Outcasts and Royals

Chapter 18

"Does anybody have a plan?" Madeline panicked.

"Get me back up to the ceiling. I have an idea," Erik said.

"If you say so," Katherine replied.

Spot was steered back to the candelabra the boys had clung to earlier. Erik left Spot's back and held onto the rope securing the large candelabra to the ceiling.

"What is he doing?" Damien questioned aloud as Erik pulled a knife out of his sheath and started cutting the rope.

Erik motioned to them to move away from him. Once Mecuris was directly under the candelabra, Erik cut the rope. It fell right on the evil wizard, who turned into a pile of ashes.

"Is he defeated?" Madeline whispered to the others.

Suddenly, Mercuris rose from the ashes in his dragon form and was on fire!

"Woah, I did not see that coming!" Sylvia exclaimed.

"Well, this changes the playing field. He must have transformed into some type of phoenix dragon," Katherine added.

"How do you kill a phoenix then?" Damien asked.

"I remember reading about this in a book once. I think it said to throw an iron stake into its heart, and it should do it," Madeline replied.

"Alright, if you bring us down to the ground, I can try to get out of here and find some iron while some of the others stay here and keep Mercuris busy," Damien suggested.

"I'll come with you," Madeline added.

They lowered Spot to the ground so Damien and Madeline could escape the chapel through the broken window.

"Alright, what do we do now?" Erik asked as Spot flew back up to the ceiling again.

"We just keep him busy until they return," Sylvia replied before an intense blast of fire came toward them.

"I hope that's soon. Spot, fly down!" Katherine commanded as she, Sylvia, and Erik ducked below.

Five minutes after Damien and Madeline left, Nathaniel emerged from his hiding spot.

"Well, if two of the five people who decided to stay and fight left, I guess I can leave and just come back once I know everything is safe to take credit," Nathaniel thought as he observed the flying dragons.

However, when he was less than a foot away from the broken window, Damien and Madeline had returned. Unaware that Nathaniel was trying to escape, Damien knocked him out with his flailing hand holding the iron stake.

"Oops, sorry, Your Highness. I didn't see you there," Damien apologized to the unconscious Prince.

"Forget about that numbskull; get over here and hand us that stake!" Sylvia demanded.

However, refusing to be defeated, Mercuris began to shoot another blast of fire toward Damien, who was still holding the stake.

"Damien, toss it over here!" Madeline called out.

"We'll try to keep him distracted for you," Sylvia replied from Spot's back.

"Get me down there; I have an idea, but it'll only work if you can get Mercuris down to the ground as well. Can I also borrow your sword?" Katherine whispered.

"If you say so," Erik answered as he gave Katherine his sword while being concerned about what she was thinking of doing.

Spot flew back down to the ground so Katherine could get off his back.

Luckily for Katherine, Mercuris went low to the floor to be on the same level as Spot. She ran behind Mercuris and sliced off a large chunk of Mercuris' tail, which immediately turned to ash using Erik's sword.

"Oh, man! I cannot believe I just did that!" Katherine thought as she swept away the ashes so Mercuris couldn't regain his tail.

Mercuris tried to fly again; however, he fell to the ground not too long afterward.

"He's grounded; get the stake over here!" Erik yelled to Damien, who was holding the stake.

Damien tossed the stake over to Erik, who caught it, and with all his might, Erik threw the stake directly into Mercuris's heart, defeating him once and for all.

"Let me just tell you, it's convenient that all of us have an impeccable aim and are extremely good at catching things," Sylvia said as Mercuris slowly returned to his human form due to him losing his powers.

"I think we can let everyone back in now," Damien told the others, thinking about everyone who had left the chapel before Mercuris turned into a dragon. Damien opened the doors, and the wedding guests slowly began to fill the chapel.

"Is everyone alright?" Francis asked as he entered the room.

"Yes, we are. Especially after I, Prince Nathaniel Frederik Oliver Gregorious Clancy Humphrey Archibald Leopold Edmund Kristian the Ninth of Xebia, heroically slew the villain with this mighty sword while he held the rest of them captive," replied Nathaniel. He was now standing over Mercuris's dead body with Erik's sword in the stake wound.

"What? It was us who defeated Mercuris! You just hid under one of the benches until he was dead!" Sylvia objected, looking ready to attack.

"Stop spewing out lies, you criminal; no one even cares about you. Now, let's get back to the important stuff. My wedding to the love of my life, Princess Madeline," Nathaniel said as he pulled Madeline back to the front of the altar.

"I'm the love of your life? Spending the last few days with you has made me realize that that statement is nothing more than a lie. There's no one in this world that you could love more than yourself!" Madeline corrected as she began to whap Nathaniel with her bouquet.

"Madeline, please," Nathaniel pleaded.

"It doesn't help how you ordered four innocent people to be executed for selfish reasons, treat everyone around you horribly, and try to take credit for something you didn't do! You have made me realize how much of a fool I truly am for having fallen in love with you odious knave!" Madeline yelled as she continued to attack Nathaniel with her bouquet, which was slowly beginning to lose its petals.

"I didn't know she had that anger in her," Madeline's mother, Queen Leila told her husband, King Kaleb, as Madeline tossed her now petalless bouquet over her shoulder while walking down the steps at the front of the chapel.

"The wedding's off. We shall still have the feast, though, in honor of the four friends who defeated Mercuris the Malicious once and for all," Madeline told the crowd.