Chapter 7.22 - Zenith - Vatherion

After leaving behind Typhon Blanc against The Twins Chaos Champion. We ventured even further into the fortress. We came across a stairwell which means that we were done for the first floor at least.

"Got any ideas who's going to be next?" Yumiko asked us as we were climbing up the stairs.

Sam replied, "I'm in no position for this kind of talk. Maybe Zenith know some of them?"

Of course, I met almost all of the Chaos Champion so far. If I have to be honest on who's next I can't really make a discernible guest considering that most of them seems to be strong in their own way.

I told them, "I don't know, it could be The Shogun, Kitsuneki or The Conductor, Lord Crescendo."

"Lord Kitsuneki, huh..." Yumiko remembered about her former master, "Can't wait to see him again."

I quickly assumed, "So you're going to fight him right, Yumiko?"

"That's highly likely...but I beat him already last time..." Yumiko was irritated for some reason.

"Well it might be different next time..." mentioned Izzy.

Then out of the blue, Yumiko asked all of us, "I don't really get you guys. I technically killed some of your beloved and you guys are associating yourself with a murderer. Doesn't that sound weird?"

Sam then told her, "Yes, you technically did murder several people and you should be punished for that. But what you're doing right now is basically reducing the sentences. You won't be punished to be hanged or something but you will be jailed for what you did. Isn't that right, Zenith?"

Sam quickly put me in a spot. I didn't know how to answer that. I ended up agreeing to her. Yumiko then shrugs it off.

Mei added, "And besides, you've had your reasons as to why you did what you had to do. Isn't that right?"

"Kinda..." Yumiko was being cryptic. "Violet was kinda at gunpoint when Lord Kitsuneki ordered me to shoot at you, Zen. Remember when I tried to kill you? Seven times?"

"Yeah I remember that." I casually nodded. "But you saved me by the end of it."

"And it's all because of the time we spent together..." Yumiko looks down.

Then I immediately remembered something in particular, "I think it all started when we hung out on that mission in Gemhold. It was Rose who started this all. I still remember that outfit we wore for the festival at Gemhold."

"And I remember you freezing the heck out of White after what he said about your chest size."

I blushed as I hear that, "Well...it's not like he was disappointed about it. He was complementing."

"That's rare. Especially with that kind of chest you have, Zenith." Izzy sounded jealous.

Yumiko added insult to injury, "White does have a weird taste in a girl's physique..."

"Can you guys stop talking about my chest!" I yelled at them as I picked up the pace.

Being the only one in the group who didn't have what I call a 'decent' size of chest feels a lot more troublesome than I expected. I thought it would be easy to move on from this but now that I'm surrounded by a bunch of hills, I feel less confident about myself for some reason. The other laughed as we finally came upon the doorway to the next hall.

We opened the large door and before we can even react to anything else a purple flame tried to burn us to crisp. But thanks to my quick reaction, I fight fire with fire. I stopped once the barrage of purple flame stops. We saw a dragon. But it wasn't as big as Nova in his dragon form of course. It was covered in crystals. I've met this dragon before.

"We meet again, little girl." a warrior in a purple dragonscale armor was standing next to the dragon.

I replied back, "Vatherion!"

Without any further warning, his dragon, Taloncryst, hurled out another fire breath. Everyone split up as they picked their target.

I gave my orders to my team, "I'll handle the Dragonlord. Take care of the dragon, girls."

Yumiko then volunteered, "I'll help you out, Zen. Violet! Let's go!"

"Coming right up, Yumiko!" Violet also makes an appearance.

While the three of us were facing The Chaos Dragonlord himself, Mei, Sam and Izzy were facing The Crystal Dragon, Taloncryst. Two teams takes on two different entity. Everyone did their best to take care of whichever they were focusing on.

In the case of my side, I tried to shoot at Vatherion but he nonchalantly deflect all of my bullet using his crystal sword. Yumiko also tried to shoot at him from a different direction but Vatherion was able deflect those bullets as well. Having done that, the two of us continued to distract him with the suppressing fire while Violet comes out with a mini-tsunami wave that launches toward Vatherion. All of a sudden, Vatherion was able to transform his armor into something completely different, I have never seen him transforming his armor and swords before. What he has after that was an armor that combined the animal skins on it. The hood was a bear's head and it looked pretty cool to be honest. And the mini-tsunami was completely negated after Vatherion split the mini-tsunami in half with his brand new sword.

"Like the transformation?" Vatherion wondered.

"Big deal..." Yumiko was annoyed. "You only changed your outfit and sword. You won't have any advantage against three of us."

Violet proceeds to cast a raining effect throughout the hall. The rain also affected the fight against Taloncryst as the dragon accidentally slip to the ground for a second. I noticed that Izzy was launching a barrage of swords toward the dragon to the point that smoke started to come out, disabling us from seeing the fight.

"What are you doing? Stay focused, Zen!" Yumiko tapped me.

"Oh sorry." I came back to reality.

The three of us started to run straight toward the Chaos Champion for a more direct confrontation as we exchanged blows alternatively. If I were to explain it in the easiest way possible, all I did was something that goes in the line of martial art mixed with a single small firearm which was the flintlock that Yumiko and I had. We punched, kicked and shoot. Non of it connect to Vatherion. He was full of energy even when overpowered by three people.

