Special thanks: Here you have it, the finale to the saga, the final chapter of "The Dark Descendant". It has been quite a journey and I feel very proud, happy, and grateful. Thanks for being here and for reading, guys. Share your opinions with me in a review. You can tell me who was your favorite original character from this story, which was your favorite storyline, and what you'd like to see in the future. Having said that, I will see you all in my next WITCH book. New adventures, new story, iconic old and new characters; coming soon ;)
lots of love
xoxo,
jimelization
Chapter 61: One Last Ball, Your Highness Part Two
Avani wiped the sweat off of her forehead, breathing heavily.
"You lied."- she hissed towards the older woman who lay on the bed, drenched in sweat and just straight-forwardly torpid. After what her body had been through it was a miracle, she was still alive..."
The woman on the bed coughed but before she could say anything she felt the pillow against her face. She could hear two things as she was dying, too weak to fight back: a baby's crying and Avani, relentlessly pressing the big pillow over her mouth and nose:
"You had this coming a long time, hex, I spared you too many times."- Avani hissed. The other woman's muffled screams and weak movements couldn't stop her but she still used a lot of force: "But today I won't look back. Today you will die!"
A few minutes later she threw the pillow aside and threw one last look at the motionless body. She spat, disgusted, then grabbed the crying bundle before leaving the large darkened bedroom:
"You weaseled your way into this Palace all these years ago only to find your death here too. Finally, you're no more."
Avani sneered and hurried down the corridor but she didn't make it far. She blenched. There was someone in the end of the hall. How was this possible, she was sure that no one had followed her here...? But there she was. Crossing her way and staring at her with a strange look in her blue eyes:
"I.. I can explain."- Avani muttered, pressing the crying baby next to her chest.
36 hours earlier...
"I have told you everything that happened before as well as after I managed to escape Zorarose. Obviously, I knew that my coming here is equal to surrender. This is getting tedious."
Caleb growled and walked a few feet away in order to restrain himself from nailing a fist in the hated man's face. Again.
Phobos's story was short and true to his character. He had convinced Zorarose that he loves her, using her soft spot for him against her. Deceitful and base. So far so good. He had slept with her, enticed her with days, and then betrayed her when the opportunity ripened. He had stolen the Emperor Sword and fetched his daughter.
But that was when the turn of events had taken him by surprise. Zorarose's people and creatures had been on his trail for days before he had seen himself forced to find a way to the Aureate Edifice but that wasn't the main reason, he had seen himself forced to surrender. Zorarose had personally hunted him down, now completely rampant because of his betrayal.
Not only were the mystic powers not concentrated in the sword he had stolen, the former concubine had remained powerful and intact even without it and that he hadn't expected. No one had. Zorarose wasn't a magic-user by blood... such strong magical energy was supposed to kill her instantly without a powerful artifact to balance it out.
"Never would I just come to all of you and trample over all my chances of ruling again had it not been the only way to survive."- the Prince nearly sneered, looking at the magic blocking bracelet they had put on him. After taking away the sword, of course. He had used out all the power it had stored to get here anyway. "But alas. I had to do it for my daughter. And Leonida. I'd do it again in a heartbeat."
Leonida was over the moon ever since he and Opal had reunited with her and was back to relying on her godawfully sweetish personality traits. She held their daughter and snuggled in Phobos, happily:
"That is all that matters."- she said for the umpteenth time. "We are ready to face trials. Serve sentences, do whatever it takes to be together. Just the three of us. Just don't separate us again, please."
"Yeah, dream about it all you want."- Andan didn't miss the opportunity to fire a bitter line. "The two of you deserve an exe-"
"Shut up, Andan."- Mila said in a bored voice.
The Altermeere rested against one of the walls looking as if she'd fall asleep soon. She couldn't care less about what was happening. She hadn't escaped Kandrakar during its downfall to be part of this insane royal drama. Then again, there was at least one positive side to her forced service to Nerissa other than surviving whatever plagues had damned the Fortress beyond repair. Her eyes met those of Raythor and she smiled at his sheepishness. He was adorable...
The Royal Conference Room was mildly said packed. Everyone who was close to the Queen, in the Meridian Royal Court and now in the Coronian, was here. It was more surreal than ever before, really. So many different people with different backstories standing together in the dawn of the final battle...
Elyon wrapped her hands around her head and rested her head on the huge table. This was just too much. All she could do was steal a look of her terrible brother and his newfound family. Even Avani stood by his side after they had officially got acquainted. The way she looked up at him... grateful to finally know her father and be near him. It was a bittersweet beautiful thing to witness.
On the surface of how doomed everything looked, their happiness together after so much time was something Elyon couldn't imagine blowing to pieces. Phobos and Leonida looked like different people together with Opal and Avani, who were both the prince's daughters... Elyon doubted anyone could turn a blind eye to how sincere the emotion coming from them was. Even he was changing around them. They were a family. A family. She couldn't destroy her brother's family no matter how twisted they all were. And she knew she'd get massive backslash as usual...
"Well, I never thought I'd live to see Phobos choose anything over the chance to rule over worlds, let alone a baby and a girl, but hey - now I'm adding it to the top of my bucket list just to mark it out."
"Don't be so naïve, that's not his final choice- "- Andan tried to butt in again but Irma purposely ignored him.
Phobos made a derisive face at the Water Guardian and her comment. Then he stole a look of Leonida's eyes and her smile quenched. She knew that look and what it meant, there was something he wanted to tell her in private.
- You can tell me here. - Leonida began through telepathy, caressing his open palm. Thank Gold they had a mental link thanks to their daughter. - Nobody can hear us in our minds.
- I am afraid the two Fire guardians will pick on it...- Phobos shook his head. - We must be alone. Alone in one room-
"What did you just say?!"
Irma blinked in perplexity when Nerissa just jumped at her out of nowhere. "What did I say, geez?"- she exclaimed.
"A baby."- Nerissa mumbled and nodded to herself as she took a few steps away. "But of course..."
"Nerissa, you mean-"
"A baby?"- Caleb repeated and walked over to her in confusion. "Mom, what are you ta- "
"She's pregnant, that's why the power didn't kill her, Caleb."- Nerissa grabbed his hands and brought them to her face excitedly. "Zorarose is pregnant! The powers were naturally transferred to her baby and she became a regent because of the way it was carried out! Naturally!"
Caleb gawked in shock.
Phobos closed his eyes in disappointment and unspoken anger.
How had she known! He knew because Zorarose had the same odd food cravings she had had before her first pregnancy being revealed, but the Mage and she had never even been in the castle at the time back then! No, he was sure this time.
Fried apples and sardines, just like the first time...Phobos thought angrily. But you don't even know that and still figured it out. Blasted sorceress!
"And you knew already, didn't you, pathetic little prince! There shall be no happiness for you, I promise!"
Avani jumped in her seat when Nerissa slammed her hands on the table in front of them and leaned over it like a black panther leaning over its prey:
"Don't even try to deny it."- she hissed through gritted teeth. "I know you. You wanted to use this as your last shot at getting everything. But you botched it."- she said triumphantly to which Phobos brazenly retorted:
"Seen beyond the possibility I might have, maybe. But who told you it was my last shot to botch?"
"I'll botch your snout if you don't shut up!"- Caleb raged and Irma and Taranee saw themselves compelled to hold him back.
"He might have suspected it, it makes sense for her to be pregnant in order to be able to hold on to all that power, yes."- Leonida rushed to her prince's aid even though she was perfectly aware that was obviously the thing the fair-haired man had wanted to privately tell her about. "But nevertheless, obviously the baby isn't his this time."
"That doesn't matter, he should've told us his suspicions right away if he wanted to prove himself trustworthy."- Magana shook her head. "Or at least take Dua along too!"
"Never part of my intention."- Phobos replied coldly. "To appear trustworthy to any of you. And your grandson wasn't willing to come with me, he was too scared-"
"...please! You're a liar and a criminal and-"
"Pardon me!"- Avani cried, trying to attract everyone's attention. She even stood up on her chair to do so: "But aren't we missing the point here? My crazy mum is obviously pregnant from that half-dead-half-alive man in the dungeons. But this is good, she's no magic user, in order to become that baby's permanent regent she needs time and preparations! If we just go and take it from her, we will have all mystic power back!"
"Wow, you're so smart, thanks for letting us in on your ingenious idea, babe, no one else had thought of it."- Irma commented sarcastically and nodded at Taranee and Hay Lin: "If this is everything, we have to go. Cornelia's talking with the Heart and we have to help her learn more about Will-"
"I'll come with you too."- Lillian suggested but Nerissa pulled her by the arm before she could walk past her:
"We are over. Almost."- she passed her eyes over everyone testingly. "You will come with me."- she said to Lillian who gasped. "Your power will help me break into the Meridian Palace and speed up Zorarose's pregnancy. Then we shall take her newborn with us and dispose of her once and for all."- she finished darkly.
She got mixed reactions, but mainly, horrified ones because of how unethical and blunt her idea was. Despite that, deep down, everyone was well aware that there was no other chance to cut down the strings of tyranny that threatened the balance in so many realms:
"Nerissa- "
"I don't want to hear it!"- the ex-guardian snapped. She was more than determined today. She'd cross any line she had to end this miserable madness their lives had all been made part of in the last year. "This is our last chance to restore Meridian's peace and safety and protect the rest of the Universe. Last time we pitied one of Phobos's breeding mares."- she hissed locking eyes with Leonida in a hateful duel. "We got taken advantage of. The Oracle is not here to intervene in my ways and influence the Queen this time, and I think that all of you will agree that child will have a better future without the concubine anyway. Her elder children can vouch."- and Nerissa turned towards Avani who Elyon had pulled down on her chair:
"Isn't that right, Avani? Or would you rather be sent to your dear mother?"
Avani blenched:
"What!? Of course not, I-"
"Perfect."- Nerissa lifted her hands self-gladly. "Then it's decided for. We will return with the baby."
"Just one thing."- Lillian finally found the words she had been trying to word out. "I don't know how to speed up her pregnancy..."
"Of course you do, you just have to use your wishing magic- "
"No, Nerissa, it's not that simple. This calls for very strong black magic."- Halinor interfered, running a trembling hand through her long blonde tresses. "Lillian's power is huge but to accelerate the development of a human body one needs more than just power. You may need an entire grimoire to be able to go through with it..."- she whispered tensely. "This is one of the hardest types of magic."
