Ar Tonelico: Rite of Slumber, Pt. 2

Ign Saradorn

Chapter 26 – Slaying the Beast

(Location Unknown)

Lyner's soul wanted to just give in and surrender to the lulling call of death, but it was curiosity alone that forced him awake; what was that all-pervading lime-green glow anyway?

With an almighty groan, the Knight opened his eyes and was shocked to see nothing but green everywhere. Adjusting his eyes to the tumult of color, he realized that he was in a perpetually-turning lime-green colored tunnel. Covering the walls of the cylindrical tunnel was a multitude of even brighter Sanskrit symbols, eternally spinning along with the rest of the tunnel.

As far as Lyner could see, the mysterious tunnel extended, twirling on its busy way. "Wow…this trip just gets weirder and weirder," he said, realizing with a shock that he could see his breath. For the first time he noticed that the temperature had abruptly changed from tropical to frozen tundra.

At his feet lay Misha, unconscious but with few dents and scratches, and a nearly completely decimated Aurica.

Gasping, he knelt and procured a Healy C from his pouch. "Here; I hope this helps, Aurica," he murmured, pouring its contents into her crisp mouth. Lyner saw a bit of her skin heal, but the rest of the effects, if any existed, were negligible.

The bikini-clad Misha stirred and looked up, dumbstruck at their surroundings. "Wow…so….dizzy…" she muttered.

"Misha! Are you alright?" he said, sliding across the tunnel floor to her location. She answered by promptly turning on her side and throwing up all over the bright floor. Lyner knelt down and helped her sit up, holding her hand warmly. "Misha- I really need you now."

"Oh yeah? Why, what is it?" the dazed Reyvateil answered. Before Lyner could elaborate, she suddenly plunged forward and began to open-mouth kiss him. Although he appreciated the sentiment, Lyner gagged and jumped back. "Ew! Throw-up taste…in my mouth!"

"Sorry…I just love you so much," she said, smiling goofily.

"Snap out of it, Misha," he said, snapping his fingers to draw out her attention. He gestured to Aurica's mutilated body. "I need you to sing Paradise Cinna immediately!"

Misha seemed to notice Aurica's state for the first time since their landing. "OH MY GOD!!! AURICA!!" she cried, and, after dressing herself in the warm Kasha costume, settled herself into a meditative position over Aurica's head and began to sing the clear lyrics of Paradise Cinna. The effect was incredible; the acoustics in the tunnel conducted the song far, far down the tunnel, where it was echoed all the way back into Aurica's body with tremendous force. As Aurica's body lit up and began to regenerate, Lyner nodded and began to explore their immediate terrain.

In a nearby outcropping of the tunnel, the massive hulk of the collapsed spa lay ominously, a reminder of the unfinished battle they had recently fought. "Bourd's gotta be around here somewhere still; if we survived, then he definitely did," Lyner said through gritted teeth.

"Lyner, don't leave me!" Misha cried in between verses, and continued to sing soulfully over Aurica's body.

He nodded and walked over to her, placing his hands on her bare back in reassurance. "I know, Misha…I'm not going anywhere. I'll protect you from whatever's in here, so don't worry."

Meanwhile, in a spinning tunnel much like the one Lyner found himself in, Bourd stood towering in a dark red tunnel of even greater turbulence.

"Master Bourd, your face; are you all right?" Tulip moaned in servitude, struggling up from her collapsed position. Hot, bubbly spring water spewed steam all around Bourd and the V-X unit. "I can heal it for you!"

"Shut up! The pain; it gives me resolve! It sends such sensations as I've never felt, flowing through the very fiber of my being!" Bourd said in glee, blood dripping from the remains of his face. "If anything, ga-hah, I'd ask you to add to my suffering!"

"What now? Our quarry seems to have escaped for the time being," Tulip said, emotionlessly helping her sisters up out of the pool of bloody water.

