Skylar was almost drained of energy while trying to open the castle door. It was protected by a lot of strong spells, a combination of both Trixie and Emerald’s magical signatures. She was exhausted at the end. Ace stood alongside Skylar and advised her to absorb some of his supernatural energy to regain her strength. She looked up to him undecided as absorbing power from him would make him considerably weak. Skylar was a lot more powerful and a little for her would be much for him.

“Do it,” he insisted.

Red sparks were exchanged between Ace and Skylar. Ace smiled and said, “Good as new.” Skylar gave off a sad smile as she saw his face getting paler. She then opened the door with full force and as she tried to enter, she was pushed back with force and fell back on the ground, breaking a rib due to the impact. The door was open, but the shield was not down yet. Skylar immediately got up, she tightly gripped her bosom below her chest and was in a lot of pain. She shouted at Emerald, “You can’t kill him Em, do not kill him.”

“What! why?” Emerald stared back with a confused look. Trixie also seemed confused at what Skylar just said but she trusted her enough not to protest.

“Sophie just informed us that his death would be a power source of emitting powerful black dark magic which will destroy most of the realm. He can’t be killed, at least not now!”

Emerald suddenly saw her chance to acquire huge power. She had access to Shax’s power source, all for herself. She exclaimed, “I got this Skylar, don’t worry,” and her eyes started to glow, and her magic closed the doors back. Another resistant spell on the door was put to avoid any unnecessary intervention to her plans.

The door in front of Skylar shut close but she could see through Emerald’s wicked and selfish plan. Her eyes had gleamed with a greed for power. The shield was too strong to be put down. Something had to be done, if Emerald absorbed the power from Shax she would be invincible, which forebode doom. Skylar wanted to talk to her desperately. Skylar instructed Ace to go deal with the rest of the demon army as they were coming out of nowhere after they came to know of their master’s captivity. Ace agreed. Skylar shouted through the windows of the castle. She couldn’t see what was happening inside, due to the cloaking effect of Emerald’s magic.

“Em don’t do this. This isn’t you,” Trixie overheard and tried to stop her, “You will get all of us into deep trouble!” Trixie tried to warn Emerald. But it seemed as if Emerald was hypnotised by the desire of supreme powers. Emerald ignored Trixie. Trixie tried to knock Emerald off and create some distance between her and Shax, but Emerald was quick to respond and reversed the attack on Trixie. Trixie sensed danger as she lay on the floor moving back as Emerald moved towards her until her back touched the wall.

“This isn’t you Emerald, don’t do this,” Trixie pleaded.

“You made me do this Trix, we could have been a team,” she softly said as she suffocated Trixie using her magic. Trixie had immense powers but lacked experience. She was not able to defend herself against Emerald. She blocked her from protecting herself. The more she tried to fight it off the closer she was to death. Trixie died an agonizing death. Emerald then smirked wickedly, “What a pity, you should have listened to me.” And began to absorb Trixie’s power. Since Trixie was a natural carrier of immense energy, the castle walls started to shake as the exchange of energy happened and powerful waves radiated out all around from inside the castle.

Skylar felt the tremors of the energy exchange and knew Trixie had died and that Emerald was absorbing her powers. If she didn’t do anything now, it would be too late for her to be able to stop Emerald, even with an army. She also knew that if she tried to kill Emerald and someone saw it, it would create a revolt however justified the reason was. She quickly strategized her moves.

She went up to Ace and ordered him to go to the den for additional help and that she will handle the situation there. He resisted at first but later complied with her order. She teleported him.

Skylar came into action. She doused the remaining demon soldiers near the castle and with her fire spell, set them all on fire. They burned in agony, causing chaos and eventually setting fire to the castle too. She played Emerald’s card on her, by putting up a spell over the castle allowing no one to leave it.

Inside the castle, Shax finally regained his consciousness but was still paralyzed. Emerald somewhat knew that she couldn’t kill him, but wanted to absorb his energy. Now that Skylar knew her plan, she feared rivalry.

Emerald immediately noticed the black smoke coming through the windows of the castle, it was on fire. She knew she didn’t have much time left. She only had one way out of this mess as well as winning the prize and that was to emanate a very powerful black magic spell to absorb the power of Shax. But for that she had to get to his head. She was not able to control him as his mind was very powerful, and he was blocking her access.

As Emerald tried that, Shax screamed, “Stop that or I will kill you.”

“After you burn to death,” Emerald screamed back.

As she continued her magic spell, Shax shrieked and howled with immense distress. Emerald realized that the fire was spreading faster. She tried to override the shield Skylar had placed. But she called to herself her own nemesis in the process. The roof caved in with enormous waves of fire coming her way. The fire raged all over the castle. The flames didn’t leave Emerald, the heat waves lashed out at her making her scream in pain too. Skylar could hear Emerald’s scream from outside. She felt her mission was nearing success. Emerald’s scream of distress was painful to her. Maybe she was not ready to accept it. Even though the two were joined very close from the very beginning, they were fierce rivals as well. The closeness and lack of opportunity never exposed their rivalry ever before. The one thing that divided them and made enemies of each other was this wretched desire for intense power.

Inside, the fire was scorching Emerald’s neck. She tried to put it off using her hands. In the process she dropped her necklace on the floor. After a lot of struggle she was able to break the shield and ran out. She had Trixie’s additional power so breaking the shield was not impossible for her.

Emerald bled, she burned and fell to the ground and panted helplessly. As she tried to escape, the fumes all around choked her lungs. She coughed and spewed soot. “How far will this go, we are nothing but enemies now …,” she said to herself as she looked towards the burning castle. She realized the damage that was caused but she never expected that her soul sister would try to kill her. She then fled the scene to avoid being seen. She wanted it to look as if she was consumed by the gigantic waves of flame.

Because of the injuries Emerald had sustained, the effects of her magic on Shax started wearing off and the intensity of paralysis weakened enabling him to escape from the castle as well.

Solhm was severely burned; his brown, rough patchy skin was now red with blisters and blood. It was next to impossible to recognize him if it weren’t for his extremely big size and demonic physical build. He was numb with rage and full of revenge. His eyes were redder than ever. He was out for blood this time, but he was ready to wait and pounce at an opportune moment even if he had to wait for a few centuries. Apart from being extremely and dangerously powerful, he had two more things that added to his monstrosity …

Patience and time …