It was black and white when Lyn awoke, as though the world had been drained of color and left in stark contrast. A sudden surged of energy shot up her spine, awakening her from her slumber. Her body rested flat on a bed of a dust riddled sandy landscape, shrouding the details of everything further away from her. She could immediately tell that the monochrome dreamscape was nothing shy of reality; and thus, her eyes were feeble and took longer time to readjust.
Her body ached as she forced herself upright. Dust clung to her palms, forcing her to brush them together. As her eyes scanned the expanse, a faint shimmer of warm heat tickled her skin, drawing her close to it. The monochromatic fog lifted itself as she moved slowly through, revealing the very same meteor that enabled the ancient disc that awakened her from the start of her journey.
She passed through the azure meteor and stumbled down into the disc's opening. Several pods were lined up, including her own recognizable one that read "LYND32." She glanced at her covered shoulder, remembering the tattoo of the same kind attached to her body. Without another word, she pushed aside the pod and entered the ancient city that remained within.
The futuristic layout of the disc stirred a sudden warmth inside her, reminding of her first meeting with Alfaic shining bright in her memory. She remembered every detail of it, from the cinders of the torches set ablaze, to the layout of the geometric interior. And as she made her way through the labyrinthine establishment, she found herself standing in front of the machine that housed Alfaic.
Only there was a man with white hair whose back was turned, standing in front of it.
"Blade?!" Lyn called with a loud echo, extending her palm forward as she rushed toward him with genuine concern.
The silhouette of the man faded away instantly as Lyn attempted to reach through him. The machine housing Alfaic was intact, as if her involvement with it was purely fictional. However, after touching the machine with her palm, a large set of ascending stairs materialized behind it, leading towards an open shaft of warm white light.
Lyn didn't remember this existing the moment she took Alfaic out of his dome. Nevertheless, as it was the only place she could venture toward, she ascended up the stairs carefully, covering her blinding light with her palms.
Her first step beyond the disc's exit carried her onto a sun kissed hilltop bathed in radiant sunlit color, shimmering across the grass like spilled paint. Atop the center was a colossal tree that stretched tall and wide enough that it seemed to swallow the heavens. She approached the warm hilltop with caution, examining the daffodils swaying freely in the cool wind. Although it was a beautiful vista to behold, she knew none of it was real.
Upon further inspection beside the gaping tree, Lyn found a large sketchbook nestled on a wooden stand with a wooden stool beside it. Atop the stool were two quills and an ink bottle used to sketch. She examined the sketchbook and found herself on it, illustrated with deep composure and talent to rival even the greatest artists of all time.
Artistry in METIS was rare. Lyn couldn't fathom why she out of all people would be on it. She approached it and studied it closer, flipping the sketches onward to the next page.
On the next page stood another sketch with a towering tree similar to the one she stood next to. At its roots, a little girl knelt low with her arms stretched, offering trinkets and fragile gifts to it. Her bowed figure was reverent, as though the tree was a shrine.
The next page held seven circular vistas in a desolate landscape, surrounded by a gaping maw of teeth settled beneath it. It was a layered sketch that housed the maw as a secret, for it could devour a single city if the sands above it sunk to the ground.
The next page revealed a sketch from a human's perspective, gazing skyward at a needle-like tower that speared through the void of space. Around the perimeter of the tower were small details that captured military transports lined in rigid formation. The emblem of "D's Space Center" made it clear that it was a sketch of the Qliphos Space Station rising from Ionis 9. It was the same fortress that she invaded earlier to stop the droid massacre and to learn the truth of the past.
It was clear to Lyn in that moment that all of the sketches were of locations in METIS, illustrated in perfection. Another final sketch at the end of the book was a landscape that resembled a sketch of a museum; although its contents were unfinished. Knowing that the other sketches were real, the museum must have also been real as well.
Without turning the pages even further, Lyn turned her eyes toward the center of the tree, noticing an opening big enough for her to enter. Without another word, she stepped inside the rabbit hole, venturing off to find what other secrets laid ahead of her.
Another brief flash of light brought her toward the entrance of a massive mausoleum made of stone in the center of nowhere. Upon further inspection, it was a grand museum decorated with perfectly trimmed hedges, stone sculptures of old century celebrities, and paved with the utmost care and detail upon its ascending steps. Lyn made her way towards it, noticing just how large the museum was.
Yet amidst the center of the museum in front of its entrance barricaded with red ribbons was the same white haired man, staring at the closed door. As Lyn stepped closer to him, she knew the man did not resemble Alfaic in the slightest. He was much taller, burlier, and reeked of grandeur unlike Alfaic's carefree and light personality. He turned around and gazed at Lyn directly, smiling at her without a discernable reason why.
"Take a look at this marvelous place," The man's voice was deep and hollow, yet exuded moments of joy. "Countless centuries of history, all established by one individual whose talent brought myriads of endless possibilities to the table. And all of it... ended with you."
"Who are you talking to?" Lyn asked. "Me? Or... Astra?"
