Trinity Locker Room

After Lenos received their response about joining Sentinel Stronghold, Aleyah, Aleyos, and Yuto sat down on the benches. Yuto had a wide smile on his face. He couldn’t hold in the excitement he felt.

“We actually did it!” Yuto screamed.

Aleyos and Aleyah laughed at him. They didn’t expect him to be so excited about their accomplishment. All this time, they kind of felt like they were dragging him along by force, but they knew Yuto had his own reason for going with them this far.

“I’m glad we made it too,” Aleyos agreed.

“What do you think they’ll have us do first?” Aleyah asked.

“I’m not sure,” Aleyos replied

“I hope we get straight to the action.”

“Of course you do,” Aleyos laughed.

Yuto placed his fist in the palm of his other hand, “Oh, I almost forgot!” he got up and searched in his locker for his bag. When he found it, he took it out and started to search through it. Both Aleyah and Aleyos looked at each other with curiosity, but then suddenly looked back at Yuto after he shouted with joy.

He made his way back over to them and sat back down. “I wanted to give you both these if we managed to pass our entrance exam.” He pulled out his hand and in his palm, were three pocket chains with different charms attached to them. One had a golden sun with six tips surrounding the circle. A small ruby was engraved in the center of it. Another golden piece was a crescent moon with a sapphire in the middle of that one as well. The last charm looked like a shooting comet with an emerald in the center of it too. “My grandfather made these for us a week before we graduated from the academy.”

Yuto gave Aleyah the sun charm and Aleyos the moon charm.

“He also told me to say that he’s proud of us and that he hopes these charms bring us great fortune and luck on our journey with whatever stronghold chooses us.”

Aleyah lifted her charm in the air and stared at it. The ruby glistened as it hit the light. A tear fell down her face. After a few seconds, she noticed both Aleyos and Yuto staring at her. They looked worried, but all she did was give them a smile and said, “We made it guys.”

They both smiled back and as motivational as he could sound, Yuto suggested, “Let’s make a pact!”

“Don’t we already have one?” Aleyos asked.

“Yeah, but we made it to our goal and now new horizons have opened up for us.”

“Yuto’s right. I think we should as well.” Aleyah agreed. She pulled her hand outward with the charm still in it. Yuto and Aleyos followed with their charms in their hand.

“Let’s agree to give every action we take as a team a hundred percent and no matter who or what we’re up against, we will never lose faith in each other even if we have lost faith in ourselves,” Aleyah stated.

“We may differ in certain decisions another makes, but we will never let those decisions cloud our judgment because we are more than just teammates or comrades…we’re family,” Aleyos added.

“And from here on out, we do things together because without one of us, we are no longer a trinity…yeah…we have to be there for each other. No more secrets and no more lies between us. We are each other’s support system.” Yuto concluded.

They all looked at each other with smiles on their face and they all said, “Agreed!”

Hills

Shai Zou Len roared again. It was ready to finish the fight, but so was Aleyah and Aleyos who stood side by side with their eyes closed.

“As the heat course through my veins…” Aleyah whispered.

“I am thy shield of fragmented bonds…” Aleyos said after her.

Because neither Aleyah nor Aleyos looked at the rampager, Shai Zou Len sprinted toward them instead. Two swords were in his hands while a new set replaced the ones that stuck out of his body. His footsteps were heavy upon the snow, but his vibrations failed to phase the twins. Everything was one and the same to them. The snow falling on the ground, the leaves dancing on the branches as a breeze would pass; all of this felt unified instead of being separate in terms of movement. So as Shai rushed toward them with the fatal intent to kill, they felt peace within them.

This was a power only an advanced strike team could know because it would require the team to have spent years upon years with each other. They had to know their partners in and out and vice versa. It was something very unimaginable to achieve and yet Team Trinity, a strike team who ranks 21 out of 26, had achieved such a possibility. This was because of the bond Aleyah, Aleyos, and Yuto shared. In other words, this fight was already decided once all three of them had reached the forest.

Aleyah and Aleyos opened their eyes with the same killing intent as Shai.

“I unchain thy soul, Nova!”

“I unchain thy soul, Eclipse!”

A sudden burst of energy, both green and red, surrounded Aleyah and Aleyos. Air continued to pulse around them which lifted their brown hair a bit.

Finally, their eyes were revealed, and the beast managed to teleport behind them. With such speed and velocity, he swung his arms to slice them, but they disappeared before he could get them and reappeared behind him. They now were just as fast as he was.

They both swung at Shai with their spear and blade and damaged his back. He flew across the snow but landed on his feet. His red eye pulsed once and changed color. It was now purple, and lumps appeared below his arms. He gave out a screech and instantly grew two more arms. They both had a sword in each hand.

“Get ready!” Aleyos shouted.

With one push, Shai launched himself toward them. Both Aleyah and Aleyos copied his movements and went straight toward him as well. They met in the middle and collided. The collision was so powerful that when Aleyah’s blades blocked Shai’s incoming attack, it cracked the boulder beside them. When Aleyos’s spear was blocked by one of Shai’s swords, a gust of wind blew away a majority of the surrounding snow on the ground and grass was shown.

Using his last sword, Shai aimed for Aleyos’ head. However, Aleyos blocked it by forcing the top part of his spear downward. This brought the sword he collided with down as well. The bottom part of the spear was now in the air and propelled Shai’s fourth sword. He then continued in his motion and pointed what was once the bottom part of the spear toward Shai’s neck.

