A Maiden in a Blackened Inferno

It is time for Lillian's first on-screen battle. Will she live or die?

I have known the family's secret for some time now, for I was one of their most trusted partners and a close friend during my service to the kingdom. Never did I think that such information could prove to be a powerful weapon to topple the persistent bane of my existence.

She does not know it yet, nor does anyone else on either side of this war aside from her mother, but her body and soul have paramount importance to my plans. When the time is right, she will realize the truth…

-Diary entry from the leader of the Orm's Lords

Lillian bit her upper lip as her mind prepared to confront the armored figure on the opposite end of the ring. Her hands pressed together and formed a staff, drawing from her magical storage space. This staff was composed of a shiny body of platinum and a crystalized tip with a green aura.

"I have no choice but to fight, but I will not kill," she sighed to herself. With her sheer willpower, the maiden ignited the staff's tip with a bright flame and aimed at her foe. The enemy created a shield to block most of the incoming streams of fire, but Lillian proved tricky enough to fire a burst overhead and strike that same enemy from above. This tactic was enough to cause flinching but left no serious damage. Her left hand then summoned three explosive arrows of light, two of which were swiftly avoided. The last one created a quick explosion that sent the servant backwards, but there was still no severe injury. She switched her staff's element to ice and froze the enemy's legs…

WHAP!

…only to be smacked down by a dark tentacle that it summoned from behind. The princess maintained a tight grip on the staff as the tentacle, later accompanied by two more, slammed her into the ground twice. At no point did she succumb to dizziness or nausea during the attack, but when one of the other shadowy creations formed a tip to bisect her delicate body, she unleashed a sudden blizzard from her mouth and fired a laser from her staff. The affected tentacles could not free themselves in time to avoid a gruesome fate, but the one that was spared began to assail the young princess without mercy. Simultaneously, the armored villain approached from behind and nearly impaled her with its blade, which was effectively a smaller clone of the blade used by Lina Lindqvist's slimmer assistant. Lillian blocked the fatal blow at the last second with a barrier from her right hand while pushing the tentacle away with the staff's burst of emerald flames.

As the princess transformed her magical staff into a crystal sword, the leader of the cult silently watched from above amid the yelling and the violence. He had a feeling that the princess, restrained as she usually was, could finally succumb to the desire to kill without remorse, especially if she ended up in a situation of extreme stress. However, her awareness of the truth—which nobody else, not even the Smashers, knew—would impose some difficulty due to reinforcement of her will. Still, he did not appear to be worried in the slightest.

The blood on her hands will corrupt her innocence in due time…

Lillian was pushed towards the edge of the ring by a powerful kick to the abdomen but slammed her flats into the ground just in time and blocked a rain of ethereal spears with the staff's shield. With the heat of the lava now closer than before, Lillian pointed her sword at the opponent and, hoping to pinpoint a weakness, cast a blue light over the armored body that slowly approached her from the ring's opposite end. What seemed like ten seconds in her head elapsed as she warped away to evade a maelstrom of dark spheres and razor-tipped chains that heeded the call of the mysterious antagonist.

Whoosh… BOOM!

The princess's sword birthed a bright explosion that staggered the foe, but there was still no sign of collapse on the armor. It was after the blast, however, that Lillian received a vital iota of information on her foe via the following message:

Rosacenium armor, Antimors

Rosacenium—a rare but ultra-durable metal—was the main component of that suit of armor. Found within the far northern countries of Terramythica and first discovered by the kingdom of roses, Lillian knew that this metal was noted for its extreme resistance to most physical and magical attacks; in fact, one of the few ways of bypassing its solid defense was extreme heat. The recent analysis signaled the fact that the maiden needed to intensify the heat from her flames, which were already hot enough to reduce most objects to ashes.

"May my victory be sealed." Her sword's blade encased itself in rainbow-colored flames, ready to consume hardened steel like it was a snack. Such a task would be remarkably difficult, contrary to what any naïve observer would have assumed, for the steel-skinned villain was more than prepared to counter any attempts at a facile victory. The foe branded the ground with a shadow that tried to stalk Lillian before raising its spikes from another space, possibly an alternate dimension.

WHOOSH!

Lillian leaped away, although her body did not escape the attack unscarred. One spike managed to leave a mild gash on her right leg, and while the pain failed to break her focus, it was still felt easily. The princess then parried an incoming tipped chain with her blade and fought back with a flying kick of green flames, attacking when the villain tried to repeat its previous move.

BLAM!

