#sfbotsd ziduur

[claire-starsword]

Bloodline of the Sacred Dragons - Chapter 3-7

[Warning for squid gore/eye horror.]

Karin stared blankly at the cars fading away in the rain.

Why hadn't she jumped out right away, she lamented. She was athletic enough to do it. But, the moment Camallia fell down, something tugged at her heart. It made her hesitate for a moment.

Why did she pause? Unable to answer, she continued on the running train.

She didn't have the luxury to wait any longer. She steeled herself for the jump again.

While figuring out the right timing, the train shook once again. The force made Karin sway to the side. The misty scenery in front of her turned a bit sideways as well.

Karin realized what was worrying her.

Someone was driving this train, right now.

There was no doubt about who it was. She hurried to the cab.

Just as she expected, Koron was there.

"Why are you still here?!" The two exclaimed at the exact same time.

"It's impossible to hit the monster without someone controlling the train directly from here."

Koron explained, expecting agreement. She thought Karin could understand, she wanted her to understand.

"You meant to sacrifice yourself to kill the monster from the start. Why would a queen discard herself like this?"

Karin scolded her, as she couldn't understand.

"I have no intention to die. This train is stronger than it looks like. Besides, that creature is soft, it won't crush the train on impact."

"That's nonsense. Even if the train can resist the impact, the humans inside won't. Let's leave already."

"I cannot, the monster is already leaving the bazaar. To hit it for certain, someone has to be here until the end."

Koron's face was resolute.

"Queen!"

Karin desperately tried to persuade her.

At that time, a messenger from Koron had reached Bleu's group.

"Trap the monster within the bazaar. Hold it there until you see the Pao Train, then leave the area quickly. Those are Her Majesty Koron's orders."

They all struggled to understand her true intentions, but to the soldiers of Pao, the queen's orders were absolute.

Bleu drew the kraken's attention while continuing to attack with his breath and claws. As he flew by in high speed, the falling rain beat up against his wings like thrown stones. Even Bleu began to show signs exhaustion at that. But the kraken too was losing strength against his many attacks.

When he went for a dive like many times before, all the kraken's legs lashed against him like whips. Bleu tried to do a sharp turn upwards, but his ankle was caught by one of them.

Without time to react, the kraken swung him up.

It intended to smash him in the ground at once.

Bleu somehow managed to turn his neck, and put all he had into a lightning breath against the leg. Its tip, burned by the electricity, broke off the during the swing downwards. Tossed away, Bleu did a tailspin, just barely avoiding the ground. The water in the ground sprayed around by the gust of wind he provoked. Correcting his posture somewhat he managed to stabilize his flight, and use the force of that to ascend at once.

As he panted heavily in the sky, a shrill noise ringed by. Bleu turned around and saw the Pao Train coming straight ahead.

"Is this what the queen wants to do?"

He thought back to her orders, and understood her plan.

Suddenly, his face froze in shock.

Beyond the glass front of the train, he saw the queen and Karin apparently arguing with each other.

"Idiots! What are they doing?"

The kraken was already in front of them. If they hit it like that, they certainly wouldn't escape unscathed.

Bleu bolted towards the train.

Amidst their discussion, Karin and Koron saw a flash of light blow away the glass window. Panicked, their covered their faces with their arms to avoid the shards. Next, a huge figure flew in. At the same time, the rain and its noise fell harshly on the train.

"What are you doing here, you two!!"

They turned to the angry yelling and saw Bleu. The Sacred Dragon was drenched in water and his own blood, and he did not hide his anger.

Without listening to whatever Karin wanted to say, he took the two in his arms without asking.

Outside, the kraken was right ahead, extending its legs as much as it could to try to stop the train.

Bleu hurried and flew away through the window he had destroyed.

He grazed the kraken's body at high speed. Right behind him, the Pao Train smashed with all its weight against the monster.

Tearing away the legs caught under them, the giant wheels of the train crashed between its eyes. Its eyeballs rolled to the wrecked tents from the impact. Black poison gushed out from its torn body, staining the Pao Train black. The wheels made unpleasant noise as they spun in vain over its organs, before finally stopping. The body left under the train, which had been knocked sideways, no longer resembled the original beast.

Bleu began to slowly reduce his speed so as not harm the two in his arms, while ascending to get a better view of his surroundings.

