“He didn’t listen…he just did what he wanted and then found a way to make it permanent.”

“Yes.” The pain that lingered in her voice and behind her eyes said it all. This wasn’t what she wanted.

“Can he even shift back?” Lazarus voiced, his eyes lit with curiosity, 

“I suppose he could, given the right motivation. It is marginally similar to your Guardians ability to transform.”

“Perhaps, you could be the distraction. The Protectors are able to perform spells and so are the Elders. You could distract him, and we could be your back up.”

“His human form would be much easier to entrap and to control. This could work.”

Lucia, Lazarus, and Beelzebub informed the others of their plan, and together they tracked Severin to his current location. After twenty-one days they would finally put an end to this feud.

Lucia couldn’t believe their luck. An empty plateau, overlooking a lazy, meandering river below, with a rock face in the shape of a wolf howling at the sky. No humans were around for miles, this place was beautiful.

“Beelzebub, where are we?”

“I’m not sure but from what I can tell, we’ve crossed the salt water to get here.”

“Truly remarkable. Can you teleport anywhere?”

“Only to places I’ve been or to people I bear a connection with.”

A mighty roar rocked through the trees behind them and Lucia quickly shifted into her white wolf. Beelzebub nodded to her, and she went into the trees, out of sight but close enough that she could come to the Angel’s aide.

Twenty Protectors and twenty Elders lined the trees, forming a circle around the plateau. Lucia watched as the Dragon came into view, much smaller than he had been. His scales were a glossy black, his eyes bright orange, and his teeth were longer than her wolf’s legs.

“Severin!”

Lucia turned her attention to Beelzebub…it was starting.

“Severin my love, please shift back to your human form so that I may hear your voice.”

The dragon cocked its giant head to the side, as if contemplating the request. With one final plume of fire from its mouth, the dragon began to morph until it was a man standing in front of Beelzebub and not a fearsome dragon.

“Bee my love, are you not impressed by my strength, my intelligence, my absolute power?”

“Of course, I am my love, but I miss your hands, your arms, and the soft words you once whispered to me.”

“Come Bee, denounce Lucifer and Hades, be my Queen instead. We can rule over Earth for millennia to come!”

“Lucifer is my King, but you are my truest love. I owe Lucifer many things and without him I would have never met you. I cannot denounce him, nor can I rule Earth. Earth belongs to the humans and those that protect them…something that took Lucifer eons to learn.”

“What are you saying?”

“What if we create our own world? A mirror of this one, where we rule over subjects willingly loyal to us, willing to serve and carry out our every desire?”

“I say that’s impossible. No such power exists.”

“The Enlightenment Spell was only supposed to be temporary but you made it permanent. Severin, we can do anything.” She said pulling her lover into a faux embrace. 

Lucia watched as Beelzebub successfully secured the containment charms around Severin’s upper arms. It was now or never.

Now.

She heard the chanting in her mind and watched anxiously for any signs that the spell could be working. Severin was still distracted by Beelzebub, so far so good. A bright white light opened behind the couple and Lucia knew this was it. The so called All-Powerful One was going away forever, he’d never be an issue again…or at the very least not to humans. 

She would not let her people forget who their real enemy was. They would find a way to permanently deal with the All-Powerful One, even if it took until the end of days.

Severin noticed the light, but it was too late, some type of force was pulling him backward towards the gaping hole that was now open in the middle of the plateau, but before he was fully gone, to this new world…he snatched Beelzebub by her forearm and pulled her in with him. At least he would never be alone.

Lucia ran forward but it was too late. The Queen of Hell was gone. Lost to them, the only hope was her ability to portal anywhere she had been before…unless Severin managed to place those containment chains around her instead. 

Beelzebub shook her head, ridding her hair of the rocky debris that now littered it. She stood cautiously as she took in her surroundings. The landscape was jagged rock, with hot magma cutting along the surface like a molten rock river. This must be the new world her spell had created for Severin…and now her. Nearby she could still see him—still human. The chains hadn’t come loose when they were pulled through the portal. Which was lucky for her, because she knew she was in danger of losing her life if Severin was ever able to transform again.

She tried to back away, to hide somewhere until her powers recharged and she could escape, but her foot knocked a few stones loose, and the sound alerted her lover to her location. Instantly he had her. Gulping, she closed her eyes and waited.

“You did this! You tricked me!” His roar of fury made her cringe, he had never yelled at her before.

“I had to stop you!”

“You could’ve been my Queen! Now you’re just my prisoner!”

She watched in horror, too stunned to move away before Severin placed the charms, she had used on him around her upper arms. The cursed bangles instantly drained her of her power and strength. She was just as trapped as this Dragon King now.

“You’re as good as human now, my love.” The malice dripping from his fangs like poison, he let her crumple to the ground, defeated and powerless.

Lucia paced impatiently across the grassy hilltop of the plateau, waiting for her ally to return. But deep down she knew it was a fruitless effort. If Beelzebub was going to return, she would have already. The Queen of Hell was lost. Sensing a familiar aura behind her, Lucia turned and took in her Protector’s appearance, he looked rather stressed; no doubt he had been communing with the Dark Creator himself and explaining the situation.

“Gaius what does the Dark One say about us losing his Queen?”

“He was understandably upset of course, but he assured me Queen Beelzebub can take care of herself.”

“Anything else?”

“I’ve received a Prophecy by her Holiness.”

“What is it?”

“Five shall be born on the full moon. 

Five shall rise to defeat, the most powerful. 

One shall fail, One shall succeed. 

Five of the Moon will prevail”

For nearly three hundred years on Earth, and five hundred years in Lucia’s Gate, give or take, the Protectors have watched for signs of the Prophecy coming to light. Many generations of Warriors have come and gone since then; none being the prophesied children. 

Until the birth of the Gold Twins in The Zell Pack. They were born to a pair of Alphas and when they were brought into the world, the old prophecy was recited by their Protector. Either they were going to be part of the five in the prophecy or, they were going to give birth to them.