Here it is! Back to actual game plot!
It's Sunday today. I hate Sundays. You just have that gross feeling that there's school the next day. Bleeeeh
But anyways. Please enjoy the chapter~!
No one was happy about leaving Luin. Of that much, I can assure you. Whether it was the long backtrack we had to do or the prospect of leaving the comfortable, peaceful town behind, no one seemed overly happy about the journey we faced that next morning. Even Colette appeared to be a little dispirited, although she was as upbeat as ever.
"Five days wasted," Lloyd kept mumbling.
Colette smiled. "Lloyd, look on the bright side…" Her voice trailed into silence on the word "side" at the look Lloyd gave her. "Um, never mind…"
The five days of travelling went by painfully slow, like we were walking through sludge. To make matters worse, the day we reached the House of Salvation, it had started to rain. We'd walked through the rain for a solid two hours before finally reaching it. Unsurprisingly, this did little to lift Lloyd's spirits. In fact…
"I hate everything," he grumbled as we trudged through the door of the House of Salvation. We probably could have filled a bathtub with the collective rainwater that dripped off our clothing.
Colette didn't dare tell him to look on the bright side.
It wasn't too late into the day, but the rain didn't look like it planned on stopping, so we decided to unpack and relax indoors. Everyone each took a bath, and then we ate supper. Yes, it was a rather uneventful night, except for the fact that Lloyd was in probably the worst mood I'd ever seen him and felt like snapping at anyone who tried talking to him.
We left early the next morning to get a head-start on the journey. The plan was, depending how late we arrived, to stay in Asgard for the night and then head to the Balacruf Mausoleum the next day.
As it turned out, we reached Asgard at around noontime that day, so we decided to just go ahead and go to seal right away.
I could feel an odd sort of excitement bubbling up within me as we walked across the incredibly long, wooden bridge. We would be seeing Remiel again. If I tried to confront him, my strange condition would probably kick in. He was probably getting suspicious of what I was trying to do by this point. As far as I could remember, Remiel wasn't stupid. However, Raine would be carefully observing me this time, and so maybe she would be able to figure something out. I really hoped so.
It took ten minutes to reach the mausoleum once we hit the island itself. It sat nestled in the shadows of the surrounding mountains, a pyramid-shaped structure built from white stone blocks. Crumbling columns and pillars littered the ground leading up to it. A small set of steps led up to the sealed entrance.
A few people milled about- a shopkeeper selling some basic provisions, a hiker and his dog- but other than that it was relatively quiet. We would be able to operate the oracle stone without anyone seeing, hopefully.
"Look at it!" Raine said in awe. She broke away from the group to begin gushing over it. "It's simply marvelous!"
"Record timing," Genis remarked. He hung his head with slight shame.
We stood back and let her Ruin Mode run its course before she turned back to us, the gleam in her eyes contained but not completely gone. She calmly offered Colette the stone tablet.
"Climb the central stairway and offer the map at the altar," she instructed.
"Yes, Professor!" she accepted the tablet and headed up the stairs, the rest of us following close behind.
When we reached the altar, I saw that it had a sort of indentation, but not like that of an oracle stone. It had more of a square shape, almost a perfect fit for the stone tablet.
"It seems to be a perfect fit for the Map of Balacruf," Raine observed, but Colette seemed to have filled in the blanks before she did. She fit the tablet into place, and as she did, particles of light began to form and condense into one spot. The mana took shape and when it finally solidified and the light faded, an oracle stone stood where one hadn't stood before.
"It's an oracle stone!" Genis exclaimed with surprise.
"Alright, we were right!" Lloyd cheered. "This really is a seal!" I had a feeling heads would roll if we'd come all this way and it hadn't really been a seal.
Colette looked pleased as well. "Okay then! Well, I guess I'll put my hand on it…" She reached forward and pressed her hand into the depression like she usually did.
The stone slab sealing the entrance to the tomb slid open with a low grinding side. Darkness met us. Lloyd, being the impatient one that he was, practically sprinted into the tomb.
"Lloyd, wait!" Kratos called. When he didn't respond, he sighed and pressed a hand to his forehead. "Doesn't he remember what happened last time he went barging into a room carelessly?"
Genis and I both let out a laugh. The memory of Lloyd covered in starfish popped up in my mind. Unfortunately, so did the image of a giant, spiked turtle getting ready to trample him to death. I frowned. Perhaps we should have been getting into the tomb now.
I was plunged into darkness once I got inside. It was almost impossible to adjust from the bright sunlight to the blackness of the tomb.
"I can't see anything!" Genis protested. "Lloyd, where are you?"
"Over here!" I heard footsteps and then a grunt of pain as someone stepped on somebody else's foot.
