Sister sister

    Like a wisp, the white light passed through the blood-red sky. The clouds were stained red, in harmony with the sunset, creating a dazzling scene reflecting off the red scenes below.    

 But what lay below was in stark contrast to the sight above, a worn-out battlefield, but one that lacked life or movement; all were dead, blood was flowing all over like tributaries all leading to a hollow filled with a lake of blood, on greater concentration, there were more lakes of the kind, a lot of gore and body parts scattered across the land with various weapons of swords, spears and arrows thrust into bodies on the bloody plain’s soil whose atmosphere was filled with red dust and vapour – if you could see it. 

How could no-one have survived this? Of the thousands of men and women in armour that lay slain on the ground with crows feasting on their flesh, no one to take victory? Or was it just…sad?     “Tsk, this’ll never heal, not on this poor stamina, and a wasted battle that defended nothing…damn them all!”     Along a path clear of bodies but not of blood, a woman staggered through. 

She was thoroughly drenched in blood, clutching the middle of her abdomen with her left hand and holding a key attached to a rope with the other hand.     Her black hair was visible through her blood-soaked head, so also was the green outline of her eyes. The injury she bore through her abdomen was from an impaling with a sword. She had already lost so much blood and was thoroughly weak.   

  The woman looked up as she noticed an unusual small light descending towards her. She stretched her hands out upwards so the light landed on her palms. As it did so, it shone brightly on her face and around as she lowered her hands.    

 The woman’s face sobered up as the light faded, and she looked up with her hands still outstretched and whispered to herself; “goodbye sister, looks like I’ll be joining you soon, hmm, hope I still have enough in me to store this hehe,” she giggled in rather sarcastic fashion to herself. She removed what little armour was still left on her body, leaving behind the light blouse and short trousers she wore underneath behind, and got down to her knees. She cleared a patch of dirt on the ground and began drawing circles, with symbols similar the ones the pink-haired woman, her sister drew.   

  She drew three concentric circles with the bigger ones enclosing the smaller one, clapped her palms after and then placed her right palm over the circles' center, and said; “appare!”     The circles lit up with a green light and suddenly five men appeared gradually from their feet up alongside a bright green light, all dressed in dark-blue cloaks. 

They removed the hood of their cloaks and took a knee before the woman who had summoned them.    The woman was now even more drained of energy after the act she had just done, and coughed deeply, spitting out blood in the process as she clutched herself tightly while still on her knees.     “You stress yourself too much lady Ilya,” one of the men summoned said. “What do you seek of us now?”    

 Ilya looked at their faces with a pitiful smile and nodded her head as if in shame, in shame of what she was about to tell them.     “I need you to give your lives, this time permanently, forever. It’s come to that as the war was lost. The ghost fairies will be coming for the half key soon, it’s got to be sealed at Askander fast. Accel’s already fulfilled her role and has secured the key with her farther away than we can get to, I have to now,” Ilya said.     “What is to become of the Esteria clan if I may ask?” Another of the men asked.    

 “Leave that to us, it’ll be sorted,” Ilya responded.      The men hummed in response. Ilya stretched her hands out again to the circles she had drawn and this time red lights appeared from them. 

After saying some incantations in a foreign language, the five men disappeared again with a whoosh sound, and Ilya fell to the ground. This time she knew she was done in, she had barely any stamina left, and sighed. “So this is what it feels like, last man dying in a battle field sure is cool huh,” she said to herself. She felt cold trickles on her face, and turned her eyes to look up. She noticed it was snowing through all the red around and whispered silently as she faded away; “aah…snow.”    

 A big magical ring appeared on the rocky surface with the signs drawn to make the circle shining red, and out stepped the five men. After they had all come out, the magical circle disappeared.     The five men had varying heights; the shortest of the lot was standing at the left extreme, followed by the tallest, the remaining three had heights descending in length from the third man to the fifth. 

