Light to Dark, The Price of Freedom | Teen Ink

Light to Dark, The Price of Freedom

June 7, 2022
By jasonfarr42, Cornwall, New York
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jasonfarr42, Cornwall, New York
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Author's note:

This story was inspired by a few anime's I have watched. Anime is something that sparks my creativity and helps me gain ideas for my writing and art. This story was a long ride for me, and overall brought out a new side to my writing.

 In a world where magic is everything, there lived one man who could not produce a single spell. This man's name was Yuki, the son of a noble king who ruled over the Ruby Kingdom. This was the most beautiful kingdom in all of the land of light. The Ruby Kingdom held all of the richest nobles and all of the finest jewelry. The walls of the kingdom were all made of marble and the streets of the kingdom were always loud and crowded. There are vendors selling roast meats up and down the streets and there are beautiful women everywhere you look, but the most beautiful woman of all is the King's daughter, Elizabeth. 

Out of everyone in the kingdom, she has the most beauty, and the most knowledge of spells that exceed any sorcerer that ever lived. She was a true genius, and legend says that she even knew a spell that could bring back people from the dead. And then there was her brother Yuki. A total idiot when it comes to magic. This is the first time in sorcerer history where a person cannot use magic. If he wasn’t the king's son, he would be a nobody rotting under a bridge. But since he was the King's son, he was incredibly spoiled just like his sister. He definitely lacked in the magic department, but he did have great physical strength and was a phenomenal swordsman due to many hard days of training. He could potentially be the strongest man in the land of light if he could use even a little magic. 


                   As you could conclude, since there is a land of light, there is also a land of darkness. In the land of darkness, everything is in ruins, and the air is barely breathable because of the high temperatures. The sorcerer's in this land can use dark spells and they are all very strong. The thing that is stopping them from completely taking over the land of light is the fact that their leader was killed many years back. They have tried to invade the capital of the land of light, the Ruby Kingdom to capture the king's daughter Elizabeth, but they have failed countless times. Without a leading force, they cannot manage to come up with a great strategy and are constantly losing their battles. But don’t get me wrong, they are extremely strong. They just don’t have the right tactics to succeed in their evil plans. If Elizabeth was ever captured, the land of light would be done for good.

Because of the land of darkness’ constant abduction attempts, Elizabeth  is always highly guarded, and she is treated like more of an object than the beautiful noble woman she is. She doesn’t get to go anywhere unless her guards are surrounding her. This obviously isn’t how she wants to live. She wants to experience life as a normal person. So one day Elizabeth ran up to Yuki and stated, “Brother, I can’t do this anymore. I stay in the kingdom all day and I never get to experience the true beauties of life without the guards breathing on my neck. Please escape with me to the Emerald Kingdom, it would be a lot of fun”. 


        Yuki unsurely stated, “ I don’t know if that’s a great idea Elizabeth. Father always has his guards watching you, it would be impossible to escape them. There’s also the fact that we would get into a lot of trouble if we were ever caught.”


     Elizabeth stated, “Brother I know there’s a lot of things that could go wrong, but if we do end up making it there, we could have the time of our lives, and I might have a plan to get there without getting caught.”


    Yuki sighed and said, “If this is really what you want then I just can’t say no to you. I’ve always been mocked and never loved by our kingdom just because the gods wouldn’t bless me with any magic. I will get back to the kingdom and help you get the freedom you deserve.”


          They  made a plan to sneak out of the Ruby Kingdom and go to the Emerald Kingdom for a couple days. They knew that the Emerald Kingdom was right on the border of the land of darkness, but they didn’t think this would be an issue at the time since security was high in the Emerald Kingdom. Yuki and Elizabeth would sneak out in 2 days, when the Ruby Kingdom held their annual lights celebration where security wouldn’t be focused on Elizabeth as much. There would only be one guard watching her on that one night, and they both knew they could easily slip past him when the time was right.

