A way home
"Shine a light, to all who are lost and found. Guide home all those who in darkness drowned. Night and day, shine bright, forever leading the way. Remind us that there is always hope, to never give up, to keep moving on. We'll pass on this torch of hope until we, ourselves, are gone," Blade finished the chant together with her friends, yet she had stayed up top on the roof. It was the next day full of tasks. She had taken over the night watch since Mister G had instead gone on a scouting mission this night. The discussion on how to quickly bolster the temple in the evening really had him riled up. To all of the girls down in the temple, it was a surprise the eggs the Lou had laid were hatching or Mini Lous were already running around. The Mother Lou had covered most of the temple walls inside and out with eggs the prior day and now its labour was paying off.
Nebula transformed straight away, "Alright, let us get out all those little Lou's before we step on them and mom gets upset," Nebula hovered above the crowd. They just had finished the chant. Those little snail monsters, not bigger than their hands when they just hatched, were literally everywhere.
Tasu puffed, "I'll save the kitchen." She had been eager to start translating again but this took precedence. 'Another day of translation, can't wait to find out more.'
Tessa ruffled through her short dark blue hair, "Do we need so many?" The snail monsters varied in sizes already and many were searching for goo making their way outside following previous slime trails.
"Well, if we can raise them and they get bigger we got a neat army. You should check out the mum, she exploded in size tonight. I tell ya. Seems then a Lou rests it grows rapidly. Maybe it's their kind of nature magic or something. I am sure, we will have no problem whatsoever when we check out the next area on the planet." Blade updated the others from the roof. So far, the zombies had only awoken then they had entered an area and they were sleeping somewhere beneath the earth. The girls had laughed as Mister G had insisted on checking further ahead since even those close by in the city hadn't come much closer yet. The zombies had been sluggish at best. Blade's gaze wandered to the city in the far, here and there she could spot some dark dots hopping along. "Mister G is really missing out…" Blade was eager to show him the marvellous growth of the mother.
Nebula answered intrigued, "If the goal is to grow the Lous bigger. We should set some down near the hillside from yesterday's fight. What else do we have to do today? You said we should bolster our defences." She flew upwards to catch Blade, who jumped down from the roof through the window.
Birdy sighed. "Where is the point? It takes forever for us to dig the moat. Our attempt looks much more like a ditch. We are getting nowhere-" She had shoved out more of the Mini Lous to the outside and suddenly had gone silent. "What the fuck?! Exploded in size is not the term… It's humongous!" She was staring straight at the Mother Lou outside.
All the other girls ran outside. A good part of the zombie goo had vanished around the temple and the Mother Lou stood proud as high as the temple in the fields. It had reached even beyond the height of what they had seen in Desertia. "By the Great Dragon!" Tasu couldn't believe it. There were even some Lous outside that were already around dogs or horse size. "How did that happen? How have we not noticed while sleeping?!"
"We are all tired and I let you all sleep. There was nothing to do really. They started hatching like, hm, a few hours ago. Like I said I noticed since the mother had her growth spurt at around two AM. The little ones were hatching as well and they kinda get a boost from the Mother Lou…" Blade tried to explain. "There check that one out." Blade pointed at a small Lou at the temple wall.
The Mini Lou was holding on to the wall. It seemed as if it was breathing in and out. As its body in- and deflated. Then the green stripes on its skin began to glow slightly and a small burst of magic ran throughout and it inflated once more even the shell seemed to rapidly grow. They all felt a surge of magic and a minute later it had about doubled in size through repeating the process.
"No way, those things use metamorphosis magic. That's amazing!" Tasu was fascinated and grossed out.
"Yikes… So, Professor Wizgiz wasn't joking around then he said, that wild monsters can use magic to strengthen themselves if conditions are right," Tessa was a bit freaked out as well. "That means there going to be many Lous, many huge Lous." She felt a stare at her back. She turned around. It felt as if the Mother Lou was glaring at her. "Sorry. I am glad you are here." She watched the mum go on with her business. "Is she reacting to us now? Or am I imagining things?"
"Well from what Blade had told us. Lous could possibly understand our langue to some extent." Birdy chuckled, "Well, better some fauna than none at all, I guess. I mean there is a whole planet to cover. Now then, let's get the rest outside. Voice of nature!" She held out her hands and guided all the mini Lous from the inside of the temple to the outside. It didn't work out so well. She had gained the mother Lou's attention though. It had reached out with the tentacles to inspect Birdy. It was as if they all were connected, just like a hive mind. So, Birdy decided to relay the information of yesterday's small battlefield to the Mother Lou and quickly afterwards the little ones made their way. "Sweet, it can understand us."
"Birdy, Lou whisperer," Tessa chuckled, "Lady of slime and snails."
"Ha, ha, Fairy of Lous," Nebula giggled as well. "Slime barrage!" She pretended to fire a feather barrage like Birdy always did.
"Hey!" Birdy pouted. "Next time you try to connect…"
Blade shook her head as she laughed with them, "Well, the mum just simply likes you. Besides she is a powerhouse. Be proud."
"LADIES!" Mister G shouted out to them. He was darting straight down to them. He was flying like a mad man.
Nebula startled slipped on the slime trails and landed straight in them, "Gesh, calm down will ya." She flicked her hand to get the slime off. "Great. Now we have massive amounts of slime and goo. This is so slimy how is anyone supposed to walk here…"
"There is no time!" Mister G was so hysteric no one could understand a word that followed. "We… zombies… everywhere…hurry!"
"Slow down, what is wrong?" Blade tried to make any sense out of what he was trying to tell them.
The ghost took a deep breath. "I scouted the city and the mountain range. The Zombies. They… they are awakening. Everywhere. They are like super slow… but."
The girls looked at each other. They had expected more zombies to come. Yet, more like here and there. So far, they had slept until they had reached their area. "Shit, what?! No. We just got a day worth of a break. What do you mean they are all awakening!? That makes no sense!" Tessa cursed. "So, did our massive Lou infestation woke them?"
Tasu felt her hand shake. They had discussed the possibility that they might all wake up. But had pushed away that horrific thought, since there had been no evidence to support it. Plus, none of them was eager to have another run-in with a zombie horde even if they could kill them now rather easily. "Not just the Lous. We have wisps, plus they are cleansing the earth. So, nature is growing back to life. A purified Dragon Flame and we, ourselves as well… Those zombies are starving and have lost their regeneration ability. They have to eat to regain strength. And we are like a road sign to an all-you-can-eat buffet… fuck. We should never have gone to bed or waste time…" Tasu couldn't believe they had fallen for the false security. The Dragon Flame was effective. But surely there was not enough left to simply hide out in the temple.
"How long?" Blade asked Mister G straight away. 'Fuck, if they all wake up it will be an endless stream. Till one of us is dead. No, no, no we came so far…' She bit her nails trying to figure out what they should do first.
"Well, the once from the city will be here in a few hours. The mountain terrain will slow the zombies down a bit more. But they are all calling their brothers where ever they stand, like a wildfire spreading the word. If what you told me is right," he looked at Tasu, "Nearly, all of Phere-Moan have become zombies. So, it's around seventy million people, I mean zombies, all over the planet and they will all come here. If you thought the few hundreds or thousands were hard…"
Birdy sighed, "Seventy million?! Shit. We should have checked for the map altogether." She tugged on her bangs. This would be impossible to handle.
"No, we choose right. To fortify made more sense with the information we had. We have no idea who took the map and where," Tessa bit her lip. "Yet… how can we win this? We have to! But can we...?" She sighed, that was the question they were all concerned about. All their faces were white from hearing the number of inhabitants.
