by Greg Dragon
Maria swung the hooked blade to get Alysia to back off, and stood up to face her as the blood poured from her wingless back. Her eyes grew red with anger and she rushed in on Alysia, pressing her attack with brutal strength. Alysia avoided her attacks by stepping behind the trees and jumping clear; she decided against using her armor in order to keep herself fast and loose. Maria pressed for several moments, and Alysia kept herself defensive, waiting for an opening to present itself.
When Maria fell victim to a well-timed feint and swung prematurely, Alysia brought her sword down with everything she could muster. It shattered the blade and caught Maria’s shoulder. The woman fell backwards, holding her wound, too exhausted to stand again.
Alysia looked down at her. It would take a single blow from Euphoria to drive her from the world. The lost would be routed and they would take their leave immediately; at least that was what Chaos wanted her to believe.
“I want to kill you, Maria. I want to take your head for killing Jaime and Koko the way you did. Every ounce of me wants to cut you right now, but I need to know why. Why did you turn into this?”
Maria sank back down into the brush, feeling her strength fade with every passing minute. “I did it for my mother,” she finally said. “They promised me I could have my mother if I did this.”
“You’re a fool,” Alysia said in reply. “You murdered innocents and betrayed your friends all because a demon told you that it would bring your mother back.”
Maria didn’t say anything for a time and then looked up at Alysia angrily. “I’m not the only fool being led around like a puppet by a demon. Look at you, adorned from head to toe in their gifts. Do you think you have those toys for free? Do you think your hands are clean?”
“I don’t fool myself for a second that my hands are clean, Hope—isn’t that the name they gave you? Maybe I should call you Hopeless. I know what I am, and I know who and what I have killed. But the difference between me and you is that I did this for humanity. You did it for a selfish dream, and the blood on your hands will never dry.”
She stepped forward and drove Euphoria into her chest and held it there, letting the blade absorb the darkness and the shadow that had given Maria the strength and power to lead an army of demons. Maria screamed, and fought to remove the blade, even going so far as to touch its naked edge to try and pull it out of her. But Euphoria was like a vacuum for the darkness as it cleansed Maria’s body and nothing she did could remove it as it drained her quickly of her power.
“WHY DON’T YOU KILL ME?” Maria screamed, so loudly that everyone within their vicinity heard it. Alysia could feel the heat of the forest fire getting close as she held the blade firm, wedging its tip into the ground to disallow Maria from escaping it.
When the cleansing was over, she withdrew Euphoria and wiped the edge. She flicked the blade around, then touched the tip of her sheath, ran the back of the blade against it to feel things out, and leaned forward to sheath it fully with an audible ‘click.’ She then stood up and offered a hand to Maria.
“Why did you save me?” the tired woman asked as Alysia led her down to the barracks where a loud raucous could be heard.
“I saved you because you could be saved. I’m not a murderer, and I am no longer a puppet to Chaos and his games.”
They broke through the trees to quite a sight. There were demons exiting the bunker and walking back into the trees towards what used to be the city. In the sky, the bat-things were flying in that direction also, and as dawn broke through the sky, Alysia could see that Chaos had not lied about the departure of the lost once the sixth of the major V’Kosha—who turned out to be Maria—was no more. She closed her eyes in a silent prayer, thanking God for granting her the strength to carry it through.
When she opened her eyes and looked around, she noticed that her father was with Tracy by the barracks wall, and Isobel was looking after Jasmine. Isobel saw them approaching, squealed, and ran over, hugging Alysia tightly as if she refused to let go. She flashed a surprised look at Maria, bounced back and drew her sword, but Alysia stopped her and turned to face Maria.
“The demon that was Hope is dead. Izzy, this is our Maria. She was corrupted for a long time, with a noble mission to save her mother, but it turned her into the thing that killed our Koko. I made her human again, despite my anger, so we must forgive her, Izzy. Chaos is the one to blame for Koko,” Alysia said while looking into Maria’s eyes.
“You can do that, CeeCee? You can turn back the lost?” Isobel asked.
Alysia pulled out Euphoria and showed Isobel the blade. “With this sword, an Ert sword, I am able to drain away the darkness, and if a person is still alive beneath all of it, then yes, I can turn them back.”
Isobel nodded and then touched her own sword reassuringly. Alysia noticed she had shrunk back from the blade of Euphoria and she wondered what it would do to her friends if she tried to turn them.
“Maria, I think that you should go,” Alysia said suddenly. “It will be hard enough convincing Isobel here that you deserve your life, but my friends and family may not be convinced so easily. Go, and get your life back together, and do what you can for anybody you can find. When things settle down perhaps I will find you. I have plans you will be able to help me with, but that will be much later on.”
