Ok, I am SO sorry for the long break. School had hit me like a truck, and a combination of work and stressing over building a gaming PC had taken my attention. I finally sat down and forced myself to finish this arc with the longest fight i have ever written. After this arc, there will be one more original arc, than I can start writing with canon material.
La leggenda di Marea
"Long ago, the Age of Dragons had come to an end, and with them, went many of the great magical races. The magic of world had grown thin, and for a time, there was void in the order of things. Eventually, the Humans of Earthland managed to reorganize among themselves, and establish civilization based on their own merit, laws, and faith.
For a time, Mankind prospered. Their bodies didn't require great amounts of magic to survive, and they could reproduce quickly, allowing them to repopulate after The Great Catastrophe. It looked as though the new Age of Man would last for a long, long time.
But with the Dragons no longer around, and the world's magic drained, a dormant threat could emerge unhindered. The perfect storm was created…
In another realm, watching, waiting, was a force not seen since the Dragons first rose to prominence. The legions of the Hellish Realm were ready to invade and lay waste to world. The daemons of Hell did not rely on magic to sustain their bodies. To them, magic was a commodity that extracted from every world they conquered.
When the first portal opened, the daemons legion gluttonously consumed large swaths of land. The Humans of Earthland quickly and painfully found out that their magic had little effect on the vile hordes. It turned out, pure Dragon magic was one of the few types of magic that could affect the daemons. The invading force kept making successful advances, and it seemed that hope was lost, and all would be consumed by the darkness…
Then came the Exorcists, who were an order of clerics from the newly established Zentopian Church that specialized in expelling demonic spirits. They found out that their magic could hurt the daemons, and quickly capitalized on this. They started training anyone who could use magic in the art of Exorcism.
Slowly, but surly, the Daemons were driven back, and eradicated from Earthland entirely, and mankind could rise uninhibited…" Arvella was sitting on a chair next to a small bed with Sofia laying on it, staring at her in amazement.
"So, they were defeated just like that?" Sofia leaned forward, her eyes full of curiosity.
Arvella mad a small smile, leaned forward, and kissed the girl on the forehead, "Well, it wasn't easy. In fact, it took decades and many lives. Some types of daemons were harder to slay than others. So, the amount of bloodshed was dependent on the daemon the Exorcists encountered." She said as leaned back from the kiss.
Sofia cocked her head, "What do you mean different types?"
Arvella put a hand up to her chin, "Let's see, there were water daemons, small daemons, large daemons…" She then grimaced, "But none were more destructive and full of malic than the fire daemons…" She took a deep breath, "They were among the top ranks of the daemon invaders, and among the last to be eradicated because of how powerful they could be…"
"Could you beat one, Mama?"
Arvella put on a smile, "Of course I can." She said, hiding her inner uncertainty. "There's nothing I can't stop, especially for my little Tesoro."
XXX
We managed to convince the village to evacuate to other side of the lake, partly because Wizards in this era were highly respected, and the massive plume of smoke in the distance helped as well.
With civilians out of the way, we had come up with a plan to take what ever was coming our way with minimal collateral damage to the surrounding area.
"Okay." I say, pointing to the make-shift diagram of the village in the ground I drew with a stick. "What ever this thing is, it possesses some top-tier fire magic. To reduce people to such a fine ash is frightening, and we must make sure to avoid it. So, we must surprise it and take it down before it can react and use its magic to its full potential." I point to a pebble on the diagram, "Araña, we are going to need your finest fire-proof webbing to set up a heavy-duty snare. We need you to make fall on its face." Araña nods, and I point to two different stones, "Risley, you and Kagura are going to use your gravity magic to keep this thing pinned to the ground so that I can deliver a swift, but powerful blow to this thing's vital points, hopefully killing it."
Risley nods, but she looks unsure, "I like this plan, but… What if you are unable to kill it, or me and Kagura are unable to hold it down?"
Kagura looks to her, "Than we adapt. Me and Rubi will be the main attackers while you two provide support. Do things to hinder its ability to attack. I'm confident that we can take it down if you two are nearby helping us." She says with a confident smile.
"Yeah, this thing stands now chance with all us here!" Araña cheers.
I feel a smile of my own creep on my face, "Well, we should start setting things up and get into position. By my estimates, this thing should be here within the next hour." Everyone nods, and we begin setting our trap.
Before we are finished, I feel a tap on my shoulder. I look to see Kagura looking at me with a concerned expression. "Rubi…" she began, "Do you think this plan will work? We haven't even seen this thing, and so many things can go wrong…" She trails off.
I look to her, keeping my own uncertainty in check, "Honestly Kagura, I'm not sure, but, this is the best chance of taking this thing down. You know what happens if we fail. Salice won't exist if we don't stop whatever this thing is." I sigh before putting my hand on her shoulder, "So let's kill this thing, ok?"
She looks me in the eye for a moment, before nodding, a confident look in her eyes, "Yeah. Let's do this."
