Raphael's face was etched with determination as he declared, “I’m going to free the other guardians. If I don’t return within a week, then you should start praying, because something must have gone terribly wrong.”

A surge of worry washed over me. “Do you want me to come with you?” I asked.

“No,” he shook his head, “Cyrus and Sol are beyond your reach. You don’t know how to shield your powers from the dark lord’s influence on his lands. You wouldn’t stand a chance there.”

Akira interjected, “I can help him with that. I can teach him how to resist the dark lord’s freezing spell. Just give me a couple of days, and he’ll master it.”

Raphael remained adamant. “I’m not willing to waste any time. I’m going alone. You have another task: gather the other guardians and bring them back to the kingdom of Aura Aetherius. That’s where you’ll find me and the ones I’m rescuing.”

Akira looked confused. “So you’re not coming back here?”

He rolled his eyes, “Did you not hear what I just said?”

“Sorry, right, we’ll see you there then,” she apologized.

Kryo then asked, “Where are Cyrus and Sol? Are they really still alive?”

“As I already told you, they’re alive but imprisoned. I know their location and how to free them. I just hope they haven’t moved them in the last decade and that they’re still sane. But I have faith in them,” Raphael explained.

Ignoring our further questions, he vanished into thin air on his mission.

 

Akira turned to me, her expression determined. “We have to find the other guardians and bring them back to the temple, right?” she asked. I nodded. “Do you have any better plans?” I countered. She shook her head and sighed. “I wish I could teach you something new, like I used to do when I was your mentor.” She smiled wistfully. “Maybe we can go back to the waterfalls someday.” I chuckled. “That sounds nice. But for now, we have a mission to complete.”

I turned to Fyrenthos, who was watching us with amusement. “Are you ready to go?” I asked him. He nodded. “Sure thing, king. But what about Kryo? Is he coming with us?” Kryo, who had been standing quietly in the corner, spoke up. “Of course I am. Just let me inform the council of our situation.” He walked away, leaving us to prepare for the portal. When he returned, we followed him to the Kingdom of the Crashing Thunder.

The gates of the kingdom were guarded by the same soldiers who had welcomed us years ago. They recognized me and saluted. “King Nox, welcome back to our land. King Zain will be delighted to see you again.” I wondered if they had tried to overthrow him while I was gone, but it seemed they had not. They let us in and escorted us to the palace, where we met Zain. After exchanging some polite and boring pleasantries, I got to the point. “We need to see Taranis. Our guardian Kryo here has some important news for him.” Zain nodded and led us to Taranis’s quarters.

As soon as Taranis saw Kryo, he exclaimed, “Kryo! What are you doing here?” Kryo smiled and said, “My friend, the world needs our help once more.” Taranis did not hesitate. “If it’s about the shadow dragons, count me in.” Kryo clapped him on the shoulder. “I knew you would say that. Come on, let’s go. We still have to find Erebus.” He turned to me and winked. He had just persuaded the guardian for us in a second. He obviously knew him better than I did.

We thanked Zain and asked him where the portal was. He pretended to be confused. “What portal?” he asked innocently. I rolled my eyes. “The one you used to visit my kingdom. Don’t play dumb with me.” He laughed and said, “All right, all right. Follow me.” He and his guards took us to another portal, different from the one Akira had shown us before.

After a long journey, we finally arrived at an outpost on the outskirts of the kingdom. A few guards greeted us and escorted us to the portal that would take us back to the jungle. As we stepped through the shimmering gateway, we felt a surge of heat and humidity. The jungle looked even more lush and wild than I remembered. It had been ten years since I last set foot in this place, and I wondered how much it had changed.

We didn’t have much time to admire the scenery, though. Suddenly, we heard a loud roar and saw a dark shape darting through the trees. It was a Shadow dragon, and he was running for his life. We quickly hid behind some thick bushes and watched as four other dragons chased him. They were Siveth and her brothers, along with a Water dragon I didn’t recognize right away. What a coincidence to run into them at this moment. They were about to kill someone, and we were about to witness it.

I whispered to my companions, “Let’s follow them from a safe distance. I want to see what they’ll do with the Shadow dragon.” I used my shadow element to turn us into shadows and trail behind them. The Shadow dragon looked panicked as he lost sight of his pursuers. He tried to fly away through the canopy, but then Vexus appeared on a branch above him. He lunged at him and bit him hard, poisoning him and preventing him from turning into a shadow. They both fell to the ground with a thud. The Shadow dragon was still alive, but barely. He had no visible wounds, except for the effects of Vexus’s venom.

