“What do you see?” Dryden whispered.
“A darkly decorated room…with a throne…and Rei…” Glenn was cut off by an unseen voice in the throne room.
“Is she willing to talk?” The owner of the voice was none other than Princess Anju.
“Not yet, milady,” a reptilian voice of one of Anju’s servants.
“Let me see what I can do,” replied Anju, stepping into view of the peek hole, in front of Rei. “Now, if you tell me what I want to know, you won’t get hurt as much.”
Rei glared at her defiantly, “And what if I don’t?”
Like a cobra, Anju pulled out her whip and struck Rei’s arm, “Now, where are the other Light Warrior?”
Rei was sincerely confused, “I have no clue! How should I know? I don’t even know who you’re…”
The whip cracked, “Lies! I’ll give you ten minutes to pull yourself together! If you don’t answer me by then… Well, you get the idea!” Anju stalked out of the room, shouting orders to her demons on her way.
“Now is our time!” Glenn whispered to the group.
“Glenn, Alex is gone!” Dryden shrieked.
“We can’t worry about him now! He’s a big boy, he can take care of himself!” Glenn whispered fiercely back.
“Hey, what’s this?” Problem sniffed at something metallic, hidden behind a rock.
“Let me see,” Glenn pulled out a dagger and with skill pried the rock off, revealing a small lever.
Curiosity getting to him, Glenn pulled the lever. The peek hole rumbled then slowly grew to the size of a door. Shrugging, they walked through, right into the throne room.
“You alright?” Glenn walked over to Rei, who had her head hanging.
“Yea, I’m fine,” she replied, wincing in pain as she looked up.
“Now, to get her out of here…” Problem plodded over to the shackles, “Dryden, have a pin of some sort?”
“Err, right here,” Dryden answered. Then she handed it to Glenn.
“Are you guys planning on leaving me?” the sarcastic voice of Princess Anju rang through the room.
“Um, would you believe we’re the repairmen?” Problem grinned.
“I don’t care who you think you are! You shall feel my wrath!” Anju raised her whip, “Rattlesnake!” The whip glowed, then split into many, Anju swung it back to make the fatal blow.
“No!” a voice from behind made her loose concentration. She turned around to see the silhouette of a boy with spiked hair, in the doorway.
Before Anju could regain her concentration on the spell, the boy’s sword raised above his head.
“Holy Light!” the boy’s voice was mostly lost in the sound of Anju frying as a beam of bright light speared her.
Realizing she only had seconds left, Anju made one last slice with her whip, which knocked the boy off his feet. Anju had no time to do anything else. Before their eyes, she became a pile of ashes. Seeing the danger was over, Glenn picked the lock of the shackles and Rei ran over to Alex.
“You ok?” she asked, crouching next to Alex, who was staring at the ashes. He nods his head slowly.
“Let’s get out of here!” Glenn decided.
“I can do that, no sweat!” Problem chanted a spell, and they appeared in a green meadow, with a picnic basket.
“Alright, let’s eat!” Glenn dove into the food, with Dryden and Problem behind him.
Alex tugged at Rei’s arm.
“Huh, what?” she replied. Alex led her over to show her a flower.
“Wow, that’s cool!” She looked
into his face, he opened his mouth, and then a dark shadow fell over all
in the meadow.
The dark figure landed in the middle
of the clearing.
“I am the dark overlord Hotohori!” His voice boomed, “And now, you shall pay for the death of Princess Anju!”
With that, all went black…
--- End of Part 13---