The dark fiend

Zain and the others were surprised at what happened. They now believed that they had found the healer's flower. They found their way out of the badlands and headed homewards. Unlike the journey before, the journey home was peaceful and smooth. But as soon as dusk approached, they began to hear whooshing sounds, as-if something very fast was moving around them.

" Do you guys hear that?," asked Zelta.

" Yeah, something's not right," whispered Zain. She looked scared to death.

" I think we're not alone," said Alec. At this point, the sound increased with intensity and aggressiveness. It produced a great wind that surrounded them like a hurricane.

" We're gonna die!" screamed Zain continuously and uncontrollably.

" Hay look at me," said Alec as he held her shoulder," We are not going to die, non of us will." She nodded afterward, glaring at the sight of the wind.

After a long while, the sound and the wind stopped, then they saw hovering before them, a figure of a human in a black garment, which had a hoodie that prevented them from seeing its face. It was slowly gliding towards them. Its foot wasn't visible, it was all smoky. When it came close enough, they were able to see its face. They were all terrified at the sight of the face, as it looked hideous. It had a snow-white complexion, red glowing eyes, blood stains around the mouth, and protruding sharp teeth. They quickly drew out their weapons, ready for an attack.

" Greetings earthlings," said the hideous creature, with an echoing and spooky voice.

" Who are you?" asked Zelta with boldness, rather forged.

" We are the dark fiends of helluva, the Hades. We come to feast on your souls," answered the creature, hovering in the air.

" What?" muttered Zain with an uneasy, but rather terrified look on her face. What they heard from it made them more terrified than ever. But Alec stepped out and said to it;

"Hay, whoever you are, whatever you want, you're not getting any of it. Our souls don't belong to you". He quickly drew out an arrow and fired at it, but the arrow passed through it without effect.

"What is this?" said Alec in disbelief. It flew high to the sky, then it began to descend on them with great speed. As it descended, it duplicated itself to become plenty. The duplicates then flew above them in a ring-like manner. Alec kept on firing arrows at them, this made one of them descend on him with speed, holding him to the ground. It held him, staring into his eyes. He just lay there, choking and wriggling his lower limbs. It was feeding on his soul, by taking away all his joyous and good memories and replacing them with bad ones. It fed him with all the pain he had experienced in the past.

" It's killing him," said Zain.

Tobin quickly rushed at it to do something, but another one descended at once on him and did likewise to him.

" Oh no, what are we gonna do now?" asked Zain.

" On three, we grab them away from their grip," said Zelta. " I'll go for Tobin, and you go for Alec," she added.

" One... two...three," counted Zelta, then they both ran to where Alec and Tobin lay. Zelta got there first, but as she was about to grab Tobin, another one of those fiends descended on her too and sent her to the ground. It started to feed on her soul. When Zain saw what had happened to Zelta she slowed down and gazed up, only to see another one coming toward her. It was almost close to her, when a very bright light shine from the sky and hit all the fiends away. They loosed their hold on Zelta, Tobin, and Alec, who stood up immediately, panting and exhaling in relief. They looked where the creatures fell and saw that they were burning, the rest in the sky fled from sight.

" What just happened?" asked Zelta.

" Whatever happened, was for our advantage," answered Alec.

" Let's just get out of here before something else meets us," said Tobin. So they took to their heels, running as fast as they could be.

They reached the northern mountains and began to climb. Zelta, being a fast climber was far ahead of them. When she reached the top, about to cross over, she looked down and spotted some guard warriors on the other side. She tried to hide, but there was no point in doing so because they had already seen her. They were now waving at her, probably shouting at the top of their voices and commanding her to come down. She didn't want all of them to be caught, so she shouted to the others who were still far behind, saying; " You all should hide, I've been caught," she warned.

" How?" exclaimed Tobin.

"Just hide, I have the flower with me. Don't worry about me, I'll tell them that I'm alone," said Zelta.

" I'm coming with you Zelta," said Tobin, but she was already descending. He started to climb fast to meet up with her, but he was drawn back by Alec and Zain.

" You shouldn't go," said Alec to him.

Zelta carefully climbed down to the other side to meet the guards. She expected that it would be her uncle that she would meet keeping guard with the others, but coming towards her from both sides, was the second in command; De voe.

" Hello blonde," he said with a smirk smile.

" I um...I can explain," stammered Zelta.

" Where are the others?" he asked.

" There's no one else, I'm alone," she lied.

" I've been monitoring this pretty face of yours lately, and I've come to realize that something ain't right with you," he said.

" I get you, you caught me. I left the valley and I know the penalty that follows my act," said Zelta. " But the reason why I went out was to get the healers flower for my mother's cure," she added.

" Your mother?" asked De voe. " By the way, can I see this so-called healer's flower?" he requested. She brought it out of her side bag and handed it to him.

" It's right here," said Zelta as she handed it over to him.

" Good heavens!," exclaimed De voe, "the legends are true". He took it from her and viewed it carefully.

"Incredible, a flower of gold," added De voe.

" Can I go now?" asked Zelta.

"Can you go?" asked De voe, rather scornfully.

" I'm afraid things are changed now girl," he added.

" You're coming with us," said De voe to her.

" Get her boys," he ordered his men.

" You know you don't have to do this, don't you?" said Zelta.

" Don't be naive child, I can and I will," said De voe.

" Perhaps, I already have," he added.

At this point, the massive guards were already coming to apprehend her.

" Wait, I demand to get my flower back!" exclaimed Zelta.

"Not a chance, it's mine for the taking," said De voe.

The reply from the commander left a puzzled look on her face. She stared at him in astonishment.

" Give it back, you know the priestess needs it," she protested.

De voe's men were still standing where they were, staring at Zelta.

" What are you waiting for, get the girl !" he yelled. But they still stared at her, looking intimidating.

" Do my eyes deceive me, two able-bodied men are afraid of a female," said De voe.

On hearing this, the two guards charged toward Zelta. One of them brought out a long chain, in in-order to bound her, but Zelta was so strong to avoid it. They both began to struggle with the chain. De voe stood, watching as she employed different defensive and offensive fighting skills, preventing the man from using the chain on her, while the guard on his own side tried to suppress her with his massive manpower, and chain her. Due to the fact that her strength wasn't a match for his, he managed to overpower her. She lay on the ground, trying to muster enough strength to get rid of the massive man above her, but there was no strength left in the tank. When she saw that there was no more escape and that she was fading fast, she managed to strike his gonads with her knee. This sent him straight to the floor as he began favoring his gonads, wailing in pain. On seeing this, the second guard came at her furiously, but she was quick enough to deliver a slide-down at his expense, wrapping the chain around his neck.

" Please...pleee," he whimpered in pain. He held him down, then after some time she eventually released her hold. He coughed momentarily, trying to regain his breath. De voe marveled at what Zelta had done. He clapped his hands in admiration.

" Excellent combat skills, who's the teacher?" he asked. Zelta didn't answer the question, she was exhausted. Apart from the training she received as a young warrior, she received extra training from her Uncle and from the priestess, when she was younger.

" Tell your men to let me be, I'm not a criminal," exclaimed Zelta.

" I'll go with you to the capital," she added, panting.

" Now that's a good girl," replied De voe. Then turning to his men who were still on the ground, he said; "Imbeciles, why are you two still sitting there, haven't you gotten enough shame already?". He rushed to them furiously and gave them resounding punches by the side of the jaw.

" You are a disgrace!" he yelled angrily," Both of you!" he added.

"Stand up now you're still alive or I'll just end you myself, " he ordered. They stood up at once and followed Zelta and De voe, who led the way to the capital.