Chapter 100 Chapter 100

Chapter 100 Chapter 100
"Are you trying to get killed?" Ivan helped me up. "Again?"

"It worked, didn't it?" I smirked.

"Barely." Luka scoffed, his eyes widening in shock and bewilderment.

Before I could get another word out, a scream interrupted me.

"Can we breathe?" I yelled out the last word before turning around to face more shadowy creatures. 

Through the gaps in their formation, I could spot some movement and a blur of color, so I squinted to get a better look, and to my surprise, my parents were cornered behind the thrones, fighting off a small army of Grim ones.

"Luka." I pointed towards them, at a loss for words and ideas as to how we're going to get to them. One Grim took me way too much time and energy to kill. How were we going to face off the rest of them?

"They're fine for now. They won't hurt them." He seized the advancing group.

"How do you know that?" Ivan asked.

"They had plenty of chances to kill them, but they didn't. I guess that they want to capture them alive so they could have something to hold over the kingdoms and ensure their cooperation."

"Over my dead body." I scoffed.

"For heaven's sake, Ahri, don't say that." Ivan reprimanded.

"For hell's sake, Ivan, don't call me that." I chastised back.

"Are you two done?" My brother looked between us. "We are kind of in the middle of something here."

With a roll of my eyes and a barely audible grunt from Ivan, we broke off the glaring contest and faced the approaching creatures. 

Compared to the ones we faced at the academy twice, these creatures were bigger, stronger, and darker, and an inevitable sense of dread filled my bones.

They attacked first.

A dark sphere of energy zoomed by Luka's face, barely missing him and disintegrating into nothing as it met Ivan's ball of fire. Another creature aimed its attack towards me, but I acted quickly. 

Putting my fire to rest but still maintaining my shield, I swiftly summoned air instead. Bringing my palms up, I trapped the energy sphere into an air bubble, adding pressure until it exploded into a ball of vile-smelling smoke. 

The attacks kept on coming, and together, Luka, Ivan, and I deflected them all. Our hits were not doing much of anything against these shadows from hell, and every time we seemed to take one of them down, two appeared in its place. We were slowly losing energy and hope.

"Where do they keep popping up from?" Ivan grunted as he sent another pile of flaming bricks towards the enemy line. "I don't see any portals around here."

I looked around, trying to figure out their entry point without losing a limb.

"Over there," I yelled as I spotted the portal at the far end of the throne room, by the door. I mentally face-palmed myself for not noticing it when we came in.

"We need to close that thing," Ivan yelled back.

"But how?" Luka asked. "Portals only close from the side they were opened from, and last time I checked, we don't have anyone in the underworld to close it for us."

Another sphere of energy headed for my face, coming too close for comfort.

"That would be true if the portals did open from the underworld, but we have a traitor here, remember?" I swiped at my forehead quickly, wiping the sweat and ash away. "Which means the portals were opened from our side."

Luka shook his head, as if berating himself for forgetting that part of the story. I couldn't blame him really, after the injuries he sustained during their raid of the dark kingdom, it was a miracle that he was still alive, let alone fighting beside me.

"Can we close it?" Ivan asked.

"Yes but it's going to take a lot of energy." Luka breathed.

"Maybe I can help." Daisy's voice rang through the entrance, and I couldn't help the breath of relief that escaped my lungs at the sight of her.

"Glad you could finally join us, sis." Luka gave her a weak smile.

"Sorry, I got held up with the portals outside." She smiled apologetically and sent a huge sphere of fire towards a creature that came too close.

As I was about to throw another ball of fire, an idea struck me.

"Luka, Daisy, you two figure out how to close the portal." I nodded towards the glowing entrance to hell. "Ivan and I will cover you."

They both nodded and sprinted towards it.

"And how do you plan we do that exactly?" Ivan asked.

"Round them up in a circle."

"What?" He gave me an incredulous side look.

"Corner them all together in a circle. I have an idea."

"Will this idea work?"

"Probably." I shrugged.

"You don't sound too sure!"

"Just trust me." I gave him a reassuring look. "I can handle it."
With a nod, we got to work. The task wasn't easy, especially since it was only two of us against eight of them. I stole a glance towards my parents and was relieved to note they only had two creatures to deal with.

Make that ten.

"Remember that spell Isaiah taught us not too long ago?" Ivan yelled from across the room.
"I don't think now is the time for a pop quiz." I rolled my eyes, not that he could see me.

"The border spell, Lilith. The one to use if you wanted to contain the fight to a certain area? The one the professors back at the academy used to keep the trials from leaking into the island."

"I remember." I nodded.

"Proelium inclusum." We shouted together.
I let out a sigh of relief as I noticed the spell was cast successfully. The Grim ones were restrained. Unfortunately for us, the spell only contained the battle area and kept them where I needed them, but it didn't stop them from attacking us. 

A loud buzzing noise overtook the throne room for what seemed like forever, then stopped abruptly. Seconds later, we were once again joined by my siblings.

"We did it," Luka informed us, smiling smugly.