Boyzilla: Thank you. I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint.
Towtwuker: You haven't heard of, oh, I see what you did there.
Quinn: Thank you. I hope you enjoy this chapter.
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Sleep was a nice thing. It allowed the body to recover itself after a day of hard work and collect the brain's thoughts. As such, getting enough sleep was healthy. And when one was put on the princess's alert list, sleep was something to be obtained whenever you could get it. I planned on trying to get used to the new change in priorities. What I didn't expect was the sudden wake up call of the door being kicked down off it's hinges! One hell of a wake up call. One that got me up, at least. By my nature, I was a heavy sleeper.
I grumbled internally. It was going to take a bit more than that to get my up and moving so damn early.
"Her majesty has been kidnapped by an unknown person!" the voice belonged to Agnes. And that would in fact due it. My brain took a few second to register the information, but once the task was complete, I already began to move. Clothing, something more hardy and durable than normal. Kidnapping meant that there would be a need for tracking.
Thankfully, Agnes stepped out, giving us both time to change. So thankful I spend some money on hardier cloths. Denim jeans, a fairly normal shirt, but throw a normal jacket over that, and I was fairly set. Louise's clothes were her normal standard. For something like this, I had my doubts about their practicality, but it wasn't like we had time for this! Every second counted.
"What do you mean by that the princess has been kidnapped?" Louise was clearly panicked, and rightfully so. Even more so, in hindsight. We knew that someone had killed a prisoner. Could they be the kidnapper? If so, why hadn't they struck earlier? Why now? The heir would just as great as a hostage as the queen. So why wait?
"This is my fault," Agnes looked down. She was beating herself up over the issue. She was Hentria's guardian, and right now, she who knows where in who knows hands. "Currently, my subordinates are searching for them. Her majesty's kidnapper is currently heading towards Lagdorian Lake. I frowned. That lake? Even with the water level lowered, it was still massive. Why would someone try to make an escape that way? In fact, it would play to Henrietta's strength, being a water mage.
"In any case, in order to keep a lid on this issue, only the gunpowder squadron and you two will be saving her majesty," she continued. Such a small group? It certainly made sense, but it felt like we were going to be walking into a trap. "Can you help?"
On one hand, likely a trap. On the other, they had the princess. They either kill us all or get their original objective. A win-win setup. Again, Louise wasn't going to take no for an answer. She would go on ahead, regardless of risk, for her friend. Of course, I wasn't going to let her blatantly walk into a trap. Plus, I couldn't forget that Louise herself was also a target.
"Of course! The princess is in danger! How can we ignore that?" Louise crossed her arms, seemingly annoyed that Anges even had to ask. The we part of her statement caught my attention though. It looks like Louise was at least starting to predict my behavior. Henrietta was a caring person and ruler. She would make for a better Queen than most Kings. I was going to make sure she got there at least.
Thankfully, we still had the zero fighter. Though Colbert and Leo had both taken to tinkering around with the thing, seeing as it wasn't needed most of the time. That going to have to stop now. I didn't want to take away the professor's new toy, but I didn't have much of a choice.
"I haven't put everything back in yet!" the professor shouted against the scream of the propeller. This wasn't going to end well, I could already tell.
"So long as it can fly, it'll have to do!" I bellowed. Leo had taken a retreat, offering to come along on the mission, but that changed the moment I informed him on the possibility of undead. I mean, something was fishy, and I didn't know what. But seeing as the Ring of Andvari had been stolen recently, meant I wasn't going to take chances.
But if I was correct, that meant I could pull out a very special weapon. Honestly, I was borderline surprised that I hadn't got the opportunity to use it yet. Then again, the weapon was so good at what it did, keeping it a secret made sense. And come on, this was a fantasy universe. I would have been very disappointed if I didn't have at least one run in with the unliving. At the moment, I was giving undead only a fifty-fifty shot at this point. Still, I hoped that wasn't the case. Zombies, especially the more modern ones creeped me out to no end.
"Leo added something to increase speed using gunpowder!" Professor Colbert shouted. Really? That was nice of him. The improvement would be come in handy getting over the school's walls. At least, that was their intended purpose.
"This isn't time for chit chat! The Princess is in danger! We need to go!" Louise had found herself a place in my lap. Her protectiveness was certainly admirable.
