Alphen had died.
He knew that. He'd lived out a good, happy life.
But something even greater than Chronos wanted his friends and him, and for what, he didn't know.
"What happens now?"
Chronos took a step forward, the clock behind him spinning rapidly. The numbers etched upon each sphere glowing with a reality-bending light.
"Now…" Chronos raised a hand at them, a beam of light building within his palm, "…you start over."
Time-Travel Fix-It AU
A/N: Lemme know any spelling or grammar mistakes and I'll get around to fixing them.
Chronostasis – Chapter 6
Rinwell liked to think that out of everyone in their merry little band of friends, Dahnan and Renans alike, she was the one of the most well-adjusted individuals among everyone, second to perhaps Kisara. Compared to everyone else, their quirks and overall personality, she viewed herself as relatively tame in comparison.
Compared to Alphen and his near obsessive penchant for the colour blue and spicy foods. A more fight-my-way-through-a-situation person, and very much hung up on tearing down metaphorical walls borne from exposure to Zephyr.
Compared to Shionne and her gluttonous habits that did at times leave Rinwell, a fellow sweets enthusiast, nauseous at the number of desserts the pink-haired woman could eat in a single sitting. Never mind the obvious damage her thorns had left on her in her earlier years, something that took near two whole decades to completely overcome.
Compared Dohalim and his general lack of consideration for just about anything. In the early stages of their relationship Rinwell had hated him for the sole reason of being a Lord, something which developed into a heavy dislike at the way he tended to create conflict needlessly and accidently with his unthoughtful words. Of course, following her own revelation of the nature of good Renans such as Shionne and Dohalim, and horrible Dahnans such as Dedyme, their friendship over relics grew and the friendship blossomed.
That still didn't mean Dohalim was by far on of the more eccentric and eclectic members of their group. He'd died eating a pufferfish of all things, and he barely batted an eye at death!
The less said about the Law, the better. As much as in her heart-of-hearts she loved the man, he wasn't without his faults, which if she began to list, she'd be standing around for a while thinking it over. She'd also never completely gotten over his feelings for Tigrina in their younger days, even if it may have simply been a result of teenage hormones.
Like she'd mentioned, Kisara was likely the most well-adjusted of their group, a responsible woman who may at times take her caretaker duties a bit overzealously.
Where was she going with this again?
Ah… yes.
Even though she may have been the most well-adjusted among her friend group, it didn't stop her from wanting to drown her current problems in a Tidal Wave.
Rinwell was trying her hardest to make her young child face seem carefree as she read over books on astral artes and energy that her parents wanted her to read through, books that she'd long since mastered while internally trying not to have a mental breakdown at the fact she and Hootle were back in time!
She had spent the last two months feeling like she was walking eggshells, trying to remember what she even did when she was nine-years-old based on her appearance.
Nine!
An age where she was very sure her parents had been dead and buried, re-joining Dahna since they died when she was seven!
Now, Rinwell was exceptionally well-versed in the thought experiment of concepts such as time-travel and alternate universes. Since she'd been affected by whatever Chronos, the Great Spirit of Time and Space, had done, it could very well have been either, which was even worse!
If this was perhaps time-travel then it would mean that whatever action she took would create what was known as a ripple effect, wherein her actions in the current moment would adversely affect and create events that did not happen within her own future/past forming a temporal paradox which would cause a rift in the time stream as a perfect loop was not created causing existence as she knew to cease.
Seeing as she was still breathing, she liked to think that this was not time-travel and more akin to transportation to an alternate universe, however, two things prevented her from finding out if her hypothesis was true.
The first being that the thought experiment regarding time-travel wasn't necessarily a guarantee. Before Almeidrea killed her now living fellow mages, the topic of time travel was a well-discussed theory with multiple explanations and plausibility's to its outcomes.
