Chapter 1: The Incident Of The Wizard!

Lark stood before the grave, staring down at it. Several months have passed since he lost his son, who only survived for three days. Lark and his wife, Trissa, could not comprehend what had happened, and there were no complications during his birth. Living a life away from the war going on in Valiant, and here he was back cause he needed to pick up supplies in Valiant, a place where citizens got killed every day. Being a half-demon and half-human did give him some guilt for not involving himself in the war, but an invasion of Earth by the demons, the angels stepping in, Earth sending in a lot of soldiers, and the citizens of Valiant doing everything in their power to prevent any demons from entering Earth. The war itself has been chaotic, with no news about which side will prevail, but Lark had a bad feeling about the whole situation.

"I heard you were back in Valiant. How is life living in the woods on Earth?"

Lark turned around and saw the Wizard standing there, touching his beard with his long green hat.

"I just came back to pick up some supplies for our home. You being here means that you want something from me. I do not work here in Valiant. I already have a job where I live today."

The Wizard laughed and walked up to Lark, who leaned a little bit backwards when the Wizard came up close and grabbed his right arm and said:

"Shin tu rah!"

Suddenly, both of them were in a cabin. Lark knew precisely where they were. It was the home of the Wizard.

"Why have you brought me here, Dendarven?" Lark asked.

Dendarven moved to the table and rolled out a large map of the whole world of Valiant.

"I am planning to change history, but I need a favour."

Lark took a deep breath as the crazy old Dendarven was going to another of his experiments that often fail.

"Yeah, tell me the plan, and I will tell you no after that!"

Dendarven began scribbling lines all over the map, where the entrance to Earth was on the right and Hell on the left. Nine lines from left to right, not counting the entrances to Earth and Hell.

"You draw some lines on a map, what exactly is it that you are trying to show Dendarven?"

His eyes lit up as he stared at Lark.

"I am going to end this war!" He said proudly to Lark.

"Don't joke about that. Did you drink mixed potions again and lose control?"

Dendarven started pushing things across the floor as Lark, surprised, thought the awkward situation was escalating. Dendarven opened a door and screamed out:

"I FOUND YOU!"

He forced a young man out of the room and sat him down on a chair. Lark recognised the bag in the man's hands as a backpack he had seen in stores where he lives.

"What are you doing, Dendarven?" Lark asked with a worried voice as he thought maybe the Wizard had gone crazy in the end. He would understand, as the war has been going on for months.

"I need you to take him with you back to Earth, Lark?"

Lark shook his head in denial.

"Did you not understand what I said earlier. I do not do jobs anymore. You can sit here with this young man and do whatever you two are doing. I need to go!" Lark said and moved towards the door.

"STOP!" Dendarven screamed.

Lark turned around, tired of the shenanigans the old Wizard was doing.

"You need to do this, Lark. Valiant is on the verge of losing the war."

He shrugged his shoulders. Why should he care when he is only half human?

"I don't care, old crazy wizard!" Lark uttered, turning around again and opened the door.

In the moment he was going to step out of the cabin, Dendarven screamed out again:

"WHAT IF I FIND YOUR BOY? WILL YOU DO THIS FAVOUR TO ME?"

Lark stopped in his step and turned around:

"What do you mean?"

"I can find your boy, the one who died."

A black chain fell to the floor, catching black flames, but it did not burn the floor. Lark's eyes changed colour from brown to black as his breathing became heavier as he moved towards Dendarven. At the same time, the young man in the chair escaped to the corner, leaning down to take cover as the situation was on its way to escalating further.

"Why are you talking about my son like you know what happened?" Lark uttered in a darker, murkier voice.

Lark stood now in front of the Wizard, looking down at him as if he wanted to kill Dendarven.

"In history, only one baby died after birth from a Witch, that was because someone stabbed the baby as they were afraid that it would become very powerful. Never once has a baby died of natural causes, no matter who the Witch have mated with. I am sure they killed your son." Dendarven uttered with confidence and stared up at Lark's face.

"That is not possible, his mother and siblings were close by all the time. Trissa would never let any harm come to the children, and Sabina and Zark have the power to protect their little brother. Nobody would dare attack our household with such a powerful Witch as Trissa at home." Lark explained, still with the chain gushing out black flames.

"There is an experiment that the demons are doing. They take souls and create entities called Krat. I did not offer to find your son's body, but your boy passed the same day when they tested five souls from Earth. Your son, who is three days old, may be inside a Krat, and my offer to you is to gather this information. I can send out a Cukrin dog; it will take a couple of days, but you will know if the soul is in Hell or somewhere else." Dendarven explained.

Lark's breathing calmed, and the black eyes disappeared along with the chain.

"You are saying we can get back my son's soul?"

"It may be possible, but you will still have to say goodbye, as it has torn apart from the body. All you can do is let the angels or the Grim Reaper decide if the soul will go to Hell or Heaven."

