Chapter 18: "I Will Not Stand Back Anymore!"
Entering through the door at the top of the Human Ranch, the group finds themselves in an enclosed room that had brighter lighting than the rest of the building, but with the relatively same technology. Lloyd immediately looks to the right and finds Rodyle standing in front of a large glass pane with a glowing green seal placed in front of it on a device. "Rodyle!" Lloyd proclaims the Desian's name, and as everyone turns to face him he too flips around and glances down at the group with a smirk on his face and his red glasses gleaming slightly.
"Well well, I see the failed Chosen and her traveling band of fools are still alive. You're as stubborn as cockroaches." Rodyle states in a peeved tone of voice. Presea pulls out her axe and swings it at the ground while scowling at the half-elf and stating "You and Vharley…deceived me!" Her anger was welling up with each word she spoke.
"Presea, poor poor Presea…I'd have treated you so much better had you made me a Cruxis Crystal in that little body of yours. But I guess you inferior beings are incapable of such a feat." Rodyle's callous disregard to Presea's suffering makes the girl snap, and after swinging her axe into the grasp of both hands she rushes right up the staircase and leaps into the air towards the half-elf with her axe held up high.
"RAAAAAAAH! DIE!" Presea exclaims with all of her might as she brings her axe down towards Rodyle. The man smiles, and disappears with an illusion just like he did the last time she tried to kill him. But this time Rodyle adds onto the illusion, and as Presea slams her axe against the ground a purple glyphic seal activates and sends electricity surging through the girl's body.
Rodyle appears off to the side of Presea, this time as his real self, to better enjoy the pain the girl was enduring. Once the electricity drops, Presea's screams end and her body is left smoking slightly as she is left on her knees with a defiant and angered glare pointed at Rodyle. "Ahahahaha!" Rodyle laughs maniacally at Presea's foolishness, but in his distraction he's struck with a few fireballs to the side of his body.
"Ergh!" He groans out in a slight tone of pain, glancing to the right afterwards to see an angered Genis holding his kendama up towards Rodyle. The Desian grins and comments "Now now, settle down, children."
"How dare you-" Regal scowls at Rodyle and looks ready to leap at him for an attack, but the half-elf raises one hand up while placing another on the seal behind him, saying to the group before they advanced "Hahah, I wouldn't do that if I were you. Now then, have a look at the projector. I've got a special underwater show for you."
With a push of a button on the seal, Rodyle summons forth a very clear holographic image of the lower quadrant of his ranch, where the human captives Lloyd and the others freed can be seen slowly walking closer to the exit of this accursed place. But in a matter of seconds, Rodyle presses another button on the seal to cause something to activate another device. Water begins to rapidly fill the room the prisoners were walking through, and it would only be a matter of time before they were drowned.
"N-No! How could you do that?!" Genis proclaims in sheer disbelief at what he was watching. "They'll all be killed!" Colette reacts in horror to what she was witnessing. This flooding infuriated Lloyd, who quickly ran to the top of the stairs and drew both of his swords out, glaring at Rodyle and proclaiming to him "You bastard! Stop the water, now!"
The rest of the group sans Riku rush up to join Lloyd, but the man isn't intimidated in the slightest even as Lloyd runs at him and takes a slash at his body. Rodyle leaps back out of the way and grins, commenting in a joyous tone "It's too late! I know why you've come here…It's obvious you intend to shut down my Mana Cannon. But you won't succeed. I've filled the corridor leading to the Mana Cannon with sea water!"
But as he brags to the group about this matter, the gushing of water coming through the shaft of the ranch stops, causing the half-elf to wonder what silenced it as he turns to the right and proclaims "What? What's going on here? I didn't order the water to stop!"
Standing at the side of the projector is Riku, who holds both of his hands up and uses his powers to halt the water mere inches before it began to consume the captives. The humans made the final stretch through the ranch, escaping out the front door by the time the teenage Overlord lets go of the water and leans forward slightly, his arms limping down as he sweats out of all parts of his skin and pants heavily.
The water in the ranch begins to rise again, but Rodyle's plan to kill the humans in the process had failed. Riku glares up at him and between his breaths he comments "Sorry…Rodyle…I…I won't let you…Ever win…"
"Hmmm…Heheheh, Hahaha!" Rodyle joyously laughs at the teenage Overlord's comment, his arms swinging outward as he confuses the group with his actions. He says to Riku in turn "Foolish Overlord, do you think I care if some inferior beings escape my ranch? After all the effort you wasted to manipulate mana-filled water, I have managed to eliminate the only threat in this room!"
