Battle in the skies above

Nighttime.

Somewhere in the forests of the Chablis continent.

A huge tree dwarfs everything else in the surrounding area.

Lights surround it, reaching all the way from the top to the forests below.

An elven city.

In a place that looks like an arena.

Hundreds of elves sit on the podiums, silently watching as two elven fighters duke it out in 1v1 combat.

One is dressed in an elf noble’s attire. His weapons brand-new. He casually smiles as he continues to overpower his opponent.

The other is wearing human clothes, his weapons are also new. His ears are pointed, but too short for an elf.

He’s clearly not used to handling elven weapons. His bow breaks as he tries to block his opponent’s sword.

“Dumb move, half-breed!”

The sword swiftly goes past his defense. It stops just as it grazes his neck.

“You’ve lost.”

The half-elf raises his hands.

One of the elder elves speaks up.

“Once again Seiji, you’ve shown no skill in battle. You fight just like a human. You may be of High Elven bloodline, but just like your appearance, you act like those flawed beings. You may return to your house”

Seiji bows to the elders.

The winner gives his sword and bow to Seiji.

“Take this half-breed, you’ll need it”

“Thanks, Iston”

Seiji walks out of the arena.

He jumps from tree to tree, the light of the houses below him illuminates his path.

His new weapons in hand, he heads out farther into the forest.

The half-elf stops by a lone house, far away from city. The forest in front of the house ends in a steep drop, giving a wide view of the area below.

He places his weapons inside the house, grabs some medicinal leaves, then sits on the roof.

He looks up to the sky.

“Why am I such a failure, why was I born like this”

He places the leaves on his bruises.

Suddenly.

A circle appears high up in the night sky.

“A portal?”

Seiji stands up.

“What in the-”

A meteor appears. It falls then quickly stops mid-air. Another one appears beside it.

From the portal, hundreds of other circles appear.

Hundreds of meteors descend on the two.

He grabs a pair of binoculars from his house, a memento from his human father.

He uses it to look at the two glowing objects.

Only that they aren’t objects.

The pair appear to be two girls. One has 3 pairs of white wings on her back, her black hair flowing in the winds. She wears a dress similar to the other one. Several glowing swords float around her body.

The other one is holding her stomach, gold and red liquids flowing from her wound. Despite her injuries, she seems to be the more powerful of the two.

The two look at the sky above them.

Seiji looks at the multiple objects above them.

Hundreds of them wear the same gray attire, holding spears in their hands. They all have one pair of gray wings.

The two leading the army are a man and woman. They both wear gray dresses. They exude such a terrifying aura.

Seiji rubs his eyes.

Am I dreaming?

He pinches himself.

“Looks like it’s not a dream”

He looks at them again. If only he could make out what they’re saying…

Suddenly, the man in grey clothes seems to order the army to attack the two.

The 6-winged girl summons a lot of rod-like things that begin to ignite on the lower end.

They fly towards the army at an alarming speed.

The projectiles hit their targets.

A huge explosion occurs.

It’s silent for a while.

A circle opens outwards towards the surrounding areas.

*Boom!*

Winds suddenly fly in Seiji’s direction followed by a loud boom.

It’s silent again.

He looks into his binoculars again.

There are no traces of the army. It’s just the two up above against the two below.

This time, dozens of beings with the same number of wings as the one below rushes towards them.

They separate the two from each other and begin chasing the 6-winged girl.

The sky lights up as the girl summons more of those rod-like things followed by the appearance of numerous metal objects that swarm around the girl.

“What’s going on here!?!”

Multiple armed elves appear behind Seiji. They seem to have been alarmed by the loud explosions reverberating across the forests.

They fall silent as they witness the events that unfold before them.

Night has become day.

Seiji continues looking through his binoculars.

The man and woman in grey chase after the wounded girl. She continues to deflect their attacks despite being injured.

It looks like the match is evenly tied. Suddenly the girl stops glowing for a moment, and the two quickly take their chance to attack.

The man appears behind the injured girl and hits her with his fist, sending her upwards towards the sky, where the woman appears and quickly follows up with a downward kick, sending her falling down at high speeds.

*Boom!*

The sky lights up once more. Thousands of rod-like projectiles bombard the two.

Shockwaves pass through the forests once more with a deafening boom.

All the elves could do is look on.

Seiji looks to the left. The 6-winged girl won against her attackers, albeit seeming to have broken her left arm.

She disappears and reappears under her falling comrade, catching her.

More swords appear around them, pointing towards the smoke.

The smoke clears and the two are unscathed.

They shrugged off the attacks like it was nothing.

The portals behind them began to close. Seeing this, the two utter something at the girls. They then went back into the portals.

“Is it over?”

One of the elves exclaimed.

“What were those things?”

“Everyone be on guard, some of you head back into the city and do an evacuation! We might be under attack!”

Seiji puts down his binoculars.

“We’re not under attack”

“What?”

Despite having excellent night-vision, the other elves couldn’t see what was happening because it happened so far up.

The glowing object in the night sky begins to fall, their glow fading out.

At least that’s what the other elves see.

Seiji grabs his bow and a hang glider from his house and jumps off the cliff.

“Half-breed! Wait!”

Their voices fade into the night as Seiji hurries over to where the two girls are falling.

He lands on top of the forest canopy below.

“Spirits of the forest, lend me your aid-”

He continues chanting.

Several vines interlace among the trees, making a huge net.

Vines reach up towards the sky, catching the falling pair, wrapping and slowing them down until they reach the net.

Seiji stops chanting. Using the help of spirits takes a lot out of him.

He jumps down unto the net.

“Are you okay-”

He is at a loss for words.

