Chapter 15: The End Of A Journey?
An ear splitting roar could be heard as far away as Lalivero, echoing out from the very top of the Venus Lighthouse where four adepts stood amid the rubble of their unconventional battlefield.
Saturos and Menardi were no more. In their place stood a massive twin-headed dragon, fused together by the overflowing power of the pair of Mars adepts that had lit the lighthouse beacon.
As the physical manifestation of Venus psynergy continued to coalesce in the background, Isaac and his friends stared down the incredible beast before them. Never had they seen anything like it, and knowing it was some amalgamation of man and monster put them on guard.
"Spread out," Isaac instructed as the wary adepts backed away to gain some space between them and the creature. "We don't know what they can do in that form," he voiced, worried that Saturos and Menardi might somehow retain some sort of control or cognitive thought in the guise of this fusion dragon.
It was with this unsettling uncertainty hanging in the air that each adept carefully sized up their foe, coming up with possible angles of attack and defense as well as contingency plans in case something unexpected happened.
A surge of Mars psynergy flared up from the dragon as it made the first move, breathing fire towards the position Isaac was in typical dragon fashion. Fortunately, that was one of the easiest things to predict and Isaac was able to dodge out of the way in time.
That first attack marked the end of the stand off and prompted the other adepts to retaliate with attacks of their own.
Ivan launched one of his signature lightning spells, aiming for the wings where there were less scales to protect the dragon. The scorching bolts of lightning left charred black spots on the webbing of the wing where they touched, but the dragon seemed to shrug off the attack with relative ease.
Mia conjured up a deluge of water that she sent racing towards the dragon's head in an attempt to disorient it. Hitting her target dead on, she succeeded in forcing the beast to turn its head away from the stream to protect its eyes.
Garet opted for a physical attack instead, assuming that his psynergy would probably not have as much of an effect against the Mars aligned dragon. He carefully approached as the spells the other two cast took effect. Taking advantage of Mia forcing the dragon to look away, Garet was able to get in close and slash into the dragon's leg.
That got a howl out of the creature and a tail hurtling towards Garet to knock him away. Ducking to the floor, Garet managed to squeeze under the tail's wide arc and avoid being sent flying across the summit of the Lighthouse.
Isaac was still within the dragon's line of sight after Mia's water barrage had forced it to move its head. The blonde boy raised his sword to meet the dragon's next attack head on as a large claw came his way to rend his flesh.
Imbuing his sword with psynergy to strengthen it, Isaac swung his blade hard towards the oncoming claw, catching a soft spot between the sharp talons. The result was a spray of blood and the dragon recoiling from the failed attack.
The first few exchanges continued much the same, with the four adepts avoiding any injuries and landing some minor hits against their foe. It felt strange for them, since they had expected much more of a challenge after the struggle against Saturos and Menardi.
So far they had been doing quite well and seemed to easily have the upper hand. All the practice against large foes had prepared the group well to deal with a threat like this, but even then it still felt a little too easy.
The rhythm of the fight remained stable and confidence was starting to build up in the heads of the adepts as they kept up with the dragon's attacks.
Another breath attack came in the direction of Mia and Ivan, but instead of dodging, Mia raised a shield of water to block the flames. Ivan noticed the Mercury adept's intent and put his trust in her, taking the time to conjure up a powerful wind spell.
With the fire dissipated, Mia's watery barrier dropped and Ivan fired his attack off without delay. Borrowing from the giant lizard they had encountered back in the desert, Ivan had honed wind itself into a razor sharp edge to be fired at his enemy. Such a quick attack left almost no time to react, and the dual blades of wind psynergy ripped into the shoulder of the dragon.
With a roar, the dragon's focus shifted to Ivan and it let out a new breath effect the group had not seen before. Mia wasn't quite sure how to describe it. There was a shrill sound of muffled screaming as what looked like ghastly disembodied souls poured out of the dragon's muzzle, swiftly engulfing Ivan and Mia.
The voices of lament rang out, interfering with each other in a cacophony of noise to prevent anyone from the outside picking up on what they were saying. Instantly Mia could feel the illusion of freezing cold as the ghostly forms passed through them, giving Ivan and herself a taste of the void.
Her hands stiffened as she dropped her mace and fell to her knees, pinpricks of tingling cold raising goosebumps on her arms. Bringing a hand to her head, Mia clutched at it, squeezing her eyes shut in pain at the voices echoing inside.
Inside her mind the voices were clearer.
Another lighthouse lit…
Alex is a betrayer!
