Will of a Prince

Everyone snapped out of their daze immediately and sprinted after the beast. The army that was once covering the landscape for miles, had suddenly disappeared into thin air. Avala grit her teeth.

"This can’t be happening. An illusion ability?! Is it a deity?!"

The first person to reach the monster was Slimo. He jumped into the air and swung his large broadsword with all his might. However, the monster was much too fast, which was extremely unsightly for a thing so massive. It dodged Slimo’s attack with ease and sent a fist flying into his chest. Slimo felt his ribs collapse under the pressure before he was sent flying backward into ground.

"Slimo!"

Two people down after a single attack. The rose marks on everyone’s neck began to burn. Avala dove under an attack and slammed her shoulder into the beast’s heel, causing it to stumble slightly. Gabriel had grown the same size of the monster and slammed his fist right into its jaw. With this combined attack, the monster slipped on the same heel Avala had attacked and began to fall backwards. Gabriels eyes widened and he pressed forward to follow up by sending an elbow crashing down on its stomach. However, at the very last moment, Gabriel noticed something begin to rise in his peripheral vision.

"S-Shit!"

He shrunk down to the size of an ant. Just as he did, the massive claw ripped through the air where he just was. The attack was so fast that he had no doubt he would have been killed on the spot without shrinking down to the size he was now. He grew back to a large size right as the claw was no longer in his way, allowing him to do a body slam into the creature’s abdomen. However, the body was so incredibly strong, that Gabriels armor was the thing that broke in the attack. Gabriel’s eyes widened. He shrunk down as small as he could to prepare for a counterattack. However, that didn’t help. Somehow, the beast was able to precisely find where he had shrunk down and slammed him far away with a slap.

Avala didn’t let up on her attacks from below. Her sword was able to cut through the monster’s thick skin and leave small gashes in its wake. However, none of the cuts were deep. If anything, all she was doing was pissing it off. Not only that, but the monster also seemed to regain its balance on the same foot that Avala had sent her power into, which meant this creature was somehow capable of knowing how to perfectly balance itself. In all of her experience fighting monsters, Avala had never seen something capable of this. She shot herself away from the monster as fast as she could as feeling of dread grasped her heart.

’My power isn’t working?! What the hell is this thing?!’

A roar escaped from its massive maw, causing everyone’s ears to ring for short time. The roar itself seemed to shake the steel walls of Paria. Avala continued gaining distance as best she could. However, it was hopeless. All she did was close her eyes for less than a second, and that was all the time the creature needed to shoot towards her, its black eyes brimming with unbridled fury. The ground that it had used to push itself forward sloped upward, leaving behind a large enough crater to make a lake.

For the first time in Avala’s life, she understood what true fear was, and it was barreling towards her. She was hopeless, powerless to stop it. All she could do was except her demise. Time slowed down. Hundreds of thoughts soared through her mind as the jaws of the beast were slowly closing around her.

’This... can’t be it. There is so much I still need to do. There’s so much I still need to say.’

Gabriel flashed in her mind.

’Gabriel... seeing him train was so inspiring. He was the only real friend I’ve ever had. I have to thank him. I haven’t thanked him yet!’

The dark teeth squeezed her armor.

’I’m... so scared.’

Suddenly, the head of the beast slammed into the ground, causing cracks to travel for miles in every direction. Attached to the head was the claw of a black-scaled dragon. It roared down at the beast as something charged inside its mouth.

Avala had tears streaming down her face as she continued to flee.

’Orvo...’

Surprisingly, Orvo was managing to hold the beast down. Their struggle was shaking the heavens. The beast tried to lift itself up from the crater, but Orvo would use another claw to slash it back down. Avala couldn’t believe her eyes. Orvo had been hiding this transformation from her all along. She had never once seen him use so much of his power in a battle. Whatever was charging in its mouth was finally ready to fire, it aimed its head downward and exploded a dark beam at the head of the beast. The explosion was so massive, it knocked everyone on the battlefield backward.

Once the dust had finally cleared, everyone looked at the fallout eagerly.

"Did we do it? Is that it?"

However, a loud squealing sound started to make its way through the smoke. Orvo was trying to fly away desperately, but the beast had managed to wrap its claw around its body. And to everyone’s utter horror, the beast didn’t have as much as a scratch on its face.

