Storm the Castle

[Summer]

In a flash, the gentle and rhythmic motions of Summer’s hand, as he ruffled and toyed with the soft fur and ears of her hooded cloak, passing the movement through to her head, was interrupted. Sonny’s words seized Ebony’s attention, and she quickly lifted her head up, nearly dislodging the storm spirit’s hand, her deep green eyes meeting his own, the tinges of red that had already seeped into her cute face only growing into a deeper scarlet. The smiling face of Summer stared back at her, no hint of anything other than his usual exuberant cheer in his expression. Their silent stare-down lasted for only a moment, before the young mage averted her eyes, her head falling down to stare at the volcanic rock beneath their feet.

“I-I knew it...” she stuttered quietly, kicking weakly at some of the loose gravel littering the ground. Though her tone was disgruntled, she still did nothing to escape the hand softly rubbing and ruffling her hood. To this, Summer simply chuckled, offering no other comment. His hand dropped from her head, hanging back down by his side as he shifted to face the hill Morene had gone over. Next to him, Ebony shuffled, suddenly nervously pressing up against his side, always trying to stay near his comforting presence. Her warm hand brushed against his, and suddenly the spirit felt her tense up, that hand jerking away a fraction of an inch. With a calm smile, still looking up the rocky cliff face the soldier had gone over, he chased after her hand, wrapping his slightly cool palm around hers and holding it gently. Though he tried to hide it, he still couldn’t stop the small, reddish warmth creeping into his cheeks.

“You gonna be okay?” He asked, his voice nearly a whisper, quickly giving her hand a comforting squeeze, a gentle little squish that one wouldn’t expect out of someone as monstrously strong as him. Ebony simply leaned a little bit more into him, squishing against his side, not responding just yet. While he waited, his stormy eyes slowly began to wander over the steep hill in front of them, working their way up and keeping a lookout for any sign of their friend. Or any sign of danger telling him that they needed to rush to her aid.

“... I’ll be fine...” the young mage mumbled after a few seconds, her voice quiet, barely, barely audible over the sizzling, bubbling river of lava no more than a few meters down the ridge from them. “I-It’s just like last time.”

“... Really?” He pushed, but not too hard, a genuinely concerned tone just barely starting to creep into his words. The young mage squeezed his hand back but didn’t respond. Though she said that, it was different this time. This time, they weren’t being thrown into the midst of it, forced to fight or die. Even if they had sought out that trouble last time, it hadn’t been long before there had been no escape. That wasn’t the case now. Escape was an option. If they wanted to, they could just turn around and leave. Just walk out of this verse and find trouble elsewhere. Of course, Summer didn’t air any of these thoughts. He didn’t want to frighten her more. She was having a tough enough time as is.

And so the two stood in silence, staring up the hill and simply waiting for any word from their friend. No matter whether it was an all clear or an ‘oh god start running now.’ No more than a minute later, they got just that answer. “It’s all clear!” A large figure clad in massive armor stepped into view from just over the steep hillside, looking down at the two and waving, her voice echoing. Fortunately, it had been the former.

“Awesome!” Summer shouted back, tone immediately springing back to his usual pseudo-cheer. “We’ll be right up!” With that said, he quickly turned towards the girl at his side, a reassuring smile on his face. Ebony turned to meet his gaze for just a moment, before quickly looking back up the hill, hiding behind her cloak again. The storm spirit stepped forward, rock crunching beneath his boots, and the young mage quickly followed after, still holding onto his hand tightly. The two crested the hill in short order, soon coming side-by-side to Morene, and to the view beyond.

Upon summiting the hill, the two were met with the sight of a decrepit castle, at this point little more than a vaguely castle-shaped pile of crumbling stonework. Though it was no more than football-field distance away from them, most of that stretch was a shallow pit into a sizzling, burbling moat of lava, far too thick to cross in conventional ways. There was a single, almost-wrecked stone bridge stretching across the moat, connecting the entrance arch to outside world, but it seemed like that was the only one. Based on how ruined the rest of the castle was, Summer had to say he was quite surprised it was even standing. But the twisted lizard-things now inhabiting it probably needed that bridge as well, lest they get stranded and starve, and thus probably left it intact enough for them to use. Good thing too. It might have been the only way in, but it also meant that it was the only way out...

