155 Where there is light, the night shall fall

Part 1

Daren, Lilith, and Marcus were reuniting with Leona and her group, as well as Chloe, her daughter, and Joseph who for some reason insisted on staying there instead of running away with the rest of the students and teachers.

The group was observing a massive portal in the sky that showcased the world Daren and his group originated from as if it was some kind of giant tv screen in the shape of a circle.

Before they noticed, the portal started to release residual energy towards the atmosphere, completely covering the light of the sun and drenching the sky in some kind of red darkness.

"This feels like the demon kingdom all over again..." Daren whispered.

Marcus kept looking completely at a loss on how to react towards this sudden development, "What is Mia planning??"

Lilith tried to use her future sight once more to get some answers, but they suddenly were interrupted by the scream of people on the streets.

They all looked to see what was the cause and realized that several spirits were flying around the city and chasing after the people.

"They are under attack!! We need to help!!" Marcus yelled.

"Wait!!" Daren urged, as he grabbed Marcus by the shoulder. He then revealed a few pieces of absorbing crystal fragments that he took from the crocodile monster, "We need to gather more energy first!! If our bodies run out of magic, energy the spirits can take possession of us!"

Marcus nodded in agreement but just as he was about to reach for the piece, he spotted a group of spirits flying right in their direction.

"Look out!!" he shouted.

Everyone turned around to follow his eyesight and spotted the flying ghosts as well. They all started to jump out of their trajectories to avoid being touched by one of them, giving birth to the world's most lethal game of tag.

Daren gave a few crystals to Marcus to refill his power and proceeded to rush towards Lilith as well, "Lilith!!!" he screamed.

The woman tried to reach for him but a spirit appeared right in front of her getting on Daren's way. Lilith raised her silver sword that was made out of Marcus' blessed metal and cut the being in half, making it vanish completely.

"Marcus!! We need you!!" Lilith yelled.

The lad tried to create weapons for his allies to use but even more spirits showed up and began to surround them. Leona's group saw their distress and tried to push the ghosts away with their fire magic. However, the deceased souls simply looked annoyed as only blessed energy could truly vanquish them to the afterlife.

"It didn't work...?" Leona gasped.

The spirit jumped straight into Leona's path and was about to absorb her, but one of her followers pushed her out of the way, saving her but dooming himself in the process.

"Johan!!" Leona cried as she observed her comrade being possessed.

"Mom!!!" shouted Claire.

Marcus turned around and saw that Chloe had pushed her daughter away from a spirit's path as well and got herself possessed in the process.

"Oh, no!!" Lilith said. She tried to rush towards Claire and Jospeh and used her sword to keep the two safely away from the transparent creatures, "Daren!! We nee crystals!!"

Daren followed her command and threw two pieces of absorbing crystal at Lilith, who in turn handed them to the two kids she was protecting.

The spirits tried to take over their bodies but were unable to enter thanks to the magic energy that they absorbed shielding them.

"We need to get out of here!! They won't stop coming!!" Marcus explained.

Daren rushed towards Leona who kept trying to face the spirits with her magic but achieving little success in the process.

"Why won't these things die??" she complained as she saw more and more of her teammates being possessed one by one until there were only two of them left.

"Fire lady! Catch!!" Daren screamed as he gave them a few more crystals to use to repel the spirits, "Stop wasting your magic!! They will enter your body if you run out!!"

"U- Understood!!" she replied.

Daren looked at his surroundings. He needed to confirm if everyone had received a crystal to stay safe from being possessed. Leona and her last follower just received one, Marcus too, Chloe was taken over but the two kids were also safe. Which meant that only Lilith was left.

He checked his pocket to confirm that he only had one crystal left.

He saw Lilith facing off against a horde of spirits that were circling her as she continued to slash every single one with her sword. Her blessed weapon was successfully keeping them away for now but Lilith would run out of energy at any second now due to the continuous use of her future sight.

Daren started to run towards her to deliver his final crystal but midway through, he saw a spirit coming right at him.

"Daren!!" Lilith screamed as she saw him in danger.

