2023-03-03: Apocalypse
- Log: Apocalypse
- Cast: Seymour Guado, Tidus, Yuna, Lulu, Rikku, Lunata Croze, Cyre H. Lorentz, Seraph Boudicca, Fei Fong Wong, Shalune Amira, Jacqueline Barber, Pearl, Ethius Hesiod, Citan Uzuki, Elhaym van Houten, Xantia, Paine, Sin, Riesenlied, Timu Guado
- Where: Bevelle - Port District
- Date: March 03, 2023
- Summary: The battle is taken to Sin. While Gears contend with Sin from a distance, a small group of individuals on foot will attack the core of Sin.
<Pose Tracker> Seymour Guado has posed.
SEVERAL DAYS AGO
Heimdall Gazzo rose into the sky, from the ruins of Zanarkand. The immense sky fortress rose higher than anything on Lunar has flown in millennia. And, in the end of a battle between Solaris, Al Bhed, and Shevat forces, it fired -- into Sin, as the creature came fror them. The destruction was immense.
The beam of light shot across the Calm Lands, carving a fiery swath through the earth -- a canyon that has been carved into the middle of it, igniting wildfires through the central Calm Lands. Then, it slashed up into Sin.
It blasted a chunk out of the creature -- a grievous wound that threatened to bisect it. What followed was a terrible scream, an eruption of pyreflies, and then Sin dove into the waves. Or, perhaps, fell.
FIVE HOURS AGO
The image of Heimdall Gazzo ascending, the fiery gash across the Calm Lands, and the rolling wave at Sin's impact site is played out on a large holographic emitter on the bridge of the Fahrenheit. Many have gathered; several Shevat authorities, Lilka Eleniak from ARMS, and the Al Bhed. A number of Drifters, Guardians, and one Summoner are also here. Cid looks at it, his expression stern, and his arms are crossed over his chest.
"...so that's the situation, as it was a few days ago," Cid says. "We've been doing damage control for days. Shevat's sent aid to Rin, to try to control the wild fires -- and Bevelle's sent Warrior Monks, to deal with the fires. They're already calling that--"
He jabs a finger at the map, where the burning wound in the Calm Lands is. "--Vinsfeld's Scar."
"I'm... picking up a 'but,'" Lilka offers. The short, brown-haired mage looks worried. "What is it?"
"This," Cid says. Another map of Spira appears -- and there are several dots, showing movements from where Sin submerged, then steadily towards Bevelle. Bevelle's position on the map glows. "We've detected something huge, underwater, and moving."
"Sin," Brother whispers.
"Yeah. And Sin's moving faster than we've ever seen him move... and he's heaed right for Bevelle." Cid frowns, then he turns to Tidus. "So. This is it. You wanna change things? You wanna save the world? Because we're here. In five hours, Sin hits Bevelle. And kills everyone there, because he's mad. So."
Cid's eyes drill down into Tidus's. "You got a plan, kid? 'Cause I'm fresh out."
<Pose Tracker> Seymour Guado has posed.
NOW
Bevelle's harbor, red and gleaming, stretches out over the sea like a spike thrust into Spiran waters. Two airships float in the sky over it: the Fahrenheit and the Fereshte. It is not unlike the day that Yuna was to be wed; today, though, the airships are here to defend Bevelle.
The harbor has a large number of people on it. At the head of them stand three individuals: Kelk Ronso, Baralai, and Shelinda. They look at each other, then nod. Baralai turns, and calls out: "Faithful of Yevon! Spirans!" he says. "When our allies give the word... we sing the Hymn! It may be our only hope! This time, this day... let our faith ring true!"
Aboard the Fereshte, Leon Albus is stalking down the deck, and barking out orders: "I want those empathite transmitters attached and powered posthaste!" he says. "This needs to be done yesterday!"
On the Fahrenheit, Cid folds his arms, looking at the waters. A wave rises -- and then begins to break apart. Sin rises from it, drawing in gasps across the bridge. Its great, whale-like body rises from the water; its fins spread out, and the city on its back rises into the sky. Some debris already begins to get pulled in, circling in an orbit over its head as it lifts higher.
"All right," he says. "Gear detachments, your job is to fly in and deal with Sin -- hit the fins!" he says. "The rest of you... get ready! WE'RE GOING IN!"
The Fahrenheit soars in. It shoots in towards Sin, banking hard to one side as an orb of crackling gravitational energy forms where the Fahrenheit was. It ripples -- detonates with a shockwave -- and then the airship shoots in close to Sin.
On the deck, everyone has gathered. The area above Sin's mouth has a platform, with a large, shell-enclosed core. It makes something that those planning to can jump onto. The Fahrenheit soars in closer, even as Sin's mouth begins to open -- and the creatures ROARS, shaking everyone and everything nearby to their very bones.
DC: Yuna switches forms to Lady Summoner!
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
Back then, Tidus had been in midair, just off an attack on a machina that had once nearly killed him, when the attack had struck. He'd nearly fallen off the Fahrenheit, but he'd managed to grab onto the railing and pull himself up. He'd turned to look at where Sin had been--but by then, there was nothing left but the last roiling of the waves where it had been.
"Oh, boy," he'd muttered to himself, clenching his fists.
During the briefing, when Cid had gathered everyone to show and explain everything over the images of Vinsfeld's Scar--and of the moving points in the water. Tidus's fists clench anew--but when Cid stares him down, he stares him right back as he rises to his feet. He gives Yuna, Rikku, Lulu, and his other friends a quick nod in succession, a special smile given to Yuna in particular, then stands tall.
"Yeah, we do," he replies. "We weren't totally sure how to use it, but--remember a couple years ago, when we were all fighting Althena's Guard near the Temple of Leviathan, and Sin showed up? He didn't attack anyone or anything, even though we'd all just been fighting that giant kraken. He just hung out and listened quietly... to the Hymn of the Fayth."
During life, Jecht had often hummed what Tidus would later come to know as the Hymn of the Fayth. He doesn't know how or why that song was known in his Zanarkand; maybe it's just such a ubiquitous part of the dreaming of the Fayths that it can't help but exist there too. But as rowdy and obnoxious and arrogant that old drunk was, whenever he was humming the Hymn, he was always calm and quiet. It hasn't changed now that he's Sin, either. And if, as he and Yuna had discussed the other day, there really is enough of Jecht left in Sin to be able to communicate with him beyond more than just flashes...
"If he's mad? We'll just calm him down with the Hymn of the Fayth! If we do that, we might even stand a chance of cracking open that shell and beating him once and for all," Tidus concludes with a decisive nod. "So we've gotta get everyone to sing. Everyone, all over Spira!" He smiles then and looks at everyone all around the room. "You guys with me?"
And now...
The nerves Tidus feels on the deck of the Fahrenheit as Sin rises from the sea oddly remind him of how he feels just before a game. The stakes couldn't possibly be higher, though. If he fumbled a goal in a blitzball game, he'd just disappoint his team and his fans. If he fumbles it here... people will die.
He draws his sword. Not Brotherhood, though the watery blade has long served him well, but a gently undulating, almost fishhook-like blade that shimmers luminscent, heavenly blue, engraved with gold that shines like the sun. Caladbolg, it's called, and its power has been unlocked by the Celestial Mirror and the Sigil and Crest of the Sun. Tidus hasn't been running around sidequesting for months with nothing to show for it.
As gravitational force erupts and the Fahrenheit banks to avoid it, Tidus crouches, reaching out his free arm to keep his balance--and when that platform on Sin draws closer, Tidus looks sharply to one side at the woman he loves. "Yuna! Now!!"
DC: Shalune Amira switches forms to Friend to All Children - Big Shal!
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
FIVE HOURS AGO
"I am with you," Yuna says, grossly unnecessarily. The smile she gives Tidus is a little bit gross too, for those who don't like public displays of affection. It is, to put it mildly, pretty damn affectionate. Clearly these two have updated their relationship status in the last few months. They have escalated from 'puppy love' to 'that unbearable couple'.
She clears her throat.
"There is one other thing you all must know," she murmurs. "First Seymour and Mika told us some of the truth; then Yunalesca, in Zanarkand; and now the fayth themselves have revealed the ultimate truth of Sin's regeneration. It is not enough to defeat him, for he is always reborn... reborn from a summoning. The summoning of Yu Yevon. Once he was a man, and Yunalesca's father... the greatest summoner of his time, maybe ever. But in his desperation to save Zanarkand, he unleashed Sin upon the world... and, an age later, knows nothing but summoning itself. When a Final Aeon defeats Sin, it is Yu Yevon who... infects it, and transforms it into the next Sin. So, once we have defeated Jecht... it is Yu Yevon we must defeat. If we can end his summoning once and for all, by giving him no recourse, driving him from every fayth, that he finally becomes exposed, the soul that was once a man, and can be peacefully Sent to his rest, at long, long last..."
She takes a deep breath, as though she's almost afraid to say it, lest she destroy such a fragile and difficult and precious future by uttering it aloud:
"...Sin will be gone forever."
NOW
There's one more thing between the foot group and the platform they need to land on: Sin's energy field, the one it used, notoriously, to deflect Operation Mi'ihen's attacks. It flares into life as the Fahrenheit approaches.
Yuna, on deck, shouts in response to Tidus' call: "I'll open the path!"
And then she takes out her summoning rod.
---
It was here, in Bevelle, that Yuna's original rod was lost. She carried it from the day she was fully invested as a summoner by the fayth of Besaid, to the day she was forcibly married to Seymour. She surrendered it, at Mika's command, to save everyone's lives. And, a minute or two later, she discovered, in spectacular fashion, that she no longer needed a rod anymore; that the crutch of that focus was not required. That her bond to the aeons was enough on its own. Heart called to heart, soul to soul, and a miracle was made.
Since then she has mostly not used a rod. Rikku rescued the original, but it gathered dust in the inventory screen; something about that rod, which was the gift of Yevon to its priestess, did not feel right in her heretic-scarred palm, after the Via Purifico. And she's occasionally tried some others; but nothing has really stuck; and, anyway, she's mastered the art of summoning without one, after many more months of travel, of battle, of need.
But this isn't just any battle. It's Sin -- and with Sin, you need all the help you can get, no matter who you are and what you can do.
So when Tidus took her on a date that culminated in her being presented with a Blossom Crown and Blossom Scepter -- and with a Celestial Weapon -- well. She's been saving what came next for today.
She knew they'd face Sin again eventually.
---
On deck, Yuna raises Nirvana high. Empowered by the might of Moon Crest and Moon Sigil -- and, not for nothing, the affection of the Guardian who presented it to her -- it shimmers in her palms with nascent puissance; ready, even eager, to be called upon. The shaft is blue, the tassel trailing off the pommel, gold. The crown is a gorgeous thing -- there is something of the phoenix in it, in the spread wings of gold, orange, and pink, in the green eyes so perfectly of a Filgaia lost, of life and beauty that might someday be reborn -- something of Valefor, her first and most beloved aeon, also. (She'd deny it. 'It would be like having a favorite Guardian!' Unthinkable.)
The rod twists through an unfamiliar-to-most, spectacularly complex gesture; Yuna twists with it, a lissome and delicate figure fading from pink to white to deepest blue. When she stops, rod outthrust, held perfectly level, horizontal at heart's level...
...the wind comes. A wind so great that it can even be felt at the high velocities of the ship.
It carries a white and shimmering mist, which momentarily veils everything from view. In it, three sparkles are first among equals. At first they might be mistaken for pyreflies, red and indigo and yellow, but they are not.
They are seeds. And they sprout little green leaves even as they circle Yuna and come in for a gentle landing on deck, trailing petals that might be sakura, and might be crystal, and might just be ghost, the whole way down. They form an equilateral triangle with their summoner at the center, and in the moment that they enter the deck...
...they bloom. Enormous blossoms, one of each color, though three entirely different flowers, come into being; and, just for good measure, a few more smaller flowers, white and scattered, grow too. In an instant the Fahrenheit is a garden. The breeze smells so fresh that it momentarily banishes even the scent of the sea. It feels... good. Right. Like a spring morning, full of potential.
Full of hope.
Energy gathers at the tip of Nirvana -- the rest of the power of that White Wind, condensing until it becomes blinding; then Yuna spins with it, three times, bestowing a silent blessing, and a silent beckoning, on each of the giant flowerheads that surround her.
They explode into three women. Well -- three aeons. Tall Sandy, in red armor, who has some of the chiton and antennae of a praying mantis. Mighty Cindy, in indigo, with a ladybug's carapace across her back like a giant shield. And slight Mindy, the youngest, who possesses a helmet like a wasp's head -- and, also, a wasp's abdomen and stinger, pointing out behind.
