Chapter 1
Princess Alisha walked through the doorway with her romance novel in hand. She sat down at the dining room table and placed the book in her lap. Her mother had greeted her with a smile as she sat. Her father, however, was distracted by a phone call he had taken on his cell phone. She could tell it was a serious call yet not too worrisome.
“Alright, thanks. And keep me posted.” he said ending the call with a smile.
“Who was that?” the queen wondered.
“It was Raziel, he just called to inform me that everything seems to be going well. There were a few incidents, but everything is in order.” The king’s words brought comfort to the queen and princess. Alisha was pleased to hear her clumsy brother was safe and not screwing up the entire quest.
Meanwhile, everyone was back in the terrain dosser and already headed on their way to meet yet another of the seven chosen. Everybody was seated, including their newest passenger, Vincent. Seth, who was seated behind the royal mystic and prince, leaned forward from his seat and poked his head in the next row. “Excuse me, mystic?”
“What?” the mystic asked quickly back.
“I’ve been thinking, Raziel had told me that you said I was needed to help find out who was responsible for the attack against the royal family, right?”
“Yea!” the mystic shrugged.
“And you had requested the others to? Wraith, Vincent, and Cain?” he interrogated.
“Yes!” the royal mystic half turned in his seat to face Seth. “The magic doesn’t lie!”
“Hm...,” Seth thought for just a moment more. “It’s interesting if you think about it.”
Christian was still seated near the mystic and leaned over to join in on the huddle, “What’s interesting?” he asked.
“The results of the mystic’s magic. I used to be pretty good with’a sword back in my day, and the assassin uses a sword from what I’ve heard about him. And judging by his form and technique, Vincent apparently has been training with kendo sticks for near his whole life I’d say.” the detective informed.
“Hey man, would you stop trying ta act like you know me!” the white-haired teen bitched.
Wraith leaned from his seat in the back, trying to hear the conversation as best he could while being handcuffed away from everyone else. “Hey!? Have you?” he quietly asked Vincent.
Vincent turned back, “What?”
“What the old guy said. You been training that long and stuff?” Wraith asked.
Vincent was annoyed with the personal interest, but answered anyways, “Yeah, pretty much.”
“Hey! You said you used ta have’a sword with ya when you were in a gang!” Christian spouted in excitement as he exposed that truth about Wraith.
“Hm, it seems everybody’s gotta tie to a sword of some kind.” Seth revealed, finding the clues of this mystery more interesting.
The royal mystic sighed, “Well of course ya do, tha magic revealed seven swordsmen. That’s why you’re all he’ya! Seven swordsmen fur seven magic swords.”
Raziel turned and looked at the royal mystic, “Seven magic swords?” he asked.
“Well, as from what I’ve heard, seven swordsmen ahr requia’d ta obtain seven magic swords ta break tha seal which seals away the arm’a.” the mystic admitted.
The grand duke turned back around in his seat facing the proper direction, “Thank you for keeping me well informed mystic. Any other secrets you’d like to fill me in on?” he said in a sarcastic tone. The grand duke was annoyed the royal mystic “forgot” to mention that little detail from the beginning.
The massive terrain dosser slowed down before coming to a complete stop.
Raziel looked at the soldiers at the head of the vehicle and its driver. “What’s going on? What’s wrong?” he asked standing up and walking to the front.
“There’s a road block, sir. Looks like a small tornado was here recently.” the soldier guessed since there were large trees that had snapped and fallen over in the roads path.
Raziel sighed, for it was yet another delay in their progress. For all he knew, every second was time lost in a race to the armor. The grand duke stepped outside with a few soldiers and instructed them to gather more from the other terrain dossers that trailed behind them, since it would take a lot of muscle to move the large trees. Raziel looked up at the sky while the soldiers followed his orders. The sky was a thick cloudy dark grey that shadowed the entire wooded area. The grand duke observed the soldiers as he instructed them on removing the large broken trees off to the side of the road.
The remainder of the convoy passengers sat quietly inside. Seth was a bit skeptical on the whole aspect of “magical swords” “There are similarities that seem true, but I’m not really buying into this whole “magical swords” thing.” he said.
