A dark room. Why was Kitai in a dark room? A bright spot light illuminated a circle around Kitai. It came from the ceiling. He looked up, and saw no ceiling, or light either. Where was he? Why was he here? Was this heaven? Then a voice called to him.
"Kitai."
"W... who's there?"
"Do you seek a name?"
"What else do I 'seek' for when I ask 'who's there'?"
"Hmph. Obnoxious boy, but I'll let it pass. I am Cyril, a Seraphim."
A celestial figure emerged from the darkness. He was adorned with beautiful silver clothing, and a golden breatplate protected his body from any apparent harm. His wings were more beautiful and magnificent than anything any human had witnessed, carrying more colors than the Aurora Borealis's themselves.
"Seraphim?" That was the only word Kitai could manage to say.
"Yes. A divine being who was chosen to rule this galaxy."
"Ok. That answers two of my questions. Here's another: Where am I?"
"You... are in my lair. This is where I rule from."
"You rule from a dark room like this? I thought a god would rule from a throne or something."
"I am not God. Or a god. Of course, you would probably think of me like that. And this room is only dark because you are a human. Only other Seraphim or God can see in this room. You are neither."
"Heh, three questions answered, then here's my ne --"
"Thats enough of the questions. I will answer all your questions in due time. What is important right now is what I'm about to tell you."
"And that would be...?"
"You're dead."
"Wow. Thanks. I didn't know that. I didn't realize that five bullets could kill me." Kitai sighed.
"That is not the point. The point is that you are dead, and have two choices from this point: You can live again, or stay dead."
"I... can? I thought if you died, you die." a spark of curiousity ignited in Kitai's mind.
"Yes. That is true. True for a normal human. You are no normal human. You are a being that is a Potential Seraphim, you have the A-Factor."
"A-Factor? Whats with you and weird words." Kitai started to wonder if there was something wrong with this person.
"A-Factor. The Angelus Factor. Its the factor that determines if someone will become the next Seraphim."
"Hmmm... I died, and yet I have the A-Factor. So does that mean there's no next Seraphim?"
"Not necesarrily. Let me explain. Every thousand years, a new Seraphim is required, this is so because God does not want any Seraphim to gain too much power. And so, every thousand years, the Seraphim will endow five people with the A-Factor. You are one."
"Interesting."
"I'm not done yet. You still haven't chosen whether you want to live or die yet."
"Thats obvious, I want --"
"to die." Cyril finished Kitai's sentence for him.
"How'd you know?"
'I'm a telepath as well."
"Oh, joy." Kitai shrugged it off.
"Are you sure you
want to die though?"
"Y...yes." There was a
stutter in Kitai's voice.
"Liar."
Kitai retorted, "Hey now, just because you can read minds doesn't mean you're allowed to."
"Ha ha, amusing boy. Why do you not want to live?"
"Because the world sucks. I was a loner for eleven years of my life. Eleven years of my life without anyone caring about me. Eleven years of my life gone. Eleven years of my life only being able to talk to toys. How fun is that? And then there are wars in this world. Pointless wars. Why can't people just agree on something? Are we really so stupid that we need to fight, and slaughter race upon race to settle a the dispute? Oh, and don't forget that the world is material, and very vain. The mass media always advertises that hot girls get everything, and that being sexy is everything. Well thats stupid. I believe that to be wrong, and yet, since the media opposes me, the media wins. Great world we've got going."
"And yet in a world as bad as you've described, there's still one thing that you and I both know is worth living for."
"What would that be?"
"Have you really forgotten?"
"Oh... Rea."
"Yes. Her."
"Rea..."
Somehow, when Kitai mentioned Rea's name a second time, he appeared back in his bedroom, and he also saw himself, on the phone. He could hear what he was saying on the phone. A nostalgic feeling swept over him.
"Rea, stop teasing me! Just because I mispronounced one word..."
Rea was laughing. "You said com-poo-ter! You dork. You can't even say computer right!" Rea was still laughing.
"Aww come on, you do that too! Remember when you mixed the words 'stop' and 'shut up' together? You managed to say something like, stoup!"
"Oh my gosh, not this again! I was just uh," Rea paused for a moment, looking for an excuse to bring up, "being creative! Yea! That!"
