Chapter 58

-Chase-

It was nearly impossible for me to stay still as the seconds passed by. We needed to get moving right now. Dante couldn’t wait for us even a minute longer. He was back in that place that had turned him into a scared husk of a man. I could still remember how he flinched away from me after I had found him in our shop. I could still remember his scared eyes.

And now he was back there. Every second we wasted was another second he had to endure in the hands of his old torturers. I’d make them pay for everything they were doing to him. I’d promised Dante they would never lay a finger on him, and I had failed him. I needed to go to him and make them all pay. I wouldn’t leave a single soul alive.

I’d make them pay…

“Roe! What is taking you so long?” I spoke out loud, trying not to let my anger consume me.

He didn’t reply, but at least I could feel the connection between us now – he just chose to ignore me. Where was he? He said he’d be right back!

“I’m trying the best I can,” Roe finally replied to me. “They have protected every single base, and teleporting in and out is difficult.”

“Have you found Dante yet?” I asked, but the answer was clear.

“Give me a moment.”

I let out a frustrated groan and turned to look at the rest of our group. It had grown bigger in the last hour. King Gregor, Bon and Chels with their leader, and Samantha with hers were all gathered in the living room. With Donovan. Seeing him made me see red, but I needed him. For now.

“Still nothing,” I told them, when they gave me questioning looks.

“I’m betting my money on the place Ronald had to show me. It is big, and heavily protected,” Aaliyah spoke.

“It is a place your demon friends can’t enter,” Donovan said. “They know we are coming, so they would reinforce one base with everything they have. Tell your demons to look for a location that has the most traffic.”

“Roe? Have you seen a base with heavy traffic?” I asked.

“All these places are quiet,” he replied. “Not that many men either.”

“Izha says she saw trucks leaving one of the locations – through a portal. But when she tried to follow them, she couldn’t,” Mom said, stepping closer to the map.

“That’s the place,” Donovan said.

“And where is that?” I asked.

“Izha?”

Mom was silent for a while, but then her demon appeared next to her.

“I couldn’t follow them,” the demon spoke. “But I know where he is not,” she added, taking the list of locations Roe had found.

As we watched, she crossed over five of the locations before putting the list back down. Dad’s master appeared soon, too, and marked down three more he had been to.

“Roe?” I called for him, but it took him a while before he returned to us. “Did you find anything?”

“I did,” he said, glancing down at the list of portals. “You’re sure he’s not in any of those?”

“We’re sure,” Paraz said, and Izha nodded.

Arthyzn arrived as well, and he and Roe exchanged looks.

“We know where he’s not,” Roe said while Arthyzn picked up the list and crossed off all the other locations, except for one. “I’m sure you can guess where he is.”

There was only one place left.

“Like I said,” Aaliyah said, pointing at the location Ronald gave her on the map. “He’s there.”

“I tried getting in, but the protections are too strong,” Arthyzn said.

“I tried as well, but couldn’t get close,” Roe said, rubbing his chin. “Just like we anticipated.”

“They may have moved him to somewhere that’s not on that list,” Zane said. “This could be a trap.”

I turned to look at Donovan. “Could it?”

“Of course, it could,” Donovan said, staring at the list, looking like there was a but coming. “This isn’t the complete list of their locations…”

I held back my frustration. We were wasting our time!

“Then what are we supposed to do? Wait here until they attack us again?” Ben – of all people – asked.

I was about to remind them all that Dante couldn’t wait a minute longer, but Donovan was faster to open his mouth.

“You may not like the sound of this, but it is possible that they have moved Dante to somewhere else – somewhere only a few know about. But that base is their biggest. Their main lab is there, their big guns are there, and so are most of their men. We may not get your wolf back, but if we bring down that place, we are bringing down most of their operations as well,” he said.

“What if we fail?” Roe asked.

“Doesn’t really matter to me,” Donovan shrugged. “It’s your risk to take.”

“And we’ll take it,” I said. “I hate to admit it, but Donovan is right. Dante’s wish is to end the experiments, and we have no other leads. I imagine if Dante isn’t there, their main base is the best place to search for information, and his location.”

“Agreed,” Donovan nodded. “Besides, if you do succeed, there will be a lot less resistance on your way after that.”

“So, we are set?” I asked, waiting for every leader in the room to agree. “Everyone knows what to do once we get there?”

Again, they nodded.

“Good,” I said. “Let’s get going. Roe, get ready to open the portal as close to their base as you can.”

“On it,” he said, and disappeared.

“We need to move quickly – as soon as we open the portal, they’ll attack us. The demons go first to put up the barriers so we can get the pixies through, then dwarves. Once they are in their positions, the rest of us get ready to attack,” I told the rest of them as they headed to their own portals to get their armies.

“How long do we need to wait,” the werewolf leader, Huck, grunted at me.

“If everything goes as planned, we are talking about minutes, so go get your men ready,” I told him. “The second your portal opens, you attack.”

