Ultimate Assassin Saga: Escape

At the mentioning of Eva, his worries grew smaller and his heart grew. It was true that the Demon hadn't deserved to die just yet, but he was a Demon and Demons were evil. They always showed their true colors eventually and he was no different. He frowned at his own thoughts. That didn't feel right and he had a feeling that he was wrong. He looked down at the Demon and he felt something strange when looking upon the breathless corpse on the forest floor. What he felt was sympathy for the man, though why he felt thus he didn't know. He found that it angered him as well.

Why should he feel sympathy for this monster? That's what he was after all: a monster. Demons were no different from one another, save for their power level and their deceptive skills. This one was just the best there was and that was that. He'd managed to deceive the Amazons, but he wasn't going to allow himself to be sucked in by the Demon's deceptions. He wasn't a weak minded Human who was easily fooled. He wouldn't be taken in by a con game. The Wood Elf straightened from the Demon's body and he narrowed his eyes upon him, staring down at the body without a single emotion on his face.

Then, he turned to face Emory and he nodded his head to him. Emory nodded back, and before he could say anything, he disappeared into the foliage. Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, Gareth found himself wondering what would happen next and if they could handle it. He wasn't so sure, but there was one thing that he did know: he would be with his Eva, no matter whatever did happen. With that thought at the forefront of his mind, he turned away from the corpse of the Demon and walked away, following after Emory.

If he'd stayed just one more moment, he would've seen the beginning of the rejuvenation process, long though it may be. Acheron's body began to sink into the soil beneath him, sliding further and further down without disturbing the ground. Finally, when he was over one hundred feet deep, his body stopped sinking and it found its place to rest. Soon, he would be back and stronger than ever. Soon, the enemy would know his fury and the enemy would wish for death before he was done with them.

Time would bring the end of the enemy and there was nothing the Minions or their Master could do to stop the vengeance of the Demon.

Chapter 21

Three months later

Kira stood in the middle of her living room and she stared into the faces assembled before her. Each person was a leading part of the search party for her daughter. However, not one of them had been able to find Twister and there was only two possible reasons for that. One was that the enemy was simply good at concealing their tracks and had managed to hide their tracks better than anyone they'd ever encountered. Option number two was that someone among them was a traitor, and while she didn't like the idea any more than anyone else would, it was a logical one that fit the mold.

However, she hadn't made up her mind which option was the real reason yet and that was the problem. Three months had passed since her daughter had been taken. Three months of searching for her frantically. Three months of sleepless nights. Three months of hoping against hope that her daughter would reappear and put her heart at ease. In those three months, the once proud woman that she was had been broken down and replaced by the short tempered bitch that stood before this small group of people gathered in her living room. Every one of them looked haggard, but none were worse than her.

Matthias stood before her, but he couldn't quite look her in the eye. He looked ashamed for some reason, and if she hadn't known any better, she would've thought that he was the one that had taken her. However, she knew better and she knew that he hadn't taken her. After all, she'd been speaking with the man when Twister had been taken and that was the only reason why she'd allowed him to be a part of the search. She didn't make him just a part of the search, but one of the three leaders. Matthias lead the Hunters, the best trackers in the Amazon village, to search for Twister, but so far they'd come up empty. They'd all come up empty.

Matthias looked worse than usual with bags under his eyes and his beard hadn't been trimmed in those three months, giving him a very wild appearance. It seemed that he'd aged ten years right in front of her eyes and she found it hard to keep this image of him in her mind when thinking of him. She always wanted to think of the old Matthias. The one who she'd occasionally laughed with and shared stories with, most of the time to embarrass Tide who was his immediate superior. The times for jokes were over though and had been for three months. They'd all been driving hard for the past three months, but none of them had found a trace of Twister.

The Amazon Queen turned her head to look upon Trixie and she noticed that the girl was seemingly able to hide her emotions. Trixie was the one who lead the Mages of the Amazon out into the forest to look for the High Shaman. Being the apprentice to the High Shaman made her the highest rank of the Mages in the village and they all followed her willingly. Despite all their spells and divination, they Mages could find no trace of the High Shaman in the High Forest. However, she had a suspicion about where her daughter was and it was probably one that was going to go over like a lead balloon.

Standing next to the apprentice was her son Tide and he didn't look any better than Matthias. Out of all of them, he looked the worst with dark circles under his eyes and his eyes were red from lack of sleep. Also, he hadn't shaved since the whole thing began so he had a full, thick beard now and it looked like hell on him. However, she knew her son and she knew that he wouldn't stop. He would continue every single day taking out the Forest Guard and looking for his sister. He loved his sister and nothing would get in his way when it came to getting her back.

Kira sat down on her couch and she waved a hand for the three of them to do the same. They followed suit, all three sitting next to one another and all of them looked eager to find out why they were here. She'd called this meeting because they were having no luck and she believed that she knew why. It seemed to all coincide with the appearance of the Wood Elf, and once he was safely out of the village, Twister had been taken. Maybe they had sent the Elf in to get Acheron out because that had been the day that Acheron had disappeared and never returned.

That did give her some cause for return. She knew that the Demon hadn't betrayed them, of that she was certain. However, he hadn't returned and there was only one thing that that could mean: he was dead or a prisoner. He was too powerful for the Elves to hold indefinitely so she doubted that they would do anything less than kill him. Either way, she was certain that the Demon was dead, and because of that, her daughter was gone. It had been planned by the Wood Elves, that was the only answer to the coinciding events of the kidnapping and Acheron's disappearance.

Of course, there were whispers among the villagers that Acheron's disappearing and Twister's kidnapping could be related in a completely different way. She'd heard it theorized that the the Demon had fallen in love with her daughter, but she hadn't returned his feelings. Because of that, he'd doubled back and kidnapped Twister so he could disappear somewhere with him. Several of the younger people believed that, but the majority of the Amazons thought better of him. After all, it was because of him that several of the Forest Guard were even alive and that went a long way.

It was of her opinion that Acheron had been killed around the same time that Twister had been kidnapped from her own home and she had a solid suspect. The Wood Elves had been in the village as of late, and even though it hadn't appeared so, it was possible that the injured Elf had been a spy. While she didn't think that Acheron would make such a mistake, she knew that it was possible, and even though he was dead, she knew that he would be watching this from wherever he was. She could only hope that he would be satisfied with the revenge that she would bring him against the Wood Elves.

"Why have you brought us here, my Queen?" Matthias' voice interrupted her thoughts and she looked at him. He was sitting on the couch, leaning forward with his forearms resting on his legs and staring right at her. He seemed annoyed that he was there and she really couldn't blame him. After all, right now he could be deep in the High Forest with half of the Forest Guard at his back, searching for the lost woman. Instead, he was being forced to meet with the Queen. "We could be out there right now looking for Twister, but instead, we're all sitting here while the day is wasting!"

"Hold your tongue. Do not forget who it is that you are speaking to." Tide told his second-in-command hotly, coming to her defense immediately. The other man stared at him and it was obvious that his anger hadn't cooled any, but he curbed another outburst like the last one. She was glad for that, but her son wasn't finished. Tide turned to look at her and his tone of voice was deadly serious. "However, what he says is true. We could be out there right now. Why have you called us here, mother?"

"I have brought you here to discuss the case and lack of results." Kira replied in monotone and she sat back against the couch. She saw her son's mouth open to shoot back a retort, but she held up her hand to forestall his words an gave him a harsh glare. He closed his mouth and she saw that he was clamping his jaw tight to keep from speaking. Sighing, she lowered her hand and continued. "Twister has not been seen in three months and that is worrisome if we were simply dealing with an individual. However, I think we are past that phase of belief and have moved into a more likely territory. A group."

"You mean the Wood Elves don't you." Trixie broke in for the first time and her voice was filled with disbelief. She turned to look at the only other woman in the meeting and she noted the young girl's posture, but even though she was sitting there meekly, she still held a strength in her golden brown eyes that surprised the Amazon Queen. "You think that Acheron was taken from here by a spy, and once he was out of the village, they kidnapped her."

The Amazon Queen said nothing as she sat there and waited for the fallout from the two men. However, they didn't react how she'd thought they would. Matthias merely sat back against the couch and rested his chin in his hand, his dark eyes lowered to the wooden floor, obviously lost in thought. Tide also sat back against the couch and he crossed his long legs while he stroked the thick midnight black beard that had sprouted from his chin, upper lip, and cheeks.

"It is the only logical step. We've been unable to locate her and that alone is worrisome. If it were just one person, we would've been able to find her by now, but there is one place that we've been unable to scour. The western territory." Kira replied, staring at the three of them and wondering if they would reach the same conclusion she had. It seemed like a simple enough conclusion to her, but they might not see it. They should, but they might be blinded by their own theories of what happened. She could only hope that their individual feelings wouldn't prevent them from doing their jobs as she ordered. "Because of this, the Elven nation has declared war on the Amazon village and we will respond in kind. All of you will draw your forces together and we will be marching on the western territory tomorrow."

"Mother, I don't think..." Tide began but was cut off by shouts from outside. Frowning, the four leaders of the search quickly rose to their feet and they made for the door. They stepped outside and she cursed when she saw what was going on. There were Minions everywhere and of the type that they'd never seen before. These Minions were tall and extremely slender. Their skin was a dark purple and their eyes a bright glowing green. They were long sleeve white tunics, tight white pants, and no boots. They held in their hands the scythes that all Minion warriors used.

These Minions were different.

Even as she watched, one of the purple skinned creatures disappeared from the spot that it had been standing in and reappeared a short distance away, its scythe coming down to slice through the back of a woman attempting to flee. There were dozens of them, and despite the power of the Amazons, the element of surprise was a powerful thing that they could not overcome. Her village - her people - were being killed by an enemy that hadn't been around for three months. Now that she was going to declare war on the Elves they come and begin cutting down her warrior numbers? That couldn't be a coincidence.

The Amazon Queen felt rage build up as she watched the Minions doing what they did and innocent Amazons falling under their scythes. She could stand it no longer and she reached down to close her hands around the leather hilts of her ringblades. Without saying a word to the three watching in horror as the minions cut down their friends and neighbors, she ran at the Minions with a battle cry, her fingers freeing the ringblades from their constraints at her hips. She wasn't going to allow these creatures to go unchallenged and weaken them so much that they couldn't go to war. That simply wasn't going to happen, even if she had to give her own life to prevent it.

Kira let loose a battle cry as she encountered the first Minion. The purple skinned beast looked up just in time for one of her ringblades to slice from the top of its head to its jaw. The creature cried out in pain and fell to the ground, dead. She was already moving on, her ringblades spinning in the low light and heading for the next beast that got into her way. She was going to make sure that each and every one of these creatures paid for what they did with their very lives. That was the vow as a Queen and as an Amazon. If there was one thing that could be said for Kira, it was that she took her vows very seriously and she never broke her word.

She turned just in time to see Tide with his greatsword slashing through another of the beasts as he passed her and ran ahead, his huge sword trailing behind him. He looked every inch the magnificent warrior that he was swinging his sword in tight, neat arcs and cleaving through the flesh of the enemy. He was nimble too. Able to leap out of the way of an enemy attack and bring his sword down with ease once more to counter the attacker. He was a beautiful sight and she was reminded of his father as she watched him fight. Her husband had once been the wielder of the greatsword and he'd been just as graceful with the weapons as their son. It was well known to her that the only reason her son had even taken up the greatsword was because he wanted to be like his father, and watching him now, she could see that he was much like his late father.

