Mellic’s enchantments within the castle made planning incredibly difficult. I had seen first hand the direct manipulation of the environment that he was capable of, and I was sure that was only a fraction of his power. Most of our plan involved making it up as we went along, but we were trying our best to prep for anything. As we walked up the steps of the enormous castle, the pit in my stomach threatened to overwhelm me.
We had decided that we would split into two groups, with Bray, Emelia, and I making a beeline for my bedroom so I could save and level up, while the rest of our clan went to the throne room to challenge Mellic directly and buy us time. We gave each other grim nods of determination and moved forward.
With my sword and shield drawn, I nodded to my demon warriors leading the way and they shoved each of the massive doors open. I sighed deeply and walked slowly through the entrance with Bray and Emelia on either side of me. The interior of the castle looked dark and drab, just like it had before; but the air seemed to vibrate with energy. As the three of us walked down the corridor towards my room, chains shot from every direction out of the walls around us. Each of the ends of the chains froze before they could hit us and Emelia held up one of her hands. The ice-coated chains flew back and struck the walls, shattering upon impact. We knew that maintaining the element of surprise was a long shot, and the attack proved that Mellic was waiting for us. After a series of turns that should have taken us right to my room, we appeared to be back in the same spot that we started in. I pulled up the minimap and saw that the entire layout had been changed. We backtracked a bit and had to stop when we suddenly came to a dead-end.
I reached out and touched the wall to make sure it was actually something solid, before turning back to Bray and nodding. I stepped aside as he lifted his axe high over his head and swung at the wall. The crash from the blow was deafening and I grinned when I saw the crumbled ruins of the stone wall. Bray had to smash three more walls before we finally made it to the corridor outside my room. What we hadn’t expected was the master enchanter himself standing in front of the door. He looked the way he did when I first met him; standing almost 12 feet tall and with a physique that would put any human weight-lifter to shame. He had a large claymore in each hand and the armor he wore from the waist down seemed to absorb the light around it like a black hole. He bared his fangs at me and looked at me full of disgust.
“Allexus... You couldn’t have done us both a favor and just fucking die, could you? And you… Ice bitch. You’ll pay dearly for what you did. I’ll enjoy taking you over and over until you submit to me... and I’ll make Allexus watch.”
He raised his swords in a defensive stance and glared at me.
“Wow… way to leave the Warrior out, asshole. I mean… Em’s spell was pretty goddamn epic but… the crater I made and the tremors that knocked down a quarter of your army was pretty badass.”
“Let’s see how talkative you are when you’re choking on my dick… warrior.”
“Dude… that’s not much of a threat considering I’ve been deep-throating guys since I was 15.”
“ENOUGH!!”
Mellic lunged forward and swung his large swords like a giant pair of scissors. Two of my warriors were cleaved in half while several managed to dodge or block with their shields. Bray moved to intercept the attacking demon and yelled back at me.
“We got you covered, Allie, go!”
My master moved to cut me off before I could make any movements, barely sidestepping a heavy swing from Bray’s axe. Emelia had anticipated this movement and an ice spike shot up from the ground and impaled Mellic from below. I focused on my speed and hurled myself forward, zipping around the wounded demon lord and into my room. Once I was in I slammed the door behind me and sighed. I would have liked to take a moment to relax, but I knew that I had seconds to spare. I quickly saved my progress and my eyes went wide upon seeing that I had jumped up to level 53. I quickly allocated my stat points and made my skill selection before jumping up and drawing my sword again.
I threw the door open and moved to attack my master from behind. He dodged out of the way of my strike and swung back at me. I brought my shield arm up to deflect the blow, but the impact still made my arm go numb and I took a large chunk of health damage. I looked down at my shield and saw with dismay that it had been completely shattered past the point of repair. I reluctantly dropped the now useless piece of equipment to the ground and looked around at the ongoing fight.