"We need all your help!" Yuna tells The Magus Sisters. "Please -- clear us a path!"
Power roars off the three sisters. They shimmer with mana; it is difficult to look at them directly, somewhat like looking straight at the sun. And that's BEFORE they spring into action -- and into the air, their buglike wings extending. They circle Yuna once, affectionately, and then buzz straight towards that almighty force field.
What happens next is the longest stock footage cutscene in Final Fantasy X. For brevity's sake, we shall summarize.
First Cindy, the ladybug, does a backflip directly into Sin's energy, landing on it -- IN it -- like it is the ground. She sinks almost to her waist, and where she lands, space... changes. Warps. And even the massive bulk of Sin is momentarily lost from view, as everything in front of the airship is filled with an endless field of stars...
The three sisters rise in this warped space, and three crystals rise too, diamonds as tall as Yuna -- taller, since Sandy, the tallest, is taller, and they match their aeon's height.
Each of them thrusts their palms forward, and a sphere forms, coruscating with pinks and violets and silvers, light, light, LIGHT. Eventually it is all colors and none, blinding, a shape rather than a hue: that of the triangular prism.
Once the corners of this prism have intersected with the three crystals, it is anchored, stable; they no longer have to empower it. Arms to the sky, they fly upwards instead, though the strange dimension they've created.
Mindy, the littlest wasp, twists in midair -- she silently invokes the power of Reflect, which bubbles all three sisters.
Then Sandy, eldest sister mantis, does an overhead throw of a pulse of plasma. Not fire, but something purer, more primal; no element, or perhaps every element. Life itself.
Her attack soars upwards, into the ceiling -- there's a ceiling in this place! A prism, so many, many facets -- no. The top of yet another crystal. That must be what this mirror-maze of a dimension really is. They
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Her attack soars upwards, into the ceiling -- there's a ceiling in this place! A prism, so many, many facets -- no. The top of yet another crystal. That must be what this mirror-maze of a dimension really is. They are not outside Lunar; they are inside a gem. They might actually all be tiny, microscopic, rather than enormous. What feels so vast may be the opposite...
The energy is split into three down the crystal's lines... and bounces back, approaching the three sisters with awful, reality-warping strength--
--and it impacts Mindy's barrier, and bounces between the three of them, first at a steady and resonant frequency, and then chaotic, uncontrollable--!
And all is lost to that white wind again, revealed now to be the power of three... all for one, and one for all...
! ! ! D E L T A A T T A C K ! ! !
--the world explodes; or perhaps it's the dimension; or perhaps the inside of a tiny, beautiful crystal seed--
--when the wind clears, and the light clears, and the explosion clears, The Magus Sisters are gone.
And so is Sin's barrier.
The path to the platform is clear.
"Hup," says Kimahri, placing a slightly exhausted, lightly panting Yuna on his shoulder, as he dives down towards the core.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Lulu stood in silence, as for once, it was Tidus who explained. He's grown so much, she thinks, from the boy who she barely tolerated. He is more than that now, by far. He is more than an ally, a fellow Guardian. ...He is a friend.
"I'm with you as well." It's not necessary to say. ...But maybe, for Lulu, it is. She looks to Yuna, and nods. ...With a small, wry smile. "If that's not being in the way."
She is glad to see Yuna happy.
But she listens to Yuna, too. She is intent, to defeat Yu Yevon.
--
One shrine after another. One element after another. In Fire, she spoke with a man who accounted himself keeper of its trials, and fought him on her own. In Light, she meditated upon the Unsent's echoes. In Darkness, she saw what could have been... and turned her back on such digression from her mission.
All of them had their own lessons. The memories in ice; the strength of earth. In Water, adaptability. In Lightning, overwhelming power. And the Wind... The element that has always escaped her, she understood once more 'lack'.
Hours, days, weeks of meditation. To synthesize the lessons of all the elements--to learn what drew them together. How many spells has she cast, now, in search of it? How many incantations, how many circles, how many expressions of the Blessing of a Goddess who she never knew? Lulu is not familiar with the Althena the invaders brought. But she knows the rain, and the thunder, and the utter, utter cold from which she was brought forth, as well as the heat of flame that let them live there. The elements are what she knows, and she has become at one with them.
If she were willing to utter another prayer, it would be that this would be enough.
--
Lulu, too, stands on the platform. She has been here with the others, in near silence, meditating upon the elements as she waits, the Onion Knight in the same posture before her. That changes when they approach Bevelle. The mage rises once again, eyes open, braids shifting aside with their ornaments.
Yuna says that she'll open the path. And so she does. She opens it with glory, and Lulu stares at the Aeons that come, not impassively--never impassivly--but silently. And soon...
Lulu, too, feels the roar of Sin in her bones. The enemy that has tormented her and her forebears for a thousand years looms before her, and they no longer have the false hope of the Final Summoning to save them from it.
They have something true. They have something real. And it is not to pin every one of their hopes on one precious woman, but to stand with her, rather than behind or before. They have each other.
"Yuna," Lulu says. "...I'm ready."
She pauses, at that, and turns to another woman in black, one with silver hair and many buckles. "Paine," she says, speaking her name once, as she so rarely does. "If you leave me now... Don't expect me on the Farplane anytime soon. I intend to live, yet."
"But if you stay, then we have a long talk to have. ...Look forward to it."
Lulu jumps, and the air buoys her.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
Rikku might have sidled up to Yuna seeing those exchanged glances, as she murmured, "Did something good happen between you two?" Rikku teases lightly, but then it becomes all planning.
Rikku listens to her father talk with a sort of nervous energy, Heimdall Gazzo, Vinsfeld's Scar, but most of all... "Already?!" Rikku looks slightly more panicked than Brother for a moment, but then calms down.
As Cid drills his challenge into Tidus, Rikku replies, "Does he have a plan? Come on. Who do you take him for? Not the Star Player of the Zanarkand Abes, apparently." Rikku's tone is one of complete fayth in Tidus, even as he relays it, she crosses her arms, nodding repeatedly.
When Tidus asks if they're with him, she pumps a fist in the air, "YEAH!" Before she gives his shoulder a shake with a hand, "Of course we're with you-!
Yuna though delivers the rundown of what will happen, "Yu Yevon?" Now she just blinks, trying to follow around, "Well when you break it down that way, sounds pretty simple!"
Is it?
Rikku looks to Paine as if for confirmation that it's simple, "Right?"
Now
Rikku is brandishing a new weapon too, which looks like a hydraulic spiked knuckle with an almost accordion like sheath. She makes a few final adjustments, remembering all the needles she suffered to get here.
"Okay Pops! We're counting on you!"
The Gravitational effect comes SO CLOSE to the ship and Rikku almost loses her nerve, "Popppsssss-!?" Tidus calls, 'Yuna now!' and Rikku gives a sigh of relief as if she knows what's coming. SHE DOES NOT. The Magus Sisters sorta surpass her wildest expectations as she watches them take care of Sin's barrier with its massive Delta attack.
"WHOA-! DID YOU SEE THAT?!" She says excitedly, even as the massive form of Sin, the form of the death of so many Spirans and Al Bhed for centuries upon centuries looms. "Yunie! That was amazing!" She says to her as she watches her steady against Kimahri!
Rikku jogs to the edge, as she gets ready to leap. Then Lulu says her words to Paine, and Rikku blinks as Lulu says, "Wait - wait was that kinda a love confession?" Rikku looks towards Paine for immediate confirmation, "Paine was that a love confession!?" Then as if realizing the situation, "Oh whoops - gotta go!"
Saluting Paine with the Godhand, Rikku jumps backwards towards the platform at hand.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata's been a constant presence in Spira these last few days; given access to her Gear, she's basically abused the fact that it can run on very mysterious powers (i.e. her own life) to help jockey the relief response from the Heimdall Gazzo, putting out forest fires with the Ley-powered suppressants mounted on the Rephaim's fingers, amongst other things. She's running pretty ragged, but...
They're not done yet. There's a quiet grin on the undead girl's face as she listens in on the plan. To calm Sin down with the Hymn of the Faith, and hold it off long enough to open a path and... end Sin forever. She understands there's a cost involved. To let it be driven from one fayth to another is...
There's an unspoken sacrifice there. But she understands Yuna understands that.
Lunata is seated in darkness, breathing in with focus. Then, she hears Cid's order: Gear detachments, fly in and deal with Sin -- hit the fins!
Her gray eyes flash open, and in synch--
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``. .`` HIRASAKA O.S. v0.37
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Undead Girl's Unilateral Ugly Nightmarish Delusions Are Manifest
-= O.S. v0.23 build 29518 =-
branch hirasaka/xg00-29158-pc499-11-13
calibration offset acquired ... checksum verified
in exchange for the power thou hast requested...
resetting to zero-point moment ... cpg online
control module reassigned ... identified
i hath received the defrayal of thine soul's sacrifice...
molecular ion pump accessed ... cortex module established
neural linkage network check ... pilot preset incompatible
thine due is the sum of...
devour
devour
devour
devour
restart feed-forward control ... transfer functions
correct for Coriolis effect...
successful
XG-00 Rephaim
ONLINE
--so do the Rephaim's eyes, flashing irisoid in golden as it launches off the Fahrenheit's deck in a roar of blue vernier flame, armed with its rifle and shield in hand, mechanical wings in full spread to either side as it follows with narrowly evading the orb of crackling energy. Inside her cockpit, Lunata's grin only doubles as she feels the intense G-forces from the Giga Graviton, and whistles as the Magus Sisters' Delta Attack does the job.
"Lunata Croze, Winged Gear Rephaim... moving in to take the target down!"
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Obsession.
Clysmian.
The pained, terrified voices of the Guardians are still so strong in his memory. For one as connected to the planet as one of its Shamans, it was the first he had ever heard them so... so frightened. The only other time he'd felt anything close was when Mother was at the height of her power-- and when Demetrioi nearly killed the world.
But even those were nver so... personal? He'd never felt such revulsion before.
Clysmian.
Obsession.
What kind of shaman would Cyre Lorentz be if he turned his face from something like that? If the Guardians are terrified of it, then it is the responsibility of a human-- or something close to a human-- to, in its foolishness and hubris and utter lack of self-preservation instinct to stand up and do something about it. This is the pact of the Nahual, to walk alongside the Guardians-- not to serve beneath them, or to cater to ancient scripture. It is a living, walking path.
And so he is here, now. He is here, even as he feels the air itself tremble in his lungs. Fear, the Guardian of Wind is still afraid.
As the one who walks alongside it, he takes a step forward and challenges the wind to follow.
Sin emerges. Tremendous power is levelled against it, opening a critical gap in its defenses. Breaking into a run, Cyre leaps from the beach and takes flight, his gliding parachute expanding and sending him sailing into the breach.
...To finally put an end to an old 'friend.'
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Boudicca is delighted to see Yuna and Tidus's affection. She's congratulated Tidus directly; her congratulations to Yuna end up being clapped hands and a bright smile from across the room, after one of those moments. They do have quite a lot to get to, here.
The Clysmian is come.
Filgaia needs them, this is certain -- but this is a scar which Filgaia has helped to carve across Spira. A scar called 'Sin'...
Boudicca trusts (has trust in) her friends to see to different problems than her, and come back safe when it's done. Her Seers are strong. So, she hopes, is she.
But her strength...
The Oracle of Moor Gault looks to Sin, on the deck of the Fahrenheit, and clasps her hands.
"Ieyui..."
Her voice is low, for a woman; deep, and bassy, echoing like sound in a hollow iron statue.
"... nobomeno..."
Boudicca has never been one for excessive might, though certainly she can offer it. No, what she has always done...
... her constant gambit...
... she tells them, be not afraid.
She tells Sin: Be not afraid!
"Renmiri yojuyogo..."
Boudicca has but one voice, but hers is the voice of the wind; it carries on the breeze, soars out, and threads between those extreme measures of power.
"... hasatekanae kutamae..."
And she is the wind, and the wind at her heels, as she leaps from the Fahrenheit to follow Tidus in.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei doesn't really know most of the Spirans too well. Rikku seems nice. Cid is awesome. Brother ....... Well, look, they can't all be winners. Guba .... ....... Look, it's fine.
But everything in Fei is telling him that Sin has to die. He is completely one hundred percent, for once, on board with the job here. Id isn't urging him on or telling him he's an idiot (except insofar that Id's been insisting he get a crack at him and FEi sure isn't going to let that happen if he can), he is absolutely terrified for sure but somehow the inhuman Sin--it's just a monster, you know. The evils of men has always seemed more terrifying and alien to Fei than the acts of actual giant whale monsters.
