“Well, Mr IQ, what if they were in the house you burned... then they would die as well.” James pointed out.
The Scavenger looked at him sheepishly. “Oh... I didn’t think of that. Never mind! And haven’t your parents told you that you should never find fault in the words of a warrior!”
“I’m pretty sure they haven’t,” James muttered, as Daniel started walking to the house.
“Wait!” James said. “Look at that house. That house is huge. Let’s search that first.”
“Why?” the Scavenger asked.
“Haven’t you seen movies?” James asked. “Things always go down in the big things. That’s a universal rule.”
“We are going,” Daniel said, and he and James made their way towards the house. “With or without you.”
“Haven’t your parents told you to obey warriors?” the Scavenger yelled. He ran after them. “Wait for me!”
“Say goodbye, mortal.” Aronicle laughed as he moved the knife straight towards Matt’s skull. Matt whipped his head to the right. The knife stuck to the wall beside him and Aronicle grunted.
That’s when the Scavenger burst into the room.
Seeing the Scavenger, Aronicle, in a lightning fast motion, moved his knife towards Matt’s throat, “Stop right now or I kill him.”
The Scavenger paused.
“Drop your sword,” Aronicle shouted.
The Scavenger hesitated, as Aronicle’s knife pressed more. A thin line of blood appeared. Matt cried out in pain.
The Scavenger dropped his sword.
Daniel, meanwhile, was trying hard to concentrate on his Elemental Power. He took a deep breath and tried to block out the noises of the atmosphere around him. He shook himself and begged for his Elemental Power to answer.
Or Matt would die.
Daniel shrank back to the recesses of his mind and focused on the fact that he needed to keep Matt alive. He felt a spark inside him, but it disappeared as soon as it came.
Daniel suddenly became furious. He would not let Matt die in the hands of a psychopath only because his stupid Elemental Power refused to act when it was needed the most.
He let out a shriek of fury, focusing all his energy. All of a sudden, roots broke out from Daniel’s hand and shot out towards Aronicle. Aronicle’s knife moved across Matt’s neck at the same time as the roots struck Aronicle on the head, twisting him and sending him sprawling backwards. He struck the ground and lay still.
Daniel slumped to the ground, exhausted. Summoning his Elemental Power had taken all the energy out of him. But he was excited that he had been able to muster the Elemental Power at the crucial time it was needed.
The Scavenger rushed towards Archer and quickly cut through the chains that bound him. Archer was slowly regaining consciousness.
The Scavenger and the children raced towards Matt, who was on the ground.
“Is he dead?” Archer asked, his voice cracking.
The Scavenger didn’t reply.
Matt coughed and stood up slowly. “Of course, I’m alive.”
Wasting no time on celebration for a job well done, they walked towards Aronicle. They weren’t sure whether he was alive or dead. “Fortune has immensely favoured us. We got Aronicle while he could not touch any of you.” The Scavenger smiled at the children. “Let’s take him to Lynx,”
The Scavenger lifted the unconscious Aronicle, and all of them jumped right into a waiting portal.
7
Lynx was deeply engrossed in a book. When the Scavenger and the others appeared in the cave, Lynx raised his head. “So you rescued the children.”
“Yep,” the Scavenger said. “Just in time.”
“And who are you carrying on your shoulders?” Lynx was curious.
The Scavenger put Aronicle on the ground and sat on a sofa. “Guess who? Ha ha, it’s Aronicle!”
“Amazing! Unbelievable!” Lynx was visibly excited.
Everyone threw looks at each other. It was the first time Lynx had displayed some happy emotions.
Lynx controlled himself and looked up at Matt. “And what about my things?”
Matt plunked all of them on a nearby sofa. “Here you go.”
Lynx’s face lit up. “Brilliant! I am curious to know how you guys managed to bring all the things and Aronicle? ”
Matt started to recount what had happened. “Well, the portal opened in front of a house in the Isle of the Beast. We carefully moved – OOOOOWWWWWW!” Matt suddenly shouted in pain.
It was because Urrax had appeared out of the air, about five feet above him, and landed on Matt, crushing him.
“Sorry,” Urrax muttered as he jumped away, using Matt as a cushion.
“Ow,” Matt muttered weakly.
“So you have completely recovered now?” the Scavenger asked Urrax.
Urrax smiled proudly, looking at Lynx.
“Yep. Thanks to Lynx.”
Lynx smiled. “Never mind that. Matt, please continue what you were saying.”
Matt told them everything, starting from him and Archer meeting Aronicle, to the Scavenger rescuing them. Archer chipped in from time to time to fill in the gaps. Matt described in detail the conversation he’d had with the evil and the real Aronicle.
After listening patiently to Matt, Lynx looked at Aronicle and spoke. “Hmmm, greater forces are interfering, strands of time are random. The fate of the universe lies over oblivion. That’s what Aronicle said, didn’t he? Well, Aronicle -”
The Scavenger asked Lynx, “Could it be the Skull Warrior controlling Aronicle?”
Matt broke in, “He told me himself. It isn’t the Skull Warrior who controls him. It’s someone else.”
After a long silence, Lynx banged his hand on the table.
“When the Death Lord called the Skull Warrior,” he began, “the amount of energy produced was so huge that it sent a shockwave all around. Even I felt it, deep in the recesses of my mind. Dimensions were scattered, hidden realms broke and the people living in those realms died. ‘Greater forces are interfering’. They may be good or bad. They may support the Skull Warrior, or they may oppose him. But one thing is sure: these forces will come. And when they come and fight, the amount of energy will be like nothing else. The entire universe will be thrown into chaos. ‘The fate of the universe lies over oblivion’. If