For a second Nerissa's face grimaced in despair and annoyance. That was something she hadn't wanted to hear but she still appreciated her friend's knowledge. If the Heart of Earth's wishing magic wasn't enough to just get this over with...but then she clicked:
"What did you use to speed up Leonida's pregnancy?"
Phobos smirked at the demanding question:
"Ah, what's this? Is the Mage of Meridian seeking spell-casting advice from me? How the tables have turned."
Nerissa pulled a frighteningly full of disdain face:
"No, Phobos."- Julian interfered calmly yet imposingly. "You are given the chance to work together with the Mage of Meridian in the name of your own betterment. If you betray her now your end will be worse than the one you just managed to escape from. Think about it before proving to be senseless and arrogant as ever."
Phobos's face darkened. He hated being reprimanded by the man who was quite literally the father of the rebellion in the first place but he had to admit he made a point.
"Make your mind faster, by the way."- Caleb growled and threateningly pushed his sword against the tyrant's neck, causing Avani and Leonida to squeal in alarm. "We need to see to the problem Zorarose poses at once!"
"Something tells me that we may see her sooner than anticipated."- Taranee gulped. She had thrown a look outside the windows of the Conference Room by chance and had seen it. The formidable cloud of magical energy that was approaching the castle by air at an alarming rate. Then the emergency horns were heard, but it was too late:
"ARGHHHH!"
The united scream of terror was drowned in the crashing sound of the falling wall. The cloud shattered the entire outer wall to pieces, launching a powerful magic projectile, revealing a clear view of itself. When the noise subsided and the smoke dissipated, Kadma struggled to get back on her feet, using her staff to make the fallen debris, some of which brutally buried many people, disappear.
"Wretches! Miserable fools!"- Zorarose's magically elevated voice thundered above their heads. "You responded to my kindness with impudence and betrayal too eloquently! Did you really think that taking the Emperor Sword from me would defeat me? You will pay, all of you! Especially you, Phobos"
Phobos squinted his eyes silently when her enlarged image appeared in front of them, shielding the sun. The cloud acted as a projector and her imposing silhouette glared down at them:
"You chose her over me and that decided for your fate!"- Zorarose's huge hologram shouted pointing down at the petrified Leonida. "I will kill both of you! I will push down the Coronian Palace once and for all! I declare war on you and all your people, Elyon!"- the former concubine then roared deafeningly, her loose vividly-red hair flying back with a sudden gust of eerie wind. "I will eradicate you! You made me do it!"
"Never!"- Kadma yelled and ushered Lillian to follow her example before anyone else could react, being stunned by the chilling sight. "Come on, Lillian, our Hearts will oppose her unchanneled, unsteady power!"
Zorarose gritted her teeth in annoyance when the two women fired at her magic cloud, trying to tamper with its spells. Then when Cornelia suddenly stood next to them, joining their Hearts with the Heart of Kandrakar, the concubine gasped:
"The Heart of Kandrakar?! Why are you controlling it?! Where's the redhead?"
But the Earth guardian paid no attention to the question, she just gritted her teeth and tried to use as much energy as she could, given her newly-formed bond with the Heart was still weak. Next to her, her sister and Kadma were also doing their best but their united power was still less than all the powers which Zorarose had stolen.
She has the might of four hearts, Magana thought uneasily as she observed the fateful collision from a distance. Unless... Her eyes fell on the Mage who was trying to fortify her friends' attack but failed. Then they fell on Leonida...
"She's going to overwhelm us even through the veil!"- Lillian gasped when Zorarose raged and pushed them back making their magical blasts flicker. "She's too powerful-"
"She's not experienced!"- Kadma insisted despite the sweat that was running down her temples. Her hands were burning. Even with all her years of Queen of Zamballa, going against such zenithal energy was almost suicidal.
Cornelia screamed in pain as her knees threatened to betray her and just stared in shock as everything and everyone around them was pushed back.
Zorarose is going to tear down a huge piece of the veil and bury us under the castle's remains after she destroys it, the blonde realized in terror. She's too strong...
"I have the might of four mystic hearts growing inside me!"- the concubine laughed maniacally. "You stand no chance against that and you know it!"
"No, you don't!"- Leonida yelled in response when she joined the other three women's formation with her own magic, sending a fourth golden projectile that united with the pink, purple, and green ones and finally repelled Zorarose's cloud making her image flicker madly. Cornelia gawked at the other blonde next to herself. Magana had taken her magic-blocking cuff off: "...the Heart of Coronia was never usurped! You have a fraction of it but so do I! I was Queen last!"
"That's impossible, I transferred all of your daughter's power inside myself!"- the concubine raged. "You disgusting little tramp! You snatched my happiness away! I will KILL you!"
"...only after Nerissa disconnected my regent bond, liar, you took everything but my birthright because of that, you squit! You repulsive witch!"- Leonida didn't remain obligated. Her indigo eyes burned with hatred. Before she made the hologram and the energy cloud burst into pieces and disappear into thin air, she added: "You're the one who attempted to take everything from me! Everything's that's long not yours, the man who chose me over you! You will never separate us! You will meet your failure alone and you will die alone! I swear to that!"
The last thing Zorarose could do before her image and attack were banished from Coronia again was scream deafeningly and then everything went quiet.
Leonida, Cornelia, Lillian, and Kadma all staggered after the draining united spell they had just performed but there were enough people to rush to their aid:
"You overpowered her!"- Caleb exclaimed as he and his mother held Cornelia for support. "This is amazing, Cornelia! You're amazing."
"Kadma, Lillian, I'm so proud of you!"- Halinor exclaimed.
Their friends all cheered them on and helped them relax for a short while. Leonida stood aside but her mother eventually came to her and nodded:
"I knew you could do it."- she whispered.
"We have to take that baby."- Phobos shook his head, cutting everyone's joy short. "I will give you the key to speeding Zorarose's pregnancy. But we need to send the armies in. I am certain she'll send hers. This was no victory, unfortunately, her anger and vengeance are yet to be felt."
Matt stood with arms crossed on his chest and watched nervously. He watched as the four guardians tried to establish a deep connection with the Heart of Kandrakar.
His journey to Kandrakar itself had been fruitless. Met by a new shocker - the entire Fortress of Infinity was empty. Desolated. Empty and quiet in an eerily pristine way, as if no one had ever been there in forever. Where had all the elders of the Council vanished was beyond him. The plagues from Kandor's curse that had originally closed and tormented Kandrakar seemed to have passed, but the fate of the Fortress remained draped in mystery. Matt knew that was a disquieting fact but he had just entrusted it to the former guardians. They could deal with that for one. He couldn't think about Kandrakar right now. He had to find Will. And since the Council's help with that was out of the question, he hoped that Cornelia and the other girls would succeed.
"Matt."- Lillian placed a hand on his shoulder and looked at him with sparkling eyes. He met them and sighed, knowing what she'll say next: "We will find her. She's going to be OK, Will is stronger than all of this. I'm sure she'll pull through-"
"I hope you're right."
"She's alive!"- Cornelia suddenly exclaimed and stood up, with happy tears in her eyes. "She's alive, I just sensed her pulse! Her heart beats in harmony with the Heart itself!"
Matt gawked and just rushed towards the blonde, taking her by the shoulders:
"Are you sure?!"- he asked with growing relief and felt his eyes water. Happy tears. Cornelia was crying too as she wrapped her fingers around his forearms and nodded:
"Yes! Will's alive! I've been thinking wrong until now, I thought it was up to me because the Heart chose to temporarily reassign itself to me, but we needed to be together in order to really hear its voice. We just have to maintain harmony and we can even use it to get to her!"
Matt panted. He could feel his own heart beating hard in his chest. What a relief. What a true relief.
"We have to go now!"- Taranee exclaimed. "I just caught a string of Will's thoughts through the Heart. She's still on Arkhanta!"
"No way."- Irma gasped and also stood up followed by Hay Lin. "Of course! But her free will is hindered by strong mental magic. She's trapped-"
"..in the swamps. The banshees are keeping her there."- Hay Lin finished opening her eyes. She had been able to sense the air around their friends thanks to her deep connection to the Heart.
"Oh, God! Let's go right now. We have to save her!"- Matt exclaimed and everyone nodded. He immediately transformed in his Shagon form and flipped his big wings in determination.
"Yes but why are they keeping Will there?"- Cornelia frowned as she used the Heart to open a fold to Arkhanta. "What do they want from her? We thought that she's hiding because of Zorarose, to win us time, but the banshees are doing something to her, why else would she reassign the Heart-"
"It feels like the banshees are under someone's control."- Taranee shook her head. "But I don't get it if they were all under Zorarose's control she would have a direct way to the Heart-"
"We have to go before we lose the trail."- Hay Lin insisted. "Their magic is weakening her, if she stops fighting, the Heart may be unable to take us to her!"
"Let's go."- Cornelia took the leadership. "Lillian, me, the girls, and Matt are going to Arkhanta. Tell everyone and go find Nerissa; do as she says. Hopefully, by the time we're back, Zorarose's newborn and all the stolen power will be here too."
Lillian barely had time to nod in agreement before she was left alone in the royal saloon.
Phobos narrowed his eyes and tightened his grips around the railing in anticipation. From the tower his sister had locked them in, he could see the entire plains. He would see if Zorarose's armies came to attack Coronia as she had threatened. And he didn't doubt that she would stay true to her threat.
It was true, once he had cared for her. He could still remember what they had all these years ago but so much had changed. They had been kids. He had been through so many life-changing events, it was a miracle he could still feel love and think of a family. It pained her that she wasn't part of that family. She couldn't be. That was what had infuriated her.
"...22 years ago, your monsters made you get rid of me and your baby! Now you just move on with a new baby and a new woman? Why!? Why did you forget about our love! You lied to me again!"
She stared at him hurt as he held the Emperor Sword eyeing her carefully. She was intact. That meant...
"Oh, Gods..."- Zorarose whispered and took another step towards him in the dark bedroom. "You thought that this would kill me. You thought that absorbing the power in it would do it. You wanted to kill me."
"Only because you left me no other choice."- Phobos sighed gravely. "You separated me from Opal and my new life, my last chance to feel something more than utter unfulfillment, you can't just come back after all this time-"
"Why?!"- Zorarose gritted her teeth through tears. "Do you love her? Do you love Leonida?"
"I do."
Zorarose's eyes widened in disbelief at the Prince's revelation.
