Chapter 7

Smoke filled the air from the fires the Titans endlessly tried to use to weaken the gate. This was the Dark Realms, they didn't fear fire. Fire did nothing to the Daemoni just as it did nothing to their gates. Snarls and growls filled the air as the legions made ready, waiting for the signal from their Queen.

As Damian watched, Theanna fully released her Daemoni side, her long, dark purple horns sharpened, ready to gourd and protect her. Her claws lengthened and dripped a poisonous acid that was unique to her while her teeth sharpened and her canines dripped the same poison as her claws. The skin of her face withered and melted away so that she was truly the Queen of Nightmares. She still wore her armor but now it melded and blended with her skin. Damian knew that while she appeared tiny in size, every inch of her was deadly.

“NO MERCY!” Theanna screamed as every Daemoni warrior answered her call and roared their power to the skies. Raising her hand, she gave the signal for the gates to open. The sound of Celestian metal creaking and groaning loudly pierced the air as the gates opened for the first time in many millennia, causing the Titans to back away in surprise.

The Titans themselves had blood-red eyes with black irises that reminded Theanna of the Lycans on a full moon. She once again marveled at how incorrect the stories of the Titans were. Many were large, close to ten feet, but not the giants of myth as she'd been taught. They resembled the men of Earth in their appearance, the exception being their large fangs. Every single one of them had silver hair, in varying lengths and styles, that seemed to almost glow. Upon seeing the horde of Daemoni warriors that appeared before them, they prepared themselves for battle, securing their positions and making ready their weapons.

With a loud snarl, Theanna ran towards the Titans, her archers firing a volley of arrows ahead of her. While it did little to harm them, the arrows did distract them. As Theanna leapt high into the air, a large sword appeared in her hand as she landed in the midst of the Titans, instantly beheading two of the enemy. Blood and sweat flew through the air as the weapons of Theanna and her legions clashed again and again with the Titans. Blood covered them all as the ground became slick with black blood of the Daemoni and the oozing green slime-like blood of the Titans.

She noticed that for every wound the Daemoni inflicted, the Titans healed nearly instantly. With a snarl, Theanna ordered, “Go for their heads. If you remove their heads, they don’t heal.” It was as those words left her mouth that Theanna saw a Titan wizard high up on a hill overlooking the battlefield. As she watched with frustrated horror, he began healing the ones that lost their heads. Within moments the very Titans she’d killed stood up and began to fight again.

Suddenly a sharp pain ripped through the side of her body. Looking down she realized she'd been stabbed. Turning around to look behind her, a snarling Titan roared as he moved to attack her again. With a fierce roar of her own, she spun and ripped her claws through the Titan's neck. Green, slimy blood spewed forth all over her face. “EWWW! Seriously?” she howled as the Titan slowly started to heal. With a growl she used her claws to finish what she started. Taking his head, she threw it across the battlefield.

Looking around at the scene that surrounded her, she watched as Daemoni after Daemoni fell to the ground injured or dead, causing her heart to break. The sounds of war grew louder and louder as both armies battled. Everywhere she looked, her legions fought with everything they had and still the Titans rose up again, seemingly immortal. Body after body of her Daemoni littered the ground, their lifeless eyes seeming to stare at her pleadingly.

Determined to turn this around, she pierced the air with a whistle, calling her dragon, Ryuu, into battle. She didn't like to risk her friend since he was the only male left of his kind but she knew that she’d no choice. Giving her dragon its target telepathically, she watched with a dark smile as poisonous smoke filled the air. A smoke that didn’t harm her Daemoni but slowed down the Titans significantly. As Ryuu came back around, he came upon the wizard, surprising him from behind as he made a snack of his torso with his powerful jaws, arms and legs flying through the air in all directions.

To Theanna's great delight, one of the wizard's arms landed at her feet. Picking it up, she used it to beat down an injured Titan trying to grab at her leg. To her surprise, residual magick spilled out of the dead fingers and engulfed the Titan grabbing her. Preparing for the worst, she was even more surprised when the magick made the Titan soldier glow until he finally exploded in a shower of blood and guts all over her. Wiping her eyes free of skin and blood, she threw the arm onto the ground and looked around.

Ryuu continued to spew his toxic smoke causing the Titans to writhe on the ground, unable to breathe. Her eyes widened as it suddenly dawned on her, their real advantage was their poison. Returning her sword to its place in the palace, she spotted a Titan General out of the corner of her eye. Running and leaping high into the air, she landed on top of him as she pierced his neck with all of her claws, releasing her poison into him. The General screamed in pain and fell to the ground writhing back and forth as Theanna jumped free.

