Hey guys, sorry for the really short chapter. I just didn't really know what else to put in this chapter. Also, for the fact that I'm finishing this while on vacation, I don't really have much time to write as often. But I already know how next chapter is going to go. So don't worry.

Next chapter will hopefully be longer. More plot twists. Whatever. Also, I was originally going to end this chapter with Saralegui...but I couldn't figure out how to write it so I'm either going to save that part for next chapter or not use it at all. THIS STORY NEEDS SOME FLUFF. ITS GETTING SO DARK *-*

Whatever, let's do this. Sorry if its a little "ehh" I write half of this on my phone and I'm not as good at writing when I'm writing through mobile =-=

Warning: Blood, death, weapons, AND FEELS (can't forget the feels)

Chapter 12

The Ash of My Enemy

Ever so slowly did the blonde walk towards the archers. His emerald eyes now glossed over with everlasting blood lust. Wolfram kept his hands out to his sides, gathering his energy of flame. Every slow step he took, fell as if were as light as a feather, but as loud as a thunderous crash. The archers flinched as they watched the blonde walk closer and closer towards them. Instinct was telling them to draw their weapons for protection, but another instinct told that was a bad idea as for the blonde might see that retaliation and strike.

"You're all dead. Do not even try to shoot your arrows at me. I'll just burn them all to a crisp." Wolfram spoke for the first time since he started walking. "Just as I will burn you all to ash."

The archers all took a step back, their hands grasps around their weapons and the straps that hold their arrows.

"What do we do now?" "We're all dead." "I didn't sign up for this. I have kids."

"ALL OF YOU CONTROL YOURSELVES." Belar shouted. The archers all looked around to figure out just where the voice was coming from. Even Wolfram stopped in his tracks but did not stop his flames. "You are acting like insolent children. You are soldiers! Use that training and kill him."

"I am a soldier as well. I am much older than all of you here. Just try and stop me. You'll all die at my feet." Wolfram shouted.

"Just try Mazoku." Belar clicked off for a moment before continuing. "Get him NOW."

The archers reloaded their bows and ready to fire. Wolfram notices this and sprints off towards the archers.

"All things that make up the elements of fire obey this proud Mazoku." Wolfram shouted as his fire magic began to summon and form above his head. "Take this."

A lion's roar echoed and bounced off the walls of the dark space that was illuminated only by flame. The lion raced off from beside Wolfram and towards it prey. The men let out a scream of panic and began to shoot at the beast before jumping away from it as quickly as possible. The lion of flame crashed into the wall before its being exploded, sending flames everywhere around them. The archers began to scurry around like mice trying to avoid the flame, whereas Wolfram stood where he was, unfazed by what was going around him.

"Finish him off fools." Belar ordered.

An arrow was shot just short of that order. Wolfram sensed it coming at the last second and quickly dodged the wooden weapon, but alas the sharp metal tip of the arrow grazed his pale skin at his sleeve, his upper arm, ripping away fabric and flesh and leaving behind an open wound and fresh red blood. Wolfram hissed from the open air hitting his wound and held a hand over it, the blood rolling between his fingertips and down his arm.

"That's it. Do it again. Continue to pierce your arrows through his flesh. Do not stop until he is nothing but a rotting corpse." Belar shouted in encouragement and pride.

Wolfram bit his lip as he held his arm even tighter. He hadn't expected the archer to shoot at him with such reckless aim. It was pathetic. However, Wolfram could not think highly of himself either as he was unable to sense it in time fast enough to dodge it fast enough.

"Yuri," Wolfram thought to himself as he looked around. "what do I do now?"

Wolfram had few options. He had to get Yuri out of this place soon, before the poison got further into his body. To his heart. He had to exorcise the poison but he needed time. Time was not on his side right now.

Just as Wolfram was about to shoot his flames, another arrow was fired.

"Your majesty. Your majesty. Please wake up."

Saralegui could hear someone calling out to him. He could feel himself being shook by the shoulder, but gently. He had no recollection of what was going on. He didn't even remember falling asleep.

"Your majesty Saralegui. Are you hurt? Please wake up."

Saralegui slowly began to open his eyes, the daylight's sun was too bright at that moment so he was forced to close them once more before opening them again, holding a hand over his face.

"W-What happened?" Saralegui asked. Saralegui looked before himself at the man who was calling out to him. He appeared to have brunette hair and brown eyes. He could never tell most of them apart as most of his soldiers had fairly similar phenotype. It was both to him a coincidence and quite odd. "Who are you? How did you find me?"

"I am one of your soldiers from platoon six of your army. I happen to be relieved of my duties as of right now because my wife is pregnant. I happened to find his majesty out here on my way to gather firewood." The soldier placed a fisted hand over his heart. "If I may ask, what is his majesty doing out here so far from the palace, and alone at that? Did something happen?"

