Phew!!! Finally finished!! Sorry for the long wait guys...this chapter was causing major problems for me *sweatdrop* Heh heh...yeah...I'm going to need your opinions on this. For me it just seemed kind of rushed but I don't know if that's just me or the fact that TNAB is almost over *cries* By the way, I knooooow this thing seems to be taking forever to end and I'm really sorry about that! I shouldn't have added so many chapters. My original plan was just 20. Ha! Well look were THAT got me! Well hopefully there's only just a few left...if I actually stick to the rest of my outline.
Well, enjoy and please tell me your opinion in your review!
P.S. Also, as you will see, costume change won the vote! I hope you guys like it!
Amelia levitated above the ground, no longer in her masquerade costume but in a short-sleeved, pale blue dress that came down below her knees. The sleeves were a thin, silver, see-through material and split down the side. Around her waist was a ribbon tied into a bow in the back also made of the same silver cloth. The ribbon's loose ends were long and came down almost to her feet, which were in a pair of simple, silver, closed toe flats. Her hair was done up in a ponytail with a few strands of her dark blonde hair framing her face. The royal crown around her head had been replaced with a normal silver circlet. The transformed sorceress had an eerie blue glow surrounding her. The pendant that hung from her neck shone brightly with the same azure color and, oddly enough, so did her eyes.
Jack gazed up at her in absolute shock and awe. He knew something drastic must have happened to trigger such a transformation. Immediately, he recognized that her magical strength had increased immensely, he could even see it radiating off of her. He snapped out of his daze, looked from her to the vampire and recognized just what sort of spell she had used to imprison him.
'The Orbis Carcer!? Only a master sorcerer could cast such a powerful spell!" The skeleton man turned back to Amelia and made the assumption that the astonishing power of the Armonias was most definitely involved.
"What!?" the vampire shouted in disbelief from inside the orb. "How is this possible!? How were you able to go against my command!?"
"Never again will you control me, nor take another victim." She faced the palm of her hand toward him. She took a deep breath, and began to sing.
"Animus signum lux lucis…" The eerie blue light around her body intensified as she cast the spell.
Dracula's body began to glow a bright white and he felt an eerily familiar burning sensation overwhelm him. He yelled out in pain as his figure began to alter.
'She is singing the soul sealing spell?' Jack questioned himself before the answer dawned on him. 'That's right! When an Armonia sings a spell, it becomes permanent and cannot be undone!' He had remembered reading about it when he found out about Amelia's bloodline.
The sorceress stopped, the glow around her dimmed, and she let her arm rest at her side. As she did so, the light that had enveloped the vampire died down.
"What!? No!" Dracula opened his eyes and shouted angrily when realized he was now in his previous, weaker form.
'Thanks Elizabeth.' She thought to herself and a small smile graced her lips.
She waved her hand and the sphere began to shrink even more to the point where the vampire had to practically hug his knees in order to not be crushed.
'I don't understand! Why isn't my curse working!?' he thought bitterly and then glanced at the brightly shining stone around her neck. 'Of course! That accursed Gem of the Armonias has been activated again!'
He then glanced at her wrist where the piece of jewelry he had given her was still bound. The silver roses were still glowing red albeit very dimly.
'So if the bracelet isn't affecting her anymore…' He then smirked. 'Then it's time to kick it up a notch.'
"Autus." He muttered. When he saw the jewelry begin to glow even brighter, he yelled out a command.
"Cease your treachery!"
The sorceress let out a yelp of pain as she fell to the floor on her knees.
"Amelia!" Jack hastily knelt down by her side.
The rose bracelet's light was a fierce, sinister, angry red color and the electric shock continued to course throughout her body but the intensity this time was far worse. The glow from her pendant began to dim as her eyes returned to normal. Jack immediately recognized the source of the curse so grabbed her wrist and tried to pull the silver bracelet off.
"Pathetic." Dracula sneered as she stood up. The orb around him had also begun to dim and enlarge as well. "You can't take it off her for only I can!"
