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The darkness swam around the princess like black ocean waves.
"Where did she take me?" She asked herself standing up to take in her new surroundings assessing everything possible.
"Now it's just you and me," Nephillo sneered a few feet away from the princess.
Amelia looked out through the wavy black fog at the muzuko and saw the same distinctive cold gleam in her eyes.
"Did you really think he'd stay with you? That your plan would work?" Amelia shouted.
"It would have, if you hadn't interfered," Nephillo snarled. The muzuko then shot out a sphere of energy that hurled across the black void at the princess.
The power of the sphere caught Amelia by surprise as it came toward her quickly, barely giving her enough time to erect a shield as it pushed her away.
"Looks like she's not playing games anymore," Amelia thought as the darkness swelled around her, concealing her enemy.
"But I still haven't figured out how you saw through my spell, Bitch."
"Maybe that's because you're not as powerful as you'd like everyone to think."
"I am a lot more powerful then you are, brat." Nephillo said traveling through darkness to see where her prey had hidden.
"You're not very smart if you couldn't see how easily it was to see through your spell. ELEMIKA FLARE!!"
The spell propelled forward and hit Nephillo in the back pushing her to the ground. The muzuko recovered quickly and flew toward the source of the blast and began an assault of spells and punches, putting the princess on the offense.
"You stupid little girl, your spells and tricks will do you no good against me. This is MY realm. I control everything here, including how you die!" She smiled as black miasma shot out of her hands and wrapped around the princess's leg focusing on her reopened wound.
Amelia buckled under the pain and retreated into the darkness in an attempt to lose her adversary.
"My precious Liquid Nightmare is more then you can handle! Healing spells are useless so why don't you come out and die quietly, Bitch!"
"I'm really getting tired of her calling me that," Amelia grumbled through her pain as she stood up.
"Why don't you quit talking so much and start fighting," she shouted, concentrating her magic into her fists and legs. She charged through the darkness, found Nephillo and attacked.
She keep a tight fighting stance as she returned the muzuko's attack with swift, hard punches and kicks with her magically amplified arms and legs.
Nephillo continued with blocks and hits of her own, begrudgingly impressed with the princess's fighting ability. As their punches connected sparks flew lighting the darkness for brief seconds. Each combatant using as much strength and magic against the others attacks. Amelia came at her fast with swift kicks to the muzuko's mid-section and a few spin kicks to the face with incredible speed despite her injured leg.
"How the hell is she keeping up this kind of momentum?" Nephillo asked herself, dealing out her own share of punches. She noted the princess's tight defense, not able to see any openings and decided to change tactics. She back flipped out of the hand to hand fight and powered up a huge blast of energy to hit Amelia. The princess created a wind barrier to hold off the blast's force.
"A wind barrier is not going to save you, and when I'm done I'll take what I want and kill those little nuisances you call friends."
"Zelgadis will never go with you," Amelia shouted as the pain in her leg intensified.
"I can give him his heart's desire, his every dream."
"What you give are lies. You used his dreams to trick him and the dreams of his friends for him to keep up the illusion. The reason I saw through your lies is because my dream for him is to be happy. Being lied to and manipulated won't do that."
She increased the force of the spell, surprising the muzuko with its strength, but not making her falter.
"Isn't that touching," Nephillo said, increasing her energy output to match the princess's, sending her flying through the darkness. "But now it all ends. If my blast doesn't kill you then my Liquid Nightmare certainly will, and you have no way to stop it." Then she started shooting out large amounts of black miasma blindly into the darkness, hoping to hit her target.
Amelia crouched low on the floor and watched as Nephillo turned around and shot randomly. She realized she could see clearly through the darkness when they first arrived and knew instantly it was her greatest asset in this battle. The blackness that shrouded them was similar to her spell Dark Mist. She had remembered the words of her magic teacher explaining 'to have true mastery over a spell one must be able to see through it when others cannot' and started wondering if Nephillo had been privy to the same knowledge about magic.
"Obviously not if she's shooting out that black ooze of hers without aiming it first," Amelia thought. She bit down on her fist to prevent herself from crying out in pain. She looked at her leg and saw the Liquid Nightmare oozing into her flesh, making her leg ache to the bone and turning her wound to a hideous color of black and blue.
"If this keeps up I won't be able to stand or fight," she ended.