"Well… we get more wisps the more we kill… plus the Lous fighting power and growth…" Tasu was calculating everything in her head after the initial shock. "We have to make a stand we can't run. We have no damn way of this shit hole!"
Blade used her bracelet as well to make some estimates, "If we at any point fall too far behind fire power-wise. We're goners. We should go straight to open fields and shoot as many zombies as we can to bolster our wisp forces."
"Yes," Tasu answered as she had come to more or less the same conclusion. "We still need to fortify, though. Our little ditch is a joke to so many." She couldn't really think straight. It had felt as if they had made great progress. And that would have been the case if they were talking about just a few hundreds each time. Yet if all zombies would come from all over. Even if it was a small planet and nowhere near the populous planets had today, seventy million zombies were not a small feat.
"Okay, I go and spread the Lou's around some more. Birdy, you were able to connect to the Mother Lou, right?" Nebula asked nervously. There was much they had to do. "We need their help otherwise we'll never going to be ready in time for the first wave." Her hands were still shaking from adrenalin.
"Yes, it seems as if it has not only grown but is also more intelligent as well. But that's just a guess. Though you Blade met a full-fledged Mother Lou. What do you think?" Birdy asked Blade. Really everyone was back on edge.
"Yes, it even understood our langue in the caves." Blade breathed out, "But what would you ask them, Nebula?"
"We need the ditches, well actually a proper moat. I am sure they can dig with those tentacles of theirs. We also should try to funnel the zombies at certain key points so we can use our spells more effectively."
"Good idea!" the ghost nodded.
Blade grinned, "Yeah. Let's go. Tessa and I will face some zombies in the city to buy you some time. We slay as many as possible. Currently, the numbers aren't that high yet. We can pick them off. You stun I hack them to pieces." She activated the red phanto-axe. "Let's not waste any more time."
"Alright!" Tessa followed Blade. "Birdy, if you can send some Lous to the marketplace we would have a better chance!" The two were already rushing off to the city and the old stone gate. Each of them picked up to wisps carrying them along as support.
It had taken Birdy about twenty minutes to really connect to the Mother Lou and to make clear what was going on and what was coming for them all. The Mother Lou along with any bigger Mini Lou were digging through the earth around the temple along the pathetic mini ditch the girls had managed yesterday. It was going much faster now. Birdy was slightly cursing that they had not tried before to connect to the Mother Lou, yet the other days it had totally ignored them. Since the growth spurt, it simply was much more aware of its surroundings foes and allies. The Lous had built up quite the resistance against the purple mud as well. Though the wisps had done a great job at cleansing the earth around the temple. The magic circle in the temple hall was flashing up every now and then as Blade and Tessa were fighting at the marketplace against the first zombies that had made their way through the city. It seemed that most if not all zombies who had been sleeping in the city ruins had partaken in the first clash in the temple the first day. The zombies now were crawling out of the woodwork like raindrops and truly easy to pick off.
Nebula had managed together with the ghost to lure more zombies from the hillside to the wisps near the temple as well. Also, they tried their best to collect the wisps and bring them all back to the temple grounds setting them down in the temple's moat in progress since they didn't escape from there and tried cleansing the deeper earth they could not reach before so well.
Tasu was eager to build a funnel while the other two teams kept the zombies at bay, yet the moat was not ready. The fact that the zombies died so easily now was a blessing by the Great Dragon himself. Tasu together with Birdy had figured that she could possibly use the Lou slime which had a high percentage of water together with her Parting Waters spell to move it and dump it as a slippery and sticky cover over the earth of the ramparts the mother Lou was stacking up together with the other Mini Lous which were around horse size. This task brought her to her knees. It was still such a wide area to cover and massive amounts of slime. She truly wished she had some supporting wizards now, just like with the ice bridge. Yet it was worth it, it made the ramparts sturdier holding the mostly loose earth together. It took the Lous around three hours finally they had dug around the temple once. Yet only had managed to make it around one and a half meters deep and two meters wide. There was no way it would trap all of the zombies. But it was the most they had been able to manage in the three hours Tessa, Blade, Nebula and Mister G could buy them. Only Birdy and Blade had magically left since Birdy had guided with little effort the Lous around in circles and made sure that they weren't building sloppy ramparts. Blade had only used the axe and Chakram to kill zombies in the city so she still had her magic in reserves.
The wisps forces had tripled in size growing to a number around two hundred fifty all spread out in the temple moat. One could feel the tension in the air as the zombies were approaching from all around. At the ramparts were the Lous lying in wait. Birdy had tried to explain that they should stay behind, but the message was not quite getting across. At least none of them were in front of the moat, which had to do. Hundreds of the small Lous were right behind the bigger ones or in the moat with the wisps, which was slightly confusing for the girls but there was nothing to be done. Their preparation time was up.
Now the girls were standing on top of the temple. More and more black figures appeared on the horizon as well and made their way through the city ruins and hills. The girls' hearts were pounding. Blade drew the bow. This old elven bow had slightly to be infused with magic to create a magic arrow, the rest of the needed magic is collected from the air around. Her first target in sight, "Ready or not here they come. Jewels guide my arrow, watch over us." She whispered and let go of the bowstring. The arrow soared through the sky above and over the Lous and moat and hit the first zombie casualty in the hip with a splash the zombie crumbled and the goo leaked to the ground.
"Nice sho-shot." Tasu coughed still trying to catch her breath. She sat down to meditate. They had decided to swap around with fighting. Since they couldn't possibly fight all day long. Especially if there might not be any breaks in the arriving zombie forces.
"Can't you shoot any faster?" Tessa was nervous, just standing there was nerve-racking. Yet she had stunned so many zombies already in the last three hours that she had to take a break.
"Will you all just sit down and meditate!?" Birdy was freaking out. She as well found a good target, "Feather shot!" Her pink feather sliced through the air and hit another zombie, which was obliterated in an instant. "Yes!"
"Just don't rush it. One shot, one kill," Nebula warned the two. "We have nothing to spare."
"Look!" Tessa pointed to the first zombie group to approach the moat. Right, where the mother Lou was waiting behind.
"They are drawn to her Drion, to all our Drion," Mister G commented, it brought back horrific memories for him. Yet, he knew this time the zombies were killable. He watched as the mother Lou reached out with its tentacles above the rampart it was easily towering over. It squashed many to pieces and got entangled by the zombies following behind using their tendril arms. The mother Lou catapulted those who held on behind itself into the waiting masses of her kids.
"Feeding time, eh," The ghost laughed as Blade and Birdy kept shouting to support the Lous inside the defence ring. The mini Lous were swiftly eating the goo.
Quickly the Wisps floated upwards out of the ditch as the Zombies had focused on the Lous everywhere and started cleansing the approaching zombies as well. Yet still, some of them got caught and destroyed as others appeared. The magic circle below in the temple was constantly brimming in its blueish light.
The first wave of zombies was easily averted only hours had passed by. Yet one gaze to the horizon showed that more were still incoming. The mini Lous that had got their fill retreated more to the temple and swapped out with smaller ones. Blade and Birdy had exhausted their magic. And Tessa and Nebula had swapped in to shoot their spells from above. They weren't as good of sharpshooters as Blade and Birdy. So, they had decided to fly above the zombie crowd out of range of their tendrils.
Tasu after she had regained some more magic used her Parting Water spell again to use some more slime to fortify the ramparts. They had held up at the most parts. Yet then Lous got dragged from them, and they did tend to fall into the moat. She also tried her best to move the goo with the same spell into the ditch so the tiny ones got their food faster.