"I apologize to you..."- Phobos mustered. "But you did deceive me all those years ago. I didn't harbor any grudges though... not until you tried to set fire to my new life. I wish it was different, Rose."- he sighed again. "But the truth is that we cannot be one. We never could. We've always brought the worst out in each other. My power thirst and your obsessions never could create anything... while with Leonida, all our flaws somehow complete each other and turn positive. Me and you doesn't equal happiness, it never did-"
"ENOUGH! You are just a wretched man who never got over his parents' rejection or the fact that everything was meant to be his sister's!"- Zorarose yelled maliciously. "But I did the impossible for us! I gave everything for you and yet you're ungrateful? You promised you'd wait for me but what happened, Phobos? You failed and spent a decade in prison then moved on, forgetting about me! I will punish you and your new princess with death for that betrayal!"
"I almost convinced Elyon to let us tag along but my stupid brother had to interfere and have her lock us away."- Leonida's voice took him out of the flashback.
She quickly noticed his wandering gaze and put her hand over his:
"What's the matter?"- the honey-haired woman asked, gazing into his eyes. "You look pale. And overwhelmed. What is it?"
"It's nothing."- Phobos smirked joylessly and stroked her cheek: "She wants us dead more than Nerissa herself, my love. Locked here we're safer than out there, against her. Zorarose is a grave threat to our family."
"I'm not scared of her."- Leonida scoffed. "Her downfall is inevitable. She will pay for everything she did to us when the Mage strips her of all the power she stole. If anything, she's good at that."
Phobos laughed bitterly:
"Even if so, what do you think will happen to us afterward? You think that Nerissa will spare us? Please. I hoped to be able to take the baby from Rose's womb before her but she's no fool. When she gets to the power again, everything ends."
Leonida wanted to say something but decided not to. Maybe there was another possibility but she wouldn't voice it in front of her King just yet... Instead, she just smiled and embraced him. Opal was sleeping in her cradle nearby. He wrapped his arms around her waist.
If everything goes as I hope it will, maybe the Mage, the rebels, and the guardians won't get to have a say in what happens to us, Leonida thought and crossed her fingers. After all, hope dies last...
Meridian
"The Palace is heavily guarded. Honestly, the guardians should've been here. They could've gotten that Will later. As far I understood, she's just trapped in a swamp like this one."
It was already evening time on Meridian when they were ready to take action.
Mila crossed her arms on her chest after she teletrasnported back next to Nerissa and Raythor.
"You forget we're guardians ourselves, Mila."- Halinor replied and dusted her guardian uniform. "And now we're at the height of our strength once again."
Never had she even thought that she'll be like this again. In her young guardian body. In her old uniform. All her friends wore them as well- but this time they weren't thralls. They were all in this willingly. Together.
"The fact that the last spark of the Heart from all these years ago, when Nerissa lost it, still lives in the Aurameeres and called to us in this dire time is astounding. "- Yan Lin was still adjusting to the change. "I never thought it to be possible!"
Out of all the other former guardians, transforming in her old guardian uniform and restoring her youth, even if temporarily, made the biggest contrast with how she usually looked nowadays. She stared at her own reflection in astonishment each time it came in front of her eyes. She was a girl again!
Even Cassidy who didn't want to have anything to do with Kandrakar ever since she was living again had joined them for this mission.
Kadma placed a reassuring hand on the redhead's shoulder. If she had been unwilling to last year when they had asked for her help when fighting between each other, this time she had agreed almost at once. Even if a tad agitated. They needed her for this one final battle and she knew it.
And just like that, the squad was together again as active guardians like in the old days.
"You're right, dear friend, CHYKN reunited completely today and we now have a carbon copy of the Heart of Kandrakar. Even if temporarily."- Nerissa smiled triumphantly, standing in front of everyone. "The Aurameeres called for us again, after so many years. I've never even dreamed that this would happen. We better put this power to good use, shall we?"
"I certainly hope that we'll be able to, Rissy."- Cassidy smiled nervously. "I hope I'm not too rusty at this and that I won't just slow you guys down."
"Don't worry, Cassidy."- Lillian smiled back at her. "We just have to get in the castle. We have each other's back."
Mila almost rolled her eyes but didn't say anything. She stood between Raythor and Julian who were about to lead an army of a thousand men towards the castle in the distance. But in order to get as far as possible without being noticed:
"There."- Lillian smiled as she closed her invisibility-inducing forcefield above the men. "You can see the blue lines only from inside this forcefield. When inside of it, you can't be heard or seen by the enemy. Just a little precedence I thought we could use."
"Perfect."- Nerissa approved. "Now create one more for us. We will fly to the castle."
"While we-"- Alborn said, taking his wife's hand."-evacuate the people from the capital."
The two of them, Mila, Gargoyle, and a transformed team of Huggles and Napoleon, who now had even bigger magical abilities, being the Heart of Earth's knights, would take care of that.
"Let's go."- Kadma ushered everyone. "Let's go remind that frenzied girl we saved all those years ago that she shouldn't dare use her new life, that she's living thanks to us, to serve obsessions of evil."
Nerissa smirked. Kadma was bravely taking charge of the team just like in the old days. Everything indeed was as it had never changed:
"I couldn't have said it better myself, my darling Kadma."
Coronia, sunrise time
Caleb had time to reflect on everything he had been through in the last year and a half and all the consequences his new life had received afterward. Many life-changing things had happened to him - he had become a father; he had got his mother back for good and he had fallen victim to a curse that had him abruptly separated from the love of his life and their baby. And those were just a few of the main highlights. Undoubtedly, it had been a very eventful year and now, in the midst of the final dire battle from a war that greatly affected his homeland yet again, Caleb was starting to seriously reflect on some things he hadn't been able to fully understand up until now.
Growing up in war-like conditions, as a part of the rebellion, he was definitely cut from a different cloth. He and Cornelia had always fought because of that, because of how different they prioritize in some situations. But he had a son now. Responsibilities on Earth, a life of Earth. Everything was beginning to look different, and a need for a change was arising. He couldn't deny it, he had to accommodate those changes yet again.
"I love Meridian and everything about it, you know that. I love what I do for Meridian and for my Queen, and I've always felt it as a duty and a privilege that must be upheld, but this last year was full of so many ground-breaking events, Aldarn. Cornelia and I, we almost have no time to be at peace. At peace with Killian. I don't want him to grow up like me. As much as I have no regrets anymore, with my mother and father by our side. He deserves a more normal upbringing."- Caleb vented to Aldarn as they watched the first rays of the sun that were slowly beginning to throw light over the large Coronian palace.
They had successfully repelled Zorarose's armies during the night and were now keeping watch, sitting back on one of the terraces. CHYKN and WITCH were still away on their missions. The Coronian Capital was under control and people were relatively content with the levels of protection from the enemy's attacks.
Aldarn, who had just recently fully recovered from his coma after a particularly bad battle weeks ago, kept his best friend company. He tried to offer as much reassurance as he could too:
"But it's never easy, is it? Being the kid of a rebel leader and a guardian."- he turned to his friend and his serious expression. "I'm not saying that Killian will have to grow up like you or me, or any of the kids 20 something years ago but still. Look at yourself, you've always been in the center of most events. It's because of your connection not only to Meridian but to Kandrakar too, Caleb."
Caleb smiled bitterly, knowing the other man makes a point:
"If there's ever a Kandrakar as we knew it again."- he murmured. His thoughts unwittingly traveled to Will's disappearance and his stomach immediately protested. Caleb sighed. He had been through a lot as a part of the rebellion from his birth, but he couldn't even imagine being in Matt's shoes. If the past year had been hard on him, then it was beyond words what it must have been like for Matt. "...I don't know, Aldarn. Everything's too complicated. You know Queen Elyon, do you think that she'll just throw away her tyrant brother's family? I don't believe that she will. And that drives me mad."
"It's like that for all of us, Caleb. But it's impossible, she can't let them live as if nothing has happened. Even Queen Elyon can't make that happen without suffering the wrath of the Meridian Council and all the nobles who were willing to sell her out at a cheap price either way."- Aldarn declared. "There's no place for Phobos and his so-called family on Meridian. I doubt that there's a place for them here on Coronia either. I mean... How many families suffered and got separated, how many people died because of that leech over the years of his tyranny? We... we were just kids and went through hell, but many were even unluckier. My mother died during the first revolutions. I refuse to let the tyrant live peacefully!"- Aldarn exclaimed ardently, reliving everything all over again. It brought him so much pain but pride too. Because they had made it. They had toppled Phobos once again and this time they were going to see to his execution. He swore to that. "His children will have to live without him. As for that Leonida, she can go to hell. They're sick and twisted and they don't deserve anything. "
Caleb didn't say anything, he just ran a finger around the edges of his sword, lost in so many, many thoughts.
Arkhanta
"So, he...survived."- Maqi sounded disappointed as he walked. He had been torn between feeling proud and terrified of himself after he had pierced the Evil Prince with his sword and thrown him down in the banshee pool. But apparently, it had been in vain.
It was an early morning on Arkhanta. The guardians had arrived the previous day but Ari and his family had convinced them to wait till morning to go to the banshee swamps, as going there during the night was borderline suicidal. Matt hadn't been too pleased that he was being forced to wait more hours before doing something to find Will but he had no choice.
"Yeah, he did. But that's Phobos. It will take more than a sword to kill him."- Matt replied absent-mindedly as he walked next to the teenager. "Believe it or not, we have bigger problems than him right now."
"I know how you must be feeling."- Maqi said and Matt turned to him in surprise. "When Asa went missing. When that tyrant abducted her... I felt terrible. As if the world had ended. But we managed to find our way to each other again. I am certain that you and your guardian will too."
The dark-haired man managed a faint smile. He certainly hoped the blonde teen was right. Life without Will would be impossible. He loved her too much to even imagine that. God, there were times when he had been living solely for her... After everything, he knew he'd just straight-forwardly die without her.
"I apologize that we had to leave the horses but they're terrified of these places. And rightfully so."- Ari was talking, a few feet ahead of his son. "This place is not as you remember it at all. It's even more dark and dreadful now."
"I can tell."- Taranee, who walked beside him shivered. If these swamps had been unpleasant before, now they were terrifying. The branches of the tall trees around had grown to the point where no sun managed to fall through anymore. The dark murky waters were deeper and harder to walk through. And the eerie noises that could be heard coming out of nowhere were giving Hay Lin a headache "Why is that?"