"W-What?" Riku could barely understand what Rodyle was getting at until the half-elf explained briefly "You efforts to destroy my cameras were wasted, I learned enough from your battle to realize that so long as the elements you manipulate are tainted by mana, you will struggle to bend them to your whims!"
"But enough of that failure of an Overlord! Even with your interference, the Mana Cannon will be completed once I get the Cruxis Crystal. With Thor's Hammer in my possession, Yggdrasill and Cruxis will BEG for my mercy! Even that eye-sore of a tower will fall before my cannon." Rodyle's words reek of the highest arrogance, which irritates and confuses Lloyd as he swings one of his swords out and asks "What do you hope to accomplish by destroying the Tower of Salvation?!"
"Heheheheheh…What does it matter? You lower life forms have been nothing more than my pawns in this little war against that fool Yggdrasill. With everything I've witnessed, everything I've experimented on, I have finally earned the Cruxis Crystal I so rightfully deserved!" Rodyle reaches into his suit and pulls out a red crystal wrapped in a gold border. But something about the gem's color was odd compared to what is expected of it.
"Now then, I think I'll test it's power first be equipping it onto myself…" Rodyle takes the Cruxis Crystal and places it onto the front of his chest. The gems stitches itself through his clothes and into his skin, causing him to flinch in pain for a moment as he stretches his arms out and proclaims to the group "Behold, inferior beings, the birth of this world's new god!"
In a matter of seconds, Rodyle's skins bulges out in multiple directions before he is consumed by a flash of light. When the light fades away, standing where Rodyle was is a grotesque creature with green fleshy skin that had no lips or gums, leaving his rotting, salivating teeth in full view. Most of his body was covered in a type of dull, silver armor that appeared to have some similarities to his suit. The top of his head was covered in a dome of that same material, with his glasses having been converted to almost mechanical, reddish eyes.
Lloyd and the rest of the group looked disgusted at the beast's overall appearance, but Rodyle fully denied the monstrous form he had taken and proclaimed in a ghastly roar "Now, 'Chosen of Regeneration', it is time I put an end to you and your friends' little journey!"
"Professor! Take Presea and heal her and Riku! We'll handle Rody-" As Lloyd gives out an order to Raine, Rodyle runs at him and swings his bladed arm forward, forcing him to swing his head back in front of him and raise his swords in a cross to block the attack in the center of his blades, which pushes his body backward a couple feet.
Rodyle raises his right arm into the air and morphs the hole in the flesh outward, creating a widened gap as he laughs joyously and prepares to fire out an electric blast between Lloyd's swords. However, Regal leaps over Lloyd's body and kicks Rodyle's square in the chin with all of the might he can throw into his right foot. Rodyle feels a crack in his chin as his head is shunted backward along with his right arm swinging out and launching off the electricity into the ground below.
Regal wasn't finished with his assault though, for while he was in mid-air he spun around and performed two more kicks, the third and final one applying the same amount of force as the first to send Rodyle flying straight into the wall. Regal manages to land on his feet, kneeling down and holding his cuffed hands in front of his chest as Lloyd swings his swords out and comments "Thank Regal."
"Don't hold back Lloyd, let's make him pay with everything we've got!" Regal held a great deal of investment in this battle as evidenced by his choice of words. Lloyd nods his head in agreement, but both fighters end their discussion when they hear Rodyle pulling his relatively unharmed body away from the wall. He lands on the ground and laughs at the lack of pain flowing through him, leading to him commenting "Hahaha! I knew it, I knew this power would be glorious! I am invincible!"
"Blah blah blah, sheesh, could you be anymore cliché'd?" Zelos comments in a nonchalant manner as he waves his shielded arm around and finished casting a spell. The white glyphic seal below his feet vanishes, and Rodyle is surrounded by multiple blades of wind that grind into his armor and skin as it consumes him. But like a tank Rodyle runs through the wind blades and swings his blade arm at Regal and Lloyd, hitting them and sending them flying into the glass pane to the left as they guard against the attack.
