Chapter19
"Alfea is under attack"
What could possibly be so important that the old lady had to call me at three am in the morning ?
He cursed in his head while climbing down the stairs to Faragonda's office.
Did those three stupid witches send another Nightmare Gargoyle like they did last week?
But before he could think more about it he was already standing in front of the director's door. He entered after knocking three times. It seems he hadn't been the only one called. Griselda, Palladium and Wizgiz were already here. And just next to them was sitting a crying Bloom.
This isn't good!
He had heard from Flora that the red haired girl had chosen to go back to live with her non magical parents. Which was in his opinion a real waste of potential! It's not every day you get to teach the guardian of the Dragon Flame. Of course he had noticed her tremendous power since the beginning of the school year. It was pretty easy to see that her aura wasn't ordinary. Any experienced magical user like Wizgiz, Faragonda and himself could sense Domino's heritage on her. However right now, he was shocked to see that her magical aura was almost nonexistent.
Again not good.
"Professor Darkell, like you probably have already noticed, Bloom here has lost her powers. She says it was the work of the Trix." Faragonda caught him up on the things he had missed while Griselda served the crying student some tea.
Who knew Griselda had a softer side?
"So you're telling me those three witches are in possession of one of the most dangerous powers in the magical dimension? Great…" He went and sat next to Palladium and took gratefully the cup of coffee that his elf friend was handing him. He was going to need all the caffeine in the world. This was in his eyes so unfair. Here he was stuck being ordered around by some idiotic fairies while those three incompetent witches were probably having a blast with their new super powers and their plans on ruling the world. He should be the one possessing that power not them!
Bloom was trying to wipe away her tears, but that didn't stop them from pouring all the way down her face.
"Those three witches aren't mere students. A strange light shines in their eyes. They are crazy, as crazy as those old witches that destroyed Domino… What is going to happen now? " She asked her principal. The latter turned to her dark magic expert.
"Dimitri in their place, what would you do?"
Is she trying to make me feel even worse about my situation? I call this torture!
He kept that thought to himself and took some time to think things through.
"We have to take in the fact that we're talking about teenage girls who want revenge on Alphea and its student who humiliated them more than once. All that while collecting more power… I'm pretty sure they will save the best for last." All the people around him were silently listening to him waiting for him to continue.
"Let's assume Alphea will be their last stop. That means they will first target places in Magix that can be used as headquarters or a source of magical information."
"Cloud Tower and Red Fountain?" Bloom said in surprise.
"That's right, if my theory is right the schools will be those witches' targets or, worse case, were already taken over." He mumbled the last part more quietly. Understanding that the man was finished, Faragonda took things in hand.
"I see, you are probably right. Mrs. Griselda, accompany Bloom to her room please, I'm sure she needs to discuss things with her friends. I'll contact the other headmasters, I'll warn them about the impending attack."
Flora was making tea in the kitchen when her red haired friend came back from Faragonda's office.
"Here you go." She softly said while handing her tired friend a steaming cup of her favorite peach tea.
"Thanks…" the girl mumbled back before taking a sip. She sighed in content; the drink's sweet aroma seemed to make her feel a bit better to Flora's relief. They sat there calmly sipping their teas in silence, they were waiting for the others to come back from their walk. Flora had chosen to stay here to make sure that Bloom wouldn't come back to an empty apartment. The two girls had finished their drink when the others came back. As soon as they saw Bloom they went and crowded around her, hugging her asking her if she was alright. Bloom smiled that she had the best friends a girl could ask for.
But their warm reunion was quickly interrupted by three knocks at the door. The door opened and in walked Professor Darkell. His hair was messier than usual.
"Hi girls, Faragonda sent me to do a round in all the students rooms to make sure that everyone is ok. You're the last group on my list." He calmly explained while counting the girls in the room.
"It seems no one is missing, have you noticed anything weird or…" but he stopped talking in the middle of his sentence. Something outside the window had completely distracted him from his initial thought. He felt an enormous wave of dark power coming from outside.
