felinis:I've been taking breaks from playing definitve to write this... I am sooooo happy that it's out
The descent into the temple leads them down winding roads and various turns in attempt to make their quick way through all the while avoiding any rogue knight they occasionally come across. At one point there's a brief pause to take in a statue of an Entelexeia that seems to have been the temple deity, but for the most part, it consists of running down hallways and hoping they make it on time.
The real problem is that Yuri can't run like the rest and they have to take breaks while he waits for his stamina to return.
"Hey, Flynn," Karol says looking up at him with a tense look. "You uh...know what Yuri did, right?"
"Odd time to bring that up," Flynn says and gives Yuri a downcast look, "Yes. I do. Yuri's actions are serious crimes in the eyes of the Empire. To the Empire, he killed two influential men due to a personal grudge."
"A personal grudge?! Yuri was just trying to-" Karol is once more interrupted and the others are turning their heads to listen. Yuri didn't really tell Rita or Patty about this stuff- probably should have.
"I know. Yuri didn't do it for personal reasons alone." Flynn offers a hand and Yuri takes it struggling to pop fully upright for a second. "But that's how the law sees it. And that's not because the Empire is corrupt or anything like that. There is corruption but the whole of it just needs some amendments and Alexei is sadly part of it and I'm ashamed my respect for him blinded me from that."
Judith gives a small hum as they travel further down the narrow corridor. "But do you really think what he did was wrong?"
"Murder should never be the answer for problems of that level. I won't say the world isn't better off with them gone but I refuse to say he has the right to act such harshness."
Rita yells at them from a distance to hurry themselves along and they do so till they finally reach a guarded entrance that appears to be fortified with a barrier as well. They decide subterfuge is their best bet so from a distance Rita quietly begins to cast one of her more violent spells knocking the knights out. Unfortunately, it does little to change the fact that the door is still locked.
But, it does get interesting when Duke decides to make an entrance. "You... How is the young lady - the Child of the Full Moon?"
"Alexei's got her somewhere up ahead!" Karol says kicking at the barrier in frustration.
"...I see. So he has made his move."
"Are you here because of him, too?" With all the cruelty Alexei has caused in all his chaos Yuri wouldn't be surprised on the matter in the least.
"The aer krene in this region has become severely imbalanced. I have come to restrain it." Duke says looking seemingly past the barrier towards a goal.
"...By restrain, you mean you actually have a way to do that?" Rita looks to the sword her mind probably racing with potential answers.
"To quiet the aer krene, the cause of the imbalance must be removed."
Judith balks, "Just come out and say it. You mean kill Estelle."
Yuri steps forward and puts himself between the Duke's blade and the entrance. "What is it with blaming all the world's problems on a single girl?"
"An unstable Child of the Full Moon cannot be ignored." He says, "You of all people should know that."
"How can you be so hard headed? I thought as a human, you'd see things differently." Yuri spits because he's sick and tired of all this. Monsters, poisons, existences that should be, people who deserve to die- it's all such bullshit. Nobody gets born on purpose and nobody asks to be born different Estelle- him- fucking everybody wants to live.
"Our common bond as humans is nothing. A single life cannot be privileged over the fate of the world." Duke sighs and looks ready to push him away, but Yuri gets closer- stares him down.
"Yeah, never mind that without a bunch of those single lives, there'd be no world. Listen. She may be a bumbling, sheltered excuse for a princess, but she's one of ours." Yuri won't stand for Estelle to be talked down to- to be treated like him. Estelle is better than him. She's honest, good, accepting- she's something this world tries to stamp out of you from day one that Yuri wishes he'd ever known. Okay, her power could end the world but that's an if- a maybe- a possibility and one of hundreds. "She's none of your concern. So back off!"
"Do you say that knowing just how great a threat her existence poses?" Duke hisses. "Do you not even care that she in all likelihood shortened your life by decades unknowingly? She is a threat."
Yuri steps closer. "She is my friend! And I will help her with everything left in me. What we know's got nothing to do with it. Our motto is always do what's right. And if that means having to get up close and personal with you, then so be it."
The tensions in the air built between the group finally snaps as Duke holds his sword out to Yuri. "Very well son of Lowell. Show me your resolve with this sword and prove to me as an Entelexeia the Child of the Full Moon is justified. This is Dein Nomos. It is the only manner in which the aer may be quieted."
