Chapter two

***Few hours later***

As we're putting on the finishing touches for the King's birthday celebration I could see the sun going down in the distance. Out of nowhere the patrol towers start ringing their Bells from above one of the Men start shouting fireball incoming. I look up to see a huge fireball, much larger than even the strongest of magicians can produce. Without hesitating I activate my water manipulation Magic towards the fountain and streamline the water towards the fireball in the hopes of limiting the damage. The water quickly evaporates and the steam dissipates, from within the fireball comes flying a rock spear. Everyone runs out of the way when it lands a few feet in the middle of the crowd behind me. As everyone hits the ground we can hear the castle walls being hit with boulders and other magic spells.

"Defensive positions everyone" I shout. A commotion can be heard from inside the palace throne room. I rush inside to father but making it a few feet past the doors I see intruders, dressed in black, littering the hallways. I stop in place as they quickly notice me. 15 men all scattered up and down the hallway start firing off attack spells, with poor aim, dodging their spells left and right is easy. My attention keeps getting pulled to the throne room as the sounds of conflict intensify. One of the men in front of me grabs his sword and rushes me as the others cease firing. I pivot on my right foot as I swing backwards narrowly missing his sword near inches in front of my face. All of sudden the other men charge at me as well. I weave around them, dancing around every last one of them in the hallway, to some it might seem like I'm playing or something but in actuality I'm trying to get them to surround me on purpose. As I stop and place one of them from behind grabs my sword.

"What now girl, what can you do without a sword" the man said. I focus water attribute magic in my left hand and wind attribute magic in my right. I hit the floor placing both of my hands onto the ground focusing both magic attributes coursing through the floor creating a wave of ice magic encasing every last intruder in a block of ice

"That" I said, leaping out of the ring of ice.

As I race closer to the throne room I can hear swords clashing and muffled shouting. I use the skill detect to see if my father is still alive. Surprising part is that my father is fighting a big group. Half of them are invaders, the other half are our own men, I can tell because I remember everyone's magic aura that's in our service, plus two of them are much stronger than the others and one of them is stronger than my father. I picked up the pace and finally burst through the doors. I was right about who was fighting father. There's a group of men surrounding him, half of them are wearing black the other half are wearing our own kingdom's armor. Near the back of them I see two individuals, one looks to be Prince Keith of the Galeburst Kingdom and the other one appears to be mage, judging by his magic staff that has a magic crystal inside of it, he is the much stronger one that I sensed mere moments ago.

" Prince Keith, what is it that you think you are doing?" I yell.

"I'm tired of living in the shadow of my father. I want my own kingdom and I will take it by force from all of them on all of the continents. I will be king of everyone" Prince Keith shouts back.

"Run away my daughter" father tries saying before he is cut off by one of the men lunging at it and clashing swords with him.

"You are definitely the strongest one in this Kingdom" the mysterious stranger said.

"And who are you!"

"You can call me Miser, me and Prince Keith share a certain interest in common. If he gives me what I want then he will be king of everyone and everything with my help" Miser said in a rough old voice.

"But first we shall start by killing the King of Falsworth and all of his children" Miser said.

"Get her!" Prince Keith shouted.

Out of the corner of my eye, to my left, one of them charges at me for an attack. I duck his attack, while grabbing his right hand wrist, grab ahold of the lowest part of his leg and toss him into a small group of men adjusted from him, knocking them down. Enemy attacks come at me from all round but what I don't block by hand I block by using magic.

"Come on men it's just a girl how hard can it be" Prince Keith shouted.

"Huh, keeping pace with these chumps is easy " I said and to demonstrate my point after I duck under one of the men's punches I get behind them and strike in the middle of his back with my left elbow knocking him to the ground. I swiftly gather water and wind Magic forming lightning of magic sparking in my hand. I pivot on my right foot, using my left foot as a bit of a boost, swing backwards looking at the two cowards in the back of the room, and launch a lightning bolt towards them with a bit of extra speed added to it. I see both of them narrowly missing the attack as they both hit the floor hard and all in one swift motion I hit the ground, missing one of the enemy swords Aiming for my head, I grab one of the expandable metal staffs that I have tucked away in my outfit and jab the man in his gut. When the last man hits the ground and groans in pain I stand up straight and stare at the two men who are still crouched near the ground.

"My my dear I guess the rumors about this kingdom's princess were true after all," Miser said as both of them straightened themselves out and dust their clothes off.

