Chronicles of Eden - Act XII

by Alexander Gordon

  “Hey, you all need to-” Reiko started to say before the elves screamed and stumbled away from her, a few of them grabbing pots and books to throw at the tiny monster who dodged and twirled around in the air to avoid them.

  “What the fuck is that thing?” a child cried out.

  “Is that a fairy?” another screamed. “Holy shit, that’s one of those fairies that destroys elven groves, isn’t it?”

  “Get away, get away from it!” a woman ordered pushing the children back. “That’s no fairy, it’s a zombie fairy or something! Oh fuck, it’s hideous! It’s a demon of revulsion!”

  “Die, abomination!” the other shouted as she grabbed a bow and promptly fired an arrow, with Reiko letting it pass right through her body before she sighed in aggravation.

  “I’m not a demon or a fairy,” she muttered. “I’m trying to help you morons! You all need to-”

  “Run!” the woman yelled as she pulled the children with her. The elves ran around Reiko screaming, with the archer taking another shot at the harvester before they all sprinted out the door. Reiko growled as she let the arrow phase through her body before zipping out the doorway and shaking her fist at the fleeing elves.

  “That’s what I was trying to tell you do to, you assholes!” she shouted in her tiny voice. “Just keep running that way and you’ll be fine! Oh, and you’re welcome!”

  Reiko growled and rubbed a hand down the half of her face that had flesh on it while slowly floating along, with elves running by, halting at seeing her, and then promptly running away screaming.

  “What is their problem?” Reiko whined hopping up and down. “I’m trying to tell them where to go, I’m trying to save their sorry asses, I’m trying to… to… keep their delicious souls trapped in their fleshy, stinky, stupid bodies. Oh, this sucks! I can’t believe I’m sparing so many tasty looking souls like this, what has become of me? I’m not supposed to help others, I’m supposed to reap their souls and laugh at their frozen expressions of terror as they lay beneath me. I swear, the things I do for my one true love! She better start showing some proper affection for me after all this crap! You hear me, Star? We’re going to be lovers when this is all done, and it’s going to be awesome!”

  She slowly breathed out and looked around at the village behind her, seeing dwellings built into the bases of some trees, the sides of others with rope bridges suspended in the air near them, and even underneath some timbers in hollows with the roots parting over them.

  “Okay, let’s see here,” she pondered as she started to point amongst the elven homes. “Those I personally warned, those ran in terror after the ones I warned warned them about me, those were running about in circles out here before they were warned by the elves I warned and scared out of their homes, who in turn warned those… and those… and…”

  She scratched her head for a moment before she slowly held a hand to her chin questionably.

  “Hmm, maybe scaring them is more efficient than talking to them. At least then they get their asses moving.”

  After a pause she shrugged then soared around in the air before passing through a wall into a dwelling built into the side of a tree.

  “Boo.”

  Almost instantly two elves screamed and dashed out their door, frantically running along the suspended rope bridges while Reiko floated out of their residence and watched with a giggle.

  “Alright, they’re heading south. This could work.”

  She then zipped around in the air and flew down through the roof of a hut built into the side of a timber.

  “Boo.”

  Again a mother elf and her daughter burst out from the door and took off screaming and cursing, with Reiko watching with a growing smile on her face as the two dashed off into the village where others were quickly warned and joined them.

  “Oh, this could be fun after all.”

  The tiny harvester twirled with glee as she zipped around through the northern side of the village, racing into homes and howling at frightened elves with a ghostly wail, laughing hysterically as she made the monsters flee either by through the door, window, or with one taking a table and literally throwing it through her wall to make an exit. Reiko flew into a home, laughed manically while taking off her head, then left to do the same to another residence while elves took off screaming from their residence as fast as they could. The harvester zipped about from one household to the next, enjoying each time she got to make the elves turn pale in fright and shriek in horror, all the while constantly flying about the northern part of Green Haven to make the elves sprint southward to get away from where a demon was supposedly haunting their forest now.

