Chapter 1: Broken Spirit; Scream of an Angel
Somewhere in the past
"Your compassion is your downfall, boy! Trox, finish him! TODOMEDA!"
Jake barely had the time to react and turn back, and within a split moment, he felt an excruciating pain shooting through his chest; looking at his chest, he saw a huge axe penetrated right through it. Blood splattered all over his long trench coat and was dripping down the tip of the axe. His eyesight blurred, the pain paralyzed his senses. Even his scream got choked down his throat by the immensity of the pain. Tears rolled down his eyes, as the man behind continued speaking.
"Now, you won't be having any need of your deck or of this card. So, I'm taking them, as the prize of my victory!" he said and burst into a maniacal laughter.
The axe was withdrawn from his chest, increasing the magnitude of the pain. He fell to his knees. He knew he didn't have much time left. The whole place appeared like an inferno, trying to engulf him, his life.
He fell on the ground, while the maniacal laughter continued. He knew he had failed. But somewhere deep within his heart, he knew his courage and his spirit hadn't.
Gathering all the remnants of strength he could, he said, "Th…this isn't ov…er! Thi…s isn't…"
But before he could finish, he felt a boot, hard on his head and, coughed out blood.
"This is over Jakey" came a female voice from above, one which he could recognize anywhere. The female bent down to the level of Jake's ears and whispered, "This is the end for you Jake; for which I have been so impatiently waiting till now. Though I…"
The rest of the words blurred around his ears as the world around him was slowly coming to a stop and became darker, colder. He realized he had lost everything.
His spirit was broken.
The female threw down a card by Jake's face; it was a golden framed card. A blue-yellow metallic angel-like creature was on it. Jake tried to reach for it but when he reached over the card, his hand slumped.
And everything went black as his consciousness faded out into oblivion.
Present
The dim candle lights of the room flickered, as the fire in the fireplace crackled. It was heavily snowing outside. The weather was too cold for any living soul to stay out, but the poor wolves had no other choice. Their howls intensified the coldness of the night.
The room was quite large, having the looks of medieval build. A large chandelier hung from the ceiling; but had no light in it because of the heavy snow-storm, which took out the power-grid of the locality. The room was well furnished (having majestic looks) but they were old as well. Long, heavy curtains were drawn across the two big, French styled windows adorning the walls of the room, which perfectly did their job of obstructing the views of any outsider into the room.
By the fireplace stood a large couch, in which a boy of 17 years sat, curled up in a blanket. He was shivering, for he had no clothes on his torso. His complexion was Caucasian, face unshaven and had medium length brown-black hairs, which touched his shoulder on the back. He had slightly slanting, brown eyes, which reflected the flames of the fireplace, creating an image on his onlookers as if his eyes were melting. He kept staring at the fire while his onlookers, an old woman and a young girl of about his age, kept looking at him; half in awe and half in disbelief, from the opposite side of him. They sat in two big chairs, a glass table separating those from the couch.
The boy held a card in his right hand, with his left hand trying its best to wrap the blanket around him more tightly. He took his eyes of the flames and looked at the card. It was a golden card. It shone brilliantly as the reflection of the fire danced on it. It had five little stars, a little above its down, right corner. On its top left corner, there was a number '7' along with a symbol which looked kind of like a sun.
The fire crackled on. And after a long period of it, the young girl broke the silence.
"That's Alcadeus, Winged Justice; a powerful creature of the light civilization. It is a super rare card, extremely hard to get. Where did you get it?" she asked the boy, with an excited tone.
"Now now Sarah, my child, don't be too impatient or hasty with him. He needs rest. It looks like he has been through a lot. Ask your questions tomorrow, okay?" said the old woman who had round, high powered glasses in her eyes.
She turned towards the boy and smiled kindly.
"I told you miss, I can't remember anything about who I'm or what has happened with me, not even how I got this card. But this is the card, which I saw in my dream before you guys woke me up" said Jake, keeping his gaze down and with a heavy voice; one, which was severely affected by the imposing cold weather on his body.
"Sarah, you can call me Sarah, and you must be Jake, right?" asked the young girl and smiled at him, extending one of her hands at him. She had short, curly, auburn hair, with a fair complexion. Her eyes were small, hazel green in color, with rectangular framed glasses. Her voice was unusually sweet.
"I guess so. Nice to meet you, Sarah" said Jake, keeping the super rare Alcadeus card on the table and shaking her hand with his.
Sarah was strikingly similar to the old woman, whom Jake deduced to be her Granny.
"And I'm Barbara" said the old woman to Jake and turning towards Sarah, asked "Did you get the clothes I asked you get, my dear?"
"Yes Granny, here they are" Sarah replied, standing up and putting a pile of t-shirts and shirts on the table, from behind the chair she was sitting in. Jake looked at them and wondered whose they were.
As if reading his mind, Barbara replied, "They are my son's dear; Sarah's dad's. Pick whichever you like and I'll put the rest in the wardrobe of the room, you'll be staying in."
Jake couldn't help but admire the hospitality which was shown to him by the duo of the Granny-Granddaughter.
"Thank you so much for your kindness, Mrs. Barbara. I promise I'll take my leave soon as I'm ready to travel" said Jake, picking up a scarlet colored t-shirt.
"Oh you don't have to worry about you bothering us, if that's what you are thinking dear boy. Only I and Sarah live in this house. You can stay here as long as you prefer. We are delighted to have some company, which we get very rarely. And besides, it has been heavily snowing outside for the last couple of weeks. Where will you go anyway? And also I doubt you have any clue of where to head for because of your lost memory" said Barbara in a gentle voice.
