"Star!" Moon called as she morphed into her butterfly form and extended all six of her arms.
Star responded by similarly erupting into her butterfly form.
"We need a plan." Moon said.
"There's no time!" Star responded and flew off of the balcony they were stood upon and down towards the oncoming horde of golden soldiers.
"Star!" Moon called after her before quickly following suit.
Marco looked at the scene before him, mouth agape and paralysed by fear. The Mewni royal guard had already engaged Kasula's forces on the ground and the casualties were starting to rack up. Marco snapped out of his stupor when someone shook his shoulder and he turned to see Hekapoo and a fiery orange portal open behind her.
"You coming Marco? We need you on the ground."
Marco looked around to see that the rest of the magical high commission had already joined the fray on the ground. Marco gulped before nodding and headed through the portal, which Hekapoo closed behind them.
The portal spat them out some distance away from the fighting, presumably so they could get their bearings before charging headlong into battle. Marco wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to do now, the fight in Kasula's dimension had really left him shaken, even now he was considering turning tail and running from the battlefield. He then managed to catch sight of Star, flying high over the carnage and dropping large balls of yellow magical fury down onto the helpless soldiers. Marco gripped his sword tighter, if he left her here on her own there was no way he would ever be able to live with himself. It only left him with the one option, he would have to fight.
Marco threw all caution to the wind and charged straight for the centre of the battle, sword held aloft and ready to be brought down upon some unsuspecting enemy. The first of Marco's victims fell quickly as he managed to approach from it's flank and it was unable to block the downward slash from Marco's sword. Now that Marco was up close and personal with these things, he could get a better look at them. They had emotionless grey faces and were clad in shiny golden armour. Each was armed with two blades of light blue energy which emanated from projectors placed on top of their wrists. It didn't look as though Marco would be able to block the attacks from these things and so he would have to be careful not to be hit by them.
Marco had taken a pause but everyone else had not, the battle raged around him as both friend and foe fell victim to the others attacks. The rest of the Magical High Commission was hard at work, dealing with the enemy as fast as they could. Rhombulus was fully crystallizing as many as he could but there were simply too many to make this a viable battle tactic and so he soon switched to shooting smaller fragments of crystal designed to impale the enemy instead. Many of these smaller crystals found their mark and managed to embed themselves deep into the heads of numerous enemies but many more were deflected off of the golden armour they wore.
Omnitraxus had increased his size to that of a small building and was attempting to crush the invaders underneath the incredible force of his enormous fists. This was effective for the most part as any that were caught out by his great lumbering form would be instantly flattened causing the sound of splintering bones to ring across the battlefield. However, in this large form Omnitraxus was too slow to catch many of them and they could fairly easily avoid his massive fists.
It was hard to track Hekapoo as she was constantly portalling to different locations all over the battlefield making sure to catch any stragglers which has somehow made it around the main fray and attempted to flank the defenders. Hekapoo would open and close portals around the attackers to sever limbs and sometimes worse, spraying blood and gore over the walls and floor.
The air was thick with the smell of blood and death and a cacophony of dying screams and snapping bones. Marco wanted to be sick. Even the 16 years he had spent in Hekapoo's dimension would not have prepared him for this, it was horrifying and he wanted nothing more than to take Star and get as far away from it as possible. Unfortunately for Marco, that wasn't an option, he had a job to do and he would be damned if he was going to leave Star in a place like this. So Marco took a deep breath and went to work.
Marco had spent many years training with the very sword he held in his hand and was certainly a master of the blade by now. The lack of heavy armour made Marco quicker than most on the battlefield and so he danced through the waves of enemies, fatally wounding as many as he could without ever straying close enough to their weapons to be hit by them. It would have been almost beautiful if the actions weren't so abhorrent and Marco hated himself a little more for every life he took.
Try as they might, the golden soldiers could not stop Marco; he ducked and dived around their attacks, flawlessly dodging almost every one, with the occasional energy blade only managing to scratch his skin. 'El Choppo' was a blur in his hands and Marco lost count of how many he had slain which sent a sick feeling straight to his stomach. It didn't really matter as hundreds of these things were still pouring out of the portal and streaming into the castle grounds. In a brief moment of respite, Marco looked to the sky to find Star and saw that she and her mother were flying towards Kasula, launching the first of their spells at her.
