INSIGNIAS: THE REGALIS

Three gigantic balls of metal scraps rolled down the hill, flattening the climbing enemies, their fires and sharp weapons couldn't pierced through the spheres, let alone throw them off course or jumpfrom their path before getting rolled over to their death. The weather was different every kilometer or two; loud claps of thunder and blinding flashes of lightning in one area, dark heavy clouds pouring heavy rain in another, thick black fog hidding everything in it, hot burning sunlight heating the sands under some enemies, a couple of grey tornadoes sweeping the ground, black soulless sky to some of those whose eyesights were temporarily robbed. Everyone and everything shifted every minute or two. The only thing that remain constant was the red liquid being absorbed by the sands. Soon, the dunes would be dark red instead of gold.

Nate quickly looked away when blood soaked his dead oponent's red cloth and the ground where he lay on. Nate took deep labored breaths after a long scuffle with another Metal elemental user until he pierced the enemy's chest with an arrow. But he knew that the fight wasn't the only reason he was out of breath. The painful noises he heard from the injured, the lifeless bodies scattered everywhere he look and the sands drinking the fallens' blood, made him dizzy. But it didn't last long. Instinct clawed in his brain to survive. Loyalty urged him to fight. He turned his attention toward a tall hill, beyond it was the Mortemians base. After being separated from his friends, he tried to look for them, to no avail. After fighting several Roseins, he found himself far from the Concordians and behind the Mortemians.

Someone shrieked behind him and he turned swiflty to strike with his bow and arrow. A couple feet from him was an ice statute of a short but muscular man, his face frozen half scream. Alyssa stared expressionless at her latest craft but her ice blue eyes were sharper than ever.

"Are you ok?" he croaked. She glanced at him.

"I wonder how long it will last this time..." she trailed, distracted. Nate frowned. I hope I will be there to see it end."

"What?" Alyssa didn't reply. She turned sharply, toward a grey two-story building, the ground floor had been swallowed by the sands, long cracks lined the walls.

Like her, Nate felt them before he saw them. He called the gigantic metal ball he was controlling. It rolled swiftly toward the building, crashing into it within a few seconds. The impact completely destroyed the structure, blasting debris and sands and dusts everywhere. Nate's arrow was already aiming at the location of the energies, but the dusts had yet to settle, covering the enemies from his view. In a blink of an eye, rocks started falling from the sky. Nate and Alyssa ran and rolled on the ground to dodge the large ones. He shot three exploding arrows towards the direction of the enemies. The successive explosions rocked the ground, sands and dusts flew. Nate and Alyssa settled behind a 4 feet tall wall, listening and waiting for another attack. Despite the loud noises of battles around him, the beating of his heart was the loudest. When nothing happened after several minutes, Nate willed his heart to calm down.

"Are they just going to blindly fight without a plan?" Alyssa said quietly. He carefully thought about her question.

"Maybe they do have," he whispered, "We just don't know it." He was uncertain. He wondered about the Seven Regalis' role in this prophesized war. No one really explained their roles. A small part of him believed that even without them, the war would yield the same conclusion. But that thinking led him to a heartbreak. The fact that the Seven Regalis weren't special made their parents' sacrifices useless and for naught. Or is it?

"You'll realize it soon." He turned to Alyssa. Her voice was warm. "Just don't lose yourself in it."

"What?" he asked. Her blue eyes regarded him cooly but he could see sadness, lack of sleep, and exhaustion in them. Her black hair was all over the place. Her skin no longer pale. Her white dress was cut mid-thigh, the sleeves gone, and everything had turned into pale yellow. She had a pair of worn black boots.

He wasn't able to ask for clarification because the ground started shaking violently. The wall they were standing against collapsed. Four Roseins stood a few feet from them, two men and two women, looking younger than Nate and Alyssa.

"Surrender," the black haired boy said. Nate raised his eyebrow. Roseins don't usually ask their enemies to surrender unless they needed them alive for their experiments. The boy's voice was hard as if trying to convince them that he was a grown up. Nate noticed Alyssa's stare on him.

"Surrender," the girl with short hair repeated, "And you're not going to get hurt." Nate glanced at Alyssa who stared at them without much expression.

"You know that's a lie." Nate took a step closer to Alyssa. "The Rosein Army will kill us whether we surrender or not." Three of the young Roseins flinched, uncertainty crossed their expression, while the young man who spoke first glared at Nate.

"Then you leave us with no choice," he spat. But he hesitated. That's when Nate realized that the young Roseins had never taken a life before. Nate internally cursed the Rosein Army, particularly the adults who forced young men and women and children to fight for their cause and lose their lives at a young age.

"Do not hesitate," Alyssa whispered. "Or you'll lose your life. Hesitation usually leads to regret."

"They're still children," he answered softly but gripped his bow. "What if they're forced?

And they don't want to be here?"

