I think Swift's disguise actually helped us a lot. He looked like a slightly taller than average, burly bodyguard. If he didn't have to wear a hat, he would remind me of the ones who protect important people. Like the President, or in this case, a Guard Bond.

Henry was now wearing a new change of clothes. He was wearing a dark green tank top, with some brown words that say "rumble and tumble" on it. He was wearing some athletic shorts, and brand new sneakers with a grip on the bottom. His hair is already fixed, so it is less messy. As for me, I am also wearing new clothes. I am wearing a blue T-shirt that can handle exercises, and also some athletic shorts. My sneakers are a bright yellow, courtesy of Swift's find in the closet back at Frank's and Evie's house.

He was leading the way, looking around occasionally and talking about our destination, but other than that, he was quiet. The destination was apparently known by many portal users around here. It is an entry-way of a private park, owned by something called "Magilival Military Company". Odd name for something that sounded pretty exotic, who would have Magilival as a last name?

As we were walking, I was able to carry both Kilinco's and Fi-shue's gem, who were quiet in my head so far. I honestly don't understand why we have to get moving now, when it is almost midday. Well, it is also cloudy and threatening to rain with the occasional rumble of thunder.

Even the streets were almost empty as we cross it. We came across a few kids who were playing soccer. They accidentally kicked the ball in our direction, and I grinned as Swift playfully kicked it back. They happily continued their game, as we moved onwards to the park, which was about three miles away, an estimate from Swift.

I could also tell that Swift liked going fast. As he sometimes walked past normal speeds and we would be running after him, telling him to slow down. He would, and then we would continue at our pace, but I couldn't shake the feeling as if he feels rushed because he has to not only protect me, but bring Henry back as a different person teleports me through the portal...or whatever they were using there.

Soon enough, we were almost there, as I could see a sign that points towards the park. I smile, but frown at noticing something odd. A small doll was abandoned on the sign, with orange hair and blue shirt and jeans. Their eyes were button-sewed on. They were hanging by a small piece of yarn, off of the sign, and a small orange stick sword in their hand.

Swift noticed, and chucked it so far away that I think it might make it to the next continent.

As we walk to the park, I noticed someone standing, or a few someone's, standing outside of the park's entrance. We stopped and hid behind a nearby wall of a building to spy on it. Unfortunately, I could not see well, but I do notice that all of them have tails. Their heads are wrapped in a scarf, and most of them were wearing mittens and long sleeved shirts, long jeans, and occasionally I can get a glimpse of a sock.

I'm surprised no one has noticed these guys. Some of their tails, and what is revealed of their faces, are different colors, like blue and slightly see-through, or bright red or yellow. One was even a green and brown. Only a few were a peach, slightly skin color.

Swift stood, "Stay here." And moved very quickly to the creatures. All of them looked up at him, and he talked to them. After a minute of talking, they nod and move out of the way of the entrance, walking across the street and standing there. Swift made the motion for us to follow, and we caught up with him at the park. Just then, all of the strange creatures has pulled back the scarf on their heads. And all of them left me astonished.

Some faces were rounded, while others were sharp. They all had very large eyes, and two ears that look fluffy, and some were crackling with electricity, other's on fire (I don't know how their clothes are not burning), some with anti-gravity water, and most with fur, but the green-brown one has twigs and leaves covering them.

Most smile and wave, while the rest look to the entrance of the park, seeming to mutter something under their breath. I looked at Swift, still in awe, "What are they?"

He looked at me, "Spirits. All of different elements. Sad we didn't get all of them, but the less it takes to open this, the better." He says. Henry frowns, "Which one is the friend who will escort us?"

Swift looked around, and from behind us, a clicking sound was made. I turn and was surprised to find the boy from days ago, who gave me the fruits. He still had the freckles and light eyes. But what is even more surprising is that their body changes, from physical, to a dark mist version of a spirit. Their eyes were glowing white, and their teeth are almost as dark as them. They hiss and look towards Swift.

Swift pointed, "Darak will."

But I remembered something, "Wait, wasn't he the one in the mirror?" I ask, and Darak nods and clicks his jaws together. I'm not sure if that is how they talk, or if this is what he does. "That is a yes." Swift translated. At least, I thought he translated. I look to the Spirits, who were now holding their arms towards the park and muttering.