"The snares are set, Rubi-nee!" Came the loud voice of Araña from behind.
"Good, let's get into position then." I say, turning around. "If the snares fail to trip it, keep applying more webbing to immobilize as much as possible."
"Yes ma'am!" Araña says while giving a playful salute before running off to get into position.
I look back to Kagura, taking a deep breath, "Come, it's show time."
Her expression hardens, and is now serious, "Yes… Yes, it is." We walk to our position, which is behind a house at the edge of the forest where the creature would emerge from. Risley is there, waiting for us. "Risley, make sure to use all your power. We can't be too careful." Kagura instructs, which is met with a nod.
We hear a loud, rumbling roar. It sounded almost like a lion's, but several magnitudes more intimidating. Flocks of birds suddenly flew over our heads, escaping the foul plumes of smoke and ash that were starting to block out the sky. The area around us darkens as the smell of sulfur and burning firewood fills our nostrils. Loud, earth-shaking footsteps make the buildings around us vibrate. I feel a wave of dread, despair, and… evil enter the area, make me tremble a bit. I look the others, to see Araña and Risley paralyzed, and Kagura slightly startled.
I grip my hilted sword tightly with one hand, and summon my lightsaber to my other, "Stay focused!" I say with forced confidence, "Just do what we planned, and we will prevail." I emit some of my own magic to counteract the over bearing presence, hopefully making it easier for Risley and Araña to focus.
I look around the wall of the house we are standing behind, and to the forest to see the bright red glow of fire through the trees. Externally, I'm keeping myself looking calm and collected, but internally, I'm just as scared of what we are facing as the others. The footsteps are getting bigger and louder, the low grumbling roars are getting clearer, and the grip on my weapons are getting tighter. My heart is beating a million times a minute right now, and I feel myself getting jumpy.
Alas, a shape of a large, horned figure starts to emerge from the fire and the ashes. With one last, mighty roar, several trees are toppled, and the mystery creature finally reveals itself….
…
…
…God dammit!
I look to the sky, narrowing my eyes, as if I can see the Lord himself, "Why do you do this to me!" I shout to the heavens.
The mystery monster was a Balrog.
Yes.
That Balrog from that Lord of the Rings movie.
The one that spawned the 'You Shall not Pass meme'. Surly, there must be some omnipotent being out there screwing with me. This can't be a coincidence!
Seeing my exasperated look and figurative and literal fist shaking to the heavens, Kagura shouts, "Rubi, what in the hell are you doing!"
I look to her, my twitching, "Kagura, its happening! The gods are screwing with me again! Sending fantasy crea-OW!"
"Rubi, I don't give a crap about your stupid superstitions! We have a job to do!" Kagura cuts me off, slapping the back of my head.
"Right…" I say, rubbing my head. I grab my sword and draw it from its sheathe. "Engaging!" I shout as I jump into the open, into the line-of-sight of the demon, locking eyes with it. I got to tell you, seeing one in real life is absolutely terrifying. The Balrog upon seeing me, roars, and flames burst out of its body and it wings spread out, revealing its muscular arms. It spawns a sword of flames in its hands and begins to charge towards my position. Perfect.
I smirk as it does what it we wanted it to do. The Balrog being distracted by me, did not notice the red colored webbing strewn across the ground. The flaming beast runs into the field of webs just as planned, and immediately the snares come to life, wrapping around its legs, and the beast loses its balance, tumbling to the ground.
"Now!" I shout. Kagura and Risley jump out, and immediately get to work. I see the shimmering field of their gravity magic take effect on the Balrog. I let my magic power flow through my body, and let it envelope my sword, to give it some extra punch. I leap into the air, above the demon, powering up my lightsaber, and point my blades downward, aiming for the back of the neck.
But before I can land my blow, the area around me heats up, and flames burst violently from the Balrog, enveloping it like a cocoon.
I must abort, or those flames will cause some serious damage!
Time slows for me as I perform my latest technique that I mastered recently. My body becomes almost fluid like, and it feels like I have taken several expresso shots at the same time. I direct myself back to where I initially leaped from and transform my body back to it original form. This all happened within the span of a second. After years of taming my magic and singeing my body, I finally obtained the ability to use lightning form. And I must say, its one of the most satisfying abilities to use. It makes me feel like the Flash, making everything else seem slower than they actually are. It is also almost like flying, giving me a degree of freedom, I never had before. Only downside is that I have to use it sparingly, because I only just achieved it, and it uses a decent amount of energy.
The fire cocoon bursts, catching the surround area on fire, and the Balrog pushes itself up, ignoring the gravity field trying to hold it down. I notice that the webbing that ensnared it was gone.
Well, this complicates things. Time for plan B.
I give Kagura a nod while sheathing my blades, before she and Risley disengage their magic. The sudden shift in the gravity causes the Balrog to stumble slightly, and I give it no time to recover as I charge towards with a leap. The lacrima in my gauntlet glows brightly as I pump as much energy as I could into it.
