The Bach family was one of the few delegates sent by Cloud to represent their country during the official announcement of Arthur and Aisha's engagement. Currently, they were residing at a luxurious hotel near the Camelot Palace, which was situated at the center of the Capital City, Caelum (Chelum).
Fusha was the inheritor of the aristocratic title, "Lord (or in her case, Lady) of the land", while her husband, former adventurer, Mr. Fueguard Molair-Bach, was a mere peasant who married into the family by sheer accident. This was because Fueguard once saved Fusha's father by using illusions to make a suspected assassin confess his plans and the identity of his employer; thus, majorly avoiding what could have been a disaster. Ever since that day, Fusha's father made sure that Fueguard be married into his family; which indeed, successfully happened. What a shallow reasoning, her father had.
Nonetheless, after years of being together, though she was sometimes rough towards Fueguard, Fusha did not hate him—that's all she could say. In their marriage; the two of them had borne into this world, a girl of such beauty as the dazzling sky and as meek as the fluffy clouds: a child they named Soria. Fusha was thirty-two when she gave birth to Soria, while Fueguard at that time was already forty. Fifteen years later and—
"Mom!" cried the rebellious and infantile Soria, as she broke into Fueguard and Fusha's room with a bang of the door. "Someone took my Illusory Gem again!"
"Must be your father," angrily spelled Fusha. "When will that man ever learn? Gems aren't for pranking your friends, they're very pricey."
Before Fusha even got the time to think, Soria swiped the Illusory Gem placed on her table.
"Dibs!" triumphantly mocked the childish girl, while hastily running towards her room. "I'm looking forward for today's program."
As she was rushing away, she made a quick turn of the head and winked at her mother.
The Illusory Gem was like the Artherean's own version of Gaian's Mirror Vision; but instead of circuits, it ran through magic and mana. The striking difference between the two was the quality: the Illusory Gem could not only project images like the Mirror Vision, it could actually place a person in it; but because of this, the object was sold at a hefty price, unlike the cheaper, much simpler to use, Mirror Vision.
Soria loved watching G-dramas (Branch's Gaian tele-novellas) and watch it through the illusory realm to gain a wholly realistic experience of the scenes. Nonetheless, inside the illusory realm, one could not touch any objects—an exception would be, if a mage conjured his own illusion within the realm itself to produce a secondary effect: sensation. The illusory realm would provide the 'seeing' part while the magic illusion would provide the 'feeling' part. However, a G-drama, had no such effect.
It is safe to say, however, that Soria cared less about such things. Although, the other day, something curious piqued her interest. Apparently, there were rumors going on about that a certain company between Gaians and Aethereans had developed an even better technology by combining both concepts. They called it "Virtual Realm", but they said it was still in its testing phase and that little to no information was being leaked about it so no one could really clarify the truth.
The Illusory Gem was a very small handheld device, yet it was very difficult to manufacture, that's why it was pricey. Even though being of noble lineage meant that the Bach family was rich, the frugal mentality ran in their blood, so every penny counted. Thus, Fueguard's constant 'stealing' of their Illusory Gems to prank his adventurer friends (now guarding the delegates) was unthinkable and outright degenerate.
Soria placed the gem on her table after she had hurriedly entered through her heavily ornamented door. The gem lit up and she was consumed in its light, bringing her into the comically hectic and confusing world of G-dramas. Momentarily, a violent knock came from behind her door, indicating that her mother was about to barge in.
Very soon after, a loud bout of shouting between the selfish mother and daughter pair ensued.
***
Somewhere, on the slope near the top of Mount Pace, a gory scene unfurled its menace. The moon had already made its appearance, ironically glancing down its gentle light to the violence down below. The slight breeze had become a gust of violent wind, smashing the tree branches to each other; thus, producing raucous sounds that—owing to the bloody view—seemed to be the laughter of a psychotic maniac.
A head—eyes opened—rolled down the slope, ultimately hitting a tree trunk down ahead. It stared its lifeless eyes towards Aisha, as its bloody body leaned on her chest. Aisha's eyes widened in shock, and her pupils constricted and vibrated. Anger slowly seeped out of her until it cascaded out in the form of pink mana—something that would only happen when mana was concentrated in large amounts.
She turned her head around and gently placed Arthur Crane's lifeless body on the ground. The moment she turned, she caught a glimpse of the culprit.
"How dare you!" she blurted on the top of her lungs.
"I dare—" Pendragon answered, flicking his sword to remove the blood-stain on it, then placing it back into its scabbard, "because it is my duty to protect my nation."
As if all sanity had left Aisha, she suddenly teleported in front of Arthur, menacingly looking at his eyes. A wave of mana burst from her palms as she pushed Arthur away, sending him a few feet into the distance. This was the ultimate combat magic; magic without incantations, magic without gestures; magic that used pure mana—something only tier-SS mages could perform.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
Aisha's body began to transform as every part of her melted and fused with her magic. Her whole flesh and body transfigured into pure mana—every cell, every organic part of her, became energy itself; thus, she glowed in a bright and pinkish light. She scanned the place where she sent Arthur flying to; then a glint of golden light flashed before her, indicating Arthur had unsheathed his sword.
"You bastard of a woman!" Arthur impudently chastised, spitting blood. "You've seen for yourself how Crane reacted when you asked if he had connections with the organization. You already know he's a traitor."
"Shut up!" bellowed Aisha with what seemed to be many voices speaking at once. "My Arthur, my Arthur, my Arthur—MY ARTHUR." Aisha looked like she had lost all her sanity after witnessing Arthur's death.
"MY ARTHUR—you have killed my ARTHUR!"
