Chapter Seven

The first test of Kenny's protection.

Shadow in the Mountains

      They awoke just as they were instructed to in enough time to gather all their belongings, which was mostly all Christian’s, while Hummer found a small white pebbled pathway that lead up to a large open overhead tunnel. After a shot with the pistol-crossbow, which housed arrows made with an orange gem that left a trail of flame behind it, they watched it soar through the oblivion. Once it reached the top, the arrow latched on to the side and the trail of flame stiffened into a firm wire. Hummer had buzzed around to make sure it was in place.

      Christian reached into the inside of his jacket, which was on Kenny now, and retrieved a tall white powdery feather. Without hesitation, he quickly blew on feather and white powder gravitated toward both their bodies, becoming a black harness. Again, no warning, Kenny was clipped to the other and after a final clipping they went sailing swiftly upward. Once they reached the top, the harness and arrow blinked away while Christian was pondering aloud causing Kenny to pause and question.

      “It’s all starting to make sense to me,”

      “What is?”

      “Where we are, why you had that nightmare to kill yourself, which I am convinced was a desperate ploy to end you before you embraced your power, and why you projected here of all places.”

      Kenny was still puzzled and Christian double backed with a sigh as Hummer perched on his shoulder.

      “You were never taught of the Six Gods of All who started all of this mess?”

      “The only thing I was taught was that Jesus died on the cross to deliver us from some type of something or another. I don’t really care to remember.”

      “Well, forget all that. It’s bullshit.”

      “I figured…”

      “No, I don’t literally mean that. I just mean none of the religions really have it completely right, although it is a good concept to keep hope in the hearts of humans alike. Hope and redemption, you know?” Christian led them up a spiral stone case, much like a smaller version of the one they climbed down, “But the truth is that the Gods of All created seven domains that each lived on. Well, the Tower of Everything which they called Gen, above the ruins of the sixth heaven (he turned to overlook the full area of twilight sparkle around them), I believe this was where the battle took place with a corrupt soul drunk off of power and chaos. It’s said that it was sealed in our time and now you have the soul that was corrupted. This place was where it all happened.”

      They climbed up a few more steps before anyone spoke again. Hummer zipped off ahead to scan the inclining trail.

      “Why me?”

      “Look, I hardly pay attention to when my friend talks so I was zoning in an out on him while he tried to school me on it.”

      “Who is this person?”

      “Well, one day you will meet him but until you come to full terms with all this, then you won’t be able to see him. He’s just like you. He literally knows everything.”

      “I enjoyed my normal life before any I had any knowledge of any of this,” Kenny complained, slouching down on the last step, his emotions getting the best of him, “Trying to figure it out as I went, loving the moments I shared with the ones I love. Now, you’re telling me that it’s all about to change? Or by the looks of how my life is, things are already changing. How can I have a soul of this bizarre power if I have a worthless future and am marked to die from a disease soon anyways?”

      At that question, Christian lifted Kenny to his feet and spun him so they were face to face.

      “Don’t you ever feel like any part of you is worthless!” His voice was stern but tranquil, “You’re soul is golden and sealed by the Gods themselves that much I am a hundred percent certain of. Besides, until the last breath leaves my body I won’t ever let you die anytime soon from anything. Got that?”

      Kenny blinked and sighed.

      “I just still don’t get it…”

      “You don’t get it?” Christian’s eyes blinked with grief, “You are the one who gives to the poor every chance you get even when you have nothing, you bring the joy and peace in the circle of your friends, you are the kindest person I know, you are the guy who loves all despite every reason to hate and you, above everything else, see all life as precious as the last. And you still don’t get why you were chosen?”

      “Really? You really think that about me?”

      Christian smiled sweetly.

      “I don’t think any of this.” They stood hugged at arm’s length for a moment at the top of the stone steps, “Now, let’s go find these answers for you.”

      Once they left the stone steps, they ventured up into nautical twilight where a bottomless cliff separated their path. Another round of a burning tailed arrow shot across the gorge and the powder from the white feather formed another set of harness. They sailed and came across a yellow gemmed river. While they crossed the knee high metallic liquid, it absorbed in their fabric and gave them a boost of energy and courage. There was nothing that Kenny couldn’t conquer in the middle of that waterway.

      Hummer opened a door hidden in the walls of a cavernous room by pecking strategically at the brick like rock causing it to crumble.

      “I hope my body is okay during all this time away.” Kenny said aloud as they stood at a long dark tunnel with a faint light at the end.

      “Time works differently on this plane so yeah, I would say you were still sleep in the hospital or in your own bed by now. Astral Projection causes time in this dimension to move exceedingly faster than our normal one.”

