“There is a lot of things that haven’t been explained yet. Would you mind clarifying to us why--”

“Not right now Mr. Avariz. I know you have many questions but instead of telling you, it is better if I show you instead. You two will go and get the metal ore from the Westwood Mountain range. You have to hurry, we do not have much time!” instructed the abbot, pointing to Cora and Ryan.

“Are you going to be teleporting us there?” asked Ryan.

“Unfortunately our markers do not go that far, so you will have to teleport to the periphery and walk towards the base of Mount Sun, where a meteorite fell. Remember, this journey is very dangerous, be careful.”

“If the journey is dangerous, why are you sending the kids?” asked Michael.

“Because only they can navigate the terrain without alerting the dangerous beasts lurking within the shadows of the mountains. If adults go, they will not come back alive. She has gone closer to the mountain twice, so with her going it will be safer”, replied the abbot, pointing to Cora.

They began preparing to travel towards the Westwood Mountain range. Mount Sun was the biggest mountain in the mountain range. A year ago, a meteor had fallen close to it, destroying many trees. The result of the meteor falling in that region was mutation of some animals that lived in the forest. Most of them began to change, becoming more ferocious and bizarre. Some animals grew extra heads while others developed lethal, acidic poison. The mutations varied from animal to animal, but all of them grew extra tails!

The abbot explained the dangers of the trip, and how they were supposed to mine the material from the fallen meteor. For security, one of the younger monks was to accompany them, to make sure they succeeded with their mission. Ryan bid farewell to his grandparents. As part of preparation, they had carried some food, water, first aid kits and the monk had four teleportation talismans. Cora changed into a white blouse and she put on a small, blue skirt.

The trio walked towards the monastery gate, where they stopped. The young monk, whose name was Gonin, activated the teleportation talisman he was holding in one hand, and the three vanished from the monastery.

Michael and Marjory watched them vanish. They were shocked at first, but after what had happened with the vortex, they could believe anything. The abbot gave a light sigh.

“Time is not on our side, come, let us repair the immortal before your friend returns for it”, said the abbot.

“Wait, aren’t we supposed to wait for the kids?” asked Michael, puzzled.

“Not really. We already have some metal ore stored up, just not a lot of it. However, it should be enough to make the component”, replied abbot Heavencloud.

“So why did you send the children to mine some ore?”

“To distract them. There are some things you have to know that I did not want any of the children to hear. Come, let me show you.” Michael followed the abbot, leaving Marjory standing there, gazing at the horizon. She seemed to be entranced, seeing something no one else was seeing.

Ryan, Cora and Gonin appeared on a grassy plain. Before them was a huge forest and a small path leading into the forest. Gonin started to walk ahead, towards the forest, with staff in hand, as he put away the teleportation talisman he had in the other hand. Cora followed closely, leaving Ryan who was surveying his surroundings.

“Hurry up Ryan, or you will be left behind!” shouted Cora, walking ahead.

Ryan took a step and appeared right beside Cora, who gasped in shock.

“How did you do that?” she asked in surprise.

“I am not going to tell you anything until you tell me who you are! Start talking!” he exclaimed.

“Was that a flash step?”

“A what?”

“Flash step. A fast movement technique”, she replied.

“No. It’s called the Roc chasing the wind. I doubt you’ve heard of it. Now tell me the truth, who are you?”

“Who I am does not matter. For the sake of your safety, I will not answer any of your questions...”

“I’ve had about enough of everyone trying to protect me! What are you even trying to protect me from?” asked Ryan, clearly annoyed.

“...” She gave him a blank stare.

“Look, I can handle whatever you throw at me. Why doesn’t anyone trust me?” complained Ryan.

“Precisely because you are a child who does not understand anything? Or maybe no one thinks you are emotionally stronger enough to know the truth. It could very well destroy you...” answered Gonin who was walking ahead.

“How would you know? Besides, I wasn’t talking to you!”

“Very well, good luck convincing her then”, said Gonin, as he increased his pace and looked forward.

They entered the forest walking at a fairly steady pace. Ryan was now quiet, but he was still irritated by the fact that everyone was treating him like a child. The forest was eerily quiet; there were no birds singing. It was now mid-morning, but the forest was a bit dark, due to the closeness of the trees. The forest was very dense.

“Listen closely, just as the abbot has said, there are different kinds of wild beasts that we should be worried about. The more tails a beast has, the more dangerous it is. Since we have come here for training multiple times, the most dangerous beast we have run into are two tailed beasts. However, the abbot said they once ran into a four-tailed monkey and had to run away. Therefore, we should assume there are much stronger beasts. If we run into three tailed-beasts or beasts with more, we will teleport away immediately!”

“Wait, why didn’t you guys place a marker for teleportation? I mean you’ve been here multiple times!”

“The abbot forbade us from placing markers. He said it would be too dangerous. Imagine accidentally teleporting into this place and confronting wild beasts! No one wanted to be the unlucky victim.”

