Athena was looking at Dante with disbelief "Whats this necklace has got to do with any thing? I just happen to like this blue rose and besides. Its enchanted and has many secrets to be unlocked within it."
Dante crossed his arms "Really my love? Dont give me excuses. I know you love the memories of us and the time we spent at my castle so much, you cant give this necklace up."
Athena narrowed her eyes "Dont over estimate our time together. I have so many bad memories attached too besides the good ones."
Dante spoke "So you admit you enjoyed it a little bit."
Athena narrowed her eyes and spoke "I have to go. I will see you at dawn or earlier depending on when you ambush us."
Dante spoke "Wait. Don't go"
Athena sighed "Goodbye. I have to go." Athena turned around and ignored Dante's call. As she was about to go inside. She gasped as she saw the massive mountain of blue roses that reached the ceiling blocked her path. She turned to Dante with wide eyes. "How did you do that? This castle is protected. How could you penetrate it?"
Dante smiled "Relax my love. I cant get past all the enchantments that my uncle Eric has set. I can get harmless spells through..... for now. Once I order the attack on this castle, i can damage the shields that protect this castle. Then that would mean these people inside would have to stop defening the four gates and protect the shields. The shield is connected to the doors. Once it gets weakened, the doors will open, with or without the blood of Marcus's bloodline and those four unique warlock-werewolves. So I wish them good luck. If they don't defend the shield, they cant defend the four gates. If they leave the shield and only defend the four gates, then the shield will come down and gates will open. So tell them to guard both points of defence of thsi castle."
Athena was looking at dante so suspiciously "Why are you trying to give these people tips. You are trying to break in. Is it wise to discuss your strategies?"
Dante spoke "I want a real fight from these people. I live for a challenge. I want them to put up a great fight. You know it gets boring when I win fights so easily. There are three Ronas fighters in this castle in addition to an elemental and of course your sister and your cousin and of course the most powerful of them all ..... you. I know, I would never get a fight like this ever against my army in future. it would be impossible. This would be one long and hard fight. Winning this battle would really satisfy me even though its painful to be away from you, it makes the wait worth it until I defeat these people and hold you in my arms again."
Athena turned around and picked up a blue rose from the pile Dante had conjured. That made the pile disappear. She smelled it and spoke " Why are you doing this Dante. This flower is the symbol of your love for me. Yet you throw it at me when you are about to hurt me. I wish you could be a normal blood match. I wish you could be kind and loving. I wish you could love this world as much as I do. I wish you hated conquering and making others suffer as much as I do."
Dante sighed "But I don't follow your ideals. We are different. That is why I am your blood match and not that moron, Donavan. Accept it. Whats the point of having a partner in life that agrees with everything you say. Whats the point of a partner who never challenges you. I love you because you make me fight and I know you love me because I make you fight back. But my love, every battle has to end one day with one side deafeated and one victorious side. I will beat you. I will defeat you. So dont be stubborn and don't hurt yourslef here by fighting too hard. You cant beat me. Its one thing to fight me in our privacy in my castle but out in the open, this has gone too far. You picking sides with three Ronas is the end of your rebelious path that you have taken. it ends here in this last battle. I assure you. I am going to ask you one last time my love. Do you want to surrunder to me before dawn and save yourself some heartache. If you dont fight alongside them, they wont suffer as much as I have planned for them."
Athena looked at Dante with surprise "Dont you know me Dante. Why do you ask me such questions, you already know the answer too. I wont give in. You have to make me."
Dante sighed "Very well. But the option is there my love. At any point, if you decide to come to me, it changes the path of this battle and you know it. As much as I want the challnege of taking my blood match on, I love holding you in my arms much more. It would give me more pleasure to be close to you that fight against you. We can always duel in our castle once you give into me. But in a battlefield this means betrayal my love. I may not go easy on you in this war and it would hurt me to hurt you but you will leave me no choice.... so think about it Athena, give up and you will suffer less. Those you love would be suffering much less. Believe me. I can guarantee that there would be a point in this battle when you will think back to this moment and wish you had come back to me when we had this talk. This battle is driving you crazy. you cant see any visions of its outcome. I am certain of it. My wisdom sorcerer saw visions that no one on this earth knows the outcome of this battle because so many powerful beings are involved. You cant predict its outcome and it scares you. Dont deny it."
Athena took a deep breath "I think I have to go inside. Your cousin Archelous is getting impatient. I will see you soon."
