Ar Tonelico: Rite of Slumber, Pt. 2

Ign Saradorn

Chapter 27 – Destiny

(Near Seafoam Lake)

The team was led down the silvery tunnel out into the open, howling wind of a bleak, smoggy environment. The group emerged into a large, shallow conical pit made entirely of solid blue ice.

It was gusting and raining quite a bit, so Misha looked up in wonder, and was shocked to see a leagues-long ocean directly above them. The entire mass of water was pulsating red, and she could see the dark silhouettes of hulking sea creatures exploring the bottom of their watery ceiling. Gravity was fighting a losing battle against that great red sea above them, but succeeded in drawing a bit of water down to earth through precipitation.

Spooked by this odd environment of blue ice, gray skies, and red watery ceiling, Misha turned wide-eyed to Lyner's body, which was being toted along by one of the yetis. "Lyner? Are you all right?" she asked.

"SILENCE! No talking amongst the prisoners!" the ugly ape said, baring his crimson teeth.

Misha laughed nervously, but wisely spoke no more. Before she turned back around, though, she could have sworn she saw Lyner wink at her.

The group traveled to the deep blue center of the concentric crater, where Dethgr raised his muscular white-furred arm and lit a laser beacon with a ring on his finger. Within minutes, a squad of three roaring fighters dove and landed near the party, at which point Dethgr and the other yetis loaded Tulip and Mahine on separate crafts, and attached Bourd's comatose werehorse form to the belly of another fighter, tying yet another lapel from his wire-ridden body.

Once the fighters streaked away across the sky, Dethgr whirled around and faced the shivering party members. "LUNCH BREAK!" the prince ordered.

"Uh, sir; we didn't bring any food…" some of the men reminded him.

"Shut up! I know that!" Dethgr growled. "We surely don't need to bring back all these prisoners, do we? We already turned the most important ones in!"

"Oh yeahhh," the apes said, turning and approaching their prisoners, lapel launchers at the ready.

Immediately, a large amount of commotion occurred, with a battle cry being sounded from beyond the edges of the blue crater and lobbed fireballs flying and exploding near the yeti camp.

"Damn! On guard, everyone! It's the freedom fighters!" Dethgr roared, staggering from an injury derived from one of the fireballs.

Over the crater came running a large mob of more white-furred apes, waving sabers and weaponry in the air. "Attack!!" a gorgeous female voice rose over the noise of the advance, and the freedom fighters wove in and out with their flamethrowers, broiling the heroes' captors alive.

Lyner saw his chance and slashed himself free with his massive gilded sword. He dashed over and decapitated the ape that had been carrying him and then proceeded to run down the line of his friends and slay all their captors as well, careful not to harm any of the advancing guerrilla forces.

After Lyner and the attacking force disemboweled all the evil monkeys, Lyner tugged off his gag and the commander of the new group held up her palm to stop the attack and stepped forward. Lyner was surprised that she appeared so dainty, for a demon monkey soldier, that is. Realizing that it looked like he was checking her out, Lyner quickly stood at attention and raised his eyes to her face, which was far less ugly than that of the male yetis.

"Come no closer, human," she warned, her hand on her gun. "Am I right in guessing that you have a quarrel with Wilmpveb Pulmer as well, blond-haired warrior?"

Lyner nodded. "Yes. We were on our way down the tower when we were suddenly taken hostage by these monsters. They have already sent two of our party to Castle Vingardim."

"Wait; you consider Tulip one of our party?!" Radolf asked. "Surely not Bourd?"

"No; I think...Shurelia might be in their captivity also…I had a dream where a fat monkey was raping her…or something," he told Radolf.

"That fat monkey would be our evil emperor, Wilmpveb," the yeti girl said, a smile tugging at her lips. "Nearly all he does is rape beautiful girls and try out his latest hare-brained scheme to open a portal to the demon realm."

"Sounds like a terrible emperor," Lyner said. "I take it you all are rebelling against his rule?"

The girl nodded vigorously. "Our base is not too far from here, but its wall has just been breached. This," she said, gesturing to the mob behind her. "Is the whole of our forces, and we have been driven out of our home. SO I'll strike a deal with you, blond-haired warrior…"

"…drive the enemies out of your base and you'll help us to attack Wilmpveb?" Lyner asked, grinning.

"You got it," she said, satisfied. "We'll need the power of your Reyvateils to win back the fort."

"Very well, it's a deal," Lyner grinned, sharing a look with the rest of his team, who nodded back.

"Great! I-I'm Kit Pulmer, by the way." The commander said, running a hand through her shoulder-length silver hair.

