Diamond activated the invisibility spell as soon as the teleportation process drew to a close, and Ocean glanced around with agitation in her eyes. Realistically, she knew that there wasn't any possible way for Alba and their monsters to see the fact that she and the rest of her group were there, but she couldn't stop the burning sensation that they were going to figure it out somehow. It was only after a handful of seconds of peace had passed that she allowed herself the chance to sigh in relief, glad that the spell censored sound as well as sight as long as someone remained inside of its boundaries.
"The other groups are probably all under their own invisibility spells in the area," Xia remarked from her place beside Ocean. The black-haired Clan Leader looked in her direction before nodding. Casting another invisibility spell wasn't a guaranteed way to see an outside invisible party; it had to be cast by the same source in order for a second group of people to be impervious to its effects, and that very clearly was not the case due to the nature of the mission that they were going to be taking on that day.
"You're probably right," Ocean replied with a gentle nod. She let out another heavy sigh, letting the tension in her chest melt away as she did so. She began to shake her hands out, glad that she had already transformed so that she didn't have to deal with the nerves that came with doing it so close to the site of the battle. She didn't think that she would be able to force herself to transform in a place like that even if she wanted to; it would freak her out too much, and that felt like it was saying something. Ocean was made anxious by a lot of things, but few subjects had pushed her anywhere near the boundary that she had experienced that day.
"Flare's got to be in one of these other bubbles," Xia commented. She glanced around even though she knew that she wasn't going to be met with the sight of anyone outside of their small team of seven, Flare or otherwise. Ocean found herself joining in despite her knowledge matching Xia's on the matter. It was something for her to do to pass the time until the attack was going to start, and she was more than willing to take a little bit of a distraction until the moment was right.
"Are we ready to give her the command?" came the gentle voice of Diamond from nearby. That was enough to pull Ocean's attention away from her fruitless search, and she turned around to see Diamond looking back and forth between Liathine and Tuila. Lana and Colt were nearby, silent and waiting for the order that they were going to be receiving next.
"I believe that we are," Liathine said. When she looked over to Tuila, she was met with a nod, and that was enough for Liathine, it seemed. She raised her communicator to her mouth and pressed down on the button that would allow others to understand her. "Flare, it's time for you to get into action. We'll be waiting for you."
The static of the communicator fell silent a moment later, and Ocean found herself almost surprised at how mundane it all was. In a way, the communicator reminded her a lot of walkie talkies back on Earth, and it was strange to think that she was in a magical universe with what she was seeing. She knew that there had to be some sort of catch given that Liathine had developed these devices herself, and nothing that Liathine made was ever truly boring or average.
"The communicators are a closed loop that we've made sure is impervious to being broken into," Lana said when she noticed the confusion on Ocean's expression. "Liathine wanted to be positive that nobody would be able to break in and hear what it is that we're saying to one another, so she developed those handy little things. I think that she's done everything that you could think of to make sure that Alba can't find a way to interfere with our network, and that's why we're using the devices rather than just relying on magic."
"Wow. I see that Liathine is just as dedicated as ever then," Xia muttered with a light snort. "I always knew that she was able to pull off stuff like this, but somehow, she always manages to find new ways of impressing. I suppose that's just kind of how she rolls though. You know how Liathine is."
Ocean nodded her agreement. She glanced over at the device and saw that Liathine was shoving it into a small pocket of her leggings, keeping the communicator as close as possible while still ensuring that it wouldn't interfere with her combative abilities. There was an earpiece in Liathine's ear, something that most other groups had lacked as far as Ocean could tell. She ultimately chose to not question it, trusting instead that Liathine knew exactly what it was that she was doing. After all, they wouldn't be marching off to engage with Alba directly if Liathine and the rest of the tacticians of the castle hadn't made sure that this plan would work without a shadow of a doubt in advance.
The gentle sound of flames crackling ultimately pulled Ocean away from her thoughts, and she let out a small gasp. Ocean and Xia's attention shifted to scanning the sky, watching for the telltale whispers of flame that would show that Flare was going into action the way that Liathine had instructed. Sure enough, levitating about ten feet in the air, was a small orb of churning Fire magic. The flames brushed against one another before being sent rocketing in the direction of the cave nearby.
