Young Guardian Trilogy by Lady Adellandra Dratianos (no david read aloud .TXT) 📖

voice screeched as they were unwillingly taken away.

Chapter Sixty:
The Promise of Hellfire

The Crusaders recognized where they were.
Lava Lake in the Dream Realm’s Dominion.
Ariana found Derrick, Aaron, and a very changed Mark. Luna found Shane and the Companions. The Companions had returned to their Companion forms.
“Are you guys alright?” Ariana asked them. They nodded, and Katherine pointed to Mark.
“I do not think Young Mark is, though.” Katherine replied.
Ariana and Luna caught each other’s eyes as they found Mark, slowly fading from an Immortal male to a black panther.
The team shivered, remembering how cold it was in the Dominion.
“She’s here,” Luna cried in a whisper, feeling something wrong around them. She grasped Shane’s arm.
“How can you tell?” Shane whispered in her ear.
The image of Lava Lake changed in front of them. Now, it looked exactly like the cemetery in Hill View.
“Look around you.” Luna supplied. “That’s how I can tell.”
They walked until they heard a noise in the bushes.
“You are in my world now, Young Guardian!” Sabrina came out from the shadows. Maximaniac, in his true gargoyle form, was behind her. She held her arms out in front of her. “Your death will be my pleasure!”
Ariana could feel the pulsing energy coming from Sabrina’s soul, but she wouldn’t give the Maiden a chance to use it.
Ariana noticed something right away. Looking at her hands, she noticed they were radiating the Ancient Mystic Magic rainbow. Her entire body was radiating the Ancient Mystic rainbow.
She looked to Luna and the boys. Luna nodded, smiling. The boys held their breaths, waiting for Sabrina’s retort.
“Let us see just how much power you have now.” The Maiden screeched, the pulsing energy making its way to her fingertips.
Ariana looked back at her hands, knowing exactly what she was doing. She put her hands together as she had in the Hill View Cemetery and shot a fierce hex of Ancient Mystic Magic around Sabrina, rendering her motionless.
“You wanted to know!” Ariana screamed as the Ancient Mystic Magic surrounded both she and Sabrina. It was exhilarating! Her built up anger against Sabrina was about to turn the tables on the Dominionite Maiden! “Now, it’s my turn for revenge. You killed once before, but not any more!”
In her mind, Ariana told the Crusaders to hold hands and scream out the spell that formed in her brain. With her friends’ echoes behind her, with all her might, within her own soul, Ariana Moon Sister-Woods, the Dream Realm’s Young Guardian, reached for the ultimate Ancient Mystic Magic, and shot directly at Sabrina’s Dominionite Crystal.

“Magics of the Realms Unite
“Take this lone Dominionite
“In a cloud of dust to the Unknown
“I Exile you all alone!”

Everyone heard Sabrina’s screams as she disappeared. Within seconds, Sabrina was gone. Somehow, in the excitement, Maximaniac had disappeared and neither Crusader nor Companion knew where he went.
As Sabrina left, Ariana fell to the ground, exhausted.
Derrick was at her side in moments. So were the panther Mark and Aaron.
“Ariana, wake up.” Derrick whimpered. He turned to his friends. “Help me get her out of here.”
Aaron nodded, and gestured to Luna and Shadow. The Companions followed.
“What do you wish of us, Young Derrick?” Katherine was worried about her Young Guardian friend.
“Warn Lord Guardian.” Derrick demanded. “Luna and Shadow, get to the Sisters. We need their healing powers.”
Derrick picked her up and led the Crusaders out of one of the most dismal places in the Dream Realm.

Epilogue: A Glimmer of Hope
Lord Guardian’s Revelation

Lord Guardian O’Dell knew what had happened. He felt a heavy burden had lifted from his soul, finally.
He knew what to do now. Find the Young Guardian and heal her.
On his way, he ran into a peculiar soul.
O’Dell stood alone, staring at the creature. “Why do you seem familiar to me, stranger?”
The creature laughed. “I am surprised you do not remember me, O’Dell.” He scoffed. “It is I, Max. You were the only one that had faith in my special power.”
O’Dell continued to stare, awed. Could this really be the former Lord Maximaniac, changed? He didn’t believe him. “Prove your identity.”
“Alright, O’Dell.” Max started. “You and I were only a couple of Originators of the Dream Realm. Orthos, our brother by blood only, was as demented as I was. Shall I go on?”
O’Dell shook his head. “No, Max. I believe you, brother.” He took a deep breath. “What are you doing back in the Dream Realm?”
“I have come to tell you of my changed attitude.” Max replied. “I Banished myself to the Outer Realm, jealous of Orthos and Jezebel. This is where I met a troubled young man named Mark Grey.”
O’Dell gasped, and Max knew exactly what he was thinking before he got a chance to say it. The Mark Grey who was now to be a Companion Crusader, stuck in a world he knew nothing about.
“The same, dear brother.” Max smiled. “I changed my name for him. To Mark, I was a playful Companion soul named Psycho.” He told the rest of his story, up until he disappeared from Lava Lake.
O’Dell nodded, understanding. “Let us go to the Sisters. I have to see this daughter of yours.”
He changed into a Pegasus and Maximaniac climbed on his back as a human male.
The brothers met with the other Crusaders at the Ancient Mystic Sister Palace.
Derrick was sitting next to Ariana’s silent body, his eyes welled up in tears. Mark stood aside as Luna, Aaron, and the Sisters chanted a Healing Spell over their Young Guardian.
Ariana moaned, waking slowly. The first one she saw was Derrick. She began to sit up. “Where am I?” She held her head.
“You are at the Ancient Mystic Palace, Young Guardian.” Enchantra replied softly beside her. “You nearly killed yourself with the magic.”
“Did I?” She wanted to know so badly. “Destroy Sabrina?”
Challandra nodded, and addressed O’Dell and Maximaniac. “Welcome home, Max.”
“I thank you, Challandra.” Max was silently pondering his words to Young Guardian. “I apologize, Young Guardian. I did not mean for Sabrina to order Caroline to kill Brother Mark.”
Mark gasped from his place in the shadows. He was dead? Is that why he was a panther instead of a young man? He made a mental note to ask Ariana later.
“That’s okay, Maximaniac.” Ariana smiled with little pain now. “It wasn’t your fault. It was Sabrina’s. We know that now.”
“If she had not fallen for me,” Max began.
“Lord Maximaniac, don’t think about that now. What’s in the past needs to stay there.” Ariana knew all too well the truth behind her words. “Now, we have to face your brother, Orthos.”
“Not until you heal, you will not.” Enchantra gave Derrick a compress for her head. He placed it over her and she continued. “Leave Orthos to us. You Crusaders have done enough already.”
“We want to come with you, to witness the destruction of Orthos the Dominionite Master.” Aaron spoke and Derrick nodded with him.
“That will be appropriate, yes.” O’Dell replied, nodding his Immortal male head.
As soon as Ariana was able, she followed Derrick, Aaron, Mark, Shane, Luna, Maximaniac and O’Dell to the Dominion’s Dark Tower.
“Good luck, Crusaders.” The Sisters called after them.

