Malcolm Tent
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Wish upon the Stars chapter 642
🕑 Added 2024-06-06 23:05:00 +0000 UTCWe approached the first temple slowly. It was a massive black marble edifice with veins of gold that glowed dimly in the sun. Staring closely, it became clear that the glow was pulsing slowly, like the beat of a single, colossal heart pumping energy through the building. “Well that’s certainly ominous.” I said as I pointed it out to my sister.
“Awesome, a living building.” She said without enthusiasm. “Maybe it’s the guardian. I wonder if it can turn into some kind of monster?”
Serah nodded solemnly. “Truly a fearsome beast. A residence that can become a foe. One might almost call it a…werehouse.” Her expression didn’t change as she stared at the building, but she flicked her eyes quickly toward us to see if her joke had landed.
Holly groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Please stop. We already had a discussion about puns.”
“Ah.” Said the stoic commedienne. “But that was when my puns were still maturing. Now they’re full groan.” I snorted a little at that, I admit. Holly spun and glared at me murderously for encouraging her sister, and Chelsea tried to suffocate a smile while her retainer wasn’t looking.
Despite being a little stiff, I actually found Serah kind of funny. Her deadpan delivery was charming in a way, and she had a lot of confidence in her jokes even if other people didn’t find them amusing. I had a weakness for that sort of comedy, and I had to admit the stoic angel was already growing on me.
“Can we just get this over with?” Demanded Holly in annoyance. “Maybe if we’re lucky whatever is in there will kill us all so we don’t have to listen to my sister’s puns anymore.”
I chuckled, and we all prepared to enter the temple. The door was large and imposing, made of some kind of black volcanic rock that looked heavy and immovable. Closing my eyes, I shifted into my combat form. Mephistopheles came easier than ever, something about my new techniques making me feel more in tune with the form.
My hair blazed up into black flame, and I drew my staff, prepared for anything as we all moved forward. Holly took the lead, reaching up to shove the door open with a grinding screech as the rest of us prepared for an attack.
When nothing happened, I triggered Eye of Revelation, using it to scan the inside of the temple (as much as I could see anyway), but nothing was in view. With a confirming glance, we all moved silently through the door into the temple, and I continued my search for- I froze, something had moved.
“There’s something moving along the ceiling.” I warned. “It was moving too fast for me to track, so I didn’t get a good look.”
Holly nodded confidently. “I’ll take care of the darkness so we can get a better look.” She reached down and drew her golden sword, then held it above her head like a torch. A shimmering golden flame (like Mel’s but more metallic somehow) erupted down the length of the blade as she spread her downy wings wide.
Golden hair and eyes erupted with the same shining blaze, and luminescence swallowed the temple, banishing the darkness and the shadows until there was nothing but pure revealing light. The radiance flooded the room, and within its scope I could see everything with crystal clarity…even if I wished I couldn’t.
“No.” I whispered in mounting dread. “It can’t be.” But as I stared up at the scaly, horned form of my deepest nightmares, I knew that it was. “It’s a Wolfhornigator.”
All three of them turned to stare at me. “What?” Asked my sister in a flat voice. “That can’t possibly be the name of an actual creature.” Thinking back, I realized Chelsea wasn’t with us when we’d met the Wolfhornigators.
“I don’t know their names.” I snapped. “So I made one up, and it’s extremely accurate. They’re like a combination of wolves, alligators, and deer. Wolfhornigator. But I’m not sure how one got here, I thought they were extinct.”
She blinked at me. “Really? Why?”
I…had no response. No one had mentioned it to me at any point, I’d just kind assumed based on where I met them. My bad. “Whatever, this is way bigger and scarier than the other ones I met anyway, probably because it’s E-rank. It feels less insane though, I think the other ones were mutated by…actually I don’t think I’m supposed to talk about that.”
She nodded, knowing vaguely what I meant. “Doesn’t matter. What can you tell us about them. Any special traits.”
“Well they’re highly venomous. That might have been a mutation, but I wouldn’t bank on it.” I said absently as I dug through my memories. Then I froze. “Oh. And also…” I turned around, realizing that though the entirety of the temple had been revealed, we’d been facing away from the front wall. Sure enough, a series of glaring monsters hung from the stonework. “They travel in packs.”
Apparently that was the signal they’d been waiting for, because when we noticed them, the one behind us roared and the whole group pounded, heading right for us.
I didn’t miss a beat. I executed Mephisto’s Waltz, destroying the space between me and a spot out of their range, appearing in a blaze of black flame as I started to condense a sphere of dark fire for a Cosmic Collapse.
Holly and Serah took to the wing, streaking out of range of their attack as my sister disdainfully swung a fist at the one coming down on top of her. A colossal burst of white flame consumed the monster, and I had to blink to track it as it burst free from the combustion, screaming in pain and fear as it retreated back to the ceiling where it had come from.
