"Everyone ready?" Luna called to the group of Marika, Fia, Ranni, and Melina. The others had sheltered down, Cinder and Kimisa staying behind to evacuate them should the worse come to pass. Single use emergency seals to travel home that would trigger and absorb nearby people should they sense severe danger.
Marika gave a nod as she checked the last strap of her armor, turning to her knight as she stood in a simple platemail set they had managed to scavenge, as Luna had insisted she wear it. She had a far faster style, so she had simply remade a few leather pieces in a hurry and made a simple black skirted outfit bound together with a few more belts than seemed necessary.
Fia nodded as well, approaching in a newer black robe that bore the seal of a tree, growing from a skull along the back. Ranni had changed out her old clothing, finally, for some silken robes. Fia gifted her them, blue and silver sheer fabric that gave her an ethereal energy, while Melina wore her standard garb as always. Ranni spoke first, a somewhat unofficial leader of their trio as Luna had found. "We are ready. As soon as you say so, I will put us within the tree."
Fia lightly gripped onto Ranni's arm, her face a mask of confidence that her body could not match. Melina had a similar anxiety, lightly gripping her own dagger a little tighter. "Will... you be alright?" Melina voiced the concern both shared.
"I will. It may result in me being less able to fight, but I can support you all from afar just fine." She gave her candle a tender smile before kissing her grave on the forehead, who seemed to ease her grip in kind.
Luna nodded, a quiet look shared between her and the snow witch. 'Make sure she gets home, won't you?' She spoke in the knight's mind
'Only if you do, as well.'
'Well, then I suppose you must promise the same.'
'Was that a threat?'
'Hmmm. Perhaps.'
Both shared a little smirk. "Alright." Luna started as she hefted the red stained cleaver, only to be stopped by Ranni.
"This is a truly grand battle. It requires a truly great weapon." Ranni opened her hands as a glidten blue jewel began to form, floating to Luna's hands. It pulsed once with moonlight before expanding into a glistening blade that left the knight in utter awe. Long, easily four feet long and around a foot wide of tapering broad blue meral that held an eternal glow of ice and moonlight. Its metal etched, or perhaps enchanted, like the cracking surface of a frozen lake or even the veins of a leaf. Its hilt was solid, and she would have criticized the grip in other circumstances down to the odd bowing crossguard, but as her hands enveloped its grip, it felr more fitting than any blade she had used yet in this journey. "This is the Moonlight Greatsword."
"In my lands, gifting one a sword was a marriage proposal." She gave it a slow swing, turning and missing the sneaky grin that was mer with a glare by Marika. The knight didn't notice, slowly twisting and feeling the blade in her hand as it hummed constantly with the same glow and tune as her own glacial eyes. It felt like it even eased them, giving more weight and grip on her secret Storm just by being in its presence.
"Ya. Let's do this."
...
The Divinely Ascended Haligtree
The spell burst and popped with a great intensity than the knight was accustomed to teleportation spells to be, but it worked all the same as they appeared within the tree. Luna would be the first to admit, were she able, that this place was marvelous. The ground itself shone like the purest gold, yet it was ethereal at the same time and full of twinkling lights she knew to be souls. The sky was equally incredible, as if the floor was simply a point in this vast sea of souls and twisting lights where one could stand under the surface if there was even such a thing within this realm as a surface to this ocean of yellow glowing beauty.
However, said knight was fixated on the one sat in the distance. Flowing golden hair and pale sheer robes that one could almost glimpse through. Six long and delicate arms draped in sorrow across her knees as one of them held a weeping face. For a moment, a sense of sorrow and sympathy crossed her heart before she remembered just how destructive this woman had been. Not to mention she was the same as the knight, yet had twisted it for selfish, malicious reasons into a horrible malformation of what they both fought against. It was, in a way, seeing herself had she truly become what Skithistalia had wanted her to be.
