Chapter 12 - Final boss battle
Erica couldn't take her eyes off the spot where she had seen Arron disappear. What had she just seen?! For years she had wanted to know whether merfolk really existed, but she had never expected to find out this way. Her new best friend... the boy who had saved her... the boy she had fallen for... was a merman?! She just stood there breathing in disbelief, as she and the other traumatised wedding guests simultaneously wished for an answer to reign from the heavens.
But Erica's thoughts quickly turned to what she had just witnessed, and the danger the one she loved was in. She had to rescue him, she had to rescue him now! But it was only then that she noticed that she was wearing a frilly white wedding gown, just like the one from her marble statue that she had been relieved was never seen again after her birthday. She would have never agreed to wear this had she not been hypnotised!
"Quick!" she turned to Grimsby. "We have to save him!" she said frantically. "But first..." she said, looking down at the white fabric in disgust. "I need to change…" heading below deck and into one of the private rooms, she began changing into her clothes form the night before that she had worn onto the ship, ignoring Grimsby's protests as he trailed after her.
"Your highness, you can't! It's far too dangerous!" he pleaded through the other side of the door.
"Grim, I lost him once. I'm not gonna lose him again."
"But your highness... Erica... if something happened to you-"
"I know, I know, I'm the kingdom's only heir and someone else would have to take over. I'll be fine!"
"No, Erica, I meant... if something happened to you... I would never forgive myself. Ever since the King and Queen died those dreadful ten years ago, I've loved you like... my own daughter."
There was silence for a moment as Erica finished changing into more sea-worthy attire, then opened the door. She had never heard her guardian say anything like this before. She had always respected him as a right-hand-man and friend, but had never considered him a father figure... until now. After a tense few seconds, she flung her arms around Grimsby's neck, and he hugged her back.
"I promise I'll be safe, Grim." she said, her voice sounding so much younger than it was. "I promise I'll come back, and we'll be... we'll be a family..." she said through tears. Grimsby released the girl form his hug and placed his hands on her shoulders.
"Do you really love him?" he asked.
"More than anything!" replied the little Princess.
"Then go kick some fin!" Grimsby said as Erica saluted and ran back towards the ship, where she dove off the side, desperate to save the love of her life.
Ursulis held Arron painfully tight by the wrist as he pulled him back under the sea.
"Poor little Prince." he taunted as he gripped him tighter, making Arron wince. "You just had to go and set your sights on the one thing you couldn't have. No wonder your mother can't stand you." Arron stared daggers at the sorcerer.
"And you just had to go and cheat because you couldn't handle me almost winning the bargain!" Arron argued back.
"If you had actually read the contract you signed, it never said anything about me interfering, you stupid kid! But It's not even you I'm after. I have much bigger fish to-" he was cut off as he came face to face with Queen Triatannia, who was aiming her trident right at the octopus, Stella behind the queen with a delightfully smug expression. "Well speak of the god damn devil!" said Ursulis. "I was just talking about you, Tritannia. All good things, all good things…" he said in a mocking voice, but the Queen was not in the mood.
"Let. Him. Go." she demanded at the sea demon.
"Not a chance, Tina, he's mine now!" he said, displaying the glowing contract Arron had signed with a click of his fingers. "We made a little deal." he beckoned at Arron. Ursulis let go of the Prince and Flotsa and Jeena bound the little merman's wrists. Tritannia looked over at her son, and her face fell as she knew this wasn't his fault alone.
"Mom, I'm sorry, I- I never wanted this, I-" but Tritanntia simply raised her trident at the contract the octopus held, and sent a lightening bolt at it, hoping to shatter it into a million pieces. But, it remained completely intact, Ursulis with it. the blast from her trident had barely pushed him back a few feet. Tritannia looked down at the glowing trident in shock as the octopus began to cackle.