The distraction was exactly what I needed as I finished readying my technique, and executed the Waltz again as I lashed out at the head of one of the nearest monsters, whose eyes were fixed on my twin.
It noticed me at the last second, its horned head jerking and mouth opening wide…just wide enough for the sphere at the end of my staff to slide easily inside before the butt of my weapon slammed into it and an eruption of concentrated black fire blew out the back of the monster’s skull.
“Hah!” I shouted in exultation. “Whose chasing who now, you scaly fucks?” Which of course, drew the attention of all ten of the remaining monsters, and I swallowed hard as I realized that I should probably run.
I slipped back into the Waltz, flames licking my feet as I stepped along the constellation I’d kept from the original form of the technique. Each step took me somewhere new, and that was a good thing, because everywhere I landed there was a slavering monster hurling itself at me. Note to self: practice Cosmic Collapse more so I don’t need so much prep time.
Luckily I wasn’t here alone, and playing distraction enabled the others to get into position and start picking the damned things off. Holly had divebombed one of the ones I’d avoided, golden flaming sword singing through the air like a righteous battle hymn as she bisected the big bastard with a single swing, spinning off her landing to cleave another one in two as it tried to pounce on her.
Serah had produced a copper scythe from somewhere, and it too flickered with metallic flame of a color with her hair as she whirled it around, taking the arms and legs off a pair of the monsters that had leapt from the ceiling to try to bear her down to the ground.
I knew a lot of people sneered at the scythe as a weapon, but when you were dealing with Ascendants, even more than normal people, ANYTHING could be a weapon. I’d seen someone use a fucking mop as his main weapon, and it had been impressive. A giant long handled stick with a big sharp blade on the end was a cakewalk.
Serah had clearly trained extensively with her weapon, she used the staff portion as a prod to keep distance and hooked the blade around any exposed limbs, shearing through flesh and bone with casual indifference with both the inner and outer edges of her dual edged weapon.
Chelsea, meanwhile, had been mobbed by three of the monsters, and my sister had shifted from her normal jovial self to an arrogant combatant who casually batted aside strikes and smashed her enemies into burning chunks with her bare fists. I was almost positive she was using some kind of technique I didn’t know, maybe one of moms or maybe her own, because her flames were behaving in an odd way I wouldn’t have recognized before.
As I came to the end of my Waltz, I stopped on a chit, planting my feet and triggering Mornax. The leftover Wolfhornigators had been closing in on me at speed, and they didn’t have time to slow down, smashing into my impervious form like falling stars.
I grinned widely as I heard cracks and screams from the shattering claws and bones of the monsters as they bounced harmlessly (harmless to me, they were harmed quite a bit) off my enhanced stone exterior. The distraction served its purpose, letting my teammates clean up their own opponents and turn their sights on mine.
My three were the last of the remaining ten, and with one foe each, they hardly stood a chance as they were all torn apart by angelic weapons and blinding white flame. I let Mornax drop after the last one was dead, with Chelsea finishing off the biggest and strongest, the one I assumed was some kind of alpha.
“Bite check.” I called worriedly. “Anyone get bitten or scratched?” I’d been in my stone form so the claws hadn’t penetrated, plus my armor didn’t leave much skin exposed, so I was fine, but the others weren’t nearly as impervious.
Chelsea grunted, a hand over the bend of her elbow. My sister was wearing a cuirass and and a pair of gauntlets maybe of dark leather with silver fittings that kind of matched her hair, but it wasn’t full plate so it didn’t cover her arms. Luckily, her purification flame was made for situations like this, even if it wasn’t comfortable to use.
“I got nicked.” She hissed through clenched teeth. “I’ll be fine in a minute. This shit is NASTY. I feel like my blood is trying to eat through my veins and boiling at the same time.”
Holly came strolling over excitedly. “We found the key!” She said, holding up a massive dark stone key with jagged looking teeth. “Are you alright, mistress?” Her deference to Chelsea still threw me, given what a prickly person she was when dealing with me, but I decided I was glad she had my twin’s back.
“I’m fine.” Said Chelsea in a much more even and less strained voice. Putting on an act for the troops I supposed. She glanced at the key. “Cheerful little piece of scrap, isn’t it? Does everything have to look like it came out of a demon’s nightmare? Just once, couldn’t the thing we needed to get be a pretty baby blue color with a nice cloud motif?”
I cleared my throat, slightly defensive when I thought of my nightmarish armor and crown. “There’s nothing wrong with ominous decor.” I said stoically. “Maybe you just have bad taste. I think that key would be hideous with that color scheme.”
“Because clearly you’re an objective source.” She sniped, eyes flickering over my outfit. She was grinning slightly, and I knew I’d helped take her mind off the pain for a bit.
I shrugged as we all turned and headed out, the bodies of the Wolfhornigators having dissolved into greasy green smoke. Some kind of summons probably. That was one down, we just needed to do this eleven more times. Joy.
