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Chapter 41: Going Solo "She's awake!" I heard a voice yell as I opened my eyes. I was in a tent, and there were a few wizards running around, attending to the injured. I sat up and looked around wildly for my sword. It was lying beside me on my bed, in a new sheath. "I see you're awake." an old man appeared beside me. I recognized him as Grendel, master of magicians. "Wait..... Roy, Mei Ling, Lacus......" I sat up, but Grendel laid me down again. "We recovered them from the ruins. They were almost dead too." he said grimly. I looked to my right. The others were lying beside me, unconscious and completely covered in bandages. "Lopez...!" I sat up again. "Lith Harbour medics are tending to him now. He was thrown all the way there, and his eardrums were shattered. He's deaf." Grendel explained. I gasped. I was discharged a few minutes later after a few witches made sure I was completely fine. All around the tent, people were either running around or crying. The Dark Lord was nowhere to be seen. The city was a ruin. Multiple green tents had been pitched up all over the city wherever they could be placed. The tents all flew the same flag. The Ellinia flag. "Wait!" I called over to a witch running past. "Yes?" she walked to me. "Did anything happen to Ellinia?" I asked her. "Yes, yes. We felt the shockwave too, but Kerning was hit the hardest. Henesys, Perion and Lith Harbour also got hit by it, but they took minor damage." she scurried off again, looking harassed. "That demon is way above S-rank." the Siren remarked. "The house...!" I ran off towards the house. It was still standing, amidst the smoking ruins of the other houses. Apparently, Roy had done some upgrading. I unlocked the door with a key I kept in a side pocket and walked in. Everything was fine, other than the windows being blown in and a few pieces of overturned furniture. Artemis's laptop was on the ground, undamaged. Lucky for her, the casing was strong. Wait...... Where'd Artemis go to? Was...... Could it be? The Dark Angel...... I flipped open her laptop and booted it up. I brought up the MapleNet website and gasped. It was filled to the brim with news about Kerning's destruction. 100 pages worth of comments were under it, obviously by panicked maplers. A few witness videos were also listed. I pressed the play button on one and watched in horror as Roy's car was blown into smithereens by the Dark Angel. I couldn't watch any more after that. I turned the laptop off and closed it. "Help......me......" a strange voice suddenly said from the doorway and I turned around. I gasped. The Dark Angel was standing in the doorway, apparently in a daze. "After what you did to the others!? No chance!" I shrieked and grabbed my sword. "No...... you...... don't.... understand...!" she held up a hand. "I understand perfectly well! You almost killed us all!" I screamed and leapt forward. All of a sudden, she fell limp and landed in the hands of...... "Ikki!" I gasped. "She shouldn't have done this. Most unfitting for the Queen of demons." he smiled and disappeared along with the Dark Angel. Queen of demons!? Oh my god...... No wonder her powers surpassed even the S-rank! "Faint magical traces indicate they went somewhere in the dungeon." the Siren murmured. "I'm going." I looked around in Roy's room and found a scroll with the Sleepywood flag drawn on it. I ripped it in half and a portal appeared in the air. I stepped through it. Strangely, the residents of Sleepywood weren't panicking. Probably natural, they had no MapleNet access since the town was built in a cave. Wouldn't want to throw them into a state of panic though. I walked into the Ant Tunnel. "Demonic emissions coming from the Cursed Sanctuary." the Siren reported. I advanced in further. The Ant Tunnel was devoid of the usual monsters, and a few maplers who obviously hadn't heard about Kerning's destruction were wandering around asking people, "What happened to the spawn?" Further in, it was the same. No monsters, except for the occasional Crimson Balrog that wasn't native here. A few dead maplers were floating around in ghost form, wondering who had summoned a Crimson there. I killed them without much of a problem and took the scrolls that dropped out of their carcasses. "Where do those items come from anyway?" I thought to myself. The Cursed