Yuna's 'pot-shots from a distance' strategy wasn't working. Ting-Lu wasn't exactly speeding toward the giant rock wall surrounding the Terarium, but it was raising dirt mounds out of the ground and leaping between them to dodge Shaymin's Seed Flares. Every leap served to launch Ting-Lu's platforms at Yuna. The dragapult struggled to balance dodging them while giving Shaymin good aim and keeping enough distance to avoid falling victim to Ting-Lu's Gravity.
And that weird crystalline time stop — she was calling it "reverse time" since it had to come from her giratina side — was hurting, not helping.
Ting-Lu was about two-thirds of the way to the edge of the Terarium. It raised a clay mound from the ground, uprooting trees and shredding bushes apart so nothing but twigs and crumpled leaves remained.
"There!" Shaymin fired a Seed Flare. Ting-Lu leaped from the mound, kicking clay chunks at Yuna and landing on a lower dirt platform. The green rings harmlessly flew past while Yuna rolled left to avoid the clay.
"Such a feeble demonstration." Zodiark's voice carried from where Ting-Lu was. A staticky projection of their face swirled around the large dirt crystal in Ting-Lu's head bowl. "It's nothing if not emblematic of your one-sided, futile struggle."
"Shut up!" Yuna focused on her core. It rippled with distortion. Heat pooled in her horns, drawing a yelp from Shaymin. To her surprise, sun-shaped white arrows streaked through the air and exploded around Ting-Lu. The Whisper tumbled from its platform. Zodiark's silhouette vanished.
The dragapult blinked. "Um... that wasn't a normal Dragon Darts."
"Who cares?" Shaymin scooted forward on her triangular head. Seed Flare rings streamed down toward Ting-Lu. However, a giant dirt hand emerged behind Ting-Lu. It grabbed the Seed Flare and squeezed. Dirt exploded outward, forcing Yuna and Shaymin back.
"Harsh." Shaymin whistled. "It's molding the ground as it sees fit. Not grateful at all!"
Yuna tried shooting the sun arrows through the lingering dusty cloud. Ting-Lu emerged from the cloud atop another clay platform. A dark, dreadful aura gathered around it. Whatever that attack was, Yuna didn't intend to take it.
She expected a beam or blast. So, the dragapult was caught off guard when a black and red dome emerged around Ting-Lu, spreading out rapidly.
"Ah!" Yuna opened a rift to flee when a white flash blinded her.
"Sorry Grishi late! Had to make pitstop!"
Yuna opened her eyes to find the zorotwo floating there, holding up a black barrier with one hand and some sort of metal ring with another.
"Where have you— ugh, never mind!" Yuna's tail undulated rapidly. "Did you stop that attack?"
He shook his head. "Grishi shield Yuna from Ruination. Bad time if hit."
Ruination? Grishi knew what that attack was?
It didn't matter. Ting-Lu was charging it again while leaping toward a taller clay platform. "Well, you're here now. So start helping!" Yuna flew around the zorotwo.
"Y'know, you could show him some gratitude," Shaymin mused. "Since he came back."
Yuna's response was to tilt her head, sending Shaymin tumbling into one of her horns. She fired him straight toward Ting-Lu.
"It was a joooooooooooooooooooooooke!" Tiny limbs flailing, Shaymin unleashed a close-ranged Seed Flare. Ting-Lu was too busy readying its Ruination to dodge. The green rings peppered its right flank. Its clay platform crumbled, sending it straight to the ground.
"Yuna stay back!" Grishi ordered before the dragapult could go pick up Shaymin. Instead, he shifted to his sky form and flew back. Girshi teleported over Ting-Lu. He held up the metal ring, then it vanished inside an illusory plastic cup. Just like the type she saw stacked on some of the water coolers in the outpost hanger.
The cup appeared by Ting-Lu's side in a flash. As soon as it righted itself, the metal ring was stuck around its ankle. Ting-Lu noticed this. The ominous Ruination aura crackled around its body once again.
Grishi vanished once again, only to reappear seconds later—
"Hey Ting-LOSER! Look up!"
Yuna's jaw dropped as a freefalling Nikki swung her lightning guitar around. It struck Ting-Lu's vaguely equine face. Cracks spiderwebbed their way along its body. When it tried to retaliate, its limbs locked up and it fell over on its side. Grishi yanked the toxtricity away with his ESP.