      They trekked up the slope of the dark tunnel, excitement welding in the pits of their stomach as they reached the light. It was an opening to the other side of the mountain range, on the opposite side off the acid rain and desolation. Three moons were high in the air, small and large alike, lighting a way over the misty desert below them.

      The air had become suddenly thick and warm with no breeze as they climbed down the mountain side on a premade trail, Christian always in the lead. He had his katana at his side since they left the tunnel and Kenny clasped hold of the pistol crossbow. He noticed the top and middle of the tower could be seen on the horizon but was still a shadow from the mist that floated around it.

      When they stood at the edge of the mountain and mist, Christian whistled for Hummer to come to him.

      “Go report everything you’ve seen so far, got it?”

      The hummingbird whirled excitedly as Christian opened his right palm and doodled concentric deigns in the middle of it with his left finger. A blue circular fluorescence glyph with symbols of roman numerals radiated from under the skin, etching along the lines of his palm and the hummingbird fluttered and landed in the middle. With a quick cyan flash, the glowing had stopped and the bird was gone.

      “What just happened?” Kenny stared with awestruck as Christian shook his hand in discomfort.

      “Astral Warping.” He rubbed his palm and continued when he saw Kenny needed further explanation, “It’s much like what you do when you astral project but since you do it naturally because of your power, I need something synthetic to give me a little help. Since I’ve been doing it for a while, I can send others along with or without myself because I’m a boss.”

      Kenny loved to see him smiling.

      “So where do we go from here?”

      They both looked out in the thick haunting mist, clutching firm to their weapons. Christian peeled off the ninja star from the handle that instantaneously materialized and consumed itself in blue flame that didn’t affect its holder.

      “Forward through the mist.” He tossed the flaming star with force creating visibility with cavitation in the fog ahead, “The plus side is that the clouds will give us a cover from whatever is lurking for us overhead.”

      “So what happens if we die out here?”

      “We won’t.”

      “But I just need to know,”

      Another sigh.

      “We die. Got it?”

      “Yeah,”

      And without any more talk, they started walking ahead disappearing in the mist from the eye of the mountains. The ground was like a swamp; sludgy, damp and hot while the mist provided little relief. Sweat had begun drenching both men as the terrain was becoming extremely hilly and the mist getting denser with each step. Christian constantly reached back with his free hand to grab Kenny by his wrist and lead him in the right direction.

      The moonlights reflected off the edges of the dense fog giving Kenny a divine peace of mind. He made out a faint silhouette of the tower whenever they climbed to the highest point of a hill and swore to get the answers to the meaning of his life that he felt he was entitled to. The blue flaming star gave off an odd pulse of energy that alerted Christian and sparked a deeper step in his stride.

      Kenny thought he was hearing things when he heard thunder but he was only able to make out a clear sky whenever they reached a point higher than the thick mist. But with the increase speed in Christian’s strides, he knew something was going to happen soon. They ran down the slope of a hill before the terrain abruptly leveled out and a breeze started to pick up.

      With the katana at Christian’s chest and the pistol held at Kenny’s side, the zephyr speed increased and blew the mist from around them, making their position visible.

      “Stay behind me.” His protector muttered as a thick shadow passed over the moons like an endless bird and vapored in conflagration off the side of the mountains like a devastating wildfire encircling and trapping them in a valley. The current of air started to become swift and heavy carrying rocks and debris, which Christian guarded from Kenny by reaching behind and pulling him closer to his back. Kenny’s pajama jacket flapped violently open baring his chest to the blustery weather. A monstrous voice bellowed piercingly from the flame and ash, creating fear in both of their hearts.

      “ ‘The Deity of Void, formed from the intestines of creation, will undoubtedly hunt to every end of the universe for the great and immeasurable power of Chaos, now cursedly infused with the core of six heavens.’ You think you can keep the power from us forever, pitiful creature?”

      The blue flaming star had begun orbiting the two as the voice continued and the winds gained more force,

      “My power here is great but yours is like dust beneath my feet. I will peel your bodies apart and shred your souls! The darkness will prove to be victorious again in these coming days! You will perish here, begrudging your own destiny! Die now like bugs against the flap!”

      Just as the circling conflagration combusted into an immeasurable blazing hurricane, the star crashed between them like a comet and solidified the ground beneath them. When the red-orange fire poured down, it collided with an invisible blue force above them. The shock of the blast shook the world under their feet but it didn’t slow Christian down.

      He flipped the katana a few times and it magically cloned it into four extra blades. After a quick whistle, he tossed the sword in his grip in the air, with the clones following, and it created a bright flash. The swords each crashed around them into the ground creating a square, with the fifth sword stabbing the ground at Christian’s feet. Simultaneously, a blue twilight colored electrical cube raised up with the Protector yanking the sword in front of him out the ground.

