Arthit POV
The moon was shining over the land and the stars are twinkling. A perfect night for ruthless deeds.
I was tied on a chair, my hands were cuffed. I woke up from my unconscious state five minutes ago. P'John had placed a binding spell on it, so that I was unable to use my magic.
I heard distant footsteps, a figure looming through the stoned floor, the 18th century brick remnants were splayed all over the place. This lighthouse was abandoned yet the light is still working above turning round and round.
I tipped my head, practically only part of my body can move. I can only watch the figure as its cape flaps behind him.
"We meet again, Arthit." It was Kobra. He stepped closer in front of him. The instant he showed his face, he' was more human-looking than demonic. His pale skin radiated from the moonlight.
Something moved...or rather slithering up his arm. A 7 feet long snake wrapping around his shoulders. I recognized it's a king cobra. It had olive green skin with black and white bands on the trunk. It hissed at me, greeting me with open hood.
"Do you know that baby cobras are more venomous than adults? They haven't learned how to control the venom they secrete. It can inject a full-dose if threatened. That's what you are, Arthit. You are like a baby cobra." Kobra grinned.
The snake's head moved on the other side.
Am I going to turn into a full shadow curse when I can finally have conjur this darkness inside me? Or worse, I'll turn into a demon?
As usual that was the first ridiculous thing that comes to my mind. I didn't particularly like it when I was not in control.
Bright saw me turned into something else. I wasn't feeling it nor did I have an obssession with dark magic and always wear black.
When Kobra noticed I was holding a cold stare, he started walking around me. "Let's forget the past, shall we?" His tone somehow indicating something else.
"What is it that you want from me?" I asked. Funny when I should be in drowning in my own fear, that one of the oldest and the strongest demons of hell was trying to intimidate me.
But I stayed calm and put up my feisty attitude. Thanks for Kongpob for that, during a mission on the Chapel.
"I want you to join me."
After a pause, a mocking laugh escaped my mouth."I know why you want me to join you, because you're afraid of me."
I was lost in thoughts with a lingering question of why's before he got here. Kobra was afraid because of my lineage.
"I'm one of the strongest demons in hell, little wizard. I'm something you can conceive of. I'm the poison of this world—"
I interrupted his speech. "I get it, you're evil. Yada yada yada. Do we have to talk about it all day?"
"Oh, Arthit. What am I going to do with you?"
"Untie these cuffs?"
"No. Not until you tell me of the key or...you already know where it is specifically located." Kobra said slowly. A pentagram glowed red on one of his eyes. What is that?
I felt the air change. It flew, spinning, ruffling my hair and filling my ears with howls and the sound of leaves. I looked around, expecting to see what demonic ability he had. I've seen him used poison magic.
He also uses air. I noted. Weird.
"They'll come after you" I warned.
"Who? Your friends? The magic council? Please, are they gonna risk their lives for you?" He leaned down to my face. "You have something that I want. We have found the Chest. Tell me where the key issss" He hissed, he sounds more like a snake.
He found it? Oh God, we're doomed.
The King Cobra climbed down his arm, it stood, facing me on the floor, glaring at me like its own prey.
Anger boiled inside my chest and I balled a fist. I tried harder and harder to break free from the cuffs. Feeling my celestial magic coursing through my arms but they were stuck.
I buckled myself, panting.
"You interfered with our peace in my village years ago. They had nothing to do with you. How dare you invaded it, how dare you make demands." I felt like that child again. As if at this very moment I was back from the beginning. "This plan of yours wasn't my business. I wish it didn't, I wish I'm not responsible for the chest. Now it is my business, and I—"
"There it is...what are you gonna say? I'll kill you? Regret that you did this? Do your worst?" Kobra gave a harsh laugh. "You're like a hybrid, Arthit. Some dark wizards are dying to get powers like that and yet you deny it, and serve those pathetic creatures."
"Because I'm a Gear Heart Wizard, I will never work for you! " I shouted.
"I'm giving you a minute" He said, though he didn't yell. "Or I'll torture you."
Everything my mother had protected was in my hands now. I will not let Kobra or P'John have the Skull's Chest to open a portal to a hell dimension. The stakes will be high.
Kobra raised an eyebrow. "Now, are you really gonna tell me?"
"No. Do your worst, you bastard."
"So, what did you think? That you'd pull this off so easily, and the world will go back to normal?
Well, you'd probably thought you'd be your own man and I highly respect that. But you never will. You'll always be in the dark with your past, with your father, with us.
My demons will raise hell on this city. The next few hours are going to be a roller coaster ride and I think that we will learn something.
You'll learn you have that darkness even if it hasn't consumed you. Just like Kongpob, you're doing what's right. But it's not all about right or wrong anymore. It's all about power."
Now, both of his eyes started to glow in red pentagrams and I screamed.
Kongpob POV
White bolts of lightning burst from the note. It shot toward the walls, smashing the windows with a force of a wrecking ball.
I threw the note to the portal without any notice that I really did. Before any of it hit us, May jumped right in front, casting a force field from the bolts. I hear M screamed her name.
I covered my head as bits of glass showers. P'Bright who was directly underneath the window launched himself to cover P'Third, knocking themselves on the ground.
The shelf wobbled toward P'Tum. It crashed, missing a few inches from him.
The lightning was stirring upward. I crawled over to the note adjacent to the portal, and fire magic snaked through my hands, burning the note to ash. It crumbled instantly and the bolts vanished.
There was silence. P'Third wriggled out from P'Bright. P'Bright stood up first, reaching out his hand to help P'Third.
"Bright, you didn't have to do that."
"You said wanted to have someone to protect you from danger." He said as if they have this conversation when they were still together in high school.
"I know." P'Third said, dusting off the dirt from his sleeves.
"I wasn't expecting that." I looked up at him.
"No one expected that." said M. "I mean, you just said some words then boom!"
"Is anyone else hurt?" P'Tum looked around the room. "John must've enchanted the paper."
May answered. "It was dark magic."
P'Tum sighed. He was leaning against the wall. He saw my brother uses dark magic. So as P'John was using it to his advantage.
"What are we going to do now?" M whispered.
I took a deep breath. "We have no choice but to ride a car."
******
When we reached the road near to the lighthouse, we immediately took shortcuts. The moonlight was sharp, cutting through the canopies. We slipped into shadows of the woods. Stopping by the entrance of the granite hill, I clenched my fist. The dark space beckons for us to get closer.
"This is the entrance." said P'Third to P'Tum.
"We head in." P'Tum said, rolling up his sleeves.
I held out my hand to M. There was a wound across my palm from the cut, I only realize it when May saw my hand was bleeding.
He looked at my bare hand and then to my face. Water slipped through from his fingertips and it covered my whole palm, healing my wound.
The water knitted my skin together and it simply disappeared. M's water magic had never really given him for emotional wounds, there were no healing magic to mend pain. I will endure this, this battle, and maybe I will have my revenge...for the lies.
"Thank you, buddy." I smiled at M.
We all walked over to the entrance.
I heard the sea crash in the distance. I turned and marched toward the opening.
********
Note:
Hey, everyone! I know the story is quiet complicated. It's because I'm setting it for the sequel. I had been planning it from the start that it's going to be a trilogy. I wanted to update this as early as possible because I'll be having a seminar in Manila for four days. (Yeah, I live here in the philippines and I'm a filipino, so hi KristSingto fans in philippines who are reading this) I still haven't pack for the trip. 😅
Now Kongpob and Arthit are trying to stop Kobra and John. However, John has some other plans with the Skull's Chest.