Hello everyone! This is a happy coincidence, because not only does the story hit 40,000 words this chapter, it's also the second to last in this segment! That's right, part two will be beginning shortly. I'll reveal the title next chapter, which is already in the works. By the way, sorry for the long wait, I got busy with school, but I promise the next chapter wont come with such a delay. I hope you enjoy.

Echo Chapter 13

Power

Is that the boy, the fateless one?

Yes, it is.

He is beginning to awaken his true power.

Do you suggest we intervene Master?

Perhaps.

Master?

Seek out the ones closest to him.

And do what?

I have something in mind. Let's see how he reacts when his reality starts to crumble around him.

Demitri and I sat together in the middle of the platform, staring at the package in front of us.

"Why don't you do the honors, Echo?"

"Alright."

I grabbed the box and removed the tape slowly, as not to damage either the box or the contents inside. Although I doubt an artifact of ancient power would be destroyed by taking the tape of the box too quickly, it doesn't hurt to be careful.

Inside the box were two simple items. The first, a golden scarf seemingly made of silk, except it moved like a wisp of smoke as I twirled it around, almost hypnotically. The other was a hard bound journal of the same color. It seemed to weigh nothing although it was the size of a small notebook.

"What is this stuff?"

He grinned slowly to himself, snatching the scarf out of my hand. He calmly wrapped it around his fist and clasped his hands together, holding them up to his bowed head. His eyes were closed and his brow furrowed, a small bead of sweat trickled down the side of his face. The scarf began to change color. It went from the silky gold it was before to a deep onyx black, as dark as shadow, with a faint blood red glow around the edges. Before I could react, he launched forward, toward my shadow. He jabbed his fist right into it, slowly at first, but soon the red glow reached all around my shadow. The sensation felt quite similar to... being electrocuted.

[Echo! What's going on?]

There was a slight twinge of terror in his voice, which I'm surprised I could pick up on in so much pain of my own. It was times like this I wish we weren't connected so closely. His terror flowed over me, like a violent current in black water that I just couldn't get away from, no matter how hard I swam.

Demitri slowly raised his hand from my shadow. Only, it seemed as if he was grabbing it, dragging it along with him. The red glow flowed along the mass of shadow that was how free standing. Demitri backed up, looking satisfied with his work. My eyes darted from his smug face, his now empty hand, and the squirming blackness that stood where my shadow once was.

Yian!? Yian!?

[Yeah?] His voice was strained, but no longer terrified. Maybe even a little at peace. My eyes locked onto Demitri's.

"What happened? What did you do?" I demanded. I got up and took a menacing step forward. He almost laughed.

"Look behind you." I turned around slowly. Standing there was Yian, back in his own body. Instead of the small kitten-like figure I remembered, he stood at least 5 feet tall, fully grown. His body was large and muscular, like a lion's, the golden scarf around his neck looked like string in comparison to his broad shoulders. His fur was all black, and the wings sprouting from his head were wide and well defined. He looked as if he had to struggle to keep from flying off the ground. His tail was long, and sharpened into a deadly red point, his blood red eyes were potent with wisdom. He was strangely beautiful.

"Yian?" My voice was barely a whisper. He responded with a low rumbling in his chest, not really a growl, but it was still odd to hear it from the person I spent so long talking to in my head.

He looked down, inspecting himself. Apparently he liked what he saw. His eyes brightened even further with his excitement.

I expected our mental link to weaken once he was free of me, but it actually seemed to get stronger. Slowly, I walked up to him and ran my hand through his fur. He purred softly, and inched closer to me. His body was so cold, but I didn't mind.

"Are you going to explain?"

Demitri grinned. It was hard to hold back my excitement. Yian looked big enough to ride!

[You're not planning to actually ride me are you?]

Of course not, don't be silly.

"What is there to explain? All I did was remove him from his prison. Looks like he grew a bit." He inclined his head, impressed.

I went to remove the scarf from Yian's neck, but in an instant Demitri was next to me, restraining my hand. I half heatedly struggled against him.

"I thought you wanted me to show you how to use it." I sighed and nodded, backing off.

"Do you mind?" He asked Yian.

