Eradication

It was a week until they were supposed to go up against Shax. The attacks had significantly decreased since the main targets of Shax were in undisclosed locations. But that didn’t mean that his targets couldn’t get to him. For a change, life gets full of surprises when the hunted becomes the hunter. A small sub-team of Kayle, Kol, Thea, and Augustus began tracking the whereabouts of Shax and tried to estimate the strength of his troops to have an idea about what they were up against.

It was found that Shax was in the same old castle that was burned to the ground, which was quite eerie. It was as if he knew they were coming for him yet again. His troop was bigger than they had thought, but with their own better equipped and trained team they had nothing to fear of they thought. Skylar had not informed anyone about Elizabeth and her appearance as she felt they might be overwhelmed or unduly anxious.

Two days before they were going up against Solhm, there was another attack, but this was different. He had taken hostages and did not just go on a killing spree. The hostages were two witch kids. Their mother approached Lucy with her plea to save her kids from the demon. Lucy and Skylar enquired about the happenings of the incident. They were not surprised to hear that the kids were twins, which meant that they possessed a special set of powers. He had either kidnapped them to make Emerald vulnerable or to mess with their head or he wanted a backup again to keep himself safe if things did not go in his favor, which wasn’t going to happen anyway, according to him.

On the day of the mission, everyone geared up and divided into their respective team units.

“You’re going to be all right,” said Aiden to Jade with a reassuring smile.

“Yes, I will, I got you all by my side,” Jade smiled.

Kayle entered and hugged Jade from behind, “We should get going,” Kayle said and left the room. Aiden and Jade shared a hug, and he kissed her on her forehead. He knew he had to protect Jade at all costs. He won’t let anyone hurt Jade. The vampire crew was ready and waited in the meeting arena. The werewolves were gathered around their Alpha as she said, “For all we have lost, we must avenge their deaths; their sacrifice must not go unanswered!” All the other werewolves were motivated by Thea’s words and roared with enthusiasm.

Augustus then approached Thea and asked, “You ready?”

She inhaled deeply and said, “Yes.” Thea walked alongside Augustus towards the garden, “You know we all have lost plenty at the hands of this demon, and we don’t even know him, what all vengeance and hate can make you do, it’s plentiful you know, in a negative way.”

“Yes, it is, I remember centuries ago in the 1700s when we first went up against him, we were naïve enough to go unprepared. There were so many, we were so busy playing our personal games with each other. There were disputes going within which made us weak to our core. A strong building can’t stand on a cracked foundation. But this time we are united. That’s what makes us stronger.”

He gave Thea a reassuring smile, Thea smiled back and looked towards the floor, Augustus noticed something was off, he cupped her face and said, “Hey there is nothing to worry about, we will all get through this together.”

“I can’t lose any more of my people, it’s not just about my people … I don’t want anyone to lose their life behind the sham of a cause … a cause that doesn’t even exist apparently.”

“They won’t,” Augustus said and hugged her.

She felt goosebumps as she smiled and hugged him back.

Augustus smiled to himself. He had wanted to do that.

“You know you look really ugly when you are sad,” Augustus poked Thea to make her laugh.

She laughed and said, “And you know what … you always look ugly no matter what mood.”

“Ouch” Augustus reacted keeping a hand on his chest as if it got pierced.

At the same time at Skylar’s apartment, she was getting all the necessary things ready, going through the important heavy magical spells about protection over again from an enormous grimoire like a lunatic. She suddenly heard a knock on the door that made her jump slightly. She went to open it, as she pulled the door towards her, her eyes met a set of green ones.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi, come in.”

As Ace entered the apartment he noticed the mess, “You know everything’s gonna be fine right, so stop overburdening yourself.”

“We thought the same last time, we must be prepared for the worst, Ace.’

“We are, Skylar.”

“I hope so …” she muttered to herself.

Ace went up to the table and closed the grimoire, “You have been doing this for centuries you know it all. You are the most powerful creature dwelling on this earth and you got us to back you.”

“What could go wrong,” Skylar said and chuckled. “Thank you for always being there Ace, it means a lot.” Suddenly there was an air of tension in the room.