Nate knew how ironic his statement was. There were also young people who perished in the bomb explosion in the Roseins' fortress in the Mort, yet he felt no remorse when he was informed by the Eclipse of the plan. It arrived when the explosion was over and done.

"Doesn't matter." Alyssa raised her right hand. "They die or we die." There was a cold finality in her voice that Nate involuntarily shivered.

A girl Rosein raised both her hands. The ground shook and the sands rose like a wave in the ocean. It's shadow casted a terrifying darkness over Nate and Alyssa. It was the first time Nate saw someone control sands so his eyes widened a bit. The 15 feet tall and wide sand wave rushed toward Nate and Alyssa. Before Nate could react, Alyssa freezed the elevated sands within a few seconds. He immediately pierced the ice wall with an arrow, destroying the construct and the sands and ice falling heavily on the ground.

"She's powerful than I thought," Alyssa noted cooly.

"How about the other three?" he asked.

"Two don't use elementals, the first boy is a Storm user." Like Hunter.

As if on cue, grey clouds started to form in the already dark clouds. Lighting flashed, branches of light zigzaged the sky.

"Take cov-" He wasn't able to complete his statement because a bolt of lighting hit the ground where he and Alyssa stood. They were able to dodge it but without being buried under falling sands. If we acted only a second late, we could've been toasted.

Fighting ensued once he and Alyssa stood. He shot arrows after arrows while manipulating and throwing scraps of metal, while Alyssa fought the two non elemental users using her short sword. The girl who was an Earth user was heavily injured when an arrow scraped her side. The boy manipulating lighting was furious. He draw his axe to fight Nate one on one. Nate created a sword from the metals around him. When the axe and sword clashed, the boy glared at him.

"There's no point in this," Nate couldn't help but say. For the first time after fighting the Rosein Army months ago, he felt exhausted.

"There is," the boy gritted his teeth. "Freedom." He raised his axe to strike again but something caught his gaze that made him stop. Nate followed his wide gaze. Alyssa was holding a pointed edge of ice as she stood looming above the girl Rosein laying on the ground.

"No," the boy whispered, fear flashed in his wide eyes. Alyssa raised the ice.

"Alyssa, no!" Nate shouted. It was instinctive. He didn't think before he spoke. Alyssa flinched and turned to him. Their eyes met. Everything that happened after happened so fast that he thought it was an imagination. Alyssa's eyes widened a bit before turning her whole body around. A shadow appeared in front of her a second before its hand pierced her body. She gasped. Nate did the same.

"Alyssa!" Nate rushed toward her. The shadow retreated but still stood a few feet from them. She lay on the ground. There was a fist-sized hole on her abdomen. Alyssa had her eyes open, staring at dark sky.

"She said that I will die in a foreign land," she croked. "She's right. My mom said she didn't believe it but she was scared." The shock left him trembling.

"You'll be fine. I'll bring you to Tessa or any healer." He moved to carry her but she shook her head.

"Too late," she whispered. "I'm still here because of my remaining power." Nate shook his head furiously. He won't give up. He couldn't give up. Alyssa's blue eyes was losing their sparks. Something heavy weighted in chest. Anger and frustration consumed him. His insignia felt hot. Too hot. But it didn't bother him. The heavy feeling spread like wildfire until his whole body was warm.

"Don't fight it." Alyssa and Nate's eyes met. She smiled. It was so sweet that he was taken aback. "But don't lose yourself either." He hand no idea what she was talking about but something was shifting in him.

Alyssa took a deep breath and closed her eyes, her body slack against him. He trembled. He had no idea if it was due to Alyssa's death or the heavy feeling in his body or both. He shouted on the top of his lungs because of anguish and pain. The insignia on his right arm glowed a green-bluish tint. When he stopped shouting, his arm glowed brighter until he couldn't look at it without pain burning his eyes. He panted. He slowly laid Alyssa's body on the sands and stood up. His body felt light. He couldn't feel the exhaustion, pain, and hunger he felt before. Power surged within him, begging and threatening to be unleashed. The shadow that killed Alyssa took a step into the light. Gravemoore tried to hide his fear but Nate could smell it, yearn for it. The monster inside of Nate wanted to dominate, to kill, to destroy. A small part of Nate knew that he should feel fear at what he had become. But the stronger emotions ruled. He wanted it, he wanted this.

Nathan Moltentryod smiled. The real fight is just starting. In a blink of an eye, he reached Gravemoore and punched Gravemoore's chest with his right palm. Gravemoore had no time to react because Nate"s light turned him into a silver metal statue within a second of touching him. Nate gripped the statute's shoulder. Cracks formed all over it and it exploded into miniscule particles.

Nate felt something tugging him so he looked up. Against the dark sky, waves of lights of brown, light blue, dark blue, and green greeted him. The colours formed a cirle. In the sky above where he stood, green-bluish tint swirled.