Someone stood in the darkness under the shadow of trees, Adhrit and Yaksh’s pupils expanded to grasp even the smallest sight of the man. While Aizen’s instinct warned him of immense danger, Arav stared at the individual with suspicion;

“Mind an Introduction?” Arav said in a calm tone while he stepped forward from the three;

“Haha…Introduction you say?, An abandoned prince who returned for revenge, an elven warrior, the prince of the Chandra kingdom…and the man called Shadow master..” The man stepped forward while speaking words that baffled the four;

Their eyes finally managed to get a glimpse of his appearance, A white pale face with dark eyes and long black hair stretching to his shoulders. The man wore black coloured attire that made him disappear in the darkness;

“As to who am I….I am called Pratira.” The man said with a smirk while rearranging his hair;

“Where are they?” Aizen asked in a tone filled with anger and restlessness;

“They?...Are you..perhaps referring to my desert?” The man placed his fingers on his chin, while his eyes looked up;

“HOW DARE YOU?!!” Adhrit unsheathed his sword while he exclaimed;

Arav momentarily gazed at the man, then turned towards Aizen;

“His confidence indicates this won’t be simple..” Arav said while taking a battling instance,

[SHING!]

“It be a disapointment if that wasn’t the case”

Aizen unsheathed his sword and his eyes wore a red glow;

“Ho?...You seem prepared to battle..” The man slowly began walking forward with his arms at his back;

“He…he is open for attack…is he stupid?” Adhrit confusingly said as he pointed his sword at the man;

“No, he is confident we can’t do anything..” Yaksh said while his hands pulled an arrow from the quiver on his back;

[WOOSH!]

The man sprinted forward, with a speed that Aizen and Arav barely managed to follow. He appeared right in the middle of the four warriors, Adhrit and Yaksh eyes widened, as for them, the man just appeared out of nowhere. Arav thrusted his sword forward, while shouldering the surprise of the sudden movement. Aizen’s sword missed the man and slashed at the ground, while at the same instance he felt a strong impact on his abdomen;

[BHUM!]

Adhrit crashed into a nearby tree, while at the same moment, Arav leaped at the man with his hands forming a fist. He attacked rapidly, only hitting air and missing the man entirely. Arav felt as if the man was expecting every single one of his movement,

[SMACK!]

A kick in the stomach caused saliva to splurt out of his mouth, while the force of the impact threw him away;

[SHING!]

The blade of Aizen’s sword ringed while it collided with air, as he slashed at the demon with all of his might. Aizen’s eyes widened in surprise, as he saw the demon effortlessly evade his attack with a smile, then the surprised eyes of Aizen contracted;

[SMACK!]

The demon felt his jaw vibrate with immense force, and found himself crashing through trees the very next moment.

Before he could regain his balance and stand up, every cell of his body felt an incredible heat followed by the demon’s eyes reflecting the green glow of the explosion that created a hole in the ground.

Arav rapidly flew towards the demon and attempted to punch, his eyelids and hair vibrated by the shockwave created by the demon catching his fist with his bare hand;

[WOOSH!]

The demon’s hands got surrounded in dark energy, he swiftly landed a powerful blow on Arav’s chest, Unleashing his dark energy that rampaged through Arav’s body;

[CRASH!]

Arav was thrown back, but the next second, Adhrit slashed his sword surrounded with silver energy at the demon;

[SHING!]

The demon evaded the attack, the sword gently brushed off his clothes and landed on the ground. Adhrit’s eyes shivered as he saw the demon’s open palms closing in at his face;

[BHUM!]

A great volume of dark energy was released, as the demon slammed Adhrit on the ground;

[BOOM!]

Yaksh shot another arrow at the demon, but as the explosion occurred at his location, the demon appeared right beside him and punched him in his abdomen. Yaksh flew a long distance away and finally crashed in the ground, with a throbbing pain near his liver that paralyzed him instantly;

[SLASH!] [DRIP…DRIP!]

The demon suddenly felt a cold metal cutting inside his stomach, before he could react, a dark red aura raged throughout his body along with an excruciating pain;

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[SMACK!]

The next instance, a fist surrounded in yellow energy punched at his left eye;

[CRASH!]

The demon was hurled above the ground and was sent crashing in the distance;

“Haah….You…pathetic mortals…” The demon stood up with an angered expression and glared at both Arav and Aizen,

“DEMONIC RESONANCE!!”

The moment these words escaped the demon’s lips, the entire dimension began shaking. Soon Arav and Aizen were greeted with an image of dark energy rising from every single corpse of centaurs present around them, that headed directly inside the demon’s body.

Then suddenly, Arav noticed another set of dark energy entering the demon, but they were slightly different while originating from a distance.

