Chapter 34: Tower of Salvation III: "I Will Decide My Own Fate!"
It all happened in an instance. Before Zelos could accept Lloyd's offer for a second chance at life, Yggdrasill silently appeared in the bottom part of the Tower of Salvation, and with a raise of his hand Lloyd was shot through the heart with a single beam of energy. His body fell lifeless to the ground right before everyone's eyes.
As Yggdrasill floated in mid-air before the teleporter, he glared down upon the group callously and watched as they reacted with panic and sadness towards their friend's death. "L-Lloyd? No…NO!" Genis was the first to lose it, his eyes welling up with tears as he swung his head back and forth unable to accept that his best friend had been killed by the person he thought was his other friend…
Sheena dropped to her knees and stuttered out "Lloyd…Lloyd…No, he can't be dead, this can't be happening!" Traumatic flashbacks to Corrine's death began to flash inside of her mind, breaking the girl's psyche to the point that she barely able to move. Meanwhile, Presea let out a very emotional sounding "NO! Mithos, you bastard!" She was ready to draw out her axe and jump at the man in a bitter rage, but she was barely held back by Regal's hands clasping onto her shoulders.
"No Presea! You'll die too if you go in alone!" Regal was trying to remain rational for the sake of the rest of his friends, which was a rather hypocritical act as above all else he too wanted to leap forward and attack Mithos for what he had just done. As he grit his teeth, all Regal could do was bitterly stare at the half-elf.
Zelos, who was still on his knees, stares down at Lloyd and quietly murmured out "Lloyd? H-Hey buddy…Come on…Get up…Lloyd?" When his friend had made no response, Zelos' body shook in anger before he turned his head around and exclaimed "You little bastard! Why did you kill Lloyd?!"
"Why? Is the traitor really asking such a question?" Yggdrasill points out, to which he then waves his hand out and comments "Lloyd is my enemy, so naturally I wanted him dead…But at the same time, there is another purpose to my actions." Yggdrasill then turns towards the group and uses his extended hand to raise the Eternal Sword from the ground.
He does this because the teenage Overlord was flying straight at him with sword drawn out ready for an attack. But with a single thought Mithos sends out a small shockwave from the Eternal Sword to hit Riku as he was mere inches from his body, leading to him flying and crashing on his back a few feet away from Lloyd's corpse.
Grinning at Riku's defiance, Mithos lowers the Eternal Sword and says to Zelos "I plan to finally make good on a certain deal made to me years ago…" As the group stands idly by in fear of Yggdrasill's power, Riku slowly pulls himself up from the indent made from his impact and forces himself onto his feet, his arms limping beside himself as he glares up at Yggdrasill and says to him "I can't believe you did this…Lloyd did nothing but be nice to you despite all your concerns about being a half-elf, and this is how you repay him?!"
"…Why are you so concerned with his condition? After all, you have the ability to revive him, do you not?" Mithos was callous in regards to Lloyd's condition once more, ignoring the question proposed to him by Riku. The teenage Overlord slants his eyebrows for a moment to glare up at the man, saying to him bluntly "That's not the point, Mithos."
Mithos extends his arms out and says to the boy "Why bother with such meager points right now? You should pay attention to Lloyd's body…" Riku looks down at Lloyd's corpse, and finds that sparkles of light were coming out from it and heading towards his Exsphere. Mithos then slowly explains "If you do nothing to save Lloyd, then his consciousness will be absorbed into his Exsphere…And by then it will be too late to do anything for him. He'll share the same fate as his pathetic, human mother."
Riku grits his teeth at the words Mithos chose to describe Lloyd's mother, but knew that there was reason to believe what he was saying. Lloyd had to be revived now, but the teenage Overlord couldn't help but feel there was an ulterior motive behind Yggdrasill's actions. "…What are you up to, Mithos? You kill Lloyd just to have me revive him? That doesn't make any sense."
"You're right, it shouldn't…And normally, I wouldn't allow you the opportunity to do this…But don't tell me you haven't forgotten the deal your predecessor said you owe me?" Mithos grins at the end of his sentence as he stares down at the boy, and as Riku widens his eyes for a moment Yggdrasill extends his right hand out and says "Choose, Elemental Overlord. Will you stand defiantly against me and risk the death of your allies? Or will you revive Lloyd Irving, and then surrender yourself to me? You do not have long to decide…"
"Surrender myself to you…?" Riku whispered out, and at that moment he realized that Mithos must have known that the revival process would leave him severely exhausted. But even with that being taken into consideration, the teenage Overlord clenched his fists and focused all of his energy onto his sword. With a balanced of light and darkness in mind, Riku swiftly transformed into his Chaos Form, spreading his two sets of wings behind him as Mithos looked down upon him and assumed "So…You wish to be defiant, then?"
