48 The Red Fog

Nia looked at the white robed monster. No words were spoken. Nia had nothing to say to it, but the white robed mage had plenty to say about it. The other bandits laid still. Each one dead.

He said, "They shouldn't have betrayed me like that. They should have known who was really powerful here."

Nia made no response. Instead, she gripped her sword firmly. Her tail whipped up the dirt underneath her. Her wings ready to soar.

The white robed mage continued to taunt against the young dragon. "It was unfortunate that my demon wasn't old enough to mature. It needed more time to grow before it was ready to live outside."

As he finished, Nia was about to charge forward, but her ears quickly picked up something unusual. The bandits that laid presumably dead began to convulse again. Nia looked at the bandits that surrounded her and the white robed monster. They were dead, but their bodies still moved. Something was still moving inside of them.

In one instant, a fish-scaled hand with claws of ice ripped open one of the bandits from the inside of his torso. It jumped out fully grown. It was humanoid and the size of a fully grown adult. It was the same as the small creature that came out of Miranda, but was alive and well. It was covered in blood, and its gills began to breathe in the surrounding mist.

One by one, the same creatures tore through the flesh from inside of their respective bandit. Some from ripping open the ruffian's mouth. The whole ground was flooded in blood. The mist felt heavy upon Nia's shoulders, even though she was still able to see through it with the silver merchant's magic.

Belze looked in horror. He stepped back and as he did so, a splashing sound occurred. He looked down upon his shoes and saw blood flooding out from the ground. The silver merchant looked back at Belze and said, "It will be okay. I'm here to protect you."

"But what about big sister Nia? Who will protect her?"

"She'll be fine. As I said before, his powers are weakened. Your big sister is strong. She should be fine as long as she stays focused," the silver merchant said as he casted a protective barrier around the boy, "Stay in that bubble."

Nia had to worry about the white robed monster and these abominations. The fog turned crimson red.

One of the creatures started to stretch its arms and walked slowly towards Nia from the front. After three steps, it lunged forward with a screech. Nia took her blade and cut it in half with ease. It's skin and bones were soft like a newborn child.

The white robed mage grinned viciously. A hill of dead bodies started to form under the white robed monster. His robes were still perfectly white and clean. He sniffed and smelled the scent of the boy and the silver armored being. They still needed to be taken care of as well. From the blood, more fish-like creatures grew. More and more until a small army of them grew. Their screeches and gargles could be heard all around Jaeden town. Half of them lunged at Nia, while the other half charged towards Belze and the silver merchant while running on their two feet. Blood had covered up to Nia's ankles. Inside of the magical barrier,Belze could only watch what was happening outside. A nightmarish hellscape. A town drowned in blood covered in murky red fog.

"You're lucky that it takes time for these eggs to grow. My bodies have been breathing in the mist for a long time now. Otherwise, all of you would have been dead the moment you breathed in my fog. But that's as far as luck can get you. Luck won't bring you to the top of the world. Only strength is needed. Strength to topple down all other pretenders."

Nia slashed and hacked against the waves of fish-like monsters. She couldn't let up. They started to scratch against and bite at the leather armor and skin. Blood covered Nia's body unsure of whose blood it really was. One lunged from behind trying to claw at Nia's wings, but she retracted it in a moment and turned around, cutting the monster in half. As they fell to the ground, they still crawled around.

Nia looked at the white robed monster as it stood atop of a hill made up of dead animals.

He threw away his mask and it shattered in midair. He grabbed one eye from the hill of bodies from that of a shark. He put it near his eye and small tentacles from his eye socket slithered out and wrapped itself around the eye. The eye was jerked into his eye socket. He blinked with one eye and turned the eye around. Although, he was more attuned to his sense of smell, he wanted to see what was happening.

He sat upon a throne looking down upon Nia as she struggled to fight off the onslaught of piranha-faced monsters. His enjoyment of watching somebody else suffer. Somebody that wasn't himself.

The silver merchant shot out beams of lasers against the hordes of monsters. Each one turned into a pile of bloody mush or dust. He conjured a sword made up of light and started swinging it around. With each swing, his blade goes through the monsters without actually cutting them, but whenever his blade made of light touches a creature, they would turn into dust. Belze could only watch. There was nothing that he could do. The ground under him was clear of any blood.

One of the creatures leapt up and lunged down at the silver merchant. He grabbed it by the throat, but the creature grew a long red spike of ice from the inside of its mouth. The red spike of ice went inside the silver merchant's head through one of the dark openings. Belze gasped. He fell to the ground still holding creature by the neck.

