Two men stood at the edge of the frozen water of a great pond, overlooking a besieged capital on an internal island not too far from where they were. Staring at its walls battered yet still standing firm under the night sky, they mulled over what was to come.
"Lucas has met my niece," Ronald said offhandedly about the light greater spirit heir, staring forward towards the capital. "They got along immediately as if they had met for a long time."
"Yeah, I had a feeling that would be the case," Joshua chuckled, though it was a bit subdued. "...You know, I was just a kid from the countryside moving into the big city to support my mom after my dad died."
"And then you received your Maneg Soul," Ronald remarked.
"Yep, the hottest day of the year, sweating bullets, and my skin feels cold," Joshua complained. "Then your dad showed up in my apartment and shanghaied me to Manegia without explaining anything. Like, I literally just opened the door and saw his smug face before the transfer happened right under my feet!"
"My condolences," Ronald chuckled, knowing how much of a troll his father was. "He still got you a nice job, at least."
"All was forgiven after that, getting paid for every commission in the Court helps too," Joshua smiled at the memory. "But still, I never thought I'd be standing here with you in another world with ice powers leading a rebellion."
"Yes, it is still an incredible experience that you and I received," Ronald remarked. "While I did expect my recruitment, I can only imagine how my grandfather reacted when his fortune changed into a Court Wizard during the Great Depression. I have not heard enough of the journey he went through."
"We also did too," Joshua pointed out. "We traveled to multiple worlds, met the people there, got married to them, and had kids."
"Indeed," Ronald smiled. "We truly lead a life like no other."
"Yeah, we did," Joshua agreed, but with a noticeable melancholic tone. Raising his hand, he will his loyal maneg and brought forth his Cherished Armament. "That said, if Emilia was still here, how would it go differently?"
Instinctively willing his Cherished Armament in response, Ronald sighed, "Honestly, it could be anything. But she'll certainly be shocked to see you of all people launching a rebellion in another world."
"If it weren't for her I wouldn't have done it," Joshua remarked. "But, yeah. I'm sure she will."
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"So this is it, huh?" Alicia muttered as she looked at the capital they were going to invade the following morning.
"Uhn...!" Rin hummed nervously.
Similarly to their fathers just off the distance, Owen was overlooking the capital they were going to invade with Alicia, Rin, William, and Aqua alongside Layla and Neptune before they went to bed. After preparing as much as they can, tomorrow will see the final battle so some unease was expected.
"Right, do it just as we trained, Alicia," Aqua said calmly, feeling confident in the events that will follow. "Almost all of my spirits are here, you will be sure to perform it well."
"No worries, Alicia!" Layla exclaimed. "You're natural at spirit arts, you can do it!"
"Yeah!" Neptune nodded.
"We got this!"
Speaking of which, it was the most water spirits Owen had seen since coming to this world. It was literally a sea of blue floating above the ground as water spirits of all shapes and sizes came from all over Aqua's land with only Layla, Neptune, and other mature spirits to coral the rest. They gave the Court Wizards a wide berth, of course, but not to the extent of the spirits at the summit given Aqua was a Court Wizard herself.
"Do not forget about us, kids!" A jovial voice was heard from behind. Looking back, it was the greater fire spirit, Ignis.
With an evident smirk coming from his lizard-shaped face, the greater fire spirit floated to the Court Wizards as the water spirits around him parted like the Red Sea. While the lower-ranking spirits couldn't stand being around spirits of opposing elements, greater spirits like Ignis can shrug it off just fine.
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"You want all of us to assault the Kirash capital together?" Lux raised his eyebrows.
"Since you won't have cursed spirits in your territories, you guys can work together and take down Typhon," William explained. "Just you and your candidates are enough."
"True, the younger spirits would freak out if we told them to go out," Ignis crossed his arms. "So, it will be like old times, eh?"
"Exactly," Aqua smirked. "Not only that, it will show the world that we will not let such depravity happen."
"A sound proposal," Lux remarked. "Alright then, let us do it."
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"Good evening, Ignis," Aqua greeted. "Here just for the sake of it?"
"Pretty much," Ignis admitted shamelessly. "We do not sleep, so we have to do something to pass the time."
"True," Aqua remarked. "So, what do you want to talk about?"
"Well, if my memories are not fuzzy, I could have sworn that island was the one where we watched Typhon cursing that village," Ignis pointed towards the capital. "Am I wrong?"
"Yes," Aqua nodded, crossing her arms. "It was."
That was new. Layla had told them how the greater spirits watched a cursed dragon destroying a village, but not who the dragon was. The dragon being the same one they were going to face made it seem more personal to them. With such a serious topic being discussed, the others didn't have it in them to interrupt them.
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"We all knew from birth to avoid the dragons at all costs. We were all told that if we ran into one, we would face a fate worse than death," Aqua continued. "But after seeing the village torn apart by Typhon for no reason other than his sheer amusement, something snapped inside my mind."
"I think we all did," Ignis closed his eyes in reminiscence. "It was those children in the village that got us the idea to give ourselves fun nicknames. We could watch for hours the various hijinks those little tykes got into with their imagination in such a bleak world and Typhon just ripped that away."
"Yes, that was when I realized we cannot live like that forever," Aqua continued. "That was when our fight against the dragons began."
"Yeah," Ignis nodded. "If it were not for you and Lux, we probably could not convince everyone of our daring attempt to rid the world of them. The rest of us probably would not go through with it."
"True, it was a hard-fought battle, but eventually we managed to defeat the dragons," Aqua then said. "Even though we lost our bodies, it was worth the sacrifice."
"You got that right," Ignis agreed. "No matter how Typhon came back, we will beat him again."
