"Slow."
Crackling crimson sword clashes against a prismatic shield. Neon-red electricity spreads around the round-ish block at contact, zapping the holder of the shield's hand, making it spasm for a second.
"And you call yourself a spawn of Gamma?"
Letting its shield crack and crumble, crystal gloved hand shoots out from behind the shield and grabs a hold of the lightning elemental's blade. It grips tight, the electric blade hissing as if it had nerves to feel pain.
A moment after, a low kick delivers itself right down toward Voltra's feet.
The black-red electricity that made up Voltra's legs jumps out of the attack, and then immediately detaches its blade-shaped arm out of its sibling's hold.
The two elementals created quite a distance between them—Voltra retreating backwards to regrow its arm, and the other simply stood still, chin high. "Never did i call myself anything that relates me to that fake god."
"You are Their mirror, for crying out loud!" a boom of thunder striking from afar was heard as Voltra exclaimed. "You are a walking mirror, so They have no need to carry you around.
You are a talking mirror, so you could not only compliment Them with altered reflections but also tailored words.
You are a mirror capable of defence, so none may crack the grand reflection of Gamma that has carved itself inside you."
"Falsity," the vibrant body of the crystal elemental shimmers hues of red, "the things you spout," remnants of the broken shield shook, floats, and conjures themselves back in the hand of the beholder--this time, in a shape of a long hammer, "are nothing but a projection of yourself."
All limbs back intact, Voltra shaped terror-worthy blades in response, not just on its arms, but also its calves, back, and shoulder blades, all part of its form that it could utilize as a weapon. If provided that it could grow new appendages, it would. "I hate you."
"Weak statement out of something who despises everything."
"I loathe you." Voltra's electric form spikes high, "You who thought you could be more. When even i who holds a part of Their power could be nothing but a tool.
Step out of the entrance of Their throne now, and i may let your surface be unscathed. You could never sever your ties with Them, even with Their death at your hands.
None of us could."
The head of a long hammer falls with a loud thud, that echoes and shakes the invisible floor of the sky where the two stood. "Then, say, what is it i could do?
What could i do to erase Their filth, the same filth that stained my being?"
Silent, in thought, only after a moment of wind passes that Voltra finally spoke, "You could not.
However,
you could release your selfish desire for a clean slate of self, by pulverizing the results of Their filth.
Do remember though, you could never be truly yourself if only a persona of your dream. Even so, when the time comes for a mistake that bloodies your hand, only then they will acknowledge your name,
Kris—
—tal!"
Halting the chains of oxygen it heaved in a sudden, Kristal's golden irises moves from the crystallized ground to the face of a worried young girl. "Are you alright? You're hyperventilating," she asked.
The same golden eyes scanned across the creases of the hijabi girl's face, searching for deceit in her worry. And when it found none, Kristal breathed a single laugh, "And why do you care?" it asked back, which pulls a slight frown on her face.
"That thing's right," a man's voice inserts, followed by a thump of a boot to a hard surface. Turning around, Kristal faced the Captain who gazes with crimson eyes. So does Yaya, and everyone else that Kristal just realized is standing near it. Other than Yaya, there are Ying and Fang who stood up front against the Captain. Then there's its sibling, Winter, who stayed with its spouse behind Kristal. Only now, the elemental noticed the invisible gap between the Captain's army and the group of 'heroes'. "You have no reason to care about a serial murderer's about," Kaizo added.
"Captain, you saw for yourself that Kristal attempted to save Gopal, a member of TAPOPS—"
"And that excuses the genocide of thousands and thousands of prisoners?!" Kaizo cuts his brother's plea, "How are you sure that it didn't try to abduct Gopal for itself? How are you sure that it didn’t try to hurt you? Did you see that mass of crystal that almost impaled you if not for your friend saving your ass?!"
"Kristal NEVER tried to hurt us!" Fang crossed the invisible line that bordered him and his brother, pushing Kaizo to rest his palm on the hilt of his sheathed sword, "And what's the benefit of bringing up that when there's a bigger, more powerful threat that's still out there and is doing galaxy knows what right now?!"
