Author's note: Hey there! Thanks for your reviews, it was great to hear what you think! Oh, when I wrote this, I did not know the name for the weapons Ariette used. They're shakrams, apparently. I probably will forget to edit the other chapters with them in, my apologies. Please read and review! Constructive criticism allowed, just be nice!
Chapter 5
Onwards to the third battle
They walked the ever winding corridors and found themselves getting tested by various puzzles and traps laid out for them. Luckily they managed to get past these. They walked into dark blue room, that seemed as if it were full of mist and a starless sky. Everyone gasped in awe, as the sight of the room seemed to amaze them. They came to the middle of the room.
"So…you like this room?" A voice asked. They spun around and a white haired guy stood at the door they arrived in.
"You! You're one of them!" Celine shouted. The guy smiled.
"Yeah. Yeah I am. Cyril's the name. It's a pleasure," Cyril smiled. Leon got angry and stepped forward.
"Stop messing with us! You're going to pay for what you did to mama and papa," Leon shouted. Everyone looked at him in shock. Cyril laughed lightly.
"Oh? Am I? So I should be scared, then, of a little squirt like you? I would turn around now, while you have the chance. I'm not going to ask you twice. If you want to live, leave," Cyril said. This wound Leon up even more and he opened his book and started chanting a spell.
"GREMLIN LAIR!" Leon shouted. Two gremlins materialised out of Leon's book and ran crouched down and lizard-like towards Cyril, who watched with interest at the creatures who were coming at him. At the last minute, he waved his arm and the gremlins circled around him and back towards Leon, without stopping. Leon screamed and started to chant a counter curse. The gremlins got in range and threw sickles at him, sending him flying onto the floor. Leon lay there, staring ahead of him blankly.
Leon saw that he was floating in the air above a sea, which was swishing and swirling around. Something caught his eye, and he looked left. What he saw brought pain. He saw his parents fighting for breath, trying to get their heads above the water. Monsters closed in on them, dragging them below the water. Leon screamed and at the same time, he was dragged under the water also. He fought for breath and saw his parents being mauled by the monsters. Leon reached out for them, before everything went dark and he stopped moving…
…Celine and everyone saw Leon rolling around on the floor screaming, while spouting water out of his mouth and clutching his throat. Rena ran towards him as he stiffened and fell still. She quickly cast a healing spell, before being blasted backwards. She started screaming, as she saw images of her mother Westa being ripped apart by monsters. Ashton ran towards Rena, in hope of helping her.
"Ashton, NO! Or you'll be affected too," Celine shouted. Ashton stopped.
"But…but, I have nothing to be sad over! That jerk can't show me any painful images! I've been an orphan since birth," Ashton said. Cyril started laughing to himself. Ashton suddenly put his hands to his head and fell to the floor screaming.
"Heh. You think only the death of relatives and parents can hurt a person?" Cyril laughed. The ground below him rumbled and Bobot came from beneath him.
"Die, stupid face!" Precis shouted. Cyril had dodged the attack with barely a sweat drawn. He stared her down and she clapped her hands to her ears.
"La la la. You're not gonna get me!" Precis said. Cyril just smiled. Then she started screaming. Cyril turned on Celine. Celine's head started hurting and she saw visions of her family dying.
"It's not real, it's not real, IT'S NOT REAL!!!!" Celine shouted and on snapping out of it, she started chanting a spell. Opera and Ernest took to the floor and started manually attacking him. Ernest had successfully trapped him with his whip and Opera sank blasts into Cyril. Wind surrounded Celine and she raised her arms to the sky.
"RAY!" Celine shouted. The light blinded everyone, but Cyril came out unaffected. Both Leon and Celine tried all sorts of spells on him, but his resistance was very high.
"What's going on? Nothing's working. This can't be, how are we supposed to defeat him?" Leon said. Everyone was trying their hardest, but nothing seemed to work.
"Hmmmm…I have no choice. I will have to use that rare potion. It might actually work," Celine said. Everyone tried to object, but it was done. She gulped the bright red liquid down and shivered. Celine shivered and started collecting energy from the surrounding area. Everyone went back to attacking Cyril, as he still laughed at their ineptness.
"No potion will help you, you had better just give up now," Cyril said. They kept attacking, and he just stood there, deflecting their attacks like they were nothing. He was not, however, making much effort in hurting them. Celine was surrounded by darkness, shadows flying all around her. Her eyes were closed and she held her hands out in front of her. The ring around her hat swirled round and round, her staff swirled in circles too fast to barely see and it circled her. Some five minutes later, she opened her eyes.
"METEOR SWARM!" Celine shouted. Meteors encased in darkness came crashing down all around Cyril and everything went black. When everything cleared, they saw Cyril barely standing, bent over a bit. He started to laugh.
"Heh. You actually hit me. But it was not good enough, girly," Cyril smiled. Celine was angry, shocked and panting with strain. She growled and launched straight at him with her staff in hand. At the last moment, he grabbed her wrist, stopping her dead. She gasped, looking into his electric blue eyes, which shone with amusement.
"You are interesting, are you not?" He smiled. He drew his leg back and side kicked her. She slammed into the wall and slid down. She managed to stay conscious, to watch what was going on. Opera and Ernest had taken his distraction to their advantage.
"SONIC WHIP!"
"HYPER LAUNCHER!" Ernest and Opera shouted at the same time. Both attacks homed in on Cyril and this weakened him even more. Leon and Rena were chanting as well. Ashton unleashed various Heraldic moves and Precis got him with her Mujin Super Beam.
"SHADOW FLARE!"
"STAR FLARE!" Leon and Rena shouted. Red, yellow, black and purple fused together and created twinkling explosions. Cyril was weakening immensely.
Ernest took out his gun, which wasn't as big as Opera's and, along with Opera, aimed it at.
"DOUBLE LASER ULTIMATE ATTACK!" They shouted. A huge mix of white and blue light came out of the weapons, sending Opera and Ernest flying rapidly into the back wall, knocking them out. The attack hit Cyril and he was enraptured in the light, until they could no longer see him. When the light subsided, they saw Cyril was nowhere to be seen.
"Whoa. He was vaporised," Leon said. Everyone stood there for a bit, not knowing what to do at first. Rena ran to where Ernest and Opera had landed. She healed them, but for now they were still unconscious. Celine got up and limped over to them.
"Just one more jerk to go and we're finished, eh, darlings?" Celine said. Rena came up to her and healed her wounds. Rena gasped.
"Your magic! I-I can't feel it anymore," she said. Celine just laughed and smiled.
"Weeeell, I had to make myself useful, right? I mean, otherwise we'd have been in a lot of trouble. I would rather lose my Heraldy than lose my friends. Sacrifices must be made, darling," Celine said. Celine walked over to the wall where Ernest and Opera lay and slid down to sit between them.
"Well, now, darlings. Haven't you got to go fight the bossman? I can't very well help you anymore, so I'll stay here and keep watch," Celine said. They thanked her, though Ashton tried to object.
"B-b-but she won't be able to protect herself," he was saying, as they led him out of the room.
