Author´s Note1: As I wrote in the explanation chapter, this here is a jump back and forth between the present and flash backs.
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The Inferno.
That´s what we called it later, the Inferno of Orario. A whole district burned, another was about to get devoured. It all happened so suddenly, there was no warning, no signs, nothing. If it was a monster that was bound to the ground, we would have noticed it sooner, but since it was able to fly and came at night, it was probably natural.
And then what followed...when the brave heroes moved out to face the giant dragon. It felt surreal for them, some had thought that they would prepare for a long time and then they would go to hunt the dragon.
But the black dragon king had something else in mind.
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Tiona ached while she put down her pen, her wrist hurt from writing so much. Looking back, it was the fight of her life, but some things that happened had shaken them all to the core, many tears got shed.
She used her crutch again to move, a wound like that would take a while to heal. The healer told her she was lucky that she even kept her leg after taking such a hit.
With a wry smile she touched her leg, that hit wasn´t a pleasant memory.
She had read about the saying "The beast moved much faster than it´s size should allow." and always wondered about that. Until she was part of facing the black dragon. Ruin, the weapon she was wielding, had dealt a fair amount of damage to the scales of the dragon. She hadn´t attacked at a specific spot, but they all followed Finn´s strategy, which put them all in mortal danger, but they had no choice.
The deafening roar of the dragon prevented her from hearing the warning.
In one moment, Tiona was jumping towards the dragon, Ruin raised, then she felt the greatest pain in her life. Her field of vision suddenly was ripped to the side, at first she thought the dragon was moving away, but it was her that got moved to the side. They all had learned two important things about dragons, their breath attack was the deadliest weapon they had. And the other was...the behind of a dragon was the second most dangerous spot.
Just for this short moment, Tiona didn´t looked out for the tail of the dragon.
She couldn´t compare the pain of this hit to anything she had ever received. Tiona had screamed like never before in her whole life, her leg didn´t got only broken, it got shattered. She was thrown to the side, rolled a long distance over the ground until the came to a hold, screaming from immense pain and rage. Her berserker skill kicked in, it numbed the pain a little bit. She tried to get up, they told her later that her eyes were gleaming red from her rage, the aura around the black dragon also had something to do with that.
Amid ran to her, she accompanied the party, and did her best to stabilize Tiona, but something like that couldn´t be healed in the field. Amid called someone else to bring Tiona away from the battlefield, a certain cat man that looked really pissed. Freya´s high executives went with the Loki Familia. Ottar had a dragon scale weapon on his own, Hedin could use his magic, Hogni his cursed sword. But for Allen Fromel, there wasn´t a weapon and his own spear would be completely useless against the scales.
So he had no other choice but to help Amid, his mistress had ordered it after all.
Tiona owed both of them her life.
And now, she had to wait until it was healed completely. All she could do after getting hit like that was watching, while pain and rage fought in her hazy mind. Her berserker skill had it´s downsides.
But maybe it was fate? She would write down the story and now she could take in everything that happened.
The good...and the bad things.
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Tiona limped through the hallways of the Twillight Mansion, it was quiet here...really quiet. Not all members of the familia had survived the fight, they had to take the full party after all. Now and then, Tiona heard a sob, some of them had lost good friends, but all of them comrades.
She still had to smile slightly when she thought about who had the strongest reaction.
Bete.
For the first time when they lost comrades, he had screamed out his pain and cried openly. The reason for that stood next to him, Lena had really changed Bete and showed him it was better to let his feelings out. Luna and Sierra saw their father like this for the first time. Lena had explained to them, that even strong amazons like them or fierce warriors like their father were allowed to do that and should do that to honor their comrades.
And Bete felt for the first time the liberating feeling of crying and mourning with his friends.
Tiona arrived at the entrance to the living room, a smile appeared on her lips.
""Tiona!""
"Hey you two, oh oh, slowly."
"Hey, be careful, she is weak on her legs."
"Who is weak, Bete?!"
Sierra and Luna looked up to the other amazons of the familia and really liked Tiona. Both wore simple dresses, Bete didnt allowed his daughters to walk around like usual amazons. Lena on the other hand wore her usual outfit with the orange vest.
They all had seen how much Lena had cried from happiness, that Bete returned to her after such a fight.
