*IMPORTANT A/N: I've gotten complaints about my design choices for Kuksedra's dialogue, that it's annoying and difficult to read; I apologize for the inconvenience, but that is actually kind of the point. The idea is that Kuksedra is eons older than the inherently flawed concept of language, and is also a higher power that doesn't need language the way we do; the trouble is, mortal minds are so dependent on the concept of language that they need Kuksedra's messages to be conveyed in words in order to understand them, and so have to translate what he's trying to convey into imperfect words. What results is an extremely subjective approximation of what Kuksedra is trying to say, along with the splitting headache that comes with trying to comprehend something mortal brains aren't meant to be able to comprehend (like infinity). FUN FACT: Of the five heroes listening to Kuksedra talk, no two of them heard the exact same words - the gist is the same, but the specific words used were different for each of them, depending on their individual personalities and perspectives on the world, because the entity himself is not in fact using words. So yeah, the fact that he's kind of annoying to read, that's intentional. Apologies again for the inconvenience and the headaches, and I guarantee there will be no more monologues from Kuksedra from here on out.
Darkness poured from Kuksedra's massive form and into Niko as the sound of his unspeakable name filled the skypulse, and she rose up to meet him, swelling and morphing as the primal deity merged with her physical body and made it his own. The process would clearly take a while, as a testament to just how incomprehensibly massive Kuksedra's being was; Zaveid quickly stepped forward and launched a purification-laced wind arte at the forming monstrosity, but it shredded and dissolved into nothing long before it reached Niko.
"Such power," the Prime Lord gasped. "I can't get anywhere near her."
"Well, duh," Edna said dully; "the flames of purification burn malevolence, but not even their creator was designed with malevolence's actual source in mind." Out of the corner of his eye, Eizen saw her shrug. "Well, we're screwed. Nice knowing you guys."
"Don't say that, Edna!" Eizen admonished, turning around to face all of his comrades as they clustered together. "There's got to be a way through this."
All four seraphim made similar grimaces, the faces of people who each didn't want to be the one to crush someone's spirit but felt there was nothing else to say.
"Look how far we've come," Eizen told them firmly, taking a hand off of Stormhowl briefly to gesture at their surroundings. "We're in the skypulse, where no humans or seraphim have ever been; we have answers even the Five Lords don't have, we know things even the seraphim of the Heavenly Realm don't know. We've found the actual source of malevolence itself, we know why it still happens and we can stop it if we destroy its master. We have its master right in front of us!" He shook his head. "We've made it this far, guys; we can't stop now!"
"We've made it far enough to know that we're up against a primal deity who could easily crush any Great Lord if given a body," Edna pointed out. "In other words, we've made it far enough to know that we're screwed."
"So what, we just give up?!" Eizen countered. "What good has giving up ever done, for any of us?! If we despair, we're just handing the world to Kuksedra on a silver platter!"
"But would that be such a bad thing?"
Surprisingly, the question came from Sahra, who had been mostly silent since Kuksedra's story had concluded, and was currently staring at the black crystal ground, toying with her braid thoughtfully, her green eyes brimming with sadness.
"Humans were never supposed to exist," she said softly; "they were abominations, created when a primal deity betrayed her own duties. And seraphim…they only came about because the protector gods were fighting, or at least their precursors did. All of this…I mean, it is all because the First Light committed several crimes. Would it really be so bad for the First Shadow to have his way with the world? Maybe he'd…do better than we think."
"A world full of only Darkness would be hell," Zaveid stated firmly, and everyone turned to him to see his orange eyes glinting with certainty. "It's like His Royal Darkness said, it takes light to see the people around you. If no one ever saw anyone else and just did whatever they wanted, they would destroy each other without a second thought. Even I, sinner though I may be, have always had some boundaries, lines I've never crossed; if I'd agreed to Kuksedra's proposal, I wouldn't care about those boundaries anymore. Now expand that concept to every single individual life form on the planet, plus all the power hellions have compared to normal living things. That's the kinda world he would make."
"So everyone would just kill each other?" Lucine asked.
"No," Eizen answered for Zaveid, "and that's the worst part. Maotelus said there's a veil between life and death that no known power can transcend, but…something about Kuksedra's true name tells me he'd be able to transcend it, that that's kind of his job; he would make sure no one crossed that threshold, no one would ever die. So everyone would just tear each other apart without being able to kill each other…it would be worse than hell. Destruction would be the law, with no end." He gave Sahra a meaningful look. "No weary bones would ever find peaceful rest, ever again."
Sahra closed her eyes and nodded, acknowledging the signature of the guild that had been born from the one she had founded. "You're right," she sighed, "that would be…the worst thing. Maybe Kuksedra thinks he can make a better world, but if that's really the world he aims to create, I don't want that."
"For the record, I don't think he believes that's the world he's making," Zaveid said; "he really thinks he's got it all figured out, and can make a good world without Light. But he's kinda gone crazy out of rage and grief, and even when everything goes to hell, he wouldn't realize it - he'd still see it as better than what it is now, and nothing would ever tell him he was wrong. So…there won't be any ending it, once it's done."
"Then let's stop it!" Eizen encouraged. "Come on, there has to be a way."
"Like what?" Edna asked drily.
"I…" Eizen shrugged helplessly. "I'm open to suggestions?"
Everyone frowned thoughtfully, and Eizen assessed the situation as best he could, but there didn't seem to be any real solution. How exactly was one supposed to fight a primal deity given physical form? Even the God Blade was just a mortal creation, it couldn't kill a literal god…
"Zaveid?"
Eizen perked up at the sound of Lucine's voice, and she flushed as everyone turned to her in sudden hope.
