BM - Chapter 21 - King of Kings
"So you want me to help you, again?" The two versions of Gura floated in the dark waters of her mind. They no longer felt cold and unwelcoming, though, instead feeling more like the comforting hug of a friend.
"Sure, but I know what you're going to say…" Gura responded.
"That's not how it works," they both said simultaneously.
"I know that, but I think you can still help me out here," she pleaded.
"I can't help you. What don't you understand about that?" her other self said, continually frustrated by the lack of understanding between them. They're the same person, surely they should understand what they are by now.
"I know I haven't been using Primal properly. It feels more like rage rather than my instincts. Can you guide my movements or talk in the back of my head and tell me what to do?" Gura proposed.
"You still don't get what I am, do you?" Primal Gura said, turning and looking off into the black ocean. Gura tilted her head.
"You're what I can't accept right? My past, my Primal, my need to eat and kill."
"That's some of it, sure. But I am also what you wish you were: smart, alert, powerful. I'm not here because of your hate. I'm here because you need me to hold that hate for you." They locked gazes once more.
"Then, what was that explanation in Atlantis about? You said you are what I hate!" Gura said more aggressively, feeling lied to and deceived. Primal Gura laughed it off.
"A bit of it was me hyping you up, but I mostly explained it like that because we had such a short amount of time and you're too dumb to understand quickly. I know you have a million questions in your head now." Primal Gura went over and poked Gura in the forehead. They had gotten better with not hurting each other here.
"S-So you're just a better version of me then?" Gura asked hesitantly. Primal Gura continued to laugh.
"Sure, you could phrase it like that. But I like to think of myself as everything you aspire to be, what you will become in the future!" Primal Gura spread her arms out wide with a toothy grin. Gura smiled back, feeling a little better now.
"It feels like I learn something new about myself every time we talk here."
"Oh don't worry, you still know absolutely nothing about yourself. That's why I'm still here," she responded, pointing her thumb back at herself.
"So, you'll go away when I know everything about myself?" Gura asked.
"Probably." They floated in silence for a moment, letting Gura rethink her current situation. If she couldn't have Primal Gura help her at all, then all she could do is…
"Help myself…" she mumbled into the water. Primal Gura leaned in closer to hear her.
"What was that?" she asked, knowing full well what had been said.
"I have to help myself," Gura said louder this time, "If you are me, then for you to help me, I need to help myself!" Gura finally realized the reasoning behind her other personality's existence.
"Yes! Finally!" her other self threw her hands up and spun head over tail in the water. "You can't use me because I am you. Everything I am is already inside you. All you need to do is find a way to bring it out."
"Guess I should call you something other than, Primal Gura, then huh? That name doesn't have anything to do with you," Gura said, chuckling to herself.
"How about… Red?" her other self offered, baring her claws and fangs in an exaggerated pose. Gura scrunched up her face and shook her head.
"That would mean that I'm Blue. I like my name the way it is," she gave a confusing reply, "How about I'm Gura and you're Gawr?" Her other self shook her head.
"Nah, it would get too confusing, especially since your last name comes before your first," she pointed out. They thought for a few more seconds.
"How about Ego?" Gura came up with. That name sounded much better to both parties.
"Alright then," Ego said, "Try to let your Ego guide your movements now." Gura closed her eyes, but didn't squeeze them shut. She only let them lightly close and kept her entire body calm.
Her normal way of tapping into Primal was to let all of her hate, anger, and hunger flow into her heart. It was effective, but she could lose control if it was too much. This time, she wanted to see what would happen if she focused on her movements.
Her tail moved back and forth in the water, keeping her steady. Her legs gently kicked to maintain her depth. Her arms gently kept her balanced and upright. Her chest moved in and out with her breath. Her head slowly moved upwards, looking towards the waters above.
When she opened her eyes, Ego was gone from in front of her. Instead, Gura felt Ego's presence behind her. Gura lifted her arms up and looked them over.
"I-It feels like you're moving them…" she said, amazed by the sensation. She could feel Ego's hands gently guiding her movements wherever she focused.
"I'm not moving them. This is what happens when you are confident in letting your instincts guide your movements," Ego explained from behind her. Gura kicked out one of her legs, feeling her movement become accelerated by Ego, no, her instincts.
