Chronicles of Eden - Act VIII (45 page)

In a flash she shot towards Sasha with her hammer held up high, racing across the street in a mere moment before appearing before the surprised reptile girl with a vicious scream.

“TO HELL WITH YOU!” Valentina roared before she swung down towards Sasha’s head.

“Valentina, stop!” Daemon called out.

Sasha watched with wide eyes the glowing hammer coming down towards her face before suddenly stopping a hair away from impact. A pulse of energy flowed away from the abrupt halt, blowing dust away in a large wave behind Sasha who tried to force a stern expression to hide her anxiety. She could actually feel the raw power that would have certainly killed her if the attack had hit resonating through her body. Everyone in the street saw Valentina holding her large weapon over the reptile girl after having stopped instantly, the angel pausing for a moment before slowly looking back to see Daemon walking towards her with a glare.

“Stop?” she innocently asked.

“You will not hurt them,” Daemon ordered as he pushed aside the angel’s hammer and stood before Sasha. The reptile girl shakily lowered her sword while trying to keep her breath steady, watching from over Daemon’s shoulder as Valentina looked at him with a puzzled face.

“I won’t? Why’s that?” she wondered with genuine curiosity.

“Because I will not let you,” Daemon answered while watching the angel closely.

Valentina glanced to Sasha with a raised eyebrow, over to the other girls, and then back to Daemon with growing disbelief.

“Big brother, you can’t honestly mean to say you…
want
these disgusting worms with you, can you?”

Daemon took a few steps towards her, the angel backing up nervously as she saw his cold demeanor remaining adamant even in her presence. She shook her head and gave another questioning look around at all the girls before turning to him with a worried frown.

“Why, big brother? Why do you defend them? They’re nothing but dirt.”

“Enough, Valentina,” Daemon stated crossing his arms. “Your words are annoying me. They’re helping me with my quest-”

“So they’re just your pawns?” Valentina eagerly guessed. “You don’t
really
like them or anything, they’re just a means to an end for you, right? I see, that makes complete sense. You had me worried there, big brother. I was starting to believe you actually cared for these lowly bugs.”

She started laughing joyously with a flutter of her wings, her voice echoing out amidst the stunned silence of all those surrounding the street as nobody dared to try attacking the angel now.

“Oh, big brother, I’m sorry I almost broke your toys. I guess I can get a little silly sometimes, huh?” Valentina giggled with a playful clonk on her head. She then showed a devilish grin as she turned her eyes towards the opposing monsters in the street. “I can’t help it, I can get a little overprotective of my big brother. If anyone gets too close or causes you trouble I feel so sad inside. Speaking of which...”

Gripping her hammer she dashed past Daemon and the girls in a blur, blowing past Hollia whose hair flew back from the wind before everyone saw the angel anchoring her footing while winding back with her glowing weapon.

“You haven’t been forgiven for hurting my big brother! Repent!” Valentina roared before slamming her hammer down, casting out an unstoppable wave of dirt and smoke that pulverized more of the dark monsters along with the surrounding buildings. The screams of agony of those caught in the angel’s wrath were quickly muffled by the deafening boom of the hammer and the rolling onslaught that wiped out another large section of the ravaged city. The monsters surrounding the street screamed and took off in all directions out of fear for their lives while Daemon and his girls kept their eyes on Valentina as it was rather hard not to pay attention to her at the moment.

“No mercy! No forgiveness! No survivors!” she shouted before flying up in a burst of glowing light. The angel soared into the air before she shot down into a nearby street with a powerful impact and fierce explosion of raw energy. More of Ruhelia was reduced to rubble and dust as the thunderous booms were heard from the angel’s warpath while she appeared to go blind with rage.

“She’s a rather merciless angel, isn’t she?” Forrus commented.

“I would normally be reduced to tears seeing my home ravaged like this,” Hollia mentioned as she watched the large blasts of light and rubble erupting a few blocks away. “However I’m grateful she’s eradicating those despicable demons who have taken up residence in my land. She may do what she wishes to the remains of my home, so long as she smites all those that drew centaur blood.”