" LYNER BARSETT!!!" Bourd screamed in a peculiar neighing tone. "We must HUNT them DOWN…and rip their BRAINS from their heads!"

"Ha-ha, NOW you're talking!" Marguerite exclaimed, tensing for the hunt to begin. "Gardenia, have you caught their scent yet?"

"One moment," the pink-haired Omega said, leaping on top of the crashed hot tub room and arching her body as she sniffed the air. "Hmm….it seems that these tunnels are not as..." she suddenly thrusted her hand through the ceiling and pulled it back to her chest unharmed, "solid as they appear." She kept sniffing and leapt down the opposite bank, taking off at a sprint.

"Well?!? Has she found them yet?" Bourd brayed impatiently.

"Yes," Tulip said, studying Gardenia's songs as they echoed back. "Come, we must hurry!"

"Heh-heh, there'll be no escape this time!" Marguerite sneered, beginning to sing a powerful viper spell as the three took off in pursuit.

(In the Green Tunnel)

As the time drifted by, the spinning cauldron Lyner found himself in lulled him to sleep. As he wandered through moonlit pastures in his dreams, he could have sworn he heard his girlfriend whispering.

"Shurelia?" he asked hopefully, turning around to see a disembodied orange head floating behind him.

"WELCOME TO MY DOMAIN, YOU PATHETIC WANNE-BE HERO! GO; SEE WHAT HAS BECOME OF YOUR PRECIOUS GIRLFRIEND NOW!!!" the head sead.

"Huh?" Lyner said as the scene changed and he saw something incredibly awful happening, with Shurelia's intricate screams hardwiring all of her pain directly into his skull.

As a ghastly inhuman ape-like face filled his vision, Lyner suddenly snapped awake. What had happened back there…now that he had awaken, for some reason he couldn't recall what had become of Shurelia; only that it was horrible.

His vision settled on the comforting image of Misha working with her Elfin spell Cinna (that he had grown to know so well in the Soulspave), and he opted to observe the progress of Aurica's recovery.

After a few more minutes of watching Misha sing, Aurica's body was finally restored (except for her clothes, of course). Misha fell back, exhausted from the delicate labor.

"Aurica, can you hear me?" Lyner said, kneeling down next to her and holding her hand.

"Lyner…I'm…dying…" the High Divinator moaned.

"No! Stay with us, Aurica! Stay with me…"

Aurica's eyes fluttered open, alight with a strange terror. "Lyner, I need you! Please!"

"A-a-alright, I'm right here…" he said, trying to place the odd light in her eyes.

"Good," she said, jutting her neck forward, making out with him with an urgent passion that was simply delicious. Lyner couldn't take much of it though, and broke it off before things got out of hand.

"Look," he said as she insisted on biting and suckling on his neck. "I didn't save you, Misha did! So rightfully, you should be doing this with her, not me." He felt bad for Misha not getting any credit for her hard work, after all.

The two girls looked at each other in consideration, and then threw their heads violently in the opposite directions. "Umm, I don't think so…" Aurica said sheepishly.

"Maybe only in an emergency," Misha added, blushing terribly.

Lyner got to his feet and helped his singing angels to theirs. "So…shall we take a look around?"

"Well sure," Aurica said, shivering terribly as she covered her private areas. "We've gotta get out of this cold, fast!"

Misha nodded, clutching to Lyner to share body heat. "Yeah…it's weird that Bourd hasn't attacked us though; maybe he died!"

Aurica wasted no time in clothing herself with Song Magic, donning her very endothermic Don Leon costume (making Lyner much more at ease with the situation). "Somehow, I doubt we're that lucky."

"I wonder if any of the rest of us made it here okay?" Lyner said, still looking around in awe at the bizarre location in which they found themselves.

As he said this, a distant cluttering drew their attention. Out of the rubble, a very beleaguered Luke emerged and leaned on a pole. "H-hey, guys," he squeaked.

"Luke! You're alright!" Aurica said, relieved.

