Category: Uncategorised

Zark walked through the field with the baby on his back together with a Witch who, surprisingly, was pregnant. Her beauty had caught his eyes, but at the same time, he knew she was not like other Witches he had met. Her behavior reminded him of his mother and how loving she was. This woman stroked her stomach often, but luckily, someone in Paladin Woods urged Zark to seek her help because the baby needed breastfeeding.

They were traveling to the Village where the baby’s family resided. They noticed the smoke from a distance as Zark hurried to get a better look, but the Village was in ruins. Dead bodies were everywhere, blood smeared all over the destroyed cabins, and someone had burned the bodies of citizens in a big fire. A massacre had happened, and Zark handed the baby over to the woman. She walked away, found a wooden log to sit on, and waited for Zark to inspect the whole Village.

“STAY THERE FEIDAN!” Zark screamed back to her when entering the Village and saw a burned baby on the ground.

Several bodies around with blood covering almost all areas as if the purpose was to show powerful forces were behind this. All this was an obvious sign of power and what messing with the wrong crowd can do to someone. Zark kept moving around, but the disgusting smell and the blood everywhere made it harder for him to see if he could find any survivors. He found the trashed home of the family who had reached out for help, and the whole family looked all dead. He moved around in the cabin, went into a small space looking like a room, and noticed a small bed for the baby. Someone had used a sharp object to carve four letters on the bed.

“Huh!…Berk!” Zark spoke to himself.

Zark continued and moved to other cabins to check if other survivors were around. He was almost ready to give up the search until he heard someone coughing. He started to dig through several wooden logs and pushed them to the side as he noticed a man who had his face covered in blood and looked like he had a hard time breathing. He hurried to the man as he could see his legs were blue, both crushed under a big log, and Zark knew it was over because it was too far to walk and the blood loss of carrying him would be useless. When he grabbed the man’s head to give him support, he noticed it was the baby’s father. The man cried but smiled at the same time.

“T…T…Thank you!” He uttered.

“Don’t worry about anything! It will be fine.” Zark tried to comfort him.

The man slowly shook his head in denial.

“No!..T…Thank you for saving o…o…our child. When they attacked the Village, my wife and I knew that y…you had saved our boy. The Village lost the battle, but the children escaped, and the boy was safe. The people here sacrificed themselves to p…p…protect the children so they could escape.” The man said before interrupting himself by coughing up blood. Zark couldn’t hold back his tears and tried not to start crying as hard as he could.

“I give you…I give you my son; you are his family now!” The man managed to get out before passing away.

Zark tried to shake him back to life, but it was useless. He felt the pulse on the man’s throat; there was no beat. He started to give a heart massage but stopped after only two attempts, sitting down crying because it was hopeless to even try with the injuries the man already had. He cried in loneliness, looking around to see if there was any sign of life; he hadn’t had the time to mourn the death of his sister. Everything was so hard as he did not have Sandra, which left a big empty part of his heart.

After a while, when Zark had managed to gather his head and wipe off all his tears, he met up with Feidan, who sat on a wooden log and breastfed the baby as he started to think what the Hell he was going to do now.

As the baby fell asleep in Feidan’s arms and started to sleep, she noticed Zark’s worried look.

“What is wrong, Zark?”

Zark didn’t even face her and just kept staring at the ground.

“Please! Tell me.” She said.

In the end, he faced her and answered:

“Everyone is dead, the parents of the boy also. They attacked the Village because I managed to take the baby back home.” Zark explained with a trembling voice.

Feidans first had a horrifying look and then directly started to smile when she looked down on the innocent baby and all the chaos that had happened because of one baby.

“I will take the boy in until he grows teeth and stops breastfeeding. My husband will not be thrilled, but we will have a child in two months anyway. So it can be a good company for our family.”

Zark started to cry as he was at a loss for words because he had no clue what he was going to do with the baby.

“Will you take him in?” He asked.

Feidan smiled at him, knowing it would calm him down a bit.

“Yes, but you must promise to come by often so he does not feel alone.” She said, with Zark smiling, and the tears in his eyes continued to run down his cheeks.

She went up from the log and put the baby in the big backpack behind Zarks back as the baby slept. They started to walk back when Feidan began to smile and laugh, and she wondered:

“What are we going to call the baby?” She asked.

Feidan noticed how Zarks face went from troubled to thinking mode when he answered:

“Berk…Berk Van Polan.”

Samantha’s sword flew high speed toward Zark, only to get caught by his whip. A quick move from him guided the sword into another demon’s head; the Demon’s head got pierced into the wall moments before it struck Sandra again. Zark fought against his pain in the leg as the sword released itself from the wall. He grabbed it and cut off several Demon’s heads before Samantha managed to call it back as it slipped out of his hands. Zark quickly stuck his head through the wall as he couldn’t see anyone in the corridor. Samantha threw the sword towards Sandra, and Zark whipped it away right before it hit Sandra in the head. He quickly grabbed Sandra’s arms so she could support herself against his shoulders, as she knew how worried he was about losing her and the cloth around the baby had a little bit of blood but looked fine. He quickly tried to move her through the corridor as the ceiling now was dripping blood heavily, blood flowing down on the walls. They hurried through the corridor. When Zark looked back, they saw Samantha, with her bloody outfit, walking in the corridor with the sword in her hand.