The clusterfuck of demons and Demonspawn had been scuffling with the enormous demon lord for a few minutes, but he showed no signs of tiring. Emelia raised both hands and razor sharp ice columns impaled Mellic from all angles. Bray went high and I went low, cutting him in half and decapitating him all at once. The grin on his face as he died made me realize that it was far from over. Mellic’s booming voice filled the castle as if the building itself was speaking.
“Impressive, Allexus. When you first came here you couldn’t even scratch me… You truly are my best work. I would feel nothing but pride and joy if you would just give yourself to me willingly. But you had to make things difficult. You had to do things your way. Well, Allexus, let me show you my way.”
The walls of the castle disappeared and we suddenly found ourselves standing in a giant colosseum-style arena. In the middle stood Mellic, wearing nothing but a flowy black pair of pants. His arms were crossed over his bare chest, and he tapped one finger in irritation. Jade, Scythe, Judas, and a disguised Aeryn were on the opposite side of him, with several of my demon warriors and mages in front.
“It seems you chose your clan mates well, Allexus; they were able to defeat my succubus form rather quickly. It’s too bad really… they could have been truly powerful if you had only offered them to me. But none of you have seen true power.”
He held out one hand and waved it in front of him. At first it seemed like nothing happened, but my vision started to blur after a few seconds. When I went to move my hand to rub my eyes, my body refused to respond. My eyes blinked on their own and my vision returned to normal. From head to toe my body felt numb, and when my hands moved on their own to sheathe my sword, I started to panic. I tried to shout out to warn the others, but my mouth wouldn’t move. My legs moved me forward towards Mellic and I could see the look of confusion on my clanmates faces. Bray put his hand on my arm and my body reacted instantly; I spun on one heel and struck him at full strength in the chest with my palm. His armor absorbed most of the impact, but my greatly enhanced demonic strength caused him to recoil in pain.
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“What the hell, Allie?! It’s just me!”
He backed up a few steps and held his axe defensively. I felt my speed surge throughout my body and watched helplessly as I rushed at Bray with my claws extended. He had no time to react as I raked my razor sharp claws along his face and grabbed his head with an iron grip. My free hand reached forward and grabbed the heavy belt around his waist, before I hoisted him off the ground and tossed him like a ragdoll at Emelia. With one hand she created a huge fist of ice that plucked the warrior out of the air, while with the other crafted walls of ice that surrounded me like a thick bubble. One of my hands reached out and started casting my [Demonfire] spell. Flames surrounded my body and I began to pummel the diamond hard ice with my flaming gauntlets. I made short work of the barrier, and the second I was through I felt my wings extend and my body hurled itself into the air.
My head turned side to side slowly, scanning the ground below. My eyes focused on Emelia who was watching me with a look of concern. I watched her mouth the words “What are you doing?”, but I had no way to respond. Instead I folded my wings and dove straight at her. One of my hands began casting a spell as I plummeted down, but a wall of ice rose up and blocked my descent. Who or whatever was controlling my body had anticipated Emelia’s wall, and my wings extended suddenly to stop me in midair just before I hit the icy barrier. My body ignited in [Demonfire] again and I dug my claws into the frozen wall, tearing out large chunks of ice. I hurled the jagged pieces I had torn free at my other clanmates across the way, before I dropped to the ground and walked slowly to the edge of the wall.
My speed surged again and I dashed around the wall and sprinted towards Emelia. My inhuman speed left no time for her to react once she saw me, and I was on her within a split second. As I landed on top of the small ice mage, I pushed her to the ground and pinned her with one hand. Ice began to coat my arm and I pulled back my free hand in preparation for a strike.
NO! Not like this! Not Emily! NO! NOO!!
My body punched with all the strength I had and suddenly stopped right before hitting Emelia in the chest. The numbness in my body faded slightly, and I summoned up all the willpower I had to lean forward and kiss her on the lips. Frost instantly coated my lips and spread across my face, but I maintained the contact as long as I could. It seemed the colder my body got the more control I gained of it. It was hard to speak with my face mostly frozen, but I managed to utter a few words before my body began to slump forward.
“S’me Em. Sorry. So Sorry.”
