“I warned you,” Nuci lamented shaking her head. From the dirt more roots shot up between the rocks and snapped around the hunter’s arms and legs, holding her down on the ground while Nuci slowly shook her head in remorse. Mika yelled and thrashed around before a vine whipped around her mouth and silenced her, the hunter’s muffled screams electing a soft sigh from the alurane.
“Mika,” she worried as she dissolved her casting base before looking down at the wavering water towards Aeon with annoyance. “Aeon, what did you do to this poor dear to make her choose this path? Stop tormenting her this instant with whatever game it is you’re playing.”
“But I’m having so much fun,” Aeon giggled, right before Mika yanked her right arm up while tearing out the root that held onto it. Nuci flinched as the hunter then yanked her other arm free before striking her sword down at the roots holding onto her feet. Tearing apart the vine around her mouth she opened it to throw a few obscenities towards the alurane before she was struck down onto the ground by a powerful burst of magical energy. A flickering blue shield revealed itself to be pressing the hunter down, her arms and legs pinned in place by the glowing barrier while Nuci merely held a hand out towards it.
“Mika, please stop,” Nuci again spoke with a tired sigh. “I’m not even using all my magical prowess yet and I’d really wish not to use any more than I am right now. You cannot beat me, so please do not hurt yourself trying any further.”
Mika growled furiously while trying to push up against the barrier, the strength it had seeming unwavering as it refused to budge at all. She summoned a counter spell in her hand to break the shield, the green triangular flash rippling against the translucent barrier over her before fading while the alurane’s magic remained strong. Mika yelled as she tried again, watching in frustration as Nuci’s magic wasn’t able to be countered at all.
“You can’t interrupt my magic, Mika,” Nuci remorsefully said. “Mine is simply too powerful to be canceled out that way. And let this be a warning to you, even my power pales in comparison to-”
Mika yelled out in anger as she tried counter spell after counter spell, the woman smacking the barrier with her free hand while thrashing about beneath the immovable shield.
“Mika, please calm down,” Nuci sighed shaking her head. “This isn’t any good for either of us.”
Mika tried again and again, being unable to dissolve or even budge the alurane’s powerful shield that kept her pinned down. With each failed attempt she grew angrier and more anxious, the woman pouring all the power she had in a desperate attempt to bypass the alurane’s defense.
“You can’t win like that,” Aeon whispered in her mind. “She’s far stronger than you are in terms of magical strength. She may not look it but she’s one of the more powerful monsters in the world, after all she was chosen to watch over me. You’ll have to go about this another way if you wish to open my seal.”
“And what way is that?” Mika cursed through her teeth.
Listening to the Dark Queen’s words in her head she glanced over to see Nuci watching her with a saddened frown. After a while Mika relaxed and stopped fighting against the barrier, dropping her resistance and gazing upward with a distant look in her eye. Seeing the hunter having given up with her struggle Nuci dissolved her shield with a wave of the hand, allowing Mika to slowly get up on her knees while having her head lowered.
“Are you done now, Mika?” Nuci worried. “Please, you have to understand that-”
“I understand perfectly,” Mika softly said, resting both hands on the ground before her. “You’ll do whatever it takes to keep Aeon sealed away. You don’t want to hurt anyone in doing so, but if you have to then you will. That’s your duty, right?”
Nuci nodded with a concerned look as Mika kept her head lowered while appearing to bow to the alurane.
“And you need to understand something about me,” Mika continued before glancing up to her with a furious glare. “I will never allow anyone or anything to take my little brother away from me. Should anything dare try, I will destroy it no matter the cost. That’s my duty.”
“I’m not trying to do anything of the sort to you,” Nuci assured. “I promise I wish no harm or misfortune upon you or your sibling, I never have.”
“You don’t, but Aeon does,” Mika growled. “And as long as she’s alive, as long as she can speak freely from behind her seal, she can do just that. She could take everything from me, everything I have left to live for in this horrible world. And I can’t allow her to do that. I CAN’T!”