"Silver merchant! Silver merchant!" he cried.

The other creatures surrounded the magical barrier trying to break in. They thrashed their claws and head against the barrier. Belze sat down covering his ears from the screeches outside. He closed his eyes as tears overflowed as he wouldn't wake up from this nightmare.

More and more of the creatures came out of the blood. There was seemingly no end to them.

Nia continued to cut down what she could. One of the creatures scratched her face underneath her eyes. She cut it down shortly after. She breathed out fire at the fish-like monsters. Some were set ablaze, while others jumped away from the fire. Those set ablaze ran back and soaked themselves in the pool of blood underneath them.

The white robed monster watched Nia from above. One of the fish-scaled monsters trekked the hill carrying a pristine glass and exquisite wine from the tavern. It bowed with its fish eyes looking down as it handed the white robed monster the glass and poured in the wine. A table made up of stacked dead bodies and a layer of frozen blood on top formed itself in front of him. He motioned the creature to leave. He took a sip of the wine. Then, another. Then, consumed the whole thing. He threw the glass over hill. He grabbed the wine bottle and drank directly from that as he oversaw the Nia's struggle against his creatures.

"These things are nowhere near as powerful as the ice demons I conjured before. What a shame I have to waste what few bodies I have on the likes of three people. If only my power didn't rust in that hellish ice box," he said and took a sip of the wine.

Nia continued to swing her red blade while breathing out fire in every direction whenever she caught her breath. Her breathing became hard and rough. The other creatures started to slow their movements and became wary. Their numbers were dwindling, and less of those creatures started coming up from the blood. They started to circle around Nia like lions. Their fish eyes locked

From underneath her, a hand grabbed her leg. She was about to strike it, but as she looked down, it was a live villager with bloodshot eyes.

"Please, save me. It hurts. It hurts," he said.

As Nia hesitated, blood red claws tore from the villager's face cutting it in half revealing a lunging fish creature with its mouth wide open. Nia breathed out a stream of fire underneath her burning away the creature's and the villager's body.

The surrounding fish-faced monsters all charged at her at once. From underneath her, more hands came up. Some human hands, while others had fish scales and claws made of frozen blood. She grew out her wings and tail. Nia leap up breathing fire below her. The other creatures leapt up, but they couldn't reach her. She was high above the other creatures. She looked at the white robed monster who didn't feel like he was worried at all. Instead, he drank another bottle of wine that was handed to him by one of the creatures.

Belze continued to sit there among the protective barrier trying to close his eyes and ears. Eventually, the screeching halted. He opened his eyes and looked up from his position. It was the silver merchant without a scratch on him.

"I promised the girl that I would protect you. Looks like the white robed monster is distracted by your big sister. He stopped sending any here," the silver merchant said.

Belze stood up in joy. "Silver merchant! I missed you. I thought you were de-" He said before he hit his face against the magical barrier.

"It would be safe to stay in that bubble. Nia is still facing that monster."

Belze got himself up and watched the fight unfold as Nia flew above the ground. The buildings were ravaged and destroyed. Only a red fog and an ocean of blood covered the land as far as he could see.

Nia looked down at the ground and noticed the hands that were underneath her moving up. A giant worm-like creature made up of the hands of fallen villagers, townspeople and abominations.

It writhed upwards towards Nia. It diverged into separate worms and each one with mouths made up of the teeth of various creatures. It was a typhoon of the white robed monster's unused body parts in the shape of a lamprey. Their mouths

The fish-faced monsters who were stuck on the ground started to writhe in pain. Their screeches were hoarse. Their backs twisted and bones started to tear out of their backs. Blood poured out of the wound. Their bones grew longer and more complex. They continued to screech in pain. Various kinds of feathers began to grow on their wings. Different shapes and colors. They screeched upwards and began to fly above like angels. There were still hordes of them, even if no more grew from the ground.

Nia remembered the scenario before. The tentacles behind her while she charged straight ahead. But this time, it was a horde of flying abominations and a typhoon of flesh. She flew up until she was the same altitude as the white robed monster. She looked at the hideous monster that seemed not to notice her existence. A monster that only drank wine while everything below it was a stack of bodies. Nia never faced anything like this and she would never forgive anything like this.

She gripped her red blade tightly. The white robed monster didn't even bother to try and shoot any ice shards this time.

She flapped her wings and burst through the sky straight towards the white robed monster. The typhoon and flying creatures chased behind her.

