Can I just take a moment to thank you guys? I was worried with my note last chapter that I was coming up ungrateful or whiny, so posting it was a bit of a 'fuck it' moment I had. But I had so much fun reading the reviews for that chapters, more fun than I've had in a while doing so. I've always wanted to talk to you guys more using these, maybe I'll start doing that again.
A while ago I used to ask you guys questions about how you felt about the story, but I stopped doing that before The End of The World arc, so it's been a while. Should I do it again? I think I will. not here, though. I've spent enough time talking. I'll ask at the end of the chapter!
Enjoy!
The day was already heading into the late afternoon by the time the Christina arrived at Magnolia. Drake knew that they were going to take their sweet time in order to try and formulate the best plan that they could, but it still got him way to antsy. And he could tell he wasn't the only one too. The amount of people just pacing around the ship as it lolled lazily through the sky was unreal. Soon enough though, the blasted remains came into view. It twisted Drake's stomach in a painful manner to see his home only represented my rubble, but he knew he had other things to focus on.
"Everyone ready?" Simon asked as the ship landed. No one said anything, which was both his answer and their nerves flaring up. "Remember, don't try to force the fight in your favour. They know we'll try that."
"Let's just go already," Damien murmured, looking steely. Drake didn't like that he and Bella were coming, but they refused to stay back. They knew without their Demon Lords they weren't a big threat, but they didn't want to stay back. And everyone knew there was no stopping them once they'd decided something.
"Stay sharp," Simon said as the airship's door opened, leaning down onto the ground. The air they inhaled was still rife with smoke and dust, making Drake cough as they exited the ship.
"Holy fuck..." Winter hissed somewhere from his left. "All I can smell is..."
"Don't mention it," Mami replied. "We know." They did indeed. Drake knew that they weren't referring to the smoke. As soon as the group had walked a fair distance away from the ship, A sound echoed out from the ruins. It sounds like something mechanical whirring to life, and it wasn't a good thing either. Before anyone could say anything, they were beset upon by automatons from every side. The beasts were made purely from metal, with a chest that glowed bright blue. Presumably from their ether-nano power source. Unlike the being at Mt. Olympus, these automatons did not resemble anyone in particular. They just aimed magical weapons at them as they slowly encircled the group, more focused on forcing them into a corner than anything.
"Anyone even see the enemy?" Elise hissed from Drake's right as he subconsciously forced Luna behind himself.
"No, all I see are robot assholes." Michael replied under his breath. After this, a new voice laughed.
"That was rude, don't you think?" The man standing atop a nearby rubble pile asked. He was glowing blonde hair and eyes, and the smile on his face probably melted women's hearts. Drake knew him.
"Apollo," he said, growing tense. The man laughed.
"You remember me?" He asked. "I'm humbled. It's been so long as well." Soon after he said this more people came from behind the pile of rubble to join him, eight of them in total. One thing stuck out to him immediately.
"Zeus isn't here," He said, only loud enough for the others to hear.
"It's exactly what I figured," Ken replied. "Bosses don't just reveal themselves right away."
"Well, you'd be right about that." Apollo said. "The old man decided to send the rest of us save Poseidon and Hades. Last thing we need are our three strongest here. After all, you kids will behave yourselves right?"
That was the question of the day, wasn't it?
"I think you all already know the answer to that," Simon said, still acting as their de facto leader. "Question is, what're you going to do if we don't?"
"Don't be foolish, please." Athena said. Drake remembered the smart women from before. Despite the lack of screens around her, she still had an air of intelligence around her. "You're surrounded by automatons and us, superior wizards. There is no victory here."
"That why you're already missing a member?" Ken shouted. Drake was surprised to here him speak up, but he was right. By all accounts and basic math, The Olympians were down a member. At this, the man in armour growled.
"Do not mistake Demeter's demise for weakness," he hissed as he drew his sword and advanced towards them. Drake and the others tensed up, but The Olympians just did a collective eye roll. "She died from a blast I did not expect out of one of your kind. Had I not had my shield, I too would have perished."
"Sounds to me like you're beatable," Elise replied, smirking as she did so. "If you really want to threaten me, don't tell me Rocky almost defeated you one on two!"
What happened next happened in an instant.
One moment things were quiet, and the next thing Drake knew He was being blown back as Ares and Simon connected swords mere inches away from Elise's face, who looked shocked to her core at the speed as well.
