It has been two days since Exodus attacked the Cliffs of Morytha and he has just been waiting at his temple going through the best course of action on what to do next.
'I shouldn't go pick another fight with the Empress, it would be a waste of time. Besides she'll more than likely come to me anyways, I'll kill her then. After that there will no longer be any threats that can stand in my way. No other person in Elysium can stand in my way after that. Then I can truly destroy humanity and bring a new era of change for blades. The binding between master and slave will be eradicated and I shall put a new system in place.'
Exodus looks down at his core crystal and looks worried at it. He lightly places his hand on it.
"Let's just hope you don't wake up. Although I can faintly feel you stirring." Exodus lightly taps his core crystal but gets no reaction out of it as it stays in its usual form. "Next stop: Uraya." Exodus grins wickedly at the prospect of all the people who live there. "This part of the mission is always the best part." Exodus summons six swords behind him. "Squashing those insects."
After Tora took his long overdue and well deserved nap he got to work immediately making much larger teleporters for humans to use. He used the science divisions help to assemble enough teleporters for each of the main titans that make up Elysium. They all worked tirelessly to get all eight done within the two day time span and whenever one was finished Tora would call Rex and Nia over to fill up each of the teleporters with Nia's ether to get them to work properly. Just before shipping them off to each location Tora tested the teleporters on himself to see if they would work properly on larger organic beings.
"Poppi, press button." Tora tells Poppi as he stands on one of the teleporters.
"Is Masterpon sure he should be testing this on self? Seems dangerous." Poppi warns Tora.
"Meh Meh. If Tora can create Poppi, then Tora can create teleporter." Tora closes his eyes and puts his wings on his hips in confidence.
"If Masterpon say so." Poppi shrugs then presses the button.
"That's more like i-" Tora is suddenly gone.
Poppi looks over to the other teleporter and at first there is nothing. Then two seconds later Tora appears on the other side all in one piece.
"Is Masterpon ok?" Poppi asks Tora.
It takes Tora a second of moving his jaw around and blinking a few times before he responds.
"It... worked! But Tora feeling very hungry now. Tora need tasty sausage." Suddenly Tora's stomach rumbles. "More than likely side effect of teleporter." Tora looks over to Poppi. "Off to Grand Hall for tasty meal!"
"Roger Roger Masterpon."
Tora looks over to one of the scientists who was there at the moment.
"Tora entrust you to get teleporters shipped off pronto." Tora points at the man.
"Right away, Temporary head researcher." The scientist does a slight bow before going over to a communicator.
"Tora will have to tell all friends about success of teleporter and side effect so everyone eat's well before teleporting." Tora tells Poppi who is walking behind him.
"Don't forget to call up Wifeypon and Dadapon to tell them good news as well." Poppi reminds Tora.
"Poppi absolutely right. Haven't spoken to either since got here." Tora looks slightly saddened by this.
"They understand Masterpon. You have lot of responsibility after all." Poppi tries to comfort her driver.
"Poppi right, but Tora still miss them all the same." Tora glumly remarks.
"It ok Masterpon, all people miss those who close to them."
"Well we're here now." Tora gestures to the entrance of the grand hall.
"Tora going to eat everything!"
Exodus yet again looks out over the horizon at his next destination. The titan of Uraya. He looks down at his rings at the soft glow they both emit. He looks back in the direction and sighs.
"Another titan is about to bite the dust and it will be by my own hand." Exodus somberly looks at his rings again then hardens his eyes and grips his hand into a fist. "But it is a small price to pay to give salvation to my kind." Exodus looks up from his fist and out over the horizon. "I must..." Exodus has a brief flash of multiple large white wings which sends a quick shock through him. "... Awaken my full power and progress to phase two of my plan." Exodus looks down at his core crystal. "And you will NOT be the reason I achieve my goal." Exodus punches his core crystal to no effect. He then makes a mad dash towards Uraya with the only thing in his head being his goal.
