And so, the party endured. But the last battle had exacted a very hefty price upon them. The task force of adventurers from Hestia and Loki Familia had Tyratryx on the run, but they were in no position to pursue her: her own lair had become their prison. It was the greatest of all ironies: their destination, in which many trials and tribulations befell them to reach, was now inescapable.
Many in the party, the leadership included, began to muse if "the Eye" was a genuine article, or a cruel counterfeit devised by the far-fet Tyratryx to draw them out. "The Eye", it had been conjectured, was a gudgeon's lure to stay them, so Tyratryx could beteem them a hair's breadth where she wanted them.
The beguiling Dark Mother knew no bounds.
The oppressive air of Cor Vilgium filled their lungs. The frigid air made their blood freeze and their breath turns to vapour. There was no light: all was shadow. The stone floor under their feet felt harder than diamond.
Tyratryx had swallowed Bell whole like a cockatrice ravin down a doe. His maid-pale soul hung in the balance. The power of Inoborna Alf had smoked Tyratyx's body to cinders from inwardly, but Bell had been drifting in and out of wareness since. It was only a matter of time before he turned for the worst.
And he did indeed.
He fell into a coma and never awoke.
Riveria fell into a coma of her own.
No more wise words did speak from her mouth.
No longer does one look austerely at boisterous rascals.
No more of that avouched leadership, and strait discipline.
Once where there was a proud and sovereign High Elf, despair only remained.
As if the gorgon's gaze had petrified her, she would not budge from Bell's side. And this had been unchanged for days.
"Oh Bell, my dearest, henceforth wake for me," she lamented.
"Let me but look upon the eyes that burn,
Those eyes do illume like the setting sun,
The virgin hair that shimmers bright as glaze.
The warm caress of your embrace, astray,
The tender hearts of fairies tear in two.
Awaken, dearest Bell—this elf she weeps,
A wife, at once a spinstress, wench, and maid,
A newlywed, a widow, longing, lone."
A golden lustre of hair draped palled her shoulders. A golden couplet of eyes broiled from her visage. With the most careful approach, Aiz Wallenstein looked upon the fairy and the boy frozen in time. To her, this imagery seemed strangely familiar.
"Riveria… is he still?" Said Aiz.
"His wareness—unrestored. His once-sprightly countenance Now bears no more of life than hardened stone." Said Riveria.
"What can be done for him?" Said Aiz.
"That I desired this boy, I deny it not. That desire turned to grief. Oh, why do the gods afflict us so with love, Only to forestall the thing we most affect?"
"Despair not, Riveria." Said Finn. "Bell Cranel will not enfeoff— He who has weathered many a tempest, Each time, his intent rising, never lessening."
"Oh Finn!" Riveria wept. "Till you meet your sweet, You shall never weet. For this kills me— as if you'd imbrued your spear into my heart!"
"I'm not knowing in this — that's true." he replied. "But I resolve on this: the boy will not forgo."
"Oh Bell, oh Bell! Do let this lonesome elf
Espy upon that waking face once more,
Descending tears do fall on tender skin,
Abide the fairy, she who gave her heart,
This fairy, alone, bereft, empty, woe."
Like dew from the tree's sap, her tears did fall upon his face. But a mystical medicine did these tears embound, for as they fell upon his tender face, Bell began to stir. His arm raised, and he took her hand into his.
"Fair Riveria," He said weakly, "your beauty aglows
With vigor, wakes the dead from Erebus,
Your hair as fresh as boughs, so green and lovely,
That beauty radiates like Gaia's arms,
Forswear those features gods so covet most
I never once bethought, queen unto all."
The choir of redress rebounded in those dreary halls of Cor Vilgium, for Bell Cranel did live. A faint smile threatened to spleet Aiz's beautiful countenance. All seemed well.
As her husband returned to life, so did the High-Elf Queen. Her tongue intoned a most melodious reverie.
"Mostsweet-faced Bell, you live, for grief as mine
Has not been felt for centuries agone.
A hero erst I loved, so distant the past
Had consecrated motherhood to me.
A spirit's flowing blood in her veins,
Preserved my daughter in ice, her shield.
So eons hereafter, this mother returned,
Reborn, her sister, she carries in her womb
Conceived by this age's hero, as she was sired
By the hero of an age long passed."
With his apparel in tatters, the barne's visage remained pale, but his eyes met hers. The High-Elf's tears were an elixir: a most effectual physic for any beshrew. Where Tyratryx's evil did environ him, a fairy's weeping, like Niobe's, was his respite.
Hestia's fisnomy cascaded with tears as she bawled with joy. Loki was on the verge of shaking Bell with perforce back into a coma. Lili capered for felicity.
"Oh Riveria," Bell began, "your most melodious voice ushered me to your fond embrace, your commanding tongue conducted my soul from the bellman's chime. But what so happened in the strife while-ere?"
"Our foe shattered my staff, but in her maw, the Inoborna Ljos did unmake her, from which your frame did emanate." Quoth Riveria.
"We won?"
