Chapter 55

-Chase-

One of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do in my entire life was let Donovan be near Dante. I already hated that man with a burning passion, and I’d already promised myself to get rid of him the second we didn’t need him anymore. He would try to kill Dante the second he didn’t need us anymore, so he had signed his own fate.

When he finally left, I could start to relax. I had hardly even blinked during the few hours he was with us since I was so determined on keeping an eye on him.

A short while later, it was only me and Dante in the living room. The rest left to gather supplies, equipment, and most of all, people to help us. Ben was somewhere downstairs, checking up on Ronald.

“This is it,” Dante muttered next to me, pulling me out of my hatred towards Donovan.

“This is it,” I agreed just as quietly. “You’ll have your revenge now, and we will find out everything there is to know about your condition.”

“My kind. Not condition,” he corrected me.

I was silent for a moment, for once thinking before speaking. I spoke anyway.

“Why do I have the feeling you don’t want the cure?” I asked.

“If you can tame me…” Dante began, but I shook my head. “Why not? I’m powerful like this.”

“I won’t settle for only ten years with you,” I said sternly.

“Twenty.”

“Twenty at best,” I corrected him. “Why would we need power? We are ending Killian and his entire family. We’ll take what we need and burn the rest to the ground. We won’t be in a danger like this ever again.”

“Isn’t it a bit naive to think like that? There are still plenty of humans who’d want to do the same. Hell, how can we be sure there aren’t hundreds of labs like that all across the country?”

“Then we kill them all,” I said, and I was completely serious.

“We need to work on your genocidal tendencies,” he said, but he was smiling.

“Dante…” I sighed, getting up from my seat so I could sit down on his lap. “I am not going to lose you. We need that cure.”

He watched me for a moment, but then wrapped his arms around me and sighed lightly. “All right.”

“You promise me you’ll take the cure once we find it?”

“I promise,” he said, and I wanted to believe him, but… The past few days had changed him. For the better, of course, but I was still worried.

I leaned in to peck his lips. I’d make him take the cure, no matter what. I was not going to lose him ever again.

“We should start getting ready,” Dante said, his smile turning devilish. “I can’t wait to get this over with.”

“Me neither,” I said, returning his smile.

We spent several hours doing our part with the preparations. I started mass producing potions with Dante’s help. Roe kept popping in and out the entire time, bringing me more ingredients and weapons and anything else we could use. While I waited for my potions to brew, I made two phone calls, first my parents, then Frank, making sure they were still joining us.

I felt oddly calm almost the entire time. We were preparing for war, but I wasn’t nervous. No matter how many times Dante had told me not to underestimate Killian, I still wasn’t worried. A little, yes, but they were still just humans, and we were bringing our full firepower.

The only thing I was actually worried over was that they now knew we were coming. They were most likely moving their lab at that very moment. I was worried we’d be too late and only find another destroyed base. But what else could we do? We just needed to get moving as soon as possible, and that was tomorrow morning.

Later that day, when my potions were ready and cooling down in the lounge, we started making dinner. Ben came to help us, and we continued talking about the plan.

“My head hurts,” I muttered while peeling potatoes. “I’m sure there’s so many things we could use for our advantage, but I can’t remember any of it right now…”

“Well, we do have a pretty nice arsenal already,” Dante said, peering into the living room where Roe had piled up all the weapons he could find. “Now we need hands to use them.”

“Yeah…” I sighed, thinking about potions. “I’ll check my books once we’ve eaten. There may be more potions we could use.”

I turned to look at Dante, but he was staring out the window. “Babe?”

“Hmm?” he turned his attention to me. “Sorry?”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Nothing, I guess…” he murmured, looking out the window again. I watched him, suddenly feeling… odd…

“It was nothing,” Dante finally said, and continued cooking. “Just a bird.”

“Roe?” I muttered, asking my master to go check the area around us.

But he didn’t reply to me. I put the potato away and called him again.

“What is it?” Dante asked in return, the atmosphere turning cold all of a sudden.

“Roe isn’t answering me,” I said, fear almost blocking my throat. “Roe!”

Dante turned to look out the window again, moving hastily. Ben hurried to the next window as well, while I turned to look at the potato I was just holding. I had a very bad feeling… It took me a few seconds before I even dared to move.

“Rise,” I whispered, holding my hand above the potato. It didn’t budge. “Rise!”

“You can’t use your magic?” Dante guessed.

I shook my head. I felt vulnerable, almost naked, without my powers. And if Roe couldn’t even hear me…

“Roe!”

