Chapter 30

"Lareina! Keres, he's up there!" I hear my sister shout out from the left of me. I looked forward and saw the ugly bastard a ways ahead of us.

I felt a huge surge of energy flow through me. This brought a new level of determination. I could feel myself fighting harder and quicker to get to Keres. Every time I thought I was getting closer, another wave of these shadow people kept coming. I was getting very, very frustrated.

One after another, I blasted my powers through these shadow beings. The ones who could get close to me burned themselves by touching me. It gave me plenty of time after that to use my powers on them to disintegrate them.

"They keep coming! I feel like we haven't made any progress on getting closer to Keres!" I shouted over to Noor. I saw her take a quick glance over the shadow beings.

"Yeah, we haven't even made a dent. I don't understand where they are all coming from. They just keep appearing!" Hannah was soon beside us and blasted about twenty of them back.

"They are going to keep popping up too. Keres knows you are his weakness. He is going to stop at nothing to keep you away from him and at the very least tire you enough so when you do face him, you will be exhausted and not at your best." I took in all of Hannah's information. She's entirely right. This has got to be his plan, well, at least part of it. I disintegrated another shadow being and looked over at Hannah. Her eyes were completely black, her demon side making its presence known.

"So, what do I do?" She handed me a vile.

"Take this." She stopped me from taking the little corkscrew out. "Not now. Wait until we get closer to Keres. It will give you a surge of energy, but it won't last that long." I nodded and put the vile in my pocket.

"Got it!" She soon made her way to our right, back where Naiomi is.

I kept pushing myself toward Keres. My nerves, at their widths, end with these waves of shadow beings. I was fucking over it. I felt this electricity buzz throughout my body, and I could hear a crackling around me. I waved my hands aggressively out around me and saw blinding light flash out from me. It traveled towards Keres, disintegrating every shadow being in its wake. The movement felt so natural.

"Fucking finally!" I made powerful strides toward Keres. We both had our eyes locked on one another.

I was so close to him when another shadow being appeared in front of me. I almost disintegrated them but stopped as soon as I realized who it was. It was my dad. I felt everything in me deflate. I could feel my eyes searching, what eyes could barely be made out of my father's.

"Dad?" He gave me a sad look before he took a combative pose. "Dad, what are you doing?" I looked behind him briefly toward Keres. "Stop! Let him go!" Keres gave me an evil, bone-chilling grin. I felt my face whip to the side. I looked up at my dad to see a look of pain flash through his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Lareina. I'm not in control." He started to come near me, and I just tried to evade him the best I could. "Fight back, Lareina!" I shook my head at him.

"No, I won't fight you. I'll hurt you. I don't want to disintegrate you." He caught me by the arms, and he let out some pain-filled whimpers.

"You must." He looked into my eyes. "Please, Lareina. Free me." His voice pleaded with me. I could feel my stomach drop.

"I don't want to lose you again." I could hear my voice slightly break. I tried to yank my arms from his grip so he would stop burning himself. But, instead, his grip tightened on me. He quickly had me turned around, and his hand was on my throat.

"You've already lost me." I felt what I believe are claws elongate from his fingers. I then felt his hand shift slightly, preparing themselves for the swift motion of slitting my throat open.

I closed my eyes, and against what I wanted to do, my body reacted on its own. I felt the blinding light leave my body. My eyes flew back open, and I felt the panic surge throughout me. I looked around frantically for my dad, but I could see him anywhere. My heart started shattering, but I didn't have time to address what had just happened as I soon saw shadow beings closing in around me from all directions. I took in a deep breath to steady myself, and as I did, the energy inside me built up with it. When they got a little bit closer, I let out all of the power and again disintegrated all of them. I then turned all of my attention toward Keres.

"Stop being a pussy and fight me yourself!" I shouted out to them. They let out a maniacal laugh. In the beginning, that laugh may have made me falter a bit, but not now. I was on a rampage, I was one fucking hurricane waiting to devastate everything in my path, and they were the primary target.

"How's it feel to have killed your own father." I felt my focus slip a little bit but immediately made myself snap back into reality.

"Stop stalling. Let's get this over with." I put up my hands, ready to blast my powers at them, but I couldn't feel the buzz of energy as strong as what it was before. They let out another sinister laugh.

"Looks like the little girl is exhausted." They sounded so condescending, and that pissed me off even more. I kept trying to well up the energy inside me, but as much as I hate to admit it, they were right; I was exhausted. Then, they pulled out a weird-looking sword from; I have no idea where. Seriously I'm pretty sure they pulled it out of thin air; at least, I hope it was thin air.

"Where did you have that hiding? Up your ass?" Their eyes narrowed.

"You really are a smartass at all times, aren't you?" I shrugged at them.

"Better that than a dumbass." I watched their body closely for any subtle movements. I saw their body twitch, and soon I saw the sword cut through the air smoothly toward me. I jumped out of the way and rolled. I popped up quickly and just in time to avoid his next move. They are moving so rapidly and fluidly.

"Stop moving, little girl, and just meet your inevitable fate. Death." I dodged the sword again and, this time, counter with a small burst of my powers. It was enough for them to be seething in pain.

This was only like poking a bear with a stick, though. They slashed their sword through the air with supernatural speed. I barely made my way out of its path. As they sliced through the air again, I didn't have time to move. This time they caught part of my arm. The cut was deep and bleeding a lot. However, the pain was unimaginable.

