Chapter 22 Battle between the Darks
Merse sees the chaos unfold in front of her and now hears fighting behind her, inside the castle so she quickly withdraws into the castle. There she comes face to face with a Dark Guardian and this one is smiling at her while holding a purple flame mace.
"Hello there and who you might be?" Mary asks.
"Who are you?! How did you get in here!?" Merse fires a question back.
"I believe I asked you first but I'll go ahead and answer your question." Mary's smile gets bigger as she starts, "My name is Mary but most of my enemies call me Bloody Mary and for how I got here, well that's a secret. Now that I answered your questions, how about you answer mine."
Merse hesitated in answering the enemy in front of her but decided to be diplomatic, "My name is Merse….." She doesn't finish her sentence as she remembers that it was these people who took her husband away from her as well as killed her dear friends Susha and Amanomiya. Wilmarina is still recovering from her injuries after that tragic night. Anger and desire for revenge fill her mind as she tightens her grip around her halberd and her breathing deepens.
Mary notices the changes and smiles, asking, "Getting angry are we?"
Merse glares at Mary but Mary just relaxes until Merse leaps at her. Mary backs up and blocks a downward swing from Merse's halberd then angles the blade to the side and lets it slide off. Mary is about to kick at Merse's exposed side but her lower leg gets coiled by Merse's tail and flings her down the hall. Mary lands on her feet at the last second and sidesteps at the attempted stab from the tip of Merse's halberd. Mary swats the weapon away by the shaft of her weapon before lunging forward with a jumping double kick however Merse brings her entire lower half of her tail to absorb the kick. The kick now foiled, Merse propels Mary further down the hall but as before she lands on her feet.
Mary stands straight up and says, "You're pretty good Merse, using your tail both offensively and defensively, but how strong will it be when I start getting serious?"
Merse doesn't say anything except ready her stances, still glaring at Mary.
"Let's take this up a notch hmm." Mary readies her mace then a few seconds of them staring at each other until they both rushed towards each other. Merse swings her halberd from the right to which Mary does the same, both weapons collide and Merse shoots her tail forward but Mary kicks it away.
*FFFFFFFF*
"AH!" Merse flinches from the unexpected pain as she hastily withdraws her tail and sees a bit of smoke coming from the tip of her burnt tail. Merse looks at Mary's foot which causes the mysterious burn but sees nothing special on her boot.
"Curios on how I did that?" Mary asks with a smug look on her face but Merse responds with a quick horizontal swing. The fast attack gets blocked and Mary just stands there and continues talking, "You know if you surrender, you'll be treated fairly as a prisoner of war and you'll/SHUT UP!" Merse delivers a barrage of quick swings to which Mary blocks all of them and then says, "Force it is then."
Mary retaliates with a sudden dash at Merse and swings her mace in a downward arc which Merse blocks. Mary's forceful attack nearly breaks Merse's defense as she has to use her entire serpent tail to brace the aftershock. Mary quickly shifts her hands away from the bottom of the handle to the mid-part of the shaft then she quickly swings the bottom of the shaft that flings Merse's halberd into the air but not out of her hands. Mary does a full three-sixty turn and brings the full brute of the mace to Merse's crotch. The hit throws Merse down the hall and onto a wall, cracks form from the impact with Merse rendered motionless except for the painful moan that leaves her lips.
Mary casually walks up to Merse and asks, "Are you still alive Merse? (Knowing full well she is) Now are you willing to surrender or do I need to…" A figure suddenly appears running up the stairs and lunges at Mary and Mary brings her mace up to protect herself from this familiar foe.
"Found you bitch!" A snarl from the werewolf as she lunges again at Mary.
Mary drops and rolls underneath the attacker making her lunge to overshoot Mary. Merse slowly tries to get up but that hit left her somewhat stunned as her savior faces Mary.
Mary cheerfully says as if she is talking to a friend whom she hasn't seen in a long time, "Ahh, if it isn't my favorite herald! I'm very glad you chose to run away instead of fighting us at Highland City. It would have been a real shame if those girls had to grow up without any grownups."
Gin lashes out, "I'm going to rip out your heart you monster, you heartless fiend!"
"Ha, good luck getting my heart, I've lost it a looonnnggg time ago. Now as much I would love to chat with you and everything, I'm on important business with her and her boss." Mary points at Merse.
"You two know each other?" Merse says as she struggles to straighten up.
Gin speaks up first before Mary could say anything, "This bitch nearly killed my entire pack by herself leaving only me and three very young pups. She is a true monster who used to go by the name Carla Johnson."
Merse's eyes shot up as she heard rumors of a person by that name, the brutal acts committed against numerous mamono with a sadistic smile. "You're Carla Johnson!?"
Mary does a small bow, saying, "A fake name I made up while I was in my disguise but unnecessary now."
Merse regains feeling in her lower body as she slithers next to Gin as the two take a battle stance while Mary lazily brings her mace up, saying "Two verse one huh? That should make the odds a little fair hmm?"
Both parties charged meanwhile deeper inside the castle, the Commander, Choryrth, and several powerful Dark Guard members are fighting with Lady Druella, Primera, Tiffany, and other high-rank mamono as both sides have the power to easily bring down the castle by themselves. Commander is facing Lady Druella, Choryrth having a rematch with Tiffany, Michael crosses blades with Luciana Sausare, and Primera defending herself desperately from a very muscular man equipped with wrist-mounted mini-cannons with hinge adjustable single blades. Lizzy calmly approaches Queen Francisca while the Queen sends her tendrils at her but Lizzy easily blasts them into non-existence. Luciana crosses blades with Michael.
