Chapter 4

  The Hidden Isnd

  Nil

  I wake up with a headache, feeling dizzy. I looked around me, and the pce I woke up in was unremarkable. The room smelled like grass, and the walls had a smooth but ancient stone appearance. Everywhere in the room, the humidity of salt water made itself present. In a room filled with cracks, spray paint was the only thing covering the walls. It was also dark, with only the sunlight from the tiny window giving me visibility. The room only had a bed and a table. I looked around, not knowing where I was. I tried to find an exit but wasn’t very successful. After giving up a few minutes and ying on my bed, I heard the calm noise of ocean waves. It reminded me back to my home, with the peaceful grass flowing as I used to py in the field.

  The memories flooded into my mind, my family, my home, and my brother. My legs weighed more than metal as I fell to my knees, and tears fell down my face, surrounding me as the fire that clung to me once did. The image of my parents and my sister kept repying in my mind. My heart raced faster than an engine, and my eyes darted around, hopeful for something to say that it was all a dream. Emptiness and guilt tightened my lungs, freezing me in pce as I struggled to breathe. I looked around to find somewhere to run away from whatever this was. But everywhere I looked, there was no escape. Giving up, I began to calm down. But I soon realized there was a window.

  I looked through the window only to see a cliff and the ocean as if I were thousands of feet up. My heart races and I jump back in front of the window, terrified from the height I was at.

  I ask out loud, “What is this pce? Who brought me here?” A shadow comes from the darkness and is the same man that I saw before I passed out.

  He had a beard, with shining wise eyes. The man had shining boots and chest armor that seemed lightweight. His armor ptes were a dark gray with blue lining. He also had a cape at his shoulders, along with a strap on his waist. He had a shining white band on his head, along with his thick leather gloves.

  “An isnd, we call it Irepha.” His voice was gentle but assertive.

  I looked at him in confusion and wonder. Who could he be? He walked closer, and I backed away. “Don’t get any closer. I don’t know who you are and don’t want anything to do with you.”

  “And why is that?”

  “I lost everything, my home, my family, everything.”

  “I’m sorry for your loss, but sitting here won’t solve your problem. You may have lost everything, but I’m offering you a chance to rebuild.”

  Who was this guy? Why does he think he can tell me what to do? I shoved him as I looked for an exit.

  “You don’t get how it feels. I lost everything. I don’t care for what you have to say.”

  Silence filled the room. “If you wish to leave, it’s to the left.”

  I walked out of the room and to the outside. It was a field, with grass and the cliffside from the window.

  The man had followed me. “If your choice is to not join my journey, then so be it. But I will offer you one more time. I seek to rebuild. I will sy the beast that destroyed your home. Afterward, you won’t have to see my face ever again.”

  The deal seemed like the only option left. I had nothing left to fight for, and arguing wouldn’t solve it. Maybe this could be a chance to find my brother or to get revenge on the creature that ruined everything. After some thought, I looked at him again. “Fine, but I’m only coming to kill that monster.” I followed him back to the room.

  He looked at my hand, so I looked down to see my hand being a metal arm. I looked at my hand and screamed, an object mimicking my hand and being made of metal.

  My mind raced with questions. “WHAT HAPPENED TO MY HAND!?” “Uh, we had to put a prosthetic on it. Your hand was far from being repaired, so to save your life we have to put on a prosthetic.”

  “It includes some defense, though. You will protect yourself for once.” The man assured me.

  I didn’t even realize it was there until now. Trying to pull it off, I failed to do so. I decided not to bother and to sit down because of all the struggle of doing nothing. When I calmed down, the design of the arm looked more vivid than before. It was a light gray with smooth lining, also being easy to use. I recall what he said earlier and wonder, What could this have that can help me? The metal hand was also lightweight and shiny. It was the same color as his armor, and it seemed to have a gap to fit something.

  “Well, sorry for not introducing myself sooner. My name is Si-yeir, and you are?”