"Don't you even dare," Simon seethed, anger leaking from every feature on his face. "Raise a sword against my friends like that." Ares didn't look very impressed, or maybe he was just angry.
"That you should tell your friend to watch her mouth before she says something she regrets," He said lowly, making Drake's skin crawl.
"Ares," The stout, smaller Olympian said. He seemed to have some sort of device covering his left eye, and he reeked of irritation. "We haven't even gotten what we asked for yet."
"Ah, yes." Ares said as he pulled his sword away, but did not sheath it. "The girl." With this he moved for Luna, but Simon moved his sword into his way. The men exchanged a glare, one that electrified the air with tension.
"I never said we were handing her over," He said. Silence fell over everyone present as Ares stared down Simon, but the redhead didn't move. With another lightning fast movement the two connected swords, sending another shock wave out.
"Ares!" Athena shouted. "Calm yourself, this was expected!"
"I've had enough waiting!" Ares yelled. "Demeter is dead! We're running out of time! We need this girl now and I won't let a bunch of kinds ruin this for us!"
"Too bad we are," Simon replied. "Because you'll have to rip her from our cold, dead hands!"
And with this, the battle strategy could go into effect. Drake stepped back as the group converged, Terra lowering her hands. With a blast of magic, the earth below them surged upwards and engulfed the automatons in standby, all of them disappearing beneath the ground. Terra manipulated the earth and sent it straight for The Olympians, but they weren't that stupid. All of them dodged her attack easily, landing apart.
"I guess we're doing this then!" Apollo said as he raised his hands. "Don't say you weren't warned!" With this blinding light erupted from Apollo's hands, blinding Drake immediately. Even when he covered his eyes he could feel his retina's burning.
"Drake!" He heard Luna scream. He whirled and tried to help, but he couldn't see. Quickly activating his magic, he listened as Ares grabbed Luna and hit her on the back of the head, knocking her out immediately. Panicking he swung a fist in that direction, but cried out as it resounded uselessly off of Ares' blade. He had to think quickly or this was already over!
"Terra!" He shouted. "Do it again! Hit Ares!"
"I can't see!" Terra replied. Drake only got more panicked as Ares carried Luna away.
"If you don't we're already done for!" He shouted. "He's got Luna, aim for his shoulder!" Despite not being able to see, Drake felt the earth surging up again from beneath him. His feet lurched as the earth flew upwards, flying right for Ares.
"Ares you moron!" He heard a woman yell. "Grab the girl!"
"She slipped out when that bitch attacked me!" Ares shouted back. "Don't worry, I-!"
"Get off of her!" Drake heard Elise couldn't see, but the sound of sword on sword could be heard. Soon after he heard footsteps sprinting away, leaving someone else behind. Drake didn't know how long the spell lasted, but from the sounds of things it wasn't going well. After he got his vision back, Drake was greeted by the sight of everyone circling around Elise, who had Luna in her arms. The girl was knocked out, just like he'd heard.
"How did you see through that?" Drake asked, rubbing at his eyes.
"I covered my eyes with a layer of iron," she replied, keeping Luna's up by tilting her slightly. "Helped me recover faster."
"Juno!" Ken shouted, cutting into Drake's train of thought. "What we talked about, now!" Ah, so it seemed it was time.
Drake knew the plan.
"Listen up everyone," Ken said, grabbing the attention of everyone on the ship. "This is the last part of the plan." Everyone went silent and waited as Ken typed in some calculations, before looking back up.
"The best chance we have is to separate The Olympians," he said. "The last thing we need is to be teamed up on by them. So we're going to do it to them first. Juno, if you would?" Juno stepped forward as he said this, taking a deep breath.
"I'm going to use my Territory magic," she said. "With it, I can teleport The Olympians, and all of you, away from each other. I'll try and get the teams and their enemy all set up away from each other, but it's going to have a lot of strain on me. So keep me protected as I prepare myself."
"Is it really smart?" Nami asked. "Separating us like this?"
"We could fight them all in a group, if you'd prefer." Ken said, making everyone tense at this. "They're going to be coordinated if we do that. We'll lower our chances of success by so much it's unreal."
"Yeah let's not do that." Nami conceded. "I'd rather not try our luck."
As soon as Ken spoke her name Juno moved into the center of the group, and started to concentrate.