[Of course not.] The sound of his voice in my head sounded more like an echo than the clear melodic sound I was used to, most likely because he wasn't talking to me directly. Demitri deftly unraveled the scarf from his neck. It looked like he had already been charging energy in his hands, because as soon as he touched it, it turned that same onyx black as before. Slowly, he ripped it in two, and the cloth fell slowly, engulfing his hands in black shadow.

"What did you do?" I screamed, barely able to contain my rage. Yian growled this time for real. The sound was slightly unnerving. Demitri sighed.

"I really don't like explaining things. Can't we just move on to the lesson?"

"Hell no, answer me! What did you do?" He sighed again.

"Contrary to what you might think, this wasn't just a scarf . . . well let me start at the beginning." He paused waiting for a reaction. I didn't give in, keeping my angry glare. He sighed. "Okay, I'm going to tell you what I know. The earth as you know it . . . it wasn't the first one in existence." I couldn't help but be surprised, although I still didn't show it.

"My first teacher had a . . . theory. The Great Spirit, the one who made the earth as we know it, didn't start with us. Because the spirit's only goal was to create a perfect society, it created First Earth, also known as the 'Shadow Side,' as well as the first gods, which were really physical extensions of different aspects of the spirit itself. First Earth was good, for a while, but there were several flaws. For one, their warriors were ridiculously strong; they easily overcame any physical obstacle they faced, excluding each other. This was also where the power of 'Adeptness' was first given to the humans by First Earth's gods. But with the birth of the Adepts came war. The added power to each of nation's armies made them overconfident. The adepts quickly became generals who led long and fierce battles against other nations. It was then that their second problem became apparent. The humans on First Earth took ridiculously long to heal, sometimes years for wounds that would only take weeks here. Since controlling the elements was extremely difficult on First Earth, it's third problem, mages were scarce, especially clerics. Even though those who mastered magic were the most intelligent child prodigies anyone has ever seen anywhere, there just weren't enough of them to support everyone in wartime.

"Realizing that it had failed, the spirit left First Earth and started over again with Second Earth, our earth." I stifled a gasp. He continued, apparently not hearing me.

"I'm sure you know the history of our earth pretty well. But . . . well let me put it this way. Second Earth isn't really separate from the First. The two civilizations co-exist with one another, only at different wavelengths, directly reverse of one another. The only way to cross over was to find an anomaly, where the wavelengths correspond. These anomalies were called portals, and they are extremely rare, the only known one lies deep in the dungeon..." He paused, probably regretting telling me that last thing. Oh well, too late now.

"This thing here is an artifact that resulted from the creation of Second Earth. It contains the essence of the volatile power of First Earth, and the control of the Second. This is probably one of the rarest things on both worlds... it's a part of a set, how many pieces there are is completely unknown. If you manage to find all of them, the power you'll have will be unimaginable, the power of a god."

The scarf had transformed back into its original state. He held it up for me to take it. Reluctantly I grabbed it and held it in my hands. It was cold, but oddly pleasant to hold in my hands. It gave me a tingling feeling I hadn't felt before when I first held it.

He looked at me for a second. I was overwhelmingly confused.

"Why me Demitri? Why me?" He shrugged.

"That's enough explanation. How bout I show you how to use it?" I stood up rigid, ready for action. Just holding the scarf seemed to fill me with an energy I didn't know I had.

"It's really not all that hard, especially since you have Yian to share the link with."

"How does that help?"

"Well, Yian already has a connection to the shadow nature of the scarf, and you the light since that's where you were born."

Something shiny appeared underneath his sleeve. Suddenly, the door opened.

"Yian why don't you go try out your flight for a while. I could use some alone time with Echo."

[You do know it wouldn't really be alone time don't you?] Yian argued. But I could tell his heart wasn't in it. He really wanted to go try out his new, fully developed wings.

Wow, you're a bad liar. Just go, have some fun. He looked at me, his eyes happy.

[Thanks buddy.]

No problem.

With that, he slowly flexed the new muscles in his wings and took off, soaring through the air and gracefully swooping through the relatively narrow door way. The door shut behind him. Demitri paused for a moment, casually eying the scarf.

"Okay, he's far enough away now." He walked over to me and sat on another makeshift shadow mat. "The explanation is rather simple really, but the practice is hard. All you do is charge enough energy into the scarf till it dissolves into its natural onyx form, like you saw when I used it to free Yian." I stopped him.

"How will I know when enough is enough?" He looked at me blankly.

