-March 26, 951 B.C. : North Fluone Empire-
[Ling! Stop! You're over using the Phantom Fox Arts! Your life force is depleting! Beyond this point is critical!]
I found myself watching someone who looks alot like me in Celestial Fox form fighting off against a horde of demons, for days she fought when others would join her they would perish to the wrath of demons and no matter how many times she was stabbed cut or crushed she managed to recover over and over again.
Flashing forward i see another scene before me, Ling was standing in front of a demon who seems to have lost to her in a duel. "Surrender you bastard." Ling said with hatred ringing deep in her voice. Pointing her spear directly at the demon before her she yelled, "Answer me Ran!"
What? Ran? My brother Ran? Before i could let it sink in i was suddenly awakened so abruptly *cough, cough* feeling as if i was drowning in water and suddenly revived i jumped straight up looking around, i noticed two more beds beside mine. The ones laying on the beds where Rena and Aisha, then it struck me why we were probably here but the question bugging me right now was how did we get here.
"Hello?" I began walking out the room and noticed Chung speaking with someone, it was Add who was wearing a rather nice outfit with a labcoat and his hair tied up. Turning towards me chung walked over.
"Ara! You're awake earlier than expected….and healed." chung said examining my condition, oddly he was right i didn't feel any pain even though i clearly remember getting my ass handed to me by that nasod.
"Early? How long has it been since then?" i asked chung while fixing my hair back up to its 2 pig tails and as always placing my fox pin on the side.
"It's only been a day but you've seemed to have healed up almost instantly even though you were in critical condition, same with rena but her progress is slower but still abnormally fast." chung said. While handing me a cup of tea. "If Add,Eve and I didn't show up you would have been a popped cherry."
"Eh? Eve is alright?" i asked wide eyed, "Yes eve is okay but what she had to do to walk around again was rather 'shocking'", before chung could finish eve walked in wearing a white outfit with her hair let down, with armor on the sides of her waists. "I'll tell her myself chung." looking towards me eve began to speak, "Oberon and Ophelia gave me parts from each of them, and with hard work and one complication i was put back together." i looked down avoiding my gaze with eve,
"I'm sorry about your servants eve but in the end they stayed loyal. But what was the complication you mentioned?" Eve raised a hand sparks of electricity fizzing out of her finger tips. "Code: Battle Seraph completely consumed my Empress code and with it my code for emotions, but the power of Oberon and Ophelia were passed to me along with a overcharge of el that could last me for centuries", as she stated this her fingers bursted with electricity.
"She forgot to mention the gain of speed and flight, that was the only way we managed to get you guys out of there, as well as the artillery from add and i", chung mentioned with pride. "Artillery? Now that you mention it you and add are wearing lab coats and have your hair tied back", i say. "Well i had echo helping me with some things to later learn she was also helping chung with his thing." added 'added'. "Oh, i see so this entire time i was worrying that you both, but in the end it seems you guys were just fucking around with you little toys?!" i stood up shouting not realizing i entered Celestial Fox, the fury i was feeling was shown on my tails and ears as they were blazing with aura.
Cold sweat was dripping down the foreheads of Chung and Add, "w-whoa ara, calm down before you light the room on fire literally smoke is emitting from the curtain!" turning around to see what chung was talking about i saw burnet marks on some parts of the curtain that my tail grazed against. Realizing what was happening i calmed down and returned to normal fixing my hair up.
"You all are so goddam noisy", the one who spoke up was aisha accompanied by rena. "Can a few ladies get some food?" rena asked.
We were all sitting at the dinner table a few empty seats at the heads of the table, the silence was great, it had been awhile since we all sat down together like this that nobody had anything to say really.
"So…. Where's raven?" rena asked, "He left right after ara went looking for aisha, he mentioned training his sword art more so he went out to look for an old friend that only rena seems to know about" chung said, drooping her fork rena's eyes got watery, "Ciel….", "Eh? Ciel who's ciel?" aisha asked, taking a quick sip rena looked at all of us.
"Ciel was known as The Dreadlord, when he was an assassin and he was my first love, he arrived to me barely alive after getting into a fight with Raven but don't be mistaken raven was also a wreck but unlike raven ciel had no allies when i found him was when i was arriving here for the first time, i helped him recover. While he stayed with me we got to know one another, he was also a really good cook always wanting to make me a meal."
