The Arks

"You daft thing, I"m made out of the Light Element. My Elemental Core is Light, the Element of Healing. Of course, I will have healing powers," said Mavislin, increasing her Light Element on Z.

"Yea, but your a.r.s.enal holds more offensive spells. Looking at you heal is like looking at a blue moon."

"Tell that to Akhaten. They"ve got four blue moons."

Z let out a laugh while Mavislin smiled.

"By the way, I don"t recall Meena to have such powers," murmured the Valkyrie, looking at the fallen Umbra.

"She was not a Water Mage. She was a Crafter. She can"t conjure up spells without some ingredients," explained Mavislin.

"Perhaps the Umbra that we faced took another set of powers from another Mage?"

"This seems odd though. I thought the only person here was Meena. And how could the Umbra come here without breaking any door or changing the place."

"It is. Until you realized the Umbras are Shadows. They can sneak around without anyone noticing it."

The Ice Mage winced slightly as the skin around the wounds began to close up. Both the human girls looked away in disgust.

"Can"t blame me, Mages heal in other ways," replied Mavislin.

"I thought you would at least do it more gracefully," said Vernice, reloading her sniper rifle.

"At least it closes the wound within an hour. You humans waste years just st.i.tching up one. We can st.i.tch up multiple in a day. h.e.l.l, I can even grow back my arm if I"ve lost it."

"And you had to ask Z for help in that past battle? I find that odd."

"I ran out of Elemental Energy to heal my wounds. But I"ve regained my energy and can use it to heal others."

Vernice glanced at the healing Mages.

"You use your Energy to help others... I was thinking that Mages only cared for themselves."

"Yes, we only care for those who we think of as family."

"But Minwoo or any of us are not your family members. So why help us?"

"The Kings of the underworld were made by Minwoo. But Baldwin was the one who instructed him to do so. In our eyes, the Five Kings are part of my family. So, I"ll help in any way I can. To protect my family. Even if it goes against others, even if I have to use up my recovered Elemental Energy."

"So that"s why you were intent on going after Minwoo," said Z.

"I was intent on finding him "cause I rebelled against you guys."

"Like a child running to their grandparents" place to hide," replied the d.u.c.h.ess.

"Minwoo would have been one h.e.l.l of a young grandfather," commented the Viscountess, remembering how Minwoo looked like.

"He was something special to me. And well."

Mavislin looked down and smiled. Her cheeks were lightly dusted with pink as well.

"You had a crush on him?" asked the VIscountess.

Mavislin shook her head.

"I owed him. For all those years of constantly biting his hand. And pranks."

Z laughed as he witnessed the poor Valkyrie blushing madly.

"He made a promise to help the Arks in times of crisis. And we should honor the same as well. Even if it was none of our concern."

"Fools."

The group was shocked. Mavislin ceased her healing while Vernice aimed at the fallen, charred body. The Umbra shook around. But Vernice didn"t give it a chance to move any longer as she fired off a bullet rain.

"Did you Mages think that you can defeat me that easily?" asked the Umbra.

"Die already!" yelled Vernice, as she took two pistols and started firing at the Umbra endlessly.

But the Umbra took it all in. It then converted the arrow into a water spike and attacked Z, aiming him at his leg. But before it could reach, Vernice shot the arrow away, causing it to disperse. But the bullets fired from her rifle were turned into bullets of water.

The ones in the Umbra"s body aided it to recover its Elemental Energy quicker than normal. Mavislin tried her hand at attacking the Umbra, with her Amalgamation of Elements. But all the Elements or projectiles thrown at it turned into water.

"Stop firing! There is no way you can fight it!" yelled Mavislin as she witnessed her Helios being turned into water spikes.

Vernice instantly halted. That move made the Umbra laughed as it kicked Vernice away. Upon impact, the d.u.c.h.ess spewed out some blood. Ling could only watch the poor d.u.c.h.ess fly towards the opposite wall. She was beginning to quiver.

Without the second strongest, this battle was starting to get stale once more.