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Chapter 96: Risen From The Ashes "Where am I?" I looked around in surprise. I was hovering in the air above what appeared to be a corpse of a winged woman. Her wings were dull gray in colour, and there was a mutant porcupine-scorpion monstrosity crawling out of the room. "Who am I?" I wondered, then took a look at myself. My body was pale gray, as if I was a spirit of some sort. I descended to the corpse and tried to roll it over to see who it was, but my hands passed through it. "Am I......?" I stared at the now vaguely familiar corpse. "Dead?" Everything came back to me now. My name was Artemis. I was fighting the Ragnarok, otherwise known as the human Saevio, King of all demons. Previously he had used some kind of suppression magic to disable my fighting spirit and then kill me heartlessly. So how was I still in this world? I should have ascended to Heaven or descended to Hell by now. "You are not dead." The ...... My eyes flew open and I stood up, flexing my fingers. "Thank you, mum." I whispered as my previously dull-gray wings burst into flames and melded together into two long flaming wings. "There's a problem. I'm the only Inner Beast you have now since none of the others are capable of living through death except if the host gives birth. You'll have to make do with solely me. AND the goddess Artemis." Fielda explained. My hair turned orange. "She's here too?" I asked in surprise. "She's a goddess! She's immortal. Use your common sense." Fielda groaned. I chuckled lightly and flapped my After a few fruitless punches, I fell back and summoned the Godion Bow. It was the name of Artemis's Goddess Bow fused with my own Archaeion. The goddess's strength filled my arms as I nocked one single Soul Arrow to the string, aiming right for Saevio's heart and firing. The moment I released the string, the arrow had hit it's mark. Unlike my previous efforts, this one actually cracked the shell. The terror particles stopped. "Looks like you hit him where it hurt." Fielda chuckled. "I'm serious now, so don't get on my bad side. Oh, right, you ARE on my bad side." I smiled devilishly, and unleashed another flurry of arrows. This time, Saevio conjured up a magical barrier to protect himself, but every single one of my arrows caused the shield to crack wherever they hit. He grunted and abandoned the shield, utilizing the heavy armour on his claws to deflect the arrows. "I've got you now!" I shrieked, flying right at Saevio's neck and reaching out a blazing fist imbued with the I could feel the difference in power between me and Saevio now. My anger only increased my powers, and it grew with every punch, kick, or arrow I managed to land on the hulking beast. He was being cornered slowly now. Finally, with a mighty roar, Saevio flung me into a wall, but I was back on him in a second. He was getting offensive now, snapping his claws and pincers at me. It was getting harder for me to close in on him. Every now and then, Saevio managed to nick some skin off me, but it wasn't such a big deal. In fact, the wounds automatically healed themselves in a few seconds, accompanied by a small flash of light. My eyes were blazing with power now, and I was practically dancing around Saevio, dishing out punches, kicks and arrows on the fly. Finally, I managed to back Saevio into a corner. "This is for Alexis!" I shrieked, landing a hard punch on Saevio's chest. The shell cracked. "THIS IS FOR ARES!" I punched him in the exact same spot. The crack became wider. Then, I lost control. My body started moving by itself, completely punching up the cornered beast even as it roared in pain. The shell cracked entirely, and a couple of arrows easily sliced off the spikes. "GRAAH!!!" Saevio shrieked. I saw him trying to form a seal with two of his remaining claws and quickly cut them off. His eyes widened in horror. "IF YOU THINK I'LL LET YOU DO MORE MAGIC, YOU'RE WRONG!" I yelled, totally berserk. The Harbinger suddenly appeared in my hands as I flew down under Saevio's body. One quick stab pierced through the weakened shell and I flapped my wings as hard as possible, flying straight upwards. The Harbinger cut through Saevio's armour like a hot knife through butter, and sliced through his head. My wings relaxed and I started hovering in the air a bit further away. "Invincible my ass." I chuckled and loaded two huge arrow bombs. Both had power comparable to that of mini-nuclear warheads. A few seconds later, both halves of Saevio's body were burning. "Not...so...fast..." Saevio's voice suddenly rang through the air. I looked around, trying to find the source. There was a lone skull helmet hovering in the air. I nocked and arrow to my bowstring and shot at it. It simply dodged it and flew towards me, clamping onto my head. "Mental hijacking? I don't think so." I snorted, trying to tug the helmet off even as black veins started to creep down my forehead. This thing was slow, so it wasn't much of a problem. "Can't blame a guy for trying." Saevio shrugged as I tugged the helmet off and stamped on it, finally nocking another arrow to my string and blowing the helmet to pieces. I sank to the ground, exhausted but triumphant. "There's still something you need to take care of." Fielda said softly. I nodded and got up, aiming a shining arrow at the open Demon Gate. The arrow hit the Demon Gate's opening and went right through, causing the energy on this side to dissipate. Just as it went through, loud roars could be heard from outside. As the Demon Gate disappeared, I turned around and walked a few steps towards the exit before collapsing. ...... I woke up in a soft bed. "Huh?" I looked around. The Harbinger and the Godion Bow were lying on a nearby table, glinting in the sunlight. I smiled and caressed the bow's shaft. Suddenly, I noticed that someone was sleeping beside me. I rubbed my eyes. "Ares?" I mumbled, surprised. A low yawn from the mouth of the person confirmed it. "Hey, you know what time it is? I'm trying to get some sleep......" He moaned, getting up. I chuckled lightly and got up, noticing that I was wearing a pair of pink pajamas with a set of black lacy underwear underneath. I felt my cheeks turn red as I turned around. "Did you dress me?" I asked. Ares got up, rubbing his eyes. "Couldn't have you going out of the subway like that. You okay? Where's Alexis?" He explained sleepily. A solitary tear streaked down my right cheek. "She...... She took a magical bast for me." I started crying and Ares hugged me tightly into his chest. "At least you two did what you came to do." He patted me on my back. When I had finally stopped crying, Ares offered to bring me out. "The city was pretty much decimated, but the survivors are doing what they can do fix things up. The house we were in was the first one they managed to fix, and they insisted that we have it. You did save the world after all." Ares explained as I started taking off my pajamas. A quick thought produced a black vest and black shorts, which I put on quickly. "When I got down there, I found you lying on the ground naked. Sure looked like you had a big fight, the entire subway was demolished." Ares added as we opened the door and walked out. I flexed my arm tiredly. My entire body felt sore. The first thing I saw when I took the first step out of the house was a snowflake landing on my nose and a snowy white landscape. "It's Christmas by the way, and there's a present waiting for you." Ares laughed as "I've already been to Ellinia. It's ravaged, but Grendel survived, and the trees are growing back. The demons just...... fell over and disappeared after a sudden earthquake." Ares explained, reading my mind. "What about the other cities?" I asked. "All of the job masters survived and the towns are being rebuilt. Quite okay." He replied. Everyone the 9 of us passed by had their eyes wide open and were usually staring at me. Most of them cheered as I passed by. "A lot of people that evacuated to Orbis are coming back. The ships were too loaded." Kagome said. "Everything's fine now thanks to you. You should be happy. I'm sure Alexis would want you to be too." Timmy said. I had explained to the others about the big fight earlier on. At the mention of Alexis's name, a tear streaked down my cheek. "Yeah...... I guess she would." I looked towards the sky. An image of her face seemed to appear in the air for a moment. Suddenly, I vomited on the ground. "What?" I gasped. As far as I knew, I didn't have any health problems. Ares looked like he had seen a ghost. He quickly placed his ear to my stomach. The rest crowded around. He finally stood up with a happy expression on his face. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a baby." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A week later...... "Artemis, congratulations." Kagome announced. I nodded appreciatively and swung around, admiring my wedding dress. It was a long, flowing white one, with white roses all around the hem of the skirt. The white veil contrasted my black hair, but it was really nice. Ares walked into the room in his own wedding suit. He held his arms out. "Well?" He smiled. "Very nice." I laughed, hugging him tightly. This cathedral was the very first one in Kerning that the survivors had managed to rebuild. Of course, it was a little patchy in a few areas, but it was fine. For the occasion, almost the entire city was present. My friends were in the very front rows, while the surviving Heaven's Elite members milled around behind them, chatting in excited tones. The Three Brothers were all in casts and they couldn't wave without hearing something crack. Lightning and Fury were professionals at dodging and only suffered minor injuries. Dray had his right arm in a cast, and waved with his left hand. Kyrios was bouncing up and down in his seat, and he fell off a few times to the other people's amusement. Lopez wasn't present again. He had been missing for the past week and had been presumed MIA. Most of us were to reluctant to pronounce him dead, but I believed that he had probably gone off to train. Somewhere in the "Acchooo!" Lopez sneezed as he was loading a crossbow bolt into place. Okay, enough with all the sneezing stuff. Back to Kerning...... The wedding went on rather smoothly, although there were a few accidents every now and then. One involved me stepping on a rotten floorboard on the floor and nearly getting my foot stuck in the resulting hole. Snow continually fell into the cathedral through the bad roof, but the residents put up with it. The ceremony ended rather quickly, and Ares and me were soon walking out in our wedding clothes. "Sorry, all the cars were hunks of smoking metal." Ares apologized. "There's nothing we can do about that." I sighed, and Ares escorted me back to the house. 9 months later...... I was panting really badly as I was wheeled into the hospital on a gurney. An extremely worried Ares followed beside, calling out my name. "Don't give up!" He cheered me on. I felt the baby in my oversized belly kick again, and I bit down the impulse to scream. My vision was blurring too. "Are...s..." I moaned painfully as the gurney was wheeled into the operation room. "Is this the end for me?" I thought as an attendant sent a sleeping potion down my throat. I fell asleep. ...... Ares paced outside, really worried. The operation lasted several hours. One of the best surgeons in the city had agreed to perform the operation, but still, he was worried. Artemis wasn't in her best condition, she was still recovering from her big fight last year. When the "Operation In Progress" light finally turned off, he waited at the door anxiously. There was a baby crying inside. "Yes!" Ares rejoiced. Suddenly, the door burst open, revealing a saddened procession of nurses and surgeons with Artemis's gurney following behind. One of the nurses was carrying a baby. Ares's mood instantly changed. "Your daughter made it, but......" The nurse carrying the baby handed the baby to Ares, who accepted it cautiously, staring at the face of his wife. "Artemis......" He caressed the cheeks of his wife. Her eyes and mouth were closed in an eternally peaceful slumber. "Sleep well, my love." Ares whispered, tears flowing out of his eyes. "The baby's a she, right?" He asked the surgeon. The surgeon nodded. "Then we'll call her......" The image of a tall, silver-haired woman came into his mind for some reason. "Reika." Chapter 95: Ragnarok I dashed towards Saevio and bashed him hard on the head with both hands, sending a sonic shockwave rippling out from underneath him. His armour cracked slightly and I grabbed his pincers as he tried to grab me, snapping them off in two deft flashes of my claws. "Um. 70%." Saevio chuckled. He began growing again, and a few seconds later, he was three times taller than I was. Three extras pairs of claws had also grown out of his sides along with ten tails on his back. "YOU'RE A MONSTER!" I shrieked, grabbing Saevio by the body and lifting him up bodily. I turned him upside down and smashed his head into the ground repeatedly. However, his tails shot towards me, knocking me to the ground. I rolled aside before he could grip me with his pincers and sent a blazing kick flying into his chest. I was at 100% of my power right now, and I couldn't afford to go any higher. I knew that going any higher would decrease my lifespan by a year for every percent I went over, and I only had about 30 years left in myself. Not much, considering what I would be going through when Saevio would be at the peak of his powers. All my enraged mind could think of now was beating Saevio up. Tears streamed out of my eyes as I remembered the fact that Alexis was dead. "She will be alive as long as I remember her......" I blinked the tears away and continued punching away at Saevio's hard shell. "METEOR BREAKER!" I roared, concentrating my powers in my clenched right fist and punched him in the stomach. A massive fireball formed around my right hand for a second, then disappeared, leaving no visible marks. Then, he sandwiched me between his belly and a claw, knocking all the air out of my lungs. "Oof." I moaned. I couldn't breathe! I flapped my wings with all my might, trying to get free. The wings didn't rely on my breath, they relied on the almost limitless magic inside me for power, what with the limiter removed. In fact, this was the first time I had managed to remove the limiter. One of the instructors I had trained with had told me about the fabled magic limiter inside the human body, preventing the magic inside us from flowing too powerfully. It was supposed to be breakable by extreme emotional pain, which I had experienced form Alexis's death. Eventually, I managed to break free and I picked up my bow. I had dropped it when I transformed, and now it was radiating intense magic. It expanded to suit my new height, and the mana orbs on the tips expanded. In fact, it seemed that my blood had been replaced with liquid mana. The blood vessels had expanded, showing through the thin epidermis of my skin. Clear white had replaced the crimson red of my blood. I loaded an gigantic arrow that was twice as long as my height and launched it right at Saevio. He grabbed the arrow and threw it away before it hit him, but I dashed around him, launching similar arrows on the fly. Not even one arrow found it's mark. "Damn." I swore, jumping into the air to dodge his tails. I fired off an explosive arrow in mid-air, then resumed running. Suddenly, one of Saevio's tails burst out of the ground, knocking me off balance and onto the ground. Another tail shot up just beside my head, it's sting pointed right at my forehead. "Check and mate." Saevio's devil-like voice chuckled. "Not if I can help it." I smiled and teleported out of his grasp and onto his neck, with my bow loaded with a blazing huge arrow thrice my size. "Check and mate." I smiled, blasting Saevio's oversized scorpion head to pieces. The Decimator Shot was a one-shot kill at point blank range, and no material I had encountered before was capable of stopping it. It was even powerful enough to blow a crater in a diamond field. "Looks like I let my guard down again. 100 percent." Saevio's demonic voice echoed throughout the cavern hollowed out by our blasts and his head regenerated itself. I gasped and leapt off his neck just as an entire field of spikes grew out of his shell. Now, he resembled an overgrown and multi-tailed porcupine-scorpion hybrid. He even had the horns of the Horntail's side heads. The monstrosity turned to face me as I prepared another Decimator Shot. The sight of his thickening shell was starting to scare me though, and my shooting hand was trembling. "This is...... What's this feeling?" I stared at the trembling hand. I felt cold inside. Now, I realized it with a pang. I was terrified. I shook my head to clear my thoughts as Saevio tried to knock me off my feet. He suceeded and my Decimator Shot misfired. It ricocheted off the ceiling and nearly hit myself. The splash damage was sufficient to blow me several metres away, causing Saevio's tails to miss. I started losing control over my own body, cowering in a corner. "Fight it......" A calm, warm voice sounded in my head. I knew instantly that it was the "Saevio's releasing powerful suppression magic through his shell, causing anyone in the vicinity to feel terrified and degrading their fighting power. You need to fight it." The Because of Saevio's magic, I was too terrified to dodge the attack, and the claws went right through my chest. I coughed out blood as I fell to the ground. My wings stopped flapping and turned a dull gray colour as I came to rest in a pool of my own blood. My life was straining to leave my body, yet it