Verdict
”Swift as lightning, I shall pass my Verdict.” ~Kristel Irista, Future Monarch of Irista Nation.
The last time Kristel had fought a Jaws Lurking in the Forest, she was utterly defeated. The Letterman had had to personally step in to save her.
But now, compared to the Da’bloop, these five colossal pseudo-dragons looked like newborn pups. That was, if newborn pups could literally reform the lands they treaded on and kill people by simply stepping on them.
Under her command, Xiv rallied the survivors away from the fight, while she and Frill made sure none of the five Forest Jaws escaped with their pseudo-Nature’s Favor. As long as they kept them engaged, they couldn’t go back into lurking.
However, that meant all attention was divided only to the two of them. Frill was at a disadvantage because of this. Having never fought one, the Aria faced for the first time the intimidating presences of these Nightmares and the unknown of what they were capable of. Pointers and stories from Katherine and the Princess couldn’t possibly compare to the actual thing.
Despite this, Kristel found Frill calmly assessing the situation and reacting to the fight in a way that protected herself and the survivors. Her Nidai-Imbelia rendered any flaming breath attacks so completely moot that it took a while for the Princess to remember that the common Forest Jaws were supposed to be incapable of such feats. All five, however, could breathe fire and were much larger than the one Katherine had killed weeks ago.
One of the Nightmares pounced towards the retreating civilians once again, as if it was desperate to get to them. Kristel’s Delolera battle gear allowed her to quickly fly and meet the monster head-on, kicking it in the face and sending it back. It toppled the others, spreading flame all around them. The Forest Jaws, however, didn’t care at all if their scales were burnt to a crisp. They simply regenerated, unlike the lesser Nightmares.
Kristel and Frill needed a stronger flame.
“Katherine used something from her Exhibit,” Kristel explained when Frill asked. “It was essentially something that came from these Nightmares. Something stronger than Kaimfra will work too, I think.”
“We have materials stronger than what these Nightmares have,” the Aria said simply. She flexed her Milling, but not her Gathering. Unlike the Princess, her Gathered meiyal had no dispersion time, so she had stocked up on meiyal before entering the incursion.
Despite their current knowledge on Perpetual-Layered Milling Form, and how Frein had used it before to filter out the Nightmare Influence from his Gathered meiyal, the Incursion was still a different beast overall. They simply couldn’t risk Milling the Influence by mistake and complicating their situation even further.
This meant, however, that they were on a time limit. Not only did they need to exterminate—or escape from—these Forest Jaws, they had to get out of the Incursion before they both ran out of meiyal as well.
Not to mention their use of stronger Meiyal Arts now rendered their decision to keep their presence hidden moot. Kristel still instructed Frill to avoid singing, so she could concentrate on the fight and prevent Nightmares further away from making the situation worse.
Another Forest Jaws attacked. But this time, rather than going for the survivors farther back, they attacked Kristel instead.
Kristel met it with finesse, ducking underneath a gigantic claw swipe while slashing upwards with her condensed Sandai-Kaimfra. The burn cauterized the wound, preventing it from regenerating.
Frill was right; their meiyal-charged materials were far stronger. Combined with her fortified confidence, Kristel weaved upwards through the Forest Jaws with the help of her winged battle gear, slashing and burning everything along her path until she cut off one of its wings.
At the apex of her movement, however, a second Forest Jaws met her with a claw slashing downward. Frill tackled the gigantic arm and the Nightmare with it, pushing away a monster the size of a small mountain as if it were made of cotton.
The Aria reached out her left hand while she clutched her shoulder with her right. Meiyal rapidly concentrated on her open palm. At the same time, the Display on her back intensified its glow, emphasizing her Storm Veil.
“Dai Irista-style: Judgement!”
Frill’s entire arm crackled with lightning while she Drew the Irista-style Art into reality. In a single instant, a straight lightning blast scarred the land, disintegrating two Forest Jaws in the process.
Kristel understood. They couldn’t preserve the condition of the land and eliminate the Nightmares at the same time. There wasn’t much to save anymore in the first place. Rebuilding could come later. Survival first.