"Lyner Barsett," Lyner answered, and introduced the rest of the party one by one. After that, the now-freed team stomped their way along the ice under Kit's direction.

"I do apologize if I seem rude, but what is your race?" Vincent asked Kit, coming up alongside Lyner, who shot him an ugly look.

"We…were once men," Kit said coldly. "We had many villages in the beautiful frozen bluffs to the south of this lake."

"Wait; THIS is a lake?" Aurica gasped, gesturing at the frozen terrain around them.

"Yes, this is all that remains of Seafoam Lake, the lower of the Two-Layered Lakes," another ape said from near Kit.

"Oh yeah, this is Kerak Pulmer, our head engineer," Kit said. "But yes, Lady Epimetheus outfitted us with the ability to freeze on a massive scale, and with that power we conquered this entire lake and made it our own. However…with Lady Epimetheus's sickly mark inside all of us, we slowly lost control of our actions and became mere pawns for her will. And recently, under the oppressive reign of Wilmpveb, I think we've lost all since of direction altogether as a culture…"

"But we, the Freedom Fighters, stand for hope for Pulmers everywhere!" Kerak said, pounding his light blue chest. "We have each had a second birth, and came back to our humanistic tendencies. That means we can think for ourselves, and that gives us a leg up on Wilmpveb's army of puppets!"

"Ah, I see," Lyner said, looking at the ice beneath his feet. "So where is Epimetheus now?"

"Lady Epimetheus," Kit corrected, "resides in a thick prison of ice just a few miles beneath us, which has served as her home for over one-hundred years. Why? Do you seek her out?"

"Uh, eventually, yes," Lyner said. "But first we need to rescue our friends from Wilmpveb's castle."

"I'm sure she will grant you an audience," Kit said, smiling with her eyes. "You have quite the winning personality."

Kerak, Aurica, and Misha frowned at this. After ten more minutes of traveling across the frozen lake and discussing the history of the civilization of Seafoam Lake, Kit ordered everyone to hide behind a small mound of snow. "Do you that massive wall, Lyner?"

Lyner peered over the top of the hill, his spiky hair frozen solid from the frigid temperature. "Of course I see it, is it possible to miss it?" The mechanical wall was at least a mile wide, and the emperor's troops lined it in two layers.

"Within is our base, Redtown," Kit said.

"Ohh, now I see why you need our help," Lyner grinned. "May I?" he asked Kit.

She stared at him wide-eyed but gestured the 'go-ahead' sign.

"Aurica, prepare Dragonferno and launch when ready. Misha, I want you to make a Lv. 4 Glacial Ball and hold it, can you do that?"

"Yeah," the girls answered and sang their respective tunes. When Aurica launched hers, the legendary orange dragon swooped in from on high and coated the entire wall and fort within with wreathes of raging fire.

"What are you doing? You'll wreck the entire town in the process!" Kit screamed in Lyner's ear over the screams of Pulmers being burned alive. The excess of snow that filled the town and the wall turned to gushing water that flooded the streets of Redtown.

"Just watch. Are you ready, Misha?" he shouted.

"Yeah!" she said, violet false eyes flaring. She launched Glacial Ball, which plummeted directly in the middle of the roaring flash flood, freezing it solid. The ice that Glacial Ball created covered the entire wall, and even spread out to the heroes' hiding hill.

"Ambush complete," Lyner said, smiling satisfactorily to Kit. The Pulmer girl rolled her eyes and got up, walking along the bridge of ice built by the girls to get a better view. Lyner gestured for his team to follow, and they all walked along the bridge behind her. When they got up to the top, Kerak threw Lyner out of the way to get a better view.

The entire town was frozen into one humongous ice block. Lyner could see lovely brick streets and pretty antique streetlamps lining the roads.

"Looks like a nice town," he said with a grin to the Pulmer commanders.

"It was a nice town, you mean," Kerak said, glaring at Lyner.

"No, it's perfect!" Kit said, running over and hugging Lyner tightly (conspicuously sliding her bare hand across his chiseled chest as she did so). "There were only enemies in there, after all. Now we can just cut through to the inner base and leave them frozen until after we do away with Wilmpveb, when the mind control should have worn off. Did you really think of all that?" she asked Lyner adoringly.

Aurica and Misha stepped in between them. "Lyner's actually had a lot of experience being a field general," Aurica said defensively.

"Yeah, he pretty much single-handedly saved all of Ar Tonelico!" Misha put in.

Kit's eyes widened. "Wait, wait; you're all from Ar Tonelico?!"

"Yeah, what of it?" the Reyvateils said.

