Chapter 40: Mithos, the Unfettered
The machine Mithos' is residing in raises it's right orb arm up, and for a brief moment it glows with a flaming red aura before a lance of pure fire descends straight from the sky towards the group. Lloyd, Kratos and Yuan run forward as the lance crashes down where they once stood, imploding a dome of fire from the impact before it creates a blazing pillar of fire that forces the rest of the group to scatter before they are consumed.
Lloyd swings two Demon Fangs at Mithos while Kratos leaps into the air and throws a flame projectile at the chrysalis, and Yuan follows up on those two moves by standing a fair distance away and summoning forth enough magic to cast Thunder Blade at Mithos. The machine raises one of it's sword arms up and cleaves right through the Thunder Blade while holding one orb up to absorb Kratos' flame, and simultaneously doesn't flinch from Lloyd's attack.
Meanwhile, Riku takes the fire left behind from the Flame Lance's explosion and gathers it together in a condensed sphere. He leaps up to the sphere and cusps his hands around it, adding in some of his own flames to double it's size to the point that it was half as big as his body, and with a precise aim towards Mithos' machine he exclaims "Lloyd! Kratos! Get out of the way!"
With enough of a forewarning, the two are able to leap off to the sides as Riku launches off a seething beam of fire as big as Mithos' machine straight at it. The battlefield glowed a bright red as Mithos' forces his machine to hold both orb arms up, allowing him to intercept the attack and vacuum in the full force of the flames within his orbs with little effort. Riku is surprised by this matter as he lowers his arms slightly, and in his perturbed state he murmurs out "How did he do that…?"
Mithos' orb arms glowed with burning red energy after absorbing the flames, and with a brief seal glowing below his machine body Mithos raises the arms into the air and rips open the sky with holes of distorted crimson, and a series of flaming meteors descends across the battlefield at the entire group. They come down at such a rapid rate that it was difficult to ascertain where they were going to land, so most of the group resigned to using their Guardian spells to block most of the damage from the meteors impacts crashing down around them.
Regal kicks some of the meteors away with his feet, while Riku uses his powers to fling a few of them straight back at Mithos. This time, Mithos' machine is unable to absorb the meteors into the orbs and takes the brunt of them straight in his chrysalis. While Mithos briefly flinched from this deflected attack, Lloyd swung his swords out and split apart a meteor, and then ran straight at the machine and leaped into the air while swinging his swords up and down to deal some decent damage to the body.
But once Lloyd was on the ground Mithos ignited one of his blades with electricity and tried to stab down at Lloyd's head, but the boy leaped back and let the sword stab into the ground. When that happened a stream of electricity was released, where it traveled along the floor and hit Lloyd on his feet, sending a paralyzing sensation through his body that made him grit his teeth and then lean forward slightly when the electricity subsided.
While Lloyd was unable to move, Mithos moved in for the kill with another sword arm, but as it lunged down Yuan stepped in and held his double-bladed weapon up to block Mithos' sword at the very tip. It pained Yuan to hold back Mithos' raw power, and his legs began to collapse rather quickly from the pressure. But he had back up in the form of Presea, who leaped over Lloyd and Yuan and cleaved her axe right through the elbow of Mithos' sword arm, cutting it off from the rest of the body.
Mithos' machine lumbers back as Presea lands on the ground and says to Lloyd "Mithos won't kill you…Not while we're here to help." The three gathered there look up at Mithos, with Lloyd rising back onto his feet and thanking Presea and Yuan for their assistance. But as he does so Mithos extends his broken arm out and with a bit of magical exertion he is able to bring it back with little effort, and it naturally looked the same as it did before. Yuan and Lloyd flinch at this matter, with Presea calmly pointing out "We have to attack Mithos himself…There is no other way to stop this machine."
Mithos' machine then takes both of it's orb arms into the air and makes them glow purple, and Lloyd manages to be perceptive enough to realize what type of spell was coming up next. Presea and Yuan managed the same thing and leaped back along with their ally as Mithos casts Indignation upon where the group once stood, and the blaze of electricity striking down allows Mithos to take both of his sword arms and cleaves through the Indignation in order to swipe some of the energy straight at the three in front of him.
