Wrath of the Heavens (Job/Solo)

The exceed blinked at Sorano, wondering when the girl had started carrying responsibilities so heavy as this one on her shoulders. It didn’t seem all that long ago that the letter mage was a pre-teen, struggling to contain her magic and emotions and taking on tasks along the lines of collecting herbs for medicine shops to earn money. The fact that she was now going to try and save all of Fiore through this task? It seemed absolutely unheard of. But then again, the girl’s current magical aura seemed also practically unheard of as well. If Sorano were to truly expand it to its full size, the exceed was sure that she would be completely overwhelmed. Somewhere in that short span of three years, then… The shy little girl she had so desperately wanted to protect and support had grown into a mature professional mage for hire, one that led an entire guild. She would be expected to help out in these situations.

“Yeah…yeah, I’m coming, Sorano. You can count on me for sure, don’t worry!” Forcing a positive expression onto her face, Hoshi could tell that her friend wasn’t fooled. Her auric vision could be awfully irritating at times like these – did she not possess them though, she’d probably be absolutely hopeless in any sort of social situation. Her gaze switched to look down at her pale paws, ears twitching in a manner that was almost nervous. “I mean…I’m not happy that you have to go out to do these things now, you know? But…” Here, she looked up, flashing a confident smile at the letter mage. “I know I can’t act like we’re little kids all the time now. Both of us have grown up, and both of us have a role we must fulfill in this crazy world now, right? I’ll definitely go along with you, don’t worry for even a second.” She closed her eyes, drawing in a slow breath as she pondered the results of these actions. Not so long ago, wasn’t she still that trembling creature that Sorano’s opponents and partners would look upon and scorn? When her only use was flight, and she couldn’t even perform that function too well? This was such a big jump from those days – going from collecting some flowers to saving the continent. “It makes me stop to think a bit. We’ve come so far already, haven’t we? You’ve grown a ridiculous amount, and if I dare say so, I’ve improved as well. I think we can handle this now, but I never would have even pondered it for a second back then.”

Sorano nodded slowly, shrugging on a more suitable shirt for the task. It was hard to look professional when doing something like this, but it never hurt to be prepared. As she reached down to pull the combat-suitable skirt up her legs, her breathing would slow, steadying herself for the mission ahead. She wasn’t getting stressed, was she? Did stress count as an emotion? Checking her barriers, she would reassure herself with the strength of the protections, locking back the other emotions that had caused her so much trouble in the past. Quickly though, she shrugged on her cloak and pulled on her bag, tying her hair tightly behind her head. She doubted hand-to-hand combat would be involved in this particular situation – she wasn’t any good at it anyways. Still, just to be safe, she slipped on her bow, adjusting and checking the straps to make sure they worked out fine. Shoes would have to be sturdy and durable – the combat boots she’d purchased last time they’d been in Talonia would work wonderfully, the straps magically winding themselves around her slim legs.

Honestly, though her gear was like that of a true professional combat mage, the girl herself was rather far from the actuality. Being a typical nerdy teenager in terms of body type, the girl was thin, gangly, and not exactly muscular, flexible, or speedy in any way. Her Midi blood didn’t help either, her height barely brushing the edges of 158 centimeters. Instead, the letter mage depended almost solely on her magic. It was no wonder that in this fashion, then, she had become such a formidable mage in terms of sheer magical power. Sorano’s dexterous fingers would then slip gently over the fabric of her clothing, feeling the unusually coarse areas where reflective material had been woven to hold her weapons, items, and supplies. Checking to ensure they were all in place, she strapped on Luna, the reliable buckler shield and pinned her hair back with a large clip. She was ready for the field at last.

“Alright Hoshi, are you ready?” Glancing towards the living room space, Sorano watched as the exceed pulled herself to her paws, wings flashing outwards in a brief burst of white light. “The most I’ll ever be,” the feline would say as confidently as she could, before the exceed lifted up into the air. “Let’s remind the moon who’s in charge here, okay?” The two exchanged a pair of easy nods before moving out the door. Fairy Hills was certainly a very comfortable place to live, even after being remodeled to be more of a dormitory than hangout spot for girls. It felt more home-like to the guild master as well, with members of both sexes in the guilds be allowed to reside there instead of the ultra-feminine atmosphere the building had before.

The elevator would pull to a stop on their floor, and the two would be carried down in relative peace and quiet. A soft intonation from Sorano acknowledged the presence of the desk fairy before the duo made it outside, looking towards where the tower would inevitably await them. A site of religious gatherings, starwatching, and scientific field work, the Sky Tower was the natural place to go. One of the highest locations in the country, the moon would likely cause first signs of destruction there. By now, it should all have been evacuated, leaving it nice and empty for the Fairies to do some work themselves.

With jobs of this level of importance, it made sense for the Magic Council to send a private vehicle to pick them up. The floating taxi of sorts waited outside the guild hall, and the two females boarded confidently, zipping off at startling speeds into the mountains where the tower awaited. Objects and locations passed in a blur outside their windows, and Hoshi squeezed her eyes shut in dismay at the dizzying sensation. “I’ve n-never ridden in one of these before, Sorano…” The exceed let go her embarrassed confession in such a state of motion sickness that the letter mage felt the urge to comfort the wretched creature, running her thin fingers of the tabby-marked fur, weaving a little spell into her fur to cease her sickness. “Ah…thanks, Sorano.” The feline’s eyes would clear of the dizzy fog as the vehicle began to slow, climbing the steep slopes of the Phoenix Mountains. The two had originated around the region, and a wave of memories swept through Sorano’s mind as the familiar evergreens breezed on by. It looked exactly the same as the letter mage had remembered, and with flat, empty thoughts, she wondered at how no emotion at all was dredged up even by these sights that brought back so many memories that would have brought over great mages to their knees with tears welling in their eyes. Maybe it was terrifying indeed in a way, this ability to cut oneself off from the world via emotion.

What a powerful tool it was, this emotion. Able to bridge the difference between a normal human being and…well…almost something else entirely. It didn’t even feel like Sorano was a part of the human race anymore, and while she couldn’t feel the disturbance from that, she could tell she was an outsider from how differently she acted as compared to everyone else.

WC: 2,335/17,000

With a sigh, she turned back to the front, eyes tracing the path of the vehicle as it slowly brought them to a stop, the trees slowly clearing away to reveal a carefully maintained clearing, religious objects and stakes planted into the ground around a tower that really was quite majestic. In spite of the eerily present moon that dangled dangerously above their heads, the tower’s sturdy presence seemed to create a sense of ease for the previously nervous exceed, Hoshi now pressing a paw to her chest to attempt to calm her throbbing heartbeat. Natural phenomenon, while it was supposed to be her strong point or something, did not calm her in this situation. Instead, the low-hanging presence of the moon seemed to lower that of Mother Earth’s, the comforting weight she could usually feel instead having drifted away to hide in her toes, almost avoiding the presence of the cratered orb. Perhaps it was only natural. The gravitational rejection between the two massive heavenly bodies must be unbearable, suddenly being so close to one another. The exceed sighed, and watched as the transparent door of the government vehicle slid open in a silent, smooth motion.

She had to be prepared, if only just for Sorano. This could very well be the most important task she was ever entrusted with, and it had to be treated carefully. For once – just for once! If there was any time where her confidence and lack of fear was truly important, it was now. Now, even a single glimmer of fear, of uncertainty could spell doom for her, and that was not something that could happen. She had to be a strong, worthy support for her friend this time – or face potential death of everyone in the world. Speaking of the girl herself, Sorano had confidently slid out of the vehicle, skirt slipping down around her legs as the letter mage eyed the towering silhouette that stood before them, backed with that same terrifying outline of the moon. It certainly appeared to be a most daunting task, to stop that giant structure from descending upon her planet.

Carefully, the girl made her way across the ground, feet sinking slowly into the mushy ground and toeing the damp grass with the boots she’d equipped upon her feet. Had it rained recently? Trying to send her memory back to the day before, Sorano shrugged. The weather had not seemed so big a deal once the moon started falling towards the earth, and day and night had become rather similar. If one were to discuss the science behind it, perhaps the moon’s presence and gravity caused rotation to become difficult for Earthland? And the flooding had been terrible recently too, tides going wild as the force of the moon, it’s ever so alluring pull coaxing the liquid up toward itself and away from its allotted area. Despite the magical implications behind the source of the impossible moon positioning, it appeared that all its affects were still quite scientific and all.

With that comforting thought in mind, the letter mage placed her hand on the door to the tower, already standing ajar for her to enter. The place had already been evacuated by now, but even so, Sorano reached her hand up to gently rap her knuckles on the wood. She then paused a beat, waiting in case a response came through, before stepping into the room with a cautious air about her. She didn’t want to disturb anything around here that may prove to be dangerous later on, after all. The room was dark, but light spilled down the winding staircase to the bottom where they stood, illuminating faint spots and dashes of light along the ground, showing them the way to go. The faint outlines of shelves and tables were barely visible in the dim light, and the two Fairies paid them little attention as their eyes alighted simultaneously upon the staircase. “C’mon Hoshi, let’s get this over with.” The letter mage’s quiet but solemn statement would stir the exceed to action, gently fluttering over to the spiraling structure. The tower was a tall one, and the passageway was ridiculously narrow. Any hope of being able to fly up would be dashed, and Sorano could already imagine the dizziness she would find herself afflicted with after the journey.

Yet, up she climbed, still. There wasn’t like there was any other path for her to take, no? Perhaps they could have flown up from the outside, but honestly the overwhelmingly powerful gravity of the moon lent her some pause. It would be too difference if they were dragged up to the moon without being prepared – walking up and approaching the great behemoth slowly seemed a much wiser path to take – one that would leave them with less grief if they came to a solution of the problem. So slowly, they ascended the stairs, one step after another. The seemingly endless spiraling path would occasionally be decorated with a window or candle-holder of sorts, tiny beacons of light, or marks of interest along the wall that the two were able to use as markers for their progress. A window seemed to appear every two rotations, while a candle-holder appeared every four rotations or so. It was horrendously tedious, and after several minutes of the dragging task, Sorano’s mind gradually blanked out, her body continuing to move as her mind roamed freely, exploring the concerns she had about the task at hand.

First of all, there was the problem of what exactly was causing the movement. Was it an outside source? Was it magical cause? Was it scientific cause? These things would all play into how this all worked out. Was it something within the moon or outside the moon? Was it an entity who represented the moon, one of the creatures that shared its power? Was someone from the outside controlling its abilities? Was it a larger issue that encompassed more than these two bodies, and involved the whole planetary system? If the latter was indeed the reason for these happenings, then there was likely very little that Sorano could do about it. However, if it were one of the other possibilities, it would still take some work to figure out how exactly to stop the threat. The more she pondered over the issue, the larger and more impossible it appeared to become, and the slower her footsteps moved. Finally, the letter mage ground to a halt, feet digging into the ground as her entire being was overwhelmed with the endless possibilities of what could possibly go down.

“Sorano…?” Hoshi’s concerned voice cut through the fog of the girl’s mind, and the teen turned to look puzzlingly at Hoshi. Not having noticed she’d stopped moving, she seemed confused as to why the exceed was talking to her. “Sorano…we still have quite a ways to go. Do you want me to try carrying you upwards? It won’t be easy or comfortable, but I understand if you’re exhausted…those were quite a few late nights you spent trying to figure everything out, after all.”

Again, the letter mage blinked in surprise before glancing down at her feet, and at the massive amounts of staircase before them. “Oh my, I didn’t even notice.” Carefully, Sorano lifted a foot, brow creasing with concern as she inspected herself, as if the problem was a physical blight that could easily be spotted. “Ah, well, I’m sorry. Let’s keep going, shall we?” The emotionless creature blinked slowly once more, eyes looking unfocused as she continued her upward stepping pattern. What a time to start blanking out – right before what had great potential to become the most stressful and tiring encounter she’d ever meet in her life! It would not be a detail for people to include into articles and whatnot every time a mage accomplished a task so big – no, blanking out and realizing how little you cared about the world right as you were on a mission to save the world was the furthest thing from heroic you could get. It was almost downright antagonistic, in fact, but by now Sorano’s thought track (along with her writer’s thought process) had deviated so much from the original goal that there was no bringing it back.

Her face passed by another window, and for a moment, she paused, gazing out into the forest dyed silver by the close proximity of the moon. How dull and plain the formerly colorful surface had become, no? Man, what was even happening these days? How had the world gone through so many huge changes at so fast a pace? Hoshi’s face brushed by also, eyes darkening as she watched the edge of the moon expand, seeming to want to envelope the earth the closer it drifted. Already, the moon seemed to have made progress in its flight, being ever closer to approaching Earthland. While the sight was certainly awe-inspiring, the prospect of her home being destroyed was not one that stirred very inspiring thoughts within the exceed, and she lowered her eyes in fear and shame before continuing to follow Sorano. Their task was to end this dark sight, the one they’d just witnessed out of the window. While Fairy Tail was most certainly not the loveliest and most heroic of guilds, there was value to saving the world this time, value that would be devastating if not gained.

Tonight, she and Sorano were heroes, roles they were ill-fitted to suit, but roles they would have to assume in order to keep the place they’d grown to love safe.

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It took another long series of walking, stairs spinning past their faces until the two reached the door at the top, appearing as an oasis to one stranded in the desert to these two hopeful mages, approaching their encounter with the moon. Pausing to catch their breath and ready themselves for the ordeal that was to come, Sorano leaned back against the wall, sinking down into a sitting position on the ground. Her gentle, pale face reflected back white light, emphasizing the dark circles under her eyes and the tired features that marked her face. Hoshi let her wings dissipate as well, floating to curl into a ball on the ground next to her companion. Out of habit, Sorano’s tired hand stroked the feline’s ears, and for a moment both tried to relax and clear their minds. Sinking into this familiar routine would hopefully be a way for the two to refresh themselves, clearing their minds to face a brand new day ahead of them. Slowly, as their breathing calmed down and their heartbeats settled back to normal, the letter mage’s gentle ministrations would slow, and eventually stop as she clasped her hands before her in a movement that looked almost prayerful, until you realized that everyone on Fiore already knew gods existed and that they were all usually pretentious assholes. Instead, the action seemed to be a brief acknowledgement of those she had known, those who had left her – in a way, some sort of comforting ancestral prayer meant more for her own sake than any actual reverence. It did seem to work, and in a moment, the letter mage’s head and lifted up and she was setting forward with determined stride.

“Let’s do this.”

The door was tentatively pushed open, and the two mages made their way out onto the roof of the Sky Tower, famed as the tallest building in Earthland, and the tallest manmade structure you could possibly stand upon. As it was also located on one of the tallest mountains in Fiore, there was certainly a strong possibility that this was one of the highest vantage points achievable in Fiore. Yet, despite what statistics said, the air around them, while nippy, seemed temperate enough. No cold snow whipped around them, but looking down would reveal the presence of faint wisps of cloud. Breathing was difficult up here, having been a factor that made the climb up a most arduous task. The air was thin and unsatisfying, and Sorano considered casting an air spell before realizing that the action would only cause her to lose precious energy that she’d need later on. No, instead, they would bear the difficult breathing for now – while uncomfortable, the air certainly wasn’t impossible to consume, and a steady stream of ethernanos was still supplying them with all the magical energy they needed. In fact, the lack of oxygen up here seemed to assist in bringing an even stronger stream of the magical particles into their lungs, filling their origins and allowing them to be able to utilize their magical abilities to even greater effect. At least there was a perk to coming up to this godforsaken place.

The cracked stone tiles below their feet was lined with mosses and similar groundcover plants that pushed their way stubbornly out of the scrapes of dirt found between the tiles. Aesthetic carvings of celestial bodies were carefully arranged on the wall that surrounded the top of the tower, and an altar could be seen in the direct center of the area. Many religious cults did use the place as an area to conduct rituals, due to its close proximity to heavenly objects, and thus most activities conducted here did involve the altar. It was well-worn, the stone surface having a dip worn into the rock from mortars and pestles, the smoothings of many hands and…who knew what other body parts. Cult rituals could be extremely weird, after all. In a quiet, respectful manner, the letter mage made her way around the fairly large surface of the top. Approximately 25 meters in diameter, the place was not horribly large, but not terribly cramped, either. There was plenty of space to move around and fit many people up here – probably those cultists mentioned before, and enough room to hopefully spar with potential enemies. Even so, the thought of having to fight on so precariously high a structure was not a thought that appealed to the letter mage, and she frowned, trying to consider ways to make the place safer.

Alas, her thoughts would be interrupted quickly by a short, quick inhalation of breath from the tabby feline. “Sorano…” The letter mage raised her head, fearing the worst, only to see a small spot on the surface of the moon seeming to gleam strangely, whiter than any other area on the mottled gray surface. This shining speck of light emanated a powerful aura that could be sensed even from so far away, and every fiber of their beings begged them to retreat, to curl into a fetal position and hope everything would end quickly. So thank goodness for the guild master’s lack of emotions and surprisingly strong grip, as she pulled Hoshi close to herself, keeping the traumatized exceed from trying to make the dive back down to earth. If they were going to try and save the world, running away just as things were getting interesting was simply not acceptable. Instead, they stood their ground as the spot steadily grew, turning out to be a sort of beam, gradually nearing the earth and expanding as it did so. Shining powerfully down towards the tower, it barreled towards them, giving Hoshi incentive to prepare her own magic, and Sorano to have her hand at the ready to cast a barrier to protect them from this potential onslaught. The nature and purpose of the beam, see, was not yet clear to them. It could be a tool to destroy, a message, or some sort of transport for whatever entity was behind this. Whatever it was, they would have to wait and see as the silvery light touched down on the surface of the tower. The spotlight surface made on the tower top gradually expanded, growing to so blinding a power that the mages were forced to shut their eyes, preventing their retinas from scorching at the astounding levels of light that the beam possessed. Whatever, or whoever was to come was not any normal thing, that much was obvious.

