"You know what the funniest thing is, Zanny?" Corona giggled as the Demon Beast growled at her. "I've been up for two days straight and I'm not the least bit tired."
"Why would I care about that?" The creature growled at her. He may have been prevented from attacking her, but that didn't mean he had to put up with this.
Corona pouted as she looked at the large creature. "I let you go and eat everything in your way, you got to grow extra large. Do you need more to eat maybe? I think there's some more villages not far from here." When Zannafar growled at her, she sighed and looked away. "Fine then, stupid water doggy."
"I AM NOT A DOG!"
Corona turned her head and her eyes lit up, causing Zannafar to stop and shiver. "Bad dog, bad. I create you and this is how you repay me?" The Demon Beast found itself cowering as Corona continued to glare at it. "Good!" She crossed her arms over her chest and turned away from Zannafar as a giant forest came into view. "Huh, what's with this?" Frowning, Corona tilted her head in confusion. "Does it feel like the forest has magic to confuse people?"
Zannafar snorted as it walked forward and opened its mouth, a ball of white energy forming in front of his teeth for a moment. Corona watched as a beam of energy lashed out, striking the forest and disrupting the magic around it. "Humans are so easily tricked."
"Yay! Zanny! I knew you were a good doggie!" Corona threw her hands up in the air happily as she giggled.
"I AM NOT A DOG!" Zannafar yelled as Corona rode on Balmung's shoulder into the forest and towards the mountains in the distance.
(---)
Milgasia, in his human form, frowned as he felt the disturbance to the field around Dragon's Peak. "What is going on?" He muttered to himself.
"Master?" Milgasia turned to his apprentice, a blonde haired, golden eyed slip of an Elf named Memphis. "You look worried," she frowned and turned her head to look at something in the distance, "perhaps it's that shockwave you felt?"
Milgasia nodded, if even she could feel it, then something bad was coming. The last time something bad had come to Dragon Peak, it had been an absolute horde of Mazoku. Thankfully most of them were low level, if Xellos or a Lord had been involved, he was certain that none of them would be there today, even with the Zennefa Armor that Memphis was wearing. "Let's go meet our guests then."
Memphis nodded and followed Milgasia, who, after getting into a clear spot, transformed into a large Golden Dragon, picked up Memphis and took off towards the forest that surrounded Dragon's Peak. Milgasia frowned deeply as something moved directly towards them through the forest, despite the magical protections that were in place to keep anyone, even most Mazoku, from getting through. "Impossible, even Xellos had to follow the correct path." Even if he didn't like thinking about that Mazoku, it was an undeniable fact that there were less than ten beings in the world that could claim to be as powerful as the Trickster Priest, and that was before Ragradia, Hellmaster and Gaav had been killed years in the past.
Anyone who could kill over a thousand Golden Dragons with a single swipe of their fingers was someone to fear and respect.
Landing near the edge of the forest, Milgasia let Memphis down before turning back into his human form. His white, slightly baggy clothing ruffled as a breeze picked up. "They're here."
Memphis nodded and blinked, wondering if she had her headband on too tightly as she saw what looked like a large wolf-dragon-thing with a body made out of water, a human-sized stone being carrying a young girl with white hair, ashen-colored skin and wearing an unusual black frilly dress. "Halt!" She held up her hand to stop the trio. "Who are you and why are you here?"
"Ara?" The girl blinked as she looked at Memphis. "Ah!" Her eyes widened as she looked at the blue and silver breastplate that the Elf was wearing. "Wow! That is different isn't it? Your chest has those silver notches on it that loop around to your back and make it look like you have some sort of wings, huh?" She turned to the creature and giggled excitedly. "Hey! Zanny! That's a lot different than yours was! I bet she doesn't even need to feed it cows!"
"Excuse me, but what are you doing here?" Milgasia spoke up, frowning as he looked closer at the girl's spirit and felt a rather large amount of Black magic flowing through her. 'But humans shouldn't have this much in them... Could she be a seal of Shabranigdo?' That would make sense, if she had come to some sort of agreement with the Ma-Oh, she probably would try to free the fragment that was sealed in ice in the nearby mountains.
She looked at him in confusion. "Oh!" Her eyes lit up in glee. "Mister, can you help me? See, when I found Zanny, he was just an armor and then I fed him cows and now he's a grumpy puppy, but when I made him I felt something much better here, and..." She got off of the stone creature's shoulder and bounced on the ground a couple of times. "And she has it! Can I have that armor, please? Pretty please?"
