Cyrus clung to Van tightly as Teela left the ground and flew high over the battlefield. Jetta and Archibald sat ahead of his knight friend and even before they begun their mission, Jetta and Teela exchanged heated barbs.

“Hold me close, Archie,” Jetta said. “So I don’t have to hold this monster’s unruly mane.”

“That is my hair. Thank you,” Teela responded back. “And I just had it conditioned.”

Everyone fell silent, gazing at the battle beneath them before Teela spoke again, “But I digress. Jetta, I would indeed keep that fool close so he doesn’t become your undoing.”

Archibald finally answered the beast with a slightly tense sigh, “Teela, Teela monster. There are only three people in the world who give ol Archibald a headache, and you are one of them.”

Jetta kicked the beast like a rider spurring on a horse. She growled, “So how about you stop giving Archibald a headache. We need his tactical genius to win this battle.”

Teela, who seemed eager to get the last word in just muttered, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you…”

His distraction was cut off by Van’s screaming. “Uh, why is there a wall of fire?!”

Cyrus opened his eyes and saw a vertical line of fire shooting up into the air. It was ready to burn Teela and everyone on her to a crisp. Cyrus looked down and saw three demon soldiers with scaly, green, cone-shaped heads, dragon-like snouts and small white beady eyes. Fire erupted from their mouths like geysers.

“Fire Spitters,” Archibald said. “Somehow they knew we were coming! Take evasive action, Teela monster!”

“Wait,” Cyrus shouted.

Ideas flashed through his mind as he searched for a solution. Suddenly his synapses connected and he whipped out a container of Dragoon Lagoon water and chugged half of it. His body ballooned. “D-duck!” He gulped.

Everyone did and Cyrus blasted the wall of flames with a wide jet stream of water, allowing Teela to fly through it.

“Excellent job, princey!” Archibald exclaimed. “But…why are we sinking?”

“My kale diet can’t support this weight! The beast groaned.

Everyone turned to Cyrus who was still ballooned from all the water he consumed. “Oh no….” Archibald muttered as Teela lost altitude and fell towards the earth.

“Aim for that pile of of snow, Teela,” Van shouted.

“Got it,” the beast said and she crashed headfirst into a pile of soft snow.

Everyone jumped off Teela and assumed their battle stances. Van drew her bladeling, Jetta held throwing knives into between her fingers, Archibald clearly concealed many tricks up his draping sleeves and Cyrus clutched Archibald’s briefcase. He was surprised the Majester hadn’t asked for it back. Several demons guarded the rift and let out sickly snarls when they saw the attack party. With roars, they brandished their swords and ran at Cyrus and his friends.

Cyrus watched as Van’s sword jerked her into the air and swung chaotically at the demons. “I really need to learn how to control this thing,” she cried.

Jetta ran light on her toes and held her hands behind her back. She quickly slung her hands and knives flew into several vulnerable pressure points, causing instant death for many unfortunate demons.

Archibald danced, lifting his feet up in the air, and when he was flanked by two demons, he released magical cards from his sleeve. The cards flew at the demons and quickly sucked their spirits into pieces of paper. Archibald picked up the cards, now with demons encased inside them. “Two more jokers to add to my deck,” the Majester cawed.

A majority of the demons were vanquished but Cyrus noticed a little imp standing before the portal. It was like the little winged everspawn that they had encountered. In a similar manner, it let out a horrendous growl as its eyes bulged and muscles tore and ripped themselves through the little creature’s body. It grew higher and higher as its chest expanded until it became a mighty titan.

Everyone gasped and backed away the monster laughed. “You’ll never reach Rosemary in time!”

As his friends wondered how they’d destroy such a mighty beast. Cyrus, suddenly had a great idea. He took the remaining magic water in one hand and a bag of dragon powder in the other. He snorted the powder and drank the water at the same time, causing Archibald to put his hand on his chin.

Cyrus’s innards raged from what he’d done. His head swelled from the fire and his stomach enlarged from the water. Both his head and body were close to bursting, but he kept the elements inside until he was truly ready. With a roar that would make a dragon quiver, an incredible blast of water shot from Cyrus’s mouth. Fire circled around the water, supercharging it. The horizontal cyclone blasted the titan so hard it flew out of the valley into the distance.

Cyrus panted as his throat burned and his stomach churned, but his friends grinned and Archibald applauded him. “Wow, prince,” Van said with disbelief. “I didn’t know Archibald taught you that trick?!”

“I didn’t even teach him that. He thought of that on his own,” the Majester said. “And it’s not even just combining the water and the fire powder. His lungs hold such a capacity that they can unleash a jet stream that could blast even a titan away!”

“I call it, the Cross-Elemental BlazeTorrent Cyclone!” Cyrus shouted.

