“So who is this student of yours?” asked Ion,
trying to evade the boredom as they trotted down the lands in
silence.
“A mystic who definitely would have done well
to join our brotherhood.” sighed Mantra. “It was too bad he decided
not to. I could see so much in him, so much waiting to be unleashed
if he had stayed with us. But he decided to move on to other
things. And staying with us did not hold much of an appeal to him,
I’m sorry to say. But I think, given the present climate, he may
decide to do what he should have done long back … and join hands
with us. I’m hoping he would.”
Ion let his thoughts wander over the tense
predicament that had found them. The sheer graveness of the
present. The storm waiting to break soon now … and how they were
the only ones left to stand in its way when it did. When it broke.
The army of watchmen, along with the whatever allies they managed
to forge, were all that now remained to defend this world against
the evil unleashed by the Xeni.
Unable to stand it, Ion turned to Mantra and
asked, “Will they succeed?”
Mantra looked at him. “Who?”
“The watchmen.” he said, hearing the
desperacy in his own voice. “Right now, they’re spread over the
outer spectrum, making allies among the non man beings. But …will
they succeed in getting the support that we need? To build our
army?”
Mantra smiled. “Ah, Ion, don’t mistake me for
too much of what I seem to be: there are some things I cannot
sense, and the future is one of them”
“But we really need them to.” Ion shook his
head. “We need them to win over all the allies possible to aid our
war, don’t we?”
“Definitely so.” replied Mantra, gazing on
ahead as he walked. “But don’t let that affect you now. Even if
they don’t succeed in that, we have
them
. We have the army
of watchmen. Without them, we would truly be nothing right now. And
that should suffice in the most meagre means. Let us treasure what
we have been given, without letting dark times shroud our vision.
And right now, the watchmen are a true treasure to our side. A
divine treasure indeed.” He turned and brought his calm gaze over
Ion again. “But to satiate your fears, let me give you my answer.
Yes
. The watchmen are proficient in what they were made for.
Which was, to protect our world whatever the cost. They will
definitely win over a large alliance among the creatures they find
in the outer spectrum.”
The stern faith he spoke with quelled a
portion of Ion’s fears.
“When they’re done,” Mantra continued,
turning to him again. “We will gather with all of the forces we
have amassed. The four of us, the entire army of watchmen, and all
of the forces they have mustered for this war, will gather and
unite in preparation of what we must fend for now.”
Ion suddenly realised something, which he
found strange not to have realised earlier. “But wait … How’re we
going to reach them?”
“Who?”
“The watchmen.”
Mantra slipped a hand beneath the front of
his cloak around his chest and withdrew the necklace with the Grael
conch.
Oh,
forgot about that.
thought
Ion.
“The conch is the instrument of summoning the
watchmen.” Mantra explained. “The person sounding the conch summons
the entire army, as one, to gather where he is, and lets the army
move from there only with his approven command.” He slipped the
conch back below his cloak. “We’ll summon the entire army, and see
what they’ve managed to scrape out of their different ventures
across the outer spectrum.”
The two of them were now edging to the end of
the largely spread group of huts. The huts were now distributed far
more spaced out, and the rocky region was starting to grow rougher.
They climbed up and down the unlevelled land. Mantra hopped over
one of the large boulders situated in their path, and his eyes
scanned the distance. Ion climbed up alongside him and looked down
the land.
“There he is.” said Mantra, pointing not very
far from them. Nearing the edge of the last huts in sight was a
large, grand looking ship of black colour.
“He’s in there?” asked Ion, turning to
Mantra.
“No,” Mantra edged closer to Ion, jabbing his
forefinger harder into the air in front. Ion narrowed his eyes and
saw it: less than a hundred or so metres in front of the large
black ship, they could see a man in a brown cloak sitting in front
of a fire, soothing his hands.
“Yup, I see him.” said Ion, climbing down the
rock. As Mantra leapt off the rock, landing beside him, Ion asked,
“How’d you know exactly where he was?”
Mantra’s lips creased in a mild smile. “I
always know where he is.” He turned to look at Ion with the same
tranquil depth in his white eyes. “I’ve kept an eye on almost all
my apprentices since they left.”
Right.
thought Ion.
I forgot who
I’m talking to.
They made their way down the rough land and
arrived before Mantra’s brown cloaked apprentice. Sensing their
presence, the man turned and faced them.
It was Vonayz.
“You!” gasped Ion, jumping back.
Flabbergasted, he turned to Mantra and spat, “
This
was your
former apprentice?”
Mantra nodded. “And the large force that he
leads, which I was talking about, is none other than Force one, the
group of thousand or so mystics that he commands.”
He turned and looked at a mortified Ion. “Now
you see why I brought you along. Because more than being my
apprentice … he’s your friend.”
Vonayz stood there as still as a rock, his
eyes glued to Ion. And a century seemed to pass as the two deadly
foes stood there, staring at each other.
This can’t be.
Ion thought,
thunderstruck. He had known Vonayz to be of uncanny powers. And he
had, since being rescued by him, always wondered where he had
gotten these powers, and how he had become such a strong mystic at
such a young age…
Well, he now had the answer.
Mantra had trained Vonayz. Evidently, in the
hopes that the boy would do good with his training and help the
Nyon. But Vonayz had betrayed his master’s faith and, after
finishing, decided to use Mantra’s training for the despicable,
evil means that Ion had known him to.
Vonayz had his eyes pinned to Ion, and a
silent roar of fury slowly gathered within them. One that
transcended all other emotions. Something seemed to corrode in the
air around, as the echoes of a heavy and turmoiled past filled the
silence between the two of them.
As the century passed, Vonayz switched his
gaze to Mantra and gave a loud laugh.
