Azhure: Thank you for reading this far.
Voice: And a happy new year!
Owen never liked seeing suffering. Call him a crybaby, even though he could confidently say he never cried even when getting bullied, but he could say no sane person would ever like it either. But Amelia once told Owen that his dislike of it was to a larger extent even though he didn’t look like it.
“Didn’t think you’d be a psychologist, Amelia,” Owen remarked after listening to what the scientist told him about his brand of Orders.
“Feelings and emotions have much to do with Court Wizards,” Amelia explained with a shrug, chugging down the mug of coffee she made for herself with lots of sugar and milk. “So it naturally became a part of my study.”
“Right…” Owen rolled his eyes. “Is that really what you think about [Deep Freeze]?”
“Very much so,” Amelia answered with no hesitation.
Owen could see the point. From losing his mother before he was even aware of things, to seeing his father going missing and his grandmother passing away, perhaps he had always wished they never happened as well as other bad things happening in his life. Suffice it to say, he was sensitive to unfortunate circumstances as a kid, something he had come to realize as he grew up.
“…Yeah, you’re right,” Owen relented, straightening his back against the office chair he sat on. “I don’t like bad things happening much more than others.”
“And it’s not just the ones happening to yourself,” Amelia added while sipping her coffee. “Well, it means you don’t like seeing yourself or other people getting injustice in general.”
“…Yep,” Owen nodded. “You’re right.”
By now, he has never touched social media and that has made him healthier than some of his peers he would know from school. Regardless, it happened because he could avoid reading the depressing content the algorithm loved to shove into people’s feeds. Honestly, the way people were attracted to these things.
“You probably need therapy,” Amelia remarked, putting down her mug. “I don’t know about you, but you look depressed to me.”
“Huh, surprised you care about that stuff,” Owen commented, raising his eyebrows skeptically.
“Contrary to the people of my world of its era, I do care,” Amelia huffed, crossing her arms. “I’m not just some mad scientist, I’ll have you know.”
Owen didn’t know if he would break from it, but he could confidently say such experiences made him stronger. Even then, even the toughest person would crumble under enough pressure. However, Owen didn’t have to find that out because of the people around him getting through.
“Is it what you talked with Amelia?” Catherine asked as she found Owen on the couch in the ice chamber.
“How’d you know?” Owen blinked as he asked back.
“I was the one who gave her the idea of where to look,” Catherine gave a warm, motherly smile as she sat on the couch across from him. “Apologies, but I needed to see what you have been through. You hide it well, but I have still seen through the burden you carry and I believe we should talk about it.”
“…Sure.”
“I see…” Catherine nodded in understanding. “I believe you do not need pity from me but I believe I know what you need to hear.”
“…What is it?” Owen wondered what the Ice Guardian had to say.
“It is simple, really. Now that you are a Court Wizard, could you not do something about the sad things you see in front of you?” Catherine said calmly. “While searching for your father, you should also help what is in front of you whenever you can.”
“Can I really do it, though?” Owen said doubtfully.
“You will not know if you do not try. You just need to do it,” Catherine smiled. “And remember, you have people around you to shoulder the weight with you.”
“So don’t close your heart, Owen. Keep it open to what others are going through. But don’t just despair, do something about the bad things happening in front of you like you always do. And most importantly, remember you are in this together, with me, Ronald, Alicia, and everyone in the Court.”
And now he was seeing them about to die.
GRRAAAHHHH TZANG GGROOOAAAAGH
Owen’s vision tunneled as he dashed to Alicia, weaving through confused and panicked rebel soldiers and spirits along the way. Sliding to his knees, he caught Alicia just before she hit the ground. Pulling off her hood, Owen found her to be unconscious from the shock of the beam going through her chest and he highly doubted Voice could even come out in a berserk state as she did on the mission in Manegia at this rate. Checking her wounds, Owen silently breathed a sigh of relief that it narrowly missed her vital organs against all odds – he knew his anatomy.
[Coat] Alicia’s wounds.
