PART THREE

Part three: The underground fortress

I woke up next the next day to a surprise. I walked out of my room to see a girl right outside my dormitory. “Uh…hi?” I asked, startled. The girl smiled. “Hello! My name is Collins! Collins Eightsti, to be exact. I hope you don`t mind me being here!” “Sure.” I said, just because I didn`t know what I could do anyway if I did mind. “Do I know you?” I asked. “No. I am the sorcerer number…five! A sorceress, the only female sorcerer of the seven.” “Okay, cool. But why did you come to me? You should have first talk with Evan or Joshua or Mr. Vananberg about this.” “Hmf.” She answered playfully. “I`ll have you know that I already did.” I checked the clock. It was six in the morning. I noted the knife. “Um… how long were you here?” “About ten minutes.” She answered. She didn`t seem to be kidding. “It took you ten minutes to convince Evan, Joshua, and Mr. Vananberg to meet a student, armed and without supervision?” “No. I am supervised. By you! They said if I ever did anything wrong, you would stop me. Not that I believed it… until now.” “What?” “Oh, before I can be sure, let me try something. Luna Tews, I command you to destroy the clock.” That was the most ridiculous order I have ever heard. “Um… why?” I asked. Collins beamed. “There you go! This is how you can defeat me! Your immune, completely immune, no less, to my greatest weapon.” “The knife?” I asked, mystified. “Oh, I don`t know what to call it. It`s a thing. I don`t even know if it`s magic, of just logical debate powers. Here is an example. Eliza darling, why don`t you come skipping out of your room, humming rock and roll?” Now here`s the thing. Eliza Usman, hates singing. And, she hates skipping, galloping, running, or walking. She likes to teleport. But Eliza did exactly what Collins suggested, minus the rock and roll, because she didn`t know any. Instead, she was humming something more like a chant. “And Evan or Joshua fell for it?” I asked. “No. They simply did what I told you. Oh, and Eliza, you can go back to your dormitory.” By now people were beginning to come out of their rooms. “Oh, and we should leave now.” Then she engulfed me in white light. The next I know; I was standing outside my brother`s room. I was so dizzy that I nearly fell over. “That should be your greatest weapon.” I groaned. “Who are you and what did you do to my sister?” Said a voice. Jack was hovering a few feet on top of us, pointing his new spear at Collins. “It`s fine, Jack. Why don`t you come down?” Collins asked. Jack`s eyes flashed murderously. He didn`t get mad often, but when he did, he did. “You try to talk me into that? Why don`t I come down? I`ll tell you why. Because you might be a villain, trying to hurt, or possibly kill my sister!” “Jack! Calm down. It`s all right.” I said. Jack`s glare turned into a frown. He came down slowly, turning more solid by the second. “Fine. But who are you, anyway?” We spent the entire morning explaining to him and keeping him from killing her. “Other than the other sorcerers, you two are the first to be immune to my thing.” “We settled on calling it a thing?” “Do you have a suggestion on what to call it?” “Uh… no. Maybe call it, the thing?” “Sure.” “Can I see your knife?” Jack asked. Collins drew it, but in one foot of the sheath, a meter of magicae gold came out. “Magicae gold casts a shadow of gold, so I call this, Umbrarum.” “Really?” Jack drew his own weapon. Sure enough, the shadow looked more like a reflection than one. “I see you met our new friend.” Said a voice. Evan was standing behind them. “Evan, could you not?” This time she sounded genuinely annoyed. “No, I could not not.” He answered. “We need you in the arena.” So, five seconds later, we were groaning on the floor of the arena, teleport sick. “Ice castle was invaded.” Joshua said. He was covered in scars and his robes were ripped. “I got there the fastest I could, but-” he shrugged. “I couldn’t get past the guards. They can`t be killed.” “Whoa, hold up. What`s Ice castle?” “Ice castle was our lookout.” Said a new voice. I turned to see Julian, Joe, and Carson, along with a few others walk in. They were even hurt worse than Joshua. “They have every kind of monster you could imagine: Mole dragons, Nunchuckamus, Lepusignis, even a Shellripper. Goo was killed. So were so many others. The entire fort sank into the ground after they took over. They-” Julian bucked. “You need to rest.” Collins said. Julian walked over to the maple tree and sat down. I looked at Collins in awe. Someone who could make Julian rest that easily is not someone ordinary. “We should take a look at the fort.” Collin said. And of course, everyone agreed. Well, except for us, Evan, and Joshua. “Who do you mean by ‘we’?” I asked nervously. “I mean that you, Jack, and me should.” “Oh… in that case… I`m on it!” Jack said. “Jack? Did you immunity to the thing wear off?” “No. I just want revenge.” Typical Jack. “Fine. But no more teleporting.” Collins shrugged. “Fine.” So, we walked half a mile to the entrance of ice fort. We climbed a hill, then when we looked the other way, we saw the guards guarding a door. Collins cleared her throat, about to speak, when Jack raised a hand. “Wait” he mouthed. He pulled out a bouncy ball, Nunchuckamus rubber with green glitter. He dropped the ball on the guard`s heads. Then, the ball bounced off. “Oh, that could be a cursed ball out to destroy you!” Collins called. “Yeah. That could be.” Said a guard. Then, all dozen of them ran off, chasing after a bouncy ball that would bounce forever. We opened the door. “So, we walk in-AHHHHHH” The last part was because the door end hid a chasm, and all three of us fell strait into it.” I created a cloud of darkness to help us survive. We hit it, then we bounced off onto the floor. “Well, that was a rough start.” Collins said. “I can`t see.” Jack said. He drew his spear. The glow of the tip, along with Collins`s (try pronouncing that) sword to see. I snapped my fingers, and fluorescent black fire lit up in my hands. We followed a long hallway into a big door guarded by several thousand soldiers. Collins motioned for Jack to ram his spear on the ground. So, he made the spear grow a blunt point and rammed it on the ground. From it, a wall of pure gold washed the entire cave, and a thirty feet deep hole with gold soldiers was created. But more soldiers kept coming. They appeared from the shadows and ran to us. “Can`t you just tell them to back off?” I yelled at Collins. “They have golden earplugs. If they can`t hear me, it doesn`t work. Besides, magicae gold or ice steel neutralizes most magical attacks. Those earplugs are magicae gold!” Jack glared at her. “Your powers have many flaws.” This offended Collins so much that her hair began to float. “Oh I`ll teach you!” Then she ran to the army-with one sword. For a second, I thought she would become the star of the world`s cruelest massacre. Then, she swung the sword. It hit an entire row of soldiers, and they were blasted back to yet another row. She whirled around, destroying everything in sight. She was beginning to glow bright white, so much that it hurt my eyes. It evidently blinded the enemy as well because they ran into walls and each other after looking at it for too long. In about three minutes, the entire army was reduced to gold glitter or steaming mush. So, I guess she did become the star of the world`s cruelest massacre. We were about to enter the room when Collins said, “Wait.” She looked around, like she was looking for something. Suddenly, a black something struck her and scurried away. She fell to the ground and was knocked out. The black figure reappeared in the shadows, slowly walking toward us, menacingly. He revealed his face. It was pale, with bright green eyes. He looked no older than seventeen. “I am Nobody.” I would have cracked up, except his face was dead serious. “Uh… is that your nickname?” Nobody scowled. “My real name is Jacob, but if you call me that, I will kill you.” “So, if I call you Nobody, you will not kill us?” “That depends. I am the third most powerful of the sorcerers. I am called Nobody because I can replicate. You would never see my true form.” He snapped his fingers. We were all wrapped in black chains. “And now, you shall meet our Unkillables.” He led us through the door, revealing an enormous fortress, filled with monsters and soldiers. I knew right then that that was the lost Ice castle. Collins woke right then, startled. Then she scanned the background, understood, then pretended she was still unconscious. Nobody led us past the castle and revealed a prison-like huge arena. “Get in! Lets see how you do with our Unkillables! But no need to survive. If you do, you would be brought to me, probably to get killed.” With that, he shoved us into a round arena. Three dozen soldiers stalked out of the other room. For a test, I pulled out a serene silver dagger and threw it at a solider. However, the dagger simply glanced off his skin. He sneered and pulled out his own weapon. It was an ice steel mace. Then, Jack darted over to the side and stabbed a solider, his weapon as a sword. The glowing blade cut the solider, but the stab that should have been fatal already began to heal. They crowded around Jack, ready to kill. But Collins opened her eyes and yelled, “STOP!” the soldiers froze. They looked around, wondering whether they should. In that time, Jack darted over to our side. The ice steel weapons shook, snapping the soldiers out of the trance. Collins blasted one with gold light from Umbrarum, and another with white light from her hand. The two staggered back, smoking and sizzling. But as soon as they were in darkness again, they healed. That`s when Jack went to action.

