I do not own Dragon Quest 11 or any of the characters.
Loss
"We have to fight them, Marina!" Kai argued.
"We do not have the power to defeat them all," Marina said sternly. "Even your power, in the end, would seem small."
Kai clenched his fists. "I can't just sit here and watch you die!"
Marina opened her mouth, only to stop as a blue fish swam into the throne room, a satchel hanging around its body. This was David, courtesy of Marina's magic.
"So, you've finally rejoined the land of the living, have you?" Kai asked. "It's about time."
Just then, the palace shook violently, chunks of the ceiling falling, and Marina's staff began to pulse with light. She grunted in effort, slamming the end of the staff into the floor, and the light faded, the shaking subsiding.
"Your Majesty," a merman at her side said worriedly.
"Don't fear for me, I'm not done yet," Marina said. "Until my work is finished, I'll find the strength to carry on. I shall not be diminished." She turned to the blue fish. "There you are, old friend," she chuckled, "or should I say new fish! You make a finer flounder than I'd ever dared to wish! When first my subjects brought you here it gave me such a shock, to see you bruised and broken like a ship wrecked on the rocks. The Lord of Shadows thinks you dead. The sea swarms with his spies. I changed you to this fishy form to hide you from his eyes. Many troubled months have come and gone since your arrival. As you slept, my healers strove to safeguard your survival. You cannot know how glad I am to see you fully healed. But soon the spell will fade, and you must once more take the field."
Kai swallowed hard, knowing full-well the only thing that would end her transformation spell was her death.
"I have a plan to see you safe, that's all I've ever wished," Marina continued. "If all goes well, you'll soon know what it feel like to be fished."
Again the palace shook and her staff flashed, but it was shorter this time.
"Mother," Kai pleaded.
Marina looked over at him and sighed. "When the time comes that we must fight, I will allow you to do what you believe is right. Go, now, to the weapons shop where I have left a gift, something I made for you, when first, with us, you lived."
Kai nodded, swimming out of the palace and down to the weapons shop where a Great White Shark managed the counter.
"My mother said there was something here for me," Kai said.
The shark nodded and turned, swimming back to a shelf then returned to the counter, dropping a suit of red armor from his mouth. Kai stared at it in shock before lifting it gently. It was his Dragovian Armor. It had been mangled when he'd arrived here, but Marina had had it reforged. It was formed from a cuirass of overlapping, horizontal, red plates had a single, curved splint over the top of each shoulder, a row of overlapping splints falling on his sides and behind him in three sections, pauldrons with four spikes sticking out off of them, red gauntlets, and boots. All of it was made from Dragovian Scales melted down into a metal and forged into the armor, and the armor bore a green, spherical gemstone in the center of the chest and a smaller one in the abdomen which powered protective charms that made the wearer more resistant to magic. A rope was tied around the armor's waist and in a bow in the back, more as decoration than anything. And the last piece of the armor was a helmet with a pair of horns reaching backward off of the top in the back, the front of which connected to the dragon mask Kai carried with him.
"It's perfect," Kai smiled, pulling it all on, including the mask. "Thank you."
The shark nodded to him, and Kai swam back to the palace throne room, arriving just as Marina returned from showing David what was going on using the Pearl of Wisdom, her most sacred possession.
"Come," Marina said simply, to Kai, who nodded and followed her out to the city's central square.
They swam down to the center, Marina striking the base of her staff on the ground once to summon the citizens of the city. As they were gathering, David reached them as well.
"How curious you are, my friend," Marina said to David. "I showed you fearful sights, and yet those wide and watery eyes still gleam with limpid light." She beckoned David to follow her, and swam higher, David following as Kai remained where he was. "It seems that grief and tragedy has followed you since birth. Cruel Fate's dark plan has stalked you to the corners of the earth. And yet you've weathered every blow, prevailed against all strife. You've brushed with death a thousand times, yet still you have your life. It is the will of Yggdrasil that you are still alive. It is your fate to save this world. For this, you must survive." She waved her staff, several powerful currents forming around the pair and beginning to close in. "Bright Luminary, let the light shine on the world again! Find the fading sparks of hope and kindle them to flame! You'll find the sparks I speak of here and there throughout the land. They are the former members of your staunch and stalwart band. The fire within their hearts will light the path that you must tread. Find your friends and bring an end to this dark age of dread!" She swiped her staff again and the currents all joined into one above them, growing more powerful. "While the Luminary lives, there is hope for people still. You cannot fail, you must prevail, it is the World Tree's will."
An impact sounded above then, the sea around them lurching and vibrating.
"Beware!" a merman shouted, pointing upward. "The barrier shakes and breaks!"
Kai looked up as he pulled on his claws. It was almost time. Far above them, a dome barrier was holding out Mordegon's forces, an army of Merkings and a massive creature that looked a bit like a horned, finned salamander, but the barrier was cracking under the force of the giant creature's blows. It roared and everyone around Kai cowered.
"The Lord of Shadows followers give fond farewells short shrift," Marina huffed, glaring up at the creatures. "I had so much to tell you, but it seems I must be swift." Before she could restore the barrier again, her staff flashed and burst apart. She gasped, then sighed, turning and blowing toward David, her breath becoming a powerful current that began to sweep him away, though he fought it. "Do not lose heart! Do not look back! Until your time is through..." she paused as the massive creature rammed his head into the barrier, nearly breaking through and making Marina flinch in pain, "remember, you're the Luminary! We believe in you!"
