Another World
Summary : A man found himself in another world. Can he survive and go back to his world?
Rating : T
Genre: Adventure
Disclaimer: I don't have Ar Tonelico series, its characters, anything, duh.
Chapter 53 = Final Battle
"Talks"
'Thoughts'
*Sound Effects*
02:40
"What happened back there Gilbert? What liquid that you inject to yourself that we have to knock you out?" Lady Cloche asks as the lift brings them back to Sol Marta.
"It seems I can't keep it a secret anymore..." He sighs. "That medicine... It enhances my speed, strength, resistance to pain, but I can't think clearly when using it. I'm only using it only when I really, really have to win a battle."
"It doesn't seems that bad," Amarie crosses her arms.
"This is not the first time I'm using it. Do you remember when I heavily injured back at the Grand Bell Luca? Back when you were captured?"
"I do... The wound before because of the medicine?"
"No. I was chased by about nine Sacred Army soldiers including some reyvateils, when I tried to sneak into the Grand Bell. Tried to escape using one of the lifts, but the lift is occupied, so I resorted to use the medicine to defeat them all."
"I still don't get it why you have to hide it from us..."
"You guys see how brutal what I did to Raki, right? Now imagine if the same thing happens to normal person. It was a massacre, horrible. I felt like a monster..." He sighs. "Look, can we drop this, that's the only medicine that I carried, and this is not exactly the perfect time to discuss it, so..."
"Do you realizes that by hiding this from us you could injure the maidens? What if you suddenly inject that and attack us?" Leglius stares.
"Sorry..."
"Hey, hey, enough of this," Amarie steps in. "Don't worry Gilbert, you only did that because you have to, otherwise they'll throw you into the jail like us!"
"But the cell's doors are blasted off-"
"Doesn't matter!" She cuts what Croix wants to say before he ruins her speech.
"I don't mind with your action, it's justified, you don't have to hide it from us," Lady Cloche talks. "Although you revealed us so much secrets today... Do you have more that you want to share to us?"
Every eyes looks to him. Gilbert can feel their stare directly to his eye even behind his suit.
'Should I... No. I can't tell them the truth. But they'll suspicious if I don't say something...'
"There's one... My friends give me an attack satellite back then along with this suit. I control it with this eye though."
"'Attack satellite?'"
"Yeah, basically a satellite that shoots a huge pole to any target that I designated like a huge throwing spear."
"How big and heavy is this pole?" Jacqli looks to him.
"The description says 20 feet long and 1 foot diameter. I don't know the mass though..."
"How long is one 'foot?'"
Gilbert measures it with both of his hands, which makes Jacqli frown.
"Can you fire it to the Sea of Death below as a demonstration?"
Jacqli points outside the lift.
"Let me try it..."
'What's the command again? Oh right, command, satellite, connect.'
"SATTELITE ONLINE."
Gilbert's goldeneye shows a view of the tower's outside from the satellite's camera. The eye also shows how many rods left in the satellite's arsenal, and a single nuclear missile sign.
'Command, satellite, help.'
"LIST OF COMMANDS TO CONTROL THOR, LIMITED
MOVING THE CAMERA: COMMAND=SATELLITE=CAMERA=UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT: MOVING THE SATTELITE'S CAMERA UNTIL STOPPED.
COMMAND-"
"Hey, is it working?"
"Patience, Cocona."
Gilbert quickly scans the list of commands and use them to align the satellite to the planet's ground.
"Command, satellite, launch, rod, one."
'CONFIRMATION NEEDED: LAUNCHING TO X:210 Y:510 AMOUNT OF SHOTS:1'
"Command, satellite, confirm."
'LAUNCH CONFIRMED.'
Gilbert sees from his eye when the satellite launches something, downward.
"Look there," he points to outside.
"I can't see anything-"
*WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!*
Something passes from the sky, like when Raki descends from the sky for the first time, only much faster. Only from the roaring sound and a trail of smoke left on it's path that something huge rapidly descending with extreme speed.
