The soldiers gathered around her, thumping as they landed, wings ceased their buzzing, and they all wielded spears. Insect humanoids ready to defend their village from terror. The leader of the soldiers approached Willow as she stood in the phalanx.
“Lady Willow, it is better if you stay in the grand tree with the queen,” suggested the commander.
“Igroff, sorry, but I will stand and fight. I will not allow these creatures to invade the home of my mother,” she said vehemently.
“I do not wish to put you in harm’s way; however, you are the best at herbomancy. I trust you will live,” Igroff admitted, and Willow smirked at him.
She gazed down the vine tunnel, and in its darkness, she heard growls, shrills, and monstrous cries. The ground began to shake. She could feel it, and the Greamos felt the vibration with their antennas.
“Here they come!” the commander shouted. “Whatever they are, show no mercy!”
Finally, the creatures emerged from the vine tunnel. The silhouettes became detailed and clear. They were black as ink. Their claws tore the ground, and their shrieks irritated ears. Some looked like canines snapping their fangs. Other creatures flew with batwings. They had no eyes to see, only fangs to bite and feast. They flew out of the vine tunnel and over the soldiers.
“Follow them. Don’t let them get away!” Igroff shouted. Many Greamos kicked off the ground. They were fearless and dived to their deaths to protect their only home, their only kingdom.
“Oh great Terramus, what are these creatures?” Willow whispered as she saw the darkness swarming out of the tunnel and into the beauty of Mouah Cross. Creatures as black as night. She had never seen anything so horrifying. She grew up in the forest with animals of fur, scales, leathery skin, and feathers. However, these creatures were like nightmares pouring out her of dreams. She felt nervous, but she pushed through her fear. Fiends, real fiends, she thought, as she watched them swarming in.
A fiend on four legs growled at her. It dashed towards her, and Willow stood paralyzed by her fear. The fiend had spikes on its back like daggers. It was a canine with no eyes, thick skin, and claws about to tear her flesh. Willow gasped and blocked with her Dragontooth. A spear drove into the fiend’s head. The creature fell and perished into ashes. The leader of the Greamos army, Igroff, had saved her.
“I said it is better if you stay with the queen. Try to prove me wrong, Lady Willow,” Igroff said.
Willow nodded and came back to her senses. She grimaced and dashed towards the fiends entering the tunnel. She swung her Dragontooth wildly, like a tiger swiping its claws. Every time she swung her weapon, a fiend turned to ashes. There were many of them, fiends like canines, and some walked on two legs with larger claws, and some carried jagged clubs trudging like trolls. These fiends had no eyes. Creatures of the dark. Their only hunger was flesh and maju.
The forest girl lunged from one fiend to the other. Trained by Elves for battle and years of living in the forest made her agile. She learned to move quickly from animals and struck with power as she learned from Gorillas and Rhinos. A fiend pounced from her left; she ducked and rose with a slash. A fiend with a club as thick as a tree trunk swung its weapon. She jumped, grabbed on to it, ran up the club and to the head of the fiend. She swung horizontally and cleaved the head of the fiend. She jumped down and landed on the back of another creature with six legs and a tail like a scorpion. Willow cut off its tail then jumped down and severed its legs. Every fiend that was touched by her Dragontooth fell and turned to ashes.
Willow gazed at the bridge that connected the plateau entrance to the grand tree. Fiends ran down that bridge, and it made Willow’s heart hammer at her chest.
“Igroff!” she yelled at the leader of the Greamos army. He fought flying in the air amongst the reversed trees. Branches fell from above and splinters of broken bridges rained. Some Greamos lost their wings. Many fiends fell then turned to ashes when they landed on the bridges.
“Igroff! They are heading to the grand tree! We must stop them!” she yelled. She saw Igroff waving his bladed staff and dived down towards the grand tree. A swarm of Greamos followed him.
Willow turned to the tunnel. More fiends came her way. She dived forward, rolled on the ground, and then rose with a slash, cleaving three fiends at once. Such mindless creatures could not outwit her. She stared down the vine tunnel and heard more approaching. Their growls, grunts, and shrieks echoed inside the tunnel. Another wave of darkness. She could not allow the darkness to infest Mouah Cross any further.
