Legend Blood [FINISHED, please lock/PG-13/IC] *remake*

[Love of Ghibli]

And it was then that Clarice realized she was now in the throws of the final boss battle. Admittedly she would have liked that she had done more damage than what she did but she did manage to wound it. If one can wound a tree. The whole concept seemed pretty weird. Unfortunately on can only empty a closet once and she did. Luckily the blades she had stolen from statues came in handy. The rushing leaves of silver took their shape and made a hollow blade, but when it shot at Clarice she was already a safe distance away from any real danger. Sure she may have had to go into a double accel no breaks off inception but this hulking mass of tree evil wouldn't be worthy of the final boss title if it couldn't make her do that much. Though what was she to do now. Her only gift is her amazing speed right now and she just literally threw everything she had at him.

After looking at the mighty tree behemoth she noticed that her blades weren't destroyed, they were just deflected. With a malicious grin on her face she picked up a nearby broadsword and took an offensive stance. She decided to not hold anything back from the beginning. This wasn't that other vampire who clearly was just surprisingly surprising in every way. This hulk of power mass was something she would have to take down immediately. Realizing that she probably isn't strong enough to take out the trunk looked up towards some of the branches and thought that is how you are supposed to properly cut down a tree to begin with. She leaped into the perimeter of the beast and unleashed her signature secret move Onyx Tempest. With that the one Clarice split into 5 and attempted to climb the tree hacking off individual branches at the current speed of Mach 3.

[Damiano Tosē]

[size=3][font=verdana, geneva, sans-serif]"[i]So wait a minute...[/i]" It took a minute for the elder cousin of the King to process what Alsa had told him. He understood the fact that Elnaer wanted to declare war against the day walkers (humans) and even started it, but was he really that weak to transform into a tree-like abomination to end it? Judging from Elnaer's tactics, he was a brutal king. He hated the humans with a passion, though Tavair back then did not know his cousin hated humans. His cousin's actions were beyond his intentions because Tavair had not care for the humans, but did not want to see them be enslaved all because vampires were the more superior race. That was the reason why he left for nine years. The tyranny and negative ways that Elnaer had over the humans. But, as of right now, none of that matters. What really mattered was killing Elnherjar, and from the looks of the battlefield and many people in it against him alone, it seemed as if nothing could even make this monster fall from the sky. He pondered to what other suggestions or plans can be used to even bring down the monster from the air. He thought that the sigil could work, but even that was considered useless against Elnherjar. Physicality couldn't even make him budge because of his size in weight. Even magic was out the question because of his rejuvenation with the moon light rays. Taking out the moon that massive size would be impossible, even with the use of magic. [/font]

[font=verdana, geneva, sans-serif]"[i]...that thing was supposed to end the war? He was weak enough that he had to transform into something much bigger and powerful." [/i]That was something most villains in majority of stories did when they saw themselves about to lose. They always had that one ace up their sleeve that would give them the better advantage. And the tree-like abomination was Elnaer's ace-in-the-hole, now currently known as Elnherjar. Silver leaves were everywhere at this time, and it seemed that Elnherjar targeted the people that proved to him to be a more greater threat to him, even Tavair himself. [i]You would stoop to low grounds to even kill your own blood.[/i] Tavair had thoughts to himself about Elnherjar. As of right now, Elnherjar was not considered family to Tavair. He was not even worthy of being called a cousin. He wanted to declare war on the humans, but now he's fighting both sides, humans and vampires. Hardly enough, Tavair was probably the only vampire fighting along side the humans as of right now. If there were others, he probably never saw them as he paid much attention between his cousins. The tree itself was surrounded by a bunch of silver leaves that even one impale could mean death. But, there were no other chances. Everyone had to go all out, once and for all.[/font]

[i][font=verdana, geneva, sans-serif]"[i]I'm going to enjoy this.[/i]" [/font][/i][font=verdana, geneva, sans-serif]Tavair said with that smirk upon his face. It was time for him to get Elnherjar's attention once again to him and away from others. What good of a way to get the treeapocalypse's attention that hitting him directly with not just a kick like last time, but with a sword. Tavair was probably the only person - fighting Elnherjar - that harnessed no magical prowess whatsoever. Tavair was all physicality, both with fists, kicks, and his sword. He held the scabbard in his right hand. With a swift swipe of his left arm motioning to the handle of the sword, he drew his sword from the scabbard. He thought that a real warrior only fights with his body and weapons, not with the use of energy coursing in his/her blood. He stood by that saying, even today. He was a master of Iaidojutsu, drawing style. He watched as some female was attacking Elnherjar also. He wanted to at least help out with the assault and buy the others some time in order to figure out something since Tavair was never a fan of pure magic. Jumping into much greater heights, he leaped over castle ruins until Elnherjar got closer to him. It seemed many others were fighting as well, but nothing was working against Elnherjar, until he saw the female hacking at the tree and then suddenly split into 5. Time for a few slashing attempts himself. But, he would have to be careful because each of the same female would be trying to hack down the branches. On another note, silver leaves were orbiting around Elnherjar, giving him a slightly good defense and offense if he wanted to use them as projectiles. [/font]

[font=verdana, geneva, sans-serif]Elnherjar was being a very versatile being, and it gave Tavair a hard time.[/font][i][font=verdana, geneva, sans-serif] "...[/font][/i]" [font=verdana,geneva,sans-serif]No words were being said by the vampire. Complete silence filled his mouth as he was thinking.[/font][/size]

[Merci]

If anything, this thing could no longer be called Lord Elnaer anymore. Its will had faded so much that it was even defying the Vampire Lord's wish by also targeting vampires. By now, the desire to 'destroy only humans' had faded into nothingness, and the tiniest ounce left had been completely obliterated by Alexi. There was nothing, nothing, nothing left but the all-powerful Elnherjar wishing for something as simple as the end of all life. Even though the moon was blocked by some cloud, its wish will never end.

A human, an enemy began to approach, bypassing its defense ring and landing upon its bark, and started defying the laws of ordinary physics with such extreme super-speed that it could sense her in five locations almost simultaneously as she hacked off its leafless branches. With each and every fallen branch, Elnherjar cried out in a high-pitched alien tone. Each and every silver leaf it sent at the human was evaded easily, and it only ended up lodging its own projectiles into itself momentarily.

Finally, one of the silver leaves managed to stab Clarice in the ankle, and Elnherjar instantly held her in place with telekinesis, like a rat trapped. The only thing it had control over were the extensions of its own body, so the silver leaf gave it access to her own body. If it had an actual mind, it could've used this to its advantage, but it didn't. Without hesitation, the treepocalypse picked her off into the air, before letting her fall back down into the castle ruins.

[size=8][color=darkred]DIEIDIEDDEIDIDEIDEIDEIDDIE[/color][/size]

Although the stormcloud covered the majority of the moon, there were still tiny bits of moonlight around it, and Elnherjar focused on collecting them. The process was much slower and not enough to be effective, but slowly it began to restore its branches and lost silver leaves. Whenever one of its leaves missed their targets, instead of staying down they flew back upward to return to the ring, and it began to collect all the other leaves it had scattered over the castle grounds over the course of the past hour. Slowly, the ring began to thicken.

