Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Paradox Hearts ❯ To Be Worthy ( Chapter 5 )

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Paradox Hearts

Chapter 5: To Be Worthy

By: Melissa Norvell

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The slime headed towards the group at high speed, and everyone stood their ground, ready for whatever was to come. This would be their final moment, the determining factor in their lives.

"I guess this is it. Do or die," Koishii stared down the slime.

Suzanna pulled out her sword. "Alright Lafarga, let's go." Just because they were trapped, it didn't mean that she was about to give up without a fight. She was a God slayer and as such, she would fight to the death, whether it was hers or the god's.

"This will be a test of worthiness in my eyes. I wish you luck against my slime," Lafarga chuckled lightly to himself as the slime made its way to the group, slamming into them.

Suzanna began to combat it the best way she knew how at the moment, she chopped at the slime repetitively. Koishii ran behind a pillar as the slime smashed into it. There was no way that she was going to let that slime grab a hold of her again.

Or so she thought…

The slime snaked around the pilled and latched a hold of her stomach. "Not again!" She screamed in displeasure and irritation as Volgore called out her name.

"Stand back!" Suzanna got in front of him. "Dark Edge!" She called out the name of her attack as she slashed through the substance. 'If one of us has the power, then it's got to be me.' She thought confidently to herself as she kept cutting through the slime, her sword was surrounded by dark energy. The woman jumped up and spun in the air, slashing through the slime that had grabbed Koishii.

The screaming girl fell to the ground and was caught by Volgore.

'Him…' Suzanna's red eye darted back to the Italian.

"Are you alright?" Volgore asked.

"Yeah, thanks to Suzanna. She saved my life," Koishii smiled, happy to know that she was out of that monster's grasp. She was rather tired of seeming like the abducted maiden.

Suzanna landed on one knee as she watched the two, talking casually to each other. 'Why do I have this feeling that if anyone has this power, it's the Italian?' No matter how much she tried to deny it, she couldn't. Something was different about him and she wasn't quite sure what it was. For this moment, she sincerely hoped that her intuition was wrong about such things.

Her attention was distracted as the slime came at her once more, she slashed at it again with her charged up blade and as she did, it busted up into blob-like formations. The blobs turned into blades and launched themselves at everyone. Volgore and Koishii freaked out before they ran behind a pillar, barely missing the attacks. They huddled together as close as they could as the blades took out the walls and other structures around them.

"That was close," Volgore's voice shook a little.

"I think my heart almost stopped. Huh?" Koishii held a hand to her chest before she saw a spear that hung on the wall as a decoration. Even though it was for ornamental purposes, it seemed so real. She hoped that it was, because it was her only hope for a weapon. "Hey, let me down for a moment." She instructed the Italian, who gently sat her down.

The girl ran over to the spear and grabbed it. She also grabbed a large axe that was with it and tossed it over to the model. "Catch!" She called out playfully as Volgore turned to see what was coming at him.

When he caught glance of the blade flying at him, he freaked out and ducked down as the blade of the axe dug into the pillar. He reached up and pulled it out with great ease and blinked a little at how effortless it was. 'Usually it would take more strength to do that…Why do I feel so weird?'

"Now we can protect ourselves against that green slime," Koishii felt a little better, now that she wasn't so defenseless. The dark-haired girl at least knew that she could fight back now if she needed to.

"Right, let's go!" Volgore was excited about fighting. Now that he had a weapon, he could finally do some proper damage to that god and his disgusting slime.

"Volgore?" Koishii questioned.

"Yes?" The Italian turned to her.

"Who do you think has this power that Lafarga is talking about?" She wanted to know his real opinion. If he thought that he had it, then she felt as if he should say something to everyone, instead of letting them think that they could possibly have it themselves. Koishii wasn't the type to think that someone like her would be lucky enough to acquire such a power, but she didn't want to think of possibilities that didn't exist.

"I'm not sure," he semi-lied and glanced down with a frown as black, shaggy bangs that shaded his eyes. In truth, he knew that he had the power, but he felt guilty saying so. He could feel it resonating within his body, and the fact that he pulled the axe out of the pillar so easily only confirmed that fact.

"Do you think Suzanna has it, like she says?"

"No."

"Huh?" Koishii blinked. Could that possibly mean-?

"I think I have it," Volgore said lowly. He heard Koishii question him about the issue, but the slime cut their conversation short as it shot around the pillar, headed for the both of them.

Koishii's orange eyes lit up with shock as she pointed to the slim in horror. "Look out!"

