The heat of the Triet Desert bore down on him, tanning every part of his exposed skin until it burned, reddening with every passing moment. Sweat drenched his brow, and he desperately longed for his hairband so that he might prevent the perspiration from falling into his eyes, as it was currently doing. Reaching up with the drenched, white sleeve of Colette's robes, he yet again wiped his arm across his forehead, the fabric collecting his sweat.
Zelos felt like he was melting.
"Man, it's so hot," he complained, lolling his head back and fanning himself with a petite hand, but he only succeeded in blowing warm air into his face and making himself even hotter. "I can't take much more of this. When are we gonna reach the seal?"
"Calm yourself, Zelos," Kratos growled, and Zelos noticed with piqued interest that the bastard had actually called him by name. "The ruins are close, only a few minutes longer."
Zelos scowled. "A few minutes is an eternity in this heat. I'm about ready to just leave this dress behind." The others had stripped themselves of their excess clothing and stuffed their jackets in their packs, allowing their bare skin to boil under the merciless sun. They would all be red by the time their trek came to an end, but none cared enough to put the clothing back on.
"Don't complain, Zelos," Genis nagged, rolling his eyes at the Chosen. "It just makes everything more miserable for us."
Zelos huffed and crossed his arms, forcing the stiff cotton fabric of the dress further up his arm in attempt to cool off. It didn't help much, and he huffed again. The white fabric showed clearly all evidence of his sweat, but it was nothing compared to the heat that seemed to penetrate his body and cook his insides.
"If you don't think about it," Regal stated matter-of-factly, eyebrows raised as he glanced down at Zelos, "the heat goes away."
Zelos glared at the taller man in response. "Not everyone has that amount of control over their thought processes, but thanks for the suggestion."
From the corner of his eye, Zelos saw messy silver hair, droopy from a mixture of sweat and a lack of care for it, bobbing up and down as Raine ran ahead. "There they are!" she called, pointing to a blurry dot on the horizon. "The ruins!" Zelos squinted, trying to make sense of the formless blob in the distance. Though he couldn't make rhyme or reason of it, he trusted Raine, if only because believing her would get him out of the sun sooner, and so he hurried along with the half-elf, ignoring his weary body that threatened to collapse in on itself from overuse and dehydration. He wished desperately that Colette had been trained better for constant mobility, rather than the very stationary fighting style she used, but there was nothing much he could do except make the body stronger through his own training.
The blur grew and took shape, creating fallen pillars and ancient stone from the fiery sand. Raine ran toward it, spitting jargon and praise from her mouth as she admired the ruins once again. "It's just as I remembered it!" she sang. "Oh, what I wouldn't give to stay and study its history…"
"It really is beautiful," mumbled Genis under his breath, and Zelos glanced him, confused at his strangely alight face and the kid's uncharacteristic reaction. Genis noticed Zelos's gaze and coughed, attempting to cover up his words, and he turned away to hide a flush not caused by the merciless sun. He walked directly toward the oracle stone, refusing to meet anyone's eyes. "Zelos, put your hand on this so we can get in."
Zelos lifted an eyebrow at the spectacle, but he complied. The stone of the pedestal was cool under his hand, but it seemed to grow warm at his sudden touch. He felt something within him, a faint tingle that seemed to connect him to the oracle stone, as if he were temporarily merging with it. The feeling lasted only a moment, however, and the tie was severed as he heard a faint, echoing click. The polycarbonate slab that covered the entrance slid back, grating against the stony encasement which held it in place. Zelos put a hand to his ear to protect from the sound, and he was grateful when the wretched noise ceased within a few seconds. There were a few seconds in which he stood still, simply staring at the uncovered entrance that beckoned him with its promising, cool interior. It had worked. He, Zelos Wilder, not Colette, had unlocked the seal.
"I suppose there really is no question, then," Regal muttered behind him, shocking him out of his own moment of self-pity. "Zelos really is the Chosen."
"I'm not!" he nearly screamed, but he took hold of his fears and anxieties quickly enough that he managed to sound merely angry, rather than frightened. "I'm just a…a placeholder for Colette."
