The Majarlican Demigod

18: The Palace Bridge

The Majarlican Demigod

Chapter 18: The Palace Bridge

            "The protector?" I repeated to confirm if what I heard was correct. I'm shocked.

            "We are running out of time, Althea. The masked people are here," Brighton whispered, "Go now."

            I looked at Rupert, who was upstairs talking to his mother with other guests, then I looked at Brighton. I take a deep breath to clear up my thoughts, "right." I said as I stepped forward towards the staircase. My heartbeat runs faster as I become closer to them. I'm at Rupert's back. He is talking to a guest who wears different color, which indicates that they're from another city. I cleared my throat aloud as I stepped closer. Rupert turned around and faced me. He is looking at me from head to toe and vice versa. He doesn't seem to be speaking anytime soon.

            "Good evening, your highness!" I bowed to him and to the queen, "It's a great pleasure to be invited here to your birthday celebration. I'm Lady Althea from the West First District."

            The queen stepped closer to me and held my hands, "It is true, I heard about you, Lady Ally. I'm so happy you made it here. Enjoy the party." she let go of my hands and tapped on Rupert's shoulder.

            He looked surprised, "Ahm, excuse us. We'll be back," he said to the other guests and led me to the stairwell, "How are you?" he asked nervously.

            "Artes is about to attack your guests, your majesty," I whispered. "His team planted explosives along the bridge where the carriage passes through. We have to do something for the guests to stay longer here while the others find and remove the explosives."

            "Others? Who are you referring to?" Rupert asked.

            "Brighton, Hans, Talia, and the Pandoras. They already knew about it. I think everyone who saw Imman last time in the court will help out." I replied.

            "I can warn the guards not to let the guest go out until we were able to remove those things," he suggested.

            "If we alarm the guards, the guests might worry and get anxious about it. Let's alarm them if the number of explosives is out of hand. How about you tell the guards to ask the guests to stay longer because the Palace prepared a special presentation!" I suggest.

            "A presentation? Who's gonna do that?" he asked. "The presentation was done earlier."

            "I know... you can ask the dodgeball team about it! Let them do the presentation. For sure, they will do it. Just tell them about the attack and make sure that it will be a secret." I told him.

            "Ok. I'll ask Roux to gather his teammates to do the action while we remove the things."

            "That's great, your majesty," I said. I saw Talia and Hans run outside with the Pandoras. "I will follow them. After you tell Prince Roux what to do, you can stay here, and Brighton will telepath with you or follow us in the bridge."

            "I got it," he responded, and I ran downstairs.

            I wish I have wings like the others or teleporting ability because running in this type of dress is full of hassle. I reached the bridge, where I saw Brighton sniffing off in his animal form. Talia is adding some little lights to look for the explosive while Zera Foster commands the wind to give them the direction where the things are.

            "Why are you still standing there?" Hasmin Pandora appeared in front of me, "Let's go!"

Then I followed her.

            "There's five at the end of the bridge. We don't know how many more are there, but that's what the wind told me," Zera told me.

            "Ok. I'll go there." then I blasted off towards the end of the bridge.

            Talia is giving a good source of light so far. They have removed 10 explosives. Brighton is here at the end of the bridge, disassembling the explosive he found. I found one on a branch of the tree. It looks like they want to set wildfire too.

            "Brighton, there's one in that tree. I can't reach it," I called him.

            He looked at me, "How can you not fly?" he stood up and looked at the tree, "You should know how to fly. You're a demigod after all," he whispered and flew to get explosive.

            I froze for about 3 seconds. "How'd you know that?" I asked.

            "I'm your guardian. That's why I know," he responded as he crashed the explosive by stepping on it in the shape of a lion.

            "Guardian?" I repeated.

            "We don't have much time for that now, ok? I'll explain some other time," he said.

            "Where's Artes?" I asked again.

            "He used different bodies just today. Looks like he made his army for this." he is looking for other explosives. "Let's look under the bridge." then he gave me a lift. He made me float, and I don't know how he did it.

            There were little floating fires under the bridge that helped us see what was in it, and there's a lot!

            "How can they do this!" I muttered as I removed the explosives one by one.

            "When you traveled back to live, the sequence of what's going to happen also changed. Artes originally will attack in our graduation, which is 8 months from now but after Kairos, the god of time, allowed you to go back in time, the order rearranged. The beginning of the end is going to happen today." he crashed another explosive.

