Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Paradox Hearts ❯ Consequences ( Chapter 4 )

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Paradox Hearts

Chapter 4: Consequences

By: Melissa Norvell

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"What did you take?" Koishii asked curiously.

The white-haired woman pulled out a large stone that was blue in coloration and sparkled brilliantly against the sun. She held it between her thumb and first finger. "This. It's one of the things that Vocal was guarding for the Girl of Anai. I don't know what it is, but I know it's an important key to this world."

"Is that why you could defeat Vocal so easily, because you fought him before?" Volgore asked. When he thought about it, the answer became apparent.

"I told you, didn't I? It wasn't the first time I fought a god." Suzanna replied. It wasn't something she'd lie about. She had fought many gods before, and knew how to deal with them better than anyone else he could have met in that world.

"How do we find out what the stone is even for?" Koishii asked. If it was for the Girl of Anai, then it must have had a special purpose.

"According to the angel, Valkalry, there's a book on it somewhere in this world," the white-haired woman began to explain. That book was an important piece of pulling everything together. It was one of the things that they needed to obtain in order to understand the importance of these stones and their relevance to the gods. What was so special that they needed to be guarded? What kind of powers did they possess?

"Valkalry? You've seen her?" Koishii questioned. That was a rare thing. Hardly anyone had ever seen the angel, and most believed that she was merely a legend.

"Who's Valkalry?" Volgore asked, confused to what seeing her meant.

Koishii explained to the model that Valklary was an angel who had fallen in love with the Snake God, Vocal. Because the relationship between the two was strictly forbidden, she tried desperately to keep it from the other archangels in heaven, but they eventually found out and banished her to Arcadia.

"Then the book to the stone must be in Arcadia," Volgore came to that conclusion after hearing the story. If she was the entity who had guarded the book, then it would have to be with her.

"I had that feeling. That's what she told me, anyway," Suzanna replied as vivid flashbacks of the incident ran through her head.

An angel with short, orange hair with a single yellow streak and bright green eyes stood in front of a box. Her blood-stained wings stretched out and her body was broken and beaten, but despite that, she decided to fight to the end with her best ability. "I cannot allow you to do this. It's under special protection of the snake god. I will guard it with my life."

"Then I'll go through you," Suzanna was as determined as the angel was to accomplish her goal. That box was within reach, and she wasn't going to just let it slip away.

"Why are you so intent on getting this? Do you even know what it is?" The item that was contained in the box was not simply something that could have caused a great wealth. It was a special treasure of the gods.

Suzanna didn't dignify the question with an answer. She simply walked by the beaten angel to the box, where she opened it and picked up the stone. "Do you know what it does, Blood-stained Angel, Valklary?"

"I don't. I've only heard that there was a book about it somewhere in Arcadia."

"Then I'll go to Arcadia and find it myself to unlock its powers. Do you know where the book is located?"

"I don't. I just know that it was said to be in Arcadia," Valkalry informed. She had not been told much about the location of the book and considering what the gods thought of her, she'd hear no real word regarding it.

Suzanna narrowed her uncovered eye. "You wouldn't tell me anyway. You're on his side." It figured.

"I told you what I knew. I honestly don't know anything else," the angel replied defensively, but honestly. She knew that Suzanna had all the reason in the world to find her suspicious of lying, especially given what she had done in the past. However, she had no true motives to lie about the book's location.

The white-haired woman walked away with her new found prize. "There has to be a reason why this stone is so protected…and I'm going to find out what that reason is."

"We'll just have to hope that we make it to Arcadia," Volgore commented, and the way things have turned out for him, he'd be lucky to see next week, let alone Arcadia.

"We will make it to Arcadia. You all need to be positive-" She tried to preach, but was cut off by Koishii.

"We would think positive, if we could rest," the young girl complained. Her feet were killing her, and they had already been through so much. Suzanna could have at least been kind on them instead of working them like a cruel slave master.

"That's for sure," the Italian model agreed as they made their way to a pillar. It was looming, tall and dirty white. His purple eyes examined the ancient structure as he walked past. Then, he suddenly stopped in his tracks and back up with a look of disbelief. The black-haired man took a second look at what he had just seen. "Hey, I see something."

"Huh?" Koishii questioned and looked back at the man. "What's wrong? What do you see?"

