then, he had always wondered what Jude had said to her that day in the library before he suddenly departed that made her chase after him. He knew it didn't end well between the pair, he didn't exactly know what happened, Jessica never spoke much about it, but still he wanted to know what Jessica had seen in him and why she so easily trusted him.
Alex sighed, what use was there now being jealous when she wasn't around anymore? His heart strained from the thought, he still couldn't get her death out of his head, the wave of water sucking her away and to never be seen again.

"Stop thinking about her," Kurome scolded him. "I'm bonded to you remember, I feel your emotions and you're making me feel depressed."

"Sorry," Alex muttered and concentrated on Baden once again. "What exactly is it you're doing?" Alex gazed over Baden's drawing in the snow, it looked like an ancient rune of squiggles and circles.

"It's the royal spirit family crest," Kurome explained. "If you look more closely it looks like a flower."

Alex lopsided his head, then he saw it, a beautiful flower with five petals coming off a circular centre with a twisted stem covered in deadly thorns.

"All done!" Baden stretched his arms up into the air and cracked his back after being bent over for a long period of time.

"And why exactly are we drawing the royal family crest into the deck of the Leo?" Alex queried.

"Sending them a warning of Hiro's plan to open the gate to the spirit realm." Baden scribbled down a note onto a piece of paper, muttered in a language Alex could only presume was the Golden language and threw the paper onto the hand drawn rune.

They all eagerly awaited for something spectacular to happen. Instead, the note fluttered to the breeze followed by silence, nothing could be heard but the whispers of the cool wind.

"Is that it?" Alex had worked himself up over nothing.

"I don't know..."

Baden screeched and flung his arms up into the air when a blast of fire flamed up into the air from the ground and burned the outline of the rune. The snow sizzled and melted around the scorching fire and the note fluttered up into the air and burned until there was nothing but ash.

"The message has been received by the princess." Kurome nodded to Baden.

Out of nowhere, a bell donged throughout the island and Kurome's face paled. "We need to go, now!"

☠️

"Mirella...?" Vulcan stammered and rubbed his eyes, seeing but not quite believing. "W-what are you doing?"

"Getting rid of the dead weight in my life." Her voice was cruel as she licked her push knife across her acidic tongue and threw it towards him, directly towards his already breaking heart.

Vulcan dove for cover, missing the blade which sliced through his sleeve and melted the fabric from the venomous attack. He shrugged the jacket off and hid behind an ice column. She sent more knives flying in his direction, a blade struck the pillar, sending sharp shards of ice cutting against his cheek. He hissed and felt a warm trickle of blood.

What had happened to her? Why did she keep attacking him? He peered behind the column, scouting out any vantage points he could use against her. Gluttony stood in the middle of the room in a strange stance, with her arms and legs spread open like a star-fish, while her fat minions absorbed back into her flesh. It had to be the most disgusting thing Vulcan had ever watched in his entire life. His face scrunched up with every ripple of her body as she enlarged into a gigantic monstrosity. Hiro was nowhere to be seen which had Vulcan panicking and Mirella... his heart strained for her.

She looked different, her long purple hair was pulled back into a sleek ponytail, her eyes lined with dark make up and her outfit - a purple corset with a dark jacket, black skinny jeans and stiletto heels. She looked good, hot even - he couldn't deny it, but it wasn't Mirella. Her face was too stern, grim and direct, it wasn't the sweet innocent Mirella he had fallen in love with. Something bad had happened, something which had changed her personality.

She threw another knife at him and he hid back behind the column, just barely dodging the poisoned blade. Her fair skin had changed too, it hued a darker shade of purple than normal, like her blood was overridden more than usual with toxins.

Her green-glazed purple eyes thinned to slits and she strutted towards him. The sharp point of her heels cracked the ice with each step she took. Mirella threw another knife at him and he rolled out of the way. She swung around with her leg raised and kicked him in the chest. Vulcan groaned and slammed against the hard ice floor, his head pounding from the impact. She shadowed over him, a cruel smile on her purple lips.

"Mirella, this isn't you!" He jumped back when she aimed her fist at his face, her hand impacted the ice creating a small crater.

He expected her hand to snap or break but nothing, not even a scream. She had become stronger. But how?