Just as quickly, she noticed Art fatigue settling in on her retainer.
“You can’t use that again,” she said.
“Yeah,” Frill confirmed while her back slightly sizzled with smoke. “But at least, we have less to worry about.”
“I think you should go,” Norazzel’s voice called out from within her Mind Palace. “Unless you can find the source of the Nightmare, they’ll keep swarming you until you’re overwhelmed. After a display like that, I don’t think the rest will ignore you.”
Kristel considered the faunel’s suggestion while she dodged around the other Forest Jaws, keeping them occupied while the survivors kept running. She could still detect some of them right at the edge of her Siffera-enhanced awareness. In fact, Xiv was running back straight towards them.
Just like before, the council inside her Mind Palace, Norazzel and Evanclad, only made their presence known whenever they felt it would benefit her or keep her out of dire trouble. But always, they presented their advice as options, not ultimatums. And unlike before, she did not heed them right away.
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“Let me deal with these three, then we’ll retreat.”
Norazzel stayed silent.
Frill’s use of Judgement gave the Princess an idea. In fact, it was a culmination of all the things she had learned so far.
Her unusually gifted control of Meiyal Arts which allowed her to handle fusing with Frill and Liona. Her deep connection with Kaimera as her preferred Art of choice. Her ability to condense the power of Sandai-Kaimera into a normal sword. And the knowledge of combining Meiyal Arts just like with Frein’s Mesiffera.
All of them united into this singular act. She erased her left meiyal blade from reality, hopping back to gain distance. Frill immediately noticed and began to play defensive.
Kristel poured her meiyal, Drawing her own version of Judgement in her left hand. But rather than use it to blast away the Forest Jaws, she placed two lightning-infused fingers on top of her Kaimera and slowly transferred the Meiyal Art.
“Sandai Irista-style,” Kristel began, her voice calm and composed, concentrating in manifesting the new Meiyal Art into reality. Lightning strikes, rather than hitting the ground indiscriminately, ran through her meiyal blade, her Kaimera, and all over her body. And just like before, when it taught her Leviathan, Destiny provided her the name.
“Verdict.”
The weight of her new Meiyal Art rendered reality unable to stabilize. Lightning crackled around her singular blade, converting the natural colors of the world into their opposites rather than flashing blinding light. It was an Art of her own, and it was proving to be stubborn.
Each lick of lightning was a body part of her own, sending her information at an impossibly fast rate. A Forest Jaws managed to slip under Frill’s protection and swiped at her.
Kristel moved by a miniscule amount, slipping perfectly in between the massive claws. In that same instant, before the entire arm of the Nightmare even reached the ground, the Princess spun and sent a net of lightning slashes that diced the entire arm before disintegrating it into nothingness.
The Forest Jaws, now suddenly missing an arm, fell straight for her. It didn’t even hesitate, opening its massive jaws in an attempt to devour her whole. In return, Kristel slashed a hundred lightning cuts in a single blink.
Thunder crashed as the entire upper half of the Forest Jaws became nothing.
Kristel reeled her Meiyal Art under control, channeling every ounce of discipline she possessed on the grip of her sword. The colors of lightning became normal, but it was still too energetic. It was too pure, her Art and her lightning, eager to unleash its strength in a display that would remind the world that even mortals could reach the realm of gods.
Still, she kept the Art under control. She could feel her body changing because of it. Her hair, losing more of the royal azure, and gaining a far lighter shade of brilliant, silvery blue. Her physique was becoming stronger, as if it found the perfect blend of softness and definition for her short form. Strength that could lift mountains with ease.
Even the wings of her battle gear transformed, losing its feathers to adapt a pair of wings made out of pure electricity. But the most prominent of them all were her meiyal marks unsealing at a rapid rate.
She could feel them, she was sure. All one-hundred meiyal marks, fully unsealed.
Two Jaws Lurking in the Forest left.
With a silent gesture, Kristel ordered Frill to retreat beside Xiv, who arrived just in time to witness her transformation. He was with someone. Someone who looked like Venry, but older.
