It was the beginning of summer and if Marco Diaz was like any typical teenager he would have been spending his time in the pool or going to the movies or really doing anything of the non-lethal variety. But while Marco was definitely a regular guy his friends weren't so much. His best friend was a demon and his girlfriend a magical princess from another dimension and his favorite bike was a living dragoncycle. Well ok maybe Marco wasn't as regular as he liked to think but he tried to maintain a balance of normal and not so normal days. Today was a not so normal day.
Everything started off well; he had woken up late because school was out, he had his Dad's mexican style breakfast, and he had just finished getting dressed when the temperature in his room suddenly skyrocketed. A pillar of fire erupted from the ground and a demonic figured slowly emerged from within.
"Sup Marco," Tom said as he snapped his fingers extinguishing the flames. "Man you gotta stop doing that you're gonna set my house on fire one of these days." Marco said as he put down the fire extinguisher he now kept in his room for exactly that reason. Tom merely shrugged "If that happens I'd just buy you a new house," Marco sighed "That's not the point Tom. I'm saying uh know what nevermind. Anyways what's up?" Tom walked over to Marco's desk and pulled out the chair to sit down on. "Nothing much dude just dropping by seeing my best bud." Marco who had moved towards his mirror to fix his hair paused and narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Slowly turning his head to face Tom, Marco asked "Just dropping by huh?" Tom nodded as two of his three eyes looked at Marco. The other top eye was looking away. "I mean your not doing anything right now. Your not busy?" "Well not right now no. But I'm gonna go see Star in a few-" Tom cut in "So your free then." Marco hesitated for a moment before cautiously saying "Y-yeah," and like that Marco had sealed his fate for the day.
The rest was a blur but somehow Tom had convinced Marco to help him on an errand he needed to run. Something that Tom had assured him would take an hour max. Yet here he was; three hours later, climbing what was possibly the steepest mountain he had ever had the pleasure of being on, all to retrieve a- "What are we after again Tom!" Marco shouted as he carefully grabbed onto the next ledge. "Its uh a soul gem!" Tom yelled back as he reached the top of the cliff. Marco who was just a few feet below grunted as he reached for a foothold. "If its a soul gem why can't we just buy it from QuestBuy?!" Tom reached down to pull Marco up the rest of the way. "We can't because this type of soul gem is rare and can only be found here on top of Mount Killahead." said Tom as he dusted himself off while Marco was busy catching his breath. "These gems are extremely powerful and its because of their energy that we can't just open a portal directly here." Marco took one last deep breath before fully standing "Well ok but why do we need these particular ones?" Tom sighed in annoyance "Look I just need them Marco. Now are you gonna help me or what?" Marco rose his hands up defensively but made it clear he was here to help.
Tom and Marco walked around the side of the mountain for a while before they found what they were looking for; the entrance into the mountain. Marco paused to examine the cave touching the sides of the wall "Hey Tom is this a natural cave? Its pretty huge." Tom continued to walk through forcing Marco to catch up "No this place was mined by cyclops for years they were the ones that used to provide these gems." looking over Marco asked "And they don't anymore?" Tom shook his head "When the soul gem market crashed like twenty years ago the cyclops cut their losses and went into retirement in iceland. Apparently they liked it there so much that when the market recovered they didn't want to comeback and since they were the only ones that new the location no one else has come to take over."
As they travelled further inside the cave the light from the outside grew dimmer and dimmer until they could barely see what was in front of them. Tom snapped his fingers and a small but bright flame appeared on top of his fingertips helping to illuminate their surroundings.
"So wait Tom if no one else is suppose to know where this cave is how did you find out?" Tom chuckled "Dude I'm the demon prince of the underworld. Knowing secrets is part of the territory." Marco decided it was probably better to just drop it. If Tom didn't feel like explaining something then it was pointless to keep trying.
They had been walking for some time when they started to notice a red glow up ahead. As they moved closer that red glow slowly started to illuminate the entirety of the cave and soon enough they had walked into a much larger opening that was filled with bright ruby red soul gems.