“I AM NOT LETTING YOU ESCAPE!” She screamed out in the air as she swung the sword towards them.

Sandra quickly pulled away, handed over the baby to Zark, and pushed him away, making a backflip kick on the ceiling as it cracked.

“I love you, brother!” She said before the sword plunged through her chest, and she coughed up blood.

Zark didn’t even have time to react as the tears started to flow down his cheek at the realization of his sister dying in front of his eyes as the ceiling crashed down. It was like when he was younger, his sister Madeline sacrificed herself for him. The stones on the ground started to rumble, and Zark turned away and tried to hurry to the portal when someone with white hair walked past him. The mass of stones exploded, paving the way for Samantha. Zark turned around and saw Sandra on the ground, not moving, feeling like a weak person unable to save his own family.

Samantha threw the sword, and a pink fire fended off all the hits. The sword speeded up to reach Zark, but it couldn’t pass the pink fire that followed it in the air as the sword suddenly stopped and went back to Samantha’s hand. Zark kept going but turned back several times because he got suspicious of the pink light. He tried to think if it maybe was Madeline, but if it were her, she would have searched for him many years ago. He stopped and was going to turn around and ask the woman who she was before she uttered:

“Keep moving; otherwise, I will let this Witch pass through and kill you and the baby.”

Zark knew that couldn’t have been Madeline because she was a caring and loving person. She would never say something like that to him. He kept walking and didn’t hear any battle starting or any voices as it became darker behind him the further away he was walking through the corridor with the baby and managed to pass the portal, falling on the floor in the bar, screaming:

“CLOSE THE DAMN PORTAL!”

Everyone was looking at him because his sister had followed him.

The gatekeeper looked at Zark as he shook his head at the man who plunged the knife through the paper on the table, closing the portal.

Meanwhile, in the corridor…

“I surrender on the condition of the survival of Zark Van Polan!” The white-haired lady told Samantha.

Samantha was laughing.

“So, that was your brother? I have been hunting you for several years, and here you are, showing up in my mansion and surrendering yourself because of him. Why the sensitive heart, Madeline? Witches do not show any empathy; they only care about themselves.” Samantha explained to Madeline.

“My parents showed another way of life, so I came here in the end to give up a life for a life,” Madeline answered.

Several humans with red eyes showed up behind Samantha.

“Fine! I won’t kill your brother, guards? Throw her in the prison, but I want her transferred to Hell as we need to move our mansion to a safer area.” Samantha uttered, and the guards grabbed Madeline’s arm and escorted her through the door. A woman walked through the door, laughing and watching as they took Madeline away. She had a child by her side with white hair.

“I see you brought your pet with you, Meldan!” Samantha uttered.

Meldan ignored her sister’s mocking and returned a rude answer to Samantha.

“Her name is Victoria Dilara from the Dilara village,” Meldan answered because of the unfair treatment of her pupil.

“You know their whole Village got wiped out during the war because they were traitors and sided with the citizens of Valiant and the humans. It was a real massacre, which makes me curious about how she survived?”

“Well, I found her on the streets in Valiant, and I am her teacher now. I do not care what you think of her; why did you even call me to the mansion?” Meldan asked, becoming slightly upset about her sister’s continued disrespect.

“Fine! I was calling you in for the ritual, but the baby is gone now, so I want you to go on an assignment for me. I need you to go to the Paladin Woods and return the baby to me.”

“Wait, you lost the baby? Why do I have to do the work? I don’t want to.” Meldan answered.

Samanthas eyes turned red as she stared at her sister.

“I will send troops to destroy the village where we took the baby, but your job is to find the baby and bring it back and kill a man with the name Zark Van Polan.”

Meldan looked at her sister with a surprised look on her face.

“Where do I need to go, and why do I need to kill someone?”

Samantha smiled and knew that her sister would accept the assignment.

“Well, They escaped to Paladin Woods, and the person you are going to kill has human blood inside him. See it as some time to rest from all the work around here. You have always wanted to taste human blood?”

Meldan’s eyes lit up because she had never tasted human blood before, which was an opportunity to do it.

“Okay! We will go and get the baby back.” Meldan said with a smirky face.

“Yes, do not come back home until you have killed the human and have the baby,” Samantha said and walked past Meldan and entered through the door.

Still a child, Victoria stared at her mentor, who was smiling for herself.

Zark entered through the portal and ended up in a dark corridor. He looked back to ensure the portal would be open when he returned. It was quiet except for the ceiling, where something in red was dropping down on the ground. He put his hand out to taste the red drop, noticing it was blood. The whole situation didn’t make sense because he was here to get someone, but he started to doubt if he was in the right place. As he walked through the corridor with what looked like blood smothered in the walls, it made him think he may be in an isolated area shut off from the rest of the world. Small lights were flickering on the ceiling. The corridor was quite a distance to walk, with blood from handprints also showing up on the walls after walking for a while.