To stop Aleyos, Shai repeated what he tried to do before and swung his fourth sword. Aleyah pushed the two swords that went for her during the initial attack and she leaped above Aleyos. She moved her blades in a stabbing position and stopped Shai from slicing Aleyos’ arm off. That gave Aleyos an opening, but it was not going to be that easy.

The rampager quickly spawned another sword on his neck which slid the spear underneath it, stabbing his chest plate.

Although Aleyah was blocking one of Shai’s swords, he still had three remaining in his disposal. He swung two at Aleyos and one at Aleyah’s feet. They knew they didn’t have enough time to block it so they evade out of the way. They ended up behind the rampager. Aleyah found their situation a bit amusing considering that the beast was the one who always teleported behind them. Now the roles were reversed.

Aleyah and Aleyos went for a stab to his back, but he blocked them both with two swords. He then spun around, twisting Aleyah and Aleyos with the blocking two swords, and went to slice them with his other two swords.

Aleyah managed to disappear again, but Aleyos pushed himself out of the range. He was at his limit, but he knew he couldn’t reverse back to his normal form just yet. Luckily for him, Aleyah knew as well.

Aleyah was right above Shai. Her body arched upward towards the sky and her hair flowed gracefully. With the sun starting to rise, it shined on her eyes and they were bright blue. While in the air, she placed her blades together and nosedived directly at Shai.

“Searing Soul, Unchained Blitzing Typhoon!” She spun rapidly as if she was a drill.

Shai lifted all four of his swords and blocked his head from being torn to bits by Aleyah’s move. Sparks made from colliding metal fell from Shai’s swords every now and then. Even smoke from the intense heat started to form.

The beast felt his body weight getting heavier and heavier. A crater formed beneath his feet and he started to dig into the ground further as Aleyah continued. With all his strength, Shai forced Aleyah off him and roared to show his frustration again. This was their opportunity and right on time was Yuto with two more horses from what they assumed were from the carriages.

“Now Aleyos!” He shouted.

Aleyos twirled his spear above his head, “Champion Soul, Unchained Earthbound Arena!” He stuck his spear on the surface of the ground. A magic circle appeared again, but this time, it was bigger than the first one.

Unchained earthbound arena differed from the normal version in one way besides its magic circle. This updated version allowed Aleyos to leave his spear stuck to the ground for the remaining of his aura and in replacement, he is given two other spears made of eclipse green lightning.

Shai Zou Len became captured by Aleyos’ arena once more. It cried out, but Trinity showed it no remorse. Yuto released the other two horses and they went towards Aleyah and Aleyos. Aleyah landed on one and Aleyos grabbed the rein of the other.

“Take out the hilts from the swords, aim for the eye, and then seal the damn thing!” Yuto shouted.

They all did just that. As a team, they sliced, stabbed, and shot off all the hilts that were connected to the swords stuck in Shai’s body. The rampager screamed, but this wasn’t because he was angry- no, it was he was fearful.

Aleyos’ spears started to disappear, so he warned Yuto and Aleyah that the arena was going to collapse.

“Get ready Aleyah!” Yuto cried.

Aleyos took the horse to his real spear which stood tall on the magic circle. Once he arrived near it, the field of electricity, both his real and artificial spears, and his Eclipse power went away. He was in his normal outfit and out of the fight.

The rampager got up and moved around frantically. He didn’t know where anyone was because they were all on horses. This should have meant trouble for Yuto and Aleyah, who were the only two able to finish this, but it did not. They could not pinpoint his next move, but that’s what Yuto expected.

Aleyah’s horse was still as she focused everything on one single move. It was up to Yuto to set things up for her.

Out of fear, Shai began to teleport wherever he could to either get away from the witches or to find them and kill them. Yuto stood on his horse and leaped up in the air. Shai suddenly stopped his movements and turned straight at Yuto who stared at him with determination.

Shai teleported behind Yuto, just like he predicted. He closed his eyes and pulled back the string on his bow. An arrow formed, and he pulled his bow over his head.

“Awakened Soul, Enhanced!”

He shot the arrow and it went directly in the rampager’s eye, but even more so, it came back out of the helmet and spawned a gateway. Yuto formed another arrow behind him and shot again.

“Awakened Soul, Scattershot!”

After he released the arrow, it followed the same path as the first shot and went through the portal. A new portal appeared in front of Shai’s torso and multiple arrows fired at him stopping him from landing on Yuto.

When they both landed on the ground, Yuto gave Aleyah the signal and a burst of red aura pulsed off her blades.

She jumped off her horse, “Seal thy soul with the strength of Nova, consume!” She stabbed the rampager as it laid flat on the ground. With the powers of Nova, Shai Zou Len’s whole body turned red and began to vaporize up in the air.

When his vaporized bits went up as high as 5 meters, they began to reconnect and form the original Shai Zou Len, a noble warrior that did not deserve such a fate. He looked down at them as he rose with the sun. Next thing they knew, he was gone in the sun’s light.

Yuto sat on the snow, “It’s finally over.”

“Nice work Yuto,” Aleyos complimented.

“It was a team effort,” He replied.

“It’s too early to celebrate just yet. We should head back and see if Captain Ramsey and the others are okay,” Aleyah stated.

Aleyah helped Yuto up and they both sat back on their horse.

“I know where they’re at. Follow me,” Yuto said. They followed him back to the village.