Journey of the Celestial: Part 4
When Dorty and Sajessia had agreed to take the submarine back to Lion's Arch, they never expected it to go so quickly, much less smoothly. The ride wasn't the most comfortable, because the space was indeed cramped, but they made no complaints while the charr driving it steered them back to the pirate city.
The first order of business upon returning to mainland was getting Sajessia a new coat, since her last one was left behind where Metaveil and Jukkerbaut found them. Once her new coat was found (which was heavier than her last one), the next thing they needed were more supplies, which the market easily provided.
Once all was good and ready, they set out again, going through Gendarran Fields once again for the second time in their adventure. Going east, they followed the same path they originally took through the region, but once they had reached Wayfarer Foothills, they turned north instead of south. This took them straight into Frostgorge Sound, where temperatures were already dropping, and an increase in dragon minions was apparent.
Twice they were ambushed by Icebrood, before they had even made it halfway through the region. Grawl had also grown aggressive, attacking any and all travelers through the region, but hardly put a scratch on the two asura. Dorty fell down into an icy labyrinth, and was forced to fend off many trolls while Sajessia helped guide him through, whilst blasting the attackers from above with her magic.
The two caught their breath under a Pact turret that had been set up near the outside of the maze, aimed skyward for obvious reasons. The size of it helped cover them from the chilling breeze, and make the creatures who tried to follow them out confused as to where they went.
"Doing alright so far, Sej?" Dorty panted, laying back on the cannon.
Sajessia was visibly shivering, hands inside her coat to keep them warm. "I'm... alright..." She stuttered, breathing out a breath which both of them could see.
"Ya sure? Is that coat working for ya?"
She nodded, tucking her head into the coat for more warmth.
"Well, it's just gonna get colder and colder, so better hope it does work where we're going. Well, wherever we're going, I'm not too keen on all the details."
A faint glow shown out from the neckline of the coat, where inside she had wrapped her wings around herself for extra warmth.
"Here's an idea, how about I carry you around while you're tucked away in there?" He snickered.
"Sure." She replied, poking her head out a little in a smile.
"Uhh-" He looked down at here, mildly surprised. "I was kinda kidding but... okay."
Shrugging, he helped her get the rest of her exposed limbs into the coat. Once she was tucked away inside, he hoisted her up in her arms. The coat obstructed part of his vision, but he could still see where he was going.
He carried her off of the tiny hill the cannon was on over to the path ahead of them, which went east towards some kind of camp, honestly not much concern. What -was- concerning was the number of ice wurms that were next to the trail. Even though they had fought of plenty of enemies in the past, such as White Mantle, Inquest, other dragon minions, and local wildlife to name a few, wurms were a different case here. It didn't matter how big they were, one could still swallow them whole with ease, so rather than travel along the path, he took them further north from the path to the edge of the water, where from there they went east around the path of wurms.
Yet another issue soon became apparent: the water. They had expected to find some kind of bridge or boat they could use to travel across the icy water, but it seemed like the entire direction they needed to go was blocked by a tiny sea of chilling water. Dorty wasn't too concerned about this, since he was already familiar with water that cold, but as for Sajessia...
"Hey uhh, Sej?" He poked the side of the coat he was holding with her inside.
She popped her head out of the neckline, "Hmm?"
"We -might- have a problem. Well, okay, less me and more you." He pointed at the large expanse of water.
Her ears drooped as she turned to look at all of the water ahead of them, as well as the chunks of ice floating along the surface of the water. Sighing, she popped her arms and legs out from inside her coat, rolling out of Dorty's arms onto the snow below them. She sat up, shaking the snow off her wings, then shuffling through the snow over to the water.
"Hope you know how to keep toasty." Dorty exclaimed, walking over with her. "If we need to go north from here, only way to go is across the water."
Sajessia slipped her shoes off, setting them aside in the snow, before scooting over to the very edge of the water. Slowly, she lowered her foot down to dip her toe in the water.
She jerked back, shaking her foot a little. The water was absolutely freezing, and it was like she had stuck her toe into a pail of ice. "That is... really cold." She stuttered.
"Well, for you, yeah." He nodded his head at her, scooting over to the edge. "Can't say the same about me probably, but one way to find out."
She watched him smile before he slid down entirely into the water, going beneath the surface for a few seconds before resurfacing, spitting some chilled water out to the side from his mouth.
"Yeah, it's a little cold, but not too much for me." He swam up to the edge and pulled himself up out of the water, his clothes weighing him down only a little.
Sajessia laughed a little looking at him, his hair had flopped down and covered part of his face.
"Right, hair..." He rolled his eyes, pushing his hair up out of his face. "Well, ideas?"
"Well, I dunno really, I can't walk on water you know." She looked back down at the freezing water, then back at Dorty, an idea flickering in her mind. "What if you swim on the surface and I ride on top of you?"
"That's-" He raised a finger in protest, but after he actually considered the concept, he nodded. "-could work, maybe. No guarantees, but it's safer for you. Just try not to fall off. I know you weigh nothing, but I can't say the same about your clothes when they're wet."
"Okay, let's try this then." She grabbed her shoes to pull them back on.
Nodding, Dorty slid back into the water, quickly resurfacing close to where she was on the ledge. He backed up to it so when she slid down, she would land on his back.
Carefully, she edged down the tiny slope to the water, placing a foot on his head, then the other on his shoulder. She climbed down until she was about able to hang her legs over his shoulders. "Okay, ready?"
"Don't fall off, okay?" He looked up at her, not so much of a fan of the whole idea now that it was in motion.
"Will try not to." She nodded.
Taking a quick breath, he let go of the edge, kicking off under the surface of the water with his legs. Sajessia fell back a little, the backside of her dipping into the freezing water, as well as her legs, which she quickly pulled out, shivering.
Dorty kept with long strokes through the water, most of his face submerged beneath the surface. He didn't really tell anyone this, but he was able to breath underwater thanks to the draconic powers he had. That being said, he still preferred breathing fresh air. He kept his eyes down in the water, peeled for anything below that might try and mess him up, be it a fish or Icebrood that might be in the water below them.
Meanwhile, Sajessia had wrapped her wings around herself, mostly for the warmth it provided in an attempt to thaw the chill on her spine. She kept a firm grip on his hair, so she wouldn't fall off, at least not backward. However, there was just one flaw to her idea, and that was that part of her was still in the water. She felt the water cling to her pants and shoes, making those parts colder and colder by the minute.
At the very least, it was the best idea she could come up with. Dorty had taken sight of land that led them further north along the water, so once there, they wouldn't have to swim anymore. She lifted an arm to pull her coat up higher up her head, covering her neck.
Unfortunately, it wasn't the best idea at that exact moment. Dorty suddenly turned to the left, and with only one hand on his wet hair, her grip slipped and she fell over to the right into the icy water.
If sticking her toe into the water felt like sticking it into a box of ice, then this was hundreds of times worse. The deathly chill of the water around her felt like it was seeping slowly into her, freezing her from the inside out. She panicked, thrashing around in the water in hopes of grabbing something to pull herself out with, but she was still in the middle of the water, and the nearest chunk of land was dozens of meters away.
A horrid memory came back to her, of being trapped in a cold slumber for over a century. Was this how she was going to die? Trapped in a freezing body of water, or worse, what if she didn't? What if she was frozen and put back to sleep, with nobody to save her? What if this time, she was truly left to rot and die over the painfully slow course of years?
This was all she was thinking of at the moment, as things were getting darker, darker, while she was quickly losing her strength and willpower. She didn't realize Dorty had pulled her away from the Icebrood shark that had swam up to them, causing him to turn in the first place. She didn't see him have to juggle between pushing her up to the surface of the water to breath, and combat the shark at the same time.
A sudden burst of cold suddenly hit her, she felt almost unable to move as she was helplessly dragged down, down, deeper into the water. She closed her eyes, expecting the end of everything she knew over the year of her existence without being in stasis.
...or was she going up, not down?
Just when she had lost hope, light was suddenly in her vision again. She felt the cling of the water upon her slowly let go, but not entirely. She could breath again, but it was in gasps for air as she coughed up water, and it was made only more difficult with the amount of shivering she was doing. She tried to look up, although she already was, but more precisely look up at where she was.
Her stiff neck only managed to catch a glimpse of the dead shark, which had been dragged onto the shore shortly after her. Before she could react, although she couldn't really react much, Dorty pulled her back up to eye-level with him. He looked scared, but that was slowly starting to fade into a smile. She didn't hear what he said, but he hugged her, pushing her up over his shoulder to gently hit her on the back, making her cough up more water out of her. All she felt was the cold, and the incredibly numbed contact with her friend, except for two sources of warmth, the two of them.
Dorty pulled the wet coat off of her, relieving her of much of the weight she was under, slinging it over his other shoulder. Everything he felt was wet in one way or another, so the cold breeze made it even colder. He wasn't concerned for himself, he was concerned for her. If he didn't find warmth for her somewhere soon, be it a bonfire or a den or anything away from the cold, she would probably pass out.
Thankfully, luck was on their side today. Not only by pure chance did an icicle fall onto the shark when they were in the water, but now in the distance, he saw a trail of smoke rising over a small incline. The only issue was there were more Icebrood standing between them and their necessity, but darn it if he had to run over a whole ice flow full of Icebrood to get her to a fire, then so be it.
