Chapter 9: Twin Skirmish

Underwater Ruins: (4:45PM)

A golem made out of stone was facing the party menacingly. If it could growl or roar at them it would have certainly been making those sounds provided it didn't have a vocal cord.

"That guy doesn't seem to have joints like the one we fought back in Shizontania!" Flynn yelled as he ran across the room dodging the rocks that was being tossed at him.

"By the looks of it, the aer itself is animating those rocks…" Yuri then jumped from behind the golem and stabbed his sword the 'neck' of the golem. The golem attempted to swat him off, but Yuri quickly dislodged his sword and rolled to the side.

"That's not it, there seems to be a core within that golem." Judith said as she quickly analyzed where the aer was gathering within the golem.

"So basically we just have to destroy that to defeat the golem huh?" Yuri said as he recovered.

"Precisely."

Yuri quickly looked around his immediate surrounding for a possible strategy to possibly pierce the rock. As he observed Flynn dodging around, a red glow caught his attention. This gave him an idea.

"Judith, can you somehow immobilize the golem?" Yuri asked.

"That much I can do… I assume you have something planned?" Judith said noticing Yuri's tone and smirk.

"Pretty much." Yuri then started running to help keep the golem busy. He then made eye contact with Flynn that seems to say 'conserve and charge up your strength.'

Flynn nodded as he continued to dodge the attacks and slowly charge up aer onto his makeshift blastia.

Meanwhile…

On Baul: (4:48PM)

Karol had a look of horror on his face as he realized that the Remnants, along with their master are heading there way.

We can either run away, hide, negotiate or confront them… Karol thought, but based on previous encounters, there seemed to be only one option.

"Looks like a battle is inevitable." Raven said as he got his bow ready for a preemptive strike.

As soon as the enemy was within the range of fire for Raven, he fired several arrows with extreme precision, aiming all at their joints. This startled the other Remnant, but their master merely smirked.

Damn, what's this guy? A monster? Raven thought as he continued to fire arrows, and hopefully hit the man that was just smiling at them.

The man raised his right hand; an orange orb was at its grasp, glowing. He then used his left hand and started to chant something.

"Guys! Watch out! He's casting Explode!" Rita called out from her position. Her experience from casting spells had apparently allowed her to distinguish the spells that an enemy could cast.

No sooner than she said this, a large magic circle emerged from the sky. From the center of the magic circle, a large fire ball burst out. It made impact with Baul which promptly send them crashing down to the ground.

Baul was injured for shielding the party from the full brunt of the spell, but that was all it took for Estelle and Rita to lose focus.

"Estelle!"

Estelle immediately forced more of her energy, causing her magic circle to light up more brighter, to stop the wave descending into the ruins. This in effect however, has severely limited her amount of energy to keeping the water up.

"I can't hold out for long!" Estelle said as she focused hard on preventing the water from crashing down.

"Damn… this isn't good! We can't hold that guy off and maintain the water!" Rita said in frustration. She was now hesitating on whether to join in the fray and risk lowering the time limit, or continue on like this and risk getting killed. C'mon Yuri! Hurry up and get here!

Underwater Ruins: (4:52PM)

A loud quake shook the ruins as Yuri and Flynn nearly tripped upon there constant avoiding of the Golem's attack.

"That quake came from outside…" Flynn started as he looked at the direction of the loud sound.

"Estelle!" Yuri said in realization. He then looked at the golem. "We have to finish this fast; it seems that the enemy has already reached them!"

"Understood." Flynn nodded as he continued to avoid the golem's attacks.

"Judith anytime you're ready!" Yuri shouted as he also tried to keep the golem busy.

"Just about done here!" Judith said as the ground below her started to glow, and lightning started to emit from her signifying that her energy gathering is almost complete. "Keep that golem still for just a second!"

"Flynn!" Yuri shouted to Flynn as he stopped in his tracks right behind the golem.

"Got it!" Flynn replied as he himself stopped in front of the golem.

"Azure Edge!"

"Demon Fang!"

The two artes made contact with the golem at the same time temporarily stunning it in place as the impact shook its whole body. This momentary stop was all the time needed for Judith to target the golem.

Judith held her lightning imbued spear at her back. Making eye contact with the golem, she leaped into the air and brought down her spear, stabbing it right next to the golem's feet.

"Radiant Moonlight!"

A magic circle appeared below the golem, exploding with lightning which promptly made the golem go to its knees.

Seeing as this is their chance, Yuri took advantage of it.

"Let's do this Flynn!" Yuri shouted to Flynn as he brought his sword above his head getting ready to stab the floor below him.

"Ok!" Flynn did the same and stabbed the floor beneath him at the same time as Yuri. Channeling the energy he gathered at his blastia, the energy then linked with Yuri's forming a huge Guardian Field.

"Haaaa!"

A huge amount of light emitted from the circle, all striking the immobilized golem. Once the light stopped emitting, Flynn and Yuri removed there swords from the ground and made a quick dash to the opponent with their fists imbued with aer.

"Burst!" Flynn and Yuri said at the same time once they made contact with the monster. As soon as they're at the opposite side from when they started, they immediately jumped into the air.

Once in the air, they focused there energies once again into their swords.

"Pierce! Martial God Paired Heaven Wave!"

After focusing there energies, they released the energy in their swords and aimed it towards the golem. A white light emerged from Flynn's sword while a dark purple light emerged from Yuri's sword.

