*Important* Before everybody starts reading I wanted to credit some amazing people! Andres and Hudson thank you helping me create book 2! Art will be shown when the whole book is finished! Every 1 or 2 days 1 or 2 chapters will come out! Get hyped for this. Now Read On!
Chapter 10: Betrayal
“You were the one who dropped that stalactite. You were the one who tried to kill me, but… why? I thought we were friends.” Nico said sadly. Valerius laughed, a cruel, vile laugh. “We’re not friends. We barely even know each other. You think that we could seriously be friends?” Valerius snarled back. Realization hit Nico.
“You work for the Secret One don’t you?” Nico scoffed. “Why of course! Don’t mean to brag, but I'm his right hand man.” Valerius said with pride. “You couldn’t beat me even if you tried.” Valerius scoffed again. “Now give me that chain. Or else your friend pays the price.” Valerius told him menacingly.
Was he talking about the chain he’d found earlier. The same one he dropped? Could it help them somehow? “Why, what does it do?” Nico said, trying to act confused. “Not like you could stop me anyway. I can harness its power. The pendant of the Secret One himself.” Valerius said, proudly. Nico could use this, he just had to figure it out. “How do you use it?” Nico said trying to act like he was a clueless child.
“Hmph. I suppose I can tell you. It’s not like you could do anything at all.” Valerius laughed and started explaining. “You already said that.” Nico thought to himself. “Well, first off, you need to have years of training.” Explained Valerius. “Training for what?” Asked Nico, confused. “Dark magic.” Said Valerius like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
His plan was screwed. His hopes plummeted. How was he supposed to use it if he didn’t know how to use dark magic? “Well, I obviously don’t have years of experience in dark magic.” Said Nico. “Of course you don’t, only the most trusted pupils of the Secret One are allowed to learn it.” Explained Valerius. “If I give you this, will you let my friends go and let us go unharmed?” Asked Nico.
“Of course.” Said Valerius. Nico didn’t know what to do. If he gave it to him, Valerius would let his friends go and he could regroup with Andres, Ryan and Hudson to plan an attack on the Secret One. “Ok, here you go.” Said Nico, giving the amulet to him. Valerius laughed cruelly.
“You fool, did you really think that I would let you go that easily?” Laughed Valerius. Uh-oh. He was going to die now. “Now I’m going to kill your friends slowly in front of you.” Mocked Valerius. With that, Nico exploded with rage.
Chapter 11: Dark Magic
The amulet started glowing. Valerius looked petrified. Was he doing that? That didn’t matter, he had to destroy Valerius. He had to save his friends. The amulet was on fire now, it was a weird black fire. It seemed to absorb light instead of making light. Valerius looked even more scared, if that was possible.
“St-stop that!” yelled Valerius. What was happening? Was this some kind of magic? Maybe Valerius was mocking him. Making him seem powerful and then laughing at him. But it didn’t seem like that. Valerius’ fear seemed very real. “H-h-how?!” Yelled Valerius, trembling with fear.
Nico raised his hand. Valerius was lifted off the ground. Nico made a pushing gesture and Valerius was thrown against the wall and blacked out. The wall cracked. So Nico did have magical powers. His rage subsided. Nico felt weak. The amulet dimmed to a glow. “Nico?” asked a voice behind him. Nico turned to see Ryan, “How did you do that?” Asked Ryan, looking scared. With that, Nico blacked out.
When he woke up, he was in a hospital bed, inside of what looked like a bunker. There were people speaking. Nico could barely hear them. “-What was that-” “-Was dark magic-” “-Only The Secret One’s- trusted pupils- do that” Did he do dark magic? Did magic even exist? The voices stopped, a door opened. “Oh, hey,” Said Andres “You’re awake.”
“How did I do that?” Nico asked. “Do what?” Andres asked, confused. “That weird magic thing I did.” Nico explained. “Oh-that.” Andres said, now understanding. “Was it dark magic?” Asked Nico. Andres seemed to think before he answered. “Yes, we don’t know how, but that was dark magic.” explained Andres. “Valerius told me that only the Secret Ones' most trusted pupils are taught that.” said Nico. “Well, not only that,” Explained Andres, “You also need to be born with it, which is extremely rare. Only the people with the most evil souls get dark magic.”
