The hunt for the assassin was on. Autumn leaves brushed against Lyn's cheeks like cactus spines, as she stormed through the maze-like clearing nestled outside of D'Avuzel's outskirts. Her heart raced as she nearly stumbled off her feet when a crystalline rock formation appeared in front of her. She swiftly leaped over it and continued the chase, sensing the beating tangerine sun on the back of her neck with each movement.
She was getting tired. It was strange how the tethers within her body were growing weary, not on cue. She wondered if it would cost her own life by the end of the hunt.
After she chased the figure to the end of the maze clearing, she found herself in a circular expanse of dried up grass with fragments of falling leaves soaring endlessly through the sky. Patches of orange and red streaked through the skies as the unknown figure turned their back against Lyn. Tall trees obscured the surrounding areas, making it seem as if the two were lost in the middle of nowhere.
"STOP!" Lyn shouted as soon as she noticed the figure searching tirelessly for an exit.
Oddly enough, the figure did listen to her. After closer glance from behind, Lyn sensed a hint of familiarity. The burgundy tattered hair was cleansed of all the dirt and grime from the underground. Her body reignited with flare and finesse, reviving the skin and complexion within her soul. The original laboratory coat was missing, revealing her muscular back muscles amidst her armored silver pauldrons and her tight revealing black suit. She seemed not armed for battle, but rather disguise.
"Nia...?" Lyn whispered, stunned by the return of the obsessive experimenter from Ionis 9.
"Hello, Gemma," Nia said, turning around to face Lyn. Her orchid eyes and face were teeming with life after her last escape. She was a completely different person that assumed a different identity to Lyn. "You've come on such short notice."
"Don't give me any of that!" Lyn hissed. "Why'd you do it?"
Nia scoffed, smirking at Lyn's anger. "Why, as someone devoted to the cause of the New World, I couldn't let some prideful, egotistical creature like that execute you. Have you forgotten? You're the Ascendant. I can't let anyone kill the Ascendant."
Lyn closed her eyes in disappointment. "She wasn't going to kill us!" She shouted.
"And how exactly would you know that?" Nia retorted, chuckling at Lyn's response. "I see, now... you've grown so soft in such short amount of time. Those memories, and your tethers are failing you, aren't they?"
"I..." Lyn hesitated, realizing that she was right. "None of it matters anymore."
"Of course, it doesn't to you." Nia spat. "I've given myself some time to reflect among it all, and you want to know what I've concluded? How pathetic you truly are, living with these insignificant creatures, who matter nothing to us. Quite laughable, really. How Mother decided to choose you in the end to be her fitting Ascendant, when it should have been me. And this journey you've set yourself on to slay Mother? How could a cruel insignificant rat like you think of doing such a thing!?"
"Nia-"
"NO, answer my question!" Nia's face shriveled in madness, stomping her ground in defiance. "Mother gave life to all of us! And this is what you choose!?"
Scorching flames and aether gathered in front of Nia's feet, sending countless leaves into the sky. Reaching behind her back, she grasped a curved blade and slashed downward, aiming it directly toward Lyn's forehead. Spikes and tendrils that resembled the Rot's influence sprouted from her left arm, covering it in a shield of decay.
"I know she's watching," Nia hissed. "For countless years, I've waited for her to acknowledge my existence, and I'm not going to let some weak rat like yourself take all the glory! No. I'll just reduce you to a pulp. Then, she'll arrive and acknowledge that I deserve to be the Ascendant!"
Lyn unconsciously extended her right arm, hoping to summon Alfaic by her said, but gasped as soon as she remembered that she was completely unarmed. "Damn it..." She whispered.
Nia cackled maniacally, pressing her hand on her forehead. "What's wrong, Gemma? Realized that you don't have that cowardly murderous sword by your side? Don't worry. After I'm done with you, I'll kill him and all your other friends!"
Knowing that her tethers were completely out of commission, nothing would have stopped Lyn and her moment of death if she were to lose. But that hesitation failed to stop her in the moment. She lunged at Nia with the aura of bloodlust coursing through her veins, reaching for a direct punch toward her. Yet before Nia could counter her fist with her decaying shield, Lyn reared back swiftly and sent her right leg outward, performing a diagonal kick instead toward the shield, sending a pulsating shockwave of energy outward. Upon impact, the shield shattered entirely, catching an unsuspecting Nia off-guard as Lyn weaved underneath her chin.
It was only a split second before Lyn's fist could connect with Nia's cheek. Nia was unable to reach Lyn's face. Normally one would be able to tell the general direction of how one felt in the moment, but it was impossible to determine Lyn's. But it was there. A bloodlust of aggression and power, all focused on her fist.
