"AGGHH!"
"N- AHHH!!!"
Aarion yelled out in pain, placing the ends of his palm on his forehead, squirming around in his car.
"FUCK!" He screeched before opening the car door, falling onto the tuff concrete. He pushed the door shut, groaning as he struggled to stand.
He staggered over and up a staircase and falls in front of a door, immediately banging it.
"Aarion?!" Xavin exclaimed concernedly after he opens the door and looks down to see Aarion on the floor. He helps Aarion stand, holding his side as they entered the house.
Aarion groans in pain, seeing flashes every three seconds and Xavin helps him up the stairs.
"What's wrong?" Marcus whines as he appeared in the foyer.
"Just continue playing on my phone!" Xavin yelled out as he made it up stairs
In Aarion's room, Aarion immediately falls onto his knees, holding the sides of his head, rolling in pain.
"Top drawer!" Aarion yells out, still rolling. Xavin rushes to his drawers and opens it, pulling out a bottle of pills.
"This?" He asks and Aarion looks up at him from the floor.
Suddenly, the bottle is yanked out of Xavin's hand, and it zoom-floats over to Aarion's hands. He opens it and begins to chug the pills.
He struggles but he swallows all of them, and he throws the pill bottle over toward the bed. Aarion staggers as he begins to stand then Xavin walks over and helps him.
"You're not fine," Xavin tells him as he helped him over to the bed and they both sat down.
"I am," Aarion says, flipping his dreads out of his face.
"Mhm, yeah," Xavin whispers.
"What happened?" Xavin asks and Aarion immediately scoffs
"Are you not aware? Y'know, seer and all," Aarion says.
"I am," Xavin begun, "but I'm going to be even more aware after you tell me," Xavin pries.
Aarion lightly smiled at him.
"If I'm being honest, I don't really know what happened. I'm just more worried about-"
"What will happen," Xavin finishes Aarion's statement. Aarion chuckles.
"With my level of power I can see the threads of fate," Xavin says seriously, "Just know it'll be a bumpy ride no matter what," Xavin says.
Aarion sighs, then stands. "It's fine. Everything is fine," he says convincingly and Xavin smugly smiles at him.
"Hey," Aarion turns to him, "Y'know the basics of magic right?" He asks and Xavin nods yes. "You mind telling them to Marcus?" He asks approaching the door, "I gotta do something before I teach him," he says leaving the room.
Aarion walks down the hallway and approaches a door. He sternly looks at the door handle and the door swing open. He walks in and the door slams shut behind him.
"Magus," Aarion says.
Within a blood magic circle, Magus sat and hid under a battered cloak.
"Get up," Aarion orders, but Magus doesn't respond. He walks closer to the circle.
"You old fucknut of a bitch. Get. Up!" He fiercely declares. Magus slowly stood. He slowly turns and lifts his hands up to take off his cloak. When he turns and takes his cloak off, Aarion is taken aback.
Magus's face is no longer identical to Aarion, though they do resemble each other. It is now much more different, older but not too old or too young. Grey streaks of hair flourished all throughout his afro.
"I-I don't understand," Aarion falters yet Magus chuckles mischievously.
"Two thousand years!" he chuckles again. "Two thousand years of traveling in my spirit form, spreading rumors and rewriting ancient prophecies. I spread the rumor of the first born male Wiremu that'll be my doppelgänger and revive me. Rewriting the prophecies of every pitiful seer and those fustilarian Daughters of Magik!" He reveals and Aarion's expression remained shock.
"Oh, don't look so stuck, son. It's your fault for putting me in a barrier that drains my magic completely instead of blocking it," he goaded.
"I'm guessing you used an ancient glamour spell," Aarion assumes.
"Bingo!" Magus smirks deviously.
"But now it's wore off. Well… obviously you see that," Magus laughs. "I just- I got a question. Do you believe that you're able to kill me? Now that you've drained me of every single itsy bity drop of magic I had," He chuckles with a big smile full of insane anger.
Aarion looked at him slightly annoyed. "Drained of magic, witches usually die or at least pass out. But you're still a fucking pain in my ass, so no. I don't believe I can kill you. Not now at least," he says and gives Magus a smug look.
A strong gust of wind blows away the barrier circle that bounded Magus.
