The One He Once Loved

They all appeared at the entrance of a gate. Valeria and two of the ravens vomited immediately, the rest looked rather pale as well.

“Now I know why you hate teleportation…” Sophia said and held her stomach.

“Awful right… but how did you do that?” Kieran asked.

“I kinda hijacked the spell inscribed on you and molded it into one of my own, expanding its capacity.”

“How did you know that this is going to work?”

“I didn’t…”

Sophia smiled at him sheepishly.

“Well, it worked… now we just need to press on…” said Valeria and her face went green again, “After I finish throwing up.”

“Is there another way inside? I don’t think they’ll open the big gate for us…” Bastian asked.

“Then we’ll just have to open it ourselves. Get into cover.

Sophia began chanting a spell and a fire orb grew in front of her. She let it grow until it had about one meter in diameter then she shot it at the giant castle gate. A huge explosion echoed through the night and pulverized the gate and part of the wall.

“Knock, knock.” Sophia said.

They rushed inside and were greeted by a barrage of firebolts coming from a group of mages. Sophia quickly erected a defensive barrier they could hide behind. Valeria shot arrow after the other at the group of mages dropping them like flies. Suddenly a door to the right opened and a bunch of fake Kierans came rushing towards them. They all had some weird growth. The real Kieran had already rushed forward and cut down the rest of the mages that hid from Valeria’s arrows. Bastian and Aduin with his friends engaged the new fake Kierans. They proved very quickly dispatchable.

“Let’s have a look where these knock off Kierans are coming from,” Bastian shouted and ran through the door where they had come from. The others followed him. They ran through a corridor. A few fake Kierans came their way, but they got dispatched fast by the real Kieran and Bastian at the front. They arrived in a huge room.

“What the hell is that?” Valeria gasped.

The room they were in was a big laboratory. Dozens of vats were standing there with a green liquid and something else inside them.

“What the… Those are Mini yous, Kieran!” Bastian shouted as he inspected one of the inside floating specimens. They were in fact smaller versions of Kieran. Some had weird growths on them.

“Look over there!” one of Aduins friend shouted. There was a operating table with a woman strapped to it. Her belly had been cut open and flapped to the side. The woman was long dead. They found a pile of dead women in the corner of the room.

“A lot of them were pregnant when they died…” Aduin commented.

“I think we found where the kidnapped women end up…” Bastian said. “But for what purpose?”

“They are breeding Kierans…” Valeria said

“I think we better split up. Me and my friends will look around here for survivors and get them out of here, you carry on and get to the Grand Dame,” Aduin suggested.

“Good plan. You know where she is, Kieran?” Bastian asked.

“Yeah, follow me.” Kieran answered.

“Oh, Kieran, before you go… what shall we do with all this after we evacuated possible survivors?” Aduin asked.

“Why are you asking me that?”

“Well, you are the one they are breeding here”, interjected Valeria.

“Burn it down…”

“Understood,” Aduin confirmed and he and his buddies rushed through a door that led downstairs.

Kieran and the others went upstairs. They arrived at a lobby where a group of mages and fake Kierans ambushed them.

“She is right through that door!”, Kieran yelled as fire bolts detonated on their cover.

“Can you rush past them?” Sophia shouted and lobbed a firebolt of her own towards the enemy mages.

A fake Kieran came rushing around the corner and was greeted by Bastian’s steel.

“I should be able to get past them yeah.” Kieran said.

“We will deal with them and then catch up with you after. We don’t want her getting away again.” Sophia said.

Kieran nodded and ran outside. He dodged between the flying spells and hacked one fake him apart without stopping his stride. Kieran jumped past the surprised mages and vanished into the door, that he knew would lead him to his target.

He came into a big throne room. Nora was sitting on the throne. She watched him through her brown eyes, and her red hair was open and flowy.

“You’re making quite the ruckus… Kieran,” she said as he approached.

“What the hell are you doing here with all those… creatures?” Kieran asked.

“Creatures? You’re calling yourself or your children creatures?”

“Those are not my children”

“Well, they do come from your seed… and are most of the time birthed by a human woman… I mean yeah some of them ended up a bit banged up… but they are still your seed.”

“Shouldn’t my seed… not work? You told me that… was it a lie?”

“Technically not… there is way with magic, but it’s complicated. I don’t wanna stress your brain with something you don’t understand.”

“I killed the one at the masquerade ball… was he…”

“Our son? Because of his eye color? They looked like mine back then, huh? But gods no… I don’t let some abomination grow inside of me and then plop em out… I found a test subject with the right eyes to do that job… but he still turned out inferior… But I will find a perfect subject soon. It just needs a bit more time of research.”

“Your lab is going to be destroyed.”

“No worries I can rebuild that after I’m finished with you guys.”