Presea was about to raise her axe to guard against the attack, but she didn't need to exert herself too much as before she and her friends are struck Volt appears before her and absorbs the Indignation electricity into his body. Sheena had swiftly and masterfully summoned him upon seeing the purple magic surrounding Mithos' orbs, and once Volt had saved her friends from harm she de-summons him and flips the purple seal into her clothes while exclaiming "Genis, Zelos, now!"
Standing behind her are the two magic users she mentioned, who had finished simultaneously preparing a spell to cast upon Mithos. "Flare Tornado!" "Ice Tornado!" The two do their signature spell finishing stances as a circle of icy blue and red appears below Mithos' machine, and a combined tornado of ice and fire rises up and repeatedly strikes his body. The differentiating temperatures manages to weaken Mithos' defenses, even though it doesn't look like he's affected by this at first glance.
Regal leaps forward and dive kicks straight into Mithos' chrysalis with all of his might as the two tornadoes fade away, leading to a crack forming in the glass surface. But in response to this affront Mithos' responds by slamming one of his orb arms into Regal's gut, making the air fly out of his mouth for a few seconds while the machine releases a blast of raw fire, showing that he had absorbed some of the energy from the tornadoes all along.
Once Regal was sent flying away with smoke coming out of his body, Mithos' machine slammed the other orb arm against the ground and cracked it apart, with heat swiftly rising out of them before the battlefield is consumed by a sudden eruption of flames. Everyone was hit by this attack sans Regal, who had already been launched far away from the others due to the last move of Mithos. The half-elf then spreads all arms of his machine out and quietly says "Begone…"
A giant magic circle appears below Mithos' body, and the orbs are waved around as the entire battlefield begins to tremble. Sheena, being one of the first to recover from the last attack with some slight burns on her skin, looks over at Mithos' machine and exclaims "You aren't getting away with this one, Mithos!" She then reaches into her clothes and draws out the rainbow seal, holding it out in front of her while a seal forms below her feet that was the same size as the one Mithos is using.
"The source of heaven, earth, and everything in-between! The ruler of all! I summon thee, come, Origin!" From the gates of the heavenly beyond, Origin steps forth into the battlefield above Sheena with all four pikes in hand, for he had the foresight to see the danger being presented before his new pact maker and the current wielder of the Eternal Sword. Drawing all of his pikes back, Origin flung them one after the other at the increasingly widening gap of light that Mithos was summoning forth.
From there, Origin spread them out in such a way that they formed a square around the gap, at which point he duplicated his pikes three times and bound them together tightly with mana to create a very potent defense against whatever it was that Mithos was planning to summon. But the man in the machine was not at all dissuaded from his efforts, and as the tremors increased exponentially he quietly stated "Indignation…Absolution."
A roar of thunder powerful enough to rip the heavens asunder echoed through the battlefield, making all who had not yet noticed the gap aware of it's presence as heavy strands of electricity shoot out from the creases of Origin's defensive wall, and the tremors have all but vanished as the lightning crashes against the ground and further distorts the atmosphere Mithos has created. As these lightning bolts fall, Mithos' pitiful voice can be heard echoing through the battlefield.
"I will never stop…" "Martel will always be with me…" "You all will pay…" "You humans who took here away from me…" "You half-elves that stood against me…" "The elves that ostracized me and my sister from their village…" "I won't allow any of you to have this world…" "You don't deserve it…" "You don't need it!" His anger came out so rapidly that the sentences overlapped at times, making the madness in him all the more evident if it wasn't so already…
Lloyd rises to his feet and looks up at the gap, noticing that Origin's barriers were starting to crack as the tip of a gigantic sword of holy energy was beginning to show itself from the other side. "…It seems there is nothing my defense can do…" Origin laments, but he nonetheless holds his calm and draws all of his pikes out again while saying "But I will not falter at this moment, if that is what you desire, pact maker Sheena."
