PART THIRTEEN: THE MISSION, PART 3
The first target wildly panicked whilst apprehensively staring down at the agents sent to retrieve him. Ada approached the man cautiously and the man’s eyes didn’t waver from her for a second. Whenever their eyes met, Ada could swear she could detect a presence within him, staring at her which was deeply unsettling.
However, the target visibly relaxed upon realizing that Ada was part faerie when she calmly informed him that they had come to rescue him in his native tongue, Sithean Gaelic, the Ancient Fairy tongue. Whatever presence was concealed within him also seemed to dissipate and withdraw although Ada could not confirm her suspicions.
Ada then went back to covering the agents’ backs as they retrieved the man delicately. Charlie used his healing abilities to assist the man and the other agents gave him potions to help restore some of his lost vigor. They managed to drape a cloak around him and give him a bottle of water.
“The others- they’re in the adjacent cells- please, Miss, you have to save them too,” the man spoke directly to Ada in his native tongue.
Ada turned to him and nodded, acknowledging that she had heard him clearly.
However, the enemies’ agents hiding in the dark soon emerged and actively engaged the Protectors in combat and two agents fell to them. Ada used her special Temporal gift to effectively erase the moment their agents were lost and ensure their victory. After successfully beating three waves of enemy agents sent against them, they were able to successfully retrieve the remaining eight victims without further incident.
Ada’s Reality warping abilities were considerably draining and Ada knew she only had so much Mana left before she would be unable to use the ability at all despite her channeling power from Avery. The top priority became leaving the Palace with the targets intact. They shrunk their moon fairy targets into their diminutive forms1 to make it easier for themselves to make a break for it and their efforts seemed to work within the scope of the planned parameters until they encountered yet another obstacle in the form of a fourth wave of enemy attacks.
Before long, the enemy had completely surrounded the A-team as they made a wild dash towards freedom…
“Welcome to Avala’s Royal Palace, agents. Unfortunately, we cannot allow you to walk away with our treasured guests, therefore, we simply must insist that you leave them in our care,” stated their leader, who was holding a large spear whilst adapting to a fighting stance. The enemy forces adapted similar stances and before long, they engaged the exhausted agents in battle. The remaining A-team agents were shocked to see their missing teammates among the enemy forces, looking like stick puppets that had lost all sense of agency.
Ada was barely able to keep up with the events of the fighting, feeling completely drained but she was forced into participating in the all out brawl. Charlton covered for her as best he could to give her ample time to save up her energy for when they truly needed it.
Ada noticed that the leader of the enemy troops was slowly but surely making her way towards her perhaps rightfully assuming that Ada was the Team lead or perhaps thinking that Ada, whose red hair gave her clan’s ability away, was planning to use her mind-frying abilities to inflict severe damage to them.
The leader poised for her attack and threw the spear straight at Ada narrowly missing her as Ada dodged the weapon right on time. Ada felt the weapon narrowly miss her again as the leader recalled it and it zoomed dangerously close to her on its way back to its commander, drawing blood from the top of her right ear. Before Ada could gather herself to prepare for the next attack, Charlie suddenly stopped engaging in fighting other enemy agents and flanked her, protectively raising his arms against the leader’s next attack. For some strange reason, his actions stunned the leader into inaction and she simply stared him down.
“You can’t attack me, can you?” Charlie asked her.
The leader ignored him and turned to focus on fighting the other agents.
“Why won’t you attack me? You are clearly a highly skilled fighter,” Charlie yelled after her. The leader’s focus remained on the other agents until the only fighters left standing were she, Ada and Charlie. As both sides waited for backup to arrive, the leader stared them down again stunned into inaction as Charlie continued flanking Ada protectively.
“You still can’t attack me, can you?” Charlie asked her.
The leader paused for a few moments and then nodded and carefully laid her weapon on the ground in surrender. The weapon moved on the ground on its own for a while before settling inanimately right at her feet, the Mana stored within it returning to its Mistress.
