Nephew of the Forgotten One, Chapter 11

Nephew of the Forgotten One, Chapter 11 Nephew of the Forgotten One, Chapter 11

Picky
"Ņrutas!" BJ cried. "Don't!"
"We should get a good distance away before the light fades," I urged, trying to pull BJ away from the column. "We can't do anything for Ņrutas if he defeats us once he becomes a monster."
"No..." BJ persisted. "I can help him here."
The column faded.
Ņrutas didn't look much different. But he was bigger and darker.
His eyes opened. And he leapt at BJ, and knocked him down.
He ran behind BJ.
"'Roots?" BJ asked in disbelief. "What are you doing?"
"He's not Ņrutas anymore," I muttered.
"Ņrutas is in there, somewhere!" BJ persisted.
The monster formerly known as Ņrutas leapt in the air.
"Nemesis Rock!" he cried.
"This isn't good," I muttered as a black disk began to eclipse the sun.
"What do you mean?" BJ demanded.
"He's the guardian of darkness. If the sun's light disappears, even through an eclipse, his power should increase. And you refuse to fight him as it is."
The last sliver of natural light disappeared, leaving only the Threed streetlights and house lights. And the real battle began. At least I thought it would.
I pulled my Slingshot out. It probably wasn't strong enough, but I'd try it. And I probably couldn't aim properly.
I fired!
"Picky, stop!" BJ yelled.
"Shut up!"
"How dare you!"
And he punched me.
"BJ, either you fight what was once Ņrutas to bring him back or you stay out of the battle," I said, massaging my now sore eye.
"I won't let you hurt him."
"Ha, ha, ha."
We both turned around.
Looking fuzzy, or maybe it was because I'd lost my depth perception or something, illuminated by a black light, was Ņrutas.
"My name is Toshil," the monster said, "and I cannot believe that my opponents cannot unite to defeat me."
"Give me my friend back!" BJ screamed.
Toshil looked around us.
"Who?" he asked, apparently naive. "I only see your opponent. And unless he is your friend, which I doubt, I have no one to give back to you. Do you wish to battle me together? Or will you fight amongst yourselves, leaving me to destroy the weakened victor?"
"I won't fight you, Ņrutas," BJ said, "but if he's going to fight you, he'll have to get through me first."
"PSI Hypnosis Alpha," I muttered, aiming it at BJ. He fell asleep.
"Toshil, get ready," I threatened. "You won't find me easily beaten."
"I'm sure I won't find you easy to beat," he taunted.
I aimed the Slingshot at Toshil and fired.
"Nox Fire." Toshil grinned.
He burned my Slingshot ball!
"Wonderful," I muttered. I gripped the band of the Slingshot and ran towards Toshil.
Leaping towards him, I snapped the Slingshot forward. It connected squarely with his cheek.
"Ow!" he complained. "You're not supposed to hurt the Darkness Guardian."
"I never heard that," I said, hitting Toshil on his chin.
"Foolish human."
Toshil jumped up and kicked me in the head.
I spun; my vision blurred further than it had when BJ had punched me in the eye.
I began to fall.
But then...
"You're right, Picky," BJ admitted, "that isn't Ņrutas; but he might still be in there, somewhere. And I'm going to get him out."
BJ propped me up, and he let me get my bearings back; then he began to run towards Toshil.
"This is for my friend, you monster!"
BJ lifted an elbow, fully intending to attack Toshil; but he had other plans.
"Be careful, boy. If you hurt me too much, you'll kill your friend," Toshil said.
Was he lying? Who knows? Tracy never told us what happened to the Fire Guardian.
Who or what was the Fire Guardian?
BJ stopped, just short of Toshil.
"Good boy." Toshil patted BJ on the head, then kicked him in the stomach.
BJ crumpled and collapsed on the ground.
"I'm the lord of the night," Toshil bragged. "And unless you want to be next, you had better give up. After all, I'm in my element."
I gaped. It couldn't be possible.