One such plausibility was the Perfect Loop, that traveling back in time would create an endless loop wherein if you travelled back in time, you always travelled back in time. Since the you of now travelled to the past, a version of you that is still in your past but their present, would follow each action you took to perfect replication and similarly travel to the past creating an endless loop where an individual would theoretically create a closed loop of travelling back in time. That was one such outcome of time-travel that Dahnan mages theorised, of course, if you encountered yourself during your travels to the past, when you had not met yourself in your own past, you would be creating a paradox event where the closed loop breaks, reality shatters and everything ceases to exist as the linear timeline breaks. The same has been theorised to occur if an action is deviated within a closed loop like she'd theorised just moments earlier.
The second plausible outcome of time-travel was that instead of time being linear, it is divergent like tree-branches wherein any action you take won't have an affect on the future you once had as it would no longer be your future, instead creating branching timelines based on 'what-ifs' outcomes, theoretically creating endless universes where an opposite action may have been made compared to what may have happened within the original universe.
Wait…
…wasn't the second outcome basically how time-travel creates alternate universes then?
So… she was in an alternate universe?
But hasn't Chronos mentioned something about 'starting over'?
Wouldn't that imply time-travel then?
And all of that still didn't explain how she was nine rather than seven when her parents died, or how Hootle, who was seventy-years-old, was somehow a baby again!
"Gah!" Rinwell gripped her head, the process of trying to differentiate between time-travel and reality being difficult on such a young mind, regardless of the fact she had decades of researching under her belt, her mind was still that of a child. "This is infuriating…" she grit out, Hootle landing on her shoulder as he have a comforting chirp.
She wondered how the others were faring, also wondering if they'd been sent back in time/to alternate dimensions with her or if they'd all been sent to different timelines and universes all together.
Rinwell flopped face-first into her mattress as she left her families library to go to her room, the house she once lived in well-furnished for Dahnans that hid away from Renan rule. "I'm so tired…" she complained, her face muffled by her pillow.
Honestly, if she was seventy again, she'd have been far too embarrassed to ever do this but being nine again made it as if it was normal for her, which… it really was. She'd been a horrible student, only studying when it was too late to be useful when it mattered most.
That was another thing she had a problem with.
With how far the Dahnan enclave was from Renan rule, tucked away in a hidden crevice of Cyslodia, it was near impossible to tell exactly how far in the past she was. She'd like to say that since her parents were alive, she was somewhere just before Almeidrea attacked, but without finding out how old she was meant to be, asking questions about her own age would raise questions she didn't have answers for, there was a lot of guesswork involved.
As the eternal night stayed hanging over Cyslodia, Rinwell eventually drifted asleep, her brain too tired to do anything else.
"Hey, Bregon…" a small form clad in strange embroidered clothing reminiscent of a wolf spoke up as he looked up into the night sky, the furs of his clothing/armour keeping him warm in the realm's winter.
"Yeah?" the older man asked as he looked at the leader of their little resistance group, the Silver Wolves, the two of them overlooking from the second-floor balcony of their hideouts as new members of their burgeoning resistance. It'd taken a bit to rustle up funds and arms for the group, especially with how careful they needed to be with the 'Snake Eyes' the new Light Lord was commissioning work from.
Truly, Cyslodia was turning into more and more of a snake pit by the day.
"…I gotta go."
Bregon raised an aged brow.
He'd known this day was coming but he'd been under the impression there was still another two weeks or so before the next convoy to Calaglia came since Law had missed the one he was meant to catch last month. "Yeah… knew this wouldn't be lasting too long, got your mum to get back to and all," Bregon let out a long exhale, "But you've started something special kid."
Law looked up at him from beneath his wolf hood, the face guard tucked away for the moment, the whole ensemble he was wearing being special clothes he'd had made for himself. Bregon admitted that while it looked nice, no self-respecting person would be caught dead wearing something like that. Of course, Law was a kid, so it made sense.
"Uh, whaddya mean?" Law asked which caused Bregon to give him a confused look in return.