Gradually, however, the backs of their eyelids stopped burning in pain, and the two gradually cracked open their eyes to tentatively observe whatever had manifested before them. What now stood before them was a tall, imposing women, dressed in resplendent robes of shimmering silver, white, and black hues that trailed softly behind her as she stood there. Long tresses of black hair streamed from her head, shimmering silver whenever they met the light, and cold silver eyes gazed outwards from underneath hooded lids. Her skin was the palest ivory, looking statuesque in a way, and the regal way in which she held herself showed that this newcomer was indeed a confident, and thus likely powerful person. Who exactly it was though, was uncertain to the letter mage. Sorano dared not to shift her gaze to the more auric of realms just yet, as the prospect of witnessing the truth behind so strange and masked a figure was too outrageous a thought for her to comprehend. Instead, the Saint merely gazed, frozen still at the sharp features of the moon lady’s face, at the silver pins that held back her hair, and the carefully arranged bangs that slipped down the side of her face. The woman’s expression held even less emotion that Sorano’s, if that was even possible, so neutrally set that there was no way to tell how the mages should react.

In a very slow, very deliberate movement, she reached a hand up to eye-level, snapping sharply once. Instantly, the majestic robes fell away in a burst of silvery light, revealing instead a well-fitted and expertly designed set of lightweight oriental armor atop a loose, free-flowing shift that melted down into what seemed to be pure moonlight. The long legs were equipped with tall, combat-suitable boots, and a mask dangled from her hand. Shaped like a crescent moon, the lady snapped it expertly over her face with a flicker of long, elegant fingers. Now geared up in combat uniform and evidently ready to fight, she raised her finger in one brief movement. “You are the representative that the filthy humans have sent, no?” Her voice itself was smooth and gentle on the ears, flowing like silk through the air, sound waves alighting like feathers on Sorano’s ears. The letter mage could only blink slowly, unsure of how one could even respond. By now, even if she did not view the woman’s aura, it could be assumed that this woman was the goddess of the moon. With the way her limbs would occasionally melt into obscure moonlight before reappearing, and how the light of the moon itself seemed to shift ever so slightly with every move she made, it was the only explanation.

“I am Luna, spirit of the moon. Prepare to die.” With these simple words, that occurred after Sorano’s slow, uncertain nod of affirmation, the goddess raised an arm, slamming a beam of moonlight towards the mages, Hoshi only barely managing to pull the letter mage out of the way. Both were honestly shocked into disbelief. The actual goddess of the moon was here? They were being fought by a literal goddess – and one of the most powerful goddesses, too? The idea was terrifying, one of the worst possible situations that the letter mage had considered. Their chance of survival in this was next to zero, and she couldn’t possibly think of a situation where they would come out of this scot-free and alive. All the letter mage could have hoped for was negotiation – diplomacy was her selling point, after all, but there was no reasoning with a wild goddess who seemed to have come to destroy earth for once and for all. Instead, the letter mage could only flinch as ancient rocks exploded upwards behind her where the moonbeam had struck, forcing her to duck her head and slide out of the way before rolling aside just as quickly when another beam came her way. The goddess was effective and relentless with her strikes, her precise aim never missing her goal. In fact, the woman seemed to almost be playing around with how effortless her movements were, expression dull and bored.

By now, the letter mage was barely clinging onto the edge of each one of Luna’s moves, hardly able to dodge each ridiculously strong strike. At this rate, the tower would fall before either won, but the goddess seemed to care not for that.

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At the same time, the Fairy mages were faintly aware that at the edges of their consciousness, the beams that slammed through the air over their shoulders were continuing their plunge through the sparse cloud cover to pierce into the earth below, throwing up horrendous amounts of dirt and debris into the air. Luna’s attacks were anything but light, but even so, the sheer destructive power of her strikes were absolutely terrifying. Even from their astounding height here on the Sky Tower, it was certainly possible to feel particles of dust, and flying leaves slash against the letter mage’s cheeks as she whizzed aside in time to miss another one of the destructive beams. She was definitively being played around with at this point, feeling the taunting emotions stream from the goddess even as the lady’s face remained utterly devoid of any emotion whatsoever. In fact, the stream of emotional energy radiating from the figure had suddenly escalated during battle, a bitter, angry energy filling the entirety of the air around the tower, so much that even someone lacking in emotional abilities such as Hoshi could sense it.

But besides emotions, there were more important things for them to worry about. The thin air was making this constant moving even more difficult for the small girl and her feline partner, and escaping the blasts grew to be an even more difficult task the more they moved. A moment after the fearful thought entered Hoshi’s head, a hiss of frustrated pain could be heard from Sorano. The light on the edge of one of the beams had just barely scraped the side of her arm, and yet an angry red slash could already be seen, blood welling out of the broken skin. “Sorano! Hang in there!” Yelling at her friend in a desperate plea, Hoshi slammed herself forward at full throttle in the air, using her momentum to push the letter mage out of the way of the next bolt and frowning worriedly at the gash on her arm. While the letter mage could easily heal it with her own magic, it was a most uncomfortable situation. After all, healing took up precious energy that they could not bear to lose right now. “I’ll live, Hoshi, it’s okay, stay alert—” Sorano’s words were abruptly cut off as she rolled briefly underneath the altar to avoid a bolt, bursting out quickly just a moment later with Fanirvuh held within her arms.

In that sparing moment, the letter mage had reached into one of her handy mirrors and extracted the trusty bow, nocking an arrow in record time and letting fly the pointed projectile. Hoping to see how the goddess reacted to simple physical attacks such as that, Sorano flinched as a thread of moonlight wrapped around the wood, melting away the material almost like acid in a curl of silver light. The wishsteel tip would fall uselessly to the ground, the splintered wood scattering over the split tiles. Yeah, normal attacks were not going to have any effect on this goddess – that much was for sure. In response, the goddess released yet another wave of that horribly strong contempt, silver eyes cold and unrelentless as another series of beams slammed forth towards the mages once more. This time, the letter mage jumped upwards, Hoshi pulling her into the sky at the movement and lifting her above the beams in a well-rehearsed movement. Pulling the bowstring back again, Sorano cast forth a blast of natural Earthland energy, blasting the goddess with one of her most powerful attacks. After all, if no weak attacks were going to have much effect, might as well go all out, no?

But it would appear that the decision was not a smart one, as the goddess’s reaction showed. Sure, the nature-based energy created the first sign of damage upon this Luna, adding color to her silver constitution for a moment, dying her chestplate a faint green hue and causing the woman to lean forward in apparent pain. But a mere moment later, the moon lady had gotten back up, with a renewed fury in her aura. Silver eyes blazing in a most terrifying sight, the goddess sent twin blasts of moonlight at the two, backing it up with a continuous barrage of smaller attacks. The impact of Fanirvuh’s attack seemed to have caused her distress above the fairies’ estimations, and neither were prepared for how to react now. Instead, the letter mage had little choice but to react with the brief creation of a shield to cover them from the onslaught, one that disintegrated quickly after the barrage. After all, a simple barrier was not going to hold up against the power of a literal goddess. Instantly afterwards, the goddess marched up towards them, translucent boots creating cracks along the tile with every movement. How was one supposed to respond to this?

The letter mage lifted up her arms defensively, something akin to fear in her body language as she prepared to resist the goddess’s onslaught. To her shock, Luna would merely grasp the collar of the letter mage’s shirt, lifting her roughly up from the ground. From here, Sorano could feel the icy sensation of her fingers, radiating a deep cold that seemed to penetrate her very core as she brought their faces close to one each other. Fast, furious puffs of cold breath could be felt by the mage, and her body would shudder at the astounding amounts of emotion and magical energy emanating from the being. It was an overwhelming sensation, similar to when she’d come into contact with the angels of heaven so long ago – but this was much more powerful, truly one of the greatest deities in this universe.

“You filthy punk,” the goddess spat, face contorting for the first time into a sneer that very much showed her absolute hatred and disgust for the child. It was something the letter mage had not experienced for a long time, being a well loved and appreciated person by her guildmates and the people she worked with. “You dare attack me with such crudely engineered mockeries of my own kin? Humans truly have no standards, do they? I came here preparing for an honorable, proper duel to assert my dominance over your pathetic species, and this is what you give me?” With that intensely worded statement, Luna thrust the teen back to the ground, her fragile body colliding with the sharp stones in a rather uncomforting sound. “Be thankful I do not kill you outright, runt. This is your final warning. Do not abuse the powers of my sister in such a way, do you understand?” Leaving a shaken Sorano and Hoshi staring after her in frozen horror, Luna leapt upwards into the sky. “You will have a respite of thirty seconds. Once that time period is up, I won’t be playing around anymore, do you understand?”

The mages could only nod slowly in shock, Sorano still trying to get the pain of her body being so roughly thrown to the ground out of her system and Hoshi feeling her former paralyzing fear coming back into her body. This was the worst possible time for a relapse, and yet here she was – shaking and cowardly kneeling before a being who was about to pulverize her closest friend, someone she was deeply indebted to. Fortunately for them, Sorano was much more on top of her game, quickly getting back up and stretching briefly. Her bruises and scrapes from now were nowhere as serious as the gash on her arm that now dyed her entire forearm red with smears of blood. Carefully applying a small healing spell over herself, the letter mage recovered quickly, sucking in a few great gulps of breath before the time ended and Luna dived back down in yet another attack. This time, Sorano was much more responsive, waiting until the goddess had reached a close proximity to her before throwing outwards a dome of darkness that captured the woman within, the structure barely managing to darken the woman’s moonlight briefly before giving up and resulting in a mere dimming of that radiance she emitted.

