Blood That Flows

Mega1987

Well-Known Member
bhl88 said:
Subtle Gate of Babylon reference...
What kind of Babylon?

Gilgamesh's Nobel Phantasm?

Or THIS. XD
 

Nanya

Well-Known Member
So, between getting sick, adjusting to a new sleep schedule, my cousin dying (she was 30), Castlevania: Lords of Shadows 2 and being generally uninspired the past month...

Yeah, this took way longer than it should have.

But, here it is, enjoy.

_________________________________

“Yes...” Corona grinned as she watched the carnage below. It was the only way to make sure that everything was taken care of. As soon as they were taken care of, the pain... She could finally make it stop.

(–)

Chuckling, he could only watch with glee as his plan went off without a problem. “So pathetically easy.” So what if he had lost most of his forces during his time here? The fact that his master would soon have such weapons and completely under his control made all the sacrifices worth it.

Sure, he still had Pawra, but that cat-like Mazoku was ultimately worthless.

“You know...” A voice spoke up behind him and he turned to see one of this world's Mazoku standing behind him. “I am surprised you would bother coming out here yourself, Gram.”

“Ah, you're...” Gram narrowed his eyes, he had seen this Mazoku, dressed in that weird black garb, the staff in his hand, the purple hair, he just couldn't recall the name.

“Xellos, Trickster Priest, at your service.” Xellos bowed to the General.

“Ah, yes, you'll forgive me for not remembering your name.” Gram turned away to look at the battlefield. “It's amusing to see these worms struggle just before their deaths.”

“Indeed.” Xellos deadpanned, “but I must confess, when I heard the reports of Zannafars running around, I had to check it out, and imagine my surprise when I found you here.”

“Oh, that's not my doing, not directly.”

“Yes, I suppose that little girl that's giving off enough Black Magic to cast spells higher than a Ra Tilt without a boost might have a hand in this, however, I must confess, I never saw a human give off such energy before.”

“It wasn't hard,” Gram's grin became extremely evil as he watched, “when I found that her golem abilities allowed her to, without realizing it, strike Mazoku on the Astral Plane, I figured I could use her. Imagine my surprise when I found out that she has an organ designed for processing magical power.” He threw his head back and laughed while hugging his sides. “It... Ha ha ha, made it so easy to corrupt her! Force the raw essence of Lord Death Fog into her, then give her a ring that cuts off her ability to think rationally and...” He trailed off laughing.

“Indeed, it seems that you have everything wrapped up here, huh?”

“Oh yes.” Gram fought the urge to laugh like a maniac as he put his hand on his forehead. “Such an eager little fool too, being able to create those three creatures and have them completely under her control.” He flexed his fingers as the smile would not leave his face, “as soon as she destroys her former friends, I shall take her and her creations back with me to my master, and we'll crush our foes with ease!”

“You wouldn't happen to have any plans to make more Zannafar, hmm?”

Gram snorted, he supposed it wouldn't hurt to let the other Mazoku know. Besides, he was the General of the strongest of Death Fog's direct subordinates, what could this priest do to him? “Of course, what would be the point of having them if we didn't make more?”

Unseen to Gram, Xellos gave a small smirk, “I see.” he said while opening his eyes.

(–)

Nove was panting as she tried to concentrate on something other than the pain she was feeling. Hearing a growl, she turned and stared, horror on her face as the Zannafar closed in on her.

”I wonder just what I'll get when I devour you.” Zannafar growled as it opened its mouth and lunged forward at the terrified Nove.

An explosion erupted on Zannafar's face, causing the beast to turn and see a rather angry looking blonde girl glaring at him. “Get away from Nove!”

Zannafar chuckled as he looked at her. ”And just what can you possibly do to me?”

The girl grinned and looked up. “Einhart, now!”

Zannafar let out a confused noise and looked up just in time to see a silver-haired girl rushing head first at him, her right hand glowing with magical energy as she held it with her left. Zannafar's eyes widened slightly as Einhart let out a scream and slammed her fist into his face.

“Got you!” Vivio cheered and grinned, which slowly tapered off into horror as she realized that Zannafar was neither hurt nor flinching. “Uh oh...”

”That was supposed to do... What exactly?” Zannafar could admit that he found a rather... Intense delight in seeing fear blossom on Einhart's face.

“Dang!” Einhart flipped around and kicked off of Zannafar's face, pushing herself away and barely avoiding the creature's jaw as the Demon Beast tried to eat her legs. “Vivio!” Having her legs nearly torn off once was enough for her.

“Got it!” The blonde called out as she formed a barrier under Einhart's feet so her friend had a platform to jump off of. She was just so thankful that Yuuno had taught her that skill.

Zannafar let out a howl and charged the two girls. ”I'll enjoy devouring you two first.”

(–)

Nove panted and rolled over, screwing her eyes shut and letting out a whine of pain as her damaged arm flopped around uselessly. “This...” She couldn't help the tears that leaked out of her eyes.

“Awww....” Nove's eyes snapped open and she looked up as Corona, or at least she sounded like Corona, but the ash-colored skin, pale hair and red eyes made Nove wonder if she really was Corona, stood there grinning. “Too bad I have to use this projection spell, I almost wish I could be there so I could witness your pain in person.”

“Cor...Ona...” Nove gasped as she forced herself to her knees. “Why?”

“Why?” Corona's shoulders shook as she looked down. “You ask why, but you know why.” She looked up and Nove could only stare in shock at the tears that were falling down her face. “You let Rio die! You could have done something, but you just let her die! Then what about me?! You left me to Gram so you could get away!”

“It wasn't... Like that...” Nove gasped as she felt something wrap around her neck, legs and good arm, before lots of somethings wrapped around her waist, mid-section and over her chest, each part squeezing hard and threatening to shred her body instantly.

“So, I think I'll let the golems I just made out of the trees rip you apart.” Corona, tears still falling down her face, grinned as Nove could only gurgle and try to get out of the bind she was in.

“This is it, Nove.” Corona's eyes started to glow as an evil smirk graced her features. “Any final words before you go?” When all she heard was a gurgling sound from Nove, she pouted. “No? Too bad.” She snapped her fingers. “Finish her.”

(–)

“Dammit!” Lyos swore as he swung his sword, sending out a wave of icy water that quickly surrounded the golem and encased it in what looked like a flower of ice.

Not that it mattered as the prison erupted a moment later in an explosion of black energy, sending ice and steam everywhere. The golem took a look at Lyos before firing its fist at him again.

“Just need a moment...” Lyos really hated trying to move with his ribs busted as they were, but at least he could keep his bones from piercing anything inside of him. He glanced at Banisher and at the golem as its fist returned to it. Letting out a yell, he threw the over-sized sword at Balmung, grinning as it got stuck in the ground beside the golem. “Perfect.”

Balmung looked at Lyos and crossed its arms over its chest in an “X” formation for a moment before separating them and posing with the arms held up on either side of its head.

“Now or never.” Lyos muttered as he swung his right arm down. He sighed in relief as water erupted from Banisher and spiraled around the golem before freezing solid, quickly becoming thicker than most of the trees around them. He wasn't sure that it would have worked, storing that much power into the sword wasn't something that he had done before. Normally Lyos just used Banisher to help direct his magical water, using it to store Holy power before unleasing it like that? Never before.

“Now then...” Lyos grunted as he concentrated on the ice. “Hope I can do this.” His ribs were still giving him serious trouble and affecting his ability to focus on what he wanted to do. If someone were to ask him just how he was doing it, he would never be able to explain it.

After all, how easy was it to explain that he was going to make the water turn into an explosion?

The only reason he never tried it on any Mazoku was because it was purely a physical explosion, making it completely useless on them, regardless of the power behind it.

“What the..?” Lyos gaped as the ice turned bright red before exploding outwards as a stream of fire melted the ice. “DAMN!” He cursed as the fire stream barreled down on him. Letting out a yell, Lyos threw his hands forward and sent a torrent of water at the fire, causing the fire stream to turn into steam. Lyos gasped and fell to a knee as he felt his ribs start pushing against his organs. “Stupid worthless broken ribs!”

He was just thankful that the golem's attack stopped just as he fell to his knees, otherwise he would have been in trouble. Looking up, he could only stare in shock at the ground as it looked melted from the heat, his eyes continued to trail up to the golem as it walked towards him.

The look of the golem had changed, while the main body was similar, it had what looked like a weirdly designed letter “V” that was colored red and split in the middle.

“...Just great, it can shoot fire from its chest?” Lyos could not believe this, he had fought against Shabranidgo and Dark Star and this damn thing was giving him that much trouble?

Balmung held its arms up and the red gems that made up the new armament started to glow ominously.

“No...” Lyos growled as his eyes flashed blue. “Not like this... NEVER!” With that roar, water seemingly erupted from every direction around him, pooling into a giant dragon shape that launched itself at the golem at such speeds that Balmung was unable to dodge or even counter as the water slammed into it, sending it into the air before the main attack was joined by smaller, spiraling water attacks that drilled into Balmung's back, arms and legs over and over.

A few moments later, the attack ended and Balmung crashed to the ground, its torso, head, one arm and one leg still attached, but in pieces and obviously ruined.

Lyos fell back and panted as he worked on fixing his ribs. “Dammit, stupid broken...” He trailed off as he saw a few loose rocks start to vibrate. “...Oh you cannot be serious...” He could only stare as Balmung looked at him while rocks and debris rushed at the body, repairing the damage and allowing it to stand back up. “...How the hell can it do that?!”

(–)

Up on Jörmungandr, Corona grinned as she saw Lyos's shocked face. Using Balmung to let her see his opponent was rather ingenious on her part. “Oh dear... Maybe I should have explained why I sent those early golems. After all, a good golem meister knows to use everything to make a perfect golem, even if its the remains of other golems.”

Oh well, it was almost time for this to come to an end.

After all, even if they managed to survive her minions, she still had Jörmungandr.

Corona started to laugh softly. “And there's nothing that they can do to stop me.”
 

Mega1987

Well-Known Member
damn...

Xellos just have to omit that he's a General-priest... unlike a certain blue haired psycho who's currently hiding with a group who shares the name of a Gundam-expy MS...


And he have to opened his eyes... after Gram's spilled the beans...

someone's in deep shit now....

Corona's bat-crazy now....

where's that tactical Rio when you really need them to blast that god damn chifflie!?

And Corona have to say those infamous final words....
Your little revenge plans will be FUBAR alot more faster than Gram's plans being nuked by a certain Trickster..
 

Nanya

Well-Known Member
Sorry about the delay guys, my muse got very worn out.

________________________

Pawra grinned as her claws dug into Nila's back for the second time. “That lighting trick was nice to get Zuuma from getting to you, but what good does it do against me?”

“You're fast.” Nila muttered as she stumbled away, her back bleeding profusely.

Pawra straightened her back out slightly and jumped at Nila. “Now to present your head to master Gram.”

Nila smirked as Pawra jumped at her. “Don't think so.” Pawra's eyes widened as a blue orb formed in the redhead's hands before being launched forward. “Flare Web!”

“What?!” Pawra yelped as she jumped back while a web of ice formed between her and the sorceress. “...I am so stupid.” It really couldn't be anything more than some water spell, and even if it could hit her astral body, the attack just smelled of desperation, nothing more. Unsheathing claws, she slashed at the web, shattering it easily. When she caught Nila's sudden smirk, she suddenly shivered as the air where the web had been a second ago sparked. “N...No way!” She gasped at seeing the thin blue lines of magic hang in the air.

“You fell for my trap.” Nila snapped a bloody finger and pointed at Pawra. “Felzareid,” as she watched the blue lines spiral around and converge onto the Mazoku, causing a loud explosion that was punctuated with the sounds of that creature screaming. “Heh...” Nila leaned against a wall and hissed as her back flared up in pain. “Still can't believe that worked.” Using one spell to hide a second one underneath wasn't something that she normally did, in fact, she may have never thought about it if she hadn't been talking to Vivio.

*Flash*

Nila blinked in confusion when she heard about a hybrid magic style. “How does it work?”

“Well...” Vivio scratched her head as Nove drove down the road. “It's kind of... Like taking two magic styles and mixing them together.” The young blonde put her hands close together and started rolling them around like she was making a ball of something. “And then,” here she threw her hands up, “you let it go on your enemies.” She pouted and sighed. “Only downside is that it takes a lot of math to do and easily gives a person a headache.”

“Combination spells, huh?” Nila tapped her chin. “I wonder how far it can go.”

Vivio grinned at the older girl. “Oh! It gets really good! You can chain link your spells together if you want to, but that really wears you out fast if you do too much. But combining something like an Elemkia Lance with a Flare Arrow might be really fun!”

“...Interesting.”


*End Flashback*

“Need to get some healing...” Nila hissed as she started to walk away. Hopefully there was a Seiryuun soldier or two nearby, they could help her, she was sure of it.

Nila stopped walking as she heard an agitated feline growling. She turned just in time to get kicked in the face and sent flying. The pain she was feeling in her face and the pain from her back grinding on the ground had her crying out. Grabbing at her nose, she looked at Pawra and was somewhat relieved to see that the cat demon wasn't at her best either.

“You... I'll kill you.”

“Isn't that what you were supposed to do in the first place?” A male voice spoke up as Zuuma dropped down next to Pawra. “Nice trick with the light spell,” the assassin nodded to Nila as she pushed herself up. “But this is the end for you.”

Nila pulled her hand away from her face and gave him a flat stare. “Seriously? You have me on my hands and knees, bleeding and that's the best line you could come up with?”

“If I worried about my damn lines, I'd be dead right now.” Zuuma narrowed his eyes as Nila's hands started to glow yellow.

Nila gave him a small grin. “It's a good thing that we're alone now...”

“No you don't!” Pawra yelled as she lunged forward at the sorceress.

”The king of the fierce beasts, who was frozen in the deep forest.
I summon your destructive fang.
And may all infidels who obstruct my path be destroyed by our combined power.”


Nila had her eyes closed as she completed the spell. It wasn't something that humans could normally cast, not without magic amplification, even the great sages couldn't cast this spell without help.

Her master still had no idea how Nila could do it without needing to use any sort of amplification.

“Zelas Brid!”

