[Arthur Leywin POV]
My brother and Reginald had just openned the old metal door, they seemed very shocked for what was there. So I went to them, to see what we had there. This is when I saw a amazing meadow that stretched out far beyond my view. As we all peered agape at the brightly lit field of grass that glittered like polished emeralds, for a moment, the fact that we were underground seemed like a dream.
"Let me guess, this field wasn't here last time either." Reginald muttered as his eyes stayed glued to the enrapturing scenery in front of him.
Brald let out a sharp breath as he continued to stare at the field. "N-No, nothing of the sort."
"Wait..... A metal door that shouldn't be here full of runes... An altered dungeon..... A huge room that looks like nature..." Luz kept saying these things to himself while putting his hand on his chin.
"What's up Diamond?" Kriol said confused.
"....." my brother was silent thinking, until he turned to us and exclaimed "Something is very wrong here! Keep your equipment ready!"
"Are you sure? I can't hear anything, there are just grass and trees." Kriol asked, he seemed to doubt him, but still kept his shield up.
"Heh! You must be just taking advantage of being the leader to give orders." Lucas said with a smug smile.
"I don't understand either. Here it seems to be so peaceful..." Samantha said looking around.
"Guys, remember, until now, with the exception of the first cave, there were only traps, all caused by mana beasts. So there's a chance that here is the same, I don't know what, but I'm also having a bad felling." I warned them while keeping my hand close to the handle of Dawn's Ballad, which was still in my waist.
I continued examining our surroundings to see what was making me feel tense just to be here. The light that radiated from the stalactites glowed much brighter than the ones from the previous caves. There was also a thin veil of haze layered over the meadow but that was it. There was literally nothing else besides the plants and this mist.
While I was thinking, I heard someone talking. "Clara? Is that you? H-how are you alive?"
I whipped my head to the direction of the voice in time to see that Kriol had dropped his gigantic shield and was holding his arms out, reaching desperately at something in the distance.
Wait a minute... Traps... This mist... This seemed like the one in the Elf Kingdom...
"Maryl-..." I whipped my head again, just to see Luz saying that name.
He stayed in the same place as he tried to reach something like Kriol did, but his gauntlet soon glowed and transformed in the sword form. I saw below his mask.. There was blood... Blood was going out of his mask from his chin.
"D-diamond?!?" I yelled.
"Hey. Tafuck is happening?" Lucas said, finally showing confusion with something in the dungeon.
"Bastard... who... WHO IS THE BASTARD, MAKING ME SEE MY LOVE!?!?!? SHE ISNT HERE!!! STOP TO MAKE ME SEE HER!!!" Luz roared in a insanily way, while his bloodlust was out together with a intense wind spell that was making his cloak in a agitated state.
I could feel the air around us being more dense, and it seems that this break the illusion Kriol was, as he cough a little and get his shield back. Brald, Samantha and Jasmine were coughing too, due to the intensity, while Elijah and Lucas seemed to be having a hard time to breath. Reginald was in the same way as me, being affected, but still holding in.
After this, all that scene was being destroyed, as if we where in a complete illusion, and that was the truth. We saw that actually the room was very big, but was still dark, the mist still there as if Luz's wind didn't affected it, so the only thing we actually saw was the right and left walls, filled by tentacles of vines and branches that quickly were making their way toward us. The wall in our front was still with the giant mist.
"Enough of this!" Lucas pushed Luz aside and swung his tall staff at the wave of vines advancing towards this and muttered a spell.
"Crescent Ember!" He shouted, lashing his staff. The bright flame that glowed on the tip of the staff expanded, shooting a large blade of fire.
With a fiery explosion, the slithering vines and branfes flinched back, but other than a scorched impression where the spell had hit, they were unaffected.
"Shit! What kind of trees aren't afraid of fire?" Brald hissed, he ignited his broadsword into a fiery tornado and charged into the wave of vines that were approaching rapidly.
"Samantha! Elijah! Lucas! Support us! Kriol, be with a water shield spell activated, NOW!" I barked willing mana into my body and sword as well, as I saw my brother there, with his rapier and special sword in each hand, I think he was trying to see a way to attack that didn't make he use his other elements, since he was desguised as a noble elf.
