Elinora

It was the same place I was to once before, yet so different. I had seen the trees dying, the spirits being corrupted and felt how much they suffered but now, about 500 years later? What had died long before began a new life, drenched in the poisonous pool they now resided in. The spirits, once still fighting against it, had now long since accepted that they would never be the same again. That they are powerless against the corruption that slowly consumed them. And it showed as there was nothing left from the once so inviting animal like forms they possessed. Replaced by a hellish shell that only existed to spread that darkness to whoever was foolish enough to come near them. Feasting on one another.

Taking a look around, I was glad to find Arine laying only a few feet away from me. She was still in the process of waking up but from what little I had already seen of our surroundings, I hoped she wouldn’t take much longer.

I was definitely not a fan of walking around this plane of existence alone. Just another of those moments where I was glad to have her by my side.

For now, most of the spirits that came close weren’t much of a threat and I was successful in wading most of those smaller once off until Arine finally came around.

It wasn’t too difficult of a task but after weeks of not using my magic it felt kind of weird to be able to channel it again, and a vast amount of it non the less! Of course, using such a huge amount of magic, after not having practiced it for quite a while, came with it’s own risk but… it’s not like I could have destroyed the landscape any more than it already was. So I didn’t worry about going overboard and created quite the mess before I found the amount of magic that was just right.

When Arine woke up a bit later, I had already taken care of all the small spirits or whatever they might be now. And while there was no doubt in my mind that we would see more dangerous ones soon, for now, it seemed the others left us alone. What was worrying me more was what would happen from here on out.

“I feel weird.”

“You too? We were here before but still… everything is so different from back then.”

Arine took in our surroundings for a while, fully emerging herself in it before clarifying further, ”No, well yes.” 

Or not. I couldn’t follow.

“I mean yes you’re right. We were here before but… that’s not what I meant.” Tilting my head she must have picked up on my confusion, “What I mean is, it feels like… I have lived here before. Like,” she put a finger to her lip, thinking for a moment before coming up with an example, “when you lived somewhere your whole life and then move away only to find out your old house burned down.”

“Ari, do you think you’ll be alright?”

“Yes, it’s just... let’s not think about it too much“

I didn’t press as she obviously was very uncomfortable talking about it. Instead we focused our effort in getting to the poisoned spring. Locating it wasn’t much of a problem, as its looming green light illuminated this otherwise dark realm.

The main problem we faced was battling against all the corrupted beings that stood in our way. None of them were particularly strong but their numbers were high and even if Arine was able to blast through most of them with ease, due to her destructive magic, their numbers never shrunk. Not to mention that they got stronger the closer we got.

We weren’t making any notable progress when something unexpected happened. Something that neither Arine nor I had even accounted for. Yet it was so predictable in hindsight. Not only predictable, it even happened to me, in a way, not hours ago! And now we two stood before a problem. A giant problem with two legs, two hands, a sword and armor made out of dead wood that was fueled by the energy of all the tortured spirits serving Zeres.

“Fuck.” Was all I heard Arine say, when the guardian slowly took form in front of us.

We wasted no time in planning our retreat, a good thing, as not seconds after the ground we stood on was pulverized by a swing of his oversized weapon.

After creating some space between it and ourselves, we agreed to split up and started a counter attack. First, I drew it’s attention, using the surrounding trees to create confusion, while Arine used the time to prepare a surprise attack from the side.

For a good three minutes our plan worked really well, too well actually. When the stomps behind me stopped I realized something was up, and when I turned around to see what exactly was going on, I stared right into it. An unholy bright light.

Apparently the guardian got tired of chasing after me and decided now, instead, to just erase the whole forest with an energy beam. A beam that was directly aimed at me.

I had just enough time to put up a barrier, when the beam hit it point blank, making my knees tremble and obliterating everything in its wake. But the beam wasn’t stopping, it kept going on forever, slowly melting the ground I was standing on, turning my surroundings into liquid magma.

Putting more and more energy into the barriere, I knew my time was slowly running out. The pressure quickly drove me to my knees but now even my hands started shaking. It was only a matter of seconds until I couldn’t keep the flow going and my barrier would break, making me part of the environment too.

I could already feel how the barrier faded away when I heard a loud thud, and the beam changed direction.

Not believing my eyes, I saw how Arine managed to tear a massive hole in the guardians torsor. From the look of it, the guardian couldn’t believe it either and fell to its knees, using his sword for support.

To both our horror, small roots started to appear from the middle of the hole, slowly trying sealing it up.

“Eli,” Arine screamed over to me, both her hands cracking with purple lightning. I returned her gaze with a quick nod. No need for further instructions, it was clear what we had to do now.