After a few minutes of walking, the corridor ended with only one door on the right side. Suddenly, a noise came from the same direction as the portal; someone was running and making loud sounds from a distance. Zark lit up his right hand with a black-blue fire and waited as the sound came closer and closer to him. Sandra showed up from the shadows with blood drops around her jacket, and the tension inside Zark, who was ready for battle, disappeared.

“What are you doing here, Sandra?” Zark expressed his frustration because he could have attacked her.

Sandra was out of breath and had to bend down to catch her breath with a finger in the air as if this was a moment of pause for them. Zark waited for her to explain why she had followed him.

“I thought you needed help!”

Zark was stunned by the reply because he was stronger than her, and she insisted on running through a corridor with blood dripping from the ceiling with handprints of blood filling up the walls through the corridor. He couldn’t understand because this wasn’t directly an everyday assignment.

“I don’t think you understand, Sandra! I am here on a rescue mission; we are not here to stir up a fight, and I know you like to stir up fights with everyone to test your skills.” He tried to explain to her.

Sandra shook her head in denial.

“I promise I will not start anything. I will only follow you.” She tried explaining to Zark with a big smile.

Zark didn’t want to argue and waved her off, even if he knew she would follow him anyway. He opened the door and walked through it, ending in what looked like a mansion. There were gold-plated chairs around, and the tables were all covered in gold. There were even fresh flowers around as if someone was there, but nobody was in sight. His eyes were on the stairways to the second floor, which looked like they were in what looked like the central area. A light push was made on Zark from behind as Sandra opened her mouth in awe of the big mansion and the rich environment. When he looked back, he noticed they had gone through a wall; Zark needed to be sure, so he put his hands towards the wall, and it went through, making sure the open space was there when they returned.

“If I find a gold spoon, can I take it home?” Sandra whispered with her eyes lit up.

Zark nodded and waved to her to return behind him again. Sandra quickly hurried and stood behind him. He slowly and quietly started to go up the stairs when Sandra fell on her leg, but she managed to stop the fall on the stairs. He looked back at her as she smirked like she had achieved something by not making a loud sound.

When they reached the top of the stairs, the walls suddenly changed from the beautiful yellow colors and turned into blood, and a flood of blood started to run down the wall. Zark was worried that maybe whoever was here knew they had entered the mansion because of the blood. There was a sound from a distance, and as they followed it to a double door, they noticed it was a baby’s cries. The baby kept crying, and both put their ears towards the doors to check if they could hear other voices.

“STOP MOVING AROUND!” A female voice screamed out as the cries from the baby continued.

Zark took a couple of steps back as Sandra moved to the side, and he leaped towards the door, throwing his whole body as it cracked down with him trying to make a proper roll, but he lost balance, falling without keeping his balance. Sandra ran inside the room after him, noticing that Zark knew the doors had guards inside, which made her open her mouth in awe. Zark quickly got up, and both stared around the gigantic room while Sandra tried to count how many enemies there were with excitement. Zark’s expression was another matter. A woman in a blue dress covered in glitter was looking at them with a knife in her hand and a baby crying under her on the table, which made it look like she was going to kill the baby.

“Stop counting the enemies, Sandra!” Zark whispered.

The enemies turned around, staring at both of them with red eyes and some growling, but they were humans, well, most probably dead humans.

“I think there are around 50 demons or humans, or maybe they just use red lenses!” Sandra whispered.

“Remember when I said not to stir something up? Well, I will allow you to go all out here. I go to the right, and you to the left. Remember that the mission is to save the baby.” Zark whispered.

“Wait a minute, I am on the right side and you to the left. Why are we switching?” Sandra whispered, Zark staring at her, not believing she couldn’t be serious, as Zark’s tactic was to confuse them.

“KILL THEM!” The woman in the dress yelled out.

Sandra quickly moved to the left as Zark moved to the right. With a high jump from Sandra in the air, her right foot turned into the yellow fire as she struck one of the demons. It was like slow motion as the demons flew toward the ones behind with lightning speed like a bowling ball through other demons and hit the wall, crushing all the bones. The woman on the pillar noticed this from all the blood splattering on the wall. She took out her gold-plated sword, which turned into fire as she prepared for battle.

Zark threw out four threads, grabbing the legs of a couple of demons as he pulled it so several of them fell to the ground and quickly switched to black fire as it looked like he was holding on to two batons with black fire on them and the woman screamed out in the air as she recognized him.

“TRISTO!” She screamed out and went down from the pillar of death and started to move towards Zark.

Every hit from Zark on the other demons made them catch black fire, with their souls getting dragged down beneath the ground back to Hell. Zark did not notice that the woman was coming fast as they approached each other. At the exact moment when she was going to strike Zark, a demon body flew between them and hit the wall, with the splatter of blood hitting the woman’s dress. Zark was pissed off at Sandra because the body almost hit him.

“LOOK WHERE YOU KICK THE BODIES, THAT ALMOST HIT ME!”. Zark screamed at Sandra as she put out her tongue, taunting him.

The woman screamed out in the air of all the blood in her dress as she started to flow in the air, and the sword began to float around, hitting all her servants. Zark rolled when the sword flew towards him. Sandra reached the pillar and grabbed the baby, who suddenly went quiet in her arms. She quickly went down and ran towards the door with the baby as the sword flew towards her. Zark threw one of his batons, hitting it to the wall. The woman kept floating in the air, following Sandra as Zark tried to back away to the door to keep an eye on the flying woman.

