Chaotic Worlds: Book 1

Chapter 7: Blades

Disclaimer: The only thing original here is the plot and my characters. Nothing else belongs to me.

Universe 1566: Kuala Lumpur

Ken ran straight for the Zombies rushing and jumped, charging up his right leg with electricity. The flying kick hit a Zombie dead-on, destroying it. Before the zombies could even react, Ken had suddenly disappeared. Or so they thought. Out of nowhere, a Zombie was pierced with a charged hand thrust by Ken. As it disintegrated, its fellow Zombies looked around wildly for the Seal. Two down, eight more to go. Let's wrap this up.

Universe 1566: Mithril HQ

Back in the Tech Division, the high-ranking personnel crowded around Jack Blake's workstation stared open-mouthed at the happenings. Through the mini-camera on Ken's earpiece that he had activated, they were able to watch the ongoing actions. All of them were simply amazed by what they were seeing.

"My God,"said Van, "he's getting better with each battle."

"Isaac, what do you think?" asked Karl.

"Van's right, he's getting better," replied Isaac, "the most important thing now is that he's learnt how to create a spirit shield. Once a Seal can do so, he or she more or less has access to all the potential powers within. The same thing happened to me. Once I set up my shield, the knowledge of how to better use my powers just came to me. Jack, how fast is he moving right now, compared to when he first awakened his powers?"

"350 km/h, up from 200 km/h."

"My guess, sir, is that that extra 150 km/h is coming from his lightning powers. He's utilizing a bit of the speed of lightning to enhance his own speed. That faint trail of blue behind him attests to that."

On the screen, the remaining eight were getting pounded by Ken, who was now nothing more than a blue blur. In a flash, he was suddenly in the sky above them, mid-somersault. Three of the remaining Zombies fused into a Cursed Demon. As Ken hung in the sky, the Demon opened his mouth so big that the hole was almost as big as the Demon itself. Ken noticed this.

"Urgh, gross," commented Brian off-handedly.

From within the Demon's mouth a dark purple light began to grow as the Demon prepared to fire an energy blast at Ken. Ken didn't seem unfazed in the least. As the Demon fired its blast, Ken pooled lightning around his right arm and slapped away the blast, using his lightning as a protective barrier. In a split second, he had redirected all that energy into a single blade attached to his right wrist. "HAAHH!!"

The Demon didn't stand a chance. With a single downward slash, Ken had split it into two. But he wasn't done yet. As soon as he landed, he leapt at the nearest Zombie, reshaping the lightning blade into a crackling ball of blue energy. There was no way the Zombie could have dodged the ball which Ken slammed into its gut, destroying it.

By now, all the Mithril personnel around Jack's workstation were staring open-mouthed at what they had just seen. Charlie summed up their feelings perfectly.

"Whoa."

Universe 1566: Kuala Lumpur

Ken stood in the open clearing in the factory complex coolly, waiting for the four Zombies to make their move. After the way he had dispatched the previous Zombies he was feeling supremely confident, to the point of being just a teensy bit cocky. If he could handle all the Zombies before, 4 would be easy meat.

It was a mistake that would prove to be an almost fatal one. The 4 Zombies combined into 2 Demons and split off in two directions, disappearing from his sight. Caught off guard, Ken was suddenly swept off his feet by a sweeping kick behind him. As he fell to the ground he saw the second Demon leaping down at him, sword in hand. It didn't look as if he would make it.

But he did. Ken reached backwards and grabbed the Demon that had been standing behind him, pulling hard so that the surprised Demon was suddenly between him and his attacker, intending to use the Demon as a shield. The plan worked. The attacking Demon stabbed its comrade with its sword and had it stuck, buying Ken time. Ken didn't waste time either. As soon as his body was on the ground he rolled away. The stabbed Demon was on the ground letting out some horrible shrieking while the other unsuccessfully tried to pull out its sword.

Ken moved back a few steps then concentrated hard, harder than he had ever done before. The sky within the spirit shield gradually began to get darker. There was a flash of lightning and thunder rumbled in the overcast clouds overhead. The Demons looked up from their respective struggles. Ken was focusing lightning energy into a ball in his right hand while the thunder became louder and the lightning struck the ground a few times. At times lightning bolts from the heavens struck the energy ball in his hand, but he didn't seem to be hurt in the least.