The white robed monster conjured a heavily thick dome of frozen blood surrounding the hill. It was thick enough to not see through. The white robed monster took out his eye and threw it upon the stack of bodies.

Nia knew what she had to do. She needed to bring out the same fire that she brought out before. But how, she wondered. She asked herself in her mind, how did she do it before?

She had no answer. She had to believe that she could do it. Otherwise, there was no hope that she would even save anybody.

She yelled a battle cry as she lunged forward with her red blade pointing straight. Straight through the ice, she thought. Straight through with the fire that could melt the glaciers, she thought.

Belze and the silver merchant watched from below as she bursted through the sky.

She continued to yell. When she neared the frozen blood, she closed her eyes believing that her blade would alight once more.

Clang! Her blade pierce through the ice... but it wasn't enough. Her blade didn't alight. The red blade was able to pierce through the ice, but was stuck in the middle. Nia's eyes opened in disbelief. The white robed monster smiled. There was still plenty of frozen blood between himself and Nia.

The creatures that chased behind her stopped in midair. The multi-headed worm froze.

The white robed monster chuckled and laughed. His laughter reverberated withing the mist.

Nia looked around. The laughter came from everywhere. She tried to conjure the fire, but couldn't. She closed her eyes. Nia needed that fire to win. To defeat the creature.

"So, you just proved that luck can get you so far. I may not have looked like it, but my heart was racing. Racing to know whether or not you'd actually pull it off. Unfortunately for you, I was destined to be greater. I'm actually quite glad I didn't have to act as a slave, again. I may have lost a lot of my soldiers, but I gain a dragon out of this exchange, so I think it's fair to me," his voice echoed within the fog and also came out of the creatures' mouths. Every single one.

Nia tried to pull the sword, but it was stuck between the cracked ice.

"No. No. Not now. I need you to burn through the ice, now," she said to the inanimate red blade. It gave no response. She looked back. The creatures slowly moving towards her in this hellish landscape.

Belze and the silver merchant watched. Belze muttered in disbelief, "She did it before. How come she can't do it, now?"

The silver merchant watched with his arms crossed waiting for what he knew was going to happen.

Nia punched the ice with one hand trying to free her blade. She breathed out fire against the slow moving creatures, but it wasn't strong enough.

She tried to remember what she did to conjure the fire before. She remembered that she was thinking of Nera, and how Nia needed to rescue her like how she rescued her. Those memories didn't trigger any sparks from the blade.

She remembered that she wanted to win against the monster in front of her. She really did want to win, but that didn't do anything.

Then, there was one other thing. She was angry. For a moment, she felt like she lost control over her body, and resorted to her primal instincts. How would she get herself to that state of anger, she wondered.

The creatures closed in behind her slowly. The white robed monster wanted to relish in her suffering, but he was hoping that she would at least beg for mercy. Not that he would give any.

Nia tried to remember what made her angry before. It was the fact that she didn't want to lose to the monster in front of her. She tried to make herself angry, but it wasn't working. Her eyes stayed normal.

Suddenly, her senses perked up. A feeling that was lost for 30 years. A voice came to her. It was the voice of somebody she did not recognize.

"Remember your past. Remember the demons that haunted your dreams. Let go of your fear. Do not run away from it. You say that you aren't afraid, yet you haven't faced your demon."

For a moment, she looked ahead and saw the demon in red and black armor. It was large and the space around it curved like water. Yellow eyes glowed from its visor and stared directly down at the little girl. The small girl with no power to defend herself in a dark forest.

"Fight it."

The demon approached the little Nia. She took a step back as she looked up to meet it's gaze. As she did so, the demon lifted a green sword above his head.

"Do not run. Fight it."

Nia took a deep breath and made one step forward. The demon swung his blade down and in an instant, her eyes turned green and she breathed out flames of white that swallowed the red and black demon. The green blade melted away before it could hit Nia as her body began to transform into a dragon. The demon fell back as the white flames enveloped it. Her light green scales overtook her entire body. Her arms and legs grew in size. Wings that could render a hurricane. Her tail as long and sharp as a blade. Her body grew and grew. Her face morphed out into that of a lizard's. The dark forest brightened by the reflection of her scales against the spitting flames. She was not the small little dragon in that forest nor a human villager. Over the years, she has forgotten what she was. She was a dragon.

Nia opened her eyes and they turned fully green with rage. No longer afraid of the demon that haunted her dreams. It was nothing but ash to her. She could no longer sense the dragon anywhere.

