I was awoken by the shrieks and screams of the civilians. Outside there was a dark force, one everyone could feel. It had such a powerful presence and everyone could feel it. We all knew that the rumors were not a hoax and Yamium was here. My friends and I were already in our outfits and bolted out.

“Everyone, I am pleased to announce that the festivities may begin,” a dark voice boomed.

“You town shall be overtaken by my curse and your land will be full of dark energy.”

“WE DON’T WANT YOUR DARK CURSE!” Kaen yelled forcefully.

Kaen was never the smartest in many situations and did many things without thinking.

“Who said that you have a choice?” replied the voice.

“WE DID!” Kaen yelled back.

“Well then, it seems that we have someone who believes that my curse isn’t a blessing,” the voice said maniacally.

“IT’S NOT JUST ME, MY FRIENDS ARE WITH ME TOO!” Kaen screamed back.

“Well then, if you think that you’re so tough, then maybe you should come fight me.” the suspicious voice said angrily.

“WE’LL DO IT!” Kaen replied once again.

The second he said that a dark cloud fell from the sky onto us and we were brought into a fortress. A figure emerged from the shadows, Yamiun.

“You want to play my game?” he questioned.

“Indeed,” I replied with a sense of uncertainty.

“Well then, the rules are simple, take out my creations… my demons, and you can make your way to me. If you think you can beat me, then you have to take down my demons, and if I feel really nice… I may have a little surprise for you.” he said in dark tone with a sinister grin.

“Ok guys, we should split up,” Mizu exclaimed.

  “I guess we should,” I replied.

    “Three demons, four of us,” Hisan said.

    “I will go alone,” I offered.

    Hisan replied, “I can as well.”

   “Ok then, it’s settled, I will go with Mizu and you two will go alone,” Kaen explained.

    We split.

    I entered a room where I could feel the dark power surrounding me.

    “Who is this? A challenger, well you are a lovely girl,” she said with a happy, yet maniacal tone.

    “I am Lilly, Lilly Sora,” I replied with force.

    “Well I am Kuki, the Demon of the Sky,” she replied back.

    I can’t believe this, another sky mage, I didn’t know that any more existed other than the Sky Dragon (who really isn’t a mage) who taught me my magic. Sky Magic is lost magic and I’m the Sky Dragon Wizard. I was raised by a dragon who taught me my magic.

    “Shall we duel or what?” she said in a satisfied, yet dark tone.

    “Sure,” I replied with an attitude.

    “A feisty opponent, how cute,” she claimed as to poke fun at me.

That battle was long, spanned over many minutes, but felt so quick in my mind. I launched towards her, but she dodged my attack, many back a forth actions repeated, I knew that she was only waiting for me to use up all of my magical energy and be in a state of not being able to fight her, but I persisted. She sent a gust of air slices with pristine force my way, I was able to dodge them as well even though I was nearly hit. I launched upwards and sent gusts of air slices in every direction I could, I was slightly out of control sputtering slices of air that had the potential for hurting my opponent. Sky Magic is primarily healing magic, but with enough skill, it could be used to attack with a lot of force. One had hit her and sent her into a wall.

“That is enough foolishness…” she declared.

She started to glow green, I had read about this once, she was using her ultimate power form the Arrutemeto. Horns sprouted from her head, wings grew off of her back, talons grew off of her fingers, and an aura surrounded her.

She launched towards me, one of her talons had pierced my skin I felt a strange feeling come over me. She was flying around the room with her sudden wings, so I used one of my most powerful moves, The Sky Dragon’s Roar, to knock her from the sky causing her to be thrust into the wall.

“I have to admit, you’re quite the mage, child,” she replied without the slightest ounce of pain in her voice.

“You’re too social for combat,” I replied.

I had taken her by force, slowly, but surely. She was already showing signs of weakness that was healing almost immediately.

Her plan was coming together in my head, piece by piece, I was already wearing thin on my magical energy, and when she clawed me I think she injected some sort of venom or poison into me, I could feel it taking effect as my shoulder was numb. I stopped using my magic and let her fire at me as I focused on strategically dodging them.

She eventually stopped flying and used one of her most powerful spells, The Sky Devil’s Rage. I was struck, the force stung, my strength dropped, and I fell to my knees.

“Is something wrong?” she questioned sarcastically.

“No, I will keep fighting until the end, until either I

or you are left on the floor in defeat,” I coughed back.

“Well then,” she laughed.

I stood back up slowly and she launched back towards me. I prepared to use my most powerful spell, The Sky Dragon’s Secret Art: Shattering Lights.

I jumped into the stance and performed the spell. The spell had hit her perfectly as it is nearly impossible to dodge and is very strong. Blue light lit the dark room and I heard the screams of the demon drown out the room. Yamiun had entered the room holding a book.

“That’s enough Kuki,” Yumiun deeply exclaimed.

He lit the book on fire and Kuki disintegrated into ash, and the searing pain she injected into my body disappeared almost instantly.

“You and your friends have done it, defeated my creations, or at least enough for me to know you are strong mages,” he explained “I was never fond of Kuki, to begin with, Sky Magic is not powerful by any means, but it seems that you differ when it comes to Sky Magic, I see a great power in you, Lilly, that’s why you will fight me. In the end it won’t matter since I cannot die, only temporarily be removed from your universe for the next couple hundred years and if you succeed then I will be gone and will await a new time to raise my power, one where society is weak and is ready for the taking, the earth will be my sandbox, meaning your special friend will become part of my world”

I was furious, she sacrificed herself and he can’t claim her land.

