Chronicles of Eden - Act XII

by Alexander Gordon

  Alyssa opened her eyes, revealing a bright purple light from them as she channeled all the power she could into her spell. The glowing mesh of roots leading away from her staff towards the casting base she was keeping up turned dark red, with the scorching light traveling along the plants and into those that were woven into the spell’s diagram, causing the elves to jump in surprise with increasing dread from the ominous looking magic that now surrounded them.

  “She was going to save us, right?” an elf nervously asked.

  “Please don’t let this be our end,” a mother whimpered as she held her children close.

  The elven captain kept a sharp watch on the crimson casting base out of the corner of her eye, her focus then quickly shifting to see a horde of monsters rushing over the eastern knoll with vicious warcries.

  “There they are!” a gremlin shouted.

  “Get those fucking cowards back to the others right now!” a troll ordered.

  “If they fight or run, kill them instead!” an arachne laughed.

  “Oh fuck,” an elf breathed out as they saw a huge crowd of monsters stampeding towards them.

  “Rangers, get ready!” a ranger warned, with the archers taking aim with nervous eyes at the large deadly mob approaching very quickly.

  “Witch!” the elven captain cried out.

  Alyssa raised her staff into the air, yelling with all her might before striking the relic into the dirt with a sharp thrust. All around her circular orbs of casting diagrams formed from the swirling flames, the glyphs and floating bases glowing with searing red and white lights before they all spun around and slammed into the ground, forming a giant, interconnecting spellbase beneath the witch that flashed with a bright golden radiance.

  The ground under the elves shook violently, the surprised monsters stumbling about as the weeds and vines below them shined extremely bright. The monsters of The Sisterhood slowly came to a halt as they stared in bewilderment at the glowing lights coming up around the gathering of elves, the ominous red glows slowly shifting back to white with golden streaks flowing through the plants and dirt. Taking a few steps back the elven captain watched in amazement as the spellbase bloomed with a profound aura of magical power, a gust of wind rising up around the enchanted ring as the ground under her rumbled again from the force.

  “What is that?” a troll asked.

  “What the hell are they doing?” a gremlin wondered.

  “Since when do these elves use magic?” an arachne questioned.

  With a sudden quake the ground shook heavily, this time with the circular spellbase that was formed by the witch’s magical flora breaking loose from the land. The elven captain stared with wide eyes and an open mouth as the ground below her people slowly flipped upward like a spinning lid, the elves standing on the enchanted ground remaining fixated to it while screaming in surprise at seeing the world rotating around them. Monsters from The Sisterhood stared in disbelief as they saw the land flipping over with all the elves atop it, the screaming monsters huddling closer together on the enchanted piece of land as it spun all the way around with them seeming to pass through to the other side where a night sky was seen below the opening. The circular slab of rock spun around and slammed down into place with a mighty blast of dust and dirt, leaving every monster who witnessed the strange sight speechless as they questioned what they had just seen.

  Inside the burning field Alyssa dropped onto her side with a heavy gasp, the fires around her raging wildly while the scorched land held only charred grass and dust that began to falter with supporting the furious flames. The fires wavered fiercely atop what little kindling remained for them before they began fizzling out, the large cloud of smoke overhead billowing strongly and slowly moving away in the wind while the glowing roots in the dirt finally caught fire and burned to ashes.

  “Holy… crap…” Alyssa panted as she rolled onto her back. “That… was a big one…”

  The elven captain dropped her bow and arrow as she wavered slightly on her feet, her gaze slowly going around at the large circular patch of grass and dirt that appeared to be of a different locale entirely now resting before her.

  “Well… fuck me if I’ve never seen shit like that before…”

  She walked over to the edge of circle and lightly stepped on it a few times, the elf then stomping her boot in the dirt before backing up and holding her bangs away from her eyes as she showed a bewildered expression.

  “How did that witch do this? Um… I really hope they weren’t all crushed just now. That… that wasn’t what happened… right?”

