32; 8 A curse to cleanse all your sins

Negative’s sudden presence makes the air around Neon and Rayen feel cold and empty, with a stoutful glare Rayen holds her ground as Negative closes in on her, “Did I happen to arrive at an inconvenient time for you Neon?”, Negative asks with a snarky smile.

Suddenly Rayen unleashes a powerful spatial burst that entryway of the manor off and launches Negative into the center court fountain, “Well I see you didn’t waste your time in the past year, but that still doesn’t matter to me”, Negative says while stepping out of the crumbling fountain, soaking wet from head to toe. In the blink of an eye Negative flashes in front of Neon, “A little birdie somewhere told me that you know who I really am, isn’t that true Rayen? Maybe she should know what’s really going on”, Negative says in Neon’s face before glancing over to Rayen.

Negative takes a few steps back as her deep dark red aura begins to glow, “To go back in time, a subject that’s always shrouded in fantasy. Until that girl was found once again, she found a way to go back and replace our past selves with more experienced versions from the future. My dear sister. She must return to the care of the gods”, Negative says with a sudden change of tone to her voice. Slowly Rayen advances towards Negative with caution.

“You, who are you? What did you do to Negative?”, She asks while a bright pink glow resonates around her body, “Oh what a quick learner you are. Although you are a god so that automatically places you above any lowly mortal. As for Negative, she’s safe. You mustn't need to fret about that one bit”, the strange essence over Negative ominously says while creeping closer.

Rayen tries to step forward once again but her advance is blocked by Neon, her arm shoots down before she fills up the doorway, "Don't worry Rayen, I can handle her. I already know her arsenal, and studied on how to break it for so long now", Neon says as she readies her stance.

Deep within the castle Xenon is working diligently on countless packets of paperwork, the messy assortments of pages are spread all throughout her desk as she frantically reads through multiple bills. Iris floats around Xenon in a gentle light motion.

“Do you feel that power Xenon? There’s an evil power nearby, it has a dark miasmic resonance to it”, Iris says to her with a soft echo. Xenon digs her face from a large packet of papers glancing over to Iris with a look of confusion flushed upon her face, “Wait... what power? I can’t sense a thing”, Xenon says while she jumps out of her chair.

“Oh right! I forgot it’s indeed incredibly difficult for mortals to sense the presence of gods, but I can make it easy for you by working as an adapter to transmit the signal so you can read it easier. Just hold onto me and concentrate”, Iris says as she floats in front of Xenon. She gently holds onto the orb, it’s bright glow has a comfortable warm feeling to it.

A cold soulless essence slowly creeps into Xenon’s hands, “What kind of power is this? Is this how all gods are like?”, Xenon quietly asks as her hands tremble from the force of the power. “Put more focus into it, you should feel someone else too”, Iris quickly replies as her glow intensifies.

Her eyes start to squint as she pinpoints her focus and searches for something else, she tries as much as she can but the air is tainted with a seemingly endless amount of dark energy. She then senses a small glimmer of light clogged in the dark screen, “Is that the little girl? She feels as if she’s Neon’s equal”, Xenon says in sudden shock.

“Should I go and help her out Xenon?”, Iris asks with a soft friendly echo as she floats above Xenon’s head. She leans back in her seat while watching Iris rise up further into the ceiling, “Let’s just watch for now and find out if they have what it takes”, Xenon says with a soft smirk on her face as she senses Rayen’s energy again.

Negative takes a glance at Neon’s nightgown, from her bare feet and all the way up to her messy hair, “It sure as hell seems like I didn’t come at a good time for you, perhaps you would want to change”, Negative says with confidence while crossing her arms.

Undeterred Neon runs her fingers through the bangs of her hair brushing it in place, “As if I’d trust you to be alone for more than a second, I think I’m good”, Neon says before instantly zipping across the manor lawn to land a powerful punch onto Negative.

“I think I’m good too then”, Negative says while she effortlessly blocks Neon’s attack as a cloud of dust billows around the pair. They exchange more hard hitting blows without either one of them backing down, Neon’s eyes glow a vibrant golden yellow before she freezes time around her.

