Chapter 29 - Part 2

Haiden ran as fast as he could, dropping his spell the moment he exited the Ashen dorm. A storm of emotions overcame him. He was exhausted, both mentally and physically from this day. He cried his eyes out as he ran, tripping on every rock along the way, he scrambled to his feet, stumbling into a pair of Ashen.

"Hey, what're you doing here?" Vick asked in a stern voice.

"Haiden, are you alright? You seem pale." Kip added.

Haiden didn't reply but turn around and run the other way around, heading towards the Ashen training buildings. They were opposite to the Wielder dormitories and circled past the dining hall.

The muscles in his legs burned with exhaustion and his lungs ached. He reached the training buildings, there was no one in sight. As he approached the last building, the dining hall came into view. His sprint turned into a jog which ultimately turned into a slow limp. Holding his side, Haiden breathed heavily.

Haiden... Screech began.

"I don't want to hear it!" He yelled out loud. This day has already been too much for him to understand what he had just happened, from Danil, to the fight, to his memories, now Tasgal.

He could not get the image of the man he cared for dearly go on his knees with his lips around another man's cock. He felt betrayed and confused. Anger swole up quickly in his chest as the scene played over and over again in his mind.

"How could he..." His face grimaced in pain, tears flowing down the sides. His head began to spin as vertigo took over. He felt his memories drawing him back to remember more and more awful scenes of his past. He made a fist and began hitting himself in the head.

"No! Not now! Please!" He begged, he couldn't experience that again. The fat man, the smell, he just couldn't. His heart beat with increasing haste, as if it too wanted to escape this world.

I should've just let myself get swallowed by the ground! He told himself, regretting the fact that he had avoided death so many times. He would rather be dead than go through that again.

"Everything's a lie, Screech. Everything." Haiden collapsed by the side of the Dining hall doorway.

No. Screech felt everything Haiden was going through. He completely understands his defeatist attitude, but he could not let him give up now. You have power. That is not lie. You have me. No lie. We can search for truth. For both of our truth.

"I already know the truth! I'm a filthy slave. I've never had a Ma or a Pa! They were all lies, created by Danil! He betrayed me! My team with Tasgal, was a lie! He too betrayed me. Who else!?" He shouted.

But why? Screech asked. He wished he could give this answer to Haiden but he did not have it, and neither did Haiden.

"I don't know..." He squeezed his fist, his fingernails dug deep into his right palm, into the scar. A grim reminder of what had happened that awful night, to his companion, Regor. His stomach sank and his eyes bulged. Haiden had made a connection that gutted him. The older man in Tasgal's room had called him a target and Tasgal was spying for him. A target....

"The monsters that came for me, they weren't accidental. Screech. Someone sent them for me. They wanted to get me, but they got Regor instead..." His chin fell to his chest. "He didn't die because I could help him. He died because someone wanted me dead."

Haiden, it's not your fault. Screech tried to comfort the hurting man that now stood crouching and sobbing uncontrollably. He didn't know what else to say but he tried his best. Screech lost someone important too. We can still fight for answers. Screech must find out what happened. But Screech needs Haiden, and Haiden needs Screech. Together.

"Th-th-thankyo-you -" Haiden said between sobs. He knew the intention behind Screech' words but it didn't help alleviate the pain.

A massive explosion made Haiden fall on his ass. He quickly struggled to get up and look, disoriented with mucus flying out of his nose and puffy eyes. He spotted a trail of smoke coming from behind the Dining Hall. A scream alerted him that someone was fighting. It was a man, cursing at someone.

Without even realizing his body moved quickly towards the conflict which fired all of his senses. Fios flowed from the area with static, making his skin prickle. Behind the building he saw Master Coner attacking a man. He wore the robes of a Master Wielder but Haiden had never seen him before.

"Stop moving so much!" Master Coner spouted daggers at the man. He easily deflected each spell that came away, while Coner didn't even bother shielding. He let every spell hit. some going straight through his body. Chunks of flesh would fly off while a warm yellow light surrounded him. Haiden could feel the incredible intensity of the Fios from the light, just like when he had healed Tasgal in the training pit. The chunks regrew, faster and faster.

"You're a monster! Just like those you created! I will not let you get away with it!" The other man called out, masterfully deflecting and avoiding a constant flurry of spells. At the same time, the man threw spells of his own, that were just as powerful. "How clever to make them go only for the unblessed. How did you do it?"

"No need to waste my secrets on dead people!" The man laughed and tightened his grip on the cylindrical crystal. It was glowing with the same golden light.

"So, it's that ting in your hand. What is it? Where did you get it?" The man shouted. But no reply came from Coner. He simply laughed as a big chunk of his shoulder regenerated with a sickening squelch and crunch of bones.

"Weak little things you created. Surely you couldn't think they would be enough to conquer Red Keep. Foolish to make them go after the unblessed, leaving the Wielders to finish them off. Didn't think that through, did you." The man taunted, trying the man to get to talk to him.

"You idiot! Our plan succeeded! You cretin! You think our intention was to conquer Red Keep? Pfsha!" Coner laughed maniacally. "We wanted to turn those in the lower levels against you! The Royal Guards! The Emperor's Wielders! Only saving those blessed, leaving the unfortunate to die. The families of the deceased will hate you with pure rage. Why would they let us die! They will call out and go for your throat. It's only the first step, Ad'hm, was it? And I would let you know, my creatures were PERFECT!" He screeched the last word, his hair becoming untidy and pulling away from his ponytail. With that the man began summoning vines from across the bushes dashing straight for his opponent while maintaining his barrage of spells.