"Woah," a single word comes out from Croix's mouth. "Basically an even larger version of your gun?"
"Kind of-"
*Gbrrrrrrrr!*
The lift is shaking under their feet, but only for a moment.
"A quake? Here?"
"...Gilbert, do not use that weapon here, you could damage the server with that," Jacqli warns him.
"Even if the goddess-"
"Don't. I mean it. Unless you can control how powerful the shot could be, don't use it."
"Okay..."
0000000000
03.00
*Wuuzzz!*
The lift stops and the door opens. The party quickly runs deeper to the Sol Marta's main room, to the pod where Frelia previously sleep. There, they meet with a woman, wearing glasses.
"Aww, gee. You came," the woman welcomes them.
"You're Infel!" Croix recognizes who's her.
"Correct."
"But you died 400 years ago-"
'Come on,' Gilbert takes a deep breath, not hearing words that they said. 'I hope I could just shot her and be done with it, but that will change how the event will progress... '
He stares to the glasses girl. She looks smug, self-righteous, even more than Jacqli. He knows she's the reason why the team cut their connection to this world. He hate her. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate-
"Come, I'll tell you my secret."
'Huh?'
He shakes his own head, he need to focus. He need to wait, if he act rashly, the party won't like it. The woman moves past him, back to the room where they fight Raki before, and the party follows from behind. He also follow them like a sheep.
'Why are we obeying to her order? Why can't we just defeat him, just like our enemies before? We have faced bigger, harder, stronger enemies, why-'
He gritted his teeth, somehow he feels infuriated more than usual.
'No. Calm down Gilbert, don't screw yourself up. You literally only have to do this one final battle before things get settled down, after that, it's up to Lady Cloche and Luca...'
He gets his minds together, and realizes the woman is now accompanied by another woman, have pink hair and short body. He wonders where did she comes from.
"World sublimation. Liberation of the soul from the physical body. Every person will become independent, and be able to live on their own. No more hurting each other. No more sadness between people. No more-"
'This madwoman, she thinks it's okay to manipulate someone else souls, and without our consent too!'
He opens his mouth-
"That's not right!" Croix yells to cuts her speech instead of Gilbert.
'Okay Gilbert, let him do the talk. He's our leader after all, it's natural that he did the talking instead of you whose only learned their language for some days. Keep your mouth shut.'
"It's different now. Everyone is cooperating for one wish. They all desire Metafalica. Sure, people clash with each other, get hurt, and wrap themselves in a shell, but they recover, and when they finally understand each other, they gain the greatest happiness!"
Croix closes his eyes, remember each moments of his adventure up until now.
"When times are hard, people get hurt, but that's when we help each other and grow together. Those scars become jewels, and the treasure of sharing those times with friends lasts forever. I'm sure you two have created many fond memories, too. Those happy times can't be substituted with anything-"
"No, don't say that!" The woman yells, clenching her fist.
"You should have gained many things from being together!"
"But more than that, the loss I felt from being separated was greater! I don't want to lose anything anymore! I don't want to get hurt anymore! If I must feel pain, I don't need any memories or treasures or growth!"
She hovers, along with the pink haired woman on her side.
"I don't care... I'm creating a world where there is no sadness, no pain. You don't have a choice, because we are this world's new Goddesses "
They sing, Gilbert knows it's a song magic, because along with their song, the sky slowly getting chipped away. He readies his weapon.
'It begins.'
0000000000
*Gbrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!*
A quake wakes Laura. She walks outside from her house to see what's happening. Outside, she finds all the people looking to the same direction: up. They find the sky itself disappearing. Only pitch black up there.
"Gilbert... Everyone..."
0000000000
"The entire world's wavelengths are vibrating!" Jacqli frowns.
"This is bad! We have to stop those two!" Lady Cloche yells.
"Don't worry. None of you will die. You're just going to leave your bodies," The woman smiles. "Your minds will be sublimated and remain."