 Eventually after waiting for two whole days, the Ruby Kingdoms anual light celebration has come. For the light ceremony, sorcerers use their spells to create large amounts of light in the air, in celebration of the Ruby Kingdoms beauty and in honor of the King's greatness and heroic deeds. Yuki, Elizabeth and the one guard went out of the palace to watch the beautiful lit up sky. They both smiled and stared up at the sky waiting for their opportunity to sprint away from the guard. 


      A spell shot up in the air and Elizabeth said, “wow that is so beautiful, this is the best night ever”


      The guard said back, “I completely agree, but it doesn’t compare to the beauty of you Lady Elizabeth”


        This was the perfect moment for them to make their move. Yuki dashed at the guard and shoved him into the wall with all of his might. This was one of those moments where Yuki's true strength really shined. All of the guards in the Ruby Kingdom are incredibly strong, and Yuki knocked the poor guard unconscious. Yuki then shouted to Elizabeth, “It’s now or never, let's get out of here before anyone sees us!” The two of them made their way to the front gate in a hurry. They would need to leave while the show was still going on.

 Between the two kingdoms, there are occasional guards, and a couple of small shops scattered throughout the area. There is also a large cornfield that runs between the two kingdoms. This would be perfect cover for the two of them. The guards' jobs are to look out for any deserters from either kingdom, and to watch out for any attacks by the land of darkness. If they do see anything, they are to contact the Ruby and the Emerald Kingdoms immediately. If Yuki and Elizabeth were to be caught in the grounds in between the two kingdoms escaping from the Ruby Kingdom they would both be in deep trouble and Elizabeth would be put under even higher surveillance and she would be even less likely to ever live a normal life.

 

       The two of them would need to successfully get to the Emerald Kingdom without being caught and in a fast manner. Before they ran out into the open, Yukis whispered, “you should cast an invisibility spell for us so we don’t get caught by the guards. At least until we can make it to the cornfields.”


       Elizabeth whispered back, “I’m not sure I can get us all the way to the cornfields, I might be able to cast high level spells, but my magic reserves aren’t that promising.”


    Yuki replied, “It’s worth a try isn’t it? It would be a lot better than running in the open, we would get caught for sure if we did.”


    Elizabeth sighed and cast her invisibility spell on the both of them. They then sprinted as fast as they could to the cornfields. The one problem about it being night time was the fact that more guards are out when it’s dark out. And for some reason, this night the guards were everywhere. They both thought to themselves, “I wonder if word already got out that we escaped.” 


    They were only a couple feet away from the cornfield when Elizabeth started slowing down and panting. Yuki whispered over to Elizabeth in a hopeful tone, “Don’t give up Elizabeth, if you give up now, you might never be able to feel the wonderful freedom that awaits you!” Elizabeth held out until they could both get in the cornfield, and then collapsed right at the entrance. Yuki was relieved but also knew that this would make getting to the Emerald Kingdom a lot harder.


     Yuki threw Elizabeth over his shoulder and started to quickly move through the cornfield. It would’ve taken Yuki an hour  to make it to the Emerald Kingdom but with Elizabeth on his back, it took him most of the night to make it there. As day was breaking, the Emerald Kingdom started to come into view and Yuki smiled. Knowing that he couldn’t just walk into the Emerald Kingdom with a passed out woman on his back, that was the daughter of the Ruby Kingdom, Yuki set down Elizabeth to wait for her to regain consciousness. Two hours later Elizabeth’s eyes started to open and Yuki smiled and said, “FInally, you’re awake Elizabeth, look where we are!” 


     Elizabeth jolted up and saw the Emerald Kingdom’s beauty for the first ever time. Elizabeth screamed, “Oh my God you are the best brother ev-”


     Yuki covered her mouth mid sentence and whispered back at her, “I know you’re excited but you are screaming and there are two guards standing feet away from us at the gate! Are you trying to get us caught? Wow, I thought you were smarter than that.”


