Will of a Prince

The beast, for the first time since the battle started, looked like it was injured. The wound kept trying to repair itself, but the heat from the lava was too much. Every new piece of skin or muscle would immediately melt off like butter. Maria and Lidia watched on helplessly as the heat wave continued to assault their faces.

"We can’t get close without burning ourselves! We have to wait for their fight to finish before I can step in!"

Lidia planted her feet in the ground. Her skin began to glow with power.

"This is perfect. This will buy me a lot of time. Please keep them occupied if Zoey and Serena lose."

Maria nodded her head and continued to watch the fight. The spectacle was like nothing she had ever seen before. Both creatures were so incredibly large, yet they were moving at speeds that shouldn’t have been possible. Not only that, but it also looked more like the world was bending around to their fight, rather than the other way around. The air, the clouds, and the ground below them would crack or break apart whenever they needed it to.

Waves upon waves of hot air would crash against their faces, causing their hair to become a complete mess while flying backward. Orvo had managed to cancel his Zalo power and was continuing to limp back towards the group. Luckily, Harold and Abby managed to scoop him up as they passed in their battle cart. They dropped him off towards the steel wall, where Slimo, Gabriel, and Avala were already resting from their injuries. Steel and Bo were put in charge of first aid since neither of them would have been capable of fighting unless it absolutely came to it. Lucy and Bart were both resting, but their expressions on their face were cold and dark. Maria wasn’t aware of it, but this was the expression they made when they were ready to kill. Even though their combined powers were mostly used for tools, it was a devastating force to be reckoned with on the battlefield, and Maria was about to discover the potential these two carried in a fight.

"We can attack from a distance, so we will see what we can do from here."

"This beast will pay for what it’s done. This wall will take me and Lucy almost a week to rebuild."

Lucy and Bart walked confidently. Bart stretched his shoulder and slapped Lucy’s back.

"Ready when you are."

"I’m ready."

They both held up their hands. Suddenly, the ground all around the land began to shake. As the phoenix continued its treacherous assault, a massive black pike soared past its wing and into the monster’s stomach. As if responding to it, the phoenix swirled around the monsters back and sliced up the back of its head. It roared in anger and slammed down on the pike. However, hundreds more had already been made and impaled every inch of its body. Over and over, it continued to swirl around and break through the reinforced iron, all while defending the attacks from the phoenix above its head. Unbelievably, it looked like the monster was being overwhelmed.

"That’s it! Keep going!"

Lucy and Bart strained their muscles. Dark blood kept seeping more and more from the beasts wounds the more it flailed around, instantly evaporating once it touched the ground thanks to the heat. However, what Lucy and Bart failed to realize is how intense the heat truly was. The pikes began to form weaker, and the ones that had already been formed started melting in place.

"Shit. Just keep pushing! Make Zoey’s life as easy as possible!"

Lucy’s breathing became haggard. Her veins were popping out of her skin, but she refused to stop. It looked like the beast was slowing down.

"How much energy does this thing have?! It just won’t stop!"

"One last push!"

Bart and Lucy shoved every bit of energy they had into one final attack. One massive spike lodged itself in between the beast’s ribs, causing it to spit up a mound of festering blood. Zoey’s phoenix form launched its desperate final assault as well. Swooping down from high in the sky, it aimed to pierce the creature straight through its massive head. The timing was perfect, the speed was perfect, the destructive force was more than enough... and yet...

"WATCH OUT!"

In the craziest gamble yet, the beast severed its own body in half, allowing him to dodge Zoey’s crazy attack as his upper torso fell to the ground. Not only that, but its body slowly began repairing itself. In little time it all, it was back to a healthy condition, standing proudly on its two feet, letting out another roar. Lucy and Bart panted heavily while staring at the beast with hopeless eyes.

"Why... why is it so persistent?! I’ve never seen a beast like this!"

Zoey’s momentum from her attack caused her phoenix form to crash into the ground, heavily damaging her fragile, thin body. The monster wasted no time taking advantage of this before she could fly off the ground again. It lifted up one of the broken metal spikes on the ground and threw it at her. The spike streaked through the air, perfectly aimed to penetrate Zoey’s body.

Boom!

It missed. Everyone flinched from the sound it made. Maria was especially dumbstruck.

"But... how? That was a perfect throw."

The monster seemed just as surprised and continued throwing a barrage of makeshift metal javelins at Zoey. But once again, every single one missed its mark by mere centimeters. Suddenly, an other-worldly presence made itself known on the battlefield. An indescribably beautiful creature with gorgeous white wings started floating down from the sky. It’s blonde, curly hair fell fairly on her shoulders as she flapped her wings. Being in this things presence alone made everyone feel immortal. A strange power was supporting their very soul.

"S-Sqaubee?!"

Sqaubee had officially released her Angel Incarnate form. And with it, her friends would be blessed with a luck similar to her own. With her being present, killing one of her friends would be nearly impossible.

Using the chance she was given, Zoey flew away back towards her friends feverishly, crashing into the ground close by and coming back to her human form with Serena. Both of them coughed heavily on the ground in front of Maria.

"Zoey! That was incredible!"

Zoey took in heavy breaths.

"Like hell I’d die to a thing with such bad breath. No way..."

She groaned and held her arm where a deep gash was present. It looks like Squabee’s power could only protect her so much from such devastating throws. Harold and Abby appeared instantly to carry them away to retreat.

"Let’s go back to others. You both put up a good fight. It looks much slower than before."

Abby threw them both over her shoulders and latched herself in the cart.

"Let’s hurry before a spear comes out way."

Harold blinked away once more with an even greater number of injured comrades. They were slowly running out of manpower. Maria was about to ask Lidia how much longer was left, but looking at her mom almost made her pass out.

