The Nine Legends Book 1: The Hypnotic Eyes

Chapter 6

Skylar and the other woman continue walking closer and closer to the palace. The closer they got, the more secluded and dark the area seemed. It was mysteriously quiet, but Skylar could almost hear non stop screaming in the distance.

"Hey, I never got your name, lady," Skylar remembers. The woman stops and glares at Skylar, but then immediately smiles again.

"Don't call me lady. Call me Rose," Rose smiles. "Tell me your name as well."

"It's Skylar," Skylar says and the two continue moving forward.

They keep walking until they finally arrive at the gates to the palace. Skylar looks at the gate and sees gold bars outlined with red and more guards standing outside, much more than before.

"What is your business here?!" the guard shouts at Rose and Skylar. Rose smirks and walks up to the guard casually.

"Come on now, don't be so mean. My friend and I took a detour and accidentally ended up well... here. We're new here, cut us some slack dear," Rose hugs the guard's arm and flirts with him. He relaxes a little bit, and she takes the opportunity to punch him straight in the jaw, sending him flying through the gate. Startled, all the other men attack her, but Rose is too quick for them to land a single scratch or hit. Within seconds, Rose had instantaneously killed them all.

Stunned, Skylar looks in awe of what just happened.

"What..how'd you defeat them so easily?" Skylar asks Rose, in shock. Rose wipes some blood off her clothes and looks confused.

"What do you mean, how'd I defeat them? They were all so slow and weak, it was clear that I had won from the beginning," Rose says nonchalantly. "There's a hole in the gate thanks to that guy now. Let's go, before more of these inconveniences come. We have no time to waste."

Rose and Skylar continue to venture deeper into the palace. At the outskirts, there was a beautiful and lush garden with a luxurious fountain. There were beautiful flowers everywhere, every variety that existed. The two pass the garden and head straight to the throne room. However, they got caught before they could enter inside. An alarm sounded, alerting almost every guard to head to the garden. Not long until approximately five hundred guards arrive, Skylar prepares to attack. Her eyes glint and a flame forms on her hand, spreading to the other. As both hands held large portions of fire, she slams the floor with them and a massive wave of fire appears, quickly spreading across the garden and killing half of the men and engulfing them in flames. Rose smiles and attacks all of them one by one, beating one of the other. Covered in blood, Rose continues to kill all the guards she encounters, every attack becoming momentum to prepare for the next. The beautiful and charming garden had become a bloodbath to Rose's pleasure.

"Well, I didn't expect there to be this many. Not that I'll complain, more energy for me," Rose walks away from the pile of bodies and makes a horrible attempt of wiping off the blood from her clothes and face. The fountain was stained and completely contaminated with blood. Skylar looks around her surroundings and pauses. She starts to feel slight remorse but catches herself and burns all the bodies to ashes. They both walk away from the sickly sight and they enter a hallway that was enormous for its size.

"How is this palace so-" Skylar gets cut off when Rose puts her hand over Skylar's mouth.

"You idiot! The bigger the area, the more it echoes when we talk! We have to stay quiet!" Rose glares and whispers to Skylar. Both of them carefully infiltrate different areas of the palace, inching closer to the throne room. Skylar stops and realizes something. "Hey Rose?" Skylar asks Rose.

"What? We have to get moving, Skylar!" Rose whispers sharply.

"How are we supposed to roam around looking like this?! Someone will surely recognize that we aren't guests!" Skylar whispers loudly. Rose pulls Skylar's arm to the side and they hide behind a wall.

"I told you to stay quiet! I put a cloaking spell on us before we get in so no one is able to see us! It can only last for so long, so just shut the hell up!" Rose whispers as quietly as possible to Skylar. Skylar nods and the two keep walking.

As they quietly continue to walk, both notice a giant golden door with drawings and writings that look ancient up ahead.

"I think this is it!" Skylar says, gesturing Rose over. Rose looks at the door and punches it, demolishing the entire door, leaving debris everywhere. Skylar runs straight in and Rose tries to stop her.

"Skylar stop!" Rose tries grabbing Skylar's arm, but Skylar runs too fast and rushes in. In the enormous room, there were banners and flags on the walls. In the center, there were small steps leading up to a golden and red throne.

"Huh, where is he?" Skylar looks around confused. She turns her head back to the throne, just with a blink of an eye, there was her target. However, he comes ready with a gun, pointing straight and fires.

BANG!

Skylar stumbles and falls over, her own blood spilling out from her shoulder. She trembles in pain and tries to stand up, but the wound was too much for her.

"Skylar! Damn it!" Rose shouts from afar. Rose looks ahead and sees an old man with a crown, royal clothing and a gun still pointing at Skylar. "The human king!"

"Foolish girl," the king pulls the trigger aiming for Skylar. Rose rushes to Skylar and blocks the bullet with her arm. Rose picks the bullet out, and smoke forms, quickly healing the wound.

"That trick doesn't work on me, old man. Now then, where shall we start?" Rose glares at the king.

"You both are fools. You won't make it out here alive, not on my watch!" the king shoots much more quickly and Rose swiftly dodges all the bullets. She smiles and runs straight at him. The king looks in shock, but then he also smirks, ready to set another trap. All of the sudden, a mysterious gas starts pouring out into the room. Rose immediately turns away, allowing the king to escape. The gas starts spreading closer and closer to Skylar. She grabs Skylar by the arm and hoists her up on her back, then drops her outside of the entrance to catch herself.

Rose runs out safely, but looks to her side to see Skylar has vanished. She looks around, but no signs of her.

"Damn it! No time to look around, I have to get out of here!" Rose thinks to herself. She runs straight across the hallways and encounters more guards blocking her exit. She glares at all of them, furious. "Get out of my way right now!"

"Never! We will all stand our ground for the king!" One of the guards shouted, and the other followed along with him.

"I SAID GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY!" She punches that guard in the face, sending him flying down along with the others. The rest of the ones, who weren't toppled over or knocked out, nervously hold their swords and surround Rose. She punches the ground with all her might, completely shattering the earth. All the guards stumble and a massive wave of gravitational force sends them flying and killing every single one of them. Rose bolts out through the exit, covered in blood. She then walks back to a town, shocking all the citizens there because of her bloody appearance. Rose sighs, feeling a bit relieved and believing that she was safe, away from the palace.

"Looks like I need to clean up," Rose thinks to herself. She walks down a sidewalk and sees a paper posted on the wall next to her. She picks it up to read it, the flier saying:

"Sign up and take the test to get a position in the Human Empire's army! Serve our kingdom to bring us all glory! Sign ups begin from the fifth moon's appearance! Testing begins on the fifth moon's end! Don't be late! This is a once in a year opportunity! Our king shall watch to see the true potential that you possess!"

Rose looks back at the palace and thinks to herself, "Maybe there is a chance to find Skylar somewhere in there. Only one way to find out."