Those feelings were replaced with disgust immediately. Her eyes began to burn and rage with the storm as thought and reason gave way to instinct. She surged forward, leaving behind the others as her steps left ripples in the golden sea. She leaped, her new blade aglow with fury as she swung with all the might she had garnered in this trip, and just a touch of her divinity that Nahul had regained in the mental damage they'd suffered for a while. The blade sung, tearing so painfully across the air that it created a small rip in spacetime within this more tenuous space.
"So." Her sobbing stopped instantly as one hand caught the knight's glistening blade with such ease that it felt like a mother stopping a child from wailing on her leg. "You are this supposed 'knight'." She rose, her height unraveling as she seemed to stretch from her languid state into one of shaken divine authority. Perfect feminine features solidified into shaking at the base of her jaw with the violent rage of her gritted teeth, each hand white knuckled in a folded position while the one on her sword was tightening further. Golden eyes met blizzarding blues as the raw force of this woman's disdain sent an uncomfortably familiar shiver across her spine.
"Seems I am." She answered with a little smirk, pressing through her fear to press on the blade, and a slight trickle of amber blood began to peak from the base of Orianna's palm. "Seems you aren't invincible, either." She smirked as the newborn goddess glowered, pushing her back with sudden force as Luna was launched across the sea with a painful crash across strangely solid rippling waters, recovering only enough to see the rain of beams hit Marika's golden barrier just in time.
"Always running in without a thought."
"You love it." She sighed.
"I do." Luna caught the little smile as she held the barrier long enough for Melina to get behind Orianna.
A slash of black flaming steel tore across the newborn goddess's back, but all it did at first was tear her dress. Orianna twisted to retaliate, only to wail as the knight watched her family's flame burst from the seam, burning and biting at her before she dove under the sea and vanished.
"Shit." Melina cursed, glancing about as Marika dropped her spell.
Luna whistled, Ranni cast, and their beloved steed rose suddenly fron the waters to catch and carry the goddess and her knight as Marika's hand gripped the reigns and dragged Luna onto the horse behind her. Their hammer and blade dragging in a sea of golden waters along the ground as Torrent deftly wove through massive blasta of light, leaping across pulsing waves of ringing radiance, all as Ranni gifted Torrent as best she could his spirit magic again. His hooves leaped and danced over fiery eruption, caught purchase where none was, and as a great blast nearly caught them, he showed his namesake.
From the mouth of this simple horned steed billowed pure force of wind. A storm befitting of the great vortex below Farum Azula Melina mentioned burst forth, pressing against the massive force of divine rite before pushing it back as the two combatants held firm. Marika raised her hand from the reigns, jolding them forward as her seal pulsed. She let out a cry as a pale rush of white fire burned from her fingertips, barely a flicker, but it rejuvenated Torrent all the more with Ranni, and his storm completely swallowed the attack. Orianna did not appreciate this.
"Pathetic spirit. Why do you fight?" Her voice bellowed around as random blasts kept each combatant from moving too far or too much. It felt like they were being hunted by a shark still testing the waters. "Let me show you how much better I can make you."
Four figures rose slowly from the sea, dripping translucent energy as their bodies solidified into form. Stood, as alive as ever, were three figures, the knight recognized even to her own horror. Morgott, once again, defiled. His proud visage marred again as Melina described with villanous intent and snarled expression. Godrick, as malicious as ever, both arms now bursting with dragons and their flames as he cackled. Next was the haunting form of that awful scoprion, now replacing all its blue and planatary parts with spheres of crystal radiance.
The last, however, struck the knight rather deeply. A tall figure with pitted skin, clad in the most perfect golden armor over leather and cloth. A true warrior whose helmet flourished with long wings and thick red hair out the back that seemed to always be fluttering somewhat. Her right arm and left leg made of the same gilded metal, grasping a long and specialized blade in that metal grip. The others all seemed visibly on strings, yet she was as fluid as she kneeled with her blade turned to the side. All others faded back as a grin began to split Nahul's lips.
"Bring it bitch."
...
Marika
Her hand gripped tighter to the hammer, taking a long breath as she stared down the monstrous beast once more. She had loathed it the first time, but seeing it illuminated by the twisted glow of her own child's malicious intent made her skin boil. She felt him prickle in his cage again for the first time in a while, but she did not buckle even slightly. He would not dominate her any further.
