Chapter 17：Elimination

Alice continued to draw the power of the omni-crystal into her scythe as James desperately tried to think of a plan. Alice was far too powerful now for him to go one on one with and if he didn't obey then she'd kill another one of his friends. His grip tightened on his sword. Jack walked up behind Alice as whispered something in her ear. Alice's molten head turned to James with a grin. Jack then signalled to the troops and they brought William, Liam, Ben, and Edward up to the platform and pushed them into a kneeling position. Jack took a gun from one of the troops and placed it to Edward's head.

"Just to make sure you don't try anything stupid, we'll have these four as compensation." said Jack. The four froze although Liam was more oblivious as he continued to be in shock from his sister's death.

It was only another two minutes before Alice had drained the crystal sufficiently. She stepped back and breathed in as she felt the immeasurable energy settle inside her. She went to tap the end of the scythe on the floor but she froze just centimetres before hitting the ground. But it wasn't just her as James looked around and saw that time had stopped and nothing moved. He then felt a presence like none he had felt before and spin around to see a woman and a blue orb looking at him like he was some kind of mythical creature. The woman walked up to him and held his head by his cheeks before moving his head to inspect him. James grabbed the woman's arms and fumbled about trying to get her off.

"What are you doing!? Who even are you?!" asked James raising his sword. The woman's eyes lit up and she held out her hand towards the sword. It was instantly ripped from James' grasp and flew into the woman's hand who waved it about like she had held it since birth.

"Wow, so this is what hundreds of years in mortal hands does to a weapon of the gods." said the woman before stabbing the tip of the blade into the floor and using the handle as a leaning post. James went to speak but was cut off.

"Sorry to leave you wondering, Cynthinia, my name is Rantra, God of time, and this idiot is Cynthinia, Goddess of fire, also known by not many as the creator of the celestial weapon of fire." said the orb. Even without a face that showed emotion, James could tell that the orb was not a big fan of the woman.

"So, you two are gods and you've come here to take back the sword?" questioned James. Cynthinia realised what she had done and waved her hand sending the sword flying back into James' hand.

"No, we're not here to do that. We're here to help." said Cynthinia.

"And we only have fifteen seconds left so be quick." hurried Rantra.

"OK, the scythe has corrupted that woman's mind as well as her whole nation's minds. The only way to save them is by destroying that scythe. We'll take it back and fix it though. Got it?" explained Cynthinia.

"No?" said James, with only a vague understanding of what he had just been told.

"Good, bye no-" the two suddenly disappeared and James spun round again to witness time continue.

Alice's scythe hit the floor with a 'boom' and she turned to James. She gestured to the crystal and James stepped forward. He looked at the others to gave him fearful looks and he turned back to the crystal. He lifted his sword and swung at the crystal. His sword bounced right off. Alice sighed.

"You're going to need to put a bit more energy into it if you want to break it." said Alice. He got into stance with the right foot back and his left forward. He poured as much energy as he could muster into the blade and it began to glow red. He swung. In that spit second time slowed. James thought about how the inhabitants of Asuria would live without abilities and under the rule of someone like Alice. He came to a decision and struck his target. The blade sliced through with ease and it was cut into two pieces. Alice's scythe fell to the floor with the other half staying in her hand. At first, Alice hadn't quite processed what had happened and just stood there without moving. Suddenly, the severed ends of the scythe burst with dark energy like two hoses and Alice, Jack, and and the darkness troops had masses of dark energy sapped out of them like sponges. Alice clutched her head as the dark form separated and melted away showing the real Alice inside, in pain. James grabbed Alice and pulled her from the dark mass leaving it to go berserk and search around for a new host before it completely dispersed. It's eyes locked onto Jack it launched itself at him. James quickly reacted and sliced it once, then twice, then unleashing a flurry of slices that cut the mass into tiny pieces.

After the scythe's piece's had expelled all of their stored energy, they then shot towards each other and reformed into the full scythe. The dark energy lingering in the air was sucked into the scythe and once done it turned into energy itself and shot off into space through the hole in the ceiling. The omni-crystal was now glowing at it's original brightness again and James looked across the cave at the damage done for one crystal. He thought back to the scenes he had seen on the planets he past on the way and the families lost because of this war. James held his sword up to his face and then focused on the crystal in front of him. He stepped back, pulled his sword back, and thrust forwards with all his might and power. The blade glowed as before but with a brighter glow and pierced the crystal sending cracks flying in all directions. With one last burst of energy the crystal shattered. Pieces flew in all directions as the power within propelled them outwards. Nearly all of the pieces flew out into space whereas some embedded themselves in the walls of the cave that illuminated the cave even more than before with a glow of all the colours in the rainbow and more. Everyone else in the cave slowly got up and tried to remember where they were. The darkness troops took off their helmets and found friends and family amongst the other troops.

James turned to Alice but the person he saw wasn't the Alice he had seen before. This was an old woman who looked like Alice but much, much older. And she was ageing quickly. James helped her up off the floor but she soon collapsed to the ground with weakness. Edward walked up behind James.

"The scythe took the minds of all the people here and kept them young to make an unstoppable army," said Edward and James looked back to see all the others were ageing quickly as well, " with the scythe destroyed they'll all return back to their real ages. Most of which are hundreds of years old." Liam, William, and Ben were quick to join James and Edward and watched as hundreds of innocent people turned to dust. All but one. Jack stumbled in his own clothes that were now three sizes too big for him. Unlike the rest of the darkness nation's army he had grown younger. Jack saw the four of them and tried to run but tripped over his trousers and fell onto his face. Liam walked over to Jack and helped him up. Jack stepped back in fear.

"Why did you get younger but the others get older?" asked Ben.

"Our planet was attacked eight years ago. I was seven but I was aged to make myself stronger and more valuable to the army." said Jack.

"So you returned back to your actual age...sixteen." said James. Jack looked at James.

"You destroyed the omni-crystal! Why would you do that!? No one can use their abilities! We'll lose all our technological advancements and people won't be able to farm or heat their homes!" exclaimed Jack. Edward looked around and started to think. He then gasped slightly and turned to James with a massive smile on his face.

"James, do you realise what you've done?!" shouted Edward. James stepped backwards and raised his eyebrow in confusion.

"I don't know whether to feel proud or disappointed of my actions." said James.

"These shards of the omni-crystal are still connected. They're making a network across all of space. This could be what ends the war!" said Edward

"Then lets go gather the leaders of each nation and tell them. The sooner the better, right?" asked Ben. He look at the others who looked at each other themselves and nodded.

Once outside, they saw their ship, beat up from the attack of the darkness troops, slowly stutter and land in front of them.

"You're welcome!" shouted Izzy. She was standing in the doorway.

"Izzy! You're alive! How?!" shouted James.

"On my planet, our vital organs are in our arms and legs. What you thought, and what I thought, was me dying was actually just me passing out from shock." said Izzy. She laughed a little but she instantly stopped when she saw Liam walking up to her with a serious look on his face. He stared her down before grabbing her and embracing her in a hug.

"Do that again and I'll make sure you die for real." said Liam and Izzy hugged him back.