"Hm hm hm... told ya! The contract's legal, binding and completely unbreakable!" he shoved the rolled up contract in the Queen's face. "Even for you." Ursulis laughed maniacally and flicked his wrist, and Arron began to turn into a polyp, looking at his mother with pleading and apologetic eyes as his skin thinned and his eyes became sunken and bloodshot.
"But..." Ursulis continued. "I always was a lad with an eye for a bargain" he said in his sing-song tone. "The son of the great sea Queen is a treasure to behold, of course, but... I might be willing to make an exchange..." he glanced at the Queen, his plan working perfectly. "For someone even better…" Arron's contract appeared in front of the Mermaid.
Tritannia knew what she had to do to apologise to her son, to say sorry for driving him away, to make up for never attempting to understand him. She aimed her trident at Arron's name, and sent a sharp zap at it, replacing it with her own.
"Why thank you, my dear." Ursilis cackled as Arron was returned to his original form and the Queen was left as a polyp on the sea floor in a whirl of black magic, her crown and trident littered around her.
"Your majesty…" said Stella in sorrow and respect for the queen.
"Mom?" Arron asked in shock, as he knelt down to look at her.
Ursilis picked up the discarded crown and trident, overjoyed that his plan had worked.
"Finally..." he said as he placed it on his head. "The ocean is mine!" Arron felt his hands curl into fists and he shot himself at the octopus, trying desperately to pry the trident off of him.
"You monster!" he yelled as Ursulis threw him off and cornered him against a rock, his trident aimed right at Arron's neck.
"Don't toy with me, ya little ingrate!" he exclaimed. "I stole your voice once, I can take a lot more than that from ya now…" Arron shut his eyes and waited to be killed right then and there... but the pain of dying never came. Ursulis let out a cry of pain and both merman and octopus turned to see Erica, who had hit the sea sorcerer over the head with an ore. She had long since abandoned her wedding dress and now sported her sweater and skirt from the night before.
"Erica!" cried Arron as he swam past Uruilis at lightning speed, grabbing Erica's arm as he pulled her to the surface.
"After them!" Uruilis beckoned at Flotsa and Jeena, who wrapped their tails around Erica's ankle, trying to drag her down and drown her. Erica was running out of breath, and fast. Stella and Flora swam up to the eels, Stella pinching one of their tails with her sharp claws and Flora slapping the other several times in the face with her tail fin. No way were they about to let the sweetest girl they'd ever met die at the hands of those disgusting eels. Both sisters were forced to let go of Erica, and Arron pulled her up above the water.
Erica took long, desperate gasps of air and held Arron held her close.
"Erica!" Arron said, looking the Princess dead in the eyes. "You have to get away from here!" but Erica was having none of it.
"No, I won't leave you!" she said as she hugged the merman tighter. But just at that moment, Erica was pulled under once again, as Flotsa and Jeena went for round two. Arron dove after her this time, only to find Ursulis aiming the trident right at the Princess.
"Say goodbye to your sweetheart!" he mocked just as he was about to send a lightning bolt at the little girl. But Arron dash forward and grabbed hold of the trident right when the bolt was released, causing the deadly spark to hit Flotsa and Jeena instead, resulting in little bits of carcass floating where the sorcerer's henchmen once were.
"Babies!" exclaimed Ursulis as he let the eel particles float down into his hands. "My poor little poopses..." he looked up to find Arron and Erica making an escape for the surface again, and Ursulis channeled his rage into the trident as he used it to multiply his size, a large cloud of black magic enveloping him...
Arron desperately tried to get Erica to go back onto the ship despite her protests, but just then they were separated by a huge golden pillar, which turned out to be one of the spikes of the stolen crown that Ursulis now wore, as he rose out of the ocean about 100 times his size. Arron and Erica were sent tumbling into the water several meters below, holding each other close as they waited for their imminent demise, a ferocious storm beginning to brew. Lightning flashed in the sky and rain began to poor like it never had before, and for the first time in her life, Erica wished she weren't at sea.