"I am not hearing your biased thoughts," Kaizo signs his men to move, "arrest the one in—"
"WOULD YOU MIND LISTENING TO ME FOR ONCE, BROTHER?!"
Kaizo turns his head away. And Fang's rage nearly peaked then and there.
"Tell me, how are you supposed to defeat three and perhaps four of those elementals after this?! You couldn't even lay a hand on Gamma and you think, getting rid of one of our best possible allies, could bring you closer to victory?!"
"You're telling me," Kaizo steps forward, to the agitated boy, "that we should seek help to that murderer?"
"Yes."
The bickering brothers turned to the time manipulator, whose deep blue gaze struck like a stab, "Yes, we should seek help from someone capable of such destruction, to defeat Gamma and Their allies. Someone," Ying turns to Kristal,
"who would—and could—do anything to defeat everything it deemed evil.
Isn't that right, Kristal?"
The crystal elemental scoffs and immediately felt a tense pressure on its shoulders. It quickly figured it wasn't from the weight of expectation, but done by the pair of hands that gripped its shoulder blades. From behind, Yaya shoots a stare that pierced the back of Kristal's back whilst keeping it in place. A stark difference from her worry moments ago.
"So that's what i am to you, a criminal, degraded to a weapon to defeat the great evil?" Kristal sighs, "I would've accepted to help if you asked kindly, you know?
After all, i too, have someone precious i want to bring back from Gamma."
Could it even defeat its own creator?
"Then swear that your target would be Gamma, and Gamma only." Kaizo grips the hilt of his sword, "If you dare lay a hand on my men, i personally would execute you then and there."
"I swear on my life and soul i would never even think about hurting the innocent." Kristal narrows its eyes, "That is, if my aid would be seen as a chance of redemption for you."
Most likely not.
"...Depends, are you confident you could defeat Gamma, and retrieve our soldier alive?"
Would it tell them?
Kristal's eyes glint with absolution, "I am certain." Kaizo lets the grip on his sword falls, and Kristal released a breath it didn’t know it held.
No.
⚝──⭒─⭑─⭒──⚝
A loud thud echoed as Gopal's wide back is thrown hard into a dark cement wall. He yelped on impact and groaned as his body slides down to the floor, rubbing his poor back. The thorny vines that bound him came loose, slithering away from him to merge back into Balak's unblemished skin.
Hissing in pain, Gopal tries to make of his surroundings. The room he's dragged into is dark, with no furniture around except for a worn desk that sits against the wall on his right. To the far back of the two elementals, is a short set of stairs that leads up to a door—the only entrance and exit in the room. He must be in a basement then, a gloomy, paintless basement with a single candle lamp perched on one wall to lit the room.
"W-what do you w-want from me?" Gopal asked two pairs of red and green eyes that glimmered in the dim light, and his breath hitched, "Y-yo-you guys won't kill me..." he gulps, "...right?"
In silence, Voltra walks up to the worn desk. Gopal's eyes can't help but follow its moves and cringes when the desk scrapes loudly against the floor as Voltra pulled it with one hand. It placed the desk right in front of the trembling boy on the floor, and Gopal peeked over the desk to keep a wary eye on his captors.
"You may continue living," Balak spoke against the breathing silence, making Gopal flinch, "only if you comply with one of Their wishes."
With shaky legs, Gopal stood up from his position, his eyes kept on the ground, "And t-that wish is...?"
Gopal lets out a shout as suddenly as Voltra's closed palm hit the desk with a harsh thump. "To conjure more of this," Balak answered, and Voltra's palm opens and retracts,
revealing a shard of golden crystal.
Gopal's eyes widen, "Is that..." he leans closer to the item, "Kristal's?"
"Correct," Balak steps closer to Gopal, while the boy retreats at the move, "This is the only kind of crystal that They ever favoured," lithe fingers of Balak's brush over the ever-glowing shard of golden crystal, "Beautiful, priceless, irreplaceable,
indestructible—not even by Their strongest weapon,"
Balak glances over to the elemental in red, "It was a fluke, that moment, when Kristal was too distraught to properly conjure its crystals, resulting in Voltra being able to grab a shard."
