Hey guys MT here!

Sorry I'm a bit late but I had a bit of writer's block which slowed down my writing.

I have really been getting on a roll with the war (probably because I'm also writing another war in my other fic) and it is making these chapters flow a lot better. When this war is over, by the way, be prepared for many slow chapters.

Anyways, I ramble, ENJOY!

UPDATED 8/5/15

Chapter 24

"Saito, seems your attack failed to kill my familiar," said Ivarod, slyly. Saito inspected the two and could see Toriyama was covered in cuts, bruises, and burns, most likely from the explosion. Ivarod wasn't much better, also covered in burns from the explosion that even he wasn't able to collect Toriyama and escape from properly.

"Seems I still managed to take him out, though," said Saito, grinning in victory. His Demonic aura had now dissipated and he was panting from the exertion. Ivarod grinned as he laid Toriyama on the ground and walked towards Saito.

"Of course, even if I was fast, the shockwave from the attack was too much for him being at the epicenter. Though, I hope you don't expect me to let you off easy after nearly killing my familiar and adopted son," said Ivarod, his grin obviously fake from the angry look he gave Saito. Saito tensed and lifted Derf up once more, prepared to fight.

"Partner," whispered Derf. "You're out of power; we have no tricks up our sleeve except spell absorption. Be careful."

"Tch, think I haven't noticed? I don't know how well we will do if Gwen and Tiffa don't come soon," said Saito, a grin on his face while he closely watched Ivarod.

Ivarod flashed out his wand and chanted a spell which caused a light blue sword to come out of his wand. He grinned at Saito and was gone a moment later, causing Saito to tense up and wait for him to reappear. Said enemy did reappear right next to Saito, causing him to flinch away, throwing Derf up to block the incoming slash. Ivarod was too fast and slashed at Saito, slicing into his arm and throwing him back. Saito shouted out in pain as he was thrown back and slashed into the ground some ways away. He clutched his left arm in pain and rose up to his feet again, clutching Derf in his right hand, tightly. Ivarod grinned at Saito again and released his blade before pointing his wand at him and chanting again before shouting out 'Fire Petal'. Hundreds of fire balls shot out at Saito and he struggled to take them out, getting scraped and burned by those he couldn't hit.

Saito hissed in pain at his fresh wounds and Ivarod continued to grin at him. Saito had been exhausted from fighting Toriyama and the Valkyrie when he first began fighting Ivarod, now it just hurt to move. He panted as he faced against Ivarod, clenching his jaw in an attempt to distract himself from his wounds. Ivarod shot out another blade and appeared in front of Saito again, smashing his blade into Derf. Derf absorbed said spell and Ivarod disappeared again, appearing behind Saito before smashing his fist into the back of Saito's head. His eyes widened at the new pain and he gasped, falling forward.

Ivarod stood over the wounded Saito, who was panting on the ground and hissing as dirt and rocks scratched and dirtied his wounds. The evil king held his blade over head and prepared to stab Saito.

"Ready to die?" asked Ivarod, the grin beaming off his face. Saito growled at him and said man thrusted his sword towards Saito. His eyes shut closed as he prepared for his enemy to pierce him, but was surprised when he heard Ivarod get smashed away from him.

Saito lifted up his head to see what was going on and saw Louise, Asuna, Tiffa, and Gwen running over to him. Louise put her wand down, tears in her eyes as she threw herself at him. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him against her chest, bawling over him.

"I was so scared!" shouted Louise as she bawled. "I saw him over you and I was so scared we wouldn't make it!"

Saito groaned in pain but managed to lift up his hand to stroke her hair to calm her down. Gwen immediately went to work on healing Saito and Asuna and Tiffa stood guard, Asuna wearing an immensely furious expression, ready to kill Ivarod if she was given the chance.

Ivarod lifted himself off the ground, groaning in pain and brushed the dirt off of him.

"Stupid girl! Shooting a boulder at me to protect your filthy lover," said Ivarod, annoyed that someone threw a boulder at him (who wouldn't be?).

Tiffa pointed her wand at Ivarod and ripped up the ground on either of her sides to create a wall around him using her nature magic. Said man glared at her and disappeared, racing towards them. Asuna used her thermal vision, which she absorbed from a snake, to track the man. She could sense his movements and see the heat of his body as he moved towards them. She transformed Chichi into his claw form and slashed at where she anticipated him to move to.