Nila snapped her hand out as a lancing bolt of energy raced forward, completely bisecting Pawra, who could only scream in pain as her astral body was extinguished in an instant. Nila's true target, however, had been Zuuma, who jumped away from the attack and let out a surprised grunt when the attack twisted in mid-flight to rush right at him.

“Not good enough!” Zuuma yelled as he threw several knives at the attack, hoping that connecting with it would destabilize the spell. After all, his knives were engraved with various magic disruption runes all over them.

It was to his understandable shock and confusion when the magic spell twisted and bent out of the way to avoid his knives while continuing to rush up at him.

Zelas Brid, of course, wasn't a commonly used spell, while the power was on par, possibly even greater, than that of a Dynast Brass, the spell could be completely controlled by the caster and could change direction in mid-flight without any problems.

Zuuma could only scream in pain as the spell lanced through his knees, severing his legs and rocketing up the side of his body to dismember his left arm at the shoulder.

Seeing him crash onto the ground, Nila panted and walked towards Zuuma's twitching body. Even if she didn't kill him right now, he'd bleed to death. “Tsk... What a time to have lost my sword.” She muttered before grabbing one of Zuuma's knives off the ground. When she got to Zuuma, she kicked his body to flip him over. “Now talk.”

“Ngh... W...what?” Zuuma grunted in obvious pain as Nila pointed the knife at him.

“Tell me, assassin, why did you target me?”

Zuuma chuckled, though he started coughing half way into it as Nila stepped on his chest. “I wasn't targeting you, I was paid to lead your group into a trap to kill them off.”

Nila narrowed her eyes and stomped on his chest twice. “Don't lie to me. You took one look at me without my hood on and have done nothing but target me since. Why? What did I do to you?”

“...You don't remember, huh?” Zuuma snorted at the confused look on her face. “It was my wife. She was kidnapped by bandits and held ransom, but then you showed up and killed her when you slaughtered the bandit camp.”

“But...”

“No, that's just an excuse...” Zuuma's voice was tinged with both amusement and some regret. “I was always destined to be a murderer, I had this intent, this urge to become a killer. But I put it aside to live in society. Even started a business and had a family.”

Nila raised an eyebrow. “And what does that have to do with me?”

“It was... I think about twenty years or so ago... When my wife died.”

Nila's eyes widened and rage quickly filled them. “Then why the hell are you blaming me?! I'm not even eighteen yet!!”

Zuuma closed one eye as he looked at her. “Even if you say you're not that old, you are the one who killed my wife. Even if you're slightly different, you're still the same.”

Nila shook with anger, both at the fact that this guy got her confused with someone else, which practically everyone did, but also the fact that he was blaming her for a murder she never committed. “I should just leave you to bleed out, but I feel that if I tried to do that, you'd somehow survive.” She gripped the knife tightly. “Goodbye, assassin.”

As she plunged down with the knife, Zuuma grinned and moved his right arm up in between him and Nila.

The redhead's eyes widened as she saw the knife plunged into an amulet of some sort. “What the?”

Dark energy emerged from where the blade had pierced the amulet, surrounding and spinning around Zuuma's body with such force that Nila was launched into a wall painfully. “ANGH!” As she slid down the wall, leaving a nice red trail of blood, Nila could only stare in silence as Zuuma's body was levitated into the air. Before her eyes, his missing arm and legs were regrown, and on top of it, the hands seemed to get longer and sharper. The assassin hunched over and let out a loud yell as wings erupted from his back and the energy died out, letting Nila see his body.

Frankly, other than his limbs seemingly longer and more muscled than before, there wasn't too much change, other than the wings, but then Nila saw Zuuma's face, his eyes were bulged out and his skin was now incredibly pale.

“...That... You merged with a Mazoku?”

Zuuma chuckled at her response. “Melphis was so accommodating, even if he didn't intend to be.”

Nila growled, just what she didn't want to see, the Assassin Zuuma as a half-Mazoku.
 

Mega1987

Well-Known Member
Me: At least the cat have kicked the bucket.

Odin: Good riddance.

Reia: Someone will be needing some tutor if Nila wants to master the Hybrid-type magic and it's variations.

Me: *looks at the end.* Hm... Canon or not? didn't much got any knowledge on that art of the Slayer Lore about Zuuma.

Odin: *raise Eyebrow* Seriously? Oh well.. Considering you're busy at work.

Me: hehehehe. Man... this is getting good.
 

Nanya

Well-Known Member
After... *Checks date* Damn near seven months of trying and getting nothing, my muse FINALLY cooperated today and helped me finish this part.

*******************************************

Zuuma chuckled as he looked at his hands. “Power...” He couldn't help it, it felt so... Exhilarating to have this much power rushing through his body.

Nila was feeling a touch woozy from the loss of blood, not to mention worn out from casting that Zelas Brid. Frankly, it was easier and less draining to cast a Dragon Slave, but she didn't like the thought of accidentally killing people that got caught up in the explosion.

Spreading his arms and wings, Zuuma let out a yell that shook the buildings and Nila's very bones, the next thing she knew, he was on top of her, and then past her as he slammed into a building behind her. Wincing, but not one to waste the opportunity, she threw her arm back and concentrated.

While what she was going to cast wasn't hard, the way she was going to do it wasn't easy.

Zuuma shook his head as he got out of the rubble and grimaced, okay, so he had underestimated his new body a bit. Oh well, he was going to turn and... “...You have got to be kidding me.” Orange lances filled the air, all pointed at him. Looking down, he growled at Nila, who grinned and snapped her hand forward.

“Elmekia Lance!”

As the lances were launched at him, Zuuma curled his arms and let out a roar and backhanded the magical attacks as they came towards him, slicing them into particles like they were nothing. “Don't take me so lightly!” He roared while rushing at her, grimacing as he over-shot her again, however, this time, he was able to correct himself mid-lunge. The half-mazoku spun in mid-air and was greeted with a large orb of fire.

In a rather impressive display of agility, Zuuma twisted out of the way so that the fireball passed by his face with milimeters to spare. “You missed.”

“Did I?” Nila asked softly as she snapped her fingers. “Break.”

The effect was instant and rather spectacular as the fireball spell broke apart, engulfing Zuuma in the flames and causing him to cry out in pain.

“One downside about being half-Mazoku, you're still as vulnerable to normal magic as you were as a human.” Nila muttered as she hugged her left arm to her body and lowered her right arm. There were limits to that statement, of course, the stronger the Mazoku that was used to become a half-Mazoku, the more resistant they were to normal magic. If a high-ranking Mazoku, such as a Priest or General, or Cephied forbid, a Lord, merged with a human, they'd not only be able to resist nearly all sorts of magic, but they could likely draw upon spells that no one else could even hope to use.

“That hurt!” Nila's eyes widened as she jumped away from the smoldering figure of Zuuma as he crashed onto the ground where she was a moment ago. Growling, Zuuma thrust his arm out towards Nila and shocked the both of them as it extended towards her at high speeds.

“Well, shoot.” Nila muttered as she moved out of the way at the last moment. Her eyes widened as it seemed like dozens of spear-like protrusions were upon her. She jumped back to avoid several strikes at her body from above and rolled to the side as those same protrusions seemingly came out of the ground towards her body.

“Keep dodging! It makes it more enjoyable when I finally kill you!” Zuuma screeched as he darkened the sky with lots of arrow-like objects.

“Diem wind!” Nila yelled as she forced the objects to scatter from the attack. Making sure that Zuuma was in line of sight, she let out a small sigh of relief, 'At least I don't have to...'

Nila's thoughts were interrupted as something thick, hard and sharp punctured her from behind. Gasping, she looked down to see one of the spears sticking out of her stomach. The next thing that she knew, several more spear-like protrusions slammed into her back and exited out her front.

Zuuma chuckled as he pulled his left arm back while raising Nila into the air. “Like an insect, spread out for the world to see.” His shoulders shook as he started to laugh maniacally. “Hahahahahahahaaaa... After all these years, I finally...” He trailed off as he heard Nila mumbling something. “What are you doing now?”

Nila rolled her head to look at him and grinned even as blood poured out of her mouth. “Oh...” She coughed softly, “just something like this...” She grinned at the stupefied look Zuuma was giving her.

"Stars which pass through heaven's night skies
Heed the ancient covenant with the Earth
I pledge my life so that he may be called forth!
FERIOUS BREED!"

“A summoning spell?” Zuuma snorted, “a waste of an effort, those creatures could never... Harm...” His eyes widened and he took a step back as he saw what Nila had summoned.

Most people used such a spell to summon small animals or gargoyles to their location, usually an annoyance at worst.

What Nila summoned was neither a gargoyle nor a small animal. She had summoned at least four wolves.

And not just any wolves, but these were huge, at least the size of a two story house. Before Zuuma could even react, one of the wolves had grabbed his arm and was chewing on it while another grabbed him on the legs and started chewing while a third one tore his other arm clean off in one bite.

As Nila fell, she grinned as she heard Zuuma's screams as the wolves tore him apart. Half-Mazoku or not, those wolves were dangerous to anything that wasn't their master. If she could think straight at that moment, she really couldn't blame Zuuma for being surprised, after all, creatures from Wolf Pack Island were a rare sight for anyone.

Looking up, she grinned at a shadow as blood leaked out of her mouth. 'Well, if I have to die, at least I went out fighting.'

(–)

'So this is how I die?' Nove thought as her vision went completely black. 'To a little girl who thinks I let our friend die? Well, Un-nee, at least I didn't die like you thought I would...'

“Shine...”

'Funny...' Nove couldn't see, but she still opened an eye to look up. 'That voice kind of sounds familiar.'

“Burst... BREAK!”

“What?!” Corona yelled as her projection was bombarded with bursts of magical energy. Even though none of the blasts that hit her hurt, she still grimaced as she felt her spell get disrupted and fade.

Nove gasped as she felt the tightness around her body loosen up as she was shaken by the attack. “Who?” She whispered hoarsely while she fell down.

“Whoops! Got you!”

Nove blinked as her vision started to come back. When she could finally see again, she blinked again and stared at her rescuer, who was holding her bridal style, in shock.

“Heh! Sorry I'm so late, it took a long time to catch up with you guys.” Her rescuer grinned at her.

“But... That's impossible.” Nove coughed before she could go any further.

“Before we get an explanation,” Uno spoke up as she looked at the tree golems that hadn't been destroyed by that last attack, “shall we get out of here before we're tied up again?”

“Right!” Nove's rescuer said and ran towards the others. “Don't worry, there are others here too.”

“...Others?” Nove muttered softly.

(–)

The Zannafar chasing Ixpellia and Arashi grinned on all three heads. The bastards were tricky, but he finally had them, the boy was looking pale, sweaty and trembling as he used his weird power to keep moving out of the way of his attacks. “It's over!” It was too bad they ended up by a building with no doors, but even if they had, he would have just destroyed it.

Arashi panted as he grabbed Ixpellia, he could probably get out of the way again, but this was getting exhausting. Just as the Zannafar opened all three of its mouths to fire its attacks at them, a powerful surge of green and, surprisingly enough, sparkly magical air cut between the two of them. “...I am suddenly reminded of mint mouthwash.” Arashi looked around, wondering who or what caused this attack.

“What the?” Zannafar asked as the winds died down, revealing a man wearing a poncho, a wide-brimmed hat, boots and in his right hand was a very sharp, ornate sword.

“All that power,” the man looked up, his dark hair was long and curled, covering his right eye while his left eye narrowed at the Zannafar, “and you go and turn it on a couple of kids?!”

“I'm a few thousand years old.” Ixpellia muttered, sure, she spent most of that time asleep and in stasis, but she was still pretty old.

“I, Zangulus Navratilova, shall not stand for this!”

The Zannafar chuckled as Zangulus took a stanck with his sword. ”Do you think that puny toy can do anything to me?”

Zangulus grinned at the beast. “You're the legendary beast that destroyed Sairaag, I've heard and read all about you, but this sword... It calls the storms itself... Let's go, Howling Sword Mk. 90!”

Arashi tilted his head in confusion. “...Why does that sound so familiar?”

Zangulus let out a yell as he slashed upwards, sending several tornadoes at the beast from all directions. “Hey, kids, if you've got a plan, I'd love to hear it, because unless one of you can cut through his skin, I'm not going to be able to do anything.”

“I...” Ixpellia looked at Arashi and frowned, “may have a plan, but it will not work if Arashi passes out half-way through it.”

“I'll be fine!” He yelled and took a deep breath. “But, just to be sure, make sure that your plan doesn't involve me dropping something like the moon on his head.”

Ixpellia blinked and tapped her chin. “That's plan C, plan B is to send him into the sun if possible.” She giggled at the look he gave her. “I was joking, even if you could, I would not ask you to do that.”

“Kids... I need an answer, otherwise I'm getting us out of here!”

Ixpellia nodded and grinned. “Okay, here's the plan.”

Arashi gulped as he heard it, well, if he survived this, he could honestly say that he his family would be impressed. Then they'd either ground or murder him for doing it. 'At least I'll see them again.' He thought to himself as he nodded.

This was going to take a bit of work.

(–)

Corona grimaced, what the hell happened to Nove? After she recast the spell, Nove was gone and there wasn't any trace of her. “Who the hell invited tornadoes?!” She screamed as she saw the twisters, visible from where she was on Jörmungandr. Growling, she stood up off her chair and pointed dramatically. “That it, Jörmungandr, I want you to...” She trailed off, her lips trembling as something came to her attention. “Bal...mung?”

(–)

The stone giant stumbled backwards, its right arm severed from its body and a deep cut across its midsection, from a surprise attack.

“Ngh... About time you showed up!” Lyos grumbled as he clutched his ribs. “I sent you that message days ago, Gourry!”

Gourry turned, his hair was still long and blond, but there were streaks of gray in it now, he also had a beard that was the same color as his hair. It wasn't long, but it did cover his chin and cheeks. “Hey, I'm getting a bit older, you know it takes time, besides...” He scratched the back of his head, “I lost the instructions you gave me.”

Lyos just groaned, that sounded like him. “Hey, is your wife or...”

“Dad, watch out!” A young man with dark-blond hair jumped in front of Gourry as a large flying fist came barreling at the older man. Before Gourry could even reply, the young man sliced the projectile into many pieces. “Dang it, dad, you know mom and sis would kill me if you died out here!”

Gourry just rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry, Leon.”

“Careful!” Lyos grunted as he staggered a bit. “That thing can regenerate.”

