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The skeletal beings and oversized locusts crowded around, both of which ready to take the lives of the humans under my care for their own disgusting plague.

But I stood in their way, preventing them from claiming the souls they wanted so easily.

-Thou shall not allow a human to come to mortal harm-

I slashed through the spines of a skeleton, cutting it in half and buying us time to make progress down the block.

Then my stardust weapon carved through the faces of locusts inches away from the last two humans around.

With more strength then I should have put into it, I powered up the mana cannon, vaporizing at least a dozen of those abominations with its blue laser and clearing a path for us to sprint down.

"Let's go!"

I grabbed the hands of my friends and ran. This fight was too taxing, especially at 31% my strength.

"Yalda!" Yamin shouted. "I can't keep up with you."

To remedy her falling behind, Marek grabbed her and carried her in his arms.

Some of the skeletons I'd vaporized were reforming from dust. Any of them in our path went down with a single slash, but only long enough for us to clear the danger.

My map was showing that only this part of the city had been affected by this dark plague, but the longer this went on, the more sludge water would flood the streets. Not to mention that it was turning pitch black out.

I wirelessly hacked into the city's mainframe network to see if there was any defense built into its infrastructure. One thing that I found was the city lamps were powered by a type of stardust.

I switched those on, which helped fight away the pitch black darkness, especially preventing it from spreading further.

Then there were roadblocks that raised up in intersections, blocking a bit of that sludge water from getting around too quickly.

Along with both of those things, I turned on the city's alarm system, prompting people to take shelter.

Those things bought us a few seconds to escape while also warning the people that something was wrong.

For that stunt, some of the Urnan Guard were trying to find out what was going on over the radio. I sent them a message about the danger.

“Cpt. Anderson, this is a red alert situation. Demonic forces are attacking Urnan and I need assistance.”

“We’ve got some men out by you, but my boys don't see anything wrong in that area.”

“Captain, be advised, I’ve had multiple reports of supernatural anomalies not being visible to the average person.”

As much as he wanted to believe me, legally he couldn’t act without proof of my claim. But instead of ignoring me completely, he scattered men across the city to get people inside shelter. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to send out an evacuation order yet.

While we were making a run for it, a manhole started shaking. It burst open and out came locusts to ambush us.

I cut my chat short with the guard and sliced the locusts to dust, but I couldn’t get them all. One slipped by, heading right for Yamin.

“No!” I shouted, knowing I wouldn’t make it in time to save her.

It leaped into the air, gnarly human-like mouth splitting open to take a single bite of her. But its mouth chomped down on Marek instead.

"Gah!" he shouted, taking the hit for her.

He took the little demon by the body and threw it on the ground. Yamin flashed stardust over it, completely disintegrating it.

Immediately his body began to undergo the same decomposition as the other reanimated skeletons.

Just when things couldn’t get any worse, I realized my combat systems were about to shut down from overstress.

With split second thinking, I took hold of my friends and threw them into a building off to our left. Those demons were biting and snapping, trying to catch up to us.

I dragged my friends up to the roof for safety, all the while screaming for the people inside to follow me up to the top for shelter.

None of them did, of course.

Once I reached the top, I kicked down the door and quickly let Marek lay on the flat snowy roof. It would be safe up here for the moment.

With only seconds left before he transformed and my combat systems shut down, I activated my Lesser Curse Heal spell. Looks like I needed to come up with an incantation for this one too.

Hmmm…

"Baa baa black sheep, have you any curse? Yes sir yes sir, don't let it get worse."

"Lesser Curse Heal!"

Like when I used a heal spell, a pulse of light shot from my hands into Marek, scattering across his body, making it shine all glossy for a moment.

When I checked his vitals, he was curse free.

“I…I don’t feel sick anymore,” Marek uttered with a faint breath. “Thank you.”

With that spell went the last of my strength. I just collapsed.

Hexagons that made up part of my armour skin lifted and vented a huge amount of smoke from my insides. I was really burning out my body. Needless to say my combat systems fully shut down.

“That’s all folks…Yalda’s tapped out,” I said as I sprawled my limbs out like I was about to do a snow angel.

“That was amazing.” Yamin quickly pulled me up and let me rest my head on her lap. “You got us out of that mess.”

What was so amazing about me? We were still in this mess, so I hadn’t done enough yet.

If anything, it was all my fault. How many humans just lost their lives because I’d lead a demonic freak of nature here? Not to mention how many I’d failed to protect.

How many of them had hopes and dreams, families and friends? Now they were just a collection of bones, no purpose other than to serve the darkness that took their lives away.

“It’s all my fault,” I cried, whipping my eyes with the back of my hand. “I’m the reason they’re all dead.”

Yamin brushed my hair in a comforting way. “You did so much more than any of us. You’re not the one who’s trying to hurt people, you tried your best to save them.”

I fought my tears, but they spilled out anyway. Yamin lifted me up and held me close to her, allowing her clothes to absorb my weeping.

“It was so scary!” I shouted. “All those demons…all those people…why did this even need to happen?”

Yamin opened her mouth to speak, but she couldn’t form any words to answer me with.

