SALEM
Pieces of ash float around the dark sky and a few land in Aella's hair. My eyes take in my surroundings and I notice how Aella is hovering over me, calling out to me, saying my name, and something about the situation seems oddly familiar. My ears continue to ring until finally the ringing slowly goes away and I can hear her as she's yelling for me and shaking me. Her emerald eyes search mine and slight relief fills them when she realizes that I'm okay.
"What's going on?" I ask, "Where are we?"
"Come on, we have to go!" She shouts and grabs my hand, "Whenever we went through the portal something went wrong and there was a giant blast. We all got separated from each other."
She pulls me up and leads me through the ash covered woods and closer to the burning city. I glance upwards and notice how the sky looks like it's stained with the color of blood, smoke blacks, and shades of oranges. A flash goes off and the oranges turn into yellows for a few seconds while a loud rumble follows until the flash dies down. Is this really what my home looks like?
"Where are we going?" I ask her.
"We have to get you to safety, you're all that matters!" She shouts over another loud rumble.
I frown slightly and stare at her back with confliction. Her wings ruffle and panic fills me as I realize that this is from my dream that I had a while ago. My chest tightens and I find it beginning to be harder to breathe as she leads me to the city.
We enter the city full of burning buildings and the fires reflect off of some of the shiny pieces of metal on them. We walk past ruined cars, cracked sidewalks, flickering street lights, and swaying telephone lines. She leads me to an area where there's barely any rubble, but we're mainly surrounded by buildings and a parking garage, except for in front of us and behind us. She turns to face me and looks me in the eyes, hers burning with determination, but in need of hope. It's as if she knows something that I don't, and it bothers me, because it feels ominous, but I think I do know what she's thinking now that I've seen this before. I just don't like it.
"Okay," She starts, "You need to get out of this city. We had to walk through it in the first place because the palace is on the other side and that's where Evangeline and your father are. We can't get there without being spotted by going around, so we had to come this way. Otherwise I would've taken you through the woods or flown you over. I want you to run, run until --"
"I'm not leaving you," I shake my head.
"Now isn't the time to act all courageous, Salem," Amusement shines in her eyes but she frowns, "You need to get out of here."
"But I can't just leave you here!" I shout.
"Shh," She shushes me and glances around, "Not so loud, but yes you can. Just go, run and don't look back, it's simple."
"It isn't that simple because I don't --"
"Salem," Sadness fills her eyes and she grabs both of my hands and holds them in hers, "Please. Go."
A few more pieces of ash float down from the sky and another blast goes off in the distance. I stand there, knowing what will happen to her if I don't make up my mind quickly, and more panic fills me.
"I--"
"Salem!" She cuts me off, her eyes widening, "Look out!"
She tries to push me out of the way, but I tackle her to the ground and the assailant flies by us both, their glowing white saber barely missing us both. My eyes widen in surprise as I stare into Aella's eyes and realize that I just prevented her death. Did I just...does this mean that she'll be okay now?
"Salem..." She whispers and her eyes search mine.
I get up and offer her a hand up, which she gladly takes. The two of us then turn to the attacker and Aella gasps while my eyes widen in surprise. The familiar blonde with a streak of pink in her hair tilts her head to the side and smiles before lowering the hood to her white cloak and her silver and white armor shimmers as light from the burning fires reflects onto it. She brushes off her skirt and makes circles in the ground with her one boot.
"Cherise?" Aella questions and summons her Entraix set, "Why?"
"Did you really think I was a human?" Cherise giggles, "Wow, I must be getting better at acting."
"What are you?" Aella scowls and Cherise swings her saber around, "Why are you doing this?"
"You really don't recognize me?" Cherise sighs, "I'm disappointed in you. Who do you think killed your parents, Aella?"
"How did you..." Aella trails off and her grip around her rapier tightens.
"Your parents never had any other kids besides you, but they did foster a little, lonely, girl whose parents were in an accident, and the girl needed to be taken care of," Cherise says, "Or, at least, that's what my mother put on my papers."
