Who's your favorite chick? I think Serene is my favorite. A combination of the personalities of Serene and Lina remind me of someone I know XD. I like them all, of course, though Cierra's cluelessness isn't really for me XD. Her awesome figure and clueless mind remind me of Mutsumi Otohime from Love Hina, though. Has anyone seen the official art/wallpapers? Whenever Cierra shows up in one, she usually has huge boobs XD. And of course, like someone said once somewhere, there's just something about shy little girls (like Fia) that make men go bananas XD.
Awright, here's chapter 14. Damn, I've been slacking off lately… this work is getting to me. Must work faster… writing one chapter a week while posting two a week is not really the best way to stay ahead… Anyhoo, enjoy!
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When Serene and Lina got to the living room, they found Ein and the others already studying the new dark blue scythe that lay on the middle table.
"Hey, Serene!" Ein greeted as they entered. "We're just looking at it."
"Yeah, that's fine." Serene dragged Lina into the living room and sat down on the couch. Lina took a seat beside her, still holding her hand. "I made it from some weird metal Ritz found in the mine," she explained.
"This is some mysterious power," Cierra remarked. She picked up the scythe easily despite its size. "It's really light, yet it's powerful. I can't place what power this is."
"I was hoping you'd be able to," Serene said. "Any ideas, Fia? Ein?"
"It's dark, that's for sure," Fia murmured, rubbing her chin. "What do you think, Ein?"
"Let me test it out outside," Ein replied.
Everyone went outside into the yard, where they found a log. Rose grabbed onto Ledah's elbow and hid behind him, peeking out from his side. Cierra stayed close to Ein and the scythe, as did Fia. Serene and Lina stood a little further away.
"Ready?" Ein shouted.
"Ready when you are," Ledah answered.
"Okay then. Yah!" Ein swung the scythe in a large horizontal arc, cutting cleanly through the log lengthwise. "This thing is sharp!" he exclaimed.
"Yep," Serene replied. "Sharpest scythe so far."
"Hah!" Ein raised the scythe over his head and slashed down vertically. The scythe cut through the log and went right through the ground easily. Cierra and Fia had to jump back to avoid the dirt.
"Take it easy, Ein," Fia advised him. "You don't need to go all out to cut a log."
"I want to know the full potential of this weapon, though," Ein protested.
"I do too," Cierra agreed. Fia gave her a shocked look, but she just smiled. "We need to know what Ein can do with this weapon, so we might be able to use it against Orion."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Fia sighed. "Okay, then, do your best, Ein!"
"With pleasure!" Ein prepared his overskill. "I won't hold back!" He raised the scythe over his head, blade pointing forwards, pulsing with energy. He brought it down, and a wave of dark energy, circled with ribbons of light energy, ripped out from the blade and tore the log to shreds. Cierra and Fia screamed and jumped back to avoid the shards of wood that flew from the log.
"Aack!" Fia cried, brushing herself off. "What was that?"
Cierra inspected the pieces of wood that the log had become. "That's some power," she remarked. "Dark energy? That's rare in the weapons that sprites make."
"Yeah, this is the first one I've seen," Fia said. "Usually demons were the only ones who could use dark energy. We used light energy."
"And yet, what was that?" Ein asked. "There was some light energy mixed with it."
"Yeah, you're right," Cierra said thoughtfully. "There were some strands of light energy mixed in there."
"A combination attack," Ledah put in. Everyone turned to him. "It's an attack that uses more than one element for attack power," he explained. "It makes the attack more powerful."
"Say, why don't you try it," Ein suggested. "I don't think Cierra can use it, but maybe you can draw out some fire power."
Rose let go of Ledah, and he glided over to Ein and took the scythe. "Is there another log somewhere?" he asked.
"Why don't you try the grove?" Fia suggested. "It's a bit dark there right now, but I think we'll be able to see."
"Sure," Ledah replied. "Let's go."
Rose ran up and grabbed his arm again, and they all made their way to the Grove of Repose.
"Say, Lina and I tried executing overskills with that scythe earlier," Serene mentioned as they walked. Everyone turned to her. "Something similar to that happened. Mine had some ice in it, and Lina's had lightning."
"That's interesting," Cierra said. "Well, neither Fia nor I can use that scythe, but Ein's light power and Ledah's fire power make up for that."