Volgore immediately responded, turning around and swinging the axe through it with such strength that it completely destroyed the wave of slime and splattered it everywhere. He thanked Koishii for the warning as the girl swung her spear at the offending slime cutting her way through it.

"What are you doing?" Suzanna saw the two swinging at the slime.

"I'm fighting for my life. I finally found a weapon. Even if it is only a wall decoration," Volgore continued to swing at the slime, breaking it up into smaller and smaller pieces.

"You sure don't act like you're tired," the white-haired woman noted suspiciously. Something wasn't quite right about all of this. Volgore hadn't slept in days; he should have been passed out on the floor by now.

"I don't know what happened, but I don't feel worn down like I did before. Maybe I managed to rest up, eh?" Volgore made an excuse to the woman. He wasn't quite sure of how to tell her that he accidentally acquired the power that she had searched so long and hard for.

"We've got to find a way through this crap and defeat Lafarga. If we keep worrying about keeping the slime away, we'll wear down too," she ignored the rising suspicions in her at the moment. She would settle things with the Italian model later.

"This is just a test…isn't it? That's what Lafarga said," he didn't see a reason to worry much anymore. Now that he knew that he had the power, all he had to do was figure out how to release it and Lafarga would stop his relentless attacks.

"Execution Strike!" Suzanna ran ahead of everyone, headed straight for Lafarga. When she was half-way to the serpent, she held her blade behind her head and sliced down with as much force as she could. The force of her strike created a large whip of white energy that slammed into the God, but it didn't harm him due to a barrier that he placed around himself.

"I should commend you for trying to strike me directly. However, it won't work," Lafarga blasted everyone back with a forceful wind.

Volgore was flung into a wall like he was nothing. Twin rivers of tears rolled down his eyes as he felt the force of the pain. Suzanna tried to hold her ground, but was blown off of her feet, and Koishii was sent flying backwards into a pile of slime.

"Ew!" The girl exclaimed in disgust.

"Are you done? Is that all you have? Even with your new found power, you can't even make a dent in me," Lafarga watched the group, who all looked like limp dolls at the point. Even if one of them truly had the power, they didn't know how to handle it properly and were unworthy of such a great honor.

Volgore slowly pulled himself up from the ground. "I have to defeat him."

"Why is he stronger than Vocal?" Suzanna winced from the toll her body had taken. "Is he some type of special God?" She had heard of such things before, but she never dreamed that she would meet such a divine being.

"Special God?" Koishii tried to wipe the slime off of herself.

"A special God is a God that holds higher status over sub-Gods. Vocal was a sub-God. The special Gods are the ultimate masters of their entity and govern the sub-Gods," Suzanna explained.

Lafarga further explained the 'special Gods' to everyone as being the oldest type of Gods who have been in creation from the point of the world's existence. He was one of the special Gods, who provided the world with beautiful vegetation that allowed it to flourish and survive.

"Do you know the Girl of Anai?" Koishii asked. Surely someone that old must have been around to at least see her.

"I know if her, but we have never met. Why do you seek out the Girl of Anai?" Lafarga asked.

"I want to know how to get back to my world. She brought me here and I can't get back to my home world without her," Volgore explained his predicament to the God.

"My reasons are strictly my own. I trust them to no one, human or God," Suzanna narrowed her visible eye.

Lafarga wasn't too amused with that answer. He sent a powerful wave of energy that knocked all of them back again. Volgore tried to hold his ground, but his body slammed into the ground again. Koishii flew backwards and Suzanna stumbled over herself to keep her balance.

'I will strike him. I can't keep being flung around like this.' Volgore thought to himself with determination. He dug his axe blade into the ground and pulled himself up. The model broke out into a dead run and drew his weapon back. The man broke the barrier between the two, and slammed his weapon down, wounding the God in the neck.

Lafarga roared in pain, and Koishii's gasped with wide eyes. Suzanna nearly dropped her sword, staring in disbelief.

'W-What? It-It can't be!' The woman's body trembled in shock. She could feel the power radiate from the man's body. It was truly remarkable. "He has the power? How can this be? When the box came open, it must have gone to the person closest to it…Which would have been…Volgore…"

"Huh?" Koishii only heard Volgore's name uttered. What was the white-haired god slayer talking about? What about Volgore?

"Volgore has the power…" She couldn't believe it. She absolutely couldn't believe that the man had obtained the very thing that she tried so hard to seek all of this time.

"He did tell me that he thought that he had it, because he had the box at the time," Koishii informed.