     Elizabeth replied quietly, “ Sorry brother, I am just so excited to be here, freedom is finally in the grasp of my hand.” 


    Yuki replied, “I know I know but we need to be smart about this. We need to get in without any suspicion. I was thinking that we could use a levitation spell to get over the wall, if you’re up for it. 


    Elizabeth claimed she was up for it and they walked to a spot of the wall that had no security. Elizabeth cast her spell and they got right over the wall in a matter of seconds. The two of them were finally in the Emerald Kingdom, and Elizabeth was getting her first taste of freedom. No one knew the two of them, they were able to walk the streets, and do whatever they wanted.

 On their first day, they walked around, got good food and enjoyed the scenery of the miraculous Emerald Kingdom. There were so many places to go and things to see. They thought to themselves that they could stay forever, but unfortunately this was not the case. It was completely obvious that the king would notice Elizabeth was missing, and their trip would end in the blink of an eye. The two of them weren’t in the least bit concerned though, they were having way too much fun. 


     On their second day in the Emerald Kingdom, Elizabth woke up ready to go and stated, “we should really go to the local festival today, I heard that there’s gonna be games, and yummy food!”


    Yuki replied, “That sounds like a lot of fun, I can’t wait to go”


     They got ready and left the house in a breeze. They walked to the street where the festival would be held and were shocked when they heard that it was a mile long. This day, Elizabeth and Yuki would walk up and down the streets of the festival, and would have the best day ever, or so they thought.

        They were sitting down for lunch in a restaurant when they looked out the window and saw guards for the Ruby Kingdom running up and down the streets. Yuki shouted, “Elizabeth, we need to get out of here now!” They ran through the kitchen of the restaurant in a hurry and exited through the back entrance. They sprinted through a couple alleys frantically then they came into a dead end. Guards closed them into the alley. Elizabeth in a panic tried casting her levitation spell on the both of them but she was hit with high level restriction magic. A red and black chain coiled around her coming from above. This was a spell never seen by anyone in the land of light. Elizabeth was viciously flung up in the air by the chain and at that point there was nothing that could be done. The guards and Yuki looked up and saw a huge dragon in the air with two cloaked men sitting on it. Yuki screamed, “ELIZABETH NOOO!”


       The guard shot some weak magic at the dragon, but by the time the spells made it far in the air, they were out of sight. Yuki tried sprinting after the dragon but he was then restrained by the guards. Yuki yelled at the guards, “What are you guys doing? I’m not the one you should be after! Go save Elizabeth!”


        One of the guards said back, “Shut your mouth maggot, if you never brought Lady Elizabeth here, then she would be safe in the Ruby Kingdom.” Then it sank in. The realization of Yuki's action hit him in a flash. Yuki is the reason why Elizabeth was captured. She could be killed  or abused and it’s all his fault. Yuki blacked out from exhaustion and at the thought of Elizabeth being killed.

Yuki woke up chained to a wall in the dungeon under the Ruby Kingdom. He struggled for some time, but he knew he wouldn’t be getting out any time soon. Yuki screamed, “Let me out! We need to go save Elizabeth!” 


     The guard answered, “You’re not going anywhere you scum. You will pay for what you did with your life. Criminals like you deserve the most gruesome of deaths.”


      Days passed of Yuki being trapped in the dungeon. Over in the land of darkness, Elizabeth woke up in the same position Yuki was in. She was chained to a wall in some sort of underground base. The cloaked men would stand and ask her some question each day, and if she said no she would get no food. The cloaked men asked for the third day in a row, “Do you know a way to revive the deceased?”


      Elizabeth as always would reply, “No, there is no possible way of doing that. If I knew how to do it I would’ve told you by now.”


     The guard gave a different response on this day. He said, “Ok that’s perfectly fine, just know that If you ever get out of this cell, you won’t have any family to return to.”