Damaging the moon lady and providing Sorano with increase healing and energy, the dome dissipated, having done its job, and the girl attempted to go on the offensive. A wall of flame would be quickly written into existence, the fire being slammed roughly towards the goddess. A smirk on her face, Luna merely reacted with a wall of her own, moonlight flashing out to cancel out the power of the solid script spell. Not only that, but the moment the fire disappeared, spears of moonlight burst outwards from the wall, marking a change in Luna’s attack strategy, Forced to avoid these new obstacles, Sorano slammed herself to the ground, buying more tie before she rolled out of the way. A moment later, however, she was up and running again, this time with a few pieces of furniture having catapulted themselves up through the tower to assist her. The Tamashi paper that she was equipped with was certainly working its magic, and the appearance of floating tables and chairs around the letter mage did indeed give the goddess a brief moment of pause. But alas, brief would be all it was, for she was at it again in a matter of seconds, more bolts of magic aiming itself at the child. This was no laughing matter, and some floating furniture would not be deterring this deity.

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The letter mage was still blown to the side nevertheless, with the oncoming wave, her frail body finding itself dashed against the unforgiving tiles with a bolt of moonlight. The unsettling sensation of crawling icy light on her skin caused Sorano to shudder in discomfort, finding that the feeling seemed to only further intensify her pain, causing it to gradually intensify the longer it marinated her skin. In a quick burst of power, the letter mage rolled out of the way of the light, and the goddess let the beam shimmer away, an air of triumph and glee filling her aura. Indeed, this woman seemed to be a fan of watching those she hated suffer – even if that person happened to be a child she had never even encountered before. Yet, it was certainly true that Sorano was no ordinary child. Even the moon goddess could be faintly impressed at the manner in which the letter mage was able to barely recover, her magic having reinforced her body enough over these years of training to allow the girl to stand up against the attacks of the deity. Even now, she stood once more, face grimacing at the pain that seemed to ooze throughout her very bones.

Instantly, a counterattack came in the form of silvery energy whips, the coil of power forming around her in the flashing of a pen and the slashing of a stream of power, directed straight at the goddess. Luna carefully evaluated the situation, conjuring up a moonlight-formed leopard to leap out and take her place, disintegrating under the power of the whip, and retaliated with one of her own. Even after getting more serious in her efforts, the goddess seemed unable to resist a bit of taunting, trying to make the opponent feel even more defeated with a clear mockery of Sorano’s own spells. Her whip, unlike the multifaceted, rippling one the letter mage had wielded, was smooth and silver, flashing deadly across their collapsing arena to slap the girl off the side, only for Hoshi to lift her up out of the way, actually dodging down behind the tower and flinching as the stream cracked open the side of the structure, before flying her partner back up to the top. Recovering quickly, Sorano instantly struck again, this time taking a risk and utilizing two whips at once, While one flew at the goddess in a manner similar to before, leading to another decoy animal to leap up to take the blow, the other whip was quickly manifested and used to slide in under the goddess, looping tightly around her translucent legs.

This time, the deity did in fact hiss in pain, surprised at the sudden successful attack. The energy stung harshly against her moonlight-embodied form, and she found herself having to create snakes of moonlight to eat through the coils that had burnt her ankles before returning to the battle. However, that brief moment of weakness had given the letter mage a rare opportunity to attack, flashing another coil of energy around as she slid in surprisingly close to Luna, hurling it upwards and around, looping perfectly around the woman’s neck. This time, the moon lady was able to get her arms in between the length and her neck, wrists straining against the rippling material as the beck of her neck experienced that same painful sensation. The girl had managed to catch her off-guard with this series of moves – her rather lackluster attacks at the beginning must have been a decoy of sorts, if she was capable of this much when she put in the effort.

Twin bursts of energy from her wrists cut apart the stream, and the goddess now slammed forth her boots into the tower ground, creating two bursts of force that cracked along the arena floor, straight at Sorano, and bursting upwards in two tremendous explosions that sent rubble and debris flying everywhere. This was not one that the letter mage could escape, that was for sure. Instead, she could only curl in upon herself, drawing the floating furniture around her close to ensure maximum protection, and keeping her shield tight and in over her head. A flying piece of brick did in fact smash into her head, and the girl cried out in pain as she flew into the ground, feeling bits of rock slamming into her from every which way. She dared not open her eyes, but in this situation, she could already tell that her vision would be getting fuzzy, mind growing woozier and woozier as that direct head hit broke in. A concussion might have occurred, that was for sure – things weren’t looking up for the girl at all. Yet there was little she could do until the explosion had settled in, and things calmed down enough for her to cast a spell.

In what felt like an utter eternity, the rumblings would finally cease, and the letter mage slowly lifted her head to squint uncertainly out at the area beyond. Indeed, the edges of her vision had developed a strange pulsing darkness, bringing a ringing headache to her knowledge as well. Everything hurt, and she wished she could sleep for a thousand years and never wake up, but figuring out how much damage had been done came first. Blinking around, the letter age used a trembling, bloody arm to awkwardly prop herself up, finding that her other arm had been bent at a rather odd angle. It did not seem to be hurt, but a throbbing pain could be felt in the joint when pushed to its limit, and the letter mage would quickly drop it with a shudder. She tried to feel for her legs, wiggling her toes, and found that one foot was stuck beneath a slab of stone. Luckily, this was fixed with a quick levitation spell, allowing her to pull out her very bruised, but still intact and usable leg. By now, scratches and bruises seemed to have developed everywhere along the mage’s body, and various rips and cuts in her clothing had been made as well. Typical – it was a fight with a goddess, after all. She was surprised it hadn’t happened earlier.

Now, Sorano would attempt to sit up and stand up, and get a grip on her surroundings, when a sharp pain in her head caused her to emit a squeaking noise that sounded comical even to Hoshi’s ears. The exceed had managed to survive by throwing herself out of the way at top speeds, and by now her Aera had been tested to its greatest extent – the feline had let her wings dissipate, resting her power for later use. “Your, hair, Sorano.” Hoshi’s gentle guidance brought the letter mage’s attention to the hunk of hair she had that had been squashed beneath a great boulder, keeping her from being able to get out. The solution was simple enough, however, that she gave little thought before extracting one of Kagayaku and quickly slicing away the stubborn strands. Now, cutting hair with knives was nowhere so easy as it was portrayed on the Lacrimanet, but with some good sawing and hacking, the mage managed to remove chunks of her hair, resulting in a sloppy, crooked haircut, but also freedom. Which happened to be far more important than her appearance at the moment, so all was forgiven.

The letter mage stood up, gazing about her in surprise. It seemed that the roof of the Sky Tower had fallen in, leaving her in the middle of the stairs, some of which could still be seen spiraling up into nowhere, with pieces of rubble arcing up around them into the sky to create a sort of dangerous wall. Slowly descending from the sky was a serene as ever Luna, black hair floating out behind her as she reached to her side, extracting a silver katana from her side. Gently, her booted feet touched the ground the grace that only a divine being could possess, and she half-floated, half stepped her way over the rubble to face the letter mage. “Surprising that a filthy human like you are still standing after that. But then again, I suppose I haven’t given you too much yet, have I?”

No more warning would be given as the goddess slashed her katana across Sorano’s chest, a clean cut slicing through her shirt – and piercing through skin and flesh. The high-pitched screaming wail from Hoshi spurred the letter mage into action, stumbling haphazardly backwards to minimize the damage. Yet it seemed to have been too late. A clean spurt of red blood spat itself out of the wound, spraying the air with the liquid of the girl’s life. Hoshi cowered behind a rock nearby, making wailing noises of anguish, but too horrified to move. Once again, her terror that she had thought she’d overcome had returned, rendering her nothing but an idiotic kitten once again. Sobbing mrowls of pain and agony burst its way out of her mouth, and the feline’s heart hammered away wildly as her companion fumbled about wildly for a healing spell that would be able to stitch the gaping wound in her chest.

In her entire career as a battling and professional mage, Sorano had been extremely fortunate. Usually being able to avoid situations where she would sustain fatal wounds, she’d never been wounded so badly that people were seriously doubting whether she’d live or not. The most dangerous situations the girl had been placed in were those involving magic – physical wounds were not an issue that she had to deal with a lot. But here she was, in the moment, with a slice in her chest that she had to be able to fix. It was not going to at all be an easy task, so it was good that the letter mage happened to be incapable of panicking. Instead, she easily wiggled a finger through the air, and concentrating hard on her purpose, manifested a cloud of powerful healing substance, cleansing her body with the mist. Gulping in desperate breaths of the stuff, the letter mage watched as the wound slowly closed, slowing to a shallow cut in her skin. The spell was not strong enough to heal it completely, but this was a level at which the letter mage would be sure to recover from now. Death had been averted – but only briefly.

