Chronicles of the Red Sovereign

Aunt Zaira and I stood a few feet above Azte City. Below us, the demon army had started occupying the city and the South Gate had been breached by another demon army. In the North Gate, the last batch of people being evacuated had passed and the members of the Court Mage Department were starting to erect the barrier around the capital.

“Luna, what we’re about to do is dangerous. You really don’t have to do this with me.”

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes mentally. She was the one who told me she had a job for me and at the moment she was actually trying to take it back?

“If this will help take Azte City back, then I’m more than willing to assist you Aunt Zaira.”

“Good. Apart from me, you’re the only other one with big enough mana reserves to assist me in this.”

I could only nod at her statement.

“So, how do we exactly do this? You’re going to cast the White Seal in Azte City? That means abandoning the empire’s capital.” I asked a little confused at her plan. Well, she never really gave specifics apart from assigning jobs to the other people who were in the plan.

“Oh no, I worked too hard on making Azte City what it is today to just give it up.” she gave me a sweet smile.

-She can actually be really childish at times.

“Do you know what a black hole is?” I just gave her a questioning look and shook my head. “Basically something that sucks just about everything. I need you to modify the Transport Gate in the middle of the city so it acts like a black hole.”

I was a little baffled by her plan.

“If I do that, if I can actually do it, then Azte City will be in ruins.” I pointed out.

“Just set the black hole to suck living things. If you make it specific like demons-only then it’ll be much harder. That’s why we had everyone evacuate.”

-Is she kidding? What she wants me to do is already very difficult!

“You’re joking right? Please tell me you’re joking. I have no idea how to do anything like that!”

She suddenly got closer to me and whispered on my ears. “Remember that time when we pranked our second older brother and instead of the cup to launch cherries and pies we made it so it would suck his clothes?”

I froze on the spot upon hearing those words.

“Jekuth was so furious that time. I mean it only sucked ‘his’ clothes and nothing else.”

I stared at Aunt Zaira, millions questions running in my mind.

-How does she-

“Just use the same principle little Nyxie, it’s awfully identical. Leave everything else to me.”

My body reacted before my mind could and before I knew it, I was already doing things on auto-pilot. I reached out to those memories of thousands of years ago and it suddenly came flowing in my head and the power in my hands.

I could feel myself glow as the things I have to do flow into my mind. I could picture out the magic circle being used for the Transport Gate, which I studied before I got dragged above the city, and all of a sudden it made sense to me.

Unlike Mystic Circles which come in a pattern on specific spells and techniques, magic circles and formations were written in ancient runes, symbols believed to be the written language of the gods, aka the Celestials. And I could read those with no problem. I only had to substitute a few words into the magic circle to have the effect I desired.

My mind strayed to the realization that just dawned into me. Aunt Zaira is Elthesia?!

-Why am I only realizing it right now?

-Probably because you’re so dense.

Another side of me argued, and then it added;

-You already had the feeling, but you squashed it down because you believed no one ever survives being dumped into the Lake of Oblivion.

-It’s because nobody ever survived being dumped in the Lake of Oblivion! And she told me she was blessed by Elthesia, not Elthesia herself!

“El-“ Aunt Zaira? No, Elthesia, my sister, put a hand over my mouth while she used a finger to signal me to be silent.

“Names have power, Luna.” she emphasized my name, or rather my mortal name. “Let’s talk about it later on a more secure environment. For now, we have things to do.”

I could only nod and decided to focus on the task at hand. I could just ask her later, assuming I did not die.

From below, I could see the Transport Gate glow and all of a sudden the advancing demons started getting sucked into it, sending them to the other side of the gate; a valley east of Azte City. I channeled all my power into the magic circle of the gate as I became its caster and source of power.

-Focus Nyxtriel. Focus! Suck every demon in the vicinity.

All of a sudden, I could see in my mind’s eye. There was a map of Azte inside my head and red dots were scattered all over the city; demons, and those red dots were clustered mostly in the center and the southern part of the capital.

I wasn’t sure if ‘I’ was the one who actually did it or maybe it was some sort of fluke and I had some help, maybe from Aunt Zaira, but all of a sudden, the Transport Gate was moving southwards. After sucking the demons in the vicinity it moved slowly towards the other Transport Gate located in the south.

-Hmm… What if two Transport Gates crashed unto each other?

[BOOM!] a voice in my head said.

-That’s it! I will contain the explosion of the two Transport Gates into the valley in the east to deal some more damage towards the demons before they get sealed!

I was already aware that such explosion probably wouldn’t kill high-level demons, like Abbadon, but it could cut down the numbers of foot soldiers. I met my sister’s gaze, who was only looking at me with a smile on her face.

Once there was no longer a red dot in the map inside my head, I heard a muffled explosion which shook me out of my concentration. I tried to catch my breath as casting the spell actually took a toll on my mental, physical and magical strength.

I turned to Elthesia who suddenly took off an opal studded golden ring and thrusted her hands upwards. A familiar symbol appeared just above her; the crest of the Celestine Family. A familiar surge of power also emanated from her and there was no denying it; Aunt Zaira was Elthesia.

With the ring gone, which I found out later was actually something to mask her energy signature, I felt my sister’s familiar comforting presence within her.

-How come she never told me?

I watched as a large magic circle appeared in the distance. If I were to guess, it was the valley where the other end of the gate was located.

Elthesia started chanting.

“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. With the stars as my witness and the land as my power, wave, chime and wave. Activate, White Seal!”

A blinding white light exploded in the valley and my sister was glowing in the same color. I had to close my eyes, afraid of going blind because of such brightness, but as I did, I felt myself get pulled by something. I landed rather harshly on a hard surface and I felt myself throw up blood, and then everything went black.