Exodus jumps into the mouth of Uraya and makes a mad dash forward. After an hour of running through the titan he finds the capital of Uraya: Fonsa Myma. Exodus knew of its location from the map he took when he first started. "The city sure has a different look from Indol." Exodus observed. "Oh well. This city's about to become a graveyard anyways." Exodus sprints at the closest person and impales him with an ice spear. The locals see this and know immediately who it is.
"THE WHITE BEAST! RUUUUUUNNN!"
The people begin scrambling in all directions while the Urayan military begin to file to the fields of Fonsa Myma to protect the people.
"EVERYONE GET OUT OF THE CAPITAL AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN! WE WILL PROTECT YOU AS MUCH AS WE CAN!"
"At least these ants know how to properly protect their spawn. Unlike those pathetic Indoline scum." Exodus spits on the ground at the mention of Indol.
Hundreds of soldiers file out with their blades out to help them. Multiple giant weapons that are mounted on the smaller titans begin to aim at Exodus all getting ready to fire.
"Now this is a spectacle!" Exodus grins wickedly at the army and simply summons six ether cannons behind him all imbued with the dark element. "Let's see how you do against this!" Exodus releases all six cannons at once right at the army.
"Everyone! Fire with everything you've got!" The general yells at his subordinates. "I want all titans on full power! You, I want you to go to a communicator and inform the Empress at once!" The general commands a foot soldier.
"But sir, are you sure they'll pick up? Will we even live long enough for them to arrive?"
"Dammit boy I don't want any back talking or you'll be doing ten thousand pushups after this is over! Also we should be due to get the transporters any minute now!"
The soldier coils back at being yelled at then straightens up and salutes the general. "S-sir yes sir!" The foot soldier quickly runs off to a communicator.
As the clash of the two beams collide it creates a massive explosion that scotches the fields and creates a massive cloud of dust. The soldiers cough and look on.
"I think we got him."
"It looks like it."
"Take that you bastard!"
"That's why you don't mess with Uraya!"
All the soldiers begin to celebrate as the general focuses his eyes and sees six glowing green blades slowly moving in the dust.
"Everyone get into fighting positions now! That's an order!"
"But what for Genera-"
Suddenly one of the blades lifts up and slashes a massive slash of wind ether right at the army. A third of the army gets hit by the full force of the attack. Another third try to put up shields but get shattered from the overwhelming ether. The last third put up a barrier and barely manage to tank the attack. The attack also cleared up the dust to reveal Exodus still slowly walking towards the army with two wind swords in each of his hands and four more behind him, all of which were glowing with pale green ether.
"You all are most certainly trained in ether. But none of you pose even a threat to me." Exodus lets out a dark chuckle amused at the situation. Exodus looks down on the army as if they were his play things that he could throw away at any time. "So shall we try something a bit more up close and personal?" Exodus points one of his swords towards the army.
"Healing division heal anyone who is in critical condition! The rest of you, give that bastard everything you've got!" The general yells at his subordinates. "WE ARE URAYA! SHOW HIM EVERYTHING WE'VE GOT!"
"YEAH!"
With that everyone who is able to move charges straight for Exodus with their weapons ready and their blades out.
"I shall pass judgement on those who bastardize my children!" Exodus screams as he charges right towards the army.
"Sir! We got confirmation from the Empress! The teleporter is about five minutes away! We just need to hold him off until then." The foot soldier from before comes back to inform the general.
"Good work soldier. I want you to go to the meeting point and help those people in any way you can. Getting reinforcements is our top priority."
"Sir yes sir!" The foot soldier dart back into the city to get to the ports as quickly as possible.
The general then speaks into his radio. "All titan units focus your attack on his back and make sure to stay as far away from him as possible. We don't want to get our titans sunk. If we do then this is truly over."
"On it." "Right away chief." A couple of the titan pilots respond.
As the titan ships get around and aim at the back of Exodus, said man is butchering the soldiers left and right. Exodus switches through a variety of weapons as he hacks, slashes, skewers, impales, and carves his way through the army.
'Some of these guys can actually tank a hit. I am somewhat impressed.' Exodus muses to himself as he continues his slaughter.
"Do it now!" The general commands into his radio.
All of the titans begin to power up and gather ether once more. They all focus right at the same point: Exodus' back.
