35 years ago

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(Play audio here: Royalty- Egzod, Maestro Chives, Neoni.)

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"Ugh! I swear I'm going to consume all these protectors once I get the chance," Arya struggled to jog through the woods, her palm applying pressure on her wound on the other arm on the outside. The side corner of her lips had a line of blood drawn down them, dripping off the side of her chin. 

Knock Knock Knock Knock

She knocked on the door of her chalet frantically as soon as she reached. The door creaked open immediately, revealing her mother Nora. 

"Arya you tried consuming them again?!" 

"It's okay Mother you don't have to worry about your safety," She pushed herself in, making herself comfortable and opening up the herb kit. 

"It's not even that!"

Nora sat across from her and pulled her arm off from her grip, applying the herbs herself. 

"This is a crime against nature!"

Arya looked at Nora. 

"A crime?" She looked furious. 

"Mother, didn't our coven think it was a crime towards nature to turn them into protectors?"

"What do you mean?"

"Just think about it! Our ancestors turned that normal wolf into a protector. Why? So that she can protect her pack or line?! No!"

"What are you getting at Arya," Nora finished wrapping the white gauge around her arm and a serious look formed itself on her face. 

"It was because she sought vengeance! It was all a stage! Our ancestors were dumbfu-,"

She stopped as she felt her face being thrown to the side, a slap whamming right through it. 

"You insolent child," Those words were whispered, yet yelled and thrown at her. 

Arya looked up, an angry frown and a set of tears running down her cheeks. 

"Even if I wanted to enlighten you upon the true reason why protectors were made, I can never bring myself to do that,"

"You've been saying that for ages now! Do you love putting me in the dark? Where there's nothing for me to hold onto?!"

Nora looked down before looking back up at her daughter. 

"Arya, in this instance, it is far better you stay in the dark than suffer, my child," 

Arya had no idea how to react upon hearing that, to either be angry, or understanding. So, she decided to make her decision. 

"Alright, if that's what you want then I'll find out by myself," 

***

"If you think you can defeat me, you're wrong, Phoenix,"

"We'll see about that," 

They stepped towards each other from a distance, increasing their speed slowly and levitating into the air. Their punches met before another wave travelled across the woods, just to centre through the light, exposing their shadows fighting with each other. 

"Ugh!" Julian grunted as Arya threw a punch at his ribs before they healed within a matter of seconds. Julian took this opportunity to kick her in her ribs but failed as she knocked his leg, his heel hitting her thigh, shattering her bone there. 

"Aaaaar!" She screamed as she fell on her knee and gripped his next punch by his wrist, tightening her grip. She looked at him while standing up again and crushing his bone slowly. 

He lowly moaned as he raised his other hand and closed his fingers into a fist, a golden arrow forming in it, the phoenix feathers at its end. He plunged it into the void before Arya's face. 

This is the last time the stream before me can protect me from his weapons. If he does this the third time, I'll die for sure, be it more than twice or a hundred times. 

She pushed it away with all her might but had no time to even counter as she realised the staff had cut through the void already, a piece of her cheek missing. She widened her eyes as she went flying back from the golden light before it disappeared and the phoenix opened up his wings to look at her attaining the straight posture. 

She whimpered as she placed her palm on her cheek in horror. 

"You better forfeit your protection spells and fight fairly because wounds heal only when they kill," 

"You wanna play? Fine, let's play little birdie,"

She formed a circular formation of her silver but was interrupted as she felt someone consuming all her unnecessary power. Her face began to pale as she felt someone kick her to the front. 

"J-Julia?' Arya backed away as she realised that Julia knew something was off. 

"Father, I figured something out,"

"And what might that be? That you're a phoenix?"

"Yes but that apart, I realised that witches can only place one protection spell at once, which means she's using multiple lifelines," 

"What do we do about that?"

"It's simple,"

"We destroy the medium of those lifelines,"

Arya's shock and horror knew no bounds. 

"No, no please not Billy! He's my only family. I promise I'll find another way to take all these lifelines off,"

Julia scoffed and smirked while leaning towards her face and raising her gaze slowly, her smirk disappearing. 

"As if,"

***

"Calice we can talk about this," Chris neared her. 

"Don't,"

Yoongi shook his head looking at Chris, warning him. Chris took the hint and backed away. 

"I know the truth,"

The two of them behind her looked down, not knowing what to say. 