The Balrog recovers quickly, and sees me coming, making it draw back its swords to strike me in mid-air with what looks like a crooked demonic smile on its face. I continued my charge as the sword came towards me at full speed, because I knew they would not hit me. And surely enough, the blade stop with a resounding boom as Kagura intercepted them with her blade, which was glowing white with magic.
"Repulson Blade!" She yells as her sword pulses brightly. The gigantic flaming blades are suddenly repulsed away, leaving the Balrog wide open again.
The beast has a slight look of surprise as my enhanced fist collided with a crack that sounded like breaking firewood. Its head is violently knocked back and it stumbles backwards from the fully powered punch. Strands of webbing from Araña's magic connect it and the ground together, and a yellow magic circle made by Risley appears above it, creating a gravity field to further cause it to lose balance and fall on its back. Kagura, her blade still shining brightly with magic, gives it no opportunity to recover as she switches to her slashing form.
"Graviton Barrage!" she yells as she unleashes a salvo of gravity enhanced strikes from the air upon the fiery demon. The faint outline of the strikes could be seen traveling through the air and impacting the demon with enough force to break the ground around it, causing an outline in the shape of the beast like it was a cookie cutter punching through a sheet of dough. When the dust settled, we saw the demon laying in the demon shaped hole in the ground, it's chest immaculate of any type of wound.
This thing is a tank!
The Balrog rises quickly, showing no battle fatigue or pain, and shoots out an enraging inferno from its mouth, big enough to engulf a house with ease right towards Kagura. I spring forward with lightning speed, both my blades in hand, and slash downwards, causing the flames to part like a red sea. I look to Kagura and we exchange looks, acknowledging that this thing is tougher than we thought.
We both jump away as the beast suddenly charges towards us, bringing down its swords on the spot we were just standing. Kagura's sword glows brightly again as she gets into her Strong Form, "Gravity Cannon!" she yells as she thrusts her sword forward, and a ginormous shock wave travels through the air and hits the Balrog square in the chest with a loud, percussive blast. It is sent stumbling backwards, and a gravity field produced by Risley appears. The field looks like it is going sideways, making the demon step sideways in an attempt to regain balance.
I pump magic power into my leg, and lunge forward, right towards the creature's head, my sword shinning in one hand, and my lightsaber crackling in the other. The creature sees me coming, but it doesn't bring its blades up to intercept me, because a series of webs restrain its weapons in place. With it wide open to attack, I slash across its neck with as much force as I could. I hear the beast cry out in pain with a deep, chest thumping roar for the first time as I fall towards the ground and land.
I feel myself smirk.
We can hurt it! That means we can kill it!
I look back the creature, which had dropped its blades, and has a hand over its neck. The Balrog turns around slowly, revealing an expression of extreme anger as it looks straight at me, its eyes spewing hellfire. It takes it hands off its neck, revealing a small slash across it. which has what looks like a small amount of a glowing orange liquid that looks like magma flowing out of it, "KALTORG!" it roared hatefully in some unknown language. Suddenly the ambient temperature rose dramatically, and the demon suddenly glows brightly, fire spewing out its body. It releases an earth-shattering roar, glowing brighter and brighter, and the temperature increasing as well. A sphere of fire then erupts from it, and the flames start consuming all that they envelope.
Shit!
I use my lightning form to quickly appear in front of Risley and Araña. Kagura appears beside me. "Thunder Wall!" I shout as I summon a thick wall of red lightning to intercept the raging hell fire, which smashes into the wall like a violent ocean tide. I grit my teeth because of the tremendous effort of keeping the wall up as the sea of flames continuously slam into it. The flow of flames continues for several seconds before finally calming and then stopping.
Breathing deeply, I collapse my spell, revealing the new horror that awaited us. The Balrog has changed its form, now over twice as large as before, its body wreathed in flames that could be felt from even where we are standing. The sheer sickening presence it gave has increased as well, making me feel sick to my stomach. The beast looks over to us, and it seems to focus on me, locking its eyes with mine, "KALTORG! GOR FAL DUL!" it roars in its language. The flaming swords in its hands were gone, replaced with a flaming whip. It raises it and makes it crack repeatedly, filling the air with loud thunderclaps.
Of course, it's using a whip!
It draws back the whip and the way its body is positioned, it looks like its aiming at me… Shit! "Risley, Araña! Flee! Let me and Kagura handle this!" I shout, jumping away from them as fast as I could. The demon adjusts its aim and tries to hit me midair, but I manage to boost myself out of the way of it. The cracking whip hurt my eardrums as it cracks a few feet from me, and the heat radiating from it was like hovering a few inches from a hot stove-top. It seems like I pissed this thing off. I land, and I immediately roll to dodge another strike from the whip. I charge lightning into my hand, forming a hammer of red crackling electricity, "Mjölnir!" I shout as I throw straight towards the Balrog, which impacts its face with a resounding boom. Its head is knocked back a little, and I can see its face twitch slightly, but no visible damage beyond that.