Yuri holds it carefully between both his misshapen hands knowing the name well. Dein Nomos- the sword missing needed for the imperial line of succession. "What are you doing with it? Why does something like that have the power to control the aer? Who are you?"
"The answers to those questions are not what you should be seeking now. Go, before you are too late." Duke turns but not before giving one last cryptic message. "Learn yourself the true weight of your birthright." Before seeming to vanish into thin air around a corner.
As they all stare in confusion it's Karol who finally speaks up again, "I will never get that guy." Everyone's agreement on that is universal before they all drift back to the beautiful sword now in Yuri's hands watching as the metal actually changes from a blood red to a dark plum. It's hard to hold even with both hands but he feels a power thrum through it that leaves him letting out a whistle in amazement.
He struggles a moment but the power- the shift he can see and feel in the aer changes in an instant as the barrier shatters. He gasps and drops the sword as a sharp pain drives in his chest and the usual panic from everyone occurs until he gets his bearings.
Rita picks up Dein Nomos and gives it a quick scan. "…That formula, it's just like Estelle's. So that sword really is..."
Yuri looks at the sleek surface of the blade once Rita hands it back. "I can't believe this is Dein Nomos...
the proof of imperial succession."
"Yuri, you can become the emperor!" Karol chirps and Yuri quickly passes the sword over to Flynn. Not like he can really use it in a fight anyway.
"This is just for decoration. I wouldn't wanna be the emperor even if I could. I think someone who can actually use it like Flynn would do a better job." Yuri chuckles.
Patty tsks, "Shouldn't you have more aspirations as a young man?"
"My biggest aspiration right now is to stay a sentient person for longer than a month. I'm pretty sure I'd last less than a minute in Zaphias."
Flynn holds the sword with immense pride as he balances it in his hands watching as the color shifts from the again from the purple tone it had taken in Yuri's hands to a dark blue, "The lost proof of imperial succession... The strife surrounding the throne could be traced back to when that sword went missing. Could Duke have stolen it?"
"It's a possibility," Yuri says.
"Duke went around using that sword to control aer krene..." Judith adds as she gestures for them to resume moving.
"That sword...it produced the same phenomenon as Estelle did. Maybe the Rizomata Formula was already worked out once before? But then, why was that information lost? Maybe it's related to the cataclysm, like the way that the blastia were lost?" Rita says along the way her pace slowing more than Yuri is fine with for the moment and tells her to hurry up. They have a princess to rescue.
The hallways are just as much of labyrinth as they were in the other room but the thing that Yuri notes more is the traps they fall into due to a lack of light till Rita finally gets frustrated enough to sit and construct a lamp in the span of ten minutes. After that, it's a straight shot ahead towards Alexei. Towards saving Estelle.
She's forced to watch Alexei through all the pain as he squeezes her life from her like an orange and crushes Astal under his heel. She can do nothing but beg unable to break free as Alexei mocks her. "Alone, you are nothing more than a poisonous blight to this world. I'm sure you understand that now."
No! She's not! She knows she's not! Everyone has proved that to her time and time again, she's not just something awful in this world because they want her… But at the same time-
Estelle truly only ever seems to cause suffering, her eyes well with tears. No, she promised Rita she'd be strong and she wants to live. She This will pass! This tragedy will pass and then she- they all can-
"ESTELLE!" They come in like a prayer and she tries to grip the walls of her prison once more annoying the way it burns into her hands.
"Yuri! Flynn! Everyone!" She cries both in relief and fear.
Rita puts herself in her casting stance giving her a warm smile, "Estelle, we're going to save you right now!"
Alexei snorts as he looks down at them from the altar stairs. "You are incapable of saving this princess. I am her only hope for salvation."
"Spare me!" Yuri growls.
"The most glorious moment for any tool is when it is finally used." Alexei looks at the one of the many apatheia in his hands with such a soft and disturbed smile. "There are so many tools just waiting to be used and cultivated that went ignored. Even the poison of this world can be a blessing if used correctly And only I can do that."
Flynn rushes forward sword raised with Judith and Estelle tries to warn them again as Alexei effortlessly raises a hand roaring with laughter as they're knocked back. He looks to Astal and repeatedly charges him with volts of her power and Estelle hates it- hates that she can't stop it.
