Max's POV:

A colossal boom erupted from the sky and shook the ground beneath my feet, drawing my attention to the horizon. There was a storm ahead and it seemed to be infused with some kind of dark magic.

"They must have broken the forcefield that Luna told us about," said Verity as she moved to stand next to me.

"They're so close... I know that it was a hard decision but I just wish that they would have taken a few of us along" I sighed, turning my head to face her.

"I know, I can't believe that they thought they could leave us behind" she replied, disappointment clear in her voice. "but none of that matters now, we just have to reach them before it's too late" she finished confidently.

"You're right as usual," I grinned, making a small smile spread across her face.

"Max! Verity!" called a rather impatient voice.

Verity and I let out a low sigh and shook our heads at each other before we turned to face the source of the noise.

"Over here Andrea" shouted Verity, giving her a wave.

"I am appointing the two of you to do tonights perimeter sweep since Asher had to do something which was clearly more important that this camps safety" she revealed in annoyance before she had even reached us.

"Ok, we will go right away" responded Verity quickly.

Verity had grabbed onto my arm and begun to pull me along before Andrea cleared her throat dramatically, making us stop in our tracks. I turned around slowly and looked up to meet Andreas firey brown eyes, she paused for a second before she pushed back her dark hair and placed her hand on her hips.

"Remember to take this seriously, our world is in peril and a sacred duty has been bestowed upon us all to ensure..." begun Andrea.

"The survival of the world as we know it?" questioned Verity with a small smile tugging at her lips.

"Why yes!" exclaimed Andrea happily.

She gave Verity a friendly pat on the shoulder, almost knocking her over in the process.

"I hope that you will join me in the Elysium guard someday" she stated, causing Verity to release a small laugh.

An awkward silence filled the air as we all just stared at each other not knowing what else to say.

"Anyway, I guess we should get moving then... since the world is in peril and all," I said breaking through the heavy air.

Andrea nodded her head and turned to walk away, resting her hand on the pommel of her longsword as she walked over to one of the tents.

"If that woman tells us of the worlds infinite peril one more time I'm literally going to..." begun Verity, causing me to cover her mouth to stop her sentence.

"Get your ass kicked by that extremely tall and skilled warrior?" I asked, thinking over the fact that Andrea towered above most people in the camp.

"Sounds about right" replied Verity with a smile.

I let out a small laugh before I turned to walk around the camp, there were small makeshift tents dotted around the place which were used to house the Elysium guard's warriors and some of the school's willing students on our journey to aid the defeat of Sebastian.

No matter how much Aurora and Shade believed that they could defeat him alone the truth was that they couldn't. The place was crawling with his demon army so even if they did manage to get inside the fortress, find Chase and kill Sebastian, his death would mean that they would still have to deal with an uncommanded demon army which would be more than happy to move across the globe, destroying cities and villages spontaneously as they go.

"Did you hear that?" asked Verity, holding her arm out in front of me.

I shook out of my thoughts and stopped walking to listen for whatever she had heard.

"Hear what?" I questioned after a minute of silence had passed.

"I could have sworn that I heard voices," she said in a low voice.

"We are in a camp full of people" I sighed, gesturing to the tents behind us.

"Coming from the forest idiot!" she hissed, shaking her head.

"Ok fine, let's go check it out" I replied, holding my hands up in surrender.

She concealed a smile and shook her head at me one last time before she walked into the surrounding forest with her blade drawn. At first, all I heard was silence, but as we furthered into the looming trees the quiet mumbling of whispers reached my ears.

Verity stopped moving away from me and grabbed my arm to stop me crashing into her, I gave her a confused look to which she responded by pointing down at the side of my belt. I followed her gaze to see that a small blue light had been ignited within the engraving on my hunters sword, letting me know that there was an enemy nearby.

I looked back up at Verity, she tapped her finger to her lips two times before she pointed back and forth between to my chest and hers, then moved it to point at the right side of the forest which let me know that she didn't want to split up just yet.

