Chapter 6: A Hand in Magic

Grass danced about with the winds peacefully in a grassy landscape. A worker bee buzzed about towards the many wild flowers growing there. It lands onto one and it starts to collect nectar: it's everyday duty for the hive it resides in.

Then, the environment shook. It drew its' head up and felt the shaking of the ground intensify. It turns and sees something come by this way and flies off from the flower before the plant was stomped... by some sort of gooey substance in the form of feet. The bee stares as this strange creature left.

It then saw... a sword fly through the air way above it, in the direction of aiming for the beast.

The amorphous creature turns just as something appears to catch the sword and swing it down on it's form. The sword draws out it's viscous flesh with the swing.

"Will you just... stop running? And give me a break..." Noct complains. He lands onto the ground and looks over at the Flan Hound. No matter how much he cuts off, this Dulled just keeps regenerating it's slimy body back to what it was before.

He gritted his teeth. He knew what this Dulled could do. Having a high resistance to pierce and slashing attacks. How he wished he had Al come along then he would be finished with this task long before but couldn't. He heard someone chanting and the atmosphere was getting hotter.

"Mr. Noct, go!" He heard Vivi exclaim as he rose his staff. "Fire!"

With that call, a fireball shot across at an incredible speed, smashing into the Flan Hound with more effectiveness than compared to his strikes.

Noct looked as the Flan Hound began to dissolve. From the heat of the blast, he could know that that attack was very strong. No wonder this Black Mage was called a prodigy and selected as a member for the Organization. Still... Magic... He flicks his hand and looks at himself. Magic would be a pretty good thing to be able to use for combat. There will definitely be an imminent day where just slashing won't be an answer. Maybe...

He looked over at Vivi, the little boy quite winded upon arriving here.

"I was able to catch up..." He breathed. "You were...so fast..."

"Well... with this... ability..." Noct looked at his sword. "I could get to another place in a blink as long as I aim well." Another closer look at Vivi and he spotted some cuts over his skin and a bit of dirt around his clothing. Must have tripped along the way to catch up...

He dug into a pocket and took out a small glass bottle with clear liquid inside. They called these Potions, medicative concoctions able to recover wounds on potency. These doesn't match up to White Magic healing spells, but still work in the case which magic isn't effective.

"You got a little few cuts around there, Vi." He passes the potion to Vivi. "Drink up."

Vivi slowly nods and held the bottle after uncapping it and placed it below his eyes... he is drinking it... right?

"Ah, thank you." Vivi bowed modestly with the bottle empty...How did he drink?

Honestly, every time he sees Vivi eat or drink, he doesn't know how the boy consumes things: he can't even see lips!

He returned the bottle back and fixed his hat. Noct looked around the wounds Vivi had and didn't fix his torn clothing yet. Both of them don't know how to use any White Magic to close those. Maybe now, they had to rely on Stella and Al at those fields. Speaking of which, he wanted to know how to do it.

"Hey, Vi? How do I learn magic?"

"Oh...From the Great Library." Vivi answered. "It's home to the oldest Eidolon who ever existed."

"The Great Library..."

"Yes." Vivi nodded. "Want to check it out? Those of the Organization can go there whenever they want."

"Sure thing." Noct replies.

Noct looked at the directions, following Vivi to the Great Library that was spoken of.

He looked up and analyzed how it looked from the outside.

While it was indeed massive like many of the great buildings around it, the Great Library had such an authentic air around it. There was such a faint trail of energy emanating from the walls, the familiarity of magic in it. However, compared to the other buildings around it, it looked out of place. It didn't use the modern appearance and he was impressed of how long this building managed to keep on throughout the years without breaking nor collapse with age. This place must had been taken care of pretty well.

"Here we are, the Great Library." Vivi introduced.

"The Great Library." Noct repeats, looking over at Vivi before back at this large building touching many ages, but housing knowledge at the finest.

"Yes, how about we go inside?" Vivi asked.

"Alright."

They went inside and Noct was taken about at what was done inside the library.

The place... definitely, looks much bigger than what its' outside appearance presented. Bookshelves of towering heights are placed and separated in various categories parallel. Several platforms moved about around these bookshelves, the passengers onboard the many of these platforms stopping by at a location and drawing reading material out of the bookshelves.

The books also appear to sort themselves out from the shelves, moving about to fit their given arrangement. And as seen, humans and non-humans went about in the library to study up in these books.

