Kyrien stood paralysed in his spot before smiling lightly at the older man. Spider watched the sides of his sea coloured eyes crinkle with laugh lines and gave an inward sigh. He knew that the boy shouldn’t be here. The world of ‘Gaia’ was not for him and the deeper he went, the more he was going to end up getting hurt instead.
“How much are these going to cost us?” Jem asked, looking uncertainly at his own core. He wasn’t sure they could afford it but Spider gave a knowing smile and shrugged.
“It’s free. On the account of Asura.” Spider smiled at down at the trio, deepening the pleasant nasolabial creases on either side of his face.
“Setting newbies up again, Spider?” A female’s voice sliced through the air, clear and resonant causing all of them to turn their attention to the newcomer.
The female had the palest silver for hair, held together in a side braid and the most unusual blue-green eyes. One moment they were green the next moment they seemed blue in the light. She wore a fitting tank top, denim shorts and a pair of high cuts. Other than the fact that she wore striking turquoise coloured gloves that hid her core, she was just like anyone else. But her face was beautiful with high cheekbones and a delicate jawline. She was smiling at Spider, a perfect set of teeth gleaming in the moonlight.
“Hi!” She grinned, her eyes glittering with unspoken warmth and Kyrien felt his cheeks burn.
“Arcadia!” Spider was suddenly between them and had the girl in a tight embrace. Kyrien stopped his jaw from falling at the sudden display of affection, his expression mirrored by Jem and Shin. “It’s good to see you back.”
Arcadia simply laughed and returned the hug. “Were you going to introduce me?”
“Ah. This is Kyrien Shira, Jem Hartnet and Shin Suoh.” Spider introduced each of them respectively.
The moment Spider had mentioned Kyrien’s name, she focused his attention on him. Her peculiar blue-green gaze unsettled him and he felt his face began to burn again. “That’s a ‘Speed’ core, isn’t it?” Arcadia said breaking the awkward silence that had formed between them.
“Uh-um. Yeah, I mean yes, it’s a ‘Speed’ core.” Kyrien stammered, chiding himself mentally for being so edgy. He reminded himself that she was just another girl and that she was way out of her league. But she had a beautiful name and heart-warming smile. It was hard to ignore that part. And most of all, she was a more experience Gaia user than he was. What a way to impress a girl, he thought.
“That’s pretty rare!” Arcadia’s peculiar eyes widened as she inspected the amber coloured core that he was holding on to. “Come on! I’ll show you how the assimilation process is done. I’ll see you around, Spider!”
She gave him a wink before closing her grip around Kyrien’s wrist and dragged him out into a secluded open area, a little further up from the crowd at the shop. Kyrien had a panicked look on his face and beckoned Jem and Shin to follow, both of them with cheeky grins plastered to their face as they watched Arcadia pull their friend away. They grinned at each stupidly before running after the pair.
Once Jem and Shin caught up, Arcadia removed her gloves and revealed a set of turquoise cores embedded in either palm. She gave a light laugh and the cores started to glow a bright blue-green, the colour of her eyes. The colour was beautiful and mysterious, just like Arcadia herself. She was like the Moon, beautiful and mysterious. Kyrien wanted to know who she was, to know more about her. But he was afraid. Something told him that she was out of his league.
“Shira!” Arcadia’s voice shattered his thoughts, jarring him back to reality. “Are you all right?”
Kyrien laughed and nodded, scowling when he received a jab in the side from Jem who was sniggering away. Arcadia returned his smile before showing them her cores, each a neat half on either of her palms. “Each core can be separated into two. We call these ‘Demi’, half hearts. ‘Gaia’ cores are rarely found whole. To find a full core with both halves can be a difficult task, which makes cores very hard to come by.”
Arcadia light tapped each of their cores twice and with a faint whirring sound, they fell into perfect halves. She picked up Shin’s halves and pressed them into the centre of each of his palms. The white halves glowed for a moment as they sank into his skin without any trace of breakage or blood. And seconds later, the core looked as if it had been there all long with the scar tissue surrounding the sphere looking years old. Shin let out a low whistle as he lifted his hands to inspect the foreign object now embedded in his hands.
“‘Elemental’ cores are usually white because they have not taken on an attribute yet. The attributes come from the personality of the user themselves.” Arcadia explained. “Try it out.”
“How exactly does this work?” Shin looked bewildered as he held his hands in front of him in some sort of super hero stance, waiting to see if something happened. But nothing happened.
Kyrien couldn’t help but laugh at his friend, so did Jem and Arcadia. Shin looked nothing less than stupid with hands outstretched at some wayward angle.
“Take a deep breath. You have to feel the core like any part of your body. It’s connected to you like another hand. Once you feel it, use it.” Arcadia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, arms held loosely at her sides. The light from her hands grew brighter till it was a blinding array of blues and green shimmering in the dark of the night. “And then, release.”
