Curse of the Snow Flower
Once upon a time before humanity's first ever record of history, Earth entered an era called the age of the gods. It was an era whereby the top forty percent of the human race gained access to an unlimited source of power, developed very advanced technology, and gained immortality. These group of humans were eventually referred to as gods, remembered only by humans today in Greek, Roman, Norse, and mythologies of other countries. Zeus ruled over all the "gods" in all these mythologies over Mt Olympus which is located in a country we know today as Greece. Their eternal life and powers were sustained by a magical stone called the Ambrosia.
The gods possessed immense supernatural power. They had the power to turn flesh into stone, turn stone into bread, control the weather, and transform into ferocious beasts. With the new power and technology, they also played god by creating other forms of creatures and letting them loose into the realm of the mortals, causing many mortal men and women to suffer. In some of the experiments spearheaded by an alchemist called Belphegor, evil spirits were used in some of the experiments to create a race of evil beings called demons. Meanwhile, these "gods", being "human" in nature, descended into power corruption and debauchery, mass philandering with humans, demons, demigods, elves and nymphs which created many supernatural offspring that were either superhuman beings or man-eating poisonous beasts. Some stood up for justice. Some abused their powers either for their own gain or simply out of malice. Some were so arrogant that they assumed the roles of judges and punishers of human immorality or the immorality of other gods. Some did so by transforming ordinary humans into hideous beasts, such as the gorgons who could petrify any human being who looked into their eyes.
With their powers, they also established kingdoms on other planets in the solar system all the way from Venus to Pluto, including the moon. Since no human mortal has ever set foot on any of these planets, only the immortals lived there. Venus, the goddess of beauty established her kingdom on the Planet Venus, thus the planet became named as Venus. Likewise for other planets in the solar system that were occupied by immortals of the same name.
Rhea, the mother of Zeus, who was one of the goddesses created from the earlier generation of humans blessed by the Ambrosia, was dismayed at the state of things in the mortal world caused by the immortals, and sought to create a new kind of being using the Ambrosia. She needed to find out what the human body and soul lacked in order to engineer a new kind of human being which was superior to the gods, angels, demons, and ferocious beasts. The new kind of being needed to retain a human touch to have compassion for the weak and powerless mortal humans, and yet have strong resistance against any form of entrapment by evil forces. The new kind of being had to be demonic enough to understand sin and sympathize with sinners or victims of sins, yet be angelic enough to appreciate the beauty of purity. The new kind of being had to possess beauty that would put the most handsome and beautiful gods and goddesses to shame, desired by all mortals and immortals who saw it. She envisioned this being to be a new kind of human being that would walk the earth after all of humanity were to be destroyed by their own sins one day during the "apocalypse", otherwise known as the "end of the world".
This new being would be called the "novagel", which was meant to be a new generation of angels.
She created a pair of novagels. One male, one female. The male was created first, and the female was created from his rib, just like how Adam and Eve were formed.
However, she was not satisfied with the results. Both boy and girl were less than average in terms of intelligence, character, abilities, and physical attributes. Everything was perfect, but the perfect traits were hidden inside the babies and could not be harnessed, leaving them slightly below the average human in terms of intelligence, character, abilities, and physical attributes. When a human being was turned into a god, he had to bathe in the light of the giant Ambrosia gem to release his hidden talents that were supposed to fix his flaws. A person who lacked charisma was to have his charisma unleashed. A person who was tone-deaf was to have his tone-deafness replaced with an outstanding aptitude for music. A person who lacked linguistic ability was supposed to turn into a linguist overnight. Character flaws were supposed to be fixed. So, what went wrong?
Apparently, the god-creation process was sabotaged along the way when the alchemist Belphegor introduced black magic into his experiments. Gods created after that descended into all kinds of vices. Philandering, mass murder, or just hurting mortals for amusement by abusing their magic etc.
Rhea had to find a way to release the hidden potential in the new species of human-like beings. Using the power of the Ambrosia, she created nine gems, each commanding an element essential in creating matter. Sun, moon, fire, water, electricity, wind, earth, dimension, and illusion. She named the first two stones the Day and Night stones, and the remaining stones as Genesis Stones. She bathed the two babies in the radiation of the nine gems in the endeavor of making them perfect-bodied all-rounder superior elite humans. The power of the nine gems was supposed to invoke the nine hidden unconscious personalities called "Elemental Personas" from within them and merge them with their conscious personality, or "Primary Persona". All nine elemental personas complement each other, and when awakened, shall merge with the primary persona to create a more complete human being, in terms of intelligence, skills, natural abilities, health, and physical attributes.
However, an accident happened.
The nine gems became unstable, and suddenly the gems and the two babies vanished.
What happened was this: The elemental personas, instead of merging with the primary persona of the babies, were dislodged from the souls of the babies, and became eighteen separate different individuals, and they were randomly teleported to different locations around the world. This divided the two babies into twenty individuals who were transported to different parts of the world to be found and brought up separately in twenty different families.
The male baby with the primary persona was called Endymion, and lived on Earth. The female baby with the primary persona was called Selene, and she lived on the moon.
Endymion was a human who was known to be a descendant of one of the gods, but he was neither king nor shepherd. Yes he was a King, but a King of his own world. His family was well to do, so he did not need to worry about food. He just loved to enjoy. He loved the company of women, the taste of good food and wine, and idling. He was handsome, but because he lived in his own world and had difficulty conveying thoughts and ideas in a coherent manner, he had difficulty winning the heart of any fair maiden he fancied, let along physically obtaining them. However, he didn't mind. He lived in an imaginary world where whoever he fancied was already his, where he was already a hero and king admired by the world. In reality, he was a dreamer and a nobody. The ladies he mingled with all had one complaint, namely - his eyes didn't seem to meet with theirs even though they wandered about the other parts of their bodies. His body was there but his mind was distant.
His preoccupation with his imaginary world went deeper. He developed an obsession with the moon and the idea that a beautiful goddess lived there.
The truth was, he was aware that he was living in his own world. He had never confused reality with fantasy. He knew that whatever he dreamt of were dreams. However, one day when he was dreaming in the forest while looking at the moon, what he saw made him start to suspect that a character from his fantasy world had crossed over to the real world.
