Lemmy
It's been a couple of weeks since they left, they couldn't afford a carriage back in town, while Maria had a lot of money the city had almost run out of both carriages and monster engines, which apparently means that they cost so much that only the wealthiest people could afford them. Lemmy wanted to suggest going back to the cavern to try and repair one of the carriages there, but even if they did, they didn't have anything to drag it. So they had to simply buy whatever food they could carry and forage anything they found on the way. It'll take at least a month just to reach the next city, and potentially even longer to reach Calbin; yet that didn't stop her. After all, even the sights of the quiet forests, rolling hills, distant mountains, and sky were relatively new sights to the young girl.
Yet soon, as they were walking down a poorly maintained road that had moss and grasses growing in between the stones that made up it, her curious gaze turned upwards towards the night sky. The previously crescent moon lit up as a yellow-green gas covered its surface, the sky seemingly twisted and the stars shifted places with each other before several massive branches burst out of the clouds, blooming with dozens of pink flowers that looked almost as big as the moon itself. The sky now had a yellowish tint to it along with the ground as the moon was now radiating bloomlight.
Yet as awe-inspiring as the sight was, that wasn't the end, the bloom light radiating off the moon enveloped everything below. Trees exposed to it bore fruit in a matter of seconds, bushes that looked unwelcoming and thorny now had hundreds of berries that looked very tasty to Lemmy, and even the grass that grew off the road looked much healthier! Lemmy and Maria wouldn't have to worry about food, at least while, yet Maria didn't seem all too happy about it.
Lemmy attempted to grab a fruit that looked like a mix between an apple and a blueberry, but Bucket quickly stopped her while Maria spoke up. "Not everything grown during the Reign of Bloom is safe to eat, usually fruits that can't grow during other Reigns are poisonous." Maria warned, causing Lemmy to frown as she stared at the hundreds of different fruits of berries that could potentially poison her. Yet surprisingly, Maria grabbed a long, red fruit off another tree and tossed it to Lemmy.
"Luckily however, we both should be resistant to lesser poisons, worst case scenario you'll have an upset stomach if you eat too many of these in quick succession." She stated with a faint smile as Lemmy stared down at it, considering Maria's words as she hesitantly brought the fruit to her mouth and bit down. It was a bit chewy and very spicy, but it tasted really good! She devoured the rest of it in a matter of seconds before grabbing as much as she could for later! If she could eat these, she wonders what else is edible? She would love to test out all of them if they didn't need to move!
Yet her attention quickly shifted over to something in the distance, at first she thought it was a mountain that was in the way, yet as they got closer… her hairs began to stand up, breathing became more difficult, and her entire body felt like it was moving through water despite not a single drop of water being on her. Then she noticed the mountain wasn't made of stone, it was a massive mound of murky water, suspended in the air and looking as if it could collapse into a massive wave of dirty water. Yet somehow it managed to stay up, as if that was somehow natural, though as Lemmy got closer the already strange feeling became more intense, and a small fragment of her felt as if she should avoid it.
—
Maria
It was only a month at most since she was here, and yet it was already this unstable, the mana was now erratic, and it caused her to feel a bit nauseous just being this close to the mountain. She lived in this village in her late 70s, taking a short vacation from traveling before mana began to concentrate around the lake and eventually made the water rise into the air. Though she left before it ever got this big… yet it was still quite saddening to see what was once a nice lakeside village become submerged under a literal mountain of brown water.
"Hmmm… this is quite unfortunate, this is the only route I can remember that leads to Calbin, people rarely come out this way, and this… would make Malveron an isolated city, damning it and anyone who didn't leave it yet to fend for themselves…" Maria said with a sigh as Lemmy looked rather concerned. "Is there any way to fix it?" She asked, while the girl wasn't there for long, she might've cared more about the people there. Maria looked over at the mountain, remembering the fae lord residing over it.