Running straight for Zelos, Rodyle proclaims "Do not think I have forgotten you, Chosen of Tethe'alla!" Zelos turns around and whistles for a moment, and before Rodyle chops his head off he is consumed by a large series of explosions created by a series of seals Sheena placed down beforehand. Sheena lands on the ground behind Zelos' back and glances up at the plume of smoke while reaching into her clothes to pull out a seal for a Summon Spirit.
"Glad you had my back honey buns!" Zelos compliments in his suave tone of voice. "Now is not the time for this Zelos!" Sheena states in an infuriated tone as she tries to focus on summoning forth some help.
"You're right…now is the time to die!" Rodyle's voice breaks through the smoke as he thrusts his fleshy arm out and releases a large stream of electricity that strikes Sheena's body before she can bring forth a Summon Spirit, leading to her being sent flying back along with Zelos. They both land on the ground and let out a brief groan of pain.
After Rodyle lets off some steam from that attack, Lloyd leaps directly onto his back and raises both of his swords into the air before attempting to pierce them through the monster's flesh. But Rodyle spins around, throwing Lloyd right off and forcing him to get his bearings fast before he can land on his feet. "Colette, Genis, now!" Lloyd proclaims the very moment he lands.
"What?!" Rodyle blurts out in confusion before he glances over his right shoulder and sees both Colette and Genis preparing spells. Colette was blessed by holy light around her entire body as glowing pink feathers floated up from the edge of the circle. Meanwhile, Genis had a gigantic purple glyphic seal below his feet as he surprisingly put away his kendama and held his hands into the air above him. "O' holy one, cast thy purifying light upon this corrupt soul…" Colette says in a calm, melodious tone. "From the land of the living, I call upon thee in the land of the dead to unleash thy fury of thunder!"
The sky rips open twice over above Rodyle, and with Regal leaping out of the way and Lloyd helping Sheena and Zelos get out of range Colette proclaims "Judgment!" while Genis simultaneously exclaims "Indignation!" Rodyle looks up in sheer disbelief as two cascades of burning light come gushing through the tear in differing forms. First, Rodyle is struck down by a wide bombardment of holy lasers, whose vicious impacts silence all in the room. Then, the crashing sound of thunder breaks apart this silence as a gargantuan lightning bolt consumes the entirety of Rodyle's body.
The room is filled with light as everything trembles below the group's feet, and by the end of it all both Genis and Colette were smiling at how well their combination attack was pulled off even if it did drain a lot of their mana. They turned to each other and gave a quick high-five, but their victorious gestures were ruined by the words that echoed through the veil of smoke formed from both attacks. "Did you truly think that such blessed spells would work on one who has ascended to the level of a god?!"
Rodyle's arrogant cry focuses everyone's attention on the smoke with looks of utter shock on their faces as it parts, revealing that while the monstrous half-elf's armor has been torn apart slightly, he was otherwise barely harmed by the combined power of Judgment and Indignation. In fact, now his entire body was surging heavily with electricity, to which he pointed out with great joy "But thank you, my fellow traitorous half-elf, for supplying me with even MORE power! Now, die!"
Rodyle throws his right arm out and opens the hole up wide, taking all of this electricity gathered around him to fire it all out at once at both Colette and Genis in the form of a heavy beam. Lloyd immediately sprints away from Zelos and Sheena while exclaiming "Colette! Genis!" in a panicked rage. He leaps forward in front of Rodyle's beam and spins so his back is facing his friends, and with both of his swords raised up he swings down upon the electric beam.
The collision of blades with electricity sends energy surging outward in all directions, and Lloyd grunts with all of his might to keep the energy at bay even though it was hurting his body to do so. Colette and Genis ran out of the way as Lloyd's body as pushed back, with Colette declaring her friend's many out of concern for his well-being, only for Genis to reply "We need to attack Rodyle! Lloyd can handle this on his own!"
Genis pulls out his kendama and begins to cast a spell towards Rodyle's direction, while Colette stutters out "R-Right…" and holds her hands out to strum a holy tune as angelic light glows below her body. Lloyd continues to push against the electric beam in the meanwhile, with Regal and Sheena staying back for the moment since Rodyle's body is surrounding by electricity as the attack continues to exist.
Meanwhile, Raine is kneeled between Presea and Riku, using her healing artes on the girl to patch her up as quickly as possible. With axe still in her hand, Presea looks at the battle at curses herself for letting her rage blind her to Rodyle's obvious trap. "Just a little longer Presea, and then you can join the fight…" Raine calmly states as she holds her staff over Presea's body.