Lidia’s entire body was glowing brighter than the sun. It was so bright that even Maria couldn’t look at her figure for long without looking away. She could hear groans of pain coming from Lidia. Releasing this much energy was undoubtedly going to have a huge toll on her.

"Just a little more! Please, Maria! Just a little more time!"

Lidia screamed and fell on her knees. Maria tried to run over to help her.

"Mom!"

"NO!"

Maria stopped in her tracks.

"Don’t come closer! I got this! Just go! I... think he’s coming this way!"

Lidia was right. The creature was now charging towards Lidia as fast as it could. It seemed to have finally noticed the attack that was building up and couldn’t ignore it anymore. However, it was clear the beast wasn’t nearly what he used to be. The damage was piling up more and more. Maria was able to see him perfectly now. She took a step forward, readied her spear and let out a soft exhale.

"Die by my hand. Monster."

Maria kicked off the ground and shot towards it, aiming her spear in front of her. The beast turned its body sideways, but by pure coincidence, the spear managed to impale part of its arm anyway, sending it flying back with Maria’s momentum. Maria wasted no time in her carnage. She shot the spear tip into the monster’s body dozens of times in mere seconds. Every time the beast would swipe at her, its claw would cut nothing but air. Realizing it had to deal with Maria first before getting to Lidia, the monster swung its body on the ground and threw itself backward to gain some distance. It finally seemed to suspect that the thing floating in the sky had something to do with why it was missing so much. However, it wasn’t willing, or it didn’t have time to attack it right now.

Maria kept the pressure on, slowly pushing the beast backward. There were a few instances of Maria throwing her spear, but it suddenly appearing back in her hand right as a counterattack was coming her way.

’Maybe this curse isn’t that bad.’

Maria slammed her foot in the ground and pushed off her heel to gain as much power as possible. Once again, the tip split open the beast’s gut, causing its intestines to liter the battlefield. Its regeneration was slowing down more and more.

’This is it. I can kill it. I can kill it!’

Maria went in to plunge her weapon deep in its skull. However, when she threw the spear down into its eye, she was met with no resistance. Maria’s heart dropped.

’An illusion?! When did it-?!’

A shadow covered her whole body. The beast ripped it’s claw forward, aiming to behead Maria. By pure luck once again, she managed to hardly dodge the attack. However, her hair wasn’t so lucky. It I had been completely cut short. That was the sacrifice she had to make for her life. Maria had no time to daunt on how she looked. She stepped backward and gained some distance.

To make matters worse, Squabee wasn’t looking to good. Her face had turned green. It was clear she was pushing herself for her first transformation. Not only that, but it was also possible that her power was used up more when people required a greater amount of luck to survive something.

Maria now only had one option left. She slapped her chest twice and prepared to charge again. However, the beast ignored her and went for Lidia instead. She had been fooled perfectly. The monsters plan all along was to have Maria back away from Lidia as far as possible." Maria planted her feet in the ground.

"No."

Power roared through her veins.

"RELEASE!"

She shot forward as fast as she can. However, she was way too far to make a difference. Lidia was heeled over on the ground. She was a sitting duck. The monster growled as it went for its final attack. It swiped it’s claws down with all its might.

"NOOO!"

However, when the dust cleared, Lidia was nowhere to be seen. Maria blinked and tried to follow the light around the battlefield. Harold had managed to scoop her up at the very last possible second, his arms catching on fire as he carried her.

"Harold. Throw me! Now!"

Harold winced in pain as he ran back towards the creature.

"Y-You don’t have to tell me twice!"

Lidia blasted towards her opponent faster than she had ever flown before. The monster went for one last, desperate counterattack. However, it hardly missed her. Squabee began to fall out of the sky, completely drained.

Lidia threw forward her greatest attack yet, and it collided directly in the monster’s chest before she shouted something that had been serenading her soul since this power was unlocked all those weeks ago.

"RELEASE THE LIGHT!"

The entire world turned white. There wasn’t any sound that followed this collision. The radius swallowed the monster, then maria, then Squabee, then their friends at the wall, until finally it swallowed the entirety of Paria Kingdom. There was no destruction in this power. In fact, everything about the world seemed brighter than before. Lidia fell on the ground as the monster stood completely frozen, unable to move.

’Did it work? What the hell just happened?’

Suddenly, a reaction began to occur in the beast’s body. It slowly twitched and shrunk more and more. It grabbed on to its head as it shrunk, wailing like it was on fire. It wasn’t until the beast was the size and stature of a man, did it finally stop shrinking. Its skin slowly became brighter, its hair shortened on its head, and suddenly, a grown man appeared right in front of Maria and Lidia’s face.

He swayed while standing up, completely unconscious. Maria’s eyes filled with tears. She stood up and ran towards the man, embracing him tightly before he fell. She slowly let him down and held his face with her hands. More tears fell down her face. She sobbed harder than she ever had before. Lidia slowly stood up. She had little to no energy left in her being, but she had to see what Maria was crying about.

Inside of Maria’s arms, completely unconscious, was none other than Jacob.

Not only that...

Avala stared at Slimo with wide eyes as he rested against the steel wall. Her face churned and she ran over and hugged him tightly. Luna fell on the ground and held her head, tears streaming down her face.

Everyone else followed their lead, holding their heads in pain for a few moments before raising them slowly, staring at each other.

"I’m sorry, Slimo. I’m so so sorry. I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know. It’s not your fault. Please forgive me."

Avala wailed into Slimo’s shoulder. Everyone around her joined in tears, starting with Luna.

"My... daughter. She’s gone."

She dropped to her knees and sobbed silently.

"I forgot my own daughter."

"Sydney... William..."

The once corrupted memories of all their friends, the truth hidden behind an invisible veil, had finally been revealed to them.