Darkness of Magic (Soul of Magic Book 2)

TEN

Kyra stood unable to react for a very long time, the reality of the situation spinning around wildly in her mind. In front of her stood the physical manifestations of the men who had caused great harm to her kind; men who had shown that they had no qualms doing it to her too. That reality made her power to course through her with so much vigour, threatening to be released with just a flick of her fingers.

But the Soul of magic stilled her destructive urge. Like Richard had said to her while they were still at Cyrain, she wasn’t the bloodthirsty kind. She would never bring herself to revel in the destruction of humans; even if those same humans have revelled in the destruction of her own people before and were still planning to do the same to her.

However, Kyra wasn't planning to go easy on the Anti-magicians either and she assumed her most threatening posture as she said, "Coming up against me is a mistake I hope won’t be making today."

"What, because you're the soul of magic?" returned the man who had earlier spoken to her; he seemed to be in charge. "Believe me, witch, even you are not immune to the power of the Bloodstone."

"Well, if you want to hurt her, you'll have to go through us first," Richard said and he and Lucian placed themselves between Kyra and the Anti-magicians.

"It's your funeral," the man returned with a nonchalant shrug before turning to his men and saying, "You know what to do."

Immediately, the men unsheathed their different Bloodstone-encrusted weapons and charged at Richard and the others, the latter returning the favour with a fearless charge of their own.

The moment both parties clashed, Isidora took off in the opposite direction, which was quite understandable as the dark witch had neither any weapon nor magic at hand. Unfortunately, she barely made away from the battlefront when she was suddenly intercepted by an Anti-magician; and not the nicest of the bunch, judging from the frightening grin he shot her. "Going somewhere, are we?" said the Anti-magician, his Bloodstone sword already out and at her throat.

"Look, I'm not their friend," she replied. "You can kill them for all I care. But only them."

"Actually, I think different," he returned and swung.

Fortunately for Isidora, the Anti-magician turned out to be very sloppy with his sword and she was able to duck just as his sword came slashing by. But she too turned out to be not so fast either and the sword still managed to graze her on the cheek as she went. Screaming a lot of unladylike curses as the Bloodstone reacted with her magic and seared her, the dark witch backed away from her assailant.

Unfortunately, she tripped over a root and went fell in the dirt; and not wanting to give up the opportunity that presented itself, the Anti-magician went at her with his sword. Isidora rolled out of the way and her assailant impaled the ground instead. She kicked out and got him in the face, rounding a second one to kick the sword out of his grip.

But the Anti-magician wasn’t going to be easily defeated and he lunged for the dark witch’s throat. The both of them struggled for a while but he eventually got her pinned down and began to strangle her.

"Get away from me, you oaf!" Isidora screamed as she fought back with all the strength within her.

The Anti-magician seemed to have underestimated her strength as she suddenly got the upper hand, using all of her remaining strength to strike him in the face before pushing him off her. He clamped his hands around the Bloodstone hanging around her neck in attempt to right himself as he fell away but only succeeded in unwittingly yanking the object off her in the process.

Immediately the Bloodstone came off, Isidora felt her dark energy rise up within her, coming up with full force and ferocity that her senses became heightened for a while.

"By the Creator!" the Anti-magician gasped when he realised what he’d done. In an attempt to rectify the situation, he went for his sword. But the dark witch wasn’t planning to be taken down twice and just as the Anti-magician picked up his sword, she unleashed her the pent-up dark energy; the latter immediately turning into stone on contact.

Isidora closed her eyes and willed her energy up to her hands, causing her chains to immediately fall off and shatter into a million shards as it hit the ground. Just then, she heard the sound of swords clashing from the battlefield and an idea wedged its way into her mind.

Smiling to herself as she made her way towards the battlefield, she said, "It's time for a surprise."

***

There just never seemed to be any end to the onslaught of the Anti-magicians and Kyra was tired of it. She had fought, and kicked, and spelled; but they always keep coming back. Just as she created two blue energy balls in her palms to use them against another set of incoming Anti-magicians in front of her, they suddenly froze in their run and began to float. Turning around, she saw that all the Anti-magicians were frozen and floating in mid-air.

"Kyra, please tell me you're the one doing this," Richard said as he ran to meet her, an extremely puzzled look on his face.

"No," Isidora replied before Kyra could, walking out towards them with a wicked grin on her face. "I am."

The dark witch’s magic had now fully resurfaced and it collected around her so thickly that it was as if she had developed a darker second layer of skin. The bond magic of the Dark Hearts Coven tattoo on her arm was also fully active again and it was obvious that Isidora was channeling it as the energy shone through her clothes with an otherworldly purple colour, fuelling her in addition to her own energy.

All of a sudden, she released all the energy around her and directed them at the floating Anti-magicians. Immediately the energy touched them, the Anti-magicians screamed out in pain; the energy was consuming them inside out. They turned so pale they looked like corpses. And then, she released them, dropping their bodies carelessly to the ground like broken toys which life was already drained out of them.

Then, Isidora laughed; a frightening sound which caused all trees in the vicinity to wither on the spot. "I believe we should have a review of our deal," she said as she turned to face the others with eyes so black they looked like abysmal pits. "What do you think?"