Sheena did not need to take a moment to consider this, and nodded her head towards Origin. Lloyd, with both swords still drawn in his hands, exclaimed with all of his might "I won't give up either! We've come too far to lose! I understand why you've suffered Mithos, I really do, but I can't let you have your way, not like this!" With the Indignation Absolution breaking through the remainder of Origin's barriers, Lloyd raises both of his swords close together in the air and roars with all of his might "HRAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The strength of his resolve combined with an intense focus on his goal causes the two swords within Lloyd's hands to merge back into the original Eternal Sword, which he grasps together at the handle and swings back behind his body. Space distorts with the swing of his blade as he runs forward at the gigantic, heavenly blade summoned forth from another realm. The glowing white lighting surrounding the blade shoots out towards his friends, but as Lloyd leaps into the air and swings the Eternal Sword forward he unleashes a space distorting shockwave that cuts down the lightning entirely.
This allows his friends a chance to rise to their feet while Lloyd simultaneously strikes the Indignation Absolution with the Eternal Sword straight on, the collision of both forces throwing everything in the atmosphere into a convulsing state for but a few seconds. Immediately Zelos comments "Unbelievable…But Lloyd won't be able to hold himself up for very long!"
It was at that moment that two people flew up to help Lloyd out with their angel wings, and that was Colette and Kratos. The two floated behind him, holding him up by the shoulders with a gentle grasp of their hands. They had to share the burden of holding Indignation Absolution back, but it was a feat they were willing to accomplish together for the person they cared about the most in this world. Lloyd, who had to focus on holding Mithos' ultimate attack back, could only give a single acknowledging glance to Kratos and Colette, but this was all he needed to do before he firmed his stance and pressed hard against the holy blade.
Mithos' machine raised both orb arms into the air and infused the blade with some of his power to make it stronger, and the grounded members of the group noticed this. Without saying a word, they immediately rushed at Mithos' body to prevent him from powering up the Indignation Absolution any further. Everyone put their all into striking at Mithos' mechanical body, with Origin acting as Sheena's guardian while she threw explosive seals, Regal using his strongest kicks, Presea swinging with her axe, Genis, Zelos and Yuan casting their strongest spells, Raine supporting with her healing and defensive magic, and Riku cutting down Mithos' orb arms to slow him down due to the time it takes for them to regenerate.
With this heavy onslaught from all factions, Lloyd is able to make some leeway against the Indignation Absolution, with the Eternal Sword's blade being able to slowly cut into the heavenly sword itself. As a gash slowly forms along the sword, Mithos raises both of his arms up ready to put his all into powering it up despite the onslaught being thrown at his mechanical body. He felt no pain flowing inside of him at this point, so why should he be at all distracted by the efforts of Lloyd's comrades?
But that was when cracks started to form along the confines of his machine, making Mithos' efforts stop for just a brief moment as he came to realize that these "pests" were far-too much for him to handle. No matter how many times he tried, the group that stood defiantly against him would always prevail. "Why…?" But he cursed their efforts bitterly, never once taking a moment to try and understand that everything he was doing was wrong, just like it has been for him for the last 4,000 years…
The teenage Overlord flies straight at Mithos' arms, swinging his flaming blade across the sky to cut them down…But this time, they did not regenerate. Riku exclaimed as he landed on the ground "Lloyd! Finish him off!" The rest of the group on the ground simultaneously exclaimed "It's all up to you Lloyd!"
Lloyd firmed his grasp tightly around the Eternal Sword, and Colette exclaimed "Lloyd! I believe in you, we can create a world where everyone lives together happily!" And with a gentle voice Kratos says "Lloyd…my son…you have made me proud…Now the rest is up to you." As Kratos and Colette both pull away from Lloyd's body, Lloyd feels a warm embrace around his body, and for a moment Kratos freezes as he swears he could see Anna's body floating around Lloyd for just a moment.
The support from everyone around him gives Lloyd the final resolve he needs, and with one last push of the Eternal Sword he sends forth a climatic slash of energy that rips apart the very energies of the Indignation Absolution straight back to the gap it had emerged from. The gap is destroyed entirely, and the cut-off sword cracks apart at the seams. For a brief moment, Kratos and Colette swear that they see a brief appearance of angelic wings behind Lloyd's body, but that fades away and he falls onto the ground a few seconds later.
The Eternal Sword splits back into the two separate blades, and the rest of the group has to run away as the Indignation Absolution begins to fall piece by piece onto the ground. Mithos' machine stands in place, and as the debris of his last attack crashes around him he continues to murmur "…Why…I didn't do anything wrong…It was always for Martel…For my other half-elves…Why…."