Nothing.

“We need to get out of here,” Ben said in a whisper, looking scared.

Suddenly, something big flew past the window. And it was not a bird.

“Drone?” Dante muttered.

The drone stopped by the second window, hovering just outside of it. The big lens of the camera was pointing straight at us.

“Killian,” I whispered.

“We need to get out of here, now!” Ben yelled, grabbing me by my hand. “They found us!”

I could hear an explosion outside. Even the house shook by it. I sprung around, looking at the portals we had, but none of them were open. If I couldn’t use my magic, that meant the portals weren’t working, either.

And Roe still wasn’t answering…

“We can’t use the portals,” I said, ready to fight right here, right now, but Ben was already stuffing my potions in his bag. Another explosion shook the ground.

“We need to leave! Grab everything you can!” he yelled at us, and we did exactly what he said.

In seconds, we had grabbed as many weapons and potions as we could and hurried to the front door. I yelled for Eru while Ben ran to the door that was leading down to the maintenance shaft and yanked it open. We didn’t waste a second to follow him through. I made sure Eru was with us when I slammed the door back shut.

“Wait,” Ben said once we were in, and turned to look at the wall.

There was a wooden panel right next to the door, and he pushed it out of the way, revealing a simple lever behind it. He pulled it, and the shaft was suddenly filled with loud bangs and screeching sounds as the house started moving.

“Now, hurry,” he said, and together we started running down the spiral stairs, watching as the massive elevators lowered the house below the surface of the ground.

I cursed Killian to the bottom of hell. How had he found us so soon? How was it possible that he was already attacking us? We kidnapped Ronald just last night!

“Never underestimate him,” Dante spoke as if he’d read my mind, looking sweaty and pale.

“We will get out of here,” Ben promised.

I could hear another explosion somewhere above us.

I took another look at Dante and realized getting out of the tunnels wasn’t our only problem anymore. I stopped running, and so did Ben when he realized I wasn’t following.

“We need to keep moving!” Dante said, holding his chest.

“You’re turning,” I muttered, and Eru started hissing at my feet.

“I can hold it back a little while longer!” he yelled back at me. “Hurry!”

What else could I do? We started running down the never-ending steps even faster. Dante’s pace was getting increasingly slower, and I tried to go to his aid when he stumbled a little, but Ben stopped me.

“We need to go ahead,” Ben said.

“No – we need to hide him,” I said, freeing myself from his grip when Dante suddenly fell down to his knees.

“There is nothing strong enough to hold him down here,” Ben told me apologetically. “We need to leave him here.”

“NO!” I yelled, but Dante grabbed me by my shirt.

“You need to go,” he told me, his voice already changing. “I can’t stop it. There is nothing else I can… can…”

He yelled in agony when the transformation started.

“Chase!” Ben yelled, grabbing me again. “He will kill us! We need to let him go and hope he gets lost in the tunnels so Killian won’t find him!”

“I’m not leaving you,” I told Dante with a shivering voice. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” he spoke. “But you need to leave me. I’ll be fine. I’ll get it under control and find cover. You need to go hide.”

“If he kills us, we can’t save him,” Ben told me, yanking my hand again.

“I love you,” I told Dante again. “I’ll come find you.”

It hurt more than anything in this world to turn my back on him. But Ben was right. Without my magic, without Roe’s help, I’d only die. And if I died, I couldn’t find the cure for him. My soul bled as I listened to his painful cries that soon turned into rage-filled roars.

“Faster!” Ben told me, but how much faster could we go?

At last, we reached the very bottom of the shaft. The house was still moving, but it was completely underground. I didn’t look where we were going. I trusted Ben to know the right way when he chose one of the smaller tunnels leading away from the elevators. Eru ran a few feet in front of us, like making sure the coast was clear.

“This takes us far away from here,” Ben told me as we ran down the dark tunnel. The only source of light we had came from the same glowing stones the dwarves had in their mountain. “Are you still unable to use your magic?”

I shook my head. They must’ve used one of those gadgets Donovan told us about, but how far we needed to run to get away from it? I needed to get in contact with Roe! He had to come take Dante to safety!

But no matter how far we ran, my magic didn’t return to me. I had never felt so vulnerable and useless before… I now kind of understood why Dante didn’t want to get rid of the beast. I was nothing without my magic. I couldn’t even help Dante!

I heard his roar somewhere behind us. It nearly froze my heart, and I hated it. I was afraid of my lover. I’d never been afraid of him before, but now… We had nowhere to go in the narrow tunnel. If he was coming after us…

“He seems to have lost us,” Ben said after Dante roared again, this time further away from us.