      Dark matter began to swirl in the vast fire hurricane and swarmed around the blue box of electricity. Bolts of shredded light cut through the tails of darkness from Christian’s illuminating blade but more obscurity rained out while the fire battled the force that protected its prey. Thunder rumbled violently and black lightning began to crash around all sides, striking the force brutally. Kenny horrifically noticed crack above as it spider-webbed with each lightning strike. Twists of fire roared fiercely above, aiming down on their heads.

      “There is no salvation for those whose lives that are damned!”

      “Only those who are damned deserve the only salvation! Now get from my sight, black void of nothing.” Christian growled as he whistled rapidly for the ninja star to eject from the ground and mount in its spot on the katana’s handle. The force, from the onslaught of fire and lightning, shattered like shards of glass, eradicating the cloned swords, while invading darkness, fire and black lightning hurtling around them.

      All of a sudden, in a blue fiery flash Christian stood tall, protecting him and Kenny in a lapis blue sphere of dancing burning energy, horizontally extending the sweltering blade high above his head with both hands. The star gave off a vicious irradiating jolts as the attack continued to assault the sparkling sapphire sphere. Wind still blew heavily against their bodies but Kenny held his footing by crouching low to his knee as Christian towered with straining force above him in pirouetting energy of blue, gold and purple.

      A large assault blasted against the sphere, shattering it effortlessly, knocking the two away from each other in a black mass. The pistol went flying out of Kenny’s grip just then. He felt the snaking black energy intrude his eyes for a moment before Christian had caused an immense sonic wave explosion from stabbing his flaming blade in the ground, holding the hellfire and dark at bay, fortifying them in a bright dome of brilliant fiery power. In a horrific realization and unseen lasso, Kenny fell to his face and found himself being drugged by his locked ankles toward the dark calamity outside the dome.

      “CHRISTIAN!”

      The Protector grabbed hold to the handle and tried to swipe his hand and grab Kenny but he was too far. He cursed and threw his entire body toward his sliding Custody, grabbing hold to his wrist and knocking his glasses askew. In a quick movement of being drugged himself, he whistled behind him again and caught a blue string of wire emitting from the stitching of the handle while it looped and tied itself to his waist.

      “DON’T LET GO OF ME!” Kenny yelled, as he felt himself being yanked forcefully at the opposing forces pulling.

      “I DON’T QUITE HAVE ANY PLANS TO DO THAT AS OF YET!” Christian had a grip with both hands before a blast of darkness escaped in, knocked one hand from his grasp and his glasses from his face. He groaned painfully at the huge gash on his wrist it left, cussed again and frantically but quickly activated the glyph one handedly.

      “NO!” Kenny screamed, his feet being levitated higher in the air, “I AM NOT LEAVING YOU HERE ALONE!”

      Hurricane force winds beat against their lungs with demonic walls of fire rising miles high around them.

      “YOU DON’T HAVE A CHOICE, MAN!” Black lightning smashed down too close, “YOU CANT DO ANYTHING YET! GO! I’LL BE FINE!”

      “Christian, please.” Kenny cried tears of desperate persuasion as he felt Christian’s hold tighten and slowly pulled him closer, “Don’t do this by yourself.”

      “I swear to you, Kenny, I will be okay.” And with those final words; a finishing crash of black energy, red twisting fire and dark lightning pierced the dome of blue energy. But Christian had grabbed Kenny’s hand with his irradiating palm, not a moment too soon, and just like it did with his hummingbird, he sent Kenny crashing back into the physical plane with a sudden bright cyan flash.

 

      When he came to and was finally able to bring his mind to focus, Kenny realized he was standing at the bottom of the stairs in the house that he and Shawn shared in Oakland on Forty Forth Street. Quickly he patted his body down to double check it wasn’t a dream anymore, shocked that he was still in his Miami Heat pajamas and staggered into the kitchen when he heard the sound of the cabinet door close.

      It was Shawn, sipping on a glass of clear vodka, unloading a bag of canned objects from Whole Foods; beets, chili beans, apple sauce and green beans cut in water. He looked puzzled at Kenny, who still was dressed in a dirty and slightly torn outfit.

      “How did you-”

      “Look, Shawn, I don’t have time to get into much detail as to where I have been or how I got here but I think I am finally understanding who I am! I mean, what I am meant to do!” Kenny had anxiously rushed to the island to get nearer to his friend, who had turned to fully face him with a baffled look still plastered. He maneuvered so quick around the island to grab Shawn by the shoulders that he didn’t notice him glance toward the door.

