The dark shadow swiftly charges at Lyssa, swinging his mighty light-covered fist at her. She quickly dodges by jumping in the air like a versatile cat. Shortly after, the man forms five shining blue diamonds that scatter with the luminescent pattern of stars all over. Asahi tries to stop the man, but he swiftly pierces the diamonds through the metal of Lyssa.
His glorious black and dark cyan cape fluctuate upwards, with his dark blue eyes staring intensely with hatred towards Lyssa. His pale skin shimmers under the sunlight, with a trail of dark mist following his feet. Asahi yells at the man.
"Huh? Who... are you?!"
The man remains silent while staring at Lyssa. He squints his eyes and summons a long dark twilight sword that pierced through the air. He lifts his arm into the air and covers the sky into dark blue storms. His long dark hair stretches to his knees, covered in dark mist and fog.
Lyssa's blue eyes broadened in shock but then squinted and leaped towards the man. She summons her long black whip and slashes it at the man; he swiftly dodges it and drops kicks, Lyssa, two meters into the ground.
She grits her teeth and yells out to the man.
"This sort of power... seems familiar. Just who are you?"
The man remains silent and tilts his head behind him. There, he can see Aletha, Sadiki, and Akwan sprinting from a distance. He gave a weak grin and vanished into thin air while swinging his long dark cape in the air.
Asahi and Clover remain still as a stone standing right in front of Lyssa. She brushes the dirt off from her leggings and shakes her head.
"This fight is somewhat different than I expected. I guess I will have to use my master's charm."
She pulls out a glistening amethyst gem and strikes it with her fingers. It bursts out a purple aura and burns some of her hair to a crisp temporarily. Her eyes glow a bright violet hue, and her leggings shred into nothing. She grits her teeth and smiles maniacally.
"Heh heh heh. With the power of the blinded queen, I will now transform to my heart's vision!"
Lyssa swiftly charges to Clover and swings her glowing fist at her. She swiftly dodges by dissolving the dirt and transforming it into a bright luminescent green shield. It deflects her attack and knocks Lyssa into the air.
Asahi grabs a stick and lends it to Clover. She lightly smiles and transforms the twig into a glistening polished wooden sword. She feels her heart trembling from the stark power she uses but continues fighting the Heart of Lyssa. Asahi charges his hand and powerfully punches Lyssa's arm. A sudden burst of light pierces through her skin and knocks Lyssa further from them.
She grits her teeth and forcefully grabs Clover by the neck with her magic; she brutally chokes her, whipping her face and relentlessly tearing some of her skin. Clover screams in tears while Asahi stands there, paralyzed and scared.
"Now, what can you do? Huh? You sick peasant, you deserve to die!"
She slowly pulls the skin off and burns it with her purple flaming fingers. She smiles inhumanly, staring at Clover, whose screams resounded from the entire forest.
"Clover!" Asahi desperately screamed as he grabbed more Soil to enforce his ability. Asahi swiftly sprints at Lyssa with all of his might and holds the wooden sword Clover created.
He slashes it back and forth in a swift manner, slightly burning the skin of Lyssa with the green flame burning on the tip of the wooden sword. Without warning, Asahi gets pulled to her by Lyssa's force and blatantly stands before Clover, unable to move or attempt to rescue her.
Asahi screams while Clover gets grabbed by Lyssa's own hands. She tilts her head and squints at Clover.
"He doesn't belong with filth like you."
Lyssa grabs her advanced purple and black laser pistol; Lyssa points it at Clover's head. Clover's emerald eyes broadened while feeling the tip of the weapon sliding down her hair. She couldn't process the surge of emotions running through her. Fear of not seeing Asahi again, losing her life blatantly in front of her worst enemy, and most importantly, losing her will to live.
Asahi stands there, trapped in a transparent barrier from The Heart of Lyssa's power. He slams the border, trying to rescue Clover, but only sees her getting pointed at gun-point and Lyssa ruthlessly smiling as she hovers her finger over the trigger.
As a lover shuts her eyes, preparing for death, as the trigger of the laser gun slowly pulls down, a mighty godly purple sideways thunderbolt pierced through Lyssa and tosses the gun and Clover away from her.
The thunderbolt dissipates and reveals Sadiki angrily holding his luminescent purple blade towards Lyssa.
"Don't you dare mess with Asahi!" He said to Lyssa menacingly.
Despite the panic, Lyssa raises her arm into the air and orders.
"Mechanisms, eliminate all of them!"
