Finally finished the chapter. Bits and pieces are a bit lame, but what's a chapter written by me that isn't at least a little lame, right? ENJOY! :p:
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Chapter 37 - Amber and Ashes
-- Ragnorok --
It was early in the morning when Anara began to stir. She took a look at her surroundings. This wasn’t her room. Hell, she wasn’t even in her own bed. Where was she? Then she remembered; last night she and Sean had slept together. She was in his room. Sean was still sleeping quietly next to her. Should she wake him up? No, he deserved the sleep. He always told her how he never got any sleep at night because he often had nightmares. It was a change that he actually could get to sleep this time. Anara quietly got out of bed and hurried back to her room. As Anara had expected, nobody else was up but her. She silently entered her room and changed into a clean pair of clothes, except for her bandana, she always wore the same bandana. Anara grabbed the cloak Sean had given her and went to watch TV. As usual, nothing was on so she began channel searching. Anara sighed loudly as she flipped from channel to channel. Finally, she gave up on the TV, and decided to go and see if there were any distress calls or incoming transmissions in the bridge. Much to her surprise, there was a distress call. She quickly got into the piloting seat, and pushed the button that let the transmission through on the keyboard. The image of Elder appeared onscreen, along with several other good Ner-yah. “HELP WE ARE BEING ATTACKED BY THE EVIL NER-YAH! PLEASE COME AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE! WE DON’T HAVE MUCH TIME, OUR PEOPLE CANNOT DEFEND THEMSELVES MUCH LONGER!” said the Ner-yah behind elder in unison. “Please Anara, get Sean and come help us out here,” said Elder. Several evil Ner-yah approached from behind them and the screen went blank. Anara knew what to do. She grabbed the intercom and yelled, “EVERYBODY GET YOUR LAZY ASSES OUT OF BED AND REPORT TO THE BRIDGE IMMEDIATELY! WE’VE GOT SOME SERIOUS RESCUING TO DO!” In minutes, everybody, even the young Adalline, was awake, dressed, and yawning in the bridge. “What’s the emergency?” asked Arcadios drowsily. “The Ner-yah, the good ones, are under attack from the evil Ner-yah and need our help,” Anara replied. At this, Sean looked deeply upset. “What could he possibly be thinking?” thought Anara, “We’re going to save them, no matter what! Is he really that unconfident?” “Well what are we waiting for?” asked Septero, “I’m in the mood to kick some Ner-yah butt!” Everyone else cheered in reply. “We need to set the coordinates first,” said Vecks, “Get out of the seat Anara.” Anara got up and said, “Only Sean knows the coordinates, Vecks, let him pilot.” “Fine…” Vecks muttered angrily. He still didn’t trust Sean one bit. Sean got into the pilot seat and rapidly typed in the coordinates to the Ner-yah base. The ship went into auto-pilot. Surprisingly, they were at the world in moments. “Adalline, I think it would be best if you stayed here,“ said Septero. “But I wanna fight!“ the girl whined. “Adalline, you don’t even know how to fight, and if anything bad happened to you, your uncle would have my head,“ replied Septero. “Fine,“ the girl said, crestfallen. Everyone drew their weapons and jumped out of the ship.
