"It's about to collapse!" Claire shouted as the bridge connecting the pathway where the planetarium stood had wobbled uncontrollably from its frailty of its damaged form. As large chunks of lethal debris from the top Qliphos Station began to plummet down below their position, a large jolt shook the group, nearly forcing Claire off of the weakened bridge.
"I got you!" Ardine leaped forward and snagged her sweaty hand as he called, pulling her up immediately to prevent an accidental fall.
Lyn snagged the back of Ardine's collar and yanked him back to support Claire. They sprinted across the collapsing bridge and settled down as the remainder of what they stood upon crumbled and fell into oblivion.
Above their heads stood a large mechanical contraption that housed a black pustule of goo, infected with additional mini pustules of Rot. The dripping liquid collapsed in the center of the large circular arena they stood upon, revealing Cain in the flesh, nude and bare fully recovered. He stood up as the gooey black liquid covered the bottom half of his body.
"Why do you resist?" Cain asked, rotating his left wrist to stretch his muscles. "This journey... this path you all set your eyes on... is nothing but a pitiful false journey into despair."
"I'm healing this world," Lyn seethed. "And I'm learning the truth, little by little. You on the other hand, refuse to even grasp it."
Cain chuckled and approached the four slowly. The tips of his toes left footprints in his wake. He raised his arms outward to embrace the environment and the enthusiasm of Lyn's delusions. "There is only one truth," He began. "Only one. And that, is-"
Before Cain could even finish speaking, a godly warming blast of heat engulfed Lyn, Ardine, and Alfaic in a sea of serenity. Warm light entered their eyes as Claire transformed into her golden form, embracing the energy as her white wings spread aside. Using her full strength, she extended her arm out with her hand shaped in a clutch, as if she was choking the air. An invisible force seized control of Cain's neck, forcing him to collapse to the inky ground on his knees.
Cain's eyes nearly shot themselves out of his eye sockets. He desperately tried to escape by prying the invisible force, but to no avail, it was utterly useless. As Lyn and the others watched in horror of their ally's new profound strength, it all came to an end as soon as Claire twisted her wrist, causing the force to snap Cain's neck in an instant. He lifelessly fell to the ground with his back hunched in the air, cold, and bare on the ground as the pustule's liquid began to engulf his back.
Claire's reverted back to normal and held her ground, almost falling from exhaustion. Lyn held her up over her shoulder as Ardine moved toward her, concerned for her health.
"Is it... over?" Claire asked. "Did I do it?"
"You gave no shits," Ardine said, as his voice was loud and almost comedic. "Qliphos has been through enough. Another one down, am I right?"
Alfaic floated beside Cain's body as the three were left to recuperate. He reverted back to his human form and kneeled down, touching his brother's pale skin with a gentle caress. He wondered how life would have been like had they all left the same delusion dream that their father shared of being one with their mighty God. All the emptiness in his world would have ended. The smiles of their brothers would all that he would be looking forward to. But he would share none of those memories with them, now.
"Hello, brother." Cain's voice erupted in the vicinity, ringing through their ears as clear as day.
Alfaic jolted back as the other three spread their eyes across the arena, wondering where Cain's disembodied voice arose from. As Alfaic stood back up, Cain's entire lifeless body was engulfed in the black viscous liquid before melting into the floor, completely out of side. A bubbling puddle of the same liquid began to spout slowly out of the middle, spreading and widening the floor until it forced Alfaic back toward Lyn and the others.
"All of you fools, who would dare deign to fight against truth, shall suffer for all of eternity!" Cain's voice continued to arise in volume. Just as he had done so, branches of trees and black muscular tendrils emerged from the black puddle, spreading across the vicinity. The puddle began to spout violently as the liquid began dripping on the edge of the circular arena, until the influence began to spread across the cylindrical walls on the edges of the gigantic room.
"What the fuck is that?!" Ardine shouted as the walls began to mold into the viscous liquid. "What is that?!"
Unbeknownst to their surroundings at the time because of the spread of Cain's rotten influence, the GLAIV droid soared through skies with its glaive encrusted in its hand. Its body, which remained overheated from its previous battle with Lyn, dove down like a vulture upon the four. It specifically targeted Ardine after he distressfully shouted aloud, snatching his head like a toy before propelling down against the circular arena.
