Its the finale of the first part of the story!
Thank you everyone who has been reading!
This is not the end, this is the halfway point. The chapters will return to one shots following the conclusion of this arc.
Stay tuned after the end for random trivia about the first half!
With the help of the Septarian's the battle quickly turned in the heroes favor. Four of the Devils were killed with only half the effort it took to kill the first few. Only one of Ragnarok's minions remained, it snarled and hissed as Rasticore approached it while attempting to start his chainsaw.
"Come on, stupid piece of-just-start already!" Rasticore groaned in frustration.
A red hand fell onto his shoulder, the lizard looked up at the monster king towering over him "You should rest; I'll take care of this last one." Rasticore agreed with Globgor's words and went off to rejoin his brethren. Globgor grew even larger as he was able to simply pick up the devil in his fingers. The creature stabbed at the sizeshifters hand, not able to realize the red glow was protecting the monster from disintegrating.
"My father saw you as the ultimate soldiers; If only he had been able to see what you really were…mindless killing machines." Globgor solemnly thought back to the days of the Solarian war, to when he had commanded these creatures for his own army, Now centuries later, he was here to slain the final one. Globgor pulled the devils tail in one hand, and the other pulled the rest of it in the opposite direction. As the tail was ripped from the devils butt, as it turned to nothing but dust, Globgor had only one thought "I wish my father had realized what you are sooner, before you sank your tail into his flesh…"
With the last one dead, everyone began to celebrate, mainly the Septarians and River who was currently riding on Rasticore's shoulders "We won! We saved the world!" River cheered. Despite the enthusiasm (and delicious victory cake curtesy of Joshua) the rest of Star's group were still uneasy.
"We haven't saved the world yet." Janna reminded them "Star's still stopping the main attraction."
Staring up at her namesake, Moon touched her cheeks and let out a sigh "Moon…" Eclipsa's voice spoke softly as she stood by her side "I know you'd rather be fighting alongside Star, but this isn't a battle for Queens. Magic is in their hands now, and I trust those two." Listening intently as her successor spoke, Moon nodded "I know." she turned back to the white moon in the sky, silently praying for her daughter and future son-in-law's safe return.
OXOXOXOX
Passing through a thick layer of clouds as they ascended higher into the sky, Star and Marco held on tightly as Cloudy broke through to the over side. At this altitude, all that could be seen was the moon, and the flat top of the spire.
"He's already gotten started, look!" Star turned Marco's attention to the top level, from this angle several portals could be spotted poking over the side of the tower "We better hurry." Marco nodded. Turning around to Cloudy's back, Star poofed up a jet engine for the little guy "Cloudy Mach 5!" she shouted. The engines burst to life and sent the three up to the top like a rocket.
One after another, countless portals to other dimensions littered the sky around Ragnarok. The spirit kept his claw on a pedestal in the center of the floor, a scissor shaped rune engraved upon it. The sound of what he guessed to be a rocket took his attention to the edge of the platform, where two angry teens stood ready to fight "I can't say I'm surprised, Butterfly's are very persistent when it comes to stopping the destruction of all reality. You even broke my hold on the boy, that deserves a little applause." He sarcastically clapped his hands together. The couple was not amused in the least.
"Cut the banter you creepy skeleton thing! We're taking you down once and for all!" Star glared at the spirit with pure hatred in her eyes, clenching Marco's hand tighter as she spoke.
Ragnarok smirked "So, how do you plan on fighting me if you can't touch me?"
The teens turned to each other with looks of severe panic; they both had forgotten his touch destroys anything it comes in contact with. Fighting from a distance on this single platform has nearly impossible. The regular glow of the moon turned a dazzling crimson, alerting Star and Marco to another spirit's presence.
"Blood Moon!" Marco exclaimed in surprise.
Ragnarok eyed the moon with annoyance "Oh great, you're still around. Going by the name Blood Moon now I see?"
The Blood Moon rapidly flashed, the duo was unable to understand what the spirit was saying, but judging by Ragnarok's expression it was probably something in their favor. Ragnarok scowled at The Blood Moon as it gave its red, shielding light to Star and Marco "What is…" Marco examined the glow on their bodies.