Lizzy speaks in a clear gentle tone, "I strongly advise you to cease your struggle and give up before you hurt yourself more. I can see that whenever one of these tendrils gets destroyed, you slightly hunch over in pain."
Francisca shoots a hateful glare and angrily says, "This pain is nothing compared to the many people I've lost from you and your people. You won't be taking anyone else from me! I'm not going back to be lonely ever again!" Francisca brings forth more tendrils all around Lizzy as she shakes her head in disapproval and the standoff continues.
Primera's fight goes poorly as she struggles to give herself some distance to use her bow and dodging the near-fatal swipes from her opponent. Her foe is dressed in a black sleeveless jacket where his arms are completely exposed except for his wrists and hands. Torn black jeans and metal-reinforced black boots. His hair color is matt black and messy with no hat, cap, or helmet on top. His skin color is between white and grey with the veins visible with purplish pink light. Primera thinks or rather screams to herself, 'AHH! This man is so frustrating! It's like I'm fighting a rabbited bear instead of a normal soldier.' Primera ducks underneath a swipe then nearly dodges a kick as she finds herself backed up into a wall.
Her foe speaks for the first time, "Surrender now or you'll be losing something!"
Primera growls, "Oh yeah (sidestep an attack) you're going to end up bruised, imprisoned and (ducks again) raped non-stop for days!" She goes on the offensive by grabbing an arrow in her quiver and tries to stab him but the arrowhead gets shot to bits by one of the mini-cannons. The man's aggressive fighting style just gives Primera no chance to counter, only retreat.
Choryrth and Tiffany chased each other in the air as they fought inside the throne, scarcely exchanging firebolts because of the possibility of literal friendly 'fire' their own comrades. They instead trade blows with their large scaley/metal claws.
Tiffany roars, "You'll pay dearly for all the death and destruction you've caused to this city and its people. Once I'm finished with you, I'll find your little pets and their bones will decorate this throne room."
Choryrth emotionless says as if stating facts, "You can't defeat me or my dragon creations due to that you are weak and simply minded. You're not a true dragon but rather a self-delusional wing lizard dreaming of grandeur. Pathic!"
Tiffany growls, wanting to rip that stupid mask off his face for the insult of calling her a lizard.
Michael and Luciana seem evenly matched as neither were gaining or losing ground. Luciana speaks in an angry tone, "I'll avenge Wilmarina and her friends along with the entire city, you heartless murders have brought."
Michael counters, "If you mamono stayed in your world instead of invading ours, you wouldn't be in this situation now would you?"
"We haven't harmed anyone! We only want eternal peace and love with everyone but your responses are bad as the Orders but once we defeat you then you'll see how wrong you were."
"Unlikely as we'll show you how wrong you truly are." They continue the stalemate.
"Stand down Druella, I've already beaten you once and I'll defeat you again in more severe ways." Commander launches a metal hand at her but she dodges and throws a magic spear in retaliation.
Druella speaks up, "You've made a grave mistake coming here, to my city, to my castle! Butchering my friends and followers! There will be no mercy for you or your friends when we fuck your brains out!" She flaps her wings, lifting herself into the air then dashes forward as she materializes two anarchic-looking swords. Commander brings one of the metal hands in front of himself to block Druella's incoming assault but flies around it. Commander anticipated this as he unleashes two pillars of absolute flames from the two metal hands forcing Druella to make a wide turn to avoid them. She sees an opening but the first metal hand she dodged makes a reverse swing at her, going through the nearby flaming pillar. She braces as the hand slams into her like a normal person swatting a fly. The force throws her down to the ground and hits it hard evident by the crater and bust swirling around the spot. All the other combatants stopped their fighting as they glance to the spot where Druella fell. The Commander walks over as all four hands are lit with purple flames, ready to spray at the first sign of movement.
"Mmmm….." Druella groans at both the impact and the fact she hasn't fully recovered from her first fight with the Commander. Her right arm is still sore and slightly slow.
"Now yield or I'll/LADY DRUELLA!" Commander gets cut off by a new voice along with a barrage of bullets and magic spells impacting the Commander's barrier
A few members of the Order of the Dark Ice Flower show up with Mimil in tow.
'Oh good, reinforcements.' Druella thinks to herself as she struggles to get up. Vermut Rosnair, Parshe Lufarshe, Eva Mystiv, and Paula Tronmail run down the stairs and scatter to support all the mamono forces in the throne room. Mimil flies towards Druella, Vermut runs to Luciana and readies her blade, Parshe appears next to Francisca, Eva runs behind the majority of her party and starts formulating a plan to win, finally, Paula walks in but is unsure where she needs to be.
Druella now standing straight up and addresses Commander, "Now then... (Flashes a smile)...I believe you are going to surrender to me now?"
"Not going to happen and your backup isn't going to change the outcome of this battle. This city will be ours even if we have to step over your corpse." Commander fires away and the battle in the throne room continues.
Back to Gin, Mary, and Merse, Mary has been enjoying her battle with the two mamono but for them, this battle has been exhausting and frustrating.
"HAHAHA! I thought at least one of you was an actual warrior, not a sparring partner. Looks like I overestimated, no matter." Mary launches forward at them, Gin charges at Mary while Merse waits to strike. Gin lunges but Mary not only jumps to the side but runs on the walls she jumped on thus she avoids Gin and strikes at Merse. Merse brings her halberd to blocks, the two weapons connect and Mary doing an acrobatic forward roll continues to move past Merse's defense. Before Mary lands, she delivers a backkick to the back of Merse's head. The force of the kick dazed her as she falls to the ground and before she could faceplant the floor, Gin grabs her at the last second.