"You're still the Chosen of Tethe'alla," Genis grumbled with a roll of his eyes. "It probably would have worked regardless." Zelos chose to ignore the comment and instead walked into the black hole that was the entrance to the Triet Ruins.
"Aren't you guys coming? We have two worlds to save, you know," he mocked, rushing them along so that the conversation about his status would cease. It was hard enough to deal with the toil within his own mind, the nightmares about his memories of soulless Colette, the anxiety which tore him apart and told him to forget about world regeneration, about everyone in Sylvarant, and to find another way to Tethe'alla and to Origin, so that he wouldn't have to undergo the same horrors which his Sylvaranti counterpart had managed so selflessly. He closed his eyes against the darkness, willing away that which waited for him—for the Chosen—at the altar. He thought he had been done running away, but to break a habit was harder in practice than in speech.
"Regal." Kratos looked toward the man as he followed Zelos into the darkness. "Pull out your wings. It will help to light our path." Regal merely nodded and unfurled the glistening, blue wings, the dim hues dispersing the blackness which encompassed them and providing them assistance in seeing into the labyrinth that lay before them.
A small house within the forest sat silently, as if not even ghosts dared enter its imposing walls. The felled trees had long been pulled away, leaving only rotting stumps and a lone axe, lodged within a trunk, as if there had been something which had pulled its user away from her duties.
No birds cried, no insects buzzed, no natural sounds came from the clearing around the house. The silence warned all of the town's citizens away, promising nothing short of death if they even came near.
The silence was interrupted only when a girl, hazy eyes staring straight ahead, unblinking and dead, walked along the grassy area to her home, dragging a massive axe behind her. She gave no attention to the other inhabitants of the town, and they stayed away from her, as if she were demonic in her own right. And though, perhaps, she was, she knew nothing of the sort, and she continued to chop, chop the wood of the forest, cleaving the trees in two as she performed her sole duty. Her gray eyes did not register the trees she so expertly cut, and she worked diligently and mechanically, as if she had been working for much longer than her physical appearance would indicate.
And the citizens would stare as she brought out the Sacred Wood, hauling it behind her with only one hand, a feat unimaginable for even the strongest of people.
And they stared, watching wearily as their absent neighbor dragged the wood, hardly stopping even when stones were thrown in her face, even when she was called "monster" by the young children who knew nothing of this girl, who knew only that she looked twelve and had not yet learned that she had looked twelve for sixteen years.
And they stared, pleading with the goddess that this soulless and ageless monster would leave Ozette and never return, so that they may lead normal lives without fear of her.
And from behind the gray, dull eyes, there came a cry of frustration, of anger, of terror, as the body moved on its own to perform that which was asked of it, and though no one heard the cry, it was no less real than the soulless child that wandered Tethe'alla.
The altar seemed to pulse with power, an invisible fire rolling off of it in waves. It engulfed the room and suffocated Zelos with its heat. Sweating palms shook as he hesitantly put his hand on the hilt of his sword and walked toward the altar, the others closely behind. Though he didn't know the exact details of that which happened during the trials, he was fully aware that it would not be painless.
They seemed to sense a battle, as they readied their weapons and assumed an offensive stance. Kratos walked beside Zelos toward the altar while the others stayed back. He kept his hand on the hilt of his new sword, a shining steel blade which he had bought in Triet when they stopped to rest for a night. Zelos mimicked the other, unsure of what was to come but not wanting to be unprepared when it did.
As he approached the altar, the heat seemed to condense and form into a tangible entity before his eyes. There was a swirling orb of fire, growing larger and hotter as it absorbed mana. The orb became the silhouette of a beast, spikes jutting out from its head and a tail swishing behind, leaving small flames that condensed and comprised the larger beast's companions. And suddenly, a raging fire burst forth from the monster, and when it opened its eyes, it let out a monstrous roar, staring Zelos in the eye as if it knew that he were the Chosen.
