Midnight

Juli and Egil ran towards the battleground as fast as they could; Egil didn’t want Juli to fight, but she was persistent in participating. They were hurrying to flank them as soon as possible. Egil’s hands emanated a white glow before each handheld an axe; the red aura around him became more prominent as the battlefield kept getting closer. Consequently, Juli was almost powerless, as the energy she had borrowed from Egil to fight the raiders was now returned to him.

Mal’s army was overwhelming the opposition; the people in the city were witnessing the smoke clouds from the battle, many had closed shop, and some even packed their bags to evacuate. The streets were filled with people running amok. The state was going into a panic. The Emperor glanced from over his castle, his face filled with a worried expression as he joined his hands together, mumbling a prayer to any god that was listening to him.

Most of Mal’s army was undead; even a soldier from her army would fall, and he would rise up back as an undead, which couldn’t be killed by the weapons that the Narakian military possessed. They would need to be exorcised by weapons granted by a divine entity, which only Egil had. The soldiers were rapidly losing numbers, from triple to double digits. Many lay lifeless on the ground as the enemy absorbed their corpses.

Egil could feel the dread creep into his heart; he had to reach there quickly. After a few more seconds of running, he could see Mal hovering above her army, commanding them to take a more aggressive stance. Egil glanced back at Juli,

“Hold the undead; if I distract her, she won’t be able to concentrate on reviving them.”

“Got it!” She replied, going in the right direction to sneak through the enemy army.

Egil could now see Mal perfectly as he quickly stopped and bent his legs before jumping as hard as he could toward her. He shouted as he approached her in the air, she looked back at him, and the newly revived soldiers slowly started to fall to the ground.

“Came back for another beating!?” Mal yelled before her black clouds hardened around her, deflecting the double axe swing that Egil was going for.

“This time, I am finishing you for good!” Egil yelled with the aura around him getting more prominent. He threw one axe towards Mal while holding the other toward the ground to cushion his fall. Mal strafed to the right to avoid the axe as he went by. She snickered, and the clouds around her began to chase Egil like lightning going to the ground.

Egil’s fall on the ground was cushioned by the axe, as he was standing on the handle when he landed, he turned his head around to witness the clouds heading towards him rapidly.

He grabbed the axe stuck to the ground and threw it at the oncoming threat while closing his right hand and pulling it back to make the axe in air slingshot back.

Juli had reached the middle of her city’s army; she signaled the soldiers to retreat back and wait for a solid opportunity to attack. They could see Egil engaged with Mal and noticed that the undead was starting to drop like flies on the battleground. Juli took this opportunity to command the uninjured soldiers to charge on the opposition. The soldiers set in an instant, using their given time window.

Mal glanced back at her army dropping to the ground rapidly now; she quickly held her left hand above them as her palm began to release a violet hue tethering to the ones falling on the ground to revive them. However, this distracted her from the axe head back like a boomerang toward her. She didn’t have enough time to react, bringing her hand between the axe and her head.

The axe impaled her hand as black ooze started drizzling out of it; her frustration was now changing into fuming anger, with the black aura around her becoming more prominent. Meanwhile, Egil fended off the clouds chasing him and saw Mal being impaled by his axe; he took this opportunity to run below where she was hovering. She took the axe out of her hand and threw it down, and focused on her hand for it to health.

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Egil saw the axe falling towards him as he jumped high towards Mal. He grabbed the axe with his right hand. Juli saw Egil going in for the strike, along with some soldiers that saw Juli witnessing it. Many were intensely focused on Egil, and some continued to fight; Julie fixed her eyes and hoped that Egil’s strike would succeed since Mal was distracted.

Mal’s right hand healed completely; she turned her head down to see Egil in striking distance, her face now harbored a shocked expression as he had sneaked in for an all-out attack, and she was wide open. To everyone witnessing them both, time had seemed to slow down; Egil's face had an angry expression, with the veins in his arm bulging with a golden glow; this signaled that he had channeled all the divine energy granted to him by Vi’tabah into his arms for an ultimate strike.

Mal screamed in distress as she had no time to react; Egil yelled as he struck her body with both axes, a silhouette of Vi’tabah could be seen behind him like a shadow, mimicking the same action. The battlefield went silent for a split second as they all heard Mal scream. Everyone was now witnessing the attack that had just happened mid-air.

