Clandra-ζ is indeed an alien weapon dating back to five thousand years ago before the Dark Ages, but unlike its alien brethren, it was not used in the battles in which its race participated. He remained asleep throughout this period and by a forced landing of his team on Fayiera Terra. He doesn't know himself if they crossed the sea of clouds of darkness or when it was the post-merger of worlds. Nevertheless, what he does know is that he found himself ejected from the ship and crashed in an inhospitable place before falling into a coma, alone and without any help for many, many years, asleep for centuries, even millennia until a fairy troop belonging to the kingdom of Sylvania found him. This troop was led by one of the ancestors of the family of its current owner: Jigalénélia Wazeri.
For centuries he has served the Sylvian nation without rest, without reward and without consideration for his ability to emit emotions even though he is a weapon. And he never complained about it, he always considered it as an inalienable duty to his new owners. After all, wasn't it the destiny of a club to smash the skulls of others, of a sword to slice the bodies of its enemies, of an arrow to pierce the eye of the manants facing us, of a bullet to pierce the enemies of the bearer of the weapon, of a laser or plasma gun to reduce to ashes or gelled liquid the creatures that attack its owner? Is it thanked when it does its job as it should, or when it saves its owner's life? Do we take care of its well-being - gun fanatics don't count - if not to stop it from going berserk when the time is right? Do we mourn it when it has reached obsolescence?
To all this Clandra-ζ would answer you, "No!" with aplomb.
So he didn't see why anyone cared about this fairie-terran weapon? It was only useful to save the planet from the threat that overhangs the whole world. Besides, wasn't the queen in this situation before?
He had no real animosity towards this human. Why should he? It was not his job to think. It was his masters' job to think for him. He was less than a soldier. His masters demanded that he make him lose so they could take the wingless princess and kill her with impunity for the sake of the resurrection of their beloved dead queen killed by the traitor.
Nevertheless, he felt a certain animosity towards this boy who thought he was above him, thinking that he could have a say. To see him waddle around like a normal creature when he was only a tool of his owner, whether it was fate, Queen Audiselia or the Fairy-With-No-Name-And-Without-Wings.
A weapon has no emotions, a weapon has no opinion, a weapon must only perform its duty. And Clandra-ζ's was to kill him or at least defeat him.
He reconstructed his parts burned by the Hero as he came out of the wall where he had been pushed.
In anticipation of the terrible damage that the audience could endure, the mages made transparent magical shields so that the spectators could witness the fight while being protected. Of course, these shields were much more powerful than the ones Jacob had created, but at the same time, several mages were called upon to make them.
With his back slumped back, the Hero stretched and straightened up as he regenerated before wiping his face to see clearly.
No fool, Clandra-ζ shrank his upper body because being so large, with the Hero's striking power, made him as visible as an orc among dwarves, but he kept the bottom at the same size to still take advantage of his huge roots. He created mini cannons on all the roots to shoot the Hero, he wasn't about to take any heat from the one who was supposed to save the world from an even bigger threat than a mere Treeman-ζ.
However, the Hero had foreseen this, that's why he didn't go to the hospital to redo his seal: this time he was going to use the curse he was carrying.
The curse he got on the Empty Mountain consisted of one condition: in exchange for an exponential, he had to become exponentially monstrous. In short, the more monstrous he became in the eyes of others, the stronger he became. That's why, despite the fact that he carries the seal preventing the curse from acting, he had maintained his stain all over his body and that he had kept his uncommon strength, that's why he had fun to maintain the fear among the inhabitants of Sylvania, that he let his name be soiled, that he accepted to perpetrate the worst atrocities... because all that will lead him to become strong enough to occire the Nemesis Prime and his minions. And the curse was not only accumulating the disgust of those who witnessed the Hero's atrocities or the Hero himself, it was able to make him even more awful on its own.
And against Clandra-ζ, that was what he planned to do.
The blades of the glove returned to their original places, then his shoulders dislocated, leaving his arms dangling, then he threw himself to the ground, letting them re-engage, which happened with his legs in a way that made him look like a wild beast, a feline. A creeper tried to shoot him but he dodged it and started to run in the manner of a jaguar as fast as possible, he tried a new propulsion by reducing the power of his gloves and managed to have a good conduct spinning all around the interior of the arena dodging the shots of Clandra-ζ.
The spectators expressed deep disgust at seeing such a procedure used, it was obvious that it was unnatural for the Hero's body and hearing his bones being broken to rearrange themselves in a different way than they should be made many vomit. The only one excited by this vision was Lucello who was expressing the scene with admiration.
