Episode 34: Two Time Traitors
Honeywell | Honeybun Square
Myling gives Alice one last hard look and uses her shades to give herself the same ride she just gave Alice towards the house. The shade that threw her stays behind, looking at Emile expectantly.
"Oh?" Emile blinks. "Are you here to help me?"
Alice laughs, jumping down and walking towards Emile. "That's fine. YOu have the witch's Shade and I have my crystal ball - now we're even." he says and spins the ball on his finger.
Emile gulps.
"Let's play, Emile-chan."
Emile nervously looks around at the people of Honeywell, some trying to get to Ariana, some running for their lives, and some standing around unsurely.
Emile tenses as Alice tosses his crystal ball in the air and it seemingly disappears.
I can't risk using-
The crystal ball then reappears, pulling Emile out of his train of thought, throws itself against Emile's gut, and disappears. The process keeps restarting, the crystal ball appearing in a different area every time and honing in on Emile every time - hitting him from all sides faster than he can blink.
Emile grits his teeth and tries to focus on the crystal ball. When it hits him again, he grabs it before it can disappear and holds it tightly against him: "Elysian Explosion!"
Light energy surrounds the crystal ball and when Emile releases it, it explodes between him and Alice, shattering and crumbling to dust.
Emile lets out a shaky breath, starting to feel a bit worried for his life. The fight just started and he already took a beating that left him tired. "Wh-What the fuck was that!?" Emile cries.
Alice throws his head back with laughter when his crystal ball starts putting itself back together and Emile's expression turns into absolute confusion. He grins maniacally. "Separate, possible futures of the crystal I unleashed: parallel worlds." Alice says as-a-matter-of-factly, almost as if he were reciting from a book. As he does, multiple copies of the crystal ball start manifesting around them - too many for Emile to count. "I can create infinite futures at will and compress them all into a single future." Alice says and without his smile ever leaving, makes a motion towards Emile. "Flash Forward!"
And once again, Emile has to brace himself as he's hit with another brutal assault.
Alice pouts as Emile starts screaming in pain. "Are you down for the count already, Emile-chan? Come on! The real fun is yet to come…" he says and turns on his heel, giving his attention to the residents of Honeywell who have yet to flee. "Beautiful ex-cons of Honeywell! I'm sure you heard me say it before but allow me to say it again," Alice says and does a little bow. "I am Alice de Alger Obelia, a member of the most funnest place in the world, Stygian Gospel!" he says with a smile. "My Master sent his daughter, Nel-chan, myself, and a member of Revenant Beasts to come kill all of you traitors from our guilds!" Alice announces.
Fearful murmurs erupt from the crowd, making Alice's smile grow wider.
"I'm sure you're wondering how three simple Mages are hoping to accomplish that extraordinary goal, especially when only Shi-chan and I are nowhere near Nel-chan's level…" Alice trails off, making eye contact with a few familiar ex-Stygian Gospel faces in the crowd. "Master Peter-chan and Master Raoul-chan have ordered us to offer you a choice: assist us in…'dealing with' your fellow traitors and you may come back to Stygian Gospel and Revenant Beasts without any consequence. That also applies for those of you that were never members of either guild - join up with one of us and you can keep your head!" he says and searches the crowd with his eyes again. "...And bring us the head of the woman behind this little operation." Alice says darkly.
"Wh-What's to stop us from just taking you three out and going back to our lives!?" a voice calls out.
Alice clicks his tongue and shakes his head. "Garrett-chan, shouldn't you already know how powerful Nel-chan is?" he asks. "Even if you take out me and Shi-chan, what makes you think you have any chance against her? She's only gotten stronger since you left us." Alice says tauntingly. "By some miracle if you do take her out, you should know that the Master won't take kindly to you killing his favorite child…" he says. "Stygian Gospel and Revenant Beasts already know Honeywell's secret. You have no Rune Knights here to protect you and you've sworn a vow of pacifism to stay here. One way or another, your lives here are done!" Alice laughs. "So make your choice, Honeywell! Die now or die later!" he looks down when he feels something grab his ankle.
