Chapter 14.
Enigma’s Story and the Chains of Dawn.
“This is like a family reunion! First my six times grand grandfather, and now my uncle! Hey you haven’t seen my grandma anywhere have you?” – Blaze escaped the confusions of his family with his trademark sarcasm. “Another riddle well solved, nephew, if I may. Is there anything you can’t solve?” - Enigma carefully pronounced the last words, giving a cautious look in Blaze’s direction. Blaze did not really pay much attention to the slightly unsure and particularly deliberate gesture of his newfound uncle. “You know, there is a few riddles you can solve for me, how did you manage to live on for over six hundred years? And how did you end up here, in the Trial of dawn?” – Blaze was more eager to receive some more important information than to have a reunion with his uncle, which he never knew existed. “I am locked inside here forever, by Destiny. I cannot die in here, but I cannot get out of this damnation. It has been a long six hundred years, always alone with not a single soul to interact with in any way…” – Enigma walked over to the exit door, which was pouring with awesome light, and tried to stick his hand through the doorway while getting stopped from passing through by an invisible wall. “… See? I cannot walk out, I can only exist alone in this cursed place. Now you can see why I am slightly insane, if I may add.” – Enigma walked a little bit backwards, and tried to ram the invisible blockade to set himself free, but the barrier simply stood there, knocking Enigma back with equal force. “I tried everything I possible could, like bulldozers, bombs, blasts, hammers, everything I could possibly think of to get through this barrier, but nothing ever works. I still try to get through sometimes, but, this is my eternal prison granted to me as a punishment,” – Enigma signed very loudly and heavily, and sat down on the floating tile with his eyes acting as fully blown balloons, ready to burst to tears with anymore of pressure. “How did you end up locked away inside this place?” – Blaze put his hand on his uncle’s shoulder and shook him a bit, trying to cheer him up, and was starting to feel compassion for the older man.
Enigma signed again, “Six hundred years ago, my dearest brother was locked up inside the chains of chaos, locked away even worse than I am right now,” – Enigma started to tell his story, while making a box of tissues appear in his hand that flew upwards for him to blow his nose in. “Redevolt was my dearest brother, we had the same schools, the same lives, same blood and flesh, same enemies and same friends - each other. Imagine how I had felt when I lost the closest person to me, lost him just by the dumbest little flick of that… that bi*ch you call destiny!” – the seemingly calm rain of tears turned into emotionally heavy and powerful burst of a tropical storm. Blaze shook Enigma’s shoulder again, as Enigma furiously blew out his nose, ripping the pack of tissues in half. “That same dumb destiny that has me locked up in here for six hundred years, somewhere between a psychologically traumatic life and a horribly mutilated death of my soul! Well, I HAVE NO MORE SOUL, YA HEAR ME?! YOU TOOK IT ALL AWAY!!” – Enigma looked up into the dark red sky, as he madly yelled and shook his tissue full fist, which was answered with a sickeningly mad thunder that destroyed half he tiles as it fell down. Enigma’s emotionally raging state seemed to be slowly vanishing as his face became calmer and big, crystal clear tears started rolling down his old face. “I found this devilish place, these dumb Trials which you are in the middle of, and to rescue my brother I challenged them all, without any regret or second thoughts,” – Blaze was now sitting in front of Enigma and paying close attention to him and handing him more napkins. “But NO! Destiny had to strike a damned bloody CONTRACT with me, that if I FAIL a certain Trial I have to be LOCKED in it as it’s Guardian if I wanted to rescue Redevolt. Because I did not have a straight bloodline, as in only one of the descendants gets a shot at passing these Trials. Locked in it FOREVER I might add!”- Enigma was going back and forth between shouting the words like a deranged psychopath to weeping them out like a little baby. “You can guess which trial I managed to fail… But… if it would release Redevolt I would sit in here for another six hundred years… my brother…” – Enigma started rocking back and forth, while holding on to his legs and putting his chin down on his knees, which made it very clear to Blaze that Enigma was mentally unstable, like he was right out of an insane asylum.
