Hi guys! Sorry it took so long time to update... I was working on some other stories and had a slittle writer's block.. anyway, here it is!! Enjoy!
Crash
He is the cause of everything that has made me – and everyone else - suffer. That is why, he is going to die today.
Tath stormed up the stairs to the Tower, not even bothering to stop in awe of it. She was mad, insanely mad.
Suddenly and angel appeared in the doorway, but before he even had time to stop her Tath had slashed his throat and stormed into the Tower.
She walked brooding over the bridge, her steps echoing into the infinity, towards the warp point and teleported to the Seal Room.
There she stopped. Panting slightly, she took the time take in her surroundings. The Seal Room consisted of a platform, surrounded by pillars, and in the middle there was a pedestal, but it was empty. Determined again, Tath took a step unto the cold stone floor, her boot sending of a loud echo through the tower.
'Yggdrasill!' she suddenly shouted out. Her voice had a powerful effect due to the echo, but it was in vain. Nothing happened.
She stepped further onto the platform, stopping in the middle, in front of the pedestal, and the higher platform.
'Yggdrasill!' she shouted again. Then, suddenly, she remembered her father's words. Don't call him that.
'Mithos!' Still, nothing happened. She turned around, trying to see something, anything in the void outside the platform, saved for the floating coffins. Just what the hell was this? Here she was, in the heart of Derris-Kharlan, well, sort of, and no one came to stop her. Stupid Cruxis-
'Who the devil are you?'
Tath spun around so fast; her hair whipped her in the face, as the cold voice of Pronyma reached her ears. The Grand Cardinal narrowed her eyes at Tath in what she thought was a threatening manner, but Tath merely raised an eyebrow at her.
'You're not Mithos,' she stated flatly. She knew perfectly well who Pronyma was, but again, no reason to give that away.
Pronyma gave a major insulted gasp, and then her eyes suddenly blazed in rage. 'How dare you call Lord Yggdrasill by that name? And by a simple girl, as well! You will know your place!'
Tath raised her eyebrows for a second, and then let them fall into a dangerous look.
'Fine, then,' she snarled, 'bring it on.' She had been setting out for Mithos, but she wouldn't mind taking Pronyma down with him as well.
But instead of fighting Pronyma, the Cardinal called a group of angels. Tath gave a snort, and actually laughed.
'Are you serious? Is this all you can conjure up? Man, I'm disappointed,' she grinned, mocking Pronyma. She cried out in rage and commanded the angels to kill her. The angels charged her, but the first didn't even have time to unsheathe his sword as Tath's own sword pierced through him. The second angel threw a random spell at the girl but she didn't even flinch, as she used her own mana to shock him with several lightings, striking out from her hand. She then thrust her sword backwards, thereby killing the final angel that had tried to sneak up on her from behind.
Then, she turned to Pronyma, not even panting, and narrowing her eyes at her. 'So…is that all you've got to offer?'
Pronyma looked slightly taken aback, before gathering herself. But just as she sucked in her breath to reply, there was suddenly a light beside her, and someone arrived.
That someone, being Mithos Yggdrasill.
'Pronyma. I demand to know the meaning of this,' he said, in his cold voice, while eyeing the girl below him, who was wiping her sword with a cloth, one eyebrow raised at him.
So this is Mithos, she thought. She had to admit it; the figure in front of her was kind of intimidating. Completely clad in white, with dark purple coloured wings, and the coldest eyes Tath had ever seen. Still, she met his gaze quite strongly.
'So…Mithos,' she stated.
'Who are you?' he asked, his voice bored.
'I,' Tath started, 'am Tath. And I'm here to kill you.'
At first Mithos' cold eyes rested upon her, before suddenly giving out a laughter. Completely rid of warmth and humour, but a laugh.
'I would like to see you try,' he said and then surprisingly fast shot out a ball of energy, hitting Tath square in the stomach, sending her flying of the platform with a surprised yelp.
She fell until she hit one of the coffins, bounced of it until she managed to grab on to the edge of another one.
Ouch.
She looked up towards the platform, to see another group angels charging at her.
'Alright,' she said to herself. 'Let's go.'
The first angel, one with dark, black wings, got to her faster than she'd predicted. She'd just managed to swing back up on the coffin. It swayed dangerously below her feet, and she accidentally stepped on the bones of the corpse. Despite her light figure, it crumbled beneath her. She looked up just in time to see the Angel charge her, but instead of hitting her with a magic attack; it hit her hard with his fist in her face. She could feel herself stumbling back, the world tilting slightly around her, and then something much worse: she felt the sword slip from her grip.
Immediately returning to her senses, she spun around, and saw her sword falling towards the infinity. Without thinking twice, she dove from the coffin in pursuit. The wind whined past her, making her eyes tear as she straightened out her body to make as little resistance to the wind as possible, falling faster through the air. She knew the Angels were pursuing her, but she didn't care. In the back of her mind she worried of the fact how she was going to get up again, but she didn't care about that either. All that mattered now was retrieving her sword.