Jasmine rushed next to me, both daggers unsheathed and glowing brightly. Reginald and Kriol stayed behind to protect our Conjurers as they casted spells. Brald let out an unintelligible battle roar as he continued mindlessly hacking away at the endless wave of vines that seemed to manifest out of nowhere. Luz started to cast a spell that I couldn't hear, he throw his two swords, and they were now spinning around him as he was starting to float due to a strong wind in his feet.
Augmenting my sword in fire, I made my way to our one-hand companion, hoping I would make it in time to suport him before he got himself killed. Concentrating on the fire dancing wildly around my sword, I condensed the augmentation so that just a thin layer of bright red envolved my sword.
"Searing Edge!" Lashing my molten-hot weapon at the vines constinuously shooting themselves at me, a pile of dismembered branches began forming around me.
I saw Jasmine spinning her body furiously like a cyclone of blades, mincing any vines that were in her direction. Luz seemed to finally go with us, using his floating swords and casting a spell that, this time, I could hear.
"Wind Demon! Slash my enemies!" Both of his swords glowed an intense green as they began to move like mad, slashing everything in front of them. But I feel like I saw some lightning coming out of his arm, but very faintly and hard to notice. He must have taken a while because he was internally concentrating spells that weren't plant or wind element.
"— spread and burn! Liquid Blaze!" Lucas finished his spell first as he unleashed a spray of red liquid from his staff while Reginald continued blocking the incoming vines that targeted our conjurers.
The three of us jumpad back to stay out of the way of the spell, but Luz stayed there, while redyspier was still cutting the vines with his wind spell, the MW Sword was behind him and was spinning a lot, taking more than 50% of Lucas' spell. As the other 50% was burning some vines, but didn't seem to have helped a lot.
"WHAT YOU ARE U DOING, FUCKER?!?" Lucas yelled, because his spell wasn't 100% used.
"I don't believe that you can do a good spell... So... I'm gonna... Just do an Upgrade..." Luz said with a dense voice that resembles more of a demon.
He took the MW Sword in his two hands, its blade was a very insanely bright red, he backed up the Redyspier and swung his flame blade while casting another spell.
"Flame Slash, like a demon..." He cut all near branches and vines in a single swung as his blade range was wild with this spell. All things that this had touched became ashes.
"Crater!" Elijah held out his staff as he finished the spell. The ground underneath the vines that survived Luz's attack crumbled and a hole, meters deep, formed, deterring the vines from reaching us for now.
"Aqua Siphon!" Samantha fell to her knees as she released the powerful spell. This was sucking the surrounding water in this area, and that means, she was sucking the vines' water out of them.
But this didn't work, there was so much vines in there that she couldn't suck out all of their water. Samantha seemed to be having a hard time, because her spell used a lot of her mana pool.
At least, this sucked the mist... And what we saw....
Behind that mist, was a colossal mana beast with a humanoid structure that oddly resembled a centaur, it towered over us like a massive building. His upper part seemed as a armored man holding a drill-like lance that came to a menacing point just over our heads. Its lower body consisted of the countless vines we had been battling against. Two green eyes peered down at us, filled with unbridled enmity.
I swallowed hard, staring mindlessly up at the imposing figure. For the last hour... We had been literally battling against the toes of this mana beast.
"I-I've read about a monster that looked something like this..."Samantha stuttered in horror, sinking to her knees in complete resignation "I think... Th-that's an S-Class mana beast called the E-Elderwood Guardian!!!"
"It can't be, right? What the hell would an S class mana beast be doing here?" Reginald almost dropped his giant hammer as he peered up at the elderwood guardian in dread, and with good reason, since a S class mana beast is on par with an SS Class adventurer or at least ten S class adventurers...
And here we have only one S-Class... My brother.
"Why?... Whyyy!!!?!?" Kriol was starting to cry in fear there, still trying to hold his shield.
"W-we're doomed..." Brald had a crazed expression on his face as he began laughing madly at the giant mana beast. He had already lost part of his arm and he was worn out from the fighting. This was probably the last thing he was doing in his life.
"We have to kill this thing..." Luz said while making his swords stop to floating as they went back for his hands.
"No. We have to run." Jasmine yanked our hands gesturing us to run back in the direction of the doors we had come from.
