93;9 Your sins will be forgiven if you repent before the god’s wrath

The young woman quickly jumps to her feet and sheds her disguise, “You pulled out the starving traveler card Sky? That one seems low even for you”, Nexie says while walking up to her. Sky slicks her own hair back and ties it up in a ponytail, “come on Nexie have a little fun, I’ve been bored for months now”, she whines to Nexie while digging into her pouch. She pulls out a mirror and concealer and begins to powder her face up, “this naked skin is so gross, it always reminds me of being an ugly mortal”, she utters in disgust while staring down Blue.

The view of the world from Blue’s perspective begins to distort around him, as he hears the endless echoes of voices spiral around his body, “what is this... where am I? “, he asks to himself in his frozen state as the world around him slowly fades into darkness.

Crystal stares outside of the window in the small dining room, she trembles while her fists are clenched with anger. She takes a deep breath before dashing for the door only be be blocked off by Sapphire, “I’m sorry Crystal but I was told to keep you all in here until further notice, I wish you all could help but it’s just far too dangerous”, she says while her face is struck with concern. Crystal’s eyes glow a vibrant red while she stares at Sapphire, her rage continues to boil over ash she refuses to budge.

“I don’t give a damn what anybody told you! I can help. I know that I can, please, just please let me help them!” Crystal hollers out in desperation while her voice begins to crack from the extreme emotional pressure. Everyone’s eyes snap over to the window, Rayen rhythmically scrapes her dagger against the glass *ding ding ding ding*, “help, help. He says. He needs our help right now”, she says with a soft voice as her scraping continues.

When Blue comes to in a mysterious cell he can hear the intermittent drops of water onto the jagged stones around him, the walls of the cell are crumbled and cracked on the floor. His arms start to struggle although he quickly comes to the realization they're bound together with some kind of magical chain.

Through his narrow field of view, he can make out the soft silhouette of a woman through the bars of the cell, all he can make out is the vibrancy of her bright green eyes, "lookie lookie here, yes, yes... yes. You took so long to wake up I was afraid you mighta just have gone to sleep forever and ever" she hysterically whispers to him through the bars before slowly sliding open the creaking gate.

Blue hangs his head down in anger, "what do you people want with me? I wasn't doing anything wrong", he says while trying to struggle his hands out of the chains. The woman kneels down beside him and caresses her soft hand against his face, “you poor, poor boy. You really have no idea”, she says while pulling a dagger from her side, Blue rears his head up to get a better look at her.

The only article of clothing she’s wearing is a full body skin tight jumpsuit, a type of clothing which would be impossible to obtain in town, while her hair shimmers off the light from the porthole above.

“Where the hell did you creeps even come from?”, Blue asks under his breath, “oh wouldn’t you want to know”, she says in a deep sinister tone before swinging her dagger deep into his shoulder. Blue lets out a blood curdling scream, “through the years you stole her from us she gained a fondness for you, a kinship sort of bond. You function as a beacon of sorts to her and when you’re hurt she has an irresistible urge to save you no matter how far you are from her and it’s too bad that I love hearing those screams”, she quietly whispers in his ear with a deeply menacing smile.

Through the passing hours Neon's group has been carefully tracking down Blue's tracks, while at the same time Ali lags further behind, "damn, how can a kid run so far away so quickly. Xenon, are you able to sense anything yet?", Ali asks while running out of breath, "I can't explain it, I could sense Blue as soon as we started, but his energy suddenly disappeared soon after that. I thought it was a fluke but I haven't sensed him again", Xenon shouts out to Ali as she runs to keep up with Neon.

Suddenly Neon freezes in her tracks causing everyone else to pile into her, "what the? Is there something that you found Neon?, Ruby quickly asks before noticing Neon's terrified expression. Everyone quickly moves their eyes up and fixate their view on Negative leaning against a tree, quickly everyone begins to draw their weapons on her.

"Oh drop your weapons, if I wanted to kill you I would have already done that. If you want to know where your little problem child is then you should check the abandoned castle", she says while hanging her head down. Neon walks up in frustration right in front of Negative's face, "and why should we trust you, it sounds like a trap to me", she says while talking into Negative's face, but with just the flick of a finger Neon is thrown off her feet.

Neon quickly shoots her head back up as her nose starts dripping with blood, “just leave you weaklings, you’re ruining my evening”, Negative groans while getting more and more agitated. Slowly one by one Neon’s group walks away making sure to keep her in their sights even far down the road.

As the hours passed Rayen stood almost motionless at the same window as before, suddenly her head pounds in pain, “he needs me! I can feel his pain!”, Rayen shouts before blowing the wall into pieces with a spatial burst while jumping right out the hole at the same time, “Rayen wait! Damn it!”, Sapphire shouts from the doorway. “Alright fine, I’ll let you guys go, but you must stay with Sigma and me. No exceptions”, she sternly says to the girls.

