by Billy Wong
"Keep going, Saint Princess. You needn't hold back for my sake."
She fully intended to kill him, but it was still inexplicable that he appeared to be holding back against her. Did he not have a whole left arm, and she fought a crippled man? But he had seemed to get the urge to reach for his wound with his off hand, which shouldn't happen if he lacked one... unless he'd lost it recently. They fought on, Nero backing up more often than not as she kept the advantage, yet the mystery kept nagging at her. She knew she shouldn't take pity on him whatever the reason for his behavior was, when he endangered her family and wanted her dead, but what in the world?
#
Slowly yet surely the human force gained ground in the plaza, herding the enemy back over the cobbles littered with monster corpses. Men also died to be sure, but the best of Severil being in the lead limited their casualties to a degree. General Duncan helped too, Becca admitted, the venerable warrior steadying the nerves of the troops under him with encouraging words so that they remained passably calm and in formation. She hamstrung a cyclops and left it to her soldiers to finish, moving on to a big naga whose fangs she chipped with a parry of her sword.
"Almost there, fellas!" she said while she lunged after the recoiling serpent, chopping into its neck. She sucked in a deep breath as it fell and straightened, doing her best not to show her fatigue. "Keep pushing, once we exterminate this lot all that'll be left is the cleanup."
"You will not exterminate my children," came an ominous voice from ahead.
She watched the monstrous crowd part for their master, the esteemed Father. "You took your good time to show up. Where have you been?"
"I was... pondering something. But I cannot allow you to slaughter my offspring." He pointed his spear at her. "Let tonight mark the death of a great warrior."
Becca cocked her head towards him. "If you call yourself a great warrior, sure."
"Should we leave this to you, Your Majesty?" Duncan asked at her side.
She considered briefly, then replied, "No need. He can't have improved enough in this short amount of time to deserve a rematch with me already, so feel free to join in. Besides, duels don't satisfy me as much when I don't have arrows to be flashy with my bow."
"How dare you belittle me," Father rumbled. "Children, to me! Together let us squash this disrespectful whelp." Monsters flocked around him, staring death at Becca and her allies.
"I think I kind of earned the right to talk down to you when I humiliated you. Come on, men of Severil and Aerilea! Victory lies at our fingertips!" She led the charge forward, going straight for Father in spite of her earlier words. While she wouldn't mind someone helping her out with him, neither was she dead set on avoiding a repeat of their duel. This weapons clashed and she smirked at his irate glare inches away, figuring she could make a game of how much she could frustrate him before he slipped up and she ended him.
#
Chasing him around the room, Julianna knocked Nero back again and again, inflicted wound after minor wound and grew ever more baffled. She almost speared him through the throat as he leaned desperately away, hurled him to his back with a thudding kick to the chest. "What are you doing?" she asked while he dragged himself upright. "Are you trying to compensate for something, did you actually lose your arm recently or what?"
"What if I did? Surely you wouldn't show mercy for me, when you didn't even for your own son's love."
She sighed. "I can be ruthless at times, true enough."
"He's trying to pull a trick," Keith said, "don't fall for it!"
He was probably right, though it remained strange that Nero continued to hold back or whatever he did for so long when he was at a clear disadvantage. She drove him to the end of the room under a flurry of pokes, almost forcing him onto the balcony before slashing at his eyes. He blocked, but the impact made him stumble out onto the ledge. Having him cornered, she leveled the spear at him. "Your end looms. Before you go, since you're so fond of words, here's your chance to explain yourself. Also, tell me where Julian is now."
Nero chuckled. "You act like you're in control. But you're not. I wanted to see how your martial skills compare to mine, and acknowledge you are stronger in that regard. But like I told you, Galen was the one who sought to fight you fairly. I on the other hand have turned myself into a better version of you."
"Better version of me? Why do people keep saying that and what do you mean?"
Nero blinked. "Somebody else said that before?"
"Leelee the Golden did."