Neither knew what to do next. Ace smiled and said, “You don’t have to thank me.”

“I can never repay you for your support.”

“Um yes you can …”

Skylar furrowed her eyebrows and looked confused and suddenly she realized what Ace meant,

“Oh- n-no no …”

“But I didn’t even say anything, Sky,” Ace said and laughed looking at her face which was full of nervousness. “Oh, but I know what you are going to say.”

“It’s just one dance, just like old times.”

“No Ace I’m not going for a dance, not with you or anyone else.”

“Why would you even go with someone else when I’m here,” Ace said and winked.

“Oh! Shut up!”

“Okay a dinner date then.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“Ya, looking forward to it, Sky,” Ace said.

As Skylar walked towards her room, “I’ll think about it, no commitments,” she said loudly from her room.

Ace laughed to himself, he was happy how things were turning between him and Skylar. He had always cared about Skylar not just as friends but something more than that. He knew Skylar was a reserved person when it came to her personal life, but she was comfortable with him. Skylar informed Ace that Lucy and Emerald were on their way back to her apartment and that she wanted them to meet someone.

“Meet someone, as in a new addition?”

“Sort of,” Skylar said shrugging and inhaled deeply.

“Let them get here then I’ll show who it is.”

Lucy and Emerald entered the apartment in a few minutes.

“Finally, you decided to make an appearance.”

“Shut up Ace, we had work to do,” Emerald said to Ace without any emotion and she kept her bag on the couch.

“What is it Skylar?” Lucy asked with concern.

“There is someone I need you guys to meet. A new addition.”

“A new addition, am I hearing this right?” Emerald asked questioningly as all the people they could trust with this mission were already a part and it was pretty obvious not to include a stranger into this mess.

“Yes, Em new addition,” she said calmly.

Skylar then closed her eyes and hummed something. After a few seconds, Elizabeth Lindale stood beside her. Emerald was stunned to see her, her mouth remained open for a few seconds while she raised an eyebrow and said, “This is the new addition!”

Lucy added, “You? What are you doing here?” Ace glanced confusedly at Skylar.

“Yes, I know it’s weird, and you must be wondering what she is doing after all these years, etc. etc. But she is only here to help, that’s it, she is older than us; she has the experience she will support us in case things go out of control.”

Emerald disliked the idea. She furrowed her eyebrows, “What if she’s on Shax’s side and only here to sell us out.” Elizabeth replied to it promptly, “Could say the same about you Emerald darling.”

“Please the two of you stop, Em she knows if she double-crosses me she won’t leave on her feet.”

Ace was impressed at this, “I trust Skylar that’s the only reason I’m agreeing to this,” Lucy said.

“And I don’t have a choice do I,” Emerald said.

Ace turned to Elizabeth and said, “You better not do something stupid lady, or it won’t end well,” he practically threatened her. Elizabeth nodded but she smiled happily to see that Skylar had people who were loyal to her around her and for the fact that she could see directly through Ace’s heart, through his love for Skylar.

“We must get going now, everyone would be waiting for us,” Skylar said and opened her apartment door for everyone to leave.

Once everyone left it was only her and Emerald. Emerald abruptly hugged Skylar, it was like a lifetime ago they had shared a hug. “I won’t let you down this time Sky!”

Skylar was reluctant at first but eventually hugged her back and whispered, “I hope you won’t.” They looked at each other with emotion and then left the apartment.

Everyone soon gathered on the large ground, and they collected all the necessary weapons they needed, knives, daggers, spears, broadsword. etc. One of the wolves rose and questioned Skylar, “How are we gonna approach Shax, we’re not just gonna go and knock at his door for a fight?”

Skylar turned towards her and smiled, “That’s exactly what we are going to do.”

She further added, “There is no scope for negotiations anymore, he will try to play around and agitate us to make a mistake and mess up so that he can use that opportunity to overpower us. But we are all better and clever than this. We are one and today we will put an end to him for good.”

Everyone’s head held high proudly as they heard Skylar. She was right. Shax had cost a lot of damage to everyone.