The spirit rushed towards Daren. He could repel it if he absorbed the energy from the fragment in his hand, but then Lilith would be at the mercy of the creatures.

"Duck!!!" she yelled as she threw her sword like an arrow to stab the spirit just as it was about to reach for Daren, empaling the being against the school's wall.

He felt relieved but then realized that Lilith had given up her only weapon. The ghosts around her saw the opportunity and tried to enter her body.

Sensing he had no other choice, Daren copied Lilith's gesture and threw her his fragment, "Lilith!! Grab it!!"

The woman did as told and managed to catch the piece of crystal in midair, right before the beings tried to take over her, but failing in the process as she managed to refill her energy.

Daren noticed that she was safe as well, and realized that now he was the only one who still didn't have a way to defend against their attack. He tried to find anything to repel their power, but the spirits seemed to have realized it as well the situation he was in, and began to rush after him.

"Daren!! Grab my sword!!" Lilith screamed.

The lad turned towards the weapon that Lilith threw to save him moments ago and began to make a mad dash towards it.

He ran as fast as he could and spotted the blade thrusted against a wall. Daren jumped to try and grab it but he wasn't fast enough. One of the creatures managed to successfully enter his body, and taking complete control over him.

"Daren!!!" Lilith and Marcus cried as they witnessed her lover and his friend being lost as well.

Chloe, Daren, and many of Leona's followers then began to stand with a red glow showing up in their eyes, all staring at the direction of the amusement park, and proceeding to march towards it.

Lilith and Marcus tried to run after Daren, but a huge creature landed in between them. A massive winged lizard-like being who had marks of burns all over its body, one of the dragons from before.

The creature glared at the school and began to charge its fire breath.

"Look out!!!" Marcus shouted as he grabbed the kids.

Leona realized what was about to happen and took her friend out of the way as they saw the creature completely blowing up the entire school building into pieces.

The display of power was so huge that even the spirits were scared off and began to run away.

From the sky, the second dragon showed up, also bearing many injuries from Leon's attack, and landed on top of the rubble that used to be the school to finally encounter its missing eggs.

The two dragons, satisfied with finally getting their babies back, started to fly off towards the portal in the sky and return to their homes in the other world.

"They're finally gone..." Marcus said in relief, glad that this problem was finally over with. He released the two children in his arms who ended up passing out from the shock and looked at Lilith who appeared to be extremely afflicted.

Lilith and Marcus were so distracted by the appearance of the dragons that they completely lost sight of Daren and the others.

"Where is him?? Where is Daren??" Lilith asked as she searched everywhere for him.

Leona approached the two and gestured with her hand in one specific direction, "They all marched that way! They must be returning to their leader!"

"Their leader...?" Lilith looked at the point she was aiming at and understood what she needed to do.

Marcus looked at her expression and realized that they were thinking the same thing. If they followed Daren, they would finally find Mia.

Part 2

Detra carefully approached Mia while trying to make sure not to anger her by accident.

The current situation was very delicate and she needed to think about what her following steps were going to be if she hoped to still find a solution for this predicament.

"Mia... What are you going to do now...?" she asked.

"..." Mia looked at Detra. Her eyes were acting like the former goddess was barely worth noticing right now, almost as if her entire existence was completely insignificant to her by this point.

Detra became worried that Mia was going to blast her away with her terminal energy, but instead, the girl, or rather, the woman, just sighted.

"Now that Evlin also failed to end me... I need to look for my next target..."

"And who would be... this new target...? Could it be the demons...?" Detra asked, worried that Mia's original goal was still standing firm.

"No... I doubt that the demons can pose much of a threat to me... They are merely preparation for my next mission..."

"Your next mission?"

"Yeah... My ancestor... The one who gave birth to my bloodline and granted me the power to rule over cursed beings..."

Detra became frozen with fear, "Your... Ancestor...?"

"My great, great, great, great..." Mia stopped for a second to count with her fingers before continuing, "...and many more greats, grandma... Hana... The first woman to use cursed energy..."