"What about them? Elijah? The others?" I called out, my eyes glued to the elderwood guardian. but she remained silent, tugging harder for us to move.
I know that rationally, it made the most sense to get out of here... but me and my brother were leadering and helping them from the start... I wouldn't feel right to betray them in this way... Even if Lucas was there, I felt as I'm being worst than him by running away.
Suddenly, the elderwood guardian thrusted his giant drill spear at us, creating a gale of wind just from its movement.
"Earthen Shield!" Elijah conjured a flat wall of earth from the ground, angled slightly so that the force of the drill would be parried away from us. A thunderous explosion resounded from the impact as the beast's lance shattered the thick earthen slab.
Picking up his hammer, Reginald charged forward seizing the opportunity that Elijah had created. His giant warhammer glowed a brilliant yellow as he roared out in desperate resolve. "Go back to the damn hole you crawled out from, you oversized tree!"
"IMPACT BARRAGE!" The giant hammer began vribating fiercely in his hand as he unleashed his attack down at the elderwood guardian's spear. Just as he was about to land on the ground, the broken vines that made up the spear whirled like tentacles and surrounded him.
"GAAAAH! HELP!!!" Reginald screamed in fear.
Luz got out near Jasmine, at his left hand was creating a green fire, while he held redyspier in his right hand. The MW's sword form was floating around him. "FLOWER DOMAIN: MOTHER NATURE'S HAND!" My brother used one of his most powerfull plant spell, creating a ton of flowers around him, most of them were going to where Reginald was, forming a huge flowery hand that grab him thighly.
Our warhammer warrior was pulled in our direction, it seemed that the vine tentacles made sort of damage in him. As his chest armor was broken and gone now.
"ARGH! Using this type of spell in this speed consumed a lot of my mana! Shit!" Luz cursed, while we saw the beast's lance forming back into its original shape.
I ran to Samantha, who had been petrified from the shock, I grabbed and lifted her up on my shoulders. "Jasmine! Grab Brald and let's run! Kriol and Reginal come with us! Lucas, Elijah, Luz! You have to try and block any incoming attacks until we can make it out of here!"
Jasmine picked up the one-hand adventurer who was still laughing psychotically and we look back to see that the elderwood guardian was looking directly at us... Or I could say he was looking at Luz, the only one in our team that could use Plant Magic.
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"We need to move!!!" I barked, hurrying everyone. However, just as I willed mana into my body, a blast of fire hit me square in the chest, sending me flying back as Samantha tumbled of to the side.
While my body, reinforced with mana and from the assimilation of Sylvia's Dragon Will, prevented me from sustaining serious injuries, my breath had been knocked out from the almost point-blank spell cast by Lucas, the only one possibly capable of doing this.
Furious and baffled by the sudden betrayal, I had practically peel my eyes away from the blond brat that was already running away to look for everyone else. Jasmine and Reginald had been knocked back much farther from the spell and were unconscious, but they didn't seem to be dead. Kriol was trying to get up while Brald was still laughing in the floor.
"WHA TA HELL ARE U DOING?!?" Elijah cried out for the first time, pointing his staff at Lucas who was already almost at the entrance of this insane arena.
"You think I'd risk my life to help all of you escape? Be honored that you'll be the valiant heroes that stalled the beast enough for me to escape! I'll tell everyone about your courageous deeds!" he scoffed, turning back just to shoot me an arrogant smirk before conjuring a smokescreen.
"FUCK THIS DESGUISE!!! OMEGA FLAME!!!!" Luz put a great concentration of his spell in his blade and as he shoot that energy at Lucas direction, a powerfull fire attack that seemed to hit him and lauch him against the door so hard that he was now unconscious as well.
The giant beast used his vines to close our only way to go out of here. I and Elijah looked at the beast while Luz used another of his flowers to put Samantha more near us.
"How did you casted fire?!?" Elijah exclamed for Luz, that didn't answer him.
The endless vines that made up the mana beast's limbs managed to climb out the crater left from the last Elijah's spells and approach us. Suddenly, the elderwood guardian let out a baleful roar, gripping my body with a fear incomparable to any of the other mana beasts I had faced before. Its green eyes turned a menacing red and the tendrils that made up its body turned gray and disassembled to form a tsunami or vines, destroying everything in its path as it made its way to us.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" Brald's maniacal laugher faded as wave of vines consumed his body.