Concentrating all of my new found energy, I could feel how it traveled through my legs, into my body and finally materialized in front of my crossed hands.

Only waiting for Arines signal, the sphere got stronger and stronger, the pressure it created was enough to shake the ground and mess up my hair completely. Small cracks and pieces of dirt were starting to form around me, when I finally heard her shout, “Now!”

Our attacks collided midway and merged into a new, even bigger one. One that left nothing but sheer destruction. The guardians pieces started flying all over the place and I could see the small, dark tentacles arising from them, searching helplessly for another part, to reassemble itself, but it was hopeless. As our left over magic steadily disintegrated over every last piece of his, like a sheet of paper slowly burning away.

Still in utter disbelief as to what had happened and, more importantly, that we survived, I couldn’t hold back my joy. Ari must have felt the same way, judging by the big grin on her face. 

“We did it,” she said coming closer and hugging me tight.  “We really did it, huh?”

I had no word for her in reply as I was too enchanted by her eyes, staring deeply into mine. Her cold breath leaving goosebumps on my skin as her hair tickled my neck and her face got ever so close to mine. My heart skipped a beat for what was about to happen, when-

“There is no time to waste, we still have the most important task ahead of us.”

“Zallas? But… but I thought you couldn’t enter Zere’s realm?” Ari said and quickly took a few steps away from me.

I too, had the same question as Arine on my mind but kept to myself.

Zallas then led us through the spring of life and explained her sudden appearance. While it wasn’t exactly true that she couldn’t enter her sister's realm, she could only do it with her spiritual body. But since it was way too dangerous to do with all the contaminated spirits around, she only now appeared after we got rid of the thread.

Although it made us ease up a bit, knowing her presence was right with us, she quickly crushed any kind of hope for future help, “I am not here to aid you in your fight against my sister. I couldn’t as this body of mine doesn’t allow me to interact with the flow. However...” she then continued explaining what I needed to do to cure the corruption. The spell was rather complex and I did fear messing it up with the one shot I had, but she reassured me and would guide me through the whole way.

So I started following each and every of Zalla's instructions carefully, while Arine stood a bit behind us, watching carefully…

Arine

Watching Eli and Zalla from behind, I was still mad at the Goddess for ruining my moment but I guess she had a point in our mission being more important. What made the hairs on my neck stand up instead was that looming thread connected to me.

After having defeated that guardian, the quiet in here became downright creepy and now, watching Eli from behind, so unguarded, so vulnerable… to say that I had a bad feeling about this was an understatement.

Why was she taking so long? I know I probably shouldn’t complain about something like this but there was no way she would just let us rummage in her world without a care.

If I would have been her, what would I have done? Attacking Eli from behind is one of the more obvious solutions, maybe I would try to possess myself first or maybe…

There were a few more scenarios that came to mind but I wasn’t too convinced by any of them. Most of them made her appearance too obvious and while I had no delusion about her needing any kind of advantage against us, she knew we had her sister on our side. Was she cautionios because of her? But if that’s the case then... I watched back over to Eli and Zallas, still performing that ritual when my sight fell onto the blackened sea and a thought occurred.

Was she using that spring to hide her appearance and sabotage Elli’s spell?

Not contemplating it any longer, I used one of Mr. Sirus fancy techniques and channeled a portion of my energy into my feet. Using it to greatly increase my jump strength and shoot a volley of small black arrows into the sea.

Bouncing of the black mass at first, I increased their speed and power by a bit until the first arrow penetrated it’s surface and many others followed. 

So you’re a clever girl after all, it echoed in my head, Fine, then I’ll take you first.

I had no time to react as not a moment after the voice in my head was gone, I felt her presence shift. Without thinking I created a narrow destructive barrier between us. When her hand reached out to touch me, it collapsed the barrier and catapulted us both in opposite directions.

I had luck. I doubted a cheap trick like that would work again but I had to try my best anyway. It was only a matter of time until Eli and Zallas finalised their spell and turned this whole fight in our favour. Or so I hoped. There was no guarantee for it to work or even for Eli to be able to perform it correctly in the first place, not to say that Zere’s could attack her any second. That’s why I made it my top priority to distract her as long as possible. 

Zeres wasted no time in getting back on her feet, using her magic to create a spear-like object and throwing it at me. I could barely dodge the first one, when I saw a dozen new one pop out in the corner of my eyes.

She left me no time to react and I took the first one right to my chest. The impact alone was enough to take away my breath but many more followed, piercing my body without actually damaging it.

As her attack not only drained my magic reserve but also pinned me to the ground, Zeres took her time preparing the second round of attack, enjoying toying with me but giving me some space to think in the meantime.

