Hope went limp and floated as if dead. King put a hand on Queen's shoulder, and she relaxed. They felt freedom and clarity the moment Bhunivelze entered Hope. King felt calmer with Zack in him to take the shock of the change.
Moments passed and time calmed.
"We should tend to Valhalla in the meantime," he said. "Either he succeeds, or we're lost."
Queen watched Sice, Deuce, and Serah work damage control. Dajh, Lightning, Snow, and Sazh stayed close to Hope. Cinque, Ace, Joker, and Tiz stayed down. They spoke with their accompanying spirits and followed instructions to get the place back under control.
"If he wins," Queen said, "I'd prefer to leave as little of a home for him as possible."
"He won't win," Yeul said. "As we speak, he fades from us."
Vanille said, "It's already harder to hear the dead."
"Then we've done it?" Fang asked.
King refrained from joining those with Hope. "Let's pretend for now that we have."
"Got you!" Cater flew about and hit the center of the splintering lines. "Shadow says he's done something like this before!"
Cinque joined next despite her injuries, with Jack and Trey following close behind. King watched them work before focusing on Hope. The kid remained quiet.
Basch stumbled off the ship and shook his head. "I must be aging if such a trip saps me so."
"Not just you," said Ashe. "I imagine the changing of the world doesn't help matters."
"You're close to the heart," Larsa said over the intercom.
"Wait!" Those two street children stumbled out of the ship. Kytes and Filo.
Ashe's heart seized. "You'll both catch your death out here! What are you thinking? Back into the ship with you!"
"No!" Filo shook herself free of Kytes. "We want to help!"
"Let them come," Basch said. "But keep out of sight. You might remain alive if you keep your distance."
"Yes, sir!" Kytes said.
Larsa's men instructed them deep into Giruvegan. Ashe shivered at the memories of such mysticism.
"They'll not take kindly to me after I rejected them," she said.
Basch said, "There is no other way."
"At least we have Filo and Kytes." That at least earned a smile from Basch.
They went further down, past the farthest they went before. Then finally they came upon a crisscrossing network of glowing blue veins.
"We've found it," Basch told Larsa.
"Now, the question is how to disarm it. My scientists tell me it is impossible, but Ashe, you've done such before. At least, you've received similar permissions. Perhaps you can speak with it?"
"I doubt I could talk to it as a person." Ashe reached for one rocky outcropping. "The mist makes it hard to see until I get close. Yet perhaps if I…"
She touched it and the blue intensified. It rang through her as a piercing cry of something begging for release.
Basch looked about them. "There's more. I see glimpses beyond the mist."
"How much?"
"Much is gathered here," Ashe said. "Deep in the planet. It goes too far across and reaches too deep. I feel it more than I see it. We'll lose the collected civilizations of our worlds once it ignites."
"Do you know when?" Basch asked.
"Soon. I must focus and see if I can stop it. If you would—"
An explosion sounded and rock fell. Filo and Kytes yelled and scrambled for safety despite the lack of any shelter.
Basch stepped closer to her, sword ready. Cold realization dawned at the intensity in his face.
"They'll bury us first," she said.
Basch looked at her and she saw fear. It rattled her. "We have no other choice," he said. "Whatever it is we can do, we must do."
"… Right." The ceiling quieted. She focused on the nethicite and the blood of her fathers and mothers flowing in her veins. She survived what the rest of her family didn't. Even her husband died. But she lived.
She wouldn't die buried under rubble. And she wouldn't let the world die, either.
Ashe connected with the nethicite and felt that age-old desire to end all things.
Alphinaud never knew such mass. Despite the decreasing size of the world, the weight of it was heavier than anything he imagined. The Void meant to swallow it soon.
"Isn't there something you can do about it?" Cid asked. "Y'all magic people."
"It is not so simple as that," Y'shtola said.
Alphinaud turned toward the gathering darkness in the east. "We'll have a much easier time of it near to the Void's entrypoint."
