“You can’t, there are innocent elves nearby. It would be too dangerous for me to even use my sword against those monsters with the elves so close to them.”
“But the elves are shooting at us,” Pip said pointing to where more arrows were striking against her barriers. “They’re not being nice at all. Why are they trying to kill us? We’re just trying to save them.”
Daniel observed as the dark cloaked rangers kept firing at them while the others were watching anxiously from behind, the elven women and children being closely guarded and held onto by other monsters that kept them in place.
“I don’t think they all want to be saved, Pip,” Daniel reasoned. “Looks like some are siding with The Sisterhood. The others don’t look too eager to do the same though.”
“Daniel, what should we do then?” Pip worried, watching as her barrier started to crackle and flicker above them from another strike by the ogre. “I can’t keep us safe here for much longer. That big monster is being too rough.”
The ogre swung its club again and again against the magical shield, the barriers flickering and struggling to hold strong as the giant monster roared and slammed its weapon atop it. The beast growled then struck its fist against the barrier and pounded on it a few times before looking behind at something, the lumbering giant then slowly stepping back while the archers and gremlins ceased fire. Daniel and Pip watched as the flames and green gas outside the dome blew away, with Jovian and Jacqueline then being seen walking up next to the barrier and staring them down.
“You can’t run from us,” Jovian scorned.
“You can’t hide from us,” Jacqueline vowed.
“Nobody escapes us,” they said in unison. “Nobody ever escapes from us. We’re going to make you scream, Daniel. We’re going to-”
“Oh my god, just shut up,” Daniel groaned. “Nobody wants to hear your bullshit. Nobody wants to hear you running your mouths. And in case you didn’t notice, I’m not running from you. I came to you to fight, not to hide.”
“How very brave,” the gemini mocked, the two girls then snarling as they wound back with their weapons to strike. Each of them built up electrical and ice energy around them while Pip fluttered in front of Daniel and held her hands out, the tiny fairy focusing her magic with rising tension as she saw the amount of power that was going to come crashing down on them.
“Now you die!” the gemini yelled together.
“You first!” a tiny voice replied. The sisters froze as they watched Reiko suddenly whizzing by, swiping her spectral cutter through Jovian’s head before stopping right in front of Pip’s barrier. The harvester cackled joyously as she flew around and sliced her ethereal blade through Jacqueline’s face, the tiny monster then halting with poise as everyone just stared at her in silence. After a moment Reiko blinked then noticed the twins still standing while watching her.
“Um… okay, wait a sec,” she said, then hastily swung her blade through Jovian’s head. After that got no reaction she cleared her throat then quickly flew over to swipe through Jacqueline’s, again getting no response.
“Okay, wait,” she said before doing the same thing again and again, with the twins glancing to each other then back to the harvester as she looked them over in puzzlement.
“Um, hold on. This never happens to me, I swear,” she insisted before furiously swiping her ghostly blade through Jovian’s chest.
“What is this thing?” Jacqueline asked as Reiko flew over and attempted the same thing to her bosom.
“It’s annoying me,” Jovian coldly remarked as the harvester tried in vain to cleave their souls.
“Alright, what the hell?” Reiko complained hopping about. “What gives? Why can’t I take your souls? This isn’t how it’s supposed to work, you bitches!”
“Reiko,” Daniel spoke up. “You can’t take its soul. It can’t be killed that way.”
“Don’t you mean they can’t be killed that way?” Reiko retorted.
“No, it.”
“They. There’s two of them, you moron.”
“And there’s only one soul between them,” Daniel argued, with Reiko turning back to the gemini with a puzzled look. “And I assure you, you can’t take it from them. You can’t kill them. A deathmare couldn’t even take their soul away, they can’t be killed like that.”
“They can’t be killed?” Pip nervously asked.
“That’s… not fair,” Reiko mentioned holding up a finger.
“Too bad,” Jovian said raising her sword up, lightning building around the blade as Reiko floated back and nervously held a hand out. “Let’s see if this kills you, shall we?”
