Chapter 29: Scourge

Having become a bit more accustomed to their adlet bodies than they had been upon first entering the Demon Domain, Seth, Kendra and Warren were starting to find that it was becoming easier for them to romp around.

"Where do we go from here?" asked Kendra, once the group had emerged at the top of the stairway that led down into the dungeon.

"I guess that we go... up," replied Seth. "I don't know where Sarah might even be, but if she's anywhere, it might be up on the top floor, closer to where Murdred resides."

Seth led Kendra and Warren back down the hall towards the main entryway, where the stairs that led to the upper levels of the castle were situated. Kendra gazed at the stairs and saw that they stretched upwards, almost a few hundred feet high.

"This way," said Seth, as he proceeded to scamper up the first few stairs.

"I really hope that we don't run into the real adlets at some point," said Warren. "My gut's telling me that they might actually be upstairs."

After a rather excruciatingly long climb, Seth, Kendra and Warren had made it to the top level of the stairs. Taking a moment to catch his breath, Seth finally realized just how high up the stairs were, as he had never actually climbed up them using his own strength; the real adlets had always carried him. He had gone down the stairs before, but that had undoubtedly been a whole lot easier.

Seth gazed down the long hallway that stood before the group. "Murdred's throne room should be down here."

"What about Sarah?" asked Kendra.

"No idea. But the room that Ingrid and I were held captive in is somewhere around here."

Warren walked up to the nearest door and gave it a brief examination. "These doors don't have any windows, so we'd need to open them up just to look inside. And who knows how safe that might actually be."

"Yeah, the adlets could be behind any of these doors for all we know," said Kendra.

"Hold on," said Seth. "Let me try using my power to see if I can detect Sarah."

"If Murdred and the negafae really are nearby," said Kendra, "won't their presence interfere?"

"At least let me try," said Seth, as he closed his eyes and allowed himself to focus. Immediately, he could sense that there was darkness absolutely everywhere. He tried to concentrate, but alas, it resulted in nothing.

"I can't sense anything," said Seth. "It's like there's a huge influx of darkness all around us. I just can't focus."

"If we're really close to Murdred, then the excessive darkness shouldn't come as a surprise," said Warren.

Kendra nodded. "I say we just confront Murdred once and for all and learn for ourselves as to what's actually going on here."

Swallowing his fear, Seth nodded. "Agreed. Let's go!"

"Okay," said Warren. "If this plan fails, we either try to kill Murdred right here and now, or we scram!"

Seth led Kendra and Warren down towards the end of the hall, where the large pair of double doors that served as the entrance to Murdred's throne room were positioned. This was it. Behind these doors was the chamber where Murdred himself allegedly was.

Just by being near the door, Kendra could feel dark vibrations emanating through from the other side. Being fairykind, the sensation was making her feel all weak and frozen inside. Although it did not impair her ability to move, the feeling was overwhelming her entire body. Looking over at Warren, Kendra could tell that he too was feeling rather uneasy about the situation as well.

"Let's hope that this plan actually works," said Seth under his breath, as he proceeded to push against one of the doors to the throne room. Despite his best effort, the door would not budge.

"You need a hand?" asked Warren.

"Oh wait," said Seth, "these doors were voice activated. Open!"

Seth waited for a moment, but neither of the doors responded to his command.

"Open! Open! Come on, open!"

"What's wrong?" asked Kendra.

"All the adlets had to say was open, and the doors would just... swing open."

"It must not recognize your voice," said Warren. "Hopefully Murdred is easier to fool."

"Come on," said Seth, as he leaned his body against the door and pushed against it with all his might. "We've gotta get inside! Lousy door! Let me through!"

A moment later, the door did in fact swing open, causing Seth to stumble forward into the throne room, nearly losing his balance.

As Kendra stepped inside, she could now at last see Murdred and the two negafae for whom they truly were. Not very large, Murdred was pitch black and sported a nest of horns atop his head. She didn't know why, but for some reason, Kendra felt that the look on Murdred's face was cold enough to freeze her own blood just through eye contact alone.

