Dozens and dozens of damonens stood and crowded the grasses near the riverbank. They all waited in their spots with slackened shoulders, hanging arms and protruding heads. In their front, near the river, unconscious bodies of children and young adults were lined up, all gagged with a cloth and bound by their wrists and ankles.
“We have to save them now,” whispered William behind bushes on the far side of the sacrificial scene.
“How do you plan on doing that?” asked Isabelle as she stood behind a tree near William.
“Play your tambourine and then I’ll free them and guide them out,” he answered promptly.
She snickered. “That would work if the barrier didn’t exist and if I had a lot of energy to spare. But I’ve been inside this town for two days and I’m not sure I can do that dance again. And even if I managed to lull them all, the barrier would still be up and we’d still be trapped in here, waiting for more to come.”
William bit the inside of his lip. “How can we break the barrier?” he asked.
Isabelle squinted, focusing her sights around the damonen who stood apart from the crowd. It was hovering over the hostages. “Usually a damonen ritual uses an object. A power source for the ritual. Once it is destroyed, the barrier breaks and the ritual stops.” Her sight landed on the knives, pottery, crates and other objects lit by torches.
“What kind of object?”
“It can be anything,” she answered. “A candle, a torch, a knife—they will go to great lengths just to hide it.”
William made a once over on the row of materials then squinted. A familiar boy of his age with curly black short hair and dark skin was lying down next to the others. “How about that?” he asked
“Which one?”
“That one.” He pointed over a gold necklace decorated with diamonds around Luc, the Amerie’s missing son.
“Are you sure?” she inquired.
“I know Luc. He’s a servant at my friend Garret’s house. He can’t afford that gold,” he contested. “Even if he did, he won’t buy a necklace. He’d buy new clothes. Or food.”
“It does seem odd he’d be wearing one,” Isabelle thought out loud.
The damonen standing apart from the others moved to the nearest child in its reach and carried it from the others. Near the waters, it put the child down; his feet were immersed to the water. As the damonen raised the child’s head and opened its mouth, a fire arrow shot from the back and stuck to a tree, and the fire quickly spread down. The damonen dropped the child’s head and focused on the source of the fire, but another one shot from a different direction and planted itself on the ground, spreading flames on the grass. The damonens flustered and fidgeted at the fire that kept growing as a barrel rolled from the bushes. It collided against a boulder as a hole cracked open and oil poured out. Once the fire licked the tip of the oil leak, it lit up and snaked back to the barrel and exploded. Flaming bits of wood rained down the forest and set the greens ablaze.
“What’s happening? Who’s doing this?” asked William.
“It doesn’t matter. Now’s our chance.” Isabelle fled from the tree and rushed head on towards the panicking damonens. She drew her rapier and started slashing demons, creating a path to the center where the victims were.
A foot away, William followed behind closely, fending and giving the finishing stabs to damonens that had not disintegrated. When a damonen lunged at him from the side, he blocked with his arm reflexively, causing a shallow cut on his arm. Just as the pain stung, his other hand stabbed the demon by the chest instinctively.
Isabelle reached the last line of damonens, grabbed one by the face and beheaded it. When she stepped off, another snatched her long curly black hair and yanked it back, causing her to let out a yelp. Before she could turn and strike her opponent, another damonen appeared on her left and pulled her arm and dug its claws down her skin. At her right, another one appeared and swung its blade down on her which she blocked with her rapier. As she pulled the rapier back and blocked another attack, she yelled from the claws on her arm and the damonen pulling her roots hard.
William tripped and clumsily stabbed the chest of a damonen, killing it. As he struggled to stand, his attention diverted to Isabelle crying for help. He quickly moved to where she was, tossed his dagger to his bleeding hand and stabbed the demon pulling her hair at its lower back. Just as the damonen aimed its head to face William completely, he swore inwardly, thinking he should have targeted where its chest was.
The damonen let one hand off Isabelle’s hair and reached for William’s hand—which still held onto his dagger drilling to its back. Then it took its busy hand off her curls, reached for William’s neck; but then its hand sidetracked to its own head. Its other hand let William free and reached for its head as well. Its claws dug into its dark scalp as it howled a monstrous scream. As the damonen extended its neck up and dug deeper into its scalp, scraping black matter from it, William pulled the dagger and stepped back.