Saralegui looked around at his surroundings. He was being bombarded with so many questions at once when he did not even recall why he was here. He looked over at his horse who was nudging at his arm.

"I was in search for King Yuri." Saralegui mumbled to himself.

"King Yuri? What has happened that you were looking all the way out here?"

"King Yuri has been captured along with his betrothed Wolfram. I have been searching on my own to find them." Saralegui replied.

He tried to get to his feet but stumbled and fell right back down onto his rear end. His body shook and his head was spinning.

"You must have touched a poisonous plant while you were in slumber Majesty. Please, come with me." Saralegui felt himself being hoisted to his feet, his arm being put around his soldiers shoulders and an arm around his waist. "I'm going to help you Majesty. You'll feel better soon. Afterwards, I will help you on your quest to find the demon king."

But Saralegui did not hear the last part of that statement, for he had already gone back into his sleeping state, the effects of the plant still affecting him.

Once the large vessel docked in the demon kingdom harbors, Gwendal ordered everyone off so that they could quickly get a move on to the human countries of the demon kingdom. Fortunately, Gwendal was able to message the castle before they docked to quickly send a few extra horses and a carriage to be brought to the docks.

Now everyone was on horseback beside Lady Cecilie, Murata and Shouri. The two double blacks decided to stay in the carriage with Lady Cecilie because they still had much to discuss with her. Lady Cecilie was fine with it.

"Lady, you do know that it is possible that this quest will end with us finding out the worst, correct?" Murata asked with all seriousness.

Lady Cecilie kept her hands in her lap. She knew this question was bound to come up eventually. "Yes, I am well aware. It is possible we may have many outcomes. It is possible that both can be alive and well. It could also be possible that both have been killed by now. However, I try not to think about whether or not they are alive or dead. I just want Yuri and Wolf to be okay."

"I have a question." Shouri asked in outburst. "Just where exactly are we heading to find them? Are we really just going to be looking around willy-nilly? Or do we actually have a specific location yet?"

Murata sighed. "As for location, exacts are unknown. However, we are positive they are human territory. Where? We do not know."

"I see. So we really don't have a clue as to where they are?" Shouri complained.

"I ask that you not complain so much, big brother of my friend, before I ask Shinou to send you back. We don't have time to listen to anyone complaining." Murata shouted.

"Shut up. I have a right to worry about my little brother. So keep your mouth shut or I swear-!"

"That's enough you two, please." Lady Cecilie pleaded. Murata took a deep breath and Shouri just kept his gaze out the window. Shouri understood the depth of the situation, however, he did not appreciate that Murata was continuously snapping at him for speaking his mind. "We should be arriving in Svilera soon so I ask that you please keep your lovers quarrel to a minimum."

"Lovers Quarrel?!" Murata mumbled to himself.

"Like hell I'd ever be involved with him." Shouri hissed.

"That's what they all say." Lady Cecilie mumbled to herself as she looked out the window to her left. A small temporary smile on her face as she forgot her troubles for a swift moment.

"So," Lady Cecilie raised her head and looked over at Shouri who was once again asking a question. "how exactly will be we begin searching? Will we stay together and search? Or will we be splitting up and searching on our own?"

"If I believe correctly, Lord von Voltaire will want us to travel together as he believes it is safer for all of us to stay together. However, seeing as how time is crucial, he may just change his mind and his strategy a bit and have us all split up and search."

"Lord von Voltaire seems to have everything under control. How does he manage to stay so calm?" Shouri said to himself.

"My son has always been strong and stern. Gwendal has been by me, along with Conrart and Wolfram during my rein as Demon Queen. I used to think that Gwendal or even Wolfram would make a suitable Demon King after I stepped down, but when Yuri finally arrived to our world, I knew that he was perfect for the job. His message. His light. So much like Julia. It was no surprise that the great one chose Yuri to be our next king. After all he's been able to accomplish in such a short time, I have no doubt that he will bring total peace between the lands of the humans and us. It was Julia's dream after all." Lady Cecilie spoke up next with praise and pride for their king.

It was silent for a moment after that. Lady Cecilie's words sinking in to the two double blacks.

"You fear for war, don't you?" Murata asked that blonde ex queen.

Lady Cecilie placed a hand over her heart. Fear and sadness evident in her emerald eyes. "After so long being lead by a pacifist, Yuri had taught us that war and unnecessary violence is wrong. I agree with those words. Going into war will go against everything Yuri has worked so hard for." She sighed. Her heart hammering in her chest. "The people of the demon kingdom will soon realize their king is not present in his castle and will start wanting answers. I fear if word gets out to our people that their king and his betrothed have been captured, they will want to seek war. I want to find them soon before things become more out of hand."

