Zed stood rooted in disbelief as he watched Alyza fall to the ground. The crimson liquid seeping from Alyza’s temple mesmerized him, drawing him in until everything else was just a numb sensation.
Dustin stumbled forward. “I didn’t mean to hit her! She jumped in front of it, you all saw.”
Zed turned and the next thing he knew, Dustin was dangling in the air. The teenager struggled to release Zed’s grip around his throat as did his friends, but the silver-eyed boy simply regarded him as if he were something he had scraped from his boot.
“What the hell?!” screamed one of Dustin’s friends as they failed to move Zed even an inch despite their savage assault upon his person.
Zed calmly regarded those around him as he felt his body ablaze with what he now realised was rage. However unlike all the other occurrences of the emotion, he wasn’t subservient to It, instead It was subservient to him. It was as if for the first time in his life he had cause to be overcome with anger and as a result, It fuelled his strength so he could exact his fury.
Dustin mutedly wept as his face turned a reddish-purple.
Zed opened his mouth and the words almost unwillingly poured from it. “Cry little child for I’ll see you all burn.”
The words were barely cold when sanguine flames erupted from Zed’s body, turning his clothes to ash. Dustin and a few of the surrounding boys were engulfed by the flames while others fled in terror. The crowd of spectators morphed into a stampede of panic as the wails of Dustin and his companions filled the air.
Zed tossed aside the charred carcass that was once the instigator of his torment and saw that six of the ten boys had survived the eruption. As if sentient the sanguine flames suddenly pursued the fleeing remnants, first blocking their escape then isolating them from the stampeding herd.
Zed felt his skin tighten and muscles bulge as he regarded his prey.
The boy gave a terrified shriek before the ring of sanguine fire closed in on itself. Zed didn’t let the boy suffer, willing the fire to be as searing as possible. He had been the only one in the group that never really took part in the bullying, but he also never did anything to stop it. The quick death was a benevolent act of mercy compared to what the others had endured.
Zed regarded the scene of carnage around him when the very air in front of him exploded. The blast knocked him off his feet but the momentary pain was replaced by awe as he regarded what appeared to be a tear in space. Red, blue and yellow energies angrily ran along the edges of the 20 ft pitch-black void that hovered a few inches above the ground.
Sparsely a second passed before a woman emerged from the void. She wore black armour forged from some unfamiliar material with a sword at her side that looked like it might have been part of a living thing once. Purple leathery wings dominated her back and a pointed tail of the same texture dangled behind her legs. She regarded the surrounding charred corpses for a moment before shifting her silver gaze to Zed. “At last, we have found you.”
There were numerous questions that raced through Zed’s mind as he regarded the oddly familiar features of the woman, one of the most prominent being why he understood the foreign language she spoke, but somehow the only thing that managed to escape his lips was, “Damn, you’re huge!”
The 14 ft woman smiled slightly. “I’m tiny compared to some in our realm. My lord I’m afraid we don’t have much time, the rift is weak and I’m sure the exorcists are already on their way, I promise I’ll answer all of your questions when we are home but for now we need to hurry.”
Zed took a step back as the woman started forward. “You know me?”
“Of course my lord, you are Zendrius the Fire Child, there are none in our realm who do not know of you.”
“Great, just when I thought I couldn’t get any more confused. I’m getting sick of always being left in the dark, who the hell are you?” asked Zed, frustration causing him to sound harsher than he intended.
The woman instantly fell to one knee and bowed at Zed’s tone. “Forgive my impudence my lord, Zendrius. I’m Nessha of the Living Blade.”
The display of obedience should have been strange but Zed found it appropriate for some reason. “Now tell me, is this about the thing inside me?”
“My lord you have been deceived, there is nothing inside of you. That which you refer to is merely your very being yearning to become whole again. If it would please you, cast your eyes down to your chest.”
Zed complied and realised that he stood stark naked before noticing the strange black tattoo-like symbol that had appeared on his chest. It was fractal in nature and ended with six spheres on opposite ends of each other, each sphere containing a slight crimson glow. “What is this?”
“I’m not entirely sure my lord. If I had to venture a guess, I would say that it is some kind of symbol that indicates that the seal containing the rest of your being is weakening. It seems that you’ve been underestimated my lord.”
“What do you mean?”
Nessha stood and turned back to the rift that was now slowly shrinking. “My lord please, we are running out of time.”
“Tell me!” roared Zed, his voice sounding foreign to his own ears.
“My lord, I never had the honour of laying eyes on you after your birth so I might just be presumptuous, but I doubt that your current form is your true appearance. I do not know how and if I had not met you myself I would have thought it impossible, but they somehow sealed away a part of your very being. I can tell that you are Lord Zendrius the Fire Child by the energy you emit but if absent of the ability I would have just thought you a peculiar human.”
“Who are they?” asked Zed
Nessha was about to reply when the loud roar of jet propulsion interrupted her.
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