"This is me!" she shouted. "Hiro taught me how to use my power. My body isn't just poison, I can manipulate my hormones to my advantage..."

"You're pumped with adrenalin," Vulcan gasped.

She nodded, her eyes flashing green. "All you have ever done since I got this power was try and get rid of it. Did you ever stop to think, that maybe I might actually like my power if I learned how to use it instead of locking it away with no control, ready to accidentally hurt someone. All you ever do is hold me back, treat me like I'm glass about to shatter."

She swung her fist at him and he deflected her attack and kicked her in the stomach and she stumbled back. She let out a soft cry as she fell to the ground.

"Mirella, I'm sorry!" Vulcan ran to her side, only to find himself being tricked by her damsel in distress act.

"Typical of you to come running to my aid!" She tripped him up and pinned him to the ground. "I'm not as fragile as you believe."

"This isn't you, this isn't the girl I fell in love with!" Vulcan attempted to escape from her restraints, her purple hands secreted acid onto his wrists burning his flesh.

"Then you never took the time to get to know me." Her eyes flashed green once again and Vulcan frowned. "I don't need you in my life, Max. Not anymore."

Her eyes had never been green. Before they became purple they used to be blue, but never green. Vulcan worked it out when Hiro appeared in a cloud of green smoke in front of the device laughing manically. He was manipulating her.

"The portal gate is now self-sustaining without the use of the Blue Eye." Hiro took out the sapphire from the brow of the arch. "It's ready to pass through."

He shot a blast of green mystic energy towards  an unaware Gluttony, sending her flying across the room and smashing into multiple ice pillars, breaking their bond.

"Sorry Mistress, but I've been working for myself all this time," he laughed. "And I couldn't have done it without you. Did you honestly think, I would allow one of the King's sins to pass through into the Spirit Realm."

Gluttony grunted from the attack and slowly stood up, her body enlarging by the second, like an ever growing balloon ready to explode, her anger pointed towards the defying spirit.

"How dare you?" she screeched, shaking the the entire room.

This wouldn't be good. Vulcan needed to stop them and he couldn't let Hiro pass through the portal, not until the spirit had reversed whatever he had done to Mirella. This was all his fault he should never have touched the device, why did his curious mind have to interfere.

"I'm sorry," he apologetically gazed into Mirella's eyes then proceeded to head butt her, knocking her out cold with one blow. She limped over his body and he dragged her away into the safe corner of the temple, away from the battle.

Vulcan breathed in steadily, wiped the blood from his cheek and picked up his hammer from the ground. His fist held tightly around the wooden handle.

"You damn green spirit," Vulcan growled and charged towards Hiro. "Release Mirella now!" He swung his hammer around with force as heavy as a boulder and whacked Hiro across the face, sending the green spirit flying across the room.

The spirit climbed his way out of the crumbled ice which had landed on him and touched his head, his hand covered in his green mystic blood. It sparkled and drooled down his fingers. He hadn't seen his blood in a very long time. He looked towards the human who had made him draw blood, his green eye sharpened with vengeance. He would manipulate his soul. Hiro sent his mystic energy spiralling towards Vulcan's heart, who easily deflected the attack with his hammer, sending it towards the entrance. At that exact moment, Levi came charging into the room with a battle cry, the green energy smacked him straight into the stomach and flung him back like a bowling ball into Penny and Tommy who had been running after him.

"Urgh," Levi rolled around in agony, rubbing his torso. "I don't feel too good!"

Laura helped him up on to his feet and checked his eyes to make sure he wasn't being manipulated by Hiro. Laura sighed, relieved it had not hit his heart.

Penny screamed and jumped back when Gluttony's giant fat fist came hurtling towards them and smacked into the unaware Levi.

Once again the captain hurtled across the room and hit the ice wall. "That hurt!" Levi angrily jumped up from the rubble, punching his fist up into the air and his brown eyes glared towards Gluttony. His breath heaved with anger.

"It's you?" The sin looked scared of him. "But, but you died!"

"You all just presumed I died that day." Levi rolled his head around his shoulders and cracked his knuckles with an intense and deadly stare. "You will all pay for what happened to my little sister!"

