Mao Mao threw his arms about, trying to establish a center of gravity. When he and the king entered the room, the sudden sense of weightlessness accompanied with their feet leaving the ground, threw them into a minor disarray.
With no gravity, there was no official up or down. The fact as it registered in their heads, caused their vision to spin.
Mao Mao reached for the painting, wrapping his hand around the frame, swung himself over, planting his feet of oil covered canvas. He used the painting as a form of floor, to trick his mind back into reorienting itself. The texture beneath his feet was slick, and the oils smudged with each step he took.
"Gracious," exclaimed Snugglemane. The king grabbed the painting, pulling himself up next to Mao Mao. "What manner of chaos is this?"
Mao Mao looked around the room, a considerable number of palace guards floated around aimlessly. Ashaki and Tanya were cooped up in a plastic air bubble, they appeared to have caught their second wind. Violet stood in the corner of the room, her eyes trained on the two in the bubble. Finally, Minori's kept trying to make leaps across the room, only to be bumped by a floating guard and sent flying in a different direction; had she been of sound mind though, she probably could've flown across the room with ease.
"A plan with a lot of moving parts," Mao Mao answered. He and Snugglemane brought the painting as instructed, but Ashaki only told them to stay on standby from there. On the opposite side of the room, Mao Mao saw the Moon Moth, getting ready to turn in for the day. He could have probably slain it from where he stood had he used Lunar Lash. But two factors disabled the possibility: Ashaki had informed them that any intense light would cause the moth to react, and second, the Lunar Lash was a wide spread move, using it would catch a few innocent guards in the crossfire.
"A little to literal for my taste," Snugglemane murmured.
Ashaki gave Tanya a quick nod, and the bubble disappeared in a puff of smoke. Like it was as natural as breathing, Ashaki glided between the spiraling guards with the grace of a swan.
Tanya jumped along the guards, using them as a series of steppingstones to make her way to Mao Mao and Snugglemane. With a final leap, she aimed just above Mao Mao, extending her hand.
Mao Mao, in turn, reached out. They clasped each other's forearm, Mao Mao pulled her down onto the painting with the king and himself. "So what's the play?" Mao Mao asked.
"Ashaki wants us to keep the two stooges off of her," Tanya jerked a thumb over towards Minori and Violet, the latter now turned to focus on them. Or more accurately, on the hat hanging off of Tanya's neck. "And when she gives the signal, we need to be ready to initiate the final phase." Tanya looked over to Snugglemane. "That means you as well."
Snugglemane rolled his eyes. All these people suddenly coming into his palace, and telling him what to do was getting on his nerves. He was the king for goodness sake! "I know what I need to do," he replied.
Tanya looked back at Mao Mao. "I need to keep this hat away from Violet," Tanya pulled at the string around her neck. "So I'll deal with Minori, you take Violet."
Mao Mao shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He only got the best of Minori cause she got distracted, Violet wasn't as easy of a customer. But their goal wasn't to beat them, it was to keep them away from Ashaki while she dealt with the moth. Mao Mao nodded.
Tanya quickly spun on her heel, and leaped off the painting, the sudden force pushed her side of the painting down, taking the foothold out from beneath Mao Mao, leaving him suspended in midair. "Gah," Mao Mao exclaimed.
Snugglemane, whose side of the painting tilted, reached out and grabbed the suspended hero, pulling him onto the oily surface again.
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it," Snugglemane replied.
•••
The monarch butterfly, like many animals, has ways to defend itself in the wild. The monarch's main defense is that it's toxic, meaning an animal only needs to eat one to learn that it's a bad idea, which in turn, defends the rest of the monarch population.
The Moon Moth is a tricky beast to deal with, not simply because of its stardust, but because of its own biological defense mechanisms, namely it's "death-burst".
The death-burst occurs as the Moon Moth's dying wail. Should the moth ever be perished by a foe capable of either overcoming its armies, or recognizing its danger during its early stages of take over, it will release a second type of dust, one that will spread over a wide range at breakneck speed.
This second kind of dust will send its victims into a never ending sleep, with no hope of waking up.
Ashaki recollected the information as she glided between the palace guards. When she initially read the data from one of the books in the Mao Archives, her first question had been: "if it takes out everyone in the vicinity, then how do we know about it?"
The question had taken her mother off guard at first, but she smiled and remarked how inquisitive her little girl was. Ashaki dedicated herself to figuring out that small mystery at the time. The reason that it was recorded was due to a scholar who was originally from the kingdom, came back to find everyone suspended in forever sleep.
