Ar Tonelico: Rite of Slumber, Pt. 2
Ign Saradorn
Chapter 20- Out of the Frying Pan…
(At Night on the Veloz Plains)
Lyner gulped as he stood behind one of the massive orange ceratopsids. For some reason, riding one of these guys seemed like a really, really stupid idea. A part of him just wanted to order an attack on these frightening creatures. Taking a quick look around, he saw that no one else had boarded their steed either.
Deciding to be inspiring, he made a mighty leap and landed on the arching backbone of his ceratopsid steed. "Wow, you're HARD!!" he exclaimed. The skin of the dinosaur felt extremely reinforced indeed.
"That's gross," Luke said from below, who had apparently been waiting for Lyner to act before jumping on his own steed.
"Yeah, one of these guys would make a great oil drill!" Jack said with a grin.
"…WHAT are you guys talking about?!" Shurelia exclaimed as she gingerly attempted to climb up her massive steed.
Lyner looked around at his newfound place of height, noticing that he could see very far now. He could see the base of the tower from here, in fact; was it a mistake to go out of their way to help these guys when they were so close to their destination? He looked down at his companions, and couldn't help but notice a very convenient view of Aurica's Lilim outfit as she struggled to get on her ride.
"Look at all that smog out in the distance!" Ayatane said from on top of the dinosaur to Lyner's left. "I wonder what that's from?" Sure enough, massive doses of black smog were congealing menacingly in an area concentric to the tower.
"That is the damage the virus has caused in our homeland," the leader ceratopsid said, who had refused to let anyone ride on him.
"Hey Lyner?" Misha said from behind him with raised hands. She had changed into her Shinobi costume. "Could you help me up?"
Lyner broke into a warm smile, knowing Misha's athletic hindrances. He wordlessly eased down his dinosaur's back and helped her up, feeling a rush of excitement as she smiled and climbed over him to get to the front of its back.
"It looks like everyone's finally ready," the ceratopsids' leader said while Lyner scooted up and slid his arms around Misha's slight stomach to steady her. "We may as well embark. My name is Cerasaur, if you should need anything do not hesitate to call." He then turned and faced the darkly-smogged area in the distance. "GABOOOD!!" he roared and rushed off at frightfully high speeds.
The other dinosaurs answered Cerasaur's call and Lyner yelled, "Everybody hang on!" (which was completely unnecessary since everyone was already gripping their steed for dear life). Instantly, Lyner felt his and Misha's steed blast off running and the sheer amount of air colliding with him seemed designed to knock them off. To his amazement, however, Lyner opened his eyes to notice that they were somehow still on the thing. They were definitely running faster than they had been earlier that day while running under the influence of Blast magic.
Looking down as he held Misha's warm near-nude body to himself, Lyner estimated that they were passing over millions of grass petals a minute. "Now THIS is the way to travel!" he exclaimed to his steedmate. Misha whimpered a "Uh-huh" before re-collapsing in the crevasse of their dino's neck again in fear.
In no time, Cerasaur suddenly skidded to a stop right before a drastic change in the environment. The other ceratopsids all quickly braked and collided into each other. Lyner looked around to view his teammates' reactions with a grin. Him and Jack shared an enthusiastic nod, Ayatane looked like his mind had just evaporated, Vincent leaned in to give Mahine (who was traveling with him) a tender kiss, Shurelia was looking dreamily ecstatic, and Aurica exclaimed, "I'm hungry! We never eat anything!"
"It's alright Misha," Lyner whispered, gingerly stroking the quivering girl in front of him. "I think the worst is over."
Cerasaur pivoted around and addressed them all: "We are now entering the region known as the Crimson Rim. It is extremely dangerous, so we will be taking it slow from now on. It is important to keep PERFECTLY still as we navigate the complicated terrain." Lyner looked around the realm and thought he could probably guess why it was called the Crimson Rim; literally everything was a shade of red, even the intense smog that blocked their vision like a massive clot of blood. There was a massive ruby archway at the entrance with Greek characters carved into it. Past it were a number of gorgeous, gem-covered temples, with various rocks and hills everywhere. In the distance, Lyner could see the biggest mountain he had ever laid eyes upon.