He broke into a run, throwing the coat back over them both, leaving a hole so he could see where he was running; he didn't want to risk running headfirst into a dragon minion, or fall back into the water with her. Some bits of ice stuck to the coat as he ran them through the small hoard of dragon minions, ice being thrown at them. He threw a crystal share of his own back at the wolf that was pursuing them, which made it give up chase with a well-placed hit to the hind-leg.
Finally, he out-ran the hoard, and his prize was in sight; a tall beacon of sorts which bore a roaring fire on top of it, surrounded by torches with the same fire on them. There was one kodan on duty over the brazier, who so happened to glance their way as he staggered over, finally dropping Sajessia next to the beacon. He tossed the coat to the side, threw his arms up in victory, then proceeded to flop over face-first into the snow, the warmth of the magical fire warming them up.
Slowly, Sajessia felt herself again, with the heat of the fire ridding the chill of the water that was on her. Breathing became easier as she coughed up more water, which soon would be all out of her. The warmth the beacon was providing her was like a little blanket of fire, which slowly spread itself over her, drying her off and restoring her vision, magic seeping into her.
It felt like the magic even had an effect on her soul, which was the source of all her magic. Like a flickering flame becoming a campfire, she felt her strength come back to her, washing over her and urging her to get back on her feet. She curled up, wrapping her wings around herself to get the full dosage of heat within herself.
By now, Dorty had also fully dried off. Sitting back up, he scooted over to Sajessia, patting her on the head. "...you alright?" He whispered to her.
Sajessia's only response was a sound that might have been a "Mhmm", as she kept herself curled up for a little longer, before rolling over to hug Dorty's leg.
Sighing, Dorty leaned over to grab the dry coat from the size of the beacon, pulling it over both of them while he snuggled up next to her. Sajessia moved from hugging his leg to hugging the rest of him, warmth from all sides rejuvenating her.
"Sej, we still need to get going, remember?" He poked her nose to try and wake her up.
"...I don't wanna leave." She whined softly, hugging him tighter, but she did know they did indeed have to go, so she couldn't stay in this state of comfort forever.
Dorty peered up at the kodan who was slowly looming over them, and he frowned a little. "Hey, mind giving us a little space here?"
Nodding, they took a few steps back, but rather than stay there, they picked up one of the torches with the fire in it, offering it to the asura.
"So, what you want us to take this and go north with it?" He asked.
"Yes, it's the most valuable thing to take if you're going north." She spoke in a deep tone. "Koda's warmth will protect you from the frigid cold that lies ahead."
"Good to know your god is looking after everyone and not just yourselves." He lifted the coat off of him and Sajessia, getting up to take the torch, which was pretty tall, requiring both hands to carry it around.
Sajessia finally rolled back up onto her feet, standing up with the coat in hand, pulling it over herself again. "We don't need to go through freezing water again, do we?"
"The only water you will need to worry about, little one, is from cracks in the ice. Other than that, you will be fine." They moved to poke the torch Dorty was now carrying. "Oh, also, that fire is good for more than just warmth. It's a tool, so use it as it should be used."
"Thank you so much." Sajessia shuffled over through the snow to give the bear a hug.
"I with you little ones luck, with whatever it is you want in the north." She subtly moved the leg that was being hugged, in an attempt to get Sajessia to stop hugging them now.
Letting go, Sajessia shuffled back over to Dorty, turning back to give a quick little bow to the kodan. "It's complicated, but it's life-altering for me. Keep doing what you're doing here, please. I'm sure people will want to warm up here after swimming through all that."
"Yeaahhh let's try and stay out of the water from now on in the Shiverpeaks." He gently tapped her on the side.
Sajessia gave Dorty a little push from behind to urge him forward, and so with torch in hand, they continued onward on their quest. They only stopped brevity due to a wall of ice that was in the way, but the magical fire made short work of it. Confidence and strength restored, they marched into the coldest parts of the Shiverpeaks.
Though, they didn't know what was to come, they didn't know what dangers awaited them in this new land.
They didn't see the destroyed caravan on the other side of Frostgorge Sound.
They didn't know of the embellished cart that was demolished.
-and they didn't know that cart was originally loaded with "Triple-Luck Tonics" and a bloodstone shard.
What was the coldest and windiest parts of the Shiverpeaks that was currently inhabited, Bitterfrost Frontier was a small region north of Frostgorge Sound, but definitely more dangerous than that. The Icebrood and the Sons of Svanir had been struggling to gain a foothold against an alliance between Kodan and Quaggans (who which seemed to be a different breed of Quaggan), who had been holding the area against them for years. The whole place was like a struggle for dominance of the area, Icebrood attacking similar beacons like the one that was back in Frostgorge Sound, and the alliance fighting back to hold their ground.
Even though Dorty and Sajessia had just got there, they could already tell there was much action going on. People from the south were running around fighting the Icebrood with all sorts of weaponry, including the torch Dorty was carrying. Turrets were set up, minions of all kinds were set loose, and whole groups of people were fending off attacks on the beacons across the ice.
That was another thing that quickly became apparent. Dorty quickly slipped and fell on his back from stepping on the ice, while Sajessia kept a firm balance on it like it was anything else. She watched as he tried to keep his balance, but every time he tried to stand up, he would slip again.
"You, uhm, need some help?" She asked, kneeling down next to him.
"Nah, I got this-" He responded, shortly before slipping again. Cursing, he grabbed his sword and held the tip of the blade to the bottom of his boots. He then started to gently carve at different areas of the bottom of one of them, before moving on to the next. Finally, he stood up again, for real this time, the new adjustment helping. "Huh, not sure why I hadn't tried this before." He perked a brow.
"Maybe you just hadn't slipped on enough ice?" She snickered.
"Maybe, but just remember I'm not used to slipping on stuff in general." He kicked at the ice beneath them a few times, making sure his boots had a firm grip.
Sajessia was shivering again, the cold here was definitely worse than Frostgorge. If she fell into the water here for too long, she might end up dying, the cold was that bad.
"Anyways, you know what we're here for." He motioned for her to move. "Lead the way."
"Right, it's almost over." She nodded, taking some steps towards the direction she -felt- was right, like a compass pointing her in the desired direction. "So, it's like what, the homestretch?"
"Yeah, like my sister said." He lowered the torch over next to her, warming her up a little.
Sajessia nuzzled up next to the head of the torch, letting the warmth of the magic it held seep into her again. The effect was lasting, so they wouldn't need to stop and do this much. "Okay, let's go."
The trek across the frozen landscape started out simple as they kept to the beacons for warmth, yet it was slowly getting more difficult as a literal storm was brewing, and after passing the first two beacons, Dorty found himself having to re-light his torch at every beacon they went by.
Additionally, most of the assistance from the larger groups was more at the western side of the region where they came from, so as they went west along the winding line of beacons, less and less people were around to help. There was at least one Kodan at every beacon, so that it would not go out, but that still left it vulnerable to attack.
At the very center of the place was a Kodan sanctuary, built over an underwater Quaggan village. This was essentially the heart of the foothold in the region, so naturally they would want to pass through it. Quaggans and Kodan alike patrolled outside, and kept watch from inside for any threats. The storm was starting to get worse, meanwhile, and was almost rallying the Icebrood to organize attacks around the entire region.
Taking shelter under the sanctuary, they sat down next to a bonfire which some people had put together under the place; it wasn't like it was going to melt it or anything.
"So, are we getting closer?" Dorty asked, picking at the loose bits on his boots he failed to chop off earlier.
"Yeah, we are." Sajessia nodded, pointing north-east. "If we keep going that way... I feel up the mountainside there, we'll be there. It's a bit of a climb though, by the looks of it."
Even though the storm was obstructing most of their vision of what was above them, the mountain was fairly steep, with plenty of edges to walk on, yet also plenty of areas to fall down from. It was almost impossible to see the top, or at least where Sajessia needed to go, but at the very least Dorty could tell it was going to be quite the climb.
"You realize that if the higher up we go, the colder it's gonna get, right?" He perked an ear up.
"Will it?" She asked, shivering still, looking at the coat she had which even now was only a little helpful.
"Probably, if I get altitude and cold right." He shrugged, lowering the ear he had perked up.
"Dorty, if that's the case," She sounded slightly depressed, probably due to knowing the cold would effect her even more. She didn't notice the one Kodan who turned his scarred head over at them. "-keep that torch close to us, okay?"
"Yeah, I will, otherwise we're gonna be ice cubes." He snorted.
"I thought you said you weren't affected by the cold." She questioned.
"I'm not, well, hardly." He stuck the torch in the ground, while the Kodan slowly padded up to them. "That doesn't mean some person or creature can't turn me into a block of ice, though."
"Point taken." She sighed, before suddenly looking up at the Kodan who had approached, perking her ears.
"Who are you two?" He asked, disgruntled.
"Am I obliged to answer? I think-" Dorty started, before a low growl came from the bear, making him smile awkwardly. "-yeah. Dorty."
"Sajessia." She responded, without being asked.