Star gasped audibly "The moonlight's shield, this is what Galaxina's prediction meant!" She bounced on her feet as she grinned to a confused Marco "Light and darkness may fight and clash, but if united under the moonlights shield, evil shall turn to ash! This is what it means, the Blood Moon is a spirit so it's light must protect us from Ragnarok's instant kill!" glancing upwards, the Blood Moon flashed that she was right.
Hearing what the girl had said, Ragnarok stopped dead in his tracks. As much as he hated the long passed queen, her predictions were always correct. Now that he couldn't kill the duo with a single touch, there was a speck of fear inside that they might actually defeat him.
Not wasting a single moment, Ragnarok launched a wave of black energy towards Star. Before the blonde had a chance to react, Marco stretched his arm in front of her and countered with a dark magic blast of his own. Gathering his dark magic into his fists, Marco gave a confident look to his opponent "I've still got my magic, not so fun when you're on the other end of it huh?"
As the Spirit of Destruction's eyes blazed with fury, Star and Marco stood back to back. Star called her golden magic to her palms as she matched Marco, the couple giving each other a single glance as they got in sync.
The battlefield was still for only a moment, Ragnarok stared down the duo with a killing intent "You kids want to fight a spirit, then that's what you'll get!" he slammed his claw on the floor and sent a row of spikes burrowing towards Star and Marco. The couple leapt out of the way and charged at their opponent from both sides "Sweetheart Frozen Flurry!" Star shot out heart shaped ice shards towards Ragnarok, freezing his bottom half as a distraction while Marco made his move "Dusk Bullet Sniper!" dozens of purple bullets shot from Marco's fingers, the spirit stretched out so they harmlessly passed through his incorporeal lower portion.
Regaining his usual shape, Ragnarok made a grab for Marco and held him by the shirt. Marco grinned and spun his legs into a magic-charged kick that connected with Ragnarok's jaw. The spirit winced as he tried to skewer the boy with his bony claws, only for a candy wall to rise in front of Marco and get his claws struck. Marco smiled at his girlfriend as she pulled him out of Ragnarok's grasp.
The candy wall disintegrated a second later with a very annoyed Ragnarok on the other side. Taking each other's hands, Star and Marco pulled each other into a twirl as they dodged three more shots from Ragnarok. Increasing speed, Marco lifted Star up and let her go "Rainbow Fist Punch!" Star held onto the punch instead of releasing it, getting a good hit in as her body soared straight at the spirit.
Pushing the girl away, Ragnarok released a deadly looking mist from his mouth. His target was yanked away by a dark magic lasso and sent flying right back at Ragnarok with another rainbow fist "Shadow Fist Punch!" Marco shot a matching spell of his own that hit at the same time as Star's, the two spells stunned Ragnarok long enough for the duo to prepare their next move.
"Blazing Lances!" "Narwhal Blasts!" The magic combined to bring forth a shower of Narwhals with flaming swords for horns. The sea creatures rained down from the sky and pierced through parts of Ragnarok's flesh. It did little to deter him however as he eliminated the rest of the narwhals with a wave of his power "MEGA WHALE BLAST!" Ragnarok found a large shadow coming from over his head, as he looked up, a massive whale landed on him.
The couple celebrated with a high five, only for the whale to turn to ash seconds later "Aww." Star groaned.
"It will take more than some sea creature to stop me!" Ragnarok brushed some ashes off his shoulder "Your efforts are futile either way, the portals are almost finished."
Star and Marco looked at the endless mess of portals littering the sky; they took up almost the entire view. The whole sky would be completely covered in only a few more minutes "How is he even doing this?!" Star looked to Marco with panic. The boy lowered his head and sighed "It's my fault; I used my portal magic to make a console for this." Marco pointed her in the direction of a single podium in the center of the platform.
Holding his girlfriend by the shoulders, Marco urgently pleaded with her "You go destroy the console; I can take him on my own for a few."
Star nodded, trusting Marco to hold his own "Kick his butt twice as hard for me."
