It was dinner time in the Cloud Tower and as always, everyone was in the cafeteria. The witches carrying Valtor's mark were eating their food in an eerily automatic manner whereas the Trix nibbled their food lazily –it seemed like they were starting to get bored more easily each meal time.
"I cannot stand this awkward silence!" Icy rebelled at last, causing Valtor to turn his grey eyes at her "If you're going to sit there like a mannequin, at least tell us something interesting."
Valtor raised an eyebrow at the platinum blonde "What would you like me to tell you?" he asked but his question was rather directed at all three of them since Darcy and Storm looked equally bored as well.
Icy shrugged "I don't know, can be anything, really." she responded and brought a fork full of spaghetti to her mouth.
"I have a suggestion," Stormy spoke, causing everyone to look at her "You could tell us more about this Underworld."
Darcy nodded excitedly "Yeah, that's a good idea." she said "We didn't even know such a place existed before Hel showed up in the office."
"Understandable," Valtor muttered and took a sip from the drink in his glass "Hel is the only living person that can roam within the Underworld, hence all the knowledge concerning that place disappeared inside the Omega Dimension along with Hel sixteen years ago."
Icy frowned "So this means that even you haven't been to the Underworld?" she asked, only to receive a nod from Valtor "Geez, what does Hel do there with all those zombies, then?"
Her remark had caused the sorcerer to laugh "The dead aren't zombies, Icy, as long as they stay in their own world." he responded "However, they become zombies one they step a foot in our world."
With a snap of his fingers, Valtor created a plate full of fruits in the middle of the table, around which they were seated. Darcy licked her lower lip as she quickly reached for the strawberries and took five of them to her own plate.
"So are they, you know, human-looking in the Underworld?" Stormy asked while brought a cherry to her mouth.
Valtor nodded "Exactly, they look just like everyone around us." he responded and took a green grape for himself "Don't you like fruits?" he asked at Icy upon seeing that she wasn't eating. Before she could answer, however, Valtor snapped his fingers with the memory he recalled. The young witch's eyes lit up as she saw the cup of ice cream appearing on her own plate "Now I remember –you prefer ice cream."
As he felt the jealousy vibrating from Darcy and Storm, the edge of his lip curled upwards. Despite Hel's presence, they were still competing for him. How cute, he thought while his eyes wandered between the three of them.
"Are we all going to end up in Hel's hands at some point?" Darcy asked, causing Valtor to divert his attention to her while he put a grape in his mouth.
"If you are deemed worthy of an eternal life in the Underworld, then yes, you will end up in Hel's hands but that is not always the case." Valtor responded "You see; thousands of people die every day but only a few are lucky enough to open their eyes in the Underworld."
Now, the Trix looked truly confused "What is that supposed to mean?" Darcy asked with a frown on her face "All of these sound just too bizarre."
Valtor chuckled "The Underworld can be rather complex for the living the comprehend at first. Let me start from the very beginning, ladies: After you die, you either join the cosmic energies and cease to exist as a living being, or you get to live an eternal life in the Underworld." he began to explain and brought the glass to his lips "An eternal life might sound quite alluring at first; however, it is simply an illusion. In fact, Hel is only gathering men for her army of the dead.
"This used to be her main mission back in the old days –when we were serving the Ancient Witches, they wanted to create an army of the dead but it is a rather bothersome work." Valtor continued while he moved his right index finger in circles on the tip of the glass. The three witches were listening to him with much interest "The Underworld used to be a mess before Hel laid her hands on it."
"So that's why the witches didn't want to deal with the dead themselves," Stormy said "Because it was no different than moulding clay from scratch."
The sorcerer nodded as he brought another grape to his lips "Exactly and since they had a quite ambitious servant within their grasp, they made Hel the Queen of the Underworld and granted her the Magic of the Dead." he spoke "With that power, she established a strong order in the Underworld. First, she was literally crowned as the Queen. Then, she created several kingdoms and grouped the dead according to their powers, sending each group to a different kingdom. They have their own political system there, even I cannot recall them all."
Icy had already finished the ice cream "They are not too different from us, then." she said as she crossed her arms over her chest "I mean they have kingdoms and they live in monarchies, just like we do."
