99 The children that keep moving forward

Part 1

"Well... Guess that must be Chuck..."

Evlin and Marcus were staring at the massive horde of demons merging together to create a colossal giant monster in the middle of the city while being surrounded by a tornado of darkness.

"Chuck...?"

"The demon leader guy... Nobody knew his name so I just gave him one..."

"... I'm not sure how I'm supposed to react to that..."

"Man, you should hang out with my sister... You two would get along just fine..."

Evlin stretched her arms and neck and started to hop in place a little bit. Marcus looked at her confused.

"What are you doing...?"

"Warming up... I don't like going into battle with a stiff body."

"You... You're going to fight that??"

"Well, someone has to... Unless you wanna keep going with our little fight for a bit more..."

"Are you crazy?? You can't beat that abomination!! He's going to kill you!!"

"Yeah, yeah... Been there, done that... Not the first time I face some impossible odds."

"Evlin!!!"

The crossbow girl sighted a bit and looked at the sword kid with serious eyes.

"Marcus..."

"!!"

"This is what I do... Not because I have to, or because someone is forcing me... This is just the kind of stuff I'm good at..."

"..."

"Yeah it's crazy, and incredibly risky, and I'm probably gonna get a few ribs broken in the process... But I'm the only one who can deal with this kind of thing... If I don't... People will get hurt."

"... But... But... That's the demon leader!! Mia told me that even my dad couldn't beat him!!"

"Oh yeah... I think Lilith said something about that once to me too... Oh well... Guess I'll just try my best."

Evlin grabbed her crossbow from the rock she had placed it into and started to walk towards the demon leader.

"Evlin, wait!!!"

"What...?"

"Why...??"

"...?"

"Why aren't you asking for my help???"

"Eh...?"

"I'm the blessed sword of the gods!! The strongest blade in the world! The best tool to fight against demons!! Why aren't you asking to use me??"

"..."

Evlin extended her hand and pinched Marcus's cheek.

"Ouch!!"

She started to giggle while hiding her mouth with her hand.

"All I see is a weird boy with grey hair."

"..."

"Marcus, I told you... You are not a tool... You're free to choose what you want to be and what you want to do... I'm not going to be your new mother or anything..."

"..."

"What do you want to do?"

"I... I..."

"..."

"I want to fight by your side!!"

Evlin grimed at his answer and extended her hand.

"It will be dangerous..."

"I'll protect us!! I won't let any harm come to you!!"

"My hero..."

Marcus grabbed her hand and started to change his appearance. Evlin assumed he would transform into a sword or some kind of blade but she was surprised with the type of weapon Marcus changed into.

"This weapon...? Really...?"

[I assumed you would like it.]

"Aaarghh!!! Who said that!!?? Where did that voice come from???"

[...]

Part 2

"The night shall fall... As we hear your call... The night shall fall... As we hear your call..." x 3

"Come on guys!!! Snap out of it!!"

Ria and Auren were trying their best to hold Lilith, Daren, and Ashley while the three continued to march towards the demon leader so he could absorb them into his body.

"Annoying pests... Must you continue to get in my way until the end??"

The leader noticed their interference and sent a new command towards the three hypnotized warriors. Lilith, Daren, and Ashley turned towards Auren and Ria and started to attack them.

"Hey!! What are you doing!!??"

She created a barrier by reflex and repelled their attacks but the three continued to slam themselves against her shield to try and get her.

"Ria!!"

Auren tried to jump on top of Daren to hold him back but the lion man just grabbed him and slammed his body against the ground.

"Gaaahhh!!"

"Auren!!"

In a panic, Ria dropped her barrier to come towards Auren's rescue but she was captured by Ashley's vines and became tanged up from head to toe.

"Aaaahh!! Ashley!! Let me go!!"

"The night shall fall... As we hear your call... The night shall fall... As we hear your call..."

"For the love of God Ashley, what is it with you and having your body controlled by demons!!??"

Ashley ignored Ria and proceeded to wrap Auren as well. Once the two were unable to move anymore Lilith approached and raised her sword. Daren also came closer while sharpening his claws. Ashley came next and turned her arms into leaf-blades.