They appeared on a flat mountain range that resembled a plateau three thousand feets tall, and were beside a rock just above their heights.     “Right now let’s start this before them Garbeasts bring on the shitshow,” the shortest of the men on the left said.     “Right,” the tallest man beside him said.     All five men gathered around in a circle and held their hands, with the third man bringing out the key Ilya had given them, which looked very much like the halfkey her sister, Accel, had teleported along with her child, except the one with the men now had the key edges facing the right and a jigsaw edge facing the left, the opposite of the one with Accel. The two keys were meant to fit with each other.   

  The five men started saying some incantations while in their circular formation, and within time, the half key left the hand of the man holding it and floated in the middle of the men. They stretched out their hands with their palms pointed at the key, and the key produced beams of brilliant green light.   

  Suddenly, the men heard shrieks from afar, and knew what it meant – Garbeasts, creatures which protected the mountain – Askander. Askander was a mountain within which was a prison which held various prisoners of the world too powerful, from witches and wizards to normal humans and those that had other such crafts to even monsters, and was heavily guarded by the Garbeasts, fierce monsters that ensured the dangerous beings entrapped within never got out, that is, if they could ever get past the spells and enchantments trapping them within. It was a truly horrible place within, and nothing that stayed in there had peace. To add to it all, the lands around the mountain prison lead to absolutely nowhere, it was like another dimension, and those lands were haunted by Garghosts, spirits of the ones who had died in the prison.

 But it was always common knowledge that Askander was a good place to seal up things you didn’t want unsealed easily if at all, after all people in their right senses never attempted going there, especially if it wasn’t worth it given they knew they wouldn’t be coming out. The only exceptions were those who controlled it, the high-ranking members of The Council, the highest governing group in this world, at least supposedly. 

But even they didn’t have the power or authority to unseal something sealed in Askander. Only Askander released its prisoners.     “I’ll go stall them for a bit, you guys continue, don’t forget to implant the breamoculcs in the key before sealing,” the fourth man said, as he broke out of the circle.     

The remaining four men nodded, increasing their concentration on what they were doing more while the man that broke out ran ahead. The intensity of the light emitted by the key increased, and the tallest of the four men retracted his right hand and put it on his chest. He closed his eyes and said an incantation different to what his peers had been saying. Withdrawing the hand, a white light similar to the one Accel released and Ilya received was withdrawn from the man’s chest, but this time it was brighter and almost double in size. This was a breamoculcs.   

  “Looks like the two sisters merged theirs together, its too big for just one person’s,” the fifth man said. “Let’s merge em’ now!”     The men had only started chanting another incantation when they heard a loud groan from the direction the fourth man went. They knew what had happened, and looked at each other before the fifth man broke out of the circle and ran in the same direction the fourth man had run. Not long after, they again heard a loud shriek from another direction perpendicular to where the two men had run. 

The men felt more agitated, and the tallest of the men broke out of the circle to run to the direction to defend it. Putting in more effort and energy, the remaining two men increased the intensity of the spell they were casting, and lowered their hands gradually towards the ground lowering the key along until both the key and their hands touched the floor. 

As this happened, three brown rings with completely different signs formed on the rocky floor. They increased their tempo and raised their voices on their haste, trying to seal the key properly.  

   Shrieks around them only increased and got louder, and in no time, the monsters were upon them.     “Darn it, we’re all gonna die anyways. See you in the afterlife, Elvis,” the third man said. And with that, he turned around to face the Garbeasts now around them, releasing spells from his hands which appeared in green lights and fire as well all while shouting and shielding his short companion who continued the sealing spell.     

With a loud groan, the third man fell to the ground with a spear through his chest, staring at the ugly winged beasts infront of him, beasts which resembled undead overgrown bats in facial appearances and a humanoid body just bigger than most, yet so powerful, so dark.     The beasts were now upon Elvis, the last man standing, the last of the Shadows loyal to the Esteria clan. 

One of the beasts thrust its spear deep into his chest, leaving Elvis to let out a great groan, yet his hands were still outstretched, trying desperately to complete the spell. More spears pierced him from all over his torso, and with a last gasp, he completed the sealing spell, sealing the halfkey into Askander, and he gave up the ghost, on his knees, with spears pierced all around him.