The Melody Fights?

Theodore wiped the sweat from his brow as he followed closely behind William's hulking body, Caexar's light being the only thing illuminating their path forward. Recalling the ice merchant's plan, Theodore couldn't help but shiver. It was a plan that could work, but it involved heavy sacrifices from everyone involved – even Theodore.

Without warning, the line in front of him came to a halt, forcing his nose to splat against William. As Theodore desperately tried to look around William, he caught movement at the front and the fiery-eyed student began to climb up towards the surface.

Hearing a finger rapping against tiling, the fiery-eyed student reappeared, blowing up a billow of stone smoke that caused everyone to start coughing wildly.

"The floor beneath her is as strong as ever…" Theodore could briefly hear through the rapid of coughs.

"Then let's proceed with Plan A." That reply caused Theodore to tense.

Plan A was the plan he wanted to enact the least because it involved subjugating Aila as quickly as possible, even potentially killing her. And from the killing intent he could feel radiating off his fellow students, Theodore doubted they wanted to keep her alive. It's almost as though they were perfectly certain that this condition that Aila had was irreversible and they needed to kill her to truly solve the problem.

But Theodore didn't want to impart that fate on anyone – much less someone as kind as Aila. Even though he'd only spoken with her a few times, Theodore could feel just how much care she had for those around her. She was a soul worth keeping among the living.

So, just as William moved to start Plan A, Theodore spoke up, "This is wrong!"

All eyes turned to him, half of them wondering why he hadn't brought up any disputes back on the surface and instead chose to bring them up in the cramped manmade cave.

"Then what would you rather have us do?" The ice merchant sighed, probably having expected this from Theodore, "We can't exactly go up there and politely ask that monster 'Could you please stop?' now, could we?"

"B-but wha-what if we did?" Theodore stuttered out, squeaking out his final words.

With everyone bemused by his words, Theodore took the chance to continue.

"She hasn't moved since this incident started… so, what if, there was a piece of Aila still in there… a piece that could be reasoned with… a piece that could… turn back."

"Oh, you sweet, sweet, innocent child." The ice merchant shook her head, "One does not simply turn back after accepting the call of a demon or god."

"But he does have a point…" Felix pulled at his lip, "She hasn't moved."

With her eye twitching, the ice merchant waved her hand, voicelessly asking him to continue.

"Well, from the records of what we have from previous champions, they normally go on a rampage, trying to destroy as much… humanity as they possibly can. And yet, this incident is strangely different. Besides her not moving… no one has died. That's very irregular."

"You seriously wish to believe that there's a piece of her still in there?" The ice merchant's laugh quickly turned into a small cough.

"It's better than killing her." Theodore pointedly said, readily challenging the glare he received.

"Well then, we're going to have a small change of plans." The ice merchant rolled her eyes, "William will still be the first up as he must protect us from the gale force winds that could close in on us, and then we'll send you, Theodore, to talk with her. If neither of you are attacked, which I doubt you won't be, then the rest of us will come out peacefully. If she does attack, then we enact Plan A like we were supposed to… Anyone disagree?"

Surprised he was able to achieve the result that he wanted with just a little bit of prodding, Theodore was dragged to the front by William. Climbing up the hole using the now visible handholds the fiery-eyed student had made, Theodore watched William feel the tile flooring and then form and unform his fist a few times. Careening his fist back, William shoved it through the floor, causing it to shatter and reveal the sky.

In an instant, William was out of the hole, his hands spread out to the sides, blocking off the tornado that still raged.

Clambering up the hole, Theodore escaped and surveyed for Aila and found her upon looking up. And there she floated, her bright purple hair tickling at the blue of the sky. Upon sensing them, Aila turned, her teal, fractured eyes probing Theodore.

And Aila didn't attack them. In fact, Aila seemed to smile at their appearance.

"AILA!!" Theodore shouted, "COME BACK TO US, THIS ISN'T LIKE YOU!!"

"ArΣ yoЦ… friΣnds?" Aila's head cocked like a puppet's, the black sludge visible on her skin violently pulsating as she spoke strangely.

Theodore fervently nodded his head, pointing at himself and William, "Yes, we're friends!" 

"ArΣ thΣy friΣnds tӨo?" Aila's head had turned near ninety degrees as she examined everyone else that crawled out of the hole.

"Yes!" Theodore continued to nod, believing he was making progress, "Everyone here is your friend! We came here to save you!"

"SavΣ mΣ? SavΣ mΣ frӨm whaƬ?"

This left Theodore at a loss for words, looking at everyone else to see if they could provide some support.

"From yourself." The ice merchant flipped her hair.

This caused Aila's smile to fade and for more veins of black sludge to erupt from her skin.

"SӨ, yӨu jЦst wanƬ Ƭo gΣt Яid Өf mΣ?"