Valtor pursed his lips "Well, yes but no. Their monarchy is not based on the bloodline unlike the ones in Magix." he said and reached for a strawberry "Hel chooses the most powerful one in a kingdom to be the new king every three years. The kings play a crucial role in the Underworld for they decide who ends up in the Underworld. In most cases, they prefer keeping the most powerful ones to themselves and leave the others to the cosmos."
"And that place has been left without its Queen for sixteen years," Darcy spoke with an unpleasant tone "Now I feel sorry for her, she has too much to fix."
The moment Valtor felt the disturbance around the space surrounding them, he ended up flying into the air as a powerful shadow blast hit him from the chest. Everyone was caught off guard, even his little minions weren't fast enough to react as he crashed into the parallel wall, which was literally on the opposite side of the cafeteria.
"VALTOR!"
Hel's roaring echoed inside the cafeteria while she flew inside, she was once again in her leather jump-suit. However, this time she had a second layer around her, which were her shadows, and they were creating a thick, black glow around her. Her clenched fists were glowing with black magic as she sent another blast at the sorcerer. He absorbed her magic with his own.
"Traitor. Traitor." The witches carrying Valtor's mark began to chant simultaneously as they all charged at Hel's flying figure with their magic; however, their blasts got stuck on the shadows around Hel. As the dark haired witch moved her arms, all that magic was repelled back at the poor witches.
"You are early," Valtor spoke with a sarcastic tone as he commanded the Cloud Tower. A magical, gigantic hand reached out from the ceiling to catch Hel but she flew the opposite direction to escape from it. Then she sent a shadow blast at the hand, causing it to explode.
"And you are dead!" Hel shouted at him. Valtor didn't remember seeing her that angry before and Hel's fury had never been a good sign for the angrier she was, the more powerful she became. As she felt the movement behind her, Hel swiftly turned back to meet the Trix "I don't want to hurt you, girls, so stay away from this."
"You need to calm down first." Icy said and sent ice-daggers at Hel's direction. The dark haired woman deflected them with a simple movement of her hand as she heaved a sigh and snapped her fingers. A faint, black, circular line appeared around the Trix and the moment they tried to pass it, they were hit by the shadows within the line. Not taking another look at those three, Hel flew towards Valtor with an inhuman speed.
The sorcerer teleported behind her and hit her with one of his blasts, which caused Hel to crash into the wall in front of her. Quickly regaining her strength, she charged at Valtor once again "You knew about it, didn't you?!" she almost screamed on top of her lungs "They must have told you about it –you're their precious son, after all!"
Just as Hel was about the attack him, Valtor trapped her inside a bubble of his dragon flame "I have no idea what you are talking about." he spoke with a calm tone, which ended up pissing off Hel even more.
"Let me out of here!" she screamed as she tried to break free using her magic; however, it wasn't working "What have you done to my magic?!"
Valtor slowly landed onto the ground while lowering the bubble with him "The bubble restrains your use of magic." he explained and casted a look at Trix, who were freed from Hel's spell and were flying down towards him "And you are not going anywhere before you calm down."
It took almost ten minutes for Hel to transform into her regular dress so that Valtor knew that her fury had been tamed. During that time span he had sent the witches back to their dormitories –it was just him, Hel and the Trix left in the cafeteria. The moment Hel's leather jump-suit turned into her black, satin dress, the protective bubble around her disappeared. As she stepped out, Hel stumbled for she had used an immense amount of power, hence she felt drained.
"Finally," Icy muttered while she crossed her arms over her chest "I was beginning to think that she wasn't going to change back until morning."
Hel muttered something under her breath as she held onto the column on her right to keep herself balanced "Now that you're on your right mind," Valtor said and took a few steps towards her "Explain me what all that mess was about."
"Your mothers have sent someone else to the Underworld," Hel spoke as if she was spitting the words in disgust "To put an end to my reign as the Queen." Upon seeing the shocked expression on Valtor's face, Hel clicked her tongue "Judging by the look on your face, you haven't been informed about the recent change in their plans as well."
"I haven't spoken to them since my return," Valtor said as he shook his head "So no, I didn't know about that."
What are they trying to do? I have never known they wanted Hel's demise this hard! First Mandragora and now this –nothing makes sense anymore.
Darcy asked with a confused tone "Why do the Ancient Witches keep messing with you?"
