Ch 48: Persona

Grey struggles against Scott, and Fox and Mythra face off against the Hadrox Matriarch. Rushing to their aid in the transport, Amy and Serius prepare to use Persona to rescue Alexander's mind.

            Standing behind Ace, who sat in the driver’s seat in the front car of the transport, Gibolu sounded impatient as he said, “Come now Ace, you aren’t fooling me at all. Since your return to the troupe you’ve seemed as though you’ve been hiding something.” Not looking at him, Ace said, “Nope, sorry. Nothing. Trying to drive here, if you don’t mind…” Sitting in the passenger seat next to Ace, Mana said, “Ace, I can tell you’ve been acting rather different since you came back from Daemonholm. Everyone’s entitled to secrets, but that was dangerous just now!” Keeping his eyes fixed on the road, Ace replied, “You know, just because Dewie’s driving the back end of this thing doesn’t mean I can relax. It takes concentration to drive something this big. Like you said, everyone has the right to keep stuff secret.” Pointing at Ace dramatically, Gibolu exclaimed, “AHA! You have been keeping secrets from us! It has something to do with our fellow travelers, doesn’t it?! First the faire and now this, just what does it all mean?! It’s also odd for them to have stayed so long in Daemonholm given the current state of affairs, not to mention be invited to dinner with the Count of Gatria himself.” 

Suddenly reaching around the drivers seat, Gibolu grabbed Ace by the shoulders and started shaking him as he exclaimed, “What incredible, amazing, wondrous tale is there behind our fellow travelers?! Just tell me already Ace! I can’t take the suspense any longer!” Struggling not to crash, Ace slammed on the brakes as he shouted, “What the hell are you doing?! Stop before you get us all killed you lunatic!” A horn blared as the hover car behind them quickly put on their brakes as well. Then as the transport came to a halt, the door opened behind them and Serius stepped in. As they all turned their heads to look at him, Serius said, “Am I interrupting?”

            Laughing nervously, Gibolu waved Serius’ question away as he said, “No, no, not in the least! We were merely discussing ideas for our fantastic, truly spectacular show!” Dewie’s voice came over an intercom at the controls of the transport, saying, “What what what are you doing up there Ace?!” Quickly Ace pushed a button and said, “Don’t worry Dewie, it’s under control now…” Satisfied that he was not interrupting anything important, Serius said, “We need to get down to the harbor quickly. Dock 23 to be precise.” Blinking in surprise, Gibolu said, “The harbor? I regret to inform you, but the harbor is closed due to the construction of Marsalia Isle, a much anticipated theme park owned by Count Ferid. You won’t be able to find any commercial transportation there.” Serius’ eyes narrowed and he seemed to dwell on this information for a moment. 

Then the hover transport began moving again, Ace pouring on the speed as he said, “Dock 23 right? Let’s get moving! I got a message to deliver…” Looking bewildered, Gibolu’s halman cat ears drooped and he said, “Didn’t I just say the harbor is closed? What message? I feel so left out…” The ringmaster hung his head and fell into a state of depression as Serius turned to go. Trying to get to the bottom of things, Mana said, “Wait Serius, can’t you tell us what’s happening? I’m not trying to pry, but don’t we have the right to know if we’re in danger?” As Serius looked back, Ace said, “Yeah, get em off my back already.” After a short moment of consideration, Serius turned to face them once more and raised his left hand to display the signet ring on his finger as he said, “I am Serius Decus Matuia, the Lord of Mautau, also known as Serius the Unbound of Angelorum Lux.” The crest of Mautau upon it, the ring was proof of his words.

