Chapter XXXIX: Valley of Death, Element of Surprise, Power of Love

            Origami Canyon has always been quiet after the Fallen Forty-Four repelled a large wave of Demons, consisting of a third of King Orion’s entire army. Since that day, they were all forced to pull back from the Upper Kingdom lest they run scarce of soldiers. However, it has been years since then and one of the Greater Demons, Echidna, along with her favourite pet, Norroth, subjugated the area and made sure it was impossible for Humans to be able to get through.

 

            That’s why they were surprised when they found out that there was a Human and two of her children claiming residence within the area. Apparently, they were hidden inside a Mirage Field and the younger child forgot to refuel the device, hence the discovery of their hiding spot.

 

            During the time they were found, Echidna was able to discern something more fascinating: The two children were Elementals. Upon realizing this, she immediately stole the younger one’s Elemental Matrix but failed to steal the other because their mother held them back in order for them to escape, inevitably leading to her death.

 

            And now they’ve finally come out of hiding after three years, but this time they brought along more allies than the Demon would expect. She knows that she is not a match for them, and the only logical step for her to take is to bring them down along with herself.

 

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            Solis enjoys himself as he analyzes every move his enemy makes. The devilish stance it took, the unwavering look of death in its eyes, the pulsating veins turning visible under its skin, the spikes adorning its body radiating with miasma, the fiery breath waiting to melt him; all these things invigorate him to slay it all the more. His only wish was that the horn would still be attached to its face so that it would be him who cuts it off.

 

            With a loud roar, Norroth spits poisonous fire concocted from its internal organs, but it was all too easy to dodge for Solis. Its intentions, however, turned out to be different when flames suddenly started pouring out from the cracks of its spiked shell. It seems to have coated itself with a fiery substance in order to burn anything it touches. Having noticed this, Solis falls back from his current position before it began violently rushing him.

 

            Everything in its immediate vicinity was warped in fire during its rampage. The raging beast levelled the adjacent treeline and pummelled everything else down to ash, but it didn’t seem to hit anything, giving Solis a conclusive hypothesis.

 

            “He’s blinded...”

 

            “Yeah, but I’ll have to immobilize him first before we can get through”, Tenenbaum says.

 

            “Still, even if you can hit him, we still don’t know his weak spot.”

 

            “Why don’t we find out?”

 

            “...I... I love you...” He affectionately speaks his mind after Tenenbaum’s beautiful suggestion.

 

            “You’re gross, man.”

 

            He’s had Grace unsheathed this whole time, so he immediately rushes in behind the beast while Tenenbaum goes for the front. Blasting it with entropy at its right forelimb, the rest of its body collapses and falls on the weakened part. It takes time for Tenenbaum to do it again so she runs back to Solis and hops on his shoulder.

 

            The remaining parts of Norroth’s body which are unaffected by Tenenbaum’s advance were still movable, but Solis reflexively avoids them as he sights any surface that can be easily broken.

 

            “Hmm... It’s definitely not the tail since it’s too small. Its chest plate looks pretty damn durable too and its face is untouchable because of all those flames...”

 

            “Its legs don’t look too weak neither...”

 

            “Maybe if we try to-“

 

            “Oh, no! It’s getting back up!”

 

            Recovering from its disability, Norroth lifts its large body and almost slams against the Slayer if he hadn’t dived away.

 

            “Looks like we’ll have to go loud, Tenenbaum!”

 

            Brandishing Grace, he gives Norroth a fair speech before their brawl.

 

            “You... I’ve never seen anything like you before”, the Slayer says as the beast took up a predatory stance against him. “Would you give me the honor...” He readies his weapon. “...Of being the first one to kill you!”

 

            And thus, our main character Awakens.

 

            This new ability of his proved to be quite enjoyable when used in pure brutal fights like the one he had with those flying creatures on Elias’ ship. His new enemy seemed formidable enough to be taken as a threat so he takes up a new sword style where he holds his weapon with two hands like Credo.

