Rena's POV
Raven and I trudged through the forest near the ruins. Through the trees I could see the moss-covered white marble of the ruins in the distance. It lay in the shadow of the tree canopy. Though normally it would look welcoming, today it seemed ominous and dark. I shivered. We searched around for a while until I noticed something was wrong. All the animals in the trees were silent, and the area around us seemed bland and colorless compared to far off. I narrow my eyes. "Raven, something's wrong. It seems that there is something bad in the ruins. We should go check it out." He nods and we swiftly run to the white stone building that was once grand and mighty.
The passageways in the forest ruins are cold and quiet. Vines and grasses grow all around, and my sharp hearing picks up the sound of dripping water. Without a sound I walk down the hall and Raven follows. I hear a voice in the next room. "Wait. Do you hear the voices?" I whisper.
"Yeah." Raven whispers back. We listen intently and hear a rough voice saying, "Haha, boys we got a good haul. You guys wait back at HQ, and I'll take this to our client. We'll be paid millions, and livin' the good life!" My eyes widen. Banthus is selling the El to someone? Who would want to take the El and what bad things would they do with it? We had to stop them. I heard the sound of some people leaving, and I risked a peek into the room. Banthus was standing alone, holding a glowing chunk of El. On one side of the room, a shadowy void of...something was writhing. Since we had found Banthus, we needed to send a signal to the rest of the Elgang. I shot a charged arrow into the sky so everyone else could see. Then me and Raven rushed to fight Banthus. "Violent attack!" I shouted, performing a kick that spun in the air, enhanced with blades of wind, then diving downward. Banthus was swept up and smashed hard into the ground. He lay on the ground with tiny swirls of wind, the remnants of my attack, around him. "Ugh...What was tha-Oh. Looks like some kids are playing where they shouldn't. I'll take you on." Banthus stood up and shoved the chunk of El in his pocket and unsheathed his humongous broadsword. He proceeded to swing it hazardously at me and Raven, and I jumped back. Raven flashed through Banthus and appeared behind him, his blade against Banthus' throat. "Drop the El and tell us all you know. If not, let's just say it wont be pretty." Raven states coldly. Banthus is enraged. "Never. I won't bow down to some teenagers." Raven's frowns and presses the edge of his blade into Banthus' neck, drawing some blood. Banthus winces, but does not give me the El or say anything at all. Suddenly, a spearhead appears in Banthus' torso. Raven and Banthus both cough blood, and Raven goes limp, falling to the ground, but also cutting Banthus. The spear is pulled out of both Banthus and Raven, and my eyes widen. I rush over to Raven, who is unconscious and losing a lot of blood. OhmyElohmyElohmyEl. I summon my sylph friend, Arielinna, and she sets to work healing Raven's wound. I see that the wielder of the spear is a dark red skinned wearing thick armor. It is relatively short, but wields a very big spear. This is a Glitter Spearman, but not just a normal one. It has a cloud of purple and black energy surrounding it, and the usual yellow eyes that glitters have, are black. Something is very, very wrong. How did it change and where had it come from? I look around and see the purple void. That must be the portal the glitter came from. The Elder had said the El was weakening and the Glitters were gaining power. This must be one of the enhanced glitters. I needed to get rid of that void before more came to take this El. "Kekeke...You there, surrender or die. We cannot let anyone have knowledge of what has happened here. No, no that would be very bad." The demon's voice sounded like the crunch of footsteps on gravel. It hurt my ears. "I won't surrender, I have to beat you. I gotta save the elves. You're in my way." I stalled, waiting for the rest of the El Search Party to come. It's always best to fight in groups rather than alone. The Glitter attacked me, swinging his spear in large circles. Eep! I dodged the long weapon and backflipped away. I saw a green sheen on the metal of the spear, and had realized it was poison. If I was hit, I would be as good as dead. Arielinna was healing Raven, and I had to keep the demon from hurting him. I shot a few arrows at the demon and tried to stay far away from the long range of the spear. Hurry, guys I need some help. I thought. As if by miracle, Chung came, jumping off the top of the ruins and slamming his huge cannon into the Glitter's head. "Awright!" He shouted. Elsword, Aisha, Ara, and Eve followed him and we attacked the monster, careful to not get hit. It was outnumbered, and eventually died, disintegrating and blowing away as dust. However, more