Chapter 10: Chapter 10

I won’t lie, I was a little impressed with myself, I acted so fast, almost instinctively—Maeve had tried to attack Nix the second she heard her voice. This was something I couldn’t let happen. Nix and Maeve both have powers granted to them by The Darkness, but Nix has full control. She could strip Maeve of her powers with the snap of her fingers—and this isn’t to say Maeve couldn’t hold her own without them—but your powers and weapons, they become a part of you—even I would be reduced to what I consider nothing if I didn’t have my Artifact and mana.

I grabbed a hold of Maeve’s cloak. “Oh no, you don’t.” And pulled her back. I moved in front of her and pressed my left hand against her chest, stamping a magic seal against it. It illuminated itself with an orange hue, revealing its star-shaped pattern. “Sorry, but you two gotta go.” I grabbed Varin’s wrist and pulled her into Maeve just as the seal activated.

“ZERO, YOU SON OF A–,” Maeve shouted at me as she and Varin were teleported back to Alinanda and the other MoonShadow Elves.

I turned my attention back to Nix. “Sorry about that, can’t have either of them seeing what happens next, I also don’t want Varin hearing what you did to The Casaders of this Island, Lo was a childhood friend of hers and–.”

“The Casaders,” Nix cut me off. “Why does that sound so familiar?” She smirked and lowered her head at me. “Oh right, they were some of the children in charge of protecting this island…them and Queen Amara of The Jólu Elves.” She moved to my right, gliding across the ground with such ease. “A pity what happened to them.” I moved around, making sure to keep an eye on her. “Your family put up a much better fight, by the way, how is the whole time dilation thing going for you, I know you’ve figured it out.”

I’m not surprised she knows about Protos’ plan for me—whatever it may be—what I am surprised about is that she would so openly discuss it.

“Well, I did try to kill him on my ship about a day ago, but y’all Originals are some tough lazels.” I rotated myself again, keeping pace with Nix as she paced around me. “As for the time dilation thing, yeah, that is annoying, how do y’all do it?”

My words must have confused her—an eyebrow raised as she curled her mouth to the side and turned her head at me. “I beg your pardon?”

I threw out my arms, stretching them as far as I could. “You know, like, live for such a long time and watch all your friends die, or do y'all not have friends?” I know I can get about half of the magic circle done before she turns around, but after that, she’s going to cancel it and turn back to me. The magic circle etched itself behind Nix, slowly rotating to the left with a faint gray aura.

“Hey, Nix.”

“Um.” She squinted while her eyes looked back and forth—she moved closer to me, her head looking over my shoulder, but her eyes fixed on me. “I’m sorry, but you.” Her mouth went to speak, but nothing came. Nix flapped her lips together, at a complete loss for words, she held her mouth open, taking in a big breath of air before blowing it back out against her lips in an exaggerated fashion. “You are a strange one, I can see why Fontaine and Protos take a like’n to you, your manners though.” She leaned back up, crossing her arms with another sigh, this one less exaggerated. “Your manners could use some work.”

“I beg YOUR pardon, you literally just did the Sidrian thing, the one where they blow their lips to make raspberries, AH YES, THAT’S IT, RASPBERRIES.” I stopped myself, calming my voice so as to not speed up the circle and attract any more attention than needed. “You, Miss Manners, just blew a raspberry, so if any of us is to talk about manners to the other, it shouldn’t be you.”

Nix lifted her left hand and snapped her finger, destroying my magic circle. “I was talking about that, but your words and sentence structure could use some work.”

“I was working really hard on that.”

“That, you were working hard on that? The same chains you tried to use to tie down Protos?”

“My Higher, do you all have a cycle meetup, you know where you all talk about the things you’ve done to me recently?”

Nix smirked then swiftly pulled herself down in front of me—I hadn’t noticed before, but even though the inside of her cloak looks like the bones of a giant, she moves and bends like a serpent. 

“I also see why my daughter is fond of you too, pity I have to kill you.”

“I know right? Shame you won’t be at the ceremony.”

“What?” Nix looked up as a sound all too familiar to her filled the dimension. “AHHH!” She let out a screech as the base of an enormous pole dropped onto her head. She was knocked onto her chest, held in place by the pole, struggling to break herself free. 

“This is, this is Sun-Kong’s Power Pole!” Nix exclaimed. She slowly began lifting herself up, pushing the pole upward. “How….huff, huff…no, huff, why, why do you, huff, have this wretched, huff,” Nix took in a large inhale. “THIS WRETCHED POLE?!?!” She lifted herself upward, and the white area around us faded into complete and total darkness. “YOU!” Nix’s eyes illuminated with a yellow haze, the only light that shone through the dark. “I WILL KILL YOU AND DESTROY THAT POLE ONCE AND FOR AL—.”

Nix was cut short as I stuck out my hand, causing the pole to shrink in size, but not before cracking her in the back of the head on its way to me. As it met my palm and my hands wrapped around it, the area was illuminated in a silky gold light. The white pole had shrunk dramatically and had transformed into a maroon bo staff with gold vines wrapped around the entirety of itself.

