Escaping from those demons, Desmond and I continue to run away trying not to look back or even ponder if they are after us. We both head the opposite way from we just came, but I wonder where a best place could be to hide for safety. We eventually find a steep hill and right below are a sheltered hole. We jump right in; I bend down to my knees folding my arms not wanting to make any noises.

I notice Desmond still looking up to spot any demons coming after us. As we are deep inside this hallow pile, I wonder how can we get away from this? Thinking those demons could be on their way after all that fog diversion probably ended right about now.

Desmond then calls me out. I look to him where he starts to speak. “Those demons won’t be fooled so long.”

“So what now?” I question.

Desmond looks at me kind of funny, but then turns serious. “I think it’s time for you to put your practice in good use.”

I ponder about what he said. Am I ready to fight now? Mal and the others are still not here. However, I trained to be more prepared unlike the previous times I had with my demonic teacher Purson; Mammon; and Asmodeus. Reminiscing of all the training I had mostly with Mal and some I had with myself, I realize the time is now. I need to face up against those punks who are chasing after us.

Time to make Asmodeus be worry; I want to send a message to other demonic forces out there who want me. They can’t have me! Looking at Desmond, he seems perplexed in what I’m going to do. I want to make sure can he fight as well. Can a wizard attack?

“I’m tired of these demons coming after me.” I state.

“Are you sure you’re ready?” He asks.

I paused a second before I answer; I then remember what Mal told me about me being in control. I need to seize that control. That time has come. Replying to Desmond, “Yeah, I want to send a message to Asmodeus.”

I then press firm of the earth; grabbing hold of rocks. I begin to climb my way out of the hole and soon I’m back onto the ground’s surface. Then I start to hear a group coming my way. Believing it is the demons, I move into my defensive stance. I slightly slide my right foot back and move my left foot front.

Then I can hear them.

I can hear part of a conversation and then I could see a fireball coming right at me. I quickly bend down. Looking straight, I could see that the blast came from one of those demons. And then the demon that Demsond saw as one of the demons that attacked the hut, begins to walk to my direction.

“Nice duct, Devos.” He says.

“I’m not going to let you take me to him.” I say.

The demon smirks and looks back to his other brethrens for something. Not willingly to escape this time, I stand my ground. I make a fist from my hands anticipating anything. The demon then turns back around to see me.

“Don’t worry Devos, we won’t let you.” He says as then summons a fireball and throws it at me.

This time instead of dodging the attack, I pull out my right arm, and I begin to focus. I notice the black vine-like lines spreading to my hand. Then my hand opens up to where I blast off a telekinetic shield. The blast of the telekinetic energy blocks the demon’s fireball.

Wanting to even the odds, I roll over and as the other four are preoccupied in seeing the blast. I crouch and soon blast a fireball. The bluish black fireball takes aim at one of the four demons. He gets hit. The fireball blasts him back as he starts to turn into ash.

The other demons take notice; the so-called leader of the pack looks at me.

“Clever, Devos.” He continues, “But not clever enough.”

As he about to get ready to attack me with another power, I suddenly hear Desmond’s voice behind saying “Hey!” he shouts. I swiftly spin my head enough to see him holding out his wand pointing at the demon leader. I turn to see the leader facing him and chuckles; he then looks at me.

“Time to go home, Devos.” The demon leader says.

I stare straight to his pitch black eyes and then I can see some type of energy blast heading straight to the demon. The demon reacts too late as the energy hits him hard. Then he suddenly turns to ash.

As I see Desmond taking a heavy breath, I felt he cast something that killed that demon. Whatever it was, I got to think Desmond done it not just to save me; he wanted to get revenge because that demon was responsible for ruining the hut.

Looking at the other three demons, they react first off shock, but then begin to charge straight at us. I stare at Desmond who comes by my side to get me back to my feet.

“Let’s finish this.” I say.

“You got that right.” He acknowledges

As the three remaining demons come to us, we both charge as well. I see Desmond taking out his wand and holding it out, “Destruo!” He yells.

The wand spews out an energy blast, the same one I saw that killed the demonic leader; it hits one of the three demons. That demon begins to turn into ash. I look back at Desmond and sort reacts to that particular magic.

“Good charm.” I say.

“A wizard’s best offense.” He replies as he wiggles his wand a bit to indicate how wonderful that tool has helped him.

The other two demons begin to come; as one of them head towards Desmond. The other one comes right at me.

Instead of using firing power, he tries to punch me. I dodge some of his attack. Thinking about the sparring ways Mal taught me, I begin punching the demon; I feel my fist hitting right to that icy-skin. The demon backs up reacting to my punch. He tries to attack me, but then as I dodge that; I quickly grab hold of his right arm. I slide my right leg by his leg. I begin to spin. As I spin, I grab the demon’s arm and throw him to the ground.

