Ar Tonelico

Rite of Passage: A Murmur In The Dark

Chapter 13: Violated

WARNING: This chapter is filled with mature situations and nudity. Not for those who can't stomach these types of stories.

The cool, salty ocean water soaking through his pants caused Lyner to smile. He had to admit, it was kind of nice. However, he was still a little apprehensive about being submerged in the Neutron Sea since their impromptu dive into its depths earlier; he had been rather certain he would die if his hands slipped off the Song Dolphins Misha crafted.

It warmed his heart to think that Misha cared enough about him to craft a song outside of diving. He knew she fancied him, but the extent of it had not really hit him until now. Aurica had crafted one for him long ago on another near-death experience. Lyner smirked to himself; apparently something in his expression when he was about to meet certain death was pretty sexy.

Lyner led Ayatane, Radolf, Mahine, Yeeka, and Vincent all up through the lazy waves and onto the glistening beach. The sky above them was a lovely pink color, which was not too different from the insistent orange clouds that dominated the Nervocelambran skies.

"Lyner!!!" Shurelia greeted him from under her shady umbrella, sunglasses on her eyes. She got up and ran over to the newcomers while Aurica kept sleeping under hers, and Misha watched them all with lazy disinterest.

Lyner returned this greeting with a warm embrace. After he pulled away, he raised an eyebrow and said, "Okay, so does anyone know why there's a random BEACH out here where there's supposed to be nothing but ever-expanding sea?"

"Oh Lyner, you think too much!" Ayatane said with a cat-like stretch. "The Nervocelambrans can't know EVERYTHING, after all."

"I do!!!" Jack said, galloping over buck naked with a large wooden sign in his grasp. He planted it firmly in front of Lyner, who got stone-cold serious when he read the words 'Nude Beach.' Jack elaborated, "Clearly the natives just got a little TOO restless!" Shurelia covered her eyes from the view of his overused crotch.

"Uh-oh, this is bad!" Lyner exclaimed, taking a step backwards as Misha ran over, excited to her breaking point.

"Let me see!" She cried ecstatically and jumped over to the sign, her chest heaving from the activity. Aurica stirred and looked up at the commotion, lifting up her sunglasses. As soon as Misha surveyed the sign's words (her eyes quickly looking away from Jack's bareness), she knew this was a rare chance to show off her courage for Lyner. Taking a steadying breath, she lifted shaking hands to her bra and undid it, sliding it off and spinning around to show her impressive self off to Lyner.

As soon as Lyner saw her gigantic bare breasts, he flicked his eyes immediately upwards, deciding on the spot that he had never done enough cloud watching as a kid. He definitely needed to get caught up on that lazy pastime, Lyner told himself.

"Well, what do you think?" Misha asked, taking off her panties as well, hoping Lyner would look down and be too awestruck to look away. He was tearing her apart; didn't he realize what she was going through to do this for him?

"Oh, well there's some pretty nice clouds, if that's what you mean!" Lyner said with a pleasant smile, his golden beard glistening in the sunlight. "Look, there's one that looks like a brachiosaurus right there!" He pointed to a large, nearby cloud.

"No, look at me!!" Misha commanded, feeling very awkward standing there without anything covering her up.

Lyner bit his lip and flicked his eyes downwards, but immediately regretted it and deflected his gaze towards Shurelia. "Misha, you are a really beautiful person, but could you please put some clothes back on?" he whined.

Misha glowered. "No! This is a nude beach and I plan to enjoy this to the fullest!" She stalked over and wrapped her arm around Jack's organic one (At the moment, he was in a state of mental shock from seeing her flawless body, and was thus unable to speak). "So I'm going to go swimming! Come on Jack, I'll race you to the Sea!" she cried, and bounded off to the sea.

"AlRIGHT!!" Jack said after swallowing the fact that his foster sister was the hottest woman on the planet. "Rock on!" He dashed after her, and quickly overtook her, tackling her into the waves.

