Insurgency

A few days after Kairo's arrest, the situation for palace control escalated at an alarming rate. The harem women, Valerr's servants and supporters coordinated a strike throughout the palace. The Palace Guards were soon facing a full-blown insurgent attack, which made the night chaotic and bloody.

The morning after the palace attacks began, Valerr was re-dressed in all black leather armor with matching gloves, long-heeled boots, daggers holstered to her hips, and a long, silver-red mage coat billowing at her ankles as she walked. Her hair swished at her back in a high ponytail, which was tied in a red jewel headdress.

She walked with purpose toward the Palace Dungeon's exit. After visiting Lady Foster and her husband in their shared prison cell.

Aldrick-pasha was persuaded to release the Palace Codex passcodes to her with Lady Foster as an incentive. As he was bound to a meteorite slab, he was unable to use his magic and therefore useless.

Valerr wasn't completely heartless. She tossed Lady Foster into the cell with him, then had her guards drop the floor so they fell into a deep pool. Whether they survived the shrieker-infested waters was up to their fate with the gods.

She power-walked out of the palace dungeons, toward the security tower nearby.

Her entourage of Shadow Agents and Shadow Cabal warriors ensured she could move freely across the colorful valley path, by hacking through Lyon's guards to taint the flowers with a trail of blood.

She boldly entered the palace's protection array mechanism at the top of the tower. Her eyes studied the arrangement of runes forming a spell in two hexagon arrays on the entire stone floor and ceiling.

A victory grin stretched over her mouth.

"It's time to end your reign, Demon Prince Lyon!" Valerr declared as she held a pentagon shaped meteorite disc before her and used her magic to make it hover midair.

She cast the Palace Codex passcode spell she had extracted from the former Chief of Security, removing the palace's barriers and defenses.

"Sound the horns," she coolly ordered her men.

Lyon's eyes narrowed as he heard blaring war horns from the palace's security tower.

He wore his full red-black leather armor for the first time in a long time. A sleek black mage cloak, which was imbued with special magic properties, swayed at his back. The royal emblem shone proudly on his plated pauldrons, vambraces, gauntlets and calf-length metal boots. He secured his broadsword of blue-meteorite, with a solid silver hilt the shape of a crescent moon, to his back holster. His hair was tied-back in a single ponytail.

"No more hiding, Valerr. It's time to put you in your place."

He entered a pure white stone room, only containing a painted silver hexagon array on the floor. He knelt at the center and moved his arms in a flourish to activate the array's magic.

The magic was a spell called Palace Insight. It sent his mind moving through the palace to be at many places at once. His aim was to close external access points, which were being overrun by Crud Pirates and Shadow Cabal warriors and mages.

He frowned when he saw a group of elite Death Mages slowly shuffling their way into a gate. The guards bravely charged for an attack, but dropped a few feet before the mages, stone dead.

Lyon heaved a sign and rose, gathering the Palace Insight power into him. He moved to the gate with a thought. In a few heart beats he was standing before five bony figures shrouded in saggy black robes and hoods.

"The prince does care for his minions." A voice hissed beneath one of the hoods.

The mages raised their bony hands. A black energy was released from them to darken the skies, causing a dampening effect on people's magic. It ensured Lyon couldn't cast his cosmic powers.

The ground rose and split as an earthquake, causing the fighting guards and escaping civilians to stumble about or plummet through a steaming fissure, and to their deaths.

"Spirit Echoes." Lyon's voice was a sigh when he released his spell.

Shrieker cries emerged from the ground. Spirit impressions of merman creatures with their three-mouth faces rose frightfully to the surface. The monsters cast slimy blue watery blasts that negated the Death Mage's magic attack, but the skies still remained dark.

People sighed with relief when the ground stopped trembling.

Lyon was locked into a magic attack with the Death Mages, as they surrounded him with a multilayered spell. So much so, it gave time for Valerr to join the fight. But his all encompassing vision ensured she couldn't ambush him. Yet, he was unable to clone himself across the palace while the Death Mages had him hemmed in.

"BEGONE!" He roared with a voice that shook the darkened skies like thunder and lightning; returning them to their natural state.

"No matter." Valerr sighed. She danced around his magic and broadsword attacks to dish out her own.

While she and the Death Mages were keeping Lyon entertained, Adell-guard, Lyt-guard and Lady Bluesteed (wearing her prune) were fending off attacks near the demon prince's private chambers.

"Stop them from reaching Genie." Lyon's voice entered their minds

They showed acknowledgement to the order.

"All good and well if they weren't so energetic." Lyt-guard complained as he swayed around attacks and blows in his usual listless and agile manner. Hacking through the enemies with his axes like he was whittling down branches.

"Hey, pops, go mow down that oncoming horde." Adell-guard smugly ordered him when she saw a fresh batch of Shadow Cabal and Crud Pirate warriors rushing for them from a corridor.

"There's around twenty of them." Lyt-guard groaned, as he twirled his finger to control an axe midair and made it do a mad hack and slash dance around an enemy.

"You can handle them. Just do it."

"It's suicide."

