As we stood there atop the Celestial Dome with rubble and debris all around us, Syemore began to hover in the air from where he was. He did it all with the emission of mana and without the use of wings like what he previously had. His previous demon form was disregarded, and floated before us as a mere, shroudless man.
From behind, I heard Belle make her way next to me, facing off against Syemore by my side. She stepped onto the golden barrier with those dainty and pretty bare feet of hers. "This is a serious situation we are in, Greed… Do you know what this means?"
I looked at her with a bit of confusion, taking a gulp before answering, "I'm gonna be honest with you, princess…"—blinking and taking a breath—"I haven't the slightest clue."
She gave me a faint smile as if already knowing I'd answer that way.
"It's quite all right. This is most definitely a complicated situation we are in. It changes just about everything. This is something that must be discussed in council with the Arcane King once this is all over."
"So, you're implying that we're going to win this, right?" I replied charmingly.
"Of course we are. We have you."
I smirked at her after she said that. And though I didn't entirely understand, this whole time, Syemore had been more than just an infiltrator from the Mountain Kingdom. Now he had claimed he was a Maven Knight—Maven Lord—whatever the difference was. The ones who ruled over all the world. The head of the trifecta Great Alliance—the World System that we all fall under… I could barely fathom the thought. I had almost forgotten that I had gotten arrested this morning… again. What the hell was even going on today?
I sighed, staring at the remaining hilt of the Arc Slayer I had once held. It was completely shattered now, useless for the remainder of this fight. But it had served its purpose. When I dropped it, I strategically weaved my apology to Belle in a bow of a compliment, "Your words are all I need, princess… and sorry about this… give the Arcane King my regards, would you?"
I started taking off my tattered Black Wolves jacket, tossing away the ribbons of it as it slid off my shoulders. I only wore a ripped white tank underneath that was skintight on me, only slightly tattered.
My muscles were cut and all the tattoos that covered my body like a body suit were revealed from my arms, neck, and top of my chest. My skin against the sunlight, the large half-wolf tattoo on the left side of my neck bolstering. I began to rotate my right arm in a circular motion with my left hand on my shoulder—eyes closed. I had hardly even realized Belle had been watching me from the side the whole time, blushing a little as I stood there with my muscles revealing now.
"See something you like?" I said coquettishly to her, sensing her stare and meeting it right back with a glance from the side of my own.
"Y—you… you look nice," she said nervously as her rosy cheeks started to become even rosier. An unexpected answer, but a very cute one, nonetheless. I'll save that for later…
I smirked, closing my eyes for only a second before shifting them back to our enemy—still talking to her as I flirted, "What do you say we get this over with and I'll show you something nicer?"
She met me where I was, matching my affectations, "Sure. But only if you mean your bed…" a playful jab and an invitation at the same time. She was a witty princess, that was for sure. And that was all the motivation I needed.
"By the way…" she said, "Thanks for the piggyback."
I raised a brow.
"I cast a thin layer of Holy magic thread on you just after we teleported up here. It seems that without you realizing it, you can detect if the magic is a threat or not subconsciously, unless of course, it manages to catch you off guard—which is a low probability. I noticed this the second we got warped by your Vice Captain's magic. If you truly negated all magic, then even his wouldn't be able to work on you. So I tested a theory, and I was right. To you, this thread is the same as my hand gently touching you. That's how I remained as I am before you without being affected by Syemore's Time magic."
"I see… Maybe you can show me more of that gentle touch later—"
CRASH!
Two Phantomdrakes had collided onto us from seemingly out of nowhere, engulfing us within them. The necks of the dragons were visible but started to fade as they reached back to where Syemore was standing, summoning them from his back.
Our silhouettes were seen from outside of them; Syemore's face, a disinterested look. As if he had grown tired of our squabbling like he wasn't there, reminding us that he had been the whole time.
Right then, however, both the Phantomdrakes on us dispersed, disintegrating and leaving only Belle and me still standing there unscathed. Blemishes of black aura covered different parts of my torso and arms, half transformed with those jagged fangs baring from the side of my face.
Belle had now been in a completely different form too as she now wore rose gold-plated armor all over herself—like that of a gladiator. The armor was still revealing as it displayed various parts of her skin, arms, breast, and legs, but from the knees down she had now worn gladiator heels, still showing off her pretty pink, sparkling toenails. And from her sides, she held two golden blades that looked as if they were forged from Holy magic blacksmiths—carved, sleek and intricate, matching her rose gold armor. On her head, she wore a majestic crown that could shift into a face shield at any moment. Her platinum white hair was down, accompanied by two white cloths that draped behind her like capes fluttering in the wind. And lastly, a pin to the side of her head that I had not seen before—the only thing that did not match the rest of her gladiator outfit. It had seemed like a white cartoonish wolfdog with its tongue sticking out. A visible window to a side of her I saw earlier, confirming her love for wolfdogs.
