As the two women squared off against one another, Marigold with her enchanted dagger and Charlotte holding a burning ball of black fire in her hand, two beings suddenly came out of a portal behind the woman and stood on either side of her. Gossamer and Hagson had arrived after being pulled into this battle by…something and quickly came to figure out the situation, backing up the young woman.
Charlotte stood in shock at this sight and quickly realized why such creatures were here; she turned to Basil, who was trying to sneak away, and yelled in demand, "You even made friends with a Unicorn and a Hag Spawn?!"
Stunned at first by her finding him so quickly, Basil jumped from the scare before blabbering out, "I…get around?"
Growling while shaking her head, Charlotte stood off against the three creatures for her next pitched battle. They all stood off against one another, Marigold with her dagger, Charlotte with her magic fire, Gossamer with his magic horn, and Hagson already salivating at the thought of cooking and eating a genuine Devil Peer. Hagson was the first to attack and charged at the devil while throwing fireballs at her! Charlotte was blocked by forming the fire into a solid rock wall and forcing her to back away, which is what Hagson wanted.
As soon as she got close enough, the last tree standing in town suddenly appeared, grabbing the she-devil with its branches and restraining her body! Gossamer aided by making the tree grow exponentially, causing its limbs and branches to grow longer and thicker, preventing Charlotte from moving! Then Gossamer magically made the tree grow thorns thick as swords while Hagson made the tree enrapture the woman in its trunk, attempting to crush her!
Charlotte was swallowed up by leaf, bark, and branch, and it seemed like this would be the end until the tree exploded into fiery shrapnel! Out from the fiery wreckage floated a very proud and boastful-looking Charlotte flexing her Detontion Magic. She then caused a spark to ignite between her fingers and threw a cascade of lesser Detonation Magic. The spells emerged into building-sized explosions, and Hagson put a shield over Gossamer and Marigold as the unicorn covered the woman in his body! The explosions suck up Hagson, and he disappears!
As the dust and bright light died down, Marigold and Gossamer looked beyond the magic shield to see an unmoving Hagson lying in the charred and marred ground of explosion holes. Marigold assumed the worst, but Gossamer assured her he was still alive but very hurt. As the shield finally fell, they walked onward to face the she-devil.
Despite using such a weak attack, the use of Detonation Magic really took its toll on Charlotte. Her magic reserves and her stamina. She struggles to stay conscious, but thanks to her Otherworldly Guise, she can replenish her magic and stamina about halfway. Once she could stand against it, she saw two shapes approaching her from the settling smoke. But before she could guess as to who or what it was, a beam of nature magic hit her square in the face, and just as she recovered, Gossamer came in charging and trampled over the she-devil before grabbing her with his tail and launching her in the air!
From there, she was stabbed through the back by the unicorn's horn and then thrown to the ground, where Gossamer picked her up in his teeth and began to shake her violently! After being shaken so hard her brain should've popped out of her ears, she was thrown into the air and shot with magic bullets from the unicorn's horn!
After this, Gossamer charged a powerful attack and waited for her to fall. Charlotte tried to use this against him by stopping her descent via levitation and promptly hitting the beast with a Force Magic attack. But it was far too late as Gossamer released the beam of hard magic, engulfing the devil in a display of raw power! Any scream the woman could produce was drowned out by the air buzzing with pure magic cleaving through her and anything unlucky enough to be in the sky!
Charlotte fell from the sky in a heap of herself and lay on the ground, charred and marred by the nature magic the unicorn blasted her with. As he walked over to see if she had finally been felled, her eyes shot open, and she tried to take a swipe at the beast! But Gossamer quickly caught it with his hoof before catching her other hand with his other hoof. The two struggled against one another in a stalemate of strength and determination, Charlotte holding up the unicorn as Gossamer pushed down. Eventually, the unicorn became the victor because of his significant strength and his being far angrier than her.
With one final whinny, Gossamer crushed the devil's hands and arms under hoof, causing her to cry out in pain as Gossamer kept her pinned and whinnied loudly into her face while baring his teeth! As Charlotte desperately tried to figure out a way to get herself free, she saw a shadow over her face. Looking up, she was scared to see Marigold standing above her with her enchanted dagger! Remembering what she said before, Charlotte felt her body go cold as the golden-haired woman grabbed the devil's hair in one hand and smiled sadistically with the dagger in the other!
