Nielu [The Ultima Manhunt B1]

Chapter 25 - "The Ultima Manhunt has begun."

The car ride back home is ungodly silent, too silent in Blade's mind. His parents never gave him an answer to his question, instead they just sat in silence for two hours. It takes the family two long and very boring hours to finally get home. He feels the car getting into the park gear and the engine of the red sedan turning off. Blade jumps out of the car and starts walking down the driveway, onto the street.

"Blade?" he hears his mom ask.

"Where's he going?" Alina questions.

He gives no reply and just keeps walking down the street; not making a single move to glance behind him.

(Unknown location)

"What do you mean, you have no idea where he is?" a stern voice speaks out, loudly.

"My Queen, I have no idea where the Ultima is or the werewolf alpha for that matter." another voice says.

"Alert the other alphas, tell them that they are needed here, now!" the first voice orders.

"Yes, Queen Diamond." the second voice says as she bows lightly to her queen.

Diamond gives her a slight wave of her hand and waits until the werewolf servant is gone to close her unique violet eyes. "Bloodbath, we better find you or else they will." she mumbles.

(Location - Somewhere)

Blade finally stops walking when he notices something, he doesn't know what from the distance he's at, laying on the ground floor of the forest. He slowly jogs over to the something and runs his right hand along it. It lights up, as if it's responding to his hand but when he moves his hand away, it goes dim; almost off.

"What are you?" he mutters quietly.

'I see you have my staff.' a voice suddenly spoke aloud.

Blade turns his head around, his mouth agape. In front of his very eyes was a raven haired woman with the same caramel eyes his mother had. But this woman was wearing a light lilac colored cloak that covered her hair. He also could spot a necklace with a symbol he knows by heart; having seen it a thousand times.

"You're Irene..." he trails off.

She nods her head. 'Indeed, I am.' she says.

"I was told you died. H...how are you alive?!" Blade shouts.

'Now, who told you that?' she asks him.

"My guardians did. They're, um, friends of my parents and people I consider my family." Blade admits.

'I am dead.' she says.

"...how?" he mumbles.

'I'm merely a fragment of your imagination. I exist in your mind just not in the outside world. Does that make sense?' Irene tells him.

Blade nods slowly. "I suppose that does." he murmurs.

'A fragment of your imagination can be anything you set your mind to. You must've been a close friend of mine in order to have a fragment be me. It's rather rapidly confusing.' she laughs softly after she's done speaking.

"But I'm not. According to Travis, you rescued my dad and I from becoming relics but you died afterwards." Blade says.

Irene nods. 'Mmm, I did do that, yes. But I did it because I wasn't about to let more people die from the hands of the Demon Warlock.' she explains.

"Demon Warlock? What's that and who's that?" he asks with a confused expression on his face.

'The Demon Warlock is an evil man with the power to curse the sea that surrounds his home island and the power to control imps; an evil shape shifting race. He is known as the leader of forever potions; even became good friends with Elizabeth, Zach, and Michael. He's got a deep grudge against Garte Ro'Meave and Derek Lycan for they teamed up to trap him along with Elizabeth and Zach in an unknown dimension. Now, he is loose or has been running loose for at least twenty years.' Irene explains, again.

"Michael?! He's the one that forced me to spend my childhood away from my parents!" Blade growls.

'That's because Michael Valkrum is the Demon Warlock.' Irene whispers.

"WAIT, WHAT?!" Blade yells, loudly.

It takes Blade a few minutes to calm down and when he does, he starts to see Irene fade slowly.

"What's happening?" he demands.

'I'm going back into your imagination.' Irene states.

"What about your staff?" he points to it as he asks.

Irene smiles and puts a fading hand on his shoulder. 'That's for you, my son.' she mutters the last part but whispers the rest of it.

Luckily for her, he didn't catch on as he bent down to pick up the staff. He holds it firmly in his left hand as the Irene from his imagination fades away into the emptiness of his mind.

Blade touches the staff one more time and this time; the pink staff drops from his hand as he faints suddenly.

(Thirty miles away — Phoenix Drop)

Alina's eyes glance back to her phone for the twentieth time in two hours. She knows it's been two hours since she and her parents saw the back of her brother leaving. She wishes he would come back but doesn't want to get her hopes up. After all, she wouldn't be that surprised if Blade never came home. He did spend ten years away from them at Starlight; the dreaded island resort that screams doomsday.

"Any luck?" she asks her parents again.

Her parents, for the last within the time span of two hours, shake their heads. They have gotten nothing on where Blade went and it was getting to the point where if he didn't show up within the next thirty minutes or so, they would call the cops.

"I'll check again." Alina tells them.

"You're trying too hard, Alina. He'll come back soon and when he does, we'll be there for him." Aaron says.

Alina nods. "Okay." she gives her dad a soft smile.

She runs up the wooden stairs with much grace just as their front door suddenly bangs open.

"Guys! We have bad news!" a brown haired werewolf with dark stone gray eyes shouts as he runs into the house.

"Like what?" Aphmau asks.

"Like the kind that called..." the werewolf is cut off by an orangey-brown haired witch with crimson eyes holding a television remote in her hands.

She turns on the television and when she does, Alina comes running back down the stairs.

"The Ultima Manhunt has begun." the television suddenly states.

"Was that what you were going to say, Nightmare?" Forest asks.

Nightmare nods his head. "Um, yeah." he says.

"What's an Ultima?" Alina asks.

Her parents share a look as a soft 'ping' is heard from their phones. Aphmau pulls hers out and gasps at what it was. She flips her phone over and shows Aaron the sudden text message.

(U - unknown) (Aph - Aphmau)

U - I found Blade. But I wouldn't get your hopes up, wouldn't want him dead now do we?

"Who sent that?" Aaron asks her.

Aphmau sighs. "I don't know. It's obviously someone who knows about Blade." she says.

Aph - That's great! But, uh, who are you?

Unknown is typing.

U - Really Aphmau, you know who I am.

Aphmau's face turns pale as she finds this unknown person rather creepy and it's scaring her.

Aph - N...no I don't!

U - You're worst nightmare. I will get Aaron back for taking my Alpha position that I rightfully had before he punched me out a window!

"Balto." Aaron growls as he reads over the text messages on Aphmau's phone.