"I-I don't have any ideas," she said apologetically, wincing, before turning back to her Prime Lord. "I just…I just wanted to say…it was really noble, what you did back there, rejecting Kuksedra's offer like that," she managed shyly. "I could feel what it cost you, it took a lot of willpower. And…I want you to know that…I don't think you're a scoundrel, or a coward, or a bastard - a man who was any of those things wouldn't have had the strength to make the choice you did." Her blush deepened, her eyes brimming with - love, Eizen realized, she was looking at Zaveid with pure, heartfelt love. "I…I'm honored that I ever got to know you, as little time as we may have had," she finished.
Several emotions crossed Zaveid's face as he met Lucine's tender gaze. "Oh, don't you start talking like that, angel," he told her, shaking his head. "Don't act like this is our last stand. We'll find a way out of this, we always do." The wind seraph shifted uncomfortably for a moment, then abruptly reached out and grabbed Lucine's hand. "Hey," he murmured, hesitantly but firmly, "I'm not gonna let anything happen to you."
These were words Zaveid would never have said - to anyone - unless he really and truly believed he was about to die; Eizen could feel the despair in his voice, and he knew Lucine and probably Edna could as well.
"That's a nice sentiment and all," Sahra remarked, folding her arms behind her head, "but I'm not hearing any ideas about how to follow through on it."
"Well, do you have any suggestions?" Zaveid snapped.
"Nope," Sahra answered frankly. "Honestly, even if Eizen armatized with all four of us at once, it still probably wouldn't be enough."
"Armatized with-!" Eizen gasped, turning to Edna, and he saw her own eyes were wide as they met his, understanding flashing between them. "Sahra…that might actually be exactly what we need to do!"
"Huh?" Sahra asked.
"A Mana Wheel," Edna told her comrades. "A hypothetical arte created by concentrating multiple forces that are both complimentary and contradictory into the same specific spot, which would then generate enough power to overwhelm a Great Lord. Mikleo talked about it once."
"My mother created a Mana Wheel when she sealed Innominat away," Eizen picked up, "because she was part of Innominat, and used the power that that gave her to trap him."
"But the four elements combined would work the same way, since they have a cyclical relationship," Edna added. "I used the same principle to save the holy tree in Marlind - it wasn't a full Mana Wheel, but it did produce enough power to destroy a curse that spanned the extent of the tree's roots."
"So the power a full Mana Wheel would generate might just be enough," Eizen concluded. "And if I armatize with all four of you at once, that should result in a Mana Wheel, since you aren't just sharing a vessel while living in different places in me but actually all sharing the same exact point in space."
"Armatize with all of us at once?" Lucine repeated. "Is that safe?"
"Forget safe, is that even possible?" Sahra asked.
"It'll have to be," Eizen stated, and he turned back around to look up at Niko, who hadn't finished taking in all of Kuksedra yet. We have time. "I'm gonna do it," he declared, planting Stormhowl point-down in the crystalized malevolence that made up the ground they stood on before turning back around. He eyed his comrades, thinking about the implications of what he was about to do carefully. "I can't say all four of your true names simultaneously," he finally said, "so Zaveid, I'm going to start with you, since you're the Prime Lord. Next will be Lucine-"
"Why Lucine?" Zaveid asked, shifting to move in front of the water seraph in what was clearly an unconscious gesture.
"Her element doesn't conflict with yours one way or the other, so holding both in the same place will be less dangerous than if earth or fire came after you," Eizen explained. He glanced between the other two seraphim, and couldn't help but base his next choice on his aversion to hurting his family. "Sahra will go third, if we make it that far," he decided, "and then Edna will join last. Okay?"
"Worth a shot," Edna shrugged.
"Yes," Lucine nodded; "we are left with no better recourse."
"I'm in," Sahra agreed.
"Let's do it," Zaveid concurred.
"Right," Eizen sighed. He took a deep breath, lifted his left hand, and called out, "Fylk Zahdeya!"
By now, the sensation of merging with his wind seraph uncle was familiar to Eizen, but this time he focused on the way the wind mana that gave Zaveid form meshed with his own flesh…and as the merge completed, he noticed a problem.
"This isn't going to work," he said right away. "Not like this, at least."
Why not? Zaveid asked.
"Because we aren't completely as one," Eizen replied; "your form and mine are the same, but we're still two separate people…and the problem is, I'm not the one who has to armatize with the others; you need to armatize with them, to make a Mana Wheel."
So…?
"So we need to combine our minds, not just our bodies," Eizen said. "You need to be as one with me, Zaveid. Say it with me. As one. As one. As one."
Zaveid took up the chant, if uncertainly. As one, he said, as one, as one…
"As one…"
As one…
"As one…"
As one…
As…one…
Suddenly, Eizen's head filled with all the knowledge and experience of a being more than two thousand years old; a moment later, he was no longer Eizen, he was both Eizen and Zaveid, and Zaveid was both Zaveid and him, they were one person, two souls as one entity. Together, they lifted their left hand again.
"Melphis Amekia!" they shouted.
Just like that, Lucine was with them, her power trying to force the wind mana out of the way so water mana could take its place; Eizen and Zaveid both held on, trying to take her in without disrupting their own existence. With us, Lucine, they told the water seraph as she struggled to mesh with them. As one. As one.
As one, she also chanted, her tone fearful. As one. As one…as one…
And she was there, melting into the shared consciousness of two that was now three, water mana and wind mana occupying the same space. As predicted, the two elements didn't conflict, and so coexisted, vibrating in peaceful harmony.