What he saw, was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life. After seeing her, he was very sure he wouldn't dream of any other woman again. This woman was real. She looked at him and spoke to him. The meeting felt real. The conversation sounded real.
And the physical consummation, also seemed very real.
The woman he just dated and made love to was Selene, the goddess of the moon who traveled down to Earth because she was bored of life in her palace on the moon. In other stories told about Selene, she was seduced by a satyr, a lecherous being with the lower body of a goat. This was actually a story to parody Endymion's conquest of Selene. Selene actually felt deeply in love with him ever since and could not forget him. It turned out that she was the female baby with the primary persona.
Endymion retreated into a cave, which was his secret hideout to hide away from the real world. He did nothing but dream about her, and recall that pleasurable night. It felt so real. Was it a dream?
That was when Selene, the moon goddess, visited him again.
Nothing much was told about their night encounters, except that Selene asked Zeus to give him eternal youth so that she would never leave him. However, that was only the tip of the iceberg since people who sneaked into his unguarded cave only saw him sleeping, and Selene descending from above to visit him. What they managed to see after that was that the two lovers were enveloped in mist that shrouded them from view, which gave the cave interlopers no choice but to leave.
Yes, Endymion slept all the time, but when she visited, he woke up. She danced in front of him and teased him before they copulated. They did this for 1001 nights, in another dimension isolated from the physical world. In this dimension, 1001 nights passed in this dimension, but only one day passed in the real world.
During the first 91 nights, he copulated with no one else but her. But in the next 91 nights, Selene transformed into another girl. It was one of the girls whom he had liked in real life and fantasized about but did not obtain in reality. It was only on the 91st night as this girl that Selene explained to Endymion that the girl whom he had a crush on in real life was actually a clone of hers who was a personification of an aspect of Selene's personality that developed a will of her own and went astray.
However, unknown to Endymion, his own appearance also changed to that of another person (someone who was a "clone" of him and was also a personification of a certain hidden personality of his). On that same night, both of them shape-shifted again, and the cycle repeated for another 91 nights, until the 910th night when both Selene and Endymion evolved into their full forms, where Endymion was a complete handsome man who was in touch with all his other personalities, and Selene was a complete beautiful goddess who was in touch with all her other personalities. From novagels, they have evolved into novas.
After the 1001st night, they had fully gotten in touch with their "lost" or "hidden" personalities, and evolved into their complete forms. Following that, they satisfyingly consummated their relationship with each other during the last 91 days.
From then on, their nights were complete and perfect, since they had no more "unfinished business (lingering affections for third parties)". And that was how Endymion lived the rest of his life. Sleeping, and then waking up only to make love with the goddess of the moon every night. Whenever they made love, they generated a form of creative energy that created a world outside our physical reality.
Once they have generated enough energy to create the world, whenever they slept, they woke up in another world which they ruled. This world was known by many names as told by many storywriters, such as Märchenland, Neverland, Wonderland, dream land, etc. He lived for another 150 years, because that was when the Moon Kingdom where she lived was destroyed during a cataclysm (also known as the Ragnarok) that destroyed all the "gods and goddesses". This cataclysm was presumably brought about by the mysterious disappearance of the Ambrosia. The gods were weakened and made mortal, giving a chance for the ordinary humans to fight back with the technology they had developed to fight and drive out the gods. They raided the kingdom on the moon and reduced the moon's surface to a barren wasteland, which resulted in the death of Endymion through the death of Selene (his non-aging and non-dying was tied to Selene's immortal existence).
However, the other world known as Märchenland continued to exist till today. The two novas, Endymion and Selene, were reborn in that new world with new names, Liondor and Monaphrodiva, respectively. Both lived in Märchenland as lovers for many centuries, until a disaster turned them against each other, causing them to destroy each other and split from their elemental personas. They were reborn on Earth and reincarnated for many generations, merging with a separate elemental persona in each lifetime, till today. In recent times, all twenty novagels were reunited by fate, and formed a team of ninjas to fight the evil forces plaguing mankind.
But what happened to Rhea, the Day and Night stones, Genesis Stones (known as Bridestones among medieval alchemists)?
During the age of Ragnarok, humanity rebelled with the help of some rebel gods and magical tools with the hope of getting their hands on the Ambrosia Stone. The gods were unwilling to part with their Ambrosia stone. Rhea, a senior goddess and many other gods including Chronos, the god of time and also Rhea's husband, actually agreed that the shrine of the Ambrosia stone had to be relocated and their powers had to be given up. They moved the whole shrine to a southern continent. The shrine was such that the stone was placed on top of the main stupa, and there were another nine stupas surrounding the main stupa that represented the nine elements, which were "sun, moon, fire, water, electricity, wind, earth, mind, and illusion". The stupas of the nine elements were designed to allow sorcerers and priests to harness the Ambrosia's power to perform magic pertaining to that particular element. The shrine was actually a machine called the Mooba Engine (夢婆神機), which was powered by the Ambrosia. The Mooba Engine was a machine that was supposed to facilitate the reincarnation of the souls of dead people. Rhea disappeared from the face of the Earth along with the other gods who were defeated by the humans. The gods who perished were assumed to have reincarnated. However, since Chronos, the god of time, used his powers to teleport the whole shrine to a hidden dimension, his powers were transferred to the Ambrosia Stone. The Ambrosia Stone was eventually given the ability to send the souls of the novagels after their death to be reincarnated into another time and era, and that's why sometimes one reincarnation of Endymion and Selene and coexist with another incarnation of Endymion and Selene in the same time period though in different regions of the Earth. The shrine could only be accessed through 2 ways, either by getting the help of the novagels (after they evolve into Super Novas), or by killing them and getting their power.
The age of the gods ended and power returned to humanity, and this was how it was until today.
Throughout the ages, Endymion and Selene reincarnated many times, and in the present day, Endymion reincarnated as Zoner Sun and adopted the name Akira, and Selene reincarnated as Annabelle Lee and adopted the name Yumeko. Due to circumstances surrounding Akira's past life, he could not be awakened naturally. The sexual ritual with the other female novagels he lusted for had satisfied his desires for them and added something to his list of achievements that lifted his ego and confidence a bit, and his powers were coming back. However, his memories on how to fight were still taking some time to come back, so one could expect his reflexes to still be dull.