You've failed the Mercury Clan…
Your love will never be reciprocated…
Negative emotions rose up within Mia as whispers of her darkest thoughts and fears manifested themselves in the wake of the dragon's attack.
Then as quickly as it came, it dissipated. As the last disembodied soul passed through, Mia could feel her senses start to return while breathing heavily on the ground.
Ivan was in the same collapsed state, and the other two were in a state of concern for their friends.
"What…was that?" Mia muttered to herself, still shaken and disoriented by the strange effect.
A warm hand quickly grabbed her own, helping her to her feet.
"Mia? Are you all right?" Isaac asked, his voice cutting through some of the fog covering Mia's mind as she tried to re-orient herself with the world around her.
Isaac didn't have time to wait for an answer though and had already moved on to Ivan. "Snap out of it Ivan!" Isaac said as he pulled the younger blonde boy to his feet as well.
The sounds of battle slowly began to permeate back into Mia's conscious mind as she vaguely became aware of Garet holding off the dragon in the background to protect them.
Just as her sense of self returned, Mia watched the dragon's arm glow red and blast Garet away with the powerful impact and help of Mars psynergy.
Isaac was ready to assist however, knowing Garet would not be able to hold off the dragon forever. Unleashing powerful Venus psynergy, Isaac raised a barrier in the form of a golden shield that completely blocked the next swipe of the Dragon's claws before dissipating.
The bought time allowed Mia to shakily raise her arms to contribute, calling forth a great hailstorm of ice she then sent crashing down upon the dragon in front of her.
Garet seemed to be fine and not too fazed by the blast, but it was good to have a second to regain his footing regardless.
Ivan pulled himself together as Isaac also charged up a follow up spell. Streaks of lightning darted from Ivan's palm, forcing the dragon to turn in a way the lightning would hit its hide and not any vital points.
Isaac followed up as well, conjuring up a sword of Venus psynergy before unleashing it on his foe. The roar that accompanied both the blonde boy's attacks was deafening, indicating that they had been able to do significant damage to the dragon.
With a flap of wings and breath of fire, the dragon whipped up the wind and sent fiery air dispersed over a wider area toward all four adepts to force them to retreat away for a moment.
As the group backed off, the dragon turned and jumped off the edge of the lighthouse, flapping its wings to climb higher into the sky.
Once the flame breath attack had been reduced to nothing more than wisps of hot air, Garet sent some fireballs racing after the dragon in flight. For such a large creature, the dragon was surprisingly maneuverable and was able to dodge out of the way with a series of rolls before abruptly turning and flying nearly perpendicular up towards the heavens.
If they didn't know better, the assembled adepts might have thought that it was flying away from them, but the massive surge of Mars energy and unmistakable reddish glow enveloping the dragon was visible even at a large distance.
"Not good!" Isaac commented, giving voice to what was on the mind of everyone as the dragon reversed course and came plummeting back towards the lighthouse. A massive ball of fire was forming in front of the dragon's mouth as it raced downward, wings tucked in for more speed.
As the dragon approached, even a concerned Felix and Sheba backed off towards the very side edge of the lighthouse despite not being the targets of the attack.
Mia found herself conjuring up a watery veil in an attempt to lessen the fire part of the blow and neutralize some of the flames.
On the other hand Isaac was taking his time to cast a difficult protection spell with a look of intense concentration on his face. It wasn't a time to hold back, and Isaac didn't. With the power of the forming Venus Lighthouse beacon energizing him, Isaac's psynergy broke beyond his previous limits and massive crags of rock sprung up in front of the group of adepts, forming a protective shield.
Right before impact, the dragon once again unfurled its wings to slow its descent. Mia's watery barrier was the first to be hit, snuffing out some of the flames, but not having as much of an effect as she would have liked.
The still large fireball and dragon behind it collided with Isaac's mountainous barrier. Weakened though the attack was by Mia's efforts, it was still a titanic blow that started to crack the stones of Isaac's makeshift mountain range upon impact.
Psynergy struggled against psynergy, but in the end, the dragon's raw power won out. The sound of crumbling rock accompanied Isaac's barrier shattering into many pieces as what remained of the fireball blasted everyone backward in a large explosion.
Mia could feel herself being knocked to the floor, but it turned out to be at least partially beneficial as the largest chunks of rock from Isaac's spell fell upon the previous location of the adepts.