“Well then, I guess we'll have to make it so that it can't.” Leon grinned as he and Gourry rushed forward at Balmung.

The Golem's chest started to glow red as the two ran across the melted ground.

“Got him!” Gourry yelled as he lunged forward, the Blast Sword slicing Balmung from shoulder to knee with ease, stopping the attack.

“Right behind you!” Leon replied as he stabbed Balmung in the head and slashed upwards, breaking it apart. “The wings!” Gourry slashed upwards through the left wing while Leon destroyed the right wing.

“And the rest!” Gourry yelled as the two slashed at the golem, over and over until it fell into pieces, barely recognizable parts.

Lyos grunted, “dammit, look, there's still a few things attacking and the others need help and my ribs are busted and...”

“Hold still..” Leon put his hands on Lyos's side, causing the older man to sigh in relief as healing magic worked its way through his body. “Wow, a golem gave you that much trouble?”

“Either I'm getting old or that thing was just over-powered.” Lyos muttered. “Good to see your son isn't like you, jellyfish brains.” Lyos grinned at Gourry's confused look, “at least he can remember how to use magic.”

“Had to read up on this spell on the way over here.” Leon muttered and Lyos nearly fell over when he heard that. “What? I remember the spell, sometimes it just... Slips my mind?”

Lyos groaned and slapped his face. “Never mind, he really is your kid.”

Gourry scratched his head and shrugged, wondering what he meant by that. Hearing a rock fall, he turned and blinked. 'Odd, that one looks like a hand.' Before he could put any sort of thought to what it could mean, Leon had finished healing Lyos and the three were moving to help the others.

(–)

“Any ideas?!” Einhart yelled at Vivio as the two avoided another shot from the Zannafar chasing them.

“Try flashing your panties at him. That always seems to distract someone when they're chasing you.” Vivio giggled as Einhart glared at her.

“Now's not the time for such lame jokes.” Einhart tackled Vivio to the ground as the Zannafar lunged at them, passing over their frames by scant inches. “If you got a real plan, I'd love to hear it!”

“I got an idea, but keep him distracted for five, no, two minutes.” Vivio closed her eyes as she stood up and a magic circle formed under her feet.

“Only two minutes? Why not ask for an eternity?” Einhart grumbled as she ran at the Zannafar and slid under the body as the beast snapped its head at her in an attempt to take a bite. “Kaiser Arts: Smashing Slide!” Einhart crossed her arms over her chest before slamming them onto the ground, causing it to break and the Zannafar to lose his balance in the process. 'Interesting...' Einhart's thoughts trailed off as a tail slapped her in the face, sending her flying into a nearby tree. “Oww...”

”You're interesting little prey, but you're also very annoying.” The Demon Beast growled as he stalked towards Einhart. ”That magic you use is unlike anything I've ever seen before, I cannot wait to devour you and find out for myself just what makes you work.”

“I would rather skip the eating part and get to the part where I defeat you.” Einhart narrowed her eyes as Zannafar laughed and lunged at her. Holding up her hands, the green-haired girl smiled. “Lighting!”

An intense, bright flash of light erupted from her hands, causing the Zannafar to scream and twist in mid-air, sailing over her and into several trees with a loud crash.

“You're not immune to magic...” Einhart muttered to herself. “You're able to make it so that your body can't be affected directly, but effects caused by magic can still affect you.”

”You little bitch! When I can see again, you're dead!” Zannafar thrashed around, its tail slamming into trees, rocks and the ground while it shook its head.

“Doubtful.” Einhart took a step to the right and paled as Zannafar turned and grinned at her. “What?”

”I have other senses too.”

“Oh crap.” Einhart's eyes widened as the Zannafar opened its mouth and powered up a ball of energy. Before she could move, a stream of energy was launched at her. “Fast...” She breathed out and held up a hand while sitting her foot while a triangle barrier formed in front of her a moment before the attack slammed into it, kicking up dust as a strong gust of wind blew around her, causing Einhart's hair and skirt to flutter up and out wildly. The blue sky seemingly turned a bright white from the attack. Grunting, Einhart couldn't believe how strong this attack was, even Vivio's Divine Flame Buster needed more time to charge up than this did.

She dreaded the thought of this attack if the beast had taken time to charge it up.

When the attack faded, Einhart quickly dodged to the side as the Zannafar rushed in, crashing through several trees trying to get to her. “You may have other senses, but you still rely on sight.” She spoke softly, wondering just what Vivio was planning on doing. Magic wasn't going to directly affect this enemy, so what could she come up with?

Einhart let out a yelp as, what appeared to be, several mouths popped out of Zannafar's back and fired energy blasts at her. She quickly did several jumping back flips to get away from the attack, she wasn't sure what she was more thankful for, the fact that no one was commenting on her underwear for once or the fact that the attacks missed her.

Part of her wondered if she should be worried about her thought patterns. However, that part of her mind was quickly drowned out by the sudden urgency that she felt when Zannafar looked at her and grinned, showing off a rather unsettling amount of teeth.

”Do you really think I'm a normal creature?”

“Not really, no.” Einhart muttered under her breath as she threw up her hand, creating a barrier that caused Zannafar's next attack to wash over her harmlessly. 'Vivio, hurry up, I don't think I can keep his attention and stay alive for much longer.' Her eyes widened as Zannafar jumped at her and the next thing she knew, he was above her.

”Got you!” Zannafar grinned as he bit down. ”Where did you go?!” He screamed as he realized he bit nothing but air.

A few feet away, Einhart was panting with her hand on her chest. That flash step spell was harder than she thought it would be. She yelped as Zannafar turned and growled at her.

”Time to die!” Zannafar opened his mouth, but before anything could happen, a circle formed around him, glowing softly as the air seemed to ripple around him. ”What si this?”

“Vivio?” Einhart wasn't sure what her friend was doing, but she wasn't going to complain.

(–)

“Distance transmission, target...” Vivio trailed off, she wasn't sure how far she could do this, but she didn't care. “Far away! Transmission!” When she heard the creature scream as he disappeared, she smiled and nodded before wiping her forehead. “Whew... Glad that worked.”

About a minute later, Einhart walked up to her with a confused expression on her face. “Vivio... What did you do?”

Vivio smiled and rubbed the back of her head, giggling. “Well, it's a spell that Yuuno-papa taught me. Teleportation is so useful at times.” She sighed and kicked the ground as she turned around. “Actually, I wasn't sure it would work, I would have had it done a bit sooner, but when I tried to use it on that thing, the spell just went,” Vivio threw her hands up into the air “zzsnap!”

“Then...”

Vivio smiled and looked back at Einhart. “Well, since I couldn't affect that thing, I decided to affect the area around him. After all, if the area doesn't exist, then it can't either, right?”

Einhart sweat-dropped, “but what if that didn't work?”

“Then I would have teleported the mountain on top of it.” Vivio giggled as Einhart face-faulted.

“That would have destroyed the whole village, dummy!” Einhart yelled as she stood up, her hands open wide as if she wanted to strangle Vivio.

“Um...” Vivio sweat-dropped, “I didn't think of that? I was just trying to stop that thing.”

Einhart groaned and slumped, why was it so hard to stay angry at her? “I swear, you're going to be the death of me.”

Before Vivio could answer, she paled as the sky darkened before turning and looking up. “...Or maybe Corona will be the death of us first?” Behind her, Einhart didn't say anything, she could only gulp as she saw what Corona was doing.

(–)

“Alright, let's go!” Arashi yelled as Zangulus swung his sword upwards, sending winds in all directions and blowing the building they were in to pieces.

”Foolish!” The Zannafar yelled as two of his mouths opened up, shooting lightning into the wind, punching through it with ease and destroying the building behind it. All of its eyes widened as the wind dissipated to reveal nothing. ”Where are you?”

“Right here!” Zannafar looked up to see Arashi appear out of a black swirling mass, a black sword of something in his hands. “YAAAAH!” He screamed as he swung down, his eyes widening as he missed the Zannafar's heads. “Dang...” He panted as he crashed into the ground, kicking up dust and obscuring him for a few moments.

The Zannafar gave a deep chuckle as it walked forward to see the barely moving boy laying face down, spread out as the dust from earlier slowly cleared out of the way. ”I don't know what you were planning on, but now it's time to feast.”

With a howl, the right head struck down at the prone boy, the next thing that the Zannafar knew was nothing but pain.

Arashi grinned and let out a yell as he pushed up off the ground. “Should have made sure I was out cold!” Sure, he was tired and he felt like he was about to puke his guts out, but the Ragna Blade he had cast earlier hadn't dissolved yet. Watching the neck and head of the Zannafar split open was rather... Enjoyable. “NOW!” He yelled as the black blade finally did dissipate while he fell on his butt and panted. If this failed, he was going to die, he knew that much.

Zangulus laughed as he jumped forward and stabbed the Zannafar right where the split in its neck was at. “You might have unbreakable skin, but what about your inside? Is it as unbreakable? Howling sword!”

”NoooooAHHH!!” A howling wind erupted from Zannafar's body violently and both Zangulus and Arashi stared in shock as the creature's body tore itself apart like a dog playing with an old sock as tornadoes ripped out of its body from multiple directions.

When the winds died down and Zangulus jumped back, his sword in his hand, Arashi turned his head, “IXY! Your turn!” he yelled as the beast stumbled back and collapsed to the ground, twitching.

“My name...” She started slowly as she walked forward, the Blessed Blade drawn and glowing lightly, “is Ixpellia!” Holding her sword above her head, her eyes seemed to light up with fire as the sword glowed a bright silver. “Blessed Blade!”

Zangulus grabbed Arashi and jumped away as Ixpellia swung her sword down, sending an arcing beam of silver light towards the downed beast. Even though she knew that it was powerful, Ixpellia couldn't help but be impressed as the demon beast's body shattered from the attack and dissipated into motes of light. “...Wow...”

Zangulus grinned, that was something he had never seen before. He frowned as the sky suddenly darkened and he looked up and gulped as his body started to tremble. “...No way...”

Both Arashi and Ixpellia could only stare in shock at what they were seeing.

(–)

Gourry, Lyos and Leon could only stare in silent shock. What that mountain was doing was just terrifying.

(–)

“She can't...” Nove gasped as she looked at the mountain. “Corona! Don't! Please!” She screamed.

Her rescuer trembled, and Nove didn't blame her.

“That much power...” Uno began as she got the readings for it.

“It'll destroy everything for almost twenty kilometers if it's not stopped.” Jail finished for her.

(–)

Corona was panting, her eyes wide and full of disturbed fury. “Zanny... Why did you get beaten?”

”I WASN'T BEATEN! THAT WRETCH CHEATED!”

Corona snapped her head around, her glowing eyes only showed some of the fury she was feeling. “I thought you were immune to magic, but you're not, are you?” She held up a hand to stop him from responding. “I don't care, I held Zenna back because I thought you, the other Zannfar and the golems could handle them. But now...” She spun around to look at the village. “EVERYTHING DIES!” A pitch black circle formed around her feet as the three heads of Jörmungandr opened their mouths, black energy started to pool around them so intensely that the sun itself got blotted out. Her eyes flashed as a sick, twisted grin formed on her face. “Jörmungandr, DESTROY EVERYTHING!”

The heads responded by letting out a low groaning sound before firing three large black beams towards the city.

Corona started to giggle and laugh as she watched the impending destruction. “BURN THIS WORLD TO ASHES!! ETERNAL DESTRUCTION!!!”

(–)

“No...” Nove gasped.

(–)

“...Mama.” Vivio whimpered, she doubted even her Saint Kaiser armor could protect her against something like this.

(–)

Zangulus grimaced as the energy beam came crashing down. “Well... Fu...”
 

Mega1987

Well-Known Member
7 long months of waiting...

just to be slapped in the face by a cliffie...


MOAR, Nanya...
don't kept us at the edge of our seats here.... XD
 

WarChild

Well-Known Member
Well... Gourry shows up... but wasn't expecting Zangulus.

So many cliffhangers though... probably would work better once the arc is done.
 

Nanya

Well-Known Member
Bad news/Good news

Bad news: I've been under SEVERE writer's block the past three years and haven't been able to get ANYTHING written up.

Good news: I am working on finishing the arc up and when I'm done I'll post in one big post.

So, I apologize for how long this has taken, but I've only got two scenes to write out and one to finish and then this arc will be done.
 

Nanya

Well-Known Member
32 pages.
PHEW! Finally!
I admit, I did rush it a bit, not happy with that.
Also I had like 2 scenes I cut out completely, one was like "eh, we know the outcome of this already" and the other was "that doesn't make sense and I have to justify it".

So, anyway, the end of the arc and the epilogue all in one post.

Enjoy!

_________________________________________________

Corona grinned as she watched the beam crash down. “And now they've finally...” She trailed off as she saw something that she couldn't believe. “WHAT THE HECK?!”

”That's a very large barrier.” Zannafar couldn't keep the awe out of his voice. Even he couldn't match a beam attack like that and someone put a barrier up to stop it?

“WHO?!” Corona screamed, a black aura of power surrounding her as her hair and dress were pushed upwards by the strength of her aura.

(–)

Vivio blinked in shock. “...Did a Shinzoku save us?”

“Ahahahahahaha!” A male voice laughed from behind Vivio, causing her and Einhart to turn and look at a rather... Large man with a beard that only seemed to cover his cheek bones and went around his mouth. “I'm flattered that you would think of me as a Shinzoku, but I'm just a King, not a god.” The man grinned as the two young girls stared at him, dumbfounded. “My name is King Philoniel El Di Saillune, and I'm just glad we could make it in time.”

“...We?” Einhart wondered what he was saying.

“We.” The man grinned and stepped aside to reveal a rather large gathering of mages and knights behind him. “The Seiryuun magic and knight forces have arrived!”

“But... How?” Vivio pointed a trembling finger at the energy beam as it started to subside. “That's strong enough to destroy several cities! How can...”

“We might not be strong enough alone, but when we work together, we're unbeatable!” A female voice spoke up and Vivio and Einhart blinked as a girl with short blue-black hair in a pink-trimmed short-sleeved white top and matching pants stepped up next to the King. “Daddy, the beam...”

“Right, Amelia.” King Phil nodded and turned to the magic troops. “Men! As soon as the beam subsides, I want all offensive power focused on that big thing! Bring it down!”