He sits in Weltall, taking in slow breaths to keep his cool.
"This cycle has to end," Fei says, over the radio--something he's just known intuitively all along. "This cannot continue. Don't... have much else to add but that."
It's actually kind of nice ot see the Winged Gear Rephaim and other hot shit machines. It makes Weltall seem more like just another gear rather than a horrifying city destroying beast.
"I wonder how we're gonna get there though." Fei says.
"Bro..." Hammer transmits over comms. "...The Flight Thrusters?"
"OH SHOOT!" Fei says, eyes wide. "I forgot about those! Okay!! RIGHT..."
He pushes a button and the flightpack activates, allowing Fei to follow Rephaim in. "It's...just been a while you know!"
"R....Right, Bro."
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Up on the Fereshte, Noeline's voice wafts down from alongside Leon's, though a lot more mobile; she isn't stalking so much as racing to and fro, not shy about applying effort and raw strength where it's needed to pull things around. The sound of the voices make Shalune's fingers itch; part of her wishes she could be up there looking after the airship she considers another home, but she's well aware they need all hands on deck down here, and she's not about to leave Lunata without some level of mechanical support.
Amongst the Gears waiting to assault Sin, there's a tiny little figure standing bravely against the incoming tide. Big Shal is not, in this moment, very big - maybe a quarter of the size of most of the machines present - but the golem stands looking to the horizon with a somehow resolute look, its rounded and short arms folded solemnly as it waits. The golem has been rebuilt, and there's a shine to its metal that wasn't there before, the pitted and aged scrap replaced with a collection of different xenoalloys that Shalune's harvested over the years.
The mechanic takes a moment to look back over her shoulder from where she's stood atop the scaffolding on Big Shal's back, pink hair streaming behind her as she looks back at the face of Bevelle. "... this feels kind of weird to be back here like this," she mutters, mostly to herself; she doesn't exactly have the best memories of the place, and there's a lot of baggage there that she'd honestly prefer to leave completely alone rather than even try to begin sifting through.
Most of all, the plan to calm Sin using the Hymn of the Fayth is reminding her that Lunata's still burning through what remains of her life, and that she and her childhood friend have already sat through one Sending where she didn't know if Lunata was simply going to vanish on her. She'd thought she'd made peace with it, but that was a long time ago. A lot of her is still holding out hope, in the end.
Without needing to be told, Big Shal suddenly moves, step after step landing on the deck with heavy thumps as it kicks up into a run. It is both lumbering and yet also an unnerving display of acceleration; there is no way such a stubby, friend-shaped golem should move with such sudden purpose and clarity, and it seems to even surprise Shalune as she grips onto the scaffold and barely manages to bite back a yelp.
Squinting against the pull of gravity, she braces against the straps and flicks her shotstaff into her hand, feeling the reassuring clak-clunk of it extending and the feel of ramming the battery home onto one end of it. In her pocket of her jacket sits a little device, terrifyingly blank except for a big red button. She's as ready as she's going to be. "This is definitely the most stupid thing we've _ever_ done," she adds in a sudden moment of clarity as Sin looms.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Issachar stands with the rest of the gathered Gears. Jacqueline sits back in her seat, arms folded in front of and her eyes shut as she takes in everything going on around her.
This is it. Today, they take the fight to Sin. They have no choice - if it isn't here and now, Bevelle will pay the price. That outcome is unacceptable.
She can feel the surge of power in the air as the Magus Sisters are summoned, as their powers are united as one and used to blast through Sin's barrier.
It's time. Jacqueline's eyes open. Her arms unfold for just a moment to adjust her glasses.
"Good luck, everyone. We'll do everything in our power from out here. I want to see all of you again once this is over, understand?" Jacqueline says.
At Jacqueline's bidding, Issachar begins to move.
"I'm moving out." She announces, and then adds. "Lunata, Shalune, I'm with you."
And so, Issachar begins to fly after the Rephaim. She has the wings to follow her, now. It might not be hers... but maybe they'll be able to end one tale of death here today.
...She can't help but crack a smile, though, at Shalune's comment.
"Yet. I'm sure we'll find a way to one-up it." She replies.
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Pearl's passage to Spira had been hurried. She had to ensure one of her guardians had something before they parted- and she had to make sure all her books were returned to the library.
Well, all but one.
She stood on the bridge of the Fahrenheit with the others during the briefing, her smallest guardian standing by her side. The only Guardian she would be going into this battle with, for he would not be left in Vane.
"...Lady Yuna," Pearl asks, the question heavy on her lips. "What will it take to remove his presence from the Fayth?" It may be a question too early to answer, and the companion of her soul roars at her to focus on the fight. She nods slowly to them. As for the Hymn, Pearl will do her part. It's the only song she can sing, after all.
NOW
On the deck of the Fahrenheit, Pearl stands amongst the gears. Bevelle was, for a time, her home. She had learned it's halls, it's teachings, it's libraries. There are people in there worth defending. Some Pearl might even have called friends, had she opened her heart then. Instead she had opened the gates for the Guards' invasion. But had she not... she would not be here today. On the side of what is right. With a purpose. "...The time has come to face your foe, Leviathan. Let us face it as one- and bring end to this menace forever."
Once Lady Yuna's dance is over, Pearl's begins. Her hand casts to one side, she spins into a twirl and then a pirouette as the Pyreflies around her becomes an ocean in miniature at her feet, as she stands on the rising water- and Leviathan rises from the ocean. They do not leap out, as they often do, but instead halt in the waters, lowering their eyes to Pearl's. Assessing her as an equal, her gray eyes stare into their massive ones. "...Thank you." She says, her weak smile on her face. And she walks over, the water creating a path to walk onto Leviathan's head, and she places her hand on their crest fin.
And then the Lord of All Waters *roars*, letting all hear their resolve- and Pearl lets out a howl with him. Wolflike. Her former masters may despise her but Pearl will take any bolstering she can. She fears this monster now- but when one of a pack is alone, and afraid... they howl. For aid and for strength.
Leviathan rises into the air in a spiralling jump, and Pearl hangs on without effort. This is her place. The Lord of All Waters may not be able to fly, but as those who saw them above Gagaze, they can glide. Their fins spread wide, they glide above sin, ready to strike. They battle they have long awaited begins, and such a foe is a fight worth fighting.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Without going into long specifics - his story having largely been told in recent times - Ethius nonetheless is keeping watch on Spira developments. Namely... Spira is choosing its path of its own volition, and he is following the plan laid out by the letter. This much is within acceptable operational parameters for his line of work with protecting developing societies and part of what he has declared to be ongoing incidental investigations post-Demetrioi.
(Even if he would have to admit, selfishly, Guadosalam bears far too much likeness to the earliest years of his life than is comfortable in which to claim it's 'merely' his work motivating him.)
He hums along the Hymn rather than vocalize it when the call comes in for everyone to join in, though not without a hint of some musical or rhythmic inclination behind it. He does his best not to get lost in the spectacle of the Aeons that help clear the path from afar, or to have his resolve shake before the roaring. The moment Cid calls for them to get ready, well.
"Pilot of the Aiguille, Ethius Hesiod, here. Deploying in formation," whatever that was, he's doing it. The Metal Demon-era long-range skirmishing unit takes off with the help of borrowed Shevat flight parts, keeping the widest distance he can from that crackling power that would leave absolutely nothing of what he just introduced himself as had he been much slower.
"I'm in position... Lunata, Shalune, Jay." Ethius' voice remains calm in declaring this, readying the laster-shooting rifle-staff as he sees to the Lord of All Waters taking their place in the coming battle.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
DAYS AGO
It had, truly, been the worst-timed of events. Not only had Solaris taken apparent issue with the peace talks proceeding, but this had drawn the attention of Sin. And not only that, but the Heimdall Gazzo had arisen (at least without the power the towers would have granted it) and grievously wounded Sin. This, mere moments before another arrived on the bridge of the Fahrenheit where there arose a confrontation that had quite nearly gone horrendously awry.
In hindsight, the wounding of Sin may have at best been a temporary reprieve -- of the sort where it very well might have been better in the long term had it never happened at all.
But some things cannot be controlled for. Some things simply must be. Such is the passage of fate.
FIVE HOURS AGO
And indeed, now the hour is drawing nigh. As daunting as their course is -- for they must slay what is nearly itself a god, or force of nature -- Citan has already decided that this is the best place for them to be.
For Fei, that is. For Xantia also, and perhaps even Lily. Were the situation less dire than this, with so many lives on the line, it might even be darkly comical.
But this is how things are, and thus, how they then must be.
However, it was not as if they were entering the fray without a plan.
"Is that so...?" he had remarked mere hours ago when Tidus spoke of the Hymn and its effect on Sin. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm, then, it may be possible to 'create an opening'..."
And Yuna had provided her own plan for how they might unmake Sin... and the Summoner's soul within. "If... that is possible... then you have our support. We will be counting on you, Miss Yuna."
For there would be no one else able to send on Yu Yevon, once all else was peeled away.
NOW
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
EARLIER,
Elly van Houten, recovered from being moderately electrocuted and sorely tested by the enigmatic man called "Krelian," had listened to the conerence. She drank coffee. It was a nervous habit. Probably it.
Five hours.
Cid challenged Tidus. Tidus rose to the occasion.
Elly gazed at him as he presented a simple concept. Just calm him down. The idea makes Elly smile. It couldn't be that easy, could it? It couldn't.
It is. It's *already worked*.
A song. That was the key all along. Elly tries not to laugh; but in her heart, she does. She is maybe on some level simply too dizzy from the aftermath of that horrid encounter to question or to doubt. Or maybe such things are for the past now.
Yuna, too, speaks. Elly sips her coffee as she lays out a story. A horrible and tragic one. Something about it --
Once, Yuna saved me.
I don't know if I've been a good friend.
It's funny. I didn't expect it.
I wondered how I could repay her.
But I suppose it's fate.
"I'll do everything I can," Elly says.
NOW
After all...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_tYbqXFN9c
If our places were switched, she would have never hesitated.
It's the least I can do.
Empathite transmitters, whether on the Fahrenheit or on the Fereshte or elsewhere, briefly produce a sound like a soft, sustained choral note for a second or so.
The Delta Attack gathers...
And when it is gone, it is time to fly.
"Launching!" says Elly from within the featureless space of the control space of the Omnigear and then with a burst of thrust, out into the land of the winds and the gods --
It is a simple thing, compared to some Gears. Like an earlier model, or an ideal dream. Unlike poor old Vierge, cobbled together and repaired from something devastated a half-dozen times, Regulus seems much as it did two years ago. Or five hundred, for that matter.
It looks like this: https://i.imgur.com/c0plw0Y.png
Regulus's winged surfaces expand, glittering pink in the Spiran sunlight.
"Don't worry if you're a little unused to flying, Fei," Elly transmits, with that usual uncanny clearness that comes from Regulus's bizarre (but graceful!) technology. "I'm going to be backing everyone up --" Regulus sweeps past Weltall, spinning upwards to turn momentarily towards the other launching Gears, rising upwards to take a position 'above' them. Overseeing?
"If anyone falls, I'll catch you."
A beat passes.
During the transit from ship to the looming form of the monster (Elly tries not to think of Azado) a connection links in to all of the Gears, one way or another. It can't do much, of course, for Aeons, but that's as may be.
> lioness00 would fane connect: permit? _y_
"Though, ah," Elly continues. "Before we begin the attack -- I wanted to say. If you take too much damage, Sin is going to be an incredibly dangerous environment to be on. Unless you can *see* Yuna and her party... if your Gear is badly damaged, I'd honestly suggest that you try to crash-land on the surface."
"... but I meant what I said," Elly concludes. "I'm... Lunata, Shalune... Jay... Dr. Uzuki... -- I'm glad to be with all of you here, right now."
Elly sniffs back a little. A text message appears on one of Weltall's screens, echoing a novelty item of a culture long dead as it scrolls across the top boundary of the screen in pink text: 'you too of course i just figured it went without saying you know?..........'
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei smiles at Elly's message and tries to tap at it to respond but just ends up swooshing his hand through holographic text. He swooshes his hand around a bit more. "...." Right.
Eventually he just gives up and radios her, "I'm glad to be here with you too."
Sure it goes without saying but that doesn't mean it's not nice to hear it.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
This is it, then. It has been made abundantly clear. In its current state, weakened and enraged from Vinsfeld's attack, this is the best chance they'll ever have of defeating Sin. Failure is not an option.
