Destined Battle Part 1

The sudden appearance of a throne room took us by surprise. Despite the neglected façade of the residential area they used as a hideout, this hall looked very well maintained and you could tell it received cleaning and care quite often. It was elegant, but it also felt strange to me. There was a heavy pressure just from being there; it was uncomfortable, so Ena and I kept moving and left the place quickly.

We found more stairs that continued downward and took them, coming upon an old rusted door with a keyring hanging to one side. The place clashed a lot with the previous hall.

Creeeeak

The creak of the door made the hairs on the back of our necks stand up. On the other side there was nothing but a darkness that seemed endless, and the little we could see thanks to the light coming in were a few cells; most likely they stretched down the whole corridor. The keys must surely belong to this place.

“Can you see inside?” I asked Ena.

“Yes,” she replied. Being an elf, her vision was much sharper and adapted to dark environments. “But what about you?”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”

Gathering and directing some mana into my hands, a bright, emerald-tinged orb emerged, hovering in the air. It was a simple spell I had been practicing on the way to the capital, and luckily it was easy to cast since it didn’t consume much mana.

“Let’s go!” I exclaimed as I took the keys.

Although the light helped illuminate the place, the darkness was still overwhelming, and the echo of our footsteps only made it feel more sinister. We walked for a few minutes, careful not to trip, until we finally found him.

“Naoya!”

In a cell at the back, Naoya sat meditating with his eyes closed. When he heard my voice his eyes snapped open, he looked at me surprised, and then broke into a wide smile.

“You sure took your time, huh?” he said in a slightly amused tone.

It had been days since I last saw him—when he had been attacked and kidnapped by that demon; the time I had to leave him behind. The feelings I had kept inside until now began to surface and my eyes started to water.

I ran toward the cell and, throwing the door open, rushed and jumped at him to hug him, the two of us falling to the ground, but I didn’t care.

“Ouch! Wait, that hurts!”

“I missed you!” I blurted, almost in tears. “Thank goodness you’re okay…”

Naoya resisted at first, but after listening to me he calmed and returned my embrace. I missed the warmth I felt being near him.

“I missed you too, Liz.”

We stayed on the floor for a couple of minutes. I didn’t want this to end, but we had to get out of there.

“Naoya, our companions are fighting outside against the demon that kidnapped you,” I said. “Do you think you can fight?”

“Of course!” he exclaimed confidently. “Thanks to so much meditation, I think I’ve improved enough to teach that guy a lesson.”

The confidence in his voice was reassuring. If he was so sure he could handle him, then I would trust his words.

“Let’s move!”

***

As soon as we got up, Liz, Ena, and I ran for the exit of that place, heading toward the battlefield. Thanks to my constant meditation during the days I was trapped, my mana control improved and became much more efficient; my charged strikes would now be much stronger than before, and for that reason I felt confident I could endure a rematch against that lackey.

However, the one who really worried me was Darkahia. Liz and Ena had managed to reach the cells unharmed—so he wasn’t here? I was uneasy not knowing his whereabouts, but as soon as we reached what seemed to be a throne room, my doubts were cleared. I felt an overwhelming pressure the moment I set foot in that place. It was a familiar sensation because I had felt it during the time I was captive.

“Watch out—above!”

After my warning, Liz and Ena stopped, and in front of them landed the leader of the New Order, Darkahia himself. I knew it; the pressure I felt the moment I entered that hall was his presence. He had most likely let Liz and Ena pass to ambush us.

“What is that thing!?” Ena screamed, stepping back toward Liz at great speed.

“Darkahia… the leader of the New Order.”

“I should have guessed he’d be a demon too.”

We were in trouble. Now we not only had to fight the demon lackey, but we would also have to face the leader of the New Order himself. With my mana improvement I figured I could handle the other demon, but Darkahia was different. I don’t know to what extent his strength reaches for comparison. Still, it was clear we wouldn’t get out of here unless we brought that thing down.

“You arrive at a good time, hero,” the demon said in his usual deep voice. “I have discovered a way to no longer depend on you. Now I can extract your soul and absorb it, and that’s that.”

