Chapter 1—The Rebel and the Witch
The two lone figures in the streets of Meridian had just defeated the guards. Caleb and Taranee were scouting around the area, searching for any survivors.
Taranee flew up to get a bird's eye view for more coverage. She however, found nothing. Caleb walked around the once-thriving city, but like Taranee, has not found any survivors. They both met at the plaza to report.
"Damn, Phobos must have wiped the city clean." Taranee said.
"He must be crazy killing off every last person in Meridian." Caleb responded.
They soon headed back to the hideout to meet with the other rebels. As Caleb and Taranee were walking, Taranee looked at the destruction Prince Phobos has caused. The shops were decaying. The houses crumpled to pieces. The fountains have dried up, and rats eating the remaining corpses of the villagers. She pulled out the Heart of Candracar, which was given to her by her friend Will.
"Will…."
One year ago…
"Taranee, watch out!"
Phobos lunged at Taranee, but thanks to Irma's warning, she manages to dodge the attack. Taranee retaliated with her Flame Wall spell.
"Ungh!" Phobos grunted as the fire engulfed his body. "Heh heh. Didn't your parents ever tell not to play with matches?"
He then threw a fireball of his own, but not before Hay Lin dived in and swept kicked him. He then directed his attack on the agile Wind Guardian. But Hay Lin was too fast for him to accurately land a direct hit.
"Damn it! Stay still so I can smoke your little wings to ashes!"
After some time, he grew tired of missing his attacks and focused on eliminating the others. He then got sliced by the rose vines that Cornelia summoned. Unfortunately, this led Corny to her demise as Phobos countered by engulfing the vines with flames and turned it back on the user. Cornelia screamed as flames engulfed her with intense heat.
"CORNELIA! NO!" Taranee screamed.
As the Earth Guardian lay lifeless, Phobos soon directed his attention to Irma, the Water Guardian.
"Take this, pretty boy!" yelled Hay Lin. She then, out of thin air, launched Wave Needles at the prince, slicing his skin in the process.
Blood sprouted from his body as each needle tore through him. However, Phobos cast a Mimicry-type of spell that turned Hay Lin's power against her. Hay Lin tried avoiding the needles, but the needles proved to be too much as each needle sliced her body. As the limp Wind Guardian fell to the ground, Taranee ran to catch her friend.
Irma tried attacking Phobos with her water abilities, but Phobos reflected her attack back at her. He then turned the atmosphere to be very cold. Irma, struggling to break through the pressure of the water, tried to reverse the current. But, as the air grew colder, the water began to form into solid ice, taking Irma's life in the process.
"Irma! Will, Irma's frozen solid!"
"WHAT?!? NO!"
"Well, well. Three down, two to go. Which should I annihilate first? The Fire Guardian or the Keeper of the Heart?" Phobos chuckled darkly as he walked his way towards the two remaining witches.
As the two panicked for a way to destroy Phobos, Will told Taranee about her plan.
"Taranee, take the Heart of Candracar."
"What? I can't do that. Not to my friend, no! What about you?"
"Don't worry about me! All I'm worried about is Phobos getting his vile hands on the Heart. You need to get out of here!"
"Oh, I wouldn't count on it." Said the psychotic prince as he brought forth vines that closed off all exits, diminishing any chances of escape. "Why do you want to leave so early? We're only just getting started, ladies."
"Shit! We're trapped!" Will muttered. "Quick, call up an Astral Drop, Taranee!"
Taranee did what Will told her to do. Seconds later, a clone-like Taranee appeared. Immediately, Taranee-2 and Will started attacking while the original Taranee looked for an exit out of the castle.
Will fired lightning from her fingertips while T-2 threw fireballs at the demonic prince. Phobos, however, absorbed the two elements and fired it back at the two (or three) Guardians.
"Take this!"
BOOM!
"AHH! Taranee!" Will screamed as the force busted through the wall, knocking them down the next floor.
