An Old Friend

The person in front of me no longer resembled Yamin in the slightest, it would be a stretch to say it looked like a person at all. More like some melted pink blob, clearly reacting very poorly to stardust energy.

“Do you always go around unmasking the antagonists so early?” The Actor’s voice came out of the blob.

In a very showy splatter of muck, the actor rose up from the melted mess and showcased himself.

“I knew it was you!” I tightened my focus on him. He couldn’t fool my nametag system that easy!

“My audience is nothing if not eagle eyed for detail.” He bowed.

I went to attack him, but he lifted his hand and a black wave of energy blasted from his palm, sending me flying back.

The shadow cloud that had once been the fake Marek condensed down into a Nephilim that swung its arms to push away Uncle. Uncle then evaded and caught me from falling off the building.

BANG!

Emily fired a bullet, but it was caught by the Nephilim, who was protecting The Actor. A small bit of blackened blood dripped to the ground from the bullet wound.

“What happened to our friends Yamin and Marek?” I asked the Actor while Uncle stood me back on my feet.

“They are safe, for now. I’d be more worried about yourselves, personally.”

“I don’t understand,” Mella’s head shook. “I should have been able to sense you were fake. How were you able to replicate the aura of the Evil One?”

The Actor gripped at the shoulder of his cloak and tugged it off with great force. Under the once decretive cloth of red was very ornate crimson armour, dazzled all over with hot orange lights.

At his side was that cursed book that Yamin was trying to rid herself of. It was burning black and causing the parts of his uniform touching it to turn more demonic looking. That answered Mella’s question.

That wasn’t what caught my eye though…my eyes quickly darted to the crystal gem protruding out of his chest piece. It was a red crystal heart, corrupted by darkness energy. This was the second human who had one, and both were affiliated with the same evil cult.

“Hand over that heart!” I shouted. “That belongs to us!”

“Oh, you’re trying to steal my heart? That’s my job. Very well! Why don’t I showcase its full potential?!”

The heart lit up bright red and an energy field surrounded Uncle and I. We tried our best to break the wall of energy, but it wasn’t coming down no matter how hard we tried.

"This is hard-light," Uncle said. "It's the same material my bubble shield is made of."

“Darn it!” I shouted.

The Actor let out a loud laugh. “I have been given the ability to do incredible things, the likes of which only the gods could accomplish! With thunderous applauds, I will challenge the notion that humans cannot best a divine!”

BAM!

Indena's fist rocketed into The Actors face! He went flying! It was hard enough that his mask fell right off.

“Shut up!” She cracked her knuckles. “So sick of you monologuing, you cheesy one trope villain.”

He quickly placed the mask back on, but was very disappointed to find that it had been damaged. The bottom corner had been chipped, revealing scarring underneath on his skin.

“That hit wasn’t pretend…you put your all into the performance.”

“I said shut up!” Indena barked. “I’ll keep beating you up as long as you keep running that mouth of yours.”

He started lightly laughing, tapping the sides of his face until his theater mask was smiling with great satisfaction.

He took on the form of a girl who appeared to be the same age as Indena. She had long brown hair and wore a martial arts gi with a black belt. Something I’d except Indena was no stranger to wearing as well.

“Hey, Indena,” This girl who the actor took the form of did a bow. “Ready for a rematch? I’ve been dying to show you up since that last tournament.”

“Yuck.” Indena bowed. “You went there…you prick.”

“Of course I did. I’m gonna’ kick your butt and take the title of champ for sure this time!”

Indena looked really disgusted, clearly this person wasn’t drumming up very good memories for her.

“Oi, Shrimp, remember when I told you about my friend Sasha?” Indena then gestured to the girl, clearly pointing out that this was indeed her friend. “Makes me sick that this prick is playing her.

“Did something happen between you two?” I asked.

“Not really. Just pisses me off that he’s looking like her right now. It ain’t right.”

Mella hopped up next to Indena, flaring out her fangs and nails. Then Emily stepped up with her pistol ready to shoot at a moment’s notice.

“Leave this to me,” Indena assured them. “This is my fight.”

“Put aside your pride,” Mella hissed. “This isn’t even truly your friend. Use our aid as you will.”

“I second what the weird cat spy just said.” Emily nodded.

Indena didn’t like it, but she needed the backup, at least with Uncle and I trapped in this energy shield.

“I’ve got friends too.” The fake Sasha snapped her fingers, and suddenly two very well armoured knights appeared at her side. “Oh, look at that. We got ourselves a pair of crusaders today!”

Where in the world did those crusaders come from? Or, was this the same power he’d used to summon those pirates before? That ‘projections of the past’ thing The Actor had mentioned. It’s amazing that these people he’d brought to life looked and seemed so real.

“Where are we?” one of the crusaders asked. “What sort of trickery have those bastard fae put us through?”

The fake Sasha turned to the crusaders with watery eyes. “Please, help me. I’ve been trapped in here for a long time, and these three witches are working with a demon lord!” She pointed to Indena’s group.

“Mother fu...” Indena cursed as fire blazed to life around her. “Don’t call me a damn witch!”

That wasn’t helping her case…

The two crusaders nodded to each other, then drew up their weapons.

“We must slay these wicked witches!”

Things were quiet, the air got really tense. All that could be heard was the sound of metal clanking as the crusaders prepared to charge in, and fire raging from Indena’s incredibly powerful magic.

But Indena wasn’t the only one here with elemental magic. The fake Sasha’s eyes were glowing a brownish colour. Stones were rising up around her, orbiting around like protective satellites. I think that this was a clear sign of an Earth mage, if I ever saw one.

Tick tock…tick tock…

The clock ticked on. This fight was about to get underway with a magically ferocious start.