The Medieval Delusion

Chapter 5

"Jeremy. Can you send me?"

"William, I need you here. What if the Imprisoned One comes back?"

"Ok, you're right. What happens if someone gets down to zero life points?"

"I can't exactly tell yet. They might get trapped in Limbo."

"What's Limbo?"

"It's the in-between world, a realm in the middle of everything. It exists inside Aelita's mind."

"Jeremy! You have to destroy Limbo?"

"Why?"

"Because, we know there's a fragment of the Imprisoned One in Aelita's mind. What if it's a place? What if it's Limbo?"

"You're right! I'll work on it right away. But if they don't get to go to Limbo, they'll die."

"Then can we do it?"

"Hell, William, yes. They'll probably die anyway, Limbo or not."

"Get thee to hell, infidel!" shouted Sam as he shot energy at Milo.

"Sorry," said Milo. "I don't believe in hell." He plunged his sword into Sam, spinning it and splitting Sam in half.

"Damn thee to oblivion!" said Sam as he vanished.

"Sir Milo," said Ulrich, stepping forward. "We took care of the Creepers."

"Excellent. Now we have to go before the police arrive."

"It's too late," said Yumi as she looked out the window. "They're here! And Xanite is with them!"

Princess Aelita was still pacing her tower. They had taken Xanite. They were going to use him against the others. And just to humor her, they had lifted the anti-magic force field but doubled the protections on everything in the room. She prepared her strongest magical blast. She readied it and fired at the trapdoor. It creaked down an inch. The lock rusted a tiny bit. Nothing else happened. She sighed. Xanite would have to fend for himself.

"We have Sir Xanite," said the policeman from outside. "Come out with your hands up and you can see him."

"We have Brother Sam," said Milo. "We will trade for him."

"Milo!" whispered Odd. "What are you doing?"

"Bluffing," said Milo. "If we get Xanite back, it's worth the trouble."

"You're crazy," said Yumi. "But it will work. I hope so, anyway."

"Release Brother Sam Which immediately!"

"Give us Xanite, you morons!" shouted Odd. There was a pause for a minute.

"We are sending in Xanite. Send out Brother Sam."

"All right, but not until we see Xanite." Xanite flew through the door, bound and gagged.

"Xanite!" Yumi sliced off the gag.

"It's a trap!" he shouted.

"They trapped Xanite?"

"As soon as the gag is removed the spells they prepped will be released. And they'll do serious damage to whoever they hit."

"How many life points?"

"Sixty per hit. Two hits and any of them will be dead. I don't envy their chances of not getting hit at all, but I think they should be okay."

"Okay? Check how many life points Xanite has, Jeremy."

"Oh my god. Twenty life points left. What did they even do to him?"

"I don't know that!"

"William, calm down. We're all on the same side."

"You're right. I'm sorry. Can you do anything to help them?"

"No. There's nothing I can program in that world. And we can't go, because then the Imprisoned One would just destroy everything."

"Yes. I would."

"He's here!"