However, the purpose of his early awakening was to prepare for the coming of an enemy, so powerful, that the whole clan of novagels would be wiped out if he did not awaken.
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Across the Straits of Tsugaru in the city of Aomori in the Aomori prefecture, is a black colored monument that contains the lyrics of a very famous song.
The name of the song was 'The winter seascapes of the Straits of Tsugaru (津軽海峡冬景色)'.
A girl was gazing at the sea while standing at the edge of Cape Erimo while she sang the song.
"Ah, the winter seascapes of the Straights of Tsugaru…"
It was the song that her parents often sang to her. It was her father's and mother's favorite song.
She was no longer going to hear them sing it again, after their bodies were flown back to Hokkaido from the Tohoku region of Japan where they were having their vacation.
Many years ago, when she was barely at the tender age of twelve, she was standing right in front of the Straits of Tsugaru on the edge of a seaside embankment in Hakodate. After finishing the song, she was ready to take the plunge. Not to jump off the stage at Kiyomizu temple (Japanese idiom for "taking the plunge"), but to jump into the Straits of Tsugaru. It was not meant to be a leap of faith, but a leap to her death.
She jumped, and fell into the water, drowned, and her body was frozen solid in the cold waters.
In spite of that, no squid or fish touched her. Her frozen body remained intact, until it was discovered one day.
Discovered one day by a squid fisher who accidentally 'fished' her up
The police of Hakodate was called up, and her body was sent to the autopsy table to identify her, and alert her next of kin.
She was identified as Yuka Rumoi (留萌雪華).
The thing was, she had no next of kin. In addition, the ice would refuse to melt, despite being placed in hot water. The hot water turned into ice, and they had to dig her out of the frozen water.
Any attempt to dissect her body also failed. No knife, electric saw, bomb, or gun could destroy her body or cause any ice on her body to crack.
Her frozen body was apparently harder to crack than diamonds.
This got the attention of scientists from overseas who were baffled by this mysterious phenomenon, and tried to find out what was in the ice corpse that caused it.
Some even believed that she was the victim of a "Yuki Onna', a snow woman who would freeze her victims to death.
Well, those who said this were not too far from the truth.
The next day, news of her frozen body having gone missing under tight security from the Hakodate mortuary has made the headlines.
Police and scientists were baffled by the mysterious disappearance of her body, and some claimed that she might be a 'messiah' who rose from the dead.
That was very long ago.
However, similar "frozen" bodies have been reported all over Japan recently.
The Novamos team was watching the news in the briefing room (which looks like a lounge designed based on the Ainu motif) located in the basement of the Tsuruhime Abashiri Hotel. Another "freezing" incident took place at a bathhouse near the Hinanoza Hotel. The frozen victim was a young woman who happened to be the secret mistress (now no longer a secret after she died) of a well known financial advisor. The amazing part was that she was frozen to death in the hot spring bath while waiting for her lover to join in. And shortly after the man was interviewed on TV, he started to freeze solid in front of the camera, to everybody's shock.
"Hmm, the victims all seem to have something in common", stated Rekka, folding his arms while leaning his butt on the side of the sofa. "After further investigations, they were found to be in third party relationships with married men or women. Victims included men and women."
Naomi popped one strawberry into her mouth and said "Well, at this rate, quite a number of celebrities and models are going to die. We might be next." Naomi was referring to the other sideline all the novagel girls here, which is modeling in the sexy photoshoots for the photos Zoner (Akira) was so crazy about.
"Not only in Japan, but also in South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. I think whoever the culprit is, he or she could have been the victim of a third party relationship," mentioned Mizuchi.
"Or had their family broken up by one," said Chiaki, in a rather cold and lifeless voice. "This person shares the same power as me."
"Her power is much different from yours," responded Yumeko. "You control the different states of water. She hardens them by draining their heat energy and keeps it that way, so the body stays frozen despite attempts to warm it. And the body is generally unbreakable unless it's by a very strong force or magic." Yumeko placed her blackberry on the table and pressed a button. A holographic image of the frozen victim at the hot spring appeared in the air. "Her body was stuck to the floor and could not be removed from the frozen water in the bath, forcing the business owner to close down his business."
And the conversation went into the direction of the background of the victims and other "personal details" revealed by the media.
Chiaki's attention was completely detached from the conversation. Everyone was discussing the peculiarities of the victim's death and the background of the victim was instead of trying to talk about what kind of person or monster would have the power to freeze someone like that. But that wasn't new to her. The style of killing seemed to have a very familiar signature, which she noticed in the frozen hair of the victim.
"The snow flower…"
She was hoping that this was just a wild guess, or a figment of her imagination. What she considered to be either the death or disappearance of a childhood friend. Yuka Rumoi, a fellow friend from the Hokkaido Cryomancer School located near Lake Toya. Coincidentally her surname was also Rumoi, the name of a place in Hokkaido, and was a good friend of Chiaki. After Yuka's parents died during their holiday in Sendai, she disappeared altogether. That was shortly before Chiaki and her family moved to Singapore.
Chiaki went back to her room and took out a box which still contained the gift from her friend. A beautiful dark blue box. When she opened it, the cold frozen rose chilled the room. Chiaki shivered at gave out a "samuuuu" cry (incomplete pronunciation of "samui (さむい)", which means "cold"). Being the telepath she was (Novagels are telepaths by nature), she could hear voices in her head.
Voices from Yuka Rumoi.
"Chiaki…" came the cold, faint, ghastly cry.
Chiaki shivered from just hearing it. Was she really hearing it, or were the words coming to her in her mind?
"Chi-chan…"
Chiaki mentally responded. "Yucchan?"
"Do you remember me?" asked the voice in her head.
"Yes…yes? What happened?"
"You saw the news? You saw the frozen people?"
"Why are you doing this?"
"People who break up the families of others deserve to die…"
"Stop it!"
"My dear friend, I have missed you. Can you meet me?"
"Meet you? Why?"
"If you don't want your friends to die, meet me."
"My friends?"
"Your Novamos team. Akira, Yumeko, Naomi, et cetera."
"And where do we meet, and when?"
