They decided to find a place to sleep, and then they would gather some food. Moving away from the ravine, because they didn’t want to chance accidentally rolling in or something while they slept, the two—plus one sword—traveled back into the thicker parts of the Phantasma Forest.
The mist became thicker. Jacob wondered why it was becoming heavier the further they wandered from Kyöpelinvuori. This mist clearly wasn’t natural. It had a dark feel to it, emotions like hatred and envy clung to the mist like a plague, or maybe the mist merely enhanced the feelings of others. He couldn’t tell. What he could tell was that this mist had magic infused into it.
“This mist is really strange,” Enyo murmured as she gripped his hand. “I can feel the magic flowing through it, and I don’t remember it being here when I passed through last time.”
“Hmm…”
“Jacob?”
“Sorry, I was just thinking…”
“About?”
“Well…” Jacob needed a moment to put his thoughts into words. “I was wondering if this mist might have been the result of the gate key? Do you know if the key holds any kind of magic?”
Enyo shook her head. “Not that I know of. I just thought it opened the otherworld gate.”
“If it can open a portal to my world, then it must have some kind of power,” Jacob pressed. “Maybe that power is manifesting here, though I can’t imagine why.”
“It might have been a mistake for me to leave it here.”
Jacob didn’t want to say it, but he agreed with her about it being a mistake. Of course it had been a bad idea. He understood that she’d hidden it in the event of capture, but she could have at least chosen a location that was easier to find. Enyo couldn’t even find it now, and she was the one who’d hidden it.
They eventually happened upon a small clearing surrounded by boulders, which jutted from the ground like stakes set to spear the sky. Jacob frowned. Those boulders were larger even than the trees. Their formation also struck him as odd. If he didn’t know any better, he would have said that they had been purposefully placed there.
“I’ll gather some wood for a fire and hunt for something to eat,” Jacob said. “Think you could find some circular stones to build a fireplace?”
Enyo looked around at the pebbles littering the ground, all of which were about the size of her fist, and then she looked at him, her lips quirking slightly. “I think I can find some.”
“Right.”
Chuckling, Jacob headed further into the forest. He marked his path by slicing gouges into trees. He wanted to be able to find his way back, but unless he had a means of tracing his steps, he’d easily get lost within this vast forest.
Firewood was easy enough to find. There were twigs scattered everywhere, and the dry grass that crunched underneath his feet would make excellent kindling. Catching their dinner was something else altogether. Most of the animals within the Phantasma Forest were poisonous. Those that weren’t often hid. It took almost half an hour of searching to find and kill a single rabbit.
“This isn’t gonna be much of a dinner,” Jacob complained.
“You could always find another rabbit,” Durandal said.
“And how long is that going to take?”
“…”
“My point exactly.”
He sighed and began making his way back to Enyo. As he was returning, a loud screamed filled the air. It was Enyo!
“Hurry up, Partner!”
Jacob didn’t reply to Durandal. He was already racing through the trees. He passed the slashes that he had made, burst into the clearing, and found Enyo doing her best to dodge a horde of flying tongues.
She had been surrounded by toad demons—four of them.
They were hideous creatures with different colored skin; some had green skin, some blue, red, and even orange. Their skin was leathery and rough. Large webbed hands and feet made indents on the ground as they hopped around. The toad demons would open their mouths wide, revealing a gaping maw as they launched their tongues at Enyo, who was doing her best to dodge.
“Enyo! Give me a light!”
Jacob didn’t know if she would know what he meant, but Enyo quickly muttered an incantation under her breath. Light emitted from her fingertips. She thrust her hand into the air, shooting a sphere above her head that ignited like a newborn star.
Having already closed his eyes, Jacob wasn’t as affected by the light. He saw the flash behind his eyelids. Nothing more.
