Chapter 42

Note: Thanks to Alex for beta reading this!

I reached the Void Crystal and grabbed it. I had practiced this over and over again for the last few days. I knew what to do. I held the black jewel. It hummed. Souleen smiled at me as I concentrated and split the monster girls up into their sections. I made sure everyone was in place.

“Good luck, Lord Leo,” said Souleen, a big smile on her face. “I know you can do this.”

I created the stairs that led up into Astovin. Four of them bursting up onto the streets. I released the gem and rushed out of the room. I wore my gray robes and my breastplate, the weight of my armor shifting about my chest. I snatched up the spear leaning against the wall and entered the waiting room.

Isatu, Garnet, Hagane, Feya, Grobi the Ghost, and the wildhounds all waited for me. Isatu had flames spilling out of her mouth, her dragon wings fluttering behind her. Garnet had her whip, Hagane had both her arms turned into deadly blades, and Feya had her wand ready to fire beams of light at the bastard.

“Go, go, go!” I shouted.

The wildhounds howled, “For Lord Leo!” and rushed up the stairs first. They scampered with eagerness, their bushy, black tails swishing behind them. Around the town, the other monster girls were flooding up the streets to start the evacuation.

I rushed after them, my spear in hand, Isatu hot on my heels. Garnet chortled. My feet pounded up the stairs and into the frightened streets of Astovin. Villagers were staring in fear towards the far side of town where the temple lay.

“Time to go!” shouted Ci.

“You there,” Du yipped. “Grab your family and move! Lord Leo’s command!”

“Let’s move, people,” Nos cried. “Don’t make me bite your butt. I will!”

The people lurched into motion. Some glanced at me with such hope in their eyes. Once more, their village was under attack. I was here to defend them. The guardians I had placed around the town, the rock golems, lurched into motion. They would be lumbering toward the source of the attack. I had no idea how effective they would be.

“Garnet, get in the air and find where he is,” I shouted to my little sister.

“Yes, big bro,” she shouted and flapped her red wings. She took off, her spade-like tail whipping behind her.

The screams were coming from the right. The sounds of people dying. I ran in that direction, crying out spells. I cast Granite Flesh, Strength of Mountains, and Static Aura. I had to be ready to fight him. My monster girls ran behind me.

I have him, big bro! Garnet shouted in my mind. Turn right at the next street!

Halia raced to the nearest exit that Lord Leo had created. Here, she found the orcs and salamanders pouring out of the dungeon. As much as Halia wanted to fight her father, she wasn’t supposed to do it without backup. She nodded to the monster girls as they started barking at the civilians.

“Move your asses and get out of town!” Slepkavi bellowed. She pointed at a group of young men. “You! Get in those houses, make sure they’re empty. We’re not leaving anyone behind.”

“Halia,” Lana Fulmine shouted. The lightning sprite burst out of the tunnel followed by Terra, Usiku, Smerta, and Ipalsi the ghost. “Where is he?”

“By the temple,” I said. “This way.”

“Good,” Smerta shouted. She wore her icy armor and had her sword out. “I’m going to fuck him up this time. He’s not going to take me out that easy.”

“Right?” Usiku asked. She had made a long spear out of shadows that ended with a sword-like blade. A weapon called a glaive.

“He’s at the central plaza,” Garnet reported. “And he’s shooting at me! How rude!”

“Follow me!” Halia shouted and drew her blessed blade. It hummed with its magic. She turned and darted down the street, the other monster girls following the paladin while the orcs and salamanders had the civilians flowing in the other direction.

But not all of them had gotten to safety. Several dead littered the road to the square, cut down by the mad shade of her father. The Gods have done this to him, she thought with anger. At least the Gods of Dark. And he said there are more coming back. More like him.

She shuddered in terror as she ran for the square.

Mrs. Zoe Baldwin rushed past the werebears evacuating the civilians in her section of town. Her daughter’s warning that Anguin was in the central square let the dryad know just where she had to lead her force. She had two of the ghosts flitting through the buildings as she ran forward. Paanee slithered behind her with Morana running at her side. Nina was in the air, the devil flying on her crimson wings.

“Oh, yeah, I see the bastard,” Nina shouted, flames busting in her hand and forming into the shape of a pitchfork. She threw it towards the square ahead.

