"Highest Priestess!" the guard exclaimed, "Royal Palace is under attack!"

  Pythia replied promptly: "Royal Family?"

  The guard lifted his wrist, pressing his fingers lightly against the seal. His lips barely moved as he whispered: "Continue report.” After a brief moment, he relayed the message: “The Diamond and two Emeralds secured."

  He went quiet again, but quickly resumed, pulling his focus back to Pythia. I chased his every word: "The Ruby and Amber were strolling in the Royal Garden." Pythia's gaze seemed to pierce him, urging him to continue. "There's no contact with their spirits and their Shadow Guards."

  Pythia's hand flew to cover her mouth as she gasped: "Princess Ariadne!"

  She forced her hand back to her lap, tightened her lips, and amid an explosion outside, she ordered the guard: "Authorize Legatus to dispatch Holy Knights to the Royal Garden. Full combat mode. Get them ba—"

  Pythia didn't finish her sentence because the door blew wide open. A second guard entered the room. I froze. He didn't bow. "Highest Priestess, the Temple's security has been breached."

  He marched toward her continuing, "By the power bestowed upon me by Pandora, I commence the Aegis Shield." The guard grabbed Pythia firmly. "We have to move, now." Now both guards were by her side, forcefully pulling her toward the door.

  Pythia didn't resist, but she looked at me, then at the guards, and shouted, "The Otherworlder!"

  Althea warned. "You have to hide, Leonard. The enemy is close."

  I asked desperately, "Hide? But where?"

  The guards with Pythia were halfway to the door when one ordered the other: "Secure Otherworlder. Second priority."

  "Follow the guards. They will take you to the shelter underground," Althea said quickly and my heartbeat increased.

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  Pythia was already outside with her guard when "my" guard grabbed me, with no shred of politeness from before, and dragged me outside. My feet stumbled. I couldn't keep up with his pace, and he half-carried me.

  We reached half of the hallway when I heard the second explosion—very close. Faint shouts and the voices of a fight. They quickly went silent. My heart hammered in my chest. The guards stopped. Then a metallic ball crashed the window in Pythia's room and landed in the hallway.

  A flash followed by an incredibly loud bang leveled me as the guard instinctively dropped me on the floor. I couldn't stand on my own. The explosion was already gone, but it still rang in my ears and dropped a veil of painful brightness over my sight.

  I heard muffled clanks, shouts, and screams, but I didn't understand where they were coming from. Sudden pain from the wrist shot up to my head, then escalated through my body—a jolt, a painful surge—but my senses cleared considerably.

  I saw the guards in hand-to-hand combat with five attackers. The enemies were short, with inhumane faces and dirty green skin. They seemed weaker than the guards, but their speed was unnerving.

  Their short daggers had problems penetrating the guards' scale-like armor, but they insistently continued their attacks. Guards blocked the path to me and Pythia, but I noticed a sixth attacker creeping behind, waiting for an opportunity to slip by.

  I yelled, "There's another one in the back!" but my voice came out weak. I wasn't sure if the guards heard me among the chaos. I crept slowly toward Pythia, who was lying unconscious.

  "Althea, do the jolt again," I managed to spit out, but she countered: "This will damage your body. Guards are holding up and reinforcements are coming."

  A deep, booming bang—not an explosion, but a series of heavy impacts—vibrated through the stone beside me. And then the wall to the right of the fight blew inward in chunks. The air grew thick with dust, coating my tongue with grit.

  A new figure stepped through the ruin. A monstrous knight. His eyes blazing red, his movements precise and without delay. The green enemies instantly recoiled, eyes and mouths wide open in shock. The knight slammed his left hand against the guards, shoving them aside, and smashed his massive hammer into the remaining attackers.

  The sound was a deafening, wet CRACK that stole the air from my lungs.

  The stone floor beneath the monsters buckled, and the wall they were hit against fractured under the immense force. Purple liquid splashed everywhere.

  The last attacker tried to flee, but the knight threw a brick from the wall with such might that the green monster's upper half just disappeared into a mist of blood and guts.

  The guards returned to us, grabbed the unconscious Pythia and me. The Holy Knight observed the scene, and my eyes locked on our savior.

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