Shurelia was very excited by Lyner's refusal towards Misha so, feeling egged on, she tapped him on his shoulder. "Lyner, I want to give you something now that I've wanted to give you for a long time!"

Lyner blinked at her in noncomprehension. "Wha-eh?" he said dumbly.

"Watch this!" the beautiful girl said with dancing eyes, still holding warmly onto his shoulder with one gloved hand. She then proceeded to rip her underwear off all at once with her other hand.

Lyner had been completely unprepared for this, so he just gaped with his mouth wide open. Shurelia had a great, subtle body, and he should have felt extremely honored to lay eyes on it. However, she was such a holy person that he just felt like he had dug up the Goddess Eoria's corpse and was committing necrophilia all over it. This was not a pleasant feeling, so he finally got enough control over his senses to slap his large hand over his face, finally blocking out the heavenly view.

"Jeez what is it with you girls?! The moment you see the word 'nude' you go all sexually deviant! Shurelia, I love you, but PLEASE put some clothes on before you mess me up even more!" he cried.

Shurelia's face drained of all color. Lyner had analyzed her and deemed her unworthy. She always knew she was physically sub-par to Aurica and Misha, but she at least hoped Lyner would be able to look past that. Or maybe he had, but she was just such a blight on his eyes that she disgusted him. Her eyes glistening with tears, she turned and slowly drifted back to her chair, next to which Radolf had seated himself, wearing shades (and all of his clothes) and reading a selection from the Holy Bible of Elemia.

Shurelia hadn't talked for a while, so Lyner slowly took a peek at the outside world. When he saw that she had left, he let out a huge sigh. Looking over, he noticed that Aurica was waving at him enthusiastically, still dressed in her underwear. He waved back jovially and walked over, seating himself next to her.

Aurica clenched her fist in victory; she had guessed right! She had a hunch that Lyner didn't like nudity, so she purposefully laid in wait in the background and let her rivals discredit themselves. Admittedly, she had been worried he would get seduced by one of them, for they were both very beautiful, but it had apparently paid off as he walked over.

Lyner seated himself right next to her, and threw his arm around her. "Hello, o Trinity Divinator, I knew I could count on you!" he said with a joking grin, still unable to swallow down that ugly feeling he had in his throat from seeing his three best friends naked.

She grinned at him, the sun bringing out the red beautifully in her dirty blonde hair. Suddenly having an uncontrollable urge to kiss her large, accommodating lips, he leaned forward in a surge of his love for her. Just as she was about to open her lips to allow him entrance, she suddenly noticed Vincent stripping out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head and dropped her jaw in rapture at the gorgeous curves of his young nude body, causing Lyner to get nothing but hair.

Confused, he pulled away and licked her silky hair off his lips, and was about to ask what just happened when Aurica suddenly rocketed off her seat towards the nude Tenba scientist. Lyner's expression of confusion was replaced by a look of disgusted jealousy. How could she fall for that know-it-all, haughty prick when he had practically led them to their death just six hours ago? He was forced to look away when Aurica aggressively ripped off her clothing and pressed up to Vincent, kissing his lips eagerly. Whether Vincent began to kiss back or not Lyner decided not to find out, so he looked the other way, his heart feeling severely wounded.

He got up, and stiffly walked along the beach to clear his head. How did everything get so screwed up so quickly? Someone tapped him on the shoulder, so he spun around, nervous it would be another naked girl. To his relief, it was only naked Ayatane (he found it far less invasive to look at a naked male, since he was quite familiar with the male anatomy). "Hey, Ayatane, what's up?" he said in relief.

"Well," Ayatane said, breaking eye contact. His lilac hair blew gorgeously in the wind. "I have something to confess to you, Lyner."

Lyner tore himself from the odd pleasure he was getting from watching Ayatane's hair. "Er…what is it?"

Ayatane looked at him, suddenly quite bold. "I love you, Lyner!"

At this, Lyner's eyes widened in tangible fear. "You WHHAAAATT?!?!!?!?"