His forces immediately stopped fighting to watch him in surprise. Realizing poison seemed to be the only thing to wound them enough to take their heads, she ordered in Daemoni, “Poison! Use your poisons!”

Pausing briefly to look around for her mate, Theanna became insane when she couldn't find him. Moving as fast as she could, she slashed, she fought and she wounded, using her poison to take as many Titans down as she could as she desperately searched for Damian in the clashing armies. How dare they attack her home, kill her Daemoni, and threaten those she loved.

As her legions saw her fight, her body and armor covered in the blood of Titans, they fought all the harder still. Several members of her Royal Guard appeared behind Theanna as she took down every Titan she came across. While her poison didn’t seem to kill them, it did slow them down enough that her Royal Guard was able to remove their heads one by one. Her poison may have only been a slight advantage, but it was one which they desperately needed.

On the other side of the battlefield, Damian and Lazerin continually fought and battled. Over and over they took down the Titans. It didn't matter that the Titans healed, that they were covered in blood and sweat, or that they were injured, they fought to protect the wounded, they fought for their Queen and for their Realms. As Theanna's dragon flew by overhead releasing its toxic smoke, Damian watched as the Titans fell to the ground clutching at their throats as if they suddenly couldn't breathe. Taking that opportunity, Damian and Lazerin immediately removed the heads of as many Titans as they could.

When most had their heads separated, Damian turned to Lazerin and nodded as he broke away to find Theanna. Before long he found her in the midst of hundreds of bodies and parts of bodies. What he saw amazed him. His mate was deadlier than a hundred legions.

The smell of fire and smoke, the smell of the toxic smoke of Theanna's dragon and the scent of the blood of both of their kinds filled the air and burned his eyes. None of that even phased his mate who, covered in blood and gore, continued to battle, releasing her poison into every Titan she could, making it easy for her Royal Guard to remove their heads.

Theanna panted as she spun around for her next target. A deep growl filled her chest when she saw the General she’d originally wounded with her poison get back onto his feet. Her growls became louder and louder as Titans surrounded them in a large circle, the ground covered in the bodies of the fallen. Not a single Titan tried to stop her, but rather watched in excitement as she faced off with their General, who was easily thirteen feet tall.

The General spit out his blood onto the ground before saying, “You, Daemoni Bitch, will pay and I will wear your tiny insignificant head as decoration on my armor!” Pointing his large sword at her, she called forth her own sword.

Suddenly, Theanna ran towards him as if to attack him head on when she stabbed her sword into the ground with all of her might, propelling herself over the General in a flip that put her behind him. In a split second she turned and stabbed the General under his chest armor before he could turn towards her, her claws once again elongated and filled with poison.

The General screamed and fell to his knees as Theanna stabbed him in his neck multiple times before she came around in front of him and ripped into him again and again, releasing her poison into his neck and face. Over and over she clawed at him and shredded his skin with her rage. When finally the General fell to the ground unconscious, Theanna stood atop of him and yelled, “Who's next?”

As they looked at each other, the Titans suddenly turned and ran, escaping through a portal that appeared, returning them to Talos. One by one they fled until all that remained were dead and injured Daemoni, the Titan dead, and one Titan General.

Damian, holding his side, approached Theanna as she breathed heavily, covered in Titan blood that slowly mixed with her own. “Zoqa! You’re injured!”

Theanna looked down as she said, “It’s healing. Are you healing yet, my Dnirya?”

Damian nodded as he pulled her into his arms. “I’m healing slowly, but I’m healing.”

Taking a deep breath of relief, she then asked, “Where is my Royal Guard?”

“Here my Queen, we only lost one this day,” Hezin replied, holding his arm which was bleeding profusely. Walking over to him, Theanna placed her hand on his wound and healed it saying, “Take this General to my dungeons, get him into chains quickly so that he cannot escape.”

“Yes, my Queen!” Hezin answered as the Royal Guard immediately dragged the moaning General to the dungeons.

As she held tightly onto Damian's hand, she commanded, “Bring any injured Daemoni that aren't healing into my throne room immediately. Place the dead in the courtyard so that we may bless their souls, that they may find peace. Lazerin, are you injured?”

“No, my Queen, I’ve healed.”

“Good! Bring Kira here. I need her analysis.”

“Yes, my Queen,” Lazerin replied with a bow before vanishing.

Turning to Damian, she returned to her human form and smiled sadly at him. They’d survived and chased the Titans back. “First we heal the wounded, my love. Then...”

“Then I require time to worship my Queen and praise the gods that she wasn’t injured,” Damian said as he once again held her close. “After that we figure out the details of this battle!”

With a smile and a nod, Theanna simply replied, “Agreed.”