"Hi! You alright?!" Gin shouts at her then shakes her when she doesn't answer.
"I-I…don't…what?" Merse has a pained confused expression as she gently rubs the wound from Mary's kick.
"Whoops, she might have a slight concussion from that kick. Looks like it's just you, my little herald." Mary's smug expression infuriates Gin even more as she steps away from Merse and gets down on all fours.
"Gin, where are you!?" A small voice yells out followed by the sounds of a crying baby. Three seconds later, a trio of children comes into everyone's view as they aimlessly run through the room.
"Peach! What are you and your sisters doing here? Why aren't you hiding in your room!?" Gin angrily asks.
"W-we were hearing a lot of screaming and explosions so we"…Mary takes this opportunity of Gin being distracted as she subtly summons a small bomb underneath her. Gin hears a faint whirring sound, she looks down and her eyes open to the fullest then BOOM!
The small donates and Gin is sent into the air, her body lobs over the rails and towards the children. She lands like a sack of potatoes in front of the children as they run to her.
"GIN, GIN YOU OK?!" Peach screams as the other two start crying louder. Merse slowly gains focus thanks to the children's crying and she tries to see what just happened. Gin lying on the ground in extreme pain, her limbs, her body, everything about her hurts, and yet remains conscious though dizzy and ringing in her ears.
"So, you're still moving after taking a full hit of an air force bomb, impressive. But I see you're pretty much crippled and can no longer able to continue to fight me." Mary looks at Peach and the other two and says, "Hello there little ones, how are you three doing?"
They didn't say anything as they huddle around Gin as she struggles to speak, "L-leave them…alone."
"Oh, don't worry, I won't harm a single hair on their little heads considering I've not only spared them and protected them not once but twice. Once back at the cave and the other time when they were inside one of the huts that weren't being targeted by our ship." Mary's claim of actively protecting Gin's baby sisters makes Gin think the ringing in her ears is distorting the words she is hearing.
"W-why?" Gin asks but Mary doesn't quite as she says, "What was that you said?"
Gin takes a deep and slightly painful breath and shouts, "Why!? Why are you so concerned about the safety of my little sisters but no hesitation in mercilessly killing almost my entire pack?"
"Simple, I've found your little sisters cute and I couldn't bring myself to harm them but the rest of your pack well….they've chosen to be a threat that the people couldn't ignore anymore. My hope is your little sister won't follow your pack's footsteps because if they do..." (Mary brings her finger across her neck and moves it to the side while making a creaking sound.) At this point Mary sees Merse regaining her strength also she has other places she needs to be, "So I'll show you and your sisters another act of mercy from me and hopefully this will be the last time we'll ever see each other again. Bye-bye."
Mary's eyes light up then snaps her fingers and in a flash, they disappear. Mary looks at Merse and says, "Now it's your turn, my dear, surrender now or I'll hurt you some more until you're dead or unconscious. Either way works for me."
"I'll never surrender to the likes of you or your murderous fiends! Huh, not while I still draw breath." Merse gets into her defensive pose but her battered form makes it look sloppy.
"I guess I'll have to take her breath away then. HAA!" Mary makes a mad dash towards Merse which surprises her at how close Mary is already at. Mary swings her mace in an upward motion, Merse places her halberd between her head and the mace. Mary smiles as she wasn't aiming for her head but a different target which was the Halberd that Merse basically offered on a silver platter. The two weapons connect and the result is both weapons flying into the air as Merse loses her grip and Mary purposely lets hers' go for what she is going to do next.
Mary stretches out her right hand and grabs Merse's neck and the other hand intercepts her tail that tries to stop the right hand. Merse uses her free hands to pry Mary off her neck but then ZAP. A large amount of electricity enters Merse's body, completely stunning her for several seconds then Mary stops. Merse's entire body slumps as she has trouble breathing while Mary lets go of the tail.
"Told you I'll take your breath away." Mary examines Merse to which she notices a slight bump in her gut, which makes Mary curious. She places her free hand on the bump and when she makes contact Merse shudders then Mary's curious expression quickly changes to concern.
"You're pregnant?" Mary slowly asks but Merse doesn't reply as she looks away in defeat. Mary quickly telepathically contacts Dexter, "Dexter, I got a patient here who I've been battling and it turns out she is pregnant. The child may be in danger after I've dealt a large amount of electricity into the mother's body. Transporting her to you now!"
"Acknowledged!"
"What are you doing?" As soon as Merse finished asking her question she is enveloped in a black flash and was gone. Mary walks over to her weapon and Merse's that were lying next to each other and she bends down to grab her weapon then glances at Merse's.
'I wonder how much of a reaction I'll get if I take what was her name again? Merse was it, her weapon, and presented it before her friends?' Mary thinks to herself as she grabs the halberd and examines it, 'Nice looking, and properly sharpened with the right amount of weight in it. Hmm…let's find out." Mary stands up and walks to the throne room as she cooks up an idea to enrage all of her opponents.
Back inside the throne room, the fighting has gotten more intense due to the mamono backup joining in but not enough to break the stalemate. Commander engages Mimil from a distance and Druella up close as she takes swipes at him. Half the metal hands firing at Mimil and the other half either trying to grab Druella or punch her into a wall.
"You sure are damn stubborn," Druella says aloud knowing full well that the Commander heard that.
"If anyone here who is stubborn, it's you." Commander snaps back.
"Well, I've got several reasons to punish you thoroughly and it'll be"/BOOM! A small section of wall over at the side of the throne room on an elevated hall explodes causing everyone in the room to stop fighting as they all quickly focus on the sudden disturbance.