[Gαr]

With Adrian's new trick of swordsurfing, Ed was gonna have a great amount difficulty fighting. Narrowly dodging his own black flame ice dragon, he become annoyed and angry at Adrian's joke about straining his own blood. Ed got into a crouch and then launched himself over his passing by dragon towards Adrian. Ed cocked his left arm back and proceeded to land a punch square in Adrian's face. The force behind the punch was enough to push him back a small distance, but he still remained balanced on his swords. Despite having accepted his hybrid blood, he still hated people knowing it. Very few people knew of it and when any spoke of it without his permission, Ed would get angry. [i]Very[/i] angry. While still airborne, he smiled an insane smile of hatred and angry and said, [color=#800000]"Wanna find out? From now on, we don't try to kill each other, we try to make each other cut each other before we bleed out!"[/color]

Ed landed on his feet and mentally called his dragon towards him, or at least tried to since he limited control. It made wide turn and shot towards Ed. When it was a few meters from him, the black dragon burst in into black flames as if it collided with an invisible wall. The vertical sea of black, cold flames began to compressed into eight vague shapes. They descended upon Ed and surrounded him while they continued to compress down. They finally took shape of solid, black swords, similar Ed's and fell into a slow rhythm around him. Ed jumped towards Adrian again, but also propelled himself by using black flames as thrusters on his feet. [color=#800000]"Now, you're not the only one that can fly." [/color]

They clashed swords dead on that gave off a loud and resonating clang. The sound echoed around the room and hung in the for a short moment. Adrian was a little upset that he was not the only one that could fly anymore. [color=#800000]"Why don't you get the rest of swords so this a little more even." [/color]Adrian did so and they both stepped away from each other. They then proceeded to cross swords again. They each found openings in each others defenses, though Adrian was having a little harder time since Ed had more swords. Despite that, he still gave Ed just as much cuts, slices, and slashes as Ed did to him. They airborne clash was moving all over the room and there wasn't a spot where they're blood hasn't touched, though it mostly gravitated towards the center.

After they pushed each away when they interlocked swords, Ed took this opportune moment to counterattack. He lined up three words parallel to each other in front of him. He then went to hit the swords simultaneously near their tips. The swords went up in a single violent movement cutting three distinct lines on Adrian's chest. The reason Ed's sword did freeze, as well as Adrian's wounds, was because the swords weren't made of black flames, but ice. The swords were solid constructs, drawing power from the black flames that made them.

[Piercer of the Heavens]

"I wont leave" Luis screamed back at Alexi. "I don't know what you're doing, but the least I can do it protect you." Luis then stood close to Alexi and began deflecting any and all attacks that the tree sent their way. Some of course were harder to block than others, but Luis still managed. After a few seconds of defending Alexi touched the sigil, only to cause a very dangerous situation. Elnherjar then began to get destroyed, but it wasn't finished off. "Luis flew up only a few inches, because he didn't know if he would be affected by the sigil. Once the destruction was complete Elnherjar was still floating, but he was much smaller now. Both Alexi and Luis were now in freefall, and Alexi seemed week. "You caught me once, it's my turn to catch you."

Luis threw his lance and shield down, to land on the castle. he then grabbed Alexi by both hands, since his wings would obstruct most ways of normally grabbing Alexi. Once Luis was holding Alexi he ruched to the castle, slowly putting Alexi on the floor, not knowing id he was still conscious. He the looked up only to see clouds beginning to cover the moon. "If I remember correctly, that a good thing for us." he said to himself. Then Elnherjar released most of its leaves, which were silver now, and they began covering it. This protected him from most attacks, that is until it was attacked by a barrage of weapons. Some were sizes that Luis didn't think possible. After the warriors still continued to fight.

Luis couldn't leave though, since many of Elnherjar attacks were still focused on Alexi. "I have to protect him, but I can't just stay here." He said with a slight tone of anger. After a few more attack deflections he decided to stay and protect Alexi on the castle, until he could fight again.

[Asriel Dreemurr]

Alexi had been thoroughly drained from his attempts at redirecting the sheer amount of mana that had coursed through his body, and had only the greater conductivity of his artificial body to thank for being alive. All the same, half-conscious he fell straight down from where he had been standing and just as he passed into the dark void that was the state of being knocked out he noticed that there was wood shooting up around him. His eyes closed, and the knowledge hit him that he might as well have failed at that point in time. Unbeknownst to him, Luis had grabbed his body just as consciousness left it and pulled it away to safety.

He awakened in a surprisingly peaceful location. He was laid out on his back and looking up at a slightly overcast sky and what looked to be snowflakes raining down around him. His first thought was how shiny these snowflakes were, and then he realized that these were not snowflakes at all. Taking hold of one of them in his pale-skinned hand he brought it to his face to examine.

"Silver leaves...wait a second!" He bolted up into a seated position and looked over his hands again. What he saw startled him. They were not Iron Dragon's hands, they were HIS hands. He began quickly touching his face, and found that his body really seemed to be flesh. "Am...am I dead? No, this certainly doesn't look like the realm of the dead." As far as the eye could see he was surrounded by trees bearing leaves of silver, and then he remembered his last conscious thought. "A reality marble...Well...this could explain how the death sigil didn't finish the thing off." He sighed, and began walking off into the forest with a single intention. He meant to find any sort of way to kill this thing from the inside that he could, and as such he would travel towards whatever he sensed as the largest collection of mana within this artificial reality. "I wonder, though, if my body is actually trapped in the tree itself." To anyone else who happened to be within this thing, he would appear as Doctor Alexi Sa'Lien did in life, lab coat and everything.

[Merci]

Somewhere, in an unknown place, in a compressed space deep within Elnherjar, there was a silvery forest that stretched for all eternity. It was nighttime, and a crimson moon hung in the sky. There were no stars with it. Nobody else seemed to be around, but the serenity and quietness of this ominous place was remarkable. The only signs of life were the trees and plants, tiny roses with silver stems mostly positioned near the trees as if afraid they'd get trampled upon.

Somewhere deep in that forest, a little boy ran about laughing, chatting nonsense with the plants. He looked as if he were having the time of his life. He had pale skin, black hair, and red eyes, dressed in royal clothes fit for a young crown prince. This place was his own personal garden, or paradise. Whatever it was, he really was happy, even though he was estranged from his own kingdom, family, servants, and everyone else.

[color=darkred]"My stupid papa and mama will be looking for me soon, so I have to hide."[/color] He whispered to one of the flowers, with a slight tone of worry.

He hid behind one of the trees and began to wait. A few minutes passed by quietly, before he heard light footsteps coming closer and closer. Most likely, it was one of the royal guards sent to go looking for him. He continued to wait until the figure was within his range, and then pounced out. An energy ball materialized with remarkable speed in his hand, and he fired it right at the guard, but the man evaded it, and the ball flew deeper into the forest before exploding harmlessly. It was just an ordinary orb of light.

[color=darkred]"...Ah."[/color] The young boy cursed to himself, having failed to distract the dragon-armored guard with it, before running as fast as he could in the other direction.

[Love of Ghibli]

"Oh look more swords and they have fire powers now too." Adrian said as he was clashing all of his floating blades with this boys floating fire blades. It was odd that this half breed paralleled his full powerness. Though it wasn't as honorable as he had wanted with all of the flying iceness and now fiery blades of doomness this wasn't a fight between swordsmen it was more of fight between the elements and psychopath. Though that was fun in a way. Adrian didn't feel the same life threatening psychosis he did in his battle with black evil it was more like a what will he do next adventure that seemed to stretch out of nowhere. Adrian kept trying newer and more advanced sword techniques but the fact that the kid could just spam flying swords was getting taxing. After a series of acrobatic near misses and sword clashes Adrian had stepped back for a second. He notice the large amounts of wounds that he and the boy inflicted on each other. Like the boy suggested who would bleed out first.

As blood flows down his arms and abs Adrian rolls his eyes and thinks about possible counter attacks for this kid. "Well I guess its time to think out of the box." He laid two of his swords with the hilts connected to each other and he began to spin them in his mind like helicopter blades. Then he laughed as jumped on the blades and began to rapidly spin as well. 3, 2, 1...LET IT RIP! He exclaimed as he launched himself like a spinning top directly at Ed. The increased speed and velocity of his attack was so fast that he torn through the young swordsman's defenses and he ended up launching young Ed in the air. He made himself stop and was laughing at the fact that he wasn't even dizzy. "Well that was pretty fun. I wonder what else I can do?" Adrian snickered as Ed did a recovery roll to escape hitting the floor with that attack. It was almost as if the boy wasn't just slashed within by a blade tornado.