"You imbecile," said Murdred, as Seth, Kendra and Warren walked up towards the throne. Kendra didn't know why, but she was able to understand the Demon God. "Just because the door wasn't working doesn't give you the right to try and tear it down. Knock next time. Demoric, I'll need you to inspect the door and see that it's working later on."

"As you command, Lord Murdred," said Demoric.

Looking around the throne room, the one thing that caught Seth's eye was a steaming cauldron off to the side of the room. He was pretty confident that said cauldron had not been there on any of his previous visits.

"Normally, I wouldn't be too thrilled to see you three barge in here without my prior consent," said Murdred. "But fortunately for you, I was actually interested in recruiting you for an important job."

"Important?" asked Kendra. "What do you mean by important?"

"The elixir that Helwic prepared is at last ready," said Murdred, looking over towards the cauldron. "I want you to return to the mortal world, find Seth and bring him back here, so that we may administer the elixir to him."

"Um, what if we can't find him?" asked Warren.

"Yeah, Seth could be anywhere," added Seth.

"We know where to find him," replied Helwic. "All you three need to do is to track down Seth when he's alone, ambush him at any cost and bring him back here through a portal."

"What about Sarah?"

Murdred, Demoric and Helwic all laughed. "You know that we're done with her," said Demoric.

What did Demoric mean? Seth was desperate to ask more questions, but was afraid that he would blow the group's cover if he sounded too suspicious.

"Hey," said Kendra, "what about the Necromaster?"

"Oh, that's right," said Murdred, tossing the relic from his hand across the room, where it landed on the floor in front of the adlets. "It's garbage!"

Kendra proceeded to pick up the Necromaster. Seth thought to himself. What would happen if they were to just run off and not return? Surely the real adlets would get involved at some point and they'd all realize that they were tricked. Besides, if they couldn't get him, there was always the possibility that Sarah, wherever they were holding here, might be used to test the elixir.

Seth then cupped his paw over Warren's ear. "We seriously need to get rid of this elixir. But how?"

"I don't know," replied Warren, whispering back to Seth. "If we could only analyze the elixir, at least then maybe then we could find an antidote."

"Xeero!" hissed Murdred. "Xillch! How dare you whisper in my presence!"

"Actually," said Warren. "We were planning something. What if we brought this potion to the mortal world and forced Seth to drink it on the spot?"

Helwic smiled. "It would save us the trouble of having to bring Seth back to Fablehaven later. In fact, with Seth's internal darkness, combined with the power of the elixir, his very presence might become powerful enough to weaken Fablehaven from within. We could just walk in afterwards and the humans there would be powerless to stop us."

Murdred guffawed. "You adlets aren't so dumb after all. Very well. Take a sample of the elixir with you into the mortal world and force feed it to Seth."

"Now?" asked Kendra.

"Of course now," said Murdred. "There's a canister over by the cauldron that you can use for it."

"I'll get it," said Warren, as he walked over towards the cauldron, while Kendra and Seth followed behind him.

Once they reached the cauldron, which was large enough for an adult human to hide in, Warren lifted up the the lid, causing a whole wave of steam to come rushing past his snout. As Warren set the lid down on the table, Seth and Kendra gazed down into the contents of the cauldron. In it was a bubbling black liquid that best resembled molten tar. The elixir possessed a foul, almost nauseating odor.

"Here's the canister," said Kendra, grabbing a metal flask off the table, which was small enough to hold with one paw, and presented it to Warren.

"And a spoon," said Seth, picking up a ladle from the table and handing it over to Warren.

"Okay," said Warren. "Guess I'll just fill this canister up, then."

Warren then dunked the ladle down into the cauldron. A moment later, he proceeded to lift it upwards, bringing with it a large glob of the mucky elixir.

"LEEEFFFFTTT!" roared Murdred in a ferocious voice that nearly shook the room. "LEEEFFFFTTT!"

Barely able to move from hearing Murdred's startling roar, Kendra, Seth and Warren all turned to face Murdred. Along with the two negafae, Murdred appeared to be infuriated.

