Chapter 1542: You Can Do It!
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The ocean water spiraled across the skies like a soaring Azure Dragon, roaring and crashing against the Kaiju from the left side. Both the right and left sides were constantly pushing, using the immense pressure of an enormous quantity of salt water.
"D-DAMN IT! RAAAHHHH!"
The Original Nightmare Curse roared, beginning to push back more and more. His power surged, his aura resembling countless Nightmaresaurs roaring as they suddenly detached themselves from him, rushing toward Celes and the rest. Arthur and Emily rushed to act, clashing against the swarm of Spectral Nightmaresaurs, stopping them from reaching Celes.
"We won’t let you get any closer!" Arthur roared. His powerful Yin and Yang Spear, his Dream Weapon, glowed with bright gold and black energies as he unleashed a barrage of explosive blows, creating holes through his foes.
"{Yin & Yang Star Strike}!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Each explosion unleashed Yin and Yang Ki that erupted, blowing through the Nightmaresaur Specters one by one and making them rapidly disappear. At the same time, Emily wasn’t holding back. Her armor grew around her arms into huge metallic gauntlets.
She hyper-charged them with electricity by getting hit by dozens of Nightmaresaur Specters at once and then released all her lightning at once in one explosive, almighty technique.
"{Double Thunder Dragon Fists}!"
She pushed both of her fists forward as dragons emerged out of lightning, clashing against all the Nightmaresaur Specters and vaporizing them all!
B O O O M !
B O O O M !
Emily and Arthur had cleansed the swarm of monsters instantly, but something happened. Emily’s technique reached Celes’s torrents, and instead of disappearing, both Thunder Dragons rushed through it.
"Huh? Wait, this is...!"
Celes’s eyes widened as the Thunder Dragons erupted with power, the seawater conducting electricity. It turns out that saltwater is an incredible conductor of electricity because the dissolved salt dissociates into positively charged sodium ions and negatively charged chloride ions, which are free to move and carry electrical current as they please.
"This is an unprecedented new technique!"
Celes laughed as Alma glanced at the scene in disbelief. Emily looked on, shocked, as both Dragons mixed with the saltwater, forming gigantic Oceanic Thunderstorm Dragons, clashing against the Kaiju and beginning to electrocute his entire body.
T R U U U M !
"G R U U U A A A H H H H !"
The monstrous Kaiju screamed in horror and disbelief. His entire body began to gain countless cracks and fell apart bit by bit until both the thunder and the salt water reached their limits, exploding through his arms and torso.
"{Oceanic Thunderstorm Dual Dragons}!"
Giving the combination technique a new name, the brilliant Celes unleashed their power completely, making his spell detonate at the last moment to create a greater force upon the explosion. Lightning and water pressure engulfed the monstrous being in utter pain.
B O O O M M M !!!
The Kaiju trembled, stepping back in shock as he saw his arms falling apart and part of his torso gone. His body was massive, making it harder to regenerate quickly.
"YOU WILL PERISH NOW!"
He roared furiously, his countless eyes firing red beams everywhere, causing entire buildings to collapse one by one! The city was already in ruins, but now the ruins themselves were being constantly pulverized, piles of destroyed rubble and buildings everywhere. The academy in the distance had long been destroyed as well. The people waiting in the airport had nowhere to go back to, their homes destroyed, and who knew how many casualties.
"I cannot just stand watching as everyone has their homes destroyed...!" Alma thought, gritting her teeth as her powers surged. "I cannot let everything be in vain! I cannot let that thing... harm the people waiting in the airport! We’re just this close to them being able to evacuate...! I...! I need to go beyond this...! Undine! Can we do it?! Can we go beyond?!"
Alma was unsure. She knew there was something, a spark of something greater within her. Her strange transformation showed it, but she wasn’t sure if it was real. She wasn’t sure if it could actually happen as she wished. Even now, she was doubting herself, full of insecurities, which were hard to overcome so easily in so little time.
"Of course, Alma. That power awakened upon my Evolution and then when you further defeated the Nightmare Beasts and Nightmare Demons. The power we’ve attained together is much greater... everyone is!"
Undine’s voice resonated within Alma’s mind.
"Then what do I do to channel it?! What can I do to help more?!"
Alma grew desperate, screaming at her staff, whose powers glowed brightly, rushing toward her, encompassing her in an aura of flowing azure water.
"First, calm down."
"Huh?"
"Close your eyes and breathe in and out, Alma."
"But..."
"No buts, trust me."
"..."
Alma slowly closed her eyes amidst the destruction, everything... She tried to calm down, not to think about anything else but what Undine said.
"Think about those you love... your mother and your father, your grandmother."
"Papa and mama... and my granny?"
"Yes, they’re the most precious thing to you. Dream Hearts manifest emotions and fantasy into reality. For that power to trigger, they require strong emotional reactions."
Alma thought about them, smiling. Her Dream Heart reacted instantly. She recalled her father’s smile, his laughter, and how he used to take her to the park to play.
Although she never met her mother, she recalled the photos her father showed her of all the things her mother went through.
When they visited that huge theme park, when she fed a goose and then the bird ended up chasing her around a park, or that other photo of them catching a huge catfish in a lake, where she used her own hand as the lure.
These were things she never experienced, but she could now live, even if a little, by seeing these photos and hearing her father speak with so much emotion about them.
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