Chapter 17

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The sky was dark. Two suns were obscured by a thick sheet of clouds that barely let any light reach the ground. An entirely different species of humongous trees with thick trunks and spiked leaves reached for the skies dwarfing the already large vegetation. There was a wild music of the creatures that lived in the jungle. Aria looked around wide eyed as she took in the alien planet she had come to.
"What is this place?"
Stag hovered above the ground, Michael walked past him and stood straight, hands behind his back. He lifted his palm and whispered something Aria could not discern. A pulse of energy expanded from around where they stood.
Melissa placed a hand over Aria's shoulder,
"Welcome to Tiernok."
"Home of the elves? The destroyed Planet??" Aria asked surprised, "This does not look destroyed at all."
"Yet..." Michael's tone was grim as he turned. "The planet will be destroyed. We have only but a few hours."
"I thought time travel was forbidden. Breaking the fabric of reality and all that."
"Sometimes, to protect reality, one needs to break a few rules. And it helps to be a Guardian of course." Michael said. Melissa walked up to him,
"Michael. We need to hurry up. Did you catch anything yet?"
"A few miles to the West from here. We should start moving. I have a feeling this is not going to go according to plan."
Melissa patted his shoulder,
"When has it ever?"
Michael walked ahead and the rest followed him close.
Aria took in the sites and wondered what exactly happened that could destroy the entire planet and lead to what the chronicles state.
The elves were a powerful race, in tune with the world around them and sensitivity to magic was a part of their nature. Their connection with their world was what gave them power. Aria had just recently read some new interesting additions in her father's books which mentioned a war in Tiernok where the guardians had helped the elves long ago and it was after that they made an accord with the Order. For a millennia, Humans had sought council from the high elves. Among the new spells she had learnt, many were a modification of the old ones with minor additions to their base structure and the results were enormous. Adding these elven sigils amplified the effects of simple spells making them stronger and more efficient though it took her longer to cast. Aria could not help but wonder if all the guardians were privy to this knowledge.
The planet was beautiful. Two suns lit up the sky yet it was not hot or humid, rather pleasant. Species of animals that no one knew or heard of. A herd of giant creatures, much like brontosaurs but with fur around their long necks that reached to the top of the huge trees and equally massive bodies trampled the large vegetation beneath and made the ground shake with each step they took.
Docile fauna with three sets of legs and a head that resembled a horse with large horns grazed in a clearing peacefully absolutely not bothered by the mage's presence. One of these creatures raised its head, its eyes tracking the aliens on its home grounds but went back to grazing.
"This place is amazing. So alien... and so... beautiful." Aria said admiring the raw beauty of the world.
"I wish we had come at a more fortunate time Aria, this world is truly wondrous." Melissa had her hand placed over the trunk of a large tree, its bark glowed where she made contact. Soft blue light emanated from around. The moment she lifted her hand, a trail of soft blue particles lifted off the tree bark and followed her hand before fading away.
"This world senses magic and responds accordingly. The essence of the this planet is sentient. It understands the life on it."
Aria held her hand up and touched one of the trees. The trunk felt smooth and warm. She closed her eyes and pushed some of her will. To her amazement, the tree started glowed and she felt welcomed. She heard a soft voice inside her head,
"Elein de la tres nefiri Melissaniel..."
Surprised, she withdrew her hand immediately, a soft trail of glowing particles followed her palm which still glowed softly.
"THE TREE SPOKE TO ME! IT KNEW MY NAME!" she said in amazement.
Michael smiled,
"Of course, the world knows us. The moment we set foot on the ground, it knew us. Wonderful isn't it. To be able to communicate with the world."
"Are all the worlds like this?" Aria had knelt on her knee and touched the plants around her, all glowed warmly at her touch and she smiled.
"Once upon a time, Earth used to have its voice as well." Melissa replied.
"Oh yeah. You people had a different name for your world back then." Stag approached Aria.
"Gaia." Michael said, his focus elsewhere. He was staring straight ahead, a grim expression on his face.
"You mean Gaia was not just a myth? What happened? How are we not able to commune with our world?"
"The human race killed it kid. Or weakened it to the point of non existence. As technology advanced, it swept nature under the rugs." Stag looked at Michael and waved his hand in front of his face disrupting his gaze.
"We should move."
A large ostrich-like creature stalked from behind the heavy vegetation, it had a large yellow beak with red patterns, colorful feathers that ran twice the length of the creature itself. It stared with its blank eyes at the aliens on its planet. Stag hovered closer to it and its head arched back immediately, it's body not moving, head started following Stag as he moved around.
"I like it. Can i keep this one?" Stag tried to stroke its head. Suddenly the creature opened its mouth showing sharp fangs and saliva dripping from its sides. A large forked tongue darted towards Stag's hand and it bit at him.
"HEY! LET GO YOU GIANT OSTRICH SNAKE THING!!"
Its grip was strong but Stag managed to free his hand from its mouth after some struggle. The creature let out a loud screech and suddenly there were more of them coming out of hiding. The entire pack of them had there gazes fixed at the four.
"All right people, no sudden movements." Michael said softly as he slowly backed everyone away. The creature let out another screech and all of its pack charged at them
"RUN!!!" Melissa yelled and everyone darted in the opposite direction.
Aria tripped while running "Oh shit!"
Stag immediately turned around, extending his claws, he came in between Aria and the charging creatures which still kept coming at him with fierce jaws and crazed eyes.
