269 High stakes (1/2)

”E- Eclipse...?” he whispered as the beast came closer to him with blood dripping from its fangs and claws.

Daren was so shocked that he ended up dropping his wand on the ground, and the moment he did so, the dark smoke that was surrounding Eclipse began to vanish and the lion suddenly started to calm down.

Leona noticed the tension between the two but her attention was quickly grabbed by a couple of voices coming from the portal that Daren created.

”Quick! I think he went this way!!” yelled a voice the seemed to belong to a young girl.

”Young miss! Wait!! You don't know what is on the other side of this portal!!” shouted another female voice, but seemingly much older.

”Blue! Wait!! Don't leave me alone with these guys!!” a third voice spoke after, also sounding like it belonged to a young child.

Leona kept looking at the portal and before she realized it, Ellie, Detra, and Claire jumped out of it with a shocked look on their faces upon seeing them on the other side.

”Leona!? Daren!?” Ellie shouted with her mouth wide open.

”Ellie!!?” Leona replied.

Soon, Joseph, Dia, Xadi, and Lance also exited the dark portal that Daren had created and reunited with them, but something about them seemed different, they were wearing clothing that Leona had never seen before and a couple of scars could be seen in different parts of their bodies.

”Oh! Sensei is here!” Joseph commented while bowning to his old fire magic teacher.

”Hey! How come you never bown whenever you meet with me??” Xadi complained while shaking his fur arms up and down.

”Leoooona!!” Claire screamed as she hurried to hug the fire mage. She was acting like they hadn't seen each other in ages.

Leona never felt so much relief in her life. Seeing so many familiar faces all at once, she finally began to calm down a little bit and lose this sense of doom that kept following her around ever since she arrived on this island.

She looked at Daren to see if he shared the sentiment but he appeared to still be lost in thought while staring at Eclipse, so much so that he didn't even notice the arrival of their allies or his own son.

He tried to raise his arm in an attempt to pet his lion but the image of the feline eviscerating Boris was still stuck on his mind and making him wonder if he still even trusted it. Daren wasn't sure if Eclipse's behavior was a result of his shadow magic or maybe if that was his true nature.

If it was, in fact, a result of his magic, Daren began to wonder if he should be scared of himself.

”Daren!” Leona shouted in his ear, breaking him out of his own confusion.

”Lance...? Lance!!!”

Daren rushed to Lance's side while he continued to snore in Dia's arms and began to hug him as if his life depended on it.

”Lance!! Lance, my son!! You're still with me!! You're still with me!! I didn't lose you too!!” he cried while holding his baby boy.

Everyone began to stare at Daren with pain in their eyes as they noticed he wasn't happy to see his son, he was happy to find out that he wasn't that, almost as if he was used to the feeling, making them all wonder just how many people he had lost by that point.

Leona looked at Eclipse and noticed that no trace of the dark mist from before or the dark portal was there anymore. She moved to grab her wand and told herself that she would try her best to not get in a situation where Daren would need to use shadow magic again.

The image of him carrying his son was deeply warming her heart and she would hate to see that ruined by something happening to him in case he could not control this power.

Joseph then took this chance to break the silence and began to assault Leona with a barrage of questions, ”What's going on?? Why are we in a cave?? Why was Eclipse acting so weird?? Where were you all this time??  How did things go with the temple of the west?? Where is miss Evlin??”

Leona herself had many questions as well, ”What about you guys?? How are you still in one piece after the temple of the east was destroyed? Where are all the other followers? Are they okay? Did you got attacked by any dragon??”

Detra and Leona exchanged a long look until the ice mage finally decided to talk, ”We have much to discuss...”

The group took a few minutes to catch their breath and calm down their heads. Claire offered a bit of food for Daren and Leona after listening to her stomach roaring like a truck, and after having a little snack to ease their bellies, the team started to walk back to the temple of the north.

On their way there, the two sides began to share information about everything that happened, about how the temple had been attacked and destroyed by Knucker's command, about how they encountered demons that had dragon abilities, about how Ellie's group barely managed to escape from the demon of gluttony, about the battle with the demons of wrath and envy, and finally, about their meeting with Knucker himself in the castle of the king Greyart and how Ria's power allowed them to escape with her portal but also resulting in everyone being scattered into unknown locations.

Detra also provided some information about their status. How while waiting for any news on the situation, she and the kids had been spending the last couple of months practicing their skill for the inevitable battle with the demons.

”Wait a second...” Leona gasped, ”What do you mean months???”