"Aintcha going back to Calaglia?" the older man asked, scratching the back of his head.
"No? The next convoy isn't for another two weeks," Law shook his head, "Just realised there's something I gotta take care of, that's all."
Ah, that's what the kid meant.
"Ah, sorry bout that. Thought you were leaving," Bregon gave an apologetic grin. "How long are you going to be away for?"
Law gave a thoughtful look to the sky, almost as if he was looking at something. "I dunno," the boy shrugged, the furs on his shoulder bobbing up and down helplessly, "I'll get back when I get back, yeah?"
"Right…" Bregon gave Law a disapproving look at his lackadaisical attitude but eventually just let it go. As much as he wanted to stop the child, there was very little he could do. This was the same child that had infiltrated a Lord's holding, defeated a gargantuan Zeugle, and found a hidden room all for the sole purpose of getting a cure for his mother after all.
Law was more stubborn than a zeugle chasing a fresh meal.
If the kid wanted to do something, there was damn near nothing he'd be able to stop him.
"Just take some supplies with you, ya hear?" Bregon grunted, nodding to the small stockpile of gels they'd amassed from hunting down Zeugles and trading their parts for gels, potions, and other necessities.
"Sure thing!" Law grinned, his wolf hat falling to cover his eyes and nose, only leaving his mouth exposed. The boy leapt of the banister, the other members of the resistance jerking slightly form surprise but gave good-natured grins rather than yelling, more than having gotten used to Law's antics. The boy grabbed a few gels, stashing them away in hidden pouches and pockets along his specially made clothing. If one looked very carefully, they'd be able to see the dull green glow of his Elixir bobbing from its place tied to a cord looped around his neck.
With a backwards wave, Law was out and running through the alleys of Cysloden to the old underground pathways they used to get in and out of the city.
Bregon only took his eyes of the kid the moment he entered the underground passageway.
Law's eyes never left the large shadow that was near impossible to see against the darkness of Cyslodia's night sky, the only colour visible being a small smidge of orange.
He ran in the direction the shadow was going.
Arche ignored the way his daughter his daughter yowled in bewilderment as he picked her up from her bed in the midst of the confusion and worry that was overtaking the enclave.
Just moments ago, the elders felt as the barriers that hid their enclave for three-centuries was breached.
Breached by a Renan, and judging from how tightly a single-element of astral energy wrapped around them, it was likely that the intruder was a Renan Lord.
A Renan Lord hat somehow knew of Dahnan Mages.
That was why he ignored his daughters confused questions, carrying her to their family's personal underground bunker which was little more than a ten-by-ten-foot hole in the earth covered by an underbrush-and snow-covered trap door. Within the bunker were non-perishable and long-lasting foodstuffs that would be able to sustain a person for a month, a wooden ladder leading from the trapdoor to the dwelling within.
Or, in this case, sustain Rinwell.
"Dad?! What are yo-?!" Rinwell squawked as she got to her feet in the ditch, but as she looked up at him, he could see the moment she realised what was happening.
He could feel the tears in the corner of his eyes, his vision misting as he took a look at his little girl. A small form zoomed into the bunker, the small white owl that she'd begun taking a liking to recently landing on her shoulder. "Rinwell, no matter what happens, stay here," Arche ordered as he crouched over the entrance, Rinwell looking up at him trembling with wide eyes.
"I don't have enough ti-" Arche's sentence was cut short as a gale cut through the enclave far behind him, leaving a large gouge through the earth as a monstrous winged creation landed in the main clearing. "I'm so sorry sweetie. There was still so much I wanted to teach you…"
Rinwell's eyes watered.
"I need to find your mother," he addressed his daughter, a grave sense of finality in his words that he felt all the more in his chest, his heart weighing down with grief and sorrow for what he'd soon lose. "Whatever happens…"
Arche took one last look of Rinwell, the way her small form trembled in the bunker, eyes wide while the little baby snow owl on her shoulders nuzzled her comfortingly. He could die if he knew she'd be safe.