Even though they had avoided the worst of it, there was no way to completely dodge the smaller stones hurtling past the them. Mia felt a pain on her shoulder as a broken shard of rock ripped open a wound on its way past, damaging her Imilian robe in the process. The injury wasn't too bad, but unfortunately the others weren't as lucky.
Immediately starting to heal herself after recovering from the explosion, Mia took stock of her friends.
Garet had been hit in the torso and was down for the count, struggling to breath and recover. His blade lay by his side, all but abandoned as the Mars adept lay curled up, clutching his wound.
Ivan was on his knee examining his own injury, with a shard of rock embedded in his leg and blood dripping down from the puncture wound.
Isaac was doing slightly better with cuts and scrapes all over from the blastback of rocks, but didn't appear to have any serious injuries Mia could see.
Abandoning her own wound for now, Mia made her way to Ivan to take a closer look while Isaac made his way over to Garet.
Both adepts had to carefully avoid the remaining rocks and rubble strewn across the lighthouse from the remnants of the attack. The damage to the lighthouse was extensive as well, with cracks starting to form in the ancient structure's floor as a result, but nobody had the time to pay attention to that just now.
Fortunately, the dragon was unable to act quickly after such a massive struggle as well, and was sluggishly rising from the crouching position it had landed in.
Ivan's wound was certainly bad, but it looked a lot worse than it was. With no time for niceties, Mia pulled the stone out of Ivan's leg without warning and applied healing psynergy to the wound to patch it up.
Though the glow of Mercury psynergy did its job, Mia's hands became a bloody mess in the process. Wiping them off on her robes, she glanced over to see how Isaac was managing with redhead was sitting up now at least, and Isaac's healing psynergy was doing a good job of helping Garet recover.
Turning back toward Ivan, Mia reached out to help him stand, watching as the blonde boy gingerly put some weight onto the injured leg to see how it would hold up. Slowly Ivan was able to limp around a bit, and though it was by no means fully healed, the leg was at least serviceable for now.
The dragon was now up again, though it too had clearly been injured by the collision of fire and stone. With nobody ready to contend with it at all, Mia knew any further attacks from the monster would be potentially life threatening.
Thinking fast, Mia cast another quick spell to coat the floor between themselves and the dragon with ice to buy a few extra seconds.
Taking one step onto the slick ice, the dragon let out a roar of frustration and stopped to melt the ice away with its fiery breath. As flames licked the ice and stone beneath, steam rose from the ground as Mia's spell mented away and boiled from the intense heat.
With Mia's delaying tactic overcome, Ivan recognized the impending danger as well and called upon his psynergy instead of relying on his injured leg. Utilizing the broken and busted up environment around him, Ivan whipped up a whirlwind that sucked in rubble and stone before sending it in the direction of the approaching dragon.
With the high speed of the wind and objects floating around, Ivan's attack was even more effective at halting the dragon. Tucking away its face to prevent injury to the eyes or snout, the dragon could do nothing about sharp stones and rock slashing away at its wings with puncture wounds and small tears.
Mia took advantage of Ivan's spell and conjured some ice shards to toss into the maelstrom and add to the swirling debris.
With the dragon continuing to be held off, Garet finally was able to catch his breath and get back to his feet thanks to Isaac's healing abilities.
Grabbing his sword, the resilient Mars adept cast a series of explosive fire psynergy to get the dragon's attention.
Ivan finally let his whirlwind spell fade away with everyone else back to fighting form and took a moment to catch his breath as well after draining a lot of his remaining psynergy keeping it going.
Isaac backed Garet up while healing up his own more minor injuries, following Garet into melee combat.
The dragon was of the same mind and leaped toward the pair, agitated over the whirlwind and explosions, looking for someone to take its anger out on.
The clash of claw and steel rang out once more on the summit of the lighthouse as the pair of boys contended with the dragon head on. Due to Garet's injury, Isaac took the lead and bore the brunt of the burden in order to allow the Mars adept time to adjust to the physical condition of his body.
Ivan's leg was hampering his agility too much to allow for his usual fighting style, and as a result the blonde boy hung back to cast more psynergy with all the reserves of power he could muster.
Mia noticed this and grabbed her mace, determined to fill in for the role Ivan normally performed to the best of her ability. Freezing over the head of the mace to add extra heft to it, Mia rushed in from the side of the dragon and landed a strong blow against the kneecap of a hind leg. The sickening cracking noise of a broken bone rang out, followed by another roar as the injured dragon's gaze swept quickly over to the offending Mercury adept.