Adrian began to run at the young lad telekentically shooting blades at him but that was just the distraction as the young smart samurai deflected them with his own icy constructs. But that was the plan Adrian smirked as he used the clashing blades as a platform to propel himself at the boy with amazing speed. It was quite entertaining to say the least making up some new moves on the fly like this. They say necessity is the mother of invention and that clearly had some validity to it. He was like his own pinball as he bounced all around the battle ground. Eventually he ended with a power slide that came right below Ed. Which could only mean one thing. Kick to the genitals! Similar to the tiajutsu based ninja in Naruto Adrian launched his opponent into the air with a vicious kick and then he proceed to go into an assault that ended with a falcon drop through two floors of the castle. The combatants now found themselves in the castle distillery.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Clarice was having fun, trying to hack at this giant tree it didn't seem to be doing much but at least she drew its attention away from the others. She was clearly wondering why no one else was doing anything, but then she remembered they were men. Men weren't good for much. She was hacking away and effortlessly dodging defenses when one of the silver leaves got her in the ankle. And held her in place.[color=#ff8c00] AAAAAHHHHHH [/color]she said screaming in pain and she was quickly thrown into the air like a loose paper bag. As she was falling downward from the sky she looked to see that there was another swordsmen getting ready to engage the beast but unlike her he didn't seem to be able to get pass the silver leaf barrier that kept everyone at bay. She didn't have time to inquire as to what it could do because she was soon going to be squished in a matter of seconds. She opened a ripple to call forth a spear use it as a grappling hook...but wait she doesn't seem to have anything anymore. It was time to think fast as she increased her speed to its safety limit of mach 4 and the second she touched the side of the wall she started running down its almost effortlessly and instantaneously. When she stopped she was right in front of the tree once again on one knee. Running on an injured ankle is pretty hard even if it was at a super fast paste. She was lucky that she still had on her armored shoes because she could've had her feet completely severed from her body.

She looked around to wonder what she could do. Yes hacking at the beast was effective according to the screams but this did not prove to be a finite solution to a problem. She noticed that there was a cloud above the creature. Well clouds should be able to produce some form of lightning. But lightning is unpredictable so there must some way to help direct it an kill the tree. She looked around as it seems no one else was being particularly helpful at this moment and she rolled her eyes once again. Clearly showing that she had been absent of their first strings of attacks. During her view she notice her statue giant blades were still intact and that gave her an idea.

Slow getting herself to stand up right she took in a deep breathe and made off towards the mighty tree. She wasn't going to go for an attack she was just going to pick up a mace. Confident that the beast couldn't hit her at this speed of Mach 4 she grabbed the mace and made her way to the biggest blade she had in her arsenal which was lodged in a wall. Clarice then ran up the wall and smashed the area around the blade till the blade fell loose. Luckily with her advanced speed she was able to open one of her ripples and let the blade fall right in. It may have taken a while (30 sec.) but it got. Then Clarice made her way back to Elenear and started to run up the tree in a beeline. At this speed she was able to make it to the top before the drops of blood from her ankle wound flew off and landed on the tree. At the top she almost fell out in pain but she had to endure as she opened a ripple and shot the giant tree beast with a sword. A normal great oak would be split down the middle. Clarice was just hoping that she would be able to at least get the things stuck in the creature.

After her blade shot at the beast and jumped out of the way encase this lightning plan did work.

[Reinforce]

Lyon, still controlling the clouds above from his once again floating platform, yelled out to Niasa as she started to fall back down from saving him from the branches, "Thank-you, and yes, you were right." With the clouds going well, with very few gaps in them, Lyon looked over the fight below him, to see the newcomer vampire and Clarice continuously try to strike at the tree, before Clarice managed to jump up above it and slam a sword into the roots of the tree. With that there, he had another idea to go on, that should work as well as or better than his current one, so long as someone could direct it. Down around the tree, the elf was still circling around the tree on the last remaining stone statue, the griffin he had been riding at the start of his assault, and seeing that the elf was probably the only one who could control the natural phenomena he was planning on creating, he called down to Feredir, "Elf, I intend to try and create lightning in these storm clouds. If it works and the lightning strikes the sword in the top of the tree we could seriously damage this abomination. I have enough knowledge about how storms work and enough control over these clouds to generate the lightning, but I can't control the direction it will shoot. With who we have around us, you would be the most likely to be able to direct it to where it needs to go, so please, help me with this." With that said, Lyon started to heat up the molecules in the cloud, to get them moving and create the friction required to generate the sparks that would create lightning, all the while still struggling to control his platform and avoid just falling straight out of the sky in the middle of the process. WIth the process begun though, the lightning should start to generate by itself, and Lyon decided to bring his platform down to below the level of the sword in the tree, to try and prevent any stray bolt of lightning from frying him along with the tree.

[Asriel Dreemurr]

Now this was something the good doctor had not anticipated, suddenly being in the company of the vampire lord in his youth within this prison of sorts. Of course this actually made some sense, the less of his consciousness was involved in the control of this abomination the more it retreated inward to a more stable form. Elnaer had never truly been mentally sound, Alexi knew this fairly well, but he had certainly been more so in his youth and thus his consciousness, destabilized and trying to mend itself, had reformed as it had been when he was young. An idea came to his mind, and as the young vampire lord ran off he made to run after him.

"My lord," he cried out as he began to give chase, the white lab coat upon him billowing out behind, "my lord where are you going?" He doubted that the young one would respond, but all the same this would play into his favor. Existing purely as his own consciousness, Alexi could much more easily dictate and control the flow of mana around him if there were enough and he could most certainly tell that there was enough. This would make it all the easier to destroy whatever it was within this place that functioned as the core and, were he able to destroy or at least distract whatever form of consciousness had taken control of the beast long enough it was possible that any control it had would simply vanish and the tree would, hopefully, go back to being a tree. Whatever the case, he was certain that this remnant of Elnaer's consciousness would lead him in the right direction.

[Merci]

Time passed by, the vampire prince continued to run, and the crimson moon above continued to shine and providing the only light in the darkness. Overall, it gave everything an ominous feeling, as if it was covered in blood.

El didn't really recognize this man, so he must've been some sort of new guard. The guard yelled after him, but did he honestly expect the prince to give a reply? He wasn't coming back to the castle, not this time. He had finally managed to escape it after all this time, so he was going to explore this place for what it's worth. Back there, there were only useless servants and his stupid parents. Nobody ever understood him, what he wanted. Sometimes, he wished he had a brother or sister, since they would surely know how it felt to spend every single day being educated without ever being able to see the outside.

Suddenly, his foot caught on something and he tripped, his body stumbling down to the ground. [color=darkred]"Ouch..."[/color] He groaned, before getting up.

Looking down, El saw what had tripped him; very, very large roots. Looking up, he observed super-ginormous dark tree with a trunk as wide as a building, having bat-shaped silver leaves and stretching up high into the sky, being so high that he couldn't see the top, taller than skyscrapers. Directly above it was the crimson moon. If he climbed up to the very top, maybe he could end up being the very first to reach the moon. Maybe he could even live upon it or something.

Of course, if there really was a tree in Nuevida like this, it would've been noticed from hundreds of miles away, but the thought never occurred to him.

The young prince turned around to see the guard-scientist, still chasing after him. With a mischievous grin, El burst off the ground with amazing force, white energy underneath his shoes propelling him upward like a rocket. He spiraled in mid-air before catching onto a small-enough branch that his hand could hook around, high up into the air, and stuck out his tongue to Alexi.

[color=darkred]"HAH! Try to catch me now! YOU'LL NEVER!"[/color] He yelled tauntingly, before proceeding to climb even higher and higher, escaping from the guard.

[Asriel Dreemurr]

Alexi smiled as Elnaer had lead him to this particular tree amongst the forest and thus he immediately began pacing around it in an effort to survey it. Massive as it was, it took him quite a bit of time to circle it fully and thus he had a great deal of time to make plans concerning its destruction. Just from the cursory survey, he couldn't determine a single weak point on it and thus he decided that the best way to figure out its weakness was to throw something at it and see what happened.

