RKamelot mentioned that I accidentally posted 117 twice...

Whoops. -is shot-

Kade is poking things again in this chapter... The fact that Mirage is Kairi's replica should be enough to prod you in the correct direction for figuring out exactly what that ever-meddling Sword Dancer is up to. Yes, the Sword Dancer's name is now Kade. Just, because. (Mostly due to the fact it's shorter than 'The Sword Dancer'.)

Seth and I got to work, and for a moment, I actually forgot it was the replica and not the original standing next to me. –Luke

Chapter 13.8 – End Game
Part 118

Luke's POV

I grumbled a few curses as Mirage opened up yet another nice gash on my body.

"Heal!"

"Thanks, Natalia..." I called back, already running in again. A Guardian Field sent Kairi's replica flying, for once, and then I felt the familiar feeling of my Mystic Arte unlocking. Good. If mine was ready again, that meant the other four would be good to go.

Danté had said Mirage was the last of them we'd have to face here. That meant I could do this without regretting it later.

I spun on my heel and let loose with my over-limit, sending Mirage flying a second time. I smirked and ran after her, then jumped straight into my Mystic Arte, unleashing a hyperresonance on the replica of the woman who had taught me how to do this. Or, well, at least done a better job explaining it than Van or Zion had done.

Once I was done—and Ion's Extension version of Akashic Torment was over—Guy ran in and did basically the same thing he'd done against Star and Arietta... except for the fact he was activating his over-limit at a different time.

Natalia and then Anise followed suit before Mirage seemed to get fed up with it.

She activated her own over-limit, and then the world disappeared and Anise let off a few curses worthy of a sailor in a storm. Mirage just grinned, a rather evil expression that I'd honestly never really seen on Kairi's face before. Sure, she'd grinned in a near-malicious way... but whatever she was planning was never really meant to hurt the person she was plotting against. Scare them out of their wits, maybe, but in hindsight, everyone made some really funny faces when she got like that.

Mirage's grin didn't look at all like Kairi's.

"O shadows of hell, coalesce! Feel the pain of the condemned! Shadowed Judgment!"

The first thing that crossed my mind was 'Damn that hurt!'

The second was 'Shit! Miasma!'

Somehow, Mirage had just unleashed a very miasma-focused attack on us. Which meant as soon as this was over, we'd all have to stop and get rid of the miasma.

As soon as the world faded back in, Tear used her Mystic Arte.

Mirage looked like she was considering just giving up and dying.

Seth let out a shockwave, and I was a bit surprised when I heard a semi-familiar verse coming from his lips.

"I, who stand in the full light of the heavens, command thee, who opens the gates of hell!" Mirage let her head drop. "This ends now! Indignation!"

Mirage's scream sounded so much like Kairi's that I flinched. Then she hit the ground, holding onto her claymore and trying not to fall over, even as the fonons keeping her body together started to break apart.

She looked up at us with a lost expression. "I don't get it... Why... Why couldn't I beat you...?"

I grimaced, then walked over and knelt in front of her. "Because we have the conviction needed to do whatever it takes. We have to free Lorelei. Just like Asch has to reach Kairi in time to save her."

Mirage looked up at him, the faintest traces of understanding in her eyes. "We fought because we were ordered to. You... fight because you want to see something through."

I nodded, and she hummed. "Okay..."

She disappeared a moment later, claymore still stuck in the ground, and I bowed my head for a moment.

She was dead now, but that still left freeing Lorelei...

I pulled the Sword and Jewel free from my fonslots and looked down at them. Conviction... to do what needed to happen.

They responded as easily as the Jewel had ever done, and merged into one. I stood, feeling the warmth from the Key that told me I was doing the right thing.

"Of course..."

"Tear?" I prompted, looking back at her. She had her eyes closed.

"The seventh hymn... I'd forgotten. Van would sing it to me when I was having trouble sleeping..." Her eyes opened, and she looked up at me. "Luke... We can do this."

I nodded. I'd never doubted it... but knowing that Tear, the one who'd had the greatest doubts up until now, had finally agreed...

We turned and walked into the temple, and Guy led the way, since this was familiar territory for him. He may have been a child at the time, but he still remembered the layout of his home, and that was good for us, since we'd be lost otherwise.

We finally found the replicated passage ring, and I stepped up to it, placing a hand on the terminal without fear of the miasma.