Sapphire quickly brings the girls into the armory and grabs two high ranking arming swords, “here take these, they should be much better than those old dull swords Neon gave you. Her sister always gives her the leftovers, don’t cut yourself now”, she says with a chuckel.

Crystal swipes her sword out of her hand while Holly gently takes her’s, “oh wow these are really nice”, Holly says while looking at the shiny silver blade, “alright we have to go now”, who knows what trouble that girl has already got herself in”, Sapphire quickly says to the girls.

After much searching Neon’s group finally reaches the dark castle, it’s presence feels ominous over the girls, “oh hiiiii girls, I’ve been expecting you”, the girl in green hollars with a playful tone. Her hands are caked in vast amounts of blood along with the legs of her jumpsuit.

“If you’re looking for your precious boy he might be ok, at least he was breathing the last time I saw him”, she says with a short laugh. “YOU!”, the girl shouts out while pointing her finger to Xenon, “I pick you as my first play thing”, the girl continues as her eyes begin to glow a vibrant green. Then in a split second the girl appears in front of Xenon and just as quickly Xenon is thrown through a warped looking portal that dissipates instantly, “ummm Neon, she’s going to be okay, right?! She was gone in an instant!”, Ruby shouts in utter fear. Neon stands still, not being able to process the interaction, “I-I don’t know, how do you expect me to know?!”, Neon shouts back on the verge of tears.

The girls quietly enter through the castle’s main doors, the air inside feels dense and heavy, almost like a thick soup in the air. “Oh hello, I see we have some guests, it would be so very rude for me to not introduce myself. My name is Sky, the god of the mind. I know what you’re thinking now, I know what you thought of in the past and I know what you’re going to think about in the future”, she smugly says to the group from a high railing above.

Neon clenches her fist with building rage, “cut the crap, tell us where Blue is now!”, Neon shouts to Sky, “now now, I don’t think that’s the way you should treat your host, I was gracious enough to let you all in. Really you should be the ones thanking me for such an opportunity”, Sky says while she schooched off the railing ledge, falling through the air almost as if she was in slow motion.

Her crystal blue eyes lock onto Ruby, “I choose the red one, the other two of you just go away, you’ll just get in my way”, Sky says with a cocky smile before walking face to face with Ruby, and with one swift move of her hand Sky blows a massive gust of winds to the doors and forces them to shut tightly behind Ruby.

Nexie can hear the rumbles from below in the castle's dungeon and gently eases her head up to hone in on it, “well it seems like your friends are finally here, I can’t wait to see why was brave enough to show up”, Nexie says with a big smile. “Why- why, do you keep forcing me to live? Again and again, stab slice, stab slice, but every time I feel my life let go you heal me just to do it all over again. I can’t take it anymore!”, Blue screams out while tears stream down his face and down onto his blood soaked clothes.

Slowly Nexie crawls over to Blue and looks him in the eyes, “I wish I could just let you free, it hurts me very much to do such a thing, but it hurts me more that you STOLE RAYEN FROM ME!”, she screams while driving her sword deep into Blue’s leg resulting him to let out yet another scratch that echoes throughout the entire castle, “I can feel her drawing ever closer, and soon I will take you back to where you belong, my darling daughter Rayen”, Nexie says in a soft voice.

Sapphire's group gradually makes their way over to meet up with Neon's group, "are you sure you know where you're going, it feels like it's taking forever", Crystal says out of frustration, "if you were to pay attention to Rayen she kept ranting about a castle, and there aren't many other castles around. I'm pretty sure I know what she's talking about" Sigma says back to Crystal. She looks back up to him with a blush, "um okay, I'll let you lead the way", Crystal nervously says back to him.

Neon freezes in her steps when she hears the echoes of Blue’s screams, “is that who I think it is? We need to move now Ali! Come on lets move!” she shouts while running deeper into the castle. The further down the journey into the castle the heavier their steps feel, the darkness around them starts to feel disorientating the deeper they get into the basement labyrinth.

Left right up down, it all becomes the same as they rush past the smoky black walls, "Blue! Can you hear me! BLUE!!", Neon repeatingly shouts throughout the endless halls, and just as she begins to lose hope of finding him she finally comes across the entrance to the castle dungeon.

Slowly Sky paces her way around Ruby almost as if she's inspecting her with a thorough eye, "it's been quite awhile since I was able to toy with a mortal, to make it fair I'll even go easy on you", Sky says while keeping her hands behind her back. Ruby’s frustration quickly grows hearing Sky’s cocky demeanor, “all you can think is to just play games at a time like this?!You people have no soul”, she says with a brittle uneasy voice while she swings her sword at her, with each and every sweep whiffing by Sky as she effortlessly dodges them. “Oh you’re totally right, this is no time for such games.