Suddenly, the black metal soldiers swiftly charge from the bushes and knock Sadiki back. He wields his long sword and tackles one of the robot soldiers. Asahi swiftly sprints to Clover, lying on the ground, with some of her skin shredded and scorched.
"Clover, are you alright?" Asahi fearfully said as he lifts her head. Clover's eyelids slowly part away, and she gives him a faint smile. Her green eyes glitter with a shimmer of hope, and she nods.
"Yes... A-Asahi... look behind... you."
As the arm of a mechanical robot swings hardly at Asahi, Aletha swiftly fires eight mighty magic arrows at the robot with her bow, all landing directly at the head of it. The metal of the mechanism chips away, and it shuts down. Sadiki cheers out to Aletha, lifting both of his arms into the air and his blade.
"Way to go, Archery Master!"
Aletha confidently smiles and fires eight more arrows directly through the purple glowing mechanisms. Lyssa grits her teeth and shakes her head. She grips her glove and whispers in defeat.
"I can't believe I'm doing this. I must retreat."
She grabs her whip and orders more of her servants to attack her. Unfortunately, Akwan swiftly strikes the mechanism with his advanced golden blade. The robots dissolve into gold dust, and some shatter into pieces.
His long blonde hair swiftly swings upwards while jumping in style, walking up to his own created transparent staircase. He clenched his fists, destroyed the stairs, vanished into thin air, then plunges to the ground with his shining silver gold blade.
"Meddling with our saviors is rather foolish for such an intelligent clan of the nation. Alchemy is on my side, and it is with me."
Asahi's gray eyes broaden, and he eagerly asks Akwan while holding Clover's hand.
"Akwan, how do you know we were here?"
As lasers fly into the air and swords clash against the metal bodies, Akwan replies with a rare smile on his fair face. His crimson eye glows, and out he unleashes destructive transparent bombs that destroy half of the mechanisms.
Sadiki nods his head and ecstatically yells at Akwan.
"I never knew you could do such abilities."
Akwan pulls up his sleeves and wiggles his fingers. He shakes his wrist and lightly chuckles.
"Alchemy has its secrets. Sadiki, over there!"
Clover assists the raging battle and deflects a laser with her luminescent shield. Her short green hair extends out to a long silky finish, and her eyes fill with pure green energy.
"I got it!"
Sadiki tilts his head and questions Clover amidst the battle raging around them.
"Clover, what happened to you?"
She lightly giggles and deflects another attack.
"It's a long story..."
Asahi, Clover, Sadiki, Akwan, and Aletha all fight in combat with their unique, vibrant powers from The Soil's magic and their own. The forest trembles in disturbance while Lyssa flees in a fit of rage and surrender. She tosses her whip away and returns to her standard form.
She tosses her high heels away, and grabs her laser pistol, then turns behind her. Her long dark hair swiftly sways upwards, with her bright blue eyes staring at all of them. She clenched her fists and mutters.
"I may have been defeated, but this war has only just begun. Cecilia will save everyone when the time finally comes at last." She vanishes among the vibrancy of the distant opening of the forest and shakes her head. "Wraileza will finally unleash its promised wrath soon."
Asahi and Aletha fight against the monsters. Akwan swiftly shatters the last mechanism with his silver blade and sheathes it back into his soul. Sadiki and Clover look for more, but both were only greeted with the welcoming silence of the forest.
"Is that all of them?"
Akwan nods his head and pushes his bangs to the side.
"Yes. I see no sign of any life forms roaming in this area. We're safe."
Clover points out while wiping her sweat off her face. She shakes her head and sighs, then says to the group in an exhausted, desperate tone.
"Maybe we should return to the village. Staying in the forest could produce more conflict."
All of them nod their heads and agree to return to the village.
* * * * *
The forest was filled with an unnerving silence. The trees were still as a stem, the sun was covered in the dark puffy clouds, and slowly makes its way towards the expansive horizon. The calm everlasting breeze blows on their hair and on the quiet leaves.
The situation was over, and at last, it was time to recover from this brutal encounter in the forest. Sadiki recollects his decisions and decides it was best to not separate the twins anymore. He learns his lesson, so does Clover as well.
As Asahi tilts his head to Clover, Sadiki questions him in a curious tone.
"So, what happened with that giant laser beam?"
Clover wipes dirt off from her green silk hair and tidies up her dress. She calmly shuts her eyes and takes a deep breath.
"Asahi and I were in the forest to seclude us from everyone else. I was trying to teach him what The Soil does."
"Did you seriously--" Sadiki gets interrupted by Clover's embraced voice.
