Book 1 | Agent 34 and the Desert of Beasts

Chapter 35 | The End...For Now

Wímad quickly flew down to where Agent 34 had fallen, and saw someone lying on the ground. The dragon landed beside him, and Ismara, Marque, and Arenia climbed off his back to see who it was.

"It's him!" Ismara cried. "Wake up! Wake up! Please! I need you!" Ismara begged Agent 34 to not die, trying desperately to wake him, until Arenia placed a hand on her shoulder.

"It's over," Arenia said to Ismara as she tried to fight back the tears. "He's gone."

Ismara's face went silent, then she dropped to her knees in front of Agent 34 and silently cried.

Agent 34's purple gem hand started to glow, and Ismara looked up in confusion at it, and said nothing. Then, his arm twitched. Agent 34 opened his eyes, and Ismara quickly wrapped her arms around him.

"Don't ever scare me again," she whispered into his ear. "I thought you died!"

Agent 34 slowly sat up as Ismara clung onto him, and then looked in his hand and saw the red gem. He closed his bloody and torn fingers around it, then raised his hand to Arenia. He opened his hand, revealing the bright red gem sitting on it, and a little blood sparkled on it.

"A gem?" Arenia said in shock. "But—how—"

"Xander died. And when he died, he turned into this," Agent 34 explained. "Take it. It's for you."

Arenia picked up the gem, and crushed it within her hand. The energy inside it came out and circled around her, then went inside her and gave her the gem's powers.

"You are now a gem-wielder, Arenia." Agent 34 said, and stood up, making Ismara let go of him.

"We won the battle then," Arenia said. "You aren't dead. But, now did you survive a fall that big?" 

"Easy, I used Xander as a cushion. He broke my fall," Agent 34 explained. "That was why I jumped off. I climbed in his ribs as we fell, and it broke my fall."

"We did it!" Thad exclaimed from a distance as he walked over to them. "We won! We killed Braunick! Didn't we?" The dwarf was next to them by the time he finished talking.

"No. It wasn't Braunick that came. It was the skeleton general, Xander. He had a gem, and I gave it to Arenia." Agent 34 said.

"I see. Well, those skeletons did a number of damage to us. We must repair at once to avoid any other attacks." Thad said.

The group broke apart, and started repairing the damage that the skeletons had caused. Agent 34 looked down at his cursed gem, and it flickered a little.

He knew what his next mission was.

"Guys," Agent 34 said as everyone started to leave. "I think I have a name for our group. Our gem group."

Arenia raised an eyebrow at him.

"I call us the Destigems."

~ ~ ~ ~

"Bring him to me." He said, his dark hair waving in the wind.

The skeleton shoved the man in chains forward, towards Braunick. The chains clanged, making the prisoner shudder.

Braunick slammed his fist on the table. "He didn't die! Did he?"

"I don't know, and even if I did you wouldn't get the answer out of me!" Faòlar yelled.

"Lavìa, tell me before I go into your mind and get it myself. And trust me, once I enter your kind, you will never be the same." Braunick smirked.

"I don't care! Kill me! You can tear me limb from limb, it will do you no good! I will tell you nothing I know about the Zena! He is Renya's last hope, and I will do anything to protect him!" Fáolar's chains rattled as he flinched.

"You'd even sacrifice your own daughter for him?" Braunick said evilly, and a wicked smile appeared on his face.

"Oh—oh no. No, you sick, dirty—"

Suddenly, Braunick muttered a spell quickly, and Fáolar turned to stone. The evil king slammed his fist onto the table in front of him. "I want Fáolar's daughter here as soon as possible, and I want Agent 34 dead."

Braunick pulled out an old picture from his pocket. The picture showed two boys happily playing together in the sandbox. 

"And I want you to bring my brother to me."

End of Book One