Book 3 | Agent 34 and the Storm of Darkness

Chapter 49 | She Returns

"You traitor!" Arenia cried, tears filling her eyes. "How could you just leave the Zena like that and join someone as cruel as him!"

"I didn't?" Ismara asked. "Hold on, where are we? I swear I was just kidnapped a minute ago and taken to Braunick's castle,"

"Ismara, it's been nearly a year since you went missing," Arenia corrected her, who was still in shock by Ismara's reveal.

"But–" she gasped. "Oh no. Did Braunick–did he turn me into one of his henchmen?"

Arenia slowly put the pieces together. She nodded slowly, as Ismara fell to her knees and began to weep. Arenia slowly walked over to the crying elf and comforted her.

After she was done crying, Ismara asked what was going on. "We destroyed Braunick's castle after you fled the Zena to look for your father," Arenia explained. "And he released this as revenge," She held her arms up towards the sky, and Ismara saw the black cloud swirling above them. "It's the Storm of Dark Energy. It will rain droplets of pure evil every hour or so and turn anything it touches evil. Put that helmet back on now before it starts to rain,"

"Wait, where's Braunick?" Ismara asked. "Where's Agent 34? Wímad? Thad?"

"Braunick is–" Arenia looked up and saw a hole in the cloud above them, a little bit of light shining through. "Above the cloud. Agent 34 is also above the cloud, and Braunick is going to remove his gem up there. We need to get up there quickly,"

"Could we use our gem's powers?" Ismara asked.

"Err," Arenia said. "Braunick—Braunick removed both of our gems. The only people left with actual gems are Agent 34, Sercon, and your father, who is somewhere down below in the Zena or on the ships that are fleeing the continent,"

"He's alive?" She asked, her eyes lighting up.

"We rescued him after destroying his castle," Arenia said. "Braunick had captured him. Here's a short recollection of everything that has happened. We took down Braunick's castle, he announced that Agent 34 was his twin, Agent 34 broke his curse, Thad became a werewolf, Braunick released the storm then attempted to get me to join him, we actually removed your gems, not Braunick, Braunick gained the white gem and gained his final form, then we fled back to the Zena and the storm spread here and Braunick gathered another army and is now trying to remove our gems,"

"We need to stop him!" Ismara said, running to the edge of Scar. "Wait,  who's this dragon?"

Arenia tensed up as she realized who she was on. "Shh...it's Scar, one of Braunick's new dragons and incredibly strong. He might not know Braunick lost control of you. Or...let go of you? Not really sure what he did to be honest. Go put on your helmet and tell Scar to get above the cloud some way or another,"

Ismara nodded, slipping on her helmet. Her voice was deep once again and she was now transformed into the character she had developed a huge hatred for the past few months: Agent X.

Ismara walked along Scar's neck, then crouched by his head, holding onto one of his spikes. "I eliminated Arenia," The deep voice said. "We need to go help Braunick now. I need you to fly to the edge of the cloud and go above it. Braunick should be above it already,"

The dragon nodded, picking up speed and flying past Venon and ignoring him. Venon looked confused when he saw Agent X pull off her helmet and then wave to him. However, he continued flying to the edge of the storm as well, hoping there was an edge.

~ ~ ~

"You're lying," Vrängr turned to the edge of Paöminar, shielding his face from Marque's eyes.

"I wouldn't lie over this," Marque weakly said. "He is just using you. He is playing you like a deck of cards, Vrängr," He called the elf by his name, which made his eyes widen. "He played everyone. What do you think he will do with you once he has all the gems? Will he still need you to do his dirty work and go off and kill someone for him? He can do it all himself!"

Vrängr tensed up, turning back around to Marque who sat on Paöminar's back, pain racking through his body. "What have I done," Vrängr said in a way that made it seem as if he was talking to himself. "I can't believe I worked for such scum,"

"Then help us take down that scum," Marque said.

"But–" Vrängr hesitated. "I have evil running through my veins. I'm not good,"

"It doesn't matter, we need all we can get," Marque coughed.

"You don't understand," Vrängr said. "Evil means even if I do something good, I'll resort to trickery in the end. Even if it all turns out good in the end, I'll still be a problem. I'm joining on one condition,"

Marque raised his eyebrow with some of his last strength.

"When Braunick is defeated, I want one of the Zena's ships so I may sail into the ocean's uncharted lands,"

"Why?"

"I—I don't belong here in Renya. Even if I did, I just need to–I need to think things out for a bit after my past few years working for Braunick, devoting my life to him just to be betrayed," The elf turned away from Marque, hiding his face of shame.

"Very well," Marque said. 

"I think Braunick went above the storm to get Agent 34. We need to go after him before Braunick forces him to become evil," Vrängr said. He walked to the edge of Paöminar and shouted, "Paöminar! Set course for the edge of the storm and get up there as soon as you can! Braunick needs help!"

The dragon nodded, and the two began to fly towards the edge of the storm, if there was one, even though they already were going that way.

"We are going to get to the edge of the storm, then fly over it and back to Agent 34 and Braunick. Just hope they haven't killed one another yet," Vrängr explained to Marque, keeping his voice quiet from his dragon. "I'm rooting for Agent 34 to prevail like always and keep his gem,"

And just like that, Marque and Arenia has turned their enemies to friends.