At this time, Zeno, Snow, Ryo, and Rex all clasped their hands together, forming different hand signs. Their eyes blazed when they all chanted their own unique incantations.
"Shadowsteel Magic: Ashen Creation!"
"Steam Magic: Ignition Haze!"
"Firebolt Magic: Sleeping Stormblaze!"
When they cast these spells all at once, a great mist began shrouding them, sparking red lightning that cracked and left cinders from their strikes on the ground, walls, and ceiling of this massive cave. And all around it, black pillars—like shields—formed all over it in the shape of something…
"And last, but most definitely not least!" Rex, the only one of us who already had an awakening, had eyes that glowed yellow brightly. His black star-shaped pupil glowed as well, contrasting the aura seeping from them as he cast the last incantation of their multicast spell. The one that connected them all,
"Trajectory Magic: Formbinding Godthread!"
Right then, his magic crossed the boundaries of what was possible, going beyond its normal state. Green threads of light emanated from his whole body, connecting to each of the black pillars that hovered around the mist of fire and lightning. When they connected, they shot inward, securing each other; the pieces clanging as if becoming scales to something greater.
A monstrous figure formed out of the concoction of their combined spells. From head to toe, to tail, it formed. Its massive dragon-like head looked downward as it slowly pulled itself up in a drawn-out way. From its seething mouth, the black pillars seemed to form jagged teeth that sparked red lightning. And then when it finally raised its head to face the Kaiju, its eyes—as if becoming activated—beamed an emerald green that trailed over its face like massive aviator shades.
It was then that the four mages chanted within the beast they created,
"Fusion Magic: Bound Colossus: Zagura!"
They chanted their Combination spell. A name entirely made up and not an official spell in the books of the Arcane. Ryo, Snow, and Rex chanted passionately with all their hearts as Zeno joined in from peer pressure, with his eyes closed, saying it under his breath.
Regardless of the fact, their colossal beast was summoned as it mimicked a black-scaled, glowing green Kaiju-like dragon that rivaled the Grade 0 Kaiju they were about to face. It roared as if it were an actual beast they summoned, shooting out plated spikes from its spine and emerald wings that glowed as red firebolt sparked from its mouth.
I hopped down from the black pillar I was sitting on and landed on the beast's shoulder, placing my hand to the side of its head, and glowered at the Kaiju in front of us.
"You guys are a bunch of kids!" I snorted. A jest intertwined with resolve.
"That's what I'm saying," Zeno responded from within the beast, as they communicated to each other almost ethereally.
"Hate all you want. When you see this baby's destructive power, all who face it will grovel in the dirt!" Rex said from the middle of them. "With the four of us. This is easily an SSS rank spell!"
It was then, the Kaiju ahead of us began charging. It swung its massive right arm down onto us, and Zagura caught it. Next was a left swing with its building of an arm, and Zagura caught that too. The gust felt like a hurricane as the titans engaged.
Then, from the inside of Zagura, the steam inside it began to swirl, mixing with the red lighting and fire from within its stomach. Zagura opened its mouth, and the sounds of clicking began to sound from it as sparks flickered from within.
And then, as if the sun had found this place, a massive beam prepared over the Kaiju. Its colors were more distinct as I saw mixtures of white and red on its beastly face and horns.
The power coursed through Zagura's body, flickering the black and green scales from itself like rippling aegis. The spikes on its back glowed, and with a power that not even this Kaiju expected, it shot down its powerful Kingdom-destroying blast.
The beam was white with a mixture of glowing red from its lightning trails, burning and shocking the Kaiju at point-blank range.
It tried to escape, but the grip on its fists held tight. The Grade 0 beast struggled as it bellowed an uneasy cry.
In a desperate attempt to save itself, the Kaiju backflipped, shooting its massive legs upward onto Zagura's chin. The motion trailed the beam upward, shattering rock and causing falling debris the size of houses upon us.
With the beam still coursing, Zeno, Snow, Ryo, and Rex all pulled together, whipping Zagura's head in a sideways motion. They each roared as they dragged the beam back onto the Kaiju.
The beam, like a slash, shot horizontally back to it as it once again got caught amidst the devastating the blast. Echoes of delayed explosions emitted from the path that the beam made as it petered out.
Still not down, the Kaiju landed on all fours, and its back began bubbling. It was like an eruption had occurred, as it grew two more massive arms, instantaneously and drastically, twice as large as its regular ones and perhaps even itself.
They resembled wings as the beast began sprinting; its steps like earthquakes with each ground-shattering stride.
Zagura waited as the Kaiju charged once again.
And then it shot forward, its arms becoming like wings as it accelerated to destructive speeds.
Still, Zagura waited. A patient beast.
As the Kaiju drew dreadfully near to the point of impact, Zagura stepped backward with its left leg and shifted its body to the side. The Kaiju flew past only a short distance before Zagura's left claw caught the Kaiju right on its snout. And with one powerful flow of motion, it adjusted its elbow upward and forced the Kaiju down.
