Chapter 15: Joker Stage

Now, I don’t remember this part well. Most of this is what I had heard from Alice and if it seems like I don’t know this scene, I apologize in advance. So, Alice and the others found me lying unconscious on the ground in front of the school main doors. I was in between life and death and sometimes it seemed like I was dead. After a few weeks, I had stabilized a bit and it was sure, that I would live. After a few days, I woke up and saw Alice, having no recollection of who she is and where I was. I didn’t even know who I was. I had been tested many times and they did not find the symptoms of amnesia and it seemed like my memory had been ‘deleted’. After a few days, I was allowed to go out of the sick bay and wander the grounds. Alice had guided me to my old dorm room, which I had shared with Jake and then everyone else came and helped Alice. Apparently, Tear had enrolled to the school and I had passed the test. Mercedes had some business at home so she would be coming at a later date and so I was with: Alice, Tear, Jake, Jack, Jett, Kennan and the others. I was walking through the hallway when we stumbled into Eric. Eric looked at me for a bit and then laughed at me. Jack hit him on the face and Jake held two knives at his throat saying: “Dude, you will be killed in under three seconds if you say something against Kaizer. But don’t worry, it won’t be messy, Kennan or Jett can shoot you.” Eric felt pure terror for the first time and ran as fast as he could, away. Everyone else looked at the scene, astonished but I was just looking at the wind. Alice walked towards me and she looked at me saying: “Don’t worry, they are usually like that. They hate arrogant people but they like you.” I looked at her confused but then said: “I’ll be honest; I don’t know why you are doing this. What meaning did I have in your life?” “You weren’t a meaning in my life; you are a meaning in my life. I won’t tell you though, what you are in my life, you have to remember.” I looked at her with a face that said: ‘Seriously? I have to do that?’ Even though, I had no memories, I knew that someone held the key to my memories. I walked through the hallway with Jake as my escort to my dorm and I took my MP3 player and my laptop. I went back to the sickbay and listened to some music before sleeping. After having slept, I booted my laptop and played a game. Suddenly the door opened and I looked at the one who came into the room. It was someone whom I didn’t recognize, well that didn’t mean much. The person had a bag in his right hand. He walked towards me and then threw the bag to me. I caught the bag and peered inside it. Inside there was a ball of yarn and a pair of scissors. I looked at the man and asked: “What is this? Who are you?” “That is yarn and a pair of scissors. I am someone you know.” “Wait, what?” “Kaizer, you are a man chosen by me. You are the one who executes my foes; you are the executioner of Fate himself.” I looked at him confused and then asked: “So you are Fate?” “Smart boy Kaizer, yes, I am Fate. I am the one whom you work for and I am the one who gave you the powers you posses. It seems like my brother has refused to abide the rules.” “Will you kill him now?” I asked. “Me? Kill him? No, you will have to win the game again.” “Why?” “Because I abide the rules, I don’t break the rules like my brother.” I looked Fate straight in the eyes and then asked: “So you won’t help me?” “I cannot. I will give you something though.” “Isn’t that indirect helping?” “It’s a loophole.” I looked away and heard Fate laugh: “Well, I am interested in what you want. I will give you whatever you want except for my help.” Kaizer smiled and then said: “I don’t want anything; I know that you are just doing this to make fun of me, but tell me how I get my memories back.” “Easy, you just get Ray back.” I looked at him confused but he laughed and disappeared. I stood up and looked into the bag again. Inside there was a smiling mask and I thought: Well, where do I know this from? I grabbed the mask and looked at in full detail. It was white with black lines running through it. The mask was chipped at a few places and cracked as well. It looked like it had gone through many battles and then I noticed, at the edges of the chips, there were a few colors. Whatever was on those pieces which were chipped off, they were colored. I grabbed the mask again and twirled it in my hands. I looked at the mask again and then laughed. The mask was not just any mask, it belonged to Ray and I knew it. I remembered that much but I didn’t know who Ray was to me. I only knew that he had something