Jayler jumped out of the way of a swipe from Alba's direction. He ducked below their grasp before following up with a punch of his own, his fingers edged in notable flames. Alba was hit in the stomach and stumbled backward at the contact, their lungs already filling up desperately with greedy gasps of air. "You shouldn't be here to begin with," Alba snarled in his direction. They lunged for him once again, and Jayler threw up his arms to defend himself when he realized that he wasn't going to be able to get out of the way of the blow in time.
Luckily for Jayler, he didn't have to worry about defending himself much after all. Zephyr flicked their wrist, and a barrier of sparking magic appeared around Jayler. He looked up with wide eyes and saw that turquoise sparks had manifested around him, and Alba was unable to get out of the way in time. The shield slammed into them when Zephyr prompted it to grow outward slightly. The electricity immediately swarmed through Alba's body before they fell to the ground.
Tavi summoned a spear to one hand, and he launched it through the air in Alba's direction. Alba rolled out of the way at the last moment to keep from being hit square in the chest with the weapon. They managed to push themselves to their feet a moment later, and Tavi snapped his fingers to disintegrate the weapon as soon as he saw that his attempt had been unsuccessful.
He may not have been able to deal any damage to Alba this time around, but Zelda was having much different luck. She came up behind Alba with her two blades flashing in the light, and she slashed fiercely at the Lakinya with everything that she had. Twin gashes opened along the backside of Alba's body. They didn't need to wear warm clothing in the cold temperatures due to their Ice magic protecting them from the chill, and it became abundantly clear as Zelda attacked them that this was a mistake. There wasn't too much blood, but there was more than enough for it to be concerning. Jayler's eyes went wide, and he tried to pretend that he wasn't seeing the crimson dripping onto the ground of the cave. He knew that it was just going to distract him if he got too caught up in it.
Alba was doing what they could to fend Zelda off, and ice was starting to mount over the injuries that had appeared on their back. The Ice mage had summoned a shield of ice and was using it to fend off each impending attack from Zelda. Her swords clashed ineffectively with the barrier, each strike failing to do much of anything substantial.
Jay wound up being the one to come to Zelda's rescue. She came up behind Alba and pressed one hand to the Lakinya's back. Jayler was about to question internally what she was doing when he saw heat starting to spread throughout her fingertips. Her hand was turning red as a sign that she was calling upon Fire magic, and a moment later, Alba let out a scream of pain. The ice that they had summoned was starting to melt away, and they faced Jay a moment later, slashing their shield through the air in an attempt to catch Jay by surprise.
The shield was ultimately intercepted by yet another electric attack from Zephyr. The barrier that they had summoned around Jay not only defended her from the oncoming strike, but it also caused the shield to dissipate into nothingness a mere few seconds later. Alba growled in rage and began to move in Jay's direction once again. Zephyr's shield fell away when Jay nodded in their direction, and the fighter reached for her sword before leveling it at Alba once again.
"You are my curse!" Alba cried out at Jay. "You are the reason that all of the Lakinya have fallen into such a state of disgrace! If not for Lyloc, none of this would have taken place! If you truly insist on being a thorn in my side any longer, then I'll simply have to dispatch of you myself! Just remember that you brought this on yourself!"
Alba stomped one foot on the ground and sent a streak of magic flying toward Jay, but she jumped into the air to keep from being hit. Lex sent a blast of Fire magic in the direction of the ice that Alba had summoned, and the two opposing energies fizzled against one another before falling apart ineffectively. Jay raised her sword and stared preparing to slash once again.
Alba was able to catch up with Jay despite her unmatched speed, and they attempted to send another attack of Ice magic at her. Jay ducked below the first punch before sliding to the side to avoid the kick that came next, the physics of the icy ground starting to have their way with her. Jay was able to get in a quick stab regardless, and Alba was left to fall backward with a notable injury in their side. A glare was manifesting in their gaze, and it was pointed squarely at Jay and no other.
"I believe that I've already made my choice, and if you think that you can topple me before the battle is done, then you can take your victory for whatever it's worth to you and the rest of the Lakinya that have fallen apart as you describe," Jay told Alba evenly. She didn't raise her voice or rise to the bait that Alba had placed for her. "I know what I am fighting for, and I wish to see you defeated by the time that the battle draws to a close."
