The final showdown is here!
Wishes, Dreams, and Memories
Chapter 34 – The Final Struggle
"Eat this!" Frey swung her hammer around, knocking any types of monsters coming her way.
Lest managed to send the monsters surrounding him with his dual blades, but the number of monsters around the Earthmates hadn't reduced much. The monsters more powerful than their regular counterpart as the dark aura surrounded them and the dark forest they were all in. The dragons launched their elemental breath along with the fairies attacking the Earthmates using their magic, pitting them to a corner.
"There are too many of them!" Lest said quickly as he raised his shield to block incoming fireballs from the red dragons, "And they're just too strong!"
"You don't," Frey caught one of the fairies and threw it against the pack of silver wolves, "need to tell me that again!"
Lest blocked a rider orc's club as it rode on a wolf, only to have more orc riders storming towards him with their own wolves. The male Earthmate could only block the orc riders and wolves by his shield, though a pair managed to find a way to hit and bite him in the end. Before more of the monster armies came to him, a wave of stone spikes came out from the ground and pushed them back to give Lest some space.
Frey, in her tired state, ran to Lest side, "Cure All!"
The healing spell managed to heal their wounds, but it couldn't erase the fatigue they had after battling monsters over and over again. It hadn't been long since the two of the arrived, but the monsters there had already been waiting for them since their arrival. The regular sight of white nothingness with colorful leaves flying around had already been replaced by the view of a forest filled with dead trees and monsters.
"The runes…" Frey looked around as the monsters slowly approached them once more, "It's starting to corrupt everything… He is… corrupting everything…"
"Then we have to find him, and fast!" Lest replied as he stood ready with his short sword and shield, "We can't beat all the monsters here at once, but we might be able to make a way through them, don't you think?"
"It's not going to be easy either way," Frey curled her fist while holding her hammer on her left hand, "But making a way out of these guys is definitely a lot easier than beating them all."
The twins switched places, with Lest on the left side to block the incoming attacks with his shield while Frey used her hammer to push the monster to the right and make a way. Little by little the strategy managed to lead them out of the monster crowd with little damage as they sped away from the rampaging monsters.
The maze-like forest managed to help their escape, but also make them lost their way as well. Lest and Frey looked at the trees around them, which looked completely identical in every direction. It was getting harder for them to tell where they had come from to reach the spacious clearing they were in.
"Not good," Frey turned to Lest with serious look, "There's no way out of this place. The corrupted runes are blocking my Escape magic."
Lest closed his eyes for a moment, trying to activate the spell as well, "Yeah, I can't use it either…"
"Oh, are you leaving so soon?" a voice echoed throughout the forest, surprising the two.
"I haven't forgotten that voice…" Lest commented in a whisper as he held on to his sword and shield, "We've found who we're looking for."
"Yeah, I can sense those corrupted runes of his," Frey replied as she held on to her hammer, "Ethelberd is here to greet us… from above!"
The two Earthmates quickly split as something hard had fallen on the ground they had been standing on. Once the dust had cleared, the figure revealed himself as the missing young emperor with his long hair a mix of the original teal color and light blue. His green eyes were glowing red as he turned to look at Lest and Frey with a wicked smile.
"Long time no see, my dear children," the smile turned into a frown as he glared at them, "No, I refuse to acknowledge my great blood to run in your bodies with that cursed Earthmate's blood!"
"You don't have any right to talk bad about our mother!" Frey yelled in anger, "We don't have a father like you! We never had any!"
"I don't want to call you as my father too," Lest spoke up as he glared at the emperor, "I don't remember my own past, but I remember you and your empire trying to destroy Selphia! I remember you trying to take Venti away!"
"Huh? That sad excuse of a wind dragon?" Ethelberd looked at him in an amused look, "Well, at least that dragon still had some strength left that I could borrow…" Ethelberd's form turned its color into pitch black before morphing into the familiar wind dragon, "Like this!"
Ethelberd flapped the strong wings he now had and a powerful gust managed to knock the Earthmates off the ground and towards the trees behind them. The emperor transformed back to his human form with dark aura around his body. The two Earthmates slowly got back to their feet, looking at Ethelberd in complete disbelief.
"That… that was Venti's… power…" Lest spoke up as he winced from the pain on his back.
"H-How…?" Frey asked as she used her hammer for support, "You… you're already a dead man!"
"Hah! Nonsense!" Ethelberd swung his arm to throw a dark ball towards Frey, pinning her against the tree, "I live on in that wretched place! I can fuse myself with any kinds of runes I want! I can be any god I want! I AM GREATER THAN ANY GOD!"
"You… greedy… monster… ugh…" the dark ball pinning her turned into wooden spikes coming from the dead tree, choking her.
"S-Stop it!" Lest cried out angrily, "I already beat you once, I can just easily beat you again!"
"Do you study about the Native Dragons, Earthmate?" Ethelberd turned his attention to Lest before he transformed into a big black dragon with burning wings, "Like the dragon god of destruction?!"
