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!
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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.