"There's a torch on the wall!" Colette spoke up. "Lloyd, can you light it?"
"How can you see something like that?" he questioned her with bewilderment plain in his voice. Of course she would be able to see well in the darkness with her angel senses, which got me wondering again about what lay in store for her once she released this seal. What she would gain. What she would lose.
I felt my hair whipped around my face by a sudden burst of wind.
"What the hell?" said Lloyd. "The Sorcerer's Ring isn't doing anything!"
I felt gust after gust of wind in my face before I caught on. "Lloyd, I think it's shooting bursts of wind. I can feel it on my face."
"'Wind'? Jeez, that's almost as useless as water…"
Orange light suddenly burst to life, bringing light to the otherwise unbreakable darkness. I blinked rapidly to adjust to the new light. Its source was a burning torch on the wall.
"That's better," Lloyd sighed. He gazed around at our new surroundings, which consisted of several stone hallways branching off in different directions. A plaque with some sort of engraving was on a wall nearby.
"You're welcome," Genis said sarcastically. He must have cast some kind of low-leveled version of Fireball. It had worked, and I could see much better than I could have before.
"Think next time before running into a potentially dangerous area unprepared," Raine scolded Lloyd, but he wasn't really paying attention. He was too busy staring around excitedly. A long-forgotten tomb? That sounded right up Lloyd's alley.
"Oh, this is pretty cool!" he said with a grin. "I feel like an explorer!"
"You always start out enthusiastic," said Kratos. "It rarely lasts."
Lloyd opened his mouth to give a comeback when I held up a hand and Genis held up his hand and shushed him. We all stopped and listened. The sound of a distant, whistling wind echoed eerily though the whole tomb.
"I can hear the sound of wind…" said Colette. She could no doubt hear it clear as day.
Lloyd, meanwhile, continued to blast wind from his ring. He frowned. "I wonder what we need this wind for."
"It is the Seal of Wind," I pointed out. "Like the last two times, I'm willing to bet that it has something to do with a puzzle of some sort here."
"Why can't we get something awesome we can use in battle?" he said.
Raine rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Lloyd." She then noticed the plaque with the inscription on it. Her eyes were immediately glued to it.
"What is it, Professor?" Colette questioned, while I approached to read it over her shoulder. I quickly skimmed it and found nothing of real importance. Mostly just information on who was buried in this tomb and such.
"Nothing important," I told Colette in a whisper so that Raine wouldn't hear me, because she was clearly fascinated by it and would no doubt flay me alive if she heard me say something like that.
"Well what are we waiting for?" Lloyd asked impatiently. "Let's release that seal!" For the second time today, Lloyd rushed into unknown dangers.
However this time, Kratos was prepared. He ran forward and pulled Lloyd roughly backwards by the back of his collar. Lloyd's foot had just stepped into one of the hallways. A row of high, lethal-looking spikes now jutted up from the floor where his foot had been.
"Are you insane?" Kratos barked. "What did we just tell you?"
"Lloyd," I groaned. "You could have been skewered!"
"Gah, I'm sorry!" he coughed. Kratos must have choked him when he'd grabbed his collar. "I won't do it again!"
Kratos' face was blank. "Yes you will. Even you can't believe that you won't."
"Kratos-!"
"Just be careful and try not to get yourself killed." He released Lloyd's collar by pushing him roughly forward, earning a spiteful look from Lloyd. "Let us proceed with caution."
"We're not Lloyd," Genis pointed out. "That was kind of the plan all along."
"Shut-up, Genis!"
We started deeper into the tomb. Because it was clearly inlaid with traps to help keep grave robbers out, we really did have to be careful. All of the first passages that we approached were set with spikes at almost the very beginning. The one path that seemed passable still had spikes, however they were possible to avoid. They didn't rise up when you passed over them, but rather on their own at regular intervals. We would just have to take turns passing over them when they were in the floor. Genis was lighting all of the torches we past with his Fireball spell so that we could actually see where we were going. I shuddered at the thought of passing through this place without any light. It would be suicide, especially since the traps were hard to avoid even when you could see where you were going.
I had a horrible, paranoid feeling. I highly doubted that these spikes were the traps that had been laid, and if that was the case then we had no idea what lurked in the shadows. Any moment I could trigger a blade swinging down to meet us or unleash an army of the undead. At least we hadn't come across any enemies yet.
"Hey, does anyone else hear that rattling?" Colette said, frowning deeply.
Everyone paused and listened. In the dead silence, I heard it. An almost grotesque sound that sounded like…oh god. It was almost like the sound of bones rattling.
