AELLA

I look over at Salem as we run towards the palace and my heart begins to pick up speed, not just from the running, but from him. Whenever I was dying, it was scary, but some part of me felt like I wasn't dying, like something was happening to me, but it wasn't death. I felt a dull pain in my chest. It didn't feel like how I thought a normal wound should feel. After I passed out I remember dreaming, or, at least, I thought I was dreaming. I remember that the same voice I heard before was in my dream, the same woman's voice from whenever I was in the mirror. Apparently I realized my love for Salem, all of my love for Salem, that is, and my necklace reacted to it. The necklace that I have is the same one that Haven had, it just looks different. The necklace was designed so that whenever the owner would fall in love and realize their true love, the power within the necklace would activate, revealing the true power of the owner, and also healing any wounds in the process. But the thing is, it also requires the other person to realize their love, so what happened while I was unconscious? I glance over at Salem curiously before looking back in front of me and shaking my head. I chuckle as I witness the spectacle in front of me and can't help but laugh.

"Stop getting in the way!" Amorette snaps at Alder and attempts to shove him to the side, but he barely budges.

"Stop yelling at me!" Alder yells back at her and shoves her back.

"Guys!" Lucilla shouts and flies between the two of them, "Stop it! We need to go find the others."

Amorette huffs and crosses her arms while Alder rolls his eyes.

"I should've kept that flower petal from you after I found out you had it," Amorette mutters, "You'd be much easier to shut up then."

"For a usually caring person, you sure do seem violent towards me," Alder says.

"Oh please," Amorette laughs, "What could you possibly know about me?"

Alder opens his mouth to answer, but then gets interrupted by Lucilla.

"Look!" Lucilla shouts and points at us.

Alder and Amorette look in our direction and relief floods onto their features. Amorette gasps upon taking in my appearance and Lucilla flies towards her brother and wraps her arms around him in a hug.

"Salem!" Lucilla beams, "You got your powers!"

"Yeah," Salem exchanges a glance with me before looking back at his little sister.

"You look amazing!" Amorette smiles and examines my wings, which are still glowing blue, "You're an Alpha class!"

"Yeah," I say and look at Shadowhaze, my new great sword, "I guess I am. Where are Blaze and Asher?"

"We aren't sure," Amorette shrugs.

"What happened to you guys?" Alder raises a brow and smirks.

"It's...not important," I say after a moment and Salem nods in agreement.

"Blaze!" Asher shouts in the distance, "Slow down!"

"Look!" Blaze calls out, "They're over here. I told you so! Shut up and stop whining!"

"Why does my girlfriend have to be so stubborn?" Asher sighs.

"You love me anyways," Blaze laughs as she flies up to us with Asher in her arms.

"Yeah, I know," Asher sighs and Blaze puts him down.

"Wow," Blaze raises her eyebrows as she examines me and Salem, "You two look like you went through Hell, no pun intended."

"Very funny," I roll my eyes.

"I'm guessing that we should go inside, then?" Blaze says as she glances up at the castle, which is illuminating a spiral of lights and explosions.

"No, we're just going to stand here and watch the castle burn," Alder rolls his eyes.

Blaze glares at him and he smirks and shrugs innocently.

"Well," Blaze says as she looks at me, "Lead the way, Alpha."

"My pleasure," I say as I run up the stairs and barge through the castle's front doors with the others following me.

I look around the entrance room of the castle, which is covered in rubble and there are cracks in many of the giant pillars that have blood red and blue runes carved into them as designs. I step over a piece of broken column and my shoes click against the black, marble floor that's covered in ashes. A black chandelier with red and blue candles swings eerily above us and threatens to drop as it creaks.

"This place looks like a mess," Salem whispers as we walk through the room and listen for sounds in the silence.

"Yeah..." I trail off whenever I hear a sudden boom, "Come on, this way!"

We run off to a room on the left and after a while we turn right up a spiral staircase and keep running until we reach the top of the staircase, which leads to a hallway with dark brown wooden floorboards and pictures are all lined up along the walls, as well as sconces. An open archway leads to the right and the hallway continues down straight for a while as well. We go to the right and run through the archway when another blast goes off and we end up in the throne room, which has four thrones and a long, blood red rug with black trim that leads from the archway to the platform with the thrones. Candle holders lay knocked over with a few of the candles broken, and the still standing pillars are all cracked and ruined, as well is the small fountain opposite of the thrones, making a small puddle around it. My eyes spot Evangeline, who is hovering in the air just a few feet from the chandelier that's made up entirely of black, red, blue, and pink crystals, before I look over slightly and spot a man with green eyes and Salem's ebony colored hair. The man scowls up at Evangeline and his right hand tightly grips his scythe. Evangeline looks in our direction and she scoffs.

"Well, look who arrived," Evangeline says, "The failed prodigy, the Demon Prince, the second best, the one who locked himself away, the Chaos Angel, the little sister, and the betrayer."

"Salem..." The man whispers and his eyes widen.

"You have no right to talk about us like that," I snap, "We're more than you'll ever be."

"I don't care what you think, Aella," Evangeline laughs in whimsy, "You may be an Alpha class, but you'll never be able to stop me. None of you can stop me."

"Then we'll gladly die trying," I say and hold my head up high and ready my great sword, "Just like your daughter died trying to kill us."

