Author's note:
Please read the tags, don't read if topics might upset you. If you are unsure, on AO3 there are clearer warnings prior to every chapter in question.
Oh, and this is the second book, btw. :D
Tags:
Blade Ashfallow, Alfea (Winx Club), Red Fountain (Winx Club), Realm of Magix (Winx Club), Fairies, Teachers, Magic, Cloud Tower (Winx Club), Winx, Charmix, Winx club-Freeform, Friendship, Avalon-Freeform, Palladium-Freeform, Post-Canon, Griffin-Freeform, OCs - Freeform, Zombies, Police, Police Brutality, Codatrota-Freeform, Ediltrude-Freeform, Zarathustra-Freeform
Stranded
The girls tumbled to the ground. It was kinda wet or rather, muddy. Blade opened her eyes again. The sky was black and cloudy, not one sunbeam was getting through. She felt a burning sensation on her skin which was facing the ground. She jumped to her feet. "Shit!" Blade shook off the purple mud. It was somewhat familiar to her. Around her were the remnants of something like a marketplace. Ruins everywhere. The other girls were brushing off the mud as well.
"WHERE IS JEWELS?!" furiously Tessa shouted, seizing Blade at her torn top. Her Fairy form vanished as her hold tightened on Blade's tunic.
Blade stared back at her bitterly tears trailing down her cheeks. She couldn't say a word. She simply held the diadem up.
"No…" Nebula was in utter disbelieve.
"But- she was… she was right behind us…." Birdy muttered, trying to recall their escape. Unwilling to accept the implications.
Dead eyed, Tasu stared at the devastated Blade as she heard a groaning behind her. A shiver ran down her spine. She turned around. There a black zombie staggered towards her, flicking its tentacles. "No way…Phere-Moan?!" The black zombie moved to attack with his tendrils. She tackled Tessa and Blade, "Duck!"
The group fell to the ground. The tentacle flicked past their heads like the crack of a whip. Blade had not expected to be tackled from the side and lost Jewels's diadem from her grip. The metallic sound of the diadem bouncing on a few little stones rang in her ears until the crown got stuck in the mud. "No!" She glared at the black zombie. Just to notice in the corner of her eyes that Tasu's and her transformation vanished at the same time.
Nebula raised her arm, "Plasm-" her fair form flickered and vanished as she started to cough, falling to her knees from the aching pain in her chest.
Birdy jumped in front of her aiming with her two hands, they flashed in white light, at the black zombie, "Feather shot!" Her pink glowing feather formed and with lightning speed hit her target's head. Obliterating it. But there was no dust. The Zombie did not vanish as it had done in the simulator room back at Alfea. "Feather shot!" Birdy fired again, and the flash of white light intensified, blasting a hole into its chest. And her Fairy form began to flicker. "Shit…" She was in utter confusion. The zombie wouldn't turn to dust.
Tessa had jumped to her feet pulling her two friends up, "What are you waiting for shoot the damn thing!" In disbelief, she, as well as the others, watched as from the sustained wounds black flames, similar to what the set ablaze Lous had looked like, began to burn. Slowly closing them up and recreating the zombie's head. "What the heck…"
Blade pulled a phanto-weapon out of her belt pocket. She had stored several weapons inside. After all so many had been dropped and she had used them to kill so many monsters back at Desertia. It was the red axe again. She stormed at the regenerating zombie with a war cry. "DIE!"
The black zombie moaned awkwardly, it was way less menacing than she recalled. Compared to the simulation it sounded like a flat tire losing its last bit of air. Its tendril arm was cut off sparking more black magic flames.
Tasu watched as Blade cut off its regenerated head and rammed the axe into the torso. But the flames kept coming back. Like a mad man, her friend was swinging that axe. Exhausting herself. Yet the results were the same. Each cut was set ablaze and regrew whatever bones and rotten flesh had been torn apart. "Blade…" She scanned their surroundings nothing was there, yet. She listened to her frustrated cursing of Blade as she tried her best to make zombie kebab. She stepped forward and picked up the diadem from the mud. Noticing the engraved words in the inside of the metal. 'For our beloved daughter, may you find happiness in life and never be alone. Tasu closed her eyes tears streaming down her face as the realisation set in that Jewels was gone, truly gone. It left her speechless. "The last magic shield that was her, wasn't it…" She mumbled to herself.