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Even with the quick healing, Sorano still ended up stumbling roughly backwards into a pile of rocks. A sharp hiss of pain escaped her, and the girl shakily made her way back onto her feet. There wasn’t much juice left in her, but she’d do everything she had to do in order to get Luna to back off – whatever that took. If only she could talk to the goddess…! But from the noirette’s dark expression at finding her target still alive, the letter mage decided to refrain from trying. It was too difficult a task, and she’d only end up pissing her off even more. In a flash of power, the letter mage barely paused, flinging one of her most powerful spells at the woman. Projectiles of ice quickly flung themselves from Sorano’s words at the goddess, surprising her once again. In fact, the girl herself was quite impressed with her own ability to keep on her feet even at a time like this. She hadn’t expected to be able to keep up an S-ranked spell of all things in her current condition, but the ice bombs were slamming one after another into the goddess, even as her whips of moonlight tried to wrap around them. Underestimating their power, the first few orbs slammed roughly against the woman’s body, causing her to stumble back.

The next few times, a strong shield of moonlight was raised, though done at an awkward angle due to Luna’s arm that was rapidly freezing under the ice bomb’s ministrations. The more of the balls of ice that struck the moon lady, the more Luna struggled, and the harder it was for her to develop other shields to protect herself from the onslaught. Finally! The letter mage seemed to have at last developed a way to limit the woman’s power. Yet, only a moment later, Luna’s free hand was wielding the moonlight katana once more, face contorted in a furious expression as she plunged the blade into her iced-over arm, drawing a thin trickle of silvery blood. But despite the strange move, it became obvious very quickly what her purpose had been. The shimmering lifeblood trickled onto the ice, and wherever it touched, her skin went instantly back to normal, the power of divine blood purifying her being once more and casting away the freezing concoction. Her arm was quickly freed, and the pressing of her hand over the open wound closed up the cut in a moment’s time. The power she possessed seemed utterly unfair – a single touch left her flawless once more. In fact, Luna’s appearance had changed so little since the beginning of the fight that an air of hopelessness washed over Hoshi, one that hit Sorano indirectly as well. It was a battle that could very well be hopeless, and both were all too aware of that by this point. All they could do was keep hitting the woman and hope that a solution could be sought out.

Leaping forward while Luna was still in the process of freeing herself, Sorano retrieved Fanirvuh once more. Remembering the goddess’s initial reaction to its natural energies, a faint of apprehension did fill her at first – but she didn’t have very much magical energy left, and this was an easy technique to use without too much risk. Letting the arrow fly, the natural energies exploded against the still-healing moon lady, throwing her back a short distance. A scream of rage rose up from the mound instantly, and a thunderous blast from the location of the goddess burst outwards, slamming the letter mage and exceed against the shuddering stone rubble that made up the tower now. More bruises and cuts appeared along their bodies as they were slammed willy-nilly into rock and glass and wood, without regard to whether they would die or not. Then again, this was a goddess trying to kill them, so who was to say that wasn’t precisely what her purpose was here?

By the time the rumbling had faded away, the letter mage was truly out of energy. She considered switching into her spirit mode now – a move often reserved for similar situations for this. But alas, that was too risky as well. Her auric form took damage and applied it to her physical body – with her form in so poor a state now, if she overdid it on that body, she might very well cause some sort of horrible permanent damage to her physical body. Was it one she was willing to take though, for the sake of humanity? Her attacks seemed to barely be fazing Luna – the prospect of defeating her or sending her back into orbit seemed almost impossible at this point. “Sorano, Sorano! Where are you?” The frenzied, gasped exclamations of the exceed could be heard making her way closer, and in a moment, the battered tabby’s familiar face was peering down at the crumpled form of her friend. “Oh my god, Sorano? Are you gonna be okay?” Hoshi stumbled down to where she laid, sniffing fearfully at the matted blood that stained the girl’s blouse, as well as the nasty looking cut on her head that was seeping red, sticky liquid mixed with the dust and gravel into her lustrous hair.

“I’m so sorry, Sorano, I couldn’t do anything – the fear came back – I’m so, so sorry, oh Sorano! Please don’t die, okay? Please, Sorano—” The gasped sobs burst out of her chest as she desperately lashed her tail, unsure of what to do about the letter mage’s plight.

“It’s alright, Hoshi! Just…can you keep her distracted while I recover?” Sorano smiled back weakly, hand reaching up to gingerly touch the nasty cut on her head. “I-I’ll be fine if I can get a spell up here…”

The exceed nodded back, eyes wide with fear, and turned, manifesting wings to catapult herself into the sky. There, the goddess could be seen, looking pristine as always. However, an angry cloud of irritation surrounded her now, despite the lack of implication on her serene face. Luna was pissed, and that made everything ten times worse. But she had to do this for Sorano. Breathing in deeply, Hoshi summoned forth the power of Mother Earth, calling for the familiar spirit to fill her with power. Her guardian spirit had never felt so far away before – the moon’s presence seemed to have somehow pushed her back, but eventually the power clicked within her, and for a moment, all the chaos froze as the exceed embodied the goddess’s spirit. Instantly, as soon as Mother Earth’s presence filled the arena. Luna froze into place. Her face changed expression for the first time that night, contorting into an expression of shock and longing. Her eyes darted around frantically, before landing on the faintly glowing Hoshi, suspended in midair by the natural energies. “Sister—!" The shout reverberated around the area, but the exceed wasn’t listening. Bearing down on the goddess in furious anger, twin lightning bolts would slam their way from Hoshi’s paws into the goddess, accompanied by a familiar rumble in the air above her. Sorano’s signature spell, the immense thunderbolt that had decimated so many an enemy was forming above her head as well, providing the exceed with support.

Hoshi slashed and boxed at the goddess from all sides with her own Earth-provided lightning bolts, thanking Mother Earth for her abilities while Sorano’s storm developed rapidly overhead. Luna seemed strangely stunned, face shifting strangely as she barely even moved to dodge the attacks, instead her silver eyes darting around to follow Hoshi’s movements. Occasionally, her mouth would open, as if to say something, before closing again, unwilling to speak. It seemed a deep shock and sorrow had instilled itself into her eyes, something Hoshi transmitted to Sorano via their telepathic connection. In a burst of energy, Sorano’s lightning bolt slammed down into the ground as well, Hoshi barely getting out of the way in time. A scream of sheer pain and agony burst forth from the center of the electric mass, but somehow, the exceed knew it was not because of the attacks. For a moment, Mother Earth’s calm, ever-commanding presence filled her mind, providing her a brief while of absolute clarity. The natural spirit knew everything there was to know about the situation here, that much was clear. And she knew that somehow, it was she that was causing the moon’s insanity to develop.

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Yet, as soon as that moment of clarity enveloped the exceed’s mind, it left just as quickly, Mother Earth’s presence abandoning Hoshi’s body in a fatal that left the feline completely lacking in any powers whatsoever. Plummeting down into the wreckage, she would barely be able to pull herself upwards at the last moment, saving herself from what would have been a particularly nasty fall. Dismay filled her body – how come the earthen spirit had abandoned her at the most crucial moment? Luckily, the moon goddess was far too occupied by the giant lightning bolt currently enveloping her body to pay much attention, allowing Hoshi to touch down safely before seeking out Sorano, despair filling her veins at their situation. While the lightning attacks had certainly weakened the goddess, it was pretty obvious that she would be just fine. Having survived so many attacks already, and with such ease, it would take more than just one particularly well-placed spell to defeat the woman. In fact, the exceed should probably be getting ready to snatch Sorano and get the heck out of here already. This was a murderous deity who was never going to retreat under their barrage, and she wanted to kill them. The statistics were so clearly piled against them it was almost outrageous.

Finding the crouched figure of her friend, Hoshi mustered up her remaining strength, pulling up the weakened girl from her armpits and lugging her into the air. Sorano’s dead weight body was extraordinarily heavy to the exhausted exceed, but this was their only chance to escape. Staying any longer would be absolute suicide – it was better to live another day to face the deity again than to die here in vain. They’d help no one if this was where they fell, after all. Hoshi repeated this to herself, trying not to imagine all the what ifs and consequences that they could be faced with for escaping the fight. Yes, there were lives on the line, yes, the magic council was depending on them, but Sorano was more important than all that. And in the end, if everyone died, it wasn’t like they’d get in trouble, right? Dead people were not the greatest dealers of punishment, and there would be a lot of dead people if the goddess were indeed to strike and attempt to wipe out the entire population of the world. With that sobering thought in mind, Hoshi began the painstaking descent down the side of the tower, weakening wings fighting against the air current to keep them aloft. With her valiant efforts, however, even then there did not seem to be a way to continue safely in sight.

Hoshi was quickly losing power, her Aera having been used far too much for her to keep it up much longer. With Sorano’s myriad cuts and bruises, dripping blood here and there, it was unlikely that the letter mage would be able to muster up a spell to carry them to safety either. The exceed moaned miserably as the light from the bolt before faded out, and a vengeful screech echoed out over the tower. Hoping the darkness of the night would disguise them – though there wasn’t much hope for that, considering that little was left dull under the cruelly bright, taunting light of the moon above – Hoshi slid subtly into through a tower window, gently laying the letter mage down on the stones. If they were lucky, the goddess would not think to check the tower’s interior. “Sorano, can you shield us from magical detection?” the girl in question did not seem conscious for a moment, but then her lips twitched, and she opened up a dull eye to gaze blearily up at her companion. It took her a moment to comprehend the request, but in a moment, a shield had been put up around them to shut out their magical signatures, masking their presence from the goddess that might seek to injure them.