"To a part of Astra, of course," The man continued, confirming her knowledge. "As as part of the Desir lineage, you were destined for something so much more. But your obsession has clouded your mind. Now... you're nothing but an insignificant husk, still clinging onto the life of the loved. Your existence is bare and worthless in the grand scheme of what we created. And now you reside all of your existence on the hopes of destroying it all!"
"I'm saving this world," Lyn was adamant in her tone, drawing Déraciné out from her sheath. She pointed it at the man, bitter towards the insults he tossed at her. "If you're deeming yourself responsible for all of this too, then you'll suffer the same fate as the Rot Mother."
The man chuckled at the term Lyn threw out. "Rot Mother," He repeated. "What a derogatory term tossed out from your mouth, only to define a broken woman that you created. If it hadn't been your selfish insistence, then none of this would have happened."
"And whose fault was it to use her from the start?" Lyn exclaimed, letting her spirit run rampant aloud. "You manipulated her to become this way, and used her talent all for your selfish celebrity status. You... are EQUALLY TO BLAME-"
Lyn let Déraciné slip from her grasp, striking the paved ground with a sharp clatter. She pressed both palms hard against her mouth, muffling the words that threatened to escape from her mouth. Confusion swirled in her mind, for she realized that it was not her decision to speak those words. There was someone else residing within her that forced it, out of pure seething vengeance and hate.
"Ah..." The man smirked. "There you are, Astra. Right where I want you. I've been waiting for so long to say these words. Are you ever going to apologize for what you did to me?"
Lyn's haunting eyes stared at the man, releasing her palms from her mouth.
"Of course not," He continued. "Because there's nothing you or anyone of your friends can do that can can make me forgive you for what you did, no matter HOW MUCH you hide! And my memory will haunt you forever, until you're dead and buried. You won't see Her ever again, because she is mine."
Irritated from his words, Lyn snatched Déraciné from the ground and leveled into her combat stance. "Get out of my head." She demanded.
The man's unhinged laughter tore through the air in response to Lyn's decree. "I'm not in your head, you fool..." His words slithered into the air, dropping low with a demonic tone. From behind him, red tethers escaped his back and writhed like veins, entwined with rotting vines that oozed across the museum's entrance. The air thickened, heavy with the stench of decay. His eyes sank into black and endless hollow pits, as if the void itself had taken root within him. Aether swirled around his body as his body convulsed, amplifying himself into a larger version of himself. He stood taller and darker than ever before. "I'm very much real, Astra," He thundered. "And I write this STORY!"
The man vaulted skyward and crashed down with his fist shattering the ground beneath Lyn's position. A swift dodge backward sent her in a safe position, but not before an influx of rotten vines sought to weave and tangle through Lyn's body. She fended them off with a flurry of rapid slashes, but she was not quick enough to fathom the speed of the unknown man charging straight at her at the throat.
He hoisted her upward with his arm muscles ripping through his royal attire. A cruel snicker twisting his face as he laughed at Lyn's suffering. "You'll pay for this, ASTRA!"
Lyn wrenched her blade downward, then drove it upward in a brutal arc, severing his arm cleanly off. A spewing torrent of black blood erupted from the wound, splattering across the floor in thick ink. The arm reformed itself after a snappy twitch regenerated bone and muscle. With a cackling snarl, he lunged again and seized Lyn's face, slamming her skull down to the ground once more.
"You're so weak, Astra," He sneered, grinding his palm mercilessly against her skull. "If only you had never existed… none of what you've done would come to fruition!"
With Déraciné torn from her grasp, Lyn felt the inevitability of her own ruin pressing down on her. Her skull throbbed beneath the continuous crushing force with the pressure mounting down toward an inevitable pop. The agony was not unfamiliar, for it was felt with her one-sided battle with Nia; only it was amplified tenfold. The weight suffocated her until every nerve was about to destroy her.
She had to admit it to herself; ever since her tethers were severed, she had been gradually much weaker with every battle. Once, she had the strength to topple kingdoms and the stamina to scale titans, but the recognition of her own mortality severed it all.
But all of that was about to change, for something remained deep inside her that was longing to break free.
A tremor rippled through her body as Lyn's right eye snapped open not with clarity, but with fury. Her sclera pulsated with a violet flame, sending torrents of thunderous aether surging toward the white-haired man. He recovered swiftly and watched as the violet flames picked her up from her position and propped her upright. She stood still.
Suddenly, a violent swirl of violet hues bled into Lyn's long black ponytail. The strands of her hair rippled in color and gleamed like amethyst crystals. A flaming aura erupted around her with violet fire spreading out of her body. Within the flame were countless astral stars that twinkled and drifted like fragments orbiting around her.
And from the right side of her back, a single obsidian-colored wing unraveled itself, tinged with faint violet light. Her transformation enticed the unknown white-haired man in a fit of joy, impressed at her strength regaining for their battle. Silver feathers rained down from the skies and onto the ground beside her. With her violet eyes opening in a spark of fury, she had become the complete replica of Claire's previous transformation in Ionis 9, seeping only in darkness and flame.