"Weren't you Entelexeia supposed to be masters of this world?" Alexei roars with a mad joy as Astal gives a final gasp of pain before dissolving into an apatheia. "Oh, how disappointing. He's dead." He picks it up looking at it like it's a marble he saw on the street rather than the soul of someone who's died… instead of as a corpse.
Why? Why does her power have to hurt others? Why does it have to kill?
"Smaller than I would have hoped. No matter. It can be used in any number of ways." Yuri leaps for the alter sword ready but is kicked in the stomach with ease rolling down the stairs. "Ah, you've come this far. Now, be baptized in the aer your dear princess charged with her own hands! Why not become something useful towards the empire."
Estelle screams as she tries to hold in the power Alexei is taking from her but it just spills from her hands like the tears on her cheeks. Please! Stop it! Stop hurting the people she loves! Stop hurting the world she cherishes! Stop taking them from her!
Why? Why? Why? Why? Why did she have to be born with this power?
Through all the noise and the pain, a glimmer of hope comes in Flynn wielding a sword in his hands aloft as her power is dispersed and the air returns to her lungs. Alexei's eyes gleam as he stares at the sword in Flynn's hand.
"...What irony. That which I have searched for all these years..." He turns to Estelle and laughs again, "That it would arrive at my feet only when I no longer have a need for it. With the Child of the Full Moon, the apatheia, the cores, and my knowledge, Dein Nomos means nothing to me."
"Talk to yourself a lot, huh? Not a good sign. Now shut up and let Estelle go!" Yuri raises his sword again and Estelle hates that a part of her wants him to run. To just leave her and get to safety.
"Are you certain that is what the Princess wants?" Alexei says and she looks out to all of them. All these people that she cares about, that she wants to learn better, that she wants to have a life with.
"Please, just go. As long as I'm with you all I'll only cause you harm." She makes out through broken sobs her hands reaching out for them through the glass even as her gloves burn away. Another attack is forced through her and she shuts her eyes. "I...I can't take this.."
The smell of ozone and singed flesh from her attacks, the sound of them in screaming in pain, the knowledge that she's the sword hurting them. She's the weapon.
"Fuck you, Alexei." Yuri spits from the floor.
Alexei stands over Yuri and grabs him by the neck. "Now now, Mister Yuri Lowell. Such brash behavior does not befit a young lady's escort. Not very gentlemanly of you at all."
"Sorry for my lack of manners. There aren't many gentlemen where I'm from." Yuri spits, "And my dad was a right monster."
"That sword is nothing more than an annoyance now and thanks to you we've practically perfected the cores. Right now, you are nothing more than livestock to be slaughtered." Estelle watches as Alexei tosses him to the floor and gestures to the knights. "Take care of this."
She can only watch as the knights surround them as Alexei walks away and she pounds on her prison again. "No! You can't! You can't!"
As the Vesperia crew finally returned to their feet they watched the legendary Captain Shwann make his arrival and Repede smelt it first.
"That's… that's Raven." Repede barked and Shwann chuckled.
"...I suppose there's no fooling the nose of a dog."
The faces of everyone fall as they see it really is Raven. His hair finally down and dressed in a Captain's uniform.
"One of the Union's most important members is a captain in the Knights?" Rita gaps but it's Karol who looks like he might cry.
"Wait! But what about the Don, Raven...?" Karol chokes, "I knew there was… but I never expected this."
Flynn's sword shakes. "First the Commandant and now you... Why?! Have I ever respected and admired anyone that was worth it in the knights?"
Shwann pays them no mind but holds his sword at the ready. "You're not really thinking of trying to
stop us, are you?"
"Schwann Oltorain, First Captain of the Imperial Knights. Ready to do battle."
And with that, it starts, for an old man he moves like the win. Faster, stronger, better than they ever saw him fight before. Who knew the old man was a beast with the sword? Yuri's as an absolute klutz in battle despite his attempts and it can't be helped. They knew this. Knew that he was a liability in battle because his swings at the moment are janky and wide. So he focuses on playing bait as the easy target while Flynn makes a point to occupy him with his blade. Judith and Patty try to distract him from the side but his eyes are sharp and it's enough for him to knock out Patty, as good a fighter she may be, for a time.
Karol watches… watches and asks again for a reason. "I am not Raven!" Is the answer as Karol holds the axe as a guard before Raven backflips over Rita's fireball and knocks her to the ground.
"Dammit!" Karol screams and charges forward through all the fighting. "I respected you! I thought you were cool!" Karol pushed past Flynn swinging over and over to try and hit the slippery man.