The teenage Overlord calmly shook his head and sheathed his katana, focusing pure light into his left hand while fierce darkness exuded from the right. He then said to Mithos "No…I am going to save Lloyd's life." Riku swiftly dropped onto his knees in front of Lloyd, and as everyone behind him looked on with their teary eyes the teenage Overlord raised his hands into the air and took in a deep breath. He was nervous about performing this procedure for the first time, but tried to keep an air of confidence around himself for the sake of those who counted on him.
With a precise focus on Lloyd's body, Riku brought his hands down upon Lloyd's chest, and with a powerful release of both light and darkness into the air that overwhelmed everyone's current emotional state and left them feeling rather calm the teenage Overlord found himself connecting with Lloyd's slowly departing body and with it the fragments of his soul that were being absorbed into the Exsphere. As the energies left his hands, Riku began to mend the missing flesh and organs from Lloyd's body while simultaneously reversing the process the Exsphere had been performing on his soul…
As Riku performed this process, we find Lloyd's consciousness drifting in a white void representing the innards of the Exsphere. Like Alicia, he maintained his physique and clothes, but it took some time before he was able to open his eyes and see where he was. "Where am I…?" His voice echoes within his Exsphere as he turns his head back and forth, and he finds himself finding no answers to his pressing question.
With his consciousness floating around, Lloyd finds himself realizing that there is no longer any weight to his "body", but before he could comment on this he hears a voice calling to him from afar. "Lloyd…Lloyd, come here." It was a feminine voice, and even though Lloyd had many questions regarding why he was hearing this the one thing he knew for certain is that it sounded very, very familiar.
He floated in the direction of the voice, and after a good few seconds he found someone floating in this mysterious void with him. It was a woman with slightly tattered rags as clothes that covered all but her head and hands. She had brown-red hair that extended down to her chin along with brown eyes that gave off a rather warm glare as she looked straight at Lloyd. She held her hands together in front of her body and smiled, which led to Lloyd glancing at her in a puzzled manner and asking "W-Who are you?"
The woman held her arms out and said to Lloyd "Please…Can you give me a hug?" Even though Lloyd didn't know who this woman was still, there was something about the way she spoke that made him float over to her and take up her offer for a hug. As he wraps his arms around her body and she does the same, a nostalgic sensation within Lloyd's "body" awakens a familiar memory within him. When the two figures have hugged long enough, Lloyd widens his eyes and pulls back, saying the woman in a tone of stunned silence "M-M-Mom?"
The woman nodded her head in response, which led to her saying in turn "To think that I would get to hug my own son again…But it shouldn't have been like this." Lloyd was puzzled for a moment, but for once he was able to piece things together after but a few seconds "…Wait, if I'm talking to you…Then wouldn't that mean that I'm inside my…"
This revelation horrified him, leading to him standing still for a few seconds as he recalled the last moments preceding this event. "…That's right…Mithos killed me…Then…Then that must mean…" As Lloyd murmured this out, his mother nodded her head and explained "…Yes, your consciousness is now slowly being absorbed into the Exsphere." It was difficult for her to explain this bit of news to her own son.
Lloyd hung his head low, the depression he felt being immeasurable in size as he murmured out "…So…I failed…Everything I did…Was all for nothing…." Anna Irving shook her head in response, saying in the gentlest voice she could muster for her son "That doesn't sound like you at all, Lloyd."
"…Huh? What are you talking about mom?" Lloyd pokes his head up slightly to look his mother in the eyes, and she slightly slants her eyebrows while saying to her son "Lloyd…You think I haven't been aware of everything that's happened outside the Exsphere? Even though my body is gone, I have always been there to watch over you. I've seen you grow-up into a fine young man thanks to Dirk's and Raine's help, and I've seen you fight your hardest to help this world become a better place again. You've influenced so many people's lives, and have never once betrayed your beliefs…I couldn't be anymore proud of you than I am right now, my son…"
"You…You are?" Lloyd comments in response to his mother's rather inspirational speech. But then Lloyd hangs his head and says "…But now Mithos is going to kill all of my friends, and everything I have done will be undone…And da-…Kratos, will continue to be Mithos' servant."
"…Your father is a good man Lloyd. I know what happened to you and him in Sylvarant, but before he knew you were alive he was a completely broken man…And there's no one to blame but myself for that." Anna hung her head low and felt ashamed for what had befallen her husband, but Lloyd says to her quickly "Mom, Kratos told me everything about what happened between you and him…But I just have a hard time forgiving him for what he's done."
"…I cannot force you to love your own father, Lloyd, but please…I'd like you to try." Anna politely asked of her son, to which Lloyd looked at her in a puzzled manner while saying "Huh? Mom…I'm dead now…I can't ever get a chance to forgive Kratos…" As he hung his head low, he suddenly felt a gentle tug on his body that was beginning to pull him away from his mother.
