33 5 Days Before Halloween PART J

"Hang on, how long has it been since we casted that magic-immune spell on the Witch?" someone posed the question abruptly.

"56 minutes and-"

Everyone looked at Alivia and at the boy in the white cloak. "He has been storing time for the Witch! You are right! He is definitely under a spell! "

"No, I was-"

"Stop! Everyone stop talking at once!" Victoria interjected before the boy in the white cloak could reply to any of the accusations against him. "Should we really argue about this now, right here when we only have approximately 20 minutes left? " She shook her head like a mother chiding her children. "You!" she pointed at the boy in the white cloak, "Just go and find a place to undo whatever spell it has put on you."

Then, she turned towards the others and firmly indicated, "I have made my final decision. Since this Witch doesn't seem to have the tendency to corporate with us, I can only assume that these human-like actions are only part of its disguise. So without further ado, I say we execute it right now. End of conversation."

The boy in the white clock wiggled his head. "But Professor Helios said-"

"I don't care what my fath-Professor Helios said." Victoria bit out, great annoyance evident in her tone. "His revolution, his new ideas or theories... whatever they are... None. Of. My business!"

"Listen to me. Her soul might still be there. If you eliminate her right now, you will make-"

"Exterminate it! Now!" Victoria eventually decided to ignore the boy's words completely and announced.

"Stop! No! You are making a mistake!" the boy shouted, attempting to stop Victoria and his other companions from being impulsive. But it was too late. His companions had begun to draw out their weapons like a samurai sword, a long whip, silver guns and a crystal handheld fan from the narrow and shallow inner pockets of their cloaks as if they were another version of a magician's hat.

All the semi-transparent animals and human-like spirits, on the other side, regarded Alivia with hostility among their eyes. Some were growling, some were hissing and some were hitting the ground with their hoofs aggressively. Then, when the cloaked people murmured an incantation to them, in a brief flash, all the spirits disappeared and were "absorbed" into their weapons, adding sparkles, glitters and vibrant coloured flames onto them.

*****

When it was obvious that she could no longer fool her enemies and there were no any other reasons to hide the Reaper's ring anymore, Alivia promptly took the ring out of her pocket. Then, with her mother's voice echoing in her head...

"Last lesson! Okay, now under ordinary circumstances, you wouldn't be needing this because magic will do all the work. But, when exceptional cases like say a Witch Hunter tries to hunt you down or one of my crazy siblings try to rob you of the ring, and you need a powerful weapon other than magic, well, I have implanted a 'safety switch' in this ring. Just say this to it…"

"Liberate!" Alivia shouted the word that meant "release" in Spanish aloud, and within a few seconds, the Reaper's ring enlarged, twisted and transformed into a merlot red scythe. Meanwhile, thin black vines also grew from the grips and wound around its dark purple snath as well as her wrists, impaling their thorns into her skin so as to feed off her blood. She didn't feel much pain (but the image was not pleasant to look at).

'I might not be able to magic myself away, but I can still fight my way out!' With two hands tightly holding onto the dark blue handle, she was ready to engage her adversaries.

*****

"Mistake?" Victoria retorted. "No, we HAVE already made a mistake by letting you speak. We could have easily taken it down but now- " She gestured at the fully armed Alivia. "Just stay out of this fight or fight with us!" she roared at the boy in the white cloak before she lunged at Alivia with her bow in her right hand and golden flames erupting from her left.