"We're off!" I shouted, closing off the cockpit. The plane began to move slowly, picking up speed with every second. I pushed the button, thrusters screaming to life. We barely made it over the wall, nearly knocking off both the landing gear and the thrusters.
"Do you really think there will undead?" Louise's question was faint. Over the roar of the engines, I could barely hear it. It was likely fear. Understandable. Standard zombie plagues, doomsday scenarios created in fictional works, were creepy enough. Necromancy? In magical universe, anyone to dabled in such arts were villains, with few exceptions. The strongest of them could easily bring worlds to their knees.
"It's certainly possible enough for me to bring it up. The Ring of Andvari is missing, Louise. An artifact like that going missing before the princess is kidnapped is something I'd count on being a coincidence," I said. I didn't really believe in coincidences in the first place, especially ones like this.
The plane lurched suddenly and I growled in annoyance. It looks like two people had taken out some key parts. The Zero would hold together for the time being, at least. We were still making good time. I didn't want to have to make an emergency landing in the lake, but if it needed to be done, I would. A massive blast caught my attention, an eruption of earth sent high into the sky. That was not a sign of things going well.
"Isabell," Louise said, looking at the mess. It was an unspoken order. Something was going wrong down there, and we needed to be there, now! I pushed the plane to go faster. Reckless, maybe, but we had places to be, and if it really came down to it, there were a few spells I could think of to stop both of us from plummeting to our deaths. We'd lose the plane though, and nobody really wanted that. Well, we didn't. The universe seemed to have other plans as the engine sputtered, propeller stalling in mid flight. Well, crap.
The nose dive occurred swiftly thereafter. I struggled with the controls, trying to pull the falling mass of metal out it's wild attraction to gravity. Between that fact the engine was refusing to restart, and Louise's outright panic, it had beginning to look like bailing out and going on foot was the only remaining option.
A powerful blast of wind suddenly sprung from nowhere, the gale knocking the aircraft upwards, finally allowing us to balance out. My head spun around, looking for the source of our salvation, before noticing a bright blue dragon. The dragon meant Tabitha. Tabitha meant Kirchie. For once, I wasn't going to be that annoyed. After all, even though Louise and I weren't in any danger, her pursuit had saved the fighter. Plus, if my undead hunch was correct, some extra fire would not be something I would be opposed to. It was an asset that Tristan would need in the coming conflict.
The redhead's mouth moved. Inside the cockpit, it was impossible to hear her, but I probably could guess. I looked at Tabitha, nodding my thanks. She responded in kind. I made a juster toward the lake, and our altitude began to lower. Louise huffed, almost acting like an angry kitten. It was adorable, in a strange way. Even so, I needed a way to keep the small plane afloat.
"Derf?" I questioned, as the sword seemed to nod. A shaman weapon would do. Any shaman weapon. The lack of distinction made it seemed to cause it to gravitate toward the specter once more. I indulged it. Water surged from nowhere, inky dark liquid taking the form of a mace and shield. Louise shuttered in my lap, as if drinking from the well's power. Maybe it wasn't a good idea after all. The brief incarnation was all it took, the plane, alongside Louise and I, could now walk on water.
"Princess!" Louise had moved onto the plane's wing as I glared. I hate being right. Wales. Prince freaking Wales! He was dead! And yet, here he was. This was bad. Really bad. Water surged around me, creating a suit of chainmail. There was no time to switch weapons, at least until I got to shore. Wales raised his wand. I raised my scepter. Wind and water crashed together, both spells tearing into each other like a pack of wild animals. And the prince was rapidly being overpowered. Even if he was tapping onto the scepter's magic increasing abilities, it still paled before the artifact's own. The lake behind her, the scepter, and the wrath of the water spirit was more than sufficient. Wind was finally battered aside as the liquid torrent found it's mark, sending Wales flying backwards. He crashed into a tree, the force being more than sufficient to turn a normal human to death.
"Louise move!" I shouted, the two of us making a break for the shoreline. That strike should have been more than enough to bring a walking corpse down, but Wales had already begun to pull himself up. Regenerating zombies? Smart plan on whoever enchanted that ring, but that didn't make it any easier. That left two options. Ignite them with fire the burned faster than the magic could mend them, or simply rekill them in a single strike. Option two would normally be impossible, and for option one, we only had one fire mage.
A loud thud signalled the arrival of Tabitha and Kirche into the fray.
