Chapter Twenty – Endangered
And as the ASIC extremists comes forth and invades the most richest city in the East continent from within, the battle against the possessed Marianna continues on as the CPU Green Heart and Sherman gangs up on the possessed fencer.
"Lightfall!"
"Graaaaaaaaahh!" Roared the possessed Marianna as she dodges and deflects the light magic attack from Sherman.
"I'm not done yet…!" Sherman muttered as he continues to bombard Marianna with his Lightfall magic attack, where in turn, the possessed girl continues to deflect and dodge.
"I see an opening…." Green Heart quietly murmured to herself as she dashes in towards the possessed girl who is still preoccupied in deflecting Sherman's light magic attack. "Rainy Ratnapura!"
Although Green Heart was quick enough with her attack, Marianna was still able to face her and deflect every spear slashes and thrusts that Green Heart threw at her.
"Grr….! Gust Slash…!"
Said with a demonic tone in her voice, Marianna summoned a swirling gust of wind at Green Heart, trapping the CPU inside the roaring winds.
"Ghh…. Gaaaah!" Green Heart yelled in pain as the gushing winds surrounding her slashes into her body like tiny, sharp razor blades slashing around her.
"Ryushin, now…!"
"Executing Convergence."
Upon Sherman's command, several light streams burst out of from the magic circle he procured, and they all rapidly attacked Marianna at the back, exploding on impact.
"Come, Ryushin, one more attack and we should have her pinned down soon…!" Sherman commanded to his Fury.
"Affirmative. Executing Prismatic Burst."
Below the staggered girl appears a huge light magic circle surrounding her.
"May the darkness be cleansed from your body…."
With a snap of his fingers, the magic circle underneath Marianna erupted a light pillar, bathing her body with light.
"GRAAAAAAAAAHH!" Screamed Marianna in pain as the light seems to be burning her body.
"Wait! You're almost killing her with that!" Green Heart shouted out of concern.
"Not to worry. It is not Marianna that is directly burning from the light…."
And at closer inspection, Green Heart saw what was transpiring inside the light pillar.
There she saw what seems to be Marianna's body smoking from the light burn turns out to be the darkness within her seeping out of her body.
"Amazing…." Green Heart said in awe. "She's truly being rid of what is possessing her…."
And out of the blue, a dark crimson glow suddenly emitted from one area at the back of Marianna as the girl collapses on the ground after Sherman dispels his magic, her skin back to her usual colors although covered in injuries.
"?! That's the…?!"
"Lady Vert, you need to hurry. That's where the dark shard has embedded in Marianna's body." Sherman told Green Heart with urgency. "Extract it before it starts possessing Marianna once more."
"U-understood." Green Heart replied before touching the back of the unconscious girl. "I'm glad that you're unconscious Marianna. Because this will hurt a bit."
Using her own light powers, Green Heart surrounds the area where the shard is embedded with a light sphere, burning Marianna's back a hit due to the density of the light.
"Here we go…."
And slowly but surely, Green Heart extracted the dark shard from Marianna's back, leaving a small burn mark there.
"There, it is off now." Green Heart said while showing the dark shard contained within the sphere of light she used to entrap it. "It is just as big as the one I encountered a decade ago. This is definitely the work of the vile goddess' followers."
"I don't understand how they managed to get in Dorfa in the first place." Sherman said as he kneels down to check up on the unconscious girl. "For now, I am relieved that we were successful in removing the dark shard off Marianna without fatally hurting her."
"I am amazed on how much power you have, Sherman." Green Heart mentioned. "Clearly you have what it takes to defeat her on your own."
"You may say that, but I could not have done what we have accomplished without you, my lady." Sherman replied in a gentlemanly manner and with his usual calm smile. "Restraining Marianna proves to be impossible if I fought her alone."
"Then care to destroy the shard on my behalf? I believe you have earned the honor of eliminating such dark item." Green Heart offered generously.
"I am honored. But as you can see, all my power did was subdue Marianna and let the shard be noticed. In all honesty, I aimed to destroy the shard from within her body. But my power wasn't enough. So I say a patron of the pure goddess like you, lady Vert, has more power to destroy such dark item. You are more capable than I am."
"I-I see. Very well, then." Green Heart agreed on. "Even if I did enclosed it within this sphere of light, I can still feel the seeping dark energy within it. And it's affecting the flow of my energy in my body."
And by making the sphere of light even more denser, Green Heart forcefully closed her hand in a crushing manner so that the sphere implodes, destroying the shard within. And as that happened, darling mists erupted from the disintegrated shard and let's out an ominous sounding moan of agony.
"Truly quite an unremarkable item." Sherman muttered to himself. "Lady Vert, I suggest you stay and take Marianna to a safer place. We may have dealt with her but that doesn't mean the battle is over."
