oftheazureskies | I Am Thou

Yua is able to move freely around the beast's tentacles thanks to being more flexible and her dancing training. It's when she moves closer to the hooded figure and pulls back the cowl, her eyes widen in shock.

"How?! This cannot be-whoa!" She looks up to see a giant tentacle poised to smack them both into the ground and needs to act quickly. Yua then grabs Emet-Selch by his shoulders and leans him into her own body, she becoming an impromptu shield as the appendage smacks down barely an inch away from them. The impact sends them both skating in the opposite direction, Yua feeling the brunt of the attack.

"Ouch, I'm going to feel that in the morning." she grunts as she takes a better look at the face of the man she last saw on The First. The very same man who referred to her as nothing and fought against...only to reunite as such. Yua doesn't have much time before the voidsent continues its attack so what she has to do must count.

"Hey!" Her voice is loud enough to hopefully get some sort of response; if the words could not, then possibly the rapid hitting of one of his cheeks might. "Hey, give me a sign if you're in there!"

"Ngh..."

That's about the only response she gets. Emet-Selch is bleeding slowly from the head, face more than a little bruised. One arm hangs limply at his side--sprained or dislocated, it's hard to tell. It looks like this monster was having fun with him before Yua showed up.

"Oh hells. At least you probably heard me which is good. Damn stubborn man." Yua shakes her head, grateful (should she be?) that he indeed among the living. Looking more closely at the obvious injury on Emet's head and then to the flailing voidsent, which had some red splotches on one appendage, she can verify that this creature decided to try its luck against the ascian.

Yua has a lot of questions but not enough time to ask them as she can hear the monster burble and gurgle, the color from her face draining as she leans back into him again. Partly due to shield and partly because she did not want to smell what that thing threw up; it's never good.

"If you can hear me, I'm not going to let you stay like this. But I need to get rid of this thing before I do. So just hang on for now." She doesn't know what her words can accomplish but Yua has to try and do something, even if it's just killing this ugly rancid being from the void. After positioning his body in a way where it would not be in immediate danger, Yua dashes back into the fray and starts by jumping up and slashing its face. It howls and burbles with its tentacles swinging wildly as Yua jumps in step, unleashing her attacks quickly as she presses the linkpearl in her ear.

It's hard to try and explain to Krile the scene before her but Yua manages to simplify it while trying not to get hit by the monster: ugly voidsent nearby, hurt someone, and she's fighting it. It's at the moment where she's about to tell her to send backup that one of the monstrous tentacles slaps her down into the ground. Instead, her words become a scream as she takes a look where Emet is for now.

'Good. I can take it. He's worse off than me. I can handle this.'

Another slap from the tentacle and this time, Yua yells and coughs due to the air feeling smacked out of her lungs that she rolls off, her chakrams scattering in opposite directions. This voidsent is different from the ones she had faced before, stronger than she expected because her attacks seem to not phase it as much. Or maybe it was because during those encounters, she wasn't fighting alone?

'I got this.' she keeps thinking to herself as she goes head first again, performing another dance to try and harm it. She really needs to grab back her tools before it tries to slam against her again. Gritting her teeth, she dashes to grab her fallen weapons but does not take notice the lone tentacle hovering where Emet-Selch is lying.

This voidsent refuses to be beaten by some puny little viera and it wants to finish what it has started with its first target.

Edited 2019-08-01 06:46 (UTC)

And down the tentacle goes, hitting Emet-Selch in the gut (though perhaps not as hard as it might have, distracted as it is). The Ascian (former Ascian?) groans and jerks, rolling over to void his stomach of whatever was left in it before passing out.

Yua hears the sickening thud and whips her head around quickly, only to see the beast attack the now unconscious ascian while she was distracted. Her mind raced as she sees the voidsent turn towards him, all four of its tentacles raised up in what appears to be the final blow. Every single molecule of her body is screaming as Yua feels like she is on auto pilot, feeling her legs dash quickly towards Emet-Selch's form as she yells at her self mentally to not stop at any cost. But why? Why was this important? Why couldn't she just leave this broken man to be a voidsent's snack after everything he has done to her...to the Scions...to the First and the Source?

The answer is eluding her right now. All Yua can think is dash and save, even as she can feel the pain in her legs forming. She cannot stop when she still can move, can still help...! She's moving closer and crouching down that her shoulder is about the same height as where Emet is...and slams her body into his to cause a strong enough impact for him to move. But that leaves the tentacles with a new target as they all hit Yua at the same time, practically buried until one by one, they lift up as the last wrap around the now limp dancer's torso. She weakly coughs, feeling the blood trickle down from her mouth as her eyesight becomes bleary.

