The group of would-be heroes found themselves traversing the various streets and alleyways of Ul’dah. The key dangling from Unmei’s necklace always seemed to point in one direction despite how she turned it and, ultimately, led the group to door down a particularly seedy alley. Its placement seemed wholly unnatural, or at the very least illogical considering that it was built into a wall rather than a building like most doors had been. Just beneath the knob was a tiny little keyhole that seemed to fit perfectly.
They had come here with a very clear mission: discover the fate of Cyrus, Unmei's missing fiance, and rescue him once he'd been located. It was a mission that, simple as it seemed, a mysterious masked man and creatures conjured from the Void had made difficult and downright dangerous. Unmei hoped these Harbingers of Dawn folks she'd tracked down could help her deliver her fiance back to Eorzea, safe and sound with no casualties.
Vallois, the tall Elezen with raven locks of hair and silvery gaze, remained the silent the entire time. He kept close to the Unmei's side and had even gone as far as lightly draping an arm about her. Kylar, a Keeper of the Moon with dark skin and hair, kept nearby Unmei, too, though his gaze rested on the key rather on the girl.
Alyeis, a Miqo'te woman with long black hair, stepped forward and traced her finger over the keyhole. Faolan, a Seeker of the Sun with a pair of mismatched eyes, crossed his arms over his chest to hide his nervousness. Lan, a Seeker of the Sun with black hair and crimson highlights, scanned about them as they moved. Kylar tilted his head a bit as he looked not just at the door, but at the wall itself, "Well, a key that leads us to a door... a conveniently placed and odd looking door. Not worrisome at all."
Looking back at Lan, Alyeis snickered. "I did say we would venture Ul'dah's underbelly some time." She took step back, adorned with two blades on one hip, a bag and a grimore on her other side. Her Fae, Yew'li, with white hair and discolored wings, sat on her shoulder, tiny hands covering her mouth. She touched Alyeis's face and Alyeis smiled at the unheard communication the Fae apparently provided. Worren, a Miqo'te with dark skin that was a harsh contrast to the orange tattoos across his face, carried a small leather satchel hooked to the side of his armor. "Be wary of any... traps," he spoke.
Ririn'to, a slightly smaller-than-average Miqo'te with maroon hair, followed alongside Alyeis, his eyes void of pupils and color. "Wow, I haven't been to this city in ages, but I'm so thankful I get to re-witness the lovely sight of pure depression." His hand, encased in talons of twisted metal, crept up to his face and he tapped his chin with the point. "All we need is a flickering torch and a damsel in distress, and we're right on our way to getting murdered one by one."
Mimiru stood wearing her white and black robes with the group, carrying a gold and silver staff in her hand, and at her waist was a silver inscribed tome of some sort. At her hip on a strap was a simple water-skin. She glanced at Rir and chuckled. "Let us keep murder down to a minimum, shall we?" The purple-haired lalafell rubbed an eye with a free hand. "Positive thinking and such..."
Unmei stood centrally in front of the door, staring at it in confusion and frustration in hopes perhaps that if she won the staring contest with the thing, it would politely part and open for her! So caught up was she that she missed the chance to mention she may have been the damsel in distress, the bow and quiver of her arrows strapped to her back likely little more than for show.
"So, uh. D-do we open it?" The red-haired Miqo'te asked no one in particular, peering around at the others surrounding her until last her gaze landed expectantly on Vallois. She swallowed hard, turning back to the door. She slipped the thread from her around her neck and fit the key into the keyhole, unlocking the door and twisting the doorknob before giving it a good shove, pushing the door open, traps be damned! Rather than opening inward like a normal door, it instead seemed to vanish entirely. Unmei shrank back from the door, her ears falling flat along her skull in dismay. What beheld her was, at first, darkness. Soon after, a vortex of pure anti-aether began to manifest before them. Their aetherial energy already had began to drain from sheer proximity of the vortex.
Vallois's eyes narrowed in annoyance at the swirling energy. He looked down to Unmei to ensure that she was well and gave a cursory glance around to the rest of their group for the same assurance. “I’m going in,†he stated aloud, not bothering to wait for opinions on the matter. “It’s what I’m here for.â€
Now was not the time for cowardice. Unmei drew in a deep breath, squaring her shoulders. "Hey! Wait!" she shouted after Vallois. Worren's eyes narrowed, "Woah, hold on! We don't know what's in there. I don't think it's such a good idea to just barge into that shit. It'd be irresponsible to get yourself killed when it could have been prevented." She paused at Worren's words, turning back to him, brow furrowed. "What else are we supposed t'do? We don' have time t'waste. If y'don't wanna come, stay here," she waited for no response before she turned to dash after Vallois.
Alyeis sighed again, then looked at Vallois. "He's right. It's what we came here for..."
"Of course... magic...." Lan sighed and nodded a bit. "Vallois, go ahead. I'll stick close to Unmei. Mimiru, Ririn'to, Kylar, and Alyeis, stick in the middle. Worren and Faolan, you two bring up the rear for now." The Seeker drew his spear, the tines clicking into place, and Kylar nodded to Lan.
"Middle, eh? All right." Alyeis picked up her book from her hip. "Then on with it."
"Welp," Ririn'to started as he unscrewed a flask and brought it to his lips, "when a guy points to you at a tavern night and says 'you're doing this job', you can't help but swoon at the thought of the shine in the very eyes you remember seeing, and suddenly want to punch repeatedly in the face." He swigged his flask heavily before re-screwing and replacing it. "No time like the present, though." He looked to Lan and nodded. "You bet, this should be amusing to say the least."
Vallois took a moment to mentally gather himself and pressed forward into the abyss. Unmei saw little more than a bright flash of light as the vortex swallowed the Elezen’s form whole, and then he was gone.
Faolan took a deep breath, putting a hand over one of his weapons. "Right... we can do this," he muttered. Worren unhooked the large axe from his back and shouldered it. He elbow-nudged Faolan lightly, causing the man to flinch. "'Ey, I got your back. Let's just hope this woman's undying love and frazzled state doesn't make her a liability to us. We all know what love can fuck up a person's judgment," he spoke to Fao quietly. "Sure, sure... we'll be fine," Fao muttered.
'I'm not afraid,' Unmei repeated the silent mantra in her head. 'Not afraid. Not afraid.' She couldn't be afraid. She didn't have time to be; not if she wanted to hold onto hope that she could rescue Cyrus from whatever ill fate had befallen him. She exhaled the breath she had just realized she'd been holding in a hiss of a sigh, forcing herself to rush through the portal immediately after Vallois lest she lose her will thinking about it too long, the small Seeker disappearing into the empty darkness.
Unmei found herself and company standing not in the expected nothingness of the Void, but instead a singular square room. The room was empty aside from a door on the opposite end and a painting of each of them along the walls, capturing their death in some gruesome form or another. Wherever it was they had been transported, that aetherial draining effect had washed away, and they each studied the paintings.
Unmei eyed all the grotesque paintings uneasily, dainty features distorting into a grimace. Her mismatched eyes came to rest the longest not on the painting of herself huddled in the very alley they’d just left, scared and alone with a blanket draped over her form, however, but the one depicting Vallois impaled in the chest by an unknown knight. She didn't like it. It made her stomach turn. She swallowed the lump in her throat, forcing herself to turn away from the painting. She remained silent with whatever commentary she may have on the images, slowly wandering toward the single door instead.
Ririn'to studied his own painting a moment, him not dead, but behind thick bars of an asylum as he slowly wilted away. "AWH!" His face changed from emotionless to exaggerated disappointment. "I'm going to be stuck forever in a cell with myself?" He sighed and turned around, whispering, "I fucking hate that guy," before pointing to the painting, as if holding a conversation with the Ririn in it. "When I get there, you better still have alcohol on you. Or I'll be pissed." He turned back to the others, crossing his arms. "Okay. Well, we're here. What now?"
Faolan's eyes were fixated on the painting of himself. He looked like he had been dead for a long time, his body malnourished and decayed. A single drop of sweat rolled down his face and his lips curled into an awkward smile as he let out a small, uneasy laugh. "Aha... what a sick joke... right?"
Alyeis scrutinized her painting, herself with various weapons sticking in her back. Yew'li pointed and spoke silently and Alyeis nodded. "Yes, you're missing in all the fun, dear. Yes, I'm aware." The Fae poked her face and pointed. "No, Yew'li, I don't think they'll paint it again for you. Don't be absurd." Yew'li pulled on her hair again and pointed, thrusting her tiny finger at the painting of Ririn, which Alyeis refused to turn her head toward. "No, I don't have to... inaccurate."
Lan glanced over the paintings, taking in each one, his own of his body laying in a pool of blood on a battlefield, "We best not spend too much time here. Obviously, someone wants to rattle us. We should press forward, but use caution." Alyeis nodded to Lan, "Indeed, we should keep moving."
"Hmm, interesting tactic, I think. Perhaps trying to play on our fears and failings?" Kylar eyed the painting that was supposed to be him, though he hardly seemed himself, having sprouted wings and horns and appearing to be the very Voidsent that the group had come expecting to face. "Wings would be nice..."
Mimiru smirked at the painting of her body torn asunder by an explosion due to one of her failed projects. "And people tell me that my meditation room was a bad idea. I am very glad I opted for it over a personal lab, or that picture may have had some truth behind it." She looked over at Kylar. "Why did you get the cool fate?" she asked jokingly. Kylar looked her way and grinned, "Well, horns would limit my choices in hats..." Mimiru snickered, "But you would always be horny for the ladies."
"Heh... don't threaten me with a good time..." Worren sauntered by with his axe resting on his right shoulder, stopping at the painting depicting several of him, each fighting with one another while one settled out on the ground with his hands on his head and a look of dismay. "Maybe he's trying to lighten the mood for us. Maybe even I can't beat me. An eternity in a stalemate... heh. Or maybe it's as Lan says: the occupant of this space is tryin' to bullshit us. Stay the course, and let's remember why we're here."
Vallois cast his gaze over the others, finding at least some hint of humor in their words. He looked to Unmei, a hard frown etching its way across his features once he realized her reaction. He began to walk to her, but instead opted against such things and made his way towards the adjacent door. Unmei peered toward him, pale brow still furrowed. He placed his hand on the knob and gave a twist, only to find it locked, and Unmei's lips fell into a frown. He glanced back towards Lan and took a step back, awaiting the man's orders. "What d'we do now?" Unmei asked no one particular. "...I'm all fer breakin' the door down," she suggested, always a fan of solving problems in the most direct way.
Lan turned to Kylar and raised a brow. "Kylar, can you... or anyone more magically inclined, somehow check the door for wards or traps? Or perhaps a means of opening it?"
Vallois gave a small shrug of his shoulders and took a step back to allow Kylar to do as he wished. The Keeper nodded and stepped closer to the door as he narrowed his eyes and extended his senses toward the door, trying to detect any sort of aether that might have been coming from it. Meanwhile, Vallois simply stated, "I'll break through the damned thing. Let's get this over with."
"Tch... figures." Alyeis opened up her book and looked over pages of algorithms and diagrams, fingertips wildly scrolling down the pages as minty eyes scanned them. Faolan took a step forward. Worren remained near the rear of the group, shaking his head slowly upon hearing Unmei and the Elezen's words. "Hasty... and foolish." He then spoke up, "Any luck, Kylar?"
Kylar frowned and tilted his head. "I detect something, but I am not sure what it is. It could be a magical button to open the thing... or it could drop us into a pit of sharks with scimitars tied to their heads. A second opinion might be nice." Unmei simply stared at Kylar for a moment before she cracked a smile for the first time on their little excursion, breaking into a fit of giggles Ririn'to crossed his arms and shifted his weight, "They better be really strapped on. If I'm dying by scimitar sharks, the guy who roped them better be a professional, at least."
"Sadly, casting magic to know more could draw worse attention." Mimiru frowned.
Alyeis stepped forward, Kylar moving to make way for her, and Yew'li floated over to sit on Ririn's shoulder. With her book open, several fulms back from the door for safety, she touched her finger on a specific page. She eyed the door again and shut the book. "Interesting," she hummed. "Kylar, I do have one idea... but it would require those to stand back from the door in case there is a backfire."
Vallois moved back to stand at Unmei's side as she also scooted back another small step to be safe, peering up at him as he joined her at her side. "It's okay," he offered with a half-smirk. "I've already accepted whatever fate might come my way. We're going to save him, and you two will be happy." She offered him only a chastising frown in response to what were likely meant to be reassuring words. "'M not gonna let anything happen t'you," she uttered quietly.
Faolan took an extra step back for good measure. Lan nodded, "Okay, try what you are going to... and if it does not work, we will attempt entry via physical means."
Ririn'to looked to Alyeis but frowned. "Alyeis..." He stepped back, looking to her Fae for a moment, then back to her, "be careful." Alyeis dug in her bag, pulling out a small, pink crystal. She hurled it at the door's center, the throw backed by her own aether, a wind type manipulation, and Mimiru sighed. As the wind aether crashed against the door, the barrier on the door shattered, but so did the floor beneath them all at once vanish to leave them to fall through space into the darkness below.
Unmei shrieked, grasping desperately for whoever or whatever was nearest to her--which happened to be Vallois, fortunately making his own attempt to grip onto her and pull her against him all the easier. Faolan let out a short yell as the floor suddenly shattered. He closed his eyes and fell silent, bracing for the end.
