Feeling the air on her skin, Luna felt glad that she took this job as it felt more like a vacation than a job. She was called by name for this very task, to assist in an archaeological expedition out to the Calm Sea. According to the researchers, it is too dangerous for them as they were all either weak young adults or elderly, and after intense criteria, asked Luna to come along for her skills and abilities as well as a lack of dangerous reputation. She was near the bow of the ship while her mermaid daughter was in her humanoid form next to her. The ship was a massive ship of six decks, however Luna was yet to see all of them. The Voyager was a ship for long term exploration, and this was the test trip. It had a digital library and various labs and facilities.
A young lady wearing a beige hoodie barely zipped up and khakis approached the duo. She was one of the research assistants known as Chloe, she had a very cavalier attitude towards life. "Yo, we are approaching the place soon. If your prep work takes time I suggest you start now." Luna nodded as she and Neptuna walked down to the bottom deck to the bottom. This ship was designed for sea and foreign land exploration, including deep sea. including bottom of the ocean. Luna and Neptuna walked into a room at the bottom near the center with a giant thick glass hatch at the center, strong lights along the ceiling while small probes were on a shelf case along one side of the room and various tools in a small workshop in the corner. Along the other side were the desks and bulletin board of the researchers.
Tinkering with one of the probes was the mechanic, Sly, no one knew his real name or even his face as he always seemed to be wrapped in bandages. Luna offered to heal him once, but he refused, not even showing his face. He usually wears some form of coveralls and gloves, and his voice heavily raspy. Then there are is the elderly man Dr. Charles Corwin, a bald man with spectacles, usually wearing cargo pants and a grey golf shirt while on an exploration. Then his wife, Diane Corwin, a woman in her late 40's but could pass as mid 30's, with crimson hair and a lively persona.
As Luna walked in, she handed her ring and whip to her adopted daughter as they disappeared into a blue light. Dr. Corwin looked over to Luna before checking his pocket watch."We are approaching in about ten minutes." Luna nodded as she took of her Qipao and removed her shoes, before sitting down on the floor in her Silver bikini top and combat shorts. "I know, but gotta take a few minutes before to adapt. Neppy, I'm ready." Neptuna nodded as she knelled down, preparing her magic. "Okay mommy." Neptuna touched Luna's knee and suddenly Luna felt her legs go limp, her heels magically contacted one another before the flesh of her legs molded and merged into one large tail, Luna felt an intense rush of pain as the bones shifted from bipedal limbs into a tail, covering in silver scales as she held her breath. Diane looked over concerned. "Lunaris, are you alright?"
Luna nodded as the changes finished, while not the first time she experienced the change, it was still awkward. She started to be able to feel as she flopped the tail. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's easier for me to transform outside of water. So what exactly am I going to find? A temple?" Dr. Corwin shrugged as he turned away from the board, as it was a mystery even after years of research. "That has been in long speculation. According to my colleages in minstrel, after various debates, the commonly accepted as most plausible is it is some form of international guild hall, or international meeting hall for a failed union of Fiore, Minstrel, and Seven wizards." Luna nodded as she could feel the ship come to a stop.
Dr. Corwin signaled Sly over and the two men lifted Luna up and moved her to beside the hatch. "As you know, the main reason we wanted you is that we can't explore down bellow considering the circumstances of our team, and you have unique skills that can apply to this line of work. We'll send in a probe to accompany you, but we can't guarantee it can survive."
Luna nodded as the hatch opened, Neptuna jumped in first, her legs quickly reverting back into it's natural tail as she made a splash. Luna lifted her tail and shifted it to hand over the rim of the hatch, before she propelled herself up and fell into the water. Luna initially closed her eye but opened them soon, water never really bothered her, and after a few breathes she was able to breathe normally. It had took her a few minutes to adjust to moving with a tail before she was ready to travel, and so was the aquatic camera lacrima the team sent down with her. She looked to Neptuna, who was waiting patiently. "I am ready now Neptuna. Let's go, stay right behind me."
