AUTHORS NOTE
Hey everyone, Ronald here with another update of FV for you! Unfortunately, What I have today is all I have found time to complete for you at this moment. Other projects, hobbies, and commitments to include a rapidly overwhelming work schedule, house hunting for a real house, family matters I can't discuss at this time, art projects from a month ago, and the stress that comes with all of these, has meant little motivation, and even less time for writing. I'm hoping to really pick things back up this weekend, but with a 60-70 hour work week and the aforementioned commitments, it might take a bit. I'm sorry to only have this much to offer, I was planning to have at least double this, and begin the four part Battle For Mewni next chapter, but I hope this counts for something. In the meantime, Lord Cornwallis is about to release his latest update for In The Pale Starlight, one of my favorite in-progress fics, so give it a read if this has left you eager for more of that güd shit. I'll see you all real soon, promise! Thank you so much for your dedication to the story, and I hope you enjoy :)
Moon panted as the last wisps of Vartek's magic left her enhanced senses. It was utterly indescribable just how much magic she had felt both within him, and coursing through the very bones of the temple, but Moon knew well enough to figure it was enough to break more than a few dimensions. Likely, it was the entirety of the Realm of Magic he had corrupted and absorbed, making the very idea that Star and Marco had once faced this Monster among monsters almost more terrifying than her predicament.
Almost.
Vartek noticed Moons continued and prominently calculating silence, and decided to prod her with a curt sneer.
"You seem surprised that I've gotten stronger since the last time we met. Since you tried to stop me from killing that welp in the crater. I have been busy, you know."
In a moment of clarity, or perhaps it was a moment of irrationality, Moon managed to stifle a little laugh she meant to keep to herself. She needed to buy time. Given it was unlikely she was the only one who could feel that sudden surge in magic, she could only hope help was on the way. "Tried? I do believe you were stopped and forced into a portal of unknown origin before I could properly finish what I started. You ran. Like a coward."
Scoffing, Vartek gave no ground at such a claim as he laced his hands and began to pace about the smoking throne room. "My, that was truly some time ago, was it not? Long before I ensured the docility of that spineless boy and your whore of a daughter."
Moon felt a little color return to her face at his words, letting her hands find themselves balled into fists. Corn, just hearing those words come out of that mouth made her knuckles itch to scramble his features. "And by what actions were that ensured?" '...Just a little longer...hurry up, you feckless morons!'
"It was really no trouble," Vartek carelessly explained as he off-handedly inspected the charred rock of the floor, "I simply killed the boy when I stole his soul, and corrupted his husk of a corpse. Although, I never would have guessed your foolish heir would give him half of hers."
Although the throne room was ablaze with scattered patches of green fire, and was now sporting a gaping hole in the mountainside, there wasn't a sound. Moon was silent, but the heat building in her chest spoke volumes as Vartek continued.
"Burning the life out of him was easy enough, after our brief scuffle, but forcing him to fight the girl was a much greater challenge. He fought me for control, admirably I will admit, and she broke his body quickly, but the horror on her face when I stole his soul, the anger corrupting her magic, I could almost taste it."
Moon said not a word as Vartek flashed at her a small, humming blue crystal, thrashing with purified magic. He smiled a toothed grin and offered shortly, "you picked a fine, volatile specimen to guide your heir. But alas, he didn't amount to much."
Though she knew well enough to not give in to his goading, Moons fury was almost a match for Varteks power. Instead of lashing out at his remarks, his lies, she saw it best to steer the conversation in a different direction.
She cordially laced her hands behind her back a mirrored Varteks paces in a wide circle, asking coyly, "And what of Ludo? Did he 'not amount to much' as well? What's he been busy with all this time I wonder?" Not betraying her anger in hopes of buying more time, it was hard for her to remain calm, steady against the force before her.
Vartek stopped his inspection of the burned rock below and cracked his neck in anticipation, asking just as coyly, "and why would I give the noble Butterfly such information? Do you think I don't know about your little raid on this palace- this temple? How the High Commission will swoop in and try to stop me?"
Vartek let himself laugh at the notion, the cracks on his arms seemingly glowing with shared joy. "Your arrogance betrayed you all. The last time, as I read of your own account, you lost to a dead man playing with a marionette."
"Ah, and you're now sure of your own approaching victory because you're from the future? You believe your actions haven't already altered the course of history and solved whatever problem spawned you?" Moon asked, tilting her head.
Vartek nodded slowly and eyed her with new caution, though he kept his smiling facade up. So she knew. Interesting. "I know enough about the events yet to transpire to ensure my victory, and I spent long enough gathering intel on everything that I could. Information is the greatest weapon of war, after all."
"Are we at war? Do you truly intend to test the mettle of Mewni? To, 'lay to waste the Mewman scum, erase them from existence?'" Moon asked of him, and between the two, the rage of uncertainty slowed, letting the tension in the room ease ever so slightly.