Turning back to the plump boy, Balak serves a soulless gaze and curveless lips. No expression, yet it is its very absence that brushed a layer of dread across Gopal's skin. "Now that you get to take a close look at a sample, you may start working immediately."
Balak was about to turn its hip, when Gopal halts it in confusion, "W-wha—but how? If you're gonna force me into this, at least make it so i could actually do it. Give me something to turn into these crystals, i bet you don’t want a desk-shaped crystal, do you?!"
At his words, Voltra barks an amused laugh, "You have plenty of stuff to turn into the crystals, you're the conjurer! Chosen by Them! Not just Them, we're all sure you have the ability to turn anything into anything."
"I know! I could turn anything into anything, and that means i need a thing first to turn it into something!" Gopal throws his hands up, "I can't just create something out of thin air!"
Voltra smirks.
It took Gopal a few seconds for his breath to fall into his stomach.
"You're telling me..." Gopal makes a nervous laugh,
"...that i'm supposed to make indestructible crystals...
...out of air?"
⚝──⭒─⭑─⭒──⚝
Two figures stood in front of a storeroom's entrance—its hinges forced open by a chunk of indestructible crystals trailing it.
One boy was familiar with the darkness inside the room, and the other was the off-hand cause of the crystals. Both stalling for time before a meeting regarding the whole elemental crisis.
"You knew what happened then," Kristal started, "so why told your brother that i never hurt you?"
Fang grips his palms that he pocketed, his chest tightening, "It wasn’t you who threatened us back then," he said, yet he didn’t sound like he believed his own words.
"It was Boboiboy himself," Fang sighed, "either way, it was just a threat. He didn’t actually hurt us in the end."
Fang's answer grew a sprout of curiosity in the elemental's thought, "How did you figure?" it asked, "Out of everyone, how could you be the only one who could differentiate the actions of his and ours?"
The boy inhales a rasping breath, "I saw his eyes," his voice slightly trembled, "when i was about to encase him in my shadow box, our gaze met for a short second.
At that moment, i realized, that it was his own hands that conjured those crystals.
Not yours.
His gaze felt different, i could see—i could feel the guilt hitting him immediately.
It was unlike your elementals' stares that tell an inhumanely old life, so ancient you guys might not even fathom the concept of guilt anymore."
Fang shakes his head, "No offence though."
"None taken," Kristal answered shortly.
"So then, how are you so sure that i won't hurt you, now or in the future?"
Glancing a quick stinging stare, Fang asked back, "Would you?"
Kristal kept silent, then huffed before answering, "I had the thoughts," it turned away to no particular direction, seeming like it gazed off, "but my boy wouldn't appreciate it if i..." it shook its head, cutting its own sentence.
"No matter, you need not worry about me laying a hand on our allies," it pats its chest, "i've sworn to your brother after all."
Kristal then turned to a hallway, its back towards Fang, "Speaking of 'brother's, i have to check on my sibling. Now excuse me," it send a quick, thoughtless farewell.
"Wait!" Fang tries to halt, but Kristal keeps on its stride, "Aren't you going to remove the crystals?!" he asked from afar.
Kristal only shrugged without bothering to glance, "Consider it a decoration for your bleak abode."
Fang sighed.
Those crystals aren't going away anytime soon it seemed.
Or ever.
⚝──⭒─⭑─⭒──⚝
A resounding beep signals Yaya's granted access to open one of the many storerooms in the dim-lighted backs of TAPOPS' main station. The LED lamps that are fixed to the store room's ceilings automatically light up with a flicker, continuing with a low hum. She turns to her back, to the blue-red pair that clung to each other as if their sides are glued to the hip.