The toad demons croaked as they were blinded. Jacob raced forward, using his foreknowledge of the layout and the demons’ pained cries to guide him. He reached the first one and slashed it as he passed. There was a moment’s resistance as Durandal met hardened leather, and then he tore through it like cutting a leaf. The toad’s death croak was followed by the meaty thud of it hitting the ground.
Opening his eyes, Jacob went after the next toad, which had no time to do anything before he was on it. He leapt over the creature. As he did, he rotated and flipped around. He lashed out with his blade, tearing through the demon’s neck, severing its head from its shoulders in a gout of blood that sprayed the ground. Then he was on his feet and heading for the next one.
There were only two more, and it appeared they had decided to run. Jacob growled. Not on his watch!
“Get ready to fly, Durandal!”
“What?” Durandal asked seconds before Jacob threw the sword at the furthest toad. “You know I hate it when you throw meeeeee!!!!!”
Durandal’s cry was overpowered by the agonized death croak of the toad demon, who the sword had blasted through like a cannonball. A massive gaping hole had been blown in the toad’s back. Jacob could see trees on the other side.
The last toad was killed, not by Jacob, but by Enyo. Having recovered from her surprise of being ambushed, Enyo muttered a quick incantation underneath her breath.
“Ustulo. Uro. Torro.”
Black flames leapt from her hand and struck the toad’s back. The creature roared. It hopped around frantically as if seeking to put the fire out. But this fire couldn’t be extinguished in such a manner, and soon the toad was flopping onto its back, twitching spastically as the flames consumed it until there was nothing left.
Jacob nodded. “That’s some really impressive magic. I’m surprised you can use such a strong magic attack with only three words.”
Spells required incantations to use; these incantations invoked the powers of a person’s magic, essentially telling their magic what to do. It was different from Magic Channeling, which was simply a person channeling their magic through a weapon.
Smiling, Enyo said, “Don’t forget that my father was the former Dark Lord. I might not seem like it, but I was born with incredibly strong magic.”
“I’ll bet.”
Enyo’s dark magic reminded him a little too much of Alucard’s. Her power, her abilities. Yes, she could use light magic, and Alucard had been a pure dark magic user, but the strength of Enyo’s dark magic was reminiscent to her father’s.
Granted, Enyo had a long way to go before she could come close to matching her father. Alucard had been capable of demolishing entire buildings with a single-word incantation. He had annihilated his own castle with naught but a few words. The battle between him and Alucard had destroyed the entire city of Skoteiní Gi, turning the once massive capital into a smoking crater. Alucard’s powers had been on an unimaginable scale. That said, Enyo might not have her father’s power yet, but the power that she did have was frightening.
“Anyway, I wonder where these demon toads are coming from,” Jacob said.
Enyo frowned. “Me too. They weren’t here the last time I came by.”
“This fog wasn’t here either, right? Think the two might be related?”
“Maybe…”
“It’s a strong possibility,” Durandal added. “I don’t know about you two, but I’ve been sensing a strong magic for a while now.”
Jacob and Enyo stopped talking to st
are at the sword.
“And you’re just now telling us this?” Jacob asked.
“It never came up in conversation—owch!”
“I hate clichéd lines like that.” Jacob placed Durandal back in its sheath after properly slamming the flat of the blade against a boulder. “In either event, we should see if there are any more toad demons out there. I don’t want either of us to be ambushed like this again.”
“Me neither,” Enyo said.
The toad demons had left tracks of where they had come from. Their footprints, large and webbed, had created a series of indents on the ground that were easy to follow. Sometimes the tracks branched off, but they always congregated again. He and Enyo eventually reached the ravine. More than that, they reached what appeared to be a path leading into the ravine.
“Do you think we should go down there?” Enyo asked.
“I think… we might not have much of a choice,” Jacob said.
“Why not?”
“Look behind us.”
Enyo did as instructed, turning around and looking behind them. She paled quite rapidly. The reason was, of course, because of the several dozen toad demons croaking at their backs.
