Aveyond: Rhen's Quest

Chapter 27: Breakthrough

They floated towards the light source, which engulfed them completely.

~~~

When they opened their eyes, they found themselves standing at a tastefully-decorated room like the throne room during their visit to Veldt Castle.

"Now, where are we?" mumbled Rhen.

"I would like to ask you that question as well," said a familiar voice. "I'm glad we're still in a piece."

"Lars! Dameon! You guys are fine!" exclaimed the sword singer.

"If you count that we're at the verge of joining the skeleton armies, yes we're fine," Dameon pursed his mouth. The guys told them what happened when the ladies were trapped inside the room, which turned out as a treasure vault, and Elini shared their discoveries while Rhen gave them the goods that they had looted in the treasure room.

"Great! It's time for me to change this ol' robe," grinned Lars. Dameon thanked Rhen in a mumble and they quickly changed their equipment.

"Well, well. What a sweet lil' reunion," came the voice they heard earlier. They turned around and looked at a man clapping his hands. His face was as pale as the ghosts living in the mansions in Ghed'ahre and two horns could be seen sprouting above his head. His emerald-green eyes matched well with his flame-coloured robe.

"I've been waiting for you, my dear," the demon looked at Rhen. "I'm impressed that all of you can make it here alive, but it's over now. You will die here."

"Oh, are you sure, Mr-Weird-Horns?" taunted Rhen.

"My name's Saurva and how dare you insulted me?" boomed the daeva. "As a punishment, all of you shall not leave this place alive!"

"Err guys, is it me or this place is getting hotter?" piped Lars, sweat could be seen on his forehead.

Saurva was building up his mana that burned within him. All the decorations in the room started to melting as the temperature escalated quickly. The party member started sweating badly.

"Fyre Shield Extora!"

"I summon thee, Aiz daeva from thy Gate of Glacial!"

After building up enough energy, the demon roared, "INFERNO!"

"Wind Rhapsody!" Rhen spun in the speed of light, deflecting the incoming fire casted by the demon. The fire shield absorbed most of the heat and exerted a cooling effect to them. Elini ordered the demon, "Snowstorm!"

Lars fully-charged his amount of mana and started chanting, "Sizerak, Monetar, Kunox, Yunero... Aiz Windga!"

After a while of relentless defence the fire has stopped and the temperature at the surroundings seemed to coming back to normal. As soon as Rhen stopped spinning she made her move by charging towards the demon.

"Trinity Fury!" with a massive swing, dozens of holy crosses storming towards Saurva, who casted a magical barrier to deflect the attack just in time. She gave him a sword hilt uppercut before her foe could manage a counter attack and landed a kick on his chest. With fury, the demon opened his mouth wide, fire raging within, his face tilted toward Rhen.

"What on earth--?" she'd barely finished her sentence when he ejected something from its mouth -- a beam of pure flame, fiery and steaming, like a spout of lava shot from a hose. It flew up, then came down and headed straight for her.

"Rhen!" as Dameon dove forward, his shoulders smashing into the side of Rhen and tackling her to the ground. They crashed to the ground, and Dameon felt a hot streak fly above him, almost enough to singe the hairs on the back of his neck.

He rolled of Rhen in time to see the short stream of liquid fire sailed past them and hit the ground where Rhen had just stood a moment ago. Instead of splashing like lava, the fire sparked and burst into tiny explosions, a small hole on the ground.

Rhen and Dameon jumped back to their feet, Lars and Elini came afterwards, and everyone faced the demon. He was holding a flaming katana in position, but none of them were doing anything just yet.

"Sword singer, are you doing fine?" asked Elini.

"I'm fine. Let me deal with this guy alone," Rhen readied herself. "I'm the one who he's after."

"Just be careful, Peta." said Lars.

"Put on your beeswax, guys," said Rhen. She closed her eyes, feeling the warmth surged within her body, synchronizing the power of the sword and herself. When she got the feel, she roared "Mountain Yawn!"

A deafening roar came out of her mouth. The magical beeswax kicked in and they could hear nothing but their own heartbeat. Saurva, in the other hand, covered his ears in attempt to mute the sound. He could not stand any longer and dropped to his knees. The roar subsided and Rhen wept her mouth.

"Wow, that was loud," she chuckled.

Saurva got to his feet, "Good try, Chosen One. I may have deaf, I can still kill you as long as I'm alive!" He charged forward, eyes blazing with hatred. Rhen poised herself, "Orge Dance!"

Her sword transformed to a club, just in time parrying the incoming katana. Like an orge, she swung her club and landed a huge blow onto her opponent's head. The impact was too great that she broke his horns.

"How dare you?!" roared the demon in fury. "You're dead for sure!"

He swung his katana around, turning in speed forming a fire vortex. Rhen jumped away from him and dashed aside. He stopped spinning as she started running in circle. "Trinity Fury!"

This young lady is restless, thought the demon. He protected himself from being attacked with a magical barrier and countered her with a fireball, which missed her by inches. Rhen came up to him and attempted to break the barrier, but the protective semi-sphere did not seem to crack.

"Let us help," Elini summoned a swarm of flying imps and ordered them to shoot fireballs to the barrier.

"Healing Extora!"

"Drakoni, Zechar, Lakora... Forked Lightning!"

Sign of cracks could be seen at the surface of the barrier as the magic was too strong for the demon to resist. "Can't...take...no more!" Like glass, the barrier shattered and exploded.

Saurva opened his eyes, amazed to be alive. He was sitting in a bathtub-size crater on the ground. Looking exhausted, he struggled to his feet. He broke his left leg and have to balance himself with the other one.

"Stop...please," he croaked. "I can help you get...what you want. Just don't...don't kill me."

"I don't think that's what you said moment ago," grabbing with two hands, Rhen pointed her sword tip and target-locked the demon's chest. "Bull Storm!"

Like a mad cow, she charged toward and stabbed him right through his heart. The demon turned to a rock statue and crumbled into tiny pebbles after Rhen gave it a kick. Holding the druid's soul, she turned toward her friends, who were too shocked to speak. Rhen had improved a lot since the beginning of the journey. She saw their expressions and laughed, "Alright, it's getting late. We have to return the belt to the curator."

She noticed Dameon was staring at the air, getting spaced out. He walked onto him, "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Oh! No, it's nothing. I'm just thinking about our next move," said the priest hastily. "Let's go."

Rhen looked at him walking away. She did not know she was spacing out until Lars nudged her. "You coming?"

"Wait for me!" she followed behind. He's been acting strange lately. I wonder what's bugging him.

~~~

Dusk approached when they were back to the guest room of Elini's house. Te'ijal was sitting on her bed in a posture like a statue while Galahad was lying against the window, gazing at the beautiful starry night sky.

"Alright, what took you squirrels for so long?"