Night had started to fall. Kibito and Kaioshin spent the entire afternoon practicing with the swords. Unfortunately, neither Tym nor Kibito were able to fire energy blasts, therefore Kaioshin wasn’t exactly sure what he had to do when it was time to deflect one.
Prince Kaioshin was ready. He put on the white pants and yellow shirt Nishi had made for him. He buckled the sword case over his left shoulder. A little nervous, he stood before the three people that had helped him.
“Now, you look like a true prince,” Tym said. “You must remember, Zenika will try everything to turn you to her side. You must keep control of your own mind. My biggest piece of advice is, if you can’t handle something, try to make a distraction and get out to rethink your strategy. Not that you have one anyway.”
Kaioshin nodded as Nishi walked up to him, holding something in her hands. “I got the chain fixed for you…” She opened her hands to reveal Kaioshin’s father’s dragon pendant. It had been polished and the chain had been fixed. Kaioshin smiled as he put it over his head.
“Thanks Nishi.” She leaned over and gave him a good luck kiss. His feet started to leave the ground to fly away.
“Wait,” Tym stopped him. “We’ll come with you to the castle.” Kaioshin nodded in agreement as they all flew up.
Zenika’s castle; it was a large and dark structure, a mote of molten lava surrounding it. Strong energy waves could be felt coming from it the closer one got.
Kaioshin looked up at the sky and saw the full moon starting to show. “I guess this…is it.”
“Good luck Kaioshin,” Nishi said. “I know you can do it.”
“Just keep a clear mind and you’ll do fine,” Kibito said.
“And remember what I told you,” Tym said.
Kaioshin nodded and looked at them all, as if he was never going to see them again. He flew to the castle’s entrance and stood at the start of the drawbridge. He slowly walked along the wooden structure and stopped at the large black doors.
The doors opened together on their own. “So, she’s waiting…” Kaioshin walked in and looked around. It was a room almost completely black, red and gold. A large brass chandelier hung in the center of the room, fire burning from the candles.
The doors shut quickly, Kaioshin turning around to see as the moonlight disappeared. For a moment he was in complete darkness, but candles lit up all around, brightening the room.
“Welcome, my prince,” a smooth voice said before him.
Kaioshin turned around again to see Zenika slowly walking down the stairs before him. She was wearing the same outfit she wore when he first saw her—the tight maroon dress that flowed out at the bottom. Kaioshin almost thought her eyes were glowing…but they weren’t.
Zenika stopped a few feet before the young prince. “Are you ready to become my king and rule the universe alongside me?” She said confidently.
Kaioshin frowned. “No.”
Zenika laughed. “Surely you’re joking,” she said. “You can’t tell me no. Do you know what kind of power you’re turning down?” Kaioshin didn’t answer. Zenika snickered and came closer. Kaioshin stood his ground, his body stiff. The sorceress brushed the back of her fingers along Kaioshin’s cheek. “This cut on your face must have been painful, prince.” She put her hand on his head and he quickly slapped her across the face. “How dare you!!” she yelled out, stepping back with her hand to her face.
“Don’t…touch…me,” Kaioshin said.
“Why you little brat…” Zenika hovered backwards in the air to the top of the staircase. “My followers! Show our guest what happens when you defy the queen.”
She disappeared as many men surrounded Kaioshin. They resembled the devilish imp, Jaki, being short and having similar features.
Kaioshin didn’t have any time to think about strategy, for one of the guards behind him jumped on his back. The guard held Kaioshin in a headlock, attempting to strangle him. Kaioshin thought quickly and flew up to the ceiling, high above. He squished the man between himself and ceiling, causing the man to lose his grip and fall to the floor below. Kaioshin quickly withdrew his sword and flew down to the others in a head on attack.
They all came at once, and Kaioshin did the best he could to keep them from killing him. They were of course beating him, their numbers seeming to multiply by the minute.
A club hit Kaioshin in the shoulder, causing him to fall to the floor. His sword flew out of his hand and went twirling across the slippery floor. The prince quickly turned over and saw the men starting to huddle around him, own drawing his own sword and pointing it to Kaioshin’s chest. Just as he was about to end the prince’s life, he was suddenly kicked out of the way. Everyone looked up to see Kibito.
“Kibito!” Kaioshin said, astonishingly happy.
Master Tym and Nishi were there as well, fighting the guards. “Quickly Kaioshin, get out of here!” Nishi yelled. “We’ll take care of them!”
Kaioshin scrambled to his feet and up the stairs, picking his sword up on the way. He found himself in a long corridor, burning candles held in candlesticks on the walls. He looked around and cautiously walked along the blood red carpet.
