Author's Note: For those who think that Chapter 3 wasn't original enough (and that includes me), this chapter is where it all goes off the rails. What do I mean by that? Read on and you'll find out...
Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of the Abyss, Tales of Vesperia, or any of the Tales characters or scenarios. Namco owns them.
Chapter 4: Two Commandants, Two Crises
Flynn blocked a blow from Van's sword with his shield, then followed up immediately while Van was off-balance. "Sonic Thrust!"
"Van, wasn't there any other way?!" Tear cried as she hurled three knives at her brother.
"Fools!" Van snarled. "Yulia's Score controls the world! If humanity does not create a new world, free of the Score, it will perish!" He slashed at Flynn, who dodged sideways.
"Then how do you explain me?" Luke countered, locking swords with Van. "Yulia's Score didn't say a thing about me!"
"The Score is not an absolute future!" Tear argued, then began casting. "O divine spear, run my enemy through..."
Natalia fired a series of rapid shots from her bow. "The Score is just one of an infinite number of choices," she shouted, aiming another arrow at Van. The tip of the arrow gleamed with light. Natalia released the arrow. "Piercing Line!"
"The fact that Luke exists shows that there are deviations from the Score," Jade called out to Van. "O darkened storm cloud, loose thy blade..."
"No, you don't know the true essence of the Score," Van denied, as he spun away from Luke and stabbed at Flynn. "Even if it is not read, the Score exists nevertheless, leading us to certain destruction."
"I don't know anything about this 'Score' you hate so much," Flynn said, deflecting Van's sword with his own, "but I'll stop you no matter what you say! Tiger Blade!"
"Damn!" Van swore, narrowly avoiding Flynn's attack. "Are you so determined to oppose me that you care nothing for the destruction the Score will bring?"
"People aren't that foolish!" Luke argued. "Havoc Strike! People have their own wills to avoid destruction!
"Holy Lance!" Tear finished simultaneously with Jade's "Thunder Blade!"
Van staggered as both fonic artes hit him at once, but recovered quickly, sneering, "Such impudence from a replica!"
"Yeah?" Anise taunted, punching at Van with Tokunaga's massive fists. "Well, you're too stubborn to listen to anybody, so our only choice is to crush you! Eagle Dive!"
"You will be the ones crushed," Van retorted. "Take this! Lightning Tiger Blade!"
Flynn brought his shield up just barely in time to block Van's arte. "Try again!" he snapped.
"Oh, I will," Van huffed in return. "You who are ruled by the Score, die! Radiant Dragon!"
Luke and Flynn both evaded Van's strike, but Tokunaga was too big and awkward to move fast enough. Anise and her puppet were sent flying toward Natalia, who ducked just barely in time to avoid being bowled over.
Natalia glared at Van as she straightened up and aimed her bow again. "How dare you!" she snapped, setting multiple arrows to her bowstring and loosing them all at once. "Storm Edge!"
Van swung his sword and deflected Natalia's arrows, but in doing so, he left himself open to both Flynn and Luke, who attacked immediately.
"Hell Fire Blade!"
"Raging Blast!"
The two swordsmen's combined artes knocked Van flat on his back, just in time for another "Thunder Blade!" from Jade to pierce his chest.
"Agh..." Van groaned. "Enough of this!" As he got up again, fonons exploded from his body in all directions, pushing Flynn and Luke away from Van.
"Watch out!" Tear cried.
"Such lamentation," Van growled. "I'll destroy you!" He stabbed his sword straight down, and a large glyph formed below his feet. "Imperial Slaughter!"
The force of the fonons rising from the glyph launched Flynn and Luke into the air. Flynn landed on his back, cracking his skull as his head hit the floor. Sparks flared in his vision just before he blacked out.
"This world will be reborn! Do not interfere!" Alexei shouted, deflecting Yuri's sword, Guy's sword, Patty's knife, and Judith's spear one after another. "Ugh!" he grunted as Repede hit him from behind.