She looked at Jacob, who stared back at her.
“Run?” she asked.
“Run.” Jacob nodded.
With nary a thought, she and Jacob raced down the path that led into the ravine, several dozen toad demons releasing shrill croaks as they gave chase.
***
Jacob and Enyo rushed down the path, a horde of demon toads croaking at their heels. The pathway was of a decent size, wide enough that at least four or five people could stand shoulder to shoulder, which explained why the demon toads could hop down. They were only about three people wide.
“What should do?” asked Enyo as they ran.
“Hold on. Let me think for a moment.”
Jacob studied the layout of the path that they were running down. It looped a lot. They travel down in one direction, and then it would curve, turning a full 180 degrees before moving down again. This created a series of walls.
If I could start a rockslide, I might be able to… but then we wouldn’t be able to climb back out, would we?
“Let’s keep going down,” he suggested. “There might be a place where we can funnel them in and take them one at a time.”
There was no telling how long they ran, or how far they had run, for time and distance seemed meaningless. He and Enyo raced down the path. They skidded along the turns, ran some more, only to skid for those abrupt turns again. The horde of toad demons followed them. Their croaking rang in Jacob’s ears.
“I’m really… beginning to… regret… leaving the gate key… here…” Enyo gasped, sweat pouring from her forehead as she breathed in heavily through her nose.
“So am I,” Jacob said.
They reached the bottom sooner than Jacob had expected. He guessed the fog had skewed his sense of perception. Unlike the top, the bottom was not covered in forest, but in rocky outcroppings that were devoid of life. There didn’t seem to be a single plant in sight.
Croaking behind him reminded Jacob that they still needed to deal with the toad demons, and unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be anything here that they could use.
I guess that means I’ll be using more power than I wanted to.
“Enyo,” he said, getting the girl’s attention. “I want you to cover me. When you see an opening, light those toad demons on fire with some dark magic.”
Her expression hardening into one of determination, Enyo nodded, a fire lit behind her eyes. “You can count on me.”
“Thanks.”
Jacob turned toward the toad demons as he pulled Durandal from its sheath, his vision sharpening as he narrowed his eyes. Power flooded through his body. Using his unique talent for Linked Energy Manipulation, he allowed for an evenly distributed flow of energy, enhancing his muscles as much as he dared.
Had this been three years ago, I would have been able to enhance them more. I’m so out of shape.
Well, there was nothing for it. He’d just have to make do.
“You ready, Durandal?”
“Of course I am! What sort of sword do you take me for?”
“The dirty kind.”
“How cruel, Partner!”
“Here we go!”
Jacob leapt at the first toad demon, attacking before his foes had a chance to attack first. Initiative would be the key to victory here.
His first attack, a powerful hacking motion, sliced straight through the toad, cutting it down the middle. The acrid scent of toad’s blood filled the air as dark crimson sprayed out of the bisected creature. As the two halves fell apart, Jacob leapt back. The blood of toad demons was toxic. Smelling it caused lightheadedness, and letting it touch bare skin would cause flesh to blister and burn.
Behind him, Enyo chanted a spell.
“Umbra. Premo. Religo. Nox!”
Several magic circles appeared on the ground underneath the four toad demons closest to him. Ancient scripts written in an arcane language formed letters and words within the circles. As the circles began to glow with a dark purple light, thick bindings of the purest black shot out, wrapping around the toads and tying them to the ground.
The toad demons struggled to free themselves, but the bindings appeared to have been made from the same flames that Enyo had used to light the previous toad demons on fire. It wasn’t long before they had turned into a pile of ash.
What a frightening spell. It’s hard to believe such a kind girl knows it.
Then again, it was hard to believe that Enyo was the daughter of the previous Dark Lord.
