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Trials of Love, the Frostclaw Chronicles 12: The Nightmare and The Dream

This story is copyrighted to SashaWS/ArtisticEastern, containing characters owned by various people used with permission.

Any usage or posting of this story under the claim of being your own is not approved and you will be requested to remove it or face charges.

"Uncle sensei, wait up!" Tenchi yelled as Alex was running at the speed that could rival a feral cheetah, both her and Lyra having trouble to keep up as they could hear him cussing in some foreign language. Tenchi grunted at his deafness before she spread her wings and with Lyra quickly leaping onto her back, Tenchi began to speed up to catch up to the enraged father until Lyra leaped off Tenchi's back, hooking her thighs around Alex's neck with such a momentum that he was sent to the ground and Tenchi could finally land, "Listen, I know you are mad, but rushing head in is not the right way to go."

Alex growled in anger, "I will kill them for taking our family!" Tenchi sighed before Lyra got off his back and watched him prepare to run before Tenchi grabbed the back of his neck, "If you wanna get there so badly and quickly, then make yourself useful and be our mount for this." Alex growled, but soon calmed down as he actually began to smile, "Heh, anger truly is the blindfold to reasonable thinking." Tenchi nodded before she noticed his body altering until the anthro eastern dragon was suddenly a serpentine eastern dragon, but she noticed that unlike the last time she saw it, he now had arcane runes of light traveling up along his body up to the arms. Quickly getting up onto his back, Tenchi and Lyra secured their hold before they felt the air around them go by fast as he was flying towards the location they had been told to go to.

Like with both Alex and Lyra, it was not long before Tenchi was treated to a musical performance. Lyra stood up on Alex's back as she began to sing, "Fly off at the speed of sound! Bright lights with the colors all around! I am flying fast, living wild, and free! And got no regrets inside of me!" Alex smiled as he joined in, "Not looking back! Not giving up! Not letting go! I'll keep on flying!" Tenchi noticed the arcane runes spinning faster around Alex before they unleashed small stars as both him and Lyra sang, "I'm gonna reach for the stars! Although they may look pretty far! I'm gonna find my own destiny! And take a chance to please many!"

The stars began to spin around him and travel across his body, making Tenchi looked amazed before Lyra took a leap of faith from Alex's back, "The sky with stars so bright! The colors that feels so right! I never felt like this! I'll just keep on flying!" Alex dove after Lyra as he was taking his turn, "The sky with stars that shine! The colors feel so divine! I never felt like this! I'll just keep on loving!" He managed to catch up to Lyra and caught her on his back as Tenchi let herself join in a bit, "Tonight. Tonight."

Both Alex and Lyra smiled before they noticed that the lake approached and Tenchi covered her maw in pure shock from the blood red color, "That is Skyward Lake? Why is it red like that?" Lyra looked at Alex, who sighed as he did not want to let the side of him out, but he had to, "It is because of a chemical reaction that happened in this location while it was still undiscovered. This location used to be rich on metallic cobalt, cobalt monoxide, cobalt hydroxide and cobalt carbonate, but due to acidic rain, mostly from nitric rain and the fact this location was already having water, there was a lot of reaction with the cobalt overall, resulting in the lake now being rich on cobalt nitrate hexahydrate, a salt which makes the water appear red. But as by many things in nature, it is always having enough high concentration to cause the water to appear red. This is why many say that if you wanna know that the choice you made is right, you got to camp out here for one night and if you wake up to a red lake, then you have made a poor choice. But that is just superstition."

Tenchi nodded before Alex began to descend from the sky, taking no more than thirty seconds to reach the ground before he turned back to his normal anthro form, Lyra and Tenchi joining him, ready to strike out as they heard an applaud, the trio turning to face the black dragon male smirking as he was bowing, "Welcome Tenchi of the Frostclaws and the siren generals of the dead, Alexander and Lyra. Glad you could come here." Tenchi growled, "What have you done to them?" The male grinned, "Nothing, yet at least. Now, lets get down to business. I do not wish for the war to happen, so I wanna offer your family back, in exchange for you submitting already now. It would make Hauga proud of me. Out of the other warlords she sent to take you down, I am the one clever enough to go with a non-violent solution. Just surrender and I will arrange so that your tribe will be spared any further harm."