Elijah's face wasn't as serious as ever, he was extremely pale and terrified of our situation. Luz on the other hand didn't seem affected, still thinking rationally as he used his flowers to get everyone close together by the door, burning the vines that were there using another Omega Flame, but it looked like the door was locked as he tried to open it with the same powerful punch he used before, but nothing happen.
Jasmine and Reginald were still passed out, possibly because Lucas' attack hit them before they could augment their entire body with mana. That bastard Lucas was still passed out too, and Kriol was watching the whole scene with Elijah, shaking a lot.
I was calculating all possible options of what to do in my mind, until Luz's voice reached me.
"Let's do that, Note! Elijah, create a protective dome for the fainted ones and pin Lucas to the ground! Kriol, reinforce the dome from the inside using your water magic! I'll try to destroy that shit!"
"W-what do you think you can do?!?" Kriol screamed still in fear.
"Just do as I say! I AM THE LEADER AND THE S-CLASS HERE! I KNOW HOW TO KILL THIS BITCH-GUARDIAN!" Luz's voice sounded for a moment like that of a ferocious beast. With that Elijah was creating the dome around the passed out people, with a small opening so we could enter when possible.
With what my brother said, I knew what to do. The world was getting blurry around me. I didn't know how much my body would be affected after that, but it was the best alternative, with Sylvia's Dragon Will's energy coursing through my entire body.
"Second Phase" I let out a strained whisper. "Dragon's Awakening."
Undergoing Dragon's awakening seemed to startle Sylvie, who was now frantically asking me what had happened from wherever she was.
"It's fine, Sylv. I want you to stay away for now and... If anything happens, go back to the Helsteas' house for me and your uncle..."
"No! I'm going to go towards you now, Papa! Hold on!" I could sense Sylvie getting closer while she said in my mind, but she was still a few dozen kilometers away.
"Stay away, Sylv! Please! I need someone to tell my family what happens just in case." I transmitted, the voice in my head coming out desperate.
"Be careful..."
"Thanks, Sylv."
One of the abilities of my first phase, Acquire, allowed me to temporarily separate myself from the space and time around me, which seemed to also be one of Sylvia's innate skills. That phased was limited in many ways because I wasn't a dragon. The limited mana I had acess to, as well as the physical burden the ability placed on me, restricted what I could actually do when I activated the "Acquire phase". But I could react in this frozen time if I had my Thunderclap Impulse with me.
Even so, I couldn't interact with things in this state of time, I could at least dodge the tsunami of vines that were going to me. But for battle that thing, I needed the most pure power that I could reach, the space around me distorted and the ground below my feet began cracking from the mana surrounding my body.
Color drained from my vision as I was only able to see in shades of gray. The only colors I was able to see were the numerous particles of mana in the atmosphere around me, all shimmering according to their elements.
"CONCENTRATE MORE!" I heard a loud scream and then looked back, seeing that Luz was managing to move in that distorted space, he had white spots on his skin, two horns on his head with one of them being purely purple and the other being reddish. While both of his arms were severed and floating while pretending to still be connected to him.
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[Luz Leywin POV]
I saw Elijah creating the dome I had order, while I felt a sick energy close to me, I looked at Arthur who was hanging by some vines, they soon released him with that burst of energy, with an intense aura rising around him.
"We better follow this idea." Sylvia said in my mind as I put my hand where my mana core is located and spoke quietly.
"Second phase... Corrupt Trigger."
My entire body began to surround itself with the two abnormal manas, the dark one and the transparent one. I started to feel a strong pain, all that mana invading my body through my mana veins, as if they were going to destroy them. But I managed at least not to scream in pain at it. I felt space distort next to me and realized that the source of it was my brother.
"Let's give you a hand." Sylvia and Zalgnity said at the same time.
It felt like Sylvia was making the transparent mana flow more peacefully in my body while Zalgnity was doing the same with the black mana. I looked around my surroundings seeing everything getting slower and slower with a sharp pain surging through the area of my arms.
