93.

-HIM-

“Let us help you, Ivanna!” Arsinoe continued to speak to the enchantress. The enchantress was completely distracted so I took the moment to step closer to her.

My fingers tightened around my sword as I fixed my gaze on the enchantress’ heart. I needed to take that out. I exactly remembered what Arsinoe had told me to do.

“We are here to free you, Ivana!” Arsinoe continued. I was close enough to the enchantress. I took a deep breath before I raised the sword to drive it into the enchantress’ chest. It was in that same moment when the enchantress noticed me standing so close to her.

Her res eyes widened as she looked at my sword. I could see that she was slowly breaking off from the daze in which Arsinoe had put her into. Although before the enchantress could fight me back, I drove the sword straight into her chest.

She staggered back slightly but there was no sign of pain on her face. She just kept staring at me but as the moments passed, the red in her eyes slowly turned a very bright shade. I knew that she was slowly coming back to the present.

I needed to act quickly. Celeste saw me driving the sword into the enchantress’ chest first. Regulus and Augustus were still staring ahead, at Arsinoe.

Just when the enchantress was about to react, I pressed the sword deeper into her chest, making her flinch a bit. Without warning, I pulled the sword down a bit, cutting her chest open slowly. Meanwhile, Celeste stepped behind the enchantress before holding the enchantress’ hands behind, pushing her chest even forward for me.

The enchantress let out a threatening growl so I quickened up the process of cutting her chest open. At this point, she had started to struggle against Celeste but fortunately, Regulus and Augustus came to our rescue finally.

Augustus helped Celeste to hold the enchantress’ hands back while Regulus covered the enchantress’ face with a cloth so that she couldn’t see us properly and put a curse on us.

With their help, I was quick to cut open the enchantress’ chest before I found her beating heart. I didn’t delay in cutting that organ out because by now the enchantress was starting to struggle more and it was getting harder for them to hold her in place.

She finally started to scream as I proceeded to take her heart out. She was thrashing in pain. As I held her heart in my hands, it felt quite heavy. I looked at it properly to distinguish the right and the left side before cutting the organ in half.

For some reason, it wasn’t easy but I pressed my blade harder. I was slowly able to cut it in half. While I cut the heart in half, the enchantress started to thrash more.

At one point, she did something which made the three of them fly and hit the walls before dropping to the ground. I was still halfway cutting the heart but the enchantress was free.

She removed the cloth from her face before giving me a death glare but I continued doing my work. She was about to approach me when I dropped her heart and finally raised the sword high up in the air and struck her heart, cutting it in half all at once.

At this, the enchantress screamed in pain before she fell to the ground but she didn’t stop crawling to me. Celeste, Augustus and Regulus were still recovering from the heavy hit the enchantress had given them.

The enchantress was so close to me already but I already set fire to the left side of her heart and while grabbing the right side and moved away quickly. As soon as the left side of the heart caught fire, the enchantress twitched in pain on the ground. It was very terrifying and painful to watch so I looked away.

My eyes found Arsinoe instead. While we were fighting and carving the enchantress’ heart out, Arsinoe was digging a hole just right outside the huge window at one side of the courtroom.

“NO!” I heard the enchantress’ terrifying screams as I put the right side of the heart in the hole Arsinoe had dug. It was deep enough to do the work.

“It’s working!” I heard Arsinoe grasp while I filled the hole back with mud. When I was done burying it, the screams of the enchantress died. This made me look at Arsinoe.

She had a shocked look on her face and her eyes were wide as she looked behind me. I turned back to find the enchantress’ body slowly turning in to ashes while small specks of gold partials rose from the same and collected in the air above to form a woman whom I had never seen before.

She smiled down at me while we all looked up at her with bewilderment decorating our faces.

“I am Ivana, the ancient goddess of Order,” The woman spoke. Her voice was very calm and gentle, something very opposite to the enchantress. I was finding it hard to believe that something so pure could have been trapped in something so evil.

“Thank you for freeing me,” The goddess continued to speak. Her voice echoed throughout the ruins, “I cannot be grateful enough to you for freeing me from this curse. I grant you a wish in return for this act of bravery. Go ahead and ask anything you want and I shall do everything in my power to fulfil it,”

The goddess slightly bowed her head. I was still very much bewildered. I looked at Arsinoe and she mirrored my reaction.

“Go ahead, ask for something,” I told Arsinoe.

“Why? You freed her. You should ask something,” She told me with a slight frown on her face. I was still finding it hard to believe that we were finally able to kill the enchantress.

I looked at Celeste, Regulus and Augustus. They had finally recovered and they were all looking at the goddess with great surprise.

“Do you guys need anything?” I asked them and they shook their head but Celeste gasped and looked at me with her eyes twinkling. I instantly knew what it was. I couldn’t have used this opportunity better.

“Ivana,” I spoke to the goddess as I stepped inside the courtroom. Arsinoe followed me. “I had made a lot of mistakes in the past and due to that, the fertility of half my Zaeris have been taken away. If it’s in your power, please,” I put my hands together and bowed my head, “Please restore the fertility of Zaeris,”

“Your wish is granted,” The goddess spoke, making me look at her with surprise, “From now on, one could affect the fertility of Zaeris,” With this, she sprinkled some of those golden specks on us before she evaporated in this air.