Breaking Light

Chapter 9

The air pulsated with foul magic and corruption. Mist covered most of the bazaar ruins. There was an eerie silence that drowned the grand hall with countless bodies lying around. Adrian and his sentinels had cleared the civilians and his battalion now marched towards the breach. Aria closely followed her Father's best friend.
"Swiftly men. We must contain the breach!" Adrian shouted and the Sentinels quickened their pace in unison.
"How are we going to close the rift?" Aria asked,
"Your mother is working on it. I'm afraid this was just the scouting party. More will come through. Ready yourself Aria."
Aria clenched her fist, bright yellow flames enveloped them. She nodded at Adrian in acknowledgment.
The mages moved swiftly through the wreckage, debris pushed away by a force field formed around the sentinels, they ran towards the source of the foul magic. There was another flash ahead, lightning struck from the ground up with a pulse of dark energy.
Aria felt the sudden surge and was staggered momentarily. She regained her balance quickly.
They approached a clearing. In the middle of the air was the rift, now visible to Aria. Were her mother and Stag able to see the rift before? she thought.
The rift was like a wound in the fabric of reality, thick dark shadowy clouds bled from the edges. Electric sparks ran from inside out and crackled with a nasty sound pulsating dark energy at a steady frequency.
"SENTINELS!!! READY YOURSELF!!! WHATEVER COMES THROUGH, WE MUST HOLD THE GROUND!! FOR YOUR HOMES!! FOR YOUR CHILDREN!!! FOR THE LIGHT!!"
Adrian's booming voice echoed throughout the Hall and the mages let out a raging battle cry in unison. Aria raised her fist in the air joining the sentinels.
Suddenly the air around the rift sucked in, Lightening struck and a blinding flash illuminated the destroyed ground.
A giant claw appeared from within the rift and set on the ground followed by a second claw that pulled apart the rift to a larger size revealing glowing red eyes and a large mouth filled with sharp fangs. Horns jutting from the shadows. The creature pulled itself from the rift and landed on the ground with a heavy thud, dust rose above obscuring the giant creature, it's silhouette hunched on the ground, slowly rising to an enormous height reaching a two-story building, dark clouds obscuring most of it. Three glowing red eyes pierced the shadows, a muzzle like that of a dragon. It let out a loud roar that carried the echoes of a thousand tormented souls. The inside of its mouth looked like the inferno itself and all around you could smell sulfur and brimstone.
"Fuck. That is a greater demon." Aria looked at Adrian who did not seem to be intimidated by the giant at all.
"DEMON!!!" Adrian shouted, his sword up and gleaming like a beacon of light. The demon turned its gaze slowly towards the Sentinel commander. Three eyes fixated on him, it opened its mouth and spoke in an unknown harsh tongue that sounded like various entities speaking at once,
"Foolish mortals... Weak... Arrogant... Pathetic... I Shall Devour the very souls you guard so dearly... I shall bring death... and destruction... For I... am... PRIDE."
It let out another deafening roar and slowly lifted its gigantic claws to strike at the sentinels below.

Adrian lifted his sword with both hands in one swift move, struck it down on the ground, and spoke a word of power, the sword blazed in the dark and suddenly the shadows around seemed to retreat around an energy shield that formed around him. The demon's huge claw struck the shield, sparks flew as the demon tried to smash it repeatedly, each time it struck, Aria could see the commander sustain a heavy strain, she knew Adrian would not be able to hold on forever. She needed to figure a way out and soon. Where did Stag go? she wondered. She could really use the mischief's help right now.

