//------------------------------// // Act 4 Chapter 21 // Story: Collision Code // by SSJRandomMaster //------------------------------// Act IV: Climactic Collisions Chapter 21: The Tortured Souls’ Will -------------------------------------- Corey and Norma stared each other down for what felt like forever. The sun still continued to shine over the city of Canterlot. Norma continued to float over the crater she’d made, mere feet from Corey. Corey stood his ground, not knowing exactly what Norma would do—or could do, in her condition. She looked even more crazed than she’d sounded earlier…   If she’s taken his magic, just what can she do with it… Corey thought. Norma’s arms began to move, slowly, into position. Then, on both hands, she snapped her fingers, her runes wildly flashing outwards from her hands. Then, Corey let out a gasp as the ground at his feet suddenly began to sink.   Q-quicksand!? Corey thought, glancing down as the ground began to swallow him up. It was true. Within a ten yard radius of him, all the ground began to shift and pulse as though it were made of liquid. It was swallowing him up quick. Quickly, Corey raised his gaze to the sky above, and closed his eyes in focus. A moment later, his aura began to resonate with runes as well, and before long, Corey shot upwards. The quicksand pool at his feet stretched as he began to go against its pull, but before long, Corey pulled free of that as well.   Norma’s eyes tracked him as he flew upwards, before stopping when he stopped. To Norma’s initial surprise, he stayed there, floating in the air, supported by nothing. Then, her eyes adjusted, and she could see clearly that the runes were still there.   “A spell that lets you fly at the expense of your magic…” Norma muttered, “Just how much more do you plan on dragging this out?”   “As long as it takes until you’re back in Tartarus,” Corey said.   Norma snarled, and began to follow him into the air. Corey took notice of how she moved. At first, her movement into the air was sluggish, slow, but she soon gained speed. Before long, she was eye-level with him in the air. Corey slowly began to pull back, making some distance. As soon as he started moving back, Norma raised both of her arms again, snapping her fingers as rapidly as her body would allow. A plethora of air pressure waves, as sharp as ever, began to make their way towards him. However, where before she was able to keep them to some level of consistency, Corey couldn’t help but notice that these all varied in size.   Regardless of what it meant, though, Corey understood these were still deadly, and began to weave through the air to try to avoid them. However, he soon realized this wasn’t going to work when he noticed the blades were 1) too numerous and 2) seemed to be following him. Quickly, Corey charged magic into both of his hands, the surplus magic working in his favor to keep his other spells active.   He slammed his hands together, creating a massive shockwave that extended out all around him. The disturbed air slammed into Norma’s attacks, destroying most of them. The bigger ones convulsed considerably and spun off course, either slicing into the ground or dissipating into the air they came from. With the airspace clearing up, Corey soared towards Norma, cocking one fist back, aiming for a punch.   Norma’s eyes grew stern as she moved slightly to the left, dodging Corey’s left punch before she grabbed on to his wrist. She held onto it tightly.   “I seem to remember you didn’t have the use of an arm at the end of our fight,” Norma said, “I’ll just have to make absolutely sure you can never use it again!”   More of those wild runes began to travel down Norma’s arm into her hand as Corey fought against her grip. Her hand began to glow, and Corey could feel his wrist begin to burn. Abruptly, the burning stopped, and the runes that had collected in Norma’s palm suddenly shattered like glass, vanishing into empty air. Norma convulsed in pain, backing away from Corey as her arm twitched violently. Her teeth clenched and her eyes widened, but Corey was far from being sympathetic to her anguish now, opting to kick her away while she was dealing with the aftermath, sending her soaring away and letting gravity re-assert itself.   Norma flailed a little as she struggled to get her magic under control, trying desperately to regain flight before she would hit the ground again. Fortunately for her, she managed to emit a shockwave just as she passed the building tops, halting her descent. She then paused, looking to her arm. To her shock, what she was wasn’t her regular pony arm. The fur on the arm was gone, replaced with green scales, and as she ran her other hand over it, she felt how dry and…reptilian it felt. The fingers on that arm were replaced with sharp, draconic looking nails.   “What is this…!?” Norma shouted, but the sound of air moving got her attention, and she looked up to see Corey was rushing her again, magic concentrating into his fist. Norma began to focus magic into her fist yet again, and met his punch with her own. Their fists collided in the middle, and the resulting explosion of force sent both combatants flying back, the buildings around them crumbling and flying out in all directions as well. Corey emitted magic from his body to recover his trajectory, and then looked ahead. Norma was once again having trouble getting control of her flight.   “This is my chance!” Corey yelled, taking off after her max speed. Norma could only watch as Corey soared past her in midair yet again, and realized there was nothing she could do in time. She moved her arms into positon to try to defend herself, but wound up with a single foot slamming into her gut as opposed to two fists slamming into her face like she’d expected, and this sent her rocketing towards the ground.   Norma let out a scream as she willed herself to keep going; stopping herself inches from the ground with yet another earth-rending shockwave that left a decent-sized crater in the road she’d nearly slammed into full force. Quickly righting herself, forcing magic into her feet, she stomped hard on the ground.   Corey could only watch as Norma’s spell yielded…quite a few random things coming at him, really. Tree root-like structures began to extend from the crater that Norma had landed in, along with mucky, muddy tendrils that reached up hungrily for him. Corey snarled, beginning to take evasive action. The root-like structures were easy enough to dodge as they soared at him. The tendrils were harder to avoid. Corey turned around, seeing one chasing him. He blasted at it, causing it to heat up and crumble, but two more soon took its place. He turned around, trying to keep an eye on it, the whole way, but saw a tree root extend out in front of him abruptly. Corey slammed an impact-enhanced fist into it, blowing it away, but to do so, he had to slow down. No sooner than when he shattered the root, the tendrils that chased him coiled tightly around his feet, and snapped backwards like a snare.   Corey let out a cry of surprise as he was forcibly dragged through the air, then a grunt of pain as he slammed hard to the ground. The tendrils then began to drag him along the ground. Corey could hear the snapping of fingers, but it wasn’t until he stopped moving just yards from Norma that he saw and felt what she was doing.   Two brick houses next to him were rapidly being stripped of their mortar, which reached out and stretched his arms out. With his arms and legs bound, Corey fought to free himself. He looked ahead and saw Norma grinning, more of those multicolor runes shining off her body as she began to crouch down.   “This is goodbye…” Norma said. As her hands contacted the ground, several pillars topped with spikes began to stretch out of the ground towards Corey, who fought desperately to free himself. However, it turned out he didn’t need to.   To the fighters’ mutual surprise, the spikes suddenly began to veer off at odd angles, or stopping short entirely. A couple of the spikes managed to veer off course and stab through Corey’s bindings, freeing his arms and leaving him open to blast his legs free. He then rose up into the sky, firing a few magic bolts at Norma with one hand.   Norma stood up, runes writing in front of her. A barrier appeared, but to her surprise, it only reflected one before shattered, letting the others in at her. Forced to guard with her body, Norma screamed again, and doubled over. She could feel her legs changing now as well, and there was a horrid, searing pain in her back.   Corey could only watch, horrified, as he saw a fairly large, but single, angel wing with gray feathers push out of Norma’s back, tearing through the cloth that was there to do so. One of Norma’s feet became visible, resembling Lyon’s foot—claws tearing through the material that otherwise protected her foot.   Corey was transfixed by Norma’s mutation, but this transfixed stare of his turned out to be beneficial. He saw her move, lifting her reptilian palm to face him. Runes began to swirl into her hand, but what came out of her hand was anything but a deadly blast.   