I knew their weaknesses. They must always be in dark. If they do, they would be invincible. If not, well, we`ll see. I leaped into the air with all my strength. I turned my weapon into a battering ram, and it broke the ceiling. The soldiers screamed as they began to burn. Soon, they were a pile of ashes. They reminded me of warrior vampires, except that they didn`t seem to like blood. We escaped through the hole. Behind us we heard yelling as we floated up the hole in a cloud of darkness. We popped up in a rainforest. “Where are we?” I asked. It was a general question, but Collins said, “We`re in the amazon jungle.” I stared at her. “How did you know that?” “The tree over there told me.” She didn`t look like she was kidding. “You can talk to plants?” I asked. “Yep.” She said, rather bitterly. “and animals. That`s my power. Talking. Talking to animals, talking to plants, talking to people… even fungi.” “So, you can talk to mushrooms, flowers, and rabbits?” She nodded. “Yep. Though I`m not as persuasive when I talk with animals. Come on, let`s go find some more humans.” This time, magic or not, we all agreed. We walked the way the trees told us and found ourselves in front of an enormous restaurant in the middle of the jungle. The sign said, food. So that was either all the English the shopkeeper knew, or the shopkeeper had no sense of fashion. Probably both. So, we went in-all right you could chide us about entering a restaurant in the middle of the jungle, but we figured that traps were less obvious than this. We were wrong. At first the waiters were weary of even letting us in- until Collins stepped in. Then they became a little over excited. We waited for about a minute when the waiter returned with heaping piles of potato chips, overflowing milkshakes, mountains of French fries, and three double cheeseburgers. I shot Collins a dirty look. “I told you to only ask for minimum.” Collins shrugged. “What? I was hungry.” I sighed, but honestly, I was starving as well. When we got the food, we took two seconds to breathe in the fumes and we started to eat. Other than the time when my orphanage starved me for a week because I stole the car keys (long story) I have not that eaten that much in my whole life. I`m pretty sure the entire food mountains were gone under ten minutes. We went over to the ordering place to ask permission to leave without paying, but the waiters were gone. Instead, there was two people in black coats talking to each other. Then, when they saw us coming, they turned. Without any reason, they threw a met at us. We looked around for screaming customers or something, but we were alone. We tried to blast our way out of this, but it was hopeless. Collins had told me that ice-steel or magicae gold could neutralize magic. I could not pass through the net, Luna clearly couldn`t summon darkness, and Collins couldn`t talk magic. We slowly passed out in the powerful net.