Tabitha and Scay saw a large wave of rubble, smoke, and now very dead bodies rolling by through the darkened city streets then turned to Daemon in wonder as he was watching the destructive angel’s doings with a blank expression.

“She’s your sister?” Scay asked.

“No, she isn’t,” Daemon said shaking his head. “I have no living family members. She’s just a little… eccentric.”

“How did you meet an angel?” Hollia asked as the girls gathered closer to him.

“She came to me, plain and simple. I never asked for help, not from others nor the heavens above, yet she appeared before me one day saying she wanted to assist me with my quest. I wasn’t going to reject her offer of giving me this sword, even with her odd obsession of me being her so-called brother. It has proved to be useful.”

“Assist you with what?” Hollia questioned.

“She’s no angel, she’s a demon,” Sasha hissed, hands clutching her sword tightly as she watched where the bright bursts of light were coming from with a deep glare. She started to run forward before Daemon grabbed her hand and yanked her back.

“Stop,” he sternly ordered.

“But, master! She’s-”

“She’ll kill you without batting an eyelash if you provoke her,” Daemon interrupted as she turned to him in desperation. “I don’t want to see you doing something so foolish as challenging her to a fight again.”

“But-”

“No buts,” Daemon countered as he pulled her back. “If you attack her you will die. An angel can only be harmed by a demonic weapon, something none of us possess. You cannot fight her, Sasha. There is no way you could win. You couldn’t even harm a single feather on her wings.”

Sasha slowly lowered her sword then looked down while struggling to contain her anger.

“Not only does she hang onto you in such a disrespectful manner, but she also gave you that damned sword which keeps us apart.”

“It was that sword you despise so much that allowed me to save you, Sasha,” Daemon reminded her. She looked up to him with worried eyes as he kept a calm gaze on her. “Without it you would have died from your injuries that day. No matter how you look at it, Valentina saved your life by giving me the sword to begin with.”

“You saved me, not her,” Sasha insisted.

“Then I’m saving you again by keeping you from aiming your blade at her,” Daemon continued before looking around at the other girls. “You three were fortunate she didn’t notice you touching her earlier. None of you are to try that again, do you understand?”

“But she was-” Rulo started before Daemon turned his cold eyes onto her. She hesitated then lowered her head with drooping ears, nodding slowly in agreement while remaining silent.

“My lord, we were only-” Forrus said before receiving the same look from him. The lycan looked down and slowly nodded while her tail drooped low.

“It pained me to see her so close to you like that,” Sasha softly spoke. “I swear I saw red when she held onto you.”

“Nevertheless, control yourselves in her presence,” Daemon warned before looking towards where Valentina was still attacking the dark monsters in the ruined city. “It goes without saying she’s very powerful and extremely dangerous.”

“Not to you though,” Tabitha mentioned with a raised eyebrow. “She seems head-over-heels for you, she even backed away when you told her to. Looks like you’ve got her under your thumb just as with these three.”

Sasha, Rulo, and Forrus glared at her from that while Daemon slowly shook his head, his eyes remaining focused on the flashes of bright light that bloomed from the fierce explosions erupting nearby.

“Just who are you anyway?” Hollia asked, with everyone then seeing her watching Daemon in disbelief. “Who are you?
What
are you? You’re not human, you have a sword from which the likes I have never seen before, and you have all of them aiding you in some sort of quest that even an angel wished to assist you with. Please, tell me what’s going on here.”

“You’ll never believe it,” Tabitha said shaking her head. “We didn’t at first, and honestly it still gives me the shivers just thinking about it.”

“After all I’ve seen today I’m ready to believe anything,” Hollia assured. “Daemon, should you tell me I can fly I would jump off a cliff to prove it this very night. Please, enlighten me as to what exactly I’ve stepped into by coming with you.”

Daemon watched her in silence for a while then slowly gazed around at the remains of Ruhelia nearby. The sounds of Valentina destroying more of the city along with the foul monsters that she hunted down with vicious intent echoed in the sky while Hollia awaited the swordsman’s reply.

“Which way did they go?” he finally asked her.

“Which way?”

“Which way did those who did this to your home go?”

Hollia quickly looked around before pointing off in a direction towards the south.