"Mana dense areas often have an avatar residing over it, they're called faelords and could be considered the rulers of the area, though that's not entirely accurate; it's more like they're the embodiment of the mana there that has concentrated into a sentient creature. Though due to the amount of influence they have over the area, destroying one could result in the mana dispersing-" before Maria could finish, Lemmy ran off towards the mountain, causing Maria to realize that perhaps she should probably think before telling Lemmy things… she supposed she'd do the same at Lemmy's age, though it's been nearly a century since she had done anything actually heroic, and they didn't really have any better options, so she might as well indulge her little whims.
"Come along Bucket, I suppose we're fighting a faelord." She said calmly, causing Bucket to simply look over at her, clearly wanting to say something but unable to. Maria shrugged. "Well, this honestly might be the safest route still, it might be more powerful than a demon, but I'd rather fight this than a horde of lesser demons." She explained before following Lemmy, which meant Bucket had no real choice other than to follow them.
—
Lemmy
The bat-like girl rushed towards the mountain, she never had an opportunity to run this far before without having to turn or climb over something, so it was rather refreshing to feel the crisp surface air rush past her face as she ran faster than she ever thought she could! She even thought she could fly for a moment if she became even faster! Though once she finally got near the base of the mountain, her entire body felt sluggish, she needed to take deep breaths as even the air seemed to slow down, the air tasted filthy, she wished she had brought a mask or something to cover her nose and mouth…
Though as both Maria and Bucket arrived, Lemmy noticed Maria's arm was glowing faintly and her head was surrounded by a small vortex of wind, Maria simply pointed at Lemmy as a similar vortex formed around her head as well, which made it far easier to breathe as the wind pushed fresh air towards her and her exhales away from her. "It's not uncommon for faelords to have a lesser influence over the area around their domain, this one seems to have made the air nearby thinner." She said before looking at the mountain's peak, she seemed saddened for some reason, even if she tried to hide it Lemmy could somehow… feel her sadness whenever she used magic? It was difficult to explain, but she could feel a brief connection to anyone using magic nearby. Maybe she could ask Maria about that after they beat this thing?
"So, we just gotta beat it up or do we have to kill it?" She asked, causing Maria to look mildly surprised.
"Oh um well do have to kill it, I'm surprised you're fine with doing so however."
"Well… Bucket made me kill things like a… basilisk I think for meat, this seems just like something is more dangerous." She said as if that was normal.
"I see…" Maria said before looking over at Bucket, who in turn stared back at her for a moment before pointing at the mountain. "Hmm, fair." She said before raising her arm and freezing one of the passages under the mountain. "This is in case it tries to ambush us or collapse the tunnel around us."
Lemmy was impressed to see her use magic in creative ways, she wanted to learn magic too, Maria taught her a few basics on the way here, but whenever she asked to be taught a spell, Maria simply responded with "Every mage needs to learn how to cast spells their own way, I can guide you, but not teach you." Which confused Lemmy… She didn't really understand what Maria meant by that, even after thinking about it for several days, but that wouldn't stop her from trying to learn how to do it!
The three slowly entered the cavern, the ice creaked and cracked under the weight of the water above, Maria created more and more ice around them as they went deeper inside, yet Lemmy still felt a bit worried however as she heard something shift through the water. Rushing past them beyond what she could see through the dark, murky water. She felt the gaze of something focused on her, though she couldn't get a good sense of what it was or where it was coming from… then she heard something that made her freeze.
Crack
Looking up, she can barely see larger cracks form in the ice as water leaked into the cavern, both Maria and Bucket stood still as they prepared for anything from a direct physical attack or a magical attack. Yet instead of an attack, they hear ice shatter in the distance before water floods the cavern from both sides, Ice began to fall towards them as the water above gave in and attempted to crush the three under the immense pressure of the lake. Maria lifted her arms and caused the rock below to sallow them and create a relatively small pocket of air as the now cold water crashed against the rocks. Maria further reinforced it with ice just before they heard something crash against the earth.