"Suzanna, you said it was in a box, right?" Volgore questioned.

"Yeah, what of it?" The woman asked. Did he find what they had been looking for? If so, where was it? She hated being left in the dark.

"There's a box over here. It's all by itself in this wide room."

Koishii walked over to the foreigner and peeked around the pillar. "Oh, it is."

"This is it. This is what I've been waiting for," Suzanna could already feel the new powers surging into her body at the very offer. She walked past her gawking tag alongs and into the room. She didn't have time to watch them peep around a pillar like they were perverts spying on someone undressing.

Suzanna placed a hand on her hip and turned coldly to her comrades. "What are you two waiting for? Let's go."

Volgore and Koishii looked at each other. Neither one of them felt all that safe about going, but they knew that they weren't going to get away with simply staying in place.

"Come on. I'm going to go ahead and get the chest. You two cover for me."

"With what?" Volgore stepped from behind the pillar and threw his arms out to either side. "We have no weapons." Were they supposed to just be human targets?

"Yeah, who knows what's going to come after us," Koishii agreed. It wasn't logical to have unarmed men cover a single person. They were just set up to die.

"Don't turn into cowards now. We've gotten this far. You both want to be useful, right?"

They both nodded.

"I'll give you both weapons when we get to the city district if you help me," the woman offered. It was the best she could do for now.

"Okay…But…What about now?" Koishii wondered how they were going to fight without weapons. Sure, the thought of obtaining weapons after their fight with the gods was promising but they had to live past that battle in order to get to that point, and it wouldn't be easy without weapons.

"Deal with it," Suzanna's words were harsh as she made her way towards the box. She waited all of that time to even get to the temple, and now that she was finally within grasp of the box, she wasn't going to let their trifles bother her.

In the end, she didn't need them.

"Might as well," the girl sighed in defeat and followed behind the warrior.

Volgore sighed. "I'm going to sleep for days after this," he followed behind Koishii. As the three made their way towards the box, they stood their guard. Much to their surprise, nothing happened. They were able to get right up to it with no problem. The group stood before it, each unaware of what to expect if they were even to touch the box. All they could do was stare at the box in anticipation.

"You mean nothing happened?" Koishii questioned after a long moment of silence. It wasn't as if she wanted anything to happen. In fact, she was glad that nothing happened.

"Are you sure this is the box?" Volgore replied. It didn't make sense to leave something so important out in the open. Who knew how many boxes there could even be inside of the temple? If it was left unguarded, then it would just be sheer luck to get it that easily.

Surely they couldn't be that lucky. That was almost too good to be true.

"There's only one way to find out," Suzanna looked over her shoulder at her two team mates, then glanced back at the box as she reached out to open it. 'Could this truly be the power that I've been searching for all of this time? A power that's said to be the ultimate weapon against the creators of this world. A power that will allow me to surpass the gods.'

Just thinking about it brought a twisted smile to her face. The sheer thought of obtaining such a power nearly made her body tremble with anticipation. However, before her fingers could even grace the exterior of the object before her, the lid flew open suddenly. Suzanna yanked her hand back in shock at the sudden movement.

Something what wrong.

"What the-?"

"What is it?" Koishii was worried and apprehensive as streams of transparent blue smoke burst out of the box and filled the room. The Japanese girl threw her arms up to block herself from the smog. Volgore just stood there as he watched the stream make its way around the room.

"Is this the power?" He asked. If it wasn't, then it was definitely a trap. Maybe it was some kind of chloroform gas that was going to knock them out cold. Even worse, it could have even been poison gas!

That would be his luck.

At least he'd get some sleep, but not the kind he wanted.

"I…I don't know," Suzanna nearly stuttered. Even she had not encountered anything like this before. Something was definitely strange about this box and that suspicious blue fog.

"Maybe it was a fake. All there seems to be is fog," Koishii glanced around. She could barely make out the forms of her comrades, and the thought of losing visibility of Volgore and Suzanna worried her. She didn't like feeling so isolated, especially in a place like that.

"Stay on guard, everyone," Suzanna warned as everyone stood in their places. They glanced around cautiously, their muscles ready to act on any sudden disturbance in the air.

