Containing An Incursion

-Fat Monsterland, night-

Wearing her green-and-gold outfit with Argent Gloves and Adaptable Armor with backpack on her back, Leona had also brought her Silver Longsword, Nightshade Machete, and knife. She had been called here by the Order of Lightbringers to aid them in containing an incursion of some kind. in the letter he had sent Father Morris would not say what kind of incursion it was, but it was pretty bad because the letter mentioned that the Order's best knights and clerics had been sent to Fat Monsterland. It was imperative that whatever it was did not break the containment set up by the Order.

Leona rushed to a large clearing where a large red hexagon in the center of the field had bathed the field in blood red light. The blonde noticed that six charred skeletons lay at each point of the hexagon. She paused when she saw Diana, Amanda, Jessica, and Athena standing a good distance away from the structure like something would emerge from it at any moment. Other Order members stood behind the quartet, making the number of Order members a total of forty-two. Leona approached the quartet and Athena was the first to engage her in conversation.

"Hey Leona. I wish we coulda met over ice cream or something, but the situation's bad. Some lunatic cultists completed a ritual to summon a demon. A really big and nasty one." Athena gave the blonde some idea of what she would be facing. The spear-wielding cleric was one of the nicest members of the Order, unlike Amanda and Diana. Amanda and Diana did not really acknowledge Leona and only continued to stare at the hexagon glowing in the clearing.

Amanda and Diana had turned on Leona when Amanda informed Father Morris that the Silver Wolf mage had heard demonic voices promising power if Leona would kill Amanda and claim the demonic library of the Haunted Guild for herself. Even though Leona did not accept the bargain, Amanda and Diana still froze her out. Leona could feel the frost in the air even now as they pointedly ignored her. Jessica walked over to the Silver Wolf mage with her hammer.

"Hey Leona! Tonight we're going to kick some demon ass! Some crazy dudes in robes thought it'd be a good idea to summon a demon, but the demon didn't want to talk to them. It just roasted their dumb asses for some Grilled Cultist!" Jessica enthusiastically described how the hexagon came to exist. Leona was mildly troubled by the redhead's enthusiasm in the face of a pending demonic incursion, but she appreciated Jessica's honesty and friendly demeanor. She also appreciated how Jessica had saved Leona's life in the cistern and kept her from drowning when the blonde inhaled too much water while swimming to escape from pursuing ghosts.

"You should not be so excited, Jessica. Demons are capable of great destruction, especially in large numbers." Amanda said to Jessica, refusing to make eye contact with Leona. Jessica sighed.

"Yes, Mother. You're not the only one who knows anything about infernal beings! I went through the same classes you did!" Jessica shot back. Amanda glared at her and turned around to face the portal.

"Don't worry about her, Leona. Amanda's just a stick in the mud. She sees demons everywhere and has really bad trust issues. I know that you're not tempted by demons." Jessica said to her reassuringly. Athena stepped up too.

"Jessica's right. Amanda's uptight and tries too hard to be the perfect cleric. She doesn't trust anyone outside the Order and when she does, that trust is easily revoked. I know that you're on humanity's side." Athena assured Leona that someone in the Order trusted her. Amanda shot Athena a glare. Athena simply raised a middle finger in the cleric's direction.

"Thanks guys. We're gonna have to trust each other if we want to get through this alive." Leona commented to Jessica and Athena, making sure that Amanda and Diana heard her as well. Whatever their problem with her was, they would have to set it aside until this issue was solved. Once they were back at Holy Castle they could make up, play rock-paper-scissors, or solve the conflict however they wanted.

"We've got this, Leona. Whatever comes through that portal, we'll destroy it together!" Jessica said to her, hefting her hammer in a show of solidarity.

"We'll handle this. Demons can't stand up to the Order of Lightbringers and the Wizard Saint of Courage!" Athena chimed in. Leona felt reassured that two of the Order's members trusted her. Two friends in the group might be all she had, but they would be enough for this job.

The assembled mages began to murmur as the points of the hexagon began to glow and form columns of light. Leona drew her Silver Longsword since it might be the only weapon she had that could hurt demons. Everyone watched as holes opened up beneath the columns of light and groups of red spherical demons began to emerge into the world.

"I hate these guys." Jessica commented. Leona turned to the red-haired knight for an explanation.

"They're Devourers. Look at their mouths and you'll see why they're called that." Jessica replied. Leona did as suggested and looked at the mouths of the demons that had just emerged. They were full of razor-sharp teeth that looked like bits of previous meals were still stuck to them.

"Yeah. They're bad news. They tend to float in the air and vomit fireballs at their prey, only closing in to try and bite when they're sure their prey's weak." Athena chimed in with authority. This fight would be only Leona's second encounter with demons and it would not be an easy one.

Devourer:

[Word Count: 1,000]
[Total Word Count: 1,000/12,500]

Leona faced down the cyclopean demons and waited for them to make the first move so that she could see what they were capable of. She did not have that luxury because soon the Devourers began to spew forth waves of perfectly spherical orange fireballs exactly as Jessica said they would. Leona braced herself and prepared to fend off the first wave of demons.

"Keep your distance and hit them with distance attacks and spells!" Diana counseled everyone. Athena readied her spear and Jessica readied her hammer. Leona raised her right hand into the shape of a gun and prepared to fire a Wind Bullet at the large targets with gaping mouths. The fireballs came streaking towards the mages and looked to be on target to hit, but Amanda conjured a glowing wall of golden light that blocked all the fireballs: the projectiles exploded harmlessly against the light wall.

The wall dropped and the Order mages began to fire back with projectiles of their own. Leona watched as beams of light launched from the mages and disintegrated their targets, making the spherical demons growl as they turned to ash. Leona fired a Wind Bullet at a Devourer aiming for Amanda; the marble-sized silver projectile slammed into its eye and blinded it, causing it spin left and launch a fireball at a fellow Devourer. The burning ball exploded and took a chunk out of its right side, causing the demon to fall to earth and spew blue blood from its mouth. Leona finished off the original target with a Wind Bullet inside the mouth, detonating the fireball it was forming and making it explode in a rain of blue blood.

"Heh heh! Nice shot, Leona!" Jessica praised the marksmanship of the blonde. She had not intended for that to happen, but since a demon had been killed by another one, she would accept the result.

The remaining Devourers began to form up shoulder-to-shoulder for another volley of fireballs when Amanda raised her hands towards the demons and placed them palms out and side-by-side, chanted an incantation, and made her hands glow gold. She closed her eyes and focused, then thrust her hands out.

"DIVINE SEEKER SPRAY!" Amanda called out as dozens of basketball-sized golden orbs shot out of her hands and homed in on the Devourers. The orbs found their targets and burned the demons upon contact, killing most of them instantly and leaving a "lucky" few so badly wounded that they were easy targets for the Order mages. The humans obligingly mopped up the survivors with beams of golden light, wiping the spherical enemies from this plane of existence.

"YEAH!" Jessica cheered. A weary Amanda turned to admonish her younger companion.

"This is no time to cheer, Jessica. This battle is not yet over. More demons will be here shortly." Amanda sharply chastised the young knight.

"I'm trying to keep Leona's spirits up! She's not a demon fighter like we are!" Jessica defended her conduct. Amanda narrowed her eyes and turned to face her colleague.