"Eh…" Lafarga uttered, flinching at his newly obtained wound. "You're the one who's been bestowed the power of illusion."

"What is this power, eh? Since you know about it, why don't you tell me?" Volgore replied. Since everyone knew that the power had been transferred to his body, he wanted to know what he was capable of, or possibly how to unlock such a power.

"The only human ever to hit me is one with this vast power. You have a great skill of concentration. That aids you in perfecting its abilities. You can do many things with this power. It allows you to use illusionary magic or magic that leaves an opponent seeming fine on the outside, but completely devastates them on the inside, much like you did me," the God admitted as blood flowed down his neck from the severity of the wound that the Italian had caused. It was a much deeper infliction than he thought. "You'll also become incredibly tough, able to live through most anything that isn't a vital blow. Anyone who seeks this power out is usually those with the intention of becoming a sub-God or a God in general."

"So…Volgore is like a God?" Koishii wondered aloud.

"No, he is simply superhuman," Lafarga corrected.

"But, he'll get a lot stronger, right?" That was the way she understood it anyway.

"Yes, he may have the potential some day."

"Me? Become a God? That's a little far-fetched, don't you think so?" Volgore laughed a little at such a presumption. There was no true way that a human could become a God. It was a nice dream, but out of his league.

"No…" Suzanna's lowered voice cut through his nervous laugh.

"Eh?" Volgore looked at the woman, who wore a downcast gaze of defeat.

"You all take this so lightly, but you don't even know how important this power is," Suzanna clenched her fists at her sides. 'Damn him…Damn him for accidentally stealing something from me that I've been searching for all of this time. That power would have meant changing this world if I would have gotten a hold of it. Now what do I do? I guess I'll just have to find that stone and book.'

"What's going to happen?" Koishii looked to the wounded God. "What are you going to do with us, Lafarga?"

"I simply wanted to rest assured that the one I bestowed this power on would be capable to handle it. Now that I've seen that he has potential enough, I can rest easily. Good luck on finding your way back to your home worlds," Lafarga said kindly as his slime twisted and turned, heading out of the temple. Then, Lafarga himself dissolved into slime and shot out of the stone building, busting through the double doors before he headed straight up into the blue skies above and completely disappeared from sight.

Everyone then turned to Volgore, who looked completely tired and could barely even stand on his own two feet.

"Now everyone has a power but me…"Koishii sighed to herself a little, "but I'm happy that you're stronger now, Volgore."

Suzanna crossed her arms over her chest, still irritated at her own bad luck. "Ugh…I wanted that power…you jackass," she muttered before she heard a loud thump. All sights were on the Italian, who laid down in a crumpled heap on the stone floor of the temple. Koishii and Suzanna both looked shocked to see that he had fainted, right after he proclaimed to feel just fine.

"Are you okay?" Koishii asked, worried.

"I can't move. I completely used up my strength," the man stated. "I haven't had any sleep in four days, and since I've gotten here, I haven't done anything but fight."

"You poor guy. You should rest," the dark-haired girl could see how burnt out he was. His body trembled with fatigue and he was cold to the touch.

"You're too kind…" Volgore said in an exhausted tone before he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

"We should be headed to the city district," Suzanna said lowly as Koishii watched the black-haired man sleep.

"You shouldn't have pushed him so hard, you know. He's completely worn out. I can tell that you exhausted him," the girl knelt by the man and stroked his hair while he slept.

"Couldn't he have held out until then? This is very inconvenient," the white-haired woman scoffed.

"I don't think that your body times itself for that," she replied as Suzanna peeled Volgore off of the ground. "What are you doing?"

"We'll head to the city district while he sleeps, then we'll get some rest ourselves," Suzanna stated. The last thing that she wanted to do was stay in that temple where something else could easily happen.

Koishii nodded. "What do we do when we get there? I'm not sure I have enough money for a hotel room." She was pretty sure that most of it had probably gotten lost in their fight with Lafarga. She'd been tossed around so much, who knew what fell out of her pockets?

"I think I'll have enough to cover all three of us for a day or two," Suzanna replied. After that, who knew what she was going to do?

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The two headed off in the direction of the city district. Suzanna carried Volgore on her back while Koishii held his axe in one hand and her spear in the other. She glanced at the dark-haired man's face as he slept. His long, black lashes were shut and his wispy, dark hair flowed in the light breeze.

"Really? That's kind of you," Koishii commented with a smile.

