Link Fangirl01: I'm glad you liked it, I really wanted to take a moment and show the horrors that war is, Elely thinks it's glory and honor, it's not. Flopin has learned about his powers, but at the cost of his innocence, now what will happen for him? I'm also glad you noticed that detail with Aetherians, I meant it like that, hopefully when I get Aether Realm up here shortly you can go find out why.
Author's note: There was supposed to be a note here, but I couldn't think of anything witty to say.
Chapter 24: The Heart Of A King
Ush was impressed, the boy had far more power in him than any of them had given him credit for. Certainly he had watched Lucian decimate the forces sent to board their vessel, but he had assumed that it was all the boy had. As it turned out the boy was certainly as full of surprises as Yugo. The Ecaflip demi-God noticed that Ruel was frustrated and seemed to be leaving, he didn't blame the old man, each generation brought with it more and more monstrously powerful individuals. How was an Enutrof to keep up, the golden scaled god of his race had ceased answering his prayers some time ago.
Eva too seemed impressed by the spectacle that had been Lucian's crowning moment parakleeting with her sister Cleophee. There was something else in the older cra's expression, pride perhaps? Happiness of a sort anyway. Amalia approached him, figures she would show herself when the battle was over, she never had liked getting involved in fights, and perhaps that was best for her this time, he was a demi-god and these creatures were making him sweat bullets.
"Ush," The Sadida Princess began "I'm not sure what I can do here, my powers don't work here."
Ush raised an Eyebrow "They don't work?" He asked skeptically.
"I need Earth in order to summon vines and plants," Amalia said "all we have here is metal and stone, my seeds can't grow here, only my doll works, and that just barely."
"I see," Ush said thoughtfully, it made sense, it also explained why she had hidden so quickly, she realized very quickly her powers had no effect up here among the stars, one could not bleed a stone, nor could one grow plants from it.
"You should return to the Valorous then," Ush said "Yugo would have my head if you were to get hurt."
"But I want to help," Amalia said "I just don't know how."
"Nor do I," Ush said with a hint of sadness "Go, If I can think of a way I'll summon you back."
Amalia nodded mutely, she felt defeated and useless, her lover was out there somewhere bashing heads in and winning battles to save the world and what was she doing? Running away? How embarrassing. Her face turned bright red as she walked, a combination of that embarrassment and her anger getting the best of her, it was an emotion she had never fully learned to control.
A wrinkled hand touched her shoulder and the Sadida turned to see Ruel standing there behind her. Normally she would have been angry at the man for anywhere near her, but the expression in his eyes was different, he was serious, he wasn't about to make some off handed comment revolving around shiny coins.
"I've been there to protect Alibert and Yugo all his life," He began "When wild beasts or treecnids attacked Emelka I was always there at Alibert's side protecting them." The old Enutrof looked down, clearly saddened "But he has grown beyond my ability to protect Amalia, This fight, it is far beyond me, or anything I can accomplish now with my rickety old bones. You have nothing to be ashamed of, you're young, you have so much vitality left, you can still give him so much, so what if it's not on the field of battle? I never pegged you for a warrior anyway, you have a way of making people see things in them, that they couldn't see before, and that's worth far more that any sword or shovel."
Amalia was taken aback, Ruel had never opened his heart to her like this before. She had always assumed him a greedy and dirty old man, capable of getting serious and striking down enemies when he truly wanted to, but nonetheless a closed off disgusting coot. It had always bothered her, aside from his bad hygiene habits he was the only member of their group she didn't truly know, until now. She was equally impressed and grateful, he had culled her anger, something she had never thought possible. And as it turned out, there was indeed a lot of love stored up that old heart of his. Love for the same person to which her heart belonged, maybe the two of them could get along, if on that note alone.
"C'mon," Ruel said simply "Let's get back to the big ship, we don't have all that much we can do here."
Amalia silently agreed and the two began the journey to the teleportation cylinders, this ship was safe at least, they could claim that if nothing else when they returned.
Jack was sitting on the floor in a meditative state when Adamai entered the room. At first the dragon was unsure how to react, he was little awkward, meditation was fairly sacred and shouldn't be interrupted.
"Sit down little dragon," Jack said opening his eyes
"I-I'm sorry," Adamai said taking a step back.