With a furious cry from the woman a flash of crimson and neon black light erupted below, spreading out wildly into a tangled web of a casting diagram that covered the ground around her along with stretching down into the nearby pools. Mika’s hands gripped the ground tightly as she focused all her attention into casting a very specific spell, one that Nuci quickly took alarm to seeing.
“What are you doing?” she cried out in shock. “Maelstrom? You… you can cast that?”
She quickly thrust her roots at the hunter from all sides, all of them being deflected and burned away by magical flashes as a golden and dark light bloomed underneath her. Nuci gasped then thrust her hands forward with a stern expression, a bright flash of blue light sparkling across a domelike barrier surrounding Mika while a few spikes of crimson light shot up around her.
“Impossible,” Nuci feared. “How… how could it be fully cast already? And how could she cast that spell to begin with, only alpha witches can do that.”
“She’s very talented,” Aeon commended with a chuckle. “She learned one of the most destructive spells in all of Eden, and she mastered casting it in such a short amount of time. Isn’t she so amazing? Hahaha!”
“Mika! Stop!” Nuci cried out as she focused her power around the hunter. To her dismay her magical light was knocked away by the hunter’s spell base as a powerfully dark aura began building below the woman.
“Oh, that’s right,” Aeon pouted. “Once Maelstrom is cast from the ether it cannot be countered or stopped by other means. Even though you have so much power over her you’re powerless to stop it. Only she can stop the spell, and I just don’t think she wants to right now.”
“Mika, you can’t cast that underground!” Nuci shouted shaking her head in fright. “You’ll bring everything down upon us! You’ll die!”
Multiple red spikes of energy shot up around Mika from the ground, tearing through the vines and ceiling above with sharp flashes. Nuci flinched from each root being seared away while rocks and loose debris started dropping down from the impacts.
“Mika, no!” Nuci cried out as she channeled her power around the hunter, a bright sparkly dome of light crackling from it being negated by Mika’s spell base. The alurane looked around nervously as more red spikes of light shot up around the hunter, all while Mika glared at her with her hands gripping the dirt now.
“You mustn’t cast that down here!” Nuci pleaded. “Please, you’ll die! Everything will come down atop you!”
“I’d be a little more worried about yourself at the moment,” Aeon laughed. “Uh oh, looks like she’s about to unleash it. This could be bad, especially for those other two over on the lift.”
“What?” Nuci gasped. She looked over then covered her mouth in horror at seeing Tabitha and Scay slowly getting up on the platform, the two rubbing their heads as they began sitting up with groans.
“Dammit,” Tabitha grunted getting back onto her feet with her swords. “That stupid human, I knew she would be nothing but trouble for us.”
“My head hurts,” Scay whined with a cringe. “Tabitha, can you hold me? Please?”
The two blinked then looked over to see a bright red and black glow emanating from Mika’s spell base below her while crimson lights were shooting up around her in sharp flashes.
“What the hell is she doing now?” Tabitha said tensing up. She ran towards the hunter along with Scay while having her swords held inversely at her sides. “Mika! S
top whatever it is you’re doing, right now!”
“I don’t think I like these pretty lights,” Scay worried as they raced up to Mika, only to then be knocked back by her protective shield before hopping about as multiple beams of light shot up around them.
“What the hell is this?” Tabitha yelled as the two darted further away from the hunter. “Mika, what are you doing?”
“Please stop whatever it is you’re doing!” Scay wailed. “It’s really getting scary!”
“Oh no,” Nuci feared as she saw the newcomers then turned to Mika and waved her hands around frantically. “Mika, you’re not alone down here, you have to stop-”
At that moment Mika unleashed her magical spell, the woman holding her hands out to either side as she let loose a powerful scream. The tangled mess of glowing lines all around her promptly exploded as a nightmarish array of crimson and black beams blasted up on all sides. The energy spikes then shot outward in all directions while tearing apart the ground below and the ceiling above, the beams searing away the roots and vines instantly while cleaving through rock like it was paper.
