Chapter 23: The Power of the Heart
Chapter 23: The Power of the Heart
AKI took a deep breath to concentrate every fiber in her body on drawing out the full strength of the Lunar Goddess. Successfully manifesting those powers ran the risk of losing control like Elias, so her intense concentration played two roles: activating the power and maintaining her sanity.
Holding the Holy Sword in one hand, Elias launched off the ground at an unprecedented speed, making the first move before they could finish getting ready.
The battle has begun!
Mina, Louis, and Sutcliff scattered in three directions, surrounding Elias at a distance.
Elias arrived in front of them at lightning speed, then bent his knees and pulled his sword back to release his air blades. But Sutcliff teleported in front of him, forcing him to switch into close combat mode.
Elias swung the Holy Sword toward Sutcliff, who read the movement, narrowed his eyes, and blocked the downward slash with crossed daggers.
Steel scraped steel in a spray of sparks.
Mina lunged forward and deftly brought down her knife. Sensing her seconds beforehand, Elias spun out of the way, gracefully dodging her attack. Waiting for just that moment, Sutcliff’s summoned wolves lunged at Elias from every direction.
Not losing a beat, Louis cast the spell he had been chanting since the battle began. Roots burst from the ground and wrapped around Elias’s feet, holding him in place so he couldn’t keep sidestepping the wolves.
“We pulled it off, Johann…!” Louis informed them.
He had been waiting for the perfect moment to restrain Elias. Activating the ancient spell took enough time as it was, they couldn’t risk missing their target by letting Elias move freely around the field. Sealing his movement was paramount to this plan’s success.
With a nod and a smile at Louis, Johann looked from Aki to Leo and then pointed the Holy Spear at Elias. “Aki, Leo, I am going to recite the spell. Please repeat the words after me.”
It’s time! O Lunar Goddess, please lend me the strength to save Elias!
“Thinking of you beyond the heavens carves countless layers of sorrow into this bleeding heart.” Johann’s calm voice rang clearly through the domed field.
Aki repeated each word after him, careful not to make a single mistake, when she felt a sudden spark stinging the flesh on her forehead.
As she listened to the words weaving the spell, she wondered if they were the lyrics to a song about heartbreak and a love that never came to fruition. Every spell in this world told a story—perhaps these ancient words were a hidden message to someone?
I wonder if the Lunar Goddess sung this poem about someone she loved. Aki had no proof, but some part of her knew it was true. It may have been the Lunar Goddess’s power within her telling her so.
Heat licked at the corners of her forehead as if in answer to her speculation, and the outline of the crest grew increasingly warmer by the second.
Aki grimaced from the burning sensation. She felt her consciousness fade into the recesses of her mind. Afraid of what that meant, she bit the side of her cheek until it bled, and dug her feet into the ground to keep her mind anchored in place. This was where the real fight began. Passing out here meant the end of the line for them all.
I’m the only one who can stop Elias! She forced her eyes to remain open.
Leo and Johann’s regal chanting boomed on either side of Aki, assisting her in her silent battle for dominance over the power roiling within. “Will my feelings for you be allowed at the end of the world?”
Did the Lunar Goddess suffer through unrequited love, too? I don’t know who she’s longing for, but her passion and sorrow calls to the powers simmering in the pit of my belly.
Immense power swelled within her like lava erupting from a mountain top. A terrifying surge of energy overflowed from every nerve ending in her body. In return, a haze clouded her eyes and her mind drifted away.
Between the faded scenery and her lapsing thoughts, she felt as if she were entrusting the use of her body over to someone else, and unknowingly let her eyes slide shut.
“Hey, Aki! Stay with me!” Leo shouted sharply beside Aki, causing her to jump.
Eh? Ahh. Wh-What? Did I just zone out?
Johann placed a nervous hand on Aki’s shoulder. “Aki, please don’t let your mind wander! You risk falling into the same state as Elias!”
“I-I’m sorry! I d-didn’t even know it was happening…”
Aki hadn’t even realized she had blanked out. She may have easily lost her mind to the Lunar Goddess’s power if Leo and Johann hadn’t spoken to her. And if she had, she would’ve turned on her friends just as Elias had.
