Chapter 34
Fan-Huang wasn't entirely sure how they'd arrived where they were, but they were there. Wherever there was. He had never been to this place before. It was dark and smelled like rotting flesh.
Fan-Min remained beside him appearing by every hint of body-language, unafraid. Remaining in her strange arcane form of existence, she proceeded to lead him down dark, narrow hallways. She acted as if she'd been there before. As they made their way, Fan-Huang couldn't help but notice that on either side of him there were dead, decaying bodies all over. Some were that of demonic creatures, but others were of humans. What on earth had happened here? And where was here?
Finally, he couldn't take the unknown anymore. Even though Fan-Min was scarier than she'd ever been in this new powerful form, he still had to ask. "Where are we?"
She didn't slow down or look at him. Charging forward, her feet not even touching the ground, but floating above, she answered him. "The Forgotten Tower."
"What's that?"
"Not important." She said bluntly. "If you're so interested, read about it when this is through. If you survive."
"Thanks, sis." He muttered feebly. She didn't respond at all. Like her, he fell silent and proceeded deeper and deeper into the tower. He trusted his sister with his life, but that didn't really make him feel that much better about what they were doing. Even so, he'd rather be with her than left alone.
It wasn't long before they reached a floor that seemed different than the rest. It seemed like it was once an elegant room. Almost like a throne room. Fan-Min slowed to a stop. Fan-Huang looked around nervously. What were they waiting for? He looked where his sister's arcane form was looking. Two large doors. Both closed tightly.
While he was staring at them, they slowly creaked open. A voice rumbled through the room. It was deep and menacing. Fan-Huang knew that voice. He'd heard it before. Avator.
"Come in." Avator grumbled. The ground and walls shook at his voice. "I've been expecting you."
"You're going to die." Fan-Min insisted, like it was just a fact. Like there was nothing, no power in heaven or hell that could change that.
"We shall see." Was all Avator was moved to say. He appeared quite unconcerned about the wizards.
"Which shall I kill, master?" The dark fairy at his side asked eagerly. "The girl?" He asked before his voice fell an octave, sounding eagerly murderous. "Or the boy?"
"The boy is all yours." Avator instructed. "I get the pompous girl." He stood up. Fan-Huang faltered backward. He wasn't expecting Avator to be so huge! The large muscular man-like demon didn't seem to phase Fan-Min in the slightest. She almost looked apathetic toward the situation they were in. Like killing this demon lord was just another day on the job. "I will put her in her place." Avator smirked.
In a flash faster than Fan-Huang's eyes could even register, the huge form of Avator was tackling his sister to the ground. She hit the floor hard and purple arcane energy blasted out in every direction. The massive force sent both Rin and Fan-Huang soaring back until they collided with the walls behind them. Both took a second to simply stare at the battle of titans happening before them. However, Rin wasn't distracted so easily. He quickly regained his focus and blasted a dagger-sharp blade of ice at the young man wizard.
Blood sputtered out of the new wound in Fan-Huang's chest, just below his right shoulder. The ice blade had hit him directly and then magically faded away allowing the wound to flow freely. Taking one more glance at his sister as she wrestled Avator, their various spells clashing back and forth, he knew he couldn't let this one wound put him out. He stood up, feeling the warmth of blood increase as the wound oozed more rapidly, and prepared himself for a fight.
He knew that even though Rin was just a small little guy with wings, he was no joke. He was more powerful than any other demon he'd ever faced. He had to play to win or he'd end up dead. His arsenal of spells was significantly smaller than that of his sister, so he tried to think quickly on his feet. "What's my most powerful spell?" He thought to himself. He figured he'd take him out with one good, powerful spell. The answer came to him quickly. Arcane Orb.
He ducked under another ice blade shot his way by the dark fairy and rolled quickly to the side as a follow up spell, a giant trail of fire burning rapidly at him, threatened his life. He knew he couldn't just play defensively, so with the intent to kill, Fan-Huang shot his first Arcane Orb, allowing the enchanted book his sister had given him to formulate the spell, but he poured as much of his arcane energy as he could into. He wanted this thing to kill!
Rin saw the orb whizzing his way and elegantly dodged as only someone with wings could do. Flying high in the air, he bolted from place to place launching quick electrical charges at the young wizard.
Fan-Huang dodged and dodged. He could feel his heart rate accelerate and was very glad that Kazur had gotten him exercising and working out with him. Between dodges, he would launch more arcane orbs, but each one missed its target and crashed violently with the wall, causing debris
to shower down from the decaying structure. He hoped that the tower would remain intact.
He took a moment to survey the battle again. Avator had his sister in one of his massive hands and was pounding her into the ground, but she seemed quite unconcerned about it. For some reason, Fan-Huang got the idea that she was okay. He didn't need to rush to her rescue. Above him was Rin, darting about and raining spells down upon him, each one capable of ushering in a painful death. However, out of the corner of his eye, Fan-Huang noticed a small crackling speck back by the throne Avator once sat in. It almost seemed like a black hole, sucking in any spare arcane energy around. What was it?
There wasn't much time to ponder such questions. A bolt of electricity rained down on him and penetrated his skin, sending a painful jolt through his whole body. He shook violently, but managed to regain his composure. If Fan-Min could handle Avator, the least he could do was take out the little fairy guy.
With a new determination, he launched more arcane orbs. He missed and missed. He knew if he kept this up, even with the book, he'd run out of arcane energy and be dead in his tracks. Rin noticed his defeated face and laughed. "Poor little wizard. You're no match for me. You just use magic. I am a fairy. Magic is part of my existence. How can you expect to take me down? Especially when you're so slow!"