"I don't remember agreeing to that," Judith retorted. Recovering her balance, she rushed at Alexei and attacked again with an uppercut slash. "Luna Ascendent!"
"Nobody gives a damn about whatever world you want," Yuri snarled, blocking Alexei's counterattack.
"You're a fool to cross swords with me," Alexei sneered at Yuri. "Raging Ice Fang!" He slammed his sword down onto the platform, and icicles sprang up all around the blade, throwing Yuri into the air.
Karol swung his satchel at Alexei, saying, "We've come this far. We won't lose! Destructo Booing!"
"Damn," Yuri huffed, picking himself up after a hard landing. "He may be crazy, but he still fights like a commandant."
"We'll beat him if we all work together," Guy said, attacking again. "Demonic Void!"
Patty shouted something that Guy missed the first half of, amid the chaos of the battle; all he caught was her conclusion, "...What a troublesome man!"
"So long as you oppose me, I will show you no mercy," Alexei snarled at her, breaking away from Guy to attack Raven. "So, the tool turns on its master," he taunted.
"Heh!" Raven half-chuckled as he caught Alexei's sword with his battle knife. "Tools can kill ya if they aren't used properly." He flung Alexei into the air, sheathed his knife, and fired an arrow after Alexei all in one smooth motion.
Rita and Witcher were both casting. Guy couldn't hear Witcher, but he heard Rita chanting, "O seething fire, be as a holy beast..."
Alexei did an acrobatic flip in midair, narrowly avoiding Raven's shot, and landed in front of Estelle, who raised her shield and took a guarding stance.
"You are foolish to rebel against your destiny," Alexei hissed at Estelle. "Ill Wind!"
Estelle gave him a death glare as she retaliated, "I've chosen my own destiny: to fight you! Marche Waltz!" Her graceful dance as she repeatedly slashed at Alexei drove the ex-Commandant back toward Guy.
Guy was ready, intercepting Alexei with a lion-head-shaped wave of energy. "Beast!" The heavy blow slammed into Alexei just as Rita finished casting. "Flame Dragon!" A serpent-shaped swirl of fire with a dragon's head raced toward Alexei from Guy's left. Alexei had no time to dodge.
"Agh!" Alexei groaned in pain, staggering. Guy was impressed: usually his Beast arte knocked the enemy down, and Rita's fiery attack certainly wouldn't have propped him up.
Alexei recovered quickly and, evading a stab attack from Sodia, went after Guy again. "Do you believe your milk-toast ideas can bring lasting change to the world?" he asked mockingly.
"Do not insult our Captain!" Sodia snapped at Alexei, ducking past the ex-Commandant to try to attack from behind.
"He's NOT Flynn, dammit!" Yuri shouted at her as she nearly collided with him.
"Aw, let him go on thinking that," Guy said cheerfully, locking swords with Alexei. "You know what they say, 'an enemy's mistake is a gift not to be wasted.'"
"They say that on Auldrant too?" Estelle asked, pausing in her casting.
"Focus, Estelle!" Rita hollered. "O unnamed and unmerciful queen of thorns... Ivy Rush!"
"Not a single one of you can best me!" Alexei jeered, spinning sideways to escape the thorny vines that sprang up from Rita's arte. "Not even you, whoever you are!" he added aside to Guy.
"You've chosen the wrong path!" Estelle called back to Alexei, and resumed casting. "Come, O silver light..."
"You're abusing knowledge!" Rita shouted. "Smile, O wavering darkness..."
"Angel Ring!"
"Spread Zero!"
A "Freeze Lancer!" from Witcher and a "Wind Blade!" from Raven missed Alexei; Sodia and Judith both had to dodge the off-target spells.
"Watch your aim, Witcher!" Sodia scolded.
"We finish this now!" Alexei snarled, slashing at Guy and Yuri. "Apocalypse Toll!" The ex-Commandant's attack forced Guy and Yuri to retreat, but it left him wide open to Karol.
