Somewhere around Qiongzhou Strait,

Ancient China,

About a thousand of years ago.

(Agnis)

Only cackling of fiends could be heard as the Demon King and the Armies of Hell, in alliance with the Mortals surrounded us, Dragon Knights, Chosen Ones, and Immortals, on all sides.

“What did you do to us Demon King?” Lord Da Fu said in anger as we felt ourselves becoming weak.

“Just an extra precaution to make sure none of you can use your powers against us.” he snickered, pointing to the large dragon idol we thought they had brought as a peace offering, causing the demons to cackle manically all over again.

“My lord, we’re trapped!” I cried as they inched closer causing us, in their mist, to tighten our circle.

“This is your last chance to surrender.”the Demon King said, his voice booming across the battlefield. “Just hand over your pearls and orbs and no one will get hurt.”

“In your dreams!” Lady Ari spat weakly, as we mysteriously felt our powers draining faster.

“Then, you leave me with no choice.” he snarled and shot a flare gun into the air.

Suddenly, there was a large explosion from above which caused the earth to rumble soon several burning debris fell like confetti from the sky.

“What was that?!” Lord Aito asked, shaken to the core.

“Those fools!” the Demon King cursed “I told them to use only one…”

“You monsters!” I roared in realization “You just bombed the Jade Palace!”

“So?” he shrugged nonchalantly. “It's all your fault anyways.”

“Our families were in there.”

“Sorry for your losses…” Aaron snickered nastily.

“But you said nobody was going to get hurt!” the Emperor of China cried guiltily, quite moved by the tears and cries of some of the dragon shifters who were mourning their families.

“Shut up you mortal!” the Demon King snapped. “Or perhaps you’d like to join them…?”

“No pain, no gain!” the Emperor nervously muttered.

“What do we do my lord?” Emperor Guan Yu gasped, urgently clutching the Jade Emperor.

We were taken aback by the Lord of Heaven’s calm countenance as he brushed out of Emperor Guan’s grasp. Almost lazily, he then brought out a small bird whistle in the shape of a dragon and blew it. The shrill sound caused the demons and humans to shut their ears in agony as it rang out across the cosmos. Almost immediately the clouds thickened and started to swirl with purplish lightening cackling from within as it slowly blotted out the sky.

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“W-What’s going on? What do you think you’re doing, Yu-Huang?” the Dragon King stuttered, quite taken aback by the turn of events.

“Beating you at your own game,” he muttered.

A large explosion from above then caught everyone’s attention. We all looked up to behold a large fiery purple comet being hurled from heaven, landing on a dragon idol, with an even louder bang followed by an earth-lurching earthquake. Luckily for us, the Jade Emperor cloaked us in a protective dome shielding us from the peril outside. When the smoke and pandemonium subsided we all gasped at the bloody aftermath, the hit was so powerful it had wiped out everything living within almost a thirty-mile radius, leaving almost one-third of our enemies behind. We groaned in relief as we were released from the spell and I could feel my powers slowly returning.

“My men” the Dragon King cried. “You’ll all pay for…”

The Dragon King was then interrupted by a loud growl from the large boulder the Jade Emperor had summoned it slowly uncoiled itself to reveal a large purple dragon as a wave of shock washed across the demons and humans who began to mutter amongst themselves.

“Wen Shi?”

“It’s the Dragon Queen!”

“She’s never going to spare us now!”

“We shouldn’t have messed with the dragons!”

A loud roar from the Dragon Queen resounded our battle cry as the Dragon Knights began to shift into dragons, alongside the Immortals and Chosen Ones and we attacked the humans and demons.

For hours, only the sound of small explosions and blasts of energy could be heard as we slayed demons and humans alike, while the Jade Emperor and the Demon King were locked in a duel alongside other gods. I was mesmerized by the way Wen Shi was gracefully turning the tide. Immediately after the battle cry, she turned into a blue dragon and dived into the sea along with all the mermaids to chase out the water demons as I rammed my spear into a Demon General’s chest. Soon enough, I froze in curiosity as cries of agony were bubbling out of the water.

A large whirlpool started to suck in the water demons painting the water red. Soon enough, a lady with white dragon wings flew out of the water and dived into the ground with the other earth dragons following suit. On seeing this, our enemies hastened a retreat because Wen Shi and other earth dragons brought out spikes from the ground impaling some of them on the way.

Before we could give a cry of victory the earth started to quake the molten lava from hell began to spill on the earth.

“What’s going on?” Wen Shi asked, trying to steady herself.

“Lord Dal is locked in a duel with Lord Huli!”

“Not again!” she groaned as we saw him push Lord Huli away before he lost control of his powers. Roaring in anger, more lava spurted out of the earth’s core as his manna burned brighter.

“He needs help in cooling off…” Shi replied, thoughtfully as we dodged the lava droplets that had just spurted from a fresh crack nearby.

“My lady, what do you have in mind?” I cried as I created a protective dome over us.

“Agnis… You, Zixuan, Tao, Yun, Manchu, and Ai should get everyone as far away from the shore as soon as possible.”

“What are you going to do?” asked Yun.

"I shall create a stir," she smirked, extending her pinkie and thumb while curling the pointer, middle, and ring fingers of both hands - vigorously twisting her wrists in expectation of our comprehension. However, we failed to grasp the intended pun causing her to sigh in disappointment.

“Just go…”

“We won’t let you down Mother.” we chorused, bowing to her.

“Agnis?” she said calling me back.

“Yes, mother?”

“Don’t call me that!” she protested softly “If I don’t make it give this to Ari.”

“Don’t say that my lady!” I gasped collecting something wrapped in a napkin. “But your wish is my command.”

She gave me a curt nod, grunting as she turned into a black dragon. I joined the rest while she ran towards the horizon, over the sea. Each step caused ice to break out on the lava but it soon melted away.

We managed to get everyone out of the battlefield, demons, and humans too. We were running towards the hills when suddenly the sky slowly darkened again.

“Holy snake!” the demon I was supporting gasped, as we all beheld the largest wave we’d ever seen in our lives.

“Run!” Emperor Guan Yu barked, but was too late as the water had already begun to tilt towards us.

“Hold onto something!” Yun cried, and we held shrubs, bracing for impact.

I almost lost my grip as we got submerged in the ice-cold water. Soon, the air was thick with water vapor, carbon dioxide, sulfur, and ash as the water receded. I weakly sank to my knees along with others panting and coughing out water. I turned towards Dal who was sprawled on the floor in exhaustion. I sighed in relief as my lady flew out of the water to check on Lord Dal who was sprawled spear-eagled by the edge of a cliff. I weakly lay on the floor coughing out more water when I felt someone crouching beside me.

“Master?!” I croaked as he helped me sit up

“Are you ok?”

Before I could reply, we were all alerted by a piercing scream from Lady Ari, who was frantically pointing to the edge of the cliff.

“Wen Shi!” we screamed in horror on seeing Lord Dal’s dagger in her chest as he disappeared. Blood flowed out her lips as she began to reel backward.

I didn’t know where I got the energy from, but I soon found myself running toward her. Only the panting of blurry figures trying to outrun me made me realize that I wasn’t the only what wanted to save her. Suddenly, a mighty gust of wind knocked her off balance sending her head first into the turbulent waters below.

“Nooooooo!”

“Angel!”

TBC