The conversation went on for hours and hours. Kitai realized he remembered all of this. This was a week before the incident at school. He was talking to Rea on the phone because she had been feeling sad the other day. They both seemed like they were having fun, even though both of them didn't like the world for what it was worth. And yet, they both could manage to smile about it, and laugh about it. Kitai was truly happy when he talked to her.
"... Kitai?"
"Yes?"
"I love you."
"I love you too, Rea."
Something hit Kitai, something hard hit his heart. He grabbed it. He now remembered...
"Promise me
something Kitai."
"Yes?"
"Promise me, that you won't die before you see me. Promise me that you won't commit suicide or do anything stupid to die. Promise me."
"Of course. Anything for you." he smiled.
Kitai had a reason to go on. Rea. Rebbeca. He loved her. How could he forget that? And then he was brought back to the dark room after his flashback. Back to the dark room with the one light, and the Seraphim, Cyril, standing before him.
"Well? Will you go on?" interrogated the shining angel.
"... yes. For Rea."
"Hmph. I knew you'd come through."
"Thank you... thank you for reminding me of her."
"Your welcome." A small, white light started to appear from beneath Kitai. "Oh, and one more thing. When you get back to Earth, you'll have, how should I say this... enhanced abilities." And with that, the white light encompassed Kitai, and he no longer could see Cyril.
Kitai rose from his bed, but the tubes attached to his body stopped him from fully getting up. He searched the room and discovered that he was in the hospital. He looked at his wounds, which were now dressed. "I really didn't die?"
"Nope." answered a strange voice.
Kitai turned towards it. It was Cyril, but he wasn't in his silver and gold armor that he was wearing when they first met. Cyril was wearing the clothes of a professional doctor, as if he was one, but the face and voice was unmistakeable. It was Cyril. "What are you doing here? Why aren't you in that room?"
"I can go anywhere I want. As long as no one knows what I truly am."
"Well, why are you here?"
"To show you something. The staff thinks I'm a doctor, so its ok. Come here." Cyril moved towards Kitai and detached him from his life support.
"Uh, is this alright? I mean, I might die..."
"You're a potential Seraphim. You won't die."
"But I already died once!"
"True. But now your A-Factor is awakened, and you've realized that. You won't die again, not from a mortal wound. Now come." Cyril opened the window. The hospital room they were situated in sat thirteen floors above ground level. "Hurry." Cyril flew out of the window, and extended his arm out to Kitai. Kitai grabbed it, and then Cyril pulled Kitai out of the room, and brought him on the roof.
"Time for a bit of
angel training."
"Training?" Kitai's face lit up
with curiosity.
"Would you prefer if
you learned all of your abilities on your own?"
"No,
not really."
"Then listen up." Cyril pointed to his wings. "Each Seraphim has wings, potential or true. Since you haven't unleashed yours yet, it might hurt a bit. Just imagine wings appearing from your back, and say the words 'Damnate ego pennas."
"Well, whatever you say." So Kitai thought about beautiful blue wings emerging from his back, and uttered those magic words. "Damnate ego pennas." Immediately, Kitai hunched forward, uncontrollably. He felt a sudden pang of emotions drive through his head, pain being the most potent one, but it was strange, the feeling didn't hurt him. And after a few seconds, this strange mix of emotions left, and when he turned his head over his shoulder, magnificent blue wings had emerged, two of them.
"Well done."
"Thanks, now how do I fly?"
"With ease. Just imagine moving your wings."
Then Kitai started floating, hovering, almost as if it were second nature. His wings flapped back and forth to his command.
"Now, you have a special ability that only certain Seraphims have with their wings."
"Oh, whats that?"
"You have an extra pair of wings. An auxilury pair, for extra speed."
"Why do I have them?"
"Well, your A-Factor amplifies two things: First, your natural abilities. Kitai, you're an agile person, as you demonstrated when dodging those bullets. The second thing they amplify is your image of a strong human. You play a lot of that weird game, Ragnarok Online, and as a monk as well. That means you will have monk-like abilities, much like in the game."
"Oh really?"
Cyril replied bluntly, "Yes."
