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Mella flew us over to the castle, right up to a big wooden gate with bars of metal across it. It almost looked like a drawbridge, but there wasn’t a mote.

As we flew up, someone on the other side noticed us, then opened a small hidden door at the bottom of the bigger door.

“Who are you people?” He cautiously approached.

He had a military look to him, a green helmet and a vest that was probably bullet proof.

Since I was the only one here with any military authority, or so I assumed, I spoke up.

“My name is Yalda Asamo! I’m here to stop the demon.”

“You’re the archangel from the radio!” I recognized this guy now too. He wasn’t the captain of the guard, he was the other person that was talking to him. “You really are a little girl…I’ll let you inside. But what about those witches?”

I could feel Indena’s body temperature rise after being called a witch again. She definitely didn’t like that.

“Don’t worry about it!” I said to him. “The one witch here is on our side now.”

I realized the last time he'd heard me reference a witch she was attacking us. This must have been really weird for him to accept.

“Alright, I’ll let you guys in.”

We swooped down and got off the broom. The inside of the castle was about everything I expected out of a medieval style castle, minus candle light. It was actually brightened up by floodlights and stardust crystals.

The guy who was bringing us inside introduced himself as second lieutenant Nathan Bondson. He started explaining the situation to me.

“All this started a few hours ago. When the snow and darkness fog hit, about four fifths of the men didn't notice, even the captain didn’t see it or believe it. Then the streets flooded, with those nasty buggers. When council member Verren said that we had to evacuate to the castle, most of the others thought it was a joke, so they ignored him.”

There were at least thirty other men patrolling around, setting up and maintaining all kinds of equipment. Any entrances or windows were being boarded up and watched closely.

“You could say we disobeyed orders to work with the church and bring people up here, but since you’re here, you outrank all of us. We won’t be court-martialed, thank God.”

I think being court-martialed was like getting in big trouble in the military. He seemed really relieved.

If the situation was so bad that they’d get in trouble for helping people, that was just a scary system of justice that wasn't made with demons in mind.

“Did you meet someone named Uncle Mel?” I asked.

“Uncle…Oh, Mel Asamo. Yeah, he’s in the chapel room with the civilians and council member, lord Verren.”

He also said that Uncle helped them fight off demons. Their weapons were pretty much useless against both the skeletons and locusts.

I noticed that he was holding a rifle with metal sightlines and barrel, keeping it low and relaxed. Guns never work in horror, so might as well recycle that thing now.

“Can you take us to Uncle? The head demon is on his way here, and I need his help to prepare.”

“Of course, ma’am.”

He called me ma’am…it felt so cool! I felt all important. He did say I outranked everyone, anyways.

Wait. Did that mean the army was under my control? Oooooh man!

We started moving toward the chapel, but Mella stopped in the hallway and got my attention.

“I am forbidden from going into such a place. So I will remain here and watch the front gate.

Since she was a witch, I guess any holy place like a church would be too sacred for her to walk into. I gave her the okay to stay back and keep watch at the front door.

“I apologize for this,” she said.

“Nah, get out of our hair, stupid witch.” Indena grumbled.

“It’s fine, Mella. Just stay safe, okay?”

She nodded, then turned back to the front door. Second Lieutenant Nathan made sure to let the others at the door know a witch was going to be there.

“Don’t be nice to her,” Indena said to me. “And where’d this Mella name come from? If you nickname an animal, you’ll start to care about it.”

Mella wasn’t an animal. But boy, did Indena not like her. I mean, I can’t blame her when Mella nearly killed us before…but at least she was helping now.

I said before I don’t think Mella is evil, just misguided. I’m holding to that.

When we got to the chapel, it pretty much looked like an aged and older version of the one in Saint Kensington cathedral. That's not to say it looked worse, just older.

All my friends were here. Uncle was talking with some of the military guys. They were going over creating a tighter defensive perimeter around the castle. Apparently, the minion demons and skeletons were attacking the walls pretty frequently.

I was worried they were going to kill the skeleton guys. They were just possessed, and needed to be saved from that.

"Uncle!" I ran up to him, bouncing in place to show I meant business. "Those skeletons are actually people! We turned them back to normal!"

“You saved them?” Uncle asked.

“Yeah. We did it to a bunch of people.”

Of course, we left them on a spirit elephant outside the three pylons, but that was beside the point.

“Very well. We’ll have to collect the remains of those bones and sort them out properly.”

That was a relief. I just hoped we’d be able to keep everyone’s bodies together. Hopefully the skeletons would do that work for us, since they did seem pretty passionate about keeping their parts together.

Marek and Yamin joined in on our chat, both relieved to see Indena and I make it here in one piece.

I told them how I defeated the Reaper in his first form, but then he evolved into a edgy skull biker and was trying to get here. Now that we damaged his ride, we had time to prepare.

"Where is everyone?" Indena asked. "Don't tell me all the survivors are dead."

They weren't here, but based on the readings my map was giving, there were thousands of people underground...