While he tries to get up, I summon a fireball and throw right at him. The fireball hits him just in time as he turns into ash.

Then I glance over to spot Desmond being physical himself, but as he gets the upper hand. He gets his wand and casts that Destruo charm killing the demon. Seeing this group of demons is gone, I hope Asmodeus is watching this because what happened to his goons is going to happen to him.

Before I can walk to Desmond, something on the ground right in front of me explodes. The hard noise of the explosion shakes the ground. Then another ground explosion appears; the splash of dirt coming fast out of the ground barely to the air. I duct as I notice Demsond doing the same.

“Did you rig something by mistake?” I ask.

“It wasn’t me!” He replies.

Then as another ground explosion appears and few more exploding all around us. We just got to leave. I get up, but I bend over trying not to have the pieces of dirt and rocks get on me. I run across the forest; I glance to see Demsond following me. We eventually head to an open field.

All of the sudden another ground explosion appears.

Where is that coming from? I ask myself as I soon spot a demon coming. I look closely to see it is Mammon.

“Its’ Mammon!” I shout to Demsond to be on alert for Mammon and sneak attacks, but then Demsond points up. “He’s not the only one who has come.”

Observing in the sky, there are a horde of black streaming cloud-like forms descending across the field. The cloud-like forms begin to materialize to the human-disguised demons; mostly all of them are wearing the same dark clothing; and all showcasing those piercing black eyes.

“Could this be the army?” I want to ask Desmond, but then I start to hear Mammon as he continues to walk towards me.

“You see Caden, this is hardy the army.” Mammon responds.

I survey around to see almost about fifteen demons, and Mammon could be right there could be more. But one thing first.

“Where is he?” I continue, “Where is Asmodeus?”

“Trust me Caden, he’s here, but right now surrender.” Mammon says.

“Never!” I scream.

“I’m not going to say again, give up. Come to Asmodeus willingly and no one will get hurt.” He says.

 “I don’t think so.” I reply. I could see him pissed off; his face being turn red. Mammon is not too happy I decline his offer the second time.

“You want it the hard way, so be it.” He then lifts his hand up and twirls it around probably signaling something. And what he signals is his horde of fellow demons to come after me and Desmond.

“Get ready; this is going to be a nasty fight.” I say.

“I’m ready as I always will be.” Desmond says.

Before it were just five demons we handled, but now there are fifteen more of these creeps. As they are about to approach us, I start to get an idea. Still within control of my demonic side, I channel the power, and I start blasting several telekinetic shields using both my hands.

The multiple telekinetic shields hit several of them, yet I keep on repeating the process. I know they will fight it and find a way to get around it. As the demons trying to fight it, I continue to blast more telekinetic shields. I see Demsond doing something as well and what he is doing is casting his Destruo charm over and over again. Some of the demons gets hit and turn into ash.

I quit giving up blasting telekinetic shields, and begin throwing my fireballs. Some of the demons get hit and turn into ash. Some dodge them and begin throwing their own fireballs. As I get to see other demons appearing replacing some of their fallen, the more I see them trying to take the upper hand. I try to dodge and block their attacks.

Wondering how Desmond is doing, I try to look for him but a few of the demons appear. One of them throws a fireball which almost hits me in my chest, yet the fireball did hit me. Its scorches my upper right arm. I almost fall to the ground, but I place my left hand over my injury. I spot the burn mark on my upper arm. I feel the pain. The demon that hit me is about to come at me until I scream and I hold out my right hand; it fires a telekinetic blast knocking the demon off its feet to the ground.

I get up and then a few other demons are about to come after me. As they are coming, I begin to fight them combat style. One tries to uppercut me, but I dodge his attacks long enough to hit back. I sucker punch the demon out cold, but the other demon comes behind from surprise. He grabs hold of me.

Trying to budge, the demon continues to hold onto me with his strong grips. Wanting to break the hold, I try to fight back, but the demon hits me in my back. I scream in pain as I almost about to kneel down.

I observe Demsond doing his best to fight off demons and one of them overpowers him. The demon starts getting upper hand and begins to kick him down. I want to help him, but I still got this demon attached to me. Feeling like it is over, out of nowhere I can feel a blast of power coming by me but hitting the demon taking hold of me; the demon is killed. I turn quickly around and see it was Mal. Then joining him is Aris. Karina seems to be missing.

At least two came back because I’m glad they are back.

“I’m so glad to see you two.” I say appreciating their overdue return.

“You’re alright?”  Mal asks.