"We'll see about that." Jack grumbled angrily as his hand gripped harder around the piece of jewelry and then he gave a hard, forceful yank.
The rose bracelet finally came off and shattered into a million pieces. The pain that had been coursing through Amelia finally ceased.
"What the!?" the vampire shouted in disbelief. Even more to his dismay, the blue sphere regained its hold and began to shrink again.
The Armonia's pendant began to glow brightly as did the rest of her body like before. Though her eyes remained normal, her strength and power was fully restored. She stood slowly and turned her attention toward the captive vampire in the blue orb.
"I can see that sealing your soul within your weaker body isn't going to be enough." She glared, "I think it's time to close you off from the rest of the world for all eternity!"
"And how do you propose to do that?" Dracula spat, still keeping up his haughty attitude.
"I believe the Entrapment spell would work well for our situation." Jack stated as he crossed his arms, "Though it requires two sorcerers. What do you say Amelia?" he asked with a grin.
"You bet." She said to him and smiled in determination. The Armonia's eyes regained their mystifying blue glow and the light around her intensified.
The two Halloween royals faced the captive vampire and they each outstretched a hand toward him.
"Laqueus is animus intra a sigillum!" they shouted in unison.
"NO!!!" Dracula yelled as the orb became brighter until the prisoner within could no longer be seen, and the sphere shrunk even more until it could easily fit into the palm of a hand.
"Where should we put him?" The Pumpkin King asked with a smile.
"I know." The princess snapped her fingers with her free hand and a peculiar object floated out of the room where she was forced to cast the Soul Release spell.
It was a black wooden box with strange, intricate, bronze designs on it and on the lid was a pearl seated in what looked like a raven's black talon. Amelia had noticed it on one of the shelves when she had been inside earlier.
"I like it." The skeleton grinned.
The two sorcerers levitated the white orb over to the pearl on the box.
"Vomica signum." They said together.
The white ball of light shrunk down to the size of the gemstone on top of the ornate box and was absorbed into the pearl. It then shone a bright, angry red before dying down back to its original color. The black box then floated over to where Jack stood and landed gently in his hands. Amelia sighed in relief and her eyes returned to their normal color as the eerie glow around her disappeared.
"So where are we going to put it?" She questioned.
"Mmm…I suppose we could always ask the Doctor to lock it somewhere in his lab." Jack pondered, "But I don't see any harm now in keeping it with us. I know there's a place in the tower where I could lock it up and no one will ever get to it."
He put his other hand on his hip, satisfied with his decision. The Pumpkin King snapped his fingers and the box vanished into thin air to reappear in the secret location that only he knew.
"Well I certainly hope that's the end of this little exciting adventure." The sharply dressed skeleton let out a deep breath of exhaustion.
"You said it." Amelia gave a curt nod in agreement.
"But eh…" he raised an eyebrow, a little puzzled. "What are you going to do about that?" he pointed to her new attire.
"Oh yeah…" She laughed nervously and scratched her head, "How am I supposed to change back anyway?"
Suddenly, her pendant began to shine brighter to the point where Jack had to shield his eyes with his hand from the intensity. After a moment, the light faded and he looked back at the young sorceress who now stood back in her normal masquerade costume.
"Well that wasn't weird at all." She said sarcastically.
"What made you…transform like that anyway?" he asked, quirking a would-be eye brow again.
"Oh…well…" she blushed a little, not wanting to explain the entire story.
She avoided his gaze and fiddled with the ends of her sleeves. But her head then quickly turned back to him when an idea hit her.
"It was Elizabeth!" she beamed.
"Eh?" Now Jack was really confused.
"Well you see…she knew I was in danger so she froze time so she could activate this." She held up her pendant. "It's actually the Gem of the Armonias! I think it was what caused me to change when I took in its power so that I could fight."
She paused as her own question popped into her mind.
"How did you manage to get this pendant anyway? Elizabeth told me it was hers and it had been passed down through the generations of Armonias." Amelia pointed out.