A confetti popper spontaneously appeared from her hand, and sprayed its devices uselessly over the road. Snarling from the uselessness of the spell, Norma pounded the ground. A few pillars began to shoot up out of the ground, but they were so much narrower than this. As Norma began to rise up again, she stopped, her body racking with pain even worse now.   “What…what is happening…to my body…?” Norma asked. She then stood up to her full height, a vein bulging from her head as she shouted in anger, “Why isn’t my magic working!?”   “Well, I’d hate to be the one to say that ‘I told you so’…” Discord chastised from within his prison again, seeming absolutely unbothered by the loss of magic he was no doubt experiencing, “Oh, who am I kidding, I’d love to be it. I told you so…”   Norma snarled. It was bad enough that she was having trouble maintaining control of the energy flowing into her, which naturally made Corey an even harder target.   “It seems you’ve bitten off far more than you could have hoped to chew in your lifetime, Para Norma,” Discord said, “Your body is mutating because it can’t handle the magic you’re feeding it. You’re losing control of the magic you’ve stolen from me because of the same reasons—“   “Shut up!” Norma shouted, “I will kill him… I’ll kill all of them! Just to prove a point, I’m going to kill every last one of them with your own pow—“   “No, you won’t!”   At the sound of Corey’s voice, Norma looked up, gasping. She was caught entirely flat-footed as Corey made his approach, and caught a fist to the side of her head. Corey threw out a volley of punches and kicks—attacks which, were it not for the mutations her body was undergoing, or the magic she had at her disposal, would have knocked her out otherwise—before ending it with another Impact spell to her stomach.   Norma’s ears began to ring and her eyes went wider than ever as she flew backwards from his spell, the force of the impact leaving a trench in her wake as she went. When she hit the building at the end of her trip, the whole thing crumbled on top of her. Her body began to overload with pain, her body felt like it was going to burst. All this, because her focus began to shift entirely from the situation at hand.   She was slowly beginning to understand that this unicorn…this worm, was besting her. That she was approaching her limit. That there was no way out of this one. That she, Para Norma, came so close, only to have it snatched away…   Corey approached the building, sensing Norma’s growing chill under the rubble. He braced himself, especially when he heard a rumbling coming from underneath the building. The rubble began to shift, and Corey could hear a shrill noise coming from it, which grew in volume.   Corey rose his arms and shielded himself with magic, debris flying everywhere as a column of multicolor energy spewed forth from beneath it. That shrill noise was Norma screaming, and as Corey got a good look at her, his eyes widened considerably. Norma’s body… she hardly looked like the pony she was anymore. Only her head remained mostly pony-like, save the single, bent horn that jutted out of her forehead and to the left. Her tail was no longer made of hair, but was now two different ones: a tiger’s tail and a fox’s tail. She now sported another wing, a tattered griffin’s wing. Her eyes began to emit white light, and her mouth emitted the most painful shrieks.   She’s lost control of Discord’s magic! Corey thought, It’s turned her into… that. And worse still…   Floating still, even as the column of magic faded, Norma continued to howl and convulse, runes shining off her body brighter and brighter.   She’s completely out of control… Corey noted, as the environment around him began to shift at random. He cracked his knuckles once, preparing for anything. Corey backed off, gaining some distance, when he noticed something above.   Black clouds began to soar in from nowhere, blocking out the sun. From within the cloud, bowling balls began to fall, and they fell in all sizes and weights. Corey wove between the falling objects, destroying them as they got too close. Realizing the danger the “falling object” clouds could pose, Corey charged up some magic into his palms. Lightning coursed from Norma’s body, forcing Corey to move to his left to avoid the bolts. Corey threw a charged orb, and then another, dispersing the dark cloud of objects before it could do much more.   Norma’s body began to convulse some more, and several bolts of energy began to fire from her body in all directions. Concurrently, the ground underneath her and Corey began to wave about wildly like it were made of water, changing designs at random as well. Two tornadoes of water stretched up from the now pond-like road, and began to launch off in random directions. The energy bolts began to impact random parts of the city, blowing up whatever they touched—and that was the simplest of what they did. Corey wove and dodged, willing not to get hit by any of it, specifically when he noticed a piece of debris come to life and run off all its own when it was struck.   “I have to stop this before it gets worse…!” Corey thought aloud, turning his attention to the shrieking Norma. She didn’t even seem to notice when Corey changed his course and made rapidly for her, and her magic continued to do whatever it damn well pleased, which was both a blessing and a curse for Corey’s progress.   Corey sped rapidly through the chaos that Norma’s out of control magic was causing, cocking his fist back. He threw a punch, but it impacted a barrier that spontaneously generated around Norma’s body. Snarling, Corey frontflipped, still flying through the air, coming down with both of his heels, making sure to apply a strength buff to his legs for extra power. This time, the barrier that spontaneously protected Norma did little to actually protect her, and Corey’s heels came down hard on the back of her head.   Her eyes stopped glowing, and her mouth stopped emitting the shrieks of pain; however, her eyes were blank, and her lower jaw was covered in drool. Norma’s signature fluctuated from Corey’s point of view, and Norma began to fall towards the ground, stunned, but Corey knew it was going to take a bit more than that to get her reign to stop.   Rushing down ahead of her, Corey waited, readying his body to continue the assault. For added measure, he applied the strength buff to his whole body, all of his muscles from the neck down bulging outward as he waited. He caught Norma in both arms and tossed her back into the air, leaping up after her in pursuit yet again. With Norma still stunned, he let loose a series of punches and kicks, which drew a few coughs and grunts from Norma as she finally regained her senses, but it availed her little.   Corey whirled around, charging magic into his right fist. This was no impact spell, but a spell that was sure to be an explosive attack nonetheless.   “This game is over, Norma!” shouted Corey, slamming it into her. Norma, now attached to a bolt of magic, began to fly away from Corey. Once Norma hit the ground, the magic energy detonated, leaving a crater in its wake that swallowed the road that she landed on, as well as the buildings closest to the impact zone, or at least what was left of them after her earlier loss of control.   Corey shielded himself as the blast went off. When he looked back, he saw a lot of smoke coming from the crater. Corey breathed heavily, letting his arms droop a bit. His dual aura still remained active. Something deep in Corey’s subconscious was telling him that it just wasn’t that easy. Yet, as he continued to look upon the crater, he felt the urge to ignore that voice grow.   Corey sighed a bit, letting himself relax just a little. There was no way Norma could get back up after an attack like that, right…?   A chill suddenly seized him, and Corey went on alert, looking around. He knew that chill very well, especially having fought against it continuously for this long. But where—   “Was this… the end of it… you had imagined?” Norma asked, and Corey turned, realizing the voice was behind him. He tried to create some distance, but Norma vanished from his sight, soon reappearing behind him yet again. Corey stopped himself, turning to face her.   Just what is it gonna take for her to stay down!? Corey thought, feeling his eye twitch with annoyance. He may have still had some magic to spare, but he was starting to get worn down.   “I must thank you for knocking some sense into me,” Norma said, “But I’m afraid your services will not be needed… nor will any other services that will come out of this city…!”   Norma rushed forward in a blur, and Corey turned his body slightly. When Norma reappeared, she had one leg drawn back. Her kick came in from above, impacting Corey’s right arm. Immediately, Corey felt and heard his arm snap yet again, and the kick also hit his ribs as well. Corey started falling to the ground as pain overwhelmed him yet again, but with his left arm, he managed to emit a burst of magic that slowed his descent enough to where he could land. He was now away from and below Norma yet again, crouching down as he processed what happened, coughing from the hit.   Looks like when I healed, it wasn’t enough to fix my bones entirely… Corey thought, They’re probably still brittle from being freshly healed…   Corey slowly looked up, seeing Norma looking down at him. She then raised both of her arms up, palms facing down at Corey.   “I can make my castle any time I please with the power I have now…” Norma said, “I think the best way to ensure you and the others don’t keep opposing me from here on… is to reduce this whole city to ashes!”   Corey’s eyes slowly widened as he saw a pulsing, color-changing ball of energy form over Norma’s hands. The energy still looked ridiculously unstable even as she formed it, but she seemed to not mind it. Corey didn’t know if he could chance waiting for it to backfire on her. Dodging seemed out of the question; though she was aiming it at him, it probably didn’t matter if he moved or not. She was going to wipe out anything. That meant that a barrier probably wouldn’t do the trick either…   “I have to…” Corey flexed his good arm, preparing his final attack. It was probably worn out already, sure, but he had no other ideas on how he could finish it. It was his strongest spell, after all. The magic surged towards his palm and swelled into a ball as he said the magic syllables.   “Ka… me… ha… me…” he said, looking up towards Norma. Norma looked down bemusedly at his efforts.   “Let this be the final clash!” she shouted, before letting out a scream, letting loose an absurdly wavy beam. It still moved forward, however, making rapidly for Corey’s direction. Corey brought his hand forward, his hand feeling heavy with the amount of magic he’d put into his spell.   “Ha!!!” Corey shouted, the white-yellow energy beam ripping forth from his hand to meet Norma’s. The beams met with such devastating force that anything within that quadrant of Canterlot was damaged just from the shockwave alone, and if there were any buildings left in the immediate area of the struggle, they crumbled to rubble and were blown away by the winds. The road crumbled in front of Corey, Corey’s attack acting as a shield for the area behind him.   Torrential winds battered the remaining area, and the surges from their attacks resonated throughout Canterlot and the surrounding areas. All the while, Corey and Norma struggled to maintain control of their attacks, the two beams pushing hard against each other as their commanders tried to overcome the other.   If I don’t end this quick it might not even matter if it was pushed back…! thought Corey, and began to call upon more magic, Please…there has to be enough in me and them for this to work!   Corey’s eyes shot open, and more magic surged into his attack, his hand recoiling for a moment from the force that was coming out of it. His beam grew larger, and began pushing back against Norma’s attack. Norma scoffed upon seeing this.   “Useless, useless, useless!” Norma shouted, bringing her hands back slightly before forcing more magic into her attack. The waviness of the beam slowed for a moment, but quickly sped up as her beam grew, the beam remaining under her control as it pushed back. Corey scowled. Just how much more did she have in reserve?   The point where the beams met began to center itself once more, neither one wanting to give an inch. Corey began to feel sluggish, his breathing coming in more and more slowly. He felt it, he was getting weaker. Over the rushing energy and the torrential forces rampaging around him, Corey heard Esper’s voice once again in his subconscious.   “C…can you… hear me…?” asked Esper, “We… we’re nearly out of power… Please, hurry…”   “What!?” Corey asked, more aloud than anything else.   Norma, above, gave another shriek as she poured more energy into her attack. Her beam began to push back against Corey’s more, pushing the point of contact ever closer to Corey. And as she watched this, she began to shout over the top of the winds.   “I have won!” Norma shouted, “Your futile resistance is just that, the dreams of a foal who has yet to learn his place! My only regret…is that I won’t get to keep any of you around as an example!”   Corey snarled, maintaining his beam, trying desperately to stave off her attack, but no matter how hard he tried to push back, all he could do was slow down her progress. The beam was very close now, Corey’s feet beginning to dig into the ground from the force pushing down on him.   It…it can’t end like this…! Corey thought, closing his eyes, trying to focus despite his rising panic. He had to find the power, and fast, but no solutions were coming to him. It was all he could do to slow down Norma’s attack, Can’t give up… can’t lose… can’t… let it… end…like…   Something called Corey out of his panic—the sensation of someone’s hand on his left shoulder. A few moments later, something came down on his other shoulder—a much larger hand. Corey turned his head, maintaining his attack, and saw a group of people he was almost sure was still back in the castle.   “You’re all here…?” Corey asked. Sure enough, they were. John’s hand was on top of his right shoulder, Twilight’s on his left. Everyone else had joined hands, forming a ring of sorts. Twilight’s horn was lighting up, and as he continued to look, he could see everyone starting to glow, even John.   “Awful hard to miss with all the pretty lights…” John commented.   “We said we’d finish this together, right?” Twilight asked, “Then that’s what it comes to.”   There was a collective “hmph” of agreement.   “So take what you’re about to get, and send it all at her!” Twilight said, and her grip on his shoulder increased. As soon as it did, Corey felt a spark trace through his entire being—it wasn’t a painful sensation. As the spark finally settled at his core, Corey understood at once what was happening.   “Thanks, everyone…” Corey said, returning his full attention to the struggle. He closed his eyes in focus.   Norma watched as her beam suddenly stopped just short of wiping everyone out. Her eyes widened. “No… this can’t be…”   There was a collective scream down below, and Norma saw her attack get pushed back yet again, and worse still for her, the beam that opposed hers was swelling at a rapid rate, looking less like the relatively calm energy it was at the start and looked like a geyser of pure power repelling her attack and sending it right for her.   “No… no…” Norma said, calling upon any shred of magic she could get, “You will not defeat me like—“   Norma’s entire body convulsed in pain yet again, and she suddenly felt very sluggish. Worse still, her beam destabilized entirely, vanishing into thin air. Corey’s attack gushed at her like a stream of high-pressure water. Norma’s pupils shrank to pinpricks as her eyes went completely bloodshot, and she let out a scream.   “Curse… you… all!!” Norma coiled up to try to protect herself, but it did little. The geyser of energy engulfed her, pushing her higher into the sky and further away, but not for long. Below, Corey broke his connection to the beam, letting the last of the energy flow into his attack. Once all the energy had gathered around Norma, it violently exploded. --------------------------------------- All throughout Canterlot, the light filled the sky, so bright it overpowered the sun. The guards and those who fought against Norma all shielded their eyes. The explosion took the form of a white star to those not within the city limits. Either way, eventually, the light died down. --------------------------------------- Everyone could only stand for a few moments, the light having finally cleared. Corey’s green aura, which had more or less consistently shrouded his yellow-white aura, had finally vanished. Corey’s second aura slowly began to shrink, his eyes flickering back to their normal colorations as he breathed hard. Everyone else, he could hear, was doing the same.   Corey took a couple of steps forward, staggering as he did so. He wanted to believe it was over, but after so many close calls like that today, he just couldn’t go much further. Staggering forward a few more steps, Corey clenched his fists, trying to steady himself.   My magic’s almost run dry, Corey thought, And my body’s about to give out… If Norma is still able to fight after all that, we’re in trouble.   “Corey… what are you…” Twilight panted. Corey turned, seeing the others in no better shape than he was. One by one, they were collapsing, only to be supported by one another.   “I have to be sure…” Corey said, “After all that we’ve put her through, after all that she’s done, I won’t stop until I know for sure she’s unconscious...”   Twilight shook her head. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think the same way…”   “Hopefully, I won’t be long…” Corey said, “And don’t worry. I think after today I’m going to break this habit of mine, running off…”   Corey closed his eyes, extending his sixth sense as far as it would allow. It was slow to get to its max range, and said range was reduced without the extra magic in him anymore. However, he eventually felt the cold that he couldn’t forget. Her signature was far weaker now, but given it was the only chill left it was unmistakably her.   “There she is…” Corey muttered, and a moment later, he was off on foot, following his sense.   Twilight looked on and sighed, finally sitting down, flat in the middle of the road. She needed the rest, but her mind wouldn’t let her. She tried to stand, but her body was too tired. Looking around, she could see the others hadn’t much energy to spare either.   “Please… let this be over…” Twilight muttered. --------------------------------------- Norma fell to earth, her body smoking. She remained covered by her clothing, but it was littered with burns and scratches. Her body itself had remained mutated, despite the fact she could feel no more magic in her—the “taste” of Discord’s magic was very distinct, after all. She numbly fell, and didn’t correct herself when she plowed full force into the ground. The force of the impact was strong enough to crater in the dirt she landed in. In addition, it also dislodged Discord’s orb from her clothing as well.   “Happy landings,” said Discord, as the orb he was in bounced and rolled on the ground. He didn’t care so much about that, “These orbs must be made of something strong if they’re able to withstand all that…”   He tried to snap his fingers to free himself, but found that it still didn’t work as well as he would have hoped. “I’d hoped to be able to at least be the one to drag her back personally, but it looks like I’m still stuck in her prison.”   For a moment, in the park they had landed in, all was quiet. Norma groaned and moaned, not able to do anything else in her current condition. Discord merely laid back in the orb, still waiting on whatever to happen.   Something did. Discord heard rapid footsteps, and he turned to see. Sure enough, there he was—the pony who persistently opposed Norma all day. Had he been told at any point before today that the dimensional traveler “Corey” would be the key to victory, he’d have laughed. Hard. Okay, maybe not today specifically, but…   “There…” Corey said, slowing to a halt. His aura was weak, but his augmentation seemed to be holding up very well.   “Hey, you!” Discord shouted. Corey looked around for a moment, walking towards his voice, “Yeah, a little closer, okay, stop… look down…”   “Oh, so you were the one getting under her skin…” Corey said, now looking down at the orb, “Was wondering where that other voice was coming from…”   “Yeah, but don’t give me too much credit. Or do, I don’t much care. I couldn’t do much to stop her from in here,” Discord said, “But you did it. You made her burn up a good deal of her stolen power. If ever there were a time you could make sure it ended, it’d be right now. Go ahead and give her one more for me, okay?”   Corey paused, reaching into his pants pocket and pulling out the orb he had stored there. “I just need to confirm something very quick…”   Tucking it under his left arm, Corey closed his eyes in focus and began to access that link Esper left for him, the link that let him receive advice as needed.   “Esper… Esper… are you all still okay in there?” Corey thought, opening his eyes as he did so. He could hear someone moving close by, and looked to see Norma, painfully dragging herself up from her prone position. His eye twitched, but he realized that Discord’s creed was true when he realized how sluggish her movements was and how no runes were appearing this time.   “Y-yes… I believe everyone in here… will live… so long as no more… magic is used…” Esper’s response came through, “Has Para Norma been defeated yet?”   “I’d say she’s as good as done… Should I go ahead and break this orb now? In her condition, I doubt she’ll be able to put up much more resistance…” Corey reported, keeping a careful eye on Norma.   “Once you do that, her other spells should cease to exist. If you are sure you will be requiring no further assistance, by all means, destroy it. That should free us from her pocket dimension since she will no longer have an ‘anchor’ to keep us there…” Esper said.   “Alright then…” Corey said, “I should be able to do it easily enough with any spell, right?”   “One solid impact should be the end of it,” Esper confirmed.   “Alright. Then here we go!” Corey moved the orb back in his hand, as whitish yellow runes began to gather in his hand.   “Stop…! Wait…!”   Corey looked to Norma, raising an eyebrow. Did she really believe he was going to stop after all this?   “Do you… understand that… if you break it, you won’t be able to go home again?” asked Norma, staggering forward a single step before sitting down, “I should be able to send you there… if I just get a little more magic…”   Corey stopped cold, his runes decreasing in number to near non-existence.   “Don’t be a fool!” Discord shouted, “She’s trying to play you like a fiddle…”   “Silence…” Norma commanded, breathing hard.   “Don’t listen to her! It’s what she wants!” Esper warned.   Yet, Corey stood still, eyes firmly on Norma. Of course he knew what he was about to do and what it meant, but…