"Oh . . . well, it will work differently for you than it will for me. Having Yian complicates things. It's is already fully connected to Yian, since I used it to free him from your shadow. I didn't mean to do it, but I didn't have enough energy to get him out of your shadow myself. But controling the scarf wont really be a challenge for you as much as trying to restrain it's power at first. Well, since it's primary bond, for now, was to Yian, it's gauged to his practically limitless energy supply, and if you try and use it, and get carried away, it can start to drain energy at a rate too fast for you to replenish, which would kill you."

"Umm..."

"But I have enough of a belief you can control it to justify showing you how to use it so early. But the really cool thing about the scarf is it should act as a bridge between you and Yian, combining your energies and your physical selves into one being, like the way you were meant to be."

I gasped.

"Don't worry; you're not going to sprout wings or anything like that. You'll see eventually. Anyway, you can see how using the scarf this early could be dangerous. It might be better if you use your eyes the first time. . ."

Although I was still in shock I knew what he meant. I called upon the Adept's eye, something I had become oddly familiar with, and began to pour energy into the scarf. Eventually, the color started to switch from the golden color to a dark gray. For some reason I got the feeling that now would be the right time to stop inputting energy. Even after I stopped, the color steadily darkened, until it entered its onyx black state. It took a lot less energy than I would have expected.

Demitri stared at me in stunned silence. It took me a moment to notice, I was trying to separate it into two like I saw Demitri do.

"What is it?"

Unbeknownst to me, Demitri had coated his hands with a layer of shadow. Without warning he rushed at me with his fist, aiming for my head. Before I knew what was happening I spun around and caught his fist in my hand, that had somehow covered itself with one half of the now black scarf's material. The scarf gave off a blood red aura that traveled through it like electricity. The aura slowly began eating away at the shadow on Demitri's hand, until his bare skin was visible.

He grimaced and kicked at my stomach, which I also blocked with my free hand. He spun around, ripping his foot and hand away from me, panting heavily. His hand still glowed with remnants of the red energy, which he clutched with his free hand, apparently in pain.

"Dear god, I don't believe it."

"What... just happened here?"

"You really are... You somehow unlocked the shadow nature of the Astral Blade... without even trying."

"Astral Blade? And how is that even possible?"

"Yes, Astral Blade. That's the name of piece of the set that you have, which was meant to be a weapon. I have no idea how you could have accessed it so quickly. Even Yian's connection shouldn't have augmented your progress so severely. Looks like I can't take it easy on you."

Before I could comment, he came at me again. He moved faster than I expected, and punched me square in the jaw. I stumbled backwards, but quickly recovered. He followed up with a punch aimed at my gut, which I could block with enough forewarning. With his fist in my hand I punched him in the chest, sending him stumbling backwards. I unclenched my fist slightly as I began to run forward with my next attack, but before I could, a huge bolt of red energy shot out of my hand, aimed at Demitri. He dodged out of the way, luckily, as a small explosion erupted where the bolt landed at the far end of the platform.

My Adept's eye went into overdrive, time seemed to slow and every piece of sensory information I was receiving was amplified tenfold. I began to feel dizzy.

I slumped to the floor, the Astral Blade returned to its normal form and wrapped itself around my neck.

"I told you that would happen if you get carried away. What was with that energy blast thing? Were you trying to kill me?"

"No... it just kind of happened..."

My eyes returned to normal, and I could see Demitri had a concerned look on his face.

"At least now you see the potential of the Blade, so you won't abuse it in the future. Get back up, and we'll take it slow this time."

I struggled to my feet, still a little bit dizzy. Demitri gestured, and I unwrapped the Blade from my neck and remade my knuckles. We fought slower this time, but it was still a taxing session. By the end I could barely stand. The bell rang in the hallway, soon accompanied by the stomping of bored adolescents.

"I'll see you next class Echo. Try to keep yourself under control."

I trudged slowly to Scrolling. The teacher seemed delighted to see me, as far as I could tell by the gasp. As I raised my head to see who it was I stopped half way. She was wearing a black mini skirt.

No please no.

[Did you say something?] I almost forgot Yian wasn't with me. I'd grown so used to his constant attention.

Nothing, forget it. Where are you?