“AYE!”

Einhart looked at Vivio and frowned. “While I'm grateful for the save, this is entirely too contrived.”

“Which part? The part where they saved us or the fact that they stopped that attack?”

“...Yes.” Einhart deadpanned as Vivio giggled and stuck her tongue out. “Vivio!” She growled, this girl was seriously trying her patience, and at a serious time too.

“Well,” Vivio stopped smiling and turned around, “it's just simple physics.” She pointed up at the sky. “As powerful as that beam is, a barrier of equal or greater strength can stop it. Well, so long as it doesn't have any temporal or spatial warping properties.” Einhart blinked at the sudden change, since when was Vivio so serious? “There are other exceptions too, but even a strong attack like that?” Vivio shrugged, “get enough people together and you can move mountains. After all, it's how atoms work. A lot of small things working together to make up a large thing.”

“Um, Vivio...” Einhart trailed off, sighing as Vivio turned and smiled at her.

“I was just telling you what Yuuno-papa told me.” She giggled when Einhart hung her head and sighed. “It's not...”

”Hey, people, can we meet up at the healer's?”

“Nove? What's wrong?”

“Other than my arm nearly in pieces and almost being torn apart, I think you need to see who's here.”


Vivio and Einhart looked at each other in confusion.

(–-)

Corona snarled in sheer rage. “Zanny, Zenna, get down there and destroy them.”

”That worked so well last time, didn't it?” Zannafar snorted as she turned to glare at him. ”Why not just use this big piece of rock and step on them?” Zannafar blinked as Corona pointed down at the ground.

“Tell me, oh wise one, how I'm supposed to do that when all my golems are destroyed, the other Zanny is dead and you and Zenna are up here?” She turned and stomped her foot on the ground. “I can't see anything but the buildings! I don't wanna waste... My... Time...” She trailed off as her anger cleared and a thought came to her. “Jörmungandr... Do it!”

Zannafar wondered what was going on when the Golem's left head opened its mouth and molten rock started drooling out of it. Jörmungandr lifted its arm up and if Zannafar had eyebrows, he would have raised them out of shock as the lava flowed over the arm and started dripping down over the battlefield.

Corona turned and glared at Zannafar, her eyes glowing. “Think that's enough of an advantage for you? Lava falling from the sky, burning everything in its path.”

Zannafar snorted, but didn't retort, instead he took off, running down the body of the mountain-sized Golem. He growled as he saw the Zennefa fly through the air and down towards the ground faster than he could run. ”SCREW YOU TOO!”

Corona grinned and sat back. If only she could see the faces of everyone when they paid for what happened. “Yes...”

(–-)

“Yes...” Gram chuckled as he looked at the ring on his finger. “Such a... Willing puppet.”

“I see, so that's your game, huh?” Xellos spoke from behind the otherworldly General. “Giving that young girl power and using it to corrupt her. How very... Mazoku like.”

“You almost sound like you disapprove.” Gram laughed softly at Xellos's denial.

“I don't disapprove of you acting like a Mazoku, however...” The next thing Gram knew, several strong strikes hit him from behind on the Astral plane. “Your plan is incredibly dangerous, both for us and for yourself.” Turning, Gram glared at Xellos, who looked at him with his eyes open.

“You fool! You would insult me?! I'm the strongest General of my staff, and you're nothing more than a lap dog for your master!” He could only growl as Xellos's eyes revealed cruel amusement. “I'm more than a match for a pathetic dog like you!”

“A dog?” Xellos started glowing purple as Gram started to transform. “No, no, I don't do dogs. Wolves? Sure, I've been a wolf more than once.”

“You talk too much!” Gram growled as he finished transforming, his skin was a mix of yellow and orange, giant wings protruded from his back, a long tail with a snake's head swung side to side from behind him, his legs were covered in what looked like thick fur, his feet were still human-like though bigger than before, his whole body was rather muscular and his hands were huge, with long nails from each finger. Long horns came out of his forehead and his teeth lengthened to the point that if he was a normal creature, most people would wonder how he could open his mouth to eat.

“A stereotypical looking Demon, how... Droll...” Xellos was a little disappointed, he had hoped that Gram had an interesting look, heck, even a tree would have been something at least. This was just a fancy looking troll with wings.

Gram didn't bother answering with words as a gout of black flames at the purple-haired Mazoku. Xellos simply laughed as his disappeared. “My, my, what is it with simple beasts thinking they can kill me with single, strong attacks? I always find smaller attacks to be more effective than one big one.”

Gram let out a yell as his back, legs and front were attacked by several small cones all at the same time. “Damn you!” He yelled and shifted to the Astral plane to get away from the attack.

Xellos just smiled as he disappeared into the Astral Plane as well. After all, he wasn't fighting a human, there was no reason to hold back against a foe like this.

(–)

“Come on! We need to hurry and get out of here, there are others who need help!” One of the healers was yelling at the others as they worked to heal the injuries that had been sustained by various fighters.

“No worries,” a green-haired healer smiled as they finished up with the few they had, “we're almost...” The smile disappeared as she saw two new people walk up to them. “Oh dear... What happened to you two?”

Nove grunted as she was gently put down on a table. “My arm got blown up and I think a few of my joints are dislocated.”

“Um...” The healer looked at Nove's arm and the wires and metal sticking out from it.

“I'm from another world, tried to do a forbidden experiment to do something I'm not proud of and the price for what I did took my arm when I was little girl.” Nove sighed, she didn't want to explain that she was a cyborg to anyone. “On the plus side, I'm a lot stronger and more durable than I would be normally. But, yeah... Can you wrap it up, it really fucking hurts!”

The healers nodded and went to work with their magic and various wraps they had on hand to try and save what they could. “Considering that this is a metal arm, I doubt we can do much.”

Nove grimaced as they pushed some of the metal back in. “Don't worry about that, just fix what you can.”

One of the healers looked at Nove's rescuer. “How about you? You look to be in horrible shape.”

“Actually, I'm fine.” The rescuer giggled nervously, putting a hand on the back of their head, rubbing it. “Well, considering the bandages on my body, you wouldn't be wrong in wondering...”

“Hey, Nove, we're here and...” Vivio trailed off, her eyes widening. “It... It can't be.” Beside her, Einhart was equally stunned as she looked at who had rescued Nove.

“Yeah, I'm surprised too.” Nove sighed and sat up as her arm was finally wrapped up. “You work fast.” She rolled her shoulders and moved her legs, nodding as she didn't feel any real discomfort anymore. 'At least I can walk now.' She just hoped that this battle would be over soon, she didn't think she could fight anymore without seriously injuring herself.

“We're good at that.” One of the healers nodded to her and looked at the others. “We should be leaving, now.”

“Especially with those two coming down at us.” Nove muttered as she looked up and saw both Zannafar and Zennefa heading their way.

Vivio wasn't hearing Nove, she walked up to the redhead's rescuer and pinched the person's cheeks.

“Yesh, I'm relly here.” The person tried to speak as Vivio pulled on her cheeks, when Vivio let go and touched her in the stomach, the person gasped and doubled over. “Oww, oww... Don't touch, still tender.”

“But... You're alive...” Vivio stuttered, unsure what to say next.

“How are you still alive?” Einhart asked as she looked at the person. “We all thought you were dead, Rio.”

Rio looked at them, smiling. “Well, it's funny really, I'm not sure how I survived. I remember getting shot through the stomach, then falling, lots of pain in my right eye, hitting something really hard and wet and then nothing. Next thing I know I'm awake, unable to see out of my right eye, well, I couldn't see much of anything out of my left eye either, and it smelled like pine trees for some reason.”

Vivio suddenly frowned at Rio. “Prove it.”

“Huh?” Rio looked at her in confusion.

“Prove you're really Rio. After everything else around here, I wouldn't be surprised if you're some sort of Mazoku trying to trick us.”

“Well, there was that magazine that I found in the library that one day and I showed it to you and it had these really...”

“ACK!” Vivio's eyes widened and her face turned red. “Okay, you're really her.”

Einhart shook her head, she had no idea what those two were talking about, but as she looked Rio over, she had to admit, the girl was a mess. Her barrier jacket was in tatters, her legs were wrapped up from the ankles to the knees, her hands were covered in bandages, as was Rio's stomach up to just under her armpits, thankfully the bandages didn't expose anything they shouldn't have and the girl had an eye-patch over her right eye. She was wearing shorts and an open long-sleeved jacket that was reminiscent of her barrier jacket in looks. “How come...”

“Well, if you're wondering why I didn't contact you, I couldn't. My magic's kind of screwed up. I'm kind of surprised I'm still in my adult mode...” She reached into her jacket and pulled out a heavily damaged medallion. “Poor Sol here can't even turn on anymore. I don't know how to help him.”

“Can you still use magic?” Nove asked as she got her arm put into a sling.

“Yeah, but like I said, it's kind of screwed up.” Rio shook her head, looking at them with a confused expression. “It's there, but it doesn't do what I tell it to do anymore.”

“Fine, we can figure it out later, come on.” Nove nodded her head to the side. “We need to meet up with the others. Hopefully everyone's alive.” The other three girls nodded and followed her and the healers.

(–)

“Father!” Amelia gasped as she saw what was coming their way.

“I see it.” King Phil nodded and looked at his magic troops. “Everyone! Keep that lava from doing much damage! Freeze it as soon as it hits the ground.”

“SIR!” The mages shouted and took positions as they were directed. “FREEZE ARROW!”

As the cold magic blasts hit the hot, molten rock, Amelia grimaced, even as she added her own Freeze Bullets to the mix. She doubted that this would stop the lava for long, but hopefully they could slow it down long enough to get everyone out of the area.

(–--)

“So, what do we do now?” Gourry asked as the lava crashed down not too far from where they were and grimaced. “I mean, I'm all for trying to leave.”

“Dad, it won't work.” Leon shook his head and pointed at the size of Jörmungandr, “even if we ran, it would just need to take three steps to get ahead of us.”

“Well, if you know where the golem creator is and knock them out, it should stop the thing.” Gourry, Leon and Lyos turned to see a rather tall, incredibly busty woman in a small bikini with long, dark hair, walk up to them. “I might not be the best at controlling golems, but making them?” She flicked her hair to the side. “Easy. Something that size though?” She looked up at it and cupped her chin. “Way too much magic to just start it up. You'd need someone or an army of someones constantly powering it, otherwise it would have stopped after a few feet.”

“Princess Gracia.” Leon turned to look back at the golem. “What do you mean?”

Princess Gracia, otherwise known as Naga the Serpent, scoffed and rolled her eyes. “I mean, little man, it's probably taking whomever is powering that thing, nearly everything they've got just to keep it together. Moving? Attacking? It has to be a major strain on them. If we took your father's suggestion, I doubt we'd have to do much.”

“Maybe, maybe not.” Lyos spoke up, “I don't know the girl myself, but she created that thing and several other golem-like creatures while keeping that thing from falling apart. Including one that seemed to be able to regenerate on me.”

Naga blinked, shocked, “if that is, in fact, the work of one person, that person would have to be a sorcery genius unlike anything the world has ever seen and have reserves on par with a Mazoku.”

“Could be.” Lyos nodded and blinked as Zangulus walked up with a white-haired Arashi, who was hanging off of Ixpellia's shoulders, trying to keep up with her walking. “Over-did it a little bit, kid?” Arashi nodded. “Alright, so, we were trying to figure out what our next course of action was...”

“Don't ask me to help, I'm out.” Arashi panted and slumped down as Ixpellia let go of him. “So what's...” he trailed off as Vivio ran up to the group. “Hey, Vivio what are...”

“No way...” Ixpellia stared at who was walking with Einhart and Nove behind Vivio. “That... You died!”

“Yeah, I'm not sure how I survived either.” Rio rubbed the back of her neck, grimacing as her open jacket fluttered slightly. “All I remember is the smell of pine trees when I woke up.”

Einhart shook her head. “We can quiz her when we're done, we have to do something about that giant mountain!”

“Not to mention those two things coming after us.” Nove looked over her shoulder and grimaced. “So, we have a white wolf thing and some sort of twisted image of an angel coming after us.”

“And if the angel is like that wolf thing, it'll be almost immune to magic, plus it can shoot magic lasers I bet.” Einhart took a deep breath. She didn't want to die, but dealing with one was hard enough, how could they deal with two of them?

“Don't worry,” Zangulus smiled at her, “between all of us here, we should have no problem with that thing.”

“Don't be over-confident.” Ixpellia narrowed her eyes. “I doubt that we have much time, but that three-headed creature we fought was nearly unkillable, the only reason we won was because it could not block Arashi's black sword.”

“And I'm too tired to try that again, especially against two of them.”

“Should I try to warp them into space?” Vivio asked, “I mean, I might miss, but if I get them up high enough I might be able to make one go splat.”

“It might work, but I doubt it.” Lyos shook his head. “The legends of the Demon Beast Zannafar... Never thought they left so many details out.”

“Even so, I'm out of the next part of this fight.” Nove sighed and looked at Arashi, “you don't look like you're in shape either,” she turned to look at Rio, who blushed at Nove raising an eyebrow at her, “and you're not going anywhere near the fight if even a hug can make you fall to your knees in pain.”

Rio pouted, it wasn't that bad, besides, Vivio hugged really hard!

“Um... LOOK OUT!” Ixpellia yelled as a magical laser beam blasted near where they were and blasted towards them, tearing the ground apart as it did so. Even though everyone was able to jump out of the way from the attack, even if Nove and Arashi needed help to do so, the kicked up dirt and debris was enough to cause some of them some problems.

Gourry frowned as that human-like being landed near where the beam ended. It looked like someone wearing a suit of armor, he couldn't even see any sort of face on it, but the thing had eight wings on its back. The white armor with dark lines in various patterns made it look interesting, but it sure wasn't any sort of ally. “Well then, looks like I get to tango with you.”

“OHOHOHOHOHO!” Naga laughed as she pointed upwards. “That was nice, but you've messed with the wrong sorceress! Mega Vu Vraimer!”

Everyone, except for the armor, sweat-dropped as a large, humanoid golem appeared behind Naga and stepped forward, squishing her under its foot. It took several more steps forward and was about to step on the armor when the two top wings on its back suddenly glowed and the golem was destroyed by dozens of small laser beams, turning the golem into a pile of rubble in seconds.