They raised their left hand again. "Vuswos Kakwa!" the three shouted with one voice.
Sahra came to them, fire mana trying to shove its way into where water and wind hummed together. As one, Sahra, said the three united beings, as one with us. As one. As one.
As one, she joined in, certain and strong. As one, as one, as one, as one!
Fire flowed into them, taking its rightful place between wind and water, as the fire seraph's mind and being joined the three who were one, making them four. A moment later, however, the shared body began to twitch and spasm - water wanted to flow into fire, and fire wanted to flow into wind, but wind had nowhere to go, and the stuttering jarred them as they struggled to maintain their being. Though it was difficult, they forced their left hand into the air one last time.
"Hephsin Yulind!"
When Edna came to them, she almost joined automatically, earth mana being all that the shared body now lacked; but though her essence merged of its own accord, her mind, stoic and steadfast, didn't amalgamate with them so easily.
With us, Edna, said the four together. As one. As one.
As one, Edna agreed reluctantly. As one, as one, as one, as one…
…as…one…
Five were one, and just like that, it was done. Earth slotted into place, and the Mana Wheel was complete: four elements, and one physical being containing them all. Immediately, it began to turn, water to fire, fire to wind, wind to earth, and earth to water, over and over and over, spinning quickly, mana building fast, amplifying with each passing moment, stronger than the sum of its parts, stronger than any of the Five Lords, stronger than-
"AAAAAAAAAAH!"
Pain exploded through their shared body, a body that was not meant to contain such power, there was too much mana, and they screamed together as the Mana Wheel kept turning, growing, tearing them apart from within, unstoppable and uncontrollable; they desperately tried to contain the power, but it would not be held still, it grew and grew and grew and there was nothing they could do about it. Before long, it would kill them, there was no other possible outcome.
It doesn't matter if it kills us, came the thought, from one or several of them, if not all, it was impossible to say; as long as we destroy Kuksedra first, that's all that's important. We have to do what we came here to do, no matter the sacrifice.
With what little control they could muster, they turned around and reached, slowly, painfully, for the hilt of the sword embedded in the ground they stood on, wrapping their shared hands around the hilt…
…and the God Blade responded.
Mana poured into the sword, and it soaked up all the power eagerly, easing the burden on the mortal body that couldn't contain it. Energy flowed into the blade, filled it, then flowed back into them, but even in doing that, it was no longer destructive, instead entering a cycle - sword, body, sword, body, even as more and more mana came from the turning of the wheel. A memory arose from somewhere in their shared consciousness, of maintaining a conveyor belt of mana to purify a tree at an earthpulse point: the power generated could not be held in place, but so long as it had somewhere to go, it could be channeled and used. With Stormhowl acting as a conduit, this power, power that far outmatched any of the Five Lords, could be controlled. Even so, though, it was far more power than a regular mortal body could contain, that body was simply too small.
So, it got bigger.
Mana filled the spaces between physical fibers and expanded, from the skin all the way down to the bones, and they grew, expanding, transforming into a giant vessel that could use the Mana Wheel safely.
As their new being finished reforming, five minds opened one pair of eyes and looked up, to see that Niko and Kuksedra, too, had finished merging. What stood before them now was a massive dark dragon, no longer incomprehensible to mortal eyes; light glinted at its eyes and teeth, reddish light, but the scales were solid and black, even as malevolence rose off of them like smoke. Compared to this primal being given flesh - which was surely much smaller than Kuksedra was normally - the five united heroes were about as big as a normal human was compared to a normal dragon. As the shared consciousness took in the monstrosity, armatized Kuksedra opened its jaws and unleashed a torrent of black fire, clearly meaning to wipe them all out in one moment. They pulled Stormhowl from the crystalized ground and raised it; it also had grown to massive size, glowing white with raw power that moved through it, the conduit still taking and giving as power flowed to it and back. As the black fire bore down on them, that power flowed outward into a shield, and it blocked the malevolent flames, which dissipated harmlessly to the side, not coming anywhere near them.
"WHAT?!"
The assault ended, and the five shifted from their defensive pose. At last, they faced off, reddish eyes meeting a being made more of mana than flesh, a Mana Wheel given consciousness.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" cried the primal deity through his own vessel, the words both of sound and of mind.
Five heroes united tightened their grip on the hilt of the armatized blade. "In light or in darkness," they declared, all their voices speaking as one, "we will not fail!"
Words served no further purpose here; the two entities charged at each other, and the final fight for the soul of the earth itself began.*
Somewhere within the shared consciousness was knowledge of how to fight with a two-handed sword, and that knowledge was shared by all of them now as they dove into battle, swinging the massive, glowing weapon at the physical manifestation of a primal deity, using moves that balanced deadly precision and grace with devastating strength and speed. In response, the monster lashed its tail, swung its claws, butted its head and snapped its jaws, black fire trailing behind its every movement, black fire that stung briefly whenever it touched the armatized five before it was burned away. Similarly, armatized Stormhowl left trails of light in its wake that the beast's body burned away, hopefully after dealing some small amount of damage likewise. Kuksedra roared through the mouth Niko gave him, and in his voice, there was also Niko, her fury, her passion. It was a battle of hearts and wills, a battle of ideals, a battle of gods. Within the shared body of the five, one of the shared consciousnesses seemed to carry a hunger for battle that made every blow a thrill; with each strike they landed on the dark dragon, the Mana Wheel seemed to be forced to spin faster for a moment, producing even more mana.