[Flying above the school. This is incredible!] I wasn't used to feeling all of his emotions. It was hard to resist giving in to his joy that bubbled over into me. I was smiling when, unfortunately, I looked up into the face of the teacher from second period. I shuddered at her returning grin, and quickly rushed to a seat in the back of the room before she could touch me.

Scrolling was fairly simple. All you had to do was introduce energy into the scroll, just enough to slightly puncture the seal on its dormant energy. If done successfully, the scroll will release a small orb of power, its color varying based on the type of scroll. Then you just take the item you're scrolling, and introduce the power of the scroll at a certain rate, the rate indicated by the color of the orb. For example, if you have a 70 percent scroll, introduce 70 percent of the orb's energy per second. Seventy and thirty percent scrolls are the most volatile, and have the potential to destroy your item. There are three other types, 10, 60, and 100 percent scrolls. 100 percent's are fool proof. The others are more difficult to control.

Also, certain items have a different capacity for holding energy from scrolls. Capes, gloves, earrings, and shoes can all hold 5 scrolls. Shirts, hats, and pants can hold seven. Overalls can hold 10. There are certain exceptions to the average, such as Yellow Adventures Capes, and Brown Work Gloves.

A kid in the front row was fervently scrolling all the items he had with him, trying to win the teacher's approval. She barely paid any attention to him. By the end of class I had successfully scrolled a Sauna Robe with 10, 10 percent scrolls for some effect, I wasn't paying that much attention. My practice with Demitri when my life depended on it made this seem extremely dull. Apparently 10 10% scrolls working was some great accomplishment, because people were begging to buy it from me. I politely turned them down and carried it out of the room to dinner. I sat with Fye and his friends, Roy and Lai came to sith with us too, and we all chatted about random nonsense I didn't care about. I was distracted, thinking about the Astral blade, and my book, which I never got a chance to ask Demirti about. I used my free period to practice making things with my Blade, and then practiced my control with Demitri for the rest of the day.

Wearily I returned back to the dorm. Yian was waiting for me on my bed. Well, not really waiting for me, the whole guild was crowded around him, murmuring in excitement and wonder. A few stayed back, disturbed by the strange new creature.

Fye hopped over to me excitedly. He started talking a mile a minute. "When you told me about him I didn't know what to think and – he's yours right? What am I saying of course he is. And I didn't know he was so big, especially since you only got him a few days ago, and now he has those wings – have you flown with him yet? That must be exhilarating, flying above everything like that. Of course, I know, I have my hawk, but flying like that is painful. I wonder how it feels, being so carefree and just soaring, enjoying the sights and all that. Man one day I wish I . . ." He babbled on like that for a while. All of his questions weren't really questions, just introductions to his next comment. I listened, happy to listen to him.

The next day, I got up and basically started to repeat the same schedule as the day before.

World history was just as uneventful as the day before. He spent the whole class talking about himself, where he was born, his parents, his hobbies, all under the guise of him teaching us about his own personal history. I got the feeling he was just lonely and wanted someone to listen to him. At the end of class we got an assignment to write our own personal histories, complete with a title and everything. He urged us to be as creative and informative as possible, and assured us we would all be interested in hearing about each others lives. While I was curious, I doubt anyone else was.

During the events period there was no major competition happening. There was a scavenger hunt going on, the top prize thirty thousand credits, but I wasn't really interested. Instead I decided to go visit some old friends. I made my way over to the trainee dorms and knocked heavily. To my surprise the door simply swung open. I stuck my head inside.

"Hello?"

I opened the door up just wide enough to squeeze through and walked inside, closing it behind me. The lights were off, so I made my way along the right side of the wall to the switches. My foot slipped a bit in a pool of water on the floor and I reached out the nearest bunk to steady me. Trying to play it off as coolly as possible I leaned on the bed for a few seconds before pushing off and going to turn on the lights.

As the new light flooded the room, I held back a gasp. Scattered around the room were five dead bodies, kids I had flown in to school with. One of the bodies were charred, their skin black and hard underneath their clothes. Two more were frozen to death, their faces contorted in expressions of terror. The last body was slightly burned, like the first, but the unburned shin was covered in deep cuts, still fresh with blood.

I looked down, and to my horror the puddle I stepped in had not been water, but blood.

Sitting in the middle of the scene were Lai and Roy, very much alive and breathing hard.

Lai looked up at me.

"We did a bad thing, Echo."