“My most trusty servant entered a human without killing it. How could you betray your Queen and change sides? You were special and the only one who would have made a great leader to lead the other Krat. Instead, you escaped and joined the enemy. THE ENEMY!!!! HOW DARE YOU, TRISTO?” She screamed out, with a yellow aura gushing out of her body, and Zark knew she was speaking with the other one.

Zark blinked as his eyes changed to red color, and he answered:

“You enslaved us. I found someone worthy to call family. You are not worthy, Samantha!” The voice spoke through Zarks body.

Samantha’s eyes turned blue as the walls in the room started to crack, and Zark realized it was time to run. The Witch kept floating after Zark, who jumped directly from the second floor, not realizing he jumped onto a table, and immediately felt pain in his right foot. Samanthas was floating down with the sword, coming towards Zark. He rolled to the side and saw the whole sword plunge through the floor, which widened Zark’s eyes as the sword moved faster than before. He saw that Sandra was waiting for him by the wall when suddenly a knife went through the wall, stabbing Sandra’s stomach with blood quickly covering the shining floor with a shocked Zark staring in disbelief.

“NO!” He screamed out as Sandra slowly moved away and sat down on the wall when several demons came through the wall.

His body caught black fire as he quickly went up, running toward Sandra. It changed color, so half the body was burning blue fire. Samantha got caught off guard as Zark pulled out two thick ropes long enough to reach her in the air with two different burning colors on them. Samantha thought it was ropes, but that was wrong. Zark had just pulled out two whips inherited from his mother, Trissa Van Polan.

The four children stared curiously down at the ground, giving the caretakers space, with two of them crying. Sandra came running out of the woods. Tristo tried to stay close to her so it looked like he was her shadow. Someone was on the ground, but the other children blocked the view. A big pool of blood was touching the children’s shoes, which made Tristo curious. He moved close to the pool of blood behind them and touched it with his shadow. He quickly moved back to Sandra so he could stay beside her. The child on the ground was severely injured, with blood everywhere around it. Tristo knew that the child would probably die at any moment.

“How is he?” One of the caretakers asked the other one, who was inspecting the boy on the ground.

“He is breathing, but someone must have chanted the words wrong. The children travel above the woods to their destination, but this one went through the woods for most of the distance, only to rise above before landing here. His arms and legs got broken, but he is still breathing, Wilma, so that is a good sign!” Said the one inspecting.

She slowly lifted the boy and hurried back inside to give treatment. One of the children with two small horns on the head started to jump into the pool and kicked blood around, thinking what a fun game it was.

Wilma stayed outside with the other children while the other caretaker went down the stairs to a dark room and lit up the medical room, which they barely used. She put the boy on the table, grabbed a flashlight, opened one of his eyes, and shone the light into it to see if there was any reaction, to check for signs if he was aware of his environment.

“Hi, Hey! Can you try moving your eye if you can hear me? My name is Felin, and I am a doctor and caretaker at the Orphanage. Did you fly here from the Van Polan home? Are you the son of the Van Polan home? Try to move your eye if you understood anything I just said.”

There was no movement in the eye, with Felin thinking maybe the boy would die or go into a comatose state even if she saved him. The boy was breathing but probably did not have long left.

Outside, the ground began to tremble as the trees in the woods started to split apart. Wilma hurried and took the kids behind her as she moved away from the direction from which the boy had flown. Two Hellhounds jumped out from the woods, roaring as several men emerged behind them. Wilma hit her right knuckle right in the palm of her left hand when a white fire lit up. She separated her hands in one slow movement, creating a white-burning sword. The men started laughing with their green fire but were surprised to see the five children behind her.

“Strange, the woods were empty, as we suddenly ended up here while chasing the boy, coming to an invisible place. I am not surprised that this area is not visible to anyone’s eyes. I suppose the child behind you is Dristan’s son, whose human mother and demon father are on the wanted list. You also have Cassandra’s daughter. It’s strange; I thought she was unbeatable. It doesn’t look like that, and last but not least, one that I recognize is the firstborn from a Witch and Angel, Sandra. All of the children here seem that they one day can try to overtake all the rulers in Valiant, but Samantha is the one true leader to take over everything in Valiant before we enter Earth and destroy everything. We can not have intruders getting involved. She will get happy to hear when we will tell her whose children we just killed off.” One of the men said.

“If you come near the children, I will kill all of you,” Wilma commented back.

Felin cut through the clothes of the boy and saw bones sticking out everywhere. The right leg was in such poor condition, with bones sticking out in three different areas. Felin was sure the leg wouldn’t survive. Right before inspecting further, she heard something sounding like an animal from a distance. She took off her gloves and began to move up the stairs. When she came outside, seeing Wilma and the kids cornered against the wall of the building, one of the Hellhounds grabbed Sandra’s legs and started dragging her away from the other kids. A shadow passed through between her legs as she didn’t have time to think about it and had to focus on the attack to protect the rest of the children. Being aware that the child on the table would probably die of the injuries, but the other children could survive instead. She held out her right hand as her whole arm caught orange fire. A long orange sword extended out of her hand as she ran towards the enemy.