"Come!" She shouted while marching forward, hammer in hand as the lit sea almost made her resemble her former divinity. "Let me smash you a second time."
The beast wailed, twisting itself toward her in a harrowing spiral of shredding limbs and burning orbs as it swiped at her. It's long limbs tearing and splashing gilded fluid as the queen dipped between it's grasp. It was faster than before, but it did not close the gap anywhere near enough. She slipped by with a fine sidestep from one of it's clamping chomps, it's mandibles snapping with a clack almost akin to snapping metal, as her glowing hammer came down and shattered the left mandible before her fist sent the creature lurching away in a rolling crash. She breathed deeply, slowly grinning as she felt her power almost akin to the old again. She was as absorbant as Orianna likely was in here. Perhaps...
Our chance.
Silence.
She shut down his arrogance before she could even give it the slightest succor, eyes glowing as the beast teleported behind her for a second harrying flurry of limbs, barely missing the dodging queen before it faded to reveal a mere illusion. She grit her teeth, sensing the swell behind her as she turned. Her eyes caught the direction of the attack, firing at her but aimed to strike her beloved far behind in her own battle should she dodge. Her fury bellowed into her body, hardening her muscles as she gripped both hands to her arm. She swung her hammer in a two handed arc, roaring as she caught the concentrated blast with the very center of her hammer. It struggled for a moment, whining between their powers.
"You shan't claim any from ME!" She overcame, shrieking in fury as her hammer turned the pure cosmic beam back in a rapid return of fire that rose into the beast's throat. It's body swelled and convulsed, shrieking at it seemed to try and grasp at it's own body in an attempt to rip open any part to relief the pressure. It never really got the chance as the gilded queen landed with crashing force, stomping her foot just as her first husband once wound and shattering it's skull to dust. She breathed deeply, smiling as Fia's magic flowed and kept her energy at pique. Her eyes turned, ready to join the real fight.
"I have a child to discipline."
...
Melina and Fia
Morgott cackled at the twin dark ladies. Melina's crackling aura now as dark as night cast in fire, while Fia radiated this gentle chill that calmed the kind and battered the wicked. The puppetted hero twitched as he walked, the most visibly resistant to Orianna's control even as it seemed utterly absolute on the others to the naked eye. He drew on his beloved blade again, just as Loretta slowly moved out from behind him. Melina's heart nearly stopped. She was twitching badly, shaking, her armor ill fitted and her blade felt wrong in her hand.
You... monster...
"Loretta..." the candle whispered in sorrow, gripping her dagger more tightly. Fia placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Let us grant them their well earned rest." Fia squeezed her shoulder comfortingly as her magic began bolster Melina's muscles, protecting her in a thin shroud of living dead flame.
"Let's." She rushed forward as ghostly roots twisted in her wake, Fia rolling and sweeping her hands like a maestro with her orchestra. The roots always barely missed Melina as she entered the melee, dipping under swift blood blade strikes and heavy, water splashing glaive strikes as her own dagger barely managed even simple deflections with Fia's aid. They were both legendary heroes, ancient protectors and warriors.
I am but a candle...
What is a candle but the heart of potential?
Huh? Who is... this?
You're friend.
The person in the flame?
Hehe, well, we have always lived in flame.
Who..?
She was dragged from her thoughts as the two blades caught her between them, an pair of horizontal strikes too high and low to jump or dive from, but dodging would land her right into her combatants.
In between.
She felt this odd pain in her eyes as her mind started moving so much faster, yet, simultaneously, not at all. It hurt, it was straining, yet she also felt all worry and anxiety as she only focused on the encroaching blades bled away into certainty. She saw how she dodged, and even how she returned fire.
She jumped, rolling sideways as the two blades barely brush by her airborne body, briefly hanging flat between steel and blood as she twists. Just as Morgott's blade passed right by her hair, she kicked out, pushing herself off Loretta's chestplate and burying her dagger in Morgott's side as the flames bit right into his form before pushing off as Loretta regained her footing and tried to grab her. Her arms twisted around the twisted knight's reaching, twisting like a snake around her and rolling, using Loretta's own weight to flip and smash her head first.
