He was amazed when he actually found Yuri asleep, crunched into one of the bunks in the cabin, curled up against Repede. Flynn hadn't been looking for him, rather something to keep himself busy while on the way to the crystal island that Ba'ul told them about, but he had found him all the same.
Flynn didn't disturb him and only dithered around a moment to keep an eye on him before moving back out onto the deck to give him peace. He had to come to the terms with the fact that Yuri simply didn't want to tell him any more details about what had happened that day on the top of Zaude, and Flynn couldn't really blame him for that. He only wished that he could help, but right now, Yuri wasn't going to let anyone help. Flynn hoped that time would heal his wounds, both physical and mental, and that soon, he would be back to the good old, mischievous, sarcastic guildsman that Flynn had come to know.
But Yuri hadn't been that person for a long while now. It had started with the Don's death, and the events afterward only proved to make the rift between the Yuri he had known and the person Yuri was becoming only wider. Those events, stacked relentlessly one on top of the other, were threatening to defeat him, to crush him, to kill him. And Yuri still didn't turn to them for help. He had Repede at his side most of the time, but other than that, he kept to himself.
He spoke to almost no one unless he had to. He didn't sleep. He wasn't eating. He was a wreck and there wasn't anything Flynn could do to help him. The sound that Yuri made that night in Nordopolica, sharp and guttural, chilled Flynn to the bone, and the implications of what came before it were just as hard to shake.
"We'll be there soon," Judith called to him from where she stood on the rigging, as close to Ba'ul as she could get.
"Flynn, have you seen Yuri?" Karol asked as he came around the corner of the cabin, scanning the deck for any sign of his guardian.
"He's resting right now. Do you need something?"
"N-no. It's okay."
"Are you sure? I'll do anything I can to help."
"It's nothing," Karol tried to laugh it off. "Don't worry about it."
Before Flynn could ask again, he scuttled off toward the bow of the ship and left Flynn alone on the port side to watch the scenery below fly by. At least his stomach wasn't bothering him so much anymore. Thankfully, he was getting used to flying, with all of the travel that they had been doing, and all the travel that was sure to come from here.
Would four spirits be enough against the Adephagos? It seemed so massive, large enough to swallow up the entirety of Terca Lumireis with no effort at all. Even if they got all four elemental spirits, would it be enough? He had to believe that they had a chance. Anything was better than the idea of wallowing in misery. He just had to keep fighting and believing that this could work. And then there was Yuri's idea.
The numerous reservations had barely been touched upon. If four spirits weren't enough, then hundreds of thousands would stand a better chance. But it was still being treated as a last resort. The idea of giving up all of life's conveniences was weighty, but this was for the sake of the world. But what sort of world would come from doing so?
He didn't want to think about last resorts and such desperate measures, but somewhere deep inside, he knew that Yuri's idea had been right. Blastia had caused this mess. Blastia was only making it worse. And in the end, it might be blastia that saved them. Even if they were able to stop the Adephagos without sacrificing the blastia, there would have to be stricter regulations and laws about the use of it so something like this couldn't happen again in the end. It might be inconvenient, but Yuri's idea was sounding more and more plausible.
Behind him in the cabin, he heard a soft sound, a groan, and then the skitter of claws across the floor, followed by the clunk of boots. Yuri was awake. And here Flynn was hoping that he could get a little more sleep for his own sake.
There was nothing further until a moment later when Yuri emerged from the cabin. He looked so tired, and before Flynn could ask anything, he was tromping to the bow of the ship. Flynn followed a few strides behind, careful to not make it seem like he was following Yuri instead of simply walking behind him.
"I think we've found it," Judith said, pointing to a landmass just off the bow of the ship, dark and shimmering in the tide of the sea.
It was craggy, jutting out in dark and twisted spikes as it sat. The light of the sun refracted off of its facets, sending shafts of blood red light across the faces of further crystal clusters and to the opening of a cave. This had not been a natural structure, as evident when they touched on on the dark ice-like crystal and entered the cavern.
The cave floor was covered in dark red crystal shards and dust, echoing the spines along the walls of the cavern which were broken and disturbed in place. This had been roughly dug into the island, likely by some huge creature that was hopefully an Entelexeia.
"The aer here..." Rita looked around. "This is not at all what I expected."
"What do you mean?" Estellise asked.
"When aer gathers at a certain level of concentration over an extended period of time, it crystallized, like the structures we witnessed in the krene on East Swendle Island. The aer crystallized here is red, that means its highly dense, possibly dangerous. But because its a stable form like this, we should be safe. If this were a normal krene, these crystals would be clear or bluish green."
"But why would super dense aer solidify like this?" Flynn asked.
"It could have something to do with the Entelexeia that's supposed to be here, but I can't say for certain right now."
"It's pretty spooky here, don't you think?" Karol suppressed a shudder.
"Anyway, we should keep moving," Raven said.
They followed the path through the crystal shard lined cave, walking its twists and turns the way whatever burrowed this place had. There were off shoots and dead ends and twining path, some of which crossed over others, and the whole place was proving to be a giant, confusing maze. All the crystals looked the same, but Repede was able to mostly steer them clear of paths they had already traversed.
When he started to growl though, their attention turned up the path just in time to dodge the lethal 'woosh' of a ring of steel that passed them by. The blade, curved and sharp like the crescent moon, hit the crystal wall and swung back past them and into the hand of its owner.
"That blade-"
"Nan!" Karol turned sharply to face the girl who stood at the top of the path, ready at a moments notice to swing the blade again.
"The Hunting Blades have control of this area. Leave at once. This is your only warning." The young girl stared down at them menacingly, shouldering her weapon.
"Oh no! They're here for the Entelexia!" Estellise gasped, taking a step forward.
"Nan, we have to get through! It's important!" Karol said, matching Estellise's pace.
"I don't want to hear any excuses from those who would defend these monsters! Nothing you have to say can convince me to let even a weakling like you through, Karol!" Nan sneered, sliding into a fighting stance. "Master and Tison should already be putting that monstrosity to an end."
"If you won't let us through willingly, then will get through by force," Yuri said.
Karol turned back to them momentarily and said, "I'll handle this, okay?"
"Whadder ya gonna to do against someone who there's no reasonin' with?" Raven asked. He and Yuri had to know Nan almost as well as Karol did, and they certainly knew the reputation that the Hunting Blades had.
"I'm going to try to talk to her. If that doesn't work then..." Karol glanced down at the handle of his sword poking out from under the flap of his massive bag. "Then I'll do what I have to." He took a deep breath and a few strides toward her, not wavering as she spun her bladed weapon and appeared ready to strike.
"Get out of here, Karol!"
"I won't! I need you to understand that there are important things that we have to do, and I can't let you stand in our way. We need to save that creature."
"Why? Why would you want to save a monster?! All monster should be dead! I'll kill every last one of them until I've gotten my revenge and I won't let you stop me!" She shouted back without and ounce of hesitation. "If you intend to proceed, you'll have to beat me first!"
Karol drew his sword, which seemed to surprised her. Had she been relying on Karol's previous uneasy over conflict to work in her favor now? "I don't want to have to fight you, Nan. But for the sake of this world, I'll do what I have to!"
He charged at her as she spun to release her crescent blade. She ducked as it flew out of her arms, and missed a blow from his sword. A sweep of her leg knocked Karol to the ground and gave her the opportunity to thrust her arms into the ground.
The crystallized ground cracked and split and from the crevices formed, long, smoky hands seeped from. They grabbed Karol, pulling him up off the ground and shook him violently to and fro.
"Come on, kid!" Raven called out, followed by Yuri.
"You've got this, Karol! You can do it!"
Estellise joined in on the cheering, and Repede with a series of barks and howls. Judith and Flynn followed, and finally Rita and they were all rooting for him. Flynn felt bad leaving the child to fight this battle on his own, but he was sure that if Yuri believed him to be in any honest danger, he would have stepped in himself and ended it. They both knew that this was something that Karol had to do for himself, and that he was strong enough to beat her. This was something deeper than either of them could understand, and they were not allowed to intrude.
