Chapter 9
Eight girls were clumsily chasing a rat. It would be something funny to see if said rat didn't steal their only chance of escape. It seemed that the rat was simply looking for a hideout, but, like everything in that wicked building, was controlled by an evil entity, and the rat was driving the girls to some specific place. Too bad that the girls didn't realize of it until it was too late.
"Come here, you little, stinky bag of fur!" shouted Stella.
The rat took the stairs to the seventh floor, and the girls obviously went after it. When they crossed the door of the seventh floor, they lost sight of the little thief.
"Tecna, can you use your tracker to find that rat?" asked Stella.
Tecna simply glared at Stella.
"I'll take that as a no."
"Don't worry, in this floor, that rat has no place to hide," said Lucy. "There are only a meeting room, a storage room and the main lecture hall."
"I think that I can find it," said Musa. "But I need you to be completely silent."
The girls nodded in response.
Musa closed her eyes and prick up her ears. Her super sensitive ears grasped thousand of noises from the whole building. Her brain quickly began to discard those noises she wasn't looking for, until she completely filtered all of them and could only hear the rat's squealing. She got it.
"I got it! Follow me!" shouted Musa as she lead the rest of the group through the small floor. "It's behind this door!"
The girls entered in the room, and gasped in shock to see that the two black knights were there, waiting for them. The rat, with the master key still on its mouth, was next to them. Like a trained pet, the rat gave the key to one of the knights, and high tailed it from there. The knight then crushed the key with his metallic hand, reducing it to small shards.
"Oh no..." lamented Layla. "How are we going to return to Alfea now?"
"I'll better say what are we going to do with those guys!" said Mirta, visibly worried. If dealing with one of them was a nightmarish fight, she couldn't imagine how they could defeat those two iron monsters.
"So, those are the knights you faced before, Flora?" asked Bloom.
"Well, we only faced one of them," specified Flora.
"Well, tell us what did you do to beat them," said Musa.
"We didn't defeat him, we made him fall through a hole," said Flora.
"Well, I guess that we'll have to test how strong these guys are. Enchantix!" shouted Bloom, and she and the six other fairies turned in their fairy forms. Musa was the first one to attack. She chose the knight with the sword as target.
"Sonic Boom!" shouted Musa, casting her trademark attack, a concentrated sound wave. However, Musa's attack simply bounced on his armor. Musa's was speechless. "He...he's unharmed!"
"Let me try!" said Bloom, coming near Musa. "Dragon Fury!"
A dragon made of fire came out from Bloom's hands and arced over to crash on the knight, making an explosion. When the resultant cloud smoke faded, Bloom could see, much to her chagrin, that her attack did little damage to the knight, other than setting his armor red hot.
Apparently, the knights decided that it was their turn to attack, and they charged against the shocked girls. Although the knights' attack was evaded, they forced the girls to disperse.
"There's no way we can beat them," said Mirta. "They're immune to magic!"
"We don't know that for sure!" said Stella, optimistic. "Sun Burst!"
Stella cast a beam of solar energy at the knight with the morning star, but the knight was once again unharmed. The knight prepare to strike Stella with his dreadful weapon.
"Stella, watch out!" shouting Teca, flying in front of her. "Firewall!"
A green shield of electric energy surrounded her and Stella. However, the knight's morning star blow shattered Tecna's shield like it was made of thin glass, and the impact hurled Tecna and Stella back against a wall.
"Stella, Tecna!" shouted Bloom. "Are you okay?"
"I've been better," complained Stella.
"Girls, I'm going to heal Stella and Tecna, so I need you to keep those knights distracted," asked Bloom.
"Don't worry Bloom, leave that to us!" said Layla, upbeat. She then flew towards the knight with the morning star. "Hey, you, over here!" taunted Layla as she cast several morphix waves at him.
The taunt worked, and the knights forgot about the two injured fairies and Bloom, and faced Layla.
"Any plan, Layla?" asked Flora. "I've warned you before, but none of our attacks will have any effect on them."
"Maybe they're immune to direct magic, but let's see what they can do against THIS!"
Layla then created chains of morphix around the knight's knees, waists and arms, rendering him partially immobile and forcing him to drop his weapon.
"Good idea, Layla!" praised Flora. "But we still to find a way to finish them off permanently. That won't hold him for long."
Meanwhile, the knight with the giant butcher knife was dealing with Mirta, Lucy and Musa. The fairy of music cast some more sonic attacks on him, but it had no effect. The knight charged against them, ready to slice them to pieces, but the girls dodged the attack gracefully.
"Magic immunity or not, they must have some weak point," wondered Musa.
"Good luck finding it," said Lucy.
"I have an idea," interjected Mirta. "Let's try to disarm him."
"It may work," said Lucy.
