Returned? Eblis? Impossible. There were only a handful of people capable of such a feat after all. This was big news. A major source of my power came back and I didn’t feel a thing. More importantly, what did it mean for me? “Are you aware, of what you’re saying?” I leaned in, “Eblis returned? Are you sure it’s him?”

“I’m not. I haven’t ventured far away from this lodge. However, it still exists.”

“What still exists?”

“This lodge. The fact that they haven’t destroyed it, must mean something of great importance has risen that they must pay their attention to.” She held onto her elbows, an attempt to comfort herself, “Besides, I can feel it.”

Of course, what she said made absolute sense, but the very notion of Eblis returning was farfetched even for me, someone who never experienced his actions and furthermore, was born donning part of his power.

The magical barrier casted around the mountain and a part of the forest to prevent Eblis’ essence and blood from further killing others remained intact. There were no differences in this somewhat uncontested territory that joined the lands of Venreval and the Crag together. Of all the places, I assumed Eblis would visit the place of his death at least once, that is, if he really came back.

Wait, I brought Mandy here when I knew his essence kills people?! How did she? Oh… I remembered the living armour spell had draconic magic in it. My mind then bounced on my uncle, who had not only fought against and defeated the demon with his protégé, Winter, but continued living in the barrier which sealed Eblis’ toxic essence. His constant dry coughing, now that I thought about it, was testimony enough that he wasn’t unaffected. Mayhap strong wizards survived Eblis’ essence somehow, like Winter. Although the ice adept was just as much in battle with Eblis as his teacher, he showed no side-effects. Oh right, that’s how he turned blind.

“–ily?” I heard, after slipping into my train of thought for much too long, “Emily!” Mandy grabbed my wrist and gently tugged me out of my head, “What are you thinking about?”

“Oh! Um,” I searched for the words that embodied my thoughts but took a while to find them, “I must return to the capital.”

“Why?” she snapped back quickly.

“Why? If Eblis really came back, then I have to go help.”

She held her hands together and swallowed, “Did you forget? They hate you now.”

“R-right.” I said in a defeated tone. “You’re right, but there are innocent peop–”

“Fine then,” she stood up, “but, I’m going with you. And you can’t say no!”

I shrugged, letting her do as she wished.

We went to the outskirts of the capital in hooded robes to avert suspicion, but, from whom? There was no one around. No guards, no civilians, no animals or even pesky insects. A deafening silence paraded through the night.

Suddenly, a worrying thought spurred some flight from me. I casted metamorphosis and flew upward. Mandy followed along on Audax. Whilst we circled above, I realised that the soothing feeling that was Eblis’ essence never stopped even when I left the mountain, it was also present in the capital. But, why?! Could he have really come back? That would explain everyone missing. And, it would certainly explain, the hundreds and thousands of skeletal remains scattered throughout.

We flew farther into the capital and there wasn’t a soul about. What was this? Are we even in the same place?

“What’s going on?” Mandy asked as we landed in the courtyard of the castle.

“I–I, don’t…”

“Don’t cry, Emily,” she comforted.

Cry? I hadn’t even realised the tears sprung from my eyes. I quickly wiped them and searched a little more, but there was not a sliver of life anywhere.

Clothes and skeletons. This was definitely the work of shadow magic’s flesh-eating energy. The work of Eblis.

“Let’s, look elsewhere,” she tried to get me out of my current state of unrest, but failed miserably. When we went to the south seas, dragon remains were everywhere, and this pattern showed true for Emberscale and the Crag, but not for Glacier Crest. I felt Aurora, as she was part of me, but not her young ones. I could only hope they were fine. All these draconic lands were afflicted with Eblis’ essence. It’s like he was everywhere.

“There,” Audax stressed on the word then gave a long pause, wondering if to continue his statement, “is still a place left unchecked.”

“Yeah? And where’s that?” I asked, sitting on the cliff of a blistering cold iceberg, looking down forlornly.

“The lands of the wind dragons,” he said. Of course, how did I forget?

Mandy frowned, “But they have always been extremely secretive. They are by far the most reclusive dragons there are. No one is allowed in but their own.”

I stood up, “Let’s go anyway. Better than sitting around.”

She made the portal, since she’d been there before on her hunts with Winter. A heavily complicated tropical archipelago greeted us, although, these were in no way small islands as I’d first believed them to be. Separately, they weren’t as huge as the other continents, but if one were to add their surface areas together, it’d probably rival the unending landscape of the arctic Glacier Crest.