  Looking over to the side she saw Alyssa slowly making her way out of the smoky field, the witch using her staff to walk with as she appeared drained of strength while having not a single burn or smudge on her at all.

  “Where did the gods find these people to save us?” the elven captain quietly wondered. She rushed over to Alyssa who hobbled along a few more steps before she dropped to her knees with a weak groan. Kneeling down next to her the elf held the witch in her arms, seeing the little monster’s eyes struggling to focus while she coughed out small puffs of smoke.

  “My word,” the elf marveled. “What did you do?”

  “Just… a little magic,” Alyssa answered with a shrug. “Sorry, I’m… I’m a little sleepy now. That… was a lot to handle.”

  “And my people? Where are they?”

  “Safe and sound in Ruhelia,” Alyssa replied as she struggled to get up. “My friends will greet them there and wait for our arrival. They’ll be fine.”

  “I see,” the elf carefully said, glancing behind to where a few monsters of The Sisterhood were starting to walk forward now, with others quickly following as they began heading towards the witch and elf. “And just how exactly were you going to get there? Because I don’t believe those fiends are going to let us walk away now.”

  “My friends… in Green Haven. They have Pip with them. A fairy. She’s our only way out of here.”

  “Where in Green Haven?” the elf quickly asked as she lifted the witch up into her arms. Alyssa held onto her staff while straining to remain awake, her weary vision seeing the monsters of The Sisterhood now running at them before the elven captain took off towards the burning forest as fast as she could.

  “Where are they?” the elf cried out. “Where are they going to meet with us?”

  “I don’t know. We have to find them.”

  “Where are we supposed to find them?” the elf screamed as the monsters behind them roared while drawing ever closer. “The entire village is on fire and falling apart, they could be anywhere in this fucking forest and those monsters are going to catch us any minute now! How in Eden’s fucking butthole are we supposed to find your friends in this chaos when- oh, wait, never mind, I think I see them.”

  Turning her blurry vision ahead Alyssa saw Cindy and Clover rushing out of the woodland with Daniel, a woman with green hair, and a salamander woman. In Cindy’s arms Daniel was barely conscious, the sand wraith running off-balance with the human held dearly close to her chest. In Clover’s left hand Pip was being shaken about by the elf as she too wasn’t awake yet while in the right she was holding Reiko and shaking her for a completely different reason.

  “Pip!” Clover cried out. “Wake up, Pip! Wake up! We have to go! We have to fucking go right now! Goddammit, Reiko! Stop! That salamander woman isn’t our enemy! Stop! I said stop!”

  “Must feed!” Reiko whined, her spectral cutter swinging wildly below the elf’s fist towards Sheal who was watching her with a disturbed grimace. “Let me go! I wasn’t done feeding yet! Just one more! One more tasty soul! Please!”

  “What is that thing?” the salamander woman asked shaking her head. “It’s horrid looking.”

  “Fuck you! Get over here so I can eat your soul! I’m starving still!”

  “Knock it off, Reiko!” Clover shouted, clenching her fist tightly and crushing the harvester’s body with a crunch. Reiko hoarsely gasped as her cutter fell limp then weakl
y groaned while her spectral blade withdrew under her dress.

  “Alyssa!” Cindy shouted as they ran towards the witch and elven captain. “Alyssa, are you okay? Are you okay? I don’t want you to be hurt too! Please tell me you’re okay!”

  “The Sisterhood is coming!” Felucia exclaimed, herself and the others seeing the charging horde of monsters rushing towards them from the fields.

  “Hurry up over there!” Sheal insisted at Clover. “Get that fairy moving!”

  “PIP!” the elf shouted at the dazed fairy. “Snap out of it! We have to go, right now! You need to wake up!”

  “Clover, is that really you?” the elven captain asked in surprise. “The rumors were true, you came back for us.”

  She ran up to the group and stared at Clover in awe before screaming as she noticed Sheal standing next to them.

  “What the fuck? What is that monster doing with you?”

  “I’m not with The Sisterhood anymore!” Sheal barked back. “I’m on your side!”

