(1700–1800): part 2

Skylar sensed the troops heading her way. Their footsteps were loud enough to be heard from far. The area was cleared of civilians, and a backup team of warriors was also set up in case further support was required. Skylar took a deep breath to calm herself and stop her heart from beating furiously. She closed her eyes. She could still sense something ominous which was bothering her very much.

As Roman team arrived at the scene, Skylar hid and waited for Shax to enter the castle so that she could commence with her part of the mission.

“Solhm, the rest of our allies will meet you in the castle,” said Ace.

“He’s good at acting too,” Skylar whispered to herself as she hid behind the poles invisible to the rest, trying to keep her aura and magic low for a while to avoid being sensed by some other being.

“All right then child, lead the way.” Shax complied with Ace.

Skylar immediately created a projection of Ace who led the way, Solhm was too busy looking for threats around the castle and thus missed the magic happening next to him. His troops were posted at the entrance and Solhm entered the castle alone. As he set foot in the castle, the door behind him shut closed due to the magic spell cast by Beatrix and immediately Ace’s projection vanished from behind Solhm.

Inside the castle, Emerald and Trixie awaited his presence. Shax realized the trap and angrily shouted obscenity, “I’m going to kill you … you little witch and all your treacherous, slimy, despicable friends.”

Emerald’s hands rested on her waist, “We’ll see about that, who’s gonna kill whom.” She started a big ball of fire out of her hands and blasted it with full force towards Shax knocking him off. He was out for a few seconds. Trixie cast a paralyzing spell on Shax. They didn’t want to wait for anything and acted swiftly.

Outside the castle, Skylar did her part. She joined her fists together to emit the magical blue iridescent light. She levitated and unleashed her magic on the minions which promptly left them devoid of power and strength. It was as if Skylar used benevolent powers to end the destructive souls. Skylar’s part was short, though important, and she played it flawlessly. The others — Lucy, Ace, and Augustus tackled the others bravely.

The recruits came to collect the unconscious bodies of the demon troops and took them away to chain them in an underground formidable prison, one of the safest in the superworld, originally created for the dark shadow beasts, whom no one has ever seen but only heard about in legends.

Suddenly out of nowhere an old alliance Sophie Layland approached Skylar and kneeled before her pleading, “Do not kill the Shax, please, tame him. He has enhanced himself with the help of dark magic. His death will mean the death of half of our realm,” she blurted.

“Sophie, what are you saying! I don’t understand, black magic, who performed it for him?”

“I don’t know Skylar, you just can’t kill him, not now at least — not now,” Sophie’s voice cracked as Skylar realized that a demon had stabbed Sophie from the back near her lungs. Sophie fell to the ground in pain as blood oozed from her wounds turning her beautiful white floral corset crimson red. Blood gushed out of her mouth. Skylar was dumbfounded by what just happened and ran up to her holding her in her arms, “Sophie oh my god, you are going to be alright, don’t worry, I got you.”

Skylar tried to heal her through her energies till she received medical help but unfortunately she had lost too much blood and the knife had stabbed one of her lungs. Sophie soon took her last heavy breath watching Skylar as her eyes were filled with tears, leaving behind her lifeless body in Skylar’s arms. Skylar was in pain to see Sophie die. They were not only allies but also had family connections. Skylar hugged Sophie as she closed her eyes with one hand and cried out loud in grief killing all the demons near her and sending tremors in all directions. The tremors were felt by Lucy, Ace, and Augustus and they were worried as they did not want Skylar to lose control. Ace approached Skylar and helped move Sofie’s body to be taken to her loved ones.

“She was a brave soul, tell them.” Skylar said to one of the guards. Lucy hugged Skylar.

The war zone was horrifying. As much as they wanted to avoid unnecessary sacrifices, it happened. No war can happen without blood and tears after all. Ace realized the gravity of the situation and went up to Skylar, he touched her shoulder lightly byway of consoling and said softly, “Skylar, I’m sorry for your loss, but you gotta get it together. Half of the remaining demon tribe is still guarding the den.”

“What!”

“Yes no time for talks … we need a plan.”

“Yes, and we can’t kill the Shax. Lucy and Augustus need to go back to the den for the rest of the demon creatures, we can’t risk them being there.” Skylar took a pause and in an angry voice added, “But this time no second chances, we are going to end them once and for all,” she said sternly looking at Ace and walked ahead.

Ace, belonging to the same demonic race, felt the heat of Skylar’s word and took it a bit personally too. He felt sort of betrayed at her utterance of demolishing all demons but didn’t say anything as they already had a lot on their plates and stopping Emerald from killing Shax was a top priority.

Skylar walked toward Lucy and Augustus and opened a portal with a yellow ray from her hand. They were instructed to enter through it fast. “Finish them,” were her last words to them. To which Lucy nodded. Augustus was not a big fan of them either so he did not hesitate to follow Lucy’s lead.

Ace went up to Skylar and said, “Is it so necessary to kill them all? Most of them are simply being manipulated, Skylar!” He said desperately.

“I tried not to, but this is all we’ve got, it’s either them or us,” Skylar concluded softly and ran towards the castle door.