That was when I felt a bony hand clamp down on my shoulder. I whirled around and found myself staring into the empty eye sockets of a face lacking quite a lot of skin. All of it, in fact. A walking skeleton stood before me, donned in armor and holding a rusted sword in one hand. I let out a shriek and wrenched my shoulder away. My hand fumbled for my spear in my belt. I instead found my dagger. Oh well. Protection was protection.
"I got this!" said Lloyd, swiftly drawing his twin swords. I ducked out of the way as he lunged for the skeleton.
The sound of rattling and smell of decay increased as more skeletons joined the fray. My terror was slowly building as well.
"Try to use magic, Aurelia!" Raine called to me. "It will be much more effective. Do you know any spells?"
"A few," I replied. I switched my dagger for my spear. "Let's just see what I've got stashed up my sleeve." What was meant to be a confident remark fell flat as my fear seeped into my voice. It was just these damn skeletons! Why couldn't these people have stayed dead the first time? It was just unnatural.
I charged into the mass of undead and picked a random target. "Shatter!" The ice spread from the head of my spear to every bone in the creature's torso. I could hear the crackling of the ice settling across its ribs, seeping into the very core. Finally, I snapped my fingers and there was an explosion of ice and bone. The rest of the skeleton fell in a heap to the ground.
"This is so creepy," I murmured, stepping over the pile and continuing to fight.
The group was soon all reduced to piles. A lot of the bones had been destroyed due to my Shatter attack, so there wasn't much chance of the skeletons reforming and coming after us. For at least a while anyway.
We delved deeper into the tomb, fighting off more skeletons and avoiding more spiky traps as we went. Thankfully, Lloyd seemed to have partially learned his lesson and didn't end up running into any more traps. Although, I was just waiting for it to happen.
After much twisting and turning we came to a doorway. In the other room were five different colored devices similar to those pinwheel toys that children played with, in which you blew on them to make them spin. However these were shaped differently. It almost looked like four angel wings angled around the center.
"What is this?" Lloyd wondered out loud.
"Probably another portion of the trial," said Raine. She held her hand to her chin in thought. "Hmm, try using the Sorcerer's Ring on one of them, Lloyd."
He did as instructed and it began to spin rapidly. We all waited a moment for it to ease to a stop.
"Yes, it's just as I thought. The new wind function of the Sorcerer's Ring is no doubt intended for the purpose of powering these pinwheels. My guess is that we'll have to spin them all in a specific order in order for the door to the seal room to open."
Lloyd's eyes widened. "But…but how are we supposed to know the order? This could take forever!"
"We don't have much of a choice. We need to release this seal, Lloyd."
He hung his head. "It's going to take so long. Damn, this sucks."
"Stop complaining," I told him. "The more you complain about it, then the longer it's going to take. Got it?"
He didn't answer me, but he approached the pinwheels all the same. Since he was the only one who had a Sorcerer's Ring, there wasn't much else the rest of us could do but sit back and watched as he, with much frustration, blew wind onto the pinwheels in different orders each time. I flashed back to the trial at the Seal of Water, when he'd spent an endless amount of time trying to get the water levels perfectly equal. I crouched down. Something told me that if these seals had as many similarities as I'd noticed, then we'd be here for a while.
My hunch wasn't too far off. We sat there for about an hour while Lloyd tried out millions of combinations and none of them were right. I was just considering taking a nap when all of the pinwheels started spinning even faster and a portion of the wall slid away to reveal a staircase. Natural light filtered in from up the stairs.
Lloyd's reaction was euphoric. "I DID IT! I FINALLY DID IT!"
"Don't start this again," Genis sighed. "We don't have time for you to do a happy dance, Lloyd."
Genis' criticism brought Lloyd's mood down slightly. "Ugh, fine. C'mon, let's go…"
We headed up the steps, the light getting brighter with each step. Finally, we emerged into bright sunlight. It took me a minute for my eyes to adjust to the light, but I was just happy we'd escaped that darkness. We appeared to be on the very top of the mausoleum, and the seal lay before us.
"We're finally at the altar," Lloyd huffed. "I'm getting sick of dungeons."
"Lloyd, it's a tomb!" Colette corrected him cheerfully.
He waved a hand dismissively.
"You have no patience," Kratos sighed.
"What happened to feeling like an explorer?" I asked amusedly. "Did you lose your nerve around all those scary skeletons?"
"Who screamed when one touched her?" he snapped.
I laughed to show it hadn't been much of a comeback. I then tensed and whirled around to face the seal. Genis and Raine were eying it too, having no doubt sensed the sudden shift in mana.
"Wait," said Genis, and Lloyd ceased his bickering. "I sense…incredible mana." I didn't say anything, but I definitely sensed it as well.