She could see it in front of her, coming closer, as she was falling faster. Finally, as she reached out her hand, she could grab it with her fingertips. Holding it firmly again, she turned in the air.
Scanning the situation, she felt the heart in her chest drop. The coffins were well out of her reach. There was no hope of holding on to them anymore, as she fell deeper through the tower. An idea took form in her head, but she immediately dismissed it. No, no more secrets will be revealed from me.
But as she looked up again, seeing the platform grow further and further away, she realised she had no choice.
Closing her eyes, she let the mana flow free from her body. Finally, she was revealing her secret form of transportation…
'Pronyma, who was that?' Yggdrasill turned to his worker, his posture calm but the Cardinal knew he was furious. 'How did she get past our security?'
'My Lord… I don't-'
'If the words you are about to speak are 'I don't know,' then you may leave this instant, Pronyma!' Yggdrasill suddenly shouted, startling the Grand Cardinal who jerked in surprise.
'O- of course not, M-my Lord, I-'
But they were both cut off by the noise of commotion below the platform. A struggle, and then a shriek from someone, an angel. And then, something suddenly appeared over the platform.
It was Tath. Tath, hovering slightly above them, with angel wings. Strong, beautiful wings, almost as compact as if they were feathered, in a beautiful shade of red, almost crimson. Tath looked at them, her face grim, as she met their stunned faces. Even Yggdrasill was stunned into silence. But Tath was not, as they now thought, an angel. True, she had angel wings, but that did not make her into an angel.
It was the effect to Altessa's work all those years ago, when Yuan had first saved her from Kvar's Ranch and taken her to the dwarf.
---
(Flashback, Six years old)
Just as she'd woken up again after Altessa's work with the Crystal she realised something was wrong. At first she thought she was dead. She couldn't feel anything. But as she sat up, and saw Altessa and her father she realised what they'd done.
'No!' she gasped, 'Did you…did you evolve it?'
A glance at her father, that had now thrown away the hood, made her fear true. He looked at the young girl, seeing how much she suffered and regretted that he hadn't been able to save her.
She turned to Altessa. 'Take it away! I don't want to be an angel!' Desperation in her voice.
'Relax, child,' Altessa assured, 'you are not an angel yet.'
'But I will be!'
Altessa sighed and looked at first at father, then at daughter, although he was yet unaware of that they were related.
'There is one way.'
They both looked at him.
'Now that the effect of the Cruxis Crystal is reversed to feed her with strength, I could carve a Key Crest into your exsphere. It would suppress the effects of the angelism, but still give you the effect of the exsphere.'
Despite that the girl was only six years old she knew what the dwarf was talking about.
'It sounds too easy.'
The dwarf sighed.
'I know. Due to your strengthened exsphere, the Cruxis Crystal will be too strong for the Crest and will absorb it after say, one month or so.'
'What will be the effects?'
Altessa looked at her. '…You will not be rid of your humanity, but you will not be entirely human either. You will still be able to feel hunger, pain, and even sleep. But you will always have improved hearing, sight, and even…wings.'
---
19 years old.
Finally, Yggdrasill seemed to find himself.
'So, it seems you are more than a plain girl,' he said, eyeing her up and down, all the way out to her lively wings.
Tath crossed her arms, not ready to attack Yggdrasill just yet. She was still enjoying how she had caught him off guard.
The Seraphim suddenly flapped his wings and fluttered up towards Tath. She renewed the grip on her sword again, narrowing her eyes against him.
'And now, Yggdrasill, it is time for you to die,' she said, but he completely ignored her.
'Where did you get a Cruxis Crystal?' he asked, locating the glowing orb that caused her angelism, on her chest.
'That,' Tath said, holding up her sword, 'has nothing to do with your business.'
Yggdrasill surveyed her for a moment, looking into her cool blue eyes. They seemed to remind him of someone, only he could not put his finger on whom. But then, as Tath relaxed her guard a little, he suddenly shot out his hand and grabbed her wrist. Concentrating his mana, he shot several waves of energy through her body, causing her to jerk with pain, but she did not scream.
Then, as he finally released her, her eyes rolled to the back of her head, as she lost consciousness. Her wings dissolved as the mana in her body flowed inside her again, and she fell towards the ground. She hit the stone floor hard, her right hand rolling to her side, where the grip of her sword loosened, and it rolled out of her hand.
Yggdrasill fluttered down to look at her.
'Oh,' he said, grinning slightly, 'I think it has everything to do with my business.'
Then he nodded to Pronyma. 'Take her with us. We're going back.'
---
It was an eerie feeling that made Tath come around again. She shot up her eyes, at first not knowing where she was, or remembering what had happened. Slowly, she sat up, and groaned as her entire body ached. Then it hit her. The Seal Room. Yggdrasill. She gave another groan, but not due to pain, but to her incredible stupidity. What had she been thinking? That she could kill the leader of Cruxis? She looked at her left wrist, and saw the mark of Yggdrasill's hand from his attack. She gave a faint sigh. Never before had she felt such immense pain as that attack caused her. Lucky for her she did not believe in physical pain.