"You want to get closer?" Vincent asked.
Yuffie whined. "I've got work to do! I'm not throwing myself into that thing!"
"It is a distressing sight," Alisaie said. "What are we waiting for?"
Golbez put a hand on Alphinaud's shoulder. "I won't force you into anything against your will."
"We wouldn't have come if we had a choice," Alphinaud said. "Golbez, if you would accompany us, I would much appreciate it. Vincent, if you would get Yuffie's materia where it needs to go."
Vincent nodded and took Yuffie and Cid before disappearing in a flash of red.
"And how will we get there?" Alphinaud asked as they resumed their walk. "I admit, that quite escaped me. It seems so close, yet so far."
Kain stepped forward. "I have a recommendation."
"You can only take one at a time," Rosa said.
"And yet that will still get one there faster. And then I can return for the other."
"We can't help there," Ceodore said.
"No," Golbez said. "But you can see the gathered monsters from here. We'll take up arms and get the twins as close to the center as possible."
"Guard duty?" Ceodore asked. "That's it?"
Rosa wrapped an arm around his shoulder. "It's what you do best, dear."
"That doesn't help…"
"If you would," Alphinaud said to Kain, once again refraining on noting the similarities between this new dragoon and an old friend.
The ground cracked and hills turned to mountains. The skies cleared of clouds only to discolor with a new atmosphere. Every step, he felt like he might lose gravity and fall into the sky.
Kain took him and jumped.
Ultimecia couldn't stand. Aerith demanded her approach, but the monster inside ate at her power and twisted her mind. She lost track of the parts of her that lived and the parts of her that didn't. She remembered her entrapment in a prison of time formed by her naivety, and she saw that accursed orphanage.
And then she remembered vaulted skies and the promise of peace. The purpose of service and the fulfillment of it. But she was no puppet.
She warped against her better judgement and found Aerith. Ultimecia said, "You'll promise me the same future I knew before you all ripped me from my rest."
"I don't need to." Aerith held out a hand. "You'll find it for yourself."
"Your saccharine words disgust me."
"Good."
The human man joined them and looked at Ultimecia expectantly.
"Very well." Ultimecia took him by the throat. "Visit us in hell, will you? I know some that would take quite a liking to you."
Aerith reached to split them up, but Ultimecia disappeared before she could. She trapped herself in another prison to keep back the age-old instincts of her embittered self.
No one but she chose when and where she took her side. Not even the Void.
Shattered light filled the space and he glimpsed the realm of gods. Forms flew about in a broken sphere while others froze. The collection of images stuttered and broke to reveal twisted timelines.
And as soon as it appeared, it vanished again. He returned to the mortal realm. He returned closer to home. Home, where he still had a part to play.
Onion slammed into the changing ground of the mortal realm and felt the crushing pressure of misalignment. The Floating Continent laid shrouded in a cloak of time-frozen mist. Saronia drew ever closer, and airships flooded the rumbling sky.
"Quick!" Aerith of the Lifestream grabbed Noel by the arm. "We're dispelling Bhunivelze's lingering will. Can you slow this merge?"
Noel looked around, breathless despite the divinity of his lungs. "Yeah. Yeah, just… there's shards here."
"One moment, please." Rufus Shinra from the Mage Guild shut his eyes and pressed a hand to the ground. "I almost had him."
"I'll help." Aerith dropped to his side.
Noel exchanged a look with Onion. Even from here, they could hold off some of the crash. But it wouldn't matter until they got to the heart of the matter.
"Let's buy them time." Noel took Onion's hand and flooded him with power. He felt the reaches of yonder and the vastness of space. And he felt the shattered boundaries of planets that cried in agony.
Freya stabbed through three dragons and threw them to the ground. With a rush of wind, she landed again and rolled inside.
Puck laid in a fever-ridden agony and mumbled about the end of the world. Freya kicked back a dogbeast and cut through its heart.
