Myne was furious. It was meant to have been a special occasion, a quiet romantic meal for herself and Velvet, but Sorene and her absolutely terrible timing had ruined it. Velvet had been over the moon when Myne had presented her with the dress that she had been admiring when they had first arrived in Port Muir. She had removed her Skeon garments for the evening meal on the fourth day after their return from the Core, modifying her armour so that it just formed heeled boots while she wore the red dress and matching underwear, and she looked absolutely stunning in it. It looked like it had been made just for her, hugging her sensual figure closely, and she turned every head. She had looked so happy too, her smile absolutely radiant, making Myne feel all sorts of warm and fuzzy feelings that were only heightened when they had kissed. While they had been together for a while now, the meal at a fancy restaurant had been their first real date, and Myne had found a nice dress to wear as well, a long black number that hugged her top half and while it flowed all the way down to her feet, the slits at the sides meant that her legs were still on full display when she walked. Velvet had blushed a bright red when she had first seen her in it, exclaiming how beautiful she looked, causing Myne to also blush in response. She’d had plans for the evening, but it was all moot when the sounds of battle had erupted suddenly from the northern wall, and cries of “Demons!” had started to ring out.

Myne had weaved her sensing magic, picking up a dozen demonic signatures that had somehow breached the city’s wall, and abandoning their meal, they made haste to the scene of the commotion. As they had already been in the northern city it didn’t take them long to arrive. The main gate lay in pieces on either side of the road, looking like it had been sundered by a great force, the last of the demons currently shambling through the gate into the city itself. While they could see two chasing down the residents of the city along the main street, the rest had already dispersed, screams emanating from the side and back streets. Myne and Velvet summoned the remainder of their armour, launching themselves at the nearest demon, while Light swooped in on the last of the demons, taking on her large form for just long enough to bat it clean out of the city again, though a number of the adjacent structures did not survive the brief change.

“Sorene?” Velvet postulated as they came into range of the demon, which looked like someone had taken a large bear, coloured it a sickly blackish purple, and then tried to stuff a number of trees into it with varying success. It was painful to even just look at it.

“I’d be very surprised if it wasn’t.” Myne grumbled, summoning her magic to herself, flaming wings sprouting from her back and the black flames coating her fists.

The demon grunted at them, spitting out an acidic orb of goop in their general direction as some form of misplaced threat, before then charging straight at them. Velvet summoned her shield, standing as bait and dodging off to the side at the last second as Myne launched herself above the demon, coating her boots in her flame as well as she came down hard on it, the blow causing it to stagger and leaving the stench of burnt flesh. Unfortunately their attack also drew the attention of the other demon on the main street, a cat like creature coated in mists with three twisted snakes as tails, and it abandoned its prey to head straight towards them as well.

‘The others are on their way here,’ Light informed Velvet and Myne, as she perched on the corner of a nearby structure. They had left Ashling with Alice just in case something like this had happened and they needed to make a hurried exit. Myne saw Velvet frown. While the extra help would be needed, the demons were deadly, and the rest of the party would need to be very careful. Myne wasn’t sure if they’d even be able to take a demon down, but they definitely weren’t stupid, so they wouldn’t put themselves in any unnecessary risk. What they definitely needed was the help of the other Riders, and a solid game plan, but this number of demons was like a walking natural disaster, and Myne wasn’t sure if they’d even be able to slow them down for long. Sure, they might be able to kill a few, but given the difficulty that they had killing the last one, she wasn’t hopeful. And when, not if but when, Sorene showed her face, things could well take a turn for the worse. However, given that someone was probably controlling or directing the demons, which was likely to be the Lady Knight, they might have a chance if they could take her out.

“I’ll leave you to deal with this one,” Myne stated, dodging another attack as she spun around, the treebear demon’s claws slicing through the air as it tried to clip her wings, as she then sprinted towards the cat demon. She would be better suited against it than Velvet, and they couldn’t afford to have the two of them attacking them both at the same time, as they would get out manoeuvred. She would try and distract it long enough until help arrived. Velvet held her ground against the tree bear, dodging its attacks as if she was dancing, switching her weaved magic to a scythe and taking swings at it, each strike cutting deep and causing it to howl out in pain. For better or worse that would probably draw more of the demons towards them. While she was definitely doing some damage to it, it didn’t seem to be slowing it down any yet.