The quick pivot caught both Isaac and Garet off guard, forcing both of them to instantly contend with the swiping tail heading their way. Unable to dodge it, both adepts attempted to block the blow and got knocked to the floor as a result.
With a hiss of displeasure, the dragon opened its snout and released a torrent of flame at Mia. The cerulean haired girl stood still as flames licked at her body and robes, but protected herself with another watery veil that dissipated the danger of the attack. The air around her was still quite hot however, and Mia felt like she had just stepped out of a sauna as she moved forward the second the breath attack stopped.
Swinging her mace directly at the dragon's head as the beast snapped its jaws at her, Mia managed to land a solid hit against its jaw before diving out of the way of a massive claw slamming into the ground where she was just standing.
Seeing the stone of the lighthouse floor crack under the impact of the claw, Mia was glad to have avoided that attack, though it was closer than she would have liked. Her Imilan robes were definitely not designed with fast paced melee combat in mind, and Mia made a note to factor that into account for next time.
Isaac and Garet managed to recover quickly from the tail attack and rushed back in to flank the dragon and get its attention back on them. Isaac called upon spires of stone to send into the dragon's back, while Garet burned some of his psynergy to pelt the dragon's hide with multiple smaller fireballs despite their reduced effectiveness.
While certainly painful for the dragon, this alone wasn't enough to distract it from its current target. Mia picked herself up from the ground to get out of the way of the second claw swiping towards her from above, but couldn't fully make it out in time.
With a spray of blood the sharp talons raked into her back, slicing cleanly through Mia's flesh as she crumpled to the floor, clear gash marks in her ripped robe that was starting to quickly absorb the blood spilling from her wound, staining it scarlet.
"Mia!" three voices rang out as all three boys saw the Mercury adept fall.
Ivan quickly cut short the psynergy he was gathering for another lightning spell and sent his attack hurtling immediately at the dragon's face to prevent another follow up attack on his fallen comrade.
Isaac attempted to move around the opposite side of the dragon than where Ivan was standing in order to make his way to Mia's side, but ended up directly in the dragon's sights as it turned away from Ivan's attack.
Forced to dive out of the way lest he meet the same fate as the person he was trying to help, Isaac found himself delayed as Mia lay bleeding on the ground, mace all but forgotten next to her.
Garet tried to distract the dragon and grab its attention with three consecutive explosions of Mars psynergy upon the dragon's back, but this time the beast shrugged off the assault and let loose a breath attack at Isaac instead of turning to face the redhead.
Isaac barely had time to register he had messed up in his haste to help Mia before he was engulfed with the incapacitating voices of tourtered souls that Ivan and Mia fell victim to earlier in the fight.
The world around the blonde boy faded out of existence as the voices overwhelmed his senses calling out to him in despair and conjuring up thoughts of the lighthouses being lit and the perpetual failure of their quest so far.
The pain Mia felt was blinding, every tiny movement shooting a fresh wave of agony across her back as she looked over to see Isaac fall to his knees in the ghastly breath she had experienced earlier. Feeling only the faint call of her psynergy in her weakened state, Mia called upon what little she could and sent a wisp of healing energy toward the struggling Venus adept before closing her eyes in pain.
Isaac was still struggling with the invasive voices bringing his greatest fears to bear. The chilling sensation inflected by the attack only got worse as imagery of a cold, lifeless Mia left on the summit of the Venus Lighthouse filled his head.
Among the darkness the briefest flash of warmth passed into the blonde boy, struggling like a candle in the black of night. As soon as the sensation came, it dissipated into nothingness.
Did he imagine it?
"Mia…" he struggled to say, voice barely more than a whisper, drowned out by the swarming souls around him.
The Fog around Isaac's mind began to lift allowing his vision to see just beyond the cloud, to where an injured Mia still lay, arm slightly outstretched in his direction.
She still needed help, and Isaac had to find the strength to push through and make it to her side. Locking eyes with the cerulean haired adept, he struggled to his feet and stumbled step by step out of the mass of souls before collapsing to his knee again and drawing in breaths of fresh air.
Crawling to Mia's side, Isaac called upon all the psynergy he could muster to pour healing energy into his friend's body. Grasping her hand firmly in his own, Isaac felt a wave of relief at its warm touch, confirming the nightmare he had just seen to be false.
Ivan and Garet did not remain idle as Isaac struggled to overcome his fears however. Garet's tactic hadn't worked and so he fell back on the only other choice he had - his sword. Tapped for psynergy, Ivan was also out of options and imbued his rapier with the last vestiges of his power.