"Punishing Beast Flash!" Karol countered, swinging his axe. The sharp edge missed, but the backside of the axe head hit Alexei in the solar plexus, leaving him winded.
Guy, Yuri, Judith, Patty, Repede, and Sodia all converged on Alexei to take advantage of his temporary disabled state. Unfortunately, Alexei caught his breath and shouted, "Know your place!" A surge of energy burst from his body, knocking his six attackers down.
"Damn!" Guy swore as he landed flat on his back. This fight was going nowhere. Despite being eleven on one, it was a deadlock.
Alexei smirked, then unleashed a powerful attack. "Fly, O holy sword!" he crowed.
Guy couldn't track what happened next; it all went by too fast. Alexei dove and slashed at him with lightning speed, then stabbed downward to summon a huge glyph of light that blasted everyone with painful rays. "Brilliant Cataclysm!"
All around him, Guy heard his allies crying out in agony. He couldn't blame them; the energy radiating from Alexei's attack hurt like hell. As the world faded from his senses, Guy muttered, "I screwed up..."
In the dark nothingness, Flynn heard a female voice chanting, "Return this soul from the abyss of death..."
Death? Was he dead? He wasn't sure. His whole body was in pain; surely being dead couldn't hurt this much...
"Howl O raging wind and cleave mine enemies with your blade..." a man's voice chanted.
Two girls' voices somewhere nearby yelled, "Aerial Laser!" and "Shadow Punishment!"
Then Flynn heard the male voice again, shouting "Turbulence!" and a younger male voice shouting, "A piercing flash! Light Blast!"
A cry of "Resurrection!" from the first female voice – Tear, that was her name, yes – brought Flynn back to full consciousness. He sat up carefully; his head still felt like it was spinning. Tear helped him to his feet.
"Thank you," he told her.
She gave him a brief nod of acknowledgement, then began casting another arte. "Come forth O illumination of life..."
Jade was also casting again. "O roar of the earth, bring forth the fangs of the mighty dragon..."
"Ow!" Anise yelped from somewhere off to Flynn's right. He turned to see her clutching her arm and clinging to Tokunaga. Van was turning away from her to attack Luke.
Meanwhile, Natalia was casting instead of shooting. "O regenerative power, abide here..."
Flynn charged into the fray, attacking Van with a series of slashes, followed up with a "Shining Falcon!"
"You!" Van snarled, twisting away from Flynn. "Who are you?! Are you a replica of Gailardia?!"
"That's none of your concern!" Flynn retorted, raising his shield in anticipation of Van's counterattack.
"Healing Circle!" Tear finished. Rays of Seventh Fonons formed a circle around Anise.
"Thanks," Anise chirped. Then, instead of attacking again with Tokunaga, she twirled a wand above her head, chanting, "Feel the hammer of light..."
"Healing Force!" Natalia shouted. A warm feeling filled Flynn's chest as he absorbed her healing arte.
"Ground Dasher!" A line of jagged rocks from Jade's arte burst from the floor, throwing Van high into the air, just as Anise finished casting, "Limited!"
"Impudent...!" Van huffed.
"Bring it on!" Luke yelled as fonons burst from him just as they had from Van earlier. "You're mine!" he shouted at the falling Van.
Flynn's eyes widened in shock as a vortex of fonons surrounded Luke. With a howl of rage, Luke blasted Van with Seventh Fonons that poured forth from his hands, in a powerful attack the likes of which Flynn had never seen. What kind of arte was Luke using?
"Nowwwww DIE!" Luke screamed as a final blast of fonons knocked Van to the floor.
Someone was pouring liquid into Guy's open mouth. After a moment of dizzy incomprehension, Guy recognized the bitter taste of a Life Bottle. He blinked his eyes open to a view of blue sky, Zaude's giant green crystal core, and Raven's face hovering over him.
"Go easy on the items!" he heard Yuri call to Raven.
"Lemme use what I need, alright?" Raven called back.
Guy leapt to his feet. "Sorry, thanks!" he said over his shoulder to Raven as he ran to resume attacking Alexei.