Sanctuary was where the supposed prince of demons lived, the Jr Balrog. You could tell there was something suspicious going on, two Death Angels were guarding the entrance to it. "Demons." I breathed and unsheathed my sword. The Death Angels attacked. "Ice Charge." I whispered, using one of the techniques my mother Fielda had taught me in my past life. My Jikyeon Sword hissed for a moment, then a sheet of ice formed around it. I used this to freeze the 2 demons in mid-air, then stepped on their remnants and pushed open the massive door to the Cursed Sanctuary. The place was still the same in terms of terrain shape, but the occupants were completely different. Ikki sat on the Junior Balrog's throne, and the Dark Angel was curled up on his lap, asleep and naked. I noticed that he stroking her chest and hips. Pervert. "Ahh, Alexis. I knew you'd come." he smiled devilishly. "Where's Artemis!? What have you done to her!?" I demanded. "She's right here in this cave. But...... you can't reach her right now. She's mine. For eternity." he caught my anxious glance at the Dark Angel. Come to think of it, her hair was exactly the same length as Artemis's. Her face also bore the same features, other than the black skin. "You don't say......" I gasped. "Why don't I let you have a quick chat with your twin sister before she starts destroying Perion?" Ikki grinned. The Dark Angel's skin suddenly turned to the colour of human skin, and it was obvious, at this point, that she was really Artemis. Her remaining wing kept its black colour though. "What...... Artemis!" I yelled. Artemis stirred and opened her eyes. "Ale...xis...?" she moaned. Her eyes were a deep red colour. "Where...... are.....you?" she reached her hands, or rather claws out and began to feel around. She was blind...... "Chatting time's over." Ikki smiled. Artemis's skin turned back to pure darkness and she reared up. "Now for the finishing touch." Ikki removed a wing-shaped object from her shoulder and picked something off it. "Stop!" I shrieked, running towards the both of them. Ikki merely looked at me, and placed the thing on Artemis's forehead. Now I realized that it was an Akasha Charm. She let out a purr of delight and huddled closer to Ikki. Her ears became pointed and her entire body became scaly. Another pair of wings shot out of her back and the wing I had destroyed regrew. Two horns shot out of her head and her hair became even darker. Her teeth became razor-sharp and pointed. "Oh my......" I watched her undertake the transformation in horror. When Artemis got up again, she was really the Dark Angel. "Artemis! Wake up!!!" I screamed as she suddenly appeared in front of me. She had obvious expected me to be unarmed, for I was hiding my sword inside my armour. I took it out and gave it a mighty stab. "If you even have the heart to try and kill me, you are no longer my sister." I whispered as the Dark Angel reeled backwards a few steps, then sank to the ground. I had managed to puncture her heart. "No!" Ikki screamed as I put the Dark Angel on my back, then ripped a Kerning scroll apart and teleported back. "Doing this will put a lot more people in danger!" the Siren warned as I strapped the unconscious Dark Angel to the rocky wall of the swimming pool cavern in my house. Her wound had resealed itself. She may be the queen of demons, but her body was still human, and thus limited in some aspects. "Is there a way to fix her?" I asked. "You can get into her mind and try to fix her up." the Siren replied thoughtfully. "Can you get me into her mind?" I asked the Siren. "Yes I can, but it's too dangerous. Her mind is demonic now, and who knows what demons think." it sighed. "Just do it!" I commanded and reached up to the Akasha Charm on the Dark Angel's forehead. "If you pull that off I can't do it. Human minds are quite easily piggybacked, but demon minds are different. I need a valid entry point to demon minds to get in, and an Akasha Charm attached to a demon forehead is one of the few ways." the Siren explained. I placed my hand on the Dark Angel's forehead. "Get ready." the Siren warned. My body began to glow and I was sucked into the Akasha Charm, legs first. For a split second, I saw the Dark Angel's chest expand slightly, but I ignored it and simply focused on getting into her mind. |
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