Read up to CHAPTER 145 on Patre0n. The link is at the bottom of the page.
Thank you to my Patrons: Fourteen, Samuel Hodge, Milo Farrell, Haha93, Blackwulf, Arkhad, Will Turner and chuy acuna.
------------------------------------
Disclaimer: If you recognise it, surprise, I don't own it.
Chapter 128- Screw Italy.
------------------------------------
The blood begins to light up, and magic begins to do its work. Hm, well, this worked out nicely. Exploding Celia D'Arcana and spreading her blood all over the bridge has actually activated something. Hmm, I wait for a second, but nothing really happens, except for the entire bridge lighting up red and drawing the attention of everybody in the vicinity... Fuck.
"Lockhart!!" I hear Lucain D'Arcana scream, full of anger and righteous fury, righteous because I did just spread his youngest daughter thinly across the entire bridge. I am internally freaking the fuck out as I watch Lucian start to tear through all of R's forces with moe vigour, trying his best to eviscerate them all so he can get to me. Okay, I need to hurry the fuck up and do something now, before he cuts through all of them and rips my head clean off my shoulders.
Let's see, let's see, what the fuck do I do now? The bridge is glowing red. Okay, and I know, let's look up at the moon again, there's something to do with the moon. The moon is still high in the sky and, huh, would you look at that. From where I am standing on the bridge, the moon appears red in the sky, and it is pulsing. Shit, wait, before that bitch tried to kill me, I was going to jump into the water below where the moon was being reflected.
I quickly rush back over to the edge, where Celia broke the railing, and look down to see the moon's reflection. I don't know what kind of weird glow this bridge is giving off, but it is somehow focusing the glow of the moon and turning it into a thick beam of red light that is pinpointing a specific spot in the water. That's where the heart is.
"I will rip your bones from your body and make a cage from it in which you will spend the rest of eternity!!" I look left to see Lucian D'Arcana killing the last few R wizards, and I also notice Madam Rakepick, backing away and then flying away on a broom, clearly realising she is out of her depth.
The bitch was so confident earlier, assuring me that my help wasn't needed and that she would handle the whole ordeal, and now here she is running away. Well, I can't fault her for that. I would run away as well if I could, but Lucian would hunt me to the ends of the earth. Knowing when to attack and when to retreat makes a good leader, and Patricia is a great leader.
As Lucian goes and kills the last wizard, and it's only been a second since I looked over, I realise now is not the time for hesitation or idleness. It's time for action, and my action right now is to jump. I dive off the bridge, headfirst, part of me worrying if I am actually doing it right or if my head is going to smack the water and crack open, as life isn't like the movies.
But I have magic on my side, so as I go headfirst for a watery death and brain injury, I start to cast spells with my wand. The first is the bubblehead charm, covering my head to make sure I breathe once I hit the water; however, before I can cast the next one, I hear something terrifying right behind me.
"You can't escape!!" Lucian D'Arcana screams, from right behind me, having evidently dived right after me, and he is gaining fast. I'm thankful this guy is so used to only having to use his physical ability, that he doens't even think to use his magic, stupid fucking vampires. I was meant to use a charm to soften my dive into the water. But now I don't have time to do that, I have to keep this fucking bat off of my tail and stay alive now, rather than worrying about possibly dying in another second.
"Fiendfyre!" I wave my wand behind me and allow a blast of the cursed fire behind me, which I can hear latch onto Lucian as he screams in anger and pain, and I ignore the heat behind me, and I manage to cast a Protego just as I hit the water.
Bang!
The sound disorients me for a second, and I am overwhelmed by confusion as blue takes over my entire view, and for a second, I stop breathing and begin to panic before realising I have the bubble neck charm on, and then I am panicking as a blood thirsty vampire is after me. Reorienting myself, I look around and find the red beam of light and start to swim after it.
But, I am not going very fast, I've never really done much swimming apart from leisurely and very few times at that. And I am not expecting that cursed fire to kill Lucian, just to slow him down for a few moments, after which he will be after me again with more vigour than ever and with his supernatural prowess, he will be on me within moments.
I don't have gillyweed like Harry will eventually have in the second task of the Triwizard Tournament, but what I do have is my wand and a somewhat passable knowledge of physics and common sense, which allows me to go faster. And I do this by pointing my wand behind me and using Ventus, the wind spell, expelling a continuous jet of wind behind me that propels me further into the depths. It's not fully controllable or accurate, so I have to moderate the amount I am using, constantly elevating and lowering the propulsion to keep me going where I want to go, and it works as I am right in the red beam, fully surrounded in red, and I have reached the bed of the water.