"O brilliant angels, grant us your favor..." Estelle chanted.
Raven began casting. "Howl and rage, O mighty vortex..."
"I am SO gonna make you hurt!" Rita snapped at Alexei, and started speed-casting. "Blah blah blah, Tidal Wave! Blah blah blah, Tidal Wave! Blah blah blah, Tidal Wave!"
Guy grinned despite the dire situation; just once, he wanted to see the expression on Jade's face if the Colonel ever witnessed Rita, or anyone else for that matter, using Blah blah blah as an incantation.
"Again?!" Yuri asked Rita incredulously, as he dodged a stab from Alexei.
"Havoc Gale!" Raven's arte formed a raging tornado around Alexei, immobilizing him in the center of Rita's giant whirlpools.
"Nurse!" cried Estelle, finishing her healing spell. "That must be your favorite arte," she giggled at Rita.
Rita bristled in response. "You got a problem with that? Blah blah blah, Tidal Wave!"
Alexei was slowing down, huffing and puffing, as he blocked attacks from Judith, Yuri, Karol, Sodia, Yuri again, Patty, and Repede. Karol's "Destructo Spider Web!" slowed him down even more.
"Come on, Guy, get with it!" Yuri shouted.
"Right, I'm on it! Severing Wind!" Guy's attack forced Alexei to backstep into Yuri's range.
"I'll blow you away!" Yuri snarled, unleashing a blast of energy. "Let's finish this!" He launched himself at Alexei. "O brilliant blade of coldest steel..." -slash- "rend the infinite darkness..." -slice- "and crush my enemies to nothing!" -slash, slice- "You're dead! Savage Wolf Fury!"
"You are...finished..." Alexei croaked, falling to his knees.
Van staggered to his feet in the wake of Luke's strange Seventh Fonon attack. He was gasping for breath. Rather than raising his sword to continue fighting, he stabbed it into the floor and leaned on the hilt to support himself.
"I never thought I'd be defeated by such a failure," Van wheezed. Then, to Flynn's surprise, he began to laugh.
Luke had his hand on his own sword's hilt, about to draw and attack again. Flynn held his sword and shield up, prepared to use whichever he would need next. Tear, Jade, Anise, and Natalia also had their weapons ready to attack or defend as necessary.
Van, however, did not attack. Instead, he backed away toward a broken edge of the floor, still laughing. "Oh, how utterly ironic," he chortled. He backed all the way to the edge, then let himself fall backward – on purpose? – into the glowing depths. His sword remained stuck in the floor where he had left it.
Luke was the first to turn away. Natalia, Anise, and Jade all looked at Tear.
Flynn stared at the edge where Van had fallen. "What—?" he began to ask, but Natalia held up a hand to silence him and motioned for him to follow her. Anise and Jade fell into step with them. Flynn glanced back to see Luke set a hand briefly on Tear's shoulder.
"What just happened?" Flynn murmured to Natalia under his breath.
"I believe he decided to commit suicide rather than allow Luke to kill him," Natalia murmured back.
"I certainly hope it was a suicide..." Jade muttered, as though to himself.
"Colonel?" Anise asked softly.
"Never mind, Anise," Jade replied. His red eyes flicked briefly back to Luke and Tear, who were now trailing after them.
They descended a ramp that spiraled down to an enormous device in the center of a translucent circular walkway. The device looked somewhat similar to a barrier blastia, with a glowing purple core and a dark purple spire. If this was the passage ring, it didn't look much like a ring, unless the name referred to the surrounding walkway.
Tear, her face set in a neutral expression, approached a small golden pedestal that opened before her like a book. Seventh Fonons flowed into her, and she clasped her hands to her chest. Luke spared her a worried glance before raising both hands the same way he had just before attacking Van with that strange arte. Luke, Tear, Jade, Anise, and Natalia all looked up at something above the device.