Slowly, a thick slime made its way through the floor. It was hidden by the thick fog and made no definite noise. The substance made its way up and formed into a snake-like shape that quickly wrapped its way around the Japanese girl's slender waist. Koishii could feel the gelatinous form squeeze her, and she let out a scream as the projection shot her body up into the air right as her comrades turned to take notice.

"Koishii!" Volgore and Suzanna called out to the girl in unison as the helpless victim screamed and pleaded for her friends to help her.

"What should we do?" Volgore looked to Suzanna.

"What is this stuff?" The white-haired woman questioned as another thick, snake-like mass shot up behind the Italian and dove down on him, like a hawk on a defenseless field mouse. He quickly evaded the attack by jumping out of the way. More and more of the vines of slime formed around them, continuously striking at the man. Volgore jumped around and managed to avoid several attacks.

Suzanna pulled out her sword and cut the vines to pieces as they struck around her and tried to wrap around her body, just as they had done to Koishii. Suddenly, one of the vines shot up behind her. The helpless Koishii yelled for her to look out as Volgore screamed and dodged various blobs of slime that were thrown at him.

The white-haired woman thrust her sword forward and pierced one of the blobs, splattering it around the room. "Were these in that box that we opened?"

"I'm pretty sure," Volgore was nearly hit with a blob, and after he let out a scream of fright, ducked down quickly as it splattered on the wall.

"This stuff is like syrup, and it can't be killed with just a sword. You can chop it up, but it just reforms," Suzanna made the observation after all of her attacks proved useless against the slime. Every time she tried to vanquish it, the substance splattered and quickly reformed. It was evident that they were fighting a foe that could outlast them if they only used physical attacks.

"So, how do we stop it? How do we save Koishii?" Volgore asked.

"We barely know how to save ourselves," the woman shot as she chopped another slime ball in half.

"I'm tired, eh. I'm not invincible and I haven't slept in three days," the Italian huffed. He was pretty sure that the only thing that was even keeping him from passing out on the ground was the fact that he wanted to stay alive. Volgore knew that if he passed out and slept, it would be the last thing he ever did.

"Your only real talent is keeping alive," Suzanna told him. The Italian was silent at that remark. She always made him feel so useless. "I'm going to save her myself. You just stay back and rest."

Volgore said nothing. He simply stayed where he was as the warrior rushed over to the massive vine that held up Koishii and mercilessly chopped away at the stalk. However, her efforts were short-lived. Every time she took a swing at the slime, a cut was made it just filled in.

"Damn it!" Suzanna cursed. "I can't get through. It just keeps growing back!" At this point, all she was doing was wasting her energy.

"What if you use a magic attack on it? You do have magic, don't you?" Koishii asked.

"I do, but it's made of liquid and it may absorb or conduct whatever I throw at it. I can't hurt you." If she were to attack the slime with magic, chances were that it may have hurt or even killed Koishii.

The vine slung Koishii around, the girl screamed as her body swayed from one side to another. Thinking quickly, Suzanna jumped up and sliced off the part of slime that captured the girl. Koishii fell to the ground, splattered with slime.

The white-clad girl slowly got up and looked at Suzanna with frightened brown eyes. "W-What should I do?" Her voice was timid and frightened.

"I'm going to try and get it off of you," the white-haired warrior told the girl to hold still. She raised her sword up, ready to chop off the offending pieces. Suddenly, the slime shot off the girl and blasted her body backwards. It slammed her muscled figure against the wall.

"Suzanna!" Koishii and Volgore called in unison as they watched their ally fall to the ground.

Suzanna sat against the wall, slumped over as the slime split off in different directions. It came into contact with the Japanese girl again and wisped her away once more. Volgore called out the girl's name as her body zoomed past him.

Without hesitation, he rushed over to Suzanna and took her sword.

"What in the hell are you doing?!" Suzanna fumed. That idiot was going to get himself killed!

"I'm going to prove to you that I can do more than be a burden. I'm going to save Koishii," Volgore charged forward with the sword and sliced the slime vine. The girl fell to the ground again, but the slime was right on her. The tentacles surrounded the girl and dove down at her, but the black-haired man swung his sword and chopped them into pieces. He grabbed Koishii as they tried to get away.

Suzanna arose from her position and watched the events unfold before her.

'Idiot…'

"Are you alright, Koishii?" Volgore asked the trembling girl in his arms.