"Plasma Sphere!" Nebula tried to save a Lou that had gotten pulled from the rampart yet it was too late. It was too small and got drained straight away by a group of black zombies. "Shit, Tessa!"
"Static field!" Tessa stunned another group of zombies trying to do the same thing. Rapidly wisps and other Lous smashed the unmoving targets to pieces and cleansed them. Satisfied Tessa watched as more wisps arose from the goo. So, many on both sides had died in the last hours that the goo was already dripping down into the moat. Where the tiny Lous eagerly awaited their snacks. "They have not taken notice yet of the tiny Lous. Energy bolt!"
"Not yet. Once they grow that might change…" Nebula flew a loop to evade a zombie that had gotten flung into the air. "Woah! Careful…" She watched as the zombie smashed into the Lous behind the rampart.
"There!" Tessa pointed out a massive group of zombies charging in. "Cover me!"
"You got it!" She dashed after Tessa.
It was frustrating. The fight had gone on none stop, although it had slowed down at times. Nonetheless, with more zombies on the horizon, there was no end in sight. To top it off more zombies were coming each hour. The only good thing was that currently, the rate they gained wisps was higher than their losses. The Mother Lou had retreated at some point as well to sleep and laid eggs as well as eat some goo itself. Tasu had tried her best to move some goo to her to make sure she would be well fed. It was hard to sleep for any of the girls. The constant moaning and screeching were painful to hear. Yet the fact that it became some random background noise after a while was even more unsettling. The first day had gone by so quickly. As the second day approached their wisps numbered several hundred now. They were the only reason they were holding out and giving them a fighting chance.
"Gesh, yesterday the Lous and us were somewhat even. And the wisps were lagging behind like crazy. Do you really think they gonna save our asses, Blade?" Nebula asked her as they were taking the first shift of the day.
"Definitely. Now that they have some decent numbers. You can practically feel the Lous relax and see them retreat more frequently." Blade searched for her next target. "Today they will save all of us. Yesterday it was the Lous." She gazed at the zombies rushing in at one of the funnels where Lous, as well as wisps, had gathered. Originally, they wanted to build them yet had no time for it. But Funnels had created themselves at the spots where Lous had been dragged from the ramparts and their dead shells had bridged the gap. The girls actually had to shatter several to make sure the Zombies wouldn't pass the rampart and moat too fast.
"We did our part yesterday as well," Nebula protested a bit. Altogether the girls had been shooting quite a lot of them after all.
"Yes, but not as many as the Lous," Blade smiled as she shot several zombies down in a row. "Fact is the more our friends grow the less help we'll be. Not that I like that but that is the simple truth. With so many wisps there already…"
"I know… they cleanse more in an hour than we can shoot," Nebula wasn't so happy about that fact. It felt a bit cheap to let those monsters fight their battle. Yet the alternative would be certain death. "I'm just amazed how the numbers of arriving zombies have grown each hour."
"Really? Well of course it grows. It also will ebb down at some point. We are on a planet after all. They should more or less walk all at the same pace. If they call and wake the others behind them their attacking numbers will only grow until the equator force will reach us. After that, it will slowly ebb down. It's simple math." Blade set down the bow. "Problem is that they eventually will push back and grow in numbers too much for us to hold them back. We have to save as many wisps and Lous as possible for that time. If we falter then. We're dead." Blade bit her lip. She wasn't sure if they could truly make it. She had calculated an estimate that showed that it was possible. Yet if there were any random bigger waves the tide could quickly shift against them.
Nebula dashed off she had spotted a troublesome spot. "White fog!" Nebula spread out some fog on the floor near another funnel. "Solid fog!" She halted the zombie forces by cementing their feet with her fog. Wisps in groups of three jumped at them circling the zombies and within seconds they fell like a lump of goo to the ground. The Lous on the rampart had been dragged down and killed by the zombies. An arrow soared past Nebula hitting the big shell stuck in the rampart and cracking it to pieces. The moat was pure chaos. Zombies jumped in to climb the other side. Or to grab a bite of the little Lous that had set up camp inside the moat. It was like a gurgling mud fight. The little Lous jumped the zombies in masses turning them to goo and the Zombies tried to pick them off one by one. The goo levels kept rising as they currently had no time to really eat the goo. "Shit." Nebula halted mid-air staring at the moat. "If that keeps up it will flood over or zombies will simply trample them…" Nebula dashed back to Blade.
"What's wrong?" Blade had noticed her friend's worried expression. She was walking around on the temple roof to find the next spot in need of their help.
"The moat, there are too many zombies. We have to do something!" Nebula balled her fists.
"Shit," Blade sighed. "Wake Birdy and the others. We need to thin out the masses in the back." Blade released another arrow. She had shot so many her arm was tiring. 'By my estimate numbered the zombies per hour are in the fifty thousand.' And it seemed probable Since all the way to the hills everything was filled with zombies. The sheer fact that they were so to speak waiting their turn to reach the rampart was the girls saving grace. The Lous had grown in size and power. And the wisps were miracle workers. Their losses were great yet the speed they cleansed and created new wisps was astonishing, to say the least.
"What's up…" A tired Birdy rubbed her eyes. She had barely slept two hours.
Tasu bit her lip, "By the Great Dragon. I thought we would get a break today…"
"We need a convergence spell Birdy. We need to use our Daylight turn to ash spell. We need to focus on the back. The moat is filling up too quickly." Blade stated bluntly.
"How? If we fly there, they'll catch us!" Tessa didn't like the plan.
Tasu frowned. "Maybe if we can focus in the convergence on expanding the radius…"
"It's risky." Nebula commented, but no better plan came to mind.
"We stay out of their reach and just have to fire a ball or beam of something. Surely, we can alter it together." Blade held on to her idea.
Birdy was rubbing her nose bridge, "I am not sure we can make that work. If it fails we waste tones of magic without achieving anything. It is possible surely, yet are we truly sure we can make it work. We only have managed to open a portal on our own, and that was then we were basically being crushed to death."
"And now we aren't? If it's just the problem of overflowing…" Tasu thought about it. "In Streama we have several concepts to water our fields. How about we build little trenches inside the secure temple grounds and build small tunnels like pipes to drain it. That way the Lous can get to it faster as well."
"Right, we had those underground root flowers we can use them. We only need to dig deeper than the moat. And aim their growth to make some pipe-like structures." Tessa nodded in agreement.
Blade breathed out, "Right. But then we should consider simply using the plants to go right beneath the ramparts and let it flow out behind So we get a bigger area flooded. And the bigger Lous can keep fighting."
"Yes, like a sink drain. Yes, that's much quicker as well!" Tasu stormed into the temple.
Nebula smiled, "We'll create more seeds you guys plant them."
"Fine…" Birdy was tired but there was no way around it. It had to be done now.
They had built every ten meters a moat drain and the temple grounds were flooding with goo. The problem though mostly appeared on the even grounds. On the city side, huge amounts of goo were floating down the hill in streams flooding the lower plain. Turning the landscape into a swamp of zombie goo.
It took them half the day to get it all to work. Especially since near the ramparts, they had to be more careful of zombies who had made their way across their barrier. The glow of wisps was brightening up the whole area with the drainage and the Lous better organised, they really pushed the zombie forces back despite the fact that more arrived each hour. At times it even looked like they were winning any second. Yet those short breaks were always quickly interrupted by zombie forces approaching from another side. The Lous had grown quite large and filled the ground around the temple inside the barrier. Little Lous were crawling along with their shells not to get squashed. Some decided to leave the safety of the barricades simply because they were lacking space.