As for the castle itself, Summer guessed that this had once been gothic in design. It had that basic “evil villain’s final lair” design to it. Dark brickwork, evidence that tall, evil-looking spires had once stabbed up into the ash-clouded sky, that sort of thing. If it had been night and actually storming, the spirit supposed it might’ve looked actually menacing. Of course, since it was daytime out, it was illuminated pretty nicely. As well as it could be given the ever-present soot cover, which was to say that it looked more like late-evening than noon. Not completely light, but also not dark enough to be spooky. Though the periodic flashes of volcanic lightning, mostly just flicking about in the ash clouds, did add a nice touch to the atmosphere.

What didn’t add a nice touch to the atmosphere was the fact that the castle was absolutely ransacked. If the youkai had to guess, it was probably well-maintained at one point. At least, as well as the Kappa-like creatures that owned these castles could maintain such a structure. Sure, they might not have been the best at it, but they were still aeons better than these darklings. The outer walls were crumbling, providing little cover for the inside of the castle. Structures that looked like they once might have been tall, villainous spires fit for a king’s lair were now knocked down at the halfway point, stone and shattered brickwork strewn about their bases. And so, so many of the rooms that Summer could see had at least one wall torn down. Likely things that had been destroyed in the initial scuffle, probably by the darklings themselves. 

Of course, now the darklings would reap what they had sown. This was their last stronghold, and with how much they’d torn apart the place, it wasn’t all that strong. Demonic, winged lizards scuttled about down below, going about whatever twisted semblance of a normal life they had. After the disappearance of the great dragonling, they didn’t really have all that much to look forward to, and it showed. They just... scurried about haphazardly, some seeming to play in their own, dark way. Some tore at each other, leaving wounds deep enough to be seen from even where Summer and Ebony stood, but always, their little play-fights ended with them shuffling off their own separate ways. Their numbers were too few, they didn’t want to kill themselves off even further due to such trivial matters.

“Looks like they’re all down there then?” The storm spirit was the first to speak up, his eyes locked onto the numerous forms of prey, all flitting about down in the castle. “No darklings anywhere else?”

“That is correct,” Morene answered back almost immediately, her power armor hissing as she stepped over next to the two, her heavy boots thunking loudly against the stone ground. “Not a single one on the surrounding hillsides, and none of them have even thought about keeping a lookout. Even though this is their last haven, they still put no thought towards defense.”

“Any weapons you saw?” Summer asked, still scouring the gathering beneath them. He didn’t see any himself. At least, nothing beyond the general, short-ranged weaponry they wielded. Swords, maces, axes, that general sort of thing. If they wanted to counteract a siege, then they were shit outta luck. Unless at least one of them was a Prime, which he doubted.

“Other than what they’re wearing, nothing.” The soldier’s voice betrayed barely-hidden disgust. These things were basics to her, and here they were almost spitting in the face of it all. Eyes still on the prize, Summer opened his mouth to give his opinion but was interrupted by Morene before he’d gotten so much as a peep out. “If we wanted to play this smart, we could simply destroy the bridge and starve them. They need to get their food from somewhere, and with no way to forage the surrounding lands, they’d swiftly turn on each other. No need for us to get involved.”

“Ah, such beautiful insight. A woman after my own heart~” Summer sang in a cheery, joking tone, his teeth bared in a happy, if menacing grin. Not a moment after those words left his mouth, a pair of arms wrapped around his own, the one that had been holding Ebony’s hand scarcely a moment ago, and he felt the warm young mage press against his shoulder just a bit more. The storm spirit grinned a little bit brighter. “I don’t suppose Kuz... the Kappa King gave us a time limit, did he?” He bit his tongue, catching himself before he called... whatever the king of the kappa here was, Kuzenbo. His smile only grew brighter as the chat went on, enjoying as Ebony tried more and more fervently to make her presence known.

“He did not,” Morene answered quite placidly, her tone giving away that she already knew what he had in mind.

“Then what’s to stop us from just destroying the bridge and letting them starve?” There was an almost cheeky not to the storm spirit’s voice. Like a student who just found an easy way to cheat on his test.
“Only ourselves,” the soldier sounded almost as cheerful as he did. This little task of theirs was so easy it almost felt like cheating. 