Emile looks up at him, panting. "You…promised," he says. "You said you wouldn't…"
Alice clicks his tongue. "I said if you entertain me, Em-"
"Elysian Strike."
Alice's eyes widen when the two of them are surrounded by pure, warm light that grows denser and denser. He blinks. "What's-?"
BOOM!
And the two of them are struck by a bolt of Elysian energy. Alice drops to the ground with a scream of pain.
"I admit, your attacks did hurt," Emile says as he pushes himself up onto his feet, unaffected by the bolt of energy. "I would expect nothing less from a user of Lost Magic, but," he says, looking down at Alice. "You're a skinny little brat, aren't you? All your power lies in your Magic. Something tells me I just have to beat you in a battle of physical strength and I'll win this…'game'." Emile says.
Alice lets out a shaky breath as he pushes himself up onto his feet. "Well, well, Emile-chan," he says. "Even if that's the case, you can't stop me from using my Magic."
"No." Emile shakes his head. "I can't." he says and looks towards the Shade Myling left behind. "But that's what this guy is for." Emile says confidently, getting his mojo back. "And you can't stop me from using mine either."
"Very well." Alice says. "Let's go, Emile-chan!" he grins and as they resume their fight, the people of Honeywell begin theirs.
On the road towards Ariana's house…
Mana kick sweeps Shizani off her feet, knocking her to the ground. Mana pins her down with her knee and raises her hand, ready to strike.
Shizani smirks. "Skunk's Scent!"
Lero and Mana recoil as Shizani blows a horrible, stinky scent out of her mouth.
Mana shields the nose of her mask with her arm and clamps her free hand over Shizani's mouth, "Black Hole!"
Shizani's eyes widen as something appears inside her mouth. She feels it absorb her spell and after it dissipates, Shizani finds that she can't move.
Mana glares down at her and prepares to strike her again but abruptly stops her fist centimeters away from her face.
"...What's that sound?" Mana frowns, looking towards Honeywell.
Lero matches her frown. "One fight between your friend and their third man shouldn't be making that much sound-lero." he says.
The two of them look down at Shizani again when she starts laughing.
"What…did you do-lero?"
Shizani grins. "Looks like the people of Honeywell aren't as rehabilitated as you thought!" she taunts. "Some of them have chosen to return to Stygian Gospel and Revenant Beasts with us in exchange for their lives!"
Lero clenches his fists and looks towards Ariana's house. He looks back at Shizani as he pulls out a plastic cylinder with a wick on one end and tosses it in the air. "Steel Tip Tongue!" he casts and strikes the wick with his stretched out tongue.
The cylinder explodes in the air - or rather, a bright blue flare erupts from it, lighting up the afternoon sky.
Immediately, crowds of people erupt from every inch of the surrounding area, rushing towards the main part of the town.
Shizani's eyes widen in shock. "What…what is this!?" she asks, struggling to see what's going on because she's still paralyzed.
Lero clicks his tongue and shakes his head. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, did you really think we would just let you turn the people of Honeywell against each other-lero?" he sneers. "The entirety of Forsaken Roses has sworn to the boss that the only people we won't raise a hand against is Honeywell-lero." Lero says, flicking his tongue at Shizani.
Shizani merely glares at him coldly.
"By no means are we ruthless murderers like you lot - we just do what needs to be done-lero. And what needs to be done right now is securing Honeywell-lero." Lero says and turns to Mana. "I'm going down to help out there-lero." Lero says and much to the horror and disgust of both Shizani and Mana, he casts another tongue spell. "Helicopter Tongue!"
The two of them watch as Lero stretches out his tongue once again and spins it around at high speed above him - flicking his saliva everywhere. Lero begins to float up in the air and he flies towards the town pretty quickly, leaving a trail of flecks of saliva in his wake.
…
…
…
"You have no right to make that face after what came out of your mouth two minutes ago." Mana says dryly.
