The Prince and The Pauper

Chapter 4

~Royal POV (King Godith).~

Godith watched as his son hit the earth. He was about to go after him when a figure in a purple cloak stopped him dead in his tracks. He knew who it was. He was one of THEM.

In that same synthetic voice as always, it hissed, "You shall not interfere."

Godith drew his aqua/electric sword. It was blue in color with a small magnetic field. That magnetic field kept the water on the surface of the sword in place. In the core of the blade rested massive amounts of electric energy. If one listened close enough, they could hear the silent hum. If the sword should come in contact with flesh, the water would act as a conductor for the electricity; thus, amplifying the effects of the elctrucution.

"I shall interfere if it endangers my family!" he roared and lunged at the being in the cloak.

~.Royal POV (Astral).~

Astral knew his sword would be useless against a cloud, but if anyone was in the cloud, they would surely get a good beating.

He searched frantically for his brother, calling his name every now and then. No one responded to his cries. Still, he pushed forward.

The cloud seemed to sense that he was there, and it again tried to get rid of him. This time, though, Astral was ready. With his sword in hand, he swatted away the wispy hands that grabbed at him. Although it didn't hit them, the hands disappeared momentarily before coming back. Sure, he knew that he would get tired, but he would not stop until his brother was safely back in his care!

~.Human POV.~

Akari ran outside to see what the commotion was all about. She saw her brother and her friends among the crowd and panicked. They couldn't be out here! He seemed way too dangerous!

"Yuma!!" she called, cupping her hands over her mouth to amplify the sound.

Yuma turned around and saw Akari. He waved his friends over to her. Soon, they all met up.

"What are you doing out here!?" Akari scolded. "This is too dangerous!"

"But Akari, we saw someone be taken by that cloud!" Yuma protested.

"That could be you!" she retorted. "Now, get inside!"

They rushed to get inside. Once there, they realized that Akari wasn't with them anymore.

"Sis!?" Yuma cried, looking all over in time to see her being dragged away by some kind of dark, wispy thing. She was putting up a good resistance, but it would be sooner rather than later that she would be sucked in.

Cathy, Yuma, Kotori, and Tetsuo hurried over to where she was and began pulling her back to them.

"I told you to get inside!" Akari screamed over the howling wind.

"I can't leave you behind, sis!"

"Yeah!" Cathy added. "What'll we do if you're gone, nyah?"

Akari stopped arguing at that point. She knew that as the oldest one, they depended on her to be there when Haru was too busy with other things. Her and Yuma's parents were gone, so only she and their grandmother were there.

She nodded and let them stay to help. They pulled and pulled, but the force of the wind and tendrils got stronger and stronger when they tried. It only strengthened progressively.

Then, a biting cold wind caused them to let go. With a cry of surprise, Akari was taken.

~.Royal POV (King Godith).~

He hacked and sliced at all of the beings in cloaks as much as he could. They fell immediately after coming in contact with his deadly blade, but some dodged and blocked and parried. This only made Godith more angrier. He needed to get to his sons before they were dragged into that cloud for good! With Black Mist closing in on the core, it was getting stronger, so it was clearly feeding off of his dark side!

"Kuya!" he called.

One of the knights rushed to his side with his sword on display as well. "Yes, sire?"

"Take over! I will go after the cloud to bring back my sons!"

Kuya nodded and took over while Godith found a secure pocket of wind and jumped on it.

Other small but powerful pockets were seen my Godith. Though he had an aqua/electric sword, his power was that of wind. He could ride the wind and walk on it because of little solid sections of air no one even knew existed.

He reached the cloud and found more pads to run on. They were connected, so it wasn't going to be a problem. He placed his foot on one of the air pockets and began to dash.

~.Royal POV (Astral).~

Astral was starting to become tired as he expected. With the extra exertion of slicing what's not there his sword arm soon grew fatigued. Astral wasn't going to give up, though. He wasn't going to give in until he reached the core.

Godith soon got into his line of sight. He looked over in astonishment. "Father!? What are you-"

"Astral, go back down! You cannot be here!" Godith warned without turning to face his son. "This is not safe for you! I will be down as soon as I get Black Mist!"

"No!"

Godith turned to Astral. "What? Are you defying me?" This never happened before. Astral was the obedient out of the two.

"Father, I cannot leave my brother in there!" More hands grabbed at the two of them, but they only sliced away at them. "If I can get him back here, all will be fine."

"At the cost of what!?" Godith felt anger bubbling up. It was anger to the cloud for making Astral do this. "You may lose your life!"

"Same to you!" Astral retaliated. "If you lose your life here, who will be the king? I am not of age yet!"

"And I cannot bear losing another one of my family, Astral! Now, get back down there before-"

Another solid hand knocked them both to the ground. Godith scrambled to find his footing on the air pockets while Astral tried to regain his balance in the air.

Godith recovered before Astral and raced into the depths of the cloud. Astral cursed as he fell to the ground. He hit his head against the hard pavement, and that was the last thing he remembered.