"Yeah, mine released light energy with the dark wave," Ein added. "Ledah will probably have some flames in it."
"I'd expect that," Fia said, walking beside Ein. "His dominant element is fire, so he should have some flames with it."
"Lina doesn't understand, but okay!" Lina chirped.
"Say, I wonder if Rose can use that scythe," Ein remarked. He found two glowing eyes glaring at him from in front of him. "Uh, or not," he stammered uneasily.
"Good boy." Rose's voice drifted towards him. "I don't fight. You should know that."
"Uh, yeah…"
The group of seven reached the grove after a couple moments of silence. Ledah found a half-dead tree and cut it down.
"Okay, let the show begin!" Lina chirped. She hopped up onto Serene's shoulders, and Serene, somewhat surprised, nearly fell over.
"Lina, what are you…?"
"It's a better view from up here!" Lina exclaimed. Serene sighed. She didn't mind it anyway.
"Okay, Ledah, ready when you are!" Rose said from a safe distance away from the felled tree.
"All right," Ledah said. He took flight and spun the scythe in front of him a couple times in his hand to familiarize himself.
"That looks so cool!" Lina said. "I wish I could do that."
From midair, Ledah suddenly shot towards the log. He held the scythe below him, blade pointing forward. He hooked the blade under the log and suddenly dropped down, forcing the scythe under the log. With a yank of the handle, he split the log clean in half.
"Wow!" Serene exclaimed. "Awesome skills!"
"I wish I could do that," Cierra said in awe.
"Maybe I should train with a scythe too," Fia remarked.
"Everyone's amazed by Ledah's skill." Ein smiled to himself. "It comes so naturally to him."
Ledah spun the blade around again and slashed through the log horizontally. Spinning it some more, he flew backwards at an angle to the ground and raised the scythe above himself. He then shot downwards at the log and slashed straight down, embedding the scythe in the ground, boring a hole straight through the log.
"Burn in the flames of judgment! Crimson Flash!"
An aura appeared around Ledah, burning bright red. He pulled the scythe out of the ground and took to the air again. The log remained stuck on the scythe as he went up. With a swing of the scythe, the log took flight. Ledah chased after it, brandishing the scythe. At sonic speeds, he slashed through the log several times, splitting it into several pieces. As the pieces began to fall, he rose above them, holding the scythe in the air behind him, and focused his energy into the scythe. He then swung it, releasing a wave of dark energy surrounded by flames. The energy engulfed the pieces, splitting them into shards. The flames caused the shards to burst into flames, and the entire log was reduced to ashes before it hit the ground.
"Spectacular!" Cierra exclaimed. She didn't pay attention to a flaming shard that flew towards her and landed on her hat.
"Uh, Cierra?" Serene pointed at the shard. "There's a flaming piece of wood on your hat… don't you care?"
"Oh, this hat's fireproof," Cierra giggled. She pulled off her hat and shook the shard off. The shard burned up in the air, and the ashes dispersed in the wind. Cierra set her hat back on her head.
"It smells like burnt wood," Serene said, wrinkling her nose. "I hate that smell."
"Too bad!" Lina giggled. "You'll smell it more from now on!"
"Huh?" Serene looked up at her, and Lina dropped her head downwards. "What?"
"Nothing!"
"Right…"
"Judgment has been passed," Ledah said as he slowly descended, looking over the scythe the whole way down.
"Judgment? All you did was destroy a log," Rose teased. "You passed judgment on the log?"
"Who cares?" Ein defended Ledah. "It was spectacular either way."
"Yeah, you were good," Rose commented.
Ledah landed and walked over to Ein. "This is one powerful scythe," he remarked. "It'd be valuable in our fight against Orion."
Serene came up to them, Lina skipping along behind her. "I smashed a boulder using that scythe," Serene informed them. "It's pretty powerful. I'm not sure what kind of metal it is, but Ritz found it in the mine."
"Ritz found a scythe in the mine?" Cierra asked, looking a bit concerned.
"No, no, he found the metal," Serene said. "Geez, what would a scythe be doing in the mine?"
"Oh, right." Cierra gave a nervous laugh. "Anyway, it's only you four that can use that scythe." Cierra gave Fia a glance. "Fia and I can't use it."
"And I don't fight," Rose added. "Say, why don't Serene and Lina demonstrate too?"
"But we already did some practice with it earlier," Serene protested. "Do we need to?"
