Saria sighed to herself a bit as she looked back the Maxwell’s door, she felt like she was sitting there for an hour, although it has only been twenty, maybe thirty minutes since she started waiting. She hadn’t heard anything from her brother since he locked himself in there and was a bit worried as she stood up and grabbed a hair clip out of her long crimson hair, letting a few strands of it move and land around her shoulder. Marz stood and backed up so she could get to the doorknob, knowing what she was about to do as he nodded, also worried for his brother and didn’t want to get in the way if it meant helping him. “If he won’t let us in, gotta let ourselves in.” Saria said simply as she got on a knee and started placing the hair clip in the lock, slowly shaking it around and maneuvering it across the locks mechanism, she was a skilled lockpick as well as enchantress due to wanting to be useful, she taught herself many skills, some conventional, some involving thieves work. After a moment of silence, they heard the lock disengage and she smirked as she adjusted her hair, as she slowly opened the door in accomplishment.
Upon entering, she noticed that the window was open and Maxwell wasn’t even in the room, and she watched in pure shock as she hadn’t even thought about the possibility of him doing that as she went and looked around for a note of some sort to get an idea for where the grey wolf might have gone. Marz shook his head a little to make sure he wasn’t going crazy as he saw the opened window, considering even his hearing hadn’t picked up the sound of the window, being a fox and all as he walked over to help Saria. “He managed to even throw off my senses, that’s not surprising for him but you’d think I would have heard the draft or even felt it from under the door as he left.” Marz said aloud as Saria searched, nodding softly as she barely heard what the teen had said, since she was so focused on finding any clues.
As the duo searched the room, practically turning it upside down and back again, Lynx walked by the door and stopped to look inside, wondering what was going on. “What’re you guys doing? Why’re you rummaging through Maxwell’s room?” He asked as Saria turned and looked at him, walking over to him. “We are trying to find out where my brother might’ve run off to, because after what my parents told us, he locked himself in here and I worry he might’ve gone to find Drazernon alone, either to kill him or something but I worry he might’ve done something extremely reckless.” She said in a somewhat panic, she was almost hysteric at the thought of Maxwell fighting Drazernon alone in his current state, especially after losing the last fight they had.
“Maxwell went down to the waterfall just outside of town, I followed him because I had the same worry, but he didn’t seem like he was rushing to the shadow kingdom. I do wonder myself what might be going through his head though, I can’t imagine that this is easy on the poor guy, finding out his entire life has been somewhat a lie. I get that their Majesties cared for him but knowing he is related to such a cruel bastard makes it even hard to comprehend.” Lynx said with a sigh, looking down to the side as he talked, his thoughts trailing as he moved his golden hair from his eyes and tied it back with a band he carried. “If anything, we should at least go and check on him.” Lynx said as he tied his hair back and rested the ponytail across his left shoulder, he had the assassin look down except for the hair, that was the only thing that would make you think he wasn’t some assassin.
Saria nodded and let Lynx lead the way to find the wolf, Marz following behind them as he held his polearm in his paw just in case they ran into anyone who would attempt to hurt them. Lynx walked them through town, seeing people bowing and watching the royal family, most of them loving the royals, but others having hatred towards them for a reason or another. Like a lot of royals, there was a resistance, but it was smaller than most and was easily shut out, so they never attempted anything, but those few still hated the royals, like those mages that attacked them when they first arrived. Lynx felt uneasy as they walked, knowing very well of the resistance from his exploration of the city, and didn’t like what he had heard, so he kept his guard up and a dagger in his paw as they walked, just in case he needed to execute or wound an attacker.
At the gate of the city, Saria gasped as she accidently bumped into a human man walking into the city, falling onto her backside as she looked up to see the man still standing and showing some concern. “Are you okay?” He asked a bit as he dusted off his long brown jacket and helped her stand up. Lynx recognized the man and silently gasped realizing it was Bael, a assassin for Drazernon. He didn’t know much about him except that he didn’t assassinate whoever he felt, and only did targets he was given by the dark king, in exchange for the safety of his family. Saria however didn’t know about this and smiled softly and nodded as she was fine and took the help up.
“Thank you sir, it was my fault, no need to worry about me.” She smiled sincerely as she shook his hand, realizing Bael was uneasy. Bael knew who Saria was because of being the royal enchantress and hated the fact Alucard and Drazernon wanted him to kill her, since she was such a nice person. He just nodded and smiled before excusing himself and quickly rushing into town in a soft panic, Saria noticing this but not questioning it as Lynx stayed on the defensive now to protect Saria, getting a bad feeling about that man. Marz smiled softly at Saria and chuckled “That is the second person you have run into this week, you’re so clumsy Saria.” he giggled a bit at his sister as they started walking again, Saria rubbing his head and smiling.
As they left the city, Bael grunted as he stopped his rush and hid in an alleyway panting softly. “Damnit Alucard, Why do you always have my going after the nice kind people. I need to start making you show proof that my family is okay if you’re gonna keep making me do this.” Bael said as he shook his head and pulled out a locket from his pocket and opened it up, showing an image of a beautiful woman with pure white skin and long blonde hair, and sparkling green eyes, and in the woman's arm, a daughter looking almost just like her mother as a younger girl, and next to them was Bael, a few tears escaping the man's eyes as he clutched the locket. “Don’t worry you two, I will free you guys from the grip of those bastards, you can count on it.” He said angrily as he sat in the alley and just looked at the wall, not sure what he should do. He had limited options.