Noct was overwhelmed by this. He looked around the books and several floors and offices it had. It was gigantic, the number of books was so great that a lifetime of an average human could live wouldn't scratch the surface of the knowledge of this books could give. There were so many to count.

"Whoa..." he mumbled out loud. It's little wonder how did this place earn it's titled name.

"Mr. Noct, this is it." Vivi spoke. "You could read everything you want here. Oh, there's Ms. Terra!" Noct looked over and saw whom Vivi had spoken of.

There was that young woman, she was...embracing some of the Moogle staff members of the library as she read a book. He sighed at this and how long had he been a member of the Organization? Right, been a week already but there were some more he had been doing about and yet to meet these Seven Deadly Sins.

"Oh, Ms. Terra likes them." Vivi explained. "She has a love for Moogles, something which the Hallowed Father dislikes."

"She does? Oh, that's what those living stuffed lookalikes are called. And what is the Hallowed Father?"

"He's among the most powerful Eidolons who ever existed." Vivi answered. "Lives on the moon and stays there. He's... a really nice guy... I don't want to ruin his name but never drink the coffee or tea he brews."

"...Er... Okay?" Noct could have sworn that while Vivi was polite in his manner, there was some paranoia in that sentence.

He looks back at Terra's direction. She is now conversing quietly with a long blonde-haired woman. Stella? He headed over to them...

But when he took a closer look, it wasn't the woman he thought it was.

There are plenty of features which reminds Noct of her, but the woman didn't have bangs directly in front of her head, showing most of her forehead while bangs from both sides of her face hang down towards her shoulder level.

"Oh, there you, Noct, Vi." Terra called out, the other blonde woman looked at them.

"This is the new man of the Organization?" The woman asks.

Noct kept on staring at the blonde woman. "Who is she?"

"Oh, she's Celes." Vivi answered. "A close friend of both Terra and Locke."

Celes... Wait, Terra mentioned her the other day. Could it be her?

"I'm a member of the Organization as well." Celes details her identity. "A Rune Knight, to say." A Rune Knight...

"She's also a skilled swordswoman like Terra, a Magitek Warrior." Vivi explained. "However, Celes can draw magic directed toward us with her sword and it never damaged her. She's very good in protecting us with magic."

"She's that great?" Noct asks in surprise.

"It takes a great amount of focus and concentration to be able to focus on drawing magic attacks from only the enemy." Celes said. "Mainly, Runic stances draw any form of magic towards the user, even if it's from their own allies."

"It is so that it is quite a double-edged sword." Terra nodded. "If used properly, it'll be a great asset to the team. Celes is always this great, I agree."

Celes sighs a bit. "Even if that's a compliment, don't keep flattering me..."

"Oh, okay." Vivi timidly answered.

"Of course, so what do you want to read more about?" Terra asked.

"Well, I'd like to continue honing onto some techniques enchanted with Blizzard magic, such as the Freeze Dive technique..." Celes says.

Vivi ponders for some time as discussion passed between the women.

"...Hm, use those skills." Vivi muttered.

"What did you say just now, Vi?" Noct turns to the side.

He heard shushing, coming from a librarian that was efficient in detecting sound... he spoke too loudly there. "...Uh, sorry." Noct scratches the back of his head afterwards.

"Magic enhancements to weapons to add additional effects." Vivi answered. "It's like what spellswords do."

"Spellswords? I guess... it means you put a spell's effects into weapons?"

Celes nods. "Freeze Dive incorporates this effect. I'd need to enhance my blade with ice to use it."

"I do too." Terra added. "Though I mainly used mine in blades I fire from my sword."

"I cannot do it since I haven't used a sword before." Vivi looked down. "Even if they said that I am one of the best Mages."

"Oh." Noct looked over at Vivi.

"Oh, it's nothing..." Vivi muttered while fixing his hat. "But maybe, I can handle a sword next time when I grow up." Grow up... Right, he's still a ki-

"Oh, there you are." They heard Stella call out as she went near the group. "Oh, Noct, Vi, you're here too."

"Oh, good afternoon, Stella." Terra greeted.

"Hello, Ms. Stella." Vivi bowed to greet her.

"Stella? What is it?" Noct wonders.

"Oh, I am just here to learn more White Magics." Stella spoke out. "Even if I use a rapier, I can use some skill in using White Magic and now, I am learning how to use Holy."

"Holy..." Vivi muttered. "That's amazing, Ms. Stella."