Maybe I should get serious already”, Sky quietly mutters, while her personality suddenly shifts from friendly to a dead serious pan. Almost instantly she’s able to counter Ruby’s swings with only her hands, and with a small swift punch she easily dominates the situation, sending Ruby flying into a wall. Ruby hunches over in pain, unable to move her body, “are you hurt? It is such a shame that mortals are so weak, their bones tend to snap like twigs at the slightest touch” Sky says while kneeling down in front of her.

The cracks of Ruby’s neck echo through the air as she struggles to shift her view up to Sky, “why do you have so much hate for us, we did nothing wrong”, Ruby asks with a rasp before feeling a sharp pain causing her to hunch back over.

“You really don’t have any idea do you, perhaps you should ask your friend Neon why, that is if you can still get to her, but I’m thinking that it would be cruel to let you suffer now, best to end it now”, she says while holding up a ball of plasma to her chest, but she is suddenly broken up with a deafening explosion nearby, “oh, it seems that our guest of honor has finally arrived, I’ll go and personally greet them. Don’t go dying on me now”, Sky says while skipping off into the castle.

Far away from the castle Sapphire’s group is talking a small rest in the middle of a clearing, “I can’t believe how far away this castle is, it feels like it’s at least been an hour of running”, Holly says while out of breath. “Well castles don’t tend to be friends Holly, and just a little fun fact Xenon once took down that tower all by herself, but I’m guessing you never paid attention in history class”, Sigma says with a slight smile.

A far off rumble begins to fill the air, “what the hell was that? Is that Xenon?!”, Crystal asks in confusion, “no that’s not her, I can’t even feel that energy at all. Hurry we have to go now they might be in trouble!”, he says while taking Crystal’s hand, she blushes why she hurries him along the trail. “He’s finally so close to me, I can’t wait to see him fight with all his amazing strength”, Crystal thinks to herself.

Rayen stands at the edge of a massive crater with her arm outstretched, her eye glowing more vibrantly than it ever has before. Thousands of toppled bricks lay in the ground below as nearly half the castle was destroyed. She slowly looks down into the crater to find the uncovered labyrinth with Blue and Nexie sitting in the very center. Nexie’s gaze is locked with Rayen’s as she slowly pushes herself up to her feet.

“You’re finally here, Rayen my sweetest of daughters I-” Nexie happily cheers before instantly being blown away with a spatial burst, causing her to be flung all the way across the castle grounds. Her gaze returns to Blue, “are- are you okay? I-I came here to help you” Rayen quietly says while holding his hand trembling in fear, her skin feels almost as if it was on fire, fueled by an unstoppable rage.

In a nearby field, Nexie lies face up in a nearby field after her recent impact, “well, I see how it is then. I never thought these mortals would have so much influence over you. I guess I have no other choice than to go with plan b”, she says with a calm, dumbfounded expression before getting back to her feet.

Quickly Neon and Ali begin to run towards Rayen from the far end of the dungeon, “Rayen, how did you- why are you here?!”, Neon asks in absolute shock. With a gentle hand Ali very carefully removes Blue’s torn pant leg and places her hands over his huge gash, “This stab looks pretty bad, hopefully I have enough Complex left to heal it”, Ali concerningly says while healing him. “Look out behind you”, Rayen somberly says while facing away from Neon, gradually she starts to turn around to find Sky waiting for them.

She begins to approach the group with a gentle smile, “now come on girls you can’t do that- oh, Rayen! I knew I sensed a familiar soul, You know you’ve been awfully hard to track down for the past thousand years, you even had Nexie worried sick. Now please come back to your loving mother, she has been so sad since you’ve been gone”, Sky says with a sinister smile. Quickly Neon steps in front of Rayen, her eyes glowing a bright red.

“Ali go check up on Ruby now! I have a bad feeling about this”, Neon says while she unsheiths her sword and quickly clashes blades with her, “you really are a much more worthy fighter than your friend, she couldn’t even touch me, it looks like I’ll be able to have fun after all”, she says in excitement with red glowing eyes.

The two of them exchange countless sword clashes and with the help of the power of time Neon is able to flank her by freezing time for brief moments while trying to get the upper hand, “I have to say for a mortal you’re pretty decent, although if I would be lying if I was to say that I wasn’t holding back”, Sky says before blowing her back to the end of the room with a single punch. Rayen reaches behind Blue to find the glowing magical lock bounding him in place, and with just a simple touch she’s able to absorb the mysterious magic away and break the bound.