"Wow Cerasaur, what is that mountain over there?" he asked.
Seeming a little surprised at being talked to by the tiny human, Cerasaur said, "It is known as Mount Zizibar. It is the birthplace of all life in this region known as The Middle Plane."
"Oh wow, are we going there?" Aurica asked.
Cerasaur made no answer, instead turning again to face the beautiful holy land before them. "We will now continue our journey home. Cease talking, for it is very dangerous here."
Lyner turned to Aurica and shrugged at her, who smiled and waved to him. The ceratopsids began to walk into the crunchy red ground. The multiple temples were breathtaking, as were the bubbling streams of lava that they passed over. Sometimes the streams widened so that the dinosaurs would have to stick to a very narrow stretch of road.
"Hey Lyner," Misha whispered, turning around so that she was straddling him across the stomach.
"Yeah?" he said, trying very hard not to stare intensely at her breasts, instead concentrating on the electric fizzles of her false eyes.
"Did you and Aurica, um, shag?"
"Ummmmmm, what's that?" he said, staring her in interest now.
"Uh…did you two hook up?"
Lyner continued to look at her blankly, cocking an eyebrow in confusion.
"Did you bake in her basket?" Shurelia said from one ceratopsid over.
"Yeah, did you start repeatedly slamming the door with her in the middle of the night?" Jack called.
"SHUT UP, EVERYONE!!!" Aurica and Cerasaur yelled in unison.
"WHAT?! Too many questions!!" Lyner screamed.
"Did you sow your seeds in her gateway?" Misha whispered very softly.
"Ohhhhhhh! When?" Lyner said, finally getting it.
"ANYTIME!" Misha hissed, crossing her eyebrows.
"No!" he said proudly. "I'm dating Shurelia, remember!"
Shurelia softened her glare at this and blushed with a small smile.
Misha exhaled in relief and hugged him tightly.
The caravan of the party trekked up a few pointy hills along the lava streams and came to a very large plateau with several pits. Cerasaur reared up on his hind legs and pointed at a distant hole. "That place is our breeding ground, Unbeck. There, we will tell you what we want from you."
"Alright," Lyner said with a nod of affirmation. As they passed around the first huge pit, he peered over into its murky contents. Inside were swarms of giant red skydragons, each with huge moustaches and glowering evilly at them.
"Don't fear the Tokanama," Cerasaur said, apparently referring to the magma-dwelling dragons. "We are the superior race, and they dare not attack us."
Lyner found their shimmering scales quite mesmerizing, and took in the sight as they passed around it to the next pit. Scanning the horizon, he saw the tower Ign Saradorn hulking menacingly to their near right.
The next pit was filled entirely with glowing yellow magma, and had a huge, steaming metal mechanism floating above it. Various hooks, spikes and poles hung from it. "Damn, that lava's close," Lyner whispered, noticing that he and Misha were colored yellow from the glow.
"Yeah!" she said, hugging him. "It's way too hot here!"
Lyner looked up and saw that the mountain face was incredibly close to them as well, giving the ceratopsids very little room to maneuver. They had to move in a single-file line now.
He suddenly heard someone cry out behind him: Ayatane. "Damn," he muttered, turning around to see Ayatane's steed wiggling around tentatively.
"Hold your position, soldier!" Cerasaur commanded the dinosaur, but the red-hot ground under the beast suddenly caved in, pulling the beast into the lava.
Ayatane flipped off his ride with ninja-like agility, landing on Luke's ceratopsid.
"SAVE HIM! SAVE HIM, DAMMIT!" Cerasaur screamed. The hairs on the back of Lyner's neck suddenly stood up in warning.
"Who, me?" Ayatane asked. "It's too late, there's no way for him to get out now."
