Elementals

Chapter 48-Urgent Matters

I thought back to the blazing trials. Then I remembered the volcano incident. The glowing veins that started to appear on the walls. Now that I thought about it, they looked more like cracks than veins. Cracks...

The same ones in the castle.

I gasped. "The cracks!"

"Cracks? What cracks?" Damian asked me.

"Remember when we tracked down the second half of the prophecy?" I asked.

"You mean when we broke school rules and went on a wild chase to an abandoned castle?" Cameron said, arms crossed.

"Yeah! Remember how the castle was covered with cracks?"

"Yeah...?" Celest said. "What about them?"

"Yeah. The castle was probably older than the school, so it makes sense why there's be cracks everywhere. What's so special about them?" Zielo asked.

"Those cracks are the same ones I saw during the blazing trials. Once we all got to the end of the volcanic course, they appeared and brought the entire volcano down." I explained. Zack hummed in thought for second.

"Now that I think about it...I saw something during my trials that looked pretty similar to that." He said.

"You did?" I asked.

"Yeah. While we were running through the electric maze, I found a few cracks in the rock. I thought nothing of it and just sped along." He said.

"Come to think of it..." Zielo started. "...the Midnight trials had something similar. Only, they were a lot smaller, not nearly big enough to cause an entire structure to collapse on itself."

"So they didn't only appear in the flame trials, but they only did damage to that area. Almost as if..."

"Could it be that he's targeting him?" Grandpa muttered to Saladin. Saladin looked at him in realization.

"What do you mean?" I asked them. Saladin had a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Alex, during your stay here at Acreus, did you have any visions or strange dreams of the Corrupted King? Or any other occurrences related to him?" He asked. We all looked at each other.

"Yeah..." I nodded. "...quite a few, actually."

Saladin's eyes widened. "I knew it."

He snapped his fingers and a small spellbook started to glow, then floated from one of the shelves and onto grandpa's desk. The book opened, flipping past a number of pages before stopping on one. I took a peek.

"The Hyphus Connection...What's that?" I asked.

"It's a spell that allows elementals to connect to another being telepathically." Damian explained.

"Isn't that normal telepathy?" Zack asked.

"No, this is different." Saladin said. "It's a more complex kind of telepathy. It not only allows an elemental to speak to another being through thoughts, it allows one to access their mind, and alter it to some extent. They could figure out your location, your weaknesses, your desires, your fears, everything about you."

My eyes widened in shock. A sudden could of fear loomed over me. I could feel my skin turn pale as his words from a few days ago echoed in my mind again.

'I'm coming for you, Red-Haired Hero...'

The realization hit me like a train.

"He's...tracking me...?"