A roar like no other traveled the air. The Aquamarine mansion itself felt its vibrations, and with them, Lady Aquamarine’s heart fights them back, pounding ever so faster. Still, Lady Aquamarine sinks between her shoulders, a pressure affecting her chest.
William is with her, both being at one of the few gardens in the mansion. Even the smallest flowers trembled at the frightening roar.
William comes closer, and putting a hand to Lady Aquamarine’s shoulder, he asks “Are you ok My Lady?”
Breathing heavily, Lady Aquamarine answers “William… did you think…” she starts to tremble “My daughter” she adds, as she lets some tears escape her eyes.
“My Lady. If even the hydra couldn’t kill her, I doubt anything can. For a woman, you daughter can be pretty tough.”
“But-”
“Please My Lady, focus. We can’t have you now come apart for what may have not happened, the entire Aquamarine Port City needs you.”
Focusing in her breath, Lady Aquamarine closes her eyes. One deep breath, two, now three. She can feel how her body relaxes a bit, and opening her eyes, she finds that she has dropped to the ground.
“William, help me.”
“My pleasure, My Lady” says William, as he offers his hand in order to help Lady Aquamarine stand.
Having composed herself, now on her feet, she says “I can’t stop worrying William.”
“It is only natural, My Lady, you’re her mother.”
“Never thought that I would love that child as if it were my own.”
“Indeed, it has been quite the sight to behold.”
Turning back, Lady Aquamarine enters the room inside the mansion, moving in direction towards a door “It seems William, my estimation was correct.”
“Indeed, but maybe-”
“Felt short, right?” she says, as she enters one of the many corridors in almost complete darkness, their steps against the wooden floor forming echoes.
“That thunder wasn’t natural, My Lady.”
“So you also think that whatever that were, it was some sort of thunder.”
“Indeed. Having been here for a long time, I’m quite used to… the sound of things.”
“Not good” Lady Aquamarine says, as she starts climbing some stairs to the second floor.
“Why, My Lady?”
“That would mean that we have fire and electric tamers between us.”
Opening a sliding door, the light of a large, glowing, floating Aquamarine rock illuminates her.
“We are about to be invaded William. Has the conditions of my freedom from this blasted mansion been met?” says Lady Aquamarine, as she comes closer to the glowing Aquamarine.
Giving a smile, William moves closer to the Aquamarine, and putting a hand on it, he says “There was ever only two independent conditions, My Lady. The first is as long as your life isn’t at risk, you can’t leave. The second one… it really doesn’t matter at this point. The first one is already met.”
A surge of emotions start taking hold of Lady Aquamarine. The corner of her lips twirl up. Taking the lead, anticipation of finally being able to step outside after so long being held in a mansion almost completely in shadows. Happiness, of finally being able to be between her people, of being able to accompany her daughter in the streets of the city, of being able to go to places instead of waiting for people to come to her. And especially duty, now more than ever in the face of the looming danger that is about to befall them all. She can’t direct from the mansion, it will not work, the distance to cover is too much. She feels the need to be on the ground, alongside her Beheaders Corps, fighting back and leading all efforts to save as many lives as possible, and somehow win this fight in the long run.
She can’t waste any more time being trapped here, within the dark. It is time, to be freed from this fancy cage.
Turning to the Aquamarine rock in front of them, William says “I’m William, head butler for Lady Aquamarine. In accordance to the will of the late Lord Aquamarine, the conditions have met. I can testify to that. In the name of the late Lord Aquamarine, authority given to me by the man himself, I revoke the spell binding Lady Aquamarine to the Aquamarine mansion.”
The Aquamarine rock starts glowing, and many lines pop up, lines glowing Aquamarine in color. The lines cover the entirety of the room, and run outside, covering the entirety of the mansion. Finally, the lines come back into the room and jump to Lady Aquamarine’s body, covering her wrists and ankles. Then, the Aquamarine rock loses its glow, being set gently on the ground as the rock loses more and more of its light. The lines start glowing less and less, and as they glow less, they start to lift themselves from the walls, ceiling, floor, and Lady Aquamarine herself, disintegrating in the process.
“That fool” Lady Aquamarine murmurs, as the lines of the room disappear completely.
“You can go out now, My Lady.”