    Elizabeth screamed back at the guard, “No, stop please don’t hurt anyone, I promise I don’t know any way of bringing back the dead.” The guard laughed menacingly and slowly walked away. Elizabeth continued to scream but no one answered her. 

     On the fifth day of Yuki being locked up, he woke up to his chains being undone and he gasped. Yuki shouted, “I knew they needed me to save Elizabeth!”


   The guard punched Yuki in the gut and shouted, “You’re being executed today you idiot! The King himself will be carrying out the execution in front of the whole kingdom.” Yuki’s heart dropped to the thought of being executed by his own father. He thought to himself “All I wanted was to show Elizabeth a bit of freedom, and now she’s gone and I’m going to be killed. I need to do something fast. I can pay for my crimes later, but now I need to save Elizabeth.”


   The guard tied up Yuki’s hands and started the walk to the execution grounds. This was a very long walk from the dungeon to there. This would be Yuki’s only chance to escape since only one guard would be escorting him and the rest would be on the execution grounds. On the walk there, they passed through a narrow hallway in the castle where he knew he could make his move. Yuki then screamed at the guard, “I WILL SAVE ELIZABETH!” and he headbutted him and jumped through the window onto the cold grass. This was a two story jump handcuffed. Any normal person would have died from a jump with that much momentum, but because Yuki was so built, he only suffered from a broken left shoulder. He then ran to the gate and cut the rope tying his hands together on the barbed wire. Yuki ran around the gate and sprinted for the front entrance of the Ruby Kingdom. It was broad daylight and Yuki was sprinting to the front gate like a psycho.

 Yuki made it to the entrance but shortly after he noticed he would have to deal with two guards with a broken shoulder and no weapon. One guard ran at Yuki screaming, “You traitor, you’re the reason Elizabeth is in danger!” That only angered Yuki and he charged the guard head on. The guard out of pure rage swung the sword as hard as he could, giving Yuki the opening he needed. Yuki dodged the sword swing and did the only move he could. Yuki used his bodyweight to knock the guard onto the ground. Yuki picked up the guard's sword and started to run.


     Yuki completely forgot about the other guard but he was nowhere in sight. Yuki turned around in a panic swinging his sword when he heard the guards voice say, “Over here Yuki ''. 

    

    The guard blocked Yuki's strike and screamed, “Yuki relax, I’m with you. I want to save Elizabeth as well.”


     Yuki was stunned by this and asked the guard his name. The guard replied, “My name is Ichigo, I was a close friend of Elizabeths. I used to be the one who guarded her until I got in trouble for helping her sneak off all the time. But that’s besides the point, we need to get out of here before any more guards show up. Oh, it looks like your shoulder is all messed up, let me fix that.” Ichigo cast a healing spell on Yuki’s shoulder that repaired it in seconds.


    Yuki and Ichigo left The Ruby Kingdom to start their adventure to save Elizabeth. They would have to travel to the Emerald Kingdom to be able to reach the Land of Darkness. This would be a long journey if they had to travel on foot but Ichigo had other plans. A quarter of the way to the Emerald Kingdom, Ichigo stopped and said, “Let’s head this way.” as he turned in the opposite direction of the Emerald Kingdom.”


 Yuki then replied, “What’s the deal? The Emerald Kingdom is in the other direction.”


  Ichigo stated, “I know, I know, but I know a place where we can “borrow” a dragon from. It’s property of the Ruby Kingdom and is only for extreme emergencies where the king would have to get away, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if we took it to save his daughter, right?”


   Yuki was hesitant about committing another crime against the Ruby Kingdom but then he thought to himself, “why hasn't anyone tried to go and save Elizabeth yet? It’s been five whole days and I’m sure she is suffering there. It’s now or never.” He agreed with Ichigo and they started running to the place where the dragon was held. When they arrived, they noticed there was only a single guard stationed there. This was because no one knew about this except the guards trusted by the king. The guard there looked very weak and he wasn’t even really guarding the dragon, this would be a breeze. Ichigo used a harmless spell that would put the weak guard unconscious. The guard fell over into the mud and they both boarded the dragon.

