by DM Fike
“I hate gremlins,” Kay groaned as he bent over, fingers splayed over his mouth.
The two other gremlins appeared with Isolde and Bedwyr not long after. It took another full minute before the final one teleported a confused and stumbling Desert Rose into their circle.
As the non-gremlin travelers gathered their wits, Mutt drew Nobody into a large brotherly hug. “Die, you dare not. Owe me money, you do.”
Nobody patted him fiercely on the back. “I don’t owe you anything,” he declared confidentially.
They disengaged, and Mutt gave him one last sneaky grin. “Kangaroos, I know about.”
Nobody sputtered in disbelief. “Wh-Who told you about that?” he demanded, but Mutt disappeared in a smug puff of smoke. The other gremlins followed his lead.
As Nobody cursed this sudden but inevitable betrayal, Avalon surveyed their surroundings. The gremlins had dropped them off on a plateau miles away from the castle, well into the forest. Trees swayed beneath their feet, giving them a clear view of the valley to where Emerged Falls sloped up the mountainside, culminating at the now tiny castle in front of its namesake. At the horizon, they could see flashes in the darkened sky, indicating where the Lightning Titan had taken her dragon opponents. A second, much smaller group of dragons nipped at the ground near the city’s edge, arrows and bits of magic shooting upwards at those beasts still contained in the sky.
Scawale and Braellia, however, had vanished.
Desert Rose frowned at this. “Where did she go?”
They formed a loose circle, back-to-back, facing outward, looking for any sign of the ghost-like giant or the Aossi that grounded her. Nothing seemed amiss in any direction.
“She was around here before the gremlins teleported us,” Isolde said.
Kay flew up above them, swirling around 360 degrees to find their target. “She could not have simply vanished.”
On a hunch, Avalon closed her eyes, concentrating on the magic churning in her gut. She could manipulate each individual type if she wanted to, but she searched instead for that singular oneness she always felt around the Child of the Statue.
A voice hissed in her brain. You will not escape.
Avalon gasped. That wasn’t Ladybug.
Bedwyr noticed her discomfort. “You feel her, don’t you?”
“She’s talking in my head,” Avalon whispered.
Bedwyr put his hand on her shoulder, fingertips glowing. “Get her to talk some more.”
Avalon gulped but focused back onto that oneness. Instead of waiting for Braellia to speak, she used her own mind to project outward. I’m not here to run away.
A few beats of silence passed. Avalon thought Braellia would not reply when suddenly, she saw a flash of the Temple of the Heavens, the broken gate that had once imprisoned Braellia in her mind.
Then die now!
Bedwyr flung his hand at a spot in the trees below them not far away. “There she is!” he cried.
His warning came just in time. Kay slammed down on the ground and formed ranks with him and Desert Rose in the front. Nobody flung up a dark magic barrier as the pine trees snapped in half, Braellia’s ethereal form looming above them at the edge of the plateau, a transparent genie released from its bottle. She flung a maelstrom of fire, wind, and lightning at them at such a high velocity, it would have torn them apart had Nobody’s shield not absorbed the impact.
“Sadus!” Nobody yelled as his shield wobbled like jelly. He stumbled, and everyone stepped backward with him in order to stay inside his defenses. “Vimp!”
“Oh yeah!” The demonic imp sunk his teeth into Nobody’s neck, and the barrier strengthened.
Braellia towered higher above them, an awful hollow-eyed ghost, until a second, much smaller figure leaped onto the plateau. It was Scawale, her expression now almost as dead as Braellia’s.
“Dear Omni,” Bedwyr whispered at the sight of her.
Her skull snapped to lock onto him. “If it isn’t my old liege,” she sneered. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
Bedwyr maintained his composure. “Look at yourself, Scawale. The Child has corrupted you.”
“You’re envious of my power,” Scawale bit back. “The Child chose me instead of you.”
Bedwyr snarled. “I rejected the Child because of what she had become.”
“And what have you become, Bedwyr? Aligning yourself with these human lovers?” She threw her hands out wide, Braellia high above her mimicking her pose. “Together with the Child, I’ve exterminated more human filth than you ever had the guts to.”