"At war we are, though not for long," Vartek answered, inclining his head in her direction, "Would you care to know what problem spawned me? I should hate to slaughter your people without some semblance of understanding as to the man… behind the plan."
"Do enlighten me. What actions led to a creature such as yourself?"
"Well, Mewman actions, of course. A distant future queen, a young woman sired by your bloodline, began a conquest of my people, the monsters, and sought to destroy us entirely," Vartek answered rather pleasantly. "I could give you the long version, but I'd rather simply leave it at this: the branching point for my timeline, is you. Moon the Undaunted, the woman who gave her life, so that Monsters could live in peace."
Moon was silent, watching him carefully, so he continued with a tone of bored indulgence. "You fall, not far in the future, and in doing so, the villain of your own creation is stopped. Your daughter took the throne from Eclip-... 'she who delivered us from the shadows,' with that pitiful excuse for a warrior and the rest is history. ...or rather, it is to me."
"And I should believe any of that dribble, why? As far as I'm concerned, you're just an old soldier from Toffees army, come to finish his war," Moon noted, mentally preparing herself to draw all the magic she could muster in the last-ditch hope to get away, or maybe even do some damage.
Vartek grinned a wide, toothy smile before answering, "I despise the would-be conqueror as much as you do, and believe me, I have plans for him as well. But for now, things are in motion, and they require my attention. Namely, your death, and the end of the Kingdom of Mew-" *ZAAAP*
Vartek was blasted to his knees, the cloth on his back unharmed by the corrupted magic of his own creation, as Ludo stood behind him. His skeleton wand was still smoking as he muttered to Moon, "I saw you sneaking around the hall. And if you're here… Well then, there's a chance I can leave."
Vartek was quick to rise to his feet and turn a scorching glare upon the Avarius that dared to fire his own magic against him. But just as quickly as the attack had drawn his rage, he suddenly smoothed over.
"What are you doing, Ludo? You know, better than most, how easily your life can end should my temper reach its limit."
"I regret not doing this sooner," Ludo was quick to answer, leveling his bone wand, "you're evil… worse than Toffee. I should have stopped you a long time ago, but with Moon, I have a chance and I'm putting my foot-"
Vartek blasted Ludo back against the stone wall with a flick of his wrist, a wall of green magic roaring across the room. Ludo hit the wall hard enough for a crack to be audible, but he landed on his feet, unsteady as he was, as Vartek spat, "I really do hate monologuing, especially from the likes of you."
Ludo groaned as he held himself upright and spat back, "you probably hate hypocrites too, then," before turning to Moon.
"If you really want to protect Mewni, all of mewni, Monsters included, you have to stop him now, because he will destroy everything."
Vartek made to silence Ludo, the traitorous little pest, for good. But before he could move, a refractory hum sounded as the room was filled with soft blue light.
"I'll do what I can," Moon grumbled, her body a new shade of deep blue as the legendary butterfly metamorphosis was complete, "I did make a promise to your brother."
"Wait really? You talked to Den-" Ludo began to ask before a portal tore its way across the ceiling of the throne room, bathing the room in orange light. Moon looked up with a moment of caution that quickly gave way to a pouring wave of relief as the Magical High Commission dropped to the ashen stone floor below. One by one they fell until all four members stood between Moon, Vartek, and Ludo
"Ahhh, the magical traitors have finally arrived," Vartek hummed, folding his arms, "and they're late. Does nothing surprise me as these old bones age?"
"Can it, snake," Hekapoo spat as she preemptively drew her scissor blades, "you're going into a crystal, and we'll deal with you and Ludo after we clean up your mess."
"OF COURSE IT'S ANOTHER SEPTARIAN!" Rhonbulus shouted, startling all but Moon and Vartek, "HOW MANY TIMES ARE WE GONNA HAVE TO DEAL WITH A SNEAK LIZARD TRYNA DESTROY THE WORLD!"
Vartek smiled a thoughtful smile, as though he was reminiscing some forgotten memory of Rhombulus or his antics. "Not quite 'destroy', more along the lines of hostile takeover….but yeah. Let's just go with destroy and see where it takes us."
"BLAAAAHAHAHAHHaAa!"
"YEAH! THE ONLY PLACE YOU'RE GETTING TAKEN IS TO THE CRYSTAL DIMENSION!"
"To join the rest of your mixed bag of innocents and lawless heathens?" Vartek asked with a new vindictive sneer, "I doubt that. Your collection, however, does have a certain appeal. Perhaps I'll use it for-" *ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAP*
Moon figured that Rhombulus must have been done listening to the villain's monologue, as the crystallization beam silenced any further talk from the septarian. As he continued to fire his beam in an attempt to strengthen the mineral prison, Hekapoo took her place beside Moon and asked quietly, "I don't think that stuff's gonna hold for more than a minute. Do you think we can take him?"
