Crow coughed. She suddenly felt warm despite the cold as she lightly grabbed the blade, but it was pushed further into her back, causing her to spit blood. The blade had pierced her heart and she was surely going to die.

  She wanted to speak, but her mouth wouldn’t move.

  Then she felt cold all of a sudden.

  The tattoo on her forehead flickered then slowly faded away, as she returned to her original form. The moment her form reverted, the pain from the blade intensified.

  She screamed, falling to her knees with the blade still in her chest.

  “I must admit, that was a bit harder than I thought it would be,” Pepper said.

  His body slowly returned to its original form as his sister bled out on the sand.

  Her life slowly flashed before her eyes; the centuries of experience assaulting her as she lost consciousness.

  “I think I’d go for the Peterson family next,” were the last words she heard before she blacked out.

  Mrs. Crow was dead.

  ***

  It was a belief in the Crow family that once a sorcerer dies, he or she would be transmigrated to another world, and get another chance to live. But nobody had been able to prove it.

  Crow opened her eyes, scanning the surroundings. She was in a vast seemingly-endless space. Her feet were buried in a pool of red liquid that reached her ankles.

  “Blood?” She kicked her feet.

  “No, it’s too light for blood.”

  Could this be the afterlife? She thought, her eyes darting around the space. Everywhere was red, the skies were red and there was a dark moon hovering up there.

  “Hello?” Crow called out, but her voice came back to her ears.

  “Anyone there?”

  ***

  Three hours had passed, and Crow had been walking in the same direction.

  “How do I get out of here?” She looked ahead, her eyes not falling on any physical object. All that existed was vastness.

  Then she saw something.

  Quite a distance from where she stood, someone was waving. The person jumped up and down enthusiastically, and waved more violently, when Crow squinted her eyes to get a better look.

  Who was that?

  “Hello!” She called out, and the figure stopped, seeming to hear her. Then the person turned around, and started to run. Without thinking, Crow gave chase. The water did not slow her down as she ran as fast as possible trying to close the gap, but the person was faster, and was soon out of sight.

  “Dammit!” She looked around again, then she caught something from the corner of her eye. Something ran past her.

  “Who’s there?” she called out, turning around, but no one was there.

  Then someone spoke from behind her.

  “It’s good to see you again Crow of the Blackwater,” the voice said, causing Crow’s body to have goosebumps.

  She turned around.

  “You!” she exclaimed. Her legs shook as she watched the man who stood before her smile, gently stroking his robe.

  “Doom? How did you…” Crow started but he raised his hand, stopping her.

  “You are dead,” he said frankly.

  “Right now, your brother is on his way to the Petersons to kill them. I gave you one simple task, and you failed.”

  “How are you here?” Crow asked.

  She was sure Doom was still imprisoned in Astra 12. Or had her brother released him? That wasn’t possible! If he did, news would travel fast and most of the world would be destroyed already. So how was she speaking to him?

  “When I gave you my power, I also found a way to project a part of myself into your consciousness.”

  Crow remembered the voice she heard while fighting her brother moments earlier, then, “Wait! What do you mean I’m dead?” she asked, as her mind replayed the events that led to her death.

  She really had failed, and Anna was going to be killed.

  Then Doom gave her a glimmer of hope.

  “I can bring you back, but on one condition.”

  “What condition?” Crow replied eagerly.

  “I need to take partial control of your body, like I did your brother’s.”

  Crow was suspicious. She had heard of ancient techniques that allowed magic users to spread their consciousness among different hosts, just to escape imprisonment, and then after taking control of those hosts, the magic users would cause them to converge at a single point and compile those consciousness fragments into a single host, regaining their original bodies and magic in the process. Although the consciousness fragments did not have much magical power, the case was different from Doom because of course he was the most powerful being in the underworld.

  “No! No deal!” Crow screamed.

  Doom laughed lightly.

  “Then good luck with the usurper.”

  Mrs. Crow’s pupils shrank in fear.

