Ashmeviti rolled his eyes in amusement, waving his hand dismissively at the group in front of him.

“A snake, a shield magician, and an exorcist is the best you could pluck from the entire world?” he wheezed, laughing at his own joke. “Raye, oh Raye, do look at this.”

“She’ll win!” Raye screamed, lunging at the bars of the cage.

“You surely don’t believe that.” Ashmeviti brushed the outside of the cage with his finger, keeping an eye on Xellie as he did so. “The worst part is not knowing...”

With a wave of his hand, the bars of the cage expanded, closing all the gaps and turned black.

“And now, you can’t see, but I will make sure you can hear.”

Xellie wasn’t sure if she imagined it, but she could have sworn she heard Raye muttering an expletive in response.

“Enough with her!” Xellie raised her sword, pointing the tip at Ashmeviti, “This is between us now!”

“GET OFF ME!” Ashmeviti shrieked, mimicking Xellie’s voice perfectly as he stood confidently next to the cage, “STOP STOP! I’LL SURRENDER JUST STOP PLEASE HAVE MERCY!”

An explosion sounded inside the cage, which shook on the spot.

Ashmeviti walked toward the group, slowly, purposefully with every step.

“Run, or she will die in there.” He hissed at the group. “I will find you before dawn.”

Ashmeviti vanished.

Xellie shot a sideways glance toward Mattos, then Tane.

“We need to find somewhere better to fight...” she gasped.

“And make a plan.” Tane added with a nod.

“Follow me!” Xellie called, sprinting off down the street. “I have an idea!”

The group ran through the town, until they found a small wooded area, by the children’s park Xellie had found Raye’s hairband.

“Let’s just take a moment...” Mattos said, looking around nervously. “What is going on?”

“I think... I think..” Xellie paced up and down, glancing between the trees at the sky. “Wait, Grau, how long is it since Ashmeviti entered our world?”

“Most the records were destroyed,” Grau mused. “But, about one hundred twenty years if oral history is correct.”

“He told me he had to possess the body of his retainer... And Raye died in the same place as the source of the exclusion zone energies, over the plains there. Some town called Lafayein.”

“So he’s using you to get revenge on her? For what?” Mattos asked.

“I don’t know.” Xellie replied hesitantly. “Grau, are there many cases of a demon outliving their retainer? Since normally they vanish if you kill the retainer... or...”

“Or they achieve what they’re summoned for, death is usually the ultimate revenge...” Tane cut in. “Big yikes.”

“This is highly irregular, but, I believe Ashmeviti’s summoning happened many years after Raye’s death.” Grau pushed his glasses up his nose. “She is a hundred fifty years old at a minimum, according to Niko.”

“Perhaps his summoner is also of supernatural origin, which would explain his boosted power.” Mattos offered an explanation. “But does this help us now?”

“I thought if I just surrendered it might make him go away... But...” Xellie said quietly.

“But nothing!” Grau snapped. “If revenge on Raye is the goal, he’s going to make her sit there and watch you cause so much of a mess, that she’s forced to kill you! The whole world could be in danger!”

“How much of this did you know?!” Xellie leaned toward Grau aggressively. “I know you’ve been hiding things!”

“You’d have made it worse..” Grau huffed. “You’re an idiot.”

“How about we just make a plan?” Tane stepped in between Grau and Xellie with an exasperated sigh. “We’re here now, and no, no suicide. He’ll snag your soul faster than you eat tuberoot soup.”

“I’m not planning on it,” Xellie growled. “Hey, Grauchie, can you at least weaken the portal so less of his power gets through?”

“That, I can do.” Grau pulled a tattered leather-bound ledger from inside his robe, flipping through the pages methodically, until he settled on the one he wanted. “Where is it?”

“Church crypt, that way.” Xellie pointed across the play park, over to the church. “But it’s so close to his house, I don’t think it can be encircled by your spell.”

“There’s alternatives.” Grau looked between his book and the church spire, deep in thought. “It’s not that we can’t circle it, it’s more that your new friend isn’t going to allow it. Did Raye uh, give you any soul cutting weapons?”

“Soul cutting...?” Xellie scratched her head thoughtfully and pulled her sword from her belt. “This is a uhm... Soul shifter.”

