The Last hurdle

The crusaders were fueled by their righteous anger against the fake Sasha. Their blades began to burn with white fire, looking exactly like the broadsword Uncle was holding. Even their armour was pretty similar to his, now that I’m thinking about it.

“Did you work with guys like that?” I asked, excitement growing on my face.

He smiled with a smidge of pride.

“I’ll tell you a bit about that history later. For right now, let’s focus on wining this battle.”

That was something exciting to look forward too. Maybe his adventures as a knight could be a cool bedtime story.

As I thought over that revelation, the outnumbered Actor was on his back foot. With A fire mage, two crusaders, and a cat witch pressuring him, his curtain call was coming.

The crystal heart that had been on his chest appeared over his disguise. It was glowing bright enough to cause everyone to turn away for a few moments.

“Stage call! All actors on set!”

Black magic circles sprawled across the roof of this building, spawning up a slew of dark beings with varying details and weapons. They looked mostly human, but their skin was covered up completely by blackened shadows of darkness and some had horns.

-Identifying demons...demons identified-

-Nephilim tagged; foe-

-Enemy count = (5)-

My sensors were registering them as Nephilim, but they didn’t exactly look the same as the other ones. Regardless, they’d pose a nasty threat to my allies.

One particular feminine one in a gothic dress had an oversized morning star attached to a chain and handle, taking the lead on attacking as soon as she spawned.

She swung the chained morning star around the crusaders shields, trying to hit them from the back. But they were covered by Indena, who kicked the spiked ball away from them.

“That’s one way to get around a flail.” Uncle commented.

Mella used Indena’s head as a jumping pad to get some air. Then she did a little spin and tossed down a potion toward the feminine Nephilim.

The potion burst into sparkles, causing the feminine Nephilim to be distracted. The crusaders took the chance to strike a blow at her, doing holy flame damage.

Emily managed to escape her own battle for a moment to fire a couple bullets into the fray.

The Actor was still in the fight, but he was supporting his side by spawning rocks around his allies to protect them.

In all the craziness, a hole in the hard-light barrier around us opened up, letting Uncle and I go free. The Actor must have been putting to much strain on his heart, so his power was weakening.

“We need to help!” I said, but Uncle grabbed me before I could head over there.

“No. Were on borrowed time.” He pointed to the clock, showing we had mere minuets left before this game was over.

My heart was racing with pulses of light, giving me just enough boost to focus all my mind on Lord Sleepy Eyes. I guess we just had to trust they’d be okay fighting here.

~☆☆☆~

With the last stamina potion, Samael flew us quickly the last stretch toward the demon lord. Both Uncle and I dismounted him. Then Samael shrank down and went back into my hair. 

Uncle and I ran to our enemy. Lord Sleepy Eyes was seated on his thrown. Another thrown was next to him housing our friend Yamin. She was resting, looking very unusually relaxed. Her expression was absent, not responding to us at all.

Marek was here too, but the demon lord was using him as a foot stool.

Lord Sleepy Eyes didn’t seem very surprised that we were staring him down. He sat quietly waiting for something to happen.

“Checkmate!” I shouted, tightening my grip on my weapon.

He yawned.

"It took you long enough to reach me. How pitiful."

He was taunting us! What a jerk.

"Give us back Yamin and Marek!" I ordered.

“Take this worm..." Belphegor kicked Marek toward us. Uncle quickly collected him and moved him to safety. "This woman stays with me. I will protect her. And it would come as a benefit to all of you too.”

“How? You’re evil!” I shouted. “Look at the chaos you’ve caused her home.”

“These are merely the birthing pangs of something greater. Once my kingdom is realized, this universe will be full of creativity. Haven’t you ever seen how dull this world is? It’s exhausting.”

I wasn’t going to argue that the world could be dull sometimes, but the alternative he seemed to be going for would just be another extreme full of disorder. Everything that attacked us outside of his castle was proof of that. Not that I even trusted a word he said to begin with.

“It might be a more convincing message if you didn’t drain the life energy out of thousands of people.” Uncle argued. "I'm sure that was a very creative decision."

“Pawns must be sacrificed. Chess cannot be won without them.”

Even I had to learn that the hard way. I kept using pawns to protect the people I cared for, even though I hated every second of watching them get hurt. But I didn’t consider them to be worthless, they were soilders, humans, and I was their commander.

“If you lead troops and people, you shouldn’t ask them to do something you wouldn’t do yourself,” Uncle said.

The demon lord let out a sigh, letting his head fall back to his throne.

He stood from his seat, shoulders slouching down deeply. In a single quick motion he cracked his back and was up straight.

“Checkmate." Belphegor said, lifting up his hands.

Metal began growing over both his forearms. It looked like black shields with creepy faces on them.

Uncle drew up his broadsword, igniting it with white flame. I grew my crystal Spear of Destiny, holding it against our enemy.

At first I was waiting for Belphegor to bring out a weapon, but he didn’t. All he had were his shields. Did that mean this fight was going to be easy, or did he have some other tricks up his sleeve?