            Gibolu and Mana stared at him a moment, and then with a weak smile, Mana said, “Really now Serius, it’s not like you to joke around like this!” Then she almost jumped out of her seat as Gibolu raised his floating hands up high and loudly exclaimed, “OH, WHAT GLORIUS FORTUNE!” Rolling his eyes, Ace muttered, “Here we go…” Completely ignoring his comment and beginning to spin in place, Gibolu ranted on, “Oh, what a joyous coincidence! What a grand twist of fate! To think that the heroes of old, warriors of legend, champions of justice, would grace our fair troupe even as only temporary members! It is an honor beyond my greatest hopes! Ace, inform Dewie over the intercom at once! We must brainstorm to devise a proper welcome for-” Interjecting, Ace said, “Boss, I don’t think it’s the time for that kind of brainstorming! We’re smack in the middle of a battle between Angelorum Lux and Count Ferid!” 

Still struggling to accept it all, Mana turned to Ace and said, “Why would they be fighting Count Ferid though? I thought they were just having dinner with him!” Shrugging his shoulders, Ace simply said, “I ain’t completely up to date on things either.” In answer to her question, Serius said, “Count Ferid has been using magical power to create sprites for the purpose of being his private army of trained assassins, all under the banner of Ala Morte, the legendary sprite assassins. Bella, our new friend, was a sprite who had escaped. We had planned to use Ferid’s dinner invitation as a chance to launch a preemptive strike, but according to Amy, the others have fallen into their trap instead. According to Bella, near Dock 23 is a secret entrance into the ruins of an ancient prison buried beneath the city, which the enemy has been using as a base of operations. Casa De Ala Morte, as they’ve dubbed it.” With a sour look, Ace muttered, “I figured you guys were on a rescue mission, but those are some seriously tall odds…” Gravely, Serius said, “It gets worse. It seems Altera Veritas, The Dark Crusade, has some involvement in this as well.” 

Clearly upset, Mana was fighting back tears as she said, “I may only be half sprite, but for someone to… use other sprites for such horrible things…” His enthusiasm fading into quiet anger, Gibolu clenched his fists and said, “Truly an unforgivable deed. As a practitioner of the great art of magic, I cannot and will not see this go unpunished!” Gesturing dramatically, Gibolu shouted, “Onward! Gibolu’s Traveling Circus fears nothing! Together with Angelorum Lux, we shall bring swift and spectacular judgment down upon those who would dare to darken the doorsteps of the innocent!” With a sigh, Ace muttered, “So much for a rescue mission…”

            Returning to the transport’s passenger car, Mana following behind him, Serius stepped through the door and looked over to where Amy sat with eyes closed, seeming to be concentrating deeply. Moving past him, Mana walked over to where Bella sat alone, and as Serius started to move down the row towards Amy, he heard Mana saying, “Hello. It’s Bella, right? We met before, but we didn’t really talk much. Do you mind if I sit here a moment?” Staring out the window, wondering what had become of Patch, Bella did not respond. Approaching Amy, Serius said, “I must ask you something.” From the seats behind Amy where he, Rufus, and Saria all sat, Schmitt said, “Think she’s busy chief. Said somethin bout getting in contact with Alexander.” Sitting down next to Amy, Serius said, “Then I will join the conversation.” 

Closing his eyes and concentrating, Serius struggled to pick up Amy and Alexander’s thoughts. Having little success, he thought to himself, “Perhaps I still cannot manage long range telepathy. My powers are almost fully restored but… Wait, what is this?” He could suddenly hear the faint muttering of a familiar voice, repeating again and again. Recognizing the voice at last, Serius thought, “Alexander?” Suddenly, Amy’s voice said, “I don’t think he can hear us. Something’s wrong with his mind. No matter what I do, I can’t get through to him.” Finding his continuous muttering disturbing, Serius asked, “What could have happened to put him in such a state?” Amy’s voice responded, “I can’t tell, but I’m worried it was the same effect that was put on me. A prison of the mind…”

            Listening to Alexander’s constant repetitions, Serius feared for his friend’s fate. In concern, he called out to him, “Get a hold of yourself Alexander!” He only heard more muttering, and in regret he thought, “Forgive me my friend, I should have gone with you. Amy, your powers are awakened, are they not? As the Sage of Memories, can you not release his mind from such bonds?” A nervous tone in her voice, Amy said, “I’ve only just awakened my power. I can use certain abilities by tapping into the memories of past sages, but many of my more complicated abilities will require further training to safely use them.” Just as Serius was beginning to think the situation was hopeless, Amy said, “The only thing I can think of that might save him is a powerful ability known as Persona. I don’t know whether I can manage it, but with your strong psychic ability, you might be able to help me.” 