Lady Aquamarine lets a smile escape on her face, as she lift her arms and try to wipe said smile with her fingers, and says “I’m kinda troubled that I feel this happy in such a terrible moment… William, lets go to the main plaza I hear so much about.”
“Yes, My Lady.”
As they are leaving the room, a loud sound can be heard. They feel the vibrations on their feet, and a maid appears by the end of the corridor, falling into her knees.
Coming closer to her, Lady Aquamarine says “You there, what happened? Who did this to you?”
Breathing heavily, she answers “Watch out, My Lady… by some reason, people outside are invading the Aquamarine mansion.”
William kneels to her level, and asks “Who did this marks?” pointing towards the burnt marks on her uniform, skin and her burnt hair.
“The invaders, Sir.”
“How?”
“Can’t say for sure” having catch her breath, she looks towards William, and says “but it would seem as if they were taming fire, like we tame water. Managed to finish two, but there were more with them… I’m sorry to have leaved them be, I couldn’t fight them all. Don’t know were they went.”
“You did well, though I’m afraid that if what you say is true, then you can’t have a moment of rest. Can you stand up? I need your help in order to protect Lady Aquamarine.”
“Yes, sir” the maid says, as Lady Aquamarine moves to the corridor the maid just came from, leaning from the column, only to see one person on the ground.
“He’s death?”
“Yes, My Lady. I made sure about it.”
“Good.”
Another sound, followed by multiple others, coming in from all directions. Windows breaking, wood being torn apart, and many, many steps and screams.
“Seems like we have a party in our hands.”
“Yes, My Lady” says the maid.
“I would suggest that we ring the emergency bell on the top of the mansion, My Lady” says William.
“I agree. But- we don’t have much time” says Lady Aquamarine. Looking at the maid, she grabs her by the shoulders, and says “Look, I need you to go to the main plaza and relay a message from me to Ray and Olga, who are stationed there.”
“What?! But, my Lady, what about your security? I can’t.”
“I can’t say I agree with this too, My Lady.”
“And I appreciate it, both of you, but, if you don’t relay this message to them, a worse fate may befall Aquamarine Port City, to everyone living here” Lady Aquamarine says, holding the maid closer, looking her directly to her eyes.
The maid fell into silence, and only says “I will do it, My Lady. What should I tell Ray and Olga?”
Smiling to her, Lady Aquamarine says “Come closer, for the sake of time I’ll only said it once.”
As William and Lady Aquamarine moves towards the third floor, flashes of light can be seen lighting up the shadows.
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“It looks that we have some in the way, My Lady.”
“Can we push through?”
“If they aren’t that many, we should be able to. Otherwise I advice avoiding them.”
“Speed is most important right now. There’s no enough time William, so we will go through.”
Getting to the third floor, by the end of the corridor they landed on, a man fire taming a little ball of fire appears. William and Lady Aquamarine engage their Auras, Red and Yellow respectively, and move forward, running towards him.
Hearing the running, the man makes the little fire ball bigger, trying to lit a bit more of the corridor, only to be met in an instant with William pushing his entire body towards him, sending him flying away.
Taking a turn, William and Lady Aquamarine see another invader, showing off his electricity taming with multiple electrical arcs coming off of him. William reaches for the door that is the closest to his right, opens it slowly, and makes signs to Lady Aquamarine in order to enter.
“Lets cross this room, and use the remaining rooms to get to the bell.”
“Right behind you.”
As they cross the room, they come out to the corridor that connects to the corridor they were just in, and they take the door in front of them. Crossing through multiple rooms that each one connects to the other, they evade two more invaders, and crossing it, get to the room with the bell: Another open air room, with its own garden, the biggest one yet. The garden is crossed multiple times by an irrigation system that makes it easier to water all the plants and flowers.
The bell is big, and it is at the center of the garden. As both start moving closer to the bell, a couple of Maids and some butlers come out and one of them starts ringing it.
“Good job everyone” William says.
“We were waiting for you, sir, My Lady” one of the maids said.
“Ah, Clara, good to see you here.”
“Thank you, sir” answered Clara, the older maid, around her sixties, with glasses and brown straight hair with some straight whites showing.
Turning back to Lady Aquamarine, William says “Please, from now on, until help comes by, don’t leave Clara’s side, My Lady.”
“I understand William. If they are here for my life, they will come here.”
“Indeed, My Lady.”