"Ohh, Lady Epimetheus has foreseen your arrival. She said to treat you like gods!" Kit gasped. "I'm so sorry for doubting you before. I'll follow your every order from now on, Master Lyner!" she curtsied for him.

"N-no, don't call me Master," Lyner stuttered.

"But Her Ladyship wishes it!"

"O-oh, alright," Lyner said. He wondered why Epimetheus could possibly want them to come here, when they had just come to end her life. Shrugging, he ordered Misha to sing Void Slasher, which created a very slim slash made of dark matter straight down, all the way through the ice. The surrounding cylinder of ice was sucked into the subsequent vortex, detailing a passageway into the base. "After you, Kit," Lyner said, trying to be polite.

Kit blushed furiously and crawled down the passageway on her back. Lyner followed, and eventually everyone else in the party plus Kerak and a few others made the descent as well.

After making preparations in the frozen base, they went to the hidden garage, which contained a stolen fighter from Wilmpveb's fleet.

"So this was made by Pulvers?" Jack asked, eyeballing the ship in all of its glory.

"Yes, overseen by Wilmpveb himself," Kerak said. "Of course, I made a few alterations to its functions, so it's fairly reliable now."

"'Fairly reliable?' That sounds promising," Ayatane said.

"Shh!" Misha said. "Be nice!"

"I know, I know; hey, as long as it gets us to the castle, I'm happy," the samurai said. "The sooner we save Mahine and Shurelia, the better!"

"So…you're getting fairly close to Mahine, aren't you?" Misha said, raising and lowering her eyebrows craftily. Vincent overheard this as he climbed aboard the aircraft and paused, waiting for the answer.

Ayatane shrugged, unsure of his feelings. "I guess so, I'm appreciating her a lot more now that we know she's an Omega!"

"Riiight, I can see what's in your eyes when you look at her," Misha grinned. "You looooove her!"

Ayatane blushed and looked around like a squirrel caught in headlights. "N-n-n-n-n-NO I DON'T!!"

Misha shrugged. "My mistake."

Ayatane looked up at Vincent warily, feeling the hot blush still on his cheeks, but the scientist had already walked inside and secured himself, apparently having not heard the conversation.

After everyone boarded and the engines fired up, the fighter took to the skies, bursting through the icy surface of the lake and soaring through the nearly-black smog. An entire battalion of Pulmer troops had accompanied them, while the main bulk of the army stayed behind to re-establish control of the base.

"So, what's our heading?" Lyner asked Kit, who was piloting the craft.

"Oh, I dunno, could you please locate them, Kerak?" she asked the blue-furred Pulmer sweetly.

"Wait, you don't even know where the castle is?" Lyner asked incredulously.

"I thought you knew, Master!" Kit laughed. "The castle is inside a giant black zeppelin! It's famous tower-wide, or so I thought."

"Oh," Lyner said, thinking furiously. They would need quite a different battle strategy taking on a blimp than taking on a castle. "So, are you ready for the big battle?"

"Oh, me?" Kit asked, surprised. "N-no, I'm not going…"

"You're kidding," Lyner said, blinking. "You are the commander of this entire operation, and you're not even going to come along?"

Kit wordlessly took the coordinates from Kerak and entered them into the ship's mainframe. "Wilmpveb and I have a…troubled history," she said.

"You mean you were one of his sluts?" Lyner asked.

"Lyner!" Aurica reprimanded him.

"No, he's right, I was one of his sluts…" Kit said with downcast eyes.

Vincent snorted. "Well! I certainly can't speak well of his taste in women!" This earned him an immediate smack from Misha. "Kidding! I'm just kidding…"

Kerak stood up and barked at Vincent, "Enough! I don't care where you are from, you will not insult the princess in such a…HAWKGWLEAB!!" (His statement was cut short as Kit swatted him across the gonads)

"SHUT UP, YOU MISERABLE OLD FART!" Kit cried.

"Wait, princess?!" Jack said. "So, I've been checking out the princess this whole time?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm the…wait, what?" Kit said, snapping her head around to glare at Jack. "Don't check my out unless I give you permission, prick-snort!"

"Alright, alright, my mistake," Jack said, taking off his hat and bowing in humility. "I was just charmed by your unwavering beauty and grace from the moment I met you, your highness."

"……..Okay, you can check me out, I guess," Kit said, blushing furiously.

"WAIT A SECOND!!" Ayatane roared, standing up. Everyone regarded him. He shook with an inner fury. "So Mahine is Wilmpveb's prisoner right now? Doesn't that mean…so right now…she's being….ARRRRGH!!! I'll not let his ugly monkey penis in her any longer!! We're coming, Mahine!"

Vincent backhanded him across the face. "We're all worried, you moron. She'll be alright, you'll see."