"You'll make it through this," she told Puck despite the warning in her heart. "No sickness is master of our people!"
He said something in response, but it was lost to the torrents of bestial screams from outside. The guards fought better than any Alexandrian army could.
"Would that I could take the poison from you," she hissed as she decapitated and slaughtered. The ground shook every moment and the walls trembled. Tapestries fell from their places and people cried in anger and terror.
Freya flicked blood from her lance during a lull and moved to Puck's bedside. "Tell me what you need. Surely this disease can be sated with proper care. We have mages. We have scientists. We have medics."
Puck looked toward her with sunken eyes. The kingly bed dwarfed his tiny body and his mouth hung open from sickness-fatigue. "I want… strength…"
More monsters came at them and Freya cut through them. She dared not wonder how they got through all their guards.
"Freya…"
"One moment, my king. Their numbers do not let up."
"Freya… I can… give them…"
Freya kicked a blob of a monster out the door and bolted the door shut. "Yes?"
"God… pieces. I can…" He tried to swallow, and it took him great effort. "Give… them."
Freya looked to the door, behind which howled a dozen creatures. If she fell sick, there would be no one to protect Puck. But it did not take him immediately. She might buy him time enough for this horde to die.
"Very well." She rushed to his side, heart hammering at the stress placed on that door. "How do I take—?"
He touched her hand, and she felt a rush of force before her sight cleared and her body surged with energy. It tore at her, but that pain healed over.
"I'm sorry," Puck rasped. "I wanted… to be strong."
Freya burned with purpose and the might of a thousand moons. The door threatened to burst. "Never you mind. I'll keep my focus on what's not yet done."
"What…?"
Freya flipped her spear and it felt like the skinniest branch. The door broke and she tore through what pathetic monsters entered.
Zidane joined as they reached out, and he found a grip on Gaia II. Noel's power opened it up to them, but it was still heavy.
"This isn't gonna be enough," Zidane said.
"I can see that." Noel's voice strained.
"Any ideas?"
"One."
Y'shtola entered the castle, wholly familiar with the omnipresence the Void carried here. This twisted nothingness desperate to devour all.
"Hell, took it long enough." Barret picked up his pace, gun-arm raised.
"Hurry!" Rosa ran. Kain kept pace and Ceodore fell only inches behind. Golbez and seven's four hurried after.
Y'shtola murmured, "Panicked haste will not help."
"Neither would dragging one's feet," Alphinaud said.
Alisaie smirked as she summoned her sword. "Last one to find a proper receptacle for our shards will do fifty inscriptions, brother?"
"Now is not the time for childish bets," Y'shtola said. "Otherwise, I would not have accompanied you."
Alphinaud flipped his book open and cast Alisaie a short look. "I agree with Y'shtola."
"You forfeit, then," Alisaie said.
"You've grown so much," Y'shtola quipped as she moved on.
They found the center of violence and entered the fray. She found the Void-sent all too familiar.
Casters flew this way and that, using black magic that even Alphinaud would hardly find the words to explain.
Alisaie and Alphinaud arrived to dazzle with their own displays. It brought a small comfort of familiar aether to this world.
"…Rosa?" asked a woman.
"It's good to see you three safe," Rosa said, casting a cooling white spell.
Y'shtola took what stone was unnecessary to the structure of the castle and flung it at the Void-sent and crushed the unwanted creatures.
"Who are these guys?" a young man asked with an accent befitting the streets.
"They are from the Fourteenth World," Golbez said.
"Good to have you," said a rough-edged young woman. She carried the same accent as the young man, yet her voice pitched with cheer.
"We have no intentions to remain long." Y'shtola laid a pillar low, near covering a preferred entrance of the Void-sent.
A black mage of questionable style quite obviously took Alphinaud as a challenge. Every spell from one caused the other to pull something greater.
At least Alisaie did not pretend to maturity.