"If her spirit needs lifting, then perhaps she should not have come here. The Order requires the services of men and women with brave hearts." Amanda replied coldly. Leona clenched her teeth to keep from saying something she would regret. Athena jumped to the blonde's defense.

"Screw you, Amanda! Who died and made you leader of the Order?" Athena asked the Order cleric. The atmosphere began to grow tense and not just because there would soon be another wave of demons to fight. Diana turned to face the spear-wielding mage.

"We will settle this dispute later. For now we must present a united front against our enemies." Diana said in a conciliatory tone of voice. Athena crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. She did not entirely buy that line of reasoning but reluctantly acquiesced to the call for unity in the face of a greater threat. However, she had one last thing to say.

"Fine. You win this time, but don't think this issue is over. You can't put this off forever, Diana. You owe Leona an explanation for why you and Amanda shut her out after everything she's done for us." Athena sharply reminded her colleagues that while they had postponed the discussion this time, they could not avoid the subject forever. She turned to Leona and spoke to her.

"I've got your back, Leona." Athena assured her. Moments later the points of the hexagon began to glow and red columns of light shot into the sky. More demons began to come through into the human world, but this batch was different from the first group. These pink-skinned demons were roughly five-and-a-half feet tall and muscular with bull-like horns on their heads and gaping jaws full of razor-sharp teeth looking to sink their teeth into human flesh.

"Bull Demons!" Diana warned everyone. The demons began to mass up for a group attack. Mages in full silver plate armor armed with two-handed swords stepped to the front of the group and formed a line of armored warriors to protect their unarmored colleagues. Athena, Jessica, and Leona followed suit and stepped to the front to protect Amanda and other support mages. Even though Leona did not care for Amanda's holier-than-thou attitude towards her, Athena, and Jessica, the Silver Wolf Guild Mistress would not leave Amanda exposed to enemy attack. She would do everything she could to protect the Order cleric and any other Order mage who was out here to stop the demonic incursion before it could really get started.

"They will close to melee range because that is the only range they can fight from. They will try to grapple us and bite our heads off. Failing that, they will try to trample us to death. The best way to counter them is to avoid their charges and attack from behind. Get ready!" Diana said to Leona and some veteran knights who stared straight ahead with stony faces and weapons at the ready. They had clearly been through worse because they did not even flinch when the massed Bull Demons charged forward in a stampede like the animals for which they were named. The combined noise of their stomping feet sounded like rumbling thunder as the "herd" closed in on them.

"Get ready!" Amanda commanded the clerics who were protected by the gleaming wall of silver-clad warriors. They raised their hands and began to focus holy magic into their hands. Leona took a deep breath and watched as the stampede reached the halfway point between them and the Order forces awaiting the charge.

Bull Demon:

[Word Count: 1,125]
[Total Word Count: 2,125/12,500]

Leona took a deep breath as the herd of Bull Demons were now within spell distance. She would be fighting for her life and those of the gathered Order of Lightbringers. She would be fighting to contain the demonic incursion in this patch of Fat Monsterland before it could spread and consume the entire region, then the Cursed Lands, then possibly Earthland itself. The clerics behind the knights began to cast long-range spells to thin out the Bull Demons before they reached the lines, but these demons were hardier than the Devourers because the pink demons still kept charging despite their wounds; one Bull Demon was missing an arm and spraying blood but did not stop until Diana rammed her greatsword into its forehead.

The demons made contact with the line of knights and a furious melee ensued. Leona fired a Wind Bullet that hit a demon in the forehead, stunning it long enough for her to bury the edge of her Silver Longsword into its forehead with a two-handed downward chop, then yanking out the sword and repeating the chop five more times until it finally died from its wounds. Leona had just finished dispatching that demon when another one charged and slammed into her chest, propelling her backwards ten feet and making her roll to a stop at the feet of a youthful male Order cleric. She forced herself up to face her attacker and fired a Gale Cannon spell that hit it in the face and knocked it back into a fellow Bull Demon. To her surprise the two of them began to fight one another without any regard for the humans standing in front of them.

Leona was puzzled by their behavior. Why were they fighting one another when they had a pair of humans standing about seven feet away from them? The male cleric soon provided the answer to that question.

"The Bull Demons are aggressive, but their aggression is not selective. They will attack each other with the same ferocity with which they attack humans. All it takes for them to turn on each other is a simple collision." He explained to her. Leona appreciated the information because she knew nothing about demons other than they did not have humanity's best interests in mind. The two bulls slammed into each other and bit chunks out of each other's flesh until one died and the other growled in triumph. It had a chunk of its neck missing, but it was still eager to fight.

It turned towards the two humans and started to charge when Jessica jumped between them and slammed her hammer into its head. The beast's head was driven to the ground and blood poured from its mouth as its stubby arms feebly pawed at the dirt in an effort to get up before it stopped moving. Jessica swung her hammer in a left-to-right horizontal swing and broke the neck of another Bull Demon with the impact of the hit. It went spinning to the dirt and lay still while blood poured out of its mouth.

"C'mon Leona! Don't just stand there! We've got demon ass to kick!" Jessica urged her. Leona followed her to a part of the fighting where the knights were just barely hanging on and began to help out the beleaguered humans. Leona's first act was to knock back a group of four Bull Demons ganging up on one hapless knight who was desperately trying to retrieve their sword from the body of a dead Bull Demon. She used a Wind Blast and knocked them back about five feet and gave the knight enough time to retrieve his weapon.

"Thanks." He said to her with a voice that was slightly muffled due to his helmet. Jessica sallied into the fray with her usual enthusiasm and smashed in the skull of one Bull Demon with a downward swing of her hammer. Leona cut the second with a downward chop to the side of its neck, then repeatedly chopped the struggling demon until its head nearly came off and it sunk to the ground. Diana joined the fight and easily cleaved through the remaining two with a single swing of her greatsword that cut them in half around the jaw and cut through their entire bodies.

Elsewhere the fight continued to rage. Clerics were firing spells that harmed the demons but did not do enough damage to stop them for good. One hapless cleric had an arm bitten off and was impaled on the horn of a Bull Demon who was missing an eye but was still able to see well enough to maul its prey. The cleric then lost his legs to the jaws of the demon he was involuntarily attached to. Diana leaped in and cleaved the demon's head off, but it was too late to saved the mauled cleric from the wounds he had taken in the span of twenty seconds.

A nearby knight when he was tackled by a bull and his head disappeared into the jaws of another as the human tried to defend himself from the double team. The armor was not enough to prevent decapitation and the knight lost his life in a messy fashion. The offending demons were soon disintegrated by a blast of holy magic from Amanda, who was fighting side-by-side with another cleric who had a puncture wound in their side, presumably from a demon horn.

Jessica and Leona rushed to her rescue while Diana and the knights cleaned up their section of the line. Jessica flattened a demon's skull with her hammer while Leona dodged to the side to avoid a charging demon, then quickly clambered onto its back and jammed her sword down through its skull before it could react. She pulled out her sword and leaped to the ground, hitting it running and rejoining Jessica in their bid to save Amanda before she and her colleague were overrun by demons.