"COME OUT AND DIE YOU STUPID GIRL!"
"A double Ra-Tilt only slowed her down for a few minutes. How am I supposed to stop her now?" Amelia asked herself, a question that had been reoccurring in her head a lot of late, How. "Think, Amelia think," she sighed when a shot of Liquid Nightmare landed inches from where she hid.
Amelia jumped out of the way, and in the process revealed her location.
"I AM TIRED OF PLAYING GAMES WITH YOU, YOU STUPID LITTLE . . ."
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING STUPID, BITCH? You're the one who dragged me off to some dark, black void you can't even SEE in to kill me. I'd say THAT'S THE STUPIDEST THING I'VE EVER HEARD OF," Amelia shot back as Nephillo closed in.
The muzuko crouched low and did a sweep kick that connected with the princess's injured leg sending her back down to the floor. Amelia screamed as more pain enveloped her leg. Nephillo only smiled down at her smugly.
"You're not so high and mighty now, are you?" She asked with a kick to the princess's stomach. Nephillo walked closer to her and stepped into the remains of a random blast of Liquid Nightmare.
Amelia's eyes widened in amazement as the miasma was absorbed back into Nephillo's body and a thought occurred to her.
"If I can get her to somehow absorb my spells instead of deflecting them, it might be the way to finally weaken her." She then knocked the muzuko off her feet with a vicious punch to her knee caps and once again reverted back into the darkness.
"I'm onto something, I know it," she whispered, tapping her fist against her forehead. "Come on think, you don't have a lot of time," she said to herself.
"No more hide and seek, little girl," Nephillo yelled and began the low murmur of an incantation.
"Shrouding mists of blackness . . ."
"Oh no, she's going to clear away the darkness," the princess realized.
"Where darkest dreams and passions sleep"
"Be cleared away for all to see
"VISIBILITY!"
When the darkness cleared, above loomed a dark sky with vibrant streaks of lightening marring its surface. The area around her was level and smooth with a wall beginning on the far edge going all around. On the other side of the expanse stood Nephillo, flying toward her. Her fingers flexing at what was to come, her nails appearing claw-like preparing to lash out. The first blow came as a scratch to her injured leg and another to her arm. Nephillo's fingers dripped with Liquid Nightmare, each scratch letting the miasmic disease seep into Amelia's body further.
The princess blocked and dodged the muzuko's strikes and dealt her own share of attacks while trying to think of a way to end this with herself as the victor, all to aware of the debilitating pain rising in her leg.
Nephillo laughed as she attacked, reveling in Amelia's pain certain of her victory.
"Why don't you just surrender to me? You've already used the only big spell in your arsenal. There's nothing else left for you to try," she said, reaching for the princess's throat.
"Bomb Diem Wing!"
Nephillo was thrown back several feet by the sudden force of the spell, and embedded in the far wall of their makeshift arena.
Amelia's eyes moved back and forth in rapid thought as the pieces of her new strategy started to come together. Nephillo cursed under her breath for what felt like the millionth time at Amelia's resolve as she crawled her way out of the wall to resume her assault.
Amelia did more frantic calculations in her head, knowing that Nephillo was recovering quickly from her attack.
"Liquid Nightmare is like black magic and she absorbed it. I have to take a chance," she decided, knowing her plan was a great gamble. The thought was replaced by the image of Nephillo, now standing with a large swirling mass of Liquid Nightmare. It wove itself around her like an eel, her eyes glowing in anger. She screamed a loud shriek of a battle cry and shot out a large surge of miasma and Amelia started to execute her plan.
"Source of all souls that flows like blood in the eternally infinite"
"Everlasting blue that courses through the flow of time"
"What in Hellmaster is she doing?" Nephillo asked herself watching as her Liquid Nightmare hurled closer to the princess.
"I call upon the power in the depths of darkness and the soul"
"To shine like the infinite against my enemies"
Amelia watched as the miasma reached out for her as it grew closer, but paid it no heed, pushing all her concentration into her attack.
"Let darkness be my herald of destruction; Let the spirit be my message that eats from within"
"DRAGON - TILT!!"
Nephillo looked on as the strange spell formed in the princess hands. A ball of blackness with streaks of pale blue. Then it propelled toward her with god-like speed, hitting its mark just as her Liquid Nightmare reached the princess.