He quickly discovered that, despite wearing his lab coat, in this form of his consciousness he was carrying a weapon very familiar to him. It was his officer's sabre, a weapon in the use of which he had never been surpassed during his military career. Now was not quite the time to pull out a sword, but rather to utilize his library of magical knowledge in this battle. He wasn't certain exactly how magic would work in this place, but he could certainly feel a great deal of mana available for him to access and he intended to do so.

It was true that many mages enjoyed using incantations, but Alexi preferred the direct imposition of ones will upon the energies at their disposal. This being the case, he called to mind a spell which, now that he thought about it, probably had some level of influence upon the sorts of breath weapons he could access in his new body. A ball of mana quickly coalesced in either of his hands, and soon he brought the two of them together to make a larger ball of mana.

Thinking that he might as well start with a known point of vulnerability with trees, he flung his hands out in front of him in such a way as to aim them towards the portion of the trunk nearest the roots. The intention of this spell was to produce a constant stream of acid which would contact the bark and, hopefully, begin eating away at it in mere moments. Of course there was no real way for him to know what magic was going to do while he was inside the conscious of Elnherjar.

[Merci]

As soon as the spell hit the tree trunk- no, as soon as it flowed out of Alexi's spiritual body, every last ounce of mana disappeared, having been absorbed by the environment effortlessly. Although he could move about, he had to remember that he was inside Elnherjar itself, not on a physical plane of existence. Therefore, any spell he cast that separated from his own person would be instantly absorbed as mana. The only reason it hadn't latched onto Alexi's body directly was because his mana was contained within him, shielded by his alien consciousness that it could never hope to understand.

If he wanted to hurt the tree, he would have to find a real axe - and not one held together or reinforced by magic - somewhere and chop it off. But being in this empty world, there was no way he would ever find one. It was a hopeless situation.

Suddenly, a small shoe fell from the skies and hit the ground near him, breaking in the process. It had been of an elegant, royal style that would fit El's foot nicely...and indeed, it was his shoe, having dropped from high up that silver tree.

Something had happened.

[ListenToLife]

So much was happening. So little time to react. Even the elf was getting lost in this skirmish, a battle that was soon becoming a war Elnaer's madness had already caused the destruction of Nuevida, and it seemed set on destroying the world now. The hatred that emanated from the creature was immense, and every scream of "DIE!" that was flung towards them was like a barrage of missiles. Feredir's stone army had been wiped out, though it seemed to have provided a perfect distraction, and now the tree itself had shrunken inside, trapped underneath a layer of clouds, limiting its mana imput.

 

Sadly, however, the barrage of attacks that were assaulting the tree - specifically the use of a forbidden magic, presumably used by Alexi - resulted in desperation from the once-Elnaer. It was panicking, and was much more dangerous now. It was now controlling its powers, rather than randomly attacking, and enveloped itself in a ring of silver leaves to defend itself, just as Feredir was about to fire his last arrow at the tree's trunk, nearly finishing his own, self developed enchantment. But alas, he had other things to do. It seemed that while he had been preparing his own last resort, everyone else had their own ideas of how to fight.

 

Some human women had appeared from nowhere and used an impressive magic to summon a barrage of weaponry to dispell most of the shield, offering a giant blade as a lightningrod to attract lightning towards the tree. At the same time, as if their thoughts were as one, the man controlling the clouds started to coelesce his mana into charging the water particles, slowly heating up the air around the clouds. They were going to create a thunderstorm.

 

But of course, they needed someone to guide such a task. They were fighting at much too high an elevation to be sure it would be attracted to Elnaer. And as such, Feredir was flying up to the clouds just as Lyon called for his support, aware of the plan before it was relayed to him. "Just call for aid and I shall answer." He cried, before slowly standing himself up on the back of his stone griffon, raising himself higher just as Lyon was making himself lower; making it so that Lightning would strike him, rather than avoiding such a fate.

 

"Lightning, Fire of the Skies! Obey my call!" Feredir shouted, his Elven voice echoing around him. As he spoke, a flash erupted around the clouds, and the roll of thunder came following after. The storm was starting. "Heed my words and follow my commands!" The flashes were brighter now, and the rumbling was closer. Even as he spoke, a small spark came down next to the Elf, but he was unfazed. He chanted for but a few more moments, speaking more words in the elven tongue, before reaching his hands for the sky. As he finished, a large lightning bolt came crashing down, as if a combination of tens of bolts, and struck Feredir, shattering the statue beneath him as he slowly pointed his arm towards the sword on Elnaer's back.

 

"My target.....is there." He whispered, and the lightning moved around him following his arm towards the sword on the back of Elnaer, leaving Feredir to fall.

He sighed to himself for a moment, before grabbing the last arrow in his quiver and muttering to it in Elven, and firing it towards the tree. Were the Lightning to fail, he was sure that the sealing spell he had placed in that arrow would be enough. All it needed was the energy provided by the lightning to activate, and each of the 30 arrows stabbed in a circle around the tree would create a large seal, trapping the tree's ability to absorb mana, and making it a much easier target.

 

But for now, he merely closed his eyes, his burnt cape whipping around him as he fell from a few hundred feet up.

[Reinforce]

Lyon, still struggling to control the clouds, saw that the elf had accomplished what Lyon wasn't capable of, the lightning had indeed been guided to strike the sword. With his own mana nearly run out, Lyon gave one final command into the clouds, to let there be rain. With the rain that would emerge from the clouds, he could access enough water to do what he needed to. Letting his own platform go, Lyon fell off, falling through air at the same speed as the elf who was just ahead of him.

 

With the rain falling around him, and the elf falling nearby, Lyon reached into the water, pulling mana out of the very bottom of his own magical supply to control it for one last move. Using the water, he created a sort of wrap of water around the elf's body and legs, connected by a stream of water to Lyon's right hand. In his left hand, Lyon brought more water together to create a sort of sphere of water, similar to the smaller ones he usually threw around, but connected by another stream of water to Lyon's hand. With this, he could make use of his own momentum along with that of the water to temporarily prevent the motion of the elf's body through the water around him. As well as that, he was using the water in his other hand to hopefully create enough of an upwards force when it exploded on impact with the ground to cushion his own landing. How well it worked would be up to his timing and chance, but with the right timed twist, i.e. when the elf was just above the ground,  he should manage to prevent them both from having an untimely demise on the ground so far away.

 

The time for thinking about it was over, he was watching the ground and the falling elf angled just below him, preparing, before he yanked as the elf reached a metre above the ground, twisting his body and moving everything into position. The first part worked, the elf was brought to a hopefully not too violent stop, and the sphere impacted the ground. With the explosion from that, he could no longer tell what was happening, the shock from the onrush of water made him lose conciousness, for how long though would remain to be seen.

[Merci]

Over a hundred thousand times faster than the silver leaves could protect it, lightning struck the gigantic creature and the roll of thunder echoed throughout all of Nuevida. It hadn't managed to get the gigantic sword stuck inside out of it out in time, and as a result a huge amount of damage had been wrought directly upon it. Dozens of burnt branches and roots fell to the castle ruins below, but even with all this damage it could regenerate, at the cost of its mana. All the damage wrought to it, it began to fix, but at the cost of cutting its own size even more.

By the time it was done repairing its damage, it was only 1/10th its original size, and it found that a sealing spell had been cast, blocking it from absorbing any more mana from the air and from what little moonlight managed to penetrate the stormclouds. There was nothing left to keep it rooted to the sky.

12:10 AM

As Lyon and Feredir fell, so too did Elnherjar. The large - no longer so gigantic anymore, now only thrice as large as an elephant - hit the ruins, and its branches and twigs made it bounce off the ruins and into the castle grounds, as if like an irregular golf ball. It hit the ground on its...branches or roots? - its branches and roots were almost indistinguishable from each other at this point. The disk of silver leaves around it continued to fly around it, but slower and even more hesitant. As it could no longer absorb mana from the air, there was only one option left.

Its roots, having hit the lower end by sheer luck, began to dig into the ground and absorb the nutrients within. The rain that Lyon had created was natural enough for it to absorb, but the downside to this was that it could no longer absorb mana and gain extremely fast growth. Now it would take several days for it to regain its original size, instead of just a few minutes.