Alba summoned another plate of ice to cover up the injury that they had sustained to their stomach, and they jumped in Jay's direction as soon as they had managed to start healing the injury. Jay slid on the ground once again to keep from getting hit, but the icy surface of the ground was growing aggravating to her. Jayler didn't know what she was supposed to do to fix the issue, but luckily, he didn't have to answer the question at all. Instead, Tavi snapped his fingers together, and that was seemingly all it took to fix the situation before it could grow any worse. Bands of magic slithered up from the ground before latching themselves firmly against Jay's feet, still giving her the chance to move how she pleased while keeping her from struggling under the slick surface of the cave around them.
In a way, Jayler had to wonder why Jay wasn't going to just transform if she was struggling under these circumstances. Transformations became rarer as mages grew stronger since they had more innate power to draw upon, but it would have been helpful to be able to fly given the unfortunate texture of the ground below. Jay was clearly struggling under the lack of purchase that she could find on the cave's floor, and the solution seemed clear as could be despite the fact that she was refusing to shift forms to resolve the problem.
Jayler was ultimately cut off from his quick musings when Alba flicked their wrist in the direction of the rest of the group. They were summoning a wide arc of icy magic that spread through the air quickly. Jayler let out a yelp of surprise before throwing up a shield of fire that would stop the attack in its tracks. The other members of the group had also resorted to using barriers, but Jay ducked under the strike so that she wouldn't have to yield in her attack against Alba to defend herself.
That was seemingly against Alba's wishes, not that Jayler expected anything else. After all, Jay was the one that Alba wanted to defeat more than any other in the group, and the idea that she had escaped their attack undoubtedly didn't sit well with them. This did nothing but raise Alba's levels of rage, something that already seemed dangerous as it stood, and Jayler was right in thinking that this was a bad thing. Alba lashed out with a kick when Jay went down low, and that was all it took for Jay to be shoved to the ground below. She slid across the ice away from the rest of the group.
"Jay!" Jayler cried out. He went to move toward her, but he was cut off by another barrage of ice that Alba summoned in his direction. He threw up another barrier, and while he did try to push on forward, he found that it was much easier said than done to reach his sister. This onslaught of ice was much stronger than the previous one had been, and he was being pushed away from the scene of Alba and Jay's encounter under the sheer force of the attack that Alba had summoned.
Jay, meanwhile, was on the ground near the glowing blue walls of the cave. Alba reached down and cupped their hand around Jay's chin. "Game over," they whispered to her with all the malice in the world. "You have failed. Lyloc has failed. Everything ends here and now."
Jay's eyes flickered around the area briefly as she attempted to find a way that she could come out on top. However, Alba had placed one foot over her right wrist, and her sword was pinned beneath their heel. That meant that using one of the attacks she had learned as a swordsman was already out of the question. She knew that there had to be a solution to this problem though. If she didn't act fast, then she was going to wind up as the victim of Alba's full brutality.
Before Jay could fully register what was happening though, she felt a sudden rush of power pass over her. Brown eyes went wide with surprise as she tried to process what was happening, and Alba recoiled at the light that passed over her body. Jayler and the rest of the members of the group were left to stare from their place behind Alba's barrage of ice elsewhere in the cave, though none of them were able to get any closer than they already had. Jayler wished desperately that he could see a few details about what was happening, but he knew already that there was a slim chance of him being able to do so.
The attack from Alba started to lighten up soon afterward though, and the light faded from the other side of the battlefield. Jay glanced down at herself and realized that something had changed about her, and her eyes went wide. She had transformed to her Syllix form for the first time. The details of her new form were hard to glean given the strange lighting of the cave and the intensity of the moment, so she decided to concentrate on such a fact later on.
For the time being, Jay rushed toward Alba, taking advantage of the fact that they had been rattled by the new evolution to start a new charge. She reclaimed her sword and sent a stab in the direction of her foe. Alba was able to dodge the attack, though it was clear that any sense of balance that they had previously possessed had been nearly shattered under the influence of Jay's newfound form. Rage was boiling in their eyes with the same force that it had been before.