And the Mana Wheel did turn, generating more and more mana, mana that slowly filled its massive vessel, even as big as they were. Somewhere in their minds, a realization came that they were still at risk of being consumed and torn apart by the growing energy if it got out of hand, and they leapt back and swung the glowing blade they wielded, trying to cast out some of the power. A bit of it was flung from them and flew at the dark god in a massive saber, and the dragon roared as it was blasted by pure, unfathomable energy. Still, the monster kept coming, determined to destroy this last obstacle between it and a world without Light.
More and more, the five became one, and it was as though they all had fought using the Rangetsu style their whole lives as they leapt out of the way of the monster's blows. When another blast of dark fire came for them, they lifted the sword as a shield to block, and the black flames ate away at the power pouring out of them to keep them safe - if that malevolent burn kept up long enough, it might have pierced through to them, but Kuksedra didn't seem to be able to muster enough black fire at once. Still, they tried to dodge when they could, keep the power building, filling their reserves.
Light flashed, darkness exploded, every motion would have been enough to destroy an island back on the planet the heroes had come from. One or more of them wondered if any of this was visible to the people below, if any mortals could look at the sky and see the battle being waged over their fate as the ancient war between gods began anew. Slowly, the champion of Light and the embodiment of Darkness chipped away at each other, each desperate to bring about their own end to the cycle that had cursed the world for tens of thousands of years.
Neither gave any quarter at first, but then, within the shared consciousness, a question arose: What if we gather all the power we can, then unleash it all at once? It was an idea that might just put an end to the battle, and they started to conserve their strength, striking and dodging, blocking only when they had to. Energy grew, mana filled them, and they held onto it, even as it began to burn them, their very essence consumed by raw, burning power, power no living thing was ever meant to know. Not yet, they thought, not yet, hold it, just a little longer…
Finally, as they evaded another swipe of a black tail, they reached their maximum capacity for mana, any more and it would destroy them.
"As one!" they shouted.
A domain froze time, and they lifted their sword over their shoulder and sheathed it in the scabbard that had also grown.
"We call upon the base elements of nature," they intoned: "the water that flows with nurturing peace; the fire that burns with unquavering passion; the wind that blows freely and can never be tethered; the earth that holds steadfast and firm through the ages."
Each element, as it was named, arose from within their burning body, and four lights - blue, red, green, and yellow - swirled around them. An upcurrent lifted them high above their foe, and they reached their hands up; with the elements dancing along their fingers, they speared their way through the very fabric of the skypulse, through the mortal world, and straight into the Heavenly Realm, light burning their fingertips.
"We call upon the flames of Heaven," they declared, "the Light that shall burn through all Darkness, from the beginning of time until its end, and will never be smothered."
With all the strength of a fully-charged Mana Wheel, they pulled the rip in the fabric of reality wide open. Searing light poured out of the split and onto them, and they pushed it wider, planting their mana-forged palms against the edges as they put their back into it, then adding their feet as they tore the rift open even further. Rather than risk looking at the power they were unleashing, they kept their back to the incandescence, opening their eyes to look down on the black figure far below.
"In the name of the deceased primal deity!" they shouted.
Their eyes met the gaze of the dark dragon, and a blessing that had joined their shared existence immediately picked up on all the emotions behind Kuksedra's expression: pain, wonder, fear, remorse, rage, hatred, sorrow, longing, and so many others. But those didn't matter now, not when Heaven's power was filling them, their body merely a lens that would concentrate and direct it. As they unleashed the full blast of Heaven's wrath, they screamed,
"FINAL LIGHT!"
White-hot, unfathomable energy burst through them in a beam, launched directly at Kuksedra. The black beast screamed as it was struck in the chest, thrown onto its back and pinned as scorching energy blasted it, piercing through the armatized five as they held on, all the power they'd saved holding open the rift to the Heavenly Realm as it slowly began to pour out with Heaven's fury. For a good minute, they were able to maintain the blast, but eventually, reality was stronger than their will, and the rift began to close on them. They struggled, trying to maintain it, but it was no use; as the last of the mana they'd saved ran dry, the hole snapped shut, spitting them back onto the ground, where they fell heavily, spent and exhausted, their engorged limbs aching.
They tried to shift, to pick themselves up, but they simply lacked the strength - the body they controlled was many times the size of any individual mortal body, and even five mortal strengths combined couldn't move it. Within them, the Mana Wheel stuttered, a wheel with a broken axle, trying to turn but too overworked to keep going. Using everything they had, they rolled their head just enough that they could see Kuksedra, claws flailing skywards, covered in glowing white cracks that spread from where its body had been struck. The creature seemed equally incapacitated, but as they watched it struggle, slowly, very slowly, the far ends of the cracks began to seal back up, and the beast rolled over, working to stand.
No.
The Mana Wheel kept stuttering, even as the melded consciousness attached to it tried to get it to turn again - they needed to get up, they needed to move out of the way as Kuksedra and Niko rose to their feet and stumbled towards them, gaining strength with every moment.
Ka-chunk…ka-chunk…ka-chunk, went the disabled mechanism. Ka-chunk…ka-chunk…ka-chunk…THUNK!
At the last moment, the Mana Wheel righted itself, the four elements that composed it syncing into place again, and it turned, energy pouring out of it and into its vessel, flooding the limbs with strength. Massive black talons came down on where they lay, but they rolled over and out of the way, just barely evading the blow. Struggling to their feet, they reached over their shoulder and drew Stormhowl again. Armatized Kuksedra turned on them, its reddish eyes gleaming, as realization dawned on the heroes:
Even with all the power of the Heavenly Realm, we can't kill a primal deity.
