CHAPTER 89: CHAPTER EIGHTY-NINE: FINDING MY BROTHER.

Cassian raced wildly through the palace walls like a mad man. He had clearly seen Elena run to the path which led to the main gates of the palace. Immediately, he had gathered more guards, discarding the ones that had already gone blind by the light earlier.

But as they raced in the same path, they kept returning back to the courtyard over and over again. Frustrated, Cassian had overlooked the fact of manipulation by an existential power or force and unconsciously rode faster through the path.

No matter how far he went, he and his men always ended back in the courtyard. It was like a loop spell.

It wasn’t until Lucian, who was forced along, eventually noticed they were being bewitched.

"Calm down you raging buffalo. Can’t you see we’re spelled?" Lucian asked lazily as they rounded up the palace for the seventh time.

Cassian, although hot-headed as he was, stopped to listen.

"What are you going on about?"

Lucian jumped down from his horse and motioned to Cassian to follow him with his hand. He took a rock and threw it upwards. Immediately, the rock descended sharply from its height and scattered pieces of itself around them.

"We’re trapped."

A deep frown formed on Cassian’s face.

"What? How? Who?"

Lucian walked forward and stood in front of his brother, resting his chin on his folded finger.

"It’s no witch’s spell that’s for sure."

"Then what is it?"

Lucian fell silent for a while then snapped his fingers. "What did you say happened when the guards tried to capture the princess?"

"How does that have to do with anything."

Lucian stared stupidly at him like he just said the earth was a pin. How could he be this dumb? He pinched the bridge on his nose and shook his head.

"Can’t you see that she is not a normal girl? What happened?"

Cassian hissed at him and folded his arms.

"A bright light shone from her body and blinded the guards." he said grumpily.

Hmm.

"That light must have protected her from incoming and upcoming danger hence the invisible cage."

Cassian entered a sea of thoughts for a while. He had had his suspicious about her ever since she flung him to the wall in the bedroom. What was this girl exactly?

"The princess isn’t human that’s for sure."

Cassian waved his hand. "We’ll deal with that crap later. Right now we have to find a way to get out of this freaking cage."

"We?" Lucian questioned with a raised brow.

Cassian’s gaze darkened ten times its normal degree. He gripped his shirt and pulled him roughly to himself. "We’re in this together if you must have forgotten. If I go down, we go down together."

Cassian shoved him backwards, releasing his hold in the process. "Don’t you ever forget that."

Lucian sighed heavily and turned to mount his horse back when a shrill yet shrieking cry echoed from above them. Lucian and Cassian looked up as flaming balls of fire shot directly towards them, burning up the invisible dome that trapped them.

"What the heck is that?!" Cassian shrieked out, mounting his horse and running away from where he stood with Lucian.

Once the dome was gone, the fire rained down like the apocalypse was near, burning to dust whatever tangible thing unfortunate to be near it.

Lucian mounted his horse too and ran to the farther end of the palace, away from where Cassian was. The guards, unaware of their masters’ movements, were candidly consumed by the hell fire.

Cassian barged into the underground laboratory, searching frantically for the chief. Once he found him, he grabbed his shoulders, sweat dripping seriously onto the man.

"Gather the subjects! We’re under a siege!"

The old man looked at him in confusion but seeing the desperation in his eyes, restrained from asking questions.

Capsules of mutilated, great thin but strong aliens, shot up from the ground one after the other. As each lever was pulled, hundreds of those capsules released its horrific, mind controlled inmates. Under a few minutes, an army of over a thousand freakish rogues stood in the abnormally spacious laboratory.

Cassian grabbed a pendant that was placed carefully in a box and stabbed it into his chest so that it became a part of him.

The hybrid rogues instantly opened their red, black eyes, focusing them on the man who was their new master.

With a wave of his hand, Cassian vanished from the laboratory together with his army of hybrid monsters. Even with their massive amount, that still wasn’t their full number. The rest were still buried even deeper underground, too ugly and terrifying to look at.

Once out, a loud, ear shattering screech echoes from their bony throats and in a minute they began to grow taller and bigger. Their legs turned to hinds similar to a lion’s, their blackened bodies glowed fully red and their hollow eyes was void of any eyeballs. They stood with mantis like hands on their elongated, hind legs, crouching down eerily as if preparing to leap.

The balls of fire eventually ceased upon their arrival and a great wind rushed through the courtyard.

The wind brought up dust that wasn’t there and burned the hardest trees in the palace.

Even with that, Cassian stood strong in front of his army of hybrids. He didn’t know who or what was invading him but he had his guesses. It was either the myth of the dragons return was happening or it was happening. No other thought came up in his head.

He had seldom had the thought during his reign but had pushed it aside.

"I’ve been king for months now and still no dragon invasion. What a load of nonsense!"

Now, that very load of nonsense was happening right before his eyes.

By the time the dust settled, a towering, gigantic figure emerged from the settling dust. Lucian, who had come out of hiding upon seeing Cassian’s army and taking his place behind him, gasped in shock at what met his eyes.

Cassian stumbled backwards, almost knocking over one of the rogues.

"How..."

A creepy, dangerous grin spread across the figure’s face.

"Long time no see...brother."