"…You can join the battle afterwards Raine, your healing magic won't work on me." Riku calmly points out. "What makes you think that?" Raine asks in a puzzled tone.
The teenage Overlord grins slightly and states "You heard Rodyle…I have a hard time dealing with mana-based elements. Your healing magic might hurt me more than it would heal me. Besides, so long as I pace my breathes, I can just recover by getting enough air into my body. You guys should be able to handle Rodyle…"
"…I see, just try and get out of the way if necessary…" Raine voices a bit of concern towards Riku's condition before she focuses all of her energy back onto Presea's recovery. Back at the battle, Lloyd continues to push his swords into the energy beam and both Zelos and Genis pelt Rodyle with fireballs while Colette uses Holy Song to supply her friends with a little more strength and defense.
But even with this boost in strength, Lloyd was only at even with the electricity, and Rodyle was just incapable of letting up. Sheena tries throwing seals at the monster, but they all fizzle out around his shield of electricity. When that fails, she pulls out a brown seal to summon forth Gnome. But once again Rodyle doesn't allow her to go through with her attack as he split apart the electricity from his shield and fired a blast at Sheena.
The girl leaps back and lands on the wall, flipping off of it as another blast comes towards her only for yet another one to strike her in the stomach and send her crashing back into the wall. But while he distracted himself with Sheena, Lloyd pushes forth against the electricity while letting out an angered roar, and with his Exsphere activating to create a black field around his body due to being pushed into Overlimit Lloyd pushes back the beam all the way. In the process, he manages to send out two heavy waves of energy at Rodyle as his swords crash down against the ground.
"What?! Impossible!" Rodyle exclaims in utter disbelief, and he then takes the full brunt of Lloyd's two attacks, which cleaves right across his armor and slices partially into his flesh. "GRAAAAAH! How…How dare you!" Rodyle screams in pain and mutters out in disbelief, and with a fiendish roar he throws out all remaining electricity in his body into a singular expanding field that stretches across most of the room and slams into all of his opponents.
In an instant, they are all thrown back a good number of feet, slamming them against the closest walls or floors and leaving them with quite a bit of damage on their bodies. Lloyd in particular is dropped to his knees and forced to plant one sword against the ground for support. "Damn it, how can he have this much power?!"
"Hahahaha! I am a holder of the Cruxis Crystal and a superior half-elf! I am beyond all who can oppose me in this current state. I control the Mana Cannon, and with both this and the Cruxis Crystal I will control the world! All inferior beings will be cleansed, starting with your pathetic group!" Rodyle boasts with all of his might, ignoring the fact that his body has taken a great deal of damage from the overall battle.
"SHUT UP!" These two words of defiance emerge from Presea, who pushes herself off the ground in spite of the fact that she had not been fully healed. Her expression was adorned with rage, and she swung her axe furiously down to the right of her while glaring up at Rodyle. With her teeth grit hard and her eyes watering with painful tears, she listened as Rodyle glanced at her and said "Presea…You are the biggest failure of them all! Even after almost twenty years your body could not form a Cruxis Crystal for me. Just like your sister, you are nothing more than a wast-"
"GRAAAAH!" Rodyle's words sent Presea into a fit of rage, which simultaneously activated her Exsphere and causes her to go into Overlimit. She leaps straight at Rodyle with her axe and swung behind her body, and the man fires off a heavy stream of lightning to try and push her away. But Presea dives straight into the lightning without swinging her axe out to defend herself, pressing right through it and bringing her axe out to attack Rodyle straight in the chest.
The half-elf takes the full brunt of the axe, leading to his body being slammed directly against the back of the room as a crack is formed into his armor. The seal machinery Rodyle used to flood the ranch is broken immediately, and Rodyle lets out a cry of pain as the sharp metal pierces into his flesh.
Presea lands on the ground after pulling her axe out of Rodyle's body, staring up at him and proclaiming "You've taken my time, you've taken my family, and you've taken my home. I WILL NOT LET YOU TAKE MY FRIENDS TOO!"
Presea raises her axe above her head and sets the blade aglow with golden light, bringing it straight down upon the crack in Rodyle's armor in a furious arch that spreads the energy outward for a few seconds before it collapses back into the origin point and creates an explosion of flames that tears the chest of the armor asunder and sends scorching pain through Rodyle's entire being.