“The children are there…” Aizen spoke before Arav, as he himself noticed the phenomenon;

“YOU SHALL KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO GO AGAINST A TRUE INFERNAL!!” The demon’s body began rapidly changing while he screamed on the top of his lungs, his skin hardened while adapting a black color, followed by two horns piercing through his forehead skin, at the same time his finger turned into long sharp claws that radiated a dark energy;

“Urgh!..” Yaksh stood up while grabbing his abdomen, his eyes instantly widened with goosebumps appearing all over his body, as he sensed the tremendous energy bleeding out of the demon.

“Yaksh…the children are there…” He heard Arav speaking while pointing at something in the distance, Yaksh quickly moved towards Adhrit and began sending some of his green energy inside his body;

“HAAH!!!” Adhrit suddenly opened his eyes with a gasp,

“We found them..” Yaksh said while standing up, Adhrit quickly picked his sword and began following Yaksh sprinting towards the back of the demon;

“We have what we desired….now I won’t hold back, and I order you to do the same..”

Arav said while raising both of his fists to his chest’s level,

“Same thoughts here young master, how can I ever defy your order?..”

[HUM!] [WOOSH!] [GRARH!]

Two incredibly strong red energies raged out of Arav and Aizen, while Arav’s aura glowed with a brilliant red color, Aizen’s aura had a hint of black, giving it a dark red glow. The sound of a beast roaring echoed in the area,

“HRAARH!” The demon flung towards both of them, despite noticing Yaksh and Adhrit moving away;

His punch crashed on the ground, with his eyes noticing Arav and Aizen jumping away in opposite directions. The demon slashed his claws at Arav, but was surprised as Arav swiftly dodged his attack;

[SLASH!]

Aizen’s sword raging with a dark red aura cut vertically on his back,

[SMACK!]

Arav leaped back and punched the demon from below, making him fly up towards the sky;

[WOOSH!]

Arav opened his palms and brought them closer, his red aura rapidly began forming a red energy sphere in his palms. While at the same time, Aizen’s dark red aura began condensing on his sword;

[HUM!] [SLASH!]

A powerful beam of red energy and a tremendously strong blade of red aura headed towards the demon;

“NOO!!!” The demon gathered all of his energy and threw it towards the attack, but the raging red pair of energy kept pushing, rendering his attempt at survival futile;

[BOOM!]

The demon saw the energies pierce through his defenses and directly collide with him. The explosion blew apart his entire body instantly.

[WOOO!!]

The wind from the explosion made the dead trees wave,

[TCHIIK!]

Arav and Aizen’s energies dispersed, they both stared at the remaining bits of the demon’s flesh falling down and quickly turning to dust the very next moment;

[THUD!]

“Haah..” Aizen suddenly fell on his back,

“What happened?...Is the great shadow master suffering from back pain?” Arav asked with a smirk;

“Heh…maybe…” Aizen chuckled;

“Young Master,...I feel this isn’t over..” Aizen asked while he gazed at the dark sky;

“..Same thoughts here…”

“We need to move..” Arav stretched his hand towards Arav, who grabbed it and stood up.

[SWOOO!!]

They both sensed and heard something, upon quickly turning back they found a green stream of energy shooting up in the sky from the distance;

[HUM!]

Yellow energy appeared under both Arav and Aizen’s feet and they began floating in the same direction.

Both of them landed next to a worried Adhrit, who pointed at a dark wall in front of him;

“There…is nothing..” He said in a hopeless tone and heavy voice;

Arav gazed towards the sky, then suddenly his eyes widened;

“Move back..” Arav brought his palms closer while stepping forward;

[HUM!]

A yellow energy sphere appeared in his palms,

[WOOSH!]

The beam of energy released crashed on the wall. But nothing seemed to happen,

“HRAAARH!!”

[WOOSH!]

Arav exclaimed and red flames suddenly erupted from his back and turned the yellow energy to red. The black wall began trembling along with the ground they stood on. Within moments, a crack appeared in the wall and revealed around fifty children floating inside a large room;

[HUM!]

Before the three of them could move, a yellow energy sphere surrounded every child and began moving out of the crack.

[THUM!!]

The trembling worsened and cracks began appearing in the dimension, revealing a pitch black world with nothing inside it;

“Adhrit….create a portal outside this place..” Arav said while slowly moving the energy sphere together, combining them in a single sphere with all of the children’s lying unconscious inside;

“I…I can’t do it…I..” Adhrit said in a frightened tone with a pale face, while the dimension falling apart fueled his fear even further;

“Here…” Arav placed his hand on Adhrit’s shoulder, a great volume of Arav’s red aura rushed inside his body. He sensed an incredible strength that made him feel as he could do anything,

“Focus!” Arav tightened his grip on his shoulder and made Adhrit snap back to reality;

Adhrit quickly raised his hand forward;

[SWOOSH!]

