+++

Lightning strike, the cloud starts twirling upon the sky with the purple light descent from above on Kira with hair like a snake ready to hunt their prey, her dress was glowing with magic

Her prey was running away from her like there was no tomorrow, as she was gathering her magic energy in one place, the other couldn’t do anything except run at that moment.

They all got to safety with the army led by Anette’s brothers.

“Anette!!!”

“Brother…” her voice was shaking as her power was no longer hers, it felt like she lost a part of herself.

“Your power…” her other two brothers hugged her and patted her head after many years apart.

Christopher did everything he could to heal Jellal’s wound, he was quite injured too using the magic earlier. 

“I could only heal one person left with my current magic energy.” Anette nodded while her hand put on Jellal’s forehead to make him calm down. He lost all of his consciousness after the attack earlier. Anette felt a little better seeing him alright after the thing earlier.

“There must be something special about this mountain, if she could touch me at the eclipse to get my power…why did she bother to take me here in the first place??” Anette put Jellal’s head down on the bag of stuff the army came with.

“The mountain…wasn’t this the mountain where the first empress got her power??” Anette flinched hearing the old fairy tale of her empire by her brother.

She tried to remember the story and finally got all pieces together, even the loss of power in her empire.

“All of you…take Jellal and get away from here.” she said staring at them in their eyes while grabbing the spear from the knight.

“What’re you saying??!” of course, her brother rejected that stupid idea. There was no way they could abandon their sister.

But she have already made up her mind, all of them, even Christopher knew that Anette wasn’t the one who would change her mind easily.

“I won’t die.” she tied her wound and went to Jellal who was unconscious. As if it was the last time seeing him like that, she felt grateful for her past self to choose to leave the empire for him. She won’t regret anything if she dies.

“Hurry, go back–“

Boooooom

Half of the mountain was destroyed right in front of all the army, the powerless Anette abandoned everyone and went to the mountain to where the root of the problem was.

“Only you…huh?”

“Yeah, I’ll take you with me if I go to hell today.” she stood on the edge of the cliff going against the one who could challenge god at that moment floating in mid-air.

“Don’t you see…with my power, I could tear down the whole empire?” Kira smirked and tried her best to see Anette’s reaction. To see her scared face and her cowardly side.

“I have always hated my power…I was raised to be a warrior because of it even I never liked it…”

“Last words, huh??” again with the grin as if she was the superior being compared to Anette.

From the standing point, one was at the edge of the cliff and the other one was floating in the sky that could kill the other one with a finger, on the mountain where the original super strength of the southern empire, where the very first empress, Empress Aimilia found the power.

4000 years ago…

Although that very time, everyone went to the side where they will get a piece of the magic from goddess Anastasia. Only a woman remained who still believed that magic will make the world come to an end. She was an empress, a wise leader…day after day, her people left her to get the magic even though she tried to stop them.

To the point no one followed her anymore, she was forced to be an outcast. The day when she ran away from people with magic abusing her, she still remembered clearly the face of the source of all her tragedy, goddess Anastasia.

To everyone, the goddess was everyone’s savior but to her, she was the one who destroyed everything in the world with her magic. The world won’t survive with magic coming into the picture.

She ran and ran across the forest, across the river to the mountain where the sun took her. She felt hopeless, even the sun who guided her all the way here lost its light covered by the moon at that very moment.

She tripped and fell into the cliff, but when she woke up again, she was given the miracle power, for the first time she was glad her training all paid off. Fate was on her side, it was her destiny to share her new superstrength with everyone else.

But when she came back, the door was already closed on her.

They set the magic barrier calling her a monster, she forgave them. She left silently but then when those people threw rocks at her telling her she was such a disappointment…she also forgave them but that time, she clenched her hand bit her lip enduring all of those insults.

“I wonder why we chose her as our leader?? She’s such a bummer…magic is so convenient.” they who just obtained the magic were overjoyed without knowing the price they will have to pay in the future, only empress Aimila could see the situation that far.

The power of magic was limited, and the goddess won’t be able to share it all with people across the world. So what came after that? People will have to kill each other to steal the magic power.

“Stop thinking you’re our empress, you’re such a weakling.”

“Go away, maybe we would think again if you could get a piece of the magic from the goddess.”

“Pfft, although there was none less.” they laughed mocking her as she turned her back on them with the glared directly at them as she walked away.

