Arcane Tales

*Olympe swings her blades down, producing two crossed shadow blades that fly into and through the light sphere, each nullifying the other. The remaining light spheres fly into the left wall, most of it falling apart and revealing a small library room. Crone holds his hand out and very quickly shoots small light blasts at the bullets, destroying them. Derek's energy wave slams him against the wall, right next to the dungeon door, which allows for a couple bullets to hit. One grazes his right cheek and the other digs into his left shoulder. He groans loudly and his eyes start twitching in a somewhat creepy manner.*

Crone: <(No...)>

*He fires a lightning bolt towards Kari but Allina runs in front of her, stopping it by casting a red half-sphere-shaped barrier in front of them. Blood slowly flows down his left shoulder across the left side of his torso and a few strings slide down his cheek as well. He darts past the group faster than the eye can see and fires lightning bolts at both Kelphy and Lucien. Kelphy is hurled into Kentaro.*

=====

*The girl starts trembling and bursts into tears, staring at the dying man. He tries to talk but fails as blood squirts from the wound. He lets out a slight groan and closes his eyes, his muscles relaxing as he ceases to breathe. This only causes the girl to scream even louder, tears flowing down her cheeks.*

Alto lets the light stretcher fade and lowers the man to the ground before touching the ice shard with a light pulse that melts it. After saying a small prayer he concentrates and extremely strong blast of light upon the man and it sets him ablaze.

Alto turns to the girl, "Do you want to walk out of here on your own legs or do I have to pick you up and carry you? Ether way you're going to reunite with your mother okay? If I can save at least one life today I'll be happy."

---

Lucien's shadow hands catch Kelphy and for a brief second time seems to slow between Lucien and Crone as he finishes drawing his blades before vanishing, only, instead of an illusion he actually vanishes under his own immense speed as he aims to deal an assassination style kill to Crone. A silent kill from behind by decapitation.

*Having been laying on the ground there's nothing he could have done to prevent Kelphy from barreling into him. Kentaro sighs in relief and gets up into a crouching position and fires.*

Derek: <It's time to end the fight, you bastard!>

*He dashes towards Crone, and slashes him straight across the torso.*

*Crone clenches his fists and shouts, releasing a thunder wave that strikes Lucien, Derek and the incoming projectiles and leaps forward, landing on the staircase's left rail's end. Kelphy runs towards them but is struck in the back by a light blast and falls on her elbows with a shriek. Crone grins and looks down upon the group, trembling.*

Crone: <...I'm afraid I must get going now.>

*He's enveloped in a light aura and his body begins to turn transparent as he starts to teleport away, but suddenly the light disappears and he widens his eyes and starts gasping for air. He lets out a scream and falls off the rail, lying on the floor seemingly unconscious.*

Allina: <What's going on!?>

*She runs towards him and, just as she approaches him, a grey diamond-shaped stone with sharp edges and a circular hole at its center appears in a small flash of light, hovering above him, and rockets towards her at great speed. Olympe leaps in its way at the very last minute and lightning bolts fly from it every which way as it stabs through her armor and into her chest. She grunts and falls to the ground, Crone slowly staggering to his feet.*

=====

Girl: <Okay...!>

*She continues to cry, though not as loudly, and holds his right hand with both hands.*

Alto smiles and walks with her slowly. As they walk out into the light for the briefest of moments Alto's eyes look like they are a vibrant orange and his hairs looks like a deep blond but it only appears to be a trick of the light.

Alto searches for the girl's mother with her.

---

"OLYMPE!!" Creed yells out and stands. Waves of frost run from his body.

Lucien curses in old elvish as he's shot back and sees Creed, "Its just like that time with Alto... his mana is going berserk!" Lucien shoots out his shadow ands and grabs Creed wrapping the hands around him and knock him out.

Lucien stands and sees Crone, "Now what?"

*The two move to get a better view of Crone and open fire.*

*Derek gasps, then glares at Crone.*

Derek: <You're dead meat!>

*He resumes his assault.*

Allina: <No!!!>

*Crone manages to blast most bullets away with light orbs, but is still shot in the chest twice. As Derek slashes at him, his hand grows light claws and he rams them into his belly before being hurled a few steps up the staircase by the attack. He stands up, staring at Olympe with his eyes wide open and jaw dropped like he's terrified. Next thing the group knows, he is enveloped in a white aura and disappears in a flash of light. At this point, Allina is knelt next to Olympe with her hands on the strange stone. It too disappears in a flash of light, seconds after Crone does. They see the large hole in her chest for a brief second before blood starts pouring out rapidly. Judging by how deep is it, it is pretty much a miracle it didn't tear out through her back. Olympe grunts, staring at Allina.*

Olympe: <I ... I can't move...>

Allina: <It's okay, it's okay, I can fix you!>

*Allina starts hyperventilating and her hands glow intensely as she casts healing spell after healing spell upon the wound. Unfortunately, this barely seems to slow down the bleeding.*

Olympe: <...You're gonna hurt... *groan* ...yourself, it is too late.>

=====

*As he exits he sees knights in light golden armor wielding unusual weapons such as daggers, blade wheels and scythes have joined the party, their garments bearing the Toran crest. The three nations' soldiers are now outnumbering and beating the monsters, but the city is already pretty much in ruins. The girl hugs his waist tightly and closes her eyes, still in tears. Not being originated in the magic world, humans don't Return and thus, there are severely injured/dead soldiers lying around, most of which Sephiran.*

Alto picks the girl up and lets her bury her face in his chest as he walks past the dead and dying looking for her mother. Whenever a monster tries to attack him and the girl blades of light seemingly pierce them as Alto casts spell after spell even though he eventually and is slowly reaching his limit as he is now.

---

"Allina," Lucien says, "Leave her be..."

