Chapter 81: A Self Devastating Experience
'Good imagination,' the scepter suddenly said when all this energy channeled through it and began to take another shape around the cruiser. In front of the keen eyes of James, the cruiser began to change shape.
That was unbelievable! That massive cruiser began to elongate to form a massive arrow-like cruiser. This happened in the eyes of everyone here, and before anyone had the chance to even breath, that cruiser was launched like an arrow penetrating the impregnable net and broke free finally from there.
The cruiser didn't slow down for even a second, as that was only the beginning. Once the cruiser broke forcibly free from the net, its speed began to upgrade to reach a level not heard of. A loud explosion followed by a massive pulsatile wave erupted with the cruiser in its centre.
The wave hit everything in its wave to sweep everything without any discrimination. The trapping net protected those inside it from damage as much as possible, however all the terases ships standing guards outside the net were all burnt down with this wave.
Like an apocalypse, this wave moved to sweep clean anything in its way. The cruiser didn't wait for the wave to finish before another pulsatile destructive wave erupted.
The end of the world was on verge of happening here, as those trapped inside the net began to see death clearly eyeing them.
What the hell had they put themselves into? That was what they were thinking of right now.
The cruiser was about to move, when a third destructive pulsatile wave erupted. This time, it was enough to clean everything in this area, even those inside the net as well.
'It's time for me to fade away, good luck James,' the scepter said before a fourth pulsatile wave erupted accompanied by the disappearance of the cruiser from the place.
'Why?!! Why have you destroyed everything?!!!" James muttered with shock, fear, and guilt. All these souls were lost and sacrificed in front of his watching eyes without even able to object.
'That was necessary, as no witnesses must be left behind,' the scepter said before pausing for a moment, 'this was for your own good.'
'My own good? You just made me start my journey with a massacre I caused. All of their blood is on my hands, you bastard!'
All the bitterness and guilt he was feeling began to miraculously transform into rage. If the scepter was a man, James wouldn't let anything stand in his way before he killed him.
However even his screams of pain weren't heard by the scepter which entered its long slumber. James' body suddenly crashed over the ground with a flood of tears erupting from his eyes.
What actually happened was only seen by a handful of people here, with Rigo and Dora included. For everyone else, this was caused by the scepter and James.
Which turned James in the eyes of everyone into a merciless mass murderer. The scene of killing every single soul there was still fresh in their minds, and the picture of the scepter fading away into the body of James was the only thing they looked at.
The scepter was James and James was the scepter. Being beside such a dangerous person was the last thing anyone here wanted to do.
And enraging such a person was like signing a death certificate, so everyone stood silently in his or her place motionless with pale faces. They didn't move or say anything even after the disappearance of that weird pressing force from the place.
When the followers here were about to move towards James on the basic instinct of fear and doubt, their leaders had to step in for fear to stir the rage of such a monster.
In front of everyone, James was someone who wouldn't hesitate to kill tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of souls without blinking an eye. Such a man was better to be on his good side at any cost.
Fear was overwhelming the whole cruiser, however James was only feeling his own soul being shattered under the repeated images of what the scepter just did.
All the cruisers destroyed, all the souls who screamed before death, and all the devastation that happened there was still fresh in his mind, torturing him without stopping.
He felt lost, he even couldn't feel his surroundings, even when his body crashed on the floor he didn't even feel that.
All he could feel was absolute regret and devastating pain that he never felt before. He wasn't a bad person to begin with, however in his quest to save his life he killed everyone else.
That was insanely unacceptable for him. He wasn't able to believe what the scepter had done to protect him.
Was the scepter really protecting him? James suddenly began to question everything. When he thought about it, he found himself not knowing anything about the conflict he was thrown in the middle of it.
All he knew was the presence of an enemy, but who was she? What power she had? Who knew, she might even be like him with no control over her power at all.
James suddenly felt he was played, at least the scepter's true motives behind all this weren't clear to him and that made him suspect everything.
James was lying on the ground like this while the cruiser was on the right track of travelling by the speed of light towards the destination Rigo had selected.
Rigo was standing a few meters besides James, watching everything that happened with extreme shock. Even after the scepter disappeared he felt great doubt and shock.
He didn't expect that scepter to be such a pain, he thought it would be a good helper to James. He knew James well, James would face great difficulty crossing over this bloody obstacle the scepter put in front of him.