“But… If there is dark magic, is there light magic?” Asked Nico. “There was, once upon a time.” said Andres. “What do you mean ‘once upon a time’?” Asked Nico. “Well, long ago, there were some giants. They ruled the land and lived above, in the clouds. They created humans out of the ether and the void-” “What are the ether and the void?” Asked Nico, interrupting him.
“He ether is the source of all light magic and the void of dark,” explained Andres, “The giants used both sources because they wanted a balanced creature. One that could make choices, and so they did, and put us in the Earth. Some were evil, some were good. But all had magic, slowly, the magic started dying away and people became corrupted. The giants took the ether away so that the humans didn’t corrupt it, thus light magic died in humans.” said Andres.
“So what happened next?”Asked Nico. “The humans used dark magic to battle the giants. The humans won. But the Giant King hid the ether and the void away to a place no human could get it. But the humans were so corrupt that a tiny piece of magic stayed with them.” Explained Andres. “But, if I have dark magic, does that mean that I have an evil soul?” asked Nico.
“Not quite. Long ago there was a powerful magician that had a good soul but had dark magic, he used it for good.” explained Andres. “Our best guess was that you are him, reborn” said Andres. “I guess I get it. What are we going to do now then?” Asked Nico. “We’re going after the Secret One, but first, we have to train you.” Andres said with determination.
Chapter 12: Training
“Again.” Said Andres. This was his first class of Andres teaching him magic. It was way harder than it looked. He almost always passed out on the floor at the end of his class. “You can do it Nico!” cheered Annabeth. His task was to use his magic to put out three candles at once. He tried again, reaching into himself feeling for that familiar coldness.
He used it and moved it to the heart of the heat and tried to put them out. It worked. “Yay! You did it!” Cheered Annabeth. “Good job. You can have a break.” Ryan taught the trio how to fight, Hudson taught them how to use special equipment like smoke bombs, grappling hooks and more. When they had finished, Andres taught Nico how to use his magic and how to control it.
Percy was really good at sword fighting so he was having extra classes with Ryan. Annabeth was good with the special equipment classes but came to watch how Nico was doing in his dark magic classes. Nico sipped from his water. “That was really good Nico, I’m impressed!” said Annabeth excitedly. “Thanks.” Nico said, sipping from his water again. “You’re getting really good at this.” Andres told him.
Percy was off training with Ryan so it was just Andres, Annabeth and Nico. Hudson was busy making some new special equipment for them. A few months later, Nico was better at dark magic, Percy had gotten a lot better at sword play with Ryan. He was off making his own sword with Ryan. Annabeth was making her own special equipment. It was like a smoke bomb but it had poison in it. She called it ‘poison bomb’, she had given them each a gas mask so that the poison didn’t hurt them. That evening Andres, Ryan and Hudson showed up and said three words. “It’s go time.”
Chapter 13: Infiltration
They grabbed their gear and met up in the meeting room. “You certainly took your time.” Hudson noted. “Do you know where the Secret One’s base is?” Asked Annabeth. “We have a close guess.” Andres replied. Nico didn’t know what he was talking about. Annabeth did though. “Really? That place? I mean yes it’s abandoned, but it’s just a factory. Wouldn’t it be like an abandoned palace or something?” She said.
Everybody looked at her. “Ok, ok, I know I read a lot.” She said plaintively. “Well here’s the plan.” Andres said. “We infiltrate here then go in. You all know what you’re doing right?” Andres asked. “Yes.” Everybody said simultaneously. “We think that there might be a secret passageway to the actual bunker. It’ll be hard to find though, are you ready?” “Yes.” They all said.
Nico wasn’t so sure about the plan though. There must’ve been a lot of people who had dark magic, and they had years of training. He was kind of scared, but it didn’t matter. They had to do this. If not, who knew what the Secret One’s next move would be?
