Showdown

PRINCESS CAMILA RECOILED as the demon sped toward her, so fast that it dodged Cerys’ magic and Xana’s arrows. It held its fell sword in one hand, and reached out to the Princess with the other, an impenetrable darkness shooting from it to her.

Everything seemed lost, the Princess about to fall hostage, until the dark hand crashed against a shimmering barrier that materialized in front of her.

“Not so fast, buddy,” I said, standing between the Princess and the Death Knight in my human form. The creature was quick, but not enough to outpace my teleportation.

The demon, however, did not relent.

It lunged at my barrier with its sword, empowered with dark magic stronger than any I’d faced before. The attack cut through the ward’s top layers with ease, but they bought me enough time to activate a second teleportation spell, letting me relocate myself and the Princess behind Roderick and Nia.

Then, with the Princess and I out of the way, Cerys took aim at the demon and fired a tremendous blast of elemental energy. The demon was engulfed in the explosion, but it burst forth from it in a moment, parts of its armor still burning.

Xana shot another magic arrow as the creature darted toward her, but it parried the attack with its blade, enduring the blast with its unholy resilience. By then, Xana was but a few paces away, and the demon reached out to capture her.

She had no time to shoot with her bow again, and without magic, she was utterly defenseless. Alas, with the residual mana of the arrows’ explosions, the demon failed to see the pool of magical energy Xana had hidden within.

Just as she was about to enter its grasp, her silhouette vanished into thin air, leaving a brief spatial distortion in her place. She’d cast a teleportation spell.

The creature screamed in fury, and as it turned around, it was caught in a merciless barrage of energy bolts cast by Cerys. Its armor clanged and rattled, pieces blown away with each strike. Beneath it, the creature’s skin was charred, slick with blood oozing from its wounds.

A guttural roar echoed in the throne room, pushing Cerys’ spell back as the creature swelled with unfathomable power. A dreadful aura of darkness emanated from it, a pair of bat-like wings sprouting from its back.

Claws, fangs, horns, tail… each of them grew as the Death Knight abandoned its human guise for its true, and terrible form.

Then, it came at us with its own magic, its aura shooting forth like a serpentine spear. Cerys and Xana guarded themselves with magic barriers, while Amelia covered for me from behind.

Thanks to her support, I had my hands free to charge at the monster with my magic halberd, a little gift Amelia had given me before we left to the forest.

Just like the demon had done with its sword, I wreathed my halberd with eldritch energy, piercing and slashing through the monster’s magical defenses like butter. It had no choice but to meet me with its blade, drawing its magic assault away from the girls.

The clashing of steel rang throughout the room, the raw energies flying from our exchange so loudly that they were deafening. There was collateral damage everywhere, with the stands, banners and art pieces suffering at the sidelines of our onslaught.

Then, I felt a telepathic signal at the back of my head, urging me to pull back.

At the first opening shown by the demon’s blade, I snuck a quick teleportation spell toward the girls. My silhouette was barely gone when the demon was slammed by a pair of energy beams, shining in incandescent gold.

“Waaagh!” Xana yelled at the top of her lungs, doing her damnedest to meet the intensity of Cerys’ beam.

As for the demon, it writhed in righteous agony, desperately resisting the girls’ spells with its dark magic. Its wings were burned and battered, and Amelia was at the ready to counter any teleportation spells. With such numerical disadvantage, its odds of escaping were grim.

Thus, the demon readied itself for its final stand.

It dropped its defenses and jumped in the air, pulling every speck of darkness in the room to coalesce around it. The creature knew it wouldn’t survive this fight, but it refused to go down without spilling our blood.

“Brace for impact!” yelled Nia, erecting a radiant wall of magic around her group. This left Cerys, Xana and I in the open, with the two of them still off-balance from the beam spells they cast.

Amelia, though a potent spellcaster, wouldn’t be able to cover for all of us… and frankly, I had no confidence I’d be able to, either.

As I got a read of the immense firepower the demon was about to unleash on us, it became clear it intended to burn itself out, and us along with it.

Yet, if the creature wanted to burn us… all I had to do was to burn it harder.

With a thunderous roar, the demon opened its mouth, and unleashed the fury of its fell magic — a challenge I rose to meet head on. A blinding flash of light burst from my body, as I embraced the true self that I became in Krysterios.

With wings unfurled, and jaws wide open, I confronted the demon in my dragon form with a breath attack of my own.

The clash was astounding. My fiery torrent met with the demon’s hellfire, in a cataclysmic display of force. The very stone melted in the walls and floors, the remaining windows shattered, and the demon was consumed in a vortex of flames.

Its harrowing cries echoed in the room, as my shadow was projected to Silvano behind me. After this display, there will be no question in his mind as to what happened to the Dread Dragon.

As the demon went silent, my breath attack waned, allowing me to witness the aftermath. We achieved victory, but the room was left in shambles. Even the throne itself was reduced to a charred husk…

Hopefully the Princess won’t have my hide for this.

Either way, my job here was done, and I reverted to my human form before regrouping with Amelia and the others. The girls knew about my dragon form beforehand, but the Princess and her entourage stared wide-eyed at me.

Not that I can blame them, of course.

“It was you…” said Silvano, his voice struck with shock. He couldn’t turn to see me standing behind him, but it was clear he knew I was there. Only now did he realize, the dragon he’d been frantically looking for had been under his nose all along.

“You’re finished,” Amelia interrupted, unwilling to let him get a read of me. She did a splendid job keeping an eye on him, so that he wouldn’t escape while I fought with Cerys and Xana.

“So it seems,” Silvano conceded, his voice losing the will to fight. “I won’t resist you, Amelia. I’ll give you everything you want from me, but in exchange, I’ll dare to ask a favor of you.”

Oh, the audacity of this guy.

“You’d say that after everything you’ve done?” asked Cerys in indignation, but Silvano ignored her as he pled to Amelia.

“If you have any mercy in your heart, I’d beg of you to rescue Meredith,” he said, in earnest desperation. “She didn’t ask for any of this. Please, do not leave her in the hands of those monsters.”

Amelia’s expression was pained as she met eyes with him. For the first time, he didn’t sound like a traitor, or a schemer. Just a man, begging for the only person he still cared about.

How could everything have gone so wrong for the Kingdom’s favored son?

The man had sacrificed everything, betrayed all he ever stood for, and his beloved yet remained doomed in the Cult’s clutches. It was heartbreaking, even for me.

“I’ll do everything I can. I swear it,” replied Amelia, holding back her tears as she faced the husk of the hero before her.

Silvano lowered his head and closed his weary eyes, overwhelmed by exhaustion.

Then, he uttered his final words before we moved to interrogate him.

“Thank you...”