The Jupiter adept grimaced as he put his full weight on his injured leg, but didn't have time to worry about the pain or making his injury worse in the current situation. Ignoring the shooting pains in his leg, Ivan rushed in to take on the dragon head on.
Just because it was the only thing he could do, didn't mean it was a good choice for Ivan's own wellbeing. He did get to land a quick series of stabs and slashes on the dragon, focusing mostly on the legs and wing to limit mobility, but without his usual fast footwork, it was certain that Ivan would get caught by an attack eventually.
Garet moved to position himself between the dragon and the pair of Isaac and Mia to buy time for the blonde boy to check on their fallen ally.
As Garet did so, the inevitable happened and Ivan got headbutted across the lighthouse into a pile of rubble that had accumulated from the fight, leaving the Mars adept as the only one left to protect the entire group for the time being.
Mia felt the pain begin to abate as Isaac poured healing energy amplified by the growing Venus beacon in the background to help heal up her wounds. It was a welcome relief, and Mia gently squeezed Isaac's hand to let him know she was appreciative for the help.
Turning her head to look over at the blonde boy, Mia could see concern written on Isaac's face as he worked on her back. Despite Isaac's improved healing abilities, it was still a major wound and there was no way to completely heal it in the limited time available to them. Every second would need to be bought by Garet.
"Oh no you don't!" Garet yelled out, bringing his sword around and cleaving into the dragon's shoulder as the beast attempted to turn its attention toward Isaac and didn't look good with Ivan now out of the fight, Mia still recovering, and Isaac occupied with healing, but the Mars adept stood his ground to protect the pair on the ground.
The dragon looked pissed as it snarled and snapped at Garet, who took a step back while being conscious he could not concede much ground. His Mars psynergy had been less effective against both the dragon and Saturos and Menardi, so fortunately Garet had plenty of energy left with which to fight. The problem was figuring out a way to make his psynergy more effective.
It was with this conundrum in mind that Garet took a quick glance behind him to get his bearings before bringing up his sword to meet the dragon's claw head on. The impact sent tremors through Gartet's arms, but it gave the redhead an idea.
Drawing up his psynergy from deep within, Garet felt his focus grow sharp and tuned out everything else but his sword and the dragon. The next blow Garet delivered collided with the second claw and in the same instant a blast of Mars energy exploded at the impact point, furthering the kinetic energy delivered from his strike.
The combination of pure physical strength and blowback from the psynergy was enough to knock the claw back away from Garet's sword and give him the upper hand for a split second. In his focused state he didn't waste the opening, immediately swinging back towards the dragon's exposed neck.
Another burst of psynergy and accompanying explosion rang out in the open air, creating a minor shockwave that radiated out from the point of impact. Slicing deep into the neck of the dragon, Garet didn't linger long and pulled his bloodied sword back out to continue the assault.
Stepping to the side of the dragon, Garet brought his blade around in a long arc and landed another deep wound accompanied by an explosion of psynergy. His tactic was working and the dragon had no choice but to turn away from the adepts that were out of commission in order to track the active threat.
All Isaac could hear in the background were the booms of Garet's psynergy coupled with shockwaves that displaced loose and cracked stones as they brushed past where he was tending to Mia. With the pain subsiding, Mia was finally able to sit back up and assist Isaac's efforts using her own psynergy for general healing, even though she couldn't see anything on her back.
Ivan had been able to shakily get to his feet, but with his psynergy spent and in no condition to attempt to fight up close, he looked a bit lost on how to contribute as he watched Garet's efforts from a distance.
What Garet was accomplishing by not only single handedly defending three other adepts, but actually managing to push the dragon back as well was nothing short of extraordinary. Ivan found himself mesmerized by the intense display, but soon found worry creeping up as he wondered how long his friend would be able to keep it up.
The exertion was intense, and Garet could feel beads of sweat forming on his brow before dripping down his face. His arms turned to jelly with each additional blow as he focused on just making sure the next strike would land. What came afterwards wouldn't matter so long as he could keep up the assault.
Garet was tiring though and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Though his efforts had caused considerable damage to the dragon buying precious seconds for the other adepts, each strike was becoming slower and more sluggish as the sword Garet was carrying felt heavier in his hands.
Blood dripping from major gashes in its hide, the dragon finally found the chance to properly counterattack and swatted Garet away in a rage. Garet just barely had time to raise his sword to absorb some of the blow and prevent himself from getting pierced by the claws.