Darak hissed and looked towards one of them, who has not uncovered their head. Then I realized that they were glowing blue. They have some sort of purple hair sticking out of their hat, as well as yellow. I wonder what kind of element they are, but they are looking around while covering their face with their scarf. Darak's body seemed to dematerialize and float quickly to the spirit, then re-formed to probably talk with them. I look around, noticing that it feels noticeably warmer around here.

"Can you lower your magic, Jacklynn?" Swift asked kindly. I pause from my search and look down to my hand, which is slightly glowing an orange color. I don't know why. I clench my fist, and I was shocked to see it on fire. But it doesn't feel like it is burning.

Swift put his hand around mine, and the fire went away, but not after feeling an dreadful cold pass through my body.

"You must to be careful, Guard Bond. Maybe focusing on something not magical can help." He suggested, and I did. I decided to think of before this all happened. I realized I missed school. I thought I saw a long-lost friend, but I couldn't see them as I entered the bus. Speaking of, I wonder if the teachers are still concerned for me running away. Am I ever going back to school? As I dwelled on this, the place picked up wind around us. It swirled the dead leaves and some flower petals into a ring in the air.

But as that happened, some distant screeches were heard.

One of the spirits neared the ring of dead leaves, and simply touches one. The flames flickered for a bit before setting multiple leaves on fire, and making a successful fire circle. I marveled at it for a moment, then I noticed that the circle surrounded something. It looked similar to the surface of water, or a very distorted mirror that shows something green on the other side.

I looked to Henry, and for once, I am feeling a bit upset. Then, he looked to me and glared at me, "You better get me a Guardian thingy so I can beat you up in a battle." He says and pokes. I ended up smiling and poking back. Just as Darak approached me, the blue glowing spirit revealed their face.

For some reason, they look oddly familiar.

They were not like a regular spirit, they look like a glowing blue-skinned human, with purple and yellow parts of their hair. Their face was sharpened, but seemed smooth. Their eyes were also blue, just a slightly darker shade of it.

Swift turned towards the distant screeches and howls (which were getting closer) and held out his hand. A short spear appeared in it, the blade seemingly made of green metal, while the staff was a very light blue color, engravings on the handle of it.

I stared at it, "Awesome," I thought out loud. I felt something grab my arm, and I looked to see Darak holding it, and I noticed that he was oddly cold. Not only that, but he had small claws as well. I nearly snickered. It reminded me of a cat for some reason.

Turning to face where Swift was facing, I saw something from a distance. Again, not much human activity around, which made me anxious, but I also saw that some demons, like the ones that we had fought in our basement, were stalking us from a distance, surrounding us between any escape route, and the portal.

Darak pulled on my arm, towards the portal, but I felt something inside of me. I don't want to leave all of these guys to fight demons by themselves! It's bad enough that I have to run away from things so far, now I feel like fighting. And judging by the warmth radiating from Kilinco's gem, I could tell he felt the same way. Either that, or he is cold himself.

Looking around, I take my arm from Darak and pick up a nearby rock, then glanced at him. "I want to fight, can you fight while bringing Henry back home?" I ask him.

Darak stared at me blankly, as if he had no idea what I said.

Frowning, I try again, but then I noticed that Henry was staying far away from Darak, as if that thing made him uneasy. But Darak glanced to him (I was not sure how I could tell, as I don't see any pupils in his eyes) and nodded. He then went to Henry and, despite the protests, he held Henry's arm instead, heading back the way they came from.

Swift threw his spear towards a group of demons going to Darak. He punctured the first one-a light grey and has multiple scars on it-and it fell to the ground, pulling at the speer. Swift's hand was raised, and he summoned another speer as well.

One of them, a red one with crazed black eyes, charged at Darak and Henry. Henry was screaming and trying to pull away from Darak to run, but the misty being kept an iron grip. At the last second, his claws extended to a foot in length (now he does NOT remind me of a cat) and slashed at the demon, causing it to screech and fall onto its back, raking at their own wound as if it was burning.

Darak retracted their claws and surrounded Henry in a bit of its own mist. Henry then disappeared, and Darak returned to the group, casually fighting any demon who dares to come close enough to him.

The rest of the spirits are also fighting, but not as well as the previous. However, their skill is made up in there determination. For example, the brown and green one was trying to grow some plants from the ground, but it kept shivering up and being droopy. A water one then blasted a bit of water at it, and it grew to an enormous, tangled vine that reached out and snatched nearby demons.

Swift was twirling his speer and shooting things made of light out of it, and being back to back with one that was bright yellow, electricity sparking between them as one burns, and the other shocks.