“You won’t be rebuilding anything, Nora. Because you will be dead sooner than later.”

“Big words… but I doubt you can back it up”

“Why do you think that?”

“We both know that you can’t kill me, Kieran.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because you still love me.”

“I am not under your chains anymore! I am free!”

“Are you? You may be free of the chains… but I doubt someone like you will ever be free of Love… it’s the heaviest chain of them all.”

“You’re wrong.”

“I am not. I will prove it to you,”

Nora stood up and slowly came his way. She held out her hands to the side.

“Here cut me down. Show me that you can kill me.”

She closed her eyes and just stood there defenselessly. Kieran swung his sword diagonally right at her collar bone.

Swoosh

Kieran stopped the blade short. His hands trembled. But somehow he just could not cut her. Nora opened her eyes.

“See? You can’t kill me… pathetic! Love makes you weak!”

She materialized a staff in her hand and swung it at Kieran the impact was as if a small rockslide hit him and he got flung back to the entrance.

“Don’t worry I won’t kill you… just punish you a bit for your discretion… so you know your place!”

She shot a beam of fire at him.

“You should know your place wench!” Sophia yelled and blocked the fire beam with a defensive barrier.

She stepped in front of Kieran.

“And who are you?” Nora asked confused.

“I’m his wife, bitch!” Sophia yelled.

“Oh, you’re the one that broke the chain, huh?”

“I did! I freed him of you!”

“No, you don’t! After I kill you, he will be right back at my side.”

“Why should he?”

“Because he still loves me despite all that I have done.”

“How do you that.”

“He can’t kill me. He proved it just now.”

“That proves only that he hasn’t made up his mind yet… I trust that he will.”

“Your trust will be broken, he will never be able to kill me. I know that.”

“How do you know.”

“Because I know him… he is not the person that can let love go… he will love me forever.”

Sophia’s body began to tremble.

“You stupid bitch… You know nothing about him at all!”

“I’ve known him for so long…”

“Yet you know nothing about him! What is the first thing he moves whenever he wakes up? You should know that… you slept with him for so long…”

“What? I don’t fucking know… his feet?”

“His nose!”

Sophia lobbed a fire ball at Nora who deflected it.

“That means nothing!” Nora shouted.

“Then what ingredient does he hate in a stew? You should know. He told you!”

“I don’t know… Carrots?”

“Mushrooms you stupid bitch!”

Sophia hurled another fire ball at her that exploded right in her face. Nora was scathed by it.

“What is his favorite color?” Sophia questioned.

“How should I know… Blue?”

“Purple!”

Sophia shot two fireballs at her. Nora deflected them both.

“That’s enough! I grow tired of this game!” Nora said and pointed her staff at Sophia.

A huge fire blaze erupted from it and crashed onto Sophia. Kieran stepped in front of her and reached out his left arm into the fire. His inscription activated and the magic got sucked inside.

“Thank you, Sophia… I made up my mind.” Kieran said, looking at Sophia for a moment. “And I didn’t know that purple was my favorite color… I always thought it was green.”

“Well now it’s purple!” Sophia retorted and smiled at him. “Go and get her… end this.”

Kieran nodded and slowly moved towards Nora.

“You can’t kill me!” Nora shouted, but something in his eyes made her not trust in her own words.

She began firing fireballs at him. Kieran dodged them to the side. Next she let rocks manifest and shoot them at him. Kieran dodged again. Nora made a gesture and let a fire pillar erupt under Kieran. He was already somewhere else. Nora let giant icicle form and crash onto him. None of them even scratched Kieran. She cast a giant blaze again and let it follow Kieran, he easily outpaced it

“Why can’t I hit you?” Nora shouted, frustrated.

“Because I know all your spells and how you use them.”

Nora began casting multiple spells at once. A myriad of fire, ice, wind, earth and other spells came after Kieran, but he always was a step ahead. Always disappearing from where he just was. Nora switched up her strategy and pointed her staff at Sophia.

Thunk

She just got in position to block Kierans attack.

“Don’t you dare and target my wife!” he shouted and then swung again.

Thunk

And again.

Thunk

And one more time.

Crack

Nora’s staff broke in two and the ensuing blast wave from the leaking magical energy flung her backwards. She tried getting back up but Kieran was already on top of her.

“Now you get to experience how all of those innocent mages died, that you made me kill,” he said in a dark voice and lowered his sword on her chest above the heart.

“Wait don’t kill me Kieran!” She begged. “I love you!”

“You’re lying you never did… you never even uttered these words until now…”

“No please!”

“Goodbye Nora… I loved you very much.”

He pushed his sword down.

“Oh, and one more thing,” he added as his sword broke the skin. “I liked you better when you were a blonde… red is not your color.”

With these words he pushed his sword deep and pierced her heart. Kieran watched the life leave the person he once loved.