"9:00am tomorrow, at Cape Erimo…don't be late, and COME ALONE, or else the whole of Hokkaido will be frozen, starting with East Hokkaido."
The next day, Chiaki teleported to Cape Erimo, and saw her old friend there, dressed in a white kimono. It was windy, windy enough to blow a thin person away, which was what Cape Erimo was famous for.
In the midst of the windiness, her old friend was facing the sea singing a song with a sad voice...
Even I had boarded this connecting ferry alone
I gazed at the seagulls that seemed like they would freeze, and I cried.
Ah, the winter seascapes of the Straights of Tsugaru
The lookout tower and the rocks at the bottom of the cliff have been frozen already, including some policemen and tourists who now became lifeless decorative statues.
"ひどい("Hidoi", which means "awful")…" Chiaki exclaimed. All of this was just too awful.
"お久しぶりでございます,昔の友達の千晶さん (pronounced as "O-hisashiburi de gozaimasu, mukashi no tomodachi no Chiaki-san", which means "Long time no see, my old friend Chiaki")" said Yuka.
"命の大切さを忘れたようですね (pronounced as "Inochi no taisetsusa wo wasureta you desu ne", which means "You seem to have forgotten the value of life")" responded Chiaki in a serious tone.
"お黙り(O-damari)!" scolded Yuka. Yuka just told Chiaki to shut up. "You of all people are not qualified to talk about the value of life. You're the niece of the person who killed my parents!"
"You're not the only one in pain. Even though I knew my aunt was in the wrong, we were also sorry for the death of your parents."
"Death of my parents? Or death of your aunt?" Having said that, Yuka charged at Chiaki, created an ice dagger, and attempted to stab her.
Chiaki suddenly recalled the image of her aunt frozen in ice a few days after what seemed to be an accident that claimed Yuka's parents' lives. Chiaki's aunt was not her biological aunt. Chiaki was a novagel, so it wasn't possible for her to have human kin. However, during one mission, a spell was cast on her to turn her into a child. Chiaki then went missing and her other novagel comrades could not find her. A woman called Tarako found her and took her in, and eventually made her join the Hokkaido Cryomancer School. That woman who adopted her was a succubus who could control ice powers. Yuka's parents were also teachers at that school. To cut the short story short, Tarako had an affair with Yuka's father. Tarako wanted to force Yuka's parents to split up so that Yuka's father could marry her. Eventually Tarako killed both Yuka's parents. During that time, the spell that was cast of Chiaki wore off, turning her back into adult form, causing her to regain her memories and return to the Novamos team.
"Both…your parents were wonderful people…" Chiaki created a similar dagger to block Yuka's attack. Their ice daggers kept clashing furiously as they continuously made furious attempts to slash each other.
"Then WHY DID THEY HAVE TO DIE? Why did your aunt have to kill them? Had any idea about the pain I went through?"
"That was between your parents and my aunt, and all of them have been dead, for so long already. Even though I am also upset about my aunt's death, I know that it will not be enough to understand the pain you went through. Even if you still can't let go of your past, that doesn't mean you should go round killing other people."
"No! You don't understand. If you understand what I went through when I was abducted by the North Koreans, you won't expect me to value the lives of these people."
"Apart from those "third parties" you killed, there were many others whom you killed who were good and innocent people. Like these policemen and tourists. What did they do to deserve to become ice statues?"
"You…" Yuka started to cry. "You don't understand…STOP SOUNDING LIKE YOU DO!" Engulfed by rage, the whole of Cape Erimo was engulfed by stronger winds that blew strongly enough to destroy as the weather intensified along with her emotional surge.
"Stop, Yuka! You'll destroy Hokkaido at this rate!"
"I'll plunge the Earth into another ice-age if I must!"
Suddenly, another voice was heard.
"そうさせるか ("Sou saseru ka!" which means "I won't let you!")"
A fireball flew straight towards Yuka.
It was Akira, who had merged with Rekka to utilize the power of fire.
Yuka's shield of wind deflected the fireball and nullified it, turning it into smaller fireballs flying in different directions. One small fireball destroyed the lookout tower and some fireballs hit some frozen people who were "blown up" on the spot.
"精君,気を付けなさいよ!(pronounced as "Akira-kun, ki wo tsuke nasai yo!", which means "Akira! Will you be careful?")" scolded Chiaki.
"悪い悪い (pronounced as "Warui warui", which means "sorry sorry")" was Akira's embarrassed response, holding the back of his head with his right hand. Then Akira turned to Yuka immediately and taunted, "おい!氷使いの癖に何と言う泣き虫だぜ!泣きっぽい女の子など可愛くねえぞ.いい加減に泣くのを止めて笑って正々堂々勝負したらどうだ?(pronounced as "Oi! Kooritsukai no kuse ni nan toiu nakimushi daze! Nakippoi onna no ko nado kawaikunee zo. Iikagen ni naku no wo yamete waratte seiseidoudou shobu shitara dou da?" which means "Hey, you're such a crybaby for a Cryomancer! Girls who cry too much are not lovable. Stop crying and start smiling and let's fight this fair and square")"
Yuka suddenly stopped crying and the strong winds subsided. She paused, looked at Akira, gritted her teeth, and created a large sword made of ice in her hand.
"お!ま!え!生意気な事を言ってくれたわね (pronounced as "O-Ma-e…namaiki na koto wo itte kureta wa ne", which means "Y-O-U! You're damn cocky aren't you? ")"
"死んだ方が負けだね (pronounced as "Shinda hou ga make dane", which means "The one who dies loses")", taunted Akira.
"殺す(pronounced as "Korosu!", which means "I'll kill you")" cursed Yuka.
"来い(pronounced as "Koi!", which means "Come on")" taunted Akira. "Ryugaken! (龍牙剣 or Dragon Tooth Sabre)".
Akira-Rekka created a sword made of fire and swung it at Yuka, who also used her sword made of ice to strike it. Blades clashed again and again. Ice melted on touching fire, but was frozen again. The fire weakened a little from the cold, only to retain its hotness from Akira's mana pouring into it.
Chiaki fired a barrage of ice needles to take advantage of Yuka's concentration on the fight with Akira. Yuka saw that coming and tried to deflect them with her ice sword. Akira dodged so as not to be hit by the needles. However, one needle managed to hit her face.