“Wrong,
master
. I’m neither your
apprentice,” His eyes flamed as he shifted them over to Ion again.
“nor his friend anymore. Now, what in the bloody hell would the two
of you come here for? What do you want?”
Mantra took the space of a second to heave a
deep sigh. “We want your understanding, Vonayz.”
Vonayz raised an eyebrow, staring coldly at
his master.
“Understand,” went on Mantra. “that you are
not what you think you are. You are more. Far more. I say this,
because it was I who trained you. It was I who knew you. And I know
you better than you yourself do.” He took a step forward, his voice
dropping to a mere whisper. “You are more, young one. And today, I
stand here to make you recognise the truth … recognise
yourself.”
Mantra turned and swept his eyes over the
back of the roughened terrain they were standing in. “We are now in
a treacherous time. One that will determine the fate of the entire
world forever hence, and will bind us all to it. We are at the edge
of a great war. One that has silently raged forever, but now
awakened to the largest scale of reality. The war between good and
evil …
Elderon and Mezmeron
. And the time has come for
mankind to make its stand, to take its sides … and to fight for the
cause they believe in. And among mankind, we are destined to shape
the future of the world through this war. We, the ones chosen to
fight this war.” His tone became gentle. “When I trained you, I saw
you for a good person. I saw that side which you carried in you,
and I see it now as well. And I ask you now to witness that side
within yourself, and to do what it asks you to. For now more than
ever, you are needed.
We all are.
” He drew in a deep
breath.
“The Xeni order has returned. And the world
is about to be plunged into anarchy forever. In less than a few
hours, they would have used the plague crystal to release the demon
army, the force of Mezmeron, and enslave all of mankind.”
Vonayz gaped at Mantra as the effect of his
words faded.
“What the hell are you talking about?” he
burst out, sounding positively puzzled. “Plague crystal? Demon
army? Force of Mezmeron?”
Mantra looked at Ion. “Would you mind
helping?”
Ion didn’t respond, but continued to hold
Vonayz in a seething glare.
Vonayz … on our side?
Could he
possibly accept that?
He couldn’t … He couldn’t comprehend it.
Everything within him revolted in disgust and fury.
“Yes,” he replied bluntly. “I do mind
helping. I’m sorry, but you’re on your own in this. And good
luck.”
And he stood there with his arms folded,
glaring at Vonayz.
Mantra gave a long sigh, and shrugged his
shoulders. “Suit yourself.” He turned back to Vonayz. “All right,
there’s quite a lot going on, which the outer world has no idea of.
They threatened to blow off ten planets. But it was not for no
avail: the Xeni were doing all of it for a reason, as a part of a
plan. Nobody outside their order knows, of course. Except us.”
Mantra explained everything, of the Xeni’s
plan in releasing the army that they had kept sealed in another
dimension for eight millennia, waiting for the ripe time to release
it. But Vonayz showed not the meekest regard or respect for his
master: while Mantra flowed on, explaining how Vonayz and the
thousand or so powerful mystics he controlled in force one were
desperately needed to join their side to fend off the Xeni’s
uprising evil, Vonayz played with his z-com, paying him the least
attention possible. He paused only to shoot scorching glares at
Ion, and also at Mantra himself at intervals.
But Mantra seemed perfectly unbothered, not a
pinch of anger arising in his voice as he went on speaking.
As Mantra finished, there was a brush of
affection kindled within those white eyes, as he gazed at his
former student. Meanwhile, Vonayz continued to throw his z-com into
the air and use his powers to make it float there.
“Vonayz,” Mantra said, with an air of
closure. “I know that there’s good in you.” He glanced at Ion. “As
there was in Ion, too. I had secretly kept my faith in Ion, despite
what he had done. And secretly, I kept my faith in you as well. And
I know that you will do this as Ion did, to redeem yourself.”
Ion was inwardly amazed that Mantra set so
much store by Vonayz. After living and growing up with him, he had
known him far better than Mantra. And that was why he felt that the
words the elderly master spoke were hollow and meaningless. The boy
standing in front of them would not put his selfish, brutal ways
aside and come over to their side to help the world … And Ion was
thankful for it. Because the last thing he needed was this creature
ahead of him … A reminder of what he had once been, and the reason
he had been so.
“Can you put that away, and listen to me?”
asked Mantra, with a bite in his voice, as Vonayz played with the
z-com.
Vonayz scowled at Mantra. “I’m not your
student anymore for you to boss me around. And thank god for
that.”
Mantra simply sighed tragically. “Indeed you
aren’t … as much as I wish you were. As much as I wished that I
could go back to those days, so that my err in training you could
be righted.”
“There was no err in training me.”
“Yes there was. Why else would you be what
you are now?” Mantra took a step forward, placing a gentle hand on
Vonayz’s shoulder. “Deep down, you know I tell the truth, when I
say this: you belong with me … with us. With the noble cause of
protecting the world, and not
destroying it.
Ion gazed across the land, at the cluster of
huts near the large black ship. Overhead, dusk was slowly pulling
over the skies like a blanket, as the glow of the morning faded in
the blue skies.
“What do you say?” asked Mantra finally.
“Join us, because we need you. Force one has a thousand or so
mystics that we could desperately use for our battle now.”
Vonayz slipped his z-com into his robe pocket
and finally held his master’s eyes.
As he was the whole time, Ion kept his fists
clenched, trying his best not to let his anger ruin this task. As
much as he wanted it to.
__________
Flicking a strand of his black hair off his
face, Zardin gazed into the holo screen over the z-com in his hand.
It was a verbal message. A verbal message from Vonayz:
MANTRA AND ION ARE HERE. WITH ME, RIGHT
NOW.