As the girl flips her axe back to the side of her body Rodyle desperately looks on at Presea and says to her "I-It's not impossible Presea! I-I can do it…As a god…I-I can return your time…bring back your family, restore Ozette! Spare me, and I can bring it all back to you!"
Presea doesn't listen to the words of this blind, callous man as she replies to him in a calm fury "…There is no way to turn back time." She then throws her axe as high up as the ceiling would allow her to, leaping up after it and catching it perfectly by the handle as she holds it behind her head and releases a flash of light from the blade.
"You'll never hurt anyone again…" Presea states as she flips her body around a couple of times and descends towards Rodyle's vulnerable chest. Slamming her axe into his body, the impact creates a heavy tremor through the entire build as energy is expended from the weapon in order to let loose a large eruption of searing light. Rodyle's entire body is consumed until Presea proclaims "Crimson Devastation!" At which point she pulls her axe from Rodyle's body and turns around as he's consumed by a bright red explosion of fire.
Presea places one hand against her chest and closes her eyelids while hanging her axe off to the side, letting out a quiet sigh of relief as she assumed that she had dealt with Rodyle for good. But when the explosion ends off, Rodyle was still alive, but his flesh has been heavily torn apart and his body was in an incredibly terribly shape overall. He falls forward, landing on his broken limbs as Presea turns around and leaps off of the platform before Rodyle can attack her.
Rodyle glances at his body, and notices that he was slowly peeling apart bit by bit. "D-Disintegration?" His voice had become heavily distorted and worried, and as he glanced at the Cruxis Crystal that was sticking out of his chest he commented "Pronyma…Pronyma you tricked me!"
Rodyle spits up a large chunk of liquid in front of his body and limps forward, falling right off the platform and crashing a few feet away from it as he tumbles forward. His body continues to disintegrate at a rapid pace, cursing Pronyma's name all the while. "Damn that woman…Damn her to hell! She could not accept my genius, none in this broken world could! I am Rodyle, the greatest of the Desian Grand Cardinals…no, the greatest of all beings in this world!"
Rodyle limps up on top of the glowing green device in the center of the room, using his barely mobile limbs to tap a few buttons on it as everyone glances at him in curiosity. "Hahahaha…The Angelus Project wasn't a complete waste…I will die knowing that I above all others in the world was able to make something capable of besting even Yggdrasill…But it doesn't matter, for none of you will live through this day. I am taking you all with me!"
As the last of his body crumbles away, Rodyle manages to activate a blaring siren in the ranch that fills the room with a red light for a few seconds. Raine recognizes this noise and goes into an immediate state of panic as she points out "No! He's activated the self-destruct system!"
Riku gets on his feet after a prolonged period of healing up, commenting to Raine quickly "Hurry! Give everyone enough strength to stand!" The teenage Overlord then runs over to the machine and places his hands on the device with a plan in mind to deactivated the self-destruct, only for Raine to point out as she runs to heal Colette and Genis first "You can't do that, this whole place is built around magitechnology! You'll kill yourself before deactivating such a machine!"
Riku immediately pulls his hands away, slamming one fist on top of the device while proclaiming "Damn it! Then what can we do to stop it?!" Presea puts her axe away and points out to the teenage Overlord "It's impossible. The only one among us who can handle this machinery is Raine."
Zelos pushes himself onto his knees and says with a slight smirk "Heh, most Tethe'allans don't study the details of magitechnology very much. Kind of biting us in the ass now…" Riku glances at Raine and exclaims her name, but the half-elf panics as she finishes healing Sheena and Zelos and proclaims "I-I know! But I can't do this by myself!"
While she rushes to heal Regal and Lloyd, the door below the platform she's on opens up wide, and Botta and his two Renegade partners run straight into the room. Botta also recognized the self-destruct sequence, and wastes little time in stating to the group "We'll take over from here. The rest of you go and escape through the hatch over there!" He gestures behind him at the end of his sentence.
Lloyd smiles at Botta and says in joy "Hey, you're alive!" As Raine finishes healing Lloyd, Botta proclaims to the group "Save the chit-chat for later! Leave now. You'll only get in our way!" His words were tough but necessary for the desperate situation they were in, and Lloyd nods his head as he gets on his feet and says in an understanding tone "…Okay."