"FIRE!"
All the beams shoot at the same time and concentrate right in the middle to create a massive beam straight towards Exodus. Exodus realizes this and fuses all of his weapons to create a super shield that floats just above his back.
"NOW!"
Exodus turns around only to find the remaining soldiers shooting all of their ether attacks right at his chest. Exodus splits half of his fused weapons to create a shield in front of him as well. 'Impressive.' Exodus grins in pure bliss at being cornered. Suddenly he feels a shadow above him and out of curiosity looks up only to see the general with his sword launch right into Exodus' eye. The general was trying to impale right through to the brain but unfortunately found that his blade skidded past his eye but noticed last second that he has at least managed to gouge Exodus' left eye. 'I did it.'
Exodus grabs the man by the throat with his hand and overpowers the two beam attacks that were targeting him. "You ants sure do know how to work in a colony. I must admit you gave me some fun but I grow bored of all of you." Exodus closes his gouged eye and throws the man in the air only to be skewered by six electric spears that blow his body into a confetti of flesh that showers down on all the soldiers. Exodus then proceeds to throw all of the same spears right at all the titans that had just attacked him as they all explode turning the sky into a hellish red from all the fire as he slowly walks towards the remaining army with his left eye still closed.
One man tries to attack Exodus but gets kneed by Exodus which cracks his entire ribcage as he falls on the ground gasping for air.
"Activating incineration mode." Exodus snaps his fingers and six fire ether cannons appear behind him as he scorches the rest of the army and opens his once wounded eye to reveal that it has fully healed as he continues to slowly walk into the city of Fonsa Myma.
As Exodus walks into the city he sees a titan that had just landed in the ports at the edge of the city. Not thinking much of it Exodus just hurls an earth bit ball with enough force to sink the titan. "Serves you right for sticking around still." Exodus laughs to himself as he continues to walk deeper into the titan.
"Your Majesty! The titan that was just transporting the teleporter has just sunk!"
"Tell anyone who is there to immediately get the teleporter on land before it sinks to the bottom of the bay now!" Morag motions with her hand.
"Yes your Majesty." The soldier bows and heads to a communicator.
The foot soldier from before waves the dust away to see that the titan that is holding the teleporter is sinking. "Oh no! I got to retrieve that or else the general will have it in for me tonight!" The soldier and his blade dive into the water and open up the titan to find the inside half flooded with water with a large disk-like object being the only thing that looks important. "Your gonna have to help me buddy." The soldier says to his animal blade. "But of course." The soldier and blade try their hardest to pull the disk out of the water when suddenly a crane claw clamps down on the titan and lifts the titan out of the water and onto the land. The soldier looks over in surprise to see a nopon manning the crane.
"Friend look like need help." The nopon simply responded to the soldier who just looks on baffled.
"Well thanks for the help." The soldier salutes to the nopon. Then with the help of his blade pulls out the large disk shaped device and places it flatly on the ground. He then quickly runs over to the communicator nearby and rings up the palace. He gets a response from the Empress herself. "Sire, I was able to successfully get the teleporter out of the water! How do a turn this thing on?"
"Excellent work soldier. Press the three buttons to the right of the light on the machine to turn it on."
"Yes Ma'am!" The soldier then presses the three buttons and the machine begins to slowly grow brighter and brighter until it is fully on.
"I believe the machine is on now. By the way your highness who will you be sending as reinforcements? Some of your palace guards perhaps?"
"You shall see in a minute soldier, stand by."
"Yes, your highness." The soldier salutes to the Empress then Morag hangs up the call.
"Hey buddy, who do you think she will send?"
"Somebody powerful I hope."
The machine begins to hum to life as the soldier and blade jump in surprise at seeing the machine turn on so suddenly. As the light dies down the soldier sees Zeke and Pandoria appear on the teleporter then get off.
"No way! Zeke von Genbu! The Empress really did send someone strong to help us. We're saved!" The soldier celebrates at this turn of events.
"I'm not the only one chum." Zeke motions behind him as the machine turns on again and this time Mikhail shows up as well.