I looked at the ones made of fire, and they seem as if they are doing a good job at warding off demons. Most try to avoid them, but all of them get burned if they go anywhere near me and the portal.

But then, I see the tides turning. One made of water screamed as a demon raked their claws at them, then bit at their arm and threw them aside.

Another one, a smaller lightning one, yelled at one of the demons while giving a blast of electricity, but got backstabbed by one of the demons who had a scorpion tail.

Another peach colored spirit was being thrown around in their own torrents of wind, the demons biting and scratching at them, and they were already limp by now.

And that made me angry.

Making a noise I never known I could scream before, I charged at the demons. No weapons, no summoned Guardians, just me and that big and ugly brute.

THIRD POV

The demons hadn't expected Jack to be weaponless, fighting them off. With a single rock, she had chucked the same one, over and over, to a demon who was trying to get at the Life Spirit. Unluckily for her though, that put her in the spotlight. The demons wanted her to get enraged to see which one of them they needed to capture. And the shard screaming in anger made things a lot easier for them.

One demon, a dark grey with yellow eyes, was casually watching the battle going on, rapping their talons in a "passively bored" fashion. However, one could tell just by how their eyes are catching everything going on around, that they shouldn't be messed with.

Jacklynn jumped onto a back of the red demon, the one that was hostile and previously went after Henry, and held on, hitting them over the head with a now hot rock. Unknownst to her, fire is their main weakness as demons, and the rock was now doing a lot more damage.

Swift noticed the change in battle, of how much less are going after Spirits, and more to Jacklynn. He internally screamed out. How could he be so clueless as to this? This really frustrates him to no ends, and he summons another speer, but before he could throw it, something pulled it out of his hand and turned him around. Swift glared at the dark grey demon, with black button eyes and a sickening smile, "WhAt Is WrOnG?" E said, with their rumbling voice with constant hissing between words.

"You are," Swift retorted, and thrust the spear at E. The demon dodged quickly, grabbing the weapon and pushing it away with the spear that he caught. They dueled, as one constantly blasted the demon with Light Magic, while the other dodged the attacks and bit at their opponent, their tail also used as a tripping device occasionally.

The Spirits focused fire at the group of demons, except for one. This light blue glowing humanoid watched nervously at the fight, unsure of what to do. Already three spirits had fallen out of the few that they have brought, and none of them are supposed to stay here for longer than a day. They expected to be home by sundown.

Shivering, the light blue entity tapped both their blue and purple part of their hair, holding an empty bottle, which was somehow filled with a dark blue potion. Glancing around, they spot a Fire Spirit nearby, and ran to them. Standing by their side, they chucked the bottle right at a few demons. They got splashed slightly by the bottle, but some chuckled when there was no effect from it.

The light blue humanoid murmured, "Set fire to those demons."

As the fireball arched in the air to their target, Jacklynn had been busy using a spear that was nearby to jab at the demons. However, she is getting more cuts and scrapes from them than what they are getting from everyone else.

Darak was busy making quick work of the demons. And by quick, they are nearly travelling faster than the eye can see. Just a blur before you gain a new injury on your side, eye, or even on their tail if they weren't paying attention. They had already counted 20 demons near here, not including E, who was having a one-on-one battle with Swift.

And everything went great until an explosion rang out, both demons and Spirits screaming and ducking for cover, while Jack was thrown out of the explosion from the potion. Her body, now burnt and cut and bleeding, managed to get up from that. She looked around dizzily, not noticing that a demon was behind her until it was too late.

She turned around to find that the red demon was inches away from her, ready to strike. Then got tackled down by a familiar looking one.

This demon was blue.

Confused and injured, she asked, "G?"

The demon hissed at the red counterpart, who was much larger than them anyway, but they were surprisingly submissive to the blue demon. Then, both disappeared out of the area, reducing the number by one.

Darak slashed his way to Jack, noticing the bleeding. He resisted the Hunter's temptations and grabbed her arm, clicking. He made her limp towards the portal, which has been opened for quite a while now. Too tired to fight back, she watched the battle continue behind her and Darak, and as she stepped through and continued to watch, a pang filled her when she glanced to Swift.

He had been beaten, bloodied and bruised, and he was still smiling at her. Then, his form faded into a gem, which was caught by the light blue humanoid. They both disappeared.

And Jack and Darak stepped through the portal, into a new world.