Birdy stepped towards Blade and caught the shaft of the axe as Blade was lunging it over her head yet again. "Stop." She said calmly and with a bitter voice. "This will only drain your energy levels and we need you now more than ever." She bit her lib, 'Jewels…why?'
Blade turned to shout at her, "And leave that shit alive!? They should all die, they all deserve it, not HER!" She stopped her outburst as Birdy's Fairy form disappeared and she recognized Birdy's agony, biting her lip. She gazed at all of them. They had no magic left. Stuck on a planet without a MagicWeb Tower yet again. No backup. No way home. Masses of zombies would come for them any time now. And that single black zombie wasn't even close to dying. 'Fuck this shit.'
"Guys…" Nebula pointed at the zombie on the ground as she stood up again. Everything was hurting. The burn wounds Lord Adom had healed for her most were still covering her body. Every step hurt. Not that she would tell them with so much on their plate.
Tessa balled her fists and stormed towards Birdy and Blade. 'She left her behind to die, we left her to die, I-I left her to die, damn it!' But her words got stuck in her throat.
'We have to keep it together. We can't fall apart now. We have to get help. We have to survive. It can't end like this…shit. Fucking shit. I should have- I – I…' Tasu's thoughts were racing as she tried to stop Tessa. "Tessa, fighting each other won't hel-" Tasu watched as Tessa pushed Birdy and Blade aside.
"ARRRRGGGHH!" With the kick of the century, she hammered the zombies head away. She was as furious as Blade was as they all were. "Fucking, pricks, traitorous pack, scumbags, if I ever see them again I'll rip their hearts out! UUUURGGH!" She was so worked up, panting heavily. She stared at the rest of the body beneath her falling to ashes and dust. "I did it?!"
The sudden hope faded as Blade pointed to the head that had landed in some sort of remanence of a street, "No, look," the head was still burning re-growing a body.
"You got to be kidding…" Nebula stared at the thing. "There's no way we can kill that thing. We should go now before more show up." She ground her teeth, 'It's all my fault. If I hadn't been so focused on Blade. I wouldn't have been so blindsided by those noble pricks.'
"Right…." Tasu agreed but sighed. 'This is foolish, hopeless. There is nowhere we can go.' She sighed ready to let herself fall on her ass and just give up. "No, wait…" she mumbled half to herself and half to the others. "We have to stay calm. We trained for this. We did well enough in Desertia. We cannot falter now. We promised Jewels we support her no matter what. She might be gone, but Desertia still needs our help. Are we fairies or not? We can do this, we just need to get to safety." All of the girls listened closely taking in deep breaths to calm down, trying to think clearly again.
Birdy spoke up first eying the zombie head in the background regenerating, "One problem. We have no magic left to open the portal." She looked over her shoulders to the stone gate.
"What's wrong?" Blade asked Tasu as she helped Nebula stand.
Tasu shook her head, "Even if we had magic, that portal gate will get us nowhere. Remember. The Jade chains... All planets either destroyed or sealed the portal system to Phere-Moan. Didn't even Professor Daphne mention they build an entirely new system - several times since then. So, no one would be foolish enough to come here to loot and lose their lives. This whole planet is a monument. Even if we open it at best we land back here at worst we are stuck in some magic dimension with no way out or dead." She scratched her head, trying to think of something. But the only thing that came to mind was the loss of Jewels and their coming doom.
"Oooooooouuuuhhhhh."It was a rather weak howling as the wind blew past them.
"What was that?" Tessa observed the ally the zombie's head was regenerating in.
Tasu held the diadem still in her hands, 'Better get this thing out of the way. If I lose it in this swamp, it would mean shame. For me, no, my whole family, my kingdom…'
"Wrong direction, its coming from over there" Blade pointed out and quickly pulled out the other phanto-weapons. "Yikes!" she flicked her hands and dropped them. As she had pulled out the weapons she had touched something slimy. She stared at a light purple Mini Lou. It was so small, tiny, helpless, just as they were. It was screeching slightly as it touched the purple mud on the ground.
"That's just the wind howling. Damn it, squish it!" Nebula stormed at the tiny Lou to stomp it.
