Hidden behind the magical wall in Leonardo’s workshop, Oliver’s body trembled with exhaustion. Summoning his celestial powers to block the dark army from entering the chapel had been draining. And still, they’d broken through his armor quickly anyway. It had barely slowed them. Now he was exhausted, spent, and the army was still approaching.
He could hear them now, on the other side of the wall, as they raced around the chapel searching for the concealed door into the workshop.
Panic stricken, he looked over at his friends. “What are we going to do? There’s no other way out!”
David, Gianni, Walter, and Hazel were cowering together, their hands clasped.
“The wormhole,” Leonardo told them hurriedly. “I will make it right here. I’ll barricade myself into the back room to do it. Will you be able to keep them at bay while I work?”
Oliver grimaced. Keeping the dark army at bay long enough to for Leonardo to create his wormhole was not going to be easy, especially now that it felt as if all his powers had gone. But he had his friends, and they each gave him a nod of determination. None more so than David, whose look of shame for choosing to stay behind seemed to have grown even more pronounced.
“Okay,” he told Leonardo.
The inventor hurried away into his living quarters. Oliver watched him disappear, feeling helplessly lost in the dire situation.
Staggering down the steps back into the workshop, Oliver felt too shocked to truly comprehend what was happening. His murderous brother had tracked him through time, had found him in Leonardo da Vinci’s workshop, and now he intended to destroy him with the help of the most evil army known to the universe. They’d been so close to leaving with the Elixir, to finding their way back home to the School for Seers and saving Esther’s life. It was too much to bear.
“How are we going to keep them back?” Hazel stammered.
“Let’s hope they don’t find the door,” Oliver replied.
“Even if they do,” David added, “we have the weapons to fight them off.”
They were still loaded up with Leonardo’s inventions, not to mention the workshop was also filled with cannons and armored vehicles.
“Here,” Hazel cried, beckoning them over to the armored tank made of lacquered wood and metal paneling. “Let’s use this as protection.”
As the gang tumbled behind the vehicle, Oliver still felt the sting of betrayal that David’s announcement had left in him. In a way, it was lucky Chris and the dark army had found them at that moment. If it had happened after they’d left the workshop, they wouldn’t have had their best fighter with them. But here, at least, David could still protect him.
Just then, Oliver heard the sound of scraping coming from the other side of the hidden door.
Hazel gasped. “They already found us!”
Oliver craned his head around the side of the truck to see bits of stone and dust falling from the seams of the door onto the steps. He quickly realized what was happening. The dark army was clawing their way inside.
His stomach dropped to his toes.
“Can you summon another one of those celestial shield things?” Walter asked.
For the first time this entire mission, Walter was showing fear in his eyes. If Walter the perpetual optimist was terrified, Oliver knew things must really be bad.
“I don’t know,” Oliver stammered. “I still feel drained from before.”
David let out a grunt of distaste. “I should have had you rest more! I’m sorry, Oliver.”
“You don’t need to be sorry,” Oliver told him desperately. “You just need to stay and fight.”
He held the scepter out. David seemed like the rightful owner of the weapon. It always seemed to fit him perfectly.
David hesitated, then took the scepter in his hands. “Of course I’ll fight,” he said. “I won’t let anyone harm you.”
Oliver glanced back out again from their hiding spot. Even more bits of wall were being chipped away, enough for a gap to have been made in the wall. Any second now, the army would seep through.
But the first face that appeared in the gap was one that made Oliver grit his teeth with fury. Chris.
Oliver ducked back behind the truck. Seeing his brother’s face always filled him with terror. It was as if every pounding he’d ever endured at the hands of his bully brother came back to him in a flash, reducing him to a scared little boy. Even though he was now a powerful seer with all the knowledge of Leonardo de Vinci and celestial powers running through his veins, the sight of Chris could send bolts of terror racing through him.
But now the fear came with more. It came with anger. Fury. All of this darkness and destruction was Chris’s fault. Mistress Obsidian had latched onto their sibling rivalry to dupe Chris into chasing Oliver across the universe, to avoid getting her hands dirty herself. He was fueled with hatred and the sort of powers no one so irresponsible and downright evil ought to ever possess. And that made Oliver furious.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Chris called into the darkness, using a sing-songy voice. “It’s time to end this, Oliver, once and for all.”
