Star Jump

Alric used his cosmic magic to dislodge the scythe from Kairo's hand with a thought.

Zeus went crashing into Genie's glass booth (with the combination of impact and Alric's magic) making it shatter and water flow out on the ground.

Kairo yelped and cried out when he felt his body being slammed against a wall, landing next to Genie who was shivering with small cuts, among the soaked and stained floors. He ducked as a shaman's fire blast rushed for him.

"Convenient impact. At least the floor is dried." He yelped again when another fire attack blew over his head to make him duck and roll closer to Genie. “Are you okay?”

Genie brushed him off with reassurances. "We have to stop my father from destroying Earth."

"I won't let you destroy Earth," Kairo panted toward Alric, feeling his energy low, but his determination high, as he gathered Zeus to him.

"To save my world I'll do anything! Use anything!" Alric's mad bellow caused the room to quake and crack. He stared at Genie. "Even my sons."

"You're insane." Genie mumbled, feeling ashamed they shared the same blood. 

He cast a minor manifestation spell to materialize a pair of daggers. With the extraction platform humming for power, he raced for his father with attacks to maneuver the man on it.

"Kairo, try to eliminate as many small fry and when the time is right get into your sea and activate the jump. I've got a way to make my father useful," he said via his mind-link as he persistently used his daggers to nudge and move his father's direction, whilst ducking, and twisting about to evade the man's mind blast attacks.

"Come here boy, let daddy spank you brat!" Alric smirked as he materialized his pair of dark meteorite short blades to counter Genie's attacks.

Genie noticed that his father was using less of his cosmic power: even if he noticed the platform being active it didn't matter. "Everything is an advantage, my brother taught me how to take it."

He kept up his dagger attacks, remote-controlling their flight, continuing to direct his father toward the platform. But glass debris was digging into his bare feet and naked limbs to make his steps uneven and aching. He applied his healing magic on himself to keep going, as he kept attacking and dodging his father's blade attacks.

Alric cursed when realized what his cunning brat was up to. He bellowed orders for his soldiers and shamans to block their path.

Lady Bluesteed and Henka-guard returned to consciousness, they saw the enemy advancing on Genie, wobbled to their feet and entered the fray to push them back. Lady Bluesteed's hand-fan's blasted back a horde: it sang in the air to swiftly cut away the enemy that were trying to block Genie's attacks for Alric.

Henka-guard encountered Alric's attacks with his halberd: he and Lady Bluesteed managed to clear a path for Genie, but new soldiers entered from a tunnel behind them.

Kairo noticed them and released a cross-blade attack to wipe out the soldiers. Henka-guard nodded with thanks.

"Take Lady Bluesteed and go now! We've got this, but you have to get to the demon prince." Kairo said, which Henka-guard understood.

Henka-guard stared at Genie, seeing that the man was holding Alric back, Kairo was fighting the remaining few shamans. He nodded and grabbed Lady Bluesteed's arm, dragging her down the tunnel for their escape.

"Should we go after them?" a shaman hastily asked Alric, who shook his head.

"Waste of time. Keep attacking Genie and that alien!" Alric roared as he leaned back and waved his arms about his head to call upon air-magic, and lace his blades with storm power.

He tossed them at Genie who yelped when the attack succeeded in knocking him to the ground before the platform.

Kairo did an evade roll to dodge a fire blade attack from a shaman. He landed near Genie.

The shaman gathered around and encircled them with many magical arrays to lock them into a barrier.

Genie saw his father next to the platform, he had to get the man on it and be a nice power cell for the jump.

"Enter your sea!" He ordered Kairo, who entered his spiritual sea.

Genie closed his eyes to enter his Spirit Network. He traveled the lines of his maps until he found the cosmic spell he needed to do the job. But it carried a price to cast, demanding five solar-turns off his lifespan. Situations were dire, so he called upon it by slashing his hand with a dagger to draw blood.

He slipped into an instant meditation to focus on the spell. "Marshline: gather."

Tendrils of dark energy flowed out of his wounded hand, which was powered by Genie's life energy. They sought Aldric and bound his limbs into a hold.

Alric cursed as he realized his error. The mutated heritage spell, which made Genie powerful, and even caused his elder brother to respect him, was cast. He struggled to pull away from the blood-binds. But they continued to drain his cosmic energy, rendering him weak, and Genie powerful as he absorbed the magic.

"Get on!" Genie used the absorbed magic and binds to haul his father onto the platform. Then eased into instant meditation to release the spell. He cast a trace of his spiritual consciousness into a clear crystal orb set on the platform's surface. The crystal's power linked to him.

Slumping down next to Kairo, who was deep in meditation, he held the man's arm and sighed as the platform's energy flowed into Kairo through him. It was all he could do; the rest was up to Kairo.

Alric bellowed in outrage as his power and energy drained from him; the platform locking him into place like a magnet.

The platform's extractor was transferring his power into a crystal power-inverter mechanism, which the shamans struggled to control.

"No! The power extraction is too much, it's making this space unstable." The shaman frantically abandoned their fight on Genie and Kairo. They desperately attempted to defuse the escalating space distortion.

Kairo stood on clear gold waters within his spiritual sea, with his star maps twinkling vibrantly. The Genie Teleportation Array shone with a clear definition.

Word columns with instructions appeared before him. He absorbed their meaning and stepped up to the teleportation array, feeding its power with his cosmic energy.

With grand hand flourishes, he moved the map of Centaurus and Canis Minor together so they overlapped, then laid them over the Genie Teleportation Array.

"Star Jump, bring us home."

A sparkly gold orb materialized midair. He grabbed and tossed it at the Genie Teleportation Array. It landed squarely at the array's central point, triggering a vortex opening. The vortex began devouring his star map sky, leaving behind a pure sheet of white.

Kairo cried out when he was knocked out of his sea, outside their barrier array everything was being sucked into spatial cracks with a mad whoosh.

Genie pressed his hand to Kairo's grimoire, and momentarily closed his eyes as he imagined a six-pointed star crystal being separated from his spirit heart.

An impression of an ethereal-blue crystallized star flew out of his body. It hovered midair before them. White lines of energy from the platform flowed into the crystal to make it shine like it was a pending supernova. The crystal rays struck Genie's hand on Kairo's grimoire.

The spiritual sea's chaotic vortex materialized before them. Its energy absorbed the distorted spatial cracks and everything else, which wasn't on the platform or in the magical array barrier.

Alric glowered as he saw the interstellar channel opened. The solar-turns spent empowering his research shamans to create the damn extraction device, so he could control an interstellar channel, was now in those brats hands! And worse, Genie used him as a damn power cell to activate the jump.

"Curse you meddling brats!"

"Star Jump activated. The cosmic seed channel is open. Set a destination." The Holy Mother of the Sea's voice rebounded around them.

Alric cursed as he tried to get up, but it was taking all his willpower to keep the energy flow steady so he wouldn't expire. He managed to slip his hand into his belt pouch and fish out some energy regeneration pills to keep him alive.

Kairo paused to glance at Alric. "We'll save both planets: make you see how wrong you are."

The platform's hold on Alric eased, so he could crawl off the platform to lay next to Kairo.

Genie's hand and Kairo's grimoire swelled with light as a destination was set to the Cosmic Seed, which applied a focus to the vortex channel.

"Interstellar Cosmic Seed focus: 42 Lancaster Lane, High Town, Sherwood, Earth. Please stand by."

White light engulfed Kairo as he, Genie and Alric were sucked into the vortex.