And yet, 'Failure' is the word that Xantia most readily associates with Sin. Azado, where she had so arrogantly thought she was strong enough to fend off the calamity that had plagued Spira for so long by simply punching it in the snout. Operation Mi'ihen, where so many had gathered, bringing so much firepower to bring the monster to heel, and yet the best laid plans came to absolutely nothing. Those were not her only dealings with the Clysmian of Obsession, but they are the ones that have been most vividly replaying in her mind whenever someone spoke the 'Sin'.
So many lives lost. And there was nothing she could do about it. Concern for what Vinsfeld plans to do to Filgaia with Heimdall Gazzo heavily plagues her mind, and yet, these regrets... they must be erased. She must trust ARMs to handle Vinsfeld, and must trust her friends to take care of business in their Gears. As for her, there is only one place. The place where she can end things with her own two hands.
The signal comes. The Fahrenheit begins its approach. Awesome power is levelled against the barrier - that barrier that seemed capable of withstanding anything, shattered at last. There's a clear shot now, and Xantia intends to take it. Intends to make good on the promise she made to herself, and to the fallen, so long ago.
Wordlessly, she withdraws something very important, something that she went out of her way for to obtain, just for this moment. Now that the moment has come, she grips it tightly in her hand.
"...This is for all of you," she says quietly. "Your sacrifice will not be forgotten. Nor will it have been for nothing." With that, she raises up that all-important accessory. Towards her eyes.
Moments later, when Xantia lands on the platform, she directly faces the core of Sin, stands straight, then points an accusing finger in the general direction of her target. "You, the one responsible for so much grief, so much pain and suffering, so much injustice upon this world and its people... Today, you will be made to answer! Today, all of this will end! Today, you face..."
A close-up of Xantia's face reveals... a domino mask??
"MYSTERY CRUSADER X!!"
GS: Xantia has attacked Xantia with Undying Spirit of the Crusaders! GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Xantia accepts Xantia's Undying Spirit of the Crusaders for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Xantia! GS: Hyper applied to Xantia!
<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.
Baralai, up there in his vestments, voice soaring, eyes afire. Paine, back here silently in the same cloak she was wearing when she bid him goodbye, thinned by wear, patched and patched again. What is the difference in what happened to them, that he is there, and she here? If it's not someonething else's fault, it has to be his instead, and hers respectively. Not that she didn't suspect that all along.
"That guy pisses me off," Paine sighs without venom and to no one in particular, though she is amidst her friends.
Oh yeah, she has those now.
The bullets in her carbine are where she left them, but Paine checks each of them anyway, briefly for the first two. Her fingers hesitate with the third, brushing its smoothness with her thumb. It's comically small, isn't it? Even the great war-machina the foreigners have brought here seem ridiculously out of scale to the monster they are here to fight. Indeed, Yuna's usual miracle, her divine intervention, while as awe-inspiring as ever, feels for the first time a little flimsy. Slipping the bullet in with her thumb, Paine can barely hear its click.
Though if volume is the judge of power, they're about to yap Sin to death at the hands (well, mouth) of a certain Al Bhed.
"Adults know the answer to that question already," Paine informs Rikku about the 'thing' that happened between Tidus and Yuna. Not that she's much older than Rikku. Mostly just taller. "Just remember to do some fighting between gawks," she warns Tidus and Yuna.
Rikku has other things she's curious about too though. Paine shrugs to the notion of this being simple or not. "It's always been simple for you and me," she says, giving the carbine a swing to slap it shut again.
The calm seriousness in Paine's red eyes betray a little surprise to be addressed by Lulu, here in the final few moments. With her weapon-fiddling at an inconvenient stopping point, she lacks something to toy with to conceal her pause to think, though she seems not to mind; neither she nor Lulu is afraid of a brief, wordless red stare.
"You trying to trick me into surviving this?" She smiles a bit, mirthlessly. "Nice try." Taking a step towards the black mage, she pauses next to her to regard her more closely.
"I already found reason enough."
That yapper has a lot to say about all this, which ends with informing Paine that she's gotta go.
"D-do that!" she sputters angry encouragement.
<Pose Tracker> Sin has posed.
The triple threat -- quite literally -- of the Magus Sisters opens the way. The barrier around Sin shatters -- exploding like glass, then vanishing into pyreflies and motes of light. That clears the way, for both Gear and human.
Its precious cargo dropped off, the Fahrenheit begins to bank away sharply. As it turns, some people on the bridge lose their footing -- not Cid, gripping onto a console -- but Lilka yelps, and starts to tumble. Cid reaches out, grabbing her. "Easy there, missy!"
"Thanks, Mister Cid," Lilka says. She smooths her dress out. "It looks like it's going well, so far..."
"Let's not count our chocobos before they hatch," Cid says.
Sin comes forward. The Gears rise to meet Sin, so Sin rises to meet the Gears.
Something of his speed moves fast -- almost shockingly so -- to rise up towards them. Hundreds of eyes turn, twitching; taking in Rephaim, taking in Weltall, Leviathan, and all of them. They linger, a moment, upon Issachar.
Then the bombardment begins.
Balls of flame swirl into existence -- three huge ones form of sparks and roiling fire -- and come crashing down for Lunata's and Shalune's Gears with utter brutality. There is an instinctual expertise to the rain of fire that is directed forward, a command of the Blessing that comes naturally -- even to one such as Sin.
More fireballs swirl up around it. They dance around each other -- then fire off with pulses in the air, which send concentric rings of pyreflies out -- and then each comes crashing in for Heimdall like a missile.
Weltall and Regulus have lightning bolts firing up at them. They crackle out of the air -- and then arc up, in defiance of what one might expect of physics -- to lash out for both Gears.
More still form, crackling out of nothingness. They arc out -- shooting far across the battlefield and lighting up Spiran skies with flashes of brilliance. Ethius finds his Gear under assault by three forks of lightning at once, each crashing down simultaneously.
Finally, the Lord of All Waters comes crashing down towards Sin -- and before it can reach, huge arcs of lightning come striking up for Leviathan and Pearl alike. The direction of the lightning is impeccable.
Several huge balls of water swirl up into existence, initially in orbit around Sin. Then, though, they bank down. They swirl and dive together, hurtling through the air -- like missiles, in their intricate dance -- and then come crashing down for Issachar with a singular vengeance.
GS: Sin spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Sin has attacked Lunata Croze with Firaja! GS: Sin has gained 1 Combo! GS: Sin spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Sin has attacked Shalune Amira with Firaja! GS: Sin has gained 1 Combo! GS: Sin spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Sin has attacked Citan Uzuki with Firaja! GS: Sin has gained 1 Combo! GS: Sin has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Thundaja! GS: Sin has gained 1 Combo! GS: Sin has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Thundaja! GS: Sin has gained 1 Combo! GS: Sin has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Thundaja! GS: Sin has gained 1 Combo! GS: Sin has attacked Pearl with Thundaja! GS: Sin has gained 1 Combo! GS: Sin has completed his action. GS: Sin has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Wateraja! GS: Sin has gained 1 Combo! GS: Sin has completed his action. GS: Lunata Croze suffers a terrible blow from Sin's Firaja for 275 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
<Pose Tracker> Seymour Guado has posed.
With the path cleared, a number of them find themselves before Sin's core. It is an intimidating, terrifying sight: they stand on a platform of mottled flesh, textured not unlike a brain, but hard like chitin. Worse than that is, before them, is a shell-covered bud that's twice the size of a person. It glimmers with light, motes of energy drawn into it.
And before it, a shell rises up. The shell splits open -- revealing the upper body of something vaguely bipedal, though covered in chitin. Two arms unfold, revealing tendrils and tentacles; those wave rapidly. Sinspawn Genais leans forward, letting out a loud, primal screech.
Genais is the first to strike. It plunges its tendrils down into the chitinous plates underfoot, and those same tendrils erupt from them. Some grab at Tidus and Cyre's feet, trying to grab them -- to restrict them -- to yank them downward.
Spells come, too; these come from the glimmers around Sin's core. The air around Lulu and Yuna becomes thicker. Sound seems to fail to carry; voices seem to become rasps, for a moment.
Wind whips round them. It's a traitorous wind, Boudicca might find, being in the midst of it -- it seems to sap at her very strength, and it doesn't risk throwing her off... but it is hard to work through. It is a wind that poses no small amount of danger, because it is laced with such dangerous magic.
When Paine touches down, the wind rises to emet her. It swirls about her -- and maybe she has friends, but for a moment, it's like she's alone. Alone the way a person can be on a battlefield; the din of roaring wind, of confusion and chaos, all making it so words don't reach her. It's like she's alone, and the wind threatens to sap at her strength before she can even do battle with the Sinspawn and Sin's core.
That same wind whips around Xantia. It threatens to engulf her; to be the thing that here, so close to the place she knows she must be, will keep her from going further. But her words carry over the wind, even as it saps at her very strength. She calls out to it, and it doesn't respond with words...
...but it hears her. He hears her.
In the distance, the Fereshte floats. It hovers back, and there is a hum from below. Kelk Ronso, with Shelinda and Baralai, are organizing Bevelle's army -- of Warrior Monks, priests, and citizens -- into ranks. Not ranks to fight, as such, but ranks to form a choir. The Fereshte hovers over all of them protectively.
Leon Albus glances down at them, worriedly, and then he turns the wrench in his hands with one mighty shove. "That's the last of them in place..." He looks out at the distant battle; at the Gears. "Good luck, Wolves."
Then, he calls out: "Riesenlied! The empathite is ready!"
GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Tidus with Entangle! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 2 Combo! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Entangle! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Rikku with Entangle! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Paine with Weaken! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 2 Combo! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Weaken! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Xantia with Weaken! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Lulu with Silence! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Yuna with Silence! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seymour Guado has completed his action. GS: Seymour Guado has completed his action. GS: Rikku suffers a terrible blow from Seymour Guado's Entangle for 0 hit points! GS: Disrupt and Slow applied to Rikku! GS: Gamble: Moderate! Elhaym van Houten takes a glancing hit from Sin's Thundaja for 148 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Sin! GS: CRITICAL! Shalune Amira solidly guards Sin's Firaja for 171 hit points! GS: Jacqueline Barber takes a glancing hit from Sin's Wateraja for 144 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated! GS: CRITICAL! Lulu solidly guards Seymour Guado's Silence for 0 hit points! GS: Cripple and Mute applied to Lulu! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Charge bonus activated! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Low! Pearl fully evades Sin's Thundaja for 0 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Sin! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: High! Fei Fong Wong suffers a terrible blow from Sin's Thundaja for 520 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Sin! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated! GS: COUNTER! Yuna counterattacks Seymour Guado with Counter Attack! GS: Yuna solidly guards Seymour Guado's Silence for 0 hit points! GS: Yuna's Mute Ward may block the effect! GS: Cripple applied to Yuna! GS: Mute blocked! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated! GS: CRITICAL! Citan Uzuki solidly guards Sin's Firaja for 189 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: High! Ethius Hesiod takes a glancing hit from Sin's Thundaja for 249 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Sin! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
The Fereshte is one half of an old rickety ship ontop of which a Dragon's Head and a blimp is attached; compared to the Fahrenheit, it's not as mobile, and far more fragile to errant attacks. It has no business being on the forefront of the attack, no matter how much it's survived, against Solaris' elite battleships and other engagements that it's come out... not ontop, but any landing you can walk away from, right?
But that's precisely why it's here:
The empathite transmitters are true to its name: it channels and amplifies energy on an empathic level. And what better to amplify them than... ... an empath?
The luminescent shine of the Dragon's Tear is all too evident from where Riesenlied is seated and secured on her wheelchair above deck; clusters of crystalline wire from where the transmitters have been embedded as amplifiers aboard the ship all gather towards the Hyadean at a singular point.
She isn't alone in this endeavour either: others with powerful mental and emotional fortitude are there to share the burden, because she is only one conduit in this plan--
The plan to let the song of Spira be heard, not just on the level of sound, but one of heart and soul -- crystalline and clear.
Her hands -- both draconic and human -- cusped together in form of prayer, with her capelet set aside, Riesenlied's grafted Artificial Medium resonates with the Tear as the Ley -- the Earthpulse -- begins to flow powerfully around and through her. Her body is straining at the very effort, in the way it does when she channels that which really should not go through a singular person's body.
"I can hear them... their voices... but more than that -- their hopes, their wishes... their resolve..."
Boudicca's deep and powerful verse, carried by the wind itself. The very emotions of hope and life that the Magus Sisters bring. Yuna and Pearl's dances, bringing forth the manifestations of the Fayths that themselves bring hope. Rikku and Tidus' cheer, cutting forth a path into the future, as Paine proceeds with steely resolve. Shalune's plucky resourcefulness as she powers onward with Lunata, Ethius and Jacqueline. Cyre's steely reserve to take the fight to the Clysmian. Fei and Elly's own hopes to end a cycle... and Citan's as well. Xantia's remembrance of the Crusaders that've fallen before... and the leaders that still stand, representing the people. Kelk Ronso. Shelinda and Baralai, young hands left with the vestiges of old departed.
