The ‘guests’ made their first move.
Without even introducing themselves in proper manners, they attacked. Hikki was forced to roll out of the way and dodge everything that was thrown at him. His movement was hampered by his injured arm and the fact that the ‘guests’ were unlike anything he had faced before. He also found himself greatly outnumbered and outwitted by the strange visitors’ irregular fighting styles.
He parried one of the ‘guests’ sword attack. “Who the hell are you?” he barked.
“My apology for the lack of manners,” the swordsman said and kicked Hikki to the monastery’s wall. “I am Rabaleo, senior leader of the Narulian Knighthood Order.”
Hikki had barely managed to recover from the crash and fell on the ground beaten. “Narulian… knights?”
“That is right, son of Nagalintar,” Rabaleo answered and split the sword to form double blades. “We have served our lord Nagalintar for millennia, and we have existed ever since Time started its first tick to protect the existence of Narulia.” So saying he charged at Hikki and intensified the speed of his swordplay. “Simply put, we are Immortals.”
“Immortals? What the hell?” He pushed Rabaleo and escaped his further attacks, only to have himself ambushed by a war hammer-wielding knight. The attack missed, but the shockwave sent him flying back to the monastery.
“I missed,” Karaj grumbled.
“Hikki!” Patricia approached the dazed boy but was blocked by a young blonde knight. “He cannot fight! How could you heartlessly attack him?!”
“Ma’am, I would advice you to stay out of our path,” Cedric spoke and pointed the sword at her neck. “Unless you want to become our first Earthling casualties.”
“Leave her out of this!” Hikki pounced at the boyish-looking knight but was caught in midair by Cedric’s binding magic. “Bastard! Don’t ever touch her!”
“Let him go!” Patricia cried out. “You can’t treat him like this! Please!” Another ‘guest’ appeared behind her and hypnotized her, silencing the nun before she could even do anything. This enraged Hikki even more and he broke the magic bind with the gale sword.
“You… HARMED HER!!!!!” He swung the gale sword at the ‘guest’, which was deftly parried by Rabaleo’s blades. He screamed bloody murder and barraged Rabaleo with Reppuken assault. Angry at what the knights had done to Patricia, he screamed a deafening cry and unleashed Chrono Install, which had been sealed inside of him since he entered the Bougainvillea Brigade. Rabaleo and the rest of the knights were appalled by the sudden influx of energy and were backed off.
“Now you piss me off,” he murmured. “DIE!!!”
The table was slowly turning to Hikki’s favour. He wasted no time and used every piece of opportunity he got from Chrono Install and attacked the knights. Projectiles were tossed, kicks were flying, and fists were delivered, and he made no attempt of letting anyone of the ‘guests’ approach him.
“Eat this!” He lifted his palms and slammed them onto the ground, unleashing a powerful Crescent Storm that knocked everyone off their feet. Screaming a battle cry, he increased the storm’s destructive force, almost destroying the monastery in the process even though he was not aware of it.
“Release the dragons!”
A portal was opened. From it came dragons of all forms and species, and they charged at Hikki, unaffected by the Crescent Storm that continued ravaging the area. One of the dragons fired ice beam at the storm and instantly froze the wind blades, paving the way for Rabaleo to attack.
“Shimatta!”
Rabaleo kicked him on the face, sending him away from the monastery and deep into Siberian wilderness. “Seal this area! Don’t let anyone come close!” Immediately Cedric and several knights cast barrier field over Bratsk and the surrounding area, sealing it from the outside world.
Hikki recovered. He found himself floating over the forest, confused by his newfound ability. He had no time to answer the question, because he saw a hemispherical dome forming over his head and closing the area. He also had no time to figure out the situation because Karaj already pounced at him, war hammer glowing in vibrant energy. He dodged, but was kicked by Rabaleo into the forest. The senior knight tossed one of the double blades at Hikki, missing his head by an inch, and tossed the other blade at the grounded Gale Whistler. It also missed after he rolled out of the way.
“As expected from son of Nagalintar,” Karaj spoke as Hikki slowly stood up. “What must we do, Rabaleo? He’s difficult to restrain.”
Rabaleo pulled the double blades back to his hands. “We have to accomplish this mission.” He signalled at the dragons to continue attacking Hikki and landed on a clear patch of land in the middle of the forest. Hikki was too dazed to see the dragons coming, and was in danger of getting killed.
Or so it was.
The dragon suddenly appeared before its ‘master’, blocking the Narulian dragons with wind shield. Rabaleo was surprised to know the dragon had escaped, as so Hikki who then gazed at the dragon. Too weak to say anything, he could only nod and the dragon roared in might before unleashing its wrath against its ‘cousins’.
“Tell me, Rabaleo,” Hikki spoke and cringed at the stinging pain in his arm. “Why are you calling me son of Nagalintar? I never remember having a father named that.”
