A/N: Answering reviews
SoulHorse: Ah she was crying because she had this feeling that she wouldn't dance with Elsword XD. Why she had this feeling will be later revealed in later chapters, as it will be an important factor defeating the nasods.
Astaria Mel Kanariance: heheh, yeah I'm trying to make the plot go faster a bit, cause the real plot hadn't started within the first five chapters, so I had to rush it a bit etc. So i hope you enjoy this chapter! :D
Chapter seven: The Fire Priestess
Velder was one of the two major cities of magic, standing tall as Hamel's equal. Now both had fallen, with the majority of buildings demolished. The ruins were silent, as no one dared reside in the city. Elsword felt like he was walking through a ghost town, and knowing that this had been his home, a feeling of helplessness drowned him. Was Aisha okay? Did the others that stayed in the Sieghart mansion survive? Walking through the ruins, he searched for anyone alive. Through the masses buildings, the majority should have died, if not they had already fled. So weaponless, the boy continued to search the city, hoping to find some sorts of life, making sure to avoid any nasods lurking in the ruins.
As he entered one of the still standing houses sudden noise alerted Elsword that there was something nearby. Turning around he created a rune, ready to cast it but stopped when he saw who it was. A blonde girl stood before the rune slayer, dressed in red formal clothes. Her long hair was tied into a ponytail with a black ribbon. She raised both her hands up, showing that she had no weapon.
Slowly Elsword dropped his spell.
"Sorry about that," the boy stated. "Thought you were a nasod."
"Don't worry, I thought you were one as well," the girl answered, smiling brightly. "What's you're name?"
"Elsword Sieghart. What's yours?"
"Ignia."
Elsword raised an eyebrow at the name. That was a very uncommon name, though he could have sworn he had heard it somewhere before.
"Nice to meet you Ignia. Though we can save proper introductions later. We should try a find a way to leave the city," Elsword said, ignoring his previous thought. "It's not safe to stay here for too long, god knows how many nasods there are."
Ignia nodded, still smiling innocently. Elsword sighed.
'Why is this girl so happy? Is she clueless or something?'
Turning around, Elsword motioned for her to follow as the two of them made their way out of the building, and into the sights of a large cluster of nasods.
"Crap," Elsword muttered. "Run!"
Realising what was happening, Ignia broke into a sprint with Elsword. Seeing the two the large group of nasods gave chase, easily about to catch up. Grunting, Elsword turned around and threw a rune, exploding as it struck the closest nasod.
"Through the alleyway!" Ignia cried out, indicating the alleyway coming up. Seeing no other option, Elsword followed her through the alleyway. Elsword ran as fast as he could, but he could still feel the nasods closing in. There was the sound of clanging coming from above them, indicating that the nasods were chasing them on the roof as well. Exiting the alleyway, Ignia stopped and looked around her, but didn't know where to go. Seeing the gold factory still standing, an idea popped into Elsword's head.
"This way!" he shouted, turning to the right, running across the street to the factory. "Hurry!"
The boy barged through the door and into the dark room, soon followed by Ignia. Turning around, Elsword immediately shut the door, locking it with some chain next to the door.
"Is that going to hold?" Ignia asked as Elsword had begun piling whatever he could find behind the door.
"Yeah definitely," Elsword muttered sarcastically. "Cause nasods are totally incapable of smashing down a door! Come on, to the back!"
Elsword immediately began placing his hand on the wall, trying to find the switch.
"Why are we here?!" Ignia asked.
"Blacksmiths must be able to make gold."
"So?!"
"So," Elsword said, finding the switch, he flicked it on. "They must have a place to hold liquid gold."
Immediately the factory lit up, revealing cauldrons easily ten meters tall, with a diameter of ten as well. Five were at the front, followed by another seven rows behind the initial five.