Held so tight it hurt, Karin buried her face in Bleu's chest. After struggling against the intense wind, they could finally breathe again.

"Good grief, it's finally over. Honestly, what were you…!!"

Just as he breathed in relief, Bleu was suddenly blasted from the side. Flames burned on his back.

"You just brought the Manual carelessly like that. You didn't even consider it could fall on my hands."

Ziduur revealed himself from his hiding spot, having cast a Blaze spell. He walked towards the group, elated with his success.

Even as he fell, Bleu didn't let go of the girls. Not only that, but he twisted to fall on his back in order to cushion their fall. However, that couldn't fully nullify the impact. They were thrown away a good amount by the force he hit the ground with.

Groaning from the pain all over her body, Karin raised her head. Due to the rain or maybe the impact, her vision was hazy.

"Bleu, Your Majesty."

She pressed down on them. They were right next to her, unconscious.

"You're terribly hurt. Wait here, I'll get Karna or Camallia right away."

Seeing Bleu's back burned raw, Karin mustered the willpower to stand.

She couldn't leave Bleu like that, he had got hurt protecting her. She forced her wounded body to go on.

She took a step forward, gritting her teeth against the throbbing pain. Looking ahead without faltering, she saw a figure approach them in the rain.

She wanted to celebrate that help was at hand, but her voice froze in her throat.

She picked up her longbow fallen nearby, and fixed an arrow to the string.

Footsteps drew near among the splashing sounds of the rain.

The arrow launched, weaving its way through the raindrops and toward the monster.

Ziduur raised the jewel fragment, and the arrow stopped right in front of him. The lightning bullets in the arrowhead exploded with an bright burst of light. But, the resulting blast of wind was pushed towards Karin herself.

She was knocked down next to Bleu.

"As if… I'd lose here. Bleu saved me, now it's my turn to save him."

She reached for the quiver in her waist. But it didn't have a single arrow left.

"It's no use."

Ziduur watched her with a small chuckle. It then grew to roaring laughter.

"Once I get my hand on the Manual, I'll gladly settle the score with the dragon for cutting off my arm."

He walked towards Bleu, picturing cruel delights.

Karin covered Bleu's body with her own. Drenched in the rain, her hair fell down, exposing her back. The devil set his eyes on her knapsack, containing the Manual he craved.

He began reciting a spell. He intended to encase both of them in ice and then steal the Manual.

Karin could do nothing but shield Bleu with her own body.

The Freeze spell was cast in their direction, turning even the raindrops into ice.

She hugged Bleu tight in her arms.

But, the cold vanished right as it reached them. From beyond the dispersed diamond dust, someone appeared.

"You… Always getting in my way like this…"

He groaned. Karin raised her hazy head to look in his direction. She slowly made out the shape of a tall and slim woman. Karin recognized it as Camallia. As she stood bravely against the devil, her hair seemed to shine a lustrous reddish purple color, maybe due to Karin's blurry vision. The tension slowly leaving her, Karin fell down next to Bleu and blacked out.

"Showing up in front of me twice, you don't know your place, do you?" Camallia told him sharply.

Feeling massive pressure from her, Ziduur began to step back slowly. Way faster than that, Camallia closed the distance between them.

"If you bastards hadn't appeared, I'd be Lord Lucifer's head general…"

Camallia ignored his mumbled complaints.

"You better leave. You can't stand against me. Hurry and get away," she pressed him again, holding up her circlet with the red jewel in it.

Ziduur winced, and took out his own jewel fragment in resistance.

"What a sore loser. Honestly, that fragment is too much for the likes of you."

In her hands, the circlet's jewel began to shine brightly. As that light hit the fragment Ziduur held, it flew away from this hand as if pulled out. It then seemed to melt into the red glow, absorbed into the bigger jewel.

Ziduur screamed in anguish and tried to ran away. Pillars of red light rose up in front of him to stop him. As he turned back in shock to face Camallia, one more pillar appeared between them as well. One by one, six pillars in total surrounded him.

"I won't kill you. I don't think you're worth it. You will stay alive forever, in the darkness deep within the earth."

Camallia cast the seal. The hexagram formed at Ziduur's feet by the six pillars began to float in the air.

Within this holy seal drawn by the light, the ground where the devil stood on disappeared. As if sinking into a swamp, Ziduur's body began to disappear into the abyssal darkness.