The force of the collision sent both Ardine and the GLAIV droid down into the abyss, destroying a large section of the floor they stood upon. Lyn and Claire both attempted to reach out and grab what they had hoped what was Ardine's hand to save him, but a bubbling formation of muscular black tendrils erupted from the ground in front of them, halting them from enacting their plan.
A swift horizontal slash severed the black tendrils aside, leaving them flopping on the ground to search for survival. A twinkling flash of light emitted from the side of Lyn and Claire's eyes, prompting them to turn around as a gust of wind caught them off guard. Alfaic, who had reverted to his human form, stood in front of the bubbling corrupted mass of Rot that spewed from the center of the arena and in front of the two to shield them from harm. He stood straight with his head nudged to the side, side-eyeing the duo with a confident and firm stare, as one would in a sacrificial moment.
"Get Ardine!" Alfaic commanded, clenching his fists to face the mass by himself. "I've got this."
Lyn nodded and yanked Claire's hand to her unexpected knowledge. As they dove down into the abyss, their vision was much clearer after Claire rode on the back of Lyn's shoulders; they free-fell through a number of carefully constructed bridges and railings, watching as the GLAIV droid hopped around the vicinity like a monkey maneuvering and navigating quickly across its hometown.
Alfaic clenched his teeth and stood his ground as the bubbling mass arose in volume. There, it revealed Cain, who had now been transformed into a puddling monstrosity of detritus, enveloped by the Rot consuming his body. Cain had no visible human features; his entire upper and lower half were replaced with a constant stream of darkened ooze that made it impossible to discern the true nature of his creature-like state. His face was a congealed mess of eyes and mouths lined to the brim with infected rows of teeth.
"Come on, brother," Alfaic taunted, rotating his shoulders to loosen his body. "Father made you this ugly, not you."
Cain arose in mass and leaned forward, preparing to lash out with his infected and congealed elastic arms.
"Fine, have it your way." Alfaic finished, rushing forward at top speed. As Cain slammed his rotten tendril down, Alfaic precisely dodged it and charged forward with his whole body, piercing through Cain's body to leave a human-sized hole caving out of his abdomen. He exited cleanly without a single speck of visible debris on him.
Turning around, he watched as Cain regenerated the blow, complicating the battle even further. A swarm of overhead tendrils from the ceiling rained down upon Alfaic, hoping to squash him down like a bug. Alfaic swiftly circled around Cain and transformed into his sword state, slashing through puddle-like body. He avoided through most of his attacks after reverting back to his human form, until Cain pinpointed exactly where Alfaic would leap.
With an extended grip spanning nearly a football field away, Cain seized control of Alfaic's face and slowly brought him close. After coming face to face with his own brother, Alfaic wondered if the hesitation to kill him derived from the very own soul that still existed within Cain's body.
The hesitation alone made Alfaic chuckle, as the idea of his brother without the conscious desire to worship the Rot Mother somehow improved their relationship. "Oh, brother..." Alfaic said, refusing to face stress even during his adverse downfall. "You sacrificed your own humanity all for this disgusting mess you call power, and look at what you've become."
Cain attempted to stab Alfaic in the chest with a primed tendril, but after Alfaic reverted to his sword form, his grip slipped away by failing to grasp him by the blade. He soared behind Cain and changed back, standing his ground once more.
"Are you scared, brother?" Alfaic asked, inputting his opinion with a cavalier attitude with unmitigated smugness. "I could sense that hesitation in you. Do you really want to kill me, or are you just playing with fate, right now?"
A low growl erupted from Cain's mouth. After plunging back into the rotten pool he had created, Cain's entire puddle-like body had dramatically increased in size until there was almost an entire tidal wave of rotten liquid ready to suffocate Alfaic. As the mass increased over time, Alfaic had to look up to face the shadows that would soon engulf him.
"You've truly lost it, brother," Alfaic said, shifting his left foot back to plant himself firmly on the ground. "And I thought you were the wisest out of us all. I'm disappointed."