Hearing the quiver in her voice, Theodore despairingly shook his head, "No! We're saving you! Not killing you!"

Aila seemed to think hard on his words, causing Theodore's heart to well up with expectation. Perhaps Aila could truly escape from the clutches of these so-called Gods. But his hopes were dashed as tears erupted from her eyes.

"SӨ, yӨu're nӨt my friΣnds." Aila wiped at her eyes until her palms started to get stained with black blood.

Dropping her hands to her sides, Aila cried her black blood and then screamed bloody murder.

"SHIT!!" William dropped to one knee, biting his lip hard enough to draw blood as he continued to hold his force shield, "ENACT PLAN A!!"

And just like that, the fiery-eyed student sprang towards Aila, just to get caught out of the air by Felix who tackled him to the ground.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOI—"

With his eyes finding the ice merchant, Felix clamped the fiery-eyed student's mouth shut and shook his head.

"Plan A won't work."

Seemingly understanding what Felix was implying, the ice merchant slapped her hands to the floor and began chanting. Meanwhile, Caexar was spinning some golden thread in his hand.

Looking back at William, Theodore found him in a constant state of injury, with blood pouring out of his eyes and his limbs twisting in every direction, or perfect health as the princess held her hands over his head.

Glancing at Aila, he could briefly see purple light shimmering around her, but his entrancement was snapped away as a blue spear crashed into the lightning shield. This caused a deafening roar of thunder as lightning sparked off the blue spear and completely eviscerated it. But the one throwing the spears wasn't deterred in the slightest as more blue spears slammed into Aila's shield.

"What Are You Doing Sword Boy?!" Theodore gazed at the fiery-eyed boy, "Do Something!"

Clawing at his sword sheath, Theodore shakily drew his sword, his red aura only existing for a moment. As Theodore played out scenarios of how to fight Aila, he became more and more distraught… there was nothing he could do to reach her.

As Theodore began to lower his head in defeat, blocking out the noise of the world around him, a tug on his sleeve brought him back. With worried eyes, Theodore only found Emily holding a few seeds in her shaking hand.

"I... I forgot to bring soil and water…" Tears dripped from her eyes, "I-I can't help her…"

Feeling a lump in his throat, Theodore put on his best smile and trembly patted Emily's head, "It-It's alright… Our time will come, I'm sure of it."

"Oi, you two." Felix abruptly appeared, "Move."

Following where he was pointing, Theodore and Emily ran and escaped just in time for a wave of ice to escape from the ice merchant's planted hands, flooding the entire battlefield with a continuous wave of ice.

Upon making contact with Aila's shield, it shattered into hundreds of tiny shards, but the rolling ice wave continued. The temperature inside the force shield dropped dramatically as wave after wave crashed into the lightning shield.

Yet nothing worked, only causing everyone to now be able to see their breaths and an ice mist to form around Aila.

"Alright, there you go prince…" The ice merchant heaved, "Now do your part."

Caexar, giving a wink to the ice merchant, ripped his golden thread and threw it into the air. Watching the thread slowly grow, it seemed to catch on a few of the far-spread ice shards and that's when everything… happened.

In the blink of an eye, the strands had jumped from ice shard to ice shard until the ice mist was glowing radiant gold and creating a light so bright it was comparable to the sun.

A gurgled scream followed this show of magnificence, and a charred body dropped from the sky.

Landing with a heavy plop, the charred body still had the life to move. But then the body suddenly flew off to the side, almost as if it had been kicked. And then it happened again and again until even the body became a blur.

Theodore, out of the corner of his eye, saw Veronica form another construct – an executioner axe.

As soon as it formed, the axe disappeared from her hands and Felix, finally revealing himself, appeared above the charred body, an axe above his head, ready to be brought down on the body's neck.

"WAI—"

Yet Theodore had no reason to stop Felix as the charred body shot out a prickle of lightning, catching Felix before he could react.

Slamming into the force shield, Felix slumped down the side until his body rested either unconscious or dead.

Straightening, the charred body started to molt, revealing a familiar but discomfited pair of shattered teal eyes. As the rest of the char fell from her body, an uninjured Aila emerged with more black sludge slithering across her skin.

Aila raised her palms to the sky, the tornado dissipating as she did, and then rapid strikes of thunder struck around her, tainting Theodore's vision with the flashes of light.

"Well, that's new." Caexar snorted, "That wasn't something they taught us."

As if requesting he be next, Caexar opened his arms out wide, his chest an ample target. With a raised palm, lightning burst through the air, striking Caexar and pushing his way back to the entrance of the study building.

The force shield was down.

Theodore snapped his head to William to see him on his hands and knees, sweat falling in heavy droplets from his face.