-
Saria smiled as they quietly approached the waterfall that Lynx had told them about, Marz looking around as the crashing of the waterfall filled the air, and the smell of the water and the plants overpowering his senses making it impossible to detect anyone else in the area if he couldn’t see them. Standing in the water, shirtless and with just his pants was Maxwell, his body motionless and his eyes were shut as he watched the water, he seemed to be at peace in his current state, a small aura being sensed off his body by Saria as she could feel something conflicting inside him, a mixture of an unknown pure magic, and the same dark magic she had sensed from Drazernon before, it seemed Maxwell’s inner thoughts were attacking one another, and the lingering powers left by his mother and father were conflicting to control his emotions. So a normal person this wasn’t anything they could see, so Marz and Lynx weren’t aware of what was going on, but Saria could tell Maxwell was tapping into his inner powers and trying to rid his body of the influence left by Drazernon.
“It all makes sense now, he came here to expel his body of any bit of dark magic he might’ve inherited from Drazernon. Instead of purging his own lineage, he intends to change it for his benefit.” Saria explained simplistically to Marz and Lynx, who both nodded. “This waterfall is special, in the sense that Nomad and Verius used their pure energy to make it a place of rejuvenation of sorts, allowing anyone who uses it to expel any dark power lingering on them. So even if Maxwell can’t fully tap into his magic he inherited, he can still remove it. The only thing is if he purged the darkness in his heart, and becomes pure, it will also change the way he fights, because he fights as a mix of good and bad, using the good as his moral lead, and the darkness which enhances his strengths. If he truly goes through with this, than he will be pure of heart, and it will make the battle with Drazernon and full on Dark versus Pure fight.” Saria was surprised to see her brother actually go through with something so risky that would change what he does.
As she talked, the spring the waterfall crashed into started to glow beneath Maxwell’s feet, and he started to gently float above the water as it started to surround him in a bubble of water, encasing his body and slowly compressing against it as he gasped and tensed up. Marz and Lynx watched in shock thinking it was hurting him as Saria walked over and gently took her staff, and silently mixed the water, the bubble slowly turning completely dark before slowly falling into the water, turning the spring into a pool of dark energy. As she mixed, it slowly made its way into her staff and filled her and the staff with darkness, she was making herself the vessel for his energy so it didn’t affect the surrounding land. Marz was about to rush over and pull her back but Lynx stopped him and shook his head, he knew this wasn’t something they could just mess with, and Marz stepped back but watched in worry, looking up at Maxwell as he started to glow with a pure light as the water gently took him into the spring and put him in the water lying down, and the light embraced and entered his body as Saria took the darkness and quickly shot it into the air, Lynx nodding as he grabbed a dagger, dipped it into the spring and shot it into the dark energy, exploding it into nothingness. Marz watching in awe as he watched the dark energy practically get destroyed as droplets of water started splashing on and around them as Maxwell slowly sat up in the spring, his body totally soaked and the light now gone, but they could see a big difference in the wolf, his eyes were now a crimson color, and his fur was much brighter and lighter than before, an entirely different person to anyone who hadn’t just witnessed that event.
Saria smiled softly as she walked out and helped Maxwell stand, hugging her brother tightly to her chest and rocked him gently. “How are you feeling Maxwell?” She asked softly as she looked down at the wolf who was breathing softly and steadily, definitely feeling exhausted after what he had just went through, his body felt warm to hold, and he didn’t seem as distressed as he felt earlier that day. All the wolf could do was nod as his older sister held him, his voice definitely not there as they shakily walked to the edge and Maxwell sat down and looked at the two boys who watched him with worry, but the worry was immediately gone as Marz quickly rushed over and hugged his elder brother tightly, just happy his brother was okay.
“Guys…” Maxwell slowly spoke as his voice came back and everyone looked over to him smiling, all ready to hear what the wolf had to say, as he carefully stood up and nodded, grabbing his sword that was sitting against a rock and smirking softly. “Let’s kick Drazernon’s ass, and make him pay for everything he’s done. Father or not, he deserves to suffer like he made everyone else suffer so far. Will you three help me when the time comes?” He asked, everyone nodding as Maxwell held his sword to the air, as if rallying soldiers as they all nodded and copied him, showing they would follow Maxwell no matter what happened, this was a promise and an oath they were making to one another, one that wouldn’t be broken by anything. “Good, tomorrow, we start training to fight him, it’ll most likely only be us, Draga, Draco and Millia though, so we have to be ready for whatever he throws at us.”
“Well your majesty, you have my skills, and my daggers for your disposal, I will follow you wherever.” Lynx said, and nodded before turning as someone walked out from behind some trees, a familiar dragon seemed to have followed them out.
“And you have my sword your majesty, I won’t let you fight this battle alone, you can be assured of that.” Draco smirked as he stood before the wolf prince, almost towering him and nodding as he assured Maxwell “You won’t face any challenge alone.” he told him as everyone smiled softly, Maxwell feeling relieved to know that his family and friends would support him, no matter who his family line was, he was ready to take action and end this war, permanently.
From the bushes, a familiar Dragon Wolf boy heard and wondered what this would mean, he didn’t want his father to be killed, but he also didn’t want his father to win with how horrid he was to people. Inferno slowly walked away from the people he had just watched and teared up, he was conflicted and didn’t know what to do. His leaving was cut short as he felt a sharp pain in his stomach and he fell to a knee. “W-What? It can’t be!” he said in shock as he suddenly collapsed onto the ground, no one around to notice this had happened as the group he was watching headed back to their kingdom to prepare for a war.
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