The sharp creaking once again immediately alerted those who resided in the room. Of course, there was Zaru, relaxing on his grand throne. Beside him stood a guard, the same one that had confronted Charlie earlier. They seemed to have been discussing something, though whatever it was had been abruptly interrupted. Zaru frowned and sat up straight on his throne.

“Ah. You’re back. And you’ve brought company.” He sighed, glaring at Charlie. “I know I should have discarded you as well.” 

The guard followed Zaru’s gaze until his eyes locked on Charlie. He gasped as he recognized her. “You-!”

Zaru glanced at the guard. “So you know the girl? You didn’t happen to allow her to release two of our prisoners, did you? It would be a shame, you’re one of my favorites.”

“N-No, my Lord. I had nothing to do with this.” He clenched his fists as he averted his gaze. Charlie watched anxiously. Despite who he served, she couldn’t help but sympathize with him. He had let her go when he could have imprisoned her, or worse…

“Hmph. Very well then. You’re dismissed, I’ll deal with this myself.” Zaru waved his hand. But the guard didn’t move. His eyes moved between his king and the trio, furrowing his brow.

“My Lord… What do you intend on doing?” 

Zaru glared. “What business is that of yours? I gave you an order.”

The guard tensed and quickly stepped in front of Zaru. “My Lord, I must insist, there are better ways of going about this! Allow me to escort them back to the dungeon, I’ll watch them myself, this won’t happen again-!”

Zaru sighed as he rolled his eyes. With a snap of his fingers, the guard was suddenly blown backward. He crashed into the nearest wall with a loud thud. The impact was enough to cause some stones around him to come loose and crackle to the ground. The guard let out a pained groan before going limp. Charlie gasped, fearing the worst.

With that out of the way, Zaru stood from his throne. “Now then, I’ve had enough of these childish games.” He unfurled his jet-black wings to their full span, taking up most of the room’s length. He flapped them once and sent a hefty gust of wind toward the trio. They all sprung into defensive poses, readying their weapons. An ominous grin slowly spread across Zaru’s face. “Shall we?”
Allen was the first to act. He charged forward with his sword drawn. Before he could get too close, however, Zaru waved his hand and sent a blast of wind his way that swept him off his feet. Lynn raised her scepter, aiming a few fireballs at the dreadful king. He shielded himself with his wing. Each fireball was extinguished upon impact with a sizzle. He lowered his wings to reveal an amused smirk as he looked at Lynn.

“Oh, so humans have figured out how to use magic, have they? How cute.” He raised his hand and his fingertips began to glow a deep red hue. “Why don’t I give you a taste of mine?” Lynn gasped and leaped out of the way just in time to avoid the zap of electricity Zaru shot at her. The lightning hit a table with an ear-splitting crack, splitting the wood into pieces. She stumbled backward, feeling the heat against her face as Zaru fired again. Lynn shot out a fireball that collided in the air with a third zap, causing them both to dissipate in the air.

Distracted by the magic duel, Zaru was too late to react to an arrow soaring through the air in his direction. Fortunately for him, however, it had hit his chest plate. It harmlessly clattered to the ground. He glanced over at the one who had fired it and saw Charlie frantically trying to load up another arrow. Zaru turned his back on Lynn, his wings blocking any further spells that she fired. He began to walk towards Charlie. Panicking, she fired multiple arrows at him, each one missing by a long shot. Before she knew it, he was right in front of her. Charlie whimpered and attempted to run away, but Zaru quickly grabbed her by the arm.
“How has someone so weak managed to be such an inconvenience to me?” He lifted her into the air and examined her closely. Allen hurried over ready to attack, but Zaru once again knocked him to the ground with a gust of wind without taking his eyes off Charlie. She struggled against his grip, but could not manage to break free. “You enjoy being a little thorn in my side, don’t you? You’ve caused quite a scene. Perhaps I should eliminate you like I did your little friend–”

Suddenly, a sharp pain jolted through Zaru’s arm. He winced and dropped Charlie to the ground with a groan. He examined his wound: an arrow was sticking out, though this one had not been fired. Charlie had driven it there with her own hands. He scowled at her, grabbing the arrow by the shaft and yanking it out. “Why, you little-!”

Allen pulled himself back to his feet and slashed his sword at Zaru’s side. Zaru stumbled backward and pushed Allen away. He went in for a second stab but was hit with a blast of air. Allen stood his ground, however, and pushed forward against the spell. Zaru put more force into it, a flurry of wind pulsing from his palms.

Allen knew he couldn’t hold himself for long, so in an attempt to throw him off, he launched a cloud ball at Zaru’s head. It acted like a smoke bomb, shrouding his vision. He coughed and tried waving it away from his eyes. Zaru let himself get too distracted by this, and as a consequence, he was hit right in the side of the face by a fireball from Lynn.

Zaru faltered and nearly fell to his knees. He held his burned face in his hands, growling deeply. The trio closed in around him, ready to strike, but Zaru wasn’t done yet. “ENOUGH!” He suddenly erupted, his long hair standing on end as he raised his arms. The air began to move rapidly with hurricane-force winds that made it difficult to stand. Allen’s clouds had turned dark and began growing in size. They thundered as they clashed against each other and sent lightning strikes every which way.