"Do anything else and pay for it yourself," Suzanna replied coldly. It was bad enough that she didn't get what she had quested for, now she had to put up with the sorry excuse for a human on a daily basis until she could find another way to obtain her power. "I'm not made of money."

"Of course. I'll get a job for a while," Koishii tried to remain positive. "I'm sure I can find something to do to help out."

"Good, and keep that spear. You might need it."

"Is he heavy?"

"He is, but he's all muscle mass," Suzanna was shocked at that fact. "I can't believe he was the one to receive Lafarga's power."

"That must have meant a lot to you. You seem really upset about it," Koishii noted, looking a little worried. She hoped that nothing bad resulted from this incident. Volgore really was trying to give her the box when the earthquake struck.

"That was a major part of my quest. I've been searching years to get that power." Those words didn't help her feel better about it in the least bit, and the fact that Suzanna was so bitter about it didn't change anything either.

"Do you hate him for it?"

"No, it's just a minor set-back to my plans, but maybe he can help me achieve what I desire. Say, Koishii, what is it in this world that you desire?" She had been so busy concentrating on obtaining a power that she didn't get; Suzanna failed to ask the girl what her goal was.

"Huh?" Koishii didn't figure that anyone would care about her personal goals.

"You know as well as I do that people are only transported here because they want to obtain something or they have an unfulfilled wish in their past life. So, what is your wish?" Suzanna asked again. Everyone in the world they were in may have been different, but they held common factors: they were all unsatisfied with what their former life had brought them and they had a desired wish that they would give anything to fulfill. Surely, this girl held those same traits, no matter how normal she might have seemed.

"Oh," the girl thought for a moment, placing a finger to her chin. "I've never thought about that before."

"You don't have a goal? Kind of odd, don't you think?" It was an unheard of case, in fact. What was her deal? How could she even exist in a world like this if she had no goal or aspiration?

"I guess it is when I think about it. A dream or wish I want to fulfill…" The girl thought really hard about what wish she'd want to have fulfilled. "I never thought about it but when I do, I guess it's a generic wish, and everyone wants to be loved. What about Volgore? What's his wish?"

She knew that one of them was to go back to his home, but what were his other wishes? Did he have any other wishes?

"Aside from wanting to return home, I don't know," Suzanna never bothered to ask him about anything either.

"I was shocked to see him here. He's so famous; I've been his fan for a long time, even since he acted in a television drama five years ago." Not only was the girl excited about seeing the Italian superstar, but she couldn't believe that she had finally gotten the chance to meet him, touch him and even be saved by him.

It was like a dream come true.

"He's an actor too?" What didn't this guy do?

"Oh yes, and he sings and dances," Koishii noted the man's many talents.

"Yeah, he made that apparent," Suzanna dead panned. Volgore only admitted to one of the aforementioned things constantly when she met him. Or rather, when he landed on her upon arriving in this new world.

"I used to dream about spending a day with him, or just meeting the man I've admired all of this time." There were stars in Koishii's eyes as she said the phrases so lovingly.

Great, an obsessed fan girl and her teen idol. Why was Suzanna not impressed?

"I guess irony played out well in our case. Now you have a while to be with him," the same applied for her too. She would be with these people until her mission was over. When she thought about it, it didn't seem too bad.

"That makes me happy. Even though I'm nervous about this journey, I think I'm excited at the same time. It'll be fun," the girl beamed. In Suzanna's mind, she didn't know what she was saying about such a thing.

"I just hope this Italian idiot is going to use this power correctly. I'll be really mad if he doesn't." For now, it was the only thing that Suzanna could hope for. If she couldn't have the power to herself, then she hoped that whoever it went to would use it wisely.

Soon, the two women were gazing over the city district. It was bustling with people and seemed quite lively. They were sure to be able to rest in one of the nearby inns, and it was a good thing too. Suzanna was tired of carrying the extra baggage around.

"Wooow…It's amazing!" Koishii was excited over all of the people, booths and things that they were selling. There was actually a lot of stuff to do and attractions to see. It was a great improvement over the countryside, and anything without temples and slime made her happy for the moment. She would be happy when she could get a shower and rinse off the disgusting feel of the slime.

"This is the city district. Come on; let's find an inn to stay at. I'm tired of carrying this guy," Suzanna complained.

"Okay, we'll go and rest up. After that, we'll find jobs and figure out what to do from here," Koishii had a game plan and she was determined to go through with it. 'Something tells me that I'm in store for more than I could ever begin to find out. I just hope that I'm strong enough to keep up with them.'

…To Be Continued