"So you're the leader of the humans?" Exodus looks Morag up and down. "This will be quick."
"Halt. Before we fight, I must know." Morag takes a brief pause and glares at Exodus. "Why are you trying to destroy humanity?"
Exodus gives Morag a sickening grin and narrows his eyes.
"I'll tell you, if you survive this battle." Exodus raises his hand out and summons a spear of light.
"Then so be it. Brighid, you're up first." Morag looks back at Brighid for confirmation.
"Why of course your majesty." Brighid throws the two whip swords over to Morag.
Morag catches them and gets into fighting stance.
Rex and Nia were about to eat dinner when they got a message from Mor Ardain.
"Master Rex. Lady Nia. The empress requests your presence in Mor Ardain at once."
"How urgent is it? We were about to eat dinner." Rex questions the guard.
"We are going to be under attack in a little less than three hours. The empress will need both of your help."
Rex is confused at hearing that someone is attacking the capital.
"But who would attack the capital?"
"According to our reports, it is some sort of blade that has slaughtered the people of Indol a few hours earlier."
Nia hears that and joins to question herself.
"What do you mean a blade has been attacking people? Shouldn't the blade have a driver somewhere?"
"Highly unlikely. This blade killed over two hundred people earlier today, there is no way any blade could pull such a feat off without their driver at least being nearby."
"Did you just say that over two hundred people were killed today?!"
"Yes. It is on its way to the capital right now as we speak. Please Master Rex and Lady Nia. We need your help over here."
"Got it. We're on our way right now."
With that Rex turns the message off and begins to get ready.
"Rex dear, you don't think this is some sort of Flesheater do you?" Nia looks over at Rex with worry at the prospect of one of her kind causing such a massacure.
"We won't know for sure until we get there. My guess is more than likely."
"Do you think this will make our kind more hated because of this?" Nia looks downcast at the prospect of dealing with more ridicule for being a flesheater.
"Even if it does..." Rex stands up, turns around, grabs Nia's hands and stares into her eyes. "...I will still love you all the same."
Rex plants a soft kiss on Nia's forehead and Nia's ears curl back in delight.
"All right. Let's go kick this guys ass!"
"Right!" Rex pumps his fist in the air.
"Dromarch, you're in charge while we're gone." Rex says hurriedly as he and Nia run out the door.
"They didn't even invite me to come along." Dromarch grumbles in silence.
Exodus charges head on at Morag and strikes his spear straight down at her, but Morag parry's the strike with one of her swords and strikes the other at Exodus' side cutting him a little.
"Not bad. Most of the humans I've 'fought' since my reawakening couldn't even dodge my first attack." Exodus chuckles a little bit. "You even managed to knick me."
"That was not a fight." Morag harshly counters. "That was a slaughter!" Morag charges a series of strikes with both swords towards Exodus' chest but Exodus replaces his spear with a sword and summons another sword to reflect the strikes.
Exodus stomps the ground cracking it which throws Morag off guard and changes his weapons to knuckle claws and punches Morag full force in the chest sending her back a few feet. Morag coughs up a bit of blood from the attack and realizes that Exodus changed his weapon to an earth axe and is striking down on her. Morag moves out of the way of the attack and turns her swords to whip form and slash at Exodus' legs causing them to bleed.
"Your the first opponent to last this long against me since my reawakening." Exodus changes his weapon to a bit ball and throws it with enough force to cause a shockwave.
Morag's swords burst into blue flames and engulf the ball, causing it to disintegrate.
"Hellfire!"
Morag sends a turret of flames right towards Exodus who creates four water shields to protect him.
While his shields are up Morag switches to Aegaeon and quickly dashes towards Exodus while he's distracted and cuts right through his shields. Cutting right into his lower chest.
Morag notices something after getting away from Exodus. The wounds that she inflicted on his legs look shallower then she had initially cut him.