Ivarod was shocked when Asuna managed to hit him and reeled backward to avoid the claws cutting into his armor. He was unable to stop fast enough, though, and the hook at the tips of the claws dug through his armor and hooked him to Asuna. She slashed at him with her other claw and he blocked it with his wand sword. Asuna used her advanced animal strength to overpower Ivarod and pull his wand down far enough that she could do something. She transformed her teeth into dragon teeth and lunged at his neck, biting into it and causing him to roar in pain.

The man being bit was enraged that he allowed her to injure her and used his free hand to grab her neck. Asuna responded by biting harder but was quickly running out of air from Ivarod cutting off her wind pipe. She released her grip on his neck and gasped for air, trying to pry his hand from her neck. Ivarod glared at her and gripped tighter, causing Asuna to gasp more and more as she struggled to fill her burning lungs. Tiffa crashed the rocks she was moving into Ivarod, causing him to release Asuna as he struggled to keep himself from being crushed. He sliced the rocks up in one swift movement and used his super speed to escape. He appeared a distance away, clutching his neck, in pain from the deep wound Asuna inflicted on him.

Asuna was on the ground, clutching her neck and panting harshly. She glared at the man across from the field but trembled, lightly. She had almost died, and she knew it. If Tiffa hadn't been there she would have died. Now she knew how Saito had felt since he had almost died (technically died but circumstances brought him back) twice and was about to go for a 3rd time. Tiffa appeared in front of Asuna, blocking her view of Ivarod and she lifted her wand at him.

Tiffa blasted the man with disks of wind which threatened to cut through his armor. He threw up a stone barrier with earth magic and blocked the attack.

"How can you use magic other than Void magic?! You didn't get to see the book that Stradinir gave us!" shouted Tiffa, prepared to attack again.

"Hehehe…you think there was only one copy of that book?!" shouted Ivarod, glad he was getting a moment to think up a strategy. "There were four copies made, one accessible by each familiar of each Void mage. There are one of these rooms in the four civilizations of the four races. One in the elven capital, one in Romalia, one in the Dwarfish mountains, and one in the Valkyrie's country. I obtained the one in my country and learned its secrets."

"I still won't let you win!" shouted Tiffa. She raised her wand again and shot out a torrent of water at her foe. Ivarod easily dodged the simple blast of water and began chanting a spell. Tiffa blasted him with the water spout again and then a fire blast. He easily dodged them while continuing to chant and finally Ivarod finished after several minutes.

Ivarod's wand glowed at its tip and the light traveled down the wand and enveloped his hand. His hand glowed a greenish-blue before turning an aqua blue, then forest green, then fire red, and finally a pure white. Ivarod shoved his wand in his sleeve and crunched his hand into a fist. He crouched, slightly, as if about to punch while muttering out a barely audible 'Infinity Punch', which caused Tiffa to tense and brace herself. Ivarod disappeared and Tiffa perked up and used nature magic to form a suit of stone on her body to prepare for whatever attack was coming at her. Ivarod appeared in front of her again and grinned as his fist flew towards her gut at amazing speed. He smashed his fist into her stomach, blasting an unbelievable amount of power into her. Tiffa hunched forward as she was punched and coughed up blood as the energy coursed through her and blasted out on the other side of her body. She suddenly blasted off of his fist and skipped across the ground, landing near Louise, Saito, and Gwen.

Both girls gasped when they saw their fellow Void mage collapsed on her back, blood dripping down the corner of her mouth, and unconscious. Gwen finished up healing Saito's wounds and ran over to Tiffa to begin working on her. She used her magic to first probe what was wrong and was shocked when she found out that she had several broken ribs, fractured bones all over her body, and most of her internal organs were bruised.

Saito managed to get up, having to use Derf as a cane and walked with Louise to where Tiffa was. Gwen explained what was wrong with her and Saito glared at Ivarod who was grinning at them. Before Saito could rise up, Louise stood and strut towards Ivarod, wand poised to attack. When she was close enough to him, she shouted out at him.

"You've hurt those I care about for the last time! You hurt my friends, my husband. I won't let you live after this!" shouted Louise, angrily. She flicked her wand up in her hand and Ivarod's smile faded as he prepared for another fight.

Louise's wand was thrown out in front of her and she shot out several fireballs at her opponent who dodged them, swiftly, with his super speed and she tensed as she watched him appear and disappear as he made his way over to her. When he was close enough, Louise used a water spell which caused a wave of water to blast away from her in all directions. Having nowhere to dodge to, Ivarod took the attack and was blown back before shooting up a wall of earth to keep him from being taken farther. The water moved away from him and he gasped for air since he had previously been underneath the wave of water. Water dripped off of him as he leaned back against the wall and growled at the woman who still had her wand trained on him. He disappeared again and shot fireballs from random directions towards Louise and she struggled to keep up with him, throwing up an earth wall to block some and orbs of water to block others. Louise growled in frustration at the onslaught and threw out disks of air in all directions.

