13;4 The great horrors of the world byond will determine your fate

Negative is resting upon an old abandoned outcrop outside of the city, Argon’s severed hand is held tight in her grip, the age of the hand is being preserved by being frozen in a time stasis, ”This sigil…there’s only one person I know who could make it. Could she really be here too?”, Negative says before jumping down from the ledge and onto the worn beaten path below.

The path winds and wavers off as far as the eye can see, "I know you're out here somewhere. I'll find you no matter what, Nexie", she seriously says to herself before continuing her walk down the path.

Dark, thick clouds hover above a large dweary castle in a distant land. The castle is surrounded by barren lands while the outside walls are made of a smokey black stone, the dark halls are lit with a dull, warm orange candlelight luminate throughout most of the halls of the castle. Most of the halls are in severe disrepair filled with collapsed ceilings and flooded stairways.

Nexie gradually makes her ways through the castle, the rubble cracks below her feet while water slowly grips through the ceiling above her. She walks into a crowded main hall filled mostly with rubble, “it’s about time you made it back Nexie, you really love to be a slacker huh?”, a young woman smugly says while caking on makeup in front of a shattered mirror.

Her bright teal eyes stay locked onto the mirror, while she brushes her fluffy and full sky blue hair. “Oh shut up Sky, I’ve done more in one week than what you’ve done in your whole life”, Nexie aggravatingly blurts out to her”, before walking to a nearby shattered window. Sky makes her way out from in front of the mirror to join Nexie.

“Wow temper, temper, you were always the snappy one, this has gotta be the worst place you’ve chosen for a camp, I swear my dresses are constantly caked in dirt”, she says while wiping off her small light blue frilly dress.

Nexie leans further onto the cracked brick sill, “you’ve always been such a baby about everything Sky, a little dirt never hurt anyone”, she says with a small chuckle, “oh excuse ME, maybe some of us actually care about keeping up appearances, “she says with a snarky reply.

Nexie throws her weight away from the sill to face Sky, “well that doesn’t matter anyways, I didn’t come all this way to just argue with you. Argon went and got himself killed by Negative, the fool didn’t even stand a chance, and now she has the sigil I gave him for herself” Nexie says while pacing around the room. “Indeed I was able to see the light show right from this room, she really is impressive for being so inexperienced”, Sky says with her interest peaking.

Nexie continues to pace with a heavier drag to her feet, “no, that light wasn’t Negative. It was a little girl by the name of Rayen, I could have sworn she was lost long ago. Although Negative did take something very important to me”, Nexie frustratingly says to Sky. Upon hearing the news Sky's interest peaks considerably, "indeed how intriguing, I'd love to test this little girl out, and you don't need to worry about that sigil of yours, Negative has no idea how to activate it anyways", Sky confidently says while once again looking at herself in the mirror.

Nexie gazes around the empty room, "so where is everyone? I told them I wouldn't be too long", Nexie asked Sky, "hell if I know, they probably left to be somewhere a little more accommodating, seeing from your tastes", she says continuing her snarky attitude. Nexie holds a straight face to Sky, "well fine, I guess I'll just have to round them up myself", she says before treading out of the door, "alright then, don't be surprised if I've moved house by then, the humidity of this place is horrible for my hair", Sky yells out to Nexie down the hall.

Noen and Rayen are sitting in the castle's grand garden, the morning sun shining brightly through the nearby trees offering the girls shade, "alright Rayen show me what you got!", Neon says with lots of excitement. Rayen nervously tucks her head into her palms, “um weeell, I don’t know how to. It just kinda happens”, she says while awkwardly twiddling her fingers.

“Well,this will take longer than I thought it would. Guess we have to go back to the basics then. Alright Rayen, hold your hands out in front of yourself and focus your power as much as you can, the first thing to show will be your affinity”, Neon says while holding her own hands out, cradling a small flame on it.