Carmon stood up from her seat wearing a sword in its sheath that hung off her hip. “Then you’re not as good a detective as you think you are.” she replied walking by and leaving the terrain dosser.
Carmon stepped out of the terrain dosser and used the ladder to climb down. As soon as she reached the ground she leaned against the mammoth vehicle and watched her father instruct his army. Thirty minutes had passed and by that time Christian had exited the terrain dosser and was standing beside Raziel, Vincent had also stepped outside, but sat off by himself away from everyone else and relaxed in the frequent soothing breezes that would rush by through the forest leaves.
The royal mystic was reading from an old dusty book in the terrain dosser when suddenly he closed it and laid it down in the seat next to him. “Do ya feel that?” he asked curiously.
Seth was unaware of what the mystic was referring to, “Feel what?”
“A demonic aura,.........it’s get’n clos’a.” the mystic warned.
The Vailstone soldiers continued moving the lumber off to the side of the dead road when suddenly the wind began to pick up. The neighboring trees began swaying their branches and losing leaves in the gusts.
“It’s look’n like rain. Let’s move it, come on!” Raziel said clapping his hands and hurrying the soldiers.
The Vailstone soldiers began lifting one of the remaining trees until one stopped and placed his side of the tree down. “Hey, what’re ya do’n?” a random soldier asked the other.
“What is that?” he replied looking at something not too far down the road. “It looks like a,....... small tornado?” he said questioning his own sight.
The grand duke noticed them ceasing and looking off into the distance. He saw the small tornado barreling down the road towards them, but something about it looked unnatural.
“Christian, get behind me.” he warned. “Men ready your guns!” Raziel instructed as if facing a routine situation, with all the experience of the grand duke’s he could see there was something more to this “tornado” than just wind. Everyone watched in anticipation as the odd looking tornado grew closer until reaching a spot before them, only fifty feet away. Once it arrived it continued spinning in only that one spot.
However, the tiny tornado slowly began winding down and in doing so a faint image began to appear in the center. Vincent, who was still off to the side by himself, was suddenly intrigued in the quest. He sat up and stood to his feet wondering what was to appear before them all. Carmon watched with anticipation, she braced herself in an offensive stance as she rested her hand on her sword. The royal mystic and Seth walked to the front of the terrain dosser and looked outside through the front windshield, Wraith was still cuffed to his seat in the back and couldn’t see anything.
“What’s go’n on?” he inquired
“It’s tha demon.....” the mystic stated under his breath.
Once the tornado subsided and the object in the center revealed itself to be a young woman. She stood to be seven feet and four inches tall due to the elongated shoes she wore. Her shoes looked like platform shoes that had come to a point at the bottom and would leave a trail of fissures in the ground where she had been. Without her stilt like shoes she would only stand to about five feet and six inches tall. The girl also wore clothing with very long sleeves, each one having a sharp blade hanging from each to sling about when spinning rapidly. The mysterious girl also had green hair and a mischievous grin, “Where is Fire starter?” she asked.
Raziel smirked, “Fire starter?! We can’t help you, we don’t have a fire starter.” he answered, not entirely knowing what exactly she was asking for.
“Ha. Don’t waste my time human. Surrender Fire starter over to me now lest you suffer my wrath.” she warned with confidence.
“Human? I take it you’re not? And here I figured you for a sorceress or something.” the grand duke admitted.
The demon chuckled at his mistake, “You’re correct, I am not human nor am I a sorceress. I am Naga, demon of recoil!” she said introducing herself.
Raziel chuckled a bit himself as she introduced herself, “Demon?! You’re way out of your element her girl. Do you even realize how far north of the continent you are? Here you’ll only find wizards and witches and creatures of magical origin, you should return back to the east where your kind belong.” he stated. Raziel had battled and slain every manner of creature, beast, demon, and evil and did not fear the green haired demon in front of him.
Naga had a cocky grin on her face, “Hm! Humans, no matter where on the continent, you’re always filled with such arrogance. Enough stalling though, I’ll be taking your mystic now.” she had threatened.