Flynn's gaze followed his companions' upward. He stifled a gasp of surprise. A large, complex glyph had appeared above the passage ring. Was that the passage ring's control formula? It glowed with circles and lines connected in an irregular polygon. All the circles were white except for the top central one, which was dark with a red ring around its edge. Seventh Fonons flowed from Luke's hands, erasing the red ring, and the circle lit up white just like all the others. Yellow lines extended from it, and then the entire glyph turned blue. Glowing turquoise symbols that Flynn didn't recognize appeared. Was it some kind of writing? If so, what did it say?
The energy flowing from Luke's hands turned brighter and brighter, shifting from white to golden. Luke grimaced with effort. Everyone else, including Flynn, held their breath.
"Damn it," Luke groaned, "I don't have enough power!"
Flynn froze in panic. He didn't know what to do, or how to help.
Then Luke gasped. "This hyperresonance..." he panted. "It's him!"
Yuri stood back and set his sword on his shoulder, saying, "I think that's enough for now."
Guy breathed a sigh of relief. The battle was over, and all of his companions had survived. Very soon, they could begin to search for Flynn, and also find a way for Guy to return to Auldrant.
Estelle walked up to Alexei and pointed her sword at him. "Now the law will give you your due punishment," she told him.
"You won't just get away with saying you're sorry," said Judith.
"You'll be stripped of your title as Commandant," Raven added.
"Nn...uuh...you..." Alexei groaned.
"It's over, Alexei," Yuri said grimly.
At some unknown point during the battle, the platform had stopped rising and had come to rest not far below the giant green crystal that served as Zaude's blastia core.
Estelle looked up at the core, and her eyes widened. "Is this the top of Zaude?" she wondered.
Judith was also looking up. "That core... it's so big."
Abruptly, the mystery glyph appeared in the air above them. Alexei clambered to his feet, chuckled, and began to laugh menacingly.
Rita gasped. "You continued the analysis this whole time?!"
"We will witness together... the might of Zaude..." Alexei growled, holding his sword in front of him.
Yuri, seeming to realize something, shouted, "No!" and rushed at Alexei.
Alexei held his sword up. A vortex of aer sprang up around him. Yuri, raising his own sword, responded with a second aer vortex. The two swords met with a clang and a burst of light. The light formed a ball that pulsed and crackled. After a moment that seemed to last an eternity, the ball of light exploded, knocking Yuri and Alexei away from each other. Both men landed flat on their backs.
"Whoa!" Yuri yelped, as Alexei groaned, "Gaah!"
Yuri rose to his feet. Alexei did not; he remained on his back, staring up at the sky. Yuri approached Alexei cautiously.
"Ugh!" Alexei grunted. "So the sword... turned against me after all... but behold."
Overhead, the core of Zaude glowed with an eerie light. A beam of energy shot skyward, connecting with a tiny spark high above. A star? Or...something else? As the beam reached the spark, it spread out as though being stopped by a ceiling.
A net of glowing red hexagons expanded across the sky. The hexagons flickered briefly and were gone again in an instant... but the blue sky began to disintegrate into blackness and a shadowy something oozed out of the void, descending slowly into the atmosphere.
Alexei gasped in horror.
"Wh-wh-wh..." Karol stuttered, staring round-eyed at the dark blob.
"Wh-what the hell is that?!" Rita stammered, her mouth falling open.
"I've...seen that somewhere before..." Patty said uncertainly.
"That... It was on the mural..." Judith murmured, also staring.
Guy was baffled. What mural? What the hell was Judith talking about?
"The catastrophe?!" Estelle shrieked.
"It's the Adephagos!" Yuri bellowed.
"That is the power of Zaude?!" Alexei breathed. "No... But I thought..." His expression faded from surprise to despair. "This cannot be..."
"The Adephagos? Did you use that much aer?" Raven asked in disbelief.
"...No," Alexei replied. He raised one hand to his forehead in dismay. "This catastrophe has always waited there."
Shocked silence fell, broken only by the whistling of the wind.
"Wh-what do you mean?" Karol stammered after a moment.