  A usurper was a magical being that sorcerers had little to no information on. All they knew was that they were responsible for torturing souls and there was no way to fight them off because they only appeared when one was dead.

  From a distance, there was a shrill scream that pierced Crow’s ears. She squinted due to the loud noise and watched as Doom turned around to leave.

  She had no chance of fighting it, and her fate was sealed if she stayed there.

  “Wait,” she said.

  “Oh, you are changing your mind?” Doom asked, with a sly smile.

  “Just do what you want,” Crow replied.

  From a distance, she saw a dark figure slowly approaching her, then it sped up, darting at her, but before it reached where she was, Doom got to her first, entering her body.

  ***

  Crow grabbed the blade with her hand. She stood to her feet and slammed the blade on its side, shattering it. Then she reached for her back and held the blade’s handle, twisting it, and pulling it out of her back. It tore her open, but the wound closed up almost instantaneously.

  “Impossible!” Pepper screamed.

  Even though Crow had spent several hours in the other realm, barely six seconds had gone by in the real world.

  Her body glowed a bright red, and on her forehead was the tattoo of a bull.

  “Where did you get that power from?!” Pepper bellowed, charging at her.

  She charged at him, and they clashed, creating a shockwave that traveled an area of over ten kilometers, destroying the city even more.

  Then the fight started.

  Pepper’s head was instantly adorned with the tattoo of a bull and he raised his hands. The sky turned dark and cracks of white lightning adorned the sky.

  “Hrah!” He dropped his hands and lightning rained down on the ground where Mrs. Crow stood. She sidestepped, dodging the lightning bolt, but that wasn’t the end. More bolts rained down, and she barely dodged each one as they assaulted her.

  I have to close the distance, she thought, jumping at her brother, but when she was about to reach him, her body instinctively jumped backwards, and a lightning bolt struck where she was, just a split second ago.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Her brother laughed maniacally, as he watched his sister struggle to close the distance. Then she screamed, sending a huge shockwave at the sky, stopping the lightning, and causing rain to start. Slowly, she levitated and her brother followed suit.

  Mrs. Crow spread her right palm wide, and sent what looked like a small black hole at her brother. It had the size of a professional football as it made its way towards Pepper.

  He recognized it immediately and dodged, but it changed direction and gave chase.

  Realizing there was no way to deal with it, he charged at his sister who screamed again and around her, several swords made of red light were formed. The swords were at least twenty thousand in number and because there were so many, the entire area was bathed in red light.

  But Pepper didn’t stop. He flew even faster, with the black ball of energy still behind him.

  “Die!”

  The red swords darted at Pepper who grabbed at air, pulling another sword out of thin air. He deflected the swords that were thrown at him with precision as he got closer to his sister. His hands were fast, and they moved too quick for the naked eye to see. Mrs. Crow hovered on the same spot, and willed in her mind, then the swords got faster.

  Pepper deflected a few, until he screamed.

  A sword made contact, ripping off his entire right arm. Thinking quickly, he turned around and headed for the city, with the black ball still behind him.

  Crow gave chase.

  He screamed, his eyes glowing white with electricity, as multiple bolts of lightning shot out of his body, decimating the city below. Limbs were thrown around, as people were chopped into pieces like minced meat. Soon, the smell of blood filled the air, with people screaming uncontrollably as they ran for safety.

  But strangely, there was no law enforcement in sight.

  “Timmy!” a woman screamed, trying to pull her son from below collapsed rubble. She coughed trying to pull him out as the little boy screamed, then in a flash, his other half was before her.

  Pepper had grabbed the boy and pulled him so hard, his upper body got separated from his lower body. She screamed in agony, but then her head came off. Her body froze in a kneeling position as blood spurted out from her neck before she fell to the ground with a PLOP.

  Laughing maniacally while still evading the black ball of energy, Pepper used the young boy’s upper half to beat other civilians who scrambled around, trying to find refuge. He hit people repeatedly, until the boy’s corpse became mangled and then he dropped it.