Shivers spread through Oliver’s entire body. Beads of sweat began to form on his brow.
“It’s Chris,” he whispered to Hazel.
“I’ve got this,” she told him confidently, her hands tightening on the crossbow she’d been given by Leonardo.
She rose up from behind the armored tank and brought the crossbow to her shoulder, gracefully taking up a fighting stance. Then she released the arrow.
Oliver gasped and turned to watch. As if in slow motion, the arrow sailed across the workshop, heading right for Chris. Then it slammed into the wall just a millimeter above his head.
Christopher jerked back, disappearing from the hole. Oliver heard his voice bellow from the other side.
“They have weapons!”
There was a brief moment where nothing happened. Then Oliver saw a sight that made his blood run cold. A black-robed figure began to squeeze through the gap. It seemed to be able to contort its body, making it looking less than human.
Oliver shuddered as it drew itself up to standing on the other side. Its bright blue eyes flashed as it scanned the room. Behind it, another robed figure began to seep through the gap.
“They’re coming…” Oliver stammered to his friends in a hushed voice. “And I don’t think weapons are going to stop them.”
Hazel’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t think the dark army is human,” Oliver replied.
Walter blustered up his chest and discarded the automatic rifle Leonardo had given him. “Then we’ll use our powers against them.”
Oliver peered back around the side of the truck. One by one, more soldiers were coming through the gap into the workshop. They lined up in perfect synchronicity, awaiting orders. The whole sight sent shivers running up his spine.
Oliver felt Hazel’s hand on his. “You’ll need to use your celestial powers to fight them.”
“But I used them up on the shield,” Oliver told her, fear making his voice tremble.
“I know. So you have to rest now. Rest and recuperate. Let us take the fight.” She spoke in a firm but motherly voice.
“No…” Oliver protested.
He couldn’t let his friends fight on his behalf while he just sat by and watched! It would be torture.
“She’s right,” David told him firmly. “Gather your strength. Try to find the calm it gave you before. We’ve got this.”
“Just until the portal’s opened,” Walter reminded them, though his face was starting to drain of color.
Gianni reached over and pressed his hand on top of Oliver’s. “Amico,” he said. “Friend.”
Oliver felt bad for ever having doubted Gianni’s loyalty, for thinking he was sent along by Mistress Moretti to steal the Elixir. He was clearly loyal to Oliver, even though they’d never exchanged a verbal conversation.
Oliver nodded, finally. “Okay.”
“Keep a look out for that portal,” Hazel added.
Oliver watched, his heart plummeting, as his friends leapt out from behind the truck and stood shoulder to shoulder, poised for attack. Then they began to throw out powers from their hands. Gianni created tendrils of vines while Hazel plucked particles from the air and electrically charged them before throwing them at the army.
Oliver cowered as explosions came from above him. Jets of dark light were flying all over the place, coming from the dark army. Oliver’s friends retaliated with their own seer powers. The noise was deafening.
He took a final glance at the gap at the bottom of da Vinci’s door, looking for the telltale sign of a purple swirling vortex, but saw with a heavy heart that there was still none. He had to center himself. If he could find his celestial powers again then maybe they stood a chance. He’d be able to put up a shield. All he needed was to buy them enough time for Leonardo to create the portal for them to leap through.
He pressed his back against the truck and crossed his legs. Then he unfocused his mind, drawing on all his seer training to find that place of calm that existed within himself.
He searched and searched, desperately seeking the celestial powers inside of him.
Suddenly, there came a loud thud from beside Oliver. He jumped and turned to see the body of one of the dark army slump to the ground, dead. The eerie blue glow faded from his eyes.
Oliver forced himself back to center. Despite all the noises and chaos erupting around him, this was their only hope.
As he found his calm, the world seemed to melt away around him. Then he felt something, deep in his mind. It was different, unfamiliar, something that had been planted there. Like a switch, he focused all his attention on activating it.
