Chapter 42: Sealed Away

The forces all paused outside of The Forest of the Damned, taking in the thick air that smelled rotten.

Most of the trees were dead, black and gray husks ready to teeter over at the next sharp wind, and the few large pines that stood firmly had branches that drooped like wilting flowers, as if the very bark had been poisoned. Lightning roared above the mess of long-dead trees, but it wasn’t anything new to Bruce and Silvana, who had been fighting these evils since they had returned.

What hit them both differently, though, was that ghastly, heavy air, and with each breath they took it was like swallowing toxins.

Everybody felt it, from the witches to the werewolves to the vampires.

It was a smell of sour blood that tainted the very grass beneath the snow they all stepped on. Angus held a hand before his mouth and tried not to cough in front of Amelia for fear of seeming weak, but as he plugged his nose, she turned away and hacked into her folded elbow.

Even Solaris struggled to stay sharp as the air infected him too.

The only two who were seemingly unaffected were Bruce and Silvana, standing closest to the forest’s edge, aware of the pollution but not weighted down by it.

The two were holding hands tightly, and even those in the back of the large group could feel the love irradiating from Bruce and Silvana.

Silvana looked towards Bruce, rubbed his arm with her other hand and said, “We’re going to do this, together.”

An echoing laughter hurricaned out from the forest, knocking down some of the weaker trees and pushing everybody’s hair into their eyes.

“Duponte is in there, waiting,” Bruce said.

He brought Silvana closer to him and hugged her with a single large, muscular arm, and just then, Solaris recognized why the two weren’t choking on the evil miasma that everybody else was.

Cecilia Duponte had rotted away in these woods because of her evil lust for vengeance and vindication, but Bruce and Silvana’s love, the love between a witch and a werewolf, was so strong and opposite of what Duponte had done to separate the species that it was protecting the two young lovers.

It was hard to see beyond the red, murky skies juxtaposed against the pearly white snow, but there was a calming blue aura around Bruce and Silvana, protecting them from being infiltrated by the likes of Duponte and her Forest of the Damned.

Then Amelia got an idea.

She turned to face the army behind her and saw that they were all suffering as she was, and that almost everybody across the species were trying to seem strong and fight away the toxins in the air. Amelia witnessed the aura around her friends and with their strength in mind, she pulled Angus’s hand away from his nose and hugged him.

“It’ll be okay,” she told him. “We can’t all be beaten if we stand tall and strong like Sylvie and Bruce.”

Angus was stunned not only at Amelia’s warming touch, but at the feeling of his normal breathing abilities returning. Amelia stared at him with big, warm eyes and kissed him on the cheek. Angus’s back arched straight and he felt completely empowered. Though he could not see it, the same blue energy surrounding Bruce and Silvana was surrounding him and Amelia too.

The others in the crowd followed, patting their neighbor on the back despite whatever species they were, and sharing kind words of encouragement.

Suddenly, the air no longer felt heavy.

Solaris smiled and watched Silvana wave the troops forward towards the forest. He’d been going about his life the complete wrong way, and it was only because of his daughter that he was able to now realize he’d been more like Duponte than following in the welcoming footsteps of his lost wife.

With that realization, the very corruptness consuming his own heart faded, and the blue energy surrounded him as well.

As the combined forces of the three species charged through the fallen trees of the dead forest, the ground started to shake.

Bruce grabbed Silvana before she fell down, and under their feet the ground crumbled into a burgundy void of vitriolic magic. Silvana tackled Bruce right as the edges of the snow and soil at their toes fell into the dark pit, and Bruce’s leg dangled by the abyss for a moment before spirits blasted out from the depths, cackling and screaming. They clawed at the snow and came out in overwhelming numbers, their spectral bodies glistening with red lightning.

This round of spirits were all stronger and more menacing, but Angus and Amelia rushed to Bruce and Silvana’s side and dragged the two out of the way of the spirits rushing from the abyss.

And as Angus raised Bruce up his beefy shoulders and while Amelia brought Silvana back to her feet, the werewolves advanced upon the spirits, slashing them back into the hole in which they came from. When the werewolves’ defenses were low, the vampires were right by their sides with their thin, sharp swords, parrying the shots from the spirits and protecting the werewolves. Everybody moved in tandem and as one, calling out for the other’s support as needed, and making the necessary space for the witches, led by Solaris, to encircle the abyss.

From the hands of dozens of witches, all sorts of ornate markings and signs twirled around the soil and snow around the hole that the spirits were exiting.

“Focus your energy now!” Solaris shouted at his fellow witches. His fingers were deep into the dirt and as loud as he could, he said, “Tu Fui, Ego Eris!”

Wisps of magic hurled the spirits back, and Silvana was casting missile-like spells as Bruce swiped down spirits right next to her. All of the forces were working in complete harmony, and the plan had been a success.

The hole closed shut with a burst of sizzling blue magic, and the remaining spirits evaporated like snowflakes touching skin.

Through the crimson clouds, the afternoon sun shined.

For a moment, there was no sound in the forest at all, and all the species checked themselves for wounds, but they had all performed so heroically that none amongst them were injured.

It was almost too easy.

“It’s finished!” A witch with a long red scarf declared.

The ground where the abyss had been glowed with navy blue markings in the shape of a circular bushel of daisy-like chamomile flowers, the flower representing all forms of peace magic.

Solaris squinted towards the sky and grimaced.

As if it were clay pot shattering into bits, the sky opened up into an assortment of reds and yellows and black.

“Get down!” Solaris yelled at the crowd.