Cutting pain forced tears from my eyes. I continued to ignore my discomfort and agony.Howling, jeering and shrill cries were charged with blood thirsty excitement.
"F-Famine. Don"t." Brystagg huffed. He was completely exhausted.
"Lyra is waiting for your return. Return you to her I will." I stepped forward. Barely feeling my feet.
"Why yah fear?" Bulldog"s question come to mind.
"I"m scared?" I had naively answered.
"Wrong. It"s "cause yah heart is not beating dah same as yah mind. To reach Mushin, yah mind and heart must be one. Then yah can be still. When yah still, yah mind can break free from thinking."
I stood between Moralta and my friends. Closed my eyes and moved my thoughts with my feelings. Slowing my heart beats. In turn slowing my thoughts until all my senses were merged into silence and a stillness. A third eye cakra opened within me. I saw the entire view of the Lotus Bridge in my mind.
The waiting demons were only looking into Sol like kids pressing their faces to a window. A layer of chiorntex power kept them from crossing over. Moralta"s dark grimoire spell was unable to remove it from the tsazcuth portal.
I sniffed the air and sensed that the spell Moralta had used. It was a watered-down copy of the original. Of course, he was only able to use an impression since the actual grimoire wasn"t a book.
The power seeping from Zyon was actually acc.u.mulative energies from the demons within h.e.l.l"s Labyrinth. Moralta had merely called on these with his spell. Sol was still closed off. Moralta was still a student of magic. A bad one at that. This bad student had neglected to include a core element to his Zyon Portal plans. Me.
It was no dream. Pesti did hand me a piece of the Power of Null. I felt it restore my pain and break my binds until they no longer existed. Black energy pooled around my fingertips to make them tingle. It was charged with the love I held in my heart for my family and friends.
"You know why I was named Famine? Because I starve men like you from power. You can"t fulfil your dark desires." My eyes opened to Moralta"s stolen blue set. He was doing his best not to look scared.
"So many mistakes Magis. You need to go back to school." I took a few testing steps toward him.
"How? You, the binds, how?" He fumbled as he stepped back. Frantically muttered spells to call upon shadow puppets to the bridge.
There wasn"t enough light to carry the strength of their presence. They faced implosion by the remaining shrills in my pouch or were shot into non-existence.
I dodged and danced around ice b.a.l.l.s, fire b.a.l.l.s and strong winds. I was moving without realizing. Focused on stopping Moralta to progress my advances.
Power of Null was swirling timelessness within my heart. It was ready.
"Non revertetur!" I shouted.
Aimed my guns at the blue book and fired.
The book burned into an intense blue and pure white before it imploded into glitter. The platform quaked. Moralta was knocked to the ground.
A chance.
"Death. Leap for me!" I called to him and looked to Brystagg. "Throw me your sword."
I sheathed my guns. Brystagg mustered all his strength to throw me his sword that I caught in mid-air.
"I"ll set this right."
"REVERTI!" I shouted when I felt Small Cap on my shoulder. I stabbed Moralta in the heart.
"NO! This... can"t... be..." Moralta expelled his last breath from Death"s body.
I quickly retracted the sword and placed my hand over the wound. Closed my eyes and completed the rest of the spell in my heart. "Et reversus est dominus."
I dropped the sword. Placed my other hand over Small Cap. With deliberate timing, I slowly retracted my hand from the Death"s heart whilst moving my other hand, off Small Cap, towards it.
Orange light was pulled from his heart. White light was returned to it.
Small Cap collapsed to unconsciousness when the lights faded.
"I"m... back?" Death exhaled with his own mouth. His hands patting down his chest for the wound that should be there.
He gulped in a few breaths to test his lungs. Feeling the area of his heart and shook his head with disbelief.
I glanced to my left and saw Moralta"s true form. It was a cloud of orange light. Barely a human ghost.
The thought of Colin"s key crystal came to mind. I retrieved it and held it before the demon. I looked to Colin and sighed with relief when I saw that the surrounding binds were gone. Since Moralta was no longer in a body, his power was too weak to keep a hold over the knights.
"Colin. Call upon the Ego Port or whatever spell to trap this thing." I commanded the captain and smirked at his annoyed expression.
The orange cloud fluttered about the platform. It flew about frantically for an escape. Brystagg had recovered enough energy to contain it within a wind spell.
Colin did his graceful, magnificent, dance to call upon the Light Grimoire and evoke a trapping spell.
I felt Moralta"s cries of disbelief and angst as his form was sucked into the crystal. Imprisoned again.
My body was yanked into Death"s proud and grateful hug.
"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." He cried tears of joy.
"We still have the awaiting Zyon invasion to sort out and my boys to save." Brystagg stoically reminded us as he rose to his feet.
Most of his wounds were healed, but looking crusty in some places.
We approached the gold coin olive tree and stared at Trix and Leinard still unconscious and suspended within.
Their bodies had turned, so their backs were pressed against each other. We saw their side profiles. I didn"t know whether to take it as a good or bad sign.
It was now for the hard part.