"Hang on Amanda!" Jessica called out, leaping between the green-clad Order cleric and a quintet of Bull Demons who were hungry. Leona joined her shorter friend in the act of defending Amanda. Despite their differences, Leona could not and would not leave Amanda to die.

Amanda appeared somewhat relieved when the two intervened on her behalf, but she could not relax yet because the five Bull Demons were preparing to charge. Leona raised her left hand and used a Wind Bullet to knock one down so that there were only four demons to deal with at once, but the shot appeared to only annoy it instead. The mage would have to use stronger spells to defeat it and its friends.

Amanda closed her eyes and began to chant as her body glowed gold and a golden dome began to form around her. The demons charged and Jessica and Leona began to fend them off. Jessica broke the neck of the first with a mighty horizontal swing of the hammer and made it spin backwards before landing on its face. Leona stabbed her aggressor in the forehead, then fired a Silver Tempest tornado with two of the fingers of her right hand. It was caught in the column of wind and fell to the ground after being buffeted by the raging wind contained within the tempest. The Bull Demon Leona had stabbed recovered and was coming after her. She was too slow and it slammed into her and sent her flying backwards: she landed next to Jessica, who had just smashed the head of a fourth demon in.

"Get up, Leona!" Jessica urged her and extended a hand. Diana suddenly appeared in a burst of speed and cut the demon in half before either girl could blink. She then split the last demon down the middle with a two-handed downward chop.

Leona took the hand and stood up just as a group of five more demons took notice and charged in while a group of four demons rushed at Amanda and her partner. Amanda slammed her hands palms-first into the ground and the dome expanded to disintegrate all nine demons without any problem. The cleric then spoke to her allies.

"I am fine. Go save the others!" Amanda urged them. Jessica helped Leona to her feet and the pair faced Diana, who was already rushing to the rescue of a group of knights holding their own but in serious need of help. Jessica and Leona hurried to join Diana in saving the knights from being overwhelmed by a dozen Bull Demons.

[Word Count: 1,440]
[Total Word Count: 3,565/12,500]

Diana had already taken down four of them by the time Jessica and Leona arrived to help turn the tide, but there were still eight more standing and more demons stampeding towards the fight in progress. Leona sidestepped a bull and fired a Silver Tempest at its back, killing it before having to turn her attention to another one that was charging her. Jessica jumped in front and swung her hammer in a right-to-left horizontal swing, breaking its neck and making it spin before falling over. The knights were still holding their ground thanks to the timely arrival of the trio, who had drawn the attention of some of the Bull Demons away from the knights and towards themselves.

Diana raised a glowing hand towards a quartet of oncoming demons and fired a beam of golden light, then swept it across them and burned them to ashes. She sustained the beam and used it to effortlessly scythe through a pair menacing a lone knight holding a broken sword, then dispelled it and chopped through a demon dumb enough to get close to her with a one-handed downward chop of her sword. Leona envied the pink-haired knight because she made fighting demons look so easy with the way she cut through them with no effort at all.

The knights rallied around her and began to push back the demons by working as a group to focus down an individual enemy until it was dead before moving on to the next threat. The demons worked in packs, so the knights must have gotten the same idea. Leona dodged a charging enemy, then stabbed it in the back before climbing on and jamming her sword down into its skull. She hung on as it toppled to the ground, then retrieved her Silver Longsword once she was safe to do so. Leona watched Diana, Jessice, and the knights fight the remaining demons, which numbered about two dozen out of the initial hundred-strong group... at least she thought it was one hundred strong when the battle started.

Leona checked her body for wounds and was not wounded from both times the Bull Demons slammed into her and sent her flying. Her chest and stomach hurt from the impact and would continue to hurt for awhile, but she was still alive and able to fight. She still had all her limbs and was not bleeding, which was more than she could say for some of the knights and clerics around her.

Those clerics still able to stand had begun to treat their wounded colleagues with healing magic in an effort to save their lives. Out of the forty-two Order members who had started the battle thirty-two of them were still standing. Eight knights and two clerics were dead of various wounds ranging from decapitation to being trampled to death to one hapless knight being bitten in half. There were sixteen clerics and knights who needed treatment for their wounds. Amanda and her cleric companion walked among them and began to heal the wounded with their healing magic.

Once the last of the demons had been killed Jessica and Diana returned to Leona, who was clutching her ribs because they were still hurting from the Bull Demon attack. Athena pulled her spear out of a dead Bull Demon and walked over to the blonde to give some advice.

"It looks like those Bull Demons hit you hard. Mind if I take a look?" Athena asked. Leona stuck her Silver Longsword into the ground and pulled up the left side of her outfit top so that the Order mage could get a closer look. The redhead whistled as she looked at Leona's left side. She gingerly traced her fingers around an area the size of a fist.

"Yeah, you've got bruising on your left side. It looks a lot worse than it is... it'll hurt like hell, but it's nothing life-threatening. It's a good thing you're wearing that armor or it could have been a whole lot worse. We're talking you'd need some serious healing because you'd have damage to your ribcage." Athena told Leona, nodding permission to lower the outfit top. Leona let the raised portion of the garment drop back down and pulled her sword out of the ground. Athena jerked her thumb back towards Diana, who was busy mopping up the last of the Bull Demons.

"I think you're starting to win her back over, Leona. Diana can be tough to get along with, but she admires people who are good fighters. Even though she doesn't say it, she appreciates the fact you're out here risking your ass for us. You're doing pretty good for someone who's never really fought demons before." Athena complimented Leona. Leona was not ready to proclaim herself the ultimate demon hunter, but she was proud that she had held her own against a threat not from this world. However, the incursion was not yet over and would not be over until the hexagon was somehow removed from this plane of existence. Leona looked towards the blood red hexagon and tried to figure out how to get rid of it before it brought forth more enemies to fight. Athena noticed that and began to talk.

"Yeah, we've gotta get rid of that thing. We don't have enough sealing experts here with us and we might not have time to call in more, so we might have to go into it and shut the portal down from the inside. If we don't do it, we'll eventually be overrun and the demons will spread all over Earthland. We can't let that happen." Athena said to Leona. As much as the blonde did not want to go traipsing into a portal to the demon realm, there might not be any choice. If there was no time to wait on sealing experts, she might have to travel inside and cut off the incursion that way.

"I don't know any healing magic, but if push comes to shove and we have to go inside the portal, count me in." Leona replied to Athena's assessment with determination.

"I hope we don't have to go into the portal, but I can't promise anything. We of the Order of Lightbringers are sworn to do whatever it takes to keep demons from getting a foothold in this world." Athena warned Leona that if the situation got bad enough they might be making a trip to the demon world. Leona took a deep breath. She considered her options but ultimately stuck to her initial decision to volunteer for the team that went inside the portal. She could not stand by and let demons take over Earthland because she was afraid to venture into the unknown.

"If we need to go in to stop this invasion from getting any worse, I'll go in." Leona assured Athena. The redhead's eyes widened in mild shock, then she gave a small smile.

"Thanks." Athena thanked Leona for standing by the Order despite their treatment of her and the risk to herself.