“Well then, let's get to it~” Still in a sing-songy voice, Summer turned his head to face the girl hugging his arm, smiling sweetly. “Think your magic could do it from this range, Eb?” He asked, meeting the young mage’s gaze in an instant, as she’d been looking towards the two, and acting as if he didn’t notice that she suddenly started hugging his arm.

“U-Um...” she stammered, another blush rising to her cheeks from the proximity, her eyes nervously flicking between Summer and Morene. “Wh-what if they don’t have to eat?” Silence fell in the wake of her question, her blush only growing brighter in the face of their stares. She shyly averted her eyes, trying to hide behind her hood.

“Actually that’s a good point...” The storm spirit said in a low tone, his tone betraying that he was delving back into thought. “If they don’t need to eat, then we’d be cutting off our only method of attack as well. Also given the fact that they’re lizards, they might be able to go months without eating. We don’t have months to sit around a wait to see if they might starve to death. The Kappa King-”

“Bowser,” Morene added helpfully, sensing he was having trouble with the name.

“Bowser... wouldn’t be too pleased with it either I assume. We could probably have gotten away with waiting a month or so for them all to starve out, but the better part of a year? He probably wants this castle back soonish...” Summer spoke in a low, rambling tone, as though thinking out loud to himself.

“So...” Ebony chipped in hesitantly. “That means we’re going to have to fight them all.”

“It seems so.” The soldier sounded almost disappointed about it. And they’d felt so smugly satisfied about the whole matter too. “We can still bombard them from this distance at least,” she suggested, unslinging the rifle from her shoulder, the weapon making a series of mechanical clicks as she set it to Sniper mode. “With no way to shoot back their only options are to take cover, try to rush us, or die.”

“Sounds more like ‘take cover and die,’ ‘rush us and die,’ or ‘simply lay down and die...’” Summer growled, an ominous tone flowing out through his words. The cheery green he’d been wearing suddenly just... shifted, becoming vaguely menacing. Not more than a few moments later, however, that smile fell away, a disappointed grin crossing his face as he came to a realization. “Unfortunately...” he began slowly, staring regretfully down at the castle below. “I don’t have any attacks that can reach from here. Or at least, any reliable ones. So... I’ll let you two have all the fun, I guess.”

“Not all the fun,” Morene said, turning to face the spirit once again, rifle at the ready. “You can always take down anything that decides to wander hither.”

“I suppose...” He trailed off, eyes flicking over to meet her gaze for just a moment, before he looked back towards the castle, settling on that for a few seconds longer, before turning to look at Ebony. “Well, I’ll let you two get to it!” The storm spirit was once again cheerful, a bright smile plastered on his face. “In the meantime, I’ll cook up something for...” he trailed off for a quick moment, staring forward blankly as he read the flow of the air around him, using everything he could to quickly determine the forecast for the next day, and with it, the current time of day. “... Lunch! Sound like a plan?” Hearing that, the young mage’s eyes seemed to light up, and for a moment, it seemed as though a cute, wondrous grin was going to spread across her face. Unfortunately, she managed to get herself composed just before that. She let out a small cough, quickly putting on her super serious, stoic, cool-looking face, and she was ready to not be all excited again.

“Th-that’ll work...” though she managed to not visibly give away how enthused she was, she still stuttered a little bit, her normal, cute shyness shining right through.

“Alright, you two get right on it, and I’ll get to cooking~” he sang, slowly wiggling his arm, a silent message for the girl hugging it to let go. “Go on and kick those darkling’s asses for me!” That last little bit of inspiration was all that Ebony needed. Her mouth lifted in a cocky grin, and even though there was still a bit of blush staining her cheeks, she still stared confidently into Summer’s eyes.

“Of course!” The young mage said with a cool, calm laugh, her warmth regretfully lifting away from Summer’s arm. “We’ll take care of them in no time.”

“Now that’s what I like to hear~” The storm spirit’s voice was almost melodic as he ruffled her hood one last time before they got to bombarding, digging it firmly against her ebony-black hair, but not firmly enough that it was uncomfortable. “Good luck~” he cheered in a mellow tone for them both, quickly flashing Morene a cheesy grin, just to show that he was rooting for her too. The soldier nodded politely, her power armor whirring as she turned to take up position and snipe down as many as she could.