The Kodan looked back and forth between the two asura for a few moments, before padding off up a ramp to the top of the sanctuary.
"Okay, just what was that about?" Dorty asked after moments of awkward silence, clearly confused.
"Honestly, I have no-" Sajessia was about to say, before she saw the same Kodan coming back, holding a box in his hands.
They walked back up to them, setting the box down in front of them, glaring at them for a few moments before turning and leaving yet again.
More silence, apart from the howling wind and the distant fights, then after yet another period of awkward proportions, Dorty scooted over to the box to get a better look at it.
It was left open on the top, and inside were multiple bottles of some kind of elixir that neither was familiar with. There was also a small gyro inside as well, with a slip of parchment wrapped around it neatly. Dorty lifted the little black gyro out from the box, sliding out the paper from it.
"What's IT say?" Sajessia asked, scooting over to look into the box.
Dorty slapped the parchment down on the snow beneath them, so that they could both read it. In the slightly-messy handwriting, it read:
TO: DORTY, SAJESSIA, DYEEAKA, TRYTAMER, ANY OF MY BUDDIES REALLY, AND ME (IF AYEZ COME BACK).
FROM: T.K (YE SHALL NEVER KNOW MY REAL NAME, HA!)
THIS IS E VERY BOX OF E VERY MANY THINGS. OKAY, IT'S TWO THINGS REALLY BUT AYES DUN'T CARE! DRINK THE STUFF AND YE WON'T TURN INTO ICE CUBES. ALSO IF YE WANNA SNEAK, USE THE SNEAK. HAS FUN!
P.S: AYEZ DIDN'T LIST RYAGAN CAUSE HE'LL NEVER COME UP HERE!
P.P.S: AYEZ WRITE THIS WHEN EVERYONE JUST STARTED COMING HERE, SO THIS STUFF MIGHT BE HERE FOR WEEKS, AYEZ DUNNO. HEY IF NOBODY ON THE LIST SHOWS UP, BEARS, CAN YEH AT LEAST PUT THE THAW ELIXIRS TO GOOD USE?
"Well..." Dorty snickered, shaking his head in minor disbelief. "Sounds like T.K, writes like T.K, leaves post-scripts like T.K, so I guess it's safe to assume T.K was here."
"Is that 'was' with an 'S' or a 'Z'?" She laughed, taking an elixir out for each of them.
"Heck if I know." He snorted a laugh, taking the elixir from her. "Bottoms up, I guess."
"Ehm, alright, I hope this isn't alcohol." She stuttered, maybe from the cold, before taking a drink of it, Dorty doing the same.
A funny, warm sensation suddenly filled both of them as they drank. It was like someone lit a match inside of them and left it there. Once both of them had downed their bottles, the cold was seemingly starting to go away, at least for them.
"Hey, is it just me, or did it just get warmer?" Dorty asked, rubbing his head.
"I feel warmer too." Sajessia patted her cheeks and her legs, feeling them suddenly warmer than before. "What -is- this stuff?"
"Says 'Thaw Elixir'. Huh." He shrugged, throwing the bottle aside after peeping at the note. "Oh hey, missed the post-post-post-script on this thing: 'Tell the Svanir I walked right up to their leader disguised as one of them and said 'Stuff' and he gave me free stuff.'"
"T.K did that?" She perked her ears again, "How did he get the outfit to look like one of them?"
"Looks? I'm more concerned why the Svanir thought a tiny Svanir was even a norn!"
Sajessia squeaked like she was laughing, falling over and rolling in the snow.
"Yeah, funny." He set the paper back into the box, picking up the lifeless gizmo. "He left us a gyro to get us past everything. Wanna use it?"
"Well, I'm ready, more ready then I'll ever be, so let's go." She stood up, almost valiantly in a way.
"Okay then, little guy, get us through this stupid place." He pulled on a tiny chain on the side of the gyro, and it whirled to life, flying up over their heads by a few feet.
Once it was over them, the bottom of it opened up, and it started spraying out stealth-dust from it, covering up the two asura in a blanket of invisibility. Obviously, the gyro only lasted so long, as did the invisibility, so as soon as they were invisible, they held hands and started running, the gyro following after, keeping the stealth on them. The hand-holding was so they wouldn't lose each other, because they couldn't really see each other either.
Dorty had left the torch by mistake next to the fire, but it wasn't an issue since as soon as they reached the next beacon, he grabbed another one and they kept going. On to the next beacon, and he re-lit the torch so it was still burning strong.
Following the line of beacons, Sajessia led them eastward, until about the eleventh or twelfth beacon, where she suddenly steered them north, towards the bottom of the mountain. Even though there were Icebrood here, none of them took notice of the little whirling helicopter that was flying through their ranks, and the two asura easily slipped by.
Finally, they reached the edge of the wall of the mountain, and in a good time as well; the gyro had just ran out of fuel, falling lifelessly into the snow. It whirled its routers for a few more seconds, before it ceased movement, the little machine falling asleep in the soft blanket that would probably rust itself.
While the gyro had fell, the invisibility did not, so they still had time to get out of sight of the dragon minions. With some quick climbing and a little of Sajessia's magic, they scaled up to a large foothold on the side of the mountain, high enough to stay away from the Icebrood. After a few seconds upon reaching this point, the invisibility fell from them, revealing themselves for all nearby to see, if anyone or anything ever even looked up.
"Yup." Sajessia nodded, still holding his hand.
"You can let go now, by the way, we're not invisible anymore." He snickered.
"It's not because I can't see you I'm still holding your hand." She tilted her head to the side, hair flopping with the tilt.
Dorty practically blushed, turning away from her in minor embarrassment. Looking up, there was another ledge they could reach, with some more climbing of course. "Want me to lead from here, or do you have it?"
"You're more of a climber yourself, so, yeah, I guess lead on. I'll just let you know when we need to change course."
He nodded, still holding the torch in his hands, though he set it down next to her, offering her it. "It's not too heavy, trust me."
"So, what do you want me to do?" She picked it up with one hand, examining it.
"You hold it -and- hold on to my back, and I climb up this excuse of a wall." He thumbed at the rocky surface behind them. "Kind of like a sloth."
Sajessia laughed a little, but nodded in agreement. She scooted over on the ledge with the staff in hand, grabbing Dorty's shoulder with her other hand, and then his other shoulder with the one that was holding the torch.
With a nod of approval, Dorty started the ascent, being careful not to go too fast, lest Sajessia fall off. Sure, she could glide, but the wind of the storm was really starting to pick up, and even though he held his ground, she was much too light to be much resistance to it. She clung to him to keep from sailing off.
With crystalline corruption for hands, it made definitely climbing easier. The tipped claws easily dug into the side of the mountain, as he pulled them up, higher and higher. It wasn't long before they reached the second ledge, which he pulled them up and on to. Still climbing, he looked down from where they were, seeing the tiny Icebrood and not-so-small sanctuary in the distance and below them.
"Sej, do not fall, whatever you do, okay?" He urged her.
"Got it." She nodded, still holding on with relative ease.
While the progress was slow, Sajessia felt them getting closer and closer to their destination. At this rate, by the end of the day, maybe they would make it and be finally done with it all.
One hand over the other, Dorty clambered up, slowly but surely. The snow was getting in his hair and ears, but he didn't care. He had one job right now; getting the asura on his back to a part on the mountain where she needed to go.
Glancing up, Dorty saw a sight for sore eyes, which was a large ledge with tons of room to move around on, enough for more than ten people even, almost as if it was a path. Speaking of path, there appeared to be a small path winding up from that spot, going across the cliff to the east.
"Hey Sej," He had to tell her, his voice echoing from the mountainside.
"Huh?" She looked up at him, still gripping onto his shoulders.
"There's a big cliff up above us, if I can get us there, getting up is gonna be a whole lot easier!"
Grinning, he hastened his ascent, breaking off a few rocks from the wall in the progress as he clambered up faster. The cliff was definitely close now, and by the looks of things even bigger than he originally thought. He kept climbing up, until he was a few feet under the edge.
"Okay, I'm gonna jump up the rest of the way to it, it's only a foot or two, okay?" He loosened his grip on one of his hands, holding it out to the side whilst keeping the grip in his other hand firm.
"Alright..." She nervously replied.
He suddenly jumped up from the wall to the cliffs edge, barely able to grab onto it by just the tips of his fingers. He let out a sigh of relief, then proceeded to swing his other arm up and over the edge onto the ground above, and from there reinforce the grip in the first hand.
Dorty suddenly interrupted himself mid-sentence with a cry of pain as something suddenly stabbed him through his arm. Normally, it wouldn't do much other than get his attention, but this case was different, and as they was about to find out, much, much worse.
"Oh, why hello there again you two. Thought the stupid caravan was gonna trick us?!"
Metaveil stood a few feet away from them on the cliffside, slowly looming over them. Bits of bloodstone shards were visible on his garments, and his eyes practicallyglowed a sickening red from it. Sure enough, he threw one of those shards at Dorty, anchoring his arm to the ground there. On his back was a series of shards sticking out, which he had possibly stuck there himself.
"Well?" Metaveil turned to the side, glaring down at Dorty. He didn't see Sajessia firming her grip on Dorty's shoulders. "How do I look? Better than last time?"