Hope regained years as they fought, and he found the strength he knew as an adult. Bhunivelze roped him with razor wire and struck him with glass but Hope fought back with machines and electrified boomerangs.
Bhunivelze was so unused to human devices and structures, it affected him to even navigate human cities. So, Hope summoned Academia in all its splendor and formed alleys and twisting labyrinths to confuse. Hope ran for days before Bhunivelze tore it all down.
They clashed with oceans and devices and theory and science. They twisted reality against each other and broke gravity every which way.
Then Bhunivelze rattled him with torturous and twisted memories. Hope lost years again.
"You play at a game forever unbalanced to you," Bhunivelze said as Hope fell among bloodied roses. "You pretend at strength, but you'll never know the power of a single being in possession of all its shards for billions of years."
Hope fought the panic and burned the roses. "I've got something better."
"Hm. Your human companions?"
"I know how humans operate." Hope ripped himself free again and waited for the blood to stop. "You've tried for thousands of years now, with experimentation and immersion. But you've never gotten close. You'll mimic habits, but you never learned why those people have those habits. I know. And I've always known."
"Trivia." Bhunivelze reached for him and Hope summoned more city walkways. Bhunivelze tore them down.
Hope brought them to Eden and forced up walls of Orphan's Cradle. Bhunivelze paused. "What about now?" Hope asked. "You're not affected by my torture, but you freeze at these key memories."
"I care not for puny fal'Cie."
"No, but you feel what I felt when I saw this place for the first time. You know the wonder of when you realized the workings of Cocoon."
Bhunivelze growled and broke the scene. He used more broken glass and more wire. He tore Hope to pieces but Hope barely felt it anymore. He didn't know if that was due to overexposure or Bhunivelze weakening.
"What about now?" Hope brought them to Palompolum, where Snow carried him on his back and forgave him. Where Hope felt crushed by grief and self-hate. Where he wallowed in betrayal and gave in to Snow's infectious optimism. Where he found a brother in his perceived enemy.
"Stop it with these games!" Bhunivelze shattered the stone and tore the sun from sky. He drenched Palompolum in a sickly white light. "You don't know what forces you meddle with!"
"Don't I?" Hope ripped the place clean again and replaced it with the Hanging Edge. He replaced the ruined city with twisting roads and a looming vestige. He brought them to the same ledge from which he watched Mom drop into the abyss. "Don't I?"
Bhunivelze went still. They watched her fall again and again, and Hope didn't take his eyes off. Bhunivelze did.
"We've dealt with things gods like you could never understand," Hope said. "You demean Etro with every breath you draw, yet she accomplished something not even your mother could. She created people with spirit, mind, and heart. She created something even greater than herself!"
"She created weakness!"
"And with it, she created strength!" Hope felt the rage of a thousand years beat in his chest. "With it, she created Lightning. With it, she created me. With it, she created everything I hold dear."
Bhunivelze snatched Hope by the neck and held him over the ledge. The drop that claimed his mother's life. The drop that changed his life. "This vessel will be made mine!"
"Perhaps." He felt full-grown, limbs fleshed out and hands strong. "But it can also be mine."
Hope broke Bhunivelze's thumb and dropped. They both fell, but Hope knew this fall. And he would survive where Bhunivelze would not.
Ellone felt the request for help from the mind she least expected to reach. She sent concern back since she wouldn't get there in time without help.
Empty silence followed before Noel blinked into being and reached for her. "You want to join Dissidia?"
She smiled and took his hand. They warped and Ellone blinked back darkness. Shouting and screeching of metal rattled her. She adjusted to see Noel, Squall, and the rest of the Dissidian warriors gathered in unnatural positions. Them and a girl in Crystal-themed robes.
Ellone closed her eyes and opened her mind. Crystal energy flowed through her and saturated the Dissidian warriors, complementing the world power they already commanded.
Gaia II moved, and she saw it through their minds' eye. The blanket of the Void didn't clear, but it thinned, and the other planets slowed their mutual collapse.
She focused on the Crystalline dust flowing through her veins and knew it was all she could do.
A veil rested over her city, and Leila grew sick of it. A world ending threat and Firion wasn't even here to wail at it.
Being a queen was fun in theory, but turned out, in practice, it required a hell of a lot more work. And even with these world-ending problems, Leila had to do everything herself.
Crystal magic churned her guts and weakened her legs. She needed to pick up all her wealth, stash it on a boat, and get out of this cursed place.
The power of the shards cut at the edges of her soul, but Leila kept channeling. The world beneath her feet groaned at her power, but she didn't stop.
Hilda saw the Void dissipate and the landscape change, but knew it was temporary. The ever-hungry would return.
A dead arrival sparked. The twisted remains of her time possessed unraveled. Mateus appeared before her.
Gordon twitched and stepped back, but Hilda managed what this man failed.
"Child of a Queen," Mateus said.
Hilda said, "State your business, ghost, for I do not pay to such irrelevant distractions."
He smiled, seemingly untouched. "We can play at games until every realm is lost to the Void, Queen."
"The Void can touch the dead?" Gordon asked.
"There is nothing he cannot reach," Hilda explained. "And even before his insanity, Bhunivelze would have been all but thrilled to erase what he saw as unclean. Your intentions, ghost."
"Call to your shards, Queen, and request they grant the dead a reprieve from their state."
"You… want to…" Gordon's eyes widened.
Pain in her tongue and Hilda tasted blood. She'd bit down in her anger. "I am not your servant to order around."
"And yet we have something terrible awaiting us, don't we? Will you save us all, or won't you?"
"… I will hold you in my debt for it."
"Is that really fair?"
"For everything else you've done, yes."
"… Very well. But know that you toy with something beyond your knowing."
Hilda swallowed the sense of dread and reached for the first mind she found.
A young boy, Dajh of the Cie, crackled into being, followed by Yeul. "You called?" he asked.
"I'm sorry we could not get here sooner," Yeul said. "And that we cannot stay long."
Mateus hummed. "Young ones, running left and right, with little—"
"You understand why you are here?" Hilda asked.
"Yeah, we do! Come on, Yeul."
Gordon's jaw dropped as Dajh and Yeul clapped hands and lit up in glorious light. While the light left, it did not seem to fade. It dispersed and remained bright as the air grew dusty, yet wet, like winds that carried a storm.
A mist solidified and a rumble sounded. Dust gathered and sparked, and the earth beneath her feet grew warm with life long forgotten. A man formed on his feet beside her.
"Scott!" Hilda took him in a hug, and he returned it.
"We have little time," Scott said.
"We'll give you what we can," Yeul said. "But he's right. It won't be long."
Rufus lost hold and Aerith tore away. The Lifestream ripped free of him and his strength gave.
Bhunivelze left them. But the dirt still felt stale, and the wind brushed hollow against him. Something still sucked at their energy, like a vacuum left idle. Despite his forced disconnection, he still felt… pulled.
He reconnected to the streaming currents beneath him and found them chaotic. Power raged under the soil and clashed in a grab for dominance. Yet it didn't feel like the Void polluting the Streams. It felt like force against force until it cried out and slammed together. The Lifestream and the Farplane united against Nothingness.
"Let me help." A pale girl in pale colors joined him. She carried an ephemeral calm like death. "I'll take your shards after this."
"… I didn't agree to that."
"You don't have to. Unless you want to let it ruin you?"
"I'm okay with ruin."
"But not of your friends."
"… Fine."
She gave him a not-quite smile. "I promise to help them in exchange."
He forced a nod, and they fueled the planet.
Aerith surged with energy and renewed self. She remembered the feeling of Zack's hands in her hair and sunrays warming her through the hole in her church. Flowers soft against her fingers and the smell of spring and fresh things. She used that clarity to push through the Lifestream and slam the boundaries of this safety. She tested the confines of undeath and begged for the release of danger.