My vision faded as I began to lose consciousness and I felt strong hands lift me and toss me to the ground. Once the contact with Emelia was broken, the ice began to melt. I blinked my eyes rapidly and groaned loudly.
“Bray… I am so sorry. I have no idea what happened. It was like someone just took control of my body.”
“How do I know it’s really you?”
“Do I need to kick your ass without attacking you again?”
“Maybe after we stomp Mellic’s bitch face into the ground.”
He reached down and helped me to my feet, but I could see he was still on the defensive. I cast my [Minor Wound Healing] spell and gently touched the gashes across his face. The wounds healed and closed, but there was still a very distinct scar that ran from one the top of his left eye down to his chin.
“Bray… I am so sorry… I left a pretty wicked scar. At least there’s good news though…”
His eyebrows rose and he cocked his head.
“You’re still ugly as sin… so if anything I improved your face a bit.”
“...bitch!”
The sounds of fighting on the other side of the arena stopped and we both turned towards Mellic and the others. While I had been busy attacking Emelia and Bray, Mellic had been toying with the other members of our clan. Jade was pinned to the ground by large heavy chains and was doing her best to keep them from crushing her further while Judas was lying unconscious a few feet away from her, and Scythe was fighting a losing battle keeping Mellic off of Aeryn. Judas had crafted a disguise for Aeryn that made him look like his former Demonspawn character, and he was sticking to that act pretty well. I spread my wings and lifted off the ground a little before scooping up Bray from behind. Emelia was using Ice Blast to create a layer of ice that she glided on along the ground. I shook my head a little as we rushed towards the battle.
“Looking good, Frozone.”
“Hey, Incredibles was a great movie! And I mean… come on…. Sam Jackson? I’d almost go straight for him. The contact with the ice recharges a little of my MP as I go, and I get to look like a superhero. Win win!”
“You’re such a nerd… Which is why you are adorably perfect.”
“Can you not flirt with your girlfriend while carrying me across an enchanted arena?”
We all laughed as we drew closer to the battle, our smiles and cheerfulness changing to looks of determination and focus.
“Em, free Jade and have her revive Judas. Bray, defend Scythe so he can recharge his MP and heal himself up a little. Then go at Mellic with full force.”
They both nodded and I released my grip on the massive warrior as I flew over the battle. He hit the ground running and shoulder slammed Mellic out of the way as he barreled towards his boyfriend. The large demon hand vaulted and flipped backwards before waving his hand at his new attacker. The ground beneath Bray’s feet suddenly turned into quicksand and he started sinking in slowly. I landed next to Aeryn and began to cast my summoning spells. Because I was still technically in the castle, I was able to summon twice the amount of demons as normal and it didn’t cost me any MP to cast each spell. A whole platoon of demon warriors rose up in front of me, and I quickly cast the rest of my spells. I had summoned 52 warriors, 20 mages, 12 priestesses, and 2 assassins.
“Make that ass hole regret the day he was spawned. Protect the other clan members and fight ferociously like the demons you are! Go!”
My army marched forward and surrounded the master enchanter. My priestesses were healing the other members of my clan quickly while the mages cast defensive spells to keep Mellic’s enchantments at bay. I turned to Aeryn and placed my hand on his shoulder.
“I think it’s about time for that surprise you’ve been saving.”
“I thought you’d never ask. It was torture to have to hold myself back.”
He waved his hand in front of him and the disguise shimmered and disappeared. He pulled out a small spider charm, whispered something to it softly, and set it down on the ground. The charm grew rapidly until it was a monstrous 10 foot tall spider. The massive creature reached underneath its belly and retrieved a web cocoon. It pulled on the webbing until it tore, and dozens of smaller spiders crawled out from the opening.
“I’m going to take a play out of Bray’s book and say that creeps me the hell out. I’m just glad you and your spider army are on our side. Mellic is in for a surprise… Well, let’s do this spider-man.”
“My spidey senses are tingling.”
“Ugh. Dork..."