"Oh-ho, shit, it actually worked!" Nikki laughed nervously.
"What just happened?" Yuna wanted to glare at Nikki and Grishi, but the bigger focus was on taking out this Whisper. She ordered Shaymin to fire more Seed Flares.
"Ring Target." The zorotwo traced a claw in a circle. "Grishi steal from school store. It remove Ting-Lu electric immunity. So Nikki can paralyze."
Another dirt hand erupted from the ground to deflect Shaymin's Seed Flares. Ting-Lu's garbled roar filled the air. A furious chorus of wing flaps behind Yuna suggested more birds were fleeing north.
"Hey, bastard's getting away!" Nikki said, pointing east. Ting-Lu surfed a wave of dirt across the grassy plains, uprooting trees and knocking boulders over. "Where the hell's this thing going? The dome's that way?"
"Who cares! After it!" Yuna flew ahead. Though Ting-Lu's limbs twitched with paralysis, the dirt wave carried it much faster than it was going before.
"With all the cracks along its body, it must be on its last legs!" Rayquaza said. "Tally ho!"
Yuna was catching up, but she wasn't expecting the dirt wave to fling Ting-Lu through the air. The Whisper sailed over the remaining plains and some wall made of brightly glowing cubes. It landed in the middle of a sandy beach.
"What's it doing? It's a ground-type, isn't it?"
"Sand's kinda ground," Shaymin said. "Think palossand."
Ting-Lu roared again. The sand around it swirled and rippled. A giant sandcastle erupted from the beach. Sandy cannons aimed at the approaching dragapult and fired Mud Bombs at her.
"Gah!" Yuna retaliated with a Dragon Darts volley, destroying one Mud Bomb. Shaymin's Seed Flare took care of the other.
"Princess! There art more cannons firing on the dome! The fiend is trying to destroy it from a distance!"
Massive Mud Bombs sailed over the sparkling water beneath them. Yuna couldn't stop those, even if she did open a rift!
"On your left!" Shaymin cried. Seed Flare rings lit up the sky. Then wet sand showered Yuna from above.
Hissing, she threw her arms over her head. "I need some help here!"
"What do you think we're doing?!" Nikki growled from somewhere to the dragapult's left. "We're taking too much fire!"
A loud ding reverberated through the Terarium. Yuna saw mud splattered against a hexagonal tile. It was a gap in the dome's artificial sky. And more Mud Bombs were heading toward that spot!
Yuna flew toward them, shooting sun-shaped arrows alongside Shaymin's Seed Flares.
"Behind Yuna!" Grishi shouted. She turned to see the black dome of Ruination energy racing toward her.
"Eep!" Yuna flew away from it as fast as she could manage. The attack fizzled out without reaching her, but now she was too far from the giant sandcastle to get an attack on Ting-Lu.
How were they supposed to topple this thing under a constant Mud Bomb barrage?
... Wait.
She remembered Gene dealing with something like this before. What was it that Noctum called it?
No, that's not important! Yuna shook her head. "Shaymin! Go to Grishi and Nikki. Shoot a Seed Flare at Grishi and have Nikki shoot a Boomburst your attack. Tell Grishi to catch it!"
"Huh?"
"No questions! Go!" She jerked her head, transferring Shaymin into a horn, then blasted him back toward Ting-Lu and the giant sandcastle.
"Nooooot cooooooooooooooool!" Shaymin hollered. Fortunately, he shifted to sky form and weaved between Mud Bombs from the sandcastle's cannons.
Yuna focused on shooting down Mud Bombs heading for the dome with Dragon Darts. It filled the air with brown clouds. Clumps of wet sand splattered against her triangular head. They stung a bit, but she'd bear with the pain if it meant taking out Ting-Lu.
She shot down two more Mud Bombs. The cannons in the distance fired another three. Her horns were hurting. Yuna couldn't give up, though. Shaymin was flying quickly around Grishi and Nikki. That was a good thing, right?
Three Dragon Darts blew apart the Mud Bombs, filling the air with a sandy cloud once again. It quickly vanished, however, as a large green explosion swept the cloud away. A rush of wind smelling of freshly-trimmed grass almost swept Yuna up, but she maintained her position in midair.
When the green light faded, the giant sandcastle was collapsing upon itself. Ting-Lu desperately pawed at the air to try not to get sucked into the mound of sand, but it was a losing effort. Yuna sped forward and added insult to injury with a couple more sun-shaped arrows.