Seeing Star run to the console, Ragnarok prepared to attack her. His shot misfired as a wrecking ball made of darkness collided with his spine, not causing a lot of damage but enough to turn his attention to his former minion "Oh if it isn't my little helper." He looked at Marco with amusement, enjoying the burning anger in the human's eyes "You know it's not too late to come back to me. Remember all the fun times we had together?" Ragnarok taunted with sick delight.
A massive beam of dark magic and a gaping hole in his chest later, and Ragnarok wasn't laughing anymore. Marco's face twisted into pure hatred and barely restrained fury, his looks alone could shoot another whole in the spirit's chest "I remember everything." Marco spat.
When Ragnarok tried to move, Marco raised his hand and lifted dozens of spikes out of the ground and right into Ragnarok's torso "You made me into your puppet, you made me forget who I am…" Marco clenched his fists, sending the spikes deeper inside Ragnarok. The destructive entity broke apart his bindings and went to attack Marco, only to find the boy no longer where he was.
"But worst of all-" the voice came from behind, Ragnarok swerved around to see Marco wielding a pitch black sword made of magic "-You made me try to kill the people I care about!" the sword sliced at Ragnarok, missing by less than an inch. Ragnarok and Marco traded blows, each attack canceling the other one, the two of them striked with a killing intent. All of his pain, all of his regrets, all of his anger, Marco released it all in his spells, the same ones he had used to hurt the ones he loved, now were being used to take revenge on the one who had brainwashed him.
With all of their attention focused on fighting each other, neither of them noticed the portals rapidly disappearing one by one. As another of Marco's spells knocked Ragnarok sideways, he finally realized what was happening with his portals "What!? NO!" as the sky cleared up and the portals vanished, one blonde girl stood next to a destroyed podium, Star sent the spirit a smug grin as the podium sputtered and sparked "YOU!" Ragnarok roared "YOU TWO HAVE RUINED EVERYTHING!"
The spire started to shake, causing both teens to lose their balance and fall to the ground. Ragnarok's body began to sink into the floor, his ghostly bottom half completely disappearing as the top half glued itself to the spire. Moving quickly before the spirit could make another move, Star and Marco sprung back up and pelted Ragnarok with magic spells. The madman didn't so much as flinch as rainbows and exploding kittens rained down upon him, he only focused on shifting his body into something new.
Ragnarok's body started to twist and expand, fusing with the spire as the material bled into the holes covering his skin. The bony spirit grew enormous, easily dwarfing the couple who stood beside each other in fear, gasping as nearly the entire structure; save for the small piece they stood on, became a giant, tangled mess of horrifying evil.
"This can't be good…" Marco shook his head with disbelief. Above the duo, The Blood Moon flashed in alarm.
With the transformation complete, Ragnarok set his sights on the magic user's that thwarted him. His voice echoed and distorted as he spoke "yOu MAy hAvEe STopPed My mAstER PlaN, bUT I WiLl sTILl DEStroY tHe unIvERse ONe DimENsiOn At a TiMe! stArtiNG WitH thIs MisERaBLE, paTHetIC dimension And eveRYONe iN It!"
Pure destructive power surged through Ragnarok's veins; the spirit paused as he readied his power for an explosion big enough to destroy the whole dimension. Star and Marco looked to each other, at a loss for what to do "How the heck are we going to stop him!" Star held her boyfriend in panic "I don't think even magic can destroy him now!"
Marco gazed into her eyes; his own filled with despair "Nothing can destroy him. He's a spirit, an immortal concept that can't be killed. Ragnarok is nothing but destructive energy."
Star's eyes widened "What did you say?"
Her boyfriend looked at her in confusion "Uh, I said he's nothing but destructive…energy…" the lightbulb went off in his head "Wait-he's energy!" Marco gasped.
Star nodded along with him, excitement coursing through her "It's just like with the magic! Energy can't be destroyed, but it can be contained or turned into another form!" The blonde's mind raced, desperately trying to come up with a spell that would work "Well, he's already been contained so I don't think it will work again."
"So we have to change him into another form." Marco followed her train of thought "Is that even possible?"