“Well, we're boned.” Vivio gulped, sure she was more agile than that, but if the thing could fire in multiple directions at once? Yeah, she doubted she could avoid more than a couple of shots before being hit.

”I'd say so.” Zannafar growled as it came up to the scattered group. ”Ready for round two?”

Nove grimaced as she got up, she was in no shape to fight, and she didn't know if running would be a good idea. 'Dang it, I hate to say this, but I wish that we had some more back up.'

(–)

Meanwhile, near the top of Jörmungandr...

Corona groaned and gripped her head as the ring on her right hand started to glow brightly. “Nnngh! What is?!” She fell to her knees, screaming as red lightning danced out of the ring and across her body, she shakily held her hand out in front of her as the ring started to spark before it exploded lightly. The lightning stopped and the pain receded, she put her hands on the ground in front of her, panting heavily as sweat rolled down her face. “Oww... Oww...” She whimpered and looked at her right hand, thankful that whatever caused that explosion didn't take her finger with it. “What happ...” Corona trailed off as memories started to rush back, causing her eyes to widen as she remembered what she had done. “No... Oh gods...” What she did wasn't even the worst of it all, the sheer hate she had been feeling... It made her want to throw up.

But at the same time, she wanted to feel that hatred again, to revel in it. After all, it was better than feeling this wave of shame and disgust that she was currently feeling. “Kill! No! YES!” Corona screamed, her mind having trouble distinguishing what she really wanted to do.

The next thing that she knew, the left head of Jörmungandr exploded and the golem took a massive step back as it was slammed by a powerful attack.

“What?!” Corona gasped in shock, who or what could be strong enough to do something like that? Looking around, she slowly gulped as she saw what was in front of her. “...I think I should have killed all of them instead of letting them go when I first had the chance!” Growling, Corona stood up and a magic circle formed under her feet, the remaining two heads started to glow and radiate power. “Can't use the magic laser beam more than once, huh? Screw that! KILL EVERY..” Corona's command was cut short as she lurched forward from a powerful blow to the back. “What the?” She spun, Jörmungandr turning to see dozens of more Dragons circling her position. “There weren't that many before, where there?” She grabbed her head and groaned in pain, trying to think was hurting. “Zanny... Someone... Help me.” Corona whimpered as she fell to her knees and eventually to her side, curling into a ball.

(–-)

“Not what I was thinking, but I'm not going to complain.” Nove sighed as Dragons started to attack the giant Golem. Hopefully this could turn things around.

”Tsk, stupid girl, oh well.” Zannafar growled as he looked at the group. “Enough talk, are you ready to die?”

“Nah, I was just cleaning my clothes off.” Gourry smirked, “maybe I'm no sorcerer, but I think I can still beat you.”

Zannafar laughed, his teeth flashing. ”How fun, I can't wait to devour you and absorb your memories.”

“If he does that, he might get stupid.” Lyos muttered as he looked at Gourry. “Well, in that case, go for it, Gourry!” In his right hand, water swirled around Banisher as he prepared for his next move. He doubted he could hurt those things, but if he could keep them from hitting anyone, at least Gourry could have a chance to slice the things apart.

“I'd rather not have someone get eaten.” Einhart spoke up as she stood near Ixpellia and Arashi.

“Agreed,” Zangulus said as he walked past her, unsheathing his sword. “You should probably leave, unless you plan on dying.”

“I don't, but I can't just leave.” Einhart said softly and looked at him. “It might be noble to protect a helpless woman, but I'm not going to sit back and watch someone die.”

Before Zangulus could respond, the Zennefa turned away from them and raised its hand up and fired a powerful magical laser shot into the sky, bisecting a Golden Dragon can causing it to fall from the sky in pieces.

“Enough!” Gourry yelled as he rushed forward, the Blast Sword held in front of him.

”Fool!” Zannafar yelled and fired a laser blast from its mouth at Gourry.

“Too slow!” Lyos yelled as several walls of ice appeared between Gourry and Zannafar. “Hurry up, Gourry!” He yelled as the ice walls shattered from the energy stream. Thankfully they had slowed and weakened the blast enough that Gourry was able to cut through the energy with no problem.

As Gourry ran forward, Zangulus took that moment to run around the walls of ice. “You should be more concerned with me! Howling Sword, MK 90!” A super powerful twister erupted from his sword, tearing into the magical laser and disrupting it before slamming into the Zannafar's nigh-unbreakable skin.

“Dad! Look out!” Leon yelled as the Zennafa's wings glowed briefly and fired several laser shots arcing into the sky, making it appear as if the laser beams were creating a small vertical dome, before the beams converged on a single point and then rained down, shattering the ground in a random pattern outwards that slammed into the ground and knocked Gourry, Lyos and Zangulus off their feet with the near misses, and would have killed Einhart, Ixpellia and Arashi had Vivio not jumped in and picked up all three of them, getting them out of the way.

“Vivio, put me down.”

“But you're upside down.” Vivio protested as she carried Ixpellia in her right arm, Arashi in her left and had both of Einhart's legs over her shoulders.

“Exactly!” Einhart yelled, turning red at the fact that anyone who looked would get a good look at her underwear.

“This isn't a time to get embarrassed.” Ixpellia stated as Vivio landed next to Rio and Nove, putting her and Arashi down while dropping Einhart down. The girl tumbled into a roll to stand up, her face slightly red. “We do have other things to worry about.”

“Easy for you to say.” Einhart muttered as she looked at the two creatures as Zannafar opened its mouth and charged up an attack while Zennefa held up its arms to do the same. “Does anyone have any way to stop them?”

“Doubtful, the other magic users are stopping the lava.” Vivio looked at Ixpellia, who was holding her Blessed Blade. “Think you can..?” Ixpellia shook her head and Vivio sighed. “Well, that's my plan, thanks anyway, Ixy.”

“It's Ixpellia.” The young-looking girl muttered.

“Watch out!” Nove yelled and dove for Rio, covering the girl as the two magical armors fired beams of energy at them.

She didn't need to move as very thick walls of ice appeared between them and the creatures, stopping the attacks cold. The two creatures looked at Lyos, who was surrounded by lots of water particles in the air, while he glared at them. “Not right to attack a young lady.” Still, he had no idea what to do, he didn't have access to the magic needed to cut these things down, Gourry was the only one with a weapon that could hurt them and apparently Ixpellia's sword was only good for absorbing the miasma that the Zannafar was putting out. “Well, gentlemen, it's been an honor.”

Zangulus grinned at that. “I'm not dying yet.” He squeezed the handle on his sword as it began to charge magic. “My wife would never forgive me if I died on her.”

“Lyos!” A familiar voice suddenly yelled out. Turning, Lyos was shocked to see a young-looking boy with tan skin and purple hair holding a sword hilt. “HERE!” The boy threw it at him before falling to his knees and coughing. “U...Use the Sword of Light!”

“Young man!” One of the nurses yelled as they ran up to him. “Please, you've not yet recovered from being returned to your body.”

Coughing, the young man shook his head. “I started this journey to see my country liberated, I'll see it through to the end.” He slumped down and found himself face-first on the ground. “...Okay, I won't be seeing anything through to the end like this, I guess.”

The nurse shook her head as she grabbed the young man and pulled him away from the battle as Lyos caught the sword hilt in his hands.

“Sword of Light, huh?” He then shrugged and tossed it to Leon. “Hey, kid, know how to use this?”

“Ah!” Leon yelped as he struggled to catch it. “Ah, kind of, supposed to yell something out, right? Something about Light Coming Forth or WOAH?!” His eyes widened as a blade of pure energy formed from the sword hilt. “Okay, that's neat!”

”That thing?!” Zannafar hissed as he saw the Sword of Light glowing ominously. ”You won't get the chance to use it!” He bellowed as he lunged for the young man, only to grunt as several tornadoes appeared under him and launched him into the sky.

Zangulus grinned as he watched the Zannafar fly up into the air. “Might not be able to hurt you directly, but I'm sure that this can still stall you.” His eyes widened as Zannafar let loose a howl and the tornado dissipated, allowing the beast to land on his feet. “That wasn't supposed to happen.”

Growling, Zannafar opened his mouth as he plunged down at Zangulus. Just as he got close, his head snapped to the side and he screamed in pain as a chunk of his face was removed from his body. Zannafar, despite his pain, turned to glare at the boy with the Sword of Light who had hurt him. He seemed to breathe in, energy forming in front of his face ”DIE! he screamed before firing.

Leon grunted as he blocked it when the Sword of Light. “Dammit, hold it together!” He screamed at the sword, which seemed to flicker. “Don’t you dare break on me!”

Zannafar was mentally grinning, soon this whelp would be dead and then he could work on the others that had given him so much trouble.

“Blessed Blade!” Ixpellia yelled as she swung her sword, which was glowing brightly, downwards, an arc of energy erupted from her sword and sliced through the energy beam, scattering the energy to the winds.

”Will you people just die already?!” The Demon Beast was fed up with these fools, they just wouldn’t die and get in his belly like good sheep! ”I am going to enjoy peeling your flesh from your GAH!” He screamed in pain as Leon took that moment to rush forward and slash him in the neck. ”YOU!” He turned his head towards Leon only to grunt as he felt something in his neck. ”What?”

“Your outside is pretty tough, but I wonder how soft your insides are.” Zangulus grinned as he felt the magic in his sword activate.

”NOOOO!”

“Howling Sword, MK 90! GO!”

The Demon Beast’s eyes widened and he let out a pained yowl as tornadoes tore his insides apart before bursting out of his body at various angles and tearing him to shreds.

“Rest in pieces.” Zangulus said and fell to a knee panting. “I’m getting too old to do this anymore.”

(---)

“So, got a plan, jellyfish brains?” Lyos chuckled as they faced off against the angel-like Zennafa. Lyos couldn’t believe how big the thing was, at least as big as Golden Dragon, but as a humanoid with legs and a glowing aura, it looked bigger than it actually was.

Gourry shook his head, “nope! My only idea is not getting hit by those attacks.” The two had to jump out of the way as several beams were launched from the wings of the Zennefa, turning the immediate ground into craters. The thing raised its left arm up and fired a beam at Lyos, who created a wall of ice between them to absorb the blast from the Zennefa. When the ice began to crack and splinter, Lyos jumped to the side moments before the ice shattered into pieces.

“Eat this!” Lyos yelled as he swung his sword down and a concentrated torrent of water came rushing out, slamming the Zennefa in the chest and creating an explosion that erupted outwards in a white dome.

“What the heck was that?!” Gourry was shocked, since when did water explode?

Lyos shrugged, he had no idea himself. Had he known more about physics he would have known that he launched a miniature hydrogen bomb at the Zennefa. Of course, if he knew more about physics, he may have created it too powerful and killed everyone by accident. “Not sure, actually, I figured out that water could explode one day and…” He trailed off as the dust cleared and the Zennefa was completely unharmed. “Ah, shoot.”

The Zennefa’s wings glowed for a moment before firing a stream of criss-crossing blasts that expanded outwards and covered the ground and forced both of its opponents to defend themselves as best they could.

Gourry grunted as he dodged the blasts and cut through the ones he couldn’t. “This is taking forever!” Letting out a yell, he swung his sword down and used the stored up energy to fire a blast at the Zennefa, he was disappointed when he missed.

“Don’t aim at the head next time!” Lyos yelled as the ice dome around him shattered.

(---)

Amelia grimaced as she and the other magic users were trying to keep the lava from overwhelming everyone. She would have rather been out there with the others helping them fight, not here, but knew it would be for the best. After all, they had their hands full with those things and didn’t need her to get in the way.

Still, she wished that there was something she could do to help them. At least Gracia was helping evacuate people and using her golem to move debris out of the way from what Amelia could see.

She just hoped that there wouldn’t be too many people dead after this was over.

(---)

“Watch out!” Gourry yelled as the things’ wings started to glow again.

Lyos growled and snapped his fingers causing several diamond-shape objects to float around him. “Not this time!” Several small concentrated blasts ripped forward, slamming into the Zennefa and exploding. “Gourry!” He yelled and grinned as the older man rushed in from behind and cut the thing’s wings off with the Blast Sword.

Even after all these years, Gourry still had a hard time believing that this sword could cut through so much with ease. Slicing upwards as the thing turned to face him, Gourry smiled as the right arm came off. His eyes widened as it spinned faster and clotheslined him with the left arm, causing the blond man to get lifted off his feet as the thing spun around a few times before stopping and sending Gourry crashing into the ground hard.

“Gourry!” Lyos yelled and ran up to him, gasping as the Zennefa’s face glowed and fired a powerful red blast at them, seemingly consuming the two at once, kicking up dust and obscuring their bodies.

The Zennefa stood still while it waited for the dust to clear.

A few moments later a breeze kicked up and blew the dust away, revealing a iridescent triangular barrier in front of the two sword fighters. The next moment the Zennefa fired another powerful laser-like blast from its head into the barrier.

Behind the barrier, Vivio grunted as she struggled to hold it up. “Listen, if one of you can put a hole in that thing’s chest, I’ll finish it off.”

“Give me a second.” Gourry said as he got to his feet.

“You sure?” Lyos asked and got a nod from Gourry. “On the next blast, drop the shield.”

Vivio looked at them with worry, but nodded. When the last blast subsided, she dropped her barrier and got behind Gourry who stepped forward and readied himself.

The Zennefa’s head glowed red before firing a blast much larger than the previous one at the trio.

Letting out a yell, Gourry swung the Blast Sword onto the oncoming attack. “Come on, Blast Sword!” With a grunt and a yell, he forced his sword to swing down, and much to Vivio’s surprise, caused the beam to bend and twist before returning and punching a hole through the Zennefa. “Now!”

Vivio nodded and held her hands in front of her. “This fight’s over, goodbye.”

”Darkness Beyond Twilight
Crimson Beyond Blood That Flows
Buried in the Stream of Time
Is where your power grows
I pledge myself to conquer all the foes that stand
Against the mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hand
Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed
By the Power you and I posses!

DRAGON SLAVE!”
Vivio cried out as a red ball of destructive energy raced forward and slammed into the hole that was the Zennefa’s chest, exploding and taking the giant with it, ending the threat once and for all.

Vivio smiled, learning that had been worth it. Even with all the other stuff that had gone on, at least she had this now. The idea of using it was a bit scary, but she didn’t feel as vulnerable as she did before.