  “You expect me to just believe you?”

  “Do whatever you want! You can berate me later if you so desire but right now we need to get the hell out of here before those monsters get here and rip us apart!”

  “Wake up the fairy, hurry!” Felucia cried out.

  “Pip!” Clover begged as she shook the tiny monster. “Goddammit, wake up! We need you to get us the fuck out of here! Pip! Hey!”

  “Daniel?” Alyssa wearily asked as she saw Daniel slumped against Cindy in her arms. “Daniel? Are you okay?”

  “He’s fine, but we’re all going to die soon!” Felucia yelled at her. “Dammit, wake that fairy up! We need to leave before we’re all fucked!”

  “I’m trying!” Clover shouted. “Pip! Pip, wake up! We’re all going to die if you don’t! Dammit, she’s not coming to her senses! She’s not hearing me! What the fuck are we supposed to do now?”

  “Boobs,” Alyssa panted while struggling to remain awake. “Remind her… about your boobs. That will wake her up.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” the elven captain bewilderedly asked her.

  “Our boobs,” Clover repeated with a jump. She quickly looked around at all the confused girls then back to Pip while shaking her again. “Wake up, Pip! Those bad monsters are going to rip our boobs apart! Your boobies are going to die!”

  “What?” Pip exclaimed, hopping with a squeak in the elf’s hands before quickly looking around with alarm. “Boobies? My boobies are in danger? NO!”

  “What the fucking hell?” Felucia flatly asked.

  “Why did that work?” Sheal questioned.

  “I hate every one of you,” Reiko muttered.

  “Not my boobies!” Pip cried out in horror. She zipped out of Clover’s hands and quickly circled through the air in a panic, the tiny fairy then halting with a scream as she saw the horde of monsters running towards them.

  “No! They can’t take my boobies away from me! I won’t let them!”

  “Then take us back to Ruhelia right away!” Clover begged. “Hurry! We need to head back home before those monsters tear our boobs off!”

  “They shall never lay a hand on my boobies!” Pip boldly declared with a fist held high.

  “I am so fucking lost here,” the elven captain weakly mentioned.

  “Same,” Felucia added.

  “Much of today has been quite strange,” Sheal agreed with a nod.

  Pip took off in a blue blur around the girls, flying fast in tight circles with sparkling dust lingering in her wake as a gust of wind surrounded the group. A large casting base of blue and golden light bloomed beneath them, a few intertwining circles appearing that slowly spun around within the magical ring while question and exclamation marks lined the edges from the fairy’s unique magic.

  “Hurry!” Cindy cried out.

  “They’re almost on us!” the elven captain screamed.

  “Pip!” Clover shouted as the girls gathered close to each other in the face of The Sisterhood readying to take them down in an overwhelming wave of claws, daggers, axes, and fiery breath.

  “Kill them all!” a troll ordered.

  “They won’t get away from us!” a gremlin shouted as she readied to throw one of her bags.

  “Nobody betrays The Sisterhood!” a salamander woman cursed while building up a fiery blast in her mouth.

  “Here we go!” Pip cheered, zipping down to the ground and causing the casting base to flare up like a star with blinding light. The approaching monsters halted and shielded their eyes as a burst of power sent out a wave of wind from the piercing glare, the fiends backing up slowly before lowering their hands and arms as the light faded to reveal the travelers were now gone.

  “What?” a troll exclaimed. “Where did they go? How are they doing this?”

  “What kind of magic was that?” an arachne asked. “Who were those monsters?”

  “Dammit,” a gremlin snarled. “Where the fuck did they run off to now?”

  “Now what do we do?” a goblin nervously asked hopping on her feet. “We lose the elves. Leaders will punish us. Punish us bad.”

  “We’ll find them,” a troll growled. “We’ll find those fucking rats and drag their cowardly asses back to their new home with us. Nobody walks away from The Sisterhood. Nobody!”

