During the fight with Snort, Alexia had spent most of her MP, yet standing here in the dense magic energy she could feel her energy quickly returning. When the woman floated down, Alexia didn't recognize her at first with the glowing tattoos, but then it clicked.

On the last day she saw her brother, he had just taken a job to help with the bills, and a woman was speaking with him. Something seemed off about how the woman was flirting with him, and Alexia asked her brother to take a different job. He said he would be fine, and he walked off with the woman who was covered in tattoos, tattoos she now recognized as being magical in nature.

After her outburst the woman glanced in her direction. Aleixa quickly examined the woman while pulling out an Mana potion and downing it to top off her MP.

Erica looked a bit puzzled and said "Did I kill your brother? I can't say I recall. You are going to have to be more specific, I've killed a lot of people in my time." She landed on the platform and walked to the pillar and examined it while saying "Only a matter of time now, before you get to meet my mistress." 

Then she turned and looked at Yukali who was standing guarded near her with the sword raised. "Oh your a Dragonkin. I love how deep you can get with your toungue. When she arrives, I hope we get a chance to play." Erica walked towards Yukali who attempted to attack, only for her to be swatted off the platform and slammed into the wall where Alexia heard several bones break.

Erica leaned down and picked up Attomas body. "What a shame. He was a fool to fight against my mistress gift. All he got for it was madness."

"Were you behind my brothers kidnapping?" Lady Niadas glared at Erica.

"Oh no, that was the work of The Awakned. See they wanted to use your brother as a way to fully seal my mistress away. Of course I could not let that happen, so I came here and killed them all. My mistress placed her gift into your brother and we sent him on his way. How surprising that he came back here with the keys to the towers. I've been looking for them for ages, I wonder where he found them."

"The Awakened?" Jack asked.

"They are the worshipers of the Great one. I myself used to follow their way's till my Mistress showed me the light. If you wish to know more about them, you can ask her, isn't that right sister?" Erica looked at Veronica.

They all looked at Veronica looking alarmed. Veronica shook her head, "You no longer are Awakened and you are no sister of mine. You are the one my previous master spoke to me about, the Betrayer."

A chuckle came out of the tatooed woman and she said "Yes, I suppose from your perspective I betrayed the great one. In truth, The Great one betrayed us, sealing away the gift of Luxurain from us. The world would be better under her control." Erica took a breath and looked again at Veronica. "So you are the one they chose to aid the herald."

"They did not choose, I am the last of the Awakened. I have sworn to become his shield. We will not allow the Seven to regain their power once more." Veronica said pointing Ritalassa at Erica.

"Yet, you have already failed. Look!" Erica said, and Alexia saw lights lighting up around the perimiter of the room. "Soon she will break the seal."

Veronica frowned and said "I am sorry My Lord, my previous master did not fully inform me about this place before they died. I was unaware that we were working towards breaking the seal."

"Don't worry, she is in for a major disapointment. I will not allow you to unseal her." Jack said stepping towards Erica. "Get everyone out of here while I deal with her."

"My the Herald has quite the fiery spirit. Jack, my mistress is very interested in you. We knew you would eventually step onto the world, but we didn't expect you to open one of Avarita's boxes. When you did, her gift was able to attach itself to your soul. Now I can feel it worming it's way deeper into you, all you have to do is submit and my mistress will shower you in pleasure that no mortal would be able to comprehend."

Jack said "Sorry, not interested. I'm not one to submit."

"That's alright, I like when they put on a fight." Erica waved her hand, and Jack froze in place.

Sweat began to pour from his face and was turning red as he fought against something. "No, I will not lose control of myself again."

Erica laughed and said "Fight all you want, in the end you can do nothing but submit. Now take your clothes off, I want to see your body"

With Jack fighting every move, he began to slowly take off his clothes. "Get out of here if you can." He said, the glared at Erica and said "You are wrong, there is still one thing I can do. I can still dream." After he said that, he went limp and fell to the ground asleep.

"What a pity, before mistress came I wanted a go with him. Oh well, now to deal with the rest of you. Can't have you attempting to stop her arrival. You should all just submit to her." Erica looked at Megan and said "You must be the succubus mistress mentioned. She sends you her offer again, join her and she will train you in the arts of lust."

Megan shuddered under Erica's attention and then fiercely said "No, I will not submit to her will."

"Then you die." Erica said simply and reached out towards Megan. Time seemed to slow for Alexia, Magic Energy ripped out through her body charging up her tattoos to maximum power and then she moved and rammed into Megan with a burning fist.