"Lightning…Smash."

Ken suddenly grabbed the ball of lightning and slammed it hard into the ground. The force of the action caused the ball to disperse violently back into the atmosphere. The sky became even darker and the thunder died down. Then all at once multiple lightning bolts, much bigger than the previous ones, lanced down from the skies and swept the ground like orbital lasers. Buildings crumbled and trees were fried to a crisp but Ken just stood there unharmed. The Demons, realizing how badly they were outmatched tried to escape but their efforts were in vain as the lightning came crashing down on them, incinerating them in an instant. Ken stood alone. He had won.

Universe 1566: Mithril HQ

The small group around Jack's workstation whooped in celebration at Ken's victory. The tech personnel just stared as their superiors started an impromptu dance, each still cheering loudly as if their favourite team had just won the championship.

"Alright, alright that's enough, people", Karl said unsuccessfully trying to calm everybody down. He pressed the speaker button. "Ken? Son, are you okay?"

"Dad? Yeah, I can hear you loud and clear."

"Well done, son. Well done."

Universe ????

The formless shadow that was Razorpoint slithered into a huge underground cavern hollowed out by the mindless minions of his master. Waiting for him were the Master's other servants, his fellow generals. Razorpoint reformed himself and took his place beside his siblings in front of their "father", the Master.

With a lazy wave of his arm, the Master summoned a view screen in front of his followers. It showed footage of the six teenagers battling the Zombies and the most recent footage showed Ken battling the Zombies in Kuala Lumpur before suddenly disappearing, an effect of him creating his spirit shield. "It seems as though Mithril have gotten themselves some new weapons. Remove them."

Universe 1566: Mithril HQ (a week later)

"Damn it I'm late for school again!" yelled Ken panickedly as he grabbed his books and ran out his room, his jacket over his shoulder into the kitchen where the rest of his family were having breakfast. He grabbed a handful of cereal from a box and stuffed it into his mouth, then grabbed a few slices of bread before running out the door again.

"Huh. He sure is rushed in the mornings," commented Van as he ate his toast. Beside him, Brian grinned over his cereal.

"You get used to it," his father replied as he sipped his coffee while he read his morning newspaper.

Ken raced down the hallways of the Mithril HQ from the personnel headquarters where he was staying with his family for the time being, narrowly avoiding the personnel clocking in for the day, and headed straight for the tech division. There, Charlie was leaning beside a warp portal console munching on his own breakfast while the black-gold portal glowed serenely.

"Everything set?" yelled Ken from a distance as he ran towards the active portal. Charlie flashed him a thumbs-up sign in reply while taking a swig from a mug of tea.

"Cool. See ya later then," Ken said as he jumped into the portal, waving at Charlie who raised a hand in return.

Universe 1566

Ken made it to school just in time. As he sat on his chair, catching his breath, part of his mind was going through the events of the past week. In a matter of days, he had gone through a lot of changes. Officially, he was now a junior agent of Mithril, agreeing to his father's request to join Mithril. He had spent quite a few afternoons after school joining his brothers along with Isaac on missions to suppress Legion forces causing trouble in Universe 1566. The other five Seals were still undecided about joining but had promised to help whenever they could. More and more, Ken was beginning to get used to his new life.

He had intensified his training. After the fight in Kuala Lumpur where he had been caught unawares by the Demons he had put in more time into his training and the results were showing. In terms of combat ability, he was improving by leaps and bounds. This was helped by the fact that he now had Van, Isaac and Brian to train and spar with, in addition to his father. In retrospect, he realized that not only was he getting used to his new life, but he was actually looking forward to what the future might bring for him. In the meantime however, he was perfectly fine with the current peaceful situation.

After school, he met up with Matt and Rachel at the park where he had promised to train them in martial arts, starting from three days ago. Cassie and Kyle had made their own arrangements with Jake and so had gone their separate ways after school. Ken had changed into a suitable workout attire and was leading his two friends in a warm-up routine when his mobile phone rang. It was Van.

"Hey little brother," came the voice over the line.

"What's up Van? Is it the Chaos Legion?"

"Nah, nothing like that. Dad just asked me to tell you the whole family's having dinner together tonight. The same place which we went a couple days ago. Better be there. And don't be late, you hear?" Van warned teasingly.