“He’ll find us soon. How far are we from the end of this thing?” I asked.

“Still a little bit further,” Ben replied, gasping for air already.

Our steps were slowing down again, but this time out of exhaustion. Neither of us were used to running for this long. If Dante found our scent, that would be the end of us. And I didn’t even want to think about what lay in front of us.

“Roe, please…” I whispered, trying my hardest to get my magic back, but there was nothing but silence around me. I couldn’t even feel my power.

“Almost there…” Ben coughed, stumbling a little.

I grabbed him to keep him on his feet. The tunnel curved slightly to the right, and suddenly I saw light ahead of us.

“There!”

At that same moment, Dante let out another loud growl. He was somewhere in that tunnel! He was so, so much faster than us, so I was afraid we wouldn’t make it outside. We picked up our pace, using the last bit of energy we had left.

And we were out.

“This way!” Ben told me, turning left.

I could barely see in the bright light after staying in the tunnels for so long. I tripped over rocks and branches, and it took me a moment to see the bottom of the gorge we were in. There was a set of narrow stone stairs up ahead of us, leading out of the gorge.

“There’s a road close by,” Ben told me, but the rest of his words were swallowed by Dante’s massive roars.

I didn’t waste time looking back. I knew Dante was outside the tunnel as well, probably already running at us. We reached the very narrow, very steep stairs. They were really difficult for us to climb, even Eru had trouble jumping from step to step, so I hoped Dante wouldn’t be able to come after us.

But nature came to our aid.

“Look!” Ben told me when we were almost halfway up. I turned down and saw Dante sniffing the air outside the tunnel. “The wind is blowing this way – he can’t smell us!”

I sighed in relief. “We need to get far enough so I can get my magic back,” I told Ben. “Then we come get him.”

“Let’s just hope Killian won’t come this far,” Ben muttered as we continued making our way up.

We reached the top of the stairs, and we were about to start running again when we heard something approaching.

“What is that?” Ben muttered.

It took me five seconds to realize what it was.

“A helicopter,” I said, fearing it belonged to Killian.

“They are looking for us,” Ben said, yanking my hand to make me follow him to the trees.

I couldn’t. I had a very bad feeling again. I hurried back to the edge of the gorge, searching for Dante. He was still down there, making his way slowly away from us, back toward the house.

“No!”

If he went back, Killian would definitely find him!

And then the big, black helicopter appeared behind the trees. It was making a slow loop very close to the ground, clearly looking for us.

“It is Killian’s,” I said, watching helplessly as it flew over Dante. A second later, it stopped and turned to face my love. “They spotted him!”

“We can’t do anything to help him,” Ben said hastily. “We need your magic!”

I’d frozen to my spot. They’d get Dante now, and I couldn’t do anything. How did this happen…? How did they find us?

“Chase! We need to leave!” Ben yelled in my ear.

“They’re going to capture him!” I yelled back to him.

“There is nothing we can do,” the old man breathed out with sadness in his eyes. “We have to get away from here, or they’ll kill us.”

I let out a growl out of frustration and fear, tears forming up behind my eyelids. I turned to find my love again. The helicopter was landing close to him. Was there really nothing I could do…? How could I fail this badly at protecting him?

How could I turn my back on him…?

“Chase!“

My heart nearly stopped again when I heard Roe yelling my name. I turned around and saw him in the distance, running towards us in his demon form. I couldn’t believe my eyes. He was really here!

“ROE!” I shouted and started running towards him. “They got Dante!”

“What?!“

“They have a helicopter! They found him! We need to stop them!” I yelled at my master.

“I can’t teleport him out of here!” Roe yelled, suddenly appearing in front of me. “I can only teleport short distances. The magic here is really faint.”

“They’ve used something to prevent us from using it – I can’t feel mine at all!”

I heard Dante again, so I hurried back to the edge of the gorge. My baby was challenging the goddamn chopper!

“Please, Roe…” I pleaded. “We can’t let them have him.”

Roe nodded and vanished. I saw him at the bottom of the gorge for a short second before he teleported closer to Dante. He teleported even closer, and closer… I could only watch as he risked his life for us. My hatred for Killian was burning inside me stronger than ever before.

For a second, I thought we would make it when Roe stopped really close to Dante.

I really did.

But they were prepared. The helicopter touched the ground, and Dante got ready to jump at it. Then a portal opened behind the chopper, and for a moment I thought Roe was finally able to use his magic, but no.