It was as if Alexia ran into a wall and bounced off only for Erica to grab her by the neck. Erica glanced at her and said "You know, I think I recall a man with the same color of hair. In order for me to get to the eigth stage, I needed access to blood with fire elemental energy of which your brother had in ample supply. It was a shame he had lost his arm."

Alexia blasted Erica in her face with a firebolt only for the woman to ignore it and continue "As his sibling you should understand the pain your brother faced." Erica grabbed Alexia's left arm and with a snap broke the bone and Alexia screamed in pain. Then Erica ripped the limb off and tossed it to the side. Megan cried out and Alexia saw her changing form and Megan sent out her whip around Erica's neck who sighed and tossed Alexia across the room.

Striking the wall, she felt her bones shatter, and pain flared throughout her body only for a numbing sensation to overwhelm her. Alexia found she was so cold, and her conciousness slipped in and out of darkness. The slime suit tightened against her stump to slow the bleeding. 

Her life flashed past her vision, images of her growing up with her brother, who strangely looked more and more like Jack. Then she saw Megan they were at a party, then she was walking up an aisle towards Megan who was wearing a black suit. Alexia glanced down and she was wearing a white dress, and she woke up again.

Looking over she saw Megan was struggling against Erica, and Telvin was glowing red and unleashing several strikes on the woman who was casually blocking them as if she was simply playing with them. Fear gripped her as she knew they would not survive unless she did something drastic.

Remembering what that appraiser told her, she struggled to take out one of the corruption potions she had. Then she pulled out one of the vials from the modipod. Not seeing a way to open the vial she bashed it open spilling the purple liquid over herself and Alexia felt it burning. Then she popped open the container of the orange corruption potion and poured the liquid in.

When they combined it formed a nasty looking black color. In the light it looked like it was filled with oil. Alexia hesitated for a second and saw Erica was currently tearing limbs off of Inky with the others looking beat up but not dead yet. She opened her mouth and downed the foul potion. 

For a second nothing seemed to happen, then she felt her blood start to boil. It was ten times worse then what she felt inside of the modipod. Magic power exploded out of her, fire flowed out of her stump forming a wicked fire claw. Pushing herself standing she found her body screaming in pain, but all she could focus on was Erica.

All of her vision seemed to see was Erica who looked towards her with a frown. Then Alexia was ontop of her clawing away at her chest. Erica screamed in pain and blasted Alexia off of her with pure magical energy. Alexia could feel her organs being torn apart, yet it did not stop her from opening her mouth and a blast of flame emerged searing Erica who dodged backwards.

Veronica appeared in Alexia's vision and Alexia growled "Get them out of here." Stepping towards Erica again, Alexia felt cold despite the heat coming off her. Flames began to lick her body as Alexia dashed forward and caught Erica by the arm and slammed her through a wall.

Going through several rooms they crashed into the birthing chamber. Goblins scattered from the pair of woman who clashed several times. Alexia punched Erica across the room next to a pair of women who attacked Erica. "Out of my way!" Erica yelled and decapitated the pair of them. Then Erica charged into Alexia who couldn't dodge in time and was shoved through several walls into a chamber where massive mana batteries had been stored.

They were sparking magical energy off of them, Alexia grabbed Erica's head with her fire claw and slammed her face into the side of one releasing a storm of magical energy. Alexia could feel her skin being burned by the intesity of the energy. Sking began to flake off revealing the raw muscle beneath.

Stumbling back, Alexia looked up in time to see Erica's fist come flying towards her face. With a thought Alexia willed the magical energy in front of her to solidify. Erica's hand slammed against the shield and Alexia heard several bones in her fist snap. 

Letting the shield down, Alexia dashed forward and grabbed Erica's neck and headbutted the tattoeed woman until the womans nose was destroyed. Erica landed several blows on Alexia and she felt her ribs were starting to turn to dust under the assault.

Grunting Erica managed to catch Alexia's arm and Alexia found herself thrown upwards crashing through the ceiling back into the chamber. Looking over she saw Megan had changed back into her human form and was struggling to leave the teleportation platform, but Veronica was holding her back. 

Maetrin hit a button on the control panel and ran over to the platform. Alexia could feel the hum as the teleport was charging up.  Erica climbed up from below and said "No, you are not leaving today. I'm not done with you yet." Erica moved towards the teleporter.

"Your not touching my girlfriend bitch." Alexia roared and grabbed Erica's foot forcing her to trip and Alexia climbed on top of her and shoved her hand into Erica's face and let out a massive blast of fire that that began to turn the floor beneath them molten.

