(13.3) Parallels
A shadow battering ram strikes Winter square in the chest, shattering his mana shell and sending him crashing into the trees.
"Enough talk and enough games! My name is Vira, Witch of Disaster!" She raises a hand, engorging her scythe with an overwhelming amount of mana. "And this will become a city of corpses."
Chills run down Winter's spin as the air turns freezing cold. Leaves of the tree that he is in rapidly wilt and fall from the branches as if he is watching a timelapse.
The mana pressure leaking from Vira is too much for Winter to bear, preventing him from moving more than a few centimetres from his perch.
"Only choice left." Winter musters all his mana and points his wand at Vira. "Sanctity of Sorrow."
At the same time Vira finishes charging her attack, a massive magic circle materialises on the ground beneath her and in the sky above her.
Mana surges from her body and the spell she was preparing. With all her defences stripped and her charged attack cancelled, Vira can't muster mana quick enough to get out of range. Plus, with the blinding light shining from the magic circles, she has no shadows near enough to escape with.
Winter's spell finishes activating and dozens upon dozens of ghostly figures spring forth and attack Vira, each of them wailing in agonising sorrow.
Winter can do nothing but watch since he exhausted not only all his MP but half his HP to cast that spell.
He can feel tears begin to well up as he sees the woman he loves, at least a version of her, be assaulted by an innumerable amount of spirits of those she killed.
He closes his eyes, unable to watch.
Vira screams and the air pressurises once again. A freezing cold wind immediately followed by blazing heat bursts forth from within the storm of souls. Seconds later, they are burned away into nothing.
No. Not burned away. Absorbed.
Vira stands in the centre, arms raised and engulfed by green flames that grow brighter and stronger as more and more souls join the flames. No different than highly flammable kindling.
"I played the game, otherworlder! You think I don't know Winter can use that spell? I saw the death screen thousands of times thanks to it!" The green flames around Vira are massive now, even the magic circles burn away from the sheer power radiating from her. "So I prepared! Meet a new kind of magic that wasn't in that game. The Devastator's Flames."
Winter feels his heart thumping so loudly, it overtakes any other sound. All he can do is watch as Vira raises a hand and fire gushes forth to engulf him.
Massive vines sprout from around Winter and crash through the fire.
The vines ignite but the vines don't stop flowing. Within seconds a massive vine wall has scattered the fire. Standing atop the vines in front of Winter and staring down Vira is a very angry looking Vadi Digger.
"Stay away from my son, you bitch."
"Mom!"
Vadi raises her wand, commanding the vines to attack. Even with powerful flames constantly burning the attacking vines, Vira is being pushed back.
"Outta my way! My servants can handle trash like you, but Winter must die here!" Vira's shadow expands, engulfing her surroundings in darkness. From within, dozens of Dead rise to face her foe. "I have a family to end."
With the sudden onslaught as a distraction, Vira tries to sink into the shadows.
Vira's body tenses suddenly, as if temporarily paralysed. Mana pulses from behind Winter. He looks over his shoulder to the park entrance where a giant snake Dead slithers in, acting as if the barrier Vira raised earlier wasn't there.
Rumbling sounds follow and a monstrous bone behemoth bursts in. Its size is too large to enter, so unfortunately, the walls of the park entrance and the buildings cascade into debris following the four-legged beast.
"Honey, I'm home!" sings Nidor Digger from atop the behemoth.
Not sparing a moment, Nidor drives the behemoth headfirst into the paralysed Vira.
Flames explode from the tackle, partially melting the behemoth's head and causing Nidor to turn away from the attack.
Mana collects around Vira and her flames grow stronger and brighter.
"Get away from here, Winter! Your dad and I will keep her at bay." Orders Vadi.
"Get to Polaris Plaza, son! Those Otherworlders and the Acolyte will protect you there!" Nidor points a thumb behind himself and shoots Winter an encouraging smile.
Before Winter can protest, vines wrap around him and an armoured skeleton bearing the New Pinacca emblem takes him and runs out of the park.
"No! Come back here, 9th! You must face punishment!!"
"Wait! Mom! Dad!" Winter struggles to free himself with no luck. "Damnit, I worked too hard to keep you both alive to stop that tragic backstory from happening, I won't let you die!"
Tendrils of shadow roughly form around the running skeleton. They repeatedly close on the skeleton but fail to land much to Winter's chagrin.
