Author's Notes: If you see any inconsistencies – like with where the hell people are or how the hell they got from point A to point Q…please cut me some slack. I've never had to work with so many characters who are doing so many different things and changing so much shit before in any of my fic. Also, there are a fair few offscreen changes to canon that Kelly is not privy to, so, yeah.

I hope it's not too confusing, ehehehehe…

Chapter Thirty:

Daughter of the Sky

Exhaustion tugged at Kelly's limbs as she leapt through the trees. There was fear as well, and worry sharp and tight in her lungs.

I should have stopped Conis. I should have stopped Conis. I should have gone instead.

If her fellow Magus got killed, then Kelly would never forgive herself.

But how could she have done anything to stop her?

They had needed a distraction to keep Enel from realizing what they were doing, and who better? Conis could pass off her being there to fight Enel like the other Shandians – anger and a need for revenge that made her impulsive. The man had killed her mother after all.

And Conis had nearly gotten killed already, fighting through the Daemons and humans who had guarded the first three pillars. Kelly was much stronger, and much more capable of surviving the fights with enough Magic to twist the Pillars to her own use.

So Conis had gone to draw Enel to her. With Enel's attention – and, hopefully, that of his Daemons as well – Kelly would be free to turn them all to ash.

I hope she can hold on until then, Kelly thought, skidding to a halt before the immense construction that faced the sea, on the far northwest side of the Upper Yard. Of course she could, she's a daughter of Aegle, for fuck's sake.

Kelly pushed aside her worries. Conis would be fine, if Kelly laid her trust in her.

Been too damn long since I did that, she thought wryly.

There were no guards here, because no one would have expected an attack on a Pillar so close to Enel's undisputed domain.

The last of the pillars would be in the very heart of Enel's domain, by the Giant Jack and the Tower.

Kelly breathed in, and breathed out, before setting her hands on the white stone.

From afar, the pillar would have looked like something one might have expected to see in the homes of royalty – all marble, elegantly carved, flickering with precious stones embedded in certain places. It was opulent and grand and expensive-looking as all hell.

It was also the foulest thing Kelly had ever felt in her life, as foul as the others had been.

Something evil, Magic corrupted and fouled by unspeakable acts, Magic twisted and tortured, lived in the whirls and supposedly gentle signs that in a true Magus's hands, would have bespoken protection and purity.

Kelly breathed, in and out, in and out.

Her Magic furled out, like the way the sea snake had arisen from the depths back on the Blue Sea. It rose and rose and rose, and spread through her hands.

The magic in the pillar was evil and strong, but it was nothing compared to hers.

She reached out with it, and found the foul husk that was its core, found it and bore down with all her strength. She sent her magic to the magic within and drew the poison away, healing the wounds it left behind.

Under her fingers, as she drew more and more of the poison and rot into her own body, until the white stone became the sturdy black of obsidian.

Obsidian was the stone of change, of protection and strength, of permanence and tenacity.

Was there any better rock with which to do this?

Kelly stumbled back only when she was sure all of the rot had gone, and fell to her knees, vomiting black bile and sickly red blood. She heaved and heaved, her magic forcing all of the toxins out of her as quickly as it could, until her belly was past empty and her mouth tasted unspeakably foul.

When she was certain her legs would not give out, she stood, and pulled her flask from her jacket. The sharp sting of rum chased the foulness away, and she spat before she drained the rest.

"Fucking Christ, that's a bitch and a half," she said with a shudder.

(Mistress.)

Gin? What is it?

(I have found the Daemons)

What? Where? Kelly pushed herself to move faster, heading for the last pillar. After this, the island would be free of Daemons, and would hopefully always be free of them. And I thought I told you to stay with the Straw Hats?

(I went with Zoro to the ruins after they all were separated. We were attacked by Thralls, and are attempting to reunite. Shere remains with Nami and a Shandian girl-child, along with Gan Fall, or so she tells me.)