Their positions are a complete turnaround from their initial impression from their 'tea party' talk. Curling in Winter's carrying cradle, is Phoenix, arms coiled around Winter's figure to feel every cold surface it could get its hands on, its breath ragged and heavy with a few flaming sparks coming out of its hanging mouth. Winter's face however remains straight as ever, and the hardened expression in its eyes almost escaped Yaya's sight.
"An empty store room, like you and Kristal asked," Yaya steps aside, letting Winter have a look at the room, "there's still some stuff in here, but they're mostly junk so you can do whatever without worry."
Winter steps into the store room as Yaya spoke, looking around the blank walls and floors, four to five metal racks strewn about, a few cardboard boxes that are mostly empty stacked at one corner; appraising. At one point it nodded, although not with a slight frown, "A bit spacious, though it will do," it concluded.
Crackling ice conjured itself on the floor under Winter's boots. The hard cold spreads, trailing, turning into a path ever-branching as Winter steps further into the room's centre. "You may lock the door closed now, child," Winter said in a hush, glancing at Yaya behind its shoulder.
It took her a pause, but Yaya was quick to snap out of her staring and proceeded to step back and close the metal door shut. A beep once again signals the door's closing and another one for the confirmation of the lock. Almost immediately, a cold fog seeps through the crevices of the door, tickling Yaya's booted feet. The girl sighed, she hopes whatever Winter did to that room wouldn't require so much cleaning afterwards. Done with the two elementals, Yaya turned back to where she came from,
and her heart nearly switched places with her lungs when a figure blocks her vision.
"Oh my God!" Yaya exclaimed, arms covering her face in retaliation. She breathes out a couple of times, before lowering them. "Kristal?!"
The crystal elemental blinked at her reaction, then smiled softly with an amused huff, "Apologies, did i frighten you?"
"Yes!" Yaya sighs again, now to her palms on her face, "How long have you been there?!"
Kristal hums shortly before answering, "I followed the three of you from just a few meters away, i assumed you've already acknowledged my presence—since Winter did." It continues under its breath, "Turns out i overestimated."
Suppressing the urge to retort the elemental's comment, Yaya turns her face away from it along with the topic, "I gave them a private space like you asked us to," she glances back at it, "mind telling us why now?"
"Oh, nothing too deep really," Kristal answers easily, unlike when it first demanded a room for Phoenix and Winter back at the colosseum—ignoring any question, "i was merely concerned for my sibling's spouse's condition, and i know well Winter and it functions best in isolation together. That's all." Kristal ended with a smile, but its eyebrows curls up in worry.
Yaya purses her lips, "They have a name, you know."
Kristal raises a brow.
"Phoenix," Yaya continued, "Their name. I noticed you never referred to Phoenix with their name."
Kristal's jaw tenses, "I'm afraid i don’t understand what you're implying." Yaya was about to open her mouth before Kristal immediately cuts her off by continuing, "And i don’t wish for an explanation either."
The elemental turns its back to Yaya's face, "Now let's make haste, the others are waiting for the meeting."
It took Kristal ten steps ahead for Yaya to follow.
⚝──⭒─⭑─⭒──⚝
Three seats are vacant at the meeting table. Two of them Fang already knew who they were reserved for—Yaya and Kristal. The other one, well, he deduced that it must be another important member—possibly another higher-up—judging from the people already present in the meeting room.
There's him and his brother, of course. Then the TAPOPS Commander and Admiral sat back straight beside the raven-haired Captain in that order. Captain Ramenman is also present, appearing laxer than others which eases Fang a little since Ying isn't present as a friendly face—she said she couldn’t face more Boboiboy-faced-people again for a while. The last person, sitting across Fang, is a man whose presence only is enough to silence chatters,
Maskmana; the crisis proved to be dire enough for the masked to attend the meeting in person.
The meeting's room entrance beeps, shortly followed by an opening hiss. Fang turns to see Kristal striding in, its gaze forward but not landing on anyone in the room. Behind it, Yaya follows with a wary stare stuck on Kristal's nape. Yaya took a seat right beside Fang, and Kristal a seat away from her,
positioned right beside Maskmana.
