Chapter 9

They arrived to Red Poison's fortress, they hid near it.

"We've arrived" Aiko said

"Yeah" Sho said

"Hm" Celes looked around the fortress "Theres a lot of guards"

"Yeah that's a problem" Ume said

"No worries princess" the commander of the army said "We will make an opening so you can enter" she said "You can trust us!"

"I always trust you Erica" Celes said "You and your army."

"Yeah but what will we do with those gates?" asked Ume

"Our mages can cast a spell to destroy them" Erica said

"Okay" Aiko said "Well let's start the invasion!"

"Yeah!" Everyone shouted.

A few minutes later.

The guards were looking around when suddenly they saw an army heading towards them

"Sound the bell!" the guard shouted

The bell rang, a lot of soldiers came running out ready to fight.

While they were fighting the 4 of them, including Silver, snack in the fortress.

Some guards noticed them

"Ume!" Shouted Aiko

"Got it" Ume casted a spell that electrocuted all of the guards coming to them.

There was a massive door blocking them into getting into the inner fortress.

"What now?" asked Ume

"Maybe I can use my special attack" Silver said

"You can only use it one time, we should save it" Aiko said

Sho agreed.

"So what do we do!?" asked Ume

"I got this" Celes said.

She casted a spell and shot it at the sky, in just a few minutes later the mages casted a spell that exploded the door.

"Let's enter" Aiko said.

"For Sozen" Sho said

They entered.

Inside the fortress.

They walked through a massive hallway, it was full of paintings of old Demon King servants and the present ones also.

"Hm?" Aiko stopped in one of the paintings, it was Krau the Dark Knight

"Oh" Celes looked at it "Didnt you defeat him?"

"Yeah... well Sozen did it" Ume said

"Yeah me and Sho would probably be dead.." Aiko said

"Hm? That's weird" Ume said

"What's weird?" asked Sho

"There's all of the current servants, except Red Poison" She said

They looked around, Ume was right.

"Yeah that's strange" Aiko said "But we dont have time for that!"

Sho nodded.

They kept walking when they arrived to some big doors.

They opened it.... awaiting there was Red Poison sitting down on some sorta throne.

"Well well.." She said "You've come"

They slowly walked to her.

"Like it?" She was talking about the throne "I made it myself" it had

a lot of swords and skulls.

"Give us back Sozen!" Aiko said

"Sozen? Isn't he sleeping at home?" She said

"Bring Sozen back to normal!" Sho said

"Oh you mean his consciousness" she said "I have it right here" she pulled out a blade of the sword that had a small sphere in it.

"Give it to us!" Celes shouted

"No" she hugged the blade "he has been keeping me company"

"We will have to take it by force!" Aiko shouted. "Now!"

Red Poison stood up and ran to them.

Ume casted a spell that made a box to trap Red.

"My turn!" Celes shouted.

She pulled out a sword and used her attack

"Raging Wind!" She said

Her slices were powerful and she cut her a lot of times.

There was a silence, suddenly Red started laughing "Is this all you got?" She destroyed the box. "Time to get serious" she knocked Ume and Celes back and started running towards them again.

"Did you think we didnt have a backup plan?" Aiko said

The floor suddenly exploded, she came out with some scratches "Traps?" laughed Red

"We placed them while they were attacking you" Aiko said

"That's it?" Suddenly she saw a spear heading towards her and hit her directly.

"My powerful move" Aiko said "Crimson Spear" she said

Red came out with some scratches "That's it? I barely felt it" she laughed

They were nervous now.

"What's wrong?" Red said and slowly walked to them

They slowly backed up.

"Oh c'mon" Red said "Now you're backing away?"

Aiko smiled

"Huh?" Said Red confused

They separated showing Sho cahrging a sword attack.

"Dont tell me-" Red said

"It was all a diversion!" Aiko said "Now!"

She's sword lit up, the air felt heavy, the floor was shaking.... Sho attacked!

"Divine Cut!" Silver and Sho shouted

"Frost Sky!" Ume casted

"Sharp Wind!" Celes attacked

"Crushing Slice!" Aiko attacked

They all attacked at once, creating a powerful move.

"Oh no" Red got hit by all of the attacks destroying the entire fortress.

