The air was thick with tension as the intruder revealed herself before the duo, with a grin wider than life. Thick, tainted air spewed out from her tentacles, the ground below her feet wilting away where she stepped. Ringabel noticed that as she approached them, a trail a blood followed. Blood, wings, and the bodies of fairies. The ones she held, she cast aside like torn, ragged dolls thrown in the garbage.
"Are you here to be sacrificed in Mistress Kuroma's greatest plan yet, I wonder?" she asked, putting her makeshift hands together and moving side to side with glee. "After all, prey usually doesn't come back to the waiting predator!"
Mephilia clenched her magical rod tightly and screamed, "What have you done to them? What have you done to this garden to make it as it is?!? Why would you....?!" Her voice trailed off, tears streaking down her face as all that she had protected was tarnished. Her mission, failed.
The robed one tilted her head to the side before snorting and saying, "Oh, isn't it obvious? I'm dealing with the little threats to the Mistress's plans!" She picked up one or two of the wings and dangled them about, excited in spite of the blood yet to dry on them. "Fairies are a demon's worst nightmare, and an eyesore for my master! So Mistress Kuroma let me do the honor of ripping them apart and using them as sacrifices for her ritual!"
"Disgusting!" the summoner yelled, "Absolutely disgu-"
Ringabel saw something lash out from the corner of his eye towards his friend, but before he could jump in and intercept, Mephilia slammed down into the ground. "Mephilia!" he cried, rushing to his friend's side. "Mephilia, are you hurt?"
As Mephilia sat up and mumbled something under her breath, the intruder gave a loud, long yawn and said, "Prey should shut up and listen. You're lucky I'm even tolerating your stupid questions before I snap your neck and pop your pretty little head off. Now, where was I?" She put a tentacle to her chin for a few moments before she continued, "Oh, riiiight! What'd I do? Well, all I did was bring out the garden's inner beauty! No garden's complete without a perfect set of monsters!" She took a deep breath of the rotted air and sighed happily. "Don't you just love that new graveyard smell? The Mistress doesn't care if I do any of this, as long as the fairies are dead, dead, dead~! Ehehehe!"
Hatred boiled deep within the blonde's heart as he watched the mysterious robed intruder grab a handful of Flories, trying to escape from the fate that awaited them, Watched as were torn apart before he could do anything about them. Their wings, shining bright for a split second, then no more. He grew to hate that endless, taunting giggle, those bloodied excuses for hands, the intruder's voice and presence every minute he sat here. He reached into his pocket and felt for a particular asterisk, pondering whether or not it would be useful here and now. To show his true power before this beast.
He then decided against it, as rocks petruded from the ground and separated prey from their predator, slicing through the appendages the beast used to hold them. A giant, earthen scorpion stood before them, an entire city hoisted upon its back, staring down the intruder as his summoner stood up and glared.
"I will allow you to harm them no further, you dispicable witch!" Mephilia said with venom. "As one of the Venus Sisters and proud Summoner of the Duchy, I will protect them as I have been charged!"
The scorpion seemed to respond to this, as it raised a claw and slammed it down, the intruder crying out as she was sent flying. Ringabel took this moment to swap asterisks, ignoring the swears the intruder was tossing out.
Sword was abandoned for katana as Ringabel drew on the power of the Swordmaster asterisk, watching the movements of his enemy carefully as she faught against Girtablulu, anchorite of earth. How she zig-zagged back, dodging rocks and claws with incredible speed. How she lashed out with tentacles called forth from her robes and bound claws of the mighty summon before spewing out gas that reeked of death. How the scorpion flinched and struggled before the intruder lunged towards it with a wicked smile on her face.
A smile that faded from its face when a rock distracted it from Girtablulu, giving the scorpion plenty of time to charge up its claws and slam them down, creating a shockwave that broke the bindings and rended the earth.
She rose from the rubble, bruised and battered, growling like an angered lion. "Who threw that?!" she asked, many tentacles rising and wriggling out of her sleeves. "Who would dare throw a rock at me, Ramona, the Mistress's beloved servant?!?"