At the start of the third day, their wisps forces had grown immensely they were in the thousands. They were pushing back the zombies together with the Lous. The mum after eating a tone of goo had laid itself to rest. It had fought on through the night and was exhausted. With the space inside the barricade more emptied and actually more time on their hands to do other things, the girls grew more plant life around, like simple grasses. They were worried that the temple might sink or slide down the hillside. Because everything was drenched in goo and the grasses need next to no magic compared to the other plants to be grown. They also stocked up on their yellow plum supply, which Mister G had taken care of. He was the running boy supplying them with food and cheerful words. He wasn't able to really do much. And scouting only showed that this battle wasn't nearly over. The constant threat was weighing on all but the wisps. The Lous weren't growing as fast as they had done in the beginning, because they needed to regenerate their nature magic first as well before they could go for another growth spurt.
Blade stood upon the rampart bow at hand, she shot zombies down that had broken through or had gotten thrown behind the Lous. Everything was like one big mush to Blade. Time was standing still. She hadn't had any decent sleep, not that any of them could with all that moaning and screeching. They were constantly using magic to grow, build or fight. It was tiring. "We shot so many down, by now. How can there still be more?" She let the bowstring zing and followed the arrow's path. Her body was aching and her head hurt.
"Come now, don't be grumpy. We're not even fighting those things right now." Tasu waded through the zombie goo it was easily knee-high. She just had used some plants to shove away a good part of the rampart at the city side to drain their camp from goo. It simply was too much even with the plants. The sudden increase of currents knocked Tasu over. "EEEeehh!"
"Hey! Fuck hold on!" Blade ran along the rampart, "Fairy of Blades!" Her form flickered slightly between Winx and Zombix and ended in Zombix, which wasn't all that surprising to Blade anymore.
"To what?!" Tasu couldn't even take hold of the grass they had planted everything was covered in goo. Her head vanished beneath the goo as she got shoved into the moat by the current forces.
"Holy electron!" Blade darted to the moat trying to locate her. "There!" She saw Tasu's blue hair flash through the goo. She reached out into the mud and got a hold of her and pulled.
Coughing and spitting Tasu dangled from her hand as they hovered over the moat. "Thanks…"
Blade sat them down on the rampart, "Don't scare me like that. Be careful."
Tasu took a couple of minutes to get her breath back. "Sorry. I should have moved first. I don't know what I was thinking…"
"You weren't. Our brains are as muddy as the lower plain. We need to be extra cautious not to make silly mistakes now that we are tired," Blade gazed at the valley. Down the hill, the goo joined with the swamp it had spread so far it was starting to reach the city ruins. Where it seeped into the earth slowly. Blade looked into the sky. It would rain soon. The earth was somewhat dry but with all that goo already there she could only imagen how far that goo soup would expand.
"Alright, time to break you out of your form again. Hold still." Tasu jumped back to her feet after giving up to get the goo out of her hair.
"Right," Blade stared at her hand and tried to concentrate, yet like the times before she wasn't able to get out of the Zombix form. She held out her hand and relaxed.
Tessa pressed her hand against Blade's, "Darkness break!"
Blade tumbled backwards before she caught her balance. "Never going to get used to that." She complained.
"You shouldn't once we win, we're going to get that sorted." Tasu wasn't so happy that Blade went into that Fairy form, they nearly knew nothing about it. Even with what Mister G had told them, she couldn't shake her prejudice.
"Hey, you two. Your shift is up for half an hour. Please go back to the temple and take a nap. Please." Mister G had come to take them back and offered them some plums. He was the only reason why the girls stuck to their timetable at all.
"Yeah, yeah." Blade walked along the rampart to get away from the current and jumped into the goo to make her way back to the temple. She gazed over her shoulder. An endless stream of goo was rushing out the opening they had created. 'The past going down the drain, hm. Unreal…man, my head hurts.' She waded through the goo. Every step was hard and not just because her body was complaining. The simple fact that nothing they did seem to make a difference. Just watching the wisps and Lous battle it out, the feeling of powerlessness. Again creatures, no, their trustworthy allies, died and gave them a chance to live. 'Even when I shot all shift long, it's like it doesn't even matter anymore.' Blade climbed the vines. The girls had decided to close up the main gate by blocking it with vines so it wouldn't get flooded. The temple's ceiling window was now the official entrance. She climbed down the single vine they had placed up top. The sparkling light played from the altar caught her eye once more. It was weird, each time she saw it calmed her down. In all that noise of war it was what reminded her of the beauty of life, "…there is always hope, to never give up, to keep moving on. We'll pass on this torch of hope…" She mumbled to herself.
"…until we, ourselves, are gone." Nebula completed the phrase. She stood there ready to take the next shift. "It's weird, then I look at it. I feel like Jewels is right here. I expect her to fly through the window any second. And then reality hits." She sighed. Her curled purple hair was a mess and the scars from the burns were prominent on her arms. "We'll reach Alfea and we will fulfil her wish to tell Seth, she was his brother. I still have to talk to my own uncle. The others still have their kingdoms to save from those traitors. They are all coming for any kingdom they might see as weak. Don't ever forget that, Blade. We might not make it in time to help save Desertia. Yet we have people waiting for us at home. They are counting on us to come back. They need us to come back. Don't forget that, Blade." Nebula smiled at her. "Now, take your well-deserved rest." Nebula laid a hand on her shoulder and transformed to make her way outside.
Blade looked to the ground, 'Right, we have been held up for days here now…Desertia might be overrun already. No,' She shook her head. 'Alyssa and the others surely were able to get help after the festival Alliance day on Domino. Plus, all our classmates are probably searching for us, waiting for us to come back home. And those nobles, we got to stop them. We have to get back…mum, dad, uncle, auntie I miss you so much. I promise you, I'll come back. Don't you give up on me, on us, where ever you are.'
"Blade?" Mister G gently addressed her. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah, just remembering what else we got to do once this is over," Blade breathed out.
Mister G nodded, "Well then off to bed with you." He shooed her off to bed.
A thundering roar of moaning echoed through the air. It was followed by high-pitched screeching from the Lous. Blade ripped from her sleep felt the ground beneath her shake. "What the heck?!"
"No way," Tasu looked to the door. "Can you feel that?!"
Tessa had straight up jumped to her feet, "Yes, the black magic presence is growing rapidly. But we were holding them back for days now. Successfully. How is that possible?!" She crossed her arms and transformed, "Fairy of lightning!"
"Let's go!" Blade rushed after her to climb the vine. Yet Tasu simply grabbed her by the shoulders and flew her up to the roof.
The sight in the far was horrific. They could make out several spots near the hillside where Lous and wisps got ambushed and circled from all sides. Below, in the valley near the city, it wasn't much different. Zombies hiding in the ruins and buildings quickly decimated their allies. On the plains, the zombies simply had rushed in with an arrow formation and created a larger front for them to attack.
"What the hell is going on?!" Tessa couldn't believe it. "Since then are those things using battle tactics?! They were simple fools clashing against our ramparts before."
"Quick! Where are Birdy and Nebula?" Blade hurried her to search for them. She couldn't spot them. Yet the amount of arrow formation piercing through their ring defences was horrifying, to say the least.
"Could it be?" Tasu's eyes widened.
Mister G crashed nearly into the girls, "Good your awake, quickly, hurry! The others need help. The zombies are trying to tumble the Mother Lou!" He pointed to the hillside.
"Fairy of Blades!" Blade wouldn't waste another second, she transformed into her Zombix form. "How could this have happened!?"