"Most grievously, we've miscarried: her head, her essence, endured. With the most mighty expedience, she is bound for the surface, entrapping us here."
A discomforting cumber infared Bell's head. He stirred.
"Her head did endure." Quoth he.
"Then she can renew her vessel altogether." Riveria did answer.
"Her design was to trap us here?"
"But gone athwart had her deign, and alack," She closed one eye in a pensive trance. "Her wrath will be brought to bear upon the world."
"And her intent?" Bell bit his tongue in suspense.
"This world will she destroy."
"Then we must stop her!"
"No stronghold is this accursed place. It's a confine, meant for us. Our foe wants to keep here so we cannot meddle with her revenge…"
"There must be a way out of here!"
"At peace now, husb'nd of mine, O aethling dearest,
My eyes entreat; thine eyes dim, I fearest."
So arises Bell with what piteous strength he could levy. Riveria, ever the steadfast spouse, was having none of it. Her smile forbraid into a frown.
Thus looked he upon with pleading eyes, but her austere visage did not relent. In vain he tried to rise to his feet, but Riveria's dainty yet strong hand pushed him back down.
"Bell Cranel," she said without ruth, "you go about trying me. That is slight."
And wallow sheepishly did the barne. He knew his wife would have none of it, and thus did he concede. Therein it came to pass that Bell remembered who wore the trousers in their marriage.
"S-sorry! I'm so sorry!" he muttered incessantly, hoping that no unwinsome and blushworthy curse be placed upon him.
"Behave yourself, and my sheets I shall share," the High-Elf said in an uncharacteristically sultry tone, "defy me, and I'll make you a cuckold!"
Bell swallowed hard, his face waxen as his purple veins forswearing his leer.
"Ara, ara, Riveria!" Finn teased. "A most lustful elf, I never took you for it."
"F-Finn, a codding strumpet I am not!" Riveria spat back, as if she were on trial. "To be a most duteous wife, that was the oath I swore! A hundredyear chastity I enguarded!
"Always thought you were a prude, old hag," snarled the werewolf. "You're more horny than a bitch in heat."
"Bete Loga, you naughty knave, you braggart!" Riveria fired back.
"Zounds, hollowness bounds the elves." Taunted Gareth.
"You bulwark of blubber!" The High-Elf nearly lost all composure. "You're supposed to be dead!
"Bell Cranel, you perverted buck rabbit player!" A shrill voice announced in a flurry of accusations. Bell did not even have to turn to see who had said it. "Riveria was the most noble and virgin Queen until you robbed her maidenhead! The fairy queen is deflowered! A plague upon you!"
"Peace, Lefiya." Riveria chided. "Your backside will count of it."
"I don't know what's going on, but I want Jagamarukun." That vacuous but voracious voice of Aiz vocalized.
"Pish, you have more starch in your head than brains, Aiz." Chided Riveria.
"Miss Ljoslalalalala-face, you are no elf, but a succubus with a sting in your tail," the virgin goddess clad in white began her tirade, spitting venom like a cobra. "Or should I say you have a sting in your tongue in my Bell-kun's tail?"
"Foh, Goddess Hestia, you most unstaid gidden," Riveria chided once more. "Bell and I are thavesome adults; even we elves have fruit to bear."
"They're just like Albert and Celdia from the heroic age: the human hero and his elf-queen companion." Said the giddy Amazonian twin, Tiona.
"Captain, when are we going to get married and make babies?" said the less giddy but much more violent Amazonian twin, Tione.
"Lady Riveria, I-I don't think you should go around sleeping with humans!" Quoth Alicia, her disbelief before her deflowered sovereign, the defiled pride of the elves.
"That is between me and Bell Cranel." Riveria admonished her. "My love life is none of your concern."
"But… I thought you were the perfect maiden queen."
"I'm still me, maidenhead or not. And I resent being seen as asexual."
"Will you bear Bell Cranel a child?"
"Yes. Strange as it may sound, this is familiar, as if I were born into motherhood—a legacy from a previous life," Riveria admitted. She continued. "But it is true: from Bell Cranel's loins was the babe in my womb sired.
"I-is this true, Bell-sama?" Spake Lili unto him. "You and Nine Hell already had babies? Lili does not like these tidings!
"N-No! I've not had any children until now." Bell pleaded pusillanimously.
"Until now?!"
"I didn't plan on having any children with Riveria-sama. It just happened!"
"I can't believe you, Bell-sama!" Said Lili. "'It just happened!' Knocking up the elf-queen: it just happened!"
"Peace, all!" She spake unto all of them with the divine authority that could subdue Typhon. "Yes, it is verily true that Bell Cranel was the man I yielded my maidenhood to. Yes, it is true that Bell Cranel and I have expectancy of a babe. Yes, it is true that Bell Cranel and I are in union in matrimony. Yes, it is true that Bell Cranel and I have been struck by Eros's arrowhead, and befallen to each other's affection. Yes, it is true that Bell Cranel shares my bed, and gratifies me. But there are more pressing issues at hand."