"It's no problem. I do what I can to help keep Earthland safe." Leona said to Athena. Wizard Saints and Gods of Ishgar had to do more than just pose for photos and sign autographs for awestruck fans. They had to confront dangers that no one else could handle to keep Earthland safe. As the Wizard Saint of Courage, it was Leona's duty to continue that tradition. As the Wizard Saint of Courage, it was Leona's particular responsibility to confront all threats to Earthland's safety.

[Word Count: 1,300]
[Total Word Count: 4,865/12,500]

The human defenders of the realm marshaled their remaining strength in preparation for the next wave of enemies and waited. The bodies of the demons were disintegrated to clear a path for the defenders to move around and the bodies of the deceased humans were moved off far to the side of the clearing for transport once the battle was won. Leona wondered if the Order had a contingency plan in case the threat proved to be too great to contain. She wondered if additional Order forces were available or if whoever was here was all they could commit to the defense of the area. She was sure that there were additional forces that were being held back in case things got bad... at least she hoped there were.

"OK, so we've got a few minutes before the next wave gets here. What do we do about the portal?" Athena asked Amanda. The blonde cleric had just finished treating the last of the wounded, a knight who had lost the armor to his right arm after a Bull Demon bit into it but could not quite punch through thanks to the timely aid of another cleric who turned it to ash with a beam of holy magic. The knight's arm was scraped and bleeding from the armor being crushed and the Bull Demon shaking him like a dog with a bone, but he kept the arm and was able to get replacement armor from the armor of a fallen knight. Amanda walked over to Athena and Leona and gave her opinion of what was to be done.

"The ideal solution would be to seal it from the outside. However, we do not have very many sealers with us today." Amanda answered Athena's question. The redhead frowned.

"The less-than-ideal solution would involve going inside and destroying it that way." Came a second solution to the problem. Athena was not too happy to hear that one.

"Well, it's not what I wanted to hear, but it is what it is." Athena commented. Amanda remained quiet for a moment while staring at the hexagon on the ground. The blonde cleric was likely contemplating what it would take to end the incursion and trying to determine the best course of action.

"What's involved in shutting down the portal from the inside?" Leona asked Athena. The spear-wielding redhead started to answer but Amanda felt inclined to take on the question herself. She raised a hand for silence and stepped in to take the question.

"You will enter the portal and have to fight your way to the top of a pyramid. Technically it is a ziggurat, but the point remains. You must fight your way to the top and destroy a red gem at the top of it to seal that portal. Once it is destroyed, you must then fight your way out and return through the same way you came in before it is completely sealed." Amanda replied calmly. Leona did not like the sound of that, especially the last part about having to fight her way out before the portal was sealed. Athena stepped in to tell the Silver Wolf Guild Mistress more about what that plan entailed.

"They know that you're not there to sell cookies for the Order fundraiser, so every demon inside will be after you. You'll have to fight them on their home turf and get to the top of the ziggurat, but that won't be easy. Once you destroy the gem, you'll have to fight your way out and any demon who wasn't onto you before will be there to stop you. They'll do everything they can to make sure you don't get out before the portal closes for good." Athena warned her. Leona was more than a little daunted by that information. At least she now knew the risks of going into the demon world to stop their invasion at its source. She recalled Carl Blaskowitz' book To Infernus and Back and wondered how he managed to cope with the terrifying experience of going into the demon realm and fighting his way through it. She may soon get a chance to find out.

"We may need to assemble a team to go into the demon realm and destroy the portal from within." Amanda said to Athena. Jessica overheard the conversation and raised her hammer to volunteer.

"I'll go!" Jessica exclaimed enthusiastically.

"I'll go too." Athena volunteered.

"So will I." Leona volunteered as well. Amanda looked at her incredulously.

"Leona, I do not think you appreciate the gravity of the situation. This is not a jaunt into a bandit camp to beat up a bunch of barely organized thugs. You are traveling into the realm of demons and fighting them where they have home field advantage. The stakes are far higher than those involved in fighting humans." Amanda said to the Wizard Saint in a tone that sounded dismissive. Leona really did not like to be talked to like that. She tried to ignore the slight for the sake of unity in the face of the demons, but Amanda was making herself less and less likable with each passing second. Diana the Order knight overheard the conversation and added her two Jewels to the discussion.

"Amanda is right, Leona. It is far too dangerous for you to go without the training we have had. It would be best if you stay here and keep the demons at bay while we go inside the demon realm." Diana weighed in. Leona did not like that opinion, but for the sake of Earthland she would defer to the expertise of the demon huntress and stay in the mortal realm while the experts did their jobs. However, she could not help but to feel like she was deliberately being kept at arm's length and used as cannon fodder instead of being treated as a valuable ally.

As long as Earthland was saved at the end of the day, Leona would grin and bear it. She would stay behind and help keep the demons at bay while the specially assembled team of Order mages did what they were trained to do. Order politics would not stop her from protecting Earthland even if it meant that she got relegated to less glamorous roles.

"All right then. I'll stay here." Leona said to Diana without acrimony. Even though it hurt her pride to think that way, Amanda and Diana were right. She was not ready to take on demons in their realm. The humans would have only one shot at shutting down the portal and they could not afford to bet the house on a novice demon hunter like Leona, even if she was the Wizard Saint of Courage. Courage alone was no substitute for the proper training and know-how that Order demon hunters possessed. Being a Wizard Saint sometimes meant putting aside one's ego for the greater good.

[Word Count: 1,177]
[Total Word Count: 6,042/12,500]

Now that that crucial matter had been settled, the humans waited for the next wave of demons to arrive. They did not have very long to wait and were not disappointed when the infernal enemies finally did arrive. Six red lights shot into the sky and out of four of them stepped four very large demons with muscular light brown torsos and the bottom half of horses for legs. Their unnaturally bright green eyes looked into the souls of everyone present and made Leona feel worried despite her courage. Now she was seeing what Amanda meant when the latter made the remark that she did.

Leona thought that Amanda was trying to give her the short end of the stick by shoving her into a support role, but now she was seeing that there was substance to the cleric's reasoning. Everyone instinctively took a step back as the quartet of ten-foot-tall demons strode from forward with glowing green hands. Even the experienced demon hunter Diana took a step back from the approaching demons who continued to stride in leisurely steps like they knew that victory was already assured to them. The clerics began to focus magic for spells while the knights took a step forward and formed a line to protect the clerics.

Leona knew that her Silver Longsword alone would not be enough, so she called in a few old friends to help make up the difference in power and maybe distract at least one of the demons long enough for the Order to get rid of the other three. Leona raised her hands into the sky and focused magic into them before beginning a chant to bring in the most powerful summon she had. It was time to call in the Furies.

"O THREE SISTERS OF UNRIVALED MIGHT, GRANT ME YOUR POWER IN THIS FIGHT!" Leona recited the chant aloud. A giant tornado formed around Leona and Jessica and Athena took a few steps back lest they get sucked into the spinning column of air. The armored Furies were deposited at her feet in a triangular formation and stood up at once. The red-haired one was in front of her, the blue-haired one was to her left and the orange-haired one was to her right.

"What is your bidding?" The red-haired Fury asked.

"See those demons? I want you three to attack one of them and bring it down." Leona instructed the trio as Amanda looked on in dismay. The blonde cleric probably thought that Leona had made a dark pact to get the ability to summon the harpies. The Silver Wolf Guild Mistress would have a lot of explaining to do later, but right now those four demons needed to die before they could tear into the Order mages.

