Fantasia

Arc2: The Quest

Chapter10: Save the princess!

An expected turn of events had occurred; Princess Cecilia have been kidnapped by some masked man the night before she and Juan reach the tower of Grimoires, but that's not all, that named tower was where the abductor headed.

"Dammit! I'm gonna slay that son of a bitch!" Dean shouted in anger.

"Calm down Dean!" Juan shouted as well.

"Calm down! How am I supposed to calm down?! We were one step away from fulfilling our quest and out of thin air a masked bastard appeared kidnapping the princess! How am I gonna calm down?!"

"We need to rescue her! And loosing the grip isn't helping!"

The two were about to fight each other if it wasn't for Tsukiname that slapped both of them scolding:

"Look at yourselves! You are fighting like babies! And Juan I thought you were the voice of reason around! Take hold of yourself! We still have time we can save Cecilia!"

"I guess you are right…sorry Dean" Juan apologized after feeling ashamed.

"Yeah me too!" the knight said while kicking a pebble into the sea.

Nimmy was watching the three arguing, she saw anger from Dean, Worry from Juan, and self-possession from Tsuki, this made her innocent heart feel pity for them, and so she smiled naïvely and boasted:

"Nimmy can help! Nimmy knows how to get to the tower quickly and save princess girl!"

"Really?! How" the two men asked being interested.

"Nimmy can go to the tower! Grandpa taught Nimmy this." She answered.

"Well what are we waitin' for?!" Dean said.

"Take us quickly!" Juan added.

"You sure you can do it?" Tsuki asked.

Nimmy simply clapped her palms together, separated them slowly creating a small bubble glowing with all the colors of rainbow, then quickly it enlarged to cover them all, and started bouncing until it fell in the sea and started floating:

"Whoa! That's some incredible magic!" Dean commented in surprise.

"Yeah…impressive…"Juan said while holding his mouth from throwing out like any seasick person.

"So how is thing supposed to move?" Tsuki asked, "More importantly, this sphere is not just a magical power field, it isolates us from using magic, and doesn't let us out, this girl is more than just a goofy nymph" her mind concluded.

"Nimmy thinks this is easy!" the nymph answered while putting her hands out of the bubble facing then toward the cliff, and with a quick clap she released a rotating twister of rainbows that pushed them with immense speed toward the tower.

The imp put her hand on the bracelet she stole before from the princess but been forgiven for it, and smiled thinking of all this for a moment, she couldn't believe that, she's heading to save a human! Yes a human! Before a month no just two weeks ago she wanted to slay one, for this she had probably hated the entire human race, if it wasn't for her injuries she'd unleashed a barbaric raid on Clavia just for revenge! But now she just wants to save her friend, she had really changed.

While the knight unsheathed all the seven blades he had, and put a hand on each sword he carried, grinning that he's going to a battle, he and for a moment forgot that he was doing this for the money, he was doing this for the spite of it! Yes simply it was spite! Mainly against that masked man, but more against himself! Because he failed before in protecting the princess, and if it wasn't for her fiancée he'd probably be with the princess now but in the afterlife! So this should be his battle and this should be his victory!

Despite his fear from being near water, he calmed for a second and thought of a good way to save Cecilia, he didn't understand his feelings toward her, is it love? No! No! No! The woman is engaged, and he's a beastman so this is far away from being true, it's just the love of justice he'd been raised on, and no this time he's not going to be the obstacle who stands against the success of this mission, he'll save her like he did before with his brother Roné and saved the sage Luffine, he'll save her!

…

"I can't believe it! It must be our luckiest day!"

"Well it's our birthday, so I guess this is our birthday gift!"

"Anyway, how much would it take to break the curse?"

"Well with an empyrean mage like her, it'll take half a day, but with your amplificatory it'll take dozens of minutes ."

This short conversation made the knocked out princess wake up, she lifted her eyes slowly glimpsing three blurry figures, after few blinks she could really figure out who are they, they were the two officers of the Hatenaian council!, and more importantly the crucified man behind them was Ramirez! No he was Vergil! "What's going on here?" the girl asked in wonder.

"Oh you woke up! Glad to have you back!" Glenn said with a gentle smile.

"What's going on? Where am I?" she asked again.

"She really is that naïve!" Allen commented.

"Well I guess we owe her an explanation" Glenn said while breaking her free from her cuffs.

And before she could move, his twin grabbed her from the arms, "Leave me alone!" she said but he squeezed her hard so she stopped whining.

"Allen! Don't be a rough man! She's none but a soft empyrean mage!" Glenn said.

Empyrean mage! Did he just call her an "empyrean mage"? But this made no sense! She never knew if something like empyrean mage existed until her father got petrified, and he just called her by that name!

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Ah my dear Cecilia, I think you deserve the whole explanation." Glenn answered here while starting to tell her everything:

As he mentioned before Cecilia is an empyrean mage since birth, because unlike most magical genres, empyrean magic is inherited from generation to another, it just needs to be awaken, and this is what they are trying to do, but why? She asked…the answer was simple; they wanted to restore their master's memory back, and she was the only one who can do this…

Yes because as they were Hatenaian officers, they also were secret followers of Vergil, but not only followers but one of his best students, they don't fully know how or why did he get the curse of amnesia? And as they were about to lose hope of restoring their master in order to rule the lands by his side, she just appeared out of nowhere, bringing the greatest hope to them.