CREME~ CREME~ CREME~
A layer of ice formed on Alicia’s chest and back, sealing the hole from spilling blood even further. Still clutching her body with his hands soaked in her blood, Owen quickly looked around at the chaos happening around him. Already casualties started to rise up primarily from soldiers trampling each other from the chaos.
He tried to find the others in this pandemonium, but it was so hard to do. Owen eventually saw Ronald first, making his way to him after seeing his daughter gravely hurt but with great difficulty in this crowd. Then, he looked to see William and Rin where the latter was pacing around unsure what to do while the former was channeling wind around them to make sure they didn’t get trampled.
Turning up, he saw Aqua and the rest of the greater spirits still trying to calm the spirits down in futility. Finally, Owen saw his father attempting to calm his panicking men with little success as the greater spirits did. Before Owen or anyone could act any further, the dragon who started this nightmare began to gleefully laugh.
“Squirm like the lower beings you are! We are the rightful rulers of this realm and you arrogant fools better remember it!” the dragon boasted. “And now, I, Typhon, curse you…!”
It was at that moment that time seemed to slow down for Owen. Here he was, seeing everyone around him suffering under the dragon’s curse. In his arms was his childhood friend he cared deeply dying to protect everyone. After coming this far, it cannot end like this.
Owen has experienced suffering and seen suffering of others that he was sick of it. From his tumultuous childhood to the events leading up to the freezing of the Vulgis volcano, he will not let another event like this go by just like that. He was going to stop this and make sure it never happened again. Taking a deep breath, Owen shouted one thing.
“Stop!”
And everything did.
Everything had been going so well, Joshua lamented as hard as he could under the suppression.
Since being thrown into this world and then starting a rebellion, everything has gone smoothly until now. When Joshua took the selfish decision of launching this revolt all those years ago, he had been determined to see it through, knowing he would not be coming back home for a long time.
It had been a slow process. It was a good thing Joshua got picked up by the Bell Branch manager after getting out of the Rupture and quickly recollected his memories while recovering. It was another stroke of luck that the arrangement for Bell Branch managers to contact Aqua directly meant that the rest of the Court was kept in the dark after convincing the greater spirit to go along with the plan he made up before Aqua got to him. It took all of the speaking skills he absorbed from Ronald to persuade her.
The hardest part was building his army. Given that Van needed to not know there was even a rebellion until it was too late for him, the bulk of the years in Spiri Raia was Joshua slowly recruiting and training his rebel army into a professional fighting force. They consisted of anyone discontent enough with the king to rebel and plenty of defectors from Van’s army who made training the rookies much smoother. Even then, it was still slow-paced so as to not recruit someone who would snitch no matter how unlikely that was.
Joshua knew this ruse would be over as soon as he made his first strike which was why he even took all that time and effort to keep it under wraps. He knew what was coming after the Court finally realized what was happening and he was prepared to face it. However, he probably should have also prepared for his son to meet him first or what happened while he was gone.
He knew many things would happen back in the Otherworldly Court and other worlds at large without him. To not get distracted, he purposely asked Aqua to not tell him anything that happened while he was planning a rebellion and it was sadly right. His mother died and he didn’t attend her funeral. Furthermore, Catherine, whom he had mentored, also died leaving her daughter as the new Ice Guardian except the Ice Mother Soul didn’t recognize her.
All of this, however, pushed him forward. He cannot go back after making it this far. But, ever since the cursed spirits and Typhon appeared, the barest feeling of everything Joshua planned slipping away gnawed at his mind. And with the chaos now, Joshua had no idea how he was going to-
“Stop!”
CREME~ CREME~ CREME~
Despite never hearing his voice for years, Joshua knew it was unmistakably his son crying that word with all his might and the moment he did, a flash of blue went by his vision and the world froze. The cursed spirits flying amok stopped in their tracks, a light blue aura enveloping and locking them in place. It was not just the cursed spirits, but everyone and even the dragon stopped what they were doing although it was a momentary pause instead.
Looking towards his son, Joshua couldn’t help but gasp, not noticing the suppression was lifted, at what he saw. Glowing radiantly, an aura of ice maneg enveloped Owen, making him glow in its protection. Carrying Alicia’s unconscious body in his arms, his son had a determined look when he began to shout again.
