Gusty Puppet

        “Why should I comply and hand them the mystical sphere?”

        “Good boy, he said it’s his —”

        “Go and tell that Inferno Savant: I would never give anyone anything my father left me!”

        Rakshasa put up a smile to soothe Red Boy. The once beautiful lady had now been troubled with wrinkles. “It’s just a pile of junk. Don’t undermine relationships for these... ”

        “They’re not junk!”

        Red Boy pushed away his mother and ran to the treasury angrily.

        “Bang!” Red Boy slammed the door. Mystical flames lit the room. Although the walls are still hanging with treasure, Red Boy knew it was much less than before. Once, jewels piled up like wheat on the floor; stacked chests shone with blinding light from within...But now, the wide room was left only with heavy treasure that no one troubled to take. The greenish rusted metal could not reflect the light of the mystical flames. Only one sphere in a metal helmet glowed with green light. Surrounded by other ironware, the iron helmet was linked with its cuirass in the treasury. There was a translucent green sphere mounted on to the middle of the cuirass; the sphere had symmetrical decoration on its rim.

        Red Boy approached the armor. Although his power was not as strong as his parents’, he had the most profound insights towards elements. Since his father started to bring back puppets with lost souls, Red boy had been trying to fix them. He once attempted to control one with his pneuma, but his power alone was not enough to generate agile monkey-like movements. Later, he thought of using the metal sphere — Gusty Sphere — as the puppet’s power source, but that was too valuable; Red Boy dared not take risk with treasure given by his father.

        Then, a Demon army came and demanded the sphere. As the Bull King was out for long, elves had long lost the respect for their king; they even collaborated with Demons, hoping to carve up Bull King’s fortune. Red Boy therefore made the decision: he took off the sphere’s metal cover and put it inside the puppet’s helmet.

        Red Boy picked up the puppet’s hands and feet. He was so close. With a little more effort, he could clear the puppet’s channel, and direct in the power of the mystical sphere.

        ‘I am the Bull King’s son!’

        Red Boy sat with his legs crossed and focused on his work, as if the completion of such puppet would mean the retreat of Demons and return of his missing father...