"Yeah, yeah I got it. See ya later bro." As Ken slipped the phone back into his bag, he noticed the curious looks on the faces of his friends. "What is it?"

"So you're used to your new family already?" asked Rachel as she accepted a bottle of water from Matt.

"Seems that way, doesn't it?" Ken replied with a smile.

"What're your brothers like?" asked Matt.

Ken smiled wryly. "Just the kind of people I expected them to be. They take every chance they get to kick my ass and rub it in, but they're also the same people who'd be looking out for me in battle. I'm glad to have them in the family, that's for sure. That's enough chatter for now though. Let's get back to training."

"What? But we're taking a rest, man."

"Dude, we haven't even done the warm-up yet. Come on and get off your ass," Ken replied as he walked back to the training area.

"Slave-driver."

"I heard that."

Universe 1566

In another part of town, Jake had been sparring against Kyle and Cassie simultaneously at another park for about an hour and was now taking a break of his own. They were just sitting on the grass talking when they suddenly felt an abrupt rush of dark energy. It was something they had experienced before. It was the Chaos Legion.

"Try to sense where it's coming from," Jake urged his friends as he concentrated himself.

"Due west from here," replied Kyle, "that's where it's strongest."

Cassie's hands flew up to her mouth. "Oh my God. There's a pre-school there."

"Then we better get going," muttered Jake grimly as he began packing his things hurriedly. Within two minutes, he was already sprinting in the direction of the dark energy, followed closely by the other two.

In the meantime, Ken, Matt and Rachel were sprinting to the business district where they had sensed dark energy. Ken was already reporting the situation to his elder brother through his comms earpiece as he ran.

Universe 1566: Mithril HQ

"Isaac, I want you to assist Jake and his group. Be prepared to set up a shield. Brian, go to your brother and the others. They might need your help. Van will stay here as backup."

"Yes sir!" both agents saluted to the Commander then ran off to the Tech Division where Jack was waiting for them. Two warp portals had already been set up for them. Both immediately ran toward their designated portals and leaped through them, heading to their respective destinations. There was a call from the Commander. "What's the situation like Jack?"

"We have heavy dark energy readings, sir, but the Legion buggers haven't shown themselves yet. Ken's group is already at the business area and Jake's group is on its way to the pre-school already. Everything's still normal for the time being."

"What about Brian and Isaac?"

"They just exited their warp portals and should reach both groups in a few minutes."

"Keep scanning and remind the agents to stay alert. There's no telling what might happen."

Universe 1566

Ken and his friends, along with Brian who had just joined them, were running around looking for any signs of the Chaos Legion. They were still able to sense the dark energy hanging over the area but could not locate the Zombies themselves. Ken and Brian were still running around in the crowded area when, from out of nowhere, a woman was suddenly speared through the heart by a sharp black tendril right before their very eyes. As she fell to the ground, bleeding profusely, she could only muster a small, strangled choke. The panicked crowd scattered, people screaming wildly, until only Ken and Brian were left.

"What the…" Ken muttered disbelievingly before he suddenly sensed a flash of movement. He yelled a warning to Brian. "Another one!"

Both leaped clear of the next tendril and looked up to where the attack had come from. The sky grew darker and the two young men stood back to back as Zombie summon markings began appearing one by one on the ground. As the Zombies rose one by one from the markings, a pool of black shadow began to appear on a building wall and slide down it. The Zombies gathered around it respectfully, a fact which was not lost on the two brothers. The shadow quivered a bit, then rose and reshaped itself into the figure of an old man, fully clothed in black.

"You're not a Warlock. You're more powerful than them," said Ken.

"That is correct, child. And the two of you are Fanells, are you not? The offspring of my enemy, the one I swore to kill with my own hands."

"What're you doing here?" asked Brian angrily.

"Why, to cause chaos of course. And if I can kill you too then it'll make my job easier in the future. Not to mention the fact that killing you both would no doubt imbue me with great power. Zombies. Kill the brothers."

"Not if I have something to say about it!" yelled Matt angrily as he leaped out of nowhere, Rachel behind him, and executed a flying kick at the Zombies. The Zombies dodged skillfully and regrouped, then spread themselves out until the stood around the 4 fighters who were now standing back to back. "What's the plan, guys?" asked Rachel.