They all see a figure emerge from the dust and for the Dark Guard they recognize that it's Mary and she walking quite smugly. Mary stops behind the rails as she looks at all the people in the room then she extends her left hand that's holding Merse's weapon. Mimil, Primera, and Druella instantly knew whose weapon it belongs to, and the others needed a moment to come to the same conclusion.
'Showtime.' Mary drops the halberd and all the occupants watch it fall to the ground, bouncing one then two, and a final third time. What came next made all the mamono in the room have a distinct expression because Mary leaps over the railing and lands directly on the halberd. She lands on the connection between the head and the staff effectively decapitating it.
Mary straightens herself up and examines the reactions, Mimil looks like she is about to start crying, Primera snarling, Druella and Luciana showing hints of anger, Francisca showing mixed emotions of sadness and rage, and the rest showing various amounts of shock. Mary walks closer to the center of the room and asks loudly for all to hear, "SO WHO'S NEXT!?"
Mimil speaks first as she flies towards Mary with fireballs in each hand, "I'm going to KILL YOU!"
"MIMIL STOP!" Druella yells in vain as she watches Mimil blindly zoom in on Mary, unaware of the dangers she is exposing herself.
Mimil flies over Michael and Luciana getting a clearer chance of attacking Mary without anyone in her way. She reels back her right arm preparing to throw her fireball but a painful force hits her in the back. Her vision becomes blurry and she is now falling to the ground as the other mamono sees a purple beam stroking Mimil and they turn to the owner of that action.
It was Lizzy or rather one of her orbs that shot down Mimil. Mary walks up to Mimil and leans in to grab her by the neck with her left hand harshly.
"Gawh!" Mimil struggles to breathe as she is being lifted high into the air while Mary adjusts her grip where she is holding her mace as if it were a small hammer.
"You're Mimil Miltie, right? Friend of Merse? I thoughted you were supposed to be very powerful and whatnot. I-" Mimil suddenly springs into action as she unleashes a torrent of flames from her hands into Mary's face at point-blank range. The stream of flames continues for several seconds but Mary's grip doesn't loosen a bit instead her hand starts glowing in a faint white arura then ZAP.
Mimil's body flinches uncontrollably and her screams are silent as she suffers a wave of electric pain and once it is over, her body goes numb. The flames stop and reveal a form of purple barrier shielding Mary's amused face.
"For a moment there, I thought I felt something. How are you holding up?" Mimil didn't reply as she was fading in and out of consciousness after her shock therapy. Mary brings her hand that was holding the mace and reels it back as she gets ready to make Mimil go to sleep.
"This will only hurt for a second but when you wake up, you'll see your friends again, or at least the ones that are still alive." Druella not wanting to lose anyone else, prepares a ball of lighting but the Commander launches one of his giant metal hands forcing Druella to evade and divert her attention back to him. The other mamono also tried to stop Mary but they too were stopped by the ones they were fighting against.
With no one able to interject, Mimil simply dangles in place as Mary now ready to put Mimil out of this fight. Mary thrusts her mace toward Mimil's head and *cling* a loud metallic sound echoes as Mary looks to the side and asks, "Hello there! Who might you be now?"
"My name is Wilmarina Noscrim and I'm here to see that no one else is taken from me by you murderers!" Wilmarina draws back her sword that stopped Mary's mace from knocking Mimil out as she swings aggressively at Mary forcing her back.
Mary in response throws Mimil at a nearby wall, Mimil still dazed hits the wall hard and one of the tips of her horns breaks off. Mimil groans in pain before passing out.
"My beloved husband, Sasha, Amanomiya gone, and now Merse. I'll avenge them by vanishing you all!" Wilmarina pressed her attack causing Mary to back up even more.
"Boo hoo, cry me a river. Do you honestly believe that you and your lot haven't caused suffering for others or are you that brainwashed that you wholeheartedly believe in your actions despite the consequence?" Mary harshly says before she starts countering Wilmarina then says, "I understand that you were a very popular and highly admired hero when you were still human. One of the best if not THE best but now you're just another monster driving humanity to extinction until now."
"NO! I was a monster when I was with the Order, killing innocent mamono and their loving husbands because they told me that they were evil and we were the salvation for all people but it was a lie! All of it was a lie! They used me as nothing more than a weapon even my own father treated me the same way." Tears start running down Wilmarina's face as she remembers all the horrible things she did to the mamono, all the blood she spilled, and the continuous pleas of mercy or begging for their lives. She resumes talking, "The only people I've formed a bond of any kind are the ones I was told to kill but Lady Druella showed me the truth. Thanks to her I've/BORING!" Mary dashes forward with her mace swung downward forcing Wilmarina to stop telling her story and block the attack.
"You bitch!" Wilmarina glares but Mary just rolls her eyes as she continues to swing her mace.
Druella having trouble evading the Commander near hits and glancing shots as she flies around the room, not wanting to engage at close range due to last time. She thinks to herself as the annoyance gets to her, 'This is ridiculous, even with the help, this entire battle is a stalemate. I need more people!'
As if someone heard her wish, five more mamono came running into the room from the opposed elevated hallway and observe the scene before them.
Druella smiles as she sees them then turns to the Commander and says aloud, "You're starting to be outnumbered two to one now. How about you and your people surrender since more of my reinforcements are here?"
The Commander glances at the new group and sees a Demon (Alameria Crescentria), a Curse Sword (Kirsch), two Dullahans knights, and…a Lizardman with a silvery band.
He looks back at Druella and says, "So has mine. WIDOW NOW!"