Glitters streamed from the portal and had trapped us. "Ugh!" Elsword said. "We need to destroy that portal, or more are gonna come. Eve, can you send your drones up there to analyze and remove the portal? The rest of us need to protect Eve and not die." Eve spoke in a controlled voice, masking nervousness. "Yes. I believe I can deactivate the portal, but it may take some time. Moby, Remy!" She called her drones and instructed them to destroy the portal. She pulled out her holographic screen and began to quickly type and analyze the portal, gathering information that may be helpful in the future. We turned to face the demons and spread out to fight them. These demons didn't have poisoned weapons, and seemed somewhat easier to fight, though their numbers were great. I jumped in front of Raven, and kicked away all Glitters that came near us. I dropped my bow, and picked up his sword, because that would be more useful in close combat like this. "Explosive Dash Kick!" I spun around, kicking and cutting glitters in my path, then kicking low to keep the glitters from running. I jumped on the ground and pushed up a tornado of wind which finished off all the Glitters that were still alive. The population of Glitters in this area was considerably smaller than before, but many were still alive and trying to kill us. We needed to defeat them quickly so Eve could rid us of the portal without a problem. I heard the rush of wind behind me and turned to see a glitter fly past me from where Elsword was fighting. I hopped out of the way to avoid being hit and continued to fight.
Eve's POV
The portal from which demons are periodically spawning from seems to be caused by a shift in time and space. Perhaps the weakening of El created a distortion, and even stronger demons began to flood in, cause even MORE rifts to appear. If we didn't seal these, Elrios would be overrun in no time. I searched through all my systems to find ways to seal this portal. Eventually I came across a file which sparked my interest. Hmm... It is an article that says this has happened before, and a mysterious masked man had come to seal it. His name was Glaive. He could control time and space, so was easily able to close these rifts. Since we did not have that power we were in a cinch. Perhaps Aisha could do something. She was a mage, so was the only one of us who might have enough magic power to destroy the portal or stop demons from coming out of it. I turned around to call Aisha, when a Glitter leapt at me Moby and Remy were by the portal so I was utterly defenseless. Although I am NASOD, I can be injured just as easily as a human. I thought Elsword and the others were keeping the Glitters at bay! Had one managed to slip through? With a knife aimed at my head the glitter sped through the air towards me. When it was about a foot away from stabbing me, a flash of light struck the ground. I squeezed my eyes shut, ready to feel the blade stab through me, but that never happened. Instead, I heard the clank of metal on metal. Surprised, I looked up. Protecting me was Oberon and Ophelia. They had pulled out their weapons and deflected the knife. Oberon cut the glitter in half, and it fell to the ground as dust. I was grateful, but how had they gotten here? They were supposed to be in Altera taking care of the work in my place. "Oberon? Ophelia? Why are you here?" I ask them. "Weren't you supposed to be in Altera doing the paperwork?"
"Your Majesty, you were in danger, so we had to protect you. Besides, Ferdinand is doing that. He got some of the nobles to help too."
"Ah. I see. You should return though. I will call you when I need help."
"Of course, Milady." At that, they teleported back to the castle. I called Aisha over and she cast a spell that froze the portal. It was called 'Binding Circle'. Aisha told me it would only be temporary, so we had to kill all the demons and find Glaive. At most, the spell could last a week, though she would be very tired if she had to keep it up that long. She could only attack with melee in that time. Aisha went back to fight the demons, and soon after, they were eradicated. I told the others of the situation, and Elsword told me that Glaive was currently around Elder. He would be able to help us in our quest to find more El and protect it.
After taking the El off Banthus' now dead body, we found the Red Knights, and gave it to them. We had to gather our belongings and go to Elder. Rena had healed Raven and he just needed a few days rest before he would be back to normal. In that time, we had to become as strong as possible to fight the stronger demons equally. I set out ahead of the others to find Glaive, because I was in better condition than the others. I had not been fighting, and I could quickly fly over to ask Glaive for his assistance. While the others recovered, I was in Elder, gathering information and looking for Glaive.