"For what?" The immortal asked
"F-For interrupting your…" Adamai sat as he was bid, but he was little nervous, he knew the immortal's power, he had watched him decimate Percedal and nearly bring Yugo to his knees.
"Oh this?" He began "No biggie, happens all the time." Jack's voice sounded as though he was surprised that the dragon would be sorry, he seemed totally unaware that his meditation was nything not to be interrupted. Perhaps that was not how things were done where he came from?
"So, Ready to try again?" Jack said with a smile.
Adamai decided to ignore this oddity and continue anyway, steeling himself. If the man wasn't upset by his actions he wouldn't be either.
"No," Adamai said "I don't think I'm ready."
Jack frowned "Now that's no attitude to have."
"I don't have the right mindset." Adamai said quickly "I need to change my mindset, I'm too… Serious I think."
"I could've told you that," Jack said "But it works better when we come to the conclusion ourselves."
Adamai frowned, he wanted to be angry at the immortal, but his words were correct, had Jack said anything before he wouldn't have accepted it, he would have brushed it off as foolish.
"So how do we do that?" he asked "Change my mindset I mean."
"Well first," Jack said "You have to know why you're mindset is unsuited to your task, and why Yugo and percedal's are."
"Okay." The dragon said
"You see the world in black and white," Jack began "It's one way or another, that is a dangerous outlook to have, things have little ability to change within that outlook, and when they doo change your world shatters."
Adamai thought back to his fight with his brother and the moment he believed Yugo dead by his own two hands. Jack was right, just to convince himself that Yugo was indeed trying to protect and help everyone he had to destroy his whole world to see it clearly.
"Yugo and Percedal on the other hand," Jack said "See the world as a spectrum, everything has a color, but that color can shift and change depending on how the light moves around it, it allows them to adapt to situations, quickly seeing the change and accounting for it to counter it effectively."
"So I have to… what exactly?" Adamai asked.
"You have to open your mind." Jack said "Be willing to accept the world how it is, instead of trying to assign it to a place. The world is constantly shifting and changing, it had a fluidity to it, one that cannot truly be made solid."
"But, how?" Adamai said "I've never thought any other way, I can't just change the way I think, besides, wouldn't that make me… I don't know, not me anymore."
Jack laughed "No, that isn't anything you need to be afraid of." He said "It's going to take a little work, so I'll be taking a different approach. You are going to fight me in my environment, an ever changing one, until you can summon your aura and convert matter to air."
The immortal snapped his fingers and a creaking sound could be heard enveloping the entire room. The sound of metal clamps releasing something was heard next and the gravity of the room vanished.
"This room now free floats in space," Jack said "And I can adjust it's size and shape as I see fit. Don't worry though, we'll remain in the gravity well of the ship, to ensure we aren't seen by the enemy."
Adamai was lost, he didn't know what a gravity well was or what Jack planned to do, he only understood that nothing kept him on the ground and he was gonna have to fight the man who could best gods and heroes with nothing for his body to grasp to.
More sounds were heard and the room began to expand, slowly it's shape changed and Jack floated at its center arms outstretched like a god while his aura glowed red around him. "Now the battle will commence." He said as the sounds stopped.
Jack moved towards Adamai, but not all that fast, he had expected the immortal to fight him seriously, but instead he simply floated next to him, and pushed him with his finger. The result was immediate, Adamai moved in the direction he wanted, ricocheting off the walls at slow speeds and floating again. Jack would then move near him and push him again. Again causing the dragon to move against his will. Adamai found it incredibly frustrating.
He knew how to summon his aura, he had figured that much out before, he concentrated hard and righted his body in the air, a purple glow enveloping him and steadying his movements. His fists put out before him.
"Alright then, on to stage two." Jack said, snapping his fingers the room changed again, this time becoming smaller and more compressed, Adamai began to feel claustrophobic as the space became barely large enough for the two to float a few inches from one another. In this environment Jack disappeared.
Adamai's eyes darted to and fro trying to find the immortal, he summoned his wakfu vision, which also showed him nothing, Jack was truly invisible.
"looking for me." Jack whispered, his voice right next to Adamai's ear, the dragon jumped, or at least the equivalent while floating in gravity free space. The dragon could feel his presence for a brief moment before he disappeared again.