"Help me!"

Camallia stared down his face, coldly ignoring his pleas.

"Help… Hel… me…"

Swallowing him, the hexagram silently disappeared. At the end, the ground looked as if nothing had happened.

The harsh sound of the rain assaulted Camallia's ears as if she had just been reminded of it.

But, even that began to finally weaken.

Camallia placed the circlet on her head again, and went towards Bleu and the girls.

She took a small breath in relief, and began to pray for the blessings of Aura for their sake.

To next part>

[claire-starsword]

Bloodline of the Sacred Dragons - Chapter 3-4 & 3-5

The weather didn't look good.

The sky was full of heavy clouds, ready to rain down at any moment.

Having arrived at the east edge of the plains, the people of Pao began setting up their bazaar. They put up frames, and wrapped them up in thick cloth to make walls. Then more fabric was used to cover them and the job was done. In less than an hour, the Pao Train was surrounded by colorful tents that had blossomed like flowers.

For better or for worse, the rain began once the tents were already up.

To the plains, the rain was a blessing.

But to Bleu's group, it was only something to delay their departure.

To confirm that the rain wouldn't let up any time soon, they went to see Queen Koron.

As if she had predicted the time of their visit, she had all her main aides reunited there for an audience.

"Sir Bleu, hurry to Uranbatol as fast as possible. This rain brings misfortune."

Coming from a prophet, those words sounded terribly ominous. That worry wasn't lessened by the panicked soldier running up to them.

"I've came to report. A squad of devils is invading the bazaar right now. There's dozens of them. One is a giant squid monster."

"A kraken. Seems that Ziduur hasn't given up on the Manual yet," Camallia whispered as she heard the report.

"Are these the devils that crossed the ocean to steal the Manual? In that case, we have to make them regret challenging us."

Queen Koron turned to her aides, her right arm pointing energetically to each of them. The bright blue shawl covering up to her fingers flapped, exposing her sleeveless emerald dress with golden embroidery.

"Take out our soldiers and wipe the enemies out. We'll gather all civilians in the Pao Train and then station it away from the battlefield."

The people hurried away to fulfill Koron's orders.

"Is it possible to see the enemies from the head car?"

"Yes," a soldier from Koron's personal guard answered firmly.

"Then, please follow me. Sir Bleu, you and your group shouldn't leave this train."

"No, we will fight too," Bleu said to the queen.

"That won't do. Leave this matter to us."

"No, those who can fight shouldn't be wasting time here. I'm leaving the Manual to Karin. Tyrin, Randolf, Guntz, Camallia, let's go."

Calling his companions, Bleu made his way to leave the room.

"Wait, I'll go too," Karin stopped him.

'Why can't I go but Camallia can?', she accused in her mind.

"You protect the Manual," he told her, and took the others outside. Koron only called for Guntz to stop.

"I have a request for Sir Guntz. Please come with me."

Taking him with her, the queen went to the head car. Karin, Krin and Karna, having been left behind, followed them without being told no.

***5***

Swinging its ten legs full of suction cups, the kraken pounded the tents repeatedly as it advanced.

It was a monster from the ocean, the depths of it no less, and would never come to the surface by itself. The land wasn't its territory. As proof of it, it couldn't support its huge body, dragging itself through the ground slowly.

This was all in vain, thought Ziduur as he stared at the summoning circle he had inscribed in the ground with his own blood.

He certainly would have the upper hand if attacking them at sea. But, he was afraid of losing the Manual in the waters. Finding the semi-transparent object there would be near impossible.

If he didn't come back with the Manual, his master would destroy him. For sure.

Anxious, Ziduur decided to rush things.

At least the rain, that he had brought down using more of the Devil Jewel's power, was washing away the magic circle he used to summon the kraken and the other monsters.

"Go, steal the Manual, and kill the Sacred Dragon and all his followers."

Ziduur ordered the devils shaking his left arm, the only one he had left. The monsters advanced towards the Pao Train. They were half men half-fish known as soulsowers, and purple worms and gargoyles, with the kraken as their main force.

The soldiers of Pao were well ready to welcome them.

They dodged the anemone-like feelers of the purple worms and stabbed them with their lances, and cut down the hard scales of the soulsowers with their Battle Axes.