Morgott flailed as the flames began to completely bathe him, screaming before he suddenly stopped. His gaze turned to Melina as she looked up quietly to him, watching the control bleed from his eyes. "Thank you... sister..." as he crumbled away.
Loretta stood up, shaking heavily as her head was severely concussed. Melina gripped her dagger, pausing as she almost seemed to notice strings she couldn't see before.
Cut them.
She slashed the lines, the threads resisting like cables for only a moment before a scream tore through Loretta. She shuddered, convulsing and shaking before gasping loudly for air.
"Loretta..?" She skeptically started.
She slowly removed that heavy helmet, blood leaking down her temple. "I... I'm alive..."
"Yeah, and in a fight. Help?"
"..." She redonned her helmet, standing as she stood beside Melina. She felt the rush of healing magic, though it was rather cooler as a shroudede woman in black stepped beside Melina. "Lead the way."
...
Ranni
She panted, still rather drained by the warping of a large group into such a sealed space, not that Godrick cared. He had ran right for her the instant he had caught sight of her remade red hair, making the witch leap near immediately from her resting point. She could run and stall while supporting the others, but that likely would result in her death.
"You!!! YOU WHO DARE DENY THE GREATER WILL!" He roared angrily as his twin arms snapped and lurched for her, blasting gouts of fire where they inevitably missed. She shielded herself with little pops of frost where she couldn't simply flutter aside, but this was not going well from the start. Her mind raced slightly, running through possibilities as fast as she could. This wasn't the wretch she had met centuries ago. This was a real demi-god puppetted by a divine, and with no regard to be seen for his own safety.
How thoughtless of one's resources.
She dove down under another gout only to have her ankle caught in the maw of the bastard's right arm, twisting her through the air and smashing her down onto the sea with a rush of blood from her throat. She was knocked a little dizzy, groaning as the monstrous man steadily marched to stand over her with a cackling smugness. Ranni took a breath as best she could manage with her nearly crushed lungs, mouthing words in rapid pace for a spell while she harried their knight with plans, ideas, as she was the only one as strategically minded and able to twist her own fights on the fly. Ranni also was the one who knew who was in control, right now, and it was not their Luna.
'I might have enough to freeze his skull.'
'Too risky that close.'
'I lack the mana for a proper slashing spell.'
'What about stabbing?'
'...do go on.'
"Little Ranni." He grabbed her by the hair, yanking her up. "Where is that precious magic of yours? Doh... Did someone spend all her precious power? What a shame. Haaaa hahahaha! No moon to protect you now, you worthless wretch!" He swung her back down, smashing her painfully as she gritted her teeth, never once breaking her silent masked chant. Her head held low, avoiding his gaze and playing to his arrogance. She placed a hand on the maw that was gripping her as he dragged her under him, acting as if struggling as his eyes glowed with dark intent.
"I will enjoy grafting you, especially. The one always fighting against her fate, always struggling to become part of the greater will. Hehe, made part of something truly greater than your weak ambitions." He drooled, almost lapping at the chance as he leaned in to her face.
Ranni smirked. "Oh, look." as he got face to face with her, reaching her hand behind her right as Nahul got her message. The moonlit blade flew by her, guided by a mix of her ally's strength and her own remaining magic as it split through Godrick's skull. "I found my moon."
The last expression Godrick made was the pained cry, mouthing a final cry for mother as his entire body shattered across the sea. Ranni landed with a thump, sighing as she spat on the ashes. "Never liked your bouquets, either."
...
Luna(?)/Nahul(?)