The cat demon was not quite all there Myne discovered as she reached it, launching a flying kick that, while it appeared to have landed, even with the demon trying to squirm out of the way of, seemed to mostly pass through its misty form. Myne swore, and leapt out of the way as it retaliated, the snakes of its tail separating themselves and lunging at her, poisoned fangs bared. While it had been purely from instinct last time it had happened, Myne tried summoning a small pillar of flame as she dodged, the flame manifesting into existence right in the middle of the demon. It hissed in pain, the flames briefly taking hold before the mists of the creature reduced them to a smoulder. Damn. She had succeeded, but for a creature such as this she would need something a lot more potent, and she didn’t have the time now to experiment. Using her wings to boost her movement she moved round to the front of the cat demon, landing a kick to the head as she did so, punching the snakes out of the way as they came in for the counter-attack. Her attack had worked, but if these ones were anything like the last one then the same trick wouldn’t work twice.

Ruby was next to arrive on the scene just as another four demons converged on the main street from the side areas that they had been terrorizing, Yil’eth slamming into one as Ruby dropped down on another, her halberd scraping along its scaly hide.

“Okay, this isn’t going to be easy,” she scowled, as she took another ineffective swing at the demon, her target looking like a cross between a gorilla and a pile of rubble. She dodged back, Yil’eth coming up beside her in support, claws pushing the demon back a little as it growled, giving the pair its full attention.

“I’ve sent Riders to evacuate the citizens from the area,” she yelled out to Velvet and Myne, as she deflected the wild swing of the demon, Yil’eth attacking it in response. “How many demons are there?”

“A dozen. It’s likely someone is influencing them though,’ Myne replied, landing a successful uppercut on the cat as it tried to leap at her, throwing it across the road. “It looks like they initially spread out, but they’re returning now that we’re here.” A quick use of her sensing magic confirmed that that was so, and they weren’t far away.

The odds were certainly not in their favour. Six were on the main road, being those that they were currently engaging, the one that Light had swatted outside the city was slowly shambling its way back, and the remaining five were making their way back with a few distractions along the way. The road was too narrow for Light and Ashling to be of much use, even with some collateral damage, the terrain much better suited to Dragon Familiars.

‘I don’t think you’ll get much help from the Rider’s here. They’ve started turning on each other!’ Ashling informed Myne and Velvet. Myne swore out loud. That was the last thing they needed. Though it confirmed that there were traitors even under Ruby’s watch.

“You’re Riders are squabbling amongst each other!” Myne yelled out to Ruby, dashing back over to Velvet as the remaining two demons, mirror images of each other and looking two headed dogs with a bad case of acne, closed in on her. She landed directly on top of its head as Velvet’s Scythe bit into it again, using the momentary distraction to summon as much flame as she could into her hands and directly into the beast’s head, rewarded with a muffled scream as it stumbled over, briefly stunned from the intense blast and all the wounds that Velvet had managed to inflict on it. Velvet took the opportunity to make it more permanent, separating its head from its body. One down, eleven to go.

The victory was short lived, both barely managing to dodge clear of the two twin headed demons, their claws scraping along their bone armour, the cat demon lunging into the fray as well, Velvet getting her shield summoned just in time to block the attack.

Ruby swore, her back up against her dragon as she deflected the attacks of the gorilla demon, the other demon that Yil’eth had managed to swat away earlier managing to get its claws into its flesh before Yil’eth knocked it away again.

‘We’ve run into a demon.’ Ashling informed them. ‘Engaging.’

‘If you need to take your full form do so,’ Myne heard Velvet reply, ‘Though you’ll need to carefully judge you opportunity, and you may only get one chance.’

‘I know.”

“Well, well, what do we have here,” Lady Knight Sorene taunted as Zerifs landed in the middle of the street amongst the attacking demons, a dozen other Riders appearing in the sky behind her, heading towards the Sky Temple.

“If it isn’t Myne,” she continued, before then looking at Ruby and shaking her head. “I was going to leave you to last, in honour of what we once shared. But then you had to go all noble and send that message.”

“How far can you fall?” Ruby spat as she then questioned of her, a sad look on her face. “You were such a nice girl once, but you let your ambition get the better of you.”

“You were just blind to the truth of it all,” Sorene sneered in response.

Sorene looked different. Her armour was no longer a pale green, but was now a deep black, and her long hair glowed with the depth of the void. She was carrying a massive greatsword easily in one hand, crafted from a mix of Mythril and black steel, its blade shimmering with blue magic. Myne recognized it instantly. It was the sword that the Demon King had been holding in her dream, Soulrender. A chill went down her spine. Something was not right.

The demons back away from Ruby as Sorene advanced, Ruby taking the opening and lunging straight for Sorene, but Sorene easily parried the attacked, kicking her solidly in the chest and sending her back. Myne suddenly knew exactly what was going on, the outcome clear.

“She’s channelling the Demon King,” she said with urgency to Velvet.

Velvet nodding having already guessed as much.

