CHAPTER 10 (The Battle of Dreams)
On the day of the eclipse, all of the spirits were prepared for their fight on the battlefield. As the moon shifted across the sun, darkness was creeping into the light as though it was the end of the world. A black portal suddenly appeared out of thin air and the Dark Spirit army started to charge at the light spirit army. "The Clash of Light and Dark has begun. Protect the Dream Valley at all costs. Your names would be on the pages of history!" Celestia shouted at the top of her voice. "All hail Lord Devious! We shall rule your world, with powers of the realms of the Nether" one of the Dark Spirits announced while the Shadow, or now known as Lord Devious arrived through a demonic portal.
"Devious, the Shadow is here. You should stick with me. We will start going after Lord Devious, and protect the stone of Dream Mountain." Celestia took Espie and started flying away, towards the Dream Mountain, attempting to intercept the Shadow and some of the Dark Spirits flying towards the mountain.
The rest of both the armies continued fighting, warriors led by Cahal, punching and throwing rocks at the Dark Spirits while resisting the poundings of the Dark Spirits. The wizards, led by Misty and Hugo attacked using their telekinetic skills, lifting boulders just by using their minds and smashing them at the Dark Spirits, defeating most of the spirits. Kayne, leading the magicians on where to shot the boulders and rocks, calculated each angle precisely where the Dark Spirits travel, making the trajectory of each projectile hit the Dark Spirits more accurately. Those who could not do telekinesis, did mind-control led by Aura, making the Dark Spirits attack each other, fighting fire with fire.
Some of the warriors and wizards were badly injured, most of them immediately healed by the Spirit Healers who flew around busily like a bee moving around flowers, just to heal them. The warriors and wizards were healed swiftly before they continued fighting for the Dream Valley.
While the Clash of Light and Dark were underway, the Shadow and his minions landed on the Dream Mountain. "What a pity to the Light Spirits! I am going to rule all of the world." The Shadow spoke. "Stop right there! You would not get it without a fight" Celestia warned as they started to exchange blasts of intense energy, Espie near Celestia, shot energy orbs at all of the minions, hitting and dispelling the Dark Spirit minions. Espie watching Celestia fight wanted to help. However, Lord Devious, while firing spells, wickedly laughed as he used one paw to continue firing spells while using the other paw, seeming to summon something out of the air. "Argh!" Misty suddenly appeared out of thin air, controlled by Lord Devious.
"Misty, you worked under me before, you were dark before, why not join me again?" "Arrgh! No, not again!" Lord Devious started to corrupt her with darkness quickly, her eyes turning red, and fur turning into a greyish tint. The cries of her pain was silenced. "Yes master, your wish is my command." spoke the darkness influenced Misty, turned towards the approaching Espie, and starting to shoot dark energy beams at her.
"NO, IT CAN'T BE!" Celestia screamed as she saw the whole occurrence. "Misty! Nooo! Lord Devious, you malicious spirit!" Celestia continued to fight Lord Devious, buying time for Espie to try to help Misty snap out of the dark mind control.
Espie didn't want to attack Misty, so she decided to use the Spirit Energy Shield ability she learned to block Misty's attack. Misty attacked continuously until she was drained of energy, falling out of the sky onto the Dream Mountain, drained of energy due to the evil mind control using up all her spirit energy.
Celestia, seeing her long-time friends succumbing to the corruption of darkness, shot one of her most powerful shocks of energy at the Shadow in anger. Lord Devious, took the immense energy, and redirected the shock pulse infused with darkness, blasting Celestia onto the side of the mountain plateau, knocking her out instantly. Lord Devious, after spiking the attack, laughed wickedly, finally feeling victorious in defeating the spirit that tried to seal him up.
Espie seeing her master being attacked and brutally injured, became furious and started to glow brightly. Her eyes were flowing with light, like fire in the eyes, which moved upwards. Her body glowed with a radiance of light, energy flowing from the source of her vindictive emotions. Espie felt powers that she never felt before, intensifying and surpassing her limits of her power, becoming the angelic looking Light Phoenix, the hope of all Light Spirits. Her transformation exploded with a spectrum of dazzling colours that flashed far distances and slowly dissipated.
Espie fired immense waves of spirit energy, dodging dark energy blasts shot from Lord Devious. They flew around and continued blasting each other with energy, creating explosions in mid-air, all around the mountain. Espie teleported through the air, firing at strategic angles around Lord Devious.
They were striking each other so furiously that it looked similar to fireworks.
However, during the fight, Espie got shot on her back and got badly injured. Lord Devious, having made Espie exhausted and wounded, shot her out of the air using a Dark Burst, onto the edge of the mountain, close to the Dream Stone.
Espie, getting up, feeling weakened, thought of one last plan to end the battle. As a last resort, she used up all her light on the Dream Stone, creating a tremendous flux of light energy from the mountain, annihilating Lord Devious and the rest of his dark army on the touch of light. Espie, being drained of all her powers after using it for the Dream Stone, collapsed in exhaustion, leaving her life to the paws of fate.
When Espie opened her eyes, she saw all her friends and Celestia just beside her. "We won, my young spirit. Thanks to you, Lord Devious and his group has been vanquished, bringing back peace and light to all regions of the world." Celestia told Espie.
"When the healers and I saw you, you were lying on the ground just next to Celestia, very badly injured and drained of light. I seemed like you really had a tough fight. However, since we found you in time, we could restore your light by using the Spirit Blossoms and brought you back here to the sanctuary, together with Celestia. You were in some sort of coma for a few days! But fortunately, we had available healers, including me to help you, Espie." Teva informed her. "Celestia awoke a couple of days ago and was very concerned about you, waiting here for you to come around. She sat here ever since."
"W- Where is Misty? Is she still alive?" Espie spoke with a weakened voice, not knowing her condition. All of the spirits surrounding Espie's healing bed were silenced, Celestia expressing sombre on her face. Celestia teared and told Espie "Oh Espie, she did not make it. She was destroyed by the light. It is not your fault, just do not feel guilty about it. She was corrupted by the dark force like in the past and was destroyed by the light surge you have cast. There was nothing we could do, she disappeared in the light. Do not blame yourself. Rest and recover before you make your way back to the Spirit Tree."
Espie felt guilty and saddened, contemplating ways to save Misty.