"And you can't die. I'll pay you double the salary this time. Come on, do it for your daughter." Adell-guard smirked as she swung her sabers in an arc to throw back three oncoming enemies.

Lyt-guard recalled his axes to his back. He stood before the rushing horde that was about to file into the private garden: his mind slipped into his Spirit Heart that was the control center of his Spirit Network, and acted in a similar way to a Spiritual Sea. His magic was gathered to boost his power to a mighty level.

"Airbound Spirit: Blades of the Immortal." His body moved with such a speed that was a blur to the eye.

The warrior horde shrieked and squealed with shock and pain when his body sent them flying into the air. They cursed and complained before they dropped dead like flies.

Lady Bluesteed squealed with fright when twenty strong warriors were lifeless on the ground with Lyt-guard among them.

"Lyt-guard!" She rushed for him, but was held back by Abell-guard.

"His immortal attack absorbs their death. He'll recover in a day or so. Just leave him be. We have our own fight to continue," she said to the centurion noble.

Lady Bluesteed nodded as they continued their fight with incoming waves of attacks. This time their opponents were a mob of rebel servants and concubines who, in large numbers, were formidable.

"We can't let them get to Genie!" Adell-guard shouted out their orders, while kicking back attackers and using her magic to knock them down.

Lady Bluesteed nimbly whittled down numbers with her hand fan blade.

"Kill the beastkind!" A concubine rushed for Lady Bluesteed with a sword, and fell down dead with one slash of the centurion's hand fan.

Lady Bluesteed sighed with sadness. She never thought in her life she would have to use her weapons on people.

"Keep your focus, Bluesteed. These people are crazy and will kill you without blinking." Adell-guard shouted as she blasted down a bunch of attackers with her magic.

Lady Bluesteed nodded and kept up her fight.

They were succeeding in reducing the numbers, but they still couldn't reach Genie who was still unconscious within Lyon's private infirmary.

Her heart raced with panic when she felt an evil chill slip past her to enter the private chambers. As she sprinted to follow, magic sealed the chamber entrance. She was staring at a blank wall.

"Crap!" Adell-guard roared with frustration when she saw the entrance was sealed. "Let's hope Henka-guard and Nik-guard can handle the fiend."

The atmosphere within Lyon's chambers was eerily quiet and unspoiled. Henka-guard and Nik-guard were placed on sentry duty, watching over Genie like hawks.

Their demon prince tasked them with the vital duty of protecting his brother: one they took very seriously, and more because it was an order, Genie was their friend.

"Come on you poncy prince. Wake up!" Henka-guard kicked the meteorite bed Genie was still napping on.

But Genie continued to lay on his back with his eyes closed and body still recovering from his ordeal at the Ancestral Records.

"How long yah think it will take for his soul to settle into his body?" Nik-guard looked worried as he heard the chaos and commotion growing louder outside the room.

But before they could answer, a heady sensation overcame them. Their eyes drooped and bodies felt like jelly.

"Purgatory spell." Nik-guard clumsily signed a clarity spell with his hands, but the Purgatory Spell had already taken too much of an effect on him.

Both he and Henka-guard collapsed to the ground unconscious.

A fiend revealed itself before Genie as a faceless silver-white ghost of a demon. Its wispy hand passed over Genie's face to capture his image, then it assumed his identity.

A Death Mage entered the room with a couple of burly pirates. A pirate hauled Genie over his shoulder, then followed the Death Mage and other pirates out of the room. The fiend assumed Genie's identity on the bed.

Back at the palace gates, Valerr kept up her fight with Lyon who had drastically reduced the enemy's numbers. With his palace insight, he could aid reduction of numbers in many areas, but fending off the multilayered mage attack had drained a lot of his spirit energy, making his magic only capable of releasing weaker versions of his attacks.

"You're losing old woman," Lyon aloofly said as he effortlessly countered her attacks.

But Valerr refused to admit her defeat. Suddenly, horns blared across the palace to signal her retreat.

"This isn't over!" She spat at his feet: activated a Movement Talisman spell to teleport out of his sight.

Lyon frowned when he saw all the enemies teleporting out. It deepened when he saw Lady Bluesteed and Jan's guards unconscious on the ground.

He moved to where Genie was laying with his suspicions running high: placed a hand on his brother's chest and pulled back when he felt burning chills.

"Fiend!" He hastily said a spell to reveal the creature.

The fiend assumed its true form and began wrapping itself around Lyon's body.

But Lyon tapped into his cosmic powers to boost his aura with pure spirit energy. The fiend was disintegrated with one aura blast.

He closed his eyes to tap into his palace insight and release a command to everyone still alive and recovering.

"I want the palace secured and the Security Tower reactivated."

A number of guards acknowledged his orders and began a coordinated effort to complete the required.

Lyon began recalculating plans, options and intentions for Genie's kidnapping. More importantly, how to get him back.

"Sire! Kairo-wizard is missing from the Purgatory Cell!" A guard relayed to him via his palace insight.

Lyon added this oversight into his calculations. The Shadow Cabal had made their moves and won the battle this time.

"I'll reclaim my wizard and brother." He coolly declared.

He left his chamber to provide hands-on support on restoring order to his palace.