Neon quickly begins to charge a sporadic ball of plasma in her hands, the intense use of energy almost instantly makes her sweat with exhaustion, “I can see my training with Rayen is already coming in handy, but I can’t keep this held up for long. Time to get rid of this pushover as fast as I can!”, Neon shouts before suddenly having her hand deflected by Negative, causing the beam to soar high into the air before it vanishes.

The burn-like red mark on Negative’s face begins to glow as it spreads even deeper onto her face, “Who’s the pushover now huh?”, Negative quietly grumbles to Neon before freezing her in time. A stark glare of fear is washed over her frozen face before Negative whips a hard elbow onto her side that makes her jerk out of the way for a fraction of a second before once again being stuck in place.

When Negative looks over to the manor doors she’s surprised to notice Rayen’s absence, “Now where oh where could you have gone? You slippery little snake”, She says before hearing a quiet footstep behind her for just a split second.

“Spatial burst!”, Rayen yells before blasting Negative across the manor square causing time to resume. Neon who’s now free from the time stop is flung from her stored momentum from before and crashes into a far fence of the manor.

Slowly Rayen begins to lift her head up, she gazes past the large crater she left behind from the spatial burst to find Negative digging herself out of a crumbled brick wall. Negative keeps her hand to her side while she charges a massive amount of plasma energy into it, the light from her hand sends a glare that overwhelms even the sun’s light.

“Critical impact!”, Xenon yells from up above as she encases Negative within a sphere of bended space. Xenon then compresses it into her causing a large pressure explosion that leaves Negative unconscious, the red burn mark slowly begins to quickly fade away from her skin.

Xenon gracefully hovers down to the ground while keeping a sharp eye on Negative, “Weird, I can’t sense any of that dark energy from before. I wonder what that could have possibly been", she asks herself before shifting her focus back onto Rayen. She looks at Xenon with awe as she is covered in a bright purple aura.

"Are you feeling alright Rayen, if I arrived just a second later I would have had to clean a crater from the ground", Xenon says with a cheeky smirk, "Hey what about me?! You kind of forgot someone!", Neon shouts out from the other side of the manor. She wipes the streaming blood off her face as she gradually makes her way to her feet, Her nightgown is torn while being shredded at the skirt.

“Yeah yeah, you’re fine Neon. I know you’ve been through way worse”, Xenon says before she shifts her view back over to Negative to discover that she’s already vanished, “That girl is really quick, I only looked away momentarily”, She says while staring at the crater in the wall.

The frantic rusling of branches is heard through the distant forest on the edge of town as Negative runs away from the manor as she holds the right side of her face, “What the hell, how did I lose all control so suddenly?! I suddenly lost all feeling and was lost in an endless void in my mind”, Negative hysterically says to herself while breathing heavily.

She catches a glimpse of a male figure within her mind, “Still so naive, you should learn to take a curse seriously or who knows what accidents might happen to that fragile mind of yours”, the figure menacingly says to her in a whispering voice.

Quickly Negative skids to her knees as she slams her hand onto the palm of her other hand as her eyes glow a brilliant red amber, “Don’t you try to think you can so easily take over my mind! I’ll make an improvement to this seal you can never break!”, She shouts as a massive shockwave shoots out from in between her palms that causes the trees around her to swing around in the strong winds.

Her palms slowly separate revealing that her sigel is permanently burnt into a deep glowing red on her palm, She tightly closes her hand as she gradually get back to her feet, “Finally some peace and quiet for a change.The power from a curse is very incredible, but I will never let my body be controlled by anyone”, Negative says as she walks further out of town.

Rayen happily stares into Xenon’s eyes with a feeling of wonderment, “Yeah I’m feeling great, but I never knew just how amazing you are Xenon! I wish I could see you a lot more!”, Rayen excitedly says as she giggles about.

Xenon’s face shows no sign of her mood lightening up as she looks back into Rayen’s eyes, “Please stop making so much noise, you're not even supposed to be in this time right now”, Xenon strictly says back Rayen. Her face begins to be overshadowed with concern from Xenon, “Yeah I know, but what is so bad about that? I’m way stronger than I have ever been and I couldn’t do that without Neon!”, Rayen frustratingly says as her face scrunches up into a disappointed frown.