"I don't know how long I can keep this concentration up in a fight, though," Gura admitted to herself.
"Well, why don't you try and give it some Primal, too?" Ego gave her mind a little push in the right direction. Gura let her heart become enveloped in rage for a moment.
Everything remained clear.
Normally, Primal caused her vision to literally turn red and her thoughts to get scrambled. However, now she was able to think clearly and maintain her focus easier.
"This is me helping you," Ego said, "When you combine intense concentration with intense bloodlust, you can get the two to work together. They balance each other out and keep you sane." Gura cranked up her Primal even farther, going far beyond what she had been able to handle before. It was still not the easiest thing to handle, but she could now manage it much easier than before.
"Thank you…" she said quietly. Ego smiled behind her.
"Don't thank me. Thank yourself."
"But you are me!" Gura called out Ego's terrible wording. Ego laughed behind her.
"Don't get caught up in the details, just let the feeling of it guide you."
"I'll try my best."
"Don't complain about what happens next!" Gura still felt Ego's presence, but it was much lighter now. She knew they wouldn't be able to talk anymore, but she could still guide her movements.
Before anyone had a chance to react to her, Gura shot forwards along the ground. She carved up several tentacles that were in her direct path. Only Calliope could see her movements properly.
They were smooth, almost like she was dancing. Each attack flowed into the next like a winding river. This river was not gentle, though. It was filled with rocks and waterfalls that caused the water flowing through it to violently swirl and crash into itself.
Gura was a raging river and her target was a quiet, but nonetheless powerful, thunderstorm called the Ancient Ones.
They reacted faster than anyone thought possible, punching out with a singular, powerful tentacle. Its entire length was aimed directly at Gura. The Atlantean did not change course to avoid it.
Instead, she went through it with the grace of a dancer and the violence of a missile. She emerged on the other side with only a smudge of purple goo on her cheek to show for it. Gura began to tear up the main body of the Ancient Ones at a similar speed to which Kiara had been doing before.
"Where did she learn that? I didn't teach her and Kiara certainly didn't," Calliope said, referring to Kiara's sparring in the weeks leading up to this trip.
"I-I did t-tell her to find her own st-style," Kiara called back, fighting through the pain of losing her left forearm. The bleeding had stopped since all of her wounds cauterized themselves quickly. It still hurt like hell, though.
"Try not to move so much," Amelia asked her, picking some dirt and grass out of her wounds and clothing. It was odd that there was any of that stuff in here, since this place didn't contain any. It did give Amelia an idea, though.
"They pulled in another timeline. One where we were fighting outside of this place," Amelia looked back down through the ground, seeing the tentacles moving underneath again.
"I-I think this is far enough," Kiara told her. Amelia helped her to sit down before sitting herself. They were both spectators to the fight happening in front of them. Both wanted so desperately to help, but they knew that they would only get in the way right now.
"I think I can interrupt their attempts to mess with time at least," Amelia said, pushing her hand into the ground again. She might not be able to affect time herself, but preventing the Ancient Ones from doing so would be good enough.
'It is futile,' the Ancient Ones' loud voice pounded in her head. Amelia tried her best, but couldn't seem to stop the Ancient Ones' influence from poking around like she had before. They had learned and adapted to stop her.
"Shit…" she mumbled under her breath. Kiara stared at her with curiosity.
"How are you doing that?" the Phoenix asked, attempting to push her own hand through. No matter which way she tried, she couldn't emulate Amelia.
"I guess only Destabilized things can pass through," Amelia responded. She reached over and put her hand on top of Kiara's. Slowly, both of their hands sank into the ground. Kiara laughed nervously.
"You think you could get me my arm back?" she asked, already assuming that Amelia couldn't. Of course, Amelia shook her head.
"Not with the Ancient Ones interfering this much. How long do you think it'll take before you can fly again?" Kiara looked over her wounds and tried to create her wings. She succeeded, but they were small and unstable. She could feel them getting better over time, though.
"Maybe in a few minutes. Why, you got an idea?" They both pulled their hands out of the floor. Amelia kept one in, trying to mess with Ancient Ones whenever she could.