  “Mwuhahaha!” she cackled, phasing through a wall with arms outstretched, dress fluttering below, and elves screaming in their home before rushing out in haste.

  “I’ve come for your souls,” she droned, floating down through the ceiling of another dwelling and gently spinning around so an elven mother and two children could take notice of her before scrambling out of the building in fright.

  “This forest is mine now!” she laughed while flying about in the living room of a home built into the side of a tree, the elves within it pressing back against the walls and furniture while staring in shock. “If you wish to stay in these damned woods, then you as well shall be damned for all time! Hahahahaha!”

  “Your gods can’t protect you now!” she manically bellowed, rising up through the floor of a spacious tree home with hair flowing behind and glowing eye socket slowly going around at the group of elven women who only remained barricaded inside the building for another moment before frantically tearing down what they boarded up so they could flee for their lives.

  “Woe to any who remain in my new domain!” Reiko condemned as she floated in through one open window, shook her hands and even flaunted her middle finger at a few elves that promptly took off screaming, and then casually floated back outside through another window.

  “Psst,” she whispered, with the three elven children under the bed with her quickly turning to the tiny monster with gasps as she turned her head all the way around to smile eerily at them. “I’m going to eat your toes. Won’t that be fun? Hee hee!”

  “Hello!” she cheered as she phased through an elf’s chest and stuck her body out from her right breast. “Guess what? Your boobs are mine now, bitch! Hahahahaha!”

  Monsters of The Sisterhood slowly took notice of an ever-growing flock of elves sprinting in fear and loud cursing coming from the northern part of Green Haven, all hell-bent on getting as far away as possible from the ghostly apparition that was now haunting their home.

  “Where are they all going?” a gremlin asked shaking her head.

  “Why are they all running that way?” a witch said pointing behind her.

  “You!” a passing elf shouted at them. “This is all your fault! You fucking assholes!”

  “You’ve cursed our forest with demons!” another shouted while holding her crying daughter. “You goddamned freaks have doomed us all!”

  “You’re nothing but curses yourselves!” an elf derided as the herd of terrified monsters stampeded through the village while warning every elf they could on the way to haul ass out of Green Haven at once.

  “What did we do?” an arachne scoffed. “We didn’t cause this groundquake.”

  “Stop those elves!” a ranger in dark clothing ordered as she and three others ran by. “Evacuate everyone to the camps behind Green Haven! Hey, get those fucking bitches back here now! They’re not leaving The Sisterhood!”

  Grunts of The Sisterhood turned to each other in question before running off to stop the elves from escaping, something that was hard to do given that they were indeed hauling ass as fast as they could to put as much distance between them and what they had seen flying around in their village.

  Floating out of a now abandoned hut built into the base of a tree Reiko laughed joyously as she watched the elves fleeing the area while cursing her existence. She giggled and flew around in
loops before floating over into a clearing, holding a hand to her cheek as she shook her head in amusement.

  “Hee hee, this is quite fun after all. Who would have guessed saving lives could be this enjoyable? Oh, Star is going to be so proud of me. Thanks to my noble efforts, those stupid souls will live to be reaped another day.” She stopped and slowly held a hand over her chest, a gentle smile appearing on the half of her face that had the flesh to show it. “Oh my, this… feeling I have. How very odd. Knowing those little dears will live, all because of my amazing efforts here today, it… it almost makes me… it makes me sort of… glad. I’m glad to have helped them. I’m glad to have been their savior. I’m glad that I now know what it’s like to feel-”

  Halting with a small pause she heard two screams quickly drawing closer from above, the harvester then looking up just in time to see two girls hurtling towards her through the ashes and haze above. The two girls shot past Reiko and struck the ground with hard impacts, sending out dust, dirt, and blood further away in violent bursts while the sounds of bones breaking were heard quite clearly. Reiko looked back over one shoulder then the other, seeing two smoldering pits with blood coating their edges along with the sight of a twitching hand near one of them, right before two runestone swords flew past the harvester with sharp whistles and struck into the dirt with hard strikes. Reiko stared at the sight for a moment in confusion, seeing one dark steel sword of electrical energy crackling still while the other had shimmers of frost wafting from it, before a rush of air blew by along with a horrendous crunching noise. Slowly she looked up and saw the haze parting to reveal a colossal tree falling right over her, its massive branches striking into the empty homes behind her with enough force to plow the trees and dwellings straight into the ground with a catastrophic roar.

