The face of dread returned to the room the moment Damon spoke the words. A war with Kagarth wasn't just a possibility; it felt like a shadow looming over the crypt. Damon shook his head, his eyes hardening.
"There's no time to think about that," he said, shifting his focus. "You and Nyra should go find Klaven and try your best to restore Alya's core before the end of the day. I'll go stop Doran. I have an idea that could work."
"Could?" Nyra asked, her brow furrowing.
"Nyra, what other options do we have?" Damon countered.
Cythera nodded grimly. "It's the only good plan we've got." Then her face seemed to lose their shine.
Damon asked with a concerning and curious tone, "Cythera, what's wrong?"
Cythera explained "If we go our separate ways, we might meet up because Klaven might be working with Doran. I don't know whether to be happy if we meet up or not because my cousin… would be with the enemy."
Damon said "Cythera… If we do meet up with each other, lets make sure Klaven doesn't leave with them. Alright?"
"Yeah." She replied.
Nyra stepped forward and hugged her brother tightly. "Come back, big bro."
Damon returned the embrace, a silent understanding passing between them. Though he seemed to laugh under his breath. "Sure, their just metal."
They were about to part ways, but the boy Nyra had punched earlier—the fire user—suddenly scrambled to his feet.
"Hey! Wait up!"
Damon stopped, his entire vibe flickering with impatience. "What's the problem?"
"Yes, sure, we know you're the Moonbreaker," the guy said, trying to regain some dignity. "And you can probably kill the guy and his guards in the worst way humanly possible seeing as I've watched the moment you destroyed Klaven... and I still get chills."
"So?" Damon asked.
Suddenly, a small shape shifted in Damon's pocket. Daichi finally poked his head out, his tiny paws gripping the fabric as he barked, "You know you're wasting time, right?"
The boy who had been floating earlier stepped forward. "Does Prince Damon just want to be a hero?"
Damon stared at them, a look of pure confusion crossing his face. "What in the world are these guys saying?"
Daichi barked again from the pocket. "Can we please get going now?"
"We want to take part," another boy said, rolling a small sphere of wind in the palm of his hand.
Nyra stepped toward them, her voice lashing out. "We genuinely don't have time for this crap. A girl is dying and you wanna be heroes?"
A boy who hadn't spoken yet stepped up, earth forming a jagged, heavy gauntlet around his fist. "Nyra, you should really listen to your classmates."
Cythera sighed, looking at the determined faces of the six students. "Okay, you can help. But how will you help?"
The silence that followed was so heavy you could probably hear half a pin drop.
Damon leaned back against the stone wall, crossing his arms. "Do you have a plan?" his voice was calm, but it carried an edge that urged them to speak.
All the guys went blank.
Damon stared at them for a long while. "So you are risking the entire school and the princess of Sunspire just because you want to be heroes... without a plan?"
The boy who had asked to speak earlier stepped forward, his face flushed. "No... we are risking our lives because we want to save the school... w-with a pending plan."
Cythera muttered under her breath, "You're hopeless." Nyra simply nodded in agreement, her face flat.
"Okay," Cythera said, turning to them. "How will you help us with Doran's blasts?"
One boy who hadn't spoken before raised his hand. "I'm a water user. I can cover everyone's ears with water or ice while they fight him."
Cythera's eyes went cold. "If you wish to enter Nirvana today, you can do that."
The fire boy blinked. "What?"
"Because the sound he makes causes vibrations that can aggressively kinda burst water, if you get what I mean." Damon explained. "The water could enter your brains if you aren't careful."
Damon looked them over, his eyes narrowing as he tried to sense their aura signatures. They're in Nyra's class, so they have to be high intellects too. Though Nyra is at the lower end of the Aegis stage... He calculated their potential. They should be between the Ember or High Spark stage at least, unless their prodigies or something.
"Raise your left hand if you're at the Ember stage," Damon commanded. "And your right hand if you're at the Spark stage."
All the students raised their right hands, claiming they were on the high end of Spark. The fire user spoke up, a bit of pride in his voice. "I just entered the Blaze stage... on the low end."
The boy with glasses added that he was a light user, also at the low Blaze stage.
A boy who hadn't spoken earlier said "I'm a water user. Just so you know." He looked at Cythera, his eyes searching hers for some form of recognition.
"I have a plan," Damon said, his voice taking on the tone of a commander. "We have a fire user, two wind users, one earth user, one light user, and a water user. The fire user should fight Doran and not give him space to breathe at all."
He looked the fire boy in the eye. "Focus more on dodging those blasts than fighting, but don't make it obvious."
"Why?" the fire user asked.
"You'll see soon," Damon replied. "One of the wind users will use the wind to move the blasts toward the earth user. The earth user will create a container that stores all the blasts without them touching a surface or each other, with the help of the second wind user."
The light user looked puzzled. "What about me?"
"Hide everything except the fire user," Damon said. "The container, the two wind users, the earth user, and the water user."
"You know we have names, right?" the fire user complained. "I'm—"
"We really don't have time to learn names right now," Damon cut him off.
The light user ruffled his hair. "I can't make so much stuff invisible. Especially for things too far apart. Besides, this is useless if Doran has infrared for heat detection."
"He doesn't," Damon said dismissively, already moving toward the door. "If he had thermal sensors, he would have noticed me the moment I went invisible in class. And for your other problems… Well, you guys can makes yourselves closer. But since you guys wanna be heroes, you'll have to push harder to control all of it."
Damon then turned to the water user.
"When the fire user is fighting and they have enough blasts kept in the container, the earth user will carry that container and place it directly over Doran's head. This is another hard part because fire boy will be fighting him at the time so he'll be moving about, you have to drop it precisely on him. No mistakes or your all finished. The light user will hide it until the last second. Immediately as the earth user lets it drop, the water user should fire ugly or precise water on it. As long as he shoots water, that will destroy Doran no doubt."
Nyra looked at him, confused. "The blasts combo would be enough. There's no need for water, Damon."
"He's a robot," Damon said. "They don't like water unless he is water-resistant."
A universal thought seemed to ripple through the room: Why does he have a thing for causing pain?
Damon looked at the water user, who seemed a bit dejected. "I just don't want you feeling left out," he said.
So I'm just a spare, the water user thought.
Cythera looked at the unconscious girl on the floor. "We should take Alya's body. If we leave her here, they could find her and see she doesn't have a core. They might just dispose of her."
"Okay. I'll take her. This means I can help you find Klaven." Damon said.
He reached down and carefully lifted Alya's greyish, darkened body onto his shoulder. The weight was cold, a reminder of the ticking clock.
"Lets go."