Chapter 4: The Maiden from the Moon

Her eyes fluttered open, hearing her father call out her name, "Amani? Amani, it's time to wake up!" She yawned, rubbing her eyes as her pointed ears twitched, sitting up slowly in her bed as she looked at him, brushing her silver hair out of her face before getting up out of bed, stretching her arms outward with a soft moan as she felt her bones pop into proper place.

"Good morning, Father!" She beamed as she looked toward her dear father, his brown hair blowing in the wind. The breeze had come into their home at just the right time, like a second embrace as she offered her hand to him. He grasped her hand tenderly, helping her to her feet. "Did you sleep well, my little moonkin?" In reply, the girl offered a nod as she interlocked their fingers and leaned in, kissing her father on the cheek gently.

"Of course I did. Where's Mother? Is she outside?" A nod in reply came from her father. And so, the girl let go of his hand and quickly rushed outside, excited as she saw her mother hunched over in the garden, calling out to her as the older woman lifted her head. She adored her mother, and her mother in turn adored her. As she arrived the beautiful maiden turned toward her daughter. Blonde hair reaching down her back, and eyes as blue as the ocean. She had dirt creeping down her forearms and all the way to her fingertips; a deep exhale as she raised her hand, causing water from a bucket nearby to begin to float towards her before splashing on her arms, washing all the dirt away with strange ease. "Let's go make breakfast, shall we? I'll let you decide what we make. Today's a special day, after all!"

A smiling face etched with the adoration of decades quickly changed to one soaked in blood, as Amani's chest heaved. Everything happened so fast. One moment, there was a ceremony and the next, a man in a long, grey cloak stained crimson with blood. With an ornate, single-edged blade sheathed on his belt,it conjured such intense red flames and burned the little village that was hidden within the leaves to cinders. Intense ringing within those pointed ears was the greeting she faced. As the silver-haired elf gazed at the strange man, horns protruding from his hood, as he approached her, a wickedly curved and bloodsoaked blade in his hand, as he laughed?

"Bastard... Your war with humans has bled over to the elves? What did we do?" A sneer from the clearly draconic man came out with obvious ire. As he pointed his blade at her before speaking, "Nothing. Our Mother just allowed me to do this for fun, knife-ear. Surely there's no problem with that?"

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up straight as tears welled in her eyes. Fun, right? This..was…just fun?! Looking around at the destruction, light began to burst out of her skin as she looked at him, "Do you know why this village is where it is? No matter where you look, no matter where you are. The Moon is right th-" Before she could finish, a fist to her face slammed her into a tree before any moonlight could gather to her side. "Quit yapping, bitch. I'm not trying to hear all that…"

If she were a normal elf, this force would have been enough to knock her out, maybe even kill her, but shaken as she was, Amani stood up, coughing as blood sputtered from her mouth, staining the grass as she put her hand against the tree, whimpering as she looked down at herself, weaving mana into her eyes to enhance her sight. Three broken ribs, minor internal bleeding. She had to finish this now!

Raising a hand, a purple beam of light expanded from the ground and rose high in the sky before expanding outward. It'd cover a large area in that same purple light before the outskirts would solidify, trapping them in a barrier of moonlight. He'd tilt his head before his lips parted so he could speak, "Do you think this barrier can hold me? Of the twelve Priests to our wondrous Mother, I am the twelfth. The Harbinger of the End, He who Roa--" Taking a page straight out of his book, a darker purple energy struck him in the chest before he could finish. And as he flew into the barrier, his back slamming against it! The barrier cracked beneath the force of her fury, then solidified again suddenly! As it did so, the girl's stance changed from something more hunched to something closer towards upright, as if the cracked ribs she was nursing were already fully healed. But that was just her furious bravado! Holding a hand out, energy coalesced from her hand as she looked to the dragon, a rod of purple light extending out before contracting and expanding into a blade; ironically enough, it appeared to mirror his own in shape and design.

"Interesting. Is that coincidental or did you intentionally copy my blade? Oh, it doesn't matter. This is just a simple orkish blade, not like I give a shit about it." Without a moment's delay she dashed forward, moonlight escaping her body! It flowed through her, empowering her to move quicker than he could blink. In the next instant she was already there! Slashing into him as a ray of moonlight crashed into him from behind, multiplying the force exponentially!

"One, two, three, four!" She counted her slashes, each one accompanied by a ray of light crashing into him from behind. Dust began to gather, and yet he stood tall in the face of her flurry of blows? Suddenly he spoke up, "Quite the powerful combination you have. Excellent mana control, vast amounts of mana... Great control over your Resonance, presumably due to your Elemental Nature, and not any actual talent. I was interested for a second…but I’ve grown bored now. Do you mind?"

He raised his hand, and her barrier began to strain and crack before it crumpled and folded in on itself. Folding again and again, before the man held a strange bird made from her barrier in the palm of his hand?! "This arena is quite drab, girl. Perhaps a change of scenery would make this fight more interesting?!" Although he posed it as a question there was no doubt about his intention!

While she was distracted with what he had turned her barrier into, he took that opportunity to grip her by the neck, and with an explosion of flames and a rush of wind, the two were in what appeared to be a deep purple void! Amani herself looked panicked but held strong! Fury was still burning in her heart, allowing her mana to surge in her body and mesh with the light that escaped her pores. Then, she began panting as the intensity of their clash peaked! Quickly, she began to understand that this was the sky, the domain of the dragons.

"Well, come attack me once again, why don’t you? My patience wears thin, woman. I want to see your best. Before I turn that effort into divine art." She tilted her head as she saw it, the moon. This was the closest she'd ever been to the moon. She could feel its light filling every last inch of her body! She looked at her shaking hands, moonlight escaping from her fingertips, and then…closing them with determination she looked at him. Her best? He wasn't going to like that. Not. One. Bit!

"Very well, beast." Her fingers twitched, and her hand shuddered at the sheer power that lay in her hand as the moonlight escaped from her fingers and began to coalesce into a ball of moonlight suffused with not only purple but pink shifting shades as well. She took a deep breath before raising her hand in the sky, all the while her fingers twitched unnaturally! Then suddenly she screamed out!

"Lady Scylla, Goddess of the Moon, benefactor of my bloodline! Source of my might! Source of my magic! Recognize the precipice of my power and the lunar soul that beats alongside my heart!" Energy coalescing and gathering in her hand, circling around one another and being absorbed by the ever-growing orb within her hand. A black energy then formed within the epicenter of the orb, and the dragon's eyes widened as he questioned, "She answered?"

"TWILIGHT BREAKER!"

Extending her hand forth, the ball flew towards him, and he tried to defend, but to no avail. Scylla had already moved her hand. The ball expanded and took the shape of a large crescent moon, jagged along its edges yet refined on the surface, crashing into him with a vicious explosion following. A deep cut along the edge of his body as he grabbed his head. He came to realize that one of his horns had snapped off and fallen to the ground below. Before he could even call her a bitch again, she advanced, and those draconic eyes narrowed as his mana began to leak from his very blood. A guttural growl escaped his maw.

"That's it." He spoke coldly and calmly, as she'd conjure another beam of moonlight to which he'd grasp the air, his fingers laced in mana, and then like it had never been there at all…the beam ceased to be. His other hand would grasp the golden-adorned sword handle as he drew it, pressing against the round crossguard as he did so. Light clung to the blade as he stepped forward and slashed at the air. A stillness within the air as darkness intensified and expanded! The blade purged any light, any hope the elf may have had before. In an instant he was behind her, eyes wide, as she sensed his mana directly behind her a split second before she looked down to see the blade sticking out of her stomach, and he whispered in her ear, "What a divine sheath for my blade. He thanks you for the meal you've given him."

In the next instant the blade was ripped from her back, just before the dragon grasped the back of her head and slammed her downwards with enough force to crush the air! His strength caused her to fly toward the ground. He didn't even check to confirm his kill; even if she survived the fall, she wouldn't live much longer after it. After all.

His muscles would bulge, and the scales along his body multiplied, patches would combine, covering his skin more densely than before. Suddenly…in the draconic man's place, was the red dragon that he was. He flew away, with a loud boom as he bounded forward at his maximum speed disappearing into the horizon before she could begin her descent.

Amani fell from the sky like a comet; she was so high she couldn't even see the ground for a long while before eventually seeing the treeline, and she slammed into a tree, shattering it on impact. She felt breaks and shatters within her body as she let out a sharp gasp of pain, light escaping her form in an attempt to break her fall. Another tree broke under the weight of her fall before she finally hit the ground harshly, a tree falling atop her, covering the middle of her torso as she felt the rest of her light escape her body, trying its hardest to heal her injuries. Everything grew dark and fuzzy. The last thing she saw before losing consciousness was a man? A boy?

Red hair... Who was that?