couldn't. "Al...le...xis... I...m sorry..." I croaked. Then, it happened. I saw Alexis hovering above me, reaching her hand out. My hand rose up, but it didn't get a few centimetres before it stopped and I fell limp after seeing a flash of light. "I wasn't able to kill him......" ...... "Too easy." Saevio chuckled as he left Artemis's corpse to rot and proceeded out of the door to greet his army. Chapter 94: The Beginning Of The End Saevio's entire body was covered in think scorpion armour, and pincers had sprouted out of his cheeks. "Oh, I'm just at 30% of my full power, but it's enough." He chuckled, then pointed his pincers straight at us, opening them. "Oh." I stared down the concealed barrel inside the claw as tiny spheres of light started building up inside. A blast of magical energy burst out from the barrel, leaving distorted air in it's wake and blowing a hole through the rock behind where I had just been standing. "Oh my......" I gasped. Things just got a LOT more complicated. The only thing both Alexis and me could do for a few minutes was dodge as the blasts from Saevio's magic blaster blew holes in the walls. There wasn't much of the actual wall left now. We couldn't get near him at all! "How long are you going to keep that up?" Saevio smiled and I sent an arrow at him. He dodged it without a problem, sending a blast at me. I bounced off the wall as the blast vaporized the only remaining section of the wall left. "Don't you ever get tired?" I groaned, rolling to the ground. "I don't." His voice came from behind me and I felt his tail slam into my waist. "AARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!" I shrieked as the force of the impact threw me into the ceiling. "I'm not done yet!" Saevio shouted. He leapt into the air right under me, sending punches and kicks flying into my back. "Artemis!" I heard Alexis yell as I collapsed, barely breathing. Even breathing hurt, and I couldn't move anymore. At least, not that THIS personality could. ...... I ran towards the injured Artemis on the ground even as she struggled to get up. Her hair was changing colour...... "She even had to resort to that?" I gasped. Artemis had practically assimilated the other Artemis into herself as a split personality over the course of the 3 years we had been training in the past. She only used Artemis as a last resort, when she was in a tight spot. While changing personalities to Artemis, her body would automatically heal all wounds, only to dish them back out when she reverted back to normal. Using that personality decreased her lifespan by a full year, so she wasn't so keen on using it. Artemis now sported long silver hair, and her bow was glowing brightly. "And I was wondering when she'd let me out." She sighed, wringing her right arm. The gash on her back had sealed and the bleeding had stopped completely. "Now, let's get this over with." She pointed her bow at Saevio, taking a sniping stance and nocking an arrow to her string. I could only stare as she released a huge arrow the width of a rhinoceros right at Saevio. At point-blank range. No kind of armour could take a shot like that at point-blank. Now, I noticed that Artemis had grown taller as she switched personalities. AN: Thanks gutter, missed that one. When the smoke cleared, remarkably, Saevio was still standing. His chest armour had cracked open, exposing part of his insides. I felt like vomiting. "Guess I let my guard down. 40%." He chuckled, then demonic energy started surrounding him. I backed away slowly, but Artemis stood her ground defiantly. The crack repaired itself, a scorpion's shell enveloped Saevio's head and another tail sprouted out of his back. He also grew larger. Artemis blasted him in the head with another huge arrow, but it didn't have any visible effects. Other than making him laugh in amusement. "This shell is impenetratable! Just give up and maybe I'll make you my Queen!" He chuckled ominously. "Queen? That actually sounds tempting......" Artemis scratched her chin. My jaw fell open. "NOT! The hell I'll marry a demon like YOU!" She shrieked, sending a chain of arrows flying into Saevio's wide chest. Again, no effect. "Suit yourself." Saevio shrugged and lashed out at Artemis. She dodged it without much of a problem, but she wasn't expecting the second tail to lash out too. "ARGH!" She moaned a few seconds later, having been flung into the ceiling. The goddess Artemis had a few drawbacks, of course. She had to divert more of her mind power on controlling the powerful magic inside her, and therefore, she relied more on instincts and was way more reckless. It sure looked like Artemis was already mad, and that wasn't a good sign. I ran over to her to try and calm her down, but she rushed back into the fight, running straight at Saevio while launching arrows from her bow. A rather idiotic thing to do, leaving herself vulnerable to attacks. As expected, Saevio brought up his claws, opening them wide. "Oh no." I gasped. Artemis was too busy trying to get at Saevio to bother about the magic blast! I sprinted towards Artemis as fast as I could, my brain calculating odds. I might be able to push Artemis out of the way if I could get to her within one second, but any later, and I might be the one being vaporized. She stood a better chance of beating Saevio than I did though...... With little hesitation, I decided to place a bet. My life, for Artemis's. All I could think of now was pushing Artemis out of the way before she got vaporized while staying alive myself, but now, it was obvious that there was no other way. I dashed beside Artemis, knocking her out of the line of fire with my elbow just as Saevio fired. The beam of magic sped towards me in slow-motion as I raised my right arm to cover my face from my impending doom...... "Artemis, you're our last hope." I whispered, a split second before the magic beam hit me...... Then, infinite peace and a neverending sea. ...... "Artemis, you're our last hope......" The sound of those words resounding in my ears brought me back to the real world. Tears welled up in my eyes as I sank to my knees, crying. My previous wounds opened up again, and I felt my body shrinking slightly. My hair turned back to black colour. I was back to my normal self. Alexis was dead. "No......" I hit the ground with my fists. "NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!" I shrieked, getting up and staring right at Saevio. "You......" I felt my hair flying up behind me as all the powers in my body started flowing in overdrive. My wounds healed completely as the skin on my arms turned into black dragonskin. Two pairs of blazing wings burst out of my back, alternated between another two pairs of angelic wings and two pairs of black dragonlike wings. Also, claws grew out of my fingertips and toes. The marks of the 5 keys glowed brightly all over my body. "YOU'LL PAY!!!" Chapter 93: The Chaos Guards Alexis and me raced over the ground towards the humongous door even as the two Tauro silhouettes flanking it moved to cut us off. Still, we were too late. The Tauros stepped in front of the door, blocking us. "Thou shall leave this place." The one on the right said in a booming sound. It was decked out in heavy battle armour, and his lance was by far, the biggest I had ever seen. "And if we don't?" I asked bravely. The one on the left stepped forward. "Then thou shall face our wrath." It brandished it's spear and charged. "These guys don't give us a chance, do they?" I moaned, cartwheeling aside and launching an arrow at the beast's chest half-spin. It resounded off the armour with a 'ping' sound. "They never do. At least we get more fun beating them up." Alexis chuckled. I nodded. I tensed the muscles in my leg and bent down in preparation for a high jump. The released energy burst out from the soles of my feet in a strong burst of wind, propelling me upwards and cracking the ground underneath. "Am I even human anymore......?" I wondered, vaulting over the Taurolance's head while aiming my bow downwards and releasing a battering ram of raw magical energy straight downwards. Surprisingly, not only was the monster big, it was fast too. It dashed forwards, evading the shot just in time. The missed arrow blew into the ground, and a few seconds later, a spurt of lava blasted out of the hole, then solidified as I sent a blast of ice magic at it. Whirling around, I sent another giant arrow at the charging Taurolance, which was dodged again. "You may be able to dodge one arrow. But, can you dodge twelve?" I chuckled, turning the bow and shifting my legs for a better position. Now, the bow was horizontal and twelve of those giant arrows were forming on the string. I jumped forward, simultaneously releasing the shot. It was powerful enough for the recoil to blow me backwards a few metres, and the arrows were radiating light as bright as the Sun. Nothing could survive this, or