All of them rushed out. They could not let the Mother Lou fall victim to the zombies. She was the queen, their only way to order and organise the other Lous around. Not to mention the only Lou who was laying eggs. The wind picked up as the rain drops started to fall. At high speed, they flew across the battlefield. The rampart was nothing more than a fine line. The wisps had pushed back the zombies so much. Or hadn't they? 'Something feels off.' Blade gazed around. Their lines were thinner so far away from the rampart. It didn't fit the growth rate of the wisp forces. "They drew us out? No way. When?" Blade stopped and dashed upwards to confirm her hypothesis. She inspected the front closely from the safety of her distance. The Mother Lou was almost surrounded by dozens of zombies who tried to pull on her. It was different though from what she had watched on the battlefield before. They were pulling one-sided, not like before when zombies just latched on and most often the shells of the Lous had broken apart under the pressure. Blade looked beyond the rushing forces further to the back. "Where are you?!… THERE!" She spotted a white zombie in the middle of tons of black once covered in mud and goo it was hard to make out.
"What are you doing up here? The others need help!" Mister G had caught up to her the rain started to pour down on them.
"White zombies." Blade pointed her target out as she tried her best to amass magic. "How many robbers were there? We have not spotted one of them since the initial fight. I, I couldn't even check if there were more of them in the temple or outside. I thought we got them all. You said the white ones were always close by in the city and temple."
"Well, they always were. I hadn't spotted any. They always came to the temple if some fresh meat came around to plunder." The ghost was shocked then he recognised the white zombie in disguise. "If they have generals giving out orders…"
"We're doomed. Tch." Blade felt dark magic seeping in afraid her magic weapon could break before completion she thought to herself, 'Fuck, that won't be enough for a proper spear. Damn it all. This has to work then.' She raised her arm over her head. "Pierce!"
Birdy was moving around her slicing feathers to cut the zombie tentacles as she saw Balde's spear soar over her head, "Where are you aiming a-? Fuck! White Zombies!" She called out to the others. The rain was hammering down now and all across the battlefield she could spot the white zombies popping up. There weren't that many considering, still, they were surrounded by their endless forces screeching out influencing the black zombie horde.
"Fall back! Static field!" Tessa landed on the Mother Lou spreading her arms wide and sending out her wave of lightning.
Nebula flew in front of the Mother Lou, "Veil! Solid fog!" She raised a massive wall to cut off their enemies. "Hurry!"
Tasu gave Birdy cover as she used her voice of nature connection to persuade the mother Lou to retreat.
Blade watched as out of the blue hundreds of black zombies jumped in front of the white one. Her spear was piercing right through them. Before she could see the spell slowing down and losing power. The white Zombie jumped backwards and the spear got stuck in the ground. It was as if the white zombie was grinning, taunting her to chase. However, he disappeared behind a crowd of black zombies. Blade was panting heavily. She felt much more exhausted than she should have and landed on the mother Lou as well. "Quickly, she has to withdraw all the Lous. We are being pulled out and spread too thin. We can't hold such a large front. We have to fall back to the ramparts or we will be overrun!"
"What about the wisps?!" Tasu freaked. "They don't listen to us. We can't lose them."
"We are already losing them! If we do not fall back we're all going to die," Blade held against it.
Birdy sighed as the mother Lou started to turn around. "The Lous will grab as many as they can." She balled her hands shortly, 'How could we have been so stupid. We are falling for rookie mistakes.'
"There!" Blade spotted another white one.
"Energy bolt! Extended Radius." Tessa fired her electrical sphere and the area exploded. The white zombie's head was blown off its body tumbled to the ground and the goo leaked out. In its place, a wisp appeared. Yet it got ripped to pieces in the blink of an eye. Some white energy floated towards the sky and evaporated.
"We gotta go! Parting waters!" Tasu infused the rain with her magic and sped it up like a rain of bullets she hit the zombie forces and everything else as well around them, opening up the path to the ramparts.
Blade drew the bow and shot from the back of the Mother Lou searching in the masses for white zombies but they retreated away from them out of their range. "They got us good."
The girls had taken massive losses on their side. They had managed to bring the Mother Lou to safety behind the ramparts. Yet the price was high. Many wisps had been destroyed. They actually were losing more wisps now than gaining. And the Lous felt the pressure on the battlefield. Yet there was not enough space inside the rampart to fit all survivors. The battlefield was covered in empty shells of all sizes. Nonetheless, the quick retreat had given them the smaller defence ring, which was now densely packed with Lous avenging their fallen comrades and wisps that had eventually fallen back by themselves as they had to regroup. By the end of day four, the girls were exhausted. They had all stayed up trying to minimise casualties to no avail there simply were way too many zombies at best they could stop their tactical advances. With the ramparts at least secured they broke down inside the wet temple as they gasped for air and a moment to breathe.
"How can there be so many?" Birdy coughed, breathing heavy.
"Many? There are like millions!" Tessa could feel her head spin. "We lost so many wisps…fucking shit."
"Several hundred to be exact, "Tasu tried to create some water but simply couldn't manage to do so, she was shaking so much from exhaustion.
"Only hundreds?" Nebula was confused and gladly took the glass of rainwater Mister G offered her in silence. "That tastes like shit."
Blade took the next sip, "Better than none. Hundreds make the difference between us killing as many zombies that arrive and their numbers growing."
"This is ridiculous, we're at maybe four million. We aren't even nearly done. We lost our head start way too early. We have to fix it, like right now…" Tasu tried to stand up, but her legs gave weight.
Blade landed on the ground; she saw her Pierce spell hit her mark. She set down again behind the safety of their force's line and transformed back. Heavily panting Blade stood upon the battlefield. Sweat and blood dripped down her hands. White energy floated into the air and dispersed. 'One down makes eighty-seven.' She breathed out. She checked the wound and ripped another piece of her Desertian tunic off, which was nothing more than a shredded coat by now and bound her wound on her upper arm. 'Just a scratch.'
Again, she had flown in deep to get through the hordes of black zombies jumping in front of her spell to stop it. The girls in general had to do many risky manoeuvres to reach the white zombies. They were quick to vanish. Often laid traps and weren't in the frontlines. Mister G was scouting from the skies and was their go-to person to relay the location of their next target. The white zombies left on Phere-moan now were bandits and thieves who had come after the Lightbringers had released the souls thousands of years ago, so the population could find their rest. Yet the call of left treasure, riches or even a base had drawn out many shady characters back in the days. Fools, who had underestimated the warnings and security measures set in place, and now they were a pain in the ass to get rid of.
It was the fifth day, and still no breaks in this assault. "I hate those things…" she mumbled to herself. Her head was pounding. She jumped on the back of a bigger Lou to get a better overview. 'Wait a second…' She stared at her hands. "Did I just get out of Zombix on my own? No wa-" She saw a flash of white in the black zombie masses just to her right. "Shit. Since when are they so close to the front? Something's up. Fairy of Blades, Zombix!" She transformed quickly into her form and flew upwards. She just caught the glimpse of a white zombie, who for no apparent reason bowed down in the middle of the fight reaching for something on the ground. "Gotcha," Blade grinned. She amassed light magic in her hand raising her hand above her head quickly. She rose into the sky out of range of the black zombies who called out a warning moan. "Pierce!" Blade ground her teeth and tossed the spear. Out of the blue, the white zombie got flung into the sky backwards. The spell tore a massive hole in the enemy's forces. 'Shit. I missed, again?! I got to retreat. I am nearly out of magi-' Blade annoyed was ready to turn back as spied a muddied scroll in the hands of the white one.
Blade squinted her eyes. As the wind bent the corner of the scroll she could clearly see an old drawn compass and the crest of Phere-Moan in the corner of the larger scroll. "A map…" in disbelieve Blade watched as the white zombie landed in the masses of his black friends, glaring at her, taunting her. The white one knew what he had, their ticket out of here. The white one turned around and the zombies parted in front of him as he rushed further away, away from her, away from the frontlines. "You're not getting away from me!" Blade darted along the sky. She activated her chakram and send it flying.