Noct ponders for a while. With the ones he'd been with more frequently, Stella and Al specializes in White Magic, and Vivi specializes in Black Magic. Locke is rather somewhat a mix of them, but not as potent.

"...I think I'll get started with learning Black Magic." Noct announces to them.

After he said that, he thinks to himself quietly that Celes and Stella look nearly alike that he thought he could just end up carelessly calling them the other by mistake.

'What... Just what part of their appearance makes it easy for me to tell who is who?' He wonders.

"Noct, you're spacing out." Stella spoke with concern. "Is something the matter?"

He looked down and saw Stella's B-cups then turned to Celes' chest... hers is much larger. D-Cups at best.

He looks at the two blonde-haired women repetively and nods quietly to himself.

"Ah, I was just... You know, making sure I know who is who." Noct says. "I mean, you and Celes look nearly alike."

"Hm? Is that so..." Stella mused. "What is it then?"

"Your torsos?"

...

...

Stella deployed her weapon and began to chant. "Sacred light, shine upon the bloody battle and cast all impure..."

"What? Stella? What're you doing?" Noct asks, completely oblivious as to what his words implied. He saw a magic circle appear below him. This is bad.

"...Holy!" Stella cried, the magic circle fired spheres of light upward and sent Noct flying. The spheres then homed in and exploded on Noct.

The rest watched the scene happen in their own reactions. Vivi obviously looked horrified.

"...Well... You've just unleashed Holy in perfect execution..." Celes sweats lightly.

"Yes..." Terra muttered.

"Mr. Noct!" Vivi cried out as he ran toward where Noct landed.

"...That jerk..." Stella whispered. "And I was being kind to him and showed how to get used to Unita for this entire week and this is how he thanks me?"

'What did I do wrong?' Noct wonders to himself as Vivi worriedly looked over at him lying forward, limbs sprawled on the ground.

"M-Mr. Noct, please wake up..." Vivi muttered. "Oh, what should I do? I don't know any healing magic."

"...I can't really move right now..." Noct says, still stuck in his aching state.

The amount of onlookers witness of this little scene just fell to zero as they resumed doing whatever they were doing earlier.

Noct looked over the large book Vivi found and tried doing the spells inscripted on them.

"So, ow... I'd get started on Fire..." he mumbles to himself. Looking away from the book, he looks at the empty space he'd been brought over to for the purpose of practicing magic spells.

"It's the basic skill." Vivi said. "Most of those who practice magic learn Fire, Ice, and Lightning as their starting magic skills. Most is dependent on the Element you hold. Since you're Dark and Lightning, you can learn Dark-line and Thunder-line spells."

"Oh, alright..." Noct nods slowly. "Thunder... and Dark spells."

He nodded and read the pages for the basic spells.

"Focus... project an image of the magic you want to cast..." Noct scans through while reading out the fundamentals of magic. "Then once you project images of the spell, you then project it onto reality."

He looks through the incantation of the spell which will get him started onto Black Magic: Fire. He sets the book aside. "...Okay. Think of fire... imagine it... then make it feel like it's imagined right out to reality."

Vivi looked as a magic circle appeared around Noct's hand. He was getting it, able to send out something from his mind into reality.

"...Fire... Fire... Fire."

His mind focused on a flame being made in his mind... time to put it out to reality. Vivi was in awe while Noct fired the flame forward. It hit the spot as Noct stared at it with amazement.

"I... did it. Was that Fire?" He turns to look over at the Black Mage for confirmation.

"It is." Vivi answered. "Aside from that, the power of that spell is dependent on your knowledge in Magic and rules of the metaphysical world. Because using magic meant bending the laws of reality to make something appear out of nowhere."

"Huh... That was stated in that book..." Noct nods slowly. He looks at his hands. After casting that Fire spell, it felt like something just drained him, but not of his physical vitality.

"...I felt a slight exhaustion after casting that." He points out.

"Oh, it's your mana." Vivi answered. "It's the soul's vitality and every time you use magic, it drains some of the soul's vitality. Like what was stated, Magic is bending the laws of reality to make something appear and it needed the power of something indestructible and immeasurable."

"Magic's that limited to a person, regularly... Got it." Noct nods. "...It also said to warn me not to attempt casting magic when our mana is depleted."

"Yes or else you'll feel intense pain, death, or worse, lose your soul." Vivi added, holding his hat. "Don't use it too much, okay Noct?"