The Ktugach lunged directly at him, and he stumbled and fell to the ground in his attempt to evade the flaming beast. Immediately, Kratos took action to draw its attention away from Zelos. Nearly tangible mana surrounded the man as he thrust his new steel sword into the beast's tail, causing the Ktugach to howl and turn on him. Using Kratos as a distraction, Zelos stood and gathered his bearings.
In only a short moment, he retrieved his sword from its sheath and immediately lunged forward, creating a shallow wound on its tail. The blood that should have spurt forth was instantly cauterized by the fire that coated the Ktugach, and another bellow from the belly of the monster called upon its underlings.
The Ktugachlings, though much smaller and less fearsome, moved quickly and immediately began casting spells in tandem, as if they were one unit working together for a larger whole. They floated above the ground as fiery red runes shifted and danced around them, their spells growing more and more powerful with each breath of mana that they took. Zelos took this call to action and leapt for the tinier monsters, cutting one down in a single swipe of his blade. Its spell was interrupted, but it was not dead, and it soon lifted itself up in a mechanical fashion, immediately forming a new circle of colorful mana beneath it.
"We could use some help, you know!" Zelos threw the exclamation at the three in the back as he interrupted the second Ktugachling's spell.
"I cannot fight!" Regal called back, and Zelos cursed upon realization that the other man would only be burned in his attempts to help on the frontlines. Though he could heal them and help to provide a strong defense, there was not enough power, and they would lose if they did not definitively turn the battle in their favor.
"Regal!" Kratos commanded as he dodged the swipe of the Ktugach's tail. "Use magic!" There came from the back of the altar room some muttering, but with the tremorous din around him and the action of the battle, Zelos could not understand the conversation.
Zelos redirected his focus to the battle, and he gathered his mana into a condensed form within him and allowed it to flow into his sword, and he released it in a swirl of blue as he leapt into the air, striking both of the Ktugachlings to interrupt them in their progress while he left the Ktugach in Kratos's capable hands.
The smaller beasts were relentless, however, and they showed no evidence of hindrance as they simply picked themselves off the ground yet again and began their spells anew. Grunting in annoyance, Zelos thrust his sword into one and turned to the other, hoping to dispose of it while its counterpart was recovering.
With a shout, he ran at the casting Ktugachling, shoving his sword deep into the burning flesh. The creature immediately retaliated with a small roar, and the flames enveloped his arm. Zelos released his grip on his sword and stumbled back out of pure instinct, and with a curse, he noticed his weapon still lodged inside his opponent.
"Barrier!" Genis called from the back of the altar room, and Zelos felt the sting of fire wash away from his skin, replaced by a thin veil of mana which coated his person. With the layer of protection around him, he was able to reach through the Ktugachling's fire and remove his searing hot sword, just in time for him to turn around and slash at the second Ktugachling. His sword was hot in his hand, but Genis's spell granted him some immunity to the pain. Zelos figured the kid was useful, after all.
The protection of the spell allowed him closer access to the monsters, and so he decided to go all out. He ran directly at one of the beings, forcing his mana into the very tip of his sword. As he thrust directly into the beast's exposed belly, there was a loud screech, and the first Ktugachling fell to the ground with a thud, motionless and dead.
With one of the three opponents taken care of, Zelos turned to his next victim. The other Ktugachling was still casting, but now that he only had one to deal with, it would be easier to kill it.
There was a screech from the remaining Ktugachling, but this one did not sound pained, and shortly after its cry, three balls of fire shot off in random directions, one aiming directly for him. Zelos lunged to the side, narrowly missing the attack, but did not falter on his way toward the monster. He did, however, glance behind him to see Genis dodge another of the fireballs, and he was glad that no one seemed to have gotten hurt because of his negligence toward the beast.
He slashed his sword across the beast's stomach, enduring the heat for as long as he had to in order to kill it. The underling had no way of retaliation, and so Zelos focused on simply attacking full-force until it was incapable of moving. The bright flames that surrounded the Ktugachling were fading, as if it took effort to keep the monster alight, and the heat became more and more bearable as he continued. With a final upward cut to its exposed and unprotected belly, the monster died.