Beyond that, the voices of so many people in all the cities she's spent the last few years travelling. Besaid, Kilika, Djose, Luca, the Moonflow, Bevelle, the Calm Lands, Mt. Gagazet... and so many other communities big and small... flashes of memories both fond and strong, and scarce and yet just as important pass by. For a moment, she lives and breathes one with the world.
The Hyadean's head rises, her crimson eyes emanating the very power she is channeling -- and she spreads her arms and lets that energy pass through her -- and towards the great and intimidating visage of Sin, above and in front of her in the depths of the horizon ahead. A gentle and flowing light passing through from the
"... please, listen to them.
Their sincere thoughts and sensations...
The feelings and emotions of Spira."
GS: Xantia suffers a terrible blow from Seymour Guado's Weaken for 0 hit points! GS: Break and Weaken applied to Xantia! GS: Tidus takes a glancing hit from Seymour Guado's Entangle for 0 hit points! GS: Disrupt and Slow applied to Tidus! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: CRITICAL! Cyre H. Lorentz suffers a terrible blow from Seymour Guado's Entangle for 0 hit points! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz's Slow Ward may block the effect! GS: Disrupt and Slow applied to Cyre H. Lorentz!
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
Though Tidus might have been the one to present Yuna with the tools to summon the Magus Sisters, that doesn't mean he's actually seen them in action before. As bone-shaking as Sin's roar is, he stares in awe as they use their might to smash through Sin's barrier.
Then he grins, broad and ready, as he rises to his feet along with everyone--not just Yuna and his fellow Guardians, but everyone who's come to fight back against the scourge of Spira. Lulu might be confessing to Paine, but he'll leave teasing the two of them about it to Rikku. (Maybe because Rikku and Boudicca both sparkle at him and Yuna for what they've got going on. But Tidus isn't unhappy about that--far from it.)
*Paine's* teasing (?) gets a scoff, though. "Don't you worry about us. We're here to see it through to the end. All of it," he says firmly.
...which he follows up with another adoring smile Yuna's way. But it's go time next, so it'll only have to be for a moment.
Boudicca leads the Hymn on the physical--or perhaps more accurately spreads it, the wind reaching out everywhere to bring with it a song and a prayer--while Riesenlied spreads it on the mental, the emotional. A song to reach the ears *and* the heart. Tidus shuts his eyes for a moment, and under his breath, he sings along. He's always hated his father, but... there's a different feeling in him now, one that's been nurtured for a long time by his long journey. So when he opens his eyes again, it's not with bitterness but with promise that he shouts in the wake of Sin's roar:
"Put a sock in it, old man! We're coming to take you out!!"
Then he, too, leaps for the platform over the Clysmian's massive mouth, as others--Elly, Ethius, and more (plus Leon or WHATEVER)--take flight in their Gears and leap forward in their own way. He has nothing but trust for all of them as they all sail up, and sail down.
The core itself? Singularly awful. It's beyond spooky--it's nauseating to look at. When Sinspawn Genais rises up, Tidus attempts to jump back and out of the way to avoid getting snared, but that in and of itself takes up all of his attention for a moment. The tendril clings to the side of his feet, too, and even if they don't wholly snare him, they still anchor him and slow him down. "You put a sock in it, too! We're not here to mess around with *you*!" he snaps at the Sinspawn's screeching.
Still, even with a foothold in, it's not like they could hope to defeat Sin all at once. If this is the first step, so be it.
First slashing at the tendrils holding him down--though the weight of those that remain will still remain for a while--Tidus swivels to face the Sinspawn. "You wanna fight nasty, huh? Two can play that game!" he calls as a dark aura whorls around Caladbolg in three cycling rings. He slashes the air, and they fly off the blade towards the Sinspawn--perhaps weakening it and slowing it in return for the others' attacks.
GS: Tidus has attacked Seymour Guado with Triple Foul! GS: Tidus has completed his action. GS: Seymour Guado solidly guards Yuna's Counter Attack for 46 hit points! GS: Seymour Guado partially evades Tidus's Triple Foul for 37 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seymour Guado gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Seymour Guado's Disrupt Ward may block the effect! GS: Disease applied to Seymour Guado! GS: Disrupt blocked! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
The lighting arcs toward Leviathan with unerring accuracy- and so Leviathan closes their fins and drops into a full dive at the last second, ther lightning passing just over Pearl's head, her hair momentarily standing on end before the drop takes care of that. She simply clings tight as she trusts her companion's instict- but from the outside it seems the two are in freefall.
The battle seems to be getting further away, but she cannot accuse of her companion of cowardice. She rubs the cuff of her robe, where the blessings of the shrine rest in single threads. She waits, and waits, then...
The wind changes, and Pearl knows it is now. Leviathan opens their fins again and uses their momentum with an updraft to drive up toward Sin at speed, and crash theior full feight against the giant embodiment of Yu Yevon, their roar of challenge echoing.
GS: Pearl has attacked Sin with Crashing Serpent! GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo! GS: Pearl's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Pearl has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Paine takes a solid hit from Seymour Guado's Weaken for 0 hit points! GS: Break and Weaken applied to Paine! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
EARLIER
"You could never," Yuna told Lulu, on the bridge. "Never, never." At Rikku's ribbing, she only smiled. At Paine's sigh, her smile faded, and she glanced at her final Guardian. The obvious question goes unasked. Now is not the time.
And, also:
One thing Yuna and Tidus have in common at this juncture is holding their respective sacrifice cards very close to the chest. Yuna knows Tidus is lying to her, at least by omission. And she isn't much of a liar, either. Nor does she WISH to lie to Pearl, when asked. Pearl deserves the truth.
"I have spoken to every fayth," she tells Pearl. "And they, each and all, have asked something of me. They have asked me to grant their united wish."
But they're in the middle of a briefing -- and also, an awfully public place for what will undoubtedly be at best, a painful revelation, and at worst a very difficult conversation -- so she subsides.
"Let's talk later," she said, at the time.
---
Gears (and an aeon) roar overhead as Yuna and Kimahri land on the platform (well, he lands; then he sets her down very daintily, as only the ronso can). Yuna cannot so easily be heard by those above; among her massive endgame inventory list 'radio' does not appear. But she takes heart from their presence. Each of them represents someone she has met on her journey; someone who has already done so much for her; someone she cares about a great deal. Some of them fought the Guard with her. Some of them rescued refugees, in the war, and gave them a desperately needed home. Some of them fought Seymour... and may yet again. A final time, surely, for to destroy the Clysmian of Obsession will also be to destroy one more hungry ghost's link to this world. Her gaze lingers on Rephaim.
But those bridges will be crossed in time.
"Thank you all," she says with quiet, fierce gratitude, and -- well. Her magic comes from the heart, not from Yevon. That is why she went without a rod for such a long time. And perhaps her heart can yet convey to them her enormous affection. (Or perhaps the empathite will, and she doesn't even know it; what a bumpkin the girl from the island village can be!)
For now her cheeks convey to Paine, Tidus, and anyone who can see her, that Paine's quip struck solidly home before she jumped.
But for now, it is time for--
--Yuna blinks at Rikku.
"W-what?" She missed Lulu's and Paine's big moment; she was busy summoning, and then soaring through the air, Kimahriback. But Rikku made sure to fill her in immediately, as this was obviously the most important and pressing matter on Spira or possibly across two worlds. "Lulu did what?"
Suddenly: chaos. In the air, enormous gouts of flame, thunder and water. On Sin's carapace, tendrils, wind, and spells -- somewhere along the way to Sin Yuna got Rikku to add Silenceproof to her ring -- and a good thing, too; a lingering magic from the Magus Sisters' triple reflection sends it back at Sin, with modest force. Though no amount of silence magic could prevent Riesenlied's song from reaching her... reaching all of them.
With Nirvana in her hand, and a song in her heart, she almost -- ALMOST -- says a prayer. It's the Hymn! And it's the familiar feeling of a religious implement against her palm! And it wouldn't have been such a bad thing, would it, to pray at a time like this. But YEVON was undoubtedly named for Yu Yevon. All that time that she prayed, she was praying to the core of Sin.
No more.
"No more!" Brain connects mouth, connects heart -- violet and rose radiance explodes out of her to chain from friend to friend to friend, restoring their strength, their voice, their freedom.
"We won't let you hurt anyone anymore," she promises Yu Yevon. She promises Jecht...
...and through heart and rod and magic, her will be done.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"Copying you loud and clear, Jay, Shalune, Ethius. And--" Lunata pauses as she spots Elly's message and accepts, as she smiles towards her. "... yeah, I get it, Elly. This is no time to be overdoing it. I want us to come back from this and tell the tale of how we all had a part in ending this cycle!"
Ending a cycle... Lunata doesn't really want to think of it, but she's still trapped in her own cycle. Without an answer. With a certain end. Does she have a shot at ending her own? Even if she gets consumed by it, even if she's just another person who was trapped in it...
She wants to be able to say she had an end in helping another miserable cycle, before she goes!
Sin does not have such menacing names for no reason, though; this isn't their first engagement, and a bouquet of fire rises to threaten to shatter their Gears with impunity. "Big Shal, I'm counting on you to keep Shalune safe!"
Though Lunata herself has a lot to worry about -- as the fire roils over her, the Pulse Shift Armour kicks online, and an oscillating barrier reverbs around the relic Gear as the Ley, the Earthpulse, keeps the worst of the sorcery away from sensitive parts; it's not perfect, however, and scorches of flame still threaten to tear away at its pearlescent outer armour.
"Glad you're here too, Pearl!" she shouts, though she's not sure if she can reach the Summoner with just the Gear radio at the moment.
"Ethius, I've got long-range weaponry as well, so let's coordinate our shots together. Jay, if you've got any plans in particular with Issachar, just let me know!"
With that, she takes to the offensive -- suspended in mid-air on Ley-powered wings, the Rephaim's leylguns unfurl from its waist and snap into position, its arms bracing both of them in support.
Ley-powered railguns... Leylguns, they are!
"Target's locked...!" Lunata shouts, and the aerial Gear launches several magical projectiles that aim to sink towards the Fins, just as Cid ordered.
GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Sin with XA-G11 Leylinear Leylgun! GS: Lunata Croze has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action. GS: Sin solidly guards Pearl's Crashing Serpent for 161 hit points! GS: Yuna has attacked Lulu with Esuna! GS: Yuna has attacked Rikku with Esuna! GS: Yuna has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Esuna! GS: Yuna has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Esuna! GS: Yuna has attacked Xantia with Esuna! GS: Yuna has attacked Paine with Esuna! GS: Yuna has attacked Tidus with Esuna! GS: Yuna has attacked Yuna with Esuna! GS: Yuna has completed her action. GS: Rikku accepts Yuna's Esuna for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Disrupt and Slow removed! GS: FP up! Yuna's Reload! activated! GS: Yuna accepts Yuna's Esuna for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Cripple removed! GS: Lulu accepts Yuna's Esuna for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Cripple and Mute removed! GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Yuna! GS: FP up! Yuna's Reload! activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"Incoming," Ethius relays what is obvious when the balls of flame come to life. He doesn't focus on the hundreds of eyes as a matter of holding his resolve, it's just confirmation there's no blind spot. "Fire coming from above us--"
The electrical storms that defy physics - a brief flashback to some of Demetrioi's well-intentioned misbehavior as their attempts to make everyone happy backfired and further escalated - cuts Ethius off as he has to weave and navigate electrical disturbances in what is pure guesswork.
Ethius navigates it as well as he can, considering he has stubbornly refused to get the Aiguille's controls adjusted to better account for his left-handedness. Only one bolt gets a clear lick on the Aiguille of the three-pronged lightning assault, shooting through the Gear's left thigh and out the right shoulder. The moment is turbulent, a sense of a static shock through the cockpit that would be fatal were it not for surge protection, as a few instruments flicker.
"I'm hit," he remarks when he regains control of his faculties half a second later, "but Aiguille is holding. It appears Sin can attack us from any angle and at any distance at this scale," he's not able to call the water hurtling towards Jay in time. "I have not found a blind spot in their perception."
Leviathan's roaring quiets him, he's close enough that his communications pick it up and accidentally help amplify it (he cuts it off before it goes too long). Leviathan's roars may be more useful a direction in retrospect: 'this is a thing you need to strike down with all your fury and might.'