She starts to hunch over and draws her focus in, at first a small ball of hot light forms in her hands but then suddenly increases in intensity as she zones out into the ball. A flush of anxiety dominates Neon’s face, “alright you can stop now Rayen”, she says in a stern tone. Rayen continues to draw in energy as if Neon’s voice doesn’t exist, Rayen’s ball of energy swells up to a massive amount making a blinding light in front of her.

Out of nowhere Xenon zips in and grapples her arm away making her lose her focus on her energy, “Hey, could you not destroy my castle please Neon”, She says in a stern tone with her eyes glowing red, yellow and blue in a glittery pattern, "playing with plasma isn't a thing that's done lightly" she continues saying while walking away. Quickly Neon shoots to her feet, "wait a second, you already knew about this?! Guess it must be typical of you to always look down on me”, Neon shouts in frustration to Xenon.

She turns back around for a minute to face Neon, the look of her face shifts to a lighter mood, “alright, I’ll teach you, and I’ll teach Rayen how to control her’s too. I’m impressed that she has it as her dominant element, but first we can’t do it here. I have a feeling my irresponsible little sister is going to destroy my town haha”, Xenon teasingly says to Neon before guiding her and Rayen out of town.

The courtyard of the castle is filled with dozens of winded minor guards of the castle while Crystal stands dominating over all of them, “why don’t any of you guys actually give me any sort of challenge, and you call yourself castle guards?!”, she shouts out to the battered down group.

Ali and Ruby are sat on the sidelines of her makeshift arena enjoying her show, “well she sure has had a change of heart huh, I remember when it has hard to even get her to practice and now she just won’t stop”, Ali says with a small giggle, “well I did have to pound her face in the dirt countless time to give her this kind of fighting spirit”, Ruby replies back with a wide smile.

Crystal runs towards the castle entrance with an urge to keep training, “hey!! Is there anyone that’s actually worth training with here?! Come out I want a real challenge!”, she yells down the hall before noticing someone behind her. When she hears the footsteps approach closer she instantly turns around to find Sigma waiting for her, “oh, oh it’s ummm you”, she says while quickly flushing red.

“It’s not that nice to punish normal people you know, but you’re making my morning a little noisy, so I figured to entertain you a little Crystal. I’ll even go easy on you and use no Complexes”, Sigma says while doing small warm up stretches. Crystal’s legs begin to get shaky from the sudden rush of nerves entering her mind but regains her footing and forms her fighting stance. All of a sudden Sigma feels a gentle hand touch his shoulder, “don’t worry about her, you go enjoy yourself. I’ll tire her out for you Sigma”, says a woman a little shorter than Crystal.

She has long and straight navy blue hair, she looks just as rugged as Sigma sporting the same rank Royal Guard uniform. Although unlike Sigma's, her's is has a mostly white uniform with blue accents along the sleeve cuffs and around the outside of the pants. She draws her sword, the small hilt is pure silver with a blade of glistening titanium. In a quick flash she steps in front of Crystal with a swinging sword coming down at her, almost through luck Crystal is able to block the quick strike at her.

Although as soon as it feels like she’s gotten a hang of it she is quickly overwhelmed by a swift kick on the other side of the sword causing her to lose her grip, the sword suddenly flings, spinning into the air and embedding itself into the stone wall of the castle. She then pressed the point of her sword up against Crystal’s chin, her face recoiling in a nervous fear, “checkmate”, she calmly says before rusting her sword back to her side.

Crystal’s face freezes in amazement, “damn, you really are something crazy, who even are you?”, she asks the woman, “oh yeah, sorry I was caught up in the moment. I’m Sapphire, the sister to that wonderful woman right over there”, she says while pointing at Ruby.

The early morning sun glistens off of the dew filled grass in a field far off from the castle, Blue is sat among the grass while he meditates with Holly at his side. She crawls around the grass collecting the various types of wild flowers she finds, “hey Blue look at this, this one is soooo pretty!! Um Blue?”she says while being puzzled by his silence.

She reaches out to his shoulder only to have her skin instantly freeze on contact. The pure shock of the sudden interaction makes her jump back in fear, “oh wow, that’s a whole ton of power”, she says while slowly backing away.