"The Adephagos was never eliminated," Judith gasped. "It was just sealed off far from sight!"
Guy stood in paralyzed fascination. He didn't know exactly what the Adephagos was, but he had a very, very bad feeling about it.
"Yes," Alexei moaned, "and now it has returned to spread the ruin it once rained down upon the ancients." He spun around, reeling, amber eyes rolling. "And to think, I caused it all! The ultimate irony!" he exclaimed. Then, inexplicably, he began to laugh wildly.
"You mean Zaude had been holding it back this entire time?!" Rita cried.
Overhead, the core began to crackle with energy.
Estelle glanced up at it and shrieked, "Look out!"
Something exploded, throwing flames and smoke. Guy tensed, preparing to run away... but where was there to run? Not over the edge of the platform, for damn sure; they were too high up to land safely, even in the water.
"We were never more than worms writhing before an approaching storm!" Alexei raved, still reeling.
The passage ring and the walkway surrounding it quivered. Slowly, the entire area began to descend. It wasn't something Flynn could see, but he could feel it.
Jade approached Luke's side, peering through his glasses. "It appears that the miasma is adhering to the dividing line just as we had expected."
What were the miasma and the dividing line? Flynn hadn't heard either of those terms before. He frowned. When the group got back to the Albiore, he decided, he was going to ask about all the unfamiliar things he had encountered here: Score, replica, original, miasma, dividing line... he couldn't even remember how many there were.
Luke gave Jade a quick grin over his shoulder. Then his whole body began to glow golden, and his eyebrows drew down. After a moment, the golden glow faded, and Luke lowered his hands, staggering backward and panting for breath. He fell to his knees.
Jade frowned. "Luke? What is it?" he asked sharply.
"Lorelei..." Luke gasped.
"Lorelei?" Flynn echoed.
"The sentience of the Seventh Fonon, remember?" Anise said impatiently.
"Did it say something to you?" Flynn asked.
"...No, it's not important right now," Luke replied, climbing to his feet. "We have to tell everyone it worked."
"Yes," said Natalia. "Ion and Noelle and Father... I'm sure they're all worried about us."
"...Van," Tear whispered sadly.
Luke looked over at her. "Tear..."
"I'm sorry, Luke..." said Tear. "I'm glad we did what we did."
"Okay," said Luke. "Let's go home... wait, we still need to find Guy! Flynn, how can we get to your world, Terra whatever-it-is?"
"Terca Lumireis," Flynn reminded him. "I... don't know. I'm sorry. I still have no idea how I ended up on Auldrant in the first place."
"Perhaps we can research Terca Lumireis after we've informed Ion and the rest of the world's leaders of our success in lowering the Outer Lands," Jade suggested, in a tone that brooked no argument. "Let's return to the Albiore."
As the six companions made their way back through the labyrinthine complex of the Absorption Gate, Flynn asked Luke again, "Did Lorelei say something to you?"
"Yeah," said Luke. "I don't get what it meant, though."
"Don't get what what meant?" Anise asked. "What did Lorelei say?"
"...It's not important right now," said Luke.
Jade frowned. "You might let us be the judges of that. What did it say to you?"
"Well, it said, 'Asch, Luke, I will send you the key. Use it to set me free. One who would seize glory is trying to capture me.'"
"WHAT?!" Tear, Anise, Natalia and Jade all exclaimed at once.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Flynn asked anxiously in response to this strange reaction from Luke's companions.
"Luke! Why didn't you tell us immediately?!" Natalia demanded.
"I didn't get it!" Luke protested. "Why, what's going on?"
"How could you not get it?!" Anise wailed.
"Luke, you idiot!" Tear snapped.
Jade overrode the rising argument. "He couldn't have known. Luke doesn't know Ancient Ispanian."
"What's Ancient Ispanian?" Flynn asked, confused and frightened.
"It's a language," Anise told him. "Now shut up!"
"Anise!" Natalia scolded.
