Showdown in Haven's Crest PT 1

Time slowed as Vexes’s fist struck Oreon, slightly caving in the side of his face. A broad smirk spread across Vexes’s face as the punch landed.

“GAH!” Oreon’s eyes widened in shock as Vexes’s punch sent him hurtling through several buildings. His body tore through each one before slamming into the last, which collapsed on top of him.

Vexes stood, his breathing steady despite Oreon’s earlier onslaught. He exhaled, watching the dust settle over the wreckage where Oreon had crashed. “And there it is. The inevitable conclusion.” He turned his head slightly to face the trio, but his eyes landed on Meara. “What do you think…Keeper?” Layered sigils crossed his pupils as a dark aura coiled around him.

“…You damn monster.” Meara gritted her teeth and narrowed her eyes at the power radiating from Vexes. “How much corruption did the Order give you?” Meara questioned.

“Corruption? No, Keeper. Corruption was in the place I used to call home. That corruption was extinguished the moment the Order evolved me.” To drive his point home, Vexes unleashed a surge of power, sending a fierce gust tearing toward them. Celestia and Sylvanie shielded their faces with crossed arms, while Meara raised her bow against the wind.

“Bastard!” Sylvanie growled. “He was holding back the entire time!”

Celestia kept her arms raised, shielding her face as she gritted her teeth. “His power…Its leaps beyond what it was before! There’s no way the Order could have given someone like this that much power!”

“…A layered blessing.” Meara’s gaze remained sharp. “The Order must have really seen something in you to give you that much power.” She nocked an arrow and leveled her bow at Vexes. “Such a shame,”

Yvonne dropped beside Divia, staring at Vexes in awe. “Did he just…Did Vexes use his blessing?” Her body trembled slightly. “It’s…it’s different from ours.”

Divia watched the spectacle, arms folded tightly across her chest. “Different doesn’t even begin to describe it…” She muttered. “The Order doesn’t just hand out layered blessings to anyone. You must prove yourself worthy—repeatedly, leave no shred of doubt that you believe in their cause.” She explained, thinking to herself. “Vexes, how long have you been siding with the Order?”

On the battlefield, Vexes casually brushed dust from his torn robes as though he had just finished a light spar. “Well then, I think it’s time that we wrap this up. Keeper. Once I dispose of you and the princesses, we will take what we came for. The boy and the shard.” He spoke as though victory was a mere formality.

However, a small smirk spread across Meara’s lips. “Your overconfidence was always your downfall, dark elf. You talk as if you’ve already won this little skirmish of ours.” The emerald energy began wrapping around her arrow. ‘You still haven’t shown this old lady a good time.”

“Hmm…” Vexes tilted his head for a moment. “Very well, Keeper.” Vexes stepped forward. “Let’s make this your last stand and finally put that old body of yours to rest.” Vexes walked forward with confidence. “Yvonne, Divia…I’ll leave the fallen princesses to you.” He said without looking back.

“Gladly…” Divia stepped forward, claws extended, and growled at Celestia.

“Let’s wrap this up, Sylvie. After this is over, you’ll thank me.” Yvonne’s wheel blades whirred to life in her hands. “I promise…things will go back to the way they used to be.” She narrowed her eyes.

Sylvanie scoffed and rose to her feet, summoning her scythe with a flick of her hand. “You hear that, sister?” She glanced slightly over at Celestia. “They think that just because they got us the first time, we’re going to lose.”

“How disappointing for them,” Celestia replied softly. Golden light pulsed from her fingertips and spread across her body, healing the wounds she had recovered enough strength to mend while watching Oreon fight.

“The only thing disappointing is that the hope you two held in keeping your freedom is about to be drowned out in tears,” Divia claimed. “This is the last time you two ever oppose the Order!” Divia lunged, claws extended, with Yvonne close behind.

Sylvanie settled into a fighting stance, her eyes glowing anew. “Looks like we’re going to have quite the dance on our hands.”

Celestia’s light enveloped Sylvanie while Sylvanie’s shadows wrapped around Celestia. “Then let us show them how the daughters of Vel’Andria dance.”

Meara stood before the sisters, keeping her arrow trained on Vexes as Yvonne and Divia charged.

“It’s been quite some time since I fought beside Vel’Andria’s best,” Meara stated, her fingers getting ready to release her arrow. “Make sure you two make your mother proud.” She released the emerald-charged arrow, sending it between Yvonne and Divia toward Vexes.

The arrow struck Vexes, erupting in a small explosion that sent a gust across the battlefield as Celestia and Sylvanie rushed to meet Yvonne and Divia.

Sylvanie’s scythe collided with Yvonne’s wheel blades once more. Nearby, Celestia leaped clear of Divia’s slashing claws.

Vexes swept the dust aside with a wave of his hand as Meara leaped onto a rooftop and nocked another energy-shrouded arrow.

Vexes watched her ascend, his layered sigils spinning slowly in his pupils. “You’ve stood for too long, Keeper.” He raised his curved blade, dark energy coiling around it. “It’s time for you to fall with the rest of your kind!”

Meara answered by firing three arrows in rapid succession. Each split midair into dozens of emerald projectiles that rained down on Vexes.

Vexes charged through the barrage, cutting down or deflecting every arrow in his path. “You’ll have to do better than that, Keeper!” Vexes surged forward and appeared before Meara, his raised blade casting a shadow over her before he swung it down with force.

Meara leaped clear as Vexes’s strike demolished the building beneath her. She landed on a nearby rooftop and swiftly leveled another arrow at him.

“EKLANOS!” She fired.

The arrow burst from her bow like an emerald comet, hurtling toward Vexes.

Vexes’s eyes widened, then narrowed as a smirk crossed his face. He drew back his blade, split the blast in two, and charged Meara.

“Tch—” Meara narrowed her eyes as Vexes cleaved through her attack with ease. Before she could nock another arrow, he was upon her, his blade sweeping down in a deadly arc. She twisted aside and deflected the strike with her bow at the last instant, but its force was monstrous.

The impact sent vibrations rattling through her bones, and her feet skidded backward across the rooftop. “Ghh--!” She gritted her teeth and dug in her heels, barely keeping upright.

Vexes gave her no time to recover. He drove forward with a relentless barrage, each strike faster and heavier than the last. Meara ducked, parried, and sidestepped until his final backhand slash hurled her through a wall. She burst from the other side, flipped onto a nearby rooftop, and landed, breathing hard.

“He’s not just strong…He’s evolved beyond what I anticipated.” She gritted her teeth.

“Getting tired, old woman?” Vexes taunted, casually approaching the rooftop’s edge and looking down at Meara.

“Not even close,” Meara shot back despite her labored breathing. She steadied herself and aimed another arrow. “You’ve gotten stronger, I’ll give you that…but strength alone won’t win this fight.”

Vexes gave a dark chuckle as the sigils in his pupils continued to rotate slowly. “Is that so?” He tilted his head mockingly. “Then show me, Keeper. Show me what centuries of experience in a mere human body can do against the power of evolution.”

Meanwhile, Sylvanie and Yvonne tore across the square, their scythe and spinning blades clashing in showers of sparks as their auras collided with every strike.

Their weapons locked as Yvonne bore down with her wheel blades, forcing Sylvanie to defend herself with what little magic remained.

“Why are you making this so difficult!” Yvonne slashed horizontally, but Sylvanie sprang back and countered with a vertical strike. Yvonne sidestepped, spun, and drove her heel into Sylvanie’s head, sending her crashing to the ground, hard enough to leave a small crater.

“The human lost; it’s over, Sylvanie. Stop this senseless fighting and join us already!” She screamed. “I don’t want to hurt you!”

“Oh, shut it.” Sylvanie groaned and slowly rose from the crater, blood trailing from the corner of her mouth. “I’m about sick of hearing you talk.” She stood, twirled her scythe, and dropped into a fighting stance. “Now you’re spouting nonsense about hurting me.” She glared at her. “Don’t you think you’ve already done it when you decided to turn your back on me!” She charged forward, slashing and swinging her scythe in every direction she could.

Yvonne gritted her teeth and spun her wheel blades, parrying Sylvanie’s relentless strikes in bursts of sparks.