The two launched at one another in a fit of almost matching excitement. Their blades clashed with the rhythm of chiming bells, each twisting and bending strike between both was met soundly. Their feet a flurry, dancing and dipping as they made ripples into waves. A swift parry of the larger sword met by a twisting strike. A rapid series of thrusts met by a feign and chop that nearly led into a sweeping decapitation. The click of both combatants metal limbs cracking as both devolved slowly into as much true battle as blade, fist, and foot all became of matching important. Nahul could hear the sounds of battle, the crashing of Marika's blows as she steadily sundered the star beast, the roar as black flames finally releasing a pyrefly back to Death, and the shriek of icy magic crashing into flames. Perhaps even on the edge of her ears, she caught the steadily dropping confidence of the real foe.
None of that mattered here and now. Sweat trickled across two brows, hands raw as knuckles bleed and blades whined with force. The red knight stepped forward, swinging with a powerful haymaker as Nahul was still turning, but Nahul ducked low and kicked back, delivering a painful blow that shattered her chest plate. The dark knight tried to follow up, sweeping her blade in a grinding arch, but her blow was deflected along a metal arm, shattering it as the red knight caught her own blade and tore it across the dark knight's shoulder, matching her limb for limb as the two stepped back for a moment. Their armors were in pieces. Their weapons chipped. The red knight's helm hung on only by a thread, and the dark knight spat out blood. Ranni was sharing ideas, both having gained a small talent for backboarding one another when they were nearby in smaller engagements, so seeing it run in a serious fight was rather exciting.
'Down an arm, are we?'
'You had to give me a greatsword.'
'Not my fault you are organically disinclined.'
'I have my cleaver in my satchel you got.'
'And I could certainly use that blade for stabbing.'
'Trade ya?'
Both watched the other, circling as wires and metal leaked from their severed metal limbs. Both slid forward as Nahul threw away the heavier blade with great force, catching her handmade cleaver and grabbing her foe's blade on its teeth. She clicked the handle, forcing it to snap up and send the gilded edge flying. She tried to come back down in a roaring strike, but a retaliatoring slash from the red knight as her bare hand ripped through what leathers remained and rending the dark knight as unarmored as herself. She stumbled back, clutching the wound as the red knight lurched forward, tackling her onto the ground with a shriek as the cleaver flew away.
The two rolled, punches, and growling knees thrown the whole way as they crashed about for a moment or two before breaking apart. Their breath was intense, billowing like steam from both mouths.
"You're good." Nahul mumbled as she wiped a long stream of blood her lip by thumb. She watched the red knight, and she swore there was a smile daring to break free.
"You aren't too bad, yourself." She answered. Both stood, slow and creeking a little more than either liked.
"Well. Given where we are... maybe I should discard this doubt.
"It would be my honor to witness that, lady knight."
"Perhaps in another time." She mused as amusement and confidance struck Orianna's face.
"Malenia. Destroy It." Orianna ordered with a massive glowing grin. Malenia's body began to pop and sizzle as strands of light glowed with excess power, burning into view as strings of light as the god within the red knight fully awoke. It was clear in her face as it burnd that she likely did not want to seek this path, but this fight and her 'goddess's' orders robbing her control, forcing a likely reason half thought reason at last to set free that power.
Thick, vast wings began to unfurl from her back, seemingly crafted out of red butterflies laced with dark red brown roots. Her body rose, turning what part of the sea she was above to blossom with haunting orange flowers that radiated dark magic. Her very presence buckling the air with divine rite.
Nahul adjusted her shoulders, cracking her neck loudly before picking back up her cleaver. Orianna would be handled by the others. Not every day that Death met a foe truly opposed, yet equally honorable and skilled. It was thrilling. Her hair stood on end. Her eyes were wide and focused. Her breathing was constantly an excited pant as bared fangs gleamed from an open jaw whilst it split with grin.
"Round two." As Nahul bit into a piece of specially dried meat.
"It shall be the last." As Malenia swept by, faster than one could blink as Nahul barely turned enough to deflect the terrible cut that send her off balance and made a trail of red flowers that singed her shoe.
"Shit! Fast!" She mumbled, quickly finding herself on the backfoot as sweep and strike soon were paired with illusions that cut as cleanly as reality. A barrage of petals, steel, and blistering force steadily beat the dark knight into a corner. She was just too fast, every blow coming like a ballista and hitting like a carriage. Every blow bit through her defenses, steadily widdling her down until she was on her knee, panting through bleeding spit as Malenia slowly landed, placing her blade to the dark knight's throat.