"There's a pretty extensive network of tunnels under the castle," Lieutenant Bondson answered. "Not very comfortable, but plenty of room to have people hide out."

At least that was one problem we didn't need to worry about.

“So, how do we beat this skeleton biker?” Yamin asked.

Uncle and I both knew the only way to finish this was with stardust, but I just didn’t have any left in me from all the fighting we’d been doing. My combat skills tanked too, so this was going to be brutal.

If we had Stardust, then Uncle could use it to kill the demon.

“Wait!” Yamin raised her hand up, waving it around. “Don’t forget, I can use stardust too.”

She attempted to grow some sort of stardust weapon in her hand, but it was a crude object that looked like it had the durability of glass.

To test its weakness, Uncle grabbed it and tapped it against a wooden pew. The whole thing shattered to bits.

“This may work on weaker demons, but not this one.”

Yamin looked really bummed out that her weapon didn’t live up to his expectations. I couldn’t help but feel Uncle was being a bit too mean about her skill.

“Uncle, you're being mean to her.”

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“If I have offended her, I do apologize. But this problem needs an objective view of our options.”

I suppose that made sense. But wasn't there a nicer way to bring it up?

“You can help in another way,” Uncle said to Yamin. “Share your power with Yalda. Allow her to use it to make a weapon.”

Yamin didn’t mind helping like that. She mentioned that it was better than being useless.

We probably only had a few minutes before the Reaper recovered and came here. Which meant Yamin and I had to get started.

How were we supposed to do this? Did she need to share power through some complicated ritual or something…?

Oh, we just needed to hold hands. Electromagnetic energy was causing her hand to glow, and that glow was passing into me.

Yamin turned to Uncle and asked, “This should work, right Uncle Mel?”

Hey, why was she calling him Uncle? He’s 'my' Uncle!

“Yes.” He nodded. “It’s not the optimal transfer method, but it will work for now.”

There were probably other ways to share Stardust energy, but none of us knew them.

*Weeeeooooaaaeeee*

Vroooom!

Uh-oh, the Reaper was on his way. It was like my stomach was churning, and my head had a terrible migraine.

I wiggled around, trying to compartmentalize the blistering headache that pounded in my head like a drum.

“You alright?” Yamin asked.

“Yeah.” I nodded, fighting my pain swollen. “Keep shining, as bright as you can!”

Yamin kicked her light up a notch, making her hands glow just a bit brighter. The more that light shined, the more it actually helped the pain.

This plan was working. My Stardust Points meter was charging, just like we’d hoped. But it wasn’t going terribly fast, so we’d definitely need time to finish this.

VrooooommmmmVRRROOOM!

CRASH!

The Reaper’s motorcycle rammed through the stone brick wall, crumbling it to dust!

Uncle leapt to the center of the room, predicting where the Reaper would land. Then he grabbed the wheel just before it touched down and swung the motorcycle around before throwing it!

The Reaper and his ride flew through the air and crashed into a wall. Bricks staggered down on top of the demon, but he recovered quick enough to start riding once more. Now he was heading for Yamin and I.

Marek came in with a well timed punch, striking his fist into the skull of the demonic being and knocking him off his vehicle.

POW!

A solid hit! The motorcycle went flying!

CRASH!

The motorcycle blasted through the wall, falling right off the cliff!

"Good stuff, Blue Boy!" Indena cheered, sending a flame between him and the Reaper so he could back off.

"I can't feel my hand..." he waved around his left hand as he scurried for cover.

Now the demon laid on the ground, recovering from the attack. But Uncle didn’t waste a moment and started whaling on him!

Skeletal hands clawed at Uncle, trying to get a grip on him to throw him off. Eventually the demon phased into the floor and reappeared behind him.

Uncle was quick, using his bare hands to catch a swipe attack. Then he retaliated by karate kicking him!

But the demon was strong, hardly phased by the strike. With a single spin, following the momentum of the attack, he was back in the battle.

With how they were fighting, you could almost mistake it for a bar fight. Between Uncle looking like a mafia boss, and the Reaper looking like a biker edge lord, the only thing missing here was a few broken beer bottles and a bar maid trying to pull them apart.

I watch a little too much TV I think…

The pews were getting wrecked. Uncle picked one up and swung it, shattering it to bits on the demon! The Reaper took some serious damage!

In retaliation, the Reaper summoned a shadow ball and shot it at Uncle!

BOOM!

Uncle blasted into the hole in the wall leading off the cliff!

“Uncle!”

Now that Uncle was out of the picture for the moment, the Reaper's eyes turned to us. Seeing all these people around must have been a bountiful buffet to steal mana from. But his eyes locked onto one person in the room...Yamin.

He motioned toward her, reaching one arm out to grab her, and his other arms preparing the spindle.

Indena shot flame at the Reaper, but her waning strength wasn't enough to push him back.

Marek tried again to attack, but the death fog kept him from getting closer.

He hovered above us, his fear aura stunning all the human. But Uncle returned, using his wings to fly up and grab him, wrestling with the demon twice his size. He held him back with a furious grip, tossing him around with all his strength.

