CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: MOONDANCE

The warmth of the woman I love surrounds me as I gently sleep. I can feel warmth and happiness, I can feel love and passion. I feel secure and loved and everything feels so nice. I am still a bit drunk, last night is hard to remember, well everything after I started drinking with those dwarves. I kiss Nova's cheek and just stare at the glimmering ceiling. I rub her cheek as she softly snores, the bustle of people walking around or using tools to build ring through the balcony window.

“Nova. My love.” I gently shake her.

“No not yet, ten more minutes.” She kisses my cheek.

“We have to hurry if we're going to get back before It's dark.” I change out of my pajamas and start to equip my armor.

“Fine fine! I'm up!” She stretches and yawns.

“Morning love.” I tighten my straps.

“I wish we could just sleep all day.” She rolls around on the bed while stretching.

“I think we did, we have like four hours of sunlight left.” The sun is falling down low but I'm sure if we go fast enough we can make it in time.

“Okay fine fine I'm up!” She wipes her eyes a takes a Stamina Pill, “Agh much better! I'll be ready super fast hehe Ta! Ta!” She uses her skill to quickly change. “Okay I'm all set!”

“Off we go then!” I hop on her back and she jumps out of the window, using flame to push us high into the air towards the Dark Kingdom. We travel a far distance past the battlefield all the way to a barren land of black charred dirt and dead trees. There are no enemies in sight.

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“Okay this is far enough.” I say and she lands softly.

“Agh this place smells like fire, I like it!” She yells and takes a deep breath then exhales loudly, “I love fire hehe!”

“You're so hot love.” I chuckle as she claps her hands together.

Her body becomes covered with white flame, “Am I? Hehe!” She smiles and squints her eyes, concentrating on her open palm. The flame around her body slowly moves to her hand.

“Focus! Focus! You got this!” I cheer her on as she breathes deeply and fast.

“Aaaghhh come on!” The flame slowly solidifies into a Long Sword and glows brightly, “Step One complete! now Step Two! Ignite!” The sword grows into a enormous pillar of flame as her body is surrounded with a white aura of flame.

“Yes! Now swing it!” I yell at the top of my lungs.

“Aghhhhhhhhh!” She uses all of her strength and slams the sword down on a nearby mountain that gets easily split in half.

“Woooooh! You did it!” I yell as I catch a massive boulder and toss it.

“Steeeeep Threeeeee!” She holds her fists clenched and the energy around her rises high into the air and then condenses to create glowing armor around her. She stomps on the floor and punches forward, “Ha!” A wave of energy crashes through what remains of the mountain and reduces it to nothing. The flames disappear as Nova holds her knees while sweating and panting.

I clap loudly, “You did it! Aghh that's so good!”

She's breathing heavily, “Agh! Thanks love! Your turn!”

“Agh I'm not sure if I even got it down yet.” I scratch the back of my head and laugh.

“There's a mountain right there give it your best shot!” She sits on the ground and gives me a thumbs up then takes a drink from her Water Crystal.

“Okay okay thanks love.” I try to focus my mana, we trained like this a lot during our five years, but never really got to go all out because of the constant battles and this depletes all of our mana. I try to focus my breathing, feel the flow of mana inside my body. Try to imagine this energy inside of me, I reach my right hand to the mountain, “Barrier!” A spherical barrier surrounds it and digs deep underneath it, lifting into the air I hold it with all of my strength.

“You got this! Push!” Nova yells while clenching her fists.

“Crush!” I yell at the top of my lungs, causing the barrier to shrink down. I push with all of my strength and mana until the barrier is the size of a small marble.

“Do it!” Nova yells while pointing at a mountain to the left of the one she destroyed.

“Step Two! Smash!” I yell, swinging my hand, controlling the small marble and making it crash into the mountain. It hits with such a powerful impact the mountain shatters into a fine pile of sand.

“Yes! You did it! Aghh I'm so proud of you love!” Nova kisses my cheek as I bring the small marble right next to me. I put it in my satchel and leave it floating and wrap my arms around her, “We've come this far huh? It's crazy how far we've gotten, how many adventures we've been on.” She hands me a few Mana Pills and we both take them.

“It has been such a long journey, I hope we can go on more fore-” A red energy surrounds our bodies and we land in front of Umbra, Nova and a mysterious man with long silver hair.