"No, wait!" Blade stopped her. "This one is not corrupted anymore. Look at the colours. There is no Black magic presence." The little Lou didn't like the purple mud at all. Blade picked it up again placing it in her belt pocket for now.
"EWWW," Birdy commented "Are you stupid you'll get drained…or not. Why are you taking that with you?" Yet she could see that it didn't try to drain Blade on touch. She picked up a phanto-weapon to activate it. It was a whip. Perplexed she wiggled the green energy line. "Great…a leach for your new pet."
Tasu just shrunk the diadem, after all, all crowns could be converted into a ring for easy transportation nowadays. She was about to put it on her finger. "Shit I can't wear this. It would affront Desertia. War even. Mhmm, Blade…" She watched the debacle with the Lou which was a whole new level of confusion and a waste of time. She spoke up a bit louder, "How did you know that it's harmless? Anyways, here!" She flung the ring over to Blade. "You carry it unless you want us to start another war."
"Wait what?" Blade raised an eyebrow. 'Damn etiquette. Who cares on a fucking zombie monument.'
The other girls chuckled in response to Blade's utter confusion. Tessa even patted her back.
"OOOOOOooouuuuhhhh," the sound was getting louder. Now the girls could make out the sound. It was coming from another zombie in the pointed-out direction.
"Oh shit, we overstayed our welcome. Those things didn't howl like that in the simulation," Tasu took another phanto-weapon, it was a simple yellow dagger, while Blade caught the ring and with a raised eyebrow put it on her finger.
Tessa snatched the last weapon it was some kind of disc, "A lot is not like in the simulation here. So where to?" She gazed around, knowing the girls had their back and the zombies were truly slower as expected. They were standing in the marketplace if she remembered correctly or if the information they had from the training session was even relatable. She couldn't even see green lightning or birds. Up and over the hill she could see the castle tower, or rather what was left of it. Behind the gate was a wide-open space leading away from the main city. "I am not going into a death trap of a city with unkillable zombies, of unknown numbers." She stated as she spied more zombie heads popping up in the ruins.
"What? On the open field, we have no way to barricade. Have you forgotten the hounds? And-" Blade took the disc out of her hand and pressed the axe against her chest disagreeing heavily. She clicked the disc to her bracelet and activated it. A white chakram appeared floating in the air near her hand. It was a simple circle with a full circle cutting edge on the outside about her underarm's length.
"Oh, right, because when we were stuck in the city in the simulator, that worked so well…did even one team pass?" Tessa test swang the axe readying herself. The zombies were dragging their feet. So many thoughts popped up in her head. She like the others had so many questions about what exactly happened to Jewels. But right now, everyone knew they did not have the luxury to chit-chat any longer. Yet none of them knew where to go.
"What if we stay here at the gate. We might get it running. Connected to the new portal system?" Birdy asked unsure trying to figure out what to do with the damn whip. 'We basically just have one fighter left…fuck!' They formed half a circle protecting each other.
"No way, the runes aren't even the same. I can't hack that portal system even if I had all the time in the world," Blade had the biggest technical knowledge of all of the girls just because it was such an important part of middle school in Zenith. She glared at a zombie slowly approaching them. She thrust her arm outwards sending off the chakram and missing the zombie's head. "Shit…" she pulled her arm back and the chakram came back and missed the zombie yet again. And ended up hovering over her disc again.
"I thought you are good at this…did you hit your head?" Nebula asked worriedly. They were a weapon short. Not to speak of their effectiveness against zombie hordes. It made her nervous on the other hand she was in no condition to fight close combat anyways.
"Hey, I never used these before. One needs time to get proficient with them," Blade complained trying to think of what to do. She could make out at least seven. They were really slow. 'What's wrong with those things...'
"Enough, they are slower than us. I think. So, going to the open is the best thing I can think of. Once we can fly we can come back." She turned to leave as out of the blue something rose from the ground right next to her.
"Watch out!" Birdy smacked with the whip in the direction hitting Tasu's arm. "Sorry!" she squeaked.
Tasu didn't wait she hammered the dagger down, "Run!" She shouted. As she felt a tendril craw up her leg.
"Not without you!" Tessa cut the zombie's arm off, taking Tasu's hand and pulling her away. The girls fled the premises out to the open field.