"The night shall fall... As we hear your call... The night shall fall... As we hear your call..." x 3

"I can't believe this lame rhyme is the last thing we will hear before we die..."

Auren tried to free himself but Ashley's vines were too strong.

"Ria!! Can you make any shields??"

"I could if my hands weren't tied up!!"

The three monsters prepared themselves to stab Ria and Auren. The two had run out of options and had nowhere to escape. They closed their eyes and just hoped it would be over soon.

"I love you Auren!! I'm sorry we never got to our wedding!!"

"I love you too Ria!!"

Both awaited their doom but for some reason, nothing happened despite so much time passing.

"..."

"..."

"Are we... Are we dead yet?"

Ria opened her eyes and saw all her friends being blasted by some kind of blessed energy beam.

"What the...?"

She turned her eyes to the source of the beam and could see a blond man launching the divine energy from his hands.

"Gustav!!!"

Gustav continued to release his blessing towards his friends and soon all three were separated from the creatures inside of them.

Daren, Lilith, and Ashley returned to their human forms and fell into the snow unconscious while a dryad, a black lion, and a red harpy started to move away from them while marching towards the demon leader.

"The night shall fall... As we hear your call... The night shall fall... As we hear your call..."

Gustav rushed to their side and checked if they had any wounds while he helped Ria and Auren get free from the vines.

"Are you two ok??"

Auren and Ria just hugged the blond man making him drop into the snow as well.

"Gustav!! I'm so glad to see you!!"

"You saved us!! You saved all of us!!"

Gustav was happy to be treated as a hero but he knew this was not the time to celebrate.

"Thanks guys, but it's still not over yet... Look!"

They helped their friends to wake up and all of them looked as the demon leader finally finished taking in all of the creatures of the country into his body.

Ashley opened her eyes and the first thing that she saw was the sight of a green girl being absorbed into the mass of creatures.

"Ugh... What the... Huh...? Drya...?"

She started to check her own body and managed to confirm, she was finally a human again.

"I'm back... I'm back!!!"

"The night shall fall... As we hear your call... The night shall fall... As we hear your call..."

She was about to jump with joy but her stomach was still hurting from the arrow she took. She also felt a little sad from seeing Drya vanishing into the sea of demons. Not due to sadness, she didn't feel sorry for her after all she did, but she wasn't satisfied that things ended in such a way. She wanted to settle the score with the demon plant herself. But by that point, she was long gone.

"Goodbye Drya... You're the first person that I won't feel bad for losing..."

She stood up and the entire group watched as the abomination was finally finished forming itself. It looked like a gigantic dragon with a lizard-like shape, horns coming out of its heads, two massive wings and three heads sticking out from his torso while walking on all four.

Daren was so shocked he didn't even notice his cursed body was gone and just whispered in a low voice.

"Guys... What now...?"

Ashley took a look at her friends. They all seemed completely dead on the inside as if the fight was already over and there was nothing that could be done.

The demon leader had taken in the power of all the remaining demons and monsters, on top of still being powered by the black sword of nightmares. What could they possibly do against him?

She looked again and saw that one of her friends still hadn't given up. He was simply looking with determined eyes as if waiting for something.

"Gustav...? What are you looking at?"

Gustav continued to pay attention to the situation while he answered Ashley's question.

"I'm waiting for my turn..."

"Your turn...?"

"We all have a role to play... I finally know what mine is... It's to help her when she needs me..."

"Her...? You mean...?"

"Everyone pay attention..."

Gustav pointed his arm and noticed something floating above the demon leader's head. The demon himself didn't seem to have noticed yet, but he was about to. Gustav whispered a few words.

"It's about to start..."

The demon leader released a massive roar with the voice of a thousand creatures that echoed across the whole kingdom.

"Finally... A new era will begin!! The demons have remained silent for too long!! We shall now march out of this mountain and start spreading our glory across the entire world!!"

He gazed around to watch the entirety of the southern kingdom in ruins due to the release of his dark energy.