“Gentlemen!” Raziel said snapping his fingers. At that moment the soldiers pointed their guns and took aim at the demon. Naga smirked and raised her arm in front of herself and quickly thrust herself into motion. She began spinning as quickly as before, causing the illusion of a small tornado! Wind in the area had picked up and objects began blowing away from her centripetal force. Raziel stood firm and unwavering, he extended his arm in front of him as he instructed his soldiers.
“Fire!” he yelled!
The men had done as they were told and fired their bullets into the tornado and just as fast as the bullets were shot, they were as quickly returned, hitting each of the soldiers in the chest or face! The attacking soldiers had died almost as quickly as they had pulled the triggers. Raziel was surprised and braced his arm in front of the prince in case of any ricochet bullets. The grand duke had only a concealed gun, but no other means of weaponry for attack. Raziel looked back at his daughter and called out for her over the loud roaring of the wind.
“Carmon! Your sword!” he yelled hinting at her to reveal her skills as a swordsman. Carmon ran towards the spinning demon, standing between it and her father.
“You really mean it?!” she asked with excitement and disbelief. Carmon had been trained by the grand duke all her life and was thrilled that he had finally expected she was ready for her first battle.
Raziel nodded his head while their eyes were locked, “Yes, I believe you’re ready. Show this demon the power of your blade.” he ordered with confidence.
The demon’s laughter could be heard throughout the tornado’s wind, “Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! For what reason did you think I am named Naga of RECOIL!?” Naga teased, questioning why the duke would order his soldiers to shoot.
Carmon had drawn her sword from its sheath, it was a slender katana with a small charm that dangled from its base. The brunette extended her arm off to her side with the katana gripped firmly. The teenager didn’t appear nervous, instead she looked as brave and confident of victory as her father. “Alright Naga, now you have to face my SANBAGARASU KATANA!” she yelled summoning the katana’s power.
Two identical doppelgangers of Carmon appeared on each side of her true self while Naga continued spinning! Naga was a bit worried, she didn’t realize the humans she would have to face off against in order to kill the mystic would have abilities of their own.
Christian stood behind Raziel watching Carmon, “Carmon? She can make fakes of herself?” he asked out loud.
Naga tried keeping an eye on each of the three identical girls, wondering what other surprises they might have in store. Carmon and the doppelgangers had each attacked Naga simultaneously, each using a different strategy. However, Naga was spinning at such high speed and was able to manipulate her demonic aura, that she was able to use her long sleeves as shields and protect herself against the barrage of katana wielding brunettes. Vincent and Seth watched the grand duke’s daughter fight off against the green haired demon, Seth realized THIS is why the girl had seemed offended by his comment about magical swords.
Naga and Carmon with her doppelgangers appeared evenly matched. Carmon figured a different approach was required and an extreme method was in order. The grand duke’s daughter was able to control the clones and could see through their eyes, hear through their ears, and process the information around them as if she was in their spot. Carmon and a single doppelganger had attacked Naga from one angle while the other doppelganger dove at the demon’s furiously spinning feet. The clone was mangled from the green haired demon’s force, but DID manage to trip her up. Once the clone had been ripped apart, instead of blood or remains being tossed about, her body and sword vanished into dark smoke.
“Carmon!” Seth called out as he witnessed the doppelganger destroyed. He was fooled into thinking perhaps Carmon had been killed since the three of her were all completely identical. “It was a copy then? Hm.” he stated quietly to himself.
“Yeah, that’s tha pow’a of Carmon’s blade.” the royal mystic answered. “But she’s not use’n much form ’r train’n at this point. She’s start’n ta look ’n trouble.”
The detective looked at the royal mystic worriedly then quickly put his sights back on the supernatural fight outside the vehicle.