The sky was filled with blue-purple lightning it starting to rain. The girls ran. More and more black zombies had risen, like the dead from the graves. They had pushed away from the mud they lay beneath. The girls were still faster than them. Yet, the zombies were popping up like a weed and with no way to really meditate it would still take more time before they would reach any valid levels of magic. Nebula stumbled again hitting the dirt.
"Nebula!" Birdy turned and flicked the whip catching a tendril arm. She was pulled in loser she was not good at the tug of war game at all.
Blades chakram soared through the air. Cutting off the tendril. Blade slid through the mud to Nebula. "Come on, we have to hurry." She noticed Nebula's blank stare. She had seen it in so many of the Desertian soldiers. Her body was at its limit. "Come here." She picked her up. 'I'm not losing you, too.'
Tessa split another into two, "Come on up the hill!" She could make out some lone building or ruin. She left behind the flaming zombie before her feet, looking over her shoulder she noticed that the few zombies from the marketplace had grown into a pack.
"Watch out!" Tasu tried to warn Birdy as right next to her a hand broke through the ground.
She jumped to the side, slipping on the muddy hill, crawling backwards and kicking she defended herself, "Fucking shit, shit, shit, let go you rotten- Tasu knife!" She called out to her friend.
"Sure!" Tasu was about to throw it just to recognize a shadow moving behind her. She slashed at whatever it was. She blocked a tendril arm as another wrapped around her wrist. She stabbed it Like a mad man.
Blade had her hands full with Nebula watching the disaster unfold. She stared up the hill. It was just a bit further. "Tessa! Take Nebula! Give me that axe, hurry!"
Tessa was up the hill, annoyed by their predicament she sighed and slid down to Blade. The purple mud burned on her skin. She took Nebula off Blade's shoulders, "Damn it, Nebula, on your feet, get it together." She cursed as she pulled her up the mountain.
Blade sent off the chakram at the approaching horde at her the side from the bottom of the hill. She hurled the axe into the back of the zombie that had pinned Birdy to the ground. "Move it!" She pulled her arm back to recall the chakram. She ducked to avoid some tendrils, preparing her chakram again.
Birdy forced the staggering Zombie off her, pulling out the axe and slashing its head off. She used the axe like a bat and knocked it all the way down the hill. Heavily panting she stared at Tasu still struggling with hers. 'Got to throw it. I'll never reach her in time. Can I even make that throw? Better not hit her…'
"Stop, no!" Blade called out in disbelief as her chakram clashed with the wobbly axe throw. "Just run damn it, I got your back!" She recalled the chakram. She just had reached Bridy to originally get the axe back. She pulled her out of the way and a bunch of tendrils passed them both by. With the speed gathered she slingshot Birdy up the hill as far as possible.
Tessa ground her teeth, finally, she could make out what was right on top of the hill. It was a stone building of some sort. It seemed mostly intact from the outside. "Come on, Nebula, nearly there." She glanced back. At the chaos, she wanted to get back to the others as quickly as possible.
Tasu had enough of it all. She angled her dagger pointing outward and let herself be pulled in ready to strike. "You want a piece of me! Come get it, stupid mud head!"
Birdy stared at her friend getting pulled in. 'Shit, she got caught!' She tried to collect some magic in her hands.
"Stop! Damn it!" Blade warned Birdy again. She had been able to guess Tasu's wild choice of tactic. She picked up the axe which slowly slid down the hill. As the line of sides stayed clear this time around she tossed the chakram passed Tasu. Sprinted a few steps to the right and pulled it back. All while she hammered the axe into another zombie's head digging its way to the surface.
Tasu felt as her dagger sank into the chest of the zombie loosening its grapple. She pushed with all her fours against the chest cavity and glimpsed the chakram coming to hit its back. She kicked against its knee cap and pressed the zombie to the ground before she leapt out of the way. Satisfied she watched as the chakram hit not the back but the neck of the zombie partially cutting it off. "Take that."
Birdy used her whip and pulled it further down the hill. Rejoicing with Tasu together, "Yeah we got this-" There had to be over fifty zombies at the bottom of the hill and Blade was trying to systematically keep the closest away as made up her way.