"Come on!" Elsword shouted, running towards the back of the room, followed suit by Ignia. As they ran, they could hear the door being struck over and over again. Finaly they reached the end where the control rooms were. Racing up the stairs, Elsword reached the door pushing against it to no avail. Raising his hand, he tried to blast the door, but it continued to stand as it seemed to be magic resistant.
"No! Damnit!" he pounded against the door.
"Out of the way!" Ignia said, barging past Elsword.
She brought her hand to the handle and a faint flame appeared in her hand, before there was a click and the door opened. Ignia entered the room, turning the switch on.
"What did you do?" Elsword asked, following her in.
"I melted the lock. So are you going to execute your plan now?"
Realising she was right, Elsword went to the controls and stopped.
"Why can't they ever write what each button does?" he complained as he started pressing random ones. "How do you even turn this thing on?"
"What! You don't even know how to operate this! Some plan you got here!" Ignia shouted.
"It seemed like a good idea at the time! And in case you forgot I was extremely stressed from being chased by what, thousands of nasods?!" Elsword shouted back.
Angrily Elsword had smashed his fist against the machine, and it roared to life as the factory had begun to operate. From above carts filled with gold ore began tipping into the cauldron.
"See it's fine," he said. "Now we need a way to melt it in time. And if I remember correctly the normal process takes a long time-"
"I can solve that, you just focus on finding a way to pour the gold onto the nasods." Ignia interrupted, exiting the room. Elsword didn't argue as he begun searching for the button.
Outside, Ignia had begun to run down the stairs as quickly as she could, finally reaching the bottom. She stood in the centre of the five cauldrons and took a deep breath, raising both of her hands. Slowly the air started to heat up as he hands became alit. She continued to charge her spell as the flames around her hand intensified until finally she brought both her hands in front of her as a massive wave of flame erupted from her hands. The fire spread to each cauldron heating it quickly.
Back in the small room Elsword stared at the amazing display of power as the fire heated all the cauldrons with ease and at an amazing rate.
Just then the door fell and the nasods swarmed in, running towards the girl, unaffected by the spell she had cast.
"Elsword!" she yelled. "Do it!"
Elsword still frantically looked for the button to no avail.
"Why can't they ever have words!" he yelled in annoyance, before an emergency button caught his eye.
'Emergency disposal'
Silently Elsword thanked god before pressing the button. Immediately the cauldrons had begun to tip, as molten gold flowed out. The nasods stopped they advances, realising the danger they were in. Slowly they turned around and tried to run. Unluckily for them the running gold had caught them, causing them to start melting from the immense heat.
As soon as the cauldrons started tipping, Ignia had raced back up the stairs and burst into the room and watched as the gold consumed the majority of the nasods.
"You know, your idea ain't that bad," she admitted, watching as the remaining nasods that survived ran out the door.
"Thanks," Elsword replied. "So tell me, just who exactly are you?"
"I told you, my name is-"
"Not you're name," the boy interrupted. "You performed a spell that only natural magicians could ever hope to perform, and you did it without a weapon. You are obviously not one of the Three Sages as I know all three personally, in fact if I am not mistaken you would be stronger. So, I ask again. Who are you?"
Ignia smiled.
"I'm a god."
Aisha awoke to the sound of chirping. Wondering how she got here, the memory of what happened last night entered her mind.
'The nasods had broke into the house…Ara, Eve, Add, Lu and Ciel weren't able to fight them all…so we fled?'
"She's awake!" Add called out to the rest of the group, snapping Aisha from her thoughts. Looking up, she could see the all of them with her…in a forest? Ciel sighed a breath of relief as he bent down and allowed Aisha to get off his back.
"Where are we?" Aisha asked, standing on her two feet.
"A few miles from Velder," Ciel answered, looking back to see if anyone was following them. "We had to flee the mansion. I'm sorry to say miss, but there were to many of them."
Aisha looked at everyone's sad faces. Even Add was sad, and that was something.
"It's fine," Aisha stated. "It was just a building, as long as everyone is alive and well it's fine."