"You fought well, but you are nothing before the goddess of Rot."
"Haha..." She began to chuckle.
"Not uncommon to laugh before death."
"Or to get one from it."
"Ex...cuse.. m-" She was cut off as a knife slashed across the space behind her.
Melina coughed through the rot seeping into her skin, as she poured the black flame through that knife. Malenia gasped, shaking as the flames did not bite into her flesh. They bit into the strings across her back.
"NO!" Screamed Orianna, grabbing and slamming Melina across the ground by hand. "HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU YOU FETID LITTLE WORM!" She reared back her arm to try and suddenly crush her panicked and tearstricken sister as a hammer shattered her shoulder, releasing Melina.
She stared at the glowing hammer, slowly looking up as the hilt rose to see none other than her own mother. Marika looked down at Orianna with no small amount of pity overshadowing her attempts at anger, only fueling the newborn goddess's fury.
"Mother..." She swung her arm, throwing the gilded queen with ease as the shoulder stitched itself shut, slamming her into the fleeing candle as both fell and landed near the still convulsing Malenia, and the severly wounded Luna. "Always in my way..." She whispered softly in no small amount of hurt as she rose again. "Why can you not simply let me make you proud?" Tears began to swell in the girl's eyes.
"Because you are not one of my children anymore, Orianna... You are my mistake." She stood up slowly, the sea under her starting to glow and radiate. She felt it's rush for a moment, and she heard him call again.
Let me crush this diso-
That is not who we are.
...We...?
We will stop her, but if we are to share this body, you will learn mercy.
...Hm. Perhaps you are not just a useless bitch. He felt a painful blitz of shock within his cage.
What was that?
Ugh, fine. I'll play nice.
Streaks of red began bleeding into her hair and soul, yet she did not fully shift. Her hair steadily changed from pure golden blonde into a rich rose gold as she breathed in the power she was asserting and accepting. It felt good, even as the fear of him troubled her, she felt assured for the first time in her own control. Not through nefarious or twisted means, but her own determination. The glow of her hammer became nearly blinding as the others stepped behind her. She could feel her muscles grow, but her breasts remained. Her skin thickened, but her softness never left. They felt... more, almost.
"Your... Mistake." The venomous rage was so palpable that the sea turned black and green around the newborn goddess. "YOUR. MISTAKE?!" She roared, sending the others flying away with the mere force of her scream as Marika stood strong, weather the impact with gritted teeth.
"I am sorry, Orianna, but I do not know what grace is left to grant you. Look at yourself!" she pleaded. "Look at what you have become. Look how my radiant child has given herself to madness?! What possible good could come of peace that is ENFORCED?! I can tell you what comes of it! It is NOT Peace! It is simply Silence. That is not joy. That is not love. That is control, obsession, manipulation, and it is EVIL Orianna! Look how even your own allies swiftly leave when even a single opportunity arises! Watch how they hate this enforced painful compliance! Please, learn from me, Orianna. Please.." Her voice cracked as sobs darednto punctuatentheir throat. "Please. Do not make me bury another child because they could not learn from my failings." She pleaded, even as she knew it was pointless. She could not let her daughter fail because she did not try until the end. She had lost so many to her own hubris.
Orianna shook silently, staring hatefully as she rose to full height. "I have looked at myself, Mother." The word was toxic on the tongue. "I have become even greater than you could have even aspired to be. I am radiance, I am serenity, and I shall fix what you have broken!" Her voice shattered the fluid air into cracks like breaking mirrors. Her srms were so tense that they almost seemed fit to rip from their own tight knuckled grip, and blood dripped from between almost every finger. "I shall not have my choices questioned by a woman who intended to leave us all behind and die just because she could not stand who she has become. You never became this way, Mother. No, no. You simply figured out what a truly worthless, useless, hideous worm you are, and the only use that ever came of you was the Greater Will ensuring you birthed ME. Even in that, you failed from the start." She growled as the broken space became to harden like endless blades as thin as flower petals and glowing golden.