“We need to intervene now. We can’t afford for Ruby to die,” Velvet declared, panic rising in her voice. They were in no position to take him on now, especially with all of the demons currently attacking them. This was a fight that they could not win.

Myne knew she was right.

‘Ashling, get everyone out of here now!’ Myne heard Velvet think to her dragon as her hair started to glow, and magic radiated all over her body.

The demons assaulting them stopped suddenly, a flash of bright magic briefly blinding them, and Myne took the opportunity to break away from them, rushing straight towards Sorene, who had moved in close enough to attack Ruby again. Swinging Soulrender she brought it down on the Lady Knight. Ruby attempted to parry the blow with her halberd, but it only succeeded in deflecting the blow, her weapon shattering as the greatsword sliced through her bone armour and into her arm, Ruby grimacing in pain. Myne came in from above, putting her momentum into a fiery downward kick, Sorene spinning around and parrying the blow with the greatsword, her speed sending Myne off to the side

“Not even close,” Sorene declared, before then spinning around and plunging the greatsword deep into Yil’eth who had taken the provided opening to try and attack Sorene and protect his master, but he had been a fraction too slow. Black mists enveloped the familiar as Ruby collapsed to the ground, screaming in pain, Yil’eth doing likewise before the mists corroded deep enough, and he stopped moving, his entire form just dissipating away. Sorene had just killed a dragon familiar.

“And you shall join him too,” Sorene said with glee, raising her blade to strike the now defenceless and prone Ruby.

“Not today you don’t,” hissed a brightly glowing Velvet, suddenly appearing between Sorene and her target, catching her off guard. While her swing with her scythe was true, Sorene managed to twist away at the last second, Velvet’s blade missing her body and only managing to slice clean through Sorene’s left arm, the severed limb dropping to the ground.

“You little bitch,” Sorene screamed out in agony, bringing the sword down on Velvet instead, and not able to bring out her shield quick enough, the weapon cut straight through Velvet’s scythe and bit deep into her chest, blood forming in a diagonal line across her front and pooling down.

‘Get Myne and Ruby out of her now!’ Myne heard Velvet demanded of Light as she staggered backwards, blood splattering on the ground, pouring as much of her magic as she could into a large shield in front of her, Sorene’s follow up attacks bouncing harmlessly off it. Without the Skeon on, Velvet’s current level of reinforcement magic hadn’t been enough to stop Sorene’s initial attack. Not to mention the dress was ruined as well.

Myne’s vision went red, her flames intensifying around her, the ground bubbling beneath. Sorene had dared hurt Velvet. Her Velvet. To say that she was furious was an understatement, and she let herself be consumed by her rage. Sorene would pay. The cat demon launched itself at her, it’s jaws latching onto her shoulder, tearing at flesh and muscle. Ignoring the pain, she grabbed it by its head, pumping flames into its form before throwing it’s lifeless corpse clear across the road, flames following it in bursts. She advanced on Sorene, screaming her name in fury. In the corner of her eye she saw Velvet starting to collapse from exhaustion and her wound, a warm light suddenly enveloping Velvet and forming a cocoon around her and hovering defensively in front of Ruby, the attacks of the demons bouncing of her still manifested shield as they tried to attack her. Sorene however was no longer paying any attention to any of this, having turned around now to face Myne, a twisted grin on her face.

“You’re next little girl,” she hissed, the shadows around her darkening.

“You wish,” declared Myne, as she charged in, taking aim for Sorene and not caring exactly where she connected. Sorene easily blocked the attack with the greatsword, but the shock wave and heat from Myne’s punch carried through, burning the side Sorene’s face, singeing her hair, and causing her armour to smoke. Sorene didn’t take the chance with Myne’s follow up attack, jumping clear to the side.

‘We leave now!’ Light suddenly declared, snapping Myne out of her frenzy. Light’s size change in Sorene’s blind spot caught her unaware, Light’s swipe with her claw throwing her deep into a nearby building along with two of the demons, before she picked up both Ruby and Light’s cocoon in one claw and grabbed Myne with the other, taking flight to catch up with Ashling, who had also just left with the rest of the party.