"Do you mind if I sit down here for a little bit? I don´t want to be all alone..."
Instead of answering, Bete got up and helped her to the couch, letting her sit down carefully. He even put a pillow under her foot.
"Hehe, you really are a softie, Bete."
"Watch out what you say."
Tiona just smiled.
When Bete sat down next to Lena, she snuggled up to him. "My hubby really is a good one."
"Not you too..."
"Ehehe."
""Papa is a softie?""
"Irgh..."
Bete Loga was surrounded by four amazons, one of them his wife, two his daughters and the last his good friend.
He still had a hard time to relax.
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In another part of Orario, a goddess stood in front of the ash of her Mansion, an empty look on her face.
Freya had lost nearly everything. Her Mansion together with ninety percent of her familia was gone now. The only children she had left were Ottar, Hedin, Allen, the Gullivers and Helun.
Well Mia and Ahnya too if she counted them.
Hogni hadn´t made it...
His other personality, which he could activate with his magic, had made him just a tiny little bit too careless. The dragon got him with the claw, pinned him to the ground and...he got enough time to scream when the maw came down and closed around his upper half...
Freya knew that maybe not all of her children would make it, not against an enemy like the black dragon.
It still hurt. So much of what was hers was gone now. At least the pub was unharmed and all of her friends were there. That was something.
Her room in Babel was gone, the dragon´s fire had destroyed everything and it would take a long time to repair the damaged tower.
A light smile came to her lips, something happened afterwards that she hadn´t expected. Hestia told her she and her familia could live in her Mansion, but she wasn´t allowed to flirt with even one man that lived there.
"Lady Freya?"
"Ottar?"
"What shall we do, what are your wishes?"
"Hah...as much as I like Hestia´s Mansion and having a bit of fun there, we need a home on our own. Start rebuilding it."
"As you wish."
All of them were too eager to follow her wishes, she had praised them for their good fight against the black dragon.
"Helun? Allen?"
"Yes, Mylady?"
"...Yes?..."
"Hehe, don´t make such a face, Allen, come you two, we have work waiting for us."
It was Freya´s decision that Allen would work at the pub part time now. Mia gave her okay, she knew why Freya did that. After he returned to Orario, Ahnya had jumped at her big brother and refused to let him go, cried for a long time at his chest, saying again and again how happy she was that he was alive.
Ahnya wanted to tell and show Allen so much, like her boyfriend.
In a short show of sadism, Mia announced that it would be Ahnya that showed Allen the ropes. The cat man was absolutely not happy about it...at least that´s what most people thought.
I wonder what our heroes are doing.
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Bell left the Heart Mansion through the front gate, his goal was the hospital of the Dian Cecht familia. Many people that he passed looked at him, nodding to him or saying their thanks. There was no cheering, too much got destroyed by the black dragon and the shock was still fresh.
Smoke still rose from the remains of the Daedalus Street, the fire was fought, but the smoke would still rise for a while. Thankfully, the wind had turned and the smoke moved away from the city.
His mind felt a bit empty, he was still overwhelmed by their fight and what had happened.
Eventually he arrived at the hospital, Bell was here for a reason. He stopped in front of a room...Ais was inside there.
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Lefiya still sobbed while she walked through the Twillight Mansion. Losing comrades always hurt. And she felt her heart getting squeezed when she walked past Riveria´s room.
Riveria´s...empty...room.
The memory of what happened was pure horror for Lefiya.
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The ground shook and the roars of the dragon were painful for the elves. They still did their best to follow Finn´s strategy. A golden shine surrounded Lefiya and Riveria, as well as a few others. Haruhime stood a few dozen meters behind them and focussed on her enchantement, next to her was the amazon Aisha, who´s only job was to protect Haruhime.
Riveria and Lefiya chanted together, while fire was useless against the black dragon, except when Bell charged up his own spell, ice was something they could use.
""Harbinger of the end, the white snow. Blow with the wind before the twilight. Closing light, the freezing land. Bliz-""
The time went down and flew like honey. Lefiya only catched a glimpse of something moving, but it was too fast. In the corner of her eye she saw how Riveria was ripped backwards with a scream. The high elf flew out of Lefiya´s field of vision, out of sheer shock the younger elf stopped her magic.
"Lady Riveria!"
