Chronicles of Eden - Act XII

by Alexander Gordon

  Aeon laughed at seeing her guardian’s fated advance and murder attempt, her gaze then moving around to those behind her before finally resting on Mika again.

  “Well then,” she playfully mused while stepping over behind the human. “These amusing antics aside, I’d best recruit some lackeys to begin my conquest with. I have work to do and a world to rule after all. And you know what? I can already think of two dear friends who I’d simply love to rule the world with.”

  Aeon looked over the hunter’s sword in her hand then smirked at Mika, taking notice of the nervous look the human had while unaware that her weapon wasn’t in her grip anymore.

  “Don’t worry, Mika Harollson,” Aeon cooed as she examined the back of the human, taking aim with the sword to strike through the woman. “This will only sting for a little bit. I am sorry, but I need to make a convincing show so the others will back off and follow their new fates. But never fear, your dear Aeon will find you again when the time is right. And when I do, you and I will become much closer.”

  *****

  “For my queen!” Nuci called out, launching forth a devastating barrage of kinetic water imbued with glowing blue light. The alurane fired a piercing volley of water towards Daemon and his companions who were trapped with her inside the underground grotto, all of them promptly jumping aside and down to the ground to avoid the strikes that whizzed by with sharp whistles. All except two of the red ant girl workers who took the shots through their chest and head with deadly results. As the two girls dropped with searing holes through them and the remaining shots struck the rocks behind everyone, the crazed alurane laughed wildly as she waved her hands forward, sending two spiraling pillars of magically infused water crashing through the lake and onto the shore towards the fighters.

  “Take her down!” Rulo shouted, herself and the girls quickly scrambling about as the pillars of water tore through the ground and waved towards them. In their wake Nuci ripped her long roots up through the dirt and rock, snapping them into the air and at her targets with reckless abandon.

  “Watch it!” Hollia cried as she leapt aside before a root impaled the ground she had been standing on.

  “She’s out of her fucking mind!” Tabitha shouted, slicing apart one flailing root before hacking another away with her swords. A third shot through the ground between them and whacked her hard, sending her screaming into a tumble along the ground while more of the alurane’s tendrils tore through the dirt after her. Rolling back onto her feet she leapt into the air, missing a group of vines that plowed through the ground below, before two more snapped around her arm and leg that they then swung the yowling feline around in the air with.

  “Tabitha!” Scay whined, using her dagger to hack at the tendrils before a group of them wrapped around her snake body and pulled her back. The naga quickly slithered out of them, raced back and chopped at the vines swinging Tabitha around, and then was yanked back again as more of the alurane’s roots grabbed hold of her. Scay turned to slash at the vines wrapping around her before she was hurled up into the air with a scream, the spry naga shaking about wildly before Sasha ran by and sliced her broadsword through all the alurane’s suspended roots in her path. While Tabitha spun about and landed on her feet with Scay landing on her head nearby, the reptile girl sprinted towards the laughing alurane while cleaving through bundles of the monster’s roots that snapped at her.

  “She will not get in my master’s way!” Sasha cursed, slashing through more of the vines while Hollia and Rulo charged towards the deranged guardian nearby.

  “That’s not nice, dearie,” Nuci taunted holding her hand out towards the swordswoman, summoning streaking blue light up along her body from the water into her palm while siphoning water into the channeling spell. With sharp bangs she fired out a barrage of liquid light at Sasha, striking her leg armor with hard impacts while she used her sword to block the rest. Skidding back on her feet she struggled to block the heavy strikes before a root snapped around her tail and yanked her back through the air with a scream. With a joyous laugh Nuci wrapped her tendrils around Sasha’s legs and arms, binding the thrashing reptile girl tightly while her sword dropped to the ground and struck into place.

  “Dammit,” Sasha growled, feeling the vines pulling her limbs in all directions, right before a blast of water struck her in the chest over her heart with great force. The world went out of focus for a moment as Sasha felt a sharp pain striking through her, a strained gasp being made before a shot of water struck her in the face. Everything went black, the world becoming muffled in her ears as the reptile girl was knocked senseless by the impacts, before sight and sound slowly came back along with the feeling of a splitting headache. When they did she saw herself in someone’s arms, falling at first before landing and being caught by her savior.