Ayatane fumed to himself, looking like he had half a mind to attack Vincent then and there. Everyone turned back to the front of the craft.

"You're Wilmpveb's daughter? But I thought you said you were Wilmpveb's whore?" Aurica asked the princess.

She nodded. "Yeah...ever since I can remember, I was his sex toy in his free time. He's popped more cherries than any other Pulmer can lay claim to, and…I was one of those whose lives he ruined. I…can remember the first time clearly, on my eighth birthday…" her voice choked here.

"Oh, Kit…I'm so sorry!" Misha gasped. "That's horrible! I guess you have plenty of reason to hate him then, don't you?"

"Don't pity me," Kit snapped. "Although I appreciate your goodwill," she said a little more softly. "sigh It's all the inspiration I've ever needed to found this force for freedom, with the knowledge that someday, somehow, his evil head will be nothing more than a decoration on a spear in my front lawn."

Everyone was silent. By now, the Pulmer fighter had risen to a grim height, midway between the red ocean above and the field of grey clouds beneath. "There, you can barely see it," Karek said, pointing at a small black silhouette among the red-shaded clouds in the distance.

Lyner put a hand on Kit's shoulder. "Thanks for telling us, Kit."

She nodded. "Of course, Master. But now you see why I can't accompany you."

Lyner raised an eyebrow. "But…why not?"

Kit rolled her eyes. "I'm terrified of him! After spending sixteen years as nothing but his grimy wet rag doll, he has complete control over all my emotions! There's no way I can face him!"

"…Alright, but I think you'll regret it for the rest of your life if you pass up this opportunity to set things right."

"Is that a threat, Mr. Barsett?" Kit said with a teasing smile.

"No, of course not! It was my attempt at a philosophical statement, which obviously failed," Lyner said, running a hand through his hair.

"I was just joking, Master," Kit said wrapping a shaking arm around him and pulling him close in a hug (causing him to almost lose his balance). "You're probably right but…once I set foot in that zeppelin, I reckon I'll be completely useless. You don't want to babysit me the whole time, do you?"

"So…how are we going to get in?" Luke said, gazing out the side window at the nearing black zeppelin, with the face of a fat greasy-furred Pulmer plastered along its side. "Should we have Misha cut through with Void Slasher like we did to the ice back at Redtown?"

"I was going to blast a hole with the lasers on this thing, but sure, that sounds like it'll draw less attention. Good thinking, seaslug man," Kit said.

Misha looked to Lyner for affirmation, who nodded, so she prepared Void Slasher as the fighter pulled alongside the huge zeppelin.

"You'll have little time to jump over, since the zeppelin's skin has an auto-regenerative capability," Kit said, opening the side panel. Lyner's party crouched among the Freedom Fighters to make the deadly leap after Misha launched her spell.

"NOW!!" Lyner commanded after everyone was in position. Misha cast her song, which enacted a great gash across the zeppelin. The party wordlessly leapt into the fortress, with Lyner and Luke staying behind to make sure Misha got across okay. Luke barely made it in before the zeppelin's black mesh grew back.

Lyner looked around their bleak surroundings. The inside of the zeppelin had taken on a quasi-medieval tone, only with giant gears turning everywhere. Moats, long bridges, and grandiose black castles made entirely of rotating cogs dominated the scene, giving the zeppelin its very own flavor.

"They definitely know we're aboard," Lyner told his group. "So let's get moving. Any idea which castle is Wilmpveb's?" Kerak pointed to a hulking, ominous black one nearly a mile away, carved into an artificial mountainside. "Oh, of course. Well then, let's go, and try not do draw any undue-"

At that moment, a sight in the floral garden to his right caught Lyner's eye. A group of caped Pulmers were pulling the frantically kicking body of Bourd Rade (or what was left of him) into a giant wooden house that was sizzling and sputtering with electricity.

"Check it out!" Lyner said.

A Pulmer next to him jumped. "Whoa! That's a lot of wasted power!"

"No, not that! Bourd's in there!"

"So? He's getting his just desserts. Let's just move on," Jack suggested.

"Oh, desserts? That's great, I hope they taste good," a Pulmer sympathized.

Lyner stroked his golden beard. "Jack, I give full command over the Freedom Fighters over to you."

Everyone looked at him like he had just gone barking. "Really, Master?" one of the Pulmers asked.

"Yes. I'll take the rest of my party to check out Bourd's condition. We'll catch back up with you later. But on the off-chance that we don't…don't wait around for us," Lyner said, as if his plans made perfect sense and should never be questioned.