Reiko saw the gemini swing its blade down towards her, trailing a bright light with arcs of electricity zapping around it, before the Hellfire’s Edge moved into view over her, parrying Jovian’s Hellstorm off to the side towards the fallen royal tree with a sharp clang. Pip witnessed in awe as Daniel had charged through her casting ring and deflected Jovian’s strike, the two swords slashing into the ground while casting out a torrent of fire and lightning that barreled into the fallen tree before exploding violently. Daniel whacked his sword into the ground along with Jovian’s, backhanded the woman with all his strength, then grabbed and threw her over into Jacqueline before the blonde could lift her sword up. Reiko looked around in bewilderment of what just happened before seeing Daniel grabbing his sword along with Jovian’s, the harvester slowly turning up to him in stunned silence as he yanked the weapons out of the charred dirt and glared at the gemini while standing over her.
“You’re not killing her or anyone else today,” he boldly declared. “I won’t allow you to take another life, you damned monsters.”
“Daniel!” the gemini cursed as they got back onto their feet, with Jacqueline holding her sword tightly while Jovian clenched her fists with a murderous glare at the human. “Dammit, someone kill that fucking human now!”
Reiko glanced to them then back to Daniel while failing to speak, the harvester then seeing the ogre nearby swinging its club towards him, the monster roaring with bloodshot eyes right before an arrow struck into its skull with a crunch. The brute groaned with eyes rolling upward as it swayed off-balance and dropped with a heavy thud, its club falling to the ground behind Daniel who glanced over at seeing the ogre lying dead next to him. Everyone turned and saw an elf clad in green garb near the crowd holding her pose after shooting the brute dead, her eyes then focusing on Daniel as he saw the monster staring at him in marvel while slowly lowering her bow with her brunette locks draped over her bust.
“Eleran!” a dark ranger shouted. “What are you doing?”
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” the elf stated, her gaze moving around from Daniel to Pip and Reiko before back to him again. “I don’t know who you are or where you came from, but… if you truly stand against The Sisterhood… if you truly fight for us… then I will stand with you.”
“You traitor!” the ranger scorned as she turned to aim at the elf. “We are allied with The Sisterhood, that is the will of your priestess!”
“Sivil is not my priestess!” Eleran argued as she drew another arrow and aimed at the ranger. “These fucking monsters are not my allies! Those two harbingers of death are not my gods! You are not fit to guard our people! And as such, you have no command over me!”
“Our leaders demand that human’s head,” the ranger viciously retorted. “That fairy needs to be crushed like the horrible bug she is. And that fucked up zombie fairy has been terrorizing our people.”
“Hey!” Reiko shouted while hopping about. “I’m not a zombie fairy!”
“Yet you would dare side with the likes of them over your own people?” the ranger demanded.
Eleran glanced to Daniel, seeing him along with everyone watching her while another tremor rolled through the forest. Pip lowered her barriers as her glow shifted back to blue, Daniel held both enchanted swords at his sides while keeping an eye on the elf, and Reiko was flipping off the dark ranger with
muttered obscenities while bobbing in the air.
“No,” Eleran answered, turning back to the ranger with a harsh glare. “Not over my people. For my people.”
With that she fired her arrow, striking the ranger in the chest with a hard impact. The elf fired her arrow on reflex, the bolt streaking through the air and piercing Eleran in the shoulder, knocking her down with a scream as both elves dropped to the ground. The second they hit the dirt the elves held among the monsters quickly rebelled, all of them tackling their oppressive sisters and grunts of The Sisterhood as they couldn’t hold it in anymore.
“We have had enough!” an elf shouted as she started punching a goblin in the face while another was jamming her knee into the monster’s gut.
“You fucking traitors!” a dark ranger scorned as she wrestled with another elf.
