Hello, internet! Here's the final chapter of Kindling Rivals. It's been a long time coming and I'm very happy how this turned out. So I and my co-writer tried to be consistent with Mereo's magic as possible, but because we don't know what kind of starting spells she used when she first got her Grimoire, we just had to wing it. Hope you enjoy the finale of this fic. Thanks to animedevilluvzyuri and Jacob Pendra-Huth for helping with this story.
Kindling Rivals Ch. 7
"Are we there yet?"
"Yes, we're almost there. Now quit asking that!"
"You said that an hour ago!"
"Will you stop complaining already!?"
Mereo and Sienna were jumping on the branches of large trees in a forest. It'd been a year since they've obtained their Grimoires and six months since they became Magic Knights. Mereo being accepted into the Crimson Lions was not surprising given her family, but Sienna was nervous about which Magic Knight squad she'd be in. She asked Mereo if she or her family could pull some strings for her to be automatically accepted into the Crimson Lions, but Mereo explained that they couldn't make special exceptions even if she did know her whole life. After the trials were over, Sienna thanked whatever God existed in this world when she was accepted into the Crimson Lions. She shared the great news with Clarice, and she was happy for her adopted daughter, but she was still a little mad at her for having that burn mark on her chest when she and Mereo made their vow together.
Within the first few weeks into the Crimson Lions, Sienna and Mereo quickly proved they were a force to be reckoned with. Sometimes they were a little too good as some of their missions resulted in a village being burned to cinders. (Don't worry, the villagers are still alive, they just need to rebuild the town.) Right now, they were on a mission to investigate a Dungeon that had recently appeared deep in a vast, thick forest located near the border between the Clover Kingdom and the Heart Kingdom. They were to investigate it and see what treasures they could bring back. They were also told to be wary of any enemies they may come across and deal with them accordingly.
After what seemed like an eternity to Sienna, they exited part of the forest and entered a large, circular opening and in the middle, what seemed like a large mound of stone buildings collapsed on top of each other. They landed on the ground, and Sienna whistled at the sight of the dungeon before her. "So, this is a dungeon. First time I've actually seen one."
Mereo narrowed her eyes at the structure and saw the entrance across from them. "Come on, let's go." She started to walk away from Sienna and to the entrance.
"H-Hey! Wait up!" Sienna ran after Mereo and quickly caught up with her.
The two Knights entered the dungeon, and Mereo opened her hand for a small flame to appear that lit up the dark hallway. "Remember to stick close together and not wander off. People had gotten lost in Dungeons before and were never seen again."
Sienna just rolled her eyes at the warning. "Yeah, yeah. I'm not stupid enough to do that." For the next few minutes, there was nothing but the sound of their footsteps echoing through the hallway. "So, how's it feel having another sibling around? It must be pretty exciting for you, huh? What was his name again? Leopot?"
"Leopold." Mereo corrected.
"Right, Leopold. You're not going to do anything crazy with him when he gets older, right? Like tossing him into a ravine?"
"If it'll help him learn to become stronger."
Sienna laughed nervously at that as she knew Mereo was dead serious. "That kid is going to have it rough with her as an older sister. Then again, Fuego turned out fine." Then Sienna had a thought relating to Mereo's family. "Hey, since you have two brothers now, ever thought what it'd be like having a younger sister? What her name be? It has to have "Leo" in it, given all your names have it. Leonora? Leoma? Leo…ne? What do you think, Leonie?" Never had Mereo wanted to punch her friend in the face for bringing up a subject. She'd admit it was an interesting thought of what it'd be like to have a younger sister. As they continued to walk down the hallway, Sienna felt a slight change in the air. "Is it just me, or is the mana in the air getting stronger?"
"We must be getting close to one of the rooms." Sure enough, Mereo was right as the duo approached the end of the hallway. They exited through the doorway and were now standing on a ledge overlooking a very large room with all kinds of plant life, aqueducts with water running through all directions in the walls, and several sparkingly flashes of light in the air.
Sienna took a few steps forward and was amazed by what she saw. "Whoa, so this is what a Dungeon looks like on the inside. It's a lot bigger inside than it does on the outside." She turned around to face Mereo. "So, all we have to do is find the treasury, get the loot, and get out. Is that right?"