"…what have you been doing?" Misha asked. "I haven't seen you in forever!"

"Th-that's not really important right now…" Luke said, slightly shifty-eyed.

"Ooookay…?" Lyner said.

"I was actually just conversing with the great seaslugs up there in Orchifest," he said with a smile.

"NO!"

"You didn't!"

"I COULDN'T HELP IT!" Luke responded. "I'd never seen such big seaslugs before; I couldn't help myself!! Make it stop!!"

"Are you finished?" Lyner said strictly.

"I hope so."

"Good, because we'd better try to recruit the rest of our team before we run into Bourd again. He's like…I think he's possessed or something," Lyner said with folded arms.

"Possessed?" Aurica faltered. "By what, like a demon or something?"

"Well, all I know is, he should be dead with how many times I nailed him, and now he's starting to act like a puppet…and he said he was Epimetheus…" Lyner whispered.

The green tunnel seemed more alien the more time Lyner thought about it; he felt it somehow added to his overall fear. But it wasn't just fear he felt, but also a crazed rush of adrenaline; Shurelia was probably still alive, and he needed to find her as soon as possible!

"Come on, let's go," Lyner said, and led the way deep into the tunnel, away from the spa wreckage.

The tunnel wrapped first to the right, and then up and around like a complex wormhole. Like the Neutron Sea, the floor was a little flexible, and thus gave the heroes an added spring in their step, increasing their overall vigor.

"So, where do you think we are, Luke?" Misha said politely as they slid down yet another slick green slide.

"Well, as you might have noticed, the spa complex very clearly collapsed into the tower." Luke said. "So obviously, this tunnel must be part of some elaborate inner source for the magic of the tower."

"What do you mean, source of the magic?"

"Well, the people of Ign Saradorn draw upon an ancient form of magic to do their bidding, one that used to rely on the planet's inner energy to create spells. With that plentiful source now completely destroyed, these people must have some kind of strong source within the tower here from which to obtain magic." Luke's beady seaslug eyes ran across the ceiling. "I can sense a great amount of unkempt magik here, and this is very near the center of the tower, so these tunnels could be the very source of which I speak."

"Wow…you're, like, really smart!" Aurica exclaimed. "That was like, at least five sentences! That's, like, such a good quality in a man. No offense, Lyner!" She added as an afterthought.

"None taken. And I'm not your man," Lyner muttered, eyeing a massive green cliff that the tunnel suddenly ran into.

"So Luke, what'd you see in Krusche anyway? She's so mean all the time, and she's um…not exactly very pretty!" Aurica queried.

Luke smiled. "Well, we never really were actually together. Her constant flirting while we were on Ar Tonelico together all those years really drove me crazy. But I guess I had gotten used to it more than I realized, for after I spent a few years here I could think of nothing else than reuniting with her. And that's what got me in trouble, of course…"

"Ohhh, that' so sweet!" Misha cried, throwing a comforting arm around Luke. "Once we reanimate her, she'll be all yours!"

"Misha!" Aurica hissed. "What about Jack?"

"Jack?" Luke asked, oblivious. "What about him?"

"Save it," Lyner griped from the front. "Look at this giant cliff, everybody!"

"Oh yeah, that's a cliff alright. What about it?" Aurica said.

"…it's presence indicates that we have arrived at a dead end," Lyner dictated. "See? I can talk smart too!"

"Wow, that's so sexy Lyner!" Aurica said, clapping her hands together, eliciting a very loud echo.

Misha stepped forwards toward the cliff, but suddenly shot off straight up towards the ceiling with a WHOOSH sound.

"MISHA!" All three yelled after her.

"I-I'm alright," Misha said in a breathless voice from above, having caught onto the cliff face and swung herself up onto level ground. "I guess the ground right there's really bouncy or something."

"Really? That can't be right," Luke said, stepping forwards confidently and similarly rocketing upwards along the cliff.