What are the Daemons doing? And, I swear, if you've put yourself in danger, Gin-

(Not at all. I've used Far-Sight, a gift from my old master) Gin said placidly. (I'm not stupid enough to get that close, Mistress)

Far Sight?

(Allows me to see even further than a cat's eyes will allow. It's most useful. In any case, from what I can tell, all the Daemons that are capable of being hosted on Skypiea must be here, but…)

But what?

(I only see and sense lesser ranked ones, and with so many here there must be some of the Highborn to keep them under control.)

The last pillar was centered at the very northern part of Skypiea, near a compound that encircled a large, imposing tower made of the same ugly white marble as the pillars.

Kelly snuck past it, keeping to the trees and forest to hide her presence as she thought about what Gin had said.

They must be elsewhere, then.

It was not a pleasant thought. Could Enel have kept the Highborn near him? No human, Logia Devil Fruit or not, would be quite so fucking stupid-but then again, if what Conis had said was true, Enel wasn't human. Not entirely.

She walked towards her destination, magic curling, ready and anxious inside her. The last pillar was unguarded, but something told Kelly to keep a careful eye out.

It can't be this easy, she thought, and approached the rancid thing.

A voice stopped Kelly in her tracks before she could place her hands on the marble.

"Magus, you've gone and put yourself somewhere you shouldn't be."

I knew it.

Kelly swallowed hard, and turned to face the woman – women – emerging from the trees. Three of them, two flanking the tallest, all of them tasting of dead things and rotting flowers to her senses.

The one in the middle, the one with golden hair and a wide-welcoming smile - she was the leader. She was heavily curved, dressed in silks that gleamed in a multitude of colors, her feet bare, her cleavage expansive.

To tempt and to taunt, Kelly thought, remembering Kureha's words of warning. She looked at the woman's ears, and realized what Conis said had a great deal of basis in fact. The woman's earlobes were long, reaching past her shoulders, weighed down with chips of some bright stone.

Beth would be ripping her hair out over the insult, Kelly thought with a sigh.

"Quite a welcoming committee," Kelly said, mild as milk. "Surprised you aren't all off guarding the human you've shackled yourselves to."

The one to the leader's right, a woman just as sensuously curved, her hair fire-red and her eyes a bright blue, bristled. The golden-haired one calmed her with a gesture.

"In my day, Magi knew better than to talk in such ways to their betters," said the one to the leader's left. She was older-looking but no less beautiful than her companions, her skin as pale as the others, her hair a blazing white coil atop her head.

Kelly smirked. "Oh, don't worry, we still do…if our betters are among us, of course."

"Enel told us to let the priests kill the humans," the golden one said, and opened her mouth to show rows of razor-sharp teeth, like an angler fish. "But I don't think he'll mind if we eat you."

"There you go again, kissing Enel's ass," Kelly said, gathering the magic she would need and storing it where she could easily find it. "In my day, Daemons didn't take orders from humans."

Fighting these Daemons – and how could they be anything but, as foul as they felt contrasted to the beauty they garbed themselves in? – was not her highest priority. Converting the pillars was.

(Mistress, some idiot has covered the ruins in iron.)

…Pardon?

(A net of iron, to my guess. His name is Ohm.)

The Ordeal of Iron. Good, things were proceeding on schedule-

"Of course we would help our cousin," the golden one said, smiling. "He has given us so many delicious Magi to feast on and to get offspring on, that it would be rude to not reward him in some way."

"You're responsible for killing the rest of the Sky Island Magi, aren't you." It wasn't a question.

All three Daemons smiled, the gesture turning their beautiful faces inhuman.

"We did," the golden one admitted, and rage flowered in Kelly's heart.

(MISTRESS, ENEL HAS TOLD THE DAEMONS THEY'RE FREE TO HUNT!)

WHAT?

(Robin and Nami both have already defeated two of the Priests, and the man Wiper has defeated one as well. With Ohm in his cage, Enel isn't pleased that they've not done as he asked. He's sent the Daemons out to finish the job. They're heading for the Shandians…and for Conis. Apparently some have eaten the Enforcers who were hunting Nami and the Shandian child and are coming for them.)