"No... Orvo!"

Suddenly, something no one had ever expected start to take place. The beast brought Orvos body to its mouth and bit out a large chunk of its flesh. Orvo flailed even more trying to escape. Steel and Bo fell to their knees, coming out of invisibility. Their powers were much better suited for stealth combat. However, in this fight, a sneak attack meant nothing. This thing was playing with the strongest of their group like it was nothing, all while taking little to no damage.

Bo began to vomit on the ground.

"T-This can’t be happening. You all feel that too, right?!"

They did. Everyone one of their rose marks was burning harder than ever, which meant only one thing: This monster, this creature was corrupted. Maria had an especially hopeless expression on her face, which was very out-of-character for her. Lidia looked at her, hesitating to rush forward.

"What is it? Does that new eyes of yours tell us anything?"

Maria cleared her throat and wiped some sweat off her brow before responding.

"It’s giving me an error. All it says is that it’s an unidentified anomaly. I can’t read a single thing about it."

Lidia grit her teeth.

"Can we even kill it?"

Maria shook her head.

"There’s only one way to find out. There aren’t many of us left. All we can do is try."

Maria looked at Lidia.

"I have a plan, but you have to follow my lead. I hope you’ve been saving up power for something like this."

Lidia nodded her head. She had been saving up power for months. However, was it enough? Would her attack truly be enough to finish off whatever this thing was? Truthfully, Lidia had no idea. However, there was something she was hiding from everyone for a while. For the past three weeks, Lidia had felt something change withing herself, as if she unlocked a completely new reach of her new power. Since this beast was corrupted, it was the perfect test subject. However, she was trying to determine if it was worth risking something she had never done before in a battle that weighed the lives of all her friends, as well as the rest of an empire. She yelled over to Maria.

"I have one too. Can you buy me as much time as you possibly can? I think it’s going to take a while for me to charge everything up before I release it."

Maria nodded her head.

"I’m counting on you, mom."

Serena was sobbing hold on to Zoey’s still body. Her skin was slowly turning more pale, she was getting less warm by the second. She held her hand on Zoey’s face and continued crying.

"Zoey. Please don’t leave yet. I... I can’t let you die."

Zoey, surprisingly, responded to Serena’s cries. She raised her held Serena’s face. Serena cried more.

"Zoey... I love you, Zoey. I love you so much. Please don’t die on me."

Zoey’s weakened eyes widened slightly. She used all the strength she had left to whisper something to Serena.

"Serena."

Serena looked into her gaze desperately.

"Transform."

Suddenly, something strange began to happen with Zoey’s body. Long, hot orange lines flowed through her blood, glowing and steaming under her skin. Serena wiped her face as her eyes widened.

"Z-Zoey?"

He body began to pulsate and twitch. Something was happening to her. Zoey was transforming. Serena quickly held on to her body as it began to change.

"Transform. Together."

Suddenly, a massive explosion rang through the sky, turning it a dark orange. Something seemed to climb the explosion all the way into the clouds. Everyone looked at it in awe.

"What the hell was that?!"

Orvo was slowly dying. The creature was preparing its last few bites, but it strangely stopped eating and raised its head towards the sky and dropped Orvo where he was.

"It’s... looking at something in the sky? What does it see?"

The beast then began walking aimlessly toward whatever it saw and bent its knees, preparing itself. Suddenly, a flash illuminated the entire world. Everyone’s vision went white for a moment. Then, the sound followed. A deafening explosion reared through over the battlefield, followed by one of the strongest shockwaves anyone had ever felt. Lidia felt like this attack was easily twice as strong as the one she had done to the Monlo army before.

"What is that thing?!"

Lidia squinted her eyes and stared forward. An immolating heatwave crashed over her as she stared. Clashing against the beast in the crater was an ethereal, white phoenix. Its feathers flowed like water in the wind, its wings were wide enough to carry a house on its back, its thin body allowed it to soar through the air with nothing stopping it. It was the most breathtaking creature she had ever seen. It’s long, sharp beak had broken clean through the beast’s skin, leaving a pool of lava in its wake flowing out of the wound. Then, it opened its maw and screeched as loud as it could. Lidia’s knees felt weak hearing the sound.

"Is this... a battle between gods?!"