It wasn't an ordinary ice needle. This needle had a curse in it. Chiaki took out a forbidden liquid called the Death Crystal.
The line formed on Yuka's face will be permanent from now on. And Yuka knew it. Tears welled from her eyes as she pressed her fingers against her bleeding wound. "My beautiful face! My beautiful face! My beautifulface…ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" Yuka released a column of cold energy that threatened to keep expanding, freezing everything in its path. A seagull flew into it and was frozen on the spot, fell to the ground, and broke to pieces.
That was when everyone arrived at the scene to merge with Akira and Chiaki to form Liondor and Monaphrodiva. Monaphrodiva started to perform the sealing chant (封印念唱) to activate the binding circuit (金縛回路).
Monaphrodiva: Rin (臨)
Liondor: On baishiramantaya sowaka
Monaphrodiva: Pyō (兵)
Liondor: On ishanaya intaraya sowaka
Monaphrodiva: Tō (闘)
Liondor: On jiterashi itara jibaratanō sowaka
Monaphrodiva: Sha (者)
Liondor: On haya baishiramantaya sowaka.
Monaphrodiva: Kai (皆)
Liondor: On nōmaku sanmanda basaradan kan
Monaphrodiva: Jin (陣)
Liondor: On aganaya in maya sowaka
Monaphrodiva: Retsu (列)
Liondor: On irotahi chanoga jiba tai sowaka
Monaphrodiva: Zai (在)
Liondor: On chirichi iba rotaya sowaka
Monaphrodiva: Zen (前)
Liondor: On a ra ba sha nō sowaka
A pillar of light emerged from the ground, surrounding Yuka. This pillar contained the column of cold energy that was expanding. The cold energy was backfiring on Yuka, attacking her. Yuka screamed "m'aider!!!". Monaphrodiva cried out, "Yuka!!!!!" Even though Yuka was responsible for the killing of many innocent people, Chiaki's heart still cried out for her, since they were at one time closer than blood sisters.
"Ça suffit" boomed a voice. That was French for "that's enough".
Suddenly, Yuka disappeared from the column, and the column of cold energy transformed into a pillar of hard ice. Suddenly, this man in a military uniform (WWII French military uniform, to be exact) and an eye patch sporting a crew cut appeared out of thin air carrying Yuka in his arms and descended slowly to the ground like a slowly landing paratrooper.
Yuka looked up to her savior. "Antoinne-sama!" her heart leapt for joy.
"寒かったろう(Samukattaro)?" Was it cold, asked the Frenchman in Japanese.
"Oui…merci pour me sauver (Yes…thank you for saving me)"
"Who are you?" asked Monaphrodiva.
The Frenchman answered.
"Je suis le vent (I am the wind), je suis votre pire cauchemar (I am your worst nightmare). Je suis l'œil de la tempête (I am the eye of the storm). Mon nom est (My name is)...Antoinne Montblanc!"
"何者だ(pronounced as "Nanimono da", which means "What are you")? こいつとはどんな関係だ(pronounced as "Koitsu to ha donna kankei da", which means "What is your relationship with her?)" roared Liondor.
Though weakened, Yuka struggled to answer. "He is the only person who understands me and accepts me. My chevalier, my hero, my lover. Colonel Montblanc."
"喋るな(Shaberu na)" Antoinne told her not to speak, as she was already weak from the attack that almost turned her into an ice statue that would have broken into pieces from the pressure of the pillar of energy that trapped her cold energy column. He continued. "The leaders were weak! Men and women of justice were put to death. Countries were ruled by the corrupt. The beauty of Paris is but a facade that hides the people's moral decay and delusions of loftiness. I was a martyr not of just France, but of Europe. The traitor Charles de Gaulle put me to death at the Champ de Mars for treason when I was fighting for my father the Fuhrer who was liberating Europe from evil! I am the true man of justice, and I seek to liberate the world. Join me, or perish!"
He snapped his finger, transformed into a typhoon and disappeared.
The storm was over. But many people were already dead. Frozen. Or broken to pieces while in their frozen state. The sun was up, but the ice wouldn't melt.
Liondor and Monaphrodiva stood there, unable to do or say anything.
Across the globe in a hotel room in Paris, the Frenchman and his Japanese ice queen just finished a round of sex, which fully restored her energy. He held her close to him with his large arm, given his large size, making her feel safe and secure from the evils of the world, and the vengeful ghosts of her victims. She was just like him, someone who simply saw the evil in others that others did not see. He even saw the evil in God that no one else would see, and chose to side the devil as he saw justice in the devil's ways. He was once dead, but now reborn. She was once dead, but now reborn. She killed people by freezing those who were unfaithful in relationships (after her parents were killed by her father's mistress, whom she later killed, and ended up being marked for death by her clan for using her powers to take innocent lives), and that extended to people who went in her way or people who were unlucky to be there when she is temperamental. He ripped people apart with his ability to control wind, otherwise known as aerokinesis.
He was once a WWII soldier, but since he was an illegitimate child of Adolf Hitler, he was often bullied and ridiculed for his German parentage after the French army managed to dig into his past. Given time, Hitler eventually acknowledged him and asked him to spy for the Nazis. This was eventually discovered by General Charles de Gaulle, who was at that time the leader of the Free French Forces. General de Gaulle ordered his execution at the Champ de Mars. However, he was revived from hell recently to be allowed to breathe and walk among the living once again. He became recognized by the French government as a Parisian hero for foiling an attempt by terrorists to bomb the Parisian metro.
He eventually worked for the French government to fight terrorists in the French speaking areas in Africa. But one day he went berserk, attacked his own comrades, killed his superior, and went AWOL. After that, he came back to Paris under a different identity. One day, he witnessed an interesting phenomenon.