Druella confused by his statement and him calling out for a Window but she suddenly hears, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" She looks over to the new group and is shaken to see the Lizardman has just stabbed the two Dullahans in the back as both her blades pierced their hearts and exited out of their chests, effectively killing them. Both Alameria and Kirsch quickly attack the traitorous mamono, Druella hovering in place stunned, seeing a mamono killing one of her own kind but also in league with these dark people.
Commander seeing Druella distracted uses this opportunity to quickly defeat her as he fires a beam from his right normal hand however Druella quickly shifts her body back to the Commander and the beam hits her right wing.
"AAAAHH!" Druella screams out in pain as she falls to the ground since she can no longer feel her wing even though it's still attached and appears undamaged. She lands on her feet and quickly jumps to the side, dodging a metal claw trying to grab her. She looks at the Commander and sees two more claws rocketing toward her. She leaps away from one but the other one she couldn't avoid but a fireball strikes the side of the claw, altering its path and allowing Druella room to dodge again.
Both the Commander and Druella quickly glance at the one who interfered and see it was Eva. Eva nods to Druella then returns to helping Francisca and Parshe against Lizzy whom they are struggling to break her defenses. Druella goes back to focusing on the Commander and summons her two swords before charging at him.
Outside of the city, a large portal appears and the first thing that exits out of it is Lilith the Demon Lord herself and she is shocked to see the city besieged by the mysterious and highly dangerous people her daughter told her about. Following behind her is a large army of militarized mamono marching out of the portal and their reaction is the same.
"No! They are already attacking so soon!?" Lilith speaks out unconsciously and then orders, "To the city, repel the invaders by any means! CHARGE!"
The whole army snaps out of their stunned state and obeys the Demon Lord's order.
Directly above the city, the ship that brought both the Order and the Dark Guard, commanded temporarily by Caesar is quickly informed by one of the crew, "Sir, we've detected a portal outside the city by a quarter of a mile and an army of mamono have come through led by an extremely powerful magic user. They'll reach the city soon."
Caesar quickly orders, "Bring the ship to the parameter of the city and prepare for our broadside cannons. I'll inform the Commander myself."
"Yes sir." The crewman walks away.
Caesar connects with the Commander telepathically, "Commander, Druella's relief force has arrived led by possibly her mother. I've ordered the ship to engage them to give you guys more time to secure the city."
"I see." Commander acknowledges the report while deflecting Druella's swipes.
Druella notices the Commander's eyes shining and that his movements seem to be getting slower because of it, she ponders to herself, 'What is he doing?'
Commander connects to Lizzy, "Lizzy, I need you to stun Druella for me so this battle can end now. The Demon Lord is here along with her army"
"Understood, have her back turn to me and I'll take care of her." Lizzy calmly replies as she simply stands there intercepting attacks from Eva, Francisca, and Parshe or having her barrier taking the hits.
With the connection done, the Commander's eyes return to normal and move to a different spot in hopes of baiting Druella to where Lizzy can get her.
'His eyes have died down? What did he do?' Druella was confused by the sight of his eyes lighting up and then down and now has altered his fighting stance.
General Felix and a couple of his men have finished securing the western entrance to the city and are about to move to the next area until one of his men shouts, "General! That floating ship, fortress, thing is heading our way.
The General looks up and does see the Dark Guard ship coming towards them, 'Why are they coming over here for?' He and his men stand there watching the ship get closer then start turning port side and all the starboard weapons lighting up.
'Hmm, strange, we've already taken care of the monsters here so why are they bringing their cannon to bear on us unless…' He quickly runs up the stairs leaving his men behind in confusion.
"S-sir what's wrong?! Where are you going?" One of the soldiers yells out before rushing to follow him to atop the walls.
As Felix runs to the top, repeating mumbling to himself, "No, no, she can't be here. Not now." When he reaches the top, his fears are confirmed, the Demon Lord and her army are here and running towards the city.
His men soon join him, "Sir what is it? Whaaa…oh gods no. Sir, what are we going to do? What are we-*BOOM BOOM*" Everyone on the wall nearly shits themselves as they quickly turn around and look up to see the ship firing away at the approaching army. Every shot sounds like a distant cannon firing even though the ship is basically right above the group, it doesn't hurt their hearing and rattle their armor. They look back at the monster army but have trouble seeing them due to the amount of dust, dirt, and debris flying into the air.
'Is this what happened at Highland City? One ship nearly annihilated a whole army by itself?' Felix and the rest of his men watch the scene in disbelief and a small tint of fear creeps into their minds not daring to think if the Dark Guard should ever turn on them and unleash this power.
Lilith for the first time since taking the throne and proclaiming herself as the new Demon Lord, feels fear as she braces against the barrage of large mysterious energy bolts with a barrier she erected at the last second. Her army however didn't have that protection as they were either vaporized upon impact or shredded to pieces by the aftershock by being too close to the spot the bolts exploded. Everywhere around her, her ears are assaulted by the screams of terror and the sounds of explosions, blind by the dust enveloping her but she has to keep going. Her daughter is in grave peril along with anyone still in the city fighting or hiding for their lives, waiting to be rescued. She presses on, nothing is going to stop her.
Druella's fight against the Commander has taken an interesting turn in which his fighting style is leaving some opening she can take advantage which makes her think to herself, 'He fighting desperately that must mean my mother is here.' This was her chance to make amends to her mother for the huge disaster she nearly brought to her mother's dream and to bring justice for all those who died at these people's hands. 'I just need him to make a mistake and I can finally pay him back for all the death and destruction.'
