Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Sacrifice ❯ Plant Goddess Flora ( Chapter 31 )

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Sacrifice

Chapter 31: Plant Goddess Flora

By: Melissa Norvell

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"Chichiri-kun!" Fife waved from his position on the other side of the clearing as he attempted to get the blonde's attention. The confused man then recognized them and called out to the two, running towards them as fast as his feet could carry him. As he was nearly half way to them, the ground suddenly exploded in front of him as what appeared to be a giant flower burst through the ground and threw his form back. The blonde fell on his butt a few feet away as stones fell down. None of them were big enough to cause any damage. He could hear Keiji ask if he was alright as his blue eyes stared up at the monstrous, anemone-looking pink flower. "Yeah…I just randomly got attacked by a plant."

Fife pulled out his sword. "Well, let's go."

"What?" Keiji looked at the other male in confusion. He couldn't believe that the navy-haired male would jump into this without even thinking things through. It wasn't like Fife to jump head on into the action. He usually stayed back and watched his enemies.

"She obviously wants to fight," his expression was serious and he wore no smile on his face.

"But the others aren't here yet," Keiji told him and, as if by the mention of them, Undine and Musashi stumbled through the brush on a different side of the clearing. The green-haired drummer called out their names and Undine replied that she came as quickly as she could.

Flora turned her attention to the Wind Cavern who had just shown himself and uttered his name. Musashi had stopped and gazed upon the majestic plant goddess, who had asked him what the meaning of this turn of events was. Before the hooded bird could respond, everyone in the clearing could hear Azmy and Ko's voices as they neared them. It seemed like everyone had finally found their way together or at least most of them had.

"This way!"

"Wait!"

The voices called out as the two girls stumbled out of the bushes. Azmy was first and upon catching Flora's piercing blood-red gaze she stopped stiff, as if she'd been petrified by her presence. Ko nearly ran into her and both of their forms went crashing to the ground as they both let out screams. The white-haired girl sat on the ground, rubbing her head, which had nearly collided with her friends.

"Would you mind not stopping at such random-Oh my God!" Ko responded as she gazed up at the massive conglomeration of vines and flowers. "It's her."

"It's Azmy and Ko," Undine stated as she looked at the two girls.

"Glad that you made it!" Musashi seemed happy with their appearance.

"Everyone's here but Tsurugi and Hiroshima," Keiji looked around for any sight of the angels but found none.

"Flora! Why are you killing the people of Chikyuhana?" The Wind Cavern looked at the goddess and while his eyes could not be seen, it was obvious by his tone of voice that his expression was grave.

"None of you know…None of you can understand what I do…I feel the pain of the planet as it slowly dies around me. The constant suffering that humans put it through," Flora told them calmly although her voice held content for those who stood before her.

"Not all humans are like that," Azmy defended her race. She knew that there were some humans who helped the earth and did everything they could to keep the plants and natural things about the Earth safe.

"The people of the village are abusing your plants and-" Keiji began but he was quickly cut off.

"Let me guess, you understand but…" Flora glared down at the boy with hair the color of the plant leaves.

"We aren't from this village," he responded. Keiji didn't think that she cared because they were humans in general but felt that maybe it put her soul at least a little to know that they were outside of the abuse.

"Then why do you see fit to be engaged in their problems?" Flora argued their presence and point of even being face to face with her. Why would they protect those who didn't deserve it and they had no business for even defending them.

"We were appointed to, actually," Fife chimed in, his voice calm but overall happy.

"Raiki must have sent you," the goddess knew that Raiki had been concerned about her unstable attitude towards him and if Musashi was with them as a guide then there was no doubt in her mind that Raiki had something to do with the fact that they were even there.

"He did," Fife told her.

"He thinks that my actions are unruly, doesn't he?"

"Yes, he asked us to fight you if need there be. You mustn't kill the people here," Musashi told her gravely.

"Do you honestly think that the amount of human life can be placed higher than that of plants? If it weren't for plants, humans would all be dead. They provide oxygen for human consumption."

"But humans exhale carbon dioxide for the plants to breathe. It's all a balance really," Fife pointed out.

"The scales are tipped in the human's favor, clearly," the malevolent goddess argued.

"But not all humans are that way. Can't we talk about this?" Ko asked. Surely there was something that could be done with compromise instead of war. After her fight with Elf Kaizer, she really didn't want to fight against the goddess unless she had to.

"I'm afraid not," Flora rejected her offer, "the humans of this city wish to use the plants and I cannot allow them to be treated so unjustly and misused by the humans."

