Chapter Text
A massive inferno tore through the air, catching the wind and piercing anything in its path, hurtling towards its target. Yet, the target didn't look frightened, she looked.. excited. Raising her mirror in front of her just in time as the fireball was swallowed into her mirror, absorbing into the glass with a violent recoil, causing her to jolt back a step. Steadying her composure, cheeks flushed bright pink, her face twisted into something grotesquely delighted.
"So.. Yummy..!"
Fire Spirit was growing awfully exhausted, minute after minute, his life energy bled from him. How can such a little cookie tire THE very incarnation of flame!? The young cookie, Agar Agar, held up her mirror, gripping it gently, as if she had no care in the world. As if this were nothing more than a game. Her slimy fingers gently tap the mirror, as if growing impatient. What emerged was ice, with piercing, jagged icicles streaking through the air. One grazed Fire Spirit's right arm before it exploded on impact against the rocks below, frost spreading rapidly among the surrounding areas as towering ice spikes erupted from the ground. He darted around her, hurling whatever power he could while weaving between the ice.
"Stupid—" he shouted, using his staff as a blade, shattering an icicle midair. "—Fucking ice!!" Even as he fought, despite all the screaming and destruction, he couldn't help but wonder how Frost Queen managed to avoid this frail cookie, how she didn't get her life energy completely taken from her.
This was his turf she was messing around with. Who does this weird cookie think she is? Behaving like a goddamn invasive species— disrupting the mines, disrupting everyone. He couldn't imagine the stark contrast the valley has gone through in the past few hours. Just yesterday, Fire Spirit mourned the lack of real action. Now, here he was, fighting this— Annoying fucking cookie!!
He had enough; her vibrant crimson eyes and smile creepy enough to kill a sugar gnome irked him to no end. He soared towards Agar Agar, staff raised to crush into any ice magic that spurted out of that life-sucking device. Icicles flying his way, ice shattering on impact. Agar Agar tilted her mirror towards him, relinquishing multiple spikes at a time. Once his staff struck, it instantaneously expanded around the guardian, encasing him in a frozen cocoon.
Fire Spirit's eyes pulsated, heat flaring in defiance. He could see the slimy hair of the weird cookie as she leaped in joy. Finally, she could fulfill her hunger!
Cold seeped into the warmest of the guardian's skin died out as he conjured up heat in his arms, straining it— a burst of flames shattered the ice on impact, allowing Fire Spirit to escape the frozen endeavor. Warming up his body, he charged up one of his most powerful waves of fire, aiming it at her. Despite the meteorite heading her way, she gulped as the hot winds blew towards her. Yet, she trusted the mirror would protect her. Arms shaking, she weakly raised her mirror, absorbing the flames as they hurled towards her, pushing back her arms as the fireball was completely gone.
Agar Agar grew irritated; despite the flames she absorbed, she believed that if Fire Spirit didn't retaliate, her limitless hunger could be satisfied. Her gaze snapped to his arm, and her smile that had been kept on her face all this time grew wider. Just then, as Frost Queen's icicles shot at him, getting ready to shatter them, his arm felt numb as pain tingled through his arm. Leaving him vulnerable as the icicles pierced into his left arm. "Ah— FUCK!"
Without realizing it, the small, insignificant graze on his right arm when Agar Agar first shot out the icicles, it expanded across his body. It had now covered half of his shoulder and arm, and was actively spreading towards his chest. He had been so distracted by the icicles flying his way, the adrenaline rush and action that he didn't even feel it spread.
You have got to be kidding me.
Agar Agar laughed as more jagged, giant icicles shot out of the mirror, scattering across Fire Spirit's body. Not enough to kill the poor Fire Guardian, but enough to leave him vulnerable and injured. His body ached as he fell from high cliffs, losing the strength to fly. Falling, he banged his head against a rock, ricocheting him on the side of ice spikes formed from the mirror.
Fucking Frost Queen.
Along with the burning pain the new icicles caused, the once small graze on his arm caused him to drastically lose his body heat, cold moving in as heat succumbs to the pain. Every moment the mirror absorbed his power, Fire Spirit could have sworn his body temperature dropped a little. Desperately grabbing the soil, trying to regain his stature, as his arms trembled. Agar walked up to the guardian, now on the ground, and placed her mirror directly onto Fire Spirit's back. He shoved it out of his face, desperately raising his body temperature. The icicles pierced on his chest melted off, sizzling on contact with his skin. More aware of his body, the drip of blood was evident as he tried to dodge Agar Agar's attacks— or Frost Queen's.
Not until the ice pinned his wrist and legs down, preventing him from using the surrounding ice spikes to his advantage. Agar Agar quickly, before Fire Spirit had the chance to break free, held forward the mirror, directly touching his chest. He felt his stomach crawling to his mouth. The mirror, cursed with a spell Pomegranate placed on it, conjured up enough power to suck Fire Spirit's life energy. His life force was ripped from him in violent waves. More than ever before.
"You— slimy piece of shit!!"
"Oh.. Delicious..!" Desperate for more, she shoved the mirror deeper against a once embedded icicle. With his chest wounds being deep, it sent agony throughout his body, allowing more blood to gush out. "ARHHH..!"
"DELICIOUS..!!" Fire Spirit could physically feel himself getting weaker, losing his heat, his flames, and his blood. The adrenaline rush was starting to die down, allowing him to be aware of each wound he suffered.