Having enough of the nonsense, Yumiko started humming an enchanting song which eases up all of the girls muscles. My movement and strikes suddenly became much faster as I was able to exchange a couple of confirmed hits on Vatherion. I did successfully shot out a piece of his shoulder pads as it flies away thanks to my flintlock bullet. We also heard Taloncryst's roaring in the background as Violet and I continued to physically attack him with all of our hand to hand combat skills. I'm not really much of a fighter but I am definitely comfortable enough to say that I can beat up a couple of thugs if I were forced to do so.

While we were exchanging blows, I saw Taloncryst flying above. And Izzy was riding on top of the dragon. Izzy proceeds to stab the dragon multiple times to the dragon's flesh. I also noticed Mei finally showing off one of her forbidden magic that she used.

"Pyramid Trap!" Mei made a triangle shape with both of her hand.

An upside down holographic pyramid started to take form as it traps Taloncryst inside of it. Mei does a spinning finger gesture and the upside down pyramid began to spin around in the air. The pyramid then was sent crushing to the ground. It was indeed a devastating move from Mei. And that was just one of her many different kind of ancient spells.

But enough of that, the fight against Vatherion continues as The Chaos Dragonlord suddenly transformed his armor and sword once again. That transformation completely threw us off as his sword suddenly extended like a rope. The extended sword started to burn in flames as it shred through the three of us.

"This guy is too unpredictable..." Violet sighed.

Yumiko told us, "He keeps changing his armor when its necessary."

"If this is what happens against two wizard and a goddess...I don't know how it's going to fare well in a one on one situation."

Vatherion then mocked us, "Is that all you girls got? Disappointing. Is Cyclone White in his dragon-aura form the only one who can beat me and my dragon?"

"You know...compared to the previous Chaos Champions downstairs...you're not following the same rule as the others." Violet mentioned.

"Those guys are weaklings! I won't allow any of you to get pass through me!" He was very confident of himself.

I pouted, "This guy is far more dangerous than the last time we fought..."

"And we haven't gone through the rest of the Champions yet..." sighed Yumiko.

Then suddenly, "Now's not the time to be conserving ourselves, you two." Violet was reminding us of something. "Rose sacrificed her life for this day to happen, we can't disappoint her."

"How are you sure about her being disappointed at us?" Yumiko wondered.

"I'm a goddess, Yumiko. I can tell." Violet was proud of herself.

I kinda felt like the mood was about to get emotional but Violet's smug personality doesn't really help that at all. But it did raise our spirit even for a slight portion of that brief speech. I think we have to pull up all of the stops even if its still too early. And with that, I closed both of my eyes and focused on one half of my Hot and Cold ability. I suddenly felt a cold wind as the temperature of the hall goes down.

Snow have started to fall down in the hall as I whispered to the dragon inside me, "I'd be grateful if you were to help us now..."

And just like that, both of my iris turned into gold as snowy particles started to enshroud all over me. I didn't transform myself into having the scale-like level like how Azreal did in Virtue. That was a higher level but I did sprouted out something beautiful. It was a wing, an angel-like wing. It was white and feathery. But it only appeared on the left side. What about the other wing? There was none of that but I was able slightly float with the single wing I have.

"This is a bit too much don't you think, Zen?" Yumiko was wondering.

"Nonsense!" I smiled. "Overwhelm him with your elemental magic!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Violet heeded my order while Yumiko rolled her eyes as she began charging up for a spell.

Vatherion braced for impact as he transformed his armor once again. The dragon, Taloncryst was charging up for another purple flame as it suddenly landed behind him. The other three watches from the sidelines as the three of us do our work.

From above, I cast an array of a wild blizzard blast toward my foe. As for Yumiko, she released a burst of extremely hot water from her charged up hands. And from Violet, she made a serpent that was made out of water. The water serpent lunges forward toward its foe. All three attack stood against Taloncryst flaming hot chaotic flame.

This kind of scene reminds me a lot of the time the four of us spent together at Gemhold. Yumiko, White, me...and even Rose. The four of us stood against each other as we put a stop towards Vatherion's plan.

The three of us shouted in unison, "Fusion Reactor, Freezing Tsunami!"

-

In a matter of seconds, the three of us was visibly lying down on the floor. We looked at the direction of where Vatherion stood and there he was, knocked out, together with Taloncryst.

"I think we did it..." Sam was catching her breath.

"I'll make sure of that." Mei then does a spell where she ties up both of the fallen enemy with an Infinitum rope. "This will work for the time being..."

"Are you guys, alright?" Izzy reached out her hand to me.

I willingly grabbed her arm, "I'm still good." My snowy dragon aura was already gone by then.

Violet gets up and cleans herself up, "My goodness. That was amazing, Zen."

"What are you talking about, Violet?" I smiled and said, "It was your reminder that made me go all out."

Yumiko then added, "And I'm sure you haven't truly gone all out just yet. You're still up for a fight am I right, Zen? I can feel the fire in you right now."

I gave a sassy reply, "Is it literally or figuratively?"

"Oh come on!" Yumiko was annoyed. "Let's get going, girls. We still have a couple of Chaos Champions waiting for us.

Well then, that was one heck of a duel against a formidable foe and his formidable dragon. I don't really know what actually happen throughout the fight against Taloncryst but what I do know was the the other three did their best to at least damage the dragon in some form of another.

Looking back at it, I can safely say that Yumiko and I have was finally able to move on from the passing of Rose. Like it or not, she was the one who caused all of this tension between the two of us. Without Rose, I wouldn't be caring deeply about someone who tried to murder me, multiple times. Rose was the willing initiator who initiated our relationship. Here's to you...dear old friend...

TO BE CONTINUED