One of the flying creatures held its hand up and was about to strike down on the turned around dragon.

The white robed monster sniffed and smelled a slight scent of smoke. His heart skipped a beat. The red blade grew ablaze with white fire. The frozen ice around it instantly evaporated. The creature was about to strike down, but the heat from the flame melted its skin away. The heat melted away the surrounding creatures. Their eyes popped like a yolk. The tremendous fleshy worm lunged forward, but Nia swung her blade at the worm and that white fire expanded like a beam of blue light. It's heat melted away the heads of the worm flesh and bone without even touching the sword. For a mere second, it was as if it had the power of a star. The endless bloodied floor boiled and turned to steam. Whatever buildings that surrounded her began to melt.

Belze shielded his eyes from the intensity, while the magical barrier protected him. The silver merchant unhinged by the raw power in front of him only stared at the girl flying above them.

Nia looked back at the frozen dome made of blood as the ice began to repair itself. She flapped her wings and burst straight through without a second thought. In her eyes, she saw nothing but the red and black demon fleeing.

Her green eyes reflected upon the frozen blood, but as she moved forward, the white fire melted through the ice before the blade even touched it. The white robed monster panicked and formed spikes of ice from inside the dome that would pierce Nia, but each shard that came near her melted instantly. Knowing, that his ice shards weren't working, he reinforced the walls of frozen blood with bodies and ice.

Nia roared the same as a dragon. She kept flying forward with such speeds. No matter how much the monster reinforced his walls, Nia moved forward, melting everything in her path.

As Nia faced the white robed monster, there was a sudden shock on his face.

Her blade's white fire dimmed down to orange, then yellow, and eventually as her blade reached closer towards the demon in her eyes, it pierced its armored chest with ease. She closed her eyes and opened them. They were no longer green. Her blade stuck where the white robed monster's black heart was. He was still sitting upon his half-melted throne, while the intense flames dimmed faded away from the red blade.

She looked straight at the monster's empty eyes. The entire dome turned into liquid and fell to the ground. The hill of bodies sank into the blood soaked ground. The red fog turned back into a normal mist, and then cleared away. Sunlight poured over Jaeden town. The buildings were mostly destroyed. The town was still empty. Nobody would live in this town, again. And it was all taken away by this unholy creature in front of her.

She slowly flew down while still having the red blade stuck in the white robed mage's heart. The silver merchant and Belze watched. The magical barrier that surrounded Belze vanished and he ran forward with the silver merchant walking behind.

The blood was absorbed into the ground as if it was never there. The bodies of the deceased stayed where the were. New bodies of villagers that were never there before popped up around the town as the blood disappeared leaving the remains of whoever the white robed monster killed.

It coughed out blood on the red blade. Soon, Nia landed to the ground with the monster still stuck to her blade.

"It can't end like this. I wasn't even close to rebuilding my empire," he said.

Nia scowled and replied, "You're just a freak of nature. You were never supposed to be born."

"I certainly wish I was never born. Then, I wouldn't have had to suffer."

"I would say you didn't suffer enough for what you did."

"But I won't be the last thing that come crawling out of the shadows."

The white robed monster's empty eyes stared at the silver merchant and then back at Nia.

"What do you mean? You have some friends you want to tell us about?" she asked the monster.

Nia, Belze, and the silver merchant listened carefully. It coughed before replying, "There was always a balance in nature. That balance has shifted. There are plenty of worse things in the world than me. Demons and other freaks that hide in the cracks. Away from the light in fear of their god-like natural predators above. But those so-called gods are being hunted like any other animal. It will take time, but soon monsters that were never meant to come out of the shadows will no longer need to fear the light. I was just one of the first to test the waters."

His empty eyes stared back at the silver merchant. Nia looked back at the silver merchant in suspicion, but upon seeing Belze unharmed, she felt that the silver merchant was trustworthy. As she looked away, the white robed monster created a small shard of ice that he would use to stab Nia in the eye. He grabbed the shard and quickly shoved it towards her eye, but a fast beam of light penetrated the white robed monster's arm and it turned to dust. The shard of ice fell to the ground without leaving a scratch on the young dragon.

The next moment, the silver merchant fired another beam of light from his fingertips at the white robed monster's head. It slowly turned into dust as it gave one more remark, "I wish you could have offered my a last drink."

His head turned to dust and followed by his body as it floated away into the wind never to harm another again. His dream of being on top never being accomplished. But deep down before his body flew away beyond the sun, he was glad that he didn't have to sleep in chains, again.