Everyone nodded at the same time, earning a smile from Aisha at the humorous scene.
"Okay," Aisha continued. "Where are we going?"
"To the original Glenstid base mistress," Eve answered. "In Altera."
"What, why?" Aisha demanded.
Everyone stayed silent as they waited for someone to tell her the news.
"Velder and Hamel have fallen," Add said, breaking the silence. "We're going back to Altera as we don't know where else is safe. At least the Glestid base can't be broken into by any nasod, it should be safe there. Plus we can live there for the time being before we determined our next move."
Aisha had stopped listening after he had said Hamel had fallen. The requiem ball was in Hamel…was Elsword…
"What about Elsword?" Aisha asked. "What about Raven and Rena…or the prince? Has there been any news from them?"
"No," Add continued. "Their most likely dead."
"Add!" Ara growled.
"What!?" Add demanded. "She was bound to find out some way or another! It's better to get this over and done with. It's not like she'll be fine if we sugar coat any details. And in case you haven't realised, the nasods attacked us. People die all the time, so though they might be alive, we can't worry so that we get distracted. All that matters is that we are alive, and getting somewhere safe."
"How can you say that with so easily?" Aisha questioned. "Don't they matter to you?"
"Of course they matter," Add answered. "But as part of the Glenstid organisation, my top priority is to make sure you are alive. Before that is achieved, I do not worry about anything else."
Aisha stared into Add's unwavering eyes full of conviction. Seeing no more response from Aisha, Add turned around.
"You're right," the elemental master agreed, surprising the group. "The three of them are strong, I have faith that they will survive. Let us make our way to Altera, we can discuss what to do after that."
And with that, Aisha started walking through the forest.
"Uh miss," Lu called out. "You're going in the wrong direction."
"A god?" Elsword exclaimed.
Both the runslayer and the blonde girl exited the factory, with Ignia in front, smiling cheerfully.
"Well not exactly a god," she replied. "More like I'm a catalyst for Rosso, the Master of Fire."
Elsword's eyes widened. Could he trust what she was saying? Well he did see first hand her power. But the host of a god?
"Can you prove it?" Elsword asked. "I know you have lots of power, but asking me to believe something like that is too much. Show me something only a god can do. Or a host…for a god?"
Ignia placed her hands on her hips, sighing.
"Young kids these days," she muttered. "Let's see. You're a rune slayer aren't you?"
"Yeah."
"You heard of Penensio?"
Elsword raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Yeah," he answered. "He's the first rune slayer in history. He died 5000 years ago."
Clasping her hands together, Ignia created a blue rune between her hands. All of a sudden a giant rune appeared beneath their feet and everything inside was lifted until it was suspended in mid air, including Elsword. The roofs of houses, the furniture followed suite as well.
"What!?" Elsword exclaimed.
Ignia smiled, cancelling the rune, letting Elsword drop back down. A shower of dirt and debris followed, crashing back into the ground.
"It's a bastille rune," she answered. "You see I knew Penensio back in the day, when he first came up with this form of magic. Sadly he never finished it as it has so much potential."
"What do you mean?" Elsword asked. "You mean rune magic isn't completed?"
"Nope," Ignia replied. "No where close."
Elsword smiled, amazed that rune magic could still even more powerful. Then a sudden thought entered his mind.
"Ignia…The Fire Priestess," he muttered. "Now I remember. Six hosts for six gods. That means, there's five more priestesses! And if they're as powerful as you…we can fight the nasods!"
"It's not that simple," Ignia replied. "This is an artificial body, because the six gods would kill whoever they host. Since this is artificial, I have no mana, only a life force."
Elsword raised an eyebrow, confused.
"What do you mean?" Elsword asked.
"All magic I use," Ignia continued. "Is spent using my life force, and once it's used I will become…well I will turn back into a lifeless doll. But that's not the main problem right now. I need to find the other five. So will you help me?"
Yay i updated! Man that took a while. So as usual, thank you for reading and I hope you review.