“Why did you surrender? I could never mistake you to be the type of fighter to quit just like that,” Charlie stated.
“You’re right sir, I cannot attack you,” the leader stated placing her hands behind her back and kneeling down in surrender.
“How truly disappointing,” stated a disembodied female voice echoing in the halls and chilling them all to the core.
Before long, the leader of the enemy troops fell to the ground and began to scream as blood spilled out of every orifice in her body and with the sound of stilettos hitting the cold ground echoing the halls, getting closer towards them as the leader’s blood began to form a pool around her. In that moment, Ada used her Temporal gift to erase the moment the leader was hit with what was undoubtedly a blood curse inflicted on them. As a result of erasing that moment in time, the events leading up to the curse were repeated with the leader surrendering.
“How truly disappointing,” stated the disembodied female voice echoing in the halls and chilling them all to the core. Ada realized even the second time around, the voice still frightened her. Before the curse took hold of the leader, Ada incapacitated the leader by using her telekinesis to throw the leader to the nearest adjacent wall with enough force to knock her out cold.
Ada’s vision blurred and she fell on her knees, her strength almost entirely spent. Charlie supported her weight as the sound of the stilettos hitting the cold ground drew ever nearer. Soon he found himself staring down at Empress Weylyn herself whose presence was more chilling than the sound of her voice. She cackled as she observed the intruders and passed out leader of her guard on the other side of the room.
“How could you have possibly known that the only weakness to my blood curse was for the subject to be unconscious?” she asked them curiously.
Charlie did not respond but continued to stare her down bravely.
“Congratulations on making it this far, Protectors. However, I am afraid my lovely face is the last thing you will ever see,”
Ada’s vision became even blurrier as she stared up at the Red Veiled Empress who raised her hand ready to attack them when suddenly she felt a foreign presence sever the connection she had with Avery as it took over her weary body. The presence completely took over Ada’s autonomy and suddenly her body was filled to the brim with power.
Before long, a hiss came from Ada and she stared at the Empress loathingly. The Empress was suddenly unable to move at all as Ada’s body moved towards her in a puppet-like way.
“Who are you?” the Empress asked Ada.
“I am your end,” Ada responded in a voice that was not her own. The Empress was soon propelled across several rooms by Ada’s telekinesis that was super-charged by whatever force had possessed her and soon afterwards, she was flying across the rooms, a pair of translucent fairy wings suddenly bursting out of the of her back, tearing into her uniform whilst granting her the ability to fly. It was clear that the being possessing her had the intent to kill and Ada was powerless to stop it but at the last room that the Empress was propelled against, her unconscious body had suddenly disappeared. The being possessing Ada searched everywhere but could not locate the Empress and suddenly hissed in defeat before releasing Ada who fell to the ground in shock.
Charlie rushed to her side just as the translucent wings Ada had, dissipated.
“Ada, what just happened?” he asked in shock.
“I-think I was possessed by something,”
“Something possessed you?” Charlie asked in total disbelief.
“Someone is watching us,” Ada responded looking directly at Charlie who gasped and said, “Ada, your eyes.”
“What about my eyes?”
“It appears you’ve developed heterochromia,”
“What?” Ada asked in shock even as she turned around and noticed a little boy looking at her in shock whilst attempting to hide behind a destroyed wall. Upon discovery, the little boy ran away and before she could say anymore, Teams B and C came rushing in and secured the area.
TO BE CONTINUED…
What mysterious being possessed Ada and why were they so intent on killing the Red Veiled Empress? Stay tuned to find out! Links to previous parts are linked below:
CLIFF NOTES
- Fairy Diminutive forms: All faeries have the magical ability to assume a smaller form that they can maintain for as long as pleases them. This shrunken form is usually adapted in situations that call for stealth but it leaves them far more vulnerable than when they are in full form.
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