Moon looked at Varteks confident grin underneath a growing layer of crystal and pursed her lips. "Together, we can stop him here and now. I defeated Toffee at his best, so this shouldn't be much worse."
Hekapoo made to agree, but a rumble began to shake the throne room before Varteks prison blasted apart in a shower of shimmering dust. Rhombulus, Moon, and the rest of the High Commission stood in astonishment as he dusted his shoulders of glass, noting, "Let's agree to disagree, Moon." He suddenly blinked forward, slamming an open palm on the ground and transmitting a rolling wave of magic her way.
Her butterfly form glowing with charged power, Moon unfolded her wings and threw her hands forward, catching the brunt of the wave and forcing it to circumvent her. The effort, while taxing, kept her and Hekapoo safe, but Varteks patience seemed to be wearing thinner by the second.
"I will admit: this is similar to your last battle with Toffees puppet, but somethings missing. I have the regeneration...the planning...the power," he listed on his fingers, "Ah! But of course! The army!"
The septarian snapped his fingers, and like an explosion of thunder, the walls of the throne room came apart, an endless swarm of turned pouring in. Smaller monsters, the larger ones that Moon had seen, and every size in between came flooding towards them, rolling over each other to get to their prey first as Vartek laughed. "Your reign has made my people weak, so I have to borrow their hidden potential to tear down your monuments, burn your heritage, and unseat you from your throne. Then, and only then, will they be returned to their true, untainted state. Safe, from the disease known as Mewmanity."
~Grandson: Blood / water {for vibes}~
As the first of the Turned reached their awestruck targets, Moon crouched before flapping her wings with powerful wind, taking off towards the head of the hydra itself, leaving the others to handle the rest. Hekapoo dropped into a portal and came out behind the largest Turned, opening another portal across its waist. The upper half fell through as the lower continued running, but another portal underneath it disposed of the rest.
Rhombulus dropped into a ready stance to take on a pack of smaller Turned, summoning a thick wall of crystal to catch the brunt of their charge. With a barrage of punches to the new barrier, Rhombulus shot a volley of crystal fragments out, the razor-like shards embedding themselves into any exposed flesh. "NOW YOU GUYS ARE GONNA GET IT!" He yelled before jutting both snakes forward, the entire wall exploding into gems that blasted their remaining targets to bits.
He turned to fight another group of larger monsters, just as a deep indigo portal opened above them to drop a fist the size of a manticore. Omni opened another portal and like a raging bull, another fist barreled through another group of Turned, pulverizing them into a wall. Though his head was only there in spirit, the skull smiled in satisfaction as the High Commission dealt swift force to the monster's insurrection.
Vartek leaned back to avoid the ionizing blade of helix magic that swung for his head, and grabbed Moon's wrist, pulling her into a punch to the gut. But it felt like punching oak, rather than flesh. Doubling down, he let go and spun to deliver a charged kick to her side, happy to feel more give this time. Moon was sent reeling, only to shoot back with a flap of her wings.
The two collided, Moon tackling him to the floor, but he was quick to kick her off, forcing magic through his boot to amplify the strike. This time, he felt the desired give. Moon gasped before slamming into the crumbling stone wall, and had only a second to react before dropping to avoid a beam of green plasma that melted the rock to slag.
"This is the part where you realize you're hopelessly out of your league, and run like a wounded hound back to your daughter," Vartek taunted, dragging his nails against the floor to create a spark, before throwing two balls of fire at the struggling Queen. But with a guttural grunt, Moon caught both orbs and slammed them to the ground. As the fiery ashes dissipated, she slowly stood and flared her wings. "Not after you've bled for what you did to them," she threatened, launching at breakneck speeds back into his ribs, this time summoning two of her helix blades and ramming them through his stomach.
The lizard grinned as though she had done little more than hug him, but Moon ripped her swords from his midsection and spun, slicing parallel gashes across his throat. As he reeled and bled, she combined her blades into a humming rod of blue energy, using her momentum to slam him down into the stone with a deafening crunch.
"You're daughter could hit much harder, even with half a soul," Vartek sputtered from beneath the pulsing weapon.
Moon gave him a coy smile and separated her swords before driving them through his back and into the floor. Softly, she returned, "It would seem that I did a fine job in raising her then, didn't I."
Rhombulus brought his hands together and fired a dual beam of crystal at a stumbling Turned, his eye peering with satisfaction as it was slowly encased. "Another one down! Keep em coming!" He yelled. Hekapoo opened another portal from above, two more Turned dropping through, right into his waiting beam. "That's more- ….huh?" He dropped his attack midway, the two Turned snarling in confusion.
"What the heck, Rhombulus! Ice them already!" Hekapoo yelled while fighting back a larger Turned, but her words fell on deaf ears.
