"We've got to find Professor Crewel. He knows how to fix this," Azul says, carrying Yuu to the main campus.
Smoke is in the distance, and a harpy-like screech goes through the island. An explosion rocks the area, and the night sky fills with black and red.
"What was that?" Kalim asks, looking at the smoke in horror.
"You don't want to know," Azul replies, opening Night Raven's campus doors. "Professor Crewel, we need your help!"
"Not now, puppies. Monsters are attacking the island, and I need to help the magic marshalls make weapons and remedies," Crewel says, picking up a sharp whip and a small pistol.
His eyes catch the silver monster in Azul's, and his eyes widen while his face flushes.
"You brought one of them in here!" Crewel yells, losing his relaxed but strict demeanor.
"It's not a monster! It's Yuu! Please fix her!" Azul pleads, tears streaming down his cheeks.
Silence dominates the hallway, but Yuu's shaky breathing fills the area. Jade puts his hand on Yuu's gills and feels them moving.
"She needs water. She can't survive on land much longer," Jade says, looking at Yuu's silver scales beginning to dry and flake off.
"Ok, follow me into the alchemy room," Crewel sighs, hoping no one catches him.
"Thank you!" Azul exclaims, wiping his tears away.
The group goes into the alchemy room and places Yuu in the cauldron. Kalim uses his unique magic and fills it with water. Yuu's breathing returns to a more stable pattern, and her body submerges itself into the water.
"So, what must I do to change Yuu back?" Crewel questions, slapping on a pair of gloves and goggles.
"We think Yuu was in contact with magestones charged by moon energy. That's how she changed into this," Azul explains, remembering the mermaid book and its warnings about the full moon. "If we could do the process of reverse charging, maybe it might save Yuu."
"I can try, but this form of Yuu's may very well be a nasty curse. Jade, hand me that dark blue magestone on the top corner," Crewel instructs, opening the curtains. "And please stand back, students."
Jade hands Crewel the magestone, and the teacher puts a few drops of water in a bowl labeled moon water. He holds the magestone up to the moonlight, and the stone begins to glow navy. He thrusts the glowing magestone into Yuu's chest, causing her to scream in pain. Silver beams of light go into the magestone, and Yuu's body begins to glow like a star in space. The more light flows into the stone, the more cracks spread across the rock. The magestone releases an eardrum-breaking shatter, and all its power stops as it turns into a dull, black rock.
"Did it work?" Azul asks, leaning over to look at Yuu.
Yuu takes a sharp inhale of air and quickly opens her now brown eyes.
"Save us! Save the rest of them!" Yuu screams, grabbing onto Azul before passing out.
"Who's them?" Jamil asks aloud.
"Yuu! Yuu, are you alright?" Azul exclaims, shaking Yuu.
Yuu's eyes open again, but this time around, they're back to being silver. She shrieks and grabs Azul pulling him into the cauldron like a siren dragging a poor man who heard her song to his watery doom. A struggle ensues, but Azul gets the upper hand as his octopus arms wrap around Yuu's body. She growls as Azul's tentacle keeps her mouth shut.
"Yuu, come back. You're still in there somewhere," Azul begs, struggling to keep Yuu still. "Please, come back to us."
Yuu goes still, but the water begins to move. It envelopes Yuu's body and swirls around the room like a wild spell. The water breaks through the window and goes off into the night.
"She's gone," Azul silently says, his shoulders slumped.
"I'm sorry, Azul. The magestone didn't have enough power. The magic marshalls might be able to help her and the other three monsters," Professor Crewel apologizes, taking off the goggles.
"No! There has to be a way! I refuse to leave Yuu like this! Especially not after all she's been through!" Azul vents, walking to Crewel and standing face-to-face with him. "So, tell me what to do, and I will do it."
~~~~~~~
The sky above the Isle of Sage becomes a maroon red as the fires rage on. Smoke clouds the streets as people try to run away toward the docks, trying to make sense of what's happening to their small town.
"Chief, I need backup! These RSA students are like zombies!" A marshall screams, throwing another RSA boy off him.
"I'm busy right now! I'm in pursuit of the siren!" The marshall chief exclaims, swerving the car to follow Cleora as she runs away.
"KWAAAHH!" Cleora shrieks, her mouth opening like a snake.
Her scream hits the tire, and the car crashes into a tree.
"Shit! I'm calling the Arcanes! We can't take them alone!" The chief says into the intercom, getting out of the car before it bursts into flames. "Pull back and send the islanders to Night Raven College!"
"Will do, sir!" The officer replies, pulling out a baseball bat and hitting the RSA students. "Everyone pull back! We're getting the Arcanes! Everyone go to NRC!"
As the people and marshalls retreat from the town, the zombie-like RSA students shriek and hiss at them. They walk back into the smoke and return to wandering the island, looking for Cleora. Meanwhile, Riri and Emmeline have noticed Cleora's absence and go into the woods to look after her.
~~~~~~~~
"I got the call. Headmage Ambrose is sending the remaining RSA students here. Get everyone out of their dorms and put them into the cafeteria! Activate the emergency protocols!" Crowley yells into the walkie-talkie. "Prepare rooms for the townspeople too. They're calling the Arcanes."
Crewel rushes into Crowley's office with Azul, Jade, Floyd, Kalim, and Jamil behind him.