“We’re here. Split up. Circle back here in 1 hour.” Andres told them. Nico still felt that nag like something was going to go wrong. He was with Percy to kill the main guards. He was just starting to doubt his magic when he saw the skeletal guards ahead.
“Chargeee!” Percy yelled. Before Nico could react Percy leaped into battle. Nico tried to help, but when he finally came to his senses, the guards were already a pile of bones. “Not bad for my first time.” Percy commented, kicking at the bones. Nico did a quick look around and found another amulet.
He picked it up and gave it to Percy. “Another scythe charm?” Percy asked, taking the amulet. “Maybe it’ll come in handy. Maybe you could use it somehow.” Nico told him. Percy stuffed it in his pocket and they walked on. “I don’t see anybody else.” Nico said. “Well it’s foggy so not like we’re gonna see them first.” Percy replied. “Not helpful.” Nico said plaintively.
“We should look around for more guards.” said Nico. “Way ahead of you.” Replied Percy, running faster. Nico stumbled to catch up. When he finally caught up he thought it was okay to take a break. “Never- do that- again.” Nico said clearly out of breath. Nico looked up wondering why Percy didn’t reply. Turns out he had run off.
“Come on.” Nico muttered angrily. He started walking around. Wait, we're supposed to meet back he thought to himself. He looked down at his watch, it had been 2 hours! He was late. “PERCY! WHERE ARE YOU!” Nico yelled. No one responded. “GUYS?” He called again. This was the worst.
He was all alone in a creepy, abandoned factory yard. “Chitter chatter.” Something said ahead of him. Nico ducked into a bush and waited. There were some skeletons on horses. They were talking in some chitter chatter whatever-you-call-it language. “Chitter Chatttterrr Chitterr.” One of them said.
Nico chose that time to jump out and kill them. Bones clattered all around him as they fell off their horses. Nico looked through the bones for more amulets, but the skeletons either lost it or got on the Secret One’s bad side. It didn’t matter though, he had to find Percy and get back to the group. “NICO!” Percy called from behind the bush. “NICO WH- AHHH!” Percy yelled as Nico jumped out of the bush. “Never do that again. Ever.” Percy told him, brushing off dust.
“Come on, let’s go to the others.” Nico said. When they got to the meeting point, there was no one there. “Uh, I thought they said to meet back 3 hours ago?” Nico said looking around for a message. There was none. After looking around some more, he found footprints leading into the factory. “Maybe they already went in?” Percy said, unsure.
After examining the footprints, Nico saw that they were a bit weird, more like … skeletons. “What the-” Nico muttered under his breath, “These are the guard’s footprints, not the others’.” “Where are they?” Percy asked. “I… I Don’t know…” Nico answered. “Well then let’s follow them!” Percy exclaimed.
“It might be a trap.” Nico reasoned. “Then let’s follow them warily!” Percy said. If they followed the footprints, they would’ve got caught for sure. But maybe he could… “I’ll hide us with a shadow.” Nico told Percy. “Sure, but let’s follow those footprints.” Percy insisted. Nico reached into himself for his dark magic. Feeling it, he wrapped it around the two boys and hid them from sight. “It's cold here.” Percy complained. “Well, deal with it.” Nico told him.
When they started down the path that the footprints made, they overheard some voices speaking. “-how much longer-” one complained “Shut up, they’ll hear us and know we have a trap set up.” Another, more bossy voice said “Ok, Ok! I get it, but that isn’t going to make me any less hungry.” The first voice said. “Shut up! They could be here any second” The bossy voice said. With that, the voices stopped. “This way.” Nico whispered. They had to find their friends. They didn’t have time for minor monsters. “Who called me a minor?” The monsters burst through the corridor. “There should be someone here. Someone use their magic and break through their spell.” The monster hissed at his comrades.
“We should probably be going now. Percy what are you doing?” Nico said. Percy was stabbing and killing monsters without hesitation. By the time Nico managed to do something all the monsters were piles of bones and monster dust. “Are you sure that was a good idea?” Nico asked Percy. “Come on we have some friends to save.” Percy told him.
留言