Realms of Magic: Demon Invasion

19. Banishment

Everyone rises up, their faces tense and serious. However, they are cut short by a loud bang on the door.

"Ms Vonville!" I hear someone shouting outside.

I shout back as I open the door, "What?"

"Queen Seira, Archduke Royard, and Archduke Isabelle is outside. They're demanding to see Madam Fronica!" the soldier says.

"Talk of the devil," Madam Fron curses, "you people stay here. Queen Seira must not know our identities as Order members."

Madam Fron and I rush to the gate. "Ah, Fronica Moonray. Finally!" Queen Seira grunts.

"Queen Seira. You look upset," Madam Fron smirks.

"I won't prolong my visit here," the timid Queen Seira replies, hate burning in her eyes, "Archduke Isabelle!"

Archduke Isabelle smiles wickedly, and hands Madam Fron a letter. She tears it open.

"Hmm. So you are exiling me to some island because I attacked an enemy?" Madam Fron mutters.

"Thanks to you, all our hopes for a peaceful end have vanished," Archduke Isabelle declares, "and thus the Queen has no option but to exile you for this fatal mistake."

"Funny," Madam Fron, "all those books in your castle's library detailing the exact reason a peaceful end cannot be achieved, yet they seem to miss your mind."

Queen Seira replies hotly, "I advocate for peace through negotiations and concessions. Everytime we have war, the results are always devastating!"

"But we won and survived in the end. A glorious victory, as opposed to your humiliating peace," Madam Fron smirks.

"Enough!" Archduke Isabelle barks, "You shall not intimidate Queen Seira anymore!"

"Silence, you failure of an Archduke serving a failure of a Queen!" Madam Fron hotly replies.

"Archduke Isabelle," Queen Seira's face reddens from anger, "Call the Eighth and the Twelfth to escort her!"

Queen Seira turns her back, leaving with Archduke Royard. "Oh, well," Madam Fron says, "don't come back to me crying, little kid!" 

Queen Seira and Archduke Royard glance furiously at her.

Now Archduke Isabelle leaves, too. The Eighth Imperial Guard Division, all its members wearing white masks, arrives. John and Aelita also arrive from HQ.

"Oh, the Eighth!" Madam Fron remarks, "the White Mask Division. Pity Seira took you away from me. You had much potential ...."

"Queen Seira," a White Mask corrects her.

"She's just Seira to me," Madam Fron carelessly replies, "I'm no longer her subject, remember?"

We ride on horses powered with magic. Madam Fron chuckles loudly–with an occasional curse or two–on the way as we travel through the relatively empty rural areas except for the town of Mirakarta, a tourist hot spot.

"Oh, I'd like to make a stop here," she says as we are passing a huge, abandoned mansion in the middle of the countryside.

"You can't," says one of the White Masks.

"Unfortunately, you are not in charge here," Madam Fron chuckles. She gets off her horse.

"Fronica Moonray, return to your horse," the White Mask says nonchalantly as she raises her glaive. Her male compatriots follow suit.

"You're still leagues below me!" Madam Fron hisses as she holds the tip of the glaive. She unleashes heat so intense that the metal tip liquidates in a few seconds. She walks calmly to the abandoned mansion.

"Violleta Vonville, Captain of the Twelfth Imperial Guard Division," the White Mask addresses me formally, "please convince her to return. Do not use force."

I get off my horse, turning to face Madam Fron, who has entered the mansion.

"Vio," Madam Fron greets me. She is kneeling before a multitude of gravestones. The first floor of the mansion is a graveyard!

"This was the residence of the Moonray family," Madam Fron says blankly.

"This is where the person you know as Lumiya, the Princess of Terror, conducted her first massacre. Against my family," she continues as flowers fall from her hand onto the gravestones.

"That-that's horrible," I sympathetically say.

"It was an act of revenge," Madam Fron explains, "Lumiya was a Doll."

"A Doll? Her?" I ask in shock.

How could someone so powerful be a Doll?

"Yes. She was trained by one of my relative who was actually banished by the family," Madam Fron continues while, "until the Empire killed him and found Lumiya, who had potential. She was trained as an assassin, but she was certainly more powerful than what they expected her to be."

"So, here we are," Madam Fron turns her face, a plain expression on her face, "Lumiya and I want revenge against each other."

I can hear the muffled voices of John and Aelita outside. "There's no time for blueness."

She rushes outside. I follow suit.

"So this is how low the Guards have fallen?" the Princess of Terror mocks. 

John and Aelita don't suffer much damage, but both have been rendered unconscious.

The White Masks lay helpless on the ground. The Princess of Terror draws her longsword, putting it on John's neck. She summons another blade, putting it on Aelita's.

"I'm not here to fight you, Fronica," the Princess of Terror says.

"Trying to thin our ranks, huh?" Madam Fron asks. "Kill off the young ones before they get too powerful." Her glaive is summoned.

"We've done this so many times, Lumiya, and I'll kill you for sure this time! These lands are hostile to you!"

"Oh, no, I'm afraid we can't duel right now like you so desperately desire," the Princess of Terror replies, "give me that child behind you, and I'll release these two. Oh, and I'll include those barely alive White Masks as well."

"Back off," Madam Fron quietly murmurs as she lowers her glaive a little bit.

A tense quietness ensues. Madam Fron and the Princess of Terror faces off, neither capable of any action without provoking the other. Then, an idea strikes me hard.

"Blood Shockwave!" I hiss quietly. This time, instead of a frontal attack, I launched it on the Princess of Terror's left and right, knocking John and Aelita sideways, out of harm.

"Attagirl!" Madam Fron shouts, "Flame Bombardment!"

"Damn it! Shadow Salvo!" the Princess of Terror curses.

"Lord Eugene!" the Princess of Terror shouts, "Black Cloak of the Night!"

The Princess of Terror waves her cloak, launching thousands of black bats at Madam Fron.

"North Flame: Waves of Annihilation!" Madam Fron counters, sending waves of shapeless blue fire. Curiously, the fire also freezes the bats instead of merely burning them.

"North Flame: Eye of the Beholder!" she shouts as blue fire bursts from her left eye.

All of a sudden, a Lord ambushes me from behind. He wears red garments, his long hair coloured blinding red.

"Iron Grip!" he chuckles loudly, "a fine addition to my harem!"