"I want you to fly down there and help me destroy those tentacles," Amelia said, pointing at the dim purple silhouettes that swung beneath the ground. Kiara squinted her eyes at them before looking back at Amelia.
"So they're doing the same thing you're doing," she assumed. Amelia nodded.
"Yeah, but they have a much stronger hold on it compared to me. If we can destroy as many of those tentacles as possible, it might stop them from overpowering me. I could even turn the tables on them and do to them what they did to us," Amelia explained. Kiara pushed herself as far as she dared, creating wings that were most likely flight worthy.
"Alright, let me head through." Amelia furrowed her brow and stared at Kiara.
"And how do you expect to get out?" Kiara stared back before realizing what Amelia was saying.
"You aren't trying to come with me, right?"
"Of course I am. I'm not letting you get stuck down there."
"Well thanks, but how am I supposed to carry you down there?" Amelia thought about this for a moment before an idea came to mind. She motioned for Kiara to follow her and they both walked carefully over to Ina.
The Priestess was trying her best to support Gura and Calliope with barriers and beams. Her eyes darted rapidly around the battle, trying to best use her magic. Amelia and Kiara called her name from behind her. When she had a moment to breathe, she responded, "What are you guys doing here?"
"Can you make some purple goo that is really sticky?" Ina had to resist the urge to flick her head around to see what Amelia was smoking behind her.
"What the hell does that mean, Ame!?" she asked, very concerned for her friend's mental health.
"I know you can. You use it to hang up notes on your walls all the time," Amelia responded. Ina took a hand and placed it on her forehead and mouthed the words, 'Oh my god…' to herself.
"That's just sticky tack that I made stickier. I can't just create the stuff on the spot." Amelia took off her shoes and made Kiara take off her top. She then threw the objects onto the ground next to Ina. "And what do you want me to do with this?" Ina was getting tired of whatever Amelia was doing. It was starting to become distracting.
"Can you fuse my shoes to the back of Kiara's shirt then?" Ina rolled her eyes.
"Then come over here and hold them for me. I can't spare much more focus than what I'm already giving you." Amelia and Kiara both quickly shuffled over and held Amelia's shoes onto the back of Kiara's top. Ina tried her best to not look at Kiara and wondered how Amelia was so comfortable right now. Apparently she had seen this sight before…
"What are you even planning to do?" Ina asked, transfiguring the material of Amelia's shoes and Kiara's top into one continuous piece of matter.
"I'm going to ride her like a surfboard." Amelia smiled awkwardly when she realized how wrong that sounded. Ina rolled her eyes.
"Ame, you know Gura is supposed to be the dumb one, right?" Ina handed the finished product to Amelia and put the rest of her focus back on the fight.
"It's a great idea," Amelia said cheerily, "Oh, if you want to provide even more assistance, stick some tentacles through the floor and mess with time." Ina glanced at her for a moment, confused.
"Even if I could do that, wouldn't it be dangerous?" she asked.
"Well firstly, you can because you time traveled. Secondly, all you need to do is interfere with the Ancient Ones' attempts at messing with time. You technically don't need to do anything with time yourself."
'We'll handle it,' AO-chan stated. Ina hesitantly nodded.
"Alright. Good luck surfing on Kiara's back." Amelia and Kiara walked back away from the fight, letting Ina resume her duties supporting Gura and Calliope.
"Oh how I wish Calli would say that she was going to ride me. Although, it's not like I didn't enjoy hearing it from you." Kiara made a very clear show of wiggling her eyebrows at Amelia. That combined with that fact that she had no shirt on finally made Amelia finally decide that she should no longer be comfortable with this situation.
"Put your shirt back on!" she said, throwing the shirt at Kiara. The Phoenix laughed as she pulled her top back over her head.
"What? I thought we were both gay here?" she whined playfully. Amelia shook her head.
"Maybe in another timeline. Now lay down on the ground." Kiara did as instructed. Amelia slipped into her shoes making Kiara grunt from the extra weight. "Let's see if you can fly and if I can balance like this." Kiara didn't need to be told twice and sprouted her wings. She pushed herself off of the ground and attempted to fly into the air.
The ground filled up her entire view, as she face planted into it almost immediately. Her center of mass and flight characteristics were all kinds of messed up.