He turns it back on again as Lunata relays her strategy.
"I'll follow your lead, Lunata." He moves perpendicular of Lunata, breaking slightly only to make sure they don't get swept up in the same volley of return fire. "Sweeping from beneath."
The rifle-staff flares to life, energy channeling through the segments with only one sputtering flicker in a segment from the Thundaja surge that isn't enough to disrupt the return volley as Ethius moves with a sweeping set of laser shots towards the fins.
GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Sin with Strafe! GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
Rikku had looked at Baralai and noted him on her list of 'QUESTIONS TO BUG PAINE ABOUT LATER!'
It's a big list.
The fact that she has that list implies a lot about how she feels about her chances of survival.
"I'm an adult!" Rikku protested to Paine, which probably confirms how much she is not one, since she had to say it, and as Yuna smiles, Rikku just erupts, "Aaaaaaa-! Excited! Look at that smile!"
Yes see how adult she is.
Mid-air to the platform, she yells back at Paine, "DOING IT!" Upon touching down, she poses, making a finger gun at Paine as she touches down too before whirling around and giggling at Yuna, "Lulu just confessed love to Paine! And Paine accepted her feelings! It was GREAT! I wish I'd gotten it on Sphere!"
Then Sin roars in her face, Oh right! Sin! Gameface on! As Tidus yells at him, she comments back to Tidus, "What more does he want for us? We've got his favorite song on and he's still being an ornery old man!" Genais comes to ruin the party soon enough, and Sinspawn tendrils erupt to grab her feet, grasping and pulling her down. "Hey! No! You leggo!"
Rikku decides to solve this problem like how she solves most of her problems...
... with ordnance.
A pop of a pin, a throw of a grenade and, "Lunch is served so eat this!" And hurls a grenade right into Sinspawn Genais' maw, trying to pull away from the tendrils at the last moment and takes off with the assistance of Yuna's spell.
GS: Rikku has attacked Seymour Guado with Use: Grenade! GS: Rikku has gained 3 Combo! GS: Rikku has completed her action. GS: Cyre H. Lorentz accepts Yuna's Esuna for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Disrupt and Slow removed! GS: FP up! Yuna's Reload! activated! GS: Sin solidly guards Lunata Croze's XA-G11 Leylinear Leylgun for 137 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Sin gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty applied to Lunata Croze! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Guard bonus activated! GS: Lunata Croze drains Sin! Lunata Croze gains 150 temporary hit points! GS: Seraph Boudicca solidly guards Seymour Guado's Weaken for 0 hit points! GS: Break and Weaken applied to Seraph Boudicca! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Seraph Boudicca accepts Yuna's Esuna for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Break and Weaken removed! GS: Quick applied to Yuna! GS: FP up! Yuna's Reload! activated!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
The Hymn of the Fayth - it fills the air around them, in many ways.
For Elly, it is a distant hypothetical. She has her charges. She has a mission. It's desperate, Elly thinks, but all of this seems to have a sort of familiar air to it. Why is that? Elly thinks. Is it deja vu? Liabelle Emily? Did Sophia--
The sound of the Hymn is dampened by another call. Lightning crashes. Lightning is all well and good when it's long, far away, but just go to the Thunder Plains if you want to see why it's something terrifying. Electricity has many forms, and one of those forms arcs against the Regulus with a
BANG! and a reverbating aftershock, throbbing and rolling -- for Elly hardly hears the thunder, as such, between the sheltering layers of ancient metal and the power of the Ether Amplifier. The thunder rolls nonetheless; she just is at the epicenter. Screens flicker and come upwards as Elly glances on the black dimples on a cream-white backdrop, with their familiar names -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s833ihtGf1M
Elly's face sets in deliberation.
Signals fly downwards -- the strangest might be to Big Shal, but it is probably more familiar to Lunata and certainly-so to Fei -- signals of a strange sort of supplementation. A thousand little things; rerouting, reboots of secondary processors, a rethreading of systems. The myriad complicated strands that make up a Gear, rugged as they might be, gently unwoven - then brought back together again.
Elly exhales with some effort. "I suppose," Elly says, as a little twinge hits her in the back of the left eye, "we can't just hang back, can we...?"
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Fei Fong Wong with EM-Brace -Routine Work-! GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Shalune Amira with EM-Brace -Routine Work-! GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Lunata Croze with EM-Brace -Routine Work-! GS: Elhaym van Houten has gained 2 Combo! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: Elhaym van Houten heals Lunata Croze! She gains 194 temporary hit points! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Xantia accepts Yuna's Esuna for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Break and Weaken removed! GS: FP up! Yuna's Reload! activated! GS: Sin takes a solid hit from Ethius Hesiod's Strafe for 263 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Sin gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Riposte applied to Ethius Hesiod!
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Never, never. Lulu does not smile... with her mouth. It's in her eyes.
Remembrance of the Crusaders who fell--Lulu hears Xantia's promise, as she prepares to jump from the platform. Whether she knows her well or not, Lulu, too, remembers fallen Crusaders.
The many Gears move on around them, to their own positions. Lulu never imagined to see so many machina in one place. ...She thinks it good, in this. She remembers the Seraph who sings. And, of course...
She looks wryly at Rikku, but her attention stays otherwise on Paine for a long few moments.
"Good," the black mage answers, and she jumps.
If she has a small smile on her face from Paine's brief stammering, it doesn't last long. But it's there.
Lulu doesn't answer Yuna's question. It was for Rikku after all.
Of course, there are Sinspawn, beside that horrible core. Lulu eyes it. She eyes the Sinspawn. And as Tidus calls out to it, Lulu narrows her eyes, even as the air around her becomes thicker. Her voice will not carry; sound will not hold. ...So, it is lucky, then, that she does not speak in those moments. She listens; she listens to the song, to Riesenlied, and to Yuna.
Yuna's will restores her, empowers her, and Lulu steps forward, her many belts' bucklets jangling, the noise obscured by all the many sounds going on here.
She sets down her Onion Knight, and begins to cast. Her arms part expansively, extending upward and then to either side. The magic she calls upon casts an aura around her with its force, but she is not its target.
She could've chosen between targets. But she didn't. She expands her magic to both te Sinspaw and the core, but she casts far more quickly than she has before. "You're too hot." A powerful burst of flame happens first, an inferno that blots out all sight with its sheer force when it explodes around them. On its heel comes the ice, a frigid storm that crystallizes all that heat at once in the next moment, snap-snap.
"But I'll help you cool down."
She mysteriously doesn't answer Rikku.
GS: Lulu has attacked Seymour Guado with Doublecast! GS: Lulu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lulu has completed her action. GS: Seymour Guado solidly guards Rikku's Use: Grenade for 60 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seymour Guado gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
"Where _do_ we go from here?" Shalune wonders back towards Jay, talking into her headset. She's done some upgrading to it as only she could, and the Al Bhed device appears to be handling the distance much better than you'd expect, largely due in part to the Hyadean booster on one side. "I mean, there's a good-to-even chance we're gonna have to punch Death in the face sometime, which probably means we're going to have to pluck a creepy butterfly or two along the way. I can't really say I'm eager to do that, though."
The nattering helps mask her nervousness at the way Big Shal is simply dropping towards the body of Sin, even if it's kind of interrupting the soft Hymn that's beginning to build around them. She's never really considered herself much of a singer. "I'm-- uh, I'm rapidly falling out of position, honestly!" she replies to Ethius' call, "But Big Shal seems to know what she's doing, I guess! I hope!" she adds.
"--do we count as Black Wolves yeeet, I want a paycheck alreadyyy--" her voice trails from the fall as she tries to reply to Elly, but even if she doesn't say it out loud, there's an obvious pride in her voice at the fact that she's here as well. Like it or not, misgivings about Bevelle or not, she's not the sort of person that can just stand aside and leave this situation aside.
The air above her head suddenly heats, and Shalune yelps as she instinctively ducks down. A shadow passes narrowly above her head as she does so - but rather than it being the ball of sorcerous flame it's a protective cover that encompasses the platform she's standing on, built in the space of an instant as sheets of the armor on Big Shal's arms detach away. It glows white-hot as the spell rams into it, easily enough to melt straight through - and yet some aspect of the golem's construction keeps even the molten metal in place until the spell has subsided.
As the last of the flame dissipates, the wave of raw feeling from the Fereshte chases it like a balm, washing away the force of the spell. Big Shal's barrier practically dissolves once it's no longer needed; some of it seems to be gathered back into the golem as if it were a living metal, while molten droplets of it are lost to the seas below, faint hisses and small plumes of steam marking their fall. Big Shal's right arm reforms itself, component by component, and-- gives the Rephaim a thumbs up. Job done.
Does a golem have a computer? A mind? Even Shalune, who spent years up to her elbows in Diablo's innards and has built Big Shal twice over, cannot say for sure. Whatever is there, the golem turns in its fall to raise a hand, as if it were actively catching Elly's signal in one palm, then brings both hands down on Sin as it crashes into the bulk of the creature in a double-fisted hammer of a blow.
GS: Elhaym van Houten heals Shalune Amira! She gains 188 temporary hit points! GS: Shalune Amira has attacked Sin with Big Shal Punch! GS: Shalune Amira has completed her action. GS: Elhaym van Houten heals Fei Fong Wong! He gains 198 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
The environment is horrifying -- and Boudicca is all the more glad for the warmth of the Guardians and their bonds, as they move inward.
And Sinspawn Genais...
It is like a pearl, in the middle of that shell, and Boudicca spares a thought for Pearl and Leviathan as they rage with the waters. "Be well," she murmurs, under her breath. Her breath is underneath, for that moment, harried by those horrific winds.
But Esuna floods through her, healing and light, and she smiles to Yuna again. "Thank you," she breathes out.
So does the world.
A green glyph erupts about her feet as her breeze swirls around her, in direct challenge to Genais's magic. "Fortifying Tailwind!" She invokes, as that magic swirls and eddies around Cyre, the Wind Shaman -- Yuna and Tidus, the happy couple -- and Lulu and Paine, subtler knives.
(Rikku and Mystery Crusader X, surely, are swift enough already. And Boudicca -- well, she's busy eminating those winds of challenge, isn't she?)
GS: Seraph Boudicca has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Fortifying Tailwind! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Tidus with Fortifying Tailwind! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Yuna with Fortifying Tailwind! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Paine with Fortifying Tailwind! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Lulu with Fortifying Tailwind! GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: Gamble: Moderate! Seymour Guado suffers a terrible blow from Lulu's Doublecast for 229 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seymour Guado gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shieldbreak blocked! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated! GS: Yuna accepts Seraph Boudicca's Fortifying Tailwind for 0 hit points! GS: Burst, Quick, and Shield applied to Yuna! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Paine accepts Yuna's Esuna for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Break and Weaken removed! GS: Quick applied to Yuna! GS: FP up! Yuna's Reload! activated! GS: Tidus accepts Yuna's Esuna for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Disrupt and Slow removed! GS: Quick applied to Yuna! GS: FP up! Yuna's Reload! activated! GS: CRITICAL! Tidus accepts Seraph Boudicca's Fortifying Tailwind for 0 hit points! GS: Burst, Quick, and Shield applied to Tidus! GS: Paine accepts Seraph Boudicca's Fortifying Tailwind for 0 hit points! GS: Burst, Quick, and Shield applied to Paine!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"Glad to have you with us." Jacqueline replies with a nod, as Ethius announces his presence. He's always been reliable - it's good to have him with them, here and now. Elly's comment gets a nod and a smile, too. "The feeling is mutual. Let's get through this."
Shalune's comment gets another smirk.
"Good question." Jacqueline replies consideringly. As for punching Death in the face... "I wouldn't say I'm... eager, exactly. But I am more than ready to give it a piece of my mind. ...One thing at a time, though."
They rise to meet Sin... and Sin rises to meet them. Eyes meet hundreds of eyes. Is it just her imagination, that they linger on her for a moment...?
Sin, then, brings its not-inconsiderable power to bear. Severals orbs of water are conjured, orbit around Sin, and are then sent flying through the air. Issachar casts a hand out to meet them, bolts of lightning rushing out to blast some of them apart - and then, the Gear darts off, weaving its way through the barrage. She cannot dodge all of them - eventually, one hits the mark. Issachar is sent reeling through the air before casting its arms out wide to halt its momentum.
"Just keep looking. If you find one, let us know - until then, keep the pressure on." Jacqueline replies with a nod, then considers Lunata's request. "I'm going into melee range. I'd appreciate any covering fire you could give me."
