7 Dark Elves

We started moving again, we were in a 2-1-2 formation, with me being in the middle, and the rest of my team being 10 meters away from me. Still within visible range from each other. We were still in the forest of Antornth. This forest is rumored to have celestial beings around. What are the chances I encounter a Pegasus? Probably pretty low. But the chance still exists, so encoutering celestial beings are possible. As we continue walking I got a bad feeling as if we were being followed. I broke the formation by going towards Ravenna.

"Ravenna, I think we're being followed." I whispered to her

Seph and Razz noticed me moving towards Ravenna, so they both came along and went towards us.

"I agree, by now we should've encountered some wild beasts or ogres like last time." She whispers back

"Let's stay closer together, whatever gets in our way, we fight it together" Razz suggests

We all nod in agreement and we decided to stick together this. We continued venturing through the forest, despite the unpleasant feeling we have. Hours had passed, and a few more hours left before sunrise. We haven't encountered anything.

"This is unusually nice." I declare to my team

"No, it's not. It's boring." Domotraus remark

"Look for once we got some peace as we travel. No one hunting us down. No one trying to kill us, for now at least. And we can travel safely to Zlatan." I reply

The rest of the team keeps quiet as we continue walking. Minutes have passed before we finally encounter something. As we walked we hear a voice coming from behind us.

"Halt!"

We turn around to see who it is. I couldn't make out the face well, because of the darkness.

"What do you want?" Ravenna asks

"You are trespassing the territory of the great Edengeld!" he replies

"We don't know who Edengeld is" she replies

"Oh really? Well trespassers here are killed. Especially when you came from the Erudia." he responds back

"There's five of us, you sure you want to take us on? It may be better if you just leave us be" I propose.

"We'll see about that." he responds back

"Careful, I can sense magic energy coming from him. He has spellcasting abilities. That pendant looks magical" Seph warns us.

"Here I come!"

Domotraus was the first to react to the guy's charge. Domotraus gets in the middle fast, preparing to block the attack. As he got closer I could discern his looks. He had breastplate armor, and long white hair. Dark skinned, and pointy ears. He was a dark elf. He chants some weird incantations that I couldn't understand as he dashed. He passed Domotraus, and Domotraus didn't even react. Something was off. Domotraus would usually block them out.

"I can't see!!" Domotraus cries out.

He must've used casted a spell on Domotraus to take away his sight. This elf is playing dirty. Ravenna also chants out a spell and three blue spear shape entities appear from thin air, and flies straight towards the dark elf.They disappear before they could make contact with the dark elf.

"What?! How?!" Ravenna is shocked from what she saw

Razz and I just dashed towards him. He was already 15ft close. Razz made three slashes with his long sword. Which were easily dodged. Whilst he was distracted dodging the longsword attacks, I got behind him and I did my signature move, slash the legs disabling them. He jumped doing a somersault backwards dodging my slash without looking, then placed his hand on my back while he was mid air. He pushed me landing behind Razz, and I felt hurt from that push.

"What's going on?" I felt confused from what was happening.

"Behind you Domotraus!" Ravenna exclaims.

Domotraus turns around doing a roundhouse kick. The dark elf didn't move and Domotraus just fell down failing to hit him. It looked so unnatural, it was like as if the ground moved around his area making Domotraus fall to the ground. This whole fight seemed so unfair, it was like as if he knew what were going to do before we could do it. The dark elf back away from us, and Domotraus regains his sight and regroups with us. Time for our counter attack. Ravenna casts a spell to summon a flaming sphere. Razz, Domotraus and I had already made our move. Razz and Domotraus went straight for him. Seph has stayed hidden the whole time and threw a dagger towards him from his side. He dodged it as if he was expecting it. I moved as fast as I can, as the dagger was still mid air I caught it. By the time I've caught it, Razz used his longsword and swung it sideways on his legs. He jumped to avoid the hit. This was to be expected as Domotraus came from behind Razz with his dagger ready going in for the kill. With perfect timing, he was able to block the attack by grabbing Domotraus' wrist before the dagger could make contact. There were already metallic balls on the ground, and the dark elf landed first. He trips on the floor. With Domotraus falling on top of him. As Domotraus got ontop, he kicked him away rolling backwards. Too slow, I already got close to him avoiding the metallic balls. I slashed him while he was still rolling. I couldn't get a fatal hit, so at most all I did was wound his arm. He leapt away from the metallic balls. He didn't notice that he landed near the flame sphere, so he got burned. He jumped away from it, and he became 40ft away from us.

"We were this close to completely burning him!" Ravenna sounds frustrated.

"Yeah, well I found out the trick." Seph claims, as she walks towards me.

"May I have my dagger?" I give back the dagger to her.

"Thank you"

"You're able to detect our thoughts longer than the regular spell allows right? Kind of like reading minds." Seph explained smirking

"Tsk, so what if you found out my trick?" he responds

"That means we have a way of beating you." Ravenna says

Ravenna dashes forward with her short sword and swings it around towards the dark elf. The dark elf dodged each attack positioning himself better. He got behind her and distanced himself some more.