The sun shines over both of them as Xenon kneels down to Rayen’s side, “I know this is very difficult for someone as young as you to understand but it’s very dangerous messing with the past in any way. Just a small change can have devastating changes to the present that you know and love. People may never meet others they once did in a different time, evil might get away with acts of evil and worst of all others might die to an unfortunate change to their time”, Xenon says in a stern but caring voice.

A sudden feeling of sorrow flashes over Rayen’s face after listening to Xenon, “Yeah, I understand, I’m sorry. I just wanted to help out a little more”, Rayen quietly says while fidgeting her hands.

Xenon lets out a light smile as she looks at Rayen, “It’s okay, I’m not mad at you. Train all you want, Neon knows how important the timeline is as well. Be sure to be as strong as you are able because I can sense that you have limitless potential and we need every bit”, She happily says as she pats the top of Rayen’s head.

“Anything you need just let me know, I’ll make sure to find a way to get it done safely”, Xenon adds while grinning with a beaming smile, “I wish- I wish I could get my sister back. She didn’t always act so mean to everyone”, Rayen quietly says while nervously staring at the ground.

For just a moment Xenon is filled with a sudden shock from the new information from Rayen but almost instantly returns to her beaming smile, “Don’t worry Rayen I’ll do as much as I can to return her to the person you once know, you have my everlasting word on that”, Xenon says before Rayen rushes to give her a tight hug as tear begin to stream from her eyes.

“It’s all okay Rayen, we’ll make sure to make everything right. Now make sure you show me just how strong that you’re able to become!”, Xenon says before Rayen loosens her hug around her.

Xenon gradually stands back up and walks towards Neon as Rayen wipes her eyes, Xenon waves a glowing blue hand over Neon’s body and suddenly heals all her gashers and bruises, “Alright there you go. Now see you weren’t that hurt, the healing barely took any time at all”, Xenon happily says to her with a cocky smile.

Neon looks on unamused while she fixes her hair, “I didn’t need the help you know, if you could just teach me the Ultima Complex it would be so much easier for me”, Neon says in frustration under her breath.

“Oh now, you know that you can’t simply just teach someone a complex Neon. It has to come naturally to them. Now don’t cause anymore trouble for me!”, Xenon says before she vanishes into thin air. “Oh wow, I couldn’t even see her move there! I wish I could be like her!”, Rayen says with excited glee. Neon calmly looks over to Rayen and bears a light smile, “I wish I was like her too Rayen, I wish I could be like her”, she says while looking at the castle.

Crystal sits atop a large boulder at the edge of a lake in her far off town, the warm sun washes over her gentle fair skin as she reaches her hand out to the calm water, “I just wish I could go out into the world already, It’s just so boring in this small town everyday”, Crystal quietly says to herself.

She then suddenly hears a set of unfamiliar heavy footsteps behind her, She quickly jerks her head over to the sound, “So you hold an unwavering curiosity, young little Crystal”, Rodoxa says to her with a calm straight face. Crystal quickly jumps off the rock with heightened concern.

“Who even are you?! I’ve never seen you in my life!”, Crystal shouts out while she steps back, going further towards the shore. Xenon’s eyes glow a bright white while the world freezes around the both of them, “You poor, poor little girl. You know nothing of what this world holds do you? Perhaps I shall give you a little sneak peek”, Rodoxa says as the both of them are suddenly thrown into a total ruin.

Fire spreads across the seemingless endless landscape as a billowing thick smoke fills the skies, turning the everywhere she can look into a hellscape where nothing is left untouched, “Wha- what happened to the world?!”, Crystal says in a quiet shock. Rodoxa slowly walks through the signed fields before Crystal slowly follows her, “Who knows really or maybe you should just really learn to keep your guard up”, she says while unleashing a gale of wind so powerful form the palm of her hand that it causes a massive windstorm to sweep around the field.