"Then I can..." Kitai put forth his right arm, and concentrated his thoughts into the form of a blue sphere. Five emerged from his hand, and started to circle around Kitai. "Woah."
"See?"
"Well, yes. Now how do I get my second pair of wings?"
"Just as you did with the first pair. But these wings aren't your like your first pair, they fan out perpendicular to your body. Think of them that way."
Kitai imagined two long, archangel-like wings popping out of his back, and once again he felt those strange emotions. Once again, it all went away, and two new wings appeared.
"Now, start to fly using your normal wings. And when you're ready, imagine that your two faster wings are like jets."
Kitai started to float upwards, he still wasn't used to flying obviously. After hovering around for a bit, Kitai finally built the courage to use his extra wings. He layed his body parallel to the ground in mid-air, and extended his faster wings. All of a sudden his archangel wings began to glow, and small, spheroidal light particles were gathering at the base of them. It seemed like all the air above him was gravitating towards those two wings, and then in the next moment, they let out. His wings piereced the sky, disrupting the silence that was once there. He was literally a flying bullet at this point. The wings were creating the exhaust that fighter planes commonly do, but this exhaust was a brilliant form of white and an ethereal blue, not the usual orange, white and red mix. But how fast was he going, and how would he stop?
The feeling was strange though. His face wasn't getting deranged by the speed he was traveling at, nor were his clothes. It was almost as if he had an invisible shield on, protecting him from the voracious wind attacking him. Then Kitai looked down. He was nowhere in range of the hospital anymore. He was far, far away from there. He was all the way at a beach. Rehobeth Beach to be exact. He stopped thinking about flying, and then his auxilary wings stopped thrusting, and his normal wings kept him afloat.
"How... Rehobeth beach... this place is a good hundred miles away from the hopsital, and I reached it in a matter of seconds?" Kitai's head couldn't comprehend how fast he was going. One hundred miles covered in a matter of seconds? Unimaginiable. That would mean he went at a speed of about two thousand miles per hour. Two thousand. Unbelievable. "But how do I get back... I don't remember which direction I went..."
And just as if it were a command, Cyril appeared infront of Kitai once again.
"I guess I should get used to you doing that."
"Heh, I do love doing that." Cyril laughed softly. "Anyway, back to more training." Cyril started to descend, and motioned for Kitai to land as well. "Now. Your weapon."
"Weapon? I don't have any of any sort..."
"Yes you do. Extend your right arm, palm facing up. Then create a sphere of angelic power, not the power that your monk ability would call for." After saying this, Cyril demonstrated what he meant himself. He extended his right arm, and a small, beautiful yellow orb appeared from his hand. Kitai followed suit. "Perfect. Now, grab the sphere, squeeze it, and imagine it forming the shape of a sword."
And so he did. Kitai reached for his orb of power, and grabbed tightly. When his hand formed a fist, a light illuminated from his clenched hand, and exploded away from his fist. And then after the miniscule light show had finished, a pole appeared from his hand, and started to take shape. It extended in length, and a sword started to form.
"What..." the sword then aligned itself vertically in front of Kitai, and he reached for it. Then the sword finally took its shape. A long, curved, katana glowing with the brilliance of the sun appeared in front of him. Kitai grabbed it, and expected for the sword to be heavy, but instead, it was very light, almost as if it weighed nothing. "How is it so light? This doesn't even feel like its a pound in weight..."
"It doesn't have weight."
"I don't get what you're talking about."
"Its a sword made by your powers. It has no weight."
"Then how can it harm something?"
"Its a sword made by your powers. Need I say that again?"
"So... my 'powers' don't weigh anything?"
"Not at all. Your sword is ethereal. It would be impossible for it to actually weigh something."
"So it has no physicality to it?"
"None."
"Impressive."
"Indeed. Now time to practice with it, I doubt you know any level of swordsmanship. Come, charge me."
"Ok..." Kitai armed his blade in an odd fighting stance that seemed awkward and yet familiar to him. His right side faced Cyril, his sword on his left. Cyril was just standing there, an easy, open target. Kitai charged a mad rush, ready to slice through Cyril's open chest. A swing, a miss. Cyril had evaded with a swift jump to the side.
"Come on, faster. You won't be able to beat anyone like that."
