The Great

Deven Piten: I threw a large piece of rubble off of a completely obliterated house and chucked it into the skyline. I kept clawing and clawing and clawing at the mountain of decimated rubble as I searched for the person trapped under. Melissa had very little liquor abilities and the ones she did have weren’t very useful for battle or intelligence. She was very smart–and really hot–but she couldn’t defend herself in a fight–even against someone who didn’t have any liquor abilities. I jumped into the air and teleported myself high into the sky. I aimed just to the right of the massive rubble pile and charged towards the ground. I apparated myself downwards in short speedy bursts–accelerating my momentum. I smashed my fist into the ground and the pile of rubble spit out in every single possible direction. Melissa was huddled on the ground and she was a bloody mess. Her clothes were torn, her head was bleeding, and she seemed to be unconscious. I dove towards her body and scooped her up as the massive rubble pieces smashed down onto the ground. She was in pretty bad shape but she still looked as good as ever…. It felt nice to hold her….I never really got to talk to her a lot but I kinda wanted to…..

She coughed and I snapped back to reality. I should probably get her to a hospital….

I jumped up high into the air and scanned my surroundings and finally found the others. Mena, Millen, and Nila were all trying to help look for survivors. Eden had been absolutely obliterated and from what it looked like the surrounding area had been obliterated too. Taran was completely out of commission and from what I had heard Geon was also out of commission too. It scared me–not the fact that we were being bombed and invaded–but the fact that Taran and Geon had both been knocked out on the same day. Taran was really strong and that annoying motherfucker kept getting stronger everyday. He was battle addicted and seemingly got high after getting hurt in fighting–he was probably a grade A masochist…. Geon on the other hand, really annoyed me. I had told several people that but they all gave me the classic answer. Oh, why would you say that he’s so fun? Oh, why would you say that, he’s so nice to Evay and the girls. Oh, why would you say that he’s so hot…. It was as if everybody had a hard-on for Geon or that everyone thought he was the nicest guy ever. Even the guys had a soft-crush on him and some had even tried to deny it. Oh yeah, you totally don’t have a crush on him, even though you talk about him with every waking second and compliment his physique, strength, and personality….. But the fact was that Geon was a pretty nice guy–which made me even more mad. Usually guys like that were very easy to hate–they were either massive playboys or super egotistical–but he didn’t really seem to be any of that. He was closer to being a massive idiot than any of those but moreover…. I was jealous. I hated it when people called me out on it too. I’m jealous of the super tall, super good looking, super nice, super strong, super popular dude with a really cute girlfriend–no way! How could I be!

I always tried to make him seem less than who he was, but now, I regretted it. I teased him a lot but he was on his deathbed now and that made me feel like a real piece of shit. I regrouped with Mena and Millen who were trying to calm down a couple students from the scholar wing of Eden. Millen appeared out of the shadows and put a large blanket over some shivering students gathered alongside a crumpled brick wall. He walked towards me and looked both tired and worried, “we’re not even close to getting them all but good news, Taran is walking again and Geon is up and talking.” I nodded with a blank expression but I secretly felt relieved on the inside.

“So he’s okay? Good, we’ll need him.” Millen smirked,

“You’re worried about him? Didn’t you tell me that he’s annoying and dumb?” I threw a rock at his forehead,

“He is–he still is. But I don’t want him to die, you know? It’s the bare minimum really, I hope he’s gravely injured–especially his face. It would give me a better chance with the girls.” Millen laughed in his usually raspy voice,

“Zero percent multiplied by any number is still zero, you know that right?” I tackled him to the ground and started slapping him while he laughed like a madman.