It laughs menacingly, "DUL DAR KOS KALTORG." It laughs out mockingly, "DUL DAR RUSTARG." It roars before quickly launching its whip towards me once again. I jump back to dodge, but it gives me no time to counter-attack, as it starts rapid firing off strikes. I start doing backflips to get out of the range of its whip, but it keeps walking forward with malevolent confidence, laughing loudly. I enter lightning form and transport myself to a roof of a house behind it, and quickly form a crackling spear to my hand, I put a little more magic power into it since I was dealing with something that was mostly like an A-Class creature or above. "Gungnir!" I yell, chucking the spear at it, and it races towards it with near lightning speed. It impacts its back, exploding into a shower of crimson sparks. The beast twitches slightly, some of the flames from its body are blown off, but they quickly reform, and it turns around with a smile full of malice and arrogance.
"Gravity Canon!" Shouts Kagura as she jumps out from the alleyway that she was taking cover in. The shockwave hits the Balrog straight in the face, it doesn't even flinch as it impacts. Kagura is shocked but has no time to react before the demon quickly bats her with its power flaming wings, sending her flying, crashing into buildings.
"Kagura!" I yell, before I feel something searing hot wrap around me, causing me grunt in pain. It was the demons whip. I let my magic flow around me, reinforcing my resistance as I'm quickly tugged in the air. I feel myself being whipped through the air at great spees, I feel my body impact something hard, most likely the ground. I grunt in pain as I am repeatedly slammed in the ground before I quickly regain my bearings to escape by going into lightning form. I get far away from the Balrog, going towards the direction Kagura was thrown to, and hid behind a house. I check myself over real quick assessing my injuries. Thanks to reinforcing my defenses, it only managed to give me some minor first degree burns on my arms and some scratches. I don't think I'll be able to take that same attack with such little injuries again.
I see Kagura crouch walking towards me, her outfit scuffed up and her hair messy, but she looks relatively ok. "Rubi, this thing hits hard and is barley taking damage. I hit that thing at full power and it looked like it barley noticed it. I hope you have a plan."
I take a deep breath, "It seems my lightning attacks have an effect on it. I can try hitting it with one of my more powerful spells, but I would need a distraction, because it would see me coming and most surely catch me with its whip."
Kagura nods, "I think I can manage that, but be quick about it, I can't dodge it all day like you can." She then jumps out from our cover to the middle of the street, "Hey ugly! I bet you can't even hit the broad side of a barn!" She yells mockingly. I see a gravity field manifest around her with a 20 foot radius.
The demon caught the insult, and turns around, looking annoyed that its skill was insulted. It seems that this thing was very vain about its abilities. It sends its whip at her with blistering speed, but it slowed down as soon as it enters Kagura's gravity field, giving her enough time to jump out of the way and on to a rooftop. "See! You're too slow!" Kagura mocks, sticking her tongue out. Her gravity field is following her, so that the whip would always be slowed down enough for her to escape it.
With the Balrog's attention drawn to Kagura, I pull out my lightsaber and start channeling magic power from my body into it, boosting the blade's power significantly. I control the electrical blade, and make it grow several times its size, shaping it into the shape of a medieval long sword. Lightning is crackling and arcing of it, connecting with the ground and my surroundings as I step out in the middle of the road. The demon's back is to me, too distracted by Kagura's taunts.
Perfect.
I hold my extremely oversized blade with both hands, and I jump in the air towards the beast with as much force as possible. I hold my blade above my head, "Excalibur!" I yell as I bring the blade down upon the creature's back. It turns it head as I yell, but it's too late for it to do anything as my blade connects.
It grunts in pain and looks at me with angry look before unleashing a blast of fire from its body. I activate a miniature thunder wall to cover and protect me from the flames. The flames only last a few moments before they subside, and I deactivate my wall to see what looks like a long papercut across its back, before it's covered up again by flames.
This can't be! All that power and all I give it is a freaking papercut!
My shock is cut short by hot, fiery fist connecting with my whole body, knocking the wind out of me and sending me crashing into a building. I'm give no time to recover as I feel the whip envelope me like a fiery hot blanket, and fling me back towards the balrog, which has its fist cocked and ready. I put all my magical energy into protecting myself before its fist connects like a semi-truck hitting a small compact car. All I feel is pain as I am once again sent flying back to where I previously landed before. My whole-body aches, my vison blurry, and my limbs slow to respond, and I think I just coughed a little bit of blood.
Great.
Why do I always face enemies above my level? Is this some type of punishment for something? I feel like an anime character without the power of plot armor to give me strength… Well, to be fair, the real protagonist of this world is probably getting his head smashed in by my sister or doing something stupid… It would be nice to fight something that isn't out of my league for once…
I notice Kagura jump in front of me, and I hear a panicked "Rubi!" through the ringing of my ears. Huh, I think I might have concussion as well. I give a slow nod, "L-let's get out of here" I croak out. She nods, picks me up, and puts me over her shoulder.