Enigma then suddenly turned towards Blaze and while strongly grabbing his wrist, Enigma looked into his in the eyes with a stare of a fierce eagle, “Promise me! Promise me, Blaze, that you will not fail the last Trial, but pass it no matter what it throws at you, and after it she would FINALLY let me rest in peace! Swear it!” Blaze looked back at Enigma, with a sorry look in his eyes with which he answered Enigma’s. “I swear, I will do everything I can to get you out of here, uncle Enigma,” – Blaze had never seen any person so relieve with newfound hope that was coming out of Enigma’s eyes with a blistering shine after Blaze spoke. Enigma stood back up on his legs and brushed the dirt from the tile off his pants, “You know, your father told me that he would pass the Trial of light and free me from this place, but it has been thirty six years from that moment and I am still here. So I’m guessing that he did not manage to pass the Trial of light,” – Enigma straightened himself out and looked up at Blaze, “I’m really sorry to have been so psychopathic and hostile to you during the Trial, but I did not have a choice. I only wish you could forgive me and release me out of this hell… Please…” – Enigma was almost begging to get out, trying to force some additional confidence into Blaze’s young mind. “Don’t worry, I will get you out of here,” – Blaze was almost out of the door, already sticking his hand through it when he heard that same frightfully sneaky and overwhelmingly creepy voice which he was afraid of awakened, “Oh and, I forgot to mention, when you receive the Chains of Dawn, don’t try to look into anyone’s eyes, unless you want to bring… Despair… along with you gaze…” Too late to turn back and ask what Enigma meant, Blaze was being sucked into the doorway like a piece of dust into a powerful vacuum. As soon the blinding white light had cleared, Blaze quickly turned back towards the door of Dawn, only to be disappointed when he found it completely shut. “So I see, you passed another Trial, Blaze. This one took you quite a long time. Did you have any particular problems?” – his Ancestor spoke out loud first with some concern. Blaze was still staring in the door with lots of deep thoughts, which could be seen reflected in his eyes. “Yea… yea I did run into a problem, Redevolt. I’ve met your brother.”
“You… seen my brother? You had really seen my brother?! You aren’t being sarcastic are you? Please tell me you had really seen him!” – Ancestor’s doubtful whisper quickly turned into hopeful yells of excitement. Blaze was still staring at the door of Dawn, thinking about the chains that he saw floating in mid-air, trying to figure out what Enigma had meant in his last riddle. “I had not just seen him, he was my challenge. I had to answer his riddles to pass, it was a test of mind, intuition and twisted logic,” – Blaze answered back after a few heavy silence moments. “So that’s where he was locked away, in the Trial of dawn… He went much further than I had expected him to go, truthfully I did not expect him to show up here to try and rescue me at all,” – Ancestor’s voice had doubt in it. “He did show up here, and he gave everything to rescue you, but Destiny made him sign a contract that if he fails then he stays locked away forever in the Trial that he failed,” – Blaze’s words were filling everything in Redevolt’s memory, like puzzle pieces in a board game. “I can get him out, if I pass the final Trial, I can wish for him to be free, and maybe even you too. You both can rest your souls in peace after the long six hundred years of being locked away in your own prison,” – Blaze was happy to help out the two ancestral brothers. “Blaze, you may be a dull head who never listens to others, and a sarcastic son of a gun to anything that talks to you, but your parents gave you a great heart. Thank you.” Blaze could tell that the Ancestor was deeply touched by Blaze’s pure and unselfish act. “So then, ready to take on the form of Dawn?” – Ancestor cheerfully encouraged Blaze to let the chains blend with him. Enigma’s last words gave Blaze an overcautious feeling in his gut, and Blaze was not so sure that taking the chains on was a good idea…
Precariously, Blaze took a step and unsurely raised his hand toward the chains, and while taking another step forward, he flexed and froze his muscles, preparing for the pain that was coming along with the new chains. The chains flew at him like a hungry eagle towards its prey. They silently swooped in onto Blaze’s back and entered his skin. Blaze’s back was starting to intensively burn again, sending out intense smoke and nasty hisses. Blaze’s eyes were closed so tightly that his eyebrows almost touched the top of his cheeks, and his teeth were grinding against each other harder than a metal that was being sharpened. He was on the edge of screaming until his voice was completely pushed out from the bounds of his throat, but he kept all of the pain inside, letting it burn his every little nerve, muscle and bone. Pain was everywhere inside his body, trying to shatter his physical and mental blocks, but Blaze pushed the pain back in with every tiny cell of his being. The pain was becoming too familiar for Blaze, but it still had a crippling effect on the wearer. Finally, as it was going away, much slower than it rushed in, as if not willing to give up on making Blaze surrender and let it out, Blaze felt another, more intense burning pain attacking his eyes while they were still closed. Blaze felt like someone put hot steel inside his already burdened eyes and the steel was mercilessly melting his eyeballs. Blaze felt himself starting to sweat heavily out of every pour in his body from the cruel heat. Out of his closed eyes a smoke, hot enough to burn the tips of his hair, started pouring out faster than an upward waterfall. Blaze moved his hands towards his face to try and clear out the thick smoke, but the increasingly powerful heat from his tortured eyes burned his hands and forced them back as his palms were getting caught on fire also. Blaze forced his hands back to grip onto his face and he held them there, squeezing his eyes in attempts to reduce the pain even by the slightest amount. Suddenly, the pain was gone, like an unwanted letter on the page of a writer. Blaze was praying to everything he knew that his eyesight would still remain with him. He slowly opened his eyes, giving them a small crack so that he would not see things clearly yet. A smell of his own freshly burned flesh hit his nose, making Blaze stagger his head back in disgust. “Open your eyes, Blaze, what is wrong with them?” – Blaze heard Ancestor’s voice much more clearer and perfectly loud. Blaze did not want to answer, thinking his words would make it worse. Blaze thought he was completely blind, and not being able to see her again in her beautiful appearance made his heart sink into the dark depths of the lost ocean by the name of his soul. He finally cracked his eyes open, very slowly and carefully letting the light of the world enter them. To his amazement, he could still see everything almost as good as before putting the chains on.
