13 Celestial trail part 2

Izzy awoke with stone walls surrounding her on all sides in a circle with two gaps on opposite sides that turned corners and a small speaker and button on the wall in front of her. Walking up to the speaker there was a note on it that read: 'Welcome to your trial. To complete your trial, you must exit this maze. Pressing this button will make the speaker tell the way to the exit'. Izzy instantly pressed the button the speaker spoke in a robotic voice:

"Take the exit that has a right turn then follow the path until the third exit on the left." Izzy looked at the two exits. One turned left and the other turned right. She went trough the right turning one and walked down the path until she reached the third exit on the left. Walking through it, she found herself back in the circular area. She pressed the button again.

"Take the exit that has a left turn then follow the path until the second exit on the right." She followed the instructions again. 'Exit with a left turn' she said in her head as she followed the directions. 'second exit on the right. Once again she walked through and found herself in the circular area again. This time, there were two daggers on the floor in the middle. She looked at the button and pressed it again.

"You have failed twice. If you fail again, a monster will be sent to chase you and kill you until you find the correct exit. Take the third exit and then take the only exit." said the speaker. This brought fear into Izzy's heart. What if she messed up? What if she was killed? Had she messed up the directions before? Was it lying to her? All these questions and more crowded her and she started to panic. She picked up the daggers to defend herself and ran through one of the two exits of which she chose randomly. Again choosing randomly, Izzy ran through an exit that lead her back to the circular area but this time there was a person standing in the middle holding two daggers like Izzy. They turned with a maniacal grin to show it was a cone of Izzy. Izzy was petrified. She didn't know what to do. What did it mean by the third exit? There's only two! The doppelganger launched themselves at Izzy slashing with their daggers but Izzy countered them and made a run for the button. The clone saw her running towards the button but instead of jumping in front of the button they lumped behind it. As if they were hiding something.

"There's no escape from me!" said the clone in a distorted voice similar to Izzy's. Izzy went to press the button but a small shimmer of light coming from a crack in the stone behind the clone. There wasn't a third path. Not yet at least. Izzy made a run for one of the exits and the clone followed but just after they jumped Izzy turned and made a run for the wall behind the button.

"I told you, there's no escape!" said the clone.

"Not yet! I just have to make my own way out!" shouted Izzy and she slashed and felt an energy like never before and sent it at the wall sending arcs of electricity flying as the wall and the clone exploded into smoke. Izzy stepped through the hole she had made to find an exit with light coming out of it. She stepped through. There was a flash and she fell unconscious.

William awoke with a group of people. They were at a fork in the road with one path going straight to freedom whereas the other had traps and monsters. William instinctively took charge and said it would be safer to go down the straight path. The group agreed and followed him down the path. It was all going fine until the exit was blocked by a wall of stone that came out of nowhere and the same happened for the way they entered the path. It wasn't soon before the walls began to close in on the group. They tried everything to stop or slowdown their oncoming death but nothing they did proved to help. William was slamming at the wall blocking the exit before he noticed a small hole. Big enough for him but too small for the others. With the others distracted by the closing walls he dived through the hole just as the walls closed over it. On the other side he could see the exit but it was guarded by a clone of himself holding a trident. He suddenly felt something wet under his feet and looked down to see a stream of blood coming out of small gaps in the wall behind him. The weight of what he had just done hit William like a brick. His clone walked up to him and said:

"You left them to die. You let them trust you and followed you into a trap but you didn't die with them and instead ran away." The doppelgangers voice was deep and sinister with a mocking tone. William collapsed to the floor in disbelief and sadness.

"I can make it right! Give me another chance!" pleaded William.

"I'll give you one last try. That is all." the clone said as it tapped on the ground with the trident and William was sent back to the point when he first awoke. He went to speak and lead the team through the other path but he stopped. He looked at the group as they began to argue what to do. William spotted a small person who was trying to speak but couldn't be heard. William shouted at the top of his voice "SILENCE!! You, what is your plan?" William pointed to the small person who said they should take the path that has the obvious traps but avoid the traps using their obviousness. The group agreed and followed their new leader who pointed out each trap along the way before they reached the exit. They all excitedly ran out leaving William behind.

"Well done, you left your high role as leader and let someone else lead your group. Normally in these trials you's have to fight us clones but I want to hurry this up. Congrats!" The clone handed William it's trident before exploding unto smoke. The trident's energy coursed through William as he stepped through the exit and fell unconscious.