I can't believe it," he said in a daze, "he went that far to get even stronger? You amaze me, kid!
After three rounds around the arena, the Hero found a gap between the light warning shots and ran into it and scratched Clandra-ζ, before running away again, but this was ineffective, he reconstituted himself as easily as the Hero and without a backlash. Clandra-ζ threw his roots after him, which forced the Hero to rise and run on the protective shields. Clandra-ζ raised her chest to the same height as the Hero and continued her volley of fire.
If his head is not his weak point, he must be one of those beings with a core, the Hero thought, so I just have to find him.
The Hero knew that running like this would tire him out more than anything else, especially since using the curse was taxing his body as much as using Ymir. He had to find a way to fight this creature, or at least, for the time being, make it return to its original size.
He didn't trust these abilities to use the Fanalis Claws to their full potential, but he owed it to himself to try, he hadn't done all those tests in vain. So, he began to fly again and, with the greatest difficulty not to stagger off course, he aimed, not at Clandra-ζ, but at her roots. He intended to ignite them so that the flames would reach him and they would fight at human size. He executed his plan and as he had planned, the flames took on his roots, but the shots accelerated and one of his shots hit the Hero's left flank which caused him to collapse on the barrier before sliding all the way to the ground, leaving a trail of blood on the barrier and falling next to the arena walls, near the burning roots.
The Fairy didn't dare to say anything, to do anything, she hardly breathed. She had already seen him in much worse situations and with less power than now, and yet she could not help but fear for him. This was in total contradiction with the attitude of Lucello who was exalted by this confrontation, he didn't need Tadzi's comments, to see the Hero struggling like a beautiful devil because of his guilt of not having been able to protect his friend as he had not been able to protect all those innocent people during his journey, made him, internally, madly hysterical and ecstatic.
Mananélia remained stoic in front of the Hero's fight. As with her champion, she did not need to hope for his victory because he had to win.
Clandra-ζ did not dare to approach the Hero because of the brew that was being created in front of him, he broke the roots reached and threw himself out of the circle of flames that would trap him. He had to acknowledge the ingenuity of the Hero, but he too had more than one trick up his sleeve.
The Hero was holding his flank hit by the Treeman-ζ's shot, he was tapping on it to extinguish the burn but it wasn't enough, with such a wound he wasn't going to be able to continue the fight. The only way for him to continue and regenerate but will it be enough to extinguish the burns that are spreading along his flesh. He would have to worry about that later because if he wanted to avenge Jacob and make his princess win, he had to do as he said: "go beyond his limits"!
In such desperate conditions, he took a deep breath and regenerated, what can be done and got back on all fours. As Clandra-ζ approached the Hero, the Hero came to him at a run. Clandra-ζ shot at him with her arms that had become cannons and the Hero dodged them by speeding up and climbing up and down the wall and as he was about to reach Clandra-ζ, the Treeman-ζ pulled out of the sands a rock, which he had broken by burying its roots in the ground, to stop the Hero's run, which worked as he crashed into it. Clandra-ζ took the opportunity to pull himself up by extending his roots from the ground and aimed at the Hero.
- End of the game, the weapon will be Terran.
The Hero had no escape except for the pile of burning roots in front of him. He dodged the shots of the leafy alien and took refuge under its roots.
This cockroach is really as elusive as an oil-filled slug!
However, no moment of respite, with his roots, Clandra-ζ lifted yet more pieces of rock below the Hero. Not knowing where he was precisely, he lifted them from the ground, making them cross the roots that lay on the ground, hoping to find the Hero. The human, having had enough time to get closer, crouching, to one of the blocks of stone, took the opportunity to hide behind one of these rocky masses that hid the view of the Treeman to climb on one of them. But it was for a short while, since the alien humanoid tree spotted him just a few seconds later. Clandra-ζ threw rocks at him to disrupt his run, unfortunately for Clandra-ζ, thanks to the documentaries watched and training with the Fairy, the Hero had acquired a good enough agility to be able to dodge them in the air and destroy them with his claws. Then once high enough, he restored the circular form to his blades, propelled himself into the air and restored himself to human form.
- What the hell are you doing? You think you can escape me in the air?
The Treeman-ζ fired a burst of light rays at him with larger bark cannons that the Hero dodged as best he could.
If I remember correctly, when he is in the most difficulty, he will reveal his weak point to project his most powerful ray... I beg you Lord, make the books that Helmir brought me right or I am finished.
And as hoped by the Hero, Clandra-ζ revealed her weak spot by opening her chest, a ball similar to the one the queen has above her chest in ten times bigger resided there. However, a concentrate of energy began to lodge there.