  “You fucking bitch!” Rulo roared as she swung her hammer down, smashing clumps of the alurane’s vines into the dirt while Hollia charged past with a slurred warcry, right before another root tore through the ground and threw her back into the orc with a heavy crash. The two struggled to get up before a torrent of water spiraled by like a tornado, sucking the two girls into the spinning magical water with gurgled screams as they bounced against each other. Bolts of magical blue water shot into the torrent and struck the girls, knocking the air out of them before large roots swatted the two out of the water and down onto the ground with painful groans.

  “I can’t feel my side,” Hollia whined with a cringe. “And to think I believed her to be so gentle before.”

  “The bitch… washed me,” Rulo whimpered. “She fucking washed me. I feel so clean. I hate her so much.”

  The two girls started to get up before large balls of water struck down next to them, exploding powerfully with radiant light and throwing the girls back into a screaming roll. Landing next to each other they watched two more glowing balls of water hurtling towards them, right before a streak of light sliced through them and detonated the magical bombs into a shower of rain.

  The alurane’s vines snapped at Scay and Tabitha, pushing them back while Forrus leapt around and over them as she closed in on the corrupted guardian. Before reaching the shore a tendril snapped hold of her foot, yanking the lycan back into the air with a howl while more whipped at her from below.

  “You filthy weed!” Forrus yelled, right before several vines started whacking her hard across her body, knocking the screaming lycan around while a few snapped onto her arms and tail painfully tight.

  “Scay, stab her!” Tabitha ordered, slashing through the weeds that snapped at her before suddenly being yanked aside into a torrent of water that kept tearing through the cavern floor. The neko yowled while being sharply spun within it until a hand reached in and grabbed her, pulling her out of the sparkling water and pushing her aside. Coughing and sputtering out obscenities Tabitha shook what she could off her fur before staring at something in front of her with surprise, with Forrus howling in agony from being constricted and beaten by the alurane’s vines before being sliced free and tossed over beside the neko with a weak groan.

  “HAHAHAHAHAHA!” Scay laughed, racing around and between vines and blasts of water that struck past at high speed while swiftly closing in on Nuci. She spiraled around an uplifted root, shot through the air with bolts of water streaking by, and then plopped against Nuci’s magical barrier with a hard thump face first. The alurane giggled awkwardly as she saw the naga pressed against her translucent shield, the monster whining and jabbing the magical barrier repeatedly with her dagger while the rest of her body slowly slid down against it.

  “Nice try, little snake,” Nuci teased with a wink. Grabbing hold of the naga’s tail with her vines she threw Scay through the air, into the lake with a hard splash, up above again while sending streaking bolts of blue light out of the waves up towards her, pelting her with a painful barrage of magical water, slammed her into the lake again with a brutal crash, then whipped her away over the shore’s edge and into a clump of weeds. The dazed naga s
truggled to draw a breath while twitching slightly, her grip on her dagger being the only show of strength she had as vines quickly ensnared the monster entirely and began to constrict her into a ball. With a low whine Scay feebly tried to cut herself free, her hand being bound tightly to her chest while she felt the alurane’s roots slowly crushing her. Before she could blackout from the strain she felt the vines suddenly being torn off her, her hand being grabbed and used to swiftly pull her out of the alurane’s deadly flowerbed. Her eyes wearily focused on her tail dragging behind before slowly looking up to see someone standing over her as she was set down on solid ground next to Forrus and Tabitha.