"It will be done." The red-haired Fury answered. The redhead turned to the other two Furies.

"Alecto, Megeara, there is work to be done." She said to her sisters. Leona took it that Alecto was the blue-haired one and that Megeara was the orange-haired one. The other two nodded and took wing after Tisiphone took to the sky. Leona watched as they gained altitude and picked the demon at the head of the pack to harass.

The Furies dive-bombed it with their talons and gouged its torso and face, causing it to swat at them ineffectually. Its reaction time was just too slow to hit the swift harpy sisters who danced around it and continued to draw its attention by inflicting gouges with their razor-sharp talons. The other three demons simply strode by their colleague without even bothering to help it; they were clearly fixated on killing the Order mages and Leona.

"GET READY!" Diana called out to the knights. They brandished their swords and stood in a ready position.

"GET READY!" Amanda called out to the clerics. They raised their glowing hands and began to chant in preparation for using spells. The demons had crossed the three-fourths mark and were about to close to melee range.

"NOW!" Amanda shouted. The clerics all fired golden beams of holy light at the first demon, who buckled under the strain of eight beams focusing on its chest at once. It struggled to stay on its feet as the other two quickened their pace and began running towards the knights.

"DON'T LET THEM REACH THE CLERICS!" Diana shouted. Diana led Jessica and Athena into action against one of them who had just stepped on a hapless knight and left an indescribable crimson mess on the ground. Leona rushed to support a group of knights who had surrounded the second demon and were chopping at its legs. The beast took notice and leaned down to swat at a knight who was too slow to dodge. The poor knight was sent flying off a good twenty feet to the left and landed on his head... Leona knew that he was dead on impact.

Leona herself rushed into the fray as another knight was stepped on and turned into a crimson smear on the ground. She focused silver magic into two fingers of her left hand and fired a Silver Tempest at its head. The tornado hit its face and disoriented it, making it collapse to one knee and try to catch its breath. Leona circled around it and jumped onto its back, climbing to its head and steadying herself before plunging her Silver Longsword into the back of its head.

It bellowed in pain and reached for her with its enormous hands. Leona had hurt it badly with the stab to a sensitive place, but she did not quite stab the sword deep enough to kill it. She had just the solution for that problem. She steadied herself, raised her right leg into the air, channeled magic into it, and brought it down in a Sky Hammer kick. Her heel connected with the pommel of the sword and drove it further into the beast's skull with the force of the magically empowered kick.

It let out a roar that echoed and reached for her one last time, but she slid down its back and made a four-point landing on the ground long before its hands could reach her. It scrabbled in vain to reach its tormentor, then succumbed to the sword in the back of its head and fell forward as the knights realized what was happening and scrambled to safety, making the earth shake when it landed. Green blood poured from its mouth, nostrils, and the back of its head.

Leona stood up straight and climbed onto the back of the fallen demon to retrieve her sword, but she did not have time to get it because a giant shadow loomed overhead. Leona looked up at the source and screamed. It was the badly scarred demon that the Furies had been attacking earlier!

It bellowed and reached down for her with a giant hand. Leona tried to use a Zephyr Dash to get out of the way, but it caught her by the right leg and hoisted her into the air while she hung upside-down. Suddenly the situation did not look very good for the blonde.

Leona's leg was burning from the unholy energy sheathing its hand and she was too disoriented to fight back. The demon raised her closer to its face, presumably to show her the last thing that she would see in the world before being removed from it. It raised her high into the air and prepared to sling her down into the dirt when a triangular beam of red, blue, and orange smashed into its head and made it explode. Leona screamed as she fell to the earth but was stopped in mid-air by a pair of hands that wrapped themselves around her waist.

The blonde's head spun as her fall was halted and was instead flying in a straight line. She was taken for a violent left turn and was soon deposited at Amanda's feet. Leona collapsed on all fours and threw up. Tisiphone the redhead looked on in a mixture of pity and disgust as Leona threw up again. Leona hated flying so much.

"Um... Leona, are you OK?" Amanda asked the Silver Wolf Guild Mistress with genuine concern.

"I don't handle heights very well." Leona answered truthfully. Two demons were left and the knights were holding their own thanks to the help of the clerics and Diana. The blonde needed to get back into the fray, but she was still disoriented and sick from the unexpected flight. The knights who had survived the first demon were repeatedly stabbing the corpse of the decapitated demon to make sure it was really dead.

"We will handle this." Tisiphone said as she took flight and joined her sisters in harassing another giant demon who was attacking Jessica and Athena. Leona slowly stood up and waited for her eyes to refocus. Amanda spoke to her.

"Taking down that Infernal Guardian was an impressive feat." Amanda sincerely complimented her.

Infernal Guardian:

[Word Count: 1,522]
[Total Word Count: 7,564/12,500]

Leona was surprised that the green-clad cleric had given her a genuine compliment and not taken another jab at her. The Silver Wolf mage stood up and felt the burn mark on her leg left behind by the Infernal Guardian the Furies had just messily dispatched with a Triad Beam to the head. It looked like the sun itself had grabbed her leg and left a burn mark in the shape of a hand... the mark hurt accordingly every time Leona tried to walk on the affected leg. Amanda walked over to the Silver Wolf mage with glowing golden hands.

"I will treat that wound." Amanda stated her intent when the pair saw a flash of red, blue, and orange light and heard a sudden BOOM nearby. They turned towards the source and found that the Furies had just killed the third Infernal Guardian with a Triad Beam to the head. Its decapitated body had pitched forward and made contact with the earth, causing the loud noise that caused both blondes to turn towards it. The Furies flapped over the Infernal Guardian's body and then flew over to Leona, landing next to her with their arms crossed.

"It has been done. The humans should be able to handle the last of those beasts." Tisiphone commented while the clerics and knights started to gain the upper hand after Diana slashed off the last Infernal Guardian's legs with her sword in one quick motion. The legless demon tried to defend itself and even forced the knights to momentarily back away with frenzied swinging of its fists, but it was surrounded on all sides and slowly worn down by repeated stabs and holy spells. Diana circled behind it and decapitated it with a single swing as the demon swatted at a knight who had gotten too close. Unlike with the other knight from earlier, this one was saved because he fell down while backing away and the powerful swing of the beast's hand barely passed over his body. The knight then scrambled away before the head fell down where he had been lying.

A loud cheer erupted from the Order clerics and knights. Leona could hear Jessica's excited voice over all the others and could see the redheaded knight raise her hammer in triumph. Even the dour Amanda seemed pleased with the outcome of the struggle against the Infernal Guardians. Leona was certainly happy with the outcome.

"Now, let me treat that wound." Amanda said to her. She aimed her hands at Leona and began to chant as a golden circle formed at Leona's feet and a column of light surrounded her. When the chant was finished, Amanda raised her hands into the sky and lowered them. Leona felt revitalized and the burn mark on her leg had vanished completely.

