The darkness fades away to reveal a nice-looking sitting room. I shake my head of confusion. The room has a nice warm feel to it. A pair of glass door leads out to a warm sunny meadow. “.. Am I..” A woman’s voice sounding familiar rings out through the room.

“Dead? I sure hope not.” The glass doors open entering Father’s wife. She looks a little older having gray streaks running through her hair. She still looks beyond beautiful though. I pause looking at her shocked.

“You’re…” She smiles coming over to sit next to me.

“Yes. I really don’t have a name now do I? You can call me Mother.”

“.. So that means…” She laughs slightly shaking her head no.

“Oh no. You aren’t dead sweetie. You are so close to death that you are able to see me.” I pause somewhat happy. I frown realizing the situation that my friends are in right now.

“That’s good, but.. Something..” She smiles making me feel warm inside.

“Something feels wrong? You’re right. You shouldn’t be here. Soon, you will go back down to your friends and deal with the next issue.” I pause growing concerned.

“What next issue?” She pauses slightly looking at me.

“Grant is just a small bug in the larger picture. The only way to save the world is to destroy the Forgotten King.” I pause confused.

“We will be going after Roasland after this.” She looks out a nearby window frowning.

“The Forgotten King needs to be stopped.” I look at her confused.

“But Father said.” She frowns looking back at me annoyed.

“Father doesn’t know anything outside his own ego.” I pause looking at her slightly confused.

“You aren’t on speaking terms with him.. Are you?” She rolls her eyes giving me a look.

“He doesn’t even know where I am at.” I feel something in my pocket. I pull it out realizing that I still have the vial from Father. Mother pauses reaching out for the vial. I hand it to her, and she looks into it. She shows a brief smile on her face before she covers it up.

“What’s with the vial?” She perks up putting the vial away.

“It’s something important. Thank you for bringing it to me.” I pause slightly wanting to figure out the vial. “Trust me. It’s better I have up here instead of anyone else.” I huff sighing.

“Alright. Anyway… How do I defeat the Forgotten King?” She shrugs looking at me.

“I have no idea.” I frown looking at her annoyed.

“How are we supposed to defeat him if we don’t know how?” She sighs standing up heading behind me. I see a beautiful set of doors.

“Don’t worry. I know you can do it. I’ve been told that you have a really special group of people with you.” I pause confused as I hear the door get opened. I look to see Lupa smiling extremely happy. She rushes me hugging me close to her chest.

“ASHLEY! I’VE MISSED YOU SOO MUCH!” I pause completely shocked. I hug her back cheers of joy filling my eyes.

“Lupa.. I found you..” She pulls away smiling like her old self. Her long white hair has been cut showing off short bangs. Her light purple eyes shine even more than usual. I pause realizing what this means. The tears slowly turn into sadness. “Lupa.. I’m..” She smiles wiping the tears with her hand.

“It’s okay Ashley. It’s not your fault.” She sits down next to me as I feel my head start to pound. “You’re going back soon.” I look to Mother wanting to take Lupa with me.

“Can’t she come with me please. Someone..” Mother frowns shaking her head no.

“She can’t go back Lupa. Zona will have to understand that.” I frown hugging Lupa close.

“We all love you Lupa.” Lupa hugs back nuzzling my head slightly.

“Can you tell Zona something for me?” I nod as I darkness starts to fill my head.

“It’s not her fault.”

I sit up breathing heavily holding my chest. I notice that I am outside with it snowing. A small girl stands over me as I feel my body begin to heal. She lets out a sigh of relief sitting down. “I save you.” I look up at her confused.

“Anna?” She stands up her form flickering in and out. Golden flicks start to fly away from her as she turns toward Zona.

“I don’t have the time. We need to save Jake.” She heads over to Zona placing her hands-on Zona. Zona body starts to heal slowly as Anna slowly starts to disappear. Zona’s eyes start to flutter open. Anna looks back at me as she fully starts to disappear.

“Please save him Ashley.” Zona fully opens her eyes looking at me just as Anna fully disappears. Zona sits up with looking around confused.

“Ashley… What’s going on?” I am at a loss of words.

“Uh… I saw...” I get cut off from a loud crushing sound coming from behind me. I look to see we are outside the stone building. It looks to be about the size of a church. One of the walls of the church blows out as Grant sails from it. Grant hits a nearby tree shattering it. I feel a sense of pure evil as Jake walks from the church. He is wearing his suit as dark magic flows from him. Both of his arms give off a black glow causing fear to surge through me. “What… happened to him?” Zona looks over stull holding her head.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“He went nuts seeing you.. almost die. He grabbed Grant by the face pulling him into a cloud of shadows. We were able to get you out and I started to heal.” I watch as Jake slowly walks over to Grant. Grant stands up looking completely unprepared for the fight. Grant throws black tendrils at Jake but within an instant Jake is behind Grant. Jake stabs Grant through the back. Grant coughs up blood and gets kicked into the ground. I frown seeing black clouds starting to form overhead. Jake starts to slash at Grant as Grant appears and disappears around the battlefield. Grant rips a nearby tree out of the ground throwing it at Jake. Jake jumps into the air cutting the tree in half. Grant engulfs black tendrils around Jake.

“Stay down Jake!” Jake cuts the tendrils and they begin to fade away. Grant takes a step back looking truly terrified. Grant tries to disappear in a cloud of darkness, but Jake appears in front of him. Jake grabs him cutting him across the stomach. Grant screams out in pain causing me to wince. Some part of me starts to feel bad for him. Jake throws Grant into the ground. Jake begins to stomp on him repeatedly. I look to Zona.

“We got to stop him.” Zona walks up next to me looking at Jake then me.

“I am mostly spent dealing with all those creatures.” I gulp making a worried face.