"Alright, let's do this," Jack said, rubbing his hands together enthusiastically and leading the way onto the large chrome bridge pointing towards Wilmpveb's castle. The Pulmers, a bit more hesitantly now, followed in the perverted gunman's footsteps.

As an afterthought, Lyner added, "Command every word Mr. Hamilton tells you," and an unenthusiastic murmur answered him. With a shrug, Lyner whirled about and trotted over a stone ledge and into the flowery garden that held the electric house.

"Lyner, stop!" Misha called, and he slid to a stop, turning to regard them. His party ran up to join him. "Are you sure about this? What are you planning to do?"

Lyner shrugged. "I'm improvising," he said, turning around and dashing sword-raised into the lightning house. With a battle cry, he burst open the door and ran amok, unleashing an apostolic combo on the first two Pulmers in the room before the others could even react to this unexpected attack. As they raised their lapel launchers and fired at him, Aurica burst in, song at the ready, and splattered them with a Gaia Bombard.

"Nice one, Aurica!" Lyner said, and walked straight back out the door where he came from, leaving Bourd the werehorse sizzling in an electric pit in the middle of the room. As Lyner stepped out, he heard Bourd whine and knew he had gotten him where he wanted him.

Grinning mischeviously, Lyner walked back inside and regarded Misha's former captor. "I never thought I'd be in this position, you miserable piece of scum," Lyner said, folding his arms and looking down at the pathetic monstrosity that Bourd had become. "Would you like me to free you?"

Bourd nodded vigorously, which was hard for him to do, being constantly electrocuted and all.

Lyner stroked his beard and bent down next to his archenemy. "Listen, Bourd; these Pulmers have been treating you like garbage from the moment they collected you. No, even worse; a specimen of weird science!" Bourd stared up at him with scarred eyes, his emotions unreadable. "Not only that, they've captured your hot trophy Reyvateil, Tulip, and she's still alive, up there in the dude's castle," Lyner said, jerking his head backwards.

"Now, you listen to me. Let's work together, for just a second, and kick this guy's ass, fighting our way to freedom. After that, you can have that fair shot at me you've always wanted, fair enough?"

"Yeah," Vincent said, crouching next to Lyner. "Just think, if you help us, afterwards, you can peel all the flesh from Lyner's bones! And eat all of his organs, like his intestines and his spleen! Doesn't that sound good, boy?!"

Bourd nodded enthusiastically again with pursed lips.

"Eh? Eh? You'll get all that and more once you help us kill Wilmpveb and crush this zeppelin," Vincent said, grinning and allowing the werehorse to lick his hand.

"Thanks, Vincent. So will you help us?" Lyner said.

Bourd smiled extremely creepily with his mutated horse face and nodded again. Satisfied, Lyner carefully cut loose all the bounds holding the werehorse down. Once freed, the monster neighed and jumped out of the pit on its hind legs, finally escaping the confines of its electric prison. It started jerking its head in a weird manner.

"What's it doing?" Radolf asked, cocking his head.

"I think, maybe it's trying to tell us it wants us to ride its back?" Aurica wondered.

"Really? That would be SO tight!" Lyner said, clapping his hands together excitedly and vaulting on top of the werehorse. Bourd now had an extremely long back (nearly as long as a sei whale's), so there was more than enough room to fit Lyner, Aurica, Misha, Vincent, Radolf, Luke, Yeeka, and Ayatane.

Once they were all on, Bourd knew what to do. With one strong stride, he pummeled through the garden house and bounded high into the artificial gear-covered sky. He ran up the many gangplanks and twisting cogs along the ground, up towers and across courtyards all at a breakneck speed. Any lapels shot at the group missed by a large margin.

"Can't you go faster, you pansy?" Lyner taunted, and Bourd respond by leaping high into the air and prancing along the lead cliff face horizontally. A battalion of lightning sizzled across the dark room, dancing along the giant metal castles and reflecting off their hulks.

"Wow…"Ayatane said, his draw dropping at the artificial world.

"How can lightning even exist inside a zeppelin?" Radolf wondered.

"I dunno, but it's cool, isn't it? I tell you what, I wish I had lightning in my mansion!" Lyner said, grinning maniacally.

Vincent jeered, "Actually, Lyner, you do have lightning with in your mansion; every time you take off your shirt, HA! HA! HA!" (Bourd snickered at this one too as he bounded from steeple to steeple of more castle spires)

"…Shut up, Vincent. I hate you."

(Within Wilmpveb's Chambers)

An injured Shurelia groaned as she fought an uphill battle to regain alertness. She had just woken up, and was gagged and tied up, but no longer in a soft, blood-soaked mattress like before. She had blacked out without realizing it, presumably from loss of blood.