As she walked back she pulled out the pink flower in her hair and replaced it with the blue rose that dante had thrown at her. This made Dante smile. he whispered "I know you miss me my love. It wont be long before you will be back to me. I will get you back and I will make all those who separated you from me pay a hevy price."
Athena touched her chest and took deep breaths "Stop Dante. Stop making threats. You break my heart with your words." She then shook her head. It was time to put Dante to the back of her mind. As she entered the living room of the castle she felt the waves of fury from Archelous. She glanced at the dining table where, Archelous, Vasile, Arethusa, Azalea, Aretha and Demetrious were seated arguing non stop. As Athena entered, all in the room went silent.
Archelous spoke bitterly "At last. You decided to grace us with your presence. Why dont you take a seat. You didnt miss much. Only you didnt hear any of my plans to bring down your blood match."
Athena took a seat and spoke "Well. I think you should only concentrate on defending your castle's four gates and the protective shield that covers your castle. This is Dante's strategy he shared with me and I trust he wasnt lying. Split your group into half. Half of you should defend the four gates and half of you defend the shield...."
Vasile spoke "Hold on. How about...."
Athena spoke "I know you are going to ask about who is going to protect Transylvania. You, your own fighers and Archelous's army could assist with that. Besides, i might issue a summon call to the healer coven if necessary for this. They dont mind doing this and risk their life this way. What do you think?"
Archelous spoke in a sarcastic tone "And which part of your plan includes a plot to hold up your blood match? Where exactly are you going to bring any of us in for facing my dear cousin?"
Athena sighed "I though it was obvious. I would go to him at dawn as his army start attacking your castle. You hold up his army and I will hold him up in a duel for as long as I can. I dont think you would want me to be part of your plan. My role is to duel with dante and keep him occupied for as long as I can so he doesnt attack your castle."
Archelous spoke "Not a chance. We cant afford to rely on you to stop him. What if you fail to halt him?We need to take other measurements to assure us that he wont be a threat to this castle."
Athena spoke "But you cant hold up both Octavian and Dante at the same time. What are you saying? What measurements are you talking about to stop Dante?"
Archelous spoke "If you had showed up when I summoned you, then you could know about the plan. This plan starts before dawn. My sister, Azalea and I will summon Dante in this castle and then ...."
Athena spoke with wide eyes "Impossible. That would be putting this castle at Dante's mercy. You cant bring him in here."
Aretha spoke "Exactly sister. Thats what i told him too. Wait until you hear the rest of his genious plan."
Archelous looked at Aretha "Watch it girl. You are only a guest in this castle. Dont make me put you in your place."
Demetrious objected "Dont speak to her this way. She is just being honest. Our time is short. We dont have time to sugar coat and put things politely. She doesnt agree with you because she thinks your plan is doomed to fail. That is all. There is no need to threaten her. besides, over my dead body you will touch her."
Archelous rolled his eyes " I agree with two things that you said. We dont have time to be polite to each other and we dont have much time. Lets move on." He then gave Aretha a threatening look and then turned to Athena "Look. I know your sister doesnt like my plan. I am sure you wont like it either. But its the only way that can guarantee to buy us some time to find a long term solution to beat this army thats coming at us...."
Athena spoke "Just get to the point. What exactly are you planning to do once you get Dante in this castle?"
Archelous spoke "The plan is that once he gets here, Demetrious and I will lock Dante up in an enchanted cell my father built. This was to be used as an emergency to trap intruders." He then turned to Demetrious "Now. Summon the cell with me so Athena can see."
Demetrious reluctantly cast a spell with unison with Archelous and suddenly a glass curtain split the room into half and as Athena looked closely she noticed the other side of the room had glass floor, ceiling and walls.
Archelous spoke "Demonstration is finished. Call it back Demetrious." Then the two Ronas called back the spell and the cell disappeared.
She turned to Archelous "So you can seal half of this room. it doesnt tell me much. How does this stop Dante."
Archelous sighed "Think about it. This is a cell we are talking about. Azalea and I will summon Dante here and then Demetrious and I will trap him the way you saw. Done. Then we will go on about devising plans to stop Octavian and his army somehow from entering this castle. It would have been ideal to summon him inside the cell now but he would sense that its a trap and wont come here when summoned. We have to build the cell when he arrives."
Athena looked at everyone at the table "I object. This is insane. You cant agree to this plan. Once Dante gets here, he would have enough time to attack. You can't risk him coming inside this castle. Ever."