"...I'll be careful." The man replies.

"Thank you." Vivi nodded. Magic.. .so that's how powerful magic was. And at really... reasonable limitations. Makes sense with how it's used...

Then he wondered about what Vivi told him of his Elements. Thunder-line and Dark-line spells...It looked over the book again, Thunder was a basic spell too. Maybe try that one as he looked at the ethers around.

"These ethers will restore our mana, if I remember..." Noct says as he looks at a vial of one.

"Indeed." Vivi nodded. "They taste more bitter than potions but it helps replenish mana."

"Right." Noct nods in response. 'Then, time to practice a few times before drinking up some Ethers...' He looks back at the empty space, ready to start learning how to use more magic.

He imagined lightning then...

A flash.

Noct looked around the place and he saw that he wasn't in the Great Library now but in a garden. The garden was filled with a wide variety of flowers. There are many which he didn't recognize at all.

Better still, how did he get here?

"So...Want to ask me about that?" An elderly voice asked, pointing at a large crystal.

'Huh?' He suddenly found himself turning to the side, to his surprise. But what surprised him more was that words were forced out of his mouth without his consent at all.

"Dad, what is that?" He hears himself talk.

"It's the Crystal Core." That man answered. "It's our responsibility to make sure it is sustained so that the dimension Fidem and its worlds won't ever be plunged into the void."

"Oh..." Noct hears himself mumble and look back at the large crystal. "It's... a really big job. Can I do it when I get older?"

"...You may when the time comes..."

"...Oh..."

"Mr. Noct? Mr. Noct."

"What?" The next blink he took found himself looking at the Great Library again. Vivi was looking at him with his head tilted.

"Are you okay?" He asked with concern. "You just used Thundara."

"What? Thundara?" Noct quickly says. "Weren't I trying to use Thunder?" Vivi shook his head.

"I don't know but you used Thundara instead and look." He pointed at where he fired that spell. Noct turned and saw several marks of lightning strikes scattered around the field of area... That shouldn't be what Thunder is supposed to be...

"Amazing..." Vivi expressed in awe. "Not many of your element can learn this spell instantly. It mainly took them weeks to get to the next spell and months for them to get the final tiers."

"...Oh..." Noct said with blinks. It was a stronger spell, than that means... "...But I'd use up more mana than the average compared to Thunder, won't I?"

"Um, yes but with the compatibility of this element with your own, it uses half." Vivi answered. "Which is why for me using Fire Spells doesn't wear me out like using other spells."

"Oh."

"...If I look at your soul with this..." Vivi timidly pressed some buttons on a device. "You can use Thundara eight more times until you need a Hi-ether or so to replenish your mana."

"Using Thundara eight more times?" Noct says. "So... if I use spells other than Dark or Thunder, they'd normally be half the number."

"Yes." Vivi answered while fixing his hat. "I think that's what Master Papalymo told me."

"Papalymo?"

"He's my teacher, I learned all these things from him." Vivi explained. "Although I am never near his level."

Papalymo... Come to think of it, he heard that name before and when he visited that Akademia, he saw that short man teaching students there.

Was that man the one whom Vivi spoke of? Noct looks back at the child in front of him. Fighting these battles at his age... And learning how to fight...

As he looked back at the book, it accidentally fell down. Vivi jolted.

"Oh!" Vivi jolted as Noct reached out to pick it up. When he did, he spotted something fall out.

When Noct took it, he read the content of that slip.

"Black Mages: Artificially created homunculi that exhibit emotions and a soul. They are master users of wielding Black Magic, however, they also have a limited life span and don't age older than 10 years of age."

10 years... Wait, Vivi's 8 years old... that means...

He quietly looks back at Vivi. The boy... doesn't have long to live? With all that talent around, he... will die at an early age?

"Mr. Noct, is something the matter?" Vivi asked.

He wondered, does he know about this?

"...Uh, Vi?" He asks. He needed to consider his next words to know if Vivi bears this knowledge...

"...Do you have... anything you want to do when you grow up?"

"Oh, about that. I want to become a researcher of magic." Vivi answered, full of dreams as a child should have. "I want to know more about Magic and maybe help Mrs. Earthbound in discovering new safe uses of Time Magic to never alter events in the past and ways to heal and repair lost limbs with what Al does. To become a researcher so that people don't need to fear the capabilities of Magic and handle them better. That's my dream...I still have many years ahead so...I can still do it. Maybe become the Magus for years to come."