"Will you, two, stop fooling around here and help Tessa?! Hurry we need to barricade us somewhere! Anywhere! We can't stop them in the open field." She tried to estimate the forces. Yet even on the horizon, she could make out more of them. They were all moaning or rather calling out to each other. 'We are so fucked.' She defended against some more tendrils before she could move further up.
Tessa and Nebula finally had made it to the top. "Let's go!" They rushed inside the building through some massive, overgrown dead vines doors. It was cool inside the building even more so than outside. Four massive pillars were holding up the ceiling with stained glass in the centre. A few rooms to the back and a podium of some sort. The view was blocked by what seemed to be an old barricade. Made out of all kinds of furniture, tables, chairs and bookshelves, lots of them. "Library? Seems more like a temple- no time for this now. We need to check the door, quickly. If we can close that..."
"We can buy ourselves some time," Nebula nodded. They hurried to inspect the door and found some crystal orb mechanism nearby.
Blade had reached the top of the hill as she the ground gave beneath her weight and she nearly slipped. She felt a whip wrap around her to counterbalance her. "Thanks." She jumped the last steps. And the whip around her hand loosened. "Now go inside help Tessa and Nebula. I'll hold them off as long as I can. Call if you find a good position to barricade."
"Blade…" Tasu sounded worried. "We nee-"
"Don't worry, now move!" Blade sent the chakram flying readying her axe. 'We're not going to die. I will not let your sacrifice go to waste Jewels. Never.' She pulled back her hand and jumped and ducked out of the way and reached her first target. She cut off its legs first kicking the zombie down the hill. It crashed into others and created a slight snowball effect. "Come at me!" She roared her battle cry.
Birdy stormed through the entrance getting a glimpse of the situation. Tessa and Nebula were hysterically arguing with each other they stared at a wall. "What the heck are you doing? We need to barricade the doo- oh." She stopped checking the room with the half-rotten barricade. Covering burn marks of a magic circle that had burned itself into the floor. She looked to the girls again, ignoring the circle as well for now.
"A shield crystal? Thank the great dragon we are saved!" Tasu recognised the orb next to the door instantly as she glanced at it. But her enthusiasm was cut short. The runes and scriptures were all in a langue she wasn't really able to read. Even the magic runes and circles were a bit strange. "Shit… we need to translate this quickly. Blade won't hold out forever."
"Ehm…" Birdy scratched her head. "Is that the start sequence?"
"No, it can't be," Nebula was bewildered by the whole thing. "This looks similar to the rune on Desertia. Right?" She pointed at another rune.
Birdy shook her head. "No, yes, well… shit I should have listened to Kaphiri more." She balled her fists. 'Do we have even enough magic to get it running?!' She sat down on her ass to meditate to regenerate more magic. There was nothing she really could do there to help.
Tessa eyes widened, "There! If you cross-reference it here. And that is the end rune than… the spell would be…"
"It's an older language," Tasu was checking the outer circle. "Similar to some scriptures from Desertia and Streama like some older texts. Just give me a sec." She picked her nails trying to figure the spell out.
"We don't have a second!" Nebula raised her hands, "Quickly, we have to load the crystal orb for the activation." Birdy jumped to her feet again as well.
Blade just caught the chakram. She was out of breath yet again, sweating buckets. The zombies were getting faster and faster. The horizon was filling with a second wave. 'Have to be at least a hundred now…damn it.' The zombies had spread out more and more along the hill line. There was no way she could hold the line much longer. "Guys!?" She shouted. She beheaded another zombie, but couldn't even kick away the head as other tendrils tried to grab her. She jumped backwards to avoid it just in time. Losing yet another inch of ground to the enemy's forces. They were flanking her ensnaring her from the sides. Only the way to the temple behind her. 'Shit, what are they waiting for?! Are they dead...?' The thought alone made her go pale. 'No. Stop it. Fear will not help you now, Blade.' She ground her teeth.
"Blade!" Tasu's voice resounded from the inside echoing in the deserted hall. "May thy gate, Great Dragon,…" She started the incantation.
A surge of activity went through the horde of zombies. They cracked with their jaws. Their eyes glowing, moaning they darted towards the temple. "Shit! Watch out." Blade fired away from the chakram. She herself dashed towards the gate, axe swinging. She tried to hold them off, not to let them get inside.
