Chapter 5 ...Unleashed.
Cave entrance.
"Are you certain she is alright? It has been two weeks by now."
"Very certain Ishorn. The courting band gives both of us a bond, that enable us to either contact or feel the presence of the other. And I can still sense her presence going strong down there. If she where hurt or dead, I would know." Tirek said to Ishorn, while at the same time looking at his 'courting band' on his wrist. He was also still in his short-horned, but still visibly muscular form. Local beasts did not possess that much edible magic and was too dangerous to go in the yeti territory, just to get a little more.
"Well, let's hope she comes back soon. I know that snakes can fast a long time, but they do still need to eat."
After waiting ten minutes longer, they saw a light approaching from the darkness of the cave. Soon enough the light was revealed to be a flame held by a familiar serpentine being. Even though Ishorn for some reason was for a moment expecting it to be a lantern held by something short and green with a knife. She had no idea where the said thought came from.
Returning to the returning Naja, she looked a little bit frazzled, most likely due to not washing for two weeks, and maybe partially due to something happening during the meditation. What drew both of their attention, were her eyes. They seemed oddly... Empty and devoid of emotion.
"Naja? Are you alright??" Ishorn inquired worriedly. Even Tirek looked worried.
Instead of answering, Naja stopped in front of them and lifted one of her hands, one with the courting band on, with the index finger pointing up. Said hand also had a ring on the middle finger, that looked like it was made out of braided, hardened root, with a small green crystal on it. Seconds later, something looking like a tiny, lightly glowing soap bubble appeared at the top of the pointing index finger. With a gentle flick, Naja sent it towards TIrek, who in turn managed to caught it in his hand, now looking a little confused. He also sensed a potent magic pulsing in the bubble looking thing.
"Have a taste..." Naja said with a quiet deadpan voice, with absolutely no emotions behind it.
After a moment of hesitation, Tirek carefully absorbed the given magic. And almost instantly felt a HUGE rush of power flowing through his body, barely managing to keep himself from roaring out from the power that felt equal to almost all of the magic of Equestrias ponies, minus the alicorn magic, and Discord's put together. Only given all at once.
After the rush faded, Tirek felt both stronger and bigger. And a short look over revealed that he was now the same size and form as he was during his fight with the Princess of Friendship, which also was head taller than Naja in her 'standing-position', minus his horns.
"So? Ho did it taste?" came a question from Naja, still in the emotionless deadpan voice.
"It feels absolutely marvelous." Tirek said coming down from his strength boost induced rush.
"Good. Now c'mere." Naja said, before she suddenly grabbed Tirek's beard and pulling his head on the level with hers and proceeded to kiss him, surprising both him and Ishorn. He also found out that Naja had a surprisingly long tongue, as it explored almost the entirety of the inside of his mouth. And it lasted almost a full five minutes. Or at least it felt like that.
After those minutes of tonsil hockey passed, Naja finally let go of Tirek's beard, while withdrawing her lengthy tongue back into her mouth.
"Well, looks like you enjoyed it as much as I did." Naja commented in a much happier tone. Even the emotion had returned in her eyes.
"Sooo... What exactly happened down there? And where did that tongue wrestle came from?" Ishorn asked carefully. Tirek was still coming down from the high caused by the kiss.
"To put it simply, I did attract some little help." Naja answered, showing her green crystal equipped ring, before continuing.
"And I decided to spend some additional time to try and acclimate to it a bit better. It went quite well too. Only thing is that in order to wield its power properly in a way we need, I have to be empty of any emotions. One drop of, lets say joy or excitement, while casting and we're just eradicating everything around us..." She said the the end part of the explanation in a grim tone, clearly being very serious about it.
"A-and the kiss?" came a careful question from now lucid Tirek.
"Other than the fact that I like you? The mental state of absolute emotionless, required for the proper use of this magic, is quite hard shake off just on one's own willpower. So I simply needed a little push to regain my normal mental state. And what better way than giving a nice big passionate smooch to my well bearded centaur?" marilith explained, while twirling a finger around a tuft of centaurs beard in a pretty loving fashion.
