Chapter eighteen

After a couple more hours in the crystal forest they had finally entered Hazuki's surrounding area, Karla was a bit shocked as she had never seen this part of her aunties territory, meanwhile Starblazes aura hadn't gotten better, to say the least -it had actually gotten worse, her hair at the bottom had started turning red and now the red had covered half her hair which they decided to not mention it to her, maybe she knew about it standing there without telling anybody what had happened

"are we there?" Tatsuya asked standing up and helping Viper up

"Star you still in there?" Belinda asked walking slowly to her

"Star answer us" Karla said, they waited for a while for a reply but got nothing, getting restless Viper walked up to her grabbing her arm

"hey a- a" she stared at Starblaze with widened eyes

"anyone else? Feeling this" Tatsuya asked with a strained voice

"what is this aura" Karla asked looking at her sister, it was like there was some kind of darkness surrounding her

"you know you guys are pretty smart, but I was expecting better" Star grabbed Viper and flung her far into the forest shocking the others

"Star what are you doing?" Karla asked

"Star?, Star isn't here right now" she slowly turned around revealing purple hollow eyes they weren't Starblazes anymore

"who are you" Belinda asked

"me? You don't remember me? Aww Belinda it really has been a long time since we met huh?" Belinda and Karla looked at each other

"I'll only ask once again, who are you" she asked getting into a stance ready to fight

"and I'll only say it once, I might just be your worst enemy yet" Belinda leaped at her but Starblaze caught her by her neck before throwing her so hard she went through most of the trees, Karla and Tatsuya looked at each other before splitting up and attacking her from different directions trying to confuse her, they fought hand in hand with her which didn't make it any easier as whoever was in Starblaze was tough.

"what kind of demon is this?" Karla asked panting

"demon? Of course she's a demon" Tatsuya said moving far away from her

"demon? But I thought demons were all sealed in the mystic ales labyrinth long ago" Karla said

"they were but it seems they've started to escape" Belinda said walking out of the rubble with no scratch, they probably already healed

"so you do know her then?" Karla asked

"watch out!" right after Tatsuya said that a fire ball came hurling towards them but they dodged it just in time

"so you do remember me?" Star asked with a smirk on her face

"not quite yet" Belinda ran at her and came at her from above, she smiled and got ready to defend but Belinda disappeared, she looked around before being flung into the trees where she collapsed and groaned in pain

"wait don't hurt her too much, it's still Stars body" Karla shouted as Belinda was about to release a fire ball

"you know Belinda, you've always been weak" Starblaze grabbed her by her neck before flying upwards, when she was high enough she threw far into the forest

"two gone, two about to be gone" she said with a pout as she landed before advancing towards them

"Karla follow my lead I know just what to do" Karla nodded before dodging the fireball landing on a nearby tree and watching to see what Tatsuya would do, she noticed he was no longer fighting hand to hand but was now releasing attacks of his own with fireballs, ice balls and even some other powers she didn't know of.

"you know for a demon you're definitely overated" Karlas eyes widened hearing him say that, she didn't think their plan would be to make her add more effort into killing them

"what did you say little dragon?" so Tatsuya and Viper are dragons after all, Star mentioned it before but she didn't think she was serious.

"you heard me, I'm sure your face is as bad as your skills in battle" Karla decided to not go down the tree as she decided she would want to stay alive for a couple more years

"I'll show you battle skill boy" she started to attack him with lightning speed but he blocked every attack and gave back some of his own, Karla couldn't see exactly what was happening all she saw was red and dark purple light clashing over and over again and she assumed things were going okay, at least she hoped, she finally jumped down from the tree because Tatsuya had sent Star flying towards her so she had to get down.

"see? Told you, you're weak, maybe that's why Belinda doesn't remember you" star jumped down the tree and it was obvious she was covered in the darkness more than before.

"you dare to call me weak? Well I'll show you just the ancient demons can do" she began to glow and change, it was obvious that she was slowly losing control, soon Stars face wasn't there anymore

"wow what a beauty" Tatsuya said

"look at me now look what I can do" she said laughing maniacly

"what's happening" Viper and Belinda finally came running into the scene to see the demon standing before them

"oh my God the hell happened here" Viper asked

"God and hell in one sentence, nice" Karla said

"where's Star" Belinda asked

"now time to finish you all of-" the forest went quiet as the demon now stood there not saying anything or screaming

"why, why is it suddenly so cold, what's happening"

"even demons need their cold dark heart to live" they turned to see Starblaze standing there, she turned around holding a small bag in her hand

"t- that's mine"

"oh I'm sorry I didn't notice" she walked closer to the demon a bit before throwing the bag into the bushes, almost immediately there were sounds of struggling in the bushes as the beasts ate up the what was in the bag before leaving, with one last groan the demon finally went still turning to stone then to dust.

"Star?" she turned around still having her eyes red but slowly they changed to white and had a glow in them

"hey guys" they all sighed in relief finally having their Star back

"wow I wouldn't have guessed a group would come into my territory and bring in a demon as well" they turned to look at the speaker

"aunty Hazuki" the girls ran to her hugging her at once

"girls you've changed"

"before we explain, I'm hungry" Hazuki shook her head before leading all of them the rest of the way through the crystal forest.