Ocean hadn't even fully taken in the sight of the cave, but once she noticed it, she couldn't bring herself to look away. It was absolutely massive, and the ground and walls both in and outside of the cave were covered in ice so overpowering and bright. It reflected the sunshine with a power that almost felt acidic, and Ocean stared in surprise at what would have been incredible under any other context. The ice was beautiful to look at, but in the same vein, it was terrifying knowing that this was where they were going to be headed. They had to charge in and take care of whatever was waiting for them inside, and Ocean couldn't help but feel her stomach flip in anxiety at the mere concept.
The flames spread quickly, and Ocean had to wonder how much Flare had been developing her skills over the course of the weeks while the Clan Leaders were waiting on Earth to be contacted in the aftermath of the war on Daragon. Ocean couldn't seem to remember Flare being this powerful, but she certainly wasn't complaining. It only took a handful of seconds, two minutes at most, for the fire to completely consume the ice that was waiting around the outside of the cave's entrance, leaving behind only scorched dirt that showed what Alba's fortress once had been. It was amazing how Alba had changed it into her own personal domain, but at the same time, the once beautiful cave almost seemed to be pathetic when the veil of Alba's power was removed, showing nothing more than a basic area that Ocean was sure was possible even on Earth.
As soon as the flames died out, undoubtedly at Flare's command, the air seemed to swell with something uncertain. Tuila took a step forward, gesturing for the others in her group to follow. "Come on. This is where the first step of our plan comes into play," she announced. She glanced over to Diamond, and the invisibility spell that they had cast dropped immediately. From there, Tuila started to dash in the direction of the cave, moving quickly enough to get the point across but slow enough that the rest of the group was able to keep pace with her even while dealing with the difficulty of height differences.
The group of seven came to a stop about fifteen feet from the entrance of the cave, and Ocean found herself feeling her nerves attack her with much more force than ever before. Her mouth was dry, so she was at least glad that she wasn't going to have to talk in order to succeed in this upcoming battle. She slipped into a defensive stance, waiting for a sign that Alba was going to come out of the cave. They were going to show up sooner or later; that much Ocean, and everyone else, was certain of. It was just a matter of time.
Sure enough, Alba's outline appeared in the entrance of the cave, pale and terrifying and with anger that barely seemed human scrawled across their face. "I didn't realize that I had company," they drawled, their voice a lazy and hollow imitation of their regular tone. They snapped their fingers together, and a distant groaning sound reached Ocean's ears. She glanced behind Alba to the inside of the cave, and the shadows began to shift behind the Lakinya of Ice.
It wasn't long before the monsters of Ice magic appeared, all slouched over and shuffling awkwardly. They were just the same as Ocean remembered from Alba's first attack on the castle. In other words, they were hollow excuses of life, barely even able to be considered false beings. Alba had made them only to be soldiers, not bothering to put any other effort into them beyond the initial mask.
Ocean had heard about one other creature that Alba had bothered with dedication for though; Cryai had been his name, and Lana, Jay, Ronan, and Arian had defeated him when they were searching for other members of their team. Cryai acted to fulfill the desires of Alba, but at the end of the day, he was little more than a glorified bodyguard intended to watch over Ronan with the twisted eye that Alba was unable to offer while they were focusing on their other experiments. None of these monsters even came close to being what Cryai had been when Alba was willing to put the time and effort into their beasts, and in a way, that only made them more unsettling. It was easier to kill creatures that barely seemed alive in the first place, but it was unsettling to have to see such strange monsters in the first place.
"You've come knocking to our door a few times, so we figured that we might as well return the favor," Ocean commented with a loose shrug. "Who knew that all it was going to take was a little bit of fire to bring you running out of your little hideaway?"
Alba's eyes glazed over the group that was standing before them, distaste pulling at the tips of their lips. "I don't believe that any of you are Fire mages. How is it that you were able to pull such a thing off?" they questioned. Their voice was dangerous, a promise and a threat at the same time. They weren't attacking yet because they saw this as a game, but the instant that the fun disappeared for them, they were going to lash out. Time was counting down, and Ocean felt her stomach do yet another flip with the knowledge of what was going to come.