"SOL DUR COTORAI KOS KALTORG!" I hear the Balrog roar. I look to it and see it put both its hands up, summon a gigantic amount of fire and condense it into a ball, basically forming a miniature sun. It rapidly grows bigger in the blink of the eye despite being so compressed. It kind of reminds me of Goku's Spirit bomb, but eviller and less spiritual. "GOR!" It roars as it launches towards us with the same speed of its whip. The world seems to slow down as the gigantic death ball flies towards us.
There's no way to dodge that! Even if we move out of the way, it's more than likely explosive with a huge blast radius. I look to Kagura, and I see she is frozen like a deer in headlights. It can't end this way!
"Aqua Celestis: Murus!"
Suddenly a wall of a golden liquid rushes up in the path, and the miniature sun collides with it, exploding violently with a deafening boom. We can see the fire on the other side through the golden wall, and it doesn't budge one inch. Steam rapidly releases from the top of the wall and the fire subsides.
What the hell!?
"I guess I really do have to step in…" A familiar voice says. Suddenly, a human form materializes in front of us made from the same golden liquid that the wall was made from. The form solidifies and takes the form of Arvella. She looks back to us, her form has a bright golden outline, "I can take it from here. You do not possess the right tools for the job, but…" her lips form a small smile, " I do." Her form glows brightly, and her lower half starts to change shape, "Its unfortunate that I have to use this form once more, but it seems I have no other option…" She says in a regretful tone. Her legs combine into one and then elongate, forming a fishtail shape, and her form then starts to levitate a few inches off the ground.
I feel my eyes widen as her form stops glowing, revealing a mermaid. Her lower half matched her hair, a deep ocean blue. Her shirt was gone, with a simple bikini top replacing it instead, and her necklace still hanging from her neck.
A Mermaid!? I thought Aquarius was the only one! Wait a minute… We are over a hundred years in the past, in Salice, there is a demon attacking it, and now a mermaid appears… Holy crap, that story was actually true!?
How did I not realize this sooner!?
The golden wall collapses, and the now revealed mermaid, Arvella, raises her right hand, "Aqua Celestis: Hasta" She says calmly as spear of golden liquid, which I presume is some form of water, forms in her hand. "Leave this place, Daemon!" She shouts as she throws the spear at incredible speed, picking up dust in its wake.
The spear impacts the Balrog violently, going clean through it, and a shroud of steam erupts around it as it roars in a deeper pain that I could have ever caused it.
Whatever water magic she is using, it's on a whole other tier of magic!
Arvella gives the demon no break as she forms a liquid sword in her hand, "Aqua Celestis: Gladius!"she shouts, charging towards the steam with incredible speed, almost rivaling me without lightning form. It almost knocked me and Kagura over with how fast she took off.
A flaming sword comes out of the steam and intercepts her own blade, which creates a strong shockwave, blowing all the steam away, revealing the enraged demon, "MERTOAR!" It growls. It suddenly forms a second sword in its other hand and slashes at Arvella, who quickly jumps backwards.
"You will not survive this, Daemon!" She yells as she charges once more, her sword growing longer, and swings it over her head, which is intercepted by both of the Balrog's own swords, releasing another shockwave. They then enter a dance of power with very little finesse as they start striking at each other with their powerful blades, causing the ground to shake, and some buildings even fall apart as a result of their clash.
"Kagura, we should get to a safer spot, we would only get in her way." I say as I take her arm off my shoulder. The brief pause Arvella gave us allowed me to recover from that last hit I took. She nods, and we jump to the rooftops, and get enough distance away from the fight where we would not be in Arvella's way, but close enough so that we could be of assistance to her if needed.
Their swords clash, once more, and they push against each other, causing their power to spill out. Dark, evil looking flames spew out of the demon, billowing high to the atmosphere, while golden waves of water form around Arvella to meet the bellowing flames where their swords connect. I can only gap out the sheer amount of magic power being released. It feels as though my own magic reserves are just a small drop in a very large ocean. Lightning starts erupting overhead. There is too much ethernano colliding, and its supercharging, releasing itself in the form of lightning. It isn't enough though, and the colliding walls of magic proves too much to discharge, and the point where their swords are clashing shines brightly, before causing an explosion that shatters the earth, and splits the heavens, revealing the late afternoon sky. Me and Kagura avert our eyes from the brightness of the explosion and are almost blown off the roof we are standing on, which has all its shingles blown off, and it feels like its structural integrity is compromised.
The world goes still as we look back and see that both Arvella and the Balrog were both still standing, albeit several yards away from each other, and a large crater has formed around them. The buildings closest to them were completely destroyed. Both looked like they are breathing heavier than before, but they don't look like they will be stopping anytime soon.
The Balrog summons a massive amount of fire to its hands, "GOR!" it roars before slamming its hand to the ground. Large pillars of fire erupt from the ground in a line and start rushing towards Arvella.
