The door to the Rakezin stood unguarded.
The Scavenger pressed the wall with both hands speaking a spell five times – “Hola, Hola, Hil, Hil, Ho.” After each repetition, with both hands, he thumped the wall. On the fifth time, the wall parted open like a door.
The Scavenger and the children marched into the chamber and deactivated the invisibility circuit in their FLICKs.
A central table with a glass casing had an ancient book placed on it – The Book of the Universe.
The Scavenger cast a look at the fireplace on the wall and was about to move towards the Book.
“Wait,” James said. “This can’t be that easy.”
“What do you mean?” the Scavenger asked.
“Osay is not a fool,” James said. “He must have taken steps to protect the Book somehow. For goodness sake, it can’t be so easy!”
The Scavenger shook his head, ignoring James. He started to place his hand on the Book.
That’s when things went completely wrong.
The Unicorn King and his army were almost exhausted. Osay’s army seemed never-ending.
The Trolls and Ogres had retreated, having suffered many injuries. The Amozaks were forced to hide behind the mansions with the Trolls and Ogres.
The Unicorns intermittently speeded out and attacked the soldiers above the walls with their horns. However, their effort wasn’t significant enough to make a dent in the enemy numbers.
Within a few more minutes, Osay’s soldiers had prevailed and the Unicorn King’s army ran helter-skelter.
The Scavenger and the children watched with eyes widened as all the walls of the chamber started to disappear. Only the wall with the fireplace, which had an extended semi-circular arc, remained.
The Scavenger was shocked to see his surroundings. The platform through which they had entered the Library was just a few meters away. The Rakezin was actually on the ground floor and not underground, as everyone had thought.
The Scavenger now understood why the main entrance door was always kept locked and heavily guarded. It was an illusion to hide the location of the Rakezin.
Thousands of demons and enemy soldiers were revealed standing all around, pointing arrows at the Scavenger and the children.
A gigantic robot suddenly rose from the ground.
It had stone shields and a stone sword, but its mechanism looked very modern. It wore a visor. From behind the visor, a voice came from an amplifier.
“Stop right there,” it said. “You have done enough damage.”
The robot held up an arm, took a shell and smashed it to the ground.
Almost immediately, five soldiers rose from the ground and stood beside the robot.
The voice laughed. “You will be overwhelmed soon. You thought you were clever, but no one can be smarter than me. Your forces will be destroyed in a short while, and then -”
“Show yourself!” the Scavenger interrupted. “If you have the courage!”
The voice laughed again. “You can’t tempt me. I am not a fool. You already know who I am. I am one step ahead of you.”
“Osay!” the Scavenger snarled. “The traitor of the Dark World!”
The voice laughed yet again. “I don’t care what you think of me. You know what I need and I know what you need. You need to free your friend Matt from the dimension while I need to free the Skull Warrior.”
James yelled, “You think these soldiers can scare us? You might think too highly of yourself, but we don’t value you much. You are a liar. You lied about having the Second Page of Destiny.”
James’s courage took everyone by surprise. There was silence for a while. Then, Osay spoke, “You are smart. I underestimated you. Of course, I eventually came to know how you could enter the Rakezin, just as I now know how you came back to the Dark World after I banished you.”
“Flor, Cayden and Skazen,” the Scavenger said contemptuously.
“There’s no need to take names,” Osay replied. He paused. “It is a stalemate. You are under my control. Although you managed to get both the Pages of Destiny, they are pretty much useless for you. You can’t place these pages inside the ‘Book of the Universe’ without my help. Better to hand it over to me.”
“I’d rather die,” the Scavenger said.
“Oh, I know about you,” Osay said. “You are immortal. You can’t die. So you are not afraid. But what if...”
Suddenly, the soldiers pointed their weapons at the children.
“How about my soldiers doing some shooting practice on your friends?”
The Scavenger gritted his teeth.
He immediately thought of the FLICK and passed a quick glance at the FLICK’s battery bar.
His heart sank.
There were still twenty minutes left for the invisibility circuit to get charged.
The Scavenger felt like the world was crashing down. Without invisibility, escape was impossible. He was immortal, but the children weren’t. And he couldn’t let them die...
He looked at the children.
James caught his eye. James’s mouth opened and he said two words.
The Scavenger caught the words. The Sun.
He suddenly knew what he had to do.
The Scavenger looked defiantly at the robot. “Shoot the children.”
There was silence, and then Osay laughed, “You think I am joking around. I know you believe their armour will protect them. But we both know that the armour cannot hold so many poison-laid arrows at the same time. If the metal doesn’t kill them, the poison will.”
The Scavenger said, “I know that. Go on. Shoot them.”
The thousands of warriors surrounding the Scavenger and the children fidgeted uncomfortably. They all looked at the robot for further orders.
Archer and Daniel had expressions of shock on their faces. What was the Scavenger doing? they thought.
“Don’t test me, warrior,” Osay said menacingly. “You know I will do it.”
“Do it, then!” the Scavenger yelled. ‘What are you waiting for?”
After a moment of silence, Osay shouted, “DO IT.”
As the robot ordered his army to shoot the children, the Scavenger felt time slowing down.
He closed
