by J D Dench
“I’ve returned for the Sword,” the creature hissed with a large smile none could see. It turned its eyes to Silvia and leaned forward. “All fear me but her. I’m here to make her pay.”
The creature was something out of her nightmares. All of the other Demons she had faced appeared as nothing compared to the one in front of her.“Me?” Silvia’s voice was broken. “I’m afraid!”
“Don’t say that,” Leif hissed from between his teeth.
The Demon’s laugh was a hiss into the nighttime sky. “The Sword user does not fear me! But she will. She will, damn it!”
Understanding dawned in Silvia’s eyes. “Oh, you’re after Kayla. But...but what did she do to you?”
“I’m glad you asked!” The voice boomed over the silent lands. A slimy green tongue rolled from its mouth, slowly licking over its lips as green saliva pooled from its mouth. “She thinks she killed me. Her and that masked man who now owns the Hammer. They are both my prey. Maybe you have heard of me.
“I am Tortuine.”
Chapter Eighteen
Matias was sound asleep beside Kayla when the Demon spawned outside the Hole. He was having a dream he was all too familiar with. A dream of the Demon King killing everybody he knew. Matias was strung up to a post and forced to watch his lands burn.
Matias, Hamerst told him. His voice sounded weary, and for the first time Matias wondered how much pain the ancient Dwarf felt about the death of so many of his people. A portal has opened. You must wake up.
A portal? Here? It has to be a Demon.
Matias woke up in an instant, sitting upright so quickly it woke Kayla from her sleep. Before she could say anything he turned toward her. “A portal is opened. There’s something outside.”
She just stared at him until her mind woke up. Dawning slowly glimmered in her eyes. “I have a bad feeling about this,” she muttered as she climbed out of bed to pull on her armor. “Dream made it sound like something was coming this way. Something bad.”
She went for the door. Matias grabbed her hand and stopped her. She turned to fight with him, but she saw the look in his eyes. They weren’t full of anger or hostility. They were of compassion. “We will take them out together,” he reminded her. “No stupid decisions. We work better together.”
She nodded her head and leaned toward him, planting a gentle kiss on his lips. “We need to get Liz,” she said quietly as he pushed for a second kiss. Together, they left the room.
They found Liz already in the hallway with her armor on. She was talking quickly to Olap and his Dwarves, pointing in various directions as if trying to give orders. Liz saw Kayla come in and ran over to her. “It’s Tortuine! He’s not dead. He’s back, and he’s out there with Leif, Hanika and Silvia.”
“How is he alive?” Matias asked.
“It doesn’t matter. We have to help them. Three Elves against that Demon?” Kayla turned to Matias. “Let’s go.”
“No,” Matias argued. “They have his attention. Let him stay distracted while we make a plan.”
“I have to agree with Matias,” Liz added. “They’re already fighting. Maybe they can take him, but we need to plan in case they really need help.”
“Are you kidding me?” Kayla turned to them. “You want to risk their lives?”
“It’s just like you told me,” Liz explained. “Running into a fight blind will get us killed, and Azzaan will take advantage of that.”
The three of them ran to the entrance where they could see the clearing. The trio of Elves were facing off against the Demon. Liz and Matias were right. The three of them may be able to take down the Demon themselves.
“Alright, what do you two have planned?”
Meanwhile, Leif was leading the charge outside. He drew his dragon-bone dagger in one hand, handling the Eternal Flame in the other with ease. When the Demon lunged for an attack, he blocked the incredible power of the strike with Rizza’s sword, using the dagger to give the blade extra support. But he was only able to block one arm at a time.
Tortuine’s other arm would slash out at Leif but be redirected by the nun-chucks used by Hanika. She wrapped the chain around the arm and pulled the strike toward her. Then the Demon would lunge at her with his other arm, but Hanika would roll out of the way. Her and Leif were too fast for the Demon to strike, and they were too experienced in battle for him to outmaneuver.