"I'm going to break each of your fingers one by one before returning you to Yutsuko." Shizani says, mimicking Mana's tone.
At the same time, she starts to get a bit of feeling back in her fingers. She discreetly and slowly moves her fingers to form a fist.
Seeing Mana getting ready to finally hit her, Shizani opts to try and distract to stall for enough time to regain enough feeling in her hands and arms. "You know, I heard Finn talking about some girl from your guild a few weeks ago…said she would've made a good candidate for one of Master Raoul's experiments. And that she was one of your friends."
Mana freezes.
"N-No! Akane! Give her back! AKANE!" comes Emile's terrified scream from across the battlefield.
Mana's heart drops.
"K-Kumiko?" Veiss blinks.
He and Mana don't waste anymore time, sprinting to where they knew Emile and Akane were supposed to be. Mana knew he would be there but the sight of him still has her trembling in her shoes and Mary has gone completely quiet.
Finn stands in the middle of several collapsed Rune Knights and Dark Mages with a severely beaten down Emile at his feet. He's laughing cruelly and dangling an unconscious and beaten Akane by her arm. "Hm...she was a feisty one. Strong and stubborn. I'm sure she would make a great candidate for one of Master Raoul's experiments." Finn says.
"She's here, isn't she?" Shizani says when she sees the increasingly enraged look in Mana's eyes. "I mentioned it to Nel, too. Nel said we could take her back with us too if we encountered-"
"Dark Executioner."
Maybe Shizani should've just accepted a quick punch to the face.
A dark colored sphere gathers in the palm of one of Mana's hands and she uses her free one to grip Shizani's arm for more leverage. When it looks like the sphere is about to go off, Shizani takes her chance: "Digger Mole!"
Mole-like claws grow from between Shizani's knuckles and she quickly sticks them in the ground, rapidly digging a hole right below her as the darkness sphere fires a powerful beam that misses Shizani by only a second. The beam cuts clear through the ground and Shizani says a quick thanks to whatever god saved her from Mana putting a hole in her chest.
Mana falls over when Shizani disappears into the ground. She grits her teeth and slams her fists on the ground, "Damn it-"
Relax, Mana.
Mana scoffs, Funny you keep saying that to me when you were about to put a bullet in Kozune's head a day ago. You were going to put one in Rina too before she convinced you not too.
And I promise I'll explain myself later but you cannot get angry. I still haven't confirmed if- Mary stops abruptly.
…If what, Mary?
Mary doesn't respond.
Mana rolls her eyes but relents, taking a deep breath in as she focuses on sensing where Shizani went.
Calm. I'm calm. I'm calm and I'm going to beat some sense into that psycho freak.
Outside Ariana's house…
"Did you see that flare - SHIT!"
Veiss jumps back as one of the faceless warriors nearly cuts him clean open with an axe. He collides with Akane's back and they stand together, unsure of how to proceed.
"I think the flare is the least of our worries right now." Akane says, kicking the other warrior away from her. "I'm no expert on Seith Magic - or whatever the hell this is - but maybe they're on the same skill level as Nel since they came from her?" she suggests
"If that-" Veiss pauses, parrying a swing from the warrior's axe-turned-sword with Moonsaw. "-If that's true, then we're kind of fucked, aren't we?" he asks. "I don't - shut up, Brother."
Akane grumbles as she pushes away the warrior attacking her with another giant fist of chains. "I can't believe I have to get used to two of you talking to people in your head now." she sighs.
"Brother - I don't care what your name is - Brother says not to classify him in the same species as us."
Akane rolls her eyes. "Tell the person in your head that I don't listen to homicidal people hellbent on the destruction of humanity." she says, simultaneously ducking with Veiss when both warriors make a move for their necks. "...Throw me in the air, Veiss."
Veiss raises an eyebrow. "Aren't you afraid of heights? Hasn't Mana made you jump off a cliff with her twice now?"
Akane grimaces. "Both times she didn't give me any chance to prepare. Now I'm asking, so that means I'm r-"
"Black Arms!"