"We call that death!"
"If you're not gonna stop, then we're gonna stop you!"
"How will you do that?"
Croix goes silent, can't say answer her question.
'That's it. I'll silence her haughty mouth!'
Gilbert loses his patience and rushes forward to both women with the energy blade ready, which he'll regret soon enough.
*Wuuunggg!*
A crystal suddenly appears between him and them, and blast him with a huge rainbow, knocking him far enough to the wall far behind him.
*Wiiiingggg!*
"Gilbert!"
0000000000
'Connect with me.'
"Huh?"
Laura looks to the tower.
"Lady Cloche needs us..."
She, along with all the land's IPD, sings, combining their power for Lady Cloche, for the maidens.
0000000000
…
'Argh... It looks like I'm still alive,' Gilbert feels pain from the shock, but it awakes him from his unconsciousness. 'Why the hell I do that, should've just shot her instead of charging directly like a madman...'
He rises his head, and see the gigantic mutated wood thing, in all it's glory.
'He looks scarier and huge when I looked from this angle-'
Suddenly several lights comes from below and hits the huge tree dragon.
*BOOOOOOOOOMMM!*
It destroy almost all the tree's growing body, but not all, leaving it's head and a portion of his body.
"ROOAAARRRR!"
It roars. Gilbert can see anger on Infel's face, as if her plan goes haywire.
"Heh, serves her right."
*Bang! Bang!*
"Hey, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I heard you Jacqli. I thought that attack will kill-"
"Cut the chatter, can you see that huge dragon tree in front of you?"
"Huh?"
"Can you fire your rod without hitting anything other than that tree?" She asks.
"...I'll try!"
"Remember, if you can't, don't. At least do not let the shot hits directly to this place."
She runs back to the group of reyvateils and start singing.
'Command, satellite, connect.'
He moves the satellite, trying to aim to the
'CALCULATING TRAJECTORY... UNKNOWN TARGET DENSITY. ASSUMING TARGET HAS 1000KG/M3 DENSITY.'
The satellite shows its shots direction and result.
'WARNING, TARGET IS TOO CLOSE TO THE SATTELLITE. SHOT WILL HAVE 92% LESS KINETIC FORCE.'
"Well, better than nothing."
0000000000
"Deflect that fireball!"
"Got it!"
Shun follows Croix's order and deflect the fireballs launched by the wooden dragon with his horn.
"What was that?" Cocona looks up, something is approaching, a strange looking floating object.
"BACK OFF!" Gilbert yells from behind. They quickly steps further away from the dragon. Soon, the floating strange object goes shining for a while, and...
*WHOOOOOOSH!*
A huge, white rod pierces the dragon's face, before finally stops in it's body.
*WHOOOOOOSH!*
And another one.
*WHOOOOOOSH!*
"ROOAAARRRR!"
The tree lets out its final cry, before its body turns to a beautiful light. Along with it, three white rods that was fired to the dragon falls to the core of Sol Marta.
*CLAANG!CLAANG!CLAANG!*
"It's over."
"You...!"
"Infel, please listen," Croix tries to convince her again. "I think this world still has potential. I've seen this world with Lady Cloche, I saw the people unite, and I saw their desires for Metafalica. I beg you, wait just a while longer, until we try creating Metafalica with the people. If that doesn't work, then I'll leave this world to you."
Infel stares to him for a moment, and laughs.
"Heh. You...You really believe in them, huh? Poor souls..." She pushes her glasses closer to her face, accepts her defeat. "...Alright. Go ahead and try it right now, if you show me you can create Metafalica at this moment, I'll think about it-"
"What are you saying?" Her pink haired ally turns to her.
"Nenesha?"
"We are the Divine Maidens of Metafalls, we have a grand task."
"Nenesha! You don't have to be so stubborn..." She doesn't agree with her fellow maiden, they already made a promise to them after all.
"Infel, you and I are one. You are me... I am you."
"I... am you..."