"But I assure you my dear I have quite a few tricks up my sleeve for you" Miser said with a sinister sneer on his face. All of a sudden all the henchmen I knocked down are standing back up and all of them are holding an odd gem in their hands. This gem is black with purple streaks shimmering inside of it. I can sense an evil dark magic emanating from within. All of the henchmen shout "activate" and the black Stones begin to shine with purple and red color. Evil dark magic fills the room and everything darkens around me. I look behind me and the only thing I can see of my father, the king, is his shiny crown. I turned my attention back towards Miser and Prince Keith only to notice that Miser is quietly whispering magically enchanted words. The only words I can make out that Miser is saying is "Grant thee power" soon after that magic circles surround each and every one of their henchmen and it becomes clear to me what this is. It's a forbidden ritual spell. The Magic in this world does have four elemental powers: water, wind, Earth and finally fire. But alongside the four major elements there's light, darkness and combination Magic. Light magic is a part of Heaven so naturally healing and curse Dispelling comes with the affinity for light magic. While darkness Magic is merely a deluded form of demon Magic that our ancestors created in order to combat the demon King, the one who created the demon race. The demon race is made out of five different types of demons; one type was created from the demon King's own flesh, Blood and Magic. While his four generals also made their own demon race. The demon King and his four generals once had a tournament long ago to decide who the demon King shall be, the one who would obtain all power and go forth and conquer other worlds. Our ancestors long ago were guided by heaven's light and the five heroes were chosen to defeat the evil demons and to make peace and coexistence between all matters of being. At the time the heroes merely thought that the four elements and light magic would be enough to defeat the evil demon race. After a close encounter between a small group of demons and the leader of the heroes party did they come to realize that some of the other demons wanted to stop the demon King as well for he was not a very kind and gracious ruler and so the two groups created darkness magic together the diluted form of demon Magic which is too powerful for humans and thus the demon King and it's four generals were defeated and sealed away behind heavenly light Magic, which is twice as powerful as regular light magic. Over the years many twisted and power seeking humans have explored the realm of magic, mainly dark magic, and have created forbidden spells out of it. The spell that Miser and Prince Keith's men are using is a forbidden spell that unlocks demon Magic which is just too powerful for humans to control if any who attempt to use demon Magic mutates into an unrecognizable human and demon form. The only thing on their minds when they're like this is destruction and death, like we've seen in others before.

"You fool's demon Magic is beyond us" I shout and start to feel demon Magic crush me, limiting my movements and breathing.

"To you maybe but my magic is special and now they're under my control" Miser said. All the henchmen rush at me all at once, with strong magic increasing their speed, it takes everything I have to just increase my speed enough to barely Dodge any of their attacks. Demon magic is potent stuff making anything that involves demon magic 5x times more powerful than normal magic. But thankfully at least those two fools didn't realize that my three older brothers had gotten our father, the king, already out of harm's way at the beginning of a fight now all I need to do is to keep them distracted long enough so that way the four of them can get as far away as possible. I look over at Miser and Prince Keith grinning. At least it's safe to know that they haven't noticed who's missing while I am on the other hand still seeing all 20 henchmen.

Dodging attacks and sword swings I begin to notice that their movements are getting faster. I switch gears and start taking a few of the hits since it's becoming harder and harder to dodge every single attack. Bruises are all up and down both my arms, sword cuts littering my body reaching from small to medium, and my beautiful clothes are scorched from they're fire spells. Being the youngest and only daughter between my father the king and my three brothers Kale, Bryan, and Adam from a very young age they were all over protective. They made sure that I had the best tutors to teach me stuff. The best instructors to teach me combat skills and the best magic advisors so I can hone my magic skills. Not to mention the top five best adventures to take me to the field for practical combat instruction.

"You're no match for our new found power" Miser said. I'm giving it everything I got but their power is overwhelming and I can't keep this up. An overpowering urge is telling me to move and as I do so a sword is thrust into my chest from behind narrowly missing my heart. As the henchman stepped back I collapsed to the ground. I gaze behind me to see Liam is the one who stabbed me.

"Ahh you traitor how could you" I whine out in pain.

"Miser and Prince Keith have kept their promise, a promise that Falsworth and your father the king have not been able to keep in almost 5 years" Laim said with a cold tone of voice. The promise that Liam speaks of is that his little brother has been cursed by one of the few remaining demon generals from the previous demon King and that no one in our kingdom has been able to lift the curse. Since demon magic is five times stronger than our normal magic, demons live five times longer than us humans do if not longer. Liam, his little brother and the rest of his family use to reside in a little village in our kingdom but was wiped out by one of the demon generals, sadly we do not know which one committed this act, the king appealed to all of the best magicians of various kingdoms and not one of them was able to lift the curse and no one could figure out why.

