(A/N: A few close friends were anticipating this chapter so I decided not to make them wait. Let's dance!)
In the burning capital of the Diamond Kingdom, like comets, the mages of the Clover Kingdom scattered from its reputable Wizard King to the two vice-captains that had come along for the ride. And that reputable Wizard King, Cecilia Milanova, made her way to find the Diamond Kingdom's king. He wasn't difficult to find. The man was standing tall in his own throne room. The giant of a man stood up, his white beard bristling at the sight of Cecilia.
"Foolish of you to come alone, Wizard King," Rudolph told her. "No, better to say, you should have allowed yourself to burn in my glorious fire." He then brandished a nasty looking axe that was longer than his arm and so thick it barely could be grasped in his already massive hands. He stood adorned in red colored diamond armor. At 9'6", he towered over Cecilia
"I have sworn a duty to the Clover Kingdom, to fight for its people," Cecilia told Rudolph. "I will not allow myself to simply be killed." She swung out Elsdocia. "And with this blade, Elsdocia, to protect your people and mine, I, Cecilia Milanova, 26th Wizard King, shall strike you down!"
"You will not," Rudolph stated calmly with his deep, booming voice. "For it is I, Rudolf Albeinheim III, 24th Mage Emperor of the Diamond Kingdom, that shall triumph!"
Cecilia darted forward, her smaller helping her move quickly and closer to Rudolph. The man used his left hand, the one not on his axe to fire large shards of ruby crystals at Cecilia. She avoided them without a moment's hesitation in footpath. Upon impacting the floor, the crystals spread out into stalagmite-like formations.
As Cecilia neared Rudolph, Elsdocia caught fire. "Heavenly Fire Magic: Phoenix Strike!" Empowering the Sword of the Wizard King with her magic, Cecilia launched a fiery slash at Rudolph. The man blocked with the blade of his axe. The impact caused the entire throne room to shake. Cecilia was several feet off the ground, pushing down on the axe, but her arm was wobbling. Rudolph and his axe were quite sturdy.
With brutish strength, Rudolph pushed back and sent Cecilia gracefully backflipping across the air. "Ruby Magic: Ruby Mine Barrage!" Rudolph shouted as all of the stalagmite formations glowed like magic mines about to explode and fired blasts of ruby colored energy at Cecilia while she was still in midair.
Gasping, Cecilia felt taken off guard as the blasts impacted on her location. Rudolph gazed seriously at the point of impact. The heat in the air indicated Cecilia was far from done. And his belief gave way to truth as a sphere made of swirling flames, emerging from the dust kicked up by his attack. The flames were so thick that, until Cecilia dismissed them and dropped to the ground, they had completely blocked off visual contact of her.
Cecilia put a palm to the ground. "Heavenly Fire Magic: Crossing Flames!"
Two trails of fire crossing into each other tore up the throne room floor and trailed at high speeds towards Rudolph.
"RUBY QUAKE!" Rudolph shouted, his axe glowing bright red and planted the blunt top part of the weapon into the ground, creating a red shockwave that was wide enough to engulf both of Cecilia's flame trails. However, the destruction of the floor destabilized it and caused both rulers to fall through towards a lower floor of the castle.
Undeterred, Cecilia hopped from chunk of debris to chunk of debris to get closer to Rudolph. However, after her third jump, she spotted her gaze's reflection in a ruby crystal. It detonated in her face. Cecilia was blasted back into another large chunk of crystal, and then another, and then another, battering her body and pinballing her around the air and right into Rudolph's path. The huge man appeared right above Cecilia and swung his axe down towards her abdomen to split her in half.
However, Cecilia, though banged up, was far from easily stopped. No Wizard King worth their salt would let a few explosions leave them completely discombobulated. With her left hand, as her right clenched Elsdocia firmly, she declared, "Heavenly Fire Magic: Holy Firestorm!" A spiral of flame ejected from her palm and blasted Rudolph in the face. This gave Cecilia just enough time to backflip through the air and onto another chunk of debris. Then, charging up another Phoenix Strike, she leapt back at Rudolph. The larger man shook off her attack in time to block her attack. The two clashed their weapons against each other. Cecilia's steeled determination and snarl met Rudolph's calm and observant gaze. But with gravity working against her, Cecilia was ultimately overpowered and sent swiftly towards the ground.
"Heavenly Fire Magic: Phoenix Barrier!" Cecilia declared, surrounding herself in flames as she had before, incinerating all the debris that fell around her. She waited a few seconds until after she couldn't hear anymore falling chunks of stone, marble and other materials before dispelling her barrier. This annulment of her defensive barrier was to the sight of Rudolph about to swing his axe at her throat.
Leaping to the right, Cecilia avoided the strike, but Rudolph fired a shard of ruby crystal big enough to pierce her entire torso. Cecilia turned her body and used Elsdocia's blade to scrape against the crystal and shove it aside, only for Rudolph to fire several more. However, by this point, Cecilia had landed on the ground. The attacks were swift, but she was swifter. She widened her stance, feet wider apart than her shoulders, as she turned Elsdocia sideways. She put one hand on the back of the tip and focused her magic, gathering a lot of it from the surrounding air and from power stored inside the blade itself from her predecessors.
"Heavenly Fire Magic: Ancestral Pyre!" A massive fireball ejected outward from Cecilia's location and completely engulfed the incoming crystals, incinerating them on contact.
Rudolph was not deterred. "Ruby Magic: Crystal Tower Shield!" Rudolph manifested a massive shield that he gripped in his left hand and used it to blunt Cecilia's attack. While he was ultimately able to avoid serious damage, Cecilia's attack did a number on the shield, wearing down the hardened, 7" thick crystalized surface and nearly incinerating down to the metal behind it.
Rudolph's gaze yet again met the young Wizard King's. "It would appear the youth of tomorrow can match even my seasoned experience," Rudolph complimented. "But your efforts are in vain. Soon, my Eight Shining Generals shall eliminate your fellow mages and you will be destroyed by the entire might of the Diamond Kingdom."
Cecilia smirked. "I wouldn't be too sure about that. For I believe in the might of my magic knights, and I believe that they will prevail."
"Then let tonight be remembered in history when the might of the Clover Kingdom met its end against the Diamond Kingdom for being so foolhardy to believe that they could resist my kingdom's might!"