(---)

“Finally.” Nove sighed as the Zannafar things were defeated. Looking up, she grimaced as she heard Corona’s screams for help. “So now what?”

“Amelia!” Gourry called out and looked around. “She could fly up there!”

“She’s busy stopping a lava flow from getting too severe and you think she can fly up there with THAT going on, dad?” Leon asked, his face incredulous. “No offense, but I don’t think anyone’s that much of a miracle worker.”

“Can you teleport up there?” Ixpellia asked Arashi, who shook his head. “Dang it, I’m out of ideas.”

“Nove, how about…”

“Forget it, my Air Liner won’t get me up there fast enough, not with the injuries I’ve got.”

“She’s right, she’s at maybe 60% of her max speed right now. I can push it to 80%, but for that mess?” Uno’s voice came out of Jet Edge. “So unless someone can fly, I don’t think any of us are going to be able to help her.”

“So we should just sit and watch Corona get eaten by Dragons?!” Rio yelled, wincing. “Oww, oww, okay, no more yelling, oww!” She hissed, grimacing as she realized that she really should have waited to find her friends, but she couldn’t stop herself.

“Lyos, can you do something?”

“I doubt I can make water go that high without wiping out the country.” The Knight of the Aqua Lord shook his head. “It’s not like… Oh you have GOT to be kidding!” He yelled as he caught something moving towards them. “Didn’t I destroy that thing?!”

“Goliath?” Rio gasped as she saw the Golem move towards them, not paying attention and looking up. “...Wait, no, you look different, but you’re still Corona’s golem, right?” Yeah, the ruby V on its chest, the bat-like wings on its back… They were new, but it didn’t matter to Rio, it had to be Corona’s golem, what else could it be?

“Hey, don’t get too close, it’s not…” Lyos tried to stop her but she grabbed him and threw him to the side. “Ooomph! Okay, she’s hurt and she threw me like that?”

“Goliath! Look at me!” Rio stood in front of the golem, which stopped and looked at her. “Please, are you going to help her? If you are, take me with you!”

“Rio!?” Vivio yelled as she ran to her friend. “What are you doing?”

“Saving one of my friends, what else?”

Vivio frowned as she saw the look in Rio’s eyes. “...If you die, I’m not attending your funeral, okay?”

Rio smirked at that. “Not a problem, I don’t intend to die here.” Turning, she ran to the Golem, which grabbed her and spread its wings before launching upwards into the air. “We need to take out those Dragons!” She yelled as they dodged around large ice shards. “Dammit, Corona, turn off the ice from this thing!”

The Golem’s eyes suddenly lit up before two yellow beams launched forward, piercing through three Dragons and causing them to fall before the beams exploded, sending more Dragons .

“You have eye lasers?! Since when did you have eye lasers? What else can you do?” Rio asked, before yelping as something flew by her face. “What was that?”

(---)

“The hell?” Nove stared as all the Golems that they defeated earlier were pulling themselves together and forming…

“Giant fists?!” Einhart couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “What good will..?”

“Don’t you guys watch giant robot anime?” Arashi asked, “those are Rocket Punches!”

“EH?!” The others gasped as the fists flew into the air at a rapid pace.

“I have so many questions.” Lyos looked around, glad to see he wasn’t the only one confused. “Seriously, what even *IS* that Golem? I swear I chopped it into pieces! How did it pull itself together?”

“Maybe it had some sort of self-repair ability implanted into it?” Ixpellia shrugged, it was the only thing that made sense to her. She had to admit, the Rocket Punch thing was pretty neat. “But how can it do that? I don’t know if Corona’s even able to power it right now.”

(---)

“You can do this too?!” Rio gasped as soon the skies were flooded with Rocket Punches, ice shards, Dragons and breath weapons everywhere. “What did I miss while I was out?”

She yelped as a Dragon took notice of them and fired a blast that clipped by the Golem’s shoulders. In response the Golem spun in mid air and revealed what looked like a mouth full of sharp teeth.

“Ignore it! We need to get to Corona!” Rio yelled at the Golem, which seemingly pushed itself upwards as fast as it could go. “NNNGH!” They were still so far off, even at the current rate, it would take almost a minute to get to the head, and there were far more Dragons up there than down where they were.

(---)

Nove took a stumbling step forward as she gripped her right arm. She hadn’t wanted to reveal just how badly she was hurting, but she knew that without the bandages her arm might fall off.

"I'm working on hijacking your arm so that it works properly, Nove," Uno apologized, "but Intelligent Devices aren't designed to do that. If this was a Unison Device I could..."

Nove didn't hear her, she could only look around the battlefield, and shivered at the destruction and death that was just now beginning to sink in, between what was already there and the falling Dragons, it was pretty bad. "This..."

"Is what a war against Mazoku looks like." Jail spoke up, his voice having none of his usual amusement. "Even if they aren't directly involved in it, any actions they take brings nothing but death, chaos and carnage."

"I..." Nove trembled as the situation really started to sink in. "This is..." She fell to her knees as she found herself unable to stand anymore. "Can we even survive this?" Screw winning, she just wanted to be alive when it was over.

“Nove!” Vivio grabbed her friend and helped her up. “Oh dang it, why didn’t you mention you were bleeding badly?”

“I am?” Nove asked and looked at her damaged arm. “I didn’t even notice.”

“Of course you’re bleeding, you should have gotten away from the battle as soon as you were hurt!” Uno scolded Nove, “right now we can’t do anything for them and the other magic users have the lava under control, how about we get away from there until the Dragons stop hitting the floor?”

(---)

“We can’t get any closer, can we?” Rio asked as they finally got within visual range of Corona, who was on her knees and gripping her head. “Dammit, if you could just closer, or throw me, I don’t know which!”

The next thing she knew she was being transferred to the Golem’s right arm. “Wha, wha, WHAAAA?!” She screamed as the arm was launched at the quivering Corona. “Oh, I get it!” Gripping the arm, she crawled to the top of it and clung for dear life. “I just hope this works.” When she realized that the fist was going to go over Corona’s head, she pushed off and launched herself towards her friend. “CORONA!”

“H, huh?” The girl looked up and gasped as she saw a shadow flying at her. “What?”

“Get ahold of yourself!” Rio yelled loudly.

Corona couldn’t explain what happened next, even if she tried. One moment she was crouching on her knees and the next she was on her back and her cheek was hurting badly.

Rio grimaced as she rubbed her fist. “Oww, oww, oww. I really am in no shape to do this.”

“R...Rio?” Corona asked, trembling as she looked at her friend. “You can’t be… You’re not here. You’re going to say I killed you again and then turn to mush or reveal you’re a Mazoku and then…”

Another loud slap echoed and Corona found herself on her back again. “It’s me, you silly goose.” Rio tilted her head. “What happened to your hair?”

“It… Really is… You?” Corona sniffled before getting to her knees and crawling over to Rio, bawling her eyes out. “I swear I saw you die! I’m so sorry and I really EEK!” She yelped as she felt a harsh blow hit her on the back of the neck.

“Sorry.” Rio smiled apologetically. “But we don’t have time.” She grabbed Corona as the girl’s eyes rolled up into her head and she passed out. “Now how do I get down?” She asked as she stood up.

Just ask she asked that, the Golem landed on the ground next to her and extended a hand. “Goliath?” There was some damage on its body, but nothing that couldn’t be ignored. “Right.” She wasn’t sure how it got its hand back, but she wasn’t going to complain as she jumped on and the Golem took off like a rocket towards the ground.

Almost immediately all the Dragons stopped attacking the mountain, which had gone still after Corona was knocked out and took off after the Golem, letting loose energy blasts that the thing had to avoid as best it could.

Rio let loose a cry of surprise as the Golem was hit several times in the back. “Come on, hold it together, we gotta get out of here!” Rio’s eyes widened as the Golem grabbed her in its right hand and fired down towards the ground. “Goliath!” She yelled and reached up from between the clenched fingers of the Rocket Punch.

Turning, the Golem Balmung looked at the descending Dragons as its chest started to glow brightly a few moments before a powerful flaming blast ripped forward, turning several Dragons into skeletons instantly. That didn’t last as several beams blasted through the Golem’s wings, causing it to start falling to the ground. Opening its mouth a tornado of ice and water ripped forth to try and get a few more, which, unfortunately, was stopped as its head was blasted to the side. More and more beams piled on, causing the golem to jerk from side to side as it tumbled down towards the ground.

Balmung looked towards the ground and saw its fist with Rio and Corona arcing towards the ground, opening up its palm it fired its other other rocket fist at the first one.

“I don’t think physics works this way!” Rio yelled as the second fist added its momentum to the first one and sent them crashing into the ground as the fists fell apart.

Balmung’s body started spasming as more breath lasers blasted it a dozen times before the body was consumed in a golden explosion.

(---)

“I wonder if it can pull itself back together after that.” Lyos asked as he watched the explosion.

“Corona! Rio!” Vivio yelled as she ran to her friends and picked them up. “You made it!”

“Oww, oww, oww, oww!” Rio cried out as she was roughly picked up. “That hurts. ACK!” She gasped as Vivio squeezed her shoulder tightly. “Um, that really hurts.”

“Do anything like that again and I’ll put you in such a world of pain that both Vita and Nanoha-mama will think I went too far.” Vivio had a strained smile on her face as her eyes twitched. Rio was sweating and nodded nervously. “Good that you understand, now how about…” She trailed off as the Dragons landed in front of them, growling. “...Um.”

One of the Dragons transformed into a tall, blond man in a white outfit and walked forward. “I thank you for stopping her, but now I must ask you to turn the criminal over to us.”

“Huh? Criminal?” Vivio asked in confusion. “What criminal?”

The man pointed at Corona. “Considering what she did to us and our home, we must have retribution.”

Vivio shook her head. “No way! After all that, there’s no way we’re going to give her up to you.”

“Do you really think I’m giving you a choice, human? You can either give her over peacefully or you can deal with all of us at once.”

“Milgazia, stop this!” Lyos yelled as he walked forward. “You can’t just…”

“Knight of the Aqua Lord, I respect you, but you are not someone I take orders from.” The Golden Dragon narrowed his eyes. “If it will make you feel better, I will let you say goodbye before we pass down judgement on her.”

“You can’t just…” Lyos growled as Milgasia took a step forward. “Don’t make me fight you.”

Vivio was pulling Rio and Corona away from the Dragons as quickly as she could, she was thankful that Einhart and Leon were helping while Gourry placed himself between them and the Golden Dragons.

“Knight of the Aqua Lord, this is your last warning. I have no wish to fight you, but if you do not move, I shall be forced to use violence.”

“Dammit…” Lyos growled in frustration.

Before anyone could make any more moves, the area in front of Milgasia exploded outwards, sending both the Dragon and Lyos backwards.

“Who?” Lyos asked as he looked around.

“And, pray tell, what good will it do to cause more problems?” A new voice spoke up from the side, causing Milgasia and the rest of the Golden Dragons to suddenly shiver in fear. “Hmm?”

“Xellos, this has nothing to do with you!” Milgasia hissed, knowing just how outclassed he was at that moment.

“Oh?” Xellos asked, genuinely confused, “I think it does, all things considered.”

“You’re actually going to defend that girl?”

Xellos smiled at him, “I don’t care about her one way or the other, but my hands are tied, Milgasia.” Opening his eyes, his smile got sinister, “now then, you have two options, you can leave and hope to never see them again or you can deal with me. And we all know how that will go.

The Golden Dragon leader narrowed his eyes before spinning and walking away. There was no reason to try and get slaughtered. “Know this, if that girl ever steps foot near our territory in her lifetime, we will get our justice for her merciless slaughter of our people.”

Seeing the Dragons fly off, Xellos scratched his chin and looked on with his eyes closed. “My, he seemed quite upset. Usually those lizards have better control over their emotions.” He chuckled as he walked towards the group. “Hmm, that fool that I had to deal with sure did a number on her, huh?” He asked when he got close to them.

“What are you after, Xellos?” Lyos asked, in no real mood to deal with him after everything.

“Hmm, I guess you could say that I was just curious as to why this girl has a chunk of Lord Death Fog shoved into her.”

“What?!” Einhart, Vivio and Ixpellia yelled in shock while Rio looked at Corona in worry.

“It’s just raw power, nothing more, but I am shocked that she’s not dead.” Xellos shrugged and faded away. “Oh, I suppose I should let you know that my children apologize for everything that happened to you since you got here.”

“So now what?” No one was sure who said it, but none of them knew what to do next.

“How about we see the medics?” Rio suggested after a few minutes. “I’m a bit sore and tired, I need a bed.”

The others nodded and started to walk off.

(---)

“Are you sure you’re okay with taking off like this?”

“It’ll be okay. Lyos knows me well enough to know I’ll turn up just fine.”

“...Grandma’s going to kill you for needing the wolves.”

“Carona, I don’t pity you or Lena when your mother finds out what you did.”

The silver-haired half-Mazoku sweat-dropped as she heard that. “Um, Nila, can we NOT tell her then?”

“And miss out on your punishment?” The other girl smirked as a breeze blew her red and yellow hair around, revealing her other eye to the half-Mazoku. “Not on your life.”

“Mouuu… You’re so mean! What the heck was grandma thinking, raising a human on Wolf Pack Island anyway?” Carona whined as the two of them disappeared.

(---)

“Ixy?” Vivio asked as she saw the redhead outside. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?” It was really early, the effects of the battle last night were still lingering, some areas were still too dangerous to go near. Such as the areas near where they fought the Zannafar.

“It’s Ixpellia, and I could ask the same of you.” Ixpellia turned to look at the blonde. “I enjoy watching the sun rise. It reminds me that I’m still alive, that’s all.” After everything that had happened, it was nice to be able to stand outside and relax. “How about you?”

“I never fell asleep. I don’t know if anyone else is up though.”

“Are you okay then?” Vivio shook her head at the question. “At least King Philonel will help us find a place to live after things settle down.”

“I know, I just…” Vivio put her face in her hands and sighed as she rubbed her eyes. “Want to go home.”

Ixpellia sighed and walked over to Vivio and hugged her. “I do too.” She felt Vivio hug her tightly in response. “Don’t worry though, I doubt your family will stop looking for you.”