"Well, I'm a damn monk, I have no swordsmanship skills."
"Oh? Well I'm a knight, not comfortable with barehand combat. I'll fight you barehanded to give you a handicap." Cyril now stood in a fighting stance, ready to throw a volley of fearsome punches.
"Hmph." Kitai spit into the ground. Again he rushed, but this time, he quickly commanded his wings to emerge at the last second, and he managed to jump over Cyril, ready to slice through his open back. Kitai turned backwards, along with his deadly edge, cutting the air. But no one was there, Cyril had managed to evade him once again. Kitai looked behind him. No one. Above him. No one, and then he looked at his sword. Cyril was standing right on top of it.
"Too easy." Cyril leaped from the blade, and landed a kick on Kitai's face. "Definitely too easy."
Kitai was blown back several yards backward from the hit. He got up, with bruises, only bruises. Kitai got up and said, "Oh yeah? Well I'm not done yet." Kitai placed his sword in his left hand, and summoned his five spheres using his right hand. Small, blue orbs orbited around Kitai. "Ready for round three?"
"If you insist."
This time, Kitai grabbed three of his spheres, pulled them back to his chest, and they started to burn brighter and brighter, three powerful blue fires emerged from his hand. "How about this?" He threw the one of the three flames straight at Cyril, who easily dodged them with a high jump, but just as he looked up to find Kitai, he was gone, and in his place, a second fire was headed straight for him.
"Interesting..." Cyril dodged the second with relative ease as well, until he noticed the first two flames had come back to attack, turning straight towards him as if they were homing missiles. Needless to say, the attack was easily avoided, but Cyril slipped. He didn't notice the third one had come from behind, and it slammed straight into his back. "Gah..." And then the other two flames crashed into him from the front, dealing even more damage.
This was Kitai's chance. From his previous disappearing act, Kitai held a position above Cyril, and behind him was the sun. A cheap tactic, but effective. Kitai rushed straight down, his sword ready to taste the blood of Cyril. But just as Kitai reared his sword and sliced, Cyril had noticed. Cyril barely managed to dodge the attack, and the sword skimmed his skin, only catching some of it, barely making him bleed.
"Damn you! Stay still!" Kitai was furious, he let loose a volley of slashes, each one more fearsome then the next. "Stay... PUT!" More slashes. Cyril dodged each though, and with seemingly no effort. It seemed as though the two figures were dancing in the sky.
"You managed to hit me, I commend you, but thats the best you're going to get!" Cyril then let loose a powerful punch, straight for Kitai's gut. It landed succesfully. Kitai grinned though, a confident smirk appeared on his face.
"Heh..."
"What?" Cyril questioned his opponent with anger.
Suddenly, both figures turned a dark, black shade, and neither could move.
"What is this?" Again, his voice was filled with anger.
"Its a monk move. Root. Stops both of us from doing anything at the cost of a sphere. But..."
"Pif, that means you can't do anything either."
"Oh, I didn't finish. I can do something. My sphere will let me."
"..." Cyril was speechless.
Kitai called his last sphere with a booming voice to him, making Kitai glow with an awesome blue shade, and his body began to move. He pulled his sword back, radiating with the blue aura, and then thrust it straight into Cyril. "Occult Impaction!"
Cyril became a rocket, targeted at the Earth. The impact from Kitai's attack made him a spinning vortex, but not even the solid ground would stop his fall. After the impact, Cyril was still rolling on the ground. A minute passed. He had finally stopped rolling, and got up from his dirt pile. A hole appeared in the center of his body. Cyril got back up.
"Nice shot." complimented Cyril.
"Thank you, but why aren't you dead?"
"You think someone as weak as you could kill me?"
"Weak? Interesting words for someone who just lost." Kitai grinned a confident smirk.
"Need I remind you, I'm a knight." Cyril pulled his hand over his wound, and somehow, the hole disappeared, and Cyril was whole again. "This time, I'm not going to hold back. Of course, I won't kill you, but I'll put you in your place." Cyril extended his arm, and created a weapon, much like how Kitai created his, but Cyril's weapon was different. It wasn't a sword. It was an axe, a strange axe. Kitai summoned his spheres in response, and also let out his wings, both pairs. "You better be ready, boy."
