Here's Part 56. 63 is due today and 64 is due this Friday (not happening yet, sadly), but I've gotten up to 68 written now, at least. (Forcing myself to write 50k words for AEtT EVERY month apparently helps lots. Especially when my brain rationalizes that writing the required 1,700ish words a day should only take me 40 minutes, or two 20min sessions. So far, been able to keep up. Fell behind twice because I've got two stories I'm focusing on this month, AEtT (50k) and Nocturne: Twisted (25k), but I got caught up the next day in whichever story I fell behind in, so... Yeah. All of the March updates are now written. By the time April Camp gets here, I should be caught up for a couple of months' worth of updates.

Which is a good thing, because, as I think I've mentioned before, I'll be side-lining AEtT for April. Mostly because I need to write the rest of the outline.

I will also be posting a new set of side-stories for the Ripple series soon, so be on the lookout for that. Especially if, like me, you're really starting to miss Reighn.

Okay, enough of that.

Enjoy!


"What time is it now, where is my fiancé, and is there any particular manner in which you would like to die for impersonating him?" –Kairi


Chapter 8.1 – Stubborn Earth
Part 56

I was up on the observation deck in the branches of the Soil Tree when Myre teleported in next to me. She'd been jumping around all over the place here lately, and I rolled my eyes as she jumped upon spotting me.

"I was here first," I said, perhaps a bit childishly.

She blinked at me, then offered up a small smile. "You know... For a long while there, I didn't think I'd ever actually say this. I missed you, Kairi."

I smiled, but the moment was shattered a moment later when the world started shaking. Cracks appeared, spreading from those already surrounding St. Binah, and Myre gasped. "He's here!"

"Yeah, I can see that," I replied automatically, eyes catching on the giant badger that had just clawed his way up out of the ground. I ignored the scowl Myre shot my direction for the sarcasm, and instead simply headed down the ladder, grateful that it was a metal one and not wooden, as that meant I could simply slide down it almost like a fireman pole.

Trying to do that on a wooden ladder would have gotten me a lot of splinters in my hands.

My current outfit didn't have gloves, after all. Seeing as I'd done as suggested and scrounged up some clothes from some of the refugees.

I was off and running quickly, barely noticing the soldiers running around.

We'd known that Gnome was coming, but we'd thought we'd have more time... It looked like Gnome realized we were trying to build up our defenses in preparation for his attack.

Asch ran past me, pressing Phaïe's Song into my hands as he went. "Cantabile said that'll balance better with Silver Clematis. She'll take it back after this is over!" he called over his shoulder as he took off for the Kimlascan troops we'd brought with us.

"Don't die!"

"You either!"

I'd just made it to the gates when Dark ran—or rather, rode—up with Twilight.

Wait, Twilight?

"Sorylle stayed with the pack in Northern Rugnica. And if you think we're letting you run out there on your own, you are out of your gods-damned mind!" Dark shouted, reaching down and pulling me up behind him even as Twilight, with an ease born of months of practice, latched onto the telepathic field I always kept down. Images and thoughts nudged their way into my mind, and Twilight's message formed easily.

*The three of us need to open up an path for the mages and their protectors to get into the center.*

"Noted. Just keep in mind that I tend to aim for the highest concentration of enemies I can find when I'm in the middle of a slaughter like this," I replied.

"So we're basically on herding duty," Dark muttered. "Thrill..."

Twilight growled a warning, and I glanced around. It looked like he wouldn't be able to just dodge the monsters much longer.

With the ligers and the replicas, I'd had a barrier between me and that part of me that was actually enjoying the bloodbath. I also hadn't consciously released it. I'd just been trying to survive, after all, and that had nothing to do with practically destroying the groups that attacked me.

This time...

This time, I was angry, and just as protective as I'd been before.

The Eastern Clan. Ari's and my own weakened platoons. St. Binah and her citizens.

I snarled, a sound echoed by Dark and Twilight both, and then Twilight dug his claws into the ground.

Dark and I shifted with the movement, allowing Twilight to effectively throw us off, and the both of us hit the ground running, Dark launching into a spin with the White Lotus chakrams even as Silver Clematis felled the first monster—rhinossus, not an eggbear—and Phaïe's Song came around behind it to be buried in the next monster.

Twist, slash, stab, spin, Guardian's Pain while I was at it, Glacial Havoc courtesy of Phaïe's Song, and back to slashing.

I was only vaguely aware of the fact that I was grinning.

Everything was sharp, clear, something that had never happened before. I'd been fighting on pure instinct before, but now... I wasn't quite thinking as I fought, but I had more control over my actions.

