Chapter 14

Matt examined an oddly designed black sword before nodding and putting it in a case. He knew of the weapon's power and importance to their enemy.

"I can't let this fall into the wrong hands."

Matt left from the temple that he, Andres, Seth, and Edward chose to rest in before returning to base. It was already morning and his team was waiting for him to come out and head back with him.

"Ready?" asked Edward.

Matt nodded and walked towards the portal with the rest of his team members.

Matt's house…

Aether, Amber, and Thoma were all cleaning up the house while Matt's brother David, slept. Ever since the EBF characters left the place, the GI group had been doing what they could to ensure that the house was still livable and in its original state. That said, it was hard to do this when a ton of enemies would appear every 5 minutes and prevent them from continuing their chores until they were eliminated. This time though, it seems as if their foes were cutting them a break as they haven't appeared for a very long while.

"When do you think the EBF characters will be back?" asked Amber.

"I dunno. Maybe later tonight. All I know is that they've changed the rendezvous location from here to their school," answered Aether. "Thoma, how are the dishes going?"

"They're doing fine but still, what are we gonna do with everyone down here and the guy who even brought us here?" asked Thoma.

Aether thought long and hard before tying another trash bag shut. "We'll just have to wait for those guys to come back. Until then, let's make sure everything is back to its original state."

DBHS…

Ms. Santana was organizing some papers on her desk while watching the rest of the Aftershock Christian club carry on with their activities. Everything seems perfectly normal save for Matt and Edward not appearing in the club that day. Still, if anything, Ms. Santana knew better than to assume that they weren't going to show up as the two always came to the club even if they were late.

Sure enough, the door opened and in came Matt and Edward. However, they also brought in two friends and had their weapons out. After briefly scanning the area, Edward closed the door while Matt and the rest of his team put away their weapons.

"Is everything alright?" asked Alivia.

Matt nodded and took a seat on the table while the rest of the team either followed his lead or positioned themselves against the wall.

"We came to ask for your help…" started Matt.

Alivia didn't bother hearing the rest as her and the rest of the club's attention were diverted by Matt pulling out an oddly designed black sword with an inverted red pentacle engraved on its hilt and several white bandages wrapped around the blade's handle.

Its presence was alluring yet, a very familiar presence of darkness could be felt from its appearance. Andres noticed this and tapped on Matt's shoulder to signal him about the sword's activity. In response, he had Edward utilize his staff to weaken the power of the black sword again. This caused the entire club to return to normal and resume listening.

"What is that?" asked Alannah.

"It's called Anarchy and its powers are similar to that of my stolen sword," answered Matt. "However, its powers are not as strong and its corruptive powers can be nullified by exposure from holy energy or weapons."

"Why did you bring it here?" asked Ms. Santana.

"I want you guys to keep it away from Darius," answered Matt. "I'm sure he will come after this sword so he can gain more power and this is the last place he'll bother checking."

The Aftershock club members looked at each other in silence before Alivia spoke up.

"What makes you think that we should be trusted with such a dark and powerful weapon?"

"All of us have faith in you guys," answered Seth. "That's why Matt chose to give it to you instead of any random guard."

Their discussion was cut short by a knock on the door as well as the appearance of the EBF characters with a large wooden square-shaped bucket.

"We've made it and brought what you asked for," announced Anna.

Matt smiled before turning to Ms. Santana.

"Mind if I leave this bucket full of water here? My team and I will need it and my house doesn't have the room to hold it with all the guests I have."

Ms. Santana nodded and helped the EBF characters move the bucket to a good area. Afterwards, Matt dipped his hands into the bucket and watched as a small slime bunny flew out and healed everyone in the room. Afterwards, the bunny went back into the basket and Matt removed his hands from the water.

"What just happened?" asked Alannah.

"He just restored our health and MP points for our next fight while also disabling the corruptive power of Anarchy," answered Andres. "We're counting on you to hold onto it while we go off. We'll be back very soon."

"Wait! Before you go, I have something for you," said Ms. Santana.

She pulled out a very familiar black and white blade that was completely reforged and had several symbols written over it.

"My Rune Blade!" exclaimed Matt. "You fixed it?"

Ms. Santana nodded and handed the blade to Matt.

"When you said that a master was needed to forge the sword, they did not mean an expert forger but a teacher. I realized that when I saw that one of the fragments had a Bible verse on it," responded Ms. Santana.

"Please keep it," said Matt. "You may need it in case Darius comes back. In the meantime, the rest of us will be going off to finish our mission."

School parking lot…

The team of 8 were completely surrounded by enemies once again. Matt and Andres were doing their best to take out as many as possible but the numerous enemies were overwhelming them. Even Lance and Seth's explosives were unable to decrease the number of enemies that they were dealing with.

"Anna! Natalie! Can you increase our magic defense and decrease theirs?" asked Matt.

"On it!" acknowledged Anna. She played a few notes with her flute and created a whirlwind that lowered the magic defense of all their foes while also sending some into the air. On the other hand, Natalie had raised a barrier and stopped many attacks from reaching them. Once all the enemy attacks died down, Matt readied his sword and threw out a bomb to signal everyone to attack.

A barrage of bullets, arrows, and glowing swords came from the group and decimated most of the attacking force. However, Natz and Anna knew that one person didn't contribute to the deadly barrage of projectiles.

"That should have decimated all of them. How are there still so many?" asked Lance.

Before anyone could answer, the remaining foes left the parking lot giving the heroes time to recover from their battle.

"Okay now, Natz and Edward, why did you both use a healing spell instead of an attack?" asked Matt.

"I thought Edward was going to do an attack," answered Natz.

"I also thought the same thing about Natz," replied Edward.

Matt facepalmed as he heard their response.

"My bad, I guess I should have specified who was supposed to do the attack."

He pulled out several swords and watched as his health went down by a small amount.

"Okay, can I have Natalie heal me?"

The female mage complied and Matt took note of her healing power numbers. He did the same with Edward before coming to a conclusion.

"Natalie, from here on out, you're our battle healer while Edward, you're our offensive mage," declared Matt.

"Why?" asked Natz.

"It's because your healing power is much stronger than Edward's," answered Andres.

Matt nodded and continued, "Weak attacks and low damage can be covered up by most of us here. I can't say the same for strong heals though as most of us can't heal anyone but ourselves."

He pulled out a pizza and handed a slice to everyone in the party.

"After this, let's head to the next location. The sooner we find Darius, the better it is for the rest of us."

"Do you really think I'm weak?" asked Edward.

Matt shook his head. "No, I think you're quite capable. Still, I think the personal expectations that you set for yourself could use some work."