However, no amount of anger would be able to save Alba from what was to come. They looked upon their enemy, and their eyes went wide. It was impossible to say if it was real or merely a trick of the light, but Alba could have sworn that they saw the outline of none other than Lyloc appear above Jay. Lyloc looked the same way that she had so many years ago when she brought the leader of the Lakinya to his knees prior to his death. Alba was forced to stare upon the face of the one that had destroyed all that the Lakinya were hoping for so many years prior.
"Goodbye, Alba," came the voices of both Jay and Lyloc. Alba stared in pure surprise, only noticing too late that something had happened to bring the battle to an abrupt close.
Jay had thrust one hand through the air, and an attack of purple magic had pierced Alba's chest just off-center of their heart. Still, the attack had done all of the damage that it was intended to, and when the magic evaporated, Alba's body crumpled to the ground, never to move again. The ice of the cave seemed to start shifting to bury its master, realizing that everything had changed for the worst and would never return to how it once had been.
Jay could do nothing but stare at Alba's body where it rested on the floor. She had managed to do that. She didn't know where the strength to transform had come from out of nowhere this way, but she wasn't about to complain about it. She breathed heavily from pure shock, left to wonder if she truly had heard Lyloc's voice a few moments prior. She could have sworn that she did hear the voice of her old mentor, but there was no way for her to say for sure given that her world had become a strange, distorted variation of its regular self for those few moments.
Jay looked up at the other members of the group, halfway wondering if any of them had an explanation for what had just happened. All they could do was stare at her in shock as well, nobody daring to speak a word in case it somehow cursed them after all that they had managed to accomplish during that battle.
The moment of heavy tension was ultimately torn apart by the ground starting to shake. "The cave is coming down!" Zelda shouted after a few beats of observation. "We have to get out of here before we're crushed!"
"The cave is making a tomb for Alba! I think it's safe to say that we aren't going to have to deal with them ever again! I could feel their magical signature fade away as soon as Jay got that hit in on them!" Zephyr cried out. They gestured frantically for everyone to come together around Zelda, and there was no hesitation when it came to the rest of the group following their silent instruction.
Zelda closed her eyes as soon as the group had gathered around her, and she clapped her hands together as magic started to spread outward. The teleportation process both seemed to take a decade longer than usual but also no time at all in the moments that followed, and Jay was left to wonder just how much her perception of time had been distorted by her first transformation. What she did know was that the world fell away, and the cacophony of the collapsing cave became little more than a distant memory as her location shifted. Her mind remained in a blurred haze, and she struggled to say quite what was happening in the moments between her feet leaving the ground and her body gracing the sensation of earth once again once the teleportation process had been brought to a satisfying conclusion.
The noise of the cave falling apart had grown quieter since the group arrived at their new destination. Jay's feet touched down on the ground just outside the collapsing cave. She glanced in the direction of Alba's nearby hideaway, seeing that the walls were fully giving way. She winced at the sound as the cave's remnants released a final groan of open agony, and Jay closed her eyes a moment later. When she opened them again, the cave was little more than a pile of ice that marked the place where Alba had once spent so much time.
Jay didn't realize until a few moments later that the area had been emptied out. She glanced over her shoulder and saw that the monsters of ice that Alba had spent so much time working to construct had all fallen apart. This made sense given the fact that Alba had perished, and all that they had done was falling away as well. It wasn't until this moment that Jay fully registered the fact that they had actually succeeded. Alba was gone and would never be able to cause issues for anyone ever again.
"We did it..." came a breathless whisper from Jayler a few feet away. A moment later, he let out a holler of jubilation, and he threw his arms around his sister's torso. "We actually did it! Alba's gone, and that means that everything is going back to the way that it used to be! I can't believe it!"
Jay was a statue for a few moments before she let out a chuckle and returned the gesture of hugging at her brother. His excitement was sweet, she had to admit, and she was glad to see that he was so enthusiastic about all of this. "You're right... We're going to be able to return to life as it used to be," she murmured. "With a few extra advantages, of course." She didn't have to elaborate beyond that for Jayler to understand that she was talking about the fact that she and the rest of the Skylian Mages were there with the rest of the group. Jayler already fully comprehended what she was referring to, and he was never going to be able to forget it.