Truthfully, Star wasn't entirely sure she could accomplish casting a spell that powerful "I don't know, but it's our only shot." Star grabbed Marco's hands tightly, taking a deep breath before she continued "If we combine our magic, it should work…but…I'm not sure what will happen to us if we pull it off." Powerful magic had its risks, there was no guarantee their bodies could handle the amount of magic they needed. Marco bit his lip, solemnly accepting the consequences that could follow "If we could survive the realm of magic collapsing, and merge our worlds together, we can do this." Marco spoke with determination "Because with or without magic…" he lovingly gazed at her, Star doing the same as she finished his words "…We belong together."
The two stood side by side, holding their hands tightly between them as their other arms outstretched and aimed at Ragnarok's head, still charging his power. The couple closed their eyes, Star's hearts lit up with a golden light, Marco's moons followed with dark purple darkness. Their grasp on each other's hands tightened as they summoned all of the magic that was sealed inside of them. No words were exchanged, no magical summoning dance, the magic simply gathered at their hands and shot forward with two massive beams of gold and purple magic.
The two beams spiraled around each other, swirling together as it collided with Ragnarok's flesh. The spirit opened his eyes and stopped his own flow of energy, unable to do anything as the magic burned into his very essence. In a last ditch effort, Ragnarok pushed the beam of magic back with every ounce of power he had. Star and Marco struggled as the spell was pushed back, but they stood their ground and held their hands tighter as they willed the magic forward, letting out two loud screams as they did so.
The two separate beams of magic began to merge into one, the gold and dark purple magic cleaved into a single beam of magenta colored magic. The spell intensified and instantly blew back Ragnarok's attack, piercing through his body as the magic spread throughout his entire being. The spirit lit up with magic before imploding upon itself, the magic released and sent out a massive energy wave that spread far beyond the battlefield. The magic spread across the ends of Earthni, passing the group that had defeated the devils, leaving the two Butterfly women glowing. The magic continued to spread as it encompassed the entire planet, before going beyond and reaching across every dimension, stretching until it had reached the entire universe.
The glow around Eclipsa and Moon faded, leaving the ladies standing with diamonds and spades on their cheeks "Is this-?!" Eclipsa felt her face; she held out her hand and released a small glowing ball of magic. Moon was doing the same, gaping in awe "Magic…"
OXOXOXOX
"….r….ar….Star…Wake up!"
The unmistakable voice of her boyfriend roused Star from her unconscious state, slowly her eyes began to open and Marco's form came into focus "Marco…wha…" Star groaned as she sat upright "Did we win?"
Marco looked unsure "I…don't know. I don't even know where we are now."
Taking a look around, Star saw nothing but the two of them for miles and miles. It was just the two of them in the vast black space. Star had also noticed that she was no longer wearing her regular clothes and Marco's hoodie; instead she wore a simple, knee length white dress. Marco wore a similar outfit consisting of a plain white shirt and pants.
"What is this place?" Star wondered aloud as she and Marco stood up, holding their hands tight as they searched for any sign of life.
"This is the Spirit World."
The duo jumped at the sound of another voice, frantically searching for where it came from "Well, not the main part of the Spirit World. This is more of the waiting room to my world." The voice spoke again. The endless blackness was disrupted as a soft red glow faded into existence, the glow was coming from an adult woman dressed all in red, even her eyes were pure red orbs as she approached the cautious teenagers.
"Who are you?! What happened to Ragnarok?! What are we doing here?!" Marco rapidly questioned the woman as she approached. The lady was not walking, instead she floated inches above the ground, standing upright she was much taller than Star or Marco, around the same height as Ragnarok to be exact.
"Really Marco, the two of you should recognize me by now." The lady shook her head, disappointed that they did not instantly know who she was.
Star took a step forward, and noticed the Red Crescent symbol on the wooden pendant around her neck and in the center of a golden circlet on her forehead "Wait…are you the Blood Moon?!" Star gasped.
The woman smiled "Yep, I'm the Blood Moon Spirit. This is my true form."
