Arcane Tales

"So cliche? Really Crone?" Alto appears with the rest of the group to speed things up.

*Kentaro immedialty fires at Crone.*

*Crone holds a hand out and shoots a barrage of small orbs of light to intercept the bullets*

Crone: <After reaching the magic world, weakening and controlling an Aeldi isn't so hard... Though I am truly surprised you were able to defeat two of them... Soon enough, I will control the ultimate power... but there's one last obstacle I need to eliminate before that. You see, two other Aeldi of mine have been defeated as well, and I just can't allow that to continue happening.>

Eldi: <Captain, you--Captain!?>

*A dark female figure materializes behind Crone, turning into Olympe as she rams her sword into his body. He groans.*

Crone: <(...What?)>

*Eldi dashes forward and leaps towards him at high speed, slashing at him. Crone grabs the blade coming out of his belly with both hands, causing it to shatter into millions of tiny pieces that drift away. He quickly turns around holding his hands out and blasting Olympe away with a light beam. He then flies upward, barely dodging Eldi's attack. He grins, blood dripping from his wound*

Alto fires a light arrow at him from the palm of his hand. Lucien is still to weak to cast his magic.

*Kentaro and Kari both fire at Crone.*

*Crone deflects the attacks with a light shield and holds his hands out towards one of the palace's towers, shooting a massive blast of light at it and causing it to fall apart and down towards the group. Eldi jumps towards him once again, Crone grabs his sword and brusquely throws it away, blood dripping from his hand.*

Crone: <STOP!>

*His arm extends in a blade of light and he hovers forward, decapitating General Eldi with a single slash. The man's body falls to the ground. Olympe ends up crashing into a house a couple blocks away*

=====

*A Brute Canupus falls dead in front of Derek, Returning. The boy's body is covered in cuts and bruises after hours of roaming around the dungeon. Most of the cells are empty, though some of them house skeletons that seem to have been there for decades, if not centuries. The wooden door the monster was guarding can finally be reached.*

*Derek is huffing and puffing as he limps his way into the wooden door, holding out his sword in case anything decides to attack.*

Derek: <Hello? Is anyone in here?>

Alto's eyes widen as he attacks Crone in a rage with Lucien not far behind.

*Kentaro grabs Kari's hand and takes off away from the castle.*

*The destroyed towers blocks the entrance to the palace. Crone flies back away from Lucien and Alto. He widens his eyes, grinds his teeth and clenches his fists, groaning.*

Crone: <(...No...)>

*He is enveloped in a sphere of light and disappears*

=====

Allina: <Creed? (What was that noise... the ground was shaking. I'll go and see if they're all right, be back soon!>

*She runs out and towards the palace's entrance. Creed is lying on a small bed in the hospital wing of the a palace, several wet towels covering his body*

=====

*The door leads to a circular room that is something like an office, with a circular rug, a few bookcases, most of which broken, a chair and desk at the center, and books and other papers lying around all over. He seems to be at the bottom of a 1-floor tower, since the ceiling is many yards above, the stone brick wall covered in small windows from which the sunlight is breaking in, lighting up the space*

"SHIT!" Alto swears.

---

Creed wakes slowly and groans.

Kentaro:<Are you all right?>

"Ye... Yeah."

*Kari freezes and her face goes red, her eyes wide in surprise when Kentaro hugs her.*

Kentaro:<He's not going to get anywhere near you again. I promise.>

*Derek cautiously advances into the room, then approaches the desk.*

Derek: <Is there anyone here?>

*The Kings of Alda and Sephira come out through a back door, followed by soldiers from both kingdoms. Some of them head into town to get Olympe. The Aldanian King approaches General Eldi's body and head, sadly looking into his empty eyes*

Random soldier: <Do we take the body to be bound?>

Aldanian King: <No, we have no use for it. Let him Return in peace.>

*Seconds later, the body turns into a sphere of light that drifts upward, disappearing. The Kings lead the group to the throne room, where the Toran King, a young blond man, is talking to one of his ministers*