"Honestly-" Dorty winced in pain, trying to make a grab for the bloodstone that was lodged in his arm. "-it sucks. I got a question though, how they heck did you get -HIM- up here?"
Looking behind himself, Jukkerbaut leaned casually against the wall of the cliff, the lifeless helmet starring them down.
"Oh trust me you do -not- want to know how I manag-"
Just as Metaveil was turning back around, Sajessia lunged out from behind Dorty to try and smack Metaveil with the torch. Sure, his magical and physical power was much, much stronger, but his reaction time was about the same. He took a blast of fire from the torch as he staggered backwards, brushing off the flames before angrily charging at her.
Sajessia stuck the torch into the ground next to her and Dorty, before whipping out her glaive and taking a defensive stance as Metaveil swung both daggers of his overhead down on the poor asura. She managed to block it, though his physical strength was out-matching hers, and as he slowly managed to push his daggers closer and closer to her, she had to come up with an idea fast.
Thinking of ways to help Dorty out of his current situation, and considering Metaveil's thirst for bloodstone magic, she came up with the only good idea she could come up in the short period of time. She suddenly dodged back a few steps, watching Metaveil stumble forward. Before he knew what was happening, she ducked under him, shoving the pole part of her weapon upward into him, launching him up and over her, and as she had hoped, right onto the shard in Dorty's hand.
Landing on said shard, Metaveil gasped and coughed a few times, before he began absorbing the magic in it without really trying to. The extra strength let him push himself back up, ripping the spend shard out of Dorty's arm. The wound he had, meanwhile, quickly healed itself.
"Oh, you made a poor, poor choice, little girl." He scowled, marching towards her.
Unfortunately, everything from her idea had gone out according to plan. Before Metaveil took more than five steps towards her, Dorty had climbed back up, freed from the shard anchoring him to the ground, and grabbed the sylvari's leg out from under them, making Metaveil fall flat on his face.
"Thanks Sej!" Dorty exclaimed as he pulled back on Metaveil, then swinging overhead, smashing the sylvari into the ground. After that, he spun around once with Metaveil flailing around, before throwing him on a direct course for Jukkerbaut's head.
Metaveil spun madly as he bonked Jukkerbaut exactly where Dorty wanted to throw him, sliding down the large helmet. Now, Jukkerbaut was pretty annoyed by having his 'friend' thrown at him, so naturally he wasn't gonna lug around anymore, waiting for the right moment to attack. Pulling out their greatsword, Jukkerbaut slowly approached the two asura.
"Well, if we keep climbing, Jukkerbaut can't really follow us at least!" Dorty yelled, running for the path that winded upward.
Sajessia grabbed the torch and quickly followed, sensing it was the right path, but once again they were running from Metaveil and Jukkerbaut, and being more focused on out-running them by focusing on the path ahead of them left them more vulnerable from behind.
Jukkerbaut appeared to have learned some new moves, as while the two asura ran up the cliffside, Jukkerbaut grabbed the side of the cliff, slowly heaving themselves up. He was moving at the same pace as Dorty was earlier, but the sheer size of him make it all the more faster for climbing. He quickly caught up on the two asura ascending the cliff, and with one hand anchoring into the cliff-face, he swung his greatsword with the other into the ground ahead of them.
Sajessia stopped quickly enough to only get a blast of rocks and dust in her face as the weight of the greatsword shattered the path ahead of them. Seeing Jukkerbaut pull back to ready another swing, she tried to tackle Dorty out of the way, but her light weight only let her awkwardly glomp him.
Dorty got the idea though, and he quickly dodged to the left towards the wall as Jukkerbaut swung again, shattering the path beneath them. He grabbed the side of the cliff and started climbing, faster than before. He hated the fact the adrenaline boost was from the magic of the bloodstone that stabbed through his arm, because too much of it was either going to kill him or make him crazy, or make him crazy and then kill him.
Jukkerbaut glanced down at a shouting Metaveil, shaking his fist at the mechanical charr.
"You forgot me! Climb back down and-"
Jukkerbaut let out a mechanized roar, which probably translated to "Do it yourself, weed!". The roar echoed around the entire upper part of the mountains, causing a minor avalanche which quickly came upon them.
Sajessia quickly tried to manipulate a rock large enough to shelter them from the falling snow over their heads, and while it did block the incoming snow, it weighed down the rock, weakening the grip of her magic on it. Once it got too heavy, though by that time most of the snow had passed, she heaved it at Jukkerbaut. The rock hit Jukkerbaut in the head, scratching the helmet, before falling down more and almost hitting Metaveil as well while he was climbing up after them, before falling down the mountainside, impacts echoing all around.
The storm was suddenly picking up, howling loudly across the landscape. Dorty threw Sajessia up the rest of the way to a massive outcrop on the side of the mountain. She barely managed to grip onto the side of the ledge, anchoring the torch into the ground there to pull herself up. With the weight of the torch no longer weighing him down, Dorty quickly ascended the rest of the climb, using the torch to also pull himself up.
Looking up to the east, Sajessia finally saw the cave that she saw in her vision, though it was frozen over by the ice. "It's up there!" She pointed at it for Dorty to see.
"Huh, need me to throw you up or-" He blurted out, the howl of the storm making it harder to hear things, but before he could finish his sentence, a heavy scraping of metal shattered the rest of the noise, and Jukkerbaut heaved himself up a massive distance with a huge leap, landing on the outcrop. Metaveil shortly launched up after, landing to the side of him.
"Sorry, Dorty, but this is where you both die!" Metaveil laughed menacingly.
Jukkerbaut let out another metallic roar, causing another mini avalanche that missed them this time.
"Do that again, Jukkerbaut." Dorty snickered. "I dare ya."
Jukkerbaut threw his head back again, but this time a more chilling screech came from all around them. It was enough for Dorty's ears to perk and Sajessia's to droop in fear.
"Ooooo, nice one." Metaveil laughed, elbowing the charr.
"Uhh... Metaveil..?" Sajessia whimpered, edging away slowly from them.
"...that... was definitely not Jukkerbaut." Dorty finished her sentence, then turned to bolt with her for the cave, getting the torch from her.
"Hey! Get back he-" Metaveil started stomping towards them, but he only made it so far before a blast of ice showered from overhead, forcing him to turn around.
Dorty was definitely right when he said it wasn't Jukkerbaut; it was a Claw of Jormag that had heard the first roar of the charr, and flew over to attack. Poised to attack again, it reared its head back.
"-nopenopenopeNOPENOPENOPENOPE!" Metaveil actually panicked, fleeing with his arms in the air with Jukkerbaut following shortly after him as the breath of the dragon came down upon them. It missed Metaveil, but it stuck to the back of Jukkerbaut, messing up a few circuits inside him.
Due to the presence of the Claw, Icebrood were suddenly appearing around them, attempting to hunt them down. Unfortunately, the sheer altitude of the cliff made it hard for most of the Icebrood to keep up, if not lethal. The Claw summoned corrupted wolves from above to attack, but they bounced off the cliff to their death. The real threat came from the griffons that it summoned, which flew around them and shot chunks of ice at them.
Most the commotion was against Jukkerbaut and Metaveil, but a few griffons flew after Dorty and Sajessia. Dorty hurled a crystal at one, hitting it spot-on and knocking it out of the sky, while one coming in from ahead dive-bombed them, only to blasted through by Sajessia's magic. A third one flew down from behind however, talons out and open as it dove towards them.
"Sej watch-!" He didn't finish his sentence before it grabbed her by the shoulders, digging claws in her while she cried out in pain, going into her celestial form wouldn't help her here; it didn't protect her from direct contact with creatures. Dorty was quick enough to grab the griffon by one of its rear legs, but he was jerked up into the air with it as it flew.
Sajessia kicked around in hopes she would hit it, but in the end Dorty managed to stab it and save her. She was grabbed around the waist as she was pulled out of the grip of the talons, watching the thing fall lifelessly down the side of the mountain. With some relief, she found that Dorty had managed to land them right outside the cave, the door in sight behind the wall of ice.
"Okay, gimmi a sec, this'll help ya..." Dorty dragged her over to set her down against the wall, then held the torch up to her shoulders. The fire started melting part of the ice behind her, but more importantly it was melting the ice that was in her shoulders, and the magic slowed the bleeding enough to where it was just a tiny dribble of blood. "There, better?"
Sajessia nodded, trying to hug him, but there was no time for that. Still crying from the quickly-fading pain, she scooted over to the side so Dorty could start melting the ice.
Dorty wasn't sure how to melt a wall of ice with the torch, other than holding it up to it, but he needed to get rid of the wall quick before Metaveil and Jukkerbaut caught up, or more Icebrood. After a few moments, he simply jabbed the wall with the torch, getting thrown back from a sudden explosion from the head of the torch as the wall of ice was absolutely obliterated. He slid back a few feet, thankfully stopping before he would have fallen off into the darkness below. The only bad part there, was that the torch had burnt out from the burst, leaving them with little to no source of warmth. It was a good thing they had the Thaw Elixirs, otherwise they would soon become frozen.
Sajessia quickly shuffled over to the door once she saw Dorty was alright. She pulled the medallion out from under her shirt, looking for the imprint that matched it on the door.