to do with my life. I stood up and took my MP3 player. I put my earphones into my ears and listened to music. The music calmed me down but I had to know what happened, I tried to find Alice, the one girl who could tell me about my past for sure, without any holes. I walked through the building and looked around. It was lunch time, I could tell by the clock so I walked to the cafeteria. In the cafeteria I looked for Alice but found Jack. “Hey Kaizer, how are you?” “I’m fine thank you, how are you?” I asked in turn. “Well, considering that I just had some lessons, I’m pretty good.” “Jack, can you tell me who Ray is?” “How do you know that name? Do you remember things?” “No, Fate, well he called himself Fate, came to me and said that the key to my memories was Ray.” “Fate, that b*****d, well Ray was our ‘boss’, he was a part of us, he could talk to all of us Kings but when you disappeared he turned silent.” I looked at Jack, confused. Jack sighed and said: “It must’ve taken quite a bit for Ray to explain all this. I can’t explain everything but let me tell you one thing that I heard from an old prophecy: ‘The Kings shall gather under two men, The Fallen shall gather under one man, The Kings and The Fallen shall clash but no one shall know the outcome until it shall occur.” I was about to say something when someone tapped on my shoulder. I turned around and saw Alice smiling at me and she asked: “What are you doing here?” “I asked Jack who Ray is,” I replied. Alice looked at me and then grabbed my hand saying: “Come on, I want to show you something.” She dragged me out of the school building and we walked to a small building with black walls. Alice opened the door and we entered the building. In the building there was an orb, floating in the middle of the big open space. The whole building had only the four walls and it was just one room.  I examined the orb and saw patterns in the orb. After a few moments I noticed that it those patterns weren’t just patterns, they were a world. In the orb there was a whole new world. I looked at the world and then asked Alice: “What is this?” “A world, a world you created. It is an illusion. You brought me here for the first time because of a specific reason, do you remember?” “I… don’t,” I replied. Alice looked at me, disappointed but then she said: “Come on, let’s go back to school.” I followed her out of the building and walked to the school. I heard a big explosion. Alice and I ran to the school building, where the explosion had come from, and saw Jack, Jake, Jett, Kennan, Tear and Mercedes fighting against others. They were high in numbers and Jack, Jake, Jett, Kennan, Tear and Mercedes struggled to keep fighting them. Alice ran to aid them but I could only stare. I was shocked to see so much blood. I couldn’t move at all but wanted to help them. I thought the whole time that they were way out of my league. Suddenly I heard a voice say:  [Painful isn’t it? Watching your friends and comrades get hurt but thinking that you can’t do anything. Hello Kaizer, how have you been?] Who are you? [I am Raztrafero Walker; or rather Ray Walker.] You’re the one whom Fate told me to find? [Well that’s always a good sign if Fate does something. Do you want to help them?] Yes, I do. [Then go, go and fight with all you can, try as hard as you can and fight, memories aren’t things that bind you together, they are just there to make life easier, the important things are known by you, you know them too well. Now fight my descendant, fight like the man you are, fight because you can.] I ran to the battle and when one of the enemies swung their sword at me, I dodged and conjured a blue blade. I slashed at him and he fell to the ground. I didn’t think, I just acted and let energy surge through my body. My body felt hot but I endured and I conjured another blade. The other blade was black, pitch black. I ran at my foes with those two blades and slashed through them like a madman. Suddenly I let them go and then let energy surge through my body again. The fallen foes rose again and then I received a flashback, a scene where the same foes surrounded me and I destroyed them but they rose again. Suddenly I remembered everything, every little detail of my life. I entered Jester mode while feeling grateful for having my memories back. But this time, I wasn’t in the normal Jester mode, I could feel limitless energy surging through me and I felt all of the great power which I had. I let a bit leak and created blades out of that power, I received two blades, one was blue and black, the other one was red and white. I held those blades in a fighting