“Thank you Rayen, I know it was all my fault for putting everyone in such harm, I’m sorry”, Blue says in shame as he hangs his head down. He feels the soft touch of her hands grip his shoulders, she looks at him with a wide smile, “please don’t be, I just want to see you smile”, she gleefully says as she gives him a wide, strong hug. With newfound strength, Blue jumps to his feet and yanks Nexie’s abandoned sword out from the stones, the sword itself feels almost otherworldly as a mystic glow resonates from it’s blade.

He then charges towards her with all his strength, “raaaaaaaagh!!”, he shouts out at loud as he can before causing a blow on her so big that she gets blown off her feet, “oh wow, how much has he been training alone, he never showed such strength before”, Neon thinks to herself in amazement

Back in the main hall Ali is finally able to reach Ruby who’s lying motionless against the wall, suddenly struck with the worst realization she rushes towards her, “oh hey Ali, guess you could say I really dropped the ball, haha- ow”, Ruby says with a wide smile on her face. Ali quickly feels around her body to survey the damage, “she really did a number on you, it’s almost hard to keep track of all the broken bones you sustained” she says back to her with worried expression, “this might take some time but I can get you back up in combat shape” Ali says while healing Ruby’s body.

After a few minutes pass the pair hear slow clapping behind themselves, “congrats girls, CONGRATS!”, Nexie shouts in frustration while slowly walking up to the girls but she stops in her tracks as she hears loud thumping on the main double doors of the castle, “oh come on, just how many unwelcome guests are going to visit me today?!, she groans out in frustration before the door is blown wide open by Sigma.

A rushing white aura begins to resonate around Nexie with eyes glowing a magnificent bright red, “alright I have no more time for fun and games, just fight me and get your useless bodies used up!”, Nexie shouts out before rushing at Sigma.

With a loud crash the two clash their fists together and flawlessly dodges all the consecutive sword slashes from both Sigma and Sapphire with ease, “you’re every bit as tough as Xenon said you were, if you weren’t such an unlikable bitch I would love to use you as a sparring partner”, Sigma says with a cocky smile while fighting. Enraged Nexie punches him square in the face and knocks him several feet away, “would you shut the hell up, you’re voice is so grating!”, Nexie yells back.

A lively complexion surfaces back to Ruby as she nears her fully healed state again, almost instantly both Ruby and Ali join Sigma and Sapphire in their fight against Nexie, but even with a four on one she still effortlessly avoids sustaining any damage from any one of them. With each swing it seems as if it gets easier and easier to read her movements, but as soon as Sigma goes for a deadly lunge she swirls a massive amount of space around her causing everyone to step back from her.

With just one smooth motion of her hands she’s able to create a massive spatial burst around her that results in the obliteration of the entire top of the castle, “wait, what? NOW?! Are you serious!? I was just about to- ahh whatever!”, Nexie seemingly says to herself with a significant amount of frustration. Sigma takes this opportunity to charge at her with full strength, but even with his entire sword pierced through her body she doesn’t even bat an eye at it.

“Sky, let's go and take your sister too, apparently she wants a word with us, she’s too worried about our slacking. She sits on her ass all day and we’re the ones slacking, the nerve really”, Nexie says before completely vanishing into thin air as Sigma’s sword clanks onto the ground. He walks back to his sword and picks it back up again with caution, “just what was that? She was just acting as if our presence meant absolutely nothing there, and the way she was talking. As if she was being ordered by someone else, I could never think of someone stronger than that”, He says to the group in confusion.

Neon takes a deep breath for just a second just to open her eyes to see that Sky vanished in front of her eyes, she suddenly falls over, exhausted from all the cuts and gashes she sustained all over her body. Slowly but surely Blue helps Neon back up to the ground floor of the castle and into the main hall.

“Neon!” Ali shouts out in a satisfied relief before she runs over to heal her many wounds, “I’m so happy you’re alright!” she gleefully says with a big smile. A mysterious green portal opens above everyone, they all bring up their arms to prepare for the worst only to be shocked when Xenon’s body comes falling out of the portal.

Her body is in the worst state possible, the dress is shredded into pieces while her skin doesn’t fare a much better fate, being cut and stabbed almost everywhere you can see, her blood quickly spills all over the smoky black stone of the castle. Horrified everyone runs towards her, “it’s alright, she’s still breathing, but I have never seen anyone as rough of shape as she is, Holly I need you to help me with this, focus your energy with mine and she should be ok in no time”, Ali say with a confident smile on her face.

Rayen stood frozen, staring at a figure far above perched at the top of the broken spire castle spire, Negative peers upon the group with a certain interest in mind, “it-it’s her”, Rayen quietly says with contracted pupils. she begins to shake as an uncontrollable terror overflows inside her body, “NEGATIVE’S HERE!!!” Rayen shrieks out at the top of her lungs.