“Look who’s talking!” the elf shot back before grabbing an arrow from the ranger’s quiver and jamming it into her eye. The monster shrieked and kicked about underneath as the elf repeatedly struck her former comrade in the face. A goblin grabbed hold of her hair before two elven children jumped on its back, smashing stones against her head and dropping her down with a yell as they mercilessly bashed her face in. The elf grabbed the fallen ranger’s bow and started shooting arrows, striking salamander women and other dark rangers in the head while her friends grabbed sticks and rocks to beat the monsters who ran at them.
“You fucking assholes had this coming!” an elf yelled as she whacked a troll in the face with a wooden plank, again in the hand that broke and dropped her axe, and then once more onto the head which broke the board and dropped the monster to the ground with weak groan. Another elf ran by, grabbed the axe, and threw it through the air in a sharp spin that connected to an arachne’s face, the monster dropping back as the elf ran over and kicked the steel further into its skull.
“Bad elf!” a goblin shouted as she tackled one to the ground and tried stabbing her with her dagger, the elf batting away her hands and face before grabbing a rock and bashing the fiend’s jaw aside with a loud snap. Rolling them over the elf used the goblin’s dagger to relentlessly stab her face with, blood splattering onto her green tunic while obscenities were flowing from her mouth like a waterfall.
“Insolence!” a salamander woman scorned, pinning an elf down and spraying molten bile on her face. The elf let out a gurgled scream as she was melted away before another ran over and tackled the salamander to the ground, wrestling with her and spinning about on the dirt before grabbing her head with her arm and snapping the monster’s neck with a loud crack.
“Stop them!” a gremlin yelled throwing her bag. It struck an elf and burst into flames before another ran over and body slammed the gremlin down onto the dirt, plunging her fingers into the monster’s eyes before grabbing the belt with its pouches and throwing it at a group of trolls and goblins. Hitting against a troll’s chest the bags burst, sending flames and noxious gas all across the screaming and choking monsters that stumbled about and dropped amidst the deadly haze. The elf smirked at her kills before being struck down by an arrow, the dark ranger further away taking aim again before getting shot through her eye.
“Fuck The Sisterhood!” Eleran yelled as she fired another arrow from the ground, the elf quickly launching bolts through the air and between trees to strike down her traitorous sisters. Sivil’s rangers returned fire while grunts of The Sisterhood struggled to detain the rebellious elves who were attacking them with anything they could get their hands on. Elves quickly grabbed bows and quivers from the ground, arrows soon flying wildly between them through the woods as monsters from both sides were pierced to trees and dropped to the forest floor dead.
“Well,” Daniel said. “That escalated quickly.”
Looking forward he tensed up as the gemini rushed at him, with Jacqueline lunging with a downward slash of her sword that met with a flashing crimson barrier just before hitting him. The gemini pushed against the barricade while Jovian struck her fist into it, the shield flickering and crackling loudly as Pip fluttered over Daniel’s shoulder while focusing her magic with a stern expression on her face.
“You can’t stop us,” the gemini scorned. “We will kill you all. There’s nothing you can do to beat us.”
“We may not be able to kill you,” Daniel agreed. “But we’ll still stop you. Someone has to.”
Pip quickly waved her arms outward, throwing her barrier forward and pushing the gemini back with skidding feet, before Daniel ran towards them with both swords lighting up at his sides.
“It’s you who won’t win!” Daniel yelled as he slashed forward with both weapons, crossing the blades with a screech as they struck through the chests of the two twins, the ensuing firestorm and lightning barrage blasting the sisters and their bones back into a fiery haze. The elves and monsters in the woods stopped and watched the magical display that knocked the gemini away and also demolished more of the royal tree that it crashed through afterwards.
“God damn,” an elf softly said in awe.
“Who is that human?” an arachne hissed.
Daniel turned around and started walking back to where Pip and Reiko were just staring at him in wonder, both watching as he had a focused look in his eyes while smoke and static haze billowed behind him. He slowly breathed out before quickly regaining his fighting wrath as he swiped the Hellstorm to the left, casting out a web of electrical energy that shocked a quickly approaching goblin and troll while frying a mite that dropped to the ground smoking, before following through with his Hellfire’s Edge to knock the troll’s axe out of her hand that was quickly sliced off, then used the fiery blade to slice her face off as well. Ramming the Hellstorm through the goblin’s chest he gave another hard slash to the screaming troll with his other blade before kicking the croaking goblin off the other.