so I thought. "Nice move." The Taurolance's gruff voice sounded beside me and I hopped backwards, pointing my bow at the direction of the sound. Unfortunately, I slipped on a pebble and fell over. The beats immediately rushed forwards to dispatch me. "No way I'm gonna die here." I muttered, placing the palm of my right hand on the ground and sending a burst of magic down my arm. A blast of wind blew me off the ground and I landed on the ground further away on both feet. "Not bad." The Tauro remarked, then sent a bolt of lightning flying at me with a swing of it's lance. I dodged it without much of a problem, but the Tauro charged at me right as I finished my maneuver. Caught off guard, the lance nearly impaled my heart. It had slid right between my arm and my waist. I quickly kicked myself off the ground and held my bow out, darting towards the beast in mid-air as it jumped with me. I rammed the thing with my elbow then gave it a few punches to the head, bashed it on the head with my bow, and finally sent my foot slamming down into it's cranium, whacking it straight towards the ground. "Nighty night, sucker." I smiled, landing on the ground as softly as I could. I turned back and saw that the beast was still...... alive. "Mmmph!" It's muffled voice came out of the ground. The thing's head was stuck in the ground. Rather comically too. "Thats......" I tried not to laugh. "SO FUNNY!!!" I shrieked and fell over laughing. The Tauro roared and shattered the ground with one hand, breaking itself free. AN: Trying to poke a little humour into things. XD "YOU HAVE INSULTED ME FOR THE LAST TIME!" The Tauro roared, rushing towards me. I quickly got back on my feet and ran towards the beast. "Whoopsie." I slipped purposely and slid between the Tauro's legs. With my bow out and loaded. The arrow's recoil slammed me into the ground even as it tore through the Tauro's spine, showering me in pieces of scorched flesh and blood. "Ewww." I grunted as one half of the bloodied hip bone hit the ground beside me. I quickly got up, brushing off the Tauro's remains. Intense clashing beside me showed that Alexis was clashing spears with the Taurospear. She was unusually agile with the Harbinger in hand. However, the Taurospear she was fighting with had unusual red eyes, and the irises seemed to be enlarging. "That one is not a normal one." I remarked, jumping into the fray with one single powerful arrow that blew me backwards. Alexis ducked as the arrow flew over her head, impaling the Taurospear through the chest. "Nice one." She smiled at me, but I quickly loaded another shot, aiming it at the Taurospear's remains. It looked like I was aiming at her. "Wha......" She stared down the shaft of my arrow. "DUCK!" I shrieked, letting fly. Alexis rolled aside just as the arrow pulverized the head of the regenerating Taurospear. "I knew it." I cursed, loading another shot and blowing the left arm away. Now, it was regenerating faster than I could dish damage out. "GRAAAAH!!!" The Tauro charged at Alexis. She raised the Harbinger, impaling the beast and holding it up in the air, winking at me. I charged up another shot and severed the thing in half with a cutting shot, following up with two quick Arrow Bombs to the halves and an Inferno arrow to scorch the remnants. "Careful." I muttered, kicking a scorched horn aside. "Don't kick things that have just been barbecued." Alexis advised a second later as I hopped around with one foot in the air, yelling. When I was done nursing the injury, both of us proceeded to push the gigantic door open. It took a few tries considering the bulk and weight of the door. When the smallest crack of light burst through, several smaller demons rushed out of the gap only to be pulverized by an arrow. "Outta my way!" I shrieked, sending multiple Nova Bombs through the gap and ducking for cover. Blinding light blasted out of the gap a few seconds later, results of the Nova Bomb. No more demons scampered through, and the smell of burning demon flesh filled the already stinky air. "As if the one you just incinerated wasn't bad enough." Alexis pinched her nose shut. We quickly pushed the door open and dived for cover, expecting to be attacked. Nothing happened other than Alexis accidentally rolling over a pool of liquefied demon bile and shrieking in disgust. Moments later, a miniature raincloud appeared over her, soaking her in water. She shook her hair dry. "That's better." She sniffed herself and enlarged the cloud to cover the entire room, washing away the demon remains through the open door we had just walked through and clearing the room of smoke. This room was significantly smaller than the previous one, rectangular and with torches lighting up the sides. A vortex of dark energy swirled at the other end of the room, emitting powerful demonic magic. There was one holographic green crystal hovering beside the Demon Gate, pulsing gently. "Ellinia's barrier crystal......" I whispered, moving towards it. Suddenly, it cracked. My face dropped as the crystal exploded. "Ellinia just fell......" I gasped. The Demon Gate sent another pulse of demonic magic reverberating through the room and knocking us to our knees as it expanded. "We need to...... argh!" I moaned. The powerful magic being emitted by the Demon Gate felt heavy in the air. Alexis couldn't move either, but I crawled towards the Gate, reaching out with my shooting hand and nocking an arrow to my bowstring. I fired off the shot, but it only got within a few centimetres of the Gate before disintegrating. "I can't... move......" Alexis gasped, trying to get up. Suddenly, it stopped, and both of us got up at the same time. I quickly fired off a rapid series of arrows towards the Demon Gate. Just when I thought they would hit, a claw reached out of the Gate, stopping the arrows with a barrier as thick as a strip of paper. "Oh no......" I took a few steps back as the owner of the claw stepped out of the Gate fully, flexing scorpion legs and a scorpion tail. The human-scorpion hybrid was incredibly scary. "Good afternoon, ladies." Saevio chuckled, clicking his claws. Chapter 92: Beginning Of The End A few cautious steps through the debris of the subway's demolished entry gate was all it took to realize that something was terribly wrong. Terribly. The subway's usual narrow line was widened out by something that had left marks on the walls. Every dark corner was infested by the smaller demons that were too weak to go out to fight. Every now and then, a stronger demon popped up and abruptly got cut down. Vampire patrols were everywhere, but they didn't bother us much. They hated light, and Alexis's Kotetsu sword continually radiated an aura of golden light that banished any vampire that dared to come near. Death Angel statues hid in dark corners, waiting to ambush us along with their Gargoyle counterparts. Again, not a problem. Those 3 years of training had given Alexis better reflexes, and my bow was more than capable of taking four of those demons down in a single shot. "I feel sick......" Alexis moaned. Her face looked rather green. "We're getting closer to the Demon Gate." I said, staring ahead. This part of the subway was unusually cavernous, and I could see two tall silhouettes in the distance. "We're in for a big fight." I gritted my teeth. Suddenly, torches lit up all along the walls, revealing that we were indeed standing in a massive cavern. Not only that, but the cavern was also perfectly circular, and we were standing in the middle of a magic circle on the ground. "Sh*t!" I shrieked, quickly trying to pull Alexis off the circle's centre instinctively, a split second too late. Black vines burst out of the circle, holding our legs down and pulling us to the ground. They slid over our flailing arms and around our chests, pinning us to the ground. "Damn! Why didn't I sense this!?" I swore, tensing the muscles in both my arms, trying to break free. The vines were growing to cover our entire bodies. Soon, only our noses were exposed, and we couldn't see anything. Where the hell is it!? I kept twitching my hips, searching for the seal neutralization scroll in the back pocket of my shorts. I couldn't find it anyhow I twitched. Damn it! I couldn't die here...... No... I'll die, the vines are moving to cover my nose...... Have a little faith in yourself, Artemis! You still need to stop Saevio! Now where's that damn scroll!? "Found it!" I shrieked, bumping the scroll out of my back pocket with a little twitch. Luckily, my oversized hips had granted me enough space under my back for the scroll to roll out in. I settled back down and started sending my energy into the scroll. I felt the vines loosen up and continued sending energy into the scroll. "Yes!" I shouted, breaking free. Alexis's body was completely mummified by the vines now, and I quickly got up, placing the scroll on her convulsing body. The