Alyeis cursed and held as still as she could on the way down, her nervousness seen, however, through the wetness on her face and the look she gave Ririn as they fell. Alyeis's Fae dearly choked Ririn on the way down. It was clear it was screaming, but no sound was produced. However, "I knew it...!" could be heard from Worren as they fell for what seemed like ages, but it also could have been only a few minutes or even seconds. Time was hard to tell when hurdling through an abyss. What waited at the bottom were not sharks as prophesied, but instead a vast field of various kinds of flowers and ground almost impossibly soft enough to break their fall.
Unmei bothered to only half untangle herself from the Elezen before she sat up, taking in their new surroundings. A faint smile found its way to her lips. "Well, this isn't so bad..." Vallois sat up as well, casting his silvery gaze at their surroundings to find that they had thankfully managed to make it through. He shifted to his feet, reached back to ensure his axe was properly in place, and then reached down to offer Unmei assistance to her feet. He refrained from commenting now, far too embarrassed that he may have let out a scream on the way down.
Lan rolled to his feet and quickly moved to scoop up his spear. "Okay... throwing stuff at doors is out for now. Is everyone all right?" Faolan opened his left eye, then sighed in relief and sat up. "I'm, uh... I'm fine," Faolan replied. Kylar sighed and got to his feet, dusting off his brown and black clothes. He reached up to adjust his glasses only to find that they had fallen off. "Damn it all..." He looked at Lan and nodded. "No worse for wear, it seems... and all brown on my clothing is from cloth, not other things."
Alyeis shook her head. "Such tricks... I'd say I like it, but." She picked a flower to examine carefully and curiously. She opened her book to scribble in notes and then dropped the flower. She got up, her feet a little shaky at first, and went to Ririn right away, her Fae returning to her. Mimiru landed with an oof. She stood up and looked around with a frown, "I told you using more magic would cause who knows what to happen."
"Should have known something was going to happen... urg." Worren hauled himself up, reached for his axe, and looked around. "Hrm... interesting. A calm before the storm? An illusion?"
Standing up, Ririn'to brushed some petals off his coat. "The commute here fucking sucks." He rolled his shoulder and took out a flask from his chest strap, unscrewing it and swigging from it harshly before replacing it. He checked for his own weapon, his staff on his back.
Alyeis smirked. "Well, it's better to find out early than late, now, isn't it?" She nodded to Mimi. "Now, it's no secret. I suspect each room will vary, however." She looked to Ririn with a smile. "Does, doesn't it?" She snickered a bit, still humor to be had. As soon as any of them came to their senses and figured out what was up and what was down, they’ found they weren’t alone. Floating little wisps of light hovered all about the field, some landing on flowers while others darted happily this way and that.
Unmei accepted Vallois's hands, hoisting herself to her feet. She continued to peer all around, dual-colored eyes wide in wonder, the childish smile upon her rosy lips only continuing to grow. She knelt down to begin plucking a few of the flowers from the ground, reaching her fingers out to the little glowing wisps as they flitted by her.
Sounds of laughter suddenly rang forth in the distance, and they all cocked their hands in the direction of the noise to find two Midlanders lying about in the field together. Unmei's ears perked and her head whipped toward the sound of the laughter, her jaw quickly snapping shut at the scene. The face of the man was blurred, but those familiar with crimson robes knew that they belonged to the Masked Man.
"Is that... 'Ey, look over there..." Worren pointed in the general direction of the two figures in the distance, "They don't notice us... but that looks like someone we know..."
Despite the man being distorted, thanks to both the laughter and the bright smile from the woman, it was obvious that their conversation was light and jovial. This continued for some time until, all at once, the woman seized and slumped over. The robed man shook her form, desperately trying to get her to move again until her lifeless body faded into the flowers themselves.
From her position, the flowers all died to give way to random, various skeletal remains that the group now stood upon. Some still had the remnants of flesh upon them, peering up at them through eyes that one could almost swear moved. The wisps began to dart back and forth in an erratically, as if desperately searching for more flowers or signs of life to settle on and finding none.
Somehow, Unmei was not surprised to see things so soon go awry. As she watched the flowers change, she peered down at the blossoms clutched in her hands, giving a startled cry as they began to change to flesh and bone and she immediately released them, letting them fall to the ground at her feet.
Lan looked around, puzzled. "An illusion?"
"Hmm... possibly, though it is a very odd one," Kylar knelt to run his fingers over the skeletal remains. Lan, Faolan, and Worren readied their weapons.
"It is better not to think of anything as stable here. Only minds are something that retain personality and form. Everything can become something else if will acts upon it," Mimiru said simply.
Unmei turned toward Mimiru, quirking an eyebrow. "I think she's right. Th-the things we're seeing... they're not real... er rather... they're not real right now. I think... I think they're memories... or thoughts, or dreams, maybe predictions of the future..." She shuffled nervously in place, rubbing at one arm with her opposite hand. "It's like we're inside someone's head."
Kneeling down, Ririn'to poked one of his metal talons into one of the fleshy pieces on the ground, puncturing it easily and retracting his finger to examine it. Looking to the rest, he shook his hand to flick any remnants back toward the ground. "Sooo, uhhh," his ear flicked, causing him to stop, but he continued a moment later, "yeah, that just kinda happened."
The Fae hid its face in Alyeis's hair. "Don't let them play tricks. It's emotions, just like the last room. Each will be a roller coaster into delusions."
But there were signs of life in the area; signs that had appeared and thus forced the wisps' safe haven to wilt and crumble. Wisps were not inherently complex and, sure enough, once they came to this conclusion, they knew what they had to do. The little white balls of light suddenly went red with fury and closed in on the group. They darted forward with a destructive force, enough for two per person, seeking to kamikaze themselves upon impact with the small, but nonetheless concussive force of an explosion of all their pent-up, spiritual aether, and X'unmei's eyes widened as the once peaceful wisps suddenly went on the offensive.
Not entirely an expert in tactics, Vallois ripped the axe from his back and swatted at one. It exploded on contact and sent him flailing back into the other that, ultimately, forced him face-first to the ground. "Vallois!" Unmei called out in shock. She didn't have time to fret over the man, her attention immediately snagged by the wisps darting toward her.
Lan fared not much better than Vallois. The first wisp struck him from the back and staggered him. The second came careening in and he managed to get the haft of his spear up to intercept the being, but the blast knocked him back on his ass. "Stick together! Watch each other's backs!" Faolan fell to the ground and rolled to the side when he noticed two of them heading his way. He brought himself back to his feet and, upon hearing Lan's order, quickly stepped back to the group. Kylar whirled around and from his own tome he did the calculations to draw upon his aether, sketching a pattern in front of him before sending a burst toward the two wisps barreling his way, exploding them.
Ririn'to held his hands out, a small shield of aether forming around him. When the first wisp contacted the shield, it exploded, breaking through the layer of shield and filling the entire standing sphere with smoke, suffocating him. He was forced to break the shield just in time for the other wisp to slam into his chest, exploding and sending him backward. Sliding a few fulms, he laid on the ground momentarily before jamming his staff into the ground to weakly stand. Coughing, smoke exited his lungs as he returned to the group much more ready this time.
Mimiru quickly drew aether to create blue barriers around the group to defend them from the balls, walls as strong as stone in the form of a dome. Alyeis reacted as Mimi had--defensively. She sent Yew'li, who was guarded in a similar barrier, to Vallois's side. The Fae pulled on him, a light from its hands in attempts of aid. Alyeis whirled to stand back to back with Ririn in the center. Her own aether focused on backing Mimi's barrier, creating a second one. In the other hand, she held one of her blades for offense in case the barrier was breached.
"Shit." Concentrating on building the defenses in his body, Worren began to move toward the others. The two wisps after him followed, both exploding behind him and knocking him forward. "Argh, dammit." He staggered heavily before falling, rolling to the side to break the fall and get to his feet again. He moved into the magical shields that had been raised, standing near Mimiru at the ready.
Unmei backpedaled into the sanctuary of the shield, lifting her hands up, palms opened outward in a display of innocence. "W-wait! We don't wanna hurt you, little... light ball things!" The little wispy balls were not stopped by Unmei's plea, but they did shatter on Mimiru's barriers and explode pointlessly on impact. Faolan stumbled and Unmei was sent tumbling backward from the impact, the latter landing on her rear by the force of the explosion.
Ultimately, the few wisps left rushed themselves together, their spiritual essence congealing into one semi-massive ball of aether before they slammed forward, intent on railing into the gathered group all at once. Once she managed to collect herself, Unmei saw the remaining wisps gathering together, preparing for one last combined suicide attack, and she gritted her teeth.
"Can anyone return fire on those things? They explode on impact. Can someone blow 'em up before they get to us?" Worren shouted. Mimiru was was already weaving additional layers for another three layers of barriers. Her eyes were closed as she channeled, focused only protection, "Someone else blast; I defend."
Alyeis turned on the mass with her open book, flicking a few pages over, raising her hand. From her upraised palm came the same wind that had propelled the crystal, but in much more force, like a whirlwind. She shot it over the heads of her companions to knock back their foes a considerable distance.
Foalan straightened himself up and planted his feet to the ground as best as he could, given the terrain. He simply folded his arms in front of him, bracing for another impact, and silently cursed at himself. Kylar moved to the fore, an aether battery dropping to the ground, spent, as he began working up a spell of his own. An orb of aether formed in his outstretched palm and he released it to fly at the mass of approaching wisps.
Gritting his teeth, Ririn finally assembled back with the group. His staff in hand, he clenched his free hand, a blue glow encasing it before he squeezed his fist and it shattered. Giving him a moment of clarity in aether focus, he pointed his staff to the wisps, a spiked ice ball forming and hurling towards the wisps.
The group worked in perfect tandem, the combined efforts of their aetherial blasts striking the ball of energy with enough force to send the wisps scattering in all directions, effectively breaking them apart before they exploded all at once. The effect was unaspected in nature, though the sudden use of such destructive force caused the world around them to begin to shake. Great ravines opened up all around, causing the bodies making up the ground to go falling in. Directly behind them formed another Void-like gateway, the same as the one they’d originally entered.
Vallois had just managed to his feet to close in on the group when the ground around them began to slowly break and crumble, giving way to a dark abyss beneath. Mimiru kept hold of the aether used to make her barriers. Using the third and closest layer, she broke the barrier into multiple hexagonal platforms, creating bridges across the crevasses for each person to have safe passage across the abyss below.
Unmei pushed herself to her feet, peering down to see the ground giving way beneath them. She glanced around frantically in search for somewhere to go other than down, her eyes landing on the newly formed portal. Making use of the platforms Mimiru had created, she quickly dashed across them toward the Voidportal.
Worren spotted a portal in the distance. "There!" He pointed. "Another portal. Lan, orders?" Lan returned to his feet when the world started to shake and break apart around them. "This is growing very annoying." He turned to survey the area and pointed to the gateway. "We have no choice! Vallois, stick with Unmei now. Let's go!" Lan lowered his spear and advanced through the portal with Kylar not far behind him.
Alyeis held onto Ririn's arm and pulled him to stand on the platform Mimi had made. Ririn'to turned to Alyeis, and then to the portal. "Oh, you know, collapsed lung, severe internal bleeding, ribs probably in places I wouldn't want them to be. I'm cool," he pulled on Alyeis as they moved along the path, waiting a second to breathe before making the final few steps into the vortex, making sure Alyeis was still attached to him.
Vallois didn't have to be told twice, already doing his best to keep up with Unmei. His head was still ringing in pain thanks to the blasts he'd suffered earlier, but he managed to hop across the platforms to leap in directly behind Unmei once he ensured she made it safely through.
The portal dumped Unmei into a room not unlike before, though instead of a field of flowers, she was in a vast forest. She tumbled gracelessly through the vortex, landing sprawled across the grass on her hands and knees. Ririn fell to his knees, coughing up smoke once more. On his hands and knees, his head dropped. "Five minutes." He sighed and leaned up to relax on his legs, still sitting down. "Five fucking minutes. Give me five minutes before throwing more shit at me."
Unmei glanced around, finding Vallois and several of the others missing before the portal disappeared behind them, only Ririn'to, Lan, and Mimiru still with her. "Wh-what happened t'the others!?" she blurted out. Hearing Unmei, Ririn'to looked around for the others. "Oh fuuuuuck meeee," he shouted in annoyance, but Unmei could not dwell on the matter long before something else caught her eye.
It was a familiar scene, yet an entirely different now from the perspective of being on the outside looking in. There was a long, winding dirt road that seemed to perfectly bisect the trees, only it wasn’t entirely vacant. Resting upon the road was a figure perfectly matching Unmei’s, the poor Miqo’te crawling forward with some sort of weakness. She seemed to be beaten, scratched, and torn asunder by the various elements of the woods. Before long, that same robed figure from before came along and knelt at the woman’s side. The real Unmei's eyes widened before narrowing sharply as the masked man entered. Now this was a part she did not remember... He seemed to watch until she perished, fascinatingly canting his head this way and that until the last of her life finally left her form. Then, he knelt down to lift her body and began to trail along with her into the distance. Where they both vanished, another gateway appeared.
"No," she murmured under her breath in disbelief as she struggled to comprehend the scene. Confusion, fear, and ultimately anger passed across her features as she clenched her teeth. "NO!" this time the word was a shouted protest and she suddenly charged forward blindly toward the gateway, bent on finding out what would await her on the other side.