Neptuna nodded before following Luna closely. "Alright, right behind you!" Luna swam down towards the large castle like object, making audio notes to the Camera Lacrima, she looked at the large x shaped building with large areas that seemed to have a large square building at the intersection and at each end. The building seemed to have survived the test of time for the part. She looked around the structure and she noted all the wear an but the details seemed far old with a metal that was giving off a complex magical vibe. "This building seems to be old, but made of some form of unknown durable metal that is magically enhanced. Most of the damage is near the bottom, and given the rock forms in the area I'd say whatever brought this down was no natural earthquake. Almost as if something ripped right into the island that was here. The damage seems to have happened from impact."
Swimming around, Luna seemed to found the entrance, the door was broken in and moss coated it to suggest it was gone for a while. Luna decided that it was worth a look. "I found the door, I'm going inside." Luna swam through the doorway, but that led in, however the water was only filled halfway inside. "I'm inside, the water level is low, Neptuna, could you revert me back please?" The mermaid almost cried, afraid of being useless as she explained the situation. "Sorry Momma... I can't turn someone back soon after."
Luna stroked the mermaid's hair and gave er a gentle smile, reassuring her with a soothing voice. "It's okay, no big deal." Meanwhile the drone's speaker finally turned on as the voice of the researchers finally chimed in. "Luna, this is Dr. Corwin, we just got the communication system online, we heard, can you still go on?"
Luna looked around, while the structure was intact, there seemed to be flooding just enough to swim around. "I think I can swim around in this, so yeah." Luna swam around the building, looking around at the design. There appeared to be depictions of dragons, god, fairies, and demons throughout the entrance hallway in wall art or statues in conditions ranging from intact to nearly crumbling. The drone was floating about, looking around at the various statues, Luna often stopped to write down notes. "These art work depicts the members of four various races. So far there doesn't appear to be any trace of humanity, and the text appears to be an old dialect rarely used in history. Very similar to the Dragon path."
Dr. Corwin's interest was clearly piqued by the excited tone as the drone was flying around, looking at the inscriptions. "Yes, this is similar to that, the intercontinental language that could not hold. When it was in use it was primarily used among traders or haulers of cargo, sometimes diplomats as well. At some point people found it easier to just learn the other language or hire translators. It was nearly lost to time, especially with translation magic it was made useless. There are elements of that in play but I think this actually predates Dragon Path, some of these characters come from more ancient languages. Take this symbol, it is from the ancient Seven Languages, meaning either 'and' or 'with', but Seven was the last to have languages to merge into the Dragon Path."
Luna nodded as she was drawing a similar conclusion, however Neptuna was confused. "Dragon Path? That's a funny name for a language." Luna swam around and made notes. "Dragons Path refers to an old trading route that spanned various countries. It was just easier to name the idea for a language, like how countries name their most common language after the country." Neptuna nodded, understanding what was being said. "I see, but this is different?" Luna nodded. "Same premise, but different configuration, er, I mean, on the surface it appears the same, but there are plenty of differences. Dr. Corwin, do you think we can get a translator running?"
"Already done, Sly was listening, and rigged a translator once we knew we were working with hybrid languages. Apparently, we are working with Ancient Dragon, Fairy, and the only known Demon and God tongues." Luna stopped, puzzled by the news. "Alright, based on current knowledge, this appears to be a joint effort of four parties rarely seeing eye to eye. Demons are the natural predators of most Fairies, natural enemies with gods, rarely get along with dragons, dragons are on decent standing with dragons and gods, and gods look down on all three but can still somehow maintain ties with some dragons and fairies."
Luna and Neptuna kept going forward, until the group arrived in a large square room, appearing to be the center of the whole building. It was large, with plenty of seating room. In the center, there were four circular podiums, three of the podiums four meters high with a ten meter diameter, while the last was a meter in diameter seven meters high. "This, appears to be some sort of forum, with accommodations, for fairies."
The drone flew around the room, noting the various decor. "Indeed, each race appears to have a platform for a representative to speak, each is marked with the symbol. However, look up!"
Luna and Neptuna looked up, to see a depiction of the night the moon in the center and the stars around it. In the depiction of the moon was an inscription, following with some numbers. "That, appears to be some form of prophecy?" Dr. Corwin was silent for a few minutes. "No, it appears to be a calculation, those stars, are a particular placement, the numbers must refer to to cycle between when the stars align from a point of reference. However, if I am right, this is in ninety days. Anyways, the words translate to either Men Calamity, or Human Chaos, we should, keep going."