"You wish to take the Zennefa Armor?" Milgasia frowned deeply. How did this girl know of the armor? It had just barely been completed a little over a decade ago and even the Mazoku had no idea it existed as far as he knew.
"Zennefa? But that sounds like Zanny's name, Zannafar." The girl crossed her arms and pouted. "Zanny, these people annoy me, I just want the armor."
"So this is what I was based off of, huh?"
Milgasia's eyes widened and he took a step back. "The degraded, parasitic copy of the Zennefa?!"
Memphis frowned at the young girl. "You're foolish, even if you were a Mazoku, trying to take on an entire clan of Dragons by yourself is suicide."
Surprisingly, the girl nodded. "Oh no! Why would I try to attack a whole clan of Dragons on my own? I mean, they're big and..." She gasped and pointed at the two. "You're both Dragons?!" Memphis pointed at Milgasia silently and the girl's eyes seemed to sparkle. "Wow! That's so cool! I've never met a Dragon that could turn into a human. Vivio said that Filia could turn into a Dragon, but I've never seen it."
"She's insane." Memphis frowned as she put a hand to her chest. "Now, girl, I'll give you a chance to leave here alive."
The girl tilted her head in confusion. "But I'm going to leave here alive no matter what, right? I mean, I just want the armor, can I have it, lady, please?" When she got a negative answer, the girl sighed and hung her head. "Well..." The excitable energy in her body seemed to disappear as a black aura surrounded her. "That's just not as much fun now..." She lifted her head and both Memphis and Milgasia had to take a step back as her eyes glowed brightly. "Is it?! Balmung! Zannafar! CRUSH ALL OF THEM!" She screamed out as her stone creature suddenly started to glow black.
"FINALLY!"
"Master!" Memphis jumped in front of Milgasia as a stream of energy was let loose from Zannafar's mouth. The beam crashed into the two of them, kicking up a dust cloud and obscuring their bodies from view.
Zannafar chuckled and snorted. "That was pathetically easy. Perhaps you'll think twice about wanting that Zennefa Armor and... Impossible." Zannafar growled as the dust cleared away, revealing Milgasia holding up his hand and a barrier flickering in front of him.
"Interesting, a breath weapon similar to ours." Milgasia muttered to himself. "Memphis, show them the true power of the Zennefa."
"Of course, master." Memphis narrowed her eyes at the Zannafar as it opened its mouth again. "Zennefa, destroy these fools!"
The girl's eyes widened as Memphis started to glow as she became surrounded in something that looked very similar to Zannafar's body. "Woaaaah!" She took a step back and looked up, her eyes sparkling with desire. "Wow! That's a Zennefa?! I want the Zenny!"
Milgasia narrowed his eyes at the girl. "You are not going to take our Zennefa Armor."
"Aww!" The girl pouted and kicked her feet. "But why? I didn't do anything bad, I just want it! Then I can use it and..." Her eyes lit up as she grinned. "Oh! I know! You're just a meanie!"
Before Milgasia could answer, a spinning fist covered in black flames came rushing at him. Jumping back, he opened his mouth and fired his laser breath at the fist only to find that the spinning black flames caused the laser to bounce off of the fist. "Dammit!" He cursed and transformed into his Dragon form, hoping to fly fast enough to avoid the fist.
"Oh! So that's what he looks like!" The girl grinned as Milgasia turned to glare at her. However, when he turned, a second spinning fist was heading right towards him. Flying backwards, the Golden Dragon mentally cursed as he saw the Golem flying in the air with him.
"By the pits of Nellium! What in the world is this thing?!" He had never seen nor heard of a Golem that could fly or shoot its fists at something or someone.
At least he didn't have to worry about Memphis, seeing as the Zennefa stood to its full height, a glowing giant with six shining wings emerging from its back with Memphis in the center of its chest. It was massive, easily three times his size, and even Zannafar looked small compared to the giant.
"This? You insult me by existing! DIE!" Zannafar opened his mouth to fire his laser breath at the Zennefa, only to find the thing's shining wings weren't just shining to look pretty as a powerful beam from the tip of the middle right wing tore through Zannafar's side like he didn't even have defense.
"Mouuu..." The girl pouted as she saw that. "I want it so much. Oh! I know!" She snapped her fingers and giggled as a black circle formed under her feet. "Zanny! Don't worry, I've got a plan!"
Zannafar growled and jumped away from another blast that threatened to tear him apart. He growled as he saw several of the trees in the forest start to move. "Trees? What foolish plan is that?!" The Demon Beast went silent as several thousand vines suddenly shot up and started to wrap around the Zennefa.