Kelly pivoted on a heel and lunged for the pillar-

Something flickered in between her and it, and she flung herself out of the way of the golden one.

"Ah, ah, ah, Magus," the white haired one said, as the red haired one went for Kelly's throat. "Not so fast."

Kelly parried a blow, twisted, and knocked the red one flying. She stepped back, met the golden one head on, sliding under a blow that would have disemboweled her.

Get to the pillar!

The white haired one aimed low and fast, but Kelly was faster. She kicked back, slammed her feet into the Daemon's face, and felt its teeth crunch under her steel-toed boots. It shrieked, fierce and enraged, falling back in a gushing of its blood.

The other two screeched their fury, as the magic began to boil uncontrollably in her belly.

Soru! Kelly was under the claws of the first, cartwheeling past the golden one, and she leapt-

"KILL THE BITCH YOU IDIOTS!" the golden one shrieked, just as Kelly's hands connected.

Jal, Kelly thought, as she shoved all her Magic towards the rot, and whispered the spell that would wake all of the pillars. Jal Saamraagyee, if you're really there, and if you're really listening…

Power thundered from-from somewhere, thundered through her blood and bones until her whole body was alight with the glory of it, until her eyes blazed with it.

Even with the endless rush of power, she kept enough sense to whisper the spell that would awaken the pillars. Jal Saamraagyee, she thought. Aag Saamraagyee, Prvthee Saamraagyee, Vaayu Saamraagyee.

Help Aegle's daughter. Help Conis. Help the Shandians who guarded her. Give succor to those who lost their lives.

Help me.

The obsidian pillar burst into a blinding brilliance, the seals that had once been tortured facsimiles now burning true.

Kelly threw back her head, and gave voice to words that were not hers, in a voice that was not hers.

"BEGONE FROM MY LANDS," she roared, her voice singing through the air. "BLOOD OF THE FALLEN, BEGONE!"

Power smashed out, like a shockwave-

But it went in both directions, as more and more of that glorious light filled her and joined the power already there. Power blasted across the length of Skypiea, while still more flew across the sky, sending brilliant auroras out in its wake.

Daemons died in the flash, screaming as the light ripped their souls from their flesh bodies and burnt both into ash. The air was alight with screams, and Kelly knew without turning that the two lesser Daemons had been torn asunder. The top of the Tower exploded, as though something had burst free, and distantly she heard the victorious shriek of a falcon.

Kelly was set back on the ground, and she opened her eyes. Her body felt too light and too heavy, all at once, and turned to see what has happened.

The trees were the first things she noticed. They hadn't been dead or dying before, but they certainly hadn't been the healthiest looking.

Now they bloomed in a thousand different shades of brilliant emeralds and greens, bursting with life and vitality. Kelly could hear and feel and smell and know of the animals who have returned, roaring with life in their own ways.

Even those mutated by the Daemons were free, healed, with only a few scars to show for it.

For a single moment, Kelly could feel all of Skypiea, all of the sky itself, crying out in joy, in freedom. They were in her, and she was in them.

As one we sing, we are free, we are free, we are free!

Then she blinked and was back in her own body, though it still felt strange. The golden-haired Daemon lay on the ground, horribly burned and twisted, the only one who'd survived the assault.

Kelly smiled.

"I think that should do," she said, and popped her shoulders before looking down at herself.

Her jacket had been burnt clean away, leaving her only in a black t-shirt over her tank-top. Her shoes were gone as well, though at least she still had her pants on.

The Daemon had pushed itself up onto its elbows, thought it looked as though it had taken all of the thing's strength to do so. Kelly sauntered over to it, and grinned, slow and menacing.

"If I were merciful, I'd just go ahead and kill you now," she said, humming a little. "But really, I'm not what you call the merciful type-"

"Kelly," a voice said. "Let me, instead."