Veiss stifles a laugh as Akane's screams get quieter the higher she gets in the air.
"Y-YOU FUCK! YOU BITCH!" Akane swears, her screams getting louder as she comes back down. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU! IMPALEMENT!" she yells and shoots out streams of spearheaded chains at the two warriors.
Veiss shields himself with one of his hands and catches Akane with the other when she drops low enough.
The chains pierce through each of the warrior's limbs, the force of the impact throwing them to the ground and the spearheads effectively pinning them to the ground.
"Damn." Veiss whistles and smirks at Akane. "With how many binding spells you have, I'm beginning to sense there might be some underlying feelings you need to work through." he jeers.
Akane pauses and turns to him with a sharp look in her eye. "So you're the one who taught her that word." she says, her hair beginning to sizzle.
"Akane!" Mana calls, running over and grabbing the girl by her shoulders. She blocks Akane's view from the angry, fiery Cole.
Akane doesn't react. Her eyes are looking at Mana but they look like they're seeing something or someone else.
"Akane, it's okay, he's not an enemy, Cole is just ang-" Mana stops, cringing. Maybe 'angry' isn't the right word right now. "-he's...sad. About what Xander Break did to his family and village. He's not going to hurt you, okay?" Mana tries to comfort her. She smiles thankfully when some light returns to Akane's eyes. Mana unties the white jacket around Akane's waist and gently forces her to sit down against a tree. "Just take a breather." she says and throws the jacket over Akane's head.
"...You're such an idiot." Akane grumbles as she pulls her knees to her chest, nearly hiding the entire top half of her body under the jacket. "But...thank you."
Mana gasps dramatically. "My first thank you from Miss BDSM herself! I'll have to mark this day down to remember it for all time-"
"Which one of those fuckers taught you that word-?"
Veiss smiles innocently. "I have no idea what you're talking about." he says.
"You know damn well-"
Both of them freeze when the warriors start at the chains with their…teeth?
Akane and Veiss shriek in horror, grabbing onto each other.
"Since when did they have teeth!?"
"Since when did they have mouths!?"
The two of them scream again as, surprisingly, the sickening sound of flesh tearing comes from the creatures as they pull the chains and eventually, the spearhead, out of their respective hands.
Akane shoves Veiss forward. "D-Dude, cut off its head or something!" she says.
"Why do I have to do all the work!?"
"I'm not the one with the sword, you damn unicorn. What, are you gonna let someone else hold your precious little Moonsaw?" Akane challenges, already knowing the answer.
"Unicorn…?" Veiss grumbles and shoots her a look before promptly unhappily shuffling towards one of the warriors with Moonsaw drawn, pointed at the struggling human silhouette.
("Because you're white as fuck and probably the only human in Valiance with long pointy ears. One of a kind. Like a unicorn."
"Thanks…I guess? And what's your excuse for calling Mana a squirrel? What about Emile?"
"I don't have one for Emile yet and Mana's is because she can't stay fucking still and her energy is all over the damn place. And squirrels are cute."
"...Cu-?"
"Shut up.")
Veiss raises his sword when he gets close enough and-
"VEISS!"
Veiss groans when Akane suddenly tackles him to the ground. He turns around to look at where he was just standing to find several throwing stars embedded into the ground behind him. Veiss gulps. "Th-Thanks." he says.
Akane lets out a deep breath. "Fuck. Okay." she says as the warriors continue pulling the chains out of their limbs, albeit fairly slowly. "I was hoping we could just wait it out if the chains held but obviously not." she says and pushes herself up onto her hands and knees. "You have a chain spell too, right? Let's go for a ride, Dregliark." Akane says and puts her hands onto the ground, concentrating. "Chained Beast: Rhino!"
Veiss' jaw drops when Akane summons an innumerable amount of chains that quickly forms into a large rhinoceros. Akane jumps onto it and turns to Veiss expectantly. "Well? You have your own chain spell, don't you? Let's go!"
Veiss grins. "I've always wanted to drag people behind me while riding on an animal…I mean, I always pictured it being a horse but this has the same effect I guess." he says casually as he hops on behind Akane.
