Chereads / Hallowed Demons: The Rise of Broken Heroes / Chapter 5 - Chapter V: Lost in the Woods

Chapter 5 - Chapter V: Lost in the Woods

Dante and Alister were chased by angry vampires until they entered the boundary of the gladiator town located in the west region of GreatLand. When they stepped inside the boundary, the vampires suddenly stopped chasing them, that it seemed like they were afraid to enter the place.

"Why'd they stop there?" Dante asked Alister, "Long time ago, the powerful fairies who ruled the MoonGlade Kingdom sacrificed their powers along with their lives to generate indestructible magical runes that protect their kingdom from the demons. But it's not like magical barriers that block them out, the runes nerfed every demon like us who dared to enter this place that's why we can get in." he answered.

Dante tried to morph himself into a werewolf to prove that if he's telling the truth as he failed to do it several times and then he tried to run the way he run fast using his werewolf agility and lift massive logs to test his super-werewolf strength but still he couldn't and admitted that Alister is telling him the truth.

"Why did you bring us here if you knew that we're gonna lose our abilities?!" Dante madly asked him. "Because this is the only place I know that could help us to get away from my kind. You know, they killed everyone on their way." an honest answer from Alister, as Dante still doesn't want to accept his help, "I can kill them anyway." Dante arrogantly said. "No, Lilith is too strong to be killed that easy. She's the one who put this curse on us, my people and my kingdom. She had a legion of undeads and she could declare a bloody war anytime she wanted. I've tried many times to kill her but I just failed....it just means that all of us are not yet ready for this war. Many demons are still out there somewhere besides of Lilith. And they could be stronger than us." Alister said to him.

"Wait wait! how'd you know all of that, huh?! you're a spy, aren't you?! Dante angrily asked him. "What else can I do for you to trust me?!" as Alister madly responded to it. "Are you mocking me?!" as both of them have got into a childish fight as they mocked each other. "No! you're the one who mocked me! I wasn't even trying to have a fight with you! You're the one who can't accept that I blew you with just one hand away! Just admit it!" their childish fight kept on going until both of them fell into a trap. A huge wild-animal trap but it wasn't built for wild animals. A huge, thick net wrapped upon them that made them get stuck inside of it as a deafening sound of an enchanted bell that was connected to the string rang loudly, served as a signal once there was someone trapped in there, an old-fashioned trap but still effective.

A couple of hours later, hunters were starting to show up that came from the small town that belonged inside the territory of MoonGlade Kingdom called the 'Gladiator Town' as they heard the trap signal. "Ah, look at these freaks. Looking so weak now?" a raucous voice of a centaur, a half-human half-horse creature that lives in the MoonGlade territory along with his fellows, night elves and human bounty hunters were viciously laughing at them being trapped.

"Hey my MoonGlader friends, can you please put us down? I can assure you I will do no harm to you. I was looking for Queen Taneisha." Alister calmly said to them, trying to negotiate the situation but the hunters still refused to believe everything he was saying.

Someone suddenly interrupted everyone. The rope that holds the trap was suddenly cut down by a dagger that was precisely thrown to it as Dante and Alister fell into the ground hardly, a woman in a robe freezes all the hunters on their feet that surrounds them in just a few seconds, never letting them to take a counter-fight. But that time, the woman took off her robe and face cover. An angelic beautiful face of a woman that looks like she's in her early twenties, her beautiful-blue-round eyes, rosy cheeks, red-rose lips and her ashed-blond hair.

"Who the bloody hell are you?" Dante was surprisedly said as he looked at her appealing appearance. "I'm Arielle by the way. Don't you remember me Dan? I'm the one who helped you escape the dungeon, thank me later." she replied.

"You didn't tell me you have another guardian savior? And she's so....uhh!" Alister said to Dante, after he looked and was amazed by her angelic beauty, he couldn't feel any danger by now while looking at her but butterflies in his stomach.

After the fight incidents, all of the Hunters were frozen half of their body that made them unable to move and then after a while, Dante, Alister and Arielle sensed a strong essence of magical aura coming into where they were. She flew through the mid air, as her wings flapped the wind hardly as they could hear the sound of her fury.

A girl that has a look of her late-teens dressed up with ashed-blue thick feathers that cover up her whole body, and huge wings on her back as tall as the size of her, and the ashed blue with a pixie dust reflections shown up when she flew through the mid air. She's the one and only Queen of MoonGlade, Taneisha. A luminous blue light glows in her eyes, and her face was still as young and good-looking as a princess, that you could not imagine that she was living almost four century old of being the queen of MoonGlade kingdom.

