Chapter 24: Luna and Aska
A swift flight above Sylvarant led the group towards the Tower of Mana, whose height was nothing compared to the Tower of Salvation that was not very far south from where it stood. As the group passed by the Tower of Salvation in all of it's ancient glory, Riku glanced towards the sky, where the tower pierced the atmosphere and led itself towards Derris-Kharlan above. "To think that such a beautiful tower could be used for evil intentions…" He comments to himself.
When he turns back on ahead, the group has already begun to make a slow descent towards the ground in front of the Tower of Mana, which had a more subtle beauty to it's outer appearance that reminded Riku a lot of Meltokio's castle. But the admiration of the Tower of Mana only lasted for a bit as the group landed and immediately dashed for the open door in front of them.
"We can't waste any time! We need to make a pact with Luna and Aska now!" Lloyd says with the utmost urgency in his voice, and Genis comments as well "I-It's not that important to be quick about this, Lloyd." He was thinking about how much he didn't want to be permanently cut off from his fellow half-elf friend Mithos as he said this.
As the group climbed a winding staircase along the edge of the tower, Raine went on to mention "To think that we'd come here again…After all that we've accomplished, we're once again ending our journey in the Tower of Mana." Colette chimes in in turn "But now we're here to truly save the two worlds. Professor, Lloyd, Genis…Everyone, we can do this together!" As she ends her sentence, she grimaces near her right arm, something both Zelos and Riku pick up on instantly.
Once the climb across the staircase comes to an end and the group sprints into the Tower's library, Regal looks around and says "To think that there would be such an archive of knowledge in Sylvarant…The secrets this place must hold are vast, aren't they?" Sheena replies to that in turn "We never got much of a chance to look over these books when we were here last time, so who knows? Maybe we could find out the truth of Mithos the hero's exploits if we took some time to look over it all."
"We could, but we won't. Mithos' history won't mean a thing once we've split the two worlds!" Zelos diverts the thought away from Sheena's mind, and finally Presea says as the group winds around a few corners and uses a couple teleporters to reach the last stretch before the warp to Luna's seal "This tower is really imposing in size…But I don't feel afraid…I am ready to help with everything I have!"
Before they make it all the way across to the final warp, one person stands in the way of their advance, a familiar friend and at the same time a familiar enemy. It was Kratos Aurion, who had already drawn his sword and dispensed with the pleasantries with the group as they stopped by exclaiming a simple "Stop!" Lloyd, who took the forefront with a scowl on his face as he saw this traitor standing before him, responded with "Kratos! Don't get in our way!"
Kratos hastily explains to the group "You don't understand! Derris-Kharlan's core-system has just finished calculating it's answer. If you form a pact with this final Summon Spirit, the protection around the Great Seed will be completely lost!" Lloyd is about to have none of this from the man, and goes to reach for his swords when another voice calls out to Kratos from behind the group "And that's exactly what we desire!"
A ball of electricity shoots out beside Lloyd, forcing Kratos to leap to the left to avoid getting paralyzed and making the group glance to the left, where Yuan is seen walking forward with his right arm lowering down to reach for his two-bladed sword. Kratos stands back up after getting his bearings and notices Yuan right away, and after a glance of surprise he proclaims to the group "Don't you understand?! What you're hoping for will not happen!"
Yuan swings his sword out, breaking apart the railing beside him as he exclaims in response "Silence, Kratos! Do you think we'll pass this opportunity up?! Lloyd! Leave him to me! Go! Form the final pact with the Summon Spirit of Light!"
Lloyd removes his grip on his swords and nods his head in agreement of the plan, and he along with the rest of the group head straight for the warp. Kratos is unable to do anything to stop them as Yuan fires out another lightning ball to distract him. As each member of the group warps away, the only one who ends up staying behind is Riku, who chooses to stand beside Yuan and draw out his own sword, which surprises both parties involved.
"Elemental Overlord, what the hell do you think you're doing?! You need to help Lloyd and the others!" Yuan exclaims while focusing everything he's got on Kratos as the man stands back up and says in a partially furious tone of voice "Hmph, and I thought the Elemental Overlord had at least some capability of thought. You are helping Lloyd and his friends doom both worlds, you know that, right?"