They unleashed the army of Decay!
"Girls! Stand away from the window! Now!" he ordered.
"Why…?" Stella didn't have time to finish her question because out of nowhere the Balcony's glass shattered, little pieces of it scattered all around the room. But that wasn't all. hundreds of little dark creatures crawled through the window and into the room. Stella yelled in disgust and crushed one of the black bugs under her feat.
"EW!" she cried.
Darkell quickly ordered them to get out.
"Outside everybody! Alfea is under attack." He waited for all of them to step outside the door before following them out. As soon as they stepped outside in the main courtyard, hell broke loose. Fairies and weird swarms of insects were fighting around them. And the group of six quickly jumped in to help. Darkell flew a bit further away. Leaving the winx club on their own. They surely could handle themselves. From the sky he had a perfect view of the battle. At first he thought that these little beasts would be easy to deal with. However he was surprised when behind Musa a giant swarm of them transformed into a hideous monster. The Princess of Solaria who was standing next to her pigtailed friend quickly disposed of it by shooting a laser at it. But the thing only assembled itself again.
This must be the power of The Army of Decay, the one Griffin told me about a few years ago.
That meant that those witches had taken over Cloud Tower. So right now they had at their disposal all the nastiest enchantments hidden underneath the school.
Lucky.
He continued flying around, sometimes stopping to protect with his force shield a student in danger. He was more annoyed than usual for not having his full powers to fight. It would make things so much easier and faster to finish. He spotted Palladium and Wizgiz fighting not so far away. Those two and Flora were the only ones in the whole school he could talk to without getting annoyed after two minutes into the conversation. He landed next to them and greeted them with a simple wave of the hand. He started by chanting a few spells on three monsters standing in front of him. His familiar red symbols appeared one by one on the creatures' skins, stopping them from moving. Wizgiz finished it by crushing them in his rhinoceros form. He had always thought that Wizgiz's way of fighting was the most amusing thing he had ever seen.
"Help!" they heard a yell coming from behind them. When the three turned around they saw Bloom being chased by some monsters. This time Palladium was the one to take action. He used a spell to slice the thing into a million little pieces. Bloom smiled at him in thanks.
"Bloom, Professor Palladium!" Faragonda yelled in their direction. She was running with all four of Bloom's friends following behind her. "Can the simulator still be used as a teleportation device?" She asked him urgently.
"Yes, Yes of course…" he blurted out, confused out of his mind.
"Perfect, Darkell and Wizgiz. I need you to stay here and help the students fighting while Palladium and I accompany these five girls to the simulator." Bloom seemed as confused as her half elf teacher.
"Where are you teleporting us?"
"To Domino of course where everything started." The old lady answered her without an ounce of hesitation.
"You can't be serious…"mumbled Darkell while staring at the group of five first years fairies "they are much too young and inexperienced to be able to survive there, it's too dangerous for them!" to his great horror his voice showed a bit too much concern for the girls.
"I trust them and we don't really have much of a choice…"she answered him without showing any doubts.
"Now come on girls, we don't have time to spare." And she turned around and ran to the gymnasium's main entrance. Darkell's eyes instinctually fell on the small back of the flower fairy that was getting further and further away from him. Before he could even think, words started flying out of his mouth on their own, shocking its main receiver and all the adults around him.
"Hey Flora, be careful! Okay?" he shouted to her.
After she recovered from the shock, she silently answered him with a beautiful smile and a thumbs up before running to catch up with the others. Darkell didn't notice his fairy boss' surprised expression or his colleagues' smirks. Well at least he pretended not to notice.
A few miles away from where that was happening, a small purple duck and a yellow ogre were walking through the forest. Trying to get as far as possible from their former masters. However that wouldn't be easy. Ogres were dark creatures that needed a master to serve. More exactly a dark magic user. And unfortunately most of those dark mages were either using the dragon flame and trying to conquer the magical dimension or locked up in Cloud Tower's dungeons. However the simple minded monster was following the scent of a very powerful black magic wielder, that seemed quite promising.
