Cristophy was working late at night finishing some grading when she felt the resonance from Neo-Bahamut's summon. "I don't know what to do now, but I'm afraid for Asal, I hope he remembered to take those herbal supplements and pills to stop the darkness elemental, otherwise he's in trouble and I can't help him. I can't get near that monster, not after what that last summoner did to me."
Meanwhile, the people at the lake notice that something is wrong when Neo-Bahamut lets out a loud roar. These were students at the undergrad level, so they are not involved in sorcery. However, they decided to run toward the scream because they were curious what it was. Upon seeing the monster everyone except for one girl ran away from Neo-Bahamut. The girl noticed Asal lying there and waited because she was afraid for his sake. The girl tried to sneak up toward Asal and in doing so found a bush and listened to more of the dialogue.
"Asal, look you're worthless in power before me, and all I had to have was your self-hatred to be summoned. Hahahaha, now I will destroy the Earth." The girl in the bushes was freaked out but also knew that she had to get near Asal to try to protect him. So she runs out from the bush and does a straight line dive near Asal. She is able to touch his arm as Neo-Bahamut is laughing maniacally at his victory. At this point, Asal snaps slightly out of his funk and notices that someone is touching him. He is happy because he's getting what he wants, but still scared for the precarious position he is in. He asks the girl's name.
"Victoria, I'm Victoria".
"Nice, I'm Asal."
"You're going to be okay, you just have to calm down a little."
"You do realize I summoned death incarnate, right?"
"No, I'm not a sorcery student, so I don't know what you did."
"Wow, then why did you come here."
"Instinct, and I do have some sorcery skills, just no formal training. I'm a light elemental."
"Ooh, a light elemental, that's why you can help me."
"Yeah, I can summon a basic spell but I need some more advanced magic to help get you out of this situation."
"Well, I don't know what we can do, we can cast sorcery for a distraction. I do need a light spell to weaken it, and then I can summon a wind barrier."
"Got it, Crystal Pillar sorcery cast."
As she casts this Asal is thinking to himself. "what the hell, she has no training yet she can cast a level 4 light spell. That's like epic level light magic, especially for someone not in MA or PhD level sorcerer's school. Oh wait I have to cast a spell,"
"Pixie cast Rose storm"
At this Asal and Victoria run away toward campus to find some shelter from Neo-Bahamut. The Rose storm traps him temporarily.
"Victoria, how did you cast that spell?"
"Asal, what are you talking about, I've always known spells like this one, white magic runs in my family."
"For someone with no training, you certainly can cast high-level white magic, but yet you don't seem like the support and white mages I run into here that have no survival skills or relatability with people and you can cast better spells than they can."
"Well, sometimes more training actually hurts you and isolates you from the people magic is supposed to serve."
"Why do you seem like such an amazing person, you can cast light magic, you actually care, there aren't very many people like you."
"Well, there aren't very many people like you either, Asal."
"Yeah, except for there's the whole, I'm easily manipulated, I can summon death incarnate, I'm cold, and I don't like myself."
"You've let your darkness elemental take over too much of your vision. You need to recognize that you have a light elemental inside you. Your darkness elemental is good because it can give you attacking power, unlike anything I've ever seen, but you've now endangered everyone you love."
"Part of me thinks you're being a complete bitch, the other part of me realizes you're completely right. Cristophy..."
"You really care about your professor, don't you Asal?"
"Wait, how did you know..."
"Asal!! What happened?"
"Cristophy, I caused a giant monster to appear, and that giant monster lived inside me, why didn't you tell me? I hurt everyone."
*hugs*
"Asal, please stop, part of this is my fault too, I tried to give you pills and medicine and Kristoria gave you spells, but we really needed to pay attention to you and help you through your social difficulties, because you are different from the other students, and you do need more attention. Also, you have so many gifts, wait Victoria, what are you doing here..."
"Well, Cristophy, my friends and I wanted to see what was going on, and as soon as they saw Neo-Bahamut all my friends ran and I stayed because I was curious and saw Asal needed help."
"Victoria, did you even know Asal before you saw him..."
"Well, no Cristophy, but you always say we should help vulnerable people that need help."
"Victoria, I'm so proud of you, but you scared me to death, but I'm so glad you found Asal. *hug*"
"hahhaha, isn't this touching, Cristophy... Now you will all die."
"No, Darnell, no, you will not do this again, I have people that love me now, I have a family that supports me, and I have my students. You can't attack my self-hatred anymore."
"hahaha, but you can't protect Asal, he has no family, a few shallow friendships, and will always feel distant from the community."
"Victoria, why are you grabbing my hand?"
"I will not leave Asal alone anymore. I don't want to date Asal, but I also won't leave him to a monster like you. If that means touching him to be a friend, then I will do that."
"Victoria??" (Cristophy and Asal respond.)