Yuki said, “You know how to fly this thing right?”

 

   Ichigo replied, “Nope, I have no clue.” and the dragon flew into the sky. The two of them screamed knowing this wouldn’t go very well. Ichigo then laughed and said, “I was joking of course I can control this dragon, I’m the one who is supposed to fly the king away from the Ruby Kingdom if anything was to happen. Ichigo started flying the dragon towards the Emerald Kingdom, and they would be there in no time. Minutes later they were hovering over the border between the Emerald Kingdom and the Land of Darkness. Then before they crossed Yuki looked over at Ichigo and said, “Ichigo, are you sure you want to continue? After you pass this point you will be considered a criminal and there’s no going back to the Ruby Kingdom. 

 

    Ichigo smiled and replied, “I would do anything to save Elizabeth, she is one of my greatest friends and I would do anything for her, and I know she would do the same for me. Besides, I’m already a criminal. I helped another criminal escape the Ruby Kingdom and I stole the King’s dragon. I would be on death row just as you were. Yuki, let's go save your sister.”


    Yuki replied, “Right. I’m glad to have your help. We should probably get a little farther into the Land of Darkness and then go by foot. We don’t want to get spotted too quickly. This is a rescue mission.” Ichigo agreed and they continued into the land of darkness. The pure sight of the Land of Darkness was just depressing. The soil was dark red and the trees were all rotted. There’s no buildings or anything. It looks like what a person would expect hell to look like, and that burning hot air is unbearable for even Yuki. That would mean that Elizabeth wouldn’t be able to hold up for much longer. They would have to make it quick.

The two of them were still on the dragon when they started to see a blood red fortress in the distance. This would be the point where they would have to get rid of the dragon, and continue on foot. They got off the dragon, and Ichigo sent it back towards the Ruby Kingdom. The journey would start to get very difficult here. Neither of them would know what to expect. There could be hundreds of skilled men with dark magic in that fortress, but they continued onwards. The fortress looked so close, but as they kept walking, they didn’t seem to get any closer to it. They walked for hours in the horrible climate when finally they noticed something wasn’t right. Someone had to be casting a spell on them, but from where, and how would they break such a high level spell. Ichigo stopped and said, “Leave this to me.” His hand started putting out electricity.


     Yuki then said, “I don’t see how a lightning spell would help us in this situation.” Ichigo then used the hand with the spell to clench onto Yuki’s shoulder. 


   Yuki screamed, “Ouch! What is wrong with y- '' Yuki stopped and saw three men in cloaks standing around them. 


   Ichigo whispered, “These three were casting an illusion on us. Let's teach them a lesson.”


   Yuki smirked and said,. “Right” Yuki dashed towards one of them in an instant and slashed him in the chest. The cloaked man had no time to react. Yuki turned around and both of the other cloaked men were on the ground with static coming off of them. 


     Yuki said, “Wow, I didn’t know you were that skilled with magic.”


     Ichigo replied, “It was nothing, let's get moving.” The two of them raced towards the fortress and made it there in a short amount of time. They both thought that rescuing Elizabeth would be an easy task, but what lay beyond them in the fortress would be the biggest challenge they would ever have to face. When they got to the fortress they noticed there were almost one hundred men scattered out in front of the entrance. Yuki began to lose hope after seeing the large group of cloaked men.


     Ichigo reassuringly said, “Your own sister is in that fortress suffering waiting for someone to save her. Put on your game face, Yuki.”


    Yuki replied, “I needed that, thanks Ichigo.” Half of the men started to charge at them.


    Ichigo stated, “I’ll need you to buy some time for me. If you can do that I can take most of them out with one giant spell.” Yuki nodded and got in a defensive position.


