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

Chapter 52

We trudged along the hillside, my legs burning from the effort.

"Why couldn't we just fly over this hill?" Theo complained.

"It isn't that big. We're almost at the summit," I told him, and when I looked up, we were almost at the top.

The animals weren't having any trouble walking up the hill. They didn't even fly! They just casually walked up the hill like they were strolling through the street.

We were about five feet from the summit when I started to see the reason I didn't want to get on top of the hill. The animals must've seen it too, because they were silently hissing and neighing to the other side of the hill.

"Guys... we might have company," Mia obviously stated.

The broken temple was now rebuilt into its full glory. It was about twenty feet tall with a giant statue of Tormenius occupying more than half of the building. A purple glowing moon shone on a small pedestal in the center of the temple- the rune of Tormenius.

That wasn't all, however. I wished that was all.

More than a hundred of the Cursed were making celebratory preparations- by that I mean building cannons, onto giant ships- for the return of their king. I knew that the instant Tormenius woke up, the Cursed would attack the Sky Kingdom, and from what I saw, I had a horrible feeling that we would lose.

Ships much like the ones I had destroyed- large, ghostly pirate ships- were floating a few feet above the ground. There was about a dozen of them or so. I saw a whole army of the Cursed in a battle formation- some with guns, some with spears and shields.

Other Cursed were popping out of nowhere with fancy and shiny materials in their hands. The gateways had become stronger, and the Cursed were using it much more to their advantage. They were robbing important artifacts from every Realm, weakening them further.

The place reeked of death, and I didn't want to stay there any longer than just to destroy Tormenius's rune.

"Guys, maybe we can sneak behind the ships and get into the temple before-" I started to say but was cut off by a booming, familiar voice.

"AH! My favorite group of Heroes!" Tormenius's rune glowed as he spoke. "Look friends! We have more guests for our party!"

His voice seemed to radiate power. I felt weaker and weaker as he spoke. My encounter with the Chief Mistress probably wasn't much helpful either.

The Cursed all faced us, and the instant that happened, I knew we were dead. There was no way we could ram our way through that many of the Cursed and manage to destroy the rune in time. Either we would be late, or we would die trying.

The Cursed didn't attack, however. They waited for their master's command.

"So, how are you, Leon? Have you realized that you have lost?"

"Not yet, we haven't," Theo chimed in.

One of the Cursed tried to lash out at us, but his friend pulled him back.

"Look, how about a deal?" Tormenius said, though I knew the instant he took over the Realms he would just kill all of us. "I'll spare you, and you help us fight against the people of the Sky. A special something would be very helpful in defeating them..."

Suddenly, my heart started to glow purple with the shape of a lightning bolt.

"Stop that!" I screamed.

Many of the Cursed broke into Ooh's and Aah's before the lightning stopped glowing and they gave a collective "Awww!"

"So, what do you say?"