"Thanks." Leona thanked the Order cleric for the healing spell. Amanda was about to respond when the points of the hexagon pulsed red and the columns of light began to form again. Everyone braced themselves for another demonic onslaught and hoped that more Infernal Guardians would not come out of the portal. Only four of them had killed eight more knights and three clerics and took the efforts of everyone still alive to bring them down. Leona had a feeling that the ten-foot-tall demons were not even the worst in the arsenal of demonkind.

To everyone's immense surprise the portal suddenly turned upright and became a three-dimensional hexagon that "faced" the gathered humans. Red lines began to trace the inner points of the hexagon and formed a web of red lines that began to. The hexagon then began to spin and a booming voice could be heard.

"Humanity has grown weak and decadent. Humans have grown so frail and foolish and have come to fear death so much that they call upon us to bargain for power and eternal life. The time of humanity will soon come to an end." The voice declared. Leona did not like the sound of that.

"The time of demonkind is near. Soon the planet will belong to us and we will feast upon human flesh for all eternity." It warned the humans. Leona did not know how to respond to such a bold declaration. The Order members kept silent as the voice continued its speech.

"That time may not be today, but it will not be long in coming. Enjoy your victory today. Future victories will not be so easily won!" The voice warned before the hexagon began to spin rapidly. It continued to spin until it finally stopped spinning and turned on its side, forming a sharp red edge. It then gave off a burst of crimson light and disappeared entirely with only a loud BOOM to mark its passing. The bodies of all the demons killed by the Order and the bodies of the cultists used to form the hexagon disappeared along with the portal. Leona's Silver Longsword clanged to the ground... the blonde was glad that was not taken into the demon realm as well.

"What... what just happened?" Jessica asked the group. Athena shrugged her shoulders. Diana looked to Amanda for answers. So did Leona.

"What happened was that the demon responsible for the portal's creation closed it. It has conceded the battle today, but we have not seen the last of it. It will return." Amanda told the Jessica, Athena, Diana, Leona, and all the surviving Order members. That information was not much comfort to them because that meant another hard battle would have to be fought to keep the demon from succeeding, but they did not know where or when the battle would take place. The Order had strong knights and clerics, but they did not have the numbers to garrison every town and city nor the ability to predict where the next portal would arrive. The demons had strength and numbers on their side plus the ability to play the long game. They could afford to wait a hundred years or more for the Order's members to die of old age or weaken from the ravages of time enough where the demons could easily win a fight against them.

"What do we do now?" Leona asked Amanda.

"We gather our dead and return to Holy Castle. There we must speak to Father Morris and tell him everything of what happened here. We cannot afford to let the demons keep the initiative." Amanda replied grimly. Leona did not like the sound of that, but it was an unpleasant reality. She watched as the Order members began to gather their dead for transport back to Holy Castle. She dispelled the Furies because their services would not be needed at the moment.

Leona walked over to her Silver Longsword and picked it up off the ground. The blade was coated in green blood from the Infernal Guardian she had killed earlier in the battle. Diana walked over and handed her a cloth to wipe off the blade with before the demon blood ate into it. Leona wiped it down and removed the blood without issue, then handed back the cloth, which Diana burned with holy fire.

"You did well today, Leona. Perhaps I was mistaken about you." Diana complimented the Silver Wolf Mage. Leona was not sure what she meant. The blonde thought she had proven herself when they rescued the Supernatural Sleuths film crew, but what happened with Amanda must have done something to alter Diana's opinion of Leona. The blonde was more or less back at square one with the pink-haired knight.

"Thanks." Leona said to Diana, deliberately ignoring the part about Diana being mistaken about Leona. She wanted to keep a good relationship with the Order of Lightbringers for as long as possible. Besides, she was too tired to fight another battle right after fighting so many demons. She could not wait to get out of Fat Monsterland and go to Holy Castle.

[Word Count: 1,340]
[Total Word Count: 8,904/12,500]

-Outside Holy Castle, eight hours later-

Leona and the surviving members of the Order had finally made their way back to Holy Castle and the headquarters of the group. She paused with Amanda, Athena, Diana, and Jessica outside the castle and waited to see what would happen next. The wagons loaded with the bodies of the deceased knights and clerics rolled by and dampened Leona's mood. She had been elated after the defeat of the demons and the temporary win over demonkind, but the cost of the victory had been high. Sixteen knights and five clerics had died during the battle and Leona did not know if the Order could afford to replace the losses, especially since they had been touted as the best the Order had to offer.

Father Morris emerged from the castle door and bade the knights and clerics to enter. Leona was left standing outside the castle as the thick wooden doors shut and the Order's best went to discuss the demonic threat and what to do next. Leona's feeling that she was just being used reared its ugly head again. As a Wizard Saint she should not feel that way at all.

She should do everything to ensure the safety of Earthland, even if it meant giving up glory to do so. Leona had no problem with letting someone else take the spotlight and would gladly give it up if it meant completing a mission. What she did have a problem with was Amanda and Diana turning on her despite doing nothing to threaten the cleric and volunteering the information about the demon tempting her instead of letting it come out another way. Leona felt that that would have been even worse for the relationship than her telling Amanda herself.

Leona set aside those feelings with great difficulty and was just glad that the fighting had ended in a victory for humanity. Even if it was a temporary one and the demons would return one day, they had been pushed back. The Order had valuable time to replace its losses and prepare for the day when the demons came back for a second attempt at conquest.

-Two hours later-

Leona had been left outside for two hours without a single word as to what was going on inside. It was like she had been thrown to the curb now that there was no fighting to be done. The blonde simply crossed her arms and waited for something to happen, even if it was Diana, Amanda, or Father Morris telling her to get lost. Moments later her wish came true. Amanda, Diana, and Father Morris came outside to speak with her.

"I apologize for the wait, Miss Jarnefeldt. I would like for you to come with us. We have much to discuss." Father Morris said to her. Leona had finally gotten some news, but she was not sure how she should react to it. She could not help but to feel that she was being set up for something bad. She had a feeling that summoning the Furies did not help her case with the stricter members of the Order.

"OK." Leona said tersely. She was probably being set up to be "interrogated" because she had the ability to summon other beings and to some people that was the mark of one in league with sinister powers. Depending on how the "interrogation" went she could look forward to either long-term imprisonment or execution.

-Inside Holy Castle, Father Morris' office-

Leona was escorted into an office much like her own back at Silver Wolf Guild Hall, only larger and much better organized. There were maps of Earthland and of the Cursed Lands on the wall, books with red leather binding and titles in black letters organized alphabetically in a large bookshelf, electric lighting for the room, and a large wooden desk with an equally large wooden chair sitting behind it. There were also holy weapons on wall racks, weapons like her longsword, a silver greatsword, and a silver mace with six flanges and a spike on the head. Father Morris was ready for an invasion of the castle. He sat down behind the desk, pulled up his chair, and waited for Amanda and Diana to enter the room before starting the conversation.

"I have spoken with both Amanda and Diana. They told me of your bravery in battling the demons that attempted to invade Fat Monsterland. They told me that you managed to defeat three of the four Infernal Guardians that were summoned by the cultists." Father Morris started off.

"The knights did most of the heavy lifting. They did the real work while my Furies and I just finished them off." Leona claimed. She did not need to lie because the Order's brave knights gave their lives to buy her the time needed to kill the demons before they could get through to the clerics. Leona hated the fact that so many of the knights died in the battle, but she could take comfort in knowing that the demons did not overrun the Cursed Lands and make their sacrifices be in vain. Father Morris thought for a moment and looked at Amanda before resuming the conversation.

