Freaky Powers

Zeldris, Elizabeth (with Lostvayn), and a powered-up Jasmine fly towards the source of the disturbance. The vulacish no longer looks human and is a pretty frightening sight being fulling powered and looking like liquid rock lava. The sky is filled with volcanic ash clouds and lava rain. In some places, acid rain is falling. Elizabeth and Zeldris are protected by their coated barriers and can breathe as well. Jasmine warns Elizabeth not to engage the vulacish since a full powered direct attack from them could break her Saint Coat and even her Goddess Shield Barrier. She also advices the pregnant goddess to stay close to her as she can control her radiation levels. She'd also prefer that the demon king also not engage them directly either as a fully powered vulacish is more than twice his power level, even more so in their home territories.

In the far distance they can see a few spots of liquid fire spewing into the air above the water. The biggest one is Stromboli while the others are smaller and "weaker" volcanoes all part of the same island chain. Mt. Etna, which is just 60 miles to the south on the big island of Sicily, is traditionally more powerful than Stromboli and its ash clouds have also reached the area.

They can finally see two lava balls rise from the sea and collide with each other, causing a massive explosion. These are the two fighting vulacish, and the trio must block a large amount of debris that actually reaches them. Jasmine senses that something's off. The fight seems to be largely one-sided, with one struggling immensely. Usually, both equally held their own and repeatedly collided with each other. The struggling vulacish is easily over-powered and sent crashing back into the sea. Jasmine and Elizabeth quickly go into the water to get her. As they surface, still in the water, her features can be seen. She looks to be around Elizabeth's age and seems very angry to see Jaz.

"(In Greek) You? Stay out of this, Preacher. This is my business." She pushes Jasmine away and springs out of the water again. The other vulacish is coming and Jasmine can't believe what she sees. He's the size of a small mountain and looks like one of those magma monsters that live at the center of the earth, although they aren't anywhere near this size. He's also using powers that vulacish typically don't have. His body seems to stretch like rubber, and he's using what looks like ice and diamonds to attack, which he's never displayed before, nor should he be able to use. In between attacks, he appears to be popping stuff into his mouth. "Is he using drugs?" Most of the attacks don't hit the two Britannians because he's focused on the female, and what does come their way Zeldris controls with Ominous Nebula. Then, the oversized male pops another drug into his mouth and to Jasmine's surprise, he actually mixes his natural lava and artificial ice, along with the salty air, and creates a massive explosion and super strong air waves. Jasmine's able to block the bulk of the attack from hitting Elizabeth and Zeldris. The Demon King's hellfire attacks, even fused with his sword, are only somewhat effective against this mostly invisible attack. Elizabeth, at further distance, has her shield up and struggles to hold her own against the air waves. She infuses her ark with Lostvayn, and to her surprise, seems to vaporize the wave and debris surrounding her.

Jasmine tries calling out to the other female vulacish, but she ignores her and purposely leads the 'monster' into the upper atmosphere. "NO!" The combined attacks, enhanced with Jasmine's own presence, and unintently Zeldris Ominous Nebula, attracts a series of building size meteors, which is what the young female intended.

Jasmine tells the Britannians to cover their ears as she flies straight for the biggest one, about a mile and a half wide, and prepares. Zeldris starts to follow her, but Elizabeth urges him not too, believing she has this, and covers their ears. Going directly underneath the rock's path, she stops and makes a fist. She gathers both a huge amount of volcanic and natural energy surrounding her, and turns it into a powerful punch, sending the force upward. The meteor is still some distance from her, and she never makes physical contact with it. However, the punch is so powerful that it completely vaporizers the huge rock, as we as dissipate several other rocks and fragments for miles around. The Britannians feel the enormous pressure from miles away and get pushed far back by the force. Their friend hadn't been kidding when she said to cover their ears.

"What was that?" asked Zeldris after he recovers, his hearing temporarily compromise; "that was incredible." However, the demon king would hate to think what that punch could do to the demon realm, even Britannia itself. Elizabeth senses that's not even Jasmine's full power.

The other two vulacish recover from the blast. The male surfaces from underwater. He now looks like a normal middle-aged human (despite the fact that he's actually only in his early 20's) and appears very dizzy with lots of blood dripping from his nose and ears. Realizing whom that punch most have come from, he looks up and despite his dizziness, his suspension is confirmed. He excitedly flies up to the pastor, a bit uncoordinated, and speaks with a slur.