A group of young people were trying to harass a Japanese lady (tourist) in front of the Eiffel Tower to ask her to donate money, claiming that they were from the Deaf and Dumb Society. She refused, and one of them spat on her Ferragamo shoes. In a rage, she blew a breeze from a mouth that instantly turned them into ice statues. Of course, this also killed some innocent bystanders (oops, sorry!), except the Master of Aerokinesis himself who had the power to withstand such an attack, being revived from hell himself. He looked into her eyes. She was also revived from hell, just like him. An ice queen who hailed from the northern cold land of Hokkaido, called Yuka Rumoi. They became lovers since then, and lived on the money he earned from fighting in Africa, and the money she made from striptease dancing at Moulin Rouge. They were the lovers and partners in crime and vice, the Bonnie and Clyde of Paris. Crime bosses in America, Europe, Middle East, and eventually Asia engaged them as contractors for assassinations and other jobs.
Of course, the condition was that 20% of what they earned was supposed to go to the one person: A mysterious person known only by the name Woldaemal, who regularly contacted them by whatever means of communication possible. The phone of a random public phone booth may be ringing and that would be him. This was the man who claimed to bring him and Yuka back to life from the dead.
"I am Woldaemal, and I was the one who brought you back from hell to enjoy life, love, and sex again, on the condition that the Hokkaido-based Shirakaba Ninja Corps are destroyed."
**********************************************************
The faces of the Novamos novagels have never been blacker over one of their rare occasions of defeat. The enemy has gotten away, the people they were trying to revive were still dead, and the damage incurred from the battle has not been repaired. The area of Hokkaido near Cape Erimo was in a state of ruin, and most probably Paris was going to be the next on the list. Rekka suddenly banged the table with his right fist, which was giving off some fire. The others had to calm him down and Hina had to put out the fire using her wind power before the fire destroys the wooden table and spread to the other parts of the lounge/briefing room. Garaya the "Higuma stuffed toy" came in, looking very serious. This foreboded a tough challenge ahead of them. He later sat down on a chair, and proceeded to explain.
"I was afraid of this. This was what Rotgier mentioned to me during our battle. We destroyed Bellfigure, and his cloning facilities, so that the New World Order can't produce anymore of these monsters with human faces and bodies."
Doctor Bellfigure was a British scientist who disappeared after his artificial life engineering project (a.k.a. cloning project) was closed down by the UK government. He received funding from a mysterious organization and successfully created his first clone which received the first breath of life from Belphegor, the demon of science and inventions, in exchange for Bellfigure's own soul. From then on he summoned demons from hell and gave them physical bodies to move around in the real world and slowly replace living humans, and these were the enemies the novagels have been fighting all this while. Dr Bellfigure was destroyed long ago and his cloning operations were shut down. However, a lot of Dr Bellfigure's "Artificial Hellspawns" were still at large, doing the bidding of the True Knights and the New World Order.
"We obtained the namelist of the remaining Artificial Hellspawns in operation, and exterminated all of them. Or so we thought. Despite destroying the Orochi Eight, whom we thought were the last of the Major Spawns, I still remained unsettled. The voices of the afterlife continued to speak to me, warning me of something big. We continued to monitor the minor spawns, and only obliterated those that were up to no good. We dug up the old records and found incomplete records of two Major Spawns." Garaya looked at Kazumi and Ikazuchi, and they both nodded, showing that they were involved in the investigation. Garaya continued, "Since the records were incomplete and I couldn't trace their presence in the world, I guessed that the plans to produce them could be scrapped. I didn't expect them to really exist. Going forward, we can expect the fight to become more intense. Therefore, I will need to teach you two new techniques. One will help all of you to re-spawn when you die, the other will greatly enhance your powers."
Garaya proceeded to teach them two new techniques. Egg Labour, and Aegis Knight. He imparted these skills to them by giving two spherical gems the size of ping pong balls that contain the skills and abilities. Once a gem of a certain ability is implanted in Akira and Yumeko, the rest of the novagels would possess the skill. One Egg Labour gem was given to Yumeko, and one Aegis gem was given to Akira. For Egg Labour, the female novagels who had previously absorbed the seeds of their male novagels through sexual intercourse were to create two eggs and release them from the wombs. Once they die, the respective male novagel would come out from one of the eggs, while the female novagel would come out from the other. The eggs would be placed in a secret sanctuary on an island away in the north east near the Kurile islands, known as Angel Hope Island, where they would re-spawn from the eggs if they died in battle. The novagels would need to have sex again to produce another two eggs each so that they could re-spawn again after they died. The rest of the male novagels could still come back to life even if they died as long as Akira was still alive (and awakened/hatched), and likewise for the female novagels as long as Yumeko was alive (and awakened/hatched). However, the eggs would come in handy for them if Akira or Yumeko were dead and couldn't come back to life because their souls were held in captivity, or rather, if Akira or Yumeko were dead and didn't have any eggs remaining for them to come back to life.
The Aegis Knight is a technique where the male novagels transform into metallic armours and called "Aegis" and swords called "Calibur" to be worn by their female counterpart. In this form, taking Naomi for example, she will be referred to as Aegis Naomi (also Aegis Yellow) when Hideaki transforms into an Aegis and Naomi dons it. The colour of the Aegis will be corresponding to the element they represent. The fire Aegis will be red (Aegis Red), the water Aegis will be ariel blue (Aegis Ariel), the lightning Aegis will be silver (Aegis Silver), the earth Aegis will be green (Aegis Green), the wind Aegis will be sky blue (Aegis Sky), the sun Aegis will be yellow (Aegis Yellow), the moon Aegis will be lavender purple (Aegis Lavender), the psychic Aegis will be gold (Aegis Gold), the illusion Aegis will be azure blue (Aegis Azure). When worn by Monaphrodiva, the colour of all the Aegis combined will be platinum (Aegis Platinum). Fully armed with the Aegis and Calibur, his and her physical, mental, and magical capabilities will be combined into one body, creating a virtually invincible legendary fighter. However, an Aegis Knight will only last 20 minutes, so it should only be used only as a last resort. Transforming into an Aegis Knight would cause both the male and female novagels to fully recover their strength even from the brink of death. However, after the 20 minutes, if the battle still has not ended, both male and female novagel will be fully exhausted and will be very vulnerable in battle.
After the training was over, Garaya deployed all of them to Paris to defeat Antoinne Montblanc.
All twenty novagels saluted and chanted in unison. "Bailamos mis amigos", and teleported to Paris.
Once in Paris, the battle began, but not without strategy.