"I'm fine before you ask," she assured Amelia quickly. She tried a few more times to get airborne with increasing amounts of success. Eventually, the pair were able to fly with only slight issues. The distant sounds of the battle reminded them that time was off the essence here.
"Pass me your sword," Amelia asked. Kiara looked up at her like she was crazy.
"What do you need it up there for?"
"I'm going to get some hits of my own in, thank you very much," Amelia replied sarcastically. Kiara laughed and passed Amelia her sword. The time traveler took a few practice swings with it, feeling the weight distribution and balance of it before handing it back down.
"You ready to head through?" Kiara asked, already turning back towards the battle. Amelia nodded even though Kiara had no way of seeing her.
"Let's do this!"
Kiara turned downwards into a steep dive straight at the ground. Amelia made sure to Destabilize the both of them. The ground gave way when they hit, allowing them to pass into the undercurrents of the pocket dimension.
Ina blasted away another set of tentacles that tried to flank Gura. She kept her eyes peeled for any other spells to appear near her friends.
That was the most annoying thing. Tentacles and blasts could appear from nearly anywhere, preventing anyone from focusing purely on attacking. Ina was trying her best to help out, but she was still only one girl.
'We're trying our best to alert you, Priestess,' AO-chan chimed in, 'They don't seem to be doing much more than what's necessary to stay alive right now, though.'
"That's because they are waiting until they can hurt us in another timeline," Ina said with clenched teeth. It was a weapon that had almost no counters. The most she could do right now was hope they didn't find a timeline that they had already killed everyone in.
'We can try to do that thing your friend was talking about, too,' AO-chan suggested. Ina thought about it for a moment.
"Can you focus on protecting them?" Ina asked. She didn't know how much she could trust these new patrons of hers, but they had yet to work against her so far. Then again, so had her previous Ancient Ones…
'We will try our best for you,' they responded, 'Just try and not look away from them. We can only see what you see right now.' Ina nodded and kept her eyes focused on the battle in front of her.
With great care, Ina summoned a small tentacle and pushed it into the ground. Just like what she'd seen Amelia do previous, the tentacle slipped through the ground and entered the domain underneath the pocket dimension.
At first, it just felt like the tentacle was being blown around by a little wind. However, Ina noticed something odd with the ground she was reaching through.
It had turned green in her peripheral vision.
She risked a quick glance down at it, but only saw what it was for a moment before it reverted.
The translucent floor had been replaced with grass. On the grass, a large red stain of blood was pooling around a severed arm.
'Shit!' Ina quickly glanced back up and saw that a tentacle had grabbed onto Gura's leg. The Atlantean quickly freed herself, but she lost all momentum she had and was forced on the defensive.
That could also have other implications in other timelines, too. Ina's vision flashed with Gura being slammed into the ground by that tentacle. It was a timeline where she hadn't freed herself as quickly. Ina didn't know how to stop the Ancient Ones from getting ahold of that possibility, so she just focused on holding it in place.
It felt like she was attempting to grab onto a rope that was being pulled by something else. It burned her mind as it tried to get away. Eventually, it stopped and Ina held firmly onto it.
How Amelia could do this consistently and not pass out from the effort was a mystery to her.
"Huh?!" A deep sound of surprise rang out across the dimension. Ina smirked, knowing that she had caused this reaction.
Gura noticed the sudden hesitation of the Ancient Ones and twisted herself around her trident. She kicked off of the tentacle she had been tearing up and launched herself into the air. She gathered water around her trident by swinging it around in a circle. When it returned back in front of her, she pointed the three tips at the Ancient Ones.
All at once, the water accelerated off of her trident and towards her target. Since water is not easily compressible, it can be moved at incredible speeds with minimal energy. What Gura was using was not minimal energy.
The jet of pressurized water cut straight through the Ancient Ones and smashed into the ground behind them. It sent ripples through the ground and the water scattered in various directions.
Through the hole she had just created, Gura saw the faint blue glow of the Crystal within the Ancient Ones. Her attack had barely missed it. She clicked her tongue in disappointment.
The Ancient Ones regrouped and tried to keep Gura from launching another attack like she just had. However, this left Calliope without much resistance.