stance and then charged at the Fallen. The Fallen couldn’t react to my merciless attacks and were stuck in a fury of slashes. In the middle of attacking I entered Harmony, for the first time with me wanting to. I created a spear again out of the cloak and said: “Destroy the enemy spear of the kings, destroy the foe, Brionac.” The spear split into many pieces of light and flew towards the Fallen. The healers who were hiding at the back were not spared. Only twenty four Fallen were left. I charged and let my two blades release a piece of the energy stored inside me. The blades were instantly coated in fire and I slashed out with both of them. The fire made sure that with one swoop, all of the Fallen would be cut. All that was left of the battle was a mountain of corpses, forty eight to be exact. I stood in the middle of the battlefield and looked at the sky. What was that power, Ray? [That was the Joker stage, it seems completely different from the others right? Well it wasn’t only the Joker stage but now the other Kings should be able to enter the Joker stage again. By the way, Loid just told me that he will be joining you guys soon, he will only finish some things over on his side.] I looked at the horizon and then walked to the school. Jack, Jake, Jett, Kennan, Tear, Mercedes and Alice were standing in front of the front doors and watched me walk to them. I then ran towards them, quickly accelerating and stood behind Alice and then said: “Hey, I’m back.” She turned around and looked at me with tears in her eyes. She hugged me and I hugged her back. Tear and Mercedes joined in and I was surprised for a bit but didn’t let go when I saw their tears. When the hugging was over Jack hit me across the jaw and said: “Next time, you warn us.” “Yeah, I will,” I replied, rubbing my jaw. I smiled at Jack and then punched him as well. Jack smiled and said: “Alright, I deserved that.” “Hell yea you did,” I smiled. Suddenly I felt a change in the air. I felt a power which let me turn around, I saw him, Destiny. “Well, well, it seems like you survived, but don’t be happy just because you fought my failures.” “What do you mean?” “Those kids were failures, I inserted the powers of the Fallen in them but they couldn’t use it well enough. My true Fallen are as strong as you. They will be able to crush you, as people say: ‘There is strength in numbers’.” “Destiny, this has been enough, you broke many rules already, and don’t you dare break another one,” Fate said, suddenly appearing “But I already broke all of the rules you set, brother,” Destiny stated. Suddenly the air turned ice cold and the blood in m veins froze. I looked at Fate and saw that he was enraged. [This is bad, get everyone away from here, Fate might just kill Destiny.] Jack, Jake, Jett, Kennan, Mercedes and Alice quickly ran into different directions. I carried Tear and ran into the school carrying as many as I could as far away as I could. We met up as soon as we could and saw that the teachers had helped us. Every student of Dragon academy had been safely found and brought away. [You need to erect a barrier quickly, this won’t be enough distance and you can shorten the distance with a barrier but erect it quickly!” Jack, Jett, Jake, Kennan, Mercedes and I concentrated all of our power into a barrier which Alice had constructed. All we did was strengthen that barrier. Suddenly, a huge blast of energy destroyed the barrier. Although the barrier had been destroyed, we were unharmed. “Well, seems like I made it in time,” a voice said. Jack, Jake, Jett and I smiled and Kennan grinned. Loid was floating in the air with a smirk on his face. [Just at the right time Loid.] “I’m always there at the right time Ray,” Loid grinned. I turned to the direction of Dragon academy. I turned to Alice and said: “I’ll be right back.” Alice looked worried but nodded. I manipulated the wind to fly. I flew over to Dragon academy. Nothing was left, only the House of Light and my little training house were left standing. But those were also only ruins. I flew over the school grounds and recognized nothing, all there was, was emptiness. I flew back to the others and then said to the principle: “I’m sorry sir but there is nothing left of the school.”The principle smiled at me and said: “It’s alright, I knew that one day the school would be destroyed, it was just a question of when it would happen.” I turned away and walked to a hill close by. Most of the student made their way to the closest town. By the way, what happens to the towns and cities close to the school? [Nothing, only people with magic will be affected by that wave of