At once, a warmth began to seep through him. With it came an ever greater sense of calm. He felt the celestial powers racing through his veins, infiltrating every inch of him.
Oliver opened his eyes. The sounds of the battle seemed now to be very far away. He stood and came out from behind the protection of the tank, and surveyed the scene around him.
Everything was happening in super slow motion. He watched David—mid-leap, scepter raised—slowly inch through the air. He brought the blade down diagonally across the body of a robed figure and the soldier began to fall. Beside him, Hazel was shooting jets of acidic chemicals from her palms, blasting two robed figures whose clothes were beginning to melt and become raggedy, plumes of smoking rising up off them. Gianni had long tendrils of vines coming from his hands, which were wrapping around the legs of a dark army soldier. Walter was using his magnetic specialism to pull tools from the work shelves—hammers, saws, nails—and fling them at the dark army. It was utter chaos, and yet the whole thing was happening so slowly Oliver had plenty of time to take in the most minute of details.
Somehow, the powers he’d tapped into were bending time, slowing it down in his favor. He felt strongly that this must be a gift from the universe. Just as she’d allowed them to activate the Pendulum of Time, she’d led him to finding his celestial powers for this very purpose. The thought gave him a huge surge of confidence.
Confidently, Oliver walked up to the dark soldier closest to him. Beneath his hood his face was in complete shadow. The only features he could make out were the horrible bright blue glowing eyes. It was a sight that always made Oliver’s blood run cold. And now, being just a foot away from those awful eyes, it felt more like his blood had turned to ice.
The soldier must have been able to see Oliver in some capacity—perhaps as a fast-moving, glowing white light, Oliver thought—because his eyes narrowed as if he was frowning.
Oliver stood before him, wondering how he was supposed to defeat the dark soldier. He had no weapon, just his celestial power.
Then, some kind of memory or knowledge seemed to find its way into his consciousness. Oliver didn’t know where it had come from—Mistress Moretti, Leonardo, or the celestial powers themselves—but he found himself acting instinctively, reaching forward toward the soldier.
It was an out of body experience for Oliver, like he was watching a film or play. He took the man’s hood in both of his hands and threw it clear of his face.
The sight that awaited Oliver made him recoil. Without shadows obscuring the man’s features, he could see his face fully, and it was less than human. It was more like a large black shriveled skeleton with a gaping hole where a mouth would be and a short squat nose like that of a skull.
The beady blue eyes flashed even more brightly.
Oliver staggered back, the urge to throw up overwhelming. He’d never seen something so horrifying. The soldier had been human once, a seer like Oliver and his friends. And yet he’d chosen the path of the dark. A path that had led him here, to become a monster with no other purpose than to destroy. This was the path that Professor Amethyst had warned him off. This was where he could end up if he fell to the lures of the dark side, like Chris was choosing to.
A surge of compassion overcame Oliver as he realized that this was his brother’s future.
He knew he should feel hatred, that he was supposed to fight, but that wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted to save the soldier. To turn back the hands of time and somehow change the direction of the path he’d chosen.
But that was impossible.
Overwhelmed with grief for the soldier, Oliver found himself reaching forward once again. This time his hand, which had white light glowing all around it, touched the man’s forehead.
At once, the light from his hand poured down the man, covering him in a soft white glow.
Hope bloomed in Oliver’s chest. Were his celestial powers somehow altering the soldier, turning him from a monster back into a man?
But no. Oliver realized then that the man was starting to fade.
He knew immediately what was happening. His celestial powers could banish the dark army and send them back to the realm from which they came. He had the power to literally transport them out of this dimension, to zip them out of his reality. They were not dead but they were not saved either. All he could do was send them back to the limbo world from which they’d come.
It was still their greatest weapon. With his newfound knowledge, Oliver raced around the room, touching each of the dark soldiers with a gentle hand and watching as the white light overwhelmed them.
As he worked, he wondered how it must look from the others’ perspectives. All they could surely see was a bright light zipping around the workshop, and the soldiers suddenly popping out of existence.
He looked over at the gash in the wall to see that there were no more soldiers seeping through. Everyone who was fighting alongside his brother was already in the room.