A burst of green mana exploded from the seal and with it came the seal guardian. It was a huge type of bird with colors of cobalt blue and green, with two large, sharp talons that it landed on before us. I drew my spear, feeling a stupid sense of relief that the guardian wasn't a giant skeleton. I had problems.
Genis, Raine and Colette immediately started casting, hopefully with Genis casting Stalagmite or another ground-based spell. I charged at the bird, along with Lloyd and Kratos, however it immediately shot into the sky, just out of our reach.
"Damn, we need to reach it!" said Lloyd. His eyes were locked onto the spell circle beneath the bird. He darted forward. "Tempest!" His series of flips through the air managed to reach the bird and knock it down a couple feet, just as a powerful attack similar to Wind Blade was unleashed on our casters.
Enraged at almost having its spell interrupted, the bird let out a sharp cry and dove towards Lloyd. Lloyd made to dive out of the way himself, but he was just too quick and the bird caught him in his talons and soared up high.
"Lloyd!" Colette cried.
My eyes followed the bird as he kept flying higher and higher. I had a bad feeling about this.
This feeling proved to be true when the bird suddenly unclenched its talons and Lloyd began to fall. And fall…and fall. There was no way he could survive a drop that high. However, just as he was nearing the ground, Colette flew towards him with open arms and managed to catch him, sort of. They still both slammed into the ground, but Lloyd's fall was broken by Colette and so he wasn't nearly as hurt as he could have been.
By this point, the bird was swooping back down again. Kratos and I prepared ourselves while Raine rushed to heal Lloyd.
"How do you suppose we go about this?" I began to ask Kratos, but he was already a bit distanced from me, no doubt casting Fireball or First Aid to help Raine.
I sighed in annoyance. Guess I was on my own for a minute. I gripped my spear and looked up at the bird, which was just out of my reach. Reach? Hmm…
I took a few steps back and called, "Reach!" The blade of my spear shone white and extended rapidly until it pierced the bird's chest. It returned to normal while the bird let out another cry. It was diving for me when Kratos' Fireball spell manifested and knocked it back a bit. It immediately changed its course and went to attack Kratos. This thing sure liked its revenge, didn't it?
Kratos wasn't quick enough to defend himself. The bird dug its talons into Kratos' chest and flung him aside.
While the bird was at ground-level Lloyd and I rushed in to unleash as many attacks as we could on it before it knocked us back with its great wings and took to the sky again. Another spell circle appeared beneath it. The circle didn't even waver when pillars of rock shot from Genis' Stalagmite spell shot up and struck the beast.
Meanwhile, I was struggling to catch my breath. Those wings were a lot heavier than they looked, and when one connected with my stomach it had pushed the air right out of my lungs.
"You okay?" Lloyd mouthed. A low groaning sound was all that came out of his mouth, telling me that he was in the same state I was.
I nodded, still trying to breathe.
The bird cast the Wind Blade attack again only this time, it was aimed at Lloyd and I. Yes, it seems like the revenge tactic was still in use. I winds were huge, much larger than the ones Genis could summon, and cut deep gashes into my arms. My breath returned to me in a sharp gasp of pain.
Raine was busy casting some other spell, probably Photon to use against the beast itself, so when I felt the cool relief of First Aid on my arms, I knew it had come from Kratos. He rarely used the spell though, as Raine was usually on top of healing.
"Thanks," I said to him with a curt nod.
He shrugged and ran to slash at the bird, as it was still ground-level from the attack it had just unleashed on Colette. The fierce combo he administered left the bird momentarily stunned, just laying on the ground.
I took a running start. "Predator!" My spear plunged into the beast's stomach, breaking it out of its daze. It flew up, its wings whipping up a powerful whirlwind that knocked us all off our feet. Great, it was really mad now.
"Let's take it down quickly!" Kratos ordered.
Anyone who had spells at their disposal began casting. This left just me and Lloyd.
"Combo it?" Lloyd suggested.
"What do you have in mind?" I asked. I dove out of the way as the bird lunged for me. It soared back up.
"I'll use Tempest, you use Reach? If we time it right, we can hit him at the same time. It could work well."
I thought about it a moment. "Alright, let's try it."
He nodded. "Alright then, Tempest…"
"Reach!" I finished.
The blade of my spear started growing and pierced the bird's cheek, just as Lloyd's flailing swords sliced open its chest. It began to howl and shriek.
The howls were silenced as a barrage of spells was unleashed upon it, including Angel Feathers, Stalagmite and Photon. The beast exploded in a burst of green mana, which all returned to the altar like it usually did.