energy.] What will happen to Destiny? [That was far from enough energy to kill Destiny, Fate held back. That just scratched Destiny, Fate will be going home and be very angry and we won’t be hearing from him for a bit.] So we have to take care of Destiny? [Are you crazy? No, only Fate and I can subdue Destiny but in this form I can’t even touch him.] So what do we do? [You play the game, in other words you fight the Fallen like you’re supposed to.] I sighed and stood on top of the hill. I slumped to the ground and closed my eyes. So, you what else was it? [What do you mean?] The Joker stage, you told me there was something else. [Yes, it’s called Harmony. It’s a process were the person who can use it receives a weapon. A weapon which is fitting for the person, something that he never thought that he would master it. But you are a special case; you didn’t receive a new weapon, you received Brionac, the spear of the ancient god king Lugh. This spear is known to be able to split up and destroy the enemies of Lugh. In the mortal world he is a god of the Irish mythology.] Wait, but how could I use a golden sword when I fought in Cleadrosa? [Well, it seems like your Harmony weapon isn’t just Brionac, you seem to have a changeable one. The cloak is just the beginning stage, once you need a weapon, your cloak will change to that.] Wait, that is totally overpowered. Ray chuckled and I looked at my hands. Can I enter Joker stage normally without any help? [Most probably yes, but there are exceptions, you might need help, you might need a special item, it’s always different.] I sighed and walked back down the hill. The students and teachers who had stayed behind were being ‘picked up’ by the ones who had gone to the town and come back to say that everything was safe. Alice, Jake, Jett, Jack, Mercedes, Kennan, Tear, Loid and Elena were talking to each other. I phase walked to them and Loid as well as Jack had crazy grins on their faces. That’s when I noticed something: “You guys are brothers?” “Yeah, but how did you notice? We don’t look alike,” Jack asked. “Your grins, they look similar, they both piss me off because of the same reason.” Everyone except for Alice, Tear and I laughed and I looked confused and asked: “What?” “Kaizer said the same thing, Ray did as well.” “Seriously, that is incredibly creepy.” [Shut up Kaizer.] Everyone laughed at that except for Tear. She hadn’t become my official Queen yet, that had only happened in an illusion made by Destiny. I turned to Alice and said: “Can I talk to you for a bit?” Alice followed me to a short walk away from the others. “So, I don’t know how to tell you but… um, Tear is my second Queen.” “Oh; and why did you tell me?” “I wanted to know if you were fine with me bonding with her.” “Well, I don’t care that much about that part; Tear is like a sister to me so it doesn’t matter that much.” I looked at her face and it was expressionless. I walked with her back to the others and then asked Tear: “Can I talk to you for a bit?” We walked away to the hill I had been on before I met the others. Tear and I walked to the top of the hill and then I said: “So, well, to get straight to the point um, do you know of Queens?” “Well yes, they are royalty and…” “No, no, not those Queens, I mean the Queens for us Kings.” “Yes, I heard of them,” she answered, puzzled. “Well, I’m a special case, apparently I have more than one Queen, one of my Queens is Alice and the other… is you,” yeah, I beat around the bush quite a lot. Tear looked at me shocked and I asked: “So, I’m your second Queen and Alice is your first.” “Yeah,” I answered. “Why are you telling me this?” “Well, Ray was bugging me to tell you this and He told me that I should bond with you.” “Wait, what? You didn’t talk about bonding.” “Well, I might’ve left it out because of the method.” “What is the method?” “We’re supposed to kiss.” “What’s kissing?” “You don’t know what kissing is?” “No what is it?” I found myself struggling when trying to define kissing. “So, well, I don’t know how to explain it… um, I guess it’s where the lips of two different people touch.” Tear blushed and then said: “Alright, we’ll kiss then.” My face got closer to hers then, we kissed. The air around us burned and two dragons flew around us. After a few seconds they burned out and Tear and I looked at each other. [Well, that ended quickly.” Tear looked around surprised and I chuckled. Ray then said: [Hello Tear, I am Ray, I am Kaizer’s teacher and you will be able to hear me now.] “Um, hello I guess.” After the short introductions Tear and I walked back to the others. We talked a bit and then walked to