In a moment’s time, further wails and angry screechings of rage could be heard thundering throughout the entire tower, Luna’s rage shaking the very earth. Obviously she had discovered that her targets had disappeared, and was now on her way to defeat them. Ah…had she thought faster, perhaps Hoshi could have gotten Sorano to create illusory doubles of them to stall the goddess further. But there was no use dwelling on what could have been, for they had to focus on what to do next. Instead, the tabby cowered in fear as the moon slowly descended even further, the light so bright she could barely see outside. In a slow movement, a viel of moonlight would appear at the top edge of their window, and translucent silver boots could be seen flashing boldly under Luna’s moonlight. The goddess was calmly floating down to the ground from the top of the tower, bringing the moon along with her. She was going to plummet it into the earth wasn’t she? Had she taken their escape as a sign of surrender? Had Hoshi just signed the death warrant of millions and millions of innocent people? Squeezing her eyes shut, she pulled Sorano further behind the wall, staying away from Luna’s vantage. If they were seen now, things would be even more disastrous, and the situation was already bad enough.

Slowly, as Luna descended further, Hoshi observed that dark scars did indeed crisscross her formerly flawless outfit, a few cuts scattered on that pale, perfect skin of hers. The sight would lend the exceed some slight satisfaction, that was for sure. But even as she watched, Luna sent a disdainful expression over at one of the scars, flicking a casual finger at it. In an instant, it had disappeared, patched up with new moonlit skin that sparkled and shimmered for a moment before settling in. The same was already happening to all the other marks on her skin as well. Indeed, it seemed that Luna was created from pure moonlight, and thus could easily be patched up so long as there existed a moon. As this human form was probably not an accurate representation, the true body of the woman, it meant she could be killed infinitely without consequence so long as her true body remained untouched. The thought was very scary, and slowly, the pieces came together in the exceed’s head. The only thing that could possibly be the goddess’s power source, or true incarnation had to be…the moon itself. The deity was something that represented the moon, yes? It was the moon that was truly of a most powerful size, capable of dealing massive amounts of damage if one only wished for it, and containing stores of energy so vast that no single mage could ever bring it down.

That’s right, in order to defeat Luna, one would have to destroy the moon. And destroying the moon would be a fatal choice – much of the ecosystem relied on it, after all, and the very tides operated at its command. Even now, Hoshi could feel her body being pulled between the moon’s horribly powerful gravity and the earth’s stable, familiar one. In fact, she barely felt the need to fly, the conflicting energies holding her suspended in the air. As she watched, trees would slowly begin tearing themselves from the ground, smaller pebbles and rocks floating up to hover between the force of the moon and that of the earth. Water began seeping into the clearing around them, tides and rivers being drawn over toward the moon and defying their usual paths. It took vast amounts of effort to be able to keep Sorano stuffed safely in the back of the tower and out of sight, even as the war-ready goddess drew closer to the ground. A brief burst of light marked her feet striking the ground below, and Hoshi held her breath tentatively, begging to any powers she knew of that she would spare the tower.

Unfortunately, gods were fickle, temperamental creatures who didn’t care all that much for humans, and thus the act was not prevented. Turning back, Luna stared impassively at the tower for a moment before flicking a casual finger at it, sending the most powerful bolt of moonlight she had unleashed so far at the stone structure, slamming into the base and causing rocks to fly out all over the place. Instantly, the top would drop as well, falling over and collapsing loudly into a pile of stone and wood and glass, sending the exceed and girl tumbling as well. How many times would they fall in this godforsaken tower, anyways? Hoshi despaired over the idea as they fell, barely even noticing the scrapes she received anymore. This time, they were going to die. She just knew it. Finally, Sorano had gotten them into a job where there was no escape. They had fought, and they were going to die. They were going to die. They were going to die.

And then a great big rock came flying out of the corner of her eye and slammed into her skull with a sickening thud, and she was spared from thinking about it any longer.

Meanwhile, Sorano wasn’t faring much better, either. Already having fainted multiple times this evening, she was barely conscious, hardly there, just grabbing onto the edge of her concealment spell with the bare tips of her fingers and toes. When the building fell though, everything just crumpled. The concealment spell, Sorano’s body, and any hope of defeating Luna. Her body was still human, and still that of a child’s. There was no way it could take so much stress and possibly let her out unscathed.

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Her fingers scrabbled in vain at the rocks around her, and limp form of Sorano would attempt to get a grip on her situation. But her muscles wouldn’t obey, and everything seemed to lock up no matter how much she tried to move. Her adrenaline had been used up, the excess energy having disappeared a while back, there was little she could do about the darkness that closed in on the edge of her vision, her body falling, and falling, and falling slowly into the ground. The rocks would crumble around her, and in a last-ditch attempt to make a comeback, the girl ejected her consciousness into a faintly wavering form made up of light, and filled with intertwining white and black strands of energy. Slowly, this white form opened its eyes, suddenly feeling alive and powerful, capable of fighting once more. In a frantic move, the auric form would look desperately behind itself for its physical body, only to watch as it flopped in quite an ugly manner to the ground. For a moment, the auric form blurred, and its eyes narrowed, preparing for an abrupt death. But it dove down anyways, finally managing to get a grip on the limp form, lifting Sorano’s body up and cradling her gently within its arms.

The spirit version of Sorano then glanced around furtively, looking for a place where it could help the letter mage recover. Additionally, it realized that Hoshi would have to be found as well. The exceed was someone who it acknowledged as important, and thus she was also a priority. The monochrome form set Sorano down on a dry bit of earth that was hidden well-enough by a group of trees, before rushing back to grab Hoshi. Searching methodically but at an inhumanly fast pace, the aura used streaks of energy cast off by its form to push away rocks and debris finally finding the battered form of the feline hidden in the rocks, sliding down the slope of collapsing stone. In a brisk move, it would swoop down and pick her up, bringing her bac to where she’d laid her physical body. Hoshi cracked open a weak eye, and groaned feebly at the movement, and also relief of not falling anymore. Meanwhile, Luna was nearing the ground, her boots shimmering several meters above the ground, now filled with rapidly growing waves. All water from nearby bodies of water was being attracted to the moon, the gravitational pull of the object far too strong to be avoided. In fact, it seemed to fill the entire sky blotting out any and all sign of a normal sky – by now, it was as bright as if it were daytime, the moonlight seeping into every crack possible and dyeing the world in dull colors tinted with gray.

The auric form stood there for a moment, gazing down at the barely-alive bodies clinging to the edges of life. Every now and then, spirit Sorano’s form would blur and flicker, demonstrating the girl’s life force slowly draining away. The even more emotionless nature of this particular manifestation of Sorano’s consciousness would cause it to not have too much expressive concern for the situation, though it did understand that ensuring survival was a rather important task. With these thoughts in mind, the spirit spread its fingers out gently, creating a net of energy that settled carefully over their forms. Hopefully it would provide for them some sort of warmth and comfort, keeping them alive for longer. The outcropping they’d been placed on was fairly high, luckily, so it seemed that the aura could get some action in without worrying too much about them. Instead, it now turned to its next priority, outside of protecting the two females. Luna by now was stepping slowly, taking her time in serenely moving across the water. Her feet would blur in and out of the waves, the water distorting the light that made up her form, and her slow pace made it easy for the aura to catch up. It was a ruthless, relentless creature, and thus wasted no time in attacking the goddess.

A simple burst of energy into the waters below her allowed it to throwing upwards the water in the area, waves arcing up around them as the ground grew dry for a moment, the goddess startling and whirling around, katana at the ready. The aura, however, would be more than prepared. Whipping around as well, Sorano sent a series of quick slashes at the woman, never letting her get away. While the amounts of diversity she had in her attacks were much more limited in this form, Sorano was faster, stronger, and even more clear-headed than usual. The aura never tired, instead keeping up an onslaught of steady, smart attacks. It moved along with the goddess instead of against her, swift slashes and bursts of energy keeping the woman back. There was little possibility of winning the fight, but the longer the goddess was stalled from wreaking direct havoc on the rest of the world, the higher chance the people would have of surviving. Even now, as Luna began her counterattack of sweeping slices and slashes with the powerful blade she wielded, Sorano faltered, falling back more and more with each attack. Luna would begin to talk as she grew more confident, eyes cold and triumphant as she spoke.

“My oh my, I must say, your tenacity is quite impressive, child. But you really think you’ll make much of an impact? No matter how long you spend here fighting me in vain, the end will always be the same, no?” She let her emotionless face quirk upwards in a brief smirk before it collapsed back into neutrality. “You all think you have the ability to best even gods just because you know a little bit of magic? Please. We are the ones who gifted that magic to you in the first place – we will always be able to defeat it.” To drive forward her plant, the woman stabbed her sword straight through the spirit’s chest, where her heart would be if the aura was in fact a physical creation. Instead, the blade passed through the monochrome body, sending silver bursts of light through the aura’s form. “Even your clever little energy body will be unable to stop me.” Instantly, the aura’s streaked form would be flushed through with silver light, tinting it gray like the world around it. It did not hurt the creation at all, but when it pushed itself away, snapping a burst of energy at the goddess, Luna merely smirked, absorbing the silver energy like it was nothing. “I have diluted your form with moonlight, meaning any damage you attempt to inflict on me will be severely reduced to the point where it barely even affects me. You unfortunate energy forms are just too easy to control, you know?”