"...Understandable."
"Good. Now how about we get some food? I did spend, what, two weeks in there. So obviously I'm a bit hungry and needing some fuel."
Three eating and proper rest including days later before the Wall...
"So Naja. What do you intend to if this for some reason does not work?"
"Well Ishorn, I just might just take my swords and dig a fricking tunnel through a mountain."
"I see... Shall we stand back a bit?"
"That would be for the best. And I might need help again to get back to normal state of mind, soo... Tirek? You know what to potentially do if I can't 'come back' on my own."
"Understood."
Having now prepared as best as she could, hoping things had not gone overly bad back home since the letter, Naja slithered to 'stand' on the edge of the hill, looking at the shiny wall of crystal, stubbornly blocking her path back to south. Just add a carving of a hand with the middle finger pointing up and it would be just perfect...
But she managed to push that image out of her mind, and began to push away the rest of her thoughts with emotions in them. Outwardly she looked like she was concentrating hard with her eyes closed, but internally she was going through the same tough mental wrestle she went through in the last two weeks to be able to cast the spell without it becoming overly destructive. Potentially to the entire valley...
Finally she reached the state of complete emotionless, which could be once again seen in her eyes. This was followed by Naja lifting her arm with the materia equipped ring and pointing it towards the Wall, making once again the glowing bubble of magic appeared at the tip of her fingers. Unlike the one she gave as a snack for Tirek, the power in this could be felt with relative ease. And it was almost terrifyingly strong..
With the flick of her finger, Naja sent the 'bubble' towards the Wall. When the bubble of magic touched it, it simply erased the parts it made contact with from existence. The crystalline construct tried to close up the damage almost instantly, only for fixing-parts disappearing when they touched the bubble. Finally it reached the center section inside the Wall and stopped, while having its little hole in there.
"From the deepest pit of the seven hells to the very pinnacle of the heavens, the world shall tremble... Ultima... Erase."
The chant seemed to echo a bit, despite it being half whispered. And following the words, the bubble she sent earlier began to grow in size, erasing the Wall bit by bit. Eventually the effect could seen far, due to the Ultima's bubble having erased at least a third of the Wall by now. And the spell had also began to take its toll on Naja, making her visibly sweat a bit and her held arm had also began to shake a little.
'If I stop now, it just means I have to try again...' she thought, managing to keep herself in the required state of emotionless. Deciding to amp it up, she raised rest of her arms in a pattern, making join in with the ringed one. This made her spell visibly speed its expansion, erasing the Wall even faster. It also seemed to cause mild bleeding from her nostrils. And yet she managed to keep her face calm and stance stable.
Finally she folded all of her arms across her chest, making the bubble shrink momentarily, before quickly spreading them to her sides in a wide arch, which made the Ultima's bubble to spread by the entirety of the pass, wiping the Wall, which was attempting to fix itself yet again, away from this plane of existence completely, down to the last dust mote of it. And so with a tiny *pop* sound, the spell ended, leaving the pass completely open, as it once was.
Naja merely let out a breath she had held in since the finishing moments of the spell, still feeling nothing emotionally. She could feel the cold wind pass her, which gave her a tiny bit of her healthiness back, thanks to the Ice and Elemental materias. She also could hear someone approaching her from behind, most likely Tirek and Ishorn.
"It is done... I hope your folk will enjoy retur-" Naja began in a deadpan tone, before being interrupted by a pleasant 'chill' down at her lower back, and moving up to the nape of her neck, making her body lightly shiver out of momentary pleasure, while restoring her emotion back to normal state. A turn of her head revealed the source being Tirek's thumbnail gently moving up on her upper spine, or on her humanoid-part to be more accurate.
"...Do something like that on my whole length, and you got yourself a bride." Naja commented with half-lidded gaze, while giving the horned centaurs rear end a playful smack with the tip of her tail. The reactions where a short blush from Tirek and a snicker from Ishorn.
"Now if you all excuse me, I'm gonna faint for now."