Mereo closed her eyes. "Yes, but remember to be careful. On top of Dungeons being a maze, there're numerous traps. We should tread carefully from here on ou-"
"Hey, Leonie!" Mereo opened her eyes as soon as Sienna called out her name and saw she wasn't standing in front of her anymore. She hurried to the edge of the ledge and saw Sienna on the ground floor, standing in front of a large chest. Sienna waved her arms at her while laughing. "Check it out; I found a treasure chest! I guess our luck is turning up, huh?" She crouched in front of it and put her hands on the top half.
Mereo gasped as she knew exactly what that chest was. "Sienna, don't open that-"
"Let's see what kind of treasure you have." She opened the treasure chest, and her face immediately went white. Instead of finding rare treasure, what she found instead were actual live organs, and she could hear all the squishy, beating sounds they made. She stared at it for a few seconds before an angry vein appeared in the corner of her forehead, and fire enveloped her right leg. "DAMN DISGUSTING THING!" She gave the chest a powerful kick, and it flew across the room, where it bounced off several walls before crashing into the ground. She let out a frustrated yell. "What the hell was that thing?! Talk about getting rip-offed!"
"You idiot!"
Sienna turned around, only to see Mereo jumping off from the ledge toward her and hitting her head. "OW!" She held the top of her head with her hands and looked at Mereo while groaning in pain. "What the hell was that for?!"
Mereo glared at Sienna and crossed her arms. "That was one of the traps I was trying to tell you about! That was a Mimic you found, not an actual treasure chest! Pay attention next time!"
Sienna sighed, but she knew Mereo was worried about her. Otherwise, she wouldn't yell at her like that. "Okay, I'll be more careful. So, what path do we take to find the treasury?"
Mereo just shrugged at the question. "We'll just have to go down a hallway and not get lost."
Sienna wasn't a huge fan of that plan and sighed. "We should've brought a compass or something." With not much of a plan to go on, the duo walked over to the nearest hallway and entered through it. Sienna tried her best to memorize all the turns they did walking in the hallways, but it was quickly becoming difficult for her to do so. That and she wasn't good mentally keeping things in check. As soon as they made another turn, Mereo stopped, and Sienna bumped into her. "Oomph! Why did you stop?"
Mereo stepped to the side. "Take a look." She nudged her head at another hallway connecting to their current one.
Sienna looked at the wall in the other hallway and saw an arrow. She walked up to the arrow to get a closer look at it. "An arrow?"
"And there's more," Mereo spoke as she walked up to Sienna and stood next to her. "Check out the sides." Sienna did as Mereo asked, and she was right. There were more arrows coming from the right side, and they were all pointing to the left. Seeing this could only mean one thing to Mereo. "Somebody else is in the Dungeon."
Seeing the arrows made more sense to Sienna. "If there's more than one, they have someone who can use arrows and place them as markers so they don't get lost." She turned to Mereo. "So, how about we follow the arrows? We follow them, we find the people who made them, and if we're lucky, they'll bring us to the treasury."
"Or they might be just as lost as we are."
Sienna couldn't help but laugh nervously at Mereo's words. "What? No, no, we're not! I'm keeping up with the directions."
Mereo didn't buy that statement for a second. "Really now? Did we take a right turn or a left in the fourth hallway?"
Sienna tried to remember which turn they had taken. "Right?"
Mereo sighed as she rolled her eyes. "It was a left turn." Sienna couldn't help but laugh awkwardly. "Anyway, this is the best lead we have, so let's follow the arrows." She started walking in the direction the arrows were pointing at, with Sienna sighing before following her.
They followed the arrows for what seemed like an eternity to Sienna, and it was beginning to look like Mereo was right. Turn after turn, dealing with the occasional hazard and trap, there seemed to be no end in sight. Just when it appeared hopeless, Mereo stopped, and Sienna bumped into her again. "Oomph! Warn me when you do tha–!"
Mereo clasped Sienna's mouth shut with her hand and shushed her. "Be quiet and listen." She removed her hand from Sienna's mouth and pressed a finger to her lips to give Sienna another reminder. The other girl nodded, and they continued to walk quietly and listen. At first, Sienna didn't hear anything, but as they walked, she began to hear voices. They were distant at first, but as they came closer, the voices became louder. Soon they were close enough to differentiate between them, and it sounded like they were arguing with each other.
"Come on, are we almost there yet?"
"We are. We're almost there."
"That's what you said two hours ago! We've been stuck in this hellhole for who knows how long now! You sure that map of yours works?"
"It does! How else did we get so far into this place?"
"Through dumb luck."