"Ah, written in flame," The white-haired man cackled even further. "That transformation won't save you! It'll only make me stronger! Witness what She has written me INTO!"
The man slammed his fist into the ground with a thunderous crack, sending a shockwave of raw force. The marble floors splintered beneath himself with each fragment of floor shattering into fragments that dissolved into streams of aether.
From the midst of ruins, an otherworldly landscape emerged. Lyn and the man found themselves in an endless expanse veiled in fog. In the distance, small slices through the mist revealed colossal stone carvings half-buried in the haze. There were fractured pillars and stone sculptures of unknown deities scattered across the realm. The entire museum was gone, leaving only infinity in every direction.
The man propelled himself upward and curled into a tight sphere. Aether surged toward his body, drawn as if by gravitational pull. His body expanded until he grew into a titan, imbued with the power of Rot drawn in from his aether.
"I AM THE TRUE AUTHOR OF THIS STORY!" The titan roared at the top of his lungs, voice shattered all of existence and time.
Rot creatures that resembled soldier sculptures spawned in beside Lyn's godly form with a snap of the titan's fingers. Wielding Déraciné, Lyn's black wing flicked itself before rampaging through the sculptures, slicing each and everyone of them in the blink of an eye. Violet aether sprouted from their slice wounds, expunging them with energy strong enough to make them burst into flames and into ash.
Lyn clenched her teeth and soared upward toward the titan, reaching his grotesque face. As she hovered in front of him in midair, she ascended through the skies to dodge a slow swipe from him, clashing down upon his forehead with a violet-imbued swing. The titan slumped back for a brief moment, stunning him upon its impact.
"I see right through you," Lyn said with her violet eyes beaming a lack of fear toward the titan. "I won't suffer the same fate as you did with the others. I'm ending this nightmare. Right here, and right NOW!"
After her decree, Lyn dove toward the titan's face with her blade, transforming into a violet vortex of aether. She entered the titan's thick skin as her blade rapidly slashed through, puncturing it and igniting it in violet flames. As she escaped through the other side of the hole, Lyn floated with resolve, her black wing stretching outward.
The titan shrieked uncontrollably, sending her soaring back toward the ground. He pointed his enlarged finger at her, charging up a scorching blue beam of aether. A coiling sound ensued, forcing Lyn to soar into the air. Rapid blasts from his finger detonated toward the ground and across the air; even a single blast would incinerate all living flesh in an instant.
As Lyn focused on dodging the rapid beams, the titan sliced its palm through the air in an attempt to reach her. She charged underneath the titan's arm, but a pulse of blue aether sent her flying back, stunning her momentarily. Her eyes were shrouded by the collision of their energy, making her vulnerable toward the titan's swipe.
It was only a heartbeat's notice before the titan's swipe would have torn through Lyn's flesh, scattering her into nothingness. But from the edge of her vision, a sudden flare of motion erupted, with Arisz bursting forth out of a conjured portal. His spear clashed against the titan's massive palm, halting the strike inches from Lyn's face. Sparks and fragments of energy rippled outward.
"Arisz-" Lyn gasped as her voice trembled between relief and disbelief. Yet her rescuer wasted no time for mincing words. With a fierce shove, he hurled her backward and a portal tore open behind her. Lyn tumbled through safely as the world bent around her while she was flung across space.
She emerged out of the portal several hundred meters away, stumbling onto solid ground as the portal snapped shut behind her. Her wing and violet aether quickly vanished as she rolled across the stone pavement with Déraciné dropped to her side.
"Lyn!" Claire's voice rang out from behind Lyn as sharp and familiar.
Ardine slid to her side in a rush, reaching down to haul her up from the ground to safety. "You okay?" He asked while his eyes scanned her for any visible wounds.
"I'm fine," Lyn muttered quickly. Her gaze refused to leave the distance, as she was locked on the storm of combat where Arisz and the titan clashed. But she was relieved that she had seemingly escaped from the dreamscape. "You're all here."
"We're not out of the woods just yet." Ardine commented.
"That fucker over there," Claire hissed as her gaze locked on the titan. "He's the one responsible for all this. He's trying to kill us from the inside out."
The three of them spectated Arisz vaulting from one portal to the next. The titan's massive arms carved through the air in a desperate attempt to strike down upon Arisz. Arisz's small attacks were not to inflict damage, but to buy the others enough time to join the battle.
Lyn's eyes flicked from Arisz's frantic dance to the space beside her, where the absence of Alfaic stopped her. "Where's Blade?" She asked.
Claire's head snapped toward her. "Oh, about that-"
But before she could explain, Arisz's howl tore across the battlefield, silencing the three immediately. "APPRENTICES!" He bellowed. "Don't you dare intervene with this! I'm having TOO MUCH FUN WITH THIS!"
"We're not trusting him with that, right?" Claire asked. "He's in trouble!"
"Definitely not." Ardine said, cocking his rifle's handle back.
"Let's finish this." Lyn said, wielding Déraciné with all her might.