"So, once again I'm free," He breathed. "Y'know, I say you have eight years until your barrier spell on this house weakens just enough for me to get through," he says
"I'll just reinforce it,"
"Ha! You know that won't work. Luckily witchcraft heavily relies on the laws of magic, and you cannot amplify the magic strength of a barrier spell once cast. And my magic is gonna be stronger than ever, while you're going to be weak trying to hold up the barrier. You're stuck with me, deary. And once we're unstuck, you and your family die,"
For a moment Aarion simply stood and stared at him with a deadpanned expression. He then smacks his lips
"How about you just follow me out this room and behave?" He says before turning and leaving the room.
Aarion walks down the hall and heads to the stairway.
He waltzes into the living room with Magus following behind, and they approach Marcus and Xavin.
"Aarion!" Marcus says excitedly. "I'm, ready for magic lessons!"
"Alright," Aarion chuckles. He holds his hand out and a flame shrouds it.
"Instead of fire on our hands, let's try this," he says and the fire pulls into a ball floating above his palm.
Marcus's eyes shoot up in wonder, and he holds his hands out too. He concentrates for a moment, then suddenly a blue magic appears in front of him.
Fire pulls out of it and forms a ball of fire, a ball bigger than Aarion's.
Aarion frowns in confusion and concern. "A circle...?" he asks himself.
"I- I can't stop it," Marcus says holding back his wrist.
Aarion then snaps his fingers
"Cancel," he says and Marcus's spell disappears, even the circle.
""That was different," Aarion says.
"That was sorcery," Magus walks closer to Marcus. "This little bugger here is no mere witch or human for that matter." He then smirks, "How about we unveil the glamour spell on you?" He mischievously suggests while reaching his hand out above Marcus's head.
His hand then unwillingly stops and pulls back.
"Away from my son," Aarion says and Magus immediately scoffs.
"Son?" He laughs.
"Yeah, did I say something funny?" Aarion asks with a look of contempt.
Magus chuckles, "Well…" he gets distracted and stops once he notices Xavin.
"Well nothing," he chuckles and smirks. "I suggest you learn sorcery from your son, heavens know you need it," he says leaving the space.
"I guess I'll go make dinner," Xavin says.
"Oh, really? You don't have to,"
"I want to so, don't worry about it," Xavin responds with a smile before exiting the room.
Aarion then holds his hand out and black sparks come out.
"What are you doing?" Marcus asks.
"I'm trying to do what you did," he says and the sparks intensifies, then forms a black magic circle with the shape of a heart inside it.
"Ah, there you go. That was easier than I thought," Aarion chuckles
"Oh!" Marcus stood in front of his circle and examined it. "I thought you only had dark magic!" He exclaimed.
"What?" Aarion questions, engulfed with confusion.
"A five-pointed star," he replied, pointing to the star in the center of Aarion's circle.
"A five-pointed star represents light magic. If you were fully consumed by darkness, you'd have a six-pointed star," He remarked and then lifted his hand appearing, making his magic circle appear.
"In the center of my magic circle is a four-pointed star. It represents my power cosmic," He reveals and Aarion is lightly shocked.
"Power cosmic? What exactly are you?" He asks and Marcus's joyous expression immediately falls. His magic circle disappears and he holds his hand back with his head tilted down.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Marcus," Aarion apologizes as he steps a bit closer.
"Look, you don't have to tell me or anyone if you don't want to. Just… just know I'll accept every part of you, okay?" Aarion reassures and after a moment, Marcus lifts his head up and runs to him. Giving Aarion a side hug.
"Thanks, dad,"
In the kitchen, Xavin prepares a Haitian dish for everyone.
While cutting up onions and bell peppers, Magus quietly sweeps into the kitchen meters behind Xavin.
"What do you want?" Xavin asks, still cutting the onions and bell peppers. For a moment Magus didn't respond but then he spoke and said,
"You know, don't you? You know the truths that have been buried in the past.
Do you not?" He asks. Xavin twitched his eyes and began to intensify the force he puts into the kitchen knife.
"All I hear from your godforsaken mouth is bird shit. I'd rather you exit the room, please," He enunciates fiercely, as he violently finishes chopping the bell pepper. Magus then laughs.
"No matter. You are a Benoit seer! This prevarication is obviously a strategical method that you perform, as a result you undermine your truth," he smirks.
He then walks closer, leaning on the counter near Xavin. Xavin then turns to face him.
"Xavin Benoit," Magus announces as he glares into Xavin's eyes. "Why is that your current name sounds so similar to-"
Magus immediately cease speaking as soon as he notices a deadly scowl coming from Xavin's face. Magus scoffs with a smile before he slowly turns around.
"Like I said. Quite the prevarication," he utters as he walks out of the kitchen.