"Yeah, I'm just really sticky. What is that stuff?" The girl questioned. It felt like someone had dumped spit on her. The very feeling was disgusting.

"It looks like some kind of plant juice," Suzanna observed. "If that's so, then it'll keep multiplying by photosynthesis."

"How do we get rid of it?" Volgore asked.

"What if we set it on fire?" Koishii suggested.

"We'll burn the whole temple down. Then our goal would be pointless." They came too far to just burn their dreams away. Suzanna wasn't getting out of the temple without that power.

"Why don't we run out? This wasn't the room," the Italian knew that simply running away probably wasn't going to help, but it might give them time to think of a plan.

"This stuff is controlled by Lafarga. If we run, it will follow us," Suzanna pointed out the obvious. There was no where they could go where the slime wouldn't follow them.

"We're going to fight Lafarga then, aren't we?" Koishii wasn't looking forward to that at all.

"In one way or another," Suzanna answered her question as she slime shot towards them again.

"What do we do?" Volgore panicked. They couldn't keep doing this forever, and he didn't know how much longer he could hold out. At this rate, his body would just shut down from lack of sleep.

Suzanna turned around, without a word and dashed off. Volgore and Koishii looked shocked for a moment, but followed her down the hall. The three of them ran as fast as they could as their shoes clacked against the stone floors.

"I thought we weren't running," Volgore didn't expect that, especially from Suzanna. Usually, if she said something, she kept her word.

"I have a plan. Follow me," the warrior instructed as they turned the corner and made a sharp right. The slime was right behind them. It flowed quickly, like rushing waters and stuck to ever hard surface available. It crept and crawled on the ceilings and wound around the pillars.

They made a left and attempted to dart into a room, but the slime cut them off. The group stopped in their tracks. Suzanna instructed them to turn the other way and ran. Volgore and Koishii scrambled to turn around as they backtracked and darted through the pillars.

The slime took a hold on one of the brittle pillars and chunked it at the group. It headed straight for Volgore and Koishii, who dove out of the way and barely made it in time.

"Are you alright?" Volgore asked from his position on the ground, laying on his stomach.

"Yeah, what about you?" Koishii was on her hands and knees.

"I can't say that I'm alright. I just wish we'd get out of this-Ah!" The Italian tackled the small girl to the ground as a piece of pillar was flung into the wall and shattered everywhere.

The two got up in a hurry and took off running.

"It seems as though the monster is growing stronger," Suzanna noted.

"We're going to run out of places to hide," Koishii replied. Then what? What would they do after they ran out of places to hide?

"We're going to get killed. It will drown us or pick us up," Volgore said as one of the tentacles threw another large rock at them. They turned the corner and ran into a darkened room.

"Great! Where are we now?" Suzanna was irritated. She hadn't seen this room before. However, if the slime were photosynthetic, it could have been to their advantage.

"I don't know, but it has to be better than out there," Volgore stated. Anything was better than being out with the slime. At least he had a moment to rest while they evaded the monster. Finally, he could have at least gotten some form of rest.

"That was a nightmare," Koishii sighed.

"There are doors to this room. Come on! Help me shut them before it gets here," Suzanna replied as Koishii and Volgore ran over to help as the three of them pulled together the doors and leaned against them. Everyone looked tired. Volgore looked particularly bad and his sleepless state continued to show.

"Volgore, you look like hell," Suzanna had really taken notice to the man's looks.

"I feel like hell, too. Trust me; this is not fun in the least bit," the Italian whined, and they still had yet to fight Lafarga. He was going to die.

"Let's get that box and get out of here," Koishii agreed. It wasn't fun in the least bit, nor did she want to face that slime monster again. In fact, she'd be happy if she never had to see it again.

Volgore walked over to a pillar in the room and placed a hand on it, trying to will his body to keep upright. "How do we do that? This is just an empty room. It's great. We're trapped in here."

"Let's look around and see what we can find," Koishii instructed. If nothing else, they could at least try and seek out some proper weapons. There might have been nothing in the rooms they had been inside of, but maybe there was something in this room that could help them in some way.

Suzanna agreed as the three of them went separate ways and began to comb every inch of the room for anything that could resemble a weapon. Suzanna looked behind several pillars and found nothing that really could be of any use. Volgore checked behind a pillar that was by the wall and spied a small box. He picked up the wooden object and wiped the dust from it.