 

            Closing into the beast, he slashed through its left forelimb wih his blade empowered by the searing light of the sun. A bright flash of light emanated from Grace as the weapon grew stronger from Tenenbaum who was harnessing reactants to unbalance the pair’s equal forces.

 

            The slash broke Norroth’s shell but it doesn’t bother him at the very least as he showers Solis with burning acid from his mouth, effectively leading the Slayer to run for cover behind what’s left of the treeline.

 

            Preparing to strike once more, Solis raised Grace in order to summon a blast of light, but he was instead greeted by the Demonic Beast’s burning claw which was set sharp to rend his flesh, flinging the Slayer far from the battleground. The cut burns and leaves a mark on his chest as he was barely protected by the leather vest crafted from [1]Hornetaur materials. Landing on a pile of dirt as he was haphazardly thrown off the fighting ring, the imbalance in mana collapsed and the pair turned back to normal.

 

            “Ah... Damn... Mother-trucking fish!”

 

            You kiss your mother with that mouth?

 

            Oh wait... You never met your mother!

 

            HAHAHAHA... Hahaha... ha...

 

            “Was that supposed to be a curse?” Tenenbaum emerges from his pocket.

 

            “Yeah, why?” He says, lifting himself from his back with his elbows.

 

            “You used to curse way better than that when you were thirteen.”

 

            There was a loud rumbling from the ground as if something huge were approaching the two. The trees in front of them were being brought down as the focus of the quake approached them.

 

            It seems Norroth had chased them down, and when he finally found his prey, he pinned Solis’ body with his right arm. The fiery armour that surrounded the beast’s limb caused flames to lick the skin of the badly beaten Slayer whilst the predator faced him eye to eye. It then began to release acid from its organs, ready to give the young Slayer the most painful death it could possibly bestow.

 

            Meanwhile, our main character was seemingly amused.

 

            As a matter of fact, the look in his eyes looked exactly the same as [2]Saitama’s.

 

            “Checkmate, buddy.”

 

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            “What was that just now?”

 

            A bright light flashed behind Sierra. She’d been standing her ground in a small part of Origami Canyon along with her allies as the waves keep coming while her sister is busy fighting a plant based Demon; the Demon that stole her Elemental Matrix and killed her mother. The waves of incoming raptors were endless, and it seems another type of enemy was added to the cluster.

 

            Still remember those things that look like Remobras? Well, they’re back now... Along with that big-a*s flying dragon that didn’t have eyes. Their shadows were casting above the Elementals right now.

 

            “Sierra!”, Charlotte calls out.

 

            One of the small winged creatures dove right at her and brought her to the ground with its talons holding her down on her chest.

 

            Reflexively, she stabbed it with the bayonet on her bowgun, yet it yielded ineffective results, so she pulled the trigger and blew a hole through its spine with an Atlanta shell. She quickly stood up without bothering to wipe off the black blood that was splattered on her face.

 

            “This isn’t gonna work. No matter what happens, they’ll just keep coming...”, she speaks in exhaustion.

 

            In response to the new incoming threats, Mea and Lanette move to Sierra’s side with the intent of standing together.

 

            “Shouldn’t we think of a better plan of attack?” Mea asks. “We’re fish in a barrel here!”

 

            Suddenly, a sharp pain surges through Lanette’s aorta. The continuous use of weapon empowerment has gotten the best of her, draining what’s left of her strength into a crippling fatigue.

 

            “Are you alright?” Cisqua hops off the maid’s shoulder and tries to tend to her.

 

            She coughs up sputters of blood violently as she holds on to her throat in a futile attempt to stop the pain.

 

            “Whoa! That is not alright! Sierra, this girl’s sick!”

 

            The swarm closes in on them so Sierra unloads her weapon and moves toward the fallen maid.

 

            “Miss Mea, help me out here!”