Tristo moved down the stairs, fearing for Sandra’s safety. Even though she was strong, Sandra was still a child. Tristo needed to act fast, as Sandra couldn’t hold onto the grass long enough for it to disappear with her into the woods. When Tristo went through the darkness and ended up in the medical room and moved to the boy’s chest, he could feel that the boy was dying.

“I will make a deal with you! I save your life and give you my powers, but you must keep my sister Sandra safe.” Tristo said, waiting for some sign from the boy, but there was no response, and Tristo took it as a sign that the contract was in place between them.

“Well, I accept! I promise not to mess up your life.” Tristo said before he moved inside the body of the boy.

The bones in the boy’s legs began to move back, healing themselves; the injuries on his stomach and heart area tightened up, and several threads of whips uncontrollably began to shine a light blue color in the air. Everything happened quickly as one of the whips struck the lamp above the room, plunging the room into pitch blackness. The blood on the boy’s body started to shine light blue, and he rose from the table and stood up on the floor as ten thin threaded whips of light blue color were visible in the darkness as the boy hurried up the stairs.

The men and Hellhounds stopped briefly when the boy came out with one whip on each finger. The boy saw one of the hounds dragging Sandra away. He swung five threads towards the escaping Hellhound and missed it completely.

“Oops! I suppose training is needed,” The boy said.

The caretakers protected the other children to distance themselves from the enemy as the boy swung the whips on his right hand again, managing to get hold of the Hound, and the threads started to pull back. The Hound stopped and got dragged toward the boy, which surprised everyone. The men ran towards the boy; when he looked at them, they noted that the boy’s eyes had turned red, like those of a demon, with all ten threads now black. As the boy threw his left hand towards the men, five of them got caught around the throat and caught in black fire. The Hound, being dragged towards the boy, had five threads around its throat when suddenly it cut off the head, catching black fire. The boy turned towards the rest, where two men and one Hound left as the ten whips of threads on the ground started to float, covered in light blue color with black fire gushing out. The boy swung it toward both men, who burned down instantly when the whip hit them. The boy walked up to the Hound, and both stared at each other. The Hound growled a bit before the boy did an uppercut right under the cheek through the Hound, so its black-colored brain ended up in his hand. Sandra approached the boy to have a closer look at him, but it was hard to get a proper look because there was a lot of red and black blood all over his face and hair.

“Tristo? Is thi yuu?” She asked.

The boy stared at her before he blinked; as the red eyes disappeared and turned brown, he answered:

“I-am…I-am…Tris…Your brother, Zark Van Polan!”

Trissa and Madeline ran in different directions to split up the enemy, and most of them followed Trissa. Only two followed Madeline as she reached the entrance to the woods. Turning around, the two men jumped towards her; she quickly released longer threads of the whip and caught one of them in mid-air. She pulled the whip towards the other one, so they clashed. Both fell on the ground as she quickly pulled in the whips, merged them into a single one much thicker, casting it with full force and cutting the head of one of the men as the other one got quickly up, swinging a right hook towards her as she easily dodged it. Her fingertips started to shine pink, and the nails became long, so she quickly pierced the other in the throat with an instant kill.

Trissa made a U-turn as several men were running toward her. She cast the whip, pulled one of the men towards herself, and rolled to the right as three men approached her, jumping in the air and clashing with the one she pulled in. She quickly got up, cast the whip onto the legs of another one, and pulled hard so one more fell to the ground as she ran toward Samantha. Wanting to stop her before Madeline could reach her. Suddenly, she stopped only a couple of meters from Samantha. She looked down and saw Samantha’s sword had pierced her from the back. Blood was gushing out from her stomach as the sword pulled itself out from Trissa and floated around back to Samantha’s hand. To be sure, she plunged the sword with force through the stomach as Trissa grabbed her hand hard and refused to release it. Samantha tried to pull the sword out, but Trissa refused to let go of her hand.

“MOM!” Madeline screamed as Trissa shook her head in denial, so she stopped.

Trissa looked to the left, toward the cabin, and then turned her eyes in the other direction toward the stone. Trissa nodded but couldn’t hold back the tears after seeing Madeline cry. Madeline ran towards the cabin, split the whips, and cast them toward the main door. It split in half as she saw her little brother hiding under his bed.

“COME ON, Zark!” She yelled at him, and he quickly got up, hugging her.

Madeline paved the way as she ran with her brother toward the stone. One more portal opened as two Hellhounds entered through it, and Samantha was screaming simultaneously, trying to get loose from Trissas grip. When they reached the stone, Madeline pushed up Zark on it and started to chant the words:

“Shan Tu Rah, Bankim Dra As Ah…” and got interrupted by the hellhounds with several men following suit. She quickly pulled out four thin whips and swung them around her to stop the Hellhounds from attacking.

