Weak To Fire

25

It was a mess. Mereoleona didn't have another word for it. Even getting out of their own mansion and making their way towards the castle was difficult. It was almost a little like there were fights going on all over the place. As if there was some civil war going on. Mereoleona was sure that there were some elves that had changed people... that had literally taken over their bodies. She wasn't really sure what the hell was going on, but it was the only way to explain what was happening.

People that were supposed to be their allies were out here attacking them - or rather, they would be attacking them if they had the chance. Mereo, Y/N and Fuegoleon were moving through the streets of the capital quickly to get to the castle as soon as they could. Mereoleona didn't like the fact that Y/N was coming with her, because she wanted her to stay somewhere safe, but if she was honest with herself, Y/N was probably safer around her than all alone in the mansion.

What she had way more of an issue with was that Fuegoleon had insisted on coming with them and fighting. He was Mereo's little brother and even though he was like 28 full years old, he was still her little baby brother and he always would be. And he had just woken up from a long, long coma and hadn't had a medical checkup of any sort. He should be resting, not running around in what looked more and more like a whole warzone. But Mereo knew as well as Fuegoleon that she wasn't going to be able to stop him. Not without hurting him even more.

But that meant that Mereoleona had to be especially careful now, since she had to look out for her girlfriend and for her little brother and herself, too. It wasn't an easy task by any means. Mereo just hoped that everything was going to be fine. That whatever was going on here wasn't going to kill any of them. It was hard to judge the situation from inside the Vermillion residence anyway, so for some reason Mereoleona had hoped that being out here in the middle of the capital would change things. That it maybe wouldn't be as bad as it looked.

The problem was that it all seemed to be even worse than it looked and Mereoleona had no idea who was where and what had happened since she had become unconscious all the way back in the strong magic region. So she was completely out of the loop, but the castle seemed like the place where everything was going down. And even if that wasn't the case, surely a lot of important people that could fill her in would be there. And maybe even people that would manage to dissuade both Fueggy and Y/N from joining in this battle, because it was going to be suicide.

It was dangerous heading towards the castle already, because there was debris flying all over the place. It happened more than once that they had almost been hit by falling debris or by rogue spells. The capital was in chaos. Rebuilding all of this was going to take months and Mereo already dreaded the reaction of the citizens of Clover. If she survived to see it, it wasn't going to be pretty. Especially since the king wasn't that much of a fan of the Magic Knights in the first place.

Of course he knew that they were necessary for him, but he also didn't like just how much influence they had on the public. Mereoleona wouldn't be surprised if he somehow found a way to turn all of this destruction on them and make them pay for it dearly. Not that it would be fair, but unfortunately things weren't always fair and usually any regular citizens ended up suffering the most. Mereo would have liked to change that, if she had any talent with politics. But as it was, she wasn't good at it and she also didn't have any interest in getting involved in something as tedious as politics. That was another reason why she didn't want to join the Magic Knights in the first place.

"Mereo, watch out!" she heard Y/N yelling, before she felt a hand grab the back of her robe, pulling her back just in time before more rubble hit the ground right in front of her. Mereoleona looked up and saw a crumbling building. That one was damn close and if there had been anyone responsible for this, they wouldn't have had a lot of time to make it up to her. But this was just... this was just some general destruction and Mereo had no idea where to direct her anger.

"You really should be more careful..." she heard Fuegoleon mumble. Mereoleona shot him an accusatory look, before taking a deep breath and giving Y/N a grateful nod. She couldn't believe that her water spirit girlfriend had to save her - and not even from some powerful magic user, but from a pile of rocks. She really needed a break after all of this was over, but seeing the state the capital was in... well, it wasn't very likely that she was going to get said break.

"I swear, Fueggy, if you don't shut up..." she grumbled. She should have tried to make him stay at home. He was just going to be annoying her. She loved Fueggy, but he was still her younger brother and that meant that she couldn't just see past even the slightest annoyances. They had always been like that, as far as Mereo could remember... everyone seemed to think they got along just fine with each other, but under the surface they were bickering just as much as other siblings. The servants in the Vermillion mansion were well aware of it. Mereoleona and Fueggy bickering was usually one of the more destructive things that happened there.

"What are you going to do if I don't shut up? You wouldn't hurt your little brother, would you?" Fueggy said, a smile tugging on his lips. Mereoleona laughed and shook her head. Alright, he was asking for this.

"Are you going to run to mummy about it?" she teased back. Y/N seemed a little more concerned with the current situation around them than with settling the score between them, however.

"Hey, uhm... can we maybe move on and talk this out later? I feel like we're basically making ourselves a massive target by standing around here and bickering..." she told them. Mereo glanced at her. Damn it. She was right. She sighed and nodded, before sending Fueggy another glare.

"This isn't over, Fueggy, just so you know. But Y/N is right. We should probably move on. Can't let everyone else have all the fun." she said.

"You call that fun?" Y/N replied and shook her head. Mereoleona shrugged and started making her way towards the castle again. They had a job to do after all and so far all they had managed to do was not get hit by some rogue debris (which was an achievement, to be honest).

"Yeah, fighting is fun. I, for one, enjoy it a lot. Anyway-" Mereo started explaining, but she was quickly cut off by some noise behind her and of... well, it sounded like screaming, but Mereo couldn't be sure. She turned around quickly and saw a huge pile of debris right behind her. Just where Y/N and Fuegoleon had been a minute ago. Shit. Shit, shit, shit. This was bad.

"Y/N! Fueggy! Are you okay?!" she yelled, trying to get a look at whether they had maybe managed to get away from all that rubble before it hit the ground. She couldn't believe that they might actually be... no. She wasn't going to think about how they were possibly both buried underneath all of that and slowly suffocating to death. They had to be okay. They just had to be.

"Mereo? Are you okay?" she heard Y/N's voice. Mereoleona felt like a weight was lifted off her chest. They were alive. And they seemed to be okay enough to ask if she was alright. Thank God.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine. Are you okay? Is Fueggy okay?" she wanted to know. She could hear how panicked her voice sounded, but she didn't even care right now. She needed to know that they were fine.

"We're both perfectly fine. It seems like the rubble just separated us. Looks like we'll have to take a detour to the castle." Fuegoleon said. Mereoleona sighed with relief. Okay, she could work with that...

"Do you want me to wait for you here?" she asked.

"No, you go ahead and see what's going on. We'll try and get to the castle the fastest possible way. We'll meet you there." Fuegoleon replied.