Lefiya heard Alicia´s scream, the had prepared her own ice magic, but just like Lefiya, stopped it. They saw the expression of shock and confusion in Riveria´s face as she flew backwards and hit the ground. No...not hitting the ground...Riveria stood halfway, she could´t fall to the ground.
""AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!""
The two younger elves screamed on the top of their lunges.
Rivera was impaled. A long, sharp thorn had impaled her right through the solar plexus and came out of her back, digging into the ground and holding the elf up.
"Buhargh.."
Riveria spit blood and looked in horror down on herself. The thorn was over two meters long with a diameter of at least ten centimeters. It was like a lance from a rider was driven through her body.
"Wha-...A-...I-..."
She was hard to understand, blood spurted out of her mouth, which meant that her windpipe was punctured... and possibly her lungs.
""LADY RIVERIA!""
The young elves ran to her, they were beyond panicked.
""HEALER! HEALER!""
Riveria´s staff fell out of her twitching hand, her legs gave in and she fell to her knees, more wasn´t possible due to the thorn inside her.
She was as good as dead, such a wound was fatal.
Her shaking hands tried to get up to the thorn, but her body already wouldn´t listen to her anymore. And yet the didn´t screamed...Riveria couldn´t scream anymore.
Eventually Lefiya and Alicia arrived at Riveria´s side. The thorn got thicker to the end, so pulling her off it was out of question.
"Lady Riveria!"
"Al-..*Cough*"
"Alicia, help me!"
Lefiya grabbed the thorn and tried her best to pull. Blood started to flow down, Lefiya cut her palms at the thorn, but she didn´t minded and tried her best.
"Lady Riveria, please forgive us!"
Alicia ran on the other side of Riveria, grabbed the thorn there with her hands and tried together with Lefiya to get that thing out of the ground. More blood flew, Riveria´s out of her body, Lefiya´s and Alicia´s down from their hands.
Do I...die...like this?
Riveria already got weaker, her robe turned dark from all the blood, she couldn´t feel her legs or anything below the thorn. It had pierced her spine as well. She knew she would die, not even Amid could heal that.
"Le-...Al-..."
Even the two elves couldn´t understand what Riveria said.
""Lady Riveria!""
They cried, Alicia and Lefiya cried, seeing Riveria like that broke their hearts.
Riveria´s eyes moved from one of her pupils to the other, they saw the light slowly fading...
""NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!""
Due to Lefiya and Alicia crying out in horror, disbelief and terror...Ais looked into their direction.
Ais´ scream was immense loud, her wind magic that circled around her enhanced her voice.
Ais didn´t screamed in horror...her scream was anger incarnate.
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Lefiya sniffed, the memory was really painful.
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In the hospital, Bell opened the door slowly.
Ais sat there on a chair, Albrecht on her lap.
"Papa!"
"Hey my little boy."
He walked to the chair and knelt down, while Albrecht stretched his arms towards Bell.
"Bell."
"Ais."
She smiled and let her son go, Ais wore the long, white dress that she liked so much. Her right hand was wrapped in bandages, it got broken during the fight.
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Ais had screamed in sheer anger when she saw Riveria being impaled and going limp. It looked like the One Eyed Black Dragon had taken her mother and her mom away from her.
Tears filled her eyes, tears of fury. The golden wind around her intensified as she attacked faster and faster. Zephyr was one of the few weapons that wasn´t made out of the black scales and yet was able to hurt the dragon.
Their strategy had Ais at it´s center and she gave her everything to achieve the goal.
"AVENGER TEMPEEEEEST!"
Black wind appeared within the golden wind, enhancing Ais´ abilities against the one thing she saw as a true, real monster. Together with the golden fox ears and the tail made out of light, due to being enchanted by Haruhime, Ais really looked like a divine being, a true spirit of the forests. The golden wind and energy circled around Zephyr, whenever she hit the black dragon, a screeching sound rang out and she shredded his scales more than she pierced them.
But the dragon was enormous and her sword couldn´t get really deep. To let such a titan bleed wasn´t going to kill him...but that wasn´t Ais´ goal.
All the others intensified their attacks. The Freya familia was focussed on the back of the dragon, even when they hated to work together like that, they had to do it, their Mistress had ordered it and told them, she would take her love away from everyone that wouldn´t do it. It wasn´t a hollow threat.
