Nuri's dreams are always full of memoirs, mostly negative ones. She remembers that day, when the Supreme Deity and Demon King saved the worst beating for herself and her father. Worst yet, they forced the then 6-year-old to witness the deaths of every one of her people, including her father. Then her eyes were ripped out of her head, and her heart was pierced, right in front of her sister Merlin. Nuri recalls feeling Merlin cradling her dying body, which she always believed was out of pity rather than actual love. The poor incident child had always been blamed for her mother's death, due to postpartum hemorrhage. Merlin had never been very kind to her younger sister, always cold and aloof towards her. Nuri never would've even returned to Britannia at all if not...
The still unconscious Nuri is being contained in a perfect cube as she's in a violent unrest. Although her power is extremely low by vulacish standards, she still has her physical strength as she ripped out of the magically enhanced steel chains they tried to use to restrain her. Carmine is magically giving her another shot since the first one didn't calm her down. Gelda and King have been keeping their distance and watch in horror.
"Did you really know this sociopath 3,000 years ago?" King asked Gelda.
Gelda nods. "I saw here and there, but I never spoke to her or anything."
When the second shot fails to work, the priestess searches for her peace amulet. Carmine asks Merlin to open the cube so she can place the amulet on Nuri's chest, and she finally calms down somewhat, at least her body has. On the inside, Nuri's being haunted by yet another memory, a much more recent one, as she watches the seemly lifeless bodies of her two closest friends being dumped into a pool of hellblaze enchanted lava, which she blames herself for causing.
Nuri starts jerking again. The amulet breaks and she moderately explodes. The cube holds and Merlin attempts to talk to her sister, to no avail. Carmine gently pushes Merlin back and enters the cube again. She starts singing a lullaby in an ancient Celtic language, the language of Merlin's people! Merlin gasps as she recognizes that lullaby, it's the one her mother used to sing to her! Nuri calms down and finally seems to be resting peacefully. Carmine exits the cub.
"How can you possibly know that lullaby?" ask a shocked Merlin in Chinese; "My mother made it up!"
Carmine gives a gentle smile; "Nuri sang that lullaby to me when I was a girl."
The sorceress's eyes widen; "You mean Lili...Nuri, knew you as a child?"
Carmine nods. "Yes, she was an old lady at the time, and I was still a toddler. She rescued me and raised me until her death, then I raised her when she was reborn. It was so strange, to be holding her old, wrinkled hands on her death bed only to be holding her again as a newborn that very night."
"So, she 'is' under a repeat reincarnation curse, just like Elizabeth!" Merlin says in Britannian. "Oh my, how much time does she have until her next death? It's been two days since she arrived in Britannia. She must have less than a day! LILITH!"
King and Gelda hear that and gasp. Carmine asks Merlin to repeat that in Chinese when Nuri wakes up. "Carmine!" She puts her hands on the cub. Carmine nods to Merlin and she removes it. King nearly freaks out at her being freed but Gelda urges him to stay calm. Nuri hugs Carmine almost in tears.
"It's so good to see you my dear;" Carmine says gently.
They nearly embrace when Nuri notices Merlin, staring at her with actual tears in her eyes. "Lilith."
A fierce look appears on the vulacish's face. "I told you not to call me that, (Merlin's real name)."
"If you say so, Nuri. Why do you go by a different name now?"
Nuri refuses to answer and looks away. She sees Gelda and looks as if she's about to attack, but she turns away and goes outside. Merlin can't control her tears, and Carmine says to give her a minute and goes outside.
Gelda places her hand on the mage's shoulder, and Merlin allows herself to be comforted.
"Give her time Merlin."
"You don't get it! She's under the reincarnation curse. She probably only has a few hours left, until she remembers again in her next life. I need to fix this now!"
King takes a slow, deep breath before speaking. "Merlin, I don't mean to be a downer, but trust takes time to build, especially broken trust."
Merlin gives the grizzly sin a death glare. Carmine returns before another word is spoken. She informs the mage that her sister is willing to talk, but to be nice and don't be snarky.
Merlin bundles up and goes outside into the below freezing spring afternoon temperature. Nuri is sitting on a frozen rock, clutching her Coptic cross and whispering a prayer from her open prayer book. Merlin takes the rock next to her.