"…Yuan, remember how I said to trust me?" Riku says while glancing at Kratos. "What of it?" Yuan replies bluntly. Riku points his sword out at Kratos and comments "Do you have any doubts about this plan still?"
"None at all. I'll be damned what Kratos or anyone else tell me!" Yuan replies with a fierce tone of voice, and Riku nods his head and admits "Then everything will be fine. I want you to still trust me on this one, we will save the two worlds with our efforts."
Kratos lowers his eyebrows and says "…Hmmm, either you are deceiving Yuan, or you are more naïve than I was led to believe, Elemental Overlord." "How so?" Riku says with a smile on his face, and Kratos replies "I don't think any of that matters at this point. I am determined to stop Lloyd's efforts, even if it costs me my life. Now, come!"
Meanwhile, at the very top of the Tower of Mana, the group runs right out of the warp and heads up the last staircase until they stand before the final, grandiose Summon Spirit seal. A glowing orb of light pulses above the seal, it's glow dwarfing that of the morning sun rising behind it. As Lloyd and Sheena take the forefront away from the rest of the group, Lloyd comments "This is it. The protection around the Great Seed will finally fall after this pact!"
"We're counting on you Sheena!" Colette gives her enthusiastic support as Sheena confidently says "You got it!" She had cast away all doubts that had welled up inside of her before facing Volt, and this confident remark is heard by the Summon Spirit who resided in the orb. The light splits apart in all directions, revealing to the group a lady with luminous skin, flowing green hair that looked blonde thanks to the sunlight. She sat on an emerald crescent moon with a staff in right hand an a rainbow colored seal above her head. She wore a flowing purple cloth around her legs that had sparkles resembling stars across it, and her breasts were covered over with a long and wide strap of blue cloth that also wrapped around her neck.
"You have returned, summoner…Have you brought Aska with you?" Luna asked in a delicately elegant voice, and Sheena explained with the utmost swiftness "He'll come. He promised." As a matter of fact, the bird made good on it's promise at that very moment, with it's beautiful shriek signaling it's descent in front of Luna's glowing body.
As Aska flapped it's wings, Luna smiled and said "Aska…It has been so long. How have you been?" Aska replies with a serene "I am well, Luna…Are you ready to fulfill the request of these brave souls?"
Luna nodded her head, and Sheena immediately said afterwards "I am Sheena! I ask that thou annulst thy pact with Mithos and establish a new one with me!" Luna waves her staff towards the morning sky and states merrily "Then all is well. We shall test thy worthiness to wieldst my power!" With Aska suddenly taking to the ground in front of the seal and Luna's crescent moon alighting, the group knew the battle had thus begun. Everyone drew their weapons for battle, while Luna spread her staff across the air in front of her and descended from above her seal.
"Focus on whoever you can, we can win if we do this together!" Lloyd proclaims with gusto, and with both swords placed against the ground he runs straight at Aska. The bird flaps his wings and lifts off before Lloyd can leap at him and cut him with both of his rising blades. Lloyd lands on the ground and watches as Aska flies out towards the edge of the Tower of Mana.
"I got this one Lloyd!" Genis looks towards the bird as it moves towards the area above the staircase, and with a short sprint towards the stairs while he focuses on his kendama the half-elf says "Pancake time! Stalagmite!" With this short cast, Genis creates a magic circle below Aska's flight path, summoning forth a series of rocky spikes to try and impale the bird.
But upon setting itself aglow, Aska flies straight through the rocks without so much as scarring it's body, and while Genis is looking on in shock he holds his arms in front of his body and says "G-Guardian!" to summon forth the green barrier before the rock chunks can land on him.
However, Aska flips around and dives straight at Genis, waiting for the barrier to drop so he can grab onto the boy's shoulders with his mighty talons, and then he begins to carry him into the sky. With the way Aska gripped, Genis could only flail his arms and legs back and forth without casting a spell to defend himself, and as he began to panic Lloyd cursed the fact that he couldn't leap up to reach the bird.