“Guess it’s up to me then.” Zona starts protest but I look at her. “No. I am going to stop him. Make sure Grant doesn’t get away.” Before she can stop me, I run into the battle. I get to Jake as he rips the sword out of Grant. Grant looks up to Jake blood pouring out of his body.

“You fool. All this over a.. Woman..” Jake raises his arm up. I frown trying to scream. Just as I go to do it, black tendrils erupt from Grant sending Jake flying. Jake lands a few hundred feet away as he skids to a stop. Grant slowly stands looking hurt. It looks like he can’t heal fully. Blood pours from a few wounds from his chest and head. He rips the remaining of his shirt off as his body begins to contort. “I didn’t want to do this Jake, but you left me no choice.” Black tendrils swarm his body making him grow a few feet taller. His entire body stands now about ten feet tall. Two large tendrils form from his back hovering over his shoulder. His face is completely gone except for his mouth that has double in size. His arms now have claws that drip with black ooze.

Jake rushes back at Grant disappearing and reappearing behind him. One of the large tendrils deflects Jake’s attack and the other one counterattacks ripping off a chunk of Jake’s armor. I distance myself from the fight. I look back to see Jake’s armor fully repaired. Jake presses the attack continuing his onslaught on Grant. Grant seems to be in much better shape, but something seems to be wrong. Whenever Jake would get a successful hit in, tendrils would wrap itself around the wound. I pause looking back to Zona. I yell to Zona.

“Did you destroy Lillian’s look alike?” Zona pauses shrugging pointing to the church.

“I think she is still in there.” I sprint into the destroyed church. Once instead, all I can smell is smoke and ash. I make my way to the main room where everyone was, and I see James with Roasland. Roasland stands over Lillian. I glare at Roasland stomping toward him.

“Get away from her you bastard.” Roasland turns around looking at me.

“Ah. Good. You survived. Grant won’t last much longer so I need to get going. James. Get her out of here.” James starts to shake slowly marching toward me. I gulp looking at James.

“James. I know you are still in there. Fight this.” James continues to march toward me increasing the amount of shaking. As he gets closer to me, I place my hand on his chest causing him to appear almost confused. He looks down at my hand. Roasland screams angrily at him.

“James. Get her out of here now!” I slowly embrace James hugging him close.

“I’m so sorry James. I never wanted this to happen to you.” His body slowly stops shaking both of his arms wrap around me.

“Ash..ley..” I look up at him as Roasland glares with angry eyes at me.

“James I sai-” James punches Roasland in the face breaking his mask. Roasland falls to the ground blood pouring from his face. I let go of James as he slowly goes to Roasland.

“Save. Lillian.” I rush over to Lillian wanting to ensure James will be okay. She looks at me confused.

“Grant hurts.” I frown looking extremely upset. She talks very simply and slow.

“Lillian?” She slowly nods.

“How.. is this possible?” The tears begin to flow from her as a loud crunch can be heard from outside.

“Grant needs help.” I think of something feeling awful about the situation.

“I promise I can help you if you just do something from me.” She blinks standing up.

“Need to go to Grant.” She slowly starts toward the large hole in the wall. I follow her. I look back to see James guarding over Roasland making sure he won’t be getting up. We get outside and Jake is on one knee with a black tendril through his body. Grant is bent over with the two large black tendrils piercing into the ground. Lillian’s voice rings out across the battlefield. “Grant! Stop!” Grant stops turning his head toward Lillian. Jake cuts the tendril going through him off and rushes Grant. Jake slashes at Grant cutting his body in half. Lillian holds her stomach as the tendrils around Grant start to fly out of him. He falls to the ground cut in half as Jake turns to finish him off. I run to him standing between him and Jake.

“Jake! I’m fine..” He freezes for a second. His armor dripping of Grant’s blood. Jake slowly cocks his head. He removes his helmet looking confused.

“Ashley?” I nod smiling slightly.

“Yea.. I am..” I feel Grant’s hand grab my foot. I jump looking down at him. He glares with hatred at me. He spits up blood as his body starts to reform itself. Jake glares at Grant raising his sword to stop him. I stop Jake as Grant rolls overlooking up at the sky.

“Fools.. All of you.. I won’t stop.. hating..” He stops as Lillian gets over to him. Grant slowly turns his head to face her. “Lillian...” Jake slowly is coming down from his rush of anger. Lillian slowly nods laying down next to him.

“It’s time to sleep Grant.” Grant’s body contorts for a second as he starts breathing heavily. His eyes go gray and we notice black tendrils slowly rising up from the ground.

“Jake.. please don’t let the darkness take me again..” Grant sounds different. He sounds like a normal human. He sounds sad and scared. He reaches his hand up as nearby shadows start to enter his body. His body slowly starts smoking as Jake looks down as his former friend. Jake frowns gripping his sword tight. Before more shadows can enter the body, Jake stabs Grant in the chest. A small smile spreads on Grant’s face as he stops breathing. The shadows stop coming to his body as Jake pulls the sword out of it. Jake drops his sword and embraces me tightly.

I hug him back tightly embracing Zona approaches from the back. I pull away from them smiling sadly. I look over to see James coming out of the church throwing Roasland into the snow. Roasland stands up showing off what he was heading underneath his mask. His lower half of his face has two black symbols tattooed on his face. The symbols say source and truth. He looks at Jake angry.

“Jake Wilson. I brought you bac-“He stops looking at Zona with Jake and me. Roasland drops to his knees looking defeated. James walks behind him rising his arm up. Zona and I run over to him holding him back.

“He needs to pay for his crimes James. It’s over!” James slowly starts shaking falling into my arms. He hugs me tightly as bells sound in the distance. A large military force marches with Lord Lionheart leading the charge.