Red spots appeared on the damonen’s back. It expanded and reached out to other spots and spread down to its limbs and reached up to its head and arms. They swirled and repainted its black body to a dark, glistening red.
While the damonen thrashed its arms and head and howled, Isabelle head butt the damonen clawing her arm and punched it off of her. Once free, she dodged, sliced and killed her other opponent. Then she doubled back and finished the other one by sticking her blade in between where its eyes supposed to be. As she drew her rapier back, she fixed her gaze on the howling damonen.
Now completely covered in red, the damonen dropped to its knees, cried out and exploded into bits of red ashes.
“What was that?” asked Isabelle.
William stared at his dagger dipped in his own blood. “I have…no…idea…”
“Think about it later. We have to worry about them first.” Isabelle snatched the golden necklace from Luc, threw it on the ground and smashed it with her rapier.
Isabelle shot up to the sky while the damonens all stopped from panicking, focused at the both of them and growled in madness.
“What’s happening? Is the barrier broken?” he asked, raising his bloody weapon up.
Her eyes narrowed as she raised her rapier up again. “It’s a polar ritual. There’s two sources. It isn’t just the necklace,” she said.
“Then where’s the other one?” He took steps back, wary of the damonens approaching him.
Isabelle stabbed a damonen who lunged at her and killed it. “On the other side,” she huffed.
“Other side? Other side of where? He isn’t wearing anything on his back.” William’s focus fell on Luc’s back head and neck.
She parried a direct attack, punctured a damonen’s shoulder and brought her blade across its chest, killing it. “Not that side. The other side of town. The source is there. Two sources on the north and south side. That is why it’s called a polar ritual,” she explained.
“How do we get there?”
“I don’t know.” She dodged an axe to her side.
He ducked a black blade swinging at him and stabbed the feet of his opponent as red spots scattered on its body. “What do you mean you don’t know?” He stepped back as the red spread through its body and exploded in red bits.
“It means I don’t know!” She pulled the damonen’s axe arm and cut its head off, transforming its body into ashes.
The two avoided and dodged as much attacks they could. They fought as much as their capabilities allowed them to while they retreated. The more the fire faded, the more damonens focused on them and charged. They kept coming and coming until the two were completely surrounded by damonens with dark weapons formed from their limbs.
“So what now?” asked William, hands shaking. His back rested against Isabelle’s
“Sorry I’m not strong enough to defeat these things.” Isabelle held her sword tight.
“You’re not strong enough?” He let out a giggle and then laughed.
“Why are you laughing? Do you not think a girl can be a strong fighter? Do you think we’re not as agile or resourceful as men?” She asked with a foul tone.
His laughter died down with a bit of snickering. “Not at all. I think you’re the best,” he said.
Her brows met. “You do?”
“I do,” he nodded. “Better than any soldier I’ve seen and met. Though I haven’t seen a lot of fighting. I usually avoid towns with wars and feuds. One thing’s for sure, you are definitely better than I am. You’re a great fighter Isabelle. Really fantastic.”
Her heart pounded a different sound than the adrenaline caused. “Uh…thank you William. No one has really said anything like that to me. Well, other than my father,” she said.
“Then they’re stupid people for not seeing how good—no, how great you are,” he said. “Your kind too you know.”
“How so?”
“You saved a lost boy without questions and saved mortals without asking for any thanks in return,” he explained. “Your kind, strong and even beautiful. You’re pretty much perfect. I’m glad to have known you, Isabelle.”
Her heart ached to see William, but her warrior instincts told her to stay put and defend. Her fingers filled with sweat while she held on tightly on her sword. What should she be doing was fighting, not falling for a boy. Little praises and admiration and now I like this boy? And he’s not any ordinary boy, he’s an unknown settler. A stray. He doesn’t even have fighting skills. What would Paolo say? He’d never stop teasing me. Mikael? He’ll probably kill him. And mother? I don’t want to even think about that. She shook the thoughts plaguing her mind and grabbed William’s free hand with hers.
“Isabelle?” sounded William.
“I’m here. You’re not alone. If we’re dying now, we’re dying together.”