"Ever since the Heart of our realm isn't taken proper care of, the dark forces and magical creatures are all getting out of control."- the King shook his head. "They're becoming more vicious, untamed, and even stronger... and the banshees are starting to pose a serious threat to my people's welfare."
"HEY!"- Irma, who was walking in the front between Cornelia and Hay Lin spotted a familiar figure and decided to confront her at once.
The banshee, however, ignored her. Everyone stopped dead in their tracks as Irma clenched her jaw and yelled after the green-haired spirit:
"Hey, Yua, I recognized you! Get back here and tell us where's Will, you-"
"Yua!"- Cornelia pushed Irma aside before she could offend the spirit. "Yua, please, the Heart of Kandrakar brought us here but its voice is too faint now, we need you-"
Before she could finish, Yua turned towards them with shining red eyes and savagely attacked them with her powers:
"You gut-churning humans! You have crossed all lines! How dare you come here; you don't leave us at peace! You will suffer for that!"
She shot Hay Lin with her power attack before anyone could react. Meanwhile, the branches of the trees started extending and roughly pushing and wrapping themselves around Cornelia, Irma and Matt. Ari, his son, and Taranee were pushed into the murky waters that almost immediately started acting like quicksand. The more they tried to break free and get back on their feet, the more the shallow waters seemed to grow deeper and stickier, aiming to enfold them in deadly liquids and plants...
"Hay Lin!"- Irma screamed as she helplessly watched her friend sink into the opening bowel of the earth under the swamps. Then she glared at the green-haired:
"Yua, you crazy bitch, did you forget all we did for you in the past?! Release us!"
"Yua, please!"- Taranee yelped as well, trying to melt the hardening waters in vain. "I know you're angry because of Phobos and Zorarose, and everyone who enslaved and used you, but we never w-"
"You're all overbearing!"- Yua hissed and was soon joined by other banshees who just sprouted out of nowhere. "You mocked us many times! The royals, the concubine, the Mage, Ari the farmer, that girl... Enough! Not even the magic from Kandrakar will make us relent this time! We will take over Arkhanta! And take vengeance on all human kind for mistreating our kind!"
"Are you insane!? You spirits need to be reminded of your place! This kingdom is mine and I shall not let you destroy it!"- Ari yelled in disdain and somehow managed to throw his sword at Yua, who was the banshee leader. That was his biggest mistake.
The banshees just caught it and glared deathly at the King. He had enslaved one of them first. He had used her to get to where he was today and yet he spoke of reminding her of her place!?
"Impudent Ari, you will not live another day!"
And as Cornelia somehow managed to free herself, Matt and Irma, thanks to the Heart and her powers over Earth, the banshees opened their mouths and started screaming simultaneously. Their screams pushed the guardians and the three men back once again, putting them through unimaginable mental pain...
"I can't take this!"- Irma gasped, covering her ears.
"YUA!"- Taranee screamed, pleadingly.
"Please, Yua."- Maqi begged, but even he didn't soften her heart.
She just glared at them with those red eyes, as her sisters kept screaming, bringing them to their knees. Then she started approaching them. The first one whose eyes she wanted to pull out was Ari:
"I don't have time for this! Where's Will?!"
Matt's large wings started emitting strong green energy that quickly spread over the swamps and overwhelmed the spirits all together. He had used the fact that the Heart of Arkhanta was still blocked to his advantage.
Unable to draw forces from it, the spirits were more savage but not as resilient. Matt's response made most of the banshees flee the scene. Only Yua hissed in pain as she trembled on the ground in defeat...
"Finally."- Irma exhaled when the mental pressure and the screams ceased.
"You used your old powers...from Nerissa! You fed on their hatred, didn't you?"- Cornelia gasped as she turned to Matt.
"I had no other choice."- the man muttered and then grabbed Yua, shaking her like a rag doll: "Where's Will!?"- he demanded. "Answer me, or I'll kill you! I'll kill all of you in this swamp!"
"Matt!"- Hay Lin and Taranee gasped.
But he didn't need to repeat. Yua bared her sharp teeth in hatred but in fear as well.
"She was here. Wanted to spend some time here because of that corrupted red-haired woman who put me under control first. Your friend was seriously wounded after the battle in the Scarlet Citadel. She said she wanted to contact you when the time comes. We took care of her, dressed, and remedied her wounds."- she admitted. "But not anymore. Something came and picked her up earlier this last night. Some essence. Some dark essence."
Matt's eyes just widened behind the golden mask:
"What!?"- the guardians exclaimed in unison.
"You're lying!"- Ari spat. "Who would do that, Phobos and Leonida are prisoners, and the concubine didn't know where the guardian leader is-"
"No..."- Hay Lin shook her head in worry. "She's sincere. One hundred percent. I can tell- "
"But what happened to Will?"- Taranee squalled, pushing her glasses back. "And where is she now?!"
That was what everyone asked themselves.
Somewhere in the Meridian sky...
Nerissa watched with a calculating and decisive look as she just hovered midair. Her guardians would take it from here. Zorarose had used all her tricks to slow them back and push them away. To escape them. But not anymore. After hours upon hours, Nerissa had her where she wanted her. Alone and unguarded. Here, out in the open, miles away from the capital, she was going to meet with her downfall.
You wretched concubine have the immaculate power of four hearts but the one who has the biggest benefit from it is that baby you carry, Nerissa thought with a growing smile. Without the sword, you're in no full control of that power. You're so very new to it. Inexperienced. While my girls and I have over five decades of experience with our elemental powers! Once that baby is born, your temporary regency will be over and you will get to reap what you've sown, you devil!
Zorarose flew like a bird but the purple bolts of lightning that Nerissa summoned from the skies blinded her and she screamed. She didn't even bother to attack her assailants back anymore; she just wanted to escape and rest. They had been on her tail the entire night...
The redhead still managed to fly faster than Yan Lin but she had finally reached a point where her maneuvers were no longer to her advantage.
Kadma sent flying rocks after her that blocked her way in the front while Halinor created a giant firewall behind her. The concubine launched herself to the right where Yan Lin's mighty winds pushed her back. She was trapped. Almost completely trapped after hours of managing to escape them thanks to all her soldiers, creatures, and defense plans. Here, she was alone. Lillian had made sure no one follows them by putting the entire castle and the capital to sleep. Having the fairytale-like properties of the Heart of Earth on their side sure did prove to be helpful.
Cassidy doused Halinor's fires just before Zorarose could try another way out. Yan Lin played with the smoke curtain, as to delude the raging concubine, and then combined her powers with Cassidy to trap her body in a huge and thick block of ice.
If it wasn't for Kadma's telekinesis, the ice block would've fallen with her and crashed from over a hundred feet up in the sky...
"Now what, ma'am? Give it up, you lose!"- Lillian flew closer to the four women who had circled the levitating cube and quickly teletrasnported a magic-blocking cuff on her left wrist just in case.
"And what exactly did I lose? You will never have the power back!"- Zorarose hissed, throwing hateful glares at the women. "It's mine, you old cows! You're just prolonging the course of your approaching dire fate!"
"Excellent."- Nerissa came flying towards them, ignoring the captive's foaming. "Just the opposite, your Majesty."- she added derisively. "We prolong nothing. We're accelerating. Your pregnancy, that is."
Lillian took out the bag with the enchanted powder that Phobos had given them. But when she peeked inside, she gasped:
"What is it?"- Nerissa's smile quenched as she observed the blonde's reaction. Then she took a look inside the bag too and her eyes widened:
"Empty..."- she whispered angrily. "How is that possible! I personally filled this bag, I last triple-checked it a few hours ago! How did that brat manage to-"
"This bag, it's sewn over with twin threads."- Halinor immediately noticed, running her index finger over the faint silver thread added on the insides of the brown leather bag. "Whatever is put inside it, can be summoned into another object, something hemmed with the other end of the twin threads-"
"It wasn't hemmed with anything when I took it from the Coronian laboratory."- Nerissa raged, angrily throwing the bag a few meters away. It was useless to her empty. "Somebody has done this purposely after I filled it with the powder the brat helped concoct!"
"But who would do that? Phobos? Why, after he personally helped with this powder!? He wants the concubine's baby and all the powers away from her, Zorarose wants to kill him and Leonida!"- Kadma yelled, her hand pointing at the woman trapped in the cube.
"Yes, why would he hinder us from dealing with the problem."- Halinor shook her big blonde curls with knitted brows.
"It doesn't add up. We're overlooking it."- Yan Lin frowned watching Zorarose smile in silence. "There's something fishy- "
"We better go to the Coronian palace."- Cassidy ushered her friends. "The others already returned. We need to confront Phobos!"
"Yes."- Lillian agreed and turned to Zorarose. "And take her with ourselves."
Nerissa was furious as she attempted to open a portal but Lillian was faster. The tall guardian stopped and let her friends go through the portal together with the trapped concubine first.
She was going to strangle Phobos once she saw him again.
Coronia...
"PHOBOS!"
Zorarose's sudden appearance in front of the Aureate Edifice was met with astonishment and terror by all soldiers that she scattered like flies. Her magic power was like an unpredictable storm and the way she wielded it was just as chaotic and terrifying. Many of these men and women had faced huge dangers before but there was something about a crazed and uncontrollable concubine that made their bones and blood freeze in horror.
"Not the veil, not the guardians that are not here, not anyone will save you from me today!"- the redhead landed on her feet and stood in front of the now unguarded gates of the Edifice with a mad look on her otherwise beautiful face.
She wore a black leather battle suit, one similar to those her daughter had once worn as a part of the rebellion, only more elegant on Zorarose's slender body. She was a woman with a broken heart who had the power of four worlds inside of her womb. She was ready to kill.
"I don't understand, the former guardians were after her, how did she break free and why isn't she in labor yet!?"- Mila exclaimed inside the fortified safe room they had all gathered in.
She could just flinch hearing the inhuman anger that Zorarose was rampaging with, making her way inside the Palace.
It didn't look good. The Edifice was shaking due to her energy and they knew they stood no chance to her here, inside where her chaotic magic could just erase their existence. But unfortunately, she had caught them off guard and there was no time to flee. Out in the open, it could just become a massacre either way.
Both CHYKN and WITCH were still not back and even though Miriadel and Elyon sent them a dozen urgent mental messages from the Meditation room, they were still not here and Zorarose was. Without them and Lillian, they couldn't oppose her and push her away like before. The Palace was going to be lost. As would everyone inside of it... Now it was too late. All they could do was hide in the fortified panic room and discuss final strategies.