Mithos was then consumed by the debris of the sword unleashed by his own hatred, the mechanical body he was trapped inside being swiftly destroyed, and everything he had done to distort the battlefield was returned to normal in a matter of seconds. Mithos, back in his original but heavily weakened body, was left kneeling on the ground with his head hung low and his wings barely existing behind him…
After a few more seconds though, Mithos' body faded away, once more absorbed into his own Cruxis Crystal. The crystal rises up, and Mithos' spirit appeared around it with a tired expression on his face, and the group immediately assumed the worst of this scenario. "No…It's just like Alicia. Mithos will always be alive so long as the Cruxis Crystal exists!" But surprisingly, when Mithos' speaks, he laments this matter by stating "…Eventually…I will be overcome by the crystal."
Lloyd glances at Mithos in a surprised manner and says his name, and Mithos shakes his head and comments in a tired voice "…I'm…very tired of playing your game of good-and-evil…Hurry up and destroy the crystal. If you don't, Derris-Kharlan will continue to drift away." Lloyd pauses for a moment in surprise, but Mithos begs him desperately "Do it not! Before I, too, am no longer myself…"
There were hints of regret in Mithos' voice, and in response to this Genis exclaimed "Please Lloyd! Let him die while he's still himself!" Though there was some hesitation in Lloyd's body after seeing Mithos show some signs of regret, he grasped the handle of his Vorpal Blade and said "…All right." He walked forward to Mithos' Cruxis Crystal, and with his eyelids closed the half-elf quietly thinks to himself "Farewell, my shadow. You, who stand at the end of the path I chose not to follow. I wanted my own world, so I don't regret my choice. I would make the same choice all over again. I will continue to choose this path!"
The Vorpal Blade cuts straight through Mithos' Cruxis Crystal, shattering it apart into a series of neon lights that spread around as Lloyd grits his teeth and feels bitterness towards killing Mithos' despite all that he had done. As Lloyd lifts his body up, the lights converge and are absorbed into his Exsphere, leading to him holding his hand down and exclaiming "You idiot! You…You could have lived with us in our world!" He then murmurs quietly "…Damn it…"
Before anyone can get a chance to talk to Lloyd about what happened, both of his swords are pulled out of his hilts, where they combined together to form the Eternal Sword once more. The sword is forced into Lloyd's grasp, and the voice of the now departed Origin asks "The old master of the pact is no more. What does the new master of the pact ask of this sword?" Even with the conflictions in his mind, Lloyd raised the sword high into the air and proclaimed "Restore the true form of the two worlds!"
The Eternal Sword glows brightly, and the atmosphere of Derris-Kharlan is pierced through to show the group the split planet as a beam of light shoots up from where the Tower of Salvation in Tethe'alla once stood. The light spread across the entire world, molding the two halves together into a single planet once more. The event happened to easily that it awed the group as they witnessed it unfold. There was no more spacial distortion surrounding the planet, and it looked absolutely stunning from afar because of that.
But the group is able to get a glimpse of the planet for just a moment as suddenly a flash of light consumes them, and they are warped straight to the base of the destroyed Tower of Salvation. This catches them all off-guard for a moment, as Lloyd comments "Are we back?" in a confused tone of voice. He still held the Eternal Sword in his right hand, but he was only barely able to take note of this when all of a sudden the entire planet begins to tremble beneath the group's feet.
"Wh…What's going on?" Lloyd asks, and while everyone else tries to keep themselves stable amidst this confusion a series of bright lights forms above the group in a circle. All the Summon Spirits from both worlds were called forth, starting with Undine and ending with Origin himself directly in front of Lloyd Irving. "What are you all doing?" Lloyd asks while trying to keep himself stable.
"Your wish is granted." Origin replies while folding his arms together. "But there is no link. Without a link, the land will die. The world was originally separated into two in order to prevent its destruction. If it returns to its true form, the world lacks the man to support itself. The land…is dying." Lloyd swung his right arm out and exclaimed "I don't need to know why it's dying! What do we need to do to stop it?"
"Support the two worlds by linking them with the Giant Tree. That is the only way." Origin explains without hesitation. Kratos in tune suggests "Lloyd, it would probably be a good idea to bathe the Great Seed in the mana of Derris-Kharlan before it leaves the gravitational field of the planet." The group looks up and sees the Great Seed floating in space between the two planets, which causes Lloyd to brandish the Eternal Sword at it and says "All right then! I'm counting on you, Eternal Sword!"