"So you have regeneration I see." Morag tightens the grip on the katana. "Then I'll just have to cut faster."
"Looks like it's that time of the year again."
"Oh Zeke don't you start complaining about that!" Pandoria chides her driver.
"I know, but me, you, and him have been to so many great places this time around. It's just a shame we have to go back and report already." Zeke glumly responds back to his blade.
"Well my prince this has been our eighth campaign through the Heart of Elysium."
"It doesn't matter if it's our ninety-second campaign, I still want to keep exploring." Zeke pouts.
"Hey now Zeke no need to get all fussy about it. At least you and Pandoria can actually go into the city." Their third companion replys sadly.
"Yeah, yeah I know. You can't go in due to who you are and whatnot." Zeke gestures towards him with his hand.
"Even so when will you let me see Morag again? I believe it's been five years now." He replies with some flirtation in his voice.
"Oh don't you go chasing the Empress now. That would be the worst way to reintroduce you." Zeke responds with a small frown.
"Hey I'm still game to take her to dinner." He winks.
"Hey guys?"
"Yeah what is it Pandy?"
"Why are all the people so far out here?" Pandoria motions the two of them over to see a large number of people out in the middle of nowhere.
"I don't know." Zeke rubs his facial hair and thinks with his eye closed. "We need to ask an official."
"Your absolutely right my prince."
Zeke looks over to their third member. "Alright we're going to go talk to the officials you know what to do."
"Oh trust me I know." He then puts a large black cloak over his entire body. "Remember my code name is crow."
"Got it 'crow' my chum." Zeke bumps crow on the shoulder with his elbow and winks.
As the three of them walk around the camp they find a few guards and decide to approach them.
"Hello their chums." Zeke waves at the soldiers.
"Zeke von Genbu?! What are you doing here?" The soldier looks surprised to see Zeke of all people here.
"It's that time of the year again to report back to Morag about my findings. Why are all of you out here anyways. Is there some sort of party?"
"Unfortunately there is not. We were ordered to evacuate the city." The guard somberly replies.
"But for what reason?" Zeke questions.
"Sir Zeke, we are being attacked."
"Attacked? Who in their right minds would attack the capital of this country?"
"Sir Zeke, we have the most disturbing news about the opponent that is more than likely in our city right now as we speak."
"What is it about this opponent?"
"This opponent has attacked Indol earlier today and slaughtered over two hundred people."
"Two hundred?!" Zeke shouts in shock.
"Yes sir, and it seems that they have aimed right towards the capital."
"So then that would mean..." Zeke looks in the direction of Alba Cavanich. "Don't tell me Morag is trying to fight this enemy!"
"Unfortunately she is. She called upon Rex and Nia but outside of that there is no other reinforcements on their way."
"Well it looks like we're going to have to go help her out then." Zeke looks behind him. "Pandy, Crow we're heading out."
"Yes my prince."
"Alright! Looks like I get to see her majesty in action."
With that the three of them run towards Alba Cavanich as quickly as possible.
"You know you can't fight forever. Your human body has limitations."
"It does not matter. I must defeat you here and now." Morag readies her katana for another strike.
"You humans can be quite pesky at times." Exodus summons a hammer and imbues it with darkness. "You won't survive this next attack."
"Then I shall kill you right where you stand." Morag points the tip of her katana at Exodus.
Exodus sprints at Morag and jumps straight into the air. Morag looks up only to see Exodus readying the hammer. Seeing what is coming Morag tries to run inside the palace before it is too late.
"YOUR NOT FAST ENOUGH!"
Exodus comes crashing down on the terrace causing massive shockwaves from the darkness imbued blow. The strike is so powerful that the entire terrace begins to crumble and fall to the city below. Right when Exodus is falling he changes his weapon to a whip sword and wraps it around Morag's ankle which drags her down with him.