"That will never work!" Ad'hm replied. "They are loyal to the Emperor."

"The phony Emperor? The Emperor that let thousands die in sheer filth and poverty from his foolish attempts at mimicking his father? I think you are way beyond your depths. No one will lift a finger to help him!"

"We'll see about that!" Ad'hm said, quickly fending off the vines with an all around force blast. "It's time to finish this!"

Haiden could feel the constant Fios emanating from the man, it had a very different feel to it that that of Master Coner, especially the crystal cylinder. While he saw the movement of fios through the air, Haiden could not tell what the man was doing, but he noticed that the energy was being inhaled by Coner with each breath.

That can't be! Screeched called in his mind, fear overcoming him. He fell silent shortly after.

"Another poison? Oh dear, what shall I ever do" Master Coner mocked the man. "What do we have this ti-" He stopped as his eyes bulged. His jaw began to tremble and foam pooled at the corner of his mouth.

"You feeling a little choaky? Let me help you with a bit of water."

Haiden's mouth dried out instantly as the man pulled the water from the air into a thin blade. He sent it straight towards Coner severing a leg off, but he was too busy convulsing to scream in pain.

"That is the strongest poison I have ever created." Ad'hm said between breaths, he was pooling a great deal of energy into this spell, feeding the poison faster than Master Coner could heal.

"It denatures the proteins in the body, leading to cell death. Every tiny tiny cell in your body is destroying yourself resulting in excruciating pain and that horrid black tint to the skin. I think it should've reached your brain by now."

Master Coner's skin began to turn black from the very tips of his extremities, reaching up to his head. His eyes now glossed milky white, his skin contrasting the foam around his mouth.

His head began to cave in as it crumpled in pieces. In his right hand he kept the cylinder whose golden light protected his hand from being affected by the poison.

In a final attempt of desperation, the cylinder's light grew stronger than before, blinding Haiden and Ad'hm. After the light dimmed back, the blackness subsided. His head began to reconstruct itself; first the brain, then the skill, the flesh covered it first with a structure of veins and then with skin that grew hair the moment it formed.

"I keep telling you, you can't kill me. Now, let's end this debacle, shall we? I have a few things to pack and it will take a while." Master Coner's voice was calm and collected as his skin began to shift and warp. His bones crunched as they broke and elongated his arms, his leg regrew weirdly and deformed, making him a twisted resemblance of a human. His mouth sewed up and opened a vertical slit from which a shrill, that chilled Haiden's blood, erupted with agony. His skin whitened aside for his left hand. The poison was still working on his body. His elongated right arm still holding the crystal tightly. He began to run towards Ad'hm in a clumsy dash and swiped at the man with a darkened claw. It tore right through his shield slicing the man across his torso.

Ad'hm was thrown back by the force and landed in a few stray bushes. He groaned in pain.

"He's going to die..." Haiden said beneath his breath. His legs moved on their own and placed himself between Master Coner and the man shielding them both.

"Haiden!" The creature said in a harsh inhuman voice, stopping his attack. "Too bad I have to kill you too now, you were a promising student."

"Kid! What're doing!?" Ad'hm called from the back. He coughed blood all over himself, trying to heal himself.

Haiden ignored the man, focusing solely on the creature before him. "You make monsters like this?" Haiden called, tears still flowed freely on his cheek.

"It does not matter if I tell you or not, you will be dead in a few seconds, but I am proud of my work. Exquisite, isn't it?" The once Master Coner replied and prepared another strike.

In that moment, Regor's face flashed through his mind, he didn't know how but he was certain this man had something to do with Regor's death, rage poured out of him in the form of liquid fire. He simply let go of all of that he had been holding back. Every ounce of control he gained during his stay at the Academy was gone.

Haiden! No! Screech called but it didn't register with Haiden. His mind was completely blank. The fire cremated the creature slowly, faster it could heal.

"How're you doing this!? Stop! Stop!" Coner begged.

"I don't know what you're doing, but keep going, Kid! I'm pushin on my end!" Ad'hm screamed as he poured all he had into his poison, starting to advance across his torso. The creature was being eaten from two sides. Haiden was gaining momentum eating through his torso and right hand, his fire burning his flesh to cinder, while on the other side his skin blackened and restricted his movement. He squirmed as much as he could but the power was too much for him, he had to focus on healing his body.

Haiden's constant stream of energy increased tenfold and the power with which he burnt Coner's flesh grew. He began to make his way through his right hand. The monster screamed in pain as he could not move away. His right hand remained untouched but the liquid fire was already eating through his forearm. With the increase in power Haiden burned through his forearm in seconds, cutting his power supply to the crystal. The moment it fell to the ground, Ad'hm released his spell as he heaved from the effort. But this time the creature's fight lessened and the poison advanced on its own, quickly getting to his brain, disabling Coner completely. Haiden burned faster through the body, the healing had long stopped.

Haiden did not stop until every last inch of flesh turned to ash. No one could even tell there was once a ferocious creature where it stood, only leaving the burnt ground beneath. He fell to the ground, exhausted.

"Kid!" Ad'hm called, he tried to steady his feet but the wound was too deep. He slowly limped towards the young wielder.

Run! Run! Screech yelled at Haiden. With immense effort he pulled himself up. Wait! Get that. Get it!! Screech guided Haiden towards the cylindrical crystal, it sparkled of violets in the sunset light. Haiden snatched the crystal and bolted as fast as he could out of sight!

I just killed someone... Haiden repeated in his mind as he obeyed Screech and ran as fast as his legs could. His sides were aching and his lungs were burning from exhaustion.

It's not time to think of that! Just run! Screech urged.