We stood there completely unfazed. Syemore glared back at us with his head tilted, giving us half a smile.
"Come on, man, you know it's rude to interrupt people when they're talking," I said to him, being that getting interrupted was a peeve of mine.
He began laughing in spurts in that same maniacal way, "You're quite cocky for a mutt that doesn't even understand his own powers."
My head tilted as my eyes remained locked on him. "Maybe so… but I at least know how to use it."
"We will see about that. We will see how you fare against pure unrelenting force!"
From Syemore's sides, he grew two more arms. When they shot out from him they instantly formed a hand sign as his other two arms began to rotate in opposite directions—one above and the other below.
"I'm going to assume you've both never fought a Maven Knight before. There is a reason we live in the skies above you peasants and not alongside you. We are better, stronger, elite beings worthy to be called gods. Magic may not work on you now, but sheer might will show you the difference in our power!"
He completed the rotation of his other two arms, and the two others he summoned made another hand sign, more intricate than the last.
"Forbidden Time Magic plus Assembly Magic: Mana Fusion: Ultimate Form…"
As if from different dimensions, hordes of red pentagrams cast all over the sky around him. Through the pentagrams, pieces of dark gray, red, and gold armor came through and started layering him one after another.
The armor from the pentagrams was endless as they piled up on him relentlessly, turning him into some kind of mech-like figure. As the pieces fluttered everywhere around him, they began building large arms down the two extra arms he now had on his sides. They extended out like a large giant's, clad in gold from the ethos. More gold armor wrapped itself around him, creating a crown around his waist. The dark gray pieces were scattering, forming large pillars and rings from the sides of him. Some pieces even floated in place over others, held together by nothing but the aura that they emitted from themselves. Large gold and red horns formed from the armor above him casting shield-like plates that resembled scales of a dragon from his sides, ribboning and flowing out. From his shoulders, two gigantic swords were placed, sheathed from behind him. Their hilts were of dark gray metal and the blades themselves were gold with a red glow down the middle of them both—it had seemed they were created for his two large golden arms to wield.
Then, from the center of his upper body, the lower torso and up protruded from the mechanical tank-like lower body he had now. Filled with dark gray armor that seemed to fit him skintight, his body was now flexible and allowed movement.
His white hair became one with the armor behind him, forming a diadem resembling some type of ancient society. His two original arms were free-flowing as a separate pentagram formed, splitting in two away from each other in opposite directions, revealing and summoning from both ends a giant, long chain-like sword—an urumi the length of a flagpole. The legs he once had were completely gone, covered completely by this mechanical monstrosity as he hovered like an airship. He emerged proud atop it like a centaur or even a chariot, floating by sheer aura alone as the air below him distorted. His presence was ethereal as he finished his incantation,
"… Armor of Eternal Twilight."
The aura roared harshly onto us as Belle and I covered our eyes from the blast of wind. Then, as it settled, winds fluttering our hair and earrings—her jewelry chiming in the high winds, we both faced Syemore in his new form. I spoke out to her without facing, "You sure you wanna fight him with me?"
"Well, I'm not going to sit back as you fight him alone."
I uttered a soft approval to her, then said, "I know you won't. You're just that type of person… and I admire that. That's what makes you so beautiful to me."
She made a soft peep of a sound like I said something embarrassing to her. She even tensed up a bit, but not in a bad way—seeming a little flushed at the moment.
"Listen, princess…" I went on.
Her ears perked.
"Just follow my lead. Only hit the spots where I hit. If you do that, you'll definitely do some damage to him. You can treat me like the Arc Slayer, if that helps you picture it better."
She turned her head to face me finally. I was still focusing on Syemore who was readying and flaunting his gigantic form in front of us.
Her eyes sparkled as she replied, "Okay!"
My eyes met hers, and as I always felt about her, she was the most beautiful thing I've seen in my life.
"Let's go then!"
We dashed at flash speeds in opposite directions from Syemore's large form, flanking him.
"Useless," he said. His voice was the same as a thunderous god's.
He swung the urumi he held so fast that bladed pieces of it detached one after another, bending its straightened shape and becoming a chain whip, cracking down in every direction. He looked as if he were wielding a bladed ribbon.
Then, straight down the middle of us, he struck the urumi on the floor of the barrier, causing a huge shockwave that could have crumbled the Arcane King's castle itself, had we still been there.
BOOM!!
The shockwave blew me and Belle away, causing us to fly quite a distance from Syemore at the center. The rubble and debris around him blasted away as well. They looked like cubes in the air as his shockwave struck down onto the Celestial Dome. Following my lead, I dashed to the side counterclockwise as Belle did the same. I bolted just behind Syemore as he whipped around just as quickly and used one of his four arms, a giant golden fist, to meet me there. I struck right back into it with my own black shrouded fist as we slammed into each other.
