Veronica Leylon

Veronica softly dropped the sleeping Eleanor into her father’s arms, ignoring Elsie’s outstretched hands. Even as an ascended being, she still held childish jealousy over her mate who was someone she barely spoke to.

She turned to the dark lavender haired girl with a glare staring into those mismatched eyes.

The tendrils of light on her back contracted like a muscle then pushed forward, projecting Veronica to the Prince of Fools. She left a trail of light behind her as she readied a fist clad in dark silver mana.

Her fist pummeled the smiling abomination’s cheek, grinding a few of that monster’s teeth to dust and ash. Ayperos’ expression betrayed none of the pain as she quickly smashed her right foot into the steel floor, blocking Veronica’s velocity from hurling her.

With a big wide simper, three of Ayperos’ arms coiled around Veronica’s body like a snake, crushing her like toothpaste.

The Valkyrie felt her organs slowly compressing; especially her stomach as she slowly felt liquid crawl up her throat. Her face became blue as she lost oxygen.

A shockwave of red mana shocked Ayperos’ stomach and in that moment, her arms loosened their tight hold over Veronica. Within that split second, Veronica looked over Elsie, nodded, and gripped Ayperos’ arms. Her wings blazed like a star’s fury as she flew upwards, dragging the Prince with her.

They cannoned through several ceilings with the speed of a dragon, with Veronica using Ayperos’ body as a shield. A headache came over Veronica as the sound of metal and concrete collapsing overloaded her hearing. She peeked at the monster’s face.

The majin’s smug smile didn’t change, even after being charred with divine light and flung like a ragdoll upwards across several different floors. Rotten blood dripped over her forehead, but Ayperos felt no pain.

Ayperos suddenly breathed open wind. Her contrasting eyes gazed at the outside. She noticed they were suddenly outside, at the very top of the Harpocrates’ buildings. Seeing the vast expanse of the ocean, she found a massive beast laying just underneath the surface.

Then, a collision course ragdolled her across the roof; the bones of her body cracking with each jump.

Her broken neck was spun one hundred and eighty degrees. She took copious amounts of damage to her physical body, but as a majin that didn’t matter to her. Physical damage was temporary and all she had to do was wear the baby Valkyrie out.

Veronica knew that. She felt the burden of her divine strength slowly eat away at her. Her legs had a stabbing sensation ever since her father unlocked her seal.

All of her attacks had dealt heavy damage to Ayperos. She saw the freak’s mangled body contort itself upward, its broken bones and neck cracking back into their rightful places. Veronica flinched as she heard Ayperos’ bones creak. Anxiety sank into her stomach as she saw Ayperos’ all-knowing smile.

“I must’ve touched a nerve,”Ayperos giggled, “Teenagers these days, so moody~” She didn’t even bother to heal her own wounds, as if just to spite Veronica.

It was like Ayperos didn’t feel the damage at all. Although Veronica had broken her bones and ruptured blood vessels, the Prince of Fools still walked to the exotic-haired girl with confidence and power. The Prince’s hips swayed seductively as her smirk grew wider. “You really don’t know how to use your Valkyrie powers, do you?”

Veronica flinched. She felt powerful. Her fists clenched together, tearing apart air itself, but that was all it was. Strength. Divine will was nearly impossible for her to channel through her body. That was exactly what Ayperos was referring to.

“All that strength and no idea how to use it. Here, let me show you how,” Ayperos extended an arm, expanded the hand and encapsulated Veronica’s waist, raising her up then smashing her face into the floor. Ayperos’ hand released a tiny clump of black mana into Veronica’s head, which shook the Valkyrie’s body like electrocution.

She felt her muscles tense against her will, burning every nerve, from the tips of her toes down to the roots of her teeth. “This is what I call a soul attack,” Ayperos explained, “I’m projecting mana straight down into your soul, but it ain’t for healing purposes, obviously!”

Veronica screamed as Ayperos poured more of her corrupted mana. “This is a lesson, dear young Valkyrie!” She laughed, her giggle sounding much like an innocent young woman, “If you weren’t lung-deep in pain, you’d probably wonder something like ‘Why are you telling me this?’ Well….”

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She shrugged, “I was born with the title Prince of Fools for the sole purpose of teaching fools like you the ways of the world. Ask and I shall answer. If I want to. Buahahahaha!”

Veronica tried clenching her teeth to stop the screams, but they clawed their way out of her throat. She felt her wings slowly disappearing.

“You don’t know how to attack the soul. You’re all power but absolutely zero substance, my dear little Valkyrie.”

She grabbed the back of Veronica’s neck, lifting her up. Immediately, Veronica’s wings brightened up and burned Ayperos’ vessel, searing her already marred skin. The Valkyrie swung her whole body in a circle, landing a kick straight at the burning majin’s face.