"Guys… Is this a cool new type of crystal, or do I need to get my gem checked?" He asked the room, all eyes turning to look. Where there had been two crystalized Turned, there was now a glowing green emerald, the heat from its center easily felt yards away. Before anyone could answer, they all watched in shock as two, clawed hands bored their way through the crystal, melting it like hot knives through butter. The two Turned pushed the molten crystal aside, shaking off the goo and turning toward their captor, Hekapoos strikes heeling before their eyes.
"What-"
"The-
" BLAAAAHAHAHAA!"
"Don't let up you idiots! They don't go down that easily!" Ludo shrieked, using his wand to blast the two Turned back into a heap of sizzling skin before they began to heal again. "His magic is keeping these weirdos alive, so they won't die unless he tells them to. Or ya know, they get vaporized or something."
Rhombulus and Hekapoo both looked toward Lekmet as Moon and Vartek continued to battle across the throne room. "So like, can you break the spell?" Rhombulus asked, a quizzical look in his eye. Hekapoo dropped into a portal and came out behind the Turned, quickly grabbing one and disappearing again.
She portaled next to Lekmet and pushed the struggling, smaller Turned down, the Goat of Death quickly taking action. Wordlessly he pressed a hoof to the monster's chest and immediately began to chant intelligible bleats of powerful magic. Hekapoo nodded to him and took off, slicing down any Turned that got too close, as many as there were.
Though the efforts at first seemed far too taxing, Lekmet's brow furrowing in deep concentration and pooling with sweat, the center of the Turned's chest began to glow with golden, shimmering light. It spread like branching roots, reaching to every inch of the monster's skin, Lekmets words growing more rushed and desperate as it went on.
Though he couldn't voice it, Lekmet was struggling. It wasn't what he expected, that there would be a massive barrier of corrupted magic to keep unwanted, pure magic out, but rather, it was so much corrupted magic fused with the being entirely. It was almost impossible to differentiate between corruption and Monster, so it was like untangling a knot from a rope miles long. But he'd dealt with worse, and knew how to handle such a task.
As the Goat of Death, the energy of the living was his specialty. He could harness it, store it, give it, and in such a case as this, amplify it. And when a beings chord of life was so tangled, the reasonable answer was to simply make the chord thicker, to shorten it. And that was precisely what he did. He could feel the tangled knot becoming more undone as it struggled for control, and as the life locked inside became more free, memories began to resonate in its fibers.
Sitting at a table with her parents, sleeping with a plush doll modeled after a Guilderbeast, playing tag in the forest of certain death, even a mock adventure in her backyard with her closest friends. It nearly brought tears to Lekmet's eyes, seeing such pure memories, flooding out like a reservoir. But with a final snap, and the feeling of taught fibers against his hoof, he knew it was time.
Just as Rhombulus kicked back a snarling Turned and made to ask if it was working, Lekmet bleated a loud cry of alarm and shoved the enforcer back. The two tumbled away as fast as possible just as the Turned exploded with blinding green flames, the amassed magic it held within released like a geyser. As it poured out in waves, Vartek spun and kicked Moon back with a charged strike and turned to see what the commotion was.
To his horror, his own beautiful magic was flooding from the monster, until it dwindled to a stream, and then to nothing. What was left was a normal, detoxified, monster girl, her fetal form small amidst the smoldering stone around her.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WHAT HAVE YOU DOOOOONE?!" Vartek roared, his eyes burning with fury, "THEY. BELONG. TO MEEEEEEE!" That same rumbling pressure of power he wielded could be felt everywhere in the room as cracks snaked up his arms.
In a flash, he was gone from where he stood, a blur of emerald light in his wake before Moon saw him scoop up the unconscious girl, cradling her in his arms and directing all of his hatred at the forces amassed against him. And none more hated than the Butterfly Queen herself.
"I. Have lost. Too many, to ever lose another to the likes of you," he spat almost directly at Moon, "My sweet child. The time for games is over. Let's get to business."
He stood, slowly as to not jar the girl, and blurred, his form seemingly losing focus before their eyes. When he refocused, however, the girl was gone, and in her place were two fists, balled and burning as malachite cracks webbed up his arms and neck under his clothes.
No one said a word, not even Moon. But the one sound that echoed through the hall was the sound of terrified murmuring behind them. It was Ludo.
He shook violently in place, his eyes as wide as dinner plates and pointed squarely at the death in front of him. His wand, once held tight in his hand, dropped to the floor and clattered to a stop at his feet.
"R-...RUN!"
No one had time to react to his warning; they couldn't move fast enough. Vartek brought up both hands high above his head and growled before driving them hard into the stone below. The explosion of magic was almost enough to rupture eardrums with its shockwave, and more than enough to shatter the floor of the hall to webbing debris, hanging in the air like scattered stars.
