"Caden... Caden... wake up."
"What... where am I?" Caden woke up on the bed and a woman with blond hair stood above him.
"My son is home, after all. I can finally see you again. You're a beautiful man."
"Who are you?" Caden asked hesitantly, sitting down on the bed.
"Haha... have you hit your head? I am your mother, silly."
"What? How did I get here?" Caden didn't understand.
"It was like a miracle. We found you in the ruins of a castle," the woman explained.
"Castle... was anyone else there? And what about my brother?"
"What brother?" the woman smiled, Alger stepped into the room.
"I welcome you back among the living, son."
"Father...?" But you're dead..." Caden was stunned.
"Haha, do you think that a group of wardens would be able to defeat the mighty Alger?"
"So what happened there?" Caden asked.
"Let's not talk about such ugly topics. You're safe now. Come to eat with us, you will tell us everything," the woman stood up and they all went to sit to the food table.
They both watched Caden.
"Will you eat...?" Caden asked.
"We ate already, just enjoy the meal, sweetheart. You must be hungry!" the woman smiled.
Caden pushed the bowl of porridge.
"I have no appetite right now."
"Oh... I understand, don't you want to go to bed?" the woman asked.
"I'd rather learn something from my father," Caden replied.
"And what do you want?" Alger asked.
"Learn more about this power."
"Oh, I'm just exhausted, maybe tomorrow, son."
"All right, I'll go outside," Caden replied and walked to the door. But his mother stepped in front of the door and stopped him. "What do you want out there? You have everything here," she said with a wide smile.
"Just breathe the fresh air, I can't even look out of those small windows," Caden replied.
"You can't go out yet... you're weak. Come, I'll make you a tea to strengthen you up!" she said.
"It's okay, a little air will fix it," Caden insisted.
Mother shouted in a rough, mutated voice, "You're not going anywhere!"
Caden stepped back. "Well... I'll go to my room," Caden walked into his room and found his sword under the bed, grabbed it and Alger entered the room.
"What are you doing, son?"
Caden turned his sword against him. "Step back! I do not know who, or what are you, but you're certainly not Alger!"
"Who do you think I'm, son?" Alger wanted to touch him, claws went out of his nails and his hand turned violet.
Caden swung his sword and cut off his hand.
"What are you doing, my son?! Do you want to kill me?" Alger shouted. Alger began to turn violet and change form, Caden pierced him with his sword.
"What have you done?!" mother shouted, turning into a light purple slender monster.
Caden was slashed by her claws, then he killed her and went out of the door.
There was a misty, white landscape in front of him, the house disappeared behind him. Caden still walked and walked through the vast, misty desert until he reached the spot where the top of the tower stood.
"I didn't want that, brother... What have I done?! What am I going to be without you now..." Stephan was crying over Caden's body, the bodies of Cassandra, Mormir, and Merill were lying around.
"Stephan?" Caden approached.
"What the...? Who are you? Did you come to kill me from the grave? So go on... I have no reason to live anymore!" Stephan screamed.
"No, Stephan, I'm real, this one is just illusion of me! It's a demon!" Caden explained.
"W... what?"
"Remember what happened on that tower?" Caden asked.
"You're right, Cade... I didn't kill you, I teleported you."
At that moment, Caden's body came to life and grabbed Stephan's neck. Real Caden pierced him with his sword. Cassandra, Merill, and Mormir also stood up and only with fists attacked Caden and Stephan. They were quickly defeated.
"Damn... I thought killing Cassandra would be more relaxing," Stephan laughed.
"At least you still have a sense of humour. What did you say about the teleporting?" Caden asked.
"Well, I... I had no choice."
"Where have you brought us, Stephan?" Caden asked.
"Look, we don't have time for that now, we have to find the others!" Stephan decided, and Caden followed him.
After some time they reached the elven house. Caden knocked on the door. Cassandra opened it. "Oh, Caden! Stephan, I'm so glad you're here, come in!" Cassandra hugged him.
