The Green and Purple Demons

“Nina, it’s so good to see you again! How have you been?” the bloodied masked man asked me, but I hadn’t the smallest idea of who he was.

“You are another creepy villain and I’m here to stop you all with my friends!”

Although Hiyoku and Nikolay weren’t as close as the others, they still got my back and I got theirs. Hiyoku put her hand on my shoulder and looked at me with sadness in her eyes, something very rare for the girl.

“Listen, Nina. I think this man is…”

“Your father!” He said taking off his mask.

It was a bald man and the whole skin of his face was terrible burned.

“I don’t think so…” I answered confused.

“Yes, I’m. I’m Amaru Nune!”

“Are you sure? My old dad had hair.”

“You are still unbearable! How I hate you!”

“Oh, it is you!” I concluded, having heard those words a lot of times in my life.

The ninja pressed her hand on me.

“I know that this might be a lot, but we have to stop that surgery, or Elvira will become invincible.”

“No, Nina! Listen to me, these Heroes will die, but I want you to come with me! We can be together again.”

“Since when have you want to be with me?”

“Since I heard all the things your Stanza can do! The Void is not weak after all. Actually, I think it is the strongest one!”

“After all those years… you told me that I need to be connected with a real Stanza, saying my powers were useless… and now you say they are strong?”

“Well, yes, we all made mistakes. Just like the Alchemy Stanza: Failed? Great. That’s the path. Just try again.”

I couldn’t believe how casually he was talking about all that, but what surprised me the most was a purple vortex damaging my old father and throwing him aside.

“What? He is immortal. But now we can start the main attraction,” said Elvira, standing up and already fused with the Purple Demon.

(…)

The vision was even worse than before. The first time I saw the Green Demon, they broke the wall of the Tower of Heroes and Kutzko had to turn his body into obsidian to protect me. But now the Demon was even bigger, and their growls shook the earth we were in.

The trees around us grew instantly and not only did I lost Agnes when she was thrown away, but the forest made me lose Rita from sight as well. The only thing I could see was the terrible face of the Green Demon.

Most of my saplings were already dead, and at the first stage of their life couldn’t do a thing to the Demon. I ran through a tree trunk trying to avoid their enormous arm when a lightning strike hit them. Cyan flames also appeared, but they were not hot nor burned the tree. They hit the Demon making them retreat a little.

Takai and Agnes arrived; the girl was injured and the boy was already tired, with the cyan flames coming from his sword.

“Takai! So good the see you!” it was Rita who said that, climbing on the tree with some difficulty.

But it was not only them; towers of cubic stone also came from the ground with Markus and Ember over it. The woman summoned enormous flames opening the forest so we could have a direct line of view to the Demon.

“Helia, use this to stop the Demon,” Ember gave a floating green orb to me.

“What is this?”

“The Original Poem of Nature. We found the Original Poem of Ice with my family. This can summon and empower the Demons, but it can also stop them,” Takai told me.

“But I don’t know how to use this!”

“No one knows, but I’m sure you can do it,” said Markus and I didn’t know what to do with so much hope. “While you learn how to do this, we will slow down that Demon, okay?”

All the others agreed, leaving me more insecure than ever. They ran towards the Demon, using their incredible Stanzas to push them back. I thought that I didn’t even have to do anything that they would solve it by themselves, but that was not true. The skin of the Demon didn’t break from any of the attacks, and they continued to grow, at a slower rate, but who knew how much bigger they would get?

I looked at the orb, trying to understand how that was a poem. It was a shining floating thing with no words or sounds. At least at first glance. I kept looking and the Nature Stanza started to repeat in my head, over and over again.

But it had something more. Beyond the words I knew there was more, but I wasn’t sure if they were even words at all. It was like the Nature Stanza we knew was just a fragment, or maybe even a translation of something way bigger.

I thought about what I was sure of: the cycle of life. Birth, growth, death. And it was time this Demon reached the end of their cycle. I remembered the face of Kutzko protecting me and that was enough.

Once I looked at the fight again, there was no more Demon. All that attracted our attention now was the battle at the Altar of The Poet and that was our next target.

(…)

The Demon form of Elvira was way different than Adrien’s. She had the horns shining in a purple hue, but her face was still completely human. Her hands also glowed, like she was wearing purple gloves. In the middle of her chest was the orb glowing.

“So, who wants to try my new powers?” she asked, looking at the three of us.

I was still a little shocked about my father and Hiyoku was the first to act. With her high speed she got closer, ready to put a dagger in Elvira’s heart. The Demon woman just raised her fist and Hiyoku fell to the ground aggressively, it was like she had something extremely heavy on her.

Nikolay teleported to her side and also fell to the ground. I didn’t understand what was happening, but I used my Void Bubbles in their direction, and the crushing weight seemed to have disappeared.

“How about this?” the villain said snapped her fingers.

Suddenly the ground from Hiyoku and Nikolay toward me started heating and even melting, like we were above a volcano. This time the prince teleported Hiyoku away and I used my bubbles, making the floor around me return to normal.

“How are you doing this? You have the Alchemy Stanza!” I protested, not liking how strong our enemies were becoming.

“But this was always the power of the Alchemy Stanza. Elemental names are reductive: fire, water, ice. All small parts of our world. But Alchemy is about processes, and they involve all elements. Raising the pressure of the air is like having an entire house over your bodies. Accelerating the molecules of the ground heats them up and makes magma. And now that I’m the Purple Demon, the only limit I have is my knowledge of alchemy.

She was ready to attack again, but something fell from the sky like a meteor, hitting her. Markus Terracota with his six arms started punching her on the ground, each punch making the earth shake. But after the surprise was over, with a simple kick she threw him away.

Now a fireball the size of an Elemental Demon was going towards her, but no flame reached her; it was like she had her own void power absorbing it.

“Adding a little bit of carbon to the oxygen around me, we have carbon dioxide, not flammable, sorry.”

Then Reikokuna Takai and Agnes Stein came, trying to attack her directly, but she was faster and they were already hurt. She grabbed my brother’s sword like it was nothing and the sword rusted instantly, breaking from the woman’s strength. Then she threw him at Agnes Stein.

Next came multiple gorilla-saplings from Helia Vivarium but they all started to burn and die before even reaching her.

“With a little bit of hydrogen gas and… you know what, you all are already dead, I don’t need to explain basic science to you.”

She once again made the entire floor become magma. I could protect myself and Nikolay once again took Hiyoku away, but the rest didn’t have an easy way out. Before I could even calculate the best way to save everyone, Markus Terracota jumped once again and this time he was so strong that Elvira couldn’t counterattack.

“Stop hurting my family!”

The magma stopped as she had to focus all her energy on surviving. She could even destroy his stone arms with more reactions but more appeared and he looked like a god of war, giving so many powerful punches that he could had destroyed an entire mountain.

But then we saw a flash of purple flames coming from behind and his punches halted. Amaru, bloodied and mangled, used his power, and when we looked at my new dad, there was a hole through his chest, where his heart should be.

“So, can I get my surgery now or what?” he asked as the corpse of Markus Terrakota hit the ground.