28. The battlefield.

As soon as Mount Athos flattened, the royal jet approached them from the other side. Bidding a quick farewell to Andino and his family, they flew over the place where Mount Athos once stood. Sitting down, Niya still couldn’t believe what she had just done. Her hands trembled as she placed them on her lap, blinking rapidly to clear her blurry vision. She looked up from her lap and noticed all the boys were looking at her as if they couldn’t believe that she had done that.

"Niya! Are you okay?!" George finally gathered some courage to speak, looking at Niya's pale face.

"Yeah, Yeah I'm... fine," she said, looking at the boys and shaking her head to get rid of the shock.

"Okay, enough of this I-am-so-shocked face. All of us know what she’s capable of, we shouldn’t be surprised. We need to strategize and prepare for the war," Archie said, looking at the others with fear in his eyes as if he wasn't confident enough to win this battle.

"Here's the map of the battlefield." Edward turned on the projector on the table between them and a beautiful 3D view of the battlefield appeared.

"The gold mines are surrounded by river Ryizel from the north and the other three sides are surrounded by a chain of mountains. So I think we should approach through the river," William explained, moving the map and focusing on the areas he mentioned.

"Yeah, you’re right, Willy. Mountains aren't safe but the river is the only way left to approach the site." Archie nodded, looking at William.

"What if the river is ceased already by their army?" Edward asked, looking at them, touching his upper lip with his tongue to avoid his nervousness.

"Then we will lose this battle before even participating in it," George said, exhaling deeply, trying to calm his nerves down.

"George, have you forgotten who we are and what we have?" Archie shook his head in disbelief. "If that happens, we use our CT-509 Artemis ship to get through the mountains. Half of our army will approach through the river from the north and the rest will approach through the Hera mountain chain from the south," Archie explained his strategy, without taking his eyes off the map.

"Wow. Look at you, talking like a real king," William said, looking at Archie, giving him a slight shove on the arm while Archie rolled his eyes with a small smile on his face.

"And? What about me, guys? What am I supposed to do?" Niya asked, looking at them with those big brown innocent eyes.

"Just stay away from the battlefield," All the three said in unison.

"That's not fair," she said with a pout, looking at them with a puppy face.

"I just can't digest the fact that they all were making a military alliance under our nose and we didn't even notice," Archie said, closing the map, sighing out of frustration.

"Isn't it obvious? He is doing all of this just to make us weak," William said, looking at Archie.

"No way, he can't even enter our universe. The fire wall is protecting us. He just can't," Archie said, frowning a bit over the freshly created conclusion by William. William looked at him in a way as if he was convincing him with his eyes. Archie sighed, knowing that there was a possibility that William could be right.

"Ok, so who is *he*? Am I missing something?" Niya questioned, looking back to Archie and William with a tint of curiosity in her big brown eyes.

"Samael Melbourne Everette. King of Drac Prime planet in the Morganite Universe," Edward said, calmly sipping his red wine.

"Everette? As in Archie's surname?" she asked, looking at Edward while furrowing her eyebrows a bit on the newly discovered fact.

"Yeah, practically Samael is Archie's twin brother," George said, looking at Archie with concern in his eyes.

"Twin? Okay," Niya exhaled deeply and sat back on her sofa, pausing for a second. "Oh my God. Twin? And why I am not aware of this twin?" she said, looking at Archie.

"Because you weren't supposed to know this. This is just an irrelevant piece of shit to know about." Archie sighed, sitting back on his chair annoyingly.

"You gotta be kidding me, dude. Someone is attacking my planet and you are saying I wasn't supposed to know about him?" Niya said with an authority in her honey-sweet voice.

"Your planet? Really, Niya? We are vampires and you are an angel. We are supposed to be enemies by nature," Archie scoffed on her statement.

"What? So we are back to this shit? Look, I'm not interested in your vampy-angel rule book. I just know the simple fact that I can't return to my home now, so I have to accept this planet, this universe, as my new home. And that's exactly what I'm trying to do right now. Tell me the way to go back to Earth and I will never interfere in your matters. Can you?" she said, trying hard to control her anger because of Archie's not-so-sensitive statement. For a brief moment, Archie just got lost under her angry gaze and couldn't utter a single word from his mouth.

"I-I am sorry, I didn't mean to..." he tried to explain but Niya stopped him in between.

"We can do this later, Archie. I think we should focus on the war right now," she said, gulping down the whole glass of icy cool water to calm her anger down.

"I have texted General Marcus. He is going to prepare the soldiers before we reach the palace," William said, looking at his phone.

"Tell him to evacuate nearby the villages around the gold mines," Archie said, without looking at William as his gaze was fixed on his phone.

***
After some time, Niyanica and others landed at the airport and as expected, the media was waiting for them.

*"King Archie, can you explain the reason behind the golden sky? Is there an angel living on this planet? Is that angel behind this war??"*

*"Your Majesty, are we prepared for a full-fledged war with King Azizmah of Caintlek planet?"*

*"Is King Samael is behind all this?"*

*"Your Majesty, are we up for negotiation with them or the war is the only way out?"*

So many questions were asked but Niyanica didn't even know how to react as she was completely clueless about the situation and the people who created it in the first place. They ignored their question and left immediately. They reached the palace where General Marcus was already waiting for them. Niyanica entered the hall where they were all discussing the possible strategies. Upon her entrance, everyone went silent for a moment and bowed.

