"They're Aqueogon soldiers, it's our own people attacking us! Ruven something bad is going to happen, we need Jian and we need people to fight!"
Huh? VoltenCrowns fighting amongst each other?
"Ruven, they're the ones who attacked your Village! They mentioned a boy escaping because of the interference of a Royal Guard of Vrontí, that's you!"
What?! Why?! Why do VoltenCrowns want to fight each other??
"Ruven, there's no time for these questions, I've contacted Jian, he'll be here anytime soon, get ready!"
Alright, I'm heading towards home.
As I was running, a magic spell ring appeared beneath me and I was back home... Teleport?? But who-
"Ruven! What the hell's happening?? Please, say something!"
It was Dawn.
"It's a lot to explain, how'd you escape from the school, where are the others?? Are you okay?!" I said.
"They're.. all... Dead." She said.
What..? No way..? They didn't escape..?
Crap, no time to worry about this now.
I grabbed the sword, grabbed Dawn's shoulders and said, "Look, bad things are gonna happen for a bit, you'll have to trust me, right now we have to save my friend. Help is coming. Just.. trust us."
She looked at me with determination, wiping her tears, we left the house.
"Was it you who used the teleportation spell?" I asked.
"Yes, I saw a person at a distance with our school's uniform, I took a risk and teleported you here."
That might be useful.
"Dawn, we're gonna have to teleport my friend out a sticky situation, get ready!"
Wait a minute, where's bobby?
Meanwhile, with Adonis,
"DAMN! I did NOT expect this many people, and there's too many anomalites, where the hell is Jian?!
There's literally too much to fight, there's way more than what I saw at the digsite, where are they even coming from?
Whoosh**
Huh? What was that?? A spear? Crap, they're catching up to me!
"Adonis Aeneas, long time no see huh!! Still a rat eh? Where's Jian, I've been wanting to fight that armored knucklehead for a while, your dead body might make him dance very well!"
Yo, what's this guy talking about? Who even is that? Sounds a bit too familiar..
Oh shit! It's Gabriel! I've gotta get out of here somehow, I could take him on if it was a one on one, but knowing him, he'll gang up on me like his life depends on it!
Wait, is that Ruven's crow?? What was it's name again?! Bob?? Bobby?!
Agh damn!
"Hey Bobby, make sure this reaches Ruven!" I said as a threw the helmet towards the crow.
He managed to catch it, and headed back towards Ruven.
Great, now I can fight back a little freely.
I jumped into the shadows and disappeared my way out of this fight, atleast getting further than the army of those anomalites, as for Gabriel, he's still tailing me.
"C'mon Jian, we need you!"
With Ruven,
???
Is... that Bobby??
He has the helmet, good. Something tells me that pairing the sword with the helmet
Might trigger something...
As soon as Bobby dropped the helmet towards me, I managed to catch it. As I did, I felt a *click* within me, as if a puzzle just got connected.
"Dawn, if something happens to me, or if I act strange after I wake up, run and escape with Adonis. But for now, watch my back." I said.
With a worried expression, she nodded.
I sat on my knees, put on the helmet and kept the sword on my lap.
I read about something like this in the old books which Ray gave to me, something about ancient artefacts requiring a set of two or more pieces to activate again, this might be the same.
Time to give it a try, worst comes to worst, I'll just be dead.
The helmet smells like dead cow, why am I even doing this?
Pain.
My last moments were nothing but pain.
Aeon Ragnar, you and your anomalites will feel the pain I felt.
The wrath of my revenge shall be the last thing you and your descendants feel.
This vessel will make sure of it.
I felt like my mind was being dragged apart, compressed, and forcefully being dragged around all together. After a spiral of emotions and pain I saw a vision again.
I was back where the fight took place. The Royal One stood injured whilst the SkullCrown had fallen. The Royal One left.
After his departure, a mysterious figure came near the fallen SkullCrown, along with anomalites. I saw his mouth moving, his words couldn't reach me, but I felt pain in my mind and soul. I felt pain when the anomalite took over the SkullCrown's body.
In the end, after it was over, regret is all that I could feel. Regret, and the hellish flames of revenge in my heart.
With Dawn,
"Some time passed after Ruven put on that helmet. I wonder if he'll be alright.."
Death.. Death.. Death to the Ragnars, Death to all anomalites, I have risen again..
"Huh?! Who said that?!"
I looked around, but I couldn't see anything or sense anything for miles. Only thing I could sense is mine and Ruven's fading-
Wait? Fading voltage? How he's -
That's when I saw it. Ruven stood up, his body was being covered by this black substance as his helmet took a new form.
A skull on his face, and the black substance took the form of an armor.
The top of the helmet had a hat on it, and on top a crown.
