Legion's Plague

"So," Kaleb said as he seemed to glare at Alexis all over again, this time crossing his Herculean arms and tapping a foot, "Tell me what we must do."

Alexis felt a lump in her throat. She gulped hard before speaking in a series of squeaks, "W-We need to f-find objects...that contain the p-powers of members of our f-family so they can recover."

"Anything else?" Kaleb asked, his glare unwavering, "Tell me." he added.

"Not m-much. B-But I think an a-alleged c-cult that Prince Blueblood c-created has something t-to do with this." Alexis squeaked.

Kaleb seemed to understand what Alexis was trying to talk about. He pulled a small wooden box attached to his silver belt via string and opened it. From that box, he produced an earring.

"May I see that?" Nick asked, pointing to the small object between Kaleb's fingers.

Kaleb tossed the object to the murky-haired man, who caught it with ease. Nick studied it--traditional earring loop, a small, silver vein contrasting a nigh-black background in the form of a thorned sword....

"Where did you find this?" Nick asked, bewildered as the small earring seemed to radiate a sort of unearthly power; a power that seemed to have been hand-crafted and refined over and over again solely for the mass destruction of many places. It then felt warmer than the fire he and his friends crafted, but it didn't burn him--even though it should.

Something clicked in his brain.

Machine.

Fire.

Destruction.

He knew who those three words described. Whose weapon the earring was carved after. Whose colors coincided with his former occupation.

He stomped the fire out, much to the objection of everyone else.

"Don't!" Wailed Amelia.

"What the?!" Jaden caterwauled, clearly distraught.

"Quit it! We need the fire!" Wing exclaimed, shocked.

"I think I inherited mom's fear of the dark!" Alexis shrieked in terror.

"I thought we were gonna camp here!" Lazarus yelled, his voice echoing off of the walls louder than everyone else's.

"Great. We're gonna need more wood." Lancelot stated as he glared at Nick.

"Why did you do that?! It's fucking cold!!" Fang screamed as he grabbed Nick by the shoulders.

"There's no time. We have to get to Twilight now." Nick replied as he showed Fang the earring. Fang's jaw, needless to say, dropped.

Wing looked at Kaleb. "Where did you get that?!"

"I went to this town called Canterlot. I saw a castle and decided to investigate it. After slaying some....strange, zombie-like equine creatures, I saw one of them had that piece of jewelry stuck in its hoof." Kaleb sighed with a shake of his head.

"I ain't moving until Alexis takes a whole bottle's worth of chill pills." Lazarus commented, pointing a finger at the quarter-demon.

"What's this?" Kaleb asked as he glanced at Alexis yet again while putting a hand on his chin. "A monster...whose family has been blessed by Hades himself? No wonder Poseidon deemed that I aid her." He then looked towards the twins. "And you two have been blessed by Ares, the god of war??" Now, Jaden was being looked at. "And you, blessed by Hermes, the god of speed and thievery?"

"I guess I'd be blessed by both Hermes and Pan, the god of music, right?" Amelia asked, pointing accusingly at Kaleb.

The brute nodded. "It's too dangerous to stay here." He said as thunder shook the cavern like an aerial earthquake.

Everyone that was sitting down stood up, though Fang had to grab Alexis by the wrist and yank her upright because he thought she was petrified for some reason. They all ran outside of the cavern and found hailstones raining from above. Alexis, by instinct, cast a barrier above everyone's heads and the hailstones started to bounce harmlessly off and away.

"Hooray for makeshift umbrellas!" Chimed the quarter-demon with a cat's grin.

The ground began shaking as a roar reverberated throughout the cemetery.

"I don't think we can celebrate just yet!" Jaden called as he held a hand out that was encased in a scarlet glow. A runic circle of the same color appeared just in front of his feet, and its outer margins were lined with spear-like thorns. Emerging from the center of the circle was a sword with a black, bat-winged hilt, demon-eye-like gemstone between said wings, and silver blade with a red vein running down the middle of the entire aforementioned blade. He took the hilt of that sword and hoisted it the rest of they way out of the circle as the blade pulsated with a dark and seemingly forbidden power. The circle then vanished, leaving just the sword that Jaden held.

The ground shook again with much more force and so did another roar. It was as if something was underneath the party.

Amelia's forehead had a crimson glow...she reached a hand up to it and from it she produced a red guitar. The glow vanished, and Amelia got into a position to either play the damn thing or hit something upside the head with it. Nick drew his crossbow and on his back appeared a mysterious quiver filled with rounds of both metal and wood.

The ground shook once more, this time knocking everyone except for Kaleb off-balance.

"When did you grow roots?!" Fang yelled as he produced a set of metallic knuckles. He got up onto his paw-feet and stood on all fours.

Alexis drew her Scythe before using it to support herself as she got up. "Dammit! What did we piss off this time?!"

Lancelot mimicked Alexis using his spear. "Fuck if I know! But I know it sounds like it has a stomachache!"

"I. HATE. Worms that are really giant, mutated penises." Lazarus sighed bitterly, now hovering with his cannon in tow.

"It couldn't be a giant, mutated penis, Lazarus! They don't make tremors like this, even if it's thirty of the bastards at once!" Lancelot screamed, waving one arm like a lunatic.

Wing had extended her wings so that she could fly. "I do not like this." She commented, crossing her arms. "Not one bit."

"Fuuuck!" Jaden cried as a giant, skeletal claw emerged from underneath him and almost grabbed him. He dodged out of the way.

"What did I do now?!" Alexis wailed as she looked at the giant claw.

"That, I cannot answer, for you aren't the cause of this anomaly." Kaleb said, still standing straight. "But, I can say this is an issue we need to deal with now."

Another roar sounded. The ground where the claw still was began moving up and up, as if something below was pushing the dirt, tombstones, and moss out of the way. Yet another roar sounded and the next thing everyone knew was that the claw's owner emerged from the ground and was now flying above them with massive wings.

"Ooooooh shit." Alexis, Jaden, Fang, and Lazarus said simultaneously, for they all stood there staring at a zombie dragon, the flesh of which only consisted of the wing membrane, vital organs, and dangling, rotten scales dotting its body here and there.

"Fuuuuuuck." Wing, Lancelot, Amelia, and Nick said all at once as well. Their eyes went wide in morbid wonder.

"I think the dragon has some sort of grudge against me." Kaleb commented, still standing tall and proud.

"Don't you mean us?" Asked the rest of the party accusingly as the dragon roared again.