Read The Rising Sun: Episode 5 for Free Online

knew they were all gone. It was
highly unlikely that anyone had survived that cursed battle, which
the Xeni had thrown upon them in surprise…
     
    But his heart clutched the front of his chest
as he realised he had been wrong…
     
    “You’re alive!” he shrieked, staring into the
holo screen with a familiar face in it:
    Mantra, the master he had just tried calling,
had suddenly picked up. His face stared out of the holo screen,
standing in a strange, indiscernible background. Some sort of a
hallway. In undoubtedly a lavish looking place.
     
    “Galinor?” Mantra’s brows contracted, as if
wondering if what he was seeing at was real. Then a look of
profound relief flooded his wizened features. “Thank the heavens. I
see we aren’t as alone as we thought we were.”
     
    “What’s happening, Mantra?” asked Galinor,
hearing the desperacy in his own voice. “Who else is alive? Who
else made it?” He paused, trying to spot something familiar amongst
the background Mantra was standing in. “And where are you?”
     
    “I’m here on something important.” said
Mantra. “Something crucially important.”
     
    “What do you mean?”
     
    Mantra tilted his head slightly, his frown
deepening. “I see there’s quite a lot you need to catch up on. Very
well, brace yourself…”
     
     
    Galinor thought that the discovery of another
master being alive would bring a new of hope … He had been terribly
wrong. After hearing what Mantra had just told him. After hearing
the situation … he almost wished he hadn’t called him.
     
    “They’re blowing off ten planets?” he asked,
his voice high pitched. “One hour each?”
     
    But Mantra wasn’t finished … he went on, and
now there was a break of hope in his tone.
     
     
    Watchmen! Galinor felt the world
suddenly twist around him. Mantra went on, telling Galinor of how
Ion was now ferrying the crystal across the outer spectrum, to the
priest, Nalrez, to have it destroyed. Meanwhile, Mantra, Dantox and
the watchmen were intending to find and tear down the ten
bombs.
     
    “Tell me where you are,” said Galinor
sternly. “I’m joining you.”
     
    To his surprise, the aged master shook his
head. “We have more than enough forces. The watchmen, Dantox and
myself alone can handle this. You, on the other hand have a far
more important task at hand: not getting caught by the Xeni.”
     
    “What do you mean?”
     
    “The Xeni will be looking for us,” said
Mantra. “For survivors. And if they catch you, they’ll weed
everything out of you, and we don’t need that. The plan that you’ve
just heard - especially regarding the crystal and whatever’s
happening to it - needs to stay very well veiled. We don’t want it
falling to the Xeni’s ears. If they learn of it, they’ll try and
stop Ion, and get the crystal from him.”
     
    “So, I just stay here?” asked Galinor,
frowning.
     
    Mantra drifted to thought for a moment.
     
    “For now, yes.” he said, nodding. “When
developments occur, I’ll have you informed, and you can join us.
But for now, stay where you are. And don’t risk getting yourself
caught by the Naxim, or worse: the Xeni.”
     
    “And what’re you upto?” asked Galinor, eyeing
the elegantly decorated hallway the master was now in.
     
    Mantra sent a brief glance back, down the
long hall he was in. Then, softly, he said, “I’ve gotten a lead on
finding these ten bombs.”
     
    Galinor knew that, with Mantra’s powerful
mystic senses, he would have managed to have a trace detected on
something, or someone, in almost no time … He felt a swell of
gratitude for the fact that despite the utter desperacy of this
grave time, the ancient master was left alive. Mantra was a boon to
them like no other, and he was the reason they had endured for
eight thousand years, without dying out.
     
    “Well, Godspeed.” said Galinor, with a curt
nod. “And good luck.”
     
    “We’ll be needing a bit of both.” said
Mantra.
     
    And