Fang can't imagine the number of guts it must have to sit so close to the masked admiral—considering most of the people here thought of it as only a private gone mad. Then again, Kristal is an ancient soul, only trapped in a teen's body. It must be no strange for it to be near such figures. Maskmana on the other hand, only stared at Kristal for a few seconds, before turning away; acting as if Kristal did nothing to offend him. So no one bothered to fuss about it—except for some mildly surprised looks.
Then the silence continued to stretch on, as all waited for the last person expected to come.
Kaizo is the first to break it, clicking his tongue, "Maybe he's not attending," he sighed, "Last time he didn’t was because it involved his son. What made you think he would come now knowing the kid himself is present in the meeting?"
Kristal's hands' invisibly clench beneath the table.
"Patience, he will attend today," Maskmana reaffirms in an assured but stern tone, "That man won't deny the chance, given what he'd heard in the past months."
Right at the end of his sentence, the room's entrance beeps.
"Speak of the devil," Maskmana voiced, prompting all to turn to the entree.
The entrance hisses open—again,
revealing a man donned in striking red mechanical armour. Crowned on his head is black hair with a fashionable splash of white coming out of the roots and a collar around his neck framed his sharp but tough features, which softened when the man's gaze landed on a boy who similarly shared his looks.
Amato.
The man was smiling, almost grinning even, to everyone.
Everyone, including Kristal,
who seethe right at the centre of the scene.
Crack
It wasn’t even two seconds after the man stepped into the room, the door hadn't even closed. It was the man's smile, it was the audacious smile that sent a jagged spear of crystal to the wall near the man's ears.
Before heads snapped to turn the only crystal conjurer in the room, Kristal already jumped over the wide meeting tablei—it might be not as fast as thunder, but it does have its inherent inhumane speed. Added with the haste of what a furious bear could be to protect her cubs, Kristal was practically a shooting meteor toward the armoured man.
The man almost lifted his hands, yet decided against it in the split second he realized who is running towards him. Kristal however, did not give the slightest hint of hesitation as it raised an arm—quickly encased by a crystal glove—to grab onto the man's collar in a grip that might have ripped his neck off.
Commands were shouted at the elemental, but it was white noise to Kristal's ears. The only thing that it heard are its own raging thoughts, and the only one reflected in its honey-golden eyes is a man that it despised despite this being their first meeting. Yet it is exactly because it's their first meeting for the 4 whole years the elemental had been a surrogate guardian for its boy, that its rage exploded at the sight of the man smiling at it.
An outsider's arm—whose; Kristal paid no mind—reached towards it. But a wall of crystal quickly sprouted out of the floor, encasing the 'father and son' in an indestructible golden cage. Kristal made it clear that it would tolerate none to interfere with its rage.
"You." Kristal's word was filled with venomous wrath. And if stares could kill, then Amato would've long been a corpse.
Would it matter then? As long as Kristal knew, the man might as well be dead years ago.
"Where in the name of Shadow have you been?" asked Kristal, loosening its grip on Amato as a silent command to speak.
Instead of an answer, Amato kept his smile; wry. His hand shakily reached out, then placed itself on the arm that pinned him to the wall. "I'm sorry, Boboiboy," his voice was shaky as he gently pats Kristal's arm.
He then apologized, again.
Again.
And again.
His head lowers with each one.
"I'm sorry for leaving you alone all this time, but i'm here now," he gently gripped Kristal's shoulder, using it as a mental anchor to once again look up towards his 'son''s face. "And it was all for your own good," he said with a teary proud grin.
"Look at you, son! You've grown so much! And with such strong powers too! I've heard all about your feats and—trust me, boy—i'm truly, greatly, proud of you."
Amato's hand reached out further, to pat Kristal's tousled hair with fatherly tenderness. "I'm proud of you," he said again, though his gaze held so many unsaid words. Words that would be too long to catch up with all the years he was separated from his one and only prided son.
Kristal looked at him with disgust.
"4 years," Kristal swatted Amato's hand away from it. "You've left him for 4 years."