Ting-Lu's wedge-shaped earth crystal shattered seconds before the sinking mount of sand swallowed it up.
"Good idea."
Yuna's tail crinkled at Grishi blipping over to her side. "Hmm?"
The zorotwo sheathed and unsheathed his claws repeatedly. "Trapping exploding Seed Flares in psychic bubble to build pressure for bigger explosion. Good idea." He nodded approvingly. "Not bad for novice reverser. Grishi impressed."
"Um, thanks?" Yuna was sorely tempted to ask what "novice reverser" meant. But before she could, static burst out of the sand. It streamed toward the Terarium's core dangling from that tiny metal panel that looked like it floated in midair.
Just like back in Wyndon, Zodiark's masked face appeared in the lines of static.
"This changes nothing, Yaldabaoth," they said. "You will not drag these worlds into stagnation. Your pointless resistance will meet its inevitable end. That is your fate."
Yuna refused to give Zodiark the pleasure of a rebuttal, watching silently as the projection dissolved away with the remaining static.
Sighing in relief, she recalled Shaymin back into her core. Things had gotten hairy for a bit, but they managed. And she held her own for once.
"Heeeeeey!"
Down on the beach, Nikki hopped up and down and waved her arms around. "Not to kill the mood, but don't we still have Gilgamesh to deal with? And you need to find your kid!"
Yuna winced. Right, Leo had run off on them.
"Dost thou think he wouldst challenge Gilgamesh on his own?"
Well now the possibility certainly occurred to her! Swallowing hard, the dragapult turned to Grishi. "I think we're still gonna need a bit of help. I've gotta find my son... and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid!"
The center of the Terarium was a raised platform made from the same glowing cubes fanning out in the cardinal directions. Gilgamesh paced across the middle of it. The ghost and dark crystals atop his head glistened under the dome's artificial light.
Leo galloped through the air. A tiny voice told him this was beyond boneheaded, but he didn't care. He'd already broken off from the group and gotten involved with Kieran. It was full Luxray Jenkins or bust!
So what if that never worked out for Igneous? Leo was an arceus!
"—not believe how ridiculous this is!" The ceruledge raised his arms. "My arms are fire swords! How can this world not have a warrior to give me a proper challenge?" He looked up, toward the corrupted core dangling from the top of the dome. "Stupid interdimensional rift! Why spit me out here? It's a waste, I tell you!"
Gilgamesh spotted what appeared to be a cylindrical recycling bin. "Yes, this kind of waste!" He raised his arms to slice the bin into ribbons.
Well, if he was rambling about a challenge, it was as good a time as any for Leo to make his presence known. "You ready?" he asked Kieran.
"I was ready before," Kieran said. Then hastily added, "I mean, uh, sure."
"I've got your challenge right here!" Leo cried, leaping through the air and landing atop a set of pristine white stairs. He stuck his right foreleg and left hind leg out. That was a cool enough pose, right?
Gilgamesh looked past Leo at first. "The boy from before!" He pointed a fiery sword arm at Kieran. "You've summoned another to battle with?"
"Yeah." Kieran slid off Leo's back. "And we're going to beat you this time."
Static energy rippled around Gilgamesh's head crystals. Leo glanced upward. Was the dungeon core trying to contact him?
If it was, Gilgamesh didn't seem to care. "Only one summon this time?" He scrutinized Leo. "What makes you think you're a worthy challenger? You cannot even free yourself from the confines of that fence you're stuck in!"
Of course this guy had to bring up Leo's wheel. Absolute cringe right there. It was part of the cosmic arceus. "It's a conduit for my power, dumba—"
He cut himself off the moment he met Kieran's gaze. Right, schoolkid. Leo had to watch his language.
"A source of power?" Gilgamesh's eyes surprisingly lit up with interest. "Oh ho ho! In that case... I accept your challenge! Perhaps your fence shall prove itself a weapon worthy of the rift's mightiest warrior, Gilgamesh!" The ceruledge raised his sword arms over his head. "Who is me!"
Okay, yep. This guy was absolute cringe. It was like someone took Rayquaza and dialed the ham meter up past eleven. At least that meant Gilgamesh wasn't under Zodiark's control. No Whisper would treat this like some RP session.
... And Leo could take advantage of that.
"One request." He held up a foreleg. "We take this fight outside. To that big, empty bridge."