The miasma hit Amelia's skin like the burning of a searing, hot stove, attacking her bruises and cuts. It enveloped her in its murky ocean depths, making it difficult for her to breathe.
"I have to keep casting," she thought vehemently. She pushed aside her pain and focused every ounce of her energy into the blast.
Nephillo tried to deflect the spell at first but realized it was black magic and began to absorb the brunt of the blast.
"Another one of her meager attempts," the muzuko thought, watching as the princess continued to cast the spell in pain as the Liquid Nightmare did its work.
"Soon she'll be dead and I'll . . ." before she could finish the thought, Nephillo doubled over in pain, coughing up what appeared to be blood, only black. Her insides burned like volcanic fire trying to erupt from her. Another spasm of pain hit and she faltered in her spewing of Liquid Nightmare.
Amelia saw the ghastly look on the muzuko's face as she coughed up more blood and gave a silent cheer.
"It's working," Amelia thought in disbelief and continued further. The liquid nightmare that overwhelmed her body endured, swirling and weaving causing more pain for her to fight. She had never heard of anyone keeping up a spell of this strength for as long as she had but knew she couldn't stop until Nephillo was defeated.
The power of the spell pushed Nephillo back into that wall that she had previously been embedded in. She convulsed violently, her eyes taking on a deranged glare as wholes opened in her torso with columns of light shining through.
"I WILL NEVER DIE," she swore, coughing up more blackness. Trails of blood and miasma dripped from her body and burned away as the touched the columns of light pouring out of her. Nephillo made another attempt to shoot more Liquid Nightmare that hit the princess a lot weaker then the previous surge had.
Amelia continued to harness all her magic against the muzuko and decide to tap energy from an even stronger force then magic, life.
It took a second to make the adjustment in her spiritual essence but afterward she started to push her life energy into the spell. The spell glowed brighter and moved faster then before slamming into Nephillo harder, breaking the wall down. The columns of light coming out of the muzuko grew and spread faster. Nephillo let out a loud, torturous cry until she was completely destroyed from the inside out.
And the walls crumbled, the ground shook and the remains of Liquid Nightmare from the arena converged in on the princess tighter. The miasma took advantage of her weakened life force, leaving her no choice but to let the abyss of pain and darkness overtake her.
* * *
"SHE'S UP THERE, ALL ALONE AGAINST THAT MONSTER. WE HAVE TO FIND A WAY HELP HER."
"It's no good. I can't find a single opening. It's like the barrier we encountered before except its not stopping us from casting but entering the astral plane."
"SO WHAT? YOU WANT US TO JUST SIT HERE AND WAIT FOR HER TO BE KILLED AND TORN TO PIECES IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?"
"No Zelgadis. Amelia's my friend too," Daisy cried. "I wouldn't every leave her to be . . . to be,"
"I think that's enough Zelgadis ," Bubbles said, coming toward him in the clearing they'd found to land in earlier. "My sister is not to blame for what's happening. We're trying to figure out a way in."
"Yeah Zel, don't yell at Daisy about this. We'll get Amelia back," Lina added.
"You're not trying hard enough, for all we know she could be dead!" His statement suddenly punctuated by darkening clouds, the picking up of the wind and a loud crash from above.
The group looked skyward and watched as the heavens ripped open and gave birth to a large structure with gapping wholes of all sizes and broken towers.
"Nephillo's fortress," Lina whispered as the large mass slammed into the ground a few miles away, causing a tremor that shook everyone off-balance.
Daisy transformed quickly and flew with the others to inspect the wreckage. The remains of the fortress lay in crumbled pieces , large and small layered in varied depths; thick and thin.
"Please still be alive," the chimera thought desperately racing through the rubble for any sign of the princess.
The others also began to search for any signs of their friend. Daisy and Bubbles flew above while Lina and Gourry searched on the ground with Zelgadis. After flying around different sections of the wreckage large area of blackness and rubble came into Bubbles view.
"I think I see something over there," Bubbles cried and immediately headed in closer to investigate.
Zelgadis ran as fast as his chimera body could take him until he was close enough to see the Liquid Nightmare rising out of the ruins like steam.
"AMELIA, AMELIA ANSWER ME!"
He moved rocks around with adrenaline fueled strength and blasted others out of the way, shouting frantically, when something caught his eye. He couldn't make it out at first. It peaked out from under the rocks a few feet away. He squinted his eyes to zero in and realized it was a small scrap of pink cloth.