He shook his head quickly with annoyance. "Well, she was obviously wrong about that while I will be proven right. As for what I mean..." He tugged at the cloak as if trying to free it from his left shoulder, and she saw it was attached more tightly than one would normally be. No wonder it never moved from in front of his arm, no matter how he moved or was knocked around. Finally he got it loose, and whipped it back to unveil his concealed limb.
Julianna's eyes bulged, not sure what she was looking at at first. His left arm seemed much smaller than his right, both thinner and much shorter. Though still toned and muscular, she thought it looked like a woman's arm. A glance down at the fingers and nails confirmed its feminine appearance. A heavy bracelet encircled the wrist, probably to balance the weight of his arms and keep them from being lopsided. "You have an undersized girl arm, what the hell?"
"You still don't get it? I thought a revered monarch would be smarter than that."
Wait, he called himself a better version of her... she gazed at her own left arm and her jaw dropped with recognition. "Is that my arm, from my old body?" He must've somehow grafted it on...
"You finally caught up. Yes, and with the addition of your innately gifted flesh I have boosted my magical ability beyond what yours currently is. You've been made obsolete."
Made obsolete using her own parts? That would be ironic. She looked back at Keith. "How did this bullshit happen?"
"I guess, um, your body must've been stolen from the royal mausoleum... your power comes from your body? Considering you willpowered your way back from the dead without one, I thought it was from your spirit."
She clenched her jaw at the mocking smirk Nero wore. "It's both. I came back with the strength of my spirit, but remember my family is known for its magical talent. That's passed down physically at least in part I guess..."
"Indeed," Nero said. "Now that you lack the bodily component of your power, I exceed you."
"But doesn't it feel awkward for you to have an arm like that?"
He struck a proud pose with his back straight and chest puffed out. "Why would it bother me? I stand ever untouchable by such antiquated notions."
"Okay... anyway, you may exceed me in raw magical strength, if even, but that doesn't mean you're more formidable!" She dashed at him, spear poised to stab.
Behind her, Keith shouted, "Be careful!" Nero leapt over her thrust, higher than she anticipated as he probably used magic to boost his jump. She looked up to see him gather energy before his hand and blast it out, striking her in the face and chest. It smashed her through the stone railing, sent her soaring out into the air. "Julianna!"
She grabbed the edge of the balcony as she went over and pulled hard to fling herself back up. "I'm fine," she said, rolling to her feet to face Nero again. More golden light manifested around his female hand, flew out in the form of a barrage of small bolts. She ran forward deflecting them with her spear, then somersaulted over a bigger one to kick him in the face. Knocked back inside, he sent a spark of energy along the ground at her. She tried to jump it only for it to explode upward in a geyser, blasting her painfully forward towards him. He slashed up aiming to bisect her, but she blocked in midair and was hurled away to land clumsily on her feet. Again his hand glowed. Did he have to waste that much magic? Maybe she should ask Keith to join in killing him, pride be damned... but not just yet.
Nero tried to conjure a powerful explosion centered on her. She dove at him out of it, escaping the brunt though it
pushed her forward adding to the force of her tackle on him. She slammed him against a pillar, cracking it, and drew her spear back. But then she sensed something falling from above, and had to jump away aborting her attack as a huge chunk of stone crashed to the floor. His blast had shattered a column behind her, and compromised the ceiling. Shaking off a momentary look of fright, he fired a thick beam which swept across. Julianna sprinted ahead of it, then flipped backwards over it when it got too close. She threw a dagger into his chest at the height of her arc, but couldn't penetrate deeply though the armor.
Rushing him in an attempt to take advantage of his pain, she was taken off guard by a spread of golden balls flying out in front of him. One plowed into her torso, hurling her back, while others hit and broke more pillars. Pieces of masonry rained down deafeningly around them. If this continued, the whole throne room might be destroyed, but that was far from a primary concern compared to the debris giving her less space to maneuver. With all the energy being tossed around, she felt sudden worry for Keith and glanced towards him to see he had backed up against the doorway. Smart of him to get out of harm's way barring a stray blast, which would save her from being more distracted fighting Nero.