Sure enough, the howling dinosaur was consumed by the lava and sunk to his death. Several of the ceratopsids began to mutter amongst themselves in a different language.
The leader cursed strongly and stamped obnoxiously on the ground. Lyner's eyes widened. "Dude, don't do that, or we're all gonna fall!"
Cerasaur snarled. "You have let one of us die! You cannot save us from natural hazards, so how can we expect you to destroy the virus?!"
"Calm down!" Shurelia snapped. "We can't fight here or we'll all die. Let's settle this on solid ground."
"DON'T talk to me bitch!" Cerasaur shrieked, shaking from rage. He then howled out in the ceratopsid language, and all the dinosaurs screamed and slammed violently into the cliff walls.
"Ungh!" Misha grunted as she and Lyner flew from their perch on their steed's back, landing on the ground. Seeing this, the ceratopsid began to stomp wildly in an attempt to smash them.
"Watch out!" Lyner cried, hurriedly grabbing Misha by the shoulder and forcibly pulling her out of the way just as she was about to be crushed. "Sing Gaia Bombard now!" he instructed and began to bash on the dinosaur's underbelly with his sword. Metal met metal repeatedly, but neither sword nor ceratopsid were damaged.
Lyner couldn't pay much attention to his surroundings, but he thought he heard Jack shooting with two guns. He looked over and was surprised to see Yeeka squawk and defend its mistress against the dinosaur that was attacking her, but then noticed Shurelia was singing Blast Fill for it.
Lyner's dinosaur reared up on its hind legs and drew a pitchfork from a hidden fold of skin on its side. In insanity, it brought it down with brute force on Lyner, who blocked it mightily with his gilded sword. "Damn! I can't hold him!" Lyner grunted to Misha. "Cerasaur, we don't want to fight you, but you're not giving us much choice!" He then nodded to Misha, who released Gaia Bombard, which slammed against the dinosaur but seemed to be absorbed by its thick golden hide.
The heroes then heard a massive CLUNK, and all who were battling looked around to see that the huge metal flying saucer had lowered to nearly on top of them. "Wot's…uh the deal?" Luke asked, when suddenly a gaggle of hooks on chains materialized out of the saucer. "Oh."
Cerasaur jumped off a tower he had surreptitiously climbed and operated. "Men! Impale our quarry on these hooks now!"
Those hooks dangling from the ceiling triggered something in Lyner's mind; his dream! He vaguely remembered there being hooks at the Butcher's house, with bodies hanging off them.
"MAHINE! SING BLACK VIVISECTION NOW!!!" Vincent suddenly screamed, and his gorgeous bikini-clad Reyvateil cast the metal leopard slash spell, which rocketed across the lava pit and collided with Cerasaur, erupting with a bright white luster. Everyone was forced to stop and cover their eyes, but when the sheen cleared, Cerasaur still stood there, with nothing but a shallow slash across his chest.
"Aw tits," Vincent muttered.
Suddenly, Lyner's ceratopsid swept his tail under his and Misha's feet, flipping them up in mid-air. The beast then grabbed and thrust them onto two hooks, causing the two heroes to scream in pain from the massive spears through their chests.
"EVERYONE SING HEALTH NOW!" Lyner screamed, and winced open a tear-stained false eye to see that everyone else had been successfully detained on a hook.
The girls all began to sing Healing Songs weakly, which didn't get rid of the hook but successfully halted the party's blood spewing.
"Hmm, interesting," Cerasaur said, walking to the apex of the pit and producing a flogging whip. He roared and slashed the whip across Lyner's person, ripping his skin cleanly off from head to crotch. Immediately after, however, (amidst Lyner's horrific screaming) his skin was slowly sewn back together from the power of the four Reyvateils.
Lyner grinned weakly and winked, which made his purple eye sizzle and pop with energy. "Is that the best you can do?"