Her head snapped around. A figure was descending from the sky, her wings a massive plumage of white flecked with black.

The woman was dressed in rags, her hair loose and unbound, and she glowed like the sun whose light she was haloed in. As she touched down, her face became clear, and Kelly's heart stopped.

A light brown face underlit with soft gold, bright brown eyes almost glowing under thick eyebrows, a proud jut of a nose, and a wide smile on thick, unpainted lips.

Kelly's knees shook.

-…"D-Do you want to go get something to eat?" Kelly asks, then wants to kick herself in the shin for that bit of inanity. Erin blinks, her bruises still dark around her eyes and mouth, before she smiles.

Her front tooth is a little chipped, but Kelly thinks in that moment that she has never seen anything more beautiful…-

"Erin?" she whispered, and Erin's smile spread. She opened her arms.

Kelly raced to her and hauled her up and swung her around, kissing her mouth and closed eyes and every bit of her face she could get at.

"You're alive, you're alive, you're alive, holy fucking shit-" Kelly pulled back, but still kept her arms around the other woman's waist. "Holy shit, when Conis told me the Daemons had killed you-"

"Conis? She's still alive?" Erin asked, her hands clenching on Kelly's shoulders as her feet dangled over the ground. "And, what the fuck Kel, you have scales. And you're like seven feet tall. And where did these muscles come from, mierda, you're like the fucking Terminator-"

"Says the girl with feathers," Kelly teased, and Erin laughed.

"I suppose you're right-" A faint groan interrupted what Erin was going to say next, and both Magi turned to look at the Daemon, who was struggling to rise.

Kelly moved towards it, but was stopped by Erin's hand on her chest.

"Let me."

Kelly heard the dark promise in her friend's words, and stepped back. Something terrible had happened to Erin in the years they'd been parted. Something terrible and strange.

But they were together again, and Kelly wasn't alone.

There was no thought that this couldn't be Erin Torres, as her magic told her it was.

She watched Erin stalking towards the Daemon with grim intent, and thought about the perpetually scared little girl she'd pulled Daniel Sampson off of so many years ago.

As the Daemon began to scream in abject agony, Kelly grinned.

She's not a scared little girl any longer, Kelly thought, pleased. I like it.

(MISTRESS, ENEL'S AFTER CONIS)

The scream jolted her straight out of her pleasure, and Kelly staggered under the force of it.

Gin, what? She's a Magus, she shouldn't have any problem-

(She's not a Magus of the water like you and she's not nearly as powerful as you are. She's facing a man corrupted by Daemons and given incredible power. She is losing.)

"Fuck, Erin we need to get moving right now," Kelly cursed, seeing through Gin's eyes. Through a web of metal, she watched a burned and staggering Conis hit the ground, and roll out of the way of a blast of lightning with only an inch to spare. She opened herself to Gin.

Start sending as much of my magic as you can to her, Gin. We'll be there soon.

Kelly felt the drain instantly, and thanked all the gods that she knew the feel of Conis's magic. If she hadn't, neither she nor Gin would have been able to do this.

Erin looked up, allowing the tortured Daemon a moment's respite. "Kelly, I'm busy-"

"Conis is getting her ass kicked by Enel."

Erin went ashen. The Daemon, however, started to laugh.

"For a h-human's get, he's cert-certainly proven him-himself," the thing wheezed. Black ichor oozed from its mouth, and its skin seemed to bulge, cracking a thousand different places. "He's going to kill the bitch just like he killed her mo-"

"Oh, that's more than enough from you," Erin said, spinning on a heel. "Adolebitque, o sooraj."

Fire crested on a wave as the sun's rays burst into solid light, focusing in a circle around the Daemon. It screamed and thrashed as the rays closed in, but there was nowhere it could go, even if it had the strength to do so.

The thing died in a brilliant corona of lights, burning away until all was left was a pile of ash. Soon even the ash was gone, picked up by an errant breeze, to be scattered where the wind took it.

Erin breathed in, and then out, before turning back to Kelly with a wide smile.