They continued their battle, Julianna defending magical attack after magical attack while occasionally getting into melee range to land a blow or two. Nero was indeed much more skilled at magical combat than Leelee as well as more powerful, but she still managed to fight him almost evenly using only physical abilities herself. "Better version of me, huh?" she asked when she got in a stab to her old arm—disturbing to think about—and he jerked himself off the spear with a growl. She followed up with a spinning pole swipe that missed, but her punch connected as he ducked under and staggered him. "You're having trouble even without me using magic, imagine if I did."
"Arrogant whore!" he spat, wiping blood from his lip. "Use it, then."
"I think I'd rather continue schooling you with just my martial skills, thanks." Though schooling might be overstating it, since he connected with his share of rough hits. Still, she noticed his magical attacks getting fewer and farther between, along with being smaller when he did launch one. Was the concentration of magical energy in the immediate vicinity getting so low he struggled to gather it fast enough? She felt herself weakening too, which lend credence to that thought. Bothersome, but she didn't think it enough for him to defeat her when his offense lost power too. More troubling might be what this hinted at for the continent... Nero shot a lance of magic in Keith's direction, perhaps hoping for Julianna to shield him with her body or be rattled by him getting injured or killed, but Keith sidestepped deftly and Nero gave up on targeting him. Soon he stopped blasting altogether, punching at her instead with that small fist which looked silly on him between sword strikes. "Not working out how you planned?" she asked.
"Curse this land! If only it didn't betray me." He threw more and more punches, growing predictable with them. Julianna saw an opportunity. She timed one and caught his arm, tried to lever him to the ground. But a strange feeling of—lightness?—ran through her body, and she realized something was wrong.
"Ha, got you!" said Nero happily. Suddenly she could no longer see her surroundings as white filled her vision. She felt like she was being pulled rapidly forward through a tunnel of light, to wind up floating weightlessly in an immaculate white void. Her mind reeled. What had just happened?
#
Keith gawked in disbelief at what he had just seen—Julianna changing into a cloud of golden sparkles upon touching Nero's arm, then disappearing into it to leave behind an empty suit of armor. "Your woman was very impressive," the would-be conqueror said, his limb now bearing a faint gold glow. "She bettered me even with magic. But I warned her I wouldn't play fair."
"What have you done to her?" Keith demanded, voice shaky with fear. "Did you kill her?"
"Kill her? How does one kill what is already dead? No, I have sealed her within her own arm." He tapped the limb, which appeared even more grotesque now. "Now that both her flesh and spirit are under my control, I become even closer to what she was—a near god of magic, who will rule this continent!" He levitated into the air, features crazed. "So this is power. I feel euphoric! You must have been jealous, with your woman being so much stronger than you. But don't worry, that burden's off your shoulders now that she's part of me now."
"No I wasn't jealous, because I love her for the person she is regardless of her power. You give her back!"
"No. Make me."
"I sure will!" Keith rushed Nero, who rose higher out of sword's reach. He jumped and slashed at his legs, but the fiend extended a palm downward and the blade bounced off a translucent shield that formed around him.
"Fool. Unlike your Saint Princess, I will not deign to fight those weaker than myself on their own terms. How does it feel to know the futility of your resistance?"
Becca ran into the room, sword and body awash with blood mostly not her own, and looked around in confusion. "Huh? Where's the old lady, and why is he floating?"
Keith tried to explain as best he could. "He's absorbed Julianna into that woman arm, which is actually hers! It seems to have given him extraordinary power similar to her."
She gaped. "I can't believe what I'm hearing. Then let's cut that arm off!"
"Seems easier said than done..."
"It will not be done," Nero said. "This is the dawn of a new age." He spread his arms, and golden sparkles appeared around him—all through the room, and in the air outside too. Keith didn't know how far the phenomenon spread, but it reminded him of when Julianna had drawn magical energy from the entire region around Myrrhise to defeat the Father of All Monsters... only there was no mountain sized monstrosity to destroy this time around.