Thankfully for Genis though, Aska wasn't able to get out far enough to drop the half-elf from the tower as Regal leaps into the air and performing a swirling kick straight into the side of Aska's left head hard enough to make the creature screech and flail around for a few seconds before he lets go of Genis by flinging him straight off the edge of the tower. Regal notices this and lets out a frightened "No!" But is unable to help at the moment thanks to Aska recovering and grabbing Regal by his right pant leg via his beak.
While Aska throws Regal onto his back on the ground, Colette uses her angel wings to fly right off the tower at a rapid pace, dropping her rings on the ground to free her hands up as she rapidly descends towards her falling friend. "Genis! Grab my hands!" Colette proclaims, and her voice is enough to get the panicking half-elf to get a hold of himself and hold his hands up to latch onto Colette's own.
Once Colette was certain she had a firm grip, she flies back up with little difficulty, going past the side of the tower and dropping Genis back on the ground, smiling merrily at what she had done before she goes for her rings and picks them up, covering them with holy energy before throwing them straight at Aska, who was on the ground trying to peck down on Regal's body, with the man using his swift movements to roll out of the way before he's struck.
Colette's rings hit the bird's body one after the other, rebounding back with little harm done to the creature's body as it lifted it's heads up and glanced over at Colette, giving Lloyd just enough time to run over and slam his right shoulder into Aska's chest, and with a swing of both blades he sends the Summon Spirit away from Regal with a well-thrown beastly projection.
Lloyd places his feet beside Regal's body, allowing the man a chance to get up and say "Thank you, Lloyd…" And with a grateful bow Regal watches as Aska recovers from Lloyd's last attack and flaps it's wings a few times to glide back over to the tower. "Colette, your light-based attacks aren't going to help us against Aska! Go after Luna, she's not as light-based as Aska is!" Genis gives out some advice after letting his heart take a bit of a rest.
"H-Huh? Ok, I'll do that!" Colette is puzzled for a moment by the explanation in the heat of battle, but then turns towards Luna and flies off to face her. Regal, Genis and Lloyd focus all of their attention on Aska afterwards.
Speaking of the Summon Spirit, Luna was fending off the rest of the group with her heavy array of light-based spells. A wave of her staff set the crescent moon atop it aglow, and as the area darkens for a brief moment an orb of white light appears above Luna and sends out a few rays diagonally at the group fighting her. Zelos puts his shield up to block the impact of one of the light ray, which pushes him back a few feet.
Raine and Sheena use Guardian, but Presea uses her small size to her advantage to run underneath the ray headed for her and climb up to where Luna is above her seal. With a leap into the air Presea raises her axe up and prepares to bring it down on the Summon Spirit, causing Luna to react with momentary shock as her spell's casting period left her temporarily vulnerable.
Luna is hit with the full brunt of Presea's axe, causing her spell to stop instantly as her body is pushed back across the air and her expression flinch to show a slight feeling of pain within her. But with no signs of damage on her body, Luna quickly composes herself and smiles at Presea while lifting her staff up ready to cast another spell while Presea's axe is momentarily stuck in the stone of her seal.
The Summon Spirit is disrupted by a combination of two attacks. Colette throws out a series of angelic feathers at Luna, all of which hit her and make her blink slightly, leading to Sheena being able to throw a few explosive seals at Luna, all of which go off at the same time and cover Luna in explosions. Presea manages to pull her axe out and step out of the way of the explosions before she's hurt, but she goes forward once Luna is covered in smoke to swing her axe at the Summon Spirit.
However, a flash of light goes off, blinding Presea before she can fully complete her attack and splitting away the smoke surrounding Luna's body. Luna gracefully crosses her legs while keeping her smile present, and then she holds her staff forward to hit Presea with a shockwave of light to send her flying off of her seal. Presea lands on her back inches away from the stairs, and this grabs Regal's attention away from his close-combat battle with Aska as hears her groan in pain as she lands.
Delivering a swift forward kick to Aska's gut to disorient the beast, Regal splits off from the battle while Lloyd leaps into the air and dives down with both swords at Aska to capitalize on the distraction Regal provided for him. Once he lands he holds both swords aside and sees Aska take a couple steps back towards the edge of the tower, and once the Summon Spirit was a fair distance away Lloyd swings one sword after another against the ground to send two fanged projectiles at Aska's feet.