“I didn’t turn my back on you!” She shouted back, parrying another blow. “I made a choice—a choice for our future! Your future!”

“My future!?!” Sylvanie snarled and brought her scythe down with all her strength. Yvonne blocked with her wheel blades, but the impact drove her into the ground, carving a crater like the one Sylvanie had left moments earlier. “You mean the future where I’m a slave again!” Sylvanie charged and hurled her scythe at the fallen Yvonne. Yvonne rolled aside just before the blade buried itself where she had been lying.

“Where my sister and I are nothing but trophies for those self-righteous bastards?!” Sylvanie landed beside her scythe, seized it without breaking stride, and swung, launching a purple arc of energy at Yvonne.

Yvonne rolled aside, narrowly avoiding the dark arc as it carved through the building behind her. She planted a foot, launched herself forward, and closed the distance again.

“Dammit, Sylvie, just listen to me!” Yvonne drew in closer.

“You don’t get to call me that anymore!” Sylvanie met her halfway.

Magic and steel erupted as Sylvanie’s scythe locked against Yvonne’s spinning blades. They strained against each other, faces inches apart and eyes blazing with anger, betrayal, and desperation.

“Sylvanie, I’m really trying here!” Yvonne pushed forward, backing Sylvanie up. “But you’re really starting to test my patience!” Yvonne broke the deadlock and drove her foot hard into Sylvanie’s stomach, sending the dark elf flying back and crashing into another building wall.

The impact drove the air from Sylvanie’s lungs as her back struck the stone wall hard enough to crack it. She sagged forward, coughing and gasping for breath. Her vision blurred, then sharpened on Yvonne standing before her.

“I’m getting really sick and tired of repeating myself, Sylvie.” Yvonne stared down at her. “You’ve always been stubborn, but now isn’t the time for your childish antics.” She watched as Sylvanie struggled to her feet. “This isn’t a battle you can win, Sylvie. It’s time for you to see reality for what it really is.”

Sylvanie coughed and spat blood at her feet. Though every part of her body protested, she forced herself upright and leaned on her scythe. Her violet hair, damp with sweat and dust, clung to her face.

“Childish…?” She rasped, lifting her eyes to meet Yvonne’s. “You really don’t get it…Do you?” Her eyes narrowed. “Such a delusional bitch…we’ve become.”

Yvonne’s expression hardened at those words. “I’m…Delusional?” She stepped forward, her wheel blades humming with energy. “Says the one clinging to a dead kingdom and a false hope that some human boy could actually stand against the Order!”

“At least I’m not deluding myself into thinking slavery is freedom!” Sylvanie shot back, straightening despite the pain coursing through her body. Dark energy began to swirl around her scythe again, though it was noticeably weaker than before. “You really believe they’ll treat us as equals? That we’ll be anything more than pets on a leash?”

“Better a pet with purpose than a corpse with pride?” Yvonne gritted her teeth. “I’m trying to save you, you stubborn fool! Can’t you see that?!”

“Save me?’ Sylvanie let out a bitter laugh that turned into a cough. “You want to ‘save’ me by dragging me back to the same chains we escaped from?’ She wiped the blood from her lip with the back of her hand. “Some savior you are.”

Across the battlefield, Celestia ducked beneath Divia’s claws. Golden light streamed from her hands as she raised a brief barrier against the next strike, but the impact sent her skidding backward across the street.

Celestia’s breathing remained controlled but strained, and her golden magic flickered with mounting exhaustion. Divia, barely winded, circled her with a predatory grin, like a wolf closing in on its prey.

“You’re barely putting up a fight, princess.” Divia taunted, her claws gleaming off the sunlight. “How much longer do you think you can keep this up?” Divia licked her lips while Celestia fought to remain composed.

Celestia steadied her breathing. “As long as I need to,” She replied softly. “Say what you will, Divia. But I will not stand down against you, nor the Order.” She readied herself again. “It’s only been a few days, but I refuse to let you take away the little freedom we regained.” Her hands blazed with light as she fixed a narrowed gaze on the gargoyle-like elf.