Fantasia
Arc2: The Quest
Chapter14 (Finale): Salvation
Surviving Vergil's meteor, Juan and the others found themselves safe on one of Falbay's shores, but Nimmy who consumed too much magic to save them was the one who suffered the drawbacks and now she's lying on the beach between life and death.
Cecilia didn't accept this situation, she tried hard to restore her friend with her newly learned empyrean magic, but it seems that her powers failed her this time, but even in such bleak situation nobody would've thought that the silver lining in this predicament would be Vergil himself.
He was injured badly, blood was leaking from his forehead over his right eye, his mouth, his right arm and knee, his clothes were ragged, as his breathes were shortened, but this all seemed logical for someone who escaped a meteor crash.
"Please I beg you, please! Save her!" Cecilia begged the mage to help Nimmy, opposing to everyone else who set themselves for a fight.
"Calm down young lady, I cannot use empyrean magic; all I can do is to share my power with you so you can save this poor child" the wizard said.
And so as he instructed the princess focused Vergil's entire magic aura making Nimmy's withered body glow with pure light, slowly the nymph's skin turned clear, her gray hair restored its raw green color, as her heavy breathes got slower, it was a miracle! She has been saved from a close death, opening her eyes seeing everyone surrounding her, she jumped up in the air spreading her wings and started sprinkling rainbow dust all over her friends describing her immense joy.
"Thank you Lord Vergil! Words cannot describe my gratitude" Cecilia thanked the wizard by kneeling before him.
"Hmm…you are welcome" He answered, and then he lifted his eyes to Dean "Now, you are Alf's son aren't you?" he asked.
Dean responded to this by standing up with an angry look surfacing his eyes.
"I guess you wanted to avenge your father…very well" the mage stood up and materialized a knife to throw it between the knight's feet "Here, you may stab me at will, I shall leave this world with no regrets" he said.
At this moment Juan wanted to stop Dean, but somehow his sense of justice turned him down, despite Vergil enigmatically helped them and even awakened Cecilia's empyrean powers, he's still a criminal, yes he killed thousands of people, and more than that Dean's father was one of them, he just couldn't chose Vergil over his friend.
On the other hand, Dean's head was boiling, his heart was pounding, it was his chance! Vergil is here like before, this time he won't spare his life! His father's soul will finally rest in peace when he meets Vergil's in the afterlife, he carried the dagger with shaking hands, he tightened his hand around its cold grip, he can do it! It's just one stab!
Tsuki turned her eyes to the sand, she didn't wish to see this despite blood was a familiar scene to her beastly mind, and she somehow felt sympathy with the vengeful youth, Juan on the other hand bit his lower lip until it bled consulting himself, while Cecilia tried to talk but she felt that entering between Dean and Vergil will only cause more troubles.
The sharp blade went straightly toward the throat of the old man to stop where only an inch separate it from piercing his flesh:
"I don't want to" Dean said while dropping the knife and walking far from his friends.
"But you have to kill me! I want justice to be served!" Vergil yelled.
"I can't…I was raised as a knight, I must confront my enemy fair n' square, and believe me, I can't win over someone who could drop a goddamned meteor on a bloody tower and survive it in a million year, so I ain't fightin' ya…" the knight explained his opinion.
This somehow spread relief in the group's hearts, seeing Dean walking away followed by Nimmy who awkwardly wanted to comfort him with an innocence uncomfortable hug, but Vergil just closed his eyes and raised his head toward the sky dropping a tear, giving a desperate image to himself, but Cecilia put her hand on his forehead and used the last ounce of her magic to heal him:
"What're you doing?" he asked the princess.
"What does it look like? I'm trying to cure you" the princess answered with a smile.
Juan on the other hand wanted to help as well, so he shredded a part of his shirt and used it as a rag to clean the man's skin from blood, Tsukiname saw them so she mimed what Juan did and helped the man stop the bleeding.
"Enough kids! You don't want to help a criminal like me!" the mage begged the youngsters to stop with his eyes filled with tears.
"So who's Lucy?" the princess asked him ignoring his request.
"She's…my daughter" Vergil answered.
"Just that? Come on! we have a long time until dawn so would you mind telling us your story?" Juan added
The mage groaned deeply, then he knew that there's no escape but to tell these youngsters his story:
As a fully fledged mage, the twenty five years old Vergil grew some interest on land domination, so he gathered a group of followers and students from Nanali, and formed a little gild called "The Grimoires", they managed with some effort to enforce themselves as a potent power in the land of Féena.
Growing stronger and stronger, he built himself a palace over the northern sea, and that was the tower of Grimoires, he conquered many lands through the western parts of the continent, and by the age of thirty he managed to impose himself as a strong leader of one of the strongest gilds in their time.