"Dis!" A heavy voice came from behind Aria as Michael sent a wave of energy that pushed the creatures back sending them flying off. Everyone took a sigh of relief.
"We don't have much time. So do not touch or look at anything. Especially you Stag" Michael said in a rushed tone. He raised his hand and conjured a sphere of light that immediately rushed upwards. It darted around randomly for a moment before coming to a halt suddenly. The sphere dispersed into tiny glowing particles that seemed to float towards a direction.
"Follow the light." Michael said and everyone picked up their paces following the streak of light that guided them.
The sky seemed to get even darker and it started pouring. Rain drops the size of tennis balls splashed on the ground.
"Woah! that is one big drop of rain!!" Aria said in amazement as a drop fell on her. "And it hurts too." she rubbed her head.
Melissa cast a spell around them which formed a domed cover above them that shimmered with a light blue glow as the rain drops that crossed the barrier evaporated immediately leaving everyone inside dry.
They continued on their journey deeper into forest, not too far ahead, the air seemed warmer and it became difficult to breath. Stag sensed something and the runes on his body started to give off a glow.
"Wait. Something is not right." He said looking at his glowing runes.
"We're almost there now. The Blue Star, I can sense him."
Aria looked up at the sky which subtly changed its color, streaks of red and black with a massive black hole that opened up in the burning sky. A black stream of particles started pouring out of it and fell down from the sky like a thousand meteors on fire.
A ball of fire smashed three feet from where Aria stood. All four staggered back by the explosion. A silhouette of a vaguely humanoid creature rose up from the ground as the dust settled slowly around the point of impact. Glowing red eyes fixated on Aria and suddenly the creature darted towards her with its massive claws extended. Reflexes took over as Aria quickly formed a shield of blue energy in front of her and managed to ward off the attack. Michael made quick gesture with his hand, tracing a rather simple pattern in the air trapping the demon mid air in an invisible shell. The demon immediately turned its attention towards Michael as it saw him approach.
Heavy gurgling voice came from its elongated mouth,
"Brekhsh fakhla dara zorfj Mikaeel rivs scholh makaar". The demon struggled to move within the cage but failed.
"Hmm, I see you know of me demon. Who sent you." Michael asked it, his hand raised, holding the energy shell in place. The demon chuckled in response. A forked tongue darted out and the demon licked its own lip.
"Do... what you will... It is.... already too late... Mikaeel..." The demon shifted its gaze towards Aria and let out a roar. Aria's hands engulfed in flames in response as she readied herself to attack but the demon laughed again.
"The Daughter... the master... Death follows her..." It looked back at Michael,
"She is here... and she misses you.... Jorkhag lahukh ra nishkh solog vien di Mikaeel!"
Michael's eyes narrowed and he began to slowly clench his fist, suddenly the energy field that held the demon shrunk in size slowly squeezing the demon. It let out a howl as the space around it got smaller and smaller. Michael raised his hand and fully clenched it shut into a fist. The energy field shrunk immediately and with it crushed the demon that was trapped inside, leaving behind messy black tar and glowing brimstone and smell of sulfur as it exploded inside and spread around as soon as he opened his fist. Smoke rose up from his hand but there was no sign of struggle on his face.
Melissa came to him and turned him to face her.
"Michael. What was that about. Who was that demon referring to?"
Michael looked up, his expression grim,
"Nothing Lissa, We don't have much time. We need to get to the Blue star now. This world won't last for long now."
A group of demons crashed on the ground with a fiery explosion, their eyes glowing red, bodies made of shadows and ash. They howled and charged towards their enemies. Aria gathered energy from around and the magic felt different here, it was pure and unaffected by darkness. She let it in. Her eyes glowed, bright orange flames engulfed her arms as she struck the demons casting old and new spells. Arcs of fire infused with lightening struck the demons around her. She saw her parents who were fighting the demons, covering each other's back and striking with fury. Michael had his curved blade dancing around slicing black flesh while Melissa cast defensive spells that left the demons disoriented. Aria watched in amazement as the two swiftly sliced through the shadows with ease. They made a pretty good team, she thought.
"ARIA!!! Behind you!" Stag yelled. Aria turned around quickly readying her defense. White hot pain drowned her senses as she saw the demon's claw piercing her gut. She looked up, a dark scaly hideous face with three glowing red eyes stared back at her, it's mouth hanging open showing sharp yellow fangs. A forked tongue darted out of its mouth and licked her face. She grabbed on to the hand that had impaled her and tried to push it out but her strength was failing and she could not think. Her vision started to blur as blood ran freely from the wound, a low rumble that sounded like a chuckle came from the demon. Time seemed to have slowed down and every moment that passed was pure agony.
"NO!!!!" Michael yelled as he saw his daughter impaled by claws. Melissa turned to see what had transpired. In a blink, Michael appeared behind the demon and drove his sword straight through it's throat. The demon dropped Aria and disintegrated in a puddle of bubbling black tar and exploded into burning splinters of brimstone and sulfur. Melissa yelled as she cast an explosive spell that pushed the remaining demons away. She rushed towards Michael and knelt beside him. He had Aria in his lap and pressed hard on her wound so to stop the bleeding.
"She's loosing a lot of blood! Stag, merge with her NOW!"
Stag hovered above her,
"You know I can not do that unless she commands it."
Melissa got up to her feet and uttered something, blue light shone bright and Aria felt more pain along with something more that she could not describe or understand. Both her parents had their hands over her wounds and it burned but she had no strength to fight it. She could only make out vague shapes now as she gave into the darkness before closing her eyes completely.

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