“I have to close this tunnel permanently.” She decided it was the only way to keep them out. The Greamos soldiers were almost outnumbered. “I can at least prevent them from coming in.” She embedded her Dragontooth into the ground, beside her.
“Earth and water don’t fail me now,” she prayed and clapped her hands together, uniting the two elements. When two different elements combined, a compound spell is made. By the laws of magic, the calmness of water and the stubborn earth, allowed her to use herbomancy.
“Naturass alboss!” she shouted and pressed her hands on the ground, inserting her maju into the earth. Her maju formed wood under the earth, and it burst through the ground. An aggressive plant, impatient and in a hurry to grow. Willow closed the tunnel with her wood spell. Tree branches sealed the tunnel like sawing a wound with stitches. Willow had the stamina to use a spell that required much mastery. She yanked her Dragontooth from the ground and triumphed.
“That should keep them out. That tunnel is the only way to enter Mouah Cross.” She spun around and headed down the bridge to the grand tree. Before she began to run, she felt them behind her again. Goosebumps chilled on her back, and she slowly turned around. Fear crawled back, and she became nervous once more.
It was like nothing she had seen before. Shadows spew from between the branches, like ink. Black smoke also began to rise from between the branches that Willow had summoned to seal the tunnel. She stared in terror. “Terramus, good dragon god of earth, this is a nightmare,” she whispered. It was like a bad dream to her. She had never seen anything like it, not even during the chaos between the Elves and Graemos that happened five years ago.
The shadows spewed from the sealed tunnel, swelled and morphed into more fiends. The black smoke morphed, forming into a human body. The person was clad in black with a wide cloak. The person in black was the same height as Willow and wore a white mask with a cracked opening for the left eye. The mask had bullhorns horns, and with one eye, the foe stared at Willow.
Willow did not move, only stared back. The fiends stood behind this person. They growled and shrieked but did not attack.
“Who are you?” Willow asked, clutching her Dragontooth, and took a wild stance like a tiger ready to pounce.
“Look at all these bugs flying around. How can you live in such a filthy place like this?” said the stranger in black.
“How dare you mock the Greamos? Tell me who you are and what you want. This village is sacred,” Willow demanded. Golden hair was on her peripherals. She quickly tied it into a ponytail with her ladybug pin. It was getting in her way when fighting.
“Since you ask so desperately, I will tell you. My name is Hertha, and I came here for the precious Emerald Cosmo Jewel. If you know where it is, I kindly ask you to give it to me or experience a traumatizing genocide. If I were you, I would surrender the jewel, unless you would rather risk these endangered species. Then again, you are not one of them, so perhaps, you don’t care as much.” Hertha spread her cloak open, and from it, a cloud of black smoke billowed. From the smoke, she pulled a scythe. She positioned the deadly weapon on her shoulder and posed with a hand on her hip. Her scythe was made of black steel, and it was at her height. Her voice was of a young girl, confident, annoying, high pitch, and snotty. A petite figure was revealed under the cloak. Small breasts and the curves of a young woman. She seemed to command the army of fiends.
Hearing Hertha’s words infuriated Willow. She felt as if another woman was trying to take Eckxio
from her. Hertha was a challenge, and Willow could feel it in her gut. Who in Odealeous does this bitch think she is? Willow felt rage seething inside.
“How do you know about the Emerald Cosmo Jewel? You can’t have it. It is sacred, and the Greamos depend on it,” Willow replied. “Take your fiends back to the abyss and get out of here. You have no reason to attack us. The Emerald Cosmo Jewel is not here.”
“Little liar. Nice try,” Hertha said. Black steam rose from her body, and she became cloaked in darkness. Her body began to shapeshift into a smaller figure. What was once a woman was now a black panther. The panther dashed towards Willow. The forest girl swung her Dragontooth. The panther smoothly jumped over the blade, ran past Willow, and dashed down the bridge.
“No!” Willow bellowed. She ran after Hertha and fiends chased after her. She saw that Hertha was headed towards the grand tree. No, I have to stop her or she will find the jewel. Willow became desperate. The bridge was made of wood, and she had her spell ready. She stopped in the center of the bridge and clutched the handrails. She pressed her maju into the wood, and the energy streamed rapidly down to the end of the bridge. With her magic, she yanked the bridge from the grand tree. She then stomped and her maju divided the bridge in two. All fiends that were on the bridge fell down to the glowing lake below.
