New Beginnings : Rise of the Darkness

Oblivions (Developments Pt. 2)

Minutes earlier...
Penny POV
As the opal avinia soared out of the window, conjoined to my magical talon, a wicked smile crept up Lodestar's face as he waited for his next victim to fall into his trap.

Soon enough, the familiar light wrapped itself around the villain's face as he said, "Paradise, I am Lodestar. Aren't you just sick of all these endless responsibilities that you have to take on? Well, I'll let you neglect all these responsibilities forever—and let others do so too! But in return, you'll have to get me the Kyras of the seven heroes—and the guardian as well. I'm sure you can see his image in my mind. Make sure you target the guardian first, because he's the most important one!"

"Sure thing, Lodestar," a male voice responded. "I promise you those little magical creatures!"

"In addition to your powers, you'll be aided in your mission by Gift. He helps you to trap your enemies in magical imaginations, and distract them while you trap them in your void of 'paradise'!" I continued.

"Lodestar, Vikana, you can count on me! Mwahahahaha!" was the only response.

Fang POV
After Teleto had teleported us to the other side of the campus, we rushed through the mass of hallways, desperately trying to get to Byron before any danger could. And finally we got to the right one.

"Byron!" I called as I saw the familiar man hunched in a glass bubble. "Where's the danger?"

The old guardian smiled in relief when he saw us approaching him and put a finger over his lips. "Shhh!" he silenced. "Gift is back, with some other aviniatized villain. And they were hunting me down, but suddenly disappeared."

"Sure about that?" came an unfamiliar taunt as two villains skidded around the corner, pinning a fist against the glass bubble. Immediately a small web of fissures spread across it, but Psionio reinforced it with a weak plug of Pulses.

"Who are you?" I shouted at the odd person in front of me. His body rippled with colour changes every second; from twilight to broad daylight, from sun to moon, from fire to ice...

And with him was the familiar pink gift box who shot a copy of himself at us, trapping Psionio in its trance. Instantly, the villain slammed against the glass bubble countless times, almost cracking it. But I sealed the cracks with lightning to shock him if her touched it before repeating, "Who are you?"

"I am Paradise! Just like my name, I'll bring you to my void of paradise, where you're free of boring responsibilities and can't just live a life of freedom. All I need are your Kyras!" the villain responded softly—almost in a beguiling manner. And then I realised it was.

"Everyone, don't listen to him!" I commanded, slamming the gift box away from Psionio before I slapped my hands over my ears. "He's enchanting you with his voice!" I explained again after Hydro created a Transmission.

"Great now we can't see Gift if not we'll be mesmerised, and we can't hear Paradise or we'll be enchanted!" Golden Dragon clarified, sounding a touch whiny. "Great. We need to neutralise one of them first. Anyone got a plan?"

"Actually, I do!" I chimed in. "We just need to replicate the time we defeated Gift. Remember when we fought Larcener?"

"Yeah..." Moonshot agreed slowly. "So...what are you saying?"

"That we create a Larcener with your Creation?" Teleto meant it as a joke, but it struck as a good idea.

"No!" I realised. "We don't need my Creation! All we need to do is use Golden Dragon's power of Deception to scare Gift into a trap!"

"Are you sure he will remember Larcener?" Pyral questioned skeptically, guessing what I meant.

I countered, "Byron gave me a cache of his memories as guardian, and within it were the contents of Lyrii's powers. It said that once a Vika is created, it never ceases to exist; it just remains as a memory until it is summoned once again. I'll show you guys later. For now, let's focus on the plan!"

A bit worriedly, as if he thought the plan would fail, Golden Dragon called, "Deception!" Immediately a shimmer spread across the world as Larcener appeared in our bubble, which cracked into multiple shards as I released my hold on it and let the lightning dissolve into nothingness. As Golden Dragon chased after the snarling Paradise, followed by Psionio, Pyral, Teleto and Moonshot, Hydro and I trained our eyes on Gift, who backed into a corner as he stumbled away from the illusion.

As imaginary-Larcener stretched out her hands towards Gift, he shrieked in fear and tossed multiple pink gifts towards the illusion, which rose into the air to avoid being hit, since it would disappear if that happened.

Gift's back finally slammed against a wall; with nowhere to run, he cowered fearfully. At the same instant, the mirage disappeared and a turquoise portal materialised below the Vika's feet. With a shocked yelp, he dropped into the void before he was silenced completely.

"Where did you send him?" I asked jokingly as we rushed towards Paradise, who had annoyance etched visibly on his face.

"The Band Room!" Teleto laughed. "There's no way he can get out, you need the code for that. And there's no Band Meet today so no one will notice him nor set him free."

Hydro grinned beautifully, "One down, one to go!"

A/N 10:
Wow, this book is so close to 1.5k reads! I can't wait to hit that nice little milestone together, and I promise a nice little twist at the end of the fourth part of this chapter, Developments! It may not be as big as you're expecting, and definitely won't be as game-changing compared to the eighth part of Protection, but a great event will happen—one that allows our heroes to truly prove their worth—and find new allies!

Cheering you on to 1500 Reads,
Nobody BS