That's... plenty of dreams as Noct listens. But... it confirms to him that Vivi... doesn't know how little time he has left.

"Oh... Yeah, that's great."

"Yeah...Hm, what's that slip about?"

He better had something to divert his attention from that slip Noct found. What could he think of? Oh, he said something about Time Magic. That should be a good way to divert the discussion.

"What about Time Magic did you say?" Noct asks. "Is it really that different compared to Black and White Magic?"

"Oh, yes." Vivi nodded. "It allows one to control the fabric of space and time. If you look around, the reason why the Great Library is bigger in the inside than from the outside is because of Time Magic. There are people who can do that but not exactly to the skill Mrs. Earthbound has."

"Oh, right." Noct said. "So, like... are there spells which would mean Time Magic?"

"Yes, like Haste, Slow, Stop, and Reverse." Vivi answered. "There are different schools of Magic, aside from what we know, there are Blue and Summoning Magics."

"Blue Magic... and Summoning Magic?"

"Blue Magic is Magic learn from observing and taking the force of the attack of a monster who knows that skill." Vivi explained. "Summoning Magic is the rarest, calling forth beings from another world or Eidolons. It also boosts the parameters of the summoned being intensely when used."

"Blue Magic... you use other monster's skills... And Summoning Magic... calls forth Eidolons or beings from another world."

Vivi nodded. "Looks like you get the basics." he acknowledged. "The highest of each class is called a Magus of that Class."

"Oh, I get it... a Magus." He nods 'attentively', but looks like he managed to divert Vivi's attention from finding out about his lifespan.

But still, he wondered...How can he help him live longer? Maybe someone would know?

But for now...He would like to know more magic with Vivi and hoped that he could find the solution before two years passed.

There was some muttering as the limp body of a small golem dropped onto the ground. It's only small... being compared to what was near it while the mutterings continued.

"Please...I don't want to die..." It muttered. "Mommy... Daddy... Where are you? It hurts...Help me..."

Another body, similar to the golem there, fell beside it.

"Everything hurts..."

"Stop...Just..."

"Kill me..."

"Ah...hah..."

"..."

The figure that was examining around itself came back, a large wheel contraption coming into view, where the golem had just expired.

This figure was a considerably huge, chubby, brown beast. He had four small wings on top of his head, three pairs of limbs, with the uppermost limbs being larger and more arm-like. He had two small eyes that appears narrow all the time. His mouth is rather wide and sports a rather large grin to reveal teeth and exposes two upper tusks. Below his chin is a long beard. that is much longer than his height and tapers downwards slowly that it could reach the ground easily. It is very unnoticeable from his size, but a tiny gold crown rests on his head in front of his wings. The wheel below him was actually part of a chair which the beast sits on, having an eerie orange glow from the hubcap.

He looked around the room, filled with the corpses of the golems all around in countless numbers. He looked about and at an orb he held.

"Nothing, nothing, and still nothing." The demon complains.

He looked about and did a light slap on his chair, the corpses flew about and into a pile of more corpses thrown at a pit. All of these corpses, discarded as trash. No use. No purpose. Nothing, even when they breathed and walked a few moments before he drained their life off them. Nothing but mere tools for this demon.

The beast strokes his beard lightly. "They'd have at least given it plenty to harness up some power ripe enough for the taking..."

The demonic beast directs over to a direction and the chair steadily floats over with the given command.

He looked over the orb those golems created then at a world where everything was made from data nearby. He looked over, it was having a civil war against several empires.

He taps lightly onto the orb with a bored sigh.

It then emitted some ray and fired a blast of concentrated magical energy into it.

"Urgh, not again..."

From that world, a young woman flipped and evaded a slash of a knight before deploying twin blades from her wrists and sliced him in half, reducing that knight into mystical codes of binary codes.

That woman wore a form fitting armor that covered her entire body. It had a futuristic look and had white and black halves with a edge over her chest and torso. The right had white plating and blue traces of light and the left had black plating and magenta traces on it. She wore a pair of high-heeled greaves. On her waist, she wore four white kilts around with the ends being black three-forked. Over her head, her beautiful face was covered by a helmet that only revealed her mouth and a fang on the left. The helmet matched the colors of her armor with a wing on each side to form a visor and a pentagon-shaped yellowish surfaced crest on her forehead to the middle of her head. The helmet showed a bit of her hair, a straight strand of hair at the right and a braided strand on the left. From behind her helmet, a long ponytail trailed down her entire body. One of the most intriguing thing about her were her wings, a total of twelve wings, sprout on her back. The right group had angelic and feathery wings while the left group had bat-like demonic wings. They fluttered about and retract when she landed onto the ground into their ports.