"Sej, hurry up and get that thing open, they're getting kinda close!" Dorty yelled over at her.
Sure enough, despite having to deal with a hoard of Icebrood and even a Claw, the two hunters were getting progressively closer to them by the minute. Metaveil glared their way when he had the chance, before cutting down another minion.
Finally finding the imprint in the door, Sajessia pressed the metal part of the medallion up to it. Patterns on the door began to light up from that spot, melting off some ice that Dorty had missed. After a few seconds, the door was starting to slide upwards into the ceiling, and she quickly pulled the medallion out. "Come on, it's open!" She motioned him to follow.
Charging into the cave, Dorty narrowly avoided a blast of bloodstone shards from a Metaveil, who was almost right on top of them. Sajessia pulled a lever once Dorty had got in under the door, and it quickly started to slide shut.
"Oh no you don't!" Metaveil shouted, throwing more shards at the door, one landing below where it was closing. As soon as he reached it, however, it closed, crushing the shards that Metaveil tried to use to prop the door open.
Dorty was practically panting from exhaustion, looking over at Sajessia, who shared a similar look with him. "Heh... uh... hehe..." He laughed a little.
Sajessia nodded back, giggling a little herself. "Well, I guess that's that." She stepped over to him to try and give him a hug.
Gladly accepting said hug, Dorty shook his fist at the door. "Take that, Meta-!"
The cavern shook as bits of rock came off of the door, a small crack now visible on the surface on their side. Stopping the hug was pretty easy as the took a few steps back, glancing at each other.
"Okay, so, you probably know what I'm gonna ask, right?" She nervously nodded her head.
"...oh heck yeah I do." He grumbled, turning towards the door and pulling his sword out. "Just get done with this quick, kay?"
"No guarantees, but, I'll try my best." She ran over to Dorty, giving him one last hug before bolting for the altar.
Outside, Jukkerbaut smashed into the heavy stone door yet again, very slowly but surely breaking it down. Unfortunately, both him and Metaveil were under constant assault from the Claw and its minions. Metaveil threw a few fireballs at the door as well, but they were almost absorbed by a strange force-field, proving to be ineffective, requiring purely Jukkerbaut's brute force to open.
Inside, Dorty's eyes shifted between the breaking door and the asura running up the little stairs on the side of the structure in the middle. He kept his sword pointed at the door, ready for Jukkerbaut to breach the thing.
Sajessia slid to a halt in the very center of the altar, medallion hanging on her neck as she quickly sat down, this time on her knees rather than crossing her legs. It wasn't as comfortable, but she didn't have time to do that anyways, so she quickly went to meditating on the spot she sat at, the last part of her journey she needed to do. She relaxed, despite the pain she was in, her wings went limp and flopping to either side as she started.
Dorty took his gaze off of the door for a moment, watching Sajessia go into meditation. All he needed to do was hold off a bloodstone-crazed sylvari, a mechanical charr, and a hoard of Icebrood with Claw included long enough for her to finish whatever she needed to do, and keep them from touching her. He paced over to the center of the room, ignoring the next bash against the door as he looked around the cavern, admiring it. He looked up at Sajessia, who looked so calm despite what was going on, making him smile a little. Looking back at the door, he narrowed his eyes, grinning a little.
"Alright then, Metaveil, so we're gonna play the corruption game then, huh? Two can play at that game."
Dorty conjured up a few corrupted shards of his own, looking around the cavern, he threw them at the side of the wall close to the entrance, out of initial sight.
Sajessia found herself standing, rather than floating, on something in space. What she stood on was a faint outline of all of the details and such of the altar she was on in the real world. In her celestial form again, she looked around the place she stood on, unsure what to expect.
After a few moments, a large star came down from above, hovering above the platform. She ran over to the center of the platform, not exactly underneath it, but close enough. The star began to fade, beams of light shooting out from it, until it turned into many wisps of light which flew down in front of her, before combining together, glowing brightly.
She watched the light grow, brighter and brighter, noticing -something- was forming inside it. Two feet, talons included, a pair of wings, tail feathers, and a head were all she needed to see to know it. The light finished glowing with one final bright burst before fading to reveal the thing that was there. It was a bird, only it was made of pure starlight, with miniature stars inside it like a constellation, two for the eyes. They were perhaps a little larger than Trytamer, so they still towered over her, obviously.
"Hai Jii p..." She awkwardly waved at the Phoenix. "So... this is it? The end?"
"Yes, it is the end of your journey." He spoke, pacing over to the side of her. "It is where your fate is determined. Though I don't mean that in a 'I am going to kill you' way."
"I assumed that much." Sajessia bowed before him, looking up at the Celestial. "I'm... going to guess I need to fight you?"
"Yes, you know it wasn't going to be as simple as walking up to me and asking if I could fully restore your powers. Yes, we will fight, but first..."
Hai Jii suddenly spread his wings out, sending out strands of light all around, forming a dome around them. Meanwhile, in the real world, while Dorty was still preparing for Jukkerbaut to breach the door, the same dome (only smaller) appeared, protecting Sajessia from harm.
"There, now there will be no interruptions." Hai looked down at the little asura calmly, taking a battle stance, or at least as much of one as a bird could do.
"Just, one question before we start?" Sajessia held her hands behind her back.
"What happens if I lose?"
"Losing is an option here, but it will get you nowhere." Hai looked up at the endless space above them. "If you lose, you may try again, and again, until you finally beat me. Take your time, maybe even another year if need be to prepare. You're free to leave this vision, you know."
"Well, we're a tad short on time, and even if I'm safe in this dome, Dorty isn't." She made a grab for her glaive, only to realize she didn't have it. It was magic-only what they were about to do. "So... I will do my best to win. Just do me a favor when I do, and restore my magic as soon as you can. I'm allowed to ask questions later, yes?"
"Any time you need, I'm there."
"Okay." She took a step back, pacing in the direction opposite the way Hai was pacing before, then stood up straight and conjured up a little star in her hands.
"Time to end this." She declared.
Dorty took a few steps back from the altar, admiring the work he had done to the place. On the front side, he had scarred corrupted crystals all over, from the wall to the ceiling, to a few parts of the floor, leaving space to maneuver. On the side with the altar and Sajessia, he simply left unchanged to make sure cleaning up afterward was easier.
Another loud crash was heard as a crack now appeared in the door, light shining through as Jukkerbaut delivered another blow. The door was almost down, at least enough for Metaveil and maybe a few dragon minions to fit through. Jukkerbaut, however, was just too massive to fit, so he would be stuck outside with the rest of the minions and the Claw.
Deep down, despite hating both of them much, Dorty felt sorry for Jukkerbaut. It sounded strange, really, but it was easy to tell they weren't in control, they never were when they were like this. He was just a charr who probably had a bad life, then got roasted, and was reanimated by the asura who actually wanted to kill Dorty. So in reality, Jukkerbaut was just mindlessly following orders, unable to retaliate or anything mentally.
One final bash was all that was needed to punch down the door, and Jukkerbaut delivered that punch. The side of the door crumbled, leaving a gap wide enough for Metaveil to finally squeeze though. It took him a few moments to rush over to the entrance, dodging under the mechanical charr. He got between the gap just as Jukkerbaut was pinned down by an icebrood ogre, greatsword out of reach for reasons unknown.
"Hehe, sorry 'friend', but you're on your own." Metaveil laughed as he squeezed the rest of the way in. "Oh don't worry, I'll kill Dorty for you!" He let out one more laugh before trotting inside, leaving the charr for dead to the hands of the Icebrood.
"Finally!" He said as he stepped into the center of the short hallway that was connected to the central chamber. He fired off bloodstone shards into the walls around him, sprouting crystals of bloodstones that, after a few moments, turned into elementals of that kind. He didn't even know he could do that, yet he just did.
Dorty stood at the end of the hallway, right near the center of the place. Looking up, Metaveil could see Sajessia inside some kind of golden dome, eyes closed. Dorty's head was lowered before he got there, and he was staying like that as Metaveil approached.
"So, about time you showed up." He didn't bother looking up, he knew what was there.
"Dorty, Dorty, Dorty. Dirty Dorty? Ahem, whatever. Anyways, you're time has come. I hope you accept death with open arms, cause I'm him!"
Dorty slowly drew his sword out, tapping the tip of it on the cavern floor. "Ey, Meta, I know you're pretty lousy for a baddie, and even still you fail to realize some things."
"Ha! Like what, that you have a trap? You got nothing here, Dort, nothing."
"Well, listen here, Meta. Like you, I don't know everything you can do." He finally raised his head a little, pulling out a piece of fabric from his pocket.
"So, what's your point, that you're a loser?" Metaveil took a few more steps forward.
Little did he know, that while he himself had bloodstone elementals as minions, he forgot one detail that was the most obvious: Dorty was part-dragon in terms of corruption. Likewise, he had the abilities of a dragon, and as Metaveil had his small group of elementals to fight with him, he didn't see the minions that Dorty had hidden behind the corners while he was waiting, all poised to strike as soon as their master willed it.