"Not yet..." Yua weakly moans as the beast widens its maw and begins to lower her inside. "I can't die yet...I refuse to-"

And then...time feels as it slows down. She can hear a heartbeat...and despite being passed out, the man lying further away can possibly hear as well. It beats quietly...and then a voice:

"I am Thou...Thou Art I..."

A memory comes back to her: standing against a group of Shadows along with her future partner and friends.

"The time has come...reclaim thy lost power..."

With her bleary sight, Yua can make out a small bright rectangle floating down towards her free hand, extending it to barely touch the possible magical illusion. She remembers what to do with it now and with a strained voice, she speaks.

"Per...so...na!"

Her hand grasps the hand and it smashes in her palm, the familiar ring of shattering glass music to her ears as a small pumpkin headed creature comes forth and uses fire from its lantern to hit the beast's gaping mouth. The voidsent screams and flails as it drops Yua to the ground, the woman rolling forth as she tries to stand back up, surprised at what just happened. "It...it can't be-!" she breaths, coughing again but she sees the little guy releasing more fire before vanishing.

"So now I can use this again..." Yua cannot help but chuckle at the irony. For years the Echo modified itself with her Wild Card power but its her original abilities that seem to be the key.

"I'm going to show you that you messed with the wrong person." She smirks as another card floats towards her, letting it stay in midair. "Now...let's do this!"

Smashing this card summons a massive long dragon surrounding the three...but for one, it uses Samarecarm. Yua's wounds are nothing compared to Emet's and the first thing she does is uses it to get him back up and feel less like shit. Who knows with ascian bodies.

Magic not of this world being used on the oldest being of this world is...risky, to say the least, but it seems the spell does revitalize Emet-Selch enough to wake him up. He coughs and groans as he sits up, looking around in confusion.

Confusion that is not helped by everything happening in front of him. "Wha...?"

It's nothing but chaos around them. Wind is whipping around as his enemy is standing before him with a mad grin plastered on her face and appears to be smashing cards of light in her hand, followed by some sort of creature coming out to attack the voidsent, who is unsure how to respond except by trying to swat the odd beings out of the way. Some took the form of pixies, dodging the tentacles swiftly. Others were more abstract as they bashed themselves into the monster and there were various different creatures coming forth but never staying long.

And they all came from Yua.

She grunts and jumps out of the way from one tentacle trying to smack her, another card forming in her hand. "Those arms of yours are really pissing me off! LUCIFER!" she cries out as a large demonic blue skinned figured with six bat like wings form behind her and rushes the creature.

"Brave Blade those arms now!" Yua orders as Lucifer begins to tear the appendages away from the beast, while she feels a bit weaker from that attack and simply watches as the voidsent becomes more of a fleshy mess. When the persona vanishes, it has a moment where the need to escape is growing. But it's far too late as Yua grins wider.

"Oh you are not getting away this time. Allow me to show you why messing with me was the wrong idea!" Another card forms in her hand but it feels much brighter than the rest. "Come forth...IZANAGI-NO-OKAMI!"

The shattering of the card happens and standing beside Yua is a humanoid figure dressed in white from mask to its platform shoe like feet, five times her size and holding up a thin double edge blade with a golden hoop in the middle of the shaft. Her breathing gets more ragged, feeling the strain on her very soul but keeps focused with one hand out.

"This is your end...I believe in these Myriad Truths before us!"

The massive persona holds up his sword at eye level, the hoop in the middle beginning to glow with a pure white light as the weapon spins, building momentum until a single beam bursts out and connects with the voidsent. It yells as it becomes nothing more than ash and vapor on the wind, the light beam being seem from all over the area. And when it is no more, Yua falls to her knees with Izanagi-no-Okami disappearing into the aether, panting heavily.

"Hey..." she gets out, trying to call to Emet-Selch. "You're not dead, are you?"

There's just silence as Emet-Selch attempts to process all of this...whatever it was.

"I haven't the faintest idea," he eventually manages.

Yua cannot help but sigh in relief, grinning between panting as she stumbles her way towards him. "Pretty sure we're both still among the living. I'm glad..." she speaks as she attempts to try and take a hold of his good arm but her grip is rather weak, shaking as she moves.

"Come on. We need to take you to get healed up." Says the woman who is in much worse shape and ready to pass out.

Emet-Selch just stares at her in bafflement. She's half-dead herself now, after that little display, and she's trying to--

"No," he retorts, tugging out of her grip. "You need to--to rest or sit or call someone. You are exhausted."

Yua offers little resistance but only because she is not strong enough to do so. But she can make a little wave as she struggles to stay awake.

"I'm fine. Besides, I did that before while someone's kink was attacking us. If my call did not go through...then that beam of truth more than likely did...hells, I cannot even believe it..."