She looked at the demon, focusing on her sight, power gathering around her, and spoke a word of power. She closed her eyes briefly and when she opened them, her irises glowed yellow and she could see the reality of the greater demon. Time appeared to have slowed down as she focused to find the weak point and as if reality itself highlighted regions on the demon's gigantic body, she knew where to strike. Suddenly time snapped back to normal, "Commander!! focus your attack on the eyes, its neck, and scales around its torso!" Aria yelled.
Without questioning, Adrian lifted his sword high, "YOU HEARD THE LADY!! SENTINELS!! ATTACK!!!!"
Flames and electricity erupted from the staves of the mages followed by concentrated spheres of plasma as they began to strike at the demon. It shrugged off most of the attacks swiping the ground with its huge deadly claws, throwing groups of mages away with humiliating ease. It let out a loud chuckle as if to mock the resisting force. The mages stood their ground, dodging the demon's strikes. It pressed both of its giant claws onto the ground and let out a disturbing roar. Its eyes glowed brighter with hellfire as It lifted both the claws and struck them on the ground. The ground beneath shook and cracked, spurts of fiery magma launched in the air, burning the sentinels who were caught in the flames.
"FALL BACK!! FALL BACK!!" Adrian yelled at his men seeing them going down. The mages retreated to a safe distance away from the magma that was still escaping through the cracks like a fountain. Some sentinels were caught in the flames and screamed in agony, their pain, and suffering, feeding the greater demon.
The demon attacked, decimating the mages at a steady pace and though the mages bled, they did not fall, they continued to counter the attacks, interrupting them with shields and dodging them with agility. Adrian had trained them well.
"Leave this to me," Aria yelled while making an arc with her arms trailing a circle and swiftly moving them, she made a series of gestures with her finger. Suddenly her hands enclosed in frost, arms turning a shade of blue, and the air around her cooling down drastically. She focused on the cracks from where the magma flowed and raised her hands, a frost mist spread ahead quickly cooling down the lava and eventually sealed the cracks. The ground was suddenly covered in snow. The demon's feet were frozen in place in solid blocks of ice and it was unable to lift its massive legs. It started striking the ice to break free and while distracted, Adrian materialized right on top of its head striking its third eye on the forehead with his sword. The blade, ablaze by a blue flame penetrated the red glowing eye with ease. The Demon shrieked in pain and jerked about in agony. Adrian swiftly jumped off the head and landed on his feet, he got up, slowly flicked his sword, removing the filth from the gleaming blade. The demon's deafening roar forced the mages to cover their ears.
"Nothing seems to bring it down! We can't carry on like this forever. We need a plan!!" Aria yelled across the battleground to Adrian.
Suddenly the air around Aria was shrouded in thick blue mist, small hair on the back of her neck rose in response to the surge of power.
"Did you miss me, Redstone?" a familiar voice came from behind. She turned around to see Stag floating mid-air in his full glory, claws extended dangerously, four eyes glowing, his horns seemed longer. She had never thought she'd be this glad to see a demon.
"WHERE WERE YOU??! WE HAVE A SERIOUS SITUATION HERE!" Aria pointed out to the gigantic demon at the back.
"Is that Pride? HA!! Haven't seen that ugly bastard in a long while!" Stag drifted a bit closer to the demon who sensed his presence and turn its head to him, it spoke in its demonic tongue which Aria could not understand. She looked at Stag,
"Well, he called me names, said he will kill us all, then devour our souls and enslave our bodies for his own pleasure and rape us repeatedly and then destroy them again just for the heck of it." Stag said in a calm tone. Aria saw a large claw coming towards Stag, her eyes widened. Stag dodged it with an uncanny swiftness. Slowly turned towards the huge demon and hurled a sphere of dark energy at it which splashed on its face without hurting it.

"Hey! can't you see I'm talking here?? Absolutely no manners! pfft!" He mocked the greater demon.

"STAG! FOCUS!" Aria yelled.
The greater demon spoke while still attacking the mages,

"Fools... Traitor... Slave... I shall burn your marrow and crush you..." the demon was interrupted by another sphere of dark energy thrown by Stag.

"You talk too much." Stag turned to Aria, purpose in his gaze and for some reason, Aria trusted him.

"Redstone, time to merge again." With that, Stag took Aria's hand, turned to a thick cloud of blue that quickly formed a rune around her forearm. The sudden surge of power lifted Aria off the ground momentarily as she let out a pulse of energy. Floating above the ground, she opened her eyes that now glowed with the color of Stag's eye. She set on the ground slowly and an energy ring forming beneath her feet, sparks and lightning crackled. Aria's hair flowed freely as if gravity did not affect her. She clenched her fists as blue flames engulfed them. The demon turned immediately sensing the new power in the field.

It spoke again with a loud chuckle

"You... shall never defeat... me... !!!" It let out a roar and charged towards Aria who was casually walking towards the greater demon, her hands extended, flames glowing brighter and reaching up to her arms. She lifted off the ground and shot towards the gigantic demon with a grin on her face.