vines weakened again, and I pulled them apart. "Are you okay?" I asked. She nodded weakly, getting up. "Don't tell me the vines ate your shorts." She stared at me. I blushed and bent down to pick my discarded shorts up. They had slid off after I broke free due to my constant twitching. "Oh yeah." I slammed by fist into the ground at the very centre of the glowing magic circle. The pattern of the circle disintegrated. "We still have a demon to deal with though." I sighed as another magic circle appeared under the first one. This one, I knew, was one which was used to summon the more powerful demons. I dragged Alexis backwards as a giant centipede rose out of the centre of the circle. This giant centipede was different from the one in the "This demon just won't die!" I groaned, releasing another flurry of arrows. None of them had any effect on the demon's steel shell, and Alexis wasn't doing any better than I was. Her veins were starting to show on the surface of her skin, which meant that she was fighting at her strongest. A quick look at my own arms displayed the same result. My hands were pulling back and releasing the bowstring so fast, it seemed that it was invisible. The centipede didn't even seem to be breaking a sweat. "Alexis!" I shouted, and she appeared beside me, panting. "We won't be able to beat it at this rate!" She sighed. "We're not fighting at our best, and that's the problem." I gritted my teeth. "You mean...... the Inner Beasts?" Alexis asked. I nodded. "We'll need to save them up for the fight with Saevio." She shook her head. "We won't get there if we don't do it now!" I yelled, dodging a pincer. Suddenly, the tentacles came out of nowhere and wrapped themselves around me. "Crap!" I shouted. The tentacles pulled me towards the circular mouth they were arranged around even as the acid holes expanded. "Oh......" I stared into the fleshy insides of the mouth. ...... I heard Artemis scream as a cloud of acid burst out from the tentacle-covered mouth on the centipede's body. "Artemis!" I shrieked. I quickly jumped up, slicing the tentacles off just as another acid cloud burst out. "ARGH!" I screamed, falling to the ground. Artemis collapsed a few centimetres beside me. Her clothes had dissolved from exposure to the acid, but she was fine otherwise. Apparently, she hadn't been in the cloud long enough for the acid to dissolve her body. The front of my clothes had been dissolved too, and the remains fell off. Our weapons weren't affected. I quickly crawled over to her and pulled her up. Suddenly, I heard something break and Artemis let out a muffled scream as she reached her hand into her cleavage, poking out glass shards. Clear blue liquid was leaking out from her cleavage too. "You kept the liquid mana there?" I asked, surprised. She nodded. I reached a hand down to sweep the liquid off her body, but I found my hand stuck on her right breast. "Huh?" I stared at my stuck hand and tried to pull. Artemis shrieked and clamped both her hands around my arm, holding on. "What the hell?" I gasped as there was a sudden sucking noise, and my entire body flew into hers. ...... My body suddenly began throbbing right after Alexis was absorbed into my body. A blue handprint was on the spot where her hand previously had been. I stared at it for a few seconds. The handprint dripped off. "The mana......" I realized. "Where am I?" Alexis's voice rang out in my head. "You're inside me." I thought. "But how?" She gasped. "Must be something to do with the liquid mana that leaked out. Anyway, looks like I'm in control." I said, quickly utilizing Alexis's powers. I grew half a metre, and I nocked her sword to my bow. Again, a niche had mysteriously appeared in the hilt for the string. I took careful aim at the giant centipede's head. "You're dead, buster." I whispered, letting the sword fly. It pierced right through the head, coming out at the other side. "YES!" I whooped. However, the punctured head fell off, revealing another head with even bigger pincers inside. "Oh my god..." I gasped. "It's gonna take a lot more than a headshot to take that thing out." Alexis remarked. I clamped my bow in between my breasts since there was nothing else that could hold it to my body. Reaching a hand out, I visualized a long red lance forked halfway down the shaft. Instantly, it appeared in my hand. I quickly jumped up, using the Longinus Lance as a vaulting pole and leapt up to Alexis's Kotetsu sword, stuck in the ceiling. I pulled it out and clasped both the Lance and the Kotetsu together. "Come forth, Harbinger." I whispered. The Lance's forked ends turned into long golden blades as the Kotetsu was assimilated into it. I quickly grabbed my bow and nocked the lance-sword to the string as the giant centipede reached for me with it's head. "You're mine." I whispered, letting the projectile fly. The blades turned sideways, causing the Harbinger to spin in mid-air for greater penetration. Along with the spinning action, I had added a gravity distortion field to it. The Harbinger pierced right through the head's center, continuing down along the centipede's spine. Halfway through, it came out of the part of the body that was on a different plane than the lower area, and finally stopped when it hit the tail. "Bullseye." I smiled, holding out a hand. The Harbinger flew out of the ground and returned to my hand. "It ain't over yet." Alexis said grimly. I noticed the body's sections sliding apart. The section breaking off was the one with the mouth and tentacles, which, fortunately for it, had survived my previous shot. It was now scuttling across the ground on it's tentacles, way too fast for me to take a potshot at. Also, it was moving towards me. I hopped backwards as the thing scuttled towards me and clamped my bow between my breasts again. It was way too close to shoot. Brandishing the Harbinger like a pole arm, I took a few swipes at the thing. Every single swipe at it missed, either merely brushing the metal shell or failing to hit at all. Suddenly, it leapt on my chest, it's remaining tentacles lashing around my torso. "What the hell!?" I tried shaking it off, to no effect. Even banging on it with my fist had no visible effects, and I didn't dare to use the Harbinger. It didn't seem capable of releasing acid clouds anymore, so what could it be doing? My bow had slid out from the temporary clamp and onto the floor just before it grabbed me, so it was fine. When the thing started ticking, that REALLY got me worried. "Don't tell me......" I gasped. I latched my fingers on whatever I could grab onto on the creature's shell and tried to pull it off. It didn't flinch. Banging it on the ground did nothing to help, and I recoiled in shock when I felt something licking my chest. "Perverted bastard......" I muttered, grabbing the Harbinger and trying to pierce through the creature with it. At the position it was in, I couldn't exert enough pressure to pierce through the shell. "Okay...... Relax..." I took a deep breath, concentrating hard. The fact that the thing was licking my chest really wasn't helping. Finally, I managed to get through. I opened my eyes and saw what my body's eyes were seeing, complete with a mental spell incantation. All feelings disappeared. I quickly read the incantation through quickly, then opened my mouth, emitting one single musical note. AN: Watched RahXephon? If you did, you'll have an idea of what this should look like. A shockwave of solid sound burst out, completely blowing the creature off my torso just before it exploded, buffeting me in the counter-shockwave. Of course, the tentacles hadn't left my back willingly. A few strips of skin had been scraped off, and the wounds were bleeding. "Bastard..." I moaned, sinking to my knees. Something rose out of my back, and I assumed it was Alexis's body. I felt my own body shrinking slightly as Alexis came out. "Man, that was weird." Her voice rang out, and I felt her hand on the wound. The pain stopped and I got back up, eyeing where the wound used to be. "Thanks." I smiled at her. "No prob. Anyway, we'd better go on. Time's running out." She replied, staring at the door at the far end of the cavern. Chapter 91: The Past, Present, and Future 3 years seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye. By the last year, we had unearthed Jullian in a mound of sand in the desert near Magatia. Reika rarely had to help us, and Artemis seemed convinced that she was just following me just to make sure I was safe. When Artemis was powdering her Skelesaurus bones over her tea back in the Leafre mountains, I gladly refused it, knowing that I would grow taller just by drinking it. Several times, Artemis fell behind and I backtracked to find her getting delayed by red-faced men, with some even grabbing her arms. When she found the book of legends and declared that she was going to Ludibrium to fight