"Lucia... did I just see a flash of lightning over there?"
She turned her head as Hiro pointed to the south. There were two distinct shapes racing toward the tower, apparently hurling fire and thunder at each other.
The snow fall lessened a bit as the two things started darting in another direction. They soon became discernable. One appeared to be ... a dragon skeleton with a pair of humanoids on its back. Hiro was wide-eyed as he watched its head turn and look back through empty eye sockets at the other racing shape. The apparent 'chaser' was a small green dragon, barely bigger than a human, with another humanoid on its back and a bunch of other little animals circling it.
"Do you see the blade, Lucia?"
She shook her head.
"Any of them could be carrying it... but something feels familiar about them..."
Hiro looked again and watched a ball of green flame be deflected by the chasing dragon's rider.
"Should we be worried that they're headed this way?"
Lucia stared at Hiro for a second and uttered a few words.
"Remember the Guardian statues at the Blue Spire?"
Alisia ducked again and returned more electricity to the undead Wyrm. The blast knocked off part of its bony tail and the abomination descended rapidly toward the rushing ground.
The wizards on its back braced themselves when they saw Boomer's 'rangs dig deep into the creature's skeletal left wing. They didn't see the wall of the spire rushing up to meet them.
SLAM!!!
When the dust cleared, the Blade Wizards saw a gaping hole in the side of the crystal tower. Apparently, the magical energy that had kept the Screech Wyrm together had violently exploded when it impacted the wall. All that was left of the beast were a bunch of scattered bones.
The twins looked back and saw Alisia just landing several yards away. They picked themselves up and dashed for the opening as another bolt hit the ground nearby.
Alisia and her seven allies hesitated for a second before proceeding. Frye looked up to see just how tall the tower was. Alisia made a motion with her hand and they ran inside.
Inside, she found an amazing sight. The Blade Wizards stood motionless in the center of the huge chamber as a loud roar echoed in the air. Alisia skidded to a halt... then fell over as Boomer and the water drakes slammed into her from the back.
"Hey! Watch where you're going," Alisia spoke as she picked herself up. The roar was emitted again and she noticed that the chamber was full of life-like statues... so realisitic looking that she thought one moved...
...in fact, there were similar statues on both sides of the room. They had snake-like tails with a humanoid upper torso. Each wore a huge helmet from which stared two red orbs. A cruel looking mace was in each sculpture's left hand. And they were all moving towards her...
One of the Blade Wizards suddenly shook as if an earthquake hit. He looked down at the sword in his hand and muttered quickly to his brother.
Both vanished and reappeared at the other end of the room. With a laugh, the twins dashed through the portal at the far end of the room.
Two of the ten active statues slithered after them, but eight were staring at Alisia and her friends.
"Uh... I think we shouldn't have entered this place," Alisia muttered and backed up several steps as three Guardian Statues advanced on her party.
One began to swing its mace rapidly. Thundra flew into its face and started clawing. Frye belched a stream of flame at the thing's mace arm. The Guardian roared and waved its burning arm frantically in the air.
Alisia, Whisp and one aquatic drake faced off against the second attacker. Alisia kept her thunder magic locked on to the beast's face as her two companions applied their respective elements to its back. The Guardian did not get a chance to fight back.
Boomer and the remaining water serpents were busy evading the mace strikes of the last statue.
Suddenly, the third Guardian dropped to the floor with the first one's mace imbedded in its jaw. Apparently, it let its weapon go flying while it tried to wave off Frye's fire.
The boomerang-carrying lizard sighed and watched Thundra finally put down the first Guardian with a burst of lightning between its eyes. The room shook as it collapsed to the floor.
Alisia finished off the remaining Guardian with the help of her companions. The seven of them regrouped near the opening to the outside...but found one of the remaining five Guardians blocking the way out. She glanced around to see the other quartet surrounding them, all with their maces spinning rapidly.
The thunder magician looked shocked for a second, then grinned mischievously.
"I see its time to break out the medium-strength spells."
Her seven animal friends cowered as Alisia began to concentrate. Energy surged around her hands as her muscles tensed up.
"ROLLING BOLT!"
Electricity surged forth from her outstretched hands and moved in a full circle around Alisia Dragoon. The channeled energy collided with all the remaining Guardians and each writhed in pain.
Alisia clapped her hands together as the spell ended. Ten seconds later, the electricity stopped surging in the bodies of the former statues and they collapsed, still smoking.
Hearing a roar ahead, she dashed toward the next room.
Hiro rushed inside when the last roar was emitted. Lucia was still outside, watching to see if anyone left through the new 'window' that the spire now had.
He had a look of dread on his face as he looked down the long chasm in the middle of the spire. A spiral stairway encircled the empty space in the center of the tower which extended all the way to the bottom.
Hiro wondered if the Guardian statues were successful in their defense of the lower floors of the spire. He looked up to see a crystalline device seemingly floating at the pinnacle's top. This was the same 'machine' that had been responsable for teleporting Lucia to and from the Blue Spire back on Lunar. It worked both ways, but a second way 'in' to the crystal spire was from the same device in the Star Dragon's Tower.
Hiro snickered for a second as he remembered materializing into the spire and plummeting several feet before landing directly on top of Lucia's 'sleeping crystal'. That was weeks ago, yet Hiro still remembered the surprised look Lucia had when he hung upside down knocking on the glassy surface.
He snapped back to reality and waited to see if anything came up the stairs.
Whisp saw one Guardian studded with blade shafts. The other was literally halved and emitting a purple fluid onto the floor of the tower.
"There they go," Alisia yelled as she saw the twins levitating quickly through the air above her. As she saw the latter corpse, she wondered aloud.
"That blade could do that to one of these creatures? It must be one strong sword."
The girl leapt on Frye's back again and began ascending the spire, creatures in tow again.
Halfway up, the evil mages above began to shower her with blades. The green dragon darted to the sides to dodge and returned fire.
"Who the-"
Hiro ducked as one of the Blade Wizards cast a volley of needle-like objects in his direction.
"Hmm... another would-be-hero... there's the device," one muttered to the other.
The latter nodded and remarked, "Yes, let's get out of here now."
The two mages dove into the crystal device after pointing the black sword at it. The transporter immediately began spinning rapidly and started to shimmer.
"No!"
Hiro yelled as he pulled out his boomerang.
Suddenly, Alisia and co. zoomed into the visible area. The girl looked momentarily at Hiro, but then kicked Frye on toward the rotating crystal. Her six other companions followed the two of them into the device as the room started to shine with white light.
Lucia burst into the pinnacle as she saw Hiro finish throwing his Cross Boomerang spell at the twin mages.
She cried out, "Hiro! Don't hit the crystal!"
It was too late. The spinning weapon slammed into the device, missing the Blade Wizards by quite a lot.
With a burst of energy, the crystal changed from green to red and spun in the other direction. Alisia screamed inside it.
The room filled with blinding light and an ear-splitting whine.
And then it was over...
Hiro looked up to see the crystal now pale green in color and no longer moving. No one was inside it.
Lucia hurried over and floated underneath the crystal, looking at one corner of it.
"Hiro... it activated, so they are on the way to Lunar... but your attack has thrown them off course... they could land ANYWHERE on the surface... and they had the Dark Scimitar with them..."
She sighed.
"Also, we can't follow them right away... the crystal needs time to repair itself from your damage."
Hiro mumbled an apology and returned the boomerang to his belt.
"If that sword awakes fully...it could be disastrous for the people of Lunar..."