Chapter Twenty-three: Golir's Maze

Mil stopped before the family of trekkers and set Golir on the ground beside them. Their sad gazes didn't leave their father.

"He was great at everything!" the youngest piped.

"He will never be forgotten," the eldest vowed.

Golir approached them while wringing his fingers. "Hello there," he managed. "It might seem rude of me, but dangerous demons are heading this way. Do you know of any safe place nearby?"

The eldest trekker morphed into Golir's shape. His brothers and sisters followed suit, and the dozen children surrounded him.

"How can you speak like us?" the eldest asked as he touched Golir's forehead with his fingers.

Golir shrugged while Mil smiled.

The eldest's ear flicked as he turned towards the sound of cracking trees. "Let's show you what we can do." He ran towards the commotion, and Golir beckoned Mil to follow. She carried him on her back as they approached the huge demons and their minions.

Shadows swirled, searching for something while entering the forest. They screamed as they disintegrated on contact with a magical barrier. The huge demons stopped in their tracks and growled.

Vines slithered from the forest floor and whipped at the demons. Hungry flowers emerged from the trees, large enough to attack. They chomped on many of the demons and swallowed them whole. Jopp's victorious laughter echoed in the darkness. Poisonous needles shot through the air and incapacitated the rest. That gave time for the hungry flowers to devour them all.

The eldest scowled at Jopp's true form. His tall figure was covered in poisonous needles, his red claws ready to strike.

Golir stood between them, his brows furrowed. "Don't hurt him, Aeklith! He's my friend!"

Jopp growled as he kneeled before them. "I shall do as you say, for now." His dark eyes seemed to peer into their souls. "Are you ready for some fun?"

They glanced at an enormous wave of demons drifting from the skies and from the sea.

The trekkers grinned as they jumped from the forest and flew towards the demon forces.

"Flying isn't really my thing," Jopp admitted as they attacked the airborne demons.

Sharp claws and deadly fangs erupted from the trekker's mouths. They latched onto the flying demons and tore off their wings, ate their tails, and sliced them into pieces. The carnage filled the sea with black blood, where more demons approached. The death eels swam alongside a myriad of demon creatures with heads of fish and octopi tentacles. They all seemed focused on Jopp.

Jopp smirked as he handed a thorned mace to Golir. "Protect yourself with this. Mil can help."

Golir stared at the spiky sphere tethered with vines to a strong wooden handle. When a demon approached, the sphere attacked. The flexible vine stretched and curved to reach any dangerous creature anywhere. The sphere bashed in skulls and crushed limbs. It sucked in shadows and absorbed the defeated demons.

"I wouldn't want to be on the wrong end of that thing," Thorn blurted.

"Well, you better get on the right end of something!" Chichi started. She slashed her greatsword at the hordes. The flying demons were starting to cloud the sky with the sheer numbers. "How do you know Jopp anyway?"

Thorn laughed as the wind grew fierce enough to send the flying demons above tumbling to the ground. Hungry flowers snapped at the falling food, never satiated.

"We grew up together," Thorn responded, stabbing a bat demon through the eyes. "He decided to study under a she-devil, and I went out to see the world."

"Even though it was forbidden?" Chichi queried, her mouth agape as she sliced a fish demon in half. Its green blood splashed on her face.

"It pays to be a fast wind demon," Thorn nodded. "Even the fastest angels couldn't catch me."

"Why did u settle on Grace's island?" Chichi queried with a frown.

"Golir and Rif are my kids," he revealed. "I tried to get away from them, but now I realize how much they mean to me."

Chichi stared at him. "What happened to their mother?"

Thorn worked his jaw. "She's dead because of me."

Jopp glanced at him and Chichi. "Don't leave us hanging, now. What happened?" The spikes erupted from his back and speared a giant wolf demon's skull. Black blood gushed down his shoulders, but Jopp didn't flinch.

Chichi sighed as she wiped blood from her face. "He can tell us later. We're supposed to be fighting that demon horde."

"When I left her," Thorn began, "the demons hadn't taken over. I had thought she would be safe with the kids, but . . ."