"Hey, what's going on?" asked Seth.

"LEFT CLAW!" hissed Murdred, as his two main eyes glowed fiercely. "Xillch! How dare you favor your left claw over your right!"

Looking over at Warren, Kendra and Seth could see that he was clearly holding the ladle in his left claw.

"I don't think that this even is Xillch!" said Demoric, eyeing the group. "Or that they're Xipp and Xeero, for that matter!"

Demoric held his hand forward and unleashed bolts of energy that hit Kendra, Seth and Warren in quick succession. Upon impact, the three adlets in disguise instantly reverted back into their human forms.

"Well, well, well..." said Murdred, smiling as he fixated his eyes upon the lone shadow charmer. "I don't know who these other two are, but it would appear that our good friend Seth just saved us the trouble of tracking him down again."

"I'm not afraid of you!" said Seth, drawing Vasilis from its scabbard. As he did so, Demoric and Helwic raised their hands towards him.

"It matters not. Very soon you will be allied with me, and I can at last begin my conquest of your miserable, disgusting mortal world."

"That's what you think," said Warren. "We're here to stop you!"

"You don't deserve to live. All left-handed people are defective."

"I'm not even going to waste time on a comeback," said Warren, as he drew his machine gun from his bag. Without hesitation, he aimed it directly at Murdred and unleashed a vivid barrage of bullets at the Demon God's head.

The bullets pierced through Murdred's head at an alarming rate, blasting the entire thing to bits. Blood, bone, and bits of Murdred's innards splattered everywhere. Soon the monstrosity that stood before everyone was now a headless body with blood gushing out through its neck.

"You did it!" said Seth, feeling overcome with joy. "You killed Murdred!"

"Way to go," said Kendra.

Demoric and Helwic both stood to the side, and laughed.

"What are they so happy about?" asked Seth. "Warren just killed their leader."

At that moment, a brand new head, identical to the previous one, suddenly materialized upon Murdred's shoulders. It was as though the monster had never lost his head to begin with.

"Fools!" blared Murdred. "Did you really think you could kill me by shooting me in the head?"

"Uh, yes," replied Warren.

"I'll tell you why you failed to kill me. I... AM... IMMORTAL! I cannot die! Demoric, bring me Seth!"

Demoric shot a black bolt at Seth. A mysterious force then proceeded to pull Seth across the room and up the dais where the negafae and Murdred were standing.

"HELP!" cried Seth.

Kendra was afraid to get any closer to Murdred himself, and looking over at Warren, she could sense that he was too.

Suddenly, Bracken, Bright and Clover all appeared next to where Kendra and Warren were standing.

"Fairies?" exclaimed Helwic, as Seth arrived next to her and Demoric.

"I don't know why they're here," said Demoric. "But in this world, they're powerless against us!"

"Give back Seth!" blared Bracken. "I'm warning you!"

"I'm surprised the light creature is still standing," said Helwic.

"Help me," said Seth, who could feel that his body had been magically immobilized by Demoric.

"Let them have it!" said Bracken, as he quickly transformed into his unicorn body. Likewise, Bright did the same.

"Unicorns?" exclaimed Murdred. "That means..."

Bracken and Bright then unleashed spiraling beams of rainbow energy from their horns towards Murdred and the negafae. Clover shot a beam of green energy from her hands in the same direction. However, before any of the beams could get even remotely close to Murdred or the negafae, they dissipated in midair.

"Our light magic isn't working!" exclaimed Clover as she, Bracken and Bright stopped their flows of energy.

"Go ahead," said Murdred. "Exhaust your pathetic power."

Bright shot another rainbow out of her horn, this one towards the cauldron. Once again, the beam of light faded before it could get close to the cauldron.

"It's too strong!" said Bright. "And we're in their homeworld! We can't stop them!"

"I've getting tired of this" said Murdred. "Prepare to die!"

Murdred closed his eyes, then revealed the evil eye that was within his forehead. It proceeded to glow white, and shone so brilliantly that it nearly lit up the entire throne room.

