Chapter 33: Song of dread

Heavy winds picked up and thunder roared frightening even Lus 

"So this is your doing huh?"

The creature thought to himself before he started singing in a deep voice

"The clouds of sorrow , destruction is nigh 

But the sound of my voice is peace 

Enchanting the world, with sadness and sorrow 

The song that they dread is... me 

The song of dread is me

Let the clouds disperse ,making way for the rainbow 

That hides beneath the stream" Timothy and the others looked at the creature with wide eyes as he cancelled whatever was coming with his song and blood red leaves fell from the trees , for a horrifying creature it had a beautiful deep voice 

The thunder stopped roaring and the clouds dispersed as the creature stopped singing , it looked at them for a while before speaking 

"I have guarded this place and it's treasures for countless years , I have been challenged by strong men and women but none of them have been able to defeat me in my bloodscape . I was born from the impurities of both Zebha and La'faura but the reason this forest is red isn't them but me this whole forest is under my control for I , Song of dread was born from the impurities in the blood of two divine beings and-" Jake immediately cut the creature off

"Treasure? What treasure we are here to investigate the underground cave in the center of this forest trust me when I tell you that we do not know of any treasure" Jake spoke so fast that the others didn't quiet here what he was saying 

"So you do not want the drop of blood of the gods?"

They answered in sync"No !!!!!!"

The creature looked at their pale and drained faces before speaking again

"The cave ? You mean the cave full of dead bodies ? La'faura's people use that cave to meet with the vile humans that reek of the foul" the creature spoke 

"Since we are not looking to take your treasure can you let us go"komoni spoke in an exhausted voice her eyelids were heavy it looked like she was about to pass out at any moment 

"Huh ? Why should I ? You have trespassed on a forbidden territory , plus my bloodscape needs nourishment" 

"But the La'faurians also trespass here but you can't seem to do anything to them,or what are you not as powerful as you seem"Jake taunted the creature 

"Taunting me won't work child , La'faura's people use an ancient rune seals to suppress my power whenever they enter here , but sometime ago I let a few of Zebha's people make their way to the underground cave to see the amount of bodies of their kin inside "

"Sebrina help me" Timothy pleaded in his mind as his blood was almost fully drained and he was having a hard time keeping himself conscious ,the creature looked towards Timothy and a purple light reflected in his eyes 

"Who dares to pull me into an illusion!!" The creature bellowed , it had been dragged into a fiery illusion with purple flames dancing all round him and Infront of him was and a silhouette of a woman could be seen sitting on a throne of purple fire , with a gown that had Purple fire dancing on it , her face was covered in shadows but her blue eyes could be seen through the darkness covering the rest of her facial features 

"Quiet down little phantom you are making too much noise" the woman with blue eyes spoke in a mature voice as if she was talking to a child

The phantom shuddered as he could feel that this being was much stronger than him 

"Forgive me your highness what have I done to anger a great being like yourself" he spoke with caution

"One of the children you are trying to kill belongs to me , I suggest you let them all go "

"I'll do so right away "he responded

"It seems like you are stuck in this place aren't you phantom? Well I can make a deal with you to get you out of here but you have to do something for me in return" the woman proposed 

Back in the blood forest the creature suddenly raised his arm and Timothy and the others started getting their blood back the faces regained their normal colours and they could move their bodies freely, they all looked towards the creature who was also looking at them

"Thank you song of dread." Komoni bowed making the creature chuckle deeply

"Nothing is for free" after he said that he opened his palm and a drop of blood appeared above his palm Looking as if it was alive , song drop it to the ground and then he looked at the forest before making a hand seal 

"Release" everything around him started rotting even the blood red trees lost their colour and turned into dried husks as all of the trees in the forest died and the ground also lost its red color with the soil turning black as if the whole forest turned into a wasteland 

"We will meet again " with that song of dread turned into blood and was swallowed by the ground 

"What the hell just happened?" Dan asked

"I'm just as shocked as you" Jake answered ,but as they were talking none of them knew that beneath the soil something was moving towards one of them 