Mimiru frowned and she gripped her staff, muttering. Watching Unmei charge ahead, she stared like the girl was an idiot. She then looked at Lan, before stepping forward after the girl. "I don't want to lose more people." Lan nodded to Mimiru as he quickly moved to catch up to Unmei. His long legs closed the gap quickly. "Unmei, hold on a moment! We need to stay together!"
Ririn'to looked up to Unmei as she charged. "Wait!" He stood himself up with his staff and sighed. "C'mon, man. It's at least green here before everything turns into a murder-fun-house mirror..." He stepped forward finally and followed the others.
Unmei, fortunately for them, did not rush ahead of the group through the portal. Whether it be in compliance to their requests or simply because her legs gave out beneath her, she dropped to the ground right in front of the portal, skidding to a stop on her knees. She lifted her hands to furiously wipe away the hot tears that streamed down her freckled cheeks, struggling to catch her breath through her sobs. Lan sighed and knelt down beside the young lady to offer his hand. "Unmei, we will find Cyrus and the others, but we must be cautious and stay together, okay?" He managed to offer her a warm smile while he waited for her to take his hand.
Catching up again, Ririn'to stood next to Unmei, looking to the portal at first and then down to her. "So far, we've fallen into a flower field made out of the bodies of every imaginary friend that was ever conceived, been exploded by exploding wisps made out of fucking explosions, all the while most of the time the floor happens to be made out of material that would rather give out at very climatic times than stay long enough for me to stop coughing up blood." He sighed and gave a humored, fang-bearing smirk. "One of these is going to lead to what you are after. You just have to make sure I can keep up long enough to find the room made out of pure whiskey."
Unmei seemed to entirely shaken by what she had seen, wrapping her arms around her own small frame and shivering, eyes of brown and green staring ahead unseeingly at the portal. She gave no sign of noticing Lan at all, her eyes still glued straight ahead. She ignored his offer of assistance, instead slowly drawing herself to her feet. She had indeed heard Lan's words, and Ririn'to's, as well. However, after what she had just witnessed, there was now far more on her mind than the safety of her lover and questions of what had happened to him. Silently, she shuffled slowly toward the portal, waiting for the others to follow.
"A room made of whiskey would not help us. We need to move forward to negotiate an escape in some way." Mimiru followed Unmei toward the portal.
Ririn'to turned his head. "Us? Oh, no. No, not us." He smirked. "But you know, if we do find one, I'll give some dramatic speech about moving on without me or some crap. The organization looks like it's filled with self-sacrificial heroes to whomever you tell the story to." He bore another fang as he turned his shoulders to look back more, pointing a thumb against his own chest. "I get to be in a constant state on inebriation until all of that crap is turned into bones and flesh." He shuddered a moment, fake sniffling. "My poor whiskey..." He straightened himself and his demeanor and expression fell to an emotionless state once more.
Lan put a firm hand on Unmei's shoulder and immediately drew it back as if he had been shocked. His eyes stayed on her for a moment as his ears perked up, but then he shook his hand and turned toward the portal. "I'll go first. You three, just stick close behind me." He cast another glance at the Miqo'te girl, feeling that odd sense of knowing her face, but he shrugged it off and stepped through the portal. Nodding, Ririn'to peered into the gateway. "All right, Miss Unmei and Miss Mimiru should be neither first or last. I'll take up the rear." Unmei slipped through the portal behind Lan, her normally expressive features entirely blank.
The second area they found themselves in seemed much like before, a lab of sorts with thick, brick walls and cold, stone floors. There were various beakers and burners and alchemical objects, along with slabs that held cadavers and the like. There were jars of objects cut from animals like talons and eyes and fangs, while others seemingly came from things that couldn’t have possibly existed in Eorzea. A faint humming could be heard behind one of the large, massive shelves in the lab. What could it have been?
Unmei allowed her gaze to wander the new room. Slowly, she paced about, eyeing all the various strange and grotesque items and experiments. She couldn't seem to find the will to even be disturbed at this point. Her ears swiveled this way and that in search of the humming sound, and she allowed her feet to carry her in the perceived direction of the noise. Lan padded alongside Unmei, his spear at the low ready as they advanced deeper into the room.
Ririn'to entered the room and stayed silent, his voided eyes looking around and studying the equipment from afar. Placing his hands on his hips, he stretched, his condition improving enough for him to stop coughing. His ears instead flickered randomly at a frequent pace.
Stepping around the corner, they would found the same robed man as before, but also the Elezen that had accompanied Unmei. He floated freely in the tube before him, filled with aetherial shards that seemed to be feeding the cadaver aether to keep it at least somewhat intact. The body itself seemed to be in perfect form, and all about the room were ‘failed’ attempts. Some bodies sagged in place, half-formed, while others were mere lumps and piles of flesh that hadn’t quite made it through one of the early stages of work.
Unmei stiffened at the sight of the robed man, immediately freezing, her tail going completely stiff behind her. She glanced between him and Vallois, and then to all the other bodies in the room, or at least what remained of them. When she finally remembered how to move, she stumbled a step backward, nearly tripping and falling. "I-I don't understand," she murmured.
Mimiru drummed her fingers on her staff as she looked around. She blinked, however, at the masked man. Lan reached within his coat and produced a small leather pouch. He slowly shifted forward a bit, cautiously advancing.
Ririn stepped forward, taking his staff out preemptively but leaning on it as he watched, his fake demeanor lazy and uninterested. "Is my cage in here? I'm really starting to think that a cage of crippling loneliness is more fun than a psycho laboratory filled with people I don't even know." He pulled out a flask and unscrewed it, sipping from it and replacing it. Turning his head, he gestured to the robed man as he whispered to the others, "No, but seriously, who is that guy?"
Lan shot Ririn a look and held his finger to his own lips, and then made an arcing motion with his hand, trying to convey that he wanted the other man to swing wide. The man continued to work, not seemingly noticing them. "No... No, that's not right. I need more aether," he spoke aloud to himself, a frown escaping his lips. "But where are those crystals..?" He turned and began to make his way further back into the lab.
Ririn'to kept quiet, shifting his footing as he waited for Lan to give some kind of go ahead or to make a move himself, though his footing showed he was ready to move to a better position. Half his attention was on Lan, the other half looking to the stuff in the room, trying to figure out what was in the way.
Unmei swallowed the lump in her throat uncertainly. "I-it's not really him... he's not really here... another illusion..." she uttered softly. Deeming it safe, she ventured a hesitant step forward to peer into the tube at the familiar Elezen within. For all intents and purposes, it was Vallois. He remained in the tube as Unmei drew near, floating lifelessly in the aether-charged liquid. Even before their eyes he seemed to change, his features growing softer and more perfected while his body continued to soak up the life essence trapped in the crystals.
Mei stared up at the Elezen for some time, the tears beginning to flow down her striped cheeks once more before she lifted her hand, balling it into a small fist and throwing a decidedly weak and halfhearted punch at the glass of the tube, causing it splinter, before she slowly slid down to the ground, defeated, to rest on her knees. She looked up as the glass began to crack, quirking an eyebrow. Surely she hadn't been the cause of that... and she hadn't. The Vallois within had lurched forward, his arms extended so that his hands clasped around the Seeker girl's throat and began to choke the life from her. The two were be haloed in a mixture of shrapnel and broken glass, along with that aetherically charged liquid flowing out and flooding the nearby area. She lifted her own hands, grasping futilely at the Elezen's wrists to try to tug his hands away from her neck.
"No!" Lan burst forward, his spear aimed for the side of the Elezen's torso, already setting up to make his normal twisting gesture to create a piercing and tearing wound. Lan's spear pierced Vallois' side, causing the Elezen's eyes to grow wide and ultimately freeze. He looked from Unmei to the spear and the red liquid that slowly dripped from his side.
Ririn immediately moved toward them, his attention on the attacker. Mimiru watched as Lan attacked Unmei's attacker, though she kept her attention on the masked man. If the man noticed anything going on, he certainly didn't make any mention of it, not even so much as a glance toward the struggle. Meanwhile, Vallois swiped one powerful arm across to backhand Lan away, a move that also caused him to lose his grip on Unmei.
Unmei coughed and struggled to regain her breath, scrambling on the ground across liquid and broken glass alike to move further away from the Elezen. "No! Stop! Don't hurt him!" she shouted between gasps for air, the words apparently meant for both Lan and Vallois. Lan wrenched his spear up in time to block the blow with the haft, but the strike caused the weapon to almost fly from his grasp. He skirted backward, but moved to put himself between the Elezen and Unmei. "Ririn, Mimiru, can either of you hit him? Something is off here!"
Unmei managed to regain her bearings, pushing herself into a crouching position with a wince. "V-Vallois! Stop! I-it's me! Unmei!" she pleaded. She doubted it would have any effect, but she was well into desperation at this point. She dashed past Lan and all but throw herself at the Elezen in some attempt to either calm or restrain him, or take the blow if he'd lash out again, but she was too late.
"I'm on it!" Ririn'to called out possibly too enthusiastically. He threw the staff up and caught it by the end of the shaft. Doing a full body turn, he baseball-bat swung as he turned 180 degrees to put as much physical force as he could behind the swing, the large crystal sphere that was the head of his staff clubbing Vallois in the head with a blow hard enough to rearrange some of the features on his face. Vallois backpedaled back into the tank and settled there. The previously placed wound by Lan's spear had completely vanished. Soon enough, any sign that he'd been bashed in the head was gone, as well.
Unmei only sank to the floor, useless. There was nothing she could do but watch on in horror. Vallois surged forward again, this time taking a piece of glass along with him. The Elezen threw an elbow back at Ririn'to, intent on smashing into the bridge of his nose in an almost vengeful retaliation.
Ririn'to smirked triumphantly as his swing connected. "Oh cool I actually hit a gu-- ohfuckme--" his words were interrupted by an elbow to the face he wasn't nearly fast enough to react to properly. His head instinctively ducked, but not quick enough as the elbow connected instead just slightly higher than aimed--at the bridge of his nose between the eyes. Staggering backward, his metal talons of a hand covered his face as he looked to the man in anger, his demeanor changing suddenly and drastically. "You fucking little shit." He was a few fulms away and held his staff up properly, glowing dark red. As he pulled his arms away in a snapping motion, a small red ball shot toward the man.
Unmei squeezed her eyes shut, clamping both hands over her ears as if all of this would just cease to be happening if she couldn't see or hear it. "Stop. Stopstopstopstop!" she repeated the words beneath her breath in a crazed whisper. Slowly, the cadavers and various blobs of flesh and body parts around the room began to stir, as if alive with some unnatural force. The majority of them all headed straight for Vallois, gripping onto him and to hold him in place and restrain him. A few stragglers also crept toward Lan and Ririn'to to give them the same treatment.
"Damn it!" Lan threw himself at Unmei to push her out of the way of the tank, knocking her aside. The girl's eyes flashed open, left eye displaying a violent red glow, the right an eerie lime green. Mimiru simply summoned a personal magical barrier between herself and the explosion that could follow.
Vallois pressed forward after Lan, only to find the cadavers and various lumps of flesh grip onto his body. He tugged at them, but their combined strength was just too much. Eventually, the flames from Ririn'to's blade consumed him with a small explosion and his flesh boiled. It seemed that, not unlike the others, the creation was wholly unstable. All it took was this sudden reaction for the Vallois to dissolve into the same pile of goo that made up some of the other flesh creatures roaming about the area.
As Lan landed, he found his leg clutched by the torso of a cadaver. He kicked at the thing, freeing himself, "Fucking magic!" A hand gripped Ririn's ankle and he prodded it with his staff. "Hey... hey... shoo. Go away." Ririn'to waggled his leg and shook it violently before the hand snapped off and slid across to the other side of the room. The glow from Unmei's eyes flickered out and all the other bodies fell equally limp and lifeless, her nose wrinkling. She crawled backward until she felt the cold, stone wall at her back, using it for support to drag herself to her feet.
Lan got to his feet and retrieved his spear. "We need to keep moving, I guess." He looked toward Mimiru and called out, "Is this some sort of illusion?" Ririn'to looked to the others, "Well, considering how I still am pretty sure my insides are broken, it's real enough to kill us, but fake enough to make us look really bad at our jobs."
The robed man came back in, peering down at the mess and giving a small frown. "...Damnit. Another failure. When will I ever learn to create the perfect vessel...?" he asked into the air. He turned and took a few steps away from them, then vanished to reveal another gateway.
Unmei shakily pushed herself from the wall, brushing the dirt and shards of glass from herself, several small cuts marring her pale skin. She studied the newly formed portal before she hesitantly eyed over the others. "Is everyone okay? Are we ready t'move on?" Lan scrubbed a hand through his hair as he scowled at the portal before looking at the Miqo'te girl, "I'm fine for now. We should try to press on, though. We don't know the way out, and we have yet to locate Cyrus."
Mimiru took some time to consider Lan's words as she watched the man wander away and the other portal appear. "An illusion... no. This place does not have the same metaphysics as our own, Lan. It is... much more complicated. Thoughts shape it, and not always our own, though I think our fears do effect it. We must keep our thoughts as quiet as possible, and not ponder the worst case scenarios as we wander through portals. However, I do think someone is guiding us to something, and has split us to test us."
Unmei frowned. "I think it's like... like bein' in someone's head. The things here... none of them are real, but some of them're real here." She stifled a sigh. "I agree with Mimiru... but the problem is we don' know if we're bein' led t'somethin' good, or somethin' bad..." She eyed the portal warily. "Let's go."
"Good and bad is relative. Voidsent are not exactly evil, just alien to us. But dangerous, that would seem to be a given state of affairs," Mimiru said with a chuckle, walking to the portal.