Everything that Finn had planned happened at once, it had to happen at once or they would probably fail. Hedin Selland didn´t flinched when Riveria was impaled and probably killed on the spot, he pulled all of his magic into him and unleashed a lightning storm onto the dragon´s back. Bell had charged his firebolt for quite a while and shot it right into the blind side of the dragon´s head. Since he was way more intelligent than a normal monster, it should be able to see through their strategy. But the problem was, the dragon was highly intelligent, he was extremely powerful, probably the most powerfull monster in the world...and he knew that.
He was proud of his intelligence and strength...and this made him arrogant. A characteristic that most monsters were immune against, since they had no sense of pride.
But the One Eyed Black Dragon was proud, incredibly proud.
So Bell´s and Hedin´s attacks on his blind side angered him. He turned his head to them and roared fiercly, while chasing after them. In the moment that he turned into their direction, Finn Deimne moved faster than any mortal could ever hope to move...well it wasn´t actually him that moved. Like a knight of the old tales, he sat on top of a horse and charged forward, his speer held like a lance.
But this was no ordinary horse.
"HELL FINNEGAS!"
"LET`S GO, FINN!"
The one that answered Finn...was the horse. Or rather...the spirit Finnegas. Bell didn´t knew from where this spirit came, Finn had just said something about blood and being bound to it. He hat just sat on the spirit and gave out orders, so the dragon had ignored him.
So the dragon couldn´t know how fast Finnegas could move. The tip of the lance was made from a scale too, together with the enchantement of Haruhime and Finn´s magic, together with Finnegas´ power, it was harder than the scale around the dragon´s stomach.
"For my wife and child! For the prums! For Orariooooo!"
The dragon was about to turn the head into his direction when the lance pierced the scales and got rammed deep into his flesh.
"DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!"
For the first time, the dragon screamed not only in rage, but also in pain.
And the natural reaction was to kill Finn for that. But the prum general had immediately let go of his lance and rode away with Finnegas, to retrieve his spear, the whole purpose of the lance was for that one attack and to remain stuck in the dragon´s flank. It didn´t hindered the dragon completely, but it hurt when he moved.
The adventurers attacked from all sides and fell back afterwards. No one risked anything, not against this enemy.
Finn had managed to achieve his goal, he created an opening and distracted the dragon from the true attack.
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"Silver moon's mercy, the golden wilderness. This body is destined for the wild boar of the war. Run through, carry the goddess' will."
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No one of the others had ever seen Ottar use his magic.
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"Hildis Vini!"
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What followed was hard to describe, but the result was all that was important. Ottar´s enormous hammer crushed one of the wings of the dragon, letting it scream again. Bones and torn flesh were sticking out as the wing fell to the side, useless for the dragon now.
But what was more important, he couldn´t fly anymore...the dragon was bound to the ground.
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They still would have probably lost the fight, if the fight hadn´t actually started over a thousand years ago. The black dragon had one important weakness, the missing eye. Without Albrecht Waldstein, the father of Ais Wallenstein, who had given his life to protect his small daughter back then and taking one of the dragon´s eyes, they would have never won against this beast.
And it was exactly that what Finn´s plan was, to give Ais her revenge and step up to her father.
Blinded by rage and pain, the dragon attacked in every direction. His breath was the most dangerous weapon in his arsenal, but they knew the signs now when he started to do that. The sound of him sucking in air and the glow that went up from his chest like cracks in the scales, also he would pull his head up and open his maw.
Right when he wanted to do that, he saw the one thing that was able to scare this titan.
Albert Waldstein.
The dragon saw the man that had wounded him, Albert Waldstein.
The eye widened, it wasn´t the man, but the small child that he had seen back then. But now the child was an adult woman, her eye filled with pure hatred for him...and behind her...the the almost transparent silhouette of Albert Waldstein, who performed exactly the same movements as his beloved daughter. Ais and...maybe it was Albert's soul...or his spirit...they raised their right arm together, screamed at the top of their lungs. Zephyr and the silver blade were pushed forward together. Ais didn't know it, but she copied her late father's maneuver in minute detail...and rammed her sword hilt-deep into the dragon's remaining eye.
She and Albert's shadow would be the last thing the dragon would ever see.
