Chronicles of Eden - Act VIII (43 page)

“We’re not taking back this place from them, not like this,” Sasha stated.

“I don’t mind killing all who follow those accursed demons,” Forrus growled while she remained on guard. “However the odds aren’t in our favor here, and even if we are victorious we will have gained nothing.”

“Exactly what I was thinking,” Tabitha agreed. “There’s no point staying here, especially if we’re not exactly welcome.”

“We will not leave my homeland to these devils!” Hollia yelled while charging by and trampling a goblin under hoof. “Every last one of them must die for what they did! I will not let any of them get away with what they have done to my people!”

“It’s us against an army!” Tabitha retorted. “This isn’t going to end well if we stay here!”

“I am not leaving until every last one of these vile monsters have been slain!”

“Are you crazy? We’re hilariously outnumbered here!”

Hollia merely charged off into a group of dark monsters, her warcry being incredibly slurred as not a single word or obscenity she shouted was understood by anyone. Tabitha watched the centaur with a raised eyebrow as the infuriated princess swung her spear around wildly, knocking away a few monsters while impaling and swinging others around like flags.

“She has got an anger problem.”

“I must agree with you on that,” Forrus commented as she saw Hollia going blind with rage.

“She said she was a princess, right?” Rulo asked in puzzlement.

“She’s like a wild bull,” Sasha said shaking her head. Looking over to the side she saw Scay hacking apart another arachne before slowly slithering off the mangled corpse while rubbing her arm.

“So much stabbing… my arm is starting to hurt,” the naga complained. She ducked under a troll’s swing of an axe and swatted the monster away with her tail before quickly slithering off as spears and toxic alchemic bags were thrown at her from all sides.

“Hold on please! I need to rest before stabbing you more!” Scay whined as she slid around monsters while making her way through the crowded street. She rounded a gremlin then darted under the legs of an arachne as the fiends tried to grab the quickly moving naga, her long serpentine body quickly sliding along the ground before a large troll grabbed her by the tail and yanked her back.

“You little bitch, get back here!” the troll yelled as Scay desperately tried clawing away from her. The monster kicked her in the side then swung her around, tossing the screaming naga over into a face first crash in the road. Scay slowly slid to a stop then spat out dirt as she tried to sit up, her eyes rolling around a bit in a daze before she shook her head to regain her senses. Looking behind her shoulder she saw the troll advancing on her while drawing out two axes, the monster glaring at her with cold eyes as it prepared to charge.

“I’m going to skin this snake.”

After another step however a katana struck through her chest from behind, a surprised and strained gasp escaping her lips before she dropped to her knees in shock. The blade was pulled back out, blood pouring down the monster’s chest as she stared at her fatal wound, and then a kick from behind was made to knock the troll down onto the ground.

“Please don’t throw my friend around like that,” Tabitha dryly requested while flicking blood off her sword.

“Hi, Tabitha!” Scay cheered with a wave.

Tabitha smirked at her then noticed another troll down the street throwing her axe towards the naga.

“Scay, move!”

Scay looked ahead and squeaked as the flying blade spun towards her, eyes locked onto the spinning axe that soared straight towards her face. Right before it could strike the petrified naga it came to a sudden stop with a whack, leaving both Tabitha and Scay stunned as they saw a black reptilian hand had caught the axe by the sharpened end.

All around the street eyes took notice of the sight while the fighting suddenly halted, with Hollia throwing another dead gremlin off her spear before seeing everyone had stopped moving. Following their eyes towards the source of the silence that befell the area she gasped as she couldn’t believe what she saw.

Scay slowly looked up to see Daemon standing before her, his eyes locked onto the troll that threw the axe at her, and his hand holding the weapon by its blade right before it would have struck into her skull. She blinked, looked around to see Sasha and the other girls also staring at the sight in wonder, noticed all the dark monsters watching in disbelief, then turned her gaze back up to the swordsman as she felt she needed to ask a very important question.

“Doesn’t that hurt?”

