* Lost Sky – Fearless pt.II (feat. Chris Linton) *

***

Standing up gracefully, Camilla started dusting herself quietly as she watched some enemies surround her from opposite directions.

Walking slowly in a threatening manner was what looked like the grim reaper without his garb. A night black skeleton creature, standing at about two meters high, with two massive feathery wings coming out of its upper back.

It’s legs were covered in tight leather pants of matching colours. Its waist was covered with a shallow ghostly dark waist-scarf.

What stood out in the creature was its black spinal column as it was so thick that it almost looked just like a slim mascular body frame, while its back side was covered in sharp looking bones that almost resembled claws penetrating its invisible back.

Accompanied by its ribcage that covered the chest area like a sturdy armour, its appearance would give a lot of people a heart attack.

What made it scarier was the huge scythe that was flowing with a crazy red aura, almost as if haunted, matching the ominous light that’s coming out of its eye sockets.

Camilla didn’t miss the presence of two triangles on the top of its head, almost like a cat ears.

‘Don’t they resemble a part of a pointed star?’ she thought, making the connection between this monster king and the 1st one they fought before. ‘so it’s not just one king, is it? This gonna be annoying.’

Looking at the other monster behind her she wasn’t too surprised to see a huge skeletal steed with four upside down ibex horns coming out of its head.

Mounting the huge ghostly beast, there was a white skeletal monster that looked more majestic than threatening. Even though it was similar to the black ‘2nd king’, it had three triangles on top of its head, the third was resting on top of the other two.

Its wings were bigger and more menacing, almost as if they were meant to instill fear into its enemies rather than serve as means of flight.

Also, covering part of its leg there was half a white garb that looked more for show than anything else as it didn’t hide its skeletal white legs.

White shadows around its head almost formed a hoodie covering its face, but failing to hide the glowing red light emitted by its eye sockets.

Both the 3rd king and its mount seemed to have a blinding sun for a heart, as white lights kept shining out of their bones.

Next to them, almost as if forming an escort, two other smaller beasts walked slowly.

Instead of four, they only had two horns each, but their jaw was larger, and so was their back, making them look like a hybrid between a bull and a hyiena.

All of a sudden, the 2nd king let its scythe rather slowly to the ground and looked at the 3rd king who started muttering some weird noises.

Camilla wasn’t dumb and realized that was the language they spoke as it was similar to the noise Raven had translated for her before, when they were attacked by the 1st king.

“Well, too bad I don’t understand, nor do I care… I’m angry and would gladly vent it all off on you guys.” Camilla said with a twisted smile and menacing look.

————————–

“SSSSSS…” Raven was holding herself quite well.

Even though her pain filled the cave with noise and the others with worry, everything was going as planned.

‘It hurts- It. Really. HURTS…’ she complained to herself as she continued to funnel the world energy into her Mana Core so that Kayla could integrate the runestone’s mana into it.

Raven was in a lot of pain that she feared she’ll faint any moment, or worse, give up. Yet she held on.

After what felt like a century, her body couldn’t feel anything but pain. No light coming in, just pain. No noise, not even her own screams, but only pain.

Her body felt on fire, her brain was boiling, her heart shrinking. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t focus, and she stopped thinking.

The only reason she continued the procedure was that Kayla clinged to her will to complete the procedure. The process wasn’t dangerous, only painful. Or so Kayla thought.

However at the half way point, the energy requirement spiked through the roof as more was needed for stabilizing the volatile runestone’s energy. Otherwise Kayla may risk cracking Raven’s Core.

Raven stopped screaming as she fell unconscious leaving Kayla alone working her robotic a*s off.

Since she had Raven’s permission to continue the process, she kept it going, while at the same time making sure Raven’s life force was stable.

Stopping in at that point would’ve be more dangerous than continuing since the Mana Core was already exposed to the strange mana. And the only way to ease the poisoning was to use the world’s energy to dilute it.

Everything went on rather slowly and painfully, until the runestone expanded all of a sudden emitting a blinding azure light that made everyone’s eyes hurt.

[Energy requirement: ERROR.

[Vitals: in severe condition.

[Mana Core: Invalid reading.

[Runestone condition: ERROR.

[…]

While Kayla kept muttering to the unconscious girl in her robotic voice, Raven was blinded by an azure sun that was so close to her, she could almost touch it.

‘Where am I? Don’t tell me I’m unconscious… again! KAYLA!’ when no one answered, she knew she was right.

She tried to open her eyes again, but what she saw surprised her, almost shocked her.