"Caleb, we pulled our soldiers back. Fighting armies and creatures is one thing, but she would just smash them like bugs."- Drake interfered in a raspy voice.
"She's too strong. We don't need any more victims, we need the guardians-"- Julian agreed. "Zorarose is like a walking bomb. Only their united Hearts can win us some precedence."
"But her arrival was too unexpected, why isn't she in labor pangs already?" - Aldarn exclaimed.
"Something's gone wrong."- Raythor deducted grimly. Mila clutched his arms anxiously and just stared at the large fortified doors. "She's already inside the Palace. We have no choice but to hide here. Sandpit's the only one I dared to leave out there; if he can help us take her by surprise which is unlikely. At least she can't hurt him. I hope... Most of the soldiers fled through teletransportation, winged transport or just on their own once we allowed them due to the risks."- he made a pause at that. It had been Elyon's order and it was out of line but he knew she just wanted to spare those innocent people's lives. "...I suggest we do the same."
Caleb tightened his fists angrily. He hated the idea of just running from the enemy. No matter who it was. But even he knew that none of them stood any chance to Zorarose. Where were Cornelia and the others!
"Did someone manage to get that sword Phobos brought."- he asked harshly, turning to his commanders. "I think we left in the laboratory?"
His commanders all shook their heads. It wasn't on them.
"Fuck it! I have to get it! I need it!"- Caleb spat. "Maybe I can- "
"Caleb, you're not going out there, your mother would never forgive me if I let you face Zorarose alone."- Julian said in a serious voice pushing his son back in the chest. "Stay put until the Queen helps us teletransport away from here. I adjure you!"
"If she ever comes back, what is taking her so long! Where are those stupid Coronian royals!"- Mila frowned at the doors. "Seal them already! That psychopath can come running here any minute!"
"Our daughter is still out there, you witch! With Andan and his mother! We have to wait for them!"- Miriadel yelled back at Nerissa's copy, piercing her with a hateful glare.
"Shut up!"- Raythor barked back and Alborn had to hold his wife back from jumping on the other man's back.
The doors weren't sealed yet as to let the last people that remained in the open inside the fortified room. Once they were closed on the inside, no one was going to be able to even teletransport in from the outside. Hopefully, the ancient Coronian magic on them and the room was strong enough to at least slow Zorarose down.
"Dad!"- Caleb argued. "Even if we escape now, where to? She has Meridian under her thumb. If we just leave this castle, she'll have Coronia as well! If I get to the Emperor Sword, I could activate it again, I know the story, it needs emotion from an untainted warrior's heart! If I can make it work, I can chase that crazy woman away-"
"It's too DANGEROUS, Caleb!"- Julian yelled in his face, almost flabbergasting him. "Listen to me! You already almost died once around Zorarose, you will not face her again! Not alone. Do I stand clear?!"
"Caleb, what did we talk about just this morning, you can't put the battle before everything anymore."- Aldarn interjected. "You said it yourself. Wait for the Queen and don't make it any harder. We don't want to lose you to that insane Zorarose-"
Caleb reluctantly closed his mouth. It annoyed him but they were right. Even if he was sure he'd make the sword work...
"Close the doors."- Elyon's voice suddenly sounded from one of the walls. She was nowhere to be seen though. "Avani, Phobos, and Leonida are missing. I can't find Magana and Andan either. Nor the baby!"
Her voice sounded like she was going to cry. Her parents, Galgheita, and everyone else immediately started showering her with advice and requests, they begged her to come to them at once but she was categorical:
"No. I'm with Emery. I will manage to flee from a battle with Zorarose if I have to, but I will not leave her with the open chance of killing everyone. She's mad. You close the doors and have Mila teletransport you somewhere. Somewhere far away. The girls will be here soon. I'm here. It's going to be alright. Go, everyone. You're are at risk more than I am. I will not have more people fall victims to this war."
"But Elyon!"
"CLOSE THE DOORS AND GO! SHE'S GETTING DEEPER INTO THE PALACE! THIS IS AN ORDER!"
But despite Miriadel's desperate tears and the general anxiously that these last words from the Queen installed in the air, Drake, and Aldarn closed the fortified doors shut and put the chains on.
Mila ordered everyone to stand in a circle around her and just pursed her lips:
"Now only if I knew where should I take you, troublesome people?"
"Walk, Leonida! Faster!"- Magana's frantic whispers echoed in the catacombs as she ushered her daughter and Phobos to practically run.
Leonida was still dazed by the latest events. Her mother who she had deemed one of her worst enemies up until relatively soon had broken them out of their prison and was leading them to safety while the Palace was under siege. She was both overwhelmed and grateful as she ran through the dark, dank catacombs. Phobos was taking huge steps ever so gracefully, right next to her, holding their daughter.
"I don't understand why are we walking, take Leonida's bracelet off. My sister's reign over Coronia never completely began but Leonida was queen after she became Opal's regent. And due to Nerissa cutting her regent bond before the magic transfer event, she can still open folds and even portals on Coronia."- Phobos turned around.
The hazel-haired Queen stopped to catch her breath and nodded. That's was her plan too. But she had to make sure they were on the same page, completely:
"We will go to take Dua now. While she's looking for you here. That horrid Zorarose will soon return to her castle on Meridian when she finds our castle empty, I am sure. We have to be really fast; we have to take him and then go hide you in a place she'll never know to look."
"That's self-explanatory but I need my powers too, for defense."- the Prince insisted.
"No!"- Magana wheezed. "I don't trust you. But I think I can trust you, Leonida. I can trust you won't do anything foolish. You're a mother. You understand me and I trust that you'll act to your children's benefit. Not your own."
Leonida just nodded sincerely, her lips trembling as she whispered:
"Of course...Thank you, mother... Thank you."
"Speaking of children. Are you certain Avani's with Elyon?"- Phobos asked again.
Leonida looked like she wanted to say something but her mother was hasty:
"Yes, I'm certain, Elyon and Andan will take everyone to safety. We just lost the Palace. But I had to take you out before Elyon because your life is under the greatest threat!"- Magana said in a low voice, putting her long hazel braid aside. "I didn't want to risk you perishing in the hustle."
Phobos looked at Leonida and then back at her mother and nodded. He was concordant. And what other choice did he really have anyway...
"I cannot believe you, mother. I cannot believe you!"
Magana turned around in shock and gasped:
"Andan?! Why aren't you with Elyon!?"
Magana was petrified.
Andan had followed her. He emerged from the shadows, his grimace getting illuminated by the fires of the torch he was holding:
"You think of those traitors. I observed you, your love for Leonida's been returning. You didn't even inform Elyon or anyone, you didn't suggest the catacombs to them as means of escape, but you took these two and their filthy child so that that vile monster who's attacking us BECAUSE of him, can rampage our palace. Our home?"
"No, Andan!"- Magana approached him, shaking with terror and anxiety. "Zorarose is a danger to them! Not to anyone else, the others will escape easily, I only did it because of that poor child! And Dua. Do you think that his real mother will spare Opal? She wants vengeance, Andan. She's very dangerous!"
Phobos narrowed his eyelids at the other prince. He wasn't moved nor touched. He glared at his mother and spat:
"Still and all, giving Leonida free access to her magic! You're out of your mind, mother!"
"That's the only way for us to escape, Andan!"- Leonida stomped her feet. "You're just wasting our time, that crazy bitch may find us any second!"
"Shut up!"- her brother raged. "Shut up! You deserve whatever's coming to you! You deserve to die after everything you've done!"
"Andan!"- Magana cried weakly, her tears streaming down her face as she clutched her son's arms. "Andan, p-please! Hasn't our family been marked my enough death?"
Andan just gawked at her as if she was speaking in an alien language. He couldn't comprehend this:
"So it is about Leonida..."
"Yes, Andan, I may deserve to die."- the honey-haired woman interjected with wet eyes. "But my daughter is innocent. She doesn't deserve to be killed by Zorarose! I have to take her to safety and mother's helping me-"
"Nobody is going to die."- Phobos cut her off and gave Andan a cold look: "No one. Queen Magana, don't waste time now, you may reason with your son once we're out of harm's way. Use your magic to force him to follow your lead and let's go on with the plan."
Magana sobbed, looking at Phobos. Before she could turn back to face her son, however, she felt him clutching her wrist, placing a magic-blocking bracelet on it.
Magana gasped like scalded and tried to take it off but it was too late. These bracelets could only be taken off with magic.
"You moron!"- Phobos hissed. "What did you do!"
"I'm sorry, mother, but I won't allow you to bail these traitors."- the man said coldly. "Nor will I allow Zorarose to usurp our home. Enough is enough. Take the baby from her mother, and follow me. All of you. I know what to do."
All protests were cut short when the hazel-haired man pulled the Emperor Sword out of his belt.
Andan made them change the course and took them out of the catacombs, despite everyone trying to make him change his mind. He just walked behind with the sword pointed out, at their backs, forcing them to walk. Magana cried the entire time as she held Opal close to her chest.
Andan took them all the way up and out of the catacombs, right into the inner yards of the Edifice, he didn't pay attention to Magana's frantic pleads. He was firm. Everything outside was quiet. Eerily quiet.
Then, when the prince roughly forced Phobos and Leonida to stand in the middle of the yard, Opal started to get sour, as if she could sense what was going to happen. When they heard her voice, she began crying:
"Well, well, well. Of all the places you could be, in a huge empty castle, you're just standing here. Outside. Admiring the last warm days of the fall, are you?"
Leonida flinched and pushed herself closer to the fair-haired man who just stared at the figure that had stopped a few feet away from them.
Zorarose seemed to have calmed down. But it wasn't comforting. The way she stood with hands on her hips, and loose red hair flying back with the wind. And the smile. The ominous, empty, sadistic smile that danced on her lips as she watched her victims:
"If I must be honest, I thought you have fled."- the ex-concubine began tracing circles in the grass with her boot. As if she was casual. As if she wasn't going to spill blood... "But I am staying here to wait for the guardians. They have something that's mine now. And I have to take it from them."- she finished with something dark in her eyes and voice. "But while we're waiting. Let's dance, shall we?"
Then, without any warning, she used her magic to separate Phobos and Leonida and throw them to the ground. Opal wasn't crying anymore. She was screaming at the top of her lungs:
"Wait, madwoman."- Andan stood in her way glaring at her seriously.
Zorarose just raised an eyebrow.
"You want Phobos and Leonida, don't you. You may have them."