"Stop the girl!" Athena said. "She uses Territory, she'll separate us!"
"So you already figured it out, huh?!" Simon asked as his blade hit Ares' again. "I'm not telling you near here!" Drake barely had time to react as the rest of The Olympians moved, trying to close the gap between themselves and Juno. But they couldn't let that happen.
So it begins, huh?
Moving quickly for the short man, Drake coated his fists in poison and swung for him, but the guy was quick for his weight. Raising the arm holding a massive hammer, the man blocked the attack with ease and swung for Drake's head, trying to cave it in with the force he was using. Dodging with ease now that he was listening to the mans movements, Drake ducked down.
"Poison Dragon Fang Thrust!" He shouted, spin kicking the man in the stomach and tossing him high into the air. As he did as a blast of white light cute him down, probably from Michael. As the short man hit the ground, Drake turned and rushed to aid Ultear, who was being attacked at long range by arrows.
"Do you see where they're coming from?!" He shouted over the chaos around them.
"No!" Ultear replied, reinforcing her ice wall as more arrows made cracks in the wall surrounding herself and Juno. "She tried to get Juno from behind, I just barely stopped her! Sniff her out, you bloodhound!"
"Yeah and hurry it up, Cyanide Breath!" Elise said. "I know she's not that heavy, but I really don't want to carry Luna forever!" Taking the insults in stride, Drake activating his hearing magic and swept the area behind them, soon finding a small girl with white hair shooting them from a distance. Drake didn't know how she'd gotten so far away so quickly, but they'd have to deal with that later. All they had to do was make sure that Juno was able to get off her Territory in time. She seemed to be deep in concentration, sweat dripping down her forehead.
Deciding to take action, Drake lobbed Poisonous blobs over the wall of ice towards the archer, who he heard scatter as his attacks landed near her. With her moving for a new spot, Drake could turn his attention to everything else.
Simon seemed to be in combat with Ares, Nami backing him up. The two were being held off, but Ares was moving rather slow and oddly. It may have been because he was on the defensive, but it seemed like sluggish movement to him. His eyes caught Michael and Keita attacking Apollo and A man holding a flask, Kyoko and Rina backing them up. All sorts of magic blasted at both men thanks to Kyoko, but they both dodged it all and kept trying to rush Juno. Which wasn't going to happen. Charging out ahead of the wall, Drake kicked out in an arc, a wave of poison shooting out from his kick and forcing the two men to jump. The drinker fell in his attempt, and Reyna took her chance from somewhere else on the battlefield. Cards flew in at the man, and he exploded backwards towards the waiting arms of Sabertooth, who kicked him around a bit until he regained his footing.
Apollo was dodged the arc Drake used, which got the two caught up in hand to hand combat. Swinging his fists and dodging as he usually did, Drake counted his lucky stars The Olympians hadn't employed any sound magic defences. Otherwise, he'd have been in trouble.
"Better watch out kid," Apollo said, still sporting that smile of his. "Looking directly at the sun isn't good for your eyes!"
"Drake heard this taunt far too late.
Pure blinding light shone out from Apollo's body, making Drake recoil as his eyes begged for relief. He stumbled back and, in that moment, was punched into the dirt by Apollo.
"We don't have time for mere kids getting in our way," Apollo said from somewhere above him. "So do us a favour and-"
It was quiet. Drake made a face through the pain, not saying anything and just listening. Everyone, friend and foe, was gone. Or rather, they had teleported.
Juno had done it.
As his eyesight returned, Drake found himself no where near the aforementioned battlefield. He'd been teleported, alone, somewhere else. Wasn't he supposed to be fighting Athena? That was what Ken told him. Looking around, he did a sweep with magic to find that nobody was particularly close to him. Extending the range, Drake swept the entire area of Magnolia and the nearby forest looking for Luna. He soon found her, still unconscious in Elise's arms, in the forest. Platoons of automatons were closing in on her location, obviously ordered to retrieve Luna.
He knew Elise wouldn't let them have her, but he was still going to head that way. They might need his help.
"Look, I know you want to take a nap right now, but I could really use a break from carrying you princess!" Elise knew Luna couldn't hear her, but it made her feel better to be snarky with her. "I swear on everything that I'm gonna give you shit when you wake up."