“Too bad we don’t have a stable gateway between this place and home set up, huh?” Vivio asked after a few minutes as she let go of the hug. “Would make it easy, just whoosh! Back home!”

Ixpellia giggled as she heard that. “That would be nice.”

(---)

Nove groaned as she heard Uno’s voice yelling at her. “I’m up, I’m up.” She sat up, revealing that she wasn’t wearing a shirt, or bra, as her perky chest moved freely. “What time is it?” She tried stretching, but the bandages on her arm made that hard to do.

“The sun will be up in a few hours, but I thought you would want to know that I just received a signal.”

“From what?” Nove asked as she got out of bed, revealing she had slept in her pants and grabbed her shirt and bra.

“A Bureau transport ship. Been getting it for a few minutes now. I thought you’d rather know now than have them barge in on you in your current state of dress.”

Nove nodded as she worked to get her bra on. “Thanks.” Grimacing, she threw her bra to the ground and grabbed Jet Edge. “Let’s just transform already, it’ll be easier than trying to get my shirt on.”

(---)

Five minutes later, Vivio could only smile happily as she saw a familiar face. “Mama!” She cried out, running forward and hugging Nanoha as hard as she could.

“Vivio!” Nanoha hugged back, tears falling down her face. Looking up, she saw Nove, Einhart, and Ixpellia standing there. “Where’s Rio, Corona and Arashi?”

“They are on their way.” Ixpellia spoke up, “it was harder to get them up.”

“Thank you, Ixpellia.” Nanoha smiled at her friend.

“It’s Ixy!” The girl’s eyes widened as she heard herself say that. “Wait, I mean…”

“Ha! I heard that!” Arashi said as he walked towards the group. “Hey, sis.” He waved at Nanoha, who let go of Vivio and stood up fully.

Nanoha looked at them and sighed as she looked them over. “A lot happened, huh?” The others that had come with them were still on the ship, in case they were needed. Nanoha was thankful that didn't seem to be the case.

The others nodded and Nove gulped as she saw who was behind Nanoha. “Um, hi mom.”

Quint took a look at the group and shook her head. “I’m glad you’re okay… Mostly.”

“Can we go home?” Ixpellia asked before turning around and seeing the sun creeping over the horizon. “So pretty.”

“Yeah, let’s go.” Nanoha smiled gently. “You can tell us what happened when you’re ready. Shamal’s in the ship, I think she’s going to need to look you over.”

Nove heard her name and she turned to see Lyos waving at her. “Hey…”

“Guess this is goodbye for now, huh?” The man smiled at her. “Next time we meet, I’d rather not have such problems fall in our laps like that.”

“It would have been nice if we had more time.” Nove smiled, a light blush on her face. “Well, goodbye.”

The next thing the redhead knew, Lyos grabbed her by her chin and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. “Something to remember me by.” He smirked at her atomic blush. “Goodbye.”

Quint smirked in amusement. “Just wait till we tell everyone back home.”

“Wendi’s never going to let me live it down.” Nove groaned as they disappeared.
_________________

Has to be in parts, too long otherwise.
 

Nanya

Well-Known Member
And the epilogue.

Funny enough, I wrote this before finishing the arc.

_____________________________________

(---)

Two weeks later…

"Well, that mostly wraps up everything." Hayate said as she finished looking over the report. Everyone had fully recovered, more or less, from the ordeal, other than Nove’s arm and Corona still having her body, hair and eye pigments all being changed. Whatever had saved Rio’s life but kept her in Adult Mode had finally faded when the girl mostly recovered, so she was back to normal. "Still, it doesn't explain one thing. Why did those Mazoku do that to Corona?" Heck, why were they interested in her to begin with?

"I can answer that one." A rather obnoxious voice spoke up from behind Hayate. Gasping, the short woman stood up and glared at the being behind her. "Oh come on now, I wasn't the one who made those children disappear like that."

"No, but your children did." Hayate glared, "so what are you here for, Xellos?" And where the heck was Reinforce? Hayate would feel more at ease if her wife was there with her.

"I'm hurt, I'm here to clear some information up and all you do is yell at me?" Despite being a Mazoku, Hayate was genuinely impressed with how he could put up a hurt facade. "Now come on, cheer up, if it makes you feel any better, my daughters are being punished by their mother right now."

"Alright, talk, you didn't come here to torment me, did you?"

"That's always a fun option." Xellos admitted, grinning happily in response. "But as for Miss Corona, it turns out that Gram figured out that her ability to create golems was far beyond what he had ever seen before. He told me that a golem made of normal materials should never be able to harm a Mazoku, and yet her golems could actually hit beings on the Astral Plane. So if she can do that... Imagine what she could do if she had access to something like the Zannafar Armor."

"...Eww." Hayate grimaced, that wasn't pleasant. "Making an army of those things?" Beings that were mostly immune to magic let loose in any area that was magic dependant just screamed 'bad touch' to her.

"Why yes, that would be quite bad." Xellos nodded in agreement, "well, that problem's taken care of."

"And what about Corona?" Hayate nearly growled when Xellos shrugged helplessly.

"There's not much I can do, had she been given a small fragment of Lord Ruby Eyes's power I may have been able to syphon it off. But seeing as this is Lord Death Fog, I'm afraid it's impossible for me to do anything."

Hayate sighed and sat on her desk. "So what? I'm supposed to just accept that?"

"Whether you do or don't, that's your call. Anyway, my work here is done." Xellos waved before disappearing.

"Great..." Hayate sighed as she got off her desk and walked out. She needed some fresh air before she told Nanoha and Fate what was going to happen to Corona.

(---)

"Yeah, we're going to have to get you a new arm, but that won't be too difficult." The doctor smiled at Nove. "Considering the damage and the fact that we had to remove most of the rest of your arm, it will take us a couple of weeks to get a new one ready."

"That's fine."

"You should totally get a rocket punch added on." Jail spoke up from Jet Edge, causing Nove to twitch as she put her jacket on.

"I'll get around to that when you build me a transforming outfit." Nove muttered and nodded to the doctor. "I'll see you around, I need to get this thing looked at."

"Have a good day. We'll call you when we're ready."

"Thanks." Nove nodded and grimaced as her sleeve dangled to the side. "Maybe I should have asked for a substitute." She said to herself as she walked out to meet up with Ginga. "Hey, sis."

"So..."

"They should be able to get me a new one in a couple of weeks."

"I don't know what sucks worse, the fact that you have to wait or the fact that you're right handed."

"Yes." Nove's response got both sisters to laugh as they left. "Come on, I need to get Jet Edge looked at."

"I don't see why, it's not like either of us are going anywhere. We're in all your sister's devices."

"And that's why we're going to have you two fix their devices, Un-nee." Nove shook her head in exasperation. "Plus we'll get you two into some devices of your own."

"It might be better to delete them, I don't think the Bureau would let you keep them."

"Ginga, dear, even if you delete us, we'll find a way to come back." Jail spoke up, his holographic image popping out of Nove's device. "Now then!" He pointed dramatically. "Onwards! To new bodies!"

Nove shrugged helplessly, "well, you heard him."

(---)

Hours later, the sun was starting to set when Nanoha and Fate walked into Hayate's office. "You called for us?" Nanoha asked when she got closer. Normally she would be more casual and carefree, but the way Hayate was looking, she didn't think it would be appropriate.

Fate honestly felt like she was in front of her brother when he was in one of his more serious moods. "What is it?"

"Well, thankfully, other than Nove's arm and the discovery of Jail and Uno in Jet Edge, most of this resolved easily enough."

"...Most?"

"There's the issue with Corona. Right now she's under some really heavy limiters." And locked up, but the two already knew that. "The fact that her magic's so fundamentally different than it was before is scaring people."

"But the only people who it would scare are those who scanned Corona after she got back and..." Nanoha trailed off as she realized the implications. "...So who talked?"

"Does it matter?"

"You know it does." Fate retorted. "We have to trust the doctors to keep information confidential."

"We also have to trust the doctors to make sure that important information, such as injuries, Linker Core damage and anytime someone's adversely affected by Mazoku, gets to the right people." Hayate countered, "I don't like it either, but regardless the information got to our bosses and they were demanding answers."

"...So that's why you haven't been around for the past couple of days?"

Hayate sighed and leaned back in her chair. "If I had a bottle of whiskey on me, I'd have gone through three before you two showed up."

"So who.. Hayate!" Nanoha frowned as the other woman shook her head. "We need to know!"

"It changes nothing." Hayate took a deep breath to try and calm down. "Thankfully there are a couple of options that we have for her going forward. The first is to put a permanent limiter on her that's so strong that she'll never be able to generate a spark of magic ever again." Such an option was only used for the worst criminals or those with magic that couldn't be controlled in the slightest. Putting that on Corona would be cruel in Hayate's eyes. "The other option we were given was that we put a limiter on her to lower her power... And then exile her to a remote planet to live the rest of her life in peace."

"...What? That... You can't be serious!" Fate gasped as she looked at her friend in horror. "She's a little girl who was forced into this."

"So were we when magic entered our lives and now look at us." Hayate's voice had no heat, just exhaustion.

"We also had a large support network and we chose to use magic when given the choice." Nanoha couldn't believe that her friend was being so callous, there had to be a better solution than this.

"Hayate, you can't expect us to standby and let this farce happen. She either has her magic sealed away for good or she gets exiled to a remote world?"

Hayate nodded at Fate's question. "How do we know that her magic won't go out of control and put countless people at risk?"

"I use that magic! Hell, I use magic that's a lot more unstable and dangerous and I've never had this problem!" Nanoha's temper starting to hit its limits.

"You do realize that the reason the three of us were treated well was because we were under your mother's protection, right?" Hayate's words cut through Nanoha's building anger like a knife. "I only found this out myself, but the threat of your mother is the only thing that kept our bosses in check, especially after they found out about the time you went berserk."

"...I don't care." Nanoha responded as she took a moment to gather her thoughts. "If needed I'll adopt that girl myself and watch over her."

"Really?" Hayate raised an eyebrow, getting a nod from Nanoha. "And you'll take responsibility if something goes wrong?"

Nanoha slapped her hands on Hayate's desk. "Of course I would!"

Hayate was silent for a few moments before smiling brightly. "Good, because after today I'm under house arrest."

"Huh?" Both Nanoha and Fate blinked in surprise.

"It turns out that threatening to blow up your superiors with a Diabolic Emission if they try to do that to a little girl is against the rules." Hayate laughed lightly. "Before you ask, no, I didn't hurt anyone, but I was sorely tempted to. As for Corona, after today, Nanoha-chan, she's your student. You're to train her to control her powers and keep her in check should they go out of control."

"So..."

"Reinforce is currently working out the details, but if I know Reinforce, Corona will either live on base or with you two at your home. She should be able to return to school after you can prove that she's safe enough to be around everyone."

"So... Who's in charge?"

"Reinforce will be in charge until my sentence is over." Hayate stood up and stretched. "Before you ask, right now I'm under a heavy limiter myself." She shrugged, it was, in her mind, totally worth it.

"Hayate-chan..." Nanoha smiled as her friend saluted her. "Thank you." She saluted the other woman back.

(---)

"General." Hayate nodded as she saw Regius waiting for her in the parking lot. "If you're here to escort me..."

"I just wanted to talk before you leave." The older man nodded to her. "I have to say, watching you take on your superiors like that... That takes some real balls."

Hayate scoffed, "oh please, I've dealt with Nanoha when she's mad, a bunch of old fools who would try to harshly punish a little girl who did nothing wrong? That's easy. By the way, thank you for your suggestion."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, it's obvious that the girl got her hands on a Lost Logia of some sort that overloaded her Linker Core and she just needs to learn to control her new powers." Regius shrugged at her.

Hayate smiled at him. "Thank you. Although, I'm surprised you didn't push for a harsher sentence."

"We both know that if I tried that I would face considerable blowback." He rolled his eyes. "Still, you were most impressive. If I were twenty years younger..."

Hayate smiled as she walked to her car. "If I wasn't happily married to Reinforce, General, I might take you up on that offer." She giggled at his shocked look and got into her car. "See you."

Regius blinked as he watched the car drive off. "...The rumors of her being a vixen are true after all."

(---)

Deep in space...

"What is with this place?" Veyron looked around, from the outside it looked like a giant rock, but on the inside it almost looked like some prison fortresses that he had been in at one point or another.

Ignoring him, Levi walked up to a door and frowned as she realized that there was something that prevented her from walking through it or even warping inside. "Well, master Garoth... You really were cautious, huh?" Looking to the side, she found a panel, after messing with it for a bit, the door opened up. "This is where we split."

"Huh?" Veyron looked at her in an annoyed fashion. "First you say you want me to come with and then you say you don't?"

"Do what you want, I don't care, but don't go blaming me if something inside eats you."

"Whatever." Veyron scoffed as he watched Levi walk through the door. "Crazy bitch." He sneered and walked back to the ship.

Meanwhile Levi continued her walk through the corridors and frowned, while the inside looked like some sort of mass prison, there was nothing inside any of the "rooms" that were there. "Am I just wasting my time?" That would be annoying, all this time to get out this far into space and nothing to show for it?

Moments later, she felt something behind her, turning she frowned as she saw a bunch of Lesser Demons. While tough for humans to fight they were nothing for her. "Well?" She asked as they stood around and looked at her before slinking away. "That's what I thought." She scoffed and turned only to see a humanoid Lesser Demon, which looked like a small dark minotaur standing there.

"Master? No, you're... Not him."

"Lord Deathbringer is dead, I am all that remains of him."

"Impossible." The Lesser Demon shook his head. "The master's power was unmatched."

"It's true, I felt his connection disappear myself!"

"You are... The master's successor then?" The minotaur frowned and looked at her. "Are you here for the toy?"

"Toy?"

The Minotaur nodded and pointed downwards. "Down there, the master's favorite toy, he left her for us to play with. Sometimes we win, sometimes she wins, lately she hasn't been as much fun."

Looking down, Levi wondered what was down there before shrugging and jumping. After all, the fall wouldn't hurt her in the slightest. Landing, Levi was surprised to find a rather solid-looking door in front of her. "There better be something in there." She growled and grabbed the door, pulling on it to open it. "I wonder why there's no security on this one." She muttered as it opened fully. Walking in, she looked around to see what was in the room before stopping and her purple eyes widening in shock. "Well... This is far more than I could have imagined."