"Aqua Celestis: Aestus!" Arvella yells as she summons a sudden river of golden water, which intercepts the pillars of flame in the middle between them. They collide, and start to fight each other, pushing each other back and forth, trying to achieve dominance. I can see Arvella grit her teeth as she tries to hold back the demon's attack.
The Balrog seems like it isn't having an easy time either, and it looks like it is angry that it can't just squash its current opponent like it could us. The beast roars hatefully, and the flames covering its body glow brighter. The flame pillar clashing with Arvella's water suddenly flashes, and grows bigger, overpowering the water, and starts pushing it back to the mermaid. Arvella envelops herself in a golden sphere as the flaming pillars hit her directly, enveloping her completely.
"Aqua Celestis: Stagnum!" A huge body of water materializes above the flaming pillar, smothering it out with a roaring hiss, and freeing Arvella from the flames.
The Balrog gives her no respite as it charges to right next to her, both its swords coming down for a slash. Arvella rolls out of the way, and summons spear to her hand, catching the demon on the side of its arm, causing it to hiss in pain. The Balrog moves through the pain though, and suddenly sends a blast of fire out its mouth, hitting Arvella square on. It pushes her back a few yards. Arvella looks like she is wincing from the pain. The demon starts shooting more bolts of fire from its mouth at Arvella, who summons a golden sword and starts cutting them in half before they can reach her.
The demon stops rapid firing fire bolts and starts condensing a very large, and very bright ball, which is very similar to the one it shot at me and Kagura. It shoots towards Arvella as fast as a bullet, but before it reaches Arvella, it explodes into a miniature sun, and the whole world becomes light. I look away and hear Arvella yelp in pain. The light fades away, and I see the demon's flaming fist connecting with Arvella. It brings it second fist and hits her while she is winded. This one sends her soaring back hundreds of yards, towards the lake.
"Arvella!" Me and Kagura yell as we watch her crash into the lake, a giant column of water rising upwards from the impact.
The Balrog howls with laughter, and rushes towards the lake with its blades in hand, presumably to make sure she is dead. It reaches the edge of the lake quickly, and steps in. Kagura and I rush over as well, and see steam rising from where the demon is standing, as well as the area around it turning an inky black. "KRALTOSG MERTOAR!" It roars in a mocking tone, the inky blackness spreading further into the lake.
This thing is arrogant to step into a lake with a mermaid.
A golden light shines from the middle of the lake, and Arvella emerges from the lake in a golden sphere, battered and bruised. Her eyes are full of determination, "Aqua Celestis: Lacus!", all of the sudden, the whole lake turns a bright gold and I feel the ambient magic levels skyrocket.
This is a spell that a wizard saint would use.
Six gigantic tendrils of water erupt from the lake next to the demon, and pierce each of its limbs before it could move. The demon thrashes in pain and anger as it is pinned by the water.
Arvella is breathing heavily from the strain of the spell, "Aqua Celestis: Tanta Tempestas!" She shouts with all her might. The water of the lake grows rough, the wind picks up, and storm clouds suddenly appear above and start spewing golden lightning from the sky, striking the pinned demon, which roars in pain. The winds picks up even more, and water starts to rise from underneath the Balrog, and envelops it completely as it starts to reach towards the sky. It starts twisting and turning, growing rapidly in size, and a multi-story waterspout is forms. The demon can be heard screaming as the spout continues to grow in intensity, with winds reaching speeds faster than the biggest of tornadoes.
Arvella yells in effort as she holds out both her hands and starts to move them closer to each other. The spout starts to get thinner and spin faster, causing the demon to scream louder. Arvella starts shinning brighter as she makes one last push of effort to finish off the demon. The spout flashes, before exploding into a column of light.
The demon's scream disappears completely. Little sparkles of light falling from the sky is all that remains. The water starts to calm, and the storm clouds dissipate.
Kagura and I rush to the shore of the lake to inspect the area.
The Balrog nowhere in sight.
The fight is over.
"So…did I put on a good show…?" I hear a tired, but cocky, Arvella say. I look to her and see that she is completely exhausted, and I sense her magic levels starting to fade.
"I never expected the legend of the mermaid to be real…" I say in amazement.
"Heh… So they make a legend about me huh…." She chuckles tiredly.
"Oi! Kagura, Rubi!" I hear the distant voices of Araña and Risley. I look back to see them running towards the lake, with two people behind them. It was Sofia and Julius. "Mama/Arvella!" They shout in unison.
Sofia crashes into Arvella with a giant hug, and Julius embraces them both. "Are you ok!? Mama!?" Sofia sobs.
Julius has a somber look on him, and it looks like he is holding back tears. He knows something bad is going to happen.
Arvella smiles softly, "shhh, let go of me for second… There is one last thing I have to do…" She says. Julius lets go of her, and Sofia is gently shrouded in golden light and levitated off Arvella. She then looks to us, and summons something to her hand, "It seems your purpose here was to make sure no extra casualties resulted from my battle with the demon…" Her magic levels take a huge, dangerous dive, and the glow around her dims and flickers, "I think you should go home now…" She says as she tosses the mirror at us.
