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"Let me crush your heart in my fist."


I love you.


I wonder what you'd say.

You've always fascinated me, you know.

Tell me, do you feel betrayed?



The wisps of wind vanished into the air, revealing Alhiria, panting, on the ground with her wings folded at her side.

Floreta, however, was nowhere to be found. It was like she had vanished along with the wind into the ominous, rolling clouds overhead.

The great phoenix shifted, struggling to get up from where she lay.

"Floreta..."

"Shhhh... let no hate break past your lips."

But Calentine had already... vanished.

Seeing this, Onstaan roared in fury, thrashing about and only managing to rotate in place. His tail whipped around in a fury, crushing several dark shadows while more began to approach the great dragon. The shadows acted as leeches; as fleas, ticks, parasites. They clustered all along the dragon's body, sucking and draining the very life out of him. In the face of such a multitude, Onstaan could not find his energy to dispel them. Eventually, the humongous serpentine body... fell limp....

~

Until a flash of many solar blades relinquished Onstaan from a fatal grip. "I hate bugs!" Shef called out as his floating swords (aka Fable) began to go to town with the shadows. Each blade seemed to have a mind of its own, or rather, each possessed a duplicate of Shef's own personality and will, acting on its own with Shef's best interests at heart. Frankly, no shadow could touch him, from any direction. The feeling of exhilaration Shef received from this fight was... gaily exhilarating.

Shef suddenly flicked his wrist and sent a sword of light flying in Kiki's direction, but he missed both the girl and the shadows chasing her. Shef's intended target could not be discerned.

Well, generally speaking, a sword of light could only be held by the person who summoned it, or by someone with a specialty with light magic. But, seeing as how Shef was not Arthur, the rules of his magic might not apply or be as simple as to be the same. So, to clarify, we'll say that anybody whom Shef wills can hold his words--and it just so happened that the sword did not cut through Kiki's hand with eviscerating, scalding-hot pain, but felt solid and real in her hands.

Regond was watching all of this, tears of joy flooding down from his eyes.

"That boy is..." he cried, "...just like Arthur..."

-----

Malis screeched with rage.

"You impudent FOOL!" he scowled as he pointed at the Shadows, "Leave us! I will fight the boy alone!"

And with that said, every single Shadow creature was gone. Even the remains were gone... and Malis stood in front of Shef.

"You..." he growled, "You are Arthur's wretched little spawn. I can smell it in your veins. 'Tis a shame that you will meet the same fate as your weakling father did."

Kiki was still exhausted, but..everything seemed to be quiet now.
She looked around from where she hung.
Kiki was too high to see much, but she could hear what was going on.
It took a lot of effort, but she managed to turn herself aroundand she hung by her ankles, trying to get a view of the conversation.
At the same time she rocked back and forth gently, aiming for the trunk.


Her guardian wasn't too far off, it was natural that Kiki may have started to feel better. She still wasn't powerful yet. He was unconcious- probably stopped on the way over by shadows, bakka, Crispy Rodriguez.

Shef blinked. Who was this? Despite everything he'd been through, the boy had no idea. But he had mentioned Arthur...

"Meet my end? What happened to my father?" Shef asked, sounding all in the world like a corny movie/story from cliche Earth.

~

Onstaan was no longer being drained by shadow-leeches, but he was extremely injured. The dragon just floated in the air, until Malis chose to drop him.

~

Calentine was no place to be found, unfortunately. The shadows had seemingly absorbed him.

"Let me crush your heart in my fist."


I love you.


I wonder what you'd say.

You've always fascinated me, you know.

Tell me, do you feel betrayed?



Reign paused from where she had been sneaking away, Falian resting, unconscious, on her back. But then she paused, having heard Malis' voice.

Turning, knowing she would be no help even if she got involved, she began to watch and wait.

What on earth is happening over there?

----

Queenie and Marina, reunited, were also watched silently, with wide eyes. Queenie's lantern dangled from her voluptuous tail, and Marina - in her snow-white cat form - sat on her Guardian's head, watching curiously

----

Alhiria swayed, paused, and finally fell, her beak hitting the ground and cutting into the earth as her body slid forward, her long neck finally turning to hit the ground as her consciousness fluttered in and out. Desperately, she fought to keep awake.

No... she thought. No. Don't fall asleep until you know Floreta's okay... don't, please...

"Shhhh... let no hate break past your lips."