Maybe, if they cast the Mystic Arte again, if they saved up power and hit the monster with Final Light multiple times, it might be enough, but even as they sank back into the flow of battle, those cracks left in the black monster by Heaven's fury began to heal, just quickly enough that there would be no trace left by the time they would be able to cast Final Light again.
Then a new thought came: We don't have to kill Kuksedra right now, we just have to convince him to de-armatize with Niko.
Holding this in mind, they fought on, blade swinging, leaping away from the claws and tail, blocking the black fire, launching sabers of raw power from the sword at the spot all the white cracks stemmed from, trying to keep the vulnerability open as they aimed for the chest, desperate for an opportunity. Their weapon kept the monster busy, as its own body's weapons kept them busy, and they danced, not giving up, not letting go, knowing they had one chance and had to take it.
On it went, and the heroes' body couldn't last forever - they cast a Rejuvination arte, and that took some of the power generated by the Mana Wheel, more than blocking did, though it was a desperate measure, and it did save them from the brink of death. Could the armatized Kuksedra use a similar power? They didn't know, and they couldn't wonder at it, couldn't let themselves think that the battle might be hopeless. No; they fought, aiming for the weak spot in the dragon's chest, which it guarded carefully, as slowly, the white cracks began to seal.
New battle tactics arose from within the shared consciousness now, to be blended with the Rangetsu style, of feints and misdirects; wherever those tactics came from, the five as one embraced them, and began to employ trickery, aiming for lesser weak spots, feigning more weariness than they felt, dragging their foe's guard down. It didn't work at first, the armatized monster was hesitant to risk giving them an edge, but the primal deity's arrogance - or was it Niko's arrogance? - won out in the end. This led to the beast going stronger on the assault, and the five had to dodge faster, block harder, swing with everything they had as they tried to move for the spot that by now was just a few white streaks over where the beast's heart might be.
Finally, as black claws came down on them, they leapt over the arm and, at a split second's opportunity, plunged the armatized Stormhowl into the monster's chest through the last glimmer of weakness, all the way to the hilt.
Kuksedra screamed and thrashed, sending the Mana Wheel's vessel flying; rather than try to pull the sword out, they let go, allowing themselves to be tossed aside, landing heavily and rolling away. Without the conduit, the Mana Wheel's power had nowhere to go and quickly started to grow out of control - they had to either be destroyed by it, or break it. But breaking it was not easy. Even having only been united for however long the battle had taken, the five were as one, all their knowledge and memories and thoughts and feelings melted together inside them, to say nothing of their bodies. As the burning began to overwhelm them, they all jerked from within, trying to tear themselves apart again.
They were…five, yes? There were five of them. Eizen, Zaveid, Lucine, Sahra, Edna; those were their names, but whose were whose? Memories from various viewpoints conflicted with each other, and a hazy bit of distinction began to form. One was another's baby brother, a third had loved a woman who looked like a fourth…one was human, four were seraphim…the elements and the Shepherd, each representing one of the Five Lords in this battle…
Suddenly, a memory of unthinkable anguish split two from three: the loss of love right before their eyes, a heart breaking seemingly beyond ever repairing, a sensation only two of them had felt and could therefore even begin to understand. But one's pain was new, the other old; one was a fresh wound, and the other, long bleeding, was…healing now, though it was afraid to…
Eizen tore himself free, casting off from Zaveid; with the two boys separated, the rest couldn't stay united, and with an earsplitting ripping sound, the mana-imbued body split into five bodies that were flung in different directions, all left dazed and confused from what they had just experienced. Eizen felt his throat groan as he tried to move; his body felt weak and small, but he could move it almost too well. Panting, he mustered his strength, thinking back over his memories as he pieced his individual identity back together. I am Eizen Rangetsu-Crowe, I am the Shepherd, I am human, he reminded himself, and slowly, the spinning, aching feeling in his head eased.
Drawing on a lifetime of trained self-discipline, Eizen opened his eyes and forced himself to sit up. Stars winked through his vision, dizziness filled his skull, and he grabbed his temples, another groan vibrating his throat. Distantly, he noticed another sound, but it didn't matter just then; he needed to make sure his comrades were okay. Once his vision cleared, he looked around, and he saw Zaveid, Lucine, Sahra, and Edna, all lying on the ground around him, their bodies shifting as they tried to rouse themselves.
"G…" Choking, Eizen coughed, trying to restore his airways. "…Guys?" he finally managed to rasp. "Is…everyone…okay?"
"Yeah," Zaveid groaned, struggling to lift his head before collapsing onto his back again, his chest heaving. "Damn," he mumbled, "that was…the craziest damn thing…I've ever done…" He gave a breathless chuckle, then added, "And I've done…some pretty damn…crazy things…"
"Yeah," Sahra concurred wearily, though this was almost drowned out by another, almost-deafening sound that Eizen didn't quite have the strength to wonder about just then. "Can't believe we…pulled that one off…"
Zaveid was the first to manage a sitting position after Eizen, who finally managed to get to his feet without needing to drop back to his knees. Sahra appeared to be okay, but Lucine and Edna were barely moving, and he stumbled over to where they lay near each other, dropping down beside Edna and shaking her. "Big sis?" he asked.
Those words seemed to rouse her, and she opened her blue eyes, though they were unfocused and hazy. "Huh?" she moaned.
"Edna," Eizen said, speaking her name like an affirmation of life. "Look at me, Edna. You're my big sis, remember? I was named after your older brother, and now I'm your baby brother. Look at me."
"Baby…brother?" she whispered, her head turning to face him.
"Yeah, it's me," Eizen said, offering her a smile.
"Oooh," she groaned, lifting a hand. "Help me up…?" she asked weakly.
