The King's Beloved

[Music Recommendation: "Bound by Fate" by Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Cross OST) - available in Spotify or Youtube]

After hours of flying in the sky, avoiding every monster they could avoid, and fighting those who still managed to sense their presence despite the invisibility magic, Clavis' team soon arrived at the Shrine of Bronte. 

Lots of monsters could also be found around the shrine. This time, Aqua and Caligo were left outside. Clavis thought that Ventus would be a great help in the battle this time since he was the fastest Guardian. Based on his knowledge, thunder-elemental monsters had the highest speed attacks and movements, so they needed someone to match them. 

The team headed inside the shrine, where they left Terra and Saburra to clean the area of monsters. Clavis, Selena, Illuminaire, Ducis, and Ventus continued to the innermost place where Bronte's yellow crystal obelisk stood. In front of it was a Dark Cerberus lying on the ground, sleeping soundly, and guarding the crystal. 

The Dark Cerberus had three heads that looked like that of a hound, facing in different directions. Its short fur was black and had yellow stripes shaped like lightning, and a dark glow surrounded its body.

"It's sleeping?" Selena whispered. "Seriously? Does it think we're so weak that we can't defeat it even when it's asleep?"

"Now that you mention it, it does sound frustrating," Ventus, who also felt annoyed, complained with her.

Being a fan of great battles, Ventus stepped forward and approached the Dark Cerberus first. Probably feeling the immense aura he was releasing, the monster's noses twitched and soon opened its dark golden eyes. It stared coldly at him, then got up and stretched its body.

"Tsk. The nerve of this guy," Ventus clicked his tongue. "Let's see who's the better, Cerberus."

SWOOSH!

With a grand sweep, the battle of speed began. Ventus transformed himself into a Cerberus and attacked the monster with all his might. The team could only stand at bay and watch the scene like watching two sonic hounds fighting against each other. You could barely see the silhouette of their bodies, only flashes of light and thunder from one corner to the other!

Due to their intense speed that anyone could barely keep up with, the dust in the ground soon filled the air. Mixed with the random magic they keep shooting at each other,  the dust soon became fog and blurred everyone's views.

"Ahmm… How do we help him?" Selena reluctantly asked. "With all honesty, I can't see them anymore. I don't know where to attack. Is Guardian Ventus winning? Did he deal any damage to the enemy?"

"Hm… They're on par with each other," Clavis answered. "They keep attacking each other, but they're both fast enough to evade each attack. In fact, they move faster than the magic they cast."

"What?! Then how will this fight even end? Should we just wait until they're exhausted?"

"That's one option, but we might lose too much time than necessary."

"Aww, that's true." Turning to Ducis, Selena asked, "You're the Guardian of Time and Space, right?"

"Yes, I am. Why?"

"Do you think you can maybe slow down the time, or just the monster's time so it will move slowly? That way, we can help Guardian Ventus in dealing damage."

"… It will be tough, but I can give it a try."

"Yes! Thank you!"

Ducis then tried to focus all of his energy on slowing down the Dark Cerberus' time. It was one thing to simply stop the time of everyone in the whole surrounding, but another if it's just one person or, in this case, a monster. He had to be quick enough to see where the monster was and faster to cast the magic on him instead of hitting Ventus incorrectly. 

But then again, he was THE Ducis, so he managed to do it despite the complexity of everything. With a wave of his hand, the Dark Cerberus' movements slowed down. He tried if he could stop its time completely, but it was too strong for him to control, so he settled in slowing it down instead.

Noticing this, Ventus took the chance to launch more critical attacks on the monster. Clavis, Selena, and Illuminaire joined the fight as well in offense. There was barely any need to defend themselves, so they all focused on offense, sending rains of magic attacks to the monster.

The Dark Cerberus was driven into a corner by their attacks. Suffering much damage, it got furious and decided to clone itself to even out the battle. Two more Dark Cerberus appeared before them, turning the tides of battle. They were both as strong and as fast as the original one, making it much difficult for the team to defeat.

Ducis tried to work on all three monsters to slow their time, but one would manage to lounge at him and break the magic. Due to this, Selena decided to help and managed to cast slow magic into one of them so that Ducis could focus on the other two.

The battle went on for hours, with neither side winning or losing. When one side tilted the balance, the other would counter back.

"Haah… Haah… Haah."

Heavy breathing could be heard from everyone.

"Is there no way to subdue this monster completely?" Illuminaire asked. "We've been fighting it for hours and draining our magic for nothing."

"Earth magic can nullify its effect, but it can mostly serve as defensive magic depending on composition. Offensive earth magic requires a more solid composition found in metals, and metals are a conductor of lightning, so it won't work," Clavis explained. "Fire, water, ice, and sand are not good as well. Light and dark might work, but we need to break their barrier first. The monster's body is filled with lightning magic, and we can't penetrate to deal critical damage unless the barrier is damaged."

"Breaking its barrier, huh?" Selena murmured. Turning to Ventus, she called out to him, "Guardian Ventus! Lightning travels through air, right?"

Ventus, who was busily counter-attacking, barely managed to answer her.

"Huh? Uh, yeah. Why?"

"Can you make magic that disables its flow? Like nullifying the lightning or something?"

"Nullifying lightning by stopping it from flowing in the air?" Clavis muttered to himself. "That's rather unique. But yes, lightning is produced by the electrical charges in the air, so maybe it can work."

Ventus thought for a moment, trying to imagine how he's gonna do it. A little excitement filled his heart.

"Alright, let's do this!"

The team then helped Ventus to focus on his magic. They distracted the Dark Cerberus and its clones with rains of attacks once more. By the time he was ready, a blinding glow had filled both of his hands. In a loud shout, he said.

"Disruption!"

Suddenly, the glow from his hands filled the entire area, and thunder crackles could be heard all around. Green sparkles filled the air. 

The Dark Cerberus tried attacking using his magic, but then nothing happened. Just a sound of crackling from trying to form the magic, but it couldn't travel. Along with it, the glow from his whole body died down, signifying his barrier was gone.

With lips smiling widely, the whole team took the chance to finally subdue the monster. They created highly concentrated magic and attacked the Dark Cerberus one after another. Soon enough, the monster, who couldn't defend itself anymore, fell down on its knees. The clones dissipated in the air, and with a final attack from Selena, as Ventus suggested:

"Hey, little human! You thought of the idea, go deal the final blow!"

With much excitement, Selena lifted both her hands and created a giant wind blade in the air. At the wave of her hand, it shot straight to the Dark Cerberus, ending its life.

"We did it!"

"YEAH!"

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