“I never wanted to eradicate them, only put them in their place. Cease their silly wars.”
“And that’s where you and I never saw eye-to-eye. You still longed for a sort of peace.” She flicked her wrist, and a long shadow grew in front of her, despite having no light source to create it. “The Child, like me, yearns for death and destruction. You only stand in my way!”
The shadow lunged forward, slamming into Nobody’s barrier with the force of a battering ram. Nobody’s eyes spun in their sockets. “I love a good chat as much as the next, but can you guys get on with it?”
Braellia chuckled above them. “What can you do against me? I have your Guardians. I feel their souls screaming for mercy, locked inside me as they once imprisoned me.” To prove her point, she held out her hand, and the outline of Lord Shivant Emerson appeared, kneeling with his hands over his head, face scrunched in agony.
Desert Rose and Kay widened their stance at this, clearly ready to fight. Isolde turned pale, but then defiance overrode her fear. She opened the pouch attached to the belt loop and withdrew the lump of the statue Bedwyr had given them, no longer reluctant to bear it. Desert Rose had arranged to have it forged into one large piece, a hunk of glimmering emerald rock that Isolde now raised high in the air with both hands.
“We have the Statue!” she yelled, slamming one foot on the ground. As the earth shook under their feet, Isolde tightened it to only affect her boots, her vibrating body shimmering at the edges. Isolde’s eyes lost their pupils, replaced with the distinctive aura of the eternal flame. The statue pieces she held emitted a quiet version of the same glow.
Desert Rose shook her sword, fractals of ice forming from hilt to tip. She held out her other palm, a huge fireball exploding into a steady blaze. Next to her, Kay took a few swipes of his sword in front of him, generating a dust devil that encompassed his blade. Then sparks of electricity ignited all over him, causing his hair to float as if immersed in water. As their elements raged, all three became encompassed in the same eternal flame.
“No!” Braellia shrieked. Her cries grabbed the attention of the dragons fighting the Emerged Falls military. They took to the air, bringing their elemental magic with them as the Child flung every conceivable attack at their bubble. The earth, wind, fire, ice, and lightning strikes soon became so thick, they could barely see Braellia’s anguished form through the smoky barrier.
Nobody fell to his knees, mouth twisted in pain. “This sucks!”
Bedwyr placed his glowing hands on Nobody’s back. The gremlin immediately perked up, pain receding from his posture. “Thanks, Doc, but I still won’t last forever.” Nobody glared at Avalon. “Will you get on with it before the dragons crush us to bits?”
The last time Avalon had gotten to this point, she had hesitated, and it cost the Guardians their very souls. She was ready now. Having already locked onto that oneness in her chest, she shouted, “NOW!”
Nobody lowered his barrier, and she blasted Braellia with that feeling. Instead of teleporting her, she focused on drawing Braellia inward, toward Isolde, still holding the statue high. Braellia screeched in terror, attempting to wield more magic toward them, but all her magical attacks dissolved into Kay, Desert Rose, and Isolde’s eternal flame. Scawale threw forward a shadow stab, heading straight for Kay, but Nobody teleported and punched her in the jaw, forcing her to focus on him as he giddily bounced in and out around her.
As Avalon magically extracted Braellia out of Scawale, she found herself back inside her mind, standing on top of the pool at the Temple of the Heavens. Braellia crouched on the water next to her, glaring up at her in pure rage.
“It cannot end this way,” she hissed.
“It will end this way,” a calm, familiar voice said.
Avalon whirled around, surprised to find the original five Guardians surrounding the stone rim. Symphony, Colin, Shivant, Halicia, and J.T. all stood equidistant from each other around the pool, wielding their distinctive magic, their bodies swathed in eternal flame.
Shivant had been the one to speak. “Your soul needs to return to Gaea, where it belongs.”
“Gaea,” Braellia sneered. Her face twisted, eyes forming the distinctive pupils of a dragon. Dark scales curled all over her cheeks and arms. “Gaea has no claim on me!”
