Will of a Prince

Squabee panted heavily and continued holding her hands up to the creature, prepared for another sudden movement. Jacob couldn’t believe his eyes.

"Squabee? But... how did you..."

Jacob’s mind wandered back to the description of Maria’s transformation. ’Nothing that should exist can bring harm.’ However, Squabee was one of the only beings in the world who didn’t abide by that very strict rule. If Squabee was bound by things such as destiny or fate, Jacob had no doubt she would be fated to be this creatures mortal rival.

"I can hold it off! How much time do you need?"

Lidia fumbled on her words.

"J-Just-... Give me as much time as you can afford."

Squabee nodded her head and decided to continue her assault on the monster before it could stand back up. It lifted its body off the ground and tried floating away, but Sqaubee wasn’t going to let it. She crashed down on its back with a thunderous kick, sending a shockwave through its body. Nothing turned around and began its counterattack. It started by phasing through the ground to disappear from sight. Then, it would repeatedly fly upwards, using its moment to allow its claws to shred Squabee’s armor like butter. The difference in battle experience was starting to show.

However, in Squabee’s case, there was no battle experience necessary. By pure luck, the ethereal being appeared to hesitate before it could send another attack aimed at her leg. Squabee used the opportunity to throw her elbow down, crashing it into the back of its skull. The impact was so loud that Jacob could have sworn he heard something crack. A perfect, direct hit. The being crashed into the mushy turf once more. Squabee pounced on it like a wild animal.

She unsheathed her small climbing daggers and tried stabbing its body. However, as the weapons pierced the flesh, it looked like there were two forces clashing against each other. On one hand, Squabee’s weapon was being wielded by her, thereby making it an extension of her body and turning it into something that shouldn’t exist. This was a common trend for most powers, including Sarah’s when she wore armor or wielded a weapon. However, since the dagger was originally something that existed, it seemed like there was a slight contrast in their powers. In other words, Squabee had always been someone who shouldn’t have existed since her very creation, but the daggers did exist and were normally bound by the laws of the world at one point.

This clash of existence vs nonexistence was an unimaginably interesting spectacle to watch. There were instances of the daggers working perfectly, emphasizing that Squabee’s power had outweighed Maria’s. However, there were other times where the daggers would simply phase right through its body. Eventually, Squabee gave up on the inconsistencies and went back to using her body instead, a much more reliable source of power.

She panted heavily and pushed her hair out of her face.

"Maria! Stop fighting! I don’t want to hurt you!"

The creature twitched slightly, as if responding to Squabee’s call. Squabee raised her arms and waved them in the air.

"You’re attacking your family! Snap out of it already! Don’t let that thing control you!"

A monstrous call sounded from its mouth while grabbing its head. Something that Jacob didn’t expect was how Squabee would react to such an action. She wasted no time in taking advantage of the creature’s seemingly helpless state. She closed the distance and tackled the monster to ground, wrestling it with all her might. Squabee locked one of its arms around her legs while curling her whole body around its head as it tried to fly away. Thanks to Lidia’s glowing mark, there was now no escaping the light emanating off Squabee’s body, and there was no doubt it was affecting it being so close.

"Maria! I know you can hear me! Fight it!"

The creature’s scream echoed off the hollow ribs of the carcass. Jacob covered his ears and winced. Enough time had passed. Lidia gracefully strode over towards Maria’s transformation. It thrashed more and more in Sqaubee’s grasp seeing Lidia approach so calmly. Warm hands laid gently on its face before Lidia finally spoke the words she had been preparing for.

"Release the light."

Another small explosion of light ignited the area around them. The cracks over the creature’s body started spreading until it was about to break. All at once, it shattered like a piece of glass, and Maria appeared in its place. Squabee still held her in a tight grip just to be sure, waiting for Lidia to give her a clear signal.

"Maria? Are you awake?"

Lidia tapped her face lightly. The previous scars had completely disappeared, giving them all hope. Maria’s eyelids tried to open themselves.

"Don’t hurt them."

Jacob walked over and held her hand.

"Maria, it’s okay. You’re back to normal."

It was clear to Jacob that she needed rest. Even if her transformation lasted for such a short time, there was no doubt it was extremely demanding on her energy. Slimo appeared from the darkness completely unscathed.

"Is she back to normal?"

Jacob nodded and waved him over.

"For now. You look pretty good for someone who just got thrown like a ball."

Slimo scoffed and crossed his arms.

"I let her throw me."

Jacob raised an eyebrow.

"You... let her throw you? Is that why your face turned blue with fear and you swiped your sword at her hand?"

Slimo coughed into his elbow.

"Just wanted to make sure your information you were giving us was correct."

Jacob shook his head.

"Well, we managed to get inside the corpse, but now we’re back at the very bottom of their... wherever the hell we are in their body. How the hell do you expect us to climb this thing now?"

"Well, we have a few options presented to us at the current moment. For one, we could cut our way back outside and start from scratch. Or we could try climbing the bones from the inside and work out way up the skeleton. What do you think?"

"Can’t Squabee’s transformation fly? Why the hell can we just not have her carry us?"

"All of us in this armor and with all our weapons? Not only that, now we have an unconscious woman to worry about. There’s no chance."

Squabee nodded in agreement.

"I could carry you all, but I don’t think I’d be able to reach the top in time before my power runs dry. I feel a little tired from my fight with Maria."

Jacob rubbed his forehead.

’Energy, energy, energy... why does everything useful always boil down to how much energy we have?’

Suddenly, a massive shockwave knocked everyone off their feet and into the air. They all crashed into different goopy messes of dark blood.

Slimo stood up and looked around.

"What the hell was that?! What could possibly be happening now?!"

Another shockwave knocked everyone around again. Something notably strange was happening with the carcass as well. Its ribs were now on the wall instead of on the ceiling, indicating that it had been turned on its side. Jacob struggled to stand himself up before looking around at all the walls.

"I think... something is ramming itself into the carcass."

Suddenly, a final massive boom shook the area around them. However, they were all prepared for it this time. A gaping hole appeared in the area they had were just in, and resting inside of it was a silhouette of a creature with massive wings and claws. It whimpered before opening its sharp jaw and letting out an earth-shattering roar. Jacob’s legs felt weak hearing its call. Just by the sound of it, this creature was not something any of them could handle, even as a group. Before anyone could make a move, it had already started soaring towards their location. Jacob couldn’t believe how fast it was for being so large. It zoomed past Jacob and went right for Squabee, who was still desperately grabbing hold of Maria.

"Squabee! It’s coming for you! Dodge!!"

Squabee kicked off the ground using all her strength. She was able to dodge the creature unscathed, but Maria was not so lucky. It crashed her out of Squabee’s grasp and sent her rolling on the ground for dozens of feet before coming to a lifeless stop. Jacob’s heart filled with anger and panic.

"MARIA! Get it away from her!"

However, the creature had already pounced on top of her, it unclenched its jaw, and Jacob saw as it seemingly started eating her face. Slurping sounds echoed from the scene, shattering Jacob’s resolve. They were all too late.

"No... M-Maria."

Slimo flew past Jacob faster than he could register while screaming. The creature was so preoccupied with Maria that it didn’t see Slimo coming. A light aura shrouded Slimo’s entire body as he lifted his massive broadsword.

"AHHH!"

Slimo threw the sword down with all his might. The blade hit the scales of the beast and immediately shattered into thousands of pieces. The very same attack that had split a palace in two didn’t leave so much as a scratch. Slimo’s black-iron reinforced blade had been reduced to bits. Hopelessness grasped everyone’s hearts. Slimo dropped to his knees with a sunken face.

Lidia screamed, white sparks danced in her eyes, the light from her crown illuminated the entire inside of the carcass with a blinding radiance as she prepared to kill whatever this thing was with all she had in her soul. However, upon seeing the creature, everyone stopped in their tracks. This monster wasn’t a monster at all, and it wasn’t eating at Maria’s face. Jacob could recognize those familiar, indestructible white scales and Maria-obsessed behavior anywhere.

"SHEEBY!!"

Sheeby had found her owners once more and was feverishly licking Maria’s unconscious face.

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