On the far wall a body was sitting against the wall. A pair of mismatched eyes opened up to look at Levi before the person tilted her head to the side in obvious confusion.

"Get up, you're leaving with me." Levi grinned as the person did just that and stepped into the light fully. "Oh... Yes, this will work perfectly for me."

She threw her head back and laughed maniacally. Who could have guessed that this would be something that her master left behind?

Revolution End
 

Nanya

Well-Known Member
Fallout Start

It was early in the morning, so early that the sun wasn’t even up yet, when Vivio found herself stumbling downstairs into the kitchen. “Morning.” She said softly as she saw Nanoha sitting at the table drinking something.

“Morning, Vivio. You’re up early.” The young girl nodded as she sat in a chair and slumped. “Bad dreams again?” Vivio nodded and sighed heavily.

She jumped slightly when she heard a light clank in front of her. Looking up, Nanoha was smiling gently and offering her a cup. “Here, some tea to help calm your nerves.” Vivio took it and greedily drank it down. “Didn’t realize that my tea-making skills were so good.” She laughed softly as Vivio blushed. “It’s fine, did it help?”

“A little.” Vivio admitted, she didn’t feel like she was spinning in place anymore.

“Wanna talk about it?”

Vivio was silent for a few minutes and Nanoha quietly refilled the young girl's tea cup, knowing Vivio would let her know when she was ready. "That trip we were on... I just..."

"Realizing how close you came to dying?" Nanoha asked, getting nods from Vivio. Sighing, the redhead took a drink of her own tea and sat back down. "I understand."

Looking at her mother with slightly bloodshot eyes, Vivio had to ask "how?" When Nanoha looked at her in confusion, she clarified, "how do you handle what happens on your missions when they're like what I did?"

Nanoha had to bite her tongue to avoid answering how she dealt with the stress of those kinds of missions lately, after all, being blunt like that wasn't good for Vivio's mental health, and she really didn't want her daughter to try stuff like that.

Not yet at any rate.

She'd prefer to wait until Vivio was at least five years older before that.

"I used to crawl into Fate-chan or Yuuno-kun's bed when we were younger." Nanoha giggled at the flat look she was given. "Look at me like that all you want, it was relaxing. I also saw a psychologist."

"You did?!" Nanoha never told her that, then again, none of the adults ever mentioned something like that before. When Nanoha nodded, she bit her lip. "Will it help?"

"It takes time, but yeah." Nanoha nodded as she took a sip of her tea. "I still see a psychologist." Nanoha rolled her eyes at the look Vivio gave her. "Vivio, I have direct access to an extra-dimensional being, there are records of what happens when I lose control of my power, and I'm terrifying enough as it is normally."

"...Oh." Vivio didn't know what to say to that.

Leaning back, Nanoha sighed softly. "Truth be told, it's terrifying." She looked up, ignoring Vivio's surprised look. "Cinque, Dieci, Hayate-chan, myself... All of us have this part of us that just... Threatens to consume us." Hayate was lucky as far as Nanoha was concerned, her ability to use Chaos was far weaker than the others, and only when she was unisoned with Reinforce was she even able to use it to a similar extent. "It's a vast sea... Pure darkness," Nanoha said softly as she closed her eyes and recalled what it looked like to her, "there's a glow in the distance, but you can't ever find the shore, it feels like it's night and you're all alone, in the ocean, except that it's pulling you down and trying to drown you."

"That is..." Vivio shuddered, she wondered if that's what Corona was going through.

"Go take a bath, Vivio, I'll make you some breakfast." Vivio nodded as she stood up and walked towards the bathroom. "Vivio, if you need to talk, lemme know, okay? Even if it's not to me, there are people who can help you if you need it."

Seeing Vivio nod and walk off, Nanoha sighed. She knew she could help Vivio, but unless the young girl was willing to ask for it, what good would it do? Forcing the issue wouldn't help, but her girl was suffering and she hated it.

"I think I should buy mom a present soon."

(---)

An hour later Vivio found herself trudging to the gates of her school. Between the nightmares, not knowing what was going to happen to Corona and the way small noises made her jump at times, the small blonde was not having a good time.

Looking up, she smiled as she saw Einhart waiting for her by the gate, waving at her. "Einhart!" She picked up the pace a bit and her smile widened as she saw who was with her. "Rio! Ixy!"

"It's... Oh forget it." Ixpellia sighed and slumped, she was never going to get them to stop calling her that.

"What are you talking about, Ixy? You should be happy that your name is Ixy, for that's what we know our friend as, right, Ixy?" Vivio giggled at the annoyed look on the redhead's face.

"Keep it up, I swear I'll..." Ixpellia growled before Einhart stepped between them.

"Now now, let's not fight." Rio smiled and shook her head as Einhart nodded. "Frankly I'm glad we're going back to school." The other three looked at her funny. "What? I am."

"So why are you wearing a white eye-patch anyway? You look like a Chuunibyo." Vivio asked as she tilted her head in confusion. "I thought your eye was healed."

"It is, but..." Rio hesitated before reaching up and removing the eye-patch. "My eye is a different color now."

The other three blinked as Rio opened her eye revealing that her eye had changed from green to sky blue.

"You fit in better now." Ixpellia chuckled softly, getting a giggle from the others. "Still, can you see out of it?"

"Yep!" Rio nodded happily. "Other than the pain I feel when I move wrong, I'm perfectly fine!" The others gave her a dirty look. "Hey! I'm fine! Really! It's not really pain, more like my body remembering how badly I was hurting!"

"Anyway, we should, Arashi?!" Einhart yelped as she saw Vivio's uncle walking towards them, trembling. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"It was horrible... So horrible... Mom's insane."

Vivio blinked in confusion, "was grandma's training that bad?" She hadn't seen Arashi in two weeks because Lina had said she was going to work him to the bone.

"Huh? Training? Yeah, mom's a bit nuts, but I was talking about her dropping me off."

"But grandma doesn't even like to drive cars." She remembered her mom telling her that her grandmother rarely drove anywhere and preferred to get around on foot, bike or have someone else drive her.

"If it was a car, I'd probably feel safer than riding with her on a bike." Arashi shivered. "Did you know that if you pedal fast enough you can ride on fences and jump buses with ease?!"

The others sweat-dropped, though they could imagine that would be scary. "Maybe she was using wind magic to increase her speed?" Vivio asked. The others shrugged helplessly. "So, maybe we should..."

She was cut off as an engine roared, causing the five of them to jump and yell in surprise. Spinning, they were surprised to see a motorcycle pull up to them before the driver cut the engine and got off, pulling off the helmet to reveal a very familiar tall and busty redhead.

"Heh, sorry about that." Vita laughed at their glares. "Hey, calm down, I didn't mean to do that, I just hit the accelerator a bit too hard there." Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a small device. "Besides, I was in the area and thought you'd want to see this."

"What?" Vivio asked before gasping as Vita pressed a button and a screen appeared above the device. "Corona?!"

"Ah!" The ashen-haired girl looked surprised and delighted at the same time. "Vivio! Einhart! Rio!" She started rubbing her eyes, since they were visibly watering up on her.

"She's been wanting to talk to you but we couldn't let her leave base or have others see her for various reasons." Vita explained before handing the device over to Vivio. "Now that things have settled down a little, I thought you'd want to at least talk." Vita walked a few feet away so that the kids could talk.

"How are you doing?" Ixpellia asked the girl.

"Well, it's better than I thought. I got my own room here and it's pretty comfy. Even have my own bathroom and I have lots of stuff to do, so I'm not bored at least."

"So what have they been having you do?"

"Lots of testing." Corona groaned at Vivio's question. "I swear! I can't even sneeze without lots of poking and questions."

"This is an unusual situation, Corona." Einhart smiled at the girl. "I'm sure that they're just trying to help."

"They could help if I didn't need a bodyguard to go with me whenever I wanted to shower or just go outside to have some fun." Corona sighed and slumped. "I mean, I know why, but I'd like to be able to do stuff without people looking over my shoulder."

Off to the side, Vita closed her eyes as she leaned against the wall. She was one of those "bodyguards" that had to watch over Corona. Biting her thumb, she bit back a growl of frustration. 'Dammit.'

*Flashback...*

"Ah, Vita Yagami." An older man with light brown hair that was combed back and a mustache on his face smiled as the buxom redhead walked into his office. "I'm glad you could make it."

"Of course, when a member of the Bureau's Security Council asks you to show up, you don't get much of a choice." Vita had to admit, for someone who was twice her age, it was a shock he didn't have the stereotypical middle aged man gut.

The man laughed and nodded. "Very true. If we gave you the option, we wouldn't be the people in charge, now would we?"

Vita nodded, slightly on edge. While the Council gave members of the Bureau a lot of leeway in how they acted and what they did, provided it was for the betterment of all and the member had a high enough of a rank, they still had full authority to pull rank.

"Enough of that, as you can probably imagine, I didn't call you here to chat." The man's smile left his face and he pressed a button, where an image of Corona appeared in front of them. "I don't think I need to explain who this is." He didn't wait for a confirmation from Vita before continuing. "As you no doubt know, the current head of your house, Hayate Yagami threatened violence on the members of the security council for suggesting a course of action that was less likely to be a problem down the road."

Vita narrowed her eyes slightly, she didn't like where this was going.

The man clasped his hands in front of his face and rested his chin on his thumbs. "Thankfully a solution was reached before violence was used, even if it meant that Hayate Yagami has to be under house arrest."

Vita knew the only reason Hayate wasn't currently sitting in a jail cell was because such an action would likely cause a good chunk of the Bureau to turn on the Council. That didn't mean that they couldn't make their lives miserable.

"That being said, while we're very... Lenient with people who have been possessed by Mazoku, the current situation with Miss Corona Timil isn't a normal one."

Vita really wished he'd get to the point, whatever it was.

"So," the man stopped for a moment before clearing his throat, "sorry, a bit congested lately. I'll be blunt, Miss Yagami, I and many others on the Council view Miss Timil as a threat to the safety of everyone on Mid-Childa."

"...You aren't asking what I think you're asking, are you?"

"If you think I'm asking you to bloody your hands one more time, then no, not directly. I'm merely asking you to... Consider the greater good."

Growling, Vita spun and started to walk out. "With all due respect, Counciler, I have no desire to kill a little girl because you're scared of her."

"I see, that's too bad, especially with your wedding coming up."

Vita stopped cold and turned slowly. "Excuse me?"

"I mean, it would be horrible if you had to delay it because you were on a mission that lasted a year and your fiance had to be at other places instead of being close to you." He nodded as she turned and walked back. "That being said, let me clarify one thing. I'm not asking you to kill her. My order is thus, should she become dangerous and go out of control, it is on you to put her out of her misery." He shrugged at her angry look. "I mean, I could have others do it, but considering that you have experience doing this sort of thing and..."

Vita slammed her hands on the desk as she leaned forward. "I. Will. Not. Kill. That. Girl."

"You won't have a choice." The councilman narrowed his eyes. "If she becomes a danger to everyone, would you be able to live with yourself if your friends, your family or your lover got hurt or killed because you wouldn't stop her?" Seeing the fury in Vita's eyes abate, he nodded at her. "Good, you're understanding. That being said, I'm giving you full discretion in this endevor. If she loses control, you can choose whether or not to use lethal force on her."

"And I'm just supposed to go along with this?"

"Whether you do or not is up to you. But if she proves to be uncontrollable or too dangerous, it would be for the best for everyone if you were to put her out of her misery."

"What makes you think I won't just march out of here and tell the others what you told me?"

"What makes you think that I don't have plans already in place if you do?" The two stared at each other for several minutes before he sighed. "I suppose asking you was a mistake. After all, very few people in the Bureau have experienced what happens when someone who's possessed by power of an extra-dimensional being can do when they lose control like you do."

Vita flinched as the memory of Nanoha, after her Linker Core had gotten drained by Shamal, appeared in her mind.

"Miss Yagami, you don't need to kill her if you don't want or have to. But you've got the experience necessary and, quite frankly, you're one of the few people who's strong enough to deal with her if she loses control."

"With all due respect, counciler... I absolutely hate your guts."

"Well then, you better make sure that she gets full control of her power so that you don't need to do that, huh? Because if I have to order someone else, there won't be any discretion involved."

Vita narrowed her eyes, she was so close to just telling him off right then and there.

"If you want, think of it this way." The man seemingly smirked behind his hands, "if you and the others can help her gain control of her powers fully so that she's not a danger to everyone around her, I'll not only fully rescind the order, I'll publically apologize to both you and Hayate Yagami."

"Fine, but you leave the descion up to us, got it?"

"Of course." He smirked as she snarled and walked off.


*End Flashback*

"Fucker." She muttered under her breath. Deep down, she knew he was right, if Corona really did become a threat to everyone on Mid-Childa, it would be better to put her down. But that wasn't something Vita wanted to do. Beyond that, she really didn't like the thought of the man having other plans that would go into effect. "What should I do?" The last bit didn't make her go along with it, she didn't care about or for any apologies from stuffy old men like that. The chance to prove those bastards wrong, however, did.

Still, something was bothering her and she needed to confirm things. "Oi! You kids done?" She looked at the group and smirked when they looked at her in confusion. "School's starting here."

"AHH!" Vivio yelled, "we're going to be late!" She ran towards the building, tossing the device to Vita along the way.

"Just let your teachers know that I'm the reason!" Vita laughed as the kids disappeared into the building. "Alright then." She was in the area for a reason, letting Vivio and the others know what happened to their friend was just a bonus. Grabbing her helmet and putting it on, she turned her bike back on and took off.

*Flashback*

"Really?!" Corona looked at Vita happily. "I can see everyone?"

Vita rubbed the back of her head and looked slightly uncomfortable. "Kind of. You can't leave yet and I doubt that they're going to be able to come here."

"Oh." Corona looked a little sad at that.

"But I can get you a direct communication line so you can at least talk over a video screen, okay?"

Corona nodded and hugged Vita. "Thanks."

"No problem."


*End Flashback*

Vita nodded, she looked at a small pop-up screen that listed an address and gunned her engines. The sooner she got this done the sooner she could take care of the other thing.

___________________________

No nukes, I promise!
 

Mega1987

Well-Known Member
The kids need hugs...

*Searches for the hug button.*

Where is that button!?
 
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