"Let's go get Conis, shall we? We can get reacquainted on the way there."

Kelly led the way through the trees as Erin told her story. Erin was every bit as fast as Kelly, propelled by Magic and adrenaline.

And as she did, Kelly got her first look into what had happened after she herself had been taken.

"There were storms the day when you were taken, and people didn't realize you were gone until your parents got home," Erin said quietly. "But when they did, your room was…it was just destroyed, and so was half the block. People were talking about a freak tornado and what have you, and that there was no possible way you could have survived. James and Rey spent months searching through half the state, trying to find your body."

The names were unfamiliar for a moment, until Kelly jolted.

Her parents.

James and Rey Lewis. Those were her parents' names.

How could she have forgotten?

(It had been over a decade since she'd seen them. Ten years.)

"I don't know if they ever stopped, because about four months later, I was driving to go visit my grandparents when I got grabbed as well. Massive tornadoes sprouted out of nowhere and plucked me right out of my car. I take it that's what happened to you?"

"Ripped the roof right off my room," Kelly confirmed.

"I landed on a small island in the Grand Line, populated all by Magi, in a much younger body. I lived there until my fifteenth birthday again, when we were-attacked."

Erin closed her mouth, and refused to say more. Kelly understood.

"Well, I'll tell you my story once we get Conis-oh buggering shit," Kelly swore, seeing a maddened Enel pick Conis up and toss her smoking body against the metal net.

The girl crumbled to the ground, and lay still. Enel was laughing, and a Shandian warrior – Wiper – was screaming in rage, clinging to the metal net that separated him from the fallen Magus.

They wouldn't make it in time, even if Kelly went full out-

"Kelly, do you trust me?" Erin barked, holding out her hand. Kelly looked at her.

"What are you planning?"

"I can get us to Conis. Just trust me."

-…"I'll protect you, just trust me," she whispers, and the bruised and battered girl in Kelly's arms begins to cry...-

Kelly took Erin's hand, and felt Magic roar and twist, felt the world warp under her feet, felt it disappear-

They were falling through the air, their hands still linked, and Erin caught fire at the edges, gleaming with a light so holy it burned.

"Jyana!"

There was the triumphant screech of a falcon as it burst in a blaze of light from Erin's chest, and Kelly's back hit feathers as it ducked underneath her. And then-

Then they were flying, and the Giant Jack was right there, and-

Conis was struggling feebly to rise as Enel called a massive bolt of lightning into existence, laughing wildly. Erin and Kelly exchanged a single look.

Kelly called her Magic to her, and leapt from Jyana's back. She sped towards the ground, just as the lightning began to fall.

"CONIS!" a man roared, in fury merged with helpless fear.

Jal, protect my sister, Kelly thought as she hit the ground, and dove to get her body over the other Magus. Give me the strength to right the wrongs done to this land and her people.

Then there was lightning, and it was like the end of the world.

Conis had come to them when she was eleven years old, a pathetic, wheezing child of a land stealer, who cried more than even a babe did. She was nothing compared to her mother, to the beautiful Agda, who truly was a daughter of Aegle.

Wiper remembered how she had cried on the day Enel had taken over, crying and fighting her mother every step of the way even as the Daemons had battered at the shields they worked to hold.

Such a selfish child, he'd thought.

When had that changed?

Not in the way she'd acted after her mother had been eat-had died. She'd been blank and dead-eyed for days, for weeks after. He hadn't blamed her for that, mired in his own grief and sense of failure.

-…Agda towers over him, and he swallows hard. She is their tribe's Magus, descended from Aegle herself, but she-

She lived for years among the land stealers, and he doesn't know what to think of her. At least it is easier to look upon her dark face, as dark as his own, as dark as Laki's and Kamakiri's are, than it is with her pale-skinned daughter.

Agda smiles, and kneels, putting him at her eye level. Her wings are magnificent, and they make his feel like lesser imitations.

"You are Wiper, are you not?"