  Saffron squeaked and hurled a lit bomb towards the alurane’s mighty roots alongside her sisters, the explosives blasting apart the vegetation in a wide spread before more shot towards the ant girls through the fiery haze. Moving quickly Saffron leapt up onto a large root that spiked down into the ground where she had been standing, ran along it, and jumped off the curling bend while reaching into her satchel. Rolling onto the ground and in one swift motion she drew out another bomb, snapped its fuse lit with her hand, and threw it towards the alurane, only to then watch as a tendril swiftly swatted the bomb back over her head towards her sisters who were now ensnared by constricting roots. Saffron squeaked in fright as the bomb landed down and rolled next to the bound ant girls, their eyes being too busy with rolling back into their heads with painful groans to notice as the vines were crushing them forcibly. The lit fuse burned down towards the explosive rod before water sprinkled down across the area from above, fizzling it out with a low hiss.

  Saffron started to run back towards her bound kin, making it only a few steps before a vine snapped around her foot and yanked her into the air. The ant girl squeaked and thrashed about, grabbing hold of the weed and struggling to pry free to no avail. Hearing a loud crunch she quickly looked back to see blood coming out the mouths of the remaining ant girls, their bodies caving in while blood started pouring down below them. With a sharp squeak Saffron stared in horror as her comrades were crushed with their bones finally breaking, their lifeless faces drawing further anger and agony out from their lieutenant. This was followed quickly with the workers’ bombs going off in their hands from the pressure, blasting them and the roots into fiery dust. Saffron screeched with rage as she ripped apart the tendril holding her, managing to drop a few feet before being ensnared by more. She thrashed about with legs and arms bound, squeaking in heated fury at the alurane who merely had one hand held out towards her while she was watching Scay unsuccessfully trying to hack through the barrier she was pressed against. With a quick squeak Saffron looked down to see a vine slithering around up along her leg and under her tunic, the girl then shaking her head and feeling it going up under her garb, around her breasts, and finally out above her cleavage before it wrapped around her neck. Her arms and legs were constricted behind her, her abdomen was painfully squeezed by a root, and her mouth was opened as she choked with her windpipe being crushed. Shutting her eyes she slowly pulled one hand over towards her satchel, a fist being formed as she prepared to strike it and take out as much of the alurane as she could. Before she could take her own life she was suddenly falling as all the tendrils holding her went limp, the ant girl dropping down before landing in someone’s arms. She gasped for air and frantically pulled the weeds off and out of her tunic then brushed aside her bangs just in time to see someone setting her down on the ground.

  Coughing out water and slowly catching their breath, Hollia and Rulo got back onto their feet as the torrents of water slowly retreated towards the lake again. The vines receded slightly while roots of the alurane were protruding up through the lake still. The two girls saw Sasha slowly getting up on her knee, Forrus staggering onto her feet and shaking her head, Tabitha shaking the water out of her fur, Scay slowly sitting upright while rubbing her bruised chest, and Saffron being set down by Daemon who then turned to face Nuci who was watching him with a curious smile on her face.

  “Oh my,” Nuci giggled. “Quite impressive, Daemon Warrick. Like a true hero you came to their rescue, so very dashing and noble of you. Though it seems you weren’t fast enough to save a few from popping from my flower’s hugs. Still, a very commendable effort.”

  “Master,” Sasha started to say, being silenced as Daemon glanced back to her with a sharp look.

  “All of you, stay back,” he firmly ordered.

  “We can take her down, my lord,” Forrus promised. “We can-”

  “I said, stay back,” Daemon loudly repeated. “None of you are ready to fight a guardian.”

  “But, master,” Sasha protested. “I promise I can handle it, I can-”

  “Sasha,” Daemon countered, halting the reptile girl with a squeak. All the girls stared at Daemon in worried silence as he glanced around at them before resting his sights back on the laughing alurane. “She nearly killed all of you in a matter of minutes. She killed the rest of Saffron’s workers without any mercy. This is not a normal adversary and will require a bit more focus to take down, she’s clearly not going to hold back with trying to kill anyone who gets in her way. I want all of you to retreat from fighting her, leave this one to me.”

  “But we can handle her, honest!” Rulo whined.

  “She’s certainly stronger than I first believed,” Hollia cursed. “Still, I don’t think I can follow your order, my knight. I cannot just stand idly by while you face her alone. I refuse to be such a burden to you.”