"My point is, you don't know everything -I- can do, either." He held up the fabric for the sylvari to see, a glowing emblem on the center of it which Metaveil wasn't familiar with. Dorty swung it around for a few moments, before putting it over his face, tying it behind his head; a blindfold.
Metaveil nearly gagged in laughter, lifting a finger in questioning. "Wh-what? You want to fight me -BLIND-!?" He stuttered, still cracking up.
"Did I stutter like you just did there?" He lowered his brows in unamusement, the emblem on the front, resembling an eye (it was a Revenant symbol, after all), mimicked this action.
Metaveil started cracking up even more, before he realize there was magic at play. He straightened up, and took one more step towards the asura, and at the same time willing his elementals to attack.
That was all Dorty needed to start. With the elementals and Metaveil charging straight at him, he willed his own minions to attack. First, a scorpion lunged at Metaveil, striking him in the leg only to be thrown off in his surprise. Before he could react, the other minions were already on top of his elementals. Fighting his heavy ones were crystalline goliaths and the scorpion, and fighting the flying elementals were some snakes and hawks, all corrupted of course.
"What is this!?" Metaveil demanded, staring down Dorty.
"Eh, well it doesn't seem fair if you bring an army and I don't, so I made my own while you guys were hammering away at the door, so now we're even." He held his sword up at Metaveil, knowing he was there despite not seeing him. "Wanna dance?"
"Wh- I came here to kill you, not get in a dance-off!"
"That's not what I meant." He ducked a little as one of his minions threw a bloodstone elemental over his head.
"Oh. Well, today I learned dance has more than one meaning. Fine then, Dorty, let us quote-on-quote 'dance'.
Metaveil lunged forward, a bit too overconfident in himself as Dorty dodged around to land a swipe on the sylvari's leg. Turning around, he lunged again, going for the side this time rather than the head, but Dorty easily parried it. He quickly retaliated with a kick that aimed for the best place to hit Metaveil, which was right between his legs, based on past evidence.
A metallic 'clang' was only heard as his boot made contact with the pants there, so Dorty didn't have to guess what Metaveil had done.
"Yeah, I got my pants reinforced. Like it?" Metaveil snorted, building up a fireball to throw at him.
"Meh, could be better, that's just iron there." He flicked his wrist and fired out a shard which hit the oncoming fireball, causing an explosion between them. Before the smoke could settle, Dorty was already on top of Metaveil, ready to throw another few blows his way.
Metaveil tried his best, but only managed to block a single blow, Dorty lacerating his arms in the process. The bloodstone shards in him, however, quickly healed them up, leaving him in the same condition, if not just slightly worse than before.
"You do realize you can't kill me, right? I'm invincible, you're not." Metaveil cackled.
"Not really, just hard to kill." He glanced over at Sajessia, the back at the sylvari. "Besides, I just gotta hold off long enough until it's a two-v-one against you."
While Dorty and Metaveil fought in the real world, and Jukkerbaut was continuously pummeled by the Icebrood, Sajessia and Hai Jii were finally battling it out in the astral realm. Their battle consisted more of throwing the very heavens at each other, as both hurled stars, miniature black holes, and beams of light at each other.
Hai Jii was much bigger than Sajessia, so he was more durable, but also an easier target to hit, while Sajessia herself was physically weak, but her size made her all the more difficult to fight against. Twice already she had rolled under the Phoenix to deliver a blow, but only once during the whole fight up to this point did Hai manage to land a blow against her via talons. Nothing here would carry over to reality, however.
Sajessia charged up another beam of light, which shot out from her palm at Hai Jii, who dodged it and retaliated with his own beam. The Phoenix threw out a spread of feathers in an attack that was difficult to avoid. Sajessia was struck through the torso by one, but she grabbed the rest with her magic, hurling them back through Hai Jii, who staggered back from the blows.
Sajessia panted, though there wasn't much to breath here, she still did anyways. Hai Jii held a wing over his injured form, glaring at her. She glared back, nodding in understanding what came next.
Hai Jii started to concentrate his magic into his wings and tail feathers, which visually glowed brighter as he did so. At the same time, Sajessia did the same thing, only with her hands instead of a tail, because while she did have wings, asura just didn't have tails. She took a deep breath, holding it in, the slowly exhaling as her arms and wings lit up, looking up at Hai Jii, who was poised to make their move. She was also ready, all she was doing was waiting for the perfect moment.
Suddenly, both of them fired out continuous beams of light at each other, Sajessia's slightly brighter, and Hai's more golden in color. Both could practically feel the magic in the other while the beams connected, trying to assert dominance over the others. Three lines of energy, one from each tip of Hai's wings, and one from the tip of his tail, connected in front of them forming his laser. Meanwhile, Sajessia had four strands of magic fueling into the beam coming from her magic, though with almost the same amount of power Hai had.
With less power than Hai, although that was to be expected, she found herself being overpowered by his magic, as his beam was pushing hers back. At the current rate, if she didn't come up with an idea soon, she would get blasted and lose. She had already used most of, if not all of her known abilities, so what was she missing? Did she just need to let go and catch Hai off-guard, or was it something else?
With time being the essence and the opposing beam quickly getting closer, Sajessia looked down while struggling to hold it at bay. While doing this, she got a look at her own soul, which was also a star, which was glowing brighter and brighter as she kept up during the fight. She glanced back up at her opponent, then back down, suddenly having an idea flicker in her head, one that she never tried before, but would it work? It was either she risk letting out against the beam and try to dodge it, possibly getting injured enough to lose, or run out of time to retaliate, leaving her with having to try her plan, since now was the perfect moment to strike back.
She lowered one of her hands down to her torso, weakening her beam further as Hai's grew closer much faster now. She felt the heat of her soul continuing to grow hotter, and she tried to take hold of that. With a magical grasp and a tug, and what might have been a small explosion...
...Sajessia pulled her own soul out of herself, which pulsated powerfully enough for even Hai Jii to feel from his angle. She quickly held it up between her two hands and wings, which not only restored the strength of her beam in time before Hai's would hit her, but also further strengthened it, and now she was pushing his beam back.
All she needed was that last, final push, and she was about to deliver that. Once she had his beam far back enough, she suddenly pulled her arms and wings back, severely weakening her beam, but not for long. Before the Phoenix could get his beam back at her, Sajessia suddenly brought everything she had, arms, legs and wings, forward upon her soul-star, crying out from the powerful sensation that hit her as her beam suddenly grew absolutely massive, obliterating the one Hai Jii was attacking with, and striking him into the wall of the dome, pinning him there during the all-mighty finishing move. She practically felt own strength, memories, and willpower washing over herself in numerous pulses as she finished the fight. Her beam quickly began to shrink, her hold on her beam leaving her as in her vision she suddenly reverted back to her original asuran form, falling to the ground backwards, her soul-star floating down to softly land atop her chest. She closed her eyes as she relaxed in victory.
Hai Jii was bested, and although he was greatly beaten by the attack, he quickly regained all of his strength, mostly due to being a god, after all. He flew over to where Sajessia was laying, watching her pant in exhaustion.
"Sssshhhhhhh... you've done well, you should be proud of yourself." He held the tip of his wing up to her mouth, making her stop panting heavily, breathing through her nose instead. He then moved his wing down, over to the little soul on top of her, brushing over it and infusing it with more of his magic. "When you wake up, you'll be reborn, and you'll be among the many shielding the innocent from the horrors that lay in wait in Tyria, do you understand?"
"...Yes..." She said weakly, but in much understanding. The last move had taken most of the strength out of her, but that would quickly change soon enough.
Once Hai had finished restoring her powers, he gently pressed on her soul until it phased back inside her. All at once, a new warmth was filling her, one she was not familiar with as new magic coursed through her. "-oh..." She winced a little from the sensations all throughout her as she started lighting up in the same, if not similar, glow that Hai Jii was always in.
Back in the real world, after some moments of the medallion around her neck glowing, it would suddenly burst into a dozen of wisps of light, which spread out within the dome. Sajessia herself would slowly start floating upwards a yard or two, before stopping as the wisps of light circled around her. Soon though, the bright floating lights changed their course in unison, gradually approaching the asura to the point where they started fusing with her, spinning her around with them as their light spread across her entire form, until she was completely engulfed in the blinding glows, causing her body to turn a blinding-glowing white. For a brief moment, she remained like that arms outstretched a little to her sides, palms facing outwards from her, shortly before beams of the heavenly light pierced from her very body and flooded the entire room in the magical light!
Too caught up in the fight to see it coming, Metaveil yelled in confusion and pain as the light bounced around under his mask, making it near impossible to see. Dorty could still see the light even through his blindfold, and felt the immense heat coming from her as well. He lifted up his blindfold and turned to look her way, while Metaveil was still dazed and recovering.
When the light faded, or at least enough to the point the chamber was back to its normal brightness almost, Sajessia was left floating in the center, maintaining the same pose she was in when she was floating upwards initially, only now one of her legs hung down while the other was held up a little. That was the least important detail, however, as she had completely changed almost. Her golden, starlight form (much like Hai Jii's) shown brightly all over the chamber, her eyes literal stars when she finally opened them again, beholding the world from a new point of view. On top of all of that, her wings had finally grown to maximum length, sharing the same translucency and glow as the rest of her form, though that would probably change soon enough. Even her hair had grown in length from the transformation.