Suddenly, the nude samurai sprang towards him, his pale limbs sprawled as he attempted to latch himself onto Lyner. Fortunately, Lyner was too quick for him, and Ayatane landed flat on the sand. "G-get away from me!!" Lyner screamed, his voice cracking as he turned tail and ran.

Ayatane kick started himself off from the sand and rocketed across the beach towards his crush. Lyner gulped; he knew that Ayatane was ordinarily incredibly swift, so without clothing he must be unstoppable. Armed with this knowledge, Lyner ripped off his sweater and pants in order to maximize his own speed (which made Ayatane quite excited). It was thus that both men ended up dashing across the beach, flaming naked, screaming at the top of their lungs. All beachgoers within earshot turned their heads to examine the show-stealing pair.

Meanwhile, Radolf put down his Bible and ran his eyes over the weeping Shurelia's lithe body. He had never realized it before, but he knew now that she was very precious to him.

Radolf blinked rapidly, trying to chase perverted imagery from his mind. "S-so why are you crying, Lady Shurelia?" he asked, his mind almost too overflowing with love to formulate a conherent sentence. In fact, he hoped she would just throw herself at him right now; it took so much work to get it out.

Unfortunately, Shurelia didn't even look at him. "Oh Radolf, Lyner thinks I'm ugly! I'm the worst-looking Reyvateil I've ever seen! How am I ever going to get him now?"

This, Radolf knew, he could counter with confidence. "N-no you're not!" he said shakily, the lust evident in his voice. "Y-you're HOTT!!"

Shurelia looked up coyly and smirked. "You're not bad yourself," she said, "for a priest."

Radolf raised his eyebrows at the challenge. "Oh yeah?!" he cried. He suddenly erupted from his seat and, acting on some base impulse he never knew he had, he ripped off all of his glorious white armor. "What do you say to this, huh?" he said, waving a hand to illustrate his own fit body.

Shurelia's eyes lit up brighter than the sun. "I say, get back down here on me, you HOT man!!" she exclaimed, grabbing his tush and pulling him down on her.

At this time, Ayatane finally grabbed the rabidly-zigzagging Lyner by the shoulder, his hand wriggling with lust.

Lyner turned around and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. "I can tell by the way your hands are shaking that you want me!" he said in a sexy voice. 'WAIT a minute! Did I just say that?!?' Lyner thought to himself in disgust and confusion. 'What the heck is WRONG with me?'

"Oh, you know I do!" Ayatane breathed, panting from the runaround. The two looked at each other for an instant, and then suddenly the horny samurai came forward and began to kiss Lyner.

As soon as Ayatane's wet and snaky purple tongue embraced his, Lyner bit down hard and jumped back, causing a spill of blood to leak out of Ayatane's mouth. "JESUS CHRIST THE DAUGHTER OF SATAN!!!!!!" Lyner screamed in agony, without really pausing to think about whom either Jesus Christ or Satan was. "G-GOD!!!!"

Ayatane moaned and fell to the ground, holding the remains of his injured tongue in pain.

Lyner wiped the blood off his lips and looked up, noticing a really big neon skull grinning psychotically down at them amidst the pink smog. "Mimas," he whispered. "So that's why everybody's acting all horny; we're all in the presence of the Reyvateil of Love! Now it all makes sense!" He looked down and saw what he did to Ayatane, so he knelt down next to him. "Look, I'm sorry man, but you were coming on to me, and it was just weird, you know?!"

Ayatane looked at him bitterly, and stood up. "I-I'll be fine. The Reyvateils can heal me." Then he noticed the skull. "Damn it! Now?!" he exclaimed grumpily.

Lyner nodded emphatically. "We have to get everyone out of the spell." He turned to Ayatane. "You go break up Mahine and the dragon, and Aurica and Vincent, while I take care of the rest."

"Right," Ayatane said with a nod, blinking rapidly in an effort to sort out whether he did actually have a crush on his best friend. Unable to sort out his real feelings from the induced ones, he just shook his head and dashed off towards Mahine, who was struggling with Yeeka.