Due to now falling a few dozen stories Morag immediately takes out Brighid's whip swords and starts spewing as much fire out of her swords as possible to soften the blow. As Morag gets closer and closer to the ground her descent becomes slower and slower. By the time Morag is low enough she hits the ground pretty hard but luckily doesn't break anything.
Exodus on the other hand landed on the ground with so much force that he ends up breaking his left leg. As Morag slowly lifts herself off of the ground she notices a few drops of rain hitting her face. She looks tiredly over at Exodus who is glaring at her defiantly despite the condition he is in.
"I will admit. You are by far the strongest human I have ever met." Exodus slowly limps towards Morag. "So as a show of my respect I will kill you with all my strength." Exodus summons two wind knuckle claws on each hand and summons an electric spear and ice axe behind him.
"In that case I too shall go all out." Right as Morag says this Brighid and Aegaeon both make it to the bottom floor and are now supporting Morag again. It is now pouring rain all around them. Morag slowly breathes in and out while focussing. She slowly puts both of Brighid's swords in a double blade formation in her right hand behind her and holds Aegaeon's katana in her left hand in a defensive position in front of her.
Exodus can feel Morag's ether growing exponentially from the display and is taken aback.
"How is that even possible? There should be no way for a human to use two blades at once."
Morag opens her eyes and calmly replies: "I am the strongest driver in the world. Unrivaled in both strength and skill. I am also a master of ether control."
Morag's swords go into whip mode and ignite in a bright blue flame while water incapsulates the katana.
"HERE I COME!" Exodus shouts defiantly.
Exodus dashes right towards Morag and tries a flurry of punches that get caught by the tendrils of the whips scorching his arms in the process. As he commands the spear and axe to stab and slash respectively Morag's katana ends up parrying the blows. Morag pulls with enough force that she pulls the whips off of Exodus' arms which leave deep gashes that are slightly burnt in his arms. Exodus changes his knuckle claws to water type twin rings and begins healing his arms.
"I won't let you."
Morag begins her assault on Exodus with her whips but finds that one of the weapons in the back turned into a dark glaive which was making the whips get tangled in it. As Morag tries to strike with her katana the other weapon turns into an ice katana and Morag slashes at the katana. Morag parries the ice katana right into her tangled up whips and keeps it pinned down to melt the katana. After that Morag destroys the glaive with her katana freeing her whips. During all that time Exodus partially healed his arms up and his broken leg enough to move normally again but it's clear that the fight has been grueling on both of them.
Exodus notices something about Morag. Her ether is falling and fast. Exodus smirks. "Looks like times up for you Empress Morag."
"I will not go down like this." Morag gets into a running position. "This will be my final attack."
"Go ahead. Show me what you've got."
Morag runs towards Exodus and her whips expand to a large circle that wraps around the area that Exodus is standing at. The flames grow immense in heat. Morag then spews a ton of water ether into the circle causing the water to evaporate and create a large cloud of steam that Exodus has a hard time sensing Morag due to the density of ether around him.
"Secret Dual Art: Writhing of the One Thousand Phantom Blades."
Exodus suddenly feels his side get slashed. He feels another. Then another. Soon he finds himself being attacked from all angles with such an incredible speed that it even puts his current speed to shame. He keeps trying to sense where the next attack will come from but due to the thickened ether he can't sense the next attack. He tries to construct shields with his weapons but it seems those aren't protecting him very well. As he feels that this onslaught will never end he feels the attacks becoming slower and the steam beginning to rise.
By the time the attack is finished Exodus can feels his entire body covered with slashed and falls to the ground on one knee and coughs up a ton of blood. Exodus is seeing red from the blood covering his eyes. He looks over to Morag who is now on the ground coughing up blood as well. She can't even move after an attack like that as her ether has been completely drained. Exodus thinks of going over to Morag and killing her right then and there when he can feel five ether signatures closing in on them. Realizing that these are reinforcements Exodus musters all of his ether into healing his legs enough to get away from there as quickly as possible. As he is focussing on healing his legs he decides to leave Morag with some parting words.