The white one screeched out and all raised their tentacle arms to the air. Like a lawn mower, the chakram cut through the forest and slowed down with each hit. "Fuck you!" Blade recalled her weapon. Her eyes fixed on the price, she darted over the enemy's lines. "Turn and face me, you damn coward!" She screamed out into the open battlefield in frustration.
As suddenly a bunch of black zombies got thrown into the air, right in front of her. "Oh, shit!" Blade made a roll to the side as she dashed forward. The tentacles passed straight by her head. And the black zombies crashed to the ground turning slowly into goo. Black zombies tried to get out of the way not to be smashed by their fallen comrades, but then with so many rushing to the ramparts there was nowhere to go and they got trampled along with the suicidal ones as the hordes closed up the gaps. "Oh shit."
Blade dashed high into the air. She had been flying out of reach all the time. But with enemies catapulted into the air she had to adjust. 'No, no, no the further away I am the longer they have time to react…' Her brain told her to throw the next spell before they would get too far away the collective zombie forces were spread out kilometres wide after all by now. All waiting their turn at the frontlines. Her instinct on the other hand cautioned her. There was no way she would hit the guy. She felt her stamina depleting. She already had been pushing hard. 'I should turn back I don't have enough magic - no. I got to stay on him. We don't even know if we can win this war. This is our only ticket home if everything else fails. I lose him now, we'll never get the map…but f I run out of magic - This is madness.'
Her mind was racing as she raced after the white one, who had no intention of stopping. "You want a race…I am top of my class!" Blade changed gears and sped up. 'I'll cut you off before you know it! Damn zombie!' She felt the air cool turning even slightly freezing as she aimed to overtake the white zombie and stop him in his tracks. Still, zombies were flung into the air but even with the advanced reach, she was too high up. The white one glanced over his shoulder and shrieked. "You're mine!" Blade bared her teeth. She nearly had him as small dots closed in growing bigger and bigger. She could hardly make them out. An aching pain shot through her arm as she got hit. "Oh shit," Blade broke off to the sky. A volley of sticks and stones had been flung at her even past her. 'Oh, fuck they slingshot rubble, now?!' Blade zig-zagged through the dark skies like hail the rubble rained down on her. Her hands above her head to protect it, worried for her wings she gave it her all as she dived down to minimize the chance that her wings would be chipped and perforated. The ground closed in quickly so did the zombies. 'Do or die. Do or die. You got to get this right!'
A bit of panic set in as she realised how bad, critical even, her stunt was, she tried to pull here. She had totally misjudged the predicament she had manoeuvred herself into. 'Am I that stupid, tired or that desperate?! Damn it the map is our only way out!' She cursed herself for this suicidal stunt. She threw her chakram to slice through the zombies that had been catapulted towards her. She cut it close as she spun away just in time for another sharp stone just to head-on crash into a black zombie. The eye of the black zombie was right next to her. It crackled with its jaw, screeching loudly, an ear-splitting sound ready to bite into her. Tentacles wrapping around her. Its foul breath crept into her nose. Blade pulled her arm back against the constricting forces, "Out of my way!" Angrily she shouted as she gave it a headbutt the zombie turned to goo before the remains covered her whole and the chakram got locked going on standby on the disk she had attached to her bracelet.
Another forest of the tentacles built right in front of her. She sent off the chakram once more, quickly losing sight of it in the throng of zombies. She concentrated the magic creating another glowing Pierce spell shaped like a spear. With haste, she refocused her aim on the white one, who wide-eyed, shrieked again. 'Fuck, no time to throw!' Blade with the spell ready crashed right through the wall of tendrils, which obliterated as they came near the spear's tip. Goo splattering everywhere. With High speed, with no time to break, she hit the white zombie right in the torso. She reached for the map and barely got a hold of it as her own Pierce spell exploded into her face blasting her backwards. The white energy, coming from the white one, passed right through her and a voice echoed in her mind.
'Ha, you're dead!'
Blade open her wings rapidly to get her feet to the ground and slid across before she came to a hold, map in her hands, painting heavy. Everything slowed as if the world was in slow motion. A piercing pain rushed through her body. In pain, she screamed out. She felt blood running down her back and side. Her chakram passed her by and got stuck into the ground before her coloured in a deep red. Blade turned around staring at another white zombie who had a torn arm dropping white goo to the ground. 'It caught my chakram when I threw it last…' Blade in disbelief staggered and quickly recalled the chakram as she jumped into the air to flee. Stinging pain flooded her system as she pressed off. Black tendrils rushing out to entangle her got cut through as the chakram was recalled. Yet her leg got caught and pulled back. Black zombies jump into the air like a massive cloud of insects. They plunged down upon her. 'FUCK!' Blade's heartbeat pounded in her head, adrenaline rushing through her veins. She mustered all the magic she could. She needed a better weapon right now. "No way, I'm going down here!" She swung her arm outwards as a dark crackling weapon formed. She swirled her glaive around slicing through the endless swarming creatures. "ARRRGH!" She loaded the dark magic weapon with more magic and sent a wave of energy with her backslash. It mowed down several zombies. Blade grabbed the glaive with both hands and hacked away at the zombie's arms chaining her to the ground. The map pressed against the shaft of her glaive she struggled to break free. Her vision switched between blurriness and clearness. She gazed at the darkened cloudy sky.
Out of nowhere, she saw a hail of pink feathers plunge from the sky all around her. "FEATHER BARRAGE! BLADE!"
There in the sky Blade spotted Birdy in her neon pink and green Winx form. Blade gasped for air as the zombie masses thinned out. She spun around one last time with her glaive to make room and broke through as her glaive shattered into black sparking dust.
"Veil! Solid Fog!" Nebula had caught up as well and blocked off tentacles all over, but it wasn't enough. She dashed down to her friend. "Blade!" She reached out and took hold of her arm and slingshot her further upwards as she got caught by the zombies. "Fog image! Mirror space!"
Blade saw a fog clone appear right next to her again. "Nebula!" She glanced over her back just to see as Nebula got torn to pieces mid-air. Shocked Blade halted. "NEBULA!"
"What the heck are you doing!" The fog clone suddenly spoke out and slingshot her again.
Only now did Blade realise that the Nebula that had been caught was the fog clone she had swapped out with just in time, "I-" Pain flooded her system as the adrenaline rush wasn't enough to counter the pain she was in. She nearly would have dropped a few feet again if Nebula hadn't held on to her arm quickly.
"Quick we got to get behind the rampart!" Birdy commanded the two. "Feather barrage!" She shot behind them once more to counter another hail of sticks and stones as they darted to the clouds.
Blade gave it her all to fly as fast as she could but her head was getting rapidly woozier and she felt that Nebula was dragging her along more and more. Her Zombix form began to flicker. They were still way off behind enemy lines. 'Have I gone that far?!'
She held on tightly to the map in her hand. Her vision turned black for split seconds. She made one more push. "Nebula, hold on to this." She glanced into her eyes pressing the map into her friend's free hand. Just before her Zombix expired.
Nebula overwhelmed by the sudden dead weight lost hold of her. "Blade!" she shouted scared as she held the piece of paper in her hand. Luckily Birdy dashed past her and caught their friend before they got back into the enemy's range.
"Gesh, what were you thinking!?" Birdy was furious. Together with Nebula, they managed to finally get themselves behind the ramparts.
"Sorry, I'm so sorry, I am out of juice…" Blade clung to Birdy's arm forcing herself to stay awake.