And there, I can see an opening, one that clearly was not there before the beam hit it, because the opening is the exact size and shape of the beam. It's like a part of hell has opened up, and demons are going to start rising up out of it, ready to kill. I actually hope they do, so they can murder the devil that's coming after me. I look around cautiously, but quickly try to see anything of note, but I only see where the rocks had come apart to make this opening. I don't have time to look around, so I quickly dive in through the opening, and then I am falling and crashing onto my hands and knees, both of them aching from the pain of the fall.
Getting back to my feet, I look up to see the film of water above me , none of it coming down into this cavernous area. Magic is so awesome, but I don't have time to focus on that right now. I take heed of my surroundings, noticing the brilliant architecture all alone and all the stone carvings and sculptures around the place, and all the scripture and writing in languages I don't understand. I bet if I were someone like Lara Croft, then I would probably be having an intellectual orgasm right now. But I'm not, and I don't give a shit about any of this, and I also have someone trying to kill me.
Seeing a gilded chest on a pedestal, which is on a raised section at the end of this cave, I know that it is my goal. I head towards the treasure, making sure to keep reaching into my pouches and throwing a bunch of shit around the area as I go, using spells and charms to make additions and setting things up like the magical Batman I am trying to be. I am Batman in this situation, not morally, but definitely physically, and Lucian D'Arcana is Superman, again, not morally, but definitely physically. And I have his kryptonite, and time to prepare. And so prepare I shall.
Stick this there, place that here and just keep layering and layering to the point this place is a death trap for everyone. Including me. As I said, there's no kill like overkill. And while this place will prove to be a deathtrap for me, it will prove to be an even bigger deathtrap to a vampire. But then again, Lucian D'Arcana isn't just any old vampire; he is the head honcho, he is in a completely different league.
So yeah, I place all of the things I have prepared into this room while I have the chance, and I make sure that I will definitely die if it all goes off, which means he probably will too. I just need to make sure he will die; I can worry about my survival as a secondary problem, as I am definitely dead if Lucian is alive.
Without further ado, I quickly moved toward the box, using a lot of detection spells as I went, but nothing triggered it, and there were no traps around. I guess with the riddle being enough of a barrier to get the heart, what is the point of having more traps?
Reaching the box, I take a quick look at it, finding nothing more than a normal small wooden chest, with nothing really fancy about it except for the fancy golden buckle on it, and now that I look closer, the engraved markings and symbols on the wood, which I assume have kept the artefact hidden all this time.
Splash!
Crash!
"Agghhh! You cretin!" I hear behind me as the water ripples and something impacts the ground behind me, and I chance a quick look to see Lucian scrambling on the ground and continually hitting himself increasingly hard to put out the Fiendfyre that is still attached to him, but every time he pats it out, it just comes back, but a little diminished.
It won't be long until he has patted it out completely, and then he is coming for me. Still, how fucking tough is this guy? He's being burned by the worst fire in the world, and he is somehow not ash; not only that, but he is punching the fuck out of it to kill it, and it is somehow working. This man- no, this monster- is terrifying.
Opening the box, I look inside, and what I find is actually fucking terrifying. It is the Lunar Heart. But it is in no way what I was actually expecting; in fact, I don't think it is what anyone ever imagined. When I imagined it and from my research on it, I was expecting a magical artefact of some kind, some sort of jewel and luxury item that would shine bright blue and have overwhelmingly bright and powerful magic that could control the sea and the moon. What is in this box is a contradiction to that in the worst way possible.
There, inside the chest, sitting in the corner, is a disgusting, dark blue, almost black pulsing thing that wriggles and writhes in the most ugly way possible. It is leaking a dark blue liquid that is almost black and seems to devour the light around it. It's so awful that I want to just close the box and never think about this again, but the screaming monster behind me proves that I need to do whatever I must in order to survive this ordeal.
And so I reach in and pick up the abnormally huge dark blue still pulsing heart that is constantly leaking black blood. Something that is so obviously dark and evil, and you're so powerful, and using it is the only way that I can live.
"Give that to me, you whelp!" Lucian screams as I turn around, and then he is in my face, one hand clawing at my face and the other reaching for the heart in my hand, and I only see it for a splitsecond. And then, the water from the ceiling has formed watery limbs and is wrapping around each of his limbs and around his neck, stopping him from murdering me, exactly one inch from me. It feels amazing to have this much power.
"You, that power belongs to me! To my family! It is my birthday!" Lucian roars, fear having no place in his body and being completely overcome by rage that I am afraid he might explode from it.
"Sure it is, buddy, and I'm using it right now to hold you down like a little bitch, aren't I?" I laugh with the most mock I can, enthusiastically revelling in the fact that I have won and he has lost. I'm sure this would be the point where, if this were a movie, people would be sitting up from the couch and shouting and pointing at the screen, telling me to kill him quickly before he escapes. But victory is supposed to be enjoyed, and I am assured of my victory.