She runs behind a nearby pillar breaking the line of sight with the Commander. The Commander sends forth all four metal claws around the pillar with one half going left and the other half going right to catch her in the middle. The claws grasp each other behind the pillar but Druella is not caught instead a victorious war cry is heard in the air. 'Got you now my stubborn killer!' she thinks to herself.
Commander looks up and sees Druella flying towards him with a smile on her face, 'Checkmate.'
Lizzy watching the match between the Commander and the Succubus waiting for the moment to catch Druella unprepared and the moment came. She sees the Succubus run behind a pillar and then quickly scales it to the near top before the Commander's metal claws can capture her. Druella swings around the pillar and launches herself towards the Commander with her back completely exposed. One of the charged orbs aims at Druella and fires.
The beam hits Druella squarely on the back to which Druella loses the feelings throughout her body and falls helplessly to the ground. Her weapons slip out of her hands becoming little airborne hazards as they barely miss the Commander's head. Druella sees the ground coming closer but she still can't do anything besides closing her eyes shut and braces for no doubt a painful landing. Before she hits the ground, a portal opens below her then a metal claw shoots up and catches her. She opens her eyes to the strange metal feeling around her body and sees the claw holding her in place.
She looks at the Commander and sees his eyes light up again then she hears a buzzing sound below her and it is growing louder. She looks down and her eyes widen as she sees purple energy rapidly climbing up the chain connected to the claw that holds her firmly. Before she can inhale, "AAAHHHHH!" she screams out in pure agony causing all of her friends and allies to look at her with concern and terror.
Unfortunately for them, their opponents weren't going to wait for them to get over their shock as they continued the battle. Commander turns to Widow and sees her holding the two mamono off pretty well but it needs to end now so once the big claws return to his side. All four charge up and he sends a telepathic message to Widow, 'Widow eliminate the Alp strategist while I suppress your targets in three…two….one.'
Commander fires away with large bolts of explosive energy at Alameria and Kirsch while Widow leaps over the rail and descends to Eva. The bolts explode, propelling Alameria and Kirsch down the hall as Eva turns around and looks up but just as she does, Widow's blade imbed itself into Eva's skull and Eva falls onto her back with Widow landing next to her. Parshe and Francisca suddenly become aware they just got caught in a pincer maneuver.
Francisca says to Parshe, "I'll hold off the blind-looking one, you deal with the traitor."
"Oh, I was already going to get her to avenge Eva." Parshe turns to Widow who is still in her mamono disguise, "Prepare to die traitor! You face a member of the Knights of the Dark Ice Flower!"
"You and your friends have no idea how outmatched you truly are but it'll all be over for everyone. My question for you is; Will you be there to witness it or will you be among the casualties?" Widow recovers her bloody blade and readies herself as she sees Parshe summon six balls of fire, spinning around her body. "Let us find out."
The two clash while Lizzy and Francisca have a standoff as neither of them has made a move except for Lizzy saying, "This is the last chance I'm offering for you to surrender peacefully or I'll be forced to use unpleasant methods of restraint upon you. Please, I didn't wish to harm you."
"Haha, y-you didn't wish to harm me? Me? Do you not realize how much you and your party have already hurt me? The love of my life is gone, my friends are gone, my subjects are gone, and everyone I've cared about is either gone or missing because of you. And you wish to not hurt me? You're too late as it is for you, now DIE!" Francisca directs the last of her tendrils at Lizzy that have surrounded her as they erupt from the floor.
Lizzy shakes her head in disapproval as she mutters to herself, "Poor soul, guided by grief and rage. I'll free you from your suffering." All of Lizzy's orbs focus on Francisca and fire in unison, the beams pierce through all of Francisca's tendrils that were in the way. Francisca's eyes widen as she sees those beams reaching her and soon feels every hit. She falls to her knees, the pain is crippling, and the wounds are all superficial but her vision is fuzzy.
Lizzy starts walking towards Francisca but after taking one step, she hears cracking below her then the floor gives away and Lizzy falls through. Lizzy lands on her knees, after a few seconds to recover she surveys her surroundings with the use of the orbs and sees she is in the middle of a corridor.
"A-are you alright?" a voice from behind asks prompting all the orbs to quickly direct their lens to the source, all charged up and ready to fire.
"Wait! Wait! We're allies!" Lizzy quickly realizes it's the Prince accompanied by a few other heroes and Jessica. Given the slightly frightened expressions on their faces, Lizzy has her orbs go back to surveying.
"My apologies, I didn't mean to scare you all like that. You've spooked me a little." Lizzy does a slight bow and then asks, "How are things going on outside of the castle?"
"Most of the slums and inner parts of the city are under our control and most of us are starting to capture areas around the castle. Most of the heroes, mages, and anyone who is highly resistant to Demonic corruption have already started storming the castle. We were heading towards one of the towers but heard a loud crashing sound so we came to investigate which led us to finding you." Prince Nicholas reported then asks once he started hearing a fight above him, "Uh, how is the battle going up there?"
Lizzy dusts off the specks of rubble on her dress and replies, "The confrontation in the Throne room is coming to an end. Commander has captured Druella (Everyone's eyes nearly bulged out of their skulls) and a few of the high-ranked monsters are either dead or incapacitated. The remaining force is losing the fight and will be forced to flee or enact a last-stand scenario."
"I see. What do you want us to do Mrs. uh…" Nicholas realizing he doesn't know her name.
"My name is Lizzy and please, you don't have to be formal around me. I'm not royalty, not anymore."
"What do you" Nicholas doesn't get to finish his question as Lizzy quickly interrupts him, "Prince Nicholas, please have you and your party resume your task of securing this castle while we finish the fight in the Throne room. Good Luck." With that, Lizzy vanishes in a black flash leaving the group by themselves.