A mass of silver-red energy began tearing the space, and soon a huge portal appeared right in front of them. Before they could celebrate, Adhrit’s eyes lost their glow and he fainted, Aizen caught him in his arms and prevented his fall.

[THUD…]

Aizen jumped outside the portal while holding Adhrit in his arms, followed by the energy sphere then Yaksh and Arav.

The portal began closing,

[BOOM!]

For a split second, Arav managed to get a glimpse of the other dimension falling apart with a humongous explosion.

He moved the energy sphere down and placed the children on the ground.

[WOOSH!]

The energy sphere disappeared and the three of them moved forward, Arav sat down near what appeared to be a six year old boy. His skin was completely pale, with dry lips covered in many many cracks on them along with eyes deep inside his skull.

“Formation” A mass of water appeared right in front of them, that turned into a white eyed woman. Aizen gazed at the phenomenon with amazement, but that feeling was instantly replaced by the concern for the children.

Ambu descended near the same child beside Arav, without saying a word, she instantly understood the situation and opened her arms wide;

[GLUBL!]

A huge amount of water appeared and floated above every child, she moved her hands down and made the water enter their bodies.

“...What happened to them?” Aizen asked in a respectful tone;

Ambu’s eyes darkened upon hearing Aizen’s question,

“..Haah…Sir Aizen, these children had their energy drained...along with suffering huge damage to their lifeforce..” She took a deep breath and responded with a sad expression,

“Can..they be treated?” Aizen asked;

“...Yes, but their lifeforce might require a long time to recover…and unfortunately,..I’m afraid they can never use magic again..”

Ambu’s answer shook Aizen to his core, he turned towards the innocent kids and gazed at them with regret. His heart began burning with rage that made his entire body shiver, Aizen was forced to clench his fist to prevent the outburst of his anger. Both Yaksh and Arav noticed this, while Yaksh remained silent, Arav stood up;

“They weren’t their only target..” Arav said while he brought a closed fist forward;

“Wh..what do you mean young master?” Aizen asked in a surprised tone, while their conversation caught Yaksh’s attention;

Arav opened his fist and revealed a colorless crystal in his hand;

“What is this?” Yaksh asked while he stepped closer;

“...I am not aware…but this had traces of demonic energy…and of a strange energy that I have never encountered before..” Arav said while he intensely stared at the crystal;

“Can you…understand anything about it?” Aizen asked while taking the crystal off Arav’s palm, he raised it towards the sky and gazed at the sunlight filtering through it;

“I..am not able to say much…but that unknown energy….is far more potent than any other kind of energy we are aware of..” Arav said with a serious expression,

Yaksh’s eyes widened with a flabbergasted expression covering his face;

“Even stronger than…your energy?!” Yaksh asked with utter surprise;

“..Yes..”

Arav’s simple one word answer made Yaksh’s heart skip a beat.

“I think I understand what you meant, the demon was aiming for the energy stored inside this crystal…But why did they kidnap these childrens?...Or killed those centaurs?” Aizen asked while handing over the crystal back to Arav;

“Or, why did he not use that energy?...” Yaksh followed Aizen’s question with his own;

“....I’m afraid this entire ordeal was a distraction..” Arav’s expression suddenly darkened;

“Distraction?..What do yo-...”

[WOOSH!]

Before Yaksh could complete his question, someone appeared right behind them. The three quickly turned back and found one of the shadows standing;

“SHADOW MASTER!! A GRAV DANGER HAS FALLEN UPON US!! THE MAGIC MASKING THE KINGDOM HAS DISAPPEARED!!”

***

[TTAK…TTAK…TTAK..]

The humanoid walked in a long, dark and quiet corridor. After a dozen steps, he arrived right in front of a red haired man sitting on a black throne, the humanoid instantly went on his knees and bowed his head. The man raised his resting cheek from his right fist and gazed at the humanoid with a blank expression;

“@%&@#”

“Go ahead..” The red haired man’s heavy voice echoed inside the room. The humanoid stood up and forwarded towards a large sphere filled with dark energy;

[WOOSH!!...THUM!!]

The moment he raised his hands towards the sphere, a brilliant white light appeared on his palms and rushed inside the sphere. The entire room began trembling, while the black energy inside the sphere got significantly denser.

[WOOSH!]

Six masses of dark energy appeared right in front of the red haired man;

“Tch…I apologize my lord, but I seem to have underestimated the capability of the humans..” A man with black hair reaching his shoulders said in an annoyed tone;

“You will have another chance….consider this your last one..” The red haired man answered;

The humanoid lower his hands after completing his task and turned towards the red haired man;

“The time of the Chandra kingdom has arrived at its end..” The red-haired man stood up from the throne and said in a calm tone..

[Chapter 26: END]