A rush of air kicked up a moment later, and Jay looked up to see that Tuila was coming down to the ground alongside a few other dragons. They had transformed into their draconic forms to help dispatch of their foes faster, it seemed, but with the fight over, there was no further reason for them to stay in their other forms. "We've won, I see," Tuila said simply as she approached the strike force that had newly returned from their adventure within the cave. "I'm glad that you were able to take care of Alba once and for all. Hopefully, this means that we will be able to see peace as a galaxy soon."
"At least for the time being," Liathine muttered, coming up beside Tuila a moment later. She shook her head and sighed to herself. "I feel like we all know it's not going to be quite so easy when push comes to shove. After all, there's a lot that we have yet to take care of. It sounds like there are still a lot of Lakinya out there, and their power is starting to return to the levels that it once was at in the days of Hyperion and the original Hanilia."
"That's true," Jay murmured with a nod. "I'm not about to protest to something like that. After all, Alba was looking for another member of the Lakinya in the first place, and we can't just let that slide out of our memories quite so easily. We'll have to concentrate on figuring out who it was specifically that they were trying to find. We don't have any hints right now, but if Alba and Mersall are any hint, this means that the other Lakinya will be appearing sooner or later."
"In that case, I suppose all we can do for now is go back to the castle," Jayler declared, pushing his hands into the air above his head in a grand stretching motion. "We've done a lot here today, and I think that we deserve the chance to take a step back and relax for a little bit, you know? We've been getting in a lot of trouble lately, and I think that we deserve a break after all of this. Plus, we can't go out and search for Lakinya when we have no idea where or who we're going to be looking for in the first place, right?"
There were no objections to Jayler's suggestion. Tuila simply called for everyone to gather around her in a tight circle. There were countless people in the area, and Jay couldn't exactly tell everyone apart due to how hazy the space was, but she figured that it didn't matter much in the first place. Even though her adrenaline levels were starting to drop thanks to the fight drawing to a close, she was still on edge and focused on all that she had accomplished that day. She was going to have to concentrate on calming down so that she didn't drive herself over the edge with her own delayed response of anxiety and nervousness.
Before she knew it, Jay was standing in front of the castle with the rest of the group. Everyone began to walk for the doors, undoubtedly off to take care of any lingering business that they had to resolve before the day drew to a close. After all, this was quite a bit to deal with all at once, Jay thought. She knew that the Draconic Superiors had been buzzing with energy after Mersall was defeated, and this situation was hardly an exception to such an idea.
Jay was on her way up to her room when she felt light suddenly wash over her. She glanced down and realized that she had reverted back to her regular form, the delicate purple wings on her back having vanished along the way. She stared at her hands briefly before continuing her journey, though she was cut off by a hand coming down on her shoulder. Jay turned to see none other than Jayler standing behind her.
"I want to hear about all of that," Jayler told her firmly, and she knew exactly what he was referring to without even having to ask. "I guess that I just assumed that you had already found the ability to transform in the past, but... I suppose that I had assumed incorrectly. What happened in the cave today?"
Jay paused briefly, struggling to come up with an explanation herself. She knew the vague concepts of what had taken place, but the details continued to elude her. "I was focused on the fight and taking down Alba. I guess that it was the prompt for me to transform the first time. I wasn't going to be able to win the fight with just my physical strength alone, after all. I've never really been able to transform before today because... Well, when I was growing up, I didn't have enough magic to actually merit learning. I only gained my full strength recently, and this was the first time that such power actually had to be used in its entirety," she explained. "I suppose that my desperation to defeat Alba manifested itself as a need to transform, and that was what happened from there."
Jayler nodded to himself, processing the words carefully to make sure that he didn't miss anything. "Hey... I could have sworn that I heard another voice earlier while we were in the middle of that fight," he commented. "I know that I might be talking about ridiculous things here, but... I really do think that I overheard an extra voice overlapping with yours while we were getting ready to finish off Alba once and for all. You heard that too, didn't you?"
Jay nodded as well. "I did... I believe that it was Lyloc," she murmured. "I don't know how something like that was possible at all, but... I guess that all I can do for now is go along with it. Like I said, the details still elude me, but... There's not really much of a way for me to research it at the moment, huh? We have more important things to focus on, such as the fact that we were actually able to defeat Alba today."