"Wai-" I say as I feel her magic continue to drop, but I am interrupted as the mirror activates midair, sucking us all in.
XXX
The paradox mirror immediately sucked in the wizards to send them back to their own time, and landed on the ground, its light went out and returned to its passive state.
Arvella let out a ragged breath, "Well… It was nice knowing them…" She said between breaths. She then plops to the ground, finding no more strength to levitate.
"You… You used the rest of your magic, didn't you, Arvella…" Julius said with a somber acceptance. His fists were clenched, and his eyes like dams holding back a flood of water.
Arvella sighed tiredly, "I guess so, us Mermaids are creatures of a different era, where the ambient magic was enough to sustain us…"
"What are you saying, Mama!" Sofia wailed, the intensity of her tears increasing.
Arvella brings her into her embrace, "It's..It's my time to go, my Tesoro." She said softly. She then took off the girl's cap, letting her long hair, which was a pleasant seafoam color, go free. "I always thought your hair was especially beautiful… I wish you showed it more in public…" Arvella whispered gently.
Sofia sniffed, "You… You can't g-go! Mama! You still got to teach me magic! You still… still..." Sofia sobs again as she buried head in to the woman. Avella's golden outline was now gone.
"It's alright, everyone has to go eventually…" Tears started to fall, "… I am proud to say… that in my thousands of years of life, that you… are the greatest thing to happen to me…" Arvella sobs. She then took her necklace off, "but, if you want to learn magic, everything you need to know will be in here." She said as she gave kiss to the girl's forehead.
She then looked back to the lake, which still had some spots of blackness in it, "The lake… its corrupted…" she heard Julius say through sobs.
She looked back to her husband, her eyes steeling with determination "I have thing I can do. I can't leave my family without making sure they are safe and healthy…" She then pulls Sofia off her.
"No! Don't go, Mama!" She struggled as her father came in to hold her back. "Stop! Stop! Sto-" She wailed.
Arvella started to slide towards the lake, and looked over shoulder, "Sorry, Tesoro, but Mama has one last thing to do…" She said, holding back a sob.
She then glowed gold once again, using the last of her power for one last spell "Aqua Celestis: Purgo!" The lake glows gold once more, and Arvella disappears.
"Mama!" Sofia cries.
A giant column of water rises from the lake, and slowly formed into the shape of a mermaid resembling Arvella. It waved to Sofia and Julius slowly, before going up into the air and then diving back into the water with a large splash. The lake flashes gold before slowly returning to normal, the corruption from the demon gone.
Sofia collapsed to ground, clutching the necklace her mother gave her. She could only stare at the lake, tears staining her face. Julius bent downwards, "Hey… It's going to be alright. I am still with you, and I won't ever leave you…" He said while holding on to her shoulders.
Sofia sniffed, looking him in the eyes, "… pro- *hic* Promis?" She said.
He nodded somberly, "Promise." She stood up, and took her hand to help her back up, "Now, we should go get the rest of the village to tell them that its safe now." Sofia nodded. He picked up the mirror and they started walking to where the others were.
While they were heading to where the rest of the village was, Julius said "Marea…"
Sofia looked to him, "What was that?" She sniffed.
"Marea. That was your mother's maiden name before she married me. I was thinking we should take it, to remember her always…" He said in contemplation.
Sofia thought for a moment, before nodding, "mmm" she said in agreement.
XXX
Arvella watched them from the other world, stars were all around her like a permanent night sky. She smiled softly, feeling melancholy that she couldn't live to see her child grow up.
"It's about time came, Arvella." Came a voice that Arvella hadn't heard in millennia.
She looked back to see a Mermaid with long, light blue hair, and a black tattoo on her chest. She grinned, "Sorry about that, but not everyone gets to be chosen as a celestial spirit, Aquarius."
Aquarius moved next to her, "Yeah, but you didn't have to take so damn long to get here…"
Arvella looked to her family, who were walking by the lake, "Sorry, sister, but I had other things to worry about." Her voice was low and depressed.
Aquarius put a hand on her shoulder, "I know they will be fine. There nothing that can hurt them now…"
"Yeah, I know… It's just that I was looking forward to seeing her grow up some more…" She said softly. She shook her head, before grinning deviously, "So, has my sister finally found a man yet, or is she too 'busy' as a celestial spirit now?" Arvella teased.
Aquarius blushed, "Oh, I met the perfect man. He's so cool and-" she snapped out of her blush and pointed an accusatory finger at her sister, "You're not going to steal my Scorpio, are you!"
Arvella giggled, "No, my heart belongs to another already." She grabbed her sister around the shoulder, "I just want to see if my dear sister finally managed to find a man who can stand her… strong personality." She teased.
Aquarius had an annoyed look on her face, but shook it off, "Fine, but you put one hand on him, and you will see my wrath."
Arvella smiled, "Fine, fine, let's just go" She waved her off.
As they started to move away from the spot they were, Arvella looked over shoulder once more, and smiled.