The spinning demon looked like a wobbling top and slowed down until completely stopping. She backed up a few feet to reevaluate her situation and strategy. The Carmon clone moved in quickly and went in for a killing strike! It ran forward using both arms to slash at the demon, at which point Naga raised her arms allowing her long bladed sleeves to follow the movements of her arms. The demon thrust her blades towards the clone to block its strike, she then used her height advantage to sling the sharp blades from above her at tricky dangerous angles. The doppelganger was forced to quickly move from an offensive mode of attack to a defensive. In a split second Naga had struck the clone’s copied sword and loosened its grip from above with a double bladed strike, at which moment Naga sliced into the doppelganger while lunging forward at a tilted side angle spin! “SIDE WHEEL!” she yelled as the clone poofed into a small cloud of black smoke.
The real Carmon stood in front of the demon with her katana pointed directly towards it. Her resolve was unshaken, she was still determined to slay this demon girl. The over towering demon girl smiled and slowly took her long steps closer to the grand duke’s daughter. Raziel was now concerned of his child’s skills at facing the demon, Raziel ordered Christian to “stay back” and ran over to his daughter’s side.
Seth watched the green haired demon step closer to the grand duke and his little girl and recalled how it had slain the two doppelgangers. The detective looked at the metallic staff the royal mystic was holding and formulated an idea. Seth then snatched the staff away from the mystic’s hand and darted for the door, “I’m gonna need this for a moment!” he said as he left the terrain dosser.
The royal mystic was frantic, “MY STAFF!” He followed after Seth and left Wraith by himself who was still unable to see anything that was going on.
“Wha,...what;s go’n on?” he asked again with no answer.
Seth ran outside and passed Christian who was standing in awe. The detective drew attention to himself by flailing the staff about and yelling to the demon as to draw attention away from Carmon and Raziel. He ran up and slung the bladed staff of the mystic’s at Naga, she raised her arm and clashed against it with her own blade.
“Back off chump!” she complained. The demon girl burst into a quick but small spin which blew Seth back, tossing him to the ground.
“She’s strong!” Seth realized.
The royal mystic ran outside, “Seth! MY STAFF!” he yelled.
Naga grinned as she noticed the mystic, “Fire starter! So you’ve finally decided to show your face,......in a manner of speaking. You’re a tough one to track down ya know.” Naga’s face quickly grew serious now that she intended to complete her objective by killing the royal mystic. “Prepare to die Fire starter!” she threatened. Naga stomped her feet into the ground and furiously kicked off into yet another whirlwind, this time more violently and with the intent of slaying the mystic.
The royal mystic reached his hand out to Seth, who was standing several feet away. “STAFF!” he yelled in his feeble sounding voice. Seth looked down at his hand that was holding the mystic’s staff and felt it shaking and pulling itself away from him. Seth released the staff causing it to fling to the royal mystic’s aid. The mystic plucked his staff from the air as it flew to him.
Naga spun near Seth and knocked him away with the force of her wind. She was barreling closer to the mystic, “Alright, ya silly demon. If ya want fi’ya so badly, then I’ll send’ya back ta hell from which ya came!” the mystic warned as he raised his arms. An overwhelming heat started emitting from the royal mystic as flame burst around the duel bladed end of the staff. The royal mystic then shoved the staff forward in Naga’s direction unleashing an endless stream of intense flame!
Naga stopped and stayed in one place as the stream of flame struck her tornado. She wanted to maintain the flame around her perimeter and assure that she could send it back at the mystic in a violent backlash, but also guarantee that fire didn’t slip through and hit its mark. “Ha! I am Naga, demon of recoil! I’ll use your own flames to strike you down you old fool!” she boasted.
The royal mystic stood his ground, “Heh, ya must have a human side in ya Naga, cause that sounds like arrogance! I can manipulate where MY fi’ya goes.” the mystic bragged. “Your technique might stop me from hit’n ya with my fi’ya, but it won’t stop me from cook’n ya!”
Naga was feeling the heat badly as she realized the royal mystic wasn’t actually trying to scorch her with his fire, but actually trying to roast her to death with the powerful flames! “Curse you, Fire starter!” she shouted and bared her teeth! Naga propelled herself upward through the cage of fire that imprisoned her and appeared as a small isolated tornado suspended in the air. Some flame managed to trail with her a great distance before out of the mystic’s ranger of fire manipulation. Naga was injured, but survived the fight!