"That map better be worth all the coin you spent on it. We went through hell getting this far. At least we have the arrows leading us back to the exit."
"It is, it is. Hopefully, we find the treasury before any Magic Knights come along. The sooner we get the treasure for ourselves, the faster we can get outta here."
"Hey, I think we're about there now."
"About frigging time!"
Sienna and Mereo saw the hallway ending, as did the arrows. They stopped at the corner and peeked around it. They saw six people wearing hooded dark blue cloaks, and they were standing in front of the door that led to the treasury. Sienna grinned at their luck. "Score! Let's take them out and-"
"Wait," Mereo commanded. "Let's see if they can open the door. They do that, then we can kick their asses, and we'll take whatever's in the treasury."
"And if they can't open the door?" Sienna asked.
"We'll just bust it down ourselves. Also, let's leave the one who's placing the arrows alive. He's our shot in getting out of here."
"Right."
They watched the hooded group observing the door leading to the treasury. "So, does anyone have a plan to open this thing?" The first hooded figure asked.
"Clap our hands twice and bow?" The second hooded figure guessed.
"Yeah, I doubt that's going to happen." The third hooded figure spoke.
"So, how are we going to open it?'
"Hold on, let me figure it out."
"Okay, that's it!" The six hooded figures were surprised to hear a woman's voice and turned around to see Mereo standing at the entranceway with her Grimoire floating next to her. It opened and flipped its pages while glowing brightly. The fire surrounded her right hand. "Flame Magic: Calidus Brachium!" She threw her right forward and sent a large and intense fire attack at the five hooded figures. They couldn't move out of the way in time. They were all hit simultaneously, as was the door behind them. The door was completely destroyed, and dust kicked up everywhere in the room.
Sienna came out of their hiding place and sighed at what her friend had done. "So, what happened with them figuring out how to open the door?"
"They were taking too long. At least the door is busted wide open."
"Yeah, and maybe you busted the guy who's supposed to lead us back."
They heard groans of pain coming from the treasury. "Look at that; they're still alive. Come on, let's go." Mereo began walking toward the treasury, with Sienna following close behind her.
When they entered the treasury, Sienna was amazed to see heaps of gold, artifacts, and other rare treasures. She looked around the room, and there was one object that caught her attention. At the back of the treasury was a pedestal, and floating on top of it was some sort of weird crystal ball. There was golden light emitting from the center of it, and it had a golden cross-shaped wheel around it with emeralds located near the endpoints of the crosses. "Huh, what's that thing supposed to be?"
"SON OF A BITCH!"
Sienna and Mereo looked forward to seeing one of the hood figures standing up while groaning in pain. The others soon followed, and they all saw who they were. "Well, shit. The Magic Knights, and from the looks of it, they're from the Clover Kingdom. You just had to jinx us, didn't you?"
The second hooded figure pointed his finger at them. "Hey, get lost! We found this place first, so we call dibs!"
Mereo scoffed at that. "Yeah, well, I believe by the authority of the Clover Kingdom, all the treasure here belongs to us, and it trumps your so-call dibs."
"So, are you guys going to comply nice and quietly, or are we doing this the hard way?" Sienna inquired.
Her answer came from one of the hooded figures placing his right arm in front, and his Grimoire appeared while flipping its pages and glowed. "Water Magic: Torrential Despair!" A powerful burst of water erupted from his hand, and it quickly traveled to Mereo and Sienna.
Mereo grinned as flames enveloped her arm and punched the water attack head-on. The attack was stopped, and a large cloud of steam appeared. Not a second after that, Mereo and Sienna rushed out from the steam cloud. "I guess we have our answer now!" She quickly approached the water magic user and delivered a powerful punch straight at his midsection. He was sent flying away from her and crashed into one of the piles of gold.
The other hooded figures were about to retaliate, but Sienna cut them off. "I don't think so!" She sprouted three fire foxtails and turned her body around, and struck three of the hooded figures away from her. "Leonie! I'll handle these three! You take the others!"
Mereo had no objections to that. "Right!"
She turned her attention to the remaining two hooded figures. "Vector Magic!" Mereo saw one of the hooded figures, possibly the leader, cast multiple black directional arrows pointing at her. "King's Arrow Volley!" He sent all the arrows toward Mereo.
Mereo wasn't the least bit worried as she threw her right hand up, and a wall of flames appeared before her. The arrow volley attack disintegrated the moment they touched the fire. The fire went away, and Mereo gave the remaining two a cocky smirk. "Is that all you got?"
The hooded figure next to the leader slammed his right hand on the ground, and his Grimoire glowed brightly. "Earth Magic: Raging Quake!" The ground shook violently as multiple cracks appeared on the floor, and large chunks of it burst out. The attack came rolling toward Mereo, but she wasn't concerned.
Mereo jumped over the attack and avoided it easily while fire engulfed her right arm again. "Flame Magic: Calidus Brachium!" She threw her right arm forward and sent another powerful fire attack at the earth magic user.
As the fire attack neared him, the group leader stood in front of his ally and held his hand in front of the attack. His Grimoire glowed again, and more arrows appeared in front of her. "Vector Magic: Redirection Correction!" The directional arrows glowed, and Mereo's attack stopped briefly before being sent back to her.
Mereo crossed her arms to defend herself from her attack as it engulfed her. The leader smirked as he felt proud of himself, but that quickly went away as she blew apart her attack and landed on the floor. As soon as she did, multiple water spouts erupted from underneath the ground surrounding her. "Water Magic: Gates of the Sea!" The hooded figure she punched before recovered and was using his next attack on her.
The attack was nothing more than an annoyance to Mereo, so she had fire covering her entire body and spread her arm while yelling, and the fire quickly expanded in all directions. It evaporated the surrounding water spouts and struck the other two hooded figures. The fire died down, and the leader groaned while looking at Mereo. Never before had he encountered a person like her, and he was beginning to fear her. "Are we fighting against a monster?"
"Lightning Magic: Judgment Shocker!" Multiple lightning bolts crashed down to the floor, and they were all headed straight to Sienna. The lightning magic user thought he had her, but she vanished before the first bolt could hit her. She moved to another spot before vanishing again, and another lightning bolt struck her. This repeated until she reached the lightning magic user, and fire covered her arm. The flames took the shape of a fox's claw, and she swiped from the side. "Flame Magic: Ignius Unguis!" Her attack struck him, and he was blasted back away from her.
As soon as Sienna was done with him, she noticed another one was behind and in the air. He made a few gestures with his fingers while his Grimoire glowed. "Wind Magic: Gale Stars of the North!" He pointed his two fingers at Sienna and sent multiple shuriken-wind at her.
Again, she evaded the attacks, but while doing so, the group's last member put his right arm forward as he placed his left hand over his right, and his Grimoire glowed brightly. "Flame Magic: Eruption Cannon!" He let out a powerful stream of fire right at Sienna.
Sienna briefly saw the attack coming and evaded it but left herself wide open for the other attack. As soon as she noticed that, several of the wind stars struck her and tore off pieces of her Magic Knight robe. The wind magic user reconvened with his ally and stood next to him. "Now, while she's still distracted!" He put his left hand out, and his Grimoire glowed. "Wind Magic: Vortex Calamity!" A strong vortex of wind erupted from his hand.
"Flame Magic: Eruption Cannon!"
The two figures unleashed their attacks at the same time, and they quickly merged together into one attack. Sienna managed to recover from the attack but then saw the combined one, and her eyes widened before it struck her. A large explosion occurred, and the hooded figures cheered. "Hell yeah, we got her!"
"How do you like us now!"
Their celebration was short-lived as a pillar erupted from where Sienna was struck and vanished to reveal her still standing and visibly pissed. "That robe was a present from Leonie, you assholes!" Fire enveloped both her arms and legs in the form of fox claws, and firefox ears sprouted on her head. She went on all fours and ran toward them.
The wind magic user made the same gestures as before, pointing his fingers at Sienna. "Wind Magic: Gale Stars of the North!"
The fire magic user held both his hands up to the sides, and fire orbs formed within his palms. "Fire Magic: Volcano Bomb!" He threw the two fire orbs at Sienna, and when they hit the ground, two large explosions occurred, and the wind stars soon followed.
They waited several seconds to see if that stopped her, but they were proven wrong as Sienna exited out of the smoke and was in the air. She quickly descended upon them and swiped both her firefox claws at them both at the same time as she passed them by. She landed on the ground and heard the two hooded figures groan before dropping to the floor. She stood up but as soon as she did, she was struck by a bolt of lightning. As soon as the attack finished, she shook it off and turned in the direction where it came from. She growled at the lightning magic user, who was still around but wouldn't be for much longer.
Meanwhile, over at Mereo's side, blasted away the leader of the group away from her and screamed while heading to the back of the room. He slammed into the wall hard and let out a pained gasp before sliding down to the floor. He raised his head slightly up to see his two other allies being pummeled by Mereo. He became frustrated as this was supposed to be an easy job, but the Magic Knights made it much more difficult, even more so since one of them seemed more of a monster than a human. "There has to be a way to beat her." Then he noticed something from the corner of his eye and saw the mysterious crystal ball Sienna had seen earlier. He smiled when an idea came to him.
Sienna delivered the final blow to her opponents as they let out one last yell before falling to the floor. She let out a sigh of relief now that she was done with them. "Okay, now time to help out Leoni-"
Sienna turned around to see the group leader holding that strange crystal ball and aimed it at Mereo, who seemed too busy to notice. "Die, you Magic Knight bitch!" The crystal ball glowed brightly for a second before unleashing a radiant, golden light-headed straight at Mereo.
In a split second, Sienna's body moved on its own and ran to Mereo. "LEONIE!" Just as Mereo finished off her opponents, she noticed a bright glow coming from behind and turned around to see the beam of light approaching her. At that moment, time seemed to slow down to her as Sienna pushed her out of the way of the beam of lights path. Mereo crashed to the ground, and her eyes went wide with horror as she saw the light beam approaching Sienna. Everything instantly went dead quiet for her as she reached for Sienna and heard her speak for the final time. "No regrets."
When time resumed normally, Mereo saw Sienna being enveloped by the light, and it became too bright to see. "SIENNA!" She covered her eyes with her right arm while being extremely worried for her friend. This lasted for several seconds before the light started to die down. Once it did, Mereo lowered her arm and opened her eyes to see Sienna wasn't standing in front of her anymore. She was entirely gone. Mereo was in a state of shock while her body shook, and she held her right arm in front of her. "Sienna? Where…Where did you go?"
"DAMN IT!" Mereo turned her attention to the leader of the group, who was frustrated at what happened and saw the crystal ball break apart into multiple pieces. "THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE AN EASY JOB! GO INSIDE A DUNGEON AND GET ANY LOOT WE'D GET OUR HANDS ON! IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE THIS WA-"
He was cut off when Mereo instantly appeared before him and grabbed him by the collar while looking extremely pissed at him. "BRING HER BACK! BRING SIENNA BACK!"
The bandit leader was understandably terrified and whimpered. "I-I can't! The ball shattered! Even if it was still intact, I wouldn't know ho-" Mereo had heard enough and punched him in the solar plexus and into the wall again, where multiple cracks spread throughout the wall. He'd be terrified if he saw the kind of expression Mereo had right now. She was beyond furious at what the leader did, but more importantly, she was furious at herself. If she hadn't been so focused on taking out the other two, if she could've finished off their leader when she had the chance, then maybe Sienna would still be here.
Before she could give the leader another good punch to vent out her frustrations, the whole room began to shake violently. Dust was coming off the ceiling, and the treasure was spreading through the floor. "Shit! The Dungeon's beginning to collapse!" She looked back at the leader and growled. "You're coming with me!" She grabbed him by the collar and hastily began to leave. Then she stopped halfway in the room when she saw some pieces of Sienna's Magic Knight robes scattered on the ground.
Outside the dungeon, it finally collapsed in on itself, and a large cloud of dust rose up into the sky. Far from it and standing on top of a cliff, was Mereo still holding the leader's collar. In her left hand was one of the scraps of Sienna's robe. She tossed the leader aside as she saw the dust clear up, and he grunted in pain. She turned to him while giving him a menacing glare. "Leave now, and never show yourself before me again." She spoke in a cold voice. The leader crawled back a little while whimpering in fear before turning around and running away in fear while letting out frightened screams. As soon he disappeared into the woods, Mereo looked back at the location where the dungeon once was and then looked at the robe scrape.
Mereo could still remember how happy Sienna was when she first gave it to her. "Oh, Leonie, this is awesome! Thank you so much!" Mereo sighed as she closed her eyes as she, turned around, and left. As she did, it began to rain even though there was no indication of it happening when she and Sienna first arrived.
