Chapter 68 - Godmother
"Is this it?" Ed asked. Axla nodded and let Ed past through a large wooden door. The room was dark and cold. Axla lit up a torch that Ed used.
In front of them was an arch of stone, the Stone Arch of Etheoria. This was the entrance to the chamber.
"Only the Heir can get through this point," she said. "Xelon, call Keurig."
"What?" Xelon asked. "But Keurig is our watchman."
"Find him and call him," Axla said, gritting her teeth as if she was angry. "I'm sorry. Just go get him please."
"Well, okay," Xelon said before walking away.
"So, what am I going to do?"
"Simple," Axla said and seemed to vanish. Ed turned around and he was facing a different woman. "You just got to die!"
Biankka screaming, throwing Ed back further into the room. His body hit a wall where it seemed to whispere before it lit up.
"Oh, so you really are the Heir," Biankka muttered. "Shame I can't do multicast. I could've stolen your ability back then. Should've sacrificed another ability instead. Anyway, the past is past."
"What have you done to Axla?" Ed yelled.
The question made Biankka snicker and laugh. "Oh, no dear. The question should be what Axla has done to you?"
She was about to scream again but a whistle interrupted her.
'Hymn of Pain'
Biankka screeched in pain, holding her head and gripping her hair. "What the hell?!"
Luck fell from the ceiling and pointed his sword at Biankka. "You sneaky b*tch."
–
The Adventurers started to wonder why the dark soldiers were retreating. The dragons became water once more and fell back to the holes they come from, the holes caving in on itself as if it didn't appear in the first place.
"What just happened?" Connor asked. They ran over to Lance who was staring at the crater.
"Lance, what–" Elliot stopped after seeing Axla on the ground. There was blood that dripped from her lips as she laid on the ground on her back while she looked at them with a wide grin.
"So gullible you humans are," she snickered. "I can't believe you'd fall for a trick like that."
"Where's Ed?!" Elliot screamed. Heunconsciously casting Hasty Aspire and blasted himself towards Axla, pointing his sword on her neck.
"She's with the Duchess," Axla said. "But he probably won't survive there. Even if Xelon did try to protect him, they wouldn't last one more–"
A sound of glass breaking sounded from nowhere. Axla looked up into the sky with a grin on her face. "She's here."
The space above them formed a crack that illuminated a dark violet light over everything. The light was dark, like it was a shadow but it was violet.
"The Duchess had finally wielded the Eternal Chaos Sword!" Axla laughed like a maniac. "My Duchess! Help me, your one last–"
"Get out of the way!" They heard Ed yell from the crack. "Are y'all deaf? I'm gonna slam the sword on the ground, y'all wanna die? I'll slam the sword right in the middle of thst crater. Now, move!"
Instantly, everyone moved away from the crater. Elliot gripped Axla's foot and dragged her away like he was dragging a bag of potatoes. She was grunting every time a rock would hit her head but Elliot couldn't care less.
When no one else's was in the crater, the purple light brightened. The crack got bigger until they could make out a tip of the sword comming out.
Within a split second, a figure emerged from the crack and fell down the ground, widening the crater and creating a shock that shook the buildings of the city.
The dust from the impact dissipated, revealing Ed holding on to a sword that was piercing the ground halfway. He was panting, as if he was being chased by a flock of Devil Ostriches.
"Are you okay?" Elliot asked. Lance took over Axla and tied him with the black and white rope he conjured.
They heard a whistle come from the crack and Luck came out carrying a passed out Xelon and a younger boy was piggyback riding him on his back. Keurig was leaning over Luck, his arm was over Luck's neck.
"That woman is nuts." Luck rolled his eyes as he slowly fell to the ground. The boy raised his hand and shot a white orb into the crack in the air. The orb filled the crack like water filling on a container until the crack disappeared. "This position is nuts too. Everything's nuts!"
"Ed?" Lance called out. Everything was still dimmed with the pale purple light while Ed was still panting while gripping on the hilt of the sword.