Though he was already willing to go to any lengths, Serius asked out of curiousity, “I am not familiar with the Persona ability. Just what does it do?” He paid close attention as Amy replied, “It’s difficult to explain, but using it would allow us to enter what would be perceived as a physical representation of his mind, the world born of his thoughts and memories. Once there, we would take on physical personas within that world, and we could search for his consciousness and help him recover. It’s very dangerous though, because anything that happens in there would be perceived as reality. We also won’t know what form of world we’ll be walking into.” Confident he had the general idea of the risk, without fear of the danger, Serius asked, “What must I do?”

            As Amy and Serius combined their powers, Amy used her Persona ability and Serius thought he could feel his conscious mind being pulled towards Alexander’s consciousness. Then in a flash of colors, Serius found himself in the middle of the street in an unknown city. The buildings around him were cracked and warped looking, all painted with a dank, gray color. Dim sunlight shined down through the blanket of gray clouds that covered the sky. Not a soul could be seen walking the street, and only silence hung in the air. Everything about his surrounding gave Serius a foreboding feeling. 

Appearing beside him, Amy said, “Good, we both made it through.” Glancing at her, Serius said, “Are you sure we are truly in the right place? This nightmare is the representation of Alexander’s mind?” Looking around at the world before her, Amy said, “Yeah, this place is pretty creepy. Then again, I didn’t really expect to see a bright and cheerful world. Not after what Alexander’s been through…” Serius walked over to one of the buildings and placed a hand on it. Running his hand across a large crack in the wall of the building, he thought to himself, “I suppose she’s right. Something like this… It’s only to be expected after a thousand years of pain.” Laying eyes on a tall, otherworldly looking palace far off in the center of the city, Amy said, “Time is perceived differently here, so even though it will only be about twenty minutes in the real world, I think we’ll have about an hour to find and save Alexander before Persona wears off. It’s just a hunch, but he might be somewhere in that palace.”

            Dropping to one knee, Fox panted, struggling to catch his breath. Flying on her broom above him and the spider matriarch, swerving to avoid as bits of the burning web broke off and fell, Mythra unleashed round after round of energy beams from her Elementum Orbis at the spider with no effect. Then as the spider matriarch brought down the pointed tip of its clawed foot at Fox, he leaped back just in time. As the claw struck the ground hard, stirring up a cloud of dust, Fox leaped at its head, shouting, “Haven’t had enough yet, huh?!” Fox unleashed a flaming punch to the matriarch’s face, a mighty explosion engulfing it. Falling back down to land on the ground, Fox looked up to see the smoke clear, showing the beast unharmed, protected by its seemingly impenetrable exoskeleton. The matriarch lunged with a bite from its fanged maw, and Fox grit his teeth in frustration as he braced himself. Grabbing hold of its fangs, Fox stopped the creature in its tracks, and as it struggled in his grasp, Fox shouted, “I may not be undefeated anymore, but I ain’t losin to a bug! C’mon Spellweaver, fry this thing already!” 

Willing her crystals to spread out around the spider, Mythra replied, “Sh-shut up, I’m trying!” Flipping open the Grimoire of the Spellweaver, the pages magically turned and Mythra’s violet eye glowed as she hurriedly read from it. Snapping the book shut, she shouted, “Spellweave! Ultimate Barrage and Magic Mix Barrage, take shape as the Ultimate Finisher, Twenty-One Sparks of the Spellweaver’s Wrath!” From each crystal three rune circles of the corresponding element formed and numerous star shaped concentrations of elemental power formed all around the beast as well. Still struggling with spider, as he saw the massive spell coming, Fox exclaimed, “Whoa, hold on! Are you crazy?! I’m still down here!” Beams of the different elements shot out from the rune circles as the stars moved in on the spider, and as all the attacks struck, the spider matriarch disappeared in the resulting blast of power. Blown sailing into the air, Fox shouted, “D****T WOMAN!” 

Watching him fall back down into the aftermath of the explosion, Mythra simply sighed and muttered, “You asked for it dumbass…” Then as the dust settled, having merely been knocked down by Mythra’s insanely powerful attack, the spider rose to its feet once more. Staring in disbelief, Mythra exclaimed, “You serious?! There’s no way this thing is natural! Even a steelsilk creeper wouldn’t be ok after that, and they don’t get this big. This has gotta be one of those Hadrox Spiders, created using magic and Deus Calx!” Then hanging her head with a groan, she added, “Considering I can’t stand spiders, I sure know a lot about them. Somebody save me…” Struggling onto his hands and knees, Fox muttered, “Just you wait, hotshot! I’ll show all of you…” Gathering a mass of EDE around himself, he shouted, “YOU CAN COUNT ON ME WHEN THE CHIPS ARE DOWN!”

            Mythra watched as the mass of EDE gathering around Fox crystallized into the red armor of his Arma Fusile. Yet the giant Hadrox Spider raised its clawed leg and brought it down on Fox as he was getting up. Unable to tell what happened because of all the dust stirred up by the strike, in concern Mythra shouted, “Fox! You better not be dead! Not after a line like that!” Suddenly coming into view as he quickly ran up the spider’s leg, Fox shouted, “Damn right! Just sit back and watch, cuz this is my time to shine!” Leaping off the spider’s leg and into the air, flames gathered around him as he came down fist first like a falling meteor, and with a grin Fox said, “Meteor Strike!” Slamming into the spider’s back, the creature’s armor held up against the fiery blast, but the force of Fox’s powerful strike knocked it to the ground. Channeling EDE into his right hand, Fox formed himself a long black cinder blade, and stabbing its tip against the spider’s armored body and pouring more EDE into it, he said, “Anything’ll melt at a certain temperature! All I gotta do is turn up the heat!”

            Getting up as he was attempting to burn through its armor, the spider began to try and throw Fox off. Struggling to keep his footing, Fox exclaimed, “Whoa! Sit! Stay! Bad spider!” Then spotting something out of the corner of his eyes, Fox got an idea. Leaping over to a fallen part of the spider’s web, Fox dismissed his cinder blade and ripped out a good sized chuck of webbing. As the spider dove at him with its fangs, Fox leaped up onto its head, and slinging the webbing he’d picked up around its fanged mandibles, he made a set of reins out of it. Pulling one hand free from the webbing and forming his cinder blade once again, Fox held tight to the webbing reins with his other hand as the spider tried to throw him off. Having quite the wild ride, Fox shouted, “Ride em cowboy! Yeehaw!” Watching him goof off, Mythra shouted, “We’re not here to play! Kill that disgusting thing!” 

Increasing the heat at the very the tip of his blade, Fox thought, “Geez she’s pushy! Now let’s see, the melting point of Tungsten is 3422 degrees Celsius, but we’re prolly gonna need more than that. Of course if I make the whole thing that hot it’ll cook even my flame resistant a*s! I gotta focus it all into the point of the blade!” As the point of his burning cinder blade glowed white hot, Fox muttered, “1400, 1600….” Suddenly raising its abdomen, the spider aimed over its own body and fired a strand of webbing that struck Fox in the back, to which he exclaimed, “Gah! What in the whozit?!” Quickly the spider tried to pull him off its head, but Fox held tight to the reins, focusing more EDE into the point of his cinder blade. Opening fire with her Elementum Orbis, Mythra severed the strand of webbing, and as Fox looked up at her, she grinned and said, “Hope I didn’t steal the spotlight!” Laughing, Fox flashed a grin as well and said, “There’s always room for a support character!” Feeling the heat radiating from his blade’s point, Fox said, “2000, 3000! Almost there!” 