The Hero rose even higher into the air, Tadzi reminded him of the rules about beings capable of flight, but the Hero was focused on his goal to dwell on the time limit in the air. Once high in the sky, he could no longer distinguish the audience - he already could not distinguish them when he was on the ground.
He breathed in and out at long intervals. How long had it been since he had been afraid? Was she really worth it? Risking all this for a selfish wish? It is true that he is immortal since nothing but the Nemesis can kill him. Even if he is reduced to plasma mush, to ashes, to nothingness, he will always regenerate, and from what little he could understand of the Heroic Will, the few times he managed to capture it, it was that he was the possessor of the most powerful regenerative factor among his predecessors - he could only agree with this given his mother's battle with the Nemesis. Still, that didn't stop him from being afraid; despite the power of his regenerative factor, it is defiant. Surely he would have to go back to the hospital to have his skeleton put back together properly or else he would end up hunchbacked or worse - he was already not very good looking, he didn't need to make that worse. How many times did he end up in clandestine hospitals where Asteron had to pay astronomical sums for his care - but mostly his anonymity? The six bars followed by giant screws in his body were used to hold his skeleton in place, the strength of the curse, the one provided by the hero's inheritance and the one provided by Ymir meant that they weren't enough and had to be put back in place.
However, he knew that to get this far - and this high - he couldn't back down. Not now, not after swearing that he would be the one to get the Fairy her wings, not after vowing to avenge Jacob.
It was risky, but he had to do it. Otherwise, all his efforts during that month would have been in vain.
A month ago, after the outing with Helmir, the Hero went to the blacksmith Fokatino, without saying a word, he took out a purse full of crowns and left to take the weapon he had tested when he came with the Fairy.
- What's wrong with you?" the blacksmith asked him as he followed him into his back room.
The Hero searched all the crates for the object of his desire for revenge, but he could not find the remaining technomagic weapon.
The blacksmith grabbed him by the arm and made him sit down.
- Don't you think you could explain yourself instead of searching like you're doing a guard check.
- I need your stuff here to face my future opponent.
- An old technomagic weapon skeleton with wires? You're kidding, boy. You'll just get tangled up and strangled with it.
- But I need it. Magic boosts don't work on me, so I need something that makes me faster and I can't use human technology, so this is my only hope.
- And what do you plan to do with the iron circles?
- Make them into thrusters. I mean, I want you to make thrusters because I don't know anything about technomagic, and I'm not good enough at engineering to make normal thrusters...
- Do you know how much work and magical knowledge it takes to make such an object?
- No, I don't know and I don't care. What I do know is that I need your help, I don't know how much it costs, but I'm giving you all the money my victories in the arena have brought me.
The dwarf was wary, he had seen the inability of this human child to use this weapon, and yet he had run to his house to have him make a weapon that would allow him to defeat your opponent. He finally sighed and walked to the middle of the room. With his back to the Hero, he asked him:
- I'm not going to lecture you on how the sword does not make the warrior. You're a seasoned fighter who's seen countless battles in your short human life, but I think you're overestimating your learning abilities, kid.
- If I don't accelerate my learning speed to acquire more strength and knowledge of martial arts and weapons, how do you think I could beat the Nemesis?
- It's been on Earth for five thousand years, right?
- Yeah...
- So people can wait a few more years. There's no real hurry. If he wanted to destroy the Earth so that there's not a living soul, we wouldn't be here to talk about it, unless he's such a big incompetent.
- It's true," conceded the Hero.
The dwarf stretched his hand over the ground and a circle appeared as quickly as it disappeared, then a secret entrance appeared leading to a hidden basement.
- What is this?
- My forge. The lion king's. Follow me.
The Hero got up and followed him downstairs, the room seemed to be as big as the storeroom above but in height it was much bigger. Fokatino went to a corner of the basement and took out the object that the Hero was looking for so much but modified.
- I initiated some reverse engineering to see what it might look like so you're lucky, by a stroke of luck, I got ahead of your project.
Could this be another stroke of fate? the Hero wondered.
- I may not be qualified as an Antique Blacksmith, nor do I have the science to make technomagic, but I am still capable of restructuring this weapon and even improving it to your liking. However, you will have to learn about the style of combat you will adopt with this new weapon, learn how to handle it and learn how to surprise your enemy with it. Do you understand, the little black being?
- Okay, I get it. But you know that if you weren't a dwarf who has no anthropological knowledge of humans I would have lit you up?
- There is a part of your sentence that I didn't understand at all.
- Never mind. I really didn't want to know complicated words in Oli'Ane.