Instead, Oliver saw that three Obsidian students were now climbing into the workshop through the gap.
Last of all came Chris.
But unlike everyone else in the workshop, Chris was not moving in super slow motion.
Oliver gasped. Somehow, his brother wasn’t affected by the time-bending properties of his celestial powers.
There was no time to ponder why. Chris was already pushing his way into the room, frustratedly shoving the Obsidian students who were moving in slow motion out of his way.
“My army!” he cried, surveying the sight of all the fading soldiers blinking out of the dimension. Then his gaze fell to Oliver. “You. You did this! You slowed down time!”
As the fighting continued in super slow motion around them, Oliver suddenly realized that he had to face Chris alone. Though the battle of good and evil raged around them, they had their own score to settle.
As Chris thundered down the steps toward Oliver, a sudden spark of light coming from the gap beneath the door to the living quarters caught his attention. Bright purple light. The portal! Leonardo had activated it. If he could just find a way to get all his friends through, then they’d be free.
But there was no time to act. Christopher was upon him, his fist raised.
Oliver pulled his arm up across his face to shield his head. The force of Chris’s punch slammed into it. The familiar pain of his brother’s fist burst from the place it had collided.
Oliver blocked Christopher’s next punch with his other arm. He’d never been good at fighting Chris before, but somewhere in the deep recesses of his mind, a knowledge he’d not accessed before seemed to be activated. He was blocking the punches intuitively. It must have been a skill Lucia Moretti had implanted in his mind, that he was now instinctively utilizing.
Chris roared with anger. He kept punching, raining blows down on Oliver. But each one, Oliver seemed able to block. It didn’t stop the pain, which was increasing every time they made contact, but it was enough to protect his head.
“Why. Won’t. You. Just. Die!” Chris bellowed.
Even though Oliver knew his brother despised him, hearing such cruel words from his mouth still cut him to the core. What had he ever done to deserve such hatred? For Chris to want him dead?
As another blow rained down, Oliver caught sight of Chris’s eyes. He gasped in horror. They had turned completely black. Whatever powers Christopher possessed, they were not typical seer powers. They were something different. Something more.
Oliver realized then why Chris seemed immune to the bending of time. Just like Oliver himself now embodied celestial powers that protected him from it, he could tell that Chris embodied something different, too. But they weren’t celestial powers, they were the opposite. He was the dark to Oliver’s light. The black to his white. The bringer of death when Oliver wanted only to bring life.
“Stop this!” Oliver cried.
“Stop?” Christopher panted. His face was red from exertion. “You mean give up? Never!”
The power in Chris’s blows seemed only to be increasing. Oliver staggered back and felt his back collide against the wall. He was trapped.
His gaze darted to the purple light seeping out from beneath Leonardo’s door. It was growing brighter. It was his only chance of escape, of getting the Elixir back to Esther. He had to get his friends’ attention somehow and get them inside! But the only way to do that was if time returned to normal, and the only way to do that was to let go of his hold on his celestial powers. But that would give Chris the advantage again!
Chris must’ve seen where he was looking because his head snapped to the side. When he looked back at Oliver, his glare was colder and meaner than ever.
“A portal?” he sneered. “You think I’m stupid enough to let you escape through a portal again?”
He backed off, suddenly, and raced toward the door behind which Leonardo was hidden and busy conjuring his portal.
“NO!” Oliver screamed.
He couldn’t let Chris inside that room. He would destroy the portal. He would destroy everything. If he realized Leonardo da Vinci’s workshop was the original invention factory then he’d stop at nothing to eradicate this place. The ramifications were too great to comprehend.
There was no other option.
Oliver ran to the door and blocked it with his body. Then he let go of his celestial powers.
At once, time sped back up to normal. The sounds of the battle raging around him came back in full force, a cacophony of yells and thuds.
“GUYS!” Oliver roared. “THIS WAY!”
His friends all turned, shocked to see Oliver suddenly standing beside Leonardo’s door. But they wasted no time in rushing over to him.
Together, they tumbled inside the room and barricaded the door after them.