Destiny Calls

Chapter 10

"Running away from fear is fear; fighting pain is pain; trying to be brave is being scared. If the mind is in pain, the mind is pain. The thinker has no other form than his thought"

-Day XVII-

After escaping from the camp with the help of two guards, Max, Red, Ross, and Barney could finally see Duhita. They were walking along the shores of an ocean, and could see the mouth of the river that cut Duhita in two.

"Oh look at that! We finally made it! Max! We're here!" Red jumped and cheered.

"Races yous to the rivers!" Barney started running and getting a head start.

"No fair! I'm a water morvic! I can't run as well!" Ross whined before chasing after Barney.

"You coulds nevers runs that wells Ross." He joked.

"Hey!" Ross yelled. Red laughed before looking back at Max who hadn't said a word. He just stopped walking. His heart felt like it was skipping a beat. He was so close. So close, he felt like he could already touch his freedom from this curse, he felt like he could feel his memories come pouring back.

"Hey Max, you coming?" Red asked.

"Huh? Y-yeah!" Max grinned before running ahead of Red, "Just stay there so I can beat you first!"

"Oh, ok--Wait a minute! Come back here Max, you dirty cheater!"

~~~~~

Max cupped his hands together and splashed cold river water on his face. His gloveless hand was wrapped up in bandages to help his burn, and secretly to hide the fact he had no glove. He told his friends he just put the glove away so he could treat his wound. He was glad none of them put two and two together and realized the glove burned when he got burned.

With the water dripping down his face, he felt alive, like soon everything would come to an end, and he'd return Ross and Barney back to normal. He'd regain his memories, he could maybe stay with Red, Ross and Barney. He would like that, they were his friends and he didn't want to leave them.

"Oh mans, maybes running after only 3 hours of sleeps and injuries from the explodings creature was bads idea..." Barney munched on an apple as he laid lazily on the cool grass.

"Ross, where are we headed to? Since you saw the map." Max asked Ross.

"Well, the closest village to the gateway is the village of Aeston. We won't need to cross the river, but we should head into the forest to avoid being spotted, since well..." Ross glanced at Barney and pointed to himself, "We're morvics and this is Duhita.

"R-right..." Red face-plamed, "Already forgot Duhita hates morvics for some reason." he grumbled.

"I guess we should get going. Around the bend of the river I see patches of trees, we can enter the forest from there hopefully," Max pointed out. He wiped his face with his sweater and grabbed his bag. He winced only a little when using his burned hand.

They barely made it to the patch of trees just past the bend in the river when they heard a voice, "Took you long enough."

Max and his friends looked around for the owner of the voice, Max spotted a girl.

"I mean seriously, I wait here only to have to head home for a job. And thank the gods I return just in time to find the people I've been waiting for have finally arrived two days later than scheduled." It was a woman, a woman with short purple hair and red eyes. By now his friends had spotted the woman too, she was sitting on the tree tops of the trees they were just about to walk under. She must have been lying down on the branches or hidden from them to not have seen her as they walked closer.

"Is she...?" Red trailed off but Max shook his head.

Her voice was not the same as the one he could hardly remembered, not to mention she couldn't be the one he was looking for.

"Don't you know it is rude to stare, you should really learn to respect those superior to you. Especially when you've just arrived at your funeral, human." She smirked before standing on the top of the tree. Yes, standing, on a tree. In her hand was a sword as black as night. It glinted in the sunlight.

"Wh-what are you saying?" Max took one step back.

"It's simple. I'm. Going. To. Kill. You."

Max felt a chill run down his spine, this girl's voice was dark and pierced his heart in a very uncomfortable and deadly way. He shivered and looked around.

"Can'ts we talks this out?"

"Shut it dino, I'm here on a job to judge your pal. I've already failed him, so he must die."

"What! That's unfair, what did he do to fail!" Red yelled.

"That doesn't matter, point is I was asked to judge you before you proceed on, and well I already hate you so," She made a thumbs down sign and stuck her tongue out.