"ᴉuʍǝW ʇsuᴉɐƃɐ uoᴉƃǝƖ ʎɯ uᴉoɾ ɹo 'ɥsɐ oʇ uɹnq ƖƖɐ ƖƖᴉʍ noʎ."
The septarian warrior blurred and like a bolt of lightning, was behind Hekapoo, grabbing her shoulder and forcing her to her knees. Vartek growled at her surprise, but his expression became softer as her spirit yielded to his, his magic resonating with hers.
"You were a friend, once. I hate to do this. I am sorry," he whispered in chopped, fragments of sentences. Hekapoo struggled to break free, but it was no use. Vartek pressed an open palm against her back and forced a glitching wave of magic through her. It spread from her stomach outward, turning her skin and hair a deep shade of green, a single emerald flame puffing into existence between her horns.
She gasped for air and dropped to the floor just as Moon appeared behind Vartek, driving both blades through his back. But he was unphased, and simply crushed them to glitter between his fingers. With one kick, he sent Moon rocketing back into the wall as Hekapoo's choked breathing began to slow.
Silently, she exhaled a single frigid breath before standing, turning to look at the rest of her former comrades. They all gasped at her black, empty eyes, save for two pinpricks of green light.
"Wha-...what?!" Rhombulus screamed, taking a slow step back, but in another blur, Vartek was right behind him.
"You. Are a coward. And you are mine," he whispered, almost impatiently before pressing two fingers to the back of Rhombulus' head. Moon shook the rubble from her shoulders and stood just in time to watch as a web of cracks formed on the back of the enforcer's crystal head, before it promptly shattered into glitter.
"NOOOOOO!" Omnitraxus roared, sending two fists down from portals straight for the lizard. But without so much as a grunt, Vartek held out both hands and caught the fists, keeping them at bay. He stood there, unamused as Rhombulus' body stirred.
The two snakes shot out straight, their eyes wide with fear before turning mute and blank. His shoulders slumped, his knees straightened, and like a crystal of his own making, a new, obsidian gem grew from his neck. At its center was a single green pinprick of light.
Moon surged forward and summoned all of her remaining strength, driving both heels into Varteks back and sending him flying across the cracked hall. With barely enough time to think, she ran to Rhombulus and tried to grab him, Hekapoo being far out of reach, but the crystal enforcer was faster now than he had ever been. Both snakes shot out and fired a barrage of scattered crystallization beams her way, freezing even Turned that roamed between them.
One shot found its mark and froze her boot to a loose stone, the crystal forming around her foot the color of perfect emerald. Thinking fast, Moon ditched her boot and continued to fly, moving to save at least one person, but more beams flared out, nearly freezing her again. Moon vaulted out of the way, ducking and weaving around every beam with mad flaps of her wings when a portal opened right in front of her.
Purely out of reflex, Moon weaved under the scissor blade the sliced right where her neck had been, a silent and wide-eyed Hekapoo following after her.
This was bad. One wrong step, and it was over. How had Vartek corrupted them so easily, she had no time to wonder. Just as Rhombulus and Hekapoo sought to take advantage of her momentary distraction, two massive fists came barreling out of fresh portals to pummel them into the boulders.
Moon turned and flapped hard to get back to them, weaving through monsters, but Omni's skull blocked her path.
"Moon, they are lost for now. We have to get out of here," he ordered, taking charge over her shell-shocked state. The Queen, despite losing her bearings, nodded quickly and looked about the ruined hall. "Where's Ludo?"
"BLAHAHAHAHAA!" Lekmet yelled, pointing towards them with desperation.
Both individuals turned around, finding not an impish little Avarius, but a looming Septarian warrior. Wordlessly, Vartek jutted an open palm forward, emitting a shockwave of energy that rippled the air and knocked Moon back. She struggled to keep control, desperate to keep him in her sights and fight off the Turned, but she didn't have to look hard to find him. Vartek pulled a sword from Omni's horns and spun it in his hands, igniting the blade with emerald flames.
"MOON! RU-" Omni yelled before his own sword was plunged into his skull.
Moon stepped back, her mind unable to comprehend the slaughter taking place before her, when a hoof pulled her back, away from the Turning giant that slammed the rubble at her feet to dust. Lekmet looked at her and saved the bleating, his eyes conveying a look of dread, and finality. She wasn't sure what he wanted of her, she was never able to understand him anyway, but when he held up his hoof? She nodded in affirmation.
Lekmet turned to charge, flaring his bat-like wings, when a sudden beam of green energy flared over their heads and slammed into Vartek. He wiped the magic out of the air as easily as a tossed ball, but Vartek's attention had been earned, Omnitraxus looming over his shoulder with pinprick eyes.
Moon turned, expecting to find Ludo having finally mustered the courage to fight. She was right, but courage was the last thing on his face. He looked petrified, and rightfully so, but still he brought up his wand and fired another shot, this time blasting Rhombulus away from Moon, and gesturing for her to follow.
