🌸Lost in Memories🌸

Chapter 8: Comely Poison

Before the group could take a single step towards Hyness, they felt electricity flowing through the air as Zan Partizanne, the third and oldest mage sister interrupted them and pointed her lance at them. "It is the dearest wish of Lord Hyness, that no one interferes! So I cannot and will not allow you to get in his way!" she scouted, fiercely determined and prepared to fight. "Sorry sweetheart, if you don't let us through, we'll have to make you." Susie responded as a final warning. Zan Partizanne just scoffed at that remark. "Tch... if I must endanger myself to fulfil his Hyness's wish, then I shall gladly do so! Now surrender or I will make you regret coming here!" she declared before charging right at Taranza, who just barely managed to dodge her. He quickly tried to hit her and slow her down with one of his webs but as soon as he attacked she was already elsewhere, now focusing on Metaknight and Susie. Magolor, who had vanished through a black hole, popped up behind her, blasting her with a full charged sphere he summoned. Despite her slight burn Zan Partizanne instantly turned around and tried to slash at Magolor, only failing due to Taranza holding her arm with the lance back with a web. She angrily tried to tear it apart, neglecting her defenses. Susie and Metaknight exchanged looks, nodded and attacked Zan Partizanne, Metaknight with his sword and Susie with her Mech. As a result, she got knocked back a bit. "Grrrr... that's enough!" she screamed. She charged up what seemed to be a special move and shot a laser across the room mainly targeting Taranza, but Magolor grabbed him and teleported them out of the way. "She's blinded by her own attack, go for it!" He whispered. Taranza, after brief hesitation, quickly summoned a smaller version of the Dreamstalk, which upon hitting Zan Partizanne was luckily enough to knock her out.

Hyness only now turned away from his ritual and seemed surprised to find the knocked out Zan Partizanne before him. Not showing any reaction to the defeat of his most loyal minion, he floated over to the group. "What's the matter with you?! She got hurt for your sake and you're not even gonna check if she's ok?!" Taranza screamed losing his temper, only to receive nothing more than a passing glance as an answer to his question. "Don't bother with him. He's far beyond sane at this point." Metaknight said. "Let's just get this over with..." Taranza tried to calm himself, but he was still more furious than he had ever felt in the past years. Due to Hyness's lack of defense and him merely floating around and attacking them with dark magic, there were plenty of openings for the team to strike. Susie quickly upgraded her Mech and gun with a firy sphere from Magolor and began chipping away at Hyness, who despite firing back her didn't manage to injure her much. "Be mindful, Susie!" Metaknight advised her while also attacking Hyness but backing up in between hits. Taranza tried his best to also inflict damage, but his small webs were simply not enough so he tried to summon more Dreamstalks. As soon as he did, Hyness got knocked back and the white hood that obscured his face with shadows fell off.

After hiding his face for a second, he screeched at the heroes, revealing his face to be purple and yellow stripped with two small pointy ears, a huge nose and two giant, constantly twitching eyeballs. "What in the world is that thing?" Susie stumbled in shock. In between his screeches, Hyness summoned the three mage sisters, draining them of their power without hesitation and started hiding behind them as if they were shields. "You really do lack all compassion for others..." Magolor whispered. Susie glanced over to Taranza and as suspected he was trying his hardest not to lose it. "We can't let any harm come to the three mage sisters! Try to hit Hyness and only Hyness!" Metaknight shouted despite that being somewhat obvious. Susie climbed out of her Mech and took out her pistol to fight with instead as to not accidentally injure the sisters. Right at that moment, Hyness decided to change his tactic and grabbed the blue haired mage sister Francisca. After floating closer to Metaknight and Magolor, he flung her around like a weapon without no remorse whatsoever for his minion. As Magolor and Metaknight were busy barely dodging the attacks, Susie and Taranza took the opportunity to inflict as much damage as possible. Much to everyone's surprise, Hyness suddenly let go of Francisca, throwing her at his opponents and then immediately grabbing Flamberge, the red haired mage sister. Before anyone could react he threw her at Susie and Taranza, knocking both of them over. Taranza got up first and tried to help Susie up only to notice Hyness charging at him with Zan Partizanne in hand like a sledgehammer. Instinctively, he shot a few web to prevent him from getting closer but because of the open space he hit Hyness multiple times, causing him to let go of Zan Partizanne and stumbling back before falling to the ground. Then silence overcame the room.

"Did... did we do it?" Magolor quietly asked. Metaknight walked over to the unconscious Hyness. "Yes. He's likely not going to wake up for a while. Great job everyone. That could've gotten way worse if we weren't so quick." Taranza floated over to the result of Hyness's ritual, not paying attention to Metaknight's praise. It appeared to be some sort of portal. As he reached out his hand to it and came in contact with it, the deeper purple appeared within the portal, slowly starting to morph into a silhouette. A very, very familiar silhouette. "C-could...could this really be? I-is that...you ...Sectonia?" Taranza barely managed to get any words out and just stared into the void.... until the silhouette morphed again and a sharp blade erupted from it, slashing the spider boy across the chest without a warning.