"Amanda informed me that you can summon beings to do your bidding. She tells me that you summoned three of them, three winged women called "The Furies" to help you in the battle." Father Morris continued, his glasses shining in the light.

"Yes. I use Wind Summon Magic. It lets me summon creatures loyal to me and me alone for battle or for transport." Leona told him truthfully. She had no reason to lie to him about her magic, especially when it had been used in front of over three dozen witnesses. If he decided that he did not want to work with a summoner, they could part ways and that would be the end of the matter as far as Leona was concerned.

"Interesting." Father Morris commented without elaboration. Leona was not sure where this was going and she was not sure if she wanted to know where it was going. It felt like she was being questioned for some reason, most likely about how her summons were obtained and whether they were demonic in origin. Amanda moved to speak.

"While Miss Jarnefeldt's summons were unexpected and unconventional, I have no reason to suspect that they are demonic in nature. I felt no evil from them or from Miss Jarnefeldt." Amanda reported to Father Morris. Leona was uncertain whether her future could be trusted to someone who had shown so much distrust earlier in the day. Leona would have to hope that her actions during the fight were enough to save her life.

[Word Count: 1,132]
[Total Word Count: 10,036/12,500]

"I did not feel any evil energy coming from Leona during the battle either. There was no trace of evil during or after the battle." Diana testified on Leona's behalf. The blonde hoped that the knight's testimony would save her life because she really did not want to die at the hands of a holy order. They would not kill her quickly... they would likely drag out the execution to serve as a warning to any demon worshipers who had not yet been caught. Leona tried not to think about that and tried to focus on the positive, the positive being that Amanda and Diana were testifying on her behalf.

Father Morris looked at Leona, then at Amanda and Diana. The older man then looked into Leona's eyes with a serious expression on his face. The blonde mage did not like that look at all.

"Order Cleric Athena and Order Knight Jessica also testified on your behalf. They said that you did not exhibit any traces of demonic influence during or after the battle. They testified that your "Furies" helped turn the tide by distracting one of the Infernal Guardians and slowing it down so that the Order members only had to face three demons at once instead of four." Father Morris told her. Leona was not sure how effective their testimony would be since those two were on friendly terms with her and did not have seniority and influence like Amanda and Diana did. At least Athena and Jessica supported their assertion that they had her back with concrete actions. Father Morris kept his gaze fixed on her as he spoke.

"While I admit that your ability to use summons is mildly concerning, I have no reason to suspect that you are an enemy to us. The testimony of multiple members of the Order of Lightbringers has convinced me that you are no servant of demons. Your help in fending off today's demonic incursion was invaluable." Father Morris said to her, his facial expression lightening considerably. Leona did not react just yet because he looked like he had more to say to her. The older man spoke to her again.

"Therefore, I would like to ask you to continue working with us to rid the land of evil. The losses the Order sustained during the battle will be hard to replace. We cannot be on watch everywhere in Earthland. I would like to request your help in continuing to fend off the demons wherever they may appear." Father Morris requested of Leona. Leona was not sure whether the offer was a platitude to mollify her or if it was a real offer, but she chose to believe that the offer was being made in good faith. She did not want to have the Order as an enemy because the Wizard Saint already had plenty of enemies to contend with.

"I'll continue to help the Order." Leona voiced her decision. Father Morris smiled and clapped his hands together.

"Splendid! We will need your help in the days to come. To help you help us, I will send books on how to fight demons to your guild hall. I am sure that you and your guild will find them to be of great value." Father Morris said to her. Leona was glad to hear that her guild would be receiving up-to-date books on how to fight demons because the guild library did not have very many books on the subject. That kind of knowledge would be useful to Leona and the other Silver Wolf mages; there was no predicting when one might encounter demons while on a job.

"Thanks." Leona said to Father Morris. Amanda and Diana looked at Father Morris. He nodded to them and then turned back to Leona.

"I believe that Amanda and Diana wish to speak to you in private. I have business to attend to, so I will let you speak with them in private. I bid you good day, Miss Jarnefeldt." Father Morris said to her before Amanda and Diana approached the blonde. Leona swallowed her apprehension and followed the two Order members out of the cleric's office and down the hallway to a flight of stone stairs. She was escorted down the stairs and down a hall until they reached a set of wooden double doors with the Order's emblem emblazoned on it. Diana opened the doors and Amanda escorted Leona inside a large, circular room with a glass window above that let sunlight in. Where had she been taken to and for what purpose?

-Inside the room-

Amanda and Diana faced Leona as the latter stood in the middle of the circular room with sunlight beaming down on her head and shoulders. Leona stepped out of the light and looked around the room. It was sparsely decorated; the only "decorations" were wooden weapons racks lining the wall and suits of silver armor on display stands. She must have been escorted to a training room for the Order's knights.

"There is something that we must say to you." Diana started the conversation. Amanda walked closer to her knight colleague and stood by her side.

"We... we apologize for our treatment of you." Diana started. Amanda raised her hand for silence and took over the conversation.

"Please forgive Diana. She does not have much of a way with words, so I will speak for the both of us." Amanda informed Leona. Leona did not fault Diana for that. The Silver Wolf mage was no silver-tongued speaker herself and tended to shy away from public speaking.

"When you told me what you did about the demons whispering to you and promising you power if you killed me in the Haunted Guild, I... I was frightened. I was worried that you would actually go through with it. After Diana found out she was worried that you might betray the Order in exchange for power." Amanda admitted to Leona. Leona remained silent and let the cleric speak her mind. Diana looked away from Leona and towards the door with shame written across her face.

"We were mistaken. You were no servant of infernal powers. We kept you at arm's length because we were ashamed to admit that we were wrong." Amanda explained as the Silver Wolf mage remained silent. Leona silently vowed not to judge them until their explanation was complete. If she could listen to Joshua Hamlin after what he did to her, then she could give Amanda and Diana a fair shake and hear them out.

"Jessica and Athena spoke highly of your bravery during the missions under the Abandoned Cabin and in Silent Cemetery. They defended you and claimed that you were no servant of darkness. They were proven right by today's events. Today proved once and for all that you are not an enemy of the Order, but rather a friend." Amanda said to Leona. Diana looked away from the door and towards Leona, her blue eyes meeting Leona's green eyes. She looked like she had something that she wanted to say. The pink-haired knight strode towards her and stopped within arm's length of her.

"I... no, we would like to apologize for our mistake. We were wrong." Diana said simply without embellishment. Leona stood in place for a moment, unable to believe what was going on. Amanda and Diana were apologizing to her for being distrustful and rude? Leona was worried about what was going on here.

[Word Count: 1,262]
[Total Word Count: 11,298/12,500]

Leona thought about what was happening for a moment. Amanda and Diana, two of the Order's most respected members, actually apologizing to her? The blonde never thought that she would live to see this day. She wondered if Father Morris had made them apologize to her, but Leona's cynical feelings soon melted away because the Order mages had went out on a limb to apologize to her for the way they had treated her in the past. If Leona could forgive Joshua Hamlin for fondling her and then threatening to kill her family when she beat him up in response, she could forgive Amanda and Diana for their distrust of her.