Soon my two limbs exploded with force, with a dark red color surrounding me. I screamed, but my voice didn't come out. I felt blood coming out of my eyes and flowing out of the mask.
Yes, my mask, it seemed to disconnect from me as two horns grew on my head, both in the area of my forehead, pointing upwards. With that I also noticed some colored runes appearing around me, with the top of my head turning white, while the colored strands were dominating more the dark colors of my hair.
"Arthur looks like he's having trouble to control it!" Sylvia exclaimed to me.
Without thinking, I ran toward Arthur, the limbs I'd lost reforming, still severed, but floating as if they were still connected to me.
"CONCENTRATE MORE!" I yelled in Arthur's direction, he was still wearing his mask and seemed surprised to see me walking in that broken time state he had created.
"Kuh!" He gasped aloud.
I could sense the mana around him as if even nature was now under his command. Golden runes, the same markings that Sylvia have, ran down his arms and back in a bright way. I could see his hair growing longer, flowing down to his shoulder, as the once auburn color of his hair turned bright luminescent white.
I looked back to only see that Elijah was seeing all this scene with a comical face as his glasses drooped down his broken nose. I think Kriol was still hidden in that protect dome.
The tsunami of vines that made up the elderwood guardian expanded as a face formed within the wave. The face bore down at me and my brother balefully, ignoring the dome there. Now that mana beast was with other type of look, before it looked at us like we where insects, now it was having fear..
Fear of us.
"IT'S SHOW TIME!" I exclamaid, with a insane smile forming in my face.
"Let's play." Arthur growled, revealing a smirk
The world moved around us in slow motion as we leaped, willing wind and fire into the soles of our feet. We instantly cleared the distance between the elderwood guardian and ourselves as the crazy fire storming gale we propelled ourselves with left a crater bigger then the spell Elijah had used before.
"Thunderclap Impulse!" Arthur yelled.
"Hero's Thunder!" I yelled as well.
We activated our most powerful enchantments involving lightning augmentation, Arthur was surrounded by black lightning, similar to the ones that appeared on me when I used "ThunderClap Impulse" with "Soul Speed", meanwhile the lightning from my "Hero's thunder " were completely purple and moving more violently than usual. I could for a few seconds see the transparent mana gaining a violet color, and then it returned to its normal appearance.
We were dodging the insane sets of vines that were trying to catch us, we did it smoothly, because the attacks that were fast before, now seemed to get slower. I feel that Art's time distortion, reminded me a lot of the way I saw things when using Speed Force, I wonder what would happen if I used that Arcana now...
"I don't recommend it! It's hard enough to control it here!" Zalgnity yelled at me and I took a deep breath, understanding that with my current core and body, this was impossible.
I noticed that every time the vines touched the lightning bolts that came from the two of us, they disintegrated, but when one disappeared, a dozen appeared in its place.
Arthur used one of the vines as a foothold, pushing himself closer to where our enemy's mana core was possibly. I followed him propelling me through the air using yet another wind spell.
I felt my whole body shaking while I held back the urge to vomit blood, Art seemed to be in the same state as me, our bodies weren't holding up for a long time our second phases, unlike my first phase, which I could use quietly without restriction of time.
We needed to end this bastard now.
"White fire" Arthur whispered, with his hand gaining a completely white flame, I could feel the icy power coming from it, it was like my ice flame from my first phase, but it felt much denser.
"Ice flame" I said putting my hand on his White Fire. Injecting with more ice mana and also helping him to control that power.
His body was filled with the pool of our icy flames, appearing to be covered in ordinary water mana and my corrupted fire mana.
"Soulfire..."
I heard a voice casting a spell, it was strange, that was my voice, but I hadn't said that, but my body started to be surrounded by a dark flame, I moved a little away from Art, so that it wouldn't affect him too. I was still confused by the spell that came out of nowhere, but something made me think that it was not time to understand, it was time to use it.
"Absolute Zero"
"Corrupt Hunger"
We said our spells with our dominant hands pointed in the direction of the mana beast. Where Art's whitish fire touched, it instantly froze, where my blast of dark energy touched, it instantly rotted.
The entire body of the mana beast was being frozen and soon after it completely shattered, as if it were breaking glass. With the only thing left being the elderwood guardian's mana core.