“You didn’t know, did you?” Rabaleo replied. “Your father… no, Lord Nagalintar was responsible for taking you thousands of years into the future to fulfil your late mother’s wish. Your parents had hoped to see you growing up away from the harm of Narulia and the cursed Chronomancer dynasty.”
“Impossible! I thought my parents were killed!” he barked. “My foster parents told me they were killed in air crash!”
“Your mother was, but your father isn’t,” Rabaleo said. “In fact, he has lived for all the eternity, longer than anyone of us.”
“Liar! If father really cares for me, then why he abandoned me and then send you people to kill me?” he cried.
Rabaleo opened his stance. “Because your father regretted marrying the only woman he cared of in the entire universe. He regretted having a family he had cherished when the truth is he shouldn’t ever have one.” He pounced at the still-shocked Hikki and impaled one of the blades into his shoulder. “You should be lucky not to live as a Chronomancer, or you would have met your demise earlier.”
Hikki counterattacked with a misfired Reppuken. He could not continue the attack due to the injury and fell onto his one knee. “Then… then tell me why he hasn’t met me along these years!”
“We cannot tell you the answer, unfortunately,” Rabaleo spoke. “But it doesn’t matter, because Lord Nagalintar doesn’t wish to see his descendant living in this world.”
Rabaleo attacked again. Hikki dodged the sword thrust but was ambushed by the relentless Karaj; he miscalculated his steps and fell into Rabaleo’s sword assault instead, and was severely battered as the Narulian knight hacked and slashed every inch of his body. He barely managed to knock Rabaleo and Karaj with a Psych Burst, but in the process exposed his body to the Narulian dragons; one of the beasts shot fireball from its mouth and burned the Gale Whistler on impact. It would have been a fatal blow had the Chrono Install not protected him, but even so he was greatly weakened.
He could not surrender.
Executed or not, he would not surrender without giving the ‘guests’ what they really wanted. With Chrono Install slowly dissipating, he gathered the last bit of Chronograph power into dense energy orb and lifted it over his head. “If fire is what you ask…” he murmured and turned the orb into a blade of dark gale, “then fire is what you will get!”
“Then prepare to meet your demise!” Rabaleo transformed the double blades into a longbow. Arrow was summoned from the thin air, and he aimed the weapon at Hikki.
The arrow was released. He waited for the arrow to come to its target, and lowered the sword a bit. He was ready to take it head-on.
A faint shadow appeared between the two fighters. Hikki was appalled, as so did Rabaleo and Karaj (as well as Cedric who had arrived at the scene) but it was too late to stop the arrow from darting across the field.
Hikki recognized the woman. “Patricia…”
The woman turned around. She stared at him. There was no sign of regret from her eyes, only an utter inescapable sadness.
She smiled.
“NO!!”
The arrow struck and pierced through her chest. Blood sprang from her wounds like light from a lamp, a crimson fountain of liquid life. She wavered, firmed for a moment, and then toppled. He discarded the gale sword and snatched her up in her arms before her body could hit the ground.
“Patricia!? What the hell are you doing!?”
“Hikki…” Her coughing was pained; blood was already choking her throat and lungs. “I’m sorry for doing this…”
“Why are you doing this!? Why?”
Somehow she managed to cup his cheek with a bleeding palm. Somehow, she smiled as she did so.
“Sometimes… people will do crazy things just for the sake of their beloved one… right?” she murmured. “I-I guess I’m among those people…”
“But not like this! Please, Patricia, don’t die!” he pleaded. “If you die, then what will happen to Katrina and the rest of the children?!”
“I’m sorry, Hikki…” She gasped and coughed for want of air; blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, but she bravely went on. “Please, forgive me…”
“Don’t apologize at me, damn it!” he barked. “You… you’re an idiot! You know that?!”
She merely chuckled. “Idiot? I have been an idiot… for falling in love with you…”
He was startled. Did she just confess her feelings to him now? Did she just say the word ‘love’? There could be no other explanation for what she said, why she had said so. “Patricia… you can’t be this serious…”
She shook her head. “A nun will never tell a lie…” Her supple cheeks were moist from tears. “I won’t tell you a lie… ever…”
“Don’t say anything!” He hugged her tightly, cried as he did so. “It’s my fault for making you involved in this! You can punish me as you wish! Just don’t die on me!”
“Hikki, my body hurts…” She gasped in pain. Even as he released her, blood poured freely from the wells of her wounds, colouring everything scarlet. Her voice went weak and faint. “I can’t take it any longer… it hurts so much…”
“Patricia, no! You’re not going to die! You hear me?”
Yet she merely lifted her face up to his, no matter the pain and the suffering it entailed. It would only be for a moment more, she knew, only a little while longer. Endure a little more-- and shape the boy she so admired immeasurably.
Her trembling lips pressed against his in a kiss that was their first-- and their last. He could do nothing but to return it hungrily, sadly, passionately. The warmth in his mouth was her blood; the warmth upon his face was her breath.