"Sure, I'd like to know what you can do with it," Ein said. "Come on, show us your stuff!"
"It's just so we can plan a strategy around the scythe if we need to," Fia added.
"Okay, okay, fine," Serene said. "I'll just get straight to the overskill. The regular skill looks like any other."
"Me too!" Lina joined in.
"No problem," Ein agreed.
Serene quickly found two dying trees and cut both down. She set one aside for Lina to use later. Both of them demonstrated their abilities with the scythe.
"Just as I thought, the elemental power of the attack depends on the user's affinity," Cierra observed. "Serene's affinity is ice, so the attack is dark combined with ice. Lina's is lightning, so there's lightning in the attack."
"Yeah, and light in mine, and fire in Ledah's," Ein finished.
"From what I know, Ein's should be the most powerful out of those four," Ledah put in. Everyone turned to him. "The light and dark elements are opposites. If combined, the resulting attack can destroy any enemy."
"Yeah, that makes sense," Cierra said, rubbing her chin. "But the problem is, his skill with the scythe is nowhere near Serene's or yours."
"Hey!" Ein protested. "What's that supposed to mean!"
Ledah ignored him. "That's true. And because of that, I'd say Serene's or my overskill would be the most powerful."
Fia shot Ein a sympathetic look. "But that doesn't mean you only use the strongest, right?" she argued. "We have to use the right attack for the situation."
"We didn't say that we'd only use ours," Ledah replied coolly. "Don't worry, you two won't be ignored."
"Yay!" Lina chirped. "Well, are we done here?"
Ein raised his head again. "Yeah, I guess," he said brightly. "Let's go, everyone!"
Fia looked at Ein quizzingly as the began to walk back home. Ein caught her glance, shrugged, and motioned for her to join him by his side. She moved up to him.
"You didn't have to stand up for me," Ein said quietly.
"I wanted to, you know?" Fia replied. "But anyway, what WERE you talking about back there in the kitchen?"
"Huh? Back there? We were-"
"Testing, 1-2-3, testing." A strangely familiar voice boomed in Ein's head.
"Huh? What?" Ein said aloud, looking around. "Who said that?"
"I did," Fia said, confused and misunderstanding. "Um, I just asked what you were talking about back in the kitchen."
"Seems like I got my telepathy thing working again. Ein? It's me."
Suddenly it hit him. "Rose?" Ein asked. The voice was different from Rose's current voice, but it was the voice that Rose had in telepathy.
"Huh? You were talking about Rose?" Fia looked at him worriedly. "You mean our Rose?"
"So, I'm guessing you still can't return messages telepathically," Rose said, still telepathically.
"Yeah," Ein confirmed.
"What? You were talking about Rose? What about her?" Fia continued, still unaware of Ein's condition.
"Oh well, I can hear you from here, so no one should know what you're talking about," Rose remarked. "So, Ein, care to say what you think of Fia now?"
Ein blushed again. "Huh? Uh, well, uh, she's… cute, I guess."
Fia nearly fainted. "What? Rose is cute? How could you!"
"So do you like her?" Rose asked.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I like her," Ein said.
"Ah!" Fia nearly screamed. "Ein!"
"Huh? What?" Ein asked, confused. "What are you screaming about?"
"If you liked her, Ein, you could have told me!" Fia cried. "Ein, how… how could you?"
"Um, what?"
"Argh! I hate you, Ein!" Fia stormed off, leaving Ein standing alone, watching her go in disbelief.
"Uh, Ein? What's going on?" Rose asked worriedly.
"Oh, I was just talking to Fia when you started to test your telepathy," Ein replied. "I honestly don't know what made her do that."
"You better talk to her later," Rose advised. "Seems like a misunderstanding."
"Yeah, I think so too," Ein said. "I'll talk to her next time I get the chance to."
Fia reached the house ahead of everyone and swiftly went up to her room and locked herself up. Ein knocked but received no reply.
"Fia, what's wrong?" he asked.
"You dare to ask?" Fia shouted. She sounded like she was crying. "What's wrong with you? Go away!"
"Um, can we talk?"
"No!"
"Uh, okay then." Ein nervously walked away and went back down the stairs.
"Hey, Ein?" Lina came up to him. "I'm going to sleep over at Serene's house, okay?"