Silvia was unsure what to do. Hanika and Leif fought incredibly together. They fought well enough to match with the Demon, but not enough to overpower him. And if they grew tired, the Demon would take both of them and then come for her, Silvia realized. But Silvia couldn’t grow the courage to attack the Demon. Her blade hung at her side, her hand around the hilt but unwilling to draw the weapon.
“Silvia!” Leif shouted, but she couldn’t budge. He cursed loudly and called her name again.
“Help us,” Hanika cried desperately. “We can’t hold him off forever!”
But Silvia stood there as Hanika was knocked aside by a sudden and swift kick from the Demon. With its arm free it turned its full attention to Leif. With a snarl, it raised both blades.
“You fight well, but you are no match for a true warrior,” the creature mocked. Both blades came down with a sudden burst of speed. Leif prepared himself to block them both, but he knew he couldn’t do it. He just wasn’t strong enough.
Silvia knew she wasn’t good for much. She was a below average warrior. She wasn’t the smartest of all the Elves. She wasn’t the bravest. But she did have one thing that very few could admit to. She let her heart speak for her in every sense of the word. And when she saw the blades dancing in the air and aiming for Leif, she did the only thing her heart cried out for her to do. With a deep breath, she pushed her feet to the dirt and sprinted for Leif. Her sword dropped from her waist. Her eyes filled with tears. And her breath escaped her lungs. As soon as she was close enough, she dove and pushed Leif with all of her strength.
Leif fell to the ground with a grunt, his sword and dagger falling from his hands and landing next to him. And he looked up just in time to see Silvia’s perfect eyes looking at him one final time. The swords bit into her, one pushing into her chest and ripping through her stomach. The other met her body just below her neck, pulling her head away from her upper body. One second she was there, her eyes meeting his, tears streaming down her face. The next, she was gone. The only thing left was the slumped over body on the dirt. Her tears watered the ashes as she fell into them, her light hair hiding her face from the rest of the world as she left this one and went to the next.
I watched her die. I watched her die to save me. I saw the tears in her eyes. I saw the helplessness on her face. I saw the compassion in her tears. I saw the pureness of her heart. She killed herself to save me. She couldn’t fight, but she could save. That is what she was meant to do, and it wasn’t until her last seconds of bravery that she realized it.
She was not meant to be a warrior. That’s why she studied with me and helped people. She was meant to save lives, simply because she couldn’t protect them.
This is what Liz had to face. Only there were two differences. She had to face her lover when he was reanimated, and they actually got to tell each other how they felt. I’ll never know how she felt. I waited too long.
His heart shattered for the second time in his chest, but this time is wasn’t from being broken. It was from the words unsaid. Tears stung his eyes, but he fought them back. With a cry as loud as thunder, he grabbed the Eternal Flame and felt the power inside of it reignite to match the flame inside his own chest. He snatched up his dagger and charged at the Demon head-on with a battle cry unlike any other.
Hanika was behind the Demon. She saw Leif running for the Demon, just as she saw the death of Silvia and felt her own heart crushed again as she remembered Ti’a. She knew what Leif was feeling. He never got to say anything, that was their difference. But he had been there for her. He had been there to save Hanika from herself.
“I will fi
ght,” she said to herself. She grabbed the nunchucks in one hand and drew her own sword in the other. “I will fight for Ti’a just as you fight for Silvia, Leif.”
They charged at the Demon from two different sides, and, even though they were tired, they fought with renewed energy. Leif let out cries of anger as he pushed for the extra attack. From time to time, his speed was too much for Tortuine. He lunged out with his dagger, using his quick strikes to his advantage.
The Demon howled in pain and jumped away from his two attackers. “Impossible!” he shouted, reaching toward his chest where the dagger sliced away the dark goo of his skin, leaving behind bright green blood trickling down his torso. “How could you cut through my skin? Only the most powerful of weapons can hurt me!”
“Then you haven’t met my dagger,” Leif snarled. He landed and stood in battle formation, his dagger crossed in front of his sword. Hanika ran to his side in a similar formation, only her nunchucks crossed over her blade. “My dagger is the sharpest that has ever existed.”