"Hello, little sister."
"Hi;" Nuri repeats coldly, not looking up.
"How have you been?" Merlin knows that's a stupid question.
"Not good." Nuri turns her back to her sister and stares at her prayer book.
"Where have been all this time?"
"Everywhere."
Merlin takes a minute before speaking again, trying to remember the speech she's had memorized in her head for nearly 3,000 years.
"It's ok if you don't believe me. All I can say is I'm sorry for what I did to our people, especially you. I swear on our mother's grave I am. I've been looking for you this whole time."
Nuri remains silent.
"I know I was cold to you. I was so absorbed by my own grief and loneliness that I never once thought about how you must have felt. I failed you as a sister. I feel so guilty about that."
"Good."
Merlin tries to think of what to say next. "So, you're a Coptic Orthodox monk?"
"Yes."
"What's your current age?"
"19."
"What made you finally return to Britannia after all this time? Please tell me about this Stone of Destiney. It sounds fascinating."
Nuri huffs and gets up. "I don't have time for this."
"How much longer until you die?"
Nuri stops and looks at Merlin; "What?"
"The curse. How much longer before it takes effect?"
Nuri twitches her nose. "I don't know. I don't have a lover. I try to make sure nobody falls in love with me, nor I them."
Merlin is confused; "What do you mean? When did you last regain your memories?"
Nuri realizes what her sister means. "It's not the exact same curse Goddess Elizabeth was effected with. I don't lose nor regain my memories and die a few days later. I'm always reborn with my memories in tack. I never know when I'm going to die, just like every other mortal. However, I can't fall in love with anybody, or anyone with me, otherwise....they die horrible deaths in front of me."
Merlin feels terrible about that last part but is so relieved at the same time. "Thank goodness, we've got time. I want to help you break it. Which one put the curse on you? And why you and not me?"
Nuri just sneers at her; "Caelestis, and I don't need your help."
Merlin tries to inch closer to her sister, who ends up shoving her onto the icy ground. Nuri then looks in the direction of Gangkhar Puensum. The mountain had calmed down somewhat, but they feel it's wrath again, so much so the ground feels like an earthquake and is even splitting.
"That idiot!" Nuri gets up and gets ready to leap.
"Wait;" calls Merlin; "I'll help."
"Don't bother!"
"Nuri!" Carmine runs outside with King and Gelda, but Nuri has leaped out of sight.
"She's too weak;" says the priestess. "Vulacishes only get weak when they haven't bathed in the lava for many weeks. She's physically exhausted too. Let's go!"
King puts up his barrier and the groups takes off. King wonders what the deal with the mountain is. With Merlin acting as translator, Carmine explains that if anybody acts stubbornly persistent and gets too close to the core of Gangkhar Puensum, the Guardian Blue Dragon would emerge from the mountain and wrack havoc to the land until it gets rid of all intruders. As they get closer, they can make out Nuri's lava glow. The mountain suddenly stops shaking, the storms ease up, and all is quiet.
"Not good;" says Carmine. What sounds like a sonic bomb is heard, so loud that it deafens everybody's ears and causes King to momentarily lose his concentration, causing the barrier to dissipate, but everybody is able to regain their composure before they hit the ground and fly. Gelda grabs Carmine before she slams into the snow. Nuri was able to avoid the deafening by inclosing herself in harden lava rock cocoon, but everybody else can barely hear.
A mighty roar is heard. However, instead of a blue dragon, a dark red fire bird-dragon demon emerges.
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The blue guardian dragon immediately let's out an ice breath and freezes everybody present, and everything in the area, then takes off in confusion. Diane is able to break out of the ice on her own, then helps everybody else break out with the help of a shrunken Gideon. Uda quickly commands Herman to sit before he causes anymore problems and quickly explains that the blue dragon came through the distortion and belongs in another land. They hear the cries of the dragon in the distance, as well as terrified people. Inuyasha's group takes off (without Inuyasha, whom they assume has already charged ahead of them). Diane also takes off, Uda undoes her spell to return the giant and Gideon to their normal size.
With the gravity power cut off, Elaine and Kikyo arrive. Elaine suddenly stops in her tracks. She can hear somebody in her head, in words she can understand! Uda, trying to reach out to the dragon telepathically, looks at Elaine.
