Azure Dune, Chapter 9 - AZURE

After hours of pushing through the corruption, we had already been tired. But one more hour of an intense battle, trying to fend off all of Xethra’s attacks, and we were just about to collapse. The only ones still keeping up were me and Xeron.

Me mainly because I couldn’t do a whole lot with the small amount of snow I had access to. Granted, I could drag the snow off the mountain and through the same opening we had entered through – which I was already doing – but it was slow and the amount of snow I could bring was limited.

Xeron, on the other hand, had no such problems. Being Xethra’s progenitor, she knew exactly how to handle the corruption coming at her, although she was nowhere near as powerful as she had been before being sealed into me.

Xethra had long stopped replying to Xeron’s pleas, now simply trying to eliminate us all. But we were in a deadlock. Xethra couldn’t get through Xeron who had taken over the defensive duty but we also couldn’t advance.

“If only I could get the snow from the mountain here faster…” I muttered between casts of purification.

Trevor looked at me, the gears in his head spinning.

“I could… arrange that,” he admitted. “What is your limit anyway? How much snow can you control? You never told us.”

I frowned. “I’m not sure, to be honest. Never tested it. In any case, I never reached it.”

“Heh… So with infinite snow, you have infinite power?” Ellen snarked. “Why didn’t you say so?!”

She swung her greatsword around her one more time, summoning forth the golden light once more. This time, it all gathered around Trevor.

“Do it, old man!”

The ‘old man’ simply grunted and began focusing.

Sensing him preparing a big spell, Xethra redoubled her efforts to crush us, her corrupted tentacles lashing out even more viciously than before.

“Dammit! This better work, Azure!” Devon yelled as he too squeezed out the last of his Aether to renew our defensive barrier.

I was going to comment that I’d never said I had infinite power with enough snow, but held my jaw. This was our last ditch effort, after all. It either worked… or it didn’t.

A short eternity later, Trevor finalized his spell and shouted, “Here it comes! Straight from the top!”

With a flash of his spacial magic, the air in the cavern suddenly grew cold as a massive lump of snow displaced the air in the entire upper part of the room.

My eyes widened and I immediately took control of it. Devon, Trevor, and Ellen all collapsed in unison as the snow descended and swirled around us, creating a barrier.

“Ah, so this is the power of an aspect of nature?” Xeron murmured.

I laced all the snow with purification magic and let it burst in all directions. Xethra screeched as the white avalanche purified her black tentacles, cursing at me, and attempting to lash out even more.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Xeron grimacing at the treatment of her daughter, but it couldn’t be helped at the moment.

“Make a path for me,” she ordered. “I’m going to give her some stern talking to.”

As requested, I began elongating our defensive purification sphere in the direction of Xethra’s core. Without prompting, Xeron began to march in her direction, helping by draining the corruption where she could.

“Father!” Xethra exclaimed. “Have you finally come to your senses?”

I couldn’t see Xeron’s expression from back here, but I could still tell she was annoyed.

“That is mother for you, young lady!” she shouted.

I couldn’t help but crack a little smile at that. ‘Gender doesn’t apply to me’, huh? I couldn’t believe just how dense she was.

“Wh–what…?”

That declaration was somehow enough to make the sentient corruption hesitate for a second and allowed Xeron to cross all the way into grasping range of her core.

“And you’ve caused enough trouble already!” the mother yelled as she touched the core before a mass of Aether surged from her into the core as she activated the memory-sharing magic she had mentioned before.

There was an omnipresent gasp that echoed in the cavern. The tentacles ceased movement and I retracted my snow, keeping it in a defensive formation around the three panting party members.

There was a moment of silence. Several, painful seconds where I held my breath, and hoped to whatever gods listened that it worked.

And then finally…

“What… is that…?” Xethra asked haltingly.

“That… is what humans are really like. That is what you were missing. What we both were–”

“No no no! I get all that! But I mean… What is that?! Why do you have a crush on a human?!”

Xeron stiffened at that and I blinked.

Excuse me…?

“Xe–Xethra… What exactly are you talking about…?” Xeron asked in a clipped voice.

“Don’t try to hide it from me! I saw it all in your memories! You are totally head over heels in love with them!” She raised one of her tentacles and pointed it at me. “Why?! This is an even worse betrayal than I thought!”

“Xethra…! I… don’t… I… Uh…”

I stared at the scene. As did the other three.

“This… is not happening…” Devon murmured.

Elllen just began to cackle and Trevor’s head bumped against the floor with a tired sigh.

I stared at the two personified incarnations of the corruption bicker for a good minute, my eyes wide open and jaw hanging, before I slowly closed my eyes, letting out a half-laugh half-sigh, and shaking my head.

It looked like it worked… Kind of. Xethra no longer seemed to be wanting to destroy the world. Now, she seemed more like a child annoyed at their parent. I probably wasn’t in danger but…

Wow.

I still couldn’t believe this.

She had a crush on me?

Seriously?

Heh… And I had called Xeron dense.