“Ahh, it’s been a while since I used you in your natural state huh buddy?” The staff illuminated again. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” I turned to Nix, tightening my grip on the staff. “Everyone has the same reaction when they first see it, then they freeze once I actually wrap my hands around it, why is that?” I lowered myself, bending my knees as I aimed the end of the staff forward at her. “Is it because Sun-Kong didn’t tell you about their true potential?” A purple aura began to paint itself around me, permeating subtle heat through the area, while illuminating the both of us in a shallow light. “The Highers gave Arrithia seventeen Artifacts to help them fight the Dungeons, the same Dungeons The Highers produce.”

“You are a clever boy.” Nix smiled at me, slithering back and forth as she spoke. “I guess when you can live as long as us, you learn a thing or two, tell me though, was it your idea, The Warlords of Arrithia?”

“It was.” I kept the staff fixated on her movements, waiting on the inevitable attack. “It seemed to be the best solution for replacing The Artifacts on all the islands. I couldn’t take away an island’s main defense, so I replaced it, which brings me to wonder why Sidra’s and Vol’s Warlords both aren’t on their islands.”

Nix’s smile continued, never dropping as if I was entertaining her. “Your Warlords are impressive figureheads, all of them are equal to the Artifact they replaced, a few are dare I say, even stronger, but each of them is still Arrithian, just like you are now.” Nix slithered back, pulling herself away from the light.

“I see where Maeve gets it from.” I readied myself. “You were just screaming about how you’re gonna kill me and now we’re best friends.”

Nix’s voice echoed from all around me. “SILENCE!”

“RY-JING!” I bellowed back and the entire area was illuminated in the purple aura, revealing Nix who was attempting an attack from behind—the light repelled her back for just a moment before she regained her balance and pursued a second attempt—and again, I called out. “RY-JING!”

*

“That good for nothing, ARGHHHHHHH!” Maeve had been walking back and forth since she and Varin were teleported back to the Elves—raving about all the ways she was going to maim Zero when he returned.

“Should I?” Alinanda went to stand up, but Varin grabbed her arm, pulling her back to the floor of the forest.

You are reading story The Journey of Zero at novel35.com

“Don’t, it’s a thing they have, I mean, you said it yourself, they were going to spare what was left of the forest away when you found them.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right, but still,” She pulled Varin’s attention onto Maeve—shadows were lashing out like whips from the bottom of her cloak. “She’s kind of terrifying.”

Varin let out a small laugh, pulling the attention of the group back on her. “If you think that, you should have seen her mother.”

There was a small shift in the atmosphere, pulling Maeve’s attention to Varin, she glared at her, then moved her eyes just to her right. “There you are.”

The wind snapped with a subtle pop as I appeared beside Varin, covered in blood. I dropped to my knees, tossing my staff toward Maeve. I leaned down, using my hands to keep myself from completely collapsing. I looked up at Maeve, then over at Varin and Alinanda. “Huff, huff, hey guys, huff, howyoudoing…ahh.” My arms collapsed, dropping me to the ground. I let out a long and extended sigh as I laughed with my mask face down in the dirt. 

“You look awful,” Maeve stated.

“Oh, huff, I’m fine, huff, just, huff, huff, tired, huff.”

“You’re covered in blood?” Varin stated.

Maeve glided over toward me, I could feel her presence looming from above. “Hey, Maeve.” She kicked forward, knocking her bare foot into my head. “Oh.” I moved my head up, looking at the bottom of her cloak. “I deserved that.” I slowly pushed myself up and scooted over to Varin, using her as a brace to lean against. “Sorry, I’m, woo,” I paused, taking another deep breath. “Yeah, okay, sorry, I’m just gonna,” I pushed against her, stretching out my legs and arms. “Rest here.” 

Varin smiled at me, while Maeve kicked my leg. “Wake up.”

“I’m not asleep.”

“You will be.”

“I…don’t have a good response to deny that statement.”

“What happened to my mother?”

“She beat me up one side of her dimension, then I beat her back the other way.”

“And?”

“She then beat me right back up the other way.”

“Did you win?”

“Well, this sure ain’t all my blood.”

*

“He made an Original bleed Master Protos, do you understand the ramifications of this?”

“....”

“Master Protos?”

“They have names.”

“Pardon?”

“The Artifacts, they have names.”

“Master Protos, while I try not to pry, this time, I do not follow, I was not alive when The Artifacts were forged.”

“The Artifacts, we did not give them names, we simply forged them, but he said Ry-Jing, and a voice echoed from it. Nix did not hear, but I did and I know he did too.

“What does this mean Master Protos?”

“It means our plans have changed.”

You can find story with these keywords: The Journey of Zero, Read The Journey of Zero, The Journey of Zero novel, The Journey of Zero book, The Journey of Zero story, The Journey of Zero full, The Journey of Zero Latest Chapter