Jayler grinned brightly at her words. "I know, right? I still can't believe it... Alba's been causing so many problems for us as of late, but we were finally able to resolve the problem. From here, I guess that the Draconic Superiors are going to be able to go back to focusing on the restoration effort on Daragon since there won't be as much of a reason for them to be over here all the time. The Fearbringers will probably be in the castle more often than not along with the rest of your team since me and the rest of the Clan Leaders are going to have to continue going back and forth between the planets until we find a way for that to not be an issue," he told her.
Jay was quiet for a long moment before she glanced up to meet his eyes. "You know... If it's alright with you, I still want to go there soon," she said softly. "Earth, I mean. I haven't been there since I was young, and it's not as if I could remember my first few days of life before I wound up here in Hyperion. Besides... You said that it would be possible for me to meet our mother, and... I really do want to do that."
Jayler seemed to hesitate for a long moment, though he did his best to cover his tracks a moment later by shaking his head furiously. "Y-Yeah, of course!" he exclaimed a bit too loudly. "That would be more than fine with me, as a matter of fact. I think that it would be tons of fun for us to go off and see what we can do with Mom on Earth. We're going to have to explain everything about Hyperion to her though... It's not like we can just share all of this with her without getting into those details. She would have too many questions, and... No cover story will be able to properly explain all of this."
Jay hissed at his words. She knew that this was bound to be an issue given the circumstances, but part of her was hoping that she wouldn't have to deal with something of this nature. "I see," she murmured. "I guess that I haven't been giving all of that enough thought... If you aren't comfortable with telling her the truth yet, the we don't have to, you know. I don't want to do anything that you aren't ready for, especially since you're going to be the one who has to see the consequences of this."
"No, I want you two to meet," Jayler assured him immediately. "But... Not right now. I said that I was going to be gone this weekend, and I want to stay here for a while longer. Don't we have a pretty big battle to celebrate?" His lips quirked upwards at the corner as he tilted his head in the direction of the castle.
Jay couldn't resist the laugh that claimed her lips at his words. "You make a strong point there, Rose. I bet that the rest of the group wouldn't take kindly to us running off to Earth at a time like this when we've accomplished so much," she agreed with him. "If that's the case though, then I suppose that we should go on and head in there to see what we can do."
Jayler nodded in excitement, and he reached out to take his sister's fingers between his own. They were the only ones outside the castle at this point since everyone else had already gone inside in the aftermath of their arrival back in the area. Jay was fine with having a chance to breathe before the activity undoubtedly kicked up again. She doubted that the rest of the day was going to offer her much in terms of peace. After all, the group had been fighting to defeat Alba for quite some time, and it was only right that they took this as a chance to celebrate their accomplishments. In fact, as far as Jay was concerned, it would be wrong of them to shrug off all that they had managed to do. They deserved this chance to be happy after all that they had endured to reach this point.
The rest of the night wound up passing in a blur for everyone. Snacks were set out as an informal celebration, and conversations seemed to spark between the most unlikely parties. Everyone was simply happy to be there with one another, as if the world itself didn't matter in comparison to what they had found in one another. Jay was more than fine with this. She hadn't been this happy in quite some time, and she didn't want to forget anything about the precious set of hours anytime soon.
The last time that the palace had been full of jubilant souls this way had been before the Skylox Heroes were defeated. Jay still felt a pang of something bittersweet when she internally addressed such a fact, but that did little to change the fact that she was happy with this. It wasn't the life that she had ever expected to lead, but she was going to do what she could to make the most of it. The Skylox Heroes were gone, yes, but she had found a new place in the world, and she wasn't going to forget all that she had found ever again.
For the first time in what felt like a century, Jay didn't bother hesitating when she smiled and laughed for hours on end. Everything felt as if it was straight out of a dream, but she wasn't complaining in the slightest. After all, she knew that this was real, and she was going to treasure the memories for years to come. At long last, she knew that the future was going to be alright. She was confident that she would be fine one way or another as well, and to her, that was better than anything else could ever hope to be.
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Oooooo fun update time
-Digital