It opened up, and the passage ring lit up. I nodded. "Kairi was right. They've been using this to control everything. The shield from the Planet Storm was controlled from here until we stopped the Planet Storm," I said, barely able to make heads or tails of most of this, but getting the basics. Seth stepped up next to me.

"It looks like they've since redirected that power into the fomicry stations... Hm, that should be easy to fix."

Seth and I got to work, and for a moment, I actually forgot it was the replica and not the original standing next to me. Seth was pretty smart, too, and Jade...

I couldn't help it. *Asch? Where are you?*

*We're on the Albiore. Hope you guys don't need to make a hasty escape; I didn't even think about it,* he admitted. *Good news is, we're going to land in a few minutes... I can send Noelle back if you need her.*

*That'll be nice. I don't want to try to talk Arietta's monsters into giving us a lift, not with Arietta dead. On that note... If Danté shows up, try not to kill him.*

*I won't. No promises where Jade's concerned. Did you contact me for something else?* Asch asked. I nodded.

*To be honest, not really. Let me know when you've got Kairi back. I'll contact you again after Lorelei's free,* I said. Asch hummed and closed off the connection.

It didn't take me and Seth much longer to finish up with the control center. Then he sighed. "Alright. At this point, it's all up to you and Tear, Luke."

I nodded and looked over my shoulder. Tear stepped forward with a smile, and then started singing.

"Toue Rei Zue Kuroa Ryou Toue Zue~ Kuroa Ryou Zue Toue Ryou Neu Rei Va Zue~ Va Rei Zue Toue Neu Toue Ryou Toue Kuroa~ Ryou Rei Kuroa Ryou Zue Rei Va Zue Rei~ Va Neu Va Rei Va Neu Va Zue Rei~ Kuroa Ryou Kuroa Neu Toue Rei Kuroa Ryou Zue Rei Va~ Rei Va Neu Kuroa Toue Rei Rei~"

As she started singing it a second time, I felt a very, very familiar presence, but it wasn't the one I was used to. It wasn't Asch.

'Lorelei...'

The Key of Lorelei warmed encouragingly, and I raised it, summoning up the seventh fonons I'd need for the hyperresonance that would set Lorelei free.

I knew what do to, now that I stood here.

The Key was stabbed into the ground, much as Mirage's claymore outside.

It dissipated into the seventh fonons that had comprised it as Tear's hymn came to a close, and the fonic glyph flowed outwards.

The warm rush of fonons wasn't contaminated by the miasma anymore, cleansed by the sacrifice of hundreds of replicas... A sacrifice Kairi had at least saved two of us from.

Then I felt like I'd been placed inside an elevator, and was being rushed straight from the bottom of the Tower of Rem to someplace high, high above it.

Auldrant didn't look like Auldrant anymore.

I gasped.

'I had been worried, originally, that the future I had seen would never be re-written,' I heard. I knew it was Lorelei's voice, and I looked around me, and the glowing golden-orange fonons that had enveloped me.

"Then what is this?!"

I could see the whole world, though how, I wasn't sure. I wrote it off as something Lorelei was showing me.

Keterburg's burnt remains, never rebuilt, never even touched, were easy enough to identify through the layers of snow that had covered them.

Grand Chokmah, though it took me a few moments to recognize the once beautiful city. Like Keterburg, the char marks indicated that it had seen fire... But I also saw water marks, indicative of heavy flooding that shouldn't have been possible unless the fonic glyphs that redirected the water had been utterly destroyed. It was also only about a third there. There were columns sticking up out of the water though, and I guessed the other two thirds had sunk.

Baticul was next, the city half-collapsed into its crater... its very water-filled crater. Fires still burned here and there, and I had no good feelings about the number of citizens who had survived this.

Engeve had been burned. St. Binah, still recovering from the fall into the Qliphoth, looked like it had fallen again. The Soil Tree had toppled over and was very dead. Belkend had been subjected to fire as well. Sheridan's cliff had fallen into the ocean. The city didn't exist at all anymore. Chesedonia had been buried under mud, likely from the sand of the Zao Desert and a storm off the water.

And Daath... Daath had been subjected to Mt. Zaleho's inexistent mercy.

Every major city in Auldrant was uninhabitable.

I caught a glimpse of a fight, and the golden fonons enveloping me brought me closer. Red hair drew my eye, fighting alongside a woman with brown hair. "Who..."

'She calls herself Myre in this time. The man beside her is the body that was built for me.'

Another man joined in the fight against the monsters, all of which seemed to have a very strong affinity for fire, earth, water, or light.