Shurelia wriggled around a bit to get a feel of what she was tied down to. Apparently she was lying vertically on some hi-tech slab of hard-wiring. Shurelia glanced around the red-tinted circular room; Wilmpveb's abode was covered with red velvet. Two other nude girls, Mahine and a beautiful feisty-looking redhead, were strapped to other towers that looked like the one she was on.

Then the pain came on. It began within her abdomen and scalded throughout the rest of her being. Gasping inaudibly, she tried to look down and examine the huge bite marks Wilmpveb had left on her. She couldn't see much from her angle, but giant chunks of flesh had been stripped from her chest. Having seen way more than she wished to, she paled and looked at the others instead.

Mahine, having no natural eyes of her own, looked especially freaked out, and fang marks were all over her body as well. The redhead looked more eaten than whole as well, but her eyes were sharp, and Shurelia could almost hear her brain whirring behind her eyes.

'Damn him,' Shurelia cursed her captor. 'How are we going to get out of here?' She tried not to think of how the demon ape had forced himself inside of her, munching into her body all the while. Shurelia shuddered. He had taken her most important gift she had intended to give to Lyner; would he still take her back after this? 'Stupid question,' Shurelia thought with a smirk. 'Lyner's not like that.' She knew he would accept her back, if only she could find her way out of this zeppelin fortress.

A sudden noise from downstairs jarred her from her thoughts, indicating someone's presence; Wilmpveb was back. A whimpering, crying female voice sounded out, coupled by Wilmpveb's coarse, wolf-like voice. A few moments later, Shurelia heard the pair struggle into the master bedroom, where for about five minutes obvious intercourse insued, with the girl's screams of pain and bloodloss detailing every single action Wilmpveb did.

After the screams finally stopped (he had either eaten her or pummeled her into a coma, like he had with Shurelia and her two roommates), the fat demon came stomping into the mechanized room, blood dripping from his lips and chin.

"Ladies, ladies, are you ready for your ultimate destinies to finally be realized?" he asked greasily, somehow speaking through his viper-like set of red fangs. He stepped forward to the complex tetrahedron of energy in the center of the room. "Do you believe in destiny, ladies?"

Not waiting for an answer (since they were all gagged), he continued. "Well, I do. I think each of you were made for a purpose: the will of Epimetheus." For dramatic effect, he flared a code of light from his laser ring into the tetrahedron, which flashed at grew into a large fat circle, rotating in the middle of the room. "The prophecy calls for a girl with hair as blue as the windy sky, a girl with hair greener than a mermaid's scales, and a girl with hair like the very fires of Yggr. I believe that this prophecy is talking specifically about you three luscious ladies," he said, running his eyes over all their bitten chests. "Your symphonic power cores each have an incredible source of energy, when harmonized, will finally be able to open a gate to Yggr, Epimetheus's realm." Wilmpveb smiled, which was always a scary sight. "It is time to fulfill your fates, and be the tools Epimetheus requires to return to this world!" With that, he entered another laser code into the tetrahedron, and it spun even faster, firing tractor beams into each of the girl's breasts.

Shurelia moaned as her world felt like it was being splintered apart. The pain she felt before was nothing. She clenched her fists, willing herself to stay alive as her very soul cannonballed out of her chest into the glowing sphere before them.

Wilmpveb stepped back and looked on eagerly as the image of a foreign place slowly appeared in the middle of the room. It eventually became detailed enough so that an elaborate golden palace was visible through the sphere.

A figure that was standing on the top of the palace in the vision swooped down to the portal. It was the gorgeous orange-colored body of Epimetheus. The Reyvateil with eyes of the bloodiest red and hair more yellow than the sun on the clearest day slowed down to a hover in front of the gate. "Freedom!" she moaned, and Shurelia could feel her pleasure as she spoke, soothing her bleeding soul as she kept the gate open.

Tears appeared in the evil monkey's eyes. "Epimetheus! I never thought I'd see you again!"

Epimetheus frowned at him. "What do you want this time, you failure?"

"I won't fail this time, my Lady! The portal will hold, and you'll be free!"

Epimetheus grinned and hugged herself in anticipation. "You better not mess this up, or it will be on your head, Wilmveb."

Suddenly, a great commotion came from downstairs, and Wilmpveb impatiently stomped over to his staircase. A herd of Pulmer troops had just scrambled through the door.

"WHAT do you want, you incompetent baboons?" Wilmpveb roared.

"Y-Your majesty, the freedom fighters have somehow boarded the zeppelin and are making their way here!"

Wilmpveb rolled his eyes. "Our forces outnumber theirs ten to one. Wipe the floor with them."