"I am here. Wonder if I can score with a cute Urayan chick after we kick this guy's ass." Mikhail creaks his neck with his hand as he walks towards Zeke and Pandoria.
"Still skirt chasing at a time like this?" Pandoria sweat drops at this.
"Hey, it's always time if you ask me." Mikhail replies.
Next to come out is Tora with Poppi in her QTπ form ready for combat.
"Meh Meh Meh! Tora is ready to teach mean blade lesson." Tora angrily flaps his wings.
"Parameters working at absolute. Poppi will set parameters even higher." Poppi strikes a pose.
Next to come out is Rex, Nia, and Dromarch.
"My lady, we have arrived." Dromarch bows.
"Time to see what this monster really looks like." Nia walks forward to the rest of the group.
"We can't let him escape no matter what." Rex reminds everyone as he approaches them.
The machine comes to life one last time to reveal Morag, Brighid, and Aegaeon.
"We are now in Uraya." Aegaeon confirms.
"It would appear Tora's mechanics were a lot better than I gave him credit for." Brighid comments.
"He did also create the second artificial blade. He is a lot smarter than he looks." Morag responds.
"Tora not know if that compliment or not but appreciate nonetheless?" Tora says confused.
"Soldier report." Morag looks at the man.
Suddenly the ground begins to rumble violently for almost a minute.
"Wh-what is this?!" Rex yells in surprise.
"I think it might be an earthquake chum." Zeke responds.
Morag thinks back to some of the reports she read on the Indol and Cliffs of Morytha titan then looks at Uraya in horror. "No, the titan is dying!"
"WHAT?!" Everyone else exclaims in shock.
"It's just as the reports said. The exact same thing happened at the previous titans that Exodus killed. We were too late."
Just a few minutes earlier Exodus had been running through Uraya to get right to the heart of the titan. When Exodus arrived he looked at the core and realized that this one was glowing strongly. "So you're still young huh? I am sorry for this. You had so much more you could've done with your life." Exodus then rips the core right out of Uraya just as he did with Indol and the Cliffs of Morytha. The titan begins to shake violently for even longer than the other two had before finally subsiding. "May your soul rest easy."
With that Exodus begins to concentrate and turn the core into a gem before placing it in another gem slot. As with the last two Exodus feels a surge of power course through his entire being. After the power subsides Exodus begin to place his hand right above his core crystal and begins to draw ether out of it. As he does the ether begins to take the shape of a core crystal as it slowly breathes a bright blue. "I got this power next ey?" Exodus then resonates with the core crystal. "Go back to the temple." Exodus tells the newly formed blade. "Yes sir." The blade responds and leaves.
"How about my other powers?" Exodus begins to teleport around the room and finds that his teleportation times have been reduced by a forth. "This will be a little more consistent now. How about you?" Exodus summons as many weapons as he can. "Twelve huh? I'm unstoppable." Exodus unsummons all of his weapons and does a sensing of the whole area. "Multiple powerful ether signatures nearby. One of them is definently Morag." Exodus' lips curl into an almost unnatural amount of joy. "Your dead." Exodus sprints into the direction of the ether signatures.
As the group makes their way through the city all seems normal. Sure their weren't any people but that was due to the evacuation. It all seemed normal until the group made it to the rice fields at the front of Fonsa Myma.
Morag grips both of her hands tightly. "He did it again."
All of them look on sadly at the scene in front of them. The sky and ground were painted red from the flames as they saw the corpses of multiple titans in the distance. They see in front of that are the bodies of hundreds of Urayan soldiers burning to a crisp with the scent of burning human flesh overtaking their noses. There lay a layer of smoke between the two hellscapes separating the crimson sky from the bloodied ground. Hundreds of dead core crystals lay in the flames all black and slowly regenerating.
"What happened?! It looked like we were winning twenty minutes ago." The soldier looks on in shock.
"Exodus got serious." Morag simply responded. "Soldier I need you to evacuate anyone who is still here to the teleporter. Now. My guards are on hold in Mor Ardain to help anyone who comes through the teleporter. Do this for the sake of the people."
"Yes, your highness." The soldier bows and runs back into the city.