"...Don't follow me," he finally said, lowering the trapdoor.
"Wait! Dad!" Rinwell screamed from the hidden bunker, her banging on the trap door becoming more and more muffled as Arche stacked dead tree brambles and snow atop it to keep it hidden. There were a small gaps in the bunker to allow for airflow so he didn't have to worry about her suffocating. Hot tears dripped down his face as he stood up and turned to the village.
"Dad, wait! Don't leave me!"
He ran to the destruction that was overtaking his village.
The large Zeugle that had taken to landing in the main clearing that they used as a communal meeting spot was doing its level-best to raze the enclave to the ground. The damage largely mitigated by the remaining Dahnan mages flinging astral artes at it, the artes doing little but singing and scorching it, whether it be struck by fire, lightning, hail, or storm.
Atop the winged beast stood an orange-haired woman cackling, the symbol of Wind Lord shining proudly between her brow.
Arche ran into the clearing, quickly spotting the familiar dark-braid of his wife, Cynthia, an astral arte forming between her hands that was suddenly slammed down into the ground. "Roil upon this earthen soil," Cynthia chanted, her astral energy flowing into the earth beneath her hands.
"Landslide!"
The ground beneath the beast rapidly softened, turning to a consistency akin to water. Within seconds it was chest-deep, the astral-charged earth difficult to break free from without building up a sufficient amount of momentum. The Zeugles' wings flapped ineffectively in an effort to free itself from the earth's confines.
Far sooner and far longer than the beast realised, it's head and wings were the only parts of its body remaining above ground, and even then, it was still rapidly sinking until it's entire body would be submerged within the earth, it's organs filling with liquid rock, killing it from the inside. Atop the beast's head, the orange-haired woman gave a disappointed look at the creature.
"An adequate performance for a preliminary test subject," the woman mused, calmly stepping off the beast's head, her little hop causing its head to sink into the ground and begin suffocating, it's lungs filling with liquid earth just as Cynthia had hoped. As she stepped onto solid ground, behind her, the beast stilled. The only thing visible were its wings, and for as long as that was, it was only momentary as it dissipated into astral energy signalling its death.
The remaining Dahnan mages that were still alive following the large wind blade that had cut a gouge through the enclave and the gargantuan Zeugles' rampage through the clearing circled the orange-haired woman. Their faces wary as they looked upon the symbol of Wind Lord shining on her forehead, visible even through the dust plumes that drifted in and out of sight. "Now…" the woman crooned, luscious orange hair framing a face full of cruel malice as she leered at his fellow mages, "…To think Dahnan mages like you existed. Sitting on untold knowledge; left to gather dust."
"I wonder what fascinating little secrets you all keep hidden away like the little rats you are."
Abruptly, far faster than he realised was possible, the woman began to charge an arte, wind astral energy heeding her call in an instant. Already, small gales of winds formed around her, ruffling her clothes and kicking up leaves and dirt into the air. Arche came to the horrible realisation that she was the one that had sliced their enclave in half, and he had a sinking feeling that all those who may have been proficient enough to steal astral energy from artes had already perished.
"Cynthia, everyone!" Arche gave a desperate cry.
He may not have been one of the elders, but he was well-respected amongst the community enough to get them to gather together quickly, an unspoken command between him and the mages to assemble astral energy and construct a barrier between the Renan Lord and themselves.
However, gathering enough astral energy for an arte such as what they were creating, along with its size took time. Time, they did not have as the clearing shone a malevolent green.
There was simply no time to form the barrier, blades of wind aimed directly at them, vestiges of astral energy continuing to form its very being as the Renan Lords' eyes widened with glee.
The woman's hand fell down.
Arche clutched Cynthia close to him, closing his eyes.
"Die, you filthy rats-!"
"Raaagh!"