Dorty was mildly dumbfounded by all of this, though before he had the moment to congratulate her, Metaveil finally broke out of his dazed state, glaring up at Sajessia.
"Oh- come o- what even -is- this?!" Metaveil threw his hands in the air, unsure what to make of the floating asura.
"Well..." Sajessia wondered in a slightly wispy voice that reflected her current form, "...it's a long story, but I was born so many years ago, a lot longer than you have been around, and I already had this magic. I just wasn't trained into using it, so after I woke up again a... has it been a year already? Wow, time flies... hey are you two even listening to me?"
Metaveil had lunged at Dorty and reengaged their previous duel, swinging his daggers at the asura. "Does it look like I care, faker?"
Sajessia raised a brow a little, "Faker?"
"Yeah, you heard me! You're not a god, I am! You think with your wimpy little light-body that you're automatically as good as I am, well you are wrong!" Metaveil leapt back away from Dorty, and threw a fireball at her.
Sajessia didn't even bother getting out of the way; the fireball passed right through her like she wasn't there, which only made Metaveil gap in utter confusion. He fired again, this time for her to roll out of the way through the air, and suddenly retaliate with a thrown star.
As soon as the star hit the ground, it exploded in a brilliant flash, throwing Metaveil back into the opposing wall. It also pushed Dorty back as well, in the opposite direction, but he stuck the landing unlike the sylvari.
Sajessia flew down to hover next to Dorty, smiling at him, and giving him a small wave.
"Yeah, hi." He smiled a little himself. "Uhh, should we leave thanks for later or..?"
"Yeah, maybe later." She flicked her wrist, shooting out a beam of light, purposefully missing just so Metaveil could see the power of it as it burnt a large hole into the wall next to him.
"Oh, you just made me mad." Metaveil held his hands close together as he started to channel up all of his magic into a giant, bloodstone-infused fireball. It started out small between them, but as he extended his arms upward and out, the fireball grew more and more in size until it was about the size of the altar nearby.
"Hey Dorty, wanna see me embarrass him?" Sajessia giggled.
Dorty's eyes shifted between her and the massive fireball being made. "Sure."
Nodding, she stepped over in front of him, poised and ready to retaliate. She spread her wings out to the maximum length, arms to one side as she prepared her next move.
After a few more moments of Metaveil's consistent shouting as he built his attack up, he finally got it as big as he needed it to be, and heaving it back over his head, threw it at the two asura.
Dorty legitimately hid behind Sajessia as the giant fireball rolled towards them through the air in an arc, though it moved rather slowly. Suddenly, at the top of the arc, Sajessia flashed over in front of it... and slapped it. Rather than having it explode in her face, the force of her attack sent it hurling back at Metaveil, whose only response was a weak "What-" before the fireball hit him, exploding in a massive blast that filled the entire other side of the cavern.
While the smoke was clearing, she hovered back down next to Dorty, shrugging at him.
"Sej... wow uhh..." He had no clue what to say, only laughing out loud after a few moments of registering what had just happened.
"Was that cool or what?" She asked, perking her ears, smiling.
"Heck yeah, it was! Hey if you can get the chance to do it again, do it again, I just like watching him freak out."
Metaveil slowly got up, quickly healing as he glared at the two asura, moaning. "...how... in the world did you do that..?"
"Well, okay I'm going to clarify two things, Metaveil." She held up a finger while she talked. "One, you're right about me being a god, because I'm not a god, I'm a deity. It's... kind of a lesser god or something. Speaking of, two, you're not a god or even a deity like myself."
"Oh- just die already!" Metaveil leapt into the air, landing to shatter the ground around him, lifting up the rocks as he was about to hurl them at Sajessia.
A small, concentration of light suddenly appeared in front of her. Right as Metaveil threw the rocks their way, she pulled off the same massive beam attack she used on Hai Jii, piercing through the rocks and blasting through Metaveil, pinning him against the cavern wall for the whole duration, burning his clothes and part of his skin. It would have normally obliterated him, but she hadn't pumped out -all- of her power into that one attack, so she meant for it to be weaker.
"Okay, forget what I said earlier, -THAT- was way cooler." Dorty whistled, leaning on his sword.
Metaveil was pushed so hard into the wall by the beam that it left an indentation of his pinned form on it. A few moments later, he flopped down onto the floor face-first, moaning in pain that was quickly healing. The beam had burnt off his cloak, hood, and part of his pants, leaving him looking very ragged. His mask was still on his face, though it was visibly burnt to a crisp and almost about to crack apart, and sitting on top of his head, initially hidden under his hood, was the bloodstone crown empowering him.
"Mmm..." Sajessia looked herself over, brushing her arms and wings off from the attack.
"Something wrong?" Dorty tilted his head.
"No, I'm fine. I'm just kind of thinking I spent long enough in this form." She pointed at herself, "I'm gonna turn back, okay?"
"Eh, sure, Metaveil's still a wimp either way." He shrugged, then finger-gunned the sylvari staggering back onto his feet, wobbling off balance still.
With a simple nod, Sajessia hovered back down, until she touched the ground with one of her feet, followed by the other. As soon as she did this, her normal self began to reform back, starting at her feet and going up her form. She didn't even get halfway to changing back before Dorty realized she was already looking different, even like this. Her pants were replaced with part of a light coat that hung down to her knees, which had gold trimmings on the bottom edges. Her shirt was instead something that a battle-mage would wear, which left protection for her shoulders and the rest of her torso, though leaving her belly exposed (which shown her soul-star in a small, space-like area within her, so her belly looked like space). She wasn't wearing shoes now, but had some wrist guards on her arms, the one on her left arm slightly bigger for reasons to soon be unveiled, and white stardust covered her fingertips and the bottom of her feet.
Once her head returned to normal, followed by her wings, she completely changed back, and was still definitely a sight to behold. Unlike the rest of her, the only changes on her head were the bits of stardust that were in her hair, now glowing a golden glow, and her eyes, which also glowed the same way. She wore a simple, ornate mask that sat on her face, though it honestly wasn't much. As for her wings, aside from already reaching as big as they would go, the feathers had mostly, if not all of them, turned golden and translucent, glowing radiantly. The feathers that were white, pink, or purple were left unchanged closest to the ridges of her wings.
She pulled out her glaive, and even that had underwent a transformation as well. The edge and tip of the blade glowed with her magic, and a small space was cut through the blade in line with the pole, so that it was more one flat-backed blade followed by a smaller, actually curved blade behind it. A white star shown in a little chamber in her glaive, maybe for use in attacks. The rest of the glaive had become more ornate than previously, but retained most of its functionality.
"Soooo..." She was pretty much bugging Metaveil now as he got the strength back to glare at them. "Blade-fight?"
"Oh, definitely yes." Metaveil drew out both daggers, holding them out to the side, cracking his neck for a moment to relieve himself of the stress on it.
Dorty stood side-by-side with Sajessia, both pointing their weapons at him, then, he lowered his a little, perking a brow. "...heeeeeeey... what's that bloodstone thingy in your head?"
"Nothin'-!" Metaveil pulled his mask up just a little, to better cover the crown on his head.
"Oh no, it's definitely something." Dorty shook his head, though he let Sajessia attack first.
Teleporting over to the sylvari, she swung with her glaive right through the remains of his mask, watching it crumble under the streak she made, and revealing the crown on his head.
"It's nothing, honestly!" Metaveil pleaded, obviously lying as he kept a hand on his treasure while he tried his best to parry her attacks, yet she had the distance advantage with her pole-arm.
While Metaveil was busy with her, Dorty quietly crept up behind to try and tackle him to the ground, but it was a whole lot less easy than what he assumed. As soon as he clasped onto the sylvari, they started flailing around in an attempt to throw him off, accidentally stabbing himself once.
"GET. OFF. OF. ME." Metaveil shook, punching the asura in the face.
"Huh well then..." Dorty finally took hold of the crown on his head, poking the little lever that was on the side of it. "-nice knowing ya, ya stupid jerk."
Dorty pulled the lever, the bloodstone shards in Metaveil's head retracting back as the asura ripped the thing right off of their head. Golden sap tinged red with the magic of the shards bled out from the sylvari's head as he let out an unholy cry, staggering backward. He desperately grabbed for the holes in his head in an attempt to recover lost magic, but it was no use. He slipped over to the tunnel that led back outside.
Dorty jumped off of him, landing in the center of the chamber, then dashed into Metaveil in a blast of corrupted electricity as he tackled him straight through the door that led them inside in the first place. They rolled over each other a few times, until they were at the very edge of the small outcrop. Dorty grabbed the sylvari by the throat, and pinned him down with his head hanging over the ledge.
"Well wadaya know, this is a change of fate!" Dorty shrugged, before punching him in the face.
Metaveil couldn't retaliate, and he was left at the mercy of the asura on top of him, despite how hard he tried to get up, the loss of magic prevented him from retaliating. "You... suck..."
"Nah, you're the sucker. Hey, you looking for this?" Dorty held up the bloodstone crown in his free hand, keeping it in sight of the sylvari.
"-yes... give it to... me..." He tried to reach up and grab it, but Dorty stood up on him, holding it up just out of reach.