Rena chuckled a little tears streaming down her face, "The time we spent together was enough for us to fall in love, even after he told me of all of the things he did i still loved him, then i met you elsword and you aisha, ciel and i dated in secret so that's why you never saw him and then a few months before we left ruben for Elder, ciel and i separated on the basis that i was an elf and he was human", we all finished our meal and moved into the living room where rena continued her story.
"Then when we left for Bethma i learned of the attack on the village ciel stayed at the entire population was wiped out clean, then a letter came through the mail that was meant to arrive to me if ciel ever died the very moment i received that letter i lost all hope in our cause to find the el shards."
"I remembered that day, i forced you to open that letter because you stayed locked up in your room." aisha said.
"Mhm, and after reading the letter i regained my motivation until we ran into raven, my anger towards him boiled, for a few months i blamed raven for ciel's death until we met again, ciel was the one who saved us from the Underground Chapel."
"""""Eh?""""" we all said at the same time to learn our savior at that moment was none other than Renas Ex. "He must be pretty strong to have helped out of that", i added.
Rena shakes her head, "Ciel isn't wandering alone his partner was so amazing-", "W-wait a second only TWO of them against those monsters?!" chung said in shock.
Rena nodded, "Ciel took all the sword thrusts, fireballs, spears and punches without flinching once, and when it was his turn to attack he rained hell down on them, literally", wait what? Literally?
"Rena, what do you mean literally", i asked her.
"He's become half demon, that's how ciel managed to live the attack that happened at the village, His partner saves his life by gifting him part of her immortality, when i saw my ciel i was so glad, that no matter how many times he asked me to rest i insisted to walk with him. Raven woke up first and confronted ciel he was filled with anger and sadness, he knew it wasn't ciel's fault that his wife that day, in the end thanked him for at least trying. What happened next i don't know what they talked about but before i knew it i awoke in a hospital bed and ciel was gone." Rena then mentioned how Raven avoided the subject for the past couple months. This was the main reason why we were back in elder, after the events of feita we needed time to recover ourselves so we headed back home to retrain and at the same time celebrate the new year with friends.
"Well, seems the next time i see this ciel fellow i must thank him", eve said. A few hours later i knocked on rena's door "Hey rena it's me Ara", after a couple of minutes the door opens up, "Hey ara….sorry was just lost in my own little world.", rena says with a smile. "Oh don't worry i understand, after hearing something like that i would also get pretty shaken up, and that's why i came here so that we could talk about it", smiling i give rena a hug. Pulling me in we talked all night.
-April 3, xx21: Memorial Bridge-
"You did what!?" i shockingly look at eve after what i heard, "Yes i made that nasod in wally's castle my sentry i've completely remade the lab into my own personal home, now he stands guard also his name is Inspector, once you hack into him you can realize he was a nice guy who was left behind by his master." eve responded.
We were all leaving Elder village and returning on our journey that ended at feita because of the sudden monsters that appeared their, not much has happened since those days apparently all the ruckus calmed down and the soldiers decided to leave the labyrinth alone for now. Just thinking about it that after 4 months of a being MIA we would return to the front lines without Elsword, Raven and Elesis, but sometimes these things happen so instead of being depressed i looked ahead, pulling my horse beside renas i tapped her on the shoulder i asked.
"So how long till we make it back to feita?" rena points a finger at her map, "about a 15 days if we can pick up an aircraft at Altera, our old ship should still be there thanks to the pongos it's repairs were done in a swift."
"Ahh how nice it will be to fly again and just lay back."
"I mean i can fly but that would be rude to leave you guys behind."
"I-I-I-I can f-f-f-fly too! I-I mean it's not for that long b-but it still counts….doesn't it?"
"Sorry to say it doesn't count you just glide across the sky like a flying squirrel."
"One day! I will fly!"
"Add is closer to flight than you are Aisha."
Chung and Add sighed at the little feud between Aisha and Eve about who could fly.
"Rena how far are we from Bethma?" Chung asked.
"About 3 hours even faster if we pick up speed." Rena replied.
"Alright! Let's get going then!"