He was unable to see it, but a small form burst through the underbrush, two arms reared back as it flew through the air before shooting forward at the last moment in a double-palmed strike to the Renan Lords stomach causing her to double over in surprise and pain. Arche, however, was able to hear the high-pitched battle-cry, the sound of flesh meeting flesh in a violent union, and the feminine grunt of pain that left the woman's lips.
He heard Cynthia gasp, his wife's sharp intake of air causing him to hesitantly open his eyes. There before him, was a form he'd almost mistaken for a bipedal wolf, but there were small amounts of skin-coloured flesh showing between the garments the figure wore.
They wore dark blue vestments that shielded them from the Cyslodian cold, a dark brown half-coat draped across their shoulders with fur ends. Their legs were clad in puffy dark-blue pants with golden trimmings that tucked into boots with steel-toes in the shape of clawed paws, and on the small of their back was what almost seemed like a wolf's tail. On their forearms were an intricate pair of clawed vambraces, the right vambrace with three claws and an engraved golden wolf with ruby eyes while the left vambrace ended in a golden blade, similarly, an engraved golden wolf with sapphire eyes.
What really had almost fooled Arche was the lifelike wolf-head that covered the figure's sat atop their crown, the figure's hair and eyes obscured by the head of a black-wolf while their lower half was concealed by a dark-grey scarf.
All-in-all, a very intimidating form stood between the Dahnan mages protectively and the Renan Lord clutching at her stomach on the now solidified earth where her test subject has perished. Or at least, the figure would have been intimidating if not for the fact they came up to just below Arche's chest, at most as tall as four-and a half feet and that their voice was so high-pitched it was almost like they'd been save by a chil-.
Oh dear Rena, they'd just been saved at the last second by a child.
Arche gaped and beside him so did his wife as what they assumed to be a Child of the Forest stood between them and the orange-haired Renan Lord, a protective high-pitched growl leaving their lips.
Children of the Forest, as their names suggested, were children that were abandoned by their families. Those that survived abandonment were sometimes taken in by animals, or learnt to fend in the wild for themselves. It seemed that this Child of the Forest was raised by wolves judging by their clothing, if a bit extravagant in their make.
They assumed he was a Child of the Forest since the closest piece of civilisation was, Messia 317, well over forty kilometres away and beyond that, Cysloden.
"Y-You dare?" the orange-haired woman snarled as she looked at the diminutive form before her, a sharp pain blooming in her torso from what she presumed to be broken ribs, the strength behind the figure's strike being far more than she'd expect for someone of their stature. "You'd dare strike your better?!" she repeated, a crazed gleam in her eyes even as she gingerly held a hand to her ribs.
The wolf-child only lowered their stance, a muffled growl leaving their lips.
Arche and Cynthia were already gathering astral energy once again while the Renan Lord sent scathing remarks to the child, their fellow Dahnans following their lead. Between them and the Renan Lord, they now had the upper hand in time to prepare their artes. Arche took to preparing a barrier, some of the mages followed his lead in collecting astral energy to create a single barrier of significant. Cynthia, on the other, had a stronger predilection towards offensive earth artes and as such began to prepare in mounting an offensive, the remaining mages following her lead.
The Renan Lord was nowhere near as debilitatingly injured enough by the feral child's strike as they may have though, her crest blazing green on her forehead as her eyes glowed blue. Four verdant sigils etched their way into four corners of the clearing, formed by pure wind astral energy, the build-up of her artes being far swifter than the wind blade she'd been preparing beforehand.
Fortunately for the Dahnan mages, they had an ally in their fight against the Lord. The Child of the Forest seemed to understand that the Renan Lord was preparing something big, the ground beneath their feet shattering as they rushed forward.
"Raaah!" the child squeak/roared as they smashed a fist into the ground, slabs of stone rising in a line from the impact, rushing towards the Lord yet it did little to stop her even as it struck, all of her concentration going towards whatever arte she was preparing to cast. Within her hand, a light of green began to shine and build up.
