Displaced: Crossing Roads

by Slendy

Chapter 16: Lumos, Joins The Hunt

"We know our weakness. So what will we do next? We'll get Stronger!" ~Natsu, Fairy Tail

To put what me and Pinkie were looking at, shit had gone sideways in the most colossal way. When we made it to the start of the village, equines ran into their homes and into alleys like usual, but the carnage was already heading our way, in the form of Ciphers. Their gold armour was easy to spot under the black clouds,

When we through the town, the world was casted into a black shadow, with the sound of broken windows and wood rattling the air. Chaos ran through-out the village as many ran and others fought off the purge of golden creatures, their spears shattering wood like gravity against the earth.

When we ran for the library, which was reconstructed apparently and given a fuck-ton of arcane defenses due to Twilight's persistence, but we could both see two Ciphers trying to break the door down, only for a shockwave to ripple across the door with a magenta glow. On the inside were probably a bunch of equines, since it was the next best defence, bar the castle.

"Pinkie, if you excuse me, I have some steam to blow off, please refer to the back entrance, thank you." I ranted to her, but when I looked, I watched her place a red cap on her head, before she 'literally' fell into a green plant-pot..... "What the fuck, Faust?"

Reference aside, I moved towards the first cipher grunt, before he turned in time to see my elbow dig into his helmet, before my arm planted his face into the bark of the tree, when the other took notice, I latched my arms around the cipher's neck, before I swung my leg up to tighten them around the second grunt. With a twist, the chilling 'snap' of its neck brought the second grunt down, before I spun atop the first grunt's head, before I twisted its head around completely before landing.

When I regained my focus, I quickly knocked on the door lightly, but only mumbled responded, so I sighed and just clicked my fingers, before I appeared before the group of equines inside, all displaying looks of terror at my being. Then I noticed Pinkie and my 'best friend', Skittles.

"You!" She yelled, pointing her hoof at me as I grinned under my mask

"Nice seeing you again, Skittles, howya been?" I mused, knowing she hated my guts far more, but that's nothing uncommon for me, so ignoring her cursing at me, I looked to Pinkie instead. "So, what's the status of the whole town, Pinks?"

"Lots-Lots-Lots-Lots-Lots of golden guys! But I saw a MUUUUUCH, bigger one near the center of town." Pinkie explained in....more normality than I expected, guess we all can't keep our heads in check during times of crisis

"Right, what about Gel and Selene? Did you see them?" I asked, before something punch my calf, so I turned and looked to see the familiar 'fake' equine before me, a book slowly turning pages in her magic. "Nethermind."

"I've set runes around this tree for added defence, due to the unknown source of their power, that proved to be nearly pointless." Gel groaned, before she carefully wrote more strange runes in the air before her. "What I fail to understand is, why now? What gain do they have here overall? Seems a little unorthodox."

"That it does...." I hummed, before I pointed to Pinkie again. "You said you saw a bigger Cipher in the center of town, right?" She nodded rapidly. "Was anything different about it, any symbols, weaponry, anything really?"

"Well....I think I saw-"

"Wait-Wait-Wait! Why should we even trust you!?" At Skittles' raised voice, many equines turned to look at us, whist Gel continued with her runes, but my eyes fell to the prismatic main character. "You don't care about us, so why bother, we can handle this ourselves, we don't need you!"

"...." I slowly shut my eyes, breathing slowly as I processed her words carefully, it was unusual for her to get smart, but this was different. "Because....every person who has a beating heart....deserves to live."

"I'm not regretting what I said, nor do I think I was right to say what I did. But if I can do one thing right, protecting people, than atleast I can be proud of something I did was meaningful, even for you, Rainbow." With my words spoken, I vanished in a flash of blue again

The Archon Cipher. His body was nearly the same height as the buildings around me; Covered head-to-toe in golden armour, whilst four blue eyes stared through the slits in the helmet, its four arms each held a naginata in their grasp, his magic-ether dripping from the cracks in his armour like venom. His chest was broad, and held a small pendant where his heart would be, I tried aiming for it, but to no avail.