"Yes, Lady Magus," he says immediately.

"I am told by the chieftain that you are bidding fit to be one of Shandia's greatest warriors when you are full grown."

His chest swells with pride.

"May I ask a favor of you, Wiper?"

He thinks he understands now what Old Jala meant when she said that pride would trip him when he walked. He nods anyway.

"Anything, Lady Magus."

"My daughter, Conis," Agda begins, and smiles helplessly when Wiper frowns.

He is not impressed with the little land stealer girl, who cries more than Laki's newborn sister.

"I know she has not much endeared herself to you, but she's hurting so much right now. Could you protect her for me, Wiper? When I'm gone, my baby girl will have no one left."

"But you'll never be gone," Wiper points out.

How could she? Even in the scant year that she'd been among them, Wiper had grown used to seeing her stride about their camp, healing wounds, checking the totems, and allowing all who wished to speak with her. She fit into their home as simply and easily as if she'd been born to it, like Aegle herself had done with Calgara all those years ago.

She was as common a sight as any of his people now.

Agda smiles. "Perhaps, but…just do this for me? I need someone strong to protect her…even if you don't like her very much."

What else can he do? Wiper nods.

"Yes, Lady Magus."

Agda laughs, and Wiper thinks she might be the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, her hair gilded by the sunlight. He thinks he might do anything she asks of him, simply to hear her laugh again…-

Gan Fall moved smoothly out of the way of his cannon blast, and Wiper growled. Slippery bastard. He'd never understood why-

He cartwheeled back, out of range of that damned swordsman from the Blue Sea.

The threats here were the snake towering overhead, Gan Fall, that swordsman and his oversized panther, and that damned Priest of Enel's. And his pet. The other Shandians who'd made it this far – they could handle the lesser Enforcers.

Wiper gritted his teeth, and turned his attention on the snake. Gan Fall likely wouldn't attack him, being the idiot he was spewing his thoughtless words of 'honor' and 'a common enemy'. And the Priest – if the swordsman dealt with him, he could focus on getting Aisa out.

Laki would never let him hear the end of it-

"Wiper!"

He whirled around, to see a figure racing towards the immense metal cage. Blonde hair, light eyes, plain clothing, white-and-brown wings. There was a fox racing at her heels.

"Conis?!" He darted over to the cage just as she reached it.

"Are you all right-"

"What the hell are you doing here?" he snapped. She was outside the barrier – Ancestors, hadn't she learned by now that she was safest there? Hadn't Erin's death taught her as much?

"Ending this. Getting back our-your homeland," she said, and the correction made something in his chest ache. Even after all this time, she still never considered herself one of them.

"You're an idiot," he all but snarled. "What if they decide a raid with you gone? What of those you've left without protection?"

"They're safe. They'll be safe, even if-even we don't succeed here."

"We?"

Conis flushed, as Su cantered around her legs. "Ah, don't yell, but the Snake, the Snake he's-he's a Magus, Wiper. He was a friend of Erin's when they were younger, and he wanted vengeance. He's gone to bring down the pillars, and turn them against Enel."

"What?"

"He can do it, Wiper, I know he can. I trust him, and he's," she took a breath, and Wiper watched as her cheeks flushed red. "He's the strongest Magus I've ever met, stronger even than my mother. He wants to help us. He will help us get back…get back your land."

"Isn't it ours?" he blurted, as the fighting raged on behind him. He was only vaguely aware of that panther smashing an Enforcer away from his back, before ripping out the goat-man's throat.

Conis blinked. "What?"

"Ours. Our homeland…you're Shandian as well."

Conis stared at him for a long, long moment, and he was reminded of when they were children, when he'd first seen her without tears streaming down her cheeks.

-…"His name was Calgara and her name was Aegle," he says, looking up at the statues high above his head. "They were great and powerful, and when we were humiliated, he and his sons, she and her daughters – they kept us together. Kept us whole, when we might have fractured. Even when the land stealers stole Aegle's daughters from us, they never forgot."