Ringabel shrugged and replied with an exaggerated sigh, "Oh, a thousand pardons! I just so happened to toss it, but I never meant for it to do harm to your beautiful face!" Each and every word dripped with sarcasm, bait laid bare for the fish.
"You.... you!!!"
The fish snagged it all too eagerly. The tentacled fiend lashed at him, bruising skin and bashing against his shield. When she tried to retract them, though, they returned to it, nothing more than bleeding stubs. She was not given a chance to even scream in pain, as the earthen scorpion rose its tail high and slammed it down, earthen spikes rising and piercing through her robes while she was distracted. Ramona turned her attention back to Girtablulu, preparing another breath attack when another rock pelted her. Annoyed, she launched dark blasts to keep Ringabel away, leaving bruises and pushing him back to a place where not even the best throwing arm would be able to hit her with mere rocks.
Unfortunately for Ramona, Ringabel didn't need to. In a flash, sharp steel cut through her flesh, slashed apart the scroll that was on her face. Blood splattered upon his swordmaster robes as he followed up with another swift strike to the chest. Ramona stumbled backwards, clutching at her wounds, panting.
Ringabel prepared to deal a finishing blow when Ramona rose to her feet and looked forward. The inner calm was broken for just a moment as he saw her face for the first time: a myriad of tentacles, whipping around frantically covered all but her mouth. He wasn't even sure how she could see through them all. His guard was down for just a moment when the woman wrapped her tentacles around him and held him close, giggling all the while.
"Oh, aren't you just the rudest, unveiling a girl's face without her permission!" she said with a sneer, squeezing him tight enough to make him clench his teeth in pain. "I know I am not the prettiest, but I... I am my mistress's masterpiece! Fine art given life! She loves me as I am, and I would give everything to please her!" She paused for a moment, the gears in her head turning before she smiled wide and said, "Oh, I know what to do! I'll kill you and use you as another sacrifice to my Mistress! Another pawn for her to use! She loves her zombies, she does! Now...
Let me hear you scream, before you die~"
Her grasp became ever tighter, her laughter becoming louder as Ringabel tried to struggle. Pain spread through his body, air slowly being squeezed out of his lungs. He could not help but make pained noises, but he knew above all else he could not scream. Not only would that be giving her what she wanted, screaming wouldn't help his situation one bit. In fact, it could make it a whole lot worse. Instead, he tried biting at them, trying to chew through the binding. She made no signs of weakening her grip at all. A sharp pain shot through his chest as a rib broke, then another as shock began to set in. And all while Ramona had that devilish grin on her face.
Ringabel could do nothing at this point. Nothing but put his trust into the one who still stood.
An unworldly screech echoed through the air as a tidal wave of earth and debris took Ramona by surprise and struck her down, causing her to finally loosen her grip on the swordmaster before she was buried under it. Mephilia dashed over and and grabbed Ringabel before the wave took him, too, although at the expense of getting dirt and dust on her clothes. "Ringabel!" she said as she pulled out a potion, uncorking it and pouring the contents down her companion's throat.
He gagged on it at first before it could go down, but from the first drop, he could feel the pain ebb away. "Feeling a little better now?" Mephilia asked. "An X-Potion was the best I could do; I left all the Elixirs at home!"
"I'm fine," he said between coughs, slowly getting to his feet. "Thank you."
"You're welcome, but are you sure you should keep fighting like this?"
"Just... just a little longer, Mephilia. Until the threat is gone."
Mephilia opened her mouth to retort before she saw the look of determination on Ringabel's face. She then smiled and said, "Don't push yourself too hard, then. The last thing the vestal and her friends need to see is their casanova bleeding at their feet upon his return."