 

            The two of them carry the girl with support on each shoulder to try to move her away from the incoming enemies while their Anima defends them. Lux shoots off tiny sparks of light, Charlotte paralyzes them and Cisqua....

 

            What was Cisqua’s power again? Let’s see...

 

            It looks like she can send out strong gusts of wind from that small dot on her forehead in order to blow away their foes.

 

            That power kinda sucks. I was hoping she’d be able to make her enemies’ heads explode or something.

 

            “Forgive me...”

 

            Lanette whispers what little she can say, spitting drops of blood in the process.

 

            “You’ll be fine”, Sierra reassures her fallen comrade just as Solis does when she used to join him in his Slaying jobs. “You’ve done your part. We’re taking you somewhere safe, okay?”

 

            “Thank you... But... Is there anywhere left to go?”

 

            “She’s right”, Mea says. “We’ll have to protect her until we can find a safer place.”

 

            “Damn it”, the other Slayer curses.

 

            They decided to join up with the other three fighting off Echidna. After trading blows one by one with the forest Demon, the Elementals who were fighting it are on the verge of resorting to Awakening. As of late, Credo and Therese can’t seem to find an easy way of bringing this Demon down so now they’re focused on repelling her with melee attacks rather than being on the offensive.

 

            “What happened to the maid?” Anna asks while shooting off triple shot arrows indefinitely against Echidna without even looking. Evidently, they hit the target right at the mark!

 

            “This girl’s bled dry”, Mea explains. “And these pricks are starting to swarm around us.”

 

            “It’s just fatigue. She used too much power, and now she’s exhausted”, Sierra follows up.

 

            In preparation for the next wave coming at them, Sierra reloads her bowgun and starts firing from the hip, some missing targets but most hitting them at the body.

 

            “Don’t shoot at those; focus on the flying targets”, Mea suggests. “I’ll go for those creatures while you keep the others from swooping down on me.”

 

            “Got it.”

 

            The other Slayer aims down her sight, and the Tearju Assassin unsheathes Vergil and Dante. With firing support from the three Anima left to defend them earlier, Mea rips apart the loathsome creatures with hooks and blades that she uses as instruments in her dance of death with such blinding fury. If only she could move just a little faster, she tear through that crazy b*tch’s attack like a well-fed [3]Akali.

 

            Such is the same problem Credo and Therese are incurred to. It’s hard to even get a single hit on Echidna because you’ll have to dodge the vines sprouting from the ground, otherwise you’ll get choked by the thorns. And even if they do get to hit her, she’ll just regenerate underground like what she’s about to do right now.

 

            Credo was able to get through the entangling vines so he condensed the water in the air around where the Demon is rooted and froze her in place. Losing full control of her own powers, Echidna struggled to keep her plants in pursuit of her other adversary, but Therese was able to get by.

 

            From a switchaxe, Therese reformed Capernaum into a hammer and shattered the frozen Demon from her roots. The vines were automatically dissolved as the roots went underground once again.

 

            “Not this time!”

 

            Therese slams the ground with such force from her Elemental Matrix that the crust of earth broke into a crater. Credo had already backed off and joined the other four when she struck the ground. He then grabs Anna and tells her to come with him.

 

            “Where are we going!” She said as she was dragged along.

 

            “It’s part of the plan”, he explains. “You three... two keep stalling those things while we take this one!”

 

            “F*ck this!”, Mea responds, clearly pissed at the number of raptors she has to slice up.

 

            A deadly aura came forth from her Elemental Matrix. Darkness started to emanate from her blades as the Elemental began to Awaken. Her red eyes were glowing in a sinister way as the color of her hair was starting to turn... gold. Licking her lips, Mea smiled and retracted the ethereal chains short, leaving her holding two blades chained to her wrists in her hands.

 

            Sometimes Awakening affects the attitude of the Elemental just as what happened to Therese. As for Mea, well... How do I say this..?

 

            She turns into a hardcore sadist...

 

            With the intent of going violent, she warped through about 27 raptors as swift as a third of the speed of light. The result was her bathing in black blood, and she enjoyed the feel of being able to kill.

 

            Still unsated, she threw her hooked blade toward the thing that stood out the most. The giant flying dragon felt something muzzled to its left wing but it didn’t bother him very much because it didn’t hurt.

 

            “My, my... That didn’t hurt you at all, did it? Don’t worry... We’ll have plenty of fun, you and me!”

 

            While this was going on, Sierra was still targeting enemies coming from above. From her scope, she shot targets on their wings to disable them, but as she was picking her next target, she saw the large dragon lowering its altitude. And then, to her surprise, its guts exploded from its enormous belly as the fluids from the entrails showered whatever’s below it. Emerging from the beast that was slowly plummeting to the ground, Mea landed next to her in a blink of an eye as the Darkness Elemental switches off the Awakening trigger.

 

            “Was that you?”

 

            “Yeah... I didn’t say anything weird, did I?”

 

            “No, why?”

 

            “I’m Darkness Elemental. My powers sometimes get a little too strong for me to handle.”

 

            “Is that why you turned it off so quickly?”

 

            “Yup.”

 

            Now that the larger threat has been erased, Mea went back to running through the raptors while Sierra goes for incoming targets. But there’s a problem with their current formation. Since the two had their backs against Anna, they were relying on her to watch their six. Now that she’s gone, a couple of raptors found a way to flank the other Slayer.

 

            Sierra immediately senses them and pulls the trigger, knocking them back mid-air, however, the bullets she loaded weren’t enough to shoot down all targets... She struggled to pull the trigger, but only dry fire shout out the barrel.

 

            “This is going to hurt...”, she thought as she braces herself.

 

            Her eyes were shut, but the familiar pain she feels when she incurs injuries from Slaying jobs wasn’t present. Easing her eyes open, she found Lanette on her feet and armed with her kitchen utensil.

 

            “Maid girl? Are you alright?”

 

            “I could ask you the same thing Miss Sierra”, said the maid, back in action.

 

            “I’m fine”, she replies while reloading. “How’d you recover so quickly?”

 

            [3]“Grandmaster’s Might.” She stands straight to show that she’s fine. “Now... [3]Imagine if I had a real weapon.”

 

            “Hmm...” Sierra grabs something from her coat pocket and produces a gem encrusted dagger that has a pointed hilt and a curved edge. “Why don’t you try this?”

 

            “Where did you get this kind of weapon?”, she asks while taking it.

 

            “It’s a keepsake... from my mom.”

 

            “It appears we share a similar fate, since my father gave me mace as a child.”

 

            Suddenly, our main character came bursting through the burnt trees with Tenenbaum hanging on his shoulder as he heaves from running as fast as he can.

 

            “Whew! Finally! Damn, how far did that guy flip us over?”

 

            “Mister Solis”, Lanette greets.

 

            “Hi there *heave* Did I miss anything?”

 

            When she heard Solis’ name, Sierra smiled and turned to see him, but the instant she realizes that she’s happy that he’s safe, she immediately turns away without even greeting him.

 

            This is why I hate (love) tsunderes.

 

            Left hanging without a reply, he acts cool and looks around.

 

            From his point of view, he sees Mea fighting off raptors along with three other Anima, Credo taking Anna toward a large crater Therese is digging up, and finally, a large blind dragon soaked in its own blood and guts.

 

            “Aww... Come on! I wanted to bring you down too! Why’d you have to die without me seeing?”

 

            “Let’s just kill those other things that Eve is fighting”, Tenenbaum suggests.

 

            “*Sigh* Fine...”

 

            Solis drags himself toward the battle field with his sword held sideways begrudgingly prepared to slash the small, insignificant monsters.

 

            And now that the group’s finally together... Well, Elias and Maise aren’t here so the group isn’t quite complete yet. Also, Naiya and Yvaine aren’t present so we can’t really do that yet.

