Arcane Order's Adopted Son

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO: FAMILY IS...

I desperately shot magic at Aridam.

"Your struggle is meaningless!" He said as lightning shot from the only eye he had left. That was all I needed to hit, and he'd be dead, but with the weakened Arcane Order was behind me...

Aridam dragged his nails through the dirt, but gray vines and roots rose from the ground. I fought through the invasive plants, but the jagged thorns tore through my flesh. Disks of magic appeared in my hands, but no matter how many I threw at Aridam, they bounced off his skull.

'What would Merlin do?' I thought, 'Merlin wouldn't be losing.'

"Merlin is DEAD!" Aridam screamed, grabbing me with his hand and pulling me towards his face. "HE IS GONE! And his apprentice will be too!"

Aridam opened his mouth, and the glow began to leave my hands. Merlin was dead, but he was not gone. Family could die, but family was never gone. I always felt a connection with Bellroc. Even when she was thousands of miles away from me, it was like there was something pulling me towards her. That was all I could think about—Bellroc and Merlin.

"I'll kill your family..." Aridam hissed.

I forced myself to think of anything but Aridam.

Aridam can kill them. He can kill me too, but they'll never leave.'

"ENOUGH!"

'Aridam's never had family. He's never been fortunate like I have.'

Aridam screamed indignantly, and once the Guardians of Arcadia and the Arcane Order was all I could think about, I attacked. I teleported out of Aridam's hand in a shimmering blue light, and transforming my staff into a guitar, I struck his wrist hard enough that his hand snapped. The cracking noise was like the sound of thunder, and Aridam let out a powerful scream of pain.

I thought about how easy it would be to help the others and get back to them, so we could finally be a family again. I spun my staff around and conjured a path of ice that I was able to slide down like a ramp. Aridam pulled his broken hand to his chest, and using the other, he slammed his palm onto the ground. I teleported out of the way, and towards his face which made it easier to strike him in the eye with magic.

Aridam roared, but I remembered what Skrael had said. Cryokinesis was all about emotion. Atmokinesis is about thoughts. Nari represented souls. Bellroc represented time.

"Tenebris...excelium!" I said, directing all my power towards his last eye.

The sigils in his chest cracked and shattered, dissipating into tiny specks of the Arcane Order's respective colors. Aridam let out a final roar before collapsing. The earth shook, but I kept myself steady, refusing to put my staff away until I was sure that Aridam was weak. The glow in his bones was gone. There had been a blazing fire in his mouth that flickered and died. His chest still heaved up and down slowly with slow and short breaths.

I raised my glowing staff and aimed it at Aridam's center eye.

"Aridam, I want to feel sorry for you," I said. "I almost do."

"Such hubris..." Aridam said before coughing. "You remind me of my younger self."

"I'll never turn out like you."

Aridam chuckled and with his dying breath said, "Merlin raised one hell of a wizard..."

I watched unblinking as Aridam's body dissolved into ash. Nothing remained but his sword and tricorn mask. I fell back from the absolute exhaustion of the fight. To say I was tired was an understatement. I laid on my back and closed my eyes.

'I did it, Merlin. I did it, Bell.'

I could hear distinct sounds. They sounded far away at first, but I realized how close they were.