I shouted as we began riding at high speeds to bethma, never did we imagine we would meet face to face with the undead again on our journey this very moment defined our teams new found strength.
-April 3, xx21: Bethma Village-
"Oh! Rena, Aisha, Ara, Chung, Add, and Eve! Welcome back!"
The first person to greet us was Stella and slowly the rest of the town came rushing to greet us.
"Are those the heros who saved us from Kayak?"
"It is them! It's the El search party!"
"Thank you for saving us!"
All shouting thanks the citizens finally gave room once Chacha Buch arrived.
"Welcome back Buch, we weren't expecting you guys to return buch."
Looking around Stella asked.
"Eh? Aren't there a few of you missing?"
"Um, can we talk about that inside Stella?
"Oh yea sure, come on in you can leave your horses there Toma will take care of it. Toma! Would you please take care of our heroes horses?"
"Yea sure!"
Following behind stella we followed her to the sheriff's house. After getting comfortable we started to explain to stella about how elesis attacked the el house and how she took Elsword leaving everyone for dead, then add brought up how if it wasn't for me that they probably wouldn't have made it. Afterwards Rena explained how Raven had gone on a journey to meet with Ciel.
"Eh? Ciel? I thought he died, but oh well now i have a nice reason to look after him myself. I can put a bounty right back on his head." Stella added.
"That's a problem Stella, Ciel is more than just Ravens acquaintance he also had a little romance with Rena for a few years."
Cold sweat started to drip down the heads of Rena, Chung and i that was an unnecessary detail Add told Stella. Hearing this Stella turned her head towards Rena and gave a rather lovely smile but the pressure behind it was overwhelmingly scary.
"So, you dated the most wanted man in the world and never once thought about telling anyone!?"
"It wasn't meant to be told, you've stated it yourself, he's the most wanted man in the world. What kind of woman would i be if i went casually getting my lover in trouble by telling people that the most wanted man in the world lived with me for 2 years.'
Rena who seemed to be on the defensive suddenly became the attacker.
"W-well you do have a point. But that doesn't change the face that your lover is a criminal! Where is he now? Ruben? Elder?"
"I don't know even if i did i wouldn't just tell you stella unless you promised me to stop going after him, and isn't his bounty gone? He did technically die after all."
Becoming stiff Stella realised what Rena said was true, Ciel's bounty no longer exists because he's not even alive according to the books and no crimes have happened over the course of his supposed death.
"Fine, we'll leave it that. Then let's go back to what we were discussing. So Elesis went rogue and almost killed all of you if it wasn't for Ara? But if her power was that extraordinary how did Ara handle her?"
Questioning how i fended off Elesis everyone looked towards me, expecting me to tell Stella my side of the story i began.
"I didn't, she was too powerful and left me for dead. But what she forgot about was the specter inside of me."
"The Millennium Nine Tailed Fox Eun, Buch."
The one to suddenly enter the conversation was Chacha Buch. Nodding my head to his answer i asked,
"How did you know it was Eun?"
"Buch, i can already see the changes to your hair and eyes Buch. The last time i seen this was in Ling, she and i had a professional relationship Buch, i would provide her with potions that restored her energy when her supply was low."
The rush of emotions hit me like a summer breeze. [Yes, he was one of the main reasons you grandmother got out of some serious tough situations.] Calming down a bit i continued my side of the story.
"I deepened my contract with Eun to allow her to take control of my body while my conscious was fading, but from what Eun told me is that before Elesis could finish off Add she rushed over and drove her off then ran back towards the El search Party and she performed first aid and the rest you guys know."
"That was a rather interesting tale. Now tell me about your power."
Stella asked, this raised questions for Chung, Eve, and Add.
"She was able to wipe out 30 hostiles with one spell that sucked then in, she then forcefully pulled the spell downwards and uses it as a drill to charge right through them, her spell becomes larger the more energy she has. It wasn't even at max strength."
Aisha was happily bragging about the time i used Spell:Storm to defeat the group of nasods in wally's lab, well eve's lab now. But the statement made me feel a little embarrassed.
"Eh? What Ara is that true?" Chung asked, "Did you honestly bend a spell?"
Looking around the room i sighed, why do i have to explain everything lately,
"Yes. I did bend the spell, it's not really that hard anymore, Eun showed me how to use target only enemies so allies caught in it won't be affected."