The bird gets a hold of itself and leaps backwards onto the top of the elevated edge, where it flaps it's wings forward and sends a barrage of rainbow-colored feathers at Lloyd. The boy is able to deflect some of them by bringing one of his raised swords down, but the rest collide all across his body and push him back in due time, with the tips of some poking into his skin and making him grimace in pain.
Thankfully, Genis was there to back up his friend, and with his kendama in hand he proclaimed "Absolute!" A frosty circle appears below Aska's body, and in mere seconds Aska is encapsulated in a heavy amount of ice. Genis throws his right fist into the air and says "Yeah! Take that you stupid bird!" He was really proud of his successful attack, but it would end up being in vain as Aska swiftly shatters the ice without any harm to his body.
"W-What the heck? Does magic just not affect Aska?!" Genis exclaims as the bird flaps his wings and takes off towards the sky. "That seems to be a fair assumption…" Regal notes as he and the now standing Presea join up with Lloyd and Genis.
"Then I guess I'll go fight Luna…" Genis laments before he turns around and goes to fight Luna. Meanwhile, Zelos ends up being sent into the battle with Aska after a blast of light from Luna sends him skidding on his back across the ground. "Ugh…She really doesn't show any mercy…" Zelos bemoans as he pushes himself onto his feet and shakes his head back and forth.
"Hey Zelos, help us out with Aska. We could really use your swordsmanship!" Lloyd comments, and Zelos glances over at him and says without hesitation "You won't hear any complaints from me!" Zelos runs forward to join the others, while Aska spreads his wings out of reach of the group and sends out another bombardment of rainbow feathers.
Lloyd raises his swords up to act as protection, with Zelos lifting his shield up and Regal and Presea leaping back out of the way. Regal ends up having an idea in the face of this situation, and Presea nods her head after the man glances at him to show that she understood the plan. Regal kneels down and extends his arms out, and Presea steps on top of them while holding her axe off to the side.
Regal uses his strength to launch Presea into the air after Aska, and with her raising her axe high above her head she is able to swiftly bring it down before Aska can pull back. The full brunt of Presea's axe collides with Aska's back, stopping his feathery assault and sending him plummeting back towards the tower. The front of his body crashes against the elevated edge of the tower, increasing the pain that thrusts itself through his chest, and Presea is able to pull back on her axe and land safely on the ground before she follows Aska off the tower.
Presea turns around and comments in a monotone voice "Target neutralized." She drags her axe along the ground and prepares to accept that she had won when Aska suddenly roars back up to the top of the tower, his body burning with a blaze of light as he prepared for a final attack upon the group. Before he could succeed, Zelos runs past Presea, leaps up beside Aska, and backhands the vulnerable part of his back with his shield to deal a final, critical blow to the Summon Spirit that sends him crashing against the ground behind Presea.
Zelos lands gracefully on the crumbled edge of the tower and claps his hands together, smiling while saying "Well, you really did need my help, didn't ya? So that just leaves Luna…" Before he turns towards the other Summon Spirit, he leaps down and feels the entire Tower of Mana quaking below him.
The tremor ends, leaving Lloyd to comment "Looks like Yuan and Kratos are really going at it…Come to think about it, where did Riku go to?" It honestly wasn't until Lloyd asked that the group realized that the teenage Overlord hadn't joined them in this battle.
For you see, back in the tower, Riku had just finished sending Kratos crashing against the ground with a punch made of pure stone. His body broke apart the ground with his impact, and it revealed that the bookshelves have taken quite a beating from the fight. Kratos quickly flips back onto his feet before Yuan can strike him with an impacting Thunder Blade.
Yuan grinned happily as he ripped his blade from the ground and said "This is just like old times Kratos. Only this time you are on the losing side!" Kratos throws a fanged projectile across the ground at Yuan, and after Yuan blocks it with the bottom part of his sword he comments "Hmmm…You really do believe that, don't you?"