Ramona rose from the rubble, her hood pulled down, black hair splayed across her back and covered in dirt. Furious, she screamed, "How dare you! And I was having so much fun constricting him, too! I'll show you!" She dashed towards the duo and struck them with her tentacles again and again in a blind fury. Mephilia jumped behind Ringabel as he held up his shield, taking blow after blow after blow. When Ramona unleashed dark blasts upon them, he endured those, too. He allowed her to take out all her rage and anger upon them in whatever way she could, letting her scream her barbed insults and pound them down with fierce blows.
It didn't matter. No matter how much she attacked, how much pain she inflicted upon them, there is only so much she could do.
The moment Ramona was too exhausted to keep up her outburst was when the duo struck: Mephilia commanded Girtablulu to strike, watching as it pounded the earth and forced stone through the woman's feet, essentially pinning her in place. She cried out pain, trying to remove the stones as fast as she could, when Ringabel dashed forward, letting out a battle cry and striking Ramona with amped force.
Steel met flesh once more. Ramona coughed up blood, staining her robes. She saw how deep the blade was in her gut, and saw it retracted with the stones. She fell onto her knees, clutching this wound tight.
She had lost. Lost again. The embarassment was unbearable. "This... this isn't over!" she said between pained gasps of air, a dark circle appearing below her. "You might have won, but you'll see... Even when I am gone... the Mistress will avenge me! Ehe... hehehe.... he!"
And before Ringabel or Girtablulu could deal a finishing blow, she was gone. The haze had faded away, allowing the sunlight into the garden once more. Yet, the taint remained like a scar upon the land...
--------------------------------
-FLOREM INN, FLOREM-
"Sit still!" Mephilia commanded, a first aid kit in hand and a dozen empty potion bottles laying around her feet.
Ringabel cringed as she disinfected the wounds left by the monsters in the gardens. Rather polite of her to treat his wounds, but he much rather have Agnes' or Edea's soft, gentle touch with White Magic than cotton puffs soaked with disinfectant dabbed on his skin. It would sting a lot less, for sure! Then again, Agnes would fall over from worry after seeing the wounds, and Edea would start questioning him for the details. On second thought, maybe Edea would be a little too rough on this poor, fragile body...
"Hard to sit still when a lovely maiden is treating me~" he replied, raising an eyebrow and smiling slyly.
"Hush up, you lech."
He cringed again as she cleaned up the last wound and wrapped bandages around him. When all was done, she cleaned off her hands and said, "It's not as good of as job as Holly would do, but it will do." Mephilia picked up all the empty bottles and stained cotton balls and tossed them away before she turned to Ringabel and added, "I'm sorry for having dragged you into this. If I were more dilige-"
"Please, don't push all the blame upon yourself," Ringabel said with concern, standing up and looking her in the eye. "We cannot dwell upon 'if onlys'; it only holds us back from what we could do now. All that matters is that the menace is gone."
Mephilia became silent for a few moments, then shook her head, shaking away her negative thoughts. "In any case, I have sent word to my sisters and the duchy. They are sending more soldiers to aid me in fixing what Ramona had broken, and they are sending backup to the forests where the Orochis dwell as well. The populations of both the Flories and the Orochis were devastated enough without outside interference; we cannot allow any others to decimate the rest, no matter what the reason."
Ringabel couldn't help but break into a smile. "Good to know that the duchy has their heads in order. Did you tell them about this Mistress Kuroma and her plans?"
The summoner paused for a moment, as if caught off guard, and stammered, "Well, uh, no. We wouldn't be able to recognize her even if we did. Without a description, it would be hard to stop her plans, wouldn't it?"
"It is important information nonetheless. Ah well, be sure to bring it up to your sisters when they inevitibly pay a visit, will you?"
"Sure, I guess?" Mephilia shrugged before turning to leave the room. "Thank you for all your help today, Ringabel," she said with a small smile. "I hope we do get to fight amongst each other another day."
And with that, Ringabel was left to stew in his own thoughts. He sat upon a bed and stared at the wall, thinking...
Where did this Ramona go? Who is this Mistress Kuroma, and why did she want to complete this 'ritual'? And most importantly...
What was this ritual of hers, and could it be stopped?
No comments:
Post a Comment