However, before he was a mage, Vergil was a human, and upon one of his crusades on a small village named "Claudia" by the utmost eastern part of Féena, he met the woman that later changed his life, she was Marline Trevor, a simple woman with absolute no magic talent, but courageous enough to stand against him and his army of mages captured his heart, and soon the sprout of impression grew to be the flower of love.
Yes, he loved Marline, and as a condition to spare her clan, he asked for marriage, and so the woman accepted his offer, whether she loved him or that was just to save her tribe he didn't care as long as his heart finally found rest near Marline.
After two years of marriage, Marline got pregnant and with that she gave birth to Lucy Gallant, the beloved daughter of Vergil, but alas the mother was too weak to survive that she left the mortal realm entrusting her baby to the mighty wizard, with her last will being that Lucy lives in peace afar from her father's madness.
At first Vergil didn't care about his daughter that much, he confided her to some orphanage at Claudia, but with time, even his cruel heart got softer as he saw Lucy growing to look like her mother, reminding of his lost love, he started to visit his beloved girl as she grew more attached to her old man, whose life is split now between Vergil the fearsome mage and Vergil the loving father.
By the age of forty-four, and prior to these events by weeks, Vergil finally achieved a rank of power that no other known mage had ever reached, but to complete this perfection he had to fulfill the last condition which was: sacrificing the closest person by blood in the memorial day of their birth to some forgotten God.
Yes! Lucy was the only person suitable of being the sacrifice that'll lead her father to perfection, but can he do it? Can he slay Lucy? The girl who shares marline's blood with her flesh and Marline's breathes with her soul? Can he really be that cruel?
Yes he was determined to do it! His dream of achieving that level of magic was older than his love to Marline, he approached the innocent twelve years old girl while she was playing in a flowerbed, his cold hands reached her but the girl turned back to her father and naïvely she gave him a poorly made flower crown saying: "Papa, I made it for you! So you look good in my birthday!" finishing it with a cute smile.
What was he doing?! Was he going to kill this pure angel?! What kind of heartless demon has he turned into?!...he of course hid these feeling by a long embrace that made the girl feel the warmth of fatherhood, and then he carried her home to finish her birth memorial, while the girl continued fondling her father's goatee.
At that moment the heartless Vergil realized his sin, he cursed himself for every soul he took, for every child he orphaned, for every woman he widowed, he just hated the moment of his birth, so he took his daughter back to Nanali where he insured that she's in safety with one of his former loyal minions, then he headed to the woods of Mauro where he casted a death curse on himself, but that spell wasn't instant because it's slowly tortures it victim by draining his magic and memories slowly before sending him to the other world…and that's when they found him.
"Anyway…I think this is the time of my departing" Vergil said while preparing a spell.
Juan got it faster than the others; Vergil is up to suicide again! So he rushed quickly and pulled his arm saying with eyes full of tears: "No! This is cowardice! I'm not letting you go like this!"
"Juan?!" the princess said.
"Don't you see? You've been saved for a reason! Someone needs you! Your role in this world isn't over yet! Lucy! Yes! Lucy needs to see her father!" the shepherd answered.
"Lucy…" the mage murmured shedding tears as well looking toward the starry sky.
Tsukiname responded to this situation by smiling growing more confident that her brother's-Inari- soul really resides this boy, while the princess developed an indescribable respect for Juan's moral values.
"I guess, you are the blessed boy of the millennium, no matter what awaits this world of ordeals…you my Juan shall be the savior, your soul is of light and your heart is of gold, for this I plead you to accept my humble amulet, this is what I can give you for now" the wizard said kneeling offering Juan a long mage staff that resembles to the Grimoires' symbol ornamented by a blue shiny jewel in the middle of the twister.
"Um thank you…Vergil." The young man thanked the mage taking a tight hold of the magic item.
Then everybody walked safely toward Falbay, where they found in addition to the Clavian royal guards -Who followed their runaway princess- a division of the Hatenaian council's guardsmen waiting for them, to investigate the recent incident and to arrest Vergil.
…
Eight days had passed since then, Juan was on his way back to Ardneria, in a royal parade along with the princess, Nimmy, and Tsuki, yet Dean refused to join them, because he "Hates goodbyes" leaving the group with heavy lids fully loaded with tears he described as "Some damned dust got into his eyes" Inviting Juan to visit Espadia whenever he wants and there his friend will prepare an ovation that suits a hero like him.
After curing King Heinz from the curse, the princess had to return the debt of saving her to Juan and save his clan, it was a matter of time when they finally arrived at Ardneria by the tenth day's dawn.