Lark nodded, even if he could not save his son, at least his soul deserves a proper ending.

"What do you want me to do, Dendarven?

The Wizard smiled and looked back at the young man, and gave him a thumbs-up.

"Travel with this young man back to Earth and activate the device he has in the bag. That is all!"

The young man got up from the floor, sat down by the chair, and opened the bag, holding out the device for Lark to see, which he thought was small. What does the crazy Wizard want them to do?

"What is this? What does it do?" Lark asked.

"This man, Trefferun Tainton, a hobby scientist from Earth, is going to open a portal between Valiant and Earth."

Lark looked at the Wizard as he thought it was a dumb idea.

"That is a very hard thing to do. What is the purpose?"

"We are going to create a haven for citizens of all creatures so they can take shelter. The information has reached several Kingdoms on the verge of collapse. We are counting on a couple of thousand citizens to pass through the areas they know the portal will open."

Lark shook his head, giving a sarcastic smile.

"That is impossible, with that amount of citizens and different species passing through, it will not work, and a lot of citizens won't be able to pass through."

"It is possible, if you have this human with you."

Lark didn't get it. Did Dendarven mean the scaredy cat hiding in the corner?

"Take this man with you, and when you arrive on Earth, he will press his finger down on the device to transfer blood into it, and then wait until it shines green colour, and then pressing the button will activate the portal."

"Eh, are you crazy. You mean a puny human will be able to open a portal for several species here in Valiant? That is not possible." Lark said, waving his hand.

"This man you have in front was experimented on by the mad scientist in Hell. Bearing the blood of every species in Valiant inside him. He escaped and wants to go home, but both the demons and angels are after him as he is considered extremely dangerous."

Lark looked at the young man who was sweating.

"Why would they consider him dangerous? He looks terrified even being in the cabin."

"They think he may have powers that can kill most species."

Lark looked at the man.

"Hey! Do you have any powers that are dangerous?"

The man shook his head in denial.

"No, I am just a normal human who wishes to go home."

Lark shrugged; he could see that the young man was afraid.

"Fine! You'd better find my son's soul."

Dendarven put two fingers up in the air with his eyes closed, which didn't exactly look trustworthy. The Wizard snapped its finger, and a four-eyed dog showed up on the table with a small black bag around its neck. It sniffed Lark and waited a while, then, when its eyes turned blue, Dendarven put a piece of paper inside the small bag.

"Why the paper?" Lark Asked.

Dendarven snapped his finger, and the Cukrin disappeared.

"Because I will be dead, and if something were to happen to you and the young man, the Cukrin will still deliver a message written by Scribbler; they know how to write family letters and can communicate with the Cukrin's."

"Dead, I am not dying for the scared human," Lark uttered.

Dendarven smiled.

"I have already sent the Cukrin to find your boy soul; you are a demon of your word. Are you not?"

"Fine!" Lark said, shaking his head, as he didn't even know it could be that dangerous.

"Let us go now!" The Wizard said and opened the door as Lark noticed two portals on the left side of the road leading out from the small garden.

"Wait a minute, you want us to go now?" Lark asked, surprised.

"Yes!" Dendarven countered.

Dendarven pointed to the neighbour Borso, who is a Cinotaur, about a fifteen-minute walk from the Wizard's house, Lark knew, because he had made the trip several times.

"The distance between Borso and my cabin, that is how long you have until the world of Valiant will change. You need to enter the human world, activate the device with his blood and then press the button. There is a short moment when the device will obliterate every species before opening the portal. You need to run as far as you can from the device, if you care to survive the blast."

"Yeah, and what are you going to do, drink some tea or?" Lark uttered.

"I will enter the other portal and die, creating a new future for the citizens of Valiant," Dendarven said, in a proud, stern voice, with no smile, no low tone.

Lark didn't want to press any further; if everything was going to blow up or change, whatever happened, he didn't want to be in Valiant when the moment came.

"Do you have the device?" Lark asked the young just in case, and he opened the back and nodded.

"Good! Let's go!" Lark said while Dendarven waved to them, as it looked like the Wizard knew this was the last wave.

They entered the portal and appeared in the middle of a sandy road that Lark recognised as close to the door to Earth. He started to walk hastily as they wanted to reach the door as fast as possible, but he stopped for a moment. Something was flying towards them, and Lark pushed the young man to the side and put his arms up in a cross as two feet came in full speed, hitting him down on the ground, dragging him several meters when his eyes turned black. He lifted both his legs and kicked the damn angel standing on him, and used his hands to backflip up again, seeing the young man coming out on the road to check on him. A demon soldier with a big dark blue knife cut the young man's throat, and blood splattered everywhere when the young man died. Lark knew that the whole situation was dire, and behind him was an angel, and in the other direction, a demon soldier. He never thought a demon would team up with an Ankel to kill anyone. What is Lark going to do now that the young man is dead?