The Reaper had been trying to keep as many tentacles and spell off of Gura as possible. Basically, she was acting as bait, so that Gura could get in and hit the Ancient Ones as hard as she could.
But now, she was left nearly unguarded. A creepily wide grin split her face before she descended into a nearby shadow. As fast as she had disappeared, she emerged from another shadow on the underside of a tentacle. Her scythe glided through the flesh and cut it clean in two. She then vanished into a shadow yet again.
Her rapid teleportation allowed her to attack from what seemed like multiple places at the same time. As fast as the Ancient Ones were creating tentacles, Calliope was destroying them. She would keep this up for as long as she could to give Gura another shot at the Crystal.
The original goal was to just separate the Ancient Ones from the Crystal and stop them from using it. However, the Crystal was so far deep within their fleshy mass that removing it would be nearly impossible. Plan B was to hit the crystal with an attack and cause a runaway effect that should collapse the pocket dimension.
The Ancient Ones would never allow themselves to be destroyed that way, though, so they would bring the dimension down themselves in order to survive. This would effectively do the same thing as separating them from the Crystal, but no one knew how violent the reaction would be.
"ENOUGH!" the Ancient Ones boomed. Ina felt the possibility she had been holding on to get ripped from her grip. It burned like hell and she was forced to retract her tentacle from under the floor.
Gura felt a hard impact on the side of her head, knocking her to the ground. Calliope saw and moved to cover her. Gura stood back up after a moment and felt the side of her head.
Her hand came back covered in blood.
"Head wounds are always worse than they look. Let's retreat and regroup," Calliope told her. Gura nodded weakly, as they both backed away from the Ancient Ones. Ina moved up to help them.
"We thought your skull would be thicker than that, Atlantean," the Ancient Ones mocked, "No matter how fast you move, none of you can escape the shackles of time!"
"I don't know," Ina retorted, seeing a flash of orange under the ground, "One of us has before."
Amelia and Kiara raced through the rough atmosphere underneath the dimension. It would be comparable to wind, except the movement was completely random. Above, below, on their sides, and at all different speeds. Kiara was struggling to stay upright, let alone move in any specific direction. Amelia felt like she was going to be thrown off at any moment. She crouched down to try to stabilize their flight.
Kiara maneuvered as aggressively as she could without throwing Amelia off her back. The fact that her shoes were glued to her shirt helped. Slowly, they both gained some semblance of stability down here.
"There we go…" Amelia sighed. Down here she could adjust her position slightly with Destabilization, but not by much. The Ancient Ones still overpowered her.
"First one dead ahead!" Kiara called out. She flipped her sword up to Amelia, the blade fully ignited. Amelia lifted the heavy sword and held it out to the side. With a considerable amount of effort, she pushed it through a tentacle.
The Ancient Ones above felt a shock run through them. They quickly recovered, but couldn't figure out what had just happened. Ina and Amelia couldn't cause them to seize like that anymore. It was only then that they noticed the orange blur underneath the ground, as well.
Amelia continued to slash tentacles in half, only stopping to hand the sword back to Kiara for more fire. There were only six left when they suddenly began to flail around. Kiara was forced away to avoid being hit by them.
"Seems like they noticed us," Kiara commented. Amelia nodded and took a deep breath.
"I think you better take it from here," she said. Kiara looked up at her.
"Then you better hold on tight!" Amelia crouched back down and grabbed Kiara's left shoulder, bracing herself with it.
The Phoenix shot off with a bright flash. Amelia felt the heat trying to burn her. She couldn't leave, though. Kiara needed her down here to escape.
With three quick attacks, Kiara cut down three more tentacles. The last three continued to flail aimlessly. It didn't seem like the Ancient Ones could target them down here properly.
Kiara rolled out of the way of one of the tentacles. Amelia almost lost her grip, but just barely hung on. The last three tentacles were dispatched a few seconds later.
Amelia felt the timelines around her grow still. The Ancient Ones could no longer stir them up.
"Now we just have to get out of here," Amelia said, breathing hard from Kiara's rapid movements.
"Well that's simple, right?" Kiara asked. Amelia put a hand to her chin.
"It can be, but the Ancient Ones also don't know where we are down here. And I have a few timelines at my disposal…" she thought out loud. Kiara slowly began to see what she was getting at. A cheeky smiled pushed its way onto her face.