But as Origin forewarns "Derris-Kharlan is already at the edge of the gravitational field. Not even Yggdrasill…Mithos, could stop this from happening. And yet you still intend to try?" Lloyd nods his head firmly, and Origin continues to explain "Even strengthened by your Exsphere, it is likely that your body will not withstand the forces. Are you certain of your decision?" Lloyd has to tell the Summon Spirit directly "I said I'm doing it, so I'm doing it! It's not like we have a choice!"
Origin briefly smiled, and nodded his head while stating "…Very well." Lloyd then raises the Eternal Sword high into the air, focusing on the very atmosphere of Derris-Kharlan itself and using the powers of the sword to warp space so the mana is directed towards the Great Seed. But to the shock and horror of the group, not only is the mana deflected away from the seed, but the Eternal Sword suddenly vanishes from Lloyd's grasp.
Lloyd swings his arms out in a panic and exclaims "No! It's not working! Could…Could it be that the Great Seed is already dead?" As he questions this matter, the Great Seed starts to fly away from the planet to Derris-Kharlan, and Origin glances at it and subtly vanishes from sight to head for it. Meanwhile, Lloyd clenches his fists tightly and begs as the rest of his friends look on in despair "No! Don't go! Please, wake up!"
As he calls out to the Great Seed to return to the planet, his Exsphere suddenly glows with a pure white light, which directs everyone's attention towards it. Kratos, Yuan and Zelos in particular notice glowing angel feathers rising up around Lloyd's body, and in a flash long, angelic wings made of pure blue mana form from his back. "This is…" Kratos sensed a rather familiar presence coming from Lloyd's Exsphere as the wings formed, but only let out a subtle smile instead of saying just who it was he felt.
Lloyd glared towards the Great Seed, and wasted no time in flying straight towards it at a rapid speed. His wings allowed him to approach it with ease, but before he made it Origin appeared behind the Great Seed and said to it quietly "Martel…Despite your desire to die, would you say such efforts would be fulfilling if it would result in the death of the world too? …Try and live, just for a little longer."
Origin then vanished, and as Lloyd flew in front of the Great Seed he tries to think about what he was going to do without the Eternal Sword in his hands. Suddenly, he was joined by Colette, who grabbed his left arm and smiled at him while looking at Derris-Kharlan, which suddenly grinded to a halt. "It looks like it stopped moving away…" She comments, and a puzzled Lloyd asks "Yeah, but why? The Eternal Sword is gone…"
Suddenly, as though answering to the wishes of it's new master, the Eternal Sword returned to Lloyd's grasp, surprising him and Colette for just a few moments while Origin floats behind and smiles at them both, making his presence scarce as Lloyd confidently grins and says "This is my final wish. Eternal Sword…" Together along with Colette, they say "Please…awaken the Great Seed!"
With their hands clasping the handle of the Eternal Sword together, Colette and Lloyd raise the blade towards the depths of space with all of their might, and with great vim they swung it down towards the Great Seed while exclaiming "Rise…Giant Kharlan Tree!" For all of their efforts, they are rewarded by the Derris-Kharlan mana being successfully put inside of the Great Seed. The seed opens up and glows a translucent blue-green, and swiftly it begins to descend towards the planet.
Back with the group, Riku notes the direction the seed was falling towards, and said to the others "We should get moving…A miracle is about to occur." He holds his hands towards the ground and creates a platform of wind below everyone's feet, allowing them to be carried over to where the Great Seed was about to bloom…
As they went in that direction, there was already someone standing in the middle of a landscape of debris that had fallen from the Tower of Salvation. To everyone's surprise, it was Tabitha, who seemed to have been guided here by the events that unfolded today. She held her hands up, letting the blooming Great Seed fall into her grasp as the petals spread out in all directions, each one splitting off from the core and wrapping themselves around Tabitha's body until it formed a small whirlpool of mana and spiritual energy around her.