“Why couldn’t I save them? If only I were stronger…”

“You saved us,” Yamin softly spoke. “Which means you didn’t fail.”

Marek had something to chime in. “You can’t always save everyone, and you shouldn’t be responsible for those that you couldn’t. But we’re still here as proof that you did something right.”

That made a lot of sense, but I still had a hard time accepting it. Blaming myself gave me a reason to want to get stronger. If I wasn’t weak, I could have saved everyone. There was a goal to reach for, and I had to climb the ladder to get it.

But why did I care? I didn’t know anyone down there. I knew Yamin and Marek, but even then…I’d only just met them.

Regardless of who was to blame, a lot of lives were still being lost. And the longer I sat here, the more we’d have to say goodbye to when all this was over.

“Let’s not forget we still have to get to the church, no?” Marek said.

“Not to put our plan into question,” Yamin started, “but what exactly are we going to do when we get there?”

“We’ll ask them for help,” he concluded. “The priests can use stardust, no?”

“You remember what happened back home, right?” Yamin said. “The church turned into a demon castle.”

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It’s the first I’m hearing about that…

“How did that happen?” I asked, baffled at the idea.

Neither of them understood how a church changed like that. In fact, it was quite the horrific thing at that moment. I can only imagine…

Whether the church here was going to be safe or not, it was where Uncle and I decided to meet up. And I had a feeling he’d be one of our best shots at finally defeating the reaper for good.

I stood up on my own, walking over to the edge of the building and peeking down at the street.

The skeletons were attacking the stardust lamps, taking them out and letting a thick fog of darkness cover over the air again.

“The streets are out of the question,” I said.

“We can take the roof tops, no?”

The gaps between some of these buildings wouldn’t be impossible to clear, especially since I could glide a little with my wings.

Too bad I can’t fly yet…that sure would come in handy.

“I uh…” Yamin looked down at her feet. “I’m not exactly acrobatic, if that wasn’t obvious.”

Seeing that she didn’t have much faith in her skills, I came up with the idea that let us all go together.

Marek could hold Yamin, and I could sit on his back and help glide us across. It seemed pretty foolproof, especially since he had a lot of strength. Both reluctantly agreed to it. Not like he had much of a choice.

*Weeeeooooooooeeee!*

“Oh no! He’s here!” I shouted, hearing that awful siren again, but much closer. “Let’s go!”

I jumped onto Marek’s back and spread out my wings. He made sure to hold Yamin really tightly as he took a few steps back to get a running start.

“Okay…one…two…three!” he bum rushed it, leaping right off the building.

Yamin screamed and buried her head into his chest.

“Hmmph!”

With all my tiny might, I flapped my wings and sent out powerful gusts of wind to moderately glide us over to the other side.

My body’s gonna explode!

Everyone was relieved when we just barely touched down on the next roof.

“Ahh!” I fell off Marek, exhausted and sore from having to flutter my wings so much and so fast. “How…how many more buildings…do we have to do this with?” I was utterly out of breath.

I opened up my map, seeing at least twelve more.

“Oh goodness…” my head fell back. “Alright…time for a new plan…”

The door on this roof swung open and a few people came out into the open. It was a man and woman.

“Close the door!” the man shouted at the woman.

“Ahh!” she desperately ran back and shoved it closed. “A…are we safe?”

“I…no…look at the sky!”

The blizzard that had largely filled the air had lightened up a bit, but a vortex had formed over the city and was growing larger by the second.

*Weeeeooooooooeeee!*

The siren sounds returned, blaring out from the center of the vortex. Suddenly a mass of shadow fell down from it and disappeared somewhere in the dark fog below.

He’s heading for us now…

“Hey, you guys can see this too?” Yamin ran up to them and took the girl by the hands.

“Yeah!” she nodded.

“Guys, we need to go now!” I shouted, pushing them. “Marek, how many people can you hold at once?”

“Um…how many do I need to?”

With those two, I had no doubt I’d explode if I tried to glide us all over to the next building. We had to think of a new plan.

But there wasn’t any time!

*Weeeeooooooooeeee!*

A shadow glided right past us. We braced ourselves as the heavy wind tailed behind and forced us all down.

The shadow disappeared under the fog of the street.

“Is everyone alright?” I announced, counting all the people here as heavy snow and dust cleared the air

Marek, Yamin, the man…oh no! Where’d the woman go?

“Oh, God!” The man cried out as he ran to the edge of the building. “Molly! Give her back, you bastard!”

“What happened to her?” Yamin shouted. “Was that the Reaper…d-did he just take her?”

It was far worse than that. This dust that suddenly appeared when he swooped down was…

“She’s dead…” I grit my teeth, fighting the urge to cry. “He swooped in and turned her to dust…”

The man growled, a tear ran down his cheek as he screamed out obscenities into the darkness.

He stepped up to the lip of the roof and prepared to dive down.

“Give her back! Fight me like a man!”

“No!” Yamin and Marek held the man back from jumping into the fog below.

“Let go of me! I’ll tear that bastard up with my own goddamn hands!”