  “Nil, my name is Nil Horus.” I clenched my fist, both angry and scared.

  “Well Nil, I wanna show you something.” Si-yeir walked to a table in the room, and the table only had a scrolled-up map. Old and ripped at the edges, the map shown

  I looked at him in confusion again. “What is it?”

  I wondered if could the map rete to that beast on the isnd. What happened to the creature, anyway? Did he kill it or is it still alive?

  “The same creature that attacked you is this one. It’s the same one that destroyed an isnd a few hundred miles away.”

  Si-yeir started unfolding a map, showing me a huge array of isnds that I had never even seen before, “I don’t know how it got there, but if it keeps ravaging these isnds, the isnds will be gone in a few days.”

  I looked at him, still needing answers for several things. “Why is it doing this, and how is it doing this?”

  “I don’t know why, but it burns the isnds and kills the people on the isnd until there is nothing left,”

  I remembered my brother and uncle, and what happened to them. I now knew that it wasn’t just my town this was happening to, and it got me infuriated. “Well, then we have to do something about it!” I demanded in anger.

  “Not yet. We must have more firepower, and I know a guy just for that.”

  “Where is he?”

  “He’s on another isnd. He is pretty far from here, but I know a way to get there pretty fast.”

  I looked at the map and looked at the isnds. On the map, there was one with a pin and it seemed to be bigger than other isnds by several times.

  “How could we get there?”

  Si-yeir ignored my question. “C'mon, there's something I need to show you.”

  Si-yeir opened a gateway that otherwise wouldn’t be there and revealed a huge hallway that looked very different from the room I woke up from. I follow Si-yeir in a grand hallway, with various paintings of several people I didn’t know about. The carpet floor was soft, and the walls were shining. While seeing several hallways branching off from our hallway.

  “Where are we going?”

  “The armory and the medical home. I will tell you why once we get there.”

  We continued walking until we met a gigantic door. Si-yeir put a code on the keypad next to the door and it opened. After the enormous door opened, we arrived at the medical home.

  Several people were in beds being treated, and the stench in this room was bad. I started to cough and gag. “Why are we here?”

  He answers unfazed by the stench, “These are the survivors of the attack, and they are currently being treated and hopefully saved.” “We never found your brother. I’m sorry.”

  Si-yeir said in a more soft and concerned tone, “But we may still find him, and many people are still missing.”

  I looked at Si-yeir and my heart was racing. “Do we know where he is?”

  Si-yeir looked at me as if it took effort to get out what he was going to say. “No.”

  My heart races as I look at my brother in grief and I say rashly back at him, “Why us? We never even did anything to that beast?”

  “I don’t know why it’s doing this.” Si-yeir answered sadly and then looked me in the eye, “But we can stop the creature before it attacks anyone else.” Si-yeir patted me on the shoulder, he smiled and looked at me.

  Si-yeir looks at me confidently. “Now let's go to the armory.”

  We walk back into the grand hallway, now going to the left hallway. We come to another door, and again, Si-yeir puts in a code. Si-yeir opens the door to the armory, showing various weapons. The weapons vary from swords and axes to guns and cannons, some of which range from being made of steel to some of wood. I walked around the room in interest and amazement. Then I went farther into the armory until I saw some weapons in particur. Weapons made of blue crystal glowed in the room, and there was an axe and over a hundred Katanas. The weapons also had the same symbol that Si-yeir has, which furthers my interest.

  I asked out loud in curiosity, “Hey what are these-“

  “This is the armory, where we could make all the instaltions for your arm. This may also be a good time to tell you what I am.”

  “I am what they call the Alyzir. We have special abilities that we can use, and they can be given at birth.” Si-yeir expined further, “We are born into a cn, and we can inherit techniques of our own and some abilities used by all cns.”

  Si-yeir waves his hand and blue fire lights his hand. “My ability is that of the blue fire. Not only can I use it for anything, but I can also make my weapons float in the air.” Si-yeir waves his hand again and the Katanas I saw earlier floated in the air.