With Ais yelling out her anger...and yes even smiling from delight...and her father´s shadow showing a mean smile.
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He was blind.
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The following scream was more a painfull shreek, only once in his life had he felt such pain. His scream got high pitched when Ais´ wind magic did it´s work...and shredded the eye to pieces. This made sure that this wound would never heal, the eye got completely destroyed. In rage and pain, the dragon threw his head around. The sudden movement of the head broke Ais´ wrist and catapulted her to the side, Zephyr still burried in the eyesocket.
Blood and other liquids flew everywhere, everyone dashed away from the dragon that threw itself around in pain. We was wounded, heavily wounded...and blind!
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Albrecht hugged his father while Bell kissed his forehead and patted his back.
Ais raised Bell´s free hand with her good one and gently kissed his knuckles.
"How is your hand?"
"Still tingles."
"I´m sure it will become better...my hero."
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After Finn´s strategy had worked and the One Eyed Black Dragon was blind, they attacked his head from all sides, bombarding him with magic and weapons. He could barely fight back, wasn´t used to have no eyesight.
They had to put everything on one card.
Bell.
He stood there and charged his Argonaut Skill, they needed to give him five whole minutes. More and more light gathered while they did their best to give him the time. But simply charging his skill wouldn´t be enough.
Albert...Sir Albert Waldstein...please give me strength. I want to free your daughter from the nightmare.
There were a few heroes in the past that had fought dragons, but only the great Albert Waldstein had fought against this one.
All his mind focusses on this man, what he had read about him, what Ais had told him about her father...his father-in-law.
GONG!
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In Orario, Hestia looked up.
GONG!
The whole Hestia alliance looked up when they heard the sound. The grand bell.
GONG!
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Hermes stood ont he wall of Orario, surrounded by his familia.
"Come on Bell...you can do it."
GONG!
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The sound of the grand bell thundered all over Oario. All the citizens looked up, all adventurers and all the gods. They had heard this sound before.
GONG!
In the darkness north of the city, where they saw explosions and lightning...was a single spot of light that shone. A brilliant, white light, from there...they felt hope.
The goddess Freya also had stood on the wall and looked north.
Bell...you can do it. You are the man I fell in love with once, show them why!
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And maybe, even the gods from heaven looked down for a moment.
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Fire whirled around Bell´s sword Olympus. Before they went out of the city, Ursu, the fire spirit that slept in Welf´s blood, had come out, kissed Welf´s cheek to wish him goodbye.
"Goodbye, Welf."
It was the first time that they heard her talk in the common tongue and not the spirit language. She sounded surprisingly like Hephaistos...but younger and with the crackle of fire.
Lightning washed over his blade, he heard Jupiter´s cheering in his head.
Light washed over his blade, from his own skill.
Wind washed over his blade, coming from Ais.
Olympus shone as if it was a star, Bell could only stare up to the dragon. He could only rely and count on his friends and comrades.
And then...he charged forward.
The power of two greater spirits and his spirit princess fused in the tip of his blade.
And in the chest of the dragon, the spot where he aimed at...glow a green light. Something...or someone...was reacting. And pushed against her prison fromt he inside.
Bell didn´t had a specific warcry...he yelled out what was the most important thing in his heart next to his goddess.
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"AIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS!"
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All of her golden wind came flowing to his sword, she supported him with all she had.
It was now or never.
In the end...the One Eyed Black Dragon didn´t saw it coming...but he felt the danger approaching. The others gave their all to hold him in place, while the white star charged with a roar at him.
All that Bell could see was the green glow in front of him.
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The scream that followed could be heard in all of Orario.
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In the hospital, Bell sat down on a chair next to Ais.
"Ais, how are you feeling?"
"Exhausted...but better. So...so much better."
He saw tears in her eyes...happy tears.
She looked to the bed and smiled.
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"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The dragon screamed louder and louder as Bell drove his blade deeper into the chest. Spirit magic cracked it more open and tore it apart, three..no...four spirits helped Bell with all they had. Three from the outside and...one from the inside. One that was held captive for over a thousand years and had waited for her chance.
The scream changed when Olympus´ tip cracked the outside of the giant magic stone in the dragon´s chest and eventually dug into it.
The prison...was broken.
The dragon´s scream got overpowered by a song more than a scream.