The seal released. A floating ball of green mana appeared briefly before fading again. Remiel's voice echoed around us.
"Chosen of Regeneration…you have done well in reaching this far. Now, offer your prayers at the altar."
Colette nodded resolutely and approached the altar. "Oh, Goddess Martel, great protector and nurturer of the earth, grant me thy strength!" Colette's wings unfolded from her back and she hovered in the air.
A brilliant light flashed and then there was Remiel, floating down to meet us. My initial anger blazed up inside of me. This anger I felt towards him…it got worse each time I saw him. However this time, it was appeased slightly by the memory of the talk Colette and I had. She had trouble trusting him too. It wasn't just me. Still, that didn't help erase the anger completely.
"This is the third seal," said Remiel. "You have done well in reaching this far, Chosen One…Colette."
Colette winced at the sound of her name. It was as if each time he used it cut some kind of wound even deeper. The fact that she wasn't just another Chosen, that he knew her name personally and used it because he was her "father"…it must have been so hard on her, especially with the doubts I knew she had.
"Thank-you," she said quietly.
"Receive this blessing, the gift of angelic power from Cruxis."
"Y-Yes, Father…thank-you."
He held his hand out and sent mana streaming towards her. Her body absorbed it. It was going to change her, this mana. Grant her a new power. Chip away even further at her humanity, because let's face it. She was becoming an angel, which was supposedly great; however she was also losing all the little things that made her human. That made her Colette. And I knew she wasn't a hundred percent okay with it.
I sent a glare towards Remiel, and, miraculously, he looked at me. There was a sort of smugness on his face, and I could almost read his thoughts. Go ahead. Try it.
My anger got the better of me and I opened my mouth to yell something, anything at him. Of course it didn't work. I was rewarded for my efforts with just one, violent cough. I forced down the rest that no doubt would follow, my eyes burning.
I had concealed it fairly well this time around, but Raine had said she'd be watching. She had a quizzical look on her face as she tried to figure out what it was that had made me cough. The fact that it'd happened at yet another seal just added to the pattern.
I was surprised Remiel didn't let out a laugh, for all of the amusement I could see in his eyes. Colette couldn't have noticed because she kept her head bowed, awaiting further instructions.
"The next seal lies far northwest, in a place that gazes upon the center of the world," the angel continued. All traces of amusement were wiped from his features. "Offer your prayers at the altar in that distant land."
"I shall do as you say," she murmured. There was a long, almost contemplative pause from her before she added, "Lord Remiel."
That was it. I'm not sure how I knew, but Colette had just realized for a fact that Remiel wasn't her father. It had sounded so final, so sure. Her doubts were no longer there. Remiel wasn't her father. It was simply a fact that had finally become clear to her.
If such a thing bothered Remiel, he showed no signs of it. "I will be waiting for you at the next seal, Colette…my daughter." He began to drift up towards the sky, and with a brilliant flash he was gone. However, his voice echoed around us one, final time.
"The end of your journey is close. Hurry and become a true angel. Do not disappoint me…"
Colette descended to the ground and put her wings away. "A true angel…" she whispered.
Lloyd noticed her sad tone. "What is it?"
"Ah, nothing!" When she turned to face us, her face was lit up with her signature smile. "I was just…thinking when I become a true angel, it'll be amazing!"
Raine and Kratos were unusually quiet.
"I wonder how many more seals there are?" said Genis.
"That, we don't know…" Raine said finally. "Those that were recorded in the Book of Spiritua could easily have been only a few."
"At any rate, all we can do is keep going," Kratos said shortly.
Both of them were speaking in weird tones. I didn't trust it. And all the while, Colette's blue eyes remained haunted by some distant thought, even when she happily announced that she'd learned a new spell.
We made our way back to the entrance of the tomb, and luckily we weren't attacked by any skeletons along the way.
However, that's where our luck ended.
We had just reached the exit when an all too familiar voice stopped us in our tracks.
"Stop!"'
Lloyd perked up. "T-That voice…"
"Oh no…" Genis groaned.
Sheena jumped down in front of us, from where I couldn't tell you. She held a handful of the cards she used to battle and her face looked deadly in the dim torchlight.
"This day has finally come. This ancient ruin shall be your graveyard!"
Colette took a couple steps forward. "Oh, you're here too!" she said brightly.
The cold fierceness Sheena's face had depicted was replaced with uncertainty. "S-Stay back! Don't move! Don't touch anything!"
"'Don't touch anything'?" I repeated under my breath, although I could tell she was probably worried about clumsy Colette setting off one of the tomb's many traps.
Colette paused and frowned. "But now that we've finally become friends, why do we have to fight?"
I think everyone was a little confused at that one.
