Hello friends! Things have started to slow down at my job for the season and I'm actually kinda thankful because it's given me time this week to really sit down and work through a good majority of these next few chapters. I was too excited to wait another day or two to update when I usually do, so I hope you enjoy this chapter! Sorry if it's a little short, but I promise that the next one will make up for it! As always, please review or PM me if you have any questions or comments! :D
I winced as another explosion rang out through the Sanctum and I almost stumbled as another explosion followed directly after that one. Shouts of frantic orders sounded from the sorcerers on the ground floor below and I looked up to see that Wong was already in motion, waving his arms in the midst of strengthening the waning protective wards over the building.
"What can I do to help?!" I shouted up to him, attempting to copy his movements so that I too could use my ability to aid him.
"We've gotta get to the front windows down below…they'll try to come through there first!" Dan said, pointing down the stairs to where a group of sorcerers were pacing back and forth between the windows in the front of the building, shooting what looked like invisible weapons up through the wall to whatever was outside.
I flicked both of my shields into existence and quickly followed Dan as he rushed down the steps to the point he had indicated.
"Look out!" Peter's voice cried after me and I paused to see what had caused him to shout. Looking upward, I noticed that the large chandelier that hung over the grand staircase wobbled unsteadily in the ceiling from the numerous blows to the exterior of the Sanctum. I quickened my pace down the steps as yet another explosion shook the building and with a deafening crack, the chandelier snapped free from the chain above my head. I braced my feet on the steps below me and hunched down underneath my shields which thankfully held back most of the debris that flew my way. There was a thwack that rang out and instantly the chandelier was pulled off of me and tossed down to an unoccupied corner of the room below. I lowered my shields from over my head and nodded my thanks to Peter before I continued down the stairs to join Dan at one of the front windows.
"What are we preparing for? Is somebody gonna bust through the wall or something?" I asked once I reached Dan's side. He lifted up his arms and the whole window started to glow intensely with a golden light. I frowned and then followed Dan's lead, enforcing the one window with a very large shield. I peered through the glass at the small bit of sky in front of us and spotted the circular spaceship that Dan and I had seen from before hovering very close above the buildings in front of the Sanctum.
"Get ready…" Dan said under his breath, and he looked up towards the ceiling as if he was listening for something. Before I could tear my gaze away from the spaceship above, I saw that some oddly shaped missile was fired towards us, shooting rapidly through the air like an oversized dart. As it grew closer to the building, I could see that a huge arm burst forward from its tip. As if on cue, there was a violent shudder and the sound of shattering glass and splintering wood echoed from the floors above us.
"Why didn't we –" Before I could finish my sentence, the rest of the missile swung into view just outside of the window where Dan and I stood, bracing against our giant shields. Like a battering ram, the alien metal collided through the protective wards outside, and broke through the window. I pressed my shields against the debris, Dan at my side and we only stepped back when the thing had finally settled.
"Alexander, Daniel – back away from that!" Casey's voice drifted across the room to me. I looked back to see that she was teleporting from the second level, having just left another group of sorcerers to deal with the first blow upstairs. In the next instant she was in front of us, pushing us back from the protruding object.
"I'll handle this." Wong said calmly, stepping forward to wave his hands over the surface of the huge chunk of metal. Casey followed his lead and simultaneously they punched forward with glowing fists and the missile exploded in the containment of the shields they had placed over it.
Then everything seemed to go to pieces.
Dan and I moved forward to help Wong and Casey to quickly reinforce the boundaries that had been broken over the Sanctum outside. As soon as the metal projectile had been reduced to ash under Casey's and Wong's magical skill, the Sanctum was instantly infiltrated with dozens of dog-like beasts that lunged forward once their way was cleared. Thankfully, Dan and I had our shields up and ready and we both fired in each direction as the alien beasts tried to pour through the large gaping hole in the front of the Sanctum.
"Save your strength!" Wong hissed, stepping back and pushing us with him. Confused, I stopped my firing and then noticed that as soon as the monsters had stepped into the Sanctum, they exploded in a puff of golden light. Casey held back for just a moment to see that the interior wards were in working order before she threw a quick blast of red that wove into a wide arc in the space around the broken window.
"This will hold, but not for long–Grayson took care of the intrusion upstairs. I'm going to help the others in the attic. There's a weak spot that they might go for up there…" Casey said quickly to Wong who nodded abruptly. She turned to Dan and me, a fierce look on her face. "You two–I want you to go for the center of the Sanctum. The training room may be a good idea for now, and don't leave there until Wong –"
Casey's voice was cut off suddenly with a sharp cry that died in her throat and her wide eyes looked instantly down to her middle where a very familiar three-pointed spear protruded from the folds of her robes. Her eyebrows pinched together in delayed agony and she whipped around to throw a huge explosion of golden light to Proxima Midnight who stood calmly on the sidewalk outside the Sanctum.
