Taking advantage of Geno's momentary stupor, the others scrambled back behind cover.
They watched Geno continue smashing everything in sight, and the expressions on their faces grew darker by the second.
"This guy is seriously terrifying. He's this powerful even after Etherealizing?"
Yuzuha bit down on her lip. Just moments ago, when she and Lucia had moved together to stop Geno's strike, she'd nearly been convinced her arm was going to snap clean off.
"Harin, are you all right?"
"I'm fine."
Yidhari gave her head a weak shake, and mustered a smile in response to Alice's concern — though it was a strained one at best.
"Ugh."
But the movement must have pulled at the wound, because that intended smile twisted into something strange and pained instead.
Alice saw it all, and the guilt hit her even harder. Tangled up in her own panic and distress, a rush of hot tears spilled from her eyes before she could stop them.
"It's all my fault. If it weren't for me, Harin wouldn't have..."
The more she said, the lower Alice's spirits sank. Seeing this, Yuzuha moved to comfort her.
"Alice, now is not the time to cry. Pull yourself together — show some of that Timefield heiress spirit."
Yuzuha was hurting too, of course. She had watched her friend Etherealize right in front of her eyes, and in the process, hurt another friend. And worst of all, he might very well try to kill all of them next.
There was no way to make peace with something like that.
Alice understood that. She just couldn't get a grip on her own emotions.
Her life had always been a succession of losses — things she cherished, taken from her one by one. First her mother. Then her father. Now a friend. And perhaps, before long, her grandfather too.
She couldn't hold back the tide of despair.
"For the record... I'm only injured. I'm pretty sure I'm not actually dying."
Yidhari watched the two girls who had apparently already written her off, and a long, exasperated sweat-drop seemed to slide down her temple.
"Ah — sorry! That was terrible of us!"
Yuzuha scratched the back of her head, a little embarrassed, then got to work actually checking Yidhari's injuries. She'd just watched Geno cut through those rebels so effortlessly, one after another, that she'd jumped to the worst conclusion about Yidhari without thinking.
A quick patch-up, and with the formidable self-healing resilience of the Octopus Thirren, the bleeding stopped soon enough.
"Phew. Okay. She's okay."
Alice let out a long, shaky breath now that Yidhari was out of danger.
But even with Yidhari safe, the crisis they were all trapped in hadn't eased by a single degree.
Alice's rabbit ears drooped as she kept silently reproaching herself for charging in recklessly. Yuzuha offered what comfort she could beside her, though she had little spirit for it herself.
Lucia's expression was just as grim. She glanced at Yidhari lying on the ground, then at Yuzuha and Alice — both of them still looking lost, still at a loss for what to do — and tightened her grip on the staff in her hands. A memory surfaced. A story.
A story that might just be enough to turn things around.
Her grandmother had once told her: if you ever find yourself in serious trouble inside a Hollow, pray to this staff with all the faith you have — and perhaps it will save your life.
It was a legend passed down among the Night Watchers.
The story went that long ago, a powerful Ethereal called the Night Demon had formed a pact with the Night Watchers — and this staff was the manifestation of that being's power, left behind to protect their people.
But legends are only legends. The Night Watchers' history was no stranger to crises like this one, and every leader before her had prayed to the staff at one point or another — and the staff had never once responded.
Even so, right now, it was the only hope Lucia had left.
"Staff... if you truly carry some kind of power, please help me. Bring my friend back to me."
A desperate gamble — but it was all she had. Lucia closed her eyes, pressed her palms together, and prayed to the staff with every ounce of sincerity she could summon.
And then, as if it had truly heard her call, the iron rings on the staff began to sway — without any wind — filling the air with a soft, clear jingle.
"Awoo!"
The moment Lucia released the staff's power, Carrot — who had been watching from the sidelines all this time, motionless even when Lucia had come under attack — finally reacted.
If it had eyes, they would have been blazing with something that looked very much like excitement.
But no one noticed. Because the moment the staff stirred, Lucia froze for just a beat — then set her jaw with unshakeable resolve, gripped the staff tight, and leveled it directly at Geno, still rampaging in the open.
"In the name of the Envoy of the Night Demon — come back to yourself! Geno!"
With Lucia's cry, the staff blazed with a cascade of brilliant, shimmering color — the signature of surging Ether energy.
And responding in kind, the mysterious crystal in Lucia's pocket — the one Carrot had given her — activated at the same moment.
The crystal on Geno's person mirrored it exactly.
Both crystals flared with light. The staff's rings rang out. A tremendous force gathered inside Lucia, tore through the staff, and shot toward Geno like a cannon blast.
Everyone else stood frozen, struck dumb by the sight.
The beam struck like a sharpened arrow — precise, unerring, landing dead center on Geno's body.
The instant it hit, the mysterious crystal on him finally unleashed its full power — and shattered.
A torrent of Ether energy poured forth from the wreckage, flooding into Geno's body like water rushing into a vessel — filling the hollows carved out by long-accumulated Filth.
"Gh — aah!"
His body convulsed. And then, slowly, the reason that had been slipping away from him began to return. A flicker of clarity crept back into his eyes.
As the Ether flooded in, the Filth within him was forced out in equal measure — expelled in great quantities, spattering in every direction as dark red, tar-like sludge.
Geno blinked his eyes open. The first thing he saw was Lucia — staff raised, expression dead serious. Behind her stood three girls with exactly the same look on their faces.
"Lu... Lucia? What's going on with you?"
His voice carried a note of uncertainty. Because though Lucia's appearance hadn't changed at all, what Geno perceived through his Ethereal Vision was something completely different from before.
If the Lucia he'd known before was a human being with faint traces of Ethereal energy woven through her, then the Lucia standing before him now was closer to an Ethereal being with traces of humanity still clinging to her.
The shift in proportion was subtle — but to Geno, whose Ether sensitivity had been honed to a razor's edge, it blazed out at him like the moon on a clear winter night.
Stranger still: he couldn't explain why, but he could feel it — some faint, inexplicable connection had formed between himself and Lucia.
The moment Lucia heard him say her name, her face broke open with relief. Behind her, Alice and the others let out a collective breath.
"Thank goodness. Oh, thank goodness."
Alice watched Geno slowly come back to himself, and something unknotted in her chest.
Though she noticed, distantly, that her chest felt a little tight — and her head felt strangely heavy.
____
👻🔥Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Arknights Endfield: Picked Up a Gugugaga
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone