At the garden labyrinth, Sir Dustin and I were navigating the path of the garden labyrinth with haste for hours on end...
I caught sight of an opening. “Over there! There's Come on, man! Pick up the speed!”Sir Dustin was right behind me, we ran as quickly as we could speeding through all the corners to reach the exit.As we sped through the labyrinth, the paths behind us began to exponentially grow in vegetation, closing up the paths we came from.Some may have wondered, why couldn't we just climb over the wall of the labyrinth? And they wouldn't be wrong for asking such, but there were three problems to even attempting to climb the walls; First of all, the walls were at least 9 ft tall, which would be difficult to climb in the first place.Secondly, even if we tried to climb the tall walls of thick vegetation, there were sleeping vines growing in between the walls. These were thick strong vines that had prickles all over them and each pricklSir Dustin and I ventured back into the labyrinth abandoning any thoughts of escaping the labyrinth but instead, finding the culprit that trapped us here.As we followed the illusion deeper and deeper into the maze-like labyrinth, we found ourselves being attacked, psychologically."Hmm... We're getting closer to the source of the illusions, I can feel it." I said.Sir Dustin mentioned, "Sire, from the looks of it we seem to be going to the very centre of the labyrinth.""Indeed," I replied.Navigating our way back into the labyrinth was not as difficult as finding a way out, we were making good time as well. But then..."Sire, look out!" A sword made completely of just aura appeared and tried to strike me down.I fell to the floor, weaved and dodged the attack, accidentally hitting my back on the labyrinth wall that was behind me, I was a bit injured from the impact.As I looked up, I saw the aura sword that struck
Sir Dustin's eyes widened at the truth that I exposed his ears to. Conflicted, he stood up from my side on the wall and took a moment to think to himself. He walked aimlessly around me which was annoying and somewhat dizzying to watch.I thought as I watched him stressing, "Where does he get the energy? I'm gasping for air down here and he's busy speed-walking left to right repeatedly!"He even began scratching his head and rubbing his chin in deep thought as he speed-walked around me.While moving erratically, Sir Dustin muttered to himself silently, "Poison to humans, life to aura benders... How? Why?"I could see it all from his body language, he was very intrigued, curious and maybe a bit afraid."Is it too much information to handle?" I said, stopping his random erratic movements."But sire, that...just doesn't make any sense," he stated with doubt in his eyes.I sighed for a bit then rubbed my eyes, I felt like telling this truth to someone as dimwitted as Sir Dustin was coming
I reached for Sir Dustin's arm and yelled, "Run!" And we sped away from the area, speeding through a few corners.Once we came to a stop at a dead end along a long path, we took a long moment to catch our breaths. I was on the hard floor, with my knees on the floor and my back to the wall. Sir Dustin was still standing tall, his excalibur still in his hand and his other hand on his waist.We were now sweating, dehydrated, starving and exhausted from the long run. We made sure to run through five different corners and changed paths a few times to get to where we were.While gasping for air, Sir Dustin questioned, "Do...Ha...! Do you think they'll appear again, I mean the lightmen, sire?""I...I couldn't say. But I think...Ha...! Ha...! I think we lost them for now. Right now, we need to recover what little strength we have left."The moment we dropped our guards, a flash of blue light struck the unsuspecting Sir Dustin on the back and he f
The illusionist had us trapped in between walls of the garden labyrinth; two walls blocking the paths towards the outer layers of the labyrinth and one wall, blocking the very centre of the labyrinth where the source of all the aura illusions, the illusionist dwelled. I observed the two other walls, and I raged, "Damn it! They're solid illusions as well. That bastard's got us just where he wants us!"*BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG*A resounding clash of fists against the centre wall was heard, over and over and over. It was Sir Dustin.He was using all of his might to punch that illusion wall, however, no matter how many times he punched the wall, he couldn't even make a dent on the wall. It was made stronger than any other illusions so far.After a few minutes of non-stop punching, he finally stopped. His knuckles were cut with some of the skin peeled off, the edges of the fingers were bruised and the cut areas were bleeding a bit.Feel
CHIAROSCUROBy Prince FirelornDISCLAIMERAll the characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. But the work reflects reality somewhat, which is one of the issues of our society.All Rights Reserved.INSCRIPTION“Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can appreciate the light.”— Madeline L’EnglePROLOGUEFor the longest time, all I've ever known was...Darkness.I was born and brought up in a family of royals, in a world of thorns and scorn, hate and greed, lies and betrayal, selfishness and parasitism. It wasn't easy surviving on my own but I found my way, in the shadows where I belonged.Many would envy and seek out my lifestyle because it appeared luxurious, and glorious even but it really wasn't. I was trapped in a neverending fight for control and most of all, my life only to see my death encroach slowly, to the point I started having nightmares about it.I was even abandoned by my own father. We
Injured in the heart, bleeding from my eyes, and grasping for dear life, I stood at the very edge of a cliff.This was the second time that I was pushed into a corner. I was stuck in a place of peril as I was surrounded by all my enemies and the lifeless bodies of my allies.There was no escape, none at all. Only death remained."Didn't think we'd get you, huh, Your Highness?" a man clad in gold mockingly asked.*COUGH* *COUGH* I spilt so much blood from my mouth, the injury they had inflicted on me was killing me faster than I thought it would.With my bloodied mouth, I mustered what little strength I had and asked, "Why?""Huh? You want to know why!?" The man in golden armour approached me with widened eyes.My chest tightened even more, it was heavy and hard to breathe.The man smirked. "All this time, and you didn't know why we were after your life?"I painfully mentioned, "I had my suspicions.""Suspicions?""Greed, money, power, who knows? It was inevitable that I'd encounter a f
With the help of a few real friends, I created a secret guild that investigates mysterious crimes and conducts of the people of gladia, commoners or nobles. With my riches as a royal prince, I took a whole year gathering the best aura benders and scholars with certain detective skills to create the secret guild, Night's Eye.Even though, we had uncovered so many dirty secrets and discovered interesting mysteries of my kingdom, Gladia. We were far from finding a single clue that would lead to my mother's murder.I sighed, “Ha...!" Twas nothing but a thought I had. I soaked away my troubles, my aches and my entire body with my face under the bathtub.I rinsed myself clean, covered my bottom half with a towel and exited my bath only to bump into my personal maid, Penelope, who was waiting for me outside as always.She had fallen to the tiled floor, with her legs apart and her undergarments exposed to my eyes. "Black, huh?" I thought upon catching a glimpse of her underwear."Ah, sorry dea
Before I could relax my furious expression, I was alerted by the sudden footsteps of Penelope entering my chambers...“Sire! I've found your shoes,” Penelope said as entered my room with my poulaine shoes in her hands.“Ah, yes... I see.” I composed myself and proceeded to wear my shoes, they were of oxblood in colour and had a golden tip on both shoes.Once I had worn my shoes, I took a special glass bottle that I left in my drawers with a golden substance in it.I went to my human-sized mirror and slowly applied the golden creamy contents of the bottle all over my jet-black hair follicles.In a few seconds of applying the golden substance, I witnessed my glossy jet-black hair turn golden almost instantly. I now looked like I had natural blonde hair.I was finally ready, “Penelope!” I called for my maid as I gradually brushed my now golden hair and bangs in place.Penelope approached me and gracefully curtsied while saying, “Yes, Sire?”“I need you to summon for me the lord chamberlai