"You shouldn't punish them all for something a few do," a familiar young voice cut into their conversation.

Flora looked over to the two angels, who had finally found their way to her. "Angels…" The vine-dragon-said lowly but civilly, "you of all people wouldn't understand. You're too busy protecting the weak and so gung-ho for human kind."

"Fuck humans," Hiroshima shot as he narrowed his eyes.

"What?"

"Humans are the reason that the spiritual beings are suffering so much. It's their own selfish endeavors that cause us to grow cold."

"What are you saying?" Ko was flabbergasted by the spiky-haired man's statement. If he hated them so much then why was he even with them and why did he save Keiji from Elf Kaizer?

"Who's side are you on!?" Chichiri was frustrated. It seemed that every time he thought he'd figured Hiroshima out, he had to go and say something that made him seem totally wrong in assumption as to what the angel's intentions were.

"Humans should burn in hell and I agree with you. They use and abuse so many things on this earth. They are capable of catastrophic consequences. They turn angels dark and give evil beings a reason to sin and anger gods like yourself. I don't agree with this anymore then you do but I also agree with Musashi on some aspects," Hiroshima told the plant goddess.

"You do?" Musashi was surprised that the dark angel would actually agree with the goddess.

"This is not the way to handle the situation."

"It will just make them hate you," the Wind Cavern told the plant goddess. He agreed with Hiroshima's previous statement.

"Why should I care? I hate them back. I will never back down and I will never stop slaughtering the ungrateful who steal and covet my children."

"Don't do this, Flora," Musashi attempted a final plea. He didn't think the vine-dragon would listen to him but if he could avoid a fight with her then he would try his hardest not to. He wished that Flora would simply talk things out and all of the misunderstandings between them may very well be solved.

"If you continue to defend them, then I must kill you as well." Though her voice seemed uncaring, there was a small depiction of deep-set emotion that could even be deciphered as cryptic regret. She seemed more like a hurt mother figure then something that was truly evil.

"What if we win?" Ko asked.

"Win? Against a goddess? Not to sound arrogant but you are humans and angels, servants of the gods."

"Or one would cliché us that way," Hiroshima in toned.

"Gods are powerful then you could ever fathom. We create and destroy…and those ridiculous myths and fairytales you speak and write about a normal or even advanced human beating one of us is pure lunacy," the goddess was amused that the human race would create such rubbish to make themselves seem like they could conquer the gods or even be their equal.

"I'm on my own side and I'll tell you this; I'm no ordinary angel."

"Then you'll die an extraordinary death!" The vine-dragon nearly laughed as the thrashed her might head around and multiple vines shot fourth from the earth and headed straight for them. Azmy uttered an 'oh no' in a barely audible voice as she looked upon the ghastly sight with fear in her eyes. Hiroshima and Tsurugi managed to jump out of the way as vines shot up from the ground beneath them.

Fife looked at Keiji was a placid smile. "Well, here we go."

"I really don't want to do this," the other boy murmured ruefully.

"I'll protect you Keiji-kun," the navy-haired boy looked straight into Keiji's eyes with a look of devotion that nearly rendered him speechless. All he could do was utter the other's name and blush a slight pink at Fife's words. Never had anyone offered to protect him, aside from Hiroshima.

"Look out!" Fife's look of devotion transformed into a playful smile as a vine shot down from the sky, attempting to smash them. Taking the other male's hand, the two of them jumped out of the way before they had become one with the ground. As they were jumping into a nearby tree, Keiji looked down at the vines below them, which were snaking along the ground or up in the air, much like a cobra ready to strike.

"Those vines…" He uttered. "There's something different about them."

Fife stood on one of the tree's sturdy branches and gazed down at them. "The odds are definitely against us here."

"Jump!" Keiji yelled as the both were able to dodge some foreign leaves which flew at them and embedded themselves into the branch they had been perched on.

"Making a windstorm won't do any good," Tsurugi made mental notation as he flew in the air.

"I have a feeling that the Crimson won't be able to slice through her vines like it did with those lackey plants," Hiroshima observed from his position on the ground. He didn't have much time to state another word as a flower bursts through the ground beneath his feet. The spiky-haired man jumped out of the way and uttered a low curse beneath his breath.

"Are you sure that you'll be able to fight well?" Keiji asked the wingless angel. He still seemed a little concerned for Hiroshima's well being.

"I'm fine. I've fought in worse condition."