"Help," said Kendra, who could feel that her body was barely able to move.

"We need to get out of here!" exclaimed Bright, who along with Bracken, had been forced back into her fairy form.

"But what about Seth?" asked Kendra.

"We can't help him!" cried Clover, who was cowering in fear, along with Bracken and Bright. "If we get any closer, we'll succumb to the darkness!"

"Warren..." said Kendra, looking over at her cousin, who amazingly was still standing up, seemingly unaffected by the glowing of Murdred's evil eye. "Warren?"

Warren did not respond. He was standing still, remaining completely motionless.

At that point, Murdred closed his evil eye, bringing an end to its powerful glow, then proceeded to open his two normal eyes. Now that the light had faded, Kendra could see that not only were the fairies still cowering in fear, but that Warren had somehow been turned into a mute albino again.

"No!" exclaimed Kendra, her heart beating furiously. "Warren! No!"

"Murdred..." said Seth faintly, still unable to move his body. "How... could you?"

"That was me being gentle," scoffed Murdred. "If you fairies weren't so resilient, you'd be just as pale as your friend here."

"We have to leave!" screamed Bracken, as he grabbed Warren by his wrist in one hand, then mustered up the strength to open a portal with the other. "Hurry!"

"Running away will not help you now," said Murdred, looking over at Seth.

Bracken quickly darted through the portal. Looking back at Seth, Kendra felt her own wrist being grabbed by Bright, who pulled her through as well.

"No!" cried Kendra, as she emerged from the other side of the portal at Fablehaven, just as Clover passed through it behind her. "We can't leave Seth!"

"I need to close this now!" blared Bracken, as he wasted no time in using his power to shut the portal behind him.

"No!" said Kendra, who felt as though she was about to cry. "They have Seth!"

"They're too powerful," said Bright, placing her hand upon Kendra's shoulder. "There was nothing we could do. We can't win."

"Be thankful we were even able to get out of there," said Bracken.

"Well, well well," said Murdred, looking over at Seth. "Looks like your weakling friends all bailed on you."

"I know them," said Seth. "They only left because they couldn't survive in this world."

"Who cares about why they left? They're doomed anyway. The point of the matter now, is that any chance of you being rescued just went up in flames."

"You can't... do this!"

"Oh yes we can," said Demoric, smiling wickedly at Seth. "Come with us."

As Murdred, Demoric and Helwic walked down the dais and over towards the cauldron, Seth floated through the air alongside them, undoubtedly under Demoric's influence. Once they reached the cauldron, Seth landed on his feet, still unable to move.

"Helwic, feed Seth," said Murdred.

"As you wish," said Helwic, as she grabbed the ladle that Warren had dropped into the elixir upon being transformed back into a human. As she lifted the serving utensil out of the cauldron, Seth could see a glob of the gooey elixir overflowing within the ladle.

Helwic then carried the ladle over towards Seth, as the black elixir within it dripped onto the stone flooring.

"Open wide," said Helwic, holding the ladle up in front of Seth's face.

"Uh-uh," mumbled Seth through his closed mouth, unable to so much as turn his head away from Helwic.

Demoric sighed. "Let's just do this the easy way."

Demoric then snapped his fingers, which magically prompted Seth's mouth to open up as wide as it possibly could. Seth tried to close it, but was unable to even move his jaw.

"Bottoms up," said Helwic, as she poured the elixir onto Seth's tongue. The concoction, which had the consistency of honey, tasted awful. It was like a combination of skunk spray, cough syrup, rotten cheese and several other flavors Seth could not put his finger on.

Unable to spit out the elixir, Seth was left with no option but to let it flow through his mouth and work its way down his throat.

"Is that it?" asked Murdred,

"That's it," said Helwic. "It should take effect immediately."

Seth could feel a strange pain forming in his stomach. Unlike a stomach ache, the pain suddenly began to expand through his entire body. Once it reached his head, the bizarre feeling instantly overwhelmed his brain, causing him to black out.