            I tried to think about it. "What do you mean by that? Are you saying that there will be like the end to this, like for everyone?"

            "There's an end to everything but not tragic like this. Artes must be stopped, and that's the whole point. We need him to go back to where he belongs. It takes a demigod to turn down a demigod; that's why you're here again." he said as he took another explosive off.

            "Then, what if I can't defeat Artes?" I asked faintly.

            "That's why I'm here. My mission is to help you," Brighton replied, "Can you continue pulling off the other explosives?" he commanded.

            I continued detaching other explosives then he called on Winslett, Zera, and Randall to help us remove all of the explosives off the bridge because it's long, and there might be more. We have probably taken a lot of time now. I don't have a clock, so I don't know what time is it.

We're still inspecting the bridge and its foundation to see if there are other explosives planted.

            "They have planted bigger explosives underwater!" Winslett said as she floats with a giant bubble.

            "How many are there?" Brighton asked.

            "There's approximately ten, but I'm not sure. The rest of the explosives are bigger than other ones we have destroyed," Winslett responded.

            "We need the help of the palace guards now. I'll tell Rupert, hold on," Brighton announced, "Rupert, tell the palace guards that there were bigger explosives planted under the bridge all underwater..." he seemed to wait for a response, "Yes, on both sides of the bridge..." he waits for another answer. "Stop the guests from passing through the doors. The bridge is going to collapse tonight if the guards aren't able to destroy these explosives now." he stopped and looked at us. "The Palace guards are coming. Winslett, assist the guards the rest, go back to palace while others stay at the end of the bridge."

            We divided ourselves into different groups. I decided to be in the group to stop the guests from crossing the bridge. I'm with Brighton and Heavenly, watching if guests will try to cross the bridge. The party is soon going to be over, but the guards just started destroying the explosives.

            "Rupert needs me inside," Brighton said.

            "We'll stand by here," I told him with agreement from Heavenly.

            He goes back inside while we wait here outside. When we don't see Brighton anymore. Another one is going out, Maestro Ivan with another unknown person. Heavenly and I approached them right away.

            "Good evening, Maestro Ivan!" We greeted.

            "Hello, kids!" he looked surprised.

            "Maestro, is the party over?" I asked.

            "Well, I received an important call from the office, and I need to get there right away," he responded.

            “Too bad, Maestro, you can't pass through the bridge," Heavenly said.

            "Why not?" Maestro asked.

            "Because it's still early! The majesty will be upset to hear that there something came up in a holiday," a smart rebut from Heavenly! “It's a holiday in Centralis today so offices should be closed.”

            "Kids, look, emergencies are something we do not plan, so if you will excuse us," then he uses his teleporting skills to go to his carriage.

            Heavenly and I exchange looks like we think that exact thing– Ivan Holster is one of the many accomplices. He went and passed through the bridge. From my peripheral sight, I saw my sister— Zephyra, flying towards the roof, then I started to hear the hypnotizing voice.

            "Heavenly, cover your ears!" I shouted, and everyone who heard covers their ears.

            I decided to follow Zephyra. I'm trying to concentrate so I can fly too. It's too hard because my body is so full of gravity, but I'm slowly going up. Suddenly, I feel a push of the wind. It was Zera giving me a lift. I see my sister controlling the body of the mysterious person singing a lullaby.

            For some reason, it had a masked face and black-covered suit, but I can see that it's literally frozen and can't breathe. My sister has the power to manipulate the object, human movement, command water, air, fire, and earth. Right now, I'm not sure how she is controlling this masked person.

            "Zephyra!" I called her, but she didn't let go of the person.

            "Ally remove her mask!" she said.

            I ran towards the person to remove the mask, but the masked person who had her invisible back-up came and pushed me back. It also attacked my sister. They both escaped the roof. I think I had scratched the masked person as I was able to get close to them. I get up to go to my sister.

            Zephyra was rather upset, "Why did you let them get away?!" Instead of being hurt, she's worried that the attackers getaway.

            "We can catch some other time," I told her as I stand up and give my sister a hand, "And why are you here?"

            "I heard the lullaby! You know how sensitive my ears are. It's trying to put everyone to sleep." she replied. "Let's go down there." she then jumped off.

            "Hey! I can't fly!" I stomped.

            "What?!" she entered the Palace and left me.

            Really? She just left me. I told myself. The Palace's roof is too high. I could see everything, even the palace guards who were checking the bridge. Looks like they have successfully removed all the explosives. That was intense.

(To Be Continued)