Standing shakily, Elise adjusted the taller girl a bit and looked around. From the looks of things Juno had teleported her and Luna as far away from others as possible, obviously to protect her. She knew she wasn't safe though, obviously The Olympians weren't just going to let this go. Hell, they probably had countless more robots to send after them.
"Well, looks like it's up to me to protect you now princess." Elise said. "You have any idea how hard it is to carry you? You're taller than me, it's weird!" She knew she needed a plan, but for the life of her she couldn't think of one. She was alone with the target of the enemy, with no one nearby to help her. Looking at Luna for a moment, Elise had a moment to herself.
How long ago was it that she had bullied this girl now? Barely even two years? It made her sick to think about. She'd wanted to make up for those years for so long, but she could never figure out what to do. Maybe that was why she was treated the way she was at Phantom Dove. Maybe it was her penance, karma striking back at her for nearly driving someone so sweet to suicide.
And now, despite that, Elise was the last one standing between her and the enemy who sought her. Rocky had already fallen for her.
Would she?
"...No," Elise hissed, beginning to walk. She needed to find a good hiding spot. "I'm not going to die for you, Luna. You know why? Cause I still got a lot of time to make up for. I can't go until I've fixed what I broke."
If Nashi was here as she had been a year ago, she would have scolded Elise for saying something like that. Nashi was like that. She didn't want others to act as though they owed her. To Nashi, their relationship was mended. Like nothing had ever happened. But Elise didn't feel that way. To her, there was always a gap. One she couldn't cross, because the bridge had been burnt so long ago. Across that gap was a friendship like Nashi had had with Drake. One so intimate, so knowledgeable and protective. To be someone's undisputed best friend. She didn't yearn to take it from Drake, but perhaps just get close to see how it was.
She'd have to make up for those years she spent tormenting her, no matter what. The only way she knew how.
By being the best friend she possibly could be.
"Better strap in Luna, your prince ain't protecting you this time."
"This is Hephaestus, reporting in." Zeus raised a hand to his temple at this. He had ordered Hephaestus to call in as soon as he could on the status of the retrieval, and it seemed he was doing so.
"Report," he replied.
"You were right to assume they would attempt to separate everyone," He said. "The Territory user used her magic to do it."
"And what about the girl? Is she in our possession?"
"No, but my automatons are closing in on her magical signature. They'll have her soon enough."
"Good. Call me again once you've obtained her." Cutting the connection, Zeus took a deep breath and tapped his fingers against his desk. He knew they would fight, it was only natural for people like them.
"Is the extraction going well?" The Oracle asked, also in his office with him. She had wanted to see the fight for herself, perhaps just out on interest.
"Just fine," he replied in a soothingly low tone. "Do not worry yourself, Pythia." It felt odd to use the name he had given her, mostly because she wasn't often referred to as such. The girl only smiled at him.
"I worry for our comrades," she said, brushing her silvery hair behind her ear. "I hope they all make it past this battle."
"They will," Zeus said, attempting to reassure her. "Do not fret."
"I know I shouldn't." She said. "But sometimes I wish the future would show me more. Just enough that I don't need to worry about things like this."
"They who know the future will damn themselves attempting to prevent what they dislike," Zeus replied, frowning as he turned to look at the wall. Pythia only chuckled softly at this.
"Master Zeus," she said. Looking at her, Zeus discerned that the glint in her golden eyes was one of mirth. "That was a very hypocritical thing to say, was it not?"
It very well was.
"I know it is," he said. "But sometimes the damned are the only ones left standing when the gate of Hell are about to open." Pythia only nodded at this, the amusement fading from her face.
"Yes. For the king of death has already taken everyone else."
I think that's a good spot for today, don't you guys think? I think so. Not gonna lie, writing Pythia/The Oracle is such a treat for me. She's only appeared like two or three times but I like writing her.
Anyways, I did have a question I wanted to ask! And I expect 500 word essays on my desk by next Monday! (Joking obviously, but seeing those longer reviews always gives such a pleasant insight into what my readers see.)
Who's your favourite character of mine, and why? I know you all have some obvious favourite's (Side eye's Drake fanbase) But I just figured I'd ask, seeing as you guys gushed so much about my skills writing them.
Am I coming off pompous or big for my britches now? I think I am. I swear it's not on purpose, I'm just curious! See why you guys love what you love, you know? I can only assume so much!
I hope you enjoyed, leave a review! Let's try and get five!
Chapter 317: A Stranger