The Crown's Entrapment

“Dark magic,” Xenia heard Lurio whisper out. In an instant, the wizard quickly cast a spell at the man, and she could only blink as the serpent tattoo on his back suddenly came to life.

“Release him, don’t go near him,” Lurio instructed.

Heeding the wizard’s instructions, Gideon released the man while he and Bartos kept their distance. In one quick motion, Lurio then made another spell; a round sphere materializing around the man to trap him.

“Hah! Is this a joke?!”

The man laughed maniacally as his body wriggled, his head coming down as he laid motionless for a split second. Just as quickly, he then raised his head, his eyes now fully black as he smiled. Even his lips had turned black as he cackled menacingly, the tattoo on his back having already disappeared as a chill shot through Xenia’s bones. The atmosphere inside the tent became dark and eerie, a telltale sign of Dark magic being employed.

This wasn’t the first time Xenia had encountered black sorcery, but this one felt very different for some reason. It was powerful, and she could just tell that nothing good could ever come off such a thing. Turning to Lurio, she could already see the beads of sweat forming on his forehead, the difficulty of the task in front of him starting to become too much as he wrangled against the dark power.

“Tell me your answer, Prince Ezekiel. I don’t have all day to wait for your decision,” the man spoke with a deep and loud voice, a drastically different tone from before his eyes turned black. “Surrender now.”

“It’s King Devon…” Lurio whispered out. “This man is just acting as his medium now.”

Shaking his head, Ezekiel gritted his teeth as he tersely replied, “Why bother to ask, demon? You already know what our answer will be. Ebodia will never fall in the hands of a demon! Nor will our people succumb to evil! We would rather die and go to heaven than be subjected to your evil deeds!”

Receiving the prince’s reply, the man shook his head with a grin. “I see…” He then stood up and moved as his eyes searched inside the tent. His gaze in particular darted towards Xenia and Tarah.

“Hmmm, a seer…” he drawled out, pointing the fact out with a long and heavy tone as he sneered at Tarah.

He then shifted his gaze back to Ezekiel and mocked, “I see now why you’re so confident. I just had Beirut killed, but you’ve already found Beirut’s successor.” The man scoffed, “Very well. I will surely take her with me. It would be such a waste to kill such a beautiful young maiden of a seer… Make sure you keep her safe because I will soon come to take her away from you…”

“What can we do? We have to end this man now,” Xenia whispered to Lurio. “We’ve heard enough of his blabbering already. There’s no point in keeping this devil alive.”

Looking at Ezekiel, her brother was still disoriented due to Tarah’s appearance, and Xenia could only sigh at the humor of the situation before her. Why was nobody doing anything? If only she had her sword with her… She would’ve already decapitated the spy before he could speak further.

Clicking her tongue, Xenia turned her gaze to Atlas and was even about to speak when her body suddenly froze at the sharp stare the spy was giving to her. Turning around, their eyes met, and she swore as her body shuddered in nervousness.

“Ahhh, another remarkable beauty. I presume she’s Princess Xenia?” the spy maliciously uttered as he seemingly inhaled her scent. “Those forest green eyes are so lovely.”

He opened his eyes, his lips curling up as he pointed out, “Ah, you’re still unmarked and unclaimed, even. Would you prefer my mark then, Princess?”

He gloated, “Hah! You better convince your brother and parents to surrender now, dear Princess. I’m willing to make you my Queen, though in exchange, I’ll bury my fangs right into your neck and mark you till you scream my name in ecs-.”

“You! I should kill you where you stand!” Darius grunted as he tried to strike the spy down. However, the barrier prevented him from ever reaching the spy.

“Remove this barrier at once!” Darius barked out in rage. “I’ll crush this demon into pieces!”

The man laughed out loud at the ensuing chaos. It was a mocking laugh as he set his eyes on Xenia. “Ah, isn’t this exciting? The Werewolf King going amok and all that… Are you scared that I’ll steal your future bride? Well, you should be, because now that I’ve laid my eyes on her… Hmm… I’ve got a mind in wanting her.”

The spy then looked back to Ezekiel and stated, “How about this, I’ll retreat and cease this war against Ebodia. In exchange, you’ll give me this beautiful sister of yours as my wife. I will have Princess Xenia, and I will no longer attack Ebodia. Isn’t it a fair trade?”

Xenia’s body trembled as her eyes met the spy’s, his black eyes looking at her intently. With a wide smile and a devilish grin, she had never felt that scared in her life.

But before she could even blink or even tear her gaze away from the spy, Darius was already attacking the man right before her eyes. In one swift motion, he cracked the barrier, his hand already holding up the man’s neck in one swift motion.

Growling, Darius’s veins were popping out all over his arms and neck, a testament to the amount of force that he was currently exuding.

Already, his human hands were slowly changing into his wolfman form, his claws elongating the longer he held the man aloft.

“You will meet death before you can even touch a single hair on my mate! I will send you directly back to hell, you demon!” he yelled with gritted teeth, his eyes flaming with red-hot carnage.

“Hah! Go ahead! See if that’ll-”

Before the spy could finish his sentence, Darius had already thrown the man’s body to the ground, his feet stomping onto his head and crushing his skull in one blow.

“Come hell or high water, I’ll crush you under my boot,” Darius firmly declared, grinding his heel on the dead spy’s liquified brains in disdain. “Send as many as you like. They’ll all fall just as you will when I get my hands on you.”