They both went inside.
"This is my family. This is my mother, father. And these are my little brothers," Cassandra was smiling and introduced two elderly dark elves sitting at a table and two children.
Caden and Stephan glanced at each other with sad looks.
"Sit with us," the woman smiled.
"Cassandra, this isn't real," Caden said sadly.
"What are you saying?" Cassandra asked.
"Your friends must surely be hungry and exhausted, why don't you invite them to the table?" the woman asked.
"You're right, I'll bring you food," Cassandra replied.
"It won't be necessary. Did you eat anything?" Caden asked.
"Not yet, why?" Cassandra replied.
"This isn't your family, Cassandra, we have to go," Caden grabbed her hand and dragged her away.
The woman stood up on her feet and rushed in front of the door. "You're not going anywhere with my daughter!" she shouted.
"Mom, are you not having trouble walking anymore?" Cassandra was horrified.
"I... not darling, they cured me."
"Move away, demon, away from the door, or the light of the Saints will burn you!" Stephan pulled out a strange chain.
"Haah, your Saints have no power here, worms! Uh, why would you want to leave?" the woman said.
Both Caden and Stephan drew their swords.
"Let us go," Caden said vigorously.
Something slashed in his leg, one of Cassandra's little brothers, when Caden turned, the woman tried to attack him, but Stephan killed her, then the others attacked them and transformed into demons. As Stephan and Caden fought, Cassandra watched with her dark hazel eyes full of despair. They killed all the demons.
"What happened?" Cassandra didn't understand.
"We have to go, come on. We'll find Merill," Caden ordered and dragged Cassandra out of the house, which then disappeared.
"Where are we?" Cassandra asked.
"First Merill, then an explanation," Stephan said.
Everyone went on.
"And how exactly can we find him here?" Cassandra asked.
"Using this!" Stephan pulled out the chain with the amulet again.
"You couldn't have said that before?" Caden dismayed.
"Did I not lead you?"
"And how exactly can we find him?" Cassandra inquired further.
"This amulet responds to life energy, ours is somewhat different than the demon's."
"Demons? Wait... did you bring us here?" Caden realized in horror.
"Well... sort of."
"And there are demons... So you brought us directly to him! You idiot!" Caden shouted.
"And what should have I done? Wait for him to crush you in his hand?!"
"You brought us into the realm of demons! No other location came to your mind?" Caden went angry.
"I couldn't take us elsewhere, the demon would go with us," Stephan explained.
"So you've better sent us to his home. And the only thing we can get with anywhere can lead us directly to him!?" Caden continued.
"I don't know exactly how it works, Mormir told me."
"Mormir knew about it?" Caden asked
"Be quiet! You can kill each other when we find Merill and get out of here. If you don't stop yelling, you'll attract the monster anyway!" Cassandra went angry.
"Okay, let's go where the amulet leads us, and we'll hope to find Merill," Caden said.
They all went on until they arrived in the burned-out city strikingly resembling Oakdome. Merill stood on the street, and the burning city guard's captain stood in front of him. There were bodies everywhere. "You broke the oath. Because of you, Oakdome was massacred! You've murdered the city you swore allegiance!" the captain shouted.
"No, I didn't want that!" Merill said.
"Merill! Get away from him!" Caden ran to him.
"Caden? And you two are here, too? How did you get here?" Merill asked.
Stephan stepped in front of him.
"You may have gotten out of the traps of my brothers, but you will not escape from here!" the captain laughed and raised his hands.
"Stephan... I think it's time for you to get us out of here!" Cassandra nudged him.
"But... if I do, they'll probably come with us, or worse, I'll open the portal and it won't close. We can destroy our whole world," Stephan explained.
"I don't give a damn about the world. You got us here, you'll get us back!" Caden called.
Stephan took the staff he had on his back, spoke a spell, and opened the portal.
"Where did you bring us to again, by all the Saints?!" Caden called.463Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDPeDhhbWXI
