Of Ancient Kings

Chapter 11

The blue lights got closer and closer until they seemed to be but a few metres away. Fire erupted to the sides, igniting some kind of pit and light filled the room. A man wearing black robes that were tattered around the bottom stood in front of Robin. His face was sallow and old, his veins were as black as his robe and his eyes were a glowing blue. His hair was very thin and white.

"Shit...." Robin said as he backed away from the man. Caderyn came into the room.

"Drust." Caderyn spat out the name, his face contorting in disgust.

"Ah my dear brother." Drust chuckled in his raspy voice. Robin began trying to back out of the room but Drust flicked his wrist and the door slammed shut. Robin turned and dropped into a stance.

"Don't bother boy." Drust said arrogantly. "You couldn't touch me if you tired."

"You bet." Robin threw his hand forwards and sent a huge gout of burning plasma towards the old man. He took the blast and stumbled back a step. Robin followed it up with two large slabs of rock crushing him.

"Ouch, I felt that." Drust said as he turned the slabs to dust with his hands. Drust gestured vaguely with his hand and suddenly everything around Robin was engulfed in flame. Robin sent a blast of air to quench the flames and safely held them at bay. But whilst he was preoccupied with the fire Drust had sent a boulder hurtling towards him. Robin couldn't dodge in time and was knocked back against the closed door. The spark dimmed and so did his assurance that he could win.

"Robin, run!" Caderyn shouted. Robin began to panic as Drust summoned a massive pall of deep purple plasma above his head. Robin used the ground to leap to the ceiling. The floor rippled as he left it and Caderyn dematerialised. The ceiling parted and Robin scrambled through the layers of stone, dirt and concrete, until he broke the ground coming out outside the base. Caderyn appeared beside him and offered him a hand to help him out of the hole he had made. Robin clambered out of the hole with the help of Caderyn.

"He.... Is.... Powerful......" Robin pants as he collects himself. "So far I've been able to feel attacks coming before they get launched but I got no warning from him."

"Yeah. We need some help." Caderyn said as the two of them leapt into the air and made their way home.

"Who should I call for tomorrow?" Robin asked as they both landed in his room.

"Call some friends over. We need some more angles." Caderyn said as he settled into Robin's desk chair.

Robin picked up his phone from the bedside table and sent messages to Damien and Caleb. He also told Caleb to bring Alice and Oliver. It was too late at night to expect a reply any time soon so instead he went into the bathroom and looked into the mirror. His face had a rather large bruise from the rock and after removing his t-shirt he could see the purple mark cover his chest. His hair was filled with dust and he smelt strongly of smoke. Slowly as he watched it the bruise receded from covering his entire chest to several small and shallow bruises over the points where the larger bruise was worse. Mostly his ribs and centre of his sternum.

As the last of the bruise faded into his ivory white skin he leant against the sink whilst he came to terms with what he had just done. He went over to the shower and accessed the home network on the panel beside it. He brought up the news and the main headline is something about William the fourth going on a state visit to Korea, the next article however was reporting on a terrorist attack at the military base. The article had a picture of Robin floating in the smoke of the blaze, there was no way of telling that it was him but he knew. He closed the tab and shut down the terminal and he started undressing for a shower.

A few minutes later, Robin walked out of the bathroom. A towel around his waist and drying his, bright blonde hair with another towel. He ignored Caderyn, who had started reading one of Robin's old fantasy novels his grandma had given him, and pulled a pair of boxer shorts to sleep in out of the wardrobe. He dropped the towel and pulled up the boxers as fast as he could. So that Caderyn couldn't see him.

"I've been living in your head for 14 years. I've already seen everything." Caderyn said not looking up from his book.

"I suppose...." Robin trailed off as he began to climb into bed.

"Night." He said to Caderyn as he closed his eyes and began to drift into the aether of his subconscious mind.

Robin dreamt of the spark he had felt and how he had nurtured it so only to have it dimmed by Drust in one attack. This built up anger inside of him and he could feel something boiling inside of him even in the unconscious state that he was in.

Robin awoke to Caderyn shaking him awake. "Come on, we have to meet your friends in an hour." Caderyn jostled Robin.

"I'm awake. I'm awake." He said as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Robin stood up out of his cover and noticed something in the mirror, he seemed paler than yesterday to top that off his usually slightly dark lines on his neck from his major veins where now a dull red. He checked the inside of his elbow joint and yes, all his blood vessels where a dull pulsing red.

"I thought you said this would take a long time." Robin turned to Caderyn, a hint of worry lacing his voice.

"It took a year for me to even notice a change after I metarised" Caderyn said with what seemed like honesty to Robin.

"I look like a bloody vampire. I'm so pale." He remarked as he pretended to have fangs and then chuckled to himself. He pulled a t-shirt on and a pair of chinos before walking downstairs to see what his mum had prepared for breakfast.

On the table in the kitchen sat a note and plate of waffles. The note said that she was going to the shops and wouldn't be back for a few hours. Perfect. He grabbed the waffles and ate them as he meandered around the house passing time. He settled with half a plate of waffles at the record player. He switched the turntable on with his toe as he took a bite from a waffle. Then he used his clean hand to position the arm on the first track and ate the rest of his breakfast to the antique sounds coming from the old box. He switched the table off with his foot when he was finished and mulled around until finally the doorbell rang.

The door camera showed a group of red eyed teens easily recognisable as Damien, Caleb, Alice and Oliver. Robin rushed over to the door and swung it open.

"Hey guys." He greeted.

"Hey Robin." Damien responded. "It's good to see you."

"Good to see you too cousin." Robin smiled as he hugged Damien.

"How are you Caleb?" Robin asked Caleb as he stepped through the door after Damien.

"Fine, bit shaken by what happened last night, mostly because I know the school is going to question us on Monday." Caleb replied and Robin was stunned for a second.

"Ah well it can't be helped can it." Robin answered rhetorically. Caleb moved into the house and Alice and Oliver stepped forwards together.

"How are you guys?" Robin asked, he felt like a broken record, and having now used one he could see how it could start skipping back a ring and replaying the last 2 second of audio until the vinyl was cleaned.

"I'm good." Oliver said, his hoodie was now the top layer of his outfit.

"What about you Alice?" Robin asked.

"Oh, I'm alright I suppose." She affirmed.

Robin led all of them into the living room and brought in some drinks, like any good host should do. He set the drinks down and jumped into one of the wingback chairs.

"Caderyn." Robin called and the white skinned red eyed figure shimmered into existence beside him.

"WHOA!" All four guests chorused in unison.

"Everybody, meet Caderyn." Robin introduced.

"Hey...." The guests chorused again.

"I'm sure you're wondering why Robin asked you all round here today. Well it's because we need your help. We need to kill my brother." Caderyn smirked.