"Enough!" Tear said forcefully. She drew a deep breath and explained to Luke, "The Ancient Ispanian word for 'one who would seize glory' is 'vandesdelca.'"
"...Master Van?!" Luke exclaimed.
"So Van is attempting to capture Lorelei," Jade surmised. "I thought it was odd for him to fall over the edge deliberately like that. He isn't the type to commit suicide. He must have intended to let the Planet Storm carry him all the way down into the core."
"So where is the Key of Lorelei?" Anise asked Luke urgently.
"Key of Lorelei?" Luke asked. "What's that?"
"Luke!" Anise, Natalia, and Tear all said indignantly.
Mieu poked his fluffy head out of Luke's item bag. "Master, what's going on?" he squeaked.
"Big trouble," Anise answered for Luke.
"The Key of Lorelei is a legendary relic from the Dawn Age," Tear explained. "It was created by Yulia as a symbol of her pact with Lorelei. Supposedly it has two parts: the Sword of Lorelei, which gathers Seventh Fonons, and the Jewel of Lorelei, which disperses them."
Luke shrugged helplessly. "I don't have it. Should we go back down to the passage ring and look for it?"
"Asch might have received it," Natalia suggested.
"Let's return to the passage ring and search there first," Jade said. "But if we don't find anything..." he trailed off.
"I'll try to contact Asch," Luke said decisively, putting a hand to his forehead. "Asch! Asch, can you hear me?"
The core of Zaude sparked and crackled. Guy was pretty sure that was a bad sign. Usually when fontech did that sort of thing, it was going haywire.
Alexei stood still, looking up at the core directly above him with a maniacal smile on his face. "The time has come, our death draws near," he murmured. He flung his arms wide. "No one can escape its doom!" he shouted, and burst into laughter again.
"Shut up already, you bastard!" Yuri snarled. He lunged at Alexei, slicing down diagonally with his sword across the ex-Commandant's chest and then slashing upward. Guy attacked alongside Yuri and stabbed Alexei in the stomach.
Alexei staggered backward, bleeding heavily. "It seems in the end...that I...was the greatest fool of all..." he choked, as his mouth filled with blood.
Overhead, the core began to fall. Yuri glanced up at it, gray eyes widening. He sprinted away from Alexei and the impending crash. Alexei, however, made no move to escape; instead, he closed his eyes. A single tear ran down his cheek.
For a brief instant, Guy pitied Alexei. Then he realized that Alexei was planning to let the falling core kill him, as though in some kind of expiation. He shook his head in disgust, seized Alexei by the collar, and dragged him after Yuri.
"What are...you doing...?" Alexei wheezed.
"You moron!" Guy snapped. "Do you think you can just die and leave us to fix your mistake?! You won't get off the hook that easily!"
Yuri spun around, and his mouth fell open. "Guy, what the hell?!" he demanded.
Guy took a deep breath, preparing to ream Alexei out, but before he could start, the giant core hit the platform, raising a huge cloud of dust and sending chunks of broken stonework flying. As the dust settled, he heard Estelle's voice on the other side of the debris crying, Where's Yuri?
"Guy..." Yuri began, his voice vibrating with rage.
Guy ignored Yuri and, still gripping Alexei by the collar, brought the ex-Commandant's face level with his own. "You won't be allowed to die until you've atoned for the disaster you've caused!" he told Alexei. "You made this mess! You're going to help us clean it up!"
"You...fool..." Alexei replied hoarsely, then lost consciousness.
Guy set Alexei down carefully and turned to Yuri, saying, "I know you want to kill him, and so do I, but damned if I'll let someone die when it's their easy way out."
Yuri snorted. "He deserves to die. That's what we came here for, remember?"
"The situation has changed," Guy said with a sigh. He gazed up at the viscous black shadow in the sky.
Yuri also sighed and tilted his head back to look skyward. "'The Adephagos disappeared into the void,'" he said, sounding as though he was quoting something. "Yeah, well, guess they didn't really say they destroyed that thing. They just went off and left this piece of crap remnant behind."