"Your mother?" Aella questions.
"You really don't get it yet, do you?" Cherise laughs, "Why do you think Evangeline sent you to look over Salem? Why do you think Evangeline wants to control all of the realms, especially Hell? Why do you think I was so nice to you right away? Evangeline is my mother, and Evangeline had me with the Demon King."
"You're my half sister?!" I shout and she smiles slyly.
"After Desdemona had you with your father, Evangeline managed to gain his affection and they had me, meanwhile your mother was getting over how your father abandoned you and a few years later she had Lucilla with an Angel," Cherise explains, "I went to live with Evangeline and she taught me everything she knows. She even had me eliminate Aella's parents in hopes of training Aella to be like me, but sadly Aella had other plans. What a pity."
"You're a monster," Aella snaps, "Just like your mother."
"Thank you," She smiles at me before her expression suddenly turns serious and she holds up her saber, "But you won't win against me. It's impossible."
"Oh yeah?" Aella questions, "We'll see about that."
Aella and Cherise attack each other while I stand there feeling like an idiot for not knowing how to do anything. I want to be able to help her, but I don't know how to use my powers. It makes me feel useless and worthless when it comes to protecting her, and I hate it.
Aella swings her rapier at Cherise, who swings her saber up, which glows bright white with energy and flames and reflects Aella's attack. Aella slides backwards some, but quickly flies back at Cherise, who swings at her and flies around at extreme speeds. Aella manages to block every attack, but then Cherise kicks her and she flies into the nearest building, creating a cloud of dust. Aella winces before powering up her set and holding out her rapier. A few moments later a redish-pink rune circle glows in front of her rapier and a bunch of arrows of the same color made out of light shoot from the rune as if they were ribbons of light. The arrows twist and turn and fly in all different directions towards Cherise, who holds up her right arm and a shield of light energy and white flames appears before her, shattering the arrows of light when they hit. Cherise then slashes her sword through the air and creates an "x" out of light and white flames rip up the ground and swirl everywhere, creating a maze of flames.
"Come on, Aella," Cherise laughs, "I'm an Alpha class and I'm part Angel Princess and Demon Princess, you can't beat me."
"Don't be so sure about that," Aella says and transforms into her Chitose set.
"Are you trying to die?" Cherise laughs, "Chitose? You must really have a death wish."
"Be careful, Aella," I whisper to myself as I watch her fly through the flames and at Cherise.
Aella and Cherise both swing at each other with their blades and sparks fly from the power and energy as they continue to hit over and over again, clashing furiously.
"I may not be an Alpha class," Aella says and her necklace begins to spark again, "But I'm Aella Nightinghour, and I won't let you harm the ones that I love!"
Aella powers up her Chitose set to maximum power as she swings again and this time Cherise slides backwards several feet. Cherise huffs and narrows her eyes at Aella before raising her hands in the air and the flames swirl around and whip wildly as Cherise begin to have a white glow around her and her set transforms. Cherise's saber turns into a giant great sword with a pink jewel in the center by the handle, which is surrounded by two white wings that are part of the sword, and runes run throughout the sword and glow pink with energy.
"No more playing around," Cherise snaps and swings her sword around, making arrows of pink light swirl around it while her wings glow pink, and when she points it at Aella she smiles in a sadistic manner, "Goodbye, Aella."
"No!" I shout and Cherise turns towards me.
"Well, I guess I could get rid of you first," Cherise says and points her sword at me.
"Salem!" Aella shouts and flies in front of the way whenever Cherise's sword releases the arrow of light from the end of it.
My eyes widen in shock as I watch Aella get hit and my mind seems to almost go blank. Did I...did I just get her killed? Is it still my fault?
"Aella!" I shout and run to her while Cherise stands there with a smile on her face.
I collapse to my knees and Aella looks at me with her emerald eyes showing a sea of different emotions, but I can't seem to find regret there. I pick her up and cradle her head in my lap as blood continues to flow out from the wound in her chest.