Tenchi growled before Alex grabbed her shoulder as he asked the male the obvious question, "How can we be sure that you will do it? What makes you so special that she would heed your words?" The male laughed, "I am her husband, of course. I am Malicoe the Jet Gem. When Hauga hears my word, she knows I have succeeded. That will also make her return the body of the one she ordered to be brought to her for dark reanimation." Tenchi was growling before she could hear a faint voice. It was then that Malicoe pointed to a tree where everyone were encased in a bubble and also chained together, Tenchi's eyes widened, "Hang on! We are going to save you!" She looked at him before noticing him smirk, "So, how is it going to be?" The sound of a sword unsheathing could be heard before Malicoe parried a powerful blow from Alex's katana as Alex spoke, "Once a Shadowtail, always a betraying scum. You had no plans to let them go. You planned for Tenchi to surrender so you could catch her off-guard and kill her. Am I wrong?"

Malicoe's eyes narrowed before he blasted Alex backwards, "I see. You are still connected to the righteousness of that insolent warrior. But why not let your darkness come out and play?" Alex felt the burning feeling inside him when Malicoe was attempting to release the darkness within him, Yin and Yang calling out loudly, even if the bubble made it faint, "Father!" Lyra put her hands together before her tail split into nine and as the light of the sun bathed her, she transformed into a Sakuya Priestess form, quickly spinning her staff around before leaping at Malicoe. Swinging her staff, she managed to merely scratch his cheek, but enough to make him release the spell from Alex. Seeing the open moment to attack, Alex sheathed his blade quickly, "Bring forth the realms of existence, Orochi's Dragon King!"

Drawing the blade out again, Alex spun around to catch the additional two forming before jumping out onto the water's surface quickly, swinging one of the blades quickly, "Heaven's Dragon!" Lyra quickly moved away as Malicoe was hit by a light dragon, but was soon shocked with both Tenchi and Alex at how he had sustained no damage at all, Alex quickly swinging the second blade "Earth's Dragon!" The rock-based dragon head flew at Malicoe who merely crushed the head with one single hand, but left himself open as Alex revealed the third attack, with a slight improved, "Three-Headed Dragon of the Sea, Hydra!"

Where Tenchi was used to seeing one cyclone of water forming a dragon, there was now three twisters of water forming a dragon with three heads, and Alex stood in the middle of the creature's body, swinging all three blades at the same time, making the serpent lean down to attempt biting the dragon, but like with the other attacks, this one proved useless as Malicoe made the water vaporize before lifting two hands, "Black Hole!" Both Lyra and Alex were soon pulled towards him and Tenchi's eyes, including the ones that were in the bubble was shocked, but the silence was soon broken by Yin and Yang crying out, "Father! Mother!" Lyra and Alex looked at each other in pure shock as they felt their chests having been punched through and how Malicoe was holding their hearts, "How sweet. The couple that fights together." Time seemed to stop as everyone just watched and soon heard him finish it, "Dies together."

Crushing their hearts, the screams echoed through the trees before Malicoe pulled his arms out, leaving Alex and Lyra to bleed on the ground as their lives slowly drained out. Tenchi's eyes teared up, "You... you, monster." Malicoe turned to face her with a sadistic grin, "You should have accepted my offer. I would have honored your will to save them, but that offer is no longer possible." Alex coughed up some blood and sighed, "The offer... for mercy is completely free for 10... 9... 8... 7... 6..." Alex's eyes closed and Lyra's teared up, "5... 4... 3... 2... 1..." Next Lyra's eyes closed before Tenchi cried out loudly, "Uncle Alex! Lyra! NOOO!" The trees began to crumble, the water formed rapid twisters and soon the very earth began to shatter below Tenchi's feet, her eyes focusing on Malicoe, who was grinning, as she growled at him, "You will pay for that!" Malicoe laughed, "You are too weak to stop me. But I will let you have a free shot at me." Tenchi's eyes narrowed before the very lake erupted like a volcano, the heat from Tenchi's anger boiling the water to cause a rain cloud to form above them until a lightning struck her and every tree within a 1 mile radius was obliterated completely, Malicoe shielding his eyes from the intense force of power. But in a castle far away, a certain yellow royal was beaming proudly, "Well done, Tenchi."