And then, she does just that. From a nearby bag, Jacqueline draws out a Copy Medium. She draws upon Lucadia's power. In one instant, Issachar disappears and reappears right above Sin, spear held tight and pointed down toward the Clysmian's fin. She dives toward the fin, looking to drive the spear as deep into it as she can reach - and then, with a wrenching motion, seeks to remove both the spear and as much of the creature along with it as she can manage.
Only a dent, surely - but every little bit helps.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Sin with Jump Strike! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: Lulu accepts Seraph Boudicca's Fortifying Tailwind for 0 hit points! GS: Burst, Quick, and Shield applied to Lulu! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz accepts Seraph Boudicca's Fortifying Tailwind for 0 hit points! GS: Burst, Quick, and Shield applied to Cyre H. Lorentz! GS: Sin critically guards Shalune Amira's Big Shal Punch for 56 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Sin gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Sin solidly guards Jacqueline Barber's Jump Strike for 148 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Sin gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong listens to the Hymn of the Fayth. There is something soothing abou it. He can't believe nobody tried singing it at Sin before but maybe it wouldn't have worked for just any Sin, he thinks.
He's more used to the strange augmentation from Elly into his gear. Some part of him intuitively understands what she's doing. The conscious part has no clue, of course, but he just kind of ... gets it.
Which is good because he just got electrocuted to hell by a powerful blast of lightning and if it wasn't for Elly he might very well be on to the next cycle but fortunately Elly is able to avert a full disruption of Weltall's systems. Maybe most relevantly, Fei's flightpack is still working just fine.
"Okay uh. I guess." Fei manages. "Going in to fight Sin in melee combat. I'm sure it'll work I mean..."
"This song is too pretty to die to."
And with that Weltall closes in on Sin and starts...
...Kicking at it repeatedly. He's not actually used to fighting problems BIGGER than Weltall itself but he can, at least, make the kicks count.
"Everyone okay?? It sure doesn't feel like Sin's weakened right now!"
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Sin with Raigo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 2 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Countless voices rise together in song, countless hearts linked together by a network of Empathite. Even after all of this time, it's still an unfamiliar sound to the shaman's ears. His hymns are similarly foreign to all of these people. So, in the end, he can't say anything of it. It's reassuring, in a way, to know that all of Spira can be united against a singular foe.
It's almost enough to get a guy to believe that the Clysmian of Obsession is going to return to the ley today.
If they can beat it, that is.
Of course, that's easier said than done. The second he touches down, the Clysmian is already defending itself. Cyre hisses a curse and tries to pull up as his landing zone unfolds into a snake's nest of writhing tentacles and entrapping tendrils.
He's had dreams that began kind of like this.
Something tells him, judging by how these tentacles are already crushing the life from his limbs, that this isn't going to be anywhere near as fun as they were.
"Shax's ass, this is already getting off to an excellent start," Cyre growls as his arms and legs are bound tight, his body squeezed in a vise of slithering tentacles. He struggles, even as they find purchase around his throat and squeeze--
Only for a wave of rose and violet to sweep across him, turning the tendrils to a swarm of pyreflies. Cyre finally touches down and nods gratefully over at Yuna. "Thanks, I owe you," he says--
--Before lunging, wind surging powerfully all around him. Boudicca's magic bolsters his step, emerald energies blending together into a brilliantly verdant display. With a roar, Cyre gathers the swirling gales around him like a suit of armor-- and thrusts with both palms, unleashing a veritable cannonball of hypercompressed air into the sinspawn...!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Seymour Guado with Gathering Storm! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz's stances have changed to Hero! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action. GS: Sin solidly guards Fei Fong Wong's Raigo for 165 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia doesn't actually know whether Sin is capable of hearing her words, or understanding them. But it doesn't matter. For her, the meaning lies in the gesture.
She may not have gotten to know many of the Crusaders on a personal basis, but the group as a whole... they accepted her. Even though she was just pretending to be a Crusader as a convenient disguise, her actions in that guise painted them in a positive light, and so they tolerated it, to the point of letting her join their ranks for Operation Mi'ihen. It could have been the start of many beautiful friendships. Instead, it was the end of so many precious lives.
She doesn't generally feel like there's any meaning in vengeance. But today... today, vengeance feels like the only thing that could possibly begin to make right those terrible wrongs of that fateful day. One more reason why she absolutely cannot lose.
She stands tall in defiance, even as withering winds whip around her. She can feel the effects, but she tries her best to resist. It's not working as well as she hoped. Soon, she finds her body sagging, a lethargic feeling threathening to overwhelm.
Thankfully, she is not alone. Yuna proclaims 'no more', and just like that, all her enforced fatigue is gone. What is a self-styled superhero to do but pretend that was easily shrugged off? With a confident grin, she reassumes her previous poise, declaring, "Is that the best you got?! Then I hope you're ready for that justice I owe you!"
With that, she begins her charge. She completely ignores the Sinspawn in so far as she can, content to dart around any tendrils she may be forced to deal with on her approach. Her business is with the Core, and she's heading straight towards it. 'Justice' is, as we all know, code for 'I'm gonna punch it', and that's exactly what she intends, crossing the final bit of distance by leaping forward, delivering-- actually, not quite a punch, as she strikes with the flat of her hand. Which in some ways can be more devastating still, the Shevat Open Palm technique excelling at breaking through any defenses that she's sure still exist, even with the barrier gone.
GS: Xantia has attacked Seymour Guado with Shatterstrike! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Seymour Guado suffers a terrible blow from Cyre H. Lorentz's Gathering Storm for 153 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seymour Guado gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty applied to Cyre H. Lorentz! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated! GS: CRITICAL! Seymour Guado suffers a terrible blow from Xantia's Shatterstrike for 154 hit points! GS: Shieldbreak applied to Seymour Guado! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Here they all are, at what may well be their end. A part of him can think of nothing better -- that here they rise and here also rises their opponent, the Clysmian of Obsession, Sin.
Sin takes but a moment to regard the threat before it: is that surprise, or perhaps calculation of the odds before it, Citan wonders, or is Sin beyond such considerations? What is left of the mind of the man who became the monster?
There is little time to do more than wonder. Sin responds to their presence in short order. With a quick glance at the incoming threat -- here the flames rise as if to burn the heavens -- Citan can see there is no easy way to outpace or evade it.
So he does not. He holds his ground, as it were, bracing where Heimdall's jets permit him stay in this mid-air position and prepares himself for the impact to come.
The heat is terrible, even against Heimdall's enhanced coolant systems. But should he have expected anything less? Still -- the system holds. His position holds. There is damage to be certain: he has a very good idea of what was damaged in the way Heimdall responds afterwards, without even looking at the report.
Still -- it's still enough. More than enough, by his estimation, and the fight is only just begun.
"Is everyone quite alright? This is, I am afraid, only the beginning!" Fei and others are fortunately tended to by the power of Elly's Gear, which is itself another small relief.
A song carries itself on the wind. No, more than the wind-- it wends its way into the heart, the soul. "Ah... I see. So this is the land's 'will'..."
They do not wish to die, but instead, to live -- to see another day.
"No, we cannot," he answers Elly. "We must do our part, here and now."
He needs to get in closer to have a chance. Whether or not it might be possible to blunt Sin's attacks further, he does not know, but in this moment it seems to him better to try. Heimdall descends sharply as he unloads with the ARMs mounted at the ancient Gear's wrists; the ordinance that he lets fly at the Clysmian will explode in brilliant bursts on impact -- if it does connect and isn't simply shot out of the air by Sin's magic.
"Well! I do think that is an excellent question, Miss Amira! Perhaps you should ask our Captain on our return?" So he remarks to Shalune as he falls back, perhaps making trouble for Leon down the line.
GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Sin with Kawagiri! GS: Citan Uzuki has gained 1 Combo! GS: Citan Uzuki has completed his action. GS: Sin partially guards Citan Uzuki's Kawagiri for 142 hit points! GS: Blind applied to Sin! GS: Quick applied to Citan Uzuki! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.
At least Tidus seems disinclined to avenge himself for Paine's earlier teasing. Maybe he's just that nice, maybe it's a benefit of being ill-tempered and scary and getting involved with a woman who is also ill-tempered and scary. But no, it's probably simply that they are out of time. It's difficult for Paine to guess what happy-go-luckies like Tidus and Rikku will do because she comes from such a different place than them emotionally, but surely even they must be losing their appetite for mirth right now. It says a lot, Paine thinks, that she is still thinking about her exchange with Lulu, even as she takes the leap after her, and lands a moment later.
It all feels different down here, and knowing that it is somehow because of the wind swirling about her worn black boots is of little help. The idea that Yuna is connected to Tidus by those smiles they share, the idea that she, maybe, has a quieter connection to Lulu... what meaning will that have, in a fight like this? No one can help her with what she has to do; cooperation is different. No one can aim for her. No one can make the moment to moment choices she is about to make... nor can she help the others with theirs. She let herself get lulled; surely even Rikku doesn't really think relationships matter at a moment like this. Like Lulu, she feels them... but knows they can wait.
OR NOT. Paine finds herself next to an avid recounting, all that mystique and ambiguity utterly lost on Rikku and Yuna. She is genuinely taken aback, as she was when Rikku did this to her a moment ago, by the candy-colored and romantic mirror that Rikku holds up to her dry repartee with Lulu.
"Wait until you hear my murder confession," she tells Rikku, with Baralai-worthy zeal in her eyes. "That one's about you."
But when Sin roars, Paine falls readily into cooperation with the thief. And Yuna's magic soon dispels the lingering doubt in her. Quickened as well by a better wind--Seraph's verdant glyph--Paine finds herself swinging her rifle to her shoulder as neatly as she did on her last day of training, and peppering Genais quickly rather than accurately in an effort to keep it distracted as Rikku deploys something quite a bit heavier than the bullet she was thumbing earlier.
Here goes... the first moments of her last duty as Guardian, one way or the other.
GS: Paine has attacked Seymour Guado with Covering Fire! GS: Paine has gained 3 Combo! GS: Paine has completed her action. GS: Seymour Guado suffers a terrible blow from Paine's Covering Fire for 44 hit points! GS: Weaken applied to Seymour Guado! GS: Cover applied to Paine! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Sin has posed.
Leviathan drives down for Sin. Aeon comes for monstrosity, and Sin bellows defiance -- but fast as it may be, Sin cannot dodge. Leviathan slams into Sin, the body of the massive creature denting inward. Pyreflies explode off in plumes of color, before it is shoved to the side.
The left fin swings down, trying to strike into Leviathan and smash them aside.
The ley-powered guns on Rephaim fire. The magic-powered projectiles slam into it -- but it's all wrong. Shimmering barriers of hexagonal light, aglow with golden energy, appear -- and the rounds have to tear through those first, before smashing into Sin properly.
Then, Sin summons up two more of those orbs of water -- which explode off from the orbit around it, swirl, and come crashing in for Rephaim with another intricate dance -- and immense power behind them.
Aiguille surges in near Lunata, soaring after her. The rifle-staff fires, energy blasts striking -- and Sin cannot summon barriers as quickly, this time. The laser blasts leave gashes across its mottled grey hide, leaving scars on it. Then, several fireballs form -- and they go firing off, twisting and arching about, before crashing down at Ethius's Gear all at once.
Regulus offers support, at Elly's urging. Elly wonders if she can hold back -- and the answer is soon proven to be 'no.'
More of those orbs of water that hurtled for Rephaim swing out from orbit about Sin. They come crashing down, one after the other, trying to pummel Elly's Omnigear mercilessly.
Big Shall comes crashing down towards Sin. Both fists slam down in a hammer blow, its armored hide cracking -- jets of pyreflies shooting up around Shalune and Shal both -- before the right fin swings around and tries to slam into Big Shal and hurl the Golem away from it.
And, not a moment later, Issachar descends downward at Sin -- after relocating. That seems to have taken Sin by surprise; the spear drives down, slamming into the body, drawing a long gash across it, ripping it out of the thing. Pyreflies explode off, along with chunks of armor.
And the fin reels, trying to smash Issachar away from Sin's body -- and back into the sky.
Weltall flies in. Its kicks are powerful -- each blow smashing into its armored body, sending up bursts of pyreflies and leaving cracks in the armor. Fei's strikes hit, though he does find something about what he said. The Hymn... isn't, yet, slowing Sin down.
The fin swings down, and this time, it's a mighty sweep aimed at hurtling Weltall away from Sin -- and possibly down to the ocean or Bevelle, if Fei isn't careful.
Heimdall's ARMs open fire -- rounds exploding across its body. Some detonate before they get there, as fire sweeps out to meet some. But others pierce through, leaving gashes torn into its armor where they hit. The creature bleeds pyreflies -- and its sheer size means there is far more, yet, to do.
