Fantasia
Arc2: The Quest
Chapter13: Vergil's return
Finally, Juan and his friends reached the top of the tower of Grimoires but alas; they were too late, for Cecilia and beyond her will restored Vergil's memories, and now they are waiting to confront the so-called incarnation of evil.
Heavy air filled the room, no! The whole tower, even Nimmy who was waiting by the wharf sensed the presence of the mighty wizard falling upon the place bringing the threatening feeling of doom, so she wasted no time, and spread her rainbow-colored butterfly wings that were folded under her flowing green hair to push herself quickly to catch up with her friends hoping that they are still alive.
At the mean time everyone was stunned, they couldn't move a muscle, the stress was horrible enough as horrifying images of death frightened Juan's, Dean's and Tsuki's minds, they simply lost all hope, why not? The man didn't descend yet but his magical aura pierced their bodies stabbing their flesh to what's beyond their souls leaving the only option is to count the breathes that are left to them in this mortal life.
Allen smiled making fun of their scared faces, as he watched his master coming by the stairs; a tall muscular man, with his black hair combed to the back, having his beard and mustaches trimmed, he wore a black military-style outfit, with large dark leather boots ornamented with iron piercings, covering his back with thick crimson red cape long enough to be drawn several spans on the shaking stairs.
He walked down followed by Glenn, who was pulling the manipulated Cecilia from her hand, the frightened heroes were just tracking them with their eyes, none of them dared to move, Tsukiname's brutal instincts betrayed her that she couldn't even unsheathe her claws, Dean saw the man who killed his father yet his knees were pinned to the floor bidding farewells to his newly restored courage, and Juan just felt that he's dead feeling regrets that he left his village and not just dig a hole there to bury himself.
And so the three wizards and the abducted princess stood in front of the three scared youngsters who felt like they were three pebbles in the shades of a tall mountain…Vergil opened his blue eyes which were shut arrogantly, and walked past Juan and Dean like the spring breeze, to reach the wall behind, then he simply put his rough hand on the wall, making the glyphs carved on it slither to his palm, and with a simple flick he turned them into a small pearly white locked book!
Then he returned to his followers who kneeled before him in respect but he cared less, reaching his hand to the head of the manipulated girl freeing her from the deadly curse bringing her back to sense.
She opened her eyes slowly, then started checking Vergil with her fainted pupils, she saw Ramirez, no! Vergil of the dark heavens! The fearsome mage of the millennium standing in front of her, she as well couldn't move, she just tilted her head desperately begging for mercy, she was waiting for the reaper's scythe as he moved his full hand slowly giving her the book he materialized earlier.
"Take it…" he said.
She did what she was ordered to, and then with a gentle swing he pushed her to her friends' side, of course none of the presents there understood what's going on, Glenn wanted to act quickly but his lord's boot was faster as he got kicked violently being sent to the other side of the room, while his brother lifted his head to react he got blown a distance by his master's wind spell.
"You bastards!...Who told you that I wanted to restore my memories?" He asked cruelly
"My lord!" Glenn said wiping blood from his chin.
"What happened?" Allen added.
"Can you leave?" Vergil asked again.
"Huh?" Allen responded.
"I said: Can you leave?" he repeated but this time he stared at Juan.
"Um, Yes" The young shepherd answered with many questions filling his head.
"Good then…" Vergil said with a pale smile, and with a simple sign from his hand he made the four of them float shortly before shoving them out the window to land on the outer stairs.
"What the hell?" Dean asked.
"I don't know guys but we better run!" Juan answered.
"Did he just help us? I mean he is a criminal right?" Tsuki added.
The princess still shocked as she tightened her grip on that book, before her body moved itself running down to safety making the others follow her.
However their joy wasn't fulfilled because a shockwave that pierced the wall pushed them away to the void leaving them to fall down directly to the sea, everyone was frightened as they saw themselves being crushed by the rocky clusters surrounding the tower.
Fortunately Nimmy arrived at full speed, she witnessed them falling from above so she clapped her palms together, and with a spread she created a round rainbow surface softening their fall saving their lives the moment they've landed on it!
"Nimmy!" everyone said in surprise.
"Nimmy was worried! Nimmy wants to know what happened?" she asked with tears filling her innocent eyes.
"Wait a minute! You can fly? All this time you could fly! And yet you let us climb all the way up to the frickin' top of the goddamned tower!" Dean yelled at her in anger.
"Calm down Dean!" Juan tried to stop an unnecessary fight.
"Um…Nimmy just forgot that Nimmy can fly, Nimmy's sorry" the fairy apologized for her stupidity.
"Dumb shit!" Dean commented with a low voice.
But suddenly Tsuki felt something was wrong, despite they were falling slowly, everybody's hair and sleeves were floating up like they had been attracted to some invisible force, she glared upward to see the unexpected! A large twister of dark clouds was rotating above the tower, and the magic she saw in it was immeasurable!