After hours of flight over the isles, we set our sights on a particularly large one. Mandy warned us though, that each island was protected by a strong wind shield, which only the wind dragons had free passage through.

“What do we do no–” a portal suddenly opened in front of us and swallowed us up. We crash-landed in a meadow. Mandy somehow used her acrobatic prowess to land perfectly. I thought it’d be nice to learn moves like that after my face planted itself into the grassy field. Quickly, I recovered myself and stopped Audax’s incredible roll down the gentle slope.

All around us were the slender wind dragons. With almost unrealistic speed, they circled above and around us, avoiding each other in such harmonious movement, like bats’ sonar navigation. They really were deserving of their name.

“Emily,” a croaky, yet homely and familiar voice caught my attention. Uncle Chiron! I could hardly believe my eyes! I ran right into him, a shameless mixture of love and hate encumbering me.

“Where were you all this time?!” I grabbed his robe, “So many things happened! I was almost executed!”

He hugged me back, a surprising gesture from him, “Yes, yes, I’ve heard. It’s been rough, hasn’t it?” he ruffled my hair, “But, many things happened while you were sleeping as well. I’m sure you’ve realised… Most, if not everyone, think you’re behind the demon’s reappearance, even some of the dragons.” He made a portal into a dark room, “Come,” and so we left the meadow.

Like his old cottage, it was chocked full of books lying about. There was a single bed, an old small wardrobe and everything else were books and their bookshelves. As studious as ever.

“Let me brief you,” he said, gesturing us to sit on the bed. He took his seat on a stack of books nearby, “You slept for two months. When the second month began, Eblis came back, somehow. He did what he does best, take lives. Draconic magic is resistant but not invincible, he killed many dragons. Humans were next. The battlemages did what they could, but Eblis is much stronger than he was twenty years ago. Venreval’s population was about thirty million, it is now around three million. We scraped by with whatever power we had and evacuated the remaining people through my portals,” just remembering it made him look exhausted, “now here we are at the Gale Islands. I’ve separated the humans from the dragons, and separated the dragons by their type to minimise conflict. With my transmutation and the help of Eliora’s staff, I’ve been able to barely provide shelter, food and clothing,” he breathed a sigh of relief after, “I’ll need your help.”

“How long?” I asked, clenching my fists.

His brows showed perplexity in their perch, “How long what?” the lanky old man asked.

“How long will we cower here?”

“I do not know, most of our skilled magic users were killed trying to fight back. Firepower is near zero.”

“I see,” I said, not knowing what exactly I should do.

He took me around to the other islands for teleportation’s sake. The water dragons showed their hostility for killing hundreds of them when they attacked Emberscale, but at this point, I simply didn’t care. Next was the island housing Tivona, the Earthmother and her dragons. A similar fate was met, but I sternly reminded her that this place was not the Crag. The salamanders were next and I was finally welcomed warmly, with their ritual of fiery breaths.

“Is there an authority here?” Mandy inquired when we returned to the main isle. We had cowls falling over our face to mask our identities as we walked by a village of sorts, decorated with huts and farms. They were as dismal as can be, but somehow slugging along life, perhaps for the sole sake of avoiding death. They were already dead inside. If I had to guess what no hope looked like, I’d point at this scene every time.

“Not so much an authority, but whatever mages I could assemble that hasn’t given up, are in the longhouse ahead. However, if I had to say there was a man in charge,” he stopped by the door, “that would be me. I’ve gained the wind dragons’ trust after all.”

“Then, you can convince them,” Mandy urged, “we must fight back!” she exclaimed, in a soft but peeved voice. The very demon that killed her family was back. I wouldn’t be impertinent enough to say I understood how she felt, but her hastiness was, understandable.”

“I’ve, already tried. I cannot hope to rile them up, that’s why I brought Emily here,” he said, then opened the door.

If he couldn’t get them to take action, how the hell would I do it? Just who were they anyway? When I saw the faces buried in books, I understood then. Kanos, the battlemage captain and just a couple of his men. The royal archmage, Vaughn Black. A woman with long blonde hair drooping past her shoulders. And to conclude the congregation were two young mages, one of which was Levi Ashworth, fully recovered.

“Team, I’ve found two very strong mages, please gather ‘round for introductions,” he asked them and released his signature wheezy coughs. Maybe the staff of Eliora had a healing effect on him since he’d taken ages to cough since I met him again. Well, that was painfully unimportant now that I had to reveal who I was to Kanos and his men.