The teenage Overlord flies straight at Kratos and throws a wave of flame at him, forcing him to throw his sword in front of his body to block the attack, where he then holds out and waits to meet Riku's sword with his own, which causes his feet to grind back along the ground. Kratos and Riku meet glares before Kratos pushes the boy back with a mighty swing of his blade. Once Riku lands beside Yuan, he lets out a couple pants and starts sweating, but for all his focus on the battle he made the occasional thought towards the group's battle with Luna and Aska.
Back up at the top of the tower, Colette, Raine, Genis and Sheena were continuing to throw everything they could at Luna. Colette throws her rings from a safe distance while flying around to prevent Luna from hitting her with her light rays. Sheena tries close combat with her seals, but Luna projects a barrier of light to stop all physical blows.
Sheena flips back and lands in front of Raine, who uses her magic to heal a bit of the ninja's wounds, since she felt her light spells wouldn't be very effective against Luna's might. Sheena reaches into her clothes and pulls out a blue seal, saying to Genis "Hold her off for a bit, I'll deal the final blow!"
Luna glances down at the seal in Sheena's hand, intrigued by the coloring of it. She then looked over and saw that Aska had been soundly defeated, and the four that were responsible for his defeat were about ready to go and fight her. Luna then grinned, and with a raising of her staff she stated "That is quite enough. I declare this test of your might to be over, valiant travelers."
Everyone is surprised by Luna's admission of defeat, with Sheena stuttering out an inquiry of "W-What? You can do that?" Luna nods her head and says "Any Summon Spirit can, it is but a matter of pride for most of them that they usually don't do so. Together, thou art powerful…" With a wave of her staff, Luna uses a little bit of light magic to heal up Aska's wounds, allowing the bird to wake up and flap it's wings, where it takes off and lands beside his friend.
Folding the staff across her legs, Luna asks of Sheena "Now, state thy vow upon which thou wilt base our pact." The moment had finally come for the final pact to be made, and with her hand extended in front of her body Sheena says with a barely contained sense of joy in her mind "I vow to germinate the Great Seed in order to realize the true regeneration of both worlds!"
As she finishes her vow, the warp activates behind the group, and a battered Kratos desperately runs up the staircase to try and stop the pact, only to see that he was far too late as Luna proclaims "We accept thy vow. Our power is thine!" Aska and Luna's bodies fade away, transforming into a singular white seal for Sheena to use. Yuan and Riku follow close behind Kratos, with Yuan grinning merrily as he said "You did it!"
However, Kratos exclaims in a surprisingly unhinged manner "No!" Which draws the group's attention towards him now that the final seal had been dealt with. Before anyone could make a single comment though, Riku closes his eyelids shut and braces himself as a heavy tremor suddenly starts to shake the tower whole. At the same time, the light fades from the sky as the planet is drowned in a sea of grey clouds.
"W-What the hell is going on?!" Yuan exclaims in a tone of utter surprise as he finds himself struggling to keep himself balanced on the stairs. The rest of the group also are forced to get their bearings straight, but before they can do so a heavy pillar of white light shoots out from Luna's now vacated seal and pierces the very sky above. In the far distance, three more pillars of light can be seen erupting from Sylph, Undine, and Efreet's seals.
"We have to evacuate the tower now! Come on!" Kratos exclaims with the utmost urgency in his voice. Taking the man's advice seriously, the group runs for the warp post-haste, but before they all enter they look out towards the Tower of Salvation in the distance and see something truly horrifying occurring underneath it.
Twisted roots can be seen slowly crawling out across the land of Sylvarant, their enormous girth ripping asunder the ground beneath and above their forms with every second that they grow. Some of this roots are slowly wrapping themselves around the Tower of Salvation, crawling high up until the shape of a tree is formed, at which point they begin to carry a glowing pale-blue sphere with them towards the sky.
"Kratos, I demand an explanation!" Yuan exclaims in a moment of confused fury, but the man merely runs into the warp to force Yuan to focus on their escape. "Damn it. KRATOS!" Yuan curses the man's name before running into the warp himself. The rest of the group enter right as a couple of the roots reach the Tower of Mana and begin to wrap themselves tightly around it's frame. As the group exit the warp, the walls bulge inward as the roots push the stones supporting the tower inside.