The little land-stealer girl is quiet, and when he looks at her, he sees something strange on her pale face as she looks up at Aegle's carved face. Something intense, the way he feels whenever he looks upon Calgara's.

"Mama didn't tell me much about her," she says, folding her hands behind her back. She takes a shuddering breath, and looks at him. "I didn't think she was real."

"She's your ancestor, why wouldn't she be real?" he scoffs, and Conis stares at him.

"Mine?"

He scoffs again, turning away from the brightness in her eyes.

"Of course she is, why shouldn't she be?"

"I didn't think I belonged here," Conis says, very quietly. "Not like Mama does. I'm so-I'm so weak and useless, compared to all of you. Even babies can do stuff better than me."

Wiper rolls his eyes, uncomfortable. "You're Aegle's blood, you're can't be useless. You just cry too much."

Conis lets out a watery giggle, and the two of them sit in silence for a time, before-

"Could you tell me stories about her?" Conis asks.

"Why should I?"

"Because you want to," Conis says. "Because you-you're proud of her, and you want me to know about her. Because Mama says I have a d-duty to you all, even if I don't want to. Even if you're rude. I want to understand."

He scowls at her, and is taken aback when she giggles, and her smile reaches her eyes…-

Conis swallowed, and smiled at him, weak and watery.

"Goddesses, why do you always do this to me," she said, laughing a bit.

"Mistress, he's coming," Su said, growing as tails bristled around her.

Conis moved back, and drew two fans from within her tunic. They weren't hers, nor of any make he recognized of their tribe.

Then, lightning cracked and flashed, and there was the smell of dead things. A man – no, a mockery of a man – stood there, flanked by drooling beasts that might have once been dogs, with red pits for eyes.

Enel, with the strange tattoos that crossed his chest like a hundred eeling worms, stood there, smiling in triumph.

"I was wondering when you would scurry out from under your rock, Agda's daughter," he said, and Conis went still.

Wiper tensed.

"Keep away from her, Enel!" he snarled, and the false god flicked a dismissive glance his way, before focusing back on Conis.

The dogs at his heels rose up, drooling streams of brown saliva from their slack jaws.

"But why is the only Magus left to the Shandians so stupid as to wander without protection? And not even with the other idiots out in the forest?" Enel sighed mockingly. "At least they'll have use enough, as food."

"You bastard," Conis hissed.

He shrugged, and smiled like a mad man.

"You'll die, just like they will," he said, and flicked his fingers in her direction. Wiper growled, his fingers bleeding from their grip on the metal dome. Again he was helpless, again he was-

Su met one of the dogs head on as it leapt at Conis. Lightning flashed, shearing the air, but it banked, smashed away by a flick of one blue battle fan.

Enel's eyebrows flew up.

"No," Conis said quietly, the air curling around the fans made of kairōseki – they had to be Nephele's ancient battle fans, spoken of in their stories, they could be nothing else. But how had she gotten her hands on them?

"No," Conis said again. "I have no intention of dying. Not to you. Not to a false god."

"I am no false god-"

"You are a man with delusions of grandeur, corrupted and twisted by his desires. No more." Conis's back was straight in her defiance.

Lightning thundered down. Conis was fast, Wiper could see that, but she was no fighter. She had not trained for it, like he and the others had. Even her magic couldn't keep up with the speed and ferocity of Enel's attacks.

Even with Nephele's battle-fans, Conis would lose.

She knows it, Wiper thought, his attention solely focused on the battle in front of his eyes. She knows she will lose. But still she fought. Wiper felt something slam into his back, and absolute agony filtered through him. A Reject Dial.

But he had eyes only for the woman fighting steps away from his fingers. He cared for nothing else.

A blast of lightning caught her in the side, and Conis screamed. He was helpless again and he couldn't do anything to help her, like he'd been with her mother-

-…Agda is dragged away from the repaired totem, dragged towards the Daemons, who drool and gibber in their inhuman voices, and then they are on her. She screams.

