The Crimson Prince： Awakening

Will caught the Crystal and inserted his consciousness inside. Sure enough, all of the furniture they bought was inside. Drawing himself back to his body, he put the Crystal inside the one Leo had given him. "Then we can take off without any more delays." Will surrounded himself in his usual crimson and gold flame and took to the sky.

"You don"t want to use the Ryder Leo gave us?" Maya asked as she joined Will in the air.

He shook his head. "He gave us this model as a prototype, I"m sure after we get home he could explain its use a little better."

Will hesitated to use the Ryder, but not for the reason he gave Maya. His mind went to the wind Crystal he had made earlier. He had mixed his flame element with wind while meditating and didn"t know what the result would be if he used it on the bike. He also didn"t have enough wind left inside him to fuel another Crystal. "Flying ourselves would be the best option." He thought to himself as he soared higher in the air.

As he soared over the trees, he caught a glimpse of something that even though he had seen it before, it still impressed him.

Towering sky sc.r.a.pers were barely visable in the distance. "Leo has outdone himself." Will said to himself as he hovered above the trees, taking in the view. It looked almost as if New York was transferred to Crystallia.

"What are you gawking at?" Maya slapped Will"s shoulder and gave him a wink. "Lets head home." Her black and gold aura sparked to life as she raced to the metropolis in the distance.

Will could only chuckle at her excitement as he followed closely behind. The city grew larger as they came closer. The original size Will had imagined it being drastically grew before his eyes. "When I said to rebuild the city, I would never have expected it to be this grand." Will said to himself.

As they grew closer, Will had a nagging feeling he had been there before. Closing the distance between himself and the city, he couldn"t help but pick up subtle similarities between the city in front of him, and the city he and Ragnos went to. "It couldn"t be." He said to himself.

As they flew to the outskirts of the city, Will saw it.

Behind one of the larger buildings, he saw the large pillar that held a platform. He remembered the evil Will gathering wielders in the center of that exact platform to draw in their power. "How is this possible?"

"It"s eerie how similar this place is, isn"t it William?" Will heard a familiar voice in the back of his mind. The old G.o.d Ragnos decided to pay him a visit. "As strange as this may sound, this is expected."

Will didn"t doubt that Ragnos could see the surprise on his face, because seconds later he could hear the low rumbling of a chuckle from deep within his mind. "Remember William, this is a mirror realm. What exists in the other world needs to exist here. Their uses could be completely different, but the result in structure would be identical. I suggest you speak with your friend Leo."

Will felt the G.o.d"s presence leave his mind, so he continued forward. "Maya, I"m going to make a detour." Will called out before flying towards the platform.

Letting the power of his aura subside, Will descended onto a plain white platform. The last time he had seen it, a halo of energy was roping in hundreds of aura users to steal their powers. A large black throne sat at the very edge of the platform, and rows upon rows of seats surrounded it on either side. "This is an arena." Will said as he looked at the layout.

"I hoped you would like it. Though I didn"t expect this to be the first thing you came to see." A familiar voice sounded from behind Will.

He would have known this voice as well as he knew his own. "What"s with the chair?" Will asked as he turned around to face Leo.

"It"s been a year and the first thing you do is ask about a chair?" Leo shook his head and chuckled. "You really don"t change do you?" He took the last few steps and embraced his brother. "Don"t disappear for so long next time, or I"ll make your royal chamber a cell."

Though Will knew his best friend was joking with him, he involuntarily shuddered at the thought. "I"ll make a note of that." He smiled and looked back at the throne. "So, what"s with the chair?"

Leo looked at the throne with a sigh. "It wasn"t my idea. Roland thought that since you are someone more important than King, so you should have a seat that would overlook the kingdoms." He rolled his eyes at the last part. "I told him that it"s a waste of a chair."

Will smiled. His best friend knew him too well. "I"m sure with any event we hold here, I"ll be within the crowd where I belong!"

Leo chuckled and looked up to the sky. "You can come down Maya, there"s plenty of room." He said as he looked at the leather armored beauty in the air.

"I figured you boys needed a chance to catch up." Maya smirked as her feet touched the ground. "I"m going to be kidnapping him for a while anyway." She folded her arms will looking mischievously at Will.

"You"re pretty chipper, I mean, compared to the Maya I know." Leo remembered all to well what Maya had once been like.

He still remembered when Maya had yanked Will back into Ebonhart and dragged both him and Bianca into the world that Will had come from. He still remembered the orphans they had recruited after Maya had killed their parents.

