The Metal Bender

The quest to the mines of Tura-Lina were quite uneventful from that moment on, no one dared oppose the army led by a messenger of god. Ares had no need to ride a horse but did so anyway, as a sign he did not consider himself any better than anyone else. The moment he sat on his horse it became enchanted just as he did, possessing great abilities becoming half demon and half angelic. It even grew wings, no longer a horse he rode ahead of the others. Dominic, Celestria and Kulos rode beside him, Cyranos riding behind Ares.

Cyranos having returned to his usual self asked inquisitively to augment his library of knowledge. " So Ares, what was it like being dead. Did you see the pearly gates or were you in a fiery pit like those pilgrims from abroad told me once"

Ares smiled and replied " those pilgrims were wise, but I was unfit to enter heaven and still had a purpose which spared me from hell. Now if I may inquire as to how a noble such as yourself, annoying as you were. Have come to the unfortunate circumstances of being a gibbering cat? And is your litter box fit for royalty?"

Cyranos hissed and replied, " Ha, I see you are your usual witty self Ares. I was just making sure you hadn’t become boring"

Ares motioned for the riders to stop, the whole army obeyed Ares without a second’s hesitation. Adonis was in the middle of them, for his own protection. Even the elves came to a halt on his signal, Ares turned and said smiling " I shall depart for the moment, I have business to attend to. If you continue straight you will encounter a dwarf trap, you will be entrapped in a giant metal box. The whole lot of you let yourself be captured. Act as though you did not know of the trap; simply tell them you surrender unconditionally. Before you do however, make certain they are who they say they are. If they ask for Adonis it is not they."

As he was about to leave Adonis passed by the orcs and asked Ares " I must ask this, is Jolene still alive?"

Ares looked him straight in the eyes and said " I am about to find out, do not resist this" He placed his hand on Adonis and whispered " Kompala Instabro" and then flew away.

Celestria had never heard of that spell, nor had Tyronis who himself was a wizard. Dominic who stood beside Tyronis said " it appears your brother has changed for the best, if he turns on us however we will not be able to defeat him"

Tyronis turned to him and said " He would never betray us, but I must seek council from my superiors. I leave to travel to the capital city Tomnogala, I must report the latest news."

He rode away and then Kulos said " get the boy back to his place, we are marching on straight!"

The whole army kept on going; Cyranos who was now walking beside Kulos said, " Do you really trust Ares, who knows what his alibi is."

Without even bothering to look at him he replied " I trust him a lot more than I trust you, he does more than spite like you."

Cyranos sighed and said, " Why do I have the feeling no one is going to get this curse off of me, remember who ended the fight in the badlands"

Ares rode his mount in the air, the wind blowing through his new perfectly shoulder length blond hair. He knew he could trust the others; Dominic was in it for survival. Kulos he trusted for his leadership skills and the fact he could have turned Adonis in on many occasions and hadn’t. Celestria was a sage; he knew her vows could never be broken. Cyranos although he schemed to gain more power would never betray him; he was far too insightful to make such a costly mistake, knowing the consequences.

He landed on the old abandoned path he had been on not too long ago. At the time he had been trying to kill Adonis, now his intentions were very different. He said calmly "Toran Pal Tonaros", as before the earth began to shake. He knew once he killed Krale the dark emperor would send a more powerful demon in his stead. The familiar smell of brimstone filled his body, steam peeping out of the ground. As the dark beam shot out of the ground, Ares lifted walked into it and having ordered his horse to fly to safety slowly descended to the entrance.

The camp was as he had left it, two demons guarding seen him and went to attack him. He simply withdrew both his swords and slew them where they stood. No alarm had sounded; he walked without resistance to Krale’s tent. As he entered Lord Krale was in his chair, he was surprised to see Ares and tried to cover it up, but fear could be heard in this once almighty leader. " Ares, you cannot betray me. You made an oath"

He tried to torture Ares with oath he once had but it failed, Ares extended his white hand and with magic, dragged Krale to his feet. Cloak still covering his face Ares smirked and said, " Who is under the dark cloak, an old man?"

He lifted the hood, and he was nothing but a high-ranking demon. He had no special attributes he was not extra-ordinarily built physically. He was not strong mentally for Ares was quickly able to enter his feeble demonic mind, extracting all the information he possessed. Ares finally said " and I looked up to you as a leader, you are nothing but a high-ranking fiend"

Lord Krale’s final words marked him, as he truly was, a coward. " Guards, kill Ares!"