She then proceeded to flash her blade at the aura once more, this time directing a blast of moonlight energy to slam into the energetic form. As moonlight met moonlight, the spirit’s eyes widened in rare surprise as it felt itself splitting apart, carried away as the moonlight reabsorbed itself and mixed together into a whirl of energy. “Nice try, kid. I’d say better luck next time, but there won’t be one for you.” With a confident step, Luna walked off, leaving the explosion of moonlight to slowly shimmer away along with the bits and pieces of Sorano’s auric form. There was nothing left to do. Every last card had been played, and the future looked hopeless. In a desperate attempt to reunite the pieces of itself, the chunks of energy quivered in the air, despairing as it drew further and further apart, the consciousness becoming thinner and thinner each time. It was getting harder and harder to manage things, and with its last burst of energy, all it could muster was a final, desperate pull back into its physical body, reuniting once more with Sorano’s frail form.

In a massive effort, Sorano slowly opened her eyes, mind having returned to its home. Everything suddenly felt even heavier and more leaden before, and she had to work hard in order to push herself up to a sitting position. With the remaining dredges of her magical energy, the letter mage eked out a bit of ethernanos to heal herself, feeling energy gradually seeping into her veins. In a slow, clumsy groping motion, the letter mage reached into a mirror, extracting some historical fiction classic out of her bag that she didn’t care very much for. She carefully extracted the knowledge from the text, words seeping into her mind and origins, filling her back up with a sudden surge of ethernanos. Having replenished her stores of energy somewhat, the letter mage carefully watched as the book disintegrated in her hands, its purpose having been destroyed with Sorano’s extraction of energy. Destroying books in this way wasn’t always the favorite of the bookworm’s energy regaining methods, but she had little choice right now. It was either a book die, or she die herself. The choice was rather easy when you put it in those terms.

But now, she was faced with the problem of what to do with the goddess again. A never-ending dilemma it was, and once more the letter mage found herself wishing for a way to communicate with the goddess, get through to her with words instead of constant fighting. In a desperate last-ditch attempt to solve the issue, the letter mage closed her eyes, reaching out with her mind to finally touch upon the aura of a goddess. The experience would be just as overwhelming as she had expected, a sudden burst of horribly powerful emotions overpowering her. Gulping down her saliva to try and control her body’s immediate impulsive response to the sudden influx of energy, the letter mage slowly calmed down her thoughts, facing the aura head-on in a way she would never have dreamed of doing before. She was about to speak with a goddess, and it wasn’t something she was ready for.

13,775 / 17,000 words

Carefully making her way through the pulsing maze of emotions and feelings and occasional mental barriers, the letter mage slowly approached that one spot in her brain that was the most open and perceptive to those around her. Most people luckily possessed an area like this – some had open spaces that were wide open, easily susceptible to influence from the outside, and some would have spaces open to new ideas and influences so small that it was incredible how they even managed to function in society. Unsurprisingly, Luna’s was carefully shielded and quite a tight fit for Sorano’s mental presence, but she managed to fit in, before carefully transmitting words, sending them from her own mind to the goddess’s. She sucked in a deep breath, eyes closed and engrossed in the world of emotions and energy, and carefully began composing her conversation. “Hello Luna, incarnation of the moon.”

Her greeting was simple, straightforward, and respectful enough that hopefully it wouldn’t incur any sort of horrible reaction from the goddess. Instantly, however, a powerful force of rejection could be felt from all sides, the goddess using all her mental abilities to close off the space once more, though the letter mage held on with all her might. Luckily for her, most deities felt themselves above mental influence and telepathic communications, deciding they were far too strong for such infiltrations. However, as Sorano had been dealing deeply and intricately with emotions throughout her entire career, she would easily avoid the goddess’s clumsy attempts to push her out. Finding a convenient corner of her mind to collapse in, the letter mage wore out the mental attack, before approaching again. “I believe it would be in both of our best interests to come to some sort of agreement. I am sure you are here for a reason, and perhaps it is an issue that can be remedied without the destruction of an entire species?”

Even as the words left her mind, Sorano frowned, disliking the way it sounded. But there was no way to take them back, as the goddess had already received the message and was now turning it over in her mind, at the same time continuing to attempt to push the mage out. “If it reassures you, I am incapable of performing much within your mind outside of speaking to you. Your emotional presence is far too strong for me to change, so I am merely trying to connect to you in a way I find is more reasonable than senseless fighting.”

A mental snarl escaped from the goddess’s brain, but gradually her violent attempts stopped. Slowly, an awkward sort of feeling around motion would make its way to where Sorano’s presence was, and the goddess would struggle through the motions of mentally communicating with the letter mage. It was surprising that despite having been around for so long, the deity had never engaged in any sort of mental interaction. Considering how far away most deities were from one another, it would be expected that they’d utilize tactics such as these to communicate a lot. Unless, however, Luna was a particularly independent and isolated figure in the world of gods and goddesses. It certainly wouldn’t surprise Sorano, at least, with what she’d gotten from Luna’s behavior so far.

“I will assure you, mortal, that there is no way that you could possibly assist me in reaching my goals. The only solution I see before me is the destruction of the human race. You scum have caused far too much damage already, and no one else seems willing to take any action. Once more, the task has fallen to me, and I will execute it gladly.”

Just as Sorano thought. Luna was acting alone and by herself, a sure sign that there was distance between her and the other deities that had influences upon Earthland. In fact, it was quite surprising that the Mother Earth hadn’t come up against the goddess yet – as Luna was wreaking havoc upon the surface of her territory, wouldn’t it be natural for the natural deity to defend herself? Unless, of course, the mother herself was supporting the moon lady… Actually, thinking back to the fight before when Hoshi had participated in the battle with Mother Earth’s gifted abilities, hadn’t they abruptly cut off at the end? Was that the deity’s doing as well, stemming the flow of power to Hoshi? The thought was a dangerous one, and if it were true, they might as well give up now. If destruction of an entire species was what the planet’s incarnation wished, then there was nothing to do besides either leaving the planet, or dying according to their wishes. Mother Earth approving of such an act was not a thing any other deities could reasonable argue against. After all, it was she who had gifted them a terrain in order to form domains over – these domains could be just as easily taken away from them with a simple finger snap from the natural spirit.

“Ah, I see…did Mother Earth approve of this? Is this under her command or blessings?” Just to make sure, Sorano posed the question. “If that’s the case, I will gladly cease any attempts to attack, and promptly leave this area. I do not enjoy the thought of combat, and would rather this whole issue be solved through dialogue instead of mutual injury. Additionally, if I may inquire, for what reason are you seeking the destruction of the human race for? I have an inkling of an idea, but please humor me.” The letter mage sucked in a breath, hoping that the goddess would consent to a conversation. She was known for diplomatic skills in the human realm, but dealing with gods and goddesses, known for their irrationality and tempers was a very different field.

To her surprise, the goddess responded, albeit a bit slowly after several beats of silence. “You think my sister would do something so ‘mean’?” Luna snorted quietly in her mind, a ticklish sensation in Sorano’s senses. She seemed to relax a bit then, the open space in her mind expanding slightly and allowing the letter mage a bit of breathing room. “You humans are constantly destroying her, causing her irreparable pain, but she never ever complains. She just bears it and refuses to do anything about it, you know? She and her stupid theories about how you should let things run their natural course. She goes through endless pain for you filthy scum every single day and how do you repay her? But handing even more of that pain to her on giant heaping platters. And like the weak idiot she is, she just takes it, and gives back. It’s not healthy, even for an immortal goddess, you realize. And of course, that means I have to step in and help her out a bit, you see? It doesn’t matter what she thinks at this point, because there is obviously something very wrong with her mind if this is how her thought process is working now. Protecting the humans? Useless, worthless process. I don’t see how you could possibly help with that.”

Sorano frowned at the response, realizing what the situation was. Luna was acting completely independently, following what she herself thought was right. It was certainly an interesting thought process to follow, and one that she certainly didn’t agree with all too greatly. After all, it was elimination of her race they were talking about here. While there was a possibility that alternatives could be made, the amount of damage such a move would cause went against all the moral rules that she herself and her mentor had instilled within her. If she was truly emotionless, with no limits whatsoever, perhaps she would readily surrender to the goddess’s wishes and get out of here as fast as she could. But alas, these rules were in place, and there was little she could do but continue trying to change Luna’s mind.

But how? The goddess obviously would not be budged easily if she believed her sister was being hurt, so there were two options – either provide proof that Mother Earth was not being harmed, or change the circumstances so that she would not be hurt. Both were extremely iffy situations that did not seem like they could be easily reached, that was for sure, and Sorano wondered if either were even possible, besides mass immigration to another planet (where they could easily be met with a hostile response, not to mention all the dangerous details of how such an operation would go down), or as Luna had come to the conclusion of, the complete destruction of the human race. Or…they could talk to Mother Earth. Snapping her eyes open, Sorano stared down at Hoshi with a strange look in her eyes. That’s right, wasn’t Hoshi connected to Mother Earth? Gently, the letter mage placed her hands on the exceed’s flank, sending healing mist around the feline’s body and patching up her wounds, giving her energy again.