 

            Oh, well. We’ll have to wait until all eight Elementals are in battle together before it can finally end up as a scenario.

 

            Just get on with the story.

 

            Whatever, writer.

 

            Let’s see...

 

            Therese has been smashing the ground since earlier in order to prevent Echidna from taking root in her plant form to regenerate from the soil. The crater from before is now a large hole 40 kilometers beneath the surface.

 

            “Wait... Therese did this?”, Anna asks while peering into the hole.

 

            “Yes, and we’re jumping in”, says Credo still holding onto Anna’s arm.

 

            “What!?”

 

            “Rylai and Lina, stay here on the surface and away from the hole.”

 

            “What are you guys planning to do?”, Rylai questions as she watches Lina hop down from Credos shoulder. The red Anima then proceeds to whisper something on Rylai’s ear. “Oh... I see.” She smiles at her partner.

 

            “Are you ready?” Credo confirms the Fire Elemental’s preparation.

 

            “Um... yes?”

 

            “Therese!”, he shouts toward the hole.

 

            A tall pillar of bedrock shoots up from Therese’s feet as it launches her back up to the surface where she finds Credo and Anna in position.

 

            “Do it now before she can take root”, Therese says while backing away from the hole along with the two Anima.

 

            “Let’s go!”

 

            “...Right!”

 

            The opposite Elementals jump down arm-in-arm.

 

            “So what exactly is the plan!?” Anna says while they both fall at a constant acceleration of 9.81 meters per second per second.

 

            “Anna...”, he drew his face closer to her and whispered.

 

            “W-What?” She replies with her face flustered.

 

            And now we get to view the most powerful catalysts out of Elements...

 

            The Element of Surprise!

 

            “Anna, I love you!”

 

            After proclaiming his deep romantic adoration for his childhood friend, Credo gives Anna the sweetest second kiss on the lips she’ll ever have.

 

            Such unbearable feelings in her heart... I mean, Elemental Matrix, caused a spontaneous cataclysm within the environment as her temperature rapidly increases. They’d hit the ground within 4.077 seconds (t=d/a), but the ever burning fire inside a maiden’s heart is timeless. Before long in her ecstatic state, the flames erupted and set everything within the pit in blue blazes. The destructive force melted Echidna’s plant form into charred nothingness as the fire even shot upward from the hole for the rest of the group to see. Not even the enemies they are fighting could keep their eyes away from the dazzling brilliance of the azure wave of fire.

 

            “What... happened?”, Lanette inquires as she stares in awe.

 

            “The power of love”, Therese answers her as she winks.

 

            “...Love?”

 

            They all stood there waiting for the flame to subside. Looking behind, Solis noticed that the monsters were fleeing from them but he paid no mind. He’s pretty tired, and killing those things isn’t going to help at all. By the time he looked back, the flame had already died down.

 

            “You guys alright in there?” Therese says as she peers down the hole.

 

            She finds Credo barely having any signs of being burnt whereas Anna had her clothes burned off along with her shoes. All that’s left is the fireproof skin-tight vest covering around her from her collar bone to her crotch. It’s a good thing she has a small chest, otherwise that zipper at the center will probably fly off.

 

            They were lying next to each other, and at the wake of the destruction she caused, Anna opened her eyes to find Credo unconscious beside her.

 

            “Hey, are you alright?” She shakes him with a worried look on her face.

 

            “I’m fine, I’m fine.”

 

            “Really? How’d you keep yourself from getting burned?”

 

            “I wrapped myself in ice before you started Awakening.” He stands up. “See? I’m alright.”

 

            “Oh... That’s good then...” She stands up too and approaches him.

 

            “Well...” He awkwardly stutters. “I-I suppose you’re going to, uh... give me a reply.”

 

            “Credo...” She looks at him, intimately.

 

            “W-What?”

 

            “Look at me.”

 

            He faces the girl he just confessed to. As he did, she puts her hand on his cheek and... b*tch- slaps him.