Edward awoke in a forest. As far as he could see there were trees and bushes with the faintest glimpses of sky escaping from the leaves above. Suddenly, an arrow whizzed past and planted itself two inches into a nearby tree. Edward ran for cover behind a tree just as another arrow flew through the air where his head used to be. Quickly glancing to see where his attacker was, another arrow barely missed his eye and landed with a 'thunk' in the trunk of the tree he was hiding behind. All he was able to make out was that there was an archer squatted in a tree far away with a large, white bow and arrows appeared out of thin air. All he had to do was find a pattern and use the gaps where his attacker was forming the arrows to run to different trees and get closer. At first it worked. He weaved left and right, dodging the arrows raining down on him until his attacker learned Edwards methods and began to shoot his arrows randomly. Edward was now only four metres away but the arrows were firing completely unpredictably. Edward had to think of something to do but there was no pattern to use. The only way to get close was to...be unpredictable himself! Edward ran out into the open and ran straight for the archer. Jumping and rolling left and right until he was right underneath the archer. Running up the tree, he dodged an arrow, grabbed it from the trunk of the tree and spun round to plan it straight into the archer's head. The archer's hood fell back to reveal Edward's face for only a second before exploding into smoke. The bow began to fall but Edward grabbed it and felt a strange tingling inside. There was a flash and he fell unconscious.

The group re-awoke in a cave with five pillars in front of them. They were all still holding their weapons and felt stronger and faster than ever before. But something was off. James and Josie were nowhere to be seen. Had they failed their trials? Five figures suddenly appeared on the pillar wearing white robes that covered their whole bodies.

"Well done warriors!" spoke one in an echoed and female voice.

"You have all completed your trails and have gained the right to possess a celestial weapon!" spoke another in an echoed and male voice.

"Where's James and Josie!?" demanded Ben. His sudden change in personality from quiet and confined came as a shock to the group.

"These ruins only contain five celestial weapons!" spoke another robed person.

"The celestial weapon of darkness was hidden and the celestial weapon of fire was lost!" said a forth.

"Your friends are still at the temple waiting for you! Good luck warriors!" said the last robed person and before anyone could speak they were each engulfed in an aura of colour and were teleported back to the ruins where they once stood.

"Holy £@/#!!" shouted James as the group appeared out of nowhere.

"Surprise! We're back!" said William sarcastically. The group then explained how they each awoke in their own trial, had to defeat a clone of themselves to escape and got their own celestial weapon. They then looked at each other's weapons. Izzy's daggers were mostly a yellow metal with lines of silver that conducted her electricity. Liam's hammer was a large two handed hammer with the top of the hammer having braced corners and placed had carving that made it lighter. William's trident was a dark blue with two spirals of gold going in different direction that stopped at the base of the prongs and split off into three to make golden tips of the spikes. Ben's spear was light blue with a golden point like William's but there were holes near the end that revealed the spear was hollow. Edward's was a glistening white bow with leaf like patterns on it but there was no string. James and Josie admired the weapons like children in a sweet and then asked if the group knew why they didn't go through a trial. Edward turned to William expecting him to take lead but saw that he wasn't making any attempt to speak. Izzy then took lead and explained how the weapon of fire was lost and the weapon of darkness was hidden.

Once back on the ship, Aiden began to question them constantly about their trials but for some reason they could remember their trials. They did remember their trials but every time they tried to explain them they forgot. They gave up trying and decided to just head back to base to practise using the celestial weapons. The ship rose once again and began to fly out into space but a metallic 'thunk' was heard, all the electronics went out and the ship went back down. The group were no aware they weren't alone on the planet. There was an explosion behind them and the door was blow off and hundreds of soldiers dressed in black, armoured suits with helmets swarmed the ship and held the group at gun point. A slow clap could be heard getting closer and closer until it's source was standing in the doorway of the cockpit. It was a tall man with dark red hair, brown eyes and a scar that ran down his face and neck. He wore a black trench coat with the buttons undone and a blue shirt underneath. He had black trousers with short belts wrapped around the legs and black leather boots that made him tower over the soldiers. He then spoke with a deep and menacing voice:

"Take them to the ship's cells. Put them in different ones and take the weapons to my quarters." he waved his hand and the soldiers quickly went to work handcuffing William then Liam followed by the rest and marched them out of the ship towards a massive, black, planet sized war ship with hundreds of tiny ships flying around it. There was six black, metallic cubes with restraints on the walls inside. Everyone from the group was put into a different one each but things went south as they tried to put James inside one. There must have been an abilities dampener that brought Josie and James' energy to equal sizes because as James stepped in Josie was flung out of his body and she fell to the ground. The last James saw of her was The man with the scar shooting her with a strange device that knocked her out. The door to the cube then shut and it was complete darkness. Something was injected into the back of James' neck and he slowly lost feeling in his body before falling into a deep sleep.

