E.C. EDWARDS - The Mighty Antimagic Spell

Even she believed that, but not her Guardian. The little hawk descended from where he was in the air with speed and clung to the bloody creature’s mouth. He began to snatch with his beak pieces of fur and flesh from the mouth of the Lycanthrope.

She screamed again, but not as before. This time it was a cry of pain. He tried to catch the hawk with his claws, but failed, sign that something was going on. Smoke began to come out from the creature's mouth, his limbs failed to obey him and suddenly something seemed to poison his whole body. Howls and screams of a wolf about to die were now heard from the Lycanthrope.

Elizabeth saw that the wolf-creature was started shrinking.

The hawk stopped attacking and landed on his master's shoulder watching calmly the huge Lycanthrop shrinking more and more until he became an old, skinny wolf.

Scared and confused, physically destroyed and suffering from the curse put on him, the old wolf collapsed exhausted to the ground, barely breathing.

The Divine Parchment fell of the wolf’s ear. It had belonged to the Swamp Prince. The parchment was now there, falling to the ground off the monster's ear when he began shrinking.

The girl took the parchment in her hand and read:

“Antimagic ...”

Then the Parchment disappeared, turned to dust.

The girl felt at once on her neck, under her ear, a tattoo taking shape. Unlike the other tattoos, it was a hollow circle. That’s all the girl could see being drawn on her body..

Unaware, she headed for Fahria in a hurry, looking at that wolf. She was much quieter now, because that Lycanthrope had been killed forever.

Hardly had she taken three steps towards the elf girl, when rumbles were heard everywhere. The area got populated with people wearing capes.

Elizabeth was scared thinking they were the guys who cursed the wolf, as Fahria had said. Yet, when she saw Miss Harmony’s smiling happy face when she found Elizabeth alive, and then Professor Knudlac ... the girl sighed in relief as tears kept streaming down her cheeks.

She ran to Miss Harmony.

"My dear, it's over," said Miss Harmony, relieved as well when she saw that wolf breathless. “I thought that…”

“That's how it was meant to be. As always, the location for the event was chosen by those who organize this contest. The Magic Consulate inspired by ... magic.”

Professor Knudlac also approached the girl.

"A powerful magic we’ve never seen before, an invisible wall that only Princess Eowyn managed to destroy after many, many attempts, kept us apart," said Professor Knudlac, trying to apologize for the delay. “I just hope that ...”

He was visibly worried thinking it might be too late for some of them, but he was relieved when he heard a stone elf saying:

“Both the elf and the boy are all right. The boy's Guardian too, even if he’s seriously injured, he’ll get well. The hawk is all right. Who’d have imagined that?”

"My hawk killed the Lycanthrope," Elizabeth exclaimed. “He’s a friend and a reliable help.”

“Lycanthrope?” Miss Harmony asked, scared when she heard the name of the creature the three children had to face. “What creature is that?”

Elizabeth showed her that wolf, which was dead, but Miss Harmony could understand nothing.

"Perhaps your hawk is endowed with claws and beak of pure silver," Knudlac said studying the bird. Yes, that's it. That's why he killed him.”

Knudlac approached the wolf.

“Only a dying wolf, with little spark of life left, can be so cursed so badly. Poor thing...”

While Professor Knudlac was investigating the animal and Miss Harmony was hugging the girl, the wizards began to disappear one by one carrying with them the two injured children and their Guardians. They took with them the frog prince’s body too.

Knudlac, Harmony, Elizabeth and four more wizards were still there.

“Let's go,” Knudlac told them.

Even when one of the wizards took a step, he had to stop because of a kind of shield. The hawk popped up at once.

“Be careful!” Knudlac called out to the wizards.

The other wizards’ Guardians came quickly, including the second Knudlac.

A badger came, as big as a veal, a giant gorilla, a huge black bear and an enormous baboon, as well as Miss Harmony’s Guardian ... a cheetah with tiger stripes, a very beautiful creature. Nor could there be a softer and more elegant animal to match Miss Harmony's elegance.

Soon the others came too. Those who set up a trap to the rest of them, keeping them stuck in that place with that magic shield created.

“I thought it was you,” one of the Knudlac guys sighed when he saw Vlad with an army of evil wizards, as Miss Harmony used to call them.

The evil wizards were accompanied by some creatures ... let's say the opposite of the Guardians. But very few, even if there were more than twenty evil wizards.

There was a crocodile so affected by various diseases and wounds that it was a miracle he was still alive. There was also a creature that looked like a human lizard. He could walk like a man, except he was a ... reptile. Then there was a creature, who once, long ago, may have been a beautiful and gentle being, a splendid tiger, but now his teeth very affected by cavities and they were intensely yellow, visible through the portion of cheek missing. As for the fur, in many places it lacked the specific striped tiger hair.

And of course ... the creature that was with Vlad all the time. A creature that unlike the other Anti-Guardians was beautiful, with the skin untouched by the time, but without a bit of colour, as white as lime. The hair, black olive colour was straight, in a ponytail, and his imposing stature denoted power and wisdom.

"They’re monstrous," said Elizabeth, to whom that Lycanthrope now seemed nice beside the creatures she was meant to see.

“Yes ... they are slowly dying because their masters chose black magic. Black magic destroys the Guardians since the first moment the masters decide to use black magic. And eventually they die in terrible torment. Their masters, who are also on the path to perdition, are ultimately left without Guardians. And as I can see, these guardians are dying too…, ” Miss Harmony explained to Elizabeth.

“What about Vlad Dragoesti’s Guardian ...?”

“He's dead for a long time. He’s a vampire who feeds on innocent beings’ blood. I hoped it was just a rumour, but now I can see it's true ...”

Elizabeth looked at that being that used to destroy innocent souls. The creature looked like feeling the girl’s gaze, because he smiled and winked at her, without watching her for he was busy with the wizards’ Guardians.

“I still wonder where you get so much power to do such magic. I didn't even expect you to be so strong,” Knudlac told Vlad.

“I have to admit it's not my credit. It’s someone’s who’s stronger than me ... at least for now. And who decided to be on our side, those who truly understand what magic means and what it can be used for. The power to lead the world. Not only the world of magic ... but also that of sceptics. And why not, in time, other worlds too ...”

“To use magic against ordinary people, to subjugate them is a crime ... it doesn’t mean you know how to use magic.”

“Since the beginning of the world, the powerful subjugated the weak, Eadan. Wizards or sceptics. People subjugated people ... and now it's our turn, wizards, to subjugate people. But let's leave that, because we have no time,” Vlad said, looking at a wizard who turned head to see what happened to the others and used his wand to destroy the magic barrier that surrounded them.

But it was in vain.