On the other hand, Shax was fully prepared for the attack. He knew that they were getting the fight directly to his doorstep. One of the twins that Shax had taken hostage had the ability to locate any person through their minds. Shax had manipulated the young child into telling him about their whereabouts and when Skylar was expected to attack for the sake of his sister’s life.

Skylar’s army marched towards the ancient castle. The cavalry was full of vengeance against Shax, and they certainly were not going to leave without having him bleed. They just had to be careful enough to let out the twins to safety before they started the fight with Shax. Once the troop was close enough to the castle, Skylar told them to stay put as she along with Emerald went forward towards the castle.

That day before coming for the battle, Jade met up with Emerald and decided it was for the best to give the locket back to Emerald as it was hers to keep as long as she lives, and it must pass on after she dies, yes she did make mistakes, bad ones in life, but she was also attempting for redemption. Emerald now touched the golden locket tightly strung around her neck as she took a deep breath and looked towards Skylar nodding.

“We got this Sky,” Skylar nodded back.

Only some part of the burned castle was covered. The rest was consumed by the flames earlier. As they reached the old dilapidated door of the castle they swung it open. It was completely dark inside.

Ace was on alert outside to march at the hint of the signal.

A sudden sense of déjà vu struck the duo.

After entering the old ruins, it did not scare the two. This was expected, they were ready for whatever Solhm had in mind for them. They came prepared … they knew he was hiding in the shadow.

“Show yourself you coward,” Emerald exclaimed with anger. The silhouette of a demon was visible from the opposite end of the castle, he looked terrifying. Shax was about two times the size of Emerald and Skylar both put together.

“You chose strong words, Emerald, I see you got company.” He said as he glared at Skylar with a smirk on his half-burned menacing face as he approached the light that was peeping out through the broken wood of the old castle.

“I did not know you wanted to die, along with several others standing outside, you know you both can still send them and do them a favor.” Shax said gathering his wits.

“Well, you certainly are not being given the same opportunity today. Any last wishes before death hugs you but don’t leave unlike the last time.”

Skylar said raising her eyebrows, “You made your decision then,” he replied.

“No going back now,” Emerald said sharply.

Skylar cracked her neck from side to side and knew that the fight was about to start and she wanted to be the first to strike so she used her powers with immense strength and blew open the doors of the castle. This was an indication for Ace to bring the troops to the fight party.

Shax’s army sprinted from the back of the castle as they entered from the opposite sides. Both the armies ran towards each other with immense anger and vengeance. Only to kill was coded in their minds. The atmosphere was filled with the heat of the war; bloodshed had returned to the grounds from where it all had started centuries ago, but this time it was to put an end to it.

Augustus, Thea along with their troops, Aiden, Jade, Bree, and the Layland siblings were tackling the minions of Shax as decided, they were in large number. They were outnumbered but their skills were immense to fight against the lot. Thea and Augustus paired up as they slashed open the demons approaching them and occasionally exchanging their weapons. Jade had mastered her ability to control fire. As she stood there closing both her eyes sending balls of flames by opening them. With all her strength, she pushed her hands in front of her killing all enemies in her way. Aiden and Jade were standing back-to-back as they took care of each side.

“A little help here would be good,” Kayle exclaimed as she was being crowded by too many demons. “I got you,” Kol said as he pierced the demons in their heads with his arrows.

They were in control over Shax army. Kol made more kills and every time striking them in between their eyes. Shax had underestimated them this time. He was overconfident. His opponents were far more prepared than he was or ever could be, and he was too naïve and foolish to think that they would make the same mistakes again.

On the other hand, Skylar, Ace, and Emerald approached Shax, while Lucy had gone to find the twins and get them to safety. Skylar rubbed her hands together as they emitted blue light and her eyes gleamed purple. She struck Shax on his head with it; it burned him severely, “I’ll ask you again, any last wishes?” Skylar shouted at Solhm who was down on the ground.

Shax roared back and said, “You wish!” Emerald then took her trident and tried to pin it with all her strength into Shax’s chest. He dodged it at first, but eventually Emerald held it up and threw it in his direction, piercing his chest. Blood splattered on the sides of Emeralds face. She stood there breathing heavily. Shax was dead. Ace moved towards it to check; he showed no sign of life.

“He’s dead,” Ace said as he tried to move it. Skylar looked at his miserable body for a second and smiled. “He got what he deserved.”

“That’s right, but wasn’t it too easy? He didn’t even put up a fight Sky.” Emerald questioned, she was uncertain of it, a bad feeling went up Skylar’s spine. “You’re right, he couldn’t be expecting so little from us that he had nothing prepared apart from a useless army that knows nothing about fighting.”

“Somethings not right!” Ace quickly said. They all stared at the body lying lifelessly in front of them.

It was an illusion. It wasn’t actually Shax but one of his pawns who willingly sacrificed himself for him. By the time the trio could register Shax’s brilliant move, someone struck Skylar on her back causing her to fall hard on the ground. She groaned in pain. It was the actual Shax this time. He wanted to weaken his opponents. He had underestimated them. He had thought by the time he comes out of hiding, half of Skylar’s army would be dead. But it was the opposite. The group fighting the minions was overpowering Shax’s filthy soldiers … it intimidated him. “Pathetic that he couldn’t even take out one of you,” he said as he glared at the dead body lying beside the broken wood.

“Don’t worry you can tell it to him yourself once you meet him in hell in some time,” Emerald said as she went for Shax’s head. She was immediately thrown back by Shax due to his immense size as compared to the others. Ace unleashed his demonic side as his eyes turned red and he turned to his true form — a dreadful demon he went with full force against Shax. He was able to put up a good fight. Since both were old souls they were worthy opponents. Ace was trying to understand Shax’s pattern of attack to strike him harder, but Shax was quicker each time. This gave Skylar and Emerald the time to get up and revive themselves. Skylar used her left hand to take the weapon out of her back where she was stabbed. She cried out in pain as she pulled it out.

Solhm was attacked by all three from each side. Ace had stabbed Shax numerous times on his legs making it hard for him to stand. Skylar using her power along with Emerald was weakening him even more. It was burning him from insides. There was a sense of fear in his eyes, the tables were turning this time, Shax had not suspected it, he was too overconfident.

Lucy on the other hand was desperately looking for the twins everywhere, behind every door, inside every cottage but they were nowhere to be found when out of nowhere a small hand touched Lucy’s. She saw a little boy and could sense fear in him. “I need your help,” he pleaded looking at Lucy. She knew that he was one of the twins, “Are you Caelan?” She enquired just to be sure.

“Yes, I am,” his voice trembled, he was scared and hurt.

“Where is Cipher?” Lucy enquired as she asked him about his sister.

“The demon has Cipher locked in the dungeon. She needs our help. Please help my sister. He made her do some bad work. I don’t know what it is, but she is not fine I suspect,” he said as tears rolled down his rosy cheeks. He held Lucy’s hand tightly and ran into the open land as far as he could, Lucy followed him. They ran until they reached a dead end, Lucy was confused and asked, “Where are we? Where is your sister?” There was silence for a few seconds and Lucy was going impatient. She had to go back to help her friends and make sure they were okay, but she also had to get the twins to safety. “Caelan, we don’t have much time dear, where is your sister?”

Caelan took a deep breath, his little eyes as blue as the ocean were full of fear, with that he unveiled an old rusty iron door, it probably led to the basement that held Cipher captive. “Is she in there?” Lucy questioned before heading towards it.

“Yes.”

“Come on let’s go then.” He nodded, as they entered, darkness spread everywhere and it was quite difficult to look around for a while. As they moved forwards, Lucy found a bunch of unconscious guards who worked for Shax. She was suspicious at first, because she thought that the twins could have very easily escaped since the guards could have posed no trouble to them, then why didn’t they?

As she moved along the dreadful walls of the basement her eyes met light, a perfectly white cell with white lights that held Cipher captive. Caelan ran towards the door and said with distress, “I’m not able to get my sister out of this cell, we need to hurry up before the guards wake up.”

Lucy nodded, she glared at the lock of the door. It was just an ordinary lock by appearance but was enchanted with a spell powerful enough that was not to be broken by the twins as they did not have much knowledge about spells yet. Lucy held the lock in both her hands as she closed her eyes and chanted a simple spell and it broke open the door. Cipher ran towards the door and hugged her brother as she wept uncontrollably. She was just a child being held captive by the super villain who was so against the peaceful existence of the realms.