"But sir, they're being led by a single insane human gunman, and we are quickly losing ground to them…"

"A human, eh?" Wilmpveb said, stroking his chin. "He must be here to rescue the chosen trio. Humans are especially weak in their genitals; just castrate him and you'll be able to take him down."

"Yes sir," the troops said, and ran back out the way they came.

The emperor rubbed his hands together and paced back into the portal room to observe the gate's progress.

Bourd and has cargo eventually made their way up to Wilmpveb's crimson castle, hiding in a rock crag. Just above them, several massive blue-furred Pulmer giants stalked, massive guns at the ready.

"There's a lot of energy being consumed up in the palace, did you see that?" Vincent asked the others.

"Yeah, there was a whole bunch of light emanating from the topmost tower," Radolf said, giving Bourd a drink from his water bottle. "There's definitely something going on up there."

"I hope Harm's alright, those defenses looked pretty sound," Misha said worriedly, and Lyner put an arm around her.

"Bourd, do you think you can take down those giants?" he asked.

Bourd nodded assuringly, grinding his long claws on the stones in anticipation.

"Alright, what I want you to do is run up there, take down the giants as fast as you can, and then scale the castle up to Wilmpveb's balcony," Lyner instructed. "You ready?"

The werehorse responded by mooing and then dashing around the corner and up the hill to the palace grounds. The giants immediately opened fire on them with strawberry-red laser beams. Bourd leapt over them and slashed the first one all the way through in mid-air. After landing, he surged to the next one, the beams barely zipping over the heroes' heads, and bit through his entire belly. The belly-less giant moaned hoarsely and collapsed upon himself.

Bourd was zapped on the flank by a nearby giant, and by now more troops were firing at him from the many windows of the castle. "Never mind the giants, just get us up to the balcony!" Lyner screamed over the tumult.

Their steed took off and leapt onto the very side of the red palace, clawing its way up to the top as fast as it could run vertically. The heroes were surrounded by a cloud of blue and red beams, and Bourd had miraculously dodged all of them so far.

Once they made it to the final tower, though, a guard looked out of the window directly above them and shot Bourd directly between the eyes. A fountain of foam flew out of the werehorse's mouth, and he flipped off the tower wall. Lyner instinctively jumped for his life, grabbing onto the windowsill and swinging himself up to kick the gunner in his face. He pulled himself up onto the ledge and looked down to see Bourd getting shot throughout the entire descent back down to the steel ground below. His party, however, had wisely followed his lead and jumped onto various ledges throughout the wide palace wall.

But Lyner was the highest. Fondling the hilt of his sword in anger about Wilmpveb's evil ways, he growled and jumped onto the remaining cogs that led up to the Emperor's velvet-covered balcony. Climbing up the rotating gears made him all the more grateful for Bourd's scaling prowess; he hoped the mutated man had survived so that he could give him proper thanks.

Lyner soon made his way up to the evil monkey's lair, which was currently emanating a variety of shades of light. He silently drew his sword and crept into the chambers, almost gagging when he smelled the reeking stench within. The light was coming from a room to his right, so Lyner slid alongside the wall to peer in. When he saw Shurelia moaning in terrible pain, rage flooded through his bloodstream.

He ran over with his sword raised and was about to slice down Wilmpveb's back when he noticed a gorgeous girl out of the corner of his eye. He froze as he saw an orange-skinned being in the center of the room waving at him. "Hi Lyner!" she said cheerily.

"Epimetheus?" he asked in wonder. 'Oh goddess, she's gorgeous!' Lyner thought as he gazed into her welcoming red eyes.

He suddenly realized that he was right in front of one of the most evil beings on the planet: Wilmpveb Pulmer. He looked at the ape to see his beady black eyes glaring at him in surprise. "Oh…hi!" he said shakily, with his sword still raised.

Wilmpveb responded by blasting him backwards with a beam from his laser ring. He flew back into another room, which had been covered with a velvet curtain. Lyner landed on something soft and gushy, and looked under him to notice that he had fallen on a massive pile of bloody, cakey skeletons, both human and Pulmer. He screamed at the horrific image; all their empty eye sockets seemed to stare directly at him.

Lyner heard Wilmpveb coming, so he picked up his sword and cut through the curtain when he judged the ape close enough. He cut a solid gash through the evil monkey, and a satisfying splash of blood was displaced. Wilmpveb shot a beam at him, but Lyner anticipated it and jumped over it to his left, cutting Wilmpveb across the leg as he landed.

The monkey winced and howled, "HELP ME, EPIMETHEUS!!!"