"Don't worry. I understand but these four need to be enlightened and they won't understand until they're given a good beating,"

"Hoseok, you might wish to stay out of this for now. I shall explain it all later,"

"Yoongi, Chris. You do not need to help me. I got this," 

Calice kneeled backwards, her right leg squatting onto its toe and the left leg stretching out diagonally on its own. A green flame emerged from her toe. It slithered upwards towards her neck, the texture of her outfit changing from where it had travelled. Calice looked ahead as her palms opened downwards into claws, green flames escaping them as her bodily flames reached her neck. It was her protector's crest, the hair on her scalp transforming into French braids leading to the ponytail tied high up. 

"Oh, so you're going all out," Hayden said before they awakened their protector's crest as well. 

All of a sudden, Tamara felt a sharp pain claw across her left cheek, the same happening to Tia on her arm, Hunter on the side of his head and Hayden on his thigh. 

"Ow! How did you-,"

"I'll let you guess if you take off those rings you're wearing," 

"Yeah, right," Hunter zoomed at her in a split second but she disappeared as he stood in her spot, puzzled. 

"Oh no, I'm serious," 

Tamara tried to throw her clawed hand at her like the others but Calice was faster. She grabbed Tamara's wrist like it was a minor reflex and looked her right in the eye leaving Tamara puzzled as now she was holding onto Tia's hair from behind and the boys laid a few feet away, as if flown apart.  

"I'll tell you the truth about them," 

"Shut up!" Tia turned around, with the intent of twisting the arm gripping her hair. 

"Tia! What the hell!" Tia widened her eyes as she noticed that she was holding Tamara against the bark of the tree, twisting her arm. She let go of it immediately. 

"What is going on?"

"I can answer that for you,"

"What do you mean?"

"Let's just say, they're not accent rings,"

"The hell you mean?" Hayden tried nearing her but stopped with Tia's hand on his chest. 

She looked at Calice seriously and decided to give it a chance. She removed the ring and tossed it aside. 

"Now, we're talking," 

Her eyes glowed neon purple before she zoomed past Calice, stopping, looking down and up before turning around. 

"What the?" She mumbled as she saw a scar on Calice's cheek, blood dripping from its side. 

"How did that-"

"I'll explain," Calice intervened. 

"You see, Julia used the same ring once. Because of her moon, which is of course, half impure, she couldn't sense it but the moment she split, she left the ring at my place the last time she visited," 

Calice trudged forward and picked up Tia's ring. 

"Upon asking, she told me it's not an accent ring," 

The Gemini frowned at each other before looking back at her. 

"Then what are those?"

"A parasite,"

"What?" Their voices echoed through in unison. 

"It drains your energy,"

"So Billy and Arya were-"

"Using you? About time you realised,"

"Alright, what are we going to do?"

"It can be helped when I defeat Billy,"

"How so?"

"Because he has no idea of how powerful I can be,"

***

"Ugh!" Arya dragged herself deeper into the woods, blood spilling down her mouth, her head resisting a serious injury. 

Julia took slow, lethargic steps towards her and squatted as Arya relaxed her back on the trunk of a tree. 

"You have no idea,"

"Gosh! Do you ever say anything other than that?!" Julia whined as she knelt, one of her kneepads resting on the dirt. She raised her finger to her eye and ignited a fire on it before pressing it on the wound on Arya's leg. 

AAAARRGH!

"Now, spill before I burn you alive, just to heal you again and burn you all over again,"

Arya looked at Julia, her painful and angry gaze drilling Julia. She huffed as she leaned her head forward, giving her an angrier gaze. 

"Know this, hybrid,"

She adjusted herself, applying pressure on the wound patched onto her belly. 

"Billy and I are not the only ones after you,"

Julia looked down and scoffed before looking back up, smirking. 

"I know," 

Arya scoffed before bursting out into laughter. 

"That's not what I'm implying," She was able to blurt out in between the giggles. 

Julia continued looking at her. Arya pulled Julia close and wheezed before speaking, inspiring a dry tone.

"There's more of us," 

Julia was left unscathed of words. Her eyes widened in anger, almost about to pop out of the sockets before she grabbed the collar of Arya's attire and pulled her up.

"What? It can't be! They were wiped out!"

"Oh, they were of course..."

Julia let go of her collar. 

"...because they made you believe they were,"

"Alright, I've had enough, you better tell me what's coming or else,"

"Julia, Julia, Julia," Arya pushed herself up on her feet slowly. 

"At least give me some credit,"

"Jules no!" Julian stopped her before she could hit her. 

"She'll die if you hit her again,"

"Let's just say, the two of us were the pawns on the board,"

Arya then opened her blood-covered palm and placed it on her chest before pushing a hole in it and finally reaching for her heart. 

"They're the viziers,"

~To be continued