II

“I want to kill him,” Derrick muttered under his breath, smacking a fist into his hand. “He deserves to pay.”
The Crusaders, Maximaniac, and O’Dell saw the Dominionite Master, surrounded by his Warriors.
Derrick, deep inside, wanted to lunge and kill him – as he had wanted to kill Sabrina with the Protector’s Pendant. O’Dell sensed this and gave a cry.
“Leave him!”
Orthos looked up to see them and the brothers stood face to face.
“He is mine!”
“You cannot compete with me, brother!” Orthos scoffed.
Maximaniac decided to step in. “Maybe I will then?”
O’Dell and Orthos turned. The Crusaders stood silent, watching in amazement as the once Grand Psycho, a hyena-beast, shifted into his true form.
“The tables have turned, but you still have not learned.” Max’s voice was fierce and angry. “Watch your back – Maximaniac hath returned.”
He bowed, still watching Orthos’ bemused reaction.
O’Dell smiled.
“I thought you were dead and gone, Maximaniac?” Orthos scoffed.
Max laughed. “Aye, that is what you get for thinking.”
O’Dell and the Crusaders laughed with him.
Orthos wasn’t amused. “You dare mock me!” He cried. The Dominionite Warriors cowered behind him, frightened. Orthos’ image was of a dragon with blood-red eyes that glowed, revealing his anger.
“‘You dare mock me!’” Maximaniac imitated, changing back into the fun-loving clown Mark had come to know over the years.
Mark laughed at the joke.
Orthos wasn’t happy. “What are you doing here?” He demanded with a growl.
Young Guardian Ariana held her gaze and her ring glowed. This could only mean one thing to Orthos. “You Exiled my daughter, have you?”
Derrick grinned. “You better believe it, Orthos.”
Though he was dizzy, Mark stood his ground. “Now, it’s your turn.”
Orthos thought that was funny, so he laughed. “You think so, Peasant?”
Mark was furious and screamed. “You think I’m a peasant? You’re nothing to us, hear me?”
Orthos laughed even louder, meeting the gaze of Young Guardian. He called to his son, “Damian, come to me.”
Damian came as he was told, and wasn’t happy being disturbed. “What do you wish of me, Father?”
Orthos replied, “Remember your bride?” He gestured to Ariana. “There she is, with her Crappy Crusaders.”
Damian went over to her with a fiendish grin. “You have returned to me, my love.”
He reached for her, but Ariana pulled away. She pointed a finger at him and cried, “Not this time, Damian.”
Out from her finger came a web. The webbing caught Damian, and he wasn’t able to move. She turned back to Orthos, who wasn’t pleased.
“What is the point of your visit, Young Guardian?” Orthos growled, ready to attack at any moment.
Ariana was surprised when she heard her best friend’s voice growl.
“To totally annihilate you.”
Aaron’s eyes turned green, finding the Unicorn Magic in his soul and using it. Orthos could tell they meant business. Damian was helpless to attack them, so he was the first to be killed by his wrath. In an instant, a brilliant green glow of the Unicorn Magic came from Aaron’s eyes and hit Damian in the head as he called the Exiling Spell once again. Damian only raised his hands to protect himself, but was too late. He was already gone, and Orthos was furious!
As soon as he let go of the Unicorn Magic’s power, Aaron fainted. Derrick and Shadow caught him before he could hit the ground. Ariana, silenced, turned to the scene in front of her. Aluna stayed with Derrick and Shane to help heal Aaron.
“You Exiled my daughter and now my son. You must pay for this!’ He yelled, raising his staff.
“Hold your might, Orthos.” O’Dell commanded. In front of their eyes, O’Dell’s image from a unicorn-Pegasus with a rainbow-colored mane and tail changed to an Immortal male with colorful hair and a black cape. He held a white staff with the opalescent jewel that was in the middle of this head as a unicorn. “You have not a plight with them, but with me, brother. Shift at once.”
“How dare you tell me what to do?” Orthos scoffed.
“You have no choice, brother!” O’Dell yelled. “When it all comes down to it, the battle is between us only. Shift at once!”
Reluctant but fair, Orthos’ image changed as well, to an Immortal male who met his brother’s eyes. “You