  “Fuck everyone!” Reiko shouted at the top of her lungs, right before the royal tree slammed down over her with a ground shaking impact.

  All around monsters were thrown into the air from the force, tossed away from the fallen timber into everything else that stood strong from the mighty tremor. A cloud of dust and ashes blew through the forest, knocking mites from the air and into trees while arachne were thrown from their canopies up above. Monsters stumbled and fell from rope bridges while some on the ground were knocked into the air from the shockwave. Elves who were near where the massive tree now lay became speechless from the sight, all of them frozen in place as they stared in horror at seeing the royal tree having fallen before monsters of The Sisterhood grabbed and dragged them away kicking and screaming.

  “The temple! The royal tree! No!” an elf cried out as she was hauled off by trolls.

  “Why is this happening?” another wailed while gremlins pushed her and her daughter along.

  “The gods have turned their backs to us!” an elf sobbed while her daughters were crying into her sides. “How… how could this have happened? What did we ever do to anger them?”

  “Take those elves away, now!” a troll ordered waving her axe in the air. “Grab everything useful in this dump and retreat to the northern camps!”

  As elves were dragged off and their homes were pillaged by The Sisterhood, more of its members were gathering around where the temple remains of the royal tree were completely demolished along with a timber that had served as a home to a few elven residences, all of which were now in a pile of rubble, wood, and debris together after being leveled from the temple’s great fall.

  “Shit,” a witch plainly said. “So… what do we do now?”

  “Our leaders,” a gremlin mentioned. “Weren’t they staying in that palace?”

  “Um… yeah,” another said with a raised eyebrow. “I think they were in there.”

  “Are they dead?” a goblin wondered.

  “They’re immortal,” a troll argued shaking her head. “Our leaders can’t be killed by anything, remember? Surely they’re still alive. They have to be… right?”

  An ogre walked over and started knocking away debris with its hand, the monster sifting through the rubble with a low grunt before shrugging at the others. They all exchanged glances in question before a witch scratched her head with quiet murmur.

  “So… who’s in charge now?”

  A rumbling was heard from the wreckage with bricks and branches sliding loose from it, the monsters around carefully backing up as ice started to grow all over the mound of debris and into pointed shards atop it. Arcs of energy crackled throughout the ruins before a violent explosion erupted from beneath, sending frozen chunks of debris everywhere while a lightning storm shattered more into dust with vicious snaps. Grunts dodged left and right to avoid the flying rubble while others dropped to the ground and covered their heads as ice and rock rained down around them. The rest quickly backed away and watched in awe as their leaders slowly walked out from a cloud of dust and sparks, the twin sisters holding their enchanted weapons while having their heads lowered slightly with their bangs covering the view of their eyes.

  “Amazing,” a troll breathed out.

  “They’re still alive,” a gremlin marveled.

  “They naked,” a goblin chuckled. “They naked now.”

  Jovian and Jacqueline walked out of the demolished space they had created before stopping in the clearing in front of everyone, the sisters then lifting their heads to reveal the dark glares they had while their weapons were emitting sparks and frost around them.

  “You’re still alive,” a troll said. “Incredible. You two really are something else.”

  “Of course they’re still alive,” a witch smugly retorted. “Our leaders are immortal after all, remember? How could you have so little faith in them?”

  “Hey, I never lost faith in them!” the troll shouted back.

  “We knew they would be just fine,” a gremlin casually announced while her sister nodded in agreement. “It was you two that thought they were dead and were talking about becoming the new leaders.”

  “What?” the witch cried out.

  “You filthy lying vermin!” the troll raged.

  “That’s how I heard it as well,” the other gremlin chimed in with a shrug.

