The players gather in the field of the final battle

The phoenix looked over at this new group, saw that they were all armed, but also saw that they didn’t appear to be preparing to attack it, and promptly turned back to the ones who had already been attacking it and sent out a roar of fire at them. Jordan on the other hand saw this new development, dodge the fire heading towards him, and turned to Mina.

“Mina, you think you can handle this alone?” He asked.

“I-”

“No Mina, whatever you do, do not do what he says!” Athan shouted, and began rushing towards her. Jordan responded by jumping between them, getting in his way, and Athan pulled out his sword and slashed at him, clashing with Jordan’s shield. Jordan didn’t pay this any mind, instead halfway turning to Mina to see her response.

“I *gulp* I can, I have to.” Mina said with more confidence than she felt. The smile that she got from Jordan in response though, that helped to shorten that gap.

“Zafeiri Katastrofi!”

He then abruptly jumped back as Lefteris shot a blast of wind at him, and Athan attempted to use this opening to get past him. But Jordan slammed his shield into the ground, using the last remnants of his ice spell to freeze Athan in place, then rush in front of him and slam him back with the shield so that he was far away from Mina.

Athan glared at him as Lefteris came to his side to help him up.

“Why are you getting in our way!?” Athan demanded. “I know who you are now, I looked into your legend. After what you’ve done, I would have thought you’d be on our side! We are the only people in this kingdom who are willing to do what’s necessary to save this kingdom from it’s corruption, so why would you fight us?!”

“Like I told you, there is no corruption, and you can’t pretend there is to excuse having a temper tantrum after you weren’t allowed into the army.” Jordan shot back. “You also can’t use corruption as an excuse for a dumb king, especially when that king knows he’s dumb and tries his best to fix any mistake he makes. You’re not freedom fighters, you’re a self-centered group of treasonous fools!”

“We can argue on that point back and forth all day if we wanted to, but what we can’t argue about is the fact that this kingdom NEEDS Mina.” Lefteris cut in, cutting off whatever Athan was about to say and putting a hand on his shoulder to keep him from charging in. “We all know Uraina is dying, that she’s losing her power. As a kingdom, we NEED to have someone take up her role as goddess, and Mina is a perfect candidate. You have to see that!”

At Lefteris’s words, Jordan’s face darkened, his glare sharpened, and he rose his weapons just a little bit higher as he prepared to fight.

“Yes, I know your goddess is dying, I know that fact far better than you do. But I don’t care. Find some other method to fix that problem.” He growled. “She’d sick and dying? Find some way to heal her. She is growing weaker? Find some way to rebuild her strength. She’s simply fading away and it can’t be avoided? Then find someone else to replace her. No matter what though, I will not let you force a child like Mina to fix your problems for you.”

Lefteris took in his words, and let out a sigh of frustration. It was clear to all sides that there was no talking this through. Wordlessly, he lifted his hand off of Athan’s shoulder, silently letting his friend know he was allowed to fight. All three of them prepared for the inevitable clash, and after a silent beat, Athan and Jordan rushed towards each other.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Off to the side, Dory saw that Athan and Lefteris were being distracted by Jordan, and let out a frustrated sigh before deciding to take matters into his own hand and grab Mina himself. Before he could take more than a few steps though, Natalia appeared in front of him.

“Husband.” Natalia said coldly, making Dory wince.

“Natalia, sweety, sweetheart, love of my life.” Dory responded with nervous cheer.

“Are you really trying to force Mina to do this? To sacrifice herself for a dream, for Athan’s dream?” She questioned just as coldly.

“I don’t like this any better than you do honey, but we have to.” Dory pleaded. “We need her, you know we do.”

“She is a CHILD Dory! A child the same age as our SON!” Natalia responded. However, her words had the opposite effect as intended as Dory actually firmed up a bit.

“You had no problems when I started training Nik to fight when he was younger, and you didn’t have problems with bringing him along when we joined Athan.” Dory countered.

“I had no problems because it was for the sake of protecting him! You taught him how to defend himself, and we brought him along with us so we could protect him! This? What this group wants to do with Mina? To Mina?! That is very different, and you know it!” Natalia almost screamed at her husband. But the louder she got, the more she spoke, the harder Dory’s heart got.

“Exactly, this is different, but it’s also the same. Just like I trained Nik so he could protect himself, just like we joined Athan to protect our family, we will ensure Mina helps us save the kingdom and replace Uraina so our family can be safe.” Dory firmly declared. He then moved to walk past her, only for Natalia to place one of her swords in his path.

“And I won’t let you.” She said with absolute conviction. “I will stop you and all the others who wish to take advantage of an innocent child. Then WE will go find another way to save our kingdom and protect our family, a better way.”

Dory looked down at the sword, understood it’s message, and stepped back. Then, with pain clear on his face, he drew his own swords and faced his wife directly, who also had her swords drawn.

“There is no better way, Natalia.” He told her, one last hope that she could be convinced.

“There has to be, because this way is the wrong way.” Natalia replied, firm in her convictions.

The two locked eyes, knowing there was no other way forwards. In their hearts, both of them hoped they could move past this and return to being a happy loving family. But, in this moment, this disagreement was more important, with each of them absolutely sure in their own thoughts and determined to overcome the other. Without another word, the two clashed swords in a fight that would mean more to them than anything before.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Over further away from the phoenix, Iro had made a choice. As much as she wanted to help Mina beat the phoenix directly, she knew there was a much more important job for her. So, before either of them could approach, Iro placed herself between Nik and her mother, and the rest of the fight.

“Ni-”

“WHY?!” Nik screamed out before Iro could say anything. “Why are you doing this?! why are you with her?!”

“It’s beca-”

“Did she hypnotize you?” Nik exclaimed, cutting her off again. “Does she have mind control powers? Is she actually some kind of demon that seduced you?! I knew I shouldn’t have trusted her! I should have known something was wrong when you said you wanted me to get to know her and try dating her instead of you! She somehow managed to use her evil mind magic to get you to break up with me!”

“You ne-”

“If you’re still in there Iro, don’t worry! I’m coming to sa-”

“SHUT THE HELL UP AND LISTEN TO ME NIK!” Iro screamed over Nik, catching him by surprise. He was quiet for a moment before opening his mouth to speak again, but Iro wasn’t going to let him.

“I am not under any sort of mind control or hypnosis or whatever else you’re thinking of Nik. I am still me, I am still thinking for myself, and I know that helping Mina is what I need to do right now.” She said firmly, but Nik shook his head.

“No. NO! That’s wrong! Mina’s just manipulating you somehow! The real Iro loves me more than anything, she would never try to break up with me, but you tried to! You wanted me to start dating her, there’s no way the real Iro would do that!” Nik adamantly denied, and Iro let out a sigh of frustration.

“I do love you Nik, I love you a lot more than admittedly I probably should. But I love you like a friend or a little brother, not like a boyfriend. Never like a boyfriend!” Iro explained angrily. Nik’s face fell hard the moment she said that, and for a moment she regretted it. But she knew that it was something she had to say. And now that she’d started, she had to say it all.

“I know I accepted being your girlfriend, but looking back I know I probably shouldn’t have.” Iro admitted. “I was always planning on breaking up with you as soon as I found a boy more my age, or you found a girl more your age, but I was weak. I wanted something, and when you offered it, I couldn’t help but say yes. I said yes despite seeing all the heavy baggage that came along with it. I’m sorry Nik. I should have been the mature one, but I made the wrong choice, the selfish choice. And as good as it may have felt on the surface, it only hurt us both in the long run.”

“No no no! you’re lying! You’re being tricked by Mina! You-you-you-you’re being possessed by that fire bird, SOMETHING! You cant be telling the truth!” He screamed, tears running down his face. “YOU CANT! You cant! You cant. You cant…”

As Nik broke down, Agapi put her hand on his shoulder, and without even thinking about it he pressed himself against her.

“We’ll be discussing your ‘relationship’ with Nik later Iro.” Agapi said firmly.

“Yes mother.” Iro replied, ashamed but accepting.

“For right now though, you need to step aside and let us bring Mina back.” Agapi continued.

“No mother.” Iro replied, still sounding somewhat ashamed, but firm as well.

“This is not a discussion Iro, you do not have a choice in this matter.” Agapi said.

“You’re right, I don’t. Mina needs to go back home to her family, and I will make sure she does. There is no choice, because I would never do anything else.” Iro said firmly.

“Iro, Mina needs to-”

“What if it were me or Panos in Mina’s situation?” Iro said, cutting her mom off. “What if one of us were to be the one in Mina’s situation? How would you feel then? What would you do then?”

Agapi was taken aback by Iro’s sudden declaration, but didn’t hesitate to switch gears.

“I would be happy for you, that’s how I would feel Iro. I’ve always wanted what’s best for you both, I want you both to become something great. Well, what’s greater than becoming the greatest goddess in the word?” Agapi replied, but Iro shook her head.

“But you wouldn’t know! Mina’s parents don’t know where she is. As far as they know, she just disappeared out of nowhere, seemingly never to be seen again! Can you really say you’d be happy about that? That you wouldn’t be crying for us if we just disappeared like that?” Iro asked. At her question, Agapi’s face twisted in frustration.

“Stop being so stubborn Iro! Stop trying to find ways to make this wrong! We are giving Mina the best gift imaginable!” Agapi exclaimed, sounding almost desperate as well as frustrated. “We are turning her into an immortal goddess, giving her power beyond her wildest dreams, beyond anything else in this world. Beyond anything in her world even! So what if she won’t see her family again, so what if she’s going to have to do us a few favors every now and then? This is the best life she could ever have, and she’s throwing it away because a few people had temper tantrums! And you’re helping her!”

“A few favors? Mom, Athan is going to turn her into a SLAVE!” Iro screamed. “She won’t have power; she’ll be a puppet for people like him! People like the idiot king! This isn’t a blessing, it’s a curse, a horrible horrible curse!”

Agapi opened her mouth to argue, but was stopped not by Iro, but by Nik.

“AHHHHHHHHH!” Nik screamed, eyes filled with tears as he pulled out his daggers and charged Iro.

Iro responded quickly, drawing her own sword and deflecting both his knife and the magical explosion after. She locked eyes with her mother, who looked right back, and drew her bow. The time for words was over. Only through actions would a conclusion be made.