Archelous sighed "We will stop him. All of us. Once he gets here, we all will form a line. We will hold hands and will make a barrier and push him away. He wont get a chance to do anything to defend himself." He then turned to all those sitting around the table. "Time to vote. Who is for this plan? Put your hand up."
To Athena's astonishment, all hands went up except for Aretha and her own. She gasped "You cant do this. This plan would backfire."
Archelous spoke "Hands down. Now if anyone wants to help me out, would you explain to Athena why we dont have any other choice. Because I am tired of being the one to do the convincing here. I also dont like repeating everything I just said when Athena was too busy to show up on time when summoned."
Athena spoke "I dont need convincing. This plan has weaknesses."
Archelous spoke "I am glad. You are so hard to convince. I dont know how my cousin could possibly put up with you a life time."
Vasile chuckled "Be careful how you speak to Athena, Archelous. She is Dante's blood match. The only reason you can order everyone around is since you are a Ronas and can control many of the enchantments and curses that this castle brings on. We cant survive without you but Demetrious is here too. He is not interested in leading this battle alongside you since he dislikes fighting but it doesnt mean you should throw your authority around like this."
Archelous spoke "She is outnumbered. Two votes against this motion wont make me throw away this only chance we have of stopping Dante. Its easy for Athena and Aretha to say no to my plan. Its not their house thats being attacked and about to be taken over by strangers. Is it?" He then turned to Athena "Look, while you were away, we discussed every plan we could come up with. None would have a chance of succeeding but this. This glass cell is not an ordinary cell. Its sealed by my father and Demetrious and I would add to its enchanted locks. Dante would be locked up in there and wont get out unless Demetrious or I let him out."
Athena spoke " This plan has flaws. You said this cell is sealed. Thats all it does. Dante will still be able to use his powers inside that cell."
Archelous spoke "He can. But he cant affect anything on the outside."
Athena spoke "Your plan has many weak points. It wont work. Let me try stopping Dante in a duel."
Archelous spoke "My plan would work. I am not saying there wont be any casualties but it would work.. But your plan wont work. Ever."
Athena spoke "How can you be so sure?"
Archelous spoke impatiently "This is why." Without warning he threw a fireball at Athena and she stopped it as it was within inches of her and waved her hands which made the fireball disappear. She narrowed her eyes and turned to him "Why did you attack me. I am on your side."
Azalea spoke "He wasnt attacking you. He tested you. You failed since you didnt throw it back at him even though you can. You are just likely to defend rather than offend when you face Dante unless you change your fighting ethics."
Archelous nodded "Exactly. You cant do much damage to a Ronas if you just defend yourself. You cant bring yourself to hurt others. You are a Marysian. Its natural. Its in your blood. I cant blame you for your complex ancestry. But to cut this short, if you ever want to defeat a Ronas, you must fight like a Ronas."
Athena spoke with disbelief "I couldnt throw that back at you. This is a deadly fireball. it could kill you."
He rolled his eyes "No it wouldnt have. Watch." Without warning he turned to Demetrious and threw a fireball at him. Demetrious waved his hands and threw the fireball back at him. Archelous teleport away before the fireball could hit him. The fireball was stopped as it was about to hit the carpet and disappeared.
Archelous appeared behind Athena and whispered "You dont think like a Ronas. So you cant defeat a Ronas."
Athena looked at Archelous as he went back to his chair and took his seat "I would rather just defend myself than cause people to die. I am glad I dont think like a Ronas. That was a deadly spell. i would never throw it back at anyone."
Archelous spoke "For crying out loud, Demetrious attacked me back and I didnt die. Did I? Its not easy to kill a Ronas in case you havent realised already. Our kind doesnt get damaged that easily. We have healing powers and survival instincts like no other. Whatever you throw at Dante, he can throw back at you but in a much worse form. Stop showing consideration to your enemies. But again Dante is not your enemy. He is your blood match. How can I expect you not to hold back against him."
Aretha protested "Look. My sister and I gave you our word that we would fight alongside you. We are here and we will fight. Even though we dont like your plan, we will go along with it. Now stop taunting us."
Archelous raised an eyebrow and turned to Athena "I hope you are on the same page as your sister." He then got up. "Lets do this then." He threw a burgendy coloured stone to the other side of the room where Dante was supposed to be summoned to and then walked to the far side of the room and spoke "Come here and hold hands. The further away we stand from that cell the better."
Athena walked reluctantly to where Archelous was and held his hand, then Demetrious, Aretha, Vasile, Azalea and Arethusa followed.