"Huh?" Kieran tensed. "Why there?"
"There are too many wild pokémon down here," Leo said. "I don't want any of them getting hurt if things get crazy."
"Fine!" The ceruledge shrugged. "But there will be no other accommodations or delays!"
He pivoted and slashed at the air with his bladed arms. Sunshine— real sunshine spilled in through a jagged rift.
"Oh, wowzers..." Kieran shifted closer to Leo. "This really is a big deal, huh?"
Leo hoisted Kieran onto his back and followed Gilgamesh through the rift. They emerged on a long, white bridge. Wide enough for vehicles to pass, but there was no one in sight. And they were far enough from the school building that Leo could barely make it out.
"Now then, the time for pleasantries and-slash-or banter is behind us!" Gilgamesh declared. The crystals on his head twinkled. "Now is the time where we fight like honorable men!"
He stopped and looked at his fiery sword arms. "Or an honorable man with swords for hands and a possibly honorable steed-stuck-in-fence thing! Mwahahaha!" Gilgamesh brought his arms by his sides. "Engarde!"
Leo scarcely had time to let Kieran slide off him when Gilgamesh charged right at him. The cosmic arceus leaped over swipes from the ceruledge's fiery blades.
"Stick to the air!" Kieran said. The initial shock must have worn off because his earlier stoic expression was back. "You've got greater mobility!"
Leo galloped away from Gilgamesh's attempts at swatting him from the sky. "Why you!" He stomped the ground angrily. "How dare you use gravity against me like that! Here's what the Bladesman of Legend thinks of your aerodynamics!"
His head crystals brimmed with energy. Gilgamesh furiously slashed at the air. Purple and black crescents soared toward Leo. The cosmic arceus galloped through the air along the bridge, but the crescents gave chase.
"They're homing in," Kieran called. "Try blasting them apart with something big!"
Oh. Duh. Leo turned around. Something big could be another Water Spout, so Leo pointed his head at the oncoming energy crescents. Water gushed from a blue gleam over his forehead. The crescents melted away like dirt carried down to sewers in a rainstorm.
"He's charging you down!" Kieran cried. "Below you!"
"Huh?"
Gilgamesh was right underneath him! How'd he close the gap that quickly?!
The ceruledge spun around into a fiery tornado. Leo only had time to cross his legs over his sensitive underbelly before Gilgamesh knocked him further in the air. Leo shook out his legs. They stung from lingering embers.
"Mwahahaha!" Gilgamesh landed on the ground and pointed his right sword arm upward. "Only a truly mighty warrior can defy your defiance of gravity! Are you not astonished? Do your knees not quake with fear?!"
"Strike now!" Kieran had his hands cupped over his mouth. "Hydro Pump!"
Leo drew on the splash plate. Another blue shimmer rippled in front of his head. But instead of a scattershot of water, he sent one high-pressure stream toward Gilgamesh. The ceruledge stood his ground, swiping at the air as if he was rapidly throwing punches. His furious slashes protected him from the Hydro Pump, until Leo was forced to break it off.
"Is that the best you've got? Ha!" Gilgamesh's head crystals glowed. "No, I shall laugh a second time! Ha ha!" Black energy gathered in his blades, making them big enough to reach Leo!
"Run left!" Kieran said. Leo galloped through the air toward him, narrowly dodging Gilgamesh's giant sword arms. He saw a bit of panic in Kieran's eyes.
"Now counter like before!"
Leo shot another Hydro Pump from his forehead. Enlarging his blades made Gilgamesh's movements slower, so the water struck his right side. He tumbled along the white ground, sword arms shrinking back to their normal size.
The cosmic arceus' wheel shimmered. Okay, he got a proper hit in. This wasn't so bad! Yeah, he totally had this!
But why did Kieran look so concerned?
"What's wrong?" Leo said, keeping his eyes on Gilgamesh. He slung small water globules toward the ceruledge to keep him away.
"He wasn't doing this stuff when he battled my team." Kieran rapped his right fist against his right thigh. "Was he really holding back the whole time?"
Leo couldn't say. But something must've told him to take Leo seriously. Was Zodiark actually talking to Gilgamesh?
"Well, I still need your help," Leo insisted. Gilgamesh was back on his feet, weaving past the small water globs. The cosmic arceus galloped left, crossing along the bridge. He swapped to Air Slash crescents. The faster wind spears caught Gilgamesh off guard, with one striking his leg. He buckled dropping to one knee.