The Demon began retreating back toward his hole in the earth. “I don’t need to fight you two,” he snarled. “Azzaan will finish you for me. I just needed to send a message, and that dead Elf should serve just fine.”
As he backed away, he turned and froze in place. Between him and the hole, standing on the darkness between them, was Kayla and Matias. They wore their battle armor from the weapons, both of their faces filled with fury. Liz stood beside Kayla, Arrieta’s Bow in hand and shining brilliantly in the darkness around them. Olap stood to Matias’ side, his twelve Dwarven companions standing behind them. In one of Olap’s hands was the dagger of Ulverich, the father to Ulp and Gremlin. In the other was the hammer to his comrade Reginald, the head of the hammer still cracked from where Galruman had broken it.
“Where are you going?” Kayla asked Tortuine, stepping in front of the others. She held up her finger blades and hit them off one another, sending a light tapping sound echoing through the land around the Hole.
Tortuine saw her, and all three of his eyes went from red to white. They all opened to make perfect o-shaped circles. “So it’s true,” he said quietly, though his voice carried in the air. “The weapons did give you armor. And I can sense its power. The armor is even more powerful, isn’t it?”
Matias stepped beside Kayla, his arms raised to flash his axes. “Enough talk. It’s your time to die. For good this time.”
The eyes went to Matias and returned to a glowing red. The tongue came out and licked along the Demon’s mouth once more. “I remember you. The archer that shot that wretched arrow, though I recall you used to wear a mask.”
“Hey!” Leif shouted, his voice sounding like something from Tortuine’s world. “Forget about them, you’re mine!”
Tortuine turned to meet the Elf, but he never got there. Leif’s dagger met the Demon’s chest. With a snarl, and a Demonic cry from Leif’s lungs, he pulled down the entire torso of Tortuine and cut the Demon into two. With a cry, as tears stung his eyes, Leif continued stabbing the dead Demon over and over in the chest.
The red from the eyes faded, the goo falling to the earth. The darkness retreated to the hole as it closed itself up, leaving only two piles of blackness on the ground where the Demon had stood.
And when they others went to congratulate Leif, all they heard were his sobs as he finally let himself cry. And nobody knew what to say, so they left him there. All except Hanika, who sat by his side and let him cry into her shoulder.
“I know,” Hanika hushed, running her fingers through his hair. “I know.”
Liz was alone with Kayla and Matias. She had been close with Silvia and felt bad for the girl. Silvia had only wanted to help people, and Liz sent her with Olap and his team because she had been hoping it would make the girl a stronger warrior. But in the end, it had been her pure heart that had done the most good.
“Do we leave now?” Liz asked them. She refused to look at the wielders of the weapons, who were sitting on her bed. “Do we leave for the Elven Kingdom now that another one of my fighters has been killed? Or do we wait for another Demon to come find us and kill Leif or Hanika?”
“I don’t think we should head to the Elven Kingdom at all, actually,” Kayla shot back. She couldn’t contain the anger in her tone. She didn’t like the way Liz was talking to them, and she wanted the Elf to know it. “The girl came back as I thought she would. She thinks Azzaan is going to lose but will fight with him because he is her brother. And since he saved her life, she feels like she owes him. And she wants the power he has, whether he lives or dies.”
“Where should we be going, pray tell, as my Kingdom burns to the ground?”
Never before had Liz sounded so old. Her voice was tired, and her tone was defeated. For the first time, Kayla wondered what it actually cost Liz to run the Palace by herself. Her parents had run it together for years. Liz was alone. And how old was the Elven Queen, anyway?
“The woman said something about Minicule. That she would see us there.” Kayla turned to Matias. “I think that is where Azzaan is planning to wait for us.”
“Azzaan is a strategist,” Matias replied. “That would be the smart move. We would walk right past Minicule, so he could trap us between himself and his army at the Elven Kingdom. In fact, we would be cornered in the Elven Kingdom, with the Demon Lands in the third direction. So it would be the ultimate trap.”