“Got it.”

“Same goes for you, Aaliyah,” I turned to tell her.

“We’ll be ready,” she nodded and vanished through her portal with the vampire twins.

I took a deep breath as I watched them leave the house, repeating the plan in my head. Dwarves and pixies, led by Zane and Ben, would deal with the walls and magical barriers, keeping the people outside the base busy. Vampires and werewolves would push in the second the barriers came down, dealing with every single enemy on their way down to the lab to free our kind. My parents, Frank, our masters, Eru and I would go after Dante and Killian. Donovan would do his thing, whatever it was – I didn’t care as long as he stayed out of our way.

We would hit fast and with our entire force, and all we could do was hope it was enough. Their walls weren’t made of iron from Njizrski, and we had the firepower to encounter everything lesser than that.

It was all fun and games for those sons of bitches until we started biting back.

“I’m ready,” Roe told me a short moment later. “I found the perfect spot.”

“Good,” I said, gesturing for the rest of my companions to follow me to the dwarves.

I stepped through their portal, ending up at the bottom of their mountain, where King Gregor had gathered his entire force. The sky was dark, and the vast field in front of me was lit up with bonfires and torches. I smiled at these small men.

Small men with big toys.

“There is nothing we can’t get through,” the king himself came to tell me, watching his army with pride on his face.

The field was filled with dozens and dozens of massive mobile drills. Their drivers were already sitting behind the wheels while the people occupying the drills were making sure the blades were sharp and ready to tear down everything that crossed paths with them.

“Never thought my tunnelers would be needed in a battle,” King Gregor admitted.

“Their base is deep underground. If we can’t get through the walls, we’ll dig our way down,” I said. “You have no idea how much I appreciate your help.”

“We are in this together. We need to teach them a lesson. This world belongs to humans,” the dwarf king said and flashed a mean smile at me, “for as long as we allow it.”

“Indeed,” I nodded. “Roe is ready to open the portal. Where is your end of it?”

“Over there,” King Gregor said, pointing at two massive columns in front of the vehicles. “We are ready to move as soon as it opens.”

“Good,” I said, and turned to look at my parents. “Tell your masters to join Roe. That portal needs to be heavily protected – and there needs to be enough space for this all,” I told them, gesturing at the drills.

Mom and Dad nodded. A moment later, Roe informed me that Izha and Paraz were there with him.

“Are we ready, King?” I turned to ask the dwarf, who nodded. “As soon as the portal opens, you go through and start digging.”

“Yes, sir,” he nodded.

“Good luck,” I told him, and returned to the portal.

Once I was back at Ben’s house, I headed across the room to the gateway to pixies, and stepped in. I found myself surrounded by trees and pixies that had gathered around their biggest cave. Bon, Chels, and Chari hurried to me with their leader, Nuk, in tow.

“We are ready,” Nuk informed me. “Is the portal big enough for our guardians?”

I glanced at the trees who had uprooted themselves and were now moving around like a freakish kind of humans. Massive humans.

“Should be,” I said.

I had never gotten used to pixie trees, so I was sure the humans would shit their pants.

“King Gregor is ready, and so are the demons. Where is your portal opening?” I asked.

“The mouth of the cave was the only thing big enough,” Nuk said. “I took the liberty to bring our own weapons. Cannons and catapults. There’s not many, but I’m sure they’ll be useful.”

“Greatly appreciated,” I said, and smiled at him.

“Should we get going then?” Nuk asked, and I nodded.

“As soon as the portal opens, you attack. Start tearing down the walls and protect our dwarven allies. And keep the humans busy while the rest of us storm the place,” I told him, and he nodded.

“Will do.”

“Get ready,” I told him. As Nuk started yelling his commands, flying to the front of his army, I called for my master. “Roe? Open the portal.”

“Portal opening now,” he replied, and a few seconds later, the mouth of the cave vanished behind the blue, twirly mist.

“Go, go, go, go!” Nuk yelled in the front, and his army started moving fast.

I watched it for a brief second, then returned to the portal that led to Ben’s house. Once there, I stopped to stare at the empty living room.

“Dante… We’re coming, my love,” I whispered, and continued my way to the last portal – the one that led to Roe.

By the time I arrived at the battlefield, the pixies were already spreading out with their guardians. The dark sky was suddenly lit up with the glitter their wings left behind. It was beautiful, but I had no time to stay to enjoy the view. I spotted Roe and the rest of our group a few feet away from the portals, so I joined them.

“Get ready to let the dwarves in as soon as the pixies are here,” I told Roe, who bowed his head.

“The humans are already making their move,” Arthyzn said after appearing next to us – a bit unnecessarily since I could hear their warning sirens in the distance.

“Where is Donovan?”

“Finding his way in,” the demon merchant said. “This is quite an impressive army you have gathered.”

“Wait until you see what King Gregor is bringing with him,” I said. “How safe are we now?”