"Wow," they said in unison as they looked around at all the gems. "So how many do you need?" Marco asked after finally taking in everything. Tom scratched his chin for a moment "Not much like two or three small pieces in case I mess up." Tom peered over the ridge they were standing on and could barely make out the ground floor. Marco walked over to examine as well "Does it matter from which one?" Tom stepped back from the edge "Well the brighter the glow is the more energy the gem contains so I need it to be at least somewhat bright." Scanning the cavern Marco nudged Tom and pointed at a light that stood out against the background of the other gems near the bottom. "Ohhh yeah that one should do it." Tom said enthusiastically "Yeah but how are we gonna get down though?" Marco said as he wasn't in the particular mood to start scaling down another rocky wall. "Uh dude I can fly us down." Tom said and he extended his arms out as if he was waiting for something to fall into them. Marco looked at Tom with a confused expression "Wait but I thought you said that all of the energy from here messes with your magic?" Tom could see Marco's expression shifting from confused to annoyed and was quick to clarify "No it does. It makes it harder to maintain control over my flames which was why I didn't want to risk flying all the way up to the top of the mountain but something like a quick trip to the bottom here I can manage." Marco sighed "Alright then let's get this done."
A few minutes and a short scream from Marco and Tom when Tom's flames cut out later they had reached the bottom and stood in front of a now incredibly bright soul gem. "Alright give me a sec to cut off the pieces I need then we can get out of here. Marco watch my back." Marco surprised by the last part looked around the bottom of the cavern. All he could see where large boulders and more gems "Watch your back from what? The other gems?" Tom chuckled as his continued to carefully chip away "No stupid I meant from the cave spiders." Just as Tom finished his sentence the hairs on the back of Marco's neck stood up and he quickly turned around. Nothing was there, just the same boulders except 'Were those boulders this close?' Marco felt a creeping sense of anxiety build up in his stomach and slowly shifted his hand to his side where he kept his dimensional scissors "Tom… do cave spiders tend to look like uh boulders?" Tom paused briefly then went back to chipping at the gem "Yeah they do that to ambush their prey." Marco grabbed his scissors and pulled it out of its holster as quietly as he could. Grasping it in both hands Marco whispered "Espada" and the scissors began to change in shape and size.
The handle morphed into a grip, the finger holes enlarged and separated to become the cross-guard and pommel, the dual blades began to merge at the center and a single large one emerged. The sword hummed with power and mewni writing glowed along the sides before fading away.
It was entirely possible that he was wrong about this and was just overreacting but if there was one thing Marco learned from his many adventures with Star was that it pays to be prepared. As Marco leveled the sword in front of himself and as if responding to the boy's suspension the boulders began to shiver and small cracks started to appear all over the exterior. "Uh Tom you almost done there. I think we're gonna have company and not of the friendly variety." Tom peeked over his shoulder in time to see what where originally boulders sprout out multiple pointed appendages. A cold shiver went down his spine and he snapped his head back "Five minutes." was all Tom could respond with.
Marco tightened his grip on the sword as he counted the number of spiders. He stopped when he reached thirty. Grimacing he reached into his pocket and pulled out a star shaped medallion, a gift Star had given him this past week. It was actually the reason why he was suppose to meet up with Star today, as she wanted to give him a chain to hang it around his neck. 'Sorry Star I know you didn't want me using it till you gave me the chain but I think you'll forgive me for wanting to survive." Taking a deep breath he recalled the phrase to activate the medallion and held it towards his chest "protección del amor." A flash of light later the once cotten dressed boy was clad in custom made mewni armor. Marco took a moment to examine himself as he had only used it when Star had first given it to him. Despite it being armor it was made of a lightweight metal that was also incredibly durable meaning he could take hits without sacrificing his speed. Returning his attention back to the ever increasing amount of spiders Marco lowered the visor on the helmet and pointed his sword at the closest one "Well then, give me your best shot."