Another staggering blow forced the enemy to surround its body with a violet aura, one that explained its purpose when the princess tried to attack again with her foot and suffered a major shock across her entire nervous system.

"AGH!" yelled she. Her delicate body was soon impaled by a spiked tentacle from her opponent. Another impalement would have marked her end if she had not teleported away in time, although the magical barrier in the room—not to mention another one that coated the entire building—prevented her from evading the Lords altogether. She could feel the healing of her wounds at a quick rate, and this factor was largely thanks to her existing auto-regenerative abilities, but the leader's dose of Antimors also played a minor role. The princess was slightly stunned to realize the magical spell's effect on her but chose to stay focused after a while; even with her added gifts, she was not entirely immune to exhaustion or regenerative failure, and if that battle with the boosted Legionär had taught her and Stefan anything…

She teleported behind the armored warrior and froze its legs in place while frying the tentacles overhead. It was here that Lillian's sword ate through cold armor, ignored the violet aura via its resistance to electricity, and punctured the unknown enemy underneath the surface. The superheated blade, still coated by colorful flames, slowly crawled upward while still consuming vulnerable matter, only yielding when the princess withdrew it at the neck. Rapid breathing echoed from the armor as the villain felt pain from being torn open by the blazing sword, yet there was no screaming. Perhaps, the young woman assumed, the person within had been desensitized to pain through the enhancing magic of the Lords.

Nearby, as the common cultists continue to piercingly yell at the top of their lungs, the masked leader recalled Lillian's latest attack and felt some satisfaction at the damage dealt. Maybe she was ready to succumb to her violent desires, he believed, and when that occurred, she would become a living black rose and bring forth corruption and destruction—all followed by a paradise of which only devoted followers of the evil serpent would be worthy. He continued to stare at the violence below, intensely focused on the results even when Agnetha Lindgren entered the arena and assumed her position next to the leader's side.

"I see that my dear friend is facing her first challenge for today," she noted with a sinister aura in her voice. "What do think of your intent to purify her soul in the presence of the Holy Serpent?"

"She is verifiably a pure spirit whose willpower may present strong barriers to our plan, but let it be known that not even the purest of all souls are completely immune to, dare I say it, a grand transformation. Besides, with the blood that is already on her hands and the additional power provided by Captain Lindqvist's rituals, my plan for the Svärtad Orm should continue steadily."

Agnetha exhibited a small scowl on her face as the memories of her death at Mario's hands, among other failures of the malevolent organization, flooded her mind. "I would agree, but the Smash Brothers have interfered with our plans for far too long, and I shall not forget that one of those damnable fools is personally responsible for my death. That man is none other than Mario."

"Mario… Per the studies given by our realm experts, he is a major member and even a leader of that group. Thanks to your information, I will see to it that he will suffer painfully once he and his group try to confront me. For now, however, we shall watch our dear maiden during her clashes."

The captain with red hair subdued her rising anger as her once-close friend tried to hack off one of the enemy's arms. The figure warped away at the last second and left gashes at the princess's legs with its blade. The pain should have been enough to cripple any lesser foe, a category to which Lillian did not belong when she defied her injuries and retaliated with fiery waves from the glowing sword. Some were easily avoided while others caught the foe off-guard due to their unusual launch angles.

More tentacles emerged from the floor, hungry for blood and ready to eviscerate with extreme prejudice. Lillian tapped into a small part of her magic to increase her reaction speed and counter the incoming attacks from all directions, responding with a fiery and rapid-fire barrage of swings. Black goo dripped onto the ring during this event.

"…" The mute antagonist, sensing that its opponent could try to increase her overall strength, fired a lightspeed energy beam from its hands. This orange harbinger of destruction was refracted by the princess's blade against all odds, for even without the enhancement in speed, she was a swift fighter who was not to be underestimated. Many of the beams struck the invisible barrier that surrounded the ring, excluding one that directly exerted force against the enemy.

BANG!

The kinetic energy was enough to push it back, notwithstanding the lack of severe damage on impact. With her opportunity available to her, the young princess teleported behind the foe and severed its right arm within a flash.

SLICE!

Both the cold armor and the pale flesh underneath were eaten away by the heated sword, and what remained after that violent attack was a charred stump that had residual traces of blackened blood. The leader and his most trusted captain watched on as they hoped that the maiden would deliver the fatal blow without a shred of remorse on her mind. On the contrary, she backed away and quietly prayed that whoever was inside that menacing suit of armor would finally have the good sense to realize her potential and elevate a symbolic white flag. Such ideal expectations were not fulfilled, unfortunately.