Charlotte screamed in pain and tried to wiggle her head around, but Marigold's hold was tight and firm. She restrained the devil long enough to carve the promised words into her large forehead! After she was finished, she finally released the monster's head and smiled at her handy work. She was proud of herself, considering she craved backward and upside-down.
However, she didn't get to admire it for long as Charlotte released a Force Magic scream so loud and powerful that it forced Gossamer to fly off her and into the air! She rose back to her feet, and using her magic to forcefully heal her arms to full strength forcefully, she flew up to the unicorn, grabbed his tail, and spun him around faster than a tornado before launching him clear into the horizon! She then landed on the ground, formed her Force Magic into a spear, and threw it into the stunned Marigold's shoulder, pinning her to a wall!
Then she looked into a broken glass shard by her feet, and seeing the word 'Nothing' burned into her flesh, she raged harder than she had before, shooting off the black flames and forcing magic into her scream that broke apart any buildings too close to her and leveling out the ground! Usually, Charlotte would return such a slight against her with death, but her fun was no longer fun, and now she just wanted to grab what she came for and leave. At first, she looked around for Basil but immediately saw that he had disappeared.
So she activated her Advanced Future Sight and PinPoint skills, allowing her to see Basil flying away from her and leading the town's people to safety while on Broomy. She smiles at this and walks through a portal. Coming out the other end, she met face to face with Basil, who tried to flee upon his magic broom, but Charlotte cast a spell that took away the broom's false life, making it and him fall to the ground. Just as Charlotte was about to be upon him, a sigil glowed on the floor in front of him, and the massive form of Elliot suddenly materialized before him with a big smile on his face.
"Hiya, Mr. Basil! I'm here to visit you.", the huge boy said with a happy tone and excited smile.
Only for the man, crawling around in the dirt and looking like he just fought a furious cat, pointed behind him and yelled, "Elliot, look out! Behind you!"
Quickly spinning around, Elliot saw the she-devil racing towards him on no wings with claws out and ready to slice or ram straight through his body! In an act of desperation, seeing the world move in slow motion, Elliot did the one thing he could do at this time: try and cover himself. He hadn't come with any of his weapons or armor, just some casual clothing to blend into the common folk.
But then he felt something warm form deep within his body, and calling upon that warmth for comfort, he felt his power bloom, and his legendary shield of true reflection was summoned upon his arm! Charlotte crashed her claws onto the shield instead of the huge boy, but before she could back up and try another attack, she felt her blow absorbed by the shield, and within a tenth of a second, the shield redirected the attack at ten times its original power! Sending Charlotte careening away! After the devil had been forwarded through three layers of the earth, Basil and Elliot looked up from hiding their faces and saw that Charlotte was gone and Elliot was holding his shield.
Looking on at the sight in amazement, Basil said to the boy, "Woah! I didn't know you could summon your weapons?"
"I didn't either.", Elliot confirmed.
But before they could ogle at the thought of Elliot's newly discovered power, Charlotte exploded out from the earth and stood before the two men in a half rage, covered in dirt, worms, and rocks. After spitting out clumps of sod from her mouth and using her magic to cleanse herself and another spell to redo her hair and dress, she finally looked at who she was attacking and saw Elliot standing there with a dumb expression on his face and legendary shield in hand.
Realizing who this was and what she knew about him, she decided to demoralize him before going in for another attack, saying in a shrewd tone, "Well, well, what a surprise. The True Hero of the Dauntless Kingdom. Or should I say it's true phony.", Elliot looked equal parts surprised and scared of this statement and so Charlotte continued saying, "Yes, that's right boy, I know all about you. You are just a child working in the life and body of an adult. Completely unaware and unready for all the challenges forcefully thrust upon you. And, by extension, a coward. How tragic."
Eliot looks at the ground in Shane as his shield nearly slips from his fingers, his eyes trying to hold back his tears as his lip quivers. Charlotte smiled devilishly at this and said, "Now, why don't you move aside and let me at my man? You may have power but no idea how to use it properly. Throwing the most powerful attack you have isn't real fighting."
Eliot looks off to the side, looks back at the terrified Basil, closes his eyes, and replies, "You're right. I am a coward. I'm nothing like my late brother. He was better than me in every way. I was never ready for this title and all the responsibility it came with.", Charlotte rolls her eyes at his statement, already knowing these things, until the huge boy looks up at her with a fire in his eyes and proclaims, "But that doesn't mean I can't stand and fight!"
