The Chaos pooled around me, pulling me into the chasm that ripped from the ground below. Serah and Snow embraced one another; Hope laughed with Sazh over Dajh's reaction to the green earth, so different from Cocoon's artificial environment. I clawed at the dirt, screaming, desperately trying to grab the attention of any of them, but I was invisible to them. The earth swallowed me whole, and I was left gasping for air in the pitch-black darkness that threatened to strangle me with its grip.
My feet hit the ground and I collapsed, too oxygen-starved to fully care about where I fell. I took several deep, shaking breaths as I began ripping my vest off, tearing my turtle-neck away from my throat, as if doing that would open up my airways, but it was all in vain: the air was wrong wherever it was that I landed. It was too still, too stagnant, too damp to be anything natural. Even Cocoon had fresher air inside its artificial shell than this wide landscape did. I glanced around, forcing my breath to even out as I clutched my top in one hand. My other hand already gripped my gunblade, open and ready for battle while I gathered my wits.
Inside my ear I heard a murmur, almost as if there were a whisper in a breeze, except still there was no movement in the air. The voice belonged to a girl: perhaps no older than Serah, but no face came to mind, and only a vague memory stirred inside my head. Again, it breathed into my head, and I could stand it no longer; gathering my clothes, I quickly resituated myself and padded my way towards the direction the voice urged me in.
The soft soles of my boots made no sound as I found my way towards a decimated palace. I can tell by looking at it that it once was great, even if it now stood missing several walls, towers, and ground floors. I made my way slowly inside the ruins, both hands carefully situated on the hilt of my weapon. Exhaustion threatened to seep into my bones, but the voice urged me forward, pleading with me. Come, help, it begged, and the Serah-like quality to it forced me onward.
Inside the main hall I saw it: a crystalline throne. On it sat the figure of a girl, perhaps fifteen in age. Her pale eyes rested and her breathing labored, her lavender hair falling out of the headdress she wore and creating a curtain around her petite face.
I stared at the girl, a name immediately appearing into my mind. The Goddess Etro, who now I remembered as the one who whispered into my mind as I awake from my own Crystal Stasis, sagged in her throne.
I am weak, she whispered into me. I need rest.
Dropping to one knee, I looked down at the Goddess's feet. "What would you have me do?" I asked her, and looking up, her mouth curled into a delicate smile.
There is a man, she told me. His name is Caius Ballad. He will soon embark on a mission to kill me, but I am too weak to fend him off.
Claire Farron, she breathed, I will soon fall into a heavy sleep, in which I will be entirely vulnerable to Caius Ballad. I ask that join me here, in Valhalla. I ask that you become my Champion.
I nodded immediately. "Of course, your Grace," I told her, and she tilted her head up to look at me.
A feather-light weight came over me at her gesture. I felt my feet lift off the ground of their own accord. My Guardian Corp-issued leather boots disappeared first, dissolving into nothingness, leaving behind only my bare feet. My pack of items and skirt were next to go, simply fading away, followed by my vest and turtleneck. Along with my gloves, bracelets, and my Guardian Corp identifier, my undergarments and jewelry peeled off of my body. My gunblade and harness, too, were stripped from me.
Suspended in midair, I faced the Goddess entirely exposed. She nodded once, and suddenly my feet were engulfed in downy-soft feathers that trailed up my body, leaving steel and bronze armor in its place. A carbon fiber bodice fashioned itself around my center, a steel chest plate secured in place by shoulder braces and hooking onto the plates around my hips. Underneath the hip plating the feathers finally situated, weaving into something not unlike my GC cape. My gunblade, rewelded, latched onto my backplate, and on my right arm rested a shield.
Slowly I was placed back onto my feet, and for a few seconds I could only reacclimate to my new armor: heavier than my leather and cloth uniform that I'd lived in for weeks on the run, but lighter than I would have thought pure steel to be. Fabric fashioned out of dyed leather and braces out of carbon fiber situated themselves onto my skin, stretched to cover all exposed skin and traveled up my neck, leaving only the fainting feeling of even being there. A helmet appeared in my free hand, shining and glimmering in the ethereal glow of the Goddess.
A tear slid down my cheek unknowingly, and I started at the feeling of fingers caressing my skin. The Goddess stood before me, easily a head shorter than me, and she smiled peacefully. Here you can see all of time, she said. Motioning toward a wide hole in the center of the hall, she told me, In this pool, you need only think of them and their current whereabouts will be revealed to you.
I beg of you to keep me safe, Claire Farron, for if Caius Ballad truly kills me, there will be no one else to ferry the souls of the damned.
I nodded towards the Goddess, kneeling once more before her, and she rested a light hand on my head. "Thank you, Claire Farron," she whispered.