Yua's words rang true as a rush of footsteps come towards them as a small group runs over, a lalafell woman in a bright yellow overcoat leading the way. "See? Told you." She gives a cheeky grin before falling face first into Emet-Selch's shoulder, going quiet. When the lalafell comes towards them, the rest of the group is starting to buzz with conversation:

"Where did that beam of light come from?!"
"What happened here?!"
"Say something, Yua! Krile called us as quick as she could!"

"Enough!" The lalafell, Krile, snaps as she holds out her hands to give some immediate healing over the two. "This should hold for now but we need to get them somewhere where they can heal. Hoary, get Yua and Riol, help the man here."

Weither if she spotted the garlean eye or not was no concern; the Warrior of Light was hurt trying to defend them from a force and they should follow judgement. Probably.

"What in the Twelve happened here...? And what was that light...?" Krile looks first to Yua then to Emet, hoping for an answer.

With Yua being mostly out of comission, Emet takes it upon himself to attempt to explain.

"I was...wandering, a bit out of it, and that thing over there attacked me." He gestures to the dead whatever. "She decided that wasn't going to stand and came to my help. I've no idea what that light was, however."

Krile nods and gestures for Hoary to come over and relieve Emet of Yua, lifting her up and heading off towards the Toll gates. "We'll need to get you patched up too so you're coming with us." her tone is firm and final, refusing to listen to any objections from the ascian. Riol then steps up and helps Emet up to his feet at least, minding the bad arm and letting Krile lead the way back to the Rising Stones.

~~~~~~~~~~

The Scions are quick to get things ready as a room was already made for the new patients and Krile went straight to work between healing wounds and getting Emet's arm into a sturdy sling, but she also tended to Yua between bandaging her more grievous wounds to putting some kind of mask on her face to check her aether. It's mostly quiet in the Scions' headquarters but the healer reassures that things will be alright and rest is the most important at the moment. Bowing to them both, Krile heads outside and closes the door so there can be some quiet. However, there is still voices from outside the door speaking in hushed tones.

"Well? What happened?! Will Yua be alright?!"
"She's resting right now and I patched her up as much as needed but there's something that concerns me; despite her injuries, her aether seems to be just fine. And yet she was exhausted when we first saw her. I'm not sure why but I do not believe it to be something physical. What it is however, I cannot say."
"Oh dear."
"You may want to contact Rhel and tell her what has happened, Tataru. She deserves to know as well."
"I'll get right to it!"

Footsteps then get further away as the area is left in mostly silence...for about five minutes. From the other bed, groaning can be heard as Yua gently calls out a name.

"...nngh...Yosuke...?"

Emet-Selch, sadly, is not asleep. The numbing agent they used to relocate his shoulder did not put him under, so he's awake to hear the muttering and to hear Yua when she wakes up. He can't leave the bed, however, so he just calls back.

"I'm afraid not. You'll have to make do with an Ascian. Terrible, I know."

That voice snaps her back into the land of reality as her eyes open up to see the settings on one of the Rising Stone rooms, feeling that she is tucked away in a bed and can hear the familiar tone of someone she thought was long dead. Slowly she gets herself into a sitting position and looks over to see the very same man, shock showing on her face.

"It wasn't a dream then? That...just happened?"

"Yes, dear hero. Whatever "that" was, it most certainly did "just happen"," he replies. "They've sent for that black mage of yours, by the way. Be ready."

Yua can feel her face getting pale at the mention of Rhel and her recklessness. "Oh hells." she groans. "I do not know which will be worse: her burning me to a crisp because of fighting a voidsent alone or that I did that to save you."

But she doesn't sound like she regrets doing that second one.

"Speaking of that...how are you alive?"

He just shrugs.

"I haven't the faintest idea. I awoke not far outside the Crystal Tower and stumbled around, dizzy and disoriented, until that creature decided to make a toy of me."

"So it likes to play around before wanting to eat." Yua shakes her head, rubbing her temples. "Honestly, it was good that I was there at the right time otherwise..." She leaves off the last part, assuming he may know what she means. But that's odd, a monster like that should not have given him any kind of issue, not with his powers. After all, Emet-Selch was able to pull people out of the Lifestream with ease and move around in the blink of an eye so...what happened?

"Tell me...what happened to your powers?" She asks quietly. "I didn't think something like a voidsent would be very hard for you to face."

Emet-Selch doesn't respond right away, thinking.

"I'm not sure," he eventually admits. "Not that I was in any state to use them when that creature found me, mind."

Yua taps her chin, getting an idea.

"Try calling for something, anything that isn't deadly or can maim."

"Right after I've taken a tonic for pain?"

Really?

"Just humor me. For Science."

Not like things can get much worse.

"No. Not when I can barely sit upright from pain and tonics!"

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