An angry tack mark bulges on her forehead as Charlotte grips her teeth in frustration and hisses while igniting fire from both hands, "Then you will die braver than most. I'll be sure to make your death swift!"
In response, Elliot called upon that warm feeling again, summoned his magical legendary sword, Dragons Bane, and squared off against the she-devil. Charlotte coated her arms in the black fire, extending her nails into talons, and charged at the boy! Eliot screamed a pathetic-sounding war cry that shouldn't have come out of a being as big as himself and charged back at the monster with only a little bit of flinching.
As the two people fought against one another, the fairy triplets came out of hiding and grabbed Basil's hair. They tried to pull him to safety with Slow saying, "Come on Basil!"
Pulling away from the three bugs, he vehemently told them, "No! I have to put this fire out first."
As he looked around at the destruction of the town engulfed in this overpowering shadowy black flame, he felt his emotions trigger his magic output, and using his Call Storms skill. This skill was attached to Electro Persuasion; he summoned a powerful storm that covered the whole town over to where his home once stood, and a torrential downpour hit the earth. He kept it going for as long as he could, but once he lost focus on the skill, he fell to a knee and breathed heavily as the rain subsided. Hoping it was enough, he looked around to see his handy work, only to see the town still engulfed in the flames!
Basil panicked and asked his fairy friends, "Why isn't it working?"
"It's hell fire.", Moe explained.
"It can't be put out by regular water.", Flo further explains.
"What can I do?", Basil asks them in a pleading tone.
"Summon holy water.", Slow said as if it were easy.
"I don't know how to do that.", Basil exclaimed.
"Kill the devil who summoned it.", Moe offered.
"Easier said than done. How do I beat her?", Basil shot back while crossing his arms and rolling his eyes.
"With the hell fire.", Flo told him.
Basil looks at the fairy with a weird face and questions, "Wouldn't she be immune to it?"
Slow then looked over at the pitch battle between the two fighters and studied the devil before stating, "I think she's been out of hell long enough."
Confused, Basil looks at the fairy and asks, "What's that mean?"
"When a devil is outside of the hells, they have this thing called OtherWorldly Immunity and are immune to most things outside of hell.", Moe explained.
Flo explained more clearly, "But if they stay out of hell for long enough, they lose their otherworldly immunity and become vulnerable to things in hell and the mortal plain."
"That's how they have immunity to mortal weapons and magic, and regenerate so fast.", Slow finished off.
"So that's what happened with Acolyte.", Basil pondered aloud.
"That and he was a Deviant.", Moe put in his input.
Thinking about all this for a moment and then looking at the destruction and battle, he finally came up with something and said to the fairies, "Then I have an idea."
"Is it stupid?", Asked Slow.
"Absolutely.", Basil confirmed.
"Is there a chance it will lead to our deaths?", Moe asks.
"Most likely.", Basil confirmed again.
"How can we help?", Flo said with a determined look.
As the fairies and Basil conversed with one another, the battle raged on between Elliot and Charlotte. The two of them clashed with strength on equal par with one another, which Charlotte found surprising but didnt let it show as she tried to use her full strength but found that the young boy equaled, if not outright, overpowering her. The only reason she hadn't was because the boy wasn't using any skill to fight, and her arms were coated in hell fire, boosting her strength tenfold. But she knew this was a double-edged sword for her. It would eat her alive if she didn't control the flames fully, even with her Otherworldly Guise! She slashed and clashed with the boy's legendary sword, trying to make an opening to strike, but the boy threw that sword around like it was a toothpick!
Until he swung down on her, where she caught it between both arms, caused him to lose his stance by perring it off to the side, and landed a slash across his chest! Elliot hadn't summoned any of his armor, so he took the full blow! Unfortunately, the boy didn't stutter or flinch, giving her another chance to strike or pounce on him. Instead, he stood firm, gritting his teeth and clenching his eyes before opening them and revealing a look of intense determination and vicious fury! This took aback Charlotte as she assumed that he would revert back to the scared and useless child she knew he was after one strike. Instead, she saw a raging warrior who then let out a loud bellowing cry of sheer rage so mighty it caused her to skitter back from the sheer force of his war cry!