Star and Moon flew overhead of the battlefield and towards Kasula. From this height, Star could see everything that was happening and it did not look as though it was heading in a favourable direction. Plenty of Kasula's soldiers were falling at the hands of Mewni's, but there were massively outnumbered. They were still streaming through the portal so it was hard to estimate, but Star thought that even if each of the Mewni guard could kill one hundred golden soldiers a piece it would still not be enough. To put it simply the situation was dire and it was only a matter of time before the castle was overrun. What they needed was a powerful enough blow to Kasula's forces to stop them dead in their tracks and the only real way of accomplishing that was taking out Kasula herself.
"Mom, we need to take down Kasula to have a chance at winning here." Star called out to Moon as she increased her speed and headed directly for the interdimensional interloper.
Moon watched her daughter speed ahead of her into danger and increased her pace to match Star's. Now they were getting closer, Moon could get a good look at Kasula and perhaps try and gauge some of her powers. Kasula was still an unknown quantity and as such, Moon would have to follow Star's lead in the upcoming fight.
Star certainly wasn't going to wait for permission to begin and as soon as she was in range, she started firing any spell that she could think of at Kasula. Unfortunately, Kasula had seen the pair coming and was ready to block the spells Star was firing at her. Moon joined in forcing Kasula to defend from two sides. A dark fiery aura surrounded Kasula and she rose into the air, her arms outstretched and still blocking any attack the Butterfly's were firing at her.
Kasula dropped the barrier that was between her and Star and formed a black tendril which quickly found it's way to the unsuspecting princess and managed to wrap itself around her form. The tendril pulled Star back towards Kasula who opened her palm to catch Star as she rushed towards her. Star was still bound by the tendril and so was helpless to save herself, she remembered the last time that Kasula had managed to touch her - the unbearable agony that she was somehow able to inflict. Star closed her eyes and waited for the pain... but it never came. The tendril loosened it's grip on Star before dissipating completely. Star opened her eyes to see that Moon had flown in at the last second and managed to sever the connection between Kasula and Star with a sword made entirely of light blue energy.
Kasula made a sound that could be described as a low growl as Star was released from the grip of the tendril. This meant that Kasula had to immediately go on the defensive to protect herself from the barrage of spells that the royal pair continued to hurl at her. The presence of Moon was proving to be more troublesome for Kasula than she had anticipated. Kasula decided that she needed to split them up – one on one they would be much easier to deal with. In the air, Moon and Star had the clear advantage, they were much faster and more mobile than her, so Kasula lowered herself back the ground to minimise their superior tactical position.
Star could see that Kasula was trying to bait them down to the ground, but she wasn't going to fight this battle on her terms if she could possibly help it. Unfortunately, Kasula was still in charge of the situation and moved towards the front-line of the battle in search of her prey. Once her sights landed on him, another black tendril extended from her hand towards the boy in red.
"Marco!" Star cried out, but it was too late; the tendril already had him in it's grasp and was pulling him back towards Kasula, 'El Choppo' sent flying from his hands.
Star didn't waste time, she flew directly at Kasula, with the intent to bring her down before she could touch Marco.
"No, Star wait!" Moon called after her, seeing what Kasula was doing.
Kasula waited a few crucial seconds for Star to move within range and then, with a smirk, released the tendril that was holding Marco and brought her hand up to meet Star. A dark barrier formed in-between Kasula and Star and Star was moving too fast to stop herself from colliding with it. Star was knocked far to the side creating the opening that Kasula was waiting for. Quick as lightning, more tendrils made their way to Moon and caught her in their shadowy embrace. Star saw what was happening and tried to get up and protect her mother from the wrath of Kasula, but golden soldiers had appeared in front of her and were trying to hold her to the ground.
Moon fired off spell after spell at Kasula, desperately trying to halt her advance, but nothing could get through her defences. Kasula caught Moon by the neck with her open hand and smiled menacingly. Then, just like before, a black pattern began to creep across Moon's neck and she cried out in pain.
The pattern crept up her chin and began to cross her face and chest. This was taking far too long and these Butterfly's were more of an issue than Kasula wanted to admit. Eyes full of hatred, Kasula poured all of her power into this one attack, showing absolutely no mercy. Moon clawed at Kasula's arm but it was no use, all she could do now was scream in agony.
The pain Moon felt was completely immeasurable, she had never experienced anything like this before and she didn't know how much longer she would be able to withstand it. As the pattern reached her mouth, the butterfly form dissipated but Kasula did not cease her attack, there was genuine bloodlust in her eyes.