the close town. In town I asked a man if he could bring me to the airport. He was nice enough to do so and he drove me to the airport. I bought a ticket to the city of my house and flew to it. I unlocked the door of my house and walked to my room. My gaming computer and my laptop still stood there in my room, it looked just like when I had left. It was Tuesday. My parents weren’t home so I could rest for a short time without explaining, why I was suddenly back home, in the middle of the school year. I was about to cook something when the doorbell rang. I walked downstairs and saw Alice standing in front of the door with Tear whose tail and wings were hidden. I also felt Onyx in the house and asked the three: “Why are you three here?” “Well, you suddenly disappeared so we thought of finding you here. Onyx was already on his way so…” Alice said. Tear smiled at me and said: “That was really cruel of you, just disappearing like that.” “Sorry, so, I was just making something to eat, wanna have some as well? I am including you in the question Onyx.” “Yes,” all three of them said in unison. I walked into the kitchen and started cooking for three and whilst the food was frying in the pan, I looked into the refrigerator and brought out a hunk of meat. I let it go to the plane which Onyx was on and he ate it greedily. I cooked the food and served it. It was just some pasta with salmon in a cream sauce. Tear and Alice ate it greedily and I ate it slowly. “I didn’t know that you could cook so well,” Tear said. “Well, I’m not that good, I just have good ingredients,” I smiled. Alice had finished her plate at the same time as me and we watched Tear eat. She ate her pasta quickly and then gave me the plate as I cleaned up. “Do you want some ice cream?” I asked from the kitchen. “Sure,” both the girls replied. It seemed like Onyx had gone somewhere so I didn’t bother asking. I pulled out some ice cream from the freezer and some bowls and spoons. I went back to the girls and gave each a bowl and then said: “I’m going out to buy some groceries, see you in a little bit.” I walked out of the house to the closest super market. I walked through the streets and felt stares on me. I was always aware of those stares. Everyone stared at me because of my blue hair but the people I had known for quite some time knew me well and didn’t stare at me. I walked into the supermarket and bought necessities. After I bought those, I walked back home. At home I saw Alice and Tear sitting on the sofa talking to each other. I smiled and put the groceries away. I walked to them and then asked: “What’s so interesting that you two discuss it?” Tear jumped in surprise but Alice had felt me coming. It was a perk of Kings and Queens, Queens or Kings who were bonded could feel the other when close enough. It seemed like Tear hadn’t mastered that yet, so she was still surprised. “We were just talking about your parents.” “Well it seems like you two won’t meet them soon.” “Why won’t we meet them soon?” I picked up a letter which was on the table in front of the TV and said: “When my parents get these letters they’re gone for about a month. This letter came yesterday.” “How do you know when it came to your house? I mean the date of these letters are when they were written and don’t arrive one day afterward.” “My parents have the habit of writing the date of the letter’s arrival on the letter itself. It actually started when they wrote that on a piece of paper but once they couldn’t find one so wrote it on the letters. They wrote it down so that I would know from when to when they would be gone.” Alice and Tear looked at the date on the letter and then Tear asked: “So will you stay here?” “For a bit, about a week before my parents come back I will go somewhere else, I guess.” “Why don’t you just stay?” “Are you dumb? If I stay then they’ll ask me why I’m here even though it’s in the middle of the term and I don’t want to answer questions because it’s a pain.” Alice and Tear looked at me surprised but suddenly Onyx spoke up: “Kaizer, Tear, you two were called by Drake. Alice should come as well.” I stared at the ceiling and then said: “I’ll pack my stuff.” I ran to my room and packed all of my stuff into a small bag. I ran back to the living room and looked at Tear and Alice. I grabbed them both and phase walked to Onyx’ layer. Alice, Tear and I jumped onto the back of Onyx and then we flew to Cleadrosa. It was the first time to fly to Cleadrosa for Alice and she looked at the scenery in amazement. I plugged in my earphones and blended out the world around me. I closed my eyes and opened them in my mind.