It couldn't be.. The SkullCrown armor?? My brother has to know about this.
As soon as I was about to reach my hand towards him, he took a few steps ahead. Gradually increasing its pace. He drew out his sword and with the sound of thunderbolt, he dashes forward, followed by trail of lightning.
With Adonis,
He deliberately brought me in the open to cut of my freedom of movemen, fight's gonna get complicated now.
I got him a bit exhausted, all I can do is stall till either Ruven or Jian reach here
"Hah, you're good, fighting you never disappoints. Let me say it again, you're the best hybrid I've seen till now. Too bad, this is as far as you go." Gabriel said, he was exhausted.
I have to take him out quickly before the anomalites reach here.. c'mon Jian, we need you!
I manifested two pistols and decided to fight at a distance.
I tried to shoot at his vital points, but he blocked it off.
Damn it!
I manifested sharp claws and decided to go fight up close where the spear's range might be ineffective.
I slashed his Achilles' tendon and got him to his knees.
Reinforcing my elbow, I downslammed his head followed by leg reinforcement. I used my knee to bring his head up with my left legged and kicked him behind his skull using my right
That should be enough for a concussion or two, It'll buy me some time to escape!
*Sounds of anomalites and soldiers screaming*
Huh? They can't be this close? I'll get a run on.
Suddenly, something pounced on my shoulder and held me down. It was Gabriel
At this rate I'm gonna go down, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do?!?!
The anomalites and soldiers teamed up on me, I tried to disappear in the shadows but it didn't work that well...
I'll have to use that.
I put my fingers into the ground and spread ink-like shadow into the ground.
The radius of this ability acts like quicksand and staying within this area can increase my efficiency.
Gabriel understood what I was trying to do. He ordered everyone to back away from me.
Using my shadow I created a boundary between me and them. Anyone who tries to cross the boundary gets taken over by my darkness as I charge up my voltage.
In this world, VoltenCrowns have three special things. The first, being able to manifest weapons according to his affinity or inner strength.
The second, being able to enter the VoltenCrown awakening state, which cannot be accessed. The only ones who could were the Executioners.
The third, being able to short-circuit and go overdrive mode.
Normally, VoltenCrowns don't try to use overdrive mode, it's something that requires mastery and has a chance of making the user weaker after using it.
But for me it's different. The darkness created by my shadows allow me to manifest any sort of weapon and armor to my liking.
As for my overdrive...
There's a 50% chance I survive it and 50% chance I die if I use it. This mode makes me insanely strong. But this only applies if I use it on command.
The only other way is by losing control over my emotions or myself as a whole or if I'm about to die, in which case, the penalties don't count. But the chance I suffer too much drawbacks is less considering that I'm a hybrid.
To find ways around this, I raise my voltage to the edge of the short-circuit line. This gives me a boost on my output for a limited time, but because of my ShadowBurst, it's useful. No matter what happens though, it will not weaken me.
Most of the strongest VoltenCrowns in today's date use this technique, but it takes a lot of mastery to achieve.
But there's one problem, Gabriel. Of course, strength-wise he's stronger than me with better reserves, but he hasn't used his Burst ability yet.
I have to think carefully.
I'll manifest an armor first.
My armor reinforced my whole body. Using a mantis blade, I took out most of the enemies without Gabriel catching me. However this is my limit, I didn't come prepared.
Suddenly, I heard a screeching sound.
It was blood curdling, and unnecessarily loud, it wasn't even close but it hurt my ears.
Wait, what? I sense something familiar coming. It's like Ruven's voltage, but it's so tiny I can't even sense it.
Before I knew it, a thunderbolt striked nearby. It was an unusual black color. Dust flew up in the air, as if something landed with the lightning.
And there was something, a pair of glowing red dots could be seen coming from the strike point.
When it stepped forward, I couldn't catch a glimpse of it because I was already on the ground because of the pressure. That dreadful intensity in the air was enough to get Gabriel to his knees too.
It's walking past me, what's happening, I can't tell anything anymore, my brain is going haywire!
Suddenly was teleported somewhere else. When I looked who was around me, it was a cute witch girl.
"Umm, are you Ruven's friend?" She asked.
"Yeah I am, I'm Adonis Aeneas. But where's Ruven?" I asked.
"Well..." She said as she cast a clairvoyance spell.
She pointed at the thing which showed up and said "That's him, Ruven Ryder, or in other words— SkullCrown."
"No way, didn't he die?" That's what we thought, but after seeing Ruven, we got our answer. We need to find more answers, but that's only if we can get Ruven back to normal."
"But how-"
Before I could say anything, I was cut-off by the loud sound of Jian's airship.
He dropped from the air and did a cool landing...
He approached us and when he did, he said in a stern and deep voice.
"That hurt."