Archibald practised the seal every day for two months, until finally his final private lesson had finished, though he had never managed the complete the seal. In his last attempt before leaving the tower, the seal bubbled up in front of him. He saw the ball of white boiling in his palms, and he sent it forth to try to seal his pillow. Wrapping around it, the seal seemed to split into silk strands, before each one was snapped off, and Archibald fell to the ground. It was best not to get too tired before the fight. Finally, Archibald found his way to a wagon. His father sat across from him, Peter sat beside him, and Veronica was shrunk back into the far corner.
Minutes into the ride, Archibald asked, “Are we there yet?”
“No, not yet Archie,” his father replied absentmindedly.
“Are we there yet?” Archibald continued.
“No, not yet Archie.”
“Are we –”
Peter interrupted Archibald, asking, “Father, where are we going, anyways?”
“We’re going to a town named Interitus Praestatur. It was built around the bridge between the demonic realm and this world, and it used to be inhabited by passing adventurers.”
“Used to?” Peter said.
“There aren’t any more adventurers, Peter; that pass between us and the demons has been practically one way for millenia. Anyone too strong won’t be able to leave the demon realm, and anyone too weak wouldn’t survive long enough.”
“I would rather it stay one way,” Veronica chimed up from the corner.
“Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do about that,” their father replied, “The seal that blocked the demons is a piece of ancient draconic that has been lost, and even if we still knew it, no one has ever created a seal from outside. We would need someone with who knew draconic to rebuild the seal from inside the demonic realm.”
Archibald’s heart pounded awkwardly, and he let out a heavy sigh. Ignoring a side-eye from Peter, Archibald collected himself. He couldn’t forget the seal his father had taught him, and he recited the words under his breath. As he looked out the carriage window, he saw plains stretching far into the distance, with the only points of interest being a couple of mounds and a hill or two.
Finally, the carriage came to a stop. Archibald helped his father down from his seat, with Veronica and Peter following behind, and the quartet found themselves joining the group of fourty-seven other children.
Over the heads of his children, Archibald’s father noticed a gathering of men that shimmered gold. “The king and his men are over there,” he murmured to Archibald.
The two were walking towards the king when Peter stopped them. “Father, where are you and Archie going?” he asked.
“Oh, Peter, you don’t need to worry. As your general, Archie has to come with me for one last war meeting.”
With Peter falling to the ground in defeat behind them, Archibald and his father made their way to the king.
“... children strong enough to clash with the demon forces?” Brumble asked.
“Brumble,” the king said with a smile, “I have full faith in Tolvaj. I believe he will come through. And if his general’s frequent displays aren’t a warming sign, then by dragon damn me.”
“Your majesty,” Archibald’s father said, bowing shallowly, “Would you like another display, or do you trust my soldiers?”
“We’re fine, Tolvaj,” the king said, turning back to the rest of the nobles
Then, slipping out from the crowd of nobles came Greystone. “General Archibald!” she cried, “I was waiting for you. If I’m being honest, the boys my age are insufferable. All of them are so obsessed with power. You’re better company than them.”
“Good day, Lady Greystone,” Archibald said, bowing and smiling excitedly, “I’ll rid the world of demons today, I promise.”
“Archie, don’t get too friendly with these nobles,” his father whispered.
“Don’t worry, Father,” Archibald said, “Lady Greystone is much kinder than the rest of them. I’m sure she’s not like Brumble.”
“Looks can be deceiving,” his father warned.
“Tolvaj,” the king interrupted, “How large is your fighting force?”
“Fifty soldiers.”
“I was expecting more,” the king murmured. As he attempted to stifle a coughing fit, Brumble now turned to Archibald with a scowl.
Brumble said, “I think my army is more than enough to fight the demon king—”
“Archie,” Archibald’s father said, “You don’t need to keep talking here. I’ve decided; you should take your stance at the head of the army.”
Archibald ran off smiling, tunnelling through his siblings to find the front of the crowd. Facing his siblings, he stood with wonder for a moment. Forty-nine of his strongest brothers and sisters, all ready to fight by his side. Then, Peter slammed into his side.
As the two were knocked to the ground, Peter kneeled overtop Archibald.
With Veronica running over to settle the commotion, Archibald said, “What are you doing?”
“What am I doing?” Peter said incredulously, “What are you doing? Why are you the general, what happened?”
“I’m not in charge of you or anything. I just... go to the meetings.”
“Meetings? Plural? How long have you been better than me? How long have you been going with Father behind my back?”