"Can't you shorten this crap?!" Tessa just infused the last bit of her recently gained magic. She felt dizzy. The groaning and trembling of the ground were terrifying. 'This better work…' She picked up a rock-throwing it at the incoming forces. "Fucking zombies!"
"…I order as patron safe the children of light keep them unharmed and ward off evil. Raise your border, …" Tasu ignored the complaints. She had to do the pacing right or the spell would fail and at best it was guesswork. Yet it was their best bet.
"Blade!" Nebula wanted to help Blade out but she was pulled back by Birdy.
"Stay here, you're no help in this condition." Birdy gazed at Blade who used the chakram to keep a close perimeter around her clear right next to the doorstep. As the masses swamped in. Tendrils wrapped around her arms and legs.
"…evil be banished, close thy gate and let the light of life shine…." Tasu was trembling as she raised her hand to touch the crystal orb.
"Shut the gate! Or we all die!" Tessa screamed scared shitless. She wanted to move closer to pull Blade in but there was no way she could get closer without getting grappled herself.
Birdy activated the whip again, "NOW, Tasu now!" She aimed at Blade who was struggling to cut herself loose again.
'I'm not gonna lose. Not to you, not after all this!' Blade pulled backwards, "AAAHHHhhh!", firing off the chakram once more as she felt a cool touch around her neck cutting of her breath. And obstructing her left upper arm as the whip had tangled around her neck and shoulder and with a jolt, she got pulled backwards. She slashed upwards to cut and lose some more of the tendrils.
Tasu was desperate. Their time had run out, she screeched, "I ask thee close this fucking gate, right now!" The crystal orb glowed up. Warmth even. And the runes activated the wooden gates creaked and tried to slam shut as she dashed around the corner starring at the scene. Blade was pulled back by Birdy and Tessa pulling like crazy people as some of the zombies got squished between a magical barrier, shimmering slightly, and the incoming forces. They were pressed against the barrier. Tendrils latched onto the rotten wood doors and cracked and splintered as the zombie forces kept them from shutting close. They ripped them to pieces. Yet the barrier held and all tendrils that had pulled on Blade had been cut off by the barrier and disintegrated to dust.
"We made it…" Tessa chuckled in disbelief.
Blade coughed and loosened the whip immediately, "You took your bloody damn time." She laid down on the cool stone floor. She felt so sick. But she couldn't help but smile.
"This was way to close…" Nebula sighed deeply. Yet she finally relaxed a bit. The zombies were trying to break the magic shield down but the tendrils evaporated as they hit the shield. The black fire was burning brightly in front of the gate as the zombies clashed against the barrier just to fall to ashes, regenerating over and over.
"But we are safe," Tasu repeated to reassure all of them. Their plan had worked.
"They all do that," a deep voice resounded without any hint of empathy in a rather a sick delight. It came from behind the half-rotten barrier people must have built aeons ago to ward off the zombie hordes.
A shiver went down Blade's spine. She threw the axe to Tessa, readying her Chakram. "Who's there!? Show yourself!"
A chuckle resounded from beyond the barricade in the room, "How rude…I'm your Fairman of course. I'll watch you die and see you turn. It has been so long. I was starting to get bored."
Blade gazed along the rotten barricade. Giving some signs to the other girls to keep talking and to spread out. As she tip-toed around to find a better spot to cross the barricade. Her heart was pounding. It was so hard to slow her breathing, she already was at her limit of what seemed possible.
"So, it's you Retav. Still hiding in this shit hole of a planet. Was it worth it?" Nebula called out, loudly. In a shaky voice. 'Could that Witcher have survived?! All those thousands of years… impossible, but who else? We are so doomed.' She tried to stay calm.
Birdy and Tessa took the other side sneaking passed the barricade all while Tasu inspected the magic circle that had burned itself into the large floor tiles. Birdy glanced at the rooms in the back, pointing at them. 'Shit, I thought we were alone. How could I have missed that black magic presence? Fucking shit. We were so busy closing those damn gates, we didn't even check the rest. What if we can't get out…?'
"Don't call me by that name, girl!" The voice was furious. "How dare you! Traitor, lying snake, and he had the audacity to call us stupid. A saviour, I think not. He was darkness reincarnated! You'll die, you all will die! Nothing you do will change that. NOTHING YOU HEAR!"