“Got him!” Vexus shouted triumphantly.

“Good job, Vexus!” Siveth praised him.

“Good catch!” Caine added.

Siveth approached the Shadow dragon and looked at him with contempt. “Let’s bring this guy to Erebus,” she said coldly. It was exactly what she had told me years ago. They still followed the same orders.

We trailed them stealthily all the way to the village, where they had taken the captive Shadow dragon. Then we decided to make our presence known. The Shadow dragon caught a glimpse of us and attempted to utter something, but Siveth and the others turned around in shock. Siveth exclaimed, “Whaaat?” Vexus greeted me casually, “Hi Nox,” and Caine echoed him. Then Caine asked, “Ehm, how long have you been following us?” I said, “Since you were trying to capture that Shadow dragon,” he said, “Oh, does that bring back any memories?” I replied sarcastically, “Yeah, but he was luckier than me, I see.” She bombarded me with questions about everything and everyone who was with me, but we soon reached the village, where Erebus spotted them with the Shadow dragon. Then the other guardians noticed them too, and almost ignoring everyone else, he asked, “What brings you here, Taranis and Kryo?” They explained briefly, “We’re heading back to the temple. Sol and Cyrus will be back soon, hopefully.” Erebus gasped in disbelief, “Really? No way. How?” I interjected, “Hi Erebus, I’m back too. I’ll fill you in on everything in a moment.”

I proceeded to tell Erebus the whole story, the plan, and my second self, while the others interrogated the Shadow dragon for information. Akira had a formidable weapon to threaten him with: the light sword. He probably knew what it could do to him. I could hear a lot of heated arguments. When I finished explaining everything to Erebus, we joined the conversation with the Shadow dragon.

After extracting the information from the Shadow dragon, Siveth turned to me and asked, “What do we do with him now?” The captive dragon pleaded, “Please, I don’t know anything else. Let me go. Spare me!” I shook my head sadly. “We can’t let you go. You’ve seen us already. I’m sorry.” He fell silent for a moment, then desperately offered, “I’ll do anything. Please.” Siveth decided to intimidate him further. She said, “He looks so vulnerable. I could kill him in a second.” He wrapped his coils around the Shadow dragon, who screamed, “No, please, I swear. I’ll say nothing.” Erebus intervened and suggested, “Let’s reset his memory and let him go.” The Shadow dragon protested, “Reset my memory? There must be another solution, right?” I said, “Well, I’d accept that if I were you. The other solution would be being executed by the same dragon that’s keeping you in his coils or running without your wings while bleeding with only a few minutes of advantage and then being chased by them again. The choice is yours.” He looked up at the sky, as if saying goodbye to his life, and said, “A memory reset sounds better. I’m sorry. I was just lost.” We proceeded with the memory reset, and Erebus prepared the spell. The Shadow dragon was paralyzed and watched as the spell took effect. He then lost consciousness, and we carried him away down the river after the waterfall and left him there. But before that, I noticed that he had a tracker on him, which I took and used.

Back at Erebus’s place, we convinced him to leave with us. Siveth, on the other hand, was officially living with the Water dragon Sometimes she visited the kingdom of the Water dragons, but she spent most of her time here with him. The male Water dragon asked me, “Are you aware, dear King, that Hydra is still searching for you?” I replied, “Yeah, we’ve sent some water dragons in search of her, so she’ll hopefully stop.” Then Siveth said to him, “Maybe we could search for her together. What do you think?” He smiled and said, “Sounds good to me.” She was talking to him, not to us. Then she turned to Erebus and said, “I hope you don’t mind if we leave the village for some time again.” Erebus shrugged and said, “Do whatever you want. It looks like I’m leaving too.” Vexus and Caine asked in unison, “So we’re the only ones staying here?” Erebus nodded and said, “You should stay here and keep an eye on the area. If you find any other shadow dragons, bring them to the portal and to me at the kingdom of Aura. I’ll make sure to give you a safe path there.” They agreed, and we left.

We reached the portal, which was again covered by vegetation and dirt. This time, Vexus, Caine, and Siveth did the dirty work for me and Fyrenthos. Then we activated the portal and got to the kingdom of Aura Aetherius.