"A whirling struggle…."
The Child of the Forest paused for the briefest of moments, their head tilting so fast for a moment that it looked as if their wolf-head's ear flicked, hearing something in the wind. Whatever it may have been, the Child instead chose to rush at the Lord again, an orange flame-like aura converging upon their fists as they continued to strike away.
"Talon Strike!" the child squeaked, raining down a barrage of punches and kicks that while it didn't disrupt the orange-haired woman, it did cause a noticeable pause in the way her arte charged, having to momentarily stop in gathering astral energy to weather the child's blows.
The child wasn't the only one that was attacking this time around.
Cynthia and her fellow mages launched their attacks, an array of wind, fire, and lightning spells converging upon the Lord along with a single earth spell from Cynthia shaking the ground beneath them. "Quake!" Arche's wife exclaimed as she slammed her hands into the earth once more, but rather than softening the ground beneath their enemy, she vibrated the very landmass itself, causing it to shake against other plates of earth. Fissures began to form around the enclave, cracks spreading far and wide, knocking the Lord unbalance but still, in the end, not enough to break her concentration.
Arched clicked his tongue, but he was sure that whatever arte the woman put forth, they'd be able to weather with their barrier. "Now! Deploy it!" Arche screamed desperately as his group of mages released their astral energy, their combined artes forming a translucent defensive dome that Cynthia and the others were already rushing in to take cover under.
The ground shone a sick green, the colour of wind, as a perverse smirk of delight warped the Renan Lord's face, holding up that orb of shining light within her palm.
Arche's heart dropped as he noticed the Child of the Forest standing outside the defensive barrier they'd formed. "Child! Over here!" he bellowed frantically, hoping to bring the child beneath their protection. The child didn't move, only taking a deep breath, their chest expanding as they tried to take in as much oxygen as they could before it was robbed from them by whatever the woman was planning.
The woman raised her hand to the sky, the four sigils on the ground shining a blinding green. "Hahaha! The winds of judgement blow you away, you filthy rats!" she sneered as four colossal twisters of wind formed upon each sigil.
"Chaotic Disaster!" the Lord roared.
Arche braced as the astral energy-enhanced winds buffeted against their translucent defensive barrier.
The sound was like blades grating against steel.
In a battle of artes, the same as a battle of strength, the stronger of two forces would always win out. Things such as technique never mattered in such a stalemate of magic, the only thing mattering was which was stronger.
The strength of Arche and his fellow mages was nowhere near enough to match that of a Lord, especially one that chose to use their predominant element as their arte.
They never stood a chance.
Arche and Cynthia's eyes widened as within seconds; the buffeting gale winds formed cracks upon the translucent barrier. The sheer strength of the Wind Lord's arte bore down upon them with ease. Arche's vision sought out the Child that had helped them, for a split second, he was consumed with a worry for them, for what was occurring to them outside the barrier.
His eyes met the still form of the Child, holding their breath in the midst of the four hurricanes raging around their as the orange-haired stared at Arche and his fellow mages with interest.
Bright teal-blue eyes met Arche's own as the Child brought a hand up to their scarf and pulled it down, revealing the face of a young boy. He wanted to run, to stop him, because if he opened his lips, the very wind would be sucked out of his lungs killing him.
But he couldn't.
All he could do was watch as the boy's mouth parted, the Child's eyes bugging out slightly as he yelled something only for his words to be drowned out by the wind. All he could do was watch as the boy mouthed a single word. In a second that felt like hours, it took Arche a moment to parse out what the Child had yelled out.
R-
Rin-
Rinwell…
Rinwell?
The Child had shouted out his daughter's name?
Why did a Child of the Forest know his daughter's name?
"…the winds of heaven burst forth!"
A young voice cut through the roaring winds, a chant on their lips.
Arche's eyes expanded as he realised that was his daughter's voice.
"CYCLONE!"