"I can help after I take Marianna someplace safe." Green Heart insisted as she hoists Marianna up in a princess carry to take her to safety.
"My apologies, lady Vert. It would be best if you let us fencers of Dorfa deal with all of these from here on out." Sherman replied. "Dealing with the extremists is no longer a huge issue to involve the guest of honor of Dorfa."
"Well…if you insist." Green Heart said as she starts to float up. "But if you ever need-…"
Out of the blue, something exploded from afar, just southeast of their location. And both Sherman and Green Heart know what place it could be.
"Oh no…. That's where the orphanage is…!" Sherman muttered as he bolted straight towards that location.
"Wait, I'm coming with you!"
"Please bring Marianna to safety first…! I'll go on ahead and make sure the children are safe…!" Sherman said as he continues to run towards the place where the orphanage is under attack.
"Ghh…but that little girl is there…. Ghh…, no choice for now." Green Heart muttered as she flies off fast towards her ship to bring Marianna. However, deep inside her, she doesn't want to stand idle by knowing innocent children are in danger so she decided to bring the unconscious girl in her arms to safety first before heading out with haste towards the besieged orphanage.
As for the orphanage….
It is suddenly besieged by a hideous looking monster with two additional tentacle-like arms from its back. It's body filled with thick scales that act as armor to its lizard-like body.
All the children who are evacuating all scampered about just to get away from the monster that suddenly appeared.
"Hahahahahaha! That's right, little brats! Run! Run away! Scream! Scream like the scared little brats that you all are! And if I ever catch one of you, you'll be so sorry!"
Some soldiers of Dorfa managed to get near and defends the fleeing children along with the helpless matrons.
"Useless! You are all weak and useless!" Yelled the monster in glee as it swings its claws and tail against the defending soldiers.
"Uhm…Kuroe, I don't think your cardboard gun will work against this monster…!" Yuu can't help but mention as she and Kuroe remained trapped inside the building as they got left behind during the evacuation.
"Tch…. We could have been outside already if it weren't for you delaying us, Yuu…." Kuroe replied, obviously toughening himself while being scared at the same time, his makeshift gun at the ready as he and Yuu prepare to escape from the ruined orphanage building. "Backdoor is already inaccessible due to that monster attacking from the rear first…. What now…?"
"How should I know a monster that ugly would appear while I was in the bathroom?!" Yuu said in defense.
"You're too loud…!"
"Ahahaha! Found you two!"
With a loud and violent crash, the monster barged right through the walls of the building to seek whoever is left inside.
"Waaaah!"
The impact of the crash knocked the two children away, leaving Kuroe staggered and confused while Yuu seems to be knocked unconscious as she lies down unmoving on the ground.
"Gh… Yuu…." Kuroe mumbled as he weakly crawls towards the unconscious little girl.
"Well, well…. And here I thought all the brats got away…." Muttered the monster as it proceeds to pick up Kuroe with its massive hand.
"Gaaaah! Let go of me!" Kuroe demanded as he struggles to break free from the monster's grasp.
"Oh, I will let you go…. If you can finish off your unconscious friend! Hahahaha!" The monster said before laughing in a maniacal manner.
"What?!"
"Don't got the guts to do it? How weak and pathetic! Then I'll gladly finish you of instead…. Right here…, right now!"
"Don't you dare harm those children!"
And unbeknownst to the monster, a huge blade of fire suddenly hit it from behind, staggering the monster badly but still manages to remain grasping Kuroe with its clawed hand.
"Who dares attack me?! Who has the guts to attack me?!"
And when the monster turned around, there it saw Nitroplus standing just a few feet away from it, flaming sword at the ready to attack once more.
"How dare you hurt Yuu and her friend…." Nitroplus muttered loudly enough for the monster to hear. Her face is filled with rage as she eyes the monster. "Unforgivable. Attacking a defenseless orphanage and hurting my little Yuu…. A monster like you should be eliminated…! A monster like you should be sliced and diced! I'll make sure you die this instant!"
"Oh, I'll enjoy killing you this time around, you b****…!" The monster said in a crazed manner. "COME AT ME, YOU MAGGOT!"
Meanwhile, not so far from the orphanage….
"Do we really have to involve ourselves into this situation? We just got here days ago."
"Come on, don't be such a worrywart. I only need to gather up some new data."
"What data? From that monster?"
"You've obviously seen it earlier, right? That there is no monster. That is someone who has accessed Fairize. Hmhm~ It could be possible that the fencer made adjustments to his Fury in order to enhance the fusion coefficient."
"*Sigh* There's no stopping you right now, huh."
"Yup.~ As of now…, consider my curiosity piqued. I will have my precious data.~"
To be continued….