The Power Of Friendship

I yawned and wiped my eyes as I was still waking up, despite walking all the way to the Tower. Our small army was hidden behind a cliff, hiding in case the Angels had sent scouts.

I was waiting atop the cliffside, observing the tower from afar. The pillar of quartz stood tall, right beside the Eastern trade road, with many slits in the walls for archers, branching like a tree, with multiple roofs spread over the fortress the Angels had built to control the road. I observed many guards walk along the fortress' stone walls, a bright light circling around the area. They seem to be on high alert and we don't know how many are actually inside, especially with this weird tree-like watchtower. Great…

Someone sat next to me, smelling of flowers and wet moss.

"Are you sure about this?... This is insane, Zo."

"Of course, Yums. It'll work, trust me… Are our allies ready?"

Yumii sighed, and nodded.

"Yes. They will be there."

"Well they sure better not bail on us, or we're all dead," I mumbled, stretching as I stood up. "Let's tell Palleus and get on our way while the light is still low."

We ignored the ropes and jumped down the cliffside, wind whipping my face. Ahh, nothing like the taste of adrenaline in the morning. Yumii slowed our fall before we landed with an air bubble, and we walked towards the crowd.

"We're ready to go," I informed Palleus, who was surrounded by his people.

The man nodded and adjourned his meeting, telling all of his followers to get ready.

We walked to the company's meeting point, before the cliff reconnects with their path's height. Yumii went off to organise the assault on her side, waving at us as she left.

"Why'd you quit being a mercenary?"

"Do you know why I was called the Kraken Hunter?"

I shook my head. Because you killed Krakens…?

"Because that was the only thing I was good at, and enjoyed, as a mercenary. So I hunted them and profited a lot from these beautiful creatures. I owe them all I am today."

"Woah," I blinked. He’s nuts. Who the hell chases that monster for fun? "Can't say I expected that. I guess there was a market for squid hunting."

Palleus chuckled, rubbing his hands together.

"It’s a bigger market than you think. Arcane beasts' bodies carry specific properties, physic or arcanic. Why do you think Faeries are so hunted?... Their longevity and their ability to exchange specific memories for arcane energy is unique. Having one under your control is invaluable."

My blood left my brain, my breathing stopping for a second.

"W-wait wait wait," I gulped, hands beginning to shake, "Faeries… trade memories for power? As in, lost forever?"

Palleus stared at me.

"You didn't know? You should’ve asked your companion."

I rubbed my forehead, remembering all the times Yumii had used her arcane to save me. Why didn't she tell me?! I wouldn't have been so damn careless!

"Chief," called one of the villagers, armed to the teeth.

Palleus spared me one last look, turning towards his men. My mind disconnected from my ears. I stumbled to a nearby rock, brain buzzing. Our plan relies on her using her arcane to sneak us in, how could I have been so self-centered! Of course, there's a price, I knew something was wrong with her! I should've figured it out back when she forgot-

I raised my head, staring at the yellow horizon, the cold sunrise rays reaching my eyes. The realisation dawned on me, twisting my stomach, which tried to go back up my throat. My lungs tightened, refusing to take in any more air in an attempt to punish me for my sins. I retched, holding my hands on my mouth to try to hold it in, a single thought echoing in my mind.

I made her forget her best friend.

It was my fault Yumii sacrificed her memory of Elyah. If I hadn't wandered off and found the creature, Atos wouldn't have died, and Yumii wouldn't have had to pay the price of unleashing her power. So weak. I didn’t have a witty comeback this time.

"It's all my fault," I ached, bending over my knees, drawing blood from biting my lip too hard.

"Let's go, people!" screamed Palleus. "Zoe, get a move on!"

My thoughts scrambled in my brain as my body stood up on its own, walking fast to catch up to the point of the formation.

"Get it together if you want to survive this," advised the ex-mercenary as I walked by him.

"I know," I restrained myself from blowing up at him.

"Are you sure you can handle it on your own? Unarmed?"

"Anyone else would just slow me down, and don’t worry, I am armed… Let's just get on with it."

We came to a halt out of the Fortress' sight and one of the villagers stood by us, whistling like a bird. I hope it'll go well for them. I steeled my nerves, taking in sharp deep breaths to refocus on our task at hand.

The earth shook wildly, rocks falling off the cliffside next to the villagers, and a giant rift carved into the ground, circling the entire fortress, swallowing all the stone walls. A blaring alarm went off in the distance, all the raiders left available rushed to the opposite side of our group. Well done, Yums.

"CHAAAAARGE!!" roared Palleus, lifting his sword in the air as we all ran towards the fortress.

I ran at full speed through the grassland, adrenaline pumping, the ground trembling beneath dozens of boots and claws all surging forward together. The morning air was thick with the smell of wet earth and ozone, war cries mixing with the shriek of arcane energy discharging on all sides. I watched in awe as arcane beasts poured from the nearby forest, shadows breaking off from the treeline as if the woods themselves had decided to join the fight. A giant worm blew out of the ground, dirt raining down like a localized storm, sending raiders flying high in the air before it smashed down onto the structure, taking out the rest of the Angels' defences. Translucent wolves ran through the fortress' remaining walls, near-invisible except for the faint shimmer outlining their bodies, ripping apart whoever stood in their way as they phased through the stone and weapons alike. Burning orange birds flew by overhead, their wings trailing embers, dropping tons of rainfire onto their enemies; waves of flying insects, wings buzzing loud enough to drown out the screaming, threw dart after dart, wiping out the front lines.

"Whooo!" rejoiced one of the villagers behind me.

I wouldn't get carried away so soon. The Angels' arcanists launched their counter-attacks, taking down some of my allies. I pushed harder on my legs and, instead of waiting on Yumii to create the bridge for us, I summoned my sword, the energy surge strengthening my body. I threw the blade to the other side and jumped across the massive ten-meter-wide canyon.

I slid upon landing on the other side and, using the momentum, recovered my sprint.

"Woah!" I heard the villagers exclaim, one of them going, "Are we supposed to do that?!"

I rushed inside the tower, leaving the grunts to the army and the arcane beasts. I don’t have long before Yumii rips it apart. Gotta kill the leader before they run away. I penetrated the building, smashing the door open with a steel-shadow mace, and easily cut through the foot soldiers that tried to stand guard. The ground level was huge, with an armory, indoor training grounds and, from what I could tell, an archery field. But I wasn’t there for the sights, so I ran up the tight-spaced stairs to the other floors, the only sources of light were some lanterns and the sunlight going through the archer slits.

A raider came running down the stairs, yelling his battle cry.

“Moron,” I snickered.

I let go of my sword, the weapon fading in the shadows and reappearing off the wall right by the man's legs, slicing clean through his heels. He screamed, falling forwards on the stairs, tumbling down towards me. I didn't even bother to hold my spear as I summoned the weapon back, the tip reaching out from the opposite wall, and let the raider impale himself against the steel. Others later came down and suffered the same fate.

I searched through multiple of the Tower's branches, only finding foot soldiers and their pets.

"Damn! Where's that stupid bastard at?!"

I climbed yet another set of stairs, which led to the highest rooftop of the tower, and felt the tower crack and lean suddenly. I hung onto what I could, leaving traces of my enemies' blood all over the walls. I used the archer slits to look at what was happening. The ground below the tower was breaking apart, falling down into the crevice made by Yumii.

Keep going up, a feast awaits.

Sounds good to me.

I let bloodthirst take over my reason, smirking as I got back to climbing the stairs.

I reached the roof, where arcanists were blasting away fire bullets, lightning bolts, pressured water jets. The energy was enough to make my legs shake despite the resistance offered by my weapon. I pushed through, gritting my teeth, and rushed at the focused arcanists, who realised too late that death incarnate was upon them.

I cut them all down, their painful screams music to my ears. Where is that coward hiding at. My hair rose on the back of my neck. I rolled, avoiding a wave of arcane energy flung right at me. It burnt a clean hole into one of the roof's bearing columns.

A black-and-purple-robed figure rose from the shadows on the other side of the circular platform, long blue hair reaching down to their knees. A winged, eyeless, screaming face was sewn into the clothing, as per the other arcanists, but there was a parchment attached to their hip. They wore reinforced leather protection around their limbs, carved with golden lacing.

The figure clapped slowly, whistling.

"Didn’t think we’d meet again so soon, Echis. You dare face me again despite how well that went for you the last times we’ve fought each other. I’m impressed…"

They brought down their hood, revealing long straight blue hair that reached their knees, bright green eyes and an arrogant, mocking grin.

"You bitch," my hands shook, my grip tightening around my weapon, "How dare you even take this form?!"

The woman's smile grew even bigger, her eyes turning a deep shade of purple and its pupils glowing white, a menacing cackle coming out of her. Gods, it even sounds like her.

"Whaaat, don't tell me you don't like it? I only wanted to remind you of your long-lost friend! I assumed you'd forgotten about her the way Yumii has."

I roared, rage burning through my reason. I was practically drooling at the thought of tearing it apart.

"Ts, ts, ts," 'Elyah' waved a finger. "My oh my, you should learn to control your emotions, Zo. It seems this weapon is too much for you to handle."

She smirked, looking at me condescendingly, putting a finger on her temple and another on her lips. My heart squeezed, the familiar gesture reminding me of all the times spent with my friend.

"Too bad. It would've helped you save your husband, but you're just too weak."

I ran at the monster who just waved her hand, sending me flying across the room. I landed on my feet and threw my spear again at ‘Elyah’. The entity rolled its eyes, dodging the weapon without any effort.

"Really? The same attempt twice, why did you think this could wor-"

My spear lodged itself into the fake Elyah's side, cutting her sentence short. The creature groaned in discomfort, smacking the weapon loose and attempting to create a shield to defend itself, but I was already on top of it, bellowing as I jumped towards it, thrusting my newly reformed spear into its chest. I discretely removed the parchment attached to its hips. 'Elyah' groaned, holding her chest.

“You’ve gotten quicker… ”

"Lots of practice lately."

"Oh, is that why?" It smirked.

The creature howled, its face splitting open. ‘Elyah’’s body fragmented and fell apart, becoming the black and dark-blue creature I'd encountered in Bahal. Hundreds of voices overlapped in agony as the monster roared, the sound so loud it made my ears bleed. I yelled in pain, dropping to my knees.

Kill it! Give us its carcass!

Gladly!

I summoned a giant mace and ran at the thing, yelling. The tower began swinging and breaking apart, chunks of quartz dropping off the roof. The floor cracked and separated, the creature's half dropping down into the void below.

"COME ON!!" I raged, smashing the floor instead of the beast, kicking the pebbles near me.

Crap! I hung onto the barriers as the whole building began falling. Gotta go!

The building leaned and fell almost vertically inside the rift, swinging wildly. I climbed onto the barriers and looked down at the ground below. Nothing of the fortress remained, a void now at least thirty meters wide filling the space between the tower and where all my allies stood.

The tower fell, the structure shaking entirely like an earthquake, the sound blurring in my ears. I let go of my hold and jumped, freefalling for a moment as the leaning building tilted further beneath me, until the wall caught up and slammed back against my feet. I slid down the surface as it kept leaning, faster and faster, until the tower was nearly horizontal beneath me, and I broke into a sprint across it, running along what used to be a wall. I dodged flying rocks and shards as the structure cracked open like a nut, racing to outrun it before it slid the rest of the way down into the hole below.

I jumped and threw my shadow rope towards the edge. One of the arcane beasts caught it and pulled me up. I rolled upon landing and jumped to my feet smoothly, nodding at the gorilla spirit that had brought me back to shore. The creature nodded back.

I wiped my forehead as I turned back towards the giant hole in the ground, the rubble of the fortress barely visible so far down. The arcane beasts all howled together, their arcane energy pulsing as one, enveloping everyone in it. This doesn't feel as crushing as when Yumii uses the arcane, despite there being so many arcane beasts. The ground filled itself above the former city until the land became as good as new, no traces of the fighting left.

I turned towards a roughed-up Palleus and what little remained of his villagers, most covered in wounds and looking defeated. Yumii was lying down, unconscious. I was about to sit by her side when Palleus stopped me.

"Please tell me the Emissary is dead?"

I bit my lip, looking down.

"Yes, but-"

I was about to tell him about the existence of the Hollow when Yumii groaned loudly, holding her head as she regained consciousness. I kneeled by her side.

"Careful," I waved at someone to give me their water, "you overdid it, again. You need to take it easy."

"Zoe…," whispered the faery.

I sighed in relief, Good, you remember me.

"Where are we? Who are those people?"

I froze, sharing a look with Palleus. The man nodded and sent me a small smile before leading his troops away, the arcane beasts doing the same on their side.

"Thank you," I whispered to the creatures as they faded away. Some looked back.

Yumii and I were on our own once more.

"What are we doing here? Ugh, it hurts!"

The faery held her head as her nose bled, curling up.

"Don't force it," I wiped my friend's nose. "Just rest, I'll take care of it."