Then, as he was swept away by the current, the creature finally broke through the barrier. Kai narrowed his eyes, grabbing a pair of tridents in his right hand and hefting Marina's personal weapon in his left. Hers was a spear with two, curved prongs at the end like a "C" and decorative fins just below it. Marina nodded solemnly to him as she accepted the spear, and he shifted his tridents to either hand.
"Citizens of Nautica!" the massive beast, Alizarin, roared down at them. "Give your lives to the Lord of Shadows!"
Then, he laughed cruelly as he plunged through the barrier, his horde of Merkings following. Unlike Mermaids and Mermen, the Merkings were monstrous creatures with the lower halves of fish, then powerful, purple-scaled, monstrous upper bodies with thick arms, clawed, webbed fingers, sharp teeth, and a nasty penchant for slaughter. Kai extended his wings and kicked off of the ground, rocketing upward alongside Marina, the rest of Nautica's meager martial force following them. All of them scattered, avoiding Alizarin's attempts to swallow them, then tore into the Merkings.
Kai drove his first trident through one, then into another before releasing it. He hurled the second into one moving to intercept a Mermaid before she could notice him. Then, he kicked off, racing through the air and up into the Merkings. He claws flashed as they tore through the Merkings' bodies. The first three could do nothing but shriek in agony. The next slashed at him with his claws, only for him to flip over it and slash it down the back. One grabbed him, trying to bite him, only for Kai's claws and superior strength to free him and kill the Merking within a second. Two roared as they charged from opposite sides of him, but he spun himself, a cyclone of flames roaring around him, boiling the water outside of it. When the Merkings were struck by the boiling water, they roared in pain before the flames washed over them, blinding and charring them before Kai shredded what was left. He kicked off of one of the corpses, avoiding another's charge, then roared, a jet of flames erupting from his mouth and catching three. He spun, exhaling a jet of Ice Magic that passed through the water before slamming into a pair of Merkings and freezing them. A moment later, Marina's spear smashed through them, killing both.
Marina thrust her spear out in front of herself, splitting a Merking in half as it charged her, then spun, slashing two more before using the back end to smash one aside, stopping its charge of her best bodyguard. The Merking died on impact, and Marina's bodyguard shot past her, flipping and slashing a Merking down the front before diving under its corpse. Kai shot past both, slamming a kick into a Merking and caving in its chest before kicking off of it and slashing a pair of them up the back as they charged Marina while she was conjuring a vortex of razor-sharp water magic to slaughter a dozen more. Kai glanced around as he gouged out another's abdomen and his heart broke. Dozens of Nautica's people were already slaughtered. There were a few Mermen skilled in Water and Ice magic still fighting, but even as he watched, almost all of them were swarmed and killed, and there were a handful of Mermaids left, but in the time it took Kai to spin and send a wave of flames roaring out to meet half a dozen Merkings, all of them were killed. And then, Alizarin was there, having finished slaughtering the civilians. Before anyone could react, his teeth slammed closed around Marina's bodyguard. Kai roared instantly, sending a jet of white-hot flames raging through the water to Alizarin, only for a red sphere sticking out of the back of its head on top like an angler fish's lure to shine, his entire body turning blood red and remaining unaffected by the flames.
Alizarin laughed cruelly. "Pathetic! The orb with which my lord and master entrusted me renders all your petty human enchantments null and void!"
"I'm not a human!" Kai snarled, racing forward.
Alizarin roared, swiping at Kai, only for him to roll past the strike, then slashed as he passed, only for Alizarin's body to once again shine crimson, Kai's claws sparking along its body futilely. Alizarin's back leg swung up, slamming into Kai and sent him speeding through the water, and Alizarin shot after him, Marina's spear bouncing off of its protective enchantments. Kai kicked off, racing to get out of Alizarin's way, only to shriek in pain as his teeth snapped closed around Kai's wings, biting them off. Marina roared in rage and effort, a massive vortex forming around her spear as she focused nearly all of her power into a single strike. Then, she exploded forward, driving it into Alizarin's back. Her spear exploded, then vortex bouncing back from Alizarin and shredding Marina's flesh as it repelled her.
"Mother!" Kai shouted, kicking off his boots and extending his feet, kicking off, only for four Merkings to burst out of a cloud of blood he was passing, biting and clawing at him.
He spun himself as he roared in pain, shredding and roasting them, then looked up toward Marina as she broke a Merking's neck, the Merking having bitten her side badly. She was covered in gashes and wounds now, blood clouding the air around her, and her crown and top had been destroyed by her own attack rebounding. Even from a distance and through the cloudy water, Kai could see she was bleeding out, and opposite her from him, Alizarin was closing in, grinning wickedly.
"Mother!" Kai shouted, pushing himself harder.
Marina looked back at Alizarin, then turned, shoving a hand toward Kai. Instantly, a current too strong for even him to swim against slammed into him, shoving him away from the battle in seconds and carrying Marina's last words to him.
"Survive, my son. My part is done. And as you travel the world above, know that you will always have my-"
And then, Alizarin's teeth slammed closed, and all that remained of Marina was her left arm below the elbow.
"Mother!" Kai shrieked, fighting for all he was worth to return, to the battle, only for the current, the last of Marina's will, to drag him all the way to shore before spitting him out of the sea.
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