✧ Chapter 35 ✧

The two of them stood before the now traced image with extreme caution. This appeared to look like a round eye with three elliptical ones surrounding it that gave off those striking similarities of a disc floret to its flower petals. Eternika began to explain what the strange dots meant.

“That is Prism. The aliens that came to Perenorbius are a certain breed of vampires with their own language that come from the world, Deveurx. This warning is an excerpt contained inside of an ancient scroll, which when read aloud in its entirety, releases a dangerous evil called The Ghost Of Scarlet Spades. The carrier of said scroll is a Deveurxan wizard named Vladequin. I was spying on him when traveling around Niantom. From what I can assume, he has fought against Amethion multiple times.”

Styra’s eyes opened wider in response to this information. She became interested in understanding more about the hidden history that Amethion hadn’t told her.

“Seriously? Wait, so what is Niantom?”

“Niantom is one of those planets that was Amethion’s dwelling space. The place held one of three original Surreality Shards which were being guarded within an Iternua Temple. It can be located on the largest floating piece of land there which looks like an hourglass where a contained stream can be seen surrounding that Temple. The gravity is also quite airy there at a certain point in the atmosphere, much like Phiras.”

“Interesting. I remember like you said before, that there was a certain emotional connection between each of the Eternal Lights with a host. What purpose do the orbs and shards have since they are able to do slightly the same thing?”

“Prism’s form was recreated by itself into a unique ethereal yet shape-shifting crystallized structure that was known as the Illuminator Of Reality. It existed in the center of The Void and was made with the intention of allowing an event known as Tetrahedron to occur in case existence itself was threatened. The scroll I talked about reiterates on that event becoming some sort of ‘Armageddon Of The Omniverse.’ If Prism were to sculpt the pieces of that puzzle together, everything as we know it faces the dangerous certainty of an imminent end.”

As Styra started to get more and more tense listening to this, she grappled with the extremely serious nature of their situation. Letting go of the sadness that made her once feel hesitant, she had a yearning ambition to fix the problem. Flight, Hisa, Chelbie, and the now named Eternika had changed her in so many ways. Her love for each of them was becoming balanced and she accepted that not all of them were probably going to agree with the split up. Flight and Hisa had rested on the decision for a while, along with Chelbie’s vigorous defense for them to stick together. Styra figured to herself that maybe the best way was to let them choose. She wasn’t going to force any of them to join or leave because she could see that all they wanted her to do was to listen.

It reminded her of the loyalty she had towards the Tripedyra and in that sense, she started to feel even worse about letting that thought of abandoning every creature on Perenorbius forever slip her mind. The Kra Forcefield still protected the world. In that regard, keeping them safe was one of her biggest priorities. She loved every single one of them to her heart when she didn’t really have these superhuman powers to fall back on besides her immortality.

“Okay, I have a plan. Even though I don’t like Prism, it is the only thing standing between us and finding Amethion. We have to get the Surreality Shard from Flight so we can make that deal with Strage. We also need to stop The Lucid Light from destroying the homes of countless lives. Only way we do that is by searching for the world where we can get those clues.”

Although Eternika didn’t have a face to show emotion, it felt like hugging her. In that instant, when the weapon began to approach her with the intent of showing its feelings, touching the tips of its own blades caused it to transform into a human that seemed to look a bit taller than her. With the stature of a teenage boy that looked quite like a younger version of Flight, it had purple eyes and a suit similar to Styra’s likeness. Its body color and hairstyle was a pure glowing white. Eternika stopped and started looking at itself in embarrassment. She probably didn’t want to see it turn into something like this so quickly. However, upon experiencing the sight of this new form, a memory was unlocked in Styra’s mind.

Almost as if she had seen it somewhere before.

“Eternika… Are you—“

Standing from where they were, a sudden noise could be heard tumbling around through the cave’s pathway. Eternika transformed back into the weapon it was before, standing in front of Styra and creating a huge Kra Forcefield that blocked up the cave. Both were ready to fight, until they saw a small creature walk towards them from out of the shadows.

It was the chie that had been inside StormStrike Zero. Styra was confused as to why this little animal just came out of nowhere to see her again. She spoke softly to the creature in hopes of getting it to fly back outside.

“Huh? Oh, it must be the chie that survived onboard. Hey little guy. What are you doing here? Are you lost? Don’t worry, I’ll show you the way out…”

During this encounter, a part of Styra’s instincts kicked in from seeing the chie again. Something didn’t seem right this time. Putting one and one together, she had been naive before about what happened concerning Amethion. What the supposed chie did in StarSpace felt like a setup. Or was it really a chie to begin with?

“You’re not really a chie!” exclaimed Styra.

The strange chie stared at the both of them and immediately smiled in a way that had deemed her words to be true.

“You remember what my brother said, don’t you?” asked the chie.

Amidst the unusual circumstances of seeing a chie talk like a human, both Styra and Eternika recognized the voice from anywhere.

“Diamondion! We know it’s you!” yelled Eternika.