The novagel ninjas used their "影分身の術 (Kage-bunshin no jutsu)" to create clones of themselves and control them remotely. These clones were sent to confront Antoinne and Yuka. One by one, these novagel clones were frozen, and broken to pieces. The Frenchman and the Japanese girl laughed victoriously as Chiaki struggled to evade Yuka's freeze attacks, or break free once she was frozen. She was weakened till she had to transform into Aegis Ariel. It was a cat and mouse game where one ran and the other chased, all the way to Place de L'etoile, where the Arc de Triomphe was, and they fought along Champs Elysees, freezing everything. Antoinne tried to stop Yuka but she was too carried away to listen. This was the ultimate showdown with her rival which she had been waiting so eagerly for years. Would she listen to him? But Antoinne Montblanc had other problems to face. Another one of the novagels were attacking him. Funny, he remembered that Yuka had frozen all nineteen of them. How could it be that one of them is still alive, using the same wind technique as him? "貴様,生きていたのか (pronounced as "Kisama, ikiteita no ka?" which means "Damn, I didn't know you're still alive!")" he cursed. "Satané ('damn' in French)! この手で死ぬがいい,風使いめ (pronounced as "Kono te de shinu ga ii, kazetsukai me", which means "You will die by my winds, accursed wind-caster")!" cursed Antoinne, and created a hurricane pillar right at where Hina was, striking her bulls-eye causing her to fly a few meters behind. However, she was caught by Hayate, preventing her from hitting the ground. After catching her to put her on the frozen ground safely, Hayate teleported forward and delivered multiple punches to Antoinne, five punches per second, and then teleported a few meters backwards. After that, Rekka delivered a Rekkaken (a series of punches whereby six punches were delivered in three seconds) on Antoinne from the side, raining punches on the French wind-caster. "Merde!" he cursed. "I thought you were all frozen by Yuka? How did you come back to life?" In response, Tamiki created a pillar of fire round him with a Shouryu Enjouha, burning him. Doing so, she answered. "Our fake body doubles were frozen, so you could say we're good at coming back to life." The 18 VS 1 tag team continued. Of course, each of them who were masters of different elements took turns to attack him with the respective elements they specialized in. Fire -> ice -> lightning -> wind, and other elements in random order. Eventually Antoinne fought till he was exhausted, coughed blood, and said, "Damn! In that case I have no other alternative. Ha!!!!!", and stirred up a large storm in the form of a thick hurricane column. He said, "Since you pushed me to the edge, very well, I'll die, but I'll drag you in with me! My spirit will continue to protect mon amour Yuka! Die! Hahahahahahha!" He laughed mockingly, and increased the thickness of the "column of wind". At that moment, all the frozen people in the area were dragged in and shattered to pieces. Even the some tour buses were dragged in and destroyed. The hurricane also touched the Eiffel Tower, causing the mighty "Iron Lady" to break apart and collapse. The Novamos ran in the direction of the Ecole Militaire, crossed the Av. Joseph Boulevard to the second stretch of the Champ de Mars, but was not able to reach the PI Joffre where the Ecole Militaire was right across the street. That was when Kana turned in the direction of the hurricane that destroyed the Eiffel Tower, and chanted a spell, "Feet, turn to lead!", and her feet became many times heavier, so heavy that her feet were stuck to the ground. "Grab my hand!" Kana grabbed on to Naomi to prevent her from being sucked into the destructive hurricane. Naomi grabbed Getsuga, and the eighteen of them formed a long human chain. It is unfortunate that Kana was the only person who could use the Feet to Lead spell, so she was the point of support while the human chain formed by eighteen of them swayed in the wind like a wind sock, clinging on for dear life so as not to be sucked into the hurricane. Akira was at the tail end of this human chain (which was the most vulnerable point), with his left hand grabbing Yumeko's right hand. Yumeko then told him, "Use the Piece de Resistance! If we don't do something, the whole of Paris will be destroyed!"
"You're right" agreed Akira. However, Akira was confronted with a problem. His left hand was grabbing on to Yumeko's right hand, so he could only use his right hand. Therefore, even if he used the Piece de Resistance, the impact of the blast will be halved, and if he is unable to destroy Antoinne with that, everyone would be too tired to maintain the human chain, and get sucked into the Antoinne's hurricane and be destroyed. It was a sink or swim, or do or die situation. That was when Yumeko had a brainstorm. She pulled Akira's left hand hard with her right hand, and told Akira to grab her waist with his right hand. Since Yumeko did not need to grab his left hand anymore, she clamped his waist with her legs. Now Yumeko's legs were like a vice grip, and Akira could turn around in it to change his direction to face Antoinne. To tighten the grip, Yumeko slid her right elbow across Akira's chest to pull him back. "Now do it! Piece de Resistance!"
Akira's hands were free now, and he aimed both his palms at Antoinne and released an intense Piece de Resistance. Initially, the Piece de Resistance could not penetrate the huge wall of moving air, but Akira did not akirameru (Japanese for "give up"). He intensified the power of the Piece de Resistance, penetrated the wall of wind, managed to strike Antoinne, and vaporized him. All eighteen of the Novagels cheered unanimously.
As the wind storm calmed, all eighteen of the Novagels fell to the floor. At that moment, Kana's "Feet to Lead" spell wore off. Due to the residual impact of the suction caused by the hurricane, Kana's feet were lifted off the ground, and she fell forward head-down onto Naomi. "Ouch!!!! My poor butt!" cried Naomi. "Did your skull also turn to lead?" Kana turned red immediately. "Ex-cuuuuuuse me?" she came offendedly. Naomi replied, "Just kidding, thank you for your quick thinking, otherwise we would have become mince meat and we don't know how long we'll take to recover our strength once we get revived from our eggs". Hina then got up and said, "The same can't be said for Chiaki though." Looking at the frost covered Champ de Mars and other surrounding buildings, she said, "Since the frozen landscape hasn't thawed, we can be sure that Yuka isn't destroyed yet. But we need to get Antoinne's soul first." Hina tossed the Grand Retour at where Antoinne was destroyed. However, before the Grand Retour could suck Antoinne's soul, Antoinne's soul suddenly zoomed away, as if it were sucked by another entity. All of them heard a voice. "If you think it's all over, you're really mistaken." Hina's eyes followed the direction of Antoinne's soul, and said "Champs Elysees! It's heading for the Champs Elysees! That's where Chiaki is fighting Yuka! Let's go! Vamos!"