Just then, she heard a chanted word and she saw a blast of golden lightning fly across the field. The lightning struck one of the purple skinned beasts and it collapsed in its own blood. The Amazon Queen turned to find who it was that had fired that attack and she found Trixie. The girl was standing there with both of her hands out and looking every inch the Mage she was suppose to be. There was a fierce light in her golden brown eyes that she'd never seen before and she found it hard to believe that this was the same meek girl. There was no doubt about her power though when both of her hands were suddenly engulfed in flames and she darted forward, landing punches with the fire around her fists against the purple skinned beasts.

She heard a mighty roar from behind her just before she felt something pass over her head and she looked up in time to see the bottom of a man's boots. When he landed in front of her, she was able to tell just who it was, and once again, she was amazed. Matthias, in all his battle glory, was standing firm and strong in front of her, fending off attacks from the Minions with his spear. She'd never seen anyone wield a spear quite the way he did and she found herself in awe of the young man.

Despite the despair that pushed through all three of these warriors, they were fighting on in spite of it and she found herself proud to call these three individuals Amazons. Weaker beings might've given in to their despair and allow the Minions to destroy them, but not these three. They possessed the Amazon fighting spirit and they weren't letting go of it any time soon. She was greatly heartened by this and she found herself smiling for the first time in months, since her daughter's kidnapping.

Strapping her ringblades back to her hips, Kira reached behind her and closed her hand around the hilt of the broadsword strapped to her back. She turned and drew the weapon, the blade gleaming in the low light as she raced towards a purple skinned beast. She hadn't used her sword in a long time, but she was a warrior and she'd made sure to keep the weapon razor sharp in case of dire situations. This was one of those dire situations and she found herself glad that she'd taken such good care of her weapon. It was because of the good care of her weapon that the blade sunk through the flesh of the Minion she'd just attacked and the creature cried out in agony.

The Minion slumped forward, but she held strong to her sword and she watched the beast slide right off of her sword. The silver blade was stained for the first time in years with blood and she could feel her heart beating faster. It wasn't beating with fear or anger, but it was beating due to excitement. She was excited to be in the middle of this battle and there was no way her warrior's spirit would allow her to simply bow out of it. Instead, she turned and she saw another of the beasts, raising its scythe to cut down a civilian child who's parents obviously had lost track of him.

She wasn't going to stand for that.

The Amazon Queen darted forward with a battle cry on her lips and her sword held up behind her own head. The Minion made a questioning noise as it turned its head and found her blade whistling through the air towards its neck. However, before the blade could cleave the creature's head from its shoulders, the beast disappeared. Her forward momentum took her forward and she had to quickly find her balance before she ran over the child. Before she could do that though, she felt a pain in her back and she realized that a blade had just sliced her from nape of neck to the small of her back. That damned beast had disappeared and reappeared right behind her!

She could feel her warm blood coursing down her back and she could see the ground rushing up to meet her. Also, the young boy was still standing there and looking up at her with wide, scared eyes. She gritted her teeth as she fell and she shifted her momentum a little bit to the side and she fell into the dirt right beside the boy, landing hard on her side. When she hit the ground, her sword went skittering away out of her hand and she couldn't reach her ringblades. This wasn't good.

"Go." Kira said to the kid and she placed a hand on his chest, pushing him slightly to snap him out of his fear. He stumbled back a couple of steps and he blinked, looking down at her. Even if she died here, all she wanted was for this child to survive. If he died, then she would be a failure and she wouldn't deserve to be in the halls of her goddess, Artemis. "Get out of here, boy."

He must've finally realized just how dire the situation was because he turned tail and ran as fast as his little legs would take him. The Amazon watched the boy run with a slight smile on her face and she hoped that he made it away from these beasts okay. She didn't want to see the child in the halls of the Gods. She didn't know what she would do if she did, but it wouldn't be anything good. Once the boy had disappeared into the village away from the fighting, she turned over onto her back and she stared up at the purple skinned beast as it approached her slowly, making all kinds of noises.