*Wuuung!*
A ring with a white crystal materializes around them, ready to protecting them both from attacks.
"What happened with them both!?" Gilbert yells.
"Looks like they're caught by the influence of the Heart of Gaea."
"It happened during that land creation, too..." Jacqli answers, and added by Croix.
"We have to stop them directly now?"
"Of course!"
Gilbert aims his weapon and fires a shot to them.
*WHOOOOOOSHHHHHH!*
*Wiiiingggg!*
The crystal vaporizes the shot with its beam, and goes straight to Gilbert. He quickly dodges before the beam reaches him.
"To defeat Ryuju... That's unbelievable strength."
"But..."
"We will-"
*WHOOOOOOSHHHHHH!*
*Wiiiingggg!*
"Oh, come on!" Gilbert whines as he dodges another beam from them.
"-Never lose."
"Because..."
"We have..."
"The task of making people happy!"
"AS IF YOU CAN MAKE ANYONE HAPPY WITH YOUR SELFISH ATTITUDE LIKE THAT!"
*WHOOOOOOSHHHHHH!*
*Wiiiingggg!*
*Bang!*
"Stop wasting your ammunition, you brute," Jacqli kicks his armor after he dodges yet another beam. "Should've feed you more suppressant earlier."
"What surppressa-"
"Circle around them, they can't hold our attacks from all direction!" Croix yells his order.
"Shall we play with you first?"
Infel summons a ring like the one that's surrounding them, and Nenesha turns it to a spinning glowing blue energy circle. They also summons a set of flying swords on their left side, and a large pointy crystal on right side.
"Desperate much?" Gilbert chuckles, which Infel responds by launching those attacks that she prepared to the party.
*ClangClangClangClangClang!*
"Don't provoke her, Gil!" Cocona strikes the swords that fly to him. The other party members also able to hold each attacks directed to them.
"It'll keep them busy though," he points to Luca and Lady Cloche, who's singing together. A winged woman in full armor and a large sword materializes, and she charges forward to Infel and Nenesha.
"Now's my chance! They can't block two way attacks!"
*WHOOOOOOSHHHHHH!*
Gilbert also shots his big gun to the duo.
"Do not disturb us!"
The ring around Infel and Nenesha spins really fast, making it like a ball, and suddenly moves forward, dodging Gilbert's shot and ramming the winged girl, making her vanishes, and charges to Luca and Lady Cloche.
"Stop!"
*Clang!*
Leglius uses his shield to knock them away, but they quickly charges again mercilessly to them, which Amarie deflects before they could reach the maidens.
*Clang!*
"Need something bigger to defeat them, but using my satellite seems overkill, not to mention its shot hit the place directly…Maybe I could use one of those rods as a weapon."
He tries to lift a rod, but it doesn't even budge.
'How heavy is this thing that my suit can't even lift it up!?'
"Need a hand?" Jacqli stares to him.
"Yes, please!"
She sings, which makes her robot pet dog appears, then it transforms to some kind of skeleton and attach itself to Gilbert's suit. He tries to lift it again, but it still too heavy for him.
"We will help you!"
A flag girl appears on Luca's head, waving red flag to him. Lady Cloche also help her sister sing. Finally he's able to lift the huge rod.
"Leave us alone!"
Infel and Nenesha changes their charges to buffed Gilbert. He quickly turn around and swing the giant rod to them, like an oversized baseball bat.
"You leave us alone first!"
*BAAAAAAAANG!*
They flies away to the wall. The big crystal on the giant ring that cover them now has a huge crack.
"I'll finish this!"
Croix activates the rocket inside his speargun and charges to them, stabbing the crystal with a high velocity strike. The crystal cracks even more, until it finally break apart.
*Crang!*
The ring disappears, and both woman falls on the ground. The pink haired woman slowly turns to white light and vanishes. Gilbert drops the huge white rod to the ground, and all song magic that helped him disappear.
'Finally… Now it's up to Luca and Lady Cloche…'
END OF CHAPTER 53