Ņrutas used to be so kind, so kind; and here he was, transformed into Toshil, the biggest egotist I've ever seen. Toshil, the Darkness Guardian. Toshil, who BJ would have to beat, but couldn't. Toshil, who could manipulate BJ's emotions more than anyone else I've seen manipulate the emotions of others.

Tracy
"Thalia?" I asked.
"The woman who you were talking to when I came in," Dusty said. "She was reading your tarot, right?"
"How did you guess?"
"Thalia is one of the more radical members of the ETS. If she sees you, she won't let you go until she reads your future in the cards."
I thought about this. It was incredibly accurate.
Perhaps there was something to the tarot cards.
"Then she told you to act as if you were converted to believing in the tarot, right?" Dusty asked, shaking me out of my thoughts.
"How'd you guess?" I asked, dumbfounded.
"She does that to everyone she refers to me. In fact, I'm the only one she ever refers to in that sense. And those she refers tell me, and I tell them to pretend they've been converted and never come back. I like the tarot, but Thalia tries too hard to make everyone strict believers in the tarot: she thinks she'll be a modern-day Nostradama or something."
"Why do you persist in this charade?" I asked.
"My mom is very traditional: 'Unless it's part of our culture, it's taboo,'" Dusty explained. "And tarot is definitely not part of many cultures, right? Especially not mine?"
"Yeah, you're right. By the way, why do you use tarot cards?"
"Only to escape the stifling atmosphere of my home. As I said earlier, my mom is a very devout person in what she believes in; and tarot cards would probably give her a heart attack. I don't necessarily believe in the prophetic capabilities of the cards, nor do I necessarily believe our destinies are predetermined; as a few years ago, I felt..." Dusty trailed off, and I assumed he couldn't complete the sentence.
"I see," I mused.
Dusty looked at his watch.
"Oh, great," he muttered. "I have to get home now. My mom is obsessively punctual, and she expects me to be at home by the time she gets home. See you later, Tracy."
He ran out.
He left me wondering one thing: how did he know my name?
I wandered out of Dusty's room of the ETS and walked right into Ness, Paula and Lomond.
"Tracy!" Lomond cried. "We're glad we found you. Something odd's going on in Threed."
"What?" I demanded.
"We just saw something on the TV in the public lounge," Paula explained. Her eyes were wide, almost panicked. "It's absolutely amazing. And I don't mean that in a good way. In Onett, in Twoson, in Fourside, in the Dusty Dunes Desert. They're all reporting that there's a weird disk in the sky over Threed. And in Threed, they're reporting that there's an eclipse; and reports from there are insisting that there's a battle taking place around the old circus tent."
My heart skipped a beat.
"Do you think?" I wondered out loud.
"It's gotta be Picky, BJ and Ņrutas," Ness said.
As we left, the situation shifted to Dusty. Or at least I thought it did.
"By the way," Paula asked, "doesn't that guy look a lot like..."
"I know," I admitted. "I thought he was here, then--" I broke off my conversation as we passed by Thalia, then continued once we were outside. "--I thought he was here, then that psycho at the counter told me his name."
"So," Paula asked, "what is his name?"
"Dusty," I replied. "I know nothing beyond that."
"Excuse me," Lomond interrupted, "but I believe we have a more pressing prerogative than talking about lookalikes. Remember the Threed Eclipse?"
We snapped out of the lull talking about Dusty had dropped us into.
Ness powered up PSI Teleport Alpha; and the four of us were ripped from Fourside and landed in Threed.
"Does this feel familiar, Paula?" Ness asked.
"Does it ever." Paula shivered. "I never thought I'd see Threed in artificial night again. This isn't good at all, but I wonder if Belch is back; or is it someone else?"
"It can't be Belch... he was killed in Deep Darkness. It's got to be another Energy Point Guardian," Ness mused.
"The Darkness Guardian," I said.
We began to walk towards the Circus.
"It doesn't sound like a battle, does it?" Lomond observed. "It's quiet as the night."
"Ha ha ha," a voice that sounded like it would belong to a braggart said. "You refuse to fight, and that will doom you and this world to death."
"I ... won't give up, Toshil," Picky managed, although he sounded rather exhausted.