"C-Casey!" I cried as I darted forward to catch the young woman before she could fall forward on the spear and cause herself further pain.
"Go for the center of the Sanctum, as she said!" Wong ordered me and Dan as he rushed past us to block Proxima Midnight's entrance to the building.
"Alex, we have to go – come on!" Dan pleaded, lingering as I hesitantly helped Casey to lay on her side so as to not drive the spear further into herself. Blood soaked through her robes, yet she was still struggling to conjure the magical borders and bonds to ward off the persistent intruders.
"What can I do? Oh God, what can I do?!" I asked Casey hurriedly as I conjured my shields and covered us both when another explosion hit the building. The debris showered down around us and I cried out as the large wooden front door was blown inward ramming into my side and causing me to tumble a few yards away from where Casey lay struggling.
"We've gotta move!" Dan shouted over the commotion of sorcerers fighting back in the foyer around us. I stumbled to my feet and moved to run back to Casey's side but Dan grabbed me roughly by my injured shoulder and I winced in pain as I was forced to listen to him. "She's gone, Alex – there's nothing we can do for her!"
I cried out in terrified anguish as another explosion shook the Sanctum, blasting through the large window overhead. Through the settling debris, I could see that Casey was no longer moving and that her face was turned in our direction. The bright, taunting gleam in her eyes that had ticked me off during our practice battle before was now replaced with a dying emptiness and I choked out a fearful sob as she mouthed her last order.
"Go."
I turned away to follow Dan further into the Sanctum, dodging debris as it was blown in by the alien attackers outside. Dimly I could see that Grayson was rushing down the staircase, hands raised as a blast of what looked like red lightning shot towards the broken window behind us. As we ran down the dizzying hallway of glass cabinets I quickly noticed that unfortunately most of them had been broken by the reverberations of each explosion against the magnificent mansion. One of the cabinets lay face down on the wooden floor and I carefully sidestepped around it, not wanting to imagine what terrifying artifacts had been damaged or destroyed from the fall.
"Hang on…" Dan said before we could reach the end of the hallway. He turned and hurriedly reached into one of the shattered cabinets to retrieve the walking stick that had caught his attention before. At his touch the thing seemed to come alive, wriggling and flailing its tail back and forth as the stick-turned-snake hissed and protested under his hold.
"Dan, I don't know about that thing…just leave it…" I said, edging down the hall as my gaze flickered to the foyer where I could see that Proxima Midnight had somehow gained entrance to the interior of the Sanctum. So far, she hadn't been blown to smithereens like the monster dogs had been so apparently the wards on the inside of the Sanctum were down as well.
Dan gripped the head of the stick snake firmly and leaned closer down to utter what sounded like some kind of incantation. Instantly the snake went rigid once more, not like it had transformed back into the walking stick, but like it was obediently awaiting its master's command. He studied the snake for a long moment before he nodded to me and we continued retreating down the hallway toward the center of the building like Casey had ordered us to.
"Did you find some passages on Parseltongue while you were reading?" I asked Dan in a halfhearted joke as we darted into one of the rooms that broke off at the end of the hall.
"Hardly." He retorted bitterly. As we entered the large training room where Wong had worked his hardest to prepare us for what we were facing now, there was a crash from above us. Dan and I were thrown back against the wall by the door we had just come through, wood and glass and other debris raining down from a narrow hole in the ceiling above us. I leapt to my feet quickly and summoned up my mandala shields as I noticed a thin figure crouched in the midst of the settling debris.
"We don't have what you're looking for, so get your sorry blue alien lady self out of here if you don't want to die a really painful death!" I blurted out, frustrated and bluffing horribly. Proxima Midnight had wounded and very likely killed Casey just moments ago, and I was not looking forward to facing her with fear in my eyes. As the figure straightened, and turned in my direction, I suddenly found that I was mistaken in thinking that Proxima Midnight was the one standing before us. This alien figure was slightly shorter in stature than she was and wore a hooded cloak that caused him to look even creepier than she did. He too, sported an elongated staff with blades on either end and he tapped it boredly on the piled of debris that he climbed out of. He smirked down at me and Dan as he read our expressions.
"You must be trying to threaten my sister. Such intimidation doesn't work well on me, I'm afraid."