“Not that then.” Grau pushed the sword down dismissively. “I need something that can destroy the very essence of soul energy.”

“I have this too.” Xellie sighed and unclipped the dagger Myla had given her, handing it to Grau reluctantly.

“Yes. This will work.” Grau ran his finger over the blade, taking note of Xellie’s apprehension. “Don’t worry, I’ll get this back to you in one piece.”

“What’s the plan? Can we help?” Xellie asked, her eyes darting around looking for Ashmeviti. “Is there anything we can do to assist your spell?”

“I’m going to amplify it through this dagger. Take these and place them either side of the portal, so that a line from here to there is in the centre of them.” Grau said, handing Xellie a pair of small, smooth stones. “Go go go.”

“Protect him,” Xellie told Mattos, gesturing to Tane to follow her. “Let's go.”

Xellie and Tane set off at a brisk pace, walking through the park, then climbing over the fence together. Although they didn’t speak to each other, they exchanged glances repeatedly. Tane’s was one of concern, Xellie’s response was ‘thank you’.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Walking into the churchyard, the energy from the portal surged and pulsated through the gaps in the crypt doors. Xellie’s legs trembled, as each step closer to the portal became harder and harder. Although she was swearing inside she wouldn’t let Tane see the effect it was having on her, she fell onto her hands and knees, shaking and gasping for breath.

“That’s enough!” Tane snapped at her, grabbing the stones and placing them several paces either side of the portal. Much to Xellie’s annoyance, he grabbed her, lifting her over his shoulder and walking a safe distance away.

A safe distance would be when she, sure enough, had strength to kick him so he’d drop her.

“You didn’t need to do that.” She grumbled, pride battered by the whole event.

“Do what? I forgot already.” Tane replied with a smirk, helping her off the ground. “We need to get back to Grau.”

Xellie nodded, and set off into a sprint back to the park, slowing down to let Tane go ahead.

She stopped when she reached the park, Grau was safely tucked in among the trees, his eyes closed as he recited his spell.

She felt a hand lay on her shoulder from behind.

“Last chance?” Ashmeviti asked.

She turned around to face him, grabbing her sword as she did so. Locking eyes with the demon lord, she could feel a nauseating physical dread filling her body.

She gripped her sword tightly, her knuckles turning white.

Ashmeviti grabbed a hold of her wrist, holding it aside as the sword began to flicker to life.

With each flicker of energy from the sword, she felt her dread and anxiety turning into excitement at the fight that was about to happen. Giving him a firm kick in the stomach, he released his grip on her wrist, wrenching her hand downward as he did so, sending her sword flying.

“Cover me please!” She told Mattos as she pointed to the sword.

“I will kill your friends before I take you!” Ashmeviti exclaimed with a mighty roar as his form twisted and grew, his demonic features showing through, towering thrice their height over them, in his hand an enormous scythe that he threw toward the group.

Xellie yelped and dived on to the ground to grab her sword. In her head she would land in a roll and grab it, elegantly standing up to face him. In reality she hit the ground hard landing on her chest and cursing below her breath as she grabbed the sword. It instantly exploded into a display of white and golden light, the blade as long as she was tall.

“You know what I know.” She told Ashmeviti warily, edging back toward Mattos and Grau. “You can’t take your attention off me to kill them.” Backing up until she was next to Grau, she muttered under her breath. “The portal is huge, can you do it?”

“I’ll bet.” Grau replied. “There’s no way with him watching.”

“Weaken him with you know... and Mattos... Tane... Keep me alive.”

“Who put you in charge?” Tane scoffed, subtly responding with a small fist pump. “Good luck.”

These were three, no, four people, that she could trust with her life. Tane had once been her lifelong friend and wanted to free his lover. Ary was a happy-go-lucky kid who wanted to see the world a better place, although she was hiding, she was nearby. Xellie could sense Ary.

Grau’s no-nonsense attitude toward demons would see him get done what needed to be done. And Mattos, although she had only known him a short while, didn’t seem like the kind of guy to watch someone get torn apart by a demon lord.

There was no holding back now.

Releasing a primal scream from deep inside, Xellie charged at the demon, jumping into the air and bringing her sword down as hard and fast as she could. Ashmeviti was able to match her speed and parried her away with his scythe, immediately swinging back at her.