Papulatus, I didn't object. "Jess, why don't you come to my house? You could stay there for a while." Artemis offered. She was wearing her usual revealing clothes, a black vest that pretty much only covered her upper torso and a really short pair of black shorts. Unfortunately, I had unknowingly eaten the same herbs that had changed her taste of clothing, and was wearing a blue vest and dark blue shorts. "No thanks. My sister will want to take me home to see my parents. They'll be surprised at how much I've grown." I chuckled, fully aware that Reika would be taking me almost a year into the future after this. "Pity, my old friends might like to see you." Artemis sighed, tossing her long black hair back. My hair had grown a lot longer during those 3 years I spent in the recent past, and now reached my hips. Of course, I had gone for haircuts. The outgrowing tuft in front covered half my face, but I was pretty much used to it. I wondered how Reika looked now, I hadn't seen her in a few months. I bid farewell to Artemis and Jullian as they boarded the ship to The raping stopped after a few seconds, and Reika got up. She wrung her arms. "I swear, if I get raped like that in the future, I'm going to ram the rapist right into the ground again and again, until he falls into the center of the Earth." She cursed. "Won't that be waaay overkill?" I asked timidly. "Let's get out of here before that happens again. Oh yeah, I'll faint right after we land back in the Sanctuary." Reika quickly grabbed my hand, and the air above us seemed to distort, sucking us in. We rematerialized in Artemis's Sanctuary, in the mana pool. My clothes faded out and disappeared, while Reika kept her battle set. She was resting on the pool's edge, snoring gently. The liquid mana seemed to be flowing into her body, causing her to radiate a blue glow. Her torso had become rather muscular now, like mine. I caressed Artemis's forehead gently as she moaned and turned over, falling into the mana pool in the process. I quickly dived under to try and pull her up, but it seemed that she could breathe in the liquid. "Why now? We still have to destroy the Demon Gate!" I groaned. At the sound of the last two words, a stream of bubbles issued from her mouth and she jerked awake, blinking. "Erm......" She stammered. "It's okay. Just change our appearances back to normal." I smiled at her. She sighed and closed her eyes. Her ponytails loosened up and her hair and irises turned black. It fell all the way to her feet. I felt my hair loosening up too, and it turned back to black, falling to my legs. The outcroft covering my right eye shot back into my cranium. "That's better." I shook my hair back. "Alexis, remember your old Kotetsu sword?" Artemis asked. "Oh crap. I completely forgot about it!" I shrieked. "It's over here. Guess where I found it." She said sternly. "Where?" I asked bluntly. "Dunno" She shrugged. I stared at her incredulously. The golden blade of the fused Kotetsu sword glittered in the starlight. "How did it get over there?" I gasped. "I summoned it just now while you weren't looking." She smiled, handing the sword to me. "Thanks." I sighed, giving it a test swing. The blade suddenly started glowing and a layer of golden flames enveloped it. "Whoa!" I jumped and dropped the sword. The blade stuck in the ground, creating a small explosion. "That's how strong you are now." Artemis smiled. I picked up the Kotetsu slowly, gripping it tighter this time. The golden flames burst out again. The sword was trembling from the sheer amount of power under it's control. "Calm down. When the sword's Awakened, the power it controls depends on the user's emotions. Fear and uncertainty decrease the sword's power, while anger increases it." She explained, placing a hand on my shoulder. I sighed, releasing my anger. The sword stopped trembling. "What were you angry about anyway?" She asked. "The demons." I replied. ...... I grabbed Alexis's hand and helped her out of the mana pool, splashing some over myself as she got out. After that, a bottle materialized in my hand and I bent down to scoop some of the liquid in. "That's all I can afford to take. We might need it." I said grimly, shaking the bottle. Before leaving, I dipped our weapons in the pool. When I took them out, they were simply blazing with power. Two orbs of the liquid mana had appeared on both ends of my bow. "Oh, almost forgot." I smiled, and the Archaeion appeared in my free hand. I clasped both bows together, and they melded. The frame was of Artemis's Goddess Bow, but the colours were that of the Archaeion, and the dragon head wasn't changed. It also changed into a longbow that was as tall as I was. The diamonds were concentrated around the handle. I dipped the combined bow in the mana again and prepared to set off. I grabbed Alexis's hand and stepped through the waterfall. We materialized right in front of the entrance to the Sanctuary, in front of the depression shaped like our bodies. "That was fast." Kyrios remarked, then noticed my body. "Don't tell me you got those after a few minutes of working out." He gasped. "3 years of working out to be exact." I chuckled, pointing at Alexis. She was naked and holding her hands over her hips and chest. The boys turned around, red-faced. "Oops, my bad." After I made sure Alexis was clothed, we made our way out of the Sanctuary's entrance. "By the way, the Gravity Passage's gravity stones can purify the body of anyone standing on them. The life energy from the crystals were purified." I pointed out. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief. The usual enlarged alligators were lurking around, but as I walked past, they shifted aside. I bent down to one and stroked it's head. It grunted and rolled over. "Sorry, but I'll have to leave for some time. I might not come back." I whispered. Tears seemed to be flowing out of the creature's eyes as I got up and left. "What...?" The trip to Kerning took less than an hour, considering the strength of the patrols. Of course, Alexis and me were taking care of most of them. Effortlessly. Either they took a shot to the head, or Alexis sneaked up to them, jumped up and sliced them in half down their spines. "Piece of cake." I wiped a blotch of Taurosword blood off my cheek. It left a red mark. "These things are pretty easy to handle when you know where to hit 'em." Alexis chuckled, sliding right between a Tauro's legs and aiming her sword upwards, releasing a burst of magic. It proved to be both a bad and a good move. Good because the Taurosword was sliced clean in half, and bad because a small piece of rubble Alexis had slid over scratched her vest off. She quickly put her vest back on, slightly red in the face. "Who cares? There's a big difference between a piece of clothing being cut off and a lot of demons to beat up." I sighed, flipping forwards onto my hands and pushing the ground hard. I flew several feet into the air and turned the right-side up. "Eat this, bastard!" I yelled, releasing an Puncture Bomb at point-blank range right into a steel golem's face. The Puncture Bomb was a new skill, unique only to this bow. The tip of the arrow would drill into the target, and the bomb would detonate a few seconds after penetration. The head suddenly dented outwards, and the golem fell to the ground, creating a mini-earthquake. I landed on the ground on both feet, bending my legs to minimize the shock. Still, the impact was sufficient to create a small crater, and a shockwave. I used the momentum from the jump to kick myself skywards again and straightened my legs, kicking a Tauro right in the groin. It doubled over and Alexis finished it off with a horizontal slash to the waist. Alexis caught me as I landed. "Hold on. Do you......" I asked Alexis. She nodded and flipped a piece of rubble aside. It was blocking the entrance to an underground room filled with a whole army of fighters huddled together. Magicians, Thieves, Archers, Warriors. At least one person of a single job was present. "And I thought we'd never get out of here." A Chief Bandit wiped sweat off his brow. The more impulsive ones immediately rushed out of the hidey-hole and into the city, searching for targets. "Not so fast." I held an arm out to stop the slower ones. "If you go out there, you'll die before you take even one of those things down. Let us handle it." I said calmly and turned my back on them, trusting them to heed my warning. Apparently, they weren't listening. Scores of attackers rushed out, leaving only a few smart guys around. All of the Magicians had stayed behind, along with a few Thieves. I nodded appreciatively and went to join the fight only to see something horrifying. A mud-like substance was emerging from the subway, engulfing anyone unfortunate enough to get in the way. Bloodcurdling screams were emerging from the swallowed people as the mud began taking