   Yuki said, “Toss me your sword” and Ichigo tossed it to him with no hesitation. Yuki's confidence skyrocketed knowing he could fend them off with two swords. This was one of the skills that he had learned since he didn’t have any magic. He could fend off spells with one and the other is for cutting down his enemies. The men closed in and Yuki started taking them down one by one. Fire balls flew from the cloaked men who were staying back and Yuki cut right through them. Ichigo stood behind Yuki with his hands clasped together as he charged up the spell. 

 

     One cloaked man got past Yuki's defense and slashed Ichigo down his arm. Yuki spun around and screamed, “You coward!” and took him down.


    Ichigo then said, “don’t worry, I’m fine Yuki. you bought me just enough time”


    Ichigo screamed, “Thunder Clap”. The sky lit up and bolts of lighting struck down on all of the cloaked men with a loud bang. Ichigo then fell to his knees from pure exhaustion.


   Ichigo stated, “Go on without me, I’m gonna rest here.” Blood started rushing down his arm. He used up all of his magic power as well so he couldn’t possibly go on. 


 Yuki yelled, “I’m not leaving you here to rot!” Yuki took off his shirt and tied it around Ichigo’s arm. He then put him on his back and headed for the entrance of the fortress.


    One of the men on the ground laughed and said, “if you go in there you will surely die, there are tons more men in there way stronger than us, and that girl of yours is reviving our leader right about now.”


   Yuki screamed at the man, “You are lying! Elizabeth would never use her magic for the likes of you guys!” Yuki ran in the building completely doubting what the man said. He knew his sister would never help the Land of Darkness. Yuki busted through the door to an empty room. 


   He laughed and said, “I knew he was lying, there's not a single person in sight, let's go find Elizabeth and get out of here.” He wandered around with Ichigo on his back. He looked through every room on every floor and couldn’t find anyone. Then he came across a staircase leading down and he heard men yelling down there.


    He set Ichigo down and said, “you should probably sit this one out, I’ll come back to get you when I have Elizabeth.” Yuki then slowly walked down the long staircase only to hear more yelling. He thought to himself, “what could all of these men be yelling about down there, maybe Elizabeth is giving them a hard time, I better get down there before they hurt her.” He started to run and when he got down there he couldn’t believe what he was hearing from the men.


     He walked towards the men hearing them say, “What a good girl, you did exactly what we asked, was that so hard?” and “The King is back, let's celebrate by getting rid of this girl for good”. Then the men turned around to see Yuki standing there speechless.


     Their leader got up off the floor and said, “I’m assuming you're the brother she said not to kill. She made a little deal with my underlings that if she revives me I won’t hurt you or the Ruby Kingdom. Well that deal doesn’t apply to me!” Their leader shot a large flame at Yuki. Yuki crossed his swords and got ready to block it. The blast closed in and was so powerful it sent Yuki into the wall.


     Elizabeth screamed, “You said you wouldn’t hurt him! You guys lied to me!” A cloaked man came behind Elizabeth and tied her mouth shut.


     Yuki got up and yelled, “Get your filthy hand off of her!” and charged the man. Their king dashed in front of Yuki and sliced him across the stomach.


   The King said, “If you want to save your girl, you’re gonna have to get through me.” Yuki flew to the ground with that hit and was severely injured. Then behind him came a cloaked man.


   He was holding Ichigo and said, “Who left the trash upstairs?” and threw Ichigo's bloody body onto the floor in front of Yuki.


    Ichigo whispered, “Yuki, I’m sorry I wasn’t enough help to you, please save Lady Eliza-” He stopped talking and his eyes closed. Yuki froze as he saw Ichigo lying on the ground unconscious and his sister tied up. Rage completely took over Yuki. His eyes went completely black and a single black horn grew on the left side of his head. Yuki stood straight up and got ready to charge any enemy in sight. The king started backing away from Yuki.



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