Torva Messor

Chapter 12: The Island

"This battle happened before your return to the island, correct?"

"Indeed."

"I saw the spectacle. It was quite the show." The interviewer smiles.

"You think that was something? You should have seen the battle with the twins. As scary as it was." Lydia chirps.

"I believe I saw enough of Maxus when he came to the island the first time." The interviewer shivers.

"I should have been here. I played right into his hand leaving." I growl at the recent memory.

"Well had you not, and he brought his other clones with him, I'm not sure anyone would have survived." The interviewer scratches his chin in thought.

"True, they were the same strength as his seventh version. Maybe me and Zulu could put up a fight but with the eight version there, we would have been done almost instantly. In a way, he ended himself." Lydia adds on, also daring to rub my shoulder in reassurance.

"I suppose that's true as well," I admit. The eighth version of Maxus was strong. It brought out a part of me I haven't seen before. Even so, it also showed I still had strength left untapped. Which is why I should be training, not sitting here.

I awoke the next morning, thoughtful. Lydia was practicing her motions, her power exponentially different than when we started. Perhaps seeing my battle yesterday and all the training has pushed her to new heights even in her base form. Yet, it still couldn't match mine, nor did she have actual experience in fighting. If she couldn't muscle her way out yet, and she didn't have the skills to fight, she was doomed to fail.

I couldn't have her around me during my next fight. Who knows what could happen? It could take months before she's at my level, and in months, maybe less Maxus would be back. They found a mage with deep potential, he admitted that. He could be back in a few weeks if they leach him of every last inch of his strength.

I look at Lydia in the distance, still practicing endlessly. Her power is flowing, hardly dropping with each motion. She was absolutely stronger. Yet she wasn't me, her life was different. She never lived like a mage, never met any besides me. She's peaceful, kind, sympathetic, everything I no longer was. Perhaps time on the island would do her good, and give her a better understanding of things as well as herself.

However last time I stopped by it wasn't a pleasant experience. They fear me there like how the mainland does. Zulu trains his own mages to defend the walls, they weren't strong, however. Zulu never unlocked an emotional outburst like I had. His powers have only grown so much with additional training.

I had to try again, I had to bring Lydia to the island of the mages. They would accept, or perish like the rest. I look down at my hands at the thought. "Perish like the rest." Have I stooped so low as to kill for a simple request? Even my own kind? I look at Lydia now, considering what she had said. Perhaps she wasn't wrong. Could I ever go back to the way I was? Would I forever be so merciless?

"Lydia," I say, interrupting her motions. She looks at me curious.

"We're going to the isle of the mages," I tell her, and she seems dumbstruck.

"Really? Why so suddenly?" She approaches me from where she was so we can talk more normally.

"The mages on the island are much different than I am. You can learn much from them and the way they behave. Also..." I struggle to say the next part.

"Also?"

"Also because Maxus, the man from yesterday, will return. When he does, he will be stronger. I can't have you nearby to be caught up in the crossfire." I float in the air, and Lydia floats up after me.