Sharp feather shards were thrown out as Taneisha slammed her wings towards them furiously. She was so mad at them because of trespassing inside her territory and hurting her people. Arielle blocked the feather shards with her ice shield and Taneisha calmed down from being furious when she recognized that Arielle was wearing a mage's ring. Taneisha considered the alliance as her allies. "Why did you cross into my territory?"

"My queen, pardon us for crossing your land. We don't have a choice because vampires are chasing us." Dante apologized, but Taneisha was confused by his statement, "So are you now betraying your own kind?" she replied.

"You misunderstood that my queen, I'm just a collateral of the demons." Dante explained to her, "He's telling the truth." Alister added.

"And you? are you too?" Taneisha said to Alister, noticing his vampiric paleness. "No my queen, I was literally betraying my own kind on my own purpose." Alister answered.

"We never intended to hurt your people, we just wanted to get rid of those who were chasing us, I... Arielle, mage from the alliance, humbly asking for an apology for what happened here. We will promise you to never cause any harm to your people again."

"I'm going to accept your apology, but in one condition... You will retrieve the Divine Glaive that Lilith stole from me." said Taneisha with her condition on retrieving her divine glaive.

"What is so special about it?" Alister asked. "Whoever can read the divine scriptures that were carved on its blade can use the power of the sword. With that sword, you can kill anything powerful." Taneisha replied to him, "You have to retrieve it before it's too late." she added.

Queen Taneisha invited them into her palace. They rode in the huge royal chariot that was pulled by the four centaur warriors.

They passed through the road inside the Gladiator Town. "Gladiator Town is still within my territory." Taneisha boasted. The town was inhabited by a group of different creatures, like 'Satyrs' a half human half goat creatures, few humans, miner dwarves, night elves, hobbits, centaurs, and tribes of orcs. They passed in the town square where they saw the statues of fallen fairies who did the sacrifice, then they passed the marketplace, the Lumbermill and blacksmith of the town, and after that, they passed the graveyard of the town which was the way that connects towards the MoonGlade Palace.

Dante broke the long moment of awkward silence on the road, knowing that they were fighting this awhile ago, and then they suddenly got invited to go into her palace,

"I wonder why there's a lot of creatures who live here but I don't see any of your kind?" an astonishing question of Dante while sitting at the back seat of the chariot with Alister and Arielle, looking around the town and to the people who live there. "I've already told you about that, please stop asking her a question about her past." Alister whispered to Dante, to prevent him from asking questions about her past that could upset her, they were supposed to be having a truce with her. "I was just a child, an infant, when my parents, together with all my kind, sacrificed their lives to make the magical runes that protect us from your kind." Taneisha answered calmly to Dante's question, knowing that it's good to hear from it that she didn't get offended talking about how her family died.

Two warrior centaurs behind the palace gate welcomed them, the eight foot tall tree creatures that can talk and walk like a human called 'Treants' opened the gate as they passed through. Inside the palace, they saw a marching army of elite archer night elves nearby their barracks. Some of the dwarves were crafting weapons and practicing fencing. Human militias were building catapults. Human maids were care-taking the palace and farmers were busy planting and harvesting their crops. An army of centaur warriors were running around the huge training field near the barracks and the ten-foot-tall giant stone creatures which they called 'Stone Giants' were practicing wrestling on their own training field near the barracks. Stone Giants were the toughest and the best defenders of the MoonGlade Kingdom.

They entered the huge palace as Taneisha invited them, and gave them room to rest. When they entered the palace, inside there was a wide hall where Taneisha's throne was, placed on the elevated ground floor, a decorative throne made by living vines and roses through magic which made it don't wither at all. On the left and right side of the wall, there are two staircases that lead up onto the dining hall, and bedrooms.

A few moment later, the queen invited them to join her for dinner in the dining hall. Arielle sat at the side of the night elf archer's general while Dante and Alister sat between the dwarf and centaur generals and Taneisha sat on the master's seat. It was like a grand feast as the maids brought different dishes on their table. They gave Dante and Alister fresh blood from wild boars in a litre-sized chalice and raw meat as they knew what they could have for their meal.

"How long did all of you knew each other?" asked Taneisha.

