Blathnaid

Day 14

This is Bracus in a nicer mood.

"Ivelisse, stop teleporting! You must only use it if you're about to die or you've finished a bloody battle! I don't want to see any running away either or I'll have General Anty track you down!"

"Blathnaid, focus better attacks on Bluvas."

"Aelen, I'm trying to refine your warrior skills as a daemon and make them better. Don't make me believe that your prime was when you were still alive."

"Naomi, your sword is dragging you right now, speed up and tighten your grip! I might as well get Cookeh to help you after duty."

"Ivelisse, stop whining or else I will let Rea plunder you."

"My goodness, Naomi, Conan has every right to laugh at you right now. I hope you're not considered a master on your planet, otherwise, I would have to show them."

"Not sorry, but you guys need more work, you're going to train longer today. Take a break."

Bracus spared no time training us to get used to our powers. He is harsh and a brute of a sergeant. He orders us to take down his guards and his pack. One round solo and another round as a team. He is cruel enough to set us to battle each other. He made us do tests in his own castle, forest, and villages. We have to find puzzles that will keep us alive. Remember the Escape Room on Earth? Yeah, but it does happen if we don't get out in time. Fortinuous enough, all of us are still here. He trains us in the harshest conditions to get used to the hell we are about to face. All I hope for is that Netedinark's place isn't as bad as it seems.

I am doing alright with my powers; I have more control. My knowledge about this place expanded without opening a book. It takes me little time to take down Bracus's Morphans by myself. They were not afraid of going at us too. I don't even feel myself as the weakest link on the team, nor when battling my friends. Bracus compliments on how my blue powers remind him of the youth of the universe or the biggest of stars. As much as I want to take pride in that, I restrain my ego. It's easy for my ego to inflate into arrogance when I ascend from humanity. I still feel human no matter how much I am blessed. I need to keep who I am inside. That's all that matters to me.

"How old is this universe?" I asked him during one of our breaks days ago.

"Approximately, 50 billion years," he replied, "50 Billionth Era, Fifth Universe Cycle."

"Much older than I realized."

"Thank you, Blathnaid," he replied in a feign irritated voice.

Aelen's powers are the most fun out of all of us. He is able to take over minds. When the first time he took over a Morphan's mind to attack another, Bracus heavily reprimanded them, only for Aelen to explain that the Morphan was under his control. He never tried to control our own minds. He hates it. His power of mind control grew; he is able to control his own body while he is in someone else's– He can split his mind into two. Bracus also got in touch with Aelen's telekinesis. He has more range to pick items up from. He has a possibility of lifting an entire house up without touching it in the future.

"I think I found my people a house mover," Bracus commented while rolling his eyes.

Ivelisse's powers are fearful; she can warp dimensions and quantum physics in her own sight and herself. She can make multiple versions of herself to do more damage. Sometimes she does go crazy. One of her abilities is to warp the gravity curve itself into a tiny black hole. On her first try, the Morphans were fiercefully pulled back into her gravity-warped area, only for it to snap, to explode. Bracus warned her to not do that again before she actually kills his troops. He will not be very pleased and that's a friendly version of saying that. Luckily, she mostly warps herself, only to reemerge normally or on the ceiling to defeat her foes.

"How about you clone my army?" Bracus asked Ivelisse.

Ivelisse smiled. "Sure!"

"Dealing with you is already a handful."

"People always say that to me, so you're not the first one."

"Doesn't mean you're a full-time Dead-Morphan-Hat," he said calmly.

Naomi only has been working on her sword skills, not her magical abilities that I know and love. Her swords have improved so that she doesn't need a shield. She never used a shield at all. Bracus never drew attention to it or he was hiding it. That is about to soon change.

Ivelisse jumps into an ice-cold bath to stimulate her senses. If we were normal, we would've been sore by now. As for Ivelisse, she would've been dead by hypothermia. She nicely exhales as she relaxes deeper into the iced tub full of liquid nitrogen and solid water. In this bath, nitrogen doesn't evaporate. I assume it's from the technology that Gaeriscelleh has.

"Come on, Ive, Bracus is about to call us any minute," Aelen warns.

"Relax, Aelen, I'm only 'ere for a moment," Ivelisse tells him.

"A moment? More like several minutes to you," he retorts.

"Ugh! Alright, I'm gettin' my arse out of t'e tub," she says while withdrawing her body from the tub, "Even t'ough I just got in." The liquid nitrogen evaporates the moment she steps out, turning into a mild fountain of the element. It is a dense fog that no one can see beyond their nose.

"Break time is over!" A vampire guard intrudes into the break room,

We were led to a dirty mud pond full of giant leeches. The moment we step into them, we bite back our disgust. It's worse than sewers full of rat crap and urine. The smell is so putrid that I have to restrain my gag reflex. It is on the same level of foul air when Ivelisse was possessed. A deep cleaning will take weeks to finish. Leeches and other fishes pass by my legs. It's not an easy task to ignore the urge to pick my legs to swipe the leeches off of them. Ahead of us, several vampires and fairies are in the pond, unaffected by the dung we're in. They had more time to desensitize than we did. They have been through the same things for years.