  “When we die, our techniques end up returning to a state. Which ends up being what you call an Alylite.” Si-yeir hands me a blue crystal sphere. “They can take any shape and tend to be used for the Alyzir’s power or to revive them entirely.” He said. “Though reviving them is just a myth, destroying them is an option.” Si-yeir returns the sphere and says, “That Alylite is my father’s. He died protecting me when I was just a child. When I die, I will most likely return to that because my father did.”

  Si-yeir looked down in sorrow. “There used to be millions of the Alyzir. It didn’t matter if they were human or not because any race had gotten a technique.” Si-yeir looked down in sorrow. “But most died from war, from a Titian. A certain Titian.”

  I looked at him in confusion, “What’s a Titian?”

  “Titians are our descendants. We were in a time of grief, disease, and conflict.” Si-yeir started to tear up. “The worst one, he killed most of the Titians.” As I’m concerned about him, I asked. “What was the titian’s name?”

  “His name was Peraclipsis.”

  Si-yeir shivered and stuttered, not in fear, but sadness. “The moon glowed a dark, bloody red that night.”

  I could tell that Si-yeir's voice was becoming even more shaky. “Peraclipsis killed every person in sight, no matter who they were, but with the sun rising, we trapped him with lights and the sun. We locked him away, never to be seen again, but he said one st thing.”

  Si-yeir now looked me dead in the eyes. Fear gnawed inside me as he repeated the Titian’s words, “When the nd meets the third blue moon, may the day of the eclipse come. I will be free, and rain carnage on the ones who chained me to the ground.”

  I watched as Si-yeir took a moment of grief. He put the Alylite back into his pocket, regaining his composure. “Let’s go.” I grabbed a pistol from the wall and followed him to another room within the armory.

  I followed Si-yeir into a room. Everywhere you can see pieces of armor hung on stands or the wall. “Well, find some armor you like while I find the parts for your arm. Heavy armor will probably be not effective for you, for we will have to go rge distances on foot.” Si-yeir left while I wondered what kind of clothing I would wear.

  I always wanted to be a cowboy. Thoughts of my childhood returned as I decided what I would wear. I remembered the time my dad held me as he would ride his horse into town. We could afford a horse that we saved up a few years for. While I looked through the armor and ended up finding an old cowboy hat and a leather jacket, I also found a pair of old shades. I grabbed the pistol from my pocket and put it on my side strap.

  Si-yeir came back and held some parts. “Come, there's something I need to show you.”

  I followed Si-yeir back into the main room of the armory. Si-yeir took my arm and put some parts that seemed random to me inside the metal arm.

  “Now. Open your hand and point at the stand over there.” As I looked toward the stand, he pointed to the stand and I began to unclench my hand. Within less than a second, a huge beam of light came from my hand and flew towards the stand.

  The stand exploded into a pile of fmes and ash before I could even react. I stumbled back in shock and looked at the metal hand. “What just happened?”

  He ughed. “Pretty cool, right? That hand can shoot a variety of weapons. From fire to sers.”

  This hand can do that? I can shoot sers? I looked at my hand and remembered the person he was talking about. Maybe I could use this hand to free people, or to shoot monsters. “Alright, so how do we get to that isnd?”

  Si-yeir walked downstairs and led me out of the armory. “By ship, we’ll need to go to the exit.”

  We walked back to the main hallway and went to another hallway, less grand and smaller. We walked down the hallway until we met a door.

  Si-yeir opened the door, and it revealed stairs down to a dock. “Because I can only carry myself or one person when flying. We will have to go by ship.”

  I looked at him in confusion, “Wait, so how did you get me here, then?”

  “By ship.” He answered and walked the steps, “C’mon, I'll show you.”

  I followed him down the steps and to a ship. The ship was enormous and made of wood. It looked like one of those huge pirate ships. The wood was clean, and the sails were blue. Light brown painted wood made the exterior, and the figurehead at the front of the ship was a dragon.