"Um…Kids!" she said.
"What is it?!" Juan asked.
"I think I know why they he's called Vergil of the dark heavens!" she noted making everyone look toward the sky with their mouths widely open witnessing this devastating spell!
At the same time, Allen and Glenn were fighting against their master knowing that he's not like before, not even questioning this alteration in his personality and this enmity toward them; they were delivering their best shots at him, while he dodged some of those attacked but failed to block others taking serious damage to him.
"You got old man!" Allen noted.
"I can't believe that we feared you! What's the matter master Vergil?" Glenn asked sarcastically.
"I guess this is the time when the student surpasses his teacher" Vergil commented while catching his breaths…"Or maybe not!" he said making the whole place crack then shatter like a mirror! Revealing the truth; it was merely an illusion! He was fooling them all the time, the twin opened their eyes in shock witnessing their defeat; they were tightly wrapped in his materialized chains that suppressed their magic powers to nothing.
"Damn you old man!" Allen cursed his master.
"What are you up to now? Kill us?" Glenn asked in anger.
"Probably…but not mainly, you see my boys, I've spent the last twenty years of my bloody life chasing the dream of perfection, feeding my gluttonous soul on people's agony, I've carved every spell I know and even those I couldn't cast on the walls of this tower, I've taught my magic to many generations, but you know, I think it's time to end this!" the wizard explained to his minions before he signed with his hand, "I hope that the kids escaped the place" he asked himself.
Suddenly the black whirl of clouds slowly opened, Juan and the others were the only ones capable of seeing that, as a wide shadow was casted on the tower…no! On the whole area that the tower was contained in, it was an enormous rock, a massive heavenly body, a meteor was heading directly toward the sea.
And before everybody could move, the giant stone started colliding with the tower's top, carving the solid monument like what a sharp dirk does to a pale twig, and the biggest problem is that they weren't falling down, but on the contrary they were floating up toward the danger!
"What the heck is goin' on here!?" Dean asked.
"The meteor, its gravity is pulling us toward it!" Juan answered.
"What are we going to do?" Cecilia said.
At this moment Nimmy knew that she's the only one capable of saving them, she had an idea but she never tried it before, she didn't want them to die so she took a deep breath telling herself that she'll succeed and with a fluid motion she clapped her wrists together making the flat surface wrap around the other four forming a sphere then everything went black…
...
Overwhelming silence but the sound of bells, the tweets of birds, the scent of flowers, and the cushy feeling that grass gives, he's in some sort of a garden…this what Juan felt, he wondered if it was all a dream, or a nightmare, probably since he was walking by death all the time; he survived the petrifaction, he saved a princess from rogues, he fought against Zoldeo Artemiciano and survived, he fought Geass the mage, then Vergil spared his life for an unknown reason, and a meteor was just above them, this can't be a coincidence, no this can't be at all! Nobody can live after all this!
Suddenly he could no longer sense his presence in that "garden", instead the sound of waves hitting the shore and the rough sand in his clothes tingling his skin replaced that feeling, he opened his eyes slowly despite his spinning head, he stood like a drunken man trying to keep balance, he took a deep breath, to check his surroundings.
Everybody was safe! Dean was pulling his body to lean on a rock helping himself to stand, Tsuki was dusting the sand off her kimono looking right and left for her hat…but the princess, she was sitting afar and Nimmy seemed in front of her.
He ran toward her to see that something cruel had happened; the poor Nimmy, she was drained out, her body withered, as her hair lost its color, she could barely breath, she was dying slowly in silence, and Cecilia helplessly was crying over her:
"Nimmy was…a good girl…Nimmy feels happy that princess is okay…" She said with a pale innocent smile.
"She saved us with her teleportation magic…yet it seems that she consumed all her magic, her body is aging quickly now, if we don't do anything soon she'll just…" Tsuki commented but tears couldn't let her complete.
"Is there any solution?" Juan asked wiping tears that tainted his cheeks.
"Dammit! Look Nimmy, am sorry! You were great! I promise I'll never pee on trees again! I'll never call you dumb shit! Just don't die! Please! Don't die!" Dean apologized with unusual sad accent that killed the words before getting out of his mouth.
It was a very sad moment, the poor goofy bringer of happiness is dying in front of her new friends, yet nobody can do anything to prevent her from passing to the next life, but:
"I'll save her!" Cecilia said putting her palms over Nimmy's heart, "I'll use empyrean magic!" she explained what she's up to, trying to charge her hands with curative magic but it seems that the previous events with Vergil drained her powers, she was crying heavily trying desperately to cast a spell.
Suddenly, a rough sense stung the princess palms and the sentence: "Then let me help you" followed.
Everybody lifted their eyes to see the owner of the hands to be shocked again, for the man who offered his help was no one but Vergil of the dark heavens!
To be continued