Luna nodded, and looked at the corners, and went through the one for demons, however halfway into the room she noticed it was full of rubble and ash, that was floating in the water, the walls were broken and shaved in various places. Luna and Dr. Corwin agreed that there was no value here, and then began towards the fairy room. The room was very small, clearly made for beings human size or less. The room was filled with dead plants, and all the bookshelves were covered in dust, empty. There was artwork depicting a faceless fairy on one wall. Luna gasped when she looked at it. "Shirain?" Dr. Corwin was puzzled by Luna's reaction. "You know what this means?"
Luna nodded. "It appears that someone here, one of the fairies, was of my faith as well, the Vishda faith. We don't believe in a named deity, but we believe in a faceless one, and usually use the name of our mother to address them." They searched the desks but found nothing of interest. The group then proceeded to head towards the God room. It appeared to be nothing but white, and as Luna left, she fell out of the water and onto the white floor. Some form of invisible magical barrier kept the water out of the room. "Ouch... There appears to be some divine magic at work here. I think this room has no value, just used to come and go, maybe a private conversation."
Flopping her tail, and pushing with her arms, Luna managed to get back into the water before the group proceeded to the dragon's room. There appeared to be books still around, but most of them were charred or water damaged. Luna was starting to read a few of the books "It appears these were made by someone named, Rethram, a member of the council that met here. He was debating on whether or not to approve a matter to keep humanity in chec-"
All of a sudden, the building started to shake, rocks were falling. "We gotta get out, now!" Luna and Neptuna proceeded to quickly swim out of the building, and the drone, as soon as it left, returned to the ship. Luna and Neptuna swam around, and looked at te top of the building, and they saw a humanoid figure repeatedly punch the roof with some form of powerful water manipulation, before the dark green haired figure jumped up. "Water Dragon roar!" Was shouted before a massive wave of water was breathed down at the structure causing it to collapse.
Luna was near speechless as she watched the destruction, but then the slayer's gaze shot at Luna. Luna could sense the overwhelming murderous intent. "Neptuna! Legs and Zygmunt, now, then get far away." Neptuna quickly produced the dual blades from her storage ability then smacked Luna, deactivating the magic. Luna grabbed the blades and as the slayer was coming at her she swung the blades, creating a wave of darkness that shot through the water. The Slayer dodged and seemed to disappear out of Luna's sight, but not before reappearing and jabbing Luna in the back.
"Damn it! I can't summon in the water, since especially this far up from the ground, not many plants or animals. Gonna have to rely on Zygmunt."
Luna held her guard but the Slayer gathered a whirl pool of water around her before it moved towards Luna at a rapid pace, sending her around in a cycle before straight down at a rapid pace. The slayer pushed the water out of an area around where Luna would land, creating a air bubble. Luna passe through the bubble and felt a pain in her back as she hit the hard rock. The Slayer descended upon the scene, stomping her foot on Luna's ribs about to strike, but she stopped. "Wait, you, smell like, you're a fairy?"
She stepped off, and backed away. Luna quickly liqudized magic through her fingers, and it dropped into the sand. A white rose like flower sprouted up and opened up, revealing the Soul Tear. Luna grabbed it with two fingers and dropped it into her mouth, she nearly choked on the lemon tasting item, but she swallowed it and started to sit up as the wounds healed. "Well, yeah, mostly anyways."
Luna stood up, her grip waning as she stared at the slayer. "Why are you attacking us?" The Slayer pointed at the rubble from earlier. "I was sent here to destroy the meeting hall, but I can't leave any witnesses. You can either join us, or I might be forced to take drastic measures..." Still sensing the murderous intent, Luna knew her options were limited, she looked at the ring on her finger for a brief moment, before she quickly pointed it towards the Slayer and a lightning bolt was discharged.
Much to Luna's surprise, the Slayer inhaled and swallowed the lightning bolt, before quickly breathing out a stronger bolt of black lightning that sent Luna flying far back. Her hands began to light on a white fire and she followed Luna into the water, the fire seemingly unaffected before she was barraged with ninety nine consecutive hits before getting kicked enhance with water magic with such force, she was sent flying far out of the water, into the sky before crashing into the boat, through several decks. Luna was in shock, her mind still trying to catch up with the events that had just occurred.