Phobos walked to the edge of the platform to see the two witches lying unconscious on the stone pile. He let out a maniacal laugh, as he appears to have defeated the Guardians for good.
Moments later, Taranee was able to regain consciousness from the attack. She looked at Will, who was barely breathing.
"Will, are you alright? Will?"
"Ungh….Taranee?"
"Will, can you hear me?"
"Yes. H-here, take this my friend."
Will then handed her a picture of the Halloween party on the night they first met. Taranee took the picture with her trembling hands.
"W-Will, th-thanks."
Soon the bodies of the fallen Guardians starting glowing white. The particles of their bodies soon transformed into energy orbs, each of them a different color corresponding to their elements. The orbs soon traveled to the site where Will and Taranee was. The orbs traveled into the Heart of Candracar, each of them adding their element into the amulet. The Heart began pulsing in Taranee's hand with extravagant power, giving her the ability to command all of the Guardians' elements in addition to her own pyrokinetic abilities.
"Taranee, you were always the best friend I ever had. I never regretted meeting you." Will said. Though she was crying, she was happy that her friend Taranee was there to say goodbye to her.
For Taranee, this was very heart-breaking to see her friends die off in the line of duty. As Will began glowing, Taranee let out a shrill scream and started to unleash, for a brief moment, an explosion of various elements…
"Taranee, something wrong?"
"No, it's just that the Heart is acting really weird."
When she said that, the Heart of Candracar began pulsing uncontrollably in Taranee's hands.
"Why is it pulsing like that?" she thought.
"Taranee, look!" yelled Caleb.
What they saw was a giant Cyclops with a great sword to complement his arsenal. The Cyclops charged at the two with his sword. They both dodged his attack, which resulted in the Cyclops' sword to get stuck in the ground.
As the Cyclops struggled to get his sword out from the ground, Caleb withdrew his sword and started attacking. Taranee soon followed suit as she drew out her whip and ignited it with fire. She snapped her whip at the single-eyed monstrosity.
The Cyclops felt the direct hit as the whip hit its eye. He let out a roar and knocked Taranee across the cave, leaving Caleb on the front row for the moment.
"Damn it! That blow pretty much made my day." Taranee grumbled after receiving the big blow of the Cyclops.
"Taranee, are you alright?!?"
"Yeah, I'm alright. Just lucky he doesn't have sunglasses on and shoots lasers, or we'll really be in trouble."
Taranee came back to the battle front, more than willing to wipe out the Cyclops. She then transformed her whip from having flames engulfing it to just no flames at all. Instead, the whip was now made of something of a thinner material.
"How about some slice and dice for ya?!?" yelled Taranee as she swung her whip in maddening speeds, becoming a vortex in the process.
Soon, the Cyclops had cuts everywhere. The Cyclops was bleeding after her attack. As his growls became more distressed, Caleb walked up to Taranee with a smile in his face.
"So, who's going to do the honors today?" Taranee said to Caleb.
"You did it last time, but where's the fun if one of us has to step back. Want to kill him together, Hot Stuff?" smirked Caleb.
"Wha? Uh, sure. Okay." Taranee stammered as Caleb drew out his sword and stabbed the monster's eye while Taranee used vines from out of the ground to grasp the monster into the air. She then used water to douse the monster, froze the Cyclops with cold wind, and dropping him. The monster-sickle shattered on impact.
As Taranee walked to the pile of ice that was once the Cyclops, she looked at Caleb with a puzzled glance.
"Uh, Caleb? What did you mean when you called me 'Hot Stuff'? Do you…love me?"
"What? N-no. I just wanted to kill that monster and get it done and over with, that's all."
"Oooookayy." said an unsure Taranee.
"Besides, we need to the rebels' hideout before they'll have our asses on a silver platter."
The embarrassed Fire Guardian soon ran with the Rebel Leader to the hideout. To Taranee, it was just another day on the job……