It took them months to figure it out. It was only when they found two different types of dust on some of the bodies that began to piece together the mystery.
Apparently, one of Ashaki's ancestors had come across the scholar's notes, and acquired and added it to the archives.
That was probably when Ashaki started to see what all she could, so that she could always be prepared. Despite her contacts numerous abilities, she knew that it would only get her so far. In the end it would come down to her own skill, guts, knowledge, and judgement to get her through the challenges that were yet to come.
Ashaki knelt down, channeling chi into her claw, she scored a rune into one of the crossbeams. Drawing the same symbol in the air, she clapped her hands around the rune. A barrier formed around the moth.
Normally, she would've needed to keep her hands like that, but with the runes she just drew, the technique would last perpetually, without her needing to do anything.
The laws behind the technique were relatively simple compared to some of the others in her arsenal. The two runes were linked, and by encasing one of them in her barrier technique she linked the technique to the rune on the crossbeam. So as long as the crossbeam remained in tact, the barrier won't go down.
Ashaki looked back over her shoulder. Between the swarm of floating palace guards, the form of Tanya Keyes darted in and out of view, Minori's stout limbs slamming into each of the guards at full force as she chased the Tanuki; some of the guards may need to visit the hospital tomorrow if they make it through this. Across the room, Violet somehow flopped her way over onto the painting with Mao Mao and the king, her baggy clothing dragged along the oil, staining the hems of cloth an assortment of colors.
For a moment, Ashaki debated moving to help them. Ultimately, she decided against it. First things first, dealing with the moth. Holding out her palm, an emerald green energy began to seep from it. Using her other hand, Ashaki pulled at the emerald energy, and shaped it to resemble an assortment of needles.
Taking one between her thumb and forefinger, she gingerly hovered the needle over the miniature sphere before her. Ashaki's eyes flicked back over to the moth, trapped in its own sphere. Puncturing the miniature sphere with the needle, the barrier keeping the moth in place changed. On the interior, a spike protruded from the wall, piercing one of the moth's wings.
The moth let loose a ghastly scream, alerting Minori and Violet to its distress.
Minori turned to leap towards Ashaki, just as her feet left the surface of the wall, her cape jerked at her neck. Tanya gripped the hem of the orange silk, throwing Minori in the opposite direction.
"Sorry, but I hope we can go for drinks when you're awake again."
Violet on the other hand remained still. Her eyes trained on Mao Mao, and the king who stood behind him.
"Why has she just been standing there?" Snugglemane asked the sheriff.
"I'm not sure," Mao Mao gripped Geraldine, his sword held between himself and Violet. Should he step towards Violet? No, she'll see it as a sign of aggression while he has Geraldine in hand. As a master of weaponry, Violet is versed in how to use them, how to defend against them, as well as how to disarm them. One wrong move and Geraldine will go flying from his hands.
A stray guard drifted within arms reach of Violet, the spear in their hand disappeared, and reappeared in Violet's. Violet hefted the spear a few times, gaining a sense of the weight distribution of the spear.
Violet launched into a show of theatrical proportions. Spinning the spear around like a baton, Violet demonstrated that a mere weapon can became a tool of destruction in her hands.
Mao Mao gulped, and whispered back to the king. "You may wanna hide behind something."
Violet opened with closing the distance, unleashing a series of stabs and thrusts. Each one parried and blocked by Mao Mao. However, he could feel the weight behind each of her strikes. Each one was meant to be fatal, and his hands began to feel numb from the constant vibration of Geraldine being struck repeatedly.
Needing some space to breath, Mao Mao took a step back. But Violet closed the gap between them as quickly as it had opened.
Mao Mao was stuck. No backup, no Lunar Lash, he didn't even have a snarky quip to go out on. The relentless series of jabs and blows threatened to knock Geraldine out of his hand. Mao Mao tightened his grip, which only made the vibrations more pronounced as they traveled up his arms.
For a moment, Mao Mao could've sworn he heard a voice. It sounded like Tanya. "You feel powerless? Then get stronger!" Mao Mao was confused for a moment, Tanya was across the room, busy with Minori. Even if she had said something to him, there was no way for him to hear her over percussion of metal striking metal. The words sounded familiar though, they were the words she had said to him after being scolded by his sisters about eating cobbler.