His team, as he so called them, traversed the extremities of drudgingly researching books to excited and childlike anticipation to meet us. They formed a crooked semi-circle and Chiron began introductions, “I’d like to introduce Mandy Sikorski, a highly combative mage,” she pulled her cowl back and their reactions were of slight shock, “and the chemist,” they looked at me with panicked eyes and the minute I began removing my hood, “Emi–” Kanos’ men bound me in chains and Kanos himself teleported behind me, but, nothing happened?

The chains suddenly disappeared and the battlemages were slammed against the bookshelves by some unknown force. I looked around, only to suspect my eyes lied to me. I wouldn’t have believed what I was seeing if the appalled reactions of the others didn’t exist. Mandy had Kanos’ own sword brandished, with the blade of it giving a minor, shallow incision at his neck. The captain, in his hatred, or maybe in duty, had a dagger ready to impale my back.

Was this what Chiron meant by riling them up? It certainly worked.

I pulled Mandy’s arm away, “It’s okay, Mandy,” I assured her, “I have living armour too, remember?” A dagger wouldn’t make it through that in a hundred years. Even if it did, Aurora’s scale would deny it the piercing it sought. And even then, the shadow magic in me might’ve forcefully metamorphosed.

I placed a finger over his cut and ran a lesser healing spell over it, “You hate me, I presume?”

“Who doesn’t?!” he lashed back immediately, then glared at Chiron, “How dare you bring this witch here?!”

My uncle, his mind that of an unpredictable animal, simply sighed, sat down and transmuted a rock he picked up on the way to a cup of tea, “I am a firm believer in egalitarianism,” he sipped his tea and stroked his beard, “however, I will not bury my head in the ground and refuse to acknowledge a basic law of nature.”

At this point everyone was confused, even Vaughn. “Kanos,” my uncle looked up at the man with ghastly eyes, “a rabbit does not challenge a tiger. Know your place in the chain and act accordingly.”

“What are you implying, old man?!” he was fuming now, because of Chiron’s belittling words.

“You already know, Kanos. Let it go. Team,” he spoke a little louder, “this young woman is the best chance we have of defeating the demon. She is Emily Crescent and was born with a strong connection to Eblis. She knows the demon the best. Let us all merge our strength and retake our lands.”

Afterward, the old wizard quickly dismissed himself for routine meditation, teleporting off to his study. What an insufferable and awkward atmosphere that was, but at least I knew some of them. Levi greeted us cheerfully and Vaughn was unsure what to think of me. The confused archmage brought forth the fact that I not only killed thousands of people, but hundreds of water dragons as well, who he held close like family. “It’s so much easier to just hate, but I know the circumstances of both incidents, so I cannot,” he said, then warned me about showing myself to the public.

“Yeah,” Levi concreted this, “because you used shadow magic and disappeared after, they all believe you brought the actual demon here this time. Lay low. You too, miss Sikorski.”

“Where was he last spotted?”

“The academy,” Vaughn said.

“Thanks,” I replied and teleported back to the pool instead, slipping into slumber in hopes of conversing with the culprit. However, it was a dreamless, fruitless sleep. When I awoke and went to the academy, it was only early morning.

Not even the academy with all their magic could defend against him. Not only were there the remains of innocent students spread about, but the structures themselves looked like they were struck by an intense earthquake. It was falling apart.

I remembered thinking how peculiar of a feeling that sight was. I should’ve been more than perturbed by what laid before me, all this death, but I wasn’t. Maybe something cracked within my head after they tried to execute me, but it was hard to feel any tint of mournfulness. A strange apathy had befallen me and I couldn’t shrug it off, I couldn’t force myself to feel for them. But quite contradictorily, I couldn’t abandon them either.

A heavy feeling swelled in the back of me, grim and ominous. Audax appeared, asking if I felt that energy. “It’s him. It’s definitely him,” the dragon pointed out. I gulped and stood my ground as a huge swarm of shadow energy flew my way and nosedived in front of me.

This is it.