Beneath the water’s surface and underneath Braellia, Avalon could see Isolde, holding up the statue piece in the real world as if reaching out to her inside the temple. An intense, almost unbearable haze of eternal flame surged from inside the statue’s depths. Avalon leaned forward, placing her hands on Braellia’s shoulders.
“Not today.”
Then Avalon pushed her downward, toward the statue.
Hands forming into claws, Braellia tried to drive Avalon away, but the eternal flame was too much for her. Avalon shoved Braellia beneath the water, her own feet staying steady on the surface as Braellia sank lower and lower toward the statue. As Braellia’s leg brushed against it, the scales on her body popped in and out of existence. Avalon found herself wrestling with a half Aossi, half dragon, a horrible blend of both Braellia and Kryvalen, the creature that had corrupted her long ago.
As the struggled wore on, Avalon did not know if she had the strength to finish it, her muscles weary, her mind fuzzy. Then, gauntlets weighed down on her hands. She turned her head to find Kay, standing on the pool and helping her with the task.
“You’re not alone,” he said. “You were never alone.”
Two more sets of hands covered his. Desert Rose and Isolde also bore down on the writhing monster. As Braellia’s neck sunk into the light within the statue, she screamed up at them. “I cannot be—”
But her words were left unfinished as the statue absorbed the rest of her head.
Avalon fell backward on top of the water, her own Guardians gone but the original ones surrounding her at the pool, their eternal flame blazing as brightly as ever. The temple shook with violent force, the pool beneath her no longer showing the outside world but a bubbling, sickening glow.
J.T. cocked his head. “Now we must help you, new Child. See you on the other side.”
The original Guardians strode forward to create a protective circle around her as the temple’s walls came crashing down around them. Avalon found herself bathed in their eternal flame as they whisked her away, the pool a frothing mass.
CHAPTER 41
“AVALON! AVALON!”
Kay bent over her, his wings reflecting the midday sky. Groaning, she allowed him to help her sit up.
“Wh-what happened?” she asked woozily. They were still on top of the plateau overlooking the valley.
“We did it!” Nobody screamed behind Kay. He had one foot on Scawale’s unconscious body, a pirate staking his treasure. “We actually did it!”
Isolde shuffled into her periphery, holding onto the emerald lump. “We used the eternal flame to put Braellia back into the statue’s remains,” she breathed in awe, as if she almost didn’t believe it.
Desert Rose prepared to bolt. “Five lights escaped from the emerald, each a different color, heading straight for the castle. It might be the Child’s final trap.”
“No, wait!” Avalon cried before Desert Rose could bolt. “It’s not a trap. It’s the original Guardians.” She explained how they had helped her seal Braellia back into the statue inside her mind, and then promised they would meet soon.
Bedwyr, who had remained thoughtful at this point, nodded at this. “That explains why those lights felt so lifelike to me as they flew past.” His frown deepened. “Although it leaves the question as to why I still feel Braellia’s presence among us.”
Nobody continued to laugh almost hysterically, Vimp giggling at his side. “We shoved her back in the statue. That’s gonna sting for a while.”
Bedwyr opened his mouth to respond when a deafening roar filled the air. The ground shook, not from any magic but from the synchronous sound of every single dragon in the vicinity howling into the sky. The ones that had been approaching hovered only a quarter mile away. Those far in the distance that had been fighting the Lightning Titan disengaged, their wings beating a steady rhythm as they too hovered in place. The dragons’ full attention fell onto the plateau, as if waiting for their next move.
Nobody’s laughter died under such scrutiny. “What’s up with the freaky dragons?”
Avalon turned to Isolde. “What are they doing?”
“I-I don’t know. They were under Braellia’s control, so they should be free to go wherever they want now.”
Desert Rose contemplated the beasts. “They certainly don’t look free. They look like they’re expecting a command.”
That’s when Avalon heard the distinctive, if soft, chuckle of someone certain of their own righteousness. She whipped around to see who could be laughing, but everyone had their attention on the dragons, even Nobody.
“Do you hear that?” she asked Kay.
“Hear what?”
His answer told her everything. As the laughter grew louder, she could tell it was from a female. “Not funny, Ladybug,” she said through gritted teeth.