We moved through the trees slowly, being careful not to snap any twigs until we finally saw the source of the noise. My blood ran cold as I took in the people before me, but the feeling was soon boiled by the fiery rage that began to burn inside me. There stood Asher, talking quite heatedly with no other than Emrick.

I was just about to run towards them and demand answers when Verity grabbed ahold of my arm and pulled me back.

"Do not let anger cloud your judgement" she whispered into my ear so I was the only one that could hear here.

I nodded my head and snuck through the trees, getting as close to the pair as I could.

"We had a deal" exclaimed Asher what could only be described as a whisper-shout.

"Well, jokes on you for making a deal with the price of hell" snickered Emrick with an amused glint in his dark purple eyes.

"I thought that you were known to keep your word," said Asher in disgust.

"I do keep my word, and I didn't actually tell you that I would give you your sister back if you helped me, I said that I would consider it... and I have" replied Emrick, boredom seeping into his voice.

"This is all one just big game to you isn't it?" questioned Asher "you were never going to let her go" he finished in realisation.

"Of course it's all a game" laughed Emrick, as he begun to pace around "and I'm surprised that it has taken you this long to figure it out, like seriously... why would I release her? I already have one Mythica running around, a second would just cause me more trouble" he finished with a sigh.

"I will not continue to lie to everyone... they do not deserve this, they are good people and I have become to care for them," said Asher strongly.

"Yeah yeah whatever, see if I care what you do" sighed Emrick as he picked up a stick of the ground.

Asher stared at him in disbelief as he continued to collect twigs off the ground.

"Anyway, something tells me that your so-called friends already know of your treachery" grinned Emrick.

"Oh yeah, and what makes you so sure?" replied Asher as he crossed his arms.

"Because two of them are right over there" he laughed, throwing his sticks forcefully towards me and Verity.

They became embedded into the trees next to us immediately giving away our position. A shiver ran down my spine as Emrick turned towards us and gave us an evil smirk before he turned back to face Asher.

"Well, I'm gonna leave you to deal with them," said Emrick as if we were not there "I've got places to be... Mythica's to kill" he finished wickedly, revealing a pair of pitch black wings.

He gave a small salute before he pulled his wings towards his body and rocketed up into the sky, instantly disappearing into the night.

"I can explain!" exclaimed Asher, turning to face us.

"Start talking, it's gonna take a lot to get you out of this mess" she spat.

"Look, I know what I have done is wrong but please believe me when I say that I am not your enemy, I was never planning to let Emrick or Sebastian win, I just wanted my sister back" he explained, not bothering to hide his despair.

"How can you expect us to believe that you are not our enemy?" I asked venomously, pushing him up against a tree.

"Because I have come to see you guys as family, and I protect my family" he groaned.

"Then why did you betray us?" I shouted angrily.

"I saw no other way!" he exclaimed, pushing me off of himself. "You know that I'm stronger than you... I trained you for god's sake! so if I wanted to kill you I would have done it" he finished pleadingly.

"You may not have physically hurt us but you have broken our trust"revelled Verity.

"Please... don't tell the guard about this, at least not until after we have destroyed Sebastian, I can still help you" he begged.

"How could we possibly trust you again?" I asked coldly.

"Look at your blade Max... like I said, I'm not your enemy" He replied calmly.

I looked down at my blad to see that It had stopped glowing.

"You gave me this blade on our first ever training session" I recalled, my voice shaking slightly.

"Yes I did, but it never lies" he sighed.

I looked at Verity who seemed to be deep in thought, we probably would have failed this mission long ago if it hadn't been for Asher, which is why his betrayal hurt so much more than Elizabeths, but one thing they did have in common was the fact that they hadn't done it for themselves... they had done it for family.

"Fine" I concluded, nodding for Verity to stand down. "but cross us again and I will kill you myself with this very blade" I promised grimly.

"I will not, you have my word" he sighed, wiping a small tear from his face.

for these amazing dragon drawings!

For these digital portraits of Aurora and Shade.

for this fabulous drawing of Obsidian.