"Who killed her?" Jopp asked in a quiet tone.

"Noforl," Thorn answered in a quivering voice. "The cursed wood said that he ate her, limb by limb, trying to find my--our kids."

Chichi's hands were trembling with such force that she slightly dented the greatsword's handle. She screamed in frustration as she slashed at the incoming gellecros that had emerald feathers. Their bodies exploded apart from the force, the feathers drifting everywhere. Chichi scowled at the crimson moonlit sky, a silhouette hinting at Noforl's presence. Dark clouds hid him from view, and another wave of flying demons rushed at them.

Jopp and Thorn smiled at Chichi's ferocity before they attacked the hordes.

"Where the hell is everybody?!" Tark screamed from the shadows. "I can't see a damn thing!"

"Keep quiet!" Hekin barked. "We're not exactly in a basking spot!" He lit the way with fireballs. "Use your feather, dammit!"

"It's not doing diddly squat," Tark complained. "Why do you keep telling me that?"

Hekin's jaw dropped at the mountain of demon bodies behind him.

The feather shimmered violet before resting on Tark's shoulder.

"Well, what do you know . . ." Tark muttered when he glanced behind. "Penny Lee really likes me!"

"Don't let her hear you say that," Hekin scowled. "She'll torture you to death."

Tark scratched his head with a sheepish grin. "Who's to say I wouldn't like it?"

Hekin spit out the bat demon he was eating. "You're a goddamn demon, aren't you?!"

Tark laughed as Sketta paid him with chocolate bars. "Told you I could get him to spit out his food."

Sketta sighed and patted Hekin's back. "He's getting good at this. Have you been teaching him?"

Hekin glared at Tark before the feather sent a slicing arc through the forest. The trees were left unscathed while the demons became bite-sized pieces. The bits that pulsed with energy were roasted with Hekin's flames.

Tark munched into a chocolate bar and beamed. "My favorite! If only there was some milk--"

A huge splash of a white liquid drenched Tark. His arm shook with fury as he crushed the chocolate bar.

Hekin roared with laughter as the body of a gellecros queen crashed before them. Her large breasts had unleashed the fresh milk.

"You are so dead!" Tark hollered.

Golir, Rif, Mil, Chichi, Thorn, and Jopp stared at the burst of violet light that filled the forest. The shockwave knocked them to the ground, separating everyone.

Golir searched for Rif's hand to pull him along, but in his place was a steep, rocky cliff. With his back to a sea roaring with demons, Golir readied the spiked mace.

Rif gasped as he aimed the Dozen, but a wall of stones bigger than himself stretched to the sky. Rif narrowed his eyes and stared at the ground. He aimed an arrow and commanded it with a word. "Kyn!"

Mil seemed frantic as she held an explosion spell in her hand. "Golir! Rif!" she called. "Where are you?!" Her forest was quiet and rippling with shadows.

Chichi reached out for Thorn, but he wasn't there. "What happened?" she muttered. "Where is everyone?" She stood at the edge of the sea, a flock of gellecros screeching as they flew towards her from the dark forest.

Thorn gulped when he saw his wife, her usually kind eyes devoid of emotion. Was this how she felt when he looked at her?

"Ezrin," he started, "please forgive me. I shouldn't have left you. I should've been there to protect you."

Jopp sat up and gulped when he noticed Noforl was approaching Thorn. Noforl's crimson hair reminded him of Alaris. His angry violet eyes seemed like Penny Lee's.

"How is that possible?" Jopp mumbled.

"Is everyone all right?" Tark asked Jopp as he approached from the forest. Tark wiped his face and sighed with relief. "Thorn is here, too. Wait . . . Who is that?" He glanced around and noticed Hekin and Sketta weren't with them. "Where did they go?"

Jopp grabbed Tark's shoulder and pulled him into the shadows.

"Stay very still and shut the hell up," Jopp warned. "That's the guy controlling all those demon minions. He's just as powerful as Penny Lee. Maybe even more so."

"Can he turn into a cat?" Tark queried.

Jopp's face dropped at the idea. "Tark! I really hate you!"