"Okay," Lyner muttered, and ran off towards Shurelia's chair. He didn't know how Mimas would react when she discovered that he and Ayatane were spurning her romantic ideals, but he doubted it would be favorably.

When he reached the two, he made sure to close his eyes, but distinctly heard Shurelia say, "Oh baby!" to Radolf.

"Hey guys!" Lyner said urgently. "You're being tricked. You don't even really like each other! Mimas is right here above us!" He was hoping to appeal to their logical side. He made a small viewing slit between his fingers, and was pleased to see they had both stopped making out and were now looking at each other wide-eyed.

Shurelia was the first to jump back. "Oh my god!!" she exclaimed. "Radolf?!"

Radolf put on a cross expression. "Hey, I'm not THAT bad!"

Lyner grinned. "Good, you're both back!" He turned over to the crashing waves. 'Now for Jack and Misha,' he thought. "Hey!!! You guys!! Stop it – wait, what are you DOING?!?"

"Wait Lyner, we're almost done!" Misha declared amidst a fit of giggles. Jack was looking very excited and in an odd judge-like position over her.

Shurelia came up beside Lyner and called through her hands, "Misha! You don't like Jack, he's a horny pervert! And Jack, Misha's like a sister to you, remember!?"

Jack recovered first, his face all of a sudden turning a shade of green. "Oh my god, what have I done!?!" he cried, and dashed out of the water, kneeling down and wiping off his mechanical arm off feverishly in the sand.

Misha got up and stretched. "Where are you going Jack, that was awesome!"

"Misha, snap out of it!" Jack snarled. "What the hell is wrong with you anyway?"

"It's Mimas!" The now-recovered Vincent declared, running over with Aurica's hand in his. "I can't believe I didn't notice her before."

"What are you talking about?" Misha said, her hands clasped shyly. "I love you, Jack! I want to have twenty kids with you!"

Suddenly, a huge, pink beam fell from the sky and crushed Misha into the ground, eliciting an "ugh!" from her.

"MISHA!!" Lyner roared, running over to try to pry the massive object off of her.

"Who dares defy the omnipotent will of Mimas?" a sleazy male voice said from above.

Lyner looked up and decided that it came from the hulking, demonic skull grinning at him. He drew his sword and said fiercely, "I, Lyner Barsett, Knight of Elemia, challenge you with eight champions from the tower Ar Tonelico! We have been sent to kill you, and we will not fail!"

As Mimas began to laugh boomingly, Lyner signaled Jack to come over and help him with Misha. Jack stooped and easily pried the pink window out of his friend by means of his artificial limb.

Lyner dragged Misha back to the umbrella. "Aurica, heal her," he muttered out of the side of his mouth. Aurica nodded and began to sing over her friend's unconscious body.

Mimas took a huge breath and inhaled all the smog in the area, revealing her massive space station bulk that was multiple acres long. She indeed blotted out the sun, making everything around them appear a dark pink. "Very well," she said in that same nasty voice as she slurped her window back into herself. "This should be amusing!"

Lyner smirked to himself, and then roared, "Battle stances, everyone!" The entire party dropped into a crouch as Mimas waited for them to make a move. "Jack, start firing at her skull; Shurelia, sing Energy Fill; Aurica, charge up a Seraphiflyer; and Radolf, launch Ayatane up into the air whenever she fires a window; Ayatane, try to use your swords to hover up onto the window and ride it back up inside of her!"

Everyone said, "Right," and started doing as they were told. As Jack's bullets hit Mimas, she laughed, "Ha! You call that an attack! Take some of this!" With that, she conjured up a huge spray from the ocean, and as each drop rose into the air, they turned into light-speed ice shards. They shattered Shurelia's partially-formed energy shield around the party, and began pelting the heroes.

"Ugh!" Lyner said, flinching as the icicles sliced into his naked body. He looked around and saw the others bleeding similarly. "Misha, are you recovered yet?"

"Yes!"

"Then sing a healing song NOW!!"

"Right!" Misha said, and sang Paradise Cinna, healing them immediately (Ayatane's tongue grew back, and he shuddered in relief).

