Urrax raised his other hand and an invisible force lifted Lynx up into the air, metres away from Urrax. With a single flick, Urrax sent Insanity, Matt and Daniel flying away.
“Prepare to live your life in torment,” said Urrax, lifting the ball of energy into the air, aiming at Lynx’s head.
“Say goodbye to your world,” Urrax said. “And to your dearest friend, the Scavenger.”
Urrax lowered the ball, and moved his hand forward to throw it.
“Somebody called me?” A voice came from behind.
Urrax whipped his head around.
Daniel did too.
A portal was open in the middle of the room. The Scavenger, No One, James and Archer were standing in front of it.
“Hello, Urrax,” the Scavenger said. “You owe me an explanation.”
Urrax shot the ball of energy at the Scavenger, but No One easily deflected it from behind.
The Scavenger ran towards Urrax and punched him right in the face. There was the unmistakable sound of teeth breaking and Archer cringed.
The children were quick to pounce on Urrax. No One quickly rolled his hands about, and chains appeared in the air, binding themselves around Urrax. Within a minute, except for his face, Urrax’s whole body was bound in chains.
Lynx, now on the ground, gave the chains magic of his own, binding them harder. The Scavenger stepped ahead and reinforced the chains. Within ten seconds, the chain stopped gleaming red and stabilized.
Archer examined Urrax’s face. There were cuts all across his face, and he was bruised hard, but he was conscious. He snarled at them, revealing nothing but chipped pieces of teeth and blood.
Suddenly, a ray of blue light shot out from his eyes towards the ceiling. The ceiling started to crumble.
“Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow,” the Scavenger said, wrapping the chains around Urrax’s face too. The ray of light stopped against the chains. Urrax now looked like a mummy in chains.
The Scavenger and No One leaned back against a wall. The others gathered around them.
“Thanks, my friend. I was almost dead,” Lynx said, still recovering his breath from the close call. “You were just in time.”
“You had a major role to play too,” the Scavenger said. “If it wasn’t for your foresight to use the Porteller, we would still be searching for you.”
“So what’s up with Urrax?” Archer asked. “What happened to him?”
Lynx told them everything that had happened to them, mentioning the attack on the master chariot and the bull. He continued. “I had always suspected him. Long ago, when we were freeing the scroll that led us to the Warhead from his hand? Recall that I had finished only half the spell to free the scroll, but it had been freed earlier. Now I know what happened. Urrax had used his magic to stick the scroll to his hand. It was not the scroll which had stuck by itself to his hand. It was the work of Urrax. When I had started my spell, he had gotten scared of its power, so he had removed the scroll from himself before the spell could be completed.
“Then the chariot. Urrax swapped positions with me in the chariot and sat on the inner side so that he wouldn’t get hurt. Then he wasn’t bound tightly by the enemy warriors. That’s when I knew something was wrong. Oh, I forgot something. A bell rang in my mind earlier too, when Urrax wasn’t mentioned in those most-wanted fugitive posters. Also, remember Cad? When we asked him who tipped him off about us, he said he’ forgotten. I am sure that Urrax was the one who alerted Cad that we were coming, and then Urrax made Cad forget. Finally, Insanity’s strange behaviour when we entered this place – that was none other than Urrax. That was the final straw. That was when my doubts about him were fully confirmed.”
“Do you remember our fight with the Warhead? Daniel said. “It was kind of strange that he was just doing nothing. In fact, we were worried for his safety and asked him to do something or else he would be killed.”
Lynx nodded, looking towards Daniel. “Exactly.”
“But how can Urrax have such power?” the Scavenger asked. “He made people forget things. Just like that. Controlling a powerful sorcerer like Insanity requires huge amounts of energy. How is Urrax managing all this?”
“He’s not just a child demon,” Lynx said. “He is something entirely else.” Lynx shrugged. “But it seems to be another mystery, one whose answers we don’t have. Anyway, how about you guys? Did you find Arcane’s bones?”
The Scavenger smiled. “We found the bones!”
“I couldn’t believe it. Hellfire sounded so sure of himself,” No One said. “But all things come to a good end, right?”
“I think it’s – all good things come to an end,” Archer said. “Which is not what we want to hear right now.”
The Scavenger said, “So, overall, it was a good day.”
Lynx sighed. “Tell that to my bones. It feels like they have been dipped in kerosene, burnt to a crisp and then broken into pieces.”
They all laughed.
Lynx cleared his throat. “Urrax is a serious issue with us now. We all need to wear our thinking caps and decide what we do with him.”
“We kill him,” The Scavenger said, a little excitedly.
“Yup! I agree. After killing him, we should perform an autopsy on him to see what’s inside,” Archer said.
“He is a betrayer. Let’s torture him.” Matt’s voice was filled with rage.
“No, we just throw him away,” Daniel said.
“No, we use him as a bargaining chip,” James said. “We can negotiate something with Grim.”
“Too much of a risk.” The Scavenger dismissed the idea. “How do you know Grim will comply? He’s a backstabber, pure and simple. No, the best option is to kill Urrax and throw his