"This," replied Ken grimly as he focused lightning into his hand in an instant. "Brian, as soon as the spirit shield is set up, create a diversion for us. You do the same too, Matt. Split up, then regroup on the roof of that building."

The other three nodded in reply, impressed with the way he was taking charge of the situation. As the blue square in Ken's hand began to spin and expand simultaneously, Brian's arm burst into flames and green enegy flowed into Matt's right hand. In an instant the shield was ready. Matt crouched low and slammed his right palm on the ground. The green energy dissipated from his hand in waves and soon the ground within the spirit shield started to rumble violently. A smirk formed on Matt's face. Without warning the ground split in two and sent shockwaves coursing through the earth, causing tremors here and there. The other three leapt up avoiding getting caught in Matt's earthquake. The Zombies weren't as lucky as they were caught up in the earthquake, crushing them. At the same time, Brian made use of the opportunity to fire an attack of his own. "Nadare!"

The flame around his right arm burst into the air and reformed itself into a dragon of flame very different from his brother's blue dragon. The dragon roared and circled its master, waiting for his next move. It didn't have to wait long. "Dan En!"

Brian shot wave after wave of fireballs out of his right hand, now covered by Nadare, at the Zombies. Not all of them hit their target, but it was enough to buy Ken some time to use his Lightning Smash to cover their temporary retreat. Even as the lightning bolts rained down from the sky, Ken was already on his way following his friends, leaving behind the stunned and confused Zombies. In the shadows, a hooded old man smiled. Not bad at all.

Universe 1566:

The orphanage was already engulfed in flames when Jake, Cassie and Kyle reached it. By this time, the orphanage staff had evacuated all the children and the whole group was running away from the blazing inferno. Fire engine sirens could be heard from the distance, accompanied by police sirens. Jake's group hung back in the distance, observing the situation.

"Looks like everything's under control," observed Kyle.

"Looks that way. Stay alert though. I don't want us to get caught unprepared," Jake replied.

"You got it, fearless leader."

The fire engines finally arrived at their location, followed shortly after by three patrol cars and an ambulance. Strangely however, there was no further action that followed. No firemen got out to put out the fire that was still raging. No policemen came out to stabilize the situation. The hurt civilians gathered around an ambulance that just remained at its spot.

"Why aren't they doing anything? That fire's still blazing and those people over there are hurt bad," Kyle muttered worriedly as he observed the spectacle.

"Does anybody besides me notice that all the windows of the vehicles are tinted black? I don't even know if there're people inside them," said Cassie. "Jake? What do you think…oh no. It can't be. Jake…"

"Yeah. I'm thinking the same thing you are Cass. Those things aren't there to help us. Power up. It looks like we're gonna need to fight," Jake replied tersely, his body tensed up.

As soon as he finished his sentence the doors of all the vehicles exploded outwards with a loud bang and Cursed Zombies swarmed out of them, targeting the shocked civilians.

Universe 1566:

"Shit!" exclaimed Van loudly as he saw the scene with his own eyes through Jack's workstation. He tapped his earpiece urgently. "Isaac! The Zombies are attacking civilians indiscriminately! How far are you from the location?!"

"One minute too far," the grim reply came back.

"Hurry, man! Charlie, mobilise all agents in that area! Tell them to buy some time for Lieutenant Isaac!"

"Sir, Jake Turner and his friends are on-site! They're engaging the Zombies!"

Universe 1566:

Kyle moved from a striding run into a full sprint and shoulder-tackled the nearest Zombie, bringing it down with him and followed up with a hard punch to its face. He wasted no time in recovering and moving on to the next one. In front of him, both Jake and Cassie were fighting their own opponents while trying to shoo away the civilians, most of whom were still shocked senseless by the sudden appearance of the Zombies.

"Everyone run!!" yelled Jake at the stunned onlookers as he grappled with a particularly annoying Zombie clawing at him. "And you! Stop doing that! It's freakin' irritating!" he shouted as he lashed out with a fierce kick at the Zombie's stomach, leaving it winded. The Zombie replied in its own way, fiercely punching Jake who had a hard time blocking all of the punches.