Ares cut his head off, walking out of the tent he was surrounded by the whole camp. He smiled as they prepared their magical attacks; looking all around him he said " no going back to hell for you demons"

They charged at him with full velocity, fire coming from everywhere. Demons cursing loudly and growling like savages. All the attacks hit him, sending him to the ground. They cheered at their success, Ares then stood up and said, " this is where you all die" raising his hands a ring of pure energy was building over his head, growing in size. The demons did not recognize this spell they stood back and waited. Too terrified to attack and yet too paralyzed to retreat. The ring surrounded them now; suddenly it closed in on itself, going through every demon, forming a small metal sphere.

The effects were not immediate, the demons prepared for a next volley of attacks when suddenly their souls were pulled out of their bodies, sucked into the small metal sphere. All the demons fell dead to the ground.

Ares re-entered the tent, looking among the trophies he took all that there was. He placed it all on the table; there were mighty weapons on this table, from days when Krale had been a formidable demon. He skinned all the demons and made a large bag out of their hides, placing all the weapons, shields and armor in this bag he had but one thing remaining to do. He sawed off all the horns and with magic, placed them on his armor. His whole demonic side of armor was covered with horns, declaring himself a demon hunter.

As he flew out with all his weapons, he knew Jolene was out there somewhere hunting down Adonis, but he had to join up with the group.

The group arrived where they were supposed to be, the journey had been without difficulties and it seemed as though Ares was wrong about the trap. Cyranos grinned with contempt and said " looks like Ares almighty was wrong"

Suddenly a giant metal wall came out of the ground ahead of them. On each side and from the back the same occurred, and then from the top. They did not panic however, one of the dwarves spoke " We will release you if you confirm you are the group escorting Adonis, we have orders from the king to assist you at all costs"

It was a trap, this complicated manners. Dominic knew what to do however, he yelled in response " If I were you I wouldn’t masquerade as dwarves, in fact I would leave right about now, they are always fast to check on their traps"

There was the sound of retreat, and then another voice came forward " who sent you and what is your mission?"

Celestria responded this time " Our business is for Gomlin and Gomlin alone"

The stranger responded in a confused tone " what do you wish to speak to a blacksmith about that you cannot tell the King’s most trusted guards?"

The walls disappeared into the ground; a large army of dwarves armed to the teeth surrounded them. The King was among the army; Cyranos spoke up " King Genalton now is it. Last time we met you were but an immigrant from a far away land begging for a scrap of land. Now you have a full domain."

The King recognized his voice and ordered to his men " Put your axes and bows away, escort them to the mines." As the entire group began to follow the dwarves the King said to Cyranos " as spiteful as ever, I see your sharp tongue finally got you punished"

Cyranos stuck his tongue out and replied " sharp dagger actually, but that is of no importance. I am expecting a friend at any moment"

Something could be seen in the distance flying toward them, the king squinted but it was unclear. Suddenly a flying horse came into view, landing right in front of him Ares descended. His new armor he bowed in respect to the king and said, " Your lordship, I present you something that once belonged to your ancestors." Taking out a sapphire war axe, he handed it solemnly to the King.

His hands trembled; this was the war axe of his ancestors. Stolen era ago from the captain who had killed him, he was overflowed with joy of receiving this heirloom. Ares waited for the King to be ready and they went to the mines.

The mines were not as Adonis had expected them to be, they were beautiful. Constructed of assorted natural jewels, doors were built inside the walls where houses were. They entered the feast room, a long table was set with food, and the King arriving shortly said "We always have a feast ready just in case, don’t be shy. Lets eat"

All the types of meat were found on the table, along with an assortment of fruits and vegetables. It had been a long time since they had enjoyed meat, the taste of salted pork filled their taste buds with an overwhelming joy. Everything was excellent, then the table grew quiet as Gomlin approached the table, he walked to Adonis and looked him over. Sitting beside Dominic he began to eat his food.

The feast passed very well, in the middle of the feast all the hybrids had politely left the table. Dominic said, " Gomlin, this is the one. After you join us we will be missing Loki the vampire hybrid."

Ares then continued " of course if you wish to remain we will understand, you can watch from your work station as the world ends, knowing you could have had a hand in stopping it but decided not to act"

Gomlin got the point; he replied, " I know! And I do join you for I will follow the prophecy; I built the traps so I believe I will be useful to the group anyway. When do we leave"

Celestria responded " tomorrow morning after break fast, make sure Adonis is guarded very closely." They spent the night, having baths and comfortable beds for all, but the next day they would leave once more.