The group leaps off the warp and lands safely on the ground, continuing their sprint towards the bottom of the tower as smaller roots begin to infiltrate the building. After descending the staircase, the group runs right outside the Tower of Mana, where they find that the Rheairds have been untouched by the still growing roots. Their creaks can be heard as they latch themselves around the tower's frame.
Instead of getting on the Rheairds for the moment, the group runs to a safe location far away from the Tower of Mana, but once they reach a certain point they notice that the roots have extended across most of Sylvarant, leaving little areas safe from their wrath. And around the Tower of Salvation a gigantic tree had formed from a collection of roots, it's wicked presence darkening the skies save for the glowing pale-blue sphere that, from the group's current point of view, can be seen housing a person within.
The tremors continue to go off, only this time each tremor is followed up by a hefty shockwave that is sent through all of Sylvarant. Once all but Kratos, Yuan and Riku flinch from the shockwave, Lloyd proclaims in sheer disbelief "What's happening?!" While Zelos watches the destruction unfold and can only bring himself to whisper out a mere "Oh my god…"
"Is that…the Giant Kharlan Tree?" Genis asks upon looking at the tree for a good while. Colette, with her enhanced sight, is able to get a better look at the person inside of the sphere, and comments in a frightened tone of voice "…That person…I've met here somewhere before…"
Yuan, with a scowl on his face, blurts out in anger "Damn it, that's Martel!" This leads to Colette widening her eyes and commenting "She reminds me of someone…She reminds me of…" But before she can finish her sentence Yuan turns to face Kratos and says to him "Why the hell would Martel reappear with that giant, grotesque tree?"
Kratos sighs and folds his arms against his chest while commenting "I was afraid this would happen…" Lloyd, sick and tired of Kratos' vagueness, said to him firmly "What do you mean?" Kratos explains quickly "Having lost the stability afforded by the protection of the Summon Spirits, the Great Seed has gone out of control."
Yuan blurts out in anger "No! The purpose of the Summon Spirits was to isolate the Great Seed from the outside world and prevent it from growing!" Kratos turns towards Yuan and says "That was only half of it. The two worlds were forced out of phase by Yggdrasill. They should have drifted apart from each other and become consumed by the void of space. But this was prevented from happening because the Great Seed was placed in the center between the two worlds."
Yuan runs straight up to Kratos and grabs him by the collar, lifting him up and saying with a scowl on his face "I don't need a damn lecture from you to know that!" Kratos takes pause for a moment, letting Yuan let go of him before he further explains "The Great Seed is constantly being pulled upon from bother worlds as they try to separate from one another. It's a miracle that this delicate balance held up for even this long."
Yuan's eyes widen, and upon turning back around to face Kratos he says "Wait! So the mana links served as a cage to contain the Great Seed in the space between the two worlds? Is that what you are saying?" Kratos nods his head and further explains "Exactly. And because you provided the unstable Great Seed with mana, germination has led to it growing in this twisted form and going berserk. It has even engulfed Martel."
Lloyd steps in at this point, exclaiming to get the two bickering men back on point "Who cares why this happened?! I want to know what's going to happen if we can't stop this!" Yuan turns to face Lloyd and explains "...If what Kratos says is true, then Sylvarant will be consumed and destroyed by the Great Seed. And if Sylvarant is destroyed, Tethe'alla will be destroyed as well, as it is linked by the Holy Ground of Kharlan and the Otherworldly Gate."
"Then…everyone will die." Presea comments, and Kratos worsens the matter by stating "Everyone except that twisted tree and the angels that live on Derris-Kharlan." Most of the group erupts into a panic, leading to Regal being forced to calmly ask "Yuan. How do you plan to rectify this situation?"
Yuan growls, but then pauses and thinks about the situation presented to him. "…We can cut off the mana flow and stop the seed from receiving any more mana." But Kratos is quick to point out "But that won't subdue the Giant Tree. The process has already begun." This only furthers Yuan's disgust at the situation.
"Is the Giant Tree going crazy like that Tethe'alla, too?" Zelos asks out of deep concern for his world, and with a shake of his head Kratos explains "Highly unlikely. Although I imagine they are feeling some effect, such as earthquakes."