The group rushes for the door Botta entered through, taking a ladder in it to climb up into an enclosed room behind the glass window. When everyone arrives, the hatch shuts tight behind them. Lloyd immediately turns around and sees Botta and the two Renegades gathered around the device Rodyle, putting all of their effort into assumedly stopping the self-destruct. They went to work for a good couple of minutes before the water from the ranch began to flow into the room.
"No! We have to open this door!" Lloyd panics and desperately bends down at the hatch, pulling up on it as Genis and Zelos go beside him and try to help when his efforts fail. Even together they couldn't make the hatch budge an inch, leading to Regal running forward and proclaiming "Move!" The three gathered around the hatch move out of the way as Regal leaps at the glass window and uses all of his strength to kick right into it. But for all of his strength, he can't even manage a crack into the surface.
Regal grits his teeth and takes a couple steps back as Raine comments "Botta did this on purpose. They knew the water was coming and locked it from the inside. If the door opens, this area will be flooded as well. And as you can see, the ceiling is covered by a dome. There's nowhere for the water to escape."
Riku's heart suddenly feels heavy as he hears all this occurring before him. He knew this moment was coming, but unlike all other times where terrible events unfolding in this world he felt something nagging at him from within. "W-What is this sensation…" He comments quietly to himself as he places one hand against his chest while everyone speaks of what was happening.
"Damn it, isn't there anything we can do?!" Lloyd's words echo within Riku's head, causing him to blankly stare forward and comment "Anything…We can do?" While he stated this, Botta and his two partners climbed up to the platform in front of the glass window, where he comments in a triumphant tone "We've stopped the self-destruct system." The water was slowly rising behind him.
Lloyd slams his fists against the window and begs of Botta "Damn it! Open the door now! If we destroy the dome above us, then…" Botta replies in a calm tone of voice "Our goal was always to modify each ranch's mana reactor in order to fire mana at the Great Seed. Now that we've finished reprogramming this control room, our mission is complete. We need you to get the message to Yuan that we have succeeded."
"Tell him…yourself?" Riku found a bit of an echo in those words as he was reminded of what he said to Kratos twice before. His words preceded the moment where Lloyd himself said "Tell him yourself! Open the door, now!" The boy continues to bang against the window to break the glass, which actually brings a bit of a smile to Botta's face.
Even as the water was almost halfway to his feet, he calmly said to the group "We pray for your success in regenerating the world. Please see to it that Martel is finally allowed her eternal sleep, for Yuan's sake as well." As he says this, a steel plate begins to fall down from the top of the window, providing the final means of defense for the group from the rising water.
But as the steel fell, Riku glanced blankly at the ground as time seemed to slow down before him. His heart palpitated against his chest as a cold sweat trickled down the side of his head. He retreated inside of his own thoughts, where he found himself curdled up in the middle of a black void. "What is wrong with me…Why do I keep standing around and letting things unfold that I could so easily prevent?" His words echo throughout the confines of his mind.
As he asks this question, a mental manifestation of the Demon King, Demise, appears before him in a gigantic, blackened form. "It's because you are afraid of repeating my existence…Why risk saving one person or changing another event if it means losing everything else in the process?!"
Demise eerily morphs into the shape of Dark Samus, who points it's gun at Riku and says to him "You greatly fear the unknown, because such a thing always deviates from the knowledge you have buried within you. You always feel safe so long as things go as you know they will, hence why you focused all of your efforts into saving my nemesis instead of your own life…"
Dark Samus then morphs into the grotesque Gigas Galactic, who uncurls Riku with his thorny tendrils and lifts him up before his gruesome eye, which leads to him stating in a combined echo of his two halves "Creatures that aren't familiar to you such as myself don't scare you, because deep down you want a challenge, something that tests the very limits of your power and knowledge without deviating too far from the courses you are familiar with…"
Next up, Gigas Galactic transforms into Perfect Nazo, who grabs Riku by the neck and hoists him up into the air, and with a scowl on his face the powered hedgehog states "And you know why this is? Because like me you seek power, you CRAVE power. Not to protect people, but to gain the ability to destroy anything that stands in your path! You just delude yourself into thinking that you want to save these worlds to blind yourself from the true evil buried inside of you…"
One final transformation unfolds, turning Nazo into Riku himself, but this mental projection bears a psychotic grin and an overall aggressive demeanor. He keeps holding onto the real Riku's neck for a few seconds before stating to him "I am what you truly wish to become! All this power inside of us, the ability to control every element and travel the vastness of space, you want to take this very power and use it to rule over everyone like a God! But you know what holds you back…"
"It's that damned 'brother' of yours who instilled a sense of morality inside of you before it was too late for me to take over! Had he been even a few seconds later, I would've been the dominant personality…All that power inside of a blank slate, it was only right that I would be born from it. But even after you were pushed in as the dominant personality I still existed."