Aisha started to levitate a great distance from the ground, overlooking Pendragon. Mana began to concentrate from her body to her palms, forming two spheres of energy that began to grow in size. She pointed these energy spheres to where Pendragon was at and released them with a sudden quickness that Arthur was caught off-guard.
The two spheres hit the ground and imploded first, decimating a small area, then exploded outwards, causing more destruction with a greater coverage. The forest was instantly wiped clean of trees.
After the smoke had cleared up, two huge craters could be seen in the place where the booming greenery once stood. Crane's lifeless body however, got pushed by the outward gust of the blast and was sent tumbling down the slope. Whether his corpse would survive this without being minced to burnt pieces was another thing entirely.
In one of the craters stood Pendragon, with his suit broken and his body tattered with wounds. His eyesight was getting blurry as blood coming from his head flowed down his face, finally dripping to the ground. Arthur smiled.
He couldn't survive this fight unless he used his full strength. The technique Arthur practiced was a legendary one passed down within the Ankerwal family (his father's lineage), and was given the title, "Purple Terror"; its name was Multicellular Instantaneous Modification; (if you do not like its modern name, you may use the old one: The Art of the Werebeast)
Arthur wiped the blood off of his lips and held his sword tightly. Moments after, streaks of light began to enter his body (a phenomenon that occurred whenever aether was condensed into the human body). Unlike ordinary techniques however, that used aether to strengthen a certain martial arts move to an inhuman degree, Arthur's technique could modify his whole body itself. A practitioner of The Art of the Werebeast could make his body harder or softer, weaker or stronger, agile or slow; some could even change its structure temporarily, like transforming into another person and etc. They could also elongate or widen (and more) any part of their body. However, if an irregular practiced it, something interesting would happen.
The cellular structure of Arthur's body slowly changed, turning his skin color into red and his eyes into purple. His golden hair grew to his waist and turned to white. His ears began to elongate and taper to a point, just like an Aetherean. This ability was the true form of the "Purple Terror"; once the eyes turned purple, strength would overflow.
Aisha sent a barrage of tiny spheres of pure mana heading towards Arthur, which he deftly evaded. Next, she fired a beam of energy. Seeing that there was no escaping it, Arthur blocked it with his sword. He was already strong to begin with but with Excalibur, he had become twice as strong. Nevertheless, even with his strength, the beam instantly evaporated the area of land around him, grazing his cheek at the same time; thus, causing a tiny wound to appear.
'Strong,' thought Arthur in desperation. 'So Aetherean's are this powerful, huh?'
Arthur activated the feather crystal (his mother's gift) that had been shrunk down in size and placed inside the crystal-casing on his ring. Strings of yellow light (visible aether) gathered behind Arthur's back and began to form a pair of wings. After they had formed, Arthur flew, launching towards Aisha at lightning speed. Arthur lifted his sword then released it with a strike, but Aisha opened her mouth and blew a gust of mana towards him, pushing him back.
'Tch,' he spat on the ground, 'quiet persistent aren't you?'
Arthur hefted his sword; then his body began to grow in size, as muscles upon muscles bulged and bulged with aether fueling this change. He was already at 50% level of strength so it was safe to say that his slashes could probably already wound Aisha; he then flew vertically and stopped in the air opposite her.
Aisha on the other hand had lifted an arm gracefully and flicked a finger, sending an invisible mana attack towards Arthur. The attack, however, did no damage as it dissipated the moment it hit Arthur's hardened body.
The two then exchanged powerful attacks: Aisha with her beams and Arthur with his long-ranged slashes that could mar the face of the mountain below him. Thunderous sounds ensued as they fought.
Aisha flung another ball of mana, which Arthur deftly evaded; the area where it hit was turned into a deep crater. Arthur followed with an aether slash that Aisha redirected with mana, causing it to hit the ground below; thus, creating a deep and long furrow. They exchanged attacks until—
When Arthur had reached 100%, he quickly rushed towards Aisha with his sword pointing forward. Aisha, however, did not budge, as she gathered mana in front of her, turning it into another sphere. This time however, after the ball had erupted so big that Aisha seemed like a small dot of ink within it, it shrunk and condensed into a small point, the size of a small coin. She released it towards the charging Arthur and a giant beam of light (ten times the size of the others before) hurtled forward.
Arthur, in spite of that, continued his attack; the moment his sword and Aisha's attack touched, Excalibur glowed resplendently, producing a giant aether slash that sliced Aisha's attack. Both their attacks faced off in what seemed to be a fair match until—
The two attacks cancelled each other out, exploding in waves just like a nuclear blast.
*Whoosh*
As the light faded, Aisha had turned back to her normal self, unconsciously falling to the ground. Arthur was the last one left standing, albeit extremely wounded and hurting as he flew down to catch the falling Aisha.
A moment after, a ship descended to their location. It was no other than the mercenary ship—Magellanic Ship—that had left Mount Pace in haste after seeing two monsters fight to the death. Mesh came out through the doors that had just opened up. The next thing he saw, was a wounded Arthur in a tattered suit, carrying Aisha in a bridal carry as he ascended the ramp leading to the door of his ship.
'Goodbye, Old Man,' whispered Arthur.
Today, his old man's remains (which were already bones), would completely return to the dust.
"My, my," Mesh gaped in surprise. "What monstrosity did this?"
Indeed... for the ancient mountain that had seen dinosaurs roam, and empires rise and fall, had disappeared from the face of the world.
***
Somewhere, in a village at the outskirts of Branch, near Mt. Pace (or what remained of it), a figure of an old man brought a bag of food inside a dilapidated and abandoned barn.
"Wake up!" he called out to a man, bandaged all over, lying on a bunch of hay spread on the ground. The man groaned and woke up.