The impact might as well have been a cataclysm as it smashed the Kaiju's head into the ground. Recoiling from the impact, and its eyes white, it quickly retaliated, spinning itself on the ground and whipping its massive, winged arm down onto Zagura from above. Zagura blocked, crossing its forearms, and the ground cratered immensely from the impact.
Zagura squatted slightly and whipped its monstrous tail, beginning to spin as well. It spun only once as its massive tail followed, striking the Kaiju from the side and sending it flying toward a wall.
The fact that this place had not yet crumbled only proved its foundation was the work of centuries upon reinforced centuries. Fitting for the mines of Lys Anima.
As the Kaiju staggered once again from the wall, it stabbed all four of its arms back and propelled itself toward Zagura. The thing was terrifyingly fast for its size, as its dash forward was enough to obliterate a defenseless Kingdom to smithereens.
When it came back, it struck Zagura on the side of the head, flying past. The Kaiju, catching itself and dragging through the ground, shot itself back and struck Zagura from behind in quick succession.
Zagura staggered as the Kaiju flew to a wall and repeated the motion, keeping on the barrage of strikes going from all over the place.
Tremors shook as we received an endless thrashing, and I had begun to think that this monster was the reason for the shifted tectonic plates above ground.
"Hey! Fuckin' focus, you idiots!" I yelled.
"Fuck off, Dweeb, you're not helping!" Snow shouted. "Literally! You're literally not helping whatsoever!"
The barrage of the Kaiju's strikes kept on, and then, when it had found another straightforward angle from the ceiling, it shot back down unforgivingly.
As it coursed through, Rex bellowed, "Do not mock…"—closer and dreadfully closer it came, and it began charging a blast from its mouth as it proceeded on its deadly path—"the power of Zagura!!"
Just as the Kaiju had come from above and was about to let loose its point-blank blast onto Zagura, Zagura merely backhanded the Kaiju's head, and its impending beam clogged within its throat.
Zagura then grabbed the beast's throat, holding it tight so as to hold its blast within itself, and slammed it back down onto the ground. The Kaiju reeled again, the beam from its mouth petering out, but Zagura held it in place as it began charging its own beam.
Once again, its scales shot out, and green aura glowed from it, the power rippling and paving a way from its entirety. Its spine roared, its wings flared, and a white aura of static red emerged from its charging mouth. This one to top the last.
Still, the Kaiju struggled as it regained its ability to move, but Zagura's grip was too strong. The beast could not escape, and it could not breathe, choking on its own swelling beam.
It was then, when Zagura was ready to unleash its powerful blast, that it released the Kaiju's throat and its beam began to come forth as well. But Zagura quickly threw its claws into the Kaiju's mouth and began ripping it open. Before its beam could come out, Zagura unleashed its devastating blast into the Kaiju's mouth, overpowering the swollen aura surge it had welled up within itself.
The blast was so powerful and because it blocked the only exit of the Kaiju's beam, the Kaiju began to expand. Larger than it was, and unable to stop, it grew at an uncontrollable rate until it had no choice but to explode from the inside-out.
The blast etched out, careening through the veins of the Kaiju as it attempted a failed roar—only choking silence met it at its end. And then light enveloped the place, so much so that the explosions coursed upward from the hole in the ceiling we came through. I even heard the beasts above cry in agony.
The smoke took a while to just barely clear from where Zagura had orchestrated its final blow. And from where the Kaiju once was, there remained only a wide splatter of its own purple blood, and its remains nowhere to be found.
Eventually, its purple blood began to fade as the silent flutters of itself got called into the air, disappearing into the echoes of time, leaving the only evidence of its existence for Zagura's red, aviator eyes.
In the battle of the Grade 0 Kaiju and the Bound Colossus Zagura, it was Zagura who emerged as the victor.
From the silence, the only sound that echoed was the sound of an inhale followed by a, "HELL YEAH!!!" from Rex.
Cheers from the four of them echoed and rang as they basked in their victory against their first Grade 0 monster. And I sat on Zagura's shoulder with propped-up legs and hands behind my head as I let the four of them bask in their win.
"Did you see when Zagura went FWOOOM and then WOOSH!?" Rex shouted from within.
"YEAH! And then he went SLAM and then BOOOM!! That shit was badass!" Snow shouted next.
Ryo laughed in the background as Zeno let out a distinct sigh, "This Fusion spell is more trouble than it's worth… I can't tell who used more mana: the four of us or Greed's brain cells as he leisurely sat out the entire match!"
"Fuck off, Zeno! You guys said you got it!" I shouted.
"We did not say, 'we got it'"—he sighed again—"but thanks for your moral support anyway."
I chuckled as we took our time and they disengaged their spells.