Pain was overloading her systems, she slowly blacked out, in deep pain. Hours later after night had fallen, in a cabin, she came into consciousness, still in great pain but it seemed to be more manageable. She groaned before opening her eyes. She saw that Dr and Mrs. Corwin were in the room, Neptuna was sitting beside Luna, tearing up. Luna's arm shakily reached out, and touched Neptuna's hand with a gentle smile, she whispered "It's alright, I'm alive..."
"Barely, we used up every bit of medicine and magical healing method on this ship, even your own personal stash. You were still on fire when you crashed through four decks but bent one of the supports. The ship will need repairs but still manageable. What happened down there? Who was that?"
Luna sighed, remembering the encounter quite well, it was one sided, she stood no chance in a fight against the slayer. "A hybrid slayer, I had no time to find out more then she is a water dragon, Lightning God, and a Fire Demon slayer. I'm sorry, there was nothing I could do..."
Dr. Corwin sighed. "There was nothing that could be done, I don't blame you since this circumstance was beyond your control." Neptuna's eyes opened wide as she remembered an event from earlier. Out of her storage magic, she produced an old book, one from the book. One from the structure. "During the chaos in the last room, I was holding this book and I stored it away..."
Everyone else had a look of shock, Neptuna handed the book to Luna who dusted off the old cover. "Diary of Rethram- wait, we saw a lot of references to that name in the Dragon room."
Luna opened the book, and started to read it allowed. "I am Rethram, the Dragon of Wisdom. On this day, I wish to recollect the events that lead to this moment so that we may be judged in all fairness, if we are given the chance. Whoever may find this book, must be suspicious, a building with imagery of an alliance that is seemingly impossible, Fairies, Dragons, Demons, and Gods, however fear can work miracles. There was a threat, something that drove a number of each of the four races, to overcome our prejudices and work together, a threat by the name of, Humanity. Humans are often arrogant, rash, and naive, their ethnocentrism was just too much. They hunted our kind for sport, while in some cases it was justified, we do have members who commit destructive acts, but attributing the aspects of one to a whole race was just awful. Human potential, crippled with advanced thought they are not ready for, became a threat that could drive any of our races to extinction,.
For the most part, we held little malice, we were simply considered for all other life. Humanity seemed to be more destructive, and we all agreed it was a threat. However, we spent years debating in the forum, on what we could do. Teaching Humanity was attempted but failed in the grand scheme. We were left with two options, that we could tolerate. The first was to remove the intelligence of humanity, which we soon decided to be, too dangerous. So the second option, we crafted a spell, a spell with a cruel and singular purpose, to exterminate humanity. This was no ordinary spell, 'Human Calamity: End.', a genocide spell made of four 'Human Calamity' spells. 'Justice', 'Judgment', 'Revenge', 'Repentance', each made by a Fairy, God, Dragon and Demon. This was to prevent one race from going genocidal trigger happy, and at worst killing a small population. However to use the spell with full effectiveness, it must be cast during the proper alignment that happens once every few hundred years, where the light of the spell reaches the moon and bounces down to Earthland, and reaches every human effectively.
We kept the spells in reserve, we did not want to make the decision to use such a weapon lightly. In time, we decided that Humanity needed more time then each of us had. We used memory magic, to separate the spells from each of the host, and hid each fragment, even from our own kin. Some of them shown troubling aspects. We were afraid that they would make the decision recklessly. We do not know what will become of the spells, in case of the worst, there are encrypted notes on where to find each of them in my diary. To any human that reads these words, I will not ask for forgiveness, as I cannot expect it, but I ask of you, judge us fairly, and try to understand how we felt, vilified by human stigma."
Luna finished reading the opening pages, the room was silent for a few minutes, the stunning revelation was hard to hear. Dr. Corwin was the first to break the silent. "I am, shocked. Luna, I think, it's best that you handle this book, I don't think this should hit the light of day so soon. This could, be disastrous if it went public." Luna nodded, agreeing, slightly mortified by what she read. "I think, I should rest, I can heal myself later once my magical strength is a bit better."