Whispers floated her way in warning, but Aerith pushed them back.
"Wait," said a young girl's voice. "You don't have to."
"I need the rest of the Council! Return them!"
"They're free already."
"You're the Goddess of Death, aren't you? Why not halt it now and stop the Void's progress?"
"I'm not as practiced as that yet. I could ruin death for a time and turn your people into ageless, twisted creatures."
"The same principle that caused the Stigma."
"… It seems yes. Your friend claims it's worth the price."
"He's not my friend. And he's a lot quicker to suicide than some of us, so don't take it as consent from the rest."
"There's a lot of souls willing to risk undeath. Surprising."
"Don't listen to them."
"I won't condemn an entire race for the desire of a few."
"I also wouldn't make them immortal."
"Unless it helps."
Aerith gave up and searched for someone else. Someone focused and single to the plan.
Ringing echoed in his ears as Edward traveled down the root-system. The castle gates seemed years away already, but he still couldn't see the bottom. Harley stayed close.
The clean and smooth wood unnerved him. A tree like this should be overrun with moss and mice. Or at least some birds. Yet an eerie silence made him wonder if his ears were really healing.
He raised a hand and they stopped. Harley said something, and it took a minute for him to parse it as, "Are you sure?"
"I can finish this. You should go, Harley. It—"
"—Is dangerous. I understand, but I'm not about to let my king do something so foolish by himself. They're right, Majesty. It would be remiss of me not to remind you that this is a suicide mission. If you truly plan on bringing down this tree, being underneath seems a terrible idea."
"Which is why I suggest you leave. One loss is better than two."
"I will do no such thing. I will be with you until the end if that is what it comes to."
"… I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't scared. And that I wouldn't appreciate the company."
"I am ready when you are, my king."
Edward took a deep breath of godly power. And blasted the heart of the tree.
Crystal serenity played at the edges of her consciousness as Rem made out stuttering images of moon fragments break across the sky and vanish into nothingness. Red mist blew across the ground and obscured the lower horizon.
She stood by Machina as he issued orders to what remained of Akademeia. It wasn't much, but they would do their part. Maybe they wouldn't even die trying.
"L'Cie," came a familiar ringing in her head. Vermilion and bright, Rem hadn't heard the Bird since Tempus Finis. "Your time has come once more."
Rem pushed back. She wasn't a l'Cie anymore and had no plans to go back to being one.
Rumbled the response, "Such is not my intention. Our crystal stasis is not one of Cie any longer. I return to myself, and to my sister-stones across this Final galaxy."
Machina finished ordering the students and they moved to position. He gave her a dark, knowing look. "You hear it, too?"
"Nothingness is upon us and four heroes are required. Take my power and become a Warrior of Dark. Turn against this nothingness and keep hope alive."
Machina made to argue, but not before Crystal Dark enveloped them both.
Magic, once dimming in her veins now burst to life and flooded her. Crystal magic strengthened her bones and hardened her skin. It felt so pure, not at all like the dried dustiness of being a l'Cie.
Edge stared up at that giant… thing, on the horizon. He'd come to Mysidia with Cuore after the Whisperweed stopped working. He'd seen some things along the way, but nothing like that.
It looked like the Lunar Whale had been hollowed out and set up on a stick. And pointed above Mysidia.
The ground ripped with inky blackness and Edge took Cuore's hand. The monsters were coming again.
"I'm still ready," Cuore said.
He picked her up and set her on his shoulders. She wrapped one arm around his forehead and prepared to cast with the other. Edge readied his swords. He couldn't make any movement out in the village.
"Voidsent," Cuore told him. He took a few steps forward, watching the ground. It rippled but didn't spit anything out.
Until that thing in the distance shimmered.
