Breathing heavily, Chao hunkered down in the shadow of a ceruleum storage tank in what she perceived to be a far corner of the amalgamated cityscape of her mind. After reviving once more following the underhanded use of Satomi's image, she had engaged The Other--as she had taken to calling it--at least a dozen more times. Her ability to fight it had grown, but every time, she still fell victim to its relentless onslaught and cheating ability to recover from whatever she did to it.
Clearly, it was not to be through battle that she would secure her escape.
She had lucked out moments ago, with The Other having assumed the form of Grundy and using the roegadyn's size and skill with the axe to trap her in an alley where her speed would avail her little. She'd taken a gamble and thrown a sleep spell at the armored behemoth. It had paid off spectacularly, slumping over the impostor of Satomi's friend and sometime-bodyguard in mid-strike, allowing her to escape via a series of long-range shundos.
She held no illusion that she'd be able to escape for long, but even the slightest reprieve was welcome. Time within her mindscape was a different beast than it was in the real world, but she estimated that she had now been engaged in continuous combat for over one hundred 'mental' hours...and had died no less than twenty times.
Reaching up, she mopped a sheen of sweat from her forehead and shook the moisture from her palm, scanning the area around her. She had taken several zig-zagging and circuitous pathways to get to where she was, and backed herself into a corner with only one real entryway while still leaving herself the option of a vertical exit. She had no doubts in her mind, however, that The Other could or would simply come through a wall to get her.
Despite the false cityscape being entirely empty, there still existed an ambiance that suggested a life to the city. It was because of these illusory sounds of false life that she didn't realize she had company until it was quite literally breathing down her neck. She looked up to find a huge, horned, reptilian creature perched on the ceruleum tank above her. As soon as she noticed it, the thing leaped down to block her from an escape by foot, stalking before her on all fours like a wolf on the hunt. Burning embers dripped from its maw where a normal creature might have drooled saliva, and the temperature shot up by over a dozen degrees.
"What a curious creature thou art," it spoke, its mouth moving despite not looking capable of sentient speech. "Thy soul is scorched by flame, yet it is self-inflicted. Thou hast the potential to be of use, if thou could but overcome this trial."
Standing up, Chao eased into a ready stance, tracking its every move with her eyes. "Never have I heard of an eikon accosting someone not enslaved to them in their dreams," she tersely responded. "But your penchant for brute force and domination is wasted here, Lord of the Inferno." Sarcasm dripped from her enunciation of Ifrit's title. "Return to the aether and your little schemes in the desert; there are more pressing intellectual matters for me to deal with here."
The fire primal halted its pacing to turn toward her and unleash a furious roar. Along with it, an explosion of flame engulfed and blew past her, but at the very least, she was completely safe from tempering in this environment.
"Thou art not lacking the resolution to thy self-inflicted trial," Ifrit roared. "What thou lacks is the strength necessary to succeed."
Emboldened by the general inability of Ifrit to harm her--what could it, after all, do to her that The Other had already not--she smirked and planted her fists on her hips. "It should be abundantly clear by now that mere strength alone is insufficient for overcoming this trial. But then, as far as primals go, you don't seem to have been burdened with an overabundance of sense."
Letting out a low, threatening growl of irritation, Ifrit slammed its palm to the ground, causing another burst of flame to spread out from around the primal. "Thy soul has been marked with flame, and thou shalt bend thy knee before me. It matters little whether thou succeed or fail here, for my Tempered already come to collect thee, drawn to the sulfurous stench of thy soul. A bloody fate awaits all who oppose my will."
The primal gestured behind her with a taloned hand, and she glanced back to see that the landscape had changed; the ceruleum tanks replaced with the Vylbrand Academy, the entire building engulfed in flame. Amalj'aa standards had been raised at the yard's entrance, and she saw the corpses of several of her friends fallen--and burned nearly beyond recognition--where they had been slain. Several other still-living members, most notably Satomi and Grundy, were being led away in chains, an altogether worse fate clearly awaiting them.
Hot rage flooded through Chao's body at the vision of the Academy's destruction. While The Other had gone well out of its way to mess with her head, it had been possessed of a certain honesty in that it had never threatened any actual people. Ifrit, on the other hand, had made a bold declaration that it fully intended to destroy Vylbrand Academy in pursuit of her.
Her head snapped up, the scene of carnage freezing in time before her eyes. She lifted her hands to her waist and willed the dreamscape to bend to her desire the same way that Ifrit and The Other had, the battered and beaten prototype battlesuit changing into a far more powerful, up-armored and streamlined combat armor; her ideal of the pinnacle of her powered assault armor design. She turned back toward the primal, her piercing gaze evident even through the Allagan-inspired visor covering her eyes.
With a gesture of her hand, a darkened field of aether pinned Ifrit in place; Allagan gravity manipulation technology at its finest. She condensed and directed all of her magic energy and ki into a pair of orbs centered in the palms of her hands, then slammed her them together and wreathed her left arm in that virulent power, focusing it down into her fist. Sprinting the short distance separating herself from Ifrit, she charged into--and through--the primal. The charged power of her attack burst into a huge pillar of light, shredding through the primal's form.
She skidded to a halt several paces on the other side of the collapsing creature, dropping into a ready stance, but this dream form of Ifrit was clearly finished. Disturbingly, even as it disintegrated, the primal appeared to be leering at her tauntingly, smug in some measure of self-assured confidence that it still held the advantage in their dealings. She waited, watching as it dissipated into aether, before relaxing and stepping up out of her stance.
And then it was as if the entire world exploded around her.
Clearly, it was not to be through battle that she would secure her escape.
She had lucked out moments ago, with The Other having assumed the form of Grundy and using the roegadyn's size and skill with the axe to trap her in an alley where her speed would avail her little. She'd taken a gamble and thrown a sleep spell at the armored behemoth. It had paid off spectacularly, slumping over the impostor of Satomi's friend and sometime-bodyguard in mid-strike, allowing her to escape via a series of long-range shundos.
She held no illusion that she'd be able to escape for long, but even the slightest reprieve was welcome. Time within her mindscape was a different beast than it was in the real world, but she estimated that she had now been engaged in continuous combat for over one hundred 'mental' hours...and had died no less than twenty times.
Reaching up, she mopped a sheen of sweat from her forehead and shook the moisture from her palm, scanning the area around her. She had taken several zig-zagging and circuitous pathways to get to where she was, and backed herself into a corner with only one real entryway while still leaving herself the option of a vertical exit. She had no doubts in her mind, however, that The Other could or would simply come through a wall to get her.
Despite the false cityscape being entirely empty, there still existed an ambiance that suggested a life to the city. It was because of these illusory sounds of false life that she didn't realize she had company until it was quite literally breathing down her neck. She looked up to find a huge, horned, reptilian creature perched on the ceruleum tank above her. As soon as she noticed it, the thing leaped down to block her from an escape by foot, stalking before her on all fours like a wolf on the hunt. Burning embers dripped from its maw where a normal creature might have drooled saliva, and the temperature shot up by over a dozen degrees.
"What a curious creature thou art," it spoke, its mouth moving despite not looking capable of sentient speech. "Thy soul is scorched by flame, yet it is self-inflicted. Thou hast the potential to be of use, if thou could but overcome this trial."
Standing up, Chao eased into a ready stance, tracking its every move with her eyes. "Never have I heard of an eikon accosting someone not enslaved to them in their dreams," she tersely responded. "But your penchant for brute force and domination is wasted here, Lord of the Inferno." Sarcasm dripped from her enunciation of Ifrit's title. "Return to the aether and your little schemes in the desert; there are more pressing intellectual matters for me to deal with here."
The fire primal halted its pacing to turn toward her and unleash a furious roar. Along with it, an explosion of flame engulfed and blew past her, but at the very least, she was completely safe from tempering in this environment.
"Thou art not lacking the resolution to thy self-inflicted trial," Ifrit roared. "What thou lacks is the strength necessary to succeed."
Emboldened by the general inability of Ifrit to harm her--what could it, after all, do to her that The Other had already not--she smirked and planted her fists on her hips. "It should be abundantly clear by now that mere strength alone is insufficient for overcoming this trial. But then, as far as primals go, you don't seem to have been burdened with an overabundance of sense."
Letting out a low, threatening growl of irritation, Ifrit slammed its palm to the ground, causing another burst of flame to spread out from around the primal. "Thy soul has been marked with flame, and thou shalt bend thy knee before me. It matters little whether thou succeed or fail here, for my Tempered already come to collect thee, drawn to the sulfurous stench of thy soul. A bloody fate awaits all who oppose my will."
The primal gestured behind her with a taloned hand, and she glanced back to see that the landscape had changed; the ceruleum tanks replaced with the Vylbrand Academy, the entire building engulfed in flame. Amalj'aa standards had been raised at the yard's entrance, and she saw the corpses of several of her friends fallen--and burned nearly beyond recognition--where they had been slain. Several other still-living members, most notably Satomi and Grundy, were being led away in chains, an altogether worse fate clearly awaiting them.
Hot rage flooded through Chao's body at the vision of the Academy's destruction. While The Other had gone well out of its way to mess with her head, it had been possessed of a certain honesty in that it had never threatened any actual people. Ifrit, on the other hand, had made a bold declaration that it fully intended to destroy Vylbrand Academy in pursuit of her.
Her head snapped up, the scene of carnage freezing in time before her eyes. She lifted her hands to her waist and willed the dreamscape to bend to her desire the same way that Ifrit and The Other had, the battered and beaten prototype battlesuit changing into a far more powerful, up-armored and streamlined combat armor; her ideal of the pinnacle of her powered assault armor design. She turned back toward the primal, her piercing gaze evident even through the Allagan-inspired visor covering her eyes.
With a gesture of her hand, a darkened field of aether pinned Ifrit in place; Allagan gravity manipulation technology at its finest. She condensed and directed all of her magic energy and ki into a pair of orbs centered in the palms of her hands, then slammed her them together and wreathed her left arm in that virulent power, focusing it down into her fist. Sprinting the short distance separating herself from Ifrit, she charged into--and through--the primal. The charged power of her attack burst into a huge pillar of light, shredding through the primal's form.
She skidded to a halt several paces on the other side of the collapsing creature, dropping into a ready stance, but this dream form of Ifrit was clearly finished. Disturbingly, even as it disintegrated, the primal appeared to be leering at her tauntingly, smug in some measure of self-assured confidence that it still held the advantage in their dealings. She waited, watching as it dissipated into aether, before relaxing and stepping up out of her stance.
And then it was as if the entire world exploded around her.
![[Image: 0uxkKgX.png]](http://i.imgur.com/0uxkKgX.png)
Chris Ganale | R'tahz Tia | Yuuna Akashi | Chao Lingshen | Seno Nakakami | L'dran Cresnoble | Garon Crayson