"I know! I'm trying! I just—" Kieran squeezed the dangling lock of his hair. "C'mon... c'mon... be strong! Be strong!" He tapped his head repeatedly with his fist.
"Don't think you can keep me away forever!" Gilgamesh stood back up, then ran toward the opposite end of the bridge as Leo. He jumped toward the glass wall and kicked off it. Purple energy sheathed his sword arms. Gilgamesh slashed the air, sending purple bursts shaped like his ghost crystal toward Leo.
Leo froze, unsure which direction to go.
"Dr... drop down!"
"But I'm high up!"
"Just trust me!"
The cosmic arceus obliged Leo, plummeting from the air while Gilgamesh's miniature ghosts flew overhead.
"Wide open!" The ceruledge dropped to the ground after Leo and slammed his swords down. Fiery shockwaves rushed toward Leo.
He tried to jump over, but the first one proved taller than Leo expected. It scorched his hooves enough to where it was too painful to gallop higher in the air. Leo fell into the second shockwave, which sent him tumbling toward the glass wall behind him.
The flames hurt. And the embers lingered on his body. Tiny spurs of burning pain peppered his pelt at random every second.
How could this be happening? He had four plates... and was much bigger. Leo should've been holding his own. The monks told him arceus were so powerful.
What was Leo thinking? Training with Yuna and Alder wasn't nearly the same thing as charging into battle like this. He was screwing the pooch big time! The universe was depending on him and he was totally failing!
"Gah! Sorry!" Kieran was thumping the side of his head again. "Should've told you to blast through that. Stupid, stupid!"
"Mwahahaha!" Flames gathered around Gilgamesh's blades. "You can't expect some impromptu partnership to stand up to me! And here I thought you'd give me a challenge!"
The ceruledge charged Leo down. Eyes wide, the cosmic arceus pointed his forehooves at Gilgamesh and shot dual Hydro Pump streams at him. Gilgamesh ducked one, but couldn't avoid the other.
"Agh!" He tumbled back, giving Leo the time he needed to scramble back to Kieran's side.
A lightbulb went off. Leo' shook himself out, flinging embers off his starry purple pelt. "He's right. We don't know each other well. And I've never had a trainer." His expression sharpened. "But isn't battling like this supposed to be about having fun?"
Kieran looked like Leo had slapped him across the face.
"I'm making the same mistake too." Leo stood protectively in front of Kieran while Gilgamesh rolled to his feet. "We gotta stop thinking this is about showing how strong we are. And have fun with this instead."
Because Gilgamesh wasn't going for the kill or anything. He was showboating like there was an audience here.
"Have... fun?" Kieran looked at his sneakers.
"I said no pleasantries!" Gilgamesh bellowed, sending more dark crescents toward Leo.
"It wasn't pleasantries!" Leo said. Though his legs still burned, he managed to jump up and gallop over the strikes. "We were just talking about how funny it is you're getting hit by water." Another blue shimmer rippled in front of his head. "I guess you could say... you're all washed up!"
The Hydro Pump streamed toward Gilgamesh while he was trying to grow the size of his sword arms again. It swept the ceruledge up. He slid along the bridge, coming to a stop in a puddle.
"Y-You..." Gilgamesh's eye twitched. "Using me, the mighty Gilgamesh, for a cheesy one-liner and striking successfully?!" He held his sword arms at his side. "Ha ha... mwahahahaha! Yes, yes! This is precisely what I wanted! A worthy challenger at last! My blood is pumping!"
Leo didn't like his excitement, but he had to play along, right? That was how the cosmic arceus made it fun. "And I'll do it again!" He shot another Hydro Pump from his forehead, but Gilgamesh was far enough away to dodge, moving to Leo's right.
"It's time! The ultimate technique of the ultimate swordsman!" Gilgamesh raised his bladed arms up. The crystals funneled energy into them. "Behold my power! And my beautiful collection!"
"Attack him while he's charging!" Kieran called.
Nodding, Leo closed the gap a bit to shoot Air Slash blades. But a wall of dark and ghost energy swallowed up his Air Slashes. The energy coalesced over Gilgamesh into four ectoplasmic hands, each one clutching a different sword forged of pitch black energy. One was absurdly blocky and rectangular. Another was a thin blade longer than Leo and Kieran put together. The third was a crystal scimitar and the last was a sword with a sun-shaped hilt.