Now Elnherjar was nothing more than an ordinary killer tree that could easily be killed-

Its ring of silver leaves - having been thickening for the past few minutes - suddenly spread out en masse and swept the city.

As

if

in

a

desperate

attempt

to

kill

everything.

To

die

---------------

Hundreds of soldiers around the castle, royal and rebel alike, had their bodies penetrated by silver leaves. Depending on their position, they either managed to survive it or was killed quickly. Only several dozen managed to evade them, and mostly by luck. Tons of housings in Nuevida were damaged and several the closest of which heavily so, but of course by that point a large majority of the capital city had been evacuated. There was no way the citizens would just sit still while an eldritch abomination in the sky tried to kill everything.

However, there were a few that had remained - for whatever reason, be they suicidal, old, love their house too much to leave it, stubbornly believe they won't die, or were still in bed sleeping through the whole matter. The lattermost held the majority. These people were all struck down, in their homes.

Aro managed to escape the silver leaves by dropping to the ground, where the unconscious Niasa von Mira was also safe and sound. The same couldn't be said for Commander Ptonemely, who found a large hole in his stomach formed by silver leaves that ripped through it. As it had only been one wide and powerful wave, Aro quickly got back up and helped support him.

"Commander!!! Come on, you can't die!" He yelled at his commander.

"......Aro." The commander only smiled back.

His face wincing, he reached into his pocket and took out a knife - one that appeared ancient and yet at the same time brand new. Like a relic that had consistently been kept in condition for thousands of years, its sharpness preserved.

"You have loyally served by our side, never questioning your orders and always fulfilling your duty saved the princess's life, whereupon I or anyone else could not.... Unlike many others, you are of brave heart and selfless......" He coughed out blood, but shook his head and put the knife into Aro's free hand. "...this is the...proof of a true royal guard, from the time of dark elves..."

"Commander?! You have to make it, commander! Please!"

"Keep that knife... It is yours now, Aro Volterriar."

"Commander...? COMMANDER!!!!!!"

--------------

Nearby, Alsa watched the sad scene as it unfolded as well as many others scattered about the battlefield, before looking at Elnherjar. It had rooted itself right before him, another ring of silver leaves forming that it was no doubt planning to fire for a second and final attack that would wipe out all life in the surrounding area, faster than the evacuees could evacuate. It didn't want to give up.

With blood, a bat hates all.

His brother had hated many things and was insane in many ways, but there were still things he held onto. The future of the vampire race and of the royal family, the condition of the world Lath...unlike this thing that could no longer distinguish between vampire and human, this bat that hated all for no true reason than because that was all it had left. This tree was no longer Lord Elnaer, and with blood, it hated all.

Elnherjar was undefeatable. From the very beginning, it had been capable of wiping out all life on the planet but chose not to in favor of concentrating on the current pesks. From the very beginning, it hadn't expected anything to put up a fight, but the combined efforts of them all had brought it down to this. If it couldn't take the world, then it was going to take as much as it was able to with it - it didn't have a reason anymore.

The more desperate it became, the more destructive it would be. Hundreds had already fallen, and tens of thousands were about to be taken in its next attack.

It had to be stopped. Now. Before this continued.

-----

Suddenly, all the trees around Alexi found themselves 'deleted' as if being sacrificed for Elnherjar's mana, leaving only a silver grassland and the tallest tree of them all still reaching out into the sky, stretching all the way towards the shining crimson moon above that gave everything their ominous red light.

Come up here, El's voice beckoned telepathically, strangely enough.

[Love of Ghibli]

It just got real! The combined efforts of the team of dogooders was enough to severely damage the tree beast. Clarice watched as the beast shrunk down to a fraction of the size it was before. The aura of death had surrounded it. This monstrosity was ready to be killed. She stood up and looked at the beast with her murderous intent. As if the lion had spotted a wounded Gazelle. It was feeding time. She stood up trying not to put much weight on her injured ankle and decided the best manner of killing the thing. It was going to be hard though. Even though a massive amount of damage was dealt to the creature it still was a potentially deadly beast that was destroying the world, except she didn't know about the destroying the world part. She decided that doing anything other than the absolute most would be insulting both her and this thing she was about to unleash her fury upon.

 

She picked up a sword and aimed it in thrusting position. Her stance was firm and solid because she needed immense focus to not mess this up. She took a deep inhale and for a brief second her eyes went totally black. Then she seemed to vanish from site. Within the same second as her disappearance the sword she had was logged into Elnherjar's tree like side. It had happened, the legendary Black Lightning was moving at the speed of lightning and this was not hyperbole she was moving at roughly 87,000 miles per second. She would simple attack the tree run back pick-up a sword and repeat this process over and over till she every sword she had was stuck inside that beast.

[Asriel Dreemurr]

Two things caught Alexi's attention there within the reality marble which made up Elnherjar's consciousness.  Well, three counting that he couldn't use magic in it.  The first was the young prince's shoe falling to the ground, but that was hardly worth noticing since young as his consciousness had reverted to it only made sense that he should be careless.  The truly startling event was the sudden "deletion" of the trees which made up the forest around him.  The good doctor let his gaze sweep across the suddenly barren landscape, and he knew that whatever was happening was certainly not good and that he needed to find some way to free his own mind from this prison. 

 

"Come up here."  The command echoed through his mind.  Telepathy within ones own conscious, that was certainly something worth examining.  While he had no intention of obeying the command, his curiosity did get the better of him and as such he turned his gaze up towards where Elnaer had been.

 

"And why should I come up there?"

[Merci]

[i]Because, oh wise Doctor Sa'Lien, your existence will dissolve into a mana form like those trees if you stay down there,[/i] the voice replied, strangely knowledgeable for such a childish voice. [i]Unless you want to become one with Lath's manasphere for the next two thousand years, I suggest you come up here.[/i] As if to demonstrate this, the ground around Alexi began to hollow out and thin, disappearing around him and coming ever so closer to his feet...

 

----

 

More and more blades were stuck into Elnherjar, a human figure stabbing each one into it and moving away again at the ridiculous speed of lightning, going much faster than it could react. It screamed nonsense into her head and blindly threw silver leaves at her during her path, but they all failed to stop her. Eventually, after she was done sticking all the pins into its tree body, it decided that the only thing it could really do to stop her was to neutralize her as a threat.

 

[color=darkred]Die.[/color]

 

Taking out more mana from its emergency reserve (otherwise known as that mystery-silver-forest reality marble), it repaired all the damage and took out all the swords with telekinesis, before mashing them up together with extremely powerful force, blending together the metal alloys to create something that looked like metal melted over a sharp surface, the largest points belonging to the giant weapons being the only ones visible. Needless to say, it launched this sharp 'mashup' at Clarice. She was never going to get her weapons back in full form, but on the bright side, if she survived it, at least she would get a lot of scrap metal.

[Piercer of the Heavens]

Although all the other brave warriors were fighting till the end all Luis could do as of now was watch. He chose to protect a friend, one that seemed to be dreaming at the moment. How did Luis know this, well even though Alexi's eyelids were closed, his eyeballs kept looking around. "I chose to protect you, but I want to help to." For a moment already the tree had stopped attacking Alexi, maybe because it thought he was dead. "I'm sorry, but I must help them." Luis said out loud looking at the unconscious Alexi. "But don't think that I'm going to abandon you." Luis picked up Alexi's body and placed it by some rubble, away from the tree's view. He then placed his shield on top of Alexi, which then proceeded to glow. "This shield should protect you from any attacks." 

 

With that Luis turned back to the battlefield. He noticed a blur that kept rushing all around the battlefield, each time it moved to a different place a new weapon was stuck into the bark of the tree. "Incredible." Luis said in amazement when he realized that it was a person. "Who ever that is, I'm glad they're on our side." Luis then saw that all the weapons that were lodged into the tree began to gather in one place. "This could be trouble." He said as he began to fly toward the floating metal. Before he reached it   Elnherjar shot the mashup of weapons. Its target was the warrior that was moving at incredible speeds. Luis decided to intercept, how you ask. He flew straight at it with his lance in front of him. A collision was going to happen between Luis and the melted metal. They came closer and closer until they collided. Luis' lance was sharp and managed to split the melted metal in half. The two pieces still continued on their trajectory, but now split neither would hit its target. 

 

Luis didn't stop though, he continued his flight, but this time his target was Elnherjar. He continued toward it until finally reaching it. Luis' momentum allowed him to stab his lance all the way into the tree. "This lance can banish evil, of course you should know that. It can't destroy you though, but if it works like last time it can at least weaken you!" Luis then kicked off the tree and began to slowly fly to the ground, leaving his lance lodged into the tree.

[Gαr]

After Adrian's apparent vicious assault, they ended up in the distillery. "I find this rather ironic. You wanted to strain my blood, then we destroy two floors, and find ourselves here. Huh, go figure." After Ed's little monologue, they got back to fighting and spilling each others blood. They subconsciously and unknowingly destroyed whatever got in their way, including rubble from the above floors, while they were crossing blades. Eventually, they cleared away a circle big enough for them to fight uninhibitedly. Their little circle was cover in a mix of each others as well as some of the outside of the circle. In one large clash of blades, the force behind each others blows was enough to push them back a few feet.

 

Ed's sword was still ringing as him and Adrian were sizing each other up by walking in a slow circle. When Ed's sword stopped ringing, he got an idea. He sent his floating ice constructs into the air in a the shape of a circle. He released his swords from his control other than keeping them from dissipating and let gravity do its work. The swords fell into the ground around the outside of their circle, meant to keep them inside it. Ed encouraged Adrian to relinquish all of his swords except for one and put them in the circle of swords like Ed did with his. "I think you get the gist of what I want. One on one, no tricks, all swords, just like our first fight. Now, lets dance!"

 

They both took up formal swordsman stances and prepared to engage each other. Ed wanted to get the first strike, but Adrian countered and went on the offensive. He attacked Ed with a random pattern of stabs and slashes. Ed deflected them all since they both have been in this kind of fight a thousand times over making this just as easy breathing for them. Adrian went for a downward slash, and Ed deflected it quickly, yet forcefully, which surprised Adrian. Taking full advantage, Ed charged in. He was able to get several cuts in as well as a cut above Adrian's left eye. Recovering from his momentary lapse of judgement, Adrian took control yet again. Adrian wanted to make Ed pay for giving a cut above his eye, knowing it would be a disadvantage for Adrian. He lunge forward aiming for Ed's stomach, and Ed stepped to the side, but Adrian was able to cut the flesh of his side, leaving a rather large cut.

 

Surprised at the sudden pain in his side, Ed retreated to quickly examine his wounded. Seeing how large it was, Ed needed to defend that side, but Adrian took advantage of his wound. He focused on the wound, knowing Ed would have a hard defending it, despite having a new found tolerance for pain. They looked swords and were at a stalemate at that moment. But Adrian pushed forward making Ed stumble from the sudden force. Adrian then tripped him onto the ground, and stabbed him in the stomach. Ed coughed blood and cringed his face as Adrian twisted his sword around. Then, Ed smiled with blood dripping from his mouth, much to the surprise of Adrian. "You're not the only one with a sword in his chest." Ed quickly gripped his sword once again and stabbed Adrian in his stomach. He fell over onto his side, next to Ed. "Now, we wait to see who bleeds out first." They laid there smiling and weakly laughing at there defeat to each other as they slowly bled out, though it wouldn't be noticeable since the ground was already covered in blood.

[Asriel Dreemurr]

"Well, when you put it that way."  The doctor sighed, most certainly not wanting to climb the tree but at the same time wanting far less to be involved in the process of mana returning to the earth.  A quick leap brought him up to grab hold of one of the lower branches of the tree and from there hauling himself up to stand on the thicker portion of it was a simple matter.  Still, he continued to climb until he was on the same level as Elnaer.  A hand moved to grip the hilt of the saber that had formed with him, considering he knew how likely it was for the vampire lord to attack him.

 

"So, since you seem to know so much, what happens now?"

[Merci]

[b]12:07[/b]

 

Once again, the same lance as a few hours earlier stuck itself into the bark of Elnherjar, its evil-banishing properties immediately halting all activity. But unlike last time, the tree abomination had grown much weaker over the course of the battle and thus its ring of silver leaves began to slow its orbit. At this point, the creature could no longer form words and thus could no longer express its hatred for all life with them. However, that didn’t change the fact that it hated them. It had lost its reasons, but it hated everything.

 

It only wished for everything to die. Was that not so simple?

 

Annoyed with the spear within it, the leaves began to move in a frenzy, much slower than usual but still fast. Then, in a sudden burst of energy, the ring shot upward and shot through the stormclouds above, each and every leaf turning into a beam of energy each of which tore through the atmosphere high above in the air.

 

The full moon was returning with each attack that penetrated through the black clouds, and while Feredir’s spell would temporarily block it off from regenerating, Elnherjar would be able to effortlessly break through that within the next ten minutes and attain the moon’s power once more.

 

-------

 

As the scientist climbed up, the bark of the tree began to morph into a bluer color, which signaled that it too was being converted into mana though at a much slower pace due to its massive size. Eventually, Alexi reached a hollow hole within the tree that appeared to be bigger on the inside than on the outside, and he climbed in just as the gigantic tree and everything else outside disapparated into energy.

 

 Within was a small, white room only as large as a classroom, and empty. Several blue bubbles of mana floated about in the air, and at the other end of the room stood Lord Elnear – the fully-grown form of the lord of vampires, and the one responsible for the gigantic mess that was Elnherjar.

 

[color=darkred]”You do realize, Sa’Lien, that armor you wield was my original plan of conquering the humans, to tip the balance and extinguish those apes once and for all,”[/color] he stated, and smiled faintly. The hopeless smile of a man who had failed at life. [color=darkred]”I never thought that your soul would transfer into the construct…the moment I realized that, of course I tried to destroy you. I needed a body without a soul...for me to inhabit.”[/color]

 

His gaze turning to the left, a screen flickered on. It displayed the battle outside, how it seemed as though despite everyone’s efforts, Elnherjar was winning.

 

[color=darkred]”Isn’t it ironic that I lost control over the next best thing; nature transformation? If you had stayed a soulless puppet, this could have all been avoided!”[/color]

 

With a flick of his hand, a broad vampiric sword from the ‘golden age of vampires’ materialized into it, stylized in crimson colors and with a hilt fashioned after a bat. He wasn’t able to use any of his massive energy attacks since he knew they would just dissolve, so the only thing left was swordplay.

 

[color=darkred]”You and I can never leave this place. Although,”[/color] Elnaer laughed out. [color=darkred]”If you die here, your released mana will be enough for this tree to destroy that elf’s spell… but if I die, Elnherjar shall be reduced to just a tree that lives on mana. ‘Tis your choice, doctor.”[/color]

 

Then the Vampire Lord attacked, swiftly moving across the white floor. He wasn’t particularly experienced, but he had been trained in the art of the blade to at least some extent, and could easily use strength and aggression to his advantage. The way each of his swings had force in them and how he never seemed to tire, parrying any of them would be difficult. Even so, he had the disadvantage of inexperience.

 

-----

 

Alexi and Niasa were unconscious, and many others were either dead or wearing out. Azami had disappeared away for some reason when they could really use her help.  Elnherjar was focusing on destroying the clouds with all its leaves, leaving it vulnerable to any all-out attack. Right now, if anybody could charge up an attack strong enough to obliterate it in its entirety, that should be enough. That was the only path to victory now, it seemed...but no one was capable of such a move. No one but him.

 

The prince of vampires glared at the tree abomination, holding its one seed in his hand. He had a hunch, and if he was right, that seed held a huge amount of mana that should be enough to destroy it - [i]all[/i] of it. But he would have to make a sacrifice - himself. This could easily fail, and the mere legend would fall. [color=red][i]A mere legend to rise or fall.[/i][/color] Would he rise or fall? These were strange thoughts, but he had to obey them.