Ooooo…

The unnamed fighter tapped into its dark magic to create something that Lillian had hoped to never encounter again: a Legionär, or rather, a shadowy creation that closely resembled the creature in many ways. This entity only differed from its counterpart in that its body was translucent and much darker, its eyes possessed a dark green glow, and the area that marked the heart's location was tinted a dark red. Lillian's mind was dragged into a disturbing flashback upon witnessing the new threat ahead of her…

While Stefan pushed himself to the limits of his physical and magical prowess to keep the incoming cultists away, Lillian fired a massive sphere of light and hurled it at the monster's head. The intense heat from the projectile was hot enough to painfully scorch the pale skin, but the hyper-accelerated healing factor was more than a match for the attack. In desperation did the light-haired princess increase the strength of her speed-enhancing magic to the highest level, and the next minute was marked by a maelstrom of offensive spells from all directions. The Legionär, despite its advantage, struggled to maintain a lock on her position; it also did not help that the prince was attacking and chasing away any Lord that dared to assault his sister. Stefan's own reserves of magic were inferior to Lillian's, but they still managed to combine with his greater physical prowess to inflict wounds onto the cultists.

"This will not stand…" The leader, sensing that his personal pet was about to lose its battle, cast an as-yet-unknown spell that appeared to have no discernible effect at first glance. Tension would skyrocket in the minds of both monarchs, however, as the monster before them transformed into a more muscular and blacker version of itself, complete with red sparks that zipped across its body like energized bullets.

"What the hell?!" Stefan yelled as his eyes glanced at the monster's transformation. Taking a break from blocking the Lords and leaving his circular barrier around several Lords up, he struck the Legionär with a devastating lightning bolt from his right palm and an aerial shockwave from his sword. These offensive maneuvers were in vain, inflicting no damage at all, and Stefan was punished with a powerful slap that launched him into a nearby tree.

…

Lillian, now severely wounded and relying more on her diminishing source of healing magic, lashed out with a mighty explosion from the deepest reservoirs of her magic, a move that failed to benefit her and which provoked the beast into retaliating by expelling a noxious gas from its mouth. The princess could not escape the move since the masked leader had zapped her from behind with a deadly bolt; her mind and body began to descend into weakness and near-unconsciousness, respectively, within seconds.

"That's enough from you," the head cultist muttered darkly, signaling his pet to stand down. However, the Legionär refused to acknowledge the order and proceeded to disembowel the weakened maiden with a quick claw swipe.

SLASH!

While the leader became frustrated that his pet had disobeyed him, Stefan felt his heart drop as his younger sister suffered what could be a fatal blow. His injuries slowed him down as he tried to crawl over to her position.

"STOP…! DON'T DO IT!" The dark leader removed a creature from a vial underneath his robe as the prince was desperate to halt the cultists one more time—one last time—for the day.

Biting her upper lip once again, Lillian concentrated to keep her fears suppressed as the conjured creature approached her with the intent to kill or, at minimum, seriously wound her. She blew her icy breath at the legs and transformed her blade back into a staff. Green fireballs soared from the staff and into the red area on the monster's chest, weakening the chest area bit by bit with their damaging heat, and ultimately proved themselves powerful enough to tear a gaping and smoldering hole in the translucent skin. The attempt at a kill was upended, unexpectedly, when the armored cultist finally recovered from its wounds and warped behind Lillian to stab her at the spine.

Whoosh…

The princess turned around just in time and parried the blow with a short yell. The fact that the foe only had one arm did not force her to underestimate it, and she summoned a barrier when the two threats started to harass her simultaneously. In her haste did she teleport again, but by this point, her energy reserve for teleportation was about to be exhausted. Unable to abuse her warping skills as with the earlier part of the battle, she avoided a powerful swipe from the conjured Legionär before electrocuting the evil warrior with her staff. The magical staff reverted to its sword state before amputating the legs of the foe and consuming more rosacenium armor. The black blood continued to stain the bloodied area as the figure's breathing morphed into a harsher and more erratic state.

BANG!

The hurried breathing became picayune to the princess as she blocked the ghostly monster's swipe with her weapon, now in staff mode. Out of the crystalized tip emerged a whip with enough energy in its structure to eviscerate an unpropitious enemy, and Lillian exploited this weapon's raw power in the first way that crossed her mind.

SPLACK!