"It was a grim mistake to ever teach him that. When he tried to dissolve The Soil, this immense surge of power released out of his soul, with him muttering, Aiyana."
Aletha's gray eyes broadened.
"Aiyana? I've heard that name before."
Asahi shakes his head and slaps his forehead.
"Sis, that's the name of our youngest sister."
Aletha blushes in embarrassment and crosses her arms. She tilts her head away from Asahi and pouts.
"Of course I knew that. Hmph."
Sadiki and Clover lightly chuckled, while Akwan remained silent as a mouse. As they approach the second pathway of the forest, they hear a strange distorted voice sounding out from the bushes.
"Who dares trespass thy grounds? You shall not pass."
The group moves their heads back and forth to find where the voice is coming from, but to no avail; there seemed to be no sign of a being anywhere. Asahi steps on the ground and confidently responds to the distorted creeping voice.
"Who is that? Show yourself!"
The deep, creeping, distorted voice replies while the bushes glow a dark violet, white and black.
"With pleasure, morning sun."
Suddenly, a massive shockwave bursts through the bushes, pushing everyone but Akwan away from its area. Cosmic roots stretch out from the ground, wrapping around Akwan's legs and arms.
Sadiki and the others try to destroy the roots, but to no avail, they couldn't. A dark black mist peers out from the thick bushes, with long slender legs popping out from the leaves.
Its face was covered in a strange helmet, with a dark black visor on the center of the monster. Its arms were covered in stars, and void, with its boots forming a sharp tail in-between. Its aura is filled with pure terror, evil, and corruption... and it reaches everyone but Akwan.
Their eyes are blinded in black fog while the tall, slender humanoid creature bends down to Akwan and grabs his arm. It spreads its gills out from the helmet, with its bright violet ponytail flowing in a movement that defies gravity. The creature asks Akwan.
"Princess, we have found him. The being that manifests both Creation, destruction, and The Universe itself, is at our very presence."
His long crooked fingers slide over Akwan's hair while he stands still, not in fear, but in anger at the creature.
"Why are you targeting me? Hadn't you known thou shall not tamper with The Universe?"
The creature harshly grabs Akwan's neck while the rest of the group breaks into a trance. His hands form into Star-filled roots, and swiftly, he tosses and burns part of the group's skin. Asahi shouts to the slender creature.
"Why do you want Akwan? Back away from him, he did nothing wrong?"
The gruel, crooked, distorted voice pitches up unexpectedly before lowering down and lifting Akwan into the air.
"Hahaha. Ignorant creatures? I must say that your description doesn't match what these white-haired beings entail. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean you will cease me from achieving The Princess' wish."
He forms a transparent purple dome over himself, blocking anyone from entering. The creature hovers his fingers over Akwan's head and steals the energy by creating long luminescent cyan strings. He projects Akwan in front of the group like a rag doll.
"Is this the rumored being who is connected to the Universe? I laugh at this utter foolishness. Though this thing has ties with the universe, it still lacks aspects of power. Is this some sort of deception that we do not understand? Is this a hoax from the power greatest unto us? No matter, we know where its heart is, and we will take it to our own advantage."
Aletha tremblingly screams at the creature.
"WHO ARE YOU?!"
The evil creature pushes his hands behind him and chuckles in mockery. He pulls Akwan and lifts his arms into the air. His pose fills with pure royalty and honor, and he grips his heart.
"I am one of the Seventeen Royale Servants who serves The Princess. We are a hidden faction known as The Ending. We do not value the putrid 'magic' of The Soil. The Ending's magic is administered by none other than The Princess herself. With her power, this deceptive world will be tarnished, and the rule of the petty Creator will finally come to an end."
Asahi shouts to the creature as it forms a warped air around itself and the soulless Akwan.
"The Creator? The Princess? What does the Princess look--
"I do not wish to fulfill your deepest curiosities. All of these wretched 'beings' in this world will be engulfed in the welcoming glow of Ending's light! I will say my farewell as you two continue to decay in this deceptive world. Soon, The Ending will come,"
As the creature's presence vanishes into darkness and air, he screams in complete confidence.
"JUSTICE WILL BE SERVED! VIRTUOUS END SHALL COME! AND ALL WILL BE WELCOME TO LIGHT!"
Asahi and Aletha recollect the words the creature said, and they vaguely remember. Asahi and Aletha questionably scream at the humanoid beast.
"Wait, did you just say, the Creator?"
Before they can get their answers about the being that caused their problems, Akwan and the creature hastily vanish into complete darkness, and small white flower petals were left behind.