Chapter 3: An Unlikely Ally

As soon as he left Van's office, he realized that he didn't even know where he was going.Sure, he could run around the world all he liked, and be able to find his way, but he didn't know where to find Asch. Naturally, he would be hard to find as usual.

Luke figured the best place to start looking was the last place that he had been seen. Van told him that Asch had been seen sneaking around Eldrant, so that would be where Luke started looking for him.

When he arrived at Eldrant, and boarded the elevator to go up, an overwhelming sense of guilt came over him. He was a traitor. He had betrayed his friends, and was about to arrive at the place he had done the dirty deed. This was obviously not a very comforting thing to think of when he stepped out of the elevator.

Of course when he did step out of the elevator, he was greeted with just how big of a job it would be to actually find Asch on the off chance he was in Eldrant. Well, Luke thought, I'm already here, I may as well look around a little bit before I go on.

The white-washed walls of Eldrant glimmered with the sunlight that was coming in through the skylights, making it seem as if Luke was walking around in a dream. That's what it felt like, anyways. He couldn't imagine doing the things that he did, and ever having his friends forgive him and take him back. That was the price he had to pay for the world, though.

He was only walking around for about an hour before he heard the sounds of a battle coming from behind a door. Luke approached the door, only to find that it wouldn't open. Pulling the door didn't work any better than pushing it. The door just wouldn't budge.

It was while he was trying to think of a new way to open the door that Luke was smacked in the face with it. When he recovered and stood up, he was greeted by the sight of Asch running at him full force, with a gaggle of soldiers behind him. After he sidestepped to avoid being taken down, he watched as Asch swiftly ran over to a circle on the floor and pressed his hands to it. Thin blue tendrils of light reached out from the circle, and when the reached the door, it slammed shut again. Luke could swear he heard the clink of armor smacking against the door full force.

When he turned around to regard Asch, he was startled. Asch was bloody and beaten up, really in no condition to be helping him.

"What are you doing here, Replica?" Asch wheezed the words out, seeming to do it with great effort.

"I could ask you the same thing. You look like you got beaten pretty bad."

"Heh, yeah, you could say that. But quit being evasive and tell me why you came. You joined up with Van, right? So is there any reason I shouldn't kill you right now?"

"I really don't think that you're in any position to be making threats. Let me help you out of here, and then we'll talk."

"You idiot! I won't accept help from a traitor!" Asch yelled at Luke as he ran towards him with his sword raised. Halfway to him, however, he stumbled and fell to his knees.

"Can't you just accept my help for once? If I don't help you who knows when some band of guards will come along and kill you?"

Asch looked up at Luke with anger in his eyes. However, there was also a trace of submission in them. Luke walked over to him and helped him to his feet. As they made their way back to the entrance of Eldrant, Luke decided to present his case to Asch, while he was allowing him to help.

"Asch, the reason I came here today is to ask you for help." Luke braced himself for the onslaught of insults and yelling that was bound to come from this combination of events.

"Ask for my help? Yeah, right, like I would help a traitor." Asch said this in a surprisingly calm voice, the opposite of what Luke thought would happen.

"You haven't heard what kind of help I need yet, though. This is important, more important than you or me or Van. This is about the entire world."

"Isn't it always? Look, you chose your friends, and then you chose to go against them. I'm not going to help somebody who goes against everything they risked their lives for."

"You know what Van is planning. He thinks that by using Lorelei's power, he can create a world of replicas, starting with Eldrant. He wants to replace everybody in the world with a replica…" Luke stopped and looked at Asch's face. His eyes were closed, but he appeared to be listening (his famous scowl was on his face). He continued, "For the past couple of months I have been fighting to prevent him from doing this, and instead restore Lorelei. But now, I know that it will not be enough to do just that. We have to do more…"

"What more do you think we can do? We're just humans, there is only so much that is within our power."

"I think that we should use Lorelei's power to restore the flow of Seventh Fonons through the Radiation and Absorption Gates."

"Are you an idiot or something? The whole reason we stopped the flow was to prevent the creation of any more replicas, and stop the score from dictating our lives. If we did that, it would undo all that we've managed to do."

"I know what you mean, but there is a chance that we could restore the Seventh Fonon, revive Lorelei, and allow the original Auldrant to survive, instead of eventually fading due to the absence of the Seventh Fonon!"

"Fade away? The Seventh Fonon is nothing but a nuisance; it doesn't do anything for this planet." Asch coughed, and became a little bit heavier on Luke's shoulder.

"No, it's one of the things Van told me. He told me that without the Seventh Fonon, the world will die. It was written in one of Yulia's texts. It's why he wants to create a replica world."

"Well, I suppose if it comes from Yulia, it must be true. I still find it hard to believe it though, since I haven't seen it with my own eyes."

"I can take you to see it. It's in Van's office in Belkend."

"Heh, Belkend…that's pretty far from here. You're going through a lot of trouble to convince me."

"Nothing is too much trouble to save the world."

Author's Note

Due to the fact that in this game, the whole plot surrounding the Seventh Fonon is kind of shaky and confusing, I am writing it as I interpreted it. It may not be completely correct, so if it isn't, bear with me. It should be pretty darn close, though.