“OW–OW–OW! HAHAHA, WAIT! STOP, STOP.” I finally jumped off of him and he slowly got up with a big grin on his face. “That one hit home, huh?” I rolled my eyes and we slowly walked back towards the rescued students and Mena. Mena knelt down next to a small little girl who was leaning against one of our Eden academy scholar-students. They seemed to be siblings but I wasn’t too sure–a lot of kids had their younger family with them at the school especially if their family was either abroad or unavailable for extended periods of time.The scholar students were the students who were primarily here to study and become scientists, historians, architects, and doctors. They put the “academy,” in Eden Academy but were usually overlooked because of the Warrior Program here and they really detested us for it. I always kind of felt bad about it too. I mean, this place was a school at the end of the day and the kids who were here to study were actually using this place for its intended purpose. I would get pretty pressed too if the brutish, dumb, and very arrogant kids got more attention then I did when I was actively working towards inventing a new medicine, solving war, or building a new insane gadget. The little girl’s hair was in a mess, she had a small cut on her left arm, and her eyes were wide with fear. Mena approached her and she got even more scared as she buried her face in her older sister’s sleeve. The older girl’s eyes flashed with anger as she pulled her little sister deeper into her body. Mena’s eyes softened and she spoke in a tender voice, “it’s ok. We’re here to help.” The older girl scoffed,

“You’re “help,” isn’t really working as you can clearly see.” Mena’s face fell with sadness for a second before she put on a determined look.

“We’re trying–I promise. But I’m not going to hurt her. She’s hurt and she seems to be hungry. We’ve got things for her–let us help.” The girl glared at us in anger for a bit before she finally let her little sister go. The small girl had dirty blonde hair and very round, black eyes. Mena smiled and she held out her hand. “Do you want to see something cool,” the little girl looked at her cautiously before slowly nodding. Millen dove back into the shadows to go get supplies while I stayed to watch. Mena gently blew on her hands and a beautiful, ice-blue snowflake appeared in her hand. The little girl's eyes slowly widened with joy as a big smile crept across her face. She held out her hands and Mena gave the snowflake to her. Mena stood up and waved her hands across the air as a shower of perfectly white snow fell all over the little girl. The girl laughed and tried to catch the snow as she ran around in circles–frolicking like it was a calm summer day. The older sister’s face softened as she looked at Mena with a neutral expression,

“Thank you.” Mena nodded and Millen popped up out of the nearest shadow and gave me a jumpscare. I let out a startled scream as Millen keeled over in laughter,

“You always–always fall for that.” The little girl laughed even more as I rolled my eyes. Millen handed out blankets, bandages, and little packs of food. Mena gathered more students to us as I looked far into the distance. A little flash of blue started to travel along the skyline as a small blob of gold seemed to follow it. My heart started to pound and my palms filled with sweat. More enemies? Now? Why now? I tapped Millen on the shoulder and motioned towards the two shooting stars falling towards us from the sky. His eyes went wide, “MENA! NORTH!” Mena whipped her head around and her eyes went wide with panic,

“Millen, get the kids to safety, Deven fight! Fight with your life! The camp is set up a very short way east from her–if they get past us we’re all dead.” I held out my hands and teleported myself into the air. The targets were closing in on us fast and they seemed to be trying to head towards the temporary camp where Geon, Taran, and the others were staying. It didn’t make a lot of sense though because if these were Raga soldiers they wouldn’t be coming from the western border–since Raga was to the east of Taegan. Either these soldiers made a giant flank–sweeping a couple villages on their way to us–or they weren’t raga soldiers… I yelled to Mena who was still on the ground, “Mena! Throw out the ice wall when I say go! We need to slow them down as much as possible.” Mena nodded and I landed back onto the ground. The two figures in the sky landed down onto the earth with a giant crash as dust clouds and debris soared around us. I waved my hand in a giant arc as the dust clouds cleared and the two figures became visible for the very first time. They seemed to be a little older than us–maybe by a year or two–and they each wore gray and blue-lined, cloth pants as well as navy-blue metallic battle vests. The girl on the left had shiny, smooth, and long, waist-length blue hair as well as smooth white skin. The boy on the left had dark brown, slightly longer curly hair, and was kind of short–a little shorter than Mena and a lot shorter than I was. He had a pretty muscular figure, tan skin, and extremely sharp amber eyes which cut into me like daggers. The girl spoke in a heavily accented voice, “You are the Taegan warriors they spoke of? Ibiza, this is the correct place, yes?” Ibiza–the boy–nodded,