"Oh, tonight will be remembered all right," Cecilia agreed as she swung her sword out. She was ready for another round of clashing. "As the night that the Diamond Kingdom," she darted forward, "Became a shell of its prime!"
As Cecilia and Rudolph's battle continued, the mages of the Clover Kingdom were fighting off many low ranking mage warriors of the Diamond Kingdom and looking to engage the Eight Shining Generals. They weren't difficult to spot. They were the only mages that didn't go down in a single strike.
The first mage to find an appropriate opponent was Lovilia Milanova, Cecilia's older sister.
"Rose Quartz magic: Rose Fleur!" the quick-footed vice-captain declared, manifesting two broadswords made entirely out of pink crystal. She used it to cut down two magic knights near the western wall of the capital.
She was then quickly ambushed by a man donned in black, lacquered armor. He had a two katanas, one in each hand and used them to strike at Lovilia. The two engaged in sword to sword combat, only for Lovilia to watch her swords shatter like smashed glass. A gust of wind accompanied the shattering.
Clapping her hands together and pushing her fingers to her knuckles, Lovilia made the shattered crystal turn and attack her assailant. He, in turn, made a blast of golden dust with the tip of his sword that pushed him and Lovilia away from each other.
Lovilia then remade her swords.
"It is rare to see others that fight with a blade. I thought I was the only one, and I am from a foreign land, originally," the man said with a stern tone to his voice.
"You're not from the Diamond Kingdom?" Lovilia inquired, gazing at her foe. He had white hair styled into a ponytail that blew in the ember laden wind.
"That's not important," he told her. "My name is Zephyr. People call me the Topaz Jackal."
"I'm Lovilia Milanova, Vice-Captain of the White Serpents. No title," she said with a smile.
"Lady Lovilia, my attempt on your life is not personal. His majesty has ordered the deaths of the Clover Kingdom mages within his borders," He brandished his blades. "I have my orders."
Lovilia nodded. "My Wizard King has also ordered your death. It's a shame. I was really hoping the Diamond Kingdom wanted peace."
There was a pause before Zephyr nodded. "As did I."
Zephyr then darted forward at Lovilia with his twin blades. His swords clashed against her crystal ones before shattering them yet again. Lovilia, once more on the defensive, gathered the shattered crystal with her magic, but this time into a shield. As Zephyr struck his weapon against the forged structure, he broke it and almost slashed into Lovilia's skull. However, she was able to jerk her head to one side just slightly.
"Gold Rush!" Zephyr shouted. Sheathing one sword and thrusting his arm forward, a bunch of fists made of gold dust battered Lovilia's body in a continuous, swift barrage. She was sent flying into a building. He then manifested a massive Naginata that seemed to be made of condensed gold dust. "Gold Breaker!" He declared, hurling it at high speeds to pierce the prone Lovilia. However, she was able to just barely get out of the way.
Several feet in the air, body tilted, Lovilia gazed at the man in the dark armor and declared, "Rose Quartz Magic: Diamond Storm!" A plethora of crystal shards flew towards Zephyr.
"Gold Rush!" He shouted, and the fists conjured up by his magic shattered the incoming crystals into dust.
Lovilia landed on a roof top. It's like fighting rock magic with sand magic, I'm at a disadvantage.
Zephyr was not going to give her time to formulate a plan. "Golden Flash!"
A whirlwind of gold dust conjured up and blew outward towards Lovilia, slicing at her skin. She began to incur laceration after laceration as she was then lifted off her feet, thrown around like cattle in a windstorm. Screaming in pain, she was hurled through the air as Zephyr moved like his namesake and appeared above her as the whirlwind died down.
"Gold Rush!" he declared and punched her repeatedly, smashing her limbs and sending her through the roof and into the storeroom that existed below.
Lovilia dropped onto her back, coughing.
"I'll make your death painless," Zephyr offered, taking a blade with two hands, "That much I can grant you."
The world around Lovilia went silent and her life flashed before her eyes. At 28, she hadn't lived long. She recalled peaceful days with her sister, how she was always so proud of Cecilia, twice the mage Lovilia ever thought she herself would be.
She remembered how, during their days in the White Serpent's together, how peaceful Cecilia looked when she smiled, especially under the shade of a tree. She remembered meeting Conrad, how much he'd enriched her life as her captain. They'd fought side by side for years now, shared tender moments together.
It couldn't…it couldn't just end like this…could it?
Taking a breath and coughing on it, Lovilia's hand shot up before she even knew what she was doing. She caught Zephyr's blade as it sliced her hand, blood going everywhere, but she stopped it from piercing her chest.
And then, pink dust began to float down from the opening in the roof. Zephyr had only a moment to process its existence before he heard Lovilia cough. And then, she spoke.
"Mana…Zone."
An explosion of energy forced Zephyr back as Lovilia stood up, her Grimoire glowing. The skin on her right leg crystalized. In fact, all of the blood flowing out of her body was beginning to turn pink and harden like crystal on her skin.
Zephyr tried to conjure up his gold dust, but it turned pink when he tried. It was then that he noticed that he couldn't see the perimeter of this Mana Zone.
"Rose Quartz: Cubic Prison," Lovilia declared as crystal shot up from the ground outside the building and the shaking of the earth shattered it, revealing a massive dome of rose quartz crystal at least 40 meters wide and 20 meters high.
Impossible! She was about to die! How is she…able to conjure up so much magic. Zephyr shook his head. No, no matter! He charged towards Lovilia. I just have to cut her down. Bolstering defense with Mana Skin, Zephyr reared his arm back to slash Lovilia's throat.
However, as he neared the woman, as her left eye crystalized over, almost making it seem like she couldn't see, her entire left arm forged into a butcher's knife of sharp crystal. Zephyr was shocked at this.
She's using her own body to mutate her magic? But why?
He didn't have time to answer that question. His right arm was lopped off just below the shoulder.
When Lovilia breathed, pink dust flew out.
It was then that Zephyr understood. She hasn't mastered Mana Zone. This dome…that form…I've got to stop her before she kills us BOTH!
Zephyr went for his previously sheathed katana, but his arm was grabbed by Lovilia.
Mana Zone: Rose Quartz Magic, she channeled to herself, Living statue.