The dragon is causing havoc in a nearby farming community. The beast is completely confused and disoriented, as well as weakening rapidly due to not being in a cold environment. At home, the dragon is the literally the mightiest creature in the land. Kagome and her group arrive. She realizes that there are no Shikon Jewel shards in the dragon, and that he means no harm. In fact, he's holding back a lot of the strength he still has. Still, they've got to take him down. The dragon attacks again with its ice breath, as well as a misty snow fog. Everybody can feel their bodies and power starting to weaken from the fog. Diane manipulates the earth around her to clear the fog and uses Double Hammer to hold the dragon in place. The dragon breaks free and attacks again. Diane uses more of her creation magic to move the earth, lessen the fog, and confuse the dragon. Miroku uses his wind tunnel absorb much of the fog, and through the combine efforts of Diane, Sango, Kirara, Uga, and Kikyo, they manage to catch the dragon off guard and defeat him.
With all calm, Uda finally makes telepathic contact with the dragon: (Gangkhar dragon, you are no longer on your mountain. You are thousands of miles away, in Japan. You accidently came through a distortion. You have nothing here to guard. Please don't harm us. You are free to go and leave us in peace.)
The dragon finally understands. He wakes up, nods at Uda, and takes off into the star filled sky, in the direction of his home.
Diane smiles, so relieved that his fight is over and that nobody got hurt. She suddenly hears the word "Inuyasha" being called out repeatedly from Kagome. She sounds very frantic.
Elaine flies up to the giant's face. "Diane, I've made telepathic contact with the old woman."
Really? How? When?"
"During the battle with all that magical concentration."
Diane is really happy. "Really? That's awesome! Now we can communicate!"
The others are now calling out for Inuyasha.
"Elaine, what's going on? Who or what is Inuyasha?"
Elaine gives a sober look; "That dog-like guy in red, he's disappeared."
Uda and Kikyo watch as Inuyasha's group frantically search for him.
"Ooasan;" ask Kikyo; "Do you think he got pulled through that distortion?"
"Hai musume san (daughter). Which location did it take him? I must contact Carmine again. We need to open the gate and get these ladies reunited with their friends. We must also find Inuyasha, and try to recover those Shikon Jewel shards. They must not be outside of Japan at all costs."
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Meliodas (still shirtless and barefoot) falls out of the sky while attempting to counter vanish a meteor ball, only for two more to be directly behind it, and they packed a bigger punch then he expected.
Not one, but two bird-dragon yokai (japanese demons) popped out from the Valley of the Kings and shot straight for Luxor. They seemed to focus specifically on Meliodas and nobody else. Realizing that, he's staying out of the town, ordering Willie to focus on getting people out of the way and keeping them safe. They seem to be nearly as powerful as Meliodas himself, which puts him at a disadvantage, especially without his sacred treasure. Every time he activates his demon power, the creatures seem to be either notifying it, or absorb it then hit right back at him at twice the force (similar to his Full Counter). He even tries to trick them into hitting each other, but their attacks canceled each other out. Meliodas has been unable to pick up anything to use his Full Counter.
The dragon sin nearly avoids another attack, but an ice freeze clips his injured left hand. These beasts seem to have everything from hellblaze flames and acid poison, to meteor fire balls and ice breathe. Next, the two creatures actually merge into a single creature, something the dragon sin has never seen before. While they are merging, Meliodas has time to realize that a much greater concertation of power is coming from three specific areas, one in the foot, one in the shoulder, and the last one in the nose. He doesn't know why, but he gets the sense that he should concentrate on those specific areas. However, he has no weapons, and the now single yokai has twice the power of before. Meliodas manages to get out of the way in time, but the attack leaves a very deep crater about a mile wide.
While that was happening, Meliodas ducked underneath the attack, forms his black demon mass into a black sword and goes for the left foot. He gives it a real swift slash, thinking that he cut the foot off. However, the foot immediately reattaches itself to the limb in seconds, without leave a scratch. Meliodas tries with two black mass swords at an even faster speed, but the yokai is ready, and the demon's black mass swords get absorbed, sucking some of his demon power in the process. The merged bird-dragon steps on Meliodas repeatedly, but he emerges unscathed, partly thanks to the soft desert ground.