“We have surrounded them completely on this side – they aren’t close enough to attack, but they have choppers and tanks. Once they get those moving, our barriers will get massive hits,” Roe said.

“We’ll have to deal with them as soon as possible,” I said. “Pixies have cannons and catapults.”

“My grenade launcher should do the job as well,” Zane smirked next to me.

“We’ll just burn them,” Izha shrugged. “Nothing will get close enough to attack.”

“Good. Keep it that way,” I said, turning my attention back to the portal. The pixies were still coming through, but most of them were already on this side. “Go get ready to switch the portal.”

As they left, I started walking closer to our barriers – to their base. I had to climb a bit to see the human base. It sure was massive. The walls were big and heavily protected, and so was the gate. I could see people running around. I could hear the noise they were making even over the painfully loud sirens.

Dante…

Eru appeared next to me and let out a massive growl. She could feel my anger like it was hers.

“We will get him back,” I told her as we continued walking closer to the edge of our magical protections.

I heard rumbling behind us, and when I turned to look, I saw a glimpse of the first of Kind Gregor’s drills passing by the trees. They drove closer to me in a wide line, then stopped, aimed their drills down, and started digging. The ground shook under my feet. I smiled when I saw how fast they were.

“We will get my baby back,” I repeated in a mutter, turning my attention to the human base.

I lifted my hand, digging my heels to the ground, and summoned my new powers. The fiery blast that hit their magical protections nearly threw me off balance. I watched the barrier ripple. I saw faint lines crossing the massive bubble before they vanished. Cracks.

I smiled.

-Killian-

“They are already attacking us!” I yelled in anger, standing in a quiet room with my grandpa.

He turned to look at me almost lazily. “We knew they’d do that,” he said so calmly I wanted to shoot him.

“You have seen what they are capable of!” I shouted, marching to him across the room. “Their first blast cracked your shields!”

“And it immediately recovered!”

“They can get through that – there are five of those demons now! Why didn’t you listen to me when I told you we need to move the fuck out of here! They brought an entire army to fight us! They have drills! They have fucking trees throwing freaking lava rocks at us! They have freaking fairies!”

He gave me a stern look. “Are you done?”

I smothered my urge to shoot him – again.

“Good,” he just said and turned his attention back to his safe.

I was so unbelievably mad at him. Especially since he didn’t seem to understand the danger we were in!

“Are you even listening?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady, but failing at it. “I told you staying here was a mistake! They knew exactly where we were because your brilliant plan to capture them failed! I told you they’ll come get that mutt back, but you’re still not listening!”

And as on cue, another explosion shook the entire compound somewhere close by, and I turned to look at the monitors on the wall. Our walls and protections were still up – for now.

“What are you afraid of?” he asked. “The necromancers can revive your troops, and we have several other bases we can retreat to. If it’s money you’re concerned of–”

“It’s our fucking lives I’m worried about!” I spat at him.

“The necromancers can just revive us,” he said so nonchalantly that I already grabbed my gun.

“Why are we still here?” I asked, trying so hard not to point the gun at him.

“Because they will never give up,” he told me. “They will never stop coming after us if we don’t wipe them out right here, right now.”

I gritted my teeth together and slowly put the gun away. He was right.

“Have you seen how strong they are?” I asked him.

“I have, yes,” he chuckled, picking up a box from the safe. “Come – let me show you my plan.”

I squinted my eyes at him, then at the simple black box he was holding. He gestured for me to follow him, doing so with a smile on his face.

I did follow him, even though this all felt like a waste of time. We stepped out of his office, walked down the long hallway, and stopped in front of the elevators. When we stepped in, and he pressed the button to the bottom floor, I turned to glance at him, feeling… reluctant.

But I didn’t say anything. After we stepped out of the elevator, we walked past two black, massive doors that could withstand nuclear war. Hell, they could withstand anything.

The room we walked in was big and cold and had only one small pillar in the middle of it, reaching somewhere around my waist. Grandpa placed the box on top of it and opened it. I’d seen the two rings that lay inside several times before, and it always made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Just like now.

“Let’s show them the power of our legacy,” Grandpa smiled at me, taking the rings and putting them on his fingers.

The door at the other end started opening, and I took a step back out of pure instinct.

“Come on, girls! Let’s go greet our guests!” Grandpa called cheerfully.

He got two massive roars as a reply, and I saw the big beasts approaching us from the shadows.

“Lara, Tanya,” Grandpa called the rassawolves like they were chihuahuas.

I did my best to stay still as the wolves stopped next to us. Fully matured, they were much bigger than the mutt. Their bodies were covered with black metal plates, and they had massive collars filled with magical protective stones around their necks. They were ready for war.

“Sit,” Grandpa told them, making sure the beasts saw his rings, and they did as he asked. “Good girls. Let’s go for a walk, shall we?”

I stood still as he started walking back, the beasts following him.

I’d find my own way out.