Those people of her empire have yet to realize the future ahead of them.

The next months after, people came to beg her to get the share of power instead as the war broke out. That time, a grin appeared on her face as she was there on the mountain training polishing her new power watching the empire burn down.

The southern empire was once vast, even bigger than the center empire but the citizens were so stupid to go begging for power from the center empire, the result was half of the land was taken by the center empire.

“Please…your majesty, have mercy.”

“Alright…you people must be lucky survivors…” she got up and then walked across the path opened for her.

“They killed all of our family…we have to take revenge.”

“Oh now, you’re saying revenge??” she ripped off a guy’s head, the one who mocked her before, and then threw it across the cliff.

“Please…spare our lives…we were wrong.” the other went trembling begging with their head to the iron wall, she had nothing such as forgiving to those people. The rest of the citizen of the southern empire was all slaughtered by her.

To rebuild the empire again, empress Aimlia traveled far and wide across the world to search for the people who didn’t give in to the magic and shared her power with them equally as her power was unlimited and could improve by training.

+++

That was the history of the southern empire, and it all connected. The very first place where the original power came from and the faithful time, the eclipse.

If the mountain could give the power to someone, and it also could take it back too but under one condition, it had to be the eclipse.

Anette already knew the answer to the loss of power too, when people started to lose power. It also happened when the second moon of Anastasia covered the sun. 

The monster at the mountain was the guardian of the power, that was why it was so hostile. The monster also charged in the empire when the eclipse many years ago happened. The mountain itself was alive, and it was already time to get back what belonged to them.

By seeing Kira was still at the mountain, that meant she couldn’t get out by the mountain’s interference during the eclipse. Anette knew the fact and bet all her life with her hunch.

She shouted to Kira, “I hated my power…but now…for everyone, I won’t escape from my fate…the power is mine and will always be mine.”

Kira flinched and tried to fly away as she noticed something was wrong, what she didn’t realize was she haven’t seen the true crazy self of Anette yet.

Anette jumped from the cliff toward Kira at the height of the cloud.

“Pfft, what an idiot.” Kira mocked her as Anette couldn’t touch her, but her laugh vanished when the spear was stabbed right into her heart.

“Huh?” the spear was attached with a robe, she was forced to the ground by the impact of the spear, it felt like something heavy was on the spear.

What came after the spear was Anette who had already clenched her fist, it didn’t do much damage to Kira but their flesh connected together. That was when Anette shouted loudly to the sky, “I, princess Athena…mountain spirit, I offered myself as a vessel, thus take back your power from this evil.”

The mountain which was destroyed in half suddenly came back to its original shape as the missing piece was connected again and the tree started coming back to life. Anette’s body floated into the air and the red power energy flew out of Kira’s body surrounding Anette and then struck in her chest like an anchor.

The vine of the mountain started coming for her and dragged her feet with it, the tree came to life and transformed into a walking human.

“The last power…we finally take it back…” the human tree murmured to its group and then took Anette into the mountain, she became one with the mountain, and Kira with the missing piece of magic was strangled by the walking tree and the mountain also drained all of her magic then threw her off the cliff.

Everything settled down, the army was quite far away also noticed the miracle. Christopher stopped halfway when chasing Jellal stopping him from going back to the mountain to witness the miracle.

When she said she won’t die to everyone, she came to Christopher and talked to him alone her real meaning behind that, “I’m ready…to sacrifice myself, please use the remaining magic to heal Jellal…don’t spare it using on me.”

Anette knew the whole time that Christopher was secretly healing her, Christopher felt hopeless even though he came to save her…he couldn’t do anything.

“What about him?? Are you planning on leaving him??!”

“Tell him I’m sorry.”

Back to the moment, Jellal even though he had no energy left in his body kept running and running to the mountain with hope that he could meet his love again.

Christopher tried to stop him, told him to give up…told him about Anette’s last words to him but he didn’t listen.

Walking on the spiky rock, his feet were bleeding, he kept going and going to see her, to witness her smile again even though every people already knew there was no chance Anette would be alive facing Kira.

“…Anette…” but who he met wasn’t the warm Anette anymore, it was a stone statue of her carved with the mountain. She was already a part of the mountain, her last smile on the statue broke his heart as he kept calling her name begging her with his head on her feet and yet…she already left him.

“Don’t leave me…in this hell…please…” a tear came out of the statue when Jellal said that.

To be continued….!