Burning Soul

The spirit which had possessed Theo’s body was very much annoyed by circumstances going on. Generally, if the spirits are annoyed it manifests itself in a harshness that keeps those around us on edge. An angry spirit cuts back on a person's life potential. This artefact had affected Theo both physically and mentally. His body colour became pale. The face revealed no expressions on it. His eyes had become dull or glassy, perhaps losing their lustre. It looked like they could either tremble or twitch.

The only objective of the spirit who possessed Theo was to slash off Ersa and Arch. The anger of spirit had affected his body which made him weak, his eyes became numb, even before slashing he was not able to see who was exactly down there. His body had become a puppet who was working on commands of spirit.

Theo was a few feet from slashing on his companion, Aeneas was frantically closing in hurting every single bone in his body, Ember was lying unconscious unknown of the danger her own master was carrying towards her, Luna who could only helplessly watch and stay with her till the end.

The sword Theo charged with slashed through,

many layers of mana barrier, it went breaking each one like a glass. The barriers showed his momentum enough for Aeneas to catch up and use his sword as a shield while stretching it as farther from his body as he possibly could.

Barrier magic is a defence-oriented form of Caster magic that gives its user the ability to manipulate and shape their magic power into barriers, shields and walls to protect themselves and allies from both physical and magical attacks. Also, a magic barrier is a magical field that can prevent certain creatures or all creatures including humans from passing through it. This barrier may do so by scouring whatever attempts to pass through it or by physically impending whatever tries to move through it.

The barriers were very strong and essential to protect one from any attack. But spirit made Theo use all his energy to break off those barriers neglecting his physical and mental capabilities. The last barrier that stood between his sword and her was a human, and even it didn’t stop the sword. Luckily Aeneas reached in time and blocked the sword with his own, saving Ember.

In that moment and at that speed Aeneas could only see a shadow but a moment or so and he saw who stood there.

.

“What happened to you while I was away, little brother!”

Merida was standing with a sword passing right through her, her arms holding the blade stopping it from further damaging.

She absorbed all the malice the sword had,

After the slash, she went down on her knees. For a few seconds, even she was not able to grasp the circumstances going on. She just glared at the sword which passed through her body causing a stream of blood and then slowly looked up.

Her eyes crinkled at the edges and the corners of her lips turned upwards. It had become very difficult for her to express anything on her face. She was bewildered about which feeling she should reveal first; Happiness because she met her loving brother after a long time or Pain because she was being slashed off by her brother.

“Theodore” She uttered tenderly while blinking her deep eyes which almost became wet and enchanting her eyebrows a little bit and then softly touched his cheeks with a painful expression.

.

“What is this sound?” Theo stopped in his tracks while chasing the voice, he heard someone call out to him.

He turned around to see who called out for him and he saw an open door, from which he could see nothing but bright light,

The doors were made up of wood and were huge. It seemed old but had great thickness. As the doors were opened in the direction of Theo a cool breeze started coming out from it. There were no walls on the side of the doors. Inside it only thick, bright, sparkling white light was present. It was not possible to figure out what exactly is there inside? Until one enters it.

Thinking of it as an exit he began walking this way,

At the entrance of one of the doors, he stood and wondered what it meant,

“Welcome home my child!” He clearly heard his mother’s voice from the other side.

Without thinking much he walked right through the door into the bright light, the pair of hands he saw earlier tried to catch up to him but couldn’t cross the door, he could see that clearly but could do nothing other than wonder about the reason.

“We’ll meet again boy, we are destined to be together!” The pair then retreated with a goodbye note.

He then turned around to look for his mother but was blinded by the light,

“Wake up!” Was the last thing he heard before everything turned dark again.

.

.

Theo had a difficult time opening his eyes as if he had exhausted all his life force, indeed he was out of a lot of things and life force was the last thing to worry about.

The first thing he felt was pain, so intense he blanked out for a moment, the sudden pain and his lessened energy caused his vision to be blurry and he could only see someone holding on to his face.

The hands were rather cold but the touch felt soothing, it warmed his cheeks, the soft hands held his face firm and channelled a lot of mana into him negating his pain, the shock he felt was now gone and the pain was a bit suppressed, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Slowly he again opened his eyes, he knew he was thankful to whoever was standing next to him, even in that chaos he was helped.

Just as he opened his eyes, he felt a chill running through his spine,

“Finally, you woke up!” Merida held to his face and greeted him regardless of the pain she was in, Theo who was standing next to her couldn’t process it all.

He remembered a glimpse from his dream, the one he saw in the trial where everyone was hurt. The scene next to him resembled a little too much.

Merida used up her strength to negate his pain and leaned on him. As she closed in, he felt the sword in his hand and its damage.

Aeneas looked at both of them helplessly as he had also exhausted every ounce of energy in his body.

The scene haunted Theo so badly the only reaction he gave was that he collapsed with his sister in his arms. His throat ran dry and he couldn’t scream, his eyes widened by fear, his entire body became motionless, the land beneath his foot quite literally vanished as he fell.

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“They managed to run away huh!” Aeneas was startled by the voice that came from behind, it was the voice of a girl.

“That little one is more courageous, she jumped to save you while putting herself in danger, I can’t let it go to waste, can I?”

Even though it was a totally different voice, he recognized her right away, “So it was you who scared her away, old hag!”

He fell unconscious with a slight relief, the help had arrived and, in a way, a big help!