Birdy just shook her head as they like a drunken bumblebee hovered to the temple roof and sat down inside. Her arm burned like hell, "The fuck is wrong with you!?"
Blade tumbled to the wall behind her and put pressure on her wound, "I … I" Blade simply couldn't stay awake.
"Crap!" Nebula just now noticed the red sticky blood on her friend's back. She dropped the scroll and ran towards her, "Blade, hey, stay awake!" Nebula held her upright. "Quick, we need some water!" Carefully she laid her down on the floor and turned her sideways to inspect the flesh wound. Blood was all over her hands. The cut ran from about the middle of her back where her wings start down to her side to her front. Glady, she couldn't see any organ damage it was a deep cut, but superficial. "Where is that water?"
Birdy had scooped some water out of the buckets they had planted beneath the ceiling's window to collect rain. "Here." She stared at the blood. She also had goo splattered all over her. It looked bad. It was bad. 'Damn you, reckless fool. Don't you die on us.' She breathed out to stop her thoughts from spiralling. "I'll get a wisp. We can't risk that she got corrupted." Birdy darted out of the temple.
"Come on," Nebula ripped apart Blade's and her tunic. She had to stop the bleeding pronto. In haste, she knotted the fabric strips together to create a longer bandage. "Don't you give up on me." She checked if Blade was still breathing and saw her chest rise and fall. 'Is this how Sir Aryan felt? This is even more horrifying than getting hit. Fucking shit, I don't even know what I am supposed to do without potions. I can't use healing spells.'
Mister G had notified Tasu and Tessa who came storming in all together. "What happened?!" Tasu nearly gagged when she saw the somewhat lifeless Blade at first glance.
"By the Great Dragon, I'll tare those zombies to pieces myself!" Tessa simply got angry, as she didn't know what to do.
Blade squinted her eyes and mumbled, "Clean bandages…keep pressure," She was the only one who had none-magical first aid training out of all of them. Fairies after all were supposed to concoct potions, use their advanced light magic spells or even Fairy dust to heal injuries to deal with those situations.
Nebula threw the bandages to Tasu, "You clean and knot." And pressed down on the bleeding. "Blade, you got to tell us what to do. You know what to do, right?" Nebula stared down, the blood flow was slowing down. 'How can we be so unprepared for anything. What have we been doing all year long!?'
Tasu and Tessa hurried to knot everything together. "Don't we need something to dress? I think we need some mor-" Tasu stopped mid-sentence.
"Right gotcha," Tessa pulled off her tunic and bundled it up. "Quick. Give me that." She took the bandages as well. With a slight touch of magic, she concentrated on them and in a matter of seconds, they were clean. She handed them off to Nebula.
Nebula took the bundled-up tunic and pressed it quickly on the wound. "Do we need to flush out the wound? Blade?" Unsure she looked to the other two, Blade was feeling under the weather.
"No, all the clotting will be out of the window as well," Birdy, wisp in her hands, came back and set down. "If there is goo, the wisp will get rid of it." She placed the wisp next to Blade. Immediately the wisp chimed and glowed up. "What was she thinking going in so far alone?"
"We're all tired." Nebula took Blade's side. Concerned she watched over her as she pressed down on the dressing.
"You can say that again," Tasu rubbed her nose bridge. Since the white zombies had shown themselves they had even slept less than before.
Blade lost some colour in her skin. She opened up her eyes staring at the wet floor. Her teeth chattered. It was freezing cold, "C-Cold…" She mumbled quietly.
"What?" Nebula moved in closer.
"C-co-cold. N-N-Need to sta-y war-warm," her teeth were shaking so much. She gazed down her side. Nebula was pressing as hard as she could on the wound. Blade knew she wouldn't be able to keep that up and the bandages wouldn't save her from natural infections. The wisp at least kept her from corrupting and turning into a zombie.
"Right, heat. Heat…" Nebula looked at the others. "Daylight spell?"
"That's not warm enough." Birdy thought about it.
Tessa just vanished into the made-shift greenhouse and came back with some plant branches. She kneeled down and lit it up next to Blade with the tiniest energy bolt. "There. We can get more stuff from outside. Blade how do we need to bandage that wound? It has to hold and do its job."
Blade breathed in deeply. The wound was burning or was it the tingling feeling she felt as the wisp fought against the corruption inside her body? "You can't, yet." She paused for a second thinking it through in her head. Her teeth stopped chattering, "Burn it. Burn along the cut. We need the clotting but have to sanitise the wound."
"Burn it?!" A shiver went down Tasu's spine.
Tessa shook her head, "You got to be kidding!"
"How are we supposed to get something clean to burn… You'll twitch from the pain alone." Birdy was ruffling through her hair. They were way over their heads into deep shit. So far, they had much more experienced elders with them or even wizards who simply needed to weave a spell.
"Give me something to bite on and hold me down," Blade answered blandly. The warmth of the kindling fire was such a treat. That plan was the best thing she could come up with. Not that she would tell them how much pain was in store for her. She had to keep them calm. Her life depended on it.
The other girls looked at each other. Nebula was getting nervous. The dressing was turning into a deep red. They had to stop the blood loss. "Fine. I'll modify my plasma sphere, that should be hot enough. Let's do this."
Birdy and Tessa held Blade down tight. Tasu watched that she wouldn't tip and held her steady. Blade bit down on another stick.
Nebula breathed in as she created a tiny Plasma sphere with enhanced heat and less destructive power. "Alright," She stared at the wound. "Turn her belly to the ground. Tasu you cover the side, so it doesn't touch the floor." Her hand was shaking, scared to do something wrong. She moved to the start of the cut and pressed The Plasma Sphere into the cut.
A stinging pain made Blade's jaw crunch down on the stick. She tensed up trying not to flail around. She could feel the pressure Tessa and Bridy put on her ankles to hold her still. She squinted her eyes so hard it hurt.
She couldn't stop her muffled groaning.
Birdy felt pitty for Blade. She couldn't watch really It wasn't a nice site. Her gaze wandered around the room. She glanced at the scroll Blade had handed Nebula. 'All this for a piece of paper?' She looked up the window. Mister G had stayed outside to keep a keen eye on the white once that still remained.
Nebula followed the cut. Felt as the squishy skin turned hard the smell reminded her instantaneously of the fire caracals as they had burned her. She knew exactly how painful it could be, she was amazed how Blade tried her all to make it easy on them. Going slowly was hard for Nebula. However, she had to be sure that she burned enough so it would close up properly Even the skin around turned reddish from the rest heat. She could see how Blade started sweating on the back. 'Why would you go so far? You're never that reckless.' She looked to Tasu, "Be ready to turn her to the side."
"Yes, just stay steady." Carefully Tasu lifted the belly together with the dressing. She tried her best to still keep the pressure on until Nebula would get to the remaining parts. 'How did we ever believe the idea we could win this…' She thought to herself as she felt the blood on Blade's skin turn sticky as the water evaporated from the heat. It was as if someone had splashed a bucket of paint all over her.
Tessa's face was grim. 'I'll rip them to pieces. I'll tear them limb from limb. No one will hurt my friends and get away with it. Ever again.' In anger, she tightened her grip around Blade's feet and ankles, which ironically helped to keep her from squirrelling around. Deep down she was so scared that she would lose yet another comrade, no friend.
Blade felt as tears dripped down her nose. It hurt, she wanted nothing more than to give in and fall asleep, but she couldn't she had to stay awake. If she could stay awake it meant her Body had still enough strength left. She felt as if the hot stinging feeling vanished from her skin. Relieved she gazed at Nebula, who with a worried expression was inspecting her work. She spat out the stick to finally breathe in freely it took a few minutes. Then she uttered the most important words, "Map."