The shepherd stood still at the rocky arc entrance, sniffing the dusty breeze of his village, nostalgic memories over flooded his mind, he took a deep breath, and with silence he grabbed the princess' hand and ran with her in the streets of this creepy town which its sole inhabitants were none but mere solid stone figures.
He walked with her to the supper table that was set about two weeks ago celebrating their victory over Sumeria , he approached the statue of a young beastman with a remarkable bandana on his hand and kneeled before the girl saying with pleading voice: "I beg you! Your majesty! Please don't fail me! I cannot take seeing them like this anymore" finishing his plea with a loud sobbing followed by a rough cough.
He never called her "your majesty" before, of course he was one of the politest men she ever met, but she never saw him plea like this, she understood that the man can no longer take the agony of being far from his family, a tear dropped beyond her will, she reached the statue with her palms and started casting the famous "Purus" spell, making pearly sparkles flow around the petrified person colliding softly with the hard shell of stone that covers his body.
Then the light went out followed by a very low cracking sound, yes! It worked the petrifaction curse is lifted! The hard stone skin started to shatter in front of Juan slowly, revealing the body of his beloved twin brother Roné.
The shepherd wasted no time; for he jumped at his brother making him crash painfully with the table! What pain!? Who cares about the pain in such moment of joy!?
"Easy bro! Be calm!" Roné said while opening his eyes slowly trying to get rid of the haze in his head.
"I…You…I can't!" Juan yelled soaking his brother's chest with his overflowing tears and drools.
"What the…? Bro calm down!" he said then he looked around, "Holy mother of fuc…" he described what he saw; three mysterious "human" like girls standing in front of him while the rest of the villagers are petrified.
"Watch out bro! These three witches have done somethini" The beastman said while trying to cover his brother.
"No No No! Wait a minute Roné! They are not enemies!" Juan explained to his brother preventing him from committing a foolish act.
"Please meet Princess Cecilia, Tsukiname, and Nimmy these girls here are the one who helped me find a…oh what the hell?! She'll cure them all!" Juan introduced his friends.
"I still don't geddit! But what the hell?! Lemme see what she can do…" the beastman commented.
Cecilia then stared at Nimmy who giggled back, making Juan question them, the girls then grabbed each other's hand and sat on the ground, while Nimmy's hands glowed with rainbow light that started to grow like a clear bubble of soap:
"What's goin' on?" Roné asked.
"Well, Nimmy's rainbow magic seems to be able to enhance others', so basically Nimmy is giving more power to the princess' while she transforms it into an amplified Purus spell so they can cast a magic that can cover the whole village and cure your whole clan." The imp explained.
"But isn't this dangerous?!" the shepherd noted in worry remembering Nimmy going pale after saving them from the meteor, fearing that the princess would suffer the same consequence.
"Yes it is dangerous but…" she pointed at the princess making the other two men look.
Cecilia's eyes looked different, they no longer had those shaky pupils, on the contrary each thin brow leaned over the upper lid while her pupils pierced the magic bubble with a gaze that reflects a blind deep determination making Juan's heart pound bizarrely, yet he didn't care about that feeling.
After few seconds, the bubble jetted to the sky and with a sweet tune like it was taken from some mythical symphony echoing all over the southern realm it rained blessed droplets of pink magic on the land, playing a fantastic melody only to be interrupted by the cracking sound of the people who got healed one by one, bringing the life back to Ardneria.
Finally his trip came to an end, every single Beastman in addition to his friend Zolu is restored, his happiness was immense that his breathes stopped for moments making him fade out with an innocent smile of a child.
…
By the dawn which followed that named day, after explaining everything to his clan, and after another celebration of gratitude to Cecilia, he had to bid his farewells to his friends so he accompanied them to the exit of their where the royal parade was waiting for the princess village:
"Well I guess this is goodbye…" Juan said with his head down.
"Yup…I think this is it" the princess responded with a shy accent.
"I'm sorry for the whole troubles your majesty."
"No, please I am the one who should apologize for the troubles, I mean you were one the bravest knights I've ever met."
"So…I think I'll visit you soon."
"And Tsuki and Nimmy, are you sure that you don't want to come with me to Clavia?"
"My thanks your highness, but I think I'll accompany Juan." Tsuki said.
"And Nimmy thinks that Nimmy will stay too…although Nimmy likes Princess a bundle! But orange boy needs Nimmy!" was the nymph's answer.
"Well then I think this is goodbye" the princess said while giving a quick kiss to Juan's forehead waving bidding him goodbyes fading slowly with her guards behind the hills of Zellia.
With Cecilia's farewell Tsuki mounted Juan's back while Nimmy walked by his side returning to Ardneria unaware that their journey isn't over yet.
To be continued