Life Aspect: Woo… Pretty colors… Dizzy…
What the heck? What happened to you?
Life Aspect: Spin… Spin… Dizzy! Fall down now… He he he…
Oh crap, Death Aspect figured out those anti-Life Aspect wards, didn't he? Oy! Death Aspect! Where the heck are you?
Death Aspect: Woah, cool. It worked, sort of… It doesn't appear to be causing any pain, but this is amusing too.
Figure out a way to fix him. Now!
Death Aspect: Aww… but I just got him this way. Can't we just…?
No. Fix him now before I have to hurt you. We need him for later chapters. And do a disclaimer before you leave.
Death Aspect: (Grumble…) Fine, we don't own any of this stuff. We're stealing it. Mua ha ha ha! When we conquer the world, then we will own everything anyway. So there.
Life Aspect: Wheeeeee… The cow goes moo… Sleepy happy jumpy monkey… Enjoy!
The Present.
"Here they come!" shouted Gibari as he faced down the onrushing hoard of monsters. They were massive winged creatures, each wielding an equally massive axe. They might have looked almost like archangels to someone who didn't see the almost palpable aura of evil that surrounded them. Mizuti, Savyna, and Gibari had seen these beings in action before. They were completely without remorse or hesitation, and would gladly gang up against a stronger opponent. They were Cor Hydrae's first line of defense, and they were not to be taken lightly.
"Right, well engage them on the main deck," said Savyna. "Mizuti, you stay here and keep the ship going straight ahead. We'll try to keep the battle away from the bridge."
She looked to Gibari. "You ready?"
"Born ready," he responded simply. And they were dashing out onto the deck.
"Stay here… Okay," said Mizuti, grinning behind her mask. She pulled out her deck and drew a hand of cards. "The Great Mizuti will stay here, but can also fight."
Gibari reached the deck at the same time as the first of Cor Hydrae's defenders. He placed himself directly in its path and readied a defensive Magnus. As he braced himself to receive the creature's opening attack, the being suddenly stopped charging. "What the…" The creature raised its axe and plunged the blade into the deck with all of its might, creating a rather sizable gash. Several others arrived and began to do the same.
"They aren't going after us!" shouted Savyna as she reached the deck as well. "They're attacking the ship itself! We have to stop them."
"Way ahead of you!" Gibari yelled back as he charged at the nearest monster. He raised his Power Blade and swung with all of his might. The desired effect was not achieved, however. Instead of being struck down, the creature merely suffered a small wound to its chest. Ignoring this fact, it raised its axe again and prepared to hit the ship once more. "Damn it, I forgot how tough these things were…" Gibari said as he prepared to swing again.
Before he had the chance, Savyna called out, "Get out of the way!" From fighting alongside her three years prior, Gibari had learned that when she said this, it was a very good idea to obey. He had once taken a Splash Spear that was meant for an opponent because he had been too stubborn to move, and since then he had taken Savyna's requests a lot less lightly. Using his wings, he launched himself backwards, away from the creature.
"Special Attack…" Savyna began, a Magnus in her hand glowing red hot. "Inferno Cannon!" The jet of molten air that burst forth from Savyna engulfed the guardian that Gibari had been attacking. When the red glow faded, Gibari could see that the being was little more than a cinder. Its legs were almost completely gone, and its wings were non-existent. The axe was melted and still glowed red hot. Yet, as he watched, the creature made one last feeble attempt to raise its weapon. This action drained the last of its strength, and it collapsed once more into a lifeless pile of ashes and charcoal.
The remaining monsters didn't even look up. They merely continued their assault on the ship's deck. "I think we need something a little bigger," said Gibari. They're going to reach the engine room at this rate."
"Do you have something in mind?" asked Savyna.
"That depends," he said. "Do you think this deck can support some more weight for a few seconds?"
"Yes, but not for too much longer if you don't hurry."
"Right then, wish me luck." Gibari charged forward again, lying into the nearest of Malpercio's minions. He hit it once, twice, three times before it looked up from what it was doing long enough to recognize him as an attacker. He landed a fourth and fifth blow in quick succession, then suddenly switched targets, attacking a different creature. He made sure that both of them were looking at him before pulling out his final Magnus. Savyna glanced at it and knew exactly why he had inquired about the ship's structural integrity. "Destructive Power, ULTIMATE GYSER!"