Ririn'to looked to the rest and nodded, sighing and moving with them. "Can we please, though, keep the beating the shit out of me to a minimum? I'm running out of body parts." He turned his head momentarily before looking back to the group and moving forward. "And I don't want any of those on the ground."
Lan took the lead through the portal, his spear leading the way as he stepped through, followed by Unmei and the others. The third portal gave way to a change of scenery. They were suddenly in a library, the robed man bent over a book with several stacks of others close by. “No,†he called out desperately, hands clenching into fists and slamming into the cold, hard wood. “No! It has to be possible! There has to be a way!†He continued to read quickly, judging by the way that his head shifted back and forth, until he shot out of his chair.
“That’s it! That’s... that’s how I’ll find her!†He turned with a majestic sway of his robe and walked toward the group, vanishing before he actually came across them. The world around them suddenly began to shift and change, giving way to place them once more in with the rest of the group.
When Vallois suddenly appeared, it was just as whatever Worren had stated to him suddenly hit his mind. He whirled around to face the man, his silvery eyes narrowing out into something venomous. "You're the fucking reason it took so long in there. You call yourself a leader? Think before you strike at something. THAT is both reckless and irresponsible." He stepped forward to jab a finger at the man's chest. "And if you ever threaten me with her life again, I'll rip out your tail in shove it down your godsdamned throat. So WHAT if I'm closer to her than a guard? Fuck you and mind your own business."
It wasn't until after that he realized there were others here with him, turning about to look at the group in kind. When he spotted Unmei, he glanced away from her to peer down at the ground--apparently sullen by what she may have heard and what he'd seen in the rooms before them.
"If you're more than her guard, then you'll reconsider your words. How about you think about her instead of yourself for once?" Worren's voice rang out.
Unmei didn't yet know or care where they'd landed themselves this time. She also didn't seem to care that she'd caught Vallois in the middle of an argument with Worren. "Vallois!" The second she saw the Elezen, she bolted toward him, all but throwing herself at him, tossing her arms around him and burying her head into his stomach, weeping.
Ririn'to appeared, his arms crossed as he heard the words. He was a few fulms away as he called out into the room, "This is the part of the opera where you either kiss or poison someone." He smirked. "We have so much time for this. We need to find professor douche-canoe and get the fuck out of here." He looked to Unmei. "Not until we find what we came here for, at least."
Mimiru leaned on her staff, and Lan immediately raised his voice just a bit but put steel behind it. "All right, you two, shut the hells up. Are you all okay, and did you find Cyrus?"
Faolan glared at them. "Shut the hell up," he said, irritated. "We won't get out of here if we keep arguing amongst ourselves. Save it for later." He looked around, relieved to find the others in the room.
Alyeis growled at the two bickering men, "Shut the hell up and deal with all that later..." She looked up at the others who were in the room, a little shocked at first, but then stood back, blades from before still drawn, her hand discolored from suspected flame damage. Her tights were shredded and wounds cauterized. As she looked at the group, she held a blade out towards Ririn. "Tell me what we fought about last night. Only in a few words. One name, even, and I'll know you aren't a fake." Her words weren't warm; they were feral and distrusting of anything.
Vallois froze, both by the words Worren had spoken and the instructions to shut the hell up from multiple sources. Furthermore came Unmei’s arms around him, which he returned in kind by wrapping his own back around her frame. He quickly began to look her over for signs of any wounds, finding her certainly covered in cuts and scrapes and bruises, but nothing dire. He parted his lips to speak, but thought the better of it and gently pushed her away. She peered up at him questioningly, hurt flashing briefly across her delicate features, but she didn't have the will to protest or question it currently. Worren had been right—he needed to focus on her and her needs, and right now, he quite simply wasn’t one of them.
Lan looked at the group and frowned a bit. "Wait a moment... Kylar was not with you guys?"
“No,†Vallois responded, “we assumed he was with you.â€
"Did you come across any creatures?" Worren asked the others.
"Can we not worry about that later? Let's find the girl's fiancé," Vallois gruffed out.
Lan's scowl deepened. "Yes, but all that can wait. As Vallois just mentioned, we need to find Cyrus, and Kylar, if possible."
Unmei nodded absently in agreement with Lan and Vallois before she gave her first real glance around the room. She found herself in yet another lab-like area. It seemed very much the same as before, what with the different alchemical objects and the like littering the room.
"This room. We've been to this room several times now. Every time we break the illusion, we end up in this room again, with a new one. We have to break the cycle somehow," Worren spoke.
Ririn'to turned to Alyeis, glaring a moment. "Eridanah, hate her. Aalriya, not-entirely-relevant-to-our-argument-but-I-would-still-quite-enjoy-watching-her-set-aflame." He pondered a moment as he paced. "Now, I need to ask YOU something important." He stomped over to her, getting close to her and glaring with a hateful demeanor before pulling back and exposing a flap in his coat. All the flasks but one were accounted for; one strap empty. His voice was much calmer and in a humorous tone, "Have you seen my flask? I dropped it somewhere and I'm very sad that she's gone."
Alyeis smirked a little, placing her blades back at her hip, "Good. It's you... no one else is that messed up." She grabbed Ririn's arm and pulled him for a hug, a tight one and a quick one. "Okay..." she sighed, letting him go. "Let's play again."
Mimiru finally sighed. She looked up at nothing in particular and called out, "Hello? Are you watching us right now? Because if you are, I'd like to just talk and get home. I have books to read and plants to water." Looking back, Alyeis smiled to Mimiru.
Back against one of the walls came a heavy wheezing sound. Unmei immediately perked up at the sound, her ears standing straight up along her skull. Without even confirming anyone else had heard the sound, she darted off in its direction.
"Unmei!" Lan growled under his breath and quickly set off after her, Faolan following not far behind. "I'm going to put that girl on a leash..." Lan grumbled. Alyeis, too, chased after her. "Unmei!" she echoed. "We don't need to rush so much!"
They soon found the source of the noise. To say that the Midlander was chained up wouldn’t have been entirely correct, as he was missing his right arm entirely, left with little more than a nub tied off by a piece of cloth. He slumped forward in the shackles on the wall, the steel biting into the flesh of his wrist and eating to the bone. His naked form was nothing that it had been, muscle and bones having atrophied into something less than savory. It seemed as if he hadn’t eaten in weeks, or at least had only been fed the bare minimum to keep him alive. His breathing was ragged and forced, struggling to get even the tiniest of breaths out. Truly, the only thing to make him noticeable was the short, raven black hair and the otherwise pale skin.
Ririn'to moved with the others that chased after Unmei. Reaching the man chained to the wall, he stopped. "Hoooooly fu--..." He peered a bit. "Never mind, I'm gunna stop bitching about getting beaten up now." He pulled his staff out preemptively. "Well then, where's the robed guy?"
"Cyrus!" Unmei cried out in shock and joy and horror and--everything. She rushed to his side, skidding across the floor to kneel next to him. "Cyrus," she cooed softly, lifting one hand to brush her fingers gently over his gaunt cheek, coaxing him to look up into her eyes. "H-hey. It's okay now. W-we're here. We're gonna get you home." She struggled to blink back her tears.
Worren followed in irritation. "What is with these two and rushing off alone? They'll get themselves killed, for sure. Everyone wants to try my patience today, it seems." He eventually caught up to the others. "...is it another illusion..? Is that really him? Be careful. The last room, there was another illusion, but became real when touched, and very dangerous," he spoke up. Alyeis eyed Unmei and then the Hyur who hung before them, tilting her head and taking a closer look, "I actually think it would be more satisfying for them to provide us with this very real horror than a fake at this point. They know we expect it."
Mimiru frowned at the lack of a response. She turned and made her way toward the others. She continued to talk out loud to nothing, "I know you are at least aware of us. You would not give him to us if you did not get something in return. I am not so naïve to think that we have somehow outsmarted you, or that we are taking from you without your knowing. Do not play me for a fool."
"Okay, looks like it might be him. Everyone, be on your guard. Hmm... Worren, let's just do this the easy way; see if your axe can break those chains," Lan commanded.
Cyrus finally looked up into the Unmei's eyes at her urging, his lids opening to offer only black, endless holes; the beautiful, light blue eyes that had once been there long-since removed. He parted his lips to speak, but found it near impossible to do so with how parched his throat was. Instinctively, the Midlander leaned in towards her and he only managed out a hoarse "K... ... l... m... e..."
Ririn inhaled deeply and exhaled the same. His demeanor again shifted to a much more strict and reserved. He did not comment on the situation, but instead turned away to watch the rest of the room with his staff still drawn.
Unmei swallowed the lump in her throat, shaking her head frantically. "No. N-n-n-n-no. Yer gonna be okay. We're gonna get you home. E-everything will be all right, okay?" she did her best to reassure him, but it wasn't exactly convincing with the way her voice cracked with her tears. She slipped her hand around him to tangle her fingers into his dark hair, cradling his head to her shoulder. "H-help him! Help him down!" she desperately pleaded to anyone who'd listen.
Worren shouldered his axe and stepped forward. "Unmei, I will be releasing him from his bonds now. Please stand back for your own safety... if he attacks." He readied his axe low. "The masked man and the creature the group I was with just fought have something in common. It'll grab and absorb your aether. If this man is not who he is, you will need to stand back!" He raised his axe up to send it to the side. Unmei shook her head stubbornly, refusing to let go of the man or leave his side now that she'd found him. Worren held his strike at the very last second. "Hng..."
Vallois came around just in time to notice the scene. He went immediately silent, bowing his head low, remaining respectfully quiet. There was no response to Mimiru, unless one counted the way that the world shook and shuddered around them. The walls suddenly ripped from around them, revealing nothing but pitch blackness and that same Voidal darkness as before. This seemed different, however--it seemed as if the Void itself was eating the very world around them, slowly closing in. Another gateway opened in the center of the room, and again Cyrus tried to speak. "Ki.. ki... m... pl..se.." A single tear streamed down the left side of his cheek as he pleaded for them to end his suffering.
Alyeis's attention was brought to Mimi. "The bastards just want us shaken with a real flesh here. That's all. Looking after a broken body is a lot of work. It makes those defenseless an easy target for the picking."
Faolan stepped forward toward the man Unmei was holding and looked over at Worren. "Worren, just do it. If he makes any wrong moves, we can handle it," he said with a nod, then looked down at the Midlander, ready for an attack.
Mimiru looked at the world around the group, then at the portal, before finally looking at the group itself. She looked to Rir. "Melt the chains if they can't cut them."
Worren nodded to Faolan, and swung once more, aiming for the chain. "Fuck it. It's now or never!" The chain broke and Cyrus slumped forward, but there was still the matter of the chains holding his legs in place. Ririn'to almost lost his balance, his own body still severely wounded, but nowhere close to the man on the wall. "Oh for goddess' sake, let's fucking GO." He rushed to the man's feet to grab both of the last chains, heating his hands with fire to melt through. "I DIDN'T FUCKING GET ALLLLL THE WAY FUCKING HERE," he pulled on the chains to break them off, "GET BEATEN THE SHIT OUT OF, PUNCHED, GRABBED AND LOST MY ALCOHOL FOR FUCKING THIS."
The space about them grew smaller and smaller by the moment, forcing them to clump together lest they find themselves eaten by the Void. The Midlander let out a sudden, painful and throaty scream as his body began to convulse and shift in place. His skin began to rip and tear in various places, forcing out extra limbs and wings and fingers in places they quite simply shouldn't be. "KILL..." he cried out again, clinging for Unmei now that she was so near to him, "...ME...."
Unmei's eyes widened in horror and she reluctantly released the man as he began to turn into something else, slowly crawling backwards away from him, terror written across her tear-soaked features. Lan's blue eyes took on that icy calm as he watched them try to free Cyrus. Suddenly seeing what was going on, he surged forward and knocked Unmei away roughly for her to crumple to the floor in a shaking, sobbing lump. "Get back! It's a trap! All of you, back up! Vallois, get her out of here! The rest of you, leave, as well! That is an order!"
Alyeis turned to look at the man, or what once was one. She ripped her blades from her sides again and smiled at the creature. "We can't dance in this room; it will close. We'll have to dance in the next one." She eyed the creature and grabbed Ririn's wrist, then let go, remembering what happened last time. She rushed into the other portal.
Mimiru frowned and sighed as she made her way to the portal's edge. "He is either not real, or we lack the time to save him." Upon hearing Lan's words, she nodded to his direction, and entered the portal. Faolan was ready to land a punch on Cyrus, but as Lan shouted an order, he turned and backed up from Cyrus, going toward the new portal that appeared.
The Void continued to close in, threatening to swallow them all. By now, the group had only a good fifteen yalms or so to operate in. Vallois rushed forward to take Unmei and pulled her to her feet. "Come on, we've got to get out of here!" The mutated blob reached out for anyone--anything--near it, be it Ririn'to, Lan, or someone else.
"Kill it," Vallois cried out to them. "Don't let it suffer like that. You can't. For her!"
"No!" Unmei shrieked, weakly but violently struggling to escape Vallois's grasp as he grabbed her. "Don't hurt him!!"
"Unmei, STOP!" He struggled to retain his grip on her and pulled back. "You've GOT to get going!" He gripped tightly onto her and rushed back into the portal with her. Unfortunately for her, she was half the man's size and had no hope of eluding him even if she hadn't been a hysterically sobbing mess. She was helplessly dragged along, literally kicking and screaming. As she was carried through the portal, she watched the thing that was once her lover disappear as she and the others were thrust back into Eorzea instead, spat out onto the lawn of the company estate.
They had come here with a very clear mission: discover the fate of Cyrus, Unmei's missing fiance, and rescue him once he'd been located. It was a mission that, simple as it seemed, a mysterious masked man and creatures conjured from the Void had made difficult and downright dangerous. Unmei hoped these Harbingers of Dawn folks she'd tracked down could help her deliver her fiance back to Eorzea, safe and sound with no casualties.
Vallois, the tall Elezen with raven locks of hair and silvery gaze, remained the silent the entire time. He kept close to the Unmei's side and had even gone as far as lightly draping an arm about her. Kylar, a Keeper of the Moon with dark skin and hair, kept nearby Unmei, too, though his gaze rested on the key rather on the girl.
Alyeis, a Miqo'te woman with long black hair, stepped forward and traced her finger over the keyhole. Faolan, a Seeker of the Sun with a pair of mismatched eyes, crossed his arms over his chest to hide his nervousness. Lan, a Seeker of the Sun with black hair and crimson highlights, scanned about them as they moved. Kylar tilted his head a bit as he looked not just at the door, but at the wall itself, "Well, a key that leads us to a door... a conveniently placed and odd looking door. Not worrisome at all."
Looking back at Lan, Alyeis snickered. "I did say we would venture Ul'dah's underbelly some time." She took step back, adorned with two blades on one hip, a bag and a grimore on her other side. Her Fae, Yew'li, with white hair and discolored wings, sat on her shoulder, tiny hands covering her mouth. She touched Alyeis's face and Alyeis smiled at the unheard communication the Fae apparently provided. Worren, a Miqo'te with dark skin that was a harsh contrast to the orange tattoos across his face, carried a small leather satchel hooked to the side of his armor. "Be wary of any... traps," he spoke.
Ririn'to, a slightly smaller-than-average Miqo'te with maroon hair, followed alongside Alyeis, his eyes void of pupils and color. "Wow, I haven't been to this city in ages, but I'm so thankful I get to re-witness the lovely sight of pure depression." His hand, encased in talons of twisted metal, crept up to his face and he tapped his chin with the point. "All we need is a flickering torch and a damsel in distress, and we're right on our way to getting murdered one by one."
Mimiru stood wearing her white and black robes with the group, carrying a gold and silver staff in her hand, and at her waist was a silver inscribed tome of some sort. At her hip on a strap was a simple water-skin. She glanced at Rir and chuckled. "Let us keep murder down to a minimum, shall we?" The purple-haired lalafell rubbed an eye with a free hand. "Positive thinking and such..."
Unmei stood centrally in front of the door, staring at it in confusion and frustration in hopes perhaps that if she won the staring contest with the thing, it would politely part and open for her! So caught up was she that she missed the chance to mention she may have been the damsel in distress, the bow and quiver of her arrows strapped to her back likely little more than for show.
"So, uh. D-do we open it?" The red-haired Miqo'te asked no one in particular, peering around at the others surrounding her until last her gaze landed expectantly on Vallois. She swallowed hard, turning back to the door. She slipped the thread from her around her neck and fit the key into the keyhole, unlocking the door and twisting the doorknob before giving it a good shove, pushing the door open, traps be damned! Rather than opening inward like a normal door, it instead seemed to vanish entirely. Unmei shrank back from the door, her ears falling flat along her skull in dismay. What beheld her was, at first, darkness. Soon after, a vortex of pure anti-aether began to manifest before them. Their aetherial energy already had began to drain from sheer proximity of the vortex.
Vallois's eyes narrowed in annoyance at the swirling energy. He looked down to Unmei to ensure that she was well and gave a cursory glance around to the rest of their group for the same assurance. “I’m going in,†he stated aloud, not bothering to wait for opinions on the matter. “It’s what I’m here for.â€
Now was not the time for cowardice. Unmei drew in a deep breath, squaring her shoulders. "Hey! Wait!" she shouted after Vallois. Worren's eyes narrowed, "Woah, hold on! We don't know what's in there. I don't think it's such a good idea to just barge into that shit. It'd be irresponsible to get yourself killed when it could have been prevented." She paused at Worren's words, turning back to him, brow furrowed. "What else are we supposed t'do? We don' have time t'waste. If y'don't wanna come, stay here," she waited for no response before she turned to dash after Vallois.
Alyeis sighed again, then looked at Vallois. "He's right. It's what we came here for..."
"Of course... magic...." Lan sighed and nodded a bit. "Vallois, go ahead. I'll stick close to Unmei. Mimiru, Ririn'to, Kylar, and Alyeis, stick in the middle. Worren and Faolan, you two bring up the rear for now." The Seeker drew his spear, the tines clicking into place, and Kylar nodded to Lan.
"Middle, eh? All right." Alyeis picked up her book from her hip. "Then on with it."
"Welp," Ririn'to started as he unscrewed a flask and brought it to his lips, "when a guy points to you at a tavern night and says 'you're doing this job', you can't help but swoon at the thought of the shine in the very eyes you remember seeing, and suddenly want to punch repeatedly in the face." He swigged his flask heavily before re-screwing and replacing it. "No time like the present, though." He looked to Lan and nodded. "You bet, this should be amusing to say the least."
Vallois took a moment to mentally gather himself and pressed forward into the abyss. Unmei saw little more than a bright flash of light as the vortex swallowed the Elezen’s form whole, and then he was gone.
Faolan took a deep breath, putting a hand over one of his weapons. "Right... we can do this," he muttered. Worren unhooked the large axe from his back and shouldered it. He elbow-nudged Faolan lightly, causing the man to flinch. "'Ey, I got your back. Let's just hope this woman's undying love and frazzled state doesn't make her a liability to us. We all know what love can fuck up a person's judgment," he spoke to Fao quietly. "Sure, sure... we'll be fine," Fao muttered.
'I'm not afraid,' Unmei repeated the silent mantra in her head. 'Not afraid. Not afraid.' She couldn't be afraid. She didn't have time to be; not if she wanted to hold onto hope that she could rescue Cyrus from whatever ill fate had befallen him. She exhaled the breath she had just realized she'd been holding in a hiss of a sigh, forcing herself to rush through the portal immediately after Vallois lest she lose her will thinking about it too long, the small Seeker disappearing into the empty darkness.
Unmei found herself and company standing not in the expected nothingness of the Void, but instead a singular square room. The room was empty aside from a door on the opposite end and a painting of each of them along the walls, capturing their death in some gruesome form or another. Wherever it was they had been transported, that aetherial draining effect had washed away, and they each studied the paintings.
Unmei eyed all the grotesque paintings uneasily, dainty features distorting into a grimace. Her mismatched eyes came to rest the longest not on the painting of herself huddled in the very alley they’d just left, scared and alone with a blanket draped over her form, however, but the one depicting Vallois impaled in the chest by an unknown knight. She didn't like it. It made her stomach turn. She swallowed the lump in her throat, forcing herself to turn away from the painting. She remained silent with whatever commentary she may have on the images, slowly wandering toward the single door instead.
Ririn'to studied his own painting a moment, him not dead, but behind thick bars of an asylum as he slowly wilted away. "AWH!" His face changed from emotionless to exaggerated disappointment. "I'm going to be stuck forever in a cell with myself?" He sighed and turned around, whispering, "I fucking hate that guy," before pointing to the painting, as if holding a conversation with the Ririn in it. "When I get there, you better still have alcohol on you. Or I'll be pissed." He turned back to the others, crossing his arms. "Okay. Well, we're here. What now?"
Faolan's eyes were fixated on the painting of himself. He looked like he had been dead for a long time, his body malnourished and decayed. A single drop of sweat rolled down his face and his lips curled into an awkward smile as he let out a small, uneasy laugh. "Aha... what a sick joke... right?"
Alyeis scrutinized her painting, herself with various weapons sticking in her back. Yew'li pointed and spoke silently and Alyeis nodded. "Yes, you're missing in all the fun, dear. Yes, I'm aware." The Fae poked her face and pointed. "No, Yew'li, I don't think they'll paint it again for you. Don't be absurd." Yew'li pulled on her hair again and pointed, thrusting her tiny finger at the painting of Ririn, which Alyeis refused to turn her head toward. "No, I don't have to... inaccurate."
Lan glanced over the paintings, taking in each one, his own of his body laying in a pool of blood on a battlefield, "We best not spend too much time here. Obviously, someone wants to rattle us. We should press forward, but use caution." Alyeis nodded to Lan, "Indeed, we should keep moving."
"Hmm, interesting tactic, I think. Perhaps trying to play on our fears and failings?" Kylar eyed the painting that was supposed to be him, though he hardly seemed himself, having sprouted wings and horns and appearing to be the very Voidsent that the group had come expecting to face. "Wings would be nice..."
Mimiru smirked at the painting of her body torn asunder by an explosion due to one of her failed projects. "And people tell me that my meditation room was a bad idea. I am very glad I opted for it over a personal lab, or that picture may have had some truth behind it." She looked over at Kylar. "Why did you get the cool fate?" she asked jokingly. Kylar looked her way and grinned, "Well, horns would limit my choices in hats..." Mimiru snickered, "But you would always be horny for the ladies."
"Heh... don't threaten me with a good time..." Worren sauntered by with his axe resting on his right shoulder, stopping at the painting depicting several of him, each fighting with one another while one settled out on the ground with his hands on his head and a look of dismay. "Maybe he's trying to lighten the mood for us. Maybe even I can't beat me. An eternity in a stalemate... heh. Or maybe it's as Lan says: the occupant of this space is tryin' to bullshit us. Stay the course, and let's remember why we're here."
Vallois cast his gaze over the others, finding at least some hint of humor in their words. He looked to Unmei, a hard frown etching its way across his features once he realized her reaction. He began to walk to her, but instead opted against such things and made his way towards the adjacent door. Unmei peered toward him, pale brow still furrowed. He placed his hand on the knob and gave a twist, only to find it locked, and Unmei's lips fell into a frown. He glanced back towards Lan and took a step back, awaiting the man's orders. "What d'we do now?" Unmei asked no one particular. "...I'm all fer breakin' the door down," she suggested, always a fan of solving problems in the most direct way.
Lan turned to Kylar and raised a brow. "Kylar, can you... or anyone more magically inclined, somehow check the door for wards or traps? Or perhaps a means of opening it?"
Vallois gave a small shrug of his shoulders and took a step back to allow Kylar to do as he wished. The Keeper nodded and stepped closer to the door as he narrowed his eyes and extended his senses toward the door, trying to detect any sort of aether that might have been coming from it. Meanwhile, Vallois simply stated, "I'll break through the damned thing. Let's get this over with."
"Tch... figures." Alyeis opened up her book and looked over pages of algorithms and diagrams, fingertips wildly scrolling down the pages as minty eyes scanned them. Faolan took a step forward. Worren remained near the rear of the group, shaking his head slowly upon hearing Unmei and the Elezen's words. "Hasty... and foolish." He then spoke up, "Any luck, Kylar?"
Kylar frowned and tilted his head. "I detect something, but I am not sure what it is. It could be a magical button to open the thing... or it could drop us into a pit of sharks with scimitars tied to their heads. A second opinion might be nice." Unmei simply stared at Kylar for a moment before she cracked a smile for the first time on their little excursion, breaking into a fit of giggles Ririn'to crossed his arms and shifted his weight, "They better be really strapped on. If I'm dying by scimitar sharks, the guy who roped them better be a professional, at least."
"Sadly, casting magic to know more could draw worse attention." Mimiru frowned.
Alyeis stepped forward, Kylar moving to make way for her, and Yew'li floated over to sit on Ririn's shoulder. With her book open, several fulms back from the door for safety, she touched her finger on a specific page. She eyed the door again and shut the book. "Interesting," she hummed. "Kylar, I do have one idea... but it would require those to stand back from the door in case there is a backfire."
Vallois moved back to stand at Unmei's side as she also scooted back another small step to be safe, peering up at him as he joined her at her side. "It's okay," he offered with a half-smirk. "I've already accepted whatever fate might come my way. We're going to save him, and you two will be happy." She offered him only a chastising frown in response to what were likely meant to be reassuring words. "'M not gonna let anything happen t'you," she uttered quietly.
Faolan took an extra step back for good measure. Lan nodded, "Okay, try what you are going to... and if it does not work, we will attempt entry via physical means."
Ririn'to looked to Alyeis but frowned. "Alyeis..." He stepped back, looking to her Fae for a moment, then back to her, "be careful." Alyeis dug in her bag, pulling out a small, pink crystal. She hurled it at the door's center, the throw backed by her own aether, a wind type manipulation, and Mimiru sighed. As the wind aether crashed against the door, the barrier on the door shattered, but so did the floor beneath them all at once vanish to leave them to fall through space into the darkness below.
Unmei shrieked, grasping desperately for whoever or whatever was nearest to her--which happened to be Vallois, fortunately making his own attempt to grip onto her and pull her against him all the easier. Faolan let out a short yell as the floor suddenly shattered. He closed his eyes and fell silent, bracing for the end.
Alyeis cursed and held as still as she could on the way down, her nervousness seen, however, through the wetness on her face and the look she gave Ririn as they fell. Alyeis's Fae dearly choked Ririn on the way down. It was clear it was screaming, but no sound was produced. However, "I knew it...!" could be heard from Worren as they fell for what seemed like ages, but it also could have been only a few minutes or even seconds. Time was hard to tell when hurdling through an abyss. What waited at the bottom were not sharks as prophesied, but instead a vast field of various kinds of flowers and ground almost impossibly soft enough to break their fall.