Hel gritted her teeth in fury, a bloodthirsty look had fallen on her beautiful features "They are afraid that I'll grow strong enough to defeat them, that's why." she responded and threw her hands into the air "Apparently, those three old witches don't want me having an army of the dead under my control anymore!"
Valtor slowly nodded as he understood the motive behind his mothers' actions "Of course, they knew you'd come after them once you escaped the Omega Dimension, hence they took some extra precautions." he said, then eyed the dark haired woman for a second before speaking once again "What are you planning to do?"
A cruel laughter escaped her crimson lips while she walked towards Valtor "I'm going to kill their little minion, of course. He is a sorcerer who names himself Alowix and since he can roam the lands of the Underworld alive, he also has the Magic of the Dead." As she stood in front of Valtor, Hel pressed her right index finger against his chest in a threatening manner "The next time you speak with your mothers, tell them that they'll also be meeting the fate of their little minion Alowix soon enough. Tell them that the Queen of the Underworld, the monster they've created with their own hands, will be coming after them."
And with that, Hel disappeared into the shadows without leaving any trance behind her. Stormy shook her head "She has some serious anger management issues." she said and asked Valtor "How come you were able to bear with all her tantrums?"
Valtor took a deep breath as he fixed his maroon coloured jacket "Her anger was rarely directed against me back in the old days, so I never really had to deal with her tantrums." he responded "But now, all her fury is focused on the Three Ancient Witches and unfortunately, I am a living remainder of them for her. I can understand why she decided to direct her anger at me."
Icy rolled her eyes in annoyance "Whatever, I don't want to face any more of her tantrums." she said and placed her hands on her waist "I mean, why don't we make her direct that fury at the Winx? She's powerful enough to take them all at once if she is angry enough –you get what I mean, don't you?"
The edge of Valtor's lip curled upwards as he began to walk towards the exit of the cafeteria, the Trix were following him "Now, that's what I'd like to hear, Icy –yes, we are going to use Hel's unbalanced personality for our advantage."
[Time Skip]
After her sudden disappearance, no one heard from Hel in the next twenty-four hours. However, there was a clear disturbance within the shadows –it was so clear that their bizarre actions didn't go unnoticed by the Trix as well –which meant that she was probably overmuch busy fighting for her throne in the Underworld.
Valtor had no idea how much of the Underworld that sorcerer Alowix had been able to get a grasp of but he knew something for sure: One way or another, Hel would certainly take back her throne. Even if it meant playing unfair.
It was around midnight when the Trix had gone to sleep and left Valtor alone in the peaceful silence surrounding him inside the office. While keeping an eye on the collapsing portal which connected Andros and the Omega Dimension, he was carefully reading the last spell books he had taken from the Cloud Tower. What brought him back to reality had been the knocking on the door.
Hmm, who could it be at this time of the night?
"Yes," Valtor said and then raised a questioning eyebrow upon seeing the Trix entering the headmistress' office "I thought you were going to sleep?"
"We were," Icy began to explain as she yawned and stepped to the side "But this happened on our way to bed."
The moment he heard the sound of the high-heeled shoes, Valtor understood who was about to walk into the office. However, he certainly wasn't expecting her to bring a souvenir with her from the Underworld.
Hel was in her usual dress and she carried a big victory smirk on her crimson lips as she walked to the middle of the room. There were several cuts on her arms and her hair looked messy, which showed that she had been through some serious battles. A man, who was being suspended in the air with his hands tied behind him, was flying right behind Hel, following her as she walked inside the office.
The man following her was presumably Alowix –the sorcerer the Ancient Witches had sent to the Underworld to overthrow Hel. His blonde hair looked also messy but in general, his body was in a far worse shape than Hel's: He had a deep wound on the right side of his belly, which was bleeding and creating small, red puddles of blood on the ground beneath his feet.
Valtor's grey eyes shone with both amusement and excitement as he saw Hel walking in front of him with a strong, vicious, and cruel aura surrounding her. Her dark side was so dense at that moment so that Valtor felt as if it could materialise any minute.
And the best part was that she was carrying her crown on her head –the black crown which was adorned with black diamonds looked simply astonishing on her. Once again, she was the Queen of the Underworld.
"Ah," Hel spoke with a silk-like voice "Revenge tastes so sweet, doesn't it, darling?"