She had averted courting disaster thanks to her friends, but Elias had no one to help him through it when he manifested the Solar Goddess’s overwhelming power. If only she had spoken to him and kept his mind grounded in the present!
I’m going to save Elias now to make up for failing to help him then!
Aki slowly and deeply exhaled to bring her mind into focus. “Johann, Leo, sorry about that! I’m back and ready to keep going!”
Sweat beaded their foreheads as they gave a tired but relieved nod on either side of her. Now that she had the mind to pay attention, she noticed their complexions were growing paler by the second. The strain of using the Holy Relics was immeasurable even for Adventurers at max level.
I can’t afford to lose to the Lunar Goddess!
“These next words act as the closing line of the spell. Please concentrate all your energy into reciting them,” Johann instructed.
The three of them shared looks and deeply inhaled in unison. They uttered the final words of the spell with every hope their voice would reach Elias. “My thoughts are with you at the distant ends of the land. Please let this desire…reach you!”
Their three voices overlapped during the final verse as Johann and Leo pointed their Holy Relics at Elias and swung down. On that signal, silver light burst forth from Aki’s forehead, and spread in a wave over the entire field. The light shone on the blue flowers destroyed during battle, the broken cave walls, Mina, Louis, Sutcliff, and Elias, who stared at Aki with a grim expression.
“Hot!” Aki staggered and pressed one hand against her forehead.
Scorching heat emitted from her skull in accord with the burst of light radiating from her. It burned so bad her mind spun out of control. Letting down her guard for even a moment would see her blacked out on the ground
Endure! You can’t lose to her powers here! I’m going to save Elias no matter what it takes!
“Elias, please…! Come back to us!”
Aki held her hands out toward Elias with every emotion she felt for him, believing that her bonds with him would become the power capable of bringing his mind back to the surface. She knew the love they expressed for each other was the strongest bond of all!
Had her intentions reached him? His blank eyes wavered for a moment, and a silver circle fanned out underneath his feet, demonstrating the success of the ancient magic they cast.
The large magic circle formed with complex, eerie letters Aki had never seen before covered half the field.
With one eye on Elias, whose head snapped down to stare at the glowing letters, Sutcliff teleported several feet out of the circle. Then he shouted to Mina and Louis who were squaring off with Elias. “Get outta there, now!”
They didn’t need to be told twice. They both jumped back and out of the blinding light pulsating below their feet.
Only Elias remained in the center of the circle because his movement was still sealed by Louis’s spell.
A white flash ignited with a roar from the magic circle under his feet as if anticipating the very moment he was alone. Flashes of lunar lightning struck the ground around him, summoning forth pillars of blazing bolts from the ground to the domed ceiling.
This is the Lunar Goddess’s power? Fear of the overwhelming godlike thunder struck Aki speechless. Such dangerous power lives inside me? Her teeth began to chatter just as Elias started to tremble within the cage of light.
“A-AAAGGGGHHH!” he cried out in the most pain-ridden voice she had ever heard.
Aki covered her mouth and stared on in horror. “Elias…!”
No! Trapped in the cage of light, Elias was brought down to his knees by the unbelievable pain racking his entire body. No one told me that suppressing his powers would hurt him! Are my powers only capable of harming him?!
“I don’t want that…!” Watching the man she loved buckled over with the pain she caused him brought tears to her eyes.
I thought I was going to ease his pain by freeing him of the Solar Goddess! I didn’t know I would bring him pain instead!
In a panic, Aki destabilized the spell causing the pillars trapping Elias to flicker and sway.
“Aki, concentrate! You’re gonna disperse the spell!” Leo warned as he braced the Holy Dagger emitting the blinding flash of light that supported her magic.
“I kn-kno—” I know. She tried to answer with her face whiter than a sheet, but swallowed the words when Elias’s screams grew louder from the light tearing into his body.
She wanted to save him, not hurt him. But the reality before her eyes that ran contrary to her wishes crushed her. And I promised to stay by his side and make him happy!
Misery over her powerlessness to do that one thing for him made Aki sink to her knees. She hated herself for not being able to protect him. For being so weak she dragged him down.
“Elias, I’m so sorry…” she whimpered.
Leo and Johann each put a hand under her arms and pulled her off the ground. She glanced at each of their faces as tears slid down hers.