Jake knew she was stating facts. Whatever happened with him, has taken a huge toll on his body. He didn't know how long it would take for him to fully recover. And the snow outside was very thick and hard to travel on, even if the snowing stopped. And he had no idea of where to go, and no way of knowing anything, until and unless his memories returned.
He sighed and said, "Thank you so much Mrs. Barbara."
"Our pleasure Jake" replied the old woman.
"C'mon, I'll show you to your room." Sarah told enthusiastically and Jake got up, sliding the t-shirt over his head, onto his torso. It was a perfect fit. The young girl looked at him for a while.
"Let's go" Jake told Sarah.
"Here, take this Jake, it will keep you safe from the cold" said Barbara, before the two kids ventured, and handed Jake a long, thick trench coat.
Jake took it, looked at it and then, as if with some natural, innate ability, swung it smoothly over his head, slid it through his hands, then stretched the front; all of it in less than a second's elapsing.
Both Sarah and Barbara were surprised, as well as Jake himself; for he didn't think he had enough energy in him to do it, let alone being capable of doing such a thing.
"I am sorry, I didn't mean to startle you" Jake apologized.
"That's ok, nothing to be sorry about, silly" said Mrs. Barbara and both she and Sarah broke into laughter. Jake couldn't help himself but smile as well.
"Okay then Jake, follow me" said Sarah, as Jake picked up the Alcadeus card from the table.
Jake was about to follow her, when something crossed to his mind.
"Did anyone of you scream when you saw me lying on the snow or before waking me up?" he asked them.
"No dear, we were afraid about you being in hypothermia. We were trying our best to wake you up by jerking and calling for you, and all of a sudden you woke up. We were so relieved. Why do you ask?" said Barbara.
"Because, I swear, I heard a scream and that's what woke me up" said Jake in deep, serious voice.
Sarah looked at her Granny in confusion and Barbara closed her eyes for a moment.
Then she said, "All will be answered in due time. For now, it's bedtime."
"Good night Mrs. Barbara" Jake said, admiring the demeanor of the old lady.
"Good night, my dear boy. Sleep well" she replied in her gentle voice.
With that, the old woman took off, taking the clothes on the table. And Jake followed Sarah. She led him up a spiraling staircase upto the next floor and then turned right, making her way to the third room.
"This is your room Jake, make yourself comfortable" said Sarah, opening it.
Jake analyzed the room. The first thing he noticed was a huge king-size bed. Next to it was a small fireplace, a dresser, a wardrobe and a long table. The room itself looked quite magnificent, with all the decorative pieces hanging on the walls.
"Thank you Sarah. You and your Granny have done a lot for me, I will never forget your kindness, and if the time ever comes or I get an opportunity, I will definitely repay you; I promise" Jake told the young girl.
"The only way to repay me or us would be by staying well. And for that, you need to sleep well, Mr. Jake. We have a lot to talk about, tomorrow" replied Sarah and winked.
Jake sighed and looked at the card he was holding, again.
"Looks like you have no idea of what you are holding in your hand now, do you?" Sarah asked and chuckled, and continued, "Well, that makes it more fun and also gives me an opportunity to teach you about Kaijudo. You better be up for it. Good night."
And she left, after Jake wished her the same. He tried to ponder upon what Sarah told him. The card, Alcadeus, Kaijudo; he had heard the names somewhere before, but couldn't remember where.
He entered his room and closed the door. He made his way to the bed and sat down.
"Who am I?" he thought, "What is my identity?"
He felt a sharp pain cropping up in his head, so he decided to lie down. Opening the trench coat and keeping it in the wardrobe, he lay down on the pillow, keeping the shiny card by its side. And within a short while, he felt sleep flowing down his eyelids, onto his whole body, easing and soothing it. He tucked the blanket around him and soon fell asleep, as the fire kept crackling and the card, shining.
Elsewhere, in some tropical marshy land, three crows shrieked at the top of their voices. In the proximity of their residing tree, stood a dark castle; heavily guarded. Each of the guards had armored bodies, a special gauntlet on their right hands and a deck case strapped around their waists. None of their faces were visible because of a dragon-skull-like helmet each of them wore.
Deep inside the castle, in the throne room, preparations were going on for an unknown ceremony. The castle was restructured, which now held five alters and five thrones in the throne room. Each throne one occupied by an individual figure, with another individual standing by each of their sides, all of whose faces were immersed in the prevailing darkness of the room. The only light that was present in the room was coming from the four cards which occupied four of the five alters. Seven priest-like beings sat, surrounding the five alters and were chanting something strange in some inexplicable language.
"It has been nearly one year since we have got our hands on the Stormspark Blast. Four out of the five extremus-spells are in our possession. All we need now is the Tornado Flame. But none of our spies have been able to locate or track down the location of it. Looks like we need to step into the field for this one" spoke out one of the individuals; a male, with an eerie, robotic voice.
"Sanders is right, we need to take the searching in our hand this time; otherwise the spies will get us nowhere. But let us not forget the fact that Arlane and his apprentice had to resort to trickery for getting the last card from that menace" spoke out another individual; a female, in a soft voice.
"But the card sits on the alter now, and that boy is dead. That's all which counts, Madusi. I have but scored two goals with a shot. No one can stop us now", sneered another individual by the name Arlane, while his apprentice patted his shoulder.
"Right, but don't get cocky. The boy had feelings, which you two could manipulate. That may not happen in case of the fifth card holder, albeit being most certainly weaker than him. We need to be thorough and swift in our search, as well as stay cautious at the same time. All right, you and your apprentice sit this one out. Sanders and Madusi, you two prepare yourselves; you'll begin your hunt tomorrow. Now everyone, disperse" spoke out another male, with an unnaturally calm voice.
And in a split moment, everything drowned in silence; with only the four cards vibrating and giving off energy in accordance to the uncanny chanting of the unholy beings.
To Be Continued