“Kantan Tuh Rah!” She said. Looking back, still swinging the whip, a blue light shone around the stone. Zark started to float in the air as he tried to reach out to his sister, but the blue light surrounding the stone had a protective wall. Trissa fell to the ground, releasing her grip as Samantha got loose and rushed toward the blue light. When she approached, seeing Madeline swinging around her whips so nobody could come close to them as this was the last moment the siblings would spend with each other, she turned around smiling to her brother and said:

“I love you! You are safe now.” As Zark got swung away in the air, flying above the woods.

Madeline stopped swinging when her brother was no longer visible. The Hellhounds prepared to attack her when Samantha put the sword in front of them, denying their attack. Madeline fell on the ground sobbing, seeing her mother’s lifeless body from a distance and her brother gone with her father’s head on the terrace. She had lost everyone in the blink of an eye.

“Go track down the boy and kill him,” Samantha said to the men and Hellhounds as they scattered into the woods.

20 minutes earlier at the hidden Orphanage:

The blond little girl quickly ate her food and hid bread in her jacket to smuggle it out of the place. She has not told anyone about her mysterious friend, whom she meets daily in the woods. There were only two caretakers and four other children in the Orphanage. It is a hidden place that is not visible to anyone; not even in Paladin Woods was it possible to see it. A shield by Wizards and Witches made it invisible to the eye, and the only way to see the Orphanage was to pass through it. The little girl was 5 years old and had lived at the Orphanage since she was a baby.

She quickly scooped up the soup and hurried outside as one of the caretakers yelled at her because she hadn’t thanked her for the food. She ran into the woods and sat on a wooden log, waiting for something or someone to appear. A shadow closed up to her and moved around her as she started to laugh at the shadow.

“Wat ayu doing?” She asked the shadow.

“I’m looking around to see if someone is following you.” The shadow answered.

She took out the bread from her pocket and used full strength to break it into small bits. She threw it in the shadow, and it moved around, trying to catch all the small bites.

“Tristo! Why yooou not cam wit mehie?” She asked it.

“Sandra, it is not possible. I am a shadow and enter other’s dreams to take over their body.”

Sandra laughed out loud, not fully understanding what Tristo meant.

“Yu come insi my drem.” Sandra said.

“That is not possible. You do not have any human blood in you, and I prefer a man because I am a boy.” Tristo uttered and laughed.

Sandra was happy that her best friend was in a good mood.

“I do, family. Can you be brodr?” Sandra asked.

Tristo continued to laugh and said:

“Yes! Of course. We are like siblings, so I will always protect you.”

Tristo had, for the first time, found someone who was not scared or had immense hate towards him. As a murderer in his other life with his soul burning in Hell for a long time, all the experiments made on him by Samantha made him a hunted Krat.

He was the strongest Krat in Valiant, bringing human souls back to Samantha, even though it was not challenging for him. But one day, he entered the dreams of a man who was a serial killer. His job was to make humans weak on the inside and kill themselves as the souls get sent to Hell afterward. This serial killer, though, had twisted dreams about all the humans he killed. The dreams were repeating themselves in a loop of all of them. Samantha had to send Tristo to save several Krat stuck in that man’s twisted mind. While the mission was successful and Tristo managed to get the other Krats out of the man’s dreams, something inside Tristo died right then and there. The torture in Hell was nothing compared to the suffering the serial killer did to his victims. He did not want to be someone hurting others anymore, haunting humans, and being responsible for other’s deaths. He escaped six months ago and became a wanted shadow. However, he was happy to disappear, as the last four months had been delightful, having met Sandra in the woods. There were no sad moments; only laughter filled the air between them, and they grew accustomed to each other, becoming friends. Every day, Sandra would sneak out bread or fruit and throw it into the shadows to help feed Tristo. However, all the conversations they had with each other made Tristo realize that both of them were lonely, so they trusted each other like siblings. He decided to stay by her side and watch her grow up before moving on. He decided this would drive him forward as a Krat, a shadow born from the experiments of souls in Hell to create chaos, and as redemption for all his sins, he would be by Sandra’s side until she no longer felt alone.

Something in a light blue color flew down at high speed towards the Orphanage. As the hit on the ground sounded like a bomb exploding. Sandra started to run back to the Orphanage, and Tristo followed her, worried that the sound and light in the air could be dangerous for his little sister.

Trissa ran in a circle around Madeline to protect herself from the pink lightning balls her daughter was shooting toward her, which seemed to come from what looked like an endless source of pink balls. It has been three years since Lark left the family, and all focus has been on Madeline’s training. As Trissa feared, her son had no powers, and she knew he would be Madeline’s only weakness. For a moment, Madeline stopped shooting, and Trissa stepped inside and jumped toward Madeline, who managed to block her mother’s kick at the last second. Still, it was to no avail, as she flew a couple of meters away due to her mother’s immense power. Madeline started to cry when Trissa noticed the right side of her leg swollen.

“Get up! Let’s continue!” Trissa uttered to Madeline, not satisfied with her daughter’s weakness.

“Why are you going with full power, Mom? You have been doing the harsh training for a long time; we only do live battles, and you hurt me every time.” Madeline whined to her mother while Zark ran into the field for his crying sister.

“YOU GO BACK TO THE CABIN!” Trissa screamed toward Zark, who froze and didn’t move.