As soon as the hands dropped him, as if compelled by their cheers, he sprung to his feet, sword in hand to knock away her blade as it came back to her in an arc and then corner her. But she performed the smoke hand arte again, this time boring a hole in the wall with her fist. He tried to cut the hands, but the smoke merely drifted and reformed after a pass of his blade, and finally one of them caught him.
It shook him again, tossing him aside and knocking over a crystal. But Karol wasn't done yet. He charged again, swinging his heavy sword wildly as he tried to pin Nan, to force her back into a corner where all she could do was defend. The strategy seemed to be working.
As soon as he had her cornered, he unleashed a upper strike-style arte, and she responded with violent spinning attack that sent him flying.
They still cheered for him, calling out encouragements and he still scrambled to his feet to avoid her stalagmite spell. He charged her again and again no matter how many times she flung him away. He wasn't going to be deterred. He wasn't going to be defeated. And Flynn could see just how far the young man had come in their short time together.
Nan flung her blade again and immediately dove down and planted her fists into the stone. The hands rose, smaller, weaker now as she was struggling to stay up, to stay in the fight with no one there to back her up and encourage her. She struggled still, but Karol found just the right moment.
Flynn couldn't tell if her fists had become stuck in the ground of if she has paused for a half a second to breath, but she didn't move, and Karol took the opening, and knocked her over, sending her skidding across the crystal floor and into the wall.
She heaved and fought to stand up, to move, to use any attack at all, but it was over as she sunk against the wall and could fight no more.
"Nan..." Karol said softly, blade still in his hand. "I'm sorry, Nan. But this is what I have to do. I hope that... that someday you'll understand."
The fight over, the party strode up to meet him. It was a cold victory.
Estellise knelt to heal her, unable to leave any with wounds like the ones she had sustained. They stood around her quietly a moment to make sure that she was all right before moving on.
"I'm sorry, Nan. I know that you hate monsters because of what happened to your parents, but... this is important. This is for the fate of the world. This is the only hope we've got, and I can't let even you stop me from doing everything I can to save this world."
"Ya did good, kid." Raven dropped a hand on Karol's shoulder, pulling the boy against him. "Ya did what ya had to do."
"I'm sure that one day, Nan will be as proud of you as we are," Yuri added with a gentle ruffle of Karol's hair.
"Gusios shouldn't be too much further. If she's going to be all right, we need to keep going so that we can save him before the rest of the Hunting Blades gets to him," Judith said.
They left the fallen girl behind, her injuries on the mend, and moved further into the depths of the crystal cavern. It only became darker and danker as they went, and when the light refracting off the crystals no longer provided enough to light to continue, Rita produced a small blastia powered lantern that would allow them to keep going.
Finally the cramped and suffocating corridors opened into a large cavern, lit with a sickly reddish light at the end where a pool of aer puddled, lined with dark red crystals. It was heavy here, and at the tide of the pool, stood a massive creature that Flynn hoped that he would never see again: the giant monster from Caer Bocram. But he wasn't alone. Two humanoid figures beside him brandished swords and claws. They were too late. Clint and Tison of the Hunting Blades were already here.
The giant howled in pain, bucking back and crashing down in hopes of crushing the humans injuring him further with every step.
"That's-!" Rita recognized it also.
"Gusios!" Judith called out, taking several strides ahead of the party.
With a lash of his tail, Gusios knocked Tison aside, in a second pass catching Clint, too, throwing them into the crystal lined walls of the cavern. Tison was left reeling, but Clint recovered quickly, charging back into the fray with his sword. Gusios didn't fight further than simply knocking him away a second time. He seemed preoccupied with the pool of super dense aer.
"You!" Clint spotted them as they dashed forward behind Judith at the lead.
"We will allow you to harm him no further!" Estellise pulled out her sword, ready to fight him in need be.
"I pledged to destroy all monsters!" Clint retorted.
"Gusios isn't a monster, he's only trying to protect the world!" Judith said.
"I don't care what the Entelexeia are for! I'll eradicate all of them!"
The shocked silence that hushed them was brief as Gusios cried out in pain behind them. Judith and Rita went to his side, and Raven grabbed Clint by the collar, lifting the larger man as if his weight was nothing.