"Queen Niyanica Hemsworth! Finally, we have met, Your Majesty." An unrecognizable voice said. Niya turned and noticed a tall man around in his late twenties with shiny grey eyes and blonde hair. He was fully laced in an army uniform with many medals and stars on the shoulders. She smiled, guessing he was the general that William had texted.

"General Marcus!" She accepted his greetings with a warm smile. His aura was really dark and Niyanica could sense it. He looked at her for a minute as if he was admiring her beauty and then shifted his gaze back to the map on the table. Marcus explained the whole plan to them and they agreed.

"Let's go and throw them out of our land," William said, looking at them with a spark in his icy blue eyes and they all nodded in response.

"And all I have to do is sit on the throne and watch the war through a screen? Seriously?" Niyanica lazily sat on her chair and sighed out of frustration. Marcus looked at her with a smirk.

"That's the only thing you can do, Your Majesty. You haven't taken an oath to be commander-in-chief of the army yet," he said with a sarcastic grin, looking deep into her eyes as if he was trying to look through her soul.

"Yeah?" She sighed, controlling her laugh on the fact that he wasn't even aware of her powers. "Yeah, I mean what else can a pathetic little human do in the world full of monsters," she said with a sarcastic smirk on her face, looking at Marcus.

"Ouch! I'm hurt. We aren't monsters, Your Majesty," he scoffed at her sarcastic comment.

"Oh! So what should I call you? Umm... a saint with a deep urge to drink blood from the human veins?" She shrugged, looking at him. He shook his head at her witty and sarcastic comment.

"This is not the time to play who is more sarcastic. Focus on the war," William said, looking at them with a smile on his face as he already sensed that sweet little tension between Marcus and Niya.

"Yeah. Let's go," Archie said, carrying his sword and they all left the palace immediately.

Niya went to the room where no one was allowed to go except her and her loyal servants to watch the live updates from the battlefield. It was a huge room, a similar design of gold and silver to the other areas of the palace. The interior was beautifully decorated with a huge throne in the center of the front wall of it with a huge screen on the opposite side. She could see Archie and the others sitting on a plane through the cameras that were placed in the buttons of army soldiers’ uniforms.

Soon they reached their destination. A beautiful place surrounded by big green mountains and there it was, the army of King Azizmah creating a mess and killing the locals in the fields that were in the middle of the mountains. The war started as soon as one of Vamp Prime's missiles was aimed towards Azizmah's army but they destroyed it in the air before it could hit the spot. Both sides started attacking with their powerful weapons, trying to destroy the opposite army.

Neither were ready to go easy on it. After fighting for an hour or two, finally, Azizmah and Archie stood in front of each other, face to face. Azizmah, probably in his early forties, was looking at Archie with his black eyes, full of rage.

"Where is the Creator Queen? I was expecting to meet her here. I could take her with me as my reward after defeating you." He smirked at Archie, observing the rage in his eyes carefully.

"Bad words about, Niya? Wrong move." Archie gulped down his anger, closing his eyes for a second before hitting him with his sword with a sudden powerful strike. The sword punctured his arm, making Azizmah wince in pain. He tried to strike at Archie with the same energy but the attack was easily dodged. After fighting for some time, both of their energies wearing off, Azizmah struck hard and injured Archie, badly.

"Now she has to come here to save your ass," Azizmah said, grabbing Archie's collar. William, Edward, and George came towards them to save Archie but got injured in the process. Marcus was fighting on the other side of the field, trying hard to reach them to save them but miserably failed. Azizmah created a circle of soldiers around them so nobody could enter to save them.

"Let me send her a message." Azizmah grabbed a soldier's shirt and looked at the micro-camera. "You have 24 hours. Come and save them," he said with a smirk on his face.

The whole scenario was really heartbreaking for Niya as she knew she could save them but they didn't allow her to be a part of this war. All of her friends were injured and in pain. A tear rolled down her cheek and she immediately wiped it off. She knew that she couldn't just sit back and cry like a normal teenager. She was a Queen and she had to behave like one. It was obvious that she didn't want all of this, this planet, this throne, the title of a Queen but now she had no choice. Her friends were in danger and she was the only key to get them out of Azizmah's claws. She had faith in her powers but deep down in her heart, she was ready to sacrifice herself even if her plan of rescuing them fails.

"Emily! Prepare for me to leave. I'm leaving immediately. I have to save them," Niya ordered her maid, who was watching all of this standing behind her throne.

"But Ma’am it’s dangerous," Emily said, approaching her side. Niyanica looked at her with watery eyes but full of anger.

"Do what I say. No more arguments on this," Niya said and left the room immediately to change her gown. She wore a simple light grey turtle neck shirt, hugging her curves perfectly with skin-tight black jeans, and wore a black hoodie-cape above it to protect herself from the harsh weather. Niya was ready to leave when she heard a knock on her door.

"Yes?" she said, looking at the door. The door opened with a smooth push. It was Elena.

"Miss Cooper? How may I help you?" she asked, looking at her wristwatch as she wanted to leave as soon as possible.

"My brother is back from the battlefield and he wants to meet you to discuss a further plan," Elena said, looking into her eyes. Probably, for the first time in her whole lifetime, she wasn't wearing that bitchy evil smile on her beautiful face.

"Your brother?" Niya asked, frowning as she was clueless about Elena's brother.

"Good evening, Your Majesty." A familiar man entered the room as soon as Elena signed him to come in. Niya looked at him with a shock.

"General Marcus?"

********