Luna put the book on a table next to the bed before Neptuna crawled into bed, shaking. Luna embraced the shaking mermaid as the Corwin's left the room, dimming the lights on their way out. Luna stroked Neptuna's hair gently cooing the frail mermaid to sleep. "It's alright Neptuna, the nightmare is over, I am fine... You don't need to fear, I'm here..."
Eventually the two drifted off into sleep, trying to get passed this nightmare.
WC 3748
A young lady wearing a beige hoodie barely zipped up and khakis approached the duo. She was one of the research assistants known as Chloe, she had a very cavalier attitude towards life. "Yo, we are approaching the place soon. If your prep work takes time I suggest you start now." Luna nodded as she and Neptuna walked down to the bottom deck to the bottom. This ship was designed for sea and foreign land exploration, including deep sea. including bottom of the ocean. Luna and Neptuna walked into a room at the bottom near the center with a giant thick glass hatch at the center, strong lights along the ceiling while small probes were on a shelf case along one side of the room and various tools in a small workshop in the corner. Along the other side were the desks and bulletin board of the researchers.
Tinkering with one of the probes was the mechanic, Sly, no one knew his real name or even his face as he always seemed to be wrapped in bandages. Luna offered to heal him once, but he refused, not even showing his face. He usually wears some form of coveralls and gloves, and his voice heavily raspy. Then there are is the elderly man Dr. Charles Corwin, a bald man with spectacles, usually wearing cargo pants and a grey golf shirt while on an exploration. Then his wife, Diane Corwin, a woman in her late 40's but could pass as mid 30's, with crimson hair and a lively persona.
As Luna walked in, she handed her ring and whip to her adopted daughter as they disappeared into a blue light. Dr. Corwin looked over to Luna before checking his pocket watch."We are approaching in about ten minutes." Luna nodded as she took of her Qipao and removed her shoes, before sitting down on the floor in her Silver bikini top and combat shorts. "I know, but gotta take a few minutes before to adapt. Neppy, I'm ready." Neptuna nodded as she knelled down, preparing her magic. "Okay mommy." Neptuna touched Luna's knee and suddenly Luna felt her legs go limp, her heels magically contacted one another before the flesh of her legs molded and merged into one large tail, Luna felt an intense rush of pain as the bones shifted from bipedal limbs into a tail, covering in silver scales as she held her breath. Diane looked over concerned. "Lunaris, are you alright?"
Luna nodded as the changes finished, while not the first time she experienced the change, it was still awkward. She started to be able to feel as she flopped the tail. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's easier for me to transform outside of water. So what exactly am I going to find? A temple?" Dr. Corwin shrugged as he turned away from the board, as it was a mystery even after years of research. "That has been in long speculation. According to my colleages in minstrel, after various debates, the commonly accepted as most plausible is it is some form of international guild hall, or international meeting hall for a failed union of Fiore, Minstrel, and Seven wizards." Luna nodded as she could feel the ship come to a stop.
Dr. Corwin signaled Sly over and the two men lifted Luna up and moved her to beside the hatch. "As you know, the main reason we wanted you is that we can't explore down bellow considering the circumstances of our team, and you have unique skills that can apply to this line of work. We'll send in a probe to accompany you, but we can't guarantee it can survive."
Luna nodded as the hatch opened, Neptuna jumped in first, her legs quickly reverting back into it's natural tail as she made a splash. Luna lifted her tail and shifted it to hand over the rim of the hatch, before she propelled herself up and fell into the water. Luna initially closed her eye but opened them soon, water never really bothered her, and after a few breathes she was able to breathe normally. It had took her a few minutes to adjust to moving with a tail before she was ready to travel, and so was the aquatic camera lacrima the team sent down with her. She looked to Neptuna, who was waiting patiently. "I am ready now Neptuna. Let's go, stay right behind me."
Neptuna nodded before following Luna closely. "Alright, right behind you!" Luna swam down towards the large castle like object, making audio notes to the Camera Lacrima, she looked at the large x shaped building with large areas that seemed to have a large square building at the intersection and at each end. The building seemed to have survived the test of time for the part. She looked around the structure and she noted all the wear an but the details seemed far old with a metal that was giving off a complex magical vibe. "This building seems to be old, but made of some form of unknown durable metal that is magically enhanced. Most of the damage is near the bottom, and given the rock forms in the area I'd say whatever brought this down was no natural earthquake. Almost as if something ripped right into the island that was here. The damage seems to have happened from impact."