He turned to aid Kratos in his battle with the larger beast just as he felt the protection of Genis's spell begin to dissipate. He let his mind wander—though not too much—to his previous journey, recalling that Raine's spells typically lasted much longer, though Zelos reminded himself that Genis was still learning the healing artes, and it was to be expected that the kid wouldn't be able to keep the spell up for long. At least it would allow for Genis to begin another spell—preferably a healing one. Zelos looked down at his reddened hands, remembering with a grimace how much they hurt. The singed sleeves of Colette's religious robe looked too destroyed to mend, and he noticed briefly new stains forming from the sweat that had become so normal to him in this desert.
He shook his mind clear of all distractions and leapt into the battle next to Kratos, who was vigorously slashing at the beast. Zelos sent out a shockwave of mana toward the beast, and though it did little to deter it in its rampage, it allowed the Ktugach to recognize its new opponent.
Zelos glanced at Kratos, and he noticed the heavy breathing and obvious strain in the other's movements. There was blood flowing freely down his face, and he charged forward with something of a limp. His entire body was as red as Lloyd's jacket, and frankly, the man looked like a tomato.
To help ease Kratos's burden of fighting the Ktugach alone, Zelos ran ahead of him and immediately let loose a surge of power from his sword. He wondered for a moment how much more powerful his attacks would get when he became an angel, but the thought of that dreadful word had him shaking his head to try and rid himself of it.
"Icicle!" a small voice called, and the beast was frozen in its tracks within a coating of ice. It was melting fast, however, as the fire from Ktugach raged more powerfully than ever. Both swordsmen took this brief opportunity to launch themselves at it, piercing their swords through the ice and into the burning flesh of the monster. With each attack, the ice broke, and the beast bellowed in pain. Zelos knew that they had to act quickly.
As Kratos and he attacked, the room seemed to grow dim and silent around them, with the tremorous noise around them becoming dull compared to the deep voice in the back of the room. "Sacred powers…" the voice said in the monotone of a chant, and the mana in the room began to pulse in eager anticipation of what would come next. Zelos found that he could not bring even his own mana under command, and so he lost the power to pierce Raine's ice. He fell to the ground with a soft thud, waiting for the spell to finish. Kratos looked unfazed, but he watched their opponent carefully as the ice melted from within.
The cry of "Judgment!" let loose a blinding beam of light, the mana gathering and solidifying above the Ktugach and releasing down upon the monster with a loud crash, the ice encasing it shattering as the light pierced the beast.
Where the attack would continue normally, Regal's was but one thick beam of light, concentrated on the Ktugach. However, the spell defeated the monster, and the full attack was therefore unnecessary. Zelos heaved a sigh of relief and fell over, using his sword to keep him standing.
"A bit late to the party, don't you think?" he smirked, concentrating on regaining his strength.
Light engulfed the beast, and it faded, its mana returned to the earth. The bloody and mangled body disappeared, leaving no trace of the Ktugach and its underlings. No sign of battle remained aside from the winded group that huddled around the altar, awaiting the arrival of the angel.
With the fire of the Ktugach extinguished, the room was dark, and the heat quickly died, mixing with the remnants of Raine's Icicle and creating a light mist around the room.
Genis and Regal ran to the two swordsmen, prepared to heal them now that they were able. Zelos allowed himself to relax as Regal's glowing hands hovered above his skin, the soft green of healing magic penetrating his skin and mending his wounds.
"Chosen of Regeneration," a voice rang out, and Zelos jumped, startled at the sudden booming voice. He looked around for the source and found that no one else seemed to have reacted to it. He opened his mouth to ask about the noise, but the disembodied voice rang out once again. "Offer your prayers at the altar, and you shall be reborn."
Remiel. Zelos grimaced and, glancing back at Kratos for just a moment, started toward the altar in the middle of the room. He had been trained as a child how to perform the duties of the Chosen, but that was before he knew truth, and he refused to bow to the angel that would take away his humanity. Instead, he narrowed his eyes as he "prayed" to Remiel.