“Is everyone else fine?” Raziel asked looking at Carmon and Christian mainly. They both nodded their heads. The grand duke noticed a horrified look in Christian’s eyes as he looked at the lifeless bodies. After physically turning the prince’s sight away from the fallen soldiers he walked away to inspect. Raziel leaned down on one knee to notice the last soldier who had been hit by a ricochet bullet had bleed out. Needless to say, Raziel was upset! He was completely caught off guard by that demon and her ability of recoil. “That demon laid a trap for us, and we strolled right into it. Damn it mystic, who was that and why did she want to kill you? Or should I say Fire starter, huh?!” the grand duke yelled confused and conflicted.
“Raziel your upset. Think about it fur a second. She obviously thinks I’m somebody I ain’t, nothing more. Maybe tha attack on tha castle was fur this “Fi’ya sta’ta” fellow and not tha king aft’a all?!” the mystic concluded.
“That actually sounds highly plausible.” Seth agreed while walking over to the others.
“Either way, if there is a legendary armor or magical swords like the legend says there are, then we still need to go for it.” Carmon said while sheathing her katana.
“If that’s the case then that Naga might be just another pawn like the headless coachman that attacked the castle.” Raziel exclaimed while resting his hand on Carmon’s shoulder, “Except the coachman wasn’t a demon.”
Vincent walked up to the others finally accepting that fact that he is part of this group now, “So a case of mistaken identity’s got us dealing with headless monsters and demons and stuff?” he chimed in.
“And none of this still answers the question of who’s behind the attacks.” Seth added.
Vincent stood eye balling Carmon’s katana, “Where’d you get that badass katana?” he asked bluntly.
“My dad gave it to me years ago.” Carmon answered in a tone implying Vincent had a meaning behind his question.
Vincent stood silently thinking to himself, “Seven magical swords, huh?” The silver haired teenager cared not for any member of this group he had joined, but the idea of obtaining a magical weapon such as Carmon’s was a great incentive to see this quest through.
“I never knew you had a sword like that!” Christian admitted, feeling left in the dark.
“I retrieved the Sanbagarasu after slaying the warlock who owned it nearly eight years ago. I’ve had it for a while, I only gave it to Carmon recently cause I felt she was ready for it by now. There’s no way any of this is retaliation due to that.” Raziel quickly dismissed the issue. “Why doesn’t everyone load back into the terrain dosser,......” Raziel said depressingly, “....I’m going to get some help loading these bodies for transport.” The grand duke was very upset with the loss of his men and felt an anger in his gut he wished to unleash upon the green haired demon girl if their paths ever crossed again.
As everyone began climbing back into the terrain dosser Seth stopped beside Carmon for a moment, “Hey, Carmon.”
The brunette stopped and looked at Seth, who she still didn’t think too highly of, “Hm?” she responded.
“Look, I just wanted to apologize for upsetting you earlier. I didn’t know about your sword and have never really experienced true magic before. So, I just wanted to say I’m sorry.” Seth apologized.
Carmon cracked a very small grin, “Don’t worry about it.” she replied then began climbing the ladder to enter the terrain dosser. She took two steps up, then remembered Seth running outside with the royal mystic’s staff to try and help aid her and Raziel even after witnessing the threat Naga possessed. Carmon turned her head and looked back at Seth, “I’m sorry too, for what I said earlier.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Seth replied, sharing a mutual smile with Carmon.
Everyone had entered the terrain dosser except for the grand duke, whose responsibilities weren’t quite finished just yet.
The grand duke walked around to the other two terrain dossers and rallied up soldiers to load the “fallen men” into another vehicle. After the attack there were only enough soldiers to operate two of the large vehicles, so one terrain dosser was securely locked and forced to be left behind, only to be retrieved at a later date. Everybody had sat down in the machine to travel to the next destination. It was silent due to the recent events and exposed powers, and some were contemplating if whether or not some of the others could even be trusted. Eventually the dead silence was broken by Wraith’s question, “Can somebody tell me what happened out there?”
