Caelestius

Chapter Twenty-six

A scream of agony leaves my lips as I tackle my reflection. I have the moment of surprise and so I manage to throw her to the ground. Into the mud, where we fight to get on top of each other. Dirt and mud stains my clothes and I lose my already ripped coat on the way.

A similar scream comes out of my opponent as she struggles against me. Her dark hair is a wild mess and I probably don't look any better.

“Die,” she hollers, as she kicks me into my rips. I cough up some blood, but I don’t let her go. Especially as she tries to get to her weapons on her back.

With my weight I push her down further into the ground. Wet dirt gets into my eyes at the action. Though my focus lies on her.

I’m not the one, who is going to die today.

I raise my fist to hit her, so she stops struggling. Though she is able to push me off of her.

My breath comes out unsteady. I’m still too worn out, to win a fight fist against fist. I have to use my weapons.

My reflection has the same thought and slowly she begins to circle me. Her eyes burn into mine and she watches me like I am her prey.

To my dismay it starts to rain, small rain drops linger on my skin and I feel their crude taste on my lips. With the back of my hand I push strains of hair out of my eyes, though never leave the demon out of my sight.

With the rain, dark clouds cover the evening sky and soon I’m surrounded by the darkness, that settles around us.

She takes a tiny step towards me and I whip out my black swords. She copies my movement and not a second later, we attack each other.

I'm able to cut deep into her arm and a grin steals onto my lips. Her cold eyes narrow into slits and a battle of swords begin for real. We fight for a few minutes, where she most of the time tries to block my attacks.

She may look like me and has the same weapons, but she doesn't have my skills.

Our swords collide with each other, metal against metal. The sound is ringing in my ears. None of us wants to surrender and I push harder against my sword.

This is it, this will decide, who will have the upper hand. We both know it and with all my power I push against my sword. Another yell leaves my lips and I grit my teeth.

Suddenly I lose my balance, as I'm tackled to the ground by a heavy weight.

Does this demon have a partner?

Before I can even look further at my attacker, I take out my bow ready to shot him. Even while lying I will make some damage.

Yet, I'm stopped by his sudden voice, which brings me back to reality.

"Inanna, don't! It's me!" he tries to get through to me.

I lock eyes with the person on top of me and have to realize that it really is him.

"Arijus?"

"Yes. Why are you attacking each other?" His voice is low and gravely.

I don't understand what he is talking about. But for a moment I can only look at him. His huge blue eyes, that held so much warmth. The wrinkle between his forehead, that is almost covered by his wet hair. And his body that is on top of me, though all of his weight is been hold back by him.

Slowly his words sink in and my eyes flicker past him. To a figure that lies just a few meters away from us. I expect to see my reflection, though what my eyes meet shocks me.

Cedrik lies on his back in a puddle of mud and water. He is drenched from head to toe and when he turns slightly, I get a peak of his arms and face.

There is a deep cut on his arm. It isn't life threatening, but it must hurt like hell. Then there are bloody scratches on his face. When I look at my fingers I see the same blood.

"Did I do this to him?" I ask Arijus.

My eyes feel heavy and I rub at them to get a better view.

"Yes, you were attacking each other. But it seems like the spell is broken. Both of your eyes are normal again."

"Normal again. What do you mean?" Cedrik cracks out.

"It means your not under my control anymore, which is too sad. Isn't it?" a high pitched voice purrs.

I look for that voice, but all I can see is darkness, until a mirror manifest in front of us. Out of one they become two, until we are surrounded by nothing more. And out of the biggest we watch as a figure slowly crawls out to show it's face.

Arijus is back and a new demon. What do you think?