"So be it..." She mumbled silently as half the sea turned to a far darker golden hue. Radiant purity replaced with almost earthy glows of gold. Her head rose high, and her hammer began to pour with heavy light. She swallowed her pride, swallowed their remorse, and resolved themselves to stop her mistake.
Marika rushed forward, earthy gold specs forming like flashes of light as they deflected the slashing petals. Great beams followed, but none could manage to strike the much faster, warweathered combatant. Orianna was powerful but so unrefined for this. The gilded queen ducked and slid through splashing waves as blasts tore into it, hammering down and rippling the water in massive arcs of bursting light that forced Orianna skyward. She got a smug grin for a moment before Marika opened her left hand upwards, staring at her daughter as a purple hue came around her fingertips.
"Sit." She slammed her hand down as Orianna was slammed to the earth by blasting gravity, but she retaliated rather well as her slamming form radiated a ring in the water which turned into an expanding blade of light. She noticed too late, trying to leap and shield against it as it partially pushed through, tearing a painfil line across one of her hips and pushing her back her painfully to the ground. Orianna growled, standing with a snarl as blood seeped down her temple.
"You imputent WHORE!" She spread her arms out, feeding a massive ring behind her that pulsed and expanded until it rose far above and began to flicker like a warning siren. Marika swallowed a bit harder, struggling to her feet as the ball shattered, raining down random bursts of light that hit like a storm casting down lightning. Slow, one bolt at first, and just as the bolt would have struck, a metal cleaver caught and deflected the beam away.
"Hello, love. Might I have this dance?" Luna smirked as she twisted behind her beloved, cleaver twirling.
"I'd be offended if you didn't." She rolled her shoulders.
Orianna snarled. "Just DIE ALREADY!" She swept down both arms, firing massive beams as more and more orbs formed around them and began a barrage on all sides. The two were never touched. Both twisting, diving, twirling off one another, catching every beam the other missed, and never once leaving one another to take a blow. Marika's hammer sung with every mountain shattering swing, shattering many of the orbs as they launched beams back and forced them to erupt in a blaze of sparks. Luna slid and leaped over low strikes, tossing several pots as she got the moment that did similar destruction to what orbs Marika had not sundered. They moved so swift and in unison that the rippled in the water between them stilled, in perfect harmony that every one made was softened by the other's step or strike.
With a spinning throw, Marika launched her beloved knight right through the last orb, slamming into the shocked Orianna as her blade bit into the newborn goddess's throat. Marika's magic grabbed them, ramming them to the earth and forcing the pure gold lady to spit painfully, the cleaver's teeth biting horrible in as Luna struggled, trying to severe her head while Orianna's limbs gripped and fought eith merciless strength.
"Stop.. this...!" She almost cried. "Get off of... ME!" A wall of force sent the moonlit knight skyward, and a beam streaked across the air, slamming her down near where Marika had been, but no longer.
Orianna's face bled into horror as her attempt to rise was ended with a painful crack of that hammer on his knees. Twin rapid blows that shattered them before a hand grabbed her by the hair and threw her to the ground. Marika stalked over her, shaking as every muscle told her to stop. She could still find a way to stop Orianna from falling even further. She looked up at her mother with watering eyes, shaking painfully as she once had ages ago. Thay soft quivering fear when she would be stung nu the large wasps and terrified, clung to Marika's arms for days until she finally calmed. She felt her heart ache, her grip soften for a moment.
"Mother... please..."
"Orianna..." She hesitated as her daughter's features twisted to arrogance. A twisting blade of her hair struck at Marika's back, but her knight caught it with a slash of her last remaining bits of strength before collapsing entirely.
Marika quietly gripped her hammer again in rage as she put a foot onto her daughter's chest and raised her hand high. "I am sorry, my child... but now I must Unmake you."
There would never come another dawn that did not streak the snowfields beyond in red, for the shriek of the two could be heard in the very earth itself when at last, the deed was done.