I wanted to question him. I wanted to ask why he did what he did. But, the words were stuck in my throat, quivering shamelessly and refusing to surface. Eblis, this is Eblis. The real Eblis. The demon. My body suspended itself, despite my mind caught in a perpetual zephyr of thoughts. All that I could imagine was the most gruesome and gory death possible. I felt it in the very marrow of my bones. The fabric woven in my heart that represented whatever valour I might’ve had did not simply unravel, it was burnt to an unrecognisable crisp. I couldn’t budge, my muscles were paralysed. This, unadulterated horror was too much to bear. What a crippling fear! The three-metre tall abomination made entirely of dread shadow magic took just a couple steps towards me and I felt my life pass by. I was looking death itself in the eyes.

At some point my buckling knees gave way in the face of true, absolute terror. I fell back into the fountain in the courtyard, landing on the damp ground inside. He had no eyes but I could feel his gaze clinging to me. Such overwhelming focus. I realised, pathetically so, that I was just an ant in this maelstrom of alpha predators.

Why was I so horrified? My execution and Eblis spelt the same fate for me, death. Yet, being face to face with this demon, I could clearly say that the fear of execution was but a child’s fear of an angry parent. To even get an inkling of how powerful this adversary was, one would have to see him in person. I couldn’t utter a single word.

With no actions or words, the demon dispersed, and just like that, he was gone. I finally felt like I could breathe again, one of the biggest reliefs in my life. How did Chiron and Winter even fight that thing? Could they not feel his power like me? I had my doubts that they defeated him as the story was told now.

On the ground, crawling past the broken water fountain was a small insect-like bit of shadow magic. It was absorbed within Audax the minute it touched his claw. I was still stunned in place, unable to move. In that time, something happened to Audax. He became, possessed. He placed his head at my side.

“I am bound to the staff,” the whispery voice said. “Reclaim it.”

Not a second after, Audax was back to normal. “Argh!” he grunted, “that felt horrible! Are you alright, Emily?”

I nodded my head mechanically, taking a minute or two before I could move normally again.

“Did you hear what he said?” I asked, but the shadow-scaled dragon didn’t answer, only stared at me, past me. I looked around quickly and I saw, Eliora? It was the woman, or angel rather, who appeared when I first retrieved the staff of Eliora.

“Who are you, really? Are you actually an angel named Eliora?”

She smiled comfortingly. After experiencing the presence of Eblis personally, I had to steel myself to not slip into her consoling arms. “That I am,” she replied with a voice as soothing as the gentle winds in Gale Islands.

“You saw what happened just now?” I interrogated, and she nodded, such a motherly atmosphere about her.

“Sometimes, those we call friends turn to foes, and those we dislike are the ones who turn to help us. Love others, but let it not blind you. Hate others, but let it not blind you.”

“I’m, sorry, but, right now, I can’t understand what you’re saying,” I shrugged a little.

“Trust that fortune will favour you,” she advised instead of explaining what she meant. As if to only further my conundrum, she said what Eblis said to me, “Retrieve my staff,” she asked and disappeared without any confirmation that I’d do it. Why were they so elusive? What exactly was I supposed to do after getting her staff? Both Winter and Chiron were after it. Both Eliora and Eblis wanted me to get it back. What exactly was this artefact’s significance in all this?

“Ugh,” I exhaled miserably and looked Audax in his eyes. He quickly shrugged off my gaze, telling me what I am to do next was purely my decision.

Sure, I could listen to Eliora, who’s supposedly an angel and get the staff back, the same exact thing Eblis wants, who’s a demon. Why would their desires converge like that? “There’s something I don’t know,” I told him, “and until I do, I cannot just obey them like some short-sighted child.”

I climbed atop him, finding a sort of solace in merely resting my body on his scaly structure. Information was of great importance, but where would I find any about Eliora’s staff or Eliora for that matter. I was at a loss, so I asked the reckless one below me.

“How should I know?” he complained, “Maybe start with Eblis instead. Can you really say you know everything there is to know about him?”

This cheeky reptile had a point. I hadn’t even finished reading the grimoire yet. I whipped the book out right there with some transmuting magic and shuffled through the last few pages. Strange, I hefted the book, it’s heavier than before, I closed it and looked at the ominous black book from the side, thicker too.

There was a final spell, but no details or story about Eblis himself, and of course not a mention of Eliora. I wasn’t too disappointed, since a grimoire is inherently a spell book. The last spell was to summon something. A creature, very humanlike except for its horned forehead. According to the text above his sketch, his name was Apollyon. On the next page was a diagram of a magic circle with a small ball in the centre. A tiny script underneath read ‘Those without the orb shall incur the Hand of Darkness.’