"I'll draw the next attack," said Musa.
Musa began to cast several sonic blasts at the knight in order to get his attention. It worked, and the knight charged once more. Musa easily dodged the attack by flying over it. However, the knight did something that none of them expected: right before failing the swing, he suddenly turned around, and used the broad side of the sword to knock Musa down. Her head was bleeding.
"Musa!" shouted Mirta, rushing to help the music fairy, and unfortunately, couldn't see the knight's kick, and the fairy of emotions followed the same fate as Musa.
Meanwhile, the knight of the morning star struggled against Layla's morphix while she and Flora blasted him with their attacks, with no effect.
"We're just wasting our energies," lamented Flora. "We need to think in something that can damage them for good!"
"Bloom, how are you doing?" asked Layla.
"I've almost finished!" said Bloom, who was still healing Stella and Tecna. It was a miracle that they didn't have any broken bone.
"Hurry up, he's going to break my morphix chains!" said Layla.
"I need more time!" said Bloom.
The knight finally broke free, picked his weapon and charged against the fairies. Fortunately, Flora reacted just in time. She joined her palms, aiming at the knight and cast a spell.
"Nature's breath!"
A current of green energy gust came out of her hands and surrounded the knight, trapping him between gale-force winds. That would buy Bloom some time, but she couldn't hold him for too long.
In the other side of the room, the knight with the sword walked towards Mirta and picked her up by her neck. He raised her above his head, and raised his sword, ready to finish her off. Lucy was speechless, watching how her best friend's life was about to end by that monster's sword. No, she couldn't stand there and watch.
The tall witch felt an adrenaline rush, and cast a spell while uttering a threat.
"RELEASE HER, YOU BASTARD!"
Lucy cast a beam of green and blue energy that wrapped around the knight's neck. Lucy, feeling the strength of a thousand men running through her whole body, pulled the magical leash and made the knight trip back, dropping Mirta in the process, as well as his weapon. She didn't know how she managed to take down a giant. Wasting no time, and ignoring the sudden pain of her arms, she rushed to see Mirta.
"Mirta! Mirta!" said Lucy desperately while shaking her body.
Mirta opened her eyes.
"Lucy?...What?" asked Mirta.
"There's no time to speak!" said Lucy, noticing that the black knight was standing up and picking his sword. "RUN!"
"Wait! Musa...!"
Lucy sighed, and rushed towards the unconscious music fairy, and picked her up with Mirta's help. The knight then charged against the trio of girls, who were fleeing towards the rest of the group.
Speaking of which, the knight with the morning star already broke free from Flora's wind prison, and was ready to smash the two fairies to pulp. The shadow of the deadly spiked ball the end of a chain loomed over them like storm clouds before the first lightning, however, they were able to avoid the deadly impact. However, the knight attacked again, giving the fairies no time to counter attack or think a strategy, only to flee.
"Some help over here!" asked Lucy, holding Musa along with Mirta, who were coming towards Layla and Flora. The knight of the sword where behind them.
Flora and Layla picked the witch and the two fairies, and raised in mid air, avoiding the knight of the sword's lethal charge. In fact, they didn't just dodged his swing, but due to the knight's momentum, he couldn't stop in time and the knight of the morning star, who was chasing Layla and Flora, took the blow. Such power was put in the attack that the knight of the sword literally cut his 'partner' in two halves. From above, the fairies and witch could see that there was nobody behind the armor, only black rocks.
"Did you saw that?" asked Lucy, amazed.
"Some luck, at last," said Mirta. "One less, another one to go."
Layla and Flora left Lucy, Mirta and Musa in the floor.
"Musa is very injured," said Layla worried.
"I'll take care of her," offered Flora.
"Mirta, are you okay?" asked Lucy, who noticed that Mirta was trembling.
"Yes, I can keep fighting..." said Mirta weakly.
The remaining knight targeted Layla, and charged at her. However, he suddenly was struck by a fireball. He turned around, and saw Bloom, flanked by Stella and Tecna, completely recovered, floating in front of them. They all held their hands.
"Convergence: Starlight Nova!" said Bloom, Stella and Tecna in unison.
A yellow shinning ball of energy with reddish edges, mimicking a miniature sun formed before the three fairies, and cast it towards the black knight, creating a huge explosion.
It seemed that this time the attack had some effect, since the explosion hurled the knight several meters backwards, and his armor looked to be damaged.
"Ha! Did you like that, bully?" bragged Stella.
"Don't sing your praises yet, Stella," said Tecna. "This battle isn't over."
Although beaten, the knight stood up once more. However, grabbed his sword, and prepared for attack.
"I think that this could be useful," said Layla, grabbing the morning star from the deceased knight from the floor. It was very heavy.