"Don't look at me like that," She sighs.
"Like what?" I manage to choke out as my eyes search hers frantically.
"Like it's your fault," She says, "I'm the one who chose to jump in the way."
"But..." I trail off and I feel myself beginning to cry.
"Hey," She says softly and raises a hand to brush away my tears, "Don't cry. Don't worry about me. I'm really glad that I met you, Salem..."
"But I...I never...I didn't get to..." I trail off as I notice that her eyes are shut and her hand dropped down to her side, "Aella? Aella?!"
I shake her slightly and begin to cry even more as moments of her flood through my mind like a slide show and my chest begins to hurt.
"I...I love you..." I say quietly and hold her close to me as a few of my tears drop down onto her and her necklace sparks again.
I gently place her down before rage consumes me and my head snaps up to look directly at Cherise, who is standing there laughing. I slowly get up off of my knees and I glance down at the ground while I start to laugh. Cherise suddenly grows quiet and stares at me in confusion.
"What are you laughing about?" She questions.
"You are no sister of mine," I say as I hold my right hand out and a giant black sword begins to materialize piece by piece, "You never will be. You killed someone that I love. You killed the person that I'm in love with. You ripped her away from me, so I'm going to rip you from existence!"
I look down at my right hand to notice that the black great sword has blue flames burning brightly around it and blue runes carved into the side of it, which are glowing brightly. I run towards Cherise and swing at her immediately, not even taking the time to think about what I'm doing, and although she tries to block it she gets hit and staggers backwards. Her eyes widen in surprise and I hit her again, blue flames swirling around me and anger burning in my eyes. I leap up in the air and raise my sword above my head as blue flames burn and rip up the ground and surround Cherise before I swing my sword down on her. Her eyes widen in fear as she holds up her hands to create an energy shield, but I break through it and hit her. She staggers backwards again and huffs before pointing her sword at me and it begins to glow again. I swing my sword around before leaping up in the air again and slamming the point into the ground, creating a path of flames that breaks through the ground and makes a fissure that leads towards Cherise. She flies up in the air to avoid being sucked down into the fissure and she continues to point her sword at me with annoyance written on her face.
"Just go away!" Cherise shouts and as she goes to release the ribbons of light a blue wave of light suddenly flies towards her and she crashes into a lamp post nearby.
My eyes widen in surprise and I turn back to see Aella standing there with white, silver, black, and light blue armor, and a silver great sword that's glowing bright with electricity and flames the same color as her armor, and her usually white wings are now light blue with a faint glow to them.
"Aella..." I breathe out.
She glances at me and smiles before looking back at Cherise, flying towards her, and swinging her sword at her, making her crash down into the pavement. Aella flies down in front of Cherise and holds her sword out so that the end of it is right in front of Cherise's face and Cherise winces.
"You're an Alpha class," Cherise whines, "How is that possible?"
"It seems that you've underestimated me," Aella says.
Cherise scowls and goes to raise her sword against Aella, but Aella swings her blade before Cherise can even get her arm up, and I don't even flinch upon hearing the impact. A few moments later Cherise's sword fades away as particles of light and Aella turns back to face me.
"How..." I breathe out... "How are you..."
"I'm not sure," She says, but then blushes and clutches her necklace, "But I think I know..."
She then turns her gaze to my sword and she smiles.
"You unlocked your powers!" She cheers and runs over to me and pulls me into a hug.
"Y--Yeah," I stammer and feel my face heat up, but I wrap my arms around her tightly, "I guess I did. I still don't know how to really use them though."
"That's still amazing, Salem," Aella laughs.
"What about you?" I ask, "Look at you."
"I know," She smiles slightly, but then it soon fades, "We should probably go find the others."
More lights flash from the other side of the city, close to the castle, and I see storm clouds forming over the area where the flash was.
"Something tells me that Amorette is over there," I say and point to the area.
"Yeah," Aella nods and pulls out of the hug, "Let's go."
As the two of us head out in search for the others, I can't help but be grateful that she's still alive.