Chapter 9

The air was thick as the mages marched closer to the point where the rift occurred. They were being led by the scouting troops which were under Reggie's command, while behind them were the members of each house lined up in a side by side formation. Johnathan and Alexis walked close together with Alexander behind them preparing his talismans. Each head of the house was in battle gear, the head of the serpent house wore her hair into a bun and had a white coat on which ran down to her knees. The head of the turtle house wore mini turtle shells on his shoulders with his body still heavily taped. The head of the leviathan house still stuck with her black sleeveless shirt and cargo pants only this time she had a sword strapped to her waist. Alexis and Johnathan both wore brown and red coats respectively covering their inner body huggers.

"We should be arriving at the rift point soon." Said Reggie from the front.

"Prepare yourselves and expect the unexpected!" Johnathan shouted to the troops.

"I just hope we all make it out in one piece." Alexis said as she held on to Johnathan's hand.

"You love birds can frolic all you want when we get back." The leader of the Serpent house said with a smirk.

Soon they came across a cliff from which the rift point was visible. The horizon was split in two showing the human world and the ethereal plane, though it seemed as though the humans had no idea of what was going on.

"We are just in time." Reggie exclaimed.

"Then let's seal it up and be done with it." Said the leader of the Leviathan house.

As they were about to move, the rift got bigger and the side which showed the human world switched to another location in outer space.

"What just happened?" Alexis asked.

"It seems the rift is increasing." Reggie explained, then he gave orders to his men to rush out to the bottom of the rift opening.

"Never fear, my scouts will get to work on the…" Reggie was about to finish his statement when the earth shook and a giant golem burst out from under the ground and attacked his troops, killing a few in the process.

"No!" Reggie yelled. Immediately he jumped into action, conjuring up weapons from thin air, he threw a spear at the golem which cracked its arm, but it regenerated.

"Boys! Let's run amuck!" Johnathan said and all the troops ran toward the golem all attacking with their individual powers.

Alexis and Alexander shot fireballs at the golems head but it kept on regenerating. Soon, it let out a cry and other golems of different sizes burst from underneath the ground, killing some of the mages.

"Don't be afraid, push forward and protect the scouts, our main priority is sealing that rift!" The head of the turtle house ordered the troops.

"You will do no such thing!" A deep monstrous voice echoed in the ears of everyone on the battle field. The golems stopped moving while the mages looked around as the rift got bigger till it was almost halfway through the sky.

"Show yourself!" Reggie commanded looking straight into the part of the rift which showed outer space.

"Your insignificant human minds cannot comprehend my physical form." Said the voice again.

"You'll find it amusing than we actually can." Johnathan smirked.

"And not only that, we can also bring it to the ground too!" Reggie stated. He was still fuming a lot from the men he had just lost.

"Very well." The voice then said and almost immediately a bright light burst from a point in outer space and out of it came a being which had the look of an eye inside an inverted triangle.

"Do you still think you can bring me down now?" The being asked mockingly.

"Who are you and what do you want from us?" asked the head of the serpent house.

"Aurora, head of house serpent. I am a being that transcends the use of nomenclature, I have existed though out time and reality again and again and have witnessed the countless deaths and sins that has beseeched this realm." The voice said.

"That explains how you know my name." Aurora said.

"I know all, I have seen all and I have come to a conclusion that there is only one solution; purging the filth off this realm!" the voice concluded.

"So, you mean that you are not in league with the ghouls?" The head of the turtle house questioned the being.

"Tartius of the Turtle house, I do not align myself with any race or breed. However, I require a vessel to imbed my powers so as to set foot on your world, it just so happens that the vessel I have chosen is a… ghoul as you call it." The being explained.

"Look, none of this makes any sense, why would your solution to the realms sins be total annihilation? What about the good of this world? What about the good people?" Alexis asked.

"Alexis, leader of the house of the phoenix, the scales have been put in order and evil strongly outweighs justice. You all have done your part in trying to keep the balance but it is not enough. It is time for I to become the judge, jury and executioner"

The mages began to murmur among themselves, wondering if the end had come and even if it hadn't, how were they supposed to defeat such a foe? As the situation went on, the leader of the house of the leviathan stepped forward.

"We are the mages that have sworn to protect this realm from being destroyed, be it a ghoul or an overgrown eyeball. You may think we're supposed to cower in your presence but I don't back down to no one without a fight. You can take a ghoul as your vessel or stay as you are I don't really care but here's the kicker… If I'm going down, you're going down with me!" She said as she unsheathed her sword and took a battle stance. The other mages marveled at her courage and soon they all stood their ground all getting prepared for anything the being was going to throw at them.

"Very well."

As the being said that he disappeared and the rift got bigger. Soon portals began to open and hordes of ghouls came out, all looking grotesque and in different shapes and sizes. Among them came another ghoul which looked humanoid but had three eyes. He floated up into the air and opened all three eyes which shot an aura of energy that all the mages felt.

"It seems he has taken over the body of the ghoul king." Reggie explained.

"So, this is your plan of attack?" Johnathan asked.

"Do you have no remorse at all? Are you saying you want to take our future from us because of your own brand of justice?" Johnathan began to yell.