Meliodas catches his breath; "Guess I have no choice. I must go all out. Man, I wish I had Lostvayne, or at least a weapon."
Meliodas goes complete assault mode, enabling him to fly. After several minutes and rounds of punches and slashes with the yokai, Meliodas is starting to feel tired and struggles to maintain his assault form.
"MELIODAS!" Willie is flying towards him on a magic carpet, carrying a small, oddly shaped sword (khopesh). He uses his threads to throw it to him.
"Thanks Willie!" Meliodas catches the sword with his non-dominate right hand and enchants it with hellblaze. It takes a few attempts, but he finally gets the yokai to attack him directly and successfully uses Full Counter. Meliodas throws himself into a series of lighting fast slashes, making it harder for the yokai to regenerate as quickly, cutting off the head, limbs, and body. Finally, he slices up the three areas of the immense concreated power. The yokai then dissipates, as if it was never there to begin with. Meliodas lands and collapses, returning to normal.
Willie runs next to him, offering him some water. Gasping for breath, Meliodas excepts and drinks the whole canteen. "Whoa, that was...breath-taking;" the demon says between breaths with a cheeky grin. Willie rolls his eyes.
The dragon sin then feels strong power coming from a few feet away and notices something shiny. "Hey, what's that?" He gets up and finds two tiny purple jewel shards in the sand and picks them up.
"Meliodas, I don't think you should mess with those. They came out of that bird...dragon...thing."
"What harm could they do to me? I wonder if we could sell these for more food money."
Meliodas is suddenly hit by an energy blast. A loud, aggressive voice calls out to him in a foreign language. "Get your fifthly hands off those shards you demon!"
Inuyasha appears in front of Meliodas, pointing his sword, Tessaiga, in its unimpressive, rusty, beat-up form, at him. "Give them to me!"
Meliodas just looks at this strange looking guy and smiles. "Hello there, nice afternoon, isn't it? Well, an extremely hot one. I'm Meliodas, who are you?"
Inuyasha is caught off guard by this guy's foreign words and cheerful tone. He holds the swords blade at the demon's neck, with a nasty look on his face. "Last time demon, GIVE THEM TO ME!"
Meliodas calmly grabs the sword and pushes it down. Inuyasha strikes. Meliodas manages to punch him before Tessaiga, which as now grown to an impressive five-foot glowing fang blade, hits him.
"You know it's really not polite to attack an unarmed stranger." (Meliodas had put down the khopesh)
"Meliodas!" Willie calls out; "I think he wants those shards".
"Oh really;" Meliodas puts them into his pocket; "Sorry pal, finder's keepers."
Inuyasha is done playing. He lashes his Wind Scar attack towards the dragon sin. Meliodas takes one of the shards back out of his pocket; "Full Counter." Inuyasha can't believe it as his Wind Scar is directed right back at him, hitting him with twice the force.
"Meliodas, I don't think you should've done that!" shouts Willie; "just hand him the shards."
"Nah. Finders keepers remember. Ouch!" Meliodas looks at his hand, the jewel shard has pierced his skin and is stuck in his hand. "Owe! How did that thing manage to..." Meliodas accidentally steps on another shard with his bare foot. Suddenly, he blacks out.
"YOU FOOL! LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" Inuyasha springs back towards them, ready to fight as the jewel shards overcome Meliodas, making him go berserk.
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In Alexandera, three bird-dragons shoot out of the sea. Two of them are immediately drawn to Gowther, the third takes off after an unknown target. Guila and Jericho immediately launch themselves into an attack, along with some local warriors. Gowther tries to use his mind techniques on the two beasts. Unfortunately, he discovers to his surprise that neither of those demons have a brain, nor do they have heartbeats. They are copies operating on pure chaos impulse. The best he can do is dull their senses. He tells Jericho and Guila in their minds to aim for certain spots that contain extremely high concentration of magic. They are confused, but they do it, along with a couple other warriors who can understand the telepathic instructions. Gowther adds his own blast in both directions, and the copies despite.
After the fight Guila and Jericho both find the jewel shards that came out of the beasts. "Hand those to me please;" says Gowther; "They don't feel right. I'd better hang on to them."
"We hadn't fought beasts that strong since those high-level demons;" says Jericho; "What were those things?"
"Wasn't there a third one?" ask Guila; "Where did it go?"
