Voltis had just arrived home from his vigorous training sessions, but he was still full of energy. It was like he never drained himself, like there was no such thing as overexertion to him. The excitement of the fight only spurred him on further; he casually leaped up multiple steps per stride as he approached the building.

His father’s castle was almost as massive as the Everian Temple, but it was constructed just for the noble family. The front yard was vast but not empty; it held an orderly display of glorious artifacts much like the temple’s lobby. There were statues of his ancestors lined up across the path from each other, each with a different pose reflecting their personalities and feats. These statues led up to a large replica of Retrion, the founder of the guild and Azuran’s greatest hero. He wore cunningly shaped armor and a greathelm that left only slits for his eyes to peer through. The design was similar to the panoply of Exilus, but the family history told that it was crafted of an ancient and even more durable material.

After removing his boots inside the main door so as to not scuff the polished crystal floor, Voltis headed upstairs. There was a large portrait of his father at the base of the staircase, surrounded by multiple small paintings and sculptures reflecting his family’s legacy. The floor upstairs was a finely-woven and thick carpet, much more comfortable than the crystal below.

In the expansive and well-stocked kitchen, he kindly declined the offers from the various cooks and fixed himself a quick meal of honey glazed fish with star berries. At the temple, he had perused the requests coming in from various regions and decided to fill one himself; a nearby tribe of Azuranites were suffering from an invasion of monstrous elemental hornets and were in dire need of assistance. Voltis didn’t have time to sit down for the full, fancy meal that the noble servants would undoubtedly construct for him.

The only other member of his family that was currently there was his twin sister, Rina, who found him as he ate. She was as typical as they came for sisters; annoying, yet irreplaceable. Her hair has a shimmering cyan, with pigtails that went down to her elbows and bangs covering her right eye, much like Voltis; her eyes were a lustrous cherry red. She wore an ornate but unreserved dress with knee high boots and a black bow tie. She greeted him with an obnoxious squeal.

“I missed you so much!!”

“Hey, Rina,” was his simple reply, combined with a roll of his eyes as he walked past her and into his bedroom. He locked the door behind him and then produced a field of static over the door, blocking out his sibling’s strident complaints about rudeness and her threats to inform their father of such.

“To even begin to try and live with her…” Voltis thought to himself as he cleaned the grime off of his armor and buffed out several scratches made by Thantier’s blades. While the armor itself was well-crafted and even more resilient than the bulletproof armor of the Guild’s footsoldiers, it wasn’t nearly as impenetrable as his father’s. Voltis didn’t care; the teal carvings and crystal chest stone were an incredible sight to behold. Besides that, the armor was much lighter and better-fitting than his father’s – and mobility was his specialty.

Voltis left his armor on his desktop, replacing it with normal attire. This included a black and white plaid jacket, black skinny jeans and black-and-white sneakers. He opened the door, checking to make sure his sister was gone. She had left the hallway, for which he was grateful. Running downstairs and outside, he made his way to the backyard to await a dropship.

It was gorgeous out and the sky had regained its normal hue. The yard was well maintained, and the air was fresh and neutral. It seemed almost surreal that we was waiting for a military dropship to arrive in this peaceful, beautiful place.

After a few minutes, a dull drone could be heard. It slowly got louder until the ship dawned over the wall of the castle and set down in the courtyard, whipping up small cyclones around Voltis. The massive transport was essentially a flying barracks; as the rear ramp folded down and Guard Captain Kai briskly descended, it revealed an expansive interior. It looked mostly full to Voltis from this angle – two hundred soldiers, plus crewmen. The roar of the engines softened, being revved down as Kai approached Voltis. Voltis could see that he was on edge; the already-reserved Guard Captain had his helmet visor down as if ready for battle. Only his crimson eyes showed through.

“We’ve further word from the Azuranites. The hornet swarm has grown even larger,” Kai informed him.

“Not good. Those things are vicious. They always attack the moment they see anyone,” Voltis replied. As he boarded the sleek transport, a slight figured trailed him unseen.

The ship roared back to full thrust, lifting off of the courtyard and leaping across the sky. Inside of the ship’s cargo hold, Rina was stowing herself away with determination. Climbing a ladder and opening the door that lead to a secondary passenger section, she seated herself. She didn’t know what her brother was running off to do, but he wouldn’t be ignoring her for long.

Arriving at the small village, Voltis noticed that the hornets were already being pushed back by Azuranite forces. The crystalline warriors were powerful and hulking, easily capable of crushing the two-foot-long insects with their bare hands. Kai organized and ordered forward a fumigation squadron; these soldiers wore thick padded armor and were armed with both flamethrowers and electric rods. Charging into battle himself, Kai unsheathed a two handed battle axe with plasma edges similar to those of Ion. Cutting through swathes of hornets, he sent legs, heads, wings and torsos flying across the battlefield.