“You mean to tell me that the abbot knew that this place was so dangerous and yet he sent us here anyway? Isn’t he just sacrificing us?”

“Calm down, Mr. Avariz. The path is not dangerous. Only if you venture deeper into the forest will you encounter deadly beasts with four or more tails.”

“This journey seems forced”, grumbled Ryan.

“Do you trust anyone other than yourself?” asked Cora.

“Trust is earned, Cora. None of you has earned it. Not you, the monk in front of us...”

“My name is Gonin.”

“Yes, whatever his name is. Not the middle-aged monk. Everything you’re doing is only inviting suspicion!”

“There are times where you need to have blind faith”, replied Cora.

“You have to clarify some things first. That’s the only way I’ll learn to trust you!”

“Okay. What do you want to know?” said Cora as she stopped walking.

“You said my mother was alive, how did you know?”

“Are you sure you want to know? There’s no going back once I tell you everything!”

“Yes! I want to know!”

“Fine. Your mother sent me to Aloha Island to protect you. There I said it”, she said, glaring fiercely.

“I don’t believe you!”

“Believe what you want. Why are you even asking?”

“Why would she send YOU to protect me? What are you? Some bodyguard?”

“I’m an assassin, that’s what!”

“Yeah right! You’re too young to be an assassin. Besides, what is your relationship with the monks?”

“Have you ever seen an assassin before?”

“Of course I have--”

“Ryan, Rose, I need you to quietly back away, slowly...” said Gonin in a lowered voice, stopping abruptly.

“Why?” snapped both Ryan and Cora.

“Wait, what did you just call--”

“Ryan, shhh!” Said Gonin, backing up, slowly.

Ryan looked forward, and then he started sweating profusely. Cora started edging backwards slowly, while Ryan stood still, shocked by what he was seeing.

**********************

Donned with goggles, a blue work suit with black and white stripes, Michael was busy working on extracting metal ore from some rocks. The abbot from the monastery had provided the rocks. Apparently, the monks had been teleporting factories to a secret location that was hidden from the world. The secret location was in a place closer to the monastery, but it was hidden from people’s eyes by talismans. Currently, Michael was working from one of these factories, on a rectangular platform where a robot was lying down.

‘Quite handy, those talismans. If I could get ahold of them, I could hide from the people who tried to kill me’, thought Michael as he worked. He focused on a small blue spherical machine, which he assumed was the power supply. It looked quite weird for a battery. ‘Anyways, if what Mr. Heavencloud said is true, then Alan is now my enemy? But he didn’t attack me back then... ’ he thought Michael. ‘This robot is powerful, too powerful actually. What was John thinking?’

He continued working on creating a copy of the component that had been damaged. Considering it was the energy store, he made it slightly bigger than the older component. After remaking the component, he also repaired the damaged thrusters.

‘Maybe if I meet Alan, I could talk some sense into him. The earth is in danger of being invaded by green aliens; right now is not the time to be fighting amongst ourselves. But then putting faith into Ryan might be too much for him, he’s still a child after all. That could be my fate, as Mr. Heavencloud said it ’, he thought with a light sigh.

“Are you done?” asked Marjory as she came into the operating room.

“Yes, but I do not know how to turn on this robot.”

“It does not have an on-off switch, considering it has a soul”, spoke the abbot, coming in.

“Wait, how does a robot have a soul? And how do we wake it up?” asked Michael.

“I do not know how they did it, but there is a soul inside it. That explains how it was able to cast illusions.”

“So what is the next step from here?” asked Marjory.

“Now we wait”, replied the abbot.

An awkward silence followed soon after. Michael simply stood there waiting, the abbot looked on, stoking his chin, while Marjory was wondering who ‘they’ were. Finally, after what seemed like ages, some purple streams of energy started rising up in the air. Everyone took a step back as the intensity of the purple streams surged to extreme proportions.

However, as the streams were still increasing, a young monk came into the workshop, looking a bit flustered. He looked at the abbot, and then bowed deeply.

“What is it my child?” asked the abbot.

Before the young monk replied, the purple streams started converging, forming an outline of a person. The outline was sitting on top of the platform, cross-legged. As the intensity kept surging, the figure grew clearer, and less illusory. He was a young man whose age appeared to be in the mid-twenties. He had black hair, and he appeared to be wearing a purplish-blue robe with the character Azure written at the back of the robe.

“Impossible! Azure Immortal?” blurted the abbot.

Everyone turned to look at the illusory figure materializing on the platform. The figure had its eyes closed, appearing peaceful.

“Sacred Abbot, the ... the ... Dr. Paige has returned! He ... he has an army of over a hundred robots and over fifty drones! He demanded to speak to you...,” stammered the young monk.

The abbot appeared thoughtful, then scratched his chin for some time, after which he sighed deeply. He finally spoke, with a bit of worry in his voice, “Let us go meet him. Amitabha, I can only hope he can be reasoned with!”

Everyone walked out of the factory, and they went to the monastery. When they arrived at the monastery, there was a massive army of robots waiting for them outside the monastery perimeter.