"Foolish." Memphis was heard as the Zennefa suddenly glowed and all the vines snapped.
"Mouuu.." Corona pouted as more and more trees started pulling themselves out of the ground to defend their new master. "Okay, fine, I'll just..." She trailed off as a thought came to her. "Oooh! I like that idea. Hee hee. Zanny, you and the trees fight the Dragons and the Zenny! I got a new idea!"
"You're not going anywhere!" Memphis yelled as the Zennefa knelt down to grab at Corona. Her eyes widened as the Zannafar suddenly yelled and two small mouths popped out of its back and blasted two holes into the Zennefa's right hand. "Impossible!"
"Well! It seems that we can hurt each other, huh?" Zannafar chuckled and jumped away from another blast before running towards the Dragons that were heading his way. Just because he could hurt the thing didn't mean he could beat it.
Doubly so since the thing could fire at least six powerful laser shots to his one at any given time.
Memphis frowned, she had to make sure that the Zannafar didn't start attacking the Golden Dragons or any of the Elves that lived at Dragon's Peak, the tree Golems were mere distractions at best, since they couldn't hurt the Zennefa at all, but that still left the flying Golem, who was, shockingly, keeping Milgasia busy as black fire continued to roll over its body. 'Wait a second...' Her eyes widened and she looked around, trying to find the small girl. "Oh fuck, where did she go?"
(---)
"La la la!" Corona skipped forward as she ignored how her tree Golems were being slaughtered by various Golden Dragons. She really didn't care about them, Balmung's flame aura was an effective barrier against their breath weapons and Zannafar could stay alive for awhile at least. No, she was planning on making the greatest Golem ever!
Climbing up on top of a rock, she giggled as she got a good look at her new objective. "Yes, you'll do! Brunzel!" She smiled as her device, corrupted by her own dark energies, formed in her hand, it was now ebony in color, several inches longer and sharper than any blade had a right to be. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were volcanic glass."
A black circle formed under her feet and she pointed Brunzel away from her body. The black circle started to increase in size as lightning crackled around her before spiraling around her device and turning into a large black sphere that shuddered and wobbled as it threatened to explode in front of her. "Yes... Hee hee... An entire MOUNTAIN! BECOME MINE!"
Idly, she noted that Balmung had just been destroyed as its connection to her seemed to fade. She mentally shrugged that off, what she was going to make would trump everything else ever.
(---)
Milgasia panted softly, using the Zelas Phalanx was a risky move, mostly because casting it on something that could keep up with him while flying was hard. And those wings, despite looking unusual, they were sharp and could cut him stupidly easily. 'When this is over, I'm going to make sure that everyone knows to watch out for any black bladed object.' He groused to himself. Looking around, he frowned, while the Zennefa was holding the Zannafar back from doing any real damage, he found the fact that the Zennefa had several holes punched into it troubling. "Even if a degraded copy, it still has the same type of power."
Even though there were plenty of Golems that were moving, and he grimaced at the thought of facing an army the size of that forest, no they weren't too much to him or any of the Golden Dragons, they couldn't get up high enough to do any real damage, and since the Elves were further away from the forest, they were protected. "This is a waste of time."
Still, why would someone who wanted the Zennefa Armor not try to bring more of those flaming Golems? The older Dragon narrowed his eyes as he looked around in a hurry. "Where did she go?" Suddenly there was a dark flash that he caught in the corner of his eye. Turning his head, he nearly fell out of the sky as a violent rumbling was felt by everyone and everything.
"What's going on?" Memphis yelled as the Zennefa fell backwards and crashed to the ground. "What could..." She trailed off as she looked at the largest mountain that was glowing black. "...Dragon's Peak?! She can't use that as a weapon, can she?!"
That question was answered a moment later as a hand and arm suddenly shot out of the mountain, followed by one on the other side, followed by two longer ones above the first two as the mountain seemed to stand up.
Zannafar growled as he fired a laser breath at the Zennefa, aiming at the annoying Elf that had been trying to kill him all this time. His eyes widened as five powerful laser beams shot through his body at once, causing him to collapse to the ground in pain as his body tried to heal the damage. "How? So fast..." He growled and looked up to see shining bits floating in the air before they shattered.
"Wings have feathers, parasite." Memphis sneered at Zannafar as the Zennefa got to its feet and Memphis stared in utter horror at what the little girl had created.