The world burst with empty life. Edge followed the example and cut through the closest monsters. It felt like he hurt them, but they were slow to react to wounds. Cuore cast ice and froze a dozen creatures.
Edge ran towards the village while Cuore kept the numbers under control. Maybe he could still save Mysidia.
A roar stopped him short, and a twisted winged creature burst into being right before his eyes.
Edge jumped to the side as the monster ripped a claw forward, leaving it to Cuore to hold on. She started casting something new as Edge danced close enough to get a slice at the leg of the beast.
Other monsters screamed and rushed to join the battle. Still no backup from Mysidia. No movement from that thing in the sky. Just Edge, Cuore, and a giant freaking monster surrounded by little ones that seemed to have no purpose other than to get in his way.
Edge cut forward and sliced a toe off the thing as Cuore slowed the surrounding little ones.
Magic sparked in the air, and Edge got the impression that it wasn't Cuore's.
"Looks like you need some help!" someone shouted. A young woman with a red cape landed beside him, dual swords of her own. Another joined a split-second later—a young man in a similar uniform and giant… drills?
The girl released a spell that tore at the edges of the battlefield. A fragmented sky overtook them, causing a rush of wind to blow before coming to a sudden halt.
"Where are you heading?" the boy asked as he turned to keep an eye on the small fry.
"That village," Edge pointed. "Where are you from?"
The girl joined Edge and Cuore in bringing down the big guy. She moved with a tenacity that didn't seem quite possible. She jumped and flew through the sky, up and around the biggie. Cut through the back as she fell to the ground.
Edge took the opening to stab one sword through the foot, before jumping up to jam his other sword through the neck.
Cuore blasted the ensuing blood away before they landed on the other side.
The wave was gone.
The girl smoothed her jacket before giving him a warm smile. "We're from Orience, which I believe is a whole other world to you."
Cuore hugged Edge's neck.
The girl held out a hand. "My name's Rem. This is Machina."
He stared at the hand, not sure what that meant. "I'm Edge."
"I'm Cuore."
Edge retrieved his swords as Machina joined Rem. "That village over there?" Machina asked. "That's from your world?"
Edge nodded as he started moving again. That barrier glowed, then vanished, as he approached it.
"There's another wave," Rem called after him. "It'll be here in moments, it will!"
Edge shrugged. "Then I'll deal with that—"
A deep rumble sounded in the furthest reaches of his ears. Edge grit his teeth and tore his gaze from Mysidia—still so far off—and turned back to Rem and Machina.
Just as the ground cracked.
Rem flipped away and Machina stepped back. Edge crouched, ready to keep fighting.
Inky, dripping monsters crawled out of the crack and made a whole lot of creaking, popping noises as they moved.
Edge, Machina, and Rem sliced through what they could while Cuore returned to casting. Edge felt a spike of pride at Cuore's stubborn stamina.
"What is it you're doing here?" Edge asked of Machina and Rem.
"Searching for friends," Rem said.
Machina gutted a monster and didn't so much as twitch at the blood that stained his arms. "I wouldn't put it that way."
Rem unleashed a magical torrent. "Fine. Future friends."
A crack in the air and two robed figures slammed into the ground. They recovered quickly enough to protect themselves.
One of them threw off their hood to reveal a young face, with flowing black hair. "Dark Warriors?" she asked. "Unexpected."
"Isn't it?" Rem asked. "Tiz, Lean, this is Edge and Cuore."
The new woman, Tiz, gave him a short look before releasing a thunder spell. Lean followed it up with fire.
Lean said, "Good news from Valhalla—we've got one problem taken care of."
"Yeah, color me surprised," Machina said with a flat tone.
"Someone want to explain?" Edge asked as he jumped out of the way of a new crack.
Tiz obliged. "Bhunivelze is dead. This time, it should stick."
"And will that help with this flood of void creatures?"
"… Yes and no."
Mysidia crackled with magic, and Edge took that to hope. At least someone was still alive over there.