  This spell is getting troublesome, he thought, glancing behind him, as the black ball got closer.

  I guess I have no choice.

  Within the space of one second, he snapped his fingers, and the summoning orb came into view. Immediately it appeared, it turned black, and the wraith flew out of it at lightning speed heading for the black energy ball. It opened its mouth and swallowed the ball whole, neutralizing the threat.

  Mrs. Crow stopped.

  There were still some red swords of light surrounding Crow, but the number had been reduced by more than half.

  “Why did you stop?!” Pepper bellowed, knowing why she did.

  The wraith looked at her, seeming to smile, as it waited for Pepper’s instruction.

  “What the hell is that thing?” “It’s a monster!” Some people screamed below, on seeing the wraith.

  Pepper, clearly irritated, merely glanced in their direction, and the wraith flickered, but the people below froze, and then their body parts fell off one by one. At this point, everyone that remained in Hampton when the fight started was dead.

  Before Crow could utter a word, the wraith darted at her, slashing at her. She wanted to dodge, but she was too slow and she could barely move out of the way. Its claws sank into her chest, cleaving away part of her skin and flesh. She screamed, as blood poured out, exposing her organs, but the wraith did not stop. It slashed a second time and she dodged it, but the claws cleaved most of her shoulders away.

  Crow gritted her teeth, and quickly zoomed backwards to create as much distance as she could. Her body burned with pain as she stared at the wraith which darted at her again.

  Using sheer willpower, she teleported behind it, but something grabbed her head.

  Her brother!

  She had been so focused on the wraith, she forgot about him.

  He threw her at the wraith, and it grabbed her head then flew at lightning speed.

  Crow was run through the entire city, her body crashing through buildings, cars, the road, trees, and even corpses of citizens. She was lucky because she had a decent healing factor, thanks to Doom, but her body was in constant pain, despite the healing being almost instantaneous.

  The Wraith threw her up, and her brother held her in place. Then it flew towards her, and grabbed her already-injured arm, tugging at it.

  Pangs of pain shot through her body, as she fought hard to resist, but the wraith was stronger. It pulled harder, and she screamed, tears flying out of her eyes, until the whole arm was ripped off. Blood splashed everywhere, and she watched as the wraith threw her hand away.

  Mrs. Crow’s healing factor was good, but losing a limb did not mean instant regeneration. Her brother had regrown his arm at this time.

  “Goodbye sister!” he bellowed, as his hand contorted into a sharp blade.

  But at that moment, something happened.

  “He has betrayed me! Stop him!” a familiar voice bellowed. It was Doom’s voice.

  What does he mean? Crow thought, but before she could make sense of the situation, the voice spoke again urgently.

  “Take more of my power. You have to take it! Kill the wraith!”

  Before she could think, a red mist flew out of her brother’s eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, entering into Crow’s.

  She felt a surge of power, and broke free of his grasp, her hand immediately regenerating.

  “No! Kill her!” Pepper screamed at the wraith.

  It darted at Crow but this time, she was faster.

  She grabbed both its arms and spun incredibly fast, and released it, sending it flying with the centrifugal force. Before the wraith could regain its balance, Crow duplicated, making over one thousand copies of herself, while her main body went to deal with the wraith.

  Killing a wraith was almost impossible unless one had a high amount of mana, because the spell required to deal with one consumed a lot of mana.

  She flew at it and grabbed its head, taking it to the ground.

  They made impact with a loud BOOM, and the wraith struggled to break free, but Crow did not even shake. Her strength was too much.

  She muttered some words which sounded like gibberish, and they were suddenly surrounded by small purple flame fragments arranged around them, forming a circle.

  The wraith screamed, thrashed, and then turned to smoke.

  Immediately, she flew towards her brother.

  Filled with rage, and tears in her eyes, she screamed as loud as she could, her body glowing even redder.