“Hoshi, I’m sorry to ask this of you, but could you contact Mother Earth?” The exceed blinked blearily, looking unsure about what exactly to make of the situation.

“Wh-what? Mother Earth, huh?” She stuttered uncomfortably, looking as though she was barely awake. It was likely the case, but Sorano pressed onwards all the more intensely.

“Please, we might be able to save Earthland if you can get in contact with the deity. She’s the only person I can imagine who’d have any influence on Luna – we need her point of view, please.” Sorano tipped Hoshi’s chin up, staring into the amber eyes as though trying to convey her energy to the feline with the sheer power of her eyes.

“Uh…yeah, alright Sorano, I’ll get on that.” The exceed slowly stood up, and nodded with newfound determination. The exhaustion slowly left her eyes as she concentrated on contacting the deity, shutting her eyes and investing her energy into reaching the depths of her mind where the goddess’s presence laid constantly. Mother Earth’s presence had retreated even further than before, and it was a most concerning development. Whatever could be the reason for the deity’s sudden retreat at so important a time? Could it be that she too wished for their destruction?

15,491 / 17,000 words

Despite the initial fear though, Hoshi’s features relaxed slowly as the familiar energy reluctantly seeped into her body, filling her up with comforting warmth and spreading a sudden sense of piece in the area. Sorano, meanwhile, could feel the sudden reaction from Luna, a tensing at the arrival of her sister’s presence. It was quite the awe-inspiring feeling, the ancient spirit’s presence filling the surroundings. When Hoshi opened her eyes again, they glowed a faint green, the familiar amber overtaken by the sheer majesty of Mother Earth’s power. Glinting fiercely against the silver light, a stark burst of color in a sea of monochrome, the exceed found that the deity seemed to have taken full control of her body. In a slow, fluid movement, Hoshi turned about, raising her tail into the air. As she moved, her fur seemed to shift, her body warp. The goddess’s presence healed her cuts and bruises, restored a glossy coat to her fur, and brought energy back into each and every step of the feline. She raised her chin high, and flicked the white tip of her tail once, a simple gesture that conveyed shocking amounts of power. Instantly, Luna moved, floating her way up to where the mages stood. However, compared to before, she now held little of that malevolent energy from before, instead an air of rough care and immense love for the deity that currently filled the space in some ethereal form became quickly present.

Leaning forth, the goddess seemed frightened for once, that unchangeable expression quivering and shuddering in its place upon that pale face. Slowly, her silvery hands stretched out, as if wanting to embrace Hoshi, the vessel that currently contained the sister she so rarely had a chance to interact with. “Sister…! Oh, my dearest sister, I have come to see you, after so long…” The goddess paused midway, looking uncertain as to how the Earth would respond to her. According to legends, Mother Earth was the elder sister, was she not? Which might explain the way Luna seemed to bow down before her, acknowledging the planet spirit’s far greater power and authority. The letter mage tilted her head to the side, watching the event with calm, curious eyes. How Mother Earth was going to respond to her sister was the greatest issue right now – her reaction would determine whether the deity of their world would consent to the destruction of the human race or not, and it certainly was no small decision to make. Sorano’s very fate rested upon this decision, and thus her senses were carefully pealed, looking for any indication of a particular bias.

As she watched, Hoshi pushed herself up from her sitting position, eyes glimmering eerily green as she padded up to the moon goddess’s incarnation. The exceed stared up strangely at the woman, nose wrinkling briefly for a moment before she sat back down, licking her paw in a gesture of obvious avoidance. Luna drew back at the gesture, a hurt expression on her face as she watched the feline ignore her presence in favor of caring for her paw. It was made abundantly clear what the deity’s views were with this simple representation, and Sorano breathed an inward sigh of relief. Watching on, she’d look as Luna looked back up, a pleading motion expressed with her hands. “Please…sister…I only want what’s best for you! You’re being hurt, and we both know it. You can’t carry this burden around forever – even you have limits, I know that!”

In response, Hoshi spread out on the rock, stretching and yawning before sitting back up, closing those luminous eyes for a moment. Suddenly, the cat’s body began to glow with a faint golden-green sheen, light radiating outwards until Hoshi could no longer be seen. Only a mere moment later, another woman formed out of light before their eyes, a fresh, earthy scent permeating the cold, watery scent that Luna had given off. Instantly, the sheer power of her aura far outshone that of the moon lady’s, pressing against her presence with a very much dominant air. Slowly, the blinding light faded away, only for Mother Earth to be seen at last, towering far above the now insignificant-looking moon goddess. Mother Earth didn’t quite look like a mother, in fact, appearing quite similar to the moon lady. With a head of earthy brown hair tumbling down her shoulders, and a wreath of leaves settled down around her head, she looked far less formal than the war-adorned woman opposite her already. A simple green tunic would be bottomed out by practical green leggings and sturdy laced sandals with a thick soul that ensured protection from any rocks and debris that could be found. Her tunic was dyed in all sorts of colors, overlapping blue, brown, green, and white swirling together in a fascinating mixture that far outshone the moon goddess’s monochromatic color palette.

Abruptly, Mother Earth approached her sister, raising a tanned hand to give the woman a nice, solid slap across the face. Coughing, Luna fell back, eyes widening with shock at the sudden impact. Meanwhile, Sorano and Hoshi also found themselves hurting a bit inside, realizing that the goddess’s bitch slap had done far more damage than them giving their all. The power of gods truly was far above that of even the most powerful of mages, huh… Brushing aside the thoughts, the letter mage continued to watch as the goddess of Earthland faced down her sister. “You idiot,” she hissed, slamming a powerful foot into Luna’s chest, pushing her down into the water. Coughing and spluttering at the sudden attack, the moon goddess fumbled in the liquid, trying to get back up only to be pushed back down by Earth’s powerful pressure that suddenly pulled her down into the water again. It would appear that the deity had increased the gravitational pull in that location just now, asserting her control over Luna in her own rightful territory. “How dare you come into my terrain, my territory, and run around acting like you have the right to threaten the life that I developed? Do you know how long it took to craft each and every creature who exists upon this earth?” With that statement, Earth released the moon goddess once more, floating above her with a smirk upon her face. “You know, there’s a reason you have never been able to achieve my strength and power, Luna. You’ve always been weaker, never quite had the mental capacity, the patience, the ability to read situations that would have allowed you to increase your power. And once more, you’re displaying that mental immaturity in front of everyone and embarrassing me, you realize?” Flashing her hand roughly to one side, a flash of light revealed an overwhelming group of minor gods, all looking either very angry or very worried.

Another gesture of Earth’s hand, and they all disappeared as quickly as they came. “You should have had better judgement, and known not to interfere with my business. My health is managed by thousands of minor gods, who love me and dote upon me. Your help is not needed, Luna.” A rough laugh burst forth from the deity’s mouth, as she leaned back against the rock, dropping down so her feet were planted squarely on the water’s surface.

“You really think you can protect me of all people, sister? You realize that I am the most powerful goddess in your vicinity, no? I have created so many species, birthed so many great creations and established so many systems, laws, rules in this world. Earthland is hundreds times your size, and millions of times more complex than your pitiful piece of floating rock. You pretend you’re all high and mighty, but in reality you’re merely a failure, a disappointment to all major deities. You’ve never created anything of worth, never done anything but rip of the sun god’s hard work. Life on the moon? Ha, you’ve got to be kidding me. All you did was apply loose physics to your world, make a punch of useless pits everywhere, and ignore it. You don’t deserve to be called a goddess at all – not even a wind acts upon your barren wasteland!” Cruelly digging into the moon goddess’s achievements, Earth ruthlessly ripped her sister apart, a self-confident smirk upon her face all the time.

It was most unlike the presence Hoshi had always sensed within her, the calming form that brought to her grounding and calm. No, this Earth was sassy, confident, and petty as hell. Stepping forward as Luna slowly pulled herself upwards, hair hiding her face in shame, the brunette shoved her hard in the chest, jabbing a finger in her face in rough movements to emphasize each of her following words. “You are nothing compared to me. I have allowed you refuge within my gravitational pull for so many years in return for being a dumbass mirror. I had to change around so many aspects of my form to compensate for your irritating presence – you’ve always been nothing but a damn thorn in my ass, and it’s a bout time you got out, huh?” She chuckled, shaking her head.

“Go home, Luna. I’ll let you stay for now, but the next time you pull shit like this, you’re out.” With that, Mother Earth pushed her hands outwards towards the moon, shoving it back up into space with an astonishing burst of power. Along with it, Luna could only watch on in dismay as she disintegrated, retreating to her barren home in the sky. Ignoring both exceed and letter mage, Mother Earth grumbled under her breath, clapping her hands together in various directions, arranging the world into natural order and roughly putting everything into place before disappearing before their eyes.

Well, at least they weren’t all gonna die? That’s a good thing, right?

17,134 / 17,000 WORD COUNT REACHED.