"You've what?"
"Nothing. Chain!"
Inside Ariana's house…
"Well then." Nel says. "Shall we?"
Myling grumbles something about hating Dark Mages and raises her arms straight in front of her, her wrists limp. "Shade: Hell Formation!"
Nine of Myling's twenty-four Shades merge together, creating a singular Shade that looks like a shapeless mass of black flames with sinister red eyes.
Nel grins. "That's the spirit, Myling!" she says and swipes her hand in front of her, moving her remaining four orbs in front of her.
Myling scoffs, "As you wish." she says and the Hell Formation moves to start firing blasts and rays of its flames at Nel.
Nel casts Defense Formation again, using two of the orbs to form a small shield in front of her. The remaining two start floating around her: "Soul Blast!" and the two spirit orbs start shooting beams of energy at Myling.
Myling takes eight of her remaining fifteen Shades and quickly casts Wall Formation: leaving her with only a few burns. She expands the wall to cover Donatello and Kozune, the former still singing and protectively holding her in his arms, the latter still unconscious but clearly breathing much better than before.
"Oooh," Nel says, her eyes sparkling with an unhealthy interest when she stops the orbs from shooting, opting to expand her Defense Formation, and Myling steps out from behind the wall. "So that's what his singing is doing." she says, observing the burns on Myling's face and arms slowly heal. Nel tilts her head to the side. "You were already covered in that blue aura when you came in." she points out and her eyes widen in realization. "You were already injured when you came to fight me."
Myling doesn't respond.
"Oh that's rich!" Nel bursts out laughing. "I see," she says and looks at Myling's Wall Formation. "So if I get rid of him, we'll be on an even playing ground." Nel guesses. "And greenie will go back to bleeding out…I stabbed her pretty deeply, you know. I'm guessing Mister Music Man over here is still singing because it's taking a lot to fix her." she smiles. "Hey, what was she doing down here anyway? I came to the big house thinking I'd find the brains behind this whole operation but I only found her, that ugly creature, the False God Hero, and that loud chick…" Nel frowns suddenly, a thoughtful look on her face.
When her eyes drift towards the hole in the wall Akane made, Myling's control over her Aura of Shades snaps and a dark purple and black presence mixes with the light blue aura from Donatello's singing.
Behind the Wall Formation, Donatello's singing wavers for a second, the Aura of Shades making him falter for a second before he resumes as normal, presumably casting his Magic over himself now as well.
Nel, caught off guard by the sudden, overwhelming side effect of Myling's Aura of Shades, suddenly doubles over on her hands and knees, nauseous. She clamps her hand over her mouth, shakily looking at Myling with wide, wild eyes.
And because Nel's under the effects of Myling's Aura of Shades, she loses focus on her Defense Formation and the Hell Formation finally lands a hit on her with its flames.
Myling lets out a sigh of relief, reverts the Hell Formation back into Shades, and immediately regrets it when Nel starts letting out a hollow laugh.
She looks up at Myling, still laughing as tears spill from her eyes. "So…this is what your Black Magic can do…" she coughs out, a mixture of terror and wonder on her face. "Amazing."
A shiver goes down Myling's spine as she watches Nel's shoulder smoke from where she was hit.
Myling's Shade: Hell Formation has both the effect of, of course, burning its target with its flames, but also the much more dangerous ability of burning away feelings such as hope, courage, joy, and trust, leaving only the negative ones such as fear, hate, and despair.
The effect is only temporary though.
So if Nel is strong enough to still admire Myling's Black Magic under the effects of Hell Formation's flames, Myling has to act quickly.
Gods, Myling hates Dark Mages.
And because of it, when she hesitates to approach Nel, the Dark Mage gets to make her move first - but so does Donatello.
"Erase."
Nel's four spirit orbs spread out around the room and with a twitch of her hand, they explode into four large waves of destructive energy.