"AHH!" Wolfram cried out as an arrow planted itself into his shoulder. He held a hand as best he could over the injection sight as he moaned in pain.

"Excellent. Excellent. Keep it up. Do not stop until I say so." Belar could be heard cackling from his place unknown.

Wolfram felt his body shaking as his magical energy levels began to reach their limits. He has little energy left to waste. He had to get Yuri out of here before Belar and his men finished him off, along with Yuri.

"You won't get away with this. I will get Yuri out of here." Wolfram shouted in promise.

"Nonsense. You'll be dead before you can even try." Belar replied.

Another arrow was fired. More blood splattered. Wolfram bit his bottom lip as he looked down at the arrow in his leg.

"Dammit." Wolfram hissed.

He had to save his energy, he needed to build it up and use it for one final fiery explosion, big enough and strong enough to defeat all of the archers so that they could escape.

Wolfram looked back at Yuri. He was worried since he couldn't tell if the double black was still breathing. He slowly dragged himself over to the body of his betrothed and kneeled down beside him. He didn't have much time to check, for he knew more arrows were sure to come. He placed two fingers on the side of his neck and checked his pulse. It was slow, but he was still alive, but Wolfram knew the poison would consume him soon.

"GAH!" Wolfram cried out as another arrow pierced his collarbone on his right side. He bit his lip once more, bowing his head as pain ran through him. He knew there was poison on these arrows as well, however, he focused most of his energy on extracting that poison, since he could not place his body in a comatose state because of their current situation.

"Yuri, hang on." Wolfram mumbled to himself as he did his best to stand, stumbling as he did. He turned back around to face his attackers once more. He placed his hands out in front of him. He's felt that his power has built up long enough. He knew he had to eliminate these guys before he was shot with anymore arrows. He began to concentrate, focusing all of his energy to the palms of his hands. He could feel the elements of flame in this human country just barely responding to him. He had almost forgotten that they were in human territory the last few times he used his magic. So, the fact that he was able to use his magic, as well as Yuri, he could only assume that they were in the demon kingdom, but within human territory which made it extremely difficult to use demon magic. "I'm getting us out of here."

"Can you guys feel that? This energy?" "Yeah, its so powerful. Where did he get all of this energy from?"

"All things that make up the element of fire, obey this proud mazoku." Wolfram shouted one last final time.

The element of fire shot out from his fingertips, a large wall made its way towards the archers, spiraling all around them. The archers saw that they were trapped. There was no where to run, no matter where they went: forward, backward, left, or even right, it was all useless as the fire began to incase itself around them, the powerful heat burning at the skin before it has even made any contact with them.

Wolfram fell to his feet after he released his flame, with little energy left in his entire body, he could barely keep himself up on his feet, not to mention with the poison still circulating in his body, he was beginning to go through paralyses. As of right now, he could barely feel his left arm. It was starting go numb.

Which means this was the work of the Wincott Poison.

Thanks to that knowledge alone, gave Wolfram a bit of comfort since he knew that the poison would not kill Yuri as he had first thought.

Wolfram mentally cursed his luck and looked around. The smell of burning flesh was absolutely revolting, however, he had other things to worry about such as the smoke and finding a way out for himself and for Yuri. Belar could be anywhere in here, and thanks to his flames burning away at everything, he doesn't have any time to look around for him. He had to hope and pray the evil bastard burned within these walls by the time he got out of the building himself.

Wolfram began to walk back towards Yuri. He held his arm as he did so, he had barely any feeling left in his left arm, this would make it more difficult to carry Yuri out of here with only one arm. He stopped beside Yuri's body and quickly took out the arrow in his leg and then crouched down beside the double black king. He began to examine Yuri's body because of his condition, not to mention the arrows in his body, it was going to be difficult to pick him up correctly without having the arrow that was lodged in his skull sinking in any deeper.

Wolfram was beginning to grow more and more fearful. His heart was hammering in his chest.

"What the hell do I do now?"

Wolfram could hear the sound of the ceiling beginning to collapse at the left side of the room. He placed his hand in Yuri's and gave it a squeeze.

"I'll get us out of here. I don't know how yet, but I will." Wolfram placed his head on Yuri's chest and gave his hand another squeeze. "I promise."

UGH SO SHORT *cries* Anyways, sorry that Conrart, Gunter and Berius were not in this chapter, nor Gwendal. I didn't really know what to do with them this chapter, but they'll be in the next chapter. Promise.

So, what will happen next chapter, STICK AROUND AND FIND OUT. Next chapter probably won't come out until June since its the final stretch of school and i still have a few more things to do. So this will be the least of my worries for the next few weeks. So enjoy it.