He ran over quickly and cleared the debris away to uncover what lay underneath. A swell of black miasma clouded his vision as it rose up from the rubble. When it cleared the sight before him made him stare in horror.
"Zelgadis, did you find anything?" Lina shouted, coming up behind him then stopped cold when she saw what the chimera had found. "Oh dear god," she whispered, growing pale.
Soon Daisy and Bubbles transformed and landed with Gourry close behind and had similar reactions of shock and horror to what they saw before them.
The princess lay covered with cuts and black and blue bruises all over her body that oozed with Liquid Nightmare. Even more of the miasma clung to her as she lay in an contorted, unnatural possession. Her leggings were partially ripped, revealing a wound of a blackened color that looked much worse then any of her others.
"Amelia no," Daisy whispered in tears.
"Is she . . . is she dead?" Gourry asked hesitantly looking at Lina for some kind of answer. The redhead looked at the swordsman then down at the ground uncertainly.
Zelgadis looked at Amelia's still form in fear. He moved closer and placed his ear to her chest and strained his hearing to listen for a heartbeat.
After several seconds he started to panic, fearing the sound he longed to hear would never come.
"Do you hear anything?" Lina whispered in a shaky tone.
Zelgadis waved his hand for her to be quiet and strained his ears even harder.
"Please beat, you have to still be alive," he pleaded silently. He was then greeted by the most beautiful sound "thump, thump". It was faint and terribly slow but there nevertheless.
"Her heart's still beating, but barely," he answered finally. "We have to move quickly. Daisy fly back to Briseral and go to the new medical center that opened." Daisy nodded, transformed and headed back to town.
"We need to give her air, her breathing is even worse then her heart."
"I'll work on that," Lina said and moved to the princess's side and started giving her mouth to mouth.
"I'm going to try a healing spell, hopefully it'll keep her stable until Daisy gets back."Then began working on the spell. White light glowed from the chimera's hands as he tried to heal some of the major injuries, but noticed quickly that nothing was happening.
"It's the Liquid Nightmare. Its blocking out magic," Gourry said, moving in closer.
"Let me try," Bubbles said beside the swordsman. He concentrated his power over the princess's body and after a few moments ended looking up in surprise. "Its blocking the spell like Gourry said. I could feel it fighting my magic," he murmured.
"What are we going to do?" Lina asked taking a breath.
Bubbles shook his head sadly "I don't know Lina, without a healing spell of some kind we can't - wait what's that?"
Bubbles looked at something by Amelia's fingers, drawing the others attention. Upon closer inspection they realized it was a small beige-pinkish stone.
"What's so special about it?" Gourry asked, looking closer. Some of the Liquid Nightmare that clung to Amelia's fingers touched the stone and evaporated, surprising everyone.
"Did we just see what I think we did?" Bubbles asked. The others nodded yes.
"What do you think it is?" Gourry asked.
"I don't know , but we need to find some more of it quickly," Lina said.
Bubbles and Gourry started searching for more stones in the area. Zelgadis picked up the stone and placed it on the princess's chest and watched as it cleared away a little more of the Liquid Nightmare. A moment later they heard the princess take a weak, shallow breath.
"Its making the Liquid Nightmare evaporate from her lungs so she can breath better," Lina said. "There must be a lot of this stuff inside her."
"Trialcon," Zelgadis whispered.
"What?"
"This stuff, it must be Trialcon. Nephillo said it prevented me from casting magic inside the fortress, but Amelia was able to cast just fine. I thought it was just another one of her tricks but . . ."
"Obviously it was to keep her secret, that this Trialcon is the only way of fighting her Liquid Nightmare."
"I found a few more pieces," Gourry called running back with a small amount of stones in his arms.
"You couldn't find any bigger ones?"Zelgadis asked.
"I didn't think I had enough time to look," the swordsman answered and placed the stone with the other on Amelia's chest. Bubbles came back with a pile of his own and did the same.
"Why are we putting them on her chest?" the muzuko asked.
"To clear away the Liquid Nightmare from around lungs and heart. The bruises and cuts will have to come later, right now we need to keep her alive and this seems to be the only way to do it," Lina asked
Zelgadis looked up and saw Daisy's fast approach in the air with several passengers on her back.
"Hang in there Amelia, help's on the way."