The tipped end perforated the beast's heart in a flash, just seconds before the claws could slice apart their intended victim. Despite already having dealt a devastating blow, Lillian soared into the air and—switching her staff to sword mode—decapitated the crippled Legionär. A ghostly smoke filled the ring as the defeated foe dissolved into small particles. Lillian illuminated her blade to track down her armored adversary, but her search was being hindered by the smoke. The breathing from the enemy had ceased, so there was no sound-based clue on the figure's location in a sea of angry yelling. Lillian was about to reach where she had left her enemy…

Whoosh…

…when a portal suddenly opened to reveal what she had tried to find. The enemy was back, having created ethereal limbs to counteract its amputations, and in its left hand was a bow with a sinister black hue on its metallic and spiked surface. The undaunted Lillian created another blizzard at the first sight of the new weapon, only to be evaded by the foe's swift bout of warping. While preparing to strike the princess, the foe created two duplicates of itself before aiming its bow at her heart.

BANG-BANG-BANG!

Lillian's swift reflexes saved her from an early death via the magical shield, even with the combined impact of three arrows that forced her to slide backwards. Still, the three evil warriors ahead of her continued to press forward with their barrage of long-distance shots. The shield proved to be exceptionally hardy against repeated blows, yet the princess's flats kept grinding against the cold floor above boiling lava. She felt a bit of sweat on her face as her back approached the edge of the ring; the three enemies were seeking to force her into an uncomfortable position, whether it was through her fall into lava or the shattering of her sole barrier. It was obvious that the combined impact of the arrows was severe, but that did not restrain her from launching streams of fire with her sword and eliminating one of the doppelgängers with a straight shot to the head. The remaining two figures executed a tricky strategy that allowed the remaining clone to create a sudden flash by clapping its hands.

BANG!

Lillian and everyone else in the room, excluding the masked leader and the remaining two foes, were blinded by the flash, and their ears were deafened by the accompanying bang. This event disrupted the princess's concentration and weakened the magical barrier.

"No!" She stumbled forward as the world around her temporarily vanished from view. Her new state of vulnerability was exploited without remorse by the two enemies, one of whom shattered the shield with a violet arrow made from magical essences.

CRACK!

Besides leaving behind the energy pieces that soon littered the floor, the attack also pierced the maiden's abdomen—the very same area where the enhanced Legionär had once disemboweled her—and provoked significant bleeding. The other villain, the summoned clone, sliced at her back with its cold sword.

SLICE!

Her regenerative power was thrust into overdrive as the arrows and sword strikes continued to rain upon her small body. The ringing in her ears struggled to fade away in time for the restoration of her hearing, but the blindness quickly disappeared; Lillian finally deflected an incoming arrow with her sword, severed the clone's remaining arm of actual flesh behind her, and executed a coup de grâce with a misty aftermath.

Ssss…

The clone disintegrated into black mist, joining the phantomic Legionär and the second clone in their fate. Meanwhile, the original opponent aimed its latest arrow downward to rip open a hole in the ring's floor.

CRACK!

The sudden explosion melted the steel and nearly launched the maiden, who was now terribly weakened from her injuries. She attempted to utilize her healing magic, only to be shot with yet another arrow when she failed to raise her shield in time. She toppled forward—right into where the hole was—but gripped the still-heated edge at the right moment. Her sword plummeted into the molten rock.

"…!" she gasped. Despite the rapid decrease in temperature, the metal still roasted the palm of her left hand as she prepared to elevate herself back to higher ground. Sweat rolled down her face at a faster rate; as with the battles against the supercharged Legionär and certain energy-draining monsters that the Smashers had presumably not yet encountered, she was veering towards the edge of death. With just her pure soul in a sea of evil, she could not rely on nearby allies, and her abilities of floating and warping were severely hampered by injuries that dampened her concentration. The lava below her feet was hungry, ready to swallow her flesh like a starved carnivore. On top of everything else, however, the armored villain stood over her with the intents of smiting its victim and plunging her into the fiery pit. Its barren mind believed that Lillian was a nuisance that had to be eliminated in the name of the cult's twisted sense of justice, unaware of what the princess's death could cause for the Lords. After switching back to the sword, it raised the cold weapon over its head, so prepared to finish the fight for good…

BOOM!