Crystal nervously looks over to Sapphire, “so are ummm you with Sigma or something. You two seem to know each other pretty well”, she awkwardly says while looking away to hide her blush, “oh that prick? I can’t stand him, the less he’s around the better I’d say”, Sapphire says with a chuckle. Crystal’s slight blush instantly flares out to a full red bloom across her whole face, “oh-ah yes, of course. I hate him too, yeah”, Crystal awkwardly says, trying to change the subject.

Quickly Crystal frantically scans the area looking for a distraction, “oh would you look at that, I’m such a mess! See you later Sapphire!”, she says before dashing off into the castle. “I hear that’s your new trainee Ruby, it seems she’s quite the little ball of energy, I know I wouldn’t want to deal with all that haha”, Sapphire says with a large chuckle.

Ruby pushes herself up from her stance against the castle railing, “hey now, when I first trained Crystal she could barely even hold a sword without falling over, I’d say that’s progress. That girl has so much potential, I just know it”, Ruby says with a warm smile.

Blue’s eyes slowly begin to open up while his meditative state drops off, “is there something you wanted to say to me Holly”, he says to her quietly. Holly sits in front of him, confused by his sudden shift of mood.

“Are you okay, Blue. I never heard you this quiet before”, Holly concerningly says to Blue while kneeling in front of him. He shoots his face away from her sharply, “it’s nothing, nothing I can do about it now”, he says while further avoiding eye contact. He suddenly feels his hand being held by Holly, "please I just really want you and everyone to be happy, it'll be our secret too", Holly says with a concerned smile.

Blue's face begins to scrunch and flush up as he tries to struggle, "but why do you care?! I'm just a nobody, thrown away and forgotten", he says with a rougher, raspier voice. "I care cause you're my friend, you've been able to help us out so many times. I just wanna be just as good to you", she happily says with a large smile.

Slowly Blue turns his head back around to meet Holly's gentle eyes,"well okay, I'll let this off my chest for you. Remember that this is only for us to know", he says while grabbing her other hand.

Blue takes in a deep breath, he can feel his heart pumping, filled with endless anxiety, "my mom died when she gave birth to me, my dad would start to see me as a demon because of it. Through all the abuse I would slowly adopt the ice element of the Rose Complex formed from my long cold heart. I would eventually end up trying to run away multiple times, with each becoming more desperate than the last", Blue quietly says while tearing up.

Gradually Blue begins to regain his composure, "one night while I was on the run I met a little girl, it was Rayen. She had to have been around five at that time. She took a sudden attachment to me, being the only person who would show her any kind of compassion, but then I started to hear it. The screams of distant voices, one by one I would hear doors being burst open while the people inside would meet a gruesome end. I couldn't help but be curious and after only a short time I saw her.

A woman dressed in all black, her glowing yellow eyes, staring into my own. Instead of going to me though she turned around and continued her massacre so I took that chance to leave town and run as fast as I could with Rayen. We searched for any other town for days and finally ended up here where you found us", Blue says before letting out a big sigh, Holly is left speechless, staring into his somber eyes.

A few miles out from the city lies a large calm lake, the water gently washes up onto the rough pebble beach, "this should be a good spot to practice. Now I'm sure you remember this Neon but this is for our new student too, in order to manifest an element you need to draw out the feeling from deep within your chest. Ice for example you'll feel cold, fire you'll feel a burning feeling and so on. Plasma is the evolution of fire and likewise it will feel almost as if your chest is melting and with that feeling you need to focus on drawing that feeling out", Xenon says while focusing a pure ball of plasma onto her palm before whipping the ball into the lake, causing a large cloud of steam to plume from the water's surface.

Fueled by pure excitement Rayen quickly forms her plasma ball while taking extra care to manage the size, but then suddenly makes it pop from too much energy, having it turn into a hot blue flame. Meanwhile Neon is having the exact opposite problem of not being able to form the plasma in the first place.

Holly is still speechless, even minutes after the story, "I had no idea about any of this, about your past and about how long you knew Rayen", Holly says before wrapping his arms around him in a tight hug. Blue is oddly unemotional to her affection, "this just doesn't feel right, I'm not sure if I should have told you all of this Holly", he says while pushing her away.