"Not anymore." What does she mean by that?" Nicholas says under his breath before Jessica makes a grunting sound, snapping Nicholas back into focus. "Right, follow me, everyone! This siege is almost over so let's finish this!" They all charge off to the Throne room.
Lizzy teleports back to the Throne room and sees Choryrth has pinned the Dragon Knight on the floor, Widow standing over Francisca but doesn't know if she is dead or not. Mary is still dueling with Wilmarina while the Commander is fending himself from Parshe. The one that looks like a mix between a werewolf and an elf is currently avoiding Kaylor's blades. She decides to help Kaylor but spots the two mamono Widow was fighting earlier until Commander blasted them away, now they're back and zoning in on Widow. She fires at both of them, slowing the one with the large organic sword that seems attached to her arm while the other one manages to leap over the rail and strikes at Widow.
'Commander, the Demon Lord, and her army are making progress towards the city despite our persistent barrage against them. Another thing is the city is nearly under our control and the last pocket of conflict is your area. What are your orders?' A message comes in from Caesar making the Commander concerned as he and his force don't have a way to deal with her.
"Agh." A pained moan escapes Druella's lips making the Commander glance at her then an idea comes to his mind, 'Caesar, I have an idea but give me ten seconds then cease your attacks on the Demon Lord after that I'll contact you again to resume your barrage.'
'Understood, we'll stop and be on standby.'
Commander creates a dome over him and Druella shielding them from Parshe's magical attacks. He brings one of his claws above Druella's head and dark purple mist-like objects speedily climbs the chain to the palm of the claw. The mist falls onto Druella and then seems absorbed by her body and seconds later she starts violently convulsion. Druella wakes up by the excruciating pain unable to scream as she starts foaming at the mouth. Commander opens up a portal big enough for a person to walk through but what the Commander does is that he throws Druella into. He turns his attention back to Parshe as she stops throwing magic spells at him since she is staring wide-eyed at Commander's throwing Druella to the unknown.
The Demon Lord sees she is halfway to the city but stops as she sees the incoming barrage has stopped and is about to take off until some sort of portal opens up in front of her. Apprehensive, she readies herself but then Druella flies out of the portal and into Lilith's arms as she swiftly catches Druella.
"Daughter!" Lilith is shocked and very concerned as she examines Druella's condition but doesn't look for long as the ship starts firing again. Lilith now facing a decision; does she continue her advance to the city and leave her daughter in a state that seems to be deteriorating rapidly or abandon the city to this new threat and save her daughter? No, she shakes her head in disgust for thinking about sacrificing her daughter to save a city. She and the remaining mamono reinforcements rush back to the portal they've exited from.
'Commander, the Demon Lord and her forces have retreated. Detecting no other enemy reinforcements in the area. Do you need additional aid, sir?'
'No need Caesar, the fight here is coming to an end.' Commander responds as he holds Parshe's head in one of his claws and watches Michael and Mary fight a two sword wielding mamono. Lizzy and Widow force the other three mamono out of the Throne room and into the halls. Choryrth finally subdues the Dragon mamono after giving her a long and intense shock and transported her to the ship unconscious. The werewolf-elf hybrid left the Throne room with Kaylor chasing after her.
Prince Nicholas and his party ascended the last set of stairs that led them to the Throne room and they hear the fighting getting louder and louder.
"Alright everyone get ready, this is the last group of monsters to slay!" Prince says and the whole party goes around the corner and sees the three mamono being pushed back by two Dark Guard members.
"ATTACK!" Nicholas yells causing the three mamono to quickly look behind them and adding to their increasing fear.
"Damn it! We got to get out here!" Paula Says as she starts firing away at the Order reinforcements.
Olivie asks, "What about Wilmarina and Luciana? They're still in there!"
"I'll let them know and help them get out of the castle then the city." Kirsch hunches down and says one more thing, "Didn't die and I'll see you all soon." Before anyone can say anything back she runs past Widow who is dueling Olivie and into Lizzy's barrage of beams. She dodges and weaves through them but due to the number of beams aiming at her a few grazed her all over her body. Kirsch gives a wide berth around Lizzy as she continues trying to stop her, earning a few more graze hits. Kirsch goes past Francisca and to her surprise, sees her still breathing but unconscious.
"Wilmarina, Luciana! We need to get out of here! The Order has started storming the castle and a group of Heroes and a Valkyrie are about to come in here! We need to…" Kirsch's eyes widen as a metal claw pops out of a portal near her and reaches out toward her. Kirsch instinctively brings her sword arm to block the incoming swipe however the closing claw instead grabs the sword and lifts her into the air. Fear grips her as she then understands the mistake she has made for the claw proceeds to slam her into the ground. Over and over the claw lifts her just to smash down again or into a wall. Even though a Mamono's body is tougher than humans, Kirsch's body was already feeling effects, bones fracturing, flash being tenderized, and nerves everywhere flaring up from all the hits. The worst part was she couldn't do a thing to stop the situation she was in, only to endure the punishment. The last thing she felt before losing consciousness was an overwhelming surge of shocking energy making contact with her body by the claw still holding her securely.
Commander seeing his captured foe knocked out teleports her to the ship as a P-O-W and looks at the remaining two mamono who are slowly being whither down.