“And break!”
CREME~ CREME~ CREME~
Another pulse of ice maneg shot out from Owen, covering everyone as it went. This time, however, it didn’t have the same feeling as the last one.
GRRAAOHH-UH?
SHATTER SHATTER SHATTER SHATTER SHATTER SHATTER
They’re… purified! Joshua’s eyes widened as an impossibility occurred. One by one, the cursed spirits were purified. Unlike Alicia’s purification, the purple curses shattered from the spirits like chicks breaking out of their shells. It still led to the same effect leaving behind confused spirits unsure what just happened as pieces of purple evaporated the same way.
“What is this!?” Typhon shrieked with his snake eyes as wide as he could. “No matter! I, Typhon, curse you madness!”
“Not this time!”
WHOOOOOM
CREME~ CREME~ CREME~
The moment the dragon laid its curse again, Owen immediately responded with his own. A pulse of purple and a pulse of light blue shot out at the same time. The curse and Order made contact with each other and clashed.
SHATTER
And almost immediately, both pulses broke, canceling each other out.
“Inconceivable! My curse destroyed!?” Typhon raged in bewilderment. “I, Typhon, curse you destruction!”
“Not on my watch!”
WHOOOOOM
CREME~ CREME~ CREME~
SHATTER
Once again, two pulses flashed and two pulses destroyed each other. In this incredible sight, everybody else could only watch with bated breath seeing the small boy doing the impossible and stopping the dragon’s curse from happening.
“Again!? No power could break my curse!” Typhon growled, his eyes twitching as his claws crushed the palace he still stood on. “This is no puny spirit art! No, is this the power that turns the undine red!?”
It appeared the dragon caught on what Owen did wasn’t any spirit arts. He could already tell something was off when Aqua turned red all of a sudden but he must’ve dismissed it as being the arrogant dragon he was. Now, such ignorance has come to bite him.
“Quiet,” Owen stated coldly, ice maneg surrounding his body flaring up as he did so. Handing over Alicia to her father after he finally reached him, he continued, “you’re going down.”
BWOOOOOSH
“No!” Typhon cried, taking to the air. “You usurpers will corrupt the world order no longer!” The dragon opened its mouth and a sickly purple energy gathered from it. As soon as it reached critical mass, the dragon fired.
FWOOOOM FWOOOOM FWOOOOM
Numerous purple beams shot out from Typhon’s mouth, intending to wipe out the army in the old-fashioned way. With all of those lasers spread out like that, it did indeed have the intended effect that would be devastating if it hit them.
“Freeze!”
CREME~ CREME~ CREME~
Once again, Owen let out another pulse and it was even more impressive this time. As the purple beams touched the aura of maneg, they froze. Locked by ice, it was a surreal sight to see pure plasma frozen in the air like a snapshot being taken before disaster.
“And shatter!”
SHATTER SHATTER SHATTER
And it was an even more bizarre phenomenon seeing literal lasers break like glass. Joshua wasn’t even sure if physics or the Scientific Law was even working anymore. Such sentiment was shared by others and for the dragon, it was pure shock and frustration.
“You! You!” the dragon seethed.
Owen, looking determined as ever, decided it had to end now. As long as the dragon was still alive, everyone was still in danger and the Ice Court Wizard couldn’t keep countering the dragon’s attack forever. Seizing the chance as Typhon was stupefied by the chain of events, Owen cast his sentence.
“I order you, die.”
Everyone watched speechlessly as the most feared cursed dragon of Spiri Raia slowly became frozen solid from the inside out. It was a too surreal sight to immediately start cheering when Typhon plummeted down to the earth and shattered into countless pieces in a deafening explosion. But one thing was clear to everyone: the dragon had been slain.
Azhure: So, what do you all think of this part? Is it good? Are there any problems with it? Any reviews or feedback is appreciated as long as they’re not plain insults meant to blow off your stress.
Voice: Don’t do that to people! Not even on the internet!
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