"Morag, we have to stop him here and now." Rex tells Morag with a fire in his eyes.
"Agreed. We must deal with him right here and no-"
"YOUR MAJESTY LOOK OUT!"
A spear is barely deflected by Aegaeon as everyone gets into defensive position.
"I see you're still as sharp as ever." Exodus comments.
Everyone looks up to see Exodus sitting on the arch at the front of the city looking down on them as he has four more spears lightly floating behind him.
"So this is Exodus?" Zeke questions as he narrows his eye.
"Correct. May I ask who these people are Morag?" Exodus questions as he jumps down from the arch and stops a good twenty feet away from them.
"Why should we tell you?" Nia responds.
"Because I want to know the names of humanities last defenders before I destroy your entire species." Exodus lazily responds back. Exodus then narrows his eyes in a dark look aimed at Nia.
"What is wrong with your core crystal my child?"
"Child?! I'll have you know that I'm much older than I look. As for my crystal, I'm what you would call a flesh eater."
"That is not what I meant by 'child'. I sense human DNA within you. Did you eat the FLESH OF A HUMAN!?"
"I mean it's kind of in the name don cha know." Nia irritatedly responds.
"HOW DARE YOU?!" Exodus roars at Nia.
Everyone is shocked at this display, especially Morag as she has never seen Exodus get angry at anything before.
"YOU DARE MAKE A MOCKERY OF YOUR OWN KIND!"
"What do you care? You're nothing but a ruthless killer who shows mercy to no one!" Nia barks back at Exodus.
"YOU HAVE DISGRACED ME AND OUR SPECIES BY THE CHOICES YOU MADE. I'll be sure to kill you first." Exodus declares darkly as he summons two spears to each hand and ten more behind him all in various elements.
"I WON'T LET YOU LAY A FINGER ON HER!" Rex yells at Exodus as he pulls out Nia's sword.
Everyone gets into attacking positions and Morag begins to concentrate on enabling dual wielding while Exodus sprints right towards them.
As Exodus is about to impale Rex, Dromarch makes a protection barrier around Rex and Rex begins to slash wildly at Exodus who parry's the attacks with his two spears. Mikhail begins to assault Exodus from the back but is blocked by two of Exodus' spears which he engages to destroy. As Zeke is coming down on Exodus from the sky Exodus teleports behind Zeke in an attempt to slash him from the back only for Rex to jump into the air and continue his assault on Exodus. Tora runs to join but is stopped by four of Exodus' spears which turn into katana's and Tora begins to fend off from the attacks. Exodus tries to throw a bitball right at Morag but Zeke ends up slashing the bitball in half and begins to attack Exodus' chest and manages to get a strike at Exodus slashing his chest. Enraged by this Exodus begins to spew flames all over the field in an attempt to scorch all of them but a wave of water ether from Nia and Dromarch completely counter the attack. This creates a large sheet of steam that completely shrouds the battle field. Exodus then hears the only thing that could prove a threat to him.
"Secret Dual Art: Writhing of the One Thousand Phantom Blades." Exodus begins to feel several shallow cuts begin to slash at his body. "Oh no you don't!" Exodus teleports as far away from the steam cloud as he possibly can. "He teleports outside of the cloud then begins to summon twelve staffs imbued with lighting which begin to slowly rotate around him. "Your finished." Suddenly all of the staffs shoot lighting into the sky and a large black thunder cloud appears above the cloud of steam. "Good riddance." A massive bolt of thunder strikes down into the steam cloud with enough force to split the earth below and at first Exodus thinks he fryed them.
"I did it." Suddenly Rex bolts out of the mist and slashed Exodus across the arm. 'What?! There should be no way he survived that.' "All of that for a small nick of the arm?"
"Thats what you think." Exodus looks up to see Nia blasting water in all directions snaking around him to encase him. "This won't stop me!" Just as Exodus is about to teleport out Morag shoots a torrent on flames right at Exodus which he teleports out of only to hear Morag say yet again.
