RUN !

STREETS OF ZENARLI, VENDARYA.

Meanwhile....

Not everyone got what they wanted. Not all wishes come exactly true. Wish to lose weight, then you might lose an arm. Wish to be rich, what if that money got you killed? Wish to be free, then you might as well be free of your body and die. The essence was that one had to wish specifically and be precise with one's wishes.

That was the crossroad that Adriana met herself, she had wished to escape from Antioch and be free of its restraints but she hadn't wished clearly for all its problems to remain there. Kali had sorted out her housing at an inn, he had promised to see to her affairs and she was having a close conversation with Kali, and suddenly the sky was lit with fireballs, Adriana had thought it was the demon but a bird's eye view from atop a building had gotten rid of that notion.

Anlai was here and he had found her.

Now thirty minutes later, she was maneuvering through the congested crowds, moving fast towards the Cascade Palace, with Kali taking the fore lead. She was well and conscious of the fact that if Anlai caught her, there would be no escape and that her execution would be arranged as fast as possible.

" Stop!" Adriana yelled suddenly, causing Kali to stop in his tracks and face her with a look of confusion.

" What?" He asked breathlessly. Running without rest would do that to you.

" We can't go to the palace," Adriana replied equally short-breathed.

" Why? The king's army is already on alert and barricades are already in place. The palace is the safest option we've got," He stated, his chest heaving as he spoke.

The safest option? For him maybe.

Considering Anlai's connection with the supernatural, she doubted Hattori's human forces would be able to stop him. For her to survive, she would have to escape from Vendarya and lay low in another neighboring kingdom.

" You and I both know, that no army can stop what is coming," Adriana replied, her eyes turning dark.

Kali knew that what she said was true. He had seen for himself the strange inky figures that glided towards Vendarya, conjuring fireballs in the air and attacking Vendarya, with nothing more than a flick of their wrists.

All controlled by a not so strange figure that glided from behind with a similar inky dark skin, grinning maniacally. The same person that had burned his former life to the ground, all with a single command.

" So what do you suggest?"

" I know who Anlai is after," Adriana began. "And I know he won't come after you"

She got that right. Kali thought grimly but paid attention to her nonetheless.

" We need to find another route away from here" Adriana said in a mocking tone. Telling Kali to leave her was out of the question, he was just too stubborn to leave her there.

"We?" Kali questioned, his eyebrows furrowing in mockery.

" Of course you dunce, " Adriana replied, her lips tugging at the sides, forming a smile. " Or are you gonna desert me...again" She added, her tone becoming serious.

Kali stared at her with an amused expression, taking in her appearance, drinking the vibrant orange hair on her head, her slightly tan skin. He moved closer to her, almost closing the gap between them, he watched as her breath hitched when he placed one of his fingers under her chin, tipping it to look him in the eye.

He was about to draw closer when a bright ball of fire hit the ground some meters away from them. Both of them jumped apart, glancing at the disintegrated flame.

" Follow me!" Kali looked at her, giving her a flirty wink before he began running in the opposite direction, diverting away from the palace's route. Adriana stared at his running behind for some seconds, before catching on to the situation of things and shooting right after him.

....

THE BREAK OF DAWN...

Location: The In-between.

Meanwhile, Abaddon was fast approaching his destination. After casting a spell to teleport himself to the In-between, his soul bond appearing some minutes after, he was venturing deeper into the heart of the In-between.

And so far so bad, Abaddon had sensed several red flags that served to arouse his suspicion further. The energy in the air was stale and the scenery was devastated and destroyed, since the last, he visited.

The formerly pale moon was now a bright and vibrant red moon in the sky, full and threatening. The trees could best be described as tall stumps, charred and devoid of any plant life, the formerly thick canopy of trees was all ashes on the ridgid soil, even the energies in the air were stale and unmoving. Abaddon found it too subduing for his liking, the whole area looked and felt dead.

He could feel revulsion in Cifaro as furious as a tsunami. Irrespective, he trudged on, his eyes scanning the environment for anything that might give him an explanation as to what happened here. He was only going upon his demonic instincts, towards the last place that he hoped nothing had gone wrong.

Abaddon stopped short. His aura was flaring beneath, he could sense a great amount of seismic energy in the air, coming out in waves, hitting him with full force, and his head began to ache. It felt like he was in another dimension.