Lyner and Aurica remained at the bottom apprehensively. "Well, I guess that shows you for acting like Vincent. That is to say, a douchebag know-it-all," Lyner said matter-of-factly, and used that stab to goad himself into jumping onto the springy green ground, after which he blasted upwards like his comrades.

"What do you have against Vincent anyway, Lyner? He's a perfectly fine gentleman under most circumstances," Aurica said as she squeezed her eyes shut and gingerly stepped on the bouncy part of the floor after him.

"Yes, Lyner what do you have against me?" Vincent's voice rang out snidely from behind Lyner as he watched Aurica's ascent. Everyone whirled about.

"Vincent! Radolf! You're alright!" Aurica squealed, embracing both of them.

"What, no warm-breasted welcome for me?" Jack said, stroking his chin in disappointment.

"Hey Harm, good to see ya," Misha said with a roll of the eyes. "Thought about Kathryn anymore?"

"You know what, she had nice big tits, that's all it takes to please me," Jack explained.

"Oh, well it's good to know you have a high bar of admission," Misha quipped.

"Well, that's what she said…" Jack trailed off.

"How did you…where did you come from?" Lyner asked grinning at the six people (including Yeeka). He couldn't help but notice that Ayatane was standing very close to Mahine…or was that just his imagination?

"Well, we awoke in a bizarre blue tunnel…" Ayatane said in reminiscence.

"…after which Yeeka flew off into a wall, and he didn't come back out. So intrigued, the natural response was to follow him," Vincent interrupted. Lyner mocked him visibly.

"And we landed in a bizarre yellow tunnel instead. Believe it or not, I am capable of telling the…" Ayatane began.

"We made sure to keep an eye on Yeeka just in case Shurelia was looking for him," Radolf said, craning his neck to scan the group. "Where is she, anyway?"

Everyone looked expectantly at Lyner. "I…I don't know, everyone, she's been missing since the spa," he said somewhat sheepishly.

"Are you serious?" Mahine said. "So that means she could still be up in Orchifest?"

"Yeah," Lyner nodded, "but our first order of business is either making it out of here alive or killing Bourd. We can always find a way back up there if Shurelia really is still there."

"Hey, speaking of Bourd, look what we found in the yellow tunnel!" Jack said, taking a small stone obelisk out of his pouch. It looked very similar to the Ka-Ri that the king of Orchifest had destroyed earlier, only this one shone with an inner blue light.

"What does this have to do with…" Aurica began.

"Thank god! There was no air at all in that pack!" the statue said.

Lyner and Luke jumped. "Whoa, it talks?!?"

"Of course! Now, I believe you know of the man named Bourd?"

"Yeah, he's like possessed or something," Lyner said.

"He's more unstable than you think. The possession only occurred after he was resurrected, a process that has rendered his cellular intactment very brittle."

"So what you're saying is…he's easier to slash through now?" Lyner asked.

As Vincent smugly shook his head at his father's stupidity, the statue replied, "No; since his new body was derived from equestrian genes, he's actually now even tougher than before. The bonding of his genes was faulty, however, and he is slowly reverting into a werehorse as we speak."

"What? A werehorse? That doesn't sound very good!" Radolf said, stroking Yeeka's scaly skull with wide eyes.

"…and it kind of sounds like 'warehouse,'" Jack said with a snicker.

Continuing, the statue pulsed with more blue light and dictated, "Once he fully reverts to a purely monstrous form, he will be both mindless and nearly invincible. For this reason, it is of necessity that you do away with him now."

"So…do you want us to explode you like we did with the purple one?" Lyner asked, scratching his head.

"No, my powers of decimation have a greater use in this case; it is imperative that you manage to stuff me into his body before he becomes an unstoppable force."

"Alright, can do," Lyner said bravely. "So…what do we call you?"

"…you may call me whatever you wish."

"Hmm…" the Knight of Elemia thought. "How's about…Zane?"