A smirk appeared on his face as he held out his dagger and clasped Isabelle’s hand tighter.
“Let’s do this,” she hissed.
Just as the first circle of damonen’s charged forward, fire arrows rained down on the damonens again, blazing them in torrent of flames and everything around them.
Soldiers with the coat of arms of three lion heads appeared from the trees. They continued firing arrows and drove the damonens back.
“Who? What?” Isabelle stared at the dozens of soldiers advancing forward.
Garret appeared from behind a general with full armor on. He fired arrows repeatedly at all of the damonens.
“Garret? Why are you here?” asked William.
He fired another shot and shifted to his friend. “William? Why are you here?”
“I asked you first.”
He looked down the ground, to William and then avoided his stare again. “I’m here to save Luc. We were both captured when we visited Norwich and I…somehow escaped. I tried to find him back home, but he wasn’t there. So I figured he’d still be here. And now here I am too,” he explained.
“Were you the ones who started that fire earlier?” asked Isabelle.
“Yes. We were supposed to have come earlier, but my soldiers have never dealt with monsters like these. The fire earlier was a miscalculation. It was too early. And now we don’t even know if we can defeat them all.”
The soldiers have created a firing line against the damonens with the victims behind them.
“Why are you here? And who is she?” Garret turned to William.
William gaped as incoherent babble escaped his mouth instead of proper words.
“What?”
“I think the boy you’re trying to find is right there.” Isabelle pointed towards Luc.
Garret gasped and then hurried over to Luc. He dropped to his knees, checked his breathing and then gave a relieved smile. His hands patted and caressed Luc’s cheek as tears welled at the corner of his eyes.
“Love is strong and will conquer all,” said Isabelle.
“Love?” asked William.
“The young man’s in love. He must have been so worried. Good thing he followed his instinct. Most mortals would think of it all as a dream.”
“Luc and Garret in love?”
She gave him a curious look. “Are two men not allowed to be together here?”
He nodded. “The church teaches to hate sodomites and all who allow their practices.”
“The church is stupid. Not all they teach is right,” she said. “Do you think they shouldn’t be together?”
“I’m just new to this,” he answered. “I always thought they were close like brothers. I didn’t think they were this close. I guess I’ve things to learn about love.”
“Yeah.” She smiled at him, admiring his dark brown hair falling in a curve down his brown eyes and straight nose bridge. He had pinkish lips that complemented his soft jawline.
“So what are we going do?”
“Do about what?” She blinked at him nonchalantly.
“About the ritual? There’s still another source. We can’t get out without stopping this.”
She straightened her posture and held her rapier tightly. “Right. Yes. The ritual. Let’s see…since the soldiers are busy here we can go and—“
The sun’s rays darkened as the moon eclipsed it. Waves of velvet red spread and then covered the blue skies while a heavy air surrounded them. The fighting soldiers and Garret froze in the middle of their actions. The damonens howled in displeasure as one by one they started disappearing, leaving behind the victims and other easy prey.
“That’s the first time I’ve seen damonens flee without devouring one soul,” said Isabelle.
“What happened to the source?” asked William.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Someone must have broken it.”
“But—“ His eyes bawled as Death emerged behind Isabelle from her shadow and placed a finger to his lips.
When Death lightly placed a hand on Isabelle’s head, she fainted and fell back. Death caught her smoothly and lay her body down and let it rest on the ground.
“What have you—“
“She’s only asleep. She’d be fine in a day,” informed Death. “What have you found out?
His focus lingered on Isabelle but he told himself to keep to the task. “Norwich was under a polar harvesting ritual. Some of the people here were the missing people back in the city. A Legion was behind this,” he reported.
“Did you find out who?”
He shook his head. “He didn’t show. If he was here, he hid the whole time.”
“And if you had followed my order not to engage, maybe you would have seen who was the Legion,” he said calmly.
He considered protesting and defending the reason he fought back was to save people’s lives. But he was talking to Death; he didn’t care about the living. He cared only about deaths. “I’m sorry I failed you,” he said.
Death crossed the distance to stand next to William. “Yes, I’m sorry too.” He placed a hand on William as consciousness fled from the boy and fell onto the dark angel’s arms.
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