War of Fire

A Demonic Battle

It took me a moment to gather myself after what had just happened. I just couldn't believe Laurence was gone, that he was taken by the shadow knights yet again. How did we let that happen. All I could hear now what voices that kept repeating the same two words: Your fault. I gave in, and started to hyperventilate, until I heard Lucinda's voice breaking in, yelling my name, shaking me furiously. She held up my head to look into her eyes, out of my hands. "Aphmau! We need to go. The faster we could get out of here, the faster we... we can save Laurence, and we don't have much time before it's too late. We need to go, now." she repeated. I stare at her blankly for a second before nodding, and getting up. I brushed off my  muddy pants, and opened the double doors to the room with the orb. It took all three of us to push against it, and get it open, and when it did, it creaked loudly because how long it's been since it'd been opened. We walked down the short hallway, before reaching the dark oak table, with a velvet cloth covering it. The orb sat on a glass prop with black cloth under it. I reached my hands out to get it, but it was too late before Lucinda yelled for  me to stop- I had already went flying, banging against the door at the end of the room. "Aphmau!" Lucinda said, and jogged towards me alongside Travis. "Aph, it's not that easy. It has to be someone with magiks, or something like that, in their stronger form, reaching in, or using a staff (like mine) to reach in and get the orb. I'll get it." she explained, and I nodded. I got up slowly, and walked back to the table with them. Lucinda took her staff off of her back, and it started to gather white and light yellow particles around it. When it seemed to be fully 'charged', she  slowly stuck it into the force field. She looked focused, and I could only imagine that it took quite a bit of energy to get out. I saw the invisible force field to eventually show itself with thin, glowing white cracks coming off the area where her staff was. A white light began to then grow from the orb, until we couldn't see anything anymore. My hand went up to my eyes to block it, but it didn't do much. The light lingered for a few seconds, but when it finally started fading away, I saw the white orb floating above Lucinda's staff. She reached out her other hand and grabbed from where it was, and from then on we had it. "Okay, let's go. We need to finish this, get off the island, and get Laurence out of there." Travis said, and we started walking towards the door. We exited, and started climbing up to the area the rift was that led to the pocket dimension. We reached the top, and saw the barely noticeable rippling in the sky above us. "I think all we need to do is throw the orb up at it, and when they have contact, it will open for a thirty second period. We'll have it when we get in, too, though, don't worry about that." Travis explained to us. "Okay. Let's do it," I say. "Ready, Lucinda?" I ask her, looking over. "Yeah. Let's hope this works." she replies, as she tosses the orb up, directly above us. "It will," Travis said, just before the rift started to glow. This was different from the other flashes, though, given that this one gave off a small wind, pushing my hair into my eyes, and behind me. When I opened my eyes again, All I saw was black, purple, silver, and hints of blue. But as I looked around, I saw Lucinda and Travis on either side of me, to about twelve yards. We met in the middle, and Travis said that this was it, and the Demon Warlock should be here. But we noticed something immediately about Travis as he was saying this: he had completely changed, with gray skin, purple eyes, and had a purple tail and horns. When he noticed me and Lucinda staring, he looked like he understood. "Travis...?" Lucinda started. "Oh, yeah... My dad passes some traits down, I guess..." he trailed off, and I guessed he didn't really know else how do explain. I can see where he's coming from with that. "It involuntarily happens when I'm near this kind of energy, or him. But we can't talk about this now, we need to do this. He probably already knows we're here, or at least me." Travis explained a bit more. "Agreed. Let's go." I say.  Lucinda and I looked around for where he was, but Travis had already started walking. When he noticed we weren't following, and were looking around he said, "Oh, he's this way. He's not the only one who can track a family member." Lucinda and I exchanged a look, and followed him. It seemed to be a bunch of big spheres connected. We had to go through a few before we reached one that looked different from the others, or in other words, not completely empty. We stood directly in front of a miniature stage, made up of what looked like burnt obsidian, diamond, and amethyst. And standing on top of it all was who we were looking for- no one but the Demon Warlock. For a second, he just stayed there, and eyed us from where he was, and then he teleported down to where we were. I also couldn't help but notice how he was paying a bit more attention to Travis at first, and it's obvious why. Travis stood where he was, looking as uncomfortable as ever, and avoiding eye contact at all costs. He then turned to me, and I was unsure why. I then, automatically put my head down, and he stayed there for a good two minutes. He moved to Lucinda, and did the same for her. What was he even doing. Travis and I still looked at the ground, but then looked slightly up at each other. Travis drew his sword, which had turned red earlier, and I drew mine. Lucinda took out her staff, and we held them at our sides. No words had to be spoken, we all knew what was going on. In that moment, a sword with a navy blue handle and a fiery orange blade materialized in the Demon's hand. He stood back up where he was originally, and stared at us for yet another moment with his dark purple eyes, ones that reminded me too much of a Nether portal, which reminded me of... No, I couldn't think of that now, no matter how much I wanted to. The Demon Warlock must've realized that I was distracted, so he teleported down and tried to strike at me, but just in time, Lucinda used her magiks to pull me out of the way. The Demon scowled, and then Lucinda took a strike at him by shooting a yellow ray of light at him. He teleported out of the way, and that was when I realized how hard this was going to be. Travis then took a swing at him with his sword, and this time, the Demon  blocked it with his own. When he was distracted, Lucinda and I both knew  what we were going to do. She teleported me to his other side, and I held out my sword. She fired at him, perfectly, and he teleported to the side. Just as we thought would happen, he teleported right where my sword was held out to. The chance we had taken worked, and we hit him, but it wasn't deep enough. It was just one hit, so I took out my sword just in time to clash with his when it came down on me. He had the height advantage, since he was floating slightly above me, and that I wasn't the tallest person on the earth. My arms shook as I pushed against his sword with mine, but somewhere inside, I felt a sudden burst of determination. My sword got larger, and golden particles formed around me. What was happening?! I had no idea... But the only thing I knew that it was going to help me. I had a new strength, and I pushed him all the way back, and he hit the wall. Hard. "Lucinda, NOW!" I yelled. She nodded, and  pointed her staff at him while he was down, and shot. It hit him in the chest, and that ended it. We had won. Just as we started to walk away, a glowing came from where we had knocked him down. "... Not dead." Travis said simply. "Oh, no..." was all I could really think of to say. We stood together, poised. But nothing happened, not for a while. It seemed like a ghost of him coming toward us, but he did not do anything. He just stood there, and looked at me, and... smiled? It wasn't a good one, however, and it made me feel sick inside. He looked at Lucinda next. "Where's your orb, Lucinda?" he asked. This was the first time he'd spoken, and his voice was incredibly raspy, and seemed to echo across the whole pocket dimension. And, second, how on earth did he know her name?! "Uh..." she started, looking in her bag. I could easily see the panic in her eyes when she saw that it wasn't there. She immediately turned back around, and said, "Where'd you put it?!" she sounded infuriated. "Nothing! Honest." he said smugly. But just as he said that, a glowing came from the area where we had entered this place, and it grew stronger until it reached us. When I looked back in front of us, the Demon Warlock was gone. But where was the light coming from? It grew brighter until we couldn't see, and when the slight wind came, I knew we were more than likely leaving. When the light cleared, we were back in the forest, only we were on the ground outside the room. This time, we weren't separated, though. I counted everyone to see if we were all here. Me, one, Travis, two, Lucinda, three, and...-Wait! What?! One more person here. 

                                                                           Four.