She felt scared from their dreadful plan, more than the fact that she was able to help her father from the very beginning but instead she just acted like an idiot following her tomboyish whims ending up as the key to the probable destruction of their land.

She wallowed to set herself free from Allen's hands while dripping tears bitterly, while Glenn approached her slowly with his grieving palm that made her paralyzed shortly before she stood with her eyes half-open like a manipulated puppet.

…

They finally arrived, the four men team is on one of the rocky clusters that surround the creepy tower of Grimoires; a long cylindrical standing tower of night black solid rocks, there was no special design about it but a spiral set of stairs that leads straightly to the top.

Juan stood idly looking way up trying to catch a sight of the top but this was as useless as gazing to the sun, it really looked like it touches heavens, maybe this why its builder was aliased "of the dark heavens", then he jumped off to a small wharf where he wanted to suggest a plan to break in.

"Tsuki, you can use mage eye right? If you please use it and search for entrances or exits, and any enemies" he asked the imp who quickly released her magic as a shroud that slithered on the walls of the tower.

"Well for a start I can't surpass the tenth floor, thus the only entrance I can see is a small door by the second floor we can use it as an entrance, but what makes it weird is…there're no guards?" the imp explained, making the shepherd think deeply before he announce his conclusion.

"I think our plan would be like this; Nimmy will stay here, she should be ready to transport us the moment we get the princess to escape, we'll avoid any unnecessary combats, Tsuki will use mage eye inside to warn us from any threats, remember our aim is to save the princess! Then while the other three are in the tower, supposing that after the tenth floor we'll face enemies, we'll do our best to defeat them, if not one of us should act like a bait and block the danger making an escape for the rest…"

"But we should agree already on who'll stay as bait." Tsuki interrupted.

"The bait should be…me" Juan said in confidence.

"What?! No way! You'll be killed!" Tsuki said but this also what Dean had in mind.

"Yes! You have no chance! You are not trained either in sword arts or in magic!" Dean added.

"Nimmy refuses! Nimmy should be bait if orange boy is going to be bait!" the nymph objected as well.

"Nimmy you stay here!" he shouted at her.

"And for that reason I'll act like a bait, you two have better chances with those who are above, so if even if I lost my life, at least I'd win you some time to save the princess!" he answered their early objection.

The three of them showed silence, they all agreed that his plan is about flawless, but they also didn't like the idea of throwing his life like this, because now they discovered that he was really the heart of their team, and seeing him dying would be the hardest thing…but alas he insisted.

Nimmy walked slowly and stood by the wharf wiping her eyes looking away, while Dean carried Tsukiname on his back and headed in front of Juan taking the lead.

And as they planned they broke in the tower, but no soul was there, it felt creepy yet secure for them, with each floor they passed, they've grown more puzzled; each room is like a different world, the third floor was a green garden, the fifth was nothing but a void crossed by an archway, the sixth was a large lake, the eighth was an upside down room, the tenth was like a dark cavern, simply a chaotic world was there.

But the only thing that every level shared with the others was that the walls contained many runic phrases and ancient glyphs, that none of our heroes was able to read, for that they ignored them and crossed the second ten floors easily despite the pitfall, traps and the obstacles that filled them.

However they've entered the twenty-first floor; a large shallow pond crossed by a long straight wooden bridge, they ran half way before a familiar figure had appeared at the exit; it was the masked kidnapper.

"Bastard! Where's the princess?" Dean asked in anger.

But he ignored them, and simply crossed both of his indexes and middle fingers, which immediately summoned thousands of chains that pierced the three adventurers' bodies from almost every spot tying them between the ceiling and the floor drawing a gruesome scene…but no! It wasn't like this; because this was nothing by an illusion weaved by the magic that skillfully weakened their mind making them believe that they are dead paralyzing them.

However Tsukiname was the only one who survived this mental manipulation, she just hopped off Dean's back and walked few steps ahead of the knocked out men:

"I must admit your mage eye have some skill not falling in this trick!" The masked man complimented his foe.

The imp then simply shape shifted herself to an adult form; a tall slender body that even her oversized kimono could only cover her waist and bosom, then she pulled her straw hat and put it on her head where her two small horns made their way out, she covered her injured left eye and smiled.

She felt some relief that her enemy couldn't understand, because this was only between her conscious and wild self, she and this time had full control over her body, she didn't rush like before, for her mind was in its utmost balance, this time she's really fulfilling her vow and protecting her brother Inari, yes she was protecting the man she believed to be the incarnation of Inari.

"Impressive presence!" the masked man said after feeling the immense magic leaking from her body.

The imp then stood on her left leg, crossing the right one over the other's knee, clapped her gentle hands together, and with a flicker her third navel arm pulled something from her right sleeve; it was a long katana sword sheathed in a beautifully ornamented gold and pink sheath.

"Oh you summoned a weapon? Interesting!" the kidnapper said preparing a light spell.

Tsukiname leaned a bit and with a fling from her thumb she pulled the shining blade to catch it with her left hand, the enemy didn't waste time and shot a volley of light beams at her, but unexpectedly she and with gentle fluid movements was able to cut the light like she was cutting wooden planks!

"Your name?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"Your name? Tell me your name?"

"If this was of any importance, then my name is Geass, I shall have fun killing an interesting lady like you" he answered with confidence

"You… Geass! This night I'll be your shinigami -The Grim reaper's counterpart in Japanese folklore- so prepare your best!" the woman said coldly.

To be continued