Other than the pendant and circlet with her insignia on it, below her eyes was red eyeliner curved into a moon shape. Her red hair was parted into crescent shaped bangs reaching to her chin, the back matched with the hair splitting into two crescent shaped halves stretching to her ankles. The Blood Moon wore a red, Asian styled dress; the top had a golden line forming from the neck with two stiches crossing over. Her red sleeves were detached as they covered her arms separately, the gold lining at the bottom nearly obscured her hands. A simple gold corset was decorated with a thin red string tied into a bow in front, the red part of her dress was angled so it only fell to the right side, and a short white skirt was underneath as the red and gold half nearly reached the floor. Her shoes were red heels with red ribbon-like swirls reaching to her knees. Finally, there was a thing string falling alongside the right side of her outfit with several glass orbs filled with red energy.
Star and Marco stared in shock "You're a girl?!" Star blurted out, thinking back, Alphonse did always call the Blood Moon 'she', but Star had thought that was just sailor-talk.
Shaking her head with annoyance, Blood Moon just sighed and moved on "It's nice to be able to speak with you two like this instead of morse code. I can't manifest this form in your dimension. As for your other questions…" she held out a small speck of black light. The tiny mote floated between Star and Marco, leaving them feeling uneasy "Are you going to tell us what this is or do we have to guess?" Marco swatted the thing away.
"Your spell worked, that's part of Ragnarok." Blood Moon answered.
"No way! This little thing was Ragnarok?!" Marco got as far away from the mote as he could, glaring at it intensely "Well it's a part of him; your spell changed him into these floating particles. There's one in every dimension now. Luckily, they are completely harmless separated like this." Blood Moon poked the tiny light before cupping it into her hand "Which brings me to item number 2, there was a side effect to casting a spell powerful enough to alter a spirit…"
Star and Marco looked to each other with worry "Is it a bad side effect?" Star hoped she hadn't screwed the universe up more than she already had.
"It depends…" Blood Moon started "The two of you merged your magic into a brand new magic. Instead of light and dark, it's all brand new now. Magic has been completely reborn…and now it's an intangible force spreading across all of the dimensions, rather than a gooey substance in a realm of it's own."
"Wait, so magic is everywhere now!?" Star panicked, terrified of what could happen now "Can't we just lock it back up inside the two of us again?!"
Turning her head down solemnly, Blood Moon sighed "Fortunately, new magic means new rules. The new magic exists as a spark inside of everyone, but it lies dormant until they summon it on their own." While this sounded like a positive thing, Marco noticed how the spirit's face fell as she spoke "What's the downside?"
"For recreating magic, and turning it into something entirely new, the universe has chosen the two of you to become the spirits of magic." Blood Moon regretfully informed them.
Star and Marco froze when they heard the news, clinging to each other as they both desperately wanted this to be nothing more than a bad dream "No no no no no! We-we can't be spirits! That-that would mean we were-"Star couldn't choke the words out, she didn't want this to be a reality.
Blood Moon sighed "Yes, I know, but-"
"This can't be happening!" Marco interrupted, paying no attention to the glowing spirit "We-we-we were supposed to get married an-and start a family! This wasn't supposed to happen!" The boy hyperventilated.
Blood Moon spoke up again "I agree, that's-"
"What about our friends and families?!" Star gasped "We never got to say goodbye! Oh my gosh Marco we will never see any of them again!"
"Well actually-"
"This is too much!" Marco's voice cracked from all the panic he felt, clinging onto Star for dear life "We're just 16! There is so much we haven't done yet! I'm too young to become some sort of eternal guardian entity!"
Fed up with being interrupted, Blood Moon shouted "I KNOW! I AGREE WITH YOU!" the terrified couple suddenly remembered the presence of the glowing lady beside them. Blood Moon held her hand to her forehead and pinched the bridge of her nose "If the two of you won't take a moment to listen, I wholeheartedly agree that it's way too early for you to become spirits. That's why I'm sending you back; you have your whole mortal lives ahead of you. There will be plenty of time afterwards to hang around here."