"Seems she's finally adapted." William spat a clump of blood, "Now, it's the time for us all to die on the spot…"

Turning to Aila, the wall of lightning strikes was slowly growing closer, and her raised palm, still aimed at where Caexar stood, gracefully moved over to Veronica.

The fiery-eyed student looked over just in time to see her hit squarely in the chest, sending Veronica spiraling towards a far wall.

"VERONICA!! NO!!" He first tried to run towards her, but with anger coursing through him, the fiery-eyed student began his sprint towards Aila.

Slamming both fists into the ground, the fiery-eyed student ripped free a panel of the tiled flooring and chucked it at Aila. But the striking lightning focused in on the hurtling item, completely annihilating it.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!!"

The fiery-eyed student tried punching the lightning, but instead of blowing it away, his entire arm was burnt clean off. This seemed to put a bit of sense into him as he hobbled away, looking with surprised eyes at his new lack of his left hand. Giving Aila an incredulous look, the fiery-eyed student was blasted away moments later.

The show of absolute, devastating power continued with William who, unable to defend himself any longer, was blasted away too.

Theodore, wondering who was next, watched as Aila aimed her hand at Emily.

Slowly turning his head, Theodore watched in slow motion as Emily gave him a big smile and then she disappeared from his sight. Theodore flinched as the thud of her body against a wall rang audible in his ears.

Tightening his jaw, a few tears spouted from his eyes, and a certain kind of protective rage washed over him, and Theodore began to ask himself why he wasn't stronger? If only he had learned another move other than what worked on students of the same year, or if he had only managed to follow the original plan instead of believing that Aila could be saved.

'But she can't be.' Theodore decided, 'But I can save everyone here… and I can save everyone else that might get caught up in this.'

His sword, as if hearing his resolve, started to glow a blazing red, ready to face the challenges that lay before him.

Breathing out, Theodore took heavy, but firm steps towards Aila, his sword refusing to lose its burn.

Having already dealt with the princess by the time he'd gotten close, Aila waved her hand at him, a spurt of lightning surging towards him. But the lightning seemed slow, giving Theodore enough time to raise his sword above his head and cut down. And he cut it… splitting it into two parts before having it completely evaporate.

With the new means to rid the world of this threat, Theodore continued his slow walk to Aila. Cutting and destroying every beam of lightning, Theodore entered the domain of constantly striking lightning to face off against Aila.

With fearful eyes, Aila witnessed as Theodore raised his sword above his head.

"I'm sorry."

It was but the faintest of whispers from Theodore before he struck down, the burning aura being sent out from the blade, slashing through whatever defense Aila might have had and severing her from shoulder to hip.

And as the two halves of her body split apart, falling to the ground. Within moments, all the lightning ceased, bringing a strange sense of silence and calm. Looking up, the sky had once again revealed itself.

Theodore had won, but not without the sup— Theodore stopped his celebration when black tendrils erupted from the two halves, hooking onto one another and pulling the two halves back together.

As they connected, the originally lifeless eyes reawakened and became punched in, unveiling two wells of black in their center. Completely gone was the teal of Aila's eyes. It felt as though she'd been replaced by someone else. With her limbs moving in strange ways, Aila stood back up and adorned a smile that made Theodore unsettled enough to feel like vomiting.

"ƧΉΣ ΉΛƧ ПӨƬ YΣƬ FЦᄂFIᄂᄂΣD ΉΣЯ PЦЯPӨƧΣ…"

A voice that clearly wasn't hers.

A voice that clearly wasn't human.

Theodore wished to strike again, to end it, but his strength was sapped, his body was mush, and his soul was crushed.

As he began to collapse to the ground, a pair of hands grabbed him and started dragging him away. The rain of thunder began to crash down again, touching at the tips of Theodore's shoes.

Looking up tiredly at his savior, Theodore found the ice merchant, who he could see was trying her absolute hardest to get him to safety. He wanted to tell her to leave him, but his jaw only hung open, not producing a sound.

Turning his eyes back to Aila, or whatever now controlled her body, the winds of the original tempest start to pick back up, shoving Theodore and the ice merchant right back to the entrance. As they both groaned in pain, they watched silently as death incarnate began to walk.

Theodore knew they wouldn't be saved.

Everyone had run away, leaving him to die. Yet as Theodore looked back on his life, he felt it wasn't all that bad.

So, Theodore rested his head and closed his eyes, waiting for his world to disappear.

Though, as if to mock Theodore for having resigned himself to death, the sound of the door leading to the study building banged open.

"As much as I appreciate the orchestral music you're making." A voice that tickled at Theodore's memory spoke, "There is but a single cord that ruins the entire thing and… as someone who's conducted music before… I simply cannot leave this be."

As Theodore's vision began to dim, he saw a pristine white glove come into view.