"What are you doing?" Keith snapped.
"Are you daft, to not understand when you knew her so intimately? I am gathering power as your princess did, with the greater ability to draw on it she has so kindly granted me."
"I can see that, but to what purpose?"
"Oh, that." Nero grinned. "I plan to obliterate this entire capital at once, and clear the way for a new beginning."
Becca recoiled. "What?! But what about your allies?"
"The monsters? I do not need them. Like I said before, I accounted for the fact they might betray me. So I will annihilate them first, restore the One Army and claim my throne."
"Stop this!" Keith cried. The sparkles were pretty spread out so far, showing that even with his increased power they came with difficulty. "With the state the continent is in, you might bring it crashing down before you even scrape together enough magic to blow away the capital."
"Does that truly make sense to you, that the power to destroy a city would make the difference in supporting a continent or not?" It did, if using up that much would bring it below a certain threshold, but Nero didn't want to hear anything which might dissuade him. "Even if there might be a risk, it is my fate to unite this land. I will trust in fate to protect me!"
"We have to get that arm away from him," Becca said. She snatched up Julianna's dropped spear and hurled it upward with tremendous force. The head met Nero's barrier and seemed to start piercing through—then its momentum gave out and it clattered onto the ground. "Dammit, my arm's a bit tired. Now what?"
"Nothing." The One Army leader cackled. "There is nothing you can do to stop me!" He tore a furrow into the floor with a forward-slicing beam they dodged, perhaps delaying his big blast with the energy expenditure, but wasting more power in the meantime.
Keith gazed at Nero's arm which didn't belong. "Julianna, if you can hear me," he said pleadingly, "you have to do something." Otherwise, everything they'd fought and struggled for so long would be lost, and it was devastating to imagine her being enslaved inside him for as long as he lived...
#
Julianna heard the voices from somewhere outside this... place she was in and knew her city and the continent were in grave danger, but had no idea how to help. She couldn
't move or even look around, seemingly floating in a white void without a body. She vaguely remembered when she had been dead, before she created a new form for herself. It'd been similar, with her amid complete darkness, but the color of her surroundings and her ability to hear were different. Where was she, inside Nero's arm—her old arm? But arms didn't have ears, so shouldn't she not pick up any sounds if her presence was limited to it? Maybe the limb had enough of a connection to the rest of him that she could sense some things other body parts did. She couldn't dwell on it, since she had to figure out a way to get out of here or at least stop Nero. Without the capacity to move in any direction, though, what could she do? She was nothing more than a mind, listening in on a world where she no longer physically existed.
Wait. He had absorbed her spirit clearly, but what of the magical energy that had made up her form? If he'd taken it into himself alongside her consciousness, which seemed plausible for him to have to do, then it might be inside him still. And in that case, maybe she could control it yet. She reached out with her mind, searching for that energy—and found it not a second later. It was past the whiteness, which seemed to be his will trying to contain her. White... did that mean his intentions were pure, and he truly believed what he did was just? Even if so, it didn't matter. Pure intentions didn't have to be correct, and he threatened not only her family, but the world with great peril. So she had no qualms about teaching him what a mistake it was to try and trap her inside himself of all places. She expanded her essence outward, pushing through the white to meld again with the golden light beyond.
#
The air had grown thick with sparkles now, Keith and Becca watching helplessly while Nero prepared for the destruction of Myrrhise. Their continued efforts had failed to breach his shield, and he mocked them with a cruel grin. "You did try valiantly. I will remember you as courageous opponents, if not worth—uh?" His feminine hand whipped up, balling into a fist, and punched him in the face. He touched his bloody nose with his other hand. "Wha?" Apparently, his barrier didn't protect him from attacks made by his own body, but what was going on? The small fist punched him again, knocking him out of the air so he plummeted down on his back.