Dead air starts to fill the area while the two stare at each other, "bu-but I just want to make you happy", she worryingly says to him while grabbing a hold of his hand again. He quickly yanks his arm away while shooting up to his feet, "I'm sorry Holly, I gotta go", he shakingly says while the dark red glow of his eyes look into her eyes, and without saying another word he bolts off away from town, deeper into the field.

Holly is left alone in the field, she looks down at her hands to realize they've been frozen from Blue's body heat alone, "but why? I was just trying to help", she perplexedly says to herself before getting up to walk the other way back to the castle.

Hours pass by as Neon and Rayen try to form stable plasma but each time ends with failure. The sun is just past midday and beaming hard on everyone's heads. The whole time Xenon has fallen asleep under a nearby tree from all the waiting, "I've got it! I've got it!", Neon shouts out with excitement before once again making it unstable.

The orb collapses in on itself and causes a small explosion powerful enough to blow Neon off her feet, "what the hell even is this element?! I almost lost my hands over it", Neon says in shock looking at her singed hands, "hey be careful out there, I don't need a half working sister", Xenon shouts from her tree.

Neon slowly stumbles her way back to her feet, her energy is feeling faint from all her failed attempts, "of course Xenon, as if I'm trying to fail", Neon says in annoyance before charging up another plasma ball. Out of nowhere Xenon zips through space to instantly appear in front of Neon and Rayen.

"Alright my lovelies, it's time for lunch!", She says with a big smile on her face, "wait we never packed any lunch, are you saying we need to go all the way back home to eat", Neon says to Xenon in irritation as she begins to walk back, "oh that's not necessary", Xenon cheerfully says while holding the girls hands, and suddenly in the blink of an eye they're all back in front of the castle.

Neon looks around confused for a few seconds to understand what happened, "wait if you knew how to do this then why didn't you just do this to get us over to the lake?!", Neon shouts with her frustration growing, "now don't get so worked up, we all know when you're hungry times call for more haste than normal", Xenon happily says while walking back into the castle.

About an hour passes as the lunch gets prepared, everyone is gathered at a much smaller table than the main dining table, "so it looks like I got a new person to be better than, her name is Sapphire and she's actually Ruby's sister!", Crystal says with tons of excitement, "hey now you kids don't need to have all the fun, my sister is actually training me to use a brand new element, finally haha", Neon says with a beaming smile.

Neon takes another look at the table but notices something seemed out of place, "wait, where's Blue? He should have come back hours ago", Neon distressingly says to everyone. Immediately Holly starts to sink into her seat with worry, "well, I was talkin to him earlier today, and something I said made him run off. I don't know what I did, I don't know", she says while being driven to tears, "Xenon, we have to go, it's not safe to wander alone far outside town. Crystal, you stay here with Holly and Rayen. We'll be back as soon as we can", Neon shouts before leaving the room with Xenon, Ruby and Ali.

Holly leans into the table crying, "I-I should have gone after him, it's all- all my fault!", she says to herself in sorrow. Holly suddenly feels Crystal's hand touch her shoulder, "don't worry Holly, I know you didn't mean for this to happen, I'm sure they'll be back in no time", Crystal happily says with a warm smile, "hmm, I guess you're right", Holly quietly says in a soft sniffle. Rayen jumps down from her chair and stares out the near window, "there's-there's someone out there, we need to go and help them too", Rayen quietly says to the other girl's.

While walking on an old dirt path Blue notices a young girl in trouble, she's on the ground looking as if she has traveled for days without food or water. He quickly runs over to try and help her out, "don't worry I'm here for you, drink this", he says pulling out a small thermos of water.

The girl quickly takes the thermos and begins to down the water, "than-thank you", she says as her eyes glow a beautiful purple. Blue's entire body suddenly feels frozen, he tries to move his body but his mind won't let him, "thank you for luring everyone here", she says with a big deceitful smile on her face.