the forms of those engulfed inside, supersizing them. When the newly-formed statues reached a height of about 10 stories, they solidified into human bodies. The bodies of those engulfed inside could be seen from outside, right where the heart would be. "Oh my god......" I gasped. The survivors rushed back into the hidey-hole and barricaded themselves in. The bow in my hand was vibrating violently, and so was Alexis's sword. "Bastards...... If we blow these things up, we'll kill innocent people..." I gritted my teeth. One of the victims swung a fist at me and I jumped backwards, aiming my bow at the thing's head. I found my hand shaking. I couldn't shoot! "Those demons sure are cheap, resorting to something like this..." Alexis brought her sword up to parry a fist. The energy from the sword cumulated at the point of impact, generating a shield of golden flames. The thing reared back as the flames shot up it's body, engulfing it entirely. The victim inside screamed. "I didn't mean to..." Alexis gasped. The golden flames started to fade away. "Alexis, stay calm." I said, aiming another arrow at another one of those things. "If we destroy the Demon Gate, it should be enough to stop this. The demons can't live without a supply of energy to fuel them. Namely, the Gate." I sighed, rolling aside. "Where are the others anyway?" Alexis looked around. "Oh no." I gasped, pointing at another monster. It was shaped like Ares. Another nearby one looked like Kyrios. "They got......" I was stunned. "All the more reason to blow that Gate up faster." Alexis darted aside to dodge a giant foot. "We won't be able to get there with those things in the way." I groaned, blocking a punch. It threw me back into a building, causing a few rips to open up in my clothes. "Those things...... These clothes were enchanted to be unbreakable...... They're not bothered by magic at all!" I gasped. "Think we can make a run for it?" Alexis asked. I nodded, breaking off towards the subway entrance. Alexis followed behind. Both of us were running at our fastest pace as missed punches and kicks smashed into the ground behind us. The subway entrance was barred by a metal grille, slightly open at the bottom. "We won't fit through that!" Alexis gasped. "Oh yes we will!" I shrieked, leaning backwards. Luckily, the ground here was rather smooth, and I slid through the gap on my back, ripping the front of my shirt on the sharp tips of the bars in the process. Alexis reluctantly followed, narrowly making it. "Owww..." I moaned, trying to get up. Something had gotten stuck in my back while I was sliding in, and by the feeling, it was some kind of crystal. Blood was spilling out of the relatively miniscule wound. I finally got up and pulled the thing out. It was a shard from some kind of black crystal, but it was radiating some kind of powerful energy. "Kerning's barrier crystal..." I mumbled, then felt a striking pain in my back. Abnormal veins were popping up all over my body, with the most concentrated area around the injury from the barrier crystal. "Argh......" I fell over. "Artemis!" Alexis ran towards me. "I'm.. fine..." I lifted myself up. The barrier crystals were forged by extremely powerful Magicians who only lived before the towns were founded. As a result, they contained extremely powerful magic. If even a shard managed to get into a human body, it could pose disastrous results. The intense magic concentration could kill a person in a little under 24 hours, and also render the victim immobile during that time. I vomited blood on the ground as the veins reached my chest and continued on. "Oh no you don't!" I shouted, slamming my fist into the ground. The excess magic shot down my arm and into the ground, creating an explosion that was contained by a magical barrier I had formed around the impact point. The veins gradually vanished. "What was that about?" Alexis asked. "You don't wanna know." I replied, grabbing her hand and pulling her deeper into the subway. Chapter 90: Time "Why are we here anyway?" Alexis asked. I stared at her. "The Alexis in this current state won't be able to face up against those demons, and ultimately, Saevio. It's our destiny to beat him, so you need to get stronger." I explained. "Destiny?" She gazed at me. Artemis walked over to a bookshelf and lifted a book out. She got back into the pool and handed the book to Alexis. "A book depicting the holder's destiny. It's blessed with Time magic." I flipped open the book. "If the holder has no destiny, the pages will turn up blank. If the holder has, the pages will appear blank to whoever looks at it." Artemis explained. Alexis stared intently at the book's open pages for a moment. "I can see the words too." I declared. She gasped. "That means that both your destinies are intertwined and must be completed together." Artemis said. "Precisely. But right now, you're in no condition to do it. Which is why I'm going to train you." I nodded. "But we don't have time! If we train for a few months, we'll have nothing to protect other than a demonic wasteland!" Alexis argued. "You're forgetting something." I pointed at my left breast. "Time, we have plenty of." I smiled. "I can take both of us back in time, back to when I was just starting my training. You'll train together with my younger self. I can't use the key to travel back in time right before the demon invasion and destroy the Demon Gate myself, but you can train together with me and get strong enough to help." "Won't using the Time Key strain you too much?" Alexis asked. I shook my head. "This pool is actually a pool of liquid mana, a limitless source of magic. The flow comes directly from the Mana Crystal drifting between dimensions. The When I opened my eyes again, our faces and hair had changed. Alexis now sported a smaller nose, blue eyes, and blue hair tied up in a ponytail. My eyes were green, with my silver hair tied up in two long ponytails sticking out of the back of my head and reaching until my hips. Alexis fingered her new hairstyle. "Don't like it?" I asked, then closed my eyes again, opening them after a few seconds. Alexis's hair was still blue, but it covered just her head, with a tuft covering her right eye. "That's better." She smiled, lifting the outgrowing tuft. "Make sure that you don't exhibit any Siren powers back in time, or my younger self will figure it out. As for me, I'll be pretty much acting as a passerby for most of the 3 years. I'll arrange meetings via things only you will think about when we need to talk, and I'll help you two when I think you're in real trouble. Also, when my younger self says that she'll be going back, make sure that you leave her side." I said, placing a hand on my left breast, rubbing the nipple. The Time Key's mark started to glow. Artemis instantly collapsed into blue sparks and went back into my body. "One thing. I can't help you too much, or I'll alter my future too far from my intended path and then if the alterations grow too intense, I'll disappear from reality." I warned Alexis as the mana pool began to swirl. She nodded nervously. "I'll be taking us down right after my younger self left you guy's sides about 3 years ago. When you see my younger self, just ask if she is going training, and ask if you can join her and say you want to become as strong as your sister." I added, pointing at myself. "Yes, I'll be acting as your sister." I laughed, then we were sucked into a vortex in the mana pool. Both of us appeared in a small clearing beside the Leafre docks, completely naked. Alexis instinctively covered herself. I smiled and a set of armour appeared on her body. My battle set morphed into a sleeveless shirt and shorts. A normal Dragon Shinebow appeared on my back in a quiver while Alexis received a massive Beheader sword. "About our names, you'll be Jessica, and I'll be Reika. Remember that." I said, then started to feel my breasts being squeezed. Apparently, it was visible on the exterior too, for Alexis was staring at my chest's ever-changing shape. I quickly covered my chest with an arm. "I forgot to mention this. Any short-term physical body changes to my younger self will happen to me too, if I'm nearby. A few minutes after I walked out of the station, some perverted gang jumped on me and started raping me." I felt my cheeks turn red, and I squirmed uncomfortably. "The same with... ohhh... injuries..." I felt my buttocks being fondled. Alexis set off at a brisk pace after I told her the location of the gang's warehouse. I followed behind her slowly, wishing my younger self hadn't gotten raped. Someone licked my chest. I felt sick. Only Alexis could help though, if I just walked in, my younger self might notice my chest's shape changing. We arrived at the warehouse soon, and Alexis barged in the door while I waited outside. The fondling stopped and I heard voices. Banging noises sounded from inside, and