The storm of azure that was supposed to be emitted by a star, was actually generated by a rather familiar feminine figure.

The surrounding white lights of the weird space around both girls looked dim compared to the new azure light.

Raven didn’t know how, but she knew this wasn’t their first meeting. Quite the opposite.

Squinting her eyes to look at the woman closely, she noticed that she was surprised, evident by her widened azure eyes.

Her long shiny blue hair looked so soft that Raven unintentionally reached out to touch it.

Smiling slightly, the woman had a tear run down her bright pale face. The appearance of the little girl brought so many memories, joyful and sorrowful. Yet, her smile didn’t waiver.

“I didn’t expect you to be the one calling for me this time…”

Raven flinched at the woman’s soft voice. Yet, she felt at ease, relaxed and… true.

“I’m so sorry,” Raven said and she meant it, “I know I’m supposed to know you, but I just… can’t.” Every fiber of her existence was urging her to take the opportunity and hug the woman in front of her.

She wasn’t blind, and she knew that this woman was possibly her relative as she had her same features when she was a boy.

Coincidence? Not possible. Throughout her life, absolutely no one shared her azure eyes and blue hair.

“Uhm…” nodded the woman in disappointment as she kept looking down. She was the one who erases her memories of the previous encounter. And after hearing what the girl just said, she was sure her memories were still missing.

She recovered a second after and shook her head, “it’s all good, and by the way, you don’t have to feel bad about it. I’m not the person you used know anyway.”

“I used to know you? Err, or the other person?” Raven asked.

“Yea-” the soft melodic voice of the woman was cut short by a flicker in the surroundings.

“Seems like your friend is worried about you, she’s working quite hard to get you out, you know.” She said as another one of her smile reached Raven’s heart.

“How do-”

“Not enough time,” the woman cut her with a sad smile. Raven felt a sting in her heart.

“I’m going to touch you, is that okay?” The woman asked.

Raven wasn’t comfortable with being ‘touched’, but she knew the woman had no bad intentions.

“Uhm,” she nodded as she closed her eyes in anticipation.

Suddenly, Raven felt two soft arms wrap around in her in a gentle hug. Her embrace was so warm and affectionate that it made Raven’s heart flutter.

“It’s such a regret that we don’t have enough time for our little talk after all. But I’m pretty sure you’ll meet a ‘piece’ of me again, haha” the woman giggled in a soft sad voice. “I’m so sorry for leaving you… again…”

At that, azure light swallowed Raven who was still trying to figure out the meaning of the woman’s words.

Opening her eyes again to find herself back at the cave, she realised that her vision was rather blurry. ‘Eh, tears?’ she was surprised that she was apparently crying, and more so when she felt deep sadness in her heart that she didn’t know the reason for.

Not only that, but she detected a hint of longing in her heart. ‘Was it the hug, the woman, or the feeling?’ she thought to herself.

Her pain hadn’t completely disappeared yet, but it wasn’t as bad. She could move without screaming now.

“Hey,” she said to Kayla, the Maria who was sitting next to her, and Maya who was… ‘Why am I sitting on Maya’s lap?’ Raven could feel her face warm up as it took a hint of red. ‘She’s my sister damn it! Is it me becoming more of a pervert or the new body with its hormones?’

Rain and Joey were outside, supposedly, since she couldn’t see them around her.

“Yo!” replied Maria, while Maya just hugged her tight.

“Maya-,” She was surprised to see tears in Maya’s eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“Hey, is everything-” being hugged again by Maya forces her breath to go back to her lungs. “My. Lungs.” she said with much effort, as the pain was still there.

‘Hello, Kayla…?’ Kayla still hadn’t replied to her initial greeting, which made her worry that something must’ve happened to her while she was performing both her and Raven’s job during the little stunt they pulled up. Or tried, as she had no idea what had actually happened.

“I’m so sorry!” Maya blurted out, as if she’s just awoken from a bad dream. Her feelings of being useless were at their strongest.

She had done absolutely nothing to Raven so far, but being a burden. She couldn’t do anything in order to help her.

Maya was powerless against the feeling of helplessness that struck her very core with everything it got.

“Hey don’t be,” Raven said as she patted her head. “It’s been a rough couple of days, I’d expect anyone else of your age to be way worse. Don’t feel bad about it, ok?”

“But I-”

“Ey listen to your big sis!” Raven

“Uhm,” seeing the worry in Raven’s eyes, Maya could only nod with a forced smile.

[Integration accomplished. Evolution requirements met. Commencing evolution.]

Suddenly, Kayla’s robotic voice rang in Raven’s mind.