 

There was no other choice.

 

Without letting another moment pass, Alsa held the bat-shaped seed up to his mouth and swallowed it.

[Merci]

Over the past century, vampire and human oracles have all foretold of one prophecy; a strange and short one which the forests whispered about for whatever reason. This prophecy foretold of a bat that hated all, of a legend to rise or fall, of the blessed to disperse from ‘fire’, and of a curse to be wrought about in its aftermath. But whatever it meant, all in all, Alsa von Mira had chosen this path of destruction.

 

By consuming a seed of chaos, with unpredictable results and and unforeseeable future, anything could happen. Such an event had never occurred in the history of...well, the universe. But undoubtedly, it would destroy him from the inside. He knew this. But it would also give enough enough mana, and hopefully he would be able to blow it all out in a single instant onto Elnherjar before it killed him.

 

After all, there wasn't much time left.

The clouds had now been wholly obliterated, the moonlight ominously shining back down on everyone. Fear and hopelessness crept into the hearts of the people, and Feredir’s spell was extremely close to breaking point – only several seconds left until the abomination became invincible again, and this time...if it regained its full power again, it wouldn’t underestimate them. It would decimate everything in sight. It would kill everyone, absolutely everyone in the world.

The prince began coughing on the seed he swallowed, clutching his neck and silently wondering if he was going to choke to death pointlessly. But then it stopped, giving him time to catch his breath-

All of a sudden, massive, unfamiliar power began to course through the prince’s body, the seed dissolving in with his body. A huge mass of mana erupted from within him, and with it came pain so intense that it threatened to destroy his entire existence. Wrapping up his fists and forcing himself to endure it, he let this power flow into his body regardless of the danger. Unlike a safe transfer, this mana tore through his veins and magic system, and Alsa let out a scream that echoed all around him.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

But he forced himself to focus. He had to channel this power into one attack, right now. If he didn’t, he would die right here in this very spot and become the very thing he had wanted to destroy. His eyes blurring, he knew that he had only ten seconds left until Feredir’s seal broke.

Ten….

A chilling force constricted around his mind, telling him to give in and not resist, telling him that he could become a god unlike any other. He didn’t know what this force was, but he had no desire to find out.

…Nine....

Still, it was winning. Despite putting up a ton of resistance, it penetrated through all his mental barriers with ease. The seed didn’t care who or what he was, all it wanted was to grow and destroy everything. It couldn’t be reasoned with, as it was a force of nature but with purpose.

……Eight....

Screaming out even further, he raised both of his arms forward at Elnherjar, its stature taunting him at his weakness. Blood rushed through his arms to straighten them firm, but the mana…

………..Seven…..........Six………………

It wouldn’t come, as if it had a life of its own. This lifelike mana was refusing to obey a being weaker than itself, especially a child such as him. It made no difference if he was a von Mira, if he was technically the seed’s uncle, it had a life of its own and refused to be used.

…………..........................….Five….………………...................…....Four…………………....

Elnherjar was beginning to shake violently, and a sound like shattering glass began to echo around him, a miniature earthquake shaking all around the castle, and each of Feredir’s arrows vibrating to an extreme extent, along with Luis’s lance. It wasn’t long now until it had the power of the moon once more.

…………………………………………………............................…….Three………………………………………....

His body held in its position like a statue, Alsa drifted out of consciousness.

---

He would never leave this place again. It took longer than it should have for that to sink in to the one commonly known as Iron Dragon. After all his achievements, he was going to disappear here. It was a shame. But if Elnaer’s words were correct, then it would take his death to stop Elnherjar.

Without a choice, the doctor dodged each and every one of the Vampire Lord’s attacks. Through Alexi’s experience in combat, he proved to be much more skilled, though the lord’s intense attacks were still decently fast and dangerous themselves, each blow intended to kill.

A couple of times he parried, but the force against his saber was so much that his bones felt like breaking. He narrowly avoided death each time he dodged another attack, but he couldn’t keep dodging forever. He would have to go on the offensive, but to do so was risky. Although, if he didn’t take this risk, he would doom all of Lath. This had to be done. After an intense few minutes in this strange place separated from reality, he accidentally let in an opening for Lord Elnaer to deal an attack from an inescapable angle–

The duel had ended.

Metal pierced through flesh, and the struck vampire coughed out blood, the family sword of the royal Mira family dropping onto the floor, before dissolving into mana.

”U- ugh...“

Lord Elnaer collapsed onto his knees, his royal regalia tarnished in his own blood as the saber of Alexi Sa’Lien protruded from the other side. Instead of dodging, the doctor had thrust straight forward, and in a stroke of luck succeeded in running his own sword through the man.

Clutching at his chest, he pulled the sword out of his chest and tossed it away. As he did, his knees gave way and he hit the ground on his back. Then, starting from his feet, his body began to slowly be enveloped within a bluish aura…signaling how he was being converted into mana.

”You know, doctor…I lied,” he admitted weakly, looking as if he wanted to burst into laughter – only he couldn’t due to the hole in his chest. ”You’ll return to your body shortly…….however...my death will only free the legend of Blood from the influence of mortals and evil, and It will DESTROY this planet all on its own!”

A chuckle of insanity escaped from his mouth, before he took on a more serious look, the mana conversion having gotten up to his chest. Several cracks formed on the room around them, and all the bubbles of mana burst.

”If you ever survive this ordeal, there’s just one thing you should know...” By now, all that was left was his head and neck.

”One day, the comet shall strike through like fire. Beware it.”

And so darkness enclosed Alexi, his mind returning back to his own body, safely hidden under rubble by Luis.

 

---

 

…….Two.......?

Alsa’s eyes suddenly opened again, the influence having disappeared. He felt like three years had passed since he drifted out. He didn’t know what exactly happened, but the mana was no longer resisting him. It was a gigantic amount, but he would have to unleash it all if he ever hoped to obliterate Elnherjar, and he didn’t have much time left. If he couldn’t destroy it within the next second, it would become unbeatable; his attack would have no greater effect than Alexi’s death spell.

Coursing everything through his arms, a large mass of mana formed in front of him. He had to pummel everything out instantaneously, and fast. There was no time for mistakes. In front of his arms pointed at Elnherjar, a huge orb of purple energy materialized, twice as large as the eye of a giant. Electrical sparks appeared around it, showing its sheer prowess. At its sight, everyone fighting Elnherjar scattered, as its force was easily seen.

His mind collapsed from the strain, but he kept on going.

One.

The prince’s body was shattering from controlling this much power. The pain was unbearable, but he had to bare it. If he unleashed this attack, he might be caught and killed within its ferocity. Whether he rose or fell from this battle, the end result would remain the same.

The spell shattered, and the treepocalyse was free to annihilate everything.

 

Alsa let go.

And so a super-colossal eruption of energy burst out in the night sky, at point-blank range. His eardrums shattered, and fire caught at his hands, while his veins were breaking down from all the forceful exertion.

The vampire prince’s two seconds of new consciousness drifted away, as did the world around him.
 

 

………………..……
SIX MONTHS LATER
………………………………

 
 
What was a 'Vampire Lord'?

 

A strange question, but consider it. Why not call them 'Vampire King', since the vampires were pretty much a monarchy? Well, there was a simple explanation for that. The definition of a King was ‘a person regarded as the most important thing in a group’, but on the other hand, a Lord meant ‘a peer’. The Vampire Lord was not meant to be a person whose rule was divine, but a peer who showed their own example to their people.

Lord Elnaer was not a tyrant per se, but a corrupter who made his people believe in his example; that vampires were the supreme race and humans were unwelcome on Lath. Because of his corruption, of his shaking the faith and tempting the doubts of the vampire race, it would be no easy task to restore to damage dealt within six months. The human race especially would need time to recover, after almost being driven to the point of extinction.

Alnasa von Mira – father to Elnaer, Niasa, and Alsa, as well as the previous Vampire Lord – was dead. Their mother had died several years earlier. But even then, there were many candidates to the throne. Though few had wished to appoint the long-lost Tavair, and others opted for the experienced mercenary Lyon, everyone preferred Niasa to become the next.