"Secret Dual Art: Writhing of the One Thousand Phantom Blades!" Suddenly Exodus feels even more cuts begin to enwrap his body. 'I got to get out of here!' as Exodus teleports out of the attack again he feels Zeke slash at his back causing another wound. 'D-dammit, I'm being cornered.' Exodus takes on a serious look. "I'll have to go all out."
Exodus teleports behind Zeke and unloads all twelve of his swords all at the same time at full speed on Zeke. Exodus covers Zeke in wounds which sends him falling to the ground. He then blitz's Mikhail and barrages him with twelve knuckles claws all punching full force which completely shatters Mikhail's fans and leaves him covered in bruises. As. he is about to go on to Tora he feels a bolt of lightning hit him from the side. Exodus turns around to see Zeke back up completely unharmed and charging at Exodus full force.
"HOW ARE YOU EVEN STILL ALIVE?!" Exodus screams in anger.
"My healing is no joke." Exodus turns around only to see Nia shoot water into his open wound on his abdomen.
"Thanks for the heal you failure." Exodus mocks Nia.
"You shouldn't thank me just yet." Nia remarks with a toothy grin plastered on her face.
Suddenly Exodus entire body begins to pulse. "AAAAAAGGGGGGHHHH! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME?!" Exodus collapses to the ground and begins to pants heavily.
"Hyper Regeneration Bitch." Nia smirks at Exodus.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Suddenly massive waves of ether explode out of Exodus' body which sends everyone flying back. Exodus is on both knees struggling to get up after that.
"No way." Nia withers in shock.
"What happened?" Rex asks in worry.
"He just expelled all of the foreign ether out of his body. The amount of ether required to do that is impossible to obtain naturally. Just what IS he?"
"Morag, can you use another one of those dual art things?" Rex asks Morag.
Morag gets up and slowly gets back into position. "I barely have enough for one more, after that I'll be completely out of ether." Morag tiredly responds. "Zeke, you know what do if this doesn't work."
"Of course chum. I'll use my eye on him." Zeke lightly taps his eyepatch.
"Tora, Mikhail; we need to make sure that Exodus doesn't escape this no matter what."
"Tora on it."
"All I gotta do is knock him back in? Sounds like a plan." Mikhail raises his fans.
Nia begins to spew water ether from her hands as Morag spews flames from the whips. "Secret Dual Art: Writhing of the One Thousand Phantom Blades!" Morag begins her assault on Exodus once more this time landing every single hit on him. As the steam fades the group sees Exodus lying on the ground in a bloody heap breathing shallowly as Morag's eyes role in the back of her head as she begins to fall over. Brighid and Aegaeon catch her and drag her over to the side to examine their Empress.
"She is still alive. Just unconscious." Brighid reassures everyone.
Rex sighs in relief. "Thank goodness." Suddenly dark spears impale everyone in the heart. They all turn around in horror to see Exodus slowly getting back up.
"I g-got to admit... you're all pr-pretty g-good." Exodus smiles sinisterly at them. "But I am better. I am the perfect creation after all." Exodus laughs softly.
"You idiot, did you forget about me?" Nia looks annoyed at Exodus.
Exodus looks over to Nia who begins to heal everyone back to perfect health. Seeing this Exodus charges full force and grabs Nia by the throat and lifts her up. "I won't let you finish."
Seeing this Rex pulls himself off the spear and charges Exodus despite his injuries. "Don't touch her you monster!" Rex slashes Exodus kneecap and take Exodus' entire right leg off from the kneecap down. Exodus tumbles to the ground but not before slamming Nia full force into the ground in the process creating a crater from the impact of the slam. Nia spits up blood and slowly crawls out of the hole and stand back up again. "You shouldn't underestimate us flesh eaters just because we're more human. Your nothing but a hypocrite." Nia begins to slowly heal everyone again as Exodus grabs his severed leg and holds it in place with a brace he created from one of his weapons. As Exodus gets up he realizes that he is running out of options.
'These damn humans are cornering me. I'll just have to attack even faster.' Exodus then proceeds to put rotator braces on each of his joints which takes up half of his available weapons. 'I'm only gonna have six weapons to use. My body can't move anymore without the rotator braces. They all seem low on ether. I'll have to end this now.