“What!?”

That was what the demon lackey had meant! He no longer needed me alive to take advantage of my mana; if he took my soul, then he could keep living without worrying again about the absence of the great tree Mildfir.

“I won’t let you!” Liz shouted, casting a basic spell straight at the demon. The attack struck, but it did no kind of damage to Darkahia.

“Did you think spells of that level could do anything to me?”

It seems Liz wouldn’t be able to do much. Maybe if she charged her most powerful attack she could hurt him, but that would only tire her out and put her out of the fight. The only option left was for me to take that thing on personally.

Channeling the mana from my body into my legs, I propelled myself with great force to close the distance between Darkahia and me, and when I was inches from him, I struck him with a fully charged blow. He blocked it with both arms, but his body staggered back. If I hadn’t meditated for so long, I highly doubt I would have managed to do something like that.

Do I have a chance?

“Funny, you know? You were supposed to have appeared to face me a hundred years ago,” he said with a sinister smile, pulling off his shirt and revealing a robust, muscular body. “How about we settle this once and for all?”

Moments later, he lunged at me with great speed and force wanting to land a heavy blow that I barely dodged, but which ended up shattering the floor as soon as it hit. I was naive to think I had a chance just because I had meditated a little.

Having dodged the strike with a sidestep, I hurried to land another hit to the face, but he barely moved; even so, I didn’t want to stop there and landed several more blows, and without wasting time, Darkahia hit me with one of his arms and sent me flying a great distance. I barely managed to land on my feet after doing a flip in the air.

“Is that it?”

His attempt to provoke me was obvious, but it annoyed me because the confidence with which he said it was well-founded. Despite having delivered a series of direct mana-charged strikes, I couldn’t do anything to him. Darkahia was a true monster, but I couldn’t just give up.

I gathered mana in my legs and arms again and ran at the monster. I tried to strike him while running, but he dodged as if it were nothing. Nonetheless, I didn’t stop and kept trying to hit him. Punches, kicks, anything I could do was valid, and although I managed to land some attacks given the demon’s poor defense, it still wasn’t enough.

“Die!”

Then Darkahia brought his arms together and struck me from above. I thought I could defend by blocking only with my arms, but I underestimated him. His strength was even greater than the golem we faced long ago; that blow left me completely crushed on the ground, but he didn’t stop there.

When I tried to get up, he grabbed my head and slammed me against the floor, then threw me against a wall, leaving a huge crater, and before I could fall to the ground, he grabbed my face again to drag me along the entire wall and then fling me with even more force than before.

I never in my life thought I could feel a pain like this. Every blow, every slam, every movement Darkahia made was crushing and devastating, and that’s not to mention the fact that, despite his size, he was quite fast.

“I think that’s it. What a pity,” the demon said before stepping on me.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t push his foot off my body. It was like trying to lift a ton, and every time he used more force, leaving me unable to breathe in a short time.

“Naoya!”

The only thing I could hear in the distance were Liz’s screams, who seemed to be getting farther and farther away. Soon, without realizing it, I once again found myself wrapped in darkness.

It seems I lost. No matter how hard I tried, no matter how hard I struck with all my strength, I couldn’t do anything. It was depressing, but what made me feel worst was having left Liz with that thing. He’s going to kill her, without a doubt.

“It’s over…”

“No,” added the consciousness of the great tree Mildfir. “There is still a chance.”

“What do you mean? Am I not dead?”

The consciousness shook its head.

“No, but you’re close, so let’s get straight to the point.”

I lay on the floor from the result of the fight, but seeing the seriousness in the great tree’s consciousness, I stood up and looked it in the face. If there really was a chance, then I would take it no matter what.

“You haven’t released all your power yet. I can help you with that, but there is a limit,” it explained. “Your body hasn’t developed enough to withstand all that power, so you will only have five minutes to finish this. After that time, your body will suffer great damage.”

Only five minutes. It might seem little to many, but for me, already used to short, quick fights, it seemed perfect. If that power was truly enough to finish Darkahia, then I would accept the risk.

“Let’s do it!”