The heavily injured dragon didn't pursue though, and instead spread its wings with an ear piercing roar.
That got the attention of every adept as they turned to see the dragon leap off the edge of the lighthouse again and start flying up into the sky. A sense of foreboding loomed over the four knowing what was likely coming.
Isaac called out a warning, abandoning his healing of Mia as the Mercury adept shakily got to her feet and faced the sky. Sure enough as the dragon flew, a ball of concentrated fire psynergy was forming along with it.
With the dragon choosing not to follow up after knocking Garet down, Mia surmised it had to have been heavily injured by Garet's determined assault.
It's putting everything into this final move and trying to take us all out at once, she realized.
"Watch out!" Isaac yelled, even though everyone's attention was already on the deadly attack coming their way.
Calling upon his earthen psynergy, Isaac once again tried to focus on their defenses in an attempt to survive the onslaught.
Reaching the pinnacle of its flight, the dragon seemed to hover in midair for a moment before letting gravity take over and plummeting toward the earth riding a massive ball of flame.
Mia began to chant.
"King of the Sea..."
She closed her eyes, clasping her hands together in the form of a traditional Imilan prayer.
"Master of the Ocean Waves…"
Psynergy swirled around Mia's body as she drew on all the strength she had left, ignoring the still serious injuries she had sustained. She ignored the efforts of Isaac next to her attempting to erect another barrier with his own powers as she continued to chant. She ignored the dragon hurtling towards her to deliver a killing blow as she pushed past her limits, drawing upon her own life force to lend power to her words.
"Navigator of the Darkest Depths…"
The intensity of the psynergy surrounding Mia reached a point that it drew the attention of Ivan and Garet away from the dragon as waves of Mercury power radiated out from the cerulean haired girl in sharp contrast to the Venus beacon continuing to form in the background.
"I call upon you to smite our foes…"
"Neptune!"
Mia cried out, releasing the pent up energy like a wave in all directions, staggering in exhaustion as she opened her eyes before catching herself with Isaac's help. Holding on to the blonde boy for support, time seemed to slow down in the second of calm after Mia's chant.
With a great churning of water in the ocean below, a titanic entity made manifest of Mercury psynergy rose above the waves. Resembling a purple whale nearly the size of the Venus lighthouse itself, the sight was incredible to behold and would be wholly unbelievable to everyone present had it not been witnessed by their own eyes.
A surge of psynergy could be felt from the being, almost drowning out the presence of the dragon's head on attack. In the next moment a bright flash of light blinded everyone before coalescing into a beam of intense Mercury power that cut through the sky and into the heavens.
The beam hit the dragon dead on in a massive explosion just above the top of the lighthouse, knocking everyone to the ground once more as Mercury and Mars clashed to determine which would reign supreme.
A defiant roar came from the dragon as it struggled with all its might against the power of the seas, but in the end lost out. The massive fireball once threatening the lives of the adepts below was gone, its power fizzling out in the face of such overwhelming Mercury energy. Piercing the body of the dragon and leaving a gaping hole, the beam of light continued onward parting even the clouds above off in the distance before dissipating itself.
The dragon plummeted into the top of the lighthouse with a crash, coming to rest near the beacon that was continuing to grow. The entity that answered Mia's call disappeared as quickly as it came in a burst of psynergy down below.
As each adept stood up in shock and awe, they looked upon the fallen dragon with a hole where nearly half its body should have been. Particles of Mars psynergy were rising from the wound, slowly floating away into the sky before winking out of existence entirely.
Isaac brushed aside the matter of the incredible feat of psynergy quickly as he felt Mia slump against him, utterly drained from her part in what had just happened and the injury from before. Putting his arm around her to provide support, Isaac went back to calling upon his healing psynergy to stabilize Mia's condition.
A gentle burst of psynergy saw the form of the dragon completely vanish and in its place stood a shocked Saturos and Menardi. For a moment all eyes were on the pair of Mars adepts as they stood silently in front of the Venus Lighthouse beacon, particles of psynergy continuing to slowly erode from their bodies.
Holding out a gloved hand and turning it over as if inspecting the energy leaking out of it, Saturos had a look of resigned calm on his face. "So…this is how it ends then…" he stated simply.
Menardi shook her head. "We…lost?" she asked, glancing at the devastation around her before her eyes settled on the four adepts that had defeated her.
"All we wanted...was to save our people…..and you would deny us?" she lamented as her body continued to dissipate before her very eyes.