Myre was familiar. So was the pale blonde-haired man who fought beside her, but Luke couldn't identify where he'd seen either of them.

'This is the future Myre wishes to see stopped. You must be careful! She will be no friend to you, or to the agent of the miasma. And beware my siblings... They are angry at their imprisonment...'

The realization hit me like a charging rhinossus. "Wherever Zion took Kairi... he'll be breaking the seals on the other sentiences..."

'Shadow will be your ally. Gnome, your worst enemy. As for the others... You will have to seek them out yourself to ask their assistance in stopping Gnome's rampage. I pray Myre's meddling will be the catalyst needed for you to stop this...'

I took a deep breath and nodded.

Then the fonons faded, and I had a split second to realize I'd been returned to Eldrant before I collapsed.

*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*

"Luke?"

My eyes shot open, and I about knocked heads with Guy as I tried to get up.

"Luke, I'm not sure you should be moving too much," Solace started.

I reached for Asch even as I shook my head, and pulled him in a lot closer than usual. Normally, we'd avoid this so as to avoid the inevitable headache, but...

"Zion's gonna break a seal!" I said, already on my feet and running. I'd seen this place through Lorelei, and I knew there was a large open space where Noelle could land up above us somewhere.

"What?!"

My comment was met with the same demand from Asch as well.

"Lorelei showed me! The future he saw two thousand years ago was rewritten into one that's as bad, if not worse! Gnome's angry, he's been locked up for thousands of years, and he's not taking it well!"

"What about the seals?! Syal? Isn't hers the one guarding—" Guy started

*The monolith's green!* Asch interrupted.

"Oh, fuck."

"Luke?"

"Asch said the monolith Kairi was taken to is green. If that's the seal..." I couldn't bring myself to finish that.

"Then it would have to be Syal's, which would let Gnome free, and he'd be able to find the other seals and break them!" Guy said for me.

*I sent Noelle back as soon as we landed. She should get there in just a couple hours—the wind's behind her.*

*Thanks, Asch.*

The connection broke, and we finally found the top of the temple. I looked around. "Now what? Asch said Noelle's on her way, but..."

"Now we clear house," Seth said, pointing to the almost ridiculous number of replicas and monsters milling about. I sighed.

"I hate that idea, but it's the only one we've got. These guys could to a lot of damage to the Albiore if we don't do something about them now," I admitted. Then I jumped into the mess and started attacking. The others agreed.

By the time the Albiore II finally dropped out of the sky, I was grateful we'd been fighting off the replicas and monsters, because they really would have attacked it if we hadn't.

The ramp lowered, and we all raced inside and up to the cockpit.

"Asch said to fly you all back to Tataroo Valley—" Noelle started.

"No, take us back to wherever you left them!" I ordered. She looked a bit confused, but took off regardless. Once we were in the air, she looked up at me.

"So, why not Tataroo Valley?"

"Because the monolith Zion took Kairi to is the seal on one of the fonon sentiences."

Noelle still looked confused. "I don't get it. You just set Lorelei free, right? So, one, why are the other six sentiences still sealed away? And why are you acting like Kairi being taken to one of those seals is a bad thing?"

I grimaced and looked back at the others. "When I released Lorelei, he showed me the future he'd seen. Gnome, the sentience sealed by the monolith Kairi's at, is angry. From what I saw? He's going to release the other six and then start attacking the humans. Engeve and Belkend were destroyed much like Keterburg was. Sheridan was gone, along with the rest of the cliff it's sitting on. Daath was buried under volcanic rock. St. Binah looked like it had taken a second fall into the Qliphoth. Baticul was half-collapsed, and the crater it sits in was filled with water. Grand Chokmah was almost worse—most of it had collapsed into the ocean."

The others had gone pale by this point.

"Damn. No wonder the Clan Elders were always so worried about the seals breaking," Guy muttered. I swallowed.

"Lorelei also showed me someone—a woman, with brown hair. He called her Myre, said she'd been meddling to try to help us out. He also... said he and Shadow were on our side. He showed me the body he had in that future," I said.

"So what? We find this Myre, and then..."

"Then, if the seal breaks... We need to be ready."

They all nodded.

Fun Fact: Whoosh. So there it is. Now you all know what they're going to be dealing with in Book 3... And yes, Lorelei's body is just another replica of Asch. As for Myre... Well, she's being unhelpful. But I've hinted at her identity before, so it shouldn't be a surprise when it finally comes out in AEtT.