“That’s why we waited another day, Liz,” Kayla told her. “Because we would have walked into a trap. Instead, we got information. Would Silvia be better if she died in a trap or died by saving someone she cared about?”
Liz didn’t answer. She left the room with her eyes closed, almost as if she couldn’t even keep her energy up anymore.
“You know Dream will be there,” Kayla said to Matias. “Last time, she trapped us. But I feel like she’s grown weaker since last time.”
Matias stared at the door Liz had gone through. He was deep in thought. It took several minutes before he answered Kayla. “We will fight her together. Just like last time.”
“And if she escapes again?”
“Then we take her out next time. And every other time she comes back.” He turned his gaze to her. “We fight together until she learns she can’t fight only one of us. She won’t get you, Kayla.”
“I know,” Kayla muttered. “She isn’t after me. She’s after you.”
She told Matias what had happened in the dream and everything that was said. His face grew more concerned by the minute, and when she finished talking, she reached up for the necklace and felt its absence immediately.
She could see the hurt in Matias’ eyes as he searched for words to comfort her. For some promise he could make her. Anything he could say to make her feel any better. But at the end of the day, all he could do was hold her until Hanika came in and told them it was time to go.
“Together,” he said finally, “we can’t lose. She won’t defeat us.”
Kayla held her breath. I hope not.
Chapter Nineteen
The departure from the Dwarven Kingdom was quiet. The breeze didn’t seem to blow at all. The world was in a hush, as if waiting in anticipation for the battle that was about to begin. Liz was still angry at Kayla and Matias for not allowing her to leave while Silvia had been still alive. Leif was in mourning, only turning to Hanika for companionship, since they had a bond that few could understand. Kayla and Matias had no words to say, and Olap went with them, though his mind seemed to stay in the Hole with the Dwarves.
The group left the Hole and traveled South-East, traveling around a large lake that blocked their path. Olap remembered that lake. He stopped in front of it and fell to his knees, cupping water and rubbing it against his face. The hot sun was baking them alive. He stared into the waters, as if begging the lake to drain away the memories of this place. Or possibly seeking the body of his companion who was slain there.
“This is where we lost Tony,” he told the others as they stopped to refill
their water supply. “This is the lake where Tony trained with our greatest warrior, Lemeldo. Lemeldo was assassinated, and Reginald was the one to find them in the morning.” He looked into the water and could almost feel the evil staring back at him. “This is the last time we saw the human Tony.”
They refilled their water and began moving around the lake. They passed near a small town just on the outskirts of the Dwarven Kingdom and Demon Lands. Nobody there knew it, but this was the city where Tony had been forced to watch his captors murder an innocent child simply because she had been talking to Tony. This had been the place where his humanity has cracked. And that crack was all it took for the Demon King to turn him against the human race.
Liz and Leif were surprised that there was no attacks made by Azzaan on their journey. Kayla and Matias knew there wouldn’t be one. Azzaan thought he was immortal. A Demon God. With the remains of his army, he would think he could never be stopped. He would prepare for his ambush as he had planned, thinking he had the Chosen Ones cornered.
We’re coming for you, Kayla snarled in her mind. We’re coming to snuff out your darkness once and for all.
On Kayla’s first journey through the foreign lands, she had been told she was traveling through Minicule as she left BlueCrest for the Elven Kingdom. Little did she know she had been told wrong. They were traveling through the neutral territories at the time. She had never before seen the actual land of Minicule. Minicule was larger than the small towns they passed through with scattered homes and lots of open land. Humans who wanted to live outside of BlueCrest and Malkinian law came here.
But the homes were empty. The homes stood untouched, but not a soul could be spotted. And though it had to be the middle of the afternoon, it was as dark as after midnight. Ashes covered the ground, making each step feel like sifting sand through the baking desert.
Hanika and Leif led them into the city. Liz was on their heels. Olap was behind her and beside Matias and Kayla. As they entered the city border, Olap was pushed off of his feet and sent backwards, knocking Kayla and Matias to the ground.