Anna smiled at Lloyd, saying to him with a nod of her head "It seems a particular someone is providing you another chance at life, my son…" As Lloyd is dragged further away, Anna's voice became fainter, leading to him reaching his hand out and saying "Wait! Mom! There's so many more things I wanted to say to you!"
Anna gave Lloyd a smile and reassured him as she once more folded her hands in front of her body "Lloyd…As long my Exsphere is near you…I will always be there to listen…Please, make good on this second chance…Give everyone a chance to enjoy these beautiful worlds of ours…And tell your father that he shall always be forgiven by me." Before Lloyd can say anymore, his consciousness disappears from the innards of his Exsphere…
Back outside the Exsphere, Riku has pulled his hands away from Lloyd's body, which was now completely restored to the state it was before Mithos had killed him. The heart was perfectly functional, and the revival process managed to prevent the brain from suffering any permanent damage caused by a lack of blood being drawn to it. As the teenage Overlord's body limped forward in agonizing pain, he was returned to his original form with beads of sweat forming across his skin.
He let out tired pants as his eyes portrayed his physical exhaustion perfectly, and he could barely feel anything come from his heart save for a few steady beats. "I-I did it…Lloyd is…alive…" Riku could barely say what he wanted to, for all of his remaining strength was focused on keeping himself stabilized. Zelos looked forward and saw Lloyd's fingers twitch, and a disbelieving look in his eyes along with an agape mouth led to him stuttering out "N-No way…You actually brought him back to life…"
The teenage Overlord tries to push himself onto his feet, but the process takes a good fifteen seconds before he is successful. Once he manages to make it this far up, he looks up at Mithos and says to him "…Ok…You want me Mithos? …I'm all yours now…" Yggdrasill nods his head, and then says as he gestures towards Zelos "Chosen of Mana…Please bring the Elemental Overlord to me, and then you'll be one step closer to freedom from your title."
Zelos looks at Mithos and says to him defiantly "After what you just pulled you think I-" Riku exclaims to him in a raspy tone of voice "Zelos! …Just do it, please." The Chosen looks at him in a confused manner, and after a few more seconds the boy collapses face first on the ground beside Lloyd.
Complying with Mithos' wishes for the time being, Zelos gets on his feet and walks over to pick Riku's body up. He then turns to face Lloyd, saying to him in an apologetic tone "Sorry Lloyd…Guess I still got to be on the other side for a little longer…" He then uses his wings to fly up beside Mithos, turning around with Riku held over his right shoulder. The group starts to run up to join Lloyd, who quickly awakens from his deathly state and lifts his upper body up just in time to notice Zelos carrying Riku away through the teleporter.
The first thing he exclaims upon being brought back to life is "ZELOS!" But the Chosen only gives him a melancholy expression as he vanishes from sight. Lloyd feels a slight pain in his chest, understandable since that was the organ he lost before, but he recovers from the pain relatively quickly and rises to his feet with everyone else gathered around him.
"Lloyd! Y-You're alive!" Genis is quick to jump at his friend and give him a hug the moment he turns around to hear his voice. Genis was crying happily at his friend's return, and everyone else had similar sentiment, with Sheena in particular socking him in the shoulder and stating "D-Don't you ever die on me again Lloyd! We've come too far to lose anyone!"
"Everyone…It's great to be able to see you again…" Lloyd gave a heartfelt remark to his friends, leading to him blinking a couple of times before he asks "But…what happened? Why did Zelos take Riku with him to Mithos?" Raine was quick to fold her arms against her chest and reply "…Mithos wanted to use Riku's reviving capabilities for some purpose, that's all I can assume. Zelos was forced to take him along."
"…Riku…Revived me. That's right…" As Lloyd murmurs this out, he is suddenly overcome with a sensation of light, and the teenage Overlord's voice suddenly speaks to him from within his mind "Hey Lloyd…I know you're probably confused as to why you're hearing me…But as I revived you, I used my light powers to infuse these thoughts of mine into your body temporarily. All I wanted to say is this…Do not concern yourself with saving me. Make Colette your one and only priority no matter what…I'm sorry I wasn't more honest with all of you about what I knew of both worlds, but now I plan to make amends for that…"
The message then cuts off there, with Lloyd putting on a wide-eyed stare in front of the rest of the group as time moved on without him budging an inch. "Lloyd…Are you ok?" Raine asks, and after slanting his eyebrows Lloyd nods his head and decisively says to the group "We can't waste anymore time…We need to save Zelos, Colette…And Riku. Let's go after Mithos." Lloyd was back to his determined self, and with the group regaining the inspiration to fight they quickly went for the teleporter that Mithos left behind and used it to pursue him further into the Tower of Salvation.
A few minutes after this, we find Riku slowly waking up thanks to the call of another person in the room. After a few seconds he creaks his eyelids open, finding himself inside a gigantic chamber at the very bottom of the Tower of Salvation. Inside this circular chamber, his body has been propped into a kneel position by some chains that were wrapped around his wrists and kept his arms held in the air above him. A circle of magic surrounding his body, infusing him with healing magic with every passing second.