Bucket pulled out a blade as their surroundings became silent, Maria prepared another spell, and Lemmy prepared to leap towards anything that breaks through. There was no light, Lemmy only knew where everyone was due to Maria's soft breath bouncing off the walls of the frozen walls.
Thump
Thump
THUMP
The sound of something hitting the outer walls grew louder and louder, Lemmy could feel her small heart beating in her chest as the walls began to break and crumble under the constant barrage of attacks. The creature could easily wait for their air to run out, yet every time it attacked, Lemmy could sense something coming from it. Rage, but not any form of rage Lemmy had felt before, it was… unnatural, it was nearly impossible to think of anything for a brief few seconds other than… anger, she couldn't even begin to feel what it felt like other than maddening hate. Yet she was quickly snapped out of this state as she heard-
CRASH
RAAAAAAAA!!!
Water began to flood the area as a malevolent red eye was seen in front of Lemmy, Bucket rushed past to stab the creature in the eye while Maria raised several stone spikes from the ground before, stabbing the crazed faelord in the head and barely piercing its skull as it screamed in pain. RRRAAAHHH-!!! Before pulling back, the room began to flood even faster, the rage beginning to afflict her mind as she blindly rushed forward as she grabbed onto its strange body. She couldn't tell why but she felt as if she needed to attack it!
She felt water covering her body from head to toe as the faelord began to swim up, Lemmy ignored the chill of the water as she began striking it over and over again. Each strike had enough force to hurt both the faelord and Lemmy simultaneously, yet she couldn't tell how damaged its body was becoming from how dark the water was, only the beast attempting to shake Lemmy off let her know she was at least doing something. Her mind flashed back to her fight with the monster engine, the rage that burned in her was similar to what she felt as Bucket lost their arm, even if they could replace it still made her feel anger at that moment.
Eventually, the beast rises high enough onto the water mountain for light to pierce the surface, letting Lemmy see its bleached skin, she could see very faint colors all over it but they had mostly faded away. There were a few bruises where Lemmy hit it and blood gushing out of the wounds on its face, yet it didn't slow down, leapt out of the water as its head turned and grabbed Lemmy with its mouth, its jagged teeth pierced her skin before it ripped her off and tossed her towards far into the sky before the mountain seemingly began to bubble, then a vortex began to form where Lemmy was thrown out of before it suddenly shoots out a large stream of water towards her! Lemmy couldn't move in any meaningful manner while in the air, so instead she moved her arms in front of her and braced for impact! The water was surprisingly powerful, it sent her flying even farther, ripping skin off her arms and even bits of flesh, resulting in black, bloody rain falling upon the area below.
Lemmy managed to survive the direct hit, but was still falling, her skin and flesh were slowly regenerating but that wouldn't help much as she's pretty sure no amount of healing could save her entire body from becoming a puddle of broken bones and flesh if she hits the ground! Her mind raced for a way to figure out how she could get out of this situation, there wasn't anything to grab onto, and the only source of water was getting further and further away from her. She was freaking out, she didn't want to die after coming so far, if only she could somehow fly-
Yet, as she thought of this, something in her burned intensely. She wasn't completely sure what it was, it wasn't just a feeling it was… something more, it didn't want to die either, but knew it was connected to her directly. So it did… something to her, the heat turned quickly into a sharp pain as she felt it focus on her lower back. It was even more painful than fighting the basilisk or even the monster engine, like something was tearing her apart from the inside as it slowly became more and more intense. Until finally, two white bat wings burst out of her back, spraying her black blood everywhere as steam rose off of them.
She felt tired after that, she briefly thought for a moment that she would die still since she couldn't even flap her wings on her own. But whatever forced her to grow them seemed to also have some control over her, since they began to flap seemingly on their own. So when she finally hit the ground, it felt more like she simply tripped onto the soft ground rather than thrown off a small mountain. But now her entire body felt sore, it was hard to move her muscles, especially the ones in her arms, and she simply laid there in pain as her body tried to recover from both the attack and suddenly growing a pair of wings.
