Book 4 | Agent 34 and the Last Gem

Chapter 80 | The White Flame

"Please, brother," Braunick begged. "Don't do it,"

Agent 34 raised his fist, a white flame engulfing it. He had decided to end his brother instead of letting the Destigems do it due to them being too terrified.

"Please," Braunick begged one last time.

Agent 34 took none of his requests. He slammed his fist straight into his brother's chest, the flame spreading to his body. Braunick's screams filled the room as the white fire covered his body, eating it up until there was no more to eat and the screams were silent. In his place were the rest of the gems, sitting on the ground before them, waiting to be broken and harnessed for energy. The elf wrapped his fingers around the gems and slipped them into the pocket under his colorful armor.

Suddenly, bunches of glowing orbs appeared where Braunick once sat. They hovered into the air a bit before spreading in different directions, going through the walls of the castle and out into the world. However, some stayed in the room. The orbs shot at Agent 34 and went straight into his head, sending him flying and hitting the ground with a thump.

"Agent 34?" Ismara rushed over to him. "Are you okay?"

The elf sat up, rubbing his head. He smiled at her with a smile that none of them had ever seen before. "I'm not Agent 34," he told her. "My name is Bradford,"

She gasped as tears fell. The elf wrapped her arms around him, sobbing in glee.

Suddenly, the floating island began to shake. The castle began to shake more than the island did, chunks of it falling and collapsing.

"It's collapsing!" Agent 34 declared, standing up. "Braunick's power no longer supports this. Everyone out, now!"

The Destigems rushed out of the throne room and went down the hallway leading to the exit. Agent 34, with his entire memories containing his past safe inside his head once again, followed the group as the doors to the exit got bigger and bigger.

Chunks of the ceiling crashed against the ground behind them as they ran. It shook the island as pieces of the island itself began to fall to the ground as well and landing in the crater below it.

A loud crashed sounded in front of Agent 34. Arenia had been in front of him and a giant piece of the roof came down upon her. It trapped the lower part of her body in pain as she tried to get out.

The rest of the Destigems stopped and spotted her crushed. Before they could rush to help, Bradford ushered them to keep going. He would save her.

"Arenia," he told her. "Stay still. It'll be okay," The elf whom he had traveled what felt like the world with was breathing quickly. Her cold breaths hit his skin as he tried to find a grip and lift the debris off of her.

"Agent 34," she huffed, her eyes getting heavy. When the elf knew there was no hope, he turned to her to hear her last words, tears falling freely as the world collapsed around them.

"Agent 34," she repeated, now gaining his full attention. "I love you." she said as her final words. Her one arm that was not crushed grabbed the elf's chin and pulled it towards hers, locking their lips in one last kiss. A few seconds later, Arenia's body went cold, her lips still pressed against Agent 34's as he cried silently.

"I love you, too," Bradford repeated before leaving the collapsing palace in defeat.

~ ~ ~

Agent 34 helped the Destigems get down from the island using his powers. They asked where Arenia was and he silently bowed his head as tears fell freely from his tired eyes.

The dragons all landed behind the Destigems as the island collapsed and fell back into the crater that it came from, watching silently in glee. The rest of the Zena's army soon appeared over the horizon, watching with shaking wounds. They cheered when it came down, the castle atop it falling to dust.

The dark storm above them began to swirl, thunder striking around them. It began to shrink and also began to swirl even faster until it popped out of existence.

"Calvin, look!" Ben shouted. "Look at your skin!"

The human glanced at his hand, which was supposed to be gray. Instead, the gray was slowly fading, his normal peachy skin returning to his body once again. He was shocked, yet also relieved.

"Black Magic," Bradford muttered. "Braunick's dead. He created Black Magic and sustained it. Without him here, that type of magic itself collapsed upon itself. It's gone. Black Magic was literally flowing through your body and is now completely gone,"

"Correct," Calvin confirmed. "Braunick really made a huge impact upon Renya. He created his own island, made a storm big enough to drive us into an apocalypse, and even made his own form of power that was completely limitless,"

"Yes," Thad told them. "And we have undone all of that. If we are able to succeed in that, we can rebuild our country from the ruins that the evil tyrant left it in,"

The soldiers upon the horizon began cheering in victory, hugging and crying with each other. Thad quickly interrupted, hushing everyone to silence.

"Agent 34, where are those other gems at? And what shall we do with them?" The leader asked.

Bradford pulled the other couple gems out of his pocket, revealing them to the entire Rebellion. They all oo'ed and aah'ed at them before he concealed them once again.

The dwarf began to form a plan. "So, who gets what gem? Should we just give the corresponding colors to our armor—,"

"No," the powerful interrupted. "No one will get any gem. At all. I'm getting rid of them,"