"Huh? Serene's house? Sure, no problem," he replied. He looked back up the stairs worriedly, and then turned his gaze back to Lina, who looked at him quizzically.
"Ein, what's wrong?" Lina asked. Serene came in and stood by Lina.
"Er, nothing," Ein answered. "I'm kinda tired. Serene, take care of her." He went towards the living room.
"Uh, sure thing," Serene replied, pulling Lina along. They left the house quietly.
Ein entered the living room to see Ledah and Rose sitting together on the couch. "Hey," he greeted.
"Oh, Ein," Rose said. "How's Fia?"
"She doesn't seem to want to talk to me," Ein answered. "I hope she's okay…"
"Ah, sorry about that," Rose apologized. "Seems like that was my fault."
"Your fault? How?"
"I shouldn't have tried the telepathy when I did."
"Ah, don't worry about it," Ein reassured her. "I'll talk to her when I next get the chance."
"Mm, okay. Say, Ein, do you mind if we stay here for tonight?" Rose asked.
"Stay here? No, I don't mind," Ein replied. "Do you want to sleep in Lina's room?"
"Lina's room? Isn't it a mess?" Ledah asked.
"Well, you can sleep here if you want." Ein shrugged. "It doesn't matter to me."
"Er, I guess we'll sleep down here," Rose decided. "Who knows what lurks in the shadows of Lina's room?"
Ein laughed. "I don't know, I don't go in there often."
"Figures. Well, good night." Rose patted Ein on the head. "Good luck."
"Huh? What for?"
"Clueless as always…" Ledah grinned.
"What?"
"Don't worry, you'll see soon enough," Rose replied. "Now, get some rest."
"Okay."
Ein turned to see Cierra standing in the doorway. "Hey, what's up?" he asked. "It's getting late. I'm about to go up."
"Yeah, same here," Cierra answered. "Just waiting for you."
"Oh, okay. Let's go, then."
Ein walked past her and went up the stairs. Cierra followed behind him.
"Well, good night then, Cierra," Ein said when they reached Cierra's room.
"Yup. Good night!" Cierra said as she entered her room and closed the door. Ein entered his room and closed the door. He lay on the bed wondering what he should say to Fia, and drifted off to sleep after a few minutes.
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Fia lay facedown on the bed, sobbing on her pillow. Ein… how could you? I loved you so much! You just turn me away for her?
She picked up a picture taken at the bluff. It was just Ein and Fia, standing together, hand in hand, with an orange sunset behind them. They stood on a cliff overlooking the vast blue ocean. It was her most cherished memory. Ein… did you love me? Or was it all false? Did you love her this whole time?
She tossed the picture into the air, and somehow it made its way back onto the table. After all the times we spent together, you just turn me away for Rose…
"No! I'll never talk to you again!" she declared, then sobbed on her pillow some more. After a moment, she thought, no, I can't deny it. I still love him… but he loves her. Oh, what do I do… she continued to cry, and after a while she drifted off to sleep, dreaming of Ein and all the times they had spent together.
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A/N: Poor Fia! I feel sorry for her too, trust me. Throwing characters into these situations just makes you feel more sympathetic, right? Right? Um… yeah.
It took me quite a while to write out the telepathy part. Ein has to say the exact right words to Rose's questions, and those words have to equally answer Fia's questions at the same time. You've seen Ein in that situation just once in an earlier chapter, with Serene and Malice XD. I don't expect you to remember it, so don't feel bad if you don't.
Dual-elemental attacks! I know it seems like I stole the idea from Sauce XIV's story, but trust me, I didn't. I had this chapter written before he had his written. And besides, the concepts are not the same. The two extra elements of his attack came from the physical environment, while the dark element here comes directly from the scythe. You may have also noticed that Lina and Ein don't shout out attack names, but that's because they never do in the game with scythes. Just to make it interesting, Ledah's skill level with a scythe is as high as Serene's, even though he does say that Lorelei is all he needs at the beginning of the game (if you try to use anything else, ex. Einherjar, in his turn). Besides, someone from the flame element family had to use the scythe…
On the next chapter of The White Wings…
Chapter 15: The Quiet Night (Release on August 27, 2006)
Rose and Ledah alone time! The two share a night together on the living room couch. Expect fluff, but don't expect too much sex, if at all XD. It'll be a very short chapter, only seven words longer than chapter 5 (remember? XD), which is still the shortest chapter to date.