Everyone in the room was surprised by my statement, as bending magic is considered to be impossible as well as hurting everyone in the path of a spell is unavoidable so a magic that can tell who are allies and who are enemies sounds like nonsense.
"The only issue is if someone who isn't trained tries to do what i accomplished, the spell could collapse on itself destroying everything around them themselves included, i already got 3rd degree burns trying to master this technique….hehe" i said.
Chung was making an expression as if he couldn't believe what he heard, aisha seemed the most curious as she was a magician herself so this technique could prove useful for her, then she came out and asked all hyped up.
"Is it possible to show me this technique Ara? I want to avoid hitting allies with plasma cutter.", looking towards aisha i smiled, knowing how hard aisha is trying compared to the rest of us i can see her commitment to learn new things.
"Sure" i said with a soft expression, "We have friends to save, we can't risk hurting our current ones", getting up from where i sat i looked at Stella, "Mind if i use the lake area as a place to train Aisha?" raising an eyebrow Stella gave us her permission.
-Bethma Lake-
"Breathe in Aisha, picture in your head who are your allies, if done correctly you'll see there auras even with your eyes closed, your magic will negate these auras and only target those seen in opposite light to your allies."
Currently I'm whispering to aisha on how to use this technique, the aura gathering around her clearly shows her experience in magic.
Casting the spell aisha shot aging at me for the next few hours and each time i ended up on the floor badly injured.
"A-ara! You sure your ok?!" aisha asked horrified at the sight before her, which was my cuts all over my body
"Yes….im fine…." slowly draining the life energy of the fish around the lake a flame consumed my body slowly healing it, standing up i looked at aisha.
"Don't worry i defended against most of it, as long as it's this much i can recover from attacks like this." i sat down on the edge of the lake as aisha joined me.
"It's honestly amazing but i can't help but worry you know, but thanks to you i think i got a hang of it." looking down at her staff aisha seemed pleased with her progress, but i felt there was something else wrong.
"Aisha is there something you wanna talk about? I may not be as knowledgeable as rena but i can at least lend an ear."
Looking towards me aisha adjusted how she was seated to face me directly.
"Have you ever second guessed the power you gained over these past few months?" aisha looked at the horizon before us.
"I used to be an elemental master, a title held by legendary magicians who mastered the elements of the el." Holding her staff tightly aisha began to release a dark aura.
"But then i decided to embrace this darker form of magic, i haven't regretted it up till now, should i leave this dark magic behind?" looking towards my direction with an expression that can only be described as a lost but hopeful.
I sighed knowing the answer is simple to her question, patting her shoulder i spoke, "Aisha why not just use both magics? Remember your original goal is to save elsword, so why only stay with one? Why not use all the magic you know to your advantage." as if realizing something aisha ran towards the exit. "Thanks Ara! I just realized something!"
-April 4, xx21 Dragon's Nest-
"Rise Dragon, und dienen mir in diesem neuen Leben Ich gebe Ihnen mit dem dunklen el, Mein Name ist Elesis willkommen in Ihrem neuen Leben." A girl with crimson hair was standing above a burial ground chanting in a long lost language. This girl was elesis and currently she was pouring large amounts of dark el into the ground as well as countless dead bodies around her of lizardmen who guarded this place. "Nehmen Sie das Fleisch dieser Opfer als Ihr eigenes Fleisch und mein Blut als unser Vertrag zueinander an." As her blood fell to the ground the entire cave began to tremble. [You did it elesis, you've awoken the once dead dragon. Haha marvelous!] A large crack in the ground appeared as a massive glowing eye could be seen followed by a loud roar. "Ich bin erwacht!"
*So i realized i pushed add to the side, forgot i had him added in considering how i kept coming back to this every time i figured out what to do next, anyways at the moment this chapter is up im already working on chapter 8, it might be a half el gang chapter and half Elesis chapter just to give her some build up and what else she's up to off screen.
**For future reference the reason the Elesis spoke to the dragon in german is because i decided that the native language would be german for the dragon, in this story german is a dead language and the thing inside elesis gave her knowledge on this dragons location and the knowledge of the language. Hope that clears things up in the future