Swimming around, Luna seemed to found the entrance, the door was broken in and moss coated it to suggest it was gone for a while. Luna decided that it was worth a look. "I found the door, I'm going inside." Luna swam through the doorway, but that led in, however the water was only filled halfway inside. "I'm inside, the water level is low, Neptuna, could you revert me back please?" The mermaid almost cried, afraid of being useless as she explained the situation. "Sorry Momma... I can't turn someone back soon after."
Luna stroked the mermaid's hair and gave er a gentle smile, reassuring her with a soothing voice. "It's okay, no big deal." Meanwhile the drone's speaker finally turned on as the voice of the researchers finally chimed in. "Luna, this is Dr. Corwin, we just got the communication system online, we heard, can you still go on?"
Luna looked around, while the structure was intact, there seemed to be flooding just enough to swim around. "I think I can swim around in this, so yeah." Luna swam around the building, looking around at the design. There appeared to be depictions of dragons, god, fairies, and demons throughout the entrance hallway in wall art or statues in conditions ranging from intact to nearly crumbling. The drone was floating about, looking around at the various statues, Luna often stopped to write down notes. "These art work depicts the members of four various races. So far there doesn't appear to be any trace of humanity, and the text appears to be an old dialect rarely used in history. Very similar to the Dragon path."
Dr. Corwin's interest was clearly piqued by the excited tone as the drone was flying around, looking at the inscriptions. "Yes, this is similar to that, the intercontinental language that could not hold. When it was in use it was primarily used among traders or haulers of cargo, sometimes diplomats as well. At some point people found it easier to just learn the other language or hire translators. It was nearly lost to time, especially with translation magic it was made useless. There are elements of that in play but I think this actually predates Dragon Path, some of these characters come from more ancient languages. Take this symbol, it is from the ancient Seven Languages, meaning either 'and' or 'with', but Seven was the last to have languages to merge into the Dragon Path."
Luna nodded as she was drawing a similar conclusion, however Neptuna was confused. "Dragon Path? That's a funny name for a language." Luna swam around and made notes. "Dragons Path refers to an old trading route that spanned various countries. It was just easier to name the idea for a language, like how countries name their most common language after the country." Neptuna nodded, understanding what was being said. "I see, but this is different?" Luna nodded. "Same premise, but different configuration, er, I mean, on the surface it appears the same, but there are plenty of differences. Dr. Corwin, do you think we can get a translator running?"
"Already done, Sly was listening, and rigged a translator once we knew we were working with hybrid languages. Apparently, we are working with Ancient Dragon, Fairy, and the only known Demon and God tongues." Luna stopped, puzzled by the news. "Alright, based on current knowledge, this appears to be a joint effort of four parties rarely seeing eye to eye. Demons are the natural predators of most Fairies, natural enemies with gods, rarely get along with dragons, dragons are on decent standing with dragons and gods, and gods look down on all three but can still somehow maintain ties with some dragons and fairies."
Luna and Neptuna kept going forward, until the group arrived in a large square room, appearing to be the center of the whole building. It was large, with plenty of seating room. In the center, there were four circular podiums, three of the podiums four meters high with a ten meter diameter, while the last was a meter in diameter seven meters high. "This, appears to be some sort of forum, with accommodations, for fairies."
The drone flew around the room, noting the various decor. "Indeed, each race appears to have a platform for a representative to speak, each is marked with the symbol. However, look up!"
Luna and Neptuna looked up, to see a depiction of the night the moon in the center and the stars around it. In the depiction of the moon was an inscription, following with some numbers. "That, appears to be some form of prophecy?" Dr. Corwin was silent for a few minutes. "No, it appears to be a calculation, those stars, are a particular placement, the numbers must refer to to cycle between when the stars align from a point of reference. However, if I am right, this is in ninety days. Anyways, the words translate to either Men Calamity, or Human Chaos, we should, keep going."