"Since when are we…?" She trailed off and gave her head a quick shake. "For the last time, I have no intention of befriending you!"
I let out a frustrated sigh. "But why can't you just stop being so god damned stubborn and-!"
"Silence!" she snapped, cutting off my plea for talking to her. "Prepare yourselves!" She pulled a card from her pocket that I instantly recognized. It was the same as the one she had used on the Ossa Trail. As the card hovered in front of her, the exact same creature sprang into existence behind her. The only difference was that on the disc behind it, the lightning symbol glowed instead of the wind one.
"Get ready…" said Kratos. He slowly drew his sword.
The Guardian first targeted Lloyd while its master headed after Colette. What a surprise, her tactics were the same as before. Fortunately, this Guardian had an almost identical attack pattern to the last one except for the fact that it used lightning attacks instead of wind. It probably wouldn't be too hard to strike down.
Kratos, Lloyd and Genis were all focused on the Guardian, while Colette was simply trying to stay away from Sheena's attacks. I decided she could probably use some help. It didn't matter if I could land hits on Sheena or not, which was probably a not considering the Guardian protecting her, but I just had to keep her from attacking Colette and…
I noticed the card floating before her. Oh right! If I destroyed that, then the Guardian would instantly disappear! Alright, so my battle plan was settled.
"Keep that thing busy!" I told the others, and ran after Sheena.
She sensed my presence just as I'd snuck up on her, and whirled around just in time to avoid my spear.
"You'll have to do better than that!" she exclaimed, sending a row of cards streaming at me.
I managed to knock most of them back with my spear (although I did suffer a few minor scrapes on my arms) and then swiped at the card. I missed, but my blade did open a long cut on her arm.
"Is that better?" I questioned through gritted teeth. "Look, why don't you just stop fighting for a minute so we can-?"
She cut me off with an angry cry, sending row upon row of cards after me. I couldn't block quite as many this time around, but I was still determined.
"Please," I pressed. "Maybe we can work something out!"
"That's impossible! Just stop trying, because you can't possibly understand why I have to do this!" More cards came flying, and I barely blocked any. My body was covered in cuts with varying deepness. "Pyre Seal!" The impact of this last card attack sent me flying back. I landed just beside Lloyd, who was busy blocking the attack of the Guardian.
"Having troubles?" he asked lightly. "Hah! Demon Fang!"
"Just a bit," I replied bitterly, jumping to my feet. Little did Sheena know that I understood perfectly well why she was trying to kill Colette. I knew that she must have felt like there was no other choice for her if she wanted to save Tethe'alla (assuming I was right), but that didn't mean I was just going to let her kill Colette. Sylvarant needed to be saved too.
I rejoined the fray. Colette was high in the air, swinging her chakrams down at Sheena. I succeeded this time in sneaking up on the assassin and administered a stab to her back.
"Ungh!" She grunted in pain and whirled around. She was still caught off guard, so I took the opportunity to slice through the card floating before her. I instantly heard the sounds of battle cease behind me. The Guardian was gone.
"Maybe I don't understand," I said darkly. "But there's no way I'm going to sit back and watch you kill Colette either."
She narrowed her eyes at me. "You'll pay for that!" She lunged at me in a flurry of punches and cards. I blocked and blocked and blocked because I couldn't do much else. She was really fast, and this stupid spear was just too heavy. However, I couldn't toss it aside and use my dagger because it was the only means I had of blocking her attacks.
Luckily, by this point, Kratos and the others had refocused their attention on Sheena so that me and Colette weren't entirely alone.
With everyone now putting pressure on the assassin, it didn't take long for her to lose her strength. Even when she had though, she was still set on fighting.
"You won't win!" she shouted. She was covered in cuts and her breathing was labored, but she still sent a weak row of cards at Lloyd. He merely batted them away with his sword, a lot of them being sliced in half.
She dropped to her knees. "Argh! Why…why can't I win?" She pounded an angry, if weak, fist against the ground.
"Goodness and love will always win!" Genis declared proudly.
"Genis please don't bring up that stupid Dwarven Vow!" Lloyd snapped.
"'Goodness'?" she repeated with complete disbelief. "What do you mean 'goodness'? If you're good, I'm good as well!"
Lloyd shook his head. "Gah, not you too! Everyone, stop saying corny things!"
"What do you know?" she asked coldly. Her eyes reflected the dancing torchlight, or maybe they really were burning with an angry fire. "When you regenerate the world, my country will be destroyed! I won't let that happen, I swear!"