Her eyes flashed open, and they glowed the same colour as her core. A ring of light lit up around her and when they dimmed, a circle of blades ranging from daggers, spears, short swords and even heavy dual blades surrounded her. Jem yelped and took a frightened step back. Arcadia’s silver hair had come loose and fell in loose waves around her shoulders and down her back. She was clad in partial armour, a chest place and gauntlets and schynbalds patterned with flowers that gleamed lustrously in the moonlight.
“Wow.” Kyrien gasped as he watched her core activate.
“This is a ‘Knight’ core. It creates weapons of all sorts. Swords, knives, axes, anything melee, it creates as a weapon.” Arcadia explained as she powered down her core and the armoury disappeared along with it then turned to her attention back to the three of them. “It’s your turn.”
Kyrien and Jem inserted the cores into their hands and waited for them to assimilate. Jem was the first to generate a reaction from his core. It glowed a fiery red before engulfing his hands in a bright red flame. The flames were different from ordinary flames. They seemed to crackle and were more defined than ordinary fire. It was almost like fire and electricity together. “Whoa.” Was the only thing Jem could say as he stared at his hands.
“Interesting. You have what they call a Thunder Flame.” Arcadia looked at the flame with an amused expression. “I’ve only seen one other person use a Thunder Flame. It’s a pretty rare elemental attribute to have. The Thunder Flame possesses devastating power, you might want to take time to learn to control the output before using it in actual battle.”
Jem looked down at his hands and found that the cores had changed colours. Instead of stark white halves they were now a metallic red marbled with a shiny yellow.
“I can’t get mine to do anything.” Shin groaned as he screwed his face in concentration, trying to get some form of reaction from his ‘Gaia’ core. Kyrien let out a bark of laughter as he watched the constipated look on his friend’s face. Shin was even breaking out in a thin sheen of perspiration from the effort he was putting into trying to generate some form of power from his core.
Just when Kyrien thought the situation had never been funnier, he felt the same strange tingling that he had felt earlier when he laid his hands on the core. Everything seemed to slow down and suddenly the surrounding became crystal clear. He could see every muscle movement in Shin’s arm and the every silver strand of Arcadia’s hair that danced in the wind. And just as suddenly as it happened, it went back up to speed again. As it did, Kyrien felt his entire body seize up and he collapsed to the floor gasping and breaking out in cold sweat.
“Shit!” Shin exclaimed as he dropped to the ground when he saw Kyrien fall, the colour draining from his face. “Kyrien, you’ve got to calm down. Relax!”
“His core. It’s the ‘Speed’ core!” Arcadia cried as helped Shin to hold Kyrien down to stop the spasms.
“What happened?” He could hear the concern in Jem’s voice as his vision swam for a moment before focusing on Jem’s worried face.
Kyrien tried to talk but even that was too much of a feat.
“The ‘Speed’ core is known to be able to slow time down and allow the user to analyse and predict movements. The core can also accelerate its user. New users often experience blowbacks such as this because their body is not used to train that the core puts it under.” Arcadia said her brows knitted with concern. “You’re going to need a lot of practice with that core.”
Kyrien’s breathing had finally returned to normal and groaned as he sat up slowly. He could feel every single muscle in his body protest. It felt as if he had been hit by a freight train. “I never want to go through that again.” Kyrien declared. It was one of the worst, possibly, the worst feeling ever. Jem and Shin laughed nervously, still wondering if he was all right. “I’m not dead yet guys.”
“I know of someone who can help you with the ‘Speed’ core but he isn’t the easiest person to locate. Or the nicest one to engage.” Arcadia said as she sat down on the dirt beside him.
“Who is he?’ Kyrien asked hoarsely.
Arcadia looked from him to his friends and back to Kyrien again, her blue-green eyes glassy. “Have you heard of the Kings?” She said almost too quietly.
It was Shin who spoke. “The Kings are the most powerful ‘Gaia’ users. Each of them possesses a special core known as ‘Regalia’. There are a total of seven known Kings. That’s what I’ve heard anyway.” He said, shrugging in an attempt at indifference when they stared at him wondering how much he actually knew given his abysmal grades in academics.
“You’re absolutely right.” Arcadia smiled warmly at him and Shin looked away, hiding his reddening cheeks, not that she could see it in the dim lighting. “I only know the name of one King because he is the leader of my team.”
“You’re already part of a team?” Kyrien tried to hide his disappointment.
Arcadia flashed him an indulgent smile. “Let me re-introduce myself. I am Arcadia Heaven, vanguard of the Nine Diamonds and also known as Lady of Babylon.” She could almost laugh at their vapid expressions. “The Nine Diamonds is led by Isaiah La Cruz, the Tempest King.”