"Ahhh what the hell was that" Timothy raised his left foot and took a look at the sole of his boot and there was a small hole under his boot 

"What's wrong ?"komoni asked , Timothy shook his head and looked around 

"So his power was the one keeping this place alive?" He asked his teammates but then a sword pierced his left thigh so fast he didn't even see it coming until the sword was lodged into his thigh 

"What-"Timothy immediately reacted by channeling the breath and he saw a red wave approach komoni at a fast speed 

"Captain drop down!" Komoni dropped down with hesitation and a sword passed on top of her before striking a tree Infront of them 

"Formation"

They immediately drew out their weapons and stood with their backs facing each other , Timothy pulled the sword out of his thigh and stopped the bleeding with the breath . concentrating on trying to find the enemey , the red waves were moving so fast around them that he couldn't even pin point the exact location of their attacker , but then komoni took out the suppression artifact and rubbed it's center in a circular motion activating the artifact , it flew into the sky and expanded reaching a hundred yards 

"Captain what the heck are you doing?!" Dan asked 

"How can we fight what we can't see , at least this will give us a fair advantage" komoni spoke 

"The suppression artifact won't help you" they all heard a familiar voice speak behind them since they all had their backs facing each other , turning around super fast they saw their coachman who they had left in the desert standing with a sword in hand and a smile on his face 

"Trevor!!! Why?" Komoni asked as her eyes couldn't believe what they were seeing

"Why not ?" He smiled"This is where you die" Trevor took a fighting stance and they attacked him , Trevor dodged their attacks with easy it was as if he was dancing as he dodged and evaded their attacks 

"Is that all you've got huh ? The king's blades , the most powerful group that's supposed to protect it's king can't even defeat a mere coachman"

Trevor taunted them as he was busy dodging their attacks not even once attacking them , his speed was much greater than theirs and since they couldn't use their abilities they power was greatly restricted 

"Rotating blade formation"komoni commanded making Trevor laugh

"You don't yell out orders Infront of enemies captain" Trevor spoke as he anticipated their new formation 

Timothy dashed in first and attacked Trevor alone for some few minutes without landing a hit with his sword before Jake came in with a dagger and attacked Trevor mercilessly but Trevor still looked relaxed as ever as they took turns attacking him for an interval of 2 minutes each , After 20 minutes of one sided attacking Trevor started attacking too 

"Good he is starting to get tired" Timothy thought as he watched Trevor attack back with his reckless sword style but Lus who was fighting him at the moment seemed to be an impenetrable wall as his sword art left no gaps or flaws for the enemy to exploit and he wasn't that fast but Trevor seemed to be having a hard time against Lus the most as by now beads of sweat rolled down his face 

"I will toy with you no longer" he spoke as he hit his own chest with heavy blows three times before coughing out black blood "your time's up "

with that he moved so fast targeting Timothy and ignoring Lus"you seem to be a problem Mesa " 

he raised his sword about to strike down at Timothy but then the chains on Timothy's cross guard wrapped around his arm as Timothy had raised his sword to block the attack 

"Clank " the swords connected sending a shockwave that blew away Timothy's teammates 

"Huh ? What is ---ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh" Trevor screamed as Timothy sword manifested chains that wrapped around his sword and made their way up his arms and eventually covering his whole body in a split second and they started draining his blood making him scream in pain , the chains release a bright purple light as they drained Trevors blood .His screams slowly died down until he was completely silent then the chains unraveled and what was left of Trevor was a dry husk that feel down with his sword being the only thing that looked unscathed

"Where did you buy your sword cause I need me one of that" Dan spoke as they all looked at the husk that used to be Trevor their timid coachman

" From now on , we will handle all our operations ourselves . It hasn't even been long but we've almost met our death three times in less than a day."komoni said 

"So captain should we continue?" 

"No Dan we won't , song had already told us that La'faura is working with that cursed group.we need to go report our findings to the king, but I do wonder how we will explain how the forest became like this " she spoke , and they left the forest after komoni took back the suppression artifact heading back to the capital luckily for them Trevor didn't destroy the carriage and Lus even offered to be the coachman as they went back

"Foul "