Her family was safe. That's all that mattered in the end.
XXX
We stumble out of the portal and form a dog pile, but we quickly manage to untangle ourselves.
"Damnit!" I say, punching the ground, causing it to crack. I feel some tears fall down my cheek.
"What's wrong, Rubi?" Risley asks with concern.
"Arvella, she… she was losing a lot of power. It felt like her lifeforce was fading away, but… she sent us back before we could help…" I yell out.
"D-Does that mean…" Araña stutters.
I look to her, "Yes, she most likely died right after we got sent back, just like the story." I then take a moment to look around, and it seems that nothing changed from when we were sent back, in fact, it looked like no time passed at all. After several moments of somber silence, I stand up, "I guess it was destined to happen, but doesn't mean I have to like it…" I say as I wipe the tears off my face. I look to Kagura, who also had a somber expression on their face. "Kagura." I say, getting her attention.
"Yeah?" She responds.
"Tomorrow, we start training like we never trained before." I declare, before looking at Risley and Araña, "You two are joining us as well. I don't ever want to be so outclassed again. It seems like I am always running into threats above my level and I'm sick of it!" My fist clench, "I'm going to be taking the S-class exam soon and I can't be held up by a measly demon!"
"I don't want to be left behind you two!" Risley declares, pointing to herself with her thumb.
"Yeah! If I don't keep up, I can't go on many jobs with you guys!" Araña says with determination.
"Hmm, I see the merit in your thinking, so I guess I am on board as well." Kagura agrees coolly, a small confident small on her face.
I put my hand out, "Right! Tomorrow, we get serious!" The others put their hands in with mine.
Suddenly, four grumbling roars interrupt the moment.
"But first, let's get some food!" I declare, ignoring the rumbling of our stomachs.
"Right!" Everyone shouts.
XXX
Celia was in her office late at night, doing paperwork like a good guild master should. If there was one thing she shared with every guild master, it was the hatred of paper work. It could be worse she supposed. She could have a guild whose members constantly rack up repair bills.
She laughed at the thought of Old Man Makarov breaking the bank because of his particularly destructive members.
She finally finished every single paper and she sank into her chair, relieved to be finally done. She grabbed her necklace, and inspected it, making sure it wasn't dirty and still had its shine. She always had this necklace, ever since her mother passed it down to her, and her mother before that. She wouldn't be as great of a wizard without it.
She put a pulse of magic into it, and it glowed. Suddenly, it projected a light and an image of a woman with ocean blue hair appeared. "Hello, Sofia, I'm glad you figured out how to use this." The image of Arvella said. "I promised you to teach you magic, so I went ahead to implant all my memories of magic into this Lacrima. I set this up in a way so that it teaches you spells when you are ready to learn them." The image smiled, "You may start off with the basics of water magic, but I have faith in you that you can master even the strongest magic, Aqua Celestis. The most powerful water magic, and only someone with mermaid blood can truly master." The image smirked, "Don't give me that look, be patient, Tesoro, you'll get it eventually." It said as if predicting what the possible response would be from the user. Its face turned serious, "Ok, lesson one-" Celia turned it off, because she already went through the training program of her ancestor.
She sighed, "I need sleep, I can't be in this office any longer…" She yawned, stretching her limbs out. She put her necklace back on and walked out of her office, making sure to turn the lights out.
I wish this arc was a little bit smoother, but I think it was a good learning experience as writer. I want to improve my writing when multiple characters are present.
Once again, Rubi is bothered by a higher power (me) and fights something straight out of her old world. I got to showcase two new Abilities, lightning form and Excalibur, as well as show off Kagura's new skills with her blade. Kagura is not much of a magic user, so I decided to incorporate her magic into her swordsmanship. I found it a good compromise between showing how my Kagura's different the Canon one while also keeping somewhat true to her core character, which is a swords-woman.
This fight was me experimenting in team combat. Unfortunately the enemy this time was too powerful for even a team effort, but in the future, Rubi and her friends working together will be much more effective. The star of this fight was not Rubi, but Arvella, and she ultimately needed to be the one to defeat the Balrog, because she was the only one equipped to defeat it.
The next arc will be S-class exam, which I think might be a short arc. Mermaid Heel isn't Fairy Tail. They don't have previous guild masters trying to resurrect Zeref and interrupting the exam to achieve that goal. The guild has a lot less members, and even less that even that qualify or even want to take the exam. Rubi and Kagura will be the only ones qualified to take it and have a chance at succeeding. I got to think out how I am going to do it.
I am thinking of doing a story based in the RWBY universe, but I am waiting for more info on things from the actual show before I even attempt to write it. I was just wondering if you guys would guys would be interested in it when I eventually decide to start it. Yes it might make this stories updates a bit slower than they already are, but it would add a variety to my writing. The RWBY story will have much darker and maturer themes than this story currently is.
Once again, I am sorry for the slow updates. I just want to reconfirm that no matter how long the time between updates, I won't abandon this story, even if it takes me years.