Our second phase disappeared at the same moment and we started to vomit a lot of blood, with my horns disappearing and my arms reconnecting themselves to me, while my brother's hair returned to normal color, with his golden runes disappearing.
I could see a smile on his face, we had together managed to survive and destroy that mana beast, but soon my vision went dark and I had no more strength in my arms, making me fall to the ground, while, for some reason, I managed to hear a sweet voice calling me in the distance. My mind instantly associated that voice with my sweet niece...
"Sylvie..."
I soon passed out there, with my body next to my brother's, we were on top of our own blood.
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I slowly opened my eyes, finding myself seated in a super comfortable armchair, my body was semi transparent and my surroundings looked like a small circular room with a beautiful structure involving black onyx colors on pillars and white quartz on the walls and floor.
There were some purple windows that lit the place with a glow that looked natural, but I knew that outside that room there was nothing, I was in a place...
"Welcome to my 'velvet room'." Said a being with a black cloak who was sitting on top of a desk in front of me. Underneath her clothes, there was a soft glow of various colors. And the voice of that being seemed familiar... It was identical to my voice.
"Hm.... I see someone was influenced by some of my old companions.... Are you calling this place that just so I can easily understand my situation?" I said calmly and the figure simply gave a slight laugh and nodded.
"Of course... I don't like to make things so confusing, but I also hate showing everything at once... It takes some of the fun out of it." The figure said still sitting on top of the table.
"You were the one who unleashed that magic... Wasn't it? Those black flames..." I asked straightening my body, realizing that I was completely free to move there.
The figure simply nodded and stretched his arms towards me, they were extremely pale and looked semi-transparent, in the same state I was. "My name is Sirius.. I am the original owner of the body you are using..." He said with a slight bow to me.
"I hope you're not mad about it, Mr.Sirius..." I said taking a long breath.
"No... I'm actually happy. My body was objectified to be a vessel for an otherworldly soul... But it took me so long to be able to demonstrate that, that everyone around me considered me a failure, with the exception of my mother, which took me far away... And that's when you appeared... In theory... Your presence here, makes the goal they wanted me to have completed, but in a different way than expected..." the figure said giving some light laughs.
"So... From the beginning, would you cease to exist?" I asked him confused.
"Yes... Some scientists already had a plan to completely erase the existence of my consciousness, so that the possessor would have full control... But you, you decided to absorb my soul, so that we became one... Even that for now this has not been accomplished, I thank you immensely for what you did for me..." He said making another bow, I could look at his yellow eyes that shone from under the hood, while mine shone with a soft blue.
"Wait.. There wasn't a complete assimilation of our souls?! So where are you when I enter the Mind Realm? Normally the souls of people that went to my body but I don't absorb, go only to live in my own realm." I questioned him, getting up from the chair.
"When you enter the Mind Realm, you are actually using the corporeal form that I always am, when you are not in the Mind Realm, I can move freely around here and talk to everyone.... Yes.. Your inner demon and that sweet dragon know of my existence. We just decided not to talk about it until something intense happened... And well... Today was the day." He still said calmly as I put my hand on my face, understanding the situation a little more.
"We will merge completely, when your core and body are adapted and evolved enough to activate my true blood. Yes, the body you have at the moment is not fully human, but for now it acts as one, as this blood has not been unlocked. And please, no more questions about things like these, even for your friends... I'd like to reveal everything to you as our connection becomes more powerful." He continued to say, taking a long sigh at the end.
I started to hear familiar voices, they were Elijah, Jasmine and Arthur, they seemed to be trying to wake me up.
"It looks like our time here is over..." He said getting up, while slowly the circular room we were in disappears.
"Wait, what about those visions?! What do they mean? I mean, who is that woman? Why do I always see structures like this 'velvet room' out of nowhere? This all it's because of you... Isn't it?" I asked him as the place slowly disappeared along with the being who called himself as Sirius.
"That... I won't say it until you reach the white stage... Or when you're in a moment of extreme danger... Whichever comes first." He spoke with a smile emerging from under his hood and then he was all gone.
I found myself in a completely white void, slowly closing my eyes again, and when I opened them again, I saw myself lying there, with the faces of Elijah, Jasmine and Arthur in my gaze.