To Lyner's surprise, the demon Reyvateil shook her luscious blonde hair. "No. I am awaiting an audience with Lyner, as it happens. I never told you to attack him." She regarded Lyner. "You may kill him, my destined lover."

Lyner didn't know what to say to that, but couldn't say he disagreed with the whole killing Wilmpveb part. So he slashed downwards, but unexpectedly fell on the receiving end of a punch from the emperor. He had only scratched the surface of Wilmpveb's face, but found himself sliding across the bloody floor, crashing into Wilmpveb's red throne.

Wilmpveb and Lyner both rose to their feet, but lost their balance when a huge impact shook the entire tower. The ceiling lit on fire, and boards fell down in between Lyner and his quarry, flames filling the room. He cursed; he HAD to get to Shurelia before it was too late!

Kit then dropped through the ceiling next to Lyner. "Hi master! I decided you were right, after all!"

"Princess! I'm glad you're here," Lyner said warmly. "But how are we gonna get through the flames?"

Fortunately, Misha ran up the stairs to the throne room as well. "Misha! You're alright!" Lyner said, hugging her.

"Oh, I'm so glad you made it too," Misha smiled. "Here, I'll take care of those flames for you." She sang Tear God double time, which quickly doused the raging fire.

The trio leapt over the obstacles and saw Wilmpveb surrounded by laser energy and floating in mid-air.

He laughed evilly even though he only had one leg and his stomach was draining out. "Well, if it isn't my little pussy, Kit? And another virgin hottie, I see! Maybe I should keep you around, Lyner, if you're going to give me quality sex kittens like this."

Bourd then surprised everyone by jumping through the balcony and slashing through Wilmpveb's energy shield. He fell to the ground silently with a thump, and Kit said, "Let me."

She walked up and aimed her pistol at her father's head. "My, how gorgeous you've become!" He laughed, blood bubbling up in his mouth.

"You really should be thanking me for putting you out of your misery," Kit told him derisively, although her gun was visibly shaking.

"You can't do it!" Wilmpveb laughed. "Just take your top off and milk me some, you tramp!"

Kit hiccupped and sniffled, watery tears clogging her eyes. She lowered her gun. "You're right. I can't do it."

"It's okay, I've got it," Lyner said, and stepped forward, but Bourd suddenly shot his fanged horse face forward and bit off the emperor's head, crown and all.

Everyone froze. "Well… guess that's one way to do it," Misha said.

Red lights flashed throughout the palace, and everyone's stomach lurched as the zeppelin nosedived. "Wh-what's going on?!" Lyner asked, grapping ahold of Misha and Kit.

Kit squeezed her eyes shut threw herself at Lyner, hugging him very tightly. "I couldn't do it! I-I failed! Why?!"

Lyner hugged her back, but said, "Kit, what's going on? Why is the zeppelin falling?"

Kit harrumphed and raised her wet face up to his. "Every soldier in my father's army was under his direct telepathic control; now that he's dead, they've all ceased to function. We're doomed!"

"So the workers have stopped keeping us afloat, eh?" Lyner said, stroking his beard. "This isn't going to be pretty."

"Lyner, look! The Reyvateils!" Misha said, tugging him towards the room containing Shurelia.

"Right, let's free them!" he said, running over and observing the tractor beams pulling light out of their chests. "Are they going to be all right?" He noticed for the first time just how much they had been mutilated.

"I don't know! Here, block the beams with your shield, and I'll untie them," Misha instructed. Lyner nodded and held his sword up to deflect the tractor beams zapping into Shurelia while Misha ripped off her constraints.

As soon as she was free, Shurelia squealed, "LYNER!!!" and jumped on him. Lyner pulled her close and kissed her passionately, massaging her tongue with his with as much soul as he knew how to convey. Misha wrinkled her nose and squeezed Lyner's hand while observing the portal begin to flicker. Epimetheus waved at her and blew a kiss.

Lyner pulled back and winked at Shurelia, and then turned to work with Misha to free Mahine and Tulip while Shurelia sang a healing spell for her and her friends.

Meanwhile, Kit sank to her knees next to Wilmpveb's headless body. "Daddy…you're gone…" she whispered, and then screamed, "Why don't I hate you?!? I want to…SO badly!" Kit stared limply down at the gun in her hand. It's barrel was so assuring, so final…

Making up her mind it was for the best, Kit took one final deep, quivering breath, and gently pushed the gun into her mouth. She had been a screw-up all her life, and she still couldn't do the right thing when she had no excuse not to. She whimpered, whispered, "Lyner, I love you," and squeezed the trigger.

A/N: Let it be known to the world that I have not yet checked this chapter for grammatical mistakes; once I have time, I will proofread it.

That said, please take the time to review and tell me what you think!