"I want Phobos and Leonida dead."- the woman specified grimly and just chuckled: "Thank you, Your Highness, I wasn't really waiting for your consent, now that I have them here. But thank you."
"No, take them and leave Coronia at once. You may do whatever you want to them away from us. Like you said from the beginning."
Phobos looked at the other man venomously for the grass and then at Leonida whose eyes were full of fear and tears...
Zorarose just looked amused. That didn't appeal to Andan:
"If you don't agree to my terms."- he dangerously pointed at her with the Emperor Sword. "You will die. And so will that child you're carrying. Choose wisely."
The former concubine laughed joylessly and pinned him down with her eyes:
"You did not just say that."- she hissed. "Don't you know how sensitive expecting women can get? You're such a foul man, it seems. The appearance is deceiving."
Then she just whanged him sending him to crush in a tree nearby.
"Perhaps you will die first."
"NO!"
Magana jumped in the other woman's way holding the crying baby.
"No, don't do this, please! Please, I'll do anything you want!"- she begged. "Leave him! Leave Leonida, have mercy, please! We've never done you any harm, we-"
"Didn't you understand that no matter your words and actions, I am not interested in negotiations with your disgusting family?"- Zorarose shouted at her and then glared down at the baby in her arms: "I swore to kill everyone that came in my way today. Your allies have all fled very wisely. I'm giving you and your dull son a second chance to make the right decision. But Leonida and Phobos hurt me."- she hissed dramatically. "They hurt me too much with their so-called love so there will be no mercy for them."
And she pushed Magana aside, focusing her attention on the two who she hated with her entire being now. It pained her to see them so close to each other. She felt betrayal. She felt rage:
"Time to suffer for ruining my family, Leonida!"- the redhead tsked, extending her arm:
Thump!
"RUN, Leonida!"- Magana screamed, pushing the crying baby in Leonida's arms. "RUN to the Sealed Room! She can't enter it!"
Her mother's frantic cries and what she had just done made Leonida gasp but she didn't have time to think. Her mother had just hit Zorarose with a rock in the back of the head. Almost any mortal human would die then and there, Magana had hit her with all her might and that with a big chunk of rock. But Zorarose was just dazed and bleeding, lying on the grass in pain...
"RUN!"- Magana cried desperately, hitting Zorarose over the head again and again. "I will slow her down!"
"Let's go!"- Phobos urged her, having seen a possibility to escape.
Leonida's heart broke as she watched her mother sacrifice herself for her but she started running. She was running and crying with Phobos and his hand on her back...
"MOTHER!"
Andan's horrified yell made his sister stop dead in her tracks.
"What are you doing?! She is going to kill us! She's going to kill Opal!"- Phobos almost screamed in her ear.
But Leonida turned around.
"You... shouldn't have done this, bitch. You could've killed me."- Zorarose's head and face were bleeding but she was up on her feet, swaying and staggering as she struggled to heal her wounds with magic.
But what she was doing with her other hand was what had terrified Andan. She was holding a thick energy whip that she used to drag, hit and roll the hazel-haired woman around like a rag doll.
Andan screamed and cut the whip with the Emperor Sword, freeing his mother from the torture. Then he tried to use its powers against Zorarose but nothing followed.
"You forced me into this."- Zorarose declared as she threw a deadly spell in their way which they only managed to escape because of Andan throwing his mother on his back and moving from the flying doom's way fast enough. "I have the power to eradicate your entire realm if I wanted to! I thought you were royals. How dare you try to stop me like peasants?!"
"HEY! Leave them alone! You want me! Come at me! You're the peasant, a wretched girl who the guardians saved all these years ago, how I wish they had just let you perish in agony, you ungrateful deranged bitch!"- Leonida yelled at the top of her lungs.
It worked. Zorarose did abandon her relatives and focused all her hatred on her instead. But Leonida matched it with her glower. If only she had her magic too, maybe she would be able to defeat the crazy concubine, despite her being loaded on power...
"Shut your mouth, you little tramp!"- Zorarose screamed. "You are the stupidest, most idiotic princess that I've ever met! Yet Phobos choose you! YOU! After you used him for that MUD Visser's sake! What do you have that I don't? If it weren't for you and your family, we would've been happy together. But all you Coronians did was destroy my life!"
"And you didn't use him to be closer to the Heart of Kandrakar?"- Leonida didn't remain obligated. She gently placed Opal on one soft bush before turning towards the concubine again: "We're the same in that department. We both used him for our agendas and then fell in love with him but, in the end, I won. You will never be able to take that away from me or change it, even after you kill me! You will always feel alone and miserable!"
Zorarose was beside herself. She screamed and fired an attack that made Leonida crush in the wall of the castle behind her:
"At least you'll be DEAD and you shall never be able to be with him again. Because you know what? I changed my mind. I won't kill Phobos. I will only kill you. Then I will take him and force him to be my concubine and slave for the rest of his long, long life. That should make us even."
The Prince's pale green eyes widened at that and he finally stood between the two:
"No."- he hissed and carefully took a step towards the redhead. "Don't kill Leonida. Make her your slave too. Take us both and leave Opal with her grandmother on Coronia. I promise you... I promise you to make you feel like I did all those years ago, I will do everything willingly! I will love you again, Rose... But you have to show me you want it with this little act of indulgence...Please. I'm sorry, I was foolish. I should've remembered everything we had and stood with you. You know me, I choose power."- he went on. It looked as though it was working. His words did make the former concubine's expression change a few times. "...the power is yours. You were right. And I choose you."
Zorarose just watched him with her crystal blue eyes then looked at the woman behind him holding her breath.
"We talked about this, you know, earlier today. Avani and I. I told her you'd try to beguile with me something along the lines you just said and she betted you'd pretend to leave Leonida."
It was Phobos's turn to change his expression. His smile faded.
"What!?"- he yelled. "How did you manage to talk to my daughter... You're lying-"
Zorarose threw her head back and laughed grimly:
"Oh, Phobos. You forget she's my daughter too. And I've been in her life since the beginning. I know you too well. I know you'd easily choose power. But I know you don't fail to hold a grudge either. Nothing can ever be the same between us if it's willingly on your part.
"Avani wouldn't betray me."- Phobos insisted. He was getting very tired and very angry with this woman. In fact, she had made him hate her. "You're just a lunatic. And a bitter loser at that. Look behind you, love. And have a word with Nerissa herself."
Zorarose turned around in shock and alarm but there was nothing new there. Just Andan who threw sand in her eyes:
"Argh! I will destroy you all!"- Zorarose yelped.
When she regained her ability to see, she saw that Magana and her son were now in front of Leonida and the Prince.
The redhead laughed like a maniac:
"What a touching family portrait. But isn't there someone missing? I think you forgot-"-
But when she turned around the baby was no longer in the bush.
"Where did she-"
"I called a flock of cuckoos to save my daughter from your paws. After all, I've been forced to learn their language and make friends among them."- Leonida smiled bitterly. "As I've been turning into one myself for the last seven years."
Zorarose burst out laughing:
"What a fairytale indeed, Leonida. Too bad the ending will be unhappy. Fine, I don't care about your wretched daughter. I only care to end you. Here and today. Forever."- she snarled and flew towards them like a harpy.
She was going to use her magic and break Leonida's neck with her hands. That's what that bitch deserved for snatching her happiness away from her! But before she could reach for the blonde's neck her hand was met by the Emperor Sword.
"You IDIOT!"- Zorarose screamed. There was some magic left on the divine weapon after all. Phobos hadn't used it all away... It started burning through her skin as she met Andan's decisive eyes:
"You will not..."- he panted as he fought her. She was trying to bend the sword! She screamed in pain: "...hurt my FAMILY!"
Zorarose clenched her teeth and called all her powers. She was in so much pain. Her stomach hurt too, and that really worried her. But she slowly began to overpower the man:
"Nooo!"- Leonida and Magana howled in unison and joined in on his side, trying to push it away. Phobos tried to help too but Zorarose was stronger than all of them together. She had four mystic Hearts working inside of her...
"That's right, Leonida. Die from the hands of those who love you!"- Zoraorse cackled. She was pushing them back with magic because they were trying to kick and attack her. But once their hands were on the Sword, they were stuck there. They had unwittingly trapped themselves. After all, she has spent the most time with the Emperor's sword! She made sure to rub it in their faces with her maniacal laugh...
"Damn you, Zorarose, I despise you!"- Phobos spat helplessly as even he couldn't move much.
The blade of the Emperor Sword got bent and pointed towards Leonida's chest... She closed her eyes, ready to embrace her fate as Zorarose kept pushing with bloodlust in her eyes:
"DIE!"
But she never felt the blade pierce her. She opened her eyes and gasped. What had saved her was her brother's chest for he had managed to twist his body around his stuck hand and take the deadly prod with it...
"ANDAN!"
Finally, their hands were free and the invisible forcefield that pushed and trapped them ricocheted and Zorarose gasped, almost losing balance.
Andan's body also slumped to the ground followed by his sister and mother who cried desperately as they watched him fade away in front of their eyes. Magana screamed his name but his eyelids were heavier. He managed to hold and squeeze both their hands:
"Forgive me..."- he managed to wheeze. "For e-everything...for not understanding...the m-meaning of family earlier."
"Andan, NO, you will recover! Listen to me, don't close your eyes!"- Leonida cried and attempted to pull the sword but Phobos stopped her:
"No! This is the Emperor Sword, his blood will all leak out if you touch it. He needs a healer. A healer!"
"M-my child."- Magana wept over her dying son's body. "My sweet child..."
"Andan? What is happening? What did you do?!"
Zorarose finally came to her senses. She had been overwhelmed by a strange pain herself. But when she saw Elyon and Emery rushing towards her she smiled again:
"Nothing significant yet. Didn't I kill you an hour ago, Elyon? My bad. I suppose I killed your husband instead."- and she laughed like a maniac despite the pain in her stomach. "You come in time to witness Leonida's death too."
"I saved Elyon after you left her to perish from her wounds, she and her people didn't give up on me when I tried to end my life. I saved her with remedies from the laboratory."- Emery's sand-colored hair curtained his eyes as he glared at the woman he had loved.
"I don't care, Emery, you made your choice when you decided to be pathetic and not by my side."- Zorarose snarled with annoyance as Elyon frantically leaned over Andan and cried breathlessly. "Do you expect me to give you a second chance just because you survived?"