I quickly flew high again, despite my wings flaring from the cut that ran down a section on my left wing, I couldn't fight it on the ground, not with the enchantments I had on me. I wore a few items I had enchanted to help me with defence and magical resistance, whist a bandana on my right hoof gave me increased physical strength, and a necklace gave my strikes an electrical discharge.

"Come....on*pant**pant*I can't give up yet." I strained myself to land far from its reach, whist its arms spun the naginatas through roofs and stalls like paper, but its eyes slowly moved in my direction, but I ran for cover, just as one speared the last location. "Ahh!"

I watched from over my shoulder as it trailed through the ground, throwing me, along with rock into the side of a building, pinning me in a dead end. I tried to move, but I cried out from the foot pressed against my chest, my head frozen at the sight of the monstrous, armoured creature. How? How could anyone make something like 'this' defend Equestria? It wasn't given life, it cares little for what gets in its way, the chaos and death it leaves is beyond salvation.

I could see it from here, the corrupted black flames it left in a scoring rampage, ruins of homes now laid in pieces before its destructive path, and now, my eyes followed its arms, the golden plates clanking against one another as they pulled the naginata, its silver, curved blade gleaming in the black sky before my head. This was it, I....I was going to....

*SHINK-CRACK-CLANG*

My eyes were closed at the impact the blade made, but it wasn't with me, I felt wind rush past me, but sound, feeling, emotion. I was still alive, despite the impossible odds of my enchantments holding against the force of its blade, so I slowly opened my eyes to the strained voice in front of me, then, my pupils slowly became pinpricks.

"Not happening....I won't let you.....lay a finger on her!" I watched Lumos yell, a magical barrier on his left arm, which currently strained against the weapon's might and the user, his legs were shaking, but he still stood before me. "I'd die before I'd let you hurt her!"

"One.....Million....Lux-Ruina!!!" Lumos screamed with agony in every word he spoke, whist I watched flakes of blood drip from his arms, whist the bandages on his arms seemed to tear from the build-up of energy within his right fist

"His body can't take the strain....he'll die!" I thought, as I tried to tell him to stop, but my voice wouldn't mutter a single letter. "He's....protecting me...."

When his words finally met his fist, the force shattered the naginata in the Archon's hand, each scrap of the Archon's arm disintegrated at the movement of Lumos', his fist traveling towards the Cipher's face, then, as if the word froze for a mere second, glass seemed to shatter at the contact between Lumos' fist and the Archon's face, the bloody, energized fist burying itself into the bone beneath the armour like mud.

I then watched in awe as the Archon Cipher flew into a flaming building with a sonic boom, shattering remaining windows around us with ease, before the shockwave created a crater scoring the earth where the Archon flew by, blue flames scorching the stone and dirt with fallout before us both.

"You...see, as long as I'm alive, it means I can fight." Lumos whispered, his fist hanging to his side, blood dripped from the broken limb like a fountain before he finally fell to his knees in front of me. "That's....why I do....what I do."

"L-Lumos." I felt tears beginning to cross my eyes, this feeling og joy rushing over me was enough for me to catch him with my hooves before he passed out again, his mask's eyes shut slightly as his head turned. "I-I'm sorry, i'm so sorry!"

"Don't be, i'm nothing more....than a degenerate, lying, backstabbing, god-awful person. But my biggest mistake, was thinking I was better off alone....again. Not this time, I'll make my decision, but I won't be selfish about it, you have my word. My good luck charm." Lumos both complimented and apologized, causing me to smile at the little glimmer of happiness again

"Sadly...." Lumos began, whist moving to his feet before me. "That only fucked him up once, I might need to do that again." He then pointed with his left hand at the wreckage, towards the hands that reached for the corners of the walls, trying to pull itself out. "One fist. One Punch."