She looked around if there were any opponents close by and turned to the speaker.

"They're never this relentless." She spoke. "You being the only Royal Knight had it hard."

"Agh, I know... But someone has to do it." The speaker replies. Compared to her, he's a large, primarily crimson-scaled dragon.

"That Breakdramon you fused with...He gave his life for you to take that form." The woman commented. "We haven't found the Dragon Emblem." She rose her right hand and fired a salvo of light energy into the field. It prevented them from going near.

The dragon huffs. Despite being draconian, he had some humanoid proportions. He had a toned body with firm, well-developed muscles. His humanoid, crimson arms had trim musculature, and they ended with a set of three-fingered claws on each hand. These arms led up to a pair of shoulders that boasted several, bony spikes, giving the dragon a fearsome appearance. Also adding to his intimidating look was his draconic face. He had a reptilian snout and rows of jagged teeth within his mouth. A large nose horn protruded from the end of his snout, and a pair of long, straight horns extended from the back of his head, just above a set of three smaller spikes on each side of the back of his skull.

His broad shoulders connected to his muscular, ruby chest, which boasted a sleek, robust build and a white underbelly. The middle of his body, though being quite unseen, is plated with alloy armor, somehow staying attached to him despite the lack of fasteners or straps to hold it in place. The armour covered his thick, scaled neck, the middle of his chest, and the entirely of his abdomen. The alloy armor also covered the backs of his massive, kite-like wings. In addition to these massive wings, a pair of leathery, fixed wings also protruded from his forearms, they spanned from his wrists up to his biceps.

The dragon had a pair of thick, muscular legs. While his arms were humanoid, his legs were not; they were large and bent at the knees. He also had a pair of large, draconic feet with three sharp, toe claws on each foot. Finally, he had an incredibly long tail that stretched for several dozen meters in length. The tail was thick as his tree trunk-like legs at its base, but gradually narrowed off to the width of a slim rope at its tip. The drake's body was adorned with ornate decorations. Golden spikes hung from the tips of both his dorsal wings and his arm wings. A similar spike, surrounded by a gold ring at its base, garnished the tip of his long, skinny tail. In addition to these, the tips of the three horns on his head were coated with golden metal and adorned with crimson gems. The sides of his wings are also adorned with the same gold and rub decorations.

"How's with the Ambrosius?" She asked as the dragon took out some kind of lance.

"It's still... really different than what I am used to." He replies.

"Right, on your left."

On that signal, they flew off with the use of their wings. The dragon did some turn and aimed his lance at where the attacker was.

The dragon held his lance by his left arm, it's form being plated black, longer than his body, save for his tail. It had a long, conical shape with a hilt leading out from a hollow part at the crimson base of the weapon. The very tip of the weapon has two, long, points designed for stabbing, and between the tips was a muzzle from which lasers and munitions could be fired.

He loads something into the magazine and fires a laser from it, striking the attacker down in pinpoint accuracy.

The attacker flinched at the attack. He shook violently as the dragon fired another shot, causing that target to implode. He looked over to the side and impaled at the charging bullman with the lance as the woman spun downward with both of her blades deployed. She sliced the bullman's back and caused it to burst into the same codes as they landed on the ground.

"When did you learn how to snipe?" She asked as she flipped over projectiles.

"I just, would anyone ever believe me if I just said, I learnt immediately upon holding this?" He tells her.

"You aren't King Arthur, Ryu."

"...That means you don't believe me when you heard that the first time." The dragon named Ryu sighs.

The two made their way amongst the battlefield, seemingly turning the tide around for their side, until...

"...! Watch out!"

He dove into the woman, using his large and majestic wings to cover the both of them as a salvo of unknown attacks rained onto the battlefield, the entire environment's visibility completely hindered by everflowing dust.

The two were sent flying as the dome Ryu created spun about from the force of the impact and sent them through a wall of the castle they were defending. The wings parted as Ryu looked down at the woman on his chest.

"What was... Are you alright, Chiyoko?" He asks.

"Fine..." Chiyoko muttered. "Sentient wings covered in Chrome Digizoid. But...what was that?"