The Reaper wasn’t detoured, only seeing Uncle as another life he’d have to soon pass over. His siren wailed out, then with an extra four arms, he grabbed out four revolvers with scythes bayoneted at their ends and took shots at Uncle.

“Bubble shield!” Uncle shouted, spawning rounded shields out of his arms.

His shields caught each of the many bullets the Reaper fired off, making sure none ricocheted into any of us.

While the Reaper was reloading with his two open hands, Uncle raced in and bashed the Reaper down, then hit away each of the guns. The Revolvers turned to dust when they left the skeletons' hands.

The bubble shield now covered over Uncle and the Reaper. Bolts of lightning were raining down from the inner surface and striking all over them.

In a desperate attempt to free himself, the Reaper spawned his scythe, holding it close to the blade, and swung it wildly at Uncle. Sparks flew all across the room as this deadly blade carved through the magical energy.

The sparks that were flying around were disintegrating whatever they touched. That forced us to pause the stardust transfer and take better cover.

To counter, Uncle grabbed the scythe and snapped it in half.

SNAP!

The Reaper grabbed him and tossed him away, but he recovered quickly and they went right back to attacking each other.

Once the shield was down, Uncle picked up one of the remnants of the pews and slammed it into the Reaper! A chunk of it broke off, but Uncle came in for another crack over the Reaper’s head.

Then he grabbed him by the skull, putting his thumb into the eye socket and brining the head down for a slam into his knee! With that momentum, he got the Reaper in a headlock and threw all his weight down on top of its back, ripping the head right off!

Wow! That was amazing! But no chance it would kill that demon, we’d definitely need to finish him with a stardust weapon.

“How much more energy do you need?” Yamin asked.

“Just a little more!”

I had enough charge for about 70% of a weapon, so I’d need more. I didn’t want this weapon to be too weak, or else it definitely wouldn’t kill that demon.

Although the Reaper was missing his head, he started to float back up, and his head began to regenerate all on its own.

“Yalda, what is the status of the weapon?!” Uncle shouted, tossing the old skull away.

“70% done!”

“Good enough! Make it now!”

I didn't want to make something cheap. Otherwise it might not be strong enough.

What if I downsized it a little? Rather than make something full scale, I could send him a short spear instead.

“Yalda! Now!”

I cut Yamin off and grew a crystal spear in my hands, half the size of what I normally would. It was more like a knife with a long handle.

I threw it to Uncle and he caught it. But The Reaper smacked at him just as he caught it, then he fell to the ground.

The Reaper sent out a flurry of swipes with all six of his arms, Uncle countered each strike with the stardust short spear. The bone hands of the demon were disintegrating away upon contact with the stardust, so it backed away, once more pulling out a new revolver.

Rather than shoot the gun, it used the scythe bayonet to slash at Uncle. Spear and bayonet clashed.

CLING

Once their weapons were locked, the Reaper moved the gun just enough to get a shot at Uncle’s head!

BANG!

He moved his head just enough to dodge.

Uncle kicked the Reaper, then activated his hand blade and dual wielded spear and light sword!

The Reaper retreated a few of his arms, then spawned a new scythe using his left hands. Now they both had two weapons and leapt into combat.

With a flurry of attacks that were hard to track, both of them struck at each other with their weapons.

Uncle moved with precision, coordination, like a machine timing all of its movements to perfection. The Reaper moved like a wild predator, only seeking the death of its prey. They both had skill, but matched each other’s strength. It would definitely be coming down to the stardust to finish this off.

But the Reaper wasn’t going to play fair, he summoned bones from under the floorboards to grab Uncle's legs! He couldn’t move!

We were all on the edge of our seats, worried that this would be the final moment where Uncle might lose.

“NO!” I screamed. “Uncle!"

“Stop it!” Yamin shouted.

The Reaper was just staring down on him though, paused, as if he was considering what to do next.

Uncle took advantage of the Reaper's pause and knocked the gun out of his hand, then he slashed right down the middle of the demon with the mini spear!

The demon's body parted, splitting open and gushing rays of light in every direction. Its siren voice blared wildly, but slowly turned soft as the shadow that once comprised its body turned to dust.

The Reaper was dead. We'd won!

Samael leapt off my head immediately after and dove into the dust, retrieving a crystal heart from under it all.

He slithered it back to me, then I took it and swapped it into my arm port.

-Congratulations! You Leveled up!-

-New Items Obtained!-

-Reaper Soul Steal scythe added to inventory-

-Disciple of Cassana cloak added to inventory-

Ooooh! I didn’t know I could get weapons and items from these hearts!

Darn it. I was too low a level to use the weapon though…and the cloak too, apparently. I tried to spawn them, but they just came out as cubes with their names written out on them.

"That it?" Indena asked, kicking around the Reaper’s remains.

Mella was at the doorway, so we looked to her for that answer.

“Unfortunately, no. The Reaper is no more, but the gates to Hell have not been shut.”