Life was too short to hold a grudge against the Order mages. Leona needed to forgive them not only for their sake, but for her own sake as well. If she let the negative feelings linger, the demons they were fighting against would be able to take advantage of the animosity and turn Leona against them to the detriment of everyone in Earthland. Leona did not want that to happen. The Order of Lightbringers and the Wizard Saint of Courage needed to present a united front against the demons who wanted to turn Earthland into their infernal playground.

"I accept the apology." Leona said to Amanda and Diana. Diana extended a hand in friendship. Leona took that hand with her right hand.

"We will be allies now and forever." Diana assured Leona as Amanda looked on with a smile on her face.

"Now and forever." Leona repeated in a flashback to the Crossing of The Scimitars ritual that she had performed with Joshua Hamlin back in Nebdoui several months ago. That ritual was a very old one where disputants vowed in front of the entire village to set aside any and all grudges forever. Now Leona was setting aside all ill feelings towards Amanda and Diana so that they could work together to protect Earthland from demons and their mortal servants.

It was over. Leona felt her animosity towards Amanda, Diana, and the Order of Lightbringers slowly melt away. If they would honor the pledge to be her ally, the Silver Wolf Guild Mistress would honor her pledge to be their ally. It was that simple.

The room's doors opened to allow Athena and Jessica to enter. They walked in and looked at Diana and Leona shaking hands. They were dumbfounded by what they were seeing.

"What... what's this? What's going on here?" Jessica asked the older Order members.

"We have apologized to Leona for our mistaken assumption that she was in league with infernal powers." Amanda answered calmly. Athena and Jessica looked at each other and exchanged glances. Then they looked at Leona as if they could not really believe that this was happening.

"It's true." Leona said laconically. The other two Order mages then smiled widely.

"That's great!" Jessica enthusiastically exclaimed.

"Yeah. I'm glad that this issue could be settled without violence." Athena commented. Leona had a faint idea of what the redheaded cleric meant by that remark. If the issue had went unresolved for too long Diana might have been assigned to execute Leona for being a security risk. Leona did not want to be the cause of a schism that tore the Order apart and pitted its members against one another. Now that the dispute had been settled there was very little possibility of that happening.

"Me too." Amanda added calmly.

"Now we can all fight the demons instead of each other!" Jessica exclaimed. The redheaded knight's enthusiasm for fighting was more than a little worrying for someone her age, but Leona knew where she stood. She could be counted on to be a firm ally unless the blonde did something truly beyond the pale.

"Yes, Jessica. We can fight the demons instead of each other, which is what we should have been doing all along." Athena agreed with the hammer-wielding knight. The redheaded cleric was not quite as enthusiastic about fighting as Jessica was, but she was not one to back down from a fight, especially a fight with the undead. In addition to being a good fighter, Athena was also a respectable scholar who knew a lot about the lore of necromancers. The spear-wielding cleric was another firm ally of Leona's.

"I'm just glad that the dispute's over. I just want to move on and keep Earthland safe from demons and other threats." Leona chimed in.

"We will work together to keep Earthland safe." Amanda assured her. The mood was shifting from one of suspicion and tension to one of friendship. Leona no longer felt that her life was in jeopardy and that now she was among friends... or at least good acquaintances. She would settle for either one right now because she did not want to go through life doubting the motives of everyone she worked for.

-Outside Holy Castle-

"I can't wait for the next time we meet again, Leona. We really kicked some demon ass today! Those halfwit demons won't forget what the Order can do to them!" Jessica exclaimed with irrepressible cheer. Amanda, Athena, and Diana looked on with mild embarrassment but did nothing to stop their smaller colleague. Apparently they too were concerned with how eager the small knight was to do battle with the forces of evil... or to do battle with anything, really.

"Maybe one day we can meet under circumstances that don't involve a demonic invasion or fighting evil. Maybe we can do something normal people do, like go shopping or go to a restaurant and get something to eat." Athena chimed in.

"I look forward to working with you again, Leona." Amanda said to her with a smile.

"I look forward to fighting at your side again." Diana said to Leona. It was a simple statement, but like with the statements of the others, it came straight from the heart. Leona could not complain about that because all the statements felt sincere.

"I look forward to working with all of you again." Leona said to them. She thought about summoning her Winged Lion in order to fly back to Silver Wolf Guild Hall, but she decided to wait and summon the Winged Lion once she was far away from Holy Castle. Father Morris had expressed mild uneasiness with Leona's summoning magic and she did not want to damage the newly mended fence between her and the Order. It would be best to just walk for awhile and summon a transport once she was away from the castle.

"Later Leona!" Jessica called out as Leona walked from Holy Castle and towards home. Leona turned and waved at the Order mages who were waving at her, then turned away and kept walking. She had a lengthy walk to go before she would be safely out of sight of the castle and could summon the Winged Lion without any issues. Thankfully Leona was no stranger to walking long distances... she had mastered that art early on in her mage career. She had mastered that art long before she had learned Wind Summon Magic to make her life easier with flying summons to ferry her wherever she wished to go.

[Word Count: 1,220]
[Total Word Count: 12,287/12,500]

-Back at Silver Wolf Guild Hall, four hours later-

After walking into a forest a short distance away from Holy Castle, Leona decided that she was far enough away to safely summon the Winged Lion without alienating the Order. She had summoned it and flew back to Silver Wolf Guild Hall on the back of her faithful summon. Flying on the Winged Lion had shortened the journey home by a considerable margin and made it nearly impossible for her to be attacked by bandits. The blonde had made it home safely and was holed up in her office trying to study the Court Heiromesh notes before she took the proficiency exam so that she could be recognized as an "official" expert in the language.

Leona skimmed through both the notes she had made and the official study packet Professor Rosetta had provided her, but the mage was not making any real progress in studying the notes because her mind kept flashing back to the battle with the Devourers, the Bull Demons, and the Infernal Guardians. Leona sometimes wondered if she should even continue to study languages because her true affinity lay in fighting. It felt like she was just going through a charade because she was the Guild Mistress of a guild devoted to science and knowledge. Leona took a deep breath and closed her notebooks and the study packet because at this point she was just spinning her wheels.

She stood up from her desk and pushed the chair in to go do something else. Then she looked at the stack of paperwork she had to do and pulled the chair back out. Tonight was going to be a long night of dealing with paperwork and bureaucratic tedium. Maybe she should go grab some coffee before dealing with matters like the guild budget and library book acquisitions and deaccessions. Leona thought better of it because she did not want to spill coffee on the paperwork and have to go through the business of reading through them all over again.

The blonde sat back down and began to tackle the first item on the list, which was a fascinating item about books for the library. The reorganization work was proceeding slowly but surely, but the new problem was trying to figure out what to do with the old and outdated books in the library. Some librarians wanted to get rid of them while others wanted to keep them in case the guild's members ran across something so esoteric that even the new books did not know about the subject. Leona would have to sort out that bureaucratic issue some time soon. Leona set that item aside and began to read about the guild's budget.

Tonight was going to be a long night.

[Word Count: 464]
[Total Word Count: 12,751/12,500]