"Pastor Jaz, is it really you my sweet? To be punched like that from you is such an honor. Prehaps, can I finally have a peak at your panties?"

Jaz clunks him on the head; "NO!" Before she can say another word, they are both hit by the third vulacish. She refuses to talk and gets ready to unleash even more of her rage while the male is powered down. Despite her frustration, Jasmine keeps her cool and tries to stay in-between the two, knowing that she can't release too much power right now and add to this nonsense. The male suddenly swoops in front of her. "No Sis! I'd rather die than to allow a woman to be harmed!"

"And what am I?!" she shouts.

"YOU DON'T COUNT! YOU'RE MY SISTER!"

She sends another blast, Jasmine swoops in front of the male and blocks the attack.

"What are you two fighting about this time?"

"None of your damn business preacher. Go back to your volcano, both of you!"

She powers up even more. Her brother takes more pills out of his pocket and without thinking just casually mentions to Jasmine that a medicine man had given him free power enhancing pills and suggested that he test them out on his sister, whom he's not on speaking or even civil terms with. Jasmine tries to get out of their way and blocks as much of their attacks as possible.

Elizabeth gets closer to the fight despite Zeldris protest. He follows her closely. "That's enough now! Don't you even care that your putting millions of lives in danger?! What's the purpose of this fight anyway? Please talk to us."

The male notices Elizabeth and hearts appear in his eyes. He zooms in front of her and ask in a polite manner (in Greek) if he could have the honor of seeing her panties. Elizabeth doesn't understand much Greek, but she can tell this guy's flirting with her and has a feeling he's being a pervert. She slaps him hard with her ark. "Only Meliodas is allowed to be that way with me!"

The male stops himself in mid-air, blushing and touching the bruise forming on his cheek lovingly. "I do have a thing for strong, beautiful woman. I wonder where lovely Scout is (even though he's never seen her figure or face)?"

Taking advantage of the distraction, his sister lets out her full wrath and attacks with her most powerful technique. Stromboli itself explodes with tons of ash clouds and heat lighting. Mt. Edna also explodes and can be heard from sixty miles away. Zeldris and Elizabeth are both forced to cover their ears, and this time they are near deaf and can hardly hear even the volcanoes' rumbles. The sister vulacish then changes directions and attacks Elizabeth. Distracted by the explosions and the sonic bombs, she barely fells it coming. Zeldris tries to push her out of the way, but they both get hit. Elizabeth's right arm, leg, and cheek are burnt to a crisp, as is Zeldris left side. Jasmine's own attempt to shield them didn't take it in time.

The brother is now furious that an innocent lady has been attacked and hurt. "Why!? Why would you sink so low you bitch?!

Both siblings are about to let the worst of their wrath loose. The nearby volcanos are exploding with powerful blasts. Elizabeth senses total chaos and can't take any more of this. With hot tears in her eyes, she feels fierce power building up inside, one she hasn't felt since the battle with Hendrickson. Yet, somethings different about it this time as well, and it's ready to burst.

"Stop this now! THAT'S ENOUGH!"

A blast of light comes from Elizabeth. Jasmine feels it coming and realizes what this is. She quickly grabs Zeldris and jerks him down towards the water. She watches in awe as the siblings are hit out of the sky and knocked into the sea, unconscious. Some of the volcanic energy and debris around them is cleared and neutralized. Plus, hers, Zeldris, even Elizabeth's injuries heal.

"What is that?" asked a surprised Zeldris.

Jasmine smiles. "It's the same."

"What's the same?"

"Get her!"

Elizabeth's power fades and she starts to pass out. Zeldris catches the goddess before she hits that water.

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Hawk, with Melidy tucked safely underneath his belly, notices the sky as it fills with fire ash clouds and volcanic lighting. The sight is even more horrifying than the atmosphere of the former Demon King in Britannia and reminds Hawk of purgatory. The church girls and dogs have been taken to the safe house at Amalfi Cathedral and Ban's currently taking the daughters of Artemis there. Hawk's also on his way. Melidy squill cries at the scary sight and smell of volcanic ash raining down around them.

"It's ok Melidy. We'll be safe inside the big church. Let's get there now."

Hawk jogs the now empty streets, holding his tiny sister gently in his mouth. Unknown to them, two figures in red cloaks and protective gel-like coating are watching them.