"Of course, I don't, nor do I want anything to do with you. I got the message when you left me to die after you found me poisoned. But do you know why I did that? Why I really tried to end my life?"- the man asked her bitterly. "You think I didn't know you are mad about Phobos? That you want him? You were only toying with me, just like my parents did, all my life. I've been used and neglected by all of you."
Zorarose curved her eyebrows in a perplexed and mocking grimace.
"Well forgive me, your parents might've killed even the faint feelings I had for you."- she winced. Suddenly the pain was too unbearable. Her stomach hurt a lot and that couldn't be good.
Phobos was sneaking towards her. He had managed to cut his bracelet off with the Emperor Sword and was going to take his shot but Zorarose's sudden change of body language perplexed him. Had she already been given his speeding powder? But when...
Avani, the man suddenly realized.
"Look at yourself. You ruined everything. Get out of here, the guardians are coming."- Emery spat and came closer to the dying prince. He had some potions on himself, he had taken them after taking care of Elyon's wounds. He was going to try to help him.
"Yeah, sure they are."- the redhead winced again and attempted to throw a spell in their way but then the pain became too much and she saw them. The women flying her way.
Zorarose cursed under her breath before screaming in pain and disappearing into a portal.
"Did I just see that freaking CUNT Zorax flee? And you didn't even-"- Irma's anger immediately stepped back in front of her shock when she saw Andan.
Everyone else reacted like her too. Lillian, Cornelia, and Kadma immediately joined Emery in his attempts to aid the fallen prince.
"The Emperor Sword it... I think it smote him with his own induced emotions. And that's...that's irreversible."- Phobos murmured under his nose.
"You think a lot of foolish things for someone who threw us off last minute."- Nerissa hissed in his ear before pulling the sword from Andan's chest and throwing it aside:
"Nerissa, what are you doi-"
"Phobos is partially right, you cannot save his body in that case."- the woman sighed as she struck Andan's body with quintessence. "...but we can preserve his spirit from being obliterated. This Sword is no child's toy, you shouldn't have taken it, Andan."
"I'm... sorry."- was the last they heard from him before he died.
"You...you killed him!"- Magana stood up in shock. "YOU KILLED MY SON."
"She did not, she separated his spirit and his body but now we can save his body and..."- Kadma gasped.
Her magic and that of Lillian and Cornelia finally helped Emery's potions go deep inside the body, closing and healing his wounds...
"Now all we need to do is keep his body in a deep freeze state."- Halinor narrated as she made way for her friends to do the deed...
"...Until I can get my Seal back and reunite his spirit with his body. I've done it before too. From scratch."- Nerissa finished and dusted her hands off.
"Yeah, hi. It's me."- Cassidy smiled weakly as Yan Lin patted her back.
"Now that we have his entire body in perfect state and he didn't actually completely die, it will be easier."
Leonida and Magana were totally dumbfounded. Emery just blinked too, but the rest of the guardians just exchanged glances and nodded. Cornelia helped Elyon back on her feet and gave her a hug:
"It will be alright, Elyon."
"But in order to do that I need my Seal, and in order to get to it, we need to take care of Zorarose. Where's Avani?"- the Mage asked icily. "Did she flee with Caleb and the others?"
"N-no, I couldn't find her."- Elyon stammered. "She..."
"I thought so."- Nerissa commented darkly. "She and her mother made us lose our time chasing a decoy and she took the powder. Remind me to sew her lips and eyes with the little thread she used for that purpose."
"I think she has already used my powder. She has met Zorarose indeed and they've talked, the concubine said so. When Zorarose fled, her pregnancy was accelerating."- Phobos interfered and showed them a little patch in his robes. "And no, I had nothing to do with it. I only took this small amount of the powder just in case. I have nothing to do with Avani's plan but I don't think that it's in any favor of Zorarose, for all that it's worth."
"Let's pin our hopes on that."- Nerissa concluded collectedly as she watched Andan's ghost appear next to his mother.
One week later...
The day of Andan's funeral was a gloomy one. The service itself was going to be in the Royal Mausoleums. The young man's personal tomb was going to be next to that of his father, Andan the Second.
A little too many and a little too few things had happened at the same time in the last seven days.
First and most shocking, but not really, after storming the Meridian Palace, the two guardian teams had found Zorarose's dead body in her chambers. Her freshly born baby and Avani were nowhere to be seen. It made sense that she had taken it and all the power with herself. Not that it was fair but at least Meridian and Coronia were free of war again. And Elyon could take charge again. But not really.
Having spent a few days as a ghost, Andan had seen his father waiting for him in the afterlife and had taken a hard decision for himself. He didn't want to be reunited with his body again. He had made peace with his fate and wanted to move on and, in the end, a very miserable Magana had seen herself compelled to respect her son's decision. Since that would make him happy and peaceful.
However, she blamed everything on their union with Meridian and demanded that Elyon returns her all the royal symbols and privileges. She wanted nothing to do with Meridian or Kandrakar after her son's death, and as hard as it was on Elyon, who was a wreck after everything, she had agreed. She had never been all about the reign over two worlds either. She was just still stunned by the fact she was now a widow. Today was the last day she and her people were actually going to be permitted on Coronia, ever again. All of them.
As for the matter with Phobos and Leonida...it was a sensitive one. After everything they had done, one would assume that there wouldn't be a happy ending. But not Magana. As the new active Queen, given all symbols and powers willingly by both Leonida and Elyon, she had liberated Leonida of the entire gravity and consequences of her crimes. She had also bought Phobos from Meridian so technically now he was her prisoner and slave. But instead of that, she called him a prince and made it possible for him and Leonida to legally live with their daughter, in the Aureate Edifice. Yes, she had done that. And even though that was a very polemical manner for Meridian, the amount of money she gave for him would help deal with all the consequences and betterment of the realm.
The Meridian Council had relentlessly spurred Elyon to agree because of the money, since, according to them "she couldn't keep a husband, a union or her kingdom safe." Some leeches they were, but then again, Elyon sincerely wanted her brother to have some sort of redemption and normal life, and if this worked for him, she wasn't going to make it her goal to halt it.
Irma was crying with the rain that was pouring over the Golden planet today. She was crying for Andan, for Elyon, for Will, who was still missing, despite their hard efforts to track her down. Basically, everything was fucked up. That was why she was crying.
Unlike WITCH, who were here to support Elyon, the rebels were not attending the funeral as were Matt, the ex-guardians, and most of the Meridianites involved with the Coronian Royal family as a sign of their distaste and protest for Queen Magana's decisions. But she couldn't care less. She knew she could buy her people's love and respect and a new life for her daughter and her family and that was all she cared for. The people from Meridian? They could just go to hell.
She looked at her reflection when the service was over. Her stern and harsh, wet by tears face... She had never resembled her late mother Icona more.
"My kindest condolences, Queen Magana. Or should I say despot Magana."- Nerissa stood up and approached her with a hard look on her face and a big golden cross on her chest. Like everyone, she was dressed in black. With a black blazer and a long straight skirt as well as heels. "I am deeply saddened by your son's choice to stay dead, however, you have finally taken matters into your own hands. Bravo! You are going to rule over Coronia with an iron fist, I wonder why did you ever need a union with Meridian when you could've gone with something along those lines in the first place."
"I wonder the same."- Magana retorted sourly without turning to face the other woman.
She just stood over her son's portrait, polishing its frame with the end of her black royal dress.
"You even made two criminals honor citizens. In everyone's book. Except for Kandrakar's."- and she poked her back with the scroll she held. "This is an official subpoena signed by Halinor, as the only former elder in charge right now. Whenever the Council of Kandrakar meets again, this scroll will remind you that your daughter and her prince are required to undergo a trial. Coronia is not under Kandrakar's watch, officially, but given the globality of the events that sprouted from here it is necessary."
Magana finally turned back to face her and took the scroll from her hands with repulsion:
"If the Council of Kandrakar ever meets again, as you and your allies have pointed out quite a few times ever since the Fortress was discovered completely desolate."- the shorter woman smiled ever so sourly as she quickly read between the lines. "You, however, will never give up poking in the wounds of people, Mage. I'm not surprised. I must say that I will never even begin to miss your atrocious actions and illegal ways. Did you stand trial in front of Kandrakar when you returned a year and a half ago? No? Hmm, I wonder what is it about favoritism."
"I don't even expect you to understand the obvious difference there."- Nerissa replied coldly. "But, yes, I have stood in front of the Council of the elders once and they gave me a harsher sentence than anyone can bear. If I deserved even half of it, then your daughter and Phobos deserve much worse. But never mind."
"Yes, that's enough. I liberated you of the burden of Phobos. I will rehabilitate him and I will bear with the price and the consequences. You already agreed to that, even if not in accord. I am sorry that I don't particularly have interest in Kandrakar's future fate. When you gather the lost elders and the Council, if you do, we will talk again."- Magana's coldness was more than astonishing. The way this last year had changed her was surreal. There was not a trace left from the person she had once been.
But she used to be a miserable fraud, taken down by the events of her fate, Nerissa thought as she watched her closely. Be as it may she's off-hand despotic now. Maybe it is better off this way.
"Fine, we get it."- Cornelia huffed through tears as she came behind her mother-in-law. "We empathize with what happened to your family, we are being respectful. We will leave Coronia today and you will never see us again until the trial."
Magana pursed her lips in another embittered smile and turned her back on them again.
"But we will not drop the topic, not as long as the two rats you stand behind may be responsible for Will's disappearance!"- Nerissa sneered angrily, losing her temper. "Remember that."
But Magana lost hers faster:
"Wasn't your truth serum enough?"- she glared at the Mage. "They know nothing about what happened to her. Nor does anyone else on Coronia. Maybe you should ask Avani if you ever catch up with her, after all, she was your genius idea that backfired in your faces! Coronia wasn't usurped nor was its Heart. We will do without the powers she stole from us. But you and your Hearts... well. Best of luck, really, I hope you get to the brat and punish her severely one day. She played all of us for fools."
There really was nothing to be said after that. The funeral service was over. Magana took Andan's ashes and everyone started leaving. Nerissa threw one last bitter glare at Phobos and Leonida who remained by the hazel-haired woman, holding Opal in their black robes.
"May I...May I have a moment with my brother alone?"
Magana stopped her red, makepless eyes on Elyon who stood before her trembling like a leaf.
She looked pale and yellow, and her hair gathered all the way behind her head made her look even younger. She looked like a pitiful child. The Queen of Meridian. Her son's widow.