Not one to be outdone, Jacob channeled his energy into Durandal, which began to glow a light blue. With ferocious cry, he swung the blade forward and unleashed the energy. A massive crescent shot from the sword. It sliced into six toad demons, cutting their legs and severing their lower half from their upper half. Blood splattered along the ground, staining the craggy surface, which hissed and spat as the acidic properties of the toad blood ate into it.
Coughing as steam rose from the now burning ground, Jacob backed up. “Let’s move further in. We can’t afford to let those fumes affect us.”
“Right.” Enyo agreed. “I’ll cover our retreat.”
Enyo launched more dark flames at the toad demons that tried to chase them. However, they seem to have learned from past experience, or maybe these particular demons were just more cautious. They leapt out of the way, the flames moving past them to splash against the cliff face. Still, even if the magic didn’t hit, it gave him and Enyo the time they needed to make a tactical withdrawal.
The ravine was a lot like a maze. Rather than just a single straightaway, there appeared to be naturally made walls that branched off into sections. He and Enyo went down one of these paths. Sadly, the path they had chosen led to a dead end.
“It looks like we have no choice but to fight,” Enyo said. For some reason, Jacob thought she sounded a little too excited. The smile on her face wasn’t helping change his opinion.
“I knew that we would. Still, I had been hoping to continue using guerilla tactics to wittle away at the toad demons. Now we’ll have to defeat all of them at the same time if we want to survive.”
They had killed a dozen of those toad demons, but there were still about two dozen more to go. Jacob had an attack that could have killed them all. The problem was that it was too powerful. If he used this attack here, he might end up destroying the ravine. Also, and though he was loathe to admit it, he didn’t even know if he could pull the attack off anymore. He was too out of shape.
“Here they come!” Enyo warned him.
Jacob turned around to see that, indeed, the horde of toad demons was coming. They hopped toward him and Enyo. Bulging yellow eyes glared at them with a hungry leer, like they were apex predators and he and Enyo were the prey.
Sweat gathered on Jacob’s forehead. The demon toads were coming closer
. Beside him, Enyo looked nervous but oddly excited. Her eyes glimmered a phosphorescent glow, as if she was actually looking forward to the coming battle.
They almost upon him and Enyo now. Ten meters. Five. Jacob clutched Durandal tightly in his hand as he prepared to fight harder than he had in the past two years. Two meters. He crouched down, spreading his feet as he prepared to attack. One meter. Jacob—
“Ignis. Fulmen. Fulgur. Lámpsi. Astrapi!” a cry echoed through the ravine.
A bolt of lightning descended from the sky, striking the toad demon closest to him, lighting it up like a series of fireworks. As the toad demon was fried from the inside out, the lightning leapt to another demon, and then another, and another. Before long, all two dozen demons were being fried by a single bolt of lightning that linked to each demon like a chain. They twitched and spasmed. Their eyes exploded as if they’d overheated. The scent of charred flesh pervaded the air, filling Jacob’s nostrils and making him gag. Then the toad demons all died, dropping one at a time as their insides were destroyed.
“What the…?” Enyo looked as shocked as he felt. Neither of them had cast that spell.
“Are you two alright?” a voice asked from above them.
Looking up, he and Enyo spotted an old woman wearing a black cloak. Graying hair stuck out in all directions as if she’d been hit by a static shock. Her face, lined with age, had a wizened appearance. Crows feet around her eyes and lines along her mouth made him think that she spent an awful lot of time smiling.
“We’re fine!” Jacob called back. “Are you the one who saved us?”
“I am glad to hear that,” the woman said. “Why don’t you two follow me? If you linger here, more toad demons will come.”
She ignored my question…
“I guess… it would probably be a good idea to follow her,” Jacob murmured. “What do you think, Enyo…?” He trailed off when he got a look at the pout on his companion’s face. “Is something wrong?”
“No, nothing’s wrong.” Enyo huffed. “Come on. Let’s follow that woman and see what she wants.”
Is she upset that she didn’t get to fight those toad demons?
Journey of a Betrayed Hero- Volume 1 Page 11