…when Lillian abruptly launched supernatural green fire from her right hand. This attack was followed by the conjuring of a green whip, whose slender structure violently wrapped itself around the servant's torso and tossed it into the lava below. As the princess rolled to safety, she felt discomfort as her opponent writhed and screamed in pain as the lava charred its skin and melted its suit of armor, almost like a demon in the pits of Hell. She still did not plan to kill the roasting evil before her, so it was critical that she pulled it out before it was too late, lest its life faded away. Meanwhile, the leader and Agnetha could not resist the temptation to grin; perhaps the maiden was succumbing to her violent urges and adjusting to her future life as a vessel to the plan of the Lords. The two leaders could not have felt more joy at the twisted sight below them, and the masked man even anticipated that his organization's long-awaited success could arrive sooner than he had imagined. Lillian stood still for several seconds as the cultists around her cheered the superficial decision to let the servant die…

WHOOSH…!

…before utilizing her whip to catch her enemy below. The whip stretched across the entire height of the lava pit and captured the evil figure, hoisting it up to the ring's cold floor. The Lords fell silent upon witnessing her latest actions, unsure of what would occur next. The mysterious leader and Agnetha still hoped that she would execute her opponent without mercy, but their expectations were suddenly dashed when the princess created a shield around her charred enemy—now revealed to be a pale-skinned woman with severe disfigurements across her body—and then created an electrical tornado with what remained of her magical strength.

WHOOOOO…

This devastating attack, a room-wide whirlwind with green streaks of electricity, incapacitated all the common Lords and launched Captain Lindgren and her master backwards. Due to her severe injuries and the cost of using her latest attack, her magical and physical reserves were greatly exhausted. She did not resist the urge to pass out, but before that event could come to pass, her eyes examined the scarred woman's face in greater detail. This enemy appeared to be awfully familiar, having been witnessed by the princess personally, but the identity of that same enemy was too elusive. Lillian's vision was too blurred to tell, but the details still could not be ignored. Additionally, as she entered a forced slumber, her refusal to kill the corrupted woman introduced another topic to her mind. She wondered when the Smashers would discover the terrible truth about the origins of the Lords…

Meanwhile, Agnetha snarled at Lillian's latest attack and was tempted to kill her former friend immediately, but the masked man restrained her. He knew that murdering the princess would render the vile group's plans useless, and it would be highly uncomfortable for him if he had to strip the priestess's rank in the same way that he stripped Magnus Hedin's.

"Remain calm," he ordered. "I will deal with her once she wakes up. In the meantime, take the servant to Captain Isberg's laboratory."

"…understood," the captain sighed reluctantly. She had difficulty in believing Lillian's sudden defiance and was still consumed by burning rage, but the master's orders held priority over her personal desires, so she obeyed him without resistance. As the redhead teleported away with the fallen servant, the masked man carried the unconscious princess to her room. When he reached his destination, he placed Lillian on the bed and amplified the magical barriers that surrounded the small chamber so that she would not escape by any means. He was unaware that, from behind, one lieutenant was observing him in secret. This higher-ranking cultist, a man with darker skin and some age underneath his belt, was not exactly loyal to the highest authority in the cult. No, he was loyal to someone else.

We must free Captain Hedin soon, he asserted. He should be given a second chance, and what the master did to him was too harsh.

He had quietly followed the leader from the main hall and up to the princess's bedroom, having maintained a safe distance to avoid suspicion. When the masked man emerged from the doorway, the lesser cultist activated his invisibility and continued to follow him. In the lieutenant's mind, freeing Magnus would allow the disgraced captain to exploit his helpful skills—especially after the fallout around the death of Kristoff Lindqvist, one of the most powerful lieutenants—and redeem his tarnished image. Meanwhile, the leader entered the command room to check on the status of his strongest war machine, which was now in Björnstad's limits. A faint smile stretched across his face as his personal fleet prepared to obliterate the kingdom's capital city.

Today, Björnstad will be destroyed…

How could she defy us? She had the nerve to zap many of our soldiers into unconsciousness and refused to execute her opponent! I should have her tortured until the day she dies!

No… I must stay calm. The princess is vital to our plans while alive, and if I were to harm her without permission, I would lose my title.

-Agnetha Lindgren

And there is Lillian with her first on-screen fight. We will see more of her in the later chapters, but I must bring the story's focus to Luigi's group in Björnstad. Will the Eternal Understudy and his allies destroy the deadly machine that annihilated Lejonborg? If not, can they force it to retreat?

A/N:

-The name rosacenium is derived from Rosaceae, the family name for roses.

-The part of the chapter where Lillian is about to be struck down by the armored foe—and part of the dialogue that describes it—is a small shout-out to a scene in Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Which scene is it? Watch the movie to find out.

Read, review, wash your hands, and stay tuned. I will see you later.