Max started to shake. Why was he shaking so much, sure, when she stood on top of the tree, even though the way she did it should be physically impossible, she was tall. Very tall, her red eyes seemed to shine brightly but look menacing, and the sword she carried was humongous. Beyond the size of a normal sword. The width of the blade was quite large too, about as wide as his face, maybe.

She jumped down, and disappeared in the air, before he heard a noise and she was suddenly behind him. "So let's hop to it human. I have jobs to do, and I don't like to waste time. So at least before I kill you, put up a good fight."

Max hardly had enough time to spin and face his attacker before he screamed and stumbled back to avoid getting cut by her sword. She was even taller up close, and that sword was DEFINITELY wider than his face. He fell on his butt and scrambled to avoid another swing. How could she swing a sword that large with just one hand.

"Ahhhhh! Bong bong! You get aways from mys friend!" Barney came up behind the girl with a splintered branch. He smashed it on her head...but she didn't even flinch. Tossing the sword into her other hand, she turned and kicked Barney in the stomach.

"Out of my way, you're not part of my agenda." Barney crumpled to the ground and groaned. She glared back at Max who stood fixated watching Barney.

One word came into his mind right now, Sh*t.

"L-look, please, we're just looking for--"

"The woman that gave you your mysterious powers, yada yada. I know, she's the one who sent me to judge you and the other guy."

"Wait, what?" Max tilted his head.

"She wanted me to make sure you two were worthy of proceeding and all that, She said I could use any means necessary for judging, so long I didn't try breaking the limit. So hey! That means I can fight you until you're dead." She smiled.

"What happened to the other guy then!" Max was almost to scared to ask.

"Him? Oh..." Her face soured, "He managed to slip away, lucky b*stard. Doing so is one way to pass, but I'm not going to make the same mistake twice, so just you know..., let me kill you." She lunged towards Max and swung her sword. He dodged with a scratch across his cheek. She kicked Max against the tree. The wind was knocked from him.

How could she move so fast, it wasn't even humanly possible.

Max ducked and yelped as the tree was cut in half, just where his neck used to be.

How was she so strong! What the nether was she!

"You know, the other guy, he was at least better at fighting than you. Certainly not at my level, but he used his curse to his advantage. He made bombs from rocks, you're kind of lame... More reason you should fail... but," She stopped mid-swing just inches from Max's neck as he tried to catch his breath. He glanced at Barney, to see Ross and Red pulling him away from the fight.

"But, at the same time, that guy was a little crazy. Muttering non-stop about being forgotten and what not."

Max's eyes widened, "What...what was his name?" Maybe he could remember something about the guy if he knew his name.

"Does it look like I care what the nether his f*cking name was? She jumped backwards, vanished and a small noise could be heard as she was on top of the trees again, "I don't think you're worth my time fighting--"

"Are you letting us go?" Max hoped she would.

"What? No, are you an idiot. I said I will kill you, I'm just not going to bother to kill you down there. Instead--" She took her large black sword, threw it in the air, and surprisingly it stayed in the air. Max was amazed at it and almost wasn't paying attention as it started to head straight to him.

It flew at him and he barely managed to dodged unscathed. But it spun around very quickly before making its way towards him again.

"Sh*t!" Max screamed. He hardly noticed the bandages around his burned hand slowly coming undone in the fight. Bits and pieces of the grass withered and turned black unbeknownst to Max.

"I bet you're wondering what this sword is. This is the Kohra Void. One of the purest forms of magic, a god killing sword. The Kohra Void controls the powers of space, I can freely move it and myself through space and dimensions. It makes moving quite easy, and combat even easier. This sword has a counterpart, the Chronos Void. It's never been seen or wielded, the only thing known is that it's in the darkest reaches of the realm itself. But you wouldn't know that. You're just a dumb human."