A gargantuan column of water erupted from the metal deck. Many of the attacking creatures were simply there one moment and gone the next. The force of the attack sent them flying through the air and over the side of the ship. Others not as close to the point of origin were caught in a secondary wave as the water crashed back down towards the ship's deck. Savyna braced herself, but most of the water was directed by Gibari's will towards the attackers. When it finally subsided, most of the offending creatures had been washed free of the ship's deck and those that remained were not moving. The ship creaked ominously.
"Gibari," Savyna said as she wrung out her hair.
"Yeah?"
"Don't do that again. I don't think the ship can take it." Savyna looked up towards the castle. A second wave of winged creatures was already speeding towards them. "Here we go again."
The reinforcements touched down on the deck moments later. However, instead of continuing their assault on the ship, each one was staring at the pair of fighters. They all raised their weapons into battle positions, and slowly surrounded the pair. "Well," commented Gibari, "it looks like we have their attention now."
Kalas was off of the boat before it even finished pulling into the dock. "Hey! Come on, let's go!" he called to the others.
"Kalas, wait!" Xelha called after him as Lyude attempted to pay a startled dock keeper the fee for docking their boat. "You can't just run into the throne room like that. Wait for us…" Lyude shook his head, tossed a bagful of coins to the keeper, and dashed off after them.
Even with Xelha's constant pleas to slow down, Kalas reached the palace far ahead of the others. He raced through town, knocking over at least one person and getting rude comments from several. He literally burst through the front doors, catching two guards completely by surprise. One attempted to speak to him, but he rushed past too quickly. Moments later, the guards got a mumbled apology as Xelha and Lyude also ran past. Kalas Dashed into the throne room, and this time was greeted by multiple armored men blacking his path. Corellia, Calbren, and Ladekahn looked up startled from a map that was stretched out on a table in front of them. Their faces shared a look of concern for a moment until they saw Xelha dash up behind Kalas, completely out of breath. The wall of guards parted to let them past.
"It is a relief to see you again Kalas," said Queen Corellia as Lyude joined them. "I'm glad that you made it back alright. That was quite a quick trip, getting to Alfard and back so soon. Where are the others?"
"The others…" Kalas began, unsure of what to say.
"And what about Melodia?" Duke Calbren inquired.
"We…"
Xelha saved Kalas from their questions. "We will explain everything, but first you must tell us something very important. How long ago did we leave?"
The three rulers looked puzzled, but King Ladekahn answered, "Around 2 days ago, why?"
"Lets see…," said Lyude to Kalas and Xelha, "It took us just over a day to get there last time, and then another several hours to reach you…"
Xelha continued his line of thought. "Alright, so that would have us there about an hour ago… Plus the time it took us to get through the Imperial Fortress… We would be fighting you…" She looked up startled. Her eyes met Kalas's cold blue ones. There was something in those eyes that frightened her, but also made her as determined he was.
"Now," finished Kalas. "You would be fighting me right now."
"Excuse me," said Duke Calbren, "but what are you talking about?"
Ignoring him, Lyude continued his discussion with Kalas and Xelha. "So then if we arrived here now, it means that this is when this timeline split off from our own."
Kalas had a terrible sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Then if you are fighting me now…"
"Um… Excuse us," said Queen Corellia. They continued to ignore her.
"What if we had lost that fight?" Xelha asked the question that was on all four of their minds. "What if you never came back to us Kalas?"
"It could change the entire outcome of the war with Malpercio," said Haru.
"If we want to stop this, we have to go," said Kalas. "Now" With that, the three of them turned their backs on the confused rulers and ran out before the guards could move to stop them. "Sorry!" yelled Kalas over his shoulder as they left. "We'll explain later!" and then they were down the stairs and gone.
Kalas was the first back to the ship again. The force of his leap carried him up over the side and landed him on the deck. Xelha followed close behind, and Lyude tossed a handful of coins to the even more surprised dock keeper as he grabbed the ladder on the side of the ship. Moments later, they were traveling at maximum possible speed towards Alfard.
"So, it looks like there's about fifty of them. That's 25 for each of us. Think you can handle it?"
"Worry about yourself, Gibari."
His knuckles tightened on the handle of his paddle blade. "Do you want the right side or the left?"
"If we move, then they're going to attack."
"Well then, what do you suggest?"