Charging forward, the spider rushed at the wall, and Fox pulled his hand loose from the sticky reins, leaping off just as the spider smashed its own head into the side of it. Rolling to his feet and continuing to raise the heat in the point of his blade, as the spider pulled itself from the crater it had made in the wall, Fox rushed at it and leaped up above the creature as he shouted, “Ahhh yeah, 4000 degrees! We’re burning up now!” Coming down on the beast, Fox stabbed the blade into the spider’s back, and as the armor melted and his blade pushed through, he shouted, “Heat Wave!” Within the spider’s body, a blast of intense heat incinerated its insides, and leaping off the beast as it fell, Fox looked up at Mythra and grinned with a thumbs up. Crossing her arms with a reluctant smile, Mythra said, “Ok, enough messing around. Let’s hurry up and find a way out!” 

Suddenly the room began shaking, starting to lose its integrity from how the spider crashed into the side of the wall. Stating the obvious, Fox shouted, “The whole place is collapsing!” Willing her crystals about the room, Mythra hurriedly opened the Grimoire of the Spellweaver, and as the pages turned, her violet eye glowed upon reading a spell. The shaking stopped as the crystals glowed, and Fox let out a sigh of relief. Then he nearly jumped out of his skin as Mythra shouted, “Terrific! Thanks to you and that creepy spider we’re about to buried alive! Hurry up and open that door, I can’t keep channeling this spell forever!”

            Raising his swords to stop the massive orb of lightning, Grey struggled to keep it at bay as he activated his EDE Dissipation and began to dispel it. The orb quickly dissipated, but just as Grey stopped channeling EDE Dissipation, Scott’s Lightning Lash shot out and wrapped around his blades. Unleashing the energy stored within his weapon, Scott shouted, “Lockdown!” A blast of electricity coursed through Grey’s body, and as he struggled to activate his EDE Dissipation again, he found that he couldn’t. At last the electricity stopped and Grey pulled his weapons free, staggering back and dropping to one knee. Glaring up at Scott, Grey shouted, “What the hell did you just do?!” Reverting Levitas Curator back to halberd form, Scott twirled it in his hand as he said, “People’s bodies, humans, halmans, and half breeds alike, use electricity to send messages between the brain and the rest of the body. I’ve used an ability on you that uses that handy function, shutting down your brain’s commands to activate your EDE Dissipation.” 

Slowly descending from the sky to land a short distance in front of Grey, Scott gathered the remaining two lightning orbs into his halberd, transforming it into pure lightning. Grey quickly struggled to his feet and readied himself, and with a dark look in his green eyes, Scott said, “Time to die.” Speeding forward with his Thundering Wrath, Scott swung with his lightning halberd. Grey could barely manage to block with his swords, and electricity coursed through his blades and into his body as their weapons met. Pouring on the voltage, Scott said, “Lightning generated or manipulated using EDE usually can’t pass through your enemy’s Anima Weapon due to EDE interference issues, but I’ve discovered a way around that. By itself my lightning can’t pass, but in the form of an electromagnetic charge it can. Once the charge is in your blade, it gives the electricity itself a direct path to follow.” 

His strength draining as he was slowly being electrocuted, Grey toppled as Scott finally stopped the voltage and shoved him back. Walking around Grey to stand beside him as he laid there, electricity still crackling around him, Scott raised his lightning halberd and swung it down. Raising his swords, with all his will Grey held the axe blade of the halberd back, electricity pouring into him once more. Struggling against it despite the agony, Grey thought, “I can’t hold out like this… I’m out of energy… I need…” Suddenly a voice in his mind said, “Power? Sounds like I might have a deal you’d be interested in… Hehehe…”