Blade ducked as she finally had found an opening in that old barricade she would be able to jump over. She saw all kinds of scratch marks and nicks of weapons that seemed to have hit the wood instead of their intended targets. She breathed in, 'One last time…one more…just one more…' She leapt over the barricade. There she spied something covered in burning black flames. It was just passed the podium platform in the gab bordering to the next room. The podium seemed like an old altar with some crumbling engravings and depictions on it. Through the dust, she even could glimpse some golden ornaments. All the way at the backend of the gap between the wall and altar the black magic was floating around. It was that overwhelming, burning in a fire of rage and despair. "Give u-"
Out of the blue, a high-pitched scream resounded from the other side of the barricade. It was Tessa. "Shit, fuck." The sound of clashing weapons. "Tasu! Watch out Birdy!"
"Ah, the white one has awoken from its slumber to welcome you in its domain. What fun. Who of your friends will die and turn first? Wanna bet, little Fairy?" The presence chuckled yet again.
"Talk to me guys!" Blade's body moved on its own before she stopped. She couldn't possibly leave that presence out of sight. 'If it runs or hides somewhere else…have to finish this now.' She readied her chakram, locking her target with her eyes. She could feel the black magic all around that thing. It would not escape her. "Begone!" She hurled the chakram at the enemy.
"White zombie, white zombie!" Birdy shouted. She aimed her whip to catch the bow arm of the white zombie. Yet it hid around the corner of the room entrance. Where it had waited for its chance to pick them off. "Damn it. Take cover."
"Where?!" Tessa rolled away to the side barely avoiding yet another shot aimed at her.
Blade watched the chakram soar through the air. Her friends' screams to her right side. She watched as the chakram hit her target as it had not moved. 'Yes.' She grinned for but a second as in horror she heard her chakram hit the wall behind the presence. It was incorporeal with no core whatsoever. Yet it blew away the dark flames for a moment. Revealing a ghost of a man maybe in his forties. The chakram rebounded through the kinetic force it had gathered and like a coin bounced off the floor and rolled on its edge before it tumbled over.
Birdy had hidden behind the pillar in front of the room in the back. Tessa was still too close to the room the white zombie was hiding in. She would never make it to her. "The wall, go to the wall!"
Tasu just had reached the other pillar, the one before Birdy's, 'Damn it in all this dim light.' She had maybe one shot. It had to be close range though. They just had spent all that they had gathered at the gate mechanism. Well besides her as she just had to reside the spell and not load the orb with magic. 'Will it be enough?! Think, how was it in the simulation. Think.'
"Ahhh, look what you did. You sullied my robes the ghost complained half-heartedly. He didn't really care, he found their struggles even amusing. "Foolish girl. Won't you help your friends, or are they just pawns in your game? If I would offer would you, say, to save yourself… and let them die? Tell me kid-" The ghost glared at her.
A flicker of black flames appeared where the chakram had pierced through and whatever damage Blade may had done was gone in an instant. If she had even scratched him at all. She wasn't really sure. There was so much black magic surrounding that unmoving ghost. She pulled her arm backwards. "Never!"
Birdy slid around the corner of her pillar ready to run to the wall of the room. If she and Tessa could spy in and get a glimpse of the white zombie at least one of them would have a shot at taking it down.
"Hm, is that so." The ghost didn't believe her. "They all say that. They all do - at first. Then the bargaining begins. They all pretend to be like Daryune, but no thief will ever hold a candle to him. Glorious, righteous and mighty. Daryune slayer of Retav. He tried so, so, hard. And like the shimmer of hope, he got snuffed out by the white ones. How can you even hope to defeat, let alone kill one of them? It's impossible. You're nothing compared to him. Nothing you hear! So, just give up. Give in to despair. All your struggles will be in vain. Head my words."
Blade had enough of his babbling. She fired the chakram at the ghost again trying to hit another spot. "Call it off! Make it stop." She ground her teeth, caught the recalled chakram and threw it again and again at the black magic cloud. After all, for some reason, the ghost did not flee or repositioned. There had to be a cause, a reason behind it.
Tasu nodded to Tessa and Birdy. They dashed forward altogether. "Quickly!"
The white zombie stepped out of the door aiming at Tessa closet to him with an old magical bow. A black magic arrow was set ablaze. He fired.