“Mika!” Tabitha screamed as she and Scay franticly stumbled back in fright, both seeing a slicing array of light racing towards them while tearing apart the ground with a vicious rumble.
“I don’t wanna die!” Scay whined as the two tripped to the ground and held each other close.
“NO!” Nuci yelled as she held her hands out with a bright flash of blue light flaring up around her. A blinding light erupted in the grotto followed quickly by a sudden tremor before flickering blue and red hues covered everything. Tabitha and Scay watched in shock as the hellstorm of magic Mika unleashed was halted from spreading further by a silvery blue barrier that surrounded it on all sides. The Maelstrom spell continued to push against it, its magical beams of energy constantly clashing against the alurane’s barrier while behind them Mika was now standing atop the glowing barrier of the City of Eden after her spell had annihilated all the ground and water under her.
“Holy shit!” Tabitha shouted. “What the fuck is going on down here?”
“Pretty and scary lights!” Scay cried holding her friend closer. “I’m so scared and happy at the same time! Waaaaah! Yaaaaay! Waaaaah! Yaaaaaay!”
Mika watched her attack continue to press against Nuci’s barrier, the two spells appearing to be in a deadlock as the Maelstrom couldn’t advance nor be pushed back. Her hair and cape flowed behind her in the current of wind that circled her, eye focused on the alurane who was staring at her in disbelief from the other side of the flashing barrier.
“Mika!” Nuci cried out shaking her head. “What have you done?”
Mika glanced up, seeing the flashing blue light of Nuci’s barrier having encased her entirely as her magical onslaught crackled against the ceiling of the blockade.
“Aeon was right,” she mused looking back to the alurane. “The only thing you could do to stop the spell from tearing apart Eden from below was to halt it with all your magical power.”
“Mika! What have you done? Do you have any idea how many ant girls reside above this chamber? Their nest would have collapsed down here had I not intervened!”
“Aeon knew you would stop it. She’s proven to be able to see such things quite well to me.”
“You risked the lives of all those unsuspecting ant girls, of those two dears that came down with you, and yourself even, all on Aeon’s word that I would stop you like this?”
“I told you, I’ll do whatever it takes to slay her,” Mika retorted. “You shouldn’t underestimate those you just met.”
“You seriously need to reconsider those words yourself, Mika!”
“At any rate you can’t touch me now,” Mika said raising an eyebrow. “Not if you want to contain Maelstrom as you’re doing. Looks like you’re in a stalemate.”
Nuci shook her head with a look of desperation before showing absolute fright at seeing something below the hunter. Mika then looked down, her eye widening slightly as she saw what the alurane also did.
“No! NO!” Nuci shouted as she saw six unique pyramid shaped relics resting against the City of Eden’s barrier, each of them resonating with quiet hums. They were made of a sleek black steel, all small enough to be held in a single hand, and all having engravings of irregular patterns glowing brightly all over them with green light as they appeared to cause rippling distortions of air around them and against the seal.
“Mika!” Tabitha yelled as she and Scay ran up to the barrier. They saw the hunter standing still inside the crackling pillar of light then looked around at the strange clashing of energy flashing before them.
“What the hell is she doing?” Tabitha demanded. “What is all this?”
“Hey, who’s that?” Scay asked pointing to Nuci. Tabitha turned to see the alurane shaking her head with tears forming in her eyes.
“Mika, don’t do it!” she desperately pleaded. “You don’t understand what will happen!”
“Are you the guardian of the City of Eden?” Tabitha asked. “What the fuck, girl? Why didn’t you stop this crazy human from getting this far? Isn’t that your job? To stop anyone from getting close to the City of Eden? You had one job! How hard was that?”
“Um, Tabitha?” Scay feared pointing at something.