Crunching her hand around the bone of Zephyr's arm, Lovilia made it turn into crystal. Without his right arm to stop the damage, like a fast spreading infection, Lovilia's spell caused Zephyr's entire body to turn into rose quartz crystal, little by little, cell by cell, but at a rapid rate, like watching a hose fill up a depression in a field left by a horse. And, before long, crystal was emitting from his mouth. Even his blood that escaped his jaw from this injury crystalized. And then, Zephyr the Topaz Jackal had become a glistening statue of rose crystal.
"Rose…Fleur," Lovilia declared, making twin swords out of her arms and smashing the statue to bits. Then, her mana zone disappeared and she collapsed to ground. Her body was slowly decrystalizing, but she was out cold. It would be up to her fellow magic knights to win the day. She had nothing left to give.
Kaiser Granvorka had faithfully served the White Serpents and its original captain—before Conrad's tenure—up until his ascension to Grand Magic Knight some seven years ago. Now, at age 30, he was one of the older captains among his fellows. In fact, the only captains older than him were the "mom and dad" of the current generation: Acier and Vulkan.
With 15 years of experience under his belt as a magic knight, one would think little would surprise him these days. And yet, his current opponent was a testament that he still had much to learn about the world. His foe was around Marianne's age, possibly even slightly younger. She bore no sleeves, wore the cape of the Diamond Kingdom's elite and had cloth wraps bound tightly around her dark purple leggings. She had hair the color of ripe limes and the grin of a demon.
"Hey, pops!" she shouted. "Fight me!"
"I see the youth of tomorrow also needs a lesson in manners," Kaiser sighed in resignation. He raised his arms, Grimoire summoned. "I shall indulge you, youngster, but only because it is my job. Though I do wonder how a girl your age became so highly ranked."
"Why don't you see for yourself, gramps! I'm a natural!" The young woman shouted. She then slapped the ground, sticking her backside high in the air as a twitching green tail sparked out behind her pants. "They call me Vos, the Emerald Fox. And I'm gonna kick your ass! And when you die, I'll make sure everyone who visits your grave knows it was me who killed ya!"
Vos then pounced, her right-hand glowing with the aura of a beast's paw.
Taking things casually, Kaiser conjured a magic whirlwind of Vortex Magic, blasting his foe with the element. He believed this would simply dispel her enchantments and render her helpless. He was quite surprised when her paw cleaved through his vortex and he got slashed across the face.
Laughing, Vos grinned before shouting, "Slash Magic: Fox style – Vicious Rend!" She then cackled like a madwoman and began to shred Kaiser's magnificent robes and opened a plethora of wounds underneath.
"Do you get it, old man?" Vos asked, as she continued to wail on Kaiser. "My Slash magic is magic that cuts through other magic."
"Ah, so that's how it is then," Kaiser remarked as Vos's next strike then slammed against his skin as though it were as dense as a mountain. Vos was surprised. "What's this? Surely a Shining Eight General understands the fundamentals of Mana Skin?" Vos still looked shocked. "No? Pity," Kaiser said, stroking his hairless chin. "It would appear you are as green as your magic power. Permit me to teach you a lesson before you are carted off to the next life."
Putting his back into his next Vortex, Kaiser unleashed a whirlwind that sent Vos hurtling through the air, dispelling the magic aura around her body. He then conjured another whirlwind that slammed her into the ground.
Vos got up and made her aura again, growling. "Of course I know what Mana Skin is, you old fart!" she snarled, spitting onto the ground. Her right eye had become caked with dirt so she clenched it closed. "But there ain't no way simple Mana Skin is gonna stop my slash magic, so what gives?"
"Ah, I see. You are so used to playing offense, you have no idea what a proper defense looks like," Kaiser remarked. "Truly, that is an error of the highest caliber to the Diamond Kingdom's education system. Did they simply let someone with your magic command an army simply because you are so powerful?"
"Shut up!" Vos shouted and tempered her power, sparks of green going everywhere. "You wanna make something of it you wrinkled old piece of crap?" The ground beneath her and around Kaiser shook. "I killed the guy that held my job previously cause I'm that damn good! Nobody gets in my way! And one day, I'll be the Diamond Kingdom's Emperor myself!" The tail sprouted out behind her became thicker as sparking ears appeared above her head, her paws thickening. "You faced the fox, now meet the wolf! Slash Magic: Wolf style – Howling Charge!"
Vos zoomed towards Kaiser, speeding straight past him, but when she got on the other side of him, her enchantment had completely vanished.
"Honestly, youth these days don't understand their own limits. You're exactly what Captain Julius was afraid young Marianne would become. It's a pity you will be unable to face her."
Vos felt a gripping in her chest and looked down to see a glyph branded below her breasts. "When did he…?"
"I dislike the idea of murder, even in warfare. The strong should be allowed to fight another day, enemy or foe, to learn from their mistakes and become better than who they were yesterday," Kaiser monologued. "But, orders are orders from Lady Cecilia. Apologies, young one. Perhaps, in your next life, you will be a Clover Kingdom mage, and I can teach you proper manners."
"You gray-haired motherfucker!" Vos shouted, turning to try and attack Kaiser.
"Vortex Magic: Epicenter Drain."
Vos was stopped short as she felt a whirlwind erupt from the glyph on her chest and began to suck the magic power out of her body, but more than that, it was absorbing out her very life essence.
"Your inexperience shows," Kaiser lectured, turning to face the dying Vos. "If you were smart, you would have used your slash magic to cut my glyph off your body if it can truly cut through other magic. You were powerful, Vos, the Emerald Fox, stronger than I was at your age. But your death shall be a result of your inexperience and your king's incompetence. And for that, I am truly sorry."
Vos screamed as Kaiser's magic drained her dry and left her nothing but a withered husk. The Captain of the Violet Orca bowed to his fallen foe and then closed her eyes.
"I should make my way to the castle. Lady Cecilia may need my help," he stated and made to give the queen a hand.
If there was a prized target among the Clover Kingdom mages, it would be its Emperor and King, Charles zi Britannia. If he could be killed, even if the Clover Kingdom ultimately prevailed, it would be considered a pyrrhic victory. However, that was a tall order. Insofar, Charles was shoving aside anyone that dared come close to him and then impaling them from below with a stone spike from his Quake Magic.