Zark knew their mother was angry, and he couldn’t protect his sister right now unless he had any powers to help. He went slowly back to the cabin, kicking the grass on the way.

When she was going to turn back to Madeline, she was already walking away into the woods. Trissa tried to hold back her tears, but it was pointless. The whole family was missing Lark, and it felt more lonely with him gone. She wiped her tears while walking back to the cabin, letting Madeline sulk in the woods before coming back to dinner later.

When Trissa took one step onto the terrace, her expression changed to one of fear. She could feel it all over her body as she turned around. Samantha smiled and stared at her like a queen, her white hair looking beautiful, with her hands behind her back. Several demons with deformed heads had come through a portal with her, while the hellhounds were the last ones coming out before the portal disappeared. The situation wasn’t to Trissas advantage, especially when Madeline ran into the woods, with Zark powerless to have a chance to fend for himself.

“What do you want?” Trissa asked in an angry tone.

Samantha just laughed as one of the hellhounds approached Trissa, ready to attack.

“RIGMOTH!” Samantha screamed out in the air as the Hellhound stopped and moved back in line.

The door behind Trissa opened, and Zark came out to check on the noise outside. When Samantha noticed the boy, she started laughing out loud.

“How did you and that Demon have children? I thought we could not have any children with Demons.” Samantha asked and then realized something surprising.

“Oh my Devil, he had human blood in him. That is why you have children. I knew you had escaped, but I noticed a ring on his finger and thought maybe he had married you. I didn’t know you had a child with that Demon. So interesting! Does he have both his mother and father’s powers?” Samantha asked, with Trissa ignoring the answer.

“Go back inside and Barr the door, Zark!” Trissa told her son as he moved inside quickly and barred the door after him.

“You know, Trissa! I was always angry that you betrayed your kind and fought alongside humans, along with the citizens of Valiant and the despicable angels who interfered in the war. You were the strongest Witch we had, and you even gave me good advice and helped other witches who learned from the best, especially my little sister Meldan. Then you just left, which surprised me because I thought you would die in the war.” Samantha said.

“I am the strongest Witch, not were. Who would want to live a life with blood covering my sight every day and every corner I turn in my life? I chose to leave because I did not wish to kill anyone anymore.”

Samantha threw something like a bowling ball at Trissa’s feet. Trissa started to cry when she saw her husband’s head by her feet. She wanted to pick it up but had to stay standing there in case a surprise attack came. Samantha’s hands started to burn with a yellow fire while Trissa mounted a light yellow object, resembling a whip, from her right hand. She kept crying, and as the demons began to move towards her, she swung the whip to the right as it snared around the neck of a demon and started to burn blue fire.

“Go back to Hell,” Trissa uttered, and Samantha quickly brought forward her yellow burning sword.

When Demons attacked from the left, Trissa swung her whip in a circle, hitting a couple of them as they burned down. The portal opened behind Samantha, revealing two men in black coats, which made Trissa sad and angry as she didn’t understand why Demons was so interested in her.

“We wondered why you took so long time! Is it because of one Witch? Have you lost your powers or what, Samantha?” One of the men asked her.

“No! She is one of the strongest Witches who has ever walked in Valiant!”

“Is that so! Let us take care of her then. Let’s have some fun then!” The other man said, and they leaped toward Trissa as she quickly pulled in her whip, using it as protection.

One of the men on the right went low and then rose towards Trissa with a low kick of green fire. She quickly took her right foot up as it missed her, but a high kick came from the left towards her head, and she only managed to get her arm up when the other green light hit the side of her head as she fell on the ground. Trissa quickly tried to go up as she saw her daughter running toward her, jumping over her and kicking the other man, with a pink light shining strongly in the air. When the other man was going to attack Trissa on the ground, Madeline swirled in the air as a giant light pink ball hit him in a flykick, so the other man flew a couple of meters away. Madeline created two short whips with her hands and held them together with both hands, ready for battle.

“Mom! What is going on?”

Samantha looked excited now when she knew there was also a daughter. She imagined she could tame her and make her work for her. Her mother could only create one thick whip, but the daughter made two whips without focusing on the task at hand. Samantha felt this opportunity could not slip her hands to catch a powerful Witch with Demon blood. That excited Samantha as the portal behind her opened again. Over ten men, dressed in the same outfit as earlier, walked through, making Trissa realize she needed to get her children out of there urgently. Samantha pointed her sword toward Trissa and screamed:

“KILL EVERYONE EXCEPT THE DAUGHTER. I WANT HER ALIVE!”

It has been ten years since Trissa carried Lark through Valiant’s portals into the Paladin woods. The war ended in Valiant with a powerful spell cast by a Wizzard named Dendarven and his three apprentices, splitting Valiant into nine different worlds. Creatures born of wandering spirits of the dead during the war divided everything in Valiant, with a gatekeeper guarding every exit and entry to each world. Nobody understood why Dendarven cast a spell to shut everyone in, isolating each world to fend for themselves. World number five and the world that was the center of Valiant was called the Prison Kingdom, ruled by an evil Wizzard named Azlok. The rumor that has been going around for the last two years was that the Valiant Kingdom had lost the battle against the Demons, and with the 100TH demon army passing away in the war, Danderven, who had moved into the center of the fight, broke his staff in two and plunged them down in the grass and everything changed with him disappearing. His apprentices escaped in different directions.