"(In Greek) Well look ee there. A talking, plump papa pig carrying his baby. They'd be the perfect additions to my collection; don't you agree Blu..." His partner, which appears to be a four-legged creature with skinny hooves underneath the cloak, is digging through a trash can. "Bluey! Eat on your own time. Help me catch these hogs."

"Why?" asks his partner in a very high pitched, squeaky voice, wearing a huge hood covering it's face. "We've already got too many animals in the fortress. It cost a fortune to keep them all feed."

"You just hate the competition, you glutton. Besides, I've been looking for some purgatory hog specimen to study for quite some time. It's next to impossible to get any from Germany since they closed their borders."

"Maa let's just go already;" the creature says while chewing something crunchy; "You've already completed your assignment."

"Quit talking with your mouth full!" The teenager stretches his arm as if it's literally made of elastic rubber, grabbing the creature and snaps her back. "MAA OUCH! THAT HURTS! How is that still working anyway? You took three pills again didn't you?"

"What are you my mother? Now come on and be quiet, or I'll put you back into the cage with no ice cream and cartons scraps for the next month."

"You play dirty. Maa."

The teen swallows a pill. His feet start to glow like fire. He grabs the four-legged animal and in a literal flash appears in front of Hawk. The pig accidently runs into them, knocking them down. Melidy gets knock out of her brother's mouth.

"HEY! WATCH WERE YOUR GOING YOU SWINE!" shouts Hawk.

The guy gets up and speaks; "Do you speak Greek?"

"What? Ochi den milao ellinika (No I don't speak Greek). Hawk checks his crying sister over. She has a scratch on her snout and bleeding lightly. "Just look at what you did, you pigs! You hurt my sister and made her cry! It's alright Meliody, your scratch will heal up."

The hooded creature realizes she understands him. "Maa, he speaks Britannian, where I'm..."

"You shut up or I'm going to feed you to the crocs!"

"Yea right..." The red clad teenager stuffs a large apple covered in extra sticky, thick peanut butter into her mouth. He then takes out a language amulet. "What language do these hogs speak again? Oh yes, German." He uses the amulet to speak German. Unlike Willie's amulet, this one only allows one language at a time on one user. "Hello rare purgatory beast, although not quite as rare in Germany. Care to come with me and get out of this disastrous weather?"

"Excuse me;" says a puzzled Hawk; "Are you guys lost? Follow me, I'll take you to the Cathedral, it's safe there. What's that strange gel all over you?"

"Oh, I guess you don't speak German;" says the confused teen. Again, the creature tries to talk with her mouth full and he stomps on her neck.

"Hey, that's rather harsh;" says Hawk. He notices the form of the four-legged creature as she stands up coughing and sees her mouth, with a blue nose. Is that a goat underneath that cloak? Is it talking? Hawk tries to shrug it off and picks up Melidy again. "Oh well, if they need shelter, they'll follow us. What a weird pair."

The teen realizes that his prey is leaving and yells at the goat. She again tries to reason with him and to snatch the portal device from him. He kicks her down the alley with his foot glowing.

"I'm not leaving a prize like this behind." The guy activates his legs which glow like fire, and flashes right in front of Hawk holding a device. "Come here piggy piggy..." Hawk kicks him in the groin with his back legs, realizing what this guy's trying to do. "I don't think so, you PIG!" He hits the teen again sending him flying down the street and landing in a well. Hawk takes off running with Melidy still in his mouth. The teen climbs out quickly all soaked and wet. His face is very gross and disfigured looking, contorted with pain. "Ouch! He's stronger than I thought. Time to take this up a notch." He takes another pill and both legs start to glow like fire, and he takes off near the speed of light, catching up to Hawk and kicking him hard, forcing Melidy out of his mouth again. He throws a sticky net around the pig, but Hawk easily chews his way out. He them throws glowing boomerangs and bongos that explode like cannon balls. Hawk avoids them easily, even managing to catch a couple boomerangs in mid-air and send the back at the teen, exploding right in front of him.

The ugly teen is frustrated. "So, you want to play dirty, do you? I'll show you dirty." With his speed, he grabs Melidy, who's now crying.