Willow fell, as well, but she had not destroyed the bridge in vain. “Naturass alboss!” she shouted and extended her right arm as if to reach for the grand tree. Her magic called upon the branches of the tree, and they aggressively grew and extended towards her. Three branches caught her. She landed on her back with leaves and flowers blossoming.
“Thank the dragon gods that Moyeed taught me herbomancy when I was little.” Willow sighed in relief. She stood up on the branches and gazed skyward. She saw a silhouette and heard a shrill that made her lose focus of her magic. From above, a horned black gargoyle dived and grabbed her arms with its talons and carried her up. Willow flailed and kicked, while holding her Dragontooth.
“You are braver than the stupid insects of this reverse forest,” Hertha said in her gargoyle form. “You have quickly become an obstacle. I must get rid of you.”
Willow did not surrender. She was stubborn. The forest girl still carried her weapon in her right hand, so she swung it upwards and the beak of the sword pierced the thigh of the gargoyle. Hertha yowled, and Willow was set free. She now hung from her sword stuck in the flesh of the gargoyle. It kicked and scratched Willow’s arm. The girl grunted and lost grip of her sword.
Willow allowed herself to fall. I can use the water from the lake, she plotted. Then a fiend flew below her, and she landed on its back. The fiend flew with large bat wings. It was burly with pointy hairy ears and a mouth full of sharp teeth. Horns warped backwards on its head. Willow held on to its horns, and the fiend started to flail. It was like being on the back of a wild horse.
“You are going to be my ride, ugly thing.” She reached for a knife hidden inside the belt of her skirt. Its blade was only four inches. She plunged it into the neck of the fiend, and it squealed like a pig. Willow grabbed the horns of the fiend and controlled its flight. She pushed its horns down, and it descended to the lake.
As the fiend flew over the lake, Willow used hydromancy to control the water. She closed her eyes and chanted “aquara rematos.” She released her maju, once more, and extended her hand. A pillar of water followed her. An aquatic cylinder was at the command of her maju. She pulled the horns of the fiend back, and the creature ascended towards the battle.
Willow saw Greamos falling from the sky and homes inside the large trees tumbling. Splinters and bark rained as wood shattered with the spells of the mage class. They flew casting air magic. For every five fiends that were defeated, one Greamos died. It brought tears to Willow’s eyes. The fiends were swarming and fighting the Greamos. Wherever she looked, purple blood spilled and more died.
“It’s all because of that Hertha bitch. I am going to kill her!” Willow rasped. Creatures swarmed towards her like a cloud of darkness, and with her great aquatic cylinder, she shot water into the mouths of the fiends. There were hundreds of them. Some smaller than her and some much larger. She blasted water into every single target and dodged their attacks. She zigzagged amongst the trees that grew from the ceiling. She had made her fiend into a slave, and it flew in whichever direction she commanded with its horns.
“Frostass shazt!” she yelled, releasing an incredible amount of maju. Every fiend that swallowed her water was killed by ice spears inside their bodies. An orchestral sound of ice echoed through Mouah Cross. They died from the inside out. Many fiends perished, and their numbers decreased greatly. Ice spears floated in the reverse forest then changed into water and became rain. The Greamos soldiers quickly took advantage and defeated the remaining fiends.
“Thank you, Master Akielas,” she said to the one who taught her the ice spell. She was tired, and her legs wobbled. “I think I overdid it. Ice spells really drain me.”
Her fiend flew to the grand tree, and it dropped her by the entrance of the queen’s throne room. Willow landed hard on a bridge then rolled. She quickly spun around and used one last ice spear to kill the very fiend she’d rode on. The creature squealed before it turned to ashes.
She stood by the arched door of the tree to catch her breath. She fell to her knees, and her head began to spin. Like a drunkard, her legs wobbled and her fingers shivered like winter cold. Spells of such high levels can drain a mage’s maju whole, but Willow still had energy to fight. She gazed skywards and saw that there was still a swarm of flying fiends. Their numbers had decreased, but many still soared and fought.