"Let's give them what they deserve!"
Above, the Ancient Ones cursed and hissed. Their main advantage had been stolen from them. They could no longer afford to sit back and take hits. They had to go on the offensive now.
Gura spun around with her trident, avoiding several beams aimed at her. Her movements were guided downwards, away from the Ancient Ones. She followed them and landed on the ground.
Her mind had been blank throughout the entire fight, her movements guided exclusively by Ego- no… her instincts. She felt like her body was infinitely maneuverable, too. Her entire body was a killing machine at this moment.
So it surprised her when her instincts told her to retreat.
It all made sense in the next moment, however, as dozens of smaller tentacles appeared all around her. She ducked and weaved through them, avoiding being caught by them. Calliope experienced a similar level of increased hostility towards her. Gura might be too dense to figure out what this meant, but the Reaper knew what this meant.
"INA!" she screamed to the very busy Priestess, "Try and affect time some more!" Ina let AO-chan take over supporting her friends and put her focus back to her tentacles underneath the ground. Sure enough, she could feel her control return to her. The Ancient Ones seized for a moment, feeling Ina's pulling on time.
"This will not do." Instead of sounding terrified and afraid, they were calm and collected. This was in stark contrast to how the Priest had behaved like a cornered animal when Ina had fought them. It was even more worrying.
Dark purple began to streak across the ground with tentacles shooting up from it. It began by just spreading out around the Ancient Ones' main body, but suddenly two branches shot out. One at Ina and the other at Gura.
Both of them ran as fast as they could away from the incoming corruption. They made sure not to run away from the Ancient Ones, though, instead strafing their enemy.
Ina ripped her tentacles out from under the ground, otherwise they might become ensnared in the corruption. She continued to provide as much support as she could with her spells, but more branches of corruption forced her to change her direction constantly.
Calliope dropped down next to Gura, nodding to her. "They can't affect time anymore, so they are lashing out at us. Let's hit them where it hurts," she said. Gura nodded before both dashed in towards the Ancient Ones' main body once more.
Instead of the surface of their main body being a smooth, translucent purple, it was covered in thousands of writhing tendrils. All of them swung wildly around, just waiting for someone to get close to them. When Gura and Calliope did, they tried to latch on to them and hold them in place. They were not very strong, though, so Gura and Calliope were able to slash straight through them with ease.
However, this smooth sailing wouldn't last long. Within only a minute of their attack beginning, the tendrils began to learn. They moved aside right as an attack would hit them, throwing Gura and Calliope's rhythms off. They also began to grow in size, coagulating into larger and larger tendrils.
These larger tendrils spawned more small tendrils along their surface. Gura and Calliope were forced to defend and dodge as these tendrils whipped around them.
Ina wasn't fairing much better on the ground. She had been forced to focus on nothing but avoiding the corruption spreading along the ground. Any time she tried to support her friends' efforts with some spells, the corruption would surge towards her.
But when she was focused on running, it stayed just far enough away to not seem like a massive threat. It worried her to see it behaving in such a manner. She knew how calculating the Ancient Ones could be, so they were obviously planning something.
Her answer came when she noticed the corruption also in front of her.
During her attempts to escape the pursuing corruption, she had been led right back to where it had started. She had been encircled without noticing.
'Launch yourself!' AO-chan yelled at her. Ina pushed off the ground with two tentacles and attempted to leap over the corruption in front of her. A thin tendril shot out from it and latched onto her leg. It dug into her skin and attempted to pull her back to the ground. Ina waved a hand at it and tried to fire a beam to sever the tendril.
But another tendril grew from the previous and grabbed her wrist, directing the attack elsewhere. Ina was yanked back to the ground and slammed into the corruption.
It felt like thousands of pins and needles were digging into her skin, as the tendrils wrapped around her. She tried to fight them off and regain any movement, but it was impossible.
Flashes of her body being enveloped in the purple sludge flooded her mind. She was going to die here…
"Hang in there, INA!" A voice called from behind her mind's nightmares of death. The stabbing subsided on one side of her body and then the other. She opened her eyes and saw Calliope tearing the tendrils holding her down apart. The irony of a Reaper saving her from death was not lost on her.