And it is after these warnings on various subjects that the Hero launched into extensive research on technological weapons, thrusters like the androids created by Dr. Gear-O used, figure skating... but he realized that with the abilities of his opponent, this was a bad idea and instead looked into animal documentaries and Fokatino's knowledge of those animals he loves so much: the felines.
Thinking about this helped him regain confidence in his abilities and be ready to take on the battle again.
Once he calmed down, he turned toward the arena and prepared to initiate his fall with a prayer and then lunged against the Treeman-ζ. Clandra-ζ had finished charging her most powerful and destructive attack. It was said that it could rival Queen Audiselia's electric charge beam that had leveled the middle of a city had punctured a mountain - rumors, rumors... He continued to cannonade the Hero to distract him long enough that he didn't notice that he was trying to put him in the path of his attack.
- You dark fool. Playing dumb won't get you anything, hero. Get out of my sight.
A tinkle as clear as a small bell at the entrance of the house vibrated in the air and wide beam of light came out of Clandra-ζ's chest, the Hero had no time to dodge and took it head on. The ray was so fast and the attack so unexpected that no one had the reflex to create a barrier between the sky and the ray, and it crossed the bright sky of Sylvania and reached the clouds of darkness. But Clandra-ζ did not stop there, he continued to increase the power of his shot to well reduce to dust his opponent, vaporize him completely, under the appalled gaze of his damsel.
- I don't think he can get out of it easily this time," Lucello said with a blank look to the Fairy.
And as he spoke these words, a piece of burnt and glowing flesh landed on the ground. The Fairy burst into tears, it was all over, the Hero had been pulverized. He would be reconstituted but where? When? Was he even aware of his condition? This was followed by an arm that was in the same state as the piece of flesh.
- Why did he have to take Beneltig's place?" lamented the Fairy, "he would have given up!
Whether it was in the Nether, in Upper Town or at the Sanctuary, whether it was on the radio or on a screen at home or on a giant screen, everyone witnessed the vaporization of the Hero. The parents hid this sad spectacle from their children, the relatives of the Hero could only watch helplessly as the power of the boy was unleashed, and the parents of the Fairy could not even imagine the distress their daughter was in. Only Jigalénélia and her followers rejoiced at the defeat of the Hero, the ambassadors and the foreign kings noted the efficiency of the weapon of the Wazeri family, they wondered if she was the one who succeeded the queen, would her family provide them with such efficient weapons of destruction?
It was also at this moment that the queen of Audiselia and her Saints, she completely ignored her guests and went to the railing in front of her balcony leading to the arena. She was able to witness the fall of the Hero's left arm which was in the same state as the piece of flesh.
- I can't believe it..., she mumbled, he lost?
Sawyer approached the queen and said:
- Selia, you know the saying, "Twice Hugari has checked the shadow of the nestari," so wait. The Man I trained can't be beaten so easily after facing the queen of this place. I did not train such a weakling.
In the middle of the jet of light, a growth was born and increased the volume of the shot, then a spiral grew inside the shot before speeding towards Clandra-ζ, an arm came out of the beam of light and spun in the direction of the nascent spiral. It was the Hero who had put all the power of the magical fire crystals he had used as fuel to power the Fanalis Claws. Taken by surprise, Clandra-ζ had no time to react and find a counterattack, he was swept away by the force of the Hero's strike and inertia, torn from his roots and found himself tackled to the ground, the claws of the Hero tried to penetrate the core of Clandra-ζ but broke on contact with it, only the metal glove of the claw remained, which came into contact with the core and managed, thanks to the strength of the Hero and his inertia and cracked it.
- Unfortunately for them and for you, to think so easily of the death of someone as tenacious as me, the hero of the nameless legend, was very stupid. A man destined to face the sworn enemy of the inhabitants of Fayiera Terra cannot die in front of a relic of the past like you, especially when he is the son of Elena and... Audiselia.
Everyone, whether it was live from the arena or from the broadcast, was petrified with anguish at the pitiful state, nothing like this had ever been seen in this tournament and many had never experienced a living being being being burned in such a way as to make it so undesirable to watch. One arm gone, the skin wasted, falling off, third degree burns, half of his jaw was flayed and reddened where the muscles of his declining teeth were perceptible because of his burned flesh, his skin and the fabric were blended because of the burns, the smell that emanated from him... All this was the price to pay to defeat this opponent from another galaxy.
- This is where our fight ends, Clandra-ζ, declared the Hero breathlessly, give up or...
- Why don't you destroy me?
- Right?
Clandra-ζ grabbed his arm and continued to thrust it into his torso to continue the destruction of his core.
- What the hell are you doing?" said the Hero, unable to stop himself from speaking in Franca, "let go of my arm.