  The sails were fresh, and all had the same symbol Si-yeir had. I ask, “So how far is this isnd?”

  “I don’t know, a few thousand miles probably.'' I look at him in confusion and then walk to the boat. Why wouldn’t he know where that person is that we need? The boat didn’t seem to go far, with its wooden stern and sails. I had no idea how we would ever get there.

  “I know what you're thinking.” He said out loud, almost like reading my mind, “I have a cool little trick we could use.”

  Fire flowed from his hand and into the boat as he made his hand into a rexed gesture. The boat glowed and the swords and Axe I saw earlier flew out the door we walked through and into the boat.

  He looked at me and said confidently, “Now the boat should be faster.” I say cheerfully as I see the sails high in the sky, “Let’s go then!”

  As I walked into the inside of the ship, and a room full of decorations. The room was full of paintings of Si-yeir and other people. There were gss decorations of dragons and other creatures I didn’t recognize. The carpet on the floor was bright and soft, and the pilrs of the ship were grand and strong.

  I complimented with, “This pce looks nice.”

  “Thank you. The ship is called the Megaleio. My father gave it to me when I was a child.” I followed him through the ship.

  As we walked down a hallway, I saw several rooms with names. There were the living quarters, food storage, entertainment, and bathing rooms. We approached the end of the hallway with a room not called anything. Si-yeir opened the door, and we went inside. The room had a table with a stand with a gss case. I looked at the case, and one of them had a sword.

  The sword was clean. It was a regur gray color for the bde and the handle was gray, too. “This will be your weapon. I don’t have much of a purpose for it.”

  Si-yeir opened the case. “Every weapon made by the Alzyir will be gray until they get an owner, then they will change to the owner’s soul?.”

  He rested the sword in my hands, and suddenly it glowed light blue, and as I waved the sword, the surrounding water moved at will. “Now you can change the power of the sword by changing the soul,” Si-yeir expined, “or you can take the souls of others and use their powers, but you have to sy them with the sword.” He goes up the steps going back upstairs, “Besides, let's get offshore.” I follow Si-yeir up the steps.

  We carried tons of supplies, a lot of the bags were heavy, and some felt like enormous boulders. The same swords from the boat float backward, but instead of going back to the armory to be organized, they seem to be absorbed into Si-yeir himself. I continued carrying crates, bags, and anything else Si-yeir could find.

  ***

  After what felt like an entire hour of carrying whatever we needed to carry onto the boat, we set sail and started our journey. Now I climbed onto the boat exhausted, clinging to my knees as I gasped for breath. I looked up, to my surprise. Si-yeir was using his fire, making the winds stronger.

  I asked, still exhausted, “You can do that?”

  “Yes. But I’m trying to keep a reserve of my energy for any battles.”

  I walked down into the ship and went down the hallway. As I opened the door to where the quarters would be, I looked around for a room and went inside. Then I id down on a bed, and even with the aggressive waves rowing the boat, I went to sleep.

  ***

  I woke up and looked through the window, and it was barely morning and the dew of morning still appeared to be out. The sun shined through the window as the waves spshed against the boat. Now getting out of bed, I walked outside my room to see Si-yeir sitting in a chair.

  I greeted Si-yeir. “Good morning.”

  “Good morning,” He looked out to the sea. “have you ever heard of the story of Peraclipsis?”

  “No, I have not. What is it?”

  “Nothing.” he replied, “It's just something about him. I’ve been wondering about it.”

  As I looked at him in confusion, I wondered. What does he mean by that?

  “Well, we’ve got work to do,”

  I told him. “Remember, I’m not here to do your dirty work. I’m here to kill that beast.”

  “Did you forget about your brother? He should be your focus.”

  I remembered the face Aubin had when I left him in that vilge, and anger filled me. “There’s no point in looking because he’s already dead.” Si-yeir sighed, then got up from his chair and went upstairs. I followed him upstairs and to the hull.