Upon gaining enough of his composure, the teenage Overlord looks around and tries to get a grip on where he was. The walls were lined with mysterious blocks that were keeping a heavy influx of dark-looking mana from flowing into the chamber. In the center of the room was a very ancient looking device connected to the Great Seed, and in turn Martel's body. Below the Great Seed was a glass capsule with Colette's body floating inside, which in turn was protected by a series of golden bars.
"Ah…So you've finally awakened again, Elemental Overlord." Yggdrasill was there to greet Riku, but he had to speak up since he floating before the capsule with Colette's body. Off to the side, Pronyma could be seen working on the machine carefully while holding her staff out to the right to keep Riku's healing circle up. "…Mithos…" The teenage Overlord murmurs out as he tries to budge his arms free from the chains.
"Pronyma, free our little guest from his chains. I want him to be on his feet when we talk." Mithos directs an order to the Desian leader, and though she was hesitant to do so considering past events involving him she turned her staff towards the chains binding the teenage Overlord and with a single spell she breaks them by the cuffs. Riku's arms fall to the ground beside him, and with enough strength renewed he picks them up quickly and rubs the wrists to get feeling back in them as he slowly rises to his feet and glares at Yggdrasill.
"Welcome, Elemental Overlord, to the Chamber of the Great Seed." Yggdrasill politely said, but Riku said to him in turn "Hmph…So Mithos, what do you want from me? It must be pretty important if you had to kill Lloyd to grab my attention."
Yggdrasill waves his right hand out and says "Do not let that event get in the way of our conversation. You 'saved' Lloyd from his demise, after all." Riku grits his teeth at Mithos' callousness, but before he let his anger get the best of him he recognized that he wasn't anywhere close to his full power after the revival process he did, even with the help of Pronyma's healing magic. "…What do you mean by 'saved'?" He asks.
Yggdrasill pulls his arm back and replies with "As of now, Lloyd and his other companions are trying their hardest to reach this chamber in order to save their friend. But in order to make it here, it'll be impossible to do so without passing all of my traps. As of now, Lloyd is on the road to death once more." Riku says in response to this "…If you believe that, then you don't know Lloyd and his friends at all. But that's not my concern right now…Why do you want me now?"
"I plan to make good on that deal here and now, Elemental Overlord." Mithos makes his intention blatantly clear to the boy, which causes Riku to glance at him with a curious raise of his right eyebrow as he points out "But why? You already have Colette's body to act as Martel's vessel. You no longer need my help to bring her back."
"That would be true in most other circumstances, but when you revived Lloyd moments ago you proved to me one simple thing that grabbed my interest." Mithos gestured his hand out to the left at the end of his sentence and explained "When you revive someone, their body is completely restored to the state they were in before their death. That means you can bring Martel back the way she was, and there would be no reason for me to replace Colette's soul with that of my sister's."
Riku widened his eyes, and with a quiet murmur he said "Wait…You couldn't possibly be suggesting…" Mithos looks at him with a calm grin and answered his concerns with a simple "I am changing this deal of ours a little bit, Elemental Overlord. Revive Martel for me and I shall let Colette, Lloyd, and the others go free."
"…Are you serious? Why would you ever do that?" Riku inquires, knowing full well what Mithos' final plan was for the world at large. Mithos replies to him with a simple "Because, I am the only one who can free them from my traps."
"…Is that so?" Riku comments while giving Mithos a suspicious glare. The half-elf nods his head and states "Well honestly, Kratos or Yuan could do the same, but Kratos is under my thumb and Yuan has been denied all access to the Tower of Salvation after he betrayed me. It will only be by my will that Lloyd and his friends can be saved. So take your pick, Elemental Overlord, either you allow your 'friends' to die in futility, or you can save them all and my sister."
"…You give me your word on this?" Riku asks in a still suspecting tone of voice, and Mithos says to him in an honest tone of voice "So long as you hold up your end of the bargain, you have my word as well, Elemental Overlord."
Riku didn't even have to pause and think this matter through in the slightest. He glared Mithos confidently in the eyes and said to him "No, I refuse your offer." Yggdrasill raised his eyebrows and held his right hand out, saying to the teenage Overlord "I don't think you understand what kind of situation you are in, Elemental Overlord. Nor do you know what is going on with your friends. One has already fallen to the traps I set for intruders, and the rest will soon follow."
"Is that really what you believe? You're a fool, Mithos, and no matter what type of tone you take I will never believe what you have to say. After all, what's stopping you from turning Lloyd and the others into lifeless beings later on?" Riku points out, to which Mithos glares at him in a more serious manner and says "They were my friends for a brief period of time…I am willing to make an exception for them."
