~Battle of the Beauties (Part 3)~

“Wow! That woman is really terrifying. Look Lez; she’s just playing a demon in her hands. Demon Linda is struggling just to land a hit on Al.” Mike laughs as he comments on what he’s spectating right now, and what he sees is just an illusion. Unlike Lez, who is unaffected by the illusion, can see Linda attacking nothing but air while Al is on her back waiting to strike.

Down!

Linda is on the ground for the third time.

“You never learn, do you?” Al arrogantly said.

“This is not happening. Drake! My love, help me.” Linda shouted to call for Drake’s help, but Drake had no response and just stood there staring at the floor.

“No matter how much you shout, Drake can’t hear you. He is still trapped in the illusion that I’ve created earlier that dulls his senses. For now, he can still see our dead bodies lying on the floor in a pool of blood while you at his side praising him.” Al said inside her mind.

Al reinforced her aura-fist so it could hit harder than before.

“This is for all the victims you killed.” Smack! The sound of Al’s reinforced punch to the demon's nose as it starts to bleed.

“This is for my friend Mike that you badly injured.” Wham! The sound of the second punch that hits her chest.

“This is for my friend Lez, that you wanted to feel despair.” Whack! The sound of her third punch right into her gut.

“This is for my brother that you almost killed, you bitch!” Bam! The sound of her fourth punch hits Linda in her eye.

“And this is for me, for raging my fury!” Al unleashes a barrage of punches right into Linda’s face as blood splatters all over the place.

Suddenly,

“GO TO HELL!!!” Linda screams with a double voice so loudly that it deafens and stuns anyone nearby. Al and Mike covered their ears but couldn’t stand the pain while Lez remained unaffected by the scream helped Mike to recover.

Linda’s scream was then focused on her target, Al, as it burst and created a momentary shockwave that threw her away and hit flat on the wall releasing Drake from his trap as he helped Linda get up.

Al took a lot of damage as she was very close to the impact of that shockwave plus the impact on the wall. She felt she got hit by a car running at almost seventy miles per hour and is now more injured than Linda itself. In just a quick moment, the tables have turned.

“Al?” Lez and Mike quickly went after Alex to give her some aid.

“Are you okay?” Lez asked standing guard while Mike helped Al in getting up.

“Yeah, in pain but nothing serious. Glad I managed to change my offensive aura to the defensive. I could have suffered fatal injury if I hadn’t. I thought I could take her out by my punches, but that bitch is tough as hell. Sorry, that made me lose my focus on Drake. Now she had him back.” Al did not expect that attack from Linda, and now she suffered for taking Linda so lightly.

“You think I wouldn’t see through your illusions, guardian? Well, you think wrong, for now, you can’t use that from me ever again. Aaaahhhh!!!” Linda shouted, then strike again using her hair, but it was blocked by Lez.

“You pesky little rat!” Linda shouted as she rereleased her blasting scream. The attack was more robust than before but still could not penetrate Lez’s barrier.

“Drake, kill them!” Linda ordered Drake to attack the group as Al noticed that action. Drake has no will on its own, and it needs an order from Linda to be able to move and execute. Without that, he stayed at his place like a statue waiting for orders.

Al used her illusions to make copies of herself and moved to attack Linda from all angles. Drake attacks one of her illusions, but it seems to be immortal this time; that’s why he kept on attacking it over and over again. Linda knows how to disable her illusions though, that’s why she released a deafening scream that stunned everyone, including Drake except for Lez and Mike, who stood behind Lez defending him from Linda’s hair attacks. The illusions vanished while Al kneeled on the ground, covering her ears from the loud noise. Linda viciously smiled as she found her new target. She splits her hair in half. The first half turns into a drill that continues to attack Lez, pinning her in her place while protecting Mike, while the other half splits into five small spears and, one by one, launched at Al.

Tsuk! Blood splattered onto the floor as Al got stabbed right through her right shoulder and pinned on the ground. Non-critical but suffered unbearable pain. Linda loves what she is doing. Making her target suffer in pain and agony, slowly but brutally. Her purpose is to make Lez suffer in great despair by seeing her friends slowly die in pain.

“No!!!” Lez screamed her lungs out as she saw the spear pierced through Al’s shoulder.

Tsuk! As the second spear impaled her left leg. Linda enjoyed the scene as she finally had her payback at Al for what she had done to her earlier.

Linda released the three remaining spears altogether towards Alex.

“Is this the end of me?” Al said in her mind as the scene moves slo-mo. She can see the spears approaching her while Drake is at a distance, kneeling and still stunned by Linda’s scream. She slowly closed her eyes and accepted her death.