"Map?" Tasu was confused. "Is she delirious? Did we do something wrong?" She searched for answers from the others.
Nebula currently couldn't care less. She simply held her friend's hand not realising what she was telling them. "Sshhh, slowly Blade." She picked up the bandages and cleaned them with magic once more. She had to bandage the wound first so no dirt would fall into it.
"No way…" Birdy stood up and picked the scroll from the ground. She unravelled it and truly it was a map. A map of Phere-Moan no less. Her eyes widened it was their ticket off the planet. "But why, why didn't you call for backup…" She was overjoyed and yet angry. "We could have thought together." She vented a bit. "What is a map worth if you die? We don't need another bittersweet victory."
Blade looked her into the eyes, "You're right. I'm sorry. I just had a split second to think. I would have lost him otherwise and we need a Plan B. I put the mission first."
Tessa stood up to inspect their price. "Plan B, eh. Tasu you're the only one who can read any of these location names." She couldn't spot anything that looked like a portal besides the marketplace gate. "And as important, it is for us to have a way home. I have to disagree. We could have searched for it simply after this war is over. Now we are one Fairy down."
"And what if we can't win?" Blade threw into the conversation, for now, she didn't sit up. The pain was still rushing through her system. Although she felt slightly better for now. A loss was a possibility none of them wanted to think about. "If something does go wrong. Now we have at least a chance to get off the planet."
"That's only true if this map has the location though. Did you ever think of that? It might be a plain map for tourists," Tasu took the map from Birdy and checked there was no immediate mark of the ocean gate on the map. "I'll go and ask Mister G. He knows what the temple map looked like." She transformed and flew up.
Nebula watched as Tasu flew out of the window. "A way Home… we never had an actual possibility to go. Do we even finish this fight? I mean if we do find the portal and can reach it."
Silence. No one had ever thought this far. Tessa was first to break the silence. "What do you mean? Of course, we go. Why stay? I mean… well… I admit I would hate to leave the Lous behind. But if we miss our window… Blade needs medical attention, right? Or did we fix it?"
"For now, it works. It depends if it still gets infected or not," Blade knew that there was a risk. Her head hurt so badly she couldn't quite think straight. The pain was draining her concentration.
Birdy sat down, "Well, it all depends really on where the portal is. If it's on the other side of the planet…"
Tasu came back down and transformed back to normal. Everyone was staring at her. "This is it. Temple map. We still need to decipher the spell on it so it will reveal the location of the gate. I and Blade can work on that, you guys should get out there. We need to vanquish all-white zombies. If they figure out where we are going. They certainly will set up a trap or ambush."
Nebula broke her silence. "I am not sure we should go if we do not have to." She suddenly stated.
"What are you talking about?" Birdy was confused. "Why?"
"Look, we know there are up to two weeks' delay when one goes through an ocean gate without a gatekeeper. We already went through one ancient portal. So, at worst we are five weeks late, already. We can't help Desertia anymore. It's either already solved by now or decimated." Nebula started her explanation.
"That's not-" Tessa bit her lip she was right. "Still, there is no good reason to sta-"
"There is," Nebula interrupted her. "I already told you that then I thought of the caracals. I bumped into Talibah and that other noble dude…" She breathed out. "He said stuff. Like they will tear down and rebuild the weak kingdoms. They were aiming to assassinate Jewels and they succeeded. We don't even know on what planet we will surface. We are exhausted, have barely any magic left. Who can we truly trust? What if we run into some more conspirators before we even get to Alfea or to any of our kingdoms. Even worse. What if we get backstabbed again. Lord Shabaka was the royal court mage for crying out loud. No one will give me or Blade the time of day if tell what happened o Desertia. But you three. You have actual political power. They'll kill you bef-" Nebula rambled on.
"Calm yourself." Tasu laid a hand on Nebula's shoulders. "You're correct. Just getting us off the planet does not mean we are safe. It would be better to finish the fight her regain our strength fully and then go through the ocean gate."
"That doesn't solve the problem though." Birdy added, "The question still stands, who can we trust? Right now, they probably think we are all dead. Well, at least the chances rise that we are with each passing day. The time laps they calculate are two weeks for the Desertian ocean gate. At best we lost one day then we came plus our week here. We still have to hold out to at least catch them off guard. Still, we thought against fairies, wizards, paladins, specialists, anyone really. We need help to get back to…anywhere. We don't even know where those crystals come from. Who can we trust besides us."
Blade smirked, "Well I trust my parents obviously. My uncle and auntie…" She tried to regulate her breathing and not fall asleep.
"True." Tessa stroked her chin as she sat down with the others in a circle. "I get along well with my brother as well. I think none of our core families has any struggles right?" All nodded.
"So we need to only contact them and until then we stay off the grid," Tasu suggested.
"What about our friends? We do have friends in Alfea, the professors…" Birdy added unsurely.
Tasu shook her head, "We don't know who is a spy or traitor. We shouldn't tell anyone besides our parents. It's too dangerous."
"Fear is a bad advisor." Nebula commented. "I didn't trust my friends." She stared at Blade. "We can't pretend to be all dead and then poof back into the limelight at our convenience. Come on, we all know how much it hurts to have lost Jewels. We need allies, in numbers lies our strength. If we lie to our friends, how can we possibly expect them to help us later."
"And if we tell them and there is a traitor we are minced meat!" Tasu held against it.
Blade shook her head, "If we don't even dare to trust our friends, we already have lost. Team E never gave a reason to doubt them, and neither did our classmates. Tch." Talking so much did sting her still.
"What about Seth? He is Team A, right? We all know how it goes with secrets such as this. Can we tell him he is her brother and she got killed by traitors? He will tell his team even if we tell him not to. One can't possibly have that weighing on oneself without talking to your buddies…." Birdy rubbed her forehead the list expanded so rapidly, that it worried her a bit as well. "That are way too many people…"
Tessa bit her lip, "Why are we seeing this as a bad sign? We have many friends we trust or have. That also means we have allies. We'Re not alone. We are all just starting out in our professions. Leaving my worst fears aside just for a second. I do not think that Blade's Red Fountain friends are our enemies. I mean Jewels even requested them to come as backup. Also, hate to say it, but the witches…"
"Sorceresses." Blade commented sheepishly.
"The sorceresses…" Tessa corrected, "…you two freed and therefore their friends. Have been proven innocent, already. Going by that...we would need to tell them rather than our own friends, which is kinda insane. I know I can be a bit rash at times. But shouldn't we take a leap of faith?" Tessa gazed at Tasu.
"If we can't trust our friends, we already have lost, eh?" Blade chuckled she instantly stopped. "Ouch, ouch, ouch, that hurts…"
Nebula quickly checked if any of the burns had broken up. "Stop moving around so much, gesh."
Tasu added, "And what about the professors? They have to report to Faragonda. And I doubt that Faragonda can put off notifying the magic council. And once the information is there. It is out of our hands. How do we get off the planet? When? Who? If we rush this, we make mistakes we can't take back. Damn it, my mother would be so much better at this…" Tasu sighed, "Jumping to a conclusion now is bad as well. Until we cracked the spell on the map we still have time to think about it. Let's just put a pin in it for now and…"
"Girls!" Mister G darted down. "Another front is advancing about twenty white zombies are with them.
"Shit." Birdy stood up.
Tessa transformed, "Great I have a bone to pick with them."
"Go," Tasu reinsured Nebula. "I'll keep an eye on her, while I decipher the map."
"Right," She made her way out of the temple.