Then, a much stronger presence became known to Charles. However, it was too fast for the Emperor to evade. He was nicked on the forearm through his suit as a man passed by him. The 30-something man stood at 5'2" in stark contrast to Charles's towering 6'6". This man had a tan complexion and wore a hat with mouse ears and purple clothes, even having black hair with a purple tint to it. His nails were incredibly long, glowing purple and looking to be made of crystal.
"Chu, chu, chu," he chuckled. "Must be my lucky day," he said, grinning smugly. "I get to face the leader of the Clover Kingdom. My name is Dancho the Amethyst Rat."
"I don't remember asking," Charles remarked and itched his wound.
"What's the matter, your majesty? You don't look so well," Dancho laughed, "Chu, chu, chu."
"Do I?" Charles asked, stone faced as ever. "Must be your imagination."
Dancho laughed. "You can talk a big game, your majesty, but everyone who's anyone knows that it's the Wizard King who has all of the power, but none of the responsibility, therefore you must be the weakest, but most valuable member of everyone here." He clacked his crystalized fingernails together. "A perfect victim for my magic." He inhaled and then spewed a purple gas everywhere.
Toxic Magic: Rat's Venomous Plague!
The gas consumed the area, engulfing it thicker than a smokescreen.
"Ahahaha!" Dancho cackled. "Are you so incompetent that you didn't even think to get out of the way? Do you think this a mere smokescreen? Do you?! Well it's not! It's one of the most venomous mists you will ever encounter! In a few moments you'll be gasping for air, and a few more after that, you'll be dead."
However, as the heated air caused the cloud to part and disperse slowly over time, Dancho didn't so much as hear a single cough. Charles simply stared back at him as stolidly as ever.
"Was that your best?" Charles asked.
Dancho looked terrified and confused. "This…that's impossible! You're…you're just the king! You shouldn't be strong!"
Charles stroked his beard. "Hmm, perhaps in days of old, yes, a king or Emperor is no match for their country's respective Wizard King or Queen. However, I am different. I intend to hold onto power for a long time, and so I have trained my body since I was young to be strong. If I could be assassinated by mere poison, I'd have died long ago."
"Mere poison?! How dare you insinuate—" Dancho suddenly was lifted off the ground by Charles's crazy brute strength by his chest and then choked around his throat.
"Your little mist is but a parlor trick," Charles told the would-be assassin. Dancho saw it then, Charles was covered head to toe in his own Mana Skin, so dense that the toxic fumes of Dancho's spell had simply been pushed away.
"But…but my venom…your arm…" Dancho choked.
"It's as I said, mere venom," Charles began as he then slammed Dancho into the ground, "CANNOT STOP ME!" He then punted Dancho across the ground. "Quake Magic: Ravaging Jaws!"
Dancho suddenly felt the night get darker and turned over in midair to see that the ground behind him had morphed so that it now looked like a cavernous entrance, but the stalactites and stalagmites were arranged to look like teeth.
"The only thing your toxic fumes have earned you, is a swift and pointless death," Charles declared.
And then his spell crunched Dancho's body. The body was not pierced, the stone "teeth" were too blunt. Instead, he died from his bones in his body, skull and neck being crunched by the pressure.
Charles rubbed his chin, trying to get a good feel for his surroundings. He then decided the best use of his time was to murder as many Diamond Kingdom mages as possible to make escape from the kingdom swifter when all was said and done.
One could be forgiven for thinking that the Diamond Kingdom's best simply did not stack up to the Clover Kingdom's strongest. And while potentially true, it wholly missed a crucial detail of just how insanely powerful some of the Clover Kingdom's mightiest actually were. Vulkan Vermillion was a prime example of this. The leader of the Crimson Lions, and the current head of House Vermillion, he was considered one of the absolute strongest in the Clover Kingdom. So, it was fitting then that he would face an opponent of equal measure and larger stature.
Vulkan stood at almost 6 feet tall, his combed back, fiery orange hair and muscular stature made him an intimidating foe to anyone foolish enough to cross him and his explosion magic. The current pile of blown up remains of human corpses was evidence of that. He wore his cape proudly and his boots and belt nice and tight.
His foe towered over him, even larger than King Rudolph himself. At 10'9" with a muscular density that dwarfed Vulkan's own, the largest general in the Diamond Kingdom met Vulkan on the field of battle under the starlit sky. A metal mask similar to the facial covering of a traditional knight was brandished over the man's face. His foe wore a gray-colored coat, open over his massive arms. Two massive axes were slung over the man's back. And he was completely bald.
"Me called Klaar of Diamond Kingdom," the man exhaled through his mask, emitting smoke that sparked in the air. "Called…" he exhaled again, "Onyx Elephant. You?"
"I am Vulkan Vermillion of the Clover Kingdom, Captain of the Crimson Lions. I gotta say, you're one big fella."
Klaar exhaled quite loudly. "Me big…" he exhaled with a growl. "Cause me strong."
"Well then, show me," Vulkan egged on, eager for a good fight. He cracked his knuckles. "Gotta have at least one exciting story to share with my kids when I get home."
"Go…home?" Klaar growled. "Nonsense." He grabbed his axes. "You…DIE!"
Klaar swung both his axes down at the ground. Vulkan blew them up by firing his explosion magic from his palms.
"Strong…" Klaar stated, as though acknowledging Vulkan's power. Then, his arms sparked with blue lightning. "Storm…Magic. STORM FISTS!" Klaar punched at Vulkan with an electric laden punch. Vulkan punched back with a fiery fist of his own, the shockwave ruptured the surrounding area, demolishing every building in a 15-meter radius.
Vulkan grinned and then channeled magic through his fists. His fists were not only on fire, but they were sparking with explosive energy. He rushed in, meeting Klaar's sparking fists fueled with lightning and wind. The first clash of fists caused both combatants to stagger. Vulkan felt shocked and Klaar's hand felt like the knuckles cracked a little. Both shrugged it off.
Vulkan applied Mana Skin, coating his entire body in unstable flames as Klaar did the same but with lightning. A flurry of fists in the center of the plaza had thunderclaps and eruption sounds echoing across the kingdom. To anyone on the outskirts, they would think the kingdom was being bombed from above.