Exodus summons six dark ether cannons and blasts them at the still recuperating group. 'They can no longer dodge nor create a barrier strong enough to deflect this attack, but just in case.' Exodus teleports behind them as the shots are being fired and turns the cannons into six wind blades the all slash massive waves of wind in the opposite direction. 'And as a just in case again.' Exodus teleports into the air and changes his swords into three fire staffs and three earth staffs. "Rain from the heavens!" Suddenly a giant fiery meteor begins to fall from the sky. "This is the end."
"Oh crap, we can't survive that!" Rex looks on in bewilderment. "What do we do, what do we do?!"
"I've got this chum." Zeke begins to slowly get up.
"What are you gonna do? Use your 'eye of shining justice' or some nonsense like that? Shellhead you have to be serious right now." Nia scolds Zeke.
"I'm more than likely going to pass out from ether exhaustion after this so it's up to anyone else who is still conscious." Zeke replies seriously to all of them.
Zeke takes off his eyepatch to reveal his closed eye. "No behold the true power of the EYE OF SHINING JUSTICE!" Zeke opens his left eye to reveal an eye that has black sclera, bright blue iris, a pale blue pupil, and light blue veins coursing throughout the eye. Rex, Nia, Tora, and Poppi all look astonished at the eye. They all suddenly feel massive influxes in the ether around them to the point where they can see the ether physically warping around them. As the attacks Exodus shot earlier get closer they begin to become smaller and smaller until they disappear entirely before the attacks even hit them. Zeke yells out in pain as he absorbed the attack and his eye even produced a small trail of blood after absorbing the entire attack before Zeke faints from ether exhaustion.
Everyone is left speechless by Zeke's actions and for a moment even Exodus has his jaw on the ground at what just happened.
"What just happened?" Exodus asks in astonishment. "In all my years alive I have never seen a human do something like that before."
Rex looks over to him and shrugs his shoulders. "I have no idea. I've never seen him do that before." Rex gets serious again and ready's his sword. "I won't let you win this, no matter what."
"Rex..." Nia is very worried for her fiancee. She can tell by reading his ether signature that he's nearly entirely empty and yet he's still pushing his body to the absolute limits. 'He might only have enough in him for one more attack before he faints from ether exhaustion.' She looks over to Tora who isn't fairing much better. 'He only has about five minutes left I'd wager.' She looks around to see Morag, Mikhail, Zeke, and Dromarch all unconscious from ether exhaustion. 'I might be the only one left at the end of this.' The thought of having to fight Exodus one-on-one sends a chill down her spine.
'I can no longer use big scale attacks like that. My ether is too low.' Exodus looks at the remaining four with exhaustion. 'The boy's about to fall but I'm not sure how much longer I'll last.' Exodus heals up all his minor wounds and summons an axe imbued with the ice element that he slings across his shoulder. 'It'll have to be physical from this point onwards. I can only muster maybe one more teleport. I need to make it count.' "Pathetic fool. Your going to fall after this next attack. That isn't arrogance either, it's simply a fact." Exodus has slowed down drastically since this fight has began. He is now as fast as any other human. Without a word Exodus runs towards Rex and readies his axe for one swift cleave down the middle.
Right as he's about to make contact with Rex something unexpected happens. Rex side steps the attack and thrusts the sword full force with both hand right through the back of Exodus leaving the sword hilt deep in his chest.
"H-how was that... for a final attack..." Rex collapses on the ground and faints from exhaustion while Exodus falls onto both knees trying to push the weapon out of his chest.
"Y-you b-bastard... I won't let it... end like this!" Exodus coughs up a pool of blood onto the ground.
"Game Over." Nia pulls the blade out of Exodus' chest and leaves some of her water ether behind.
Realizing this Exodus tries to push the ether out of his body but doesn't have enough ether to release it in a wave again. "You disgusting flesh eater. How dare you betray us?" Exodus forces ice ether into his hands and immediately freezes the wound and all the blood and water ether in that area leading to a mound of ice forming where the stab wound was. "How dare you BETRAY YOUR FATHER?!"