The chie walked backwards into the darkness, fading away from view as an intense wave of quietness was filled with the echoes of distant laughter that could be heard.

“I’m sorry. You think, it’s just me?” said Diamondion as her eyes stared down at them with vengeful anticipation.

Styra could tell that this meant only one thing. Diamondion wasn’t alone in her pursuit. Did Prism not care about her trying to help the guardians? She had to tell them the truth.

“Please listen to us. We are on your side. We don’t want the Omniverse to die either—“

The Queen Of Frostice cut off what she said with an anger much heavier than when they first met.

“Then why would you steal a shard from an alternate timeline?! Do you know what that has done to the entire Omniverse?! Because of your carelessness, every single reality is at risk of being deconstructed!”

In hopes of mending their relationship, Styra tried to convince her that they were open to changing for the better.

“We weren’t thinking properly and we apologize for that. However, I have many questions for you as well. If you were the fake chie on StarSpace that caused problems and endangered people’s safety, why did you let Amethion take me on by himself instead of being there with him? I mean, you did the exact same thing when I got flushed into a weird drain room. If you wanted to kill me, you would have had ample chances to do that.”

“Culpable thief! Amethion was a highly respected Commander Of The Heptarion Force. I trusted him and he betrayed us! Do you know how it feels for someone you believed in to backstab you after all of the things you did for them? I wouldn’t dare do what he did to my kingdom! I don’t like wasting my time and leaving my loyal subjects behind for a random girl who gawks at everything and her blades that bastardize themselves! Are you happy now that you’ve accomplished your goal?! You and that sickening weapon of yours dare say that I have ruined anything. I do nothing but maintain my promises. But you two? All you are is a lie! Everything about you is a lie!”

Styra stared down towards the ground as she was deep in thought about whether this guardian telling her who she was, was right. Eternika didn’t take too kindly on the opposite end to how Diamondion was trying to dissuade the blame and put it all on them.

“Well you thought wrong. You think all of this is our fault?! What an outrageous claim! If anything, I remember you talking about Chaosity as the true irredeemable threat. The New Guardian’s lore is not our doing. You do not see it, do you? Prism is lying to you all. When have you last seen your so-called Master?!”

Diamondion, who was beyond furious, pulled out her Staff Of Reality and came from behind to use her weapon as a means to lock Styra into her grasp. However, The Judgment Warrior already had her fair shares of behind-the-scenes jump scares. After having fought Strage, she had learned a lot more about her capabilities. As she crouched and fisted her hands which angled towards the planet’s core, a transmission of energy came from it, giving her a home ground advantage. In one of her most sophisticated moves yet, she based her position and stepped her right leg behind Diamondion’s left leg. The agility gave her the amazing opportunity to grab and toss the giant guardian by her feet. After this, she got shot by a powerful Kra Beam from both Styra and Eternika which blasted her outside of the Yraden.

Recovering from the hit, Diamondion was shocked at the fact that Styra and her weapon had grown stronger from their previous match. Still, it didn’t necessarily mean that she was going to get all submissive from a small blow.

“Ah, so you think you’ve played me. You are highly misled.”

A bright essence flew from out of the ground, repairing the damages that occurred on Perenorbius’s grassy fields. Styra and Eternika were hovering before the queen as she stood up, not willing to give up too easily. Within a flash, their reality was changing before them as they ended up right back in Wisteliah next to the StormStrike Zero. Both Styra and Eternika knew this spelled trouble.

“We’ve been watching you recently Styra. Believe it or not, because Amethion gave you his Eternal Light, The Dark One was eventually able to track your location when Sapphirion reported what he did to Strage. We saw you brainwashing an Alpha Guardian. To think that you could manipulate us is a foolish act in itself.”

“We are not manipulating you Diamondion. Prism is!” shouted Eternika.

The aggressive shouting caused Flight and Hisa to wake up. Looking at what was going on near the ship, they could also feel a large presence beside them. Their gazes were met with surprise as Sapphirion was standing next to where they were sleeping. He could sense The Surreality Shard inside Flight’s pocket.

“Your reign of terror ends here humans.”

The both of them were caught into a gravitational hold as The Guardian Of Space collected the shard into his hand, squeezing it so he could save its power within himself. He wasn’t going to be able to use it though, knowing what he was supposed to actually guard.

Meanwhile, Styra and Eternika had an all-out defensive brawl with Diamondion. Eventually Sapphirion stepped into the battle, making the fight two times harder. Two guardians teaming up weren’t uncommon in their training. It helped them double down and make multiple adjustments in their techniques.

At this point, Styra decided to coordinate a finishing move with Eternika as both space and reality were against them. In that instant, she was flying around while looking around her environment and had a proposal that could significantly improve their tactic.

“Hey Eternika. You know how there are trees spaced out across Wisteliah?”

“Yes?”

“Okay, so imagine that the trees are dots and you let it rip.”

Eternika was confused by the way Styra was speaking until it got a glimpse into her head.

Crossing its own blades, there was a huge leap of faith that this special technique was going to work.