"How do you control this thing?" Ed asked, squinting his eyes and scrunching his face like he was in pain.
Axla laughed, "You moron! The Eternal Chaos Sword is named because the wielder desires chaos to rain upon everything in his reach! You need to be someone tyrant enough to hold grudges against the world and think angrily."
"B*tch," Ed cursed. "You don't know nothing about me, right? You really think I would live a good life because I escaped Biankka once? That I'd somehow be in a fairy tale? Guess what? I lived a darker life."
Ed tried to recall every bad thing that happened in his life.
The loneliness.
"We're a party."
The isolation.
"It's comfy when we all sleep in one room, right?"
The hunger.
"Ed, you jerk! Why did you steal my burger?"
The fears.
"We're all in this together, okay?"
The light from the Eternal Chaos Sword switched from light to dark. His thoughts started to flood with all the good ones he shared with his friends.
Think negatively.
Think negatively.
Think negatively.
He kept on chanting in his head but the faces of his friends smiling up to him, laughing hysterically at their antics relentlessly kept on taking over.
Once more, he decided to look for dark parts of his memories.
The cold.
"This hot bath is great! Keep up the flames, Connor."
The darkness.
"Lance, fire the light fireworks now!"
The sadness.
"I can't stop laughing! Help me, Ed."
Chaos.
"What do you think, Hope? Ed?"
"I thought I don't have a say in this."
"What do you mean?"
"Other parties only wanted me for the head count. I was never actually asked for my opinion."
"We're not those other parties, aren't us? We're a party. Everyone's opinion matters."
"We're family."
Ed gasped as he felt a strong tug in his stomach. He snapped his head back when he felt a hand in his shoulder. Elliot was there, smiling at him. Their other friends were also behind him, all encouraging him.
"You can do it," Elliot smiled.
Ed returned his gaze at the sword. A tear slipped past his eye as he let the overbearing happy memories flowed over him.
He let out a breath and the purple light disappeared in an instant. Ed opened his eyes and everything returned back to normal.
Ed fell down to the ground and panted. "What in the hell?"
Midnight was dragging Axla by her hair. But the woman was laughing hysterically like she doesn't feel anything. Midnight had reverted back to his human form yet he was still powerful, throwing Axla in front of the group.
"This woman decided to trick you again," Midnight said.
Luck came over and turned around, revealing the boy that was on his back. "H-Hello… my name is Nataniel. I could remember my mother saying that the Eternal Chaos Sword could only be controlled when the Heir is good and kindess rules over his heart."
Axla laughed even harder, "You all kept forgetting that to tame darkness, you need light and vice versa. Pathetic. The Duchess will–"
Midnight slammed his fist on to the woman's chest, making her pass out.
"Damn, Midnight. You know you shouldn't hit a woman," Luck snickered.
"I'll hit whoever I hit, be it man, woman, or someone who feels another way," Midnight wiped his hands off in his dress.
"That'd be you–"
"Shh," Lance covered Hope's mouth. "Don't say anything anymore, child."
"She's not done yet," Keurig walked over, leaning on George for support. Ethan was healing his wounds while he dragged himself to war them. "I couldn't believe Axla betrayed us. But as I've said, Biankka will come back with her army. Now that the sword is free, we cannot just roam around freely."
Lance glared at him and pointed his sword in his neck. "How can we assure that you're not a traitor too?"
"I would never betray the Heir," Keurig said. "I know you don't have much trust in me after what Axla did but I can assure you that I'm nothing like her. My parents were the first nobles to hide Duke Haavok after the Duchess died and Biankka burned them to the ground. Their last words were to protect the egg and that's what I'm going to do."
"Is it okay if I put a tracker on you?" Ethan asked to which Keurig nodded.
Ethan pointed his staff on Keurig's neck and a symbol appeared. "Now we'll know where you are, who you're with, and who you're talking to."
"That's fine," Keurig said. "But there's one more thing."
Everyone looked at him in worry.
"I just recently found out about this too but, Duke Haavok, Biankka was your mother's best friend.. And she's your godmother."