Birdy swung her whip but missed the zombie by far. "Shit." She was so annoyed by the whip and its unpredictability.
Tessa blocked the arrow with the blade of her axe. Yet the phanto energy axe head cracked slightly by the impact. "No, you don't!" She attacked it. Yet missed.
Like a ballerina, it turned and danced around the two girls shooting arrows. It was so nimble and swift and read their amateur moves like child's play.
"That's an Elven technique," Tasu uttered contemplating a counter. She had found a book about archery by chance in Magix and wanted to gift it initially to Jewels, but hadn't done so, since she always read all the books first before gifting them. She tracked the steps of the white zombie, who was still toying with her friends.
"Call it off? Pah! Ridiculous the zombies only listen to the sound of Drion. They are slaves to their cause. And even if I could, why should I? You come to plunder and disgrace. Steal and murder and betray your kind. All who come here deserve to die! This will be your toom! You'll join them, join us all. Till the next fool steps on this forsaken planet of the doomed. The legacy of Retav, oh, the Darkness - he brought."
'Drion?' Blade had never heard of that person in school. 'Is there actually some black magic user on this planet. No way. It sounds more like a thing…sound of Drion…' She glanced to the side. The battle sounds didn't bode well. She threw the chakram again more to the bottom of the wall this time around, she had to get rid of that guy first. Clunk. A metallic sound echoed through the hall. The magic flames got pushed away. There a black magic sword glowed. On touch, the Chakram was set ablaze and burned away, by the sheer black magic force that was imbued into this sword. It burned furiously never-ending. The sword stuck in the body of a skeleton pierced through the stomach. 'He was murdered? Wait, no. The hands and arms position' Blade eyes widened. "You killed yourself."
"NO! DON'T TOUCH THAT! It's evil. CURSED. He cursed this sword. HE WAS HIS DOWNFALL! DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH IT. You're nothing. Die. We all died. Die. Die. Die. Die. Don't touch it. ALL WHO DO DIE!" The ghost laughed like a maniac. "You all die here. All die, they always do. We are all doomed. We trusted him. Never again. Never trust again, AAHAHAHAhahaha…"
The ghost rambled on as Blade turned away ready to help her friends. 'That poor soul can't go anywhere.' She used another charge of the phanto-chakram to create another since her old one had been destroyed, burned to a crisp. "Guys?!" She hurried to climb the barricade.
Tasu rushed the white zombie, "Now!" She caught its legs like a dead weight she held on, keeping it from running and evading. She stared straight at the tip of an arrow pointed directly at her.
Birdy managed to wrap the whip around the white zombie, pulling backwards.
Tessa charged at it with her axe swinging wide she hammered it down. "Gotcha, you piece of shit!"
Blade sent the chakram flying cutting the arrow into pieces just in time.
"Water sphere!" the tiniest little water bubble appeared and Tasu rammed it into its chest as she jumped to her feet. The zombie screeched ever so loudly. Her ears rang from it as she watched the axe edge slicing through the neck. She grabbed the falling head and kicked it away from the body.
Nebula couldn't help herself she had tried to figure out the magic circle all this time since she was in no condition to fight. She saw the head flying above her head. To the other corner of the room. She looked back to her friends the body of the white zombie disintegrated. She looked back to the head. Noticed the Zombies outside still trying to break down the shield. At the touch of the shield, their limbs crumbled and the wounds were set on fire to regenerate. "Not there! I got this." She ran to collect the white one's head. It already started to regenerate. She picked it up. Hurried to the shield at the door and place the head neck first to the shield. The neck regenerated and touched the shield instantly disintegrating and regenerating at the same time. "That should keep this one occupied." She used some rubble to fix the head's position better. It was groaning angrily grounding its teeth. "You guys alright?" She slowed down a bit as she met the others who instantly had gone to check all the rooms on the right side of the temple hall.
"Close call…" Tasu came out of the room. Eyeing the zombie's head. "Smart idea. Nicely done."
"Question is what holds longer the shield or the regeneration…" Tessa put a damper on Tasu's enthusiasm.
"If the shield breaks one white zombie will not be the problem," Blade pointed to the shield Slowly the zombies moved away from the shield vanishing to the sides.