"I wanna get stronger!" Kevin yelled as he broke the lock with his newfound strength. The chains disintegrate, breaking into light particles, and fading out of existence. Kevin’s double floats before him, silent and still asleep; Kevin still looks at him.
"I want to protect." He said. "Help me to protect them."
With that, the double opened his eyes, revealing no pupils, only his iris, as he looked back at Kevin. The blue light came to life inside the double’s soft transparent body, glowing bright, lighting up his entire body.
"If power is what you seek, it shall be yours." The double spoke, extending his hand out to Kevin like before.
Kevin grabbed his hand once more as he could feel the sudden surge of energy, just like when he was little. Outside Kevin’s conscience, time resumed as Laban's sword was about to slice through Callon, but before the blade could touch him, a hand covered in blue aura caught the blade, preventing it from making contact. Eyes widened as Laban, Callon, and the Princess watched as Kevin stood between Laban and Callon; his head hung low, holding the sword in place, preventing Laban from delivering the final blow.
What?! Laban exclaimed, unable to figure out what was going on.
He quickly looked back to where he had left Kevin, but all he saw was the blood-stained spot where he had left him. Laban then looked at Kevin and noticed he had his own reiki energy around him, protecting him in his own force field. Laban also looked at the injuries he gave Kevin earlier and noticed they were being protected by his reiki, preventing any more bloodshed.
"This is impossible!" Laban exclaimed. "I killed you!'
Kevin then raised his head up, looking at Laban and revealing his eyes were glowing blue like his reiki energy. With the hand holding Laban's sword, he breaks and gives Laban a hard-right hook to his face sending him flying backward.
Laban stops himself as he gains control and plants his feet on the ground coming to a halt before he crashes into the wall. He straightened himself up and looked towards Kevin and the others, but all he saw was Callon and the Princess, still stunned at what was happening. Laban looked around, trying to find where Kevin was. Suddenly he sensed an intense amount of energy behind him. It felt menacing and threatening; his fight or flight instincts kicked in, and he quickly turned and moved but again, no one was there.
“Where is he?” Laban thought to himself. “There is no way he could be this fast.”
Kevin appeared in front of Laban and tried again for another punch, but Laban crossed his arms to block his attack. As Kevin lands his punch on Laban’s forearms, Laban could feel the immense force and pressure coming from Kevin’s punch as he could feel the bones from his arms slightly breaking.
“The force from his punch, such power.” Laban thought to himself, amazed at Kevin’s strength.
Kevin then picks up the pace as he starts constantly punching Laban with a barrage of punches, but Laban matches his speed, blocking them. Kevin managed to strike Laban hitting him hard in the gut and knocking the wind out of him. Kevin stood as he watched Laban take several steps back, hunching over and gasping for air. As Laban regains his composure, he looks at Kevin, furious. Before Laban could blink, Kevin instantly teleports in front of Laban and uppercuts him sending him flying in the air. Kevin appears in front of Laban, ready to attack again, but this time, Laban recovers from Kevin’s attack and grabs Kevin by the throat. Kevin tries to break free from Laban’s grip.
“I will not be defeated by you!” Laban yelled as he gathered energy in the hand that held Kevin by the neck.
As that energy builds, he releases it, sending Kevin back to the ground and creating a large crater; dust fills the room. Laban lands on the ground safely; he stands around the crater, waiting to see what happened to Kevin, making sure that his attack has defeated him. Despite the dust in the air blocking his vision he could still sense Kevin’s reiki powers and they were slowly growing; Laban was marveled.
“So he is a halfling; this explains this newfound power.” Laban thought to himself. “I’ve clearly underestimated the boy.”
Suddenly the dust in the air blows out from the large crater as Kevin charges up, revealing the right half of his face was peeled off from Laban’s energy blast, revealing himself but in his spirit reiki form. Kevin yells as he charges up with his reiki energy, and his aura around him grows; everyone feels Kevin’s energy build up as the pressure in the room changes. Laban noticed Kevin’s energy was starting to increase at such a fast rate; fearing he could go even higher, he began to charge up as well. Laban makes the first move, and the two battle without taking any chances. The two were throwing punches and kicks at each other. The fight became intense as they started instantly teleporting all around the room with their fighting. With each punch and kick, their battle caused the fortress to shake from the might of their energy.