Voltis finally felt like he could cut loose a bit. He knew he wouldn’t need any weaponry, only his natural abilities. Overharging himself with electricity that vibrated the land with its power, he caused more than one avalanche of rocks to crush the bugs standing in his way. Charging forth at blurring speed, he became a whirlwind of lightning arcs and rending strikes. He punched and kicked through the creatures; their chitin armor cracked apart like balsa wood. Some of the pest-control squadron, robbed of their task by Voltis, simply stared at the lightning-fast destruction. What they were seeing was a demonstration of the same blazing power that Exilus had become legendary for.

Diving forward through the whirlwind, a five-foot-long hornet, obviously a soldier compared to the smaller drones, drove its mighty mandibles to within an inch of Voltis’ face.

“Goodbye.”

With a twitch of his hand, an arc of electricity shot through the attacking hornet. The power disintegrated it instantly, like a faulty conduit burning out under a load far too heavy for it. The ash drifted across a scene of one-sided destruction as the stunned Azuranites and soldiers looked on, barely strained by the little they had done compared to Voltis.

Back at the dropship landing site, Rina made her way outside. A large shadow hung over her shoulders and a wet substance dripped on her hair. Opening its maw, the enormous insect behind her prepared to devour its unsuspecting meal. Finally sensing the gargantuan presence, Rina spun around and fell into the mud before it could crush her where she stood.

She screamed at the top of her lungs, irritating the several already-nervous orbiting soldier hornets. The twenty-foot-long monstrosity in front of her was none other than the hornet queen, to be guarded such. It had been stalking patiently, crawling over the dropship, trying to find a way in. Surrounded by hornets similar to the one Voltis had dispatched, as well as the brood’s colossal monarch, her heart fell into her stomach and she began to realize the enormity of her mistake.

spatch

The hornet soldiers fell apart as if they were simultaneously given a self-destruct signal. A blur crackled to a stop next to Rina.

“Bring it, bitch!” Voltis shouted, met by the grumbling sibilance of the irritated queen. The unholy beast clawed the ground towards Voltis and Rina while spreading her wings, revealing an impressive thirty-five-foot wingspan. With a sudden flurry of movement, the massive monster charged, flying low and shaking the ground with the force.

“Stand back!” Voltis barked, preparing an attack. Feeling the energy course from within, he pushed out his palms. Unleashing an unbelievable amount of lightning at his foe, Voltis slowly incinerated her. Just as the hornet was about to impale him with her stinger, she dissolved into dust. Relinquishing his energy, Voltis faced his sister.

“Don’t do something that stupid ever again, you hollow head,” he said, though his rough words were tinged with a relieved tone.

“Voltis, I didn’t want you to leave,” Rina replied in a solemn voice. Softening at the sound of his sister’s concern, he patted her on the head. The siblings embraced each other warmly, and headed down the cliff to meet with Kai.

The Captain was conversing with the Azuranite chieftain, agreeing to station guards in his village. For someone who rarely spoke, Kai had no trouble getting along with those he met along his travels. The tribe was especially grateful to Voltis for getting rid of the storm hornets’ queen, which would insure that they never came back.

The chieftain was muscular and heavyset, about twelve feet tall and eight feet wide. With four gleaming yellow eyes and lower fangs that protruded from his jaw, as well as a head crest of spikes, he looked quite barbaric. His crystal body was a reflective, alien green; the particular hue was rather unique and showed his importance. Despite these imposing features, Chieftain Ter’adir was known to be a very kind and benevolent ruler.

Kai was very concerned by Rina’s sudden appearance. He urged for both her and Voltis to head back home. Voltis grinned, he didn’t need the dropship to get back quickly; in fact, it was far too slow. He picked up his sister and sprinted away from the settlement at high speed, with the teal trail of static tracing his movement as always. Rina couldn’t believe the speed that her brother possessed; her eyes were watering from the intense acceleration.

“Slow down, I’m gonna pass out!” she yelled in her brother’s ear, causing him to slightly wince in annoyance.

“Not a chance!” he replied arrogantly, unwilling to ease the thrill. The wide open plains outside of Ion were truly a sight to behold, with Azuran’s blue star lighting the way. Taking a detour, he arrived at the Everian Manor’s back porch within a few seconds. Setting his dazed sibling down gently on a reclining chair, he wiped the sweat off of his brow and walked in through the back. Rina turned to her brother.

“Oh. By the way, I’m still telling Dad,” she stated casually, giving him the most irritating smirk that she could manage. Voltis didn’t respond, simply closing the door behind him.

Voltis had no idea that tomorrow would bring a battle for the heartland. It would be time for him to prove himself to the masses.

Original work by Patrick Gaffney 2017. Edited by nullfather 2017.