Ina fought against the remaining tentacles with everything she had, screaming as they pulled off large chunks of her skin. Calliope grabbed her by the arm and gave her one last, pain-filled tug and tore her free.
This heroic effort was not without consequence, though. By going to help Ina, Calliope had left Gura all alone to fight against the Ancient Ones.
With their attention now undivided, the Ancient Ones were throwing everything they had at Gura. Spells, tendrils, tentacles, you name it and Gura was being forced to dodge it.
Gura noticed one odd thing during all this. Her instincts were beginning to shake. It was like they were hesitating for just a moment before guiding her next action. It unsettled her. She was either about to run out of Primal or something was making them act up.
As with Ina, this was all a part of the Ancient Ones' plan. Gura's instincts pulled her back to the ground. She landed in a spot free from corruption, but it was still surrounding her. Once she landed, it all began to surge towards her along the ground. Gura readied another jump.
However, the Ancient Ones fired a large beam attack in between them and Gura. This blocked Gura from jumping back onto them, so she was forced to jump off to the side. As she hung helplessly in the air, several magic spells opened up around her.
Unlike what Calliope had said before in the catacombs, she could not fly.
It felt like she was being pulled in every direction by her instincts. They were screaming at her, pulling her apart. There was no definitive direction to escape this attack. Her eyes opened wide as the red in them began to fade.
The Ancient Ones had got her.
The spells around her suddenly shattered. Ina managed to fire enough blasts to disrupt the spells. However, the attack wasn't finished just yet. Several large tentacles swung towards Gura.
Her instincts were nearly gone by this point, her panicking driving them from her body. She tried in vain to bring them back, but they were gone.
A streak of bright orange exploded up from the ground. Kiara flew straight up to where Gura was and grabbed her by the arm. Using her own momentum, Kiara pivoted in the air with her wings and threw Gura away from the incoming attack.
However, this assist left her nearly stationary in the air. One of the tentacles smashed into her and slammed her into the ground with a sickening crunch. Blood began to pool from underneath.
"KIARA!" Calliope screamed for her friend. She couldn't die here… Not when they were so close…
The tentacles moved away, but there was no body under them. The blood glitched and vanished, as well.
"Sorry other me!" the real Kiara yelled from atop the Ancient Ones bulbous form. Just like how a human doesn't notice a mosquito landing on them, the Ancient Ones had been too distracted by Gura and the fake Kiara to notice that the real one was on top of them. "I needed a distraction!"
Calliope breathed a massive sigh of relief that Kiara was ok. A little warning would have been nice, but for now this was acceptable.
The Ancient Ones attempted to swat Kiara away again, but every tentacle phased through her body. They looked back down and saw Amelia with her hand sunk into the ground. During their attempts to finish off Gura, they had let Amelia and Kiara get into an advantageous position.
"You aren't in control anymore," Amelia taunted with a smirk. She turned to Calliope and told her, "Make a path for Gura to hit that Crystal." Calliope nodded, disappearing into a flailing tentacle's shadow.
Kiara held her sword above her head and turned the heat up to eleven. The blade grew to several feet in length and the fire turned blue. She thrust it into the Ancient Ones' body and continued to dial up her fire.
The Ancient One's flesh reacted in the way you would expect. It burned and flaked away in chunks. They screamed and hissed, desperately trying to knock Kiara away. With one last burst of magic, Kiara sent a blast deep into their body, causing most of the top of them to explode away. She then gracefully flipped into the air and flew back down to Amelia and Ina.
"Looks like they fell for it again," she said, seeing how Calliope wasn't anywhere in sight. Again, the Ancient Ones realized they had been tricked into ignoring the real threat. While they had been trying to get Kiara off of them, Calliope had been tearing up a large section of their flesh by teleporting around in their shadow.
"Ina, throw Gura at where Calliope is tearing them apart!" Amelia said. Ina quickly scooped up Gura with a tentacle and spun her around to build up speed.
"Hit that Crystal!" Ina yelled before letting go and launching Gura straight into Ancient Ones' torn up flesh.
Gura used her trident to push through their body. She felt them trying to regenerate to stop her and trap her inside. Small tendrils of flesh tried to ensnare any part of her to slow her down. In response, Gura coated her entire body in a thin veil of water. She flew through the Ancient Ones like a torpedo through water.