-- Battle Against the Ner-yah --
Anara was first to charge into the battle, her dagger held in front of her chest. She quickly ran past several and slashed them all with her dagger. This however, only slowed them down, and the wounded Ner-yah were easily defeated by Sean’s axe. Soon, however, the Ner-yah had both of them surrounded. “Sean…” said Anara. “Yeah?” he asked in response. “If one of us doesn’t make it out of this…” she said, “I want you to know that… I love you…” “I… love you too, Anara,” he said. The two of them shared a kiss before the Ner-yah began to close in on them. A flash of silver was seen, and several of the Ner-yah were taken down by Fera in a single slash. “Could you two make out some other time?” she asked. “Sorry,” said Anara as she blushed furiously. “TAKE THIS!” shouted Aurie from somewhere beyond the Ner-yah that were surrounding Sean and Anara. She stabbed one straight through the stomach and threw its body at another Ner-yah. Vecks simply hit the Ner-yah with his staff, straight into the blade of the Tide. Septero didn’t seem to like this so much, Vecks was getting Ner-yah blood all over his katana. “Vecks, fight your own battles!” said Septero harshly. Anara stabbed a Ner-yah in between the eyes and kicked it up into the air. Fera jumped after it and sliced her sword straight through the Ner-yah. “FIRAGA!” shouted Vecks as he burned a Ner-yah to a crisp. He used his power over fire, granted to him by the amulet that was given to him by Mateo oh so long ago, to turn that fire into the shape of a serpent. He sent the serpent into several more Ner-yah. They seemed to be swallowed by the fiery shape, and nothing remained but ash after it passed through them. “Wow I completely forgot about my amulet,” thought Anara. The thief began focusing on the ground beneath her, trying to lift it up. Slowly, a chunk of the ground rose up above Anara’s head. It dropped alarmingly fast right above a group of Ner-yah. They were all crushed between its tremendous weight. A smile appeared on Anara’s face, she could definitely use this to her advantage. She focused again, and forced some small rocks to lift above the ground. The rocks shot towards several Ner-yah, hitting them in the gut. Anara took this as an opportunity to slash their heads off. Meanwhile, Aurie froze several of the Ner-yah’s feet to the ground. Arcadios rapidly attacked the frozen Ner-yah with strike raid. Those that he failed to kill were taken down by Septero. “There’s no end to them!” said Aurie as she threw several ice shards at some Ner-yah. “THIEVES’ CREED!” shouted Anara. The familiar blue light surrounded her and she ran as fast as humanly possible towards a large group of Ner-yah, striking each one about a dozen times at an amazing speed. All the Ner-yah she had struck fell to the ground, dead. However, there were still hundreds, maybe even thousands, where those had come from. “Aurie’s right,” panted Anara, “There are still so many more left.” Vecks took down several more Ner-yah with the same serpent technique. There still seemed to be thousands of Ner-yah left though. They would just have to continue fighting until all of the Ner-yah were dead and gone. Through all the chaos, a single thought came to Anara’s mind, “Where were the good Ner-yah?” She got the answer as she struck down another Ner-yah. Ahead of her lay Mayumi slaughtering the few remaining good Ner-yah. Anara charged towards the older woman. Sean followed close behind…
-- Battle Against Mayumi : Mayumi’s Perspective --
Mayumi slaughtered the remaining good Ner-yah very easily. Her scythe seemed to pass through them as if they were made of butter. They were far too weak, she had no idea how they even managed to live this long. “It’s a pity that you’re so weak,” she said harshly, “I would have enjoyed some worthy opponents.” “But I guess that nobody would ever be able to defeat me and my evil Ner-yah. Perhaps I made them too powerful…?” the green haired woman thought to herself. It was too late for those thoughts now, she was fulfilling what her uncle had always wanted to do : she was defeating the only creatures he always despised for their happy, peace-loving culture. Not to mention, she was defeating the people who had kill him. If Nowkun were here right now, he would have been so proud of his niece. But he was gone and dead now, Mayumi had to focus on the present. She had to focus on killing the last few of these peace-lovers. Mayumi swung the tip of her scythe through yet another. Then she heard it : the sound of footsteps behind her. It was about time that the two of them had arrived…
-- Battle Against Mayumi : Anara’s Perspective --
Anara jumped up and attempted to slash Mayumi’s head off. The other woman simply teleported. To where, Anara had no idea. She looked behind her and saw Mayumi appear behind Sean, who was not that far behind Anara. Sean was unaware that Mayumi was behind him with her scythe raised. “SEAN!” Anara cried out in agony. He looked behind him just in time to see Mayumi swing the tip of her scythe into his chest, tearing through his leather coat, through his flesh, through his bone, through his heart, and out the other end. She removed the scythe from his chest, and Sean slumped to the ground, his axe clattering to the floor. Anara ran over to him and cradled his head in her lap. His eye were closed, his skin felt cold, and she could barely feel the pulse in his neck. “Sean…?” asked Anara, “Sean, speak to me!” He didn’t respond. “No Sean, you can’t die on me! I won’t let you!” she shouted as tears began to form at the corners of her eyes. All the while, everyone else passed by