"I'm ready, Lyner!" Aurica cried, a gold winged ball spinning psychotically above her.

"Then, launch it!"

Aurica nodded and cast Seraphiflyer on Mimas. The hulking titan howled in insane laughter and formed a massive shield of water around itself, destroying all the angels' arrows on impact.

"Dammit!" Lyner cursed. He looked at Radolf. "I thought she would be weak against electricity, since she's the Water Element?!"

Radolf shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you; although when we fought Iapetus, we didn't use its type disadvantage against it!" His eyes narrowed. "But, we did use its antithesis against it!"

"Its WHAT was sleeping with your mother?!" Lyner wondered.

"I mean, we used the opposite of Darkness, Light, against it, thus weakening it." Radolf said, quite used to Lyner's frequent bouts with stupidity. "SO we have to find out what the opposite of Love is, and use that against Mimas!"

"Oh, I see," Lyner said. At this time, Mimas threw about 100 windows out of its castle hulk and sent them behind the heroes, slowly scooping them towards them.

"Radolf, now!" Ayatane screamed, and Radolf chucked him up high, using his spear as leverage. Once airborne, Ayatane began to whip his swords around at a superhuman speed in order to hover in place.

"Uh guys," Jack said in fear, looking behind him as he continued to pepper Mimas's face with bullets. "How are we going to get away from that MASSIVE PINK WALL!??!"

Thinking fast, Aurica looked at Shurelia and Misha. "Sing an Agility song with me!" They nodded, and once again they upped the party's Agility greatly.

"Great, now everybody jump over that wall!" Lyner roared, pointing at the rapidly-approaching pink wall that threatened to crush them.

Everyone crouched and leapt extremely high in the air just as the wall swept under them. However, Mimas scooped them back up into her with such force that Ayatane was merely batted away into the sea, as opposed to riding one of them back inside her.

As the party landed on bloodied beach, Mimas shook her skull head vigorously to rid the membrane of the hundreds of bullets that had pierced it. "I tire of this little scuffle. Have you ever heard the saying, love blinds?!" the Reyvateil announced in its disturbingly perverted voice.

The skull's mouth opened, and Lyner looked up to see a gorgeous hot pink-colored Reyvateil stick her head out and begin to sing in a legendary voice. Lyner winced. "This isn't going to be good, guys!" he said. "We better make a run for it!" As he made to move, however, he noticed that his legs wouldn't respond. Looking down he saw that the tide had come up a lot and the mud seemed to be holding his legs in place with two miniature whirlpools. Lyner surveyed the area, everyone on the beach seemed to be glued in place as well. Looking out to sea, he saw that the entire Neutron Sea had come to life, and a particularly turbulent wave lifted Ayatane out of the water and chucked him into a large sandstone rock behind the party.

"What do we do, Lyner?" Shurelia cried, being the nearest party member to him.

"Use this chance to attack her," he commanded in what he hoped was a bracing voice. "The same goes for you two as well, Misha and Aurica."

Suddenly, Mimas stopped singing, and as she did a gigantic pink slash came flying down from her skull throne. It whipped down towards the earth, coiling ominously like a snake. Lyner's jaw dropped as it raked across Jack, Radolf, and Vincent's faces, spurting pink energy like a fountain from their eyes as it did so.

"NO!" he screamed. "Cover your eyes, everyone."

Shurelia's song was cut short with a small, high-pitched scream as the pink slash whipped at high speeds across her face, painting an ugly gash across her formerly gorgeous eyes.

Lyner had just enough time to grunt as the slash reached him. He could feel an incredible white-hot pain as he was violated by the song. As happened earlier in the factory, he seemed to be momentarily displaced in another dimension filled with pink nightmarish images, the fire was so great in his eyes. His own screaming woke him again on the dry ground, rising into harmony with the rest of his party.

