Be Holden

Chapter 27: Not Over

"I am not here to hurt any of you. I just want your mother. So, you all can just move out of my way." He says to them as he waves his left hand in the air, which is signaling them to move. "You will not take Ishin away from me." A heavy voice echoes throughout the greenhouse. The overseer of evil appears before the teens with Satan and the Grim Reaper at his side

"Ether, our days of fighting common enemies together are over. The only serious enemies left for us is each other. I have taken your best soldiers and I think you know that your defeat will surely follow."

Ether pulls a cloudy, grey orb out of the inside of his coat. He eats the orb and a strong wind blasts from him and breaks all the glass panels in the greenhouse. The shrubs momentarily bend to the blasts strength. You move to crawl out and Morgan pulls you back. You find the strength to jab one of Morgan's eyes with your elbow and run out. The blast is gone and Ether's presence seems heavier and stronger. "I am on Ether's side!" You yell at the opposing side as you stand firmly by Ether. "You are going to stand against me, tree. I must admit that this does not surprise me." The overseer of evil says. Morgan tries to grab you. Ether breaks both of Morgan's arms and throws Morgan out of the greenhouse through a rusty framed space above the ground.

"This is just the beginning of our battle. I will leave but do not get used to my absence. I will surely return with a vengeance. To the traitors, I do not want to see your faces on my land ever again."

You and Ether are bathed in a white light before being placed on his ice land. You follow him to the frigid tower and as you get in, the icy door shuts behind you. Another layer of ice seals it shut. Ether stalks up to his bedroom and you hear the door slam. The wind howls as a blizzard wreaks havoc on the barren terrain outside of the tower. The lights in the tower blowout and the ground shakes. You hear ice braking just outside the tower. Growls and roars echo through the air. The cloudy, ice covered window glows a dim, light green. You run through the dimly lit room up the stairs. You knock on the wooden bedroom door. "Leave me alone!" Ether yells exasperatedly. "I want to talk about a battle plan!" You yell back.

"What can you help me with? You are just a tree!"

"I am a tree that has seen a lot."

"What are you talking about?"

"Open the door and I will tell you!"

Ether opens the door and looks down at you. "What?" He says with a tired expression on his face. "The overseer of evil has many enemies. If you become their ally, you can take him down." You say.

"He has powerful soldiers. What can small enemies do to them?"

"Are dragons small enemies to you? They don't look small to me."

"Dragons are against him because we obliterated their overseer. I helped him do that. Would I not be considered just as much an enemy to them than he is?"

"Do they know you had a hand in defeating their overseer? Did they care as much about their overseer as your best soldiers cared about you?"

"I do not know."

"Then we need to find out. They could really help us defeat the overseer of evil. What about the wolves? They seem to be against him."

"They fall under his command."

"Hopefully, we can get them to not fight in this impending war, which would be helpful. Do you know anyone else that does not like the overseer of evil?"

"There are only two other groups that are not fond of the overseer of evil. They are the dark fairies and the sea monsters. We defeated their overseer but that is not the only reason they dislike him. To please their overseer and prove that he was better than her husband, the overseer of evil killed a mermaid princess and beheaded a fairy king."

"Why was he fighting to prove he was better than her husband? Isn't he married to Ishin?"

"Yes, we both are married to Ishin, but he was betrothed to my cousin via my uncle's orders. At the time, my uncle did not know he was giving his daughter to an overseer close to his age and that the overseer was already married. When he did not marry her, she became bitter and her older brother married her instead. When he devised the plan to trick her to make her let her guard down, he had to do what she told him to do."

"She told him to hurt those creatures and he just did it?"

"Yes, he is older than me and he has overthrown many overseers in many dimensions. So, how do you think we are going to defeat him?"

"It would be best if he underestimates us, then we can gain the upper hand and have a better chance of winning this war. What do you both do with the overseers you overthrow?"

"We eat their souls and give the excess energy to our offspring by impregnating Ishin."

"I am sure we can find some more creatures out there against the overseer of evil. Hold on, what happens when you don't release the excess energy to your babies?"

"A clone detaches from our current physical forms taking the excess energy with them. The clones are weaker than us but they can be useful."

"Didn't you eat an overseer's soul not too long ago?"

"Yes."

Ether walks down the stairs and you follow him. He breaks the frost around the door with a flick of his finger. Hopefully, he is not as bad as the overseer of evil. I don't want to regret joining his side  . He walks out of the door into the blizzard outside. The wind whips your face as you both leave the Ice Tower. You both walk on black ice to a white light that engulfs your vision.

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Author's Note: This is the book before "Rituals of Destruction"