"It didn't look like it just came from any of the forces..." Ryu comments. "And I don't think anyone here in that matter would willingly decimate and cause friendly fire..."

They looked onward and...

"Ryu!" Chiyoko exclaimed, opening a portal behind them and got in as more of those blasts destroyed the castle.

The two looked above as they got out of the portal and saw the salvo of magic falling down from the heavens. It destroyed everything in sight. Decimating everything around. Their and enemy forces...All reduced into nothing. Chiyoko gasped in horror as Ryu looked up and grabbed her. It was making its way to them.

"What's... happening?"

"Ryu, there might be survivors! We need to help them!" Chiyoko insisted in denial of it destroying her friends. Ryu shook his head and pulled her close to him. She tried to resist, but his grip and physical strength was too much for her.

"...Chiyoko, I... we don't know what happened, but... no one else would want to see us just erased by going out here..." He says grimly.

"Please, le-"

Ryu flew off with her on his grip and darted at a particular direction.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry, but..."

"Ryuunosuke, please!" She begged as the salvo made its way toward them. As he did, he spotted something at a distance. A large tree that made its way to the heavens...

"Yggdrasil...!?" He began to piece up that it was going to stop these attacks, in the likeliness that it'll sacrifice it's being.

He looked back, the salvo was getting near. He gritted his teeth and looked at his wings beating.

"Caledfwlch..." He looked back at the salvo, then back at the tree.

Upon that word, the wings responded by beating faster. It made them fly faster, they were reaching the world tree. Was there any hope for this world to avoid being destroyed? He hoped so. After everything they've been through, they can't let it go to waste. The wings beat harder, soon, they reached the tree within a couple of minutes. Ryu let Chiyoko down, touched the tree, and prayed. He needed to speak with Yggdrasil.

"What is it, Eleven?" A voice spoke in his mind.

"Yggdrasil..." Ryu mentally speaks. "What are we to do to save our home?"

"I'm afraid that with this attack, I couldn't save everything but 50% of the world. I am sorry, my child."

Ryu breathed hard...Was this the end for them? After everything?

"However, all hope isn't lost. Please, take this. Gather allies from the other world and may they come to your aid to stop this way."

Upon saying that, an orb was brought down before him. The emblems but the Dragon were there. He looked up, what should he do.

"I could only save one of you so, who would you choose?"

Ryu looked down...Only one? He knew why because Yggdrasil sounded like he was dying. Only one of the two of them would be saved.

There isn't much time left for a decision. It wasn't rushed, but he was certain he knows who will be able to.

"...Please save..."

Chiyoko looked up as Ryu shoved the orb that contained the emblems to her. She looked up as she started to glow. Ryu smiled.

"R-Ryu!?"

"Chiyoko, I'm more content knowing that you'll be alright." He tells her.

"Ryu? What have you done!?" Chiyoko shouted. "I am not a Royal Knight, why did you choose me and not yourself!?"

"You mean... all my heart to me."

He leaned and kissed her before she floated above. She looked.

"Ryu! Ryunosuke!"

She screamed out for him as she disappeared away from this world and into another world.

Ryu looked onward, the salvo was getting near him as the tree collapsed and turned into dust. Yggdrasil was already dead after the Seven Deadly Sins attacked and injected poison into its roots. He sat down and waited.

The salvo went near...

He closed his eyes, alright with facing erasure...

He was bombarded by the salvo and fell down into the abyss below.

The demon watched as half of that world was destroyed. When he looked at this result, he sneered. He failed to destroy it completely.

He hears someone from a distance. He turned and there, he saw Lucifer.

"Ah, Lucifer. What is it?" The demon says casually to him.

"What did you do?" Lucifer asked with an annoyed tone.

"Testing out what those little golems had made with all that magic of theirs." He replies.

"Testing? Then why did you destroy half of the Digital World when they had so much resources we could use for the army?"

"They'd all end up destroying themselves eventually, and wish granted. And with all that destruction leaves nothing."

"You've expanded all of the current resources of Black Mages."

"We'd still get more."

"Whatever...Make sure you use it wisely." Lucifer went out. "If you do it, you'll uncover our hideout. Be mindful of that, Belphegor."

"I will, I will." The demon says as the fallen angel departs.

The demon looked back and smirked as more Black Mages were sent out to be used as fuel more. He smiled, oh how many were they... To be played with. He took a Black Mage and they screamed in agony.

He chuckles hauntingly. "Time for some little work."