"HEY! GIVE ME BACK MY SISTER YOU LOW DOWN PIECE OF TRASH!" For a couple minutes, they play chase as Hawk's unable to catch this guy with his speed and other tricks as he keeps swallowing pills to change his abilities. However, Hawk outsmarts him and manages to trip him. He tickles the teen, which forces him to let Melidy go. Once again, Hawk takes off. The teen is becoming obsessed. Usually, a target isn't this hard to catch. He then notices his companion, who's come to check on him, and grabs her horns from underneath her hood and presses her down. It is the head of a goat with bluish-gray fur and a blue nose. "Alright, we're going to have to do this the hard way." He grabs the goat and again catches up to Hawk as he nears the town square where the church is located. The teen uses a device to gather up ash clouds and lava rain surrounding them and blows them at the pigs.

Hawk starts coughing and gasp for breath. "I can't see! Why you...Melidy!"

The teen reaches into his pocket. "NO! Please!" shouts the goat in Britannian; "Not the drug! NOT THE DRUG!"

Hawk hears that as he finds his sister. "Now what?" The teen shoves a yellow ball, the size of a large jaw breaker, down the goat's throat. "Swallow! You nanny pansy!" Within seconds, the goat swells up like a very large balloon, looking like an overly bloated fur ball. "What? No no. That's the wrong drug!"

The goat starts giggling and bouncing around like a ball. The teen tries to kick her, but her body absorbs both the shock and his leg. She then shots him and he goes through the chapel door. People, including Ban and Wild, look out and are baffled by this blue-grey, bouncing fur ball with a goat's head. She then rolls into this thick ash fog and bumps into Hawk.

"Hey pig beast, come on. I'll rescue you. Maa"

"Rescue me from what?" coughs Hawk. He hears muffled cries. "Hey! Get off my sister you fur ball!" Bluey rolls and Melidy is stuck in her inflated body. Hawk tries to get on her when a large fire rock falls from the sky. Bluey has already got the portal open and quickly rolls into it with Melidy, Hawk follows suit. Ban and Wild, having recognized Hawk and Melidy's voices, burst out of the church and enter the still too thick ash cloud.

"Master!"

"Mild! Melidy!"

The teen takes another pill for speed again, runs out of the Cathedral door and collides with Ban. Wild just misses the portal by a mere point second. The teen searches himself. "That sneaky goat! She picked, no, she ate my pocket and took the portal. How did she even manage to get it to open in this radioactive weather?"

Suddenly a strong hand grabs him. Ban is looking at the teen with a fierce look, and Wild's ready to give him a piece of his mind. He swallows two more pill hoping to slip out of the fox sins grip, but his body's so overloaded now that first steam come from his ears, then he starts bouncing around like an exploding rubber ball. Ban let's go while the teen coughs intense fire from his mouth. His legs catch fire and he shots high up into the sky, then comes back down and crashes hard into a stone building. Ban and Wild stare right at the scored teen, who cough smoke, then passes out.

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At the Naples border, the fearful guide reluctantly agrees to take Merlin's group into the kingdom despite the volcanic activity. He has the feeling that he's forgetting about something important about this area, but what? They've barely moved when suddenly, something springs up from the ground trying to catch their transport bubble and the phenixgon. The Britannians, including Merlin, are freaked out to see glowing white, giant female arms and hands trying to grab them. These arms and hands are ten times the size of Diane's, and there's not two, but rather six trying to catch them.

"What the devil?" asks Gelda. More arms appear and grab Norberta. She attempts to fight and ends up getting slapped by one hand, then punched by another, except the hand didn't actually touch her and was several feet from her. It's like an invisible force came from the hand and hit her. The arms grab her and take her to the ground, then a giant pair of legs appear and stomp on her.

"NO! NORBERTA!

Merlin teleports outside of the bubble to help Norberta when several sets of arms appear seemly from her body. One set chocks Merlin's neck while the others try to arch her back. She tries to use Absolute Cancel, but it has no effect. The bubble suddenly mysteriously pops, and King catches everyone in his Chastiefol barrier, moving it around to avoid being caught by the giant limbs. Merlin manages to burn herself free with fire as dozens more limbs of different sizes emerge from the already existing arms. Several chains, connected by dozens of arms, also appear and try to catch them. The Britannians are freaked out by all this, including Merlin.

"Just how many limbs does this creature have?" asks King; "And where's the rest of the body, or bodies."

"It's the Nico triplets!" shouts the guide; "I forgot about them!"

About six normal sized arms spring up from his body out of nowhere and shuts his mouth, then bends him backwards, cracking his spin and knocking him unconscious. Arms also spring from King and Gelda, attempting to do the same to them.