Klaar's fist found its way to Vulkan's face. Vulkan simply returned the favor. Despite being smaller in stature, he could give just as well as he could take.
Klaar was impressed. "You…good."
"I should be," Vulkan said. "After all, I'm Vulkan Vermillion!" He held his arms out at full extension, perpendicular with his torso and roared loudly like a lion. An eruption of magic power burned outward from Vulkan's body, scorching Klaar and covering him in burns.
Klaar powered through the attack and slammed his fist into the ground, creating a trail of twin lightning bolts that arced along the ground and then erupted into a pillar of lightning, wind and water from below Vulkan's feet. The magic captain screamed in pain, but upon emerging from the attack, looked no worse for wear. Of course, his shirt had seen better days.
Grinning, Vulkan ripped his shirt off, and threw the scraps to the wind. He then gathered power and shouted loudly, eyes turning white in an effort to contain his might. His veins now popped along his cheeks.
Explosion Magic: Volcano Man
Like a cannonball ejected from a volcano, Vulkan tore towards Klaar, landing punch after punch after punch after punch. Each one had the full weight of his magic behind it, causing an explosion to occur on impact, wounding and burning Klaar with each blow.
But though Klaar took a beating, he did not collapse. He simply grumbled and sparked with energy and then screamed like an angry mammoth, shaking his fists to the sky before slamming his arms at his sides. His whole body now sparked with gray lightning. His next punch sent Vulkan flying, zapping the man on contact. The now once slow and bulky Klaar then moved like lightning, catching up to the soaring Vulkan and hammered him from above into the dirt below.
"Gurrrgh…STORM…MAGIC! STORM! DRILL!" Creating a whirlwind in the shape of a cone, the wind at the tip spinning faster than the wind at the base, Klaar commanded his sparking tornado to spin towards Vulkan and obliterate the prone captain.
Vulkan saw the attack barreling towards him and he groaned. Dammit, Vulkan. You're getting old. If Mera and Fuego hear you got beat by an attack like this, they'll laugh at your funeral.
Vulkan leapt to his feet and mustered magic as quickly as he could from the ground up. "Explosion Magic: Emerging Volcano!" An eruption of magic power fired upward as Vulkan raised his hands to the sky, using a geyser of fiery explosion magic to counter Klaar's storm drill.
"You…disadvantage…" Klaar exhaled.
"Yeah, maybe, but," Vulkan replied and then smirked, "I'm Vulkan Vermillion. The word defeat…" he imagined the faces of his two kids, "Isn't in my dictionary." Then, letting go of the pressure on his spell, he turned his body and reared back his fist, even though doing so now gave Klaar a decisive advantage in the spell struggle. "Gotta set an example," he said as his entire body started glowing, "For the next generation!"
Magic began to swirl and condense into Vulkan's fist.
"Explosion magic…" He raised his fist to the sky, "ATOMIC FIST!" Vulkan ripped his arm towards the sky and let loose an awesomely mighty attack that tore through Klaar's attack and sent the man sky high into the air with fiery prejudice. In the shape of Vulkan's fist projected outward, Klaar was sent high into the air, higher and higher until he was almost a speck on the horizon. And then the attack exploded in midair. Vulkan could see a fiery trail of what used to be his opponent.
"Phew, that should do it. I should probably…"
"Mana Zone."
Vulkan was caught off-guard, having forgotten just how quickly Klaar could move and was very shocked to see the man not only breathing, but in one piece. There were scorch marks all along his body, his stomach was hemorrhaging with a gaping wound leaking fresh blood every second, but Klaar the Onyx Elephant was still very much alive, and very, very pissed off.
Then with a clap of Klaar's hands, Vulkan was shocked through his whole body as an array of gray lightning zapped the whole area.
"Lightning Cage."
Klaar then ear clapped Vulkan's torso with his massive hands before punching him into a building, each electrified punch zapping the captain of the Crimson Lions.
Klaar then exhaled. Windy lightning was visible on the breath through his mask.
As the dust and debris cleared and clattered, Vulkan lay bleeding and panting on his backside amidst the collision. He panted and then grinned, "Is that the best you got?"
Vulkan then got up. He was grunting, and in pain, but he was managing to get up.
"Fool," Klaar remarked and zipped towards Vulkan to strike him, but, much to his shock, Vulkan caught him with his palm, not even a closed palm, just a straight up show of force. "How?"
Vullkan punched Klaar in the mask, breaking it. "I told you," he said, body blazing with so much magic, he was less a man and more an elemental, "Cause my kids would laugh at me if I died here." He darted forward, the impact of his punch to Klaar's chest was so loud it echoed across the entire Diamond Kingdom. He threw another explosive punch, fist penetrating an inch and a half into Klaar's chest. He then threw three more punches in quick, hard hitting succession, causing Klaar to stagger with the gaping holes in his torso, coughing as his face was revealed. He has puss-laden sores all over his jaw and his teeth were yellow and craggily. His nose was misshapen and one nostril appeared to be infected with the way it was swollen.
"Eugh, face only a mother could love," Vulkan remarked.
"Can't…breathe," Klaar commented, clutching at a chest wound and coughed up blood.
"So that mask was for more than just aesthetics, huh? Don't worry," Vulkan said and flared his magic power. "I'll put you out of your misery. Mana Zone!"
An explosive shockwave ripped through the air, burning Klaar's gray, electric mana zone and replacing it with one that was hot, burning, and dry. It was like being on the inside of an oven…no…a volcano…at the center of the Earth.
"Atomic Core."
Klaar dropped to one knee, putting his hand on the ground, only to watch his fingers burning as if they were touching the scorched rocks around an active volcano. He screamed and tried to imbue himself with Mana Skin, but that was a no go. Vulkan was in control of the entire area. Klaar had nothing.
"Since you gave me such a good fight, I'll give you the honor of seeing my favorite technique. Don't blink!" Vulkan shouted and channeled magic through his entire body, causing his loose-fitting pant legs to billow in the scorching breeze. He then rushed towards Klaar. His fist was completely ignited with fiery energy, like the blaze of a yellow sun. One could say it was glowing with an awesome and mighty power.
Mana Zone – Explosion Magic: Atomic Fist Style!