Ursulis dipped the trident into the sea and swirled it clockwise, first creating a suction of water which then grew into a huge whirlpool, dragging several sunken ships underwater into it.
"AT LAST!" his now booming voice declared over the night sky. "THE POWER OF THE TRIDENT IN MY HANDS!" the suction of the whirlpool was too much for the two kids down below, and Arron and Erica began to pull apart, Arron being sucked into the whirlpool and trapped at the sandy bottom of it.
"ARROOOOOOOOON!" Erica called after him as he was flung into Uruilis's trap.
Spits of water flew across the whirlpool at such high speeds they blurred Arron's vision, and he squinted to try and see through the sea spray.
"ERICA!" he tried to yell, but his voice was muffled over the deafening noise around him. Suddenly, he could make out a bright beam of light coming straight towards him, and he leaped out of the way just as the bolt of light made a scorch mark in the sand next to him. Ursulis was toying with Arron, using the trident like a gun as he fired lightning bolt after lightning bolt at the Prince, each of them just missing him by mere inches, leaving smoking scorch marks in the sand. But Ursulis wasn't done yet. He enjoyed the game of seeing his victims squirm for their pathetic lives at his hand.
It was only then that Arron realised what he had done. Not just to himself, or to the humans, or to his mother, but to everyone. He had let himself be manipulated by the sea sorcerer, his dangerous allure had scared him into saying no to a bargain. He hadn't had his best interests at heart at all, and only knew exactly what buttons to press to get him to fulfil his part of the sorcerer's grand plan. Because of his weakness, and because of his doing, the entire world was now going to pay the price for him. No matter what happened to him now, Arron asked the universe to let it be painful, as he knew he deserved it.
"SO MUCH FOR TRUE LOVE!" Ursulis boomed for all to hear, although Arron knew it was directed at him. He braced himself to be shattered into a million pieces just like the shell that had held his voice...
Erica was swimming about frantically, trying to find something that she could use to save Arron. If she swam any closer to the whirlpool she would have been sucked in and be just as helpless as him, and if she swam through it from underwater, the neck-breaking speed of the moving current would have probably killed her. This kind of thing should not be attempted by someone with legs. It would take a miracle to save Arron now!
Just then, she spied a sunken ship floating near the edge of the the whirlpool that had been erected from the sunken-ship graveyard, just close enough that she could reach it without being sucked in. She clambered aboard the deceased vessel and turned the broken ship wheel with all her might towards the huge octopus.
Over the years that the ship had been underwater, the bowsprit of the ship Erica was steering had become extremely jagged, broken, and sharp as a knife over its long refuge under the sea. As the wind roared in her ears and the storm crashed in her eyes, Erica found the strength and determination to save the boy she loved.
Ursulis raised the trident, aiming for one final blow as the thunder and lightning slashed the sky, cackling maniacally. All of a sudden, as if in slow motion, Ursulis felt himself being impaled through his skin. Purple blood oozed from the wound as he looked down to find that the tiny little Princess had steered the bowsprit right into him. He wailed in pain as the waves crashed over him, one final cry of anguish ringing for all to hear being his last sound. As he was pulled to his watery grave, the collision of a mammoth sized creature crashing into the sea sent a small tidal waved of water sending everyone back to land it all directions, causing Erica to be washed upon the shore yet again.
With Ursulis gone, all of his polyp victims transformed back into their original forms of mermaids and mermen, and they happily swam out of his lair for the last time.
Stella was overjoyed to see Queen Tritannia transform back into her mermaid self, her crown and trident hers again as she reappeared in a swirl of silver magic. The sky cleared as a beautiful sunrise appeared over the horizon, making the ocean appear several shades of cherry and apricot. It was as if a dark, heavy blanket that was draped over the world had been removed to let the sunshine in. The air shone with the joy from the released victims of the demonic demon of the sea. Ursulis was defeated at last.