"Jake! Duck!" exclaimed Cassie as she threw a dustbin lid like a Frisbee straight at Jake's opponent. He ducked and rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the lid. The Zombie, though, was thrown forwards hard by the force of the impact. It got up, only to be greeted by both Jake and Cassie throwing a punch at it.

There was a sudden flash of purple light, and suddenly the combatants found themselves within a purple spirit shield. This was followed by a sudden rush of enchanted bird-like figures swarming the sky and swooping down on the enemies. The civilians had mysteriously vanished. The three Seals moved out of the way quickly to get a breather while the bird summons kept the Zombies occupied. From above, Isaac dropped down gracefully beside the three Seals. "You guys alright?"

"We're okay now. Thanks Isaac," replied Jake gratefully.

"No problem. So what do we do now?" replied Isaac.

"We…" began Jake. "Wait. Why am I the leader?"

"I'm not a leader-type, unlike you, and I prefer it that way. It's easier for me to take orders than give them. You seem suited for it anyway."

"You're really sure about this?"

"Absolutely."

Jake sighed resignedly, but his eyes still retained a determined gleam in them. "Fine. Let's do this then. And let's make it quick too. You got a way to trap these freaks right where they're standing?"

Universe 1566

Matt, both arms encased in earth and outstretched, charged towards a small group of Zombies as Ken moved in front of him in a blue blur and engaged them, zipping in and out of the melee and providing a distraction. At the very last moment, he leaped out of harm's way, leaving the Zombies unprepared for Matt's rushing attack which flattened the whole lot of them. Ken was already running towards his elder brother while Matt headed in the opposite direction to help Rachel out.

Brian was still shooting off fireballs at the Zombie but was slowly losing against the massive number of Zombies Razorpoint kept creating. The situation called for a change in tactics. "Setsuna!" yelled Brian. Nadare disappeared and a new flame dragon burst out of his hand, this one a blind vengeful-looking one-eyed dragon composed of ragged flames. Being blind didn't stop Setsuna from glaring intimidatingly at the Zombies. "Shun En!"

There was a sudden burst of intense flame that flared out of Setsuna's mouth, incinerating the Zombies. Whatever Zombies were left were quickly dispatched of by Ken who had instantaneously appeared behind them after Setsuna's attack, cutting them down using lightning blades on his wrists. There was a momentary calm. The four regrouped and checked themselves for injuries. "You think it's over?" asked Rachel.

"I wouldn't bet on it. That crazy old freak's still about somewhere," muttered Matt. Alarms bells suddenly rang out in their heads. "MOVE!!" yelled Brian as all four leaped out of harm's way, narrowly escaping from four extremely sharp tendrils that had shot out from the ground beneath them. The black shadow expanded from a small black speck on the pavement and the stooped hooded figure of Razorpoint rose out slowly from within. He leered sinisterly, yellow teeth gleaming from within his black hood.

"Miss me?"

Universe 1566

Jake and his group had wiped up the first wave of Zombies but did not even have time for a break as the next wave of Cursed Zombies and Demons attacked them. The 4 Seals were powerful, but they were dealing with massive numbers. "We gotta draw out the main boss here. He's obviously got a whole lot of mojo if he's able to keep making these things, Isaac," said Jake.

"What's your plan?" asked Kyle to his left.

"It's not a good one, but it's the best I've got. Instantly destroy this wave and use our powers to cause collateral damage, forcing him out of his hiding spot. According to legend, we're supposedly the most powerful mortals to exist, right? We should be able to do something along those lines. What do you guys think?"

"I'm game," said Cassie.

"Me too," said Kyle.

"Count me in," said Isaac. "I might have something up my sleeve that'll help us clear Stage 1, but I need you guys to buy me 30 seconds."

"You got it,"chorused the other three as they attacked the Zombies head-on, creating a small space for Isaac to focus. As he concentrated, his bird-summons stopped their attacks on the Zombies and flew back to him, reverting to their original spell card forms and swirling around him in circles. The cards, as they flew around Isaac, began to arrange themselves in a long chain until it was as though a large snake of cards was winding itself around Isaac. This went on for a few more seconds, the cards steadily acquiring a purple glow, and then the card-snake suddenly broke up into a multitutde of cards hovering around their master. One by one, they began to stack themselves on top of each other in front of Isaac, the star markings disappearing while the cards themselves turned purple. In a few seconds, there was a stack of spell cards in front of Isaac at chest-level. The topmost card jutted itself out three quarters of the way, and the stack of cards floated to Isaac's right hand. He smiled as he grabbed the card that was jutting out. "This, Chaos Legion, is my Blade."