Savyna's hands clenched into even tighter fists. "I don't know. We need an opening. Something to distract them, even if just for a second…"
As if in answer, one of the guardians of Cor Hydrae burst into flames. Gibari readied himself to receive an attack, but quickly realized that this pyrotechnic display was not the creature's doing. Another was surrounded by a green swirl of energy, and froze in time for a moment. In that moment, Gibari shouted "Let's go!" and attacked. The being recovered from the chronos assault just in time to see Gibari's paddle swinging at its face. The energy of a Rainbow Ash shattered its skull, and it dropped. As he lunged for another, Gibari glanced in the direction of the bridge. Through the glass, he saw Mizuti with one hand on the wheel and the other holding a glowing hand of cards.
Savyna also began her attack. She pounded ferociously on the face of one guardian before leaping off to avoid the attack of another. Summoning a quick shield from one of her Magnus, she blocked several more shots. She could feel the elemental energy of the axe seeping through the shield, however, and she had to cast it aside after only a few hits. She dodged another attack, but was finding very little room to move. A sudden strike from one creature left her off balance. She watched another raise its axe to strike at her while she was unable to defend herself, but suddenly it was consumed in a dark vortex. The force of the spell through the axe and its owner in separate directions, and Savyna made a mental note to thank Mizuti later.
Gibari was faring considerably better, for the moment. Being able to block with his paddle Magnus allowed him to work with considerably less space than Savyna. He had already taken down four of his foes, and several others had large wounds. Still, they were slowly pinning him down. He smashed one axe back only to be caught in the side by another. The Attacks he was blocking were still causing damage as well, a fact that became painfully obvious to him as a wave of frigid air and ice shards caught him off guard. The elemental damage of the attacks was slipping past his rapidly summoned shields. Gibari tried to push the onrushing creatures back with a series of rapid strikes. He saw the one that has snuck around behind him a moment too late, and the flat of the axe impacted hard with the side of his head. He tried to regain his balance, but the blow had been too hard. He partially parried a second strike, but the force of the impact knocked him to the deck.
A powerful hand grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him out of the way of a final, lethal attack. "Come on, you're better than this," said Savyna as she helped him regain his feet. Ordinarily, Gibari might have had a witty response to one of Savyna's insults, but this time he could tell that their situation really was dire. The guardians were slowly surrounding them again, and they each would need to restock their decks before they could continue. "What we need," Savyna said as her back pressed against Gibari's, "is a big finisher here."
"Well, I can't use mine again if we want to stay in the sky," responded Gibari. "Don't you have anything useful? Like that 'Deadly Heat Wachamajiggy' or something?"
"Scythe, and no. That would melt the ship. It was really only designed to be used in aggressive situations where you don't care about your surroundings."
"Great. What about…?" Gibari never got to finish his statement. The great Mizuti's voice came over the speaking tube.
"Please hold on now," Mizuti said simply. Gibari, for the second time that day, did what he was told without question. He immediately dived for the deck and grabbed with his fingers into one of the gashes that the first assault had left in the metal deck. There was a sudden rush of wind and a lurching feeling in his stomach. Gibari felt his hair standing straight up and could tell without looking that Mizuti had turned the ship upside-down. He saw the guardians take flight in a startled mass, and watched them slowly regroup. What he saw next was a comical sight, even from his reversed vantage point.
What seemed to be a massive wooden mask appeared above the now regrouping guardians. The mask stuck out its tongue for a brief second, and then began to spin. The creatures paid no attention to it, their single-minded fury only directed at the inhabitants of the now inverted vessel. Then it was too late. The wind energy of Mizuti's Alias Fall Magnus dived down on them with impressive force. Many of the enemies were simply smashed straight down by its weight. Others that managed to avoid the giant mask were still sucked down into the waiting taintclouds by the massive vortex of air. By the time the spell subsided, none of the guardians were still in the air. The ship righted itself.
"Lets not do that again either," said Savyna shakily as she let go of her handholds. Like Gibari, her knuckles were while from holding on so tightly. Then to Gibari, she said, "I didn't now that Mizuti was that good of a pilot.
Mizuti's voice came over the tube again. "Great Mizuti has been practicing. Training."
Gibari wasn't paying attention to either of them however. He was staring at Cor Hydrae. On one of the upper towers, there was movement. "More reinforcements?" asked Savyna, following his gaze.
"No," he responded. "Something different. Almost like…" The sound of gears grinding cut him off. As they looked, a large portion of the tower folded away to reveal a massive gun barrel pointing directly at the ship. There was an electric hum in the air, and the cannon began to glow. Energy gathered at the tip of the barrel.