"So you knew that he was an Entelexeia?" Flynn asked. "Then why did you-?"
"A lot of people died in the Great War because of these things. My friends, my family... my whole village was wiped off the map because of creatures like these!" Clint grabbed Raven's hand in an attempt to make him drop him, but Raven's grip held firm. "I don't care what happens to the world as long as I get my revenge!"
"You think you were the only one who lost those they loved in the War? Guess again! But the important part is that you have ta move past all of that for the sake of the world. Would those you lost want you to be wallowing in misery, killing the world for the sake of revenge?" The line between Raven and Schwann was slipping, traces of the two sides of the same person becoming one the angrier he got.
Something Raven said weighed on the hunter, loosening the grip on his sword and turning his eyes away. "It's too late for me to change now. "
"It's never too late to change." Raven shoved him back against the crystal and threw him down. "Now, don't get in our way."
Raven headed for where Judith and Rita had been trying to calm Gusios, and after a moment when Clint made no move to fight further, the others followed. For a while, Flynn felt like Yuri had been the only strong one in the group, but now he knew that they all had strengths in different ways.
"Gusios, please tell me what happened?" Judith pleaded, but it seemed to be to no avail. Gusios was trying to consume the aer at an alarming rate
In a swirl of rushing waters, Undine appeared. Like Phaeroh before him, he is trying to ingest far more than his form can handle. He will lose himself if we cannot stop him soon. Can you hear him, Judith?
"Yes... but his mind is garbled," she replied, her hand to her ear and her eyes closed. "His change has already begun and he knows it... he just wants to do whatever he can in his last moments... He wants so desperately to save this world."
"Gusious, please! We have another way!" Estellise called out.
"There's a better way, but we need your help!" Rita added her voice in.
The massive Entelexeia turned to them very slowly, his dark red eyes fixed on them. His absorption of the aer ceased, albeit briefly, and the bubbles of aer that had been surrounding him floated back down into the pool.
"Keep talking to him. It's helping." Judith was focused so hard, but she didn't let go.
"We want you to become a spirit. You'll be able to better control the aer. It'll mean a new life for you. A new chance to save this world. Please help us!" Rita said.
It stared for another endless moment at them, and Judith's face, which had been tense with worry and concentration, eased slightly.
"He agrees. But we must hurry, before the blight steals all his reason."
Gusios knelt down, and like Phaeroh before him, he began to glow. The light refracted across the surfaces of the crystals, sending shafts of the bright blue glow across the entirety of the cave. Once it died down, an apatheia was all the remained floating there before them with the blessing of the Entelexeia.
Estellise took it in her hands, cradling it gently. "Thank you, Gusios."
"Okay!" Rita turned to them, unfurling her scarf. "Everyone in position!"
The process began again, drawing out their strength for the purpose of guiding the aer into the apathetia. Flynn wished that he could have gotten used to the strange sensation of the shards and bits of his life force leaving him, but it subsided after a long moment when the apatheia began to glow bright blue. As the light faded, a creature no bigger than Repede remained, curled tight in soft slumber. It was coated in a thick, shaggy layer of tawny fur, patched in white, save its tail, which was curled cat-like against it, rising in a series of rounded, bony protrusions.
"What wrong with him?" Rita asked, circling the creature when it did not stir.
Worry not. He merely sleeps. The toll of the blight on him nearly took his consciousness. He will awaken soon, Undine replied from beside them. /In the meantime, will you name him?
"What is his element?" Estellise asked.
A power rooted deep within the world... the element of the earth itself.
"Hmm... the spreader of roots... What about 'Gnome'?"
Undine's calm face spread into a smile. Let us tell him once he had awoken. I'm certain that he will be pleased.
The ball of fur that was now the spirit Gnome and Undine disappeared, and they were left to traverse their way out of the cavern themselves. The Hunting Blades had already gone, including Nan, probably off to regroup and work out for themselves what was worth fighting for. It was going to be a tough decision. It had been a hard one for Flynn to come to. But if they thought about it hard enough, it would come to them.