Star looked across to Kasula and Moon and knew first-hand what was going on. She blasted a few of the golden soldiers away with her magic and tried to fly towards Kasula, but more soldiers took their place and continued to keep Star occupied, she was unable to help her mother.
The dark pattern was now creeping across Moon's shoulders and nearly reached up to her eyes. Moon was still conscious, but barely, she let out one more terrible scream before closing her eyes and falling limp. Kasula, pleased with what she had done, let out a cackle and tossed Moon's body to the floor, fixing her sights upon Star with eyes full of malevolent glee.
Star watched the body of her mother fall to the ground and her mind went blank. The reality of the situation had just hit her, suddenly and like a truck. The surprise at seeing someone as strong as her mother fall in battle knocked all the air out of her lungs and she started gasping for breath. Small white spots appeared in her vision and these spots grew larger and larger until all Star could see was unending whiteness.
Marco saw the Queen fall to the ground in an all too familiar fashion. Flashbacks began to cloud his thoughts and he reflexively turned to face Star's position. The princess was still surrounded by many of the golden soldiers, but she had become completely still and was staring directly at the body of Moon. There was a brilliant flash of yellow and all the soldiers that had been surrounding Star were instantly vaporized and carried away on the wind. A tremor was felt on the battlefield and everyone stopped what they were doing for a moment. An eerie silence fell over the scene which was then broken by Kasula.
"So is this your full power Butterfly?" She sneered at Star before using her powers to once again float into the sky and towards the portal which was hanging there.
Star's gaze followed Kasula's ascent and she waited for only a moment or so before following suit and rising to an altitude equal to Kasula's. Star was not herself any more, her eyes had been replaced with yellow four-armed stars that had concave sides. She looked just like she had when she defeated Toffee all those years ago.
Star extended all six of her arms towards Kasula, palms facing towards her and a beam of magical energy fired out of each of her hands. The beams came together to formed a massive blast of yellow magical energy that was aimed directly at Kasula.
The power concentrated in this blast was incredible. As it passed across the battlefield, it instantly incinerated any of the golden soldiers unfortunate enough to stray within fifty metres of it. The grass underneath caught fire and Marco, who was still stood far behind Star, was knocked back a little and had to momentarily shield his eyes from the blinding light.
For the very first time, Kasula looked afraid. This was more than she expected and was not confident in her abilities to stop it. It was too late for her to move now though, she would have to take the blast head on. Kasula aimed one palm at the portal above her and one towards the incoming magical blast. The same dark barrier that had appeared before manifested itself between Kasula and the blast. Her other hand was drawing darkness from the portal into her body. Kasula winced as the magical force struck the barrier, she could feel the outside of her defence beginning to burn away and knew that it was only a matter of time before Star broke through completely.
At the last possible moment, Kasula changed the angle of her barrier very slightly causing Star's attack to be deflected to one side. The beam cut through the landscape like a hot knife through butter. The Kingdom of Mewni was being carved into pieces by Star's attack and countless buildings and structures were being ripped apart in the carnage. The blast eventually dissipated and Kasula looked at the enraged princess fearfully – there was no way she could take another hit like that. Star, however, had her eyes closed and her arms were hanging down by her sides. Worse than that though, she was beginning to fall through the air towards the ground, the last attack had obviously used more energy than she had intended.
Marco had seen the entire series of events unfold and, more importantly, thought he might have just spotted a weakness of Kasula's that he could exploit. As he was beginning to draw together the details of his plan, he noticed that Star was falling out of the sky at an accelerating speed and had her eyes closed. Marco's instincts took over and he sprinted towards where he thought Star would land.
"Star!" He cried out to the falling girl.
Marco thought he could see Star's lips move in response, but from this far away he could never be sure.
"Star!" He cried out again, he was nearly underneath her now.
Star's eyes fluttered open and she immediately started to panic. She opened her wings fully and this slowed her descent somewhat. However, she was still plummeting towards the ground and probably didn't have enough time to stop herself completely. She threw her arms in front of her face and closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable impact with the ground. Instead she felt two cotton clad arms reach out and snatch her from the air before bringing her close and holding her tightly. Star could feel heavy breathing on her face and opened her eyes to see a bedraggled Marco with perhaps the most worried look she had ever seen.
"Star!" He managed to get out through gasping breaths.
Star stood on her own two feet again and looked up towards Kasula, who was now descending to their location, a victorious smile plastered across her face.
"Star, I know how to beat her." Marco said quietly.
Star turned to look at Marco in shock.
The Marco leaned in and whispered something into Star's ear.