"There are other ways to create fire than simply with magic. Ever heard of being resourceful?" Tuila questioned. After a beat, she continued with a light snort. "Actually, I would assume that you have. After all, your army is made entirely of creatures that you made yourself, so it's only natural that you would know a thing or two about creating things from a place where there was once nothing of note."
"They're works in progress," Alba shrugged. "Cryai was the most successful of the bunch, and he was an experiment. I wanted to see what it was that he could pull off, but in the end, he wound up being just as pathetic as the rest of them. He couldn't even guard a simple naive child. Too bad for him, I suppose... If all went well with him developing on his own, away from the eyes of me or anyone else, I could have collected data from his time of life and used it to make others like him. Unfortunately, not everything goes as originally planned, and now, I have to use other means to speed everything up."
"What is it that you're looking for in the first place?" Liathine questioned. It was clear that she was trying to squeeze as much information out of Alba as possible in preparation for the battle at hand. After all, it wasn't as if they would be able to learn much in the heat of a fight, so this was the only chance they were going to have to find out more.
Alba let out a small chuckle and shrugged. "If you really want to hear it, then I suppose it would be fine for me to tell. Once upon a time, I expressed interest in creating life the way that the gods once did. Loki was the one who created the Lakinya as a way of fulfilling his own ambitions. I met up with one of my fellow Lakinya and said that I wanted to do that as well. I received a bit of help with creating Cryai, but I wanted him to develop on his own the way that mortals did. It would add some interesting data to the experiment, after all, and if all went well, I would be able to use him as a basis to create other monsters that were similar but would still serve my purposes," they explained.
"In other words, you're looking for the Lakinya that helped you all those years ago," Tuila concluded. "Cryai is gone, and we're getting in the way of your plans. If you want to truly play god the way that you've been hoping to, then you need to find the Lakinya that helped you out in creating Cryai to begin with."
"The problem with living for so long is that people drift apart and things change," Alba remarked, their voice a tired yet sharpened drawl even still. "It's been years since I've seen any of the other Lakinya, and searching for them is easier said than done. Of course, even if I can't find who I'm looking for, then I can do a little something special for my own needs... I can get rid of the Hanilia, those who have been thorns in our sides for so long. You're not the ones who defeated us in the past, but that doesn't matter to me. Their spirits live on through your generation, and therefore, you must all die for what your predecessors did to me and the rest of the Lakniya."
"I suppose that talking has always been out of the question then," Liathine snorted with a shake of her head. "If that's how you want to play it though, then that's fine. I suppose that there was no other choice as soon as we arrived here, so we might as well go on and take care of this before it can spiral out of control."
"You've been out of control for ages," Alba snapped back. "You and the rest of the Hanilia... If you had just rolled over and accepted what Loki was trying to give you, then none of this would have been a problem in the first place. In fact, I believe that you've made a massive mistake in trying to fight against us. You thought that you won ages ago, but you couldn't even kill us all back then. You thought that you had, but your egos got the better of you. The Hanilia are all the same... People who get too drunk on their own power and ambition to bother recognizing what it is that they're doing."
"What is it that they're doing then?" Tuila questioned, her expression laced with doubt. "Do enlighten us, would you?" Everything about her posture screamed that she wasn't going to be listening to what Alba had to say in full, but she was holding off the fight as long as possible for the time being.
"They're stamping out people that are just trying to go about their business. How would you feel if the situations were reversed?" Alba asked. "We Lakinya were trying to serve our own divine purposes, and you decided that we were dangers that had to be wiped out. Are we really that different? After all, our goals are the same. We want to serve our respective gods and show that we know what it is that we're doing so that we can have a hold in the land of magic."
"You were trying to destroy Hyperion. The goddess called upon the Hanilia to stop you because of what you were doing," Tuila said with a heavy sigh. "Not that I would expect you to remember history in a way that was at all straight. I mean, you Lakinya are all the same... Working to fulfill your own selfish purposes by fighting off those who dare to oppose you."
Alba hissed, the noise thin and rushed between their teeth. "Ouch. I see that you're just as feisty as you've been said to be. I don't know what else I expected," they said. "Talking to you has been entertaining, truly, but I grow weary of our back and forth. I believe that it's time for us to go on and bring all of this to a close. After all, you, Tuila Raigh, are the head of the beast. If I cut off the head of the Hanilia, then everything is going to crumble behind you. That's the way that these things work."