Tsuk! Three spears altogether pierced into its target. Targeting the gut, the right chest, and the left shoulder.

“I can’t let a friend die, let alone my goddess.”

Drip! A drop of blood ran across Al’s cheeks as she slowly opened her eyes; she realized a man in front of her.

“Mike?” Al let her tears flow as she saw Mike’s eyes slowly closing in front of her.

Linda unlatched her hair and watched Mike fall on top of Al to make Lez feel despair.

Lez ran onto her friends as her tears fell onto the ground. Seeing Al’s face full of tears, she thought Mike was already gone and kneel beside them, crying.

“I know you can’t achieve your true despair like that. Drake! Finish the job and kill those two.” Linda gave her order as Drake followed.

He slowly walks towards the group, holding his knife, wearing an emotionless face, but tears start to flow from his left eye. He knows what is happening and can see everything he does but has no control over it.

Lez noticed it and quickly stood up and ran towards Drake and hugged her boyfriend to stop him.

“Drake? Please fight it. I know you can do this, please.” Lez cried herself away as she begged her boyfriend to overcome Linda's spell, but still, Drake moved forward.

“Despair! Despair! Despair! Despair, you pesky little rat!” Linda repeatedly shouted as Drake came closer and closer, and when he was about to stab Mike and Al, Lez released her rage.

~ (BGM) Emotions Series - Anger | Most Epic Angry Dark Music Mix ~

“STOOOOOP!!!” Lez screamed as she was infuriated with flaming eyes and fists, blasting Drake away into the railing and bumping his head unconscious.

“Lez?” Al uttered as she slowly picked herself up and checked Mike’s condition.

Mike just lost his consciousness. His wounds are all non-fatal, but his losing a lot of blood, so they have no time to waste.

Lez can feel an intense aura upsurging behind her. It’s the same aura she felt when they were in the mansion, and she knows who it is.

Medea’s eyes turned black as she flew mid-air, surrounded by her dark aura.

Linda’s eyes grew bigger as she felt the imminent danger she was about to encounter as the two prepared to attack, so she decided to shoot first and launched her spears of hair towards them.

Lez and Medea just smiled and uttered,

“Our turn,” they said at the same time as they fully countered Linda’s attacks.

Lez released a blazing flame torch, quickly burning every strand of Linda’s hair as the fire climbed towards her head. At the same time, Medea gathered the smoke in the air forming it into multiple smoke arrows. It materialized as carbon arrows launching a bombardment of flame and arrows combination. Each of the arrows pierced through all over Linda’s body as it dematerializes once it hits its target and returns to smoke while having third and fourth-degree burns at the same time. Linda could not explain the excruciating burning and piercing pain she relentlessly felt as she screamed in agony. Linda tried to counter by focusing her screams blasting towards Medea. Medea did not anticipate that counterattack from Linda, as it hit her right in her guts and chest as she fell into the ground, twisting as she tried to avoid the attack but too late for the impact. Medea is now coughing blood due to several broken ribs she attained.

“Al!?!” Lez screamed as she stopped her attacks on Linda and ran towards Medea for aid.

“Al? Are you okay?” Lez quickly helped Medea to sit straight as she coughed more blood while disoriented.

“Certainly not okay,” Medea replied.

The smoke in the area where Linda was is finally dissipating as it slowly shows the image of the screaming demon with a bloody body with burns all over it.

They noticed something strange happening with the demon as they took a long stare at it, and later on, they realized her horns were getting longer as she started to regenerate and recover beyond ordinary. Never have they known that Linda consumed two more souls on her way to the hospital. One unlucky victim was a truck driver who had a stop at the fast-food joint where they had lunch, and the other one was the hospital's janitor. She is now a soul away from attaining her true demonic form.

“No! This is not happening.” Lez stood back up and started to torch Linda again.

Linda tried to counter by using her screaming blast as it splits the flame in half but ended up absorbed by Lez’s barrier and screamed back in agony as she burned again in blazing flame.

“Lez!” Al called to have her attention.

“That is not going to end well. It will only keep itself regenerating until you become exhausted. We have to find water and drown that bitch in it. Clem said it’s the only way to remove the demon away from its host and will be vulnerable to any attacks when it leaves.” Al explained to Lez.

“But how could we do that? We’re far away from any lakes or beaches.” Lez replied while she continued to torch Linda.

“I’ve got to find some water tower near here.” Al self-talked.

She stood herself up and started looking in any direction, and found a distance away from them.

Lez’s flame is now dwindling as she feels exhaustion and fatigue all over her body.

