Forever Destined To The Silver Shadow

Celestia's POV: 

I didn't know if I should appreciate him for his loyalty or scold him for his stupidity. Either way, it is too late now! The remaining three warriors in our gang volunteered to go to the spot and rescue our clan. 

I had no other choice except to let them leave—as they are not going to yield even if I tell them to do so. Will anyone care to listen to me? 

Just like the others, those warriors, too, never returned. They got captured as well! Now only Edwin and Ember were with me. I got extremely impatient with the situation. 

I showed off my frustration by lashing out at Edwin again. "Just tell me, Edwin! What good did occur by blankly making those warriors sacrifice themselves? This is not even worth it! Is it?"

Edwin seemed defeated by my question. Instead of giving me a reply, he turned to Ember and said, "Now we should focus on our first priority of saving the Dawn. I will open the portal to the Highland castle and take the Dawn to the safety—"

At first, I thought that Edwin was just kidding. He can't be seriously suggesting something like this! When he raised his palms and yielded the ball of blue flames in between both of his palms, I realized that he was not kidding; he was really going to open a portal now.

"Edwin, stop it," I shouted out. "You can't be this much unjust! How can we go back to the castle without our warriors?"

"We can't do anything about it for now! The only option we have here now is to explain the situation to the Fae King and get the help of the Fae houses in the mission of rescuing our warriors—"

"No, it would be too late by then," I snapped. "Lilin might take them to the shadow realm and imprison our warriors there. Then it would be a hell of a lot difficult to rescue our warriors."

"Yes, it will be," he replied. "But I think that we will have to take that risk. This is the best option we have."

"No," I shouted. "I am not going to leave this spot without rescuing my friends—"

Then Edwin lowered both hands and looked at me. "Celestia now is really not the time to be rebellious. So can you please cooperate with us until we-"

He stopped talking as he heard the noise of our friends screaming out again. My whole body shivered! They are definitely not okay. We can't leave them. 

After hearing the cries of the warriors for the second time, even Edwin didn't speak about running away from the forest. This is do or die now!

I stood before my friends and said to them, "Listen to me, guys! The fate of our fellow warriors lies in our hands. It doesn't mean that we have to yield to the dark forces. That trickster needs only me. So I will offer myself to him for now and demand that he release our friends. Then we can-"

"That is completely unnecessary, Celestia," said a voice that didn't belong to either Ember or Edwin. "Once you offer yourself to that trickster, then you are trapped with him for eternity! Even the Holy Aiden can not save your soul—"

I immediately turned back to look who it was—only to see my four warrior friends, including Darius. How did they get here? I thought that they were captured!

Then Darius stepped forward to me with a smirk on his face. "You seem to love taking the pain of others, don't you? I wonder what else you can take—"

I wasn't able to comprehend what he was coming to say. His whole body language was odd to me. And the warriors behind him were looking at me as if I was some kind of gem. What happened to them? Why are they not tense at all? We are in the middle of an apocalypse now! 

"All of your pain is going to end today, Celestia," Darius said and smiled. "From now on, all you are going to feel is a heavenly pleasure—"

There is only one explanation for this. Lilin must have done something to make Darius into a lunatic. That is why he is speaking nonsense like this.

Then Darius landed his eyes on Edwin, who was behind me. "You warrior, go to the spot and save your friends. I will take care of these two lovely ladies…."

Lovely ladies?! Did Darius just call me a lovely lady? Something doesn't feel right here. I turned my gaze back to Ember and Edwin, who was dazed just like me.

"Warrior, leave the spot now," Darius shouted and scared me. I immediately moved away from him and stood beside Edwin. I don't know what is happening now, but all I know is that these people are not my friends. They seem like imposters to me! 

They could be some kind of shapeshifting shadow creatures. I was so much disgusted by Silver Shadow at that moment. He can stoop down this low and send out imposters to manipulate me?!

Ember was dazed, but Edwin seemed to know what was going on here. He brightened up his palms with his blue flames and pointed it out in the direction of Darius. "Who the hell are you imposters? Reveal your true forms to me—"

The imposter who looked like Darius chuckled slightly and replied, "You seem to be a smart one! Anyway, it would be good for you if you took off now. We four of us are already starving so much, and we need our meal—"

They are starving?! And they need their meal? What creatures are they?! Perhaps their superpower is to shapeshift and speak out nonsense. 

"Ember, attack them now! And Celestia, run away from here as far as you can. They seem like creatures of lust to me—" 

I didn't have the strength to leave them both alone with these creepy creatures.. So I just froze in my spot and tried hard to figure out what creatures of lust were in the Shadow Realm. Are they Incubus?!