The sounds of combat fill the air.
Fire and screeches. Wails of the Dead.
Clanging metal and flying spells.
The skeleton is dashing through the streets at impossible speeds, already having cleared half the distance to the goal. Hostile Dead and civilians whizz past Winter's vision.
Even his protests to stop and help are ignored. Only the singular command the skeleton was given seems to register. Still, Winter had to stop it before they reached the end. If it won't listen, he can at least use the skeleton as a walking battery.
"I just need to suck up some mana and-"
A roar of fire and screams behind distract him. Panicked, he wriggles in place, trying to get a glimpse of Wish Park.
No luck. It's already too far and there are too many things between him and his parents. All he can hope is that they somehow managed to survive.
The skeleton skids to a halt. Before Winter can stop himself, his shadow has engulfed the skeleton, nearly refilling his MP but also causing him to drop onto the flagstone with a thud.
"Winter!" Aki, flanked by several guards, runs up to him. "What happened? Where are Mr. and Mrs. Digger? Why are you covered in vines?"
One of the guards quickly cuts away at the vines and extracts him from the cocoon. A second pats him down and inspects him for injuries.
"Clear. Just drained. No signs of permanent damage, Lady Acolyte." the guard that inspected him tells Aki.
Finally free, Winter looks between Aki and the trio of guards. Now that he gets a closer look, he recognises the three as having journeyed down into the catacombs with himself and Aki.
The four are covered in dried blood, their clothes bearing all sorts of damage. Aki in particular has her cheeks several shades darker from the amount of dried blood that cakes her light skin.
Questions rush through Winter's head but looking into Aki's dark eyes helps him refocus.
"Vira was at Wish Park. She… she is but isn't Kokone." He follows behind Aki and the guards as they usher him into the plaza where many other guardsmen and the Silver Sword party have shored up defences.
"The parallel worlds thing… she isn't the Kokone I know. Whatever you have to do, I can't argue. She is Vira, the Witch of Disaster, and has even more power than she did in Carnia."
Winter tightens his fists, the wand in his grasp held so tightly, his nails cut into his palm hard enough to draw blood.
Aki places a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Her other hand holds the stone amulet to his arm. Healing magic cascades in gentle waves, restoring the damaged flesh and muscle and eases the pain Winter didn't even know he was in.
"I'm sorry."
Echoing screeches of an inhuman creature sound from the direction of Wish Park. Even at this distance, Winter, Aki, and the others can clearly see a massive figure rising to stand above the rooftops.
Crafted of bones, lit from below by the green flames that surround it and backlit by the evening sun, rises a monster Winter is more than a little familiar with.
How could he not be? Even in his faded and blurred memories, much of his previous life remains in some focus.
The entity before him is no exception.
After all, what japanese person couldn't recognise such a famous yokai born from a corpse-ridden battlefield.
A Gashadokuro no less than 50 metres approaches Polaris Plaza.
In only a few lumbering steps, it practically clears the full distance. On its head, alight with green flame brighter than anything in the quickly darkening sky, is Vira. Her laughter ringing across the city in such an unnatural way, Winter is sure she must have used magic to amplify her voice.
"In the face of raw power, nothing will save you. Die in agony!"
Vira and the Gashadokuro loom over the plaza. Overwhelming power forcing those with less mana to fall to their knees, their bodies unable to process the flood of mana overcoming them.
Winter can see the clouds. He can see the evening sun cresting over the mountains. He can see glimpses of the sky through holes in the clouds. Even the rooftops of the city.
Yet all of that seems to blend into the presence that is Vira and her Gashadokuro reaching down to crush everyone.
A burst of concentrated mana breaks the trance Winter is in. Looking quickly around, he sees Aki standing defiantly against the force bearing down on them.
"I am Aki, an Acolyte of Mune. I pledged to give sanctuary and protection to all good souls from the great evils of this world."
Her expression is one of exhaustion. Her body trembles and the signature cloak she wears whips under the pressure. Its body so utterly shredded it could hardly be called a cloak anymore.
Yet she stands resolute in the face of death.
Aki's words were simple yet they spurn his spirit as well as many others within the plaza.
Somehow Winter and everyone are able to rise, if only a little to look at her.
"...And we will not fall so easily."
From behind, it was as if the young girl in a tattered green cloak was holding the entire monster-filled sky at bay with one hand.