“Where did this guy come from?” an elf asked shaking his head.
Daniel took another few slow breaths before turning to where a massive rupture of ice and crystalline shards blasted out from the burning tree, sending steam and debris flying while the frozen wave of spires raced towards him. Gripping the Hellfire’s Edge he threw all his weight into his swing, striking the freezing spikes that reached out for him before a fireball erupted and collided with the wall of snow and ice, exploding it into steam and water while throwing frozen shards wildly back through the air. Monsters all around stared in surprise at seeing Daniel standing with his swords held down at his sides, his focus now set on where the destroyed wall of ice had been cast out from. Smoke, steam, and cinders fluttered through the air as Daniel felt his body surging with adrenaline while also feeling something else pulling from his center. Taking another slow breath his eyes glanced down to the Hellfire’s Edge then Hellstorm, the blades emitting powerful auras of fire and lightning while at the same time doing something else that he began to take further notice of.
‘I can feel fatigue creeping over me. Each time I use these swords for their magic it’s draining me. Their power isn’t all their own, there’s still a tax to be paid by me for wielding them.’
Before Daniel could move his attention was brought back to the ice before him that exploded from behind, the remains shattering from the force while large blocks of ice erupted from the royal tree, tearing apart more of its ravaged trunk and growing outward to reveal two girls slowly standing back up before them. Jovian and Jacqueline glared at Daniel with seething rage while Jacqueline was tapping her sword against her palm, the two then walking forward while Daniel kept his stance as he saw the twins were nowhere near finished just yet.
“How long?” they loudly demanded. “How long are you going to continue this pathetic game of yours, Daniel? You can’t kill us. Nobody can kill us! Nobody can stop us from doing what we want! You’re going to die! You and your friends are all going to die and there’s nothing you can do about it!”
“Lovers,” Daniel corrected, with the gemini stopping with frustrated grunts. “They’re my lovers, not friends. And you’ll n
ever take them away. You’ll never be allowed to run wild and do as you please, killing the innocent and spreading your anarchy throughout Eden at your whim. I will stop you. I will fight you. So long as there’s breath in me, I will fight you with everything I have, everything, so that these elves, their children, and all the other races in Eden can live peacefully in this world!”
“What is he blabbering about?” a dark ranger scoffed. “Enough of all this. Take him out, rangers!”
“Um, Krin?” a ranger hesitantly said next to her. Krin turned around then jumped in surprise as she saw them and the remaining six dark cloaked elves being aimed at by many other pissed off elves with arrows while having them surrounded. Looking around she saw trolls and gremlins being beaten to death by angry elves brandishing branches and clubs while a mite was being stomped into the dirt by several children. An arachne struggled to hold onto an elf before her sister ran over and jammed a dagger into the fiend’s head, taking her to the ground and hacking her face apart with vicious yells. A salamander woman quickly sprinted through the woods, weaving around trees in an effort to get away before an arrow streaked through the air between the crowded timbers and pierced her skull. Krin held in her growl before seeing Eleran standing before her, the elf holding her wounded shoulder while scowling at her former guardian.
“Don’t be stupid,” Krin warned. “There are thousands of monsters to the north of us, and their immortal leaders are less than twenty feet away from you. If you turn against your sisters-”
“No!” Eleran shouted back. “You turned on your sisters! You turned on your people! You turned on Green Haven! We are done bowing to the likes of you! That ends now!”
“It’s the only way we’re going to survive, we have to join them or die! It’s the only way we can have a future! There’s no other path for us to take!”
“Yes there is,” Eleran countered before turning her eyes over to Daniel. He watched over his shoulder as the elves of Green Haven regained control of the area while Pip and Reiko were keeping a close eye on the gemini before them. “I believe a new path has opened for us.”
Chronicles of Eden - Act XII Page 10