He will remember her scream for as long as he lives.

She screams and screams and does not stop screaming, even when her daughter's cries have dropped into muffled sobs and he remains trapped and helpless behind the barrier.

Then she stops screaming, and all that is left is the sound of tearing flesh…-

She rolled out of the way, but Enel was waiting for her-

Then, a sound. A sound that was not a sound but something more, something far deeper, like a gong struck from far away.

Power came then. A shockwave of iridescent light and blinding glory blotted out the world, until all Wiper was aware of was the bite of the metal into his hands.

There were screams in the distance as the light burned and burned and burned, the inhuman screams of Enel's pet monsters. They lingered even as the light faded away, and Wiper blinked spots out of his eyes.

A swash of colors spread across the sky, swathes of reds, greens, purples, blues, and a hundred others Wiper had no name for. The air felt…it felt cleaner, and so much lighter than it had in years.

Conis stood straight, smiling, even as Enel staggered back.

Blood trickled down the man's face, even as his eyes burned a twisted, inhuman black-red.

"What have you done?" he shrieked, his expression warped into rage. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"

"The Daemons are dead," Conis said, laughing incredulously. "The skies are safe from them for a thousand centuries more. All of your kin, Enel – they're dead. Your need to punish Agda's daughter blinded you to the true threat."

Enel reared back, even as Wiper stared at the wildly laughing girl.

"I came to distract you, while Ciel, while my brother Magus paid vengeance on the Daemons who slaughtered our kin. Your pillars have fallen, Enel, and though you stand for now, you will fall just the same."

Wiper's fingers shook.

How many years had it been, since the barriers had been forced to remain active constantly? How many years since he and his people had been forced to stay behind the barrier for their own lives because of those Daemons?

Wiper swallowed hard, staring at the straight line of Conis's back, the proud tilt of her head.

And then Enel started to laugh.

It was not a pleasant sound, and it was not indicative of healthy joy or happiness in any regard. It was the sound of a man who'd thoroughly snapped and enjoyed it.

"Conis, get away from him!" Wiper yelled, knowing something bad was going to happen.

"I can bring them back," the blond man said, still giggling obscenely. "I can bring them back, I can-"

Lightning crashed out, while Enel still made those sounds. Black lightning, warped and tinged red-black. Conis dove away, but it followed her and it hit.

She made this gagging noise and spasmed, and then Enel grabbed her by the throat. Su dove at Enel, but another bolt of that red-black lightning caught the fox directly in the belly, knocking it flying.

More lightning flared, cresting over Conis, and she screamed and screamed while Enel laughed and laughed, and then he tossed her against the metal. She hit it and crumpled at Wiper's feet.

He was kneeling, reaching out to touch her, helpless rage in his throat and lungs until he thought he would burn alive from the inside out. What was the use of his training, of the days he had spent fighting and bleeding-

What was the use, if he failed his tribe in such ways again and again? He had been forced to watch as Agda had been murdered, as Erin had been murdered, and now he would be helpless yet again-

"Conis, run," he hissed at her, but he knew it would not work.

He knew she would not run, nor could she. There were black lines crawling up her flesh, and it took all her strength to push herself to her knees and hands.

"You will not ruin all I have worked for," Enel hissed, looking less and less human, like a human skin stretched over something warped and twisted beyond humanity. "I did not kill that human whore, I did not bow before the Kings so that a child could take away what is mine!"

Lightning built in the air, enough to burn the air itself. It built until the sky and the brilliant auroras still lingering were blotted out by the foul light.

"Die, Agda's spawn," Enel hissed, and brought the lightning down.

"CONIS!" Wiper screamed, helpless in his rage, and the world went white.

TRANSLATIONS AND FOOTNOTES

Adolebitque, o sooraj – Sermo; "Burn, oh sun". A spell used to call fire by those who are not primarily born of fire, ie, a spell that would allow Wind Magi (like Erin) to use fire. Can have dangerous consequences if not used properly.