Unmei bothered to only half untangle herself from the Elezen before she sat up, taking in their new surroundings. A faint smile found its way to her lips. "Well, this isn't so bad..." Vallois sat up as well, casting his silvery gaze at their surroundings to find that they had thankfully managed to make it through. He shifted to his feet, reached back to ensure his axe was properly in place, and then reached down to offer Unmei assistance to her feet. He refrained from commenting now, far too embarrassed that he may have let out a scream on the way down.
Lan rolled to his feet and quickly moved to scoop up his spear. "Okay... throwing stuff at doors is out for now. Is everyone all right?" Faolan opened his left eye, then sighed in relief and sat up. "I'm, uh... I'm fine," Faolan replied. Kylar sighed and got to his feet, dusting off his brown and black clothes. He reached up to adjust his glasses only to find that they had fallen off. "Damn it all..." He looked at Lan and nodded. "No worse for wear, it seems... and all brown on my clothing is from cloth, not other things."
Alyeis shook her head. "Such tricks... I'd say I like it, but." She picked a flower to examine carefully and curiously. She opened her book to scribble in notes and then dropped the flower. She got up, her feet a little shaky at first, and went to Ririn right away, her Fae returning to her. Mimiru landed with an oof. She stood up and looked around with a frown, "I told you using more magic would cause who knows what to happen."
"Should have known something was going to happen... urg." Worren hauled himself up, reached for his axe, and looked around. "Hrm... interesting. A calm before the storm? An illusion?"
Standing up, Ririn'to brushed some petals off his coat. "The commute here fucking sucks." He rolled his shoulder and took out a flask from his chest strap, unscrewing it and swigging from it harshly before replacing it. He checked for his own weapon, his staff on his back.
Alyeis smirked. "Well, it's better to find out early than late, now, isn't it?" She nodded to Mimi. "Now, it's no secret. I suspect each room will vary, however." She looked to Ririn with a smile. "Does, doesn't it?" She snickered a bit, still humor to be had. As soon as any of them came to their senses and figured out what was up and what was down, they’ found they weren’t alone. Floating little wisps of light hovered all about the field, some landing on flowers while others darted happily this way and that.
Unmei accepted Vallois's hands, hoisting herself to her feet. She continued to peer all around, dual-colored eyes wide in wonder, the childish smile upon her rosy lips only continuing to grow. She knelt down to begin plucking a few of the flowers from the ground, reaching her fingers out to the little glowing wisps as they flitted by her.
Sounds of laughter suddenly rang forth in the distance, and they all cocked their hands in the direction of the noise to find two Midlanders lying about in the field together. Unmei's ears perked and her head whipped toward the sound of the laughter, her jaw quickly snapping shut at the scene. The face of the man was blurred, but those familiar with crimson robes knew that they belonged to the Masked Man.
"Is that... 'Ey, look over there..." Worren pointed in the general direction of the two figures in the distance, "They don't notice us... but that looks like someone we know..."
Despite the man being distorted, thanks to both the laughter and the bright smile from the woman, it was obvious that their conversation was light and jovial. This continued for some time until, all at once, the woman seized and slumped over. The robed man shook her form, desperately trying to get her to move again until her lifeless body faded into the flowers themselves.
From her position, the flowers all died to give way to random, various skeletal remains that the group now stood upon. Some still had the remnants of flesh upon them, peering up at them through eyes that one could almost swear moved. The wisps began to dart back and forth in an erratically, as if desperately searching for more flowers or signs of life to settle on and finding none.
Somehow, Unmei was not surprised to see things so soon go awry. As she watched the flowers change, she peered down at the blossoms clutched in her hands, giving a startled cry as they began to change to flesh and bone and she immediately released them, letting them fall to the ground at her feet.
Lan looked around, puzzled. "An illusion?"
"Hmm... possibly, though it is a very odd one," Kylar knelt to run his fingers over the skeletal remains. Lan, Faolan, and Worren readied their weapons.
"It is better not to think of anything as stable here. Only minds are something that retain personality and form. Everything can become something else if will acts upon it," Mimiru said simply.
Unmei turned toward Mimiru, quirking an eyebrow. "I think she's right. Th-the things we're seeing... they're not real... er rather... they're not real right now. I think... I think they're memories... or thoughts, or dreams, maybe predictions of the future..." She shuffled nervously in place, rubbing at one arm with her opposite hand. "It's like we're inside someone's head."
Kneeling down, Ririn'to poked one of his metal talons into one of the fleshy pieces on the ground, puncturing it easily and retracting his finger to examine it. Looking to the rest, he shook his hand to flick any remnants back toward the ground. "Sooo, uhhh," his ear flicked, causing him to stop, but he continued a moment later, "yeah, that just kinda happened."
The Fae hid its face in Alyeis's hair. "Don't let them play tricks. It's emotions, just like the last room. Each will be a roller coaster into delusions."
But there were signs of life in the area; signs that had appeared and thus forced the wisps' safe haven to wilt and crumble. Wisps were not inherently complex and, sure enough, once they came to this conclusion, they knew what they had to do. The little white balls of light suddenly went red with fury and closed in on the group. They darted forward with a destructive force, enough for two per person, seeking to kamikaze themselves upon impact with the small, but nonetheless concussive force of an explosion of all their pent-up, spiritual aether, and X'unmei's eyes widened as the once peaceful wisps suddenly went on the offensive.
Not entirely an expert in tactics, Vallois ripped the axe from his back and swatted at one. It exploded on contact and sent him flailing back into the other that, ultimately, forced him face-first to the ground. "Vallois!" Unmei called out in shock. She didn't have time to fret over the man, her attention immediately snagged by the wisps darting toward her.
Lan fared not much better than Vallois. The first wisp struck him from the back and staggered him. The second came careening in and he managed to get the haft of his spear up to intercept the being, but the blast knocked him back on his ass. "Stick together! Watch each other's backs!" Faolan fell to the ground and rolled to the side when he noticed two of them heading his way. He brought himself back to his feet and, upon hearing Lan's order, quickly stepped back to the group. Kylar whirled around and from his own tome he did the calculations to draw upon his aether, sketching a pattern in front of him before sending a burst toward the two wisps barreling his way, exploding them.
Ririn'to held his hands out, a small shield of aether forming around him. When the first wisp contacted the shield, it exploded, breaking through the layer of shield and filling the entire standing sphere with smoke, suffocating him. He was forced to break the shield just in time for the other wisp to slam into his chest, exploding and sending him backward. Sliding a few fulms, he laid on the ground momentarily before jamming his staff into the ground to weakly stand. Coughing, smoke exited his lungs as he returned to the group much more ready this time.
Mimiru quickly drew aether to create blue barriers around the group to defend them from the balls, walls as strong as stone in the form of a dome. Alyeis reacted as Mimi had--defensively. She sent Yew'li, who was guarded in a similar barrier, to Vallois's side. The Fae pulled on him, a light from its hands in attempts of aid. Alyeis whirled to stand back to back with Ririn in the center. Her own aether focused on backing Mimi's barrier, creating a second one. In the other hand, she held one of her blades for offense in case the barrier was breached.
"Shit." Concentrating on building the defenses in his body, Worren began to move toward the others. The two wisps after him followed, both exploding behind him and knocking him forward. "Argh, dammit." He staggered heavily before falling, rolling to the side to break the fall and get to his feet again. He moved into the magical shields that had been raised, standing near Mimiru at the ready.
Unmei backpedaled into the sanctuary of the shield, lifting her hands up, palms opened outward in a display of innocence. "W-wait! We don't wanna hurt you, little... light ball things!" The little wispy balls were not stopped by Unmei's plea, but they did shatter on Mimiru's barriers and explode pointlessly on impact. Faolan stumbled and Unmei was sent tumbling backward from the impact, the latter landing on her rear by the force of the explosion.
Ultimately, the few wisps left rushed themselves together, their spiritual essence congealing into one semi-massive ball of aether before they slammed forward, intent on railing into the gathered group all at once. Once she managed to collect herself, Unmei saw the remaining wisps gathering together, preparing for one last combined suicide attack, and she gritted her teeth.
"Can anyone return fire on those things? They explode on impact. Can someone blow 'em up before they get to us?" Worren shouted. Mimiru was was already weaving additional layers for another three layers of barriers. Her eyes were closed as she channeled, focused only protection, "Someone else blast; I defend."
Alyeis turned on the mass with her open book, flicking a few pages over, raising her hand. From her upraised palm came the same wind that had propelled the crystal, but in much more force, like a whirlwind. She shot it over the heads of her companions to knock back their foes a considerable distance.
Foalan straightened himself up and planted his feet to the ground as best as he could, given the terrain. He simply folded his arms in front of him, bracing for another impact, and silently cursed at himself. Kylar moved to the fore, an aether battery dropping to the ground, spent, as he began working up a spell of his own. An orb of aether formed in his outstretched palm and he released it to fly at the mass of approaching wisps.
Gritting his teeth, Ririn finally assembled back with the group. His staff in hand, he clenched his free hand, a blue glow encasing it before he squeezed his fist and it shattered. Giving him a moment of clarity in aether focus, he pointed his staff to the wisps, a spiked ice ball forming and hurling towards the wisps.
The group worked in perfect tandem, the combined efforts of their aetherial blasts striking the ball of energy with enough force to send the wisps scattering in all directions, effectively breaking them apart before they exploded all at once. The effect was unaspected in nature, though the sudden use of such destructive force caused the world around them to begin to shake. Great ravines opened up all around, causing the bodies making up the ground to go falling in. Directly behind them formed another Void-like gateway, the same as the one they’d originally entered.
Vallois had just managed to his feet to close in on the group when the ground around them began to slowly break and crumble, giving way to a dark abyss beneath. Mimiru kept hold of the aether used to make her barriers. Using the third and closest layer, she broke the barrier into multiple hexagonal platforms, creating bridges across the crevasses for each person to have safe passage across the abyss below.
Unmei pushed herself to her feet, peering down to see the ground giving way beneath them. She glanced around frantically in search for somewhere to go other than down, her eyes landing on the newly formed portal. Making use of the platforms Mimiru had created, she quickly dashed across them toward the Voidportal.
Worren spotted a portal in the distance. "There!" He pointed. "Another portal. Lan, orders?" Lan returned to his feet when the world started to shake and break apart around them. "This is growing very annoying." He turned to survey the area and pointed to the gateway. "We have no choice! Vallois, stick with Unmei now. Let's go!" Lan lowered his spear and advanced through the portal with Kylar not far behind him.
Alyeis held onto Ririn's arm and pulled him to stand on the platform Mimi had made. Ririn'to turned to Alyeis, and then to the portal. "Oh, you know, collapsed lung, severe internal bleeding, ribs probably in places I wouldn't want them to be. I'm cool," he pulled on Alyeis as they moved along the path, waiting a second to breathe before making the final few steps into the vortex, making sure Alyeis was still attached to him.
Vallois didn't have to be told twice, already doing his best to keep up with Unmei. His head was still ringing in pain thanks to the blasts he'd suffered earlier, but he managed to hop across the platforms to leap in directly behind Unmei once he ensured she made it safely through.
The portal dumped Unmei into a room not unlike before, though instead of a field of flowers, she was in a vast forest. She tumbled gracelessly through the vortex, landing sprawled across the grass on her hands and knees. Ririn fell to his knees, coughing up smoke once more. On his hands and knees, his head dropped. "Five minutes." He sighed and leaned up to relax on his legs, still sitting down. "Five fucking minutes. Give me five minutes before throwing more shit at me."
Unmei glanced around, finding Vallois and several of the others missing before the portal disappeared behind them, only Ririn'to, Lan, and Mimiru still with her. "Wh-what happened t'the others!?" she blurted out. Hearing Unmei, Ririn'to looked around for the others. "Oh fuuuuuck meeee," he shouted in annoyance, but Unmei could not dwell on the matter long before something else caught her eye.
It was a familiar scene, yet an entirely different now from the perspective of being on the outside looking in. There was a long, winding dirt road that seemed to perfectly bisect the trees, only it wasn’t entirely vacant. Resting upon the road was a figure perfectly matching Unmei’s, the poor Miqo’te crawling forward with some sort of weakness. She seemed to be beaten, scratched, and torn asunder by the various elements of the woods. Before long, that same robed figure from before came along and knelt at the woman’s side. The real Unmei's eyes widened before narrowing sharply as the masked man entered. Now this was a part she did not remember... He seemed to watch until she perished, fascinatingly canting his head this way and that until the last of her life finally left her form. Then, he knelt down to lift her body and began to trail along with her into the distance. Where they both vanished, another gateway appeared.
"No," she murmured under her breath in disbelief as she struggled to comprehend the scene. Confusion, fear, and ultimately anger passed across her features as she clenched her teeth. "NO!" this time the word was a shouted protest and she suddenly charged forward blindly toward the gateway, bent on finding out what would await her on the other side.
Mimiru frowned and she gripped her staff, muttering. Watching Unmei charge ahead, she stared like the girl was an idiot. She then looked at Lan, before stepping forward after the girl. "I don't want to lose more people." Lan nodded to Mimiru as he quickly moved to catch up to Unmei. His long legs closed the gap quickly. "Unmei, hold on a moment! We need to stay together!"
Ririn'to looked up to Unmei as she charged. "Wait!" He stood himself up with his staff and sighed. "C'mon, man. It's at least green here before everything turns into a murder-fun-house mirror..." He stepped forward finally and followed the others.
Unmei, fortunately for them, did not rush ahead of the group through the portal. Whether it be in compliance to their requests or simply because her legs gave out beneath her, she dropped to the ground right in front of the portal, skidding to a stop on her knees. She lifted her hands to furiously wipe away the hot tears that streamed down her freckled cheeks, struggling to catch her breath through her sobs. Lan sighed and knelt down beside the young lady to offer his hand. "Unmei, we will find Cyrus and the others, but we must be cautious and stay together, okay?" He managed to offer her a warm smile while he waited for her to take his hand.
Catching up again, Ririn'to stood next to Unmei, looking to the portal at first and then down to her. "So far, we've fallen into a flower field made out of the bodies of every imaginary friend that was ever conceived, been exploded by exploding wisps made out of fucking explosions, all the while most of the time the floor happens to be made out of material that would rather give out at very climatic times than stay long enough for me to stop coughing up blood." He sighed and gave a humored, fang-bearing smirk. "One of these is going to lead to what you are after. You just have to make sure I can keep up long enough to find the room made out of pure whiskey."
Unmei seemed to entirely shaken by what she had seen, wrapping her arms around her own small frame and shivering, eyes of brown and green staring ahead unseeingly at the portal. She gave no sign of noticing Lan at all, her eyes still glued straight ahead. She ignored his offer of assistance, instead slowly drawing herself to her feet. She had indeed heard Lan's words, and Ririn'to's, as well. However, after what she had just witnessed, there was now far more on her mind than the safety of her lover and questions of what had happened to him. Silently, she shuffled slowly toward the portal, waiting for the others to follow.
"A room made of whiskey would not help us. We need to move forward to negotiate an escape in some way." Mimiru followed Unmei toward the portal.
Ririn'to turned his head. "Us? Oh, no. No, not us." He smirked. "But you know, if we do find one, I'll give some dramatic speech about moving on without me or some crap. The organization looks like it's filled with self-sacrificial heroes to whomever you tell the story to." He bore another fang as he turned his shoulders to look back more, pointing a thumb against his own chest. "I get to be in a constant state on inebriation until all of that crap is turned into bones and flesh." He shuddered a moment, fake sniffling. "My poor whiskey..." He straightened himself and his demeanor and expression fell to an emotionless state once more.
Lan put a firm hand on Unmei's shoulder and immediately drew it back as if he had been shocked. His eyes stayed on her for a moment as his ears perked up, but then he shook his hand and turned toward the portal. "I'll go first. You three, just stick close behind me." He cast another glance at the Miqo'te girl, feeling that odd sense of knowing her face, but he shrugged it off and stepped through the portal. Nodding, Ririn'to peered into the gateway. "All right, Miss Unmei and Miss Mimiru should be neither first or last. I'll take up the rear." Unmei slipped through the portal behind Lan, her normally expressive features entirely blank.
The second area they found themselves in seemed much like before, a lab of sorts with thick, brick walls and cold, stone floors. There were various beakers and burners and alchemical objects, along with slabs that held cadavers and the like. There were jars of objects cut from animals like talons and eyes and fangs, while others seemingly came from things that couldn’t have possibly existed in Eorzea. A faint humming could be heard behind one of the large, massive shelves in the lab. What could it have been?
Unmei allowed her gaze to wander the new room. Slowly, she paced about, eyeing all the various strange and grotesque items and experiments. She couldn't seem to find the will to even be disturbed at this point. Her ears swiveled this way and that in search of the humming sound, and she allowed her feet to carry her in the perceived direction of the noise. Lan padded alongside Unmei, his spear at the low ready as they advanced deeper into the room.
Ririn'to entered the room and stayed silent, his voided eyes looking around and studying the equipment from afar. Placing his hands on his hips, he stretched, his condition improving enough for him to stop coughing. His ears instead flickered randomly at a frequent pace.
Stepping around the corner, they would found the same robed man as before, but also the Elezen that had accompanied Unmei. He floated freely in the tube before him, filled with aetherial shards that seemed to be feeding the cadaver aether to keep it at least somewhat intact. The body itself seemed to be in perfect form, and all about the room were ‘failed’ attempts. Some bodies sagged in place, half-formed, while others were mere lumps and piles of flesh that hadn’t quite made it through one of the early stages of work.
Unmei stiffened at the sight of the robed man, immediately freezing, her tail going completely stiff behind her. She glanced between him and Vallois, and then to all the other bodies in the room, or at least what remained of them. When she finally remembered how to move, she stumbled a step backward, nearly tripping and falling. "I-I don't understand," she murmured.
Mimiru drummed her fingers on her staff as she looked around. She blinked, however, at the masked man. Lan reached within his coat and produced a small leather pouch. He slowly shifted forward a bit, cautiously advancing.
Ririn stepped forward, taking his staff out preemptively but leaning on it as he watched, his fake demeanor lazy and uninterested. "Is my cage in here? I'm really starting to think that a cage of crippling loneliness is more fun than a psycho laboratory filled with people I don't even know." He pulled out a flask and unscrewed it, sipping from it and replacing it. Turning his head, he gestured to the robed man as he whispered to the others, "No, but seriously, who is that guy?"
Lan shot Ririn a look and held his finger to his own lips, and then made an arcing motion with his hand, trying to convey that he wanted the other man to swing wide. The man continued to work, not seemingly noticing them. "No... No, that's not right. I need more aether," he spoke aloud to himself, a frown escaping his lips. "But where are those crystals..?" He turned and began to make his way further back into the lab.
Ririn'to kept quiet, shifting his footing as he waited for Lan to give some kind of go ahead or to make a move himself, though his footing showed he was ready to move to a better position. Half his attention was on Lan, the other half looking to the stuff in the room, trying to figure out what was in the way.
Unmei swallowed the lump in her throat uncertainly. "I-it's not really him... he's not really here... another illusion..." she uttered softly. Deeming it safe, she ventured a hesitant step forward to peer into the tube at the familiar Elezen within. For all intents and purposes, it was Vallois. He remained in the tube as Unmei drew near, floating lifelessly in the aether-charged liquid. Even before their eyes he seemed to change, his features growing softer and more perfected while his body continued to soak up the life essence trapped in the crystals.
Mei stared up at the Elezen for some time, the tears beginning to flow down her striped cheeks once more before she lifted her hand, balling it into a small fist and throwing a decidedly weak and halfhearted punch at the glass of the tube, causing it splinter, before she slowly slid down to the ground, defeated, to rest on her knees. She looked up as the glass began to crack, quirking an eyebrow. Surely she hadn't been the cause of that... and she hadn't. The Vallois within had lurched forward, his arms extended so that his hands clasped around the Seeker girl's throat and began to choke the life from her. The two were be haloed in a mixture of shrapnel and broken glass, along with that aetherically charged liquid flowing out and flooding the nearby area. She lifted her own hands, grasping futilely at the Elezen's wrists to try to tug his hands away from her neck.
"No!" Lan burst forward, his spear aimed for the side of the Elezen's torso, already setting up to make his normal twisting gesture to create a piercing and tearing wound. Lan's spear pierced Vallois' side, causing the Elezen's eyes to grow wide and ultimately freeze. He looked from Unmei to the spear and the red liquid that slowly dripped from his side.
Ririn immediately moved toward them, his attention on the attacker. Mimiru watched as Lan attacked Unmei's attacker, though she kept her attention on the masked man. If the man noticed anything going on, he certainly didn't make any mention of it, not even so much as a glance toward the struggle. Meanwhile, Vallois swiped one powerful arm across to backhand Lan away, a move that also caused him to lose his grip on Unmei.
Unmei coughed and struggled to regain her breath, scrambling on the ground across liquid and broken glass alike to move further away from the Elezen. "No! Stop! Don't hurt him!" she shouted between gasps for air, the words apparently meant for both Lan and Vallois. Lan wrenched his spear up in time to block the blow with the haft, but the strike caused the weapon to almost fly from his grasp. He skirted backward, but moved to put himself between the Elezen and Unmei. "Ririn, Mimiru, can either of you hit him? Something is off here!"
Unmei managed to regain her bearings, pushing herself into a crouching position with a wince. "V-Vallois! Stop! I-it's me! Unmei!" she pleaded. She doubted it would have any effect, but she was well into desperation at this point. She dashed past Lan and all but throw herself at the Elezen in some attempt to either calm or restrain him, or take the blow if he'd lash out again, but she was too late.
"I'm on it!" Ririn'to called out possibly too enthusiastically. He threw the staff up and caught it by the end of the shaft. Doing a full body turn, he baseball-bat swung as he turned 180 degrees to put as much physical force as he could behind the swing, the large crystal sphere that was the head of his staff clubbing Vallois in the head with a blow hard enough to rearrange some of the features on his face. Vallois backpedaled back into the tank and settled there. The previously placed wound by Lan's spear had completely vanished. Soon enough, any sign that he'd been bashed in the head was gone, as well.
Unmei only sank to the floor, useless. There was nothing she could do but watch on in horror. Vallois surged forward again, this time taking a piece of glass along with him. The Elezen threw an elbow back at Ririn'to, intent on smashing into the bridge of his nose in an almost vengeful retaliation.
Ririn'to smirked triumphantly as his swing connected. "Oh cool I actually hit a gu-- ohfuckme--" his words were interrupted by an elbow to the face he wasn't nearly fast enough to react to properly. His head instinctively ducked, but not quick enough as the elbow connected instead just slightly higher than aimed--at the bridge of his nose between the eyes. Staggering backward, his metal talons of a hand covered his face as he looked to the man in anger, his demeanor changing suddenly and drastically. "You fucking little shit." He was a few fulms away and held his staff up properly, glowing dark red. As he pulled his arms away in a snapping motion, a small red ball shot toward the man.
Unmei squeezed her eyes shut, clamping both hands over her ears as if all of this would just cease to be happening if she couldn't see or hear it. "Stop. Stopstopstopstop!" she repeated the words beneath her breath in a crazed whisper. Slowly, the cadavers and various blobs of flesh and body parts around the room began to stir, as if alive with some unnatural force. The majority of them all headed straight for Vallois, gripping onto him and to hold him in place and restrain him. A few stragglers also crept toward Lan and Ririn'to to give them the same treatment.
"Damn it!" Lan threw himself at Unmei to push her out of the way of the tank, knocking her aside. The girl's eyes flashed open, left eye displaying a violent red glow, the right an eerie lime green. Mimiru simply summoned a personal magical barrier between herself and the explosion that could follow.
Vallois pressed forward after Lan, only to find the cadavers and various lumps of flesh grip onto his body. He tugged at them, but their combined strength was just too much. Eventually, the flames from Ririn'to's blade consumed him with a small explosion and his flesh boiled. It seemed that, not unlike the others, the creation was wholly unstable. All it took was this sudden reaction for the Vallois to dissolve into the same pile of goo that made up some of the other flesh creatures roaming about the area.
As Lan landed, he found his leg clutched by the torso of a cadaver. He kicked at the thing, freeing himself, "Fucking magic!" A hand gripped Ririn's ankle and he prodded it with his staff. "Hey... hey... shoo. Go away." Ririn'to waggled his leg and shook it violently before the hand snapped off and slid across to the other side of the room. The glow from Unmei's eyes flickered out and all the other bodies fell equally limp and lifeless, her nose wrinkling. She crawled backward until she felt the cold, stone wall at her back, using it for support to drag herself to her feet.
Lan got to his feet and retrieved his spear. "We need to keep moving, I guess." He looked toward Mimiru and called out, "Is this some sort of illusion?" Ririn'to looked to the others, "Well, considering how I still am pretty sure my insides are broken, it's real enough to kill us, but fake enough to make us look really bad at our jobs."
The robed man came back in, peering down at the mess and giving a small frown. "...Damnit. Another failure. When will I ever learn to create the perfect vessel...?" he asked into the air. He turned and took a few steps away from them, then vanished to reveal another gateway.
Unmei shakily pushed herself from the wall, brushing the dirt and shards of glass from herself, several small cuts marring her pale skin. She studied the newly formed portal before she hesitantly eyed over the others. "Is everyone okay? Are we ready t'move on?" Lan scrubbed a hand through his hair as he scowled at the portal before looking at the Miqo'te girl, "I'm fine for now. We should try to press on, though. We don't know the way out, and we have yet to locate Cyrus."
Mimiru took some time to consider Lan's words as she watched the man wander away and the other portal appear. "An illusion... no. This place does not have the same metaphysics as our own, Lan. It is... much more complicated. Thoughts shape it, and not always our own, though I think our fears do effect it. We must keep our thoughts as quiet as possible, and not ponder the worst case scenarios as we wander through portals. However, I do think someone is guiding us to something, and has split us to test us."
Unmei frowned. "I think it's like... like bein' in someone's head. The things here... none of them are real, but some of them're real here." She stifled a sigh. "I agree with Mimiru... but the problem is we don' know if we're bein' led t'somethin' good, or somethin' bad..." She eyed the portal warily. "Let's go."
"Good and bad is relative. Voidsent are not exactly evil, just alien to us. But dangerous, that would seem to be a given state of affairs," Mimiru said with a chuckle, walking to the portal.
Ririn'to looked to the rest and nodded, sighing and moving with them. "Can we please, though, keep the beating the shit out of me to a minimum? I'm running out of body parts." He turned his head momentarily before looking back to the group and moving forward. "And I don't want any of those on the ground."
Lan took the lead through the portal, his spear leading the way as he stepped through, followed by Unmei and the others. The third portal gave way to a change of scenery. They were suddenly in a library, the robed man bent over a book with several stacks of others close by. “No,†he called out desperately, hands clenching into fists and slamming into the cold, hard wood. “No! It has to be possible! There has to be a way!†He continued to read quickly, judging by the way that his head shifted back and forth, until he shot out of his chair.
“That’s it! That’s... that’s how I’ll find her!†He turned with a majestic sway of his robe and walked toward the group, vanishing before he actually came across them. The world around them suddenly began to shift and change, giving way to place them once more in with the rest of the group.
When Vallois suddenly appeared, it was just as whatever Worren had stated to him suddenly hit his mind. He whirled around to face the man, his silvery eyes narrowing out into something venomous. "You're the fucking reason it took so long in there. You call yourself a leader? Think before you strike at something. THAT is both reckless and irresponsible." He stepped forward to jab a finger at the man's chest. "And if you ever threaten me with her life again, I'll rip out your tail in shove it down your godsdamned throat. So WHAT if I'm closer to her than a guard? Fuck you and mind your own business."
It wasn't until after that he realized there were others here with him, turning about to look at the group in kind. When he spotted Unmei, he glanced away from her to peer down at the ground--apparently sullen by what she may have heard and what he'd seen in the rooms before them.
"If you're more than her guard, then you'll reconsider your words. How about you think about her instead of yourself for once?" Worren's voice rang out.
Unmei didn't yet know or care where they'd landed themselves this time. She also didn't seem to care that she'd caught Vallois in the middle of an argument with Worren. "Vallois!" The second she saw the Elezen, she bolted toward him, all but throwing herself at him, tossing her arms around him and burying her head into his stomach, weeping.
Ririn'to appeared, his arms crossed as he heard the words. He was a few fulms away as he called out into the room, "This is the part of the opera where you either kiss or poison someone." He smirked. "We have so much time for this. We need to find professor douche-canoe and get the fuck out of here." He looked to Unmei. "Not until we find what we came here for, at least."
Mimiru leaned on her staff, and Lan immediately raised his voice just a bit but put steel behind it. "All right, you two, shut the hells up. Are you all okay, and did you find Cyrus?"
Faolan glared at them. "Shut the hell up," he said, irritated. "We won't get out of here if we keep arguing amongst ourselves. Save it for later." He looked around, relieved to find the others in the room.
Alyeis growled at the two bickering men, "Shut the hell up and deal with all that later..." She looked up at the others who were in the room, a little shocked at first, but then stood back, blades from before still drawn, her hand discolored from suspected flame damage. Her tights were shredded and wounds cauterized. As she looked at the group, she held a blade out towards Ririn. "Tell me what we fought about last night. Only in a few words. One name, even, and I'll know you aren't a fake." Her words weren't warm; they were feral and distrusting of anything.
Vallois froze, both by the words Worren had spoken and the instructions to shut the hell up from multiple sources. Furthermore came Unmei’s arms around him, which he returned in kind by wrapping his own back around her frame. He quickly began to look her over for signs of any wounds, finding her certainly covered in cuts and scrapes and bruises, but nothing dire. He parted his lips to speak, but thought the better of it and gently pushed her away. She peered up at him questioningly, hurt flashing briefly across her delicate features, but she didn't have the will to protest or question it currently. Worren had been right—he needed to focus on her and her needs, and right now, he quite simply wasn’t one of them.
Lan looked at the group and frowned a bit. "Wait a moment... Kylar was not with you guys?"
“No,†Vallois responded, “we assumed he was with you.â€
"Did you come across any creatures?" Worren asked the others.
"Can we not worry about that later? Let's find the girl's fiancé," Vallois gruffed out.
Lan's scowl deepened. "Yes, but all that can wait. As Vallois just mentioned, we need to find Cyrus, and Kylar, if possible."
Unmei nodded absently in agreement with Lan and Vallois before she gave her first real glance around the room. She found herself in yet another lab-like area. It seemed very much the same as before, what with the different alchemical objects and the like littering the room.
"This room. We've been to this room several times now. Every time we break the illusion, we end up in this room again, with a new one. We have to break the cycle somehow," Worren spoke.
Ririn'to turned to Alyeis, glaring a moment. "Eridanah, hate her. Aalriya, not-entirely-relevant-to-our-argument-but-I-would-still-quite-enjoy-watching-her-set-aflame." He pondered a moment as he paced. "Now, I need to ask YOU something important." He stomped over to her, getting close to her and glaring with a hateful demeanor before pulling back and exposing a flap in his coat. All the flasks but one were accounted for; one strap empty. His voice was much calmer and in a humorous tone, "Have you seen my flask? I dropped it somewhere and I'm very sad that she's gone."
Alyeis smirked a little, placing her blades back at her hip, "Good. It's you... no one else is that messed up." She grabbed Ririn's arm and pulled him for a hug, a tight one and a quick one. "Okay..." she sighed, letting him go. "Let's play again."
Mimiru finally sighed. She looked up at nothing in particular and called out, "Hello? Are you watching us right now? Because if you are, I'd like to just talk and get home. I have books to read and plants to water." Looking back, Alyeis smiled to Mimiru.
Back against one of the walls came a heavy wheezing sound. Unmei immediately perked up at the sound, her ears standing straight up along her skull. Without even confirming anyone else had heard the sound, she darted off in its direction.
"Unmei!" Lan growled under his breath and quickly set off after her, Faolan following not far behind. "I'm going to put that girl on a leash..." Lan grumbled. Alyeis, too, chased after her. "Unmei!" she echoed. "We don't need to rush so much!"
They soon found the source of the noise. To say that the Midlander was chained up wouldn’t have been entirely correct, as he was missing his right arm entirely, left with little more than a nub tied off by a piece of cloth. He slumped forward in the shackles on the wall, the steel biting into the flesh of his wrist and eating to the bone. His naked form was nothing that it had been, muscle and bones having atrophied into something less than savory. It seemed as if he hadn’t eaten in weeks, or at least had only been fed the bare minimum to keep him alive. His breathing was ragged and forced, struggling to get even the tiniest of breaths out. Truly, the only thing to make him noticeable was the short, raven black hair and the otherwise pale skin.
Ririn'to moved with the others that chased after Unmei. Reaching the man chained to the wall, he stopped. "Hoooooly fu--..." He peered a bit. "Never mind, I'm gunna stop bitching about getting beaten up now." He pulled his staff out preemptively. "Well then, where's the robed guy?"
"Cyrus!" Unmei cried out in shock and joy and horror and--everything. She rushed to his side, skidding across the floor to kneel next to him. "Cyrus," she cooed softly, lifting one hand to brush her fingers gently over his gaunt cheek, coaxing him to look up into her eyes. "H-hey. It's okay now. W-we're here. We're gonna get you home." She struggled to blink back her tears.
Worren followed in irritation. "What is with these two and rushing off alone? They'll get themselves killed, for sure. Everyone wants to try my patience today, it seems." He eventually caught up to the others. "...is it another illusion..? Is that really him? Be careful. The last room, there was another illusion, but became real when touched, and very dangerous," he spoke up. Alyeis eyed Unmei and then the Hyur who hung before them, tilting her head and taking a closer look, "I actually think it would be more satisfying for them to provide us with this very real horror than a fake at this point. They know we expect it."
Mimiru frowned at the lack of a response. She turned and made her way toward the others. She continued to talk out loud to nothing, "I know you are at least aware of us. You would not give him to us if you did not get something in return. I am not so naïve to think that we have somehow outsmarted you, or that we are taking from you without your knowing. Do not play me for a fool."
"Okay, looks like it might be him. Everyone, be on your guard. Hmm... Worren, let's just do this the easy way; see if your axe can break those chains," Lan commanded.
Cyrus finally looked up into the Unmei's eyes at her urging, his lids opening to offer only black, endless holes; the beautiful, light blue eyes that had once been there long-since removed. He parted his lips to speak, but found it near impossible to do so with how parched his throat was. Instinctively, the Midlander leaned in towards her and he only managed out a hoarse "K... ... l... m... e..."
Ririn inhaled deeply and exhaled the same. His demeanor again shifted to a much more strict and reserved. He did not comment on the situation, but instead turned away to watch the rest of the room with his staff still drawn.
Unmei swallowed the lump in her throat, shaking her head frantically. "No. N-n-n-n-no. Yer gonna be okay. We're gonna get you home. E-everything will be all right, okay?" she did her best to reassure him, but it wasn't exactly convincing with the way her voice cracked with her tears. She slipped her hand around him to tangle her fingers into his dark hair, cradling his head to her shoulder. "H-help him! Help him down!" she desperately pleaded to anyone who'd listen.
Worren shouldered his axe and stepped forward. "Unmei, I will be releasing him from his bonds now. Please stand back for your own safety... if he attacks." He readied his axe low. "The masked man and the creature the group I was with just fought have something in common. It'll grab and absorb your aether. If this man is not who he is, you will need to stand back!" He raised his axe up to send it to the side. Unmei shook her head stubbornly, refusing to let go of the man or leave his side now that she'd found him. Worren held his strike at the very last second. "Hng..."
Vallois came around just in time to notice the scene. He went immediately silent, bowing his head low, remaining respectfully quiet. There was no response to Mimiru, unless one counted the way that the world shook and shuddered around them. The walls suddenly ripped from around them, revealing nothing but pitch blackness and that same Voidal darkness as before. This seemed different, however--it seemed as if the Void itself was eating the very world around them, slowly closing in. Another gateway opened in the center of the room, and again Cyrus tried to speak. "Ki.. ki... m... pl..se.." A single tear streamed down the left side of his cheek as he pleaded for them to end his suffering.
Alyeis's attention was brought to Mimi. "The bastards just want us shaken with a real flesh here. That's all. Looking after a broken body is a lot of work. It makes those defenseless an easy target for the picking."
Faolan stepped forward toward the man Unmei was holding and looked over at Worren. "Worren, just do it. If he makes any wrong moves, we can handle it," he said with a nod, then looked down at the Midlander, ready for an attack.
Mimiru looked at the world around the group, then at the portal, before finally looking at the group itself. She looked to Rir. "Melt the chains if they can't cut them."
Worren nodded to Faolan, and swung once more, aiming for the chain. "Fuck it. It's now or never!" The chain broke and Cyrus slumped forward, but there was still the matter of the chains holding his legs in place. Ririn'to almost lost his balance, his own body still severely wounded, but nowhere close to the man on the wall. "Oh for goddess' sake, let's fucking GO." He rushed to the man's feet to grab both of the last chains, heating his hands with fire to melt through. "I DIDN'T FUCKING GET ALLLLL THE WAY FUCKING HERE," he pulled on the chains to break them off, "GET BEATEN THE SHIT OUT OF, PUNCHED, GRABBED AND LOST MY ALCOHOL FOR FUCKING THIS."
The space about them grew smaller and smaller by the moment, forcing them to clump together lest they find themselves eaten by the Void. The Midlander let out a sudden, painful and throaty scream as his body began to convulse and shift in place. His skin began to rip and tear in various places, forcing out extra limbs and wings and fingers in places they quite simply shouldn't be. "KILL..." he cried out again, clinging for Unmei now that she was so near to him, "...ME...."
Unmei's eyes widened in horror and she reluctantly released the man as he began to turn into something else, slowly crawling backwards away from him, terror written across her tear-soaked features. Lan's blue eyes took on that icy calm as he watched them try to free Cyrus. Suddenly seeing what was going on, he surged forward and knocked Unmei away roughly for her to crumple to the floor in a shaking, sobbing lump. "Get back! It's a trap! All of you, back up! Vallois, get her out of here! The rest of you, leave, as well! That is an order!"
Alyeis turned to look at the man, or what once was one. She ripped her blades from her sides again and smiled at the creature. "We can't dance in this room; it will close. We'll have to dance in the next one." She eyed the creature and grabbed Ririn's wrist, then let go, remembering what happened last time. She rushed into the other portal.
Mimiru frowned and sighed as she made her way to the portal's edge. "He is either not real, or we lack the time to save him." Upon hearing Lan's words, she nodded to his direction, and entered the portal. Faolan was ready to land a punch on Cyrus, but as Lan shouted an order, he turned and backed up from Cyrus, going toward the new portal that appeared.
The Void continued to close in, threatening to swallow them all. By now, the group had only a good fifteen yalms or so to operate in. Vallois rushed forward to take Unmei and pulled her to her feet. "Come on, we've got to get out of here!" The mutated blob reached out for anyone--anything--near it, be it Ririn'to, Lan, or someone else.
"Kill it," Vallois cried out to them. "Don't let it suffer like that. You can't. For her!"
"No!" Unmei shrieked, weakly but violently struggling to escape Vallois's grasp as he grabbed her. "Don't hurt him!!"
"Unmei, STOP!" He struggled to retain his grip on her and pulled back. "You've GOT to get going!" He gripped tightly onto her and rushed back into the portal with her. Unfortunately for her, she was half the man's size and had no hope of eluding him even if she hadn't been a hysterically sobbing mess. She was helplessly dragged along, literally kicking and screaming. As she was carried through the portal, she watched the thing that was once her lover disappear as she and the others were thrust back into Eorzea instead, spat out onto the lawn of the company estate.
![[Image: NCtCate.png]](http://i.imgur.com/NCtCate.png)