She wanted to get up, but lacked any energy to do so, though hopefully Bucket and Maria could hold out until she was fully healed… at least she had a cute frog and spider to look at while she waited! Wait- they seem familiar…
—
Bucket
The area was dark, though luckily Bucket's eyes were made to see even in the dimmest of places, yet even here they had trouble seeing anything. "I suppose a light spell of some kind would be useful, maybe I should have learnt more utility spells… wait a moment." She said before her arm began to glow, illuminating the area. Bucket simply stared at her, while they couldn't speak Maria shrugged. "Do not judge me, I rarely have to use this so I only just remembered this is possible." She said, before Bucket looked up at the opening where water was flowing in. Bucket doubted Lemmy would die from drowning, yet they had heard it was a rather painful experience, so they should probably go and save her.
Bucket unfortunately wasn't designed for being this deep underwater, they'd probably be slowed down by the water, yet Maria seemed to have an idea. She placed her hand on the water and began to freeze it, the water slowed down but didn't completely stop. Maria simply looked over at Bucket and made a slicing motion against her neck before throwing several Icicles towards the ceiling, causing the faelord above to redirect its attention towards them.
Almost on command, it crashed down to attack yet again, but Maria backed away just in time to avoid getting devoured and completely froze the water around the monster's snout! Bucket understood what Maria meant now and charged towards it, attempting to slice through its neck as it thrashed about in an attempt to escape. Bucket's blades cut through its flesh, yet it was not enough, the strange creature could survive its normally fatal wound, and it managed to escape the icy trap before Bucket could slice through the bone of its spine.
It attempted to rise towards the top of the mountain, but Lemmy was nowhere in sight, did it throw her off? Bucket grew concerned as they attempted to finish the job, hitting its exposed spine over and over again as its head was dragged with it, barely connected to its body. Yet just as it reached the surface, both its head and Bucket were exposed to the thin air, and something quickly flew towards the pair at high speed. Bucket couldn't tell what it was at first, yet as it collided with the faelord's head, he briefly saw Lemmy hit… or well it was more like crashing into its head. But it was powerful enough to finish it off as the force from her body managed to break its spine in half!
—
Lemmy
The frog dragged some sort of fruit towards Lemmy, she had never seen it before, it appeared to be a pitch black… orb? It was hard to tell. "What is- Mgh?!" The frog suddenly shoved the fruit into her mouth, she was quite confused by this but went along with it. Chewing on it and swallowing, it tasted like edible fire, her mouth burned and eventually it spread to her stomach, before her entire body felt like it was infused with energy!
The pain was still there, but it felt like she had boundless energy as her wings began to flap with excessive force. She began to fly back towards the mountain in time to see the monster rapidly rising to the top with Bucket being dragged along. Lemmy attempted to slow down and strike it, yet… she couldn't, only when she was extremely high up and nearing the beast did she realize she was just following her instincts at this point and didn't really know how to fly.
In a panic she slammed her body against the monster, grabbing its head as it was ripped off its body as the burst of energy faded away and her body began to fall towards the ground. "W-wait, this was a bad idea, bad idea!" She yelled in panic as the mountain bubbled for a moment before all the water began to collapse. After half a minute of falling, the water had luckily formed a rather turbulent lake which softened Lemmy's fall, but didn't completely break it as she felt several things break as she hit the water.
Her somewhat broken body floated on top of the lake, before Bucket managed to grab her and dragged her towards the shore and Maria walked out of the newly formed lake, drenched in water. "Well… let's agree to never do that again. Anyways, I think we spent enough time here, are you two ready to leave?" She asked casually as she twisted her dress to drain the water out of her clothing. Lemmy nodded tiredly as Bucket picked her up and prepared to continue their journey.