War for the Skies (completed) (Book 1 of the Heroes of the Realms series)

Chapter 30

Who do I see in front of me?

You guessed it.

Death.

"Hello, Death," I replied, calmly.

"Hello, hero," Death snorted.

"Hero?"

"You destroyed that whole fleet of ships! You destroyed half of the army of the Cursed! Stop being modest, child!"

I had done it. For a second I was doubtful about it until Death told me it was true. I had saved my friends.

"But I thought you were taken from your job..." I said.

"Persuading you dad was easy, now it's your turn," a seat appeared behind him, and he sat down, pulling one leg above the other. "Persuade me to not send you to the Cursed Lands, and make you become one of them."

"What about the thing I just did?!" I screamed and pointed at the wall even though that was clearly not where I did my heroic act.

"Well, I mean that was heroic for your side, but you killed many who had already been killed, so I cannot let you pass on that one..." I could see that he was smirking behind his mask.

A mug of tea appeared in his hand and he took a sip.

"Those people were bad people! Why else did you send them to the Cursed Lands?" I asked.

"To be fair, they were still people, and you just killed them the second time."

I tried slapping my forehead but my hand went through my head. "Fine then, send me to the Cursed Lands."

"You won't bargain?" he scoffed. "Well what's the fun about this?"

"There's no persuading you, Death, you deny all I say, so what do you want?" I threw up my hands in despair.

"Perhaps I can make you my slave here for eternity..." he stroked his chin.

"Sure, do it, then!" I said.

He continued stroking his chin and then leaned forward and sighed. "It would be unfair... what you did a second ago, even Aspenbarrow wouldn't be a well enough reward for you... so what do you want?"

I looked at him in shock.

"Are you possessed?"

"Before I change my mind, child!" he got off of his chair. "I can give you another chance. I will bring you back to life where you left off. You won't die in that explosion but you will destroy the fleet. And you cannot tell anyone I did this, or they'll all beg for their lives back. Also this is just once. If you kill yourself again with this lightning bolt thing, you won't come back, deal?" he stuck out his hand.

I looked at his hand, and wondered if he was telling the truth or if after I shook his hand a death spell would kill me or something.

"Deal," I tried to shake his hand but my hand went through his.

He nodded and took a few steps back. A huge staff appeared in his hand, as tall as Death himself, and a purple mist started to gather around it. Death started to mutter a bunch of words and then picked up the staff. The mist was knee-deep now.

He quickly thrust the end of his staff to my stomach, launching me backwards (I have no idea how, even though I was a spirit) and then the world started shifting.

I felt as if I was flying through a tube, and on the walls of it, I noticed all of the things that had happened, the explosions of the war, my chat with Death, it was as if it was rewinding itself. The feeling felt strange, and made me nauseous.

I continued flying through the tube of memories, until I noticed the perfect timing of where I had to go. I looked up and I saw the end of the tube, with the image of me exploding and destroying the fleet. I started sailing toward it, even though the sight wasn't what you would want to see as a television commercial every now and then.

And then my head and body went into the memory and I passed out, again.

I was blinded when I opened my eyes, and shut them again.

The explosions and light were enough to almost burn my clothes off. I heard tiny screams, but couldn't tell who they were from, from all of the chaos that was going on.

But it didn't take long for gravity to take effect.

I opened my eyes and started falling toward the ground at very high speed, and the wind started to whip against my face making it feel like my skin was being pulled off and sent backwards.

I continued free falling, and noticed some other purple figures doing so as well, screaming wildly as they were doing so.

I was about a five hundred meters away from the ground, and that distance was shortening fast.

My heart was beating as fast as I was falling, so I tried to calm myself down.

It's easy, you've done it before, I thought to myself.

I closed my eyes and stuck out my hands. I tried to control the wind under me, but I had done so much in just a few minutes, and I couldn't feel the fullness of air around me. It felt empty, and unable to carry me.

I focused again, trying to bring up the wind to bounce on my chest and glide me down, but no luck.

I was about two hundred meters away from meeting Death the second time in a day.

One last gust of wind would be able to make me land safely.

I stuck out my hands again and shut my eyes tighter. I focused on the wind all around me, surrounding me, having the power to pick me up.

I concentrated all of that under me, and I could feel something forming, enough to hold me up. I didn't lose focus as I continued plummeting downwards.

It wasn't very uplifting (the puns are killer right now.)

Seeing the ground fly towards my face as if it was slamming into me, rather than me slamming into it, , made me so sick, I almost vomited in the air (I wonder how that would've turned out)

But finally I reached the air ball that I had created, which stopped me from slamming into the ground like some sort of very soft, invisible bed.

Then the air spread away, and I did fall to the ground, but with not as much intensity.

I was guessing my friends were thinking that I was one of the Cursed as I fell down, so I started walking towards them.

Some of the Cursed landed around me, splattering into purple dust as they slammed into the had ground.

I continued walking.

Groggily, I finally made it a few feet from my friends when they noticed I was alive.

My sister dropped the girl, and all of them ran toward me, and my sister gave me a huge bear hug that made me wish I had slammed into the floor rather than getting my ribs cracked.

Theo gave me a pat on the back, and Aurora gave me a sisterly hug.

"I can't believe you- what- how?" my sister panted as she held my shoulders.

"I'll explain later, right now, we have a person to interrogate."