She jumped away, the blade slicing the air a hair’s width away from her chest. She steeled herself to charge at him again, but he responded faster, slamming the scythe blade downwards.

Xellie ran at him shoulder first, her sword behind her as she rammed into him.

Ashmeviti grabbed the front of her tunic and lifted her into the air, his red evil filled eyes burning with hatred as they met hers.

She grabbed onto his arm, bringing her knees and feet up to push herself away, her ripped tunic remaining in his hands as she landed on the ground, quickly spinning on her heels to slash at his legs with her sword.

He responded with a thunderous growl as the gash in his thigh became visible. Following through on the success of this attack, Xellie jumped as high as she could, propelled by an unknown power, she found herself level with his head.

As this went on, Grau crouched on the floor, pulling some chalk from inside his robe and drawing runic symbols across the dirt and around the dagger. He closed his eyes and seemed to be drowning out all of the activity going on around him.

Once more Ashmeviti raised the scythe to push her away. Rather than evading this, she somehow found the footing to land on the scythe and slide down its handle, thrusting the light blade in front of her to pierce his abdomen.

He swatted her away, she skidded along the ground, turning to face him.

“You’re only going to tire yourself.” he huffed, lifting his weapon to throw it.

“Sure, but I’m...” She gasped as she realised what was about to happen and ran in front of Grau, taking the full force of the blade as it was thrown toward the exorcist. “No you don’t!”

Enraged by this, Ashmeviti flew toward them, Xellie blocking the way between the demon and Grau. Holding her sword across Ashmeviti’s body with both hands, Xellie trembled as she pushed back with all the strength she could muster.

Realising what was happening, Mattos doubled down on his shielding spell he had been casting on Xellie, running next to her and adding his own sword to the barricade.

Tane also came over, summoning a magical barrier and helping to push the demon lord away.

“Take this!” Xellie told Tane, grabbing his hand and placing it on her sword handle. “Hold!”

The sword and its light blade now held in place by Mattos’ sword and Tane, Xellie let go and dived under the blade, to grab Ashmeviti’s feet and pull him to the ground.

“It’s done!” Grau yelled as a blinding white light spread through the cobbled floor shooting through the dagger toward the portal.

“THE PORTAL!” Xellie screamed back to Grau. “CLOSE THE PORTAL!”

“It’s already closing.” Grau replied, dusting himself off as he stood up.

“You’ve made a mistake.” Ashmeviti grunted, backing away and holding up the two rune stones Xellie and Tane had placed earlier, flipping them to the ground nonchalantly.

The ominous whistle of incoming magic filled the air. An explosion threw all of them away from Ashmeviti, who stood up and vanished in a puff of black smoke.

“Did he run?” Xellie asked in confusion, looking around her.

“Get off the ground!” Grau yelled.

A thick black fog crept along the ground, swirling and pulsating. Every plant the fog touched died, metal rusted, wood cracked. As it approached the group, it parted, energy from the spell that channelled through the dagger on the ground cutting a beam of light through the dark energy.

Xellie looked down at the dagger, then toward the portal. The dagger imbued with Grau’s spell could potentially destroy the portal.

She grabbed it off the ground, and ran toward the fog.

“NO!” Tane screamed after her. “Don’t touch that stuff!”

I don’t intend to.

Recalling her feelings on the island when she was jumping, almost flying from place to place, she focused on her energy blade in her right hand. Rather than imagining her energy powering the blade, she started felt as if the sword was pumping energy into her.

Across the park, now poking out from the fog was the children’s roundabout. She ran toward it, and jumped into the air, landing on it lightly, then jumping toward the fence.

This had been too ambitious, maybe she wouldn’t make it, but it was worth trying.

As soon as her feet touched the fence post, she jumped again, propelling herself as far as she could through the air. Ghostly white wings unfurled behind her as she flew through the air toward the portal.

She took aim with the dagger, and threw it directly toward the centre of the portal, visible at the bottom of the church crypt steps. The portal hissed and crackled, beginning to shrink.

Ashmeviti appeared below her, swatting her aside with his enormous scythe. It landed with a sickening crack against her arm and ribs.

The wings vanished and she fell to the ground, disappearing into the blackness.

Ashmeviti looked down at her momentarily before running down the steps into the portal.