It was still raining when Mereo came back to the Clover Kingdom. Naturally, she should report back about her mission, but Sienna's death still weighed heavily on her mind. Before she headed back to the Crimson Lion's headquarters, she had the responsibility of telling Clarice what had happened to Sienna. Just even thinking about telling her stung her deeply, but the news will most undoubtedly hurt Clarice more. She knew Clarice and Sienna were just as close to each other just like she was to Sienna, and she saw Sienna as her adopted daughter. Seeing how it was late in the day, Mereo figured Clarice's class was over by now, and she was home. With each step that brought her closer to Clarice's house, her heart felt heavier. Finally, she reached Clarice's door and stood silently in front of it while being dripping wet from walking in the rain. She placed her hand in front of the door but hesitated to knock for a second. She reluctantly knocked on the door a couple of times and waited. Several seconds passed until she heard footsteps approaching from the other side of the door. Then she heard the doorknob being turned, and the door opened to reveal Clarice. The older woman was surprised to see Mereo. "Mereo?! My goodness, look at you, you're sopping wet! Come inside before you catch a cold." Mereo walked in, and Clarice immediately noticed something was different. She looked outside the door. "Where's Sienna? You two are normally joined at the hip." She looked around outside a bit more and saw no hide nor hair of Sienna before closing the door. She turned around and saw Mereo standing in the middle of her living room. "So, why isn't Sienna with you? Did she get in trouble? Knowing that girl, it's probably true." Mereo said nothing as her hands closed tightly while shaking. Something Clarice noticed. "Mereo? What's wrong? Did…Did something happen to Sienna?"
Mereo steeled herself as much as she could before telling Clarice the truth. She turned around to face the older woman with a remorseful expression. "Clarice…" She reached into her robe and pulled out a scrap of cloth to present it to her.
Clarice observed the scrap closely and quickly recognized it as Sienna's. It took a few seconds, but it finally dawned on her. She took a step back and had a look of disbelief. "No. No, it can't be. Is Sienna really…" Mereo still said nothing as she put the scrap back and silently nodded. With that, Clarice dropped to the floor in utter shock and put her hands on her face as she started to sob. Mereo envied her because she, too, wanted to cry over the loss of her dear friend, but right now, she didn't want to be seen as weak.
The funeral for Sienna was held a week after Mereo lost Sienna, and the rain hadn't let up since then. Through special circumstances, Clarice was there in attendance, as was Theresa. Clarice was silently crying to herself as she was still mourning over the loss of her adopted daughter while Theresa was there to comfort her friend. Theresa was just as deeply affected by Sienna's loss as Clarice was. She couldn't believe the same girl she found out fighting Mereo was gone. Of course, there was always the chance of Magic Knight not coming back from a mission, but it was always different if it was someone they closely knew. The other Crimson Lion Magic Knights were also in attendance, but some appeared less interested in their fellow lost comrade. Others in attendance were Fuegoleon and the rest of the Vermillion family.
As the service ended, Clarice left without saying a word, with Theresa accompanying her. Mereo felt like she should say something but couldn't think of the words to say. She and the other members of the Crimson Lions went back to their base. Mereo was going to head back to her room when she overheard other members' voices. "Did we really need to hold a funeral for this girl? She was nothing but a commoner."
"Yeah. I bet she only got in because of Mereoleona. You know how those two are always hanging out with each other."
"Typical commoner. Sucking up to royalty to get good benefits. You know, I bet that commoner was just using Lady Mereoleona to get a more comfy position."
"I know, right-"
One of the Magic Knights was suddenly grabbed by the shoulder hard and was turned around only to be punched in the face by an angry Mereo. The other couple of Knights who were trash-talking about Sienna saw how mad she was and trembled in fear. The Knight who was punched groaned in pain before looking at her and became afraid, just like his friends. Mereo bared her fangs at them while her hands were closed tightly and shaking. "How dare you talk about Sienna like that! You don't know a damn thing about her! She's more of a Magic Knight than the lot of you!"
Her little outburst caught the attention of the other Crimson Lion members, and they all looked at her. "Sister!" Mereo looked back to see Fuegoleon with a disapproving look. She said nothing as she walked past the three Magic Knights and headed straight to her room. Once Mereo approached her room, she opened the door and entered her room before slamming it shut. She was about to head to her bed when she heard a couple of knocks on her door. "Sister-"
"Go away, Fuegoleon!"
"I know Sienna meant much to you. I can't imagine what you're feeling right now."
There was a brief silence between the two siblings. "They had no right to talk about Sienna like that."