"…The answer is still no, Mithos. I refuse to support the actions of a man who has tormented this world for 4,000 years." Riku states, and in turn Yggdrasill tries to hold back his growing anger as he states to him in response "Humans are the ones who allowed this to happen to them. Or have you forgotten our previous debate on this matter?"
The teenage Overlord shakes his head while closing his eyelids, telling Yggdrasill bluntly "I have not…But all that's changed since then is that I now have an answer for what you last said to me. You say that humans are responsible for the destruction of the world, and that if left to their own devices they will do the same thing again. I don't disagree with you on that, but that doesn't justify everything you've done to the humans!"
"And what solution would you propose, Elemental Overlord? That is the answer I still wish to hear from you!" Mithos inquires in a pressing tone of voice, leading to Riku answering him without hesitation "There is no solution to this matter, Mithos! Humanity is always going to make mistakes, that's just in their nature. But trying to force a solution is always going to backfire, regardless of what you think. Human's, elves, half-elves and dwarves…All of them may have come from different backgrounds, but they were born with the right to bear their own free will and responsibilities!"
"…What you say is ludicrous. You are basically damning this planet to it's destruction by supporting the human's decisions to waste it's resources and demean those who look different from them! That goes against your entire purpose, does it not, Elemental Overlord?" Mithos' anger was showing through more and more as time passed on, but he calmly pointed out the problem with Riku saying all this to him.
The teenage Overlord shakes his head and replies to Mithos with a confident sounding "What do you expect me to do about this problem? Should I slaughter the humans that even consider harming those different from them along with the planet? No, I can never do that. I feel the only way this world will change is through non-violent means, but that'll take a lot of work from the populace to accomplish this task."
"…That sounds like something Lloyd would say. Hmph, Lloyd's ideals are too optimistic. He is a fool to believe that the world will ever think differently about us half-elves." Mithos bluntly states, and Riku exclaims to the man "Lloyd Irving is a far better man than you have and ever will be, Mithos! He's made his fair share of mistakes like any other human, but he's done his hardest to try and amend for them time and time again. He hasn't hidden away from the world like some coward and manipulated things behind the scenes!"
"And yet his blind-sighted foolishness has led to the capture of his friend, the betrayal of another, and his inability to figure out how to wield the Eternal Sword on his own!" Mithos replies as his eyes began to widen slightly, and Riku brandishes a finger at him and exclaims in turn "Lloyd may not be the smartest person in the world, but I won't fault that against him for not knowing everything. No single person can know all the answers, I say that with past experiences in mind."
"Exactly. So this debate is all foolishness. There is no way for Lloyd and the others to be saved unless you follow the deal passed down onto you by your predecessor and revive my sister!" Yggdrasill brings the subject back to the matter of his sister's revival, and after calming down slightly Riku shook his head and said to Yggdrasill "…I pity you, Mithos."
"…Excuse me?" Mithos stated after a moment of stunned silence. Riku raised his head up and glares at the man, telling him then and there "You think everything is in the palm of your hand, that your victory is guaranteed no matter what. I suppose it's to be expected for 4,000 of unopposed tyranny can lead someone to lead to the birth of such blind arrogance. Well, you are wrong…"
"Hahaha…Is that so? And are you going to stop me, Elemental Overlord?" Mithos found humor in the boy's words, and with another shake of his head the teenage Overlord replied "Mithos, you lost the very moment you allowed me to revive Lloyd." Yggdrasill glared at him and said "Excuse me?"
"I've come to realize something…There is something far more frightening in this world than raw power, and that is knowledge." As the teenage Overlord coldly speaks of this matter, he holds his right hand out and summons forth his sword, looking at Mithos dead in the eyes and telling him without hesitation "Let me tell you just why you have lost in detail, Mithos. You assume Kratos is yours to control, but in reality he has long since betrayed you. With Zelos' help, the two of them will free Lloyd's friends from your traps. Then, all of them will meet you here in this chamber, where after dealing with Pronyma they will focus all of their attention on you. But before that happens, Martel will be brought back through Colette's body, where she will tell you exactly why she doesn't approve of your plan, and allow Colette control of her body once more. And it is only after all that when you will be slain, Mithos."
Mithos and Pronyma both widened their eyes in disbelief of what they heard the teenage Overlord say, and instead of focusing on the device Pronyma turns around to look at the boy. Mithos' expression contorts slightly, and he says in response to all that he heard "You dare berate me for being arrogant…And then assume that you know everything! You humans are all the same…hypocritical and arrogant to the end!"
Riku calmly tells the man at that point "You're wrong Mithos…These words aren't born from arrogance or hypocrisy. I know everything I need to about this world and the events it will take. So long as I keep things from diverging too far, I will always be one step ahead of you, Mithos."