“Why is everything gray?” – Blaze was looking around the whole place, as he was getting up and seeing everything in muddy, gray color. “Must be another side effect,” – Ancestor answered back to him. The chains were now deep black, with small tiger stripes of pure red and purple going along them, making the chains and the rings look much more fierce. Blaze walked up to the already familiar pool of water on the side of the road and stared at himself into the gray mirror. Strangely, he saw himself in full color, just like others would see him. His skin had turned into deep purple, reflecting the darkness inside him. Along his body stretched long lines of white and dark red, mixing together in beautiful stripes that were circling Blaze’s body everywhere. The white stripe was starting on Blaze’s left check and the red one on the right. Both of the stripes were going downwards, intertwining together all across Blaze’s body, from his neck, back and stomach, to turning into smaller stripes and outlining the muscles on his arms. Together the three colors combined for a magnificently enchanting and strangely marvelous look. “Woah! I look… funkadelic… and sort of creepy, in a cool kind of way.” – Blaze’s voice tone had changed, now resembling a more toned down and brassy sound that managed to carry out his old sarcasm without the emotion showing in his voice, as in sounding completely serious. “Umm… funkadelic is not a word, Blaze,” – Ancestor seemed to be quite enchanted by the new look also. “So? It kind of, fits the new look,” – Blaze was trying to rotate himself to get a better glimpse at his back, where the stripes made a dragon-like curving tattoo.
“But do you feel anything new? Any new abilities or enhanced power?” – Ancestor asked. “Well… let’s see…” – Blaze closed his eyes and started to examine himself from within. “My initial limits have been pushed further than normal, but not by far. I can be stronger, pump out more energy but not nearly as much as in the darkness or twilight form… I guess…” – Blaze kept trying to find something new about himself besides the awesome awe-inspiring look. “…This is just an overall boost.” Blaze was ready to get up and get going onto the last Trial. “Hold on!” – Redevolt stopped Blaze, feeling something much different in his energy. “Dig deeper, I feel there is something new and much different about your energy, try again.” – Ancestor made Blaze stop again. Blaze sat down into an inverted lotus position and flew up into the air with his eyes closed, breathing slowly and deeply while searching and trying to tap into his power. For a while, Blaze remained in the same position, drawing out his strength, slowly, little by little, digging deeper into his new riddling self. Then he suddenly opened his eyes, sending a small shockwave that kicked up the sand and the dirt around him. His eyes first turned entirely gray and after another second the pupils turned deep red, like the color of Dawn. He stared at the closest big tree, which was thirty feet away from him, for a small moment, and then Blaze raised his hand up, with his palm pointing at the tree as if trying to grasp it. Blaze made the tree rise out of the ground with cracking noise coming from the breaking roots. Blaze only had to think, and twist his hand towards himself, and the tree quickly but smoothly floated up to him, while remaining perfectly in mid-air. Blaze slowly let his feet down, while remaining the control of the tree. Blaze then started making it fly around, watching as it gained height and lowered to the ground while making constant flips and summersaults in the air. Finally, Blaze got bored with it and launched it as far as he could into the green forest, watching as the poor tree was flying faster than a bullet and crushing the rest of the trees on its path until it landed onto the hard ground with a loud “THUD!” “I’ve always wanted to control things with my mind, but this is purely awesome,” – Blaze’s voice was turning into an even more gruff and brassy version of itself. “I’ll be sure to free you when I pass the final Trial, hope not to make you wait too long, Redevolt.” – Blaze sounded much older and his tone could finally be taken as serious.
As Blaze was stepping into the only door that remained open, it hit him, “So, what was the Despair that Enigma talked about?”
1