The Hidden Mages

Into The Light

(picture above is Hecate)

"You sure bout that?" I asked while looking around the room.

"I'm not sure if you realized Vincent but this room is empty," Nico spoke, getting a glare from his brother.

"Do you know where?" asked Angelo and in reply, Vincent nodded his head.

"There," he said.

Our eyes followed his finger and realized that he was pointing at the floor. The floor was made of wood, so, it would be easy to break it open but we had to be extra careful because we didn't want to damage the crystal in the process.

"Alright, let's get digging," said Dylan before taking out his sword.

We all took out either a sword or a dagger to help us dig the woods out. Just as we were about to start digging, we heard something. Or more like someone.

"Well, hello there......mages," said a voice behind us.

We all turned to find ourselves looking at a witch. Her long black hair fell on her shoulders. She wore a long sleeveless black dress and had a crescent moon tattoo on her right arm.

"Who are you?" Angelo asked, gripping his sword tighter.

"Oh don't worry child. I'm not here to fight you," she spoke.

Her voice was so calm and reassuring that we eventually lowered our weapons.

"I'm here to help," she continued.

"You still haven't answered his question," Daphne said, not breaking eye contact with the witch.

"Right. My name is Hecate," she answered.

"WHAT!!" we all exclaimed at the same time and this startled her.

"No way! How are you here? Why are you here?" I rambled.

"Well, number 1, I'm a goddess. I can appear anywhere at any time. Number 2, you're all in danger. Serious danger," she replied, answering both of my questions.

"Wait, hold up! What danger?" Nico asked. Instead of answering his question, the goddess looked at us with an eyebrow raised.

We all looked at each other and then at her.

"Oh, dear. You don't have a clue, do you?" she asked, worry written all over her face.

Now we started getting worried.

"What don't we know?" I asked.

"This place. It's not what you think, dear ones. A long time ago, this place used to be a beautiful city. Smiles could be seen everywhere you go and laughter of joy could be heard all the time. Then, the war between mankind and the gods began. Instead of killing the citizens, the gods gave an even worse punishment. They turned everyone who lived here into monsters. Terrible monsters. Those monsters are hidden all over this city," she explained.

We were all speechless. None of us knew these, not even Vincent who had Intelligence Magic.

"Wait, wait. What about the 9 mages? I thought they stopped the war," I spoke after a minute of silence.

"Your ancestors did stop the war but that doesn't mean they were able to save everyone," she answered making us even more scared than before.

"Well, shit," I accidentally said but no one said anything because I was right.

We were in serious trouble.

"Alright, so we get the crystal and get outta here. That's it right?" Nico asked.

"No, not exactly," the goddess replied and got questioning looks from all of us.

"The Alina Crystal can be used for many things. It is mainly used to destroy evil," she explained and I immediately understood what she was implying.

"You want us to save them," I said out loud and got stares from everyone right away but the goddess nodded in agreement.

"The powers of your ancestors were passed down to you because they hoped that you could finish what they couldn't," she continued.

"I guess we better get digging. We've got a whole city to save," Daphne said.

"And you know what? I know a faster way to get the crystal," I said before transforming into my fox constellation armor.

Using my fox speed power, I was able to dig through the woods really fast and in a few minutes, I was done. There it was. On top of a lot of dirt and sand.

The Alina Crystal.

Its light shining so brightly as if it was a star in the night sky. I picked it up and handed it over to Angelo.

"Let's go finish what they couldn't,"

We headed out of the house with the goddess, Hecate. We were told by Hecate that the crystal will only work if one of us chants a spell. We agreed to leave that to Leona since she's pretty good at that. The rest of us will have to watch her back while she's chanting the spell. We retraced our steps and were headed for the sub. All of a sudden, we heard a roar. No, it sounded more like a cry. A cry for help. We quickly turned around and what we saw made us petrified.

Monsters.

That's the one word that can correctly describe what we had seen. They were coming out of the shadows and into the light. Their long arms being dragged on the ground as they walked ever so slowly towards us. The thumping of their feet making the earth shake. What have the gods done to these poor humans?

"What the hell?!" Leona exclaimed.

Out of nowhere, one of the monsters ran towards us at full speed. I quickly transformed into my fox constellation armor and kicked the monster back before it could attack us.

"Leona, you might wanna get started," I told her.

She took the crystal and began chanting the spell. Within a few seconds, the crystal began to glow and this made the monsters mad. Not sure why. Maybe they were irritated by the bright light.

"Remember, guys. We can't hurt them," Angelo reminded us.

So, for the next 2 minutes, we kept pushing back the monsters that had started to surround us. The more Leona chanted the spell, the brighter the crystal glowed. Some of the monsters stopped attacking because they couldn't handle the brightness. At last, Leona finished the spell. The bright light of The Alina Crystal swallowed us all. We averted our eyes away from the light, not wanting to go blind. After a while, the light was gone and we could finally open our eyes but instead of monsters, we saw..................humans.

Citizens of The Dreadful Haven.

Or should I say, The Alina Haven?