"Actually no, now that you mention it!" Cerasaur snorted, turning tail and rescaling the operating tower. He pulled a lever, and the entire Flying Saucer began to lower into the lava. All the heroes screamed as the heat intensified, and eventually consumed them as the Saucer submerged itself in the boiling hot goo. All the dinosaurs laughed heartily. "Mission accomplished," Cerasaur muttered.
He pulled the lever back up, and the Flying Saucer resurfaced revealing the ten heroes, good as new. Jack smiled as the hoard of ceratopsids gawked at them. "Nice try, fat-ass!"
Cerasaur roared and flew forward. "We have to kill these singing bitches!" He jumped and landed in front of a wide-eyed Shurelia, and he took a pitchfork and stabbed it into her head, causing her brains to splatter on Yeeka.
"OH MY GOD!! SHURELIA!!" Lyner screamed, as the other heroes cried out similarly.
Shurelia continued to sing Life Fill to stay alive, but was now moaning the words and spitting up blood.
Cerasaur stuffed the spear farther in her face and commanded his cohorts, "Do the same with the rest of them!"
"Why are you doing this!?" Lyner demanded, again being reminded of the butcher dream, wondering if could be telling him something. How did he defeat the butcher in the dream again?
"Orders, maggot!" Cerasaur laughed. "Direct from the Tower Administrator. He has discovered your presence, and demands your eradication!"
"WHAT?!" Lyner cried. "What's he got against us?!" He suddenly remembered throwing a giant, skinless pig at the butcher. Nothing else seemed to hurt these monsters; where was a pig when you needed one?!
Suddenly, Radolf appeared on top of the cliff face. "Look! I've made a new friend!" he screamed with a huge grin plastered on his face. He held up a cute pink pig with a crew cut. "I named him Mr. Piggy!"
"RADOLF CHUCK THAT PIG AT ONE OF THESE GUYS!" Lyner roared in hysterics.
"NO!" Radolf said, hugging the pig to his chest. "Mr. Piggy's my friend!"
"Look what they're doing to the girls!" Lyner hissed as the Reyvateils began to undergo flogging sessions from even more ceratopsids that came to help torture.
"Oh my god, you're right!" Radolf said, and then raised Mr. Piggy to his face. "Mr. Piggy?" he said with a shaky voice. "We've been through a lot of hard times together, haven't we? Well, I'm sorry old buddy, old pal, but I guess this is goodbye!" He kissed the pig passionately on the snout. "I'll always remember you, Mr. Piggy!" he hiccupped, and then winded up a pitch and threw the pig at the nearest orange dinosaur, exploding on impact. "MR. PIGGYYY!" Radolf screamed, traumatized at his exploded best friend.
Said dinosaur roared in confusion and toppled over onto the consecutive dinosaur, which toppled over onto the consecutive dinosaur, which etc. until every single ceratopsid fell over in a falling domino effect. With each fallen beast, the Flying Saucer shuddered, until it suddenly fell into the pit, spinning wildly. As it submerged under the lava again, its hovering mechanism misfired, flipped the Saucer over, and came out upside down.
"This is it! This is our chance to get off!" Lyner screamed, and forced the hook out of his chest, thereafter running around and helping the various Reyvateils get out of theirs.
Suddenly a giant man composed entirely of fire erupted out of the pit next to them screaming inhumanly. "It's the virus! Run!!" the ceratopsids all screamed and ran away.
"Where are you maggots going?" Cerasaur demanded angrily, before suddenly realizing that the fire titan was directly above him. He surveyed it in fear before it kicked him, dissolving him into nonexistence as it did so.
Meanwhile, the party had successfully freed themselves from their binds, and jumped off onto the cliff where Radolf stood.
Lyner knelt by Shurelia and removed the pitchfork from her face, holding her as she continued to sing. He massaged her and murmured comforting words in her ear as she healed.
"Radolf! Dude! It's great to see you!" Jack said as his chest wound resealed. The girls were still moaning and spitting up as they sung.
"Oh Frelia's bosom, I should never have left! I feel so terrible!" Radolf sobbed at the horrific sight of the decimated women.