Klaar, in a last ditch effort to stop Vulkan, channeled as much as magic as he could into his undamaged hand and swung a punch but he missed. And now, Vulkan's fist was on a collision course with Klaar's solar plexus.
"OMEGA FLARE!"
On impact, a reactionary effect kicked off with the way Vulkan's burning fist interacted with Klaar's body. First, the attack scrambled itself in searing heat all along the point of impact in a starburst pattern. Then, the attack repeated itself multiple times at the edges of the sunburst shaped impact. And then, a massive fireball of an explosion blew into and then through Klaar's back, incinerating all internal organs on contact before the blaze grew and grew and grew before it barreled across the landscape, scorching the earth and anything unfortunate to get caught in its path until it tunneled into a distant hill.
And all the while Klaar screamed as his body was disintegrated with fiery fury until Vulkan felt his foe's body give way. His own fist swung through the open air and Vulkan took a moment to pant.
"Man, I really am getting old. Gonna be on the wrong side of forty soon. Coulda taken that guy without Mana Zone if I still had my youth. Still, Klaar the Onyx Elephant, I'll remember that name. That was the most fun I've had in years."
If there was a pool for who would struggle the least here in the Diamond Kingdom, the winner would most likely be voted to be Julius Novachrono for his time magic. Of course, if you asked the Diamond Kingdom who looked like the easiest target, they'd be hard pressed to believe this man was dangerous. And that was the thought process behind Steigrain the Citrine Toad. With a gaping wide mouth and really big eyes, the man's short stature made him even uglier than Klaar without his mask on.
As he ambushed Julius, he was surprised to find himself suddenly frozen, midleap. Julius then appeared behind him.
"Ah, and so we meet again, Steigrain, the Citrine Toad." Julius responded.
Huh?
"Ah, of course, how discourteous of me. I've already met you, but you've yet to make my acquaintance. Funny how time magic works," Julius remarked.
What's this guy blathering about? Steigrain then suddenly couldn't feel his arm and looked down, seeing it had rotted to bone. He wanted to scream, but no sound would come out.
"Apologies, but I've had quite enough trips down different timelines where you use your hypnosis magic to make me your subservient puppet. So, before anyone else gets hurt, I'm afraid I have to erase your time."
Buh?
Then, with a mere flick of his hand and a snap of his fingers, Julius aged his foe into dust. Not even bone remained, nor screams heard.
Now, Julius thought, let's see if the others need any help.
One person who didn't think they needed any help was obviously Marianne herself. As she cut down yet another mage warrior underestimating her, she was then attacked from behind. Using her Spectrum Magic: Speed of Light, she was able to get out of the way as the ground where she'd been standing cracked with lightning.
She faced her opponent, manifesting her jade light buckler and axe. A man, significantly taller than her, but not taller than Charles, stood where she'd been standing. In his grip was an all blue spear made of crystal, and his armor was almost all blue as well, sans some black parts here and there. He had hair as white as snow and an eyepatch over his left eye, which had a blue diamond symbol over it. He laughed.
"Don't worry, my friends, your numbers will be added soon. She has slaughtered our kin. We will make her PAY!" He declared with a manic grin.
"I don't suppose you have the common courtesy to share your name. You seem a bit stronger than the rabble I previously disposed of," Marianne remarked.
The man laughed psychopathically, covering his eyepatch. "They call me…Zweir…" he chuckled. "Those who have been failed to be slain by me refer to me as the Sapphire Falcon."
"Oooooh, a title," Marianne remarked and manifested a pair of gauntlets to go along with her axe and buckler. "You wouldn't happen to be a shining general, would you?"
"She wants to know," the man laughed, "If I'm a shining general." He bristled with magic power, azure lightning sparking all around him. "THE ANSWER IS YES!" Zweir then charged.
His first few spear thrusts were easily weaved around by Marianne before she had to block the next one with her spear. A spark emitted against the shield before Zweir pulled back his spear and then thrust rapidly, trying to break past Marianne's defenses with sheer force. He chuckled giddily, his smile unstable and frantic.
Marianne then kicked him in the face and then sped away from him. Using a light whip, she grappled a flag pole to get onto a high point on the wall of a building. She then leapt into the air. "Spectrum Magic: Javelins of Light!"
The light spears rained down on her foe as he darted towards her, intending to run vertically up the side of the building to get to her. He then launched himself off the flagpole to leap at Marianne who was in the air. He put both hands on his spear and lunged at her like she was a fish in a pond he was trying impale.
"Violet Ray!" Marianne fired the attack right in her foe's face and he went plummeting to the ground. Marianne then kicked at the air with her boots and gave herself enough distance to land a good twenty feet from her now prone foe. She then swapped out her axe for a sword and rushed forward, intending to make this a quick and painless death by slicing off her foe's head.
However, while on the ground, clutching his temple, Zweir laughed. He laughed and he laughed and he laughed and then he punched the ground. Then, he got up, body sparking with bright, deep blue lightning.
Marianne had to halt her charge, but it was too late, Zweir was already thrusting his arm forward, hand in the shape of a knife and trying to tunnel it into Marianne's shoulder. His face manic and gleeful, he thought he had a surefire hit.
But Marianne managed to duck under his thrust at the last second and now had a clear shot at the man's torso.
"Black—"
Only for him to grab her by the hair with his free hand and yank her to one side, zapping her entire body with electricity. He then kicked her in the chest, zapping her yet again. He then kept up the combo, swinging away at her with kicks and knife hand arm thrusts, zapping her with every strike.
He then got her up against the wall and grabbed her cheeks.
"I will rip your head from your shoulders! The dead…" he trailed off laughing, "will have…THEIR REVENGE!"
He then zapped Marainne through her face and tried to rip her head off her body, only to get blasted back by a light blast in the stomach that tunneled through his armor and opened up a gaping wound. Losing blood, Zweir was not prepared for Marianne's incoming onslaught.
Spectrum Magic: Orange Arms!
Inspired by her battle with the horned dragon, Marianne had a light-based construct around her arms that were as bulky as that monster's and was now using those hard-light claws to repeatedly strike Zweir in the face and upper torso. Devastation, at the speed of light.
With one brutal claw strike, she knocked Zweir back, his eyepatch now fluttering in the hot night air. Zwier immediately covered his eye that had previously been hidden. Then, for the first time since he started this fight, he spoke normally.
