“I’d tell you to shove that up your ass,” he derisively stated as he walked past Jacqueline’s body that dropped to its knees behind him. “But something tells me you sick bitches would enjoy that.”
“How dare you…” Jovian snarled as she crushed the head with a loud crunch. Daniel glanced back to see Jacqueline’s body dropping forward before it stopped itself with its arms, the neck having a bulge of flesh and bones growing out from it. The girl slowly stood up as the head regenerated, her long hair dropping down and swaying in the wind as she glanced back to him with a furious look on her face.
“What’s wrong?” Daniel taunted. “You were so happy a moment ago. Where’s your smile, sunshine?”
Jacqueline fumed with anger before turning around and lunging at him with a scream. Daniel stepped away and dodged the girl’s frantic swipes at him, the girl stumbling a bit with her attempts before picking up a large slab of stone and swinging that at him instead. Daniel watched her carefully while dodging to the side and swiping around with his sword, cleaving her arm off with a quick slice. The girl screamed furiously as she swung down and off-balance with her stone, smashing it into the ground as Daniel jumped around to the side before darting behind her. He thrusted his sword straight into her rear, the girl lurching forward with a surprised gasp as the sword burned its way through her insides up to her ribcage. Daniel then turned to see Jovian pulling out her blade from the rubble while staring at him in shock.
“What?” he asked with a shrug. “Don’t tell me she hates anal. I really didn’t think she would mind. Alyssa always jumps for joy whenever I give it to her in that hole.”
Gripping the handle tightly Daniel yelled out while swinging to the side with his sword, the blade letting off a powerful eruption of fire that blasted apart the girl while throwing her bloodied remains off to the side in a wide splatter of charred flesh and seared bones. With a small flick of his fiery sword Daniel turned to face Jovian who was dashing towards him with a furious scream and blade drawn to her side, her Hellstorm sparking wildly while trailing electrical arcs all along the ground it passed over as she swiftly closed in on the human.
“NOBODY TOUCHES MY SISTER LIKE THAT!” Jovian roared as she swung at Daniel. He threw all his weight into blocking the attack while focusing his might to channel as much power from the Hellfire’s Edge into it as he could, the two swords clashing with a violent eruption of fire and sparks that shot out all around them in a chaotic display. Daniel’s legs braced from the force of the gemini’s powerful swing, his boots sliding a bit at first as he was pushed back before he quickly darted around the girl and steered her sword down with his. Jovian snarled while swinging her blade back up at him, with Daniel again parrying around her and trying to throw the sword’s direction off.
“I’m going to kill you!” Jovian screamed with murder in her multicolored eyes. “Her body is only for me!”
“What’s wrong? Afraid she might like it more from me?” Daniel taunted as she razed her blade up along his towards his face, with him ducking under it and parrying her sword around and down to the ground again. Jovian merely replied with a slurred yell, her blade building up a dangerous amount of electricity as it began wildly sparking with arcs of energy zapping the ground below it. Daniel smirked as he saw he pushed her over the edge, the gemini then furiously swiping towards him with great strength. With a quick leap Daniel lunged to the side while angling his sword to guard himself, watching as the girl swung her sword at where he was and cast out a powerful torrent of lightning that crackled violently with bright light past him. The blast of energy seared across the ravaged battleground and engulfed Jacqueline as she stood up holding her sword, the girl jolting uncontrollably while arcs of electricity ran all along her body and down her weapon. Jovian stared in surprise as Jacqueline was shocked to her core, the stammering blonde shaking about before the attack finally fizzled out, leaving her standing with a dazed expression and hair that was sticking straight out in all directions with small buzzes of energy arcing between them. After a moment she wavered and dropped to her knees while her eyes finally stopped rolling around in her head.
“Sister,” Jovian mourned in dismay. She snarled furiously and looked back and up just in time to see Daniel having leapt upward and driving his sword down at her with both hands. Before she could move he struck his searing blade through her mouth, down her neck, and into her torso with a loud crunch, with Jovian wavering off-balance and gurgling blood as her eyes sluggishly looked at the weapon then to Daniel, before he yanked her down onto her knees while grinning sharply at her. He then glanced over to see Jacqueline staring at him in disbelief while her hair finally dropped down behind her again.
