Chapter 139 - Multicolored Mark
How is this one step closer from the truth? The name's missing. Elliot thought and groaned.
He felt a tremendous force of an attack coming towards him and his reflexes kicked in. He spun to the side and successfully dodged it, a ray of dark green light that shook the roofs beneath.
"What the hell…" Elliot trailed off and turned to Madam Hoot and Fernando.
Madam Hoot had just lowered her right hand that had smoke coming from it, meaning she was the one who fired the attack. Fernando was now fully healed, a blank expression etched his face.
"But I thought I died," Fernando said, looking at the woman in front of him.
"I won't accept any petty excuse if you cross the Afterlife from that minor injury," Madam Hoot said. "We are fighters of the Forest, sworn to revenge our people. We cannot fall like that."
"Yes," Fernando said and brandished his sword. "I had always felt pity to myself for not able to defend the forest, but I forgot I can avenge them."
"You're not avenging anyone here though," Lance retorted. "You're both under the delusion that the whole kingdom is against you when in fact, no one was. Well, except maybe the previous king but he's dead now. Us humans have changed."
Madam Hoot's expression softened, seeing the boy she raised talk like a proper man. She touched her chest and closed her eyes, humming in agreement.
"Indeed, Lance," Madam Hoot chuckled. "But you're too late."
Madam Hoot opened her eyes, revealing a pitch black color. The color of her eyes were like the pits of hell themselves.
"If you talked to them like that maybe 30 years ago, you could've convinced them."
A female voice said from Madam Hoot's shadow. A figure emerged from it, her skin color was dark as the night, eyes glowing with darkness. She tilted her head to the side, combing her hair as the darkness slowly faded from her skin, revealing a beautiful woman.
She somehow reminded Elliot of someone, but he couldn't quite figure out who it was.
"Hello, Terrans," the Queen of Hell said, placing her elbow on Fernando's shoulder and leaned herself towards him. "Perhaps you know who I am?"
"The Queen of Hell," Lance seethed.
"Yes, I…" the Queen of Hell trailed off and lowered her other hand, springing it up and extending it in the air. A black orb flew out from her hand and into the air above, cloaking the light blue skies with darkness, as though it was the night.
"You know me by name, but you don't know who I really am," she said and grinned. "I am Malice, the Queen of Hell. I rule over the darkness and the abyss. I am the pinnacle of strength and the Supreme User of Dark Affinity."
"That's a lot of titles," Lance snorted. "Do you usually use all of them?"
"Why yes– oh," Malice gasped in delight. "It is the rumored Terran who uses the Dualism. Since these two are still standing, I assume you're not the strongest one here."
She turned to the lower ground where Galaxia was, "But he is."
While the two exchanged their words, Elliot couldn't help but be bothered by the woman's chest.
She doesn't have The Creator's Greed Mark on her.
If a being her caliber would be scanned by the skill, Elliot was sure that it would give him something more than red. But what comes after red?
If he add Madam Hoot's yellow Mark, this should give him two skills.
"Broken Starlight!"
The fragments of light surrounded Malice, Madam Hoot, and Fernando. They fired their multicolored beams at the three, destroying the roof that made Lance and Elliot hop off from it.
"That's a scary aura, bro," Galaxia said. "It's unpure, but it's still scary."
"What do you mean unpure?" Elliot asked when they landed beside him.
"She's a clone. Who is she anyway? She seems like a very dangerous person," Galaxia gathered his fragments back, waiting as the dust they created on the roof dissipate.
Elliot realized that was why the woman had no mark. She was a clone, therefore he couldn't kill her right now.
Before the cloud of dust could vanish, a pitch black beam was fired from the spot. Galaxia had to gather his fragments and formed a symbol from it, stacking four symbols and created a multiple stacks of shield.
The beam instantly destroyed the first two layers, only slowing down at the third layer, cracking it slowly.
"Everyone, get away!" Galaxia yelled. Lance pulled the knocked out Forest Folks with his ropes to the side, getting them out of the way from Malice's beam.
"Do you have to save them?" Galaxia yelled, struggling to stop his shield from breaking apart. "We don't have much time."
"I can't just abandon them," Lance said. "Sh*t!"
The third shield broke, with Galaxia groaning. The veins of his neck had slowly appeared while pushing himself through the limits.
As the dust dissipated, Malice's figure was shown. She had a fan for a weapon. She closed it and pointed it at Galaxia like a wand, the beam coming from the fan itself.
"Give up Terrans, I'm not even using a quarter of my power in this attack and the strongest one here is already struggling," Malice said.