She got to her feet, brushing off some dirt on her jacket and took in her environment. She was in a cell, no doubt. Walking forth to the bars, she touched the cool steel, before looking out through them and realised that she was not in the world she was used to.
Her cell was on some kind of platform, and below it was a deep chasm, which Tath could see no end of. Across the platform there was some kind of elevator that went across to her cell and another platform. And on the other platform was a teleport. It seemed that the chamber she was in was deserted. She could not figure out where she was, until she spotted a window. Outside she could see stars. Stars that were really close, not like she used to see them. And then she realised where she was. Yuan had told her about it.
Welgaia.
Sighing, she went back to the back of her cell, sinking to the ground. She was so stupid! By revealing her Cruxis Crystal to Yggdrasill, they had now captured her, and probably wanted to know about her. She suddenly gave a small grin. Like Kratos. But she feared that they weren't going to be as friendly as Kratos had been. She heaved a sigh. This way, she was of no help to anyone. She thought of Lloyd and the others, where they were and what they were doing. Probably off trying to find a solution to all the problems. Together with Yuan. She buried her head in her lap, cursing herself for being to hard-headed.
'Body 1156.'
How could she have flown off like that? How could she have seriously believed that she could kill Yggdrasill?
'Body 1156! You!'
She didn't react to the voice until the second time it called her 'name.' Looking up, she saw a guard angel outside her bars.
'What?' she snapped. But he didn't reply, instead he opened the gate to her cell, as she stood up. Then he promptly strode inside and grabbed her arm, walking her to the elevator which took them both over the deep chasm.
'Hey, watch the jacket! It's leather,' she snapped, but the guard completely ignored her. She snorted. So insulting the guard didn't work, like she'd done with the Desians a few years ago. If she could get the guard angry, he might attack her, and then she could easily kill him. But… she took a closer look at the angel. Completely emotionless, with nothing behind those eyes. She could not help to give a shudder. If she ignored her Key Crest long enough, was this what awaited her?
He led her to the warp, and they arrived on another platform, and it was now clearer to see that Welgaia was a city. Right in front of her was a flat escalator, leading to another part of the city, but the angel pulled her to the right, were another section of the platform opened up.
Suddenly the guard stopped in front of a door, pressed a button and the door opened. He gave Tath a violent push and she stumbled inside, were two other guards grabbed her. She was now in a room with an elevator, and the guards led her inside it. No words were exchanged between them, as one of them nodded to the other, and he pulled something which Tath could not identify, until she saw the needle. Then, before she could stop them, he thrust the injection through her arm, and injected it. She watched as the white-like substance flowed into her veins, and she could feel it spread through her blood. And then… nothing.
She looked blankly at her arm, before looking up at the expressionless guards with a triumphant smile.
'Heh, didn't anyone tell you about my exsphere? Try whatever you want, it won't work, cause this thing's strong. Nothing-' she didn't finish, as everything went black before her eyes and she slipped into unconsciousness. She would've fallen if the guards hadn't grabbed her and held her upright.
The elevator gave a pling and the doors opened…
Tath gave a groan and, drowsy, opened her eyes, and was meet by a bright light. As her eyes adjusted, she could see that it some sort of lamp, turned to her. After a while, as she located herself, she tried to get up. Only she found she couldn't. She was stuck in some sort of chair, and she was strapped to it. Still a bit hazed, she looked around….
'Comfortable, isn't it?'
Her head turned to her left so quickly her bangs whipped her in the eyes. She could see Yggdrasill standing in the corner of the room, still in his white clothing, his blue eyes shining with a numb glance. Tath narrowed her eyes.
'Not really,' she shot back sourly.
He lit up in a grin, a cold one, and nodded to the other side of the room. Tath turned her gaze to the other side and saw that grim looking angel stood in the corner, looking at her with cold eyes.
She shot him a dark look, but the angel did not react at all. Instead – after another nod from Yggdrasill – he strode forth and shot an injection into her arm.
'Not again,' Tath growled, but suddenly gave a gasp as she felt an incredible pain sear through her entire body.
'Curious effect, isn't it?' Yggdrasill said, still with the cold detachment in his voice. 'It seized your blood. In short periods, of course, so that you don't die, but enough to see… effects of it.'
'…and… why are you doing this?' Tath grunted, as she had worked up the strength to speak against the pain.
'Well,' Yggdrasill said, leaning down to look her in the eye. 'This little exsphere of yours has made me interested. And this is simply me making tests.' He smiled insane. 'To see how strong it actually is.'
Then he looked up, nodding to the other angel, who injected something else in Tath. She did not now what it was, but it made her shriek out in pure pain.
Not very unlike the days she endured as a child, in Kvar's ranch.