Eizen took her hand, and pulled her into a sitting position. "How are you feeling?" he asked her.
"Like I was torn apart into a dozen pieces and then stitched back together," the earth seraph replied, but her toneless voice was so her, faint though it was, that Eizen couldn't help but smile wider.
It took less effort to stand this time, and when he looked around, he saw that Sahra was already sitting of her own accord, and Zaveid had managed to get to his feet - or at least, so Eizen assumed, as the wind seraph now knelt beside Lucine, who was still on her back.
"Lucine?" Eizen asked, walking over to join Zaveid as he shook the blue-clad woman.
"Come on, angel," Zavied murmured, "wake up. Come on now…"
Slowly, Lucine turned her head from side to side, then cracked her eyes open. Edna and Sahra joined them, as her violet eyes blearily fixed on her Prime Lord. "Zaveid…?" she croaked.
"Right here, darling," Zaveid smiled, though his undertone hinted at the true depth of his relief as the water seraph gathered her strength. "We're all okay. You don't even need to heal us."
"Heal," she repeated, and that seemed to give her a bit of energy. Her body shuddered as she tried to force herself up; Zaveid watched for a moment, then reached out and lifted her into a sitting position, his arms holding her steady.
"Easy, angel," he murmured gently. "Take it easy. It's alright. You're okay."
Lucine shook her head, then turned to look behind Eizen. Something caught her gaze, and she gasped.
"What's happening to them?" she asked.
Everyone turned at these unexpected words, and were faced with the behemoth they had just been fighting - Eizen had nearly forgotten about Kuksedra, and he had a feeling the others had too, memory being something that was coming back slowly after having shared a mind with four other people.
The armatized Kuksedra roared and thrashed - that had been the source of the noise Eizen had been noticing. From its chest protruded the massive, glowing hilt of the weapon Stormhowl had become when it channeled a Mana Wheel. It was hard to tell, but the handle alone looked bigger than any building Eizen had ever seen. Just how big were we? he wondered.
Black claws were batting at the sword hilt, but like Niko, the monster lacked actual fingers, and so couldn't grab it. The mana-filled weapon was stuck in hard and deep, and wouldn't come out easily, that much was clear; still, the monster kept trying, as the blade's presence clearly caused it tremendous pain. Whap! Whap! Whap! went its paws at the handle of the weapon burning it from the inside - it seemed safe to assume that all the power of the Mana Wheel was still contained within the blade buried deep in the beast's chest.
CRACK!
When the monster batted at the hilt again, it suddenly snapped with a deafening sound and went flying, clattering against the crystalized malevolence underfoot. As it slid to a stop not far from the five heroes, impossibly huge, mana poured off of it, and it quickly shrank, unleashing energy in waves that battered Eizen and his comrades; the released energy pushed at the malevolence surrounding them for a long minute, the ground itself rippling underneath the broken weapon, until it was reduced to nothing more than the physical materials it had been.
Alarmed, Eizen ran over to the bladeless hilt where it lay, dropping down and gingerly picking it up. A ragged bit of metal was all that was left of the blade of the legendary sword.
"It…broke?" he breathed. "What…what am I gonna tell dad…?"
"Tell him you used it in a battle against a primal deity and won, and a power beyond any in the mortal world barely managed to break it in the process," Edna's toneless voice spoke up from behind him, and he turned to see his comrades at his back. His big sis shrugged nonchalantly and added, "He'll probably be really proud to hear what it was used for here."
"Edna's right," Zaveid agreed, forcing a grin. "I'm sure Rokurou will be delighted to hear about this whole mess."
"Speaking of which…" Lucine said, her violet eyes still aimed upwards.
Eizen turned back around and looked up. Kuksedra was still writhing and screeching, but there was nothing left for the armatized behemoth to swat at; white light poured from the stab wound in its chest, but any physical object was lodged beneath its unbreakable skin.
"The blade…they can't get it out," Sahra said.
"It's not a blade anymore," Eizen said, rising to his feet again, his eyes still on their enemy, the jaggedness of the bit of metal still attached to the now-bladeless hilt fresh in his mind. "I don't think it just broke off, I think it completely shattered. There are dozens of shards of metal, each burning with the strength of a Mana Wheel, stuck in their chest."
"Which means…" Lucine said slowly.
She didn't have to finish her sentence. Clearly, the primal deity was left with only two solutions: rip open his chest and pick out the pieces one by one with unwieldy claws, or surrender his borrowed physical form entirely.
A few moments later, he chose the latter.
One final howl emanated from the dragon's massive jaws before it began to shift and dissolve. Dark energy erupted from its being in massive jets, and as it lost its presence, the many, many pieces of the sword that had been Stormhowl became visible, burning through the black like stars in a night sky, then brighter than that, far brighter. Kuksedra's essence came off faster and faster, trying to flee the burning light, and as Eizen squinted at the spectacle, he began to make out another solid shape floating among all the fragments - a small shape, tiny compared to what the monster had been, but a figure he knew, the figure of a young girl…one that, almost as soon as it was discernible among all the darkness and light, began to fall.
Not even thinking, Eizen dropped Stormhowl's hilt and ran as fast as he could, Niko's descent gaining speed as he pelted forward. As she dropped, the primal deity's essence became dispersed enough for the burning metal to also begin to fall, and Eizen redoubled his pace, charging to meet his sister as she fell from on high, only just barely reaching her in time to catch her. Throwing his arms around the girl, he dove and rolled, saving her from the impact before hunching over to shield her from the falling metal fragments, which had lost their mana as they'd fallen and now clattered harmlessly against the thick weave of his Shepherd's cloak. When the pattering stopped, he sat up and looked at the figure he held.
