Outcasts and Royals

Chapter 18

"Does anybody have a plan?" Madeline panicked.

"Get me back up to the ceiling. I have an idea," Erik said.

"If you say so," Katherine replied.

So Spot was steered back to the hanging decoration the boys had clung to earlier. Erik left Spot's back and held onto the rope that was securing the large decoration to the ceiling.

"What is he doing?" Paris questioned aloud as Erik pulled a knife out of his sheath and started cutting the rope.

Erik motioned to them to move away from him. Once Mecuris was directly under the decoration, Erik cut the rope, and it fell right on the evil wizard, who turned into a pile of ashes.

"Is he defeated?" Madeline whispered to the others.

All of a sudden, Mercuris rose from the ashes in his dragon form and was on fire!

"Woah, I did not see that coming!" Sylvia exclaimed.

"Well, this changes the playing field. He must have transformed into some type of phoenix dragon," Katherine added.

"How do you kill a phoenix then?" Paris asked.

"I remember reading about this in a book once. I think it said to throw an iron stake into its heart, and it should do it," Madeline replied.

"Alright, if you bring us down to the ground, I can try to get out of here and find some iron while some of the others stay here and keep Mercuris busy," Paris suggested.

"I'll come with you," Madeline added.

So they lowered Spot to the ground so Paris and Madeline could escape the chapel through the broken window.

"Alright, so what do we do now?" Erik asked as Spot flew back up to the ceiling again.

"We just keep him busy until they return," Sylvia replied before an intense blast of fire came toward them.

"I hope that's soon. Spot, fly down!" Katherine commanded as she, Sylvia, and Erik ducked below.

Five minutes after Paris and Madeline left, Nathaniel emerged from his hiding spot.

"Well, if two of the five people who decided to stay and fight left, I guess I can leave and just come back once I know everything is safe to take credit," Nathaniel thought as he observed the flying dragons.

However, when he was less than a foot away from the broken window, Paris and Madeline had returned. Paris, unaware that Nathaniel was trying to escape, knocked him out with his flailing hand that was holding the iron stake.

"Oops, sorry, Your Highness. I didn't see you there," Paris apologized to the unconscious Prince.

"Forget about that cox-comb; get over here and hand us that stake!" Sylvia demanded.

However, refusing to be defeated, Mercuris began to shoot another blast of fire towards Paris, who was still holding the stake.

"Paris, toss it over here!" Madeline called out.

"We'll try to keep him distracted for you," Sylvia replied from Spot's back.

"Get me down there; I have an idea, but it'll only work if you can get Mercuris down to the ground as well. Can I also borrow your sword?" Katherine whispered.

"If you say so," Erik answered as he gave Katherine his sword while being concerned about what she was thinking of doing.

Spot flew back down to the ground so Katherine could get off of his back.

Luckily for Katherine, Mercuris went low to the floor to be on the same level as Spot. So she ran behind Mercuris and, using Erik's sword, sliced off a large chunk of Mercuris's tail, which immediately turned to ash

"Oh, man! I can not believe I just did that!" Katherine thought as she swept away the ashes so Mercuris couldn't regain it.

Mercuris tried to fly once again; however, he fell to the ground not too long afterward due to the injured tail.

"He's grounded; get the stake over here!" Erik yelled to Paris, who was holding the stake.

Paris tossed the stake over to Erik, who was able to catch it, and with all his might, Erik threw the stake directly into Mercuris's heart, defeating him once and for all.

"Let me just tell you, it's convenient that all of us have an impeccable aim and are extremely good at catching things," Sylvia said as Mercuris slowly returned to his human form due to him losing his powers.

"I think we can let everyone back in now," Paris told the others, thinking about everyone who had left the chapel before Mercuris turned into a dragon. So Paris opened up the doors, and the wedding guests slowly began to fill the chapel.

"Is everyone alright?" Francis asked as he entered the room.

"Yes, we are. Especially after I, Prince Nathaniel Frederik Oliver Gregorious Clancy Humphrey Archibald Leopold Edmund Kristian the Ninth of Xebia, heroically slew the villain with this mighty sword while he held the rest of them captive," replied Nathaniel, who was now standing over Mercuris's dead body with Erik's sword in the stake wound.

"What? It was us who defeated Mercuris! You just hid under one of the benches until he was dead!" Sylvia objected, looking ready to attack.

"Stop spewing out lies, you criminal; no one even cares about you. Now, let's get back to the important stuff. My wedding to the love of my life, Princess Madeline," Nathaniel said as he pulled Madeline back to the front of the altar.

"I'm the love of your life? Spending the last couple of days with you has really made me realize that that statement is nothing more than a lie because there's no one in this universe that you could love more than yourself!" Madeline corrected as she began to whap Nathaniel with her bouquet.

"Madeline, please," Nathaniel pleaded.

"It doesn't help how you ordered four innocent people to be executed so you could look like a hero, treat everyone around you like garbage, and try to take all the credit for something you didn't do anything for. You have made me realize how much of a fool I truly am for having fallen in love with you odious, crooked-nose knave!" Madeline yelled as she continued to attack Nathaniel with her bouquet, which was slowly beginning to lose the petals.

"Oh, my goodness, I didn't know she had that anger in her," Madeline's mother, Queen Leila told her husband, King Kaleb, as Madeline tossed her now petalless bouquet over her shoulder while walking down the steps at the front of the chapel.

"Bravo, Your Highness!" Sylvia cheered as she began to clap.

"The wedding's off. We shall still have the feast, though, in honor of the four friends who defeated Mercuris the Malicious once and for all," Madeline told the crowd.