"Hey, I found something."

"What is it?" Koishii asked as she ran to his side. "Hey, it's a box."

Suzanna walked over to them. "Let me see it," the warrior demanded, and just as she was about to take her final step an earthquake hit with such force that it knocked everyone off of their feet. Koishii fell on her back, Suzanna stumbled backwards and Volgore did a belly flop on the ground. The box that he was clutching popped open and a light blue fog crept out and wrapped itself around him before it disappeared.

"What was that?" Koishii sat up in a hurry.

The white haired woman stood with a look of shock written on his face. "No…it's…" She could barely get the words out of her mouth.

Koishii gasped as the slime burst through the doors, knocking them off of their hinges. The wood was shattered everywhere and the splinters rained from the sky. Everyone stared as the slime, which was now one large, whip-like structure made its way around the room. The slime exploded around it as a black serpent-like creature made its presence be known. It was huge, nearly filling up the whole room. The serpent's skin was pitch black with a white under side. Long, black fins ran down the creature's black. Its head had seven points, lined in gold with slanted eyes that had gold, Egyptian-like markings and a long, pointed snout.

"Lafarga," Suzanna uttered the beast's name.

Koishii watched as the serpent's body slowly moved. Her brown eyes were lit up with fear. "L-Lafarga?" Should could hardly believe that the serpent in front of her was Lafarga.

"Yes…I am Lafarga, god of this forest and the one who grants the power of deception. Just as skillfully as I conceal myself within this temple, so shall I want the power of illusion to the one most deserving. However, before I could find a suitable host for the power to reside in, it was taken by all of you," Lafarga spoke in a powerful voice that echoed off of the walls of the temple room.

"Us?" Koishii pointed to herself.

"You mean we all have the power?" Suzanna was irritated with that fact. 'Strange, I don't feel any different.'

"Not all of you…only one of you has it," Lafarga informed the group.

"Did one of you get the power?" Volgore looked at the girls with an expression of confusion.

"I don't…think so," Koishii tried to think of any moment in time that she could have gotten the power and nothing came to her head. Nothing strange happened, nor did she feel any different.

"It couldn't have been me. I don't feel any different at all," Suzanna discerned. If it wasn't her, and it wasn't Koishii then there was only one person left that it could be.

"I feel just fine," Koishii replied as they both turned their heads towards Volgore and stared at him in disbelief.

It had to be him.

"Do you feel different, Volgore?" Koishii asked.

"I don't…not really…" When he thought about it, nothing was different about him either.

"Then, why would he say that one of us has the power?" Koishii asked. Why would Lafarga lie about one of them having it? If no one felt different, then how did any of them have it? Did getting the power not really make a difference?

"Wait…You had the box," Suzanna discerned.

"It fell when I did, so…" Volgore trailed off. Surely she was wrong in her assumption. He wasn't that lucky and if he was, then he wouldn't still be stuck in whatever world he was stuck in.

"So, when it opened, someone got the power," Koishii deduced. That was the only logical explanation.

Suzanna shot Volgore the death glare. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen! All of that time, she had searched long and hard for the opportunity to even be in the presence of such a thing and this bungling idiot who called himself a super model just came in and stole it from her?

It was all she could do to control the anger that welled up inside of her.

"You think I got the power? I don't even feel any different." On the outside, Volgore panicked, but on the inside, he wondered if that really was the case. Could he have been so lucky?

"Well, if no one feels any different, then how will we know who has it?" The Japanese girl asked. Either someone was lying, or the power may still have been dormant in someone's body.

"That will be my job," Lafarga announced. "If the one that the power has been bestowed upon is unworthy, the power returns to me."

"But, what if the one you fight doesn't have the power?" Koishii asked.

"You'll be fighting against me as a group. I'll rule out the details in the battle." Whoever possessed the power would surely shine against him. Lafarga knew how to bring out the power, no matter who it was in.

"This cannot be good for my health," Volgore knew that the time would eventually come when he fought Lafarga, he just wished that he had more energy to make a bigger difference. At this rate, he'd be a splattered pile of guts on the ground before he knew it.

"Enough of this talk," Lafarga commanded as the slime tentacles rose around him and launched themselves at the group. "Go forth, my slime and determine their fate!"

…To Be Continued