Then, using the giant fist to push myself away, Belle flew in, almost like she had teleported, right in between me and Syemore. She cast a golden light from her twin blades pointing them like guns at his large, armored fist I had just struck, and released a blast onto it.
FEUUUM!!
The blast covered Syemore completely, but with one swift motion with that urumi of his, he slashed horizontally and dispersed the blast of light from Belle, whipping wide past us over our heads a few meters.
At first, it had seemed that there was no damage, but when we saw his golden fist after me and Belle's consecutive attacks, it was dented. That alone had confirmed that our fighting strategy worked. We just needed to hit with a harder attack next.
Right then, Syemore raised his urumi directly upward and threw it right down onto us. It elongated, turning into a chain whip once more, dividing us as Belle and I bolted away in opposite directions.
When he lifted the urumi again, it flicked, and the ripple of the chain whip caused a massive explosion from below it.
BOOM!!
It was a harsh red color that engulfed the immediate area. I ran out of the smoke, witnessing Syemore reel it back again from what had been yet another devastating blast.
As I continued to run, his red glowing eyes tracked me. I blinked and he was gone…
Then, from above, he was there, floating and facing down over me. His airship of a lower half like a shadow blocking out the high sun, crash-landing at point blank with me directly below…
Shit.
CRASH!!
Another large-scale shockwave emitted from the impact. I barely dodged it. Though I was sure I could have withstood that attack, getting back up from it would have delayed us in this fight, leaving Belle to fight Syemore on her own. So, I had to stay mobile for the duration of this battle.
From the smoke of the crash, Syemore crawled out with those two giant gold hands of his like a cockroach. The urumi once more whipping the smoke away as he found me and dashed again. He was also incredibly fast, even for his size.
He then twisted the hilt of his urumi, and it straightened, becoming as stiff as a spear. When he met me, the tip of the elongated blade thrusted at my center, pushing me backward onto the floor of the barrier. Syemore forcefully pushed with the blade, using his momentum to keep me pinned to the golden floor, dragging me across the top of the barrier.
"Greed!"
Belle shouted from the sky as she flew past. She met Syemore head-on emitting a light from her armor that obscured his vision.
"Cheap tricks!" he yelled.
But the flash bang was enough of a distraction for me to get a grip on the blade and remove myself from under it, letting him bolt past us. The urumi then skidded on the floor of the barrier, stopping his movement, and he whipped back around to face us from behind.
Right then, a slash had intensely formed from the right side of Syemore before he realized; green liquid spewed out in his astonishment. When he turned back to us, he noticed my hand had taken the form of a black blade.
The moment I had escaped the pierce of his spear I had dodged-countered to the side of him as he sped past.
Then, just as fast, Belle appeared next to him with a golden blade. She outstretched her left leg in front of her, positioning her for a powerful strike in the same exact spot.
SLASH!
The strike was so strong that Syemore staggered in place for but a moment. More green fluid sprayed out profusely at this time as she gracefully dodged the splatters.
Syemore then raised one of those giant golden gauntlets of arms and slammed it down onto where Belle had been, palm facing, fingers spread out. But she disappeared before the slam struck.
When she had reappeared, it was with me as we stood side by side yards away from Syemore struggling in his green liquid.
"Nice hit!" I said to her.
"Nice setup." She returned the gesture—her cheery smile meeting mine.
With the huge gash of a wound he received, Syemore became enraged, roaring out his aura once more like before.
"Annoying little pests. I will…"—from his back, metallic cylinders shot out; a fusillade of missile launchers as his eyes glowed from murderous intent—"annihilate you to death."
Right then, stockpiles of missiles shot out from his back. They flew toward us unendingly, crashing one by one. They followed us as we dodged away from them.
Running with my arms behind me at a great speed and the missiles following, I made a half circle some distance away from where Syemore was. Steering closer and inching my way to him with some of the missiles trailing from behind.
I was a bit faster than the missiles by the time I had made it to Syemore, closing the distance. As I arrived, Syemore took both giant golden arms and used them to unsheathe both the enormous golden blades from his back, larger than the average claymore.
He laid them onto me one after the other, starting with a swing directly downward with the left blade and then swinging inward then outward horizontally from the right. As he continued his endless rampage of swings, I dodged and jumped over each strike he attempted, waiting for the missiles to catch up behind me and letting him think I was vulnerable to his strikes. When they did, explosions sounded from the impact.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!
The missiles barraged us one after another and I didn't bother dodging. Little to Syemore's knowledge, I did not have to…
"A valiant effort, but futile nonetheless… You really thought that old trick would work? Sending my missiles back to me? You are a fool, boy… and you have suffered because of it." Syemore mocked through the smoke, unable to see me.