Garnet flew over that square, flying fast. She dodged and twisted in the air as blades of darkness came for her. Fear twisted the dryad’s stomach as she watched her daughter risking death distracting the bastard while the rest of the harem rushed in for the fight.

Mrs. Baldwin glanced behind her. Morana’s misty cloak fluttered behind her as the pale-skinned banshee ran with force. She licked her lips. Her scream would be something to hear. Mrs. Baldwin hoped that the shadowy monster ahead enjoyed the piercing screech of an angry banshee and the loving touch of a pair of ghosts.

“We’re almost there!” Mrs. Baldwin sent.

Mrs. Bella Lucina soared over the streets. The angel watched as Garnet and Nina danced in the skies over the square, both of them now dodging the shadowy attacks from Anguin. The devil through down her flaming pitchforks.

Almost there, thought Mrs. Lucina. She might be an angel, but she was eager to help out that devil. The irony that in this world they were both on the same side wasn’t lost on Mrs. Lucina. It made her more excited.

Beneath her ran Maya, Crystal, and Baaghi. The ghost Dusata floated by them. The satyrs and unicorns were spreading through the streets to evacuate the townspeople. The angel didn’t like to see the innocent hurt.

And there were innocent on the ground cut and bleeding.

The angel hated that. She flapped her wings faster as she soared to do battle.

Ahead, Nina Naughty threw a flaming pitchfork at Anguin. The angel could see him now. He opened one of his dark holes. The pitchfork vanished into the hole then flew out in another direction, hurtling at someone Mrs. Lucina loved. Her halo glowed brighter as the sun set.

Hagane slammed her shoulder into Leo, throwing him to the side. The flaming pitchfork slammed into the metallic girl’s chest. It struck like it was made of steel, but so was the animated statue’s body. She hardly felt the weapon clanging off her.

“Thanks!” Leo growled as he recovered.

Hagane nodded to her lover. Her armblades pumped as she ran into the square with the others. Anguin stood in the middle, waiting for them. They hadn’t corralled him here. No, no, he had come to this open place to fight them.

He knew we would protect the town, Hagane thought, her mind racing. “Leo, he waited for us to be ready. This is his trap we are running into.”

“Too late now,” Leo growled.

“Yes!” Feya hissed. The fairy’s butterfly wings fluttered. Light flared above and behind Hagane. A beam of light shot out at Anguin.

He pivoted around it. The beam struck the grass behind him. One lone cow grazing on the grass in the village center mooed in alarm and ran off, bell clanking about its neck. Hagane kept running, her metallic legs stretching out before her as she closed the distance.

Leo ran at her side, his spear in hand. His skin had the gray hue of granite. He had protected himself. She could feel the charge of static around him. Even though he was defended with spells, she would take no chance with his safety.

“Kick his ass, big bro!” Garnet shouted from above.

“Curb stomp his ass!” the porn star shouted. She circled with Garnet.

The light of Mrs. Lucina appeared from the right, the angel’s halo a small sun in the growing depths of night. That worried Hagane even more. The world plunged into the dark. Into the very element that made up the reincarnated Anguin.

We are fighting him on the ground of his choosing just as his powers must be at their strongest. Hagane wanted to retreat, but she knew Leo would never leave the townspeople vulnerable.

Anguin raised his sword and slammed it into the grass at his feet. A great burst of shadows erupted from it and rushed at Leo. Hagane tackled him again, throwing him to the ground. He rolled out of the way of darkness.

It crashed into Hagane. The force of it was too much. She felt her body ripping apart. Shards of metal tore from her body. The shadows dissolved her. In her last moments before her soul tumbled free of her body, she knew Leo would not have survived.

Beat him, my love, Hagane thought before she fell into the warm and loving embrace of Souleen, a humming lullaby pulling the animated statue into the peace of death’s sleep.

“Fuck,” I muttered as the shadow wave crashed into a building and tore it down. Hagane was gone. I felt her die. The darkness had destroyed her and left a furrow in the ground, the grass shriveled and smoking along the edges.

Stones crashed to the ground as the building collapsed, smote by the attack. That was new. Anguin hadn’t used that during the fight. I pushed up on my hands and feet, needing to be mobile to dodge another attack like that. My heart hammered against my ribs from its frantic beat. He had almost killed me last time...