Chapter 237 Hot as Hell

Aella stumbled, attempting to keep her balance as Alfred slipped from her arms. The zombie that had grabbed her and pulled her through quickly fell back from the glow that emanated from him. She felt strong and weak all at the same time, and panic was trying to blossom in her chest as she crouched to ground herself.

"You don't belong here," said a voice that was eerily similar to the realm she was familiar to.

"We didn't come here willingly," growled Alfred, slashing his sword at several more zombies that disappeared upon contact with his blade.

"Only the dead are welcome here. I will allow you to remain only because of your status with my other half," said the realm. "I will not recognize all of your powers as has been granted from the other side."

Aella gritted her teeth as a wave of dizziness threatened to overwhelm her.

"Aella, you need to focus," said Alfred, looking out over the barren landscape around them. "The portal has closed, probably because my sword destroyed the altar on the other side. This place is crawling with monsters and I need you to not pass out."

"I'm trying," she growled. Squinting made the landscape come into focus, but only for a moment. "Is this because I'm the King of the Realm on the other side?"

"Maybe," said Alfred, slashing at another group as they drew closer.

"Crap," grumbled Aella. Shaking her head, she tried everything she could think of to get the cobwebs out of her mind. Slamming her hand into the ground, she tried to draw on the stability of the earth element, and suddenly her mind went calm. The elements were gifts from the other realm, so she wasn't sure how long this clarity would last. Alfred's abilities with light seemed to be working just fine, so what powers did this realm refuse to allow?

"Alright," she said, standing up and looking around.

The zombies stretched for miles and miles for as far as she could see. This was supposed to be where the dead came, so why were they all zombies here? Had Jozef's brother changed them already?

A flash above their head drew their attention, and Aella watched a glowing figure drift down and land just a few feet from them. The human looked around, his body glowing softly. As they watched, the glow faded and a black aura rose up from the ground and wrapped around him. Alfred didn't get a chance to even take a step towards the guy before he was completely engulfed. The black aura sunk into his body and he became a new zombie as they watched.

Swinging his sword behind him, without even bothering to look, Alfred killed another zombie as he turned to her.

"The entire realm has been corrupted! No one can arrive without being immediately turned into a monster! We have to do something!"

Aella nodded, but she was coming up blank. Bridgette was the one who could have told her how to purge the entire realm, or maybe she needed to pray to Joseph? Even the world tree might have had some ideas on what she could do.

"This corruption has to come from somewhere," said Aella. "I bet Jozef's brother has something to do with all of this. We need to find the source and destroy it."

"We need to make sure any other portals are closed, too," agreed Alfred, starting to walk forward as he continued to kill the zombies. Several ghosts quickly succumbed, too.

As long as she kept one foot planted securely on the ground, she didn't have any issues with dizziness. The air didn't seem to be helping her any, and she wasn't sure if it was because there wasn't any wind or air movement. There was obviously air, or she wouldn't be breathing but it didn't seem to have any life to it. Which probably meant she wouldn't be able to fly here, and that sucked.

Topping a rise, a view of countless undead spread out before them. Several portals could be seen, none of which were large enough for the zombies gathered around them to actually push through just yet.

"That looks to be a portal for each kingdom," said Alfred.

Aella counted them and nodded. "Jozef had said there would be. I can't believe I didn't find them."

"Don't be too hard on yourself. The realm is a pretty big place and you have been pretty busy with the trade town."

Aella frowned. If she was going to be in charge of keeping the realm safe, she needed to know about something like this. Working on the trade town should not have distracted her that much. She was going to have to work on this, somehow, when she got back to the other realm.

"I'm going to go start killing all of them and shut those portals down," said Alfred. "Try to avoid any of the zombies that come near you, and we'll look for the source once I'm done."

Aella watched in dismay as Alfred zoomed off, killing the zombie faster than her eyes could track his flashing form. She was the King of the Realm, granted amazing powers and hero and savior to many, and she was having to rely on a man to save her and the realm. It just didn't sit well with her.

Her eyes drifted around the outer edges of the valley below her, and she spotted a figure watching from a pile of rocks. He seemed to be furious, shaking and pounding his fist against one of the rocks he hid beside. Could that be Jozef's brother? If it was, Aella wanted a piece of him. She started making her way over, trying to make herself be invisible with whatever powers she still had.

"Stupid Hero of Light. Always was easy to manipulate. Soon I will have enough souls saved up to open the last portal. My brother must have been caught by that stupid realm guardian. He always was an idiot. Doesn't matter. I can finish my plans without him."

Aella was shocked to see that the demon wasn't upset at all, but rather gleeful that Alfred was cutting all of the zombies down! Could she get close enough to actually hurt him? Sneaking closer, she raised her sword to attack and he snaked out an arm and grabbed her by the throat.

"I could snap your neck so easily, little one," he growled, growing larger as he turned around. His small form disappeared as his wings stretched over his nine-foot frame. "Such a lost opportunity."

"What?" she gasped, struggling to loosen the grasp he had on her, but the moment he had lifted her off the ground, the dizziness had returned.

"Why were you the one that the realm wanted as its guardian? Why not me? I had all of the power of the entire realm in my hands, and it refused to even acknowledge me. Why?"

"Gargoyle," she tried to say, but it was so strangled, he merely laughed and shook her.

"Demons have grown so weak on this realm, losing almost all of their powers in favor of those blasted gargoyles. As soon as I get to the other side, I will fix that. Our kind used to rule entire realms! People would quake at the mere mention of us. So many tasty souls to eat back then," he said with a grin of remembrance. Turning away from Alfred and his fight in the valley, Jozef's brother gestured behind him, in another valley. It was much smaller than the one where so many were being destroyed, that Aella wasn't sure she would have even noticed it.

In the middle of this small divot in the land, an altar similar to the one she had destroyed in the elven noble's basement. Black wisps were streaming towards it from the direction of Alfred's fight, and a strange feeling of dread began to build in Aella's stomach.

"You have never seen the power of a true demon," he chuckled, baring his sharp teeth in her face. "Perhaps I will keep you alive long enough to realize that everything you have fought so hard to do over the past several years, will be destroyed. Once the realm is beyond saving, I will gather all of the power I will have gained together and return to my home realm in order to rule it. The demons back home will bow before me!"

Closing her eyes in an attempt to ignore the dizzy spells that were throwing her off, she tried to pull on fire, since air wasn't responding to her. Bursting into flame, the demon started to laugh.

"Our kind could care less about fire! My brother and I were raised in the pits of hell! The fires there burned so hot, a man would be incinerated in minutes!" laughed the demon.

"Have you ever visited a volcano?" asked Aella, finally finding her voice.