Both axes sliced through the angle on her body, splitting her from the waist. Her scream ceased as her body split into two. Egil started to fall to the ground as the axes from his hand disappeared. Mal’s body began to fall down with him. His arms were now darkened instead of his usual skin color. Mal’s undead soldiers fell entirely to the ground, while the ones who were alive were outnumbered hugely. Juli and a few soldiers ran to catch Egil, as he had fallen unconscious while the others focused on eliminating the rest of the opposition.

Within a few minutes, the rest of Mal’s army stood defeated; Juli, with the few soldiers that followed her, caught Egil falling. Mal’s body parts fell on the ground. Juli caressed Egil’s face with a warm smile and tears while Egil looked back at her, unable to move his hands because of temporary motor function loss, which was indicative of the black color that filled his arms.

Most soldiers sat down on the ground, relieved; some cried for the lost comrades while others still disbelieved that it had ended. Egil was carried to the Narakian side and laid down on the ground. Juli helped him sit up as his arms started to swell.

“You did it! You finally did it! She’s gone!” Juli said, hugging Egil tightly.

Egil groaned in pain as she held him too tight, “Ow ow ow!”

“OH! Sorry!! My love!” She stated as she loosened her hug.

“It’s okay. I am fine; we all are fine”

“Yes, we are. She’s gone for good. We’re safe now.”

“Let's go back home. ”

“Yea! Let’s go.”

Juli stood Egil up, putting her around his neck to support him so he could walk. Most of the army had retreated, with many carrying their wounded and dead comrades back home. The undead and Mal's split bodies had started to dissolve into the ground. Soon, the battlefield was only left with Juli’s helping Egil walk home.

“We need to get a dog,” Egil said with a broken smile.

“Let’s name him Shiru.” She replied back with a smile, with some tears still rolling down her eyes.

“Yea… let’s ponder the names..when we return..” He replied.

While they bantered as they walked back, the ground gave way to tremors, with Egil almost falling down and Juli catching him in the middle. The ground behind them started to shift as a loud groan could be heard, with both of them turning their heads back to witness what was taking place; an anxious expression began to fill Egil’s face, with Juli’s expression replaced with horrid despair.

“You fragile bastards thought you could eliminate me this easily WITH ONLY MINOR DISTRACTIONS!” Mal yelled at the top of her lungs while a violet hue pierced the ground from where her body was.

Egil mustered up the leftover embers in his body and stood alone, grabbing Juli and putting her behind him. He couldn’t keep his right eye open, and the vision in his left eye was starting to give out.

“You’re an insolent fool! If you THINK you can BRING me down that easily. Even though You have the power of a god, you are still an inbred piece of meat.” Mal stated angrily while her body started to piece itself back together using purple-colored tethers that began stitching her back together.

“Ready for another round!!?? FEARING THAT YOU’LL LOSE?! I CAN’T WAIT TO BRING YOU NEAR DEATH AND KILL YOUR WIFE IN FRONT OF YOU! I WILL TEAR HER DOWN LIMB BY LIMB IN FRONT OF YOU WHILE YOU CRY, BEGGING FOR ME TO STOP,” Mal shouted, her voice sounding distorted with every continuing word that made its way out of her mouth.

Egil composed himself, keeping Juli behind him as he was on alert for any attack she could do.

“You’re like a cockroach that refuses to die because you love feeding on the trash that you call love, and living with that whore of a thing you call a wife. She will die soon…she will die.” Mal continued, as her body was now back together.

“Boo!” Mal laughed in a manner that was borderline insane. Her appearance had changed quite a bit, with her hair turning grey and her hands gaining a wheatish skin color; a black smoke drape now covered her legs. Her upper body was covered with violet smoke adorned on her like a dress, with many rings appearing on her fingers.

She looked at him with a sinister smile, “It was fun eating all of them; I can still hear the screams of what remains of their souls before they permanently dissolve into me. It makes me so happy, and now I get to kill you too! ” She laughed out loud, looking at the critically injured Egil and Julie behind him.

“I had a feeling you wouldn’t go down that easily,” Egil stared at her sternly, Juli standing behind him.

Mal looked at Egil with a smile. “LET’S END THIS THEN!”

To Be Continued…