He opened his eyes but could see nothing. Experimentally, he tried closing his eyes and opening them again, but he could still see nothing. "This isn't good!" Lyner whimpered between screams of anguish. He put his hand down on the sand and noticed that it was suspiciously dry. The water was being sucked out to sea! This either meant the attack was over, or else…

"Everyone, do you still have your Agility!" he screamed hoarsely. He heard an assortment of moans and cries in response. "Glad to hear, it, now get on your feet and run the hell away!!" he commanded, praying his party would listen to him.

He got up and began to run, but then realized he had no idea which way was away from the sea. So, shrugging, he began to take off in the way he thought seemed right. "Hey Mahine!" he hollered in no particular direction.

"What?!" the tear-choked cry returned from his near left.

He reached out a hand and touched her briefly on the arm. He just wanted SOME physical contact, just so he could get his bearings better."You're an Omega Reyvateil, right?"

"I guess so, why?" she replied.

"Could you use a song that's a really powerful incarnation of the opposite of love?"

"Well, I could make a strong, hate-based song, but…" she trailed off.

"But?"

"Uh…Vincent's never dived in me," she said in a warbling voice. "And now, we're all going to die and I'm still untouched!" she screamed losing herself to hysterics.

"Um…sorry, Mahine! I didn't know you wanted me in you!" Vincent screamed from behind them.

"So you're saying, you haven't crafted any songs at all??" Lyner growled.

"Yeah."

Suddenly, the party heard a large boom from out at sea. "…The hell was that?" Jack cried in a girly voice.

"I don't know, but let's just keep sticking together, alright?" Lyner hissed. "Can anyone see?" He got no reply, so he figured that that was a no.

The hairs on the back of his neck standing up, Lyner suddenly felt his feet kicked out from under him, and he fell flat on his face in some water. He screamed as he was suddenly sucked up in the skyward stream of water, where he was being whipped about like a ragdoll, occasionally brushing up against his nude, wet companions. The entire party howled in pain as a bolt of lightning struck the huge hurricane, electrocuting the heroes severely. The only sound Lyner could hear was Mimas's snide laughter invading all else. Lyner grimaced. Why did it have to end like this?!

All of a sudden, Lyner could feel the waters' rage change course, and he was flung in some direction, he knew not which. He screamed and screamed until the pain was finally too much for him, and he collapsed into unconsciousness, his body a slave to Mimas's whim.

(Elsewhere)

When Lyner came to, the first thing he noticed was a lovely peach-smelling aroma. He moved his arms around experimentally, and noticed he was in a thick, goopy mixture of some kind. "I-is anybody there?" he called, after trying (and failing) to regain the use of his eyes.

He heard Mimas's unsettling voice pipe up from right in front of him. "You see, Lyner Barsett, you stood no chance against me. Now, you're friends are all dead, save one."

"Wh-who is it?" he asked, his voice shaking with grief. It was his fault; the mission had failed under his leadership. And now, blast it all, he'd lost his eyes.

"Lyner?" He heard Shurelia suddenly say to his right.

"Wha- Shurelia? Is it really you?" he cried in relief.

"Of course it's me!" He reached out his hand to find her, and realized she had done the same thing as his muscular arm brushed against her dainty one. Giving in to his emotions, Lyner pulled Shurelia in close and began to make out with her in the most heartfelt way he had ever done before. She kissed back, and pressed herself up to him a close as possible.

Mimas laughed insanely. "You see, when you should be grieving, you instead choose love when I wish it. The whole word is at my beck and call. Soon, after the Honakugu festival takes place in Tong-Rhok tomorrow, I will be filled with so much power that I will be completely invincible. Then the entire world will become my blind, love-sick slaves." Here, she erupted into unstable laughter.

Lyner thought that that was just peachy, and he continued to snog Shurelia like there was no tomorrow. After all, he had just gone from feeling the worst he ever had felt to being far and away the most satisfied he had ever been. Who was he to take that pleasure away from the world?

A/N: OH man! Is the rest of the party really dead?!? Duh, of course not! Then, there really wouldn't be much of a story left to tell, would there. Where are Lyner and Shurelia anyway, and how will they escape? Find out next time, on The Rite of Slumber!

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