"Air is scarce here," Jack's bodiless voice sounded "If you don't figure out something soon, you'll suffocate, there's not enough air for both of us to breathe."
So this was his new test, force him into a tough spot, place his survival on the line, destroy anything that stood in the way. Jack knew what he was doing, and Adamai was glad for it, his world would have to break again if he wanted to see the light.
Yugo slashed with his wakfu blade as Rubilax slammed his fist down on yet another group of soldiers. Most of them were fairly small compared to the hulking monster behind him. Percedal called out to rubilax and the hulking monster disappeared returning to his sword, Percedal rushed forward striking the sword against the bulkheads of the ship and taking the heads of three of the crimson clad Deum Bellum. Rubilax was then released from the blade to continue his march of carnage.
It was annoying, these soldiers all used weapons that could shoot at them from afar,Yugo had had to use his energy projection powers a lot more that he wanted too. Percedal had no mastery over such things but his godly glow protected him better than any armor could, incinerating projectiles and diverting energy blasts. Rubilax just got bigger every time someone shot him, every so often breaking off into many smaller versions of himself that would engulf the forces ahead and allow the trio to advance.
As they went they saw an odd shaped room, it jutted out into the hallway and was round in shape. Next to the doors were two large beings, these wore another uniform, a black one. Yugo smiled.
"I bet those are the demons that the lizard mentioned." Yugo said his voice attracting the attention of the black clad warriors. As the trio approached one changed shape becoming a muscular red giant who charged at Rubilax with gusto. The other summoned a large sword to his side and slashed at Percedal and Yugo.
Yugo ducked under the swipe and Percedal caught the blade in his hand. "We'll get these two Yugo!" he said the eliatrope understood, he rushed into the room. Inside he saw a large yellow orb floating inside some kind of metal structure a man stood near it pouring black energy into it, attempting to darken it. The man wore a blue military uniform with a black coat like cloak over it, when he turned Yugo could see that the cloak's other side was red. He looked human, Yugo was surprised, he had thought all the humans worked for Seraphin.
He spat something out "An annoying brat huh?" He asked removing his hand from the yellow orb's vicinity. He turned fully facing Yugo. The eliatrope king lit himself up, the symbols on his arm glowing blue and the wakfu stripes down his face visible, though his eyes did not glow at all.
"Annoying indeed." The man said reaching for his gun. Yugo threw out glowing blue palms and placed a portal over the man's holster causing him to grasp the bulkhead rather than his pistol. The man seemed curious, but otherwise unphazed by this, simply grabbing another pistol from the other side of his body.
He fired three shots all of which missed or were redirected by Yugo's portals, the Eliatrope countered by opening portals near him and firing beams of energy out of them. He also overlapped four portals to create a powerful beam attack from his own hands.
The commanding officer dodged the first several blows with ease, but was grazed by the last, Yugo was upon him in moments pressing his momentary advantage as he slammed his wakfu shield into the man's head knocking him back. The man reached for a sword as Yugo's wakfu blade came down an electronic clash sounded as the blades hit.
The fight was brief but epic as the two exchanged blows before Yugo finally swept the man's feet out from under him and stabbed his blade through the man's chest. He sated at the man as life left his eyes and felt a twinge of regret. He hadn't really thought about it, but he had found the others easy to kill because they weren't human, but this one… this one was different, he knew for certain he had taken a life, a life that would not come back.
He turned to see how Percedal was doing, the man exchanged blows with the swordsman with ease, soon that battle would be over as well, Rubilax walked in dragging the corpse of the big one with him.
"So how did it go?" He asked
"He was human." Yugo said
Rubilax seemed to understand, he had turned on his own kind to save a friend who had been his enemy. He had killed his own kind with his own two hands slaughtering many of them. If there was anyone around who knew the feeling Yugo had in the pit of it's stomach it was Rubilax.
Percedal came in twirling the other guy's big sword in his hand. "I might hang onto this for a bit, you don't mind do you Rubi?" he asked
"Do what you want." Rubilax said.
Yugo sensed something, he had been feeling it for awhile now, but it was really starting to bug him, something was changing in the battle out in space, the tide was pushing them back, he could feel it. They needed an offensive, it wa time to take the fight to the enemy.
Author's Note: Still got nothin'