As soon as Lyn's fist made contact with Nia's cheek, her face torqued inward with the amount of pressure placed. Saliva and blood spewed out of Nia's mouth as Lyn sent her tumbling toward several wooden trees, nearly breaking the bones in her back with the amount of raw force sent outward. Lyn clenched her teeth and gave one single exhale of relief, swaying her right knuckles as pain surged through it.
"You get anywhere near my friends, and I'll kill you." Lyn threatened.
Nia picked herself back up, ecstatic over Lyn's sudden rise in strength. "So... that is how it's going to be," She said, wiping the hints of blood underneath her lower lip. "Then, this'll be fun."
Lyn shouted and flailed her left fist at her, but Nia anticipated it. With a swift dodge backward, she smirked at Lyn's frustration.
"Whew," Nia chuckled. "Tethers looking like they're really gone. Such a disappointment."
"Shut up!" Lyn said, swiping her fist at her once again. Another miss.
"You really should have stayed down there, Gemma. Maybe your brain wouldn't be such a mess like it is now."
"I said, SHUT UP!" Lyn lashed out once more with her left leg, enraged beyond belief. Yet instead of dodging, Nia drew her curved sword and cleanly maneuvered it in front of herself so that the force of Lyn's leg drew near it. Nia added pressure, cleanly slicing Lyn's left leg off. Lyn pressed her forehead against the ground as the endurable pain staggered her at once.
"Would you look at that!" Nia chuckled. "That's what comes out of-"
In an instant, Lyn's left leg regenerated. She bolted straight up and delivered a flurry of punches toward Nia's face until her skin chalked completely off, revealing muscle and tendon. However, her regenerative powers kicked in, leaving her scarless immediately. She caught Lyn's punch and grinned at her closely until noses nearly touched.
"There she is," Nia said. "There's Battalion Gemma." She delivered a headbutt to Lyn's forehead, stunning her momentarily until she reared her blade up again to slice through her shoulder. After stumbling backward, Nia leaped onto Lyn's knees and plunged her blade straight through her chest.
Lyn squealed in agony as blood spewed from her mouth.
"This is all the Ascendant has to offer?!" Nia taunted, ramming her blade deeper as Lyn flailed her arms in pain. "I'm so disappointed in you, Gemma!"
Lyn searched her surroundings for anything she could use as a weapon, but there was nothing. Yet by some miraculous moment when she hesitated to think it was pure imagination, a blue twinkling light flashed upon her left eye to signal something was afoot. A second twinkle from the same source confirmed it, and trusting her intuition about it was the only thing she could do.
"Stop..." Lyn feebly uttered as blood seeped down her mouth. "Please, stop..."
Nia released the grip of her sword, leaving it stuck inside Lyn's chest. It pierced the dirt beneath her back, pinning her permanently. With a grin of satisfaction, Nia laughed at her with jubilation, turning her body around with her arms out in joy.
"Did you see that, MOTHER!?" She squealed. "I know you're watching! This proves that Gemma can't possibly be the Ascendant! I'm the victorious one!"
Lyn shot an ugly glare toward Nia's position, goading her on. She purposefully whispered intelligibly so that she could not hear her.
"What was that?" Nia asked, stepping closer to Lyn's helpless body.
Lyn whispered again with blood bubbling in her mouth.
"Saying your final rites? Your last words? You can't possibly die on me now," Nia said, kneeling toward her as an attempt to hear her final plea. "Look at how miserable you are. No Ascendant, not you, could ever live to survive and enjoy the grace of Mother-"
With a deep inhale that nearly sent blood down her windpipe, Lyn spat blood across Nia's eyes, shooting her back into standing position. She shouted in discomfort momentarily until Lyn used her remaining strength to kick her torso toward the twinkling light. As Nia slumped backward, the light expanded into the form of a portal, with Arisz on the other side. Half of his upper body leaned out of the portal, snatching Nia's neck in a chokehold with one arm. Without a sound to prompt it, Arisz plunged his spear through the back of her chest, and rammed the end of it through the dirt pinning her down without a discernable way of escape.
Clenching her teeth in pain, Lyn tried pulling Nia's sword out of her chest. Arisz approached her and grasped the end of it, giving Lyn a regretful stare. "Up we go, now." He said, before yanking it cleanly off.
One final squelch from Lyn ended it completely before Arisz picked her up, leaning her wounded body on her back. He successfully prevented her from choking on her blood. As Lyn's vision began to fade, Arisz approached Nia, who began reaching out with her dangling arms with the hopes of strangling both of them. Her legs and knees slumped backward, and were rendered useless against the pinning of Arisz's spear.
"You..." Nia struggled to speak with the amount of blood escaping her mouth. Her regeneration seemed to halt with the spear still primed inside her. "You will never... be... chosen. I deserve... I deserve it..."
Arisz stopped in front of Nia and bolted his right arm outward. He snatched Nia's throat with his bare hands and ripped it out entirely, leaving his hands dripping in blood. She slumped forward as her eyes reared back, executing her and leaving her hanging like an ornament. Lyn gasped by the pure brutality of it, realizing just how reckless Arisz was in combat.
"Sorry I came so late, my apprentice," Arisz's deep voice soothed Lyn's ears. He seemed completely unfazed by what he had done. "I got lost, you see. I have a terrible sense of direction, despite my supreme display of skill to see aether."
"It's..." Lyn breathed out as her regeneration powers began to slowly by surely heal her body. "It's fine..."
"You don't look or sound so good," Arisz said. "It's because of Alfie, wasn't it? He wasn't here to help you. The damn coward. Getting the chief killed was all his fault. He always complains about me yapping for him to back off, and what happens next? Death knocks at the doorstep."
"You saved me," Lyn whispered. She coughed rapidly, hoping to clear her throat from blood still stuck inside. "I... I thought I was about to die."
Arisz remained silent for a brief moment, studying Nia's lifeless body. "I couldn't let that happen. If I did, I would never forgive myself, letting a sweet-smelling beautiful woman as yourself perish. And, not to mention, Alfie would stare at me and you, wishing the world would be whole again."
"You two... really are friends, aren't you?" Lyn asked. "Whatever it is that he did in the past, can you ever forgive him?"
Arisz sat on the leaves underneath him. He took Nia's limp hand and smacked it to the left, amused by it swinging like a pendulum. "I keep telling myself that eventually, I'll forgive him/ But in all honesty, I already have. I lived such a boring tedious life, rotting and ratting away like a dead carcass in Dead-Man's Den. Then, the moment I saw his disgusting, bratty face, I wanted to come out of retirement. I remembered all of the legendary battles we've faced together, and all the guts and glory that made me the badass warrior that I am today. I feel old now. Do I look old?"
"I don't know," Lyn responded honestly. Silence filled the air between them once more, until Lyn wanted to know the truth about a certain situation. "Is it true that he and his brothers attacked this village?"
Arisz grunted. "Left almost no one standing. If he hadn't intervened and betrayed his own family, the Figment population would have been completely wiped out. I have to give him credit; he's got a gigantic pair of balls for doing that. Perhaps that's what made me initially his friend in the first place."
Lyn listened in, admiring Alfaic for choosing the side of peace in the moment. She expected different, believing that he was as tricky as he was currently, along with the secret of his identity. But part of what Arisz said mended the trust in him, confirming that he was at least mildly genuine. "Blade doesn't seem like a bad person," Lyn said. "You can trust him. I've relied on him for a while now..." She looked over at Nia's body. "And I'm realizing that I need him much more than I ever expected."
"He seems to admire you. Quite fond of you, as well." Arisz said.
"How do you know?"
"The boy's easier to read than a one-page book. His face says it all. Or maybe I'm secretly a wizard and I can read both his face and mind at the same time, like an official tutelary. The point is, I can tell."
Lyn smirked in playful gesture, reminiscing her time up in space with him. "So, are you coming with us?" She asked.
Arisz stood up, keeping Lyn positioned on the back of his shoulders. He sighed. "Maybe," He uttered. "Even though the other Figments imprisoned me for quite some time, I feel terrible for them. With the chief dead, electing a new one won't be easy. Maybe I'll stay behind and get them back on their feet."
"You can take your time," Lyn admitted. "You deserve it, Arisz."
"I do, don't I?" He replied, moving toward the edge of the trail from the circular clearing. "I think it's time we pay them a visit. I'll retrieve my spear first thing next morning."
Lyn's eyes traced towards Nia's body. Her eyes drooped down, sensing a feeling of guilt before sharply gazing away. "We have to stop the Rot Mother," She fervently stated. "She was just another victim of this endless worship, just like Blade's brothers. She didn't deserve it... but it was already too late for her."
Thanks for showing me... the truth. Lyn thanked inside her mind.
"Shall we?" Arisz said. Rearing his powerful silver legs back, he leaped nearly miles into the air and out of sight to D'Avuzel.
Several minutes passed, and the wind swept its natural patterns across the circular expanse. A hooded figure emerged from the end of the path, extending their palm out towards Nia's corpse. She began to decompose at an alarming rate, forming into small miniature cubes that entered the figure's palm. Arisz's spear lost all weight, and collapsed on the dirt. After all of Nia had vanished, the figure turned back around, and left the scene.