  The monsters growled and got ready to break out into a brawl before Jovian started walking forward. As she did a goblin hopped over to her and pranced about anxiously.

  “You strong. You pretty. You naked. You best leader. Best leader. I like you. I like you lot!” she squealed, right before Jovian whacked the monster away with a grunt. The others watched the goblin tumbling away with bones breaking loudly before smacking into a fallen log with a crunch, all eyes then turning back to the naked woman while clearly seeing she was anything but in a good mood.

  “You…” she growled with fury in her multicolored eyes.

  “Wait, please wait,” the troll in front of her begged as she and the witch backed up nervously. “Those were lies you were told, honest.”

  “I would never conspire against you, I swear!” the witch insisted. “You can’t trust gremlins, they’re nothing but diseased rats in this world.”

  “Hey!” the two gremlins shouted while nearby monsters were chuckling at them.

  Slowly Jovian held out her sword, the blade sparking with energy while the witch and troll turned pale from seeing their leader pointing her weapon at them.

  “Please, have mercy!” the troll cried out.

  “I don’t want to die!” the witch wailed as she waved her arms in front of her.

  “I think she wants to play with me, not you two,” a voice said from behind. The monsters turned to see someone walking through the haze towards them with a sword held down to the side, the blade having a crimson glow to it through the smoke as it was letting off flames across its steel.

  “If you would be so kind as to step aside,” Daniel continued as he walked out into view. “It looks like she wants to continue our little game.”

  “A… man?” the troll questioned.

  “What the hell?” the witch said shaking her head. “Where did you come fr
om? Who are you?”

  “Daniel Sorres!” the gemini shouted, both glaring deeply at the human while Jacqueline walked up next to her sister.

  “There’s your answer,” Daniel remarked with a quick glance to the witch.

  “What manner of trickery is this?” Jovian shouted. “The Daniel Sorres we know is nothing but a weak little worm who could never stand up to any woman in his life, let alone the likes of us! Just what the hell is the meaning of this?”

  “How are you still alive?” Jacqueline demanded. “How the fucking hell are you still standing? You’re nothing but a scrawny little boy with a magic butter knife! You’re the weakest of the weak, the lowest of the low! You’re absolutely nothing in this world! You should be dead right now! You should have accepted your fate and died like the insignificant bug you are!”

  Daniel looked himself over for a moment, and then showed the twins a solemn face while giving a mocking bow to them.

  “Sorry to disappoint you, ladies.”

  “Who is that?” a gremlin asked. “Why is there a man here?”

  “Do you two know this guy?” the troll asked.

  “Seriously?” Daniel scoffed with a smirk. “You didn’t even tell them about your boyfriend who you’ve been pining over all this time? I thought you were obsessed with little ol’ me, but here it seems you’re embarrassed to talk about us with your friends. I have to say, that hurts.”

  “Boyfriend?” the witch asked as the monsters turned to the gemini with puzzlement. Jovian roared furiously as she wound back with her sword, the girl slashing forward and sending out an electrical storm in a wide arc. The witch and troll screamed as they were hit with bolts of lightning, the troll shaking uncontrollably with sparks coming from her teeth fillings and axe, while the witch shrieked before busting into flames from the onslaught. Daniel braced himself down on one knee, striking his sword downward into the ground with a loud yell before the lightning torrent struck, a flash of crimson flames erupting before and around him as the magical attack collided with a fiery barrier that wavered and distorted in front of him. Monsters all around stared in surprise as the arc of electricity flowed past, igniting grass and the trunk of the royal tree on fire, while flames curved in a small fireball in the middle of it before Jovian’s attack passed by and slowly dissipated. The charred witch and fried troll dropped to the ground smoking, with all eyes ignoring them and instead focusing on where Daniel was seen kneeling with his sword atop a very small patch of grass that remained untouched below him. He slowly opened his eyes, glaring at Jovian who was staring with even more rage at him with a trembling sword as the human got back onto his feet and yanked his weapon out of the dirt with a sharp pull.