No one knows what went on inside that whirlpool sans Riku, of course, but after a few seconds of observing from above the seed had all but disappeared…And in it's place stood the last person anyone expected to find. Martel had been reborn in her entirety, complete with a new staff that held two fir leaves at the top. Yuan immediately froze in place, his heart experiencing a sharp feeling of pain as he murmured out "M-Martel…?" under an agonized breath.
Martel leans down and brushes alongside a mythical looking sprout that had just grown from the dirt, but turns around as Lloyd and Colette fly down and land behind her. Lloyd's wings vanish as both he and Colette have a dumbfounded look on their faces. Martel turns around, a warm expression on her face as she explains "I am Martel…And also the incarnation of the Great Seed itself. Lloyd, your hope, as well as those of many others, resurrected me."
"So…You're Mithos' sister?!" Lloyd asks, and Martel gently shakes her head while further explaining "No. Mithos' sister Martel is only one of the many souls within me; I am Mana, and I am the Giant Tree; I am a symbol of the many lives sacrificed to the Great Seed; I am the new spirit born to accompany the Giant Tree, and now the Seed has awakened anew along with me."
Suddenly, the sprout erupts from the ground, growing tall and proud above the ruins of the Tower of Salvation, where the radiance of the sun gleams warmly through the branches. Everyone in the area was awed by it's existence, but as Martel stood in the shade of the tree she explained "This is the future form of the Giant Tree. Right now, it is only a small seedling. In its current rate, the tree will wither and die…"
"Well then, how do we protect it?!" Lloyd asks, and with a gentle smile on her Martel replies "You must provide the tree with love and adoration. As long as those conditions are met, I shall always protect the seedling." Lloyd nods his head and clenches his fist in front of his chest while proclaiming "I promise! If the tree starts to wither, I'll make sure we won't let it die!"
Gentling holding her staff out before the two, Martel steps forward and asks "Then Lloyd, on behalf of all living things, what shall be the new name of this tree?" Lloyd blinked a few times in bewilderment, leading to Martel saying "The Giant Kharlan Tree was planted here by the elves when they first came as a guardian to watch over and protect them. This newly reborn tree protects elves, humans, and the lives of all those who are born in-between. Therefore, this tree requires a new name."
Colette glances at Lloyd and says kindly "Lloyd, pick a name for us, a name for everyone's tree." With this heavy burden placed upon him, Lloyd had to whisper out "So this tree is the link that connects the world…" As he considered the name intently, he glanced at his Exsphere, thinking back at the sudden appearance of the angel wings and the presence he briefly felt with them. For everything that has happened, there was only one proper decision for the tree's name…
"Okay, I got it! The tree's name shall be…" Lloyd brandishes his pointer finger at the tree, proclaiming with the utmost confidence in his voice "Yggdrasill!" For a brief moment, Martel was taken aback by this decision, but her surprise melted away into a state of curiosity and intrigue as she smiled and said to the boy "A most interesting choice…"
Respectfully nodding her head at Lloyd and Colette, Martel vanished from sight, and the tree returned back to the form of a sprout. Upon this happening, Riku carries the group down onto the ground so they can run over to congratulate Lloyd for a job well-done. Yuan was the only one who stayed behind, for a feeling of hesitation overcame him after seeing Martel appear before him once more…After a few seconds of thinking, Yuan sprinted off, with his disappearance going unnoticed by all sans Riku and Kratos.
As celebrations went on without end, Riku glanced past the group and looked at the Giant Tree in it's premature state and smiled. After everything that has happened over the last week or so, this was the first time the teenage Overlord had been allowed a chance to relax and know for a fact that everything was going to be alright. Martel, once considered a legend by the manipulation of history, was now an actual Goddess that would watch over the world. Kratos and Zelos both lived, Mithos had helped Lloyd with the Great Seed and earned the right to have the tree named after him…There were still a few divergences here and there, such as Botta's survival, the Pope's death, and Yuan helping out in the final battle…But everything else was at it should be…
The teenage Overlord, worn out at long last from pushing himself to such extremes lately, gently closed his eyelids and laid his arms beside his hips, collapsing backwards against a cushion of wind he made with the last of his powers, and then he gently fell against the cold, rocky debris to avoid drawing everyone's attention towards him. They deserved to celebrate their victory without worrying about him, and the subtle expression of happiness on Riku's face was more than enough to show his satisfaction with all that had happened….
Next Time: Closure