"I bet that hurts. Doesn't it? My creator made it. It can kill even the gods and goddesses themselves." I gasped out a little. They laughed at my reaction. They swung the sword again. I barely dodged it, but I felt a massive blow to my stomach from their foot. I flew back and hit my back off the ground with a loud thud. It knocked all the air out of my lungs.

"Fuck." I groaned out. I tried to get up from the ground, but I felt another kick to my stomach and found their foot holding me to the ground.

"This is the end." They pulled up the sword, and I flinched as I saw it closing the space between us. I felt their weight come off of me and heard them grunt as they bounced off the ground. I opened my eyes to find Noor on the ground beside him. Her glowing eyes locked with mine.

"Drink the vile, Lareina!" Right! I hurriedly took the vile out of my pocket and through the contents back like a shot. I could feel a fire start sparking within me.

"Noor, watch out!" Before she could react, Keres stabbed her in the back. They did it with so much force I could see the other end come out through her stomach. I felt my airway constrict as I made eye contact with her. Her eyes didn't glow anymore; in fact, they looked very dull. They kicked her off their sword.

"No!" I ran over to Noor. "Noor! Come on, Noor!" I felt her shift slightly. Her head moved to the side.

"Don't worry about me. Focus on Keres." With that, I saw her body go limp and her eyes shut. Everything inside of me died, but a blazing fire rose in its ashes. I stood up and squared off toward Keres.

"How's it feel to be a complete failure? You killed your father, and you let your mate die." His words didn't falter my steps one bit.

"I'm done with your shit." I casually said, followed by a huge burst of energy from my hands. Their eyes grew big as they flew back on their ass. They bounced off the ground with a groan. I kicked their sword away from them.

"You're just a pathetic little girl." They spat out. I felt the specks in my eyes glowing brighter and the air crackling with electricity around me.

"I really don't fucking care what you think I am." I put up both of my hands and blasted every last bit of energy at them. They had a huge hole burned through their body where their nonexistent heart would be. I spat on him before making my way back over to Noor.

"Noor?" I lifted her limp body into my arms. I held her close to me and moved her stray hairs out of her face. "Noor? Please. Please, come back to me." I saw Noor's eyes slightly twitch, and I started to smile and let out a breath of relief. It was short-lived, though. I was thrown backward. I look up to find Keres standing there with a massive hole in their chest.

"Oh, come the fuck on!" They looked at me and then looked back at Noor. Their face broke out into an evil smile. "No!" They turned and started making their way toward Noor.

I scrambled up and started running toward them. I saw the sword and grabbed it. It can kill anything, right? I shot out as much of my powers as I could muster. I hit the back of their knees, making them slightly collapse. This gave me enough time to catch up. I didn't let them fully recover before I softball swung the shit out of that sword and sliced through their neck. Their head rolled away from their body.

"Home run," I muttered to myself. I didn't want to take any more chances. So, with my last bit of energy, I blasted a hole through their head. I looked up and found every shadow being that was left collapsed. The shadow form around them slowly dissolved little by little, returning them to their original state.

I ran back over to Noor. I picked her up and started running with her in my arms. I finally found Hannah.

"Hannah…" My words faltered after that. I couldn't say anymore. She knew, though. She had me lay Noor on the ground. She waved her hands all over Noor, and this soft light was surrounding her hands. She looked back up at me.

"It's bad, isn't it?" She didn't even have to say anything I could tell just by the look on her face.

"I can't heal her." I felt myself starting to become angry.

"You have to Hannah! You have to heal her!" I was shouting at Hannah and I could feel my emotions starting to get the best of me. I shoved Hannah really hard to where she fell back a bit. "Fucking do something!" Naiomi came out of nowhere and pushed me.

"Keep your hands off my fucking mate!" She was seething. Hannah was by Naiomi in an instance and put her hand on her arm.

"Calm down. You would be this distressed too if it were me." She then looked up at me.

"I think the only person who could be capable of saving her is you, Lareina." I looked at her dumbfounded.

"Me? How? The only way my powers have worked is by disintegrating shadow beings." She grabbed my hands.

"You have to focus your mind on what you want your energy to do. You're powerful. I'm sure you can control it." I sighed out and looked at Noor.

"I have to try something." I bent back down and brought Noor into my arms. I placed one of my hands over her wound and closed my eyes. I focused on what I wanted my energy to do and I could feel it expelling from my hand. I looked down and found the wound to be completely closed. However, she still wasn't moving. I looked back up at Hannah.

"All we can do now is wait. Let's get her to the hospital and find everyone else." I picked Noor up and we made our way toward the hospital. Along the way we found my sister Nina and Serenity. They ended up staying back to help everyone out on the battlefield. Especially the once shadow beings.

When we got to the hospital all the doctors rushed to help Noor. They placed her in a room and that's where we are at now. I'm sitting by her side holding her hand. The silence is too deafening at this moment. My leg was bouncing with my anxiety. The door opened to which I found the doctor. The friendly green giant came closer and looked over her vitals. He looked at me and let out a long sigh.

"Good news is she's alive. The bad news is, we don't know if or when she'll wake up." I closed my eyes and shook my head.

"She'll wake up. She has to." I felt him softly squeeze my shoulder before leaving the room. I opened my eyes and looked at Noor. "You have to wake up please." I felt a tear fall and soon another tear followed, until I was fully crying. The expression on my face never changed though, I didn't sob out, I just cried silently. I couldn't take my eyes off of her. I couldn't even let myself blink.