Evan awoke in the morning to the sound of a bell, signaling the maids bringing him breakfast. He had a pancakes, three sausages, two drumsticks, some celery, a boiled egg and freshly squeezed orange juice from the castle’s citrus garden. After breakfast, he took a bath and changed into some castle attire, putting aside his dirty cloak. He wore a white dress shirt, covered by a red jacket, laced with gold and a plain black dress pants. His robe, was also red, decorated with gold markings and the royal crest, a simple shield with a man bearing crossed arms within. As nice as this was, Evan would have rather worn the trademarked indigo of the Stronghold faction, but that too he was forbidden to wear by his father.

            After completing his morning routine, Evan decided to go and explore the castle. Despite having been here once or twice, he never quite had the opportunity to look around. He noticed the finely crafted stone that made the castle walls, the well-designed banners that hung on every wall, each bearing the royal crest, and many fine artifacts that decorated the castle placed on small ledges. One such artifact caught the eye of Evan. It was an old sword, a sword from the great war of ages. That much Evan was certain of, based on its design – the golden hilt being a key indicator of the time when it was made. Nowadays most swords had steel plated hilts.

            “It belonged to Sir Ronan.” a young woman, seemingly about the same age as Evan walked down the corridor. She had ginger hair, ocean blue eyes and bore the crest of the Firestone family, the image on the crest formed in the shape of a dragon. In addition, she was about the same height as Evan. Though Evan was but a centimeter shorter, not that he’d ever admit of course.

            “Ronan? As in the savior and first king of Efidel?” Evan replied with a question.

            “You know your history. I’m surprised.” Commented the girl. “I’m Teya Firestone by the way. And you are?” she continued, putting out her hand to Evan as she stopped in front of the sword.

            “Evan Stronghold.” Evan replied shaking Teya’s hand, noticing its soft, delicate texture.

            “Stronghold? I’ve never heard of you.” Teya said as she turned and faced the sword.

            “Father chooses not to acknowledge me as his son because of my Gift.” Replied Evan.

            “And what might that Gift be?” Teya asked, her eyes glimmering with curiosity.

            Evan opened his palms in the shape of a bowl and in it he manifested a small cloud in the shape of a unicorn. It trotted and ran in circles seeming happy and free. Teya watched in amazement. She attempted to touch it. But as she neared it, a loud clanging of a bell caused her to retract her hands and faced towards the direction of the sound. She listened to the soldiers rustling about, running with iron clotted booths while she glanced at Evan. Her eyes met his and seemed to say the same thing “Trouble!”

            The pair raced to the castle’s entrance, Evan already soaring upon a little cloud. Teya noticed the captain of the guards shouting orders to the soldiers standing outside. “What’s wrong?” Teya asked the captain. He replied quickly, “That.” The captain pointed to the south over the twenty feet wall that surrounded the capital. On the other side, a magical rift in space had formed. And from it, an enormous hand was forcing its way out. “What is that?” Evan asked, his gaze fixated on the three, pointy black fingers that protruded from the rift.

            “Don’t know exactly. All we can say is that it’s definitely a malice beast. We just don’t know what kind.” Replied the captain.

            “We should attack it. While it’s still vulnerable.” Evan stated, his eyes saying that he was volunteering.

            “Hold your horses, kid. Your brothers are already taking a team of Gifted to it. Right now, all we can do is prepare defenses if they fail and ready the batallion.” Replied the captain, while he took a firm grip on Evan’s shoulder.

            Evan gritted his teeth and stared into the far distance. His eyes caught a few small dots beyond the wall, two of which were making enormous leaps from what Evan could tell. He knew that one of those two was Eon, the other was probably Lias. At the moment, a storm had begun to brew. Dark clouds filled the distance over the hand, which by now had revealed another set of fingers. Eon was heading straight into that storm, Evan couldn’t simply sit here and watch. “Sorry, but I’m going.” Evan stated as he pushed the captain back, using a hand that emerged from his cloud and then raced off into the distance.