When the smoke slowly faded out, a barrier shrouded him from the blasts and impact of the missiles. And when he could see me clearly now, he was stunned to witness me standing there as well, unscathed just as he.
My black coating covered me completely just under my jaw, forming those jagged fangs where my mouth had been. Syemore barely noticed as he found my right hand leaning on his barrier, holding myself up as if to merely rest. Head down. Bangs covering my eyes.
"This is a nice barrier…" I said to him mockingly as he was taken aback from my presence.
"What are you?" his thunderous voice echoed hesitantly. Even for a "god," it was pathetic.
I ignored what he said and went on, "… but against me… this is child's play!"
I gripped the barrier with my black coated hand as it creaked from the mere move of my fingers. Then, as I closed my fist, the barrier shattered completely.
SHATTER!
In slow motion Syemore's red eyes widened in disbelief. When the barrier went down, I rushed him. With my other hand I formed a fist and threw it onto him in a drawn-out manner, striking him powerfully down the middle—shouting a short roar as I did. Everything lost its color as I struck.
BASH!!
The sound of a heavy blow onto his tank of a body echoed as he flew back, wiping the remainder of the smoke around us completely away. His urumi had shattered into multiple pieces, and he had released the two massive golden blades he held, flinging back to me. I grabbed them one at a time as they flew and chucked them both right back to Syemore, flipping as I threw the second. Both blades struck consecutively down the middle where I had punched him just before, stabbing him right through each time.
STAB! STAB!
He grunted as the blades pierced him—spewing blood from his mouth.
Then, just like before, in perfect timing as she had always been, Belle appeared in a blink from the ethers right in front of Syemore, who was still flying backward.
With her holy constructed bow from the two golden blades she had, she reeled back the bowstring made of light with a strong and firm hand, turning her head and closing her eyes softly—completely opposite of the release of the flick. It was like she was flicking away a piece of trash without thought. She spoke as if exorcising a demon.
"Mind and body be one… as I send off this being from the place it plagued… the Kingdom it possessed… and may the Keeper show mercy on you, for I shall not."
Syemore watched her attack unfold onto him. With wrath in his eyes, he was unable to do anything once again just as the building had fallen onto him, just like every strike he had received until now, in this moment, it had been checkmate.
"Holy Magic: Heavenly Arrow's Judgment!"
Belle's most powerful spell. The spell she used to defeat a Colossal Sand Dragon in the Desert Kingdom single-handedly. Though, at this moment, it was only a fraction of its power due to the Celestial Dome she had cast—nevertheless, the blast from it was still a sight to behold…
FEUUUUM!!!
As large as the Valley Kingdom was, the beam of light shot through two times the Kingdom's length. Starting off first by shrouding Syemore completely, then focused into a thin beam directly down the center of him. Echoes of explosions emitted in a straight line afterward as it led out and away from atop the Kingdom.
Pieces of metal and armor from Syemore rained down from where we were, landing on the gold-plated Aegis patterns of the barrier.
It was finally over. The clouds, the people, and the Phantomdrakes below were still stationary and at a standstill.
As Belle fluttered beautifully in the air, she turned around to face me. Her soft and dainty smile met mine as her deep blue eyes looked into my black colored ones—meeting me with a feeling I've been waiting to experience and witness this whole time… Her relief. Her happiness. It was a feeling all too familiar to me, but a feeling that had been tucked away—or rather—stripped away from me until now.
Belle. I think I know now…
Her platinum white hair was like crystal as it glittered from the high sun above—a kaleidoscope of colors as the rays danced over her. Just when I thought I had known the pinnacle of beauty, every time I set my eyes on her, she seemed to always raise the bar on that standard. She was the epitome of beauty itself… and I was at her mercy.
"Greed! It's done! This battle is—"
I was so lost in her deep blue eyes that I could barely comprehend anything. The sun was so bright now that even shadows formed against her rose-colored skin that was almost made of light itself… but light does not have its own shadows… no… this was blood…
Haven't you learned to never turn your back on your opponent? a haunting and crackling voice said—like a whispering storm as his bloodshot eyes flared hatred from within them. One that we had only last heard moments ago… "If I'm going to die, I will take at least one of you with me… and well… princess of the Valley… It's going to be you."
I couldn't hear anything but those words from the still air. Time had stopped all around us, but I felt like my own time had come to a complete halt. How could I have not noticed… I was such a fool.
The sound of a stab filled my ears along with those haunting words. My eyes followed, adjusting to the bright light which was my delusion.
Belle, my picture of perfection—my light—had been impaled from behind, right in front of me…
"Gr-eed… I'm… sorry…"