Crystal tries with all her might to keep her footing despite the extremely swift winds whipping all around her. Crystal’s heart begins to race uncontrollably while she struggles to keep her open to keep Rodoxa in her sights, then suddenly she launches towards Crystal while brandishing her sword, Crystal’s eyes quickly glow a bright red before she closes them in fear of the fatal blow.

The sword clashes with a powerful barrier around Crystal made from lightning fast winds swirling around her, “Hmmm, very interesting indeed. She never even showed such an adept ability during the last timeline”, Rodoxa quietly says to herself with a strong sense of intrigue. The shield around Crystal quickly dissipates as she stares back at Rodoxa, her breathing is more intense than ever with the added fatigue of using the shield.

“The- the what now?! What did I do? Was Holly right about the myths?”, Crystal says while desperately trying to catch her breath in the thick smoke as she falls onto the ground. With slow crunching steps over the hardened cold coals of the fires Rodoxa makes her way over to Crystal, “As if you would ever understand, even if I told you everything I knew your little childish mind couldn’t understand it, even with the most layman's terms. Be warned though, the next time we meet I promise that you will not end up being so lucky”, Rodoxa says before the world is covered in a bright blinding light that forces Crystal to tightly cover her eyes, and as soon as she can open her eyes she’s back at the lake as if nothing had ever happened.

Crystal looks at her hand as her eyes give a slight red glow, she swirls a small gust of wind around her hand before she looks back up at the water, “This power… is all of this even real or not? Is this some kind of crazy dream?!”, Crystal asks herself as she looks on into the glimmering horizon.

Many hours later in the same day Rodoxa is laying down in the grass in the simmering summer sun next to the dark castle, “Now why would you mess up the timeline like that Rodoxa?”, Sky asks while leaning against a nearby tree.

“Oh come on now, it’s so boring around here. I just wanted to have a little fun, and she is sure an entertaining one to toy around with”, Rodoxa replies as she gives a sinister smile to Sky. Rodoxa rises up from the warm grass while she pulls the hair out of her face, “Perhaps I could pick her apart even more, mortals are really fun and fragel beings to dissect”, she continues as her eyes glow a vibrant green.

She fiddles her fingers together as the thoughts fill her mind. Sky stares back at her with an unamused glare, “Why yes thanks for oversharing with me as always Rodoxa. Maybe you should actually focus on our actual objective of returning Rayen back to the gods”, Sky says as she crosses her arms in frustration.

“Oh come on, always with this and that, never allowed to have any fun whatsoever. If you care about getting her back so much then maybe you should do that yourself!”, Rodoxa shouts as she aggravatingly walks into the castle. Steadily Sky lifts her head up to the clouds, “What a drama queen, her constant bitching will never end in anything ever getting done”, Sky says to herself with a dull tone to her voice.

Xenon quietly paces in a large circle around Iris within her private resting chamber, “So are you able to tell me who exactly that woman was that you were showing me before?”, Xenon asks her while she continues to circle around her.

“It is not as much as a who, but as it is a what, the being that is controlling that woman is neither of mortal or godly origin. This mysterious being is that of the inbetween of the both of them”, Iris says while staying in the middle of Xenon’s pacing. Xenon pulls up a rustic and ornately carved wooden chair up to Iris.

“So I see. That seems to complicate the issue to a degree I wouldn’t have thought that it would reach, but is there a way that I could clear this invader from her body. Or is this a hopeless endeavor?”, Xenon asks while she stares into Iris’s deep golden glow.

“I can’t say whether you would be able to or not. The only way I could see this invader to be cleared is to have a direct connection with her mind as well, but you must also be this in between being as well. I’m deeply sorry that I’m unable to give any further information to you, but this is the most that I’m able to do”, Iris says to her while she slowly sinks further down to the floor.

Quickly Xenon jumps out of her chair with a cheerful smile, “No worries Iris, you helped more than you could ever know. I’ll find a way, I know I'll be able to achieve this one day, because I need to keep my promise to Rayen!”, Xenon says with a heart bursting to the seams with an unrivaled optimism as she looks into Iris’s golden glow with a beaming smile.