“Silly child, once you depart from this world she won’t be protected by you,” he replied hinting towards him listening to my thoughts.

Before I could think about another thing we were in his throne room.

“Now, child of the sky, you will fight me,” Yumium exclaimed forcefully, “We begin now.”

I had launched towards him, but his force was too strong, I was sent flying towards a wall. His strength and power were overwhelming. I leaped forward and brought all of the force I could get, he launched the same attack he did previously towards me again, but I had dodged it and left my bursts of wind to blast him, they were successful shots. Once he slammed into the wall my friends wandered into the room and Kaen being the crazy pyro he is sprinted into the crossfire sending heaps of fire in Yamium’s direction. The others joined in too, Hisan leaped into the air with brute force and came down with spirits using their powers to fight Yamium while he used his sword that could shield nearly any attack.

Eventually, we had him surrounded. Yamium summoned new monsters behind us, they were clearly less-powerful than the three demons but strong enough to sidetrack Kaen and Hisan

I propelled myself towards Yamium, using a gust of wind and sending more towards him. He dodged many attacks but luckily Mizu was behind him and was able to launch jets of water into his direction. Kaen and Hisan were too busy taking out monsters created by this dark wizard, Yamiun. We didn’t even know how powerful he was.

Eventually, the room grew dark and the air nearly unbreathable. He was now surrounded with an aura of darkness and launched towards us with great force. I realized something, the black cloud had tons of magical energy in it, and if I could breathe enough in I could activate my Dragon Force.

I launched towards the cloud and focused on getting as much of that air as I could. I knew that I had gotten enough when I fell to the floor in agony of the different elements combining in my system, only seconds later I felt great power take over me. My hair changed color, I had gotten wings, and I felt like a new person. I had incredible speed, it was impossible to see me until it was too late and my attacks had hit, but behind my new strength, I was in incredible pain, the different elemental magic mixing inside of me caused severe agony, my vision clouded, and I felt on fire.

“The Force of the Dragon…” Yamium gasped, “Enough with the Games!”

Yamium soon started to glow green as he was about to unleash his Arrutemeto, he had gained much power over the thousands of years that he has lived for. The ground began to shake, the world was trembling, a dark figure grew out of the shadows of the newfound darkness and before us was a creature of ultimate destruction, the Arrutemeto form of the Black Mage, Yamium…

I launched towards him with incredible speed, I brought gusts and slices of air into him, and I had made physical attacks with my speed including punches and kicks that he could not dodge in time.

I kept at it, fighting with this material of great power inside of me giving me more power than I could have ever imagined. He was beginning to overtake me though, I was getting hit and cut by his curses, each one made me feel worse and worse.

Someone had entered the room, the figure armored and prepared for battle. I saw their armor transform into a black suit ideal for sneaking in the shadows, a Requip mage, but afterward, a special object appeared in her hand, the Guretosodo, Great Sword of the Armored Mage; Kenshi.

She marched toward our crossfire and jumped in as her armor switched once again to heavy-duty armor with high strength of protection against magic. With all of us against him, he had no chance of success.

Eventually, I was hit really badly by one of his spells, it felt like everything inside me was on fire, pure agony.

“The Curse of Agony,” he smirked.

I had heard of this spell, it was so terrible that it had driven people to end their own lives under its torture.

I was in terrible pain, with the curse and negative/opposite magical sources running through me I was in worse pain than I ever had been, I was truly suffering.

I collapsed.

Darkness, all I saw was darkness. One figure appeared in my path…

“You did this to me, you let them kill me!” it cried.

It was her, I knew it was, I could easily see her.

“We died for you!” two other figures appearing behind me yelled.

They approached me, inching closer and closer, it was as if I was walled in, like a dark hallway, they both approached me.

As they laid their hands upon me I tremble in fear, and I see their faces.

Everything awful that could have happened, happened, everything felt cold, I screamed, I tried to run, I couldn’t do anything…

I woke back in my village in the infirmary. It seemed that days had passed and I looked towards the calendar to discover I was unconscious for a whole week. I had multiple injuries and everything hurt. I didn’t feel like anything had gotten hurt to the extent of lasting for the rest of my life, it was just from taking in the Magical Energy and particles inside of it along with other various injuries that I had accumulated over the battle.

As I exited the infirmary Mizu hugged me, “We did it, Lilly, we really did it!”

The day went by as a normal day and my friends explained everything that happened after I went out apparently under the pain and torture of that curse, I lashed out so much magic power and it overpowered Yamium and nearly killed him, leaving my friends to finish the battle. During the evening there was a celebration that one of the greatest threats to the worth was vanquished (temporarily, but long enough for it to not threaten me) and I was proclaimed “The Guardian of the Sky.”

I visited that place again, where she is, I tend to go here a lot, but this time it felt different, I felt more connected with her. Even though she passed away years ago, I can still feel the slicing pain and sorrow that made me feel as if I was withering away, the feeling of the worth crushing me, and my heart still in pieces, it still feels like only a couple days have passed since ‘The Incident’ happened.

That was a short story written for a Virtually Writing Course. I (Evan[The Writier]) just wanted to say that I may create another in the future, thats all.

Don't Read and Drive

~Evan