"Blathnaid and Naomi, you're first," Bracus announces. He glances at Aelen and Ivelisse, "Get out of the pond for now."

Ivelisse and Aelen scurry out of the pond within record time. The ground is the best place yet. We can hear Ivelisse mumbling to herself about how she is covered in crap now. I get into my battle stance while Naomi manifests her sword out of thin air. Her sword is like a summoning of the gods; it is epic, lightning, with a puff of smoke at the end. She is calling it to help her in battle.

"Naomi, no more swords," he tells her off, "You need to practice your magic too. I know you have them."

"Uh-no!" She refuses.

"What did you say?!" Bracus dares. It is threatening.

"Naomi," I told her, "You have new abilities. Don't tell him no."

She gives in, making her sword disappear and shifting her battle stance, slightly. "I said I'll let it go," she replies to Bracus.

"Thought so," he sneers.

We wait until Bracus's signal to attack. I glance at Naomi one more time. "Relax. Focus. You got this," I say with words of encouragement. She keeps staring at her opponents, not wanting to do this. She was okay when she was holding out her sword. Her confidence shredded once she was told to use her powers. She has more experience than Ive and I, and she was okay with her powers before we entered this realm. What's going beneath her skin?

Bracus raises his hand. The signal has been given. The armed fairies and vampires charge at us while we charge at them. Blue and many colours illuminated the sunset sky as our powers clashed against theirs. These fairies are more powerful than what Earth portrays them as. Their powers don't summon nature or animals; their spellcasting makes someone's organs go against them if trained properly. They are also shapeshifters that can pose as us or creatures that we see in myth. The vampires are not also bloodsuckers; they use dark magick far more powerful than witches on Earth. Blood magick to regenerate and break? Yes. Dark magick that puts ice on someone's body? Yes. You see, we don't need the devil, nor the treason of God to perform magick? We don't need unholy regimes. They don't either.

Bracus, Ivelisse, and Aelen go up into the trees as the lake contracts and waves out worse than the high tides. A cesspool is messing up our faces, clothes, and hair. Neither one of us makes a fuss about it. I rise from the lake up and blast energy at them; a large laser crackles the air. They dodge the target, only to be partially impacted. I see gazes of fright from them as the explosion from the blast pushes them under.

The vampires didn't like that at all. Their high speeds are immune to water; their runs push aside the water as they bolt toward Naomi and I. I charge at the ones heading towards me. I see the whole pond glow as if our Sun kissed the pond itself, despite all this mud. "Naomi?" I call out to her, but she is under the mucky pond. I hear an explosion of water beside me, but I don't look at it. My arms sway outwards, a straight blue light going forward. The vampires jump upwards into the air to dodge my attack. I stand my ground as my whole body glows blue. I make the vampires stop in motion, only for a tsunami wave to hit him. I look at Naomi, thinking they are defeated.

"Do you think that water will slow them down?" Bracus abruptly says with a side grin.

I hear Naomi whispering. She gasps while she slips under the water by someone dragging her. My clairvoyance takes over, seeing through all this crap. Vampires and fairies are trying to grab me. They jab knives at me underwater, but their hands passed through me as I went into ghost mode. I rise up into the air as audible screams come from the water. It is Naomi and she is getting stabbed in the water, along with getting hit with dark magick. Her arms freeze up before moving again. Bracus is shaking his head in disapproval.

That disappointment will turn into flash-pit everlasting anger.

A large flash of white takes over my vision, followed by red lightning filling the pond, boiling it. The ground shakes as it splits up in all directions. The water from the pond follows into the large cracks. The fairies and vampires in the water are unconscious, except for Naomi. She claws out the water, gasping for much-needed air. Out of sympathy and fear for their safety, I use my power to lift Bracus's men and women onto the ground before they can fall into any of the ravines that are filled with lava below.

"Get them urgent care!" I order.

The ground quickly closes up. The water in the dirty pond is now clean, but half deep as it was. I look at Naomi. Her wounds are regenerating. She starts to run.

"Nao," I dash towards her, grabbing her behind her shoulder.

"Get away from me!" She cries out.

I land on the ground, still holding her shoulder. "Naomi, please," I beg,

"I said get away from me!" She panics before she begins to fly away at full speed. I don't go after her. I try to sense her from the link, but she is much farther away than I previously anticipated. She's faster, stronger, and bitter. I take a deep breath, wincing back at the group. Bracus hides his anger and frustration in a hardening glare that he is deeply staring into me. It makes me want to beg on my knees for my life. All I can return is, "Get them medical attention right away! I will find Naomi!"

"Blathnaid, no," Bracus finally speaks, very stern.

"I know where she is!" I exclaim.

"Blathnaid, I said no, listen to me," he says much louder, trying not to lose it.

I obey. I guess finding Naomi is another mission.

All the armed vampires and fairies that tended to our fight are now in critical conditions and are receiving diligent care. Days agonistically passed and Naomi never returned. Training was postponed until further notice. The poor men and women that trained us spiraled further and further into despair. Usually, lightning victims get better as days pass, but they didn't. After six days had passed, many of them succumbed to their ailments.

Everything and everyone has gone down, along with them.