"I know, sister. I'll make sure they'll be reprimanded. Just…take all the time you need to grieve. I'll leave you be now." Mereo heard Fuegoleon walk away from her door. Once they finally faded away, Mereo stumbled over to her bed and fell face-first on it. Sleep quickly overcame her, and she closed her eyes.
On the next day, Mereo left the Crimson Lion headquarters without uttering a single word to anyone. She already had an idea of where to go and what to do. After traveling through the kingdom, she arrived at the spot where she and Sienna first met. Seeing this area reminded her of how they met when Sienna was fighting a Fire Boar, and then they attacked the boar together, which made it fly away from them. Sienna was pissed about that, and that's when they had their first fight. She would've smiled at the memory if it wasn't for her heart still feeling heavy and the pouring rain. She then went to work on what she planned to do. She broke off multiple branches from the trees and tied them together with vines that lay on the forest floor to make a cross. She then made a large mound from the mud and placed the cross on top of it. Once it was done, she took a few steps back and looked at the makeshift grave she had made. She remained silent as the rain continued to pour on her. The longer she looked at the grave, the more negative emotions she felt coursing through her body. Anger, frustration, remorse, agony, bitterness, mournful, and much more. Still, these feelings swelled up inside of her as her hands closed tightly enough to draw blood, and she gritted her teeth hard. Soon, it became too much to hold it all in as, finally, she began to cry a week's worth of tears and yelled into the dark, cloudy sky. She fell to her hands and knees while still crying. "I'm sorry. It's my fault you're gone now! I should've done something different, and now because of me, you're…."
Mereo continued to cry until there were no more tears left to shed. When she was finished crying, she suddenly remembered the moment when she and Sienna marked themselves and made their vow. "The choices we make from here on out and the future we will ignite with our flames, we will not take any time to look back to regret or to think about whether what we did was right or not. Just leave a flaming trail that burns any second thoughts out of our mind, and keep moving forward."
Mereo focused on that last part. "Keep moving forward." She closed her hands while scrunching up the mud and began to laugh a little. "Knowing you, if you saw me now, you'd probably beat some sense into me, crying over what you did. Hell, you even said 'no regrets' to me." The rain was beginning to lighten up, and then it stopped completely. When it did, Mereo began to stand up. "Don't worry. I won't cry again because I'll become stronger and make sure something like this will never happen again." The clouds started to break apart, and the sunlight beamed down on certain parts of the kingdom. One of them shone over Mereo as she smiled gently at the makeshift grave. "So, I'll keep moving forward, and I won't look back on regrets." She took on a lasting look at the grave. "Goodbye, Sienna." She turned around and walked away from the gravesite.
On the next day, Mereoleona Vermillion officially left the Crimson Lions and the Clover Kingdom to begin her own training.
…
"What's going on? What's happening to me? The last thing I remember was protecting Leonie from that weird light. And now I'm…somewhere. But, where is here, exactly?"
…
The sun was beginning to set as various cries could be heard throughout a lush, green forest. A young, sixteen-year-old girl with long blond hair covering her left eye stopped walking and looked up at the sky. "I think now is a good time as any to stop and make camp. What do you think?" She looked down at a small strange, draconic, bi-pedal creature. It smiled at her and chirped happily. The young girl set up her campsite, and she was about to cook supper when she noticed a bright yellow flash of light coming from the sky. She looked up again to what it was and saw something come out of it when the light faded. Whatever came out of the light soon crashed not too far from the young girl. Naturally, she was curious about what it was. "I wonder what crashed? A meteorite? Come on, let's go!" She dashed to where the crash was with the small draconic creature following close behind. After passing through some trees, she finally made it to the crash site and saw a rather large crater. She carefully walked up to the edge and looked to see what was in the center. She let out a shocked gasp at what lay in the center. It wasn't a meteorite but an unconscious girl around her age who was wearing strange clothing. She certainly didn't expect to see something like that, but she couldn't leave her like this. She slid down the crater and walked up to the other girl. She kneeled next to her to check her closely. "Hmm, she's injured but not too badly. Still, I wonder how she was able to survive crashing into the ground from the sky?" These were questions she'd find out later. Right now, her main priority was getting this girl out of the crater. She picked up the unconscious girl and carried her out of the crater. When she did, her small, draconic companion looked at her curiously. The blonde girl smiled at it. "I don't know what happened to this girl, but I have a feeling I'll find out soon. For now, let's take her back to the campsite." Her small companion gave a small affirmative chirp, and she carried Sienna back to her campsite.
To be continued in the next story….