“Promise me, Hikki…” she murmured after their kiss disengaged. “Promise me to live…”
“No, Patricia, I can’t…! I just can’t…! Don’t you realize lonely I am? If you die… then who else can I rely on?”
“Hush…” A finger stopped his lips; her heartbreaking smile silenced his protesting heart. “God is always there for those who seek for His help. He will help those who are in dire need for His blessings.”
Patricia gasped, coughing of blood again. Hikki panicked and pleaded her to hang on. “Hikki… I feel my time’s running out… I can’t bear this pain for much longer… promise me, Hikki… promise me…”
“I…” He seized her hand and stared into her eyes. “I…”
Her dress would never be pure again, forever dyed with her very own blood, yet she held on a while longer. “Hikki, please, hurry…”
He nodded, the words coming from the depth of his heart and soul. “I-I promise you…” He saw the wide, generous smile carved upon the face that to him would eternally be alive and beautiful. “I promised you, right?”
“Thank you, Hikki… farewell…”
Her hand ran across his face one last time before it dropped to the ground, never to rise again. She slowly closed her eyes, never to open evermore. He felt and heard her heart slow to a halt, then quit completely. He cradled her body in his arms.
She was dead.
And so was he.
“Patricia… I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”
He trembled. Sanity had left his mind, and all that was left was emotions too painful to bear.
And it would only take one scream to let out everything.
“UWAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!”
His screams came from his broken heart. His tears flowed from the well of his torn emotion. His rage manifested from his anger at the ‘guests’. Then his voice died out by the roaring noise of the Chrono Install as it overtook his body. The energy overflow knocked the Narulian knights and dragons away from him, and shook the barrier field with great force it began to crack.
“He’s beyond unstoppable!”
“If this continues, he will destroy the whole continent!”
“Do whatever it takes to contain the explosion!!”
The surge died out. He calmed down, and slowly he rested Patricia on the snow, whispering something in low voice as he put his palm on her chest.
“I can’t forgive you…” he spoke, his voice turned sombre and mad, his gale sword returned with double the darkness.
He turned to Rabaleo.
“I CAN’T FORGIVE YOU FOR MURDERING HER!!!!”
He fired endless torrents of Reppuken. The first to eat the ferocity of the angered Gale Whistler was Karaj, as he was annihilated after the projectiles ripped his body apart into pieces. Rabaleo had barely dodged the attack and lost his left arm in the process, and several Narulian knights faced the same fate as Karaj’s as Hikki turned his rage at them.
“It can’t be…” Rabaleo groaned after he was taken out of combat by Cedric. “He possesses the same level of power as Boss… but he’s a mere human!!”
Hikki stopped. Again he screamed, and this time the barrier was destroyed completely, and his voice echoed across northern Siberian, putting fear into anyone who heard it. Now overtaken by the Chronograph power, he became what the Narulian knights had feared of for a very long time, ever since the Chronomancers set up their dynasty.
The Berserker.
“What must we do, Rabaleo?” Cedric asked.
“Leave this to me, Cedric, Rabaleo.”
The knights could not believe what they had just heard. “Boss!”
The man nodded. “I apologize for this complication. I’ll take it over from here.” He stepped towards the still-screaming Hikki, but stopped when Rabaleo pleaded him not to go. “I must do what a father has to do to his ill-mannered child,” he answered.
He continued approaching Hikki, before he stopped. He took a close look on the Gale Whistler, long enough for him to think of the long-lost relationship between them. “Thousands of years have passed…” He closed his eyes. He sighed in deep despair.
The boy. His only son, abandoned for many years, was now standing before him, bodies and skeletons surrounding him in a scene reminiscent to Hell. He could never - and would never - believe the act of carnage the boy had done.
“Hikki…”
The boy stopped screaming. He had heard his voice. Barely.
“Father…”
Hikki clenched his fists. Instantaneously, his Chronograph circuit recharged and boosted to an exceedingly high level. Chrono Install executed for the third time, the boy was now engulfed in dark blue aura, darker than anything else it had produced. He clenched his hand, produced a sword made of dark energy and opened a stance.
“You have come to erase me from existence.”
He shook his head. “You’re wrong.” The boy was deeply torn, and the Chronograph was slowly consuming every piece of his sanity. He was aware of it; he, too, had fallen to the power.
He had no other choice.
“Son.” Huracan was withdrawn from its sheath and vibrated with energy when he channelled his Chronograph power into it. “You are suffering. Let me help you overcoming it.”
“I will kill you.”
He sighed. “Bayu, please forgive this irresponsible husband and father… Huracan.”
“[Yes, Sir. Load Cartridge.]”
“Illuminati.”
--“Understand, Master. Seal Open.”--
The Dragon God charged forward. The Gale Whistler pounced. Both screamed from the bottommost of their hearts. Both cried from the deepest of their blood. Both howled in one voice that shattered the heavens and shook the earth.
The battle of son and father. The battle of Whistling Gales. The battle of destiny.
The battle had started.