Caleb defeated a nearby Lurker in his area when he suddenly felt the intense reiki energy and the castle trembling from said energy coming from his left-hand side.
“Whoa! What an immense amount of reiki energy.” He said to himself. “What the hell is going on over there?”
Curious, he ran towards the presence of the energy to find out what was the cause of it. Kevin and Laban’s battle continued as they were still instantly teleporting in different areas of the room, including in the air. The Princess watches in amazement at Kevin’s performance as he was able to keep up and even match Laban’s strength, something she or her team couldn’t do in the state that they were in.
“This is incredible.” The Princess thought to herself. “He may not be as powerful like last time, but still, he’s able to keep up with Laban. That’s why… he has to win; he’s our only chance.”
Caleb arrives at the room where Kevin, Laban, and the others were as he sensed a large amount of reiki energy. His eyes widened as he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, Kevin, battling Laban.
“No way, is that the kid?” Caleb exclaimed in amazement.
While in the air, Laban and Kevin are locked in a stalemate; Kevin is trying to punch Laban, but he grabs both of Kevin’s fists, and the two push towards each other, trying to dominate. Laban was furious that he couldn’t topple Kevin no matter what he did. He increased his reiki powers; Kevin noticed it and pushed himself back, moving away from Laban. He floats back down and watches Laban from the air build and increase his reiki energy. Laban then put his hands together; as he opened them again, an energy ball was developing, building, and growing between his hands. It The energy ball grew becoming bigger than Laban himself. Laban raises the energy ball over his head as it continues to grow. The force of the energy ball began to build gusts of wind like a storm.
“I’m through fighting you!” Laban yells as his energy ball reaches its maximum capacity. “Now die!”
Laban throws the energy ball towards Kevin, who calmly looks at the gigantic ball of energy heading his way. Though Kevin felt the immense amount of energy coming his way, he stood his ground and raised his hands in the air as though to catch it. As the gigantic ball of energy makes contact with Kevin, instead of exploding, Kevin holds on to it using his reiki energy even though it is bigger and wider than him. The gravity and force coming from the ball of energy was pushing Kevin back, and the pressure of the ball caused the ground underneath him to buckle, making the crater even bigger. Kevin then charged himself up with more reiki causing him to quickly shed his skin as it broke away in particles of light, becoming an outlined silhouette version of himself made from his spiritual reiki energy. By doing so, he was able to bring the ball of energy to a halt; he then pushed the energy ball back by shooting his own energy into the ball, pushing it back towards Laban.
“This is impossible!” Laban Exclaims as he couldn’t believe a weakling such as Kevin was able to pull a maneuver like that.
As the ball heads towards Laban, Kevin continues to shoot more of his reiki energy into the ball, helping it to build up speed and momentum and causing it to grow. Laban realized his energy ball was coming back to him bigger and faster than before. Unable to move away, the only option was to teleport away instantly. Laban teleports away in time as the energy ball crashes through the castle wall, creating a large round hole in the wall. Laban thought he was in the clear until he felt an intense amount of heat coming from behind him. Laban couldn’t help but turn around to see what was causing that heat, only to find Kevin holding a fist size ball of energy spinning rapidly. Laban, for once in his life, froze in fear.
“NOOOOO!!!!” Yelled Laban as he watched Kevin release the spinning ball of reiki energy into his abdomen.
Once the ball made contact, Laban couldn’t help but holler in pain as the rapid spinning, and intense heat was too much. The energy ball’s pressure then builds, causing the ball to grow the size of a bowling ball at first, then it begins to build in pressure and heat as it grows, becoming bigger than Laban. Unable to dodge this attack, the large energy ball sends Laban flying out of the floating castle and into the atmosphere. Kevin floats back to the ground, exhausted as he used up the last of his reiki powers. He began to breathe heavily as his reiki energy and aura began to dissipate. The remaining reiki converts itself into pieces of flesh, restoring his skin back to normal, concealing the reiki spirit once again. However, once the aura vanished, it no longer protected his severe wounds; Kevin was back to normal. Gushes of blood spurted out from his chest wound; his body went back to losing blood and failing as he was near death. Too weak to stand, Kevin closes his eyes as he falls back, but before he falls to the ground, Caleb and the Princess instantly teleport to Kevin, catching him in time before he falls.