"Y-You…" Mithos felt something he hadn't felt in a long time upon hearing Riku finish talking. This pounding sensation in his heart was the rebirth of fear within his body. He wanted to ignore the words of the teenage Overlord, but that proved to be far more difficult than he wished for it to be. Bitterly staring at the boy, Mithos exclaimed to him "How dare you! So you really do intend to not follow through with the deal your predecessor left for you to deal with! Hehehe…You humans always break your promises too…"
"If you are going to put me in the same boat as the other humans, perhaps you should remember that you broke your deal with Origin to fertilize the Great Seed for the sake of the world." Riku confidently states as he ignites the blade of his sword with fire, and as he swings it out beside his body he declares "Besides, I refuse to let my actions be decided for me, not even by my predecessor! I walk my own path to the future, and never will it be chosen by anyone besides myself! I will decide my own fate!"
Mithos' patience with the Elemental Overlord was tiring, as evidenced by him gritting his teeth and clenching his fists in anger. As Riku glared at the half-elf, Takashi's voice called out to him "Riku, this is insane! You can't defeat this guy in your current state. Don't throw your life away when it's inevitable that Lloyd and the others will be here to stop him!"
The teenage Overlord cracked a smile and told the black dragon "Sorry Takashi, but I have to make amends for deceiving Lloyd and the others about the info I had…But there's something I want you to know. Before I fall, I will open the way to your dimension and break Sodenko free from her chains. I want you both to then live your lives however you wish, without ever again being bound in place."
"Riku! I refuse to let this happen!" Takashi proclaims in a tearful tone of voice, and the teenage Overlord looks on at Mithos and says nothing more to the black dragon. Mithos loosens the grip on his fingers and says in an eerily calm tone of voice to his fellow half-elf "Pronyma…"
The woman quickly glances at him and says in a stuttering tone of voice "Y-Yes, Lord Yggdrasill?" Mithos gestures towards the teenage Overlord and replies to her "I have grown tired of this human's presence. Get rid of him for me, will you?"
"A-As you wi-" As Pronyma began to turn and face Riku, the teenage Overlord had already sprinted forward in a burst of speed and appeared directly in front of Yggdrasill. With a raise of his sword he unleashed all the flames he had built up inside, causing Yggdrasill to be sent hurtling across the room by the wave of fire that emerged from the blade. As Yggdrasill collided straight into the wall and broke a hole right into it, Pronyma took advantage of the teenage Overlord's current position to send a sphere of darkness at him while proclaiming "How dare you harm Lord Yggdrasill!"
Riku ducks down to avoid the attack, and then uses a tunnel of wind to carry the sphere around in a curve and send it right back at Pronyma before she had time to guard herself. Pronyma's body is sent back a few inches from the impact, giving the teenage Overlord enough time to stand upright and turn to face Yggdrasill. As the dust died down around him, the half-elf slowly peeled himself from the wall with little damage done to his body. With a callous grin on his face, the man said to the teenage Overlord "Very well…Then I shall have the liberty of ending your life myself!"
As he spreads his angelic wings past his body, Yggdrasill raises his arms into the air and sends sparks of light coursing through them. The power he displays is magnificent if not wasted on a man as vile as him, but even so Riku shows no fear as the half-elf lowers his arms and focuses all of his attention on him. "For every mistake I make, I shall amend two more in it's place. In this case, in atonement for not saying anything to Lloyd and the others, I shall take both of your lives!"
"How foolish…" Yggdrasill extends his right hand out and uses his raw power to fire a shockwave of air at the teenage Overlord, which strikes the boy as he braces himself on the floor, allowing him to only be pushed back along the ground ten feet before he stops. He then looks up and sees that Yggdrasill has vanished from sight. It only takes a moment after that for Riku to be punched in the gut by Yggdrasill, who he only saw for a moment before he vanished again.
With the wind blown out of him temporarily, Riku didn't bother to try and guess where Yggdrasill would appear next and quickly summons forth a large shield of electricity around his body. The moment the half-elf went for another punch on his opponent's back the electricity shocked him before his fist made contact with his body, making him reel back before he takes too much damage. But for the moment his nerves were paralyzed, allowing Riku enough time to recover and flip himself around while igniting his blade once more.
He swung his sword out and carved the air with a scar of fire while simultaneously striking across Yggdrasill's body. The endurance brought on by the Cruxis Crystal prevented him from being killed right there, but the blow still phased him enough to keep him stationary for a few seconds. Yggdrasill raised his left hand up to clasp his chest in pain, and while Riku landed on the ground Pronyma took advantage of his condition to fire a couple dark spheres into his back.
Riku flinches from both hits long enough for Yggdrasill to recover and raise his right hand into the air, allowing him to charge up energy in it before he slams his hand against the ground with enough force to launch Riku back with the ensuing shockwave. The teenage Overlord swings his arms out and flips himself until he's floating upright, looking down at Mithos before he raises his right hand into the air and widens the palm while charging electricity within it.