“Willow!” someone called from behind her, and she knew who it was. She looked over her shoulder and saw Lannie. He wielded his rod with a flute built in it. He was clad in green, a favorable color of the Elves.
“I saw what you did. That was amazing,” he said and helped Willow get to her feet, and she staggered.
“That ice magic, where did you learn that?” the Elf asked with awe.
“A friend taught me. Any mage that knows hydromancy can learn cryomancy,” she stated. Sweat drenched her face. She then remembered the scratch on her arm that Hertha gave her. It was a small wound. She licked the blood, and it tasted silvery.
“Is the queen fine?” Willow asked. Her eyes gazing at the fiends above.
“I am not sure, but she is with Moyeed. She has many guards to watch over her,” Lannie answered.
“Where were you all this time, by the way?” Willow asked.
“Fighting the fiends, of course, and guiding women and children outside of Mouah Cross,” said the Elf. “When Mouah Cross is not safe, the best thing to do is to hide in the forest.”
“I see…” Willow fell silent for a moment. “That masked girl in black was searching for the Emerald Cosmo Jewel, Lannie. The only one that has access to the jewel is the queen. Follow me inside the grand tree. We have to keep her majesty safe. I will take no chances.”
“I am always right behind you,” Lannie said.
They both entered the grand tree and went up a pair of stairs that coiled up to the throne room, and when they finally reached the third floor, their first sight was Moyeed on the floor with purple blood splattered on her body. When Willow saw her mother, her heart skipped a beat, and her respiration paused. Her icy eyes enlarged with terror and quickly moistened. Beyond Moyeed’s body was the verdant throne of the Greamos queen, and on it was the white masked girl, clad in black with a scythe on her lap. Ganoless kneeled beside the throne with a cleaved wing and tears in her eyes.
“Well, of course, you are alive,” Hertha said, sitting comfortably on the throne. “You are one gifted mage. I saw what you did outside, and I must say that I am incredibly impressed.”
“You monster,” Willow rasped. “All this chaos, for what?” Her voice trembled.
“For the Emerald Cosmo Jewel, my dear. Why else?” Hertha stood up from the throne and placed her scythe over he
r shoulders, hanging her arms lazily overlapping her weapon.
“I told you, didn’t I.” Hertha chuckled. “Give me the jewel, unless you would like to experience a traumatizing genocide. Have you changed your mind?”
Willow scowled at Hertha. She seethed with rage and wanted to murder the masked foe. Lannie ran towards Moyeed and pulled her away, but he did not dare approach the queen.
“We can’t give you the jewel. The Greamos’ lives depend on it. Mouah Cross depends on it,” Willow said. She kneeled and cradled her mother’s head. Moyeed had a large wound on her chest. Willow guessed it was from Hertha’s scythe. The Greamos woman bled from her mouth. Her heart was still beating, but her breath was slow. Willow shed tears seeing her mother at the brink of death. She cried and hugged her.
“I will give you one last chance, before I massacre this village of insects.” Hertha persisted. “You either tell me where the jewel is, or I will kill your queen.” She lifted her hand, fingers stiff and curved like a hawk’s talons. The queen’s body levitated unwillingly by Hertha’s magic. The masked girl placed the scythe on the queen’s neck.
“Make this easy for yourself and for this pathetic race of insects,” Hertha said then laughed at Willow.
Willow cried. She was unsure of what to do. Such a dilemma. If she told Hertha where the jewel was, then Mouah Cross would be in great danger. If she didn’t reveal the jewel, then Hertha would summon more fiends and kill every single Greamos. By the gods, what do I do? Willow thought and began to panic.
Queen Ganoless had fainted, and her soldiers that once guarded her were now dead, their bodies scattered throughout the throne room. Purple blood painted the throne room.
Willow thought of a way to satisfy Hertha and save the Greamos. As the child chosen by the Emerald Cosmo Jewel, she thought that Hertha could use her. Gifted at birth, the unknown powers of the jewel ran through her.
“Fine then, I have decided,” Willow said. She stood up and wiped her tears. Her blonde hair had come undone and cascaded on her shoulders.
Sin of Mages: An Epic Fantasy Series (Rift of Chaos Book 1) Page 5