***
We surveyed the area for other monsters, but it seemed that Grade 0 Kaiju was the only one that lingered here. The place was a whole lot bigger without two enormous monsters occupying it.
"Well, now we know why those Grade 2 and 1 monsters up there didn't want to come down," Zeno said.
"You think they'll start to head in here with the Grade 0 out of the picture?" I asked.
"No chance." Rex said, "Grade 3 and up monsters are intelligent beasts. You really think they would be stupid enough to come down here after another more powerful beast came and defeated the Grade 0 they were all scared of? Plus, I bet they all got burned from that last blast! They're not coming anywhere near here."
"I hate to say it, but Rex is right," Zeno commented.
"No way… that fucking idiot got a compliment?" Snow said next.
"Haters gonna hate! You got balls the size of grapes!" Rex sang.
"That doesn't even rhyme you imbecile—"
"Six-seven, six-seven, BARS!"
"I'M GONNA FUCKIN' SQUASH YOU!"
We listened to their ASMR griping as we began heading over to the Zion Orb at the center of this gigantic place.
The Orb was so bright that had it not been for it, we would have been battling in pitch-black darkness. It was only because of its shining heliochrome color that we were able to see.
"So, once we retrieve this thing, how the hell are we getting out?" Rex asked.
"You see those tunnel systems there?" Zeno said, "Those lead through and out of Lys Anima, every single one of them. They were created since the first Zion Orb retrieval missions to grant easy access and exit."
"Wait, wait, wait, wait… are you telling me, we could have just used those tunnels to get here rather than go through the front gates of fucking Lys Anima? Are you telling me we didn't have to pass through that mountain ruin with the undead and Sentinel? Or fight that dragon? OR FALL DOWN NOT JUST ONE, NOT JUST TWO, BUT THREE FUCKING HOLES TO GET HERE!? ZENO!?" Rex fumed.
Zeno laughed and said, "Well, not quite… We'd have to pass through the mountain ruins either way. Lys Anima is at the center of a massive bowl of mountain structures. But if you're asking if we could have avoided the cathedral altogether, that would have been doable at the expense of a day or two just trying to find the tunnel entrances."
"YEAH BUT AT LEAST WE WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO FUCKING FALL TWO ADDITIONAL TIMES!! WHY DO YOU HATE ME!?"
Zeno shied away as Ryo chuckled in the background and added, "This was by far the quickest route. Zeno is right. We saved ourselves a day or two just by heading to the main point of entry."
Rex grumbled as Snow shook his head next to him. "Fuck it. We're already here," he said as we neared the Zion Orb at last.
Ryo took out a special item from his magic pouch and tossed it to Snow. It was a fairly large cylindrical-shaped item that could be worn like a backpack once it had stored its desired item.
"Because there was nothing in that, I was able to store it in my pouch, but once you put the Zion Orb in there, it has to be carried as is. My pouch would explode if we put it back with the Zion Orb in it," Ryo said.
"And I think I'm quite done with explosions for the rest of the day…" Zeno added. "When we get back, I taking a vacation at the hot springs. Who wants to join?"
"Oh, oh! Me! Me!" Rex replied.
"I'll take you up on that!" I said after.
Snow clicked his tongue as he headed for the Zion Orb ahead of us. "Hot springs at the Shark's Den are twice the quality than those shoddy springs. We're better off lounging there."
"Are you saying I can vacation at the Shark's Den for a whole week when we get back, Snow?" Zeno inquired.
"If you don't mind coughing up some dough! Jecht is strict on extended visitor's stay! Hehe!"
"Greed, I'm starting to think you and Snow need to switch names… I'm still recovering from that bet Rex and I lost…"
"Keeper, don't remind me!" Rex chimed. "We are getting shit-faced drunk when we get back, you hear! Heard the tabs in Greed's name!"
"Shut up, Rex."
"Aye, that it is!" Ryo confirmed.
"Wait… for real…?"
"Free drinks on Greed! Free drinks on Greed! Yahoo!"
Snow opened the bag, and with one swoop, the Zion Orb disappeared, stored successfully within it. "Mission successful," he said.
Right then, blue veins began to glow from where he had taken the Zion Orb, lighting the place up dimly from it. It wasn't as bright as when the Zion Orb was there, but at least we could still see. And the blue veins seemed to trail out into different directions toward the tunnels.
Snow turned back to us and held a thumbs-up with a cheerful smile on his face.
But that's when a figure appeared behind him…
"Thanks for paving the way for me," the figure said as we all reacted way too slowly.
Snow looked back in horror as this unknown male had suddenly appeared without him noticing—without any of us noticing.
He grabbed the bag and threw a swift spin kick to Snow, sending him flying somewhere within this massive cave.
"Snow!" I yelled as my head whipped back to the mysterious male in front of us now.
"Nothing personal, but…" He said with a brutal, solemn look on his face as he gently placed the bag over his shoulder.
"I'll be taking this."