"…alright, Zane it is," Zane said.

"Hm, Zane? Not bad, Lyner, I didn't know you had it in you," Aurica said.

"Well hey, 'Yeeka' was not me, that was Shurelia!" Lyner said, wiping his hands clean of the matter.

"No; I was actually referring to that atrocious song you wrote that one time."

"Oh yeah…" Lyner said, smiling fondly at the memory.

"Anyway, let's go dispose of Bourd, before it's too late!" Zane commanded.

"Right," the party collectively said, and they proceeded to walk further down the green tunnel.

"So have you been in the green tunnel the whole time?" Ayatane asked Lyner.

"Yeah."

"And you haven't seen any signs of Bourd right, yet?" Jack asked.

The four shook their heads.

"AND you're still here. Genius!" Vincent snorted. Suddenly he stopped.

"What's wrong?" Mahine asked, ogling him with wide violet eyes.

"…do you hear that hissing sound?" Vincent said, slowly turning to look behind him. Noticing a ill-boding shade of violet from further down the tunnel, he roared, "GET DOWN!!" and thrust both Mahine and Aurica down on the floor.

Everyone ducked just in time to avoid a crystalline blacklight snake erupting throught the air just above them. "It's gonna come back, Misha, pull up a shield for us!" Lyner muttered.

"Right," the Reyvateil said, and pulled up a defensive spell (Meteor) to counter the demon snake which was, indeed coming around for another pass. At the same time, all three members of the V-X unit came running around the corner behind the party, all of them deep in song craft. Tulip and Gardenia slid to a stop and launched the most monstrous spells Lyner had seen yet; a giant pterodon shape with a head like an eight-armed venus fly-trap, and a blue, frosty dragon titan.

"Cut through it, girls!" Lyner shouted from the front of the group, where he was getting a good view of Marguerite's giant serpent clashing violently with a scalding hot steel pan.

"Right!" Mahine and Aurica responded, casting Black Vivisection and Sword Slash, which gouged through the beasts and rocketed towards their casters, disrupting the spells.

With the serpent gone, Lyner commanded, "FORWARD!" and the party made haste to run further down the tunnel. The next area was jarringly different; circular steel plates covered nearly every surface, forming a sort of bus-stop looking environment. More noticeable, however, was the towering form of Bourd, grinning savagely in the middle of the station.

"Hello, everyone!" Bourd said, full of good cheer, and immediately slashed a wide sweep with his diamond blade, maiming the front row of heroes as they slid wide-eyed into the room (Radolf caught the brunt of it).

"GET BACK!" Lyner commanded, and the people in front gladly complied as Bourd slid forward with an insane grin, slashing again. "Aurica, cast a healing spell; Mahine, maintain a lookout on our flank; Misha…" he looked at the gigantic possessed man, who was still swinging at elephantine speeds. He appeared even larger than last time, although Lyner supposed it could have just been his imagination. And he was about to turn into something even fiercer, according to Zane? Lyner squinted and could barely make out the incision that he had carved into Bourd. So he had to stick Zane in there? He took a deep breath; so be it.

"Yes, Lyner?" Misha answered, dropping into a songcrafting stance.

"Cast a healing spell on me, too!" Lyner said as he burst out of the party crowd and parried Bourd's violent swing, his biceps vibrating from the impact.

"Okay," Misha said, and began singing.

"Cover him, Jack!" Ayatane said.

"On it!" the gunman said and rained a stream of bullets at Bourd's mutilated face.

"Arrgh!" Bourd roared out, raising his sword to block the influx. Lyner saw his chance, gripped Zane tightly, and made a fevered run for Bourd's crotch area. Halfway there, however, he suddenly ran into an electricity-covered lapel that was launched in front of him.

"What the-" Lyner farted and spluttered as he was electrocuted, and then collapsed on the steel panels beneath him. Zane rolled out of his hands, and exploded uselessly on the tiles next to the party.