"Cease this at once, and I won't take too long to kill you," Lucian says, the rage fading away, and all that remains is dead calm and ruthless rationale. I don't like it.
"Now, why would I do that? Hm? You are helpless, entirely vulnerable to me, and you think you will get the chance to kill me?" I ask, allowing this to play out. What could go wron- oh, fuck. I should not have said that, no, I should not have thought that.
"You don't even know what that is or its power and how to use it." He replies, looking at me like I am a worthless and unworthy pissant. "Oh, and you do, do you?" What an asshole vampire, acting like he's all knowledgeable.
"Indeed, I do. This is my birthright, one your unfit hands shouldn't dare to touch, and when I am free, I will rip your hands off for this crime." He snarls, lunging forward at me, and I stumble back as the water ripples. I quickly squeeze the heart in my hand and focus more on keeping him restrained. However, squeezing the heart stops him in his tracks anyway.
"Stop!" He roars, ceasing his wriggling and looking mighty afraid and cincerned, and with this new bit of leverage I feel much more secure. "What, this?" I question with a smile, squeezing the heart once more and triggering a downpour of the black ichor down my fingers.
"Stop! You don't know what you are doing! You are messing with something beyond your understanding and ruining the most important thing on this planet." He explains, and I let go of the heart slightly, allowing the heat to oulse and beat at its regular rhythm. It's weird that it started pumping more and writhing faster when I increased pressure on it. Or is it? I don't know much about how hearts work in general.
"Well, then, go ahead, and I might just not destroy this thing." I give him the go-ahead, and he scoffs at me, knowing I won't destroy it, as it is the only thing that is keeping him at bay. Even so, he goes ahead and starts to talk.
"The Lunar Heart, there are many rumours, but nothing is known for sure. However, during my long search that has lasted centuries for it, I have found what I believe to be the truth." He explains, now looking at the heart with fervour in his eyes.
"And your personal truth is?" I raise an eyebrow, and he acts like he hadn't even heard me.
"The heart belonged to the mother of all monsters, the moon mother, whose children are all the creatures and monsters that exist today. My clan is directly descended from the mother; our blood is kept purest, and we have been searching for her heart since that day it was cut out by Merlin and locked away to keep it from all that wanted it. It is said that she formed her children from the water of the earth and the light of the moon. Were creatures all formed from water and moonlight? I call bullshit. And this mother, yes, I am picturing a gilf and a milf, was probably just a big fucking liar.
"And with it, I will use it to rule over the entire planet. Destroying any country with a tsunami if they resist, and creating new children that are better than the pathetic excuses my broodmare spawned. And then I will-" He starts to go on a tirade, and I realise I don't actually give a shit about backstory. I want to end this whole thing and go back to England.
"Okay, bored now. Bye." I say, controlling the waters around me and making them lift me up towards the exit, and at the same time picking up all the traps I prepared and putting them right up against Lucian.
"Wait, what? Where are you going?" Lucian asks, befuddled. I don't even respond, as I use the water to force his mouth open and start shoving all of the traps down his gullet, using my water to make a shield in his stomach full of the contraptions. And then I back away as far as possible, and then I do it.
"Here you go, it's yours." I toss the heart towards him, and then I cast Protego in front of me, and I prepare for the worst. The water stops holding Lucian in place, and he drops to his feet just in time to fumble and catch the heart. He looks very confused.
"Wha-"
BOOOOOOOM!
Blood is everywhere, the cavern is flooding, and Lucian D'Arcana is dead, killed by all of the dragonblood exploding in his insides. The Lunar Heart is destroyed. Now that it's no longer in my hand, I can feel how evil it was and how it was screwing with my mind. And all I can think is...
Fuck Italy.
I'm going home.
------------------------------------
Yeah, I quickly ended this whole arc. Goodbye, Italy, goodbye all the lemons I was planning with vampire ladies and Dimetrescu lookalikes. Goodbye. Back to England.
IMPORTANT:
I am making changes. So, I am technically adding one chapter to all the tiers, not including mythic since that gets you all chapters (Which is currently 18). So Galactic is now 10, Legendary is 6, superhero is 4, and hero is 2. Well, that's in relation to every site this is on; that's not the Pat.
This is because I am making it so that one chapter ahead is free on the Pat. I think I made this more confusing than it actually is.
Upcoming Chapters:
Free: Chapter 129- Back to England.
Hero: Chapter 130- Get Him To The Three Broomsticks.
Super: Chapter 132- Have At Her!
Legendary: Chapter 134- Can't Catch A Break.
Galactic: Chapter 138- A Blink of an Eye.
Mythic: Chapter 145 - The Goat.
If you want to discuss this or any other topic further, follow the link to my Discord.
The link to everything you need and my patronage:
www.Patreon.com/dragonfield
That is all for now. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I will see you in the next one!
Stay safe, and have fun!