"What the..." Kieran stepped back. "What sort of attack is that?"
Leo had no idea. And the blades looked terrifying. But moments like these were when he had to trust in the "heart of the cards" or whatever. Gilgamesh wasn't trying to kill him. Just knock him out with a really flashy attack.
"Now, taste the might of Gilgamesh!" The ceruledge's head crystals flashed. And the swords pointed at Leo.
"I'm, uh, all full, thanks!" Leo said, his starcloud tail drooping between his legs.
"Go!" Gilgamesh pointed his right sword arm forward. The blocky sword headed for Leo, slashing furiously at the air in a wild, zigzagging pattern.
"Don't give up! Move back toward me!"
Leo acknowledged Kieran's words with a quick nod, then galloped away. He sounded a bit more enthusiastic than before. Was he taking Leo's suggestion to heart?
"There's no escape from me!"
"The long sword's shooting something at you!" Kieran said, pointing up. Leo looked over his shoulder and saw what looked like black Draco Meteors streaming toward him. The blocky sword was still advancing, too.
"I can't deflect those!" Leo galloped higher into the air. To the point where was struggling to make out Kieran on the ground.
"A fool's errand!" Gilgamesh declared. The scimitar careened toward Leo like a bone club hurled by a marowak. Leo tried blasting it out of the air with a Hydro Pump, but the blade cleaved right through it.
"Eep!" Leo dropped from the air, only for his eyes to widen as the sword with the sun hilt went straight for him.
There was no time to dodge! He had to brace himself and—
The sword struck his head. A squeak reverberated through the open air. Leo stared blankly at the sword. The other three abruptly stopped attacking.
"What?" Gilgamesh was in disbelief. "He shrugged off an attack from the legendary Excalibur?!"
"Wait, like the sword from the Galarian fairy tale about the Darkest Day?" Kieran sounded confused.
Leo looked at the blade's sun hilt and squinted. "Um, this says Excalipoor. Are you sure you're talking about the right sword?"
After several seconds of silence, the ghostly sword vanished in a plume of shadowfire.
"Curses, curses, curses!" Gilgamesh stomped around angrily. "I won't let anyone make a fool out of me! Including myself! Tis no matter! Three swords is still enough to slice you into fence-based confetti!"
The ceruledge pointed at Leo. Gilgamesh's remaining dark swords prepared to go on the offensive again. Leo shot a Hydro Pump at Gilgamesh, who jumped back to dodge it. Then the air around Leo filled up with dark meteors once again.
"There's too many of them!" Leo cried. He galloped right, barely leaping over the scimitar, and stopped over the ocean. He glanced at Kieran, who looked deep in thought.
Then he saw the cosmic arceus over the water and his eyes lit up. "That's it! The answer's been in front of us the whole time! Surf! Flood the bridge!"
Leo's eyes widened, but Kieran was already running back toward the school. The message was clear. He trusted Leo to make this happen.
The cosmic arceus ducked the scimitar, then leaped over the blocky sword. He sprinted through the air over the bridge. When he reached the ocean on the bridge's other side, he drew on the splash plate's energy.
Ocean water that lapped against the pillars suspending the bridge rose higher and higher. The swords had turned around and were shooting across the bridge. But Leo had to hold. Just a bit longer. A biiiiit longer...
"NOW!" Kieran shouted from a distance.
Leo sent the giant wall of water crashing over the bridge's glass wall.
"What the— gaaaaaaaaaaah!"
His improvised Surf swept Gilgamesh up in a wave, flinging the ceruledge around between the two glass walls like a pinball in a machine. The dark swords and their ghostly hands disappeared in bursts of purple and black fire. Leo held his ground, swirling water around between the sides of the bridge until he saw flurries of sparkles and a playing card evaporate into thin air. Then two static streams shot toward the school like arrows.
Leo sent the water racing up the glass walls and crashing back down into the ocean. Gilgamesh spun to a stop in the middle of the ground. Even from his position in the air, Leo could tell Gilgamesh was out cold.
The cosmic arceus drifted back toward the bridge before his flight gave out. He hit the ground hard and staggered forward. "Haah... haaah... certified gameeeeeeer."
"Leo!"
He tensed. That wasn't Kieran's voice. It was Yuna's! And by the time he was able to turn around, the dragapult was right in front of him.