We woke a while later in an ice-steel cage. The bars were barbed, so a single touch could freeze us. “Can`t we just slash our way through this?” I asked. It was a rash hope, but I had to try. However, when I touched my bracelet, expecting it to turn into a gleaming multi-titanium sword. Like I said, rash hope. The sword didn`t even turn into a sword. Only the magicae weapons, Clasher and Umbrarum could still have it`s magical properties. However, every time Jack or Collins tried to bring their swords up for a slash, the blades pulled away like the same ends of a magnet. The two guys who captured us lumbered over to us and laughed. “No use in struggling. You would be here until Nobody calls you.” For a second, I thought he said if nobody calls us, we could go. Then I remembered Nobody. Then, I had an idea. I leaned closer to both and whispered, “Guys, neutralize the cage by using your weapons.” Collins struck her sword into the bottom of the cage, while Jack took the top. For a moment, the two metals harmonized. The cage became a simple steel cage. Their weapons turned into regular gold. “Hey, guys? Yeah, you over there, let us go.” She kept chanting “Let us go, let us go, and give me the key.” Until their eyes glazed over. They walked like a robot to the cage and opened the door. When we all got out, Collins ordered them to slap each other, gag themselves, and tie each other up. They obliged. As soon as we were out, we felt energy coursing through our veins again. We walked through the place we were in, looking for an exit-and Nobody. We walked for what seemed like an hour until we saw it. There was a door made of pure black diamond, with a glittering magicae gold handle. However, the energy inside the room was so powerful that it made the door seem flimsy-unable to contain the power coursing through the room. We opened it. Surprise, it was not locked. Instead, when we opened it, a gust of wind and light blasted us off our feet-except for Collins. Once we got to our feet, we walked in. Inside there was nobody except for Nobody. He was floating in the middle of the room, his eyes closed. The wore a black, glimmering cloak that flowed around him like liquid. Mercury flowed around him in a silvery circle. Liquid magnets inched their way up a steel wall. Everything here was liquid, bending to their master`s will. The ceiling was a dome made of water, as the bottom below them was quicksand. We would have been buried if not for the fact that I made a black surface around it. “Uh, hello, Nobody, we`re to kill you if that`s okay.” Nobody opened his eyes. “This is my true form. Call me Jacob. And sure, you can kill me. If you can.” Jacob yelled and all the liquid in the room exploded. It formed an enormous silvery black monster. “I have spent days making this monster. It has absorbed all the monsters we collected. It is far more powerful than a sorceress.” The monster roared, a sound like waves crashing against rocks. It sent us a tsunami of mercury at us, nearly drowning us in precious metal. Collins flashed around, teleporting as fast as lighting. She yelled some dumb orders like, “Dude your mom`s here! Turn around!” Or “That`s a good super demon. Now, stay!” The orders made the creature wince in annoyance and a flicker of doubt. That made the attacks less dangerous, but it was dangerous, nevertheless. Hurricanes of liquid steel and rubidium whirled around. A cage of liquid steel created itself and hardened around Jack. Jack slashed with his sword, cutting the bars like bars of soap. Then he was hit by a fist of magnet. It hardened as it hit Jack, then returned into it`s liquid state. Jack`s eyes flashed. “You want change of elements? I`ll give you change of elements!” He turned into air, his eyes glaring coldly down at Jacob. Suddenly, the air turned as humid as in the middle of the ocean. I could barley breathe until he created an oxygen hole around me. Somewhere to my left, I heard Jacob choking on the air. I could faintly see him surrounded in vapor, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and bunch of other poisonous gases. The monster was moving at sluggish speed, but Collins was as fast as a hawk. She slid down and cut the creature and unleashed the energy packed inside her and her sword. The blow wiped out the humidness in the air and replaced it with smoke. Where the monster used to stand was a thin line of vapor. Jacob was on the ground, still suffocating. “Jack, let him go.” Collins said. Jack hesitated, but even he knew it was right. He snapped his fingers and the smoke vanished. “Let`s go back to Snow fort” When we got there, we found everyone passed out on the floor. I nearly had a heart attack except for Collin, who was jumping around in the middle of the crowd. Some idiot must have told Collin about the siege. “So? Did you succeed?” He asked, being the hyper boy that he was. Collins told Collin to go to sleep himself, and after a short argument, they were both asleep on the tables.

After we revived everyone, we- the sorcerers and Luna and me, all gathered around the arena table. What bothered me most was the fact that what bothered them most was the fact that I controlled air. Jeez, can`t a kid have some supernatural powers up his sleeve? Nevertheless, they agreed to a trial. With all their powers combined, they could lift the immunity to the spell. Once they did, I didn`t feel much different, until Collins began to talk. Her voice was richer and stronger, with more layered feelings. I am not sure what she asked. I`m not sure what I replied. Soon the test was over, I could finally have a break from magic and relax. Only one sorcerer to go-the strongest one.