Repairs on Nuevida were cost-heavy, and Elnherjar had caused about a thousand deaths. Of the two hundred royal guards and six hundred rebels, only about one-fourth of both remained. The castle was still being reconstructed, and due to the damage dealt to it, it allowed a lot of space for redesigning.

One month ago, Niasa’s coronation took place…only to be canceled as the vampire princess clearly stated her true thoughts and intentions; that she wasn’t too confident in her own ability and that her younger brother was the one who truly deserved to be on the throne. Though reluctant, he accepted. Because of that, several minor changes had to be made, and now everything was ready…again.

Alsa smiled warmly as he walked through a crowd of people, parting before him. He was dressed in royal garments similar to his former brother, matching his red hair…which had been cut and tidied up, obviously. He was still young and had much to accomplish, but he was certain he could make the title ‘Vampire Lord’ a title of glory and hope, not bloodshed.

After the battle of Elnherjar, he had ended up in a coma for several weeks with a lot of internal injuries, and when he woke up…well, it hadn’t exactly been pleasant, but all his allies had been there to greet him. He would’ve never recovered back to full strength had it not been for the ancient knowledge Feredir and Alexi possessed. In total, he had spent four months in a hospital, and people always seemed to give him gifts, so much that he wasn’t sure what he was going to do with them all.

Everyone thought of him as the savior of the world, though he would’ve failed had it not been for Alexi unintentionally killing the influence that had been trying to corrupt the prince.

He needed to restore the alliance between vampire and human, to reunite the ideals of his own race and help the human race recover from the damage wrought upon by his brother.

Alsa von Mira stood before a crowded throne room, repaired and redesigned to give it an appearance of light and hope. There was no doubt in the minds of those closest to the future Lord that he would never be the same storytelling boy he used to be, but instead, a proud man intent on bringing peace to the world.

The young boy, soon to become a powerful leader with much to learn, stood before his people in his royal uniform. He knelt down in front of a single throne, the same throne upon which his brother and his father and many others before that had sat upon. Somehow, it had withstood the terror of Elnherjar. The collection of human blood hidden within had been found and disposed of.

The body of late John Alexander disappeared in the aftermath, but despite many searches for it, none had found any trace of the corpse. Some believe in hope that he had survived the battle and lived another day, but only Alexi knew of his true fate. Nevertheless, he was presumed dead and given a hero’s funeral, one week after the Battle of Nuevida.

The young vampire closed his eyes, still kneeling as an elegant fur-lined crimson cape was placed around him, the proof that made one a Vampire Lord, and a relic that had stayed fully intact for centuries – believed to be worn from the very first recorded lord; Lord Desectum. Elnaer had taken it off to undergo his transformation into a half-elf, and it too had withstood the destruction. There were no crowns in vampire royalty, only the heavy fur of the cape upon his shoulders.

With the crimson family sword of the Mira family (the same one that Elnaer had used in his swordfight), Alsa stood up from the ground over his subjects, and hoisted it into the air.

 

[center]”LONG LIVE LORD ALSA!” the assembled exclaimed.[/center]

 

Alsa’s coronation gave these people a newfound sense of hope, a new peer to look up to. He refused to let these people down.

 

----

 

Over the course of the next twenty years, he would continue to repair the alliance between vampire and human, securing violence with peace. With the wise elf Feredir by his side to prevent him from falling to wrong path, Alsa von Mira was considered a benevolent ruler. He led these people into a new age, and science had suddenly skyrocketed with the newly-forged alliance. He wasn’t perfect, not everything was all rainbows and butterflies, as he did have his flaws, and he did fail every now and then…but he was regarded as a great Lord of Vampires nevertheless.

Someday in the future, he would face his greatest challenge as ruler, but that day was not to be today.

And of course, Alsa’s story was not the only one to be told, for Lath was a world of many people and many stories, some told, and some untold. The lives of these people and of the vampire prince may intersect, or they may run parallel. Nevertheless, they lived.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Lath…

[Reinforce]

Amongst the aftermath of the Elnherjar's destruction, a couple of hours after passing out, Lyon groaned as he woke up, still exausted but with some of his magic restored from the rest. Around his body was a large amount of water, along with some destroyed shards of metal, the remains of his armour, and a snapped sword. When he had hit the ground from his descent, his last ditch effort had worked, Feredir had managed to land mostly unscathed, while Lyon took most of the force from the fall. Of that, his armour had managed to protect him even as it broke, leaving shattered remains arround him, and his sword had snapped in it's scabbord as he landed. He tried to push himself up, only for his head to throb and for him to fall back down onto the ground. With most of his energy still gone, at that point he fell back into a calmer sleep.

 

The next time he woke up was over a day later, in an emergency room set up to deal with the injured from the fighting. His body was bruised and battered all over, but he had managed to escape without any broken bones. Across from him in the ward was the still unconscious Alsa, and at that point a conscious Niasa, the wound in her stomache bandaged and treated and her bed next to her brothers. In the days following, he managed to heal up quickly and get a pass out faster than most of the hospital's inhabitants, stopping by to briefly speak to Niasa on the way. As the choices for the next candidate of Vampire Prince came up, Lyon was rather relieved that Niasa was picked rather than himself, as he thought she would have a better chance than an outsider of uniting the Vampires as a people, and repairing their relationship with the humans. Also, at that time, the most devastating news he got came from the young girl who had been his water elemental student, that all three of his other elemental students had fallen to Elnaer's last, desparate attack.

 

Over the next couple of months, Lyon worked on repairing his broken relationships with the Royal Family, managing to gain Alsa's acceptance thanks to Lyon's help against Elnherjar and Niasa's after a month or so of hard work to help train up a new group of Royal Guards. Aro never really approved of Lyon however, although Lyon's battle skills did earn his grudging respect but with some hard work, Niasa agreed to reinstate him as a legitimate part of the royal family. With everything he had wanted to accomplish in Nuevida, on the day that Niasa was due to be corronated before she cancelled it, Lyon collected his only remaining elemental student from the inn she had been staying at. Once that was done, the two of them went via his house, which had somehow remained standing, to collect a couple of items before walking out the back to a couple of waiting horses and rode out of the city. With the world still in a mess and only being rebuilt at the time, Lyon and his student, a 15 year old girl named Kate, only recieved word as to what had happened with the corronation and about Alsa's subsequent corronation about a month and a half after leaving.

 

Over the next few years, the two of them worked as mercenaries to keep a supply of money coming in, while Lyon continued to teach Kate how to wield her water magic. Also, about three years after leaving, the two started to fall in love with each other, but declined marrige or having children because of their job. Having managed to make a name for themselves, about 5 years after the rebellion they started to get more picky about the jobs they took, slowly making use of their reputations of getting the job done, whatever the job, to raise the price on hiring them. Over the years, they slowly decreased the number of jobs they did until they were still making enough to comfortably live on, while being able to only pick the jobs they liked.

 

About 10 years on, the two of them travelled to the far north, to where they had heard of an old water mage who was teaching a couple of students a year. Taking a year off from their mercenary jobs, they got him to teach them what he knew, and to help Kate improve her techniques and master water magic, while Lyon learnt some of the more advanced water and ice techniques. At the end of the year, when they were due to leave, the old mage presented Lyon with a special enchanted sword hewn from a single piece of ice. The sword itself was pure white in colour, and held a sharper blade than most swords could manage. Down each side of the sword was what appeared to be a black outline of a dragon, the basis for the same ice technique that Ed had used against Adrian earlier, and a technique that Lyon had now learnt from the old mage at end of his training.

 

The years continued to pass as the two of them worked as mercenaries, before, in the 20th year after the rebellion, the two of them walked back into the grand city of Nuevida, much richer and better off than they had been when they left. After getting through the gates, they returned to Lyon's old home, which had once again remained there waiting for his return, and after removing their weapons, washed and cleaned their clothes before getting changed ready to go to the palace and meet with the current royal family.