Shwann their weapons clashed and in that moment he let out an arte that turned the battlefield into one enormous vortex of radiation. It burns and tears into Karol's skin, but he holds strong and stays upright. He's going to be strong enough this time! He's going to do what he has to! He's not some little kid! He's the leader of Brave Vesperia. "I thought when this was over you could be my family!"
In a split second of the arte fading as the axe broke past the sword, Shwann hesitated in his moves and he wasn't sure why. Why was this getting to him? He's not Raven right now. He's just… he's…
In the end, not even Karol expected this would be the result of his action- Shwann watched the surreal sight of something that's was a part of fall to the ground, the pain came second.
"No… way- I- this isn't-"
Karol takes in the sight of the dismembered hand on the ground. He was aiming to disarm him… Why? Raven should have- No! Shwann looks at the bloodied stump that's dripping onto the floor as he screams in pain but runs again only this time another blow comes from Judith who takes a swipe at his chest knocking him back to the ground again.
A cough of blood comes as he grips at his wrist that Karol is desperately standing over casting any healing artes he knows on. Raven can't die! "...I would have thought such a blow would be the end of me...of this cursed body. That was a good hit kiddo."
"What the... Is that a blastia in his chest?!" Rita says as she sees through the broken cloth armor what was hidden by heavy clothing prior.
"...It's his heart." Judith says and hesitates to help Karol as she grabs the left hand. "Or rather a blastia that has taken its place. We may still be able to reattach it."
"Don't bother." He groans. "Once you start using healing artes the nerves have already closed." He grits his teeth and lets out a sad laugh "I lost my life during that war. But Alexei saw fit to give it back to me with this."
"So that must be a Hermes blastia as well. Why did Ba'ul not notice it then...?" Judith says.
"I would imagine that is because it isn't powered by aer, but by my own life force." He pulls away from them and stands tall with the sword now in his remaining hand.
Rita starts to mention the impossible nature of all this but then the temple starts shaking and the exit collapses behind them. Patty runs to the rubble looking it over, "This is bad! We're locked in!"
"...That would be Alexei. He intends to bury you alive." Shwann says tossing the sword to the ground.
"No way, with you still inside?" Flynn's narrow.
"He couldn't pass up a chance to dispose of that sword, now that it's of no use to him. And really he doesn't care that much about losing Yuri now that he got what he wanted. You were simply a nice bonus." So, in the end, it was all a trap.
"Hey, old man! This is no time to be standing around!" Rita shouts but Shwann ignores her.
Instead, he leans against one of the walls and looks up at the crumbling ceiling. "The end has finally
arrived for me."
Yuri is sick of everyone wanting to fucking die around here! Or more accurately he's sick of everyone, himself included, being okay with dying. Why should they be? Yuri digs his claws into Shwann's torn clothes and pulls him up. "Who said you just get to lay down and die right here? Even if all your travels with us were just some joke to you are you trying to tell me your anger at the Don's death was just an act, too? I wasn't there but I damn well heard what happened! I saw your respect and admiration for him!"
"I thought the guilds never quit until the job was done. I thought you had a fucking responsibility to go on living till the end!" Yuri digs deeper. "You don't get the right to fucking lie down and die when others are counting on you. You don't deserve to just walk away from this! The only one who should be dying in this group is me!"
"Man, you really can be a downer sometimes, ya know that?" Shwann stands up and retracts a bow from his belt. "This is gonna be a pain." With great difficulty, he sets the arrow and asks for someone to hold it steady. In an instant, the arrow collides with the rubble sending an explosion of such precision it manages to make a sizeable passageway.
They hurry as the roof continues to shake Karol and Patty making it through first with Rita not far behind. It's then the roof finally starts caving in and for a moment it seems like the end.
It's not though. Holding the rubble up with even his stumped wrist stands Raven screaming at them to hurry. "Alexei's headed for the capital. There he'll implement the final stages of his plan. I'm not sure why but I think he's planning on doing to the citizens what he did to Flynn…"
It's a struggle to pull Karol along when he's screaming for them to stop. But ultimately they run out of Baction with their lives barely intact through falling debris and rubble. They need to get to the ship, get to Zaphias, get back to where it all started.
Sofor a very long time I kept thinking that I was going cut off somebodies hand. I just wasn't sure who until now