I knew Alexis was having a good time, catching those bastards off guard. However, the thought stopped when I felt my body being fondled again. "Bastards..." I moaned, leaning against the warehouse's wall weakly. Then, it stopped again, and something smashed into my stomach. I reeled backwards, falling over. Alexis must have thrown something. Something which had missed and hit my younger self instead. Probably. I resisted the temptation to join in the fight and peeked in from behind a door. I was right about Alexis having accidentally hit my younger self, there was a table lying lopsided with a leg broken off beside the younger Artemis's naked body. Alexis was standing in the middle of the room, panting. Several men were lying on the ground, either dead or knocked out. One sported a bloody forehead. "Are you okay?" Alexis asked, helping the younger me up. "I'm fine... thanks.." The younger Artemis groaned and picked up her discarded clothes, putting them back on. ...... "Thanks for helping me earlier. What's your name?" The younger Artemis asked me. "Al...... I mean, Jessica." I smiled at her. "I'm Artemis, nice to meet you." She smiled back. I spotted the older Artemis leaning on the door. She was clutching her head with her right hand and flashing me a thumbs up with her left. The younger her had obviously sensed her, for she whirled around, setting her eyes on her older self. The older Artemis instantly collapsed. "Sis!" I ran to her, helping her up. "My head......" She groaned. "Sis? She's your sister?" The younger Artemis asked. I nodded. "We'd better get her somewhere where she can rest." She quickly said and lifted her older self up by the shoulders. I lifted Reika up by her legs and both of us carried her to a nearby bench. Artemis placed her hand on Reika's forehead. "Not a fever." She noted. "My head......" Angelica moaned. "Major headache." I explained. "How'd you find me anyway?" Artemis asked. "We were taking a walk nearby and heard voices from inside the warehouse. We peeked in and saw you getting... raped and decided to help. My sister's had a condition since she was young. She would experience major headaches at random times." I talked fast. "And she's a Rangeress?" Artemis eyed the Dragon Shinebow lying nearby. "Well, luckily she didn't get one when she was advancing." I shifted uncomfortably. The story was rather patchy. Reika cried out. "We need to get her to a hospital." Artemis insisted. "No, she's fine." I said. And I was right. A few seconds later, she got up, rubbing her head. "Thanks, I had a real bad one back there." Reika sighed. "Don't mention it!" Artemis smiled. "By the way, would you mind helping to train my sister? I think she needs some extra training." Reika asked Artemis. "As if, I'm good enough already." I pouted, playing the role of an overconfident sister. "I was just going to go train alone. I wouldn't mind having a partner!" Artemis chuckled. "But..." I stammered. "No buts, little miss I'm-good-enough." Reika laughed. "What was with the headache back there?" I asked Reika a few moments later after we separated from Artemis with the reason of packing. "Happens when you change a person's past. Back then, I was supposed to have been abandoned after an hour of continuous raping." Reika explained. "I'm fine now, my mind's experienced it once, so I'll be fine if you change my past again. Don't change too much, it'll cause too many quandaries. My life's in your hands here." She added and I flinched uncomfortably. "I'll have to depend on you for a whole 3 years, so don't fail me." She smiled weakly. I continued on to meet Artemis, who was waiting at Leafre's gates. She waved at me and I quickly hurried up. "Let's go." She smiled, then we set off at a brisk pace. I noticed Reika following behind, hiding behind whatever cover she could find. She sure was stealthy, even her younger self didn't notice her. "Well, well, look who just walked out." A male voice said from in front and I jerked to a halt. "Oh boy......" I gasped. A mountain of a man was standing in front of us, flanked by a dozen men equipped with sharp weapons. One was holding a submachine gun. Reika kept her distance, circling around behind the gang. "You're the party crasher, right?" The gunner asked me. "What..." I stared at him blankly. Artemis was already in the process of summoning the Archaeion. "Don't pretend. We know it's you." A guy with a knife stepped forward. "You probably have the wrong person!" I took a step back, and found that half a dozen of the gang had sneaked up behind us while we were occupied with the gunner. "Still, even if we did get the wrong person, both of you girls will still be some... good entertainment for my boys......" The mountain man stepped forward. Now, I noticed his back. It was bristling with weaponry. A machine gun, a huge sword comparable to Reika's, two handguns, and lots of assorted smaller swords. I got ready to fight. Some of the gang were already ready to fight. Some had their knives drawn and were licking the cold steel. "We're in deep trouble......" I stepped backwards, back to back with Artemis. Her bow was already out. A quick look forwards showed Reika sneaking up behind the gang leader with her bow out and aimed at the guy's head. "What do we have here?" The guy suddenly smiled, then whirled around, grabbing Reika by her throat and hoisting her up into the air. "Wha..." I gasped. What in the world...... How had he sensed her? "You're Jessica's sister, aren't you?" Artemis squinted at Reika. She wasn't in the condition to talk now, and just kept gasping for air. I rushed towards the guy, but his gang blocked me. "Outta my way, bastards!" I shrieked, unsheathing my sword. Instantly, the gunner sent a hail of bullets at my legs, dropping me to the ground. Artemis brought her bow up, unleashing arrows so fast, no one could block them. Except the mountain guy. The entire gang was cut down in a matter of seconds, but the arrows simply bounced off the mountain guy like mosquitoes bouncing off a battle tank. Artemis shot the guy with all she had, including an Inferno arrow and an Arrow Rain spell, even jumpkicking the guy. Nothing she did had any effect. Veins were popping up all over the arm holding Reika in the air, and she tore at the guy's clenched fist with no effect whatsoever. She was going to be strangled to death at this rate! I tried getting up, but the gunner had taken out my legs, so I couldn't move. "Darn it!" I hammered the ground. Suddenly, I sensed powerful magic behind me and turned around. "If you wanna kill her, you'll have to go through me first." Artemis whispered. Her Dark Angel wings were already bursting out of their buds, and her ears were becoming pointed. Suddenly, she disappeared, and a coughing Reika appeared in her place. "What?" The mountain guy gasped. Artemis had magically appeared in Reika's place, in his grip. "No one touches my friends and lives." She laughed, then sent her foot crashing into the guy's groin. His face turned red and stayed that way for a few seconds. "OOOOOUUUUUUCHHHHH!!!!!!" He screamed, then clutched the injured area. The demonic Artemis set on the guy like a tiger, stamping on his body repeatedly, using her wings as extra speed for the attack. Something cracked, and blood spurted out of the punctured organ. The heart. A lethal injury. When I turned to look at Reika, she had collapsed again. A quick check revealed that she was still alive, and I heaved a sigh of relief. The strangulation mark on her neck was pretty troubling though. Blood vessels had popped open due to the extreme pressure, and her clothes were drenched with red blood. "Oh no..." I gasped. Her spinal cord had snapped. Moving her would be suicidal, especially without proper knowledge. Artemis had finished with the gang leader and was on her knees beside me, elbow and feet splattered with blood. "Is she..." She murmured. I shook my head. "She's alive, for now at least. Her spinal cord broke, and she's bleeding read bad." I explained. "I might not be able to do much, but I'll try." Artemis placed her hands around Reika's broken neck, closing her eyes. Green light bathed her hands, and the blood flowed back into her neck. There was a loud crack as her spinal cord repaired itself, and the strangulation mark disappeared. Reika's breathing returned to normal, and she turned on her side, snoring quietly in peaceful sleep. "How can you sleep in a place like this?" I muttered, picking her up. Her drenched clothes were clinging to her body, accentuating her oversized breasts. Also, in the fight, the fabric of her shirt's right shoulder had slipped off. I put it back on. Artemis had also collapsed after the healing and was snoring and turning just like her older self. "People don't change easily." I chuckled, propping both up against a tree. |
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