It wasn’t a comfortable ride, Myne’s flames biting into Light before she finally realised that she needed to extinguish them, and Myne also distraught over Velvet’s condition. Light stopped briefly once they were far enough away, so that Myne could see what state everyone was in. The repercussions from the demon cat’s attack had finally kicked in, her shoulder a world of pain, though at least the heat of her flames had already cauterized the wound. Her rage had awakened a lot of power, but she had also lost control, her fighting and defence sloppy, and it had drained her considerably. She was now also starving, her blood lust at the worst it had ever been. She would need to feed, and soon, but Velvet wasn’t in a state to be able to help quench it. In fact, she wasn’t able to tell what state Velvet was in at all. The cocoon of light that had wrapped itself around Velvet at the end of the battle was still there, solid but soft and comforting, wrapping her up like a warm blanket. A chrysalis. Myne could sense that the chrysalis was of Velvet’s magic, but she couldn’t see or sense through it at all, nor could Light sense any of Velvet’s thoughts. She was definitely still alive, as both Light and Ashling were still in existence, but the wound that Velvet had suffered was serious, and Myne had every right to be worried, and it ate away at her. She just wanted to know that Velvet was alright and would come back to her. Ruby was unconscious, and if Cammine’s experience was anything to go by then she’d be that way for days. That was two Riders that had had their dragons killed now, though Melody had said something about her being the key to healing them. In her current state Cammine’s magic was unstable and she wasn’t able to use it much at all, but her magic was still there.

It hadn’t been a battle that they could have won in their current condition and skill level. With Sorene channelling the Demon King, that many demons rampaging, and an unknown number of the Sky Temple Riders turning on their peers, it had been stacked against them from the start. They had achieved what they knew they had to do, to warn the Clan about what was going on, but they may have done it too late, and the cost had been too high. However it could have always turned out that way. There was no way they would know. Myne could only hope that some of the citizens of Port Muir would be able to escape or survive, and she felt really guilty that so many had and would die. She knew that it wasn’t directly their fault, although they were to blame for going there in the first place. There was nothing more that they could have done, short of dying there themselves, which wasn’t an option and wouldn’t have achieved anything. Myne had no clue what Sorene’s plans were with that location, she could only hope that they weren’t going to turn it into a bowl of death. There was good reason that the Soulrender had been sealed away with it’s owner, and now that it was being wielded again they would have to be careful. Myne was certain that it wasn’t just Sorene’s or Zorthac’s power that had enabled the killing of Yil’eth, but also some aspect of the weapon. Why Lyrissa hadn’t commissioned the destruction of the weapon was beyond her.

Myne’s thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of a Nightwing, the familiar swooping in in the low light as night started to fall. Melody dismounted as it touched down.

“You,” growled Myne, instantly on the defensive and ready to kill the servant of Zorthac.

“Calm down,” Melody replied, holding up her hands. “Any perusers will be hours away, your dragons fly that fast.”

“Then why are you here? Do you have a death wish?” Myne did not like her at all, and still didn’t trust her an inch.

“I escaped earlier today. I was getting bored, and was starting to wonder if there would be a response at all. So I was going to head back to the capital. But I spotted Sorene and her goons heading this way so I went into hiding. And then you flew past, and by chance happened to stop nearby.”

“Right...” Myne didn’t believe a word she said.

“Look, as I said to your lover, there are things I want and you can provide them,” Melody stated.

Myne just stared at her.

“Take me with you?” Melody asked optimistically.

“No.” There was no way Myne was going to take one of Zorthac’s pawns to the ruins.

Melody actually looked genuinely sad.

Myne sighed, in spite of herself. She was tempted to try and take her down, but she knew that now wasn't the time. Melody had spoken the truth earlier. She had information that would be valuable to them at a later stage, and who knows, she could turn out to be a valuable ally. Right now however, she was also a much needed opportunity.

“When we work out how to do what you want we’ll come for you. I will have no problems trying to locate you, just stay somewhere safe for us,” Myne stated.

Melody nodded. “Sure,” she said a little too happily.

“In return though, you will let me feed on you,” Myne added.

“Now?” Melody sounded like she wasn’t so sure about the extra part, but then shrugged. “Sure, why not.”

Myne didn’t give her a chance to think about it. She stepped up to her, sinking her fangs into her neck. Her blood was bland compared to Velvets, but it did help sate the hunger. The sensation was also slightly different, and she could feel some of her magic invading Melody’s body as she fed, trying to change it and Melody’s magic responding to it. Something that had never happened when she had fed on Velvet. Perhaps there was some truth to what Melody had said about her being the key to healing Cammine. She stopped drinking when her hunger had subsided.

“That was kinda... nice,” Melody said, with a strange smile on her face, gingerly touching the bite marks on her neck.

“Leave now. I will come find you later. And try and stay out of the capital if possible.”

Melody blew her a kiss, before mounting her familiar and taking to the sky.

Myne waited till they had gone from sight before she mounted Light and they headed off as well, her worry about Velvet returning strong. She had to survive. She just had to.

And the next time she ran into Sorene, she would make sure that things turned out differently. Sorene had a hefty debt to pay.

mogust

Could things get any worse for them? Their enemy is certainly not to be taken lightly, and their options are quickly being taken from them. 

As always, thanks for reading and feel free to comment :)

I will start posting Chapter 9 (Expanding Horizons) early next week.