After a few seconds the electricity collapses down into a condensed orb, allowing him to release it all in the form of thickened lightning bolts that come down after an arch and rain upon his two opponents. Yggdrasill uses his powers to warp around the battlefield, avoiding the breakneck speeds of each lightning bolt while Pronyma is forced to use her shields to deflect the attacks away from her body, though she showed more difficulty in keeping the lightning bolts back.
With Yggdrasill being too persistent in avoiding damage, Riku was forced to dispel his sword and swing his left hand out while continuing the onslaught of lightning bolts in the other. With his control over nature, the teenage Overlord cracks the floor apart and draws out roots from down below to bind Yggdrasill by his legs. His movement was now prevented, even if he were to stop time for all but himself. Following up on that as he sees the half-elf attempting to reach for the roots, Riku summons even more of them to bind Yggdrasill's arms out beside his body.
Afterwards, Riku is able to focus all of his energy into smiting Yggdrasill with a gigantic lightning bolt. The bolt collapses upon him, causing him to let out a slight grunt of pain in retaliation. "Lord Yggdrasill!" Pronyma angrily proclaimed her master's name before raising her staff above her head and summoning forth a dark circle below her body. Aiming a spell at the teenage Overlord, it doesn't take her long to dispel the circle and exclaim "Dark Binding!"
With the crashing of thunder ringing in his ears, Riku doesn't hear the spell being cast in time, and his body is immediately bound in place by a cage of dark magic. His arms were clasped to the sides of his body so tightly that it would prove impossible for him to use his powers. Meanwhile, the smoke around Yggdrasill's body begins to fade as he extends his right hand towards the air and exclaims "Crash down from the burning skies and bring about the end of my enemies! Indignation JUDGMENT!"
The sky rips open above the teenage Overlord, summoning forth a lightning bolt so gargantuan in nature that Pronyma has to fly back to avoid getting hit as it collides straight through Riku's body and crashes against the ground, shocking him with the power of mana for a good three seconds before is subsides. But the attack was not yet over, as from that very same rift in the sky comes forth a gigantic blade of lightning towards the boy, who had been freed from the Dark Binding only to be slightly paralyzed in place.
Riku only has two seconds to look up before the magic blade collides with his body and sends him crashing against the ground, pinning him down and sending an influx of electricity energy into his body all at once. Were it not for the magical nature of the blade, this would have been his end. After a few seconds of waiting Yggdrasill clasps his hand into a fist and proclaims "Farewell!" The sword then detonates upon Riku's body in a dome-shaped explosion of electricity, blanketing the boy's body from the sight of his two opponents.
As smoke spread out across the room, Yggdrasill found himself grinning happily at what he assumed was his victory, while Pronyma was reminded just why she would never defy the might of her Lord. While still being riled up by the words of the Elemental Overlord, Yggdrasill exclaimed to his fellow half-elf "Pronyma! Get the device back up and running! It's time I revived Mar-" Before he finished his sentence, something caught his attention from the center of the cloud of smoke.
Leaping through it was Riku, whose body was slowly being turning back to normal after he coated the outer layer of his skin in solid rock to cushion the impact of the lightning blade. He still sustained a heavy amount of damage from a combination of this transformation and the initial part of the attack, but he wasn't going to let that stop him as he kept his right hand covered in stone and punched Yggdrasill across the face while gritting his teeth in pain. Once he lands on the ground from that heavy blow he exclaims "That was for Marble!"
As Yggdrasill tries to recover from the blow dealt to his face, Riku quickly made sure to stand up and grab the man by the neck and press on the skin, simultaneously using his wind based powers to force air straight out of his lungs to make it harder for the half-elf to recover. The teenage Overlord lets go of Yggdrasill's neck and takes the air from his body and creates a sphere out of it. He then quickly flips around and fires it off past the fading smoke to meet Pronyma's dark sphere, and after ensuring that the two attacks were canceled out he focuses back on Yggdrasill.
Before he deals the next attack, the teenage Overlord coats both of his fists with erupting flames. He then proclaims as he pulls both of his hands back and turns to face the half-elf "This is for Dorr, Alicia, Clara, Altessa and Tabitha!" For each name he mentioned, Riku slammed one fist against the ground, utilizing the cracks he made earlier to send quick eruptions of magma straight into Yggdrasill's body.
The half-elf suffers intense burns across his skin as he's assaulted by the magma, but he refuses to cry out in pain and endures it all so he'd be ready to strike back against the teenage Overlord when he was finally done. However, Riku was never going to let up on his assault so long as he knew Yggdrasill had the power to manipulate time and space, and the moment he stopped utilizing magma for attacks he pulled his hands in front of his body and dispelled the flames so he can safely weave his arms back and forth before him.
From the ground multiple vines twirled around Yggdrasill's form, constricting him in place. Riku then slams his left palm against the ground and summons forth a pillar of ice around the man's body to keep him entrapped even further. While he was doing this, Pronyma was flying straight at him, since the close proximity of the teenage Overlord to her master made it difficult for her to consider using projectile attacks.