The duo was floored "You…you can do that?" Star hopefully asked. The Blood Moon smiled gently "Hey, I'm the spirit of souls remember? I get the final say when a mortal's life is over, and the two of you have a long way to go." The couple let out a sigh of relief, thankful to not have their lives taken at such a young age. As glad as she was right now, there was still something running through Star's mind "Hang on, we can't just leave magic in the hands of anyone. We have to make sure magic won't be misused this time, or else something like the Solarian incident could happen all over again."
"You're right." Marco agreed with his girlfriend. With an idea in mind, he turned to the Blood Moon Spirit "Blood Moon, since we created this new magic, can we give it some new rules?"
"Of course, as long as you two are here you can make it work however you want." The spirit confirmed. With that, Star and Marco huddled together and whispered their ideas to each other. Blood Moon whistled to herself as she waited for the couple to make up their minds. Once they were done with their discussion, Star and Marco looked to the glowing spirit "So how does this work? What do we need to do?" Star asked.
"All you need to do is want it to be so." The red lady answered.
Star and Marco nodded and willed their thoughts into being. With a loud poof of magic, another creature stood in front of the duo. It resembled the unicorn Star had previously created when she recreated the Realm of Magic, but it also appeared to be part dragon. Its legs were mismatched on both sides with hooves and claws. Red scales meshed with pink fur all over the body, and its mouth and ears had a draconic appearance to them. Its mane was spiky yet elegant, its eyes a magenta hue with a reptilian slit. While the tail and horn was completely unicorn, its wings were completely dragon. The side of its flank was decorated with a symbol of a pink heart beside a red moon.
"…what." Blood Moon stared at the creature in confusion.
Marco ran his hand through the creature's mane, amazed at what he helped create "So we decided that magic needs someone to watch over it and keep things in line. Until the two of us…y'know…this dragcorn will take care of it." The spirit approached the so called 'dragcorn' and brushed her fingers across their scales "I can see the two of you added your own personal touches. Does this magnificent being have a name?"
Without a second thought, Star instantly knew the perfect name "Hank." She went to cuddle the newly named dragcorn. Marco wanted to ask why she chose that name, but figured he'd just go with it and ask questions later.
"That's a mighty fine creation the two of ye have there!" an old voice bellowed, alerting the group of Alphonse's presence "I knew I saw some greatness in the two of ye, didn't think things would go like this though."
Pulling away from Hank, Star waved to the old sailor "Hey Alphonse!" "Ahoy Star!" he waved back before addressing the Blood Moon "I'll lead the two of them back to their world now if that's alright with you?" "Not at all captain, it's time for them to leave anyway." Blood Moon replied.
Knowing that it was time to head back, Star and Marco looked Hank in the eyes "Alright Hank, you gotta keep magic under control from now on. If anyone uses it for any wrongdoings or evil, you take their magic away for good." Marco reminded them. Hank nodded to their creators, wishing them the best before they parted.
Giving their creation one last hug, Star and Marco approached the spirits "We're ready." Star spoke, holding Marco's hand tight. Alphonse materialized a steering wheel before him, and gestured for the two of them to hold on. Watching those two take the wheel, Blood Moon wanted to say one last thing before being reduced to morse code again "Hey, when the two of you get back could you clear up my reputation? I'm really sick of being calling my gift a curse."
Alphonse chuckled "Yeah, the only cursing she does is with her foul language."
The wheel started to glow a light blue, before they got a chance to say goodbye the teenagers were swept back into their own dimension, leaving the two spirits and Hank on their own "Those two truly are soulmates aren't they?" Alphonse remarked, watching a smile cross his friends face "Yeah, they really are…" one day she wanted to tell them everything, how their souls were truly united, how not even the severing stone could separate them, all it did was remove The Blood Moon from the equation, how their souls chose to keep holding on to each other, how they were bonded with their own power. Until then, The Blood Moon was content just watching from afar.
OXOXOXOX
The battle was over, the darkness had been cleared. The spire that pierced the sky was nothing but dust covering the rubble that had formerly been Lekmet's castle. The morning sunlight shined down on the two figures lying on the ground, awakening together as their eyes met.
"Star…" Marco breathed.
"Marco…" Star breathed too.