Elves are known to be perfect in appearance and yet, before him lies the most beautiful girl he has ever laid his eyes upon. Her dazzling pale white skin, her golden hair, no one in his city could dare compare.

She’s looking at Seiji, staring into his soul. He looks at her ocean blue eyes, then her ears.

“You’re a high elf?”

The one with the wings is nowhere to be seen. Instead, a sword which glows with intense power is embedded into the tree beside the girl. He straps the sword over his back.

He looks at the girl.

“Hey, don’t be scared, I’m here to help you”

He tries to help the girl up, but she winces in pain.

“Ah you’re hurt!”

She’s bleeding. It looks like a sword pierced her stomach area. Her blood is a mix of what looks like molten gold and blood.

“I can get you somewhere where your wounds can be treated, I’ll have to carry you. Is that alright?”

The girl nods.

“Alright then”

Seiji lifts her up in his arms.

Back at the elven city, on a huge platform.

A council of elves are arguing about the impending danger.

“We can’t just leave the forest!”

“What choice do we have?! Have you seen the magnitude of what we’re dealing with?”

Thousands of elves are packing up and evacuating in the city below.

“We should have just accepted the Demon Lord’s offer, now our city is doomed!”

“Doing so would be against our teachings! Our faith in the Goddess Amaris should never waver!”

The king and queen sit on the throne, watching the council argue amongst one another.

He raises his hand. The room falls silent.

“Once the citizens have finished evacuating, we’ll send the army to investigate the forests. That decision is final.”

“Yes, your excellency!”

There are Elves and also High Elves. All High Elves are of royal blood, and as such are granted privileges that regular Elves don’t have. They also live a lot longer than normal Elves.

Seiji bursts into the room, carrying the girl in her hand.

“Uncle! She needs help!”

The king looks at Seiji.

The council is shocked.

“What are you doing here Seiji!?”

“Can’t you see this is an important meeting!?”

“Everyone please listen! we’re not under attack! I found this girl at the scene, she’s a high elf. We need to help her!”

Although they don’t want to listen to Seiji, the injured high elf could be from one of the other elven kingdoms, they can’t just ignore her condition.

The king motions the court healers to heal her.

The council members fall silent again and walk over to Seiji.

“Is she from the Lyfelune kingdom?”

“Everyone make space for the healers”

The court healers run over to her.

They begin casting healing spells on the girl.

“I-It’s not working”

“What!? Keep healing her!”

As the commotion continues, the king walks over to Seiji.

He looks at the girl.

His eyes suddenly widen.

“You fools!”

He pushes away the council members and the healers. Dozens of magic circles appear around the girl.

“Divine Healing!!”

The room fills with blinding light. As the light fades, smoke can be seen coming from the king.

“Dear!!”

The queen rushes over to him. She immediately starts casting healing spells on him. The court healers do the same.

Not only do High Elves have almost perfect affinity for Magic, they can also use Divine Spells that typically only Gods and Angels use. This comes at the cost of their life though if not treated as soon as possible.

As soon as the life force starts coming back to his body, the King immediately shouts.

“Everyone! Kneel!!”

Everyone kneels. Including the King and Queen.

He holds the girl’s hand.

“Forgive me and my subjects’ insolence, oh merciful Goddess”

Everyone is shocked. Seiji doesn’t know what’s happening either.

The girl wakes up, her wounds partially healed.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t heal you completely!”

The king puts his head to the ground.

“Your Excellency! Just for this high elf!?”

The council members are confused.

“Look at the statues you dumb imbeciles!! Do you not see who is in front of us right now?!””

They look at the statues around the room. They look almost the same as the girl.

Immediately fear shows in their eyes.

“Please forgive us Goddess!”

The girl stands up.

“It’s alright. It’s been almost forever since I came down to this world”

She looks at the king. His body has deteriorated so much, yet he’s still prostrating himself before her.

“Thank you, my child. You sacrificed your wellbeing for my sake without so much as a second thought”

“Your kindness is too much for this humble servant, Goddess Amaris”

Amaris? THE GODDESS AMARIS? PATRON GODDESS OF THE ELVES??

Seiji is dumbfounded.

Amaris places her hand on the King’s head. In an instant, he is healed.

“T-thank you… Goddess”

She looks at Seiji.

“Thank you for saving me and Yatsumi”

“Y-you’re welcome Goddess!”

This was one heck of a night.

…

The city of Durahl.

The wall has a huge hole in the middle.

In the city, a Greater Dragon is waiting outside the Governor’s office.

“You’re telling me you didn’t know that the heroes were in your city?”

Loralei tosses the governor around like a ragdoll.

The entire office is in shambles.

“Ack-”

Evelyn looks at the two.

“Sister, that’s enough. I believe him”

Loralei looks down on the bloodied dwarf.

“Okay then”

She picks him up – holding him by the legs. She throws him out the window.

He lands outside with a sickening crunch.

“Sister!”

“Alright alright, I just can’t bring myself to believe him. I know you don’t as well by the way”

“But he’s already suffered enough!”

She looks outside the window.

“And what about us? That damn demon lord might hurt you again.”

The dragon looks at the body that just fell from the 2nd floor.

She looks at Evelyn.

“Even I can’t beat him.”

The two continue to stare at each other.

Loralei gives in.

“Fine, let’s get out of this place then”

She jumps down beside the governor.

“I usually have no problems with you dwarves. Usually.”

She places a rare magic stone near the governor – compensation for the broken infrastructure.

The dragon places its head on the 2nd floor. Evelyn stands on top.

It brings its head down near the dying dwarf.

She comes closer and heals him.

She then stands up and looks at Loralei.

“Let’s go”