He charged towards her, his fist pulled back and punched her in the face, her jaw snapped and was sent hurtling through the castle wall and down the corridor, shards of ice-dust blew up into the air.

"I have Gluttony." Levi cracked his knuckles again and charged after the sin. "Laura, stop the gate."

Laura nodded and instructed Oberon, Penny and Tommy to help her dismantle the device. But no matter what they tried, the devil's bite attacked them back before they could reach it. The green vines entangling around them.

"I could really use Logan around about now." Oberon flew between the striking vines towards the crystal ball. He screeched when a vine shot through his wing and he crumpled to the ground. He reverted to his human form and started to use his strength instead to rip the plant apart.

Penny attempted to aim her pink arrows towards the crystal ball but each shot was caught by the devil's bite, snapping her arrows in half.

"This is impossible!" Tommy complained as he attempted to help Laura break the device, he yelped when he was knocked over by Vulcan who was still in the midst of a fight with Hiro.

"Vulcan," Tommy grabbed him by the shoulder before he sent his hammer hurtling towards Hiro. "It's Mirella..."

"I know, Hi... Hi..." Vulcan groaned and struggled to say Hiro's name. "That damn green spirit has possessed her."

"No!" Tommy pulled him back once again. "Hiro isn't possessing her, he's manipulating her, there is a difference."

Vulcan's arm limped as he stared at Mirella who had slowly become conscious again. "What do you mean?"

"Everything she says and does, comes truthfully from her heart and soul," Hiro sniggered having overheard them. He started to accumulate green mist around his hand and Mirella stood obediently by his side like a good dog, her eyes narrowed down on Vulcan ready to attack on command. "Essentially, I took away her humanity, the parts that made her good, the emotions that hold her back from the person she truly wants to be. But what I did to her is like a drug, it opens the mind to different possibilities, a life they finally feel apart of and one they don't ever want to let go off."

"They become loyal to you, so you can continue to manipulate their emotions. You might as well be possessing them." Vulcan was disgusted. "What you're doing is unethical to your victims and the people they love. What you can do, can tear relationships apart!"

"Exactly!" Hiro laughed. "It's way people go out of their way to be my master."

"Then they mistreat you, a spirit is a companion, a friend to help out, not something to misuse."

Hiro looked taken aback by Vulcan's words. They had stuck him in the heart, he had never met someone who hated his unique gift and actually saw him as a spirit. It took him off guard and Vulcan struck him in the chest with his hammer. Sending the spirit flying backwards. Mirella hissed and reached for her knives. She drew them across her tongue, allowing the venom to soak up within the weapon and ready to aim upon Vulcan.

He looked to Mirella and pleaded with her. "Mirella, you have to snap out of this, please."

"Why?" She twirled the knife between her fingers. "I finally feel free from the quivering girl who obeyed to her husband's every word. I finally feel independent from you," Mirella snarled towards Vulcan like he was her venom. "I don't need you. You hold me back from the exceptional person I can be because you're scared of my power, scared that I will no longer need you to protect me. That's the real reason why you want a cure to my cursed soul. So you can act like the hero around an innocent, defenceless, girl ."

Was that truly how she felt? Why had she never said anything before?

"I'm sorry, if I ever made you feel that way. I would never hold you back like that. If you want to keep your cursed soul then keep it. Just please, Mirella, I don't want to fight you." Vulcan, exhausted, slouched his shoulders in defeat and dropped his hammer to the floor with a loud thud. He couldn't do this, not to the one he loved. "Kill me if you have to, but I will not harm you."

Mirella raised her knife ready to strike down upon him, when the green mist accumulated around her body like a slithering snake.

"Hiro, what is the meaning of this?" Mirella struggled to escape from his mystic power.

"Hush!" Hiro ordered her and strode towards Vulcan and grabbed the lump hammer before the pirate could. "Interesting choice of weapon." Hiro inspected the tool. "It's in good condition."

"I'm an engineer and craftsman, it's my favourite tool." Vulcan arched his brow at his sudden change of behaviour. "It's good at knocking people's heads in."

"Hammer's are good at that," Hiro chuckled. "I heard you earlier, when fixing the device to the arch. You found my work to be genius, melding science with magic." He twirled the hammer in his hand. "It's nice to be appreciated."