Four more twisters of winds formed within the clearing but with one stark difference to the ones that were bearing down on them.
They were spinning clockwise, the direct opposite to the counter-clockwise of the hurricanes the Renan Lord had formed.
The four newly formed cyclones each clashed against the spinning masses of winds.
What happened when two equal but opposite force met?
They cancelled each other out, and that was what Arche, his wife, and his fellow mages witnessed as the cyclones and hurricanes merged, their spinning winds cancelling out each other's rotation leaving only directionless winds which quickly scattered into the surrounding area.
Behind them, the underbrush rustled for a moment before admitting a small figure into the clearing.
His daughter, the one he'd hid in a bunker and very specifically told to not follow him.
Rinwell, his daughter, who at times would yell "Blah, blah, blah, magic!" as her incantation whenever she couldn't remember the proper incantation for a spell.
Rinwell, his daughter, who'd summoned four grand cyclones in an exact copy and replica of the Renan Wind Lord and managed to meet on equal footing!
Arche wasn't entirely sure if he should have felt worried, proud, disappointed, or indignant at the fact that his daughter couldn't remember well-documented incantations but could easily create her own that were capable of fending off a Lord.
He didn't exactly have time to worry as Rinwell pulled out a book from her coat, her little snowy white owl finding a perch on his own shoulder as it entered the fractured but still standing barrier. He did, however, have the time to worry as his daughter marched over to the Child of the Forest and the Lord.
The Child seemed to grow a happy grin on his face when his eyes met Rinwell's while the Lord's, alternatively, were murderous.
There was very little Arche could do, however, to help. The nature of the defensive barrier they'd created necessitated for all the mages assisting in its creation to expend whatever stamina they had in hopes of weathering the Lord's artes, and even then, it wouldn't have been enough without his daughter's timely intervention. The same went with the rest of the mages, his wife, and her colleagues, having spent every remaining ounce of stamina to give them enough time to form th barrier.
Their hopes of survival were resting on the shoulders of children, his very own daughter being one of them!
It seemed, however, that they weren't the only ones to have used all of their stamina. The orange-haired woman panted as she took a few staggering steps away from the two children before her, a majority of her energy, both astral and whatever she may have accumulated in her short time so far as a Lord.
On the other hand, Rinwell, was as fresh as a daisy with the Child of the Forest being a little tired, but seemingly more than eager to fight.
Rinwell's book opened with a somehow menacing rustle of pages. The Child of the Forest smashed his vambraces together in a shower of sparks.
"Law!" his daughter shouted, the Child of the Forest whose name he could now guess to be 'Law', responded with a nod and a sharp grin. The boy leapt back, gaining some distance between himself and the Renan Lord, Rinwell all the while charging her book with lightning astral energy.
The Lord, however, wasn't going to simply sit there and take it. She gathered the dispersed wind astral energy as best she could in an effort to reform it into something dangerous, pointed directly at the Child of the Forest.
Law's feet broke the earth as he charged forward in a burst of speed.
The orange-haired woman's effort was not in vain as she managed to conjure together one last wind blade, the very same that had gouged through the community and that she'd prepared to use in order to end them previously had Law not intervened. It was sent hurtling towards the boy, the winds themselves carving against each other in a high-pitched whine as the arte sped across the clearing.
Rinwell's arte was faster.
A yellow ball of light seemingly teleported in front of the young boy, such was its speed that it looked akin to teleportation. The ball expanded and flattened until it formed a perfect yellow circle hovering in the air that Law ran into.
That Law ran through.
A second perfect yellow circle was created behind the orange haired-woman a distance away, not that it mattered much as the boy was launched at light-speed, a trail of thunder and arcs of lightning left in his wake.
"Demons descend!" the two children cried as Law's thunder-encased fist crashed into the Lord's already broken ribs at speeds unable to be properly seen by the naked eye.
But it was felt.
Oh, it was felt.