"We've ran out of Jagamarukun!" Quoth Aiz.
"No Aiz, that's not quite what I mean. But it is supposed we're running low on food provisions."
"Thus should we raid Tyratryx's meatfettle," said Zatrona. "There's more engrossment of food there than the belly-god can full-gorge!"
"Please, enough with the levity." Retorted Riveria.
"I jest not, madam." Zatrona retorted. "Thus has Tyratryx been uphoarding food for herself and inner circle, and sup'd like royalty. Gone she is now, so let us convive ourselves to her banquet. All-powerful she may be, but not powerful enough to forestall us from having our fill!"
"I think we should keep an eye on this sordid rabbit in the meantime," Quoth Lefiya, "in case he has his way with Riveria-sama again! Bet he's waiting for the opportune moment to pin Riveria-sama down to a bed, strip her to her undergarments, and then unleash his…
"Peace, Lefiya!" Riveria interjected.
"The import is this High-Elf," Hestia said. "Pretends she to be all high and mighty, chaste, modest, demure, and virtuous. But most an-hungry she is for a barne's seed. A succubus cannot semblable her."
"Goddess, please," quoth Bell, "virginity and chastity hast thou foresworn?"
"You already foreswore them!" Hestia fired back.
"Fie, fie, Hestia-sama." Interjected Riveria. "To say such foul discourse in front of such an honest creature as Bell Cranel.
"We don't have time for this, Riveria." Quoth Aiz with all haste.
"You are most right." said Riveria.
"We must find the Jagamarukun before it's too late!" Said Aiz.
"Aiz, alas, have you lost all faith of mine."
A faint whisper hovered over the party. One that pleaded for their aid. The adventurers looked about them, as if a chorus of ghostly maids sang all in unison, begging for relief from their doom.
"But whose voice is that I hear?" Bell muttered. "An angel, or a siren?"
"That voice. I know it." Quoth Aiz.
"Wiene, is that you?" Said Bell. "We must go to her presently!"
"That sonance, where it comes, we know not!" Said Lili.
"We are adventurers of the first class, with senses of renown," Quoth Finn. "We can decry her location with well-attended ears."
"That way," Spake Aiz.
"Aiz, what a mervailous wonder you are." Quoth Bell.
"How do you know?" Quoth Hestia.
"I smell the Jagamarukun." The golden-haired swordswoman murmured.
And it came to pass that in the depths of Cor Vilgium was an entombed band of heroes, and onwards towards their goal they moved. The foe was mighty and all hating, but they were full of dogged will and fearlessness. In the darkness was a dim light. It could never be duted.
Deep down in his heart, Bell heeded Wiene's entreaty, and in all expedtion, he came to her aid. He felt the same protectiveness towards her as he did towards his unborn daughter, Eirlys. She was no less a daughter to him than she.
But they were in the realm of their foe. They faced an adversary who harboured a deep-seated hatred and a corresponding malice. Her desire for revenge threatened to destroy everything they loved, and their fight would have been for nothing.
* * *
In the whilst, the noisome Tyratryx, lessened to but a head, hurtled her way to the world above, where she will let slip her overcloyed wrath. The day of reckoning was nigh. Everything was set in stone.
"A curse upon them, fools who defy I!" Her voice was a banshee's voice, embroiled in vengeance.
"A curse upon that barne, that knave, that brat!
Bell Cranel!
A curse upon that daredevil rabble,
Loki Familia!
A curse upon that pestilent she-elf,
Nine Hell!
A curse upon them all! Oh, avenge me!
I hate the she-elf!
Death be upon her and all her people!
A curse to all that live on the surface.
My power and wrath, they will suffer.
I will sully the name of the house of Ljos-Alf!
Their precious Riveria, a strumpet,
Carrying a mongrel-bitch in her womb!
Curse her! Curse them! Curse her kind!
I sense the jealousy in the Sword Princess.
The barne idealized her, had eyes only for her.
Until the she-elf came along.
Perhaps her resentment I can use to my purpose once more.
Mother against daughter, for a barne.
The object of their love will be the instrument of their destruction.
Their last thought shall be: I rue the day I met Bell Cranel!
Trespasses, Ty'rax f'rgives not, f'rgets not, dogs
of Loki, dogs of Hestia, ye dogs of Ouranos!
Not a fairy but a Fury, that elf!
A peril your everlasting companion."
A long, coiled tail erupted from the stump of her neck, with a mix of obsidian and crimson scales. The ooze of blackened blood sculpted a feminine torso, with the right side covered in a carapace of crimson scales, and the left side resembled a wanthriven lichame, a corse.
Her left arm was little more than skin and bone—the colour of enamel. Her right arm was adorned with blood-red eldritch markings, ending in a clawed hand with silver scales.
By and by, her new body stood more than five or six fathoms tall, an imposing sight even for most stout of heroes. The redoubted of all monsters was about to wax withal more redoubted. All the power of the earth could not contain her, and our earth shall become her heaven, and our hell.