"I would expect you to know as much," Liathine agreed with a light laugh. "After all, you witnessed it firsthand after what happened with Loki. Even after Loki was defeated, the head of the Lakinya specifically was severed as soon as Odysseus was defeated. He's still gone now even with the rest of you having resurfaced from the cracks of the universe. I see that your collaboration as a group has never quite returned since what happened with Odysseus all those years ago."
Alba's expression went stiff with tension. "It doesn't matter," they snarled. "Odysseus may be gone, and the Lakinya may be divided, but that means little when it comes to stopping you. The most powerful Hanilia that the world had ever known all died in their fight against the Lakinya. We only lost one of our ranks. Mersall may be dead now too, but he was a fool to the bitter end, always scrambling for power. He kissed up to Odysseus right up until the moment that he died, and he paid the price for it when push came to shove. I'm not like him, and I'm not like anyone else either. I work the way that I've always operated best: on my own. I'll kill all of you on my own, and from there, it's just a matter of time before I go off and take care of every other pathetic creature that ever dared to oppose the Lakinya."
"For someone who functions so well alone, you certainly had no qualms about finding help whenever it was convenient for you," Xia remarked. "Isn't that how you were able to make Cryai in the first place? You had to get help from others despite all of this talk about working well on your own."
Alba didn't have an answer for that, so all they chose to do was glare with as much force as they could muster at Xia. "I grow tired of our banter. If you really want to live, then you had better make it seem that way. I'll smite you all out in one fell swoop. That much I can promise you," they said. They flicked their hand outward, and a blast of ice spread in the direction of the group of seven. Tuila raised one hand, and her pulsing Light magic kept the ice from making contact with any of them. Her expression was entirely apathetic to what Alba was trying to do, a sign that she was ready for the battle at hand.
"We'll see," Tuila replied simply. The monsters of Ice magic started to lumber out of the cave, shuffling and heavy as they came to the side of their creator. Tuila sent out an orb of glowing light that slammed into a few of the beasts, sending them crumpling to the ground immediately.
That was the first action of the battle itself, and from there, everything seemed to descend into nothing short of complete chaos. Ocean summoned an orb of light of her own and started to hurl it in the direction of the monsters. As the beasts continued to swarm in the direction of the small group, Alba shook their head and retreated into the shadows of the cave. Once again, they were more than fine with leaving their underlings to take care of their business in combat. Alba had never been the type to get close and involved with the fight itself, and it was becoming increasingly apparent that they had no intentions of changing their past patterns no matter how key this battle was going to be.
There were more of the creatures than there had been in the past incidents, and Ocean found herself instinctively staying close to the rest of the group. She couldn't afford for them to be separated because she knew that her magic was weaker than anything that the Draconic Superiors would be able to put on display. She had to focus on surviving for as long as possible, and that involved remaining close to those who had been dictated to be part of her team.
Xia punched at one of the nearby monsters, her fist charged with gray and purple energy that Ocean recognized as being a type of Death magic. The beast was sent crashing to the ground a moment later, and Ocean hurled a sphere of light at the creature after it was down. She wanted to start off by trying to melt at the Ice magic creatures before the circumstances could grow to be any worse. Alba was bound to pull out other fighters as the battle raged on, and taking care of the situation before it could grow to be too overwhelming had to be a top priority.
Diamond whispered something under their breath, and they reached one hand out in the direction of the monsters. Their Ice magic was going to do something productive as far as defeating their foes, and Ocean saw what Diamond was trying to do soon afterward. Diamond had a set of potent abilities regarding their element, and if they tried hard enough, they would be able to start tearing apart the Ice monsters at the seams. It wasn't going to be easy for Diamond to shift who was in control of the beasts, but if they could do at least a little something to dismantle them, then that would undoubtedly count in the favor of the invading team.
Ocean had to admit that she was impressed as Diamond started to yank a few of the creatures apart through their influence over Ice magic. It took a moment before the spell started to sink in and take effect, but once it had, it was clear that Diamond wasn't going to be backing down until after their foes were taken care of in full. Ocean lacked the prowess to do anything of this nature despite also having the Ice element in her repertoire, and she made a mental note to learn how to do this even if it was situational and likely wouldn't be too helpful in future battles.