I’m not Ladybug.
A burst of oneness erupted in Avalon’s heart. In response, the dragons roared simultaneously, a cry of recognition that their master had not yet receded.
Avalon’s blood thickened into sludge. Everyone else focused on the dragons, wondering about their next move, but all Avalon could feel was the magic growing inside of her. A familiar pain throbbed on her arm, and in disbelief, she lifted her tunic sleeve to find the familiar Miasmis bruise there, growing steadily like an inkblot. In a matter of seconds, it spread over her arm, onto her torso, paralyzing her.
I told you it would not end this way.
Kay glanced at her for a second, then did a double take as the Miasmis bruise spread over her. “Avalon!” he cried, grabbing her right before she collapsed, her vision shifting once again out of the real world.
CHAPTER 42
AVALON REGAINED CONSCIOUSNESS in a hellscape of darkness. A black sun rose over deep purple earth, casting shadows in the pits between rocks as if they could swallow a person whole. Bits of ash fell like snowflakes all around them. Avalon stood on a slope which continued to rise well into the distance, culminating in a triangular point far above her. An Aossi, glowing ethereal with black and green scales, rose to greet her. Staring upward at Braellia’s half-Child, half-Kryvalen form, Avalon realized they stood on some warped shadow version of Mt. Hornley.
“False Child!” Braellia screamed, her female voice overlaid with a gravely baritone so it sounded like two voices in one.
A dark lightning bolt hit Avalon square on the head. Her body wanted to stumble to one side, but she couldn’t, as the earth had wrapped itself around one of her feet. She cried out in pain as she sprained her ankle from the half-tumble, favoring her trapped leg as she attempted to stand.
A cloaked figure stood not far away, tendrils of red hair drifting out of the hood. “Ladybug!” Avalon pleaded. “Help me!”
I can only observe, the gremlin replied in her head. This is your fight, a fight for who will be the true Child of the Statue. Then she disappeared.
“How useless are you?” Avalon yelled in frustration. That’s when she saw the shadow fireball streak toward her. Drawing on the heat in her core, she flung it aside before it hit her, but that left her vulnerable to the dark icy daggers that flew in its wake. Several of them
slashed at her exposed arms, causing lacerations that trickled blood.
“This is not you, Braellia!” Avalon cried. “It’s Kryvalen! He’s still merged with you!”
She got a face full of smoky wind as a reply, filling up her lungs with heavy dust. Gasping for breath, she tried to think this through. She needed a way to block all elemental attacks. When another lightning bolt formed ahead, she changed tactics and threw up a dark magic barrier.
The dark lightning went straight through the barrier and caused her to black out for a few seconds. When she woke up, Braellia hovered over her, one terrible dragon claw extended toward her. Talons curled around the throat, the tips piercing the skin. Avalon’s wide eyes locked with Braellia’s dragon ones as the Child picked her up like a doll.
“Die!” Braellia hissed as she squeezed. “Die, and I will rise again!”
Avalon put her hands on top of Braellia’s, employing every type of magic. She tried to melt the claw off, freeze it, bury it in earth, blow it away, zap it, and even acid it off. None of it worked.
Half-crazy from lack of oxygen, she focused on the last power under her control. She yanked on the aching light in her gut and sent it directly into Braellia’s scaly skin.
Healing Braellia’s claw had a double effect. It caused Braellia to let go in a yelp of pain, but it also sapped Avalon’s strength. Avalon’s whole body went weak, as if hemorrhaging blood from some invisible wound. The moment Braellia let go, oxygen filled back into Avalon’s lungs, and she shut off the light magic. She scrambled away backwards like a crab, putting some distance between them.
“Avalon?”
She whipped around at this new voice, surprised to find Bedwyr standing behind her. He glanced about wildly at the dark mountain, his pupils adjusting to the lack of light.
“What are you doing here?”
“I accessed you through The Deep,” Bedwyr explained. “The Miasmis bruise is spreading all over you. You are dying again.”
Avalon winced as she attempted to stand. Bedwyr came to her aid. “Did Braellia blast you?”