 

            “Ow! That hurt!”

 

            “You’re saying this now? What are you trying to do to me?”

 

            “...I guess I just... I don’t know. I’m sorry.”

 

            And she kisses him again.

 

            “Took you long enough... You jerk...”

 

            “Yeah! Go Anna!”, Rylai cheers her on.

 

            “Are you guys done? This sweetness is making me sick”, Therese comments.

 

            “Just a second.” Credo looks around his barely lit surroundings until he finds a white orb laying on the ground.

 

            “What’s that?”, Anna asks.

 

            “Sierra’s Elemental Matrix.”

 

            “Well? Do you have it now?”

 

            “I got it, Therese. Now get us out of here”, Credo demands.

 

            “Yeah, yeah.”

 

            A stone pillar lifts them from the pit and reunites them with the group on the surface.

 

            Credo was about to give it to Sierra, but Therese suddenly intervenes.

 

            “I’ll be taking that”, she says while grabbing the Wind Elemental Matrix.

 

            “But...” Sierra tries to take it.

 

            “But what?” Therese stares at her with a heartless look in her eyes.

 

            “Nothing... I’m sorry.”

 

            “That’s that, then.” Therese then stretches her arms and reforms Capernaum into a ring that fits perfectly on her pinkie.

 

            The rest of the group didn’t react as much because they didn’t understand the situation so they went on their way.

 

            “Man, I thought we were gonna die there”, Mea comments while walking.

 

            “Well, I didn’t get to enjoy myself. Someone killed that blind dragon before I could give it a name.”

 

            “Yeah, sorry about that Solis.”

 

            “That was you? I thought for a second it was Sierra.”

 

            “Speaking of Sierra...”, Mea changes the topic. As much as possible, she doesn’t like talking about her powers. “Where is she?”

 

            All of them look back and see Sierra looking down the hole along with Charlotte.

 

            “What’s she doing there?”, Credo wonders.

 

            “She’ll be fine. Let’s just go find Elias”, Therese says.

 

            “I’ll go get her”, Solis volunteers.

 

            “Go ahead. And while you’re at it, tell her she’s free do to whatever she wants.”

 

            “That... doesn’t sound good...”

 

            “Are you going or not?”

 

            Therese looked very pissed off and so Solis didn’t answer and went off to get Sierra.

 

            “Hey. Let’s go already”, Solis says while Sierra stares down blankly.

 

            “Say... If I told you that your mother died because of me... You think you could forgive me?”

 

            “What are you talking about? I’ve never even met my mother...”

 

            “Oh, right...” She forms a weak smile. “You’re an Elemental like me... I never would have guessed.”

 

            “And besides... I’d never bring myself to hate you if I knew you didn’t do it on purpose.”

 

            “...I thought so...” She starts to sob. “...Someone as stupid as you would never bring himself to hate people.”

 

            “W-What’s wrong? Hey, why are you crying?”

 

            Solis has never actually been in a situation where a girl is crying in front of him, so he struggles to say something to cheer her up but can’t produce the words.

 

            “Thank you... Solis.” She smiles at him while wiping off her tears.

 

            “Um... You’re welcome, I guess.”

 

            Suddenly, a tremor started to erupt, and before long, the cause of the tremor sprouted from the hole, but unlike earlier, Echidna didn’t have roots to dig in the soil. She was staring at Sierra as she began to speak.

 

            “I remember your mother, especially as I feasted on her. That poor human was delicious.”

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1. Monster Hunter reference

2. Main character from 'One Punch Man' by 'ONE'

3. Akali is a champion from League of Legends. The words are quoted from Jax, also a character from League of Legends.

Reviews

[❀Subaru_Nyaa!
..]

Bow guns...no one likes bow guns. Do you like bow guns?

Grace, it keeps reminding me about Iron Katana: Grace, my favorite line of longswords since it leads to Eager cleaver and Devil Slicer (True Decil Slicer)