her, heading towards Mayumi who had teleported back to the good Ner-yah. First Arcadios passed, then Fera, then both Aurie and Vecks, and then Septero. None of them stopped to ask what had happened. None of them cared. “Please don’t die Sean…” Anara said as the tears began to flow down her face, “You mean more than anything to me. I don’t know if I would be able to go on without you…Please Sean… don’t die…” Sean’s pulse began to slow and grow fainter by the second, until it stopped beating. “No!” shouted Anara, “No Sean, you can’t die, you just can’t!” His body lay motionless, his skin ice cold with death. “I swear… I swear that if it’s the last thing that I do, I’ll kill Mayumi and make her pay!” shouted Anara. She threw off her coat and looked towards the battle. The others didn’t look like they were doing so well. No matter where they seemed to slash their swords, no matter where they seemed to cast their spells, no matter how hard they tried, they could barely touch Mayumi. Her speed was too intense. Aurie attempted to throw some ice shards at her, but the woman easily teleported away and the shards sailed towards Fera. Fera easily dodged and attempted to plunge her sword into Mayumi’s gut. However, Mayumi parried the blow and sent Fera flying into Arcadios. The two of them fell to the ground, unconscious. “FIRAGA!” shouted Vecks. This spell also failed to harm Mayumi. The head of the Grim Reapers teleported and the spell instead hit Aurie. Aurie cried out in agony, she had never felt the heat of a fire spell before, never felt her own flesh burn. She slumped to the ground and lost consciousness as well. Mayumi stopped fighting on the defensive, and attacked Septero. She slashed her scythe high, then low, then in the middle, she was so fast it was getting hard to tell where exactly she was swinging the weapon. Septero managed to parry each and every slash though, and lunged towards her with his katana. She sidestepped and hit him in the ribs with the blunt end of her scythe. He stumbled and fell face first into the ground. Mayumi stomped her foot on his head and he instantly fell unconscious. Only Vecks remained. Mayumi simply raked her blade against his back and kicked him hard onto the ground. To Anara, it was shocking how easily everybody had gotten beaten by one woman. She was the only one that could win this battle now. Anara ran towards Mayumi and whispered, “Amber and Ashes.” She blinked, and her eyes became the golden color of amber. Her dagger two, gleamed gold. Power flowed through Anara’s veins. She only had about 30 seconds until this ability wore off, so she had to be quick. Anara ran towards Mayumi as fast as she could and jumped up into the air. She slashed her dagger towards Mayumi’s head. The other woman brought up her scythe to parry it, and kicked Anara in the gut. Luckily for Anara, Amber and Ashes also gave her invulnerability, so she simply flipped in the air instead of falling on the ground. Anara charged towards Mayumi one more time. Their two weapons locked against each other. Anara pushed as had as she could, but she could not get through Mayumi’s guard. Then, for a split second, Mayumi faltered. Anara took this moment as an advantage and pushed her hardest. She got through Mayumi’s guard, and slashed the woman’s stomach. Mayumi paid no attention to the wound and locked weapons with Anara once more. The two remained equally strength, but Anara’s strength was fading fast as her spell wore off. Mayumi pushed harder, and Anara’s guard began to weaken. No, she couldn’t falter now! If she did, what would happen to her friends, what would happen to the last few good Ner-yah? Anara pushed as hard as she could, but she still didn’t seem to have any affect on Mayumi. With one last, desperate move, Anara let her guard fall and quickly lunged towards Mayumi’s gut. To her surprise, Anara’s blade slid deep into the other woman’s middle. Mayumi looked at the dagger sticking out of her stomach in shock, and fell backwards. Anara walked away from the woman’s body, towards her unconscious friends and the few remaining good Ner-yah…
-- Aftermath --
Mayumi was defeated, and Anara had gotten her revenge. As a result of their master being slain, the remaining evil Ner-yah returned to their former forms, and their former state of mind. Now, there was only one group of Ner-yah, and it was all because of Anara. “We, the good Ner-yah, humbly thank you for your kindness,” said Elder as he and the other 12 Ner-yah bowed to Anara and her friends. “It was no big deal,” said Arcadios. “What he said,” responded Fera. Everybody seemed happy about the outcome of the battle, everybody except Anara. She had lost someone that was very close to her, someone that she loved. Sean had died in the battle and no victory party would help her get over his death. His death had left a hole in her heart that would never completely close. “Let’s get going,” said Anara softly as she started back towards the ship. “Wait, Anara,,” said Elder, “We have a gift for you.” Anara turned around to face Elder. He walked towards her and handed her Sean’s axe. “We found this in the battlefield, and we thought that you might want it,” he said. “Thank you, Elder,” said Anara as she bowed. Anara then headed back towards the ship. Everyone else followed. “What’s her problem?” whispered Arcadios to Septero. “You’re so immature, you know that, Arc? Can’t you see that she’s hurt that Sean’s dead?” Septero responded. “Why would she…? You don’t mean they had a thing going on?!?” replied Arcadios. “That’s exactly what I mean,” said Septero. With that, Arcadios shut up, and everyone got on board the ship.