"Victoria, you really get it don't you, and I'm so proud that you've grown so much, to reach out for the common good is really important and that may include doing things you're not comfortable with."
"Hahahaa, ahh your common good almost makes me sick to my stomach, yet your barrier is about to break and I can destroy worlds with one breath, you have no chance, hahahahah..."
Cristophy, Asal, and Victoria all look on in horror at the barrier and hope it will hold. Cristophy starts contemplating a plan, when Victoria's friends start throwing rocks at Neo-Bahamut. In this distraction Cristophy runs toward Neo-Bahamut and casts her super special ultima magic.
"What the hell is this spell?"
"Lv. 7 Ultima, a master level spell that can contain the destroyer of worlds, but not destroy him. I will exile you to another world with no life for you to destroy."
"Cristophy, I never thought you would be the one to detain me, after all those years, all my torture of you, and your student, Asal, he'll be as strong if not stronger than you."
"Darnell, this is something you never learned, I'm not strong in competition in others, I'm strong because of the support and love I have from others, and now I exile you to the lost world without life."
"Cristophy, will you hope for me to find more of what you have?"
"Cristophy stop..."
"Victoria, what are you doing?"
"Can't you see in your dialog that there's even hope for someone who is Death Incarnate. Neo-Bahamut's dangerous but he lived inside Asal this whole time, but he tried to thrive on nothingness and death, but your example showed him something else, if you banish him to another world you'll never get a chance to see him grow away from being Death Incarnate. Plus, you can't banish death, everyone will die at someone, even you two as sorcerers."
"Why would someone like Victoria have mercy on me? Why wouldn't you let Cristophy banish me (because secretly I would still be the destroyer of worlds...)? Why do you want me to stay here? Do you really think you can tame a monster like me?"
"I can't but we can, Asal and I can tame you, you did live inside him after all, and we can co-exist with each other, I don't like your insistence on death, destruction, atrophy, doom, and all your negativity, but we can show you something better."
"Fine, and you're correct, death and darkness can never go away, not in this world you see, but you can teach me about light and darkness co-existing. Pain, suffering, sin, these things will always exist in this world, and darkness will be opposed to light, but light and darkness co-existing can help teach people about why people cause darkness."
"We can't control you, but we accept that you're here. Self-hatred exists in all of us, but we can be better at healing people's self-hatred by understanding their darkness and being the healing we seek."
"Cristophy, what's Victoria's darkness, she seems so intact and you two seem to know each other well, and I'm thankful for her inspiration, but no one's perfect right."
"Well Asal, darkness comes out in time and friendship, you'll see eventually, but you're right to try to avoid disillusionment, but you can't be scared either, you have to take your friendship as the gift it can be, and engage darkness together. Weakness, sin, emotional illness, these things are dealt with better in community than on one's own exclusively, though individual effort is needed. People need to be able to work to love God and neighbor, and Victoria has done very well to improve her behavior."
"Cristophy, thank you for saving us, all of us, even though Neo-Bahamut hasn't really gone away."
"Asal, Neo-Bahamut only holds power over you if your darkness elemental is out of control. You have an unfair situation as you can sense darkness elemental and it overpowers you easier. You have to grow and know that we care about you, even if we don't pay attention all the time, believe me it's not because I don't like you. I have to pay more attention but please don't take a lack of attention as something against you. I just have a lot to take care of, but you'll always be a special student, and I have a lot of fun with you. Just pay attention to Victoria too and just let your friendship be what it is, but meet each other's needs."
Asal, Victoria, and Cristophy made a cloaking spell to hide Neo-Bahamut and bring him to a field in the side of campus. The field was then blessed with an invisibility sorcery so that people could no longer see or remember the darkness that inhabited the world, however, some would always be aware of the presence of darkness like the Zu-Zu and people like Asal and those who knew him. Victoria and Asal met each other's needs, some days Asal would have panic attacks and be overpowered by the darkness elemental. Some days Victoria would be overcome with jealousy and anger as she felt like she gave a lot to her relationships and got little in return. Luckily her feelings didn't cause a monster like Neo-Bahamut to occur but she still was overcome by darkness. On those days Cristophy and Asal would find Victoria and smile at her or do something else just to remind her that she's not invisible and her love doesn't go unnoticed.
Light, darkness, both are present along with other elements that empower existence. There will always be a need for sensitivity to elements, but we must be careful that sensitivity doesn't paralyze our existence. And when sensitivity does paralyze our existence, that's when we need our friends, role models, etc to find us and touch us physically, psychologically, etc in order to help us walk and keep going. This story doesn't have a happy ending, yet this is the world we see, a world of light and dark, good choices and bad. In the end, all we can do is pray for the grace of light and persevere through the existence of darkness, in all its subtle, invisible form. In the light of grace may we see light.
Aristocrates
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