"But Keith my father took you in he gave you food, shelter we did everything we could to save your little brother and although we weren't able to lift his curse we put him in a stasis crystal to sustain his life everyone around the world is working on this curse for many others have also been afflicted by the same curse it's only a matter of time before-"

"No! Thousands of people have been working on this for years now and we are not any closer to finding a way to lift the curse. I'm tired of waiting" Liam said. I can see the anger twisting on his face. I only have one chance to get away now so I need to get the timing right.

"I understand that but two wrongs don't make a right, using demon Magic to lift the demon magic curse isn't going to fix anything if anything there's a good chance it'll make it worse!" I said as I managed the prop myself up on my knees.

"Demons may have been the one to hurt my family but humans are the ones who let it happen. The Lord from my birthplace was fourth warned of an impending attack from the demons and yet all he did was protect himself and his money while your father the king was blissfully unaware"

"You can't blame him for that it's not his fault he was going through something, something difficult" I shout

"Something so difficult and secretive that no one besides his family knew about it. The king is too soft-hearted if this kingdom is to have any chance against the heartless demons the king must be replaced and the rest of his family is no fit for the throne" he said.

"You have any idea how much my father has suffered. He blamed himself every day for what happened to your village. He tries hard everyday to cure your little brother of the curse and yet here you are blaming him for it. The role as ruler of the Kingdom is not an easy one I'll have you know. He tries his best everyday for years on end because he actually cares about this Kingdom. Softhearted he may be he will not let this Kingdom fall into evil and greedy hands. And let's not forget 5 years ago at that time you were nothing but a squire for that Lord's men and the only reason that he came into power is because you sold out the previous Lord for nothing but a promotion. My father took extensive research into you, your family and your background before he took you in. You were far too eager for a pristine position that was out of your reach. All that you cared about at the time was proof that you were a great warrior. It's because of that that your village was destroyed because at the time you didn't care about who ruled all you care about was being the best. It wasn't just your village that was destroyed, many others were also destroyed, many lives were lost. Many people never forgive you for that but my father the king was not one of those people. He saw promise in you he gave you a chance and now you're going to betray him like this hand over his kingdom. Everyone all over the world in the 13 kingdoms all know about Prince Keith. The prince that cares for absolutely no one that's also including his own father. And just look at what they're using right now: demon magic" I said as I shot a look towards them with disgust "they're going to use demon magic and who knows what else they're up to, I can promise you this it will definitely be no good. Do you truly care for absolutely no one to let others suffer under demon magic? You know as well as I do that once demon magic is used in the human kingdoms the negative energy will intensify and the demons will be attracted to it all in order to unseal their demon King. We've all heard the rumors that there's a group among the demons that want nothing more than to destroy the human kingdoms. And it won't just be our kingdom this time many will suffer, many will suffer in all the 13 kingdoms. I feel sorry for your little brother. Yes, I wish I could do more but don't you see you're going to make another mistake like you did last time. One mistake last time cost you your family and your little brother to be put under a curse but this time the whole world could suffer" I yelled.

"I don't care about other people. I've seen many people step over others who were truly in need. Why should I care for others? When the demons attacked many people put up barriers protecting their own city they refused to open up for my family in their time of need let alone for a little kid" Liam said.

"Gee you're a lot more heartless than I thought you were. You know very well that those people were having trouble getting the barrier down and soon after they got it down even though your family was already gone they brought your little brother to safety " I say as I stagger to my feet dripping with blood.

"Enough of this, end it right now Liam" Prince Keith demanded. Soon after Prince Keith finishes speaking I launch a blinding fireball high above me. I swiftly activate my teleportation spell. One of the many combinations our ancestors created over the years. I feel someone push away from me, the only one close enough would be Liam, amongst the bright light I see a jagged Jade gem as it launches itself towards the magic crest on the ground. Jagged Jade gem makes any magic lose control that includes demon magic. I took a brief moment to gaze around me and I swiftly noticed that all the henchmen had already backed away. The magic was practically complete just as the gem hit the floor and with it an explosion of magic. I close my eyes tight not knowing what to expect next. After several minutes, what seemed like hours, I felt cold and wet all around me. I close my mouth tight and open my eyes only to confirm when I thought. I was underwater somewhere but the current was too strong for me to fight in my weak condition. The water was narrow so I had to be in a deep river. The strong current tosses me to and throw, I hit rocks and jagged edges. My magic and physical strength were both drained and I quickly lost consciousness thinking about only one thing: my home and everyone in it.