What is light?
There are two sources of natural light - nightlight and daylight.
Daylight is bright and warm, but in it - the true essence is hidden in the shadows.
The nightlight is dim and cold, but it is in this light - that the true essence comes out, bringing with it a primordial chaos in the pitch darkness.
But there is a third source of light – innate one. It helps us navigate this darkness, being warm and close.
But everyone has their own, perhaps for some it is bright and accompanies a person at every step, while for others it has gone out, and this person wanders aimlessly, in search of light...
I hope your soul burns with a bright light.
---
Climbing up to the second floor, the situation there is even worse. Various monsters have escaped from their cages, mainly Sialias - azure birds that bring spring and happiness with their singing. They are peaceful by nature, but due to the influx of magic, they have become more aggressive. Lucy shot back at them, suspecting that something is wrong. She guessed who could have opened them - Sterling.
Sterling is Lucy's childhood friend who loves animals. He has blond, almost golden hair and night-colored eyes. Sterling and Lucy's magic, although both are called "light magic", have different roots. Lucy's magic draws its power from the sun, while Sterling's draws it from the stars. They also use different methods: Lucy's is more straightforward - pellets of solar energy that shoot out of her pistols, and they cannot hurt a person; Sterling's is more artistic, using his rapier as a paintbrush to draw pentagrams that shoot out stars.
Lucy began searching for him and nearby she sensed the barrier of the "Aurora Borealis ", an anomalous barrier that enhances the magic of starlight within itself. She followed the trail of this barrier, but the closer she got, the less stable the barrier became and upon entering it, she realized that she was trapped. The space inside the barrier was beautiful, but cold... like space. She was no longer walking through space, she was floating in it like it was made of water. Noticing sparks out of the corner of her eye, she swam in their direction, getting closer and closer to their source.
- "Hey! Hi Lucy!" Sterling waved. She noticed sparks of red and blue around him, and he even trembled sometimes, as if he was jittering.
SORCERER OF LIGHT – Sterling
"Guardian Light Sent by the Emissaries"
- "Hi... Sterling." Lucy waved back.
- "Hee-hee! I feel sooooo good! V-V-Very Goooooood!!" he smiles. His voice seemed out of tune and his eyes were empty.
- "I'm glad you feel this way, but... Why did you release the monsters from the cages?"
- "They asked me! They don't want to be in cramped cages!"
- "... How and who asked you?" Lucy began to question Sterling.
- "The wisps helped me!"
- "The wisps?.. Hmm... How did they help you?"
- "They gave me this power! They whispered that they would help me save them!"
So these wisps are basically monsters too? She decided to ask Sterling about Adrianne.
- "Have you by any chance met Adri?"
"Yes, yes, yes! But... She was not herself... As if she was floating in nothingness... Never mind! Let's play!" - he jumped up abruptly, at first he seemed to have come back to his senses, but now he became strange once again.
- "Sterling, listen. I don't want to..." Lucy wanted to run away, but he swung his rapier towards Lucy.
- "L-L-Let's play!... !! Hee-hee-hee..." - He jerked sharply and those red and blue sparks began to jump out of his body. He must be neutralized immediately! "Well then... Come on." - She pointed her gun in his direction. Although she was at a disadvantage, since the barrier of the "Aurora" weakens the magic of sunlight, she essentially had no other choice. The duel - began.
First he began drawing pentagrams with his rapier and shooting out pentagonal stars. Lucy dodged them, shooting back at him. His sparks began to distort and Sterling grabbed his head. Shaking himself, he began his first act.
ACT 1 – LELAP AND THE TEUMES FOX, A SIMPLE CONTRADICTION
"A dog from which no beast could escape, and a fox which no creature could catch."
Lucy got dog ears and a tail, and Sterling got fox ears. "Come on! Catch up!" he shouts and starts running away from her, drawing Big Dog and Little Dog pentagrams along the way. A rain of stars pours from the "heavens" and Lucy dodges each star. The chase lasted for what seemed like an eternity, Lucy already wanted to give up, but... Remembering the story about the dog and the fox, Lucy realized that she had one advantage that the dog did not have. No one could catch the fox, but that did not mean that it could not be shot. Focusing, she began to shoot at him more accurately. From Lucy's bullets, Sterling began to get more and more tired of the chase. The ears and tails disappeared and a new act began.
ACT 2 – POLYDEUCES AND CASTOR, AN UNSHAKABLE BOND
"When Castor fell from grief, Polydeuces shared his immortality with his beloved brother, becoming together with him the constellation of the twins."
Stepping aside, Sterling "doubled up" - he began to attack from two sides. Focus on two targets at once? And also as annoying and strong as Sterling? This is a real hell. She focused on the projectiles themselves, and began to shoot at Sterling. Or rather, at his clone. The clone exploded and projectiles flew out of it. Some projectiles hit her magical barrier, almost destroying it. Sterling soon doubled up again and began to shoot projectiles with double the force: Lucy had to just dodge the projectiles to avoid damaging her barrier again. The timeout was close, which is why Lucy decided that it was better for her to wait out this act ...
These shots were symmetrical, and were quite beautiful in Lucy's opinion, but she should not be distracted - at least the symmetry of the shells is to her advantage. Usually, it is not advantageous for the opponents to allow a time-out (360 seconds) to be, but Sterling seemed not to care - the main thing for him was that Lucy liked the "game".
Time out. Sterling needed to get on with the next and final act. Inspired, he unleashed his strongest attack yet.
LAST ACT - ANDROMEDA AND PERSEUS, CASSIOPEIA'S PUNISHMENT
"Vanity and pride. Having angered the gods and wanting to save her city, Cassiopeia sacrificed her daughter (Andromeda) to be eaten by a whale. Perseus saved Andromeda from the sea monster, but Cassiopeia's misdeed was not forgiven."
Rising high, high, Sterling summoned a star whale, which affected his body quite strongly. He coughed up blood, but, like with Roxy, he seemed indifferent to his injuries. "Y-You idiot!!" - in a panic, Lucy began to shoot back at him, and her projectiles were reflected by Sterling's projectiles. She needed to defeat the whale quickly, otherwise this attack would be fatal for Lucy, and her corpse would be absorbed by the "Aurora". Her determination to save Adrianne as soon as possible and the desire to free Sterling from these sparks did not allow her to succumb to fear. She began to run towards the whale, shooting at it. It was becoming more and more distorted and it was clear that Sterling could not withstand the heat - he was running out of breath and his legs were shaking. She aimed at Sterling and used her act stopper .
ACTSTOPPER - IONIZING RADIATION: NEUTRON
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGHHHHHH!!!" - Sterling screamed and now his magic was gone. The barrier of "Aurora" evaporated and he fell to the floor. Lucy had won. The sparks no longer appeared, he barely raised his head to Lucy - "L-Lucy? ... ".
- "Yup, it's me." Lucy said sadly. She wanted to leave, but Sterling grabbed her leg. "W-Wait..."
- "What?" she snapped.
- " Adri ... She took some kind of strange grimoire with her to school... The one I've never seen before... A-And it seems she went to the roof."
- "... Ah ...I see." She wanted to leave again, but he tightened his grip.
- "M-Miss O'Sullivan is working on the third floor now... Y-You already know what she's like..."
- "... Well. When you have the strength, go down and help Aislin, she seems to be the only one who has her head on her shoulders."
Sterling then gently smiled, "O-Okay..." and he let go of Lucy.
Shaking herself off, she galloped to the stairs, and they climbed up to the third floor.