"You say you won't," Toshil mocked, "but I know you will."
"Where are they?" Paula asked, worried. "PSI Thunder Alpha!"
I heard the thunder, but the lightning didn't appear. It didn't light up the sky.
"PSI Flash Alpha!"
Now we could see. In front of us, to the south, just to the east of the circus tent, lay the battle.
Picky was facing us. His face brightened when he saw us. And facing him, in front of us, was a pitch-black creature. Toshil. Although he was dark, he showed up clearly in the flash, even as it faded. Perhaps this was because he was so dark, even darkness couldn't cause it to disappear.
Toshil turned around. He faced us, and a sparkling came from near the top of his figure.
"Be careful!" Picky warned.
He ran towards the four of us: me, Lomond, Paula and Ness; we weren't prepared.
"Attack!" Ness ordered, and he whipped out his Legendary bat.
Crack! The bat broke!
"Foolish mortal," Toshil laughed. "I am the darkness' master. I control all corporal things in the darkness; psychic abilities and physical attacks like."
He lifted an arm. I think. There was a whooshing sound, kind of like a vacuum; and then I heard Ness cry "Aaah!", the cry fading.
"Ness!" Paula screamed. She began to pray.
A dazzling light arced through the sky and struck Toshil. He stepped back, barely phased.
"What?" he asked, disbelieving. "But... but..."
"Don't stutter," Lomond said, kicking Toshil in the side.
Somehow, I saw Lomond brace through the darkness, expecting Toshil to counter. But the counter did not come.
"He gets stunned if he gets hit!" I realised. "PSI Fire Alpha!"
Fire burst from my fingers and impacted in the torso.
"Stop!" BJ urged, struggling towards us. "Don't hurt him..."
He collapsed to the ground, again.
"He's right," Toshil said, giggling through the pain. "The Energy Points' energies cause things to become monsters, the guardians of the points. And if you fight the guardian too long, and weaken it too much, the body of the transformed guardian will be lost beyond possible healing."
"So?" Paula asked, preparing another prayer. "What if you're in reality just another bridge, like Haschie?"
"Oh, but I wasn't something inanimate; and nor was I a non-sentient animal."
"Then who were you?" I demanded.
"A pitiful little creature. The friend of the one whose advice you should take," he spat, motioning towards BJ.
"You mean..."
"Yes, little boy," Toshil answered Lomond, "I am the Mr. Saturn Ņrutas. Do you still wish to attack me now, knowing that he may be killed?"
I heard a mysterious rumbling to the east, and looked that way. Lightning was twisting towards us.
"What...?" I asked, nearly unable to make sense of the situation.
Toshil turned around. "I will ward off this assault, as I am master over everything under the night sky; and I am invincible under the night--"
The lightning forced itself into Toshil's body, shocking him with innumerable volts of electricity.
"BJ!" I thought I heard Ņrutas cry. "Don't worry about me. Seal Toshil!"
"'Roots?" BJ asked to no one.
But feeling energised by this statement, I guess, he struggled up. He walked towards Toshil.
"I'm sorry, 'Roots," he said, then punched Toshil in the stomach.
Toshil crumpled and exploded into a pillar.
In Picky's backpack, another explosion occured, and the Crystal-shards ripped through the fabric; they all alit around Toshil.
Picky and I, knowing our roles, stepped towards the Crystal-shards corresponding to our energies: Picky to the blue water shard, and I to the red fire shard. One more shard was now coloured: a black shard, the darkness shard.
BJ stepped towards this one.
"Please, return to me," he intoned. "I seal the Guardian of Darkness, Toshil; I seal Toshil so my friend Ņrutas is returned to me. Powers of light, energies of darkness; surrender your power, Guardian Toshil of Darkness. Return to me, my friend."
Slowly, so slowly, the sky brightened. And just as slowly, as if through a sieve, the pillar that was Toshil faded away; and as it faded, BJ smiled.
Finally, the pillar receded fully; the Power Crystal re-merged. An unconscious Ņrutas was left before us.
"'Roots..." BJ sobbed.