"Finally! The fourth stage has been cleared and the long awaited stage has arrived. The final boss room, or wasn't it what Aefia had said?" Her lady cheered as the fourth stage's boss fell to the ground with a thud and a strange orb appeared out of it. Something almost the same as the one Aefia first hesitated to pick up or interact with back at the third stage, but this fact was already unknown to the others since they were busy handling the stage three boss.
Somehow, as knowledgeable as her lady was described based on Aefia, Helio made sure to ask about this before proceeding to take a closer observation with the orb. "Your majesty, if you don't mind telling me for our own safety, is it alright to touch the glowing orb that just appeared?"
"Which glowing orb?" Her lady spoke as she spun around abruptly to look at the thing Helio was pointing to. "Oh right, that orb...I won't say it's safe because that thing is just formed when a very powerful entity passes away and something belonging to them becomes an artifact. But if you want to claim that object, do so. But remember that you will have the monster summoned back and will have to deal with it."
"So something like the chimera Aefia had faced earlier?" Helio asked to confirm. "Yes, something almost like that. But the chimera is the demon king's pet and it had consumed a part of the fallen king's power, so that lead to it being summoned. Even when you interact with the orb again, it is possible that the beast may or may not grow in power otherwise it will get weaker and consume the residing magic energy inside the smaller helpers we had killed first." She continued explaining.
"In that case, I guess it is best to leave it alone." Helio looked away from the massacre they had created. Thanks to the battles they were forced to face from before, they had gotten themselves a slight hint of what or how the smaller helpers moved and that was solely because they got much help from Aefia's ignorance and resistings.
The sun had begun to set over a broken world, that was the location of their fourth stage strangely. Deep red and orange colors filled the sky, but they did not look warm, and they looked like fire and smoke rising from a long fight. Dark clouds moved slowly across the horizon, casting long shadows over the ground.
From the place they were standing, the air was thick and heavy with the smell of old metal and wet earth. Everything was quiet now, as if the world was holding its breath after a terrible storm. The light from above touched the edges of the distant mountains, turning them into dark, jagged shapes.
On the ground, hundreds of smaller monsters lay still in the dirt, the smaller helpers of course. They were strange and scary creatures with sharp horns and hard skin. Many of them had deep cuts that were still wet and bright yellow.
They were fallen in every direction, some piled on top of each other and others spread out alone. Their eyes were open but they did not see anything anymore. The grass around them was stained and flat, crushed by the weight of the battle that had just ended. It was a sad and lonely sight to see so many fallen beasts in one place. Helio didn't understand how Aefia managed to endure it.
In the middle of all this was a beast much bigger than the others, the stage boss. It looked like a giant dragon with thick scales and long, sharp claws, or maybe it looked like a leviathan. Its neck was long and curved, but it rested on the ground because its life had left it permanantly.
This great monster had been the strongest of them all, yet it could not escape the same end as the smaller ones. Its massive body took up a lot of space, and its mouth was frozen open in a silent scream. Even though it was dead, it still looked powerful and very dangerous to anyone who stood near it.
Right in front of the large beast, a golden orb floated in the air. It was perfectly round and glowed with a soft, warm light that did not flicker. It stayed in one spot, never moving up or down, as if it were held by invisible hands. It looked exactly like the orb the Sacred key was kept in, but the only difference was this one had a more fiery glow then the soft golden of the key.
The golden glow was the only bright thing in the dark valley. It reflected off the wet scales of the monsters and the pools of red on the ground. It looked like a magical treasure that had been the reason for all the fighting. The light was beautiful but felt very out of place among the death.
Further away, a tall old tree stood on a high hill. Its branches were thin and pointed as blade, reaching up toward the colorful sky like hungry fingers. No lights came through from its dark, dead looking leaves, making it look empty and cold.
A thin path led from the tree into the valley where the monsters lay. The only piece of dead foliage seemed to be watching over the area, silent and mysterious. It was hard to tell if someone lived there or if it had been left behind a long time ago. It added a feeling of gloom to the whole scene.
The entire area felt heavy with the weight of what had happened. There were broken swords and pieces of armor plucked for the robotic beasts scattered in the mud, showing that the victory was clearly theirs.
Within a small about if time, patches of green plants tried to grow through the cracks in the stone, and wrap around the beasts' limps. The wind blew against the tiny leaves and fragile flowers, but it did not bring any sound of birds or life.
It was a place where a great story had come to a bloody end, maybe it was a kingdom for those dead beasts now. The golden orb continued to shine, waiting for someone new to come and find it in the quiet dark, while it found its victim. As the last ray of light sunk down, Helio and the others turned away from the magnificent scene of fantasy, and walked towards a wooden door made of thousands of small details.
Her lady twisted the knob this time, a bright orange light appeared as it almost blinded everyone in the team. They complained about how this was irritating and they couldn't walk through, and it was heard by the master of the dungeons. The bright, blinding light took off and the path was cleared to enter the final and last stage. With courage, they walked forward towards the royal gates that had appeared instead.
The silver gates opened themselves to let the guests in and as they stepped through the boundary, the whole scene changed into a much sinister one. Sounds appeared, of someone talking and with another person, both familiar.