She was small, slight, and entirely human. Gone were the claws and wings, her horns were now pigtails of silky black hair, her hands and feet made up of fingers and toes, her soft skin a pale white against the same shapeless black dress she'd worn for Celica's birthday party.
"Niko," Eizen said softly as his seraphim ran up to join him.
The thirteen-year-old girl groaned, her eyes slitting open slowly - copper eyes, eyes she had inherited from their father, eyes that didn't burn with malevolence or glow with red light. "Ei…zen?" she rasped, her gaze focusing on him.
"Yeah," Eizen said, smiling at her. "It's me. You're gonna be okay."
"Have you always…been so beautiful?" she asked sleepily.
Eizen blinked.
"Yeah, he's always looked this way," Zaveid said from behind, and Eizen turned to look up at his uncle. Zaveid smirked down at the fallen Lord of Calamity. "This is what people look like when there's no malevolence clouding your vision," he told her. "It's kinda nice, ain't it?"
"Without…malevolence?" Niko slowly repeated with a slight frown. Struggling from Eizen's gentle grip, she leaned forward and raised her hands to see her pale, soft, entirely-human fingers. "No!" she gasped in alarm, lurching to her feet. Looking down at herself only seemed to increase her panic. "No, no, no no no no no! No!" she screamed, looking up. "Kuksedra! Kuksedra!"
It wasn't the same word she had uttered as a hellion, but a bit of darkness gathered before her, white lights appearing as his eyes formed.
"Why have you left me?!" Niko demanded tearfully as that little bit of the primal deity faced her. "Why have you abandoned me?! What did I do wrong?!"
[YOU ARE USELESS TO ME NOW,] Kuksedra stated. [A SHARD OF THE MANA WHEEL STILL ENDURES, EMBEDDED WITHIN YOUR HEART; IT BURNS AWAY MY INFLUENCE AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN BE IMBUED WITH IT, AND I CANNOT REMOVE IT.]
"Yes you can!" Niko cried, her eyes overflowing with liquid. "You're a primal deity! You can do anything!"
[IT IS NOT BEYOND MY POWER,] Kuksedra admitted. [HOWEVER, THE POWER IT WOULD TAKE TO DESTROY THAT FRAGMENT WOULD ALSO DESTROY YOU, LEAVING YOU AS USELESS TO ME AS YOU ARE NOW. AS I STAND TO GAIN NOTHING FROM YOUR DEATH, I LEAVE YOU THUS.]
Niko pulled at the neckline of her dress. Curious, Eizen stepped around to look, and saw her reveal a spot just to the side of her sternum where white light shone through from under her skin. It would burn the imbalance of malevolence out of her for as long as she lived; she had no choice but to be a balanced human until the day she died. This realization was not lost on Niko, and she collapsed to the floor, sobbing and wailing, as the bit of Kuksedra that had taken form to reply to her dispersed, leaving the former Lord of Calamity alone with her conquerers.
Eizen looked at his defeated sister, trying to decide what to say. None of his seraphim stepped forward; it was none of their business anymore, not even for Zaveid or Edna. "Niko…" he finally said softly.
"You!" Niko shrieked, lurching to her feet. Still crying, she slammed into Eizen bodily and started pounding her fists against his chest, the blows too weak to hurt him now. "You ruined everything!" she sobbed as he put his arms around her. "Why did you have to fight back?! We could have fixed everything! I hate you, Eizen! I hate you!"
"I know," Eizen said softly as he let her unload onto him, gently patting the back of her head. "I know."
"Some brother you are!" she went on furiously, still punching him ineffectually. "I just wanted to make things better, and you ruined it! Now the whole world's gonna stay broken, everyone will die! Why couldn't you let me have this?! Why did you do this?! I hate you! I hate you!"
But all her hatred couldn't generate enough malevolence to make her turn again, not with the shard of the Mana Wheel burning in her heart, and she struggled and cried herself out as Eizen just held her, comforting his sister by not fighting anymore, knowing there was no point; it was over, all over. After several long minutes, her wails subsided into hiccups and sniffles, her hands dropping to her sides as she leaned against him.
"You'll understand someday," Eizen said softly, "but this wasn't the right answer. The world you and Kuksedra would have made would have been horrific, with no joy or love or goodness." Sighing, he pushed her back slightly so he could look at her tearstained face. "We're going to finish settling things with Kuksedra," he told her, "and then you're gonna come home with us."
"What home?" she asked sourly, swiping at her face. "The treehouse burned down, dad and Cellie are dead, and mom must hate me."
"Niko…dad and Celica are alive," Eizen said.
"Huh?" She blinked and looked up at him.
He smiled at her. "It's like I told you before, I finished the Omega Elixir and used it on Cellie, she's alive and well," he explained; "and Maotelus managed to save…well, most of dad. He lost his legs and his left hand, as well as all his blessings and some of his memories, but he's still the same dad we know and love. They're both alive, Niko, and they both want you to come home - and mom does too, she could never hate you. Our whole family wants you to come home…and so do I."
"I don't believe you," Niko scowled, crossing her pale arms.
"It's true," Zaveid piped up, walking over to them. "I can tell ya myself, Cellie's all cured, and Rokurou's still…well, not kicking, since he lost most of one leg and almost half of the other, but, y'know, he's still himself." He chucked. "Cellie never stops moving, now that she's not sick anymore - keeps saying 'sleep is for the weak' and running everywhere as fast as she can, like she'll never run out of energy. Rokurou's doing his best to train her in the Rangetsu style without being able to actually demonstrate anything, and she's over the moon about it. Plus, Velvet has a job cooking at the inn in Ladylake now, they're saving up to buy a new house in town. I promise you," he added, his expression growing stern, "I swear to you by my true name, Fylk Zahdeya - Zaveid the Oathkeeper - Celica and Rokurou are both alive and as well as can be."