"Standing?" Tabitha's voice was quiet and questioning. Wales had finished pulling himself up, looking none the worse for wear, even if his cloths told a different story.
"Undead. I watched him die. Even if he wasn't, no normal person would have," I was cut off by crack. Water surged forward, creating a barrier between us and the woods. Earth, fire, air, and water impacted the swirling mass, each strike nullified. Wales's own magic joined in, a powerful windstorm lashing against the roiling waters. Wind crashed against water, but the spell did very little.
The defense was holding, but all it had really done was box us in. We had the lake at our back, with a powerful wave of water magic in front of us. My original plan was to wait for Agnes, Ideally catching the kidnappers between both groups. But after that explosion, her group was ether wounded at best, or killed at worst. So it was just us veruses a group of zombies.
"Kirchie! Tabitha! Keep those four off me for a bit! When I say switch, hold off Wales!" the undead prince was the biggest threat here by for. The four other mages were dot, maybe line. Not only was Wales from the looks of it a triangle class, he was a strong one. Seeing as he was fighting in a war during the conflict, it was understandable. I felt the two's spells take form. The water's parted, empowered ice and fire launching through the gaps at our attackers.
I whipped the liquid shield around forming it into a massive sphere. Gallons of water shot forward, encasing Wales inside a bubble. Water mages seemed to have no imagination. Each element was dangerous in their own right, but water could be used to easily drown an attacker, if enough existed. That wasn't my goal though. The dead had no use for breath. Slowly, the orb began to shrink. Not because water was leaving. No, I was increasing the pressure. Even if nobody could hear it outside, it was easy to tell his body was take damage faster than it could mend itself. Bones cracked. Organs burst. Killing him like this wasn't what I was going for. I would need the lake, and maybe then some, to completely overpower him at this point. But I could cripple him. At least enough to give Tabitha and Kirche an upper hand.
"Switch, now!" the two listen, fire and ice lancing out towards Wales. I couldn't focus on that. The water fell, as Derf returned to his natural state.
"Partner, you know about any swords that work really well against undead?" the question was rhetorical to a degree. We both knew the answer. If swords could look smug, I was certain Derf would be wearing that expression.
"I think I have just the thing," Derf was likely grinning madly, as was I.
"Ashbringer!" I bellowed. As the first drops of rain began to fall, the blade began to glow. Brighter and brighter, reaching the point where it could have been a second sun. Blade elongated. Hilt lengthened. The bright glow retreated up the sword, forming into a crystal of pure light, engraved into an upheld palm. A hand. The Silver Hand. What remained traveled up to me. Armor. Steel. What should have been cold hard plates was in truth, warm.
The undead stepped back, but one seemed to recover himself. He charged, overconfident, as I expected the dead were. After all, I had already failed to kill their leader. What was a flashy light show?
Everything. One swing of the massive holy blade, and his sword-wand shattered, his body turning to ash before his head could have hitten the grass below. The three remaining paused. It had happened so fast.
"By Light be purged, to find peace in death," I don't know where the phrase had come from, but it felt right. It wasn't a threat, spoken without malice, but I could see fear. This was not something they had planned on. A blade capable of destroying the unliving in a single blow? But alas, such was the strength of the Ashbringer.
The remaining three lashed out in panic, weak spells with poor aim shooting by. The dead could feel fear, it seems. Water mage, rend in twain, fire, his flames turned against him as holy magic bound itself into the blaze, earth, a hammer of light through the chest. Fast, easy, simple. There was only one left to return to the grave. Wales. Something told me he was going to make me fight for this.
Somehow, he had already managed to recover, and was already pushing Tabitha and Kirche on the defensive. They were good, without a doubt, but he was better. A Hand of Protection for Tabitha, and Divine Shell for me was I blocked a powerful windstorm.
"I have this," my voice was calm. I was surprised I hadn't fallen apart into a raging mess right now. But the Light seemed to keep my mind clear. "Wales, please stand down and let me grant you peace in death. You are being used as a puppet to kidnapper and likely kill the person you care about the most. Do you really want to live with yourself if you do that?" It was a plea, a desperate one, trying to get an advantage. Wales, midcast, paused. There was an advantage, and I took it.
"Don't come!" the Princess! Her voice snapped Wales back to his senses as I lept back, avoiding the massive wall of jagged ice that erupted from the ground. "I will never let you lay a finger on Wales!" Love was a powerful thing. Hentrentia already lost him once. Losing him again was out of the question.