A loud snap made him stop. He paused to hear nothing more but silence. But as he was about to continue, a trap door appeared beneath him, opening and letting him fall to a dungeon like room.
Kaioshin hit the ground with a hard thud. Almost immediately he heard laughing—laughing that he recognized. “You… Show yourself!” the prince demanded.
“The valiant prince returns,” the voice said, the shadow of a body standing to his right. “Now I’ll take out my revenge on you. I won’t let you take place next to my queen!”
Kaioshin heard the snap of fingers and he was suddenly pushed against the wall. He fell to his hands and knees, the wind being knocked out of him. He quickly stood up, but chains lunged at him. Kaioshin tried to leap away, but it was no use. He was caught by his arms and legs, about ten feet from the wall, and two feet off the ground. Kaioshin struggled to free himself, but his efforts were futile.
Jaki emerged from the shadows, anger spread across his face. “I’ll fix you,” Jaki said. He looked up to the Kai prince and spit in his face. Kaioshin clenched his teeth and tried to wipe it away on his shoulder.
“Fool,” the imp said.
“How am I the fool?” Kaioshin asked.
“You came to take my queen. I know what you’re trying to do. You’ll become her king, and she’ll forget about me!”
Kaioshin couldn’t believe how jealous this little devil was. “For your information, I wasn’t coming to become her king.”
“Liar!” Jaki jumped into the air and pointed a finger down at him. “I’ll fix you!” An energy blast came from his finger, pushing Kaioshin’s body, but the chains didn’t move. Jaki continued to shoot different attacks at Kaioshin, sending small rocks and pieces of other debris at him.
“Stop!” Kaioshin screamed at him.
“You’re not my king! And you’re not Queenie’s king either!” Jaki started to pick up pace, infuriated.
“Enough!” Yelled a female’s voice. “I said enough, Jaki!” An energy blast came from nowhere and hit the imp to the ground. Both Kaioshin and Jaki looked over to see Zenika coming forward. “How dare you go against my orders.”
Jaki stood up, hunching over from the pain of the attack. “Queenie, I-I was just disposing of him…you were going to have me do it!”
“Silence, traitor! I said nothing of the sort. Kaioshin is mine to deal with, not yours.” Zenika smiled. She walked over to him, using her staff as an unnecessary walking stick. “Jaki, Jaki, Jaki,” she started. “You’ve been faithful, and loyal to me all these years.”
Jaki gave a crooked smile. “I knew you wouldn’t be mad at me, Queenie. I try only to please you…”
“I know,” Zenika said soothingly. “Here, let me help you.” She outstretched her hand to the dwarf. He took it and stood up straight. “There…” Jaki gave a small laugh of relief. However, he started too soon. Zenika’s hand must have burned up, for the imp yelled out and pulled away, holding his hand in the other. “Farewell, you little fool!” The orb on top of her staff glowed red and a lightning bolt of energy flew out, blowing the imp up into dust.
Kaioshin hung from the chains, scared and amazed. She destroyed her own follower as if he was nothing…
Zenika turned her attention to the young prince. She smiled seductively as she stood directly in front of him. The chains had raised Kaioshin high enough that now he and the sorceress were face to face. He frowned as she smiled.
“Kaioshin,” she said softly. Her hand raked through his white hair. “I hope you didn’t mean what you said before. We would be so good together; you and me, side by side.” She brought her face closer. “We’d be one and become more powerful than any being in the universe.” She came closer, her nose touching his.
Kaioshin quickly turned his head away, but Zenika turned it back and mentally held it in place. Kaioshin struggled to move as she kissed him furiously. It seemed that every muscle in his body refused to work with him to pull himself away. He started running out of breath, for she wouldn’t pull away. He held his eyes shut, and finally was able to open his mouth to bite her lip.
Zenika screamed, Kaioshin feeling as if he’d go deaf after the shriek. No words were said as she pointed her staff at him. A tornado formed around Kaioshin. The chains snapped apart, the parts hitting his body as he circled around and around. It started to get faster until it spit him out across the room.
Kaioshin lifted his upper body from the floor with his arms. His eyes widened when a powerful force rose came from beneath, sending him and anything around him to the ceiling. He hit it hard, and quickly fell back to the ground.
“You had your chance, Kaioshin. Now I will do what I should’ve done in the first place. I was foolish for believing you’d be different from your father,” she hissed. “You Kais are all the same. Pure hearted goody-goodies.”
Kaioshin lay on the floor, breathing hard and his eyes shut. He could feel his body ache in extreme pain, and he truly didn’t believe he could go on.