  Pepper had taken significant damage from her clones, and he barely killed up to twenty of them. They kept attacking and hitting him with different elemental attacks, until he could no longer fly properly.

  Then at that moment, the clones disappeared, and Crow closed her eyes, screaming as something burned in her core. It got hotter until there was an explosion that decimated and leveled the entire city. This explosion was one of the weakest spells in Doom’s arsenal.

  It was so severe that everything was burnt to a crisp in an instant. Cars were completely melted, the corpses and bones were turned to ash, and buildings were totally decimated. Nothing was left, and if one had observed the scene from far away, it would have looked like a nuclear bomb was released.

  Crow fell to the ground, panting heavily, feeling relieved.

  But just a stone’s throw from where she was, Pepper lay on his back, his clothes burnt and most of his body had suffered severe burns.

  He groaned.

  The bastard was not dead, but there was no way he would survive.

  Crow’s head hurt lightly, as she tried to control her breathing, standing to her feet. Her skin color returned to normal, and the tattoo on her forehead faded away.

  Then a thought crossed her mind; what did Doom mean when he talked about being betrayed?

  She dismissed the thought. “I have to get back to Anna,” she muttered, slowly walking towards her brother. She stood over him, staring disdainfully.

  “Die you bastard,” she said, raising her hand to kill him, then she stopped.

  He was dead.

  But something was wrong, and she hadn’t noticed yet.

  She bent down and grabbed his head, pulling it and separating it from his body to ensure he didn’t miraculously come back to life.

  Cradling his head in her hands, she vanished.

  Back at Annabelle’s house, “Do you think Crow would win?” Joanna asked, unable to hide her fear.

  “What’s all this talk about magic? So magic really exists and my grandfather was a magician? Am I a magician?” Mr. Peterson asked, still tied up.

  “I don’t think so dad,” Anna said. Everyone laughed.

  “Well, I guess we may never know because we will all soon die,” Mr. Peterson said, spoiling the mood.

  “Well, he’s right. There’s no way Crow could beat that man,” Jackson commented.

  “By the way, where is Jacob?” Joanna asked.

  Annabelle was about to answer when Mrs. Crow appeared in their midst alongside Jacob.

  Surprised and overwhelmed by joy “You won?!” Annabelle screamed in a high pitched voice then she began to cry.

  “Oh thank God! She won! We are free! No more Pepper!” everyone said, joyful expressions on their faces.

  “Everyone calm down. Pepper is dead and we are free now,” Mrs. Crow said, stating the obvious just for dramatic effect.

  She and Jacob untied everyone.

  “I thought you were taken to the basement?” Annabelle asked as Jacob mischievously smiled at her. He had escaped when James left him in the basement.

  “So magic exists,” Josh said, rubbing his red wrists.

  “I have to go to the bathroom!” he added and darted upstairs.

  “Wow this changes everything,” Mr. Peterson said, hugging his wife passionately.

  “I think we should wipe their memories of this incident,” Annabelle whispered and everyone nodded in agreement.

  “Joshua!” Crow called, and Josh came running down the stairs, a notebook and pen in his hand.

  “I’m going to document all I can on magic,” he said, opening the book and clicking the pen, expecting Crow to say something.

  “You won’t want to be here when their memories are wiped,” Mrs. Crow whispered and Anna and her friends walked out of the house. With a WHOOSH and a flash of light, their memories were all wiped and they all lay unconscious on the floor.

  Mrs. Crow carefully placed them on the couch and called Anna and her friends into the house. Again, something was wrong, and Crow hadn’t noticed.

  “They look so peaceful,” Annabelle said, her arms around Jackson’s waist as she watched her family sleep.

  A few days later, everything had gone back to normal. Anna was back to her normal life, Jackson still her boyfriend. Joanna had found a guy she liked and had started dating him, and the school was back to normal.

  James’s parents mourned him, not knowing the full story.

  Crow had become principal of the school with the help of her magic and Annabelle’s life was completely free of danger.

  Or was it?