Luna nodded, and looked at the corners, and went through the one for demons, however halfway into the room she noticed it was full of rubble and ash, that was floating in the water, the walls were broken and shaved in various places. Luna and Dr. Corwin agreed that there was no value here, and then began towards the fairy room. The room was very small, clearly made for beings human size or less. The room was filled with dead plants, and all the bookshelves were covered in dust, empty. There was artwork depicting a faceless fairy on one wall. Luna gasped when she looked at it. "Shirain?" Dr. Corwin was puzzled by Luna's reaction. "You know what this means?"
Luna nodded. "It appears that someone here, one of the fairies, was of my faith as well, the Vishda faith. We don't believe in a named deity, but we believe in a faceless one, and usually use the name of our mother to address them." They searched the desks but found nothing of interest. The group then proceeded to head towards the God room. It appeared to be nothing but white, and as Luna left, she fell out of the water and onto the white floor. Some form of invisible magical barrier kept the water out of the room. "Ouch... There appears to be some divine magic at work here. I think this room has no value, just used to come and go, maybe a private conversation."
Flopping her tail, and pushing with her arms, Luna managed to get back into the water before the group proceeded to the dragon's room. There appeared to be books still around, but most of them were charred or water damaged. Luna was starting to read a few of the books "It appears these were made by someone named, Rethram, a member of the council that met here. He was debating on whether or not to approve a matter to keep humanity in chec-"
All of a sudden, the building started to shake, rocks were falling. "We gotta get out, now!" Luna and Neptuna proceeded to quickly swim out of the building, and the drone, as soon as it left, returned to the ship. Luna and Neptuna swam around, and looked at te top of the building, and they saw a humanoid figure repeatedly punch the roof with some form of powerful water manipulation, before the dark green haired figure jumped up. "Water Dragon roar!" Was shouted before a massive wave of water was breathed down at the structure causing it to collapse.
Luna was near speechless as she watched the destruction, but then the slayer's gaze shot at Luna. Luna could sense the overwhelming murderous intent. "Neptuna! Legs and Zygmunt, now, then get far away." Neptuna quickly produced the dual blades from her storage ability then smacked Luna, deactivating the magic. Luna grabbed the blades and as the slayer was coming at her she swung the blades, creating a wave of darkness that shot through the water. The Slayer dodged and seemed to disappear out of Luna's sight, but not before reappearing and jabbing Luna in the back.
"Damn it! I can't summon in the water, since especially this far up from the ground, not many plants or animals. Gonna have to rely on Zygmunt."
Luna held her guard but the Slayer gathered a whirl pool of water around her before it moved towards Luna at a rapid pace, sending her around in a cycle before straight down at a rapid pace. The slayer pushed the water out of an area around where Luna would land, creating a air bubble. Luna passe through the bubble and felt a pain in her back as she hit the hard rock. The Slayer descended upon the scene, stomping her foot on Luna's ribs about to strike, but she stopped. "Wait, you, smell like, you're a fairy?"
She stepped off, and backed away. Luna quickly liqudized magic through her fingers, and it dropped into the sand. A white rose like flower sprouted up and opened up, revealing the Soul Tear. Luna grabbed it with two fingers and dropped it into her mouth, she nearly choked on the lemon tasting item, but she swallowed it and started to sit up as the wounds healed. "Well, yeah, mostly anyways."
Luna stood up, her grip waning as she stared at the slayer. "Why are you attacking us?" The Slayer pointed at the rubble from earlier. "I was sent here to destroy the meeting hall, but I can't leave any witnesses. You can either join us, or I might be forced to take drastic measures..." Still sensing the murderous intent, Luna knew her options were limited, she looked at the ring on her finger for a brief moment, before she quickly pointed it towards the Slayer and a lightning bolt was discharged.
Much to Luna's surprise, the Slayer inhaled and swallowed the lightning bolt, before quickly breathing out a stronger bolt of black lightning that sent Luna flying far back. Her hands began to light on a white fire and she followed Luna into the water, the fire seemingly unaffected before she was barraged with ninety nine consecutive hits before getting kicked enhance with water magic with such force, she was sent flying far out of the water, into the sky before crashing into the boat, through several decks. Luna was in shock, her mind still trying to catch up with the events that had just occurred.
Pain was overloading her systems, she slowly blacked out, in deep pain. Hours later after night had fallen, in a cabin, she came into consciousness, still in great pain but it seemed to be more manageable. She groaned before opening her eyes. She saw that Dr and Mrs. Corwin were in the room, Neptuna was sitting beside Luna, tearing up. Luna's arm shakily reached out, and touched Neptuna's hand with a gentle smile, she whispered "It's alright, I'm alive..."