'I have a feeling I won't be able to hide my abilities for long.' Fife thought with a sorrowful smile as he jumped out of the way of another offending vine.

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"What do we do?" Ko asked from her position across the clearing.

"I don't know," Azmy looked down as vines shot up around her and brought themselves down in an attempt to crush the girls. Azmy's face turned serious as she turned and opened fire on the plants but her bullets simply bounced off. The girl's slate blue eyes widened in shock and revelation and before she could shake off the fear to react, the vine was already on her. It slammed into the ground below with great force and created a mass cloud of dirt and debris. Chichiri called to the girls as his vision was clouded. All that could be heard was Ko's scream as the girl created a barrier with her staff to shield them against the onslaught of vines.

"What?" Flora asked in disbelief although her stoic features never changed in emotion. She watched as her vines bounced off and headed towards the drummer at a fast pace. He then let out a yell and managed to do a back flip to avoid the strike and as his body was in mid-air, one of the vines managed to get beneath him. This vine was headed back to Flora. His feet touched the vine as he ran up its length to come into contact with the goddess. Using Fife's sword he would attempt to strike her. 'We've come so far…' The drummer thought to himself as flashbacks of the Dark Bride, Kabuto's death, Vespa, Fable, Ceres' nearly life-ending blast, Musashi, Tsurugi's chains of despair, Lumina and Elf Kaizer, being encased in Pandora's Casket and Hiroshima's wings being cut off ran through his head in vivid clarity. 'There's no way I'm turning back now.'

'That foolish boy,' the vine-dragon thought as she watched him near her. It was indeed foolish to attempt to strike her now in the battle. The boy jumped up and flipped down to slash the goddess, who preformed an attack called solar beam. She turned with the giant flower on her back facing him as it gathered particles of sunlight and began to glow on iridescent yellow. It then fired a large beam at him and as he shielded himself and braced the attack, his form still came at her. He was determined to get a hit in on her, even if he risked fatal injury. It just might be the thing they need to win this battle.

'What's that damned kid doing?' Hiroshima thought as he observed the situation from a few feet away.

"Please…" Fife said in a kind and gentle voice as he drew a kanji symbol in the air with his index finger. "Protect Keiji-kun…"

"Huh?" Keiji blinked as a larger version of Fife's symbol appeared in front of him and shielded him from the most potentially dangerous part of Flora's Solar Beam. This gave Keiji the advantage and he managed to cut a pink petal off of the large flower on the vine-dragon's back.

"What!? Impossible!" Flora outraged. Never before had a human been able to touch her. 'How did he manage to get through my Solar Beam?'

"Air Rip Wound!" The goddess could hear Tsurugi's voice from behind her as the angel gathered wind in the palm of his hand and made his body erect in the air, extending his arm above his head. Winds shot through the ground and tore up the plant and dirt matter beneath them at terrible force. They ripped through the vine-dragon's form. Her red eyes widened in realization as a tree sprouted up and was ripped to shreds by the forceful winds.

"Somehow I didn't think that would work," the blonde angel's light-hearted voice chimed. He figured even though it failed that it was worth a try.

"Sakura Petals!" The goddess called out as cherry blossom petals flew at them with piercing edges.

"Damn, I can't pray to save them," Hiroshima put up a protection barrier that bore the same magical symbol as the one Fife used to save Keiji. This worked in the navy-haired boy's favor because now Keiji could write it off as Hiroshima saving his life. This way Fife could hide his magical ability.

'The symbol…It's him!' Keiji made a connection between the identical symbols.

'How amusing, I wonder if Hiroshima did that to help me out, although I doubt it. He is an interesting one to observe, however. So complex…a true enigma,' Fife thought as he looked to the wingless angel with observant eyes. He still had to wonder if it was a pure coincidence or if Hiroshima was actually trying to cover for him to help him out.

"Thanks," Ko thanked the angel.

"Yeah, thanks for protecting me against the Solar Beam," Keiji told him.

"That wasn't me," Hiroshima looked slightly confused.

"But that symbol-"

"Wasn't mine."

"Then who?" Keiji asked as another flower burst through the ground between he, Ko and Hiroshima. All of them let out a yell as they were flung in different directions by the force and the ground's upheaval. Clods of dirt, rocks and plants flew up around them.

"Okay!" Ko stood a few feet away. "I'm getting really MAD," she screamed the last word into the microphone as sonic waves were sent out across the land. Flora cast a barrier. "Crap," the girl cursed to herself as Flora then said 'reflect' and the waves came back

"What?" Hiroshima's face lit up with surprise as the waves hit them.