"Lemme make a suggestion that's bound to inspire plenty of people around Tyria -and- be an important life lesson you can relate to." He chuckled, then viciously glared at Metaveil, shortly before a 'crunch' was heard as his grip on the crown strengthened, shattering it. "Don't do bloodstones."
Sajessia's warning was heard too late as Jukkerbaut swiped at him with his plated hand, grabbing the asura in his grasp. Try as he might, he wasn't going to wiggle out, and Jukkerbaut brought him up to eye-level.
"...uhmm.... well..." Dorty gave an awkward smile at Jukkerbaut's emotionless head. "...okay, I'll admit, this is the first time this has ever happened."
Dorty wasn't alone, however. As soon as Metaveil struggled back up, and tried to grab for the crown, Jukkerbaut used his other hand to grab around the sylvari. He kicked and thrashed as he was held up next to the asura.
"Hey, let me go! We're friends, remember?" He nervously grinned up at the charr, feeling a sense of guilt. "Eheh, ehm... I was- I was just kidding about leaving you for dead, yaknow?"
That was obviously not going to work. The dagger that was originally stuck in his helmet was gone, and he was dented all over by the assault. In the end, the light from Sajessia's transformation scared the Icebrood off, effectively saving the charr from his demise.
Jukkerbaut turned his head toward the asura; the target, the one he was supposed to kill. In his other hand was the salad; the 'friend' who wanted to kill the asura as well. He shifted his gaze between the two, and suddenly, for the first time since forever had something he hadn't had for a long time: a thought. Sure, Dorty had dealt plenary of blows to him, but it was Zaxaxx who had ordered Jukkerbaut to attack them in the first place. This asura kept going good deeds, and Jukkerbaut's creator was a bad person with little care for life. Then there was the sylvari, who took over control from his creator over Jukkerbaut using the bloodstone shard, and then left him for dead.
With the crown out of Metaveil's head, however, he lost control over Jukkerbaut, which only left one person left: Jukkerbaut himself. The littlest bit of sense left in him was coming back to him, he stared at Dorty, who swallowed in slight nervousness.
Before Jukkerbaut could do anything else, Sajessia fired out another beam of light, which pierced clean through his armored form, missing all of the vital organs, but taking out a lot of decayed flesh with it, leaving a gaping hole straight through him. He staggered one foot to the right, stabilizing himself, then slowly turning to face the other asura.
"Uhh, Sej? I think you made him aannnng-?" Dorty started talking, but suddenly Jukkerbaut lowered the hand holding the asura hostage, and slid him back onto the ground. "...-gry?"
Jukkerbaut stood back up to full height, then shifted his head to stare at Metaveil, who now was struggling even more. "Hey, lemme go lemme go!" He wiggled around in his grasp, unable to escape, his fate essentially sealed.
Jukkerbaut turned to look off from the edge of the outcrop, down at the calming storm and retreating dots in the distance. He stood like that as Metaveil continued to thrash and curse in his hand, which he held closer to the massive torso he had, unable to feel the life fading away from himself.
After a few more moments, Jukkerbaut turned to glance back at the two asura behind him, looking up at him with curiosity. Lifting his free hand, Jukkerbaut legitimately did the slowest of waves at them, before turning to face off the ledge again.
Peering down at the sylvari and the sheer distance below, Jukkerbaut held their head up high, and then sparked a few times, entering power-saving mode. The lights on his armor dimmed, he sulked down, his whole form went limp as he stood on the ledge, his grasp the only thing not going limp as he powered off.
"Wh-what are you doing?" Metaveil stuttered, glancing around desperately looking for a means of escape, but this was it for them.
Very slowly, gravity took its toll on Jukkerbaut, and he slowly lurched forward, until...
"Jukkerbaut- WAKE UP WAKE UUUAAAAAAAAaaaaa-" Metaveil's scream trailed off as the massive charr holding him tilted off the cliffs edge, throwing them both down to a seemingly guarantee death. Dorty and Sajessia ran up to the ledge to watch them fall, and they watched until they had lost sight of them.
Even still, they kept looking down at where they fell, then slowly looked back up at each other, then back down. "Wow... that was a climatic end for them." Sajessia exclaimed.
"At least they won't be a problem anymore." Dorty sighed, smiling a little.
"Why does it sound like you didn't want this to happen?" She perked a brow.
"Oh, nah I'm totally fine with what just happened." He turned and shuffled away from the cliffs edge. "Just... Jukkerbaut could've easily taken me with them, and he didn't. I guess messing up Metaveil fixed him up as well."
"So... you're happy knowing Jukkerbaut doesn't have to forcefully try and kill us anymore?"
"That's one thing, I guess."
Sajessia skipped over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder, warmth spreading from the touch. "So, now what?"
"Eh, I kinda wanna take a nap, get some well-deserved rest, yaknow?" He smiled a little at her, then looked over to the left of the cave entrance at a small path going along the edge of the mountain. "Random walk because why not?"
"Sure, I guess I need to relax a little too." She kept next to Dorty while he took the first few steps forward on the trail.
They didn't talk much while they walked, simply admiring the view, though Dorty was more admiring Sajessia herself in a way he didn't realize before. The storm had finally cleared up, replaced with a calm breeze as the snowfall stopped. Sajessia heat her hand on his shoulder, leaning on it gently.
At the very end of the path was what might have been the nicest spot in the Shiverpeaks, which was a neatly constructed vista of sorts with rocks set up all around, and two sakura trees, one in the center and another on the edge on the other side. The wind brew the pink petals off of the trees, as they drifted off into the air.
Dorty sat in front of a rock that was right next to the base of the tree in the center, scooting over a few inches so Sajessia could sit next to him, sighing with relief. She wrapped her right wing around him, sighing again as she leaned on him. He leaned back on her a little himself, wrapping an arm around to pull themselves closer together.
"So... this is it, huh? The end of this little journey of ours." Dorty spoke.
"Yeah, it is." She replied, smiling.
"Hey, just so you know, I actually -was- listening earlier, unlike a certain lousy sylvari." He chuckled.
"I was... kind of caught up in the moment there, it's just... wow, I'm still comprehending all of this, just so much to take in..."
"Hmm, not sure if I wanna say something or not now..."
"Huh? You can say it, I'm listening."
"Pf- nah, it- it's stupid." He glanced away, blushing.
"Why did you bring it up then?"
Dorty let out a tired sigh, glancing over at the asura cuddled up with him. "Just... don't kill me when I say it, alright?"
Sajessia's ears drooped, expecting something bad, but she nodded. "Go on..."
Dorty took a long breath, before suddenly blurting out really fast "Okay I think you're really pretty and I may or may not be in love with you okay there I said it-!" He gasped for breath, tensing up a little.
Sajessia's ears perked all the way up, her eyes widening while she registered what he just said. Love? Did he really care for her that much, more than just a friend then? It was quick to comprehend; she realized she also shared this love without really realizing it, for what might have been months, even before starting their trip.
What she did next was enough to confuse Dorty: She turned him around to face her, and completely hugged him, arms and wings holding him close. He slowly relaxed, understanding what she was implying, letting out a breath.
"...I love you too, Dorty." She leaned up and pecked a kiss on his cheek, which make him fluster red in embarrassment, though he was okay with it. He smirked a little from the affection, and Sajessia had a silly smile on her face as she hugged him.
After a few more moments of this exchange, Dorty's expression went more neutral, his ears perking back up while he looked down at his friend, or was it girlfriend now that they had basically confessed love for each other? He carefully put a hand on her shoulder, glancing nervously around, mostly at her though.
Sajessia figured out what he was trying to ask, since the first one hardly did them justice. She scooted up into his lap, putting her hands on his own shoulders and wrapping her wings around his back, so leaning up would be easier.
"...I... never really got to try this before..." Dorty blushed, "Then again, I'm not really worth loving-"
"No, you're perfectly fine, don't listen to what others say about you, I mean, if it's bad." She tilted her head a little to the side, cheeks flustered as well. Almost forgetting, she reached up and pulled her mask off of her face, showing off the rest of her beauty that it hid.
She pulled herself up a little, Dorty leaning down a little himself, and they shared their first kiss with anyone else. Surprised by the feeling, he closed his eyes a little, calmly accepting what was transpiring right now. Sajessia hugged a little tighter, closing her eyes as well, and booped his nose with hers. They kept this up for a few seconds, before finally breaking the kiss.
Scooting back a little, Sajessia loosening her grip around him while they resumed their previous positions sitting next to each other, except now they were both blushing immensely. She leaned back on him, wrapping her wing back around him, and tried to grab his hand.
Dorty already guessed what she was trying to do, so before she could grab his hand, he move it for her, holding hers and entwining his fingers with hers, smiling down at her.
Looking down at the hand-thing they were doing, she looked back up at him, truly happy about everything right now. She rested her head on his shoulder, wiggling her ear a little to pat him with it. "Thank you."
Dorty looked out over the horizon from their little vista point. Everything was so nice, yet sooner or later they would have to go home, but that was the easy part. Watching the petals fall from above, he used his spare hand to pick some off from the ground, and then run said hand through her hair, leaving the petals in it, then just to make it even, threw a few on top of himself.
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