“Aki, what good does it do if you don’t believe in Elias?” Johann pointed out in a firm voice. “You are the only one who can save him.”
“You heard him! That guy’s helpless without ya, so you’ve gotta see him through this. Don’t wimp out on us now.” Leo removed one hand from the Holy Dagger and thumped her on the shoulder with it. Then he wiped the sweat from his brow and redirected his spirited gaze toward Elias. “Let’s get our Elias back. We can’t be the Hero Party without the Hero.”
That’s right! Everyone is waiting for him to return. And Elias is surely waiting for us to save him while enduring the pain and suffering.
“Johann. Leo. I’m going to Elias,” Aki announced without any preamble.
“…Aki? What’re you think—”
Invigorated with newfound purpose, she dashed off in a beeline for the cage of light eating into Elias.
“Hey! Oi, Aki! Wai—”
Leo’s calls to stop at her back, Aki propelled herself toward the imminent bolts of light without an ounce of fear. Sutcliff, Louis, and Mina locked shocked eyes on her when she ran past them.
“It’s dangerous, Aki!” Mina reached out to stop Aki, but she ran by her.
“I’ll be okay! I’m going to stop him with my own hands!” she answered between breaths.
She shouldn’t leave Elias alone in that prison of light. She shouldn’t isolate him. The reason was beyond her, but something inside told her it was so.
I promised I would be with him forever!
As she approached the bolts of light, the deafening roar muted out all other sound. Just how powerful was this small sliver of power she borrowed from the Lunar Goddess? Thinking about how she had access to such strength made her scared of herself. But she couldn’t stop now.
Aki paused right before the looming pillars and closed her eyes as she took a breath to still her thrashing heart. Then she gingerly reached out and brushed her fingers along the bars of light. It felt no different from touching a light bulb.
“Elias, I’m coming right now…!” she said as much for herself as for him. Then she took one step and another before taking the plunge and diving into the blinding magic circle.
Silver light consumed everything in view, distorting the scenery outside the circle. Surprisingly, she didn’t feel any pain within the magic circle. The spell likely only hurt Elias.
Through the pure white light she saw Elias propping himself up on one trembling knee, leaning against the Holy Sword he had thrust into the ground before him.
…Elias! Aki ran straight to him.
She wasn’t scared that he might point his sword at her. All that filled her was the desire to talk to him and hold him in her arms.
Driven by the emotions coursing through her, she jumped the last few feet and threw her arms around his neck. “Elias! Are you all right?!”
Elias lifted his head and safely caught her in his arms. She wanted to cry at the nostalgic feel of his embrace. His silky golden locks and clear, beautiful eyes hadn’t changed in the time they had been apart, except for the golden glow and the Solar Goddess’s crest burning brightly on his forehead.
Elias forced his unfocused eyes on Aki and hoarsely wrenched out, “A…ki…”
“Elias! Can you hear me? Do you know who I am?!” Aki pulled back from their embrace and rested her hands on his shoulders.
Elias tilted his head down in a barely noticeable nod, then grimaced with immense pain. The Lunar Goddess’s power was still gnawing away at him.
What must she do to free him? They had succeeded in casting the ancient magic. Perhaps he just needed an extra push to force back the Solar energy consuming him.
Aki clenched her fists in front of her chest. She wanted Elias to return to their group and smile at her. Say that he loved her again. She wanted to see him happily surrounded by friends.
Needing to convey those feelings to him, she cupped his cheeks, drenched in sweat from his exertions to withstand the pain, in her hands.
“…Elias,” she softly called his name as she brought her face near his. She pressed her lips against his, hoping the connection could convey her love and desire to save him. She entwined her hands around his neck and pulled his head closer. “I love you, Elias,” she whispered in his ear.
A single tear rolled down his cheek onto hers. He wrapped one arm around her and returned her hug by leaning into her. “…Thank you, Aki.”
The moment she heard him whisper those three words, their crests radiated the brightest light yet, illuminating the hugging couple in blinding luminance. The intense brightness rendered it impossible to tell where she began and he ended. But the silver glow blanketed them in warmth, not pain.
Elias and I are going to be just fine, she knew without a doubt as she melted into the torrent of light and let her consciousness fade to black in the arms of the man she loved.
Volume 2 End
To Be Continued in Volume 3 June 2020!