Archelous spoke "Everyone beware. Once Azalea and I summon dante here, you will have seconds to hold up a joint shield with all your power. While Demetrious and I will fom the cell around him, he may try to attack you. It was nice knowing you if anyone of you doesnt make it out alive." He then turned to his sister "Now Azalea. Summon him with me."
Azalea took a deep breath and closed her eyes at the same time as her brother. Both focused hard. It took minutes but at last Dante appeared and his menacing laugh echoed through the walls. He roared "It feels great to be here. Its enchantments are calling me already." As he was trying to summon powers from the wall, Archelous shouted "Now Demetrious."
Suddenly the glass cells started to form and Dante waved his hands and it slowed down the formation of the cell but it didnt stop it. He tried to teleport away but it didnt work. He spoke "You may have trapped me but for how long?" he then gave his brother a murderous look "My own brother is trying to bring me down. You will pay for this ..... right now."
Dante summoned a dagger and cast a spell at the dagger making it glow with a golden colour. He aimed the dagger at his brother and spoke "Have fun with this dagger brother." He then threw it Demetrious. All those standing in the protective line concentrated their shields towards Demetrious but suddenly as the dagger reached the joint shields protecting him, the dagger twisted around and directed towards a different direction.
Athena screamed. Demetrious shouted "No."
The cell's glass walls were now completely surrounding Dante at the other half of the room. Dante was smiling "I told you what would happen."
Demetrious and Athena were now kneeling next to Aretha who was laying on the floor groaning in pain as Arethusa, Azalea, Archelous and Vasile were silently watching them forming a circle around them.They were in total shock frozen in spot. None of them dared get any closer or say anything. The waves of rage and agony from Demetrious and Athena had stopped them from saying or doing anything to make the situation worse.
Athena had closed her eyes and was trying hard to heal her sister touching the dagger that couldnt be removed from Aretha's chest. Aretha was now crying from pain and was pressing her lips to stop screams from escaping her, to not let her blood match know how much agony she was in. the pain was like no other she had experienced.
Demetrious spoke while crying "Please. Dante. Reverse the spell. Pierce my heart instead."
Dante shrugged "I told you, your blood match has to pay for your defiance and her own defiance actually. I warned you many times what I would do to her when I catch her but you never took my threats seriously otherwise you wouldnt have run off to my enemies."
Archelous frowned and turned to dante "Who are you calling your enemies? We were living here minding our own life and suddenly you show up trying to take over our house. I have nothing against you cousin as long as you leave us and our house alone." he then turned to demetrious "What is wrong with yoU demetrious? Cant you act like a Ronas. Its not like that dagger will kill your blood match. Its only a torturing dagger. Dante will throw whatever tormenting spell he wants at her. So what. her kind can handle it." he then turned to Athena "Woman, stop trying to pull out that dagger or heal your sister. It wont work. I have used this spell many times on my enemies. It cant be reversed. it cant be stopped. Only she would be no pain when Dante decides to pull out the dagger."
Demetrious stood up and walked to Archelous "Only a torturing spell? Is it? its easy for you to say. My blood match is in pain. Keep your words of wisdom to yourself." Then he turned around and as he was approaching Aretha and Athena, it was Athenas voice who stopped him "Dont come closer. Trust me."
Demetrious spoke "Why. I want to hold my blood match. As he took another step, he was thrown backwards to the otherside of the room close to Dante's cell. He looked at Athena wth questioning eyes. "why did you throw me for? I am not going to hurt her."
Athena spoke in an emotional voice "Not intentionally you won't. But Dante's curse on this dagger is more complicated than you think. This dagger would torture my sister but the closer you are to her, the pain becomes worse. Now that you are standing further away from her, she is feeling better. She can at least breath properly and doesnt want to scream. She would deal with this pain as long as you are not close."
demetrious gasped "It cant be." He then turned to Dante in horror "Is this true?"
Dante laughed "Of course. i wish Athena hadnt worked out the curse so soon though. I was having fun watching you torture your blood match. She is correct. hundred percent. Thats a torturing dagger. It would make your blood match feel pain but nothing that would make her scream. But I have cursed that dagger in a way that the torturing spells intensify with you around her. The closer you are standing to her, then her pain gets worse. When you touch her, she would feel pain so intense she would beg for you to kill her. Dont look so surprised and shocked brother. I just did what I promised I would do if you defy me. I told you, i would separate you from your blood match and I would hurt her. Dont say I didnt warn you. So now you have no choice but to keep your distance from her. You cant stand near her. not without making her cry. You cant kiss her any more not without making her scream in pain."