Meanwhile, down below the circular arena, Lyn and Claire managed to reach the GLAIV droid in time after diving down at full speed. The two of them separated after colliding with the droid weakened and reddened muscular frame, which was overheating from the previous damage that was inflicted upon it. Lyn clashed with the droid's arm, and rode on its back, snatching Claire's blade and jamming it between the neck and the pectoral mechanized muscle of it. Claire leaped forward and grabbed Ardine in time, rescuing him by landing on a separate platform distant from where Lyn and the GLAIV plummeted.
"Ardine, Ardine!" Claire shouted, shaking his shoulders to wake him up after realizing his eyes were shut. Deep cuts and bruises were all across his face, indicating that he could have been unconscious. "Wake up! Wake up!" She cried after hearing the tumbling and crashing sounds down below.
After being hurled across the air and against a wall, Lyn held onto a tightened wire wrapped around the GLAIV droid and yanked on it, pulling herself back onto its shoulders. After noticing a weakened wire jutting from the droid's neck, she pulled on it with brute force, severing the connection between the GLAIV's optic nerve to blind it. The droid's behavior turned ballistic, lashing its arms back to seize control of Lyn's body to brutalize her. But Lyn carefully maneuvered out of its way, jumping down to an unstable platform down below.
No careful consideration was taken to think about how the GLAIV would also react; emergency power its in chassis took control, restoring its vision only temporarily. It grabbed hold of Lyn's leg and slammed it down on the platform multiple times before pinning her entire lower body with its colossal fist. As Lyn struggled to free herself, blood seeped from her mouth. She watched as the droid's brutal strength continued to cause the chest plate to overheat, but she was unable to do anything about it to use its weakness to her advantage.
Suddenly, Claire leaped from behind the droid and pressed her left hand against the back of the wiring of its optic nerve. Her power sent it crumbling into dust once more, but before Claire would have the opportunity to place her hand on its head to destroy it once and for all, a rupture of the GLAIV's metal circuits across its body caused it to violently lash out, attempting to swing towards Claire to knock her off.
She held onto the sword stuck between its chest plate and balanced herself. Wanting to sever the droid's head, she twisted the blade and angled it until it was brought close toward its neck, prying and pulling it as she pressured the edge of the blade with her foot. This added pressure left Lyn enough strength to escape the GLAIV's grasp, as its stunned metal body was near to shut down from all of the faulty and destroyed wiring inside its body.
Lyn leaped behind the droid as well and combined her strength with Claire's to pry the droid to end it once and for all. The overheating core increased in size, swelling to the point of combustion. The GLAIV utilized it as a last ditch effort to take its assailants out with it, wanting to succeed in at least taking out as many lives as possible. Time was ticking down, and their combined strength was not enough.
A strong tear was made after the two continued the pressure, leaving the neck of the droid exposed. But it would only take a matter of time before the core would detonate.
Suddenly, from above the platform where the others had stood, Ardine recovered from his injuries and unconsciousness. He reassembled his rifle and loaded in a magazine of armored piercing incendiary rounds, lining up his scope for the shot. He armed a sonic grenade in his left hand and lined it up with the platform the others stood on. Without a second thought, Ardine activated it and dropped it, shattering the ears of both Lyn and Claire who desperately tried to hold on for their lives. The GLAIV's entire body convulsed as it exposed its vulnerable neck.
Ardine lined up the shot, pulling the bolt back until a puff of smoke escaped the hot chamber. He sucked up the air in front of him to line up the sight. With his finger on the trigger, the sound of silence distorted his ears.
"For them." Ardine whispered before pulling the trigger.
The searing bullet came into contact with the GLAIV's neck at pinpoint accuracy, severing the last bit of wiring that Lyn and Claire needed to sever to execute it. The droid's head blasted off and collapsed on the ground, rotating like a toy wheel on the ground before it shut down. Lyn and Claire launched themselves back after the bullet struck the droid, landing on their backs in safety. The core was still in its overheated state, but it no longer functioned as an explosive. The droid was no longer operational. It was nothing but a memory.
Ardine collapsed his forehead on the platform, resting himself after the intense stress and pressure almost caused him to botch the final blow.
Lyn and Claire both laid back to recover as well.
"You okay?" Lyn asked, turning to face her ally who braved through it all first before she had.
"Never... never better," Claire replied, exhausting her breath with just a single word. She leaned forward to pick herself up, but fell back down from pure exhaustion. "Thanks for your help... up there." She gasped.