"Stop obstructing me!" she was crying. "Louise! Please give up!" Water began to surge as Wales supported her hand. Maybe I should have held back on those damage immunity spells. Water over water over water. Wind over wind over wind. Dual casting two triangle level spells into a brand new one. In short, it was a waterspout. Living in Kansas gave me a new idea's about how dangerous winds could be, but this?
I meet the spell head on, Ashbringer glowing with light. But even with the runes increasing my strength, and the Light's power, I was being forced back. What the hell was this? Suddenly a thought entered my mind, likely placed there by Derf.
"Louise, the book!" I shouted, hoping my voice could be heard over the howling wind. She paused, if only for a second, before grabbing and pulling it open. I couldn't hear a word she said, until the chanting started. At that moment, a single thought went through me. Buy time. I focused everything I had into Ashbringer. Holy power struggling against natural disaster. The rain was pouring, adding even more fuel to the spell.
Ashbringer glew as the chanting reached a fever pitch. Whatever healing and defensive magic I had was being taxed to it's limit.
Then there was a flash. Spell gone. Ice wall. Gone. Wales? Tumbling over. I let out a gasp of air, before sheathing Ashbringer. There was simply no longer any need for it's presence anymore. The princess was crying full force now, sobbing over Wales's body.
Suddenly his body moved. I was more than ready to draw Ashbringer again. But the spell? Louise hit it with anti-magic. How, exactly could he be moving? Oh, right, the same way I got him to stop casting. Love. Well, it looks like earth did have a form of magic after all. Shame I never had much luck in that regard.
"Wales," the princess's voice was a flutter, barely audible. I couldn't even imagine what she was going through. Though I did have an hand in some of it.
"Hentritia, stop crying!" the prince's voice was also faint. He was weak, dying again for the second time. This is why I wanted to use the Ashbringer. He was of noble heart. He didn't deserve what had happened to him. To them. "Before I leave, I would like you to forgive me, and make an oath, Henrietta."
"An oath? What oath shall I make?" her voice was panicked. An oath. Apparently I was missing something about this place.
"Forget about me," Henrietta recoiled, almost by instinct. But I think I understood what he wanted. He wanted her to move on. To go on living, and loving. "Make an oath to forget about me, and fall in love with another."
"I wish to hear those words, besides the Lake of Lagdorian, with the Water Spirit as witness," he continued. Well, it looks like I'll have to make a call in the near future.
"I can't make an oath like that," Henrietta protested. But it was feeble. She didn't want to do it, but at the same time, she did, if only for the sake of her lover. But oath's require being followed, and she didn't want to do that.
"Please do it, Henrietta," he was begging, pleading now. If I was just a bit faster, I could have spared both of them this heart wrenching goodbye. I think though, that this was far better closure for the two of them. They didn't deserve it, but they needed it. For the prince, to know that she could move on. For the princess, for fire. For revenge against those who did this to her lover. For steel to face the odds.
"No! No way!" she was losing what little composure she had left. "Please stop lying! I won't make that oath!"
"I'm running out of time," he should have already run out. He would have been resting peacefully for more than a month.
"In that case, make an oath! An oath that you will love me! Love me for eternity!" she was desperate, very desperate. This was beyond me. If I could fix this I would. If I could give her a happy ending, I would do it. But I couldn't. "I'll make the oath not to Wales of the past, but to Wales of the present!" No, this was beyond desperate.
"I would if I could, but someone who is dead can't make an oath for eternity, Henrietta," the prince looked up. Nobody could make that oath type of oath. Nobody lives forever. Even legends die, eventually. To be ground into dust by the wheel of time and memory.
"Forgive me, Henrietta, three years ago, I couldn't speak these words, due to my inevitable fate," there was no such thing as inevitable. Somewhere, in some universe, you two were happy, and alive. Shame it couldn't be this one. A look of agony suddenly came over the prince's face. Time was running out. If she was to do this, she needed to do it quickly.
"I'm glad to have met you, Henrietta," Wales was gasping now. "I love you, forever." His body went limp. Louise closed her eyes, leaning into me for comfort. I put my arm around her, to keep her warm.
And the Princess mourned.
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First post of the new year!
Not much else to say beside this chapter being the second most depressing thing I've ever committed to writing.
I hope you all enjoyed, and I'll see you next time.