Now What Is the Price of Life?

“The frog in the well knows nothing of the ocean.”

Traditional proverb

“Melody, give me the boy,” Saber Rider told her. Melody hesitated. Whether she would actually go through with it or not, only she knew.

“Melody, don't do it…” Kenta pleaded with her. “Please…”

“Give him to me,” Saber Rider insisted. “I'd prefer it if we didn't have any accidents.”

Melody thought about it for a bit longer. “The money first. That's what I'm here for.”

“Melody, no!” Kenta screamed.

“Very well,” Saber Rider relented. “I respect you having your priorities straightened out.”

As one of Saber Rider's men walked towards Melody from the right to hand her the contract money, another agent approached from the left to grab Kenta. All the while, Kenta screamed, “No! No! No! You can't do this to me!”

“Escort the catgirl out of here,” Saber Rider told his men. Two of them gently led Melody towards the exit. Three other men forced a struggling Kenta onto the machine.

“Melody, you coward!” Kenta screamed. “I thought we were friends!”

“Sorry, Kenta,” Melody replied without even turning to face him. “My only friend is money.”

“I can't believe you would sell me out like this,” Kenta shouted, “even after all we've been through! Was I really just a way for you to make a quick buck?”

Melody said nothing in response as the men loaded Kenta onto the machine. Saber Rider stood by, giving the person operating the machine the go-ahead. One button was all it took to activate the machine. The rest was handled automatically: the height and descent of the extraction apparatus, the release of anesthetics to calm Kenta down during the process, and the positioning and targeting of Kenta's magical essence. But no amount of anesthetics could keep Kenta from screaming, crying for his mother, or cursing Melody.

Melody only continued to walk away.

Kenta was mere centimeters away from having his magic taken away from him in a process that would very likely kill him. The catgirl he thought was his friend was walking away as if nothing happened. He wanted to cry, but the sheer terror of it all drained every last tear from his eyes. The device crawled closer and closer to his heart. Kenta braced for the worst.

Melody found a window of opportunity. She leaned into the man on her left and forced the arm holding her to extend much farther than it had any right to. She might well have broken the whole thing into pieces. Before the man on her right had any time to notice, she pulled him towards her, landing a punch square in his gut. No magic required. She just needed an opening.

“Roasted Fireball!!” she shouted as she whirled herself around to aim a stream of flames at the control console. It didn't take much to damage the console enough to stop the extractor before it reached Kenta.

Several more guards attempted to capture her, but none of them thought to use magic against her. A little bit of electricity was enough to subdue all of them. The people in the audience fled in terror as they weren't about to risk getting caught in Melody's rage.

All that remained between her and Kenta was Saber Rider himself.

“Melody, you disappoint me,” Saber Rider told her. “I thought we had a good deal.”

“I am a thief, after all,” Melody replied with a smile. “Skill issue on your part for trusting a thief.”

“How unfortunate,” Saber Rider observed. “It seems there's only one way to finish this.”

“I couldn't agree more,” Melody replied. “It's a duel.”

“Proper duel etiquette must always be observed,” Saber Rider told her. Both duelists bowed to each other, then walked away until they were standing ten meters apart, almost at the first row of seats. The two of them began to circle around the machine while Kenta was still strapped to it. Saber Rider grabbed his wand, standard issue, and chanted “Roasted Fireball!” His attack missed on purpose, setting several seats on fire. Kenta proved to add an interesting obstacle to the duel.

Melody answered with the same spell, also missing on purpose.

“I have little birdies telling me all the ins and outs of what's happening in this country,” Saber Rider told Melody. “They tell me you and Kenta have both used up your high magic for the day. But I have plenty of high magic to spare.

Discipline is strength,

The trees dig deep with their roots.

Breaking Boulder Rush!”

The ground beneath Melody warped, shook, and twisted in an attempt to knock her off her feet. Melody had no choice but to use some of her flying magic to get out of the way.

Saber Rider gave her one last chance to back down. “You seem a decent fellow. I'd hate to kill you.”

“Funny, I don't think the same of you,” Melody laughed. “I'd hate to die.”

“Roasted Fireball!!”    “Showering Blizzard!!”

Their two attacks canceled each other out, creating a large burst of energy that knocked both of them into the stands. The blast also sent a shockwave downward, freeing Kenta from his restraints. An opportunity to escape tempted him, but Kenta was more focused on needing to help Melody should the need have arisen. At the moment, the two duelists seemed to be following the rules, but Kenta stayed close by just in case.

“Zap It To You, Mate!!”    “Big Boulder Barrage!!”

Saber Rider had an advantage in raw magic, but Melody had the speed and agility advantage. He just couldn't hit her, but she also couldn't land a hit on him. The two continued to zap spells at each other until it was clear neither could do much of anything.

That was when Saber Rider revealed an ace in his sleeve:

“Hide me from the eyes,

Whispers in the dainty wind.

Catch me if you can!”

“Wait a minute,” Melody paused. “That's my high magic!”