Claire's statement alone made Lyn bolt up from her laid back position, remembering what was "up there." She turned her head up to face the top of the circular arena, watching as the black ooze seemingly assimilated itself with the environment, spreading across like a live and visible plague consuming all in death.
"Blade," Lyn whispered, searching her environment for a plan to rescue him. Lyn could read off the walls from the sector that they stood upon that it was an electrical testing facility. Amazingly enough, there were emergency exits on opposite sides of the sector in case a failed experiment or test went wrong. In Lyn's mind, there was only one thing she could do, and could only take one shot. She turned to face Claire, pulling her up from her back and holding her slightly to balance her.
"Get to Ardine and get to the exits," Lyn ordered. "See if you can find a way back to METIS."
"W-Wha-What?!" Claire exclaimed, shoving Lyn back as her fiery temper began to flare up on more. "No - no, I'm coming with you! We have to save Alfaic!"
"I'll do it myself," Lyn said, eyeing the overheated core nestling in the chassis of the destroyed GLAIV droid. She kept a straight face and looked back up toward the spreading walls. "I owe him that much." She said, approaching the heating core with a fast-paced walk.
"Lyn, wait!" Claire shouted.
"Take care of him, Claire," Lyn said, eyeing the core as she bent down and snatched it. Her hand, although it seared and scalded her skin, showed barely any reaction until several seconds had passed. Lyn gritted her teeth and contained the pain with her tethers as much as she could. She had a limited amount of time and space to enact her plan. It would be a miracle if everything came into fruition.
She dashed forward at lightning speed toward the side of the tall cylindrical platform that held both Alfaic and Cain at the very top. The momentum she carried with her speed allowed her to run up the wall, but she had to maintain her speed in order for her to stay on it. She had no split second to even falter or mess up, for it would send her tumbling back down once more.
As Lyn rushed up, she snatched Ardine's rifle after noticing it teetering and on the brink of falling to its destruction. She held it firmly by the barrel with her left hand and with the core by her right. The scalding heat was beginning to severely impede her strength, but knowing that Alfaic could have been in utter danger forced her to push onward, summoning the last bit of effort to charge at the helm.
After reaching the top, time and all of its progress halted as Lyn concentrated on her surroundings. Alfaic's unconscious body was on the ground, nearly devoured by Cain's rotten ooze; Cain himself was on the brink of assimilating his rotten roots across the entire vicinity, making it a terrifying nightmare to behold. Cain's amalgamated body formed itself upon the center, facing Lyn with its disgusting blend of ferocious teeth. He was about to lash out to end her once and for all.
Seeing Alfaic on the ground, Lyn decided to enact her plan. She hurled the overheated core of the GLAIV droid like a ball, sending a shockwave of force with her wrist from the speed of the toss. The core landed directly in Cain's chest. The ooze was about to consume the core and shroud it. There would only be a few seconds remaining until it was too late to end it all.
Lyn stepped down on the ooze covered platform. With mere seconds before it would consume her as well, she primed Ardine's rifle at the ready, bolted the incendiary armor piercing rounds back, and aimed directly at the core. Holding her breath in, she fired directly in the center, causing the core to conflagrate. A wave of flame incinerated the entire puddle of ooze containing Cain, flaring back toward the wall after an invisible force shot it back against the top of the wall.
"Lyn...!" Alfaic called after regaining consciousness.
Lyn dove toward Alfaic and grabbed his hand tightly, ready to pull him up. "Let's go!" She commanded.
Alfaic's gaze shifted toward Cain, who was pinned against the wall. Lyn turned her head as well, and both of them were shocked at the outcome of the searing core. The entire wall was melting from the increased pressure and heat, which would soon result in the collapse of the tower and the entrance of space itself.
It was too late to react to it all, as safety down below was impossible.
Cain attempted to push back by extending multiple black tendrils to force himself back inside, but the core's heat passed through. The wall melted, and the torrent of space ejected him out into the stars. But it was not without consequence, for one of its last remaining tendrils wrapped itself around Lyn's waist, hurling her out into the stellar abyss together hoping to take her down along with him.
Alfaic desperately tried to swarm forward to reach her extended hand a split second after, but he grabbed nothing but air. He watched in horror as he too had to hold on for his life. But he failed, and he was sucked into the vast nothingness.