Come on, you bastard, he called within his mind, playing along with the angel's mind games. Get down here and make me an angel.
There was a brief flash of light in the room, and he looked upward just as a pillar of light rushed down to meet him, engulfing his body. He unwillingly relinquished to the light the control over his body, and he felt the mana inside him condense and gather at his back, pooling around his spine. He felt lightheaded as something exploded out of his skin, and for the briefest moment, Zelos blacked out.
The darkness gave way to a certain light, and Zelos found himself vulnerable to memories, though not all he identified as his own. As pictures and sounds and smells danced within his mind, the familiar and the unfamiliar meshed and became one state of consciousness, until one particular memory surfaced.
"Father, what's it like to die?" Suddenly, Zelos was young again, looking up at a blond man who had gone silent. No one present dared speak, and he didn't understand why. "Father?"
"Colette," the man said kindly, a half-hearted smile lighting his features as he kneeled down to ruffle Zelos's—Colette's?—hair. "Dying...is like sleeping. You fall asleep and have nice dreams of a better world, with no hunger or bad people, like the Desians."
"Really?" Zelos asked, suddenly excited about the prospect of such a dream. "The priests said that I would leave Sylvarant forever, and that I would look down at the world from heaven. But I don't understand. What did they mean by that?"
"There's a castle among the clouds." Phaidra spoke then, her aged voice calming Zelos with visions of mystical lands in the sky. "The castle is just for you, and it's waiting for you to go there and watch over us."
"Can I bring you, grandmother?" he asked innocently, worried that he would be lonely if it were just him in a giant castle, so far away from everyone he loved. "What about Lloyd? He would want to see my castle!"
The two adults shared a grim look as the memory faded, replaced soon by more vivid images of Iselia, of Phaidra and Frank, of priests and robes, of Genis and Raine, of Lloyd.
And through pain, Zelos was brought back to his own reality. His senses returned to him: the scent of burnt flesh and sweat, the dim sound of chattering, the sight of the poorly lit altar room, illuminated only by a dim glow, originating from somewhere behind him. He noticed first his own exhaustion, even though not a moment had seemed to pass. A strange light-headedness followed, and then came the pain. A constant, throbbing pain in his back where his mana had exploded out of him, forming the wings that marked him angelic.
Glistening mana spread out in thin tendrils that made up the tiny feathers, the light casting a faint glow on the smooth stones in the room. Tiny sparkles of stray mana broke free and drifted to the ground with each flap of the wings, and everything about the structure seemed perfect. There was nothing mechanically wrong with the wings, but the anomaly was glaringly obvious to all who had known Colette.
The condensed mana had taken form in a manner which looked nothing like Colette's perfectly rounded, pink wings. Rather, the tendrils were thin and long, drooping down at the tips and creating a rather boxy appearance. And they were orange. For a moment, Zelos could only stare, watching as the wings beat against the stagnant air, somehow keeping him afloat.
His daze did not last long, however, and his attention was drawn to the altar from where the Ktgugach had come as a blinding light flooded the room. The light dimmed and condensed, forming a familiar golden sphere that floated gently down from the top of the room. Remiel burst forth from the light in a majestic display of arrogance. A quick glance downward at Zelos was the only acknowledgment that Remiel gave him, but he noticed the mocking laughter in the angel's eyes that was obviously directed at him.
"You have done well, Chosen One," Remiel spoke, his words echoing throughout the room. There was no obvious strain in the angel's voice, but the sound that resonated off the walls and clashed against Zelos's ears was almost too painful to bear, and he found himself clutching at his ears to protect against the sudden loudness. Though his reaction was obvious, Remiel seemed not to notice, or, perhaps, seemed not to care.
Recognizing his own strange reaction to the noise, he forced his hands down to his sides in a futile attempt to save face. He did not face the angel quite yet, instead looking back through the translucent, orange mana at his companions' grim faces, relieved to realize that the others could finally see and hear Remiel.
"I have granted you the power of the angels," he said, and Zelos flinched at the booming voice that seemed to get louder with every uttered syllable, "but such power carries great burden. Endure, and continue the Regeneration."