  Suddenly the ground began shaking violently, the monsters stumbling about and dropping back as cracks ripped through the dirt with smoke and flames shooting out. All the grunts braced from the wild tremor before slowly turning their eyes towards the forest as more trees were dropping down within the burning haven and even more smoke was rising up.

  “I think it’s about to go boom,” a gremlin fearfully said.

  “We should go. Right now,” an arachne nervously suggested.

  “Oh… shit…” a troll whined as many of the monsters began scrambling to get away. The horde screamed and started fleeing in terror as the rumbling only grew stronger and louder beneath them, some of them tripping and being trampled by their comrades while others dropped into crevices and pits that opened up throughout the crumbling land.

  Far away on a high cliff Flarah and Aeon stood together as they watched Green Haven being consumed by a dark cloud while the entire woodland beneath it was burning to the ground.

  “Tell me, Flarah,” Aeon casually said. “Just out of curiosity, you kitsunes are quite resistant to fire yourselves, yes?”

  “That’s right,” Flarah replied while watching the forest with a calm gaze. “Why do you ask?”

  A mere second later the forest of Green Haven exploded with tremendous force, the thunderous roar of Eden erupting drowning out the screams of monsters that were both dangerously close to the blast in the northern bluffs and also fatally close in the southern fields. The horde of monsters that chased the elves were thrown into the air as the entire area was struck with a powerful shockwave, blistering heat scorching all but the salamander women instantly while the resulting concussive force pulverized everyone including the salamander women without mercy. The entire elven village was thrown high into the air in a fountain of bright red lava, burning rock, smoke, and small bits of debris that were quickly incinerated as Green Haven was wiped off the face of Eden in the most violent of ways.

  “Would you be resistant to that as well?” Aeon asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “I wouldn’t imagine so,” Flarah answered shaking her head.

  The two watched the erupting volcano destroy the elven forest and many monsters of The Sisterhood that failed to get clear in time, a small gust of wind then blowing against them after the wave of air finally traveled the distance from the ferocious discharge of Eden.

  “A rather romantic view if you ask me,” Flarah mentioned. “Wouldn’t you agree, Aeon?”

  “It really is,” Aeon admitted. Flarah nodded in agreement then noticed the chronofly walking up close to her, the Dark Queen having a gentle smile on her face as she suddenly slipped her hands around Flarah’s waist and held her close
with a tender embrace.

  “Aeon?” Flarah carefully asked.

  “This is indeed a lovely spot for us to talk more,” Aeon purred as she gave the kitsune’s rear a little squeeze.

  “Down, girl,” Flarah cooed with a smirk. “Nothing personal but you’re just not my type. Oh my. You really are happy to see me in person, aren’t you?”

  “You could say that,” Aeon softly said, her hand firmly holding Flarah’s rear while the other traced upward along her figure to rest on her shoulder. Flarah showed a cautious smile to the chronofly’s sudden mood change before quickly looking down as she felt something else. Green vines and tendrils were seen creeping out of the grass under her feet, the growing weeds circling her ankles with one slithering up around her leg and under her skirt. She gasped and looked back to Aeon in surprise as the chronofly was now smiling wickedly at her with glowing eyes, her grip on the kitsune remaining firm as the woman strained to hold in her voice while feeling something penetrating her between her legs.

  “Now, let’s get to know each other better,” Aeon coldly insisted.

  The volcanic eruption thundered profoundly in the distance as black smoke filled the sky with fiery lava raining down onto the land below. And though it managed to conceal the terrified cries of the monsters who took shelter in the northern bluffs, the sound of Flarah screaming managed to echo across the land just above that of Eden’s explosive roar.

  Chapter 13

  Life after Death

  In the world of Eden death was an inevitability. Everyone, be they man or monster, would eventually face the end one way or another. It could be after a wonderful, rewarding life with incredible memories and a heart filled with love. Or perhaps it would come sooner than expected, taking someone away before they could achieve their dreams or continue with their current ones. Death would always come in time, always without mercy, and always without fail. However, even so that wasn’t to say their end was truly at hand in the grand order of things.

  For some, death was only the beginning of something greater that lay ahead.