The soldiers looked at the fortress collapsing, they won the battle!

"Hooray!" They shouted victorious.

In the shambles of the fortress the four of them came out with some minor injuries.

"Is everyone okay?" asked Aiko

"Yeah.. ow my head hurts" Ume said

"Yeah, just some small injuries" Celes said

"Let me help you out" Sho said, he helped her.

"W-we did it" Aiko said "B-but where's that blade?" She looked around

Sho pulled something out from below a fallen pillar, it was the blade!

"Good job darling!" Celes said.

"Now we only need to return this to Sozen" Aiko said very happy

They started walking back.

"Wow"

They stopped and looked behind them scared

It was Red!

"I almost died" her head was bleeding, she had a deep cut on her arm.

"H-how?" Aiko said scared

"Quite powerful, but not enough to beat me" she said

They prepared themselves to fight again.

"Woah, calm down" she said "I'm not gonna kill you or anything"

"Then what will you do to us?" Ume said

"Before that" she healed her wounds and also theirs.

"What are you planning?" Celes asked

"Well nothing, by the looks of it I can trust you all" she said

"Trust us?" Said Sho confused

"Yeah, in the first place I was never gonna kill you" she said

"Huh? Dont lie to us!" Celes said

"No really, I'm not gonna kill you" she said

"Why? You're the Demon Lord's servant!!" Aiko shouted

"Plot twist! I'm not!" She said

"Plot twist?" said Sho confused

"Wait how do you know about that?"

"What do you mean that you're not Red Poison?" asked Ume

"Well yeah, I'm her supposed succesor" she said

"Huh? And what happened to her?" Asked Celes

"Oh I killed her" she said calmly

"But that would mean that you're the new servant! Because of that symbol on your back!" Celes said

"You mean the symbol that I removed?" She said

That shocked Celes.

"What's wrong Celes?" asked Ume

"That's impossible!" Celes said

"It is possible, look" She turned around and showed her back, there was no symbol

"How?" asked Celes

"I'll talk that later, for now we should return to Sozen" she said

"Hey wait" Aiko stopped her "how do we know that you're not lying to us?"

"Well-"

"I trust her" Sho said

"What?" Ume said

"I trust her" he said again

"Why!?" Aiko said

"There's something that she knows that me and Sozen also know" Sho said

"That is?" Aiko asked

"Sorry cant tell ya" Sho said

"Well if that's Sho's choice I'll follow" Celes said

"Yeah, I trust Sho" Silver said

"Oh! Silver! Where did you come from?!" Ume said

"Oh I got out from there and came walking here" she said

"Yeah anyway, I still dont trust her" Aiko said "But if its everyone's choice, then all right"

"Yay!" She said excited

Aiko put some handcuffs on her

"You'll be putting this on until we get Sozen back"

"Okay..." she said sad

"So if you're not Red, what's your name?" asked Sho

"I'm Shiori Nishida" she said

A few days later...

They arrived to the mansion and they were infront of Sozen's bed.

"So how do we do this?" asked Aiko

"Just stab him with the blade" Shiori said

"Stab him?! Are you crazy?" Ume said

"Fine I'll do it" Sho got the blade

"Wait-" before Celes could stop him, he had already stabbed him.

Sozen woke up. "Uff..." he stretched "Its good to control my body again"

"Sozen!" Aiko hugged him very happy.

"Sozen you're back to normal!!" said Ume happy.

"Its great that you're back" Tranzarus said

"Yeah..." he looked at Shiori "So you agree?"

"Yeah, I do" Shiori said

"Wait? How do you know her?" Celes asked

"Didnt I say that he kept me company?" Shiori said

"I've been talking to her about some stuff" Sozen said

"So you really were keeping her company" Ume said

"Anyway-"

"Wait!" Aiko interrupted Sozen "What did she agree to?"

"Oh, I was about to tell say it" he walked to Shiori and held his hand up "Welcome to the team" he said

"Team!?" they said suprised

"Happy to be working with all of you" she shook Sozen's hand.

"Sozen! What's the meaning of this?" Celes asked

"If I recognized all of your strengths I would help you defeat the Demon Lord" Shiori said

All of them were suprised while Sozen and Shiori were smiling.