Lightning crackles. Several bolts of lightning shoot across the sky, reaching out over a long distance. Two of them crash down at once, seeking to catch Citan's Gear in a pincer-strike of magic.
GS: Sin has attacked Pearl with Fin Crush! GS: Sin has gained 1 Combo! GS: Sin has attacked Lunata Croze with Wateraja! GS: Sin has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Wateraja! GS: Sin has gained 1 Combo! GS: Sin spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Sin has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Firaja! GS: Sin has gained 1 Combo! GS: Sin has attacked Shalune Amira with Fin Strike! GS: Sin has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Fin Strike! GS: Sin has gained 1 Combo! GS: Sin spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Sin has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Fin Sweep! GS: Sin has gained 1 Combo! GS: Sin has attacked Citan Uzuki with Thundaja! GS: Sin has gained 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Seymour Guado has posed.
Caladbolg's three shining rings erupt to life. They slash through the tendrils -- tearing them away, with flashes of pyreflies from each -- and then slam into Genais, cutting into the Sinspawn. The creature roars, defiantly, at Tidus. Then, it swings an arm down -- and three huge, tentacle-like tendrils lash out across his body.
Yuna cries out to Jecht. Perhaps he hears her -- but he does not listen. For instead, there is a flash of light near her; a glow of red, before a fireball comes crashing down, spewed forth from the core. It explodes, with a fiery blast, near the Summoner.
Rikku throws a grenade. This is not, terribly, new.
It remains effective. The grenade explodes next to Genais's head, blowing the crab-like creature to the side. It roars again, and then swings the right arm down. Tendrils lash out, like whips, to strike at Rikku mercilessly.
Then, a moment later, fire erupts about the Sinspawn and the Core. The flame shoots into the sky at Lulu's command, scorching Sin's hide black -- and sending pyreflies away at where it eats at them -- before ice slams down into it. The creatures both scream.
The response is immediate. Several jagged pieces of ice appear, over Lulu's head -- and then crash down for her. The spell is well-crafted -- well-timed and well-targeted. It isn't, quite, the primal force she may have expected.
Boudicca gives her support -- and then lightning crashes down. It seems eerily timed; just after she looses Fortifying Tailwind, a massive bolt of lightning crashes down for head, as if trying to interrupt her. Sparks explode high into the air when it strikes.
Cyre roars, descending. Compressed air smashes into Sinspawn Genais. The blast slams it backward, pyreflies exploding from the entry and exit wound. It swings its right arm up, then, and the tendrils slam up for his midsection.
Xantia comes in not a moment later. The flat of her hand slams into the Core, as she darts past Genais. She hits its armored hide -- and breaks a section of chitin off with one, flashy blow. Pyreflies blast up into her face. Then, she feels the ground under her feet grow hot -- and a fireball explodes, slamming her upward as it explodes at her boots.
Paine's rifle fires. It's a careful, tactical sort of firing; rounds that strike into Genais. It could have followed up with more tendril strikes on Rikku, Tidus, and Cyre, but those shots force it back. The Sinspawn is reeling for a moment.
Which is why it is odd that a bolt of lightning crashes down so soon. It's almost... tactical, in a way, how the lightning comes down before Paine can keep pressure on it.
Not at all, perhaps, what one would expect of a monster like Sin.
GS: Seymour Guado spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Tidus with Tendrils! GS: Seymour Guado spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Yuna with Firaga! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seymour Guado spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Rikku with Tendrils! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Lulu with Blizzara! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Thundaga! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seymour Guado spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Tendrils! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seymour Guado spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Xantia with Firaga! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Paine with Thundaga! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 2 Combo! GS: Seymour Guado has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Sin has posed.
The Dragon's Tear shines. Directed by Riesenlied, but not alone. No, far from it -- for the people of Bevelle begin to sing. The solemn, deep tones of the Hymn of the Fayth rise up. Over streaming fire in the heavens; over flash of spell and ARM; over pyreflies blown free from strikes against Sin. They rise in time from all over Spira.
A sphere in Bevelle shines; a massive screen is projected up, showing the people of Luca gathered in the Blitzball stadium. Their voices boom out, joining them. Another brightens; there, the people of rebuilt Kilika stand around their still-damaged harbor, hand in hand, singing. A few Guardsmen that never left stand with them. Another; this one showing Guadosalam, with Trommel at their lead. Another, still; this one shows the Thames on Filgaia, with the Captain himself slamming his hand down over the strings of his electric guitar.
The Hymn reverberates over all of Spira. It reverberates over all of Sin.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ohpdy99kEc
And Riesenlied, for a moment, touches sin's mind. Her mind races in, brushed by thoughts and memories. Memories of a mother, abandoned; memories of growing up alone in a great city; memories of a father's murder. The realization hits her, then.
It isn't one mind. It's two -- and one of them, grievously wounded when the Heimdall Gazzo fired, was stunned. The other came in.
She is pushed out, then -- sent reeling away from Sin, even if the Hymn does not leave him. Before she leaves, she can feel the stubbornness of that second mind; that sensation of Jecht, desperately trying to claw control of Sin back, driven on by the Hymn.
Sin roars again. But there is a purpose in that roar -- a madness, but a clarity in that madness. This is not a pained creature, lashing out. This is a dream, fulfilled.
And unless he is stopped, all of Lunar and Filgaia will suffer for it.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRLiuiSxRSo
GS: Sin has attacked Seymour Guado with Seymour's Will! GS: Sin has gained 1 Combo! GS: Sin has completed his action. GS: Sin has attacked Sin with Seymour's Will! GS: Sin has gained 2 Combo! GS: Sin heals Sin! He gains 348 temporary hit points! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Sin! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Rikku partially guards Seymour Guado's Tendrils for 107 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rikku gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Seymour Guado drains Rikku! Seymour Guado gains 14 temporary hit points! GS: Sin heals Seymour Guado! He gains 44 temporary hit points! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Seymour Guado! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Elhaym van Houten takes a solid hit from Sin's Wateraja for 289 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Elhaym van Houten gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Lunata Croze takes a solid hit from Sin's Wateraja for 287 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font, Guard bonus, and Gleam activated! GS: Seraph Boudicca partially evades Seymour Guado's Thundaga for 101 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz takes a glancing hit from Seymour Guado's Tendrils for 85 hit points! GS: Seymour Guado drains Cyre H. Lorentz! Seymour Guado gains 10 temporary hit points! GS: Tidus partially guards Seymour Guado's Tendrils for 153 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tidus gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Tidus receives 100 temporary hit points. GS: Tidus enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seymour Guado drains Tidus! Seymour Guado gains 20 temporary hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Moderate! Citan Uzuki takes a glancing hit from Sin's Thundaja for 224 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Citan Uzuki gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cover applied to Sin! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: CRITICAL! Jacqueline Barber partially guards Sin's Fin Strike for 273 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jacqueline Barber gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated Force Action: Accelerate! GS: CRITICAL! Ethius Hesiod suffers a terrible blow from Sin's Firaja for 424 hit points! GS: Lulu suffers a terrible blow from Seymour Guado's Blizzara for 140 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lulu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated! GS: CRITICAL! Xantia takes a glancing hit from Seymour Guado's Firaga for 79 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xantia gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mute and Poison applied to Xantia! GS: Shalune Amira critically guards Sin's Fin Strike for 92 hit points! GS: Pearl takes a solid hit from Sin's Fin Crush for 297 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Pearl gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty applied to Sin! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Yuna takes a solid hit from Seymour Guado's Firaga for 153 hit points! GS: Yuna's Mute Ward may block the effect! GS: Mute and Poison applied to Yuna! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Gleam activated! GS: Yuna enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Paine takes a solid hit from Seymour Guado's Thundaga for 169 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Paine gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
"It could be worse! Trust me, this IS calm compared to one of his drunken rages!" Tidus calls to Rikku, a dire attempt at humor at a dire point in time.
She's right, though. There's something weird about Sin. He can't quite put his finger on it, though, and there are lots of things around to distract him from thinking too hard on it.
Case in point: he snorts in wry amusement as Paine promises a reckoning on Rikku, though. "Sounds pretty scary. You and Lulu really are a great match!"
He follows this up with a wink Lulu's way--because it *has* been a long time since he was the know-nothing brat and she was a scary intimidating black mage. He can be this casual with her because they *are* friends now. So go on, Paine--you were saying something funny about him being just that nice.
The violet and rose light whorls from Yuna's rod through Tidus and several others, and he breathes a literal sigh of relief as the shreds of those tendrils finally drop from his leg. Boudicca's wind joins it, bolstering him and giving him that extra lightness to his step. "Thanks, Yuna, Boudicca! You're both lifesavers!" he calls to them. When his girlfriend follows up with her promise to Jecht and Yu Yevon both, he shouts, "You tell 'em, Yuna!"
Cyre growls nearby about the great start. Tidus can relate, but he tells him all the same, "Hey, it's not over 'til it's over! We just gotta grab the ball and keep shooting 'til we score!" ...Metaphorically speaking.
Meanwhile, Xantia is presenting as Mystery Crusader X. Tidus doesn't know her all that well, or what the deal is with all that, but he respects the enthusiasm she's pouring into the fight--and the callback to the Crusaders, who gave up so much to try to do what they're trying now. "Give it all you got!" he calls her way as she speaks of JUSTICE.
A good round of Cheers for everyone--though not the move itself. Tidus is on the front lines today, and they've already got plenty of support in Yuna and Boudicca. Best to leave it to the professionals and he keep beating this Sinspawn up.
Not that it's going to just be that *easy*. Even as Yuna's Esuna drops the remains that had been clinging to him earlier, Genais calls up more tendrils to slam down and slash across him. With nowhere to dodge, those three tendrils blocking his way to the side or back, Tidus opts itself to charge *forward*--to slam himself against them and rebound off them to knock them back at the same time. It hurts like HELL, and for an instant he's staggered as he bleeds from the wounds, but perhaps surprisingly, he sees some limited success.
Look, it's not the worst tactical decision anyone's ever made mid-battle. That award goes to Seymour "Tried To Block A Sword With His Hand" Guado.
In return, when he swerves on the monstrosity that is Genais as its tendrils rear back, Tidus launches himself forward at it anew, this time while swinging his sword around in a shining blue curve. There's power radiating from this strike too, though not of pure force: it's a combination of his time magic and his sword skills, combining to potentially slow down the Genais's strikes enough to give everyone a better shot at avoiding them.
GS: Tidus enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Tidus has attacked Seymour Guado with Delay Buster! GS: Tidus enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Tidus has completed his action. GS: Fei Fong Wong takes a solid hit from Sin's Fin Sweep for 390 hit points! GS: Seymour Guado solidly guards Tidus's Delay Buster for 46 hit points! GS: Blind applied to Seymour Guado! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
To seek another's heart is something that is far from a 'science'. It involves casting away the borders of one's mind, heart and soul. It is innately risky, to reach out; a touch, after all, threatens to leave one with a wound on one's hand, metaphorical as the hand may be. As Riesenlied's conscience drifts along the voices of the Many, however, she witnesses it...
... the memories of a mother abandoned. The lonely life of one abandoned, something she intimately knows. A father's murder. And-- and a realisation--
This is not what they expect.
There is two. When the great, horrible weapon of Odessa weapon fired, one was rendered away from control; the other came in. The other... this is not who Tidus spoke of. This is none other than...
She is violently pushed back; the Hyadean is rattled and dazed in her chair, but there is something pivotal that changes the context of everything. She helplessly grasps to one side, then settles on her Tear, trusting the empathite to relay the message to those who need to hear it.
"... I have something very important to share with you all. I witnessed the sensations and emotions within Sin, but... at present, it is not Jecht that controls Sin. He was wounded by the powerful ray of the Heimdall Gazzo, and within that moment of wounding..."
She pauses.
"Seymour Guado is in control of Sin. Please, stop him. This is not a wounded soul lashing out upon you... this is the moment of realisation of his dark design."
She repeats. "Please, stop Seymour. Or all of Lunar and Filgaia will suffer...!"
Her breath shallowly runs out at this point; she's truly and well spent, but she has the utmost faith in those battling, both in giants and on foot, to their fullest.
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado has posed.
IN GUADOSALAM
The Guado people struggle for their place in Spira after following Seymour's wicked plans. The wickedness arguably began in full earnest when Jyascal decided to take full advantage of the Yevon faith for the benefit of the Guado people. Tourism boomed, and with it, greater influence in matters of coping with the endless cycle of death. (Historians would boggle over how no one got the idea sooner in that span of time with Sin's appearance.)
It