"Lekmet! Come on! We're leaving!" Moon shouted,
"BLAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!"
"What does that eve-", Moon began, but Lekmet wasn't listening. He flapped his wings, zipping around Rhombulus, some Turned, and dodging a swipe from Hekapoo. Vartek braced for a powerful strike, unsure of what the goat man would do, and readied a counterattack just in case. "FIND YOUR WAY TO ME, AND I WILL BE YOUR LIGHT," he whispered.
But Lekmet ignored whatever prophetic nonsense was spewing from his mouth. He weaved under a flash of green, and prepared to strike, when Vartek blurred and swiped for his wings. Lekmet peeled both wings back to his body and rolled to avoid Varteks claws before kicking off a Turned to rocket back into the fray.
Vartek shot a cracked palm at Lekmet's chest, his victory assured, but without warning, every stone fell to the floor, every Turned halted in place, and every flame froze in time. Lekmet had a hoof planted squarely on Varteks arm, and from the point of contact a web of golden veins spread halfway across his body. But no further.
"Lekmet! Can you break the spell?" Moon shouted, approaching with caution, and on foot, "Try to cleanse the corruption from his-"
Lekmet turned a furiously strained glare her way, as if to ask "what are you STILL DOING HERE?!" as incredulously as possible. Moon stopped, Ludo following close behind with his wand aimed at Varteks still form. The septarians eyes burned with anger, but he remained motionless.
Moon took another step closer, but Lekmets eyes screamed with desperation, pleading for her to leave, to escape. All around them, the destruction caused by the brief battle was evident, from the gorges in the mountainside, to the molten rock still cooling around craters. Moon turned to look at Hekapoo, Rhombulus, and Omnitraxus, only to find their faces blank, yet sinister against the dim lighting. She looked up at Vartek, the horrifying source of all of her most recent problems, and saw not a man, not a monster, but a disease. One spreading fast across her lands while she was helpless to save it.
Finally, she nodded to Lekmet, and took Ludo's hand, pulling him along to leave. But a calm, insidious voice stopped her.
"You should have run when you had the chance, false Queen."
Slowly turning around, Moon watched as the battlefield began to come to life once more, and the septaian warrior took hold of Lekmet's hoof. The golden webs of light drained from his skin as he removed it, and where he held Lekmet, webs of a deep green began to form anew. "You seem to be under the delusion that you stand some semblance of a chance against me," he muttered with disappointment, "but even in the future, you Queens are little more than a nuisance, that I find myself responsible for putting down."
Lekmwt turned to Moon with terror in his eyes, but it came as a surprise to the both of them when nothing happened. Vartek looked down at his hand, confused. The magic was flowing, he could tell that much, but the damned goat was still normal despite his efforts. With a grunt, Vartek kicked Lekmet's knees out, forcing him to the ground before pressing his palm to the goats forehead and letting it floor with more magic. But the result was the same.
"You're quite a pure being, aren't you?" Asked Vartek, eying Lekmet with more curiosity than before, "very well. I can use your strength in other ways. Perhaps even in bringing her back."
Vartek let go and with a wave of his hand, signaled for Rhombulus to crystalize Lekmet, the powerful Goat of Death now fully encased in emerald. His face was frozen in fear as Hekapoo opened a portal beneath the crystal, letting it drop to where, no one knew.
"Now, with that bit of business out of the way, where were we, Mo-?" Vartek grinned and turned to face the queen just in time to catch a blue beam of energy to his already burned face. The force of the attack barely made him flinch, but the skin where it struck was seared, smoldering...and already healing.
Moon stood with both hands thrust forward, palms still smoking and fresh tears running down her enraged face. "You...monster," she shuddered. It was an effort to have kept her composure for so long, but that was all she could say when she finally let it all go.
Vartek, however, having already healed, simply smiled at her and shrugged. "A bit insensitive, but you're not wrong."
"YOU MONSTER! GIVE! THEM! BACK!" Moon roared, flaring her wings with a brilliant purple energy. Vartek had only a moment to frown before Moon lunged for him, producing a cackling amethyst blade of magic and slicing down in an arch of fury.
Vartek sidestepped the blade as it carved it's way into the stone, his smile not fading until another blade of deep violet was thrust into his stomach. He looked down, then back up at Moon.
"Are you quite throu-" *BAAAM!*
Vartek was blasted back, off of the blade and through a foot of rubble before slumping against the wall. Looking up, he once again found it was Ludo holding the smoking gun. Without thinking, the small Avarius grabbed Moons darkened wrist and pulled her towards the largest hole in the throne room, the dark evening air just within reach.
"We're done fooling around! Get your stupid self outside! I'll hold him off for as long as I can!" Ludo shoved Moon along, pushing her toward the exit. No Turned moved a muscle, not even the High commission. But all eyes were glued on her. She wanted to rage against him, that cesspool of corrupted magic, to fight against the forces that had stolen her comrades, but there was nothing left.