Cipher was breathing heavily; it took a few seconds for her to catch her breath. She immediately looked at Lucy and said with a lot of fear and concern in her eyes, “We need to hurry up and go back to your friends.”

Lucy got worried and immediately interrupted, “Is there something you need to tell me Cipher?”

She knew something was wrong, and it finally made sense as to why Shax had kidnapped the twins in the first place. Lucy further added, “What did he make you do?” she asked anxiously.

“H … he made me cast a spell, I didn’t know what spell it was. He also threatened to kill Caelan, I … I didn’t have a choice.” Cipher said as tears ran down her red swollen eyes, which was evident as she had been crying since long.

“What spell Cipher?” Lucy asked. She dreaded the answer.

“I don’t know, but I’m sure that it might kill someone whosoever tries to harm Shax either after he dies or while he’s being killed.”

“Do you remember it? Anything!”

“Yes, I remember some of it.”

Cipher then said few foreign words. Lucy tracked the spell and its kind.

“Oh my god we need to hurry up!” Lucy exclaimed and she ran towards the staircase. Cipher and Caelan followed. As they came back to the top, Caelan cloaked the door again so that no one could find the seemingly lifeless guards.

The spell that Shax had forcefully made Cipher apply was to kill the person whosoever tried to absorb his powers. He very well knew that in case he dies, someone will try to take his energy for his or her own sake and he wanted to take that person down with him. There was only one person capable of doing that.

Lucy was sure that Emerald would never let an opportunity like this go in vain which increased her worries. Although she despised her very much, it was not enough to let her die. She was also scared for Skylar what if this madness makes her do something she was not likely to do. Lucy was not ready to lose either one of them despite their differences. With all the energy they had in them the trio ran towards the rest of the crew.

They were on the verge of collapse, but they could not stop; the twins were quite matured themselves given their age and could very well understand Lucy’s fear. They understood her hastiness and did not pose any questions.

During the fight between the rest of the people, Shax was clearly overpowering. Skylar, Emerald, and Ace were exhausted. They had been fighting for hours. Whereas it was the exact opposite in the case of his minions on the tribe. Thea, Augustus, Aiden, and Jade had taken pretty good care of the situation, they had put most of the terrible looking demons to death. Only a handful more were left. They decided that after dealing with them they would go inside to help the rest defeat Shax, the real monster.

Inside, Skylar was too stunned by the fact that even the three of them together were not able to put him down. They were immensely powerful beings but all their attacks were going in vain, barely weakening him. Shax saw the confused look on her face and gave off a wicked grin and said, “Skylar, surprised, are you? You see me tackle you, your good-for-nothing witch, and this taint to us demons!”

Skylar narrowed her eyes in anger and anguish.

Shax then added to clear his stance, “The blood of some handful dispensable souls came in handy you know.” He laughed as if those lives that he took of his own people meant nothing to him.

The three could see right through the dark, rusted soul of Shax and knew that he was pathetically full of dark energy.

Despite this, there was only one thought lingering in Skylar’s mind, where the hell was her grandmother!

She started to doubt her decision about letting her in and thought that it might be her tricks to push her into the ominous environment making her think that she would fight alongside her. How could she be so nice all of a sudden, after centuries of not showing up she decides to come up to her doorstep just before she was going up against her rival. She was pretty sure that all this was a sham and felt pathetic about herself for falling for it. She was now in a very difficult position to choose their next strategy to defeat Solhm as she vowed not to lose even a single life on the battlefield to unholy Shax. Thoughts clouded her mind.

She was suddenly brought back from her thoughts by Shax passing yet another comment, “Confused are you Skylar, or scared? But don’t you worry sweet one, you will get the honor to die at the hands of the mighty Shax himself. Take it as an honor and pride and bow before me, save the trouble of further suffering for your people, come surrender to the soul of Shax.”

His words filled Ace with irresistible anger, and he lashed onto Shax targeting his chest with a large sharp metal weapon and using his claws scratched his right eye out. Shax yelled and shrieked in pain.