Theoretically, he took some steps back and the energy died down. He looked at the ground. The energy flow was moving forward, he was in a kind of region that housed the energy, only that this energy wasn't what he could easily control, it was unyielding.

" Careful," He called out to Cifaro, who was sniffing the ground behind him. Ahead, some meters away from Abaddon, was a pillar laid erected solitary in a clearing. A thin crack defiled the smooth surface of the stone pillar.

" Cifaro, I need your help," Abaddon called out, turning to see his soul bond at alert, his ears perked up like a dog called for a bone.

" I need you to lock onto the energy signature around this place and tell me, what do you feel?" Abaddon continued, his eyes fixed on the crack in the stone pillar.

He had to be sure.

Without hesitating, Cifaro stalked towards the stone pillar, entering the force field of energy that repelled his master. Hissing as he felt the thick energies in the air, Cifaro ramped up his defenses in the form of a golden force of energy that circled him, repelling the unyielding force of dark energy. Upon reaching the stone pillar, Cifaro placed a paw on the cold stone, and tendrils of golden energy shot out of his paws and began to seep into the cracked line on the pillar. For some seconds, nothing happened, then as Cifaro probed further, the ground began to convulse and the pillar began to tremble, the moon's blood-red glow retired into a deep black moon as if ink poured on the surface, the whole area was plunged into darkness.

If not for the golden sheen around his soul bond and his demonic sight, Abaddon might not have been able to see. The ground suddenly began to quake and then slowly thin cracks appeared on the surface of the earth until it cracked wider and the stumps began to seep under. Abaddon immediately levitated as he saw what was happening.

His instincts began flaring and Abaddon turned just in time to see a large charred tree fall towards him. Before the tree could smash him into the ground, Abaddon shot a ball of fire, sliced through it and it fell at both sides not harming him.

Whatever force was at play was destroying this realm and Abaddon guessed it was to bury the evidence. Returning his gaze to Cifaro whose golden energy was fading slightly.

His soul bond couldn't hold on much longer and they were yet to find out what was going on. Knowing Cifaro, he would probably wait to see it through but something told him that this realm might be gone by the time that happens.

" Cifaro!"

Cifaro turned to glance at his master. He could sense the growing concern in his master.

" I am almost there, I can feel it. " Cifaro growled a reply over the raging winds, the In-between was disappearing now. From behind, the ground was warping into a black hole that was sucking everything immobile thing. It was only a matter of time before it swallowed them into it, to gods knows where.

" We need to leave now! " Abaddon yelled telepathically, he could see that Cifaro's defenses were crumbling. Once it crumbled, there would be nothing stopping the black hole from swallowing them.

Just as Abaddon was considering using his powers to coerce Cifaro into submission, another whirlpool of darkness appeared near the pillar. Fear hitched in Abaddon's chest at losing Cifaro but before he could voice out a warning, he saw that the whirlpool became purged of darkness, ,and in place of darkness was... someone.

Someone was plunging a scepter into the pillar ... What was this? Abaddon thought confused, but as he stared hard at the moving figures in the whirlpool.

Moving figures... It was a vision. 

Someone in the vision approached the pillar that Cifaro stood beside, only that there wasn't a crack on it, the person plunged what looked like a short black staff, with a glowing redhead. The figure was immediately consumed by blue light and then the vision continued... A bargain, the vision rolled on with the figure talking with another being. Suddenly, the vision broke open to reveal the clear image of a strange girl with vibrant orange hair, and the other being collided with the figure.

A contract.

Realization dawned on Abaddon, but as he was about call onto Cifaro, he saw that the vision flickered out, the vision ending and his eyes immediately darted towards Cifaro, who was knocked out cold, with no defenses, the black hole behind was fast pulling his soul bond away. Abaddon jerked into action and electric vibrations snaked their way around him, he drew energy around, and with a determined snarl, he shot forward and flew over to Cifaro, and chanting the spell, he teleported away from the In-between just as he was about to be consumed into nothingness.

As Abaddon cradled his unconscious soul bond to his chest, he could feel a dark weight on his chest. He now knew where his former contractor had disappeared to and what he was up to.

A new evil had been released and this evil was a being from his nightmares...The Nefaris had been released. Fear and apprehension washed through him like a tidal wave and he knew that things were about to get nasty, but first, he had to find a particular orange-haired girl... And fast.