Her earlier attack had the potential to not only kill me but also tear me to shred yet I was still breathing and my body mostly unharmed, that made me think. She obviously wouldn’t kill me as she wanted to use my body to wreak havoc in our world. Instead choosing to drain my power if her attack hit, rendering me completely helpless until she would take over my body again. Now all I had to do was find a way to use this to my advantage.

But that was hard. Was there any kind of way being devoid of magic would help in this situation? I was about to give up hope, when I remembered one of the moments I shared with Eli. Soon after our trip to the Millennial Tree, when Eli’s mom tested our affinity for magic.

Since I did not like the idea of me blowing up into a few thousand pieces and also because of the stuff that has been going on non stop lately, I solely relied on Zere's magic, nearly forgetting that her magic only came from the part of her soul engraved in mine and I had a whole other kind at my disposal.

What did they call it? Valvesalla? I’ve read about it in the library, if I could take another hit and make it absorb the rest of her magic lingering inside me, I could, if I was fast enough, try channeling it and maybe gain a small advantage. 

With my plan set and no more time to worry if it'll work or not, I readied myself. Using my last strength to stand up and wait for her to send the second wave of magic draining spears. Catching the first one with both my hands and letting it consume the magic thought my hands. Although they didn’t harm me physically, the impact still hurt like hell and I struggled to focus on my mission for a moment before getting myself back together.

Losing no more time, I used the same technique as usual to attract the magic around me, building it up inside my body but this time with a slight difference. I was used to the feel of Zere’s powerful destructive nature, so I focused on something else instead, something more peaceful that didn’t move. Like a calm sea in a raging Ocean.

From what I’ve read my body should naturally start attracting and taking in the only form of magic that wasn’t moving along the flow like the rest. Being unsure if it worked at first, I slowly started noticing how something was building up inside me. It felt quite different from the usual wild, unpredictable flow sensation Zeres magic gave off, being much more focused and concentrated in one point.

I also noted with relief that I hadn’t yet been torn to pieces so my plan must have worked out. With not much time to think left, I used this new kind of magic to create a simple wall barriere in front of me. It was way weaker than it could have been, but lack of runes and a proper form enabled me to cast it much faster. Fast enough in fact to block the other incoming projectiles.

It was amazing, seeing how those then started to dematerialise as soon as they hit it, but I quickly found yet another drawback of this type of magic. It consumed energy, lots of energy. I was lucky Zere’s projectiles were spread all around me, as I barely managed to stop the four that would have hit me directly.

My trick didn’t get unnoticed either and I wonder if I made the right decision in revealing towards the mad goddess what my body was capable of? She didn’t say a thing but the way her eyes started to light up with amazement when I was able to protect myself from her attack, was unnerving.

This battle wouldn’t go on much longer and a quick glance towards Eli revealed that she still hadn’t finished casting the spell. I knew that it was important for her to get it right but time really was not on our side here. How much longer would I be able to stop Zere’s? Or rather, how much longer was she willing to play with me? The answer came a moment later.

Zere had teleported herself behind me and was reaching out with her hand, when I tried using the same trick from the beginning of our fight again. The shockwave hit me again, catapulting me forwards, while she seemed unaffected. That was until I noticed what was behind me wasn’t Zeres but only a copy of her shadow.

She hadn’t moved and was standing right in my path of motion now. In a last effort to buy Eli some more time, I cloaked my body with Valvesalla and crashed into her.

She wasn’t phased by it at all, simply blocked me with her right hand and then started to pick me up by my shoulders. Her magic aura battling against the veil of magic I put around me. But ultimately, I had no chance. I ran out of magic long before she broke though.

With not much of a defense left, my mind was now fully exposed to hers. My body started moving all by itself and I could do nothing but watch. Was this how Alidia had felt five hundred years ago? When I saw my hand moving upwards, collecting an amount of energy that should have destroyed my body, would it not inhibit the spirit of a goddess and aim it directly at Eli, I tried my best to regain at least some form of control. To no avail.

My grasp on the power vanished and the mass of energy slowly started drifting away from the palm of my hand. We lost were the last thought I had before a bright light erupted from the spring, repelling Zere’s spirit violently from my body.

But it was too late. Eli would never be able to dodge it in time. With no other option, I did the only thing I could think of. Not caring what would happen to me, I used all my leftover strength, all the willpower I could assemble to gather as much Vallvesalla as possible. I could feel the pressure in my body rising, the intense force pushing against my bones, threatening to split them in two and see how the small glowing veins appeared all over my body the more I took in. 

Right before my consciousness slipped, my body shattered, and my arms cracked, I released it all. Hoping to at least save Eli.