"What's she talking about?" Amorette leans to Blaze and whispers, who simply shrugs.

"Cherise was talented, that is true," Evangeline hums, "But she was a worthless child in the end."

"I've had enough of your talking!" I snap and fly at her.

"Me too!" Amorette shouts and flies behind me, along with Blaze and Lucilla.

"Oops!" Maurine says as she suddenly appears in front of us and laughs.

Amorette and Blaze both glance briefly at each other before they both swing at Maurine immediately. Meanwhile, Lucilla tries to trap Evangeline in a light trap, but fails. Blaze glances back at Asher and flies at him as he leaps up in the air, catching him and flying at Maurine as he summons his flame dragon. Flames start to swirl around him and suddenly a giant dragon made out of flames appears after spiraling around him and it flies at Maurine. Amorette then summons her lightning and points Calistena at Maurine before letting the lightning strike her. Maurine tries to summon multiple copies of herself, but Lucilla sends away each of the shadows by throwing light orbs at them. Meanwhile, I fly at Evangeline and swing my great sword at her. Evangeline raises her rapier and our swords continue to collide as we fight each other.

"Your training paid off," Evangeline says, "But it's still not enough."

"She may not be able to beat you on her own," Alder says as he flies up next to me, his chaos energy swirling around his right arm in ribbons, "But she's not alone."

Evangeline huffs and turns so that we're both in front of her and as we both attack her she raises her rapier with lightning speed and blocks each attack that we send her way. Suddenly Salem leaps up in the air and swings his black great sword down onto Evangeline's back, blue flames catching onto her wings and setting them ablaze.

"Alder's right," Salem says, "She's not alone, but I believe that she could take you down by herself if she had to, because just look at her -- she's been through so much pain that most people couldn't even begin to comprehend the feeling of, and yet, she's still going. That's true strength."

Evangeline yells as her wings burn off and she falls to the ground. She cries out in pain and clutches her right hand before glaring up at us and Asher and Blaze go back down to the ground as Amorette restrains Maurine.

"No," Evangeline says and summons over a hundred arrows made out of light in the air, "This is true strength. Power."

"Look out!" Asher shouts as the arrows release and he holds up his hands, creating a giant wall of flames and energy, which blocks the arrows.

Evangeline keeps summoning waves of arrows to shoot through Asher's shield, and he winces as if a heavy weight is being pressed upon him and he strains to keep the shield up.

"No," Blaze whispers and moves over to him.

Blaze gently turns his face towards her and he stares at her in confusion before she kisses him and his eyes widen in surprise. The wall of flames suddenly turns from orange flames to yellow to raging red flames and Asher's eyes flutter shut. Blaze pulls back after a few moments and they both open their eyes as Asher collapses against her, but the wall remains.

"Thanks..." Asher trails off tiredly and smiles at her.

"Y--Yeah," Blaze stammers and blushes, "Anything to help the person I love."

"Enough of this!" Evangeline shouts and Salem's father runs over to her and attacks her.

"You have done enough to harm this kingdom!" Salem's father shouts.

"Flux Ascendancy!" I shout and my set transforms into an even powerful version of itself, my great sword transforming to three times its size and burning brightly with blue and black flames.

Salem and I both swing our blades at Evangeline at the same time, while Alder traps her in a chaos trap and Lucilla throws a light orb at her.

Evangeline's eyes widen in surprise and she yells as she glows brightly and disappears, leaving her rapier behind as it clatters to the ground.

"Where did she go?" I ask and look around.

"She was wiped from existence!" Hadrian giggles as she suddenly appears and picks up Evangeline's rapier.

Hadrian watches as Evangeline's rapier glows and disappears before going over to Amorette and taking Maurine from her.

"I'll take care of this piece of trash," Hadrian giggles and holds up two fingers to her head and salutes to Salem's father while winking and sticking her tongue out before disappearing with Maurine.

"She is a strange one..." Salem's father sighs and shakes his head before looking around and sighing once more, "This place is a mess..."

"Father?" Salem asks questioningly and looks at the man standing a few feet away from him.

"Salem..." Salem's father trails off before going up to him and pulling him into a hug.

Salem's eyes widen and he nearly drops his sword from being so surprised.

"I understand if you don't want to see me," His father says once he pulls back, "I wouldn't be able to forgive my father if he abandoned me, but--"

"It's okay," Salem says and interrupts him, "I know it wasn't your fault now..."

"I've missed so much," His father sighs before he looks at me and smiles, "And it seems that you've found a girlf--"

"Dad!" Salem shouts and waves his hands around, "No."

"Oh," Salem's father chuckles before rolling his eyes and muttering, "I guess you haven't told her yet."

"What was that?" I question and try to figure out what Salem's dad muttered.

"What?" Salem's father shrugs when Salem looks at him with a questioning look, "It's as clear as day, but anyways, I suppose you guys wouldn't mind staying to help clean up? It would be nice to have some extra help around here and get to spend time with my son and his friends."

"Um," Salem looks back at us for confirmation and we all nod, "I guess we could stay for a little bit..."

"Oh, good," Salem's father looks visibly relieved, "Thank you."

I glance over at Salem and smile, but deep down a part of me can't help but feel like things were too easy and that something else is coming, whether it be good or bad.