"That was you?" Vulcan had no idea spirits were craftsman, he only ever imagined them as warriors which turned into swords. "Impressive work, despite what it does." Vulcan shunned him. "You should only ever use your work for good not evil."

A slow smirk made its way onto Hiro's lips, as his heart slowly warmed. "No one has ever complimented my work before, only ever my unique gift, which you are a first to criticise. Despite its uses, I hate what my gift can do, especially in the wrong hands. You're right my previous masters have only ever mistreated me." Hiro passed back the hammer to Vulcan. "Can I ask you a question?"

Vulcan looked confused, what was the spirit playing at? Was this some trick, or a game? "What?" he cautiously asked.

"What's my name?" Hiro looked him directly in the eyes.

The green spirit's odd change of mood had caught the attention of Laura, who stopped in her tracks and stared on with a big smile on her face. "Finally," she whispered and collapsed back to the ground and sighed knowing all was well.

"What are you doing?" Tommy complained. "We have to stop the device."

"Don't worry." Laura looked content. "Hiro will turn it off in a moment. Now that he no longer wants to the pass over to the Spirit Realm."

Vulcan stared back intently towards the one eyed spirit, his good green eye filled with hope and admiration, like he was looking at him for answers.

"It's Hi...Hi... damn it." Vulcan hissed to himself, no matter how hard he tried he couldn't call him Hiro. The name just didn't want to roll off the tongue, it didn't suit him. It was a stupid name for a spirit, like something you would call a pet dog.

"You can't say Hiro because you know it's not my real name." The Spirit grinned. "Say it, say my actual name!"

Vulcan looked between the green spirit and the hammer in his hand. The emotions written across his face slackened and his heart thudded, every beat echoed louder and louder with each passing second. Then he grinned.

"Your name is Green Hammer and I'm your Master now!"

Vulcan felt a soft pin-prick sensation in his heart, warming up the vital organ like he had been powered by adrenalin. The spirit had never looked so relieved in his life, he collapsed to his knees crying. Finally, after all these years, he had found his rightful master. A craftsman and inventor just like him. His green mist released itself from Mirella's hold and accumulated around his own body, until he shifted back into his anchor form, but not a sword. A green lump hammer clunked to the ground by Vulcan's feet.

His hazel eyes cascaded down to the tool and with a smirk he picked it up by the evergreen wooden handle. It was like the handle had been designed to fit his hand, moulded to every groove and scar. Even the distribution of the weight was to his liking.

"Green Hammer," he called with confidence and green mist surround the tool and stood before him was his new spirit but no longer did he look like Hiro but a different appearance entirely. He looked like Vulcan's idol, his father but a younger version of his father in his twenties before he died. He held similar features to Vulcan, tall and broad with short thick hair, a sturdy square jaw and eyes which stood out. However, everything about him was green, including some of his clothes which consisted of black boots and jeans and a green flannel shirt spotted in oily grease marks. They would get along well.

"That's how you call for a spirit," Kurome appeared within the alter room in a cloud of black mist along with Baden and Alex he had teleported with him.

"How come he managed to do it first try?" Alex complained as he helped Tommy, Penny and Oberon back up onto their feet, while Vulcan tendered to Mirella who had fallen unconscious when Green Hammer released her from his hold.

"That's because your mind isn't in the right place." Kurome flicked his master's forehead. Alex scowled at him. The black spirit looked around him, everything seemed to be under control and with Green Hammer finally finding his rightful master, they would be able to shut down the gate before anyone passed through it. "It looks like everything's under control here..."

Kurome had spoken too soon and Levi came charging back into the room yelling, followed by a herd of angry fat minions. Their razor sharp teeth extended and ready to prey on them all. Too busy yelling in fright and not looking where he was going, Levi tripped over a broken ice column and flung himself into Oberon, who crashed into Alex, hurtling them both through the portal gate.

"No!" Kurome shouted in a mad panic. "Alex can't go there! He's not ready to know the truth!"

...

Next Chapter: 17. The Spirit Realm

☠️ Vulcan was Hiro's rightful master in the end, what did you think of that?

☠️ Alex and Oberon ended up in the spirit realm, how will they get back, if they can get back?

Next Update: Wednesday

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~ Robin Xxx