Book 4 | Agent 34 and the Last Gem

Chapter 50 | The Power Source

Sarah shot at the human, knocking him to the ground. "You've got to be quicker," she told him. "When you get into a fight, you need to be prepared for any attack,"

"And what would you know about getting into an attack?" Calvin asked, picking himself up. "You were so easy to defeat when you tried to ambush us,"

"I–" she stuttered a bit. "I've learned a lot since then and I—"

"And what? You know how to use powers and flee instead of killing whoever attacked you?"

"Shut up!" Sarah shouted, taking flight. "Do you know how badly I want to just kill you? But no! Braunick refuses and says you'll be more powerful than both me and Deathbringer if we train you properly!"

"Good," Calvin said. "Now that you're riled up, give me an actual challenge and fight me,"

Sarah smirked, diving towards the human. Calvin gripped his sword as he jumped to the right, slashing his blade behind him. His opponent followed him, bringing her fists down upon him. It rocked his armor, sending him sliding across the floor a bit so he could get away from her and get back up.

Calvin steadied himself, ripping his blade down upon Sarah whenever she tried to come back towards him. He struck her in the shoulder, blood spewing out. Sarah shrieked in horror, pulling back and grabbing her wound.

"What the hell!" She shouted. "This isn't actual combat, this is practice!"

Before Calvin could reply, the castle walls began to shake. Both of them stopped, looking around.

"Yes!" Braunick shouted from his throne room. "Arise!"

The pair shrugged, deciding to check it out. The opened the door and peaked inside, spotting Braunick hovering over something on the ground. They stepped into the room, asking what he was doing.

"I'm growing my army," was the answer he gave them even though it didn't really answer their question. The king threw his hands into the air, the floating castle beginning to rumble and shake. A bony hand shot out of the stone ground, splitting it in half. The hand soon turned into two, a skeleton beginning to pull itself out of the crack in the ground.

More hands shot out, the skeletons beginning to pull themselves out of the ground. In around ten minutes, there was nearly fifty skeletons standing before Braunick and were willing to follow his every command.

"What the hell," Calvin exclaimed. "That's how you summon your skeleton army? I thought you took the bodies of your enemies and converted them into mindless slaves,"

"Nah," Braunick told him. "You're one of my slaves and you aren't mindless, are you? Skeletons are mindless but they aren't my slaves. I summon them from the underworld using a small enchantment I learned years ago. I can summon a lot but it takes some energy to keep them here. If I didn't give them the energy, the bones would fall apart and turn to dust,"

"How do you have so much energy?" Sarah asked. "I mean, come on. It seems impossible to have enough energy to keep the thousands of skeletons you have summoned and keep a literal floating island stay above Renya. Doesn't that seem a little ridiculous?"

"Don't forget the storm, too," Braunick reminded her.

"And the storm! That things amazing! It's gotta soak up so much power," She said, flailing her arms a bit.

"And it does," He explained to her. "Yet, it doesn't use my energy,"

"Then who's energy does it take?" Calvin asked intriguingly.

The king smirked at him, flying over towards him and leaving his skeleton army. "I have told only a few living soles of my amazing source of power. If you tell anyone I will personally hunt you down and mount your skull on my wall with the rest of my victims and kill you as slowly as possible to make you endure as much pain as you possibly can,"

"Jeez," the human said. "Okay. I won't,"

Braunick backed away a bit, turning around halfway. "I stole my family's memories. I didn't get my father's because he escaped and fled Renya whenever I tried to. I stole every memory up until their names and ages. That's why my brother cannot remember his past and why he named himself "Agent 34." I also know the reason why he had the piece of paper in his pocket that said "Agent 34" on it in the first place, but I won't reveal that far. I won't reveal anything about their memories at all. All you need to know is that memories are a giant source of energy and if recycled properly can save yourself tons of strength, and you know I did it properly. I have been using the memories to fuel my power and needs to rule Renya,"

Calvin was shocked. "Why did you steal theirs and not some random civilian of Renya?"

"Family is always easier to get to. You see, stealing people's pasts is a hard thing to do. You have to enter their mind with them giving you permission. If they didn't have your permission, they could challenge you mentally, and you are always at a disadvantage when battling in someone else's mind. Any normal person would not let a stranger into their mind whereas family would do it willingly. It just saved me the struggle,"

"Yes, but now you can enter anyone's mind and practically kill them at will now!" Calvin shouted.

"But I didn't back then. I needed power back then. And once I took their memories I couldn't simply take them back or they'd never speak with me again. It's better this way, trust me," Braunick told him.

"You're a sick human being, Braunick," Sarah muttered.

"Why would you say such a thing," The deranged king told her, extending his metal hand towards her. The woman was thrown backwards into the wall, sending various cracks up it. She slid down it, unconscious when she hit the ground. Braunick hovered over towards her, telling her unconscious body something that Calvin couldn't hear.

He began to come back towards Calvin, ordering his new skeletons to take her to her bedroom, a place Calvin didn't know where that was. "If you knew what was good for you, I'd suggest going back to your dungeon and locking yourself back up. I'll have Deathbringer make sure you did as told or else you'll end up like her,"

Without hesitation, Calvin nodded and turned out of the room, nearly running to get back to his cell. He fell asleep that night without knowing if Sarah had been killed or not.