That's So Wizard

Chapter 55 - Happy New Year?

The final night of the year eventually approached, and along with it came an uneasy stillness. Kevin had gone home to his parents to spend the holiday with them, while the rest of the crew enjoyed the peace and quiet, not quite knowing when it would pass. Tyreth and Noah would hopefully keep themselves busy for a long enough time to allow all of them to take a breather.

Knocking drummed against Eldrian's door as he lay on the couch on his own. He arose, and made his way over to answer it, and on the other side was an immediately recognized face—Arlandria the elf.

As usual, there was an alien aura to her like none other he'd experienced before their first meeting. It was like seeing Lucy or other demons, but there was a bright, unnatural beauty, like an angel of mythology. She had a smooth grace to her movements and her words.

This time, however, there was no smile on her face. She was troubled.

"Greetings, Eldrian," she said. "I wish to speak with you about something. May I come inside?"

He nodded, and motioned a hand into his apartment. "Of course. What's up?"

They made their way inside, and the two sat upon his sofa for a quiet moment. Her emerald gaze averted to stare to nothing but space, but after a brief pause, her focus moved to him as she began to speak.

"Tyreth has the Blade of Shadows."

"Already?" Eldrian replied. "That was a lot faster than I expected. I wonder how he got it from Noah. Well, that's pretty much what we wanted. Now we might have only one person to deal with for now. But how do you know?"

"I found him... or maybe he found me."

"What? Are you all right?"

She nodded. "He didn't hurt me. I don't exactly know why. Maybe it's because I'm not human, or maybe it's because he doesn't care. But this was a bad idea. Now that he has that sword, he'll stop at nothing to succeed his other goals."

"Yeah. We still need to stop him. I bet he's not done hurting people."

"That's why I came here. I found the location of his hideout. I think it might be where the gateway portal is that brought him to Earth to begin with."

"And if we destroy it, he might struggle to come back."

"It's worth a try."

"We need to go now then, right?"

"Yes," Arlandria said with a nod of her head. "He was heading that way not long ago."

Eldrian pulled out his phone, and he began to tap his finger on the screen, until it called up Daveon. It ringed, and ringed, and ringed some more, but eventually the druid did pick up on the other side.

There was naught but chaos on the other side. There were explosions, sounds of hefty breathing, and finally, Daveon's voice struggling to speak in the heat of the moment.

"I can't talk right now, Eldrian!" he shouted.

"What's wrong? We need help shutting down Tyreth."

"Deena and Renatta are here with me. We're a little busy. Don't worry, though. We've got this one. If you got stuff with Tyreth to do, get that done. We'll be fine on our own."

"Geeze. I can't leave you guys for a day without some kind of battle happening."

"Oh yeah. You're one to talk. Anyway, I gotta go! Sorry, Eldrian."

The call ended. Eldrian and Arlandria looked to one another with a silent expression. The wizard fell back against the seat of the couch, and let out a lengthy sigh.