“Close but not quite,” Ayperos wiped the blood off her cheek. She looked down and noticed scorch marks on the ground. Her boots had burned across the floor, leaving two long black lines.

A red sigil appeared below her feet, surrounding her in a spacial seal. The mana around Ayperos was designed to keep her in place, like a tiny prison cell. Sparks of white mana hardened the seal. The Prince was unimpressed. With a raise of her mutated hand, she moved to touch the seal itself. Green particles grew like grass around the sigil.

In the corner of Veronica’s eye, she saw her father , Sixty-Six, and Elsie holding onto a single wand, projecting the sealing spell.

Instinctively she knew the sigil wouldn’t last. Focusing on her new powers, she sent out a silver-black laser into the spell itself, empowering it into a searing ball of flame, surprising Ayperos.

For the first time ever, she saw the shock on the freak’s face. In a twisted way, it raised her spirits up. This was something Ayperos hadn’t foreseen.

The majin placed all four hands against the wall of mana circling around her and pushed back. Electrical sparks flew right before her dull eyes, but her pupils were deathly still as dozens of light sparkles flew right past her.

Veronica saw Ayperos’ neck strain as she grunted, putting in more and more of her strength against the spell. However, she knew this was only going to buy time.

“What’s the plan!” She yelled over at the group. Elsie turned and yelled back.

“We need to buy time until Eleanor finds an artifact! Apparently it’ll give us the edge to beat this thing!”

An artifact? Veronica wondered, She knew there was something like that here?!

“Don’t let the thing make a single crack on the sigil! We’ll all be screwed otherwise!” Elsie screamed.

“Concentrate, Veronica,” her father scolded her, overexerting himself in strengthening the seal.

It was a race against time.

Eleanor Deveena

She had told Professor Leylon, Elsie, and Sixty-Six about a crown she saw in a vision. A crystal ball had imparted with her knowledge of something left behind by the Cleanser.

It was the Cleanser’s Crown, more specifically, its skull, an artifact imbued with intense telepathic power capable of opening holes in reality. If it allowed Poima’s father to invade the elf’s thoughts along with infecting a majin, then maybe it would have the boost in power Eleanor sorely needed to beat Ayperos.

Last she saw it, it was at the medbay, but was it in her reality, or in the dark underside?

She had been in the regular medbay, so she went with her instincts and backtracked to the dark medbay.

As she entered the room, she noticed it had been completely decimated. The bed had been slashed in two, there was blood on the walls, and lots of broken glass was littered around her. Glass crunched with each step she took.

The room didn’t seem large enough to really hide anything as conspicuous as the Cleanser’s Skull. Am I wrong? Self-doubt slithered into her heart. What if they moved it? It would be obvious, wouldn’t it?

She didn’t have enough time. Eleanor tore open drawers, boxes, and overturned furniture even in the tiniest of places. There was no such skull in sight.

“Dammit,” She cursed, her eyes brushing past a vent in the wall. “Hm?” The mage noticed the vent opening was ajar, as if someone had opened it and poorly placed it back together. She knelt toward the fixture and pulled on it. With a heavy tug, Eleanor fell on her butt and dropped the vent opening on the floor to her right.

Peeking into the vent, she noticed a strange black box with countless red runes plastered over it. All of them were sealing sigils of high caliber.

She gulped as her two blue eyes gazed at the glowing crimson aura emanating from the box.

*****

Ayperos’ smile had turned into a bemused frown as she formed several cracks against the sigil. With each passing second it grew easier to push back against the spell. She breathed and in a single fell swoop, the majin slashed the spell apart with an arm that she transformed into a blade. The mana had burned away that arm almost immediately before the spell died.

The shockwave threw back Sixty-Six against the floor, his barely-mended foot breaking again. His shriek shook Veronica out of her stunned stupor as she quickly flew to catch her father and her classmate.

Just barely catching them before they fell off the building, she dropped them softly on the roof. Veronica looked back and saw a relieved Ayperos shrugging off the flames on her skin. “Wow, made me lose an arm. Maybe you aren’t that bad.”

The Valkyrie gulped as she saw a gleam in Ayperos’ red eye. “Here, my turn.” The majin’s three remaining arms surrounded the girl with black mana at their palms.

Veronica shut her eyes and shielded herself with her wings. She waited for the pain but nothing came. Cautiously opening her eyes again, she noticed a gleam of greenish-blue transparent energy surrounding Ayperos, locking her in place. It was like the Prince was frozen in time.

“Sorry I’m late,” a familiar voice called out to Veronica. Turning, she saw a girl wearing a strange-looking skull stuck to her face. “Had to find this little thing.”

Although Veronica couldn’t see Eleanor’s face, she could tell the redhead was sporting a cocky grin. “It’s round two. This time, we’re giving you a beatdown, you freak.”

That was Eleanor Deveena’s declaration of war to Ayperos, the Prince of Fools.