But thanks to Riku's earlier air sphere attack he was able to feel the female half-elf's motions and fly back and to the right just in time to stick his right arm out and grab Pronyma's staff before she could impale him through the back. Once he does this, he grits his teeth and swings her counterclockwise from where he stood, crashing her and her guards into Yggdrasill's frozen body to shatter it and send both of them hurtling across the room. They land opposite one another next to the revival device, and as Riku holds his arms in front of his body and pants to show exhaustion he exclaims "That was for all the Desians you have deceived for all these years!"
Riku then pulls his arms behind his body and cusps his hands so they form the shape of a sphere between them both. He then combines water and electricity into a singular orb, but instead of firing it at the two half-elves he swerves to look at the Great Seed and exclaims "This is to truly honor Martel's wishes!" He fires the sphere off in a mere second, and with an expression of seething rage on his face Yggdrasill uses his powers to warp in front of the attack and take it head-on.
The ensuing explosion caused by the bonding of the two elements consumes Yggdrasill and sends him flying into the wall away from the Great Seed, and the impact with it causes him to grunt in pain as his body lurches forward. "Come on Riku…You can keep this up…" The teenage Overlord thinks to himself as a means of motivation despite how much he was overexerting his body.
"This…is for…Iselia…Palmacosta, Luin…and Ozette!" Riku slams his hands together, creating a powerful sounding clap that echoes across the room and sends a tremor through the walls of the chamber. Yggdrasill is launched forward by the destruction of the portion of the wall he was on, and as he is sent straight forward Riku pulls his right arm back and pants heavily while igniting the entirety of his fist on fire.
"And this…Is for Anna and Lloyd Irving!" With all of his might, Riku thrusts his fist forward, carrying part of his body along with him as he strikes Yggdrasill's chest. For a second, the fabric of time and space is warped and then cracked by the shockwave that emerges from the blow, and a moment later the fire erupts from Riku's fist and pushes back along in his arm like the trail of a comet until it's large enough to push forward and send Yggdrasill crashing through the wall on the other side of the room in a mere second with his body consumed by flames as hot as the sun.
Once the attack was finished, Riku collapsed onto his knees and planted one fist against the ground, panting quietly as he recognized that he had used up all of his power. He couldn't even speak out with the amount of pain he was going through, but he still felt satisfied with himself for what he had accomplished. However, it didn't take long for his happiness to subside as the rubble moved around where Yggdrasill was launched to, and the half-elf pulled himself from it and stood himself upright in a matter of seconds.
His clothes had been singed, his flesh scarred by the flames of Riku's final attack, but Yggdrasill was nonetheless still alive. "Heh…heh…" He could barely laugh, but he seemed to be unhinged by the fact that a human dare managed to push him this far. The situation only got worse as Yggdrasill swung his right arm out and began to laugh maniacally while a circle of healing magic began to form around his body to rejuvenate him, courtesy of Pronyma.
It didn't take long before Yggdrasill was back to nearly full-strength, and he quickly said to the teenage Overlord "See?! It was all futile! I will never be killed by any human, past, present, or your deceptive little future! And now that you wasted your time trying your hardest to stop me, Lloyd is left with only Genis as an 'ally'! The rest have succumbed to my many traps…And knowing Genis, he will gladly sacrifice Lloyd to be with his true fri-"
Yggdrasill then paused, his expression widening in shock while he painfully grimaces. He scowls in anger and clenched his right hand into a fist. Riku gained just enough energy to say to the man "…Looks like…Genis didn't act like you thought he would…It only makes sense though…You lost Genis as a friend the moment you killed Lloyd in front of him…"
Yggdrasill suddenly teleports right in front of Riku and lifts his right hand up, beginning to charge energy in the palm while glaring at him with pure anger on his face. "I've had enough from you and your kind, Elemental Overlord! I'll obliterate you so thoroughly that you will never have a chance to plague my existence again! Now pay for your deceptions and arrogance!"
Riku closed his eyelids and laughed slightly at the face of death. He brought this upon himself, but didn't feel the least bit guilty to have denied Yggdrasill's deal. But before he could make good on his promise to the two dragons, he suddenly hears a familiar voice calling out an attack "Demon Fang!" He opens his eyes up just in time to watch Yggdrasill get struck by a fanged projectile before he could finish his attack to end Riku's life.
Both Yggdrasill and Riku turn to the left, and who would be standing at the open door but Lloyd Irving with both of his swords drawn. Yggdrasill was understandably infuriated at yet another distraction, and exclaims in disbelief towards Lloyd "How? How did you get in here?!" Lloyd doesn't say a word as he glares at Yggdrasill, and Riku smiles and says to the boy "…Heh, glad I can rely on you…Lloyd."
Next Time: Cruxis' End