Rigo began to question the true intentions of the scepter, as from his point of view it wasn't truly helping James but in fact it was trying to hinder him.
It looked that scepter wasn't helping James, and if Rigo knew that from the beginning then he would have done everything in his power to prevent James from coupling with that twisted minded artifact.
However there was no use of thinking like this now, as James was in the worst state of mind anyone would be at in his life.
This state of mind was very dangerous, as it was the cross roads in front of anyone. Rigo was sure James' personality would take a turn here, and the worst thing was interfering in these crucial moments wasn't plausible at all.
Even if Rigo carried good intentions towards James, intentions alone weren't enough to save his supreme leader. All Rigo had right now was to pray for James to cross this setback safely without any deviation.
After all he liked the way James was behaving up to now.
As for Dora, she was able to vividly watch what happened outside the cruiser using the hologramic screen she was using to monitor the way James was using to escape from here.
She had a curiosity at the beginning, but with time this desire of hers turned into fear, absolute raw fear that seeped into her soul.
She knew James well, he was such a kind and compassionate person, not that bloodthirsty she just felt when the pulsatile waves of energy began to sweep away anything in their way.
She didn't need long to realize the core of the problem, the scepter. She began to feel more afraid when she recalled what she was supposed to face if James didn't interfere to save her.
James saved her again, but this time he paid an unforgivable price to do so. She glanced at the crushed James over the floor with tears flooding from his eyes as she suddenly felt great pain.
It was like James wasn't in pain, but herself. This weird connection between the two was unbelievable to her, at the same time she felt great sympathy with James.
The tiny amount of pain and guilt she just felt for a passing moment was something unbearable. She knew James was now on the verge of losing himself, and that made her even fear and further question the true intentions of that scepter.
Was it meant to help them? Or was it trying to destroy James? And why?
Amidst all this, and while everyone was shocked or disturbed by his own feelings and thoughts, three subsequent screams suddenly echoed inside the commanding deck which caused everyone to cease doing anything and focused on the source of these screams.
The direction where the screams came from was one, and the screams were very loud and very painful. The loud continuous screams attracted even James who was lost in his own despair.
James stood up as his eyes were hardly focusing over anything; however he looked with difficulty towards the direction from where the screams came from.
Just as he stood up, everyone in the place swallowed their saliva from fear. Rigo moved with caution to stand behind him just in case, and Dora was standing away observing everything happening with extreme worry.
The screams came from the three sleeping bodies that Rigo brought with. They were protected by other droids who came with Rigo, and now it seemed they were regaining their consciousness.
These loud painful screams were like a baby cry, announcing their return to life again. Just as James approached them, they began to sense his presence as they stood up one after another while looking towards him and him alone.
It was like there was no one else in the whole world but the four of them, with James looking with devastated soul towards the three poor tortured souls who were looking towards him in loss.
Their minds were clouded for a short period of time, where this awkward silent situation prevailed on the place. when their minds regained their clarity again, they screamed again and this time it was louder and more painful.
They felt like someone was inserting hot needles into their flesh and brain. It was very painful and disturbing but this didn't last for long, as suddenly their minds regained function again and their memories returned like a flood freed from a destructed dam.
"Father, Please don't" Alex suddenly screamed while jumping to the front like he was struggling with someone just now.
"You damn traitor, I will never forgive you! Wait for me, I will finish this trial and come here to kill you with my hands!" Islinda screamed while waving with her closed fists like she was threatening someone.
"James Help me!" Eli suddenly screamed with extreme shock and pain while her eyes began to show unstoppable tears.
The three screamed subsequently like they were members of the same chorus, while the last scream of Eli had the most violent effect over the nearly hypnotized James.
The words of Eli made his body tremble like he was just exposed to a mighty earthquake. He opened his eyes to the max as his voice came hoarse while saying:
"Eli?!"
Eli looked at him like a drowned person and finally found a nearby thick branch to save himself. she stopped in her place for a moment before she screamed loudly before she ran few steps and ended up jumping into James embrace while screaming:
"James, save me please, please save me!"
The tears flooded over James' cheeks and that made his body tremble like never before. At the same time it seemed his devastated soul was about to be remedied by these tears. It was so miraculous as suddenly a desire for life was ignited in his ashen soul, with his about to be shattered heart to beat warmly and vigorously again.
He was revived again, and this time he was really brought back from the bank of death as he looked with a losing face towards the shaking body of Eli in his embrace before softly muttering:
"Eli?!!"