body—sending her careening backward into the forest’s path.
“Magic works!” Dante exclaimed. “Do not let her escape!” His mind was filled now with only thoughts of her destruction, which he resolved would come to fruition in a few moments.
A Sorrowful Fate
The pair wasted no time in leveling spells of fire, ice and lightning at the Shadow Woman who seethed in anger as she circled the spells—her wraith-like body curling this way and that as she made a lunge for them.
“It seems like our swords can work if she lets her guard down,” Rina whispered.
Dante nodded.
“I will punish you and your kingdom, Dante Legothe!” The Shadow Woman yelled, flying up to the canopies and disappearing into the shadows.
Silence.
“You’ll run away again then, will you?” Dante asked, finally drawing his sword and keeping his guard up. “Your anger and hate cripple you!” He quickly rolled out of the way as she swooped down and clawed menacingly towards him—barely avoiding a fiery, blue spell Rina cast at her.
“I will ruin your kingdom! AND destroy every human in that accursed town! and every human’s child! and their children! until they are none left!” The Shadow Woman yelled angrily.
“What if you destroy all humans? What will it change?” he asked, echoing the words of Naro whose conversation he recalled at the inn. It was only now that he saw what Naro truly meant.
“SILENCE! YOU DO NOT KNOW MY PAIN AND SUFFERING!” she screamed. “You will be the key to my revenge, Dante! You will help me destroy your home town and then your kingdom!”
“How do you my origins?!”
Silence fell.
Dante huffed as he looked about cautiously. “She seems to have information about me, but nonetheless, we have her where we want her, Rina. When she attacks again let us end this… Rina?” He glanced back to Rina who was standing idly with her sword limp at her side, staring at him with a maddening glare.
“Rina, stay on guard!” He yelled.
“Do you think you deserve it?” she asked dryly.
“What? Focus Rina!”
“To be mage knight captain. Do you think you deserve it?”
“What are you asking now? Just—”
“I deserved it more than you,” she said, stepping forward. “The King chose you only because he was indebted to your father for saving his life once”—She raised her sword aloft—“I have worked hard to get to my position despite having a father who hates me and wishes he had a son. Why should I be under you?”
“What’s gotten into you, Rina?” Dante asked with a flabbergasted expression.
She put one foot forward. “Fortunately, I am vice-captain, if anything were to happen to you then…” without warning she dashed forward and began assailing him with a barrage of quick slashes.
Dante brought his sword up just in time, managing to thwart the lethal blows one after the other. “Rina! Stop!” he yelled as she pushed him back along the forest path. He had sparred with her many times and knew she was skilled with a sword—as a vice captain ought to be—though this time was different. This time, the intent to kill wafted from her aura like a malcontent wraith.
As each blow was met with his own sword, he felt an immense pressure. It was as though she possessed the strength of five mage knights—causing him to parry rather than meet the blows head on.
He heard the Shadow Woman laughing and realized what was going on.
“Rina! You are being controlled by her magic—argghh!” he yelled as a sudden burst of pain surged through his body—the powerful lightning spell Rina had clandestinely cast between them pushing him back. It sent him crashing into the hard bark of one of the giant oak trees. “AAARRRGGHHH!” Dante yelled in agony, feeling his arm crack upon impact as it snapped with a sickening echo—broken.
“If I kill you, then I will become captain, right?” Rina asked. “ANSWER!” She yelled, casting an enormous bolt of powerful lighting at him from her palm.
Dante quickly lifted his fit arm and created a dome-shaped barrier of translucent, blue light around himself. “Unnghh! R-Rina s-snap out of it!” He focused as hard as he could, using the full extent of his magical energy to maintain the barrier. It was difficult to focus having been taken off-guard and injured from the prior attack. If only he could get through to her, there had to be some way to break the hypnotic spell before… “ACCCKKKKK!”
Too late.
The last phase of the lightning spell finally broke through the barrier—waves of pain surged throughout his body for what seemed like an eternity. The portion of the spell which struck him was not enough to kill, but more than enough to severely weaken him.