      “Kenny, you might-”

      “I can see light or aura or whatever, Shawn! And, oh hell who knows, maybe I can summon enough power to help give electricity to those who don’t have it.” Kenny laughed hysterically and began babbling with a frenzy, “Look at me thinking of others just like he said. You know what else he said, Shawn? That there are like more than one God and they gave me this incredible power that is being hunted by some black void or demon or something but they have him and they want me! But we need to find him! We need to, you hear me?”

      He was shaking Shawn like a rag doll and switching from a smile to a sudden onset of tears before there was a shattered glass heard from the door of the kitchen. This caused Kenny to abruptly stop crying and look over.

      Jerry stood in the door way, perplexed and befuddled but not as much as the gentleman that stood a few inches taller than him, leaning on the doorway with shock and his feet covered with shattered glass and water He was a nice looking older man dressed in Army Service Uniform (with many stripes and stars decorating the jacket), hat at his side showing off a small high top fade, who looked what Kenny would be if he lived to be in his mid-forties and had served in the military for decades. When he spoke, his voice was soft with surprise but heard as it grew in agitation.

      “What did you just say, Kenneth? Who do you need to find? And how did you get down here without passing us? We were just in your room giving you for anti-depressant like the doctor ordered you to take after I flew across the country because they call me to tell me my little brother is under suicide watch! All to hear him say that some thing is after him? Tell me I’m joking, bro! Tell me I’m joking!”

      Kenny sighed, looked over at Shawn who was avoided his gaze at all cost, and back over to the guy standing in the doorway. He inhaled deeply, snatched the glass from Shawn’s hand downing the half of cup of vodka and handed the empty glass back to his friend.

      “Malcolm, when did you guys get here?”

      “Don’t dodge my questions!”

      In the time between the question and the rebuttal, Shawn had poured another shot worth of vodka in the glass and shoved it in Kenny’s hand, who quickly gulped it.

      “It’s…complicated.” He scoffed in his mind.

      “Un-complicate it then!”

      “How can I if I am not sure myself?” Kenny finally boomed, an effect of the alcohol he assumed, “I literally go to sleep one night with a stupid f*****g dream and wake up the next morning to find out that I am supposed to do some ‘save the cheerleader save the world’ type s**t! What do you want me to say?”

      “You found a way to tell Shawn! Find a way to tell me!”

      “Shawn knows because I needed to find Christian, he’s my…my…” Kenny’s voice trailed off as the last moments together flashed as clear images before his eyes and then quickly regretting telling either of them this information when he was strictly asked not to.

      And for the first time, he understood: They all could potentially be in danger because of him and their ignorance was what kept them safe, at least for the other three.

      “Are you high? This all sounds made up like one of your stories!” Malcolm bellowed, to which Kenny scoffed with aggravation and frowned.

      “I AM NOT HIGH AND I AM NOT MAKING ANY OF THIS UP! DID YOU KNOW THAT I WAS ALMOST JUST KILLED BY SOMEONE OTHER THAN MYSELF JUST NOW?!”

      “I believe him,” Shawn finally spoke up before Malcolm had a chance to respond, “When we went looking for his new neighbor (he emphasized the last two words towards Kenny) and where he could’ve gone so suddenly after one of these dreams Kenny was talking about, we found out that what he is seeing is real. Just trust me, Mal, he isn’t making any of this up.”

      It was like he had been deflated so quickly, because Malcolm’s bull outrage became tame as a lamb. He hopped over to his brother and embraced him warmly as Shawn scooted over to Jerry, who was still stunned and dazed, to fill him in and see if he was also still breathing.

      Kenny became putty in his brother’s arms but felt no energy to weep to him like they used to do when they were younger. This time, he was only full of exhaustion and migraines, while in the center of the kitchen, he was also worried for the future of everyone he knew and loved. His family, his friends, their families that he knew well, his brother’s friends and their families, all of everyone’s extended family not to mention their friends, they could all eventually be in danger.

      Danger because of him. Brought to this world because of his soul.

      Unless of course, he was did what Christian said he was here to do; embraced what he is and finally put an end to this apocalyptic war. He wanted to keep all these people he cared for deeply safe and far away from any of the calamities he felt was not soon off. He needed to finish this journey and get to the answers of who he really was. The only important thing right now was everyone else and their lives. If he could play a major part in keeping them alive then he would do it without second thought.

      And after all the deliberation he had with himself in his head, right there hugging his brother and smiling back at him while Jerry and Shawn gazed in their direction, Kenny decided saving his family and friends was worth more than anything he would ever dream of or ask for.

      And at that moment, this included giving his life as well; which he was convinced Christian would save.