Chapter 48: Boss Fight – Isla?

“ISLA!”

Lexa’s shrill shriek was the only noise that filled the room, she stumbled towards the person the party had worked with in the past reaching out to hug Isla tears welling up in Lexa’s eyes. But Isla remained motionless in the center of the room with no emotion written on her face, with Lexa closing in on the motionless Isla, she suddenly raises her blade against someone who the party thought Isla considered a friend. This action stopped Lexa in her tracks, the mask of a happy reunion slipping to show the fear that she kept bottled deep down.

“Alyssa succeeded, didn’t she?”

That fear quickly flashed and caught fire as rage, a bust of mana was released from Lexa as her emotions shifted gears faster than they ever had before. Each time shifting who they were directed at and what the feeling was. Eventually as a wave of mana drew inwards towards Lexa her emotions settled, but they settled as a blinding rage directed at the Kitsune Alyssa who took Isla from them and turned her into a puppet for the Dark King. The rest of the party backed away out of fear, not sure themselves on how to approach or what to say to Isla or Lexa in this situation to make one break free of the curse and to calm the other one down before they destroy the building and everything within. With the room frozen in a stalemate between the trio of participants to this moment, Isla blade raised ready to cut at any sign of movement from Lexa, who herself could be mistaken for a being created of pure rage and given a human form. With the rest of the Shin’ya guild party frozen by the situation unsure on how to proceed to protect themselves from the pair in the center of the room, but also try to save Isla from the influence of Alyssa’s curse. The inaction seemed to last for an eternity, only broken by another burst of mana collecting around Lexa, causing Isla to back up out of instinct to what could only be perceived as preparation for an attack. Even the rest of the party shuffled out the doorway to protect themselves from whatever Lexa is planning to do in her enraged state, through the doorway the party could see as the light coming from within turned from the warm orange of the candlelight into a harsh medical green. Wondering what caused this change Ilev peered around the doorframe to take a look inside the ballroom trying to ascertain if Lexa was about to cast a spell that they need to get further away from before she casts it, as Ilev pokes his head around the frame of the ballroom doors he just sees Lexa enveloped in a green light and Isla maintaining her distance from Lexa most likely also trying to figure out what Lexa is currently in the middle of doing.

“Ilev what’s she doing?”
“I don’t know Suieol. And that makes me rather nervous.”
“What do you mean you don’t know.” Suieol hissed.
“I mean I don’t know if this is an attacking spell with the plant element or just her casting a healing spell that’s super amped up because of that mana she seemed to suck in from becoming no different to a humanoid being formed of pure rage.”
“Well try and find out, I’d rather not be caught in the effect zone of one of her spells with her in that kind of mood.”
“And you think any of the rest of us including me do? I don’t think God themselves would want to be caught in that.”
“That is a good point.”

At that moment the colour coming from the room shifts to a darker green.

“Ok Ilev she’s doing something crazy, go stop her before she sends the entire castle into the void.”
“Oh yeah. Let me, the one who technically got us into this mess, go and talk to the one who is currently madder than Satan about this mess into stopping what they’re doing. If Lexa is preparing an attack spell I will be turned to dust the second I speak to her.”
“Well who else is going to go?”

The rest of the party back away from the door even more, not wanting to be the one that has to go inside to face the wrath of whatever Lexa might be doing.

“Fine guess I’ll go myself.”

Just as Suieol reached the doorway a burst of green coloured energy shot through the open door, even though the blast had no physical properties the sudden appearance caused Suieol to fall over onto the floor. As she got up, she saw Lexa taking one knee in the center of the room with Isla slowly and with an extreme air of caution making her way towards Lexa, the rest of the party cautiously entered the room once again.

“Hey Isla, we’d rather not hurt you.”
“Hey. You’re Suieol right, the one we rescued from the valley?”
“Yeah…”
“I’d rather not hurt you either. That doesn’t seem like a useful strategy when we have to face the Dark King once Lexa’s mana has restored.”
“So you’re not under the curse anymore?”
“Hey Ilev. No, seems like the healing spell stack combined with Lexa’s willpower to save me from the curse and a small amount of her uncontrollable rage towards Alyssa broke the curse with no problems. She really is quite overpowered.”
“You have no idea, it seems as though she can create a combination spell that has the same destructive capability as a nuclear device.”
“Well then, that is quite the achievement. I’ll note that down in my how to stay alive guide, ‘don’t piss Lexa off at all, ever.’ That spell must have been what caused the shaking while Alyssa was finishing up her curse, if she hadn’t used that spell the curse would have been fully competed instead of just ninety odd percent done. While we wait for our wonderful mage to recover why don’t we take a moment to eat before our final battle?”
“Yeah sounds like a good idea, let’s us check all of our gear before fighting and let’s leave the camping materials in this room so we don’t have to fight the Dark King carrying them.”

The party sit in the near the center of the ballroom and set up a small fire raised off the ground somewhat so that the wooden floor doesn’t catch fire while they cook food during the final respite before making their way to the throne room where the Dark King is waiting.