"You should not have done that," he told Marianne and took his hand away from his face. His arm rested down at his side and black blood dripped from it that had come from his eye. Marianne could only stare at Zweir's left eye…or at least where his left eye should have been. Instead, a sapphire crystal took place of iris and pupil and an inky black sludge made up the rest of the socket. "That's…"
"Yes…a curse," Zweir told her. "My curse. I received it from a devil, years ago. When people die around me, their souls become trapped inside my eye, lending me their power, strengthening me. But…" He doubled over, hands clutching at the air, palms towards the sky, "I can always hear their voices…their SCREAMS! They are in agony! They want more! To add to their numbers! They are never satisfied, no matter how many I kill!"
Marianne shook her head. "Well, you're not killing me. I have greater ambitions than finding myself forever sealed in a madman's eye."
Zweir manifested a lance made entirely of lightning. "I'm not giving you a choice."
"Neither am I," Marianne said as lightning fell from a cloud in the sky and flashed between the combatants. Marianne then darted forward, axe in hand and blocked Zweir's spear with her buckler before taking three strikes at the man with her axe. He blocked with his spear, causing residual magic power to flare back at both fighters. Zweir made a bony tail jut out from his back like that of a skeletal dragon to try and impale Marianne, but Marianne blocked with one of her orange dragon arms.
"Azure Lightning: Azure Flash!" Zweir shouted and let loose a powerful energy blast of royal blue lightning.
"White Purge!" Marianne countered, the two attacks slamming into each other and cancelling each other out.
Marianne then flanked Zweir. "Red Beam!"
"Fallen Spirits Magic: Barrier of the Dead!" A bunch of spectral hands suddenly manifested just to block the attack from hitting Zweir. "Fallen Spirits magic," Zweir said, clutching his left eye with his right hand, "Spiritual Tidal Wave!"
A bunch of ghosts flooded out of Zweir's eye and raced towards Marianne, shrieking in wild agony. Marianne simply gathered magic within her body and let it flood outward, "Green Nova!"
The blast was so bright and so powerful that not only did it seem to kill the spirits, it sent Zweir flying. However, Zweir countered by manifesting skeletal, electric wings along his back and then elongated the tail he'd manifested before, creating two thinner lances of boney looking electricity. He then started hurling spears at Marianne.
"Spectrum Magic: Javelins of Light!" Marianne shouted, firing a barrage of attacks up at the now flying Zweir, who was spiraling through the air, back and forth, grinning, cackling, hurling spears.
As Marianne's attacks missed, Zweir just became more and more amused. However, as his attacks missed and hit the ground, the booming thunder and flashing zaps of lightning caused Marianne to recoil from the residual shockwaves. Zweir then began to tumble through the air, seemingly high as a kite, laughing manically as he spiraled towards the ground, swapping out his lances for swords and began striking Marianne repeatedly over and over. If not for Mana Skin, she'd have been sliced apart easily.
"Struggle all you want, your fate has already been sealed!"
"Spectrum Magic: SKY LANCE!" Marianne shouted amidst the onslaught and impaled Zweir through the right side of his body. It wasn't dead center, so she missed vital organs, but she still managed to puncture him. Zweir responded by grabbing Marianne by the face and began pouring both of his magic types into her body through her eyes.
Marianne screamed.
"Do you feel that? We are close! She shall join us!" He could hear the whispers of the damned swirling about his head. He laughed at Marianne's pain. He could feel his hand pressing against her skull. Just a little more pressure and the woman would crack like an egg in his grip.
At least, that's what was supposed to happen. Despite screaming in pain, Marianne felt far from helpless. "GREEEEEEEN NOVA!"
The sphere of energy expanded outward and Marianne managed to push Zweir away, but her reprise didn't last long. He was already zooming back at her. Marianne, now bleeding from her eye sockets from all the damage he'd done to her face, doubled over, panting. Zweir already had a new lance he was manifesting to impale Marianne with.
"Violet Ray!" Marianne shouted, slamming the attack into Zweir and stopping him in his tracks. "Violet Ray! Violet Ray! Violet Ray!" Hit after hit after hit, forcing more and more gravity increasing effects on her foe, she hoped and she prayed that doing so would cause his bones to shatter under the weight of his own body.
However, Zweir just seemed to be…built different. He lumbered towards Marianne as the spirits of the damned flooded out of his eye and made a vortex behind him, charging a spear he generated in his left hand that he was now going to use to impale Marianne. It was like something out of a horror movie.
Marianne always knew she was a one-woman army, but now, in effect, a literal army was trying to kill her, all rolled into one man. She had to do something to stop it. But what? She didn't really have a lot of time to answer that question.
But, she already knew the answer. Taking a deep breath, she nodded. This…is going to suck in the morning.
Spectrum Magic: Ultra-Violet Mode.
There was a flash of light as Marianne seemed to fade from view. What took her place appeared to be a silhouette resembling her, manifested in dark purple, almost black light, with bright purple eyes.
And then Zweir felt himself get slammed with the full force of Marianne's magic power. It then happened again and again and again, he couldn't even tell where the attacks were coming from. And then, a dragon-like claw struck him across the face before a foot planted itself in his chest, cracking his ribs.
Zweir doubled back, gazing at Marianne, her body faded, silhouette vibrating so quickly that her hair was billowing above her head.
"What…what is…?"
"On the electromagnetic spectrum, there are two extremes. In effect, I have let my magic temporarily consume my body to go beyond the normal limits of Spectrum Magic. It's not perfect, I've far from mastered it, but it's enough." She then seemed to completely turn invisible as Zweir got wracked with attacks.
"Have you ever been attacked at faster than the speed of light?" Marianne asked, now behind him. "Your eyes can't keep up with reality since the human brain is not designed to process anything moving faster than light, yet magic allows this. However, what if the light itself was faster than the brain was supposed to process?"
A quick battering of attacks from all around struck Zweir as he then coughed up blood.
"That is the idea behind the phenomenon of Ultra-Violet Mode. By tapping into Ultra-Violet light, I transcend the concept of the speed of light and gain moments of complete invisibility…"
Zweir found what felt like a fist slamming into his stomach as he was launched off his feet.
"…and moving faster than the world around me itself."