“Gotcha, kid,” Caleb announced as he caught him from behind and gently lowered him to the ground, laying him flat.
Kevin was unable to speak as he was still breathing heavily, gasping for air as more blood continued to pool out.
“Good catch Caleb.” The Princess stated as she placed her hands over Kevin’s wound over his chest and looked at him. “This may sting a little.”
Using her reiki energy, the Princess transfers her energy into Kevin’s severe wounds. The Princess’ reiki begins to heal Kevin’s wound from the inside out. He softly groans in pain as he can feel the muscles, tissues, and skin from his wound coming together and rapid healing. Soon Kevin was able to breathe much easier as he was able to take a deep breath and sigh in relief.
He opened his eyes to see The Princess and Caleb looking down at him. Realizing he was lying down, he quickly sat up but grunted, holding his chest as he was still sore from his healed injury.
“Try not to get up too fast; your body is still healing.” The Princess warned. “The injury was deep; it will take some time for your body to heal properly.”
“Did we win?” Kevin asked softly.
“We won this round kid,” Caleb replied. “If we really want to celebrate, I suggest we leave before he returns.”
Caleb helps Kevin up and allows him to put all of his weight on him as Kevin is still weak from the battle; the four leave the room. Caleb guides them back to the ship, where Vinnie and Rika anxiously awaited them by the bay doors of the ship. The last group of villagers had already boarded the ship. Vinnie and Rika noticed Kevin was with them and were relieved.
“Newbie, you’re ok!” Rika exclaimed.
“No time for a reunion, guys.” The Princess Stated. “Laban is occupied, and we take flight.”
“Laban?!” Rika and Vinnie said simultaneously.
“She’ll explain later, we need to go now.” Caleb shouts.
Without question, they all boarded up the ship; Vinnie and Caleb were at the pilot seat with Rika seated. The Princess had Kevin in the infirmary to tend to the injury from his shoulder. Vinnie starts the engine and takes off, flying out of the floating castle the way they came in. Rika and Vinnie monitored their distance from the castle, noticing they were at a good length away.
“I think we’re at a good range,” Vinnie announced, reading the distance on the cruiser's instruments; he looked back at Rika, smiling. “Care to do the honors?”
Rika nodded and smiled as she took out a handheld device with just a red button.
It’ll be my pleasure. Rika replied.
She pressed it, and once she pressed it, inside the castle, hidden and buried in the rubble, were several bombs that became active and detonated, causing a trail of explosions. Room by room, the castle exploded, destroying all Lurkers in the castle. The castle falls and crashes into the ground blowing up and burning to the ground. Caleb watched, surprised at what happened.
“Explosives…nice work, you two.” Caleb complimented.
Back in the infirmary, the Princess and Kevin were alone; his jacket was off, so she was able to use her reiki to heal Kevin’s shoulder wound. Once she was complete, Kevin tested his shoulder by rotating it and realizing it didn’t hurt as much as before.
“Amazing,” Kevin said, marveling at her abilities. “Can all Seirei Jins heal like this?”
“It’s one of the many abilities a Seirei Jin can possess.” The Princess answered. “It’s really up to the wielder’s desire.”
The two then fell silent for a moment; Kevin knew he had much to say but wasn’t sure how to start. Kevin took a deep breath and exhaled, gathering the courage to say what he really wanted to tell the Princess.
“I’m sorry for what I said earlier,” Kevin said, looking away, shy and slightly embarrassed for his past actions. “I was a jerk for disrespecting your Father and the other Knights.”
The Princess looked at Kevin, who still wasn’t looking at her, as he felt ashamed for what he had done. She smiled, realizing he was trying to apologize.
“I forgive you.” She replied. “I know you didn’t mean it. I would probably be upset too if I woke up in a new world, leaving everyone I care about behind.”
“That stone brought me here, without it I can’t go back I can’t go back.” He said as he put his jacket back on. “I guess I’m stuck here.”
“If it’s worth anything, I’m glad you’re here.” The Princess said. “You saved our lives which means the seal was broken, you were incredible.”
He looked at her surprised and a little confused.