"But that attack, your hand is completely broken!" I gaped, looking at the blood-stained hand to his right as it twitched, it was completely purple and black from the extreme amount of trauma behind it all, but instead his left clench tightly

"Don't worry, adrenaline is keeping me awake right now, got to use it quickly before I run out. If I beat him, than my drive is gone, that mean's I pass out, so I need to find his source behind this invasion, fast." Lumos panted, trying to keep his body awake for longer, he needed to rest, but....

"Wait." I spoke softly, whist the Archon pulled itself out completely, that's when I saw his heart, the glowing symbol upon it. "His chest, with the symbol, strike it!"

"Huh....guess I should have gone for its critical first." Lumos dryly humored himself, before his wakfu charged to his left arm again. "An eye for an eye, as they say."

"Please...don't die." I whispered to him, before I slipped something into his breastplate before he flew towards the Archon Cipher. Its helmet was torn into shards on the ground, revealing two massive, crooked eyes, pupiless as its jack-o'-lantern-like grin screamed at us both

"Great....I pissed it off." I thought to my near begging mind, knowing that my vision was beginning to turn fuzzy, pain coursed like a freight train, it burned my right arm, my legs were numb and fuzzy, pins stabbing by nerves over and over again. Agony consumed every sense

When I came close to its form, I quickly slid to my left, using my levitation to pull me around its arms, giving me an opening to its back, which I quickly floated up, avoiding one of its arms that crushed the ground beneath me, then I threw my feet into its back, breaching its armour with each heal-strike I landed, before I leapt from its head, spinning upside-down. Than my right leg came down in an axe kick, smashing its putrid face into the dirt.

An arm reached for my leg though, grabbing me, before it flung me into the ground, causing my body to roll and spaz from the impact of the ground, then the wall my back slammed against to stop my roll. When I looked up again, I was beginning to see dots in my vision, causing me to pull my shaking body to my feet, feeling raw pain pushing me back. That's when I saw the chain at my left, dangling from my chest-plate. It came back to me now....

"So....how is a small bracelet going to do any significant effect in a fight." It was a few weeks after we met

"Its significant! I just....have a harder time working with smaller objects, due to the careful amount of accuracy required and such!"

"Didn't answer my question, nor did I get any of that."

"*Sigh* If this was given to a person, the charm would give the user a will to go on, empowering their soul."

"'Their soul'?"

"Just remember this then. 'Nothing is more powerful...."

"....Than the 'human' soul on fire!" I grinned in unison to the memory, the energy in my left arm returning full force, but a new, crimson aura bonded with the wakfu's blue energy. When I managed to focus my vision again, I stared off at the Cipher before me, its body charging like a feral beast on five limbs

Tears continued to fall from my eyes in screams of pain and agony, my left arm quickly turned purple and black from bruising and fractured bones within my flesh and blood, yet the body of the Cipher screamed in defiance, whist the combined energy consumed not only the amulet in its chest, but everything from the shoulders-up was disintegrated at the spark that made contact with its hide, splitting its atoms into nothing.

The sonic-boom caused the clouds about us to shatter, blasting all remnants of shadow from the town, revealing the blue light of day that was gone for far too long, funny thing was, I don't think black dots were meant to be in the sky at this time. Then again, this is Equestria.

When I felt my knees contact the ground again, my body completely numbed, before my vision followed a descent towards the earth, but not once did I take my eyes off the sun above me.

. . .

. . . .

. . . . . . .

"Lumos, its time we talked."

To Be Continued...

Lumos: I thinks this makes....4 times I've [BEEP] myself up?

Selene: You were counting?

Lumos: Yeah....I mean, what else would I do?

Dash: Listen to us!

Pinkie: Hehehehe, why do that, when we can do the exact opposite!

Lumos: And like that, Pinkie proves why I like her more than 'you', Skittles

Dash: What even is that!?

Selene: *Sigh* Don't encourage him....