Whatever magic she could conjure, whatever strength she had, it was all gone. Corn did her arms burn, using up the last of what she considered to be a curse. And as she struggled to decide whether she should run, with her tail between her legs as Vartek had offered, or stay and fight to her last breath, she thought of Star.
Her little girl had fought this creature, and somehow lived to keep it all a secret from her. And to fight Vartek now, as he was, Moon would never get the chance to reprimand Star to no end for doing so. So, Moon decided her only option was to run. Surrender, no, but to retreat, to gather strength, to get answers, and to keep Star safe.
"Leaving so soon? We were just getting STARTED!" Vartek roared, a simple shift in weight enough to reduce his stone silhouette to pebbles. He crouched low and pounced like a panther, hooking his claws into the rubble to move faster, sparking green every time he kicked off. But while his sights were on the Queen, another force stood between the two, leveling his bone wand and firing off a sizzling ball of orange magic.
"Wha- how can-," Vartek fumbled at the sight of untainted magic spewing from Ludo's wand and barely had enough reaction time to contort his body out of the way. While the blast shook the room behind him, Vartek skidded to a stop and stared, stunned as Moon began to flap away. He looked back to Ludo, the abating surprise clouding his judgement, and decided if he couldn't have the Queen, he'd settle for a pawn. Using a move from Merina's own library.
Vartek curled his tail around his waist and balled his fists, letting a thin membrane of corrupted magic envelop him.
"Summon the flame that burns the world,
From the darkest depths with wings unfurled.
To suffer in silence is not my fate,
Burn my foes with the power of HATE!"
Silence overtook the throne room as space seemed to compress toward Vartek, until with a mighty yell, the pressure was released. The sphere of magic burst at the front, and like a geyser of raw power, a stream of lime green plasma roared from Varteks chest.
Ludo grimaced at the sight of it. It was as bright as the sun, just as hot, and headed straight for him. Like a freight train screaming across the hall, a split beam coiling around itself and carving a rut through the stone. It was terrifying.
But Ludo, for whatever reason, didn't feel afraid. He could recognize that it was terrifying, that he should have been scared, but looking back at Moon, and then looking at Vartek? He didn't feel anything but contempt.
There was the Queen who had oppressed his people for years. From a bloodline that had done it for centuries. Yet she was worried about him, wanted to help him, and tried to protect him. And on the other side, there was the monster that had beaten, ordered, attacked, and tormented him for months, with no end in sight. Looking back on his time in the temple, and the moment he found himself in now, Ludo knew there was pain worse than what was coming. And if he could survive that, then maybe there was a chance.
He threw up his stone wand and willed every ounce of strength in an outward vent to produce a shield of orange light, a barrier he hoped would at least contain the blast. And then Moon would be safe, and maybe she could find some other way to stop this monster among monsters. "Interesting color," was all he had time to mumble before the attack, finally struck.
Moon's vision was washed with light, and even shielding her eyes provided no protection to the blinding display. She saw red through closed eyes, and felt a shockwave compress her bones nearly to their breaking point, throwing her to the stone below. After that, a heat that felt like walking through fire on your hands and knees overtook her, just before the sound of something shattering. There was no sound after that.
When she finally managed to open her eyes, she was petrified by the sight of the once-proud, glorious throne room of a long-forgotten place. Boulders hovered aimlessly above jagged, scorched holes where they had since been resting, and a deep, molten trench had been carved through what remained, directly between Vartek and Ludo. The latter of which was laying in a ball, desperately clutching his wand to his chest, as though it might keep him alive.
Moon slowly crawled her way closer and rolled him over, finding that not even his discarded and now useless wand might be able to keep him breathing. His body and face had been badly burned, and there were patches of cauterized skin up his arms. But, against all odds, he was still breathing. Barely, but still.
"Now, you can truly see what we are capable of, false Queen," Vartek chided, his right palm open to hold a ball of revolving green energy, "I have paid the price, many times over for what I have been given, and for who has given it to me. So rest assured, when I use it, and take back everything that belongs to me, your death will not be in vain. Everything has a cost, and the price of your life will bring peace and prosperity to thousands that have never known it."
Call it shock, desperation, whatever, but Moon looked up at Vartek with a look in her eye he hadn't seen before. It wasn't fear, it wasn't loss, it was impatience. Like she was dealing with that stubborn daughter of hers, and she had just now hit her limit, and was ready to reprimand him severely.
"Vartek," she whispered, calm as a frozen river, "you have suffered, and you have lost. That much is clear."
"You know nothing of suffering and loss," he spat back, his cracks pulsing with hatred, "You Mewmans are all alike. You steal, you blame, you fight, and you destroy without conscience. Your brood has taken my world. My wife, my daughter, my home, and my people. Now I will take back everything you have wrongfully stolen."