Once again, the pain was revolting as the mirror pitched Fire Spirit's skin, making him mentally fight to not lose consciousness.
MY TURF! MY— TURF..! I.. I will… defen… it..
Only then did his vision sink into darkness.
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"..Pome..gra… Did. I… Good.. Jo.."
Cold bit his back. Huh? Metal?
He struggled against ropes binding his wrist and figured he was bound to the chair. His staff was wedged between the ropes and the chair, his back still touching it. Gradually regaining consciousness, his eyes flickered towards a red blob. No.. A red figure.
"Yes, my dear." Pomegranate smiled. "You did wonderfully. Excellent job.
Fire spirit blinked several times, his vision sharpening as the figure came into full view.
"Hey." He spat. He couldn't believe this was happening. The guardian wanted a real fight. Not one where they hid behind a mirror. He wanted to unbind his hands— these ropes were abnormally tight around his wrists. Do they know how to bind someone's hands properly?!? His wounds were still deep, but at least the ice from those fuckass shards melted. Yet, the ice that spread to half of his body was not nearly as melted. Fire Spirit popped a forehead vein.
Why hasn't this fucking ice melted yet?! I live in the Dragon's Valley for God's sake!!
He fumbled against the chair, ropes digging into his skin. He wanted to stop this utter humiliation ritual.
The two, Pomegranate and Agar Agar, turned to face him. Agar Agar wore that unsettling, disgusting smile as she stepped closer. Her eyes flicked to Pomegranate's, seemingly asking permission. Pomegranate smiled, wanting to see the true effects of the mirror she provided Agar with.
"Go on." Pomegranate insisted. "You deserve a little treat."
"No—" Fire Spirit wrestled against the ropes. "—Stop it." Panic surged through him; any more life energy taken could possibly mean death. He had already faced death once; he was not looking for a second. His heat had already been significantly lowered— his flames reduced in saturation and vibrancy. Even his hair and skin had begun to lose their glow. Agar Agar lifted the cursed mirror.
Is this how it ends? The Fire Guardian, reduced to desperation and weakness?
He wondered what Wind Archer would think of him.
Agar Agar pressed the mirror against his chest, his heart pounded violently as sweat covered his palms. The energy in the mirror was surging through him— traveling throughout his veins, his blood, merging itself with his flame before being ripped away entirely. Absorbing all the life out of him. Fire Spirit was used to the heat, living in the Dragon's Valley, yet this burn was unlike anything he had known.
"ARGHH—! AHH!" It felt as if his chest were forcefully torn open, ripping out his individual organs, one by one. He couldn't hear anything, just the loud pounding of his heart. The burning sensation, the heat in his veins, the flame that made him Fire Spirit— his very being— was yanked from within and devoured by the mirror. He briefly got a glimpse of the red cookie in front of his face as she turned into some abstract, geometric art. Then she became blobs of color. Then nothing.
His flame. His livelihood. Gone.
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Agar Agar sighed in bliss, relief gaining over her limitless hunger. "So.. tasty." She murmured.
She wanted this feeling to last. Forever.
"I.. I WANT MOR—" Pomegranate's sharp hands seized Agar Agar's wrist, pulling her back.
"Now, now, Agar.." Scrutinizing the fire guardian. She watched as his head flopped to the side, hair no longer burning. A clear indicator of the weakened state he'd succumbed to. She no longer saw the Legendary Guardian of Fire. All that remained was a dull, ashen, crumpled cookie.
"How.. Peculiar.." Her face twitched into a smile, amused.
"Master will be delighted."
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"Why do I have to transport him to our headquarters?" Licorice shouted. "Isn't he— like, y'know? Dead already?"
He pushed Fire Spirit's head around, his hair turned to.. ash. No heat radiating off of him. Licorice brushed off the ridiculous amount of ash from his hands, turning to look at Pomegranate. He absolutely despises her. Who does she think she is, making him do unnecessary work!
"He isn't dead, I checked his pulse." She countered, "Just severely weakened. I'll just heal him up once we reach headquarters."
Pomegranate glanced at Agar Agar. "We need him to be Agar Agar's food supply."
She is an excellent asset to fulfilling Master's grand plan. The stronger she becomes, the better.
"Which is why you—" She pointed in Licorice's face, "—for once in your sad, pathetic life— are the only one here who can transport him." She rammed her fingers into his grim-looking scythe, the tool he uses to conjure up his servants. Licorice rolled his starkly yellow eyes.
"Unless you suggest we carry him on our backs?" She hissed, turning her back away from him. Licorice only huffed in response, fighting the urge to just.. kick her.. or something.
"Summon those servants to do your bidding." Her head angled to catch Licorice's gaze.
You order us around more than Dark Enchantress does.
"Be useful for our dear Master for once, would you?"
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Performing his spell, a giant licorice servant forms from a swing of his scythe. Ready to head back home, the minion lifts the ashen guardian, swinging him over one shoulder, as the small group— Pomegranate, Agar Agar, and Licorice— walks towards their headquarters.
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Wind Archer arrives at the entrance of the Dragon's Valley, not wasting a single moment as he heads to where the fire guardian resides. Looking around what seemed to be a battlefield. He was only met with.. No heat. No flare. No presence.
The valley was.. Quiet..
Too quiet for the fire.