Young Magic Knight: Chapter 19 (Azul)

“Hey, so, uh... Blue?”

Baek decides to talk to me as we run though the building. It's understandable that he has some questions, especially considering all that stuff that went down right in front of him. He's kinda been outta the loop, now that I think about it... Me, Cleo, Trace, and Emerald are all connected to each other in one way, or another. Primo probably knew all this for a long time, now.

As far as I know, Baek doesn't really have that connection we do, and he didn't learn the truth about them when Primo did. I'll try to answer any questions he has. Before I can answer him, however, I notice that more guards have come for us. There sure is a large number of them... As soon as we're in range, they fire, raining a hail of bullets on us, which I dodge and Baek blocks.

“What is it you wanted to talk about, Baek?” I say, dodging the bullets in midair whist preparing a fireball to counterattack with. Shadowhand is smart enough to have given them armor that could endure our attacks. They were definitely prepared for us to show up. This is fine for me, though. If it's like this, the fireball shouldn't kill them.

“What's this about Trace and Cleo being killers?” he says, charging at the guards. I throw the fireball, taking a few of them out. A large sweeping kick from Baek knocks down even more.

“Baek, remember those murders from the summer of 2014?” I say as I run toward the guards and punch one of them.

“Vaguely,” he says, hitting a guard with his elbow. “What, you're not gonna tell me one of them is the killer, are you?”

I think about how to answer his question. As I do this, I snap my fingers, creating an explosion that blows a good deal of guards away. “You see...” I say, heading toward the elevator. “There were two killers.”

“Two killers?” he says, bowling over a few guards that stood in his way.

“Yeah,” I say as I watch more guards come out of the now open elevator. “To make a long story short...” I jump in the air, and extend my leg, kicking the guard in front of me. “...one killer was Cleo...” Uppercut. “...and the other was Trace.” Backhand for the guard behind me.

“Are you shittin' me!?”

“Duck.” As soon as he does, I send an Azure Fist at the guards behind him.

“So that's what Savior was talking about!” he says, offhandedly blasting a guard with what I can only describe as a Shadow Ball.

“Yeah, and that's another reason I feel that we need to stop him. Not only will he kill the King and Queen of Shadowhand, he'll probably kill Trace and Cleo, too.” I step inside the elevator. “Hm... how much do you know about the novel Kingdom of Fear?” I say, throwing the last guard out and pressing the “Close” button.

“Not much,” Baek says, waiting patiently.

“Well, a popular interpretation of the book is that it's about how weak and afraid of everything the people of this continent have become. Savior reminds me of the tragic villain who decided to try and defend the kingdom to the end, even as it rotted around him...”

“What a shame... I hope things don't turn out that way.”

“Me, too.”

My phone rings... it's Primo. “Go to the 6^th floor.”

“Huh? Why?”

“I checked the 7^th floor. There's nothing here but a trap. They expected us to come to the top floor... I'll meet you in front of the elevator, okay?” He hangs up.

“We're supposed to go to floor 6,” I say, pressing the button.

“Anyway, Baek... Cleo's a vampire, and she had to kill people and drink their blood. Trace just hated a girl so much that she wanted to kill her. Those events have a good deal to do with why they decided to be superheroes. The guilt...” We talk some more as the elevator went up.

“I see. Well, what's Emerald's deal?”

“The girl Trace killed was her best friend, and from what I remember Trace telling me, she died pretty pointlessly, too. Emerald told me that she thinks Trace is nothing more than a killer, and that she's only acting like a hero so that she can hurt people and get away with it. She told me that once this was over, she would bring Trace justice...”

“...seems like I missed a lot.”

“Yeah, you did,” I say, looking at the monitor, which shows that we had just passed the 5^th floor.

“How did I not learn all this earlier?” Baek scratches his head.

“You should have hung out with us more, man.” I smile at him.

“Heh heh, hopefully it's not too late.”

I nod. "Yeah. Let's do something fun after this crap is all over."

"I'll consider it... if we live."

Ding.

The elevator opens. We've reached the 6^th floor.

“And we will. Don't jinx us, Baek. It'll be fine.” We step out. Of course, there are guards waiting for us... or there would be, had Primo not taken them out.

As we run over to him, I notice that he had all thirteen swords with him. They must be making him extremely powerful. Now there's no way I'm worried about dying. We'll live for sure. Primo touches the large door in front of him and speaks. “I sense a large amount of mana behind this door. It must be them! Are you guys ready?” Suddenly, another phone rings. Primo's phone... “Hello? Trace? …Huh!?” He seems worried. What did Trace say to him? “But... okay. I'll be there as soon as possible. Don't die on me...”

He hangs up. We stare at Primo for some time. “I underestimated Salvator. They'll die if I don't do something, quickly...”

“Go.” I put my hand on his shoulder. “You have to go. We can handle this.” I smile at him, trying to hide how worried I really am.

“Okay, Blue. You be careful, too, okay?” With that, he runs off. Be careful, Primo...

“You care about them a lot...” I look at Baek as he says this. “Trace and Cleo, I mean.”

“Well, yeah. The thing is... I'm not too sure how we got to be such good friends. A lot happened, but...”

He smiles. “They reached their hand out, and you took it.”

“Hm?”

“That's a good enough reason, don't you think?”

I think about it, then I nod just as he does. Yeah, that's a good enough reason for me. “Well, are you ready, Baek? Let's go fight for our friends.”

“Yeah.” He smiles and extends his fist toward me. “There's no gettin' off this train we're on.” I look at the fist, and bump it with my own.

“Come on, let's go.” We open the door to the final battle...