-- Ragnorok --
Anara was the first person on board. “Hi, Anara!” said Adalline cheerfully. Anara gave Adalline the cold shoulder treatment and walked to her room. “What’s wrong with Anara?” asked Adalline. “Sean died,” replied Fera and Aurie in unison.
-- Anara’s Room --
Anara closed the door to her room, and sat on her bed. She covered her face in her pillow. She didn’t want anyone to see her cry. Anara cried until she could cry no more. Then she noticed something in between both of her pillows. It was a letter, and it was addressed to her. Anara opened the letter and read it…
My beloved Anara,
I know that one of us is not going to come back from the battle today, and I think it would have been better off if we had never fallen in love; then your lovely face wouldn’t have to be covered in tears when I die in your arms. Please Anara, try to live a happy life without me. I know it may be hard to accept the fact that I’m gone, but I don’t want it to ruin the rest of your life. I want you to remember that I will always be with you, no matter what happens. Most of all Anara, I want you to know that I love you and always will. You were the only person that stood up for me, the only person that ever cared about what happened to me. That meant the most of anything to me in my short life, and I wanted to let you know that.
Thank you for everything,
Sean
Anara held the letter close to her chest and cried once more. She would have to do what the letter said, she would live a happy life. First, however, she would have to let the wound of his death heal. She would have to leave Ragnorok and everyone on it behind, and go back to Dawned Twilight. So, late in the night, while everyone was asleep, Anara crept out of her room. She had Sean’s axe in her hand, and her dagger in her belt. Anara walked up to the pilot’s seat, and typed in the coordinates for Dawned Twilight. In moments, the ship arrived there. Before she left, however, she set the auto pilot on a timer so the ship would be back by the Ner-yah’s world by the time everyone woke up. Anara hopped off of the ship, and headed towards her home. A home that she hadn’t been in for so long. As she walked away from the Ragnorok forever, she heard its engines start and fly the ship away.
-- the end for Anara’s portion of the Blank Page --
-- to be continued for everyone else --
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Oh and Sean's not coming back.
Great chapter.
Although, in my opinion,
Moggy could kick Mayumi's @ss ANY day of the week.
MOG POWAH!
I am not sure WHY I went with Moggy, all I know is that it was probably the best name I could have possibly chosen for him.
Oh, and feel free to have him show up in the dark secret, just as like a cameo or something, like a 'Get out of getting your butt beat down by heartless' card or something.
I was going to have him be a master of magic, but y'know, he just doesn't need it. He is that good.
OH! And he is an engineer, but I think that was covered.
Rock on.
Now, remember this, he uses a sword AND sheild, and while his sheild is normal size, the sword is proportional to his size, so it's like a thick dagger or something like that. Just so it seems even less likley he could utterly annihlate even the strongest of oponnents.
Alrighty that was a good chapter so i guess its mine now ill try my best to have it up soon
a+++++++++ would read again!!!! how romantic
Did you really have to ask.
I realized that I haven't even read this chapter yet.
I'll get to it eventually.
It was a good chapter but some parts of the story were a little dry.
Hey, I finally read it. :bounce:
It's officially been over a month since I posted this chapter. When the hell is Riku going to finish his?!? I'm sick and tired of him taking his precious time!
Meh, I'm in no hurry.
Heh, mostly cause I'm already in this our new story.
I've already typed down the final concept for it like an outline.
So this time I'll remember....I already know how I'm gonna finish my side of the blank page.
When can I make the R.I.P. thread?
Heh, remember that birthday thread I made for him?
The joke was I make a death thread due to him not being here.
Heh, why?
Up studying?
Why not?
Bad dream or something?
Sometimes I get too much sleep the day before and I can't go to sleep because of it.
That always happens on Sunday and Monday and it works out for me but it's also unhealthy to get too much sleep.
:(
Heh, I didn't get to sleep till 2.
;>_>