"Quit calling Max dumb!" Red shouted and balled his fist, "Just who do you think you are coming and attacking us like this and thinking you can get away with it!"

"Yeah!" Ross picked up a rock, he threw it with all his might. The rock sailed past her, not even close to its mark.

"Who am I? Ha! I'm Alista! Daughter of the Nyx, should I go on?"

The Nyx? Max did not know anything about the Nyx, "What is that?"

Alista's eyes widened and the sword fell and embedded itself into the ground, "What the f*ck is wrong with you. I get it if you don't believe in gods or what not because you're from Eflido, but even they have decent education that teaches these things. You really must be a dumb human."

"He's not dumb! He just lost his memories!" Ross defended Max.

Alista snorted and started laughing. "Are you serious? Man what sh*t luck you have, not to mention the irony. You lose your memories, your pal loses his existence, the two rarest side-effects of the void, and you both manage to get them. Who'd have thought!" She was laughing hysterically Max realized this was their chance. Red and Ross got the message and quietly began to sneak past their laughing attacker with Barney in their arms.

Suddenly Max stopped moving as Alista's sword appeared and blocked his path. The laughing had ceased.

"Do you think I'm that dumb? I already said I wouldn't fall for the same trick twice, I'm not letting you leave here that easily."

The black sword was pointing directly at Max's face as if floated in front of him. All of a sudden, small black holes surrounded Max and his friends and out came 6 blue swords with sharp edges, and even sharper tips.

"Holy crap! Diamond swords!" Apparently these swords meant bad new, not that he would know. Memory loss, remember? The holes they came from vanished and the swords spun slowly circling Max and his friends. Max was cornered, and had nowhere to escape to. It seemed they were done for.

"Any last words?" She smiled cheekily. Max fumbled with his voice, he opened and closed his mouth, "I guess not." The swords moved backwards as if rearing to launch at them full speed. Just as it seemed they were about to die, Max shouted.

"Wait! P-please! J-Just wait... I don't care if you kill me," That was a lie, he didn't want to die. He'd give anything not to die, but that wasn't important right now, "But let my friends go. They have to find the woman that gave me these powers, they have to ask her to reverse the damage that I've done. I promised I'd turn Ross and Barney back, but if I'm going to die, at least let them go. They deserve to have their regular lives back before I came and screwed everything up. So... please?" Max clenched his fist, closed his eyes and bent his head down. He was afraid that Alista wouldn't care, that the swords would impale them any minute now. He was shaking, quite violently might he add.

Alista snapped her fingers. The diamond swords returned to wherever they came from and the black sword moved back to Alista's side, she then sighed, "Fine, I'll let you go."

"Wh-what?!" Max looked up and he could see his friends had their eyes closed tight in anticipation too.

"Look, I'm not doing it because I like you, or pity you and blah blah. I still hate your measly human guts. But I'd never kill a person who swore to fulfill a promise to those he cares for. It wouldn't be right, and it would leave unfinished business in the realm. So hurry the hell out of here before I change my mind." Alista hopped down from the tree and pointed behind her with her thumb. She looked agitated. Max's eyes lit up and he let Red pull him past Alista. Ross had Barney supported.

As they passed by Alista, Max heard her mutter, "This is sh*t, couldn't even kill one of the candidates..."

What did she mean....candidates?

OMFG finally! Alista is here! One of the 3 main OC's that I've thrown into this book! Alista and her siblings will appear in Grasping Fate also. While her two siblings are important, Alista plays a key role in a lot of things. So expect to see more of her in Grasping Fate, since Destiny Calls is almost done!

Any theories of what is to come? 

Who is this other person Max keeps hearing about (yes I know I accidentally revealed him in the sneak peek of my character ref, I fixed that now. So if you know who it is because of that drawing don't say, cuz it wasn't meant to be shown yet ;-;)

What does Alista mean by candidate? 

What will happen as the story goes on and Max gets closer to his goal? 

I can't wait to hear what you have to say. And I can't wait till things are all revealed.