***
"Checkmate. Your king is dead." Aefia spoke as she pushed off the king piece of the chess board and let it fall off the edge. "That is five wins in a row, and you are still determined to win the next time?" She asked while grinning and placing her hand on her face. "Your determination is poisonous and motivating."
"And you agony is paralizing." The demoness replied. "You just rage-bait whenever you find it difficult to pull your next move and somehow your just place a very powerful attack with a simple soldier, and well...I think your anger helps you."
"I mean...it's a game of chess, of course it will consist of multiple rage-baiting times." Aefia protested." I don't think you understand my 'paralizing agony' part well enough. I maybe dumb and stuck in some intervals, but I beg to differ when I really get my opponent's last nerves."
"You can say that works a hundred percent of the time since you have basically already proven that fact. A pretty successful trick in my opinion, but maybe you can advance in using it a little bit more." The demoness cleared the board and started resetting the game.
Suddenly, a door flung open out of the dusty atmosphere and the both of them abruptly stood up due to shock. "Ouch, my knees almost fell a sleep. I think it had already fallen asleep, and now I am suffering from arteritis like a grown elderly." Aefia spoke while leaning forward to hold her knees.
"You are almost the same age as me but you seem like older than her lady and all the other elderlys combined. But honestly, I think my back is giving me a huge trouble too, like how your knees are." The demoness laughed while saying, but she too was holding her back.
Three familiar faces appeared from outside the door and Aefia nudged the demoness to help her stay stood. "They seem to have already taken care of the fourth stage..." She finally spoke as she straightened ber back. "I guess you can call this the perks of playing board games, all this back pain and knee pain?"
"Yes! Definitely the perks...Wait, no its the side-effects of playing board games!" The demoness argued.
"Chill out, I have no energy left to spend which I can use to contribute in an argument about the true definition of perks and side-effects. But just think of it as a joke...for now of course."
"For now? So you are giving the clearance to argue right after this mission has been completed?" The demoness spoke with a smile.
"Even after this mission is over, I don't think we will have the strength to stay upright...I am planning on going back home and taking a good nap. I am speaking two days worth, what about you?" Aefia asked as she noticed the three approaching in a slow pace and took the opportunity to mentally prepare for the next big thing to happen.
"I have already received a mission coming from you before you left Hellas, so I guess I will go and grab my siblings and then I am planning on sleeping for at least five hours." The demoness responded.
"Wait, so demons don't get enough sleep or rest?" Aefia asked as she stretched.
"We are called demons for a reason, dummy. And when I say 'demons', there are many kinds of demons. One of them being sleep-paralisis demons, and I am one of them. So I don't get enough sleep while also having to do a job that I really hate."
"And why did you ever get assigned such a useless job?" Aefia looked with shock at the demoness who was slightly taller then her. She is starting to look and seem more human now, but I guess our conversation makes it seem that way.
"Maybe because the demon king just wants to have some fun seeing humans suffer, or making them seem insane to other humans, or maybe humiliate them in front of others? But I seriously don't enjoy going around houses and scarying the heck out of human minds while they busy riding unicorns." The demoness seemed annoyed by Aefia's commands and questions. "And please stop speaking about things you probably already know."
"Yeah but I am not a demon myself so I was just asking out of curiousity." Aefia smiled and turned her head away.
"Oh right! So you aren't a demon!" Suddenly the demoness grabbed hold of Aefia's shoulder and turned her head around while tightly grasping the patch of hair used to cover her left eye. Instinctively, she held out her hands in surrendering position as the demoness tried to unveil the eye Aefia had been trying to hide until now, but she didn't find the thing she was wanting to prove.
"Wait, you are right about not being a demon...but I remember noticing it while you stepped out of the portal from the the demon realm. I remember seeing a bright red demonic eye." The demoness still grabbed hold of the patch of deep black hair, but her grip tightened the more she got dissapointed.
"Am I free to go now?" Aefia finally said while her scalp felt like tearing apart. While Puppet was absorbing some of the powers, it seemed to have absorbed the demonic energy too. And once the energy was fully gone, my eye probably went back to normal.
"Wait! I am not done observing. And stop using your skills to block your thoughts, and don't try to read mine." The demoness spoke with anger. She pointed a sharp claw at her eye and slowly brought it closer as to pierce it, as Aefia tried to resist.
"Do you not believe me when I say I am not a demon like you and the others?!" She spoke as she broke out in sweat, just a few seconds away from reaching for her knife and stabbing her, but that was already done.
"Stop fighting like tiny babies you two!" Her lady scolded the both of them. "And where had you fleed to until now! You left us at the third stage and you were in this room all along! You made us worried, and then finally came to the conclusion that you were indeed clearing more stages." She looked at Aefia while saying.
She noticed that the demoness's finger digit was cut off and bleeding while a scratch was left on one side of her face, Aefia felt sympathy for the demoness. "I don't know! I was just summoned into this place right after the stage boss was cleared."
"Maybe the creator of this mission thought it best for you to move here?" Helio asked while wiping his blade. But upon closer inspection, it was her kitchen knife. "You dropped it while you moved away from her." He spoke while launching the knife in the air and Aefia caught it by the handle.
Just when she was about to ask a few things, a bright blue swirl of light lushed in through every corner of the room and the final boss appeared. Although the face was hooded, there was an enveloped sinister smile visible.
[Opponent Name: The Iced Mage]