"Oh…well I…" he scratched his head sheepishly, "I had it because Marcus Brave gave it to me, believe it or not. It was strange too, he said that he couldn't look at it anymore because it caused him too much grief. He figured I should have it because he knew that Elizabeth was, well, close to me." Jack shrugged as he remembered the odd occurrence.
"So if you knew it was hers…" the sorceress blushed, "then why did you give it to me?"
"Well…" he trailed off a little, "Just to set the record straight, I certainly didn't know it belonged to the Armonia bloodline but…there was this odd feeling I had. And not the good kind." He looked off to the side, "It was like something told me to give it to you, but now I can see that it was for good reason." He turned back to her with a smile.
"That's for sure." she laughed.
The two royals exited the house, never to go back, and made their way across town to the square. There was a question that had been in the back of Jack's mind so he decided to go ahead and get it out.
"Amelia, you never did break up with Alucard err…Dracula did you?"
Her face paled for she had hoped she would have been able to avoid being confronted about it since the vampire was finally gone for good.
"Erm well…not exactly." She sheepishly scratched the back of her head and looked away from the Pumpkin King.
"I'm a little surprised actually. I thought you were one to keep promises." He stated coolly.
She hesitated a moment, not really sure what to say. She avoided his gaze and kept her eyes transfixed on the ground.
"I guess…I have no excuse. But I am truly sorry. I…I honestly don't know what prevented me from doing so." She admitted, a little ashamed. "It was like, something was holding me back and…I couldn't fight it."
"Wait a minute." Jack suddenly came to a stop and crossed his arms. "Are you sure that you couldn't bring yourself to do it because something stopped you?"
"Yes." She had come to a halt and turned to him. "I'm sure it was just my fears, which I really should learn to get over."
"No it wasn't that." He stated, which earned him a very puzzled look from her. "Tell me, when you wanted to break up with him, did you suddenly feel fuzzy? Was it like your mind was in some sort of haze?"
"Actually…yeah." She gave a curt nod.
"Then it's not completely your fault." He gave a half-smile, "Dracula was hypnotizing you."
"Well that explains a lot!" her eyes widened, but she felt rather dense for not realizing it sooner.
"But still, especially after your birthday, you should have had enough control to be able to break the news to him." He pointed out.
"Right…" she looked down again. "Well, I would promise that it will never happen again, but my words must seem pretty worthless now." She managed to meet his gaze.
Jack thought for a moment, narrowing his eyes, but then let out a deep sigh.
"I'll forgive you this time, but it's not something I will forget alright?" he looked her straight in the eyes to make sure she understood.
"Absolutely." She gave a curt nod in agreement extremely grateful to whatever caused such a miracle.
They began their walk toward the square again in a comfortable silence, but Amelia still felt that there was something she needed to say.
"Thank you Jack." She smiled.
He was just slightly taken aback by her appreciation, but it didn't show as he smiled warmly back at her.
As they neared the town square, they both heard an all too familiar voice ring out.
"It's time for the awards!" a stout man with a tall top hat on the platform near the center of the square declared through his megaphone.
"Ugh." Both sorcerers groaned, not looking forward to the boring event ahead.
"Must he do this every year?" Amelia asked.
"Yes…it's another one of the traditions that are always kept up." Jack crossed his arms, a little irritated.
"So…then you wouldn't mind if we skipped the awards?" she asked curiously.
He turned toward her with one eye socket elongated, indicating that he had raised an eyebrow.
"I take it you have something else in mind?" he asked.
"There's one more thing that we still need to do." She smiled and started off in the direction toward his house. The Pumpkin King watched her for a moment with a puzzled expression before following suit.
I ask for so much from you guys and you have no idea how eternally thankful I am to all of you!!! Now I'm just asking one more, small, thing. Just tell me your opinion of this chapter. I thought it might have been a little rushed but that could just be me. Helpful critique encouraged!!! Thank you so so much!