This confirmed everything. Sheena was from Tethe'alla. She was trying to save it. I felt an odd guilt build up inside of me. It's not like she was doing this because she wanted to. If she wanted Tethe'alla to be safe, then she really had no other choice. And here we were, obviously her enemies because if we saved Sylvarant then all sorts of bad things would happen to the other world as the mana flow was reversed. We really must have seemed like the bad guys to her. But what could we possibly do…?
"Wait," said Colette, looking horribly confused. "What are you talking about? If…if I regenerate the world, then everyone will be saved…right?"
Sheena looked fed up. "This world will be saved!"
"This world…?" Raine repeated.
Sheena pulled another of those small grey orbs from her pocket. She threw it down and smoke filled the chamber.
"Stop!" Raine coughed. "Who are you? So you're not alone?" All of her questions went unanswered as the smoke slowly cleared, and Sheena was nowhere to be seen.
"This world?" Lloyd repeated uncertainly. "What did she mean?
"I can only imagine," I murmured.
Kratos appeared to be deep in thought. "That girl…is she…?"
"Do you know her?" asked Genis.
There was a long pause before he finally responded with, "No. Let's get out of here."
I frowned. That was weird. While Raine seemed to have her own theories about Sheena, Kratos acted like he might know something as well. I didn't have much time to ponder it because we were already heading out of the tomb.
It was sunset when we got outside. We would probably have to camp here for the night, which I wasn't too thrilled about. There weren't any monsters around or anything, but that tomb was just filled with skeletons. Who knew if they could come out of it or not…?
Colette started to sway as we made our way down the steps. Recognizing the signs of her fainting, Lloyd hurried to steady her.
"Colette!"
"It's the Angel Toxicosis again," Raine observed. "Let's hurry and let her rest."
"Are you okay?" Lloyd asked her gently.
She sighed. "I'm sorry to trouble everybody again…"
She seemed to be doing alright, so he released his hold on her a little bit. "Don't worry about that, but-" He cut off as her knees gave way and she fell to the ground, pulling Lloyd down with her. She threw her hands out to catch her fall.
"Oww…" Lloyd groaned.
"Colette, are you okay?" Genis asked in alarm.
She didn't answer him. A puzzled look crossed her face.
"C-Colette?" he repeated hesitantly. "What's wrong? Did it hurt? Did you hurt yourself?"
She blinked. "N-No, I'm fine." She giggled nervously. "I just blanked out for a moment."
Lloyd remained silent, and I knew he was seeing what I saw. Colette clenched one fist before standing up. That fist remained tightly closed. No one else seemed to notice the dark smear of spilt blood on the stones where she'd fallen. That also meant that no one else noticed the fact that she was applying pressure to her cut open hand, showing not the slightest signs of pain. Lloyd didn't know what this meant. I knew all too well.
Colette and I sat slightly apart from the rest as dinner was finished. She knew immediately what I'd wanted to ask her.
"You cut your hand," I said quietly. "I saw the blood on the ground."
She nodded slightly. "Um, yes I did." She then unfolded her fist. She had clearly cleaned her hand off since she fell, but blood continued to seep from the gash in her hand.
I inhaled sharply. "That looks like it really hurts." When she didn't respond, my suspicions were confirmed. "But it doesn't, does it?"
"No…it doesn't. None of the wounds I got from the battle with Sheena did either." Now that I thought about it, I hadn't heard her give one cry of pain in that whole fight, even when it was just her and Sheena and she suffered hits.
I looked up from her hand. "Well then, what does that mean?"
"I…I don't know. Or maybe I do. Um, Aurelia…I don't think I can feel anything anymore."
I flinched. I'm not sure why, but I did. Somehow, this was way worse than not eating or sleeping. This was…well I wasn't sure. Anger was beginning to cloak any thought that I had.
"This isn't fair," I said, "and you know it."
She looked not at me, but through me, as though all she could see were her own thoughts. "I know it seems like a lot to give up, but…"
"It's for world regeneration, so that makes it okay?" I finished bitterly. She shrunk back at my cold tone. "Look Colette, I'm starting to think that…" A warning tickle formed in my throat. I knew what would happen should I continue that train of thought. I shook my head. "Never mind. My point is, none of this is fair. You didn't ask to be turned into an angel. You didn't offer to give up all these things that make you human."
"I was chosen," she whispered. "Aurelia, it really is for the sake of Sylvarant! So many people will have such better lives when the world is regenerated. If I can make this world a better place, then…then I'm willing to make this sacrifice."
"It wouldn't matter if you were willing or not! You don't have any choice!" I couldn't understand this anger I was starting to feel towards the situation. Towards Cruxis. It felt like hatred, but how could I possibly hate Cruxis? Hating Cruxis meant hating Lord Yggdrasill. And there was no way I could ever hate him. Still, he was behind everything. If he'd wanted to change the way this stupid world regeneration worked, he would have found a way.