"Yeah!"
"Heh! I like this little creature," Ignis chuckled.
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As far as Owen looked, a veritable army of rebels and greater spirits lined up in front of the three bridges and icy pond connecting the island capital to the rest of the kingdom. Joshua's soldiers were certainly shocked beyond words seeing all of the greater spirits together with their entourage of their successor candidates fighting with them.
But Joshua's speech informed them about the cursed spirits they saw and the rising stakes involving the return of a cursed dragon, which suffice to say they were invigorated. After all, they weren't just rebelling against the king, they were now a part of a greater battle, one with the greater spirits of this world at their side.
"Okay, here we go."
Standing in front of the army was Alicia in her brown robe. Both Layla and Neptune were by her side along with many water spirits gathering in one spot. All of them practically blocked the view of the capital if one could see all of them which the Court Wizards did.
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"So we will lead the charge with the strongest spirit art requested to blast open the entrance," Lux repeated what William proposed.
"Yes, so it will be humans and spirits working together to take down Typhon," Aqua explained.
"Hah!" Ignis exclaimed. "So it will be like old times!"
"Do you have someone to request it, then?" Lux then asked.
William nodded. "We have a candidate."
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Over the distance, Owen could see the capital guards stationed atop the walls ready to fend off the attack. While he couldn't see their faces, he could tell their morale was rock bottom. Despite the siege going on for barely a month, they looked like they weren't going to last any longer and it was not because all of the greater spirits were here because they hadn't let themselves be seen by them yet.
Owen heard a while back before his father besieged the capital, Van sent an army to intercept him in the open field. Naturally, the rebel army decimated the king's forces with Owen's father using his Orders to wipe them out which was how the Transporter Room detected him.
"Oh, water spirits," Alicia chanted, closing her eyes. Her hands were clasped together as she concentrated on what she wanted the many water spirits around her to do. Without much delay, she finished, "lend me your strength!"
With minds linked, all of the water spirits including Aqua channeled their power. Although her chant was quite generic as far as spirit arts went, it was all Alicia needed to get her point across from her thoughts. In a way, spirit arts and Orders weren't all that different.
GLOB GLOB GLOB GLOB GLOB GLOB
To the defenders' horror, they just saw a huge array of water droplets forming all over the place and were getting larger by the second. To the rebels, in contrast, they were witnessing this person in a brown robe requesting what was the most powerful and breathtaking spirit art of all time, one the greater water spirit was even taking part in on top of her glowing red skin.
SPLISH SPLASH SPLISH SPLASH SPLISH SPLASH
Soon, the water droplets had grown to bigger sizes ranging from a baseball to a basketball according to the spirit's rank. Aqua herself had channeled her water to almost half of her body. All of them then shot out a beam of water, converging in front of Alicia.
BLAST
A giant beam of high-pressure water shot out from all of the smaller beams coming together. The spirit art made from the collective effort of almost all water spirits made its charge above the middle bridge unopposed and crashed into the capital gate.
KABRAK
Almost instantly, the formidable entrance of the capital exploded from the sheer pressure of the water. From the steel-reinforced wooden gates to the double layers of steel portcullis, everything was reduced to rubble. Even Joshua had trouble tearing them down without overextending himself more than he already had and yet the spirit art did it so effortlessly.
"Incredible!"
"So this is the power of the spirits!"
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"Me? Using a spirit art to destroy the gate?" Alicia blinked at what she was told.
"We have to keep the act," Aqua explained. "It will bring a different message if we spirit do all of the work."
"We checked, and there aren't any guards loitering behind them," William added. "You won't get anyone killed."
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PSHHHHH
As the dust settled, everyone could see the gates were utterly destroyed. Debris of wood and steel were scattered everywhere being drenched by the water not to mention all of the puddles left behind the spirit art as well. While there were guards injured from falling from the post on top of the entrance as it collapsed, the attack didn't kill anyone. Nonetheless, they were still shell-shocked by the spirit art taking down the gate that had kept the capital standing.
Not even allowing the capital guards to recover from their confusion and stupor, Aqua and the rest of the greater spirits began to reveal themselves to them one by one. With each greater spirit appearing, even though the guards had never seen what they looked like, their gut feeling told them in increasing horror who they were and what they were here for.
"Van!" Aqua's voice boomed throughout the capital. "You have made a greater sin than murdering my blessed!"
It was the first time Owen heard Aqua use such a voice. It was similar to the tone of voice a Court Wizard made if their suppression broke. And if what he recalled was true, those who were old enough in this world would recognize that tone of voice being used during the formation of the great sea.
"You have sided with the accursed dragon Typhon who once terrorized this world with his tyranny!" Aqua continued with vitriol. "And you have defiled the spirits with his curse bending them to his madness. There shall be no more of that!"
Rising up with the rest of the greater spirits, the greater water spirit exclaimed, "Just as we have defeated the dragons before, we shall defeat you and Typhon!" And with a deep breath, she swung her arm forward, "your reign of terror ends here! Charge!"
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"Hey! How come Alicia's fighting all the cursed spirits by herself!"
"We can't get the other blessed to join on short notice and Maria is a civilian here," Aqua explained. "So, unfortunately, everything rests on her shoulders."
"It is fine, Voice," Alicia assured her pixie. "I think I can do it."
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GROAAHHH GROAAHHH GROAAHHH
The moment Aqua led the army of humans and spirits to charge, a swarm of sickly purple spirits broke out of the destroyed gate. The guards already fearful of the greater spirit's declaration shrieked and ran away in terror upon the arrival of the most cursed spirits anyone has ever seen. Before anyone else could react, Owen immediately knew one thing.
The nightmare had begun.