Saturos looked up to the sky for a brief moment, watching his escaping life force wink out of existence above. Menardi followed suit and without another word, both fell backward into the light from which the Venus beacon was forming, and were gone.
The only hint of their final end was the brief escape of Mars particles before Venus was all that remained.
A moment of silence passed with the deaths of the adversaries Isaac and his friends had been chasing after all this time, conflicting emotions swirling within each of them.
"We did it. We won." Garet finally stated, propping himself up with his sword and staring into the abyss their enemies had fallen in.
Ivan shook his head. "We beat them…but have we really won?" he asked, indicating the almost fully formed Venus Lighthouse beacon.
Isaac was focused on continuing to heal Mia, but took the time to shake his head in response. "No," the older blonde boy stated.
"Sure, we didn't save the Venus Lighthouse…" Garet admitted before indicating where Saturos and Menardi had been standing moments ago. "...But they're gone. We don't need to worry about any more lighthouses being lit," Garet added.
"Felix…still has Sheba…" Mia spoke up weakly, reminding the others that Saturos and Menardi weren't the only ones here.
The four adepts all shifted their gaze over to where Felix and Sheba were standing, looking just as stunned about the defeat of Saturos and Menardi as the pair of them were before.
Felix acknowledged their gaze with an incredulous shake of his head. "No one knew their power better than I did," he called out across the summit of the lighthouse. "If you destroyed them…Then I am no match for you now," he stated.
"I must go," Felix told the four. "Come Sheba," he ordered.
"Wait, Felix!" Garet yelled over at him.
"Why do you run from us?" Ivan interjected.
"They fell into the lighthouse. It's all over!" Garet exclaimed, trying to get Felix to understand.
The Venus adept just shook his head though. "Poor fools… If you think it's over, you are sadly mistaken!"
Mia regained enough strength to lift her head again and glance over towards Felix and Sheba. "If you plan to light the other beacons…you will still need…" she tried to get out.
Felix cut her off. "The Elemental Stars? We have them!"
"They're gone, Felix! You don't have to light the beacons anymore…" Ivan tried to reason with the brown haired adept.
"Yes. I do. If I don't light the beacons…" Felix trailed off.
"Then what?!" Garet snapped, starting to lose his patience.
"There's no use in talking about it," Felix replied with a shake of his head. "Just wait and see…"
"That's insane," Mia stated, thinking back to the mandate of the Mercury Clan to protect the lighthouse.
Isaac finally spoke up. "Regardless, if you don't release Sheba, we'll have to take her back by force," Isaac warned Felix.
Once again Felix began to shake his head to refuse, but was interrupted by a bright flash of light as the Venus beacon finished forming.
There was a massive crashing noise and the ground began to violently shake as the lighthouse physically split apart into four pieces with the beacon at the center. The earthquake continued to rage for several seconds as Isaac and his friends all stabilized themselves to prevent them from meeting the same fate as Saturos and Menardi by falling into the depths of the lighthouse.
Garet finally looked over to where Felix and Sheba had been standing. "They're too far away now!" he said judging the gap in the lighthouse to be an impossible distance to jump. "We can't reach Felix!" he exclaimed as the shaking continued.
"Noooo! Sheba!" Felix's voice could be heard over the commotion.
"Hold on Sheba! Take my hand!" Felix called out with desperation in his voice.
"I…can't…" replied Sheba who was hanging onto the edge of the shaking lighthouse with both hands for dear life.
The four adepts on the other side of the summit were able to barely make out the scene playing out across the way.
"You must try!" Felix told Sheba. "If you don't, you'll fall!" Felix continued to reach out his hand towards the Juptier adept below him.
While trying to pull herself to safety, Sheba caught a glimpse of what was happening below.
"Look down… The foundations of the lighthouse are crumbling!" she exclaimed as a warning that the entire structure might collapse.
Felix cursed. "Why is this happening?" he asked as he stretched his hand out even further, trying desperately to grab hold of one of Sheba's hands. "Is it…to protect the lighthouse?" he mused, grunting as he continued to struggle in vain to reach Sheba.
Then the words he didn't want to hear came out of Sheba's mouth.
"I'm slipping," the blonde girl said matter of factly. "I…can't hold on any longer," she told the boy above her as one hand dropped away from the ledge she was holding onto.
"Nooo! Don't let go! You can't! You'll…" Felix trailed off as he repeated his pleas from before.
"Good-bye Felix…and thank you," Sheba said as her last few fingers slipped and she finally fell off the edge of the lighthouse.