As other thunders roar in the distance, and the clouds start to cover Aquamarine Port City, from one of the doors, a stream of fire comes through, sending the door flying. Two woman and a man come out of it, all of them wearing everyday clothing and some light armor, some under the clothes, others over it.
Three maids, having cutting off the length of their skirts, go and meet the invading force. From the irrigation system the maids elevate streams of water in order fight against the invaders.
From the door in the front, a man comes out, the one playing with electricity that Lady Aquamarine saw when she reached the third floor. Another maid gets up, and goes to fight him.
Behind him, two more people, both men, enter. This time both are fire tamers. Two butlers get up and go fight them both.
From her right, another door opens, and six people enter, a mix between fire tamers and electric tamers. At the sight of this, William yells “Turtle formation!”, at which all the maids and butlers come back and form a circle around Lady Aquamarine, all but one, having lost to the electric tamer that entered through the front door.
As the attacks come, a combination of red, yellow, and one blue Aura, coming from the maids and butlers is brought up, defending like if they were a shield against the fire and electric attacks. While they do this, everyone in the turtle formation infuse the water that is in all of the channels in this garden, then they bring all of it towards them, and start attacking with the water, as if they were a squid with spears and lances instead of tentacles.
More invaders keep coming, and the attacks become more relentless. Two maids pass out “Those must have been the red Auras uh?” murmurs Lady Aquamarine. With these two, their attacks become more slow, and William yells “Resist! Focus on defense and disruption!”
“How do you see it Clara?”
“Now gonna lie, My Lady, it looks pretty tough.”
Lady Aquamarine lets a smirk come out of her face, and says “If we are going to die, I would like to go having tried to do a thing to defend myself.”
As she says this, she starts walking to the line of defense. Engaging her blue Aura, she expands it to the combination of Auras defending them, and infuses it too into the water, helping maintain form and attack.
“Everyone, show me what you can do!”
“Will be my pleasure, My Lady” She can hear in unison, which makes the smirk linger on as the garden starts to burn alive from all the heat that is being thrown around.
“Focus!” yells William, as even more enemies keep entering the garden. From behind, his voice can be heard loud and clear “Coming from the right!” as everyone raises their water spears and attack in a straight line in front of the right flank. “Left!” and many more spears come through, now in front of the left flank. An invader with blue Aura infuses his own body with it, and jumps forward, just in front of Lady Aquamarine, just as Lady Aquamarine raises a spear in front of him and throws it, getting him right in the head and only managing to crash his limp body to the barrier “Didn’t need your direction for that William!” Lady Aquamarine yells.
The fight continues, as the fire becomes more and more savage and out of control. A group of fire tamers join, in order to take all the flames, raise it towards the sky, making a giant serpent of flames, and throws it towards the turtle formation.
The attack pushes the line of defense back, and three maids pass out, at which William yells “Pull back, we need to close the perimeter!” and everyone starts moving back.
And now, the electric tamers join too, focusing their electricity in one single electrical arc “Focus!” yells William “Another attack incoming!” yells Lady Aquamarine, feeling now the heats of the constant flames being thrown at her.
“Whatever happens My Lady, it has been an honor” Clara says.
“It has been my pleasure Clara” says Lady Aquamarine with the very same smirk still on her face, which only softens as she says “if this is th end, I only wish to have seen my daughter once more.”
Clara replies with a smirk on kind “Were is the electrical attack though?”
“Uh?” Lady Aquamarine says, as if she suddenly noticed something obvious “The flames… are getting weaker.”
A few seconds after those words came out of her mouth, the flames stopped all together, in order to reveal the other side of the battlefield: fifteen Beheaders are in place, together with some maids and butlers. All the invaders are on the ground.
A silver haired man with crimson eyes comes closer while a sense of release runs through Lady Aquamarine’s body.
“It is good to see you, Ray” she says.
“It is good to see you manage to hold up!” Ray says, offering a hand to stand up.
She takes it, giving now her a hand to Clara, to help her get up “It seems we are going to keep rolling.”
“Indeed, My Lady” says Clara, as she is standing up, with tears starting to flow from her eyes.
“We need to go, My Lady” says Ray.
“Inde-” starts saying Lady Aquamarine, but the sound of a huge explosion interrupts her while a gust of wind makes the flowers of the garden lose all of their petals, and everyone instinctively crouch.
As they start getting up, Ray exclaims “What in the world was that?!”