“Yes, they are…. Underwhelming. It does not matter, we just have to deliver this message to one of their warriors, correct? Is this near the capital?” Mena shook her head and I looked at them in anger,

“Nah, it's not. This is an absolute eternity from the capital—you guys went about a metric fuck-ton too south.” The girl scoffed and spoke in a sarcastic tone,

“Yes, I definitely don’t regret listening to the orders of my dear partner here who insisted we didn’t need the map.” Ibiza retaliated,

“Well I didn’t think you’d agree with me when I said this was the capital! There’s absolutely nothing here! We’d have already won the war if this was the capital.” The girl rolled her eyes and looked at me with stone cold eyes. She dashed towards me and grabbed my shirt and Mena flashed towards her and struck her in the side with an icy fist. Her strike connected and the girl was pushed far back into a rubble wall as her entire side was coated with bone-chilling crystals of ice. I teleported behind Ibiza and threw a right hook at his chin. He immediately ducked under the hook and spun around–hitting me with an extremely fast back fist to the chin. I teleported in front of him and he dropped to the ground in order to sweep my legs. I teleported into the air and smashed down towards the ground. My fist connected and a massive crater erupted in the ground as dust and debris flew everywhere. I teleported back to Mena’s side as Ibiza flashed by the girls side completely unharmed. He spoke with a tinge of annoyance, “Azina, you were wrong. They’re not bad.” The girl scoffed and looked at me with an angry glare in her eyes. The ice stuck to her side had melted almost immediately. That wasn’t good news–that was really bad news. Mena’s ice was so cold that not even Geon’s fires could melt it easily. I’d never seen it shatter and it was only removable if Mena chose to remove it. The fact that the ice had disappeared so suddenly made me think that Azina was the real deal..

She held out her hands and started to fly up into the air. The sky went dark and the very sun seemed to be completely blocked out as our surroundings got darker, and darker, and darker. Mena crouched down and prepared to spring up while I put my hands up. It was like Azina was sucking the light out of our surroundings and using it to supercharge herself as her eyes glowed a violet green color, and her palms glowed like giant emerald beams. She spoke in a cold and menacing voice, “I will level you and half of your country and then I will deliver this notice. You are not the messengers we need.” A giant explosion went off and tendrils of green lightning flashed into the, now, dark sky as both me and Mena leapt back to avoid the blasts of green death. Mena erected a giant wall of ice and I grabbed onto her and teleported her backwards as Azina charged her giant green ball energy-ball of death. “I have a feeling that this shit is going to be bad.” Mena looked on in horror as Azina finally let go.

A flash of purple lightning dashed across the sky and charged right into Azina. Azina was struck on the chin and the glowing green ball of energy–as well as the darkness surrounding us–completely disappeared. A brilliant flash of blue lightning echoed across the earth as Ibiza was blasted straight into the nearest mountain. I felt comforting hands lay themselves onto my shoulders and my body instantly started to feel better. I looked back and Lila smiled as she helped Mena up. She gave me a grin, “having fun,” I smiled,

“No, this shit is ass.” Aurora and Taran dashed towards our sides as Ibiza and Azina also instantly made their way towards us. Aurora looked at me and I gave her a nod, “Nice to see you here, captain.” Taran limped towards me and leaned on me and his sword for support,

“Nice to see you here too. I’m still injured–I technically have two more days of leave, but I didn’t want to leave my little brother to die, you know?” I rolled my eyes and Taran picked up his sword, “If you guys don’t mind, let’s make this quick. I really don’t want to get my legs, ribs, back, and organs spliced again.” Aurora walked forward and came face to face with Azina. They stared at each other like mortal enemies before Aurora finally spoke,

“Speak–I will not give you another chance to do so.”