"No, it's awesome that you left! We'd be dead if you hadn't!" Jack said with a smile and a pat on Radolf's shoulder. "Just - don't go wandering off again, alright?"
The party suddenly felt an extreme wave of heat and noticed the giant virus walk through the Flying Saucer, melting it like ice cream.
"Fire a cannon up my ass and call it Sunday, that thing is hot!" Jack cursed.
Lyner leaned down and stroked Aurica's beautiful body. "Aurica, we need you to sing Undine now, can you do it?" he whispered softly.
She coughed and nodded, beginning to sing her Water spell.
"She needs harmonics, shoot the crap out of that thing, Jack!" Lyner commanded as he fired a shockwave up at the furious titan.
All attacks went right through the beast, and it wound back its fist to punch the heroes with flame.
"RELEASE IT NOWWWW!" Lyner roared. It was their only chance.
Aurica immediately casted, and Undine appeared in front of them, releasing a massive tidal wave that washed away all the flames composing the virus, leaving behind a very small prism composed of glass mirrors. It began to spin rapidly, slowly rebuilding its flame husk.
"Shoot that thing, Jack!" Lyner commanded.
"Can't, out of bullets!"
"I got this!" Vincent said, unsheathing a small throwing knife and hurling it through the small prism, shattering it with a miniature sonic boom.
"Leave thisss placccceeee!" A reptilian voice bellowed from behind them. The party slowly turned to see a huge Tokonama hovering in front of them. "Youuuu are not welcome here!"
"We don't mean any trouble, we're just trying to-" Lyner said with hands raised in a gesture of peace when the skydragon suddenly rocketed forward with its fangs wide open.
Lyner cursed and began to run. "SPEED SPELLS NOW!!" he roared, and the girls quickly shifted songs to their respective agility-inducing spells. The party then got up from their positions of recuperation and took off at a run, smoothly pattering across the treacherous terrain with a rabid dragon at their heels.
A massive cliff face rapidly came into view through the smog. Fortunately, a tunnel opening existed a few feet off the ground. "Everyone through the tunnel!" Lyner said as he passed the sprinting Misha, but then thought better of it and gathered Misha up into his arms so she wouldn't fall.
The party jumped up into the hole as one, and continued running deeper as the Tokonama continued to speed after them. Suddenly, the entire party ran directly into the skull of an especially massive Tokonama. The enormous resulting smack echoed throughout the cavern, waking a number of resident dragons.
"Humanssss?!? Killl them!!!! KILL THEM NOWWWW!!!!" the huge Tokonama commanded, and the skydragons swarmed on top of the heroes.
"Nooooowhere to runnnn now!!!" the Tokonama that had pursued them across the plateau informed them.
Lyner looked up by chance and noticed a ruby temple embedded in the cliff face nearly forty feet above them. "Yes there is!" He announced while slashing dragons all around him, resulting in emormous splashes of blood. The rest of the party caused similar rapid amounts of damage with the assistance of their large concentrations of agility. "Keep singing girls and follow me everybody!!" Lyner yelled and led the way running vertically up the cliff face, escaping the mob of skydragons. The party and said mob of cursing skydragons followed.
Although he began to lose momentum as he neared the top, he made it over the corner and skidded to a stop, stooping to help his teammates one by one as they came up. They each thanked him and dashed into the ruby-covered temple
As soon as Shurelia made it over, Lyner zipped her over to the temple, where Jack and Luke stood waiting to close the massive steel doors on the dragon hoard. As soon as they successfully closed it, a variety of dragons collided with the steel, making large dents in it.
"I…really don't think that's going to hold," Luke commented on the ancient door.
"Guys, I think we have a problem!" Radolf announced from further in, and Lyner looked to where he stood to see the temple occupied by three hulking ceratopsids who looked very angry.
A/N: Hey everybody! I hope you liked it, I found it highly enjoyable. I'm going to post another tonight, so stay tuned, read and review.
I actually just flaming lied to you readers. I'm too tired, so I'm going to bed! ;) night!