"Maybe their weapons can harm them, but none of us has enough strength to deal a blow powerful enough to harm them," said Bloom.
"Maybe not, but maybe physics can help us," interjected Tecna. "If any of us, while holding the mace, spins at enough speed, the resultant kinetics will make the impact much more powerful."
Stella was puzzled.
"Excuse me?"
"I'll do it," said Layla, who did understand Tecna's plan. She held the morning star and began to spin.
"Hey, did I miss anything?" asked Musa, now partially healed, as she and Flora returned to the battle.
"Oh, nothing important. We already beaten a knight, and Tecna just came up with a way to defeat the remaining one," said Stella.
"Okay, girls, we need to hold him for some moments," said Bloom. "Until Layla is ready."
"Let's trap him in a force field," suggested Tecna. The rest of the girls agreed.
The knight charged against the girls, but they dispersed and surrounded him. All of them then trapped the knight inside a force field. The knight tried to break free by hitting the shield, but it was much more resistant, since there were six fairies and a witch holding it. A few seconds later, Layla was ready to unleash her attack.
"NOW!" shouted Layla as she threw the morning star at the knight.
The girls stopped holding the shield, and the knight was hit by the incoming morning star. The hit was so massive that it tore the knight's head from his body, as well as his right arm. The knight then stood there for some seconds, and fell down, causing a small tremble.
The fight was over.
…
Moments later, the girls were resting after the huge fight against the black knights. The Winx Club dealt with powerful enemies, but fight against something that shook off their spells like they were water was a challenge.
Stella, Tecna and Musa came off badly in the fight worse than the rest, followed by Mirta. Fortunately, they were all healed by Bloom. Independently of the fight's injuries, all of them felt incredibly exhausted.
The knights weren't human, like Flora suspected the first time she saw them, but artificial beings made of rocks and iron. Mindless golems controlled by an evil entity, that now laid destroyed and defeated near them.
"Fascinating," Tecna's voice broke the silence.
They turned at her, and saw that she was looking at the knight's remainders.
"Only Tecna would find a rock fascinating," said Stella dryly.
"Very funny," replied Tecna. "But this is everything but a rock."
That statement attracted their curiosity.
"Come again?" asked Musa.
"These rocks are dark energy solidified due to hyperconcentration," explained Tecna. "That's how they were immune to magic."
"I didn't know that dark energy could be used that way," said Lucy.
"Besides, this isn't the first time we deal with this," continued Tecna.
"What do you mean?" asked Bloom.
"The Obsidian Circle was made of this very same material," declared Tecna.
The Obsidian Circle. None of them had good memories from that place. Especially Bloom.
"Hey, what's this?" asked Stella, picking a book from the floor.
Lucy immediately recognized the book.
"Oh, it's a book we picked before reuniting with you guys," said Lucy. "We thought that it could be useful, but we were wrong. I guess that I dropped it during the fight."
Stella glanced through the book, and opened her eyes widely.
"You're kidding, right?" asked Stella.
"What do you mean?" asked Lucy, confused.
"Are you telling me that a book with information of the very same enemies we fought just moments ago WASN'T USEFUL?" asked Stella, irritated.
Lucy gasped, as well as Flora and Mirta.
"Let me see!" said Lucy while snatching the book from Stella's hand.
In fact, there was an image of the knights that had tormented them relentlessly. They were called Obsidian Slayers. Golems created to slay fairies and wizards. They were summoned using a talisman named The Obsidian Eye, which was being crafted in a place called The Forge of Nightmares many centuries ago. There was also lots of information about the knights: attack patterns, abilities, limitations, potential weaknesses...
Lucy was overwhelmed by shame. They had the key to defeat the knights, but she didn't see it.
"We still have a problem," said Musa. "Those guys destroyed the key. How are we going to return to Alfea?"
"Lucy, Flora and I went to the upper terrace," said Mirta. "I don't know what will we find there, but it's all what we have."
"I guess that there aren't too many options," said Bloom. "To the terrace, then."
Partially recovered from the battle, the Winx Club, Mirta and Lucy made the last path until the upper terrace without any incident. Unlike many of the building's doors, the terrace's door opened swiftly, letting a cold air current in. In the terrace, a lone figure stood before them: it was Griffin.
"Miss Griffin?" asked Lucy.
Griffin began to clap apathetically.
"Once again, the Winx Club overcame all the obstacles and dangers in their way, engrossing their already legendary reputation. Congratulations, girls."
Neither of them knew how to react.
"But sadly, your journey ends here," continued Griffin. "Because before you lies an obstacle that you won't overcome."
"Miss Griffin, are you okay?" asked Mirta.
Griffin laughed.
"It's not me whom you should be worried about, you little traitor..." said Griffin, while her hands were glowing green.