More than ever now, I wanted to hear what he had to say about all of this.
"Aurelia, I'm sorry…" said Colette.
I shook my head. "N-No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that." I breathed a deep breath. "Um, Lloyd's coming over here. Hide your hand."
She nodded and, wiping off any blood on the grass, quickly closed her hand into a fist.
"Colette, can I talk to you?" he asked.
She exchanged a look with me and I shrugged.
"Um, sure Lloyd!" She forced cheer into her voice. The two walked a couple feet away, but I still managed to make out what they were saying.
"Colette, let me see your hand," he said abruptly.
"Huh? Why?" she said nervously.
"Just show me!"
She flinched slightly at his harshness, but surrendered her hand to him. He grabbed it in alarm, and she didn't even react.
"You're hurt!" he exclaimed. "It must have happened when you fell. Look how much you're bleeding!"
Colette wrenched her hand away and took a couple steps back. "But it doesn't hurt!"
He stared at her. "What?"
"Uh, I mean, it doesn't hurt…that much…"
Lloyd took a few steps back. His face was unreadable. "Colette…can I talk to you for a sec?"
"I-I thought we already were talking, Lloyd."
"You know what I mean. Go wait for me over there, okay?"
"Um, okay…" She walked off to the side slightly, where I knew I'd have no chance of hearing them speak. I could barely even see her.
Lloyd returned to the group and said to Genis, "Hey Genis, do you think you can make Colette and I some coffee? Make sure it's extra hot, too."
Genis looked slightly confused, but he agreed to make the coffee all the same. A few minutes later Lloyd had both cups in had and was walking back over to Colette. I was curious over what the coffee was for, but I still had a sneaking feeling that I knew.
Since I was sitting alone, Raine came over and sat down next to me. I had been just waiting for it.
"You know what we need to discuss, don't you?" she asked me gravely.
I nodded. "I coughed again. It wasn't as bad because I tried to hold it back, but…"
"And once again, it happened at a seal. It's odd, because it doesn't seem to happen until Remiel appears to Colette." She cast a sideways glance at me to gauge my reaction. My eyes had widened ever-so-slightly, and that was enough for her. "It has something to do with him, then?"
I didn't respond, which was an answer in itself.
"So it does." She thought about it a moment. "But what is it that you could possibly be trying to tell us? Unless…"
I was immediately alert. "Raine? Unless?"
She shook her head. "Ah, no, it's nothing. The thought was gone before I could quite grasp it, but I'm sure it was nothing."
I didn't buy it for one second. She was hiding something. "Are you sure? Is it about Remiel? Or Colette? Or-?"
"I just thought perhaps it had something to do with what will happen when Colette becomes a true angel. None of us really have much knowledge about it."
That definitely wasn't it, but now that the subject was raised, I was curious. I wracked my brain for an answer, but I couldn't quite remember what happened to the Chosen Ones who succeeded. What did becoming a true angel entail?
"Anyway," she continued. "We're at least a bit further than we were before. We are now able to place a loose reasoning behind your condition. We'll just have to keep an eye on it." She got up to leave, but I stopped her with one last, sudden question.
"Raine, um, I know this is kind of random, but…who do you think Sheena is?"
She paused slightly. "I can only speculate theories, Aurelia. She certainly is a strange one." That was all she had to offer me before she walked away.
I sat there in my own thoughts for a while. I'd been getting used to it lately. Eventually, as I was falling asleep, Colette came back over and she was strangely quiet.
"Colette? What happened?" I whispered.
"Lloyd knows," she said. She was staring at her hands, and her voice sounded like someone would when they were crying. However, her face was perfectly dry. "He figured it out, Aurelia."
"Oh…" That was all I could think to say. Lloyd was the last person she wanted to know, and know he did. She must have been pretty upset about it. "Well, um, does he know that I know?"
She nodded quickly. "Yes, I told him…he was really upset, Aurelia. He was crying…crying for me. It made me want to cry too but…but I couldn't. I can't anymore. He hugged me and I couldn't even feel it."
Maybe she couldn't cry, but I was close to it. A couple stray tears ran down my face. "Yeah, but hey," I said with a sort of sad sarcasm. "Whatever it takes to become an angel, right?"
She smiled sadly at my twisted attempt at a joke. "Whatever it takes."
:c
I had a dream last night that me and all the people I went to school with were trapped inside it and it was kind of like the Hunger Games. We had these weird colored wells that led to hidden passages and all this other cool stuff, and we had to hide from these guards.
Anyways, that was totally irrelevant, I just thought it was kinda cool. Please review! :)