Misha looked around and saw that they had company; very disturbing company, that is. A horde of fierce-eyed, white-furred monkeys had appeared around them, with noticeably blood-red teeth.

"Do not destroy this work of art!" one of the apes laughed in a guttural hooting manner. "THIS is the first werehorse to develop in many a year, and our scientists have been waiting for a chance like this!"

"We mean no harm, whoever you are!" Jack said, walking forward with raised hands in a gesture of peace. "We just want to continue down the-URGH!!"

"Whether you do or not makes no difference!" Another ape laughed insanely, throwing a barb of intense electricity on Jack. "We are the masters of this realm, and you have desecrated our holy land." He gestured around them. "These tunnels are the power source for the glorious Pulmer Kingdom! And you have been stomping around, damaging them! You will be put to death for your insolence!"

"Wh-what do you mean, werehorse?" Bourd asked them in confusion.

"Shut up, you pathetic half-breed!" the ape that had just been speaking hackled, blasting an electric cord into Bourd's incision. The former man screamed in a high pitched voice, collapsing on the ground with tears of pain streaming down his face. "MORE! It needs MORE power!" the ape announced gleefully, and the others responded by shooting one electric cord each into Bourd's abdomen. As Bourd writhed in pain, squealing like a slaughtered pig, Misha didn't know whether to feel sorry for him or think it served him right. She settled on feeling sorry for him.

As Bourd bucked and threw up from the torture, his screams slowly turned into high-pitched neighs and brays, and the remains of his face contorted until he slowly came to resemble the form of a giant humanoid horse, tail and all. Bourd the werehorse got up then, foaming at the mouth, and neighed in victorious rage, before dashing forward and trampling to death the nearest ape.

"MORE lapels! Take that f---er down!!!" an incredibly ugly ape laughed, and a dozen more lapels were fired amongst Bourd's now-gargantuan bulk, electrocuting him severely.

"Stay quiet, everyone, maybe we can sneak away!" Misha suggested quietly, and the party slowly began to back away.

"Where do you think you're going?" a voice said from behind them, and everyone whirled around to see yet another band of monkey people, holding the sizzling corpses of Gardenia and Marguerite, with the bound and gagged Tulip being prodded in front of them.

"…oh shoot," Aurica said.

Behind them, Bourd had been successfully put to sleep with the plethora of electricity. The leader climbed upon the werehorse and stabbed a bloodstained flag into its body, making it whimper in its sleep. "I claim this specimen in the name of his majesty Wilmpveb Pulmer!" He regarded his now-surrounded quarry. "As for you, prepare to be bound and shackled for the journey to meet his majesty the emperor!"

The party surrendered and allowed themselves to be bound in a similar manner as Tulip. When the monsters got to Mahine, however, they paused and analyzed her gorgeuous green locks. "Prince Dethgr!" the soldiers, said, thrusting her to the audience of the yeti leader still atop Bourd.

"What?" Dethgr snapped, regarding her and Tulip, who they also dragged to the front. After a second, he suddenly gasped.

"Does your majesty find favor with them?" the apes grunted in respect.

"Yes- they-they're perfect!" he stuttered, his beady black eyes running over their exquisite bodies. "They must be taken expressly to my father!" He clapped impatiently at his bodyguards. "Aren't you finished, yet?"

"Carry this," one soldier said to the other as he heaped Jack and Lyner's unconscious bodies in his arms.

"Understood," the other said, bearing the weight quite easily.

"Finished, sire!"

"Very good, let's make haste to Castle Vingardim." With a flair of his arm, Dethgr carved a small silver tunnel into the wall of the green one, and led the way into the makeshift one.

As the party was led single-file, but interspersed with soldiers to keep an eye on them, down the tunnel, Misha felt a fierce blast of cold air hit them. She wondered bleakly what awful place fate was going to lead them to next.

A/N:

There you go. Review pleeze:P

Next Chapter: The Pulmer Kingdom!