A dim blue glow appears from the purple haze around her. It is moving around erratically, trying to avoid Gura. It then suddenly stopped and began to vibrate in place. Gura used the water around her to push her onto a better course towards it.
Outside, Amelia stopped the Ancient Ones from manipulating the Crystal's location within them. They fought hard against her, but she could keep it still for a short period of time.
Gura felt herself beginning to slow down now. She tried to reduce her friction even more, but the tendrils were latching onto the water more aggressively. One of them broke through and left a shallow scratch on her leg.
The Crystal began to shake more aggressively, desperately trying to move out of the way. Gura was only a few yards away now, but it might as well have been a thousand since she slowed to a halt. She stretched her trident out in front of her as far as it would go, but it was still a few feet short.
"Screw it," she growled. She pulled all of the water that had been shielding her from the tendrils to her trident. The tendrils immediately grabbed her and dug into her skin and clothes. She hissed in pain, but continued to focus on manipulating the water around her trident.
Several tendrils grabbed it, as well, and tried to pull it away from her. She kept as tight of a grip as she could manage and aimed at the Crystal.
With one last scream, Gura fired a jet of water into the Crystal.
The Crystal took the hit and cracked under the pressure. It began to glow brightly and the crack suddenly filled itself back in. A moment later, Gura was blown away from the Crystal by a bright light.
"She hit it!" Amelia cried. Everyone around her jumped and cheered. Amelia's bright smile quickly faded when she felt the dimension shift. "Oh shit…" she muttered.
"What's wrong?" Calliope asked quickly. Amelia looked at Kiara frantically.
"Fly me up to where Gura entered, now!" she commanded. Kiara got one of her arms underneath one of Amelia's and flew as fast as she could, while still keeping a hold of Amelia. The Crystal's bright glow could be seen from the outside now. Just as they got near the Ancient Ones, a bolt of light shot out from where Gura had entered.
Amelia stretched out her other arm and reached into it. Something hit her and she grabbed hold of it as tightly as she could and began to pull it out. Out from the light, Amelia pulled Gura by the arm. Gura grabbed onto her, too, and Kiara began to pull them all away from the ray of light.
They got Gura nearly all of the way out, but the end of her trident was still stuck in the light. Gura pulled as hard as she could, feeling like she was going to be torn in half.
The trident cracked and then broke in the middle of the shaft. Gura was flung away from the light holding just the bottom half of it.
The light dimmed until it completely vanished.
Gura landed on the ground hard, knocking the wind out of her. Her entire body was covered in hundreds of small, bloody holes from the tendrils latching into her. Ina ran over and began to fill them up to stop Gura from losing anymore blood.
Kiara and Amelia landed safely near Calliope and they all ran over to Gura as well.
"Wh-What was that?" Gura asked them all.
"The Crystal tried to get rid of you. Thankfully, it only took that piece of your trident," Amelia said, relieved that Gura hadn't been launched out of the timeline like she had been.
The whole dimension began to shake violently. The girls all looked up at the Ancient Ones, who hadn't stopped screaming since Kiara had begun to burn them. They flailed around as more rays of light shot out of them. When these rays hit the edges of the dimension, they cracked the very fabric of reality.
These cracks spread all over the dimension as large pieces were carried into the Temporal Void
"NO, NOT LIKE THIS!" they screamed, trying to get the situation back under control.
But they couldn't.
The dimension continued to fall apart at the seams until they had no choice but to bring it all down themselves or risk being carried into the Temporal Void.
The rest of the dimension shattered into billions of tiny pieces around everyone and they felt the ground hit them from below. Everyone looked up and saw a cloudy blue sky above them.
They had done it…
They had won.
Author's Note: Sorry for the longer than planned break from this story. I ran into some major writer's block during this fight. I know I struggle to write fluid fights, so I was taking my time with this one.
Not much to say with this note. I'll have a lot more to say with the penultimate and final chapters after this one!
The Myth gang have successfully stopped the Ancient Ones' plan. However, they haven't been defeated just yet.
Next Chapter: The Fight isn't Over
Any feedback/criticism is appreciated!