Zaveid didn't make promises like that if he couldn't keep them, everyone in the family knew this full well, and Eizen watched several expressions cross Niko's face before it finally settled on confusion; one hand went to her chest as she blinked, apparently baffled.
"That's called emotion, what you're feeling now, kiddo," Zaveid informed her. "Happiness, if I'm not much mistaken, plus more than a little relief."
"Yeah," Eizen said, "you can be happy now, because now you can care about Cellie and mom and dad and…and anyone else, since you aren't malevolent anymore."
"Doesn't it feel good?" Zaveid asked. "Doesn't it feel like you could fly?"
"Y…yeah…" Niko whispered, confusion morphing into something like amazement.
"That's what you were trying to destroy, Niko," Eizen told her. "That's what I've been fighting for."
Niko didn't respond to this. She looked…sort of the way Sadie had looked when they'd found Eizen's parents' memory box - like she fully realized she had been wrong, but that being wrong meant good things as well as bad.
Relieved that she finally understood, Eizen sighed, smiling. "Just give us a minute to deal with Kuksedra," he told his sister. "Then, we're all gonna go back home…to a world without the curse of malevolence."
"Hey, uh…about that…"
An unexpected voice piped up behind him, and he turned around to see Sahra fiddling with her braid.
"That's…you know, that's great and all," she said with an uneasy half-smile, "but, um…I, uh…I've been thinking…" She gave a shrug, then met his eyes and asked, "How do we get home, exactly?"
Alarm flooded Eizen's veins as he gasped and turned to look at the distant shape of the planet they lived on. They'd come here by riding a dragon, and passed through some sort of barrier just to enter the skypulse - getting back would be no easy task.
Before he could even think, the dark presence that lived here took form behind him - just a piece, a fragment no bigger than a common dragon, but enough.
[THE SKYPULSE IS NOT MEANT FOR MORTALS LIKE YOU,] Kuksedra told them, [BUT IN ORDER TO LEAVE, YOU MUST HAVE MY EXPRESS PERMISSION. YOU CANNOT ATTAIN IT BY KILLING ME…AND I WILL NOT GIVE IT TO YOU.]
*For best effect, when reading from beyond this point to the moment our heroes let go of Stormhowl, look up "Eternal Eyes OST: Luna the Goddess of Destruction" on YouTube and put that on loop. FUN FACT: My idea for Niko's design is actually NOT based on her mother, but rather on a draconian version of the concept art for Luna the Goddess of Destruction from the PS1 game Eternal Eyes. Good luck finding said concept art, though; I can't dig it up on Google Images no matter what keywords I use…If you REALLY want to see, look up "RGOGNOCA: Eternal Eyes: Salt Without a Steak" on YouTube and you should find my video going over the concept art, the one in question being at exactly eight minutes in; Niko's like that, but with black scales instead of blue fur-feathers, curled and spiky horns instead of hair, the face as I've described in this story, and a black dress instead of a naked torso with some patterns on it; also her claws are significantly longer than that, and she has no fingers. Anyway, it just feels like it would be fitting for the theme of the final boss fight with her and her master to be the same as the boss fight theme of the thing that inspired her design.
While I'm indulging in some fangirl fantasizing about what it would be like if this was a game, here's how Mana Wheel armatization would work within gameplay: I'm thinking of a system wherein you'd have to keep an eye on your BG even more than your health. So get this: the boss would not have any Mystic Artes or insta-kill moves - weird for a final boss in a Tales game, I know, but there IS in fact an insta-lose scenario, and that scenario would be if you let your BG reach maximum and then don't use any of it for a certain amount of time. The little meter would constantly fill as you play, blocking malevolent fire would cost BG buildup instead of health, and each successful blow on the boss would gain you one point (or maybe just a third of a point, I still haven't decided how it would work) due to the Rangetsu buff; the capacity of your BG would work the same as armatization in Zestiria, as would your health and stats, that is to say, a combination of all the individuals' added together based on their levels, what herbs have been used on them, and their current equipment. That constant increase in BG would make it very important that you use moves that keep it under control, not just to avoid insta-death but also because, once it passes a certain percentage of max, it would start to cause a very slow health drain, like being therionized in Berseria; however, the only way to cast Final Light would be to let it reach maximum and then hit the Mystic Arte button, though to make things fair, it wouldn't have to be in the middle of a combo. The Mystic Arte itself would last only as long as it takes for the meter to deplete - BG would go down slowly during it, instead of all the points being spent at once, and would effectively act as putting time on a timer: while Kuksedra is feeling the aftereffects of Final Light, that's when you can deal solid damage; he would heal at the same rate your BG increases, to prevent using Final Light on him a second time while he's still vulnerable…or maybe there would be a way to do it, with the result being similar to Zestiria's bad ending (you'll understand why after the next chapter). Again, in order to build up your BG to max quickly, you'd have to be hitting him in the meantime, since that raises your BG one point at a time, but the damage dealt would be minimum without the effects of Final Light in play, and of course Kuksedra would have a crapton of health. Basically, if you just button-mash in this fight, you'll lose, but if you're careful and keep an eye on your BG even more than your health, you'll have an epic Anime battle on your hands. Would that be cool, or a pain in the butt? Please let me know in a review! :) I know it can never be, but a girl can dream…