"Earlier you asked me why I want to destroy humanity. The answer is because of the role blades play in this world. Forced to lose our memories yet be the slaves of you humans. It's disgusting. Why should such a weak and inferior species be the masters of a race so much more powerful than them? It makes no sense. The first step of my goal is to erase humanity for this reason."
Exodus gets up and is preparing to run.
"Until next time, Empress." Exodus darkly declares.
"Your majesty let us pursue this beast." Brighid reasons with Morag.
"N-no *cough* don't do it. You two are nearly out of ether as well. If you *cough* t-try to pursue him you will both perish."
"But your majesty we can't just let him get away." Aegaeon tries to justify.
"A-and then what? You both would be *cough* throwing your lives away f-for nothing. If you do that then I *cough* will have no one to help me fight."
"Your majesty." Aegaeon says more softly.
There is a silence in the air before Brighid speaks up.
"Aegaeon, we need to help her highness get too safety as quickly as possible."
Aegaeon nods his head. "Your absolutely right."
Right when Rex and Nia reach the front gates of Alba Cavanich they end up running into Zeke, Pandoria, and Crow.
"Zeke! It's been a while."
"Rex! My chum it certainly has."
"Why are you here Zeke?"
"That can wait. We must go help Morag at once."
"Your right. Let's go."
As the five run towards the palace they see three people walking towards them. It's a tired looking Brighid and Aegaeon carrying an even more tired Morag on their shoulders. Morag looks even worse than they do. Her uniform is a bit torn in places, her crown has a few of its pieces broken off, her hair is unkempt, she has minor injuries all throughout her body, but the worst of the injuries is the blood trail that is going from her mouth all the ways down the center of her uniform.
"Morag! Are you ok?!"
"No *cough* N-no I am not ok."
"You two bring her under that building over there. I'm going to heal her." Nia commands the other two blades.
"Right away." Brighid responds.
"Come on Morag, my chum I know you will make it." Zeke tries to sound encouraging.
Once they are all under a building Nia tells Brighid and Aegaeon to lay Morag down on the ground so she can start healing her.
"Let me run a quick diagnostics check to see all the area's that are injured." Nia's hands glow a soft green and quickly scan over Morag's body."
"Is it really necessary to do that Nia?" Rex asks.
"For my healing, not really. I just do this so I can tell her all the injuries she sustained later on."
After the scan Nia begins pouring her water ether into Morag's body and starts to hyper regenerate all the broken areas.
"I'm starting to... feel a bit... tired."
"That is normal when you put a lot of strain on your body. You will more than likely fall asleep soon do to your injuries, but you will survive I assure you."
Morag closes her eyes and responds with: "Alright."
As Nia continues to heal Morag her body continues to get healthier and healthier but Morag also begins to get more and more tired.
By the time Morag is healed she has completely fallen asleep.
"Hey Rex my chum. I need you to go inform the people that the threat has been taken care of."
Rex looks over at Zeke. "Then what will you do?"
"Well I'm gonna go put her highness to bed." Zeke motions towards Morag.
Rex looks back at Morag then back to Zeke. Rex nods his head in confirmation. "Alright. Nia?" Rex turns towards his fiancé. "Lets go tell them."
"I'm right behind you Rex."
"You two have grown so much since the last time I've seen you."
As Rex is running off he looks behind him for a brief moment and says: "You have no idea."
As Rex and Nia are running off to tell the towns folk about the news Zeke picks up Morag bridal style and carry's her back to Hardhaigh Palace.
"Goodnight Empress."
to be continued...
Authors Notes: Wow, my first big fight scene of this part. I liked the way it turned out. I hope you all enjoyed it too. This chapter was pretty fun to write. As always I look forward to seeing your responses. You all can probably guess who Crow is, he will be revealed next chapter. Until next time this is Exile Mansion Signing off.