Ocean let out a small sigh and tried to focus on the battle at hand. It was becoming increasingly clear that there wasn't going to be much luck for her or the rest of the group at this rate. Alba had more monsters at their disposal than Ocean had thought they would have, and the sheer numbers of their foes was starting to get overwhelming even after such a short period of time. Ocean prayed that Liathine called for backup sooner rather than later.
Ocean's back was pressed against Colt's, and she saw that he was also trying to do the same thing as Diamond in terms of pulling the creatures apart. He was seeing much more success than Ocean had expected, and she wondered just what it was that went through his head on a regular basis. He was hard to read due to how quiet he was, and Ocean had to confess that she didn't know him all that well. At the very least, he was a powerful mage, and that was exactly what they needed to defeat Alba and their forces in that moment.
Liathine glanced over to Lana, and the shorter mage nodded before throwing one hand into the air. Ocean was about to question what it was that they were doing, but a small shield formed over the heads of the group's members before she could form the words. Liathine closed her eyes and clapped her hands together, creating a powerful wave of Metal energy that spread throughout the area. It knocked the Ice monsters off their feet and to the ground, giving Colt and Diamond the perfect chance to start using their Ice magic to tear them apart. Tuila, on the other hand, followed up by sending small waves of Light magic towards the creatures. The waves were targeted specifically at the weak points of the monsters, and it took surprisingly little effort for Tuila to send the creatures splintering. Ocean nodded to herself, taking note of what Tuila was doing, and did her best to imitate the movements. Xia joined in, using her Death magic rather than the Light that Tuila and Ocean were utilizing. Luckily, it didn't seem to make much of a difference, and there were small jagged pieces of icicles raining down in every direction soon enough as a direct result of what they were doing.
Ocean felt an immediate wave of relief hit because she knew that they were going to be fine for at least a while longer. They were making progress in terms of diversions for the monsters while still leaving Alba wide open to be taken on by the stealth group that would be going behind enemy lines. Ocean had been nervous that they were going to be overwhelmed, but it seemed as if Liathine and Lana had come up with a plan ahead of time to make sure that such a thing didn't happen. They were trying to offer as much time as possible for the stealth group to get into place for the final confrontation with Alba, and it offered the other groups with the chance to prepare on their own as well.
The monsters were starting to get up after about a minute had passed, though their movements remained just as sluggish and hollow as ever before, a sign that they were far from meeting the standards of life that Alba had been hoping for with their twisted experiments. A few of them grunted with voices that sounded cold and sharp, as if they were splintered along harsh edges on the inside to cause such distortions. Ocean hadn't heard them up close before, and it made her shiver silently.
Lana smiled before pressing one of her hands against the energy shield, and she added a bit of her magic to the surface of the barrier. It sent a crackling sensation of electricity along the walls that were guarding them, and many of the monsters were forced to stumble backwards because of the damage they had sustained. They groaned in pain as the magic that Lana had offered started to contribute to the way that they were falling apart thanks to the actions of the other mages.
Liathine sent out one more blast of energy, offering the rest of the group with the chance to follow up and dissemble the monsters. Instead of joining them though, she shoved her hand into the pocket that her communicator was in, and she pulled the device out before pressing it to the space near her lips. "Group number two, it's your time to shine," she said. Even if the situation was no longer was desperate as it had been previously, it seemed as if Liathine was choosing to operate on the safe side rather than being sorry for the lapse in judgement later.
"We're getting into the thick of it now," Ocean heard Xia mutter from beside her. "That's fine with me. It's time for Alba to go down. Do you think that the main group is already starting to move in the direction of the cave to take them out?"
Liathine nodded. "I told them to get going as soon as the battle had started. Zelda and Zephyr should be taking the rest of the team in there now. For now, we just have to carry out our purpose as the diversion," she replied. "Alba's sending out the monsters willingly and taking up a defensive stance inside of the cave. The more groups that show up, the more beasts that they'll have to send out. That will leave their defenses wide open, and you know what that means."
Ocean nodded to herself and focused on the battle at hand. They still had a lot to accomplish for the battle to be finished and won, but this was a start. Alba was going to be dead by the time the day ended. It was just a matter of time.
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Yay content!
-Digital