"Easy for you to say," Mao Mao thought to himself. One doesn't simply get stronger just like that, it takes a lot of work just to gain an ounce of strength. The only reason his sisters were so strong was because they started their training at an early age. Their legendary weapons only made them stronger, yet here Violet stood, pushing him to his limits, without even using her hat.
He could destroy the spear easily with Lunar Lash, but the slash would follow through and cut Violet. Geraldine's main ability was to act as a light source, but Mao Mao eventually learned that he could condense the light and release it to deal major damage. But what if he didn't released it, what if he held it in?
Mao Mao gripped Geraldine, causing the sword to light up. The light only began to grow brighter and brighter, and Geraldine's handle in turn, became warmer and warmer. At first it was a nice, welcome sensation. But it eventually became scorching and painful. The silver lining, was that Violet's next attack met head on with the light, the tip of the spear split down the middle.
Pulling it back, Violet studied the spear tip; it had been melted into a semi-liquid state. The heat put out by Geraldine had melted the spear. Violet threw the spear to the side and stepped back, head bowed. Her way of saying she's been beat. Mao Mao loosened his grip on Geraldine, it's light fading along with the heat.
Mao Mao looked the palms on his glove, they had turned black from the heat. Sheathing Geraldine, he pulled at the fabric. A tug pulled at his palm within the glove. The heat had definitely caused some minor burns, as well as somewhat fusing the glove to the paw pads on his hands. That's gonna warrant another trip to see Camille.
•••
Ashaki had seen the events that played out below, and she had to say, she was impressed. Mao Mao's ingenuity had just won a life or death encounter with Violet, which few can say they have, even fewer after her vow against killing.
Tanya was keeping Minori on as short a leash as she could, but the technique Ashaki used to erase their exhaustion was coming to it's time limit, and they was about to get hit with the drawbacks.
Luckily, Ashaki was almost done, as she pierced the moth one last time, the look at her handiwork gave her a sense of satisfaction. In terms of technicality, it was going to lower the lethality of the death-burst. It terms of how it looked to someone who didn't know what was going on, it looked like she was making a horrible attempt at dissecting a live subject. All that was left was to deliver the final blow. Looks like they wouldn't need the painting after all.
Forming one last chi needle, she thrusted it the bubble. The barrier formed another spike, this one shot through the moth head, killing it instantly. A moment passed, and the moth's body began to shake, scattering small gray particles in every direction. They weren't spreading as fast as Ashaki had read about, though that was in large part due to the fact it's body was pinned in multiple places, so it wasn't shaking as much as it could have. After a few minutes of shaking, the moth's body went still for the final time.
Turning back, Ashaki saw all of the sleeper zombies go limp in the air, freed from their sleep walking state, back to their regular sleep. Hopping down from the rafters, Ashaki slowly deactivated the anti-gravity technique, slowly lowering the countless bodies to the floor.
Snugglemane and Mao Mao stepped around the unconscious Violet, making their way over to Ashaki. "Is it finally over?" Snugglemane asked.
Ashaki nodded. "It's over." Tanya sauntered over, stepping between the unconscious bodies.
"What do we do abouuuu-" Mao Mao wasn't able to finish his question, as he and Tanya dropped to floor, unconscious.
Snugglemane let out a yipe. "Did they get hit?!"
Ashaki held up her hand, "no, they're just suffering from the drawbacks of the technique I used earlier. In exchange for easing their exhaustion earlier, it would hit them three times as hard later. They're just sleeping."
"I-I see," Snugglemane looked down at the two new bodies joining the others on the floor. "What about the rest?"
"They'll wake up naturally after some time has passed," Ashaki levitated herself into the air, avoiding the need to step over the loads of unconscious bodies.
"Where are you going?"
"Back to the archives," answered Ashaki. "I've still got work to do."
•••
Once out of sight, Ashaki stumbled and propped herself up against the wall. She had lost a little more blood than she believed, and the gash in her head would leave a scar if she didn't work on it soon.
In one of the dozens of hidden pockets that were sown into Ashaki's sash, a vibration tickled at her abdomen. Pulling the item out of its pocket, Ashaki held a phone cladded in a green phone case.
The screen had been lit up with a single notification. A text message. It read: good afternoon, hope your travel to Pure Heart is going okay.
Ashaki just smirked to herself. She typed a response and sent it. I arrived last night, and even found my brother. It's going great so far.
Ashaki hesitated on the last bit. It didn't go that great, but she didn't need them to worry about her right now.
Ashaki pushed herself off the wall, dragging her feet the rest of the way to the archives.