Alysia in Wonderland by Greg Dragon Page A

the ground, and thrust forward with blinding speed, shoving the spear deep into its abdomen. When she struck her mark she planted a foot against it and somersaulted backwards to land and continue her ginga .
    The monstrous arachnid pawed at its abdomen, trying to pull out the spear. Green blood poured from the wound as it retched, and Alysia cartwheeled forward and launched herself into the air, striking the creature in the abdomen with one foot and shoving the spear deeper with the other. The resulting screech was so loud it was deafening, and after landing from her attack, Alysia decided that it was a good time to make her escape.
    She took off sprinting through the black woods and though she had no sense of where she was going, she intended to run until she could no longer hear those screams. That was when she realized that something large was running next to her through the trees. She saw an area ahead where the forest opened up and the light from the sky shone down like a spotlight.
    The noise from before stopped and she could no longer hear the screaming. Alysia found this odd and steeled herself for something terrible—which was the standard follow-up to an unnatural silence like this. A masked man flew through the air towards her and Alysia saw that he had a sword above his head. Instinctively, she performed a back handspring to get out of his way, then landed with her fists balled up, ready to take him on. Still, there was no armor, and she began to wonder if all of her gifts from the year before had been taken away.
    She had been the chosen defender of earth when giants and demons came to destroy humanity. The call had been made and she had answered, killing over five major demons and countless lesser variations that crossed her path. With every major demon killed she had been given a reward. A razor-sharp katana, a full suit of armor, and the ability to fly. Now the armor was missing along with the sword, and she knew that if she tried to fly she would stay grounded. She was little more than human again, and she wondered if her appearance had gone back to normal.
    The demon landed from his jumping swipe, catching air where Alysia would have been before her handspring. He raised the sword again and then ran towards her to finish the job. His skin looked like the blackened surface of magma inside of a volcano. It had the same cracks that exposed a fiery red, and his eyes were glowing coals of absolute hate.
    Alysia didn’t think it would be safe to touch him in any kind of way, even if that touch was a balled-up fist against his jaw. A touch would probably lead to third degree burns, or she would be poisoned by whatever that steam was that floated off of his body. She cartwheeled to the side, grabbing a stripped branch as she went through the motion. She got to her feet just in time to deflect the demon’s sword, then lifted the branch and waited for his next move.
    As the demon raised the blade again to cut her down, the light from above seemed to intensify. Suddenly something large and silver fell on top of him and he stood up, withdrawing a long, bloodied broadsword from his crushed body. It was the good demon, Lancert, who had visited her so many years ago. The same Lancert who had told her that he was her true father, and had given her the sword, Euphoria.
    “Lancert! Good timing,” she gasped and fell to her knees, breathing for the first time since the attack. “Woo, boy. What a day,” she said. “Do you know why it is that I am in Yalem? I can’t remember much of anything, let alone traveling here.”
    “Alysia. Daughter. I am so sorry that you are here, but this is a result of Chaos twisting the rules.”
    “Rules? What rules?” Alysia asked as she stood up and dusted herself off to face him.
    “The rules of the conflict between Erts and Turevila. My wish was that after destroying Hope you would be able to remain in the world with your gifts and help to rebuild it somehow. Unfortunately we waited