Trissa was sitting and resting in the chair on the terrace when suddenly someone giggled inside the cabin, and her daughter ran out with her little brother chasing after her. When she sees Trissa, she suddenly turns to the right, shoots small light pink balls toward the floor, and flies over the rail, getting her brother yelling at her behind the rail:

“Not fair! You cheat!”

Trissa picked up her son, who was on the verge of tears.

“Don’t worry! You can tease her as much as you want when you get your powers,” She said, comforting him.

She was worried that the daughter had already shown signs of her powers when she was one year old, but the little brother, who was now four, had not shown any signs. Their father, being half-demon and half-human, made her worried that the son might only inherit the human parts in the family and might not be a demon at all. The results of this would mean they would have to leave the boy in the human world outside of Paladin if he did not gain any powers soon, as he would not have a chance of survival in Paladin if he were to grow up there. Still, with the humans, he could become a good man without danger waiting for him in every corner. For the first time, she had a fear of losing her family since the war when Lark almost died.

Trissa sensed Lark was close by, put her son down, and walked off the terrace, noticing that her daughter and husband were looking at a rock with a beautiful lady standing beside it as if she were explaining something. She went to check what they were doing, and to her surprise, it was another witch talking to her husband, so she became a bit jealous and hurried beside and held his hand.

“Hi! How can the Van Polan Family help you?” Trissa said, nodding her head up and down with a forced smile.

The other Witch noticed the jealousy and pushed back her long, blond hair, so her neck was completely bare to the eye, making Trissa furious.

“Are you here to die?” Trissa asked with a firm tone, catching Lark’s attention as he tried to calm her down and prevent her from going berserk on their property again.

The blonde Witch reached out a letter to Lark and bowed towards them before she walked away.

“Madeline and Zark, can you return to the cabin? Mommy and Dad will come soon.” Lark said, and he saw both his children running back home.

“What is going on, Lark, and why is there a stone suddenly in our area?” Trissa asked him.

Lark looked down on the ground, worried about what the Witch had told him earlier.

“The organization here in Paladin put a stone in place for the ten most vital families in Paladin; it is a precaution towards enemies, and this stone will send the children away to safety if something happens to the family. You only need to put the children on the rock and read the short text in the letter, which will transfer them away to safety.

“What do you mean if something happens? We have lived in peace here in Paladin for ten years. We have a seven-year-old daughter and a four-year-old son; nothing has happened here in ten years. What can happen at all now? We need the children to grow up, and then we can rest.” Trissa said, trying to assure herself that everything was safe in Paladin.

Lark took a breath before explaining:

“Samantha has entered the first world with exit to Earth. She had, together with several enemies, taken over big territories and set up her next target on Witches who escaped the war. The top of her list is you, the strongest Witch ever.”

Trissa fell on her knees and looked back at her children sitting on the terrace as she tried to wipe her tears. She calmed herself not to appear weak in front of the children, turning her face away as she noticed Madeline, who had good vision and could see her facial expression from a distance.

“If she is after me, I must leave all three of you and travel to Valiant to put them off our trail to keep all of you safe.”

“If you do that, is Madeline ready to protect the family as she has inherited your powers?” Lark wondered.

“No, I thought it was possible to train her slowly until she became fifteen. I should have been more strict with her instead of letting her play with Zark.”

“How long time is needed to make her ready for battle?” Lark asked.

“It would take two or maybe even three years, depending on her devotion and focus.”

“You stay here and care for them, and I will leave for Valiant. I will spread rumors in the Pirate Kingdoms that you are there and try to keep moving all the time to create a distraction long enough for them to realize you are not there.”

“But, how will you keep them in bay over there?” Trissa wondered.

“Who said I was not allowed to kill a couple of her collaborators? I am still in great shape compared to you to go into an intensive fight.”

Both were smiling at each other because of Lark’s joke, as he had mastered the skill of awful jokes.

Lark prepared his shield and sword and hid them in a backpack so his children wouldn’t get to see him wielding any weapons. He went outside of the cabin where Trissa was waiting with the kids. He kissed Zark and Madeline on the forehead and hugged them hard as if it was the last time he would see them again.

“Take care of your brother, Madeline!” Lark said, grabbing Trissa’s arm as they walked away a couple of meters from the children.

Lark smothered Trissas cheek, reminding himself that this was probably the last time he would see his wife.

“Do not forget to teach the spell in the letter to Madeline,” Lark said, and they kissed each other.

Trissa had tears in her eyes, realizing the dangerous path her husband was taking. Trissa had no clue about the secrets her husband was hiding. Lark knew he would not survive the battles against the top lieutenants that had appeared in the Valiant Kingdom. He knew it was going to end with him losing his life. Lark did not care; as long as he spread the rumors and tried to keep them hidden, Trissa should have enough time to train the children to protect themselves. They should be more powerful than their parents because they are of mixed blood; it should be fine, Lark thought, and walked away from his family and his life for the last time, hoping that his wife would succeed in teaching their children how to survive in this cruel world.