Chapter 16: Nature's Life Force
Birds fled into the skies and the forest animals on the ground took off running in fear, as Zyxel roared with rage!
Looking up, he could see colors of orange and red as it stretched out across the sky from the setting sun. They had been flying for several hours, and it was almost dark. If he healed her down on the ground, he would be too weak to get above the trees in time for the morning sun to reach him. And remaining trapped on the ground when the sun rises, would be damaging to him. But if he risked moving her, just for his own selfish benefit, then it might result in fatality for Trinity.
But seeing Trinity in the state she was in, he knew she was in no position to be moved. He would have to risk it, trying to heal her on the ground, and just hope that he would have enough strength inside him to be able to get above the trees before sunrise.
Kneeling over Trinity near her head, his body fluctuated back and forth between his two forms. The spell was weakening, which meant she was close to death. He had to do something to save her life. He just hoped it would be enough this time.
A trembling red hand with long, sharp talons brushed her hair away from her face as he inspected the resulting damage. All along her body, long gashes were cut deep into her skin as the branches sliced through her from the fall. Her body had bruises from head to toe from the internal bleeding due to each impact she encountered. And her bones had rebroken all over again. Her skull seemed to have taken a hard beating, and was bleeding heavily with a deep gash running across her forehead directly over her right eye.
"Why must these things repeatedly happen to someone so pure?" Zyxel growled.
Not wanting to waste any more time, Zyxel rushed to try to heal her open wounds. The cuts that were done to her the last time, were shallow. She wasn't at any risk of bleeding out. This time was different. The cuts were sliced deep and she was losing blood at a rapid rate.
However, as he attempted to heal her, nothing was happening. Shaking, he forced his mind to focus. He was cursing himself at the fact that he hadn't considered practicing healing magic as a priority. After all, why should he? It hadn't been needed in their world for three thousand years.
"If I can't find a way to heal her, she will die!" He growled with rage. He stretched out his wings, and enclosed her body in a large winged dome. Ripples of red bat-shaped wings, and black feathered wings shifted back and forth between each other. While his body rippled changes between his dark tanned skin, and the red demon scales.
"Focus!" He cried out. "Stay strong, Trinity! I know you're strong! Fight! I won't let you die!"
The winged dome worked to amplify his energy, but it came at a cost. He was currently weakened in this realm, and his powers were limited to the strength of their bonded human. Which meant, the closer she was to death, the weaker he would become and the more he would be cut off from using his divine energy.
He would have to use a substitute source of energy, something other than his divine energy; if he wanted to heal her. However, if he did manage to succeed in healing her in time with the energy substitute, it would drain every ounce of energy that he had inside him. He may end up being stone for the full day rather than the six hours he currently required.
With his left hand, he placed his palm on the ground to draw on any minute amount of life force energy that he could find within the nature around him. His right hand, he placed over Trinity's heart. This would be the fastest way to spread the healing energy throughout her system.
Inside the winged dome, a bright red glow emitted within. Then slowly, from each of the trees, a very thin sliver of white light curved it's way across the surface of the ground, feeding into his left palm that was placed on the ground.
The leaves shriveled up and turned to dust, and the trunks turned from brown to grey as the life force of the surrounding trees was being drained out. Any unfortunate animal who had not escaped in time, lay helpless on the ground; their life force being drained out of them, flowing straight towards Zyxel and Trinity. The wounds covering her body were finally beginning to close and heal.
As the hours went by, and each tree withered and died, he pushed his consciousness out further, drawing in more and more energy from the nature around him.
Panting and out of breath, Zyxel parted his wings, breaking the dome and ceasing the energy amplifier. Trinity was fully healed as far as the minor cuts, scrapes, and bruising went. However, the deeper gashes had taken much more out of him. But bones were still outside of his level of expertise.
"I... can't... move..." he panted the words slowly.
Trinity's life force was still weak after the amount of blood loss she suffered, therefore it had taken every bit of his strength, just to heal her as far as he had done. He had no strength remaining to even splint her broken bones, nor did he have the time.
Looking up, he observed just how much life force he had pulled from the surrounding nature around him.
'I guess that fixes that problem of accessing the sunlight!' he thought as he surveyed his surroundings. There wasn't a single green tree in sight for miles. Most of the trees closest to him were now just a pile of ash.
Still kneeling by Trinity's head, he forced himself to sit up with what little strength he had remaining. With both palms resting against his knees, he closed his eyes and attempted to stretch out his wings, without much success.
As the sun rose up in the sky, he hoped that the little he was able to do for Trinity, would be enough to keep her alive until he returned back to flesh again. His skin slowly began turning into stone as the rays of the sun hit him, and in his spot sat a deformed stone gargoyle that appeared to be half demon and half humanoid. Splotches of random scales covered the stone body, and the wings looked twisted as they were a mix between the demonic and feathered wings.
~*~*~*~*~
Amara strolled through the church garden, heading towards the priest's house. She had been searching the past two days among all the surrounding cities, with no results to show for it. She decided she would update the priest on her findings, and see where things went from there.
She knocked on the door and Father Kiran answered the door with a look of surprise on his face.
"Trinity? Is that why you're here? Did you find her?" His eyes were wide, pleading that she had found her.
Amara shook her head. "I'm sorry Father, I have not been able to locate her yet. May I come inside so we can discuss a few things, please?"
"Yes, yes! Of course! Come on inside!" Father Kiran stepped aside as he held open the door for Amara.
Amara withdrew her wings in tight as she stepped through the small door opening.
"Give me just a moment and let me turn this off. I was just watching the News station."
She followed Father Kiran into his living room, but as he reached for the remote, her eyes fell on what was being displayed on the t.v. "Wait!" she shouted. "Don't turn that off! Where is the volume?" She rushed forward, unable to believe what she was seeing.
Turning the volume up on the t.v., Father Kiran looked at Amara confused. "It's just a forest fire that happened in the night."
Ignoring Father Kiran she knelt down in front of the t.v., as she listened to what the reporter had to say.
[We cannot verify what sparked this strange occurrence. Satellite imagery has shown no visible flames that we can see, but the damage is massive, stretching out across a total of twenty miles it forms a perfect circle according to our sources. A time lapse of the event shows that the source of this seems to have originated at this location-]
The screen zoomed in to a spot on the map as it showed a time lapsed video of the trees withering and dying, before turning into ash. A single red glow could be seen from the epicenter, with the circle of decaying trees growing wider and wider with each passing hour that the video was sped up.
[-and expanded throughout the night. We will keep you updated and let you know more, as we learn exactly what caused this strange phenomenon.]
'What possible reason would require you to draw from a secondary energy source?' Amara thought confused as she watched the time lapse on the t.v.
Although confused by why he would do something like this, Amara could barely contain her excitement. She whirled around to face the priest. "Father, find a map and show me exactly where this happened!" She turned back to the screen as the image disappeared. A wide, sinister grin spread across her face. "I found you! You cannot escape me this time!"
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- The Forbidden Luna
- Divine Banishment
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
NovaLuna
NovaLuna Will Zyxel and Trinity escape in time before Amara finds them?
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