Hollia fell speechless as she saw Daemon having actually caught the axe with his hand, something that struck her as unusual since the blade should have sliced right through his hand and into Scay’s face instead of coming to a sudden stop in his palm like it did.

“Impossible!” the troll shouted out. “How did you catch it like that? It should have cut your hand off!”

“What the hell is he?” an arachne hissed while trembling slightly.

“A mite couldn’t chew off his hand and an axe couldn’t cut through it?” a gremlin questioned. “Something isn’t right here.”

Daemon dropped the axe to the ground then glanced back to Scay, the naga staring at him in wonder before she held her hands to her cheeks and lowered her head with a timid expression.

“I want to stab you
so much
,” she softly voiced with passion.

He merely raised an eyebrow to that then looked to his hand while tilting it slightly, not showing any signs of pain or discomfort but rather a slight glimmer of curiosity. Scay murmured something to herself while watching him with a twitching eye then noticed a few drops of blood dripping down onto the ground and axe. Seeing the blade having some blood adorning its edge she jumped a bit in surprise.

“You’re bleeding! Oh no! Wait, you can bleed?”

“Master?” Sasha called out worriedly.

“My lord, are you alright?” Forrus asked in concern.

Daemon held his hand up and examined the cut along his palm, a thin stream of blood trailing down and falling to the ground as he eyed the wound while remaining silent.

“He caught an axe with his hand and all he has is a scratch?” Tabitha exclaimed in disbelief.

“Who is this knight?” Hollia softly wondered.

Rulo ran over to him with her hammer held over shoulder, looking him over quickly as if fearful for his life before gasping as she saw his hand which had blood coming from the palm. Staring at the wound in horror she held a hand over her mouth, seeming to be completely shocked at the sight while Daemon appeared to just be mildly curious about his own injury.

“No, master,” Rulo oinked in distress. She then yelled and turned towards the troll that had thrown the axe with overwhelming fury coming across her. “You… you… YOU HURT HIM!”

“Well it’s about time,” the troll scoffed. “What the hell is his deal anyway? Why isn’t he screaming or losing his hand or anything?”

“Nobody touches my master like that,” Sasha hissed in sheer anger.

“Unforgivable,” Forrus snarled as the fur on her tail stood on end.

Tabitha glanced around at seeing the three girls exuding auras of vengeance and murder then shook her head slightly with a raised eyebrow at the troll who was now taking a nervous step back.

“You are
so
going to die,” the neko bluntly stated.

All the dark monsters slowly backed up a bit as they could feel the sheer amount of rage coming from the three girls who were apparently pushed past their limits from Daemon being injured, even if it was a minor wound that he himself didn’t seem to care too much about. Sasha, Rulo, and Forrus had their fierce glares locked onto the now frightened troll while their auras became the most vicious and intimidating in the area over all.

Except for one.

A powerful boom of bright light erupted from a distant tower, an overwhelming sensation of anger and wrath suddenly washing over the land as a shriek was heard echoing from the disturbance. Everyone saw the tower blast apart and topple away as a shockwave erupted from the top with a streak of white light shooting towards the road. It raced down towards Daemon and struck the ground before him, sending out a cloud of dust and dirt while the impact lit up like a star. The crowd of monsters shielded their eyes from the blinding light while an ominous presence was felt from within the unnatural bloom.

“That didn’t just happen,” a woman’s voice hissed from the light. “That
did not
just happen…”

The light and dusty haze slowly began to fade as a winged figure stood up from within the swirling cloud.

“I know it couldn’t happen, it just couldn’t. I have to be imagining this. Have to be.”

With a flap of the wings the dust billowed away from a radiance that illuminated the street and all those around it.

“I didn’t just see you draw blood from him. No. No. No. That would be simply
inexcusable
.”

She stood slightly shorter than Daemon, even with her white heels. Shimmering golden lace was tied around her ankles up to her knees while her voluptuous body was clad in a white skimpy toga dress. The shoulders were adorned with golden embroidery, the same as the right side of her dress near the hip in a wave design that went around to her rear. Her elbows were covered in fine silk with golden ribbons while resting against her chest above her large bust was a pink diamond gemstone held with a golden necklace. From her back large white feathered wings were arched up while her long silver hair was draped down past her shoulders, the wavy locks having red streaks running down through the ends. Her light blue eyes were set in a fierce glare towards the troll that was shaking now while her lips were curled in a bitter scowl.