"No one alive today had anything to do with that, Vartek. No one you kill, no one you steal from, no one whose life you destroy today will be responsible for what happened in the future," Moon implored, moving nothing but her free hand to hold out to him, "but I want to offer you a chance."
Vartek couldn't help but scoff at the very idea. "A chance to what? Surrender? To denounce everything I've built trying to-"
"A chance to be better," Moon interrupted, still holding out her hand, "you can still choose a better path. You can stay here, and you can change the future for the better. You can help your people, and I can keep mine safe, and nobody has to get hurt."
She watched him, trying to read his expression for any give. And Vartek did give. His scowl softened, if only slightly, and he brought up his eyes to meet hers. And for some reason, they were a startlingly brilliant topaz.
"I...I would like that, more than you could ever know, Moon. But...I..," he looked down at the spinning orb of energy, and Moon considered making her move, but he shook his head in resignation. "I'm afraid I can't do that...I'm too far gone, in too deep. I've paid far too much to stop now."
"It's not too late," Moon insisted, her resolve unyielding, "we can help you, and you can start over. Your kind doesn't know age, you can live to see the future you left behind, only this time it will be better."
A few seconds of silence rolled by before Vartek uttered a low growl, turning his green eyes up to meet Moon's. "I'm sorry, but I've lost too much of myself to stop now. ...can you hear her?" He asked, tilting his head, "even now she calls my name. She begs me to free her. She needs me...Moon. And I will do anything, to bring her back."
The two shared a short moment of understanding in that sentiment, being willing to do whatever it took to keep their loved ones safe, before Moon nodded. "Very well. Then I suppose I don't have any other option."
Vartek made to taunt her helplessness, but as if he had been frozen in place he found he couldn't move, or even breathe. His eyes were locked onto Moon, as she slowly, wearily stood with her outstretched hand still held out for him. Only now it was lined with veins of purple so dark, they were almost black. Moon flexed her hand, and a thousand strands of dark magic shimmered throughout the room, all leading to Vartek.
He struggled against his invisible bindings as Moon gathered Ludo under her free arm. "If you struggle too much, it'll kill you," Moon informed him, flaring her wings in preparation, "though I take it you knew that. I hope that you'll make a better choice than the last monster that threatened my people. ...I should hate to have to kill you, before you find another way to bring her back."
And with that, she knelt down and touched the floor, leaving her many strings attached to a stone. She flapped her wings once, and took off into the temple, retracing her path to finally leave, hopefully undetected.
Vartek felt the strings begin to weaken and snap by the second, his group of High Commission Turned standing idly by, waiting for orders. One by one the strings continued to snap, until finally, the last few hundred gave way with a might hurst of green flames. Vartek caught his breath, gasping in as much as air he could before turning a blazing glare at his minions.
"Are you all BLIND!? GET THEM! NOW!"
Moon flew through the wooden doorway at breakneck speeds, screaming across the field as she clutched an unconscious Ludo to her side. In the distance, far behind her now, she could hear a very angry roar, but she was too far to care at this point. Within moments, Dennis and Marble came into view, the two immediately approaching when Moon landed and shifted from her butterfly form.
"What happened? Did you find...LUDO!" Dennis cried out before Moon shushed him profusely.
"Keep it quiet. He took a few hits...we all did, but he'll be fine when we get him to the sanctuary." Moon, not waiting for Dennis to respond and handing him his brother carefully, looked back at the temple in the distance, a faint green light glowing from one of its peaks.
Vartek, despite his unyielding annoyance towards the false Queen, felt a slight tug in his chest as her offer echoed in his ears. 'You can live to see the future you left behind…'
"And I can make it better," he repeated, watching as the High Commission Turned all left the temple with lower Turned in tote, on the search for the Queen. He scoffed, wondering how he ever saw them as formidable opponents.
"They were once your allies, Var. You should have shown them more respect," that voice echoed. Vartek didn't react.
"She is right, you know. You can forge a better future, and you can find me again."
"That would never work, and you know it," he finally returned with grout, "there would be two of me, and I can't stop myself from being born. No, I'm bringing you back, and I'll be purging this land of its sickness once and for all. We will finally know peace."
"I am already at peace, my love. You should be too. It's not too late to make things right."
Vartek watched as the last light of his Turned faded into the forest, blinking out of view. He stood slowly and inhaled, letting his breath out with calm regimentation. "In one day's time, I will make things right, bring you back, and know peace all at once. And nothing will stand in my way; not Her, not that girl or her welp, and not the false Queen."
Silence.
Vartek growled under his breath and turned to head back inside, subduing the glowing cracks on his arm with another controlled breath. Looking down at his right hand, at the bone wand left in his temple, he couldn't help but smile."I suppose starting a day early is of little consequence," he mumbled, unrolling his tail, "see you very soon, my dearest Merina."