Ivarod struggled to dodge them but still managed to blast out a few torrents of water. The water knocked Louise back and he used the opportunity to get closer to her. When Louise managed to blow away the water with fire, Ivarod was closing in on her, quickly. She quickly threw out an Explosion to knock him off his feet but instead blasted him forward, towards her. She cussed under her breath and threw up an earth wall to block him. A moment passed and Ivarod came blasting through the wall with an air spear spell. Louise gasped at how close he was to hitting her and he changed spells to his magic sword. He was about to pierce Louise when suddenly Asuna blasted forward, piercing his side with Chichi who as in his dagger form. Ivarod cussed and threw his sword out to slice at Asuna. Chichi quickly transformed into his shield form and, even though the attack was blocked, Ivarod had used his super speed to hit her hard, throwing her back at high speed. Asuna was thrown unconscious by the attack, crashing into a boulder, head first, after skipping across the ground.

Louise growled at Ivarod and threw up her wand, blasting him with an Explosion at close range. Louise grinned as she knew that the spell made contact and watched as the cloud of light and smoke dissipated.

When it did, she gasped when she saw Ivarod still standing. He was covered in bruises and his armor was extremely damaged. The straps keeping it together snapped and the plate armor fell of him, hitting the ground with a loud clang. Ivarod panted, harshly, and glared at his foe. He was getting sick of her and before she could react, he grabbed her by the arm. Louise mouthed 'shit' and was lifted up by Ivarod before being thrown away at high speed. She rolled and skipped across the rocky ground, being thrown quite a distance away. When she stopped rolling, Louise coughed, the dust filling her lungs, and groaned in pain. She was sure she broke something on top of being covered in scrapes and bruises.

Ivarod was next to her in a second, picking her up by the back of her white blouse before slamming her into the ground, causing Louise to gasp in pain, her eyes widening at the sudden blow. Ivarod plagued her back with fireballs, causing her to scream out in pain as the flames burned her skin and they ended only when she was unconscious, the sheer pain too much for her to handle. Ivarod kicked her limp body to make sure she was really out and stepped away from her to go towards Gwen and Saito. Saito stood up and moved to a battle stance with Derf, defending Gwen and Tiffa. His expression was dark, furious that Ivarod had done such a thing to his wife. Despite his expression, Ivarod merely disappeared again, appearing before Saito a moment later. He blasted air at Saito, throwing him back and over the two girls. He landed on the ground some distance away and groaned in pain before trying to get up. He watched Gwen get smashed in the face by a weaker version of the punch Ivarod used on Tiffa, probably due to the fact that his magic reserves were near empty. Gwen cried out in pain collapsed onto Tiffa, her nose broken and bleeding.

Saito got up and clutched his side, his previous wounds still not completely healed. He glanced around him, seeing Asuna pressed against a boulder, her head bleeding. Louise lay some distance away from her, the burns evident on her back. Tiffa and Gwen laid in a heap in front of Ivarod, blood leaking from Gwen's nose and Tiffa's mouth. He clutched Derf, tightly, and wondered what to do.

"What now, Partner? We're on our last leg and your body can barely keep up with standing let alone doing much else," said Derf, calmly. Saito paused for a moment, thinking about what to do. He glanced up at the sky and saw that the sun was already setting and night was soon to come. He grinned and finally spoke out.

"Derf, do you have any magic from what you absorbed from Ivarod earlier?" asked Saito, calmly. Derf muttered out a 'Yes, why?' and Saito continued. "Give it to me, I can use that to beat Ivarod once and for all."

"Are you crazy?! Even though you'd be able to use it, taking magical power from someone other than Lifdrasir is like taking poison, it could do a lot of damage, even kill you," said Derf, worriedly. Saito clutched Derf, tightly, and looked at his sword with pleading eyes. Derf sighed, not wanting to do this at all. "Don't die on me, Partner. You're my best one yet."

"Thank you, partner," said Saito, calmly, a small smile gracing his features.

So? What did you guys think?

I'm pumped for next chapter and I hope you guys are too.

Please Review and let me know what you guys think so far and any suggestions you have.

Anyways, until next time...byeee :D