Lest quickly rolled out of the way as Ethelberd unleashed a big fireball at him, only to have the burning fireball curved in its path and hit Lest, "GAH!"
"I… I won't let you… hurt him!" Frey pushed the spikes away before burning them with her fire magic to free herself.
"You cannot defeat me, Earthmates!" Ethelberd transformed into a big snake-like dragon, shooting water laser around the area to hit both Lest and Frey.
Frey fell on her stomach, barely conscious from all the strain and damage she had taken. As if her pain wasn't enough, Ethelberd approached her as Lest laid helplessly to watch the emperor stomped his foot on his twin's head. Her face was battered, but not a single drop of blood was spilled as Ethelberd stomped and kicked her around on the face.
"Huh, I guess there's another like me in this world after all," Ethelberd stopped his act as he looked at Frey's motionless body in disgust, "An Earthmate version of myself… what a disgusting-"
A ball of light hit Ethelberd square in the face, but not with enough force to knock him away far enough. Frey slowly stood with her wounds slowly healing from the use of another healing spell, before she turned around to look at him with a cold stare. As Ethelberd was about to transform once more, Lest had come from behind him to strike him with a long slash on his back, stopping his transformation process.
"You…!" Ethelberd sent out a barrage of fireballs at Lest, slightly knocking him back, before he followed up with a small ball of light thrown at him.
"Get back!" Frey pushed Lest out of the way before escaping herself as the ball of light grew larger in size, creating a crater of blue light in the middle of the area.
With the huge crater dividing the area between the two Earthmates and Ethelberd, the three of them were only left with magic attacks which brought a disadvantage to Lest and Frey. Ethelberd soon transformed into Aquaticus and used his long body to reach and knock the Earthmates towards the trees helplessly.
The barrage of fireballs Lest and Frey had sent out to counterattack was absorbed as Ethelberd transformed into Fiersome, who then pulled them closer along with the burning branches around them. Just as they were getting closer to him, the transformed emperor spun around to knock them back once more.
Frey was thrown towards the tree once more, but the stinging pain all over her body had prevented her from getting up. Lest was thrown to the ground, but the fatigue from the battles against the monsters had caught up to him once more to prevent him from using any healing spell on the two of them. Frey let out a desperate and pained sigh as she reached out for her pocket, taking the rune sphere shard in her hand.
'Please… make it work…' Frey thought as she forced herself to crawl towards Lest, who noticed her coming, "Lest… It's time…"
"The purification… huh…" Lest reached for his own pocket, taking out the white-fish like charm, "Our last… resort…"
"Resist all you can, but it won't matter anymore," Ethelberd spoke up as the twins slowly rose to their feet while leaning on each other for support, "Today… today will be the day I can annihilate all Earthmates left in this world! I will finally have my revenge!"
"Lest, listen to me," Frey spoke up as she and Lest held the charm together, "You can just focus on giving me your purification energy. I'll handle the rest."
"I'll try…" Lest's hesitance in his voice got Frey's attention, "But I don't know how I can do it…"
"Just focus the way you usually do when you're casting magic," Frey replied, "That purification spell is also a type of magic."
Lest nodded in understanding, "Got it."
The two Earthmates closed their eyes as a ball of light formed around the charm, quickly swallowing anything in the area. Ethelberd looked at the Earthmates swallowed by the light before it soon covered the crater he had created as well. He tried running in panic, but the light grew faster before he could escape his fate. All of the dead trees, monsters, and the corrupted runes quickly disappeared into the light, restoring the forest into its original state.
Sensing the familiar surroundings, Lest opened his eyes to see that he was back into the empty space of the forest, but without the flying leaves. He was on his own as Frey was nowhere to be seen, but he found something unexpected as he looked around for her. It was something he never dreamed of actually seeing.
The black soul of Ethelberd, slowly being eaten by the light, was floating in the middle of the white space. The parts which had been eaten slowly turned into smaller leaves, flying towards a vortex of other colorful leaves behind Ethelberd. It was the same place Lest saw Frey, who looked at him with a sad smile as she approached him.
"The process is going to take a lot of time here, but not if I take him into the Forest of Beginnings through this gate," Frey said as she looked at Ethelberd, "He did what he shouldn't and his punishment will be having his soul perish in the forest."
"Then let's take him there," Lest suggested, but was confused when Frey shook her head, "Why? You said that it'll be faster-"
"I did," Frey cut in, "But that's not the reason why we shouldn't take him there. Or to be exact, that's not the reason why you shouldn't take him to the Forest of Beginnings."
"If it's because the forest isn't a place for living beings, doesn't that apply to you too?" Lest asked in response.
Frey looked at him for a moment before she closed her eyes and smiled once more, "I see that those two their promises after all, if you know nothing about my condition."
"Your… condition…?" Lest looked at her in confusion.
"Lest," Frey opened her eyes and looked at him, "I… am no longer alive…"
"W… What…?"