  “It’s not like we can run away anywhere down here,” Tabitha reasoned as she got into a fighting stance. “Besides, I only get paid by Charlotte if you remain alive and in one piece, there’s no way I’m letting this payout slip between my fingers.”

  “You are such a greedy cat,” Forrus muttered as she tensed up as well.

  Saffron took out a bomb from her satchel and squeaked a few times, her stern glare cutting through her long bangs towards the crazed alurane.

  “Please, master,” Rulo insisted. “Let us help. We have to do something here.”

  “You will be,” Daemon said as he started walking towards Nuci. He passed by and grabbed hold of Sasha’s blade, yanking it up from the ground and tossing it over his shoulder, throwing the large broadsword into a spin over to where it struck into the dirt before the reptile girl. As she slowly reached out to take hold of it, Daemon came to a stop while twirling the Archlight’s Blade once at his side, his cold blue eyes watching the laughing alurane before glancing back over his shoulder.

  “I’ll deal with Nuciferyne. You girls take care of her friend that’s been waiting to join the fight. You can come out now, your moment to strike unseen has long passed.”

  Sasha and the girls looked back to where clouds of dust were floating near the destroyed railroad tracks and several boulders, the sound of footsteps being heard as another fighter approached the battle from behind. As the newcomer stepped out of the banks of haze the girls jumped in surprise while Daemon’s stoic expression was beginning to wane with ire as he saw Aeon sent more than one attacker after them.

  “Mika?” Hollia breathed out, the group seeing the swordswoman slowly stepping forth with her head lowered, cape fluttering behind, and sword held in hand. After a few more steps the human stopped and remained still, a shaky whimper being made as she wavered slightly with her balance.

  “What is she doing here?” Rulo oinked.

  “Mika?” Scay wondered. “Is that you? Or am I hallucinating again? Or is it both?”

  “Mika?” Forrus cautioned. “How did she get here?”

  “I think we already know that answer,” Sasha warned, standing up and pulling her sword out of the ground. “There’s only one reason why she would be here now.”

  “Aeon,” Tabitha answered, with the group watching as Mika looked up to them with a hollow face of sorrow. The woman twitched slightly and held in her voice, hand shaking at her side while the other gripped her sword tightly. The empty look in her eye, her quivering lips that appea
red to try and fail with passing words from them, it was more than apparent she wasn’t holding all her senses at the moment.

  “Mika?” Hollia called out. “Oh my word, you look dreadful. Mika? Can you hear me? Are you okay?”

  “She’s not looking so good,” Scay worried, seeing Mika’s eye shakily moving from one girl to the next.

  “I think Aeon fucked up her head too,” Tabitha reasoned. “An impressive feat given how stupid and stubborn she was before.”

  “So Nuci isn’t the only one Aeon sent after us,” Forrus summed up while glancing between the two broken girls.

  “Oh c’mon,” Rulo muttered as Mika slowly drew her sword up and held a hand towards the girls. “Now this bitch is going to get in our way, again?”

  Black and crimson arcs of energy began snapping around Mika’s arm towards her palm while a dark casting base formed before her outstretched hand, her cape flowing back behind her with the wind picking up around the sorceress.

  “Mika,” Sasha cautioned. “Snap out of it. Think about what you’re doing. You need to wake up and-”

  “I am awake,” Mika droned. “I’m awake now. I was sleeping, but… not anymore. Now I see clearly. Now I know how to behave. I’m a good girl now. I’m a good girl now. I learned… how to behave.”

  “Yeah, her brain’s been turned to mush,” Rulo grunted. “She’s gone.”

  “Mika,” Hollia softly said, then turned towards Nuci with a stern glare. “What is the meaning of this? What did Aeon do to her?”

  “She fixed her,” Nuci giggled while twitching. “She was broken, so my queen fixed her. She fixed her. She fixed her. Now she’s not broken. Well… not entirely anyway. But at least now she does as she’s told, hee hee!”

  “She looks dead inside,” Forrus mentioned, seeing Mika staring off into space while barely keeping her balance. “Aeon destroyed her mind just as she did with her former guardian’s.”