"Wh-what?!" Nia is taken back by the last question. 'Father? This guy most certainly is not my Da. Just who the hell is this guy?!'
Distracting Nia worked and Exodus drove a hammer shot right into her abdomen shattering her entire rib cage and leaving her on the ground gasping for air as blood begins to fill her lungs. As Nia squirms helplessly to get her ether focused on the wound Exodus stomps his foot down on her crushed abdomen hard soliciting a jolt of excruciating pain that makes Nia cry out in agony.
"Where's your healing now you WORTHLESS DOG?!" Exodus continues to repeatedly stomp hard on Nia's chest creating even more pain throughout her body. Each stomp soliciting a blood curdling squelch.
'S-someone... help me... I'm gonna... I'm gonna... I'm gonna DIE!' Nia screams in terror internally as her vision begins to fade.
"Are you gonna die mutt? Are you just going to keel over and DI-" Suddenly there is a massive hole in Exodus chest and Exodus falls over on top of Nia.
"Monster hurt friends long enough." Tora says to Exodus. "Poppi, help Tora get Exodus off of friend Nia." Tora tells Poppi in a dead serious voice.
"Shall comply immediately." Poppi walks over to Exodus and throws him a good twenty feet away which causes Exodus to land on his head.
"NIA! IS FRIEND ALRIGHT?!" Tora screams scared at seeing Nia on deaths doorstep.
There is no response from Nia.
"Nia? NIA?! NIA SAY SOMETHING!"
There is still no response.
"no... No No NO NO NO! Friend can't die! Suppose to marry Rex-Rex and make big family. Not die like this." Tora begins to cry.
It begins to rain as Nia is still looking up at the sky with shallow eyes and dried blood sticking to her lips all the way down her collar bone.
'I can't m-move.' Exodus is laying on the ground with a massive hole in his chest and can't seem to move his limbs. 'I can no longer fight these people. I have to leave now or I will die. The only problem is that I can't move.' Exodus looks over to the scene happening in the distance. 'At least I took out that damn parasite.' Exodus' lips curl into a faint smile as he looks back up at the sky. 'Time to make use of that last teleport.' Exodus concentrates for almost a minute but eventually he teleports back to his temple once more.
"Masterpon, Exodus has just disappeared." Poppi solemnly warns her driver.
"He still alive?!" Tora yells in horror at letting Exodus get away. "B-but friend Nia is-"
"I-is... wh-what?... T-t-tora?"
Tora looks back over to Nia whose eyes are hazily looking at him in confusion.
"Meh Meh Meh! How friend still alive?! Tora though Exodus kill friend for second." Tora looks scared of Nia. "Is friend Nia a zombie?!"
"I-I... n-never... d-died... you idiot." Nia meekly responds.
"Tora think Nia was pretty dead there. Why didn't Nia say anything when Tora call out to you?"
"I... needed to heal... enough to speak. I'm still... healing even... now. It's pretty hard... to talk when... your entire chest... is caved in." Nia responds in a faint whisper as she closes her eyes.
"Will Nia be ok?"
"Eventually..."
"That great to hear!"
"Did we win?"
"Exodus got away." Tora glumly replies.
"God... dammit..." Nia says faintly. There is a short pause before Nia speaks again. "I'm probably gonna... take a nap from ether exhaustion soon... take care of all of us while I'm asleep..."
Tora looks incredibly worried at Nia. "Can friend survive nap while this beat up?"
"I'll survive... my lungs are fully healed and most of my ribs are healed as well."
"In that case, Tora promise to looks after all friends in your stead." Tora salutes Nia.
"Thank... you..." With that Nia falls asleep from ether exhaustion.
to be continued...
Authors Notes: Another long chapter. Sorry for this one taking longer to come out. I've been playing Final Fantasy 7 (Original not Remake) for the past few days and have been loving it. I enjoyed writing the fight scenes of this chapter and now Exodus is aware of the group. I bet you all weren't expecting Tora of all people to finish off Exodus ;). But anyways that's about it for this chapter. I look forward to seeing your thoughts in the comments as always and this is Exile Mansion signing off.