Instantly the stack of cards extended itself so that all the cards were connected loosely by their tips, giving the Blade the look of a whip. Isaac flicked the Blade carelessly, confidently. "Now!" he yelled as he suddenly swung his Blade in a wide arc in front of him. The other three, prepared for this, jumped easily to safety as the Blade, extended to its full length cut a huge hemispherical swath into the Zombies in front, decimating a third of them. He followed up, pulling his arm back for a quick strike as the cards slid back on top of one another again. "HAHHHH!!"

Isaac thrust out his sword arm sharply as his Blade again extended itself, this time in a straight line. Zombies directly in its path were skewered by it. The Zombies fought back by firing energy blasts at Isaac who answered with a flick of his Blade. Instantly, the Blade transformed itself to its stack form again before extending itself into a spiral shield in front of Isaac, easily protecting him. But he wasn't done yet. He closed his eyes.

The star markings on the cards appeared in white and glowed brightly before firing off their own energy blasts at the Zombies, destroying them. A third of the second wave of the Zombies remained.

Universe 1566:

"These guys just keep coming!" shouted Rachel as she fended off two Zombies attacking her non-stop. "We need to take them out fast and hit the old guy!" With the help of Brian's flame dragons, Ken's group had managed to defeat two waves of the Chaos Legion's minions and were now dealing with a third wave. Their efforts to attack Razorpoint himself had been useless so far as he preferred to hide himself in the shadows, choosing instead to keep sending Zombies to attack the four.

"I'm thinking now would be a good time for you lot to use your Blades" remarked Isaac as he summoned a new flame dragon that formed a curved blade on the side of his right wrist.

"Blades?" asked Matt.

"Yeah, each Seal's supposed to have his own personal weapon, a Blade of some sort. I'm surprised Isaac didn't tell you guys about it."

"Kinda pointless telling us about them when we don't even know how to get them. Are we supposed to go questing for them or what?" asked Matt again.

"Of course not," muttered Ken sarcastically, "the knowledge will just…come to us, right? How convenient."

"Don't blame me, that's what I heard, bro."

Matt turned angrily to Brian. "Well that's just bull…" he opened his mouth when he was suddenly hit by a fierce energy blast from behind which slammed him into a two-storey building ruined by the fighting. This was followed by the heavily-damaged building collapsing on him. "Matt!" yelled the others as they rushed to his aid. Unfortunately, they were prevented from doing so by five Cursed Demons blocking their way.

The other Zombies advanced towards the huge pile of rubble with Matt inside, sinister smiles on their faces. Some combined into Demons. Others sprouted blades on themselves. None of them seemed to notice the slight rumbling that was coming from within the rubble itself. It was too late for them when they finally sensed it, which had intensified during that period.

The rubble suddenly exploded outwards with an almighty boom as Matt slowly stood up from within the wreckage, sporting minor injuries and a pissed-off face. Slowly and deliberately, he took his time dusting himself off as his body began to glow a deep green and the faint blurry image of a green minotaur came into view. The Zombies reacted to this by blasting away at him with reckless abandon. Most of the attacks hit Matt dead-on, but he wasn't hurt by the blasts. He wasn't even fazed by them and seemed to barely notice the energy bolts bouncing off his body. The attacks slowed down and soon stopped, leaving a bunch of bewildered Cursed Zombies and Demons.

Matt smirked. "Is that it? Well then, looks like it's my turn then."

Like before, he crouched low, concentrating hard as the emerald light around him focused itself around both hands. In quick succession, he punched the ground with his left and then right fist. He slowly stood up, his right arm outstretched, as a mound of earth grew beneath his hand. The mound grew in size and height while everybody else stood dumbstruck until it was as tall as Matt himself. The top of the mound broke then crumbled into bits, revealing a circular hilt.

The Zombies finally broke out of their stupor and charged straight at Matt, who just grinned as he grabbed the hilt firmly and pulled out a huge buster sword from out of the mound of earth. "It's go time!" he whooped as he ran head-on into the Zombies, his Blade held up high.