"I like to be on top!" Erica snarled and flipped Alexia onto her back and began to punch Alexia over again in her face with massive blasts of power, Alexia found she lost sight in one of her eyes. Alexia was stunned and let go of Erica who attempted to head to the teleporter, but Alexia shrugged off the stun.

Pouring power into her legs she slammed into Erica and rammed her into the platform in the middle of the room. As she did so, Alexia could hear Megan yell "I love you." Then the distinct pop of the teleport cut off anything else her girlfriend was about to say.

Erica laughed and said "They have just delayed the inevitable. My Mistress is coming, nothing can stop her. When I'm done with you, I will catch up with them. Maybe I will take your girlfriend as one of my pets." 

As Alexia watched the platform began to hum noticeably and the walls began to light up as well. The hum was getting worse and she could tell the seal was starting to break down. "Then I just need to kill you." Alexia growled out and raced at Erica who reared back and her tattoos blazed furiously and punched Alexia.

"I am only one step away from achieving the ninth stage, then I will truly be like my Mistress. Do you honestly think you can kill me. You still have yet to truly understand the path of magic!" Erica said stepping forward.

"Understand this bitch!" Alexia punched out with a massive blast of energy and Erica was shoved backwards.

"Nice, now let me show you how it's done." Erica growled out and clenched her fist and dozens of beams of magic formed and struck at Aleixia slicing her up. Rolling away, she found that she had lost a leg and the other was just hanging on by by the flesh the bone was severed.

Struggiling to crawl, Alexia watched as Erica approached and She leaned down and placed her hand on Alexia's throat. "Guess Playtime is over. Time for you to..." Alexia reached down into her soul and she could feel something burning within her. 

Erica stopped and stared at Alexia and said "What are you doing!?"

Alexia said "Burn." Then her soul unleashed a blast of heat so intense Alexia felt herself being burnt from within, and Erica screamed as she was ignited as well. Before everything went dark for Alexia she saw a blue light and then their was nothing.

When Alexia had started fighting the Betrayer, Veronica had quickly helped the others to the teleportation platform. With Riley's help she was able to free the other pregnant monsterkin and get her to the platform as well. Megan was weak after having transformed into her succubus form, but it was a struggle to drag her to the platform.

"Let me go, I have to help her."

"No, My Lord want's me to get everyone out of here."

"What about Alexia?" 

"If we stay here we all will die. She is sacrificing her life to buy us tim to get away." Veronica stated and pulled her towards the platform. She saw Yukali had gotten back up and dragged the princess to the platform.

"Why are you bringing her?" Veronica asked. 

"If she dies here, the Empire will launch a war." Yukali grunted.

Maetrin ran to the control panel and at that moment, a flaming body was tossed through the floor and Veronica saw that it was Alexia. Her entire body was messed up beneath the flames. Chunks of flesh were falling off and Maetrin quickly began to mess with the panel.

Megan was struggling to get off the platform and Veronica was barely holding her back. Then Erica emerged and began making her way to the platform. Alexia stopped her and began to fight her. Megan cried out "Alexia." Then Maetrin activated the teleporter and got on.

When the rings began to move Megan cried out "I love you" then they teleported and Megan continued "Don't die!" Looking around Veronica saw they were on a tall hill near some mountains. 

"I think those are the mountains we just came from." Telvin said wheezing. He was banged up and didn't look too good.

Veronica glanced down at Jack, and saw that he was still asleep. Just then there was a loud sharp crack. Startled she looked up at the sky. There was a crack in the sky. "What is that?" Lady Niadas asked.

"The Great One descends!" Veronica gasped. 

The Crack opened and a face of a woman made out of a blue crystal peered down at the mountains below her. Her face seemed to constantly shifting emotions, and as they watched a blue tear formed from one of her eyes and then it dropped.

Veronica instantly sensed massive power in that tear drop and she brought her shield up around them. She poured all of her magical power into the shield and then drank several mana potions to add even more. She made the shield opaque as best she could and into a dome shape.

"What are you doing?" Alice asked.

"Saving us!"

Then the tear drop hit the ground and several seconds later, Veronica felt a massive tide of energy strike the shield. Veronica struggled for several minutes to keep the shield up, until the the energy stopped and she dropped the shield and Lady Niadas gasped at the sight revealed.

A portion of a mountain had been carved away, molten stone filled the valley and fires raged across the area. The area where the lost city had been was now destroyed. Megan collapsed weeping into the ground.

ElKriJa

Thank  you for reading my story. I hope you enjoyed Arc 2.