Medea notices it and tries to focus on the water tower to conjure the water towards them, but she seems exhausted too, and her powers cannot reach that distance.

Lightning strikes in the sky as thunder follows with sudden rain pours the whole area.

Lez’s dwindling flame got slowly extinguished by the heavy rain as she got more soaked in water by the moment.

“No!!!” she shouted as she pointed her hands to Linda, but not even a spark ignites.

Linda started to laugh as her wounds started to heal. She flaps her wings open and prepares herself to flee.

“You fools! I will soon come back for you, and when I do, I will be in my true form. You shall pay for what you did to me this day, and I will assure your death on our next encounter.” Linda started to fly as Lez just stood in her place, watching her in mid-air.

“I won’t let you, bitch!” Al shouted!

Linda got caught by a chain made of water in her legs.

“You fool! Get this off of me!” Linda screamed and blasted towards Al, but Lez protected her as the scream hits only the barrier.

Al created more water chains and latched them into Linda’s arms, neck, and leg. She struggled more and more, flapping her wings in any direction.

On the other hand, Al is getting weaker by the moment as she is slowly losing control of her chains.

“Lez!” she called the attention of Lez as she had something to say.

“Remember Drake’s theory about you as a key? The one he said you can increase the potential of a person’s ability?” Al asked while holding Linda by her chains.

“Yeah! What about it?” Lez wants to clarify.

“Maybe it’s time to test that theory on me.” Lez looked behind her and saw Al struggling to concentrate her chains but smiling.

“I really don’t know how to do it, but I must give it a try,” Lez said as Al nodded to agree and puts her right hand on Al's right shoulder.

Nothing changed, and no good outcome occurred.

Al’s chains started to break one by one until two chains left that kept the demon at bay. Lez closed her eyes and concentrated, remembering the same feeling when Drake kissed her before going to battle against Linda. The urge to help her loved ones and believing for them to succeed. That’s the key to unlock the potential of any person she wants to be.

As the remaining two chains finally broke and Linda was about to fly away, Lez opened her eyes simultaneously and unlocked the hidden potential within Al. A glowing white eye appeared on her forehead surrounding her entire body with light, and she quickly rose into mid-air, succumbing to Linda in her great sphere of water made from rain.

“You think I will let you escape?” Al said as Linda was trapped inside the sphere, drowning.

Linda is struggling inside the sphere and unleashes her growing hair towards Al to counter.

As the hair comes closer to Al, her third eye glows brighter as she utters the words, “Think again.” And spins the sphere so fast that Linda felt like a laundry inside the washing machine, spinning, and drowning.

The demon feared for its life as it tried to escape, leaving its host behind and out itself from Linda’s body in a smoke form. It got away from the sphere, but Al is waiting for that moment to capture the demon and end it all here.

“Oh no, you can’t!” Al uttered as water from the sphere quickly jumped to the smoke and rapidly turned into ice.

“Goodbye, demon!” Al bade goodbye as she shattered the iced demon into fine pieces and dropped the first sigil, the Demon of Lust Sigil, for the gate.

She quickly went to catch it and flew back towards Lez with the unconscious body Linda in her arms.

They both smiled at each other as her third eye suddenly vanished, and she quickly felt the exhaustion in her entire body and fall on the ground while Linda was in her arms. Lez noticed and tried to catch them, but due to relentless torching earlier, she didn’t have enough force to support two bodies falling and fall with them instead. They both just laughed while lying flat on the ground and said at the same time, “We did it.” They continue to laugh, soaking wet in the rain.

The rain slowly calmed down as Drake eventually regained consciousness and dashed toward his sister and his girlfriend as soon as he saw them lying on the ground.

“Oh, my God, guys, are you okay?” Drake quickly asked them to know their condition.

“No, we’re not,” Lez replied.

“I think I broke my ribs,” Al replied as she still felt the excruciating pain from her shoulder, chest, and leg.

“Jesus Christ, Linda? She has wounds all over her body.” Drake checks her pulse to know her vitals.

“Thank God she’s still alive.” He said to himself.

Lez slowly got herself up and walked towards Mike, and checked his vital too.

“Where’s Mike?” Drake shouted, looking for his friend.

“Over here!” Lez replied as Drake dashed towards them.

“How is he?” Drake asked.

“He lost a lot of blood, and his pulse is getting weaker. Drake, we have to get him inside now, or he might not have much time.” Lez commented.

“Damn it! Wait, I got an idea. Can you still boost me up?” Drake asked Lez.

“Yeah, I think I still can,” Lez replied as Drake nods and smiled.

“AL? Do you still have those medicine that you gave Mike earlier?” Drake shouted.