*Derek sighs and crumples against a wall.*

Derek: <Why... WHY!?>

*Olympe smiles briefly before grunting one last time and closing her eyes. Tears run down Allina's face as Kelphy walks over to her, staring at Olympe's white face.*

Kelphy: <C-Captain...>

*At this moment, the whole building shakes and they hear Aera's voice out the airship's speakers echoing loudly over caws and roars.*

Aera: <Guys!!!>

OOC: Alto needs postage.

Lucien grabs Creed and Olympe's body before making great haste for the exit.

*Kentaro grabs Kari's hand who holds on tightly to the rabbit as the two run towards the door.*

*Olympe is wearing heavy armor, which makes carrying her very hard. Stepping out the door, they see the airship has landed a ways down the hill the mansion is on, a thin line of smoke rising from its left wing. A crowd of monsters of different kinds has surrounded the airship by land and air.*

Kelphy: <There weren't any monsters on this island before, it must've been Crone...!>

*She runs down the hill towards the airship. Meanwhile, Allina is still knelt down in the entrance hall, crying.*

=====

*After a little while, as they are walking down a street a block away from the palace's square entrance, the girl shrieks as she sees her house in ruins, the roof and most walls having crashed down. A woman comes running towards them and the girl jumps into her arms.*

Woman: <You're safe!!!>

Girl: <Mommy, our house...!>

Woman: <It's okay, what matters is we're safe, and we need to hide from the monsters.>

*The woman then stares at Alto, tearing up.*

Woman: <Thank you, thank you so much!>

Girl: <Thank you, mister.>

"It was nothing, really" Alto smiles. "We do need to find somewhere safe for you two however."

---

Lucien manges somehow and gazes over at the ship, "Shit!"

*Kari stops running prompting Kentaro to stop and look towards her.*

Kentaro:<What is it?>

"Allina's still inside."

*Kentaro lets go of Kari's hand and after passing the rabbit on to Kentaro, she backs to the mansion.*

Kentaro:<Please hurry.>

*As Kelphy arrives near the airship at the center of the green plain, a Sand Lynx and a Sky Raptor dive down towards her. She holds her hands out, hurling them away with jets of pressurized water. The ship is surrounded and covered by monsters, which makes accessing the half-sphere on the underside or the emergency hatch on the roof pretty hard. Several flying monsters are charging at the cockpit barrier and the ship shakes every now and then, as Aera tries her best to take flight.*

Kelphy: <What are we going to do?>

=====

*Allina is still knelt down in the middle of the pool of blood on the floor, sobbing.*

=====

Woman: <The sldiers have barricaded some streets down to gather the citizens and protect them. There's one further ahead, we'll be all right. Thanks to you.>

*Holding the girl in her left arm, the woman abruptly hugs him with her right one before taking off running. The girl waves at him, smiling with tears still swinging on her lower eyelids. A flash of red light briefly taints the sky for a second and Alto sees a section of the palace, which is right in front of him, explode. Dark clouds start gathering above the capital coming from seemingly nowhere.*

"Luna... guide me" Alto says as he unsheaths his sword and goes looking for the king.

---

"We need to clear out the monsters!"

*Derek, filled with rage and the influence of Efreet, screams.*

Derek: <I won't let this pass! I'll end this now!>

*He draws his sword as his fist glows with fire, and he begins to attack the monsters.*

*Kari hurries over to Allina and puts a hand on her shoulder.*

"Allina, we have to go."

=====================================================

*Kentaro moves a bit closer to the airship looking over his shoulder at the mansion before firing at the monsters.*

*The attacks start clearing a path through the crowd of monsters. They hear a loud metallic sound as the emergency hatch is ripped off of the roof and monsters start crawling into the hole. Kelphy continues on moving towards he ship, whipping monsters off with water spells. They hear Aera shriek out the speakers.*

[If we don't hurry up they'll ruin the airship and hurt Aera...!]

Kelphy: <...Climbing onto the roof won't be easy.>

Jade Rabbit: <If healing girl was here she could give us all wings.>

Kelphy: <...W-What?>

Jade Rabbit: <Can't someone just cast a staircase or something?>

=====

Allina: <Kari, she's dead... she's d-dead. It was just a stupid rock... and I was here... I healed her. I healed her! S-She shouldn't be dead. She shouldnt be dead.>

*Allina slowly raises her hands from the floor and turns them around, staring at her bloody palms.*

=====

*Oddly enough, a small sphere of yellow light appears in front of him, drifting across the square into the palace. Its doors are opened and the guards are gone, though there don't seem to be any monsters around. The light continues on guiding him up stairs and through doors up the palace.*

"You did your best though, right?"

=====================================================

"What do you mean?"

*Kentaro fires at some more monsters.*

Alto follows the light sphere.

---

"On it" Lucien creates a series of shadows hands to act as platforms up to the ship.

Jade Rabbit: <That's what I'm talking about.>

*Kelphy runs up the shadow hands towards the ship's roof, dodging or deflecting incoming enemy attacks. Of course a lot of monsters also start directing their attacks to the shadow hands, causing the platforms to shake almost constantly. They hear an extremely loud roar, one that sounds somewhat familiar to some of them. Looking up, they see the silhouette of a large dragon flying around.*

=====

*Allina and Kari hear the roar too, though Allina doesn't really react to it. When it stops, she turns her head to Kari, staring at her with her eyes wide open.*

Allina: <Yeah, but... but it wasn't enough!>

=====

*The light sphere flies through a door to a room only a floor above the one Alto had been with the King in earlier. Crone is standing with his back turned on the door, facing the King, who is holding his rapier out towards him. Crone turns as Alto walks in, and the sphere bursts before Crone can see it.*

Crone: <Well, well, you're like cockroaches, aren't you?>