And our eighteen heroes and heroines flew off in the cold frozen Paris towards Champs Elysees.
Champs Elysees. The most beautiful avenue in the world. Not anymore, after a battle between two powerful ice casters reduced it to ruin. The Arc de Triomphe crumbled eventually after standing proudly for more than a century, only to be frozen, which ultimately caused it to crack and fall apart due to extreme cold. The same was also happening to the buildings and people around them. Frozen, and broken to pieces. It wasn't a duel anymore. It was a death match. The real motivation of the battle was already forgotten. It wasn't about avenging Yuka parents, avenging Chiaki's aunt, or about Chiaki trying to stop Yuka from killing more people. Their swords clashed, emitting more waves of cold energy, freezing more of Paris, all the way from Etoile to Concorde. Champs Elysees was their runway, their arena, where one would die, or maybe both. Yuka kept creating ice spikes from her hand and firing them like missiles at Chiaki. The spikes also had the ability to follow Chiaki as if they were homing missiles. After fighting for twenty minutes, both girls became exhausted, and it was time for one of them to finish off the other. Yuka held up pretty well despite Chiaki's Aegis form. Chiaki proceeded to finish Yuka off. However, Yuka, despite looking vulnerable, suddenly ducked when Chiaki aimed her Calibur at Yuka's neck, aiming to cut off her head with the Calibur. Yuka appeared as if she was about to fall down after bending backwards so low to avoid getting her head cut off. However, her left foot left the ground, and kicked Chiaki in her breastplate. Her right foot also left the ground, also kicking Chiaki's breast plate. With both feet on Chiaki's breastplate, Yuka used it as a springboard and jumped off to safety, propelling Chiaki backwards. Yuka remained levitated and created a series of ice spikes and tossed them towards Chiaki's breastplate. Unable to take the impact, Chiaki's Aegis transformed back into Mizuchi, hugging Chiaki from the front with his back facing Yuka. "MIZUCHI!!!" Chiaki shouted in shock, and quickly pulled out the ice spikes from his back.
Yuka proceeded to finish off and Mizuchi, and while levitating, started to perform again the same suicidal move she tried to use in Hokkaido before Antoine intervened to save her: releasing a column of cold energy that threatened to keep expanding, freezing everything in its path.
The novagels came in the nick of time just before the expanding cold energy could touch Chiaki and Mizuchi and destroy them completely. Now with all twenty of them, they could perform the spell that failed to work when they were in Hokkaido: the sealing chant.
Yuka, who was at the center of her expanding pillar of gold energy was located closer to the Place de la Concorde. The expanding energy touched the Egyptian Obelisk and caused it to break to pieces. The Novamos novagels had to run away towards Place de L'etoile.
The 10 male novagels transformed into Liondor, and the 10 female novagels transformed into Monaphrodiva. After doing so, they proceeded to perform the sealing chant.
Monaphrodiva: Rin (臨)
Liondor: On baishiramantaya sowaka
Monaphrodiva: Pyō (兵)
Liondor: On ishanaya intaraya sowaka
Monaphrodiva: Tō (闘)
Liondor: On jiterashi itara jibaratanō sowaka
Monaphrodiva: Sha (者)
Liondor: On haya baishiramantaya sowaka.
Monaphrodiva: Kai (皆)
Liondor: On nōmaku sanmanda basaradan kan
Monaphrodiva: Jin (陣)
Liondor: On aganaya in maya sowaka
Monaphrodiva: Retsu (列)
Liondor: On irotahi chanoga jiba tai sowaka
Monaphrodiva: Zai (在)
Liondor: On chirichi iba rotaya sowaka
Monaphrodiva: Zen (前)
Liondor: On a ra ba sha nō sowaka
A pillar of light emerged from the ground, surrounding Yuka. This pillar contained the column of cold energy that was expanding (stopped it from expanding). The cold energy was backfiring on Yuka, attacking her. Yuka screamed "m'aider!!!". Monaphrodiva cried out, "Yuka!!!!!" Even though Yuka was responsible for the killings of many innocent people, Chiaki's heart still cried out for her, since they were at one time closer than blood sisters.
This time, Antoinne was not alive to save her. Yuka started to shed tears that froze on her face. Slowly, she succumbed to the cold energy and was completely frozen. Monaphrodiva cried out "Yuka!" again, and watched as her old friend, now covered in ice, fell down from where she was levitating, and shattered like a large chandelier that fell from the ceiling. Emerging from the shattered corpse was the soul of Yuka. Monaphrodiva, despite her Chiaki's mixed feelings of grief and relief, took out the Grand Retour, and tossed it at Chiaki's spirit to absorb her. Grand Retour absorbed Yuka's soul, and started to emit a strong bright light that started enveloping the whole of Paris, bringing everyone back to life, restoring damaged buildings back to normal. At that moment, Monaphrodiva uttered a small prayer that Yuka and Antoinne will repent from their sins, and become better people in their next lives, if any.
Paris was back to normal, and so was Hokkaido. All the frozen people were returned to life. Buildings were repaired, and daily activities resumed as per normal. It was a beautiful day to be shopping at Champs Elysees. The grieving period was not very much over for Chiaki, who just stood by the River Seine staring blankly for one and a half days while the others went shopping at Champs Elysees. Eventually, they managed to convince her to go shopping with her to take her mind off the fight, and told her that walking among the people and places she protects as a fighter for freedom and justice helps to appreciate what we are protecting and reinforce our will to fight. Though she was relunctant at first, moments later they were enjoying themselves at Printemp Paris and Galeries Lafayette, and later also Champs Elysees. A group of 10 guys and 10 girls could be seen walking down Champs Elysees from Concorde to Etoile singing the French song "Aux Champs-Elysees" which was sung by Joe Dassin.
It was not only good to be alive. It was good to see everyone whom they are protecting safe, happy, and sound. The children playing, the ladies queuing up to buy bags of luxury brands. The beautiful buildings kept intact for more than a century. Life and the beauty of all things on Earth is so precious that it's such a waste for them to be destroyed by heartless Artificial Hellspawn terrorists.