Monsters didn't bleed as much as humans or replica humans did, but they did bleed. Part of me recognized that I should be disgusted by the blood I was quickly managing to coat myself in, and even as Phaïe's Song tore through the neck of another rhinossus and more blood splattered across my leg, I couldn't bring myself to care.

Silver Clematis was singing in anticipation of the next monster it would kill. Phaïe's Song had screamed a war cry to my ears.

In the back of my mind, where I was idly keeping track of Twilight and Dark, I admitted that they were doing a very good job of herding me, because I'd spoken the truth. My attacks tended to cover a wide area, as both blades were a few inches longer than the average katana, and Guardian's Pain, Glacial Havoc, and ZelDelQues were not artes that they wanted to be in the line of fire for when I was like this.

Green flashed in my peripheral vision, and for a minute, I ignored it.

Then it appeared again, as something green barreling toward me.

I was in the middle of a spin, ready and willing to cut whatever it was out of the air with Silver Clematis, when recognition finally pushed the monster back.

Silver Clematis vanished from my hand, and my grip on Phaïe's Song shifted into a reverse grip as I let momentum spin me further than I'd initially intended.

Sync leapt over me, and I stopped my spin and shifted to spin back around, grip correcting once again.

I'd turned just fast enough to block a Reaper's Toll.

I snarled, my own rage and the odd bloodlust I'd been unleashing on the field mingling in an oddly disturbing way.

Still, it wasn't Sync's fault, and even if Gnome had had him single me out, that was fine. Even if the rest of the enemies around me were still going full force, trying to kill me even as I slaughtered them and danced around Sync's attacks, that was fine too.

Something sparked in Sync's eyes, and I twisted, grateful that I'd already 'dropped' Silver Clematis and grabbing an unsuspecting eggbear by the arm. The monster was thrown at Sync, and a White Tempest, notably a wind-elemental attack, killed it.

Sync was smirking, and then suddenly he wasn't, but that was alright.

I nudged Twilight and shoved a wordless order at him, and the liger roared from his position almost a hundred yards to my right.

A lightning attack shot past me, killing a good number of monsters and wounding more, and Sync was forced to flip back to avoid the attack.

I re-summoned Silver Clematis and spun, tearing through more monsters. I could see fonic artes flying all over the place, and as much as I loved fire, I knew that the Infernal Prison landing right next to me was as good a sign as any that I needed to move on.

I dared to shoot a glance at Sync, and smirked when I saw another White Tempest tear through not one, but three eggbears.

That was immediately followed up by a Reaper's Toll aimed at Twilight, who was more than happy to dodge and find another monster or five to throw Sync's way.

Sync was fighting back as best he could, which might have explained a lot of why I was cackling when Dark caught up to me, the White Lotus chakrams killing just as many monsters as my blades and Guardian's Pains were.

"Remind me never to volunteer for demon-sitting duty again," Dark muttered. "You're actually managing to terrify me."

I didn't answer him, simply ran at the next group of monsters. Gnome, like the replicas that had attacked us in Northern Chesedonia, was realizing that I was a very dangerous enemy to let loose on a large amount of monsters, and the crowds were trying to thin out and get away from me.

Sadly, this particular battlefield was packed, and finding the largest group nearby typically only took me a few seconds.

I hadn't been counting bodies, hadn't paid any attention to the destruction I'd left behind me, nor had I realized how long I'd been out there.

It wasn't until Dark slipped inside my guard and managed a solid strike against the back of my head that I stopped, because this hadn't just been a fight to protect. It had been a slaughter, and a part of me had enjoyed it, had been having fun. I hadn't intended to stop any time soon, but I'd needed to, and Dark had realized it before I had.

I woke up to darkness, and sore muscles, and a 'pillow' with fur that smelled of ozone, charcoal, and herbs.

Twilight.

I groaned slightly as the memories of the last few hours slowly filtered back in, and then groaned again.

Yeah... Letting go on a battlefield like that was a bad idea.

"Back in the land of living, huh?"

I blinked a few times, then managed to spot Asch, sitting a few feet away. Bandages wrapped around one arm, and there was a gash in his coat that showed off more bandages. His hair was braided down his back, as well.

I sat up and started looking over my own injuries. Mostly just a few scrapes here and there, plenty of bruising...

"How badly are we getting killed out there?" I asked, more than capable of hearing the battle still raging outside St. Binah's walls.

"Not as badly as most of the generals thought we would be. When you said 'slaughter', I don't think any of us realized you meant slaughter."

"It wasn't as bad with the ligers or Northern Rugnica. There was... there was still a bit of a restraint there. It was just..." I shook my head. "Protect, survive. This... This was..." I grimaced. "Fun. See how quickly I could kill it all dead."