Rina spat on the ground. “Still alive?! No matter, my sword will end you. You know, as a child... I studied hard, trained hard and did the best I could. I only ever wanted respect, love, and admiration from my family”—she held her sword aloft and walked towards him—“but you with your STUPID flowers, pointless gardening and uncouth, unmannerly nature could surpass me…”
Dante groaned as he felt her aura become even more sinister. “R-Rina… I’m sorry”—he held his fit arm outward, palm facing her—“this has to be done.” Just as she was about to drive the point of the blade into him, a powerful gale of wind emanated from his hand—lifting Rina into the air and towards another oak tree which she crashed into with a loud grunt. Dante heaved feeling most of his magical energy deplete from the cast spell. He had used most of his magical energy to shield himself— with some success—from Rina’s sudden, initial, magical attack. He watched her unconscious body with no great pleasure.
The Shadow Woman cackled. “Well done Legothe! How dramatic that was! Did it pain you to hurt your own kind? There will be plenty more of that to come!”
“Y-you w-wretched cthonican,” he said through a groan, trying to stand up though it was no use. His injured arm ached and all over his body stung from being burned by the lightning spell.
“Cthonicans! Bah! That is what you humans call us after driving us into living underground!”—she shrieked loudly in anger—”we once ruled this world and will reclaim it when I get my revenge!”
“S-stop hiding and reveal y-yourself! Uunnnghh”—he clutched his arm—“if you want vengeance then come let us end this!” His breathing was heavy. Labored. His eyes lifted to to the canopies where a figure descended—dressed in a dark robe. She flew down fast. Faster than he could react to in his current state. He anticipated an attack but none came.
She stood before him.
“Y-you—” Dante almost choked as he looked at her. He could have been dreaming, but he was not. He had to be sure however, he did the only thing he could do at that moment. He called her name.
“Amelia?”
Amelia said nothing—no movement and no expression on her face. Dante swallowed hard.
“Don’t tell me… you can’t be… the Shadow Woman.” His voice felt foreign to his ears—his mind desperately tried to analyze the situation, but failed. What was going on?
“Dante,” Amelia said in a dry tone. “I am sorry.”
“W-wh—”
A loud, eerie flapping came from the left of him. He did not look, but recognized the sound—another figure swooped behind Amelia, hovering in the air with a menacing grin.
The Shadow Woman.
She cackled loudly. “You came Althenaria! Or Amelia as the filthy humans call you. You did well getting this one to come, the King of Cthonica will be most pleased. You will surely be able to return to our kingdom after this! No more living amongst humans!”
Dante shook his head slowly as he watched Amelia. “Did you… ungghh, did you plan this, Amelia?”
Amelia broke her gaze from his—a sorrowful expression on her face. If nothing else, at least he could tell what was ensuing gave her no sure pleasure. “Let us get this over with, Galmaria,” Amelia said to the Shadow Woman.
Galmaria scowled- “Amelia, what a disgusting name. Dante Legothe, did you real
ly think she was allied with you humans willingly? No! She was coerced… forced by circumstance and fate”—she laughed—“You asked how I knew your name. You see, Althenaria told me all about you, Mage Knight Captain. I decided to use you as my pawn to murder that filthy King of Nyaria.”
Dante groaned and rested the back of his head against the tree’s rough bark. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Could this really be happening? He closed his eyes, hoping it was all a dream. Some twisted nightmare etched within the darkest parts of his mind. “W-why… why me?”
Galmaria’s eyes widened maddeningly as she watched him. A grin spread across her face. “You were the perfect choice, being closest to the king and having such strength, but we had to get you to come to Tarien.”
Dante opened his eyes and looked at Amelia angrily as he winced in pain. “Then this was all a ploy? To get me here?” When she said nothing, he turned his attention to Galmaria. “Your plan was not well hatched, if you—unnghhh—i-if you think you can get me to… to do your bidding you are wrong!”
“You have no choice, my powers will allow it,” said Galmaria. “I can control anyone or anything, particularly humans whose minds are comparably weak to us Ancient Ones”—she floated down and took up his sword—“all those townspeople I killed… do you know why I did it? Why I made them kill themselves? Your race did the same to us Ancient Ones so long ago. You made us turn against each other in order to survive after you attacked our kingdoms on the surface world. I killed the