"Barely, we used up every bit of medicine and magical healing method on this ship, even your own personal stash. You were still on fire when you crashed through four decks but bent one of the supports. The ship will need repairs but still manageable. What happened down there? Who was that?"
Luna sighed, remembering the encounter quite well, it was one sided, she stood no chance in a fight against the slayer. "A hybrid slayer, I had no time to find out more then she is a water dragon, Lightning God, and a Fire Demon slayer. I'm sorry, there was nothing I could do..."
Dr. Corwin sighed. "There was nothing that could be done, I don't blame you since this circumstance was beyond your control." Neptuna's eyes opened wide as she remembered an event from earlier. Out of her storage magic, she produced an old book, one from the book. One from the structure. "During the chaos in the last room, I was holding this book and I stored it away..."
Everyone else had a look of shock, Neptuna handed the book to Luna who dusted off the old cover. "Diary of Rethram- wait, we saw a lot of references to that name in the Dragon room."
Luna opened the book, and started to read it allowed. "I am Rethram, the Dragon of Wisdom. On this day, I wish to recollect the events that lead to this moment so that we may be judged in all fairness, if we are given the chance. Whoever may find this book, must be suspicious, a building with imagery of an alliance that is seemingly impossible, Fairies, Dragons, Demons, and Gods, however fear can work miracles. There was a threat, something that drove a number of each of the four races, to overcome our prejudices and work together, a threat by the name of, Humanity. Humans are often arrogant, rash, and naive, their ethnocentrism was just too much. They hunted our kind for sport, while in some cases it was justified, we do have members who commit destructive acts, but attributing the aspects of one to a whole race was just awful. Human potential, crippled with advanced thought they are not ready for, became a threat that could drive any of our races to extinction,.
For the most part, we held little malice, we were simply considered for all other life. Humanity seemed to be more destructive, and we all agreed it was a threat. However, we spent years debating in the forum, on what we could do. Teaching Humanity was attempted but failed in the grand scheme. We were left with two options, that we could tolerate. The first was to remove the intelligence of humanity, which we soon decided to be, too dangerous. So the second option, we crafted a spell, a spell with a cruel and singular purpose, to exterminate humanity. This was no ordinary spell, 'Human Calamity: End.', a genocide spell made of four 'Human Calamity' spells. 'Justice', 'Judgment', 'Revenge', 'Repentance', each made by a Fairy, God, Dragon and Demon. This was to prevent one race from going genocidal trigger happy, and at worst killing a small population. However to use the spell with full effectiveness, it must be cast during the proper alignment that happens once every few hundred years, where the light of the spell reaches the moon and bounces down to Earthland, and reaches every human effectively.
We kept the spells in reserve, we did not want to make the decision to use such a weapon lightly. In time, we decided that Humanity needed more time then each of us had. We used memory magic, to separate the spells from each of the host, and hid each fragment, even from our own kin. Some of them shown troubling aspects. We were afraid that they would make the decision recklessly. We do not know what will become of the spells, in case of the worst, there are encrypted notes on where to find each of them in my diary. To any human that reads these words, I will not ask for forgiveness, as I cannot expect it, but I ask of you, judge us fairly, and try to understand how we felt, vilified by human stigma."
Luna finished reading the opening pages, the room was silent for a few minutes, the stunning revelation was hard to hear. Dr. Corwin was the first to break the silent. "I am, shocked. Luna, I think, it's best that you handle this book, I don't think this should hit the light of day so soon. This could, be disastrous if it went public." Luna nodded, agreeing, slightly mortified by what she read. "I think, I should rest, I can heal myself later once my magical strength is a bit better."
Luna put the book on a table next to the bed before Neptuna crawled into bed, shaking. Luna embraced the shaking mermaid as the Corwin's left the room, dimming the lights on their way out. Luna stroked Neptuna's hair gently cooing the frail mermaid to sleep. "It's alright Neptuna, the nightmare is over, I am fine... You don't need to fear, I'm here..."
Eventually the two drifted off into sleep, trying to get passed this nightmare.
WC 3748