"What did you—" Yuna stopped herself, looking past Leo. "Did you fight that Whisper on your own? What were you thinking?! You could've gotten seriously hurt!" She wrinkled her snout. "You look exhausted and your fur's—"
"Re-hee-lax." Leo took several deep breaths. "I was cooking." He tilted his head right. Kieran was cautiously approaching, gaze mostly focused on Yuna. Leo pointed at him with a forehoof.
"Besides, I wasn't on my own. I had some help."
Kieran stopped his approach. He looked like a deerling in the headlights when Yuna turned to stare him down.
"Me?" Kieran fiddled with his dangling lock of hair. "Well, uh—"
"We were... having fun," Leo said. "That goes for the Whisper, too. He just wanted... a fun battle. And we gave it to him." He glanced at Kieran again. "Right?"
That blank look returned to Kieran's face. "Right. Fun..."
"Oooooogh."
Leo's starry pelt flickered. Gilgamesh was awake already? He turned around to find the ceruledge staggering back to his feet.
"Unbelievable." He approached the glass wall on Leo's right and leaned against it. "To think you bested me, the bladesman of legend!" This time his laugh was much weaker. "Such fiery passion. It's been far too long... since I've had a truly spirited fight." Gilgamesh raised a shaky sword arm. "You must... let me fight you again."
Yuna flew in front of Leo protectively. "No can do. We have important work to do. To stop the dimensions from collapsing on themselves."
"W-What?" Kieran recoiled. "Wowzers, I really am out of my depth, aren't I?"
Gilgamesh stared intently at Yuna. "Enkidu, is that you?"
Leo looked between his mother and Gilgamesh. The dragapult was ready to light him up with Dragon Darts.
"I don't have time to entertain whatever fantasies are floating around your head," Yuna scoffed. She turned to Leo. "We have to seal the dungeon core now. The rifts were unstable on our side, remember?"
Leo winced. Right, he'd nearly forgotten.
"So, let's get a move on. We'll leave that weirdo to Grishi." Yuna opened a rift behind her. She looked at Kieran. "Sorry we can't stick around. But we're on a tight time crunch." She flew into the rift, beckoning Leo along.
He slowly walked toward it, then paused to look at Kieran again. "Thanks." Leo bobbed his head. "For what it's worth, I think you're a good trainer. I hope you can have fun battles again after we leave."
Kieran was mostly focused on the rift. "Right." He nodded slowly. "Fun battles."
Leo wasn't sure he'd get much more out of the kid. He stepped through the rift. As he did, though, he heard one last thing from Kieran.
"Good luck with... whatever your quest is. I'm sure you can succeed!"
~Vessel of Ruin: Ting-Lu~
The Affirmer sought to recreate the Red Chain. Its power would let Him wield the Original One as an extension of His being. However, such a legend is only strongest within its domain. The Affirmer recognized this. So, He tried to capture legends across different worlds. And when the Renegade interfered, He aimed to forge a Red Chain spanning multiple universes, then bind legends from an unrelated world. For this clash of energies would shatter the domains, unlocking the power over fate itself: Phenomenal Affirmation.
~Il Paradigma, No. X: Gilgamesh, the Wheel of Fortune~
A mysterious weapons collector and self-proclaimed bladesman of legend. He was drawn to the dungeon core from an interdimensional rift. His fiery passion helped him seize parts of the core's power for himself, which he used to travel through the anomaly into Eternatus and take the Wheel of Fortune from its previous holder.
It seems he's not truly malevolent. Instead, he seeks a worthy challenger to satisfy his thirst for battle.
Path of Valor Almanac
The Wheel of Fortune is the tenth tarot card in the major arcana, symbolizing destiny, fortune, success, and luck in its upright position.
Gilgamesh is a recurring joke character and superboss in the Final Fantasy series. In his debut game, he falls into an interdimensional rift toward the end of the story. He has since proceeded to show up in multiple games in the franchise, usually referencing the interdimensional rift.
A frequent technique of his involves wielding weapons from other Final Fantasy games. For this chapter, he summons Cloud's Buster Sword, Sephiroth's Masamune, Odin's Zantetsuken, and Excalipoor. The latter is a running gag weapon associated with Gilgamesh. As a forgery of Excalibur, it deals one damage.
This is the most blatant of this fic's unashamed references. I promise nothing else will be as bad as this one.