James awoke with a start and looked around frantically. He was inside a strange cell and was on a hard bed with no pillow or blanket. There was a bucket in the corner of the room and all the walls were solid, black metal. He got off the bed and walked up to the cell bars. He grabbed one and a large jolt of electricity set him flying across the room and he hit the wall. He then heard footsteps walking down the hallway outside the cell and slowly got up. He was greeted with the scarred man.

"The first one awake. Normally it take another ten minutes before the drug wares off." said the man.

"Where's Josie you freak!" shouted James in disgust.

"Now now, there's no need for that kind of language. Please, call me Jack."

"That doesn't answer my question!"

"Ok, ok. I'll take you to her."

"Finally."

"But first." he held up a picture and past it to James through the bars. James took the picture carefully and looked at it with shock.

"I'm guessing from that expression you know who that is." said Jack with a grin.

"I-It's my dad." replied James. He clutched the photo of his dad's corpse with a large stab wound in his torso. He crumpled up the picture and threw in at the bars but on contact it burst into flames.

"Hey, try to respect the environment!" joked Jack.

"You killed him didn't you! I knew it wasn't a mugging gone wrong!" shouted James, beginning to cry a little.

"Oh no" Jack chuckled a little "I didn't kill him. But I do know who did. They'll also be waiting for you." Jack entered a code into a panel on the wall outside the cell and the bars quickly fell into the floor. Two guards walked into the room and handcuffed James and grabbed him by the shoulders. Jack started walking back the way he had come and the guards pushed James along. They past the cells that William, Edward, Izzy, Ben, and Liam were in. They were all asleep on the beds in cells identical to James' but there was something on the wall of Ben's cells underneath his bed 'Count to 60'. James looked at Ben who quickly winked at James.

James, Jack and the guards continued to walk through a maze like ship layout with elevators and stairs until they reached two large doors Jack opened one and went in first. James could just make out "He's here my liege." Jack then nodded to the two guards and they brought James into a large rectangular room with a long table lined with men, women, and other aliens in uniforms and regal clothes. At the head of the table was a large leather chair with the person sitting in it sticking their arm out the side and holding a large scythe. It was mostly black with the bottom part of the blade polished metal and streaks of red on the upper part. Thirty. James had been counting in his head the whole time. Jack grabbed James' head and pushed it down to force James into a kneel.

"Show some respect in front of the leader of the darkness nation!" spat Jack.

"It's fine, let him stand." said the person in the chair. Their voice was feminine and sounded familiar but James was too focused on counting and wanting to know where Josie was.

"Where's Josie!" demanded James but he was slapped by Jack.

"Were you asked to speak scum!?" said Jack.

"Jack, what have I said before?" asked the woman.

"Don't act that way with you present." mumbled Jack.

"I'll only once more! Where is Josie?" asked James. The chair began to turn to reveal the person sitting in it. It was a woman with short, ginger hair and green eyes. Her lips were as red as blood and she was wearing a black dress with sequins placed across it to resemble the night sky. She laughed.

"Josie's right here." the woman waved her hand over her face and it was engulfed in a dark cloud before it dispersed. Her face had changed into...Josie's face! James froze in shock.

"Sorry James, but your precious Josie was nothing but a lie. My name is actually Alice. I didn't completely lie to you though. I did fight on that planet and we were gaining ground quickly but the light nation started to fight back and the only way to win was by wiping out the planet. That's the fun thing about this celestial weapon, the other celestial weapon users locked their's away before unlocking it's true potential. I, however, kept mine and now have ninety percent of it's power under my control. It keeps me young but taking the life of others." explained Alice.

"B-But why would you help me?" asked James. Alice sighed and waved her hand over her face again to put it back to the way it was.

"Your father, I was the one who killed him. I was looking for the celestial weapon of fire but he said he had hidden it where no one would find it. I went back to earth, exploded my ship on the way down and I saw you. Well, to be more specific, I saw what was inside of you. Your father had hidden the weapon inside you." Fifty. Ten more seconds. "It was when you were able to master blitz so easily that it confirmed it. All I needed to do was give you a motive and bring you back here but a few road bumps were encountered. Sadly, I gained feelings for you so I couldn't kill you but-" Alice was cut off by the door behind James being smashed open by Liam with his hammer.

"Sixty!" shouted Ben. Alice rose to watch. Izzy and William came in from the ceiling and Edward appeared from behind Liam and drew his bow with an arrow of light.

"You alright James?" asked Liam without breaking eye contact with Alice. Alice laughed.

"Oh my. You've all come together to save your friend. How predictable." said Alice and she tapped the floor with the bottom of her scythe. Chains of dark energy came from the floor and wrapped themselves firmly around Liam, Izzy and the others. They struggled to break free but they couldn't. A woman entered from a door behind Alice.

"We have reached our destination my liege." said the woman and she left.

"Bring them, and put their weapons somewhere more secure this time." said Alice and she walked out the door the other woman did.

Once outside it was clear to everyone where they were. They had landed on Asuria. The home of the omni-crystal. They walked up to a large stone entrance to a tunnel and Alice signalled from her troops to kill all the guards standing in the way. They walked down the tunnel and it didn't take long before they reached the core. It was magnificent. The omni-crystal illuminated the whole cave with a shower of colour and light. The group was sat down in a line like a sort of audience. Jack followed Alice up to a platform.

"What are you planning on doing?" asked Liam, struggling at the bonds.

"Destroy the omni-crystal, obviously." said Alice.

"But how? It's so strong only small pieces have been able to be extracted!" exclaimed Edward.

"Yes, using mortal methods. However, using a celestial weapon or two is just enough power. And we have the two we need in this room right now." Alice gestured to James and two guards picked him up and took him over to Alice.

"The celestial weapon of darkness has the ability to absorb quite a bit of energy. Using it I can weaken the omni-crystal. The celestial weapon of fire was quite the special one too as it was infused with a small amount of power from the Goddess of war. That means it has enough power to destroy the omni-crystal." said Alice, eyeing James.

"But if you destroy the omni-crystal then all our abilities will disappear. Including yours!" shouted Izzy. Alice smiled and turned to the crystal.

"That would be the case normally but by absorbing it's energy with the weapon of darkness I'll have control over all the Asurian power in the universe. The darkness nation will rule over all. And I'll make sure that the first planet taken over by the new government in Earth, just for you." mocked Alice.

James couldn't believe he had helped a monster like Alice take over a civilisation's energy source. He felt so angry with himself that he had even left his own mother on earth with her memories wiped because he was so selfish to get super powers. He was angry with himself because he had let down a group of people he had just met who were fighting to save this civilisation. He felt...angry. But not like he felt before with blitz, this was whole new angry. This was an anger of hundreds of generation that had fought for glory on earth...those who had fought with a sword past down to them by their father...this was an anger of those who had held the weapon inside him. This was the power of God's sword. Alice prepped herself to strike the crystal with her celestial weapon and brought it up into the air. It was now or never. James broke his restraints and grabbed Alice's arm as she brought down her scythe. He looked into her fearful eyes but all she saw in his eyes was a thirst for vengeance. Alice twisted round and kicked James in the face but he barely flinched or moved. Instead, his grip tightened and he threw Alice across the cave who landed sideways on the wall and pushed off back towards James with the intent to kill him like she killed him father. In a fraction of a second, James twisted round and dodged the attack as a column of fire burst out of the ground and engulfed James' whole body. Alice rolled and flipped before coming to a stop on her hands and knees. James felt no pain inside these flames but instead felt even more powerful and alive. He stepped out of the flames and felt something in his right hand. He brought his hand up to find a long, bulky sword with triangular holes in the blade that made it lighter, a red flames patter down the sides of the blade, and on each tip of each flame in the pattern was a name. Each name was of a previous holder, Arthur Pendragon was at the top and at the bottom was James's name underneath a name he could never forget 'Arthur Kendrickson', James' father.

Alice looked at James with fury. She forgot all about her feelings for him and yelled as she charged at him for another attack.