"No more humans or gods... Today starts... The new age for the creatures of darkness!!! Soon... All the races shall-"

"Huh! Excuse me?"

"...!?"

The demon leader's speech was interrupted by a female voice coming from behind him and taping him on his neck.

"What the...? Who are you??"

All three of his heads turned around and he saw a girl with messy short black hair flying around by using her boots to release raw magic energy and carrying a pair of crossbows in each hand, one made of wood and one made of metal.

"Hi, you must be Chuck, my name is Evlin!"

"Chuck...? What...? Wait... Evlin? The recreation mage??"

"Some people do call me that, yeah... I have a question for you if you don't mind..."

"A question...?"

"Yeah... You see... I think you lost something and I wanted to give it back."

"Something...?"

Evlin then raised her arm and pointed towards the large object that was above the demon leader's head.

"Is this by any chance your castle?"

"WHAT THE HELL!!!!????"

"Oh! Seems like it is! You can have it back then!"

Evlin then proceeded to release her earth magic and dropped the entire castle that she had moved out from the heart of the city and was keeping afloat above the demon leader on top of him.

"KKKKKUUUUUAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!"

A massive wave of destruction was released as the entire construction collided with the agglomeration of demons that was taking the shape of a three-headed dragon.

"Man, that thing was heavy... Remind me to never do that again..."

Evlin watched the fruits of her work taking place while Marcus started to speak inside her mind.

[Did we kill him?]

"I doubt it... The real fight starts now..."

She closed her eyes and started taking deep breaths.

"You can do this... You can do this..."

[Huh... What are you doing...?]

"Self-motivational speech... I do it before every important battle... It helps me relax..."

[...]

"Want to try?"

[Huh...]

"It's your choice!"

[... ... Ok!]

"You can do this... You can do this..."

[You can do this... You can do this...]

"We can do this! We can do this!!] x 2

Evlin took a huge breath and shouted to the heavens.

"All right!! Let's do this!!!"

[Let's!!]

The two charged down as the demon leader came out from the rubble and glared at the source of his pain.

"You..."

All three of his dragon heads opened their mouths and started to release a beam of dark energy at her.

Evlin changed her crossbows into a gigantic silver shield made of metal, wood, and diamonds and took the dark blast head-on. She was diving into the beam and finally came out from it after reaching one of the dragon's heads. She stared right into his eye which was a few inches away from her.

"Me!!"

She turned her shield into a massive pair of silver and wooden gauntlets and smacked the dragon head against another head using both her fists.

"Guaahhhhh!!!!"

[Nice shot Evlin!!]

"Thanks! I practiced a lot!! Huh...!?"

She looked down and saw a couple of familiar faces down below waving at her.

"Is that...?"

She rushed towards the faces and almost froze at the sight of one girl in particular with red bob hair who was worrying her to death ever since she can't even remeber when.

"Ash...?"

The girl approached her with crying eyes and holding her own arm as if she was embarassed to look at Evlin's face.

"Hey Evie..."

"AAAAAASHHHH!!!!"

The crossbow mage pounced Ashley and started to hug her with all her strenght. Sadly, since she had a lot of strenght right now, Ashley was seconds away from passing out due to the lack of air.

"Hel... p... Can't... Breath!!!"

"Sorry! Sorry!! I'm just so happy to see you!!! I was feeling so bad for turning you into a demon and all and..."

"WRRRAAAAAGHHHHH!!!! CROSSBOW MAAAAAAAGE!!!!"

The demon leader recovered from Evlin's attack and started to charge towards her and her group.

"Evie, let's talk later!"

"Right!! Sorry!"

Evlin looked at her friends, every single face that had helped her and stood by her side during all of her adventures up until now. Ashley, Daren, Lilith, Ria, Auren, and Gustav. A family. Her family. And of course, the latest addition to her group.

"Are you ready Marcus?"

[Always!!]

"Huh!!?? Marcus??" x 6

She turned around while the whole group gasped confused and stared at the three-headed dragon coming at her.

"Then let's go!!"