The two were bruised and tired, but they were alive. They were together. Their fingers intertwined, the couple nudged themselves closer together and laughed, they joyfully laughed as their nightmare was over. That would be the final time anything would ever separate them, now they were whole once more, and neither would ever let go ever again.
That's a wrap on the 1st half of the fanfiction! The world is safe but Star and Marco have a lot of cuteness left ahead!
As I finished the chapter, I thought about alot of stuff that stayed in my head instead of going on the pages, so I decided to share my thoughts with some trivia notes:
1. This was the first fanfic I have written where every chapter has been planned from the beginning. I started brainstorming after the finale and made a bucket list of what I still wanted to see. Each chapter, including the rest has an outline with the basic plot of each written and more is added as I go.
2. Despite being organized beforehand, there were still some changes that happened as the chapters were written. Some chapters shifted in order, 10 was originally two separate stories that were merged into one, 20 was almost complete when I decided to delete half of it (Thanos style) and shifted the focus. That chapter was originally a Marco and Meteora bonding story, the name of the chapter still reflects the earlier plot. The mention of Eclipsa wanting Star to be her successor was originally not even going to be mentioned until the second half but it made more sense to reveal it to the readers before Star. My original draft did not include Seth and Alphonse in the story at all! Mina was originally solo before I realized the gold of having those two work together. Alphonse's role was originally meant for Father Time, write before I wrote the chapter I realized Father Time wouldn't know morse code, and that Alphonse needed some screentime anyway.
3. The monster arm's brief appearance, the St. Olga's room, Alphonse and the Blood Moon, I thought they would have a bigger impact after season 1. I needed to write my own conclusions for those plots.
4. Regarding Ragnarok, the story needed a villain that was neither Mewman nor Monster, while tying together the corruption of the magic realm and darkest spell's origins. Magic is used to create, so destruction is it's foil. Ragnarok's design was actually not finalized until right before he was released. I originally designed him to look more beastly, like a lion or something, but then I realized that would make him look more like a monster. For the final design I wanted him to look like a corpse. If he had a voice actor, it would be Kirk Thornton with his AxeKnightmon voice.
5. As for the Blood Moon, CotBM was a big point of anxiety and sadness for me. I truly believed that it wasn't intended to do any harm with bonding them, then I thought 'what if the moon had feelings?' I have seen many fics include the Blood Moon, but never any depicting it as an actual character. The twist of the Blood Moon's true form being a woman was hinted by Alphonse a few times, I wonder if anyone noticed? Her design was actually made back between the hiatus of seasons 1 and 2, I've had that idea of the Blood Moon being an actual person for a few years now. While her design was mostly unchanged all this time except for her hairstyle, after season 2 came out I changed the hair style since it looked VERY close to Hekapoo's! That was a weird coincidence. Her outfit was inspired by Cure Scarlet with a personality like La Muerte...alongside an attitude of being absolutely done with everyone's stupidity and cussing out people when she is angry in morse. Voice wise she would sound like Elizabeth Gillies' Daphne voice from Winx Club.
6. The idea of a Dark Marco was something I predicted would happen after Monster Arm aired. Not going to lie, I really wanted to see that. So from the get-go I knew I wanted to write an evil Marco arc, the unicorn wound was a good opening to use. I decided against the Monster Arm being in control but wanted it to be the main spell in his arsenal, it was originally supposed to be destroyed last chapter but I bumped it up a few. Sailor Moon's Dark Endymion arc was a major inspiration for the story arc, while Marco's outfit as Dark Marco was based on Seiji's outfit in Happiness Charge Precure when he was brainwashed, Seiji is literally Marco's anime twin.
7. Speaking of Pretty Cure and Sailor Moon, I am a huge magical girl anime fangirl. I couldn't resist sneaking in some shout outs to my two favorites in this story (and one from Mermaid Melody). Try and find all my mahou shoujo references.
8. I know magic coming back is cliche, but I find it hard to believe that all of it was destroyed when the worlds merged after it's destruction.
As for what's to come...it will be nearly all one shots again. There is another story arc near the end but it's only three chapters long instead of how many this was. The biggest change will be magic returning and longer time skips between some chapters.
I hope you will keep reading as the story continues.