The problem were the gargoyles. Bleu was good against flying enemies like them, but they were too many. The ones he failed to finish off began chasing the retreating train. Bleu went after them, and the kraken after him, knocking down the soldiers in its way.

Its many legs, ondulating heavily like waves of a storm, stretched towards Bleu. If caught by one of those suction cups, he would be slammed down to the ground with no escape. Bleu made the best of his flying skills to fly around the kraken. Its huge body also proved itself terribly resistant to Bleu's lightning breath.

"Let's hit it while it's chasing Sir Bleu," Tyrin shouted. He was leading soldiers carrying Buster Shot cannons loaded with explosive bullets.

Estimating the timing of Bleu's and the soldiers' actions, he cast a Freeze spell. The cold storm assaulted the kraken while turning the falling rain into a hail. A soft part of the monster's body couldn't stand the attack and froze, white. The soldiers concentrated their shots there. The power of their weapons, built in Prompt thanks to the legacies of the Ancients, smashed the kraken's frozen skin.

Leaking blue blood, the monster's anger changed its color to black, and released its poisonous ink, the Aqua Breath, in the direction of Tyrin and the soldiers.

A soldier failed to dodge and was completely covered in the ink, perishing.

"Are you okay, Tyrin?"

Randolf came by after cutting a purple worm into slices, grabbing Tyrin's arm and carrying him to a safe place.

"Couldn't you be a little more gentle?" Tyrin yelled, with water dripping down his beard like a waterfall, and covered in mud. If he had enough energy to complain then he was just fine, Randolf laughed.

"Are you two alright?" Bleu had come back, worried. "Where's Camallia?" He asked, not seeing the girl there.

"She went after the gargoyles, to protect the train. Leave that place to the girls," Randolf said, pointing to the Pao Train, and then the kraken with his thumb, "our priority is doing something about that monster."

Water came down with no mercy on his open mouth.

The train's large shape could be only be dimly seen in the pouring rain. Because of that, it looked farther away than it really was, and Bleu felt anxious. An indescribable fear ran through his veins at the realization that he had left Karin somewhere he couldn't reach.

"Don't worry, Queen Koron and Camallia will handle the girls and the Manual somehow. You heard the King of Bustoke, you don't fight by yourself. We gotta do what we can in our area. Right now, that's defeating that monster," Randolf shouted, sensing Bleu's fear. The rain was so strong that being that loud was the only way to talk.

"Alright, let's do it Tyrin's way one more time. Randolf, you lead the remaining knights and open further the wound they made before. I'll deal with its movements and poison somehow."

Giving these short orders, Bleu flew once again.

Translation notes:

Devil Jewel is written 悪魔のジュエル, with my translation being as literal as it can be (I guess Devil's Jewel could also work, but my translation feels better as a name). However, this is exactly what the Jewel of Evil is called in japanese SF2 as well. They're clearly not the same jewel, as that one is blue, but I figured I'd note that.

Soulsowers. If you don't remember, they are fish enemies from SF2, and I'm using the same name the localization gave them so people can recognize them right away. Their japanese name however is completely different, インスマンス (Insumansu). The term seems to come from the H. P. Lovecraft novel "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", which features fish-faced people. The term インスマス面 (Innsmouth-face, sometimes spelled as インスマウス面 instead) seems to have become a general term for describing characters with fish-faces, or just distorted faces with wide eyes spread too far from each other, or at least that's the gist i got browsing pixiv and nnd. So that mostly explains the name, but I couldn't figure out if the spelling used here is another known alternative spelling or something unique to Shining. Don't ask me where the localization got soulsower from, though. I tried looking the term up and, I just get actual SF2 results lol.

In SF2, the kraken has eight legs and ten arms, here no distinction was made between arms and legs.

Also, Aqua Breath is not poisonous there, but I totally understand the writer changing it to something more threatening and deadly than bubbles. Curiously, Final Conflict, which was released a year after this novel, did include a kraken enemy variant in a different color that had poison attacks. Coincidence? Most likely, but why would I pass an opportunity to mention Final Conflict.

I'm somehow not done talking about the kraken, did you know that it really is coded to be weak to ice magic in SF2? But you don't have access to ice magic in that part of the game so it goes wasted. This was pointed out in at least one strategy guide so the writer might be referencing it. On the other hand though, Freeze is just supposed to be Tyrin's specialty anyway.