Dozens of humans swarmed through the portal in full army equipment, pointing their guns at Dante and Roe. Roe was only a foot away from the beast.

“Roe!”

Too late. Some of the men started firing at Roe. At first, I thought they were going to kill him, but then I realized they were launching massive nets at him. I could hear Roe shouting profanities as he tried to get the nets off him, but couldn’t.

“What are they doing?” Ben asked in horror when Roe started sinking to the ground. “What is that?”

I had no idea. Roe looked like he fainted when he suddenly collapsed and stopped moving.

“Roe!!” I yelled, my fear suffocating me once more.

I was losing them both. I couldn’t stay there! I had to do something!

And then he stepped through the portal. Killian. He had that shotgun with him. I couldn’t even breathe when I heard the two blasts aimed at Dante. He, too, collapsed as I watched.

“Dante!!“

I ignored Ben when I started running back to the stairs with Eru at my heels. I still had her. She could still help me. All I needed was to get to Roe and get those nets off him! He could save us all! He had to!

“Chase! Don’t be stupid!” Ben tried one more time, but I didn’t reply to him.

I climbed down the stairs, nearly falling several times to my doom on the steep steps, but I made it to the bottom. I immediately started running to Roe. They were already moving Dante to the portal.

“No! You bastards!” I screamed.

They watched me coming. The worst part was that none of them saw me as a threat. They just stood there as their comrades continued pulling my love away from me. They had nearly reached the portal already. Eru attacked them in her true form, but even she was quickly covered in nets.

“No! Leave them alone!” I yelled.

I was close enough to see Killian laugh at me. He walked to Roe and stopped to wait for me. I didn’t hesitate even for a second. I should have. There was absolutely nothing I could do, but I refused to turn my back on them. I couldn’t just watch as I lost them.

“Chase…! Run…!” Roe tried to yell at me, so at least he was still alive, but he sounded weak. Very weak.

“I’ll kill you all!” I screamed.

I only had a few steps left.

I was almost there…

Killian had a lazy smile on his lips when he dropped his shotgun and grabbed a handgun. I had sealed my fate.

“No!!” I heard Roe’s painful yell.

The six loud bangs hurt my ears. My feet gave in, and suddenly my face was buried in the mud. I hardly noticed the pain. All I could think of my loved ones who needed my help. Who needed me to save them…

Killian kicked me on my back and snorted at me. He didn’t say anything. He just looked at me like I was a mere rat he’d just killed.

And he walked away.

“Search him. I need Lena’s soul back,” he told his men, who started approaching me, their guns at ready.

I turned my head to see my love. I only saw a glimpse of him just before they pulled him through the portal. Then I turned to glare at Killian. He had his back turned on me.

If only I had a gun… If only I could’ve at least scratched that stupid face…!

But no…

My time was up.

I could feel my life fading.

And then a massive explosion sent the whole damn helicopter flying. Killian turned around for a brief second to see what was happening, and when he saw the burning chopper, he hurried through the portal and closed it.

What happened…? Did we still have allies left…?

But it was too late for me. My body was giving up. I turned to look up at the sky, tears burning in my eyes. I had just lost everything.

Everything.

And then Roe leaned over me, picking me gently up from the ground. How…? But of course… He was Lord Roeruiz. No other demon wanted to challenge him – for a good reason.

No nets would hold him for long.

“R-Roe…” I whispered when he pulled me into his arms. “S-save… my l-love…”

“No…” he whispered gently, and as I watched, he balled his hand into a fist. Black smoke appeared from it, and he opened his hand again. He was holding my soul stone. “You do it.”

He turned to look at the armed men who were still approaching us. Roe took my hand in his and pressed my soul stone against my palm. I could feel him feeding me his magic and controlling my powers through our connection. I was too weak to look at what he did.

But I could hear it loud and clear. They screamed in agony, but fell silent a short moment later. My stone turned agonizingly hot in my hand, but I held onto it.

And suddenly, I wasn’t there anymore. With the last strength I had left, I looked around and found myself lying on an altar. The altar. I’d seen it only once before. It was a massive grail, kind of like a shallow bathtub, and it was filled with the red sand of Njizrski.

Roe hovered over me, taking my stone and placing it on my chest.

“Roe…”

“Don’t worry,” he whispered, taking the ritual sword from the bottom of the altar. “I will never let you die.”

He lifted the sword high above me, aiming at my heart.

“Rise, Lord Chazar, Chaos of the World!”