A series of blunt force strikes and slashes made their way up and down Zweir's body as he was launched back and rolled along the ground.
Marianne manifested her ultra-violet light body and reared an arm back, generating a spear. "Time to wrap this up."
"Mana Zone!"
Marianne's Ultra-Violet mode came to an abrupt end, as blue lightning and the faces of phantasms spread outward, encasing her and Zweir in a box of charged magic.
"Storm of the Damned!"
Marianne felt woozy. Ultra-Violet mode was not yet perfected so her brain felt like it was doing jump rope with her eyes. Combined with now having to combat a Mana Zone when she couldn't use one herself and things did not look good.
Suddenly, spectral ghouls attacked her, lashing her with electric chains and binding her entire body. The chains turned into bandages and the wrappings were connected to Zweir's fingers. He looked elated as Marianne was pulled towards him, almost mummified except for her left eye.
"And now…" he cackled, "You belong to ME!"
Marianne struggled, but against the technique of someone else's mana zone, that was a pointless endeavor. She was acting on instinct, but she knew the issues at hand from the words of her mentor: Acier Silva.
"When facing a Mana Zone, you really only have two options. You either have to be so strong, the Mana Zone doesn't affect you, or you need to counter it with your own."
Marianne still couldn't use Mana Zone on her own. Acier had repeatedly told her she wasn't strong enough.
But, this was the cold reality of the world. It wasn't fair. It didn't care if you had grand ambition. Sometimes, you just died. Marianne knew this fact well, from the sicknesses that ransacked Underlot every two years or so, to the death of her father, and to the disdain she received from the nobility daily, life was…simply unfair.
But Marianne didn't get to where she was by rolling over and accepting things as they were. She was stubborn, perhaps to a fault. If life was simply unfair, then she simply had to bend the rules, break them. She couldn't use Mana Zone? Was that a fact?
If there was ever a time to put that question to the test, it was now.
Fundamentally, Mana Zone was not all that different from Marianne's Green Nova attack, an outward racing blast of energy that came from within. But that blast had to be maintained and Marianne had to completely control the surrounding area. On paper, complicated. When Marianne stopped and thought about it and realized that the alternative was death?
Hahaha…no problem.
As Marianne's cocoon drew closer and closer to Zweir, the man became elated, believing that he had finally won. "Soon…soon the only time anyone will hear your voice will be me when I hear it in my ear, whispering to me, shrieking! Yeeeesssss!"
And then…green light escaped from the center of the cocoon and a massive crack burst forth, showering the Mana Zone in light. Then, the bandages were pulled off of Zweir's fingers. Twirling and swirling into a mix of green light, Marianne emerged from the cocoon, a small barrier manifesting around her entire body about half a foot away from her body. A bit crude, and far from perfect, but this was the best she could muster. However, more than the poorly constructed Mana Zone were the two blades in Marianne's grip. One whined at a low frequency with orange and red light, the other whined at a high frequency with a violet and blue light. Runes were etched into either blade. The orange and red blade had yellow runes and the violet and blue sword had silver runes. Marianne floated there on transparent angel wings manifested in the color of a rainbow.
Spectrum Magic: Holy Maiden
Zweir roared, "GET HEEEEEEEEER!"
Spirits flew out of his eye socket and tried to cut Marianne down but with her two blades she sliced each spirit apart one by one by one. A single stroke was all it took to break past each and every one of them.
I can't use Mana Zone, Marianne told herself, not like him. But…I can still grow! She thought as she cut down a ghoul. I can still fight! And as long as I'm me, she sliced her way through several specters, cutting her blades out wide as she lowered her head. She then looked contemptuously at Zweir. I refuse to simply roll over and die.
Slapping the blades together, Marianne made a magnificent white hot glowing Claymore of blindingly bright light. She zoomed towards Zweir as she, unknowingly, began pulling in energy from his own Mana Zone's perimeter to power her blade. Zweir, growling, made a spear made of the strongest lightning he could conjure.
A flash of bright blue lightning exploded as Zweir impaled Marianne through her right shoulder with his spear, only for Marianne to blitz past him, slicing at his midsection with her blade. Despite their injuries, both combatants pivoted on a dime.
"This time…I'LL GO FOR YOUR HEAD!" Zweir shouted as shrieks emitted from his eye…only for Marianne's blade to finally land something fatal.
Panting, Marianne impaled Zweir through the gut, tagging the heart in its entirety and emerging out the other side. Zweir couldn't breathe. He reached out, clasping Marianne's hands with his, trying to either pull himself down the sword, or push her off, it was hard to tell.
However, the fact that the inky blackness in his eye was shriveling up was enough indication to Marianne, along with the blood pooling from Zweir's mouth that she had won.
"And what do you hear now?" she asked.
Zweir only answered with one word, "…Quiet."
He then expired on the business end of Marianne's sword, body collapsing once she dismissed the blade. Marianne looked at her fallen foe, yet another victim of the unkind world. Clumping her hand full of dirt, she sprinkled the body with it. A shallow grave if there ever was one, but hopefully his people would grant him a better one.
Marianne staggered, only to get caught around the shoulders by Julius.
"You okay?" he asked her.
"Just tired," he said to him. "Can we go home?"
"Not yet," he said and looked at where the last two Eight Shining Generals were locked in combat with Conrad and Acier, and then there was still Cecilia's fight with Rudolph. "We still have work to do."
"Well, all right then," Marianne said with a smile. "Orders, Captain?"
(A/N: I would love to close out all of the fighting, but considering the fic is about Marianne, I felt it best to send this chapter off on a high note. Whoo boi do I hate writing back to back fight scenes, but for the purposes of making stories interesting, I always seem to put myself in situations where such things are necessary. I hope you all are enjoying this. I don't know when I'll get around to chapter 4, but it might be soon. Dunno. Might sleep on it.
Until then, as always, from all of me, to all of you, let your hearts stay human and your wrath draconic. Ja ne!
SPECIAL THANKS to my Patrons ShawnH, Nier 99, and Wizard Aro. Without the support of you and all of the rest of you reading this, none of this would be possible! If you'd like to support my work, consider subscribing. Feel free to also leave a comment, write a review, or just say hey. It helps out a lot and it keeps me motivated to write more. And I'm sure everyone wants that :D I know I do!