“They went that way. After they destroyed the kingdom the army traveled through the southern forest, it was like a flooding sea of horrible demons flowing across the land.”

“To the south?” Sasha questioned. “Where could they be heading?”

“Why did they do this to your people?” Forrus asked. “If centaurs are neutral in conflicts within the world, why did they come here at all?”

“They gave us a choice,” Hollia bitterly replied. “Either we become their horses to ride into battle with, or food for their horde’s appetite. My mother declined to us becoming their slaves… and so they enacted upon their ultimatum.”

“They wanted to make their army larger,” Daemon speculated.

“Why?” Rulo oinked. “What do they need so many monsters for anyway?”

“Rockhelm,” Hollia remembered. “They’re going to invade Rockhelm.”

“The human kingdom in this region?” Tabitha laughed. “Are they crazy? That place is impenetrable. No monsters go near that city unless they’re looking to die.”

“That’s what I heard those two demons talking to my mother about,” Hollia said towards Forrus. “They’re gathering any and all monster races they can to bring the humans to their knees. Those that fight with them will be thrown at the humans like pawns, and those that decline are… killed.”

“They’ll need a really large and well equipped army to break through Rockhelm’s defenses,” Sasha mentioned.

“So they’re looking to recruit others to join them,” Rulo reasoned. “Which means the longer we stand here the more bloodthirsty bitches we’ll have to go through to get to those two warmongers. Let’s go find and kill them before they get any more to follow them.”

“Hold up,” Tabitha interjected raising a hand. “We were only hired to help Daemon collect the key fragments, certainly not to fight against an army of those fiends. It sounds like this little side quest of yours has nothing to do with what he’s after.”

“Key fragments?” Hollia repeated.

“Um, she’s coming back,” Scay said pointing past them.

Everyone watched a glowing burst of light take off into the air ahead of a massive explosion that kicked up dust and debris while knocking over a few more buildings. The light soared overhead then slowly descended towards the group, the blinding bloom dying down to reveal Valentina gently descending with a serene smile on her face. She touched down on the dirt and giggled with a twirl of her mighty hammer in one hand.

“All done. They were all
really
sorry they hurt my big brother, so I gave them eternal peace to ease the pain of their sins.” Walking up towards Daemon she chuckled and glanced behind her with an eerie smile.

“They’re all buried now. Sleeping quietly under the dirt where
filthy
bugs deserve to lie.” Turning her gaze over to Sasha she murmured with intrigue. “Now then, where were we? Oh yes. I think I was just starting to understand your position with
my
big brother.”

Sasha forced a brave face as Valentina approached her, making sure to keep her sword lowered to the side and her real opinion of the angel held in her throat. Valentina walked up and held her hand to Sasha’s cheek, the reptile girl struggling not to make a sound or facial gesture to show her disdain for the angel.

“You are just serving my big brother like the lowly tool you are in his quest, isn’t that correct?”

Sasha hesitated while Valentina smiled curiously at her, the look on the angel’s face having a dreadful vibe coming from behind the innocent appearance she gave. Valentina’s fingers gently caressed the reptile girl’s cheek as she waited for an answer, with everyone around them watching Sasha carefully as they knew this would only end in one of two ways depending on what she responded with. After a moment to swallow her pride Sasha slowly nodded and turned her eyes away from the angel.

“Yes, I’m just a lowly tool of his. That is all.”

“And you have no delusions of being with my big brother in any other way, correct?” Valentina knowingly inquired.

“No, of course not.”

“And you also are well aware that if you or any other girl should dare try to touch him in any way, I
will
kill you on the spot. Correct?”

Sasha turned her gaze back to see Valentina watching her with a dark glare, the look in her eyes holding a frightening amount of power behind them while her hand holding the reptile girl’s cheek pressed its fingers into her neck slightly.

“I am aware of that, yes,” Sasha forced out of her mouth.

“Good,” Valentina gently replied. Moving her eyes from one girl to the next she saw them all watching her carefully and remaining silent. “I am glad to see you all offering to help my big brother out of the kindness of your hearts. It certainly warms my soul to see such dedicated and loyal bugs such as yourselves aiding my dear big brother as you are.”