The Right Hand

Erik led the charge into the castle. He kicked down the door and held his greatsword in front of him. Calum, Tilaya, and Kia filed in behind him.

The castle was dark. There were no lights, and no one was in sight. A spiral staircase led up to an empty mezzanine. No soldiers ran into the room through any of the arched doorways.

Calum furrowed his brow. “The Demon Lord is supposed to be in this castle, isn’t he?”

“It doesn’t look like anyone’s here…” Tilaya closed her eyes and reached out with her magic to discover if there were any traces of magic nearby. Her eyes shot open. “We need to get out of–”

“Leaving so soon?” A sinister voice sounded from the mezzanine, and the party looked up to see a woman materialize behind the railing. Ink-black ears pointed out from her head, the same color as her hair. Nine golden tails poked out from underneath her kimono. She wore a white fox mask that covered the top half of her face. Her lips curled into a grin. “After I went through all the effort of clearing this place out…”

Calum pointed his sword at her. “Who are you?”

“I see you don’t waste any time.” She vanished and reappeared on the ground in front of them. The fox-demon bowed. “My name is Mara. The right hand of the Demon Lord.”

Hearing those words sent a chill down Calum’s spine. The part of him that thought fighting the Demon Lord was still a long way off instantly died. The reality of facing off against the Demon Lord was set in stone. “Did the Demon Lord run away and leave you here to deal with us because he was scared?”

Mara laughed. “You humor me. The reason I am here instead of the Demon Lord is because he wants to test you. To see if you’re worthy of fighting him.”

Tilaya glared at the woman. “He knows Calum is the hero destined to destroy him, doesn’t he?”

“Oh, he’s fully aware of the prophecy. However, he doesn’t really care. The Goddess hastily chose a hero because the Demon Lord deceived her and took control of the southern region much earlier than she had foreseen.”

The group exchanged nervous glances. Kia was the first to speak up. “I thought the Goddess was omnipotent?”

“She is. Now do you see why he doesn’t believe her hero is able to defeat him?”

‘If that’s true, there’s no way we can beat him… He’s on the Goddess’s level. I’m not the Goddess, I’m just someone she chose to stop him.’

“Now, let’s see how skilled the hero and his friends are…” Mara chuckled.

“Hah, it’s four against one. You think you can win against us?” Erik scoffed.

“Oh, that’s right. Thank you for reminding me. It wouldn’t be fair with those odds, would it?” She snapped, and three clones of herself materialized next to her.

Kia glared at Erik. “You just had to say that, didn’t you?”

“How was I supposed to know she could do that?”

“Well if you learned about fox-demons, you’d understand the type of magic they use.” Tilaya closely watched all four of the figures in front of her. “Fox-demons are experts in deception and shadow magic. Normally, their clones are only illusions, but judging by the fact she has nine tails, these clones are most likely real.”

The real Mara dipped her head in respect. “You’ve done your research.”

“Of course. I’ve studied every type of demon there is. Fox-demons are ranked based on how many tails they have. If they only have one, they are typically a class D demon. However, if they have nine tails… they are classified as either class A or class S, depending on the individual.” Tilaya gulped. “I get the feeling this one is the latter…”

“C-Class S? The strongest thing we’ve fought so far was only Class B…” Calum took a step back. Fear poured into his heart.

Kia placed a hand on Calum’s shoulder. “We took that thing down pretty easily, remember? This battle will prove how strong we’ve gotten.”

Calum nodded. Kia’s words, along with her touch, brought comfort that pushed the fear out of him.

Mara sighed, tired of the endless talking. “Let’s get this party started.” She snapped again, and their surroundings melted into darkness, leaving them in a void of nothingness. The only thing they could see besides each other was black.

Calum, along with the others, frantically looked around, watching their surroundings disappear.

Mara and her clones faded into the dark. “Prepare yourselves for the hardest battle you’ve ever experienced thus far…”