Within the next moment, Elliot healed the wound and the hellfire, attempting to eat him, and in the next, he imbued his sword with holy magic and released an arching blade slash at the monster, who had to retreat so she wouldn't get bisected quickly! Only for Elliot to send off dozens of other holy slashes that Charlotte had to take to the air and fly around at her top speed just to avoid! It was so bad that she had to produce her devil wings just to get more speed and agility! Seeing his quarry try to fly away, Elliot cast another spell that summoned hundreds of swords made of holy light to fall from the sky upon her! Charlotte had to do everything she could not to get hit by one sword! Even a small cut burned worse than any flame, and she was taking on many just not to get stabbed! But eventually, the rain stopped, and she saw her chance to get in!
She had to end the fight now if she wanted to win! He may have been a child, but he didn't have the title of True Hero for nothing! His output of holy magic made her sweat like a sinner in church! If as much as one sword pierced her, it would kill her, and if it didn't, then she'd have no way to regenerate from such a wound! But Elliot cast a new spell, and four sigils appeared behind him; four vastly different weapons appeared from them, all of which she knew by name. The Great Sword of Triumph, the Spear of True Strike, the Mace of Destruction, and the Battle Axe of Ones All. Four holy weapons of the Dauntless Kingdom that can be summoned by few and wielded by fewer. She knew that all four could destroy small kingdoms within minutes, and judging by the amount of power and finesse Elliot was putting into these weapons, she was pretty sure the Devil King could be brought to his knees!
She only had one shot at surviving this, and even that was a gamble, so she had to act with perfection, and yet perfection was her first name! Once the boy launched the weapons at her, she grabbed hold of the sword that could cut anything, seeing as it was the first to be fired off, and used it to attack the spear, causing both to explode and leaving her slightly scarred by the backlash! If she hadn't done this first, the spear would have continued to follow her, and the sword would have been the only thing capable of countering it. Then, when the ax came in, she used the same maneuver but allowed it to strike her instead. The ax magically gives any damage back whatever the user receives. This time, she reversed it and forced the weapon to merge with the mace, something she knew the weapons could do, making it turn into a morning star and grab hold of the new weapon, even as the holy magic seared her hand!
She dove down to the boy as he readied himself with his shield, and Charlotte threw the weapon! The shield that could reflect anything, versus two weapons, fused. One that could break through anything, and the other that gives back what was taken, and you come to a stalemate that causes all three weapons to go flying in all directions and out of the hands of whoever was using them. This is what Charlotte wanted, and seeing the boy lose his balance, stance, and defense, she swooped in like a hawk before turning around, going in heels first and kicking the boy at half the speed of sound! Elliot not only had the wind knocked clean out of him but was left sprawled out on the ground and left completely unconscious, much to Charlotte's delight and searing pain in her hands from grabbing the holy weapons.
Once she was sure that her biggest obstacle was out of her way, she finally made her way to Basil. Only to be struck in the face by three holy magic-infused Fairy bullets! Charlotte fell to the floor and grabbed at her face, feeling her exposed teeth and jaw underneath. It wasn't half as powerful as the holy swords, but it was more than enough for her to push her regeneration to heal.
Once she got up, she looked around, only to see Basil standing away with his hand formed into a gun, the three fairies swirling around it. He had a neutral expression on his face as he looked down at the unconscious child who came to his defense. He knew the boy had earned the title of Dauntless from this act alone and earning his respect. He even went so far as to pat the young boy's head as he rested in thanks.
Charlotte looked at his neutral expression with a grim yet surprised expression as she said quietly, "What?"
Basil says nothing and rapidly fires the three fairies once more! This time, Charlotte is only hit by one and dodges the other two, getting a cut under her eye. After touching the cut, she sneers at the man and yells, "How? How can you stand against me and fight!?", Basil still says nothing, so she demands, "Answer me!"
But Basil's only reply, as his neutral expression settles in a mix of discomfort and irritation, is shooting off the fairies again, but this time Charlotte opens three small portals and sends the fairies off to…somewhere. So Charlotte defiantly yells like a child, "You're my toy! My thing to play and break as I see fit! How dare you go against me! Since when did you learn to disobey me!?"