Somewhere fairly far from Ariana's house and Honeybun Square…
Veiss frowns, watching the warriors writhe start squirming around in his chain as he and Akane drag them behind them on the chain rhino.
Well, squirming around differently than they were before.
"Akane," Veiss calls.
"Veiss," Akane responds.
"Something's wrong with the soul things." Veiss says.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't-" Veiss stops, his eyes widening when the warriors start to glow. "Akan-!"
BOOOM!
Ariana's House
At the same time Nel casts her spell, Donatello switches his soothing, healing song into what reminds Myling of a wartime song. It fills Myling with a sense of peace, confidence, and determination, and she feels herself enhanced by Donatello's song.
However, because Donatello is no longer protecting himself from the effects of Myling's Aura of Shades, his voice begins to waver again as he bolsters Myling's power. Instead of a blue aura mixing with her Aura of Shades, it's replaced with an orange one.
With the basement crumbling around them, Myling has the sense to pull back her Aura of Shades now that Donatello's song brought a sense of clarity to her mind. With enhanced speed equal to that of a High Speed Magic user, she runs over to Donatello and Kozune, picks them up, and flees through the hole Akane made, leaving Nel behind.
Behind them, Nel smirks. "I'm not done with you just yet, Myling Alva…" she says, regaining a bit of her strength as she crawls over to the basement door and into safety. Nel puts her hands together and concentrates: "Gathering."
Oh yes, Nel thinks. We're not done until I say we're done. I want to see more of that Black Magic of yours, Myling. She thinks, a dark smile passing over her face. You live up to your mother's name...I remember father's story about Karring Alva quite well. It's a shame she didn't want to put her talents to use for him.
On the road to Ariana's house…
Just as Shizani bursts out of the ground behind Mana, the Phoenix Fire Mage suddenly drops to her knees, clutching at her chest.
Shizani frowns, confused.
Mana's eyes fill with unshed tears as her heart starts burning and beating painfully against her chest. It's like some invisible force is trying to rip something away from her. She screams in pain, desperately asking Mary what's happening.
Unfortunately for them both, Mary is in pain too and only fills Mana's head with her own screams.
Shizani pulls out her staff and pokes Mana's leg with it.
She continues to frown until a thought comes to mind and it's like a lightbulb goes off above her head. "Oh! Hm…I should probably get her to stop." she says to herself and sheathes her staff. "Yutsuko definitely wouldn't like it if Mana and Mary came back separated." Shizani hums and picks Mana up, slinging her over her shoulder. "Alrighty…let's go. Cheetah Speed." and in a flash, Shizani is running towards the big house as fast as a feline, Mana's screams ringing in her ear the entire time.
Honeywell | Honeybun Square
When Lero lands in the town square, it's unfortunately to the sight of the town fighting amongst each other.
Damn it. So the brat was telling the truth.
But he has a more important task first…
Where's Bella?
Probably surrounded by that group of townspeople. Lero reasons in his head and heads over there.
Indeed, there she lays in the middle of rubble and debris, fortunately, conscious. Her hair and eyes are different and she's a little bit older but there's no mistaking that face - he used to be friends with that face, after all.
Blue eyes widen in shock and dread when they lock with Lero's yellow ones.
"L-Lero? Wh-What - What are you - what's going on?"
"Bella, it's been a while-lero."
Lady Ariana of Honeywell, formerly Bella of Forsaken Roses, grows even paler as she looks up at Lero, surrounded by her most loyal townsfolk. "Lero…" she gulps. "I don't - I don't understand what's going on."
"I'll explain on the way-lero." Lero says and holds out a hand. "Come on, your people need you-lero." he says. "But you should probably help that blue haired kid first-lero."
Right on cue, a battle cry of: "ELYSIAN BOMB!" and "STAY AWAY I'M TRYING TO HELP YOU STUPID FUCKS! I CAN'T MAKE THE BRAT GO BOOM IF YOU'RE IN THE AREA OF EFFECT!"
Ariana takes Lero's hand.
PF x AH x SS
A/N i lied the next one is going to take a while not this one ok bye xoxo