"Dark might have mentioned you were cackling at one point."

"Nobody's accidentally killed Sync, have they?"

There was a long moment of silence, followed by Asch glancing over at me. "Sync was..."

"Yup. And managing to White Tempest every eggbear Twilight threw at him. Mind, he was Reaper's Tolling Twilight every time he got too close, but still..."

Asch was quiet for a moment. Then he snorted. "Gnome needs to keep a better watch on his puppets. Sync keeps that up for long, he'll be doing our work for us."

I snorted. "Asch. You realize White Tempest is a wind-elemental attack, right? Means Sync's stopped outright fighting Gnome's control and is instead worming around him. Doesn't mean it's perfect, though."

"No, but it's a start," Asch muttered. "So... You are under orders from Tear not to go out again until the sun is well in the sky. She'd prefer to say 'tomorrow,' but we all know you're going to flip that idea the finger and go back to slaughtering monsters whether we like it or not, so she's reluctantly conceded to nine in the morning."

I glanced at the window, noting that it was still quite dark outside.

"What time is it now, where is my fiancé, and is there any particular manner in which you would like to die for impersonating him?"

Maybe I should have timed that better, because Asch had been trying to drink what looked like the remains of a glass of water when I'd spoken, and the water ended up on the floor afterward.

I scooted down the foot of the bed and rubbed his back a bit as he continued coughing, and he shot me a look. "You are going to be the death of me. Intentionally or not," he grumbled in fond exasperation. "It's just past five, and I'm up because Jade, the jerk, decided he was done babysitting your snoozing ass and came in to drop a Splash on me."

That explained why his hair was braided. And wet.

"Remind me to Splash his ass tomorrow morning."

"Oh please do," Asch muttered. "Anyway, yeah. No fighting again until nine. Okay?"

I sighed, and wasn't sure if that was exasperation or disappointment lacing the sound. "Alright. Promise. I'm not overly fond of the prospect of getting myself killed, either."

I stood up, avoiding the water and spit on the floor from Asch nearly choking, and managed to find the boots I'd commandeered the morning before.

Once I was dressed, I headed for the Soil Tree again. It was still early, very early, and though Asch walked along behind me, I knew that he didn't really want to be here. He hated to be up while it was still dark.

Moving through the shadows was natural for me, something I'd done for ages. The world was dark, and while it was still dark, it was still my playground, a place for me to run around and enjoy myself before the world decided to wake up and make me act like a sane adult.

Myre was already up on the observation platform when Asch and I got up there. Her eyes were locked on the ongoing battle, and they only darted to me for a second before returning to the battlefield.

"You did a lot of damage out there yesterday," she murmured. "And to think, that was just two hours."

Two hours? That was how long I'd been fighting the monsters out there with just Dark and Twilight to back me up? And even then, I couldn't really count Twilight when he'd been keeping Sync distracted for most of that time.

I crossed my arms, looking for Sync's green hair as best I could.

It looked to me like he'd been removed from the battlefield, at least from what I could tell from this far away. I couldn't see his rather distinctive hair and outfit at least, and I knew there hadn't been enough blood on that white coat for it to be dyed the color. Not enough to hide him.

So Gnome had called him back... it was either because he'd noticed Sync worming around his orders, or because he knew that Sync needed to rest, puppet or not. An exhausted puppet was one that would die because it couldn't move fast enough.

Star had found that out the hard way at the Tower of Rem.

I hummed. "So... You helped out?"

"Oh, didn't you notice me trying to get your attention? Or maybe the three Spreads you damn near ran straight into?"

Oh, those water artes had been hers?

I voiced the thought, and she and Asch both face-palmed. I shrugged. "What? I told Dark that he and Twilight were on herding duty, sort of. Basically."

They just sighed.


Fun Fact: So, now we start to see a few of the more obvious effects of Kairi no longer warping her mindscape.

Remember how with the ligers and replicas, Kairi was not only fully capable of thinking around the fight (to the point where she had a conversation with Hue and Ari while fighting the replicas), but we also saw how tired she was afterwards?

A large part of that was emotional exhaustion before. It hurt to kill that many ligers/replicas. And even if these aren't liger-intelligence-level monsters... it's still life. Which means leading a slaughter like this should still be affecting her...

Except it isn't.

Fire is passion, something Kairi needs to draw on if she's going pull up the will to protect St. Binah. It's also her primary element. Water, its opposite, is empathy... And with her extremely fire-elemental mindscape no longer hidden, the fire's burned out a LOT of that empathy. It's not really good for her, but that's a large part of why she's still so very stubbornly hanging onto Asch. Because, much as he tries to hide it, he's a water elemental.