~

            “Hey, slow down a little. The others are barely keeping up.” Lias said to Eon, who glanced back momentarily as he landed on the ground and launched himself upwards, the strange markings of the royal family emerging on his skin as he left the ground.

            “If you can’t keep up. I’ll intercept the monster alone and wait for you all to catch up.” Eon replied to Lias, who now landed, his legs breaking and repairing themselves almost instantly. After which, he leapt forward again. Lias had noticed that the small gaps he took to heal himself, was enough for Eon to get a considerable distance ahead of him. The others behind him weren’t doing any better. Next to him, Raus Firestone was blasting himself forward with the power of flames, his entire body was engulfed in the raging fire. Then there was Maya Aerite, hovering using her sphere of air. And lastly, there was Rill Aquaran surfing on the water he had brought with him on the ground below. At this rate, Eon would have reached the rift and finished the creature off before they could even arrive. Lias didn’t like the thought of that.

~

            As Eon reached closer, he began to make out a pair of glowing red eyes peering through the rift. They were massive, red balls of raging flame. The creature that bore them had to at least be as big as the castle itself. Eon reckoned that it was even bigger than that. But even so, he wasn’t worried in the slightest. After all, he was the strongest and sturdiest of all the Gifted. The only people who could rival his strength were Lias and father himself. But his father’s body wasn’t as strong as his and even with Lias’s healing, Eon always managed to keep ahead thanks to the barrier ability of the Royal family. No matter how strong and tuff this monster may be, Eon was definitely stronger. He had to be because if he wasn’t, then who would be?

            The giant struggled, seemingly trying to rip open the break in space. By the time Eon arrived, it had managed to slip an entire arm through which Eon made sure to give a good kick as he landed on the ground below. It roared and Eon launched himself upward again to deliver another blow to the hand and then leaping forward to its other hand kicking the three fingers that latched on to the rift back into the void of hell.

            But the monster was determined. With only one hand still in the human realm, it slashed Eon, swatting him like a fly downwards into the ground below. Eon was hardly fazed, he got right back up and continued to deliver blow after blow on the hand, trying desperately to knock it back into the rift. The beast continued to resist and Eon continued to attack, all the while the Rift continued to grow.

            Soon enough, the others arrived. Lias assisted Eon in relentlessly pummeling the creature while Raus, Rill and Maya supported from a distance with their elements. But regardless of how much flame, fist or fury that was thrown at the monster, it didn’t return and the rift continued to grow. By now, an entire slouching shoulder blade was piercing through the rift.

            “Raus!” Maya shouted while hovering around. “Combine your flames with my wind!”

            Raus didn’t reply with words, he instead conjured a spiraling flaming drill that he shot forward at the monster. Maya sent a spiraling sphere of wind towards the fire which fanned it, causing it to grow twice as big and deadlier than before. The entire shoulder of the giant became engulfed but it didn’t seem fazed at all.

            “That won’t work you imbecils!” Lias shouted. “The creature is from Hell, flames won’t hurt it much. The only thing that it’ll do is burn us all to a crisp.”

            “Then why’d you make me come here.” Raus complained, still throwing darts of flame at the beast.

            “It was the spur of moment, we needed whatever help we could get. You guys just happened to be around us.” Lias replied, he continued “The other Gifted in the castle will be joining us soon after they organize themselves. Our job is to hold the monster off, not burn everyone. Got that?”

            Raus and Maya both gave an understanding nod as Lias leapt forward to assist Eon, Rill still giving cover from a distance. Meanwhile, the castle troops were organizing themselves into a battalion. The troops situated on the wall facing the rift were preparing two bastille that aimed for the monster. Others also readied boiling oil and several catapults, both of which would only be useful if the monster came closer. But from the way the situation was looking, that wouldn’t be too long from now.

~

            Evan soared through forward on his little cloud. By now, he had reached close enough to see the battle unfolding before him in the open meadow. The clouds above him still grew thicker and darker. The storm coming would have been huge and probably cause some floods in the lower regions of the kingdom. However, Evan had interfered. As of now, he not only motioned his little cloud forward but also the enormous lightning filled one that flew above him. A storm was indeed coming, but it would be their salvation and not their doom.