“Heh, I don’t need luck,” Ebony stated, throwing a confident grin over her shoulder to the spirit as she stepped over to take up position alongside Morene. “B-but thanks anyway...” Those last few words of hers were spoken quickly with a low voice, and before Summer had so much as a chance to see her expression after that sentence, she whipped back around, cloak twirling as she turned away. The youkai simply grinned at her retreating form, letting that last sentence of hers sink in before he actually got started on his own task.

Once that moment passed, he closed his eyes and turned his attention inwards, towards the iridescent material that now made up his being. Omnilium. He needed to make some food for them, maybe some water too. Keep them hydrated and energized. For that, he’d need a few basic ingredients, maybe a few kitchen utensils, a surface to chop some vegetables on, something to cook them over... Wait. His train of thought paused. He could just summon up food directly, why was he going through these extra steps?

Because simply summoning up food was cheating, of course. It wasn’t the same. That hesitant thought had lasted only a moment before he blasted it apart. He liked cooking, of course he wasn’t just gonna pass it up by magicking up some food that would taste exactly how he thought it should taste. Where was the fun in that? He wanted it to be a surprise. He wanted to see what he had missed, what he could improve upon, all that fun stuff. 

Besides, he still needed to return Ebony’s favor. She’d been so kind as to cook him a meal. She hadn’t just gone off and summoned something. That meal, though it hadn’t been something conjured up by a master chef, had been something she’d poured her heart into. For him to just... cheat a meal into existence, now, after he finally had the chance to cook for her and return the favor... Well, that just wasn’t right.

So he needed to conjure up the supplies to make something quick, easy, but still delicious. Not something like a stew that’d take hours. No, it had to be something that took less than that. Or... It was going to take them a while to actually properly kill the darklings. He could take a bit longer and make something that was a bit more time-intensive... Unless he wanted to give them something for a mid-bombardment break, that was. Give one of them a chance to eat and regain some of their energy. This was going to be a proper siege, aft-

A brilliant, mystical sensation slammed into the storm spirit, wrenching him clear out of his concentration and sending him stumbling. He could feel it. It? What was it? His mind overloaded, his senses dimming for a moment in the face of overwhelming arcane energy, the same way one’s hearing would dim in the face of a blinding light. He grimaced, biting down the mental agony with clenched teeth and forced his eyes open, ready to fight whatever had decided to rear its ugly head.

Only to be immediately greeted by the flailing, panicking form of Ebony, her arms outstretched. Rocks and magic twisted around the young mage in a veritable maelstrom. Waves upon waves of pure arcane destruction sloughed off her almost visibly, the air itself shimmering around her. Each and every wave rolling off of his ebony-haired friend was felt by the magically-attuned spirit, shaking him down to his very core. He hadn’t seen a magical output like this since...

Whatever he was thinking was immediately thrown to the wayside. Summer’s ears rang as he hurled himself forward, feet pounding over the stony ground, quickly covering the short distance between him and Ebony. His mind raced, processing and feeling and reading the pure, mystical chaos radiating from her. Mathematics and magical formulae raced through his head as he forced himself to think. He pushed through the tortuous fog blanketing his thoughts, weaving together the most familiar spells he could out of this tumultuous, airborne magic, desperate to force it into a more containable form as he swiftly approached her.

And suddenly black consumed the storm spirit’s vision, but not the black of him losing consciousness. Summer threw his strong arms around the panicked mage, nearly tackling her off her feet with his momentum, and buried his face into her cloak on top of his hug. Each and every powerful wave emanating from Ebony slammed into the spirit, rattling even what felt like his very consciousness, but he held her close regardless, throwing together spell upon spell upon spell, trying his damnedest to contain her out-of-control magic. Wind and thunder and lighting exploded away from them, and the youkai could even feel as the very magic that made up his being was torn asunder, but he still refused to let her go. Even as he felt his consciousness slipping away, as pure agony enveloped his body as he was ripped apart, he only hugged her tighter. Until...

For a second, nothingness. Summer’s sense of self slipped away for just a moment. Or perhaps it had been more than a moment? He couldn’t tell. All he knew was that he’d stopped thinking for some indeterminate amount of time, and now he was again, which was probably a good thing. If he was thinking, he was living. At least for now. Who knew how long that would hold for. His eyes cracked open, revealing the Ashen wastes in front of him, and below, the castle with all the little vermin still scurrying about. 