The women clasped hands and nodded at one another, and then Maria turned towards the forest and walked back through the trees, away from the fire. As if on cue, it began to rain, a thick, heavy, downpour that came with a wind that threatened to blow everything away. Alysia and Isobel ran inside the barracks where James Knight held the door open for them, and then locked it once they were in.
He walked over to Alysia and hugged her tightly, noticing for the first time the changes that had been done to her body. She was muscular, more than she was before she left, and she had a confidence he could feel just by being around her. Jasmine came up and got her hug and Alysia could see that she was healing from a deep cut.
She looked over at Tracy, who hung back as if she were embarrassed, so she crossed over to her and hugged her close, feeling the tiny bump that was her stomach when she did.
“I know that I have a brother or sister growing inside of you, Tracy. You don’t have to worry about it,” Alysia said. “I haven’t been the biggest supporter of your union, for obvious reasons, but it’s the biggest sign of hope that there is a baby being born out of so much death and destruction,” she said.
“Hope,” Tracy spat, and then turned her head. “So many lives lost to this mess. I saw the demons were in full retreat; does that mean that it’s over?” she asked, looking at Alysia with big blue, hopeful eyes.
“It is over for our world in terms of the invasion, but I was told that other things will spawn so we’re not totally out of the woods yet. The positive thing is that demons turning us into them and corrupting our loved ones are a thing of the past. Mankind as a whole can start the process of healing and rebuilding, and we have become one of the realms that survived the demon invasion.”
“What about you, CeeCee? What does this mean for you?” Tracy asked, and Alysia looked at her father and wondered if she should tell the truth or give them a palatable lie.
“You all won’t like this, but it was my choice, something I committed to do in order to save our world. There is a war about to take place on Yalem, the realm of the demons, and I must return there to fulfill my duty as a warrior.” She kept on looking at her father to see his reaction but James Knight merely smiled.
“I wish that you could take me with you, CeeCee. Take all of us, to stay together as a family. Things won’t be the same without your face, and life will be empty knowing that during my peace time, my daughter will be in another world fighting for a bunch of strangers,” he said.
“I won’t be fighting for a bunch of strangers. I will be fighting for Isobel and Jasmine’s freedom. I will be fighting to avenge the death of Koko, and I will be fighting to make sure that no other woman or man has to have the
ir life destroyed by the raiding force of Chaos’s lost.” She looked at Isobel to let the words sink in.
“It was him, Izzy and Jazz. It was your lord Chaos that brought the lost here to my world. He did this to recruit survivors like me and Maria, to pit us against one another to see who would be strongest. It is why we must go back and destroy him. The Knights of Ert have given me their power and I want to use it to eliminate this would-be usurper to the throne.”
Isobel looked at Jasmine and then at Alysia. “But CeeCee, we are not free; he can pull us to his side at any time. It would be better for you to kill us, or chain us up during your attack. I don’t want to betray you but the blood of Chaos flows through me and I am his slave.”
The winds blew the tarp from the window and through the glass they could see the trees dancing from the thunderstorm. The fires that threatened to consume them all had been reduced to thick black smoke, and Alysia wondered if Maria had found shelter during it all.
“Come here Izzy, Jazz, come stand next to me,” Alysia said.
The girls stood next to her, and she pulled out Euphoria, ran her palm down the edge cutting her hand open, and then motioned for them to grab the hilt with her.
“Whatever happens, Dad, Tracy, let us suffer. And girls, no matter how much the Chaos blood fights back, hold on to the blade and don’t let go,” she said.
The two girls gripped the long hilt of the sword and Alysia’s blood coated their hands. The sword vibrated, confused by the touch of enemy hands and the evidence of pain within its true master. The spikes shot out into the three hands. Alysia was used to it so she merely closed her eyes, but Isobel squealed and Jasmine tried to yank her hand back. But the spikes were in and she could not take her hand away.
The fire of the transformation burned Isobel and Jasmine internally and they wailed a cry of pain and suffering that was almost unbearable as James Knight and Tracy looked on in horror. It looked as if Isobel’s brown complexion had turned blue; Jasmine was a pretty purple, and Alysia was all silver from the armor that had taken to her body.
“That is wild,” James Knight said as he hugged Tracy close. She couldn’t talk as she observed what she could only describe as magic come over the young girls as the sword grew black from whatever it was that was being drawn out of it.
When the ritual was finished and the black sword turned silver, the two girls released the blade and collapsed to the ground. Alysia opened her eyes as the armor retracted. She sheathed the sword and knelt to help them up.
“How do you feel?” she asked Jasmine, and the girl held her hand out in front of her and wiggled her fingers.
Isobel grabbed a mirror and looked at her eyes. The reddish glow was gone and her smile spoke volumes.
“We—we are free, Jasmine. We are free,” she said. The tall black girl looked around in wonderment, her face a mask of uncertainty and fear.
“He will come for us!” she exclaimed suddenly.