"I will," Zelos choked out, desperately willing the man to leave.
His wishes came to fruition, and with no other words, Remiel's wings beat harder, pushing him upwards as he faded into a golden light. Zelos watched as the orb condensed and disappeared, taking the angel back to Derris-Kharlan.
"It's really happening…" Zelos mumbled under his breath, accompanying a humorless chuckle. Even his own voice seemed unnaturally loud to him, and it mixed with new sounds that he had never before noticed: the still air hitting his face, the tiny creak of his moving joints, the crunch of microscopic pebbles under his feet as he touched the ground and his wings faded. The angel transformation really would be hell.
"Your wings…" Genis whispered in awe, eyes fixed on a point just behind Zelos. "They're…"
"Perhaps it is a representation of the soul," Raine offered, her scrawny arms crossed across her chest. She, too, seemed somewhat concerned, but her explanation appeared to satisfy her, and she sighed in complacence with the odd event.
"I mean, it's definitely not Colette's mana flowing in here," Zelos said in a lilting tone, gesturing at the body he was occupying.
"Even my wings have differences, though minor," Regal explained as he stepped forward, his wings protruding from his back. Zelos found now that he could pick out the tiny details in the glistening mana, from the gradient hues to the thinner and more numerous tendrils drooping downward, as if being pulled by Gnome's power.
"They are different," Zelos said. "I never noticed."
"I don't see anything different," Genis said with a huff. "They just look like Kratos's wings."
"I, too, cannot see much difference," Kratos mused, "even though they once were mine."
Regal looked at Kratos, then back to his wings. "It could be that such minor details can only be seen with the enhanced senses of the angels." Zelos heard an almost inaudible sigh from Kratos, and despite the horrors of the angel transformation, he couldn't help but smirk.
"Speaking of senses…" Zelos continued, dropping the smirk and turning to Regal, "is everything super loud to you, too?"
"It can be unsettling," Regal confirmed with a nod. "I don't mind it much, though."
Zelos grimaced. "I don't see how. All these noises are annoying as hell."
"Well, with any luck, it won't last long," said Kratos, walking smoothly toward the warp pad. "The next seal is in the Thoda Geyser. Let's go!" Zelos watched as Kratos paused a moment, furled his eyebrows, and pursed his lips before whirling around to stand on the pad, warping back into the ruins.
"Y'know," Zelos mumbled under his breath, far too quietly for anyone but another angel to hear, "with that funky attitude of yours, I'd confuse you with the real Lloyd."
"What a nice theory you've proposed," whispered Regal as he glided past him toward the warp.
Zelos quirked an eyebrow at the old man's cryptic message, but he quickly found that even that simple movement was too much for him, as he had begun to feel queasy. Every step he took toward the pad rocked his stomach in unholy ways, and he was sure that he would vomit before he ever made it back to the ruins.
"You okay?" Genis asked.
Speaking was hard. "Heh…you worried about me?"
"N-no!" the kid retorted immediately. "But I am worried about Colette. You had better be taking care of her body."
His perfect vision had begun to cloud, dark spots swarming around in his sight, and though the loudness of the people around him never ceased, their voices became mere buzzing. He reached out for something, anything to keep him upright, and he was grateful when he felt someone's hand. The smallness of it led him to believe it was Raine.
The prepubescent buzzing of Raine's voice rang through his ears. "It's the Angel Toxicosis. I had nearly forgotten."
Speaking was harder. "This happens…every time…?"
They seemed to ignore him, but perhaps his voice had barely reached an audible level.
Genis's buzz came through. "Let's camp here tonight. We can fill in Kratos and Regal when we get Zelos out of here."
Zelos felt his consciousness slip, and he desperately hoped that this sickness would pass by the time he woke up.
This is the new chapter... I'm honestly so sorry it's taken this long. During school, I really don't think about working on anything. But it's summer now, so hopefully I can get some chapters up before the new semester starts and I stop updating yet again. Thanks for being so patient. I hope this chapter was worth the wait. Next chapter we find "Sheena" :)