Xavin watches him out then turns back to face the food. He releases a small sigh of relief, just before he falls down to the floor.
He breathes heavily for a moment, head glued to the floor. He then lifts his upper body up, and his eyes, they're white. His sclera has taken over his irises but not his pupils. His pupils glowed a yellow hue.
His heavy breathing intensified, and the space around him lightly rumbled.
He placed his hands on his head and groaned.
"No... Aarion changed our time?"
"NYAH!" He groaned once again, a little louder than before.
"No..." he quietly enunciated then everything stopped. The rumbling ceased, and his eyes returned to him.
"They changed our time,"
Aarion and Marcus practiced their sorcery together. Marcus shot balls of fire from his magic circle, and Aarion parried every ball of fire with the swat of his own magic circle.
He smiles, "I'm getting the hang of this... Don't hold back," he tells Marcus and Marcus nods. His blue circle then disappeared, yet he still held his hand out. His palm then surged and began to glow a blue hue.
A thick blue line of cosmic energy quickly shoots out of his palm, aiming for Aarion.
Aarion is ready for the attack but suddenly, he staggers.
His magic circle dissipates, and as he stumbles backward, he forms an X with his arms, blocking the attack.
"Dad!" Marcus shouted in concern. He rushed over to Aarion who is now on the ground. Marcus waited a moment for the dust to clear then helped Aarion up.
"I'm sorry. I thought- you said"
"Stop," Aarion quickly interjects. "You did well! I just didn't expect you to use your power cosmic," he joshed with a light smile which made Marcus smile too.
"Now let's contin-" Aarion gulps deeply, stopping himself from talking. He staggered forward, avoiding a fall and Marcus's path
Seething and holding onto his stomach, Aarion struggles to stand tall.
"Dad?"
Aarion ignored Marcus behind him and lifted his shirt up.
Looking down on his stomach, his eyes widen in fear from seeing black palms all over his stomach, even some overlapping. He felt Marcus walking closer then immediately let his shirt fall.
"Dad?" Marcus faces him.
"I'm fine," Aarion said with a warm smile--a fake smile.
"Let's finish training,"
Jellal Bello, slept in his chair at his desk. His head was not on the desk, his neck tilted his head down and he snored like the old man that he is.
After a whoosh of wind, his snoring stops. His eyes slowly opened and he lifted his head up. Across his desk, an old man, though younger than Jellal, sat in the chair.
"Shaman," Jellal spoke with a raspy voice of contempt.
"Firstborn of Lauryn," the shaman grimaced.
"So, this is where you been for the last two thousand years?" he asks Jellal as he looks around the small room. The shaman chuckles before focusing his attention back to Jellal.
"You just don't know how much it took me to find you. At first, I thought you must be protected by your mother. A cloaking spell made by her... not even I could be able to break it. But then I remembered, your mother has gone rogue as one would say. So, you couldn't possibly be cloaked by her... infact this room isn't even a place to be cloaked. Is it?" The Shaman smirked knowingly.
"Joseph..." Jellal looked at him with a deadpanned expression
"You will not find my daughter, and I will never till you where to find her either," he grumbled and Joseph scoffed. "Tuh!"
"Oh, I know The Guardian can't be found unless she wants to. But what I also do know is that this room... this pocket dimension room had another presence in it not too long ago,"
Jellal slightly frowned, giving Joseph a look of disappointment.
"You'd think after two thousand years of doing misdeeds, one would finally want redemption or peace,"
"I want neither!" Joseph growled, his expression fiercer than before.
"What I want is that pathetic man lover of a king to surrender his power and crown to me!" Joseph declares with all his might. After a moment he straighten his shoulders and calmed himself down.
"And after two thousand years, I will have it," he smiles. "My seers have foretold my future, and in less than a decade Xenos's curse shall be broken. All I need is his location again," he says with a mischievous smile.
Jellal holds his chin up, nearly looking down on Joseph. A sliding sound then resonated on the desk.
Joseph looks down and a small card is slid across the desk by Jellal's middle finger.
Joseph gives Jellal a smug smile as Jellal pulls his hand back. Joseph picks up the card cautiously
He flips it over then
SHOOOM!
An emerald light shined brightly from the card and within seconds, Joseph disappeared.
Jellal sucked his teeth in while he tapped his desk three times.
He then pulled a small teacup up to his face and sipped carefully.
Once pulled away, he inhaled and exhaled deeply.
"The Key, the Guardian, and the Portal,"
"I gave you all spare time. Now let's pray to Cloaked One that it's enough."