Too slow... Fan-Huang had an idea. It was true that his spells were too slow. Granted they were the most powerful he had, they were also too slow to hit the quick little monster. He needed to look at this differently. He was trained for this. He thought back to the Yshari Sanctum. There he had done the tests against his sister. They had been pinned against each other in a battle to be the one who had popped the most bubbles in a short amount of time. That challenge required them to focus their aim and use quick-traveling spells. This was no different! Sure, Rin was a bit more challenging a target than a bubble, but the principle remained the same. He knew now that he needed to focus less on power and more on speed and accuracy.
As Rin continued to shower him with spells, Fan-Huang glared up at the fairy. He raised his spellbook and began to cast. The fairy expected another arcane orb and smirked. However, what flowed out of the wizard's spellbook was not an arcane orb, but a volley of arcane bolts. They traveled like bolts launched from the tightest of crossbows, so quickly the eye could barely follow them, and they collided directly with the dark fairy.
Rin fell to the ground injured. Fan-Huang shouted in celebration. He had actually done it! He'd defeated the fairy. Unfortunately, his celebration was too early. Rin arose looking more angry than ever before. He lifted both his hands out, like Fan-Min did when she was casting disintegrate and aimed them at the young wizard. He gulped. If Rin was truly capable of such a spell, then he was as good as dead.
Energy began to crackle in his hands. Fan-Huang wasn't sure what to do. He was about to die! Suddenly, a glowing blue portal opened behind Rin. In a bloody second, Rin was squashed on the ground under the heel of Marina. Fan-Huang looked on totally paralyzed by what just happened. Marina smiled proudly as she wiped the guts and remains of the dark fairy off of her boot and stepped fully through the portal before it closed behind her.
"Sorry." She said with a shrug. "Did I interrupt your duel?"
Fan-Huang stared at her stupidly for a moment before bursting out in thankful laughter. She looked at him confused. "No!" He said joyfully. "You saved my life. He was about to kill me!"
The celebration was cut short as the room thudded loudly as Avator forced Fan-Min onto the ground and placed a large bare foot on her, threatening to crush the very life out of her. She was still in her purple, glowing arcane form, but its glow was diminishing. She wasn't going to last much longer. That much was clear to the both of them.
Fan-Huang watched helplessly alongside Marina as Fan-Min was subdued. Avator straddled her, placing both his large hands down, one on each of her wrists, to stop her from moving or casting spells. Even so, Fan-Huang could notice arcane energy gathering up where her hands were. Her arcane-formed head turned toward him, but no words were spoken. It didn't matter. He knew what she needed. Help.
Even though he knew he could never defeat the massive demon lord, he raised his spellbook, much to Marina's surprise, and began launching arcane orb after arcane orb. He could feel his arcane energy was running low, but he couldn't stop. Fan-Min needed him!
Marina wasn't going to let the little wizard guy out-show her. She raised both of her crossbows and launched every bolt she had at him. They were either going to win or die.
It wasn't long before their pestering caught the attention of Avator. Full of irritation, his attention turned to the two of them. Releasing one of Fan-Min's hands, he raised his hand and pointed it toward Marina and Fan-Huang. It glowed with a raw, evil energy. They were about to die.
Suddenly, the room glowed so brightly, both Marina and Fan-Huang had to cover their eyes. They both assumed they were going to die. In fact, Fan-Huang even considered the possibility that he was already dead. However, the room eventually faded back to a level that allowed them to open their eyes. What they saw amazed them!
Fan-Min was back to her normal body, but her hand now free, was casting a one-handed disintegrate spell right through Avator. His body was burned away slowly, inch by inch, before he was entirely gone. Avator became just another defeated demon under their belts.
Fan-Huang bolted over to his little sister and helped her up. He was so relieved that she had survived. He hugged her so tightly she could barely breathe! As they hugged, a strange noise came from behind them. They both looked and noticed something large and dark glowing next to the throne.
"What is that?" Fan-Huang asked as he noticed that it was the strange crackling energy he'd seen earlier.
"A portal." Fan-Min said with her eyes glued to it.
"To where?" He asked.
Marina and Fan-Min both looked at each other knowingly. "Hell." They said in unison.
"What do we do with it?" Fan-Huang asked.
Again, the two women looked at it and their faces grew grim. "That's up to you." Fan-Min answered. "If we leave it here, hell can continue sending their demons through."
"What's the other option?"
"We go through." Marina said.
"Bring the fight to the very gates of Hell."
Fan-Huang looked at them wide-eyed. "Are you serious?"
"I'll follow you, brother." Fan-Min smiled. "What shall we do? Enjoy our lives, or enable others to enjoy theirs?"
He sighed heavily. More heavily than he could ever remember sighing. "When you say it like that..." He trailed off. "As long as you're with me." He said to Fan-Min.
"I will be." She answered. "Always."
"And I'll watch both of your backs." Marina assured them.
"What about Kazur?" Fan-Huang asked, clearly heartbroken again over the separation from his older brother.
"He found us this time." Fan-Min smiled warmly. "He'll find us again."
As much as he hated it, Fan-Huang knew she was right. "Okay." He answered with a nervous conviction. "Let's do this before I change my mind."
Together they stepped through the portal to Hell and it closed with a finality behind them. The Forgotten Tower finally grew back into its name. Not a sound echoed through its halls. Not a heartbeat thudded under its roofs. It became just another forgotten reality in the stories of legends and myths.