"...That makes sense. Because Colette activated the process of world regeneration, the Summon Spirits of Sylvarant are now active. Therefore, the Giant Tree was drawn over here by Sylvarant's Summon Spirits." Raine says, and Kratos follows up on this by mentioning "The Summon Spirits exchange their respective roles of yin and yang each time a Chosen's quest for world regeneration succeeds. Currently, the Summon Spirits of Sylvarant are carrying out the role of yang by providing the mana. But because the Giant Tree has over-absorbed Sylvarant's mana, it has gone out of control."
"Then in that case, couldn't we neutralize it by blasting it with the power of the opposing Summon Spirits?" Lloyd asks, which takes everyone off-guard with the brilliance of the idea, and as everyone stares at him he blinks and explains "The Professor once said that the negative and positive of a magnet neutralize each other. This is kind of the same thing, right?"
"That's not quite right, Lloyd, but nonetheless it's a clever idea coming from you." Raine says in a proud tone of voice. Sheena shakes her head and points out "Even if we did decide to try and set the Summon Spirits of Tethe'alla against it, how are we gonna go about doing that? Riku's the only one who can probably get close to that crazy thing, and there's no way we're even certain he'd be able to pull it off."
"…The Mana Cannon." Yuan chimes in with an idea of his own. "Mana Cannon? That machine Rodyle was building?" Presea asks, and Yuan goes on to explain "Actually, we were manipulating Rodyle into building that. Before the mana links started to disappear, we planned to have him destroy the Tower of Salvation."
Kratos glares at Yuan for that idea, but then goes on to say "So you're suggesting we feed the mana of Tethe'alla's Summon Spirits into the Mana Cannon and fire it at the Giant Tree? Hmm…I suppose there's no better option right now." Raine points out "First, we need to shut off the current flow of mana to the tree. It'll be too late if the tree grows any larger."
"Understood. Then the plan is simple. Yuan, I'm going to pretend I don't know who you've been working with or what you've been up to. In exchange, you're going to order the Renegades to stop firing mana at the tree immediately. Meanwhile, Lloyd's group will head for the Mana Cannon." When Kratos is at an end, Yuan nods his head in reluctant agreement, but he is swiftly approached from behind by a Renegade soldier who arrived in time to hear the plan.
"It's not possible, sir! Forcystus has executed our Iselia ranch infiltration team!" The soldier said in a panic. "…So the Iselia ranch is still operation. Hrrggh, Forcystus is more of a nuisance than I anticipated he would be." Yuan bemoaned.
"Then there's no other choice, we have to infiltrate the place ourselves and stop the flow." Zelos suggests, and upon hearing this Kratos takes a moment of ponder his role in this mess before stating "No, I shall go alone."
Regal points out the absurdity of this idea by saying "You? Are you suggesting we should send you, our enemy, to do this by yourself?" Yuan tries to reassure the group by suggesting "I'll send some of my men with you."
Kratos shakes his head and notes to Yuan "Preparations for the Mana Cannon, the shutdown of the mana reactors throughout the world-there are too many things we need the Renegades to do. You don't have enough troops to do everything."
And then, Lloyd makes an important decision for the sake of both worlds. Standing up to both Kratos and Yuan's plans, Lloyd says to them "I'll go." Everyone looks at him in disbelief, with Sheena exclaiming to him "Are you insane?! We have to head for the Mana Cannon!"
Lloyd looks at Sheena and says to her calmly "You and the Renegades can take care of the Mana Cannon. Kratos and the rest of us will infiltrate the Iselia ranch. Fire the Mana Cannon when we give you the word. You wouldn't be able to trust the signal if it came from Kratos alone, right?"
"Well, that's true, but…" Sheena lowers her head in a concerned manner while Kratos takes this chance to gauge Lloyd's true intentions and point out "This is about Chocolat, isn't it?" This remark makes Lloyd flinch in shock as he turns his head to face the man.
Colette is reminded of the girl in question and says excitedly "That's right! Chocolat is held at the Iselia ranch. Lloyd, you remembered your promise!" Lloyd nods his head, and with a folding of his arms Yuan calmly states "All right. We'll leave it to you then. Don't let us down."