Seeing that he no longer had his needed trick for a while, Basil finally replied, saying something so simple. Yet, it caused Charlotte to shut up for the first time in her two lives, "It's nothing like that.", Basil then took a much more relaxed stance and casually began to walk towards the woman, who was so taken aback by his reaction it unsettled her, and started to explain in detail, "You see, recently I've had a lot of help dealing with all the psychological trauma you inflicted on me over the years. Through my journey, I've finally realized something at this point and at a junction. Want to know what it is?", he said while walking around her body and whispering into her ear. Only for Charlotte to whirl around and see nothing; she turns back around and gasps when she sees Basil standing right behind her as he says, "I was scared and scarred deeply by you, even today, even at this very moment. But now, I don't feel anything towards you. Not hate, not pity, not fear, not anything. The only thing I feel is what I see in you now, and that is nothing."
For a moment, Charlotte was scared of his words and actions. She had always seen him as a frail little thing to be used, but here he was at even more of a disadvantage than in their first life, and he stood before her, talking down to her with no fear. Even if he did say he was scared, he didn't show it at that moment, which scared her. Was this the same man she once knew? No, he was different.
He then got close to her ear again and whispered, "And unlike you, I actually have something to fight and love for."
And before he could pull his next move, an enormous lightning bolt struck down from the sky and hit the monster head-on! The blast was so powerful that Basil was thrown off his feet and several yards away! The lightning enveloped Charlotte for several seconds until it finally faded away! When it diminished, Charlotte was left charred, smoking, but still alive.
Surprised, Basil blinked and commented, "Okay, not my plan. But I'll take it!" He said this while jumping to his feet and running towards the monster, unbeknownst to him that an arch wizard was watching over him through a crystal ball.
As Charlotte regained her senses, she caught sight of a rapidly approaching Basil running at top speed! So she activated her Auto Healing Skill, a skill that would heal her slowly but progressively while targeting every part of her body. As the healing started, she was too late to defend herself as Basil came in and began to slash his nails across her face and chest!
Using Tough Claw combined with his sigil magic to imbue them with holy magic, he could easily cut through her skin like butter! Charlotte was at his mercy, of which he had none, as she was thrashed around and had her perfect face slashed apart! Once she regained control of her body, she released her demonic claws and clashed with him! As they locked hands, Charlotte used her magic to manually heal her face and chest while Auto Healing took care of the rest.
Anger flowed through her veins as she roared and began to slash as wildly as him! Both have no tact or synergy in their attacks, just animalistic vigor! Their own healing spells healed each cut they made against one another. Charlotte managed to clash hard enough to splay his hands apart, allowing her to grab Basil, which was wrong since he bit down on her hand with Sharp Fang and Venomous Fang! Although the venom didn't hurt her, it did sting with his teeth growing straight through her demonic flesh, something that was not quickly broken.
Charlotte pulled away and began to shoot out fire magic at the man, only for him to make the rock beneath his feet cover his body like armor. The fire flicked off, causing almost no damage as Basil attempted to punch her, only for the devil to use her Force Magic to break the construct and make Basil take evasive maneuvers as he used his nature magic to vault himself over the devil and summon two holy weapons in the shape of kitchen knives and begin to slash at her back! Charlotte cried in pain but summoned two swords made of Force Magic and clashed against him! Their skills with weapons were evenly matched until they clashed roughly against one another, so hard they were sent back from the pressure! Basil's arms ached from fighting against her strengths, which were far more significant than his own, but he could see that she had tired out from her previous battles and even more so by the surprise he had left for her.
Putting his plan into motion, he looked down at her arms and snickered. Charlotte looked confused by this, but when she looked down, she saw how her devilish nature had leaked out, and her once human hands now looked like horribly mangled devil arms! She gasped and concentrated her magic on making them look normal again. Once they returned to how she liked them, she didn't notice Basil using Fast Retreat in her direction with a holy weapon, a meat mallet. She didn't even have time to react to the weapon connected to the side of her head, and she was sprawling!
As Charlotte got up and felt her damaged face, she grew furious and promptly started to spew hellfire all around the arena! Basil had to put up a magic shield, but when it was being eaten away, he imbued it with holy magic, which held! He shifted the ground underneath him using his earth magic and put himself into a less fiery area. Only then did he drop the shield.