"Why aren't you doing your magics? You don't possibly think you can beat us without it?" I ask

Come to think of it. We weren't followed by any guards, because they knew that we entered Edengeld's territory, whoever that is.

"If you're not gonna fight us, then we can just leave." I tell him

"If this is how it's going be, I guess I won't hold back." he replies

He starts chanting, and a white transparent sword appear hovering near him. He charges towards me, while chanting. By the time he reached me, his hand started sparking and jabs me. I was able to sidestep it avoiding the hit. I was expecting an attack from my team, but instead they were occupied by the floating sword that was trying to attack them.

"Enough playing around."

We hear a voice from the tree top. The dark elf leapt back keeping distance from us. Another dark elf appeared from the tree, and lands down.

"Edengeld wishes to speak to you five." dark elf 2 says

The spiritual weapon disappears along with the sparks from dark elf 1.

"You can't decline this request."

More dark elves appear from the trees. They land down surrounding us.

"Very well, we'll speak to this Edengeld." Ravenna decides

The dark elves started walking, and we follow them. Just before the sun was about to rise, we made it to a mansion in a clearing. We were brought into the living room. Then the dark elves left. Servant dark elves came and offered us drinks.

"Lady Edengeld will be here soon." the dark elf servant says.

"Could you inform us who lady Edengeld is?" I ask

"Lady Edengeld is the legendary drow who fought side to side with the great heroes during the Great Realms' War. She isn't publicly recognized as a hero because she is a drow. But to some, she is considered a hero." He informs us

"What's a drow, and how does it differ from dark elves?" I ask

"Drows are dark elves, but what makes them different is that drows came from the nine hells. The demon realm you could call it." He explains.

A female drow appeared from the door.

"Welcome, I am Edengeld." she says

We stand up and introduce ourselves one by one then we sit down as soon as she sits.

"I'm sure you're all aware of the Great Realms' War."

"Yes we are." I reply to her

"Well, I felt a strange disturbance between the forces of light and darkness. We drows are able to feel the energies of good and evil between the realms. This realm has a good balance, but ever since yesterday something threw it off balance."

"Well what is it that made it unbalanced?" Ravenna asks

"That's what I'd like to ask you five. As I'm able to sense the balance, I felt whatever threw it off was heading this way. It had a familiar presence so I assumed it was someone strong I know, but it was coming from you five. I sensed it the moment you came into this mansion."

"We're not evil, we're good. We fight evil, for good." Razz says

"You'd be wise to not lie to someone of my power."

"We're not lying." Ravenna says

"Then what is it you're facing?"

"I think you should know the answer to that." Ravenna replies.

"So you're the first to encounter him then."

"Cilan Mamoru, the hero." I say

"So it's true then."

"What is?"

"The Devil's Curse was inflicted upon him before death. During the battle to take back Avalon, he was cursed by the devil that took over. This curse would corrupt his mind, and soul. He was one of the strongest in the group, he was able to fight back the curse but he couldn't fight it long enough. He was heavily wounded by said devil, so he died. The curse was still on him. It was too strong for any dispel to work on it. His body was buried here, knowing the curse will take full effect, I would be able to stop him along with the celestial beings. Assuming there still are." Edengeld explains

"What do you mean by assuming there still are?" Ravenna asks

"Ever since the Great Realms' War, there have been no sightings of celestial beings appearing here." she replies

"Then how can we stop Cilan?" I ask

"That's for you to find out. Of course I will aid you in your journey."

"Why not just tell us how to?"

"Because I also don't know how to stop him at this state." she replies

"Cilan has never shown the true extent of his powers. He has been suppressing himself." she continues to explain

"Also you said 'take back Avalon'" I reply

I show here a world map.

"Avalon isn't here, where is this Avalon?" I ask

She takes out another world map. The world map looked similar only that it didn't have an island in the center. She points to the island in the center.

"This is Avalon, and no one is allowed to enter."

A dark elf appears rushing into the room looking injured.

"M'lady, he has arrived. We couldn't stop him" He says

Edengeld's clothing glows changing into armour.

"I want you five to find a way to stop him, I'm the only one alive that's able to restrain him. But not completely stop him." she says

She points at the injured dark elf.

"Lucas, go with them. Your power will be able to assist them."

Lucas was the name of the drow that had attacked us earlier.

"As you wish." He humbly replies.

Lucas goes towards. I look outside and I couldn't see the sun. It was as if this whole mansion was covered in darkness.

"What's happening?" Razz asks

"Cilan is here. With my magic, I can bring you to our old hideout in Zlatan. You'll be on your own from there." Edengeld says

"Let us fight with you, we can stop Cilan here!" Razz demands

Edengeld starts to chant and we would all be glowing.

"I'll try to stall Cilan, good luck" she says

With that, we disappeared.