"Just a while ago, me and Dante became friends. I helped him and he helped me. And this pretty lady in a hood with Dante became my friend too." Alister answered to Taneisha.

"Hey my vampire friend, can you try this delicious spicy soup of mine?" a huge growling voice of the centaur general 'Chiron' messing up with Alister, Chiron laughed hardly when Alister took a sip of his soup as the soup burnt his mouth because of the spices especially a garlic that was mixed with it. "Stop playing with your meal, general!" Taneisha madly said in a calm hard face to Chiron.

"So, let's go back to the business... Help me retrieve my Divine Glaive from Lilith as your compensation for trespassing in my kingdom. If you refuse, you will not be able to come out here alive." Taneisha said as she shifted the topic. "My queen, we're sorry for the inconvenient way of crossing your lands. I tell you we're on the same side and you don't need to say it like that to us as if we devastated your kingdom." replied Arielle, as she was offended by Taneisha's words. "We're always ready to share our alliance with you." she added.

"Don't think as if we're a part of your war. I just want to retrieve my Divine Glaive and give it to the good hands so they can help you with your war. I will not risk my people for your war again. We already lost too much. I made that Glaive for you and that's enough!" a selfish statement of Queen Taneisha.

After their dinner, maids led them into their individual rooms as all of them took their rest. All alone in her room staring up at the small illuminating chandelier that was hung up at the enchanted vines decorated wall, Arielle couldn't stop thinking about what the queen said in their agreement that turned into an argument in the dining hall recently. On the other side, Dante had already fell into a deep sleep because of restlessness and Alister seduced with his prince-like handsomeness one of the maids to sleep with him.

The birds were chirping at the windowsill, and the cool breeze came in as the light of the sun casts a rosy hue across the morning sky. They woke up on a wonderful morning with a good climate above them as their journey on retrieving the Divine Glaive awaits...

"How's your night my friend?" Alister said to Dante, sitting right next to their room balcony.

"It's satisfyingly restful, and yours?" Dante replied.

"Yeah, my night was great, I'm having a good time, queen's maids are great, pretty hospitable." Alister said, as Arielle suddenly interrupted their talk. "Hey you two? go packed up and get ready. We're leaving later."

Dante and Alister went into the barracks to pack up their gears. Before they got in, they encountered a full grown stone giant as the creature tried to piss them off by throwing a boulder in front of them.

"Hey pale face?! are you feeling weak now huh?" a deep loud growling voice of the stone giant. He smacked Alister with his rough granite fist when Alister tried to snub him. Alister was thrown towards the empty barrels behind the right side of the barrack wall near the entrance door. The bully stone giant was challenging them to have a fight with them, so, Dante ran into the armory behind the left side of the barrack wall. Dante picked up a lance. He strikes it to the stone giant multiple times, but it can't penetrate through with him and the stone giant made his counter-attack but Dante dodged his attack as Dante climbed up onto the top of his shoulder. The giant grabbed his lance and he threw Dante down hardly. Dante get on his feet back up. The stone giant threw Dante's lance back to him arrogantly, challenging him for more fight. Dante grabbed the lance, and he charged onto him as he figured out how to take down the giant jerk. He charged to the giant as the giant was hitting him back and he kept on evading his attacks with his swordsmanship ability. Dante pierced his lance through the stone giant's joints after joints after joints until the giant fell down into his knees to the ground. "I'm maybe a weak demon now, but I was once trained by the greatest swordsman of the alliance." Dante boasted.

Taneisha was disappointed when she saw what Dante did to her stone giant warrior. She healed the giant's joints so that he can get up again.

"Forgive me your majesty, but your creature started the fight, I just defended my friend from him." Dante apologized.

"Is it true? is it true Peebles?" Taneisha asked the stone giant.

"I'm sorry my queen. I'm just pissed off by their kind." Peebles apologized for his reckless action.

"They are our allies for now because I have unfinished business with them to be done by. Remember what I told you about our allies. We don't hurt allies, understand?" Taneisha lessoned Peebles.

"Peebles huh? What a cute name for a giant bully." Dante whispered to himself.

"Dante? Alister?... I've already told Arielle about your task. Pack up your weapons and get ready to leave." Taneisha commanded them about their mission on retrieving the Divine Glaive from Lilith's hand.

Dante and Alister grabbed their gears along with their horses and got back to Arielle to begin their mission of where it would be their new terrains to travel to....