The group in charge of the infiltration of Iselia's ranch get on their Rheairds and prepare to fly off, but not before Riku says to them "I'll catch up with you in a bit! There's something I need to take care of first!" "Alright Riku, we'll see you at the ranch! Don't try anything crazy with the Giant Tree!" Lloyd proclaims, and with the engines roaring mixed in with the planet's tremors the Rheairds fly straight for Iselia.
Sheena takes off mere moments later, heading south for the Mana Cannon. This leaves Yuan and Riku all alone, but the Renegade leader begins to turn around right as the teenage Overlord remarks "Yuan, there's something I have to-…Where are you going?" His inquiry is met with a stern pause from Yuan, who tells him upfront "Kratos is right, you deceived me."
"Yuan, I didn't deceive you. I told you to trust in me, and I never said anything that would suggest that we shouldn't pact with the last Summon Spirit." Riku tries to explain his side of things, but Yuan quickly turns around and exclaims "And you think that makes things right?! With how catastrophically things turned out, it would've been better if you had warned me this would happen!"
Riku's eyes widen in shock, for Yuan's outburst was something he had no intention of expecting. His body pauses, and he finds himself incapable of responding to the remark. "…I don't know how the hell you came to know how the future would unfold for us, but what if things hadn't gone as perfectly as you expected them to and Lloyd didn't come up with that plan to save us from the Giant Kharlan Tree? Would YOU have taken responsibility for your lack of action by destroying the tree yourself?" Yuan berates Riku for everything he failed to do.
The teenage Overlord looks as Yuan and calmly says to him "I would have, yes. But you don't understand just how much faith I have in everything unfolding perfectly. The only change to my prior knowledge was Botta surviving, and that's not major enough to change how Lloyd would think about this situation…And let's be honest Yuan, with how much you want to save your wife from her cursed fate, would you really have listened to me had I tried to dissuade you?"
Now Yuan was the one thrown off-guard by this question, and it took him a moment to compose himself before replying "Damn you to hell for using my connection to Martel against me…" His curse was spoken in a bitter tone, and then he went on to say "But you are right, I likely would not have listened. However, that does nothing to justify your actions. Who are you to hide such crucial, life-saving knowledge from those who damn themselves in an attempt to save this divided world? No matter how humble you try to act, you're nothing more than a wretched god who wants nothing more than to toy with those you consider beneath you."
These words hurt Riku on an emotional and physical level, especially with all the stress he went through just recently to cast away any doubts within him. But with a firm glare directed towards Yuan, the teenage Overlord draws his sword and focuses on the energies of Light and Darkness that have now returned to his body. With a swift transformation that sends forth energy of both natures outward from his feet, Riku ends up in his Chaos Form, where he spreads his angelic and demonic wings while drawing both his dagger and sword.
Yuan gazes at him, trying his hardest to hold back his awe while the teenage Overlord explains "Call me what you will, Yuan, but I will still try my hardest to save both worlds and the people within it who need assistance. If things go wrong with the Mana Cannon, then I will take full blame for not preventing the Giant Kharlan Tree from emerging, and sacrifice my life to destroy it. After that, it's up to you and Lloyd's group to stop Mithos and save these worlds, understood?"
"…Do whatever you wish, Elemental Overlord, it is no longer any of my concern." Yuan brushes off Riku's remark and turns around, preparing to walk off once more before Riku says "Before you go though, is there anything you want me to say to Martel?" This question makes Yuan pause in place, where he says in a confused tone "What the hell are you saying now?"
"The matter of Martel's revival has been bugging me for a while now…But I cannot answer that problem on my own. While the opportunity presents itself, I am going to go hold off the Giant Tree's roots, and speak to Martel herself. Now, I ask again, is there anything you want me to say to her on your behalf?" Riku calmly handles the situation with Yuan, and after taking a moment to think things through Yuan says "…Tell Martel, that I still carry her ring with me."
The teenage Overlord smiles, and with an appreciative sounding "Thank you" towards Yuan he kicks right off of the ground and flies straight towards the Giant Kharlan Tree, and with his arms folded against his chest Yuan comments to himself "…I wish you luck in your endeavors, Riku…" He then walks off to go command his Renegades in the efforts detailed in Lloyd's plan…
Next Time: The False Goddess