“Get a grip!” Marek punched him in the face. “You can’t fight that! We need to get out of here before we all die.”

“If I die, I’m taking that thing with me!”

All they were doing was fighting each other. If this kept up, we’d be sitting ducks, doing the Reaper’s work for him.

“Both of you, calm down!” Yamin got between them. “L-look…there may be a way to save your friend,” she claimed. “But we have to get to the church.”

“There is?” I uttered, gaining some hope.

“Y-yeah,” she nodded. “There's a rumor that...” Yamin quieted down for a second. “I can't promise anything, but they say the Eighth Star is here.”

Uh-oh…does she know?

The man's eyes went wide, he quickly approached her and grabbed her shoulders, but in a delicate way.

“Are you serious?” he started crying. “Don't lie to me, please…not now…”

Her head held low, but she forced a smile.

“We need to get to the church. It’s the only way to be sure.”

Marek gave me a side eye. I think he knew what the church thought of me.

But Yamin’s words calmed the man down. I was worried he'd think that I could revive his friend, but I didn’t have a resurrection spell in my list.

~☆☆☆~

So, I concluded there was no way I'd be carrying everyone across the roof gaps. But the man had a better idea.

Just a floor below was a fire escape window. He said we could use that and create some sort of bridge across to the next building.

“Sounds good to me…” I huffed out, not wanting to carry three people on my untrained wings.

We quickly made our way into the building the man had come out from. He led us to the top floor where a fire escape was and grabbed a big wooden board that we could use to cross into the next building's fire escape.

It was a pretty sturdy board, but we’d have to cross one at a time.

They let me go first, then Yamin, then Marek…

But the room we’d just left flooded with locusts and skeletons, they found us!

The man stood in between the door and the locusts, prepared to battle each and everyone so we could escape.

“Go!” he shouted. “I’ll hold them off!”

Marek took the stardust sword from me and tossed it to the man. He gripped it for dear life and ran into the nasty assortment of demonic creatures.

“No!” I wanted to run back to help him, but Marek picked me up and raced off to the roof of this new building we were in.

This building wasn’t any better then the last though. Skeletons had already claimed it as their own and controlled the floor below us.

They were spilling over one another, tailed by shadowy fog just to catch up with us. Good thing they were slow.

We smacked a few of them away as we scurred up to the roof.

Once we reached the very top of the building, we slammed shut the door and blocked it with some crates that were up here.

“I don’t think we can keep this up all night…” I stood against the wall.

“Yamin…” Marek looked at her with a serious gaze. “Did the church tell you the truth about the Eighth Star?”

Yamin looked at him with a dreadful frown.

“Oh, please tell me they didn't say he's just a myth…”

“No…” Marek waved his hand in a denying motion. “They said she was there, but…” he turned over to me.”

“S-she?” Yamin stuttered in shock as she also turned to me. Then suddenly her eyes opened wide like she was suddenly stabbed. “No way…”

*Weeeeooooooooeeee!*

The Reaper was just behind us!

He hovered there, that spooky haze of mana bubbled around his body, distorting his form.

The others were struck with a deep fear as they gazed upon the evil being before them.

I almost fell prey to the same stunning terror, but this time I wasn’t afraid to gaze at death.

Both his skeletal hands raised up as dark orbs primed at their palms. He brought them together and a pulse of dark energy blasted out toward the roof.

I shut my eyes and raised up my own hands to create a stardust barrier, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough to protect everyone, especially not in my state. It probably wouldn’t even protect me.

But as the pulse hit, we were fine!

I opened my eyes and noticed an even greater wall of stardust had been spawned in front of me, halting the Reaper's dark energy in its tracks.

A decoratively dressed arm was hanging over my head. I turned to see a man in a black cloak, a silver shield like icon on his chest.

“Ahh, once more I am graced by the savior!” he announced in a fanatic tone, smiling at me. “She seems quite vulnerable at this age, doesn’t she?”

The stardust wall he’d spawned ahead of me disappeared. Then he lunged at the reaper wielding a double bladed axe of stardust! The Reaper swiftly dodged his strikes, but retreated back into the dark fog below.

“Who are you?” I asked the fanatic guy, remembering he was the one who rescued us from Melpomene.

“I am the lead inquisitor here in Urnan. My name is Danial, and do not be afraid to call upon my strength, holy one.”

Yamin and Marek approached, cautiously giving glances to me and inquisitor Danial. He did just appear out of nowhere.

Apparently, all the inquisitors were heading back to the church when they’d noticed the world coming to an end. They followed the highest concentration of activity, which just so happened to localize around me. That confirmed that the Reaper was indeed looking for me.

A small crowd of people were on the road below, protected by more inquisitors like Danial. They were scattered across the street, holding stardust lanterns and forming a barrier around all the civilians, many of which had no idea what was going on.

“Saint Yalda, allow me, the head inquisitor here at Urnan, to guide you and your allies safely to the cathedral.” He kneeled, bowing his head deeply.

“Alright,” I nodded. He might have been weird, but right now he was our best hope of getting to the church. “Let’s get going!”