Wait.

His heart hammered in his chest, a wave of adrenaline surging through him, his mind racing. Something was just... missing. There should have been something cooler nearby, something counteracting the powerful heat of his body, something shielding him from the infernal heat of the Steppes. His eyes rapidly flicked over the sight in front of him, his body refusing to move further, his breaths swiftly growing shorter and shorter. He could feel what was missing, the lingering sensation of cool phantom arms pressing against his body, rapidly fading away.

Summer. Where had Summer gone?

Wait!

His body moved without him telling it to, the world turning into an ashen blur as he whipped around, rapidly turning, looking for Summer. But he was Summer? Why was he looking for himself? He was here wasn’t he? His ebony-black mantle flared out around him as he spun.

Wait!

His cloak? As cool as they were when they billowed in the breeze, he didn’t own a cloak. The spinning stopped, or at least the physical spinning did, his vision spun sickeningly, but the spirit didn’t care about that. Everything became clear in an instant. The notes Sonny had taken earlier flashed into his mind. His other half might not have told him about them directly, but he did read them himself, just to see what he saw. The anxiety seeping through his chest, burning his heart, the way his body moved without his say, the pure panicked rush to find himself of all people.

He took in a deep, calming breath, focusing on the feeling of his own body. Kinesthesia. He felt... shorter, smaller, lighter. He couldn’t read anything exact out of it, because that wasn’t something one could do, but since it felt unfamiliar, he could at least tell that he was vaguely smaller. Still forcing himself to breathe deeply, forcing down his heart rate through his will alone, he finally tried to move. With no one fighting for control, he found it quite easy to lift his arms up, turning his head down so he could see them. Long, slender, pale, smooth. Just like he thought, these weren’t his arms. He could feel another rush of panic coming on but forced it down with a calming breath.

This was Ebony’s body. Somehow they’d merged together, and now he was feeling what she felt, physically and emotionally. Somehow, they were both trying to control her body, even though at least one of them should have been shunted to the back of their shared mind. That was what happened to him and Sonny, after all. Either way, since he could move her body, then that should mean he could speak? Lowering Ebony’s arms back down to her side, he slowly lifted her head up, staring back over the scattered darklings below. Each movement he made caused her heart to jump, and he could feel her trying to stay rigidly still, panic still coursing through her veins. It took more effort than necessary for even the smallest motions. He needed to put a stop to this quickly.

“Testing...” Of course, it was Ebony’s cute voice that came out of her mouth when Summer spoke. Though there wasn’t a trace of her usual timidness in it, nor of the panic holding her rooted in place. Instead, it was simply... quizzical. The storm spirit’s influence was shining through. “Okay this works! Hi Eb! Summer here! We’ve just merged for some reason. Nothing to worry about~” A cheery tone that the young mage would easily be able to recognize as Summer’s manner of speaking came out of Ebony’s mouth, in her voice.

“S-S-Summer?” came the response, shy, nervous, and above all, scared. He could tell just from her tone that the experience wasn’t exactly pleasant for her. Not that he couldn’t already tell from the panic and anxiety surging through her. 

“Yup. Now if you’d hang on for a moment...” Their one-sided, one-voiced conversation sort of reminded the storm spirit of what happened between him and his other half. Only cuter and much more enjoyable. Ebony coughed quickly, clearing her throat, and Summer quickly tried to channel her tone as best as he could. “I-I’m c-cute!” The mage’s voice suddenly exclaimed, a stutter thrown in for good measure. This out-of-character announcement was quickly followed by a contented sigh. He’d been wanting to hear that in her voice for a while.

“N-n-no!” It didn’t take more than a moment for the actual Ebony to follow that up. Embarrassment he wasn’t used to rapidly welled up in Summer, and infernally warm blush that he could also feel rose into the shy mage’s cheeks, and suddenly she wrenched control from him, grabbing hold of her cool hood with both hands and pulling it over her face, almost completely blocking out their shared vision. Gods it was weird feeling this warm. “I-I-I didn’t mean it! I-I’m not c-cute, I’m cool!” She asserted, her fear already starting to slip away in the face of her friend’s antics. And that was all Summer needed. Ebony’s lips lifted in a cute smile, and one of the storm spirit’s trademark, amused giggles rose out of her.