- If I am not able to honor my princess then I do not deserve to continue to exercise my function as a weapon! declared the tree-killing machine, anyway, you have already initiated the destruction of my core, no being of this world is able to repair me so I am out of order ... then destroy me.
The Hero withdrew the embrace of his hand exerted on her arm.
- Why?" said Clandra.
- Are you stupid or what? The rules forbid me to kill," the Hero told him, "and I have no desire to do so. And since you notified your attention to give up, I won...
The Hero rose to his feet, raising his fist to the sky, his face hidden by his own shadow. The audience erupted in cheers, screaming their excitement at seeing the Hero win. He was apparently no longer embarrassed to support a human - and considering the spectacle they had been treated to, it was the least they could do.
- I don't intend to take your life because you don't find meaning in your life anymore. Have the conclusion you want to our fight, I don't care, but don't think that a defeat against me deserves your death. I speak for you and me, personally, for those you call your owners, it's another story.
In her seat that she had brought from home, Malalalivia was impressed by the Hero's performance. His victory may have been classless, but it was obvious that he had managed to give it his all in this confrontation. He had climbed a few rungs in her esteem and in her heart.
- Finally, he did not use the power of the sword? said Lelelitio while bringing him water.
- I told you that he would find another alternative to using the power of the Nemesis.
- I hope you're prepared because it's our turn soon.
- Don't worry, I won't disappoint you.
- That's my line.
In the arena, the Hero was on the verge of fainting, he should have ended up in pieces, but he used his regeneration at its peak to maintain his body and be able to try his last card.
He heard footsteps coming towards him, but he didn't even have the energy to move in the direction from which the footsteps came, he could only take the assault of this person who, because of his embrace, made him scream in pain.
- How are you?
- Kid, you can see that this is not right!" said the Hero, gritting his teeth at the Fairy.
- I'm sorry! But I can't let you go! You were so amazing! So valiant! So... heroic!" congratulated the Fairy, "you don't deserve your title of hero of the legend!
- If that's all that makes me legitimate..., he muttered in an inaudible voice.
He made the effort to turn around to see the face of the Fairy, and saw a young girl in tears, her eyes clouded with salt water and purple snot all over her nose.
- Stop crying, it makes you ugly, said the Fairy.
- I care about that, she retorted, her voice mired in tears.
- And you're not repulsed by my sorry state?
- Yes, but I don't care. I can't be picky after what you did. You were so amazing and... I was so scared...
Was she really that worried about me?
Yes my boy. Enjoy it, it's rare that someone cares so much about you.
The Hero laughed at seeing her in such a state for him, but he could not hold on. He had reached his limit and collapsed with the Fairy on his back, but he was caught in-extremis by the Queen who received him by putting his head in the fold of her elbow.
Half-conscious, he heard the queen say to him:
- Congratulations. You fought well, I am proud of you.
At the end of his strength, he answered her mentally, hoping that she would catch his thought, with a simple "Thank you".
Sawyer watched them from the balcony, hearing the disapproving grumbling of the kingdom's guests behind him. He paid little attention to them and continued to watch, filled with pride, the one who called him "uncle".
In front of the Hero's victory, Lucello could only applaud, he had offered him a most interesting show although he was not in full possession of his means. The Fairy continued her race to the throne of Sylvania and the Hero was soon to lose all his usefulness, everything was going as he had planned. The rest was up to time and fate. He turned to Jigalénélia and winked at her, the princess grumbled, annoyed by the casual behavior of the vampire prince.
Down on the field, the Treeman sat and watched in the princely boxes as his princess looked down on him and walked away.
- I really failed, he thought.
- Hey! the Hero called him, the eyes closed, in a country Franca so that the Fairy and the queen is of the evil to understand him, you would not have ti small information concerning the Adepts of Marrynélia ? I could spare you the deciphering.
The humanoid tree stared at him and shook its head, it simply replied:
- Thank you for your offer, young man, but I am loyal to my owners, I will not reveal anything.
- So be it. I'm not going to dwell on it, it was a plus for me.
Their conversation was interrupted by the untimely arrival of Detsin, who wanted so much to see the winner of this fight and congratulate him.
- It is customary in our kingdom when we arrive at the duel to congratulate the participants of the tournament with favors. We took the luxury of researching you and we made you some dishes to your liking since you like sweets.
An exquisite smile appeared on the face of the Hero, he only nodded to the words of the adviser Detsin, and mentally said to the queen.
That's him. This is one of the Adepts of Marrynélia.
The plot against the queen and the nameless, wingless princess was about to be routed.