“I’ll be okay.” I respond. Still relieve Mal has come back, I notice Desmond in serious trouble. “Desmond.” I whisper a bit loudly.

“You help your wizard friend; Aris got the rest of these demon punks. I’ll handle Mammon.” Mal states.

“But Mal…”

“No buts!” He exclaims. “Go!”

Not taking that twice, I quickly run to Desmond’s side as I turn quickly to spot Mal fighting with Mammon and Aris fighting other demons. However, realizing Desmond needs me first. As I run and seeing Desmond still getting kicked; then as I see the demon about to grab hold of Desmond’s wand. I hold out my right hand blast off a huge telekinetic wave that knocks the demon off balance. He lets go of Desmond’s wand which Desmond retrieves.

I then hear him saying, “Destruo!” The wand blasts that light energy straight to the demon where he burst into ashes. I soon help Desmond back to his feet by pulling his hand and arm. Desmond soon regains his balance.

“Thanks.” He says with great gratitude.

“No prob…” Before I can finish, I spot a figure up the hill of the field; I look closely to see Asmodeus. This is the second time I see him face to face. This time, his torture tricks would not mess with me.

I begin to run to get my opportunity. The time is now. As I head upon the hill, I hear Desmond trying to tell me to stop. However, my emotions are getting to me. Asmodeus needs to be stop. I can see his sinister smirk as I continue to run to face him off.

Then I hear Mal’s voice; “You’re not ready!” he yells out, but I then hear ugh. I turn to see Mammon getting the upper hand on Mal. I want to help, but I turn back around to near the top of the hill Asmodeus is just standing there. Feeling I may not have another chance, I need to take Asmodeus down.

As I trek midway on the hill, I continue to hear Mal telling me to stop, but I did not want to hear it. I quickly get to the top where Asmodeus is standing; not even moving any parts of his body. He stares at me. His cold, red eyes looking like there is nothing I can do. That is about to change. I charge at him wanting to spear, but then without warning, Asmodeus fades away as he leaves he gives off a sinister laugh. Unknown what was that about, I know for sure I got fooled.

Pondering if that really was Asmodeus or an illusion. Either way he is trying to kill my confidence. And he is getting me where I can be hurt the most, my human side. Mostly my emotions. He knows how angry I am to him, and he is playing this like if this is a game. I then hear Mal screaming. I notice Mammon is going to attack him and kill him. I will not let that happen. I see black clouds fighting in the air; one of them must be Aris fighting off another demon.

I look back down to see Mammon using both his hands. Wondering what I can do, I think I have an idea. As I see Mammon about to summon a huge fireball with both hands, I quickly summon up a big fireball and throw it at right at Mammon’s hands. I then see the bluish black ball of fire taking aim and destroy Mammon’s hands. Handless, Mammon screams in agony and then spots me. He realizes it was me.

With his attention onto me, Mal surprises Mammon by holding him in a bearhug. Mammon cannot do anything since he does not have his hands. I do not know what Mammon is saying to Mal because he is whispering, but I think I hear Mal answering back, ‘Not for long’.

Mal then grabs hold of Mammon’s head and then snaps his neck back. Mal then throws Mammon’s lifeless body to the ground, and then throwing a fireball at Mammon to turn him into ash. Mammon is finally gone for good. Asmodeus’ number two is finish. If that was not a message sent, I do not know what will.

Trying to see Desmond, I suddenly notice another demon trying to sneak attack him. Alerting him, “Look behind you!” I shout to Desmond. He turns and sees the demon about to sneak attack. Desmond quickly cast out his wand and cast his destruo charm.

The demon is killed. I rush down the hill to meet up with Desmond. Getting to him, we hug it out of respect and with good feeling, things is going to change soon. I believe one way another Asmodeus will be defeated and after today I know that even our odds.

Looking at Desmond, I’m really glad he is on my side. He is not a wizard to mess with.

“That destruo charm of yours was fantastic.”

“Like I say it’s a great offensive weapon for a wizard.”

“Oxley will be proud of you.”

“I know. I just sense deep inside me Oxley was watching. It feels like he knows that we can do this. We can stop Asmodeus.”

“I hope so.”

We both smile of what was a good fight. We won this battle, but the war still continues with the head one still out there. Then as I turn around to look at Mal still with a smile, I then witness something terrified.

I realize Mal is not smiling; I notice the reason, black blood is coming out of his mouth. I then look to see he is directing is hands to his torso area, and he looks back at me. His eyes is distraught and then suddenly, he drops to his knees and collapse to the ground.

I try to run but Desmond is trying to resist me for some strange reason. I budge his hold, and I run to Mal’s side. And that is where I find the horrific truth.

There is a dagger plunged in his back.