"The Holy Crow's Blessing." The Holy Crow ran up to Galaxia and gave him a what's called as "mega-buff".
A mega buff is a boost, but as the name suggests, it is more intense than a regular buff. A mega buff can enhance a desired target by multiple times their maximum power, depending on the capabilities of the caster.
Two white crosses hoverdd on either side of Galaxia. The crosses shone white light at him, adding the buff.
'The Holy Crow's Blessing.'
'Your stats is enhanced by 600%.'
Galaxia smirked, "Thank you, father."
He recoiled his hands and thrust them forward, his remaining shield was pushed up against the black beam, slowly reaching the roof where Malice was.
"Hell's Pillars!" Malice casted, summoning seven columns behind her. The colums floated in the air and slowly tilted, pointing at the ground where Galaxia was.
As his shield approached her, Malice broke her beam and leaped up, floating in the air and conjuring spheres on the bottom of the columns.
The spheres were also black, slowly growing in size as it felt like it was going to be fired away.
"Hell's Deadly Cannons!"
The spheres were launched like cannons. Malice laughed as her attacks were approaching the ground at an intense speed.
"The Holy Crow's Blessing."
"White Mega Fortress!"
A colossal white brick wall appeared horizontally, blocking the cannon-like spheres from reaching their targets.
Lance was laying on the ground, his white sword raised while two crosses hovered beside him. He was panting, just barely casted his spell against the attack.
"Did I do good?" Lance asked, turning to the Holy Crow.
The old man nodded, "If you didn't say your plan, my people would've taken me away and leave everyone here."
Lance turned to his father at the balcony, the king was cupping his mouth in shock. His eyes wide as saucers as he stared at the white defensive spell his son put up.
"Your majesty, we need to leave," one of the guards said.
"Wait," King Leopold raised his hand and turned to Lance. He knew his son couldn't hear his words but he still had to say them," Thank you. I'm proud of you, Lance."
His father's words ignited another kind of flame inside Lance. A burning passion to protect his father, one that he never felt since his mother's death.
Elliot was dragging the unconscious people to the side, panting as he just rescued the fourth person. Even using Hasty Aspire, it was still hard to carry two grown people in his back.
"You okay?" Ed asked, helping Elliot evacuate the Forest Folks. "You seem bothered."
"When you found out that you were the Heir for Etheoria…" Elliot trailed off and stopped. "How did it felt?"
"What do you mean?" Ed pulled him into dragging more people away. Even when Lance has the fortress up, it wouldn't be long before it breaks by how much Malice was attacking it.
"When you found out about your truth, did it feel good or anything?" Elliot gulped, somehow afraid of what Ed was going to say. "Or did you regret finding it out."
"All I can say that it was new," Ed answered simply. "It was weird at first, that's normal that you get weirded out since it's a new thing. But then it just felt right, you know? When you get used to the fact that you are actually a royalty from another realm, that your mother was betrayed and your father was killed, all those thoughts falling into me felt like it was a huge rock crushing me."
"But then time passed, and I got used to the fact that this is my reality now. At least I'm not wandering the world constantly asking myself who I was or where I came from…" Ed grunted while pulling two people in his back. "At first it felt different, and the next thing, it felt right. Like my fate was an iron ore that was melted and reformed into a sword that it should be– Argh. I'm getting nowhere."
"No," Elliot said, also pulling two people in his back. He took one last look at the ruby gem and sighed. "I perfectly got what you mean."
Elliot closed his console off, along with the message that popped up from it.
'The truth will set anyone free.'
'If you can find out the truth, then you will be free.'
As the battle continued, a Forest Folk awoke, his eyes were pitch black meaning he was being controlled by Malice. He brandished his dagger from his leg and hacked it forward.
Lance, who was on the ground, rolled over. He spun and gasped when another Forest Folk was there, another dagger stabbing him in the stomach.
The white fortress broke apart, Elliot throwing the bodies to the side and ran to where his friend was. He kicked both the attackers and leaned in to Lance, seeing the blood on his clothes.
"No," Lance said, holding Elliots hands that were about to rip his clothes off. "Elliot, please no. Stop."
"Lance what are you talking about?" Elliot asked. "Just–"
He brushed Lance's hands off and ripped his shirt to see the wound. He saw the second skin-like clothing again. Elliot glanced at Lance who was shaking his head nervously, coughing blood from his injury.
With a determined grunt, Elliot ripped the clothing, falling back as he saw a familiar symbol in his friend's chest.
A glowing multicolored The Creator's Greed Mark.