"No, no, NO!" Wilmarina screams in frustration as she takes a glance at Kirsch being thrown around like a ragdoll and she witnesses her friend being brutalized by the metal claw then suddenly vanishing in black mist. This is déjà vu in her mind back to when she was human and the day Lady Druella came in to liberate the city from the uncaring and murderous royal families and vile tyrants of the clergy. Though Wilmarina was pitifully defeated by Lady Druella, it turn out to be a blessing in disguise when Druella transforms her into a Succubus thus freeing her from human morals and foolish ideals. Total freedom to do as she pleases but today it's all falling apart around her as the city she loves is being stolen away from her. And what's worse is these people have killed her true love, her husband Elt and now they've either killed or supposedly captured her friends. She knows about the Demon Lord's rule of not actively killing humans unless in self-defense of themselves or their loved ones but right now her rage and urge to lash out make her want to disregard it completely.
"Wilmarina!" Luciana shouts as she places her left hand on Wilmarina's shoulder, snapping Wilmarina out of her self-induced raging trance, and looks over to her fellow Dark Knight. "Wilmarina, get out of here. I'll hold them off long enough for you."
"No, we will both leave together Luciana. I'm not going to lose anyone else." Wilmarina rejects Luciana's plan.
"Ah, how cute you think you can withstand against the two of us little flies but your friend here isn't going anywhere except maybe joining her friends either in a holding cell or whatever afterlife you have," Mary interjects.
"Damn you, you soulless fiend!" Wilmarina spits insults and is about to dash in but Luciana does something that Wilmarina never thought she'll do. Luciana jumps to Wilmarina's side and forcefully takes Wilmarina's sword then sidekicks her to the side door.
"Luciana, what in the Fallen Goddess's name are you thinking!?" Wilmarina's voice expresses her feelings of surprise and anger.
"I told you, you need to leave this city so you can lead our forces against these aggressors. Now go, leave and avenge us all!" Luciana runs and engages both Mary and Michael while Wilmarina just stands there like a statue. "Please Wilmarina, go! Live to fight another day!"
Wilmarina stands up, tears falling down her face and before she turns around, she says in a tone sounding like a whisper, "Farewell my dearest friend." Wilmarina runs out of the Throne room and heads to a nearby wall that has a large hole in it. She jumps into the air and using the magic of wind, she flies away, heading towards the forest for safety.
After flying a few yards away, an explosion catches her attention so she quickly turns around and sees a body falling from a new hole that's on the same floor as the hole she leaped from. She sees it's Luciana who is falling, "No." Wilmarina's voice starts to break then a bolt flies by next to her head. She looks at the new head and sees the two people Luciana was stalling as the one known as Mary currently standing on the edge with a smile on her face. Wilmarina wanting to go back and smash her face against every brick in the entire city but deep down she knew she couldn't and it would make Luciana's sacrifice be in vain. She quickly goes back to flying to the forest with a bigger broken heart and soon starts weeping amongst the trees
Mary and Michael head back to the Throne room at the same time Prince Nicholas and half his party enter too. Commander picks up the now dethroned sleeping beauty with one of his claws and then transports her to the ship.
Mary is the first to speak in a joyful manner, "Welp that one got away but I think we can this operation a success. The city is ours and all other threats are dead, imprisoned, or managed to flee with their lives."
"Yes, the recapture of this most important Order city will no doubt send waves of renewed hope to our people and fear to our enemies throughout the land," Nicholas says with pride and relief.
"Hey Prince, what happened to the two monsters you were fighting in the hallway?" Mary asks.
The prince's face twists into disgust as he explains, "The one holding the firearms blasted a hole in the floor then both of them jumped into it. I've sent half of my party with Jessica leading them to chase down the fleeing abominations and put an end to them."
"Commander, Prince, everyone." Lizzy greets everyone with Widow in tow.
"Behind you!" One of the people in Nicholas's party shouts out causing the rest of them to bring out their weapons, aiming at Widow.
"Everyone please, she is with us." Lizzy spread her left arm out, putting it between Widow and the battle-ready party.
"But she's a monster! Why would she be on our side!?" Another person asks who is a female archer.
"Simple, watch." Lizzy moves to the side so all can see as Widow drops her disguise. The Lizardman form slowly dissipates as if it is melting then evaporates leaving a female Dark Guard. She is clothed in a long-sleeved shirt, pocketless jeans, a belt that holds her two very short swords, heavy boots, and a handkerchief covering her entire mouth. Her black hairstyle is Centre-Parted Bob with no hats or anything.
Widow does a slight bow and Lizzy goes back to her and explains, "For you who didn't know her, this is Widow, our infiltrator specialist. She is the one who gave us intelligence about the city's defenses and plans as well as creating the wildfires the monsters were dealing with when we started our attack."
The ones who didn't know about Widow beforehand, put away their weapons and quickly apologized.
Another figure enters the room and it is Kaylor.
"So, did you get the weird one?" Mary asks.
"No, she got away before I could eliminate her." He grumbles then asks, "You?"
Mary puffs out her chest and proudly says, "Which one? I've beaten quite a few monsters while you were still dealing with the freak."
Kaylor replies with a low growl, visibly annoyed by her statement but doesn't say anything else.
Somewhere in the middle of the woods, Gin passed out on the ground with her three siblings trying to wake her up. No matter how hard they tried, Gin wouldn't wake up then snapping off twigs got their attention. All the commotion they were making caught someone's attention but whether it be a friend or foe, they didn't know. A figure appears over the bushes and they have never seen an individual like this before but she doesn't seem dangerous.
"Oh my, are you all ok?"
Here is the battle I've been hinting towards for the past several chapters so I hope it was worth the hype. For now, I'll be working on a chapter for a different story but I'll go back to this after it is done.
P.S Does anyone know what happened to a fellow MGE Author by the name (Hopefully I remembered right) Lobsteronland, he did a three series of Diaries of three different people on modern Earth being invaded by the Mamono? I've enjoyed his stories but now can't find him.