There was a lot of pain and suffering when Leo had first stepped foot in Crystallia, though as he looked back on the many disasters, he felt relief that things had evened out. If it weren"t for the struggles they had all gone through, they wouldn"t be as strong as they were today.

Maya gave Leo a knowing smile. She had not been in control of herself when she set off to cull the population of Ebonhart. She had believed it was Jake who influenced her, but instead it was Aremesis who literally pulled his strings.

Though they had all taken different paths in order to get to this moment, they all felt as though Will had led them to victory through the many hardships.

"So is this supposed to be some sort of arena?" Maya asked Leo.

"Something like that," Leo started. "I felt as though we needed a training area, a place to hone our skills. "A place to add a compet.i.tive edge in order to promote growth." Leo looked at Will. "There is a reason for growth, right Will?"

Will shook his head slowly, his unblinking eyes showed Leo that things were more or less what he had thought. Their job wasn"t over yet.

"I can fill you in on the details if you have the time, but this time out opponent is stronger than Aremesis." Will sat on the throne and gave a tired sigh. "This time, I"m the opponent."

"I"m guessing you are going to explain." Leo"s eye narrowed. "Don"t drop a bomb like that without some sort of explanation."

Will straightened himself in his seat and began to brief Leo of the situation. He left nothing out.

Will began with the training Ragnos had put him through. The fact that now Will could summon more than one object from his cross had made Leo"s eyes widen.

"So it"s not just limited to one piece." Leo said more to himself than to Will. "That could prove useful in the future."

"While training with Ragnos, he brought me to an alternate dimension of Crystallia. This city had already been built." Will looked down upon the throne he sat upon. "The other me sat in this same throne and had Ragnos chained to it. He sat at my feet and was continuously drained of all power. He looked like a holocaust survivor"

"You should already know that it wasn"t you. Regardless of the situation, I can"t see you ever doing something like that." Leo knew what Will was capable of. Slavery wasn"t something he could see his best friend being okay with.

"That"s not all." Will continued. "I gave the aura to every citizen and used it to fuel myself. I would round up thousands a day and suck the life out of them. I know the me of that dimension is doing everything he can to come here to this plain. That is why we need to get stronger." Will finished on that note.

"So what"s the plan?" Leo was straight to the point as always. Will had always appreciated how his best friend could adapt to any situation.

"It"s obvious, I"m going to need to get stronger than the other me." Will smirked. "And I"m going to have to do so soon."

"Should I start rounding civilians up?" Leo raised an eyebrow. Will knew he was joking.

"Actually, your Crystal idea is going to be the centerpoint of my training. I just need one of every element. I"ll handle the rest."

"You found another use for the Crystals?" He wasn"t too surprised. Leo knew Will could amplify other"s powers, he had suspected the reverse would be true.

"If I can get one Crystal per element, I can absorb the power and make it my own. Then I only have to train myself within the affinity."

"I"ll see about getting you the gems, you just focus on what you can do for now. I know there"s an apartment that needs to be moved into." Leo smiled.

"We should try to do something with this arena." Will looked at the large expanse. "How many wielders do we have now?"

"At least a thousand and a half." Leo thought off the top of his head. "At least a few hundred are wind users, and a handful of earth users."

"Why don"t we make a tournament?" Will suggested. Such an event would be useful to build the strength of his supporters. A tornement would also inspire others to gain strength. Strength he knew would be needed in upcoming battles, it could also bring others together from different kingdoms to gain their own affinities, to help them in the future.

"In order to strengthen our allies?" Leo pondered for a moment. "Good idea. It might take a few months to get everything in order." Leo paused for a moment, contemplating the task. "I"ll have it set up in three months. Until then, you still have other things to do."

Leo pointed to the tallest sky sc.r.a.per. "That is the Crown Emba.s.sy. Your flat is the top three floors. The furniture you bought can go to the top floor. The second floor down is the training or meditation floor. The third down is a meeting room or your throne room, however you want to think of it." Leo let out a sigh. "I"ll let you know if there"s anything pressing happening, or if you have any visitors. I a.s.sume this thing," he pointed to his temple. "Still works right?"

"What do you think?" Will spoke into Leo"s mind

"You never know, it has been a while." Leo replied telepathically. "You guys go relax now. You both have earned it." Leo turned to leave. "Oh and Will," he said as he climbed into the air. "Try not to break anything."

Will smiled at Leo as he took off into the air. He could see the changes his best friend must have had to go through in order to run a city while he was gone. "Maybe soon we should give him a break." He said more to himself.

"Maybe later. But until then, you are mine." Maya said with a mischievous grin. "Lets go check out our new home!"

They both took off from the familiar yet new arena and flew to Crown Emba.s.sy.