Chapter 21: Summoners and Spirits

Everyone jumped back as Setsuna slashed wide. Even after killing Xegros, her anger had failed to subside, and now her wrath spilled out onto the heroes, Lloyd especially. They had tried forming a circle around her, though this didn't do much to stop her rampage. The wind tore though the air, and with the heavy snowfall, the heroes couldn't see, and the snow and ice on the ground made it nearly impossible to stand. Setsuna looked around herself quickly, saw Lloyd, and leapt at him. Sheena jumped in and kicked her aside, where she landed hard on the ground.

"Setsuna, get a hold of yourself!" she yelled over the wind. "We don't want to fight you!"

Setsuna slowly rose from the snow, and, ignoring Sheena's plea, charged at Lloyd again. Regal and Presea intervened this time, and blocked her attack throwing her back again. She didn't seem to be thinking straight.

Lloyd stepped forward, and held up his hand when everyone went to help him. He was going to face her alone. She rose and ran at him again, sword in hand. She desperately slashed, but Lloyd blocked the attack, and noticed there was very little strength behind it. She didn't have the strength to fight him, let alone everyone else. He threw her back, and she landed on the ground again. She lay there, breathing heavily, staring into the dark sky. She tried to stand, but collapsed to her knees. She hunched over, hands on the ground, and began coughing. Her shoulders shuddered as she had begun crying again, and she punched the ground in frustration.

"She's hurt badly," Raine said, everyone having sheathed their weapons. "She's most likely torn a lot of her muscles, and I doubt her organs would be unaffected from moving that fast."

"Well, heal her then," Lloyd said, and everyone looked at him.

"No."

Raine's response made him furrow his eyebrows.

"She needs help! Heal her, professor!" He said, agitated.

"She's irrational right now. If I heal her, she will try to kill you. I'm not going to heal her."

The snow had abruptly stopped. Everyone looked into the sky, and saw that the clouds were even darker, almost black. The unusual weather was making the group uneasy. Setsuna had become calmer, and sat with a blank look on her face, as she just stared at her hand. Her sword lay discarded to the side, where she had thrown it in frustration.

Suddenly, a giant plume of fire erupted from where Xegros' body lay.

"What in the-" Zelos said, and everyone jumped. Setsuna just looked over and scowled.

"Heh, that would be Efreet's power going out of control," she said not moving from her spot on the ground. "Somehow, the shard of Xylek's sword had managed to absorb it temporarily, but since it's only a shard, it couldn't contain it forever. Much like this weather, which I guess is the result of Celsius' power being released; Efreet's power will now go out of control, if it remains unchecked."

"Are you sane again?" Kratos asked, still sore from being blasted away by her.

"Sanity is overrated. I'm not going to try and kill Lloyd, if that's what you mean."

Lloyd started to say something, but he was cut off.

"Do not speak to me! It is still your fault, and if I hear any of your crap about being sorry, I might attack you. Understand?" Lloyd wilted under the fury of her glare, and nodded in response.

The wind had died down, now, but the fire was getting larger, and much, much hotter. It seemed to erupt again, and a large ball of flame was launched into the air. It arced towards Setsuna, who couldn't move.

"Watch out!" Sheena yelled, but it was too late. The ball of fire hit where she sat, and exploded.

As the smoke cleared, they saw a small dome of ice had formed, and had blocked the fireball. This confused everyone, as nobody had cast that magic.

"How did that thing form?" Stacie asked, bewildered.

"That's not the issue, look," Regal said, pointing at the origin of the fire ball. It had become a spiraling column of flames, and the wind had picked up again. When the first massive chunk of ice landed near the inferno, everyone looked up. Huge blocks of ice were falling from the sky, and landing in or near the flames, which began to get smaller.

"What's going on?" Genis asked, as this weather made absolutely no sense.

"I'm not going to complain; the flames are being pushed back enough so that I can run in there without being roasted by my own power," Efreet said, suddenly behind the group.

"Where have you two been?" Lloyd asked, seeing that Celsius was with him.

"We were… busy," Celsius said, eyeing the sky, and the descending ice that fell from it.

"Alright, wish me luck!" Efreet said, and he ran right into the heart of the flames.

A few minutes passed, and the fire abruptly vanished. Everyone looked into the steam that had been created from the melted ice and snow, and saw a figure walking out. Efreet held the fragment of Xylek's sword in his hand, and it seemed to be feeding him the power that had been stolen from him. He was covered in soot.

"Aren't we lucky this thing works so well?" he said, holding up the shard. "It would have been problematic if my power were released into the air." As his power returned, though, his appearance didn't change.

"Is it not working?" Genis asked.

"No, I just happen to like having legs, it seems," he said with a small laugh, but Celsius interrupted.

"It's good that you've got your powers back, but I still do not," she said, still eyeing the sky.

"Well, why don't you just absorb them from the air, then?" Efreet responded.

"It's not working. My powers aren't just floating freely in the atmosphere."

"Wait, what?" Lloyd said, confused. "If you weren't the one suppressing the fire with those blocks of ice, how did they seem to aim for the fire?"

"I'm not sure, but I might have an idea. The ice-" she stopped when she saw the dome that had formed over Setsuna. "How did that get there?"

"It appeared when Setsuna was almost hit by a fireball that erupted from that inferno," Sheena said.

"It just 'appeared' of its own accord?" Celsius asked, still staring at the ice.

"It materialized very suddenly," Presea said. "Nobody here created it.

Efreet and Celsius looked at each other, each with a confused expression. Everyone walked over to the dome, and upon close inspection, saw that it was perfectly smooth, and that the fireball had done nothing to it. Lloyd poked it, and it was extremely solid. He eyed it closely, and saw a bright light in the center, which was getting brighter.

"I think we should back up," Regal said, and as everyone quickly moved away, the light got very bright and the dome exploded outwards. Setsuna stood in the middle, and it seemed she was at least able to stand again. She looked over to the group, and her eyes got big when she saw Efreet and Celsius.

"Okay, so it was you that made that dome, I assume?" Setsuna said, directing her question towards Celsius.

"It wasn't me."

Setsuna looked at her, unsure as to what she meant. Celsius walked over to her and said something in her ear. Setsuna fell down after hearing what she said. She quickly stood again, and ran off to another part of the small island.

"We need to follow her," Efreet said. Everyone ran after her.

Everyone found her digging in the snow, fervently looking for something. She grabbed something from the snow, and held it up, examining it. It was Xylek's helm. She set it down and continued digging. Eventually, she gave up and sat down. The look on her face wasn't one of irritation or confusion, but she even seemed deep in thought.

"Looks like you might be right, Celsius," Efreet said, and everyone gave him a confused look.

"Right about what?" Stacie asked.

"Well, we were arguing on our way here about the effects our powers could have on mortals, specifically what would happen to Xegros if he were killed without my powers being taken from him. I figured it would just be released into the air and cause havoc, but Celsius had a different idea."

"What was that idea?" Raine asked, intrigued.

"When a summon spirit is 'mortally wounded,' we simply return to the spirit world to regenerate, since we aren't mortal. I thought that maybe-"

She stopped talking when Setsuna began reciting. They had forgotten that Setsuna was also a summoner.

"By my right as a summoner, I call out to the spirit of ice. I summon thee, spirit!" she shouted, and the snow swirled around her. When it died down a little, they saw that she no longer stood alone; a new figure stood in front of her.

Xylek: If you can't guess who that is, I have some news for you…

Tiger: Your hair color is probably blond