“Tell me,” Daniel dared as he kicked Jovian’s sword out her hand. “Does it make you upset seeing me skull-fucking your sister in front of you?”
“Daniel…” Jacqueline snarled while trembling with rage.
“Or does it arouse you?” Daniel wondered. “I guess I can understand that. I hear Clover is a big fan of fellatio as well. Though I must confess I’m sure I’ll enjoy skull-fucking her far more than your tramp of a sister.”
Daniel stepped around Jovian while yanking up his blade, the gargling monster turning to him with a vicious glare, then promptly wound back with fire searing along his sword again before slashing down and destroying the girl’s body with a powerful blast of flames that carved a crevice through the rubble past her. Pulling his sword back up, he gave it a small twirl before walking towards Jacqueline, the girl standing back up while seething with anger as she held her blade in both hands with a trembling grip.
“Ready for your turn?” Daniel casually asked. Jacqueline snarled like an animal before rushing at him, lunging forward with a powerful downward slice that had freezing air billowing from the blade. Daniel darted aside, dodging the attack that struck into the ground with large shards of ice and debris rupturing from the impact, then nimbly ducked and dodged to the side again as Jacqueline swung her sword around at him with a crazed yell, icicles and frozen rubble being thrown outward behind it as the girl wildly tried hacking the swordsman in a blind fury. As she swung again and again at him, Daniel found dodging her presumably fatal attacks to be increasingly easy as he confirmed something about the gemini.
‘It’s working. The more angry and upset they become, the sloppier their attacks get. They’re going blind with rage. Just keep egging them on and don’t let them fight together, buy as much time for everyone to get out of Green Haven as you can.’
“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!” Jacqueline roared as she swung down with her sword, slashing it into the ground and causing an explosion of ice and debris to burst from the impact. Daniel dodged to the side, and then slipped on the frozen ground, falling down with a hard grunt before quickly rolling away as Jacqueline tried to stomp on his head, her foot crushing the ground in with a powerful smash instead. Rolling back onto his feet Daniel turned and parried a wide swing from Jacqueline’s Ice Princess before spinning around and slashing hard with his sword, obliterating the gemini with a searing hot arc of fiery energy that pulverized her body across the ground with a splatter. Standing upright and catching his breath Daniel noticed Jovian again rushing him with her sword drawn and a furious yell as she charged him like a wild bull. Shaking off the stumble he took he prepared to once again fight and taunt the blood-thirsty monster while her sister slowly regenerated from his attack.
‘I hope I can keep this up. Pace yourself, Daniel, and watch your footing. Or else you’re in for a very painful demise.’
*****
“Now this is quite the show,” Aeon chuckled, standing atop a distant knoll while watching Daniel’s fight with the gemini. “I must say, those two lowly dogs give us Dark Queens a bad name. No self-control, no finesse, no sagacity. No problem fighting completely naked, so class is clearly out of the picture too. So nice to see some sense being slapped into them, and by a mere human no less.”
“I have to say I’m surprised he�
��s lasted this long,” Flarah conceded, her eyes staring intently at the elven forest further away as she witnessed Daniel’s battle. “Not bad for a human.”
“What are you two talking about?” Kindra whined hopping up and down. “I can’t see jack shit from here! What’s happening? What’s going on with Daniel?”
“He’s engaged the gemini in combat,” Aeon replied with a smug smile and quick glance to the kitsune.
“He’s what?” Kindra cried out.
“And he’s actually fending them off all on his own,” Flarah mused.
“He’s… what?” Kindra curiously asked. She looked ahead at the burning forest with wonder then back to Flarah as her sister merely raised in eyebrow in question.
“Make no mistake, he’s no closer to killing them than anyone’s ever been, but he is managing to fight them off without any support.”