Allen ducked behind his shield, but that wasn’t enough to prevent him from being struck. A bolt hit him in the back and forced him to seize up and collapse to the ground. Lynn attempted to counter the lightning with her fire but was quickly overwhelmed and forced to her knees. Charlie, with no means of defending herself at all, soon joined her companions on the floor.

Once all three of them were incapacitated, the winds began to die down. Zaru slumped his shoulders with labored breathing. He glanced around at all the displaced furniture and shook his head. “How rude, making me mess up my own throne room. Such a crime will not go unpunished.” He stepped forward, towering over the children. “Who should I start with? The fallen angel? The girl king? The little thorn?” 

The corners of his lips upturned as he grabbed Charlie by the collar of her shirt. She weakly fought back, hitting his arm, but all this achieved was amusing Zaru. “You’ll do nicely. I’ll make you pay for humiliating me.” He tilted his head. “Any final pleas?”

“P-Please… Please…” Charlie whispered.

Zaru chucked. “Aw, can’t even form a sentence? That’s too bad.” He raised his free hand, the tips of his fingers beginning to illuminate. Lynn and Allen could only watch in horror for their muscles failed to respond to their desperate need to save Charlie.

Charlie squeezed her eyes shut, her heart racing. She heard a loud crack and flinched, expecting to feel a jolt of electricity. But no pain ever came. Instead, she was jostled in the air as Zaru took a step back, and her nose stung with the smell of… Smoke?
She opened her eyes, shocked to see Zack riding on the back of Cupcake. He yelled out and waved his fists in the air as Cupcake reared with a mighty screech. She clawed at Zaru, who had dropped Charlie to the ground in his surprise. Zack leaped away from Cupcake and grabbed hold of Zaru's horns, wrangling him like a bull while the griffin nipped at his legs. Zaru cried out with his wings flailing as he attempted to push them both away, to no avail. 

Eventually, Zack dropped to the ground as Cupcake caught a good hold of Zaru's foot and yanked him onto his rear. She ferociously dragged him around while he wailed and fired off shots of lighting in every direction.

"Woo, yeah, that's my girl!" Zack cheered as Cupcake treated the demon king like an oversized chew toy. Behind him, Charlie slowly rose to her feet. Her hands shook as she rubbed at her eyes, making sure what she was seeing was real and not a post-death hallucination.

"Z…Zack…?!" She choked as she called out his name. 

Hearing her, Zack whipped around. His face burst into a wide smile as he threw up his arms excitedly. "Charlie! Man, that was great timing, eh?" He chuckled lightly. Seeing her dumbfounded expression, he raised an eyebrow. "What? Didja miss me?"

Charlie suddenly charged towards him and threw her arms around him in a tight hug, sobbing as she held him. Surprised, Zack stumbled back a bit. "Wh-Whoa! Hey…" 

"I-I thought… I thought you were…" Charlie sputtered out between breaths. Her words fell into hysterics as she buried her face in his chest, clinging to him like he'd disappear again if she let go.

Zack frowned as he slowly returned the embrace. "Hey, hey, it's okay… I'm okay! No old man's gonna be taking me out anytime soon." He comfortingly patted her on the back in an attempt to soothe her crying. While he did that, he glanced over at the other party members, his smirk returning. "Guess I missed a lot?"

Allen stared at Zack with his mind racing. He clenched his fists, inhaling sharply through his nose. "You…" He muttered, his voice strained.

"Something wrong?" Zack tilted his head. A genuine question, without an inch of malice or mischief…

Allen slowly sighed, relaxing as he shook his head. "No…" He looked back up, a newfound feeling of peace washing over him as he released his anger. "No, nothing at all. It's good to see you, Zack." 

The sound of Cupcake yowling as she skidded across the floor brought their focus back to the situation at hand. Zaru had regained his bearings, and to say he didn’t look pleased would be more than an understatement. Allen gripped his sword and prepared himself to fight once again. After separating from Zack, Charlie quickly reclaimed her bow that had dropped onto the ground. Zack hurried over to Cupcake and climbed onto her back while she let out a battle-ready screech.

They charged at once. Zack was the first to arrive, commanding Cupcake to pounce on Zaru. She attempted to claw at him with her talons but he knocked them both away with a swift extension of his wings. Zack wasn’t done, however; he leaped off of Cupcake and flew back over. Zaru saw this coming and threw out a hand, managing to grab his attacker by the throat mid-air. He didn’t stay trapped for long, however. With a pop, Zack was suddenly behind him throwing rocks at his head. Zaru whipped around and attempted to seize him once more, but he disappeared at the last second. 

Zaru narrowed his eyes, searching for where Zack could have gone. His fingertips crackled with electricity. In his focus to find where he had teleported to, he had forgotten about his other attackers. Allen had nearly caught him off guard with a slashing of his sword, but he narrowly avoided him by stepping back. Zaru fired a jolt of electricity, which Allen protected himself from with his shield. 

Charlie had fired several arrows throughout the fight, but with Zaru moving around so much, she found it difficult to hit any of his weak points. They only bounced off his armor. While it caused him no damage, the irritation this caused distracted him from the opponents who could do real damage. Zaru continuously whipped around, physically and magically blocking the onslaught of attacks. He was always quick to react… Though having to manage so many attackers at once was beginning to take its toll… And his focus gradually began to slip away.