Only for Charlotte to come in and run him with her exposed devil horns! She hit him so hard and with such speed that the two of them flew right back to the burning town! The devil's horns pierced his body, but Basil held firm as he gripped the devil's head and jolted her with several megajoules of lightning! Charlotte was electrocuted and quickly kicked him off her horns! Basil fell onto a roof and used his magic to instantly heal his wounds, allowing him to breathe without bleeding. He stood up, seeing Charlotte becoming disgusted by her devil wings, and tried to put them away, opting to float.
But Basil didn't allow that as he used his nature magic to form a carnivorous plant and try to snap at her, making the devil float out of the way and throw hellfire on it. As the plant burned away, spider silk came from Basil's fingers as he tried to pull the devil back down, but Charlotte fought back. Allowing him to throw a ball of holy Magic into his Magic Pocket and send it out the other end at Charlotte's back!
Charlotte used her Force Magic from her back to push the ball away and pushed herself toward Basil, allowing him to pull her with his webs and impale her upon a sharp rock he summoned from the ground! Charlotte gasped for air and tried to pull herself off, but she was met with the sight of Basil blasting her at full force in the face with a beam of holy magic! Charlotte screamed as not only was her flesh burnt clean off, but so too was her disguise.
Basil didn't have to know much about devils to know they hid their true visage under a mask of beauty, so using holy magic with enough power behind it should not only harm them but reveal the truth. And he was right, as after he stopped the beam, Charlotte met him with a face that wasn't her original. It was bloated and gaunt, bony and full, putrid and perfect, yet wholly disfigured. It was something that tried to look beautiful but ultimately was not.
Just as he was trying not to look at her, the fairies returned from where they had been sent, and he opened his Magic Pocket, where three mirrors fell and were caught by the fairies. Just as they had…sort of planned, they put the mirrors around the devil's face as she looked upon it for the first time in a very long time. She stopped, eyes dashing between mirrors as it tried to make sure it was a lie, but it wasn't.
Charlotte wailed and began to bellow in a voice that was not hers, "No! No! This isn't me! This isn't me! I'm beautiful! I'm beautiful! Not a beast!"
But as Charlotte tried to cover her disgusting face with her hands, she found that she couldn't. She could even close her eyes to keep from looking at herself! As she wondered what was happening, she looked at her hand, the one that Basil had bit, and she saw a flower growing at an alarming rate! Its roots began to spread all around her body as the head grew larger until it was bigger than her! Next, she came to the horrific realization that her humanoid body was being eaten away and revealing her whole demonic nature!
She couldn't when she tried to use a skill or heal herself. That's when she realized that this thing was not only revealing her true form and paralyzing her but also eating away at her vitality and preventing her from using skills or magic! She wanted to scream, cry, struggle free, or cover her eyes, but she couldn't. The fairies forced her to view her own horrific visage, and it made her suffer!
But as she was having an ego crisis, Basil was about to end it all with her but wanted to get one last look at her--just to remember the monster and not the woman he once knew, knowing that in the end, he triumphed over something and not someone.
However, before he could do what he wanted, Charlotte showed why she was the third-highest rank of devil out there. With her power and determination, she called forth the powers of hell, giving her a temporary one-second boost. Allowing her to use her Force Magic to evict the paralyzing agent from her body, destroy the plant, break the rock skewering her, break the mirrors, scatter the fairies, and destroy a section of the roof!
But Basil stood tall, and he manifested a holy spear and threw it through her neck with enough force to cause her body to flip over midair! With her back exposed, he manifested two knives and threw them. The hit struck true and sliced off her wings, causing the devil to fall!
Just when it seemed like she would hit the ground, Basil managed to catch her before she fell out of reach! Charlotte gasped and breathed rapidly in fear before realizing what had happened. She looked up to Basil's face, holding an expression she couldn't see. Turning on the charm, she retook her more humanoid form, one that looked very similar to her in her first life. Reaching out a hand to caress his face, she spoke to him in a sweet and relieved tone.
"I knew you always loved me.", she said with a soft smile.
Only for her advancement to be turned away when the man moved her hand away with his face, and leaning in to show an expression of cold dismay, he told her clearly, "I never loved you."
With an expression of shock on her face, Charlotte was dropped from his arms and allowed to go plummeting into the sea of hellfire below. By the time she realized what was happening, it was too late. She screamed, but no sound came out. She flapped her wings, but they were stumps; the only thing she could do was flail her arms and legs in her final moments as she watched the cold expression on Basil's face slowly get further and further away. All before she was engulfed and consumed by the black fire.