Minister: <...and that is the situation.>

Toran King: <Ah, Arthos, Gabriel.>

*The Aldanian and Sephiran monarchs glare at him.*

Aldanian King Gabriel: <First my daughter, now Eldi, this foolishness ends now! Give me back my daughter, or you'll be crushed, as will your kingdom!>

*The Toran King widens his eyes and backs away*

Toran King: <W-What? I di-I don't have your daughter... I didn't do anything!>

King Arthos: <It might be that Crone isn't working for you... but then how are we finding him...>

=====

*He finds no one but hears the sound of something shattering beyond a door to his left.*

*Derek moves as fastly as an exhausted noble can and kicks open the door with his sword still drawn.*

Alto steps forward, "Prove that you aren't lying."

*Kentaro and Kari stand at the back of the room quietly.*

Toran King: <I--I can't...!>

King Arthos: <I believe him. And it's not like it matters at the moment, if we want to retrieve princess Kelphy, stop the monsters, and now apparently save the world, we need to find Crone. He mentioned a mentor of his once. He never talked about him much, but we could search his room in the airship. If that fails, there's always his room back my palace. He didn't seem exactly well, so we probably shouldn't worry about him for a while, if at all.>

Allina: <Where's the airship!?>

King Arthos: <At the hangar.>

=====

*It leads to the average mansion entrance hall, with a large staircase leading up at the center, paths marked by a pinkish red carpet. Everything seems a lot--like A LOT--cleaner here, like it was cleaned just a couple days ago. He hears voices in the floor above*

Crone: <...Do...Are you feeling hungry, my princess?>

Kelphy: <Take me back.>

Crone: <Looking so moody. Per--Perhaps a massage would help.>

*He groans in pain*

Kelphy: <You're bleeding.>

Crone: <No kidding.>

"Let's go then" Alto says.

*Derek rushes up the stairs and heads in the direction of the voices. He recognizes them both, but can't put a name to them.*

*They find some notebooks and other stuff. One of them has some notes on manipulation spells developed by a man named Houran. It says one can control most kinds of magic with it, provided they are strong enough. That specific page has a hand drawn map of Verte marked at southeastern Sephira attached. It is established they will leave early and, the next morning, everyone wakes up in their cozy palace rooms and knows they're expected at the hangar soon*

=====

Crone: <I...will leave you to rest.>

Kelphy: <My father and Lucien will never let you get away with this, Crone!>

Crone: <Oh, your father isn't showing up any time soon. You see, this island is protected by an ancient magic force field. I don't think it is even possible to break it. Shame.>

*He drags himself out and heads down the hall, in the direction opposite to the one Derek is coming from*

Alto meets with Creed and Lucien and all three of them head down together whilst Alto tries his hardest to pick up Toran palace serving maids only to get smacked in the back of the head by Creed and Lucien.

*Derek sees Crone walking out of the hall and holds back a gasp. He makes sure that the other man is out of earshot as he carefully enters the room Crone had just exited.*

Derek: <Princess!... I'm glad to see you're okay.>

*Kentaro staggers out of his room looking like her had slept on the floor (little do they know, he had). Kari walks out of the room across from his.*

Kentaro:<I hate this... *yawn* Good morning.>

"Good morning."

*They all board a Sephiran ship. It has small individual bedrooms, a relatively big dining room and of course, the bridge, with several seats behind the steering wheel. Olympe is sitting in the back, and Allina waltzed over to the dining room for breakfast. A girl with long blond hairs is steering the ship. She turns to the group, smiling*

Aera: <Hello, I am Aera and I will be flying you all to Sephira. Please enjoy your trip, it shouldn't take too long.>

*She chuckles and resumes steering*

=====

*It is a beautiful room, even cleaner than the rest of the house, with several bookcases, a large bed, a large window and balcony, a desk, and a wooden table with a few chairs. Most of the room is decorated in purples and pinks. The princess is wearing her long blue dress and shoes and silver tiara, and has blue eyes and medium-lenght dark blue hair, a short braid behind her right ear. She widens her eyes, smiling*

Kelphy: <You're... Master Emeraude, right? How did you get here!? I haven't seen you in years...>