The three girls watched as Mika was knelt down with two of the relics in her hands, her eye going between the two as she examined them closely. They were weightless in her hands, yet each one gave off an unsettling aura that rippled through her arms. She eyed the trinkets for a moment before slowly holding them closer together. They shook in her hands as they got near each other before snapping together along the flat edges with a sharp clang, their engravings glowing sharply as an energy pulse rippled out from them.
“Don’t put the key together!” Nuci cried out. “Don’t do it!”
“Key?” Tabitha repeated. She then jumped in surprise along with Scay as they realized what she was doing. “Mika! Wait, don’t do it!”
“Stop! Please stop!” Scay begged.
Mika slowly brought another of the relics closer, it too resonating in her hand with a powerful surge of energy before it snapped into place alongside a flat edge of the other two.
“Mika!” Nuci shouted as loud as she could. “Don’t do it! Please, listen to me! You can’t let the Dark Queen out!”
“Don’t let her out!” Tabitha cried out. “You’ll kill us all!”
“Daemon said not to do this!” Scay whined covering her face with her hair. “Listen to him! Nrrghmmm letting the Dark Queen out is bad!”
Again Mika brought another relic closer to the key, the piece rumbling in her hand before snapping into place with an energy surge resonating through the human’s hand.
“She has to die,” Mika cursed as she took hold of another piece of the key. She slowly turned her gaze up at the alurane, watching the monster shaking her head while her hands trembled as they held the powerful barrier in place.
“This is the only way for me,” Mika said before bringing the fragment closer, the piece rattling in her hand before snapping into place with the others. “This is the only path she’s allowing me to take. I’m sorry, but she’s left me no choice.”
“Aeon!” Nuci shouted downward in anger. “Stop manipulating her! Enough of this!”
“Aeon?” Tabitha repeated. She and Scay blinked then looked down, both seeing a wavering image of a butterfly fluttering in place below the glowing floor under Mika. With the clashing red and blue lights constantly at odds with each other in front of them the two girls couldn’t make out the monster’s details yet they suddenly had a very good idea as to what it was they were seeing.
“Is that…” Tabitha nervously asked. “Oh shit. Oh shit! Mika, this isn’t funny! That’s the Dark Queen below us! Stop what you’re doing now!”
“Don’t let her out!” Scay whined hopping around in circles. “Please, I’ll be your best friend if you don’t! I mean, Tabitha is always going to be my be
stest best best friend, but you could still be a best friend too! Just don’t let that monster out and kill us all, please!”
Mika stood up with the final fragment in one hand and the key in the other, the other pieces holding together in the shape of a pyramid with a missing top. The hunter watched Nuci with a harsh stare, seeing the alurane shaking her head with tears falling while she continued to hold Mika’s spell in place. The crimson lights began to flicker and snap loudly as the Maelstrom started to run out of energy. Nuci’s blue barrier started to push in slightly as it was able to fight back against the diminishing spell while smoke and dust swirled around the pillar of magic.
“She has to die,” Mika repeated before placing the final piece on top of the key, forming a complete pyramid with glowing engravings that pulsated in tandem with the seal below her. The complete Key to Eden flashed with a green hue before emanating a soft glow and a chilling aura. Holding the key out before her with both hands she stared down Nuci as the alurane turned pale from seeing the key assembled, the hunter then kneeling down as she turned her eye to the ancient relic that pulsated in her hands.
The hunter’s spell finally fizzled out with its crimson beams flickering away as they ran out of energy, leaving the woman remaining down on one knee atop the City of Eden’s seal while Nuci’s glittering barrier surrounded her. Silence befell the grotto as everyone stared apprehensively at Mika who was holding the key just above the seal, her eye going from Nuci’s terrified face down to the glowing barrier under her feet. Aeon smiled coldly as she tapped the barrier with her finger and nodded, with Mika glaring at her then ahead at Nuci who slowly shook her head in fright.
“Mika,” she breathed out. “Do. Not. Do. It.”
“Don’t,” Tabitha stressed through her teeth. “Don’t do it. Don’t do it.”
Chronicles of Eden - Act XI Page 5