A clink of armor and running footsteps behind them distracted Guy from asking, What exactly is the Adephagos? He turned around just in time to see Sodia running toward them. His phobia kicked in, and he dodged reflexively.
Sodia, however, had been focused on Yuri. She plunged her dagger into Yuri's side. Yuri gasped in pain and stumbled toward the edge of the platform.
Guy was just barely fast enough to snatch Yuri's sleeve and pull him away from the edge. Yuri collapsed in a heap. Guy knelt to tend to him, but Sodia grabbed Guy by the shoulder and yanked him around to face her.
"Uwah!" Guy yelped, scrambling to get away from her.
"Captain, please! Return to your senses!" Sodia cried.
Guy had never hit a woman in his entire life, but he was strongly tempted to slug Sodia. "I'm not your damn Captain!" he snarled at her, then raised his voice to call out, "Estelle! Get over here! We need you!"
"Captain!" exclaimed Sodia, aghast. She stared at Guy in disbelief. "What did Yuri do to you...?" she asked. Her violet eyes began to fill with tears.
Witcher dashed up to them, with Estelle half a step behind him. Both of them stared in appalled fascination at the bloody tableau before them.
Estelle was the first to recover from her shock. She began casting a healing arte, chanting, "O breath of life that dwells in all creatures, come forth..."
"Sodia..." Witcher said hesitantly, "This guy isn't the Captain. He's someone else."
"No..." Sodia whispered brokenly, shaking her head in denial. "He can't be. I don't believe it! No...!" She started sobbing uncontrollably, tears running down her cheeks.
"Think, Sodia!" Witcher said impatiently. "The Captain would never presume to give Princess Estellise orders, or call her by a nickname. Right?"
Sodia buried her face in her hands. "Then..." she sobbed, "where is he? What happened to him?"
"Revitalize!" Estelle finished. As Karol, Raven, Judith, Rita, Repede, and Patty arrived at the scene, a large circle of light surrounded the entire group, healing everyone at once... including Alexei.
"Ugh," Alexei groaned, opening his eyes.
"Oof... agh," Yuri grunted as he sat up.
"Yuri! Are you all right?!" Estelle fretted.
"Yeah... I'm fine now. Thanks, Estelle," Yuri replied. He glanced over at Sodia and remarked, "Didn't think she hated me this much."
Rita stared wide-eyed at Alexei, who had made no move to rise. "Guy, why did you save him?" she demanded.
Alexei snorted derisively, closing his eyes again. "Fools..." he murmured.
Guy scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. Had he done the right thing? He wasn't sure, but... "Well, Estelle said the law would punish him. Dying's easy. Living's hard. He can spend the rest of his life rotting in prison – after he atones for his mistake by helping us destroy the Adephagos."
"You sound just like Flynn," Yuri grumbled. With another "oof," he stood up carefully.
"Well, he's got a point about livin' and dyin' and all," Raven drawled.
Judith glanced at Raven and said softly, "I guess you'd know, wouldn't you?" It was more of a comment than a question.
"Yeah," Karol agreed, looking at Raven sidelong. "I mean, you died once."
"Well, they say 'Let the punishment fit the crime,'" Estelle mused. "I guess it's—"
"So, you have failed," a deep voice interrupted.
Guy turned to look for the source of this new voice. His eyes widened in alarm as he spotted a strange creature, looking like a cross between a dragon and a giant bird, hovering in the air just beyond the edge of the platform. Riding on its back was a man with long white hair, dressed in crimson and gold. His red eyes held a mix of sorrow and anger.
"Duke!" Yuri exclaimed.
A/N: And now the real story begins, as both plots go off the beaten path. Alexei is still alive, Yuri is still with his group of friends, and Luke's group now knows what they otherwise wouldn't have known until a month later (that's 58 days on Auldrant, which is almost twice as long as our months). What will happen to both worlds as a result? You're about to find out in Chapter 5 and subsequent chapters. Stay tuned...