The Hunt for the Ghostkeeper

Chapter 13: Inferno

The doors behind the gates did not shake or rattle, but instead opened eerily and silently. Outside they stepped, the malicious trio themselves, the witches who shined with horrified beauty. Celestia glided forward in her onyx dress, holding her twisted wand in her pale hand and resting against her cheek, smiling grotesquely.

Circire tried to speak, but no words came out. She took control of her body. "Attack!" she said. "ATTACK!"

The soldiers raised their arms and their weapons, and began to fire at the women. The bullets, arrows, and javelins shot straight toward the three witches, but they did not seem to have any impact on them. Celestia glided forward slowly, concentrating intensely on moving forward through the snowbound cemetery. Layla and Nadine, each bearing twin silver pistols, acted as snipers from behind the main line of resistance. They each fired the pistol six times before the barrels was emptied. As they began to reload the bullets, Nadine felt a loud vibration on the right side of her head. She felt her exposed ear and realized she had forgot to adjust the headset protection Hollingsworth had given them. Quickly she reapplied the headset and clicked the barrel back into place.

"Do not let her pass!" Circire shouted over the noise. "DO NOT LET HER PASS!"

Circire hurried forward and stepped directly in front of Celestia, bringing out her intricately carved wand and pointed it at her great-great-grandmother.

Celestia laughed.

"So, now we stand, face to face!" she hissed. "You have my crown."

"You're crown was taken away from you after you abused your power, along with your title," Circire responded. "Go back to where you came from, and let your soul face its consequences. Destruction is all you know, and this earth cannot afford your power any longer!"

"Step aside, girl. You have no idea of the physical magnitude of my plan for this world. I have witnessed destruction here, more than you can possibly imagine. My work as a Necromancer is about to be completed, and you will be forced to witness everything. Now, GIVE ME THAT CROWN!"

Immediately, Circire blasted a jet of green light towards Celestia's chest, but she pushed her arms out into the frigid air, dismissing its power.

Suddenly, all around them, more jets of light began to shoot from the ground.

"Circire, what's happening?" Hollingsworth shouted.

"What have you done?" Circire screamed at the dark witch. "What have you done!"

Celestia wore an expression of intense anger as she watched the Liebeaux ghosts re-enter the earth from the Underworld, the fatal flaw in her worldly plan. Quickly, Celestia raised her arms over the people surrounding her, and shot up into the sky. Elyzia and Eliza mirrored her actions, following her into the sky.

The ground itself began to quake. The soldiers stood their ground. Mason, Nadine, and Layla each held up silver pistols, aiming them to the ground. Hecata and Circire held their wands up as more cracks appeared all over the graveyard. Up from them shot jets of blue and white light, spirits of the Underworld, escaping into the mortal world again.

"What's going on?" Reuben said in his deep voice. "What's happening?"

Silver particles escaped the earth, twisted and formed the shapes and silhouettes of the stolen living entities. Rick, Chase, and Rose's bodies were formed once again, standing in front of the mausoleum.

"Thank goodness you are all right!" Hollingsworth said. "What- oh!"

The children's bodies fell, unconscious, into the snow. Hollingsworth bent over and felt their pulses.

"They are alive!" she declared. "Let's get them out of the cold- hellp me!"

Circire, Hecata, Reuben, and Paralee rushed forward.

"Out of my way!" a strict voice said. "Give her to me- give her here."

Jane wrapped her arms around her still granddaughter and picked her up with surprising strength.

"Take them straight to Liebeaux Manor!" Circire called.

"I can't believe it happened- this can't be real," Hollingsworth said.

"Believe it," Circire said gravely. "But we will fight this war- together."

"What is your plan?" Hecata asked, brushing her purple hair out of her face.

Circire held her wand to her cheek. "Listen, one and all!" she spoke, her voice heavily magnified. The soldiers scattered among the graveyard gazed upon the Prime Witch.

"Celestia has escaped from the Underworld, and with her all of the Liebeaux ghosts that she has kept locked in hell. We must now set out on a Hunt for the resurrected ghostkeeper, we must journey to her Fortress, and we must destroy her before she destroys the world as we have come to know and love it! But for now, for now we must heal our wounds, and prepare for war with the darkest witch the Council has ever known."

"Onward," Circire said in her normalized voice, pointing to the Manor and bending down to support the delirious Vexors. Hollingsworth and Hecata assisted her, and together the leaders followed each other to safety, leaving the frozen earth of dead souls and entering once more into the world of loss and suffering, of beauty and pain, of life and death.