Archibald’s siblings had gathered around the two, although Veronica was the only one trying to tug Peter off Archibald.
“I’m not better than you,” Archibald said.
“How long? How... long...” Peter was crying now, but through tears he howled, “Why are you Father’s favourite? What did I do wrong? What did I...”
“Peter!” Veronica said, finally pulling him off from Archibald.
After sitting up, Archibald moved to Peter, saying “Brother, we can’t fight at a time like this. The demons could come out at any moment, and we’re the strongest members of the army. We need to be ready –”
“When were you and I on the same level?” Peter said, wiping his tears.
Then, a crackle came from the distance.
“Archie!” Archibald’s father called out, pushing through the crowd and grabbing Archibald, “Archie, the moment you see the demon king, I want you to fight him, okay? I don’t care what you’re in the middle of, if you’re protecting your sibling or anything. If he appears, I need you to kill him.”
Archibald nodded. “Of course, Father,” he said. There was no reason to doubt Father. Father always knew right.
“And you, Peter,” Archibald’s father continued, “This is not the time. Please, just save it until after the battle.”
Peter glared glumly at Archibald, but under the supervision of his father he got to his feet and joined the crowd. Finally, Archibald stepped out in front of his siblings, and his father left.
In front of them, the sky flared red, and thousands of roars shook the children. The hills were coated in a fog that was drifting down towards them. The first demon broke out of the fog: a fox creature foaming at the mouth and sprinting towards the children. They stood frozen.
Seeing his siblings stuck in place, Archibald ran forward. He leapt forward, slamming his hands together, and the fox blew to pieces.
The next demon shot out of the fog: a toad hurling stone pillars like javelins. This time, a column of ice caught the attack, and Peter jumped ahead of Archibald, yelling, “Bereva!” and scorching the toad.
Peter turned to Archibald, his eyes glaring with determination, and said, “I refuse to be beneath you.”
Their siblings now ran forward, and dozens of demons leapt from the fog to meet them. There was chaos as the two armies met. With projectiles flying randomly past, Archibald dove into the fog. As he did, he came face to face with a humanoid demon, who threw a slash at him. Archibald ducked, then jumping over the demon he saw the top of the fog. Looking over the short ring of fog, he saw the pass between the demon realm and the human world; it was a crackling of red that spewed demons out.
Landing and running towards the pass, Archibald yelled out, “I’ve found it! I’ve found where the demons are coming out of!” Finally, he burst out of the fog to find himself in the clearing surrounding the pass.
A couple of his siblings joined him. They began to attack the demons, a barrage of magic coming from every direction. With each attack, the fog dispersed, and as the fog dispersed, more of Archibald’s siblings found their way to the pass.
“Archie!” Peter called out, “I’m not going to let you beat me!”
“I don’t want to beat you,” Archibald said, dodging an attack from a demon and throwing the demon into the air, “I’m only here to kill the demon king.”
“So, you’re going after the demon king? I’ll be the one to kill him, then.”
“Peter, we don’t have time to fight right no-”
Peter leapt at Archibald, tackling him to the ground again. “I swear, if you try to stop me,” Peter said, “If you try to stop me from killing the demon king, I’ll kill you instead.”
“Peter, please, I’m not trying to beat you.”
“That just makes it worse,” Peter retorted, choking up, “You don’t even need to try.”
“Peter, please, I’m only fighting because Father wants me to. I’m not fighting for glory. You can take the credit for killing the demon king.”
“I. Don’t. Want. Credit,” Peter said, “I want to kill him myself.”
Archibald looked into his eyes with remorse. “I can’t help you, then.”
Hearing a growl, Archibald noticed his sibling to his side overpowered by a demon. As the demon threw its claws at his sibling, Archibald clapped quickly, and the demon’s scratch was blocked. The demon continued throwing slices, and Archibald blocked each one.
As he was defending his sibling, the pass rumbled. It spewed out another demon, but this one was more elegant than any of the others. He was swiftly followed by a horde of goblin-like demons. Archibald’s siblings were pushed back by the goblins, but Archibald only noticed the elegant demon.
The demon was white from top to bottom. His flowing beard was white. His hair, as well as the crown of bones placed atop it was white. His royal cloak was white, with detailing sewn intricately in.
Archibald was drawn to the white skin of the creature. Purer than the eyes of any other demon. More extravagant than any other demon, more beautiful than life itself, greater even than Archibald’s father.
“That’s the demon king,” Archibald muttered to Peter.
“You’re sure?”
Archibald threw Peter away and stood to face the king.