“Daniel’s… winning against the gemini?” Kindra wondered.
“Not winning,” Aeon answered shaking her head. “More of a stalemate for the time being. Of course I doubt he can keep it up for too much longer. The gemini will never tire, whereas he will slowly grow weaker and weaker with each clash they make.”
“Then why do you want him to face the gemini at all?” Kindra demanded. “What game are you playing here, chrono wench?”
“A very enjoyable one, I promise you that,” Aeon retorted with a twitch of her eyebrow.
“Her question does still stand,” Flarah mentioned glancing to Aeon. “Daniel may be able to hold them off for the time being, but that time will fall short very quickly. What is it you’ve arranged for him, Aeon?”
Aeon merely looked at her with a sly grin, the kitsune studying her carefully for a moment before turning her gaze back towards Green Haven. Her eyes scanned the surrounding chaos that Daniel was encircled in while fighting the gemini high atop the grand timber of the forest, her focus then slowly shifting downward as something new caught her attention. Kindra growled in rising frustration as she watched Green Haven burning with large trees falling amidst the elven village, the catastrophic crashes they made and the screams of both elves and grunts of The Sisterhood being heard even from their distant position.
“I don’t like this at all,” Kindra snarled with rustling tails. “Daniel’s not ready to fight like this, let alone a Dark Queen. He can’t kill them, and he’s as good as dead if his fatigue catches up to him now. Fuck this. He’s in a fight he can’t win while surrounded by those blood-thirsty monsters, I need to get him out of there before things get even worse.”
“Too late,” Aeon carelessly replied with a shrug.
“What?” Kindra said quickly turning to her. “What do you mean too late? Explain yourself!”
“Kindra,” Flarah cautioned, her eyes widening slightly as her sister looked to her with growing apprehension.
“What is it? What do you see now?”
“You mean you can’t?” Aeon teased. “I thought as a kitsune you would have been able to tell by now.”
“Tell what? What are you talking about?”
“Kindra, look closely,” Flarah warned.
Kindra sharply observed Green Haven while searching for whatever else could be Daniel’s doom amidst the growing number of candidates. She looked around quickly for a while before stopping suddenly, her eyes narrowing slightly as something did seem off to her.
“Wait… Green Haven, it’s… the fire’s energy…”
“So you can tell,” Aeon mused. “I thought as much. You kitsunes are essentially fire demons, yes? Just as I’m in tune with the ether of time itself, you have a unique grasp and sensitivity to the element of fire, don’t you?”
“What is this?” Kindra said shaking her head. “I can sense it now. The power of fire from that forest… it’s spiking. But how? Even with the forest burning it shouldn’t be rising this profoundly. What… what the hell? Flarah? Why can I sense so much burning energy building up there now? Where’s it coming from?”
“Look down, Kindra,” Flarah cautioned.
Kindra blinked then slowly turned her eyes downward from the forest, her senses over her natural element suddenly becoming overwhelmed as her focus shifted lower. She quickly pondered an explanation for what she was feeling, her mouth opening slightly as it only made her heart skip a beat from the mere thought, before she turned to Aeon who was now chuckling with a dark smile on her face.
“Oh, Flarah?” Aeon coyly taunted. “Do you remember that little trick you pulled in order to allow the Hellfire’s Edge to enter that forest? Something very important belonging to the elves was broken during that event, isn’t that right?”
“The Aquarius Gateway,” Flarah recalled. “That elven child destroyed it upon her escape from Green Haven.”
“Yes, she did,” Aeon applauded with a few claps, then showed an innocent expression as the two kitsunes watched her carefully. “So, why do you think the elves had that unique seal constructed over their home? I don’t believe it was intended just to keep that legendary sword from entering their forest.”
“What are you getting at? You never mentioned any of this before,” Flarah accused. “This wasn’t destined to happen last I checked with you.”
“Oh, that is true,” Aeon slyly insisted. “Though you seem to be forgetting that after I told you what was originally destined to happen, you made a change that not even I could have predicted. You wanted that magical seal removed, thinking you had to remove it all, and you got your wish from me doing that small favor you requested of guiding that elven child to safety.”