“But it is true, isn’t it?” she snapped. “You
touched
him. You
touched
him, didn’t you?”

“What’s going on here?” the troll stuttered. “Who are you?”

“Nobody touches him,” the woman shakily pouted with a saddened smile. She appeared to be choked up with tears almost forming in her eyes. “You can’t…
touch
him. Nobody can touch him. That’s not allowed. It’s not.”

Sasha and the girls glanced to each other then to Daemon as he watched the winged figure with a blank expression, not seeming to be surprised by her appearance nor by what she was.

“Nobody touches him,” the newcomer murmured in a dull tone as she started walking towards the troll. The dark monster backed up as the winged woman kept her cold glare locked onto her. “That’s not allowed. It’s not. I won’t allow it. I’ll never allow it.”

“Um, do you know her?” Tabitha asked Daemon. He merely nodded while remaining silent.

“I can’t forgive this. I can never forgive this,” the woman muttered while a golden light began to swirl around her arm down to her hand.

“She can’t be what I believe she is, can she?” Hollia questioned as she eyed the white feathered wings of the newcomer. Daemon again nodded quietly while watching the familiar monster.

“Bad. Bad. Bad,” the woman grumbled as she advanced on the troll that then tripped and fell back onto the ground. The light swirling down to her hand started to form into a large object that she then took hold of with malicious intention.

“How is it she knows my lord?” Forrus asked while keeping on guard.

The magical light slowly manifested itself into a giant sledgehammer, the weapon appearing to be made of gold and silver with the end having a large sharped axe blade on one side and the other being blunt like a mallet. She slowly twirled the massive weapon around in her hand, the weight obviously being nothing for her to handle, before holding it down at her side while the troll slinking backwards away from her turned pale in fright.

“Nobody touches him,” the woman whimpered while lowering her head. Her eyes were hidden behind her bangs while she appeared to become distraught in remorse. After a while of silence she then looked to the troll with a face that the monster swore was even more terrifying than any Darker One could show. Winding back with her giant weapon the woman let loose a furious cry that echoed out across the kingdom.

“NOBODY TOUCHES MY BIG BROTHER!”

Before anyone could speak she slammed her hammer down onto the troll, the single strike causing not only the monster to practically liquefy and splatter to either side but also a colossal explosion that blasted outward in a frighteningly large arc. Hollia stared in shock as she witnessed what looked to be like a volcano erupting in her fallen home, the massive shockwave rippling out and pulverizing dozens of the dark monsters instantly while all the buildings in its way were toppled and thrown to the wind as the ground blasted apart violently. From the sky over Ruhelia the monstrous wave of destruction could be seen expanding out from the single bright light that shined from within the land, razing everything in its path without pause.

“What in Eden?” Tabitha breathed out in shock.

“Wow,” Scay nervously said.

“What did she just say?” Forrus questioned.

“Her…
brother
?” Rulo wondered.

Sasha eyed the apparently strong newcomer cautiously, seeing the winged woman slowly standing back upright in front of the wave of dust, debris, and bloody limbs that was rolling away from her single attack, then turned to Daemon in question as he was watching the monster with no reaction to what she just did.

All around the area the dark horde was staring at the sight in astonishment, having seen the new fighter annihilate not only a great many of their own with a swing of her hammer but also having destroyed a large section of the fallen city in the process. She slowly brought her weapon back to her side while her wings relaxed and lowered slightly, a deep breath being made before she turned towards everyone who were only watching her in silence now. The way she gave off a warm glow, the way she used her magical weapon with overwhelming power, and the sheer magnitude of the dark aura she was exuding. It was abundantly clear she was no ordinary monster, something Hollia and Daemon knew very well.

“I can’t believe I’m seeing one,” Hollia marveled. “She’s actually standing right there, before my very eyes. She’s… real. They are real.”