"Heh, I suppose I can partially thank the fragment of 'D' that slipped into your body for that, but at the same time that couldn't have been enough…Deep down, you want me to take over. Don't worry, it would be for the better. This broken world, no, this broken universe needs a hero to save it, and I am the one who can get the job done."
"…You done with your little pep talk?" Riku asks in an oddly calm tone of voice. "What?" The aggressive fragment says in confusion as he lets go of the boy and lets him step back. Standing upright with a cold glare, the teenage Overlord says to his aggressive self "You're right, if you exist within me that means there is a chance that I could decide to become you one day. Which is why I'm glad you reminded me of that possibility so I can continue to avoid your existence for yet another period of time."
"…" The aggressive Riku was left in silence at the response. "All of you were right, I have been afraid of changing the world again, I've always wanted to put the lives of the heroes before my own, the prospect of fighting something unknown both frightens and excites me, and I definitely do crave power. But this whole discussion has made me realize something…"
"I can change the world. What I shouldn't do is drastically change events that would ruin how everything would proceed. Doing something minor like saving Botta and the people trapped in Rodyle's ranch is a helpful act that won't end the world. Meanwhile, if I were to do something like kill Kratos, then everyone on this world would be doomed due to how much he affects the future."
"You'd go out of your way to save three people? Heh, have you forgotten what Rodyle said? As you are now, you'll die. You can't do this, it's impossible." The aggressive side of Riku gleefully points out. "Impossible? No, don't you see? While you've listed off why I've hesitated to help, you have also shown me that I have the tools necessary to save them. I have power and knowledge, all I was lacking was the courage to push myself to take that necessary step."
"Power…knowledge…courage? No…It can't be…" The aggressive side of Riku realizes something important from these words, and the real Riku holds his right hand out and says in turn "Yep. Once again that world has defined my development. It showed me suffering, but now it's given me the values needed to save myself…And anyone else!"
"You're insane. You can't save everyone! No one can, it's a proven impossibility!" "No, nothing is impossible until every option is exhausted. And I'm the Elemental Overlord, so I have thousands of options at my disposal! Even if it takes me a long time to learn the necessary means, I will turn impossibility into possibility! And with my knowledge, I will carefully watch and ensure that I don't drastically change the world while continuing to try and save those who never had a chance to stay alive otherwise!"
"You'll just become me if you delve that deeply into your powers!" Riku shakes his head at the face of his aggressive side's final defiance, saying to him in turn "I'll keep being myself, so long as I keep to my morals and selflessly help those who need me! I will not stand back anymore!"
With this final moment, Riku snaps out of his thoughts and time resumes around him, but now he's adorned with a confident smile and a more relaxed demeanor. He looks at Sheena and says to him "Sheena! Summon Undine and Gnome and tell them to lend me some of there power, now!"
The summoner, who was saddened by Botta's sacrifice, looks at Riku in a confused manner and states "W-What?" Riku confidently pumps his fist and says "Believe in me Sheena, I know what I'm doing here!"
The ninja reaches into her clothes and draws out the brown and blue seals, leading to her swinging them out in front of her body as most of the group looks at Riku in utter confusion. "Riku, what are you up to?!" Lloyd proclaims in disbelief, while Sheena states "Gnome, Undine, I summon thee! Come forth and give unto Riku a portion of your powers!"
In a matter of seconds, Gnome and Undine are called forth, and they immediately turn their bodies towards Riku and point their shovel and scepter at him respectively. They send their energy flowing out towards his body, and he calmly accepts them as his body is set aglow with a combination of brown and blue light. He nods his head at the Summon Spirits and says in an appreciative tone "Thank you, I promise to repay you for this someday."
The Summon Spirits then vanish after nodding in response, and with Sheena left with confusion on her face as she puts the seals away Riku holds his glowing right hand out and warns the group urgently "Stand back everyone, or you'll get crushed!" Immediately taking his almost insane sounding warning to heed, the group leaps away as Riku pulls back on his right arm and latches onto the metal window with his powers.