Gowther was only able to get a faint reading on the third yokai. Unlike the other two, it was living flesh and blood. It had flown out of the city during the battle and is now far out of sight. Margaret, who had stayed out of attack range, runs to them. "Gowther, girls! That dragon grabbed a lady that was next to me and took off with her!"
"WHAT?!"
Margaret hands the goat sin a couple pieces of paper. "She approached me and handed me these before the bird grabbed her. It's written in our language."
Gowther reads the messages. The names of Elizabeth, Ban, and Zeldris are written down, along with Hawk, Wild and Melidy (who's that?). The second note says that they are located in Amalfi, Naples, and tells them where to find the Coptic Church headquarters. It also says to ask for Bishop Abanoub and to mention the Amalfi Orthodox Chapel. No indication of the stranger's identity appears.
"Are you serious?" says Jericho; "So a stranger comes out of nowhere and gives us this information? Sounds like a trap to me."
"It does seem rather fishy;" agrees Guila; "How could that person possibly know who we are and who we're looking for?"
"What do you think Gowther?" ask Margaret.
The Goat Sin studies the notes. They are very matter of fact, to the point and are well written despite obviously being in a hurry. "It does appear fishy, but it may be worth checking out. Naples was one of the locations I got from those invaders. We'll go to the church, but I'll go in alone. I want the three of you to wait outside until I'm sure it's safe."
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Ban fights a clone bird-dragon yokai while Elizabeth protects the people with her Goddess Sheild. Ban has taken a few hits but is holding his own with his sacred treasure. Elizabeth senses the power coming from the jewel shards and tells Ban to aim for the stomach. He succeeds in getting the shard out, and beast dissipates.
"What the hell was that thing?" wonders Ban; "Weren't there more of them?"
Elizabeth keeps up her barrier; "Don't let your guard down Ban! There were four that came out of that volcano, one of far greater power than the others."
The energy of two other yokai are felt towards the north beyond the volcano, as is an enormously strong power source. Suddenly, a black flame mass crashes into the town square. Elizabeth protects the people and most of the buildings with her Goddess Shield as Ban looks in the hole. Zeldris, beaten up and bloody, opens his eyes. "Above you!" A bird-dragon yokai, three times the size of the clones, hovers above them and attacks. They make it out of the way just in time. Elizabeth puts her Goddess Shield back up while Ban and Zeldris attack simultaneously. The yokai swallows then returns their attacks back at them, causing them both to crash into the shield. Elizabeth holds the shield as it starts to crack.
The yokai attacks the trio again, and they attempt to lead the monster outside of town. It follows without hesitation and lunches a three-way attack of different elements, the trio managing to just barely avoid being hit. Zeldris points out that it seems that the creature is only attacking them, as if drawn to their powers. All three attack simultaneously, seemly wounding the monster as it crashes into the shallow shoreline water.
The Britannians lands to catch their breath. Elizabeth then picks up on the fact that this monster has not one focal point, but FIVE! Violent orbs glow from those five points, healing the yokai and powering it up even more. Before they can respond, a huge lava blast hits the yokai, knocking it down again. A large lava wall also appears around the city, completely controlled, as if it's protecting the city instead of destroying it. A lava engulfed person appears between the trio and the yokai. They gasp as it's just like Nuri back in Britannia, however, the figure lowers the fire just enough to reveal herself as...JASMINE! The Britannians are in shock. She turns to them as the yokai slowly recoveries.
"Ban, Zeldris aim for the shins. Elizabeth, the right arm. I've got the other points."
The yokai is clearly in pain. "It's okay boy, we're about to free you;" Jaz says gently. Everybody attacks; Elizabeth with Ark, Ban with Courechouse, and Zeldris with Hellblaze each strike those points while Jasmine handles the other two points in the chest and head. Each piece of the Shikon Jewel come out, and the yokai shrinks down to its original size. They gather up the 5 shards, adding them to the four Jasmine got from the clones. She then undoes the lava wall, sending the lava back underground, and redirects a river of lava flow away from the buildings into the sea. The yokai wakes up, the pastor calmly talks to him, and he leaves in peace.
Now that everything is safe again, the Britannian's all stare at Jasmine with questionable looks.
"It's time to tell you what's going on here."