Chp. 5 - Our Final Hour
The campfire crackled before me, Ren finishing with her medical care for me long ago, now I let my scarlet eyes linger on the embers. We posted our camp just outside the monastery, the wind chimes singing their alluring song while the stars lit our world with their glare. I continued to jot down notes on Valstrax with a solemn face, taking a bite out of the fish that Mira collected for us. Herself munching away on another beside me in her Mizutsune form, the deceitful stowaway against her stomach, drinking while staring up at the stars.
"Y'know, today marks the strangest time of my life, and I've had some strange stories - ever meet a pony with two metal legs and an eye? His sword could split whole hillsides in two with a flick!" He whisked the air with his hooves, clopping them before he fell back, Mira reverting back to her pony state. "Could've warned me, Short-Stack."
She stuck her tongue out but chose to sit next to him, curious eyes wide with wonder. He lowered his forehooves, having expected her to blast him with another water beam, "What other things?" Her tail wagged as he blinked, chuckling.
"W-well, I can share a few, met a mare who could control ice, turn even the hottest day into winter with just a breath!" He proclaimed happily, and he wasn't lying, at least from his perspective, besides, Mira looked positively enthralled so I won't ruin her fun.
"Nice work-" Ren pipped up next to me, taking a sip of her personal ale while Topaz mulled over her mission reports, jotting down her own documents for when we returned. And that was a murky 'when' given our only progress was the death of a nomad dragon. "-Looks just like his marking from the Guild."
"'It is,'" I agreed, shading the symbol of a Valstrax pouncing, wings and tail curled downward. "'When it comes to carpentry, survival, and remembering hundreds of Monsters and their abilities I'm your man or Lucario in this case.'"
She placed her helmet on the log, stroking her pearl-white bangs. It was strange how similar she and Summer were, say for the shorter hairstyle. Her rough hand slapped my back. "Hey, don't sell yourself short! I'd have loved to have met you in the Old World, maybe then I could get over my pyrophobia faster." I heard that, despite her improvement, Ren still feared large fires, that Glavenus she and Topaz fought was a small step, and that was months ago.
"'I'm afraid of isolation, cramped spaces too,'" I admitted, closing my book. "'What really matters if how we chose to confront those fears instead of neglecting them.'"
"You said I could live up to the title of a Hunter," Topaz butted in, not once lifting her head while her magic held out pages for her to inspect. "Even if I was doubtful of myself, you still saw that in me."
She stared for a moment longer, then nudge my shoulder to offer a comforting grin. "Appreciate that you two - though I think one of us needs to take their own advice; eh Wolfman?" Her finger prodded forward through the flames.
"'I know...'" I sighed, admitting defeat as I slumped on my seat, seeing the lone figure closer to the edge about one hundred yards from the camp. My stomach knotted, "'But how do I face that?'"
Ren folded her arms, pursing her lips. "Can't say, I'm not a romantic," I slumped further to the ground had her hand not petted my head. "But, as your awesome friend, I think if anyone can confront that hurdle, it's you, and only you."
What was there to lose? Sucking in my breath, I stood up as her hands clapped for me. Mira, alongside Jack, observed me too, with the added detail of a Topaz's presence against my back as I left the camp to find Yui enjoying the moonlight alone. I rubbed the coral necklace gingerly, praying for some of that luck Yui blessed it with.
The waves struck the base of the cliff, the endless curve of a dark horizon with a sky dazzled by distant stars and Luna's moon. Yui kept her hood down, turning to look at me with a blank expression that slowly warped to a smile. "Doing better, dummy?"
I rubbed my nape sheepishly. "Yeah, I deserved that," Sitting down next to her I hung my legs over the edge. "And you?"
Her left shoulder rolled. "A little sore, but manageable - huh?" She blinked as I wrapped both my arms from the back across to her chest, a soothing, baby blue light shimmering over her bruises, reducing their swelling and leaving my girlfriend in a state of serenity, coughing into her hoof. "Thank you, Zen."
"Anytime," I winked, pulling away to fiddle with my paws. "And... sorry for making you worry again."
"Same," She chuckled, playing with the dirt by her hooves. "I guess I've just gotten a little protective that I'm always forgetting you're like a hundred times stronger than a pony." Her mirth lifted my spirits slightly.
"It keeps me grounded though - I'm not invincible, I think that's what Taka drilled into my head before we parted ways - or what she wanted to say," Not much could've been spoken before the connection was torn apart, her aura hazy but Taka's always meant more than what her brash personalty told. "I could honestly use some of her 'tough love' one more time," I crossed my arms, holding one finger up with a stroppy face. "Ahem, 'Don't go whining 'cause you got hurt, buck up and keep moving, you shut-in neet'! Something like that."
Yui giggled into her hoof, "Didn't you work at your parents' place, a cafe, right?" Nodding, I scratched my cheek.
"Yeah, but I spent my holidays locked in my room playing games, only time I ever when outside was to my own benefit or if the others insisted," I admitted with a nervous grin. "My living conditions weren't something to aspire to."
She laughed with me, rolling her eyes... or one visible eye. "Try explaining to my parents why my room was littered with junk I argued was 'treasure' when growing up," Yui rubbed her forehead with a groan. "Luna above... my Grandad just laughed as my Dad was trying to make heads or tails of how I snuck so much stuff past two ex-Night Guards."
"So we both weren't social creatures, no wonder we're perfect together," I mused, choking a bit at that last part considering why I sat here.
She nuzzled my arm. "Wouldn't have it any other way, my Guardian." She cooed at my blush - she's gotten far too good at this flirting.
"Stop beating around the proverbial bush," Looking around, no one bothered us, not even Topaz nor Ren snooped around in the dark. We were alone in the moonlight. This scene, it... was breathtaking. Not even a tremor or vocal deep below the earth. "She's right there, tell her."
I laughed a little, lifting my head. "You know, a part of me still thinks I'm about to wake up," Was that silly? Probably, but given how surreal this world is can I really be blamed? "That I'll be laying upside down off my bed, staring through that crack in the blinds as all this fades to a vague memory," A shiver of fright passed through me. "It's scary - especially when we're up against something as terrifying as an ancient Elder Dragon."
Before I allowed Yui to act on her pained look, I held up my finger. "However! Even if by some minute chance that were true..." I lost myself in her alluring gaze, smiling gently. "I wouldn't forget a single thread of it, and, I'll live this fantasy for as long as I can, to... the very ends with you."
Seeing Yui's expression rise with a hint of crimson was always great to see because there is no possibility in my mind that her smile wasn't real. And... I knew what I wanted to ask, I had to because she's worth risking over stupid, destructive thoughts. Months I've sat like this, questioning every little detail like it was the meaning of life or something. It really just boiled down to one simple fact. A scary one, but that was okay.
Failing to suppress my own anxiety, that, and the blood rushing to my face as I fiddled with my scarf. "Y-Y-Yui, can I-I ask you a question, j-just a small one?" I pinched my claws close while she giggled.
"Like you had to ask," Her wing motioned for me to ask away.
"R-right, I-I-I wanted to know - erm, wanted to ask i-if you - um..." My words were like needles in my throat, twisting in my chest. Say it. "I wanted t-to..." Say it!
The moonlight refracted off the ocean below, the bioluminescent algae casting an undertone of sky blue under her body. She looked... stunning, smiling at me patiently without a hint of worry to trickle off her soul. I closed my mouth, hand taut at the object I kept hidden under my scarf.
"When this is over, I was hoping Celestia would help me and Ren finally make good on establishing a Hunter's Guild here, heh, I can't fight every monster alone, not forever that is," The reality was clear, but that wasn't what mattered. Not even the threat we faced; only her. "But, before that... Yui..." Just say it...
Her smile was calming. "Take your time," I felt my throat collapse, did she know? "I will always wait because you did for me so many times."
I was scared.
Something warm held onto my shoulders, it was brief, but a strange pressure calmed my nerves with their presence. As though five hands pushed me onward down my own road again. I swallowed a lump I never noticed.
But I was done waiting.
The moon didn't really capture the same sight as the necklace embroiled with silver. At the centre was a matching ring. It took countless days of trial and error on my part to find the exact gemstone I needed but it was worth it, Rarity is the best. Like my own, before her hung a pristine, silver ring with an amethyst centre infused to the metal, the gem filling the middle of the ring perfectly.
All or nothing, "...will you marry me?"
To my confusion, Yui giggled behind her wing. "I told you, you're cute when you're flustered," This again, really? My subtle deadpan only made her laughter last a few seconds before taking her wing down, face overflowing with affection that could kill. "Of course, you dummy."
"Could do without the insults, this is taking all my will not to curl up into a ball." I winced as she bent her head, allowing me to apply the necklace as she did with me a day ago. Once fitted, the light caught on the amethyst as it did with mine. A matching pair. "Consider this as a token of our bond." I winked; though Yui continued to admire the precious gem in her hoof, I didn't read her aura this time.
"Always," Yui was on me in a heartbeat, wrapping her hooves around my neck tightly while nuzzling my collarbone. The largest weight of all felt paper-thin now it could've been humorously. Embracing the treasure hunter, I closed my eyes, enthralled in only her on this mysterious island. "I love you..." She whispered.
"Love you too, always," Replying equally in the moonlight.
The next day we returned to the monastery to investigate further, Topaz, and Yui armoured up for whatever was ahead. Yui attached to my hip the whole way though I didn't mind one bit. Her tail intertwined with mine as the aftermath of our battle with Valstrax left quite the scars across the lost civilization that marked the very beginning of two worlds colliding. "It's strange, there's not much else to find other than what's in the buildings..." Yui frowned, rubbing her chin. "Any luck!?"
"No dice!" Topaz waved from the left-hand side.
"Place doesn't have much value, all of its been reduced to dust," Even Jack was stumped, tossing a rock back down a hallway as he sat on the steps. "Face it, One-Wing, no pony's left anything for us but a few paintings and bones if we're lucky."
Though Yui's expression said otherwise. "That can't be right, this place is too significant in history to us... stop?"
"He's got a point-" Ren shrugged, leaning against a pillar. "-this island's been collapsing by the looks of things so whatever might've been here's fallen to the bottom of the ocean."
It was a disappointment to be sure, yet, I shared Mira's unwavering lower. "'Where's that song?'"
My question stopped everyone dead in their tracks. Mira opted to speak. "I had to come here, it called to me, but it stopped yesterday when we arrived."
"'Not a single tremor either,'" I reminded them. Nothing stirred since, rather, it didn't need to.
"Say, this any good?" Jack, who appeared to have wandered off during the moment, waved a large scale at us. At first, I thought it was one of Valstrax's, though Mira's reaction to slapping it from his hoof was worrisome. "Okay, rude, what did I do this time?"
"'That worries me when you say that...'" I muttered off to the side.
"Elder Dragon, very old," She hissed at the scale. Upon closer inspection from all of us. Ren looked lost, unable to place it while lifting the object. It was a pale, sickly yellow hue, a tint of white around the edges. What startled me was the energy that lingered much like Safi'Jiiva's. Potent, and ancient. "It's here..."
"Huh, that serious? Well, guess I'm tagging out," I blinked, following his hoof waving us away. "I ain't got the methods to take on some dragon, heck, that one you fought before nearly blew half the mountain atop me and Capy over here - I ain't takin' that bet with my life."
"'Jack, wai-'" I murmured, meeting his emerald orbs that gleamed with earnest.
"I'll level with ya, I only came here for my own gain, least I can do is keep your gear from tumbling into the ocean, right?" Jack grinned, heading toward the exit. "You guys just do what you gotta do - I'll get a good seat for the show."
"There it is..." Topaz grumbled.
