Chapter 25 - 24: A Show Of Power (1)

When Neel stopped shooting flames from his maw he saw that it had been blocked my the two men with their swords. " Swords powerful enough to stop my flames, they must be divine artefacts. Shit I might be dealing with Arch-Bishops." thought Neel as he flapped his wings sending out powerful wind gales.

The two men dodged to either side and charged for Neel. Neel compressed the air in a 10m radius around him in response. By doing this he had increased the air pressure directly close to his skin but had reduced the air pressure where the air originally was causing the two men to be sucked in. Neel then shot another round of white hot flames at the men while they were still in shock.

When he stopped he saw that they were protected by a golden transparent force field. " You live up to your name Dragon prince." said Damien as he removed the force field. "It seems I was wrong to think I could hold back against you." Damien said as he removed Ascalon from its scabbard.

Ascalon was a thin long blade with a deep blue hilt and golden adornments coming from the sides of the hilt. The scabbard was blue with a golden cross at the centre and ancient engravings written in gold. The blade itself was silver with a golden luminescence. The centre piece of the hilt was a deep blue gem that seemed to suck in air on one side and push it out the other. Once Ascalon was released it let out an explosive golden blue aura. Damien's eyes shone a blue colour and there seemed to be a halo, although faint floating in top of his head.

"A holy sword! One of the four great Arch-Bishops, this might be harder than I thought. I can't afford to hold back." thought Neel to himself. "Lillian take the kids and get out of here. I'm going to to unleash my full power!" shouted Neel to the ground as he closed his eyes and a red aura surrounded him.

"Deon, this Lillian must be the Ice-witch. Take care of her while I fight the dragon born." Damien said as Deon reluctantly agreed. As Deon headed for Lillian Amana landed next to Clara while keeping an eye on her surroundings.

"I trust that the Arch-Bishops don't need our help. While they take care of the Dragon-born and the Ice-witch we can clean up the area." said Amana as she flew off without even looking at Clara once. "Arrogant wench." Clara said as she dusted herself off and followed Amana.

While all that was going on Raul, Lillian and Luna realised that the aura that the man Neel was fighting had to be the wielder of a holy sword. "Luna take Arya and the kids and run. I can't let Neel fight an Arch-Bishop and the inquisition alone. As strong as he is he might do something he might regret." Lillian said as she handed Arya to Luna.

"Mom what's going on. Will you and dad be okay?" Ava asked with tears flowing from her eyes. The sight of her dead friends was still etched in her brain despite how well Luna tried to cover her eyes Ava still saw her friends charred bodies.

"I'll be okay little one. Take care of both your brothers for me while I go help your father okay." said Lillian as she hugged Ava.

"Mother I can help, I've been practicing let me help you." said Luca with a determined look on his face. Although Luca was also afraid he felt that he had a duty to fight since he was a genius mage. " You will do no such thing! Luca I know that you feel like it's your duty to fight because you're so talented but do you have any idea what it means to take someone's life. We aren't sparring, those people mean to kill us. Look at the bodies of those who were once your friends!" said Lillian sternly.

Upon hearing this, the façade that Luca had put up crumbled. He began crying and holding on to his mother "Their all dead mom. All of them, Kyle, Lenny, David all of them. This isn't fair mom what did we do to deserve this. Don't go please mom, I don't know what I'll do without you guys please. Let's just go." cried Luca as Lillian hugged him tightly and Ava joined in on the embrace.

As Arya watched his family embrace, scenes of his past life began flashing through his eyes. He remembered when he won his first karate tournament and he hugged both his parents in joy. He remembered when he his pet dog had died and his parents comforted him the whole time. Arya then looked at Neel in his dragonic form in the air. At first all the kids were surprised to see their father transform but they quickly disregarded it as there were much more important things to worry about.

As he looked at Neel all the memories Arya had with his father on Earth played in his mind. A single tear rolled down his face. After a while the memories of Neel in his current life played in his head as well and the two images of his different fathers played at the same time until the two became indistinguishable. At this point Arya was crying as he finally reached the memory of his father's death and the face of his late father's dead body was replaced with that of Neel.

"Papa." was all that Arya could say as he began sobbing like the baby he was. " Come on now little ones, you're scaring Arya. You two have to be strong for you're little brother okay. Take care of him while I'm gone." said Lillian as she nodded to Luna. Luna than pulled a blade from a rift in the air. As the blade was pulled out of the dimensional fissure it let out an ice cold aura.

"Is tha-" Raul was about to say as Lillian nodded. "Yes it's Absolutus, the legendary blade." said Lillian as she wielded it. Her hair began dancing in the air as her body let our a bright blue aura. "The Ice-witch has returned.." muttered Raul under his breath.