It was huge, there was just no two ways around it. It may have been originally a mountain, but it was now vaguely humanoid. Well, vaguely because it stood on two legs, but it had four arms and four hands, and... Three heads, well, two of them were where the crook of the neck would be if this thing had a neck. And the head on top had horns, except that instead of jutting forward, they curved upwards to a point, looking like a large U. As for the size of the thing...
Memphis could only gulp as she realized that the Zennefa barely came up to this thing's knee.
Corona, the small girl looking like an ant compared to her new Golem, turned and grinned at the Dragons and Zennefa. Sweat was pouring down her face as she thrust her arm out at the battlefield. "I told you, I wanted the Zenny! You wouldn't let me have it, now..." She grinned as a name came to her. "Jörmungandr! I command you! Wipe them all out!"
Memphis could only stare as the thing crossed all four of its arms and black energy formed in front of its mouths. "You brat!" She yelled and the Zennefa started to stand up before a powerful beam tore through the mid-section, missing her by scant inches.
Zannafar glared as strongly as it could. "Fool, I'm not so easily killed..." He let out a groan and his head flopped down in exhaustion.
Memphis gasped as the Zennefa disappeared, causing her to fall several feet and gasp as she took stock of the damage her armor had taken. "Impossible!" If the humans had gotten this close to making a Zennefa all those years ago...
Up in the air, Milgasia watched as the Golden Dragons rushed at the Jörmungandr, firing their laser breath at the thing's body. "Useless..." He muttered as the Golem let its arms swing wide, sending a powerful gust of air out at the attacking Dragons before the balls of energy split into powerful beams of black magic that tore through any Dragon that they hit with ease. "RETREAT!" He screamed as loudly as he could as several thousand Dragons were wiped out at once. Flying down to Memphis, he grabbed her and took off, sparing one last look towards his home as the giant Golem swatted at various Dragons that strayed too close. "Damn, what kind of monster are you, girl?"
(---)
Corona pouted, she knew that the Zennefa Armor had disappeared with that. "Darn! I wanted that armor too!" She looked at Zannafar and sighed heavily. "Tree Golems! Help Zanny!" She snapped her fingers and looked around. "Balmung? Oh!" Her eyes widened as she remembered what happened. "Bad mister Dragon!" How dare he blow up her Golem like that? Snapping her fingers again, she nodded as her personal Golem pulled itself out of the ground and several more rocks attached itself to its back. "Yay! You're back!" Running forward, she let Balmung pick her up and she pointed towards where the Dragons had come from. "Come on! I'm sure that there's something over there! Jörmungandr! You keep watch and blow anything up that's not mine!"
She'd find a Zennefa Armor even if it meant going after those Dragons and killing all of them.
(---)
"Master Gram, why did you let that girl go? She's got a super Golem now!"
Turning his attention from the crystal ball that he was using to keep an eye on that girl, Gram looked at Pawra and smirked. "What makes you think I care? This is just perfect." He chuckled loudly, getting a confused sound from his subordinate. "Think, Pawra... The reason I wanted her wasn't for her Golem creation ability."
"But I thought..."
"She can control that Zannafar..." He chuckled loudly. "And I've heard about them, they're supposedly uncontrollable, but she made it listen to her and defend her when she was in trouble."
"Mraw?" Pawra blinked, wondering where that came from. "But, master, why is she acting like this?"
He grinned savagely at her. "You're not used to thinking much, but let me explain for you. She's a young girl, human children are notorious for showing some of the worst traits humanity has to show. Some of the best emotions are those that children produce, since they're so prone to feeling negative emotions more sharply than adults. And when a child who's suffering from depression, sadness, pain and anger suddenly gets so much Black magic that it can make a low-level minor Mazoku like you become a mid-level Mazoku... Well..." Gram threw his head back and laughed. "She's got so much energy flowing through her that she can only go through the motions right now. Not to mention that since Black magic is powered by negative emotions in the first place, what she's doing is all she can do to keep herself alive!"
"Mraw?" Pawra tilted her head in confusion. "You're sure?"
Gram grinned savagely at her, nodding. "Oh yes... And if my guess is right, she'll continue to be this way until the source of her suffering, whatever she decides is the source of it, is gone." His eyes widened as a thought of pure... Joy passed through his spirit. "Oh! OH! I have it! I wonder how she'll be if I find her friend that I killed... Yes, that would work perfectly!"
Pawra just stared in confusion as her master laughed, but decided it was a good thing. Who knew what was going through his head right now anyway?