The light then intertwined with each other, eventually forming into one focused purple beam. The beam then made contact with the golem, instantly piercing and destroying the core. To say that the golem didn't stand a chance was putting it mildly.

"Did we do it?" Flynn asked out loud as he landed at the ruin floor.

"Yeah I think so…" Yuri replied as he quickly scanned the area for the sole reason that they were inside the Temple. "There's the fragment!"

The fragment was glowing dark and it seemed to have just appeared once the core in the golem was destroyed. It was on top of a pillar, floating ominously.

"Is that the Decay Fragment?" Judith asked to no one in particular.

"Looks like it." Yuri slowly approached the fragment and took hold of it. After scanning it he gave it to Judith for safe keeping and ran out of the ruins. Without speaking, Flynn, Judith and Repede followed suit.

As they were running towards the exit, the temple started to shake violently. Water then came rushing in from the halls filling where they were with water.

Under a minute, the ruin was submerged under water.

A Few Minutes Earlier…

An Island near the Ruins: (4:55PM)

Karol and Raven were having trouble keeping the two remnants and their master at bay. They already had trouble facing just one of them without Yuri's help and now they were reduced to two with the other two maintaining the water from crushing the ruins to where Yuri's party is currently in.

"Tch… This is getting a bit out of hand…" Raven said as he jumped into the island that Baul landed on to hopefully keep Baul from getting hurt. He then fired several arrows at the Remnants so they would give chase. Much to his dismay, only one of the Remnants followed. "Karol! Stay there and protect Rita and Estelle!"

"I know! But I don't think I can handle this alone!" Karol shouted back as he stood his ground shaking at what the master of the Remnants was truly capable of.

As one Remnant went after Raven, the other Remnant landed close to the ground and the master of the remnants hopped off the monster.

The man walked casually closer to where Karol is and as they made eye contact, it seemingly said move away or die.

Karol however stood his ground and clutched his axe more harder. "I won't let you pass even if I have to use my body as a shield!"

The man merely smiled and the next moment was directly behind Karol.

"If you truly intend to do so… then sharpen your senses!" The man then delivered a kick with his heel impacting Karol's ribs as the latter tried to turn and shield with his axe.

"Karol!" Rita and Estelle screamed in horror as Karol was thrown towards the Remnant. The Remnant however, did not do anything but rather watched what Karol was going to do.

"Ugh… I'm joining in!" Rita said as she broke off from Estelle and faced the man.

Karol stood up clutching his broken ribs and using his axe as support. Using a Lemon Gel, he squeezed it into the wound to hopefully speed up the recovery process.

Karol then charged in with his axe ready, while Rita started casting a spell.

The man merely stood in place and waited for the impact of each attack that they were trying to do. It's as if he was looking at this as mere entertainment.

As soon as the attacks made impact the man's barrier blocked it and blew it away. He then appeared in front of Rita about to deliver a punch, but Rita acting fast, used a simple lightning spell and imbued it into her fist.

As the fist made contact, a sudden explosion occurred and Rita was blasted backwards unconscious. Her right glove burnt from the explosion. Karol on the other hand was unconscious a few feet away opposite of Rita.

An explosion was heard at the island they're currently in setting the trees around the explosion ablaze.

"Rita!" Estelle was torn to helping her friends or to maintain the spell that's keeping Yuri and the rest alive.

The man then slowly turned his head from looking at Rita's unconscious body towards Estelle's position.

"You must be the Child of the Full Moon…" The man said as he slowly walked over to Estelle's position. "Your power intrigues me… so please stop channeling your magic or I'll be forced to knock you unconscious."

"Sorry…" Estelle replied barely audible due to her fear. She straightened up and held her voice firm. "I can't do that, my friends are still in there."

"Such a pity…" The man then steps into Estelle's magic circle, cancelling the spell out and corrupting it with his own magic. This action surprised Estelle as her magic was just cancelled and seemingly sealed. "I didn't really want to do this, but you really insisted."

The water that was parted crashed into the ruins filling it once again with water. Anyone that was in there would have no chance of surviving due to the water pressure. Undine, having lost magic output from Estelle, returned as a blue orb towards Estelle.

As the full implication of the events that took place hit Estelle she screamed one word and hoped that it wouldn't be the last time she said it, "YURI!"

Author's Notes:

Finally done with this chapter… It took me a while to find out where I'd be heading with this chapter since I've been extremely busy with school work (most assessments are now finished so I can probably update more frequently now).

Sorry for the currently irregular updates, school is really keeping me busy and I've been getting ideas and inspiration of new things to write. As a reply to one of the reviews, yes I've played Persona 3 (Well Persona 3 Portable) and I'll be posting a post-game event fan fiction as soon as I finish this story or when things start calming down at school for me. I will finish this story, but school has really been making me postpone writing.

Another battle and I'm not sure how that really ended up. I'm not really good at writing fight scenes but that said, doesn't mean I won't try and improve it. So please comment in this battle if it was good, getting better or certain things needs to get improved. Oh and the arte used by both Yuri and Flynn here is there special dual Hi-ougi from the PS3 version. I posted the english translation based on Aselia Wiki, but I changed certain things so it would play out well.

If any of the characters are actually dead, you'd all have to wait till the next chapter.

Corrections, constructive criticism and reviews are highly appreciated!