The woman's eyes bulged as she felt the entire right-side of her ribcage shatter. She gave a shuddering gasp even as she was flung away, shock already settling into her system.
The funny thing about shock is that your body does whatever it can to get itself away from any danger and back to safety.
In the case for the orange-haired woman, Almeidrea, the danger was the two diminutive children standing before her while safety was her realm of Mahaag Saar. As such, her body that was still in shock responded in kind, summoning the second test experiment she'd created during her short time on Dahna, a test experiment she hadn't expected to utilise due to its status as a failed subject.
However, it was still strong enough to carry her away from this accursed place and their terrors.
A small winged-zeugle leapt from the treetops and down into the clearing, scooped up the Wind Lord none too gently within its talons, and leapt away. It's instincts, even under duress and control of Almeidrea, were ringing warning bells that the two predators needed to be escaped from immediately.
That's what it did.
Within seconds, Almeidrea and her failed test experiment were too far away for Rinwell, the Child of the Forest, or Arche and his fellow mages to do anything about, out of reach in distance and vertical height to make any reasonable attempt in subduing and killing the Renan Lord.
It was a couple of minutes of Arche and the others carefully watching the skies, worried that the Lord may come back. After ten minutes of no signs of return, and Arche connecting himself to the barriers around the village, confirming that the Wind Lord and her second test experiment had indeed left the boundaries of the now demolished enclave.
Cynthia let out a sigh of relief beside him, a sigh tinged with sorrow as they looked upon the destroyed enclave.
The elder council were already being respectfully returned back to Dahna, buried as was their customer for the last three centuries, the wind gouge the orange haired woman had first flung striking the council's communal hut. Everywhere else, the remaining mages were burying loved ones, thankfully none of the younglings having been injured in the ensuing events as they'd been moved as far away as possible from where the Wind Lord and her first test experiment had landed, only frightened.
On the topic of younglings.
Arche and Cynthia both looked at Rinwell and Law. From what it seemed as the two embraced each other tightly, the two children had known each other for a while judging by the snippets of conversations Arche was listening on. How long, Arche didn't know, something he was curious about along with how Rinwell had managed to hide the existence of Law from both him and Cynthia.
Yet, it seemed that friendship was what had saved them.
Arche let out his own sigh as he tucked away his worries of his daughter knowing someone outside of the enclave for a moment in favour of honouring the dead. Judging by the desperate looks everyone else gave him, looking for guidance, it seemed he'd need to sort out the plans of the enclave for the future as well.
A/N: So… I actually hadn't meant for Law to be in this one but here he is now. More of feral child Law misunderstandings! And Rinwell stressing over the consequences of time-travel only to soon find out none of that matters, cause everyone else has already changed so much!
This felt like a marginally better battle scene than the Lord's battle in Chapter 4.
Also, Messia 317 is not Messia 224.
Current Chapter - 6 years and 10 months before start of Canon, 1 and a half months after the start of the Crown Contest
Estimated Level, Age, and Clothing for Characters
Rinwell –
Level: 30 (Experienced but her body is that of a 9-year-old. With her long life and control over magic, she's certainly stronger than Law and on par with Shionne but still limited by her young body) - Currently on par with Wind Lord Almeidrea
Age: 9 years old (Should be 7 but was aged up by two years because she didn't regress in age properly.)
Hair: Parted Bob Cut
Body: Small Inherited Coat
Attachments: None
Weapon: Secret of the Stars
Law –
Level: 25 (Experienced but his body is that of an eleven-year-old, so he's nowhere near when he fought Chronos Post-Game) – Currently on par with Enraged Earth Lord Dohalim il Qaras
Age: 11 years old (Should be 9 but was aged up by two years because he didn't regress in age properly.)
Hair: Ceremonial Wolf Hood (with dark-grey scarf to cover face and neck)
Body: Ceremonial Wolf Garb
Attachments: Ceremonial Wolf Tail
Weapon: Ceremonial Wolf Blades