"The future I see is one of darkness." The being said.

"Well, the future I see is one with joy and happiness and I'm not going to let a pompous being from far away destroy it!" Johnathan said as Alexis looked from behind admiring his courage. She had never seen him so moved to protect something this much.

The being stretched a hand forward and the ghouls and golems under his control ran toward the mages who didn't look like they were going to back down.

Soon enough the battle begun, mages were tearing ghouls down from all angles, all forms of magic was on display.

The leaders of the house were breezing their way through the ghoul troops. Tartius used his tapes like whips and talismans which manifested weapons and also splashes of water whips due to his mage affinity being water based. Alexis and Alexander threw fireballs in sync at every ghoul they could as they cleared a path forward toward the possessed ghoul king. Johnathan and Reggie also worked hand in hand to make their way forward. Johnathan used the best of his infusion powers and infused all his weapons with plasma, throwing daggers and ninja stars in every direction while Reggie was skilled in weapon forgery and hand to hand combat, using a pair of electricity induced brass knuckles to punch his way through. Aurora used her shadow technique to conjure shadow spikes at the ghouls and also hold their shadows down for the other mages to smite them. The leader of the leviathan house slashed each of the enemies with precision as she controlled the earth beneath her to use as a shield. She tended to focus more on the golems as they were also made of earth material.

"We need to get to the ghoul king faster!" Alexis said as she crushed a ghoul under her feet.

"We are trying our best, they just keep coming." Said Reggie.

"Then we just need to try harder." Alexis said. She looked at Johnathan who gave a nod understanding what they needed to do.

"House leaders, follow me! Tartius give us some cover, we're heading straight for the ghoul king!" Johnathan said and immediately the heads of the house, including Reggie came together and Tartius covered them with a turtle shell construct as they moved toward the possessed ghoul king. Alexis used her powers to create a phoenix construct around the forcefield to lift them up toward the being.

"Futile efforts of attack", the being said as he manifested a large molten ball and hurled it toward the house heads.

The head of the leviathan house sliced through the ball and proceeded to swing at the demon king who just tilted his body a little and then kicked her to the side. Aurora used the shadows on the body of the ghoul king to try to hold him in place using shadow marionetting but the being seized her hands using telekinesis and dropped her to the ground. Tartius surrounded him with a forcefield and Alexis created phoenix constructs using fire inside the forcefields to attack the being. It seemed as though it was working for there was no movement or retaliation from inside the forcefield.

"Impressive skill, but not enough." A voice from beside Alexis spoke; it was the ghoul king. Before she could react, he gave her a kick to her chest sending her flying. The being was walking toward her when two ninja stars flew at him, stopping close to his face. He then looked at the direction in which the stars came from, it was Johnathan running at him with his daggers. Johnathan went for a swing toward the being's face, but the possessed ghoul king evaded with swiftness.

"Don't count me out yet!" The leader of the leviathan house came in from behind with her own swing which the being evaded also. It was a barrage of swingels and misses from both Johnathan and the leviathan head.

"How long will you continue to act upon futile attempts at defeating me?" the being said before he kicked Johnathan in the face sending him toward Reggie and grabbing the head of the leviathan house by her neck.

"Feridia, you told me not to count you out? I barely even counted you." He said before he threw her back with telekinesis. The being proved too strong for even the house heads to handle as they looked on in desperation.

"So, this is the might that you defenders of this realm have to offer? Now I know that destroying your realm is doing you all a favor!" He said in a demeaning tone.

"For someone who seems to uphold his brand of judgement, you're really getting a kick out this." Reggie said. The being tilted its head and then gave a smile before then bursting into a laugh.

"Well you must say, watching pitiful beings struggle for survival is… amusing." As he said this, pushed them all back with a forcefield. He then proceeded to levitate toward the sky which was almost bright with the rising sun.

"We can't defeat this guy." Alexis said to her fellow house heads.

"We have to keep fighting, I am not going to let him have his way!" Feridia yelled as she was preparing for another attack but was stopped by Reggie.

"There is something we can do." Reggie began.

"There is a forbidden technique of reality manipulation which I have been studying in case we were to face a foe with such immense powers." He paused as he looked at the faces of all the leaders.

"It's a black sealing technique which would encase the victim in a parallel time space." He continued.

"Don't you think big ugly over there would have already figured this out?" Johnathan asked.

"Well I doubt; from what I observed, we in the magic realm cannot converge with the realm of anti-magic." Reggie concluded.

"So you the parallel time space is the realm of anti-magic?" Tartius asked to which Reggie confirmed.

"But how are we gonna get him there? You just said it yourself that magic cannot collide with Anti-magic." Feridia said.

"Well, we can't; unless we offer up a soul as a gateway to activate the law of equivalent exchange." Reggie replied.

"That explains why it's a forbidden technique." Aurora said. This made the heads of the house silent with the sound of destruction was the only thing they could hear behind them.

"This isn't the time to mope." Johnathan began.

"We have a solution and it's our only one, so let's get to it." He concluded as he pulled out his plasma infused daggers. He then turned to look at the being who was decimating the mages and the battle field.

"Let's go get this son of a bitch."