“Yes! It’s in my bag in Mike's room. Why?” Al replied, asking.

“Wait for me here; I’ll just go grab it.” And Drake sped himself up, went down to Mike's room, grabs Al’s bag together with a small bottle of water, and returned to the rooftop in just seconds.

Drake searched for the meds inside the bag, and soon as he found it, he poured the entire bottle of water and left just a quarter of it, then grabbed three meds, opened the capsules to mix with the water, and started to shake it thoroughly. He poured a third of it inside Mike’s mouth, same as Linda, and let Al drink the remaining water.

“Okay, I hope this works. Boost me up.” Drake said as he looked at Lez as a sign that he was ready to get boosted.

Lez suddenly kissed him on his lips which he didn’t expect, for he thought she would just touch him to initiate the boost. She was just glad that Drake was okay now and released from the demon’s spell.

The kiss did work as Drake could feel the power surging within his veins. He concentrates his mind to hasten the healing effect from the medicine by speeding up their regeneration cells in which it should be two to three times faster, but now it would be tripled with his power. He tried doing it all at once but failed, so he continued doing it one by one.

Lez can see Mike’s wounds as it closes down to nothing, and Linda’s burns and wounds healed up and so as Al wounds and broken ribs.

Within half an hour, the three injured persons got healed and recovered. Linda breathed normally again as Mike recovered his senses.

“What happened?” Mike slowly sat himself up, feeling dizzy for a moment, then suddenly someone tackled him back to the ground. He felt a bit of pain as his head bumped on the concrete floor. All that pain just vanished in a split second as soon as he felt the lips of her goddess touching his.

Lez just giggled, watching the two on the ground while Drake had this unknown expression painted on his face. He doesn’t know how to react to seeing her sister with his best friend lying on the floor kissing each other.

“Okay…” Drake’s comment as he eventually ignored the two and walked towards Linda.

Lez followed him and asked,

“What are you thinking?” Drake looked behind him and saw Lez, raising her eyebrow while looking at him.

“I’m going to carry her down to Mike’s room,” Drake replied that made her eyebrow raise a bit more.

“What? You mean we just leave her in here?” Drake sarcastically asked.

“And what is up to it if we just leave her here?” Lez jealously replied.

“Hey, that is so mean. We have to take care of her, and we can’t just ignore her.” Drake being concern and felt guilty for all the bad events that Linda incurred.

“Fine! You can carry her if you want to die.” Lez jokingly said.

Drake just stood still watching her girlfriend.

“Hey, I’m just joking. You can carry her on one condition.” Lez stated.

“Okay, and what is that condition?” Drake asked.

“Carry her into Mike’s room as quickly as you can, then return and carry me after without using your ability.” Lez wants Drake to treat her like a princess savoring the moment while her boyfriend carries her and not in just a flash.

“What? But I am so exhausted and feeling drained after doing the regeneration thingy on three persons at the same time.” Drake complained.

“But I’m injured too, you know,” Lez sat on the floor, leaning on the rail, acting like she felt frail. “I fought with the demon, too, remember?” She added as Drake knows how this ends, so he gave up and accepted Lez’s conditions.

Drake carried Linda to Mike’s room as fast as he can then quickly went back to Lez, but he could feel his speed descends drastically due to the sudden drain of energy because of the fast regeneration he did to the group earlier.

“Ready, your highness?” Drake asked and smiled as Lez kissed him before he started to carry her.

“Thank you, Your Majesty.” He carried her as he promised and slowly walked towards the door.

“Hey, you two. You can come down if you want after your cuddling there.” Drake said to Mike and Al.

“Hey, Drakey!” Al called her brother for a halt as she and Mike both stood up while Drake puts Lez standing.

Al opened up her palm and showed them what she got.

“What’s that?” Drake asked.

“Our key to close the gate.” They all smiled at the great news Al informed them as they together went down back to Mike’s room. But of course, Drake carried Lez as promised throughout the entire travel without using his ability, going down the stairs into Mike’s room.

They called for Clem to have someone bring them some clothes to change on, for they are soaked and wet, bloodied and torn due to rain and the battle earlier. They made sure that Linda could go home safe before they left.

Later that night, all four of them went to someplace and celebrated their first victory and Al and Mike’s first date celebration. Lez finally had her favorite food that she craved, Stir-fried shrimp, as they continued the night with laughter and happiness.

Meanwhile, moving the entire scene back at the maple tree, where the first demon was released three days ago - the portal to the Netherworld opened once again as the second demon came out, the demon of envy - Leviathan.

END OF CHAPTER 13