"Well, that's new…"
Kalas looked out over the back railing. His eyes were focused, but his mind wandered back to the nightmare again.
"Kalas?" Haru's unreal voice was full of concern. "We can still stop this. Don't worry."
"I know, it's just that… this could all be my fault. If I hadn't betrayed you all in the first place then our world wouldn't have been in so much danger. I hate to think that I've now put it in danger twice just because I wanted a stupid wing."
Haru was silent for a moment. "So…" he finally said, "What do you intend to do about it now? What's done is done. This whole mess is being caused by someone trying to undo it. All you can try for now is a quick resolution and make things right again."
"You're right. Thanks." they turned to walk inside, unaware that Xelha was standing in the shadows watching them.
"So," said Lyude as Kalas walked in, "We can see Alfard from here, and we'll be there in a few minutes. What's the plan?"
"We land this at the port, go to the Imperial Palace, get to Melodia, and kill anything that gets in our way."
Xelha walked in behind him. "Shouldn't we be a bit stealthier? Last time we had to sneak in carefully."
"Yeah," said Kalas, "But we're a lot stronger now than we were then. We can't afford to waste time sneaking around."
"Oh, so you'd rather burst in and let the entire continent know that we're coming?" Xelha was defiant. "Great plan there."
"There's no need to be mean about it, Xelha. Let's figure this out…"
Lyude didn't comment as the ship pulled into Alfard port. He didn't want to get between these three when they got like this. As they argued, he scanned the harbor looking for anything that might complicate their journey. The area was strangely deserted, no one walking the streets. Even though it was still early morning, surely there should be a guard or a dock master or someone. In fact, there was only one other ship docked here; the one that they had used to come here on their original rescue mission. Lyude's mind registered something as very wrong. As Xelha and Kalas continued to argue behind him, he did some quick calculations in his head. "This is bad…" he mumbled to himself. "We should have been back by now…" He looked up, and saw something that made his hopes sink and caused the blood to run cold in his veins.
"We can't just let them know that we are coming!" argued Xelha behind him.
"I…" Lyude began, snapping them out of their debate. "I think somehow they already know… Look!" He pointed in a panic. Kalas and Xelha followed his arm to the thing that he had seen earlier. Xelha gasped, and her knees buckled. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes. She could not believe what she was seeing. It took all of her mental effort to keep herself from going into shock. Kalas's hands squeezed into fists so tight that his fingernails cut into the palms of his hands. His eyes watered and became clouded with rage. He could feel Haru's infuriation mixing with his own until it boiled forth in a scream of absolute malice.
There, high atop one of the towers of the city was a lone figure. Her blonde hair was matted with blood, and dried trails of it ran down from her nose and the corner of her mouth. From the positioning of her legs, at least one was badly broken. She was covered in small lacerations, and her iridescent wings hung limply at her back. Stabbed clean through her abdomen, was Kalas's own weapon, covered in dried and still drying blood. Hanging there broken, the dead body of Xelha was clearly marked as an invitation by the words carved into the metal tower beneath it:
Welcome Kalas and friends. I hope you like my gift. I'll be seeing you very soon. All my love, - Melodia.
Life Aspect: Wha… What happened?
Death Aspect: hey, I think I fixed him.
Good. Hey Life Aspect, are you alright?
Life Aspect: I think so. What's going on? The last thing I remember was going to sleep yesterday…
Death Aspect: No memory at all, huh? Good good… Well, I'm off to do some more… research… (Runs away quickly, grinning)
Nice acting. Saying tat you didn't remember anything was a nice touch. So, how long are we gonna keep this up? He really thinks that his wards are working. But, seriously… sleepy happy jumpy monkey?
Life Aspect: Yeah, it's funny. And it keeps me safe too. As long as he thinks that they work, he won't try to improve them.
Hmm… good thinking. Now you have to pretend to be afraid of him, though… That might affect our writing.
Life Aspect: You seem to be doing pretty well. I got to say though, this chapter… Do you think you went a bit too far?
Nah. I'm just getting started. Besides, that's for the reviewers to decide.
Life Aspect: Alright then, please review and tell us what you think. Yell. Flame if you really hate it. Critique. Whatever. Just please review. See you all in the next chapter.
And please don't kill me for leaving you with two separate cliffhangers. If you kill me, you'll never know what happens. Ha ha! Later…