When Malicoe could finally cease to shield his eyes, his confidence was gone completely as he could see Tenchi's eyes beaming yellow with pure power, her red body now covered in luminescent blue lightning and along her right arm was a blue flame, which died down as Tenchi growled and formed a pair of claws made from sub-zero ice, "Malicoe! Your death will be slow and agonizing!" As her voice reached his ears, Malicoe felt himself almost losing the control of his bladder in fear, quickly pulling out a familiar set of daggers that Tenchi knew quite well, but due to her current blood-lust, it was of no importance before she charged in quicker than his eye could register, but soon the claws made contact with one of the daggers causing it to freeze and shatter as he swung one arm forward to attempt impaling her with one of the larger ones, only to see that Tenchi had picked up a familiar ability from his tribe when a scorpion stinger of the same sub-zero ice as her claws soon broke the dagger and once again Tenchi was swinging the claws to try and hit him, forcing Malicoe to jump back before lifting one hand, "Repel Force!"

The stinger broke behind Tenchi as powerful force struck it, but it was just the beginning of his troubles as Tenchi took a deep breath and let out a sea of blue fire that covered at least a distance of 500 yards in a cone shape in front of her, erupting into an inferno. Malicoe looked at this, "That is the goddess' own spell! How did she pick that up?" Tenchi used the moment to strike out towards him with her claws, only to be parried by a dagger, leaving him down to four now before the claws shattered and fire erupted from her hand to form a pair of claws made from an intense red fire, making Malicoe even more confused, "That is the Firestone tribe's affinity! How can she use it?!?" Tenchi began to get more control of herself and heard him speak before she gave him at least the knowledge to take with him to the future grave of his, "Because I was created to hold the powers that could make me judge everyone fairly!"

Making her point clear, he noticed her soon gathering up power before drawing her katana, channeling the energy through it until she growled out, "I am the prime that evolved beyond the normal limits of the primes!" Her eyes soon froze him in place, "I sentence you to death!" She began to walk before gathering up the last energy required, "Judgment of the Four!" It was as if the planet responded as Tenchi soon sheathed her katana and swung her right hand, a set of fiery claws striking him, "Judgment of the Fiery Wisdom!" Next she swung her left hand, a set of icy claws striking him, "Judgment of the Chilly Command!" Malicoe growled in pain before Tenchi struck him with her right hand again, a set of shadowy claws hitting him, "Judgment of the Dark Betrayal!"

Malicoe was feeling his body burning from the intense heat of the fire, shattering slowly from the freezing cold of the ice as well as losing his sight from the blinding darkness, but Tenchi soon saw the icy thorns growing around her hand and arm, the final strike against Malicoe being through his chest as she ripped out his heart, "Judgment of the Reborn Ruler!" Malicoe's screams echoed through the air as the icy thorns buried into his body and soon wrapped around him until he was finally crushed under the pressure and as Tenchi crushed his heart, both the bodies of Alex and Lyra were regenerated and soon both of them coughed as they sat up, everyone in the bubble soon being let free as they ran over to them, Yin and Yang jumping at their parents, Jigo, Leicna, Arashi, Ainohi and Kari quickly hugging Tenchi as she hugged them back, crying happily, "There, there. You are all okay now."

Jigo looked over Tenchi, "Wow, I did not know that you could even do that. That was awesome! How you used all those powers! This will be one heck of a story to tell them at home." Tenchi nodded before noticing that Arashi was biting on some kind of orb, seeming really annoyed by it as Tenchi walked over to it, "What is it, girl?" Arashi looked up at Tenchi and began to push the orb closer to her owner, Tenchi picking it up and looking at it before her eyes widened and she looked at everyone, "No time to celebrate, we got to get home now!" No questions were asked as everyone prepared quickly for the journey back home again.

In a location, far away from the lake, "Mistress Hauga. Lord Malicoe has fallen. Tenchi proved too much for him." A black dragoness reported to a larger dragoness, who's face soon turned into light sorrow, "Malicoe..." The dragoness bowed her head deeply, "You have my condolences, my lady. I know how much you trusted your husband to handle this. But we should have sent guards with him so he would not have been overwhelmed so easily." The larger dragoness growled at her, "Silence! You dare to say that my trust was misplaced in my husband?!" The smaller dragoness moved back, "No no, my lady. I just said that we maybe should have sent guards with him... wait, what are you doing?" The dragoness was feeling tendrils crawling up her body and slowly constricting her, the cries of agony filling the air, "Mistress, I am sorry! I will not speak ill about the dead again, I promise! Please, do not kill m..." The tendrils soon snapped the dragoness' neck before the corpse was devoured by the larger dragoness, "You certainly will not. No one opposes and speaks ill about the dead around me, Darkspeaker Hauga!"

The End.