“Ooh better get a patent on that one real quick princey,” Archibald said and threw his fist up in the air. “Cyrus, my prince, you have all the makings of a fast thinking trickmaster! Ol’ Archibald is so proud of you!”

Cyrus grinned as he slumped to the ground. “I will be!” he said weakly. “You have my word, Archibald...”

“Quick, Van,” Archibald shouted. “Close the portal.”

Van quickly drew the pentagram that marked rifts to the underworld and sent it flying at the rift. It closed with a loud zipper-like sound. “I may not be able to swing this sword yet,” Van said with her eyes closed and a wide smile. “But this thing closes rifts so easily!”

All of Cyrus’ friends quickly gasped. There was another imp behind the portal, and like the last one, it quickly ballooned to an enormous height. Cyrus knew he had to regain his energy again before he could attack. The young prince watched helplessly as the titan stomped towards his friends. Jetta screamed “Archibald…do something.”

“Princey, throw me that briefcase!” Archibald shouted.

With the last of his energy, Cyrus threw the briefcase at Archibald. The Majester caught it and snickered. “I wonder what kind of crafty tricks I could use against this beas….”

Cyrus and his friends screamed in horror as the titan’s enormous foot crushed Archibald flat. “Hoo Hoo Hoof!” The gigantic monster gave forth a horrible guttural laugh.

Jetta sank to her knees in front of the titans foot. “Archie,” she cried as hot tears poured down cheeks. “I can’t believe you had to go this way.”

“Hoo Hoo Hoof…huh?!” The titan’s confidence was shaken, and suddenly, it wobbled back and forth.

“Everyone get out of the way!” Teela shouted and she quickly scooped up Cyrus and Van and flew a safe distance away.

Everyone on the battle field scattered as the titan fell back to the ground with an enormous crash and smashed its head on the ground, knocking it out cold.

Teela quickly flew where the titan had slipped and saw an enormous green banana peel. She flapped to the ground and Cyrus and Van, along with the rest of their militia ran over to it. “Archibald…?” Cyrus asked.

The banana peel twitched and Archibald emerged from the banana peel unscathed. He held his hands out and bowed to a bunch of happy cheers. “I’m glad Wiz Kong the monkey magician lent me one his giant chartreuse bananas! Not only did the banana provide some cushion but it proved to be an excellent trick.”

”Wow,” Cyrus gushed “You really are the master!”

“Hey muchachos,” Antonio exclaimed. “It looks like we’ve cleared the valley of this demon menace!”

Everyone cheered again. Cyrus looked around as everyone grinned from ear to ear. He watched as Bungo and Snipps emerged from the crowd and looked at the Majester earnestly.

The Majester put his hands on his hips. “I suppose you ragamuffin ruffians think I owe you something…”

“Actually,” Snips said in her feminine but still scratchy voice. “We wanted to thank you.”

“For what?”

The hook nosed woman crossed her arms. “We understand why you turned us into women. You wanted to give us a first hand experience of the struggle ugly women go through. If a woman is not attractive like this young knight or even this beast woman, the world can be a harsh and unforgiving place.”

“Oi,” Bungo nodded. “But when blokes jeered at us, we found it in ourselves to empower ourselves. We truly are beautiful women on the inside and out. And now our characters are shaped by your curse, Majester.”

“Your curse, is now our blessing,” Snips said. “And we’d like to remain as women.”

Archibald put his hands behind his head. “Yeah, I uh…totally intended that to be a lesson for you wonderful ladies! But I just wanted to ask…are you sure?”

Bungo and Snip’s looked at each other and nodded. Everyone cheered over the lesson the bandits had learned, but the jovial epiphany was interrupted by a muffled cry.

“Archie….Archie…ack…”

Cyrus and his friends looked behind them and saw Jetta’s body crushed underneath the downed titan. Everyone ran to her and began to slide her out from underneath the titans body. Many hoped that things would be ok for the thief lord, but Cyrus could tell by a grave look on the Majester’s face that things weren’t. When they pulled her body out, they could see her body was mangled beyond repair.

“Archie…Archie…please heal me,” the thief lord gently whimpered.

Archibald kneeled beside Jetta. “It’s ok…” Archibald said. “When you enter the soul void, Jetta, you will be remembered as a worthy successor to your father…”

The woman’s face twisted in agony. She winced in pain as her broken body twitched. “Archie…I love you…”

Archibald gave off a gentle smile. “I love you too Jetta. You were the best little sister I could ever ask for.”

Cyrus could see a look of disdain and betrayal in Jetta’s eye before she closed it and never woke up. Archibald lifted up Jetta’s body. “We need to remember this sacrifice!” He said. “Our fight against these everbloods will not be in vain as long as we remember Little Miss Jetta.”