"Be careful..." Mira's worry was met with his eye over his shoulder.
"Ditto, Short-Stack," His tone was softer though, taking his leave of the battleground.
"If he's anything like me he'll know to handle himself properly," Yui assured the resident leviathan, turning to me. "Zen?"
Shaking my head, I felt nothing. "'Not even a shift'" It was unlike any Elder Dragon I've seen, masking its aura so easily it made me appear as though I were an amateur. "'All the signs point to this island but now there's not even - wait'" Placing my paw on the cobblestone, I pushed my aura downward, focusing solely on everything under then the surface of the mountain instead.
Deeper and deeper, my senses punctured the crust, slithering through caves and stone for more than subtle signs of life-
!!!
My whole body let out a shutter, almost forcing me to empty my stomach from the tremendous force that called back, crashing into my chest. Terror threw my body back into Ren, the song's deafening wail louder, permeating the cliffs from every direction. "Zen - the song!" Yui helped me sit upright with Ren, wiping the sweat from my trembling brow. "Zen, look at me, breathe..." Her words helped me focus again, drawing back my overloaded senses. "Where is it?"
"'U-under us,'" My words dropped an anvil in our hearts, the song increasing in volume, distant spires quaking from the force that split the earth from below. Picking myself up, I coughed, "I-I'm good... oh boy," Shaking off my stupor I soon heard the pinkish skies howl with a foreboding melody, one that wailed and dipped like a song of death. The very tune causing the dirt under my paws to tremble. Ren quickly stood with Topaz, hand clasping her sword while said guard kept her flank against the woman's leg as the ground shook harder. "I remember now..." My eyes widened considerably, enough to make my throat dry. "It's Him - brace yourselves!"
*BOOOSH!*
A great shadow enveloped us all under two large, rocky hands curled in the sky from the earth. Their thick digits fanned wide with another deathly howl from the beast before the tips sunk into the earth, tearing half the temple's plateau down with it, shattering the foundations of the mountain like glass. The only thing I could sense was rage, pure and everlasting hatred that tore through the crust and broke apart the edge of the land. Once the appendages sank away, I scooped Yui as Ren did with Topaz, the two of us bracing for the sudden loss of gravity as the ground under us jutted upright.
The large drop below was a haze of dust and debris, the two of us sliding toward the edge until it broke apart into pieces. I leapt to the right, rolling down the slab until I could propel us onto a smaller rock and back onto a thin road of granite and across to another segment before rolling down and across solid ground again. Ren wasn't far, performing the same landing as I with Topaz looking a little greener but safe. Setting Yui down she smiled graciously at me, turning as I did to face the shadow over us once more. Mira in her monster form, shaking off the rubble from her back.
"This is it, huh?" Yui murmured, I just nodded dumbly, conjuring Bone Rush in a heartbeat.
The massive, angular digits threshed, discarding the remaining debris and dust with a subtle vibration in the air that tickled my feet. The Elder Dragon was armoured head-to-toe in thick rocks, sand, and other minerals. The form of its head is mostly impossible to make out. Most distinctively, instead of wings, it had adapted its appendages into a four-fingered hand-like structure. The 'hands' folded against its sides as it roared down at us, the very vibrations splitting the earth slightly under us.
"The Earth-Singing Wyvern-" I grimaced, my body roaring crimson with a pair of astral swords above us. "-Shara Ishvalda."
"Hahaha, let's put an end to this melody!" Ren grinned challengingly. I couldn't agree more, rubbing my ring sharply.
To Be Continued...
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I'm awake at an ungodly hour, and this fits right in to my schedule.
Let's get this fight rolling~
10935801
I dunno if I should be grateful or worried. But yeah, final battle next time~!
I was expecting Dire Miralis or Zorah Magdaros to be honest. Mostly because you never actually kill Zorah, the best you can do is lead it away.
11233867
I had a lot to consider. Zorah was massive for a finale but he didn’t really do much. Dire Miralis was a no go since he’s a Black Dragon which none of them were prepared to fight.