It was the sound of a spirit getting freed.
And Bell Cranel saw at close distance, what an angry spirit could do.
Every hope for the black dragon to survive the stab was shattered. The chest was burst open towards Bell, he was thrown backwards.
For a moment he expected a bloody something to get out of the chest...memories of the Juggernaut filled his mind for a splitsecond.
But what came out...was pure grace.
At first it looked like a green, glowing orb.
But then the form changed, grew bigger, taller and more...human.
More like...Ais.
With a sucking rattle, the dragon collapsed behind the Spirit, she didn't bother to look at him as he slowly began to crumble to ash. Light radiated from her, light and wind. It felt so comfortable and gentle, almost tender.
Bell Cranel.
"Huh?"
The form became clearly visible now. She looked almost like Ais, but a bit older. A true adult woman on the height of her feminine beauty. She could be no one else than...Ais´ mother.
"Ms...Ari-"
"MAMA!"
"Huh?"
Bell turned slightly to the side, another glowing figure flew towards him. But instead surrounded by slight green wind, this one was surrounded by golden wind.
The woman turned to Ais and smiled motherly.
"Ais."
"Mamaaaaaaaa!"
The time went slower again for Bell, but this time not out of horror. He saw Ais jumping forward, her arms stretched out. Tears flew out of her eyes and...she looked so much like a small child that had found it´s lost mother right now.
"Ais!"
Aria made a step forward, stretched her arms too and catcher her crying daughter into her arms.
"Mama! Mama! Mamaaaa!"
"Ais, my little Ais..."
"Waaaah! Waaaaah! Waaaaah!"
Mother and daughter cried in each others arms. Bell had seen Ais cry before, but never like this. She cried like a child...finally was she able to let all of her feelings burst out of her heart.
Aria leaned her forehead against Ais´ and smiled with closed eyes. The green and golden wind that surrounded the two encircled each other, it was a form of cuddling that only wind spirits could do.
Bell saw Ais sniffling and she hiccuped lightly while crying uncontrollably.
For a moment, the wind intensified around their heads and light shone, Bell wondered what they did.
But when the light faded a bit, Ais raised her face and nodded.
"I love you, my little Ais."
"I will miss you, Mama."
"I know, I´m sorry that we don´t have more time. Your father is waiting for me...and I still have something to do."
Aria kissed Ais´ forehead again, then she let go of her daughter, turned into the green orb again and flew to the side.
Bell´s expression got sad when he saw the two crying elves and the still impaled Riveria, who had gotten completely limp and didn´t moved anymore. Alicia and Lefiya were down to their knees and cried their hearts out. Bell felt tears in his eyes too when he saw the dead elf.
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Riveria...
Is this...ah...right...I died...
Riveria...
The elf opened her eyes, everything seemed to have lost color, she felt so light.
Riveria..
She felt like she was flowing up to the sky.
Hah...so this is the end...I hope Ais and the others will become happy.
Riveria.
Hm?
Riveria turned her face to the side, another figure was flowing there, nearly see through. A figure that looked very much like an adult Ais.
You are...
I am Aria...and I wanted to talk to you.
You are Ais´ mother...I´m sorry that I and her -
The spirit shook her head.
No, it´s okay. I don´t have much time left, my strength is mostly gone. I am happy that you gave Ais what she needed.
Yes...but this is now over.
Riveria...can I call you Riveria?
Of course.
Aria smiled. Thank you, Riveria.
Not for that...Aria.
Aria looked up to the sky that they were slowly drifting towards and then down to her daughter.
Ais is crying again, look.
Riveria looked down, Ais had broken down to her knees next to Riveria´s body. Together with Bell, Finn and Gareth...who all cried openly over Riveria´s death, they managed to pull the thorn out of the ground and then out of her body. Her robe was dark from her blood.
Now that she looked down, Riveria saw something like a tiny string that connected her current form with her body.
Riveria, you are not completely dead yet.
What?
I don´t understand the Falna of the gods completely, but with your "level" and the golden shine from the fox girl there, you are like a demi-god at the moment. A bit like my beloved.
Riveria saw Aria smiling lovingly.
But no one can heal this wound, it is a matter of seconds.
Riveria, look closer.
Now she started to notice it. Everything seemed to move so slowly, like in slow motion.