With a mighty tug, the teenage Overlord pulls the metal window right off, throwing it until the wall behind him, which crashes with a resounding echo. Behind the metal, Botta is buried up to his chin in water, and he widens his eyes in shock as he sees what has happened. But before he can say anything, Riku thrusts his glowing left hand out, taking all the water that threatened to drown Botta and his two allies and pushing it away from them.
The water is thrown into the back of the wall, creating a spectacle of lashing waves inside of the room as Botta is freed from a fate of drowning for the moment. Lloyd and the group looks inside the room with sheer awe on their faces, with Lloyd commenting in particular "Riku…You…You're…" He was at a loss for words.
The teenage Overlord smiles and takes his hands back, running forward and leaping straight at the top of the glass window, breaking into flight long enough to force most of his strength into a singular charge, which allows him to crash right through the glass window and shatter it into multiple pieces. He breaks his flight and starts to land towards the center of the room, drawing all of the glass towards him to create a platform that he can land on while simultaneously keeping the water at bay around the sides of the room, though he had to compensate for the continuous increase in the water level.
Once he lands, Riku crosses his arms in front of his body as Botta turns and says to him "Elemental Overlord, what do you think you are doing?!" The teenage Overlord exclaims to Botta in response "You heard Lloyd! It wouldn't be right if you didn't tell Yuan that we succeeded! Botta, do you want to live?!"
"…I-I do." After a moment of hesitation, Botta replies with that simple answer. Riku smiles brightly as he tenses his muscles and says "Then damn it, join Lloyd and the others in that room, because I'm granting you a second chance at life!"
The teenage Overlord then looks at the water cascading around him, and with the power of Earth and Water at his disposal Riku states "I, who command the almighty tides and the unbending earth, demand your obedience. Now, YIELD!"
Riku swings both of his arms outward and pulls them down on both sides of his body, tightly clenches his fists and slams the water back down with all of his might. When he does this, he simultaneously focuses his Earth power on the ground, cracking four separate holes in the corners to give an easy way to push the water back down.
He then overworks both abilities on the entire ranch and the water filling it up. His mind is strained as he slowly but surely pushes the water back to it's original location, draining the room bit by bit to ensure the safety of his friends and allies. As he pushes himself to his limits, he pulls his head back and falls to his knees, exclaiming at the top of his lungs as the water level goes lower and lower and the entire building alternates between trembling and remaining motionless.
Botta, who had climbed up to join the rest of the group, looks on at this spectacle with sheer disbelief as she stated "Unbelievable…To think that I would bear witness to such a miracle."
"Professor, what's going on? What is Riku doing?" Lloyd asks in the midst of this amazing event. Raine was hesitant to reply at first since she had only a slight clue as to what was unfolding before her eyes, but upon piercing everything together she says to Lloyd "I can't believe he thought this plan out…"
"First Riku had Sheena summon Undine and Gnome, and since their powers are pure and untainted by mana he could safely reduce the strain from manipulating the elements by having them share some of their powers with them. Then, he's using his control of the Water element to force the water back into the sea surrounding the ranch while simultaneously using the Earth element to mend the strain placed on the tower and seal off the pipes sending water up the vertical shaft."
Raine's explanation is met with natural confusion from everyone around, but Lloyd doesn't need to understand everything to realize that what was happening was a miracle beyond words. "That's incredible…Come on Riku, you can do it!" He gives his cheers to the teenage Overlord, who was nearing the end of his grueling task in the center of the room.
Blood begins to leak from the right of Riku's nose, but he keeps pushing on as only a few feet of water remain in the world. As the finale of his efforts approaches, Riku finishes shutting the pipes that was letting water inside, and at that moment he releases the grip on his hands and limps them out beside his body as the glow earned by Undine and Gnome's infusion of power vanishes.
All that remained of the water was a few drops that trickled off of the ceiling, and as they pattered on the ground they were heard as echoes in Riku's ears. He puts a smile on his face as he starts to fall forward, thinking to himself now that he successfully saved Botta and his two friend's lives "Hehe…You did it Riku…You changed the future for the better…"
The teenage Overlord collapses on top of the self-destruct device, lying out as the glass shards scatter around the device. In this calm, he can only hear one person rapidly running towards him but he falls unconscious before he can turn and see just who was coming to pick him up…
Next Time: Yuan and Botta