"Crowley, we need your help!" Crewel exclaims, moving aside so Azul can push the cauldron inside. "I know I'm going to sound crazy, but Yuu is one of the monsters. Along with other people, she somehow knows. The point is, we need your help to turn them all back."
"I'm afraid it may be too late. Marshalls called the Epics a couple of minutes ago. We both know that the Arcanes' purpose is to slay or defeat the monsters the marshalls can't. If we have any chance of helping Yuu and the other monsters, we need to capture them immediately," Crowley says, opening a spell book. "Wake Yuu up, and let her go. We'll follow her and see if she meets with the others."
"Headmage Crowley, my brother has turned into a lovesick zombie!" Ortho squeals, flying into the headmage's office. "Ah, it's one of those monsters!"
"Ortho, that's Yuu. We need the mermaid classification book. Please tell me you have it," Jade asks, looking at the young boy.
"Yes, I do. I always carry it around with me so I can read more. Here!" Ortho replies, handing the book over.
"Yuu and the other monsters are suffering from an extreme case of full moon sickness caused by absorbing the energy of magestones charged by moonlight. If we figure out a way to find a magestone flowing with the energy of a Lunar eclipse, we might have a chance. But we'll need to perform convergence to do it," Crewel explains, looking through the mermaid book. "You can find a lot near the top of the mines."
"I think we can do better than that. Tonight's the lunar eclipse. We can use its magic. It'll be a group effort like Divus said, but we can make it work. We've got until 2:00 am to do the spell," Crowley adds, looking at the moon slowly turning red. "I'll ask Ambrose if he could provide some help."
~~~~~~
Yuu runs through the woods, sniffing out her moon-cursed brethren. She finds them in front of the marshes gobbling up a pile of fish.
"GRAH!" Yuu growls, jumping into the feeding frenzy, not noticing the trap set.
The girls shoot into the air, squished together, as a fishing net hangs on the tree branch. They claw at the net but fail.
"Fortunately, fishing nets are the one thing sea creatures can't escape," Rielle comments, smiling proudly at his work. "Don't worry, girls. We'll get you back to normal."
"We need to hurry! The Arcanes arrived," Jade exclaims, looking at the magicam video from Cater's account.
"Take them to the small mountain peak. They'll get more moonlight that way," Crewel commands, pointing to the peak. "We've got two hours left."
The group races to the mountain and ties the net around the girls. Crowley draws a circle with white chalk and helps the boys place Yuu and her friends in it. The lunar eclipse begins, and the fiery night sky makes the area look apocalyptic.
"Azul, hand me your cane, everyone else repeats after me. Earth, Wind, Fire, Water. The four elements of our dimensional powers, I beckon thy goddess of the moon to help me empower. Grant me thy magic during your eclipse hour," Crowley chants, letting everyone touch Azul's cane. "Goddess of the moon, I beg of thee! Set these girls free! Goddess of the moon, set these girls free!"
Everyone simultaneously chants the last bit of the spell, and the lunar eclipses light shines directly on the girls with its full power. All the girls let out a beastly scream as beams of light the color of their hair shoots into the sky. Their bodies look ghostly, and their eyes are soulless.
"Goddess of the moon, set these girls free!" Azul screams, putting all his power into his cane.
"Stop it! You're killing us!" The girls' shriek, their bodies switching between water, human form, and mermaid tail.
"Don't listen to a word they say! If we stop now, there's no hope for them!" Crowley yells, hanging onto the cane as typhoon winds swirl around them.
The boys continue to chant, and fire goes around the girl's circle. The mermaids let out a demonic scream as the last of their pain was over. They regain their human appearance and fall to the ground as typhoon winds, water, and magical energy explodes around them. Crowley, Crewel, and the boys fly back as the explosions force travels through the island.
Azul POV
My vision is blurry and shaky. My ears are ringing like an alarm. I slowly stand up and stumble my way to Yuu. I pick her upper half up and try to shake her awake.
"Yuu, wake up. You're back to normal," I say to her still body. "It's time to wake up, we've school tomorrow, and we've tons of adventures to do with our friends."
Yuu's body remains unmoving, and then I notice her cold and flaky skin.
No. No. Nononononononono. This can't be happening.
"Yuu, it's time to wake up! It's not funny!" I yell, shaking her. "You have tons of time left in this world!"
I lay her down and began CPR. No matter how many times I do chest compressions and breathe into her, she never wakes up.
"Oh no," The girl with brown hair says, her voice breaking.
Three girls stand around me and give me sorrow-filled looks.
"Azul, I'm sorry. She's gone," Crewel states, trying to pry me off of her.
"No!" I yell, compressing her chest more.
"I don't know i-if we could help, but I might know a way," A girl with curly blonde hair suggests, beginning to cry. "Cleora, Emmeline, remember when that girl got frozen in the fridge at the restaurant? So, we revived her by warming her body up and moving her blood. Maybe we can do the same process for Yuu?"
"I can try, but we need to hurry," The brown-haired girl says, crying through her words.
The brown-haired girl and the girl with curly hair walk over to Yuu, hovering their hands over her. Yuu's skin begins to warm, and her skin regains its color. I feel the blood pumping through her veins, and a soft, beautiful breath leaves Yuu's lips. Her chest rises and sinks.
"Thank you! Thank you so much!" I cry as tears rapidly fall down my face.