A second means a lot for a dying person.
So I really am dying.
Yes you are. But...I can stop that.
You can?
Yes, I am a greater spirit after all.
But...won´t that take strength away from you?
It does... But I can´t let my little Ais lose her mother and her mom at the same day.
Aria...I...
Riveria...I will put a bit of my essence into you, you know that this is possible.
Riveria had to think about Ursu and Welf.
But Riveria...this comes at a cost...if you want to call it that.
A cost?
You will change, your appearance will change a bit.
Oh.
And...something else.
What do you mean?
Aria leaned closer and whispered it into Riveria´s ear.
I´m sorry, this will happen since it is part of my essence.
This...yes, it is okay.
Suddenly, Aria hugged Riveria gently.
Riveria, please watch over my little Ais, be there for her, help her on her way, be her Mom.
I will. And...Aria?
Yes?
Please greet your husband from me.
Ehehe, I will...Celdia.
Huh?
Riveria was confused, she could have sworn that Aria said another name just now.
Everything turned white and green for Riveria.
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"Grandma!"
Albrecht held his hands towards the woman in the bed. Bell leaned gently forward when Riveria sat up more and held her hands to Albrecht.
"Bell, Ais...you know...being so lovey dovey right next to me is a bit embarrassing."
"I´m sorry, Riveria." Bell smiled.
Ais just smiled happy. "I´m sorry, Mother."
"Grandma, your eyes and hair are so pretty!"
"Thank you, Sweety."
Due to Aria´s magic and essence pouring into Riveria, around a quarter of her hair was now golden instead of jade colored, very similar to Ais´. And when the light fell from the side into her jade colored eyes, it looked like the shone just a tiny little bit golden.
Riveria Ljos Alfr, the princess of the elves, got her blood mixed with that of a spirit. That had saved her life and healed her body.
It was nothing less than a miracle.
Just like the famous Crozzo in the past, she got saved.
And...something else had happened.
Aria had protected the most precious part of her essence deep inside her, while she was trapped in the dragon. This part was as precious to her as Ais, and when she was about to pass on out of her free will, she couldn´t take this part with her.
She had explained to Riveria what would happen, if she would be okay with that.
And Riveria had accepted it...it fulfilled a wish that was inside her for a long time.
.
.
Riveria was pregnant.
.
.
During the time when the One Eyed Black Dragon had attacked Albert and Aria, she already had her essence combined with his again. As Ais had learned on her own out of instinct, a spirit had to do that willingly.
And now that a part of Aria´s essence was within Riveria...the baby would grow inside her.
It wasn´t that Riveria and Aria had become one person, Aria´s soul had moved on to heaven. But the baby would become half spirit and half elf...yet the father was Albert.
And Ais would finally get something she never had...a sibling.
And Riveria, would have two children. Since she and Ais were now directly related by blood.
Ais knew this, and also something else.
Inside of Riveria...
.
Grew her little brother.
.
The only other person for now that knew this, was Loki. She had tried to hug Riveria tightly after she heard what happened. But Riveria had hold Loki away with one hand and protected her belly, that hadn´t grown at all for now, with her other hand.
The goddess looked really shocked.
"WHAT?! My adorable Ri-Ri is going to become even more of a Mommy?! And Ais´ brother will be younger than her son?!"
"Wh-What can I do about it if my daughter has a child so early..."
Ais, who was present during that talk had looked up a bit shy. "Huh?!"
"Ri-Ri...your daughter isn´t an elf, even when she is over a thousand ye-Buhärgh!"
Mother and daughter together dealt a chop with their hands onto Loki´s head.
.
.
Riveria and Ais looked at each other for a moment, then both started to chuckle...and finally to laugh.
.
.
.
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Author´s Note2: Again, the story isn´t over. It will go on but from here on onwards it is mostly slice of life.
I´m sorry for making you think I would kill Riveria. I´m not sorry about a few no named Loki familia members and Hogni, fighting the OEBD without someone dying would look weird.
Next chapter is for Change of Fates.
After that for Blood of Zeus (Ero) "The white rabbit of the Loki Familia", changed from "The white rabbit of the Benevolent Mistress". The next Ero chapter after that will be...Loki.
After that, Spirit Child again, there is still much to tell.