A plume of hell fire rose as she was eaten, and after this, the fire around the town was extinguished instantly. Leaving only charred buildings with no roofs behind and no physical sight of Charlotte to be seen. As Basil looked on, finally confronted with the fact his nightmare had ended, he let go of his cold expression and fell to his back while breathing rapidly, a terrified expression on his face.
He began to laugh as he lay there breathing with nothing but his thoughts. He laughed and laughed harder and harder until he began to cry. And so he cried and cried until he couldn't anymore. Afterward, he calmed down and covered his face in his arms to block out the early morning sun from above. So he lay there with his face covered and relaxed in his thoughts that no longer swirled around in his head.
After having had his time, he pulled his arm away and saw the fairy triplets flying above him. He opened his arms, inviting them in as he told them it was all over. They reciprocated by hugging and kissing his face.
Once their time ended, Basil stood up, went to the edge of the half-destroyed roof, and summoned a vine to help ease him down. Grabbing hold of it as the fairies grabbed at his clothing to help him down, a roar of cheering congratulations quickly met him, and thanks from the whole town as they half surrounded the man, nearly making him freak out at such suddenness. Luckily, he was grabbed by the mayor before the people crowded him.
"Basil!", the old man exclaimed, clapping his shoulder and exclaiming in zeal. Thanks to you, Ash End has been saved once again. We truly owe you a deep debt of gratitude."
"Yeah, let's just not get into any more trouble. I think I'm officially mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted for one lifetime.", Basil said with an exhausted expression. Only to look around at the destroyed town and say with sadness, "Though I do wish I could've done more. The town just got rebuilt, and now it's been toasted again, and on top of that, more people have died."
As the Mayor pulled him away to somewhere a bit quieter, he assured the man, telling him, "You can't save everyone, I'm afraid. However, what counts is that the number of casualties is significantly reduced. If not for your action, all of us would've died."
"I feel like death is going to follow me no matter where I go.", Basil huffed in stress while looking at the ground.
"As do I.", said a crackly voice, making the two men turn around to see the undertaker, Millard, standing behind them with his shovel and wheelbarrow, making the two men jump from him, sneaking up. "Though, in my case, it's part of my job.", the old man said with a raspy breath.
"Millard, I'm glad to see you alive and well. Are you here to collect and catalog the dead?" the mayor said jovially after calming down from the scare.
"As my job entails. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go give closure to the families of the lost.", Millard politely excused himself while taking up his wheelbarrow and going off to find any cadavers left behind.
Basil watched as the old man rode off with his tools and grimy garb and said, impressed and skeptically, "Even now, in this situation, he still works diligently."
"Millard is a great help to Ash End.", the mayor agrees with him.
Suddenly, a thought pops into Basil's head, and he turns to the mayor and asks him, "I've always wondered, how did Ash End get its name?"
The mayor put on a nostalgic expression as he reminisced, "Before the many magics that were erected in the times of old, the ones that deter many monsters from getting too close to the Mid Lands and completely keep them away from the road running through the Empty Lands, Ash End was an experimental town with no name, constantly beset by monsters of all kinds, epically a red dragon who reduced it to ash time and time again. When the experiment was set to be abandoned, a hero wielding a sword like no other came and slayed the beast, using its body as a marker and warning for all monsters not to come near. A line to mark the town's claim to the land. Therefore it was dubbed Ash End.", he ended while putting his foot on a rock and holding his fist up into the air.
Basil looked on in wonder and amazement as he correlated, "Kinda sounds like me with Anaya."
The mayor nods in agreement and tells him while patting his shoulder, "Indeed, it is very similar. And I have to thank you for disposing of her body. It would've been quite an eyesore to see and smell her rotting corpse."
But Basil, expressing his gratitude with a confused expression, corrected him, "I thought you got rid of her."
The mayor blinked and said, "No, I thought it was you."
The two men then stood there in silence, letting their realization slowly seep into their minds. They both looked at the spot where Anaya died and saw the indent her body made when it fell. Looking back at one another, they stared in silence.
Until Basil finally broke the tension and asked, "Mayor."
"Yes?", he replied in a concerned tone.
"What happened to the body of the gargantuan ancient black dragon?", the man asked with a panicked expression.