I looked around and saw Ray. “Hello Kaizer, thanks for finally showing up.” “What’s going on?” I asked him. “I called for a meeting, the meeting of all the Kings. Today you will see all the Kings, doesn’t mean that you will see their faces though.” He led me to a table. Ray motioned me to a seat and I sat down. I saw twelve others sitting there. Some had masks on, and some didn’t. Those without masks I recognized instantly but then I noticed something: “Hey Ray, you said that the Kings of this generation were only twelve, right?” “Yeah, why do you ask?” “Well, together we’re thirteen, not counting you.” “Oh, you noticed him. You’re the first to do that.” “What do you mean?” “That’s Kaizer the first. He’s your ancestor. He has a spiritual form just like me but can’t communicate as freely with you guys.” “Ah Ray, now you blew the surprise. Nice to meet you Kaizer, Dang that sounds weird.” “Well you are weird,” Jack said. Kaizer (the first) took off his mask and then burnt the air around Jack. “What did you say you s****y shark?” “I said: ‘You are weird’ you s****y dragon,” Jack replied letting electricity course through his arms. Kaizer summoned a sword and then got into a stance. Jack went into a stance with the electricity flying around on his fists. They ran at each other but then Ray stood between them and said: “You guys, if you don’t want to die then sit down. You know that I can beat you both without trying too much right?” Kaizer and Jack started to walk away from each other and then ran back to their seats. I looked at the whole thing in amazement and asked Jake, who sat next to me: “What’s going on here?” “Well, Kaizer and Jack have a history, and Ray is the only one who can stop them without half of a world getting destroyed.” Ray sat back down and said: “Alright guys, and Mercedes, today I need to tell you something, as you might’ve guessed just now, there are only twelve Kings, the reason being that Kaizer right there, Kaizer the second, is Kaizer’s, Kaizer the first, and my descendant. But there is a problem, after the rules there are only twelve, Fallen as well, but Destiny broke them and Fate couldn’t break them himself and so kill Destiny, but had to let him go. The problem is that there are twenty four, Fallen. I am very angry at Destiny but I cannot stop him from doing something in this form. I would like you all to meet up again in Cleadrosa and train. Kaizer is a priority which I will take care of, you guys only need to train just like you used to. Kaizer, the second, is already on his way there, you guys should move once we’re done here.” Suddenly, one person with a mask got up and said: “Hold up Ray, you haven’t told us everything yet right?” Ray looked him in the eyes and then sighed: “Evan, how often do I have to tell you, if I keep something secret then it’s meant to stay secret. If you have any objections then feel free to discuss it with either my blade number one or my blade number two.” Evan sat back down and stayed silent. “Alright, since there are no more questions I will send you back.” He waved his hand in the air and I opened my eyes, I was back on Onyx’ back. I sighed and looked at Alice and Tear. They were looking at the scenery and talking. I smiled and asked Onyx, telepathically: “How close are we?” “I just need to find a good entrance.” I sighed and started pulling the earphones out of my ears. We started passing the home of the elves when suddenly someone jumped onto Onyx. I conjured a sword and then sighed. “Don’t scare me like that Mercedes, I almost attacked you.” Mercedes stood in front of me and smiled: “Don’t worry, next time I’ll make sure to come after I made sure that you know.” “Hell no, this spices up my life a bit,” I smiled, “by the way, what did you need to do?” “Politics, I was involved in some Elven politics,” she answered. I smiled and then looked at the wind. Just when I was about to turn to Mercedes did I feel a sharp pain run through my abdomen, I looked down and saw a spear sticking through my abdomen. I turned around and saw Fallen in the air, they were smiling and I looked around, I was alone, I wasn’t on Drake’s back anymore, I was alone, with the Fallen, on a plain. “What did you do to them?” I asked. “Who knows?” One of them replied. I felt fear for Alice, Tear, Mercedes and Drake; I didn’t know what was happening to them and then pure rage, thinking that the Fallen had killed them. The rage fueled my power and I went into Jester mode, the world around me burned and I was in half dragon form. I turned to them and I entered Harmony. Brionac flew at the Fallen and pierced them all. They coughed up blood and one of them said: “Stubborn fool.” “Yeah, I’m stubborn and I may be a fool, but this fool will kill you.” I let the world burn, literally. The whole plain burned and the air as well. Everything had burned. Nothing was left and I burned, I was burning with the spear still impaling me. “I guess this is game over for me…” [What the heck did you do? You can’t die yet! You’re my last descendant!] I’m sorry Ray, I can’t go on anymore; the blood loss will kill me. Please, choose another person for me to fill in my place; I can’t do this, thank you Fate, for helping me at least once. And those were the last words I spoke, I died…

Or did I?

To be continued