Melody had no time to react. She was bombarded by bolts of lightning from all angles, one after another. Her only way to escape the barrage was to fly away. Having never dealt with an invisible enemy before, she had no idea how to defeat one. The only plan she could come up with was to respond to lightning with her own lightning. One lucky strike slapped Saber Rider in the torso, forcing him to gasp in pain and making him visible once again.

While he was down, Melody took the opportunity to finish the duel quickly. “Roasted Fireball!!” A direct hit!

But he vanished!

Melody caught the full force of a fireball into her back. Saber Rider had somehow snuck up behind her to launch a coward’s attack. While she was down, he took his opportunity to end the duel as soon as possible.

“Vengeance most chilling,

Colder than Hokkaido snow,

I cast Blizzard Sword!”

He had cast three high magic spells in this duel; two had been long thought impossible. The man now had a sword made of a material even colder than ice in his hand. He went to make his move.

“Heavenly Defense!!” Melody cried out in desperation. “Ruptured Space Typhoon!!” Her wind spell broke her own shield, sending the shards right at Saber Rider. While the shards barely missed anything important, they did manage to pin the man to the ceiling of the auditorium. “Channel Fireball!! Zap It To You, Mate!!” Melody was now firing off as many spells as she could as fast as possible. She was not about to give her opponent even an inch.

“Phase Out Hideaway!!” Saber Rider chanted in response, causing him to phase through the wall. He had escaped the base.

Taking full opportunity of the brief reprieve, Melody told Kenta, “Go get help, quickly! I don't care who, just somebody, anybody.”

“What about Saber Rider?” Kenta asked.

“I'll try to hold him off,” Melody replied. “This time, it's personal.”

As soon as Kenta ran off, Melody was ambushed once again by Saber Rider. His goal was very clear: he was going to strap her into the machine. Whether he forgot the machine no longer worked or simply didn't care, Melody wasn't sure. Assuming this was in fact his plan, Melody employed a little trick. Using her tail as a makeshift rudder, she shifted their momentum ever so slightly. Just before he reached the machine, the two of them reversed direction.

He was now pushing her towards the exit. Well… sort of… She pushed a little too far to the left and, as such, got pushed into the cells holding some of the test subjects, including the Prime Minister. Once enough glass, metal, and rock stopped their momentum, the two duelists had nearly abandoned magic altogether. Melody was now pummeling Saber Rider with her bare fists.

While she was being introduced to the Ethereal Essence Extractor, she had been slowly putting the pieces together. The end result was a horrifying revelation.

“You murdered Cadence!” Melody screamed, tears flowing down her face. “You used her for your awful science experiments! And you tried to kill the rest of my family!”

Even with his face being mashed in, Saber Rider sneered. “It was nothing personal, kid. You and I want the same thing, to put an end to The Gloom.”

“You kidnapped children… parents… the Prime Minister?”

“You also kidnapped children,” Saber Rider retorted. “We aren't that different, you know. We weren't born on this planet to watch it die.”

“Do not try to get all philosophical on me,” Melody cried. “I'll make sure you never hurt anyone else ever again.”

“You don't seem to respect me very much,” he told her before grabbing a hold of her arms. “Agony Torture.”

The pain of ten thousand knives being driven into one's body shot through Melody's body in an instant. Saber Rider had once again turned the tide of the fight.

“There are about six billion humans on this planet,” Saber Rider told her, “and approximately two billion fairies. How many do you think I'd be willing to sacrifice just so I could come home to my beautiful wife and my amazing children? To be able to go on long walks on the beach by moonlight? To bring about world peace?”

Struggling to breathe or move, Melody tried to cast a spell, “Zap -”

It was no use. Saber Rider shot more of the torture spell at her. “I'm going to kill you, Melody, daughter of nobody in particular. And then because you have nine lives, I'm going to kill you over and over again… And after that, I will figure out how to send you to Hell in every single religion, just in case.

Stricken by blindness,

The world itself stops breathing.

Behold the dark light.”

Kenta's high magic. There was nothing Melody could do to stop it now. Darkness filled the area, enveloping everything and everyone inside the inky black abyss. But someone did have a desperate plan. Perhaps it was the Prime Minister. Perhaps it was one of the other male prisoners. Nobody could tell for sure.

“Beauty in winter,

The first light of the first day.

Shine On, Heaven's Door!”

In an instant, the darkness was annihilated by a blinding light. Another voice, which sounded quite like Zim, chimed in:

“Faster than all sound,

Fly from my bow, make your mark!

Fleeting Flight Arrow!”

Yet another voice joined in, this time that of a woman:

“Bonds forged in silence,

Ensnare all in your tight grip.

Restraining Iron Chain!”

Even Pinkie lent her voice to the chorus of haiku:

“Prayers sent onward,

Carried by the summer wind.

Heaven's Blessings Flow!”

The blinding light had now subsided. The prisoners and also the wounded Melody were slowly being healed. Saber Rider was now unable to move, having been wrapped up tightly in iron chains. An arrow stuck out of the wrapped up chains, just barely missing his heart. Perhaps that was on purpose.

Saber Rider had been defeated.