"That's it!" Chichiri shouted. He had indeed had enough of everything and his frustration had built up to a point that he had just had it with all of the hardships that they had been put through. He was going to do something and do something quickly. "I'm tired of this!"

"Pathetic…" Flora tossed her head from side to side and sent large, crescent shaped energy waves at him. The blonde man screamed as he was hit with a large leaf and his form was thrown into a tree. His well-muscled body bounced off of the tree and landed on the ground, his hammer being thrown from his hand and landing on the ground a few feet away. It spun with the impact and slowly came to a stop.

"Small attacks won't work on her. The battle will go the same way if we keep doing things this way," Fife advised.

"You're right, let's step it up," Undine agreed.

"Wind Arrow!" Tsurugi called out as he drew up the winds to shape themselves into a crystal bow with an arrow composed of nothing but wind. Flora counterattacked with a solar beam that shot from the flowers which had burst through the ground earlier in the battle.

Thinking quickly, Keiji sliced the flowers' stems. They came crashing down to the ground and their glow stopped. 'If I get rid of these then I don't have to worry about those Solar Beams.' After all, if there were no flowers then there would be no beams and it would make their battle easier to get rid of things that aid Flora so her attack strength would be less.

"I'm tired of toying with you," Hiroshima had finally decided that he had no choice but to pull out the Crimson Blade. "So let's try something a little different."

Azmy was still trying her luck with shooting the vines but nothing she tried seem to be working. Her bullets kept bouncing off of the hard walls of the vines. "Oh, I can't do it!" The short-haired girl called out in dismay as she screamed and jumped up to avoid the vines but they came at her and attempted to wrap around her. Ko then screamed 'back off' into her staff and managed to blast them away. The white-haired girl put a hand to her throat.

"A person could lose their voice from this kind of stuff."

Trees shot up in front of Ko as her waves fried them to nothing but barren branches and charred wood. Flora then commented that she felt as if she was in a chess game of sorts. Keiji sliced at her and was knocked backwards before he could even touch Flora.

"Physical attacks will do nothing to me," Flora informed as Musashi flapped his wings and created Artic winds and chilled the flowers, causing them to die. "Perennials always blossom back," the goddess informed as the chilled and dead stalks of the flowers sprouted fourth with new buds and they blossomed and shot beams at everyone once more. As the beams shot into the ground around them, they dodged all of the beams.

"Yahh!: Chichiri yelled as he saw the light coming at him and ran behind a tree as he barely avoided being hit with it. "That was scary!"

"No more playing around," the vine-dragon told them callously as vines shot up from all places in the ground. Azmy tried to avoid them by jumping into a tree, but the branches of the tree grabbed her and held her in place. The girl let out a scream that caused Chichiri to acknowledge her predicament. He tried to aid her by jumping into the tree to get her but a vine wrapped itself around his ankle. He could hear Hiroshima called out for the Crimson Blade as he stared at it with a frown. He could also see Tsurugi weaving through the vines.

'There are far too many of them,' the blonde angel said as his form weaved in, out and around them in order to avoid them. He had to perform acrobatic moves to dodge their onslaught. Keiji wan up to one as another came down, the boy managed to jump to the right and spin in the air, slicing it in half. He then landed and was sweating and panting with exhaustion.

"Damn it…" He cursed. 'I'm already wearing down.'

"Ha!" Hiroshima called out as he raised his sword up and stabbed down. His blade tasted the rich, vivid blood and sprayed a vast amount of it into the air. At that moment in time, everyone's sights were upon him and their looks startled and flabbergasted at what they had witnessed. Hiroshima had stabbed himself in the chest, so much so that the blade was sticking out of his back, slightly right of his spinal column.

"What are you doing?" Keiji asked in an angry tone. Hiroshima had this bad habit of getting hurt over and over again. He'd just healed yet again and now he was injured.

"Are you psychotic?" Chichiri was in disbelief. Why would he stab himself so suddenly? He knew the battle was grave but it didn't have to come to this! How could he just commit suicide like that! It wasn't like him at all.

The spiky-haired angel smiled a demented smirk as he chuckled wickedly and almost in a deranged manner. Blood dripped from his blade as it trailed across the length of it. He savagely pushed it all of the way into his body to where the hilt of it met up with the flesh on his chest. The angel held it with both hands firmly.

"Now, the fun begins."

To Be Continued…