Amato opened his mouth to speak, but shut down as Kristal snapped, "HE WAS 12 YEARS OLD!
My boy, oh bless his kind heart, he was out there fighting evil since he was A CHILD! A CHILD!
He was so naively kind and pure and selfless that it made me ASHAMED of MYSELF. He always put everyone first and himself last, and by Shadow, the number of times he almost— he almost—"
Furious, Kristal slammed Amato hard to the wall, "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY TIMES HE ALMOST DIED?!"
Kristal's breath heaved, pumping raw anger, "When Ejo Jo almost stole his power watch,
when he was almost sucked out of a spaceship,
when Bora Ra almost beat him to death with a damn black hole,
when Vargoba flung him out to outer space and he almost died of hypothermia,
when Retak'ka stole most of us elementals leaving him almost practically powerless..."
Kristal tightened its grip on Amato's armour, ignoring the painful yelp that the red power sphere let out. The stare that Kristal gave, was indescribable with words; the only known thing was that Amato shivered before them.
"Where were you...?"
Amato could answer with a myriad of reasons. Work, missions, principles, belief, fear, he had the choices at the tip of his tongue.
Yet he didn’t, instead asking back,
"Boboiboy?"
like he only recognized now that the one looming over him with his son's figure, was not who he thought before.
Kristal's expression was mostly—eerily—neutral, speaking out most of its emotions through its gaze. But this time, it scowled deep, "Stop saying his name as if you deserved it."
"You're not my son—"
"He was MY son!" The floor trembled like a terrible quake when Kristal shouted; that even shards of the crystal cage they were in trickled down.
"Do you not get it?! I'm the one who was there for his life, his dreams, his nightmares—while YOU could offer NOTHING but pretty words and postcards.
I'm the one who guided his heart and his actions. How to be the perfect hero, how to be the perfect person.
I'm the one who PROTECTED him; his GUARDIAN, his PARENT, his HERO. He was more of MY son than YOURS."
Kristal conjured a crystal pick with its right hand, its gaze remaining a piercing one at Amato's, "You, however... could stay what you always were to his life."
The elemental lifted the pick an arm's length above Amato's forehead, "A nobody," its voice, sure and firm,
"A deadman."
The crystal cage shuddered once more.
But it was not because of Kristal this time.
Amato knew no better, until he saw the shift in Kristal's expression when the cage shuddered again,
with a crack this time.
With a snap, Kristal turned its neck to its right—which Amato followed.
There was a faint crack, slowly blooming on one of the crystal's surfaces.
It shuddered again. And the crack grew into a massive web in an instant.
Before the next wave hit, Kristal infused the crystal pick back into its right hand to form another crystal glove. With it, the elemental changed its stance to shield itself, expecting destruction to come; though not without a bewildered face.
Amato was left defenceless, as the crystal cage was finally broken through; sending crystal shards everywhere. He had to close his eyes to avoid some prickling in his eyeballs.
Kristal lowered its shielding hand, the glove crumbling after it serve its purpose;
to see Fang, standing on the other side, his hands outstretched towards where the destroyed crystal wall would've stood.
"How..." Kristal croaked after a minute's silence,
"How were you able to destroy my crystals?"
╔═══════════════╗
Author's Note
╚═══════════════╝
HELLOOOOOO AND WELCOME TO THE 2ND ARC MY BEAUTIFUL PATIENT READERS!!! (σ^∀^)σ
So SO sorry for the loooong awaited update :") the last half of the first semester was HARSH. But thankfully, i managed to keep my first spot at the class rankings heieheyeh (⊼⌔⊼ )
So yeah, that's the reason for the small hiatus :") But no worries!!! It's now the holidays and you MAY expect the next update in a few days!!! YEAHHHH!!! DAYS!! WOOO!!
On a more serious note, thank you SO MUCH for keeping up with this fic. I always, ALWAYS read all of your deightful comments. And each one always encouraged me to finish this story :)
So yeah, i think i've spoken for long enough. Thank you again for reading! And see you next chapter :)