“What is she talking about, Flarah?” Kindra asked.
“And after I did that little favor for you, fate changed. This is the result of your meddling, Flarah, not mine. I never foresaw the Aquarius Gateway being destroyed when you were plotting your own little show here.”
“But you said the gemini were going to be slain here tonight,” Flarah recalled. “The Hellfire’s Edge had to have come here to do that.”
“Yes,” Aeon answered with a nod. “But, I never said the Dark Queen was destined to fall within Green Haven. Rather, it was to be just outside of it.”
Flarah stared at Aeon in silence as the chronofly chuckled while seeing words failing to come from the kitsune’s mouth now. Kindra looked back and forth between the two before shaking her head anxiously.
“What does all that mean?” she demanded, before quickly noticing something that caught her complete attention.
“This little deviation in the fates is because of you, Flarah,” Aeon lectured with a shake of her finger. “You’re the one who threw change into motion with the fates that I was so kind as to inform you of. You’re the one who wanted the Aquarius Gateway removed to better suit your own plans. You’re the one who assumed you knew everything when you didn’t ask all the right questions to begin with. You thought you had every detail planned out, and yet you didn’t see the full picture at all. And just as you didn’t put any real thought into any of that, you didn’t with why the elves had that special seal erected to protect their home in the first place. Here’s a hint, Flarah, it had nothing to do with the likes of you kitsunes or even that sword Daniel Sorres now holds.”
“Flarah,” Kindra said as her eyes widened, her gaze locked onto a gigantic source of heat energy building up below Green Haven.
“Seems those ant girls dug a little too close to what the elves had suppressed with their precious Aquarius Gateway,” Aeon chuckled as she turned her gaze towards the forest. “And without it still standing, they’ve awoken what once lay dormant. Don’t worry, Flarah, I’ve already taken into account this happening before I arrived here, it changes nothing of what I promised would come from this fateful night. Although, it surely will make things all the more interesting to watch now, won’t it?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Kindra fretted as she grabbed her hair. “Green Haven… it’s…”
Flarah stepped forward in front of the two women and watched as a dangerously high amount o
f fiery energy was building up below the elven forest, knowing perfectly well what they were seeing and what was about to happen thanks to her own meddling with destiny.
“It was built over a volcanic fissure.”
*****
“Would you hurry up?” Clover shouted as she dragged Felucia down the long spiral stairs inside the grand tree. The two raced down the stairwell as the area rumbled again, causing them to stagger against the wall for a moment before continuing downward.
“Would you stop telling me what to do?” Felucia barked back. “And let go, I can run just fine on my own without you guiding me like I’m some sort of child!”
“You’re too fucking slow!” Clover retorted. “We need to get the hell out of here and find my friends! Now move your ass!”
The two descended along the spiraling stairwell before being thrown against the wall as another violent tremor rolled by.
“What the fuck is going on out there anyway?” Clover cried out. “Why was everything on fire all of a sudden?”
“Who cares? Just take me to my Cindy right now, I need to get her out of this crazy shithole!”
They began making their way down again before another powerful quake rocked the tree, causing them to stumble with their steps as they held onto the wall for support.
“Holy shit,” Clover said looking up. “Is this from Dan fighting the gemini? How much power are they using up there?”
“Your human didn’t start your forest on fire,” Felucia reminded her. “Something else is happening here.”
The two girls raced down the stairs for a while before finally coming to an abrupt halt, both staring with wide eyes as they had reached the bottom of the steps with nothing at all now resting below them. Instead they only saw what was now under the grand tree; a seemingly bottomless chasm with hazy clouds of dust swirling far below in its depths. Slowly they looked around in shock, seeing that the tree’s roots were spread out far enough to still reach into the cliffs of the gaping pit and hold the mighty timber upright despite there being nothing at all directly below it now.
Chronicles of Eden - Act XII Page 3