No time to get distracted. Kristel poured more meiyal into her Verdict, adding and condensing rapidly until the blade became a giant sword but in condensed form.
The Forest Jaws spat fireballs. She sliced them all away, the lightning of her strikes creating controlled explosions that rendered the projectiles unable to destroy the land.
A step, and she was right under one of the Nightmares. A flex, and she condensed her giant sword once more into a blinding blade of lightning. A stab, and the lightning erupted skyward, sundering the skies. A thunderous roar, and a singular Forest Jaws was left.
Then everyone finally managed to blink.
Kristel steadied her breathing. If she had been any less focused, her Art could have easily collapsed and backfired. Something this strong, to where reality could barely keep up, wouldn’t simply vanish if she happened to lose control of it. Art fatigue might not be her worry anymore, but that only meant she could take on far greater risks when compared to others.
But it was almost over. Only one more Forest Jaws. After that, she would feel satisfied. The Nightmare, however, had other plans.
With a vengeful scream, it unleashed a Negating Roar.
Without a second thought, Kristel flew away, carrying Frill, Xiv, and the old-looking Venry out of the roar’s massive area of effect. Since she held her Verdict under control, and with the trained defenses of the three, the lightning running all over her body thankfully didn’t hurt anyone.
The distance created, however, was enough for the remaining Jaws Lurking in the Forest to make its move. It was a singular act. The Nightmare tensed up as the four Nightmare cores of the dead Forest Jaws, along with whatever flesh of the corpses was left, coalesced into the creature. It formed a massive ball of blackness. And then…
And then there was nothing.
“What’s going on?” Frill asked. “Did we beat it?”
“It’s a Nightmare Sign,” answered the old-Venry.
“Is that you, Venry?” Kristel asked, unable to stop herself now that there was a sudden pause in the skirmish.
“Yes, Princess.” The Guard Knight made a salute. “I’ll explain myself later. First, I think we should go. It’s only a matter of time before the Nightmare Influence here thickens. If that happens, Deep Nightmares will start to appear.”
“Is that what the Nightmare Sign does?”
Kristel stepped to approach, but Venry stopped her.
“It doesn’t break,” he said. “We did all we can, but it won’t budge. Unless we have a Void Mother, we can do nothing but run—”
In a blink, the Princess stepped close to the Nightmare Sign. She was immediately slammed by the heaving Influence of being next to the giant black orb.
She didn’t hesitate, sending her entire weight into a downward slash with her Verdict.
In that moment, the world stopped.
Kristel saw a vision of the cosmos, of a giant figure embracing a black void. The figure curled around the sphere until itself became one. Became a planet.
Became Brymeia.
Just as quickly, she returned to reality. But not before she saw something else wrap itself around the world. The vision was too fleeting, too erratic for her to properly observe.
The next thing she saw was a shattered Nightmare Sign. Unlike what she expected, it wasn’t completely gone. Broken but not erased. The Sign was repairing itself, one lose fragment at a time.
Her Verdict and Delolera were gone. She was dangerously running low on meiyal, but she still couldn’t risk to Gather more. That was when the others caught up to her.
“We should go,” Kristel said. “That should give us enough time to escape.”
“You broke the sign,” Venry said with disbelief in his eyes. He quickly shook himself back into reality. “We have injured people, but I know a way to get everyone out fast.”
Without waiting for permission, the Guard Knight made a whistle with an echo Meiyal Art. A low rumble echoed back in response.
Katherine had told Kristel stories of what hope had looked like to her when she was fulfilling her duties as a Lady of a Void.
“It looks like a manta ray,” she had said. “A giant manta ray swimming in the skies.”
Kristel now knew what that meant as a Floating Dream Amidst the Nightmare appeared from the dark horizon. It was shining and magnificent, bringing with it a semblance of peace that allowed the Princess to finally collapse on the ground and relax.
“Quickly,” Venry said, turning to Frill and Xiv. “We need to gather the dead Nightmares.”