“My army fighting children?” came a commanding voice from the lips of the king, “Why, how desperate the humans must be. I will savour shredding them.”
“Demon king!” Archibald yelled.
“Yes, child?”
Clapping his hands, Archibald sent a gale that lightly pushed the king.
He clapped again and now only the end of the king’s beard fluttered gently.
Archibald clapping once more, the king now took a step forward without as much as squinting his eyes at the oncoming winds.
“I met a wind user once before,” the king murmured, “He was far stronger than you, child.”
“I’m going to kill you,” Archibald said, his knees struggling to carry his body, “I’m going to–”
“Quieten down. I have higher priorities,” the king said, and Archibald fell silent, “Where is your leader?”
“Skak!” Peter shouted.
A pillar of ice shot at the king. With a flick, the king sent it into the air, but as it circled around to drop down on him, it burst into crystal shards.
“I suspected as little from your warriors, though I did not suspect warriors so little,” the king said. As Peter outstretched his ringed fist to attack again, the king said, “No. Boy, you will put that hand down now.”
Peter’s arm dropped to his side.
“I recognise that tongue,” the king said, “Draconic? You have ruled the draconic language? No, from that performance, it seems that the draconic language rules you. I knew that humans were such inferior creatures. I knew it.”
Archibald clapped again, and a bead of light grew by the king’s face. As it swallowed him in a fiery explosion, the king stepped further forward and shook the flame from his clothes. Patting his singed beard, his eyes returned to Archibald.
“I said to quieten, yet your magic still prevails?” the king said, “No, you don’t speak draconic then. You must live it. You exist in draconic. Your every action you do in draconic. Even your claps are draconic in nature. I’m impressed. Though even you cannot control draconic; no human can.”
“We... decided...” Archibald strained to say, and the edges of the king’s lips drooped, “... I’m... going to... kill you...”
“Cease your speaking,” the king said, eyes widening.
“... no matter... how strong you are... I will kill you... I don’t care what you think... I won’t stop speaking... I won’t stop fighting... Father told me to kill you, and I will...”
“I said stop talking.”
“... there is nothing you can do to stop me... because I’m fighting for Father and for my brothers and sisters...”
“Boy, your monologuing does not entertain me. I said quit your speech.”
Archibald held his hands apart, and as the king leapt at him, he slammed them together. As a whirlpool of fire and wind lifted the entire demon army into the air, Archibald called to his siblings, “Get away from the portal!”
With his siblings evacuating, Archibald felt a pull, and he was forced into the portal. The demons followed close behind.
The demon realm was dark and red and around Archibald was a web of rock threatening collapse at broken angles. This web was crying out to him with cries to run away as quickly as possible.
Besides the cries, snarls came from around, but all that Archibald could see of the demons was their blank white, eyes forming a sheet of hungry onlookers.
Finally, Archibald look back to the pass between the two worlds, the same red crackle right ahead of him.
“Perosa fulmeyer!” Archibald shouted, clapping his hands together, “Trependoddle coria!”
Around the portal, a translucent wrapping of white was beginning to grow. Archibald moved to slip out through the portal, but Peter came flying through the portal. The two tumbled back into a spongey pillar.
“Where’s the demon king?” Peter asked Archibald.
“He disappeared when the demons were sucked in.”
“You’re useless.”
Peter stepped toward the portal, and demons piled onto him. He fought them off for a moment, but he was overwhelmed, and he disappeared beneath the horde of demons.
Diving into the pile, Archibald reached for Peter. Feeling his brother’s arm, he snatched it and tugged it out. As the two went flying again away from the demons, Archibald held tight to his brother. When they hit another pillar, Archibald bounced off.
The demons leapt at Archibald, but as he jumped back towards the portal, the king stood in his way.
“Boy,” the king said, “Release this seal.”
Archibald threw his hands up uncontrollably to release the seal, letting go of Peter, but his arms froze. “I won’t,” Archibald said, “This seal... my father taught it to me to defeat you.”
“This won’t defeat me. I’ll burst through this seal like I did the last one.”
“Yes, but after millenia, someone else will be ready to fight you,” Archibald said. He clapped his hands together, and for a moment the king smiled. Then, a scattering of balls of fire shot out from the portal. Archibald grabbed Peter, ran forward, and in the moment that each ball exploded, he wove through fireballs to dive back out of the portal. As he collapsed barely conscious onto the grass with Peter by his side, the portal behind him was engulfed in a white light.
ns216.73.217.120da2
and then Add to home screen.