"You may. I will take...part of Andan's ashes back to the castle with me. Leonida, you get back with the other car. Emery will wait for you. I must check on Dua, his fencing class should be over by now."- her daughter nodded obediently, and with that Magana left the scene.
Phobos's eyes met those of Elyon silently as he waited for her to talk first.
"I will give you some privacy."- Leonida whispered and took the sleeping baby with herself, heading for the exits of the royal cemetery where Nerissa and the guardians waited for Elyon to finish.
"What a shitty end to everything."- Irma sniffled, rubbing her eyes. "I can't believe it. This is how the Coronian saga ends. Why did Andan have to leave for the afterlife when he could still live!? I hate funerals..."
"Sometimes spirits do make the choice to cross over fast. If there's nothing keeping them around mortal plain... Even Cassidy, who I pulled from somewhere between there... If they have a chance to be happier in the afterlife. They will choose it."- Nerissa trailed, looking at the royals in the distance. "It's usually a good thing. Really, there wasn't that much keeping him here anymore. He felt deficient. Poor thing wanted to have a bigger role for his people and make a difference."
"Well, I thought that Elyon was a reason to keep him around."- Cornelia sobbed. Her voice just dropped.
"And we still know nothing about Will...How are we going to live with this."- Taranee whispered.
No one knew what to say to that.
"When Andan t-took his last goodbyes with me. He wanted me to know that I deserve something better. That he had to move on because Leonida was right. He had a problem with being in the shadow of someone. He wanted to be loved and appreciated for his qualities, and life on Coronia and Meridian would never give him all that... He just realized everything when his defenses fell. He said he could see more clearly as a spirit."
"I know that you will understand, Elyon, even if eventually. Mother has Leonida back now. I don't want to be an obstacle between them, they will find their way to each other again. And I shall stay with dad. With Leonida's baby... He's lonely. He waits for me. You are better off without me, I never deserved you. You deserve a strong and resilient husband and I could never be that. Please forgive me... and thank you. Thank you for everything. Without you and your people, the cult and the evil on Coronia would have never been stopped. I love you... I really do."
Elyon closed her eyes, shaking. Her own tears would start drowning her again if she didn't squint hard. Harder. Harder...Too late, they were streaming down her face...
She could still hear his last words to her ringing in her ears. And it was hard. It was very hard to understand him and free him but she did. She did because she had loved him.
"I suppose that he was right for himself."- Phobos eventually commented. It felt odd. Seeing her like that. Talking to her. His sister. But then again, everything was more than odd as of late. "You...should take care of yourself. We all had a rough year."
Elyon sobbed and chuckled sadly as she looked up at her brother. She could tell he felt out of place and awkward, but for the first time in forever, she could feel a tinge of sincere compassion for her and that meant more than she cared to admit.
"Phobos, everything aside, I know. I know that things are different this time. Even when we were having our armies fight... You didn't strive towards killing and ruining like in the past. You had a strategy and... I like to imagine that you've changed in a way ever since creating a family of your own. I couldn't mend things between us. I made many mistakes."- she sighed and met his eyes. He didn't budge. He just listened. "...but I'm happy for you. I'm happy that Magana could do this for her daughter and you can now live here. Maybe it's for everyone's better good."
"I know."- the man whispered and looked down at the short woman. She didn't even reach to his shoulders but she was the legitimate ruler of their homeland... Sometimes, he wished he wasn't like that. That he wasn't poisoned and embittered by so many things, so many years of injustice and loneliness... But at the end of the day, his fate was greatly forged by him. And he didn't care to deny it.
"But don't forget that no one can put a knife in your back like family can, sister."- Phobos shook his head. "Look at us. Look at Avani. Some of us just aren't molded to stick together."
Elyon was just about to say something to object to that when they heard the voice of the person, they had least expected:
"You're quite right, dad. Some members of the family are needed. And some are just redundant."- Avani calmly walked towards her father and aunt, coming from somewhere behind the tombs.
"Like mum. She was a terrible human being who would only damage us even more than she has done. That's why I killed her."- she went on. Elyon was taken aback. In her arms...the former rebel held a newborn.
"Avani..."- Phobos whispered, not less shocked than his sister. "Where were you this entire week, what is the meaning of this?!"
"Isn't it obvious."- Avani chuckled.
That was when the guardians and Nerissa spotted her and rushed towards her angrily.
But she was ready, greeting them with a shower of squid ink from above. Once it was all over her approaching enemies, they just stood like frozen, unable to take another step or do anything.
"I'm sorry, girls. I have a point to make and you aren't to interrupt."- she smiled and Hay Lin was stunned she hadn't noticed how loony that smile of hers had always been.
"Fucking twat-headed bitch, when I get my hands on you-"- Irma raved.
"You brat!"- Nerissa hissed. "How dare you leave without taking any account, how dare you act behind our backs!? Again, you betrayed our trust! I should've known you'd do it, oh, I curse myself that I didn't keep a closer eye on you! You are going to suffer for this betrayal! This TIME I WILL KILL YOU!"- Nerissa yelled too and Taranee shook her head, glaring at Avani:
"She used our agitation and the fact that we were busy with so many other matters to put her own plan into action."- she concluded. "How cheap!"
"Disloyal, ungrateful little prowler, did you do something to Will!?"- Cornelia spat. "Answer ME!"
"Me this, us that, keep quiet! Not everything is about you, guardians!"- Avani yelled angrily and shut them up with magic. "Now. Where was I-"
"If you do what I think you're about to do, Avani."- Elyon came in her way, breathing hard. "Then you're no different from Zorarose and-"
"And, auntie? My father, right?"- the fair-haired woman laughed in her full of life and joy laughter. "Well, I am my parents' daughter. You, however? You sincerely believed you had me in your pocket, you thought you could force your ways on me and use me like a cheap weapon to achieve your goals."
"No."- Elyon shook her head. "I wanted you to be a part of the FAMILY-"
"I have my family but you're not a part of it, aunt Elyon."- Avani said to her shocked gray eyes. "You and your people forced me to do things, to live in the palace, belittled me, and insulted me whenever you could. And you thought I would just swallow back everything? You really thought that you people could control our lives after you treat me like a servant."
"No, Avani!"- Elyon cried. "You've got it all wrong, all I ever wanted-"
"Oh, I know what you wanted but I and my dad don't want you by our side."- the other woman insisted gravely. "When will you accept that?"
And with that, she used magic to push Elyon back and throw her over the benches in the cemetery.
"What's going on!?"- Leonida came back to the scene running. "Avani!? Is that the baby with all the power..."
"Avani, wait."- Phobos grabbed his daughter's wrist. "I know. I know how you feel and I understand you, but things have changed. Leonida and I were granted permission to live freely on Coronia."
"Yes, Avani, and you can stay with us."- Leonida smiled at the girl, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Everything is so much better after so much time."
Avani just looked at the two as if they had totally lost it:
"Better? Granted permission?"- she repeated incredulously. "Since when does Prince Phobos need permission? Since when does he allow himself to be bought by some crazy woman as an exotic pet for her daughter? Is that what you want for yourself, dad? After everything? Is that what you're settling for?"
Phobos's smile quenched at that. He looked at his daughter as if she had just slapped him in the face:
"No, Avani, what are you saying, remember how we talked about me and your dad. About our love."- Leonida exclaimed.
"Love that you only felt after you contemplated his murder for months."- the ex-rebel spat with repulsion. "He might have forgiven you for it. I won't. You're not fit for my father, in fact. This is what you do, you dull him and his shine down and make him forget who he is. The fearsome Evil Prince of Meridian!"
Leonida was shocked. She blinked at Avani as the girl spat in her shoes.
"You can forget about my father! You're not coming with us. And we are not going to spend another day in this wretched realm."
"No, Avani, this will never happen."- Leonida narrowed her eyes dangerously. "Don't make me hurt you-"
As if to prove her wrong, Avani hit her with a magic attack that threw the blonde to the ground. In pain... She had temporarily blinded her.
"AVANI!"
Phobos grabbed her and shook her hard:
"Come to your senses! What in hell's name are you talking about, I'm not going anywhere! You can stay here; you will stay here! Enough with the tantrums-"
"No, dad, I finally have you to myself and I will not let you ruin everything and settle for a pathetic life."- Avani insisted and all of a sudden cuffed her father's hand with a magic-blocking bracelet.
"You..."- he hissed, his eyes growing dark. "You can't do this! You have no right-"
"Yes, I do. I learned a lot over the last months, my magic is strong. With time, it can get stronger than Elyon's birthrights and definitely stronger than yours. And I came back for you. You're the last thing I need for my perfect kingdom, dad."
Phobos watched his daughter with growing astonishment and terror. He just couldn't believe it. Leonida was screaming and begging something from the ground as she tugged on the ends of his robe:
"No, don't go, Phobos. Please don't go."
"You have no choice, dad."- Avani shook her head firmly. "You'll see. Everything will be better when we arrive and you accommodate."
Her father glared at her deathly as she opened a big yellow portal with a magic bean:
"I hate you. You and your mother!"- he hissed. "I wish I never had you."
For the first time since her arrival today, the woman was taken aback. She just stopped and stared at him:
"Take that back!"- she screamed and shook him in her turn. "Take it back!"
But Phobos just broke free from her grip and glared at her, repulsed. Avani's jaw hung for a few seconds and hence she didn't notice the effects of the squid ink wearing off:
"Take him, Elyon! Take the baby and claim your power back, he's not an heir to the thrones!"- Nerissa roared. "It's your right!"
Avani gasped. Cornelia had snatched the infant from her with her telekinesis and now he was in Elyon's arms. And Nerissa's. And as they rightfully claimed their lost powers back, the others transformed and attacked:
"Now you're done, Avani, you really are!"
"I came back for my father, I used my temporary regency well and built everything I wanted to with the magic, even if I couldn't obtain the powers from the baby and now lost the chance to, I have what I wanted. Goodbye forever, bitches!"- Avani just snarled as she dodged their attacks and then vanished through the portal with her father before anyone could get to her.
"Noooo!"- Leonida wailed as she jumped back on her feet, seeing again, but it was too late. Her lover was taken away from her and the portal had closed, leaving the cemetery quiet again. The only thing left to be heard was the honey-haired woman's desperate wails. The rain kept falling. Everything was lost again... Her fort, her tower of happiness was once again in ruins.
"What in Gold's name..."- Emery, who had just made his way to them stared at the baby that Nerissa placed in his arms...
"Here."- she murmured, tightening her fingers around the Seal she had just finally been able to retrieve. "This is your son."