Everyone looked on in shocked horror as Felix slowly got to his feet in a daze.
"Sheba! No! I won't let you die!" Felix screamed before he dove off the edge after her.
Isaac, Garet, Ivan, and Mia were shocked before, but the act of Felix jumping after her stunned them all to silence for several seconds, with just the tremors of the earth to keep them company.
"Did he just…?" Ivan asked, breaking the silence among the group.
"I can't believe he did that from so high up," Mia stated, kneeling on the ground for stability with Isaac helping to support her.
Isaac just stared off into the distance where Felix had just jumped from, the healing he was providing to Mia completely forgotten.
"Felix you idiot!" Garet took his frustration out on the missing adept. "I can't believe he said he'd light the other beacons too."
"And we would have had to fight him too if this hadn't happened…" Ivan reminded Garet.
"That was an act of self sacrifice though…He's not like Saturos or Menardi," Mia voiced with a shake of her head after watching the display unfold.
Garet shook his head. "Regardless, we'll have to decide what to do next," Garet said, looking over to Isaac for leadership.
It was Ivan who answered however. "What to do? What can we even do?" Ivan replied.
"What about Jenna?" Mia asked, bringing up the red headed girl, even though it pained her to do so.
Garet let out a curse. "Of course. I can't believe I forgot about Jenna!" he exclaimed. "Isaac!" he said, walking over to where the blonde boy continued staring off into the distance. "We've got to find Jenna!" he told Isaac, shaking the Venus adept out of his trance.
"Jenna?" Isaac questioned, looking around at the faces glancing back at him. "Yes…of course," he answered as he tried to regain his composure.
The shaking finally slowed to a stop as the earthquake subsided, and with another crash all the split sections of the lighthouse regained their original form and pushed back together again.
"It's back to normal again!" Ivan stated.
"That means we can go search for Jenna right?" Garet asked, looking around at the others.
Isaac nodded. "Soon, yes…but first we need to get down from here and deal with these injuries," he said. "You and I can go search for her, but first we need to get Mia and Ivan to safety," Isaac explained.
Garet was battered and bruised, but not severely injured. Mia and Ivan on the other hand had much more serious injuries - Mia had her injured shoulder and the deep gash on her back to worry about, while Ivan had his busted leg and what seemed to be some cracked ribs from getting headbutted across the summit of the lighthouse.
Garet acknowledged the concern with a nod. "Fair enough. I'll help you Ivan," he said as he went over to provide support to the Jupiter adept as he walked.
"I can still walk you know," Ivan stated, trying to sound independent despite giving in and accepting Garet's help anyway.
"I don't know if you'll be able to fix this robe," Isaac commented, taking one more look at Mia's back where her robe was torn to shreds and the gashes were still fresh on her skin underneath. "Are you going to be okay to get back down?" he asked her, thinking ahead to how the wound would need to be bandaged up to fully heal properly.
Mia gave Isaac a smile. "I can make it," she replied, thankful for the healing that had helped her so far.
Mia began to slowly follow after Garet and Ivan who were already making their way over to the lifts on the right wing of the lighthouse, but stopped as she noticed Isaac hadn't moved to follow and was looking back out towards the ocean again.
"Isaac?" she questioned, getting the blonde boy's attention. "What is it?" she asked, knowing there was something specific on the Venus adept's mind.
Isaac shook his head. "It feels like I must have been seeing things…" he confided in Mia. "But, I could have sworn I saw the sea swell up in the instant that Sheba fell and Felix jumped after her," he explained.
Mia glanced out toward the ocean for a moment too as if it contained some insight into what Isaac had seen. "So what you're saying is…" she started to reply, catching on to Isaac's train of thought.
Isaac nodded.
"They might have survived."
AN: And with that, the first Golden Sun game draws to a close. I think if you managed to make it this far you probably know the answer to the "cliffhanger" at the end there, so I hope you look forward to The Lost Age timeline when I get around to writing it.
I have to admit this final battle was a tough one to write as I'm constantly trying to one up the fight scenes, and there's only so much more I can do while leaving things within the realm of reason. I had about half the fight written before running into writers block for a while, struggling to figure out how to make a dragon fight interesting after such a pivotal encounter against Saturos and Menardi (where we could mix up the combat a bit from the standard formula of giant boss with claws/tentacles/etc). Hopefully it turned out all right.
I'm glad I managed to finish the whole first arc of Golden Sun, and I'm looking forward to fleshing out some of the ideas I have in mind for what comes next.
As always thank you for reading!