“I would like to see him try!” Alysia snapped, whipping out the sword so they could see the blade shine. “I faced down Chaos lord in his own hall with Euphoria. Isobel was there to see the fear in his eyes when it came to this sword making contact with him. He promised me your freedom back when I told him that I would fight in the war for Yalem. I am keeping to my promise and my honor, but Chaos knows no honor. He let you go, but he kept us all as his connected prisoners. What I have done now is to sever the ties. You can be your own people and make your own choices.”
She sheathed the sword and brushed back her curls roughly, then inhaled to calm herself. She looked down at her hand where the spikes had gone through. “Do not fear, Jasmine. Chaos has bigger problems than you and Isobel to worry about right now.”
“Thank you CeeCee,” the tall girl said, and bowed to her before walking back into the bedroom to lie down.
Isobel joined her, followed by Tracy, and Alysia grabbed a chair and handed it to her father. She grabbed one for herself and sat down, their silence broken only by the raindrops that pounded into the glass windows as if they meant to break them.
“I was told that once I finish my duty in Yalem, I would be given status and can move you all there to live out your lives. It could be a lie, since it came from Chaos, but I won’t be fighting for him when I go back,” she said as she took her father’s hand. “With the dangers of the wild, the limited resources, and the constant death that this world presents, I don’t know if you and Tracy want to remain here any longer, Dad. I can ask the head Ert, or whoever is in charge, to put you up while the conflict happens. Yalem is beautiful and peaceful; you can settle down there, rest those old warrior bones, and start protecting our new family.”
James Knight smiled at the thought and looked around as if to weigh his choices.
“You know, when you called me asking for help the day that creature had you on the roof, you were still my little CeeCee. Boy, it took everything within me to ask you to handle it, and your mother was giving me so much hell for babying you. She wanted you to grow up, to be strong like me. College was supposed to do that but for some reason you stayed sweet, adorable, and dependent. I liked it that way; you were always my little girl.”
He bounced her hands and looked around before looking at her with a new intensity in his eye.
“This craziness, this storm that hit us while you were still a young girl in college, it forced you to grow up, baby girl. Even calling you that seems odd to me now because you are the woman we had hoped that you would be. You’re mature, you’re taking charge, and you’re so strong that you told me all that mess about fighting in the demon world. And even though on the surface I want to resist, deep down I know that you’ll be okay.
“Look, CeeCee, we will survive wherever we go, so you don’t have to worry about any of it. The decision to go with you; well, I need to talk that over with Tracy. She has her own feelings about it and we have to respect that. The sort of damage those demons did to the world will take thousands of years to fix, and heat and cold will definitely be a problem. She knows all of this, but your demon world is an unknown. We have to weigh our odds, make a decision, and then we will let you know.”
Alysia nodded and looked outside at the rain. It was starting to flood certain areas and she wondered how long it would continue to pour.
“Go get some rest, Dad. You’ve been fighting forever, your eyes are bloodshot, and you’re struggling to breathe,” she said.
“Where are you going?” James Knight asked.
Alysia got up and unbuckled her sword. “I am going to take in the last bit of humanity that I will be seeing for quite some time,” she said.
Her father didn’t understand but he nodded and walked back into the bedroom to find his bed. Alysia waited for him to leave and then removed her pants and ragged tank top, and the boots from her feet. She walked out into the storm, feeling the water, like magical bullets pinging against her skin. She had always liked the rain, but this felt like heaven, and she ran around the barracks, feeling the wet grass in between her toes.
She thought of Koko, her strongest handmaiden, and of Jaime, who had passed before she could apologize. She remembered their talks and his conspiracy theories, how they assumed it was a manmade thing that produced the demons, giants and kreples. Jaime, her friend, the guy who could have been more. Tears burst from her eyes when she remembered how cruel she had been to the two of them before that fateful day when her father left her the note.
She fell to her knees, crying loudly. Then she lay on her back, letting the water wash away the tears, the pain, and the memory of everyone that was lost.
Thanks for reading Knights and Demons | Season One. If you enjoyed this book or received value from it in any way, then I’d like to ask you to leave a review on Amazon. It’d be greatly appreciated!
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KNIGHTS AND DEMONS SERIES
And Then There Were Giants
And Then There Was Darkness
And Then W
e Had Chaos
And Then All Was Lost
And Then There Was Hope
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About The Author
GREG DRAGON has been a creative writer for several years, and has authored on topics of relationship, finance, physical fitness and more through different sources of media. In particular, his online magazine has been a source of much pragmatic information, which has been helpful to many. As a result, his work continues to grow with a large and loyal fan base.
This Florida author brings exciting action and drama to his written work. His storylines keep readers engaged with characters that come to life from the beautiful celestial scenes of science fiction, to the gritty world of urban drama.
See Greg’s author page at gregdragon.com or keep up with his latest books and appearances through email.