This time, Cyril rushed at his opponent. He wildly wielded his axe, a light axe that only required the work of one hand to weild. He spun it, performed fake thrusts, to confuse Kitai. And then it happened. Cyril pulled his axe apart, revealing it to have a long chain hidden in the pole. He threw the axe head straight for Kitai. But Kitai wasn't that slow of a figher, and easily blocked it with his sword, parrying the axeblade, making it bounce off high into the sky. Then Cyril darted into the air, catching his blade, sheathed the chain back into the pole, and dove as fast as he could, straight for Kitai. The two figures met, and their blades did the talking. They were in a stalemate, with weapons locked, with no sense of either giving up.
Cyril let out a grin. "I didn't expect you to be this good."
"Neither did I." he retorted back.
They both turned black again. A sphere, lost. Frozen, but they could still talk.
"This move again?"
"It worked once, didn't it?" Kitai pulled another sphere, ready to perform his Occult Impaction again. Cyril grinned. Just as the thrust was made, Cyril flew straight into the sky. Shocked, Kitai managed to say something, "How... you should've stayed frozen!"
"Should've. But I didn't." Then he charged again, like a nuclear bomb ready to explode and wipe out anything in its path. He was heading straight down at Kitai.
"Heh." Another grin covered Kitai's face, and he too, dodged the attack with relative ease. The power of Cyril's attack created a huge crater in the ground, as if a miniature meteor had landed there. Kitai flew back into the sky, and summoned his two lost spheres. "We can do this all day, but you know I'll win. I'm better."
"Hmm. I take that as a challenge." Cyril flew up to match Kitai's elevation. Cyril started to spin his axe wildly, like a mad man gone berserk. Then another Cyril emerged. Another Cyril had formed from when he was spinning his axe. Strange, an illusion, or was it really an duplicate figure? Kitai was confused. How could he fight two men at once?
"Simple. You can't."
"How..."
"I can read minds, did you forget that already? And this is what my image of a perfect fighter is. One that can duplicate himself. My mirror image is not an illusion, but in fact, a living copy of me. Think you can still win?"
"A fun challenge. You know I love challenges." Kitai then disappeared. No, he didn't disappeared, thats a lie, but it seemed like that to Cyril. Since when could Kitai move that fast? But it was too late to think. Kitai was behind both Cyrils, and spiked one straight into the earth with a devestating blow. "How about that? Snap is also a fun skill, although that too requires a sphere."
The remaining Cyril started to engage Kitai. Slash for slash, slice for slice, blow for blow. They were evenly matched. But then Cyril gained the upperhand by parrying one of the attacks, and jammed the butt of his axe into Kitai's chest, knocking him back. Kitai grabbed the wounded chest with his left hand, and then concentrated his four spheres to his blade. They grew larger, as if they were feeding off of his sword. Kitai roared his mighty roar, and spun his sword, flinging the oversized flaming spheres at his enemy. Cyril tried dodging and started to flee, but they could match his speed and agility. The spheres were hunting their target much like a fox hunts its weak and frail rabbit prey.
Then the first Cyril stood back up from the inital blow, detached his axe, and threw the axeblade at Kitai. Quickly, Kitai reacted and blocked it again with his sword, but the other Cyril detatched his axeblade as well, and threw it straight for Kitai. There was no way he could escape this, but he did. Kitai launched his four spheres to the oncoming blade, stopping it.
"You've gotta be better than this, right Cyril?"
"Right." Then both of his selves duplicated themself. Four Cyrils now. "And just so you know, four is my limit. You're lucky." Two Cyrils rushed Kitai at once. Two of the deadly axes met Kitai's blade. "You know you can't beat four of me. Two was a challenge. Four is impossible." And with that, the other two rushed him, ready to attack his back, and their axe blades met Kitai's flesh. The axe caught some of his blood, and enjoyed the taste. Kitai stopped blocking, the pain was immeasurable. Then the four Cyrils smashed Kitai to the ground with the butt of the axes. Kitai fell, and the impact was so powerful that his body bounced from hitting the ground. The loud thud of his second fall resonated in his ears, and then he fell into a deep, deep sleep.