More riddles, just what I needed. “They mentioned something about an orb,” I stretched to hold the book next to his face so he could see, “know anything about it?” He shook his head negatively.

I closed the book, thinking about what other lead I might have, but there was nothing but dust and cobwebs in my mind.

With that, I decided to head back to the Gale Islands. Maybe, if I could slip that problem into my subconscious, I’d discover an answer for it in time. To greet me were the curious faces of the post-Eblis council, Kanos being the most conceited one of all.

“What happened?!” Vaughn startled me, shouting across the room the second I teleported there.

“What do you mean?”

“What do I mean? Eblis! When you left, we all felt his presence! His power! What happened?!”

“Heck, I don’t know!” I shrugged, “He just appeared in front of me, stared at me and left.” I omitted the fact that Eblis had spoken entirely; the same for Eliora. The archmage’s jaw flopped open uncharacteristically to the point where I couldn’t help but laugh amidst the apprehension in the room. Luckily, it dismissed their tension a bit.

Not long after, a couple wind dragons landed deftly outside, “Emily Crescent,” one spoke out, his voice rather thin and light for a dragon. I stepped outside, ensuring to mask my face with my hood. “A member of the earth dragons has called for your summons.” Without waiting for me to answer, they flew away with unmatched grace. They were a rather secretive dragon fleet compared to the others.

More importantly, who could have asked for me? I didn’t want to stir up more trouble than necessary, but I had nothing doing so I teleported over to the second largest island in the archipelago. Dragons and their dogmas didn’t fail to impress me. I was met by rhythmic roars, although it felt somehow depressing. There was a large encirclement of them projecting their bellows upward.

Of all dragons to spot me first, it was Tivona, the Earthmother. I was expecting insults or something similar to be hurled my way, but her meek expression told me otherwise.

In the midst of them all, was a dragon, lying down on its side, a rare sight. Those ashy scales could only mean Utt, one of their elders, the very one that saved me the Earthmother’s wrath. Could it be?

I teleported over to him. His presence was faint and his eyes closed, but his sense of smell didn’t degrade one bit, “Ah, young Blackheart,” he talked slowly, even more so than usual, “Aurora’s scale. The Reckless’ heart. Razz’ol’s blood. You, have those. Now,” he inhaled, “take these eyes, and see,” he told me but, what exactly did he mean?

I had my father’s blood because he’s my father; genetics is the sole cause of my similarities to him so why did Utt mention him in the first place? Audax and Aurora became part of me through shadow resurrection, was that what he wanted? Deep in thought about whether or not he knows the details and consequences of shadow resurrection, he opened his wing out and it neared me. Oh, right… I understood now and held gently onto the tip of said wing. A spell was inherited, ‘Eyes of the Seer’. Seconds after, his wing recoiled and he passed silently, peacefully. A wind of dour washed over the earth dragons. I sensed that was my cue to make myself scarce, and so I did.

These eyes I inherited, would bring about visions only when I was deep in meditation. I was rather eager to try it, though I can’t say I was one for meditation. As far as I knew, Chiron had two studies, both far away from anyone. I went to the only one he showed me when he first brought us to the Gale Islands. It looked like his dump, a place to discard irrelevant research material. It was perfect for me though.

I sat down and developed a nice breathing rhythm, listening closely to the ambient sounds outside until I could no longer hear my internal voice. Before I knew it, I couldn’t hear those ambient sounds either. All sense of self disappeared. It slipped me that I was even meditating. That’s when the magic happened, it felt like a dream. There was a door, a dark shadowy one and someone next to me was opening it with a spell, but I couldn’t make out the person’s face. We entered through this door and inside was a small chest, locked tightly with shadow magic. I felt confused and looked at the person yet again. It was Levi! But why him? Where was this place? What was in the chest? There were so many answers I sought, but at least I knew where to start. Levi Ashworth.

With haste, I returned to the meeting room. But the sun was setting, only Vaughn and the blonde woman was there, even now, her back was still turned to me. “Sorry to disturb you two, but do any of you know where Levi would be?” I inquired and Vaughn gave me a bemused look.

“Emily, you should take a rest. I’m the only one here,” he said, in a tone as if it was clearly obvious. I looked back at the woman again and she peered right at me, beckoning me to be quiet with the touch of her finger to her lips. I was at a loss for words. They kept rising and falling through the cracks every time I attempted to say something. Why, was Eliora in this room?!