"How?" Goes King; "How did these limbs reach us inside my barrier?" He creates Chastiefol guardian inside the barrier to fight these limbs, but more arms just spring up from the teddy bear and lock clutches it as well. Gelda and King can hardly move, Merlin manages to freeze the limbs with Icicle Castle. They seemly disappear, but then two pairs of giant female shaped legs appear and kicks everybody. Then a giant arm reappears, even larger than previously, and makes a fist. The fist stops just in front of the barrier ball and stops, not even touching it. Then what looks like a blue swirl comes from it and a giant shock wave sends everybody several miles back the other direction. Chastiefol's giant guardian form prevents what would have been a rough landing.

After landing, they tend to their still unconscious guide, putting a secure back brace on him, made by King and Merlin.

"What the hell was that Merlin?! Who are the Nico triplets?"

"King, she doesn't know everything;" says Gelda.

Merlin has to think. She can't recall anything about any Nico triplets. "Unfortunately, I don't know King. I've seen limbs and normal body parts from things like fire, water, mud, even Earth and energy, but always attached to the source. I've never seen perfectly formed limbs appear from seemly nowhere, or from our own bodies. I think that punch might have been Fish-Man's Karate, but I've never actually seen it performed."

"How were they even able to get inside my Chastiefol barrier?" ask King; "Makes no sense."

They suddenly sense another presence springing up around them. "Look behind you guys;" says Gelda. The sins quickly turn their heads just to catch a glance of a long chain of normal sized arms attached to each other, the end palm having a literal human ear on it. It quickly disappears in white flower petals before they can grab it. King gets tripped by another hand sticking up from the ground. He lands in front on another hand with what looks like a lady's eye. He grabs it before it can disappear. "Now I've got you." More arms spring from King and tickle him. "Ha ha ha, stop it. Stop it. I hate being tickled."

Merlin and Gelda fight the numerous arms attacking them. Merlin creates her own set of powerful arms using water and fire. However, the white arms shoot more sets of limbs from the biggest ones in the form of water and fire as well, one grabbing Merlin and even taking her sacred treasure Aldan. King's Chastiefol is also taken from him. As more and more arms appear, some suddenly turning dark red and using Hellblaze, Merlin uses perfect cube to protect everybody. No further arms are appearing inside the cube, and it seems to be standing up to the six giant arms beating on it. They escape through an opening and try to speed away, but then six pairs of giant woman's legs, all dark red colored, surround them and start stomping on the cube. They trap the cube inside a solid barrier of arms wrap themselves around the cube, cracking it even more and breaking parts of it. Merlin tries to strengthen the cube, but she's still not back to full strength. The cube is sent miles and miles away back the way they came, and crashes into a mountain.

Merlin, Gelda, and King dig their way out of the debris, then dig out their guide. The mage puts a time freeze spell on him, so he won't feel any more pain or get further injured, but he really needs a doctor or healing as soon as possible. King reads his mind to get information about what these just experienced.

"Ok, he says those limbs came from the Nico triplet sisters. They're goddess-demon hybrids and are a few centuries old."

"How do we get pass them?" asks Gelda.

"How do those powers work?" adds Merlin.

King probes his mind for more information. "He says he should've remembered to take the long way around, but he forgot. The triplets haven't been here for long, and nobody knows why they're even here. They can all create multiple copies of their own limbs. Unfortunately, I'm getting nothing about how to deal with them."

Merlin thinks. She really doesn't know how a power like this works, although she's sure they could beat these triplets if they were at their usual strengths. Unfortunately, all three of them are below half strength right now and are still recovering from their sickness. Merlin did notice that when they did damage any part of the limbs, blood would flow from it. She wonders if the attackers' real bodies get harmed as well, if only they could locate the triplets. Gelda wonders if she could suck their blood through those limbs and use their power. Merlin's also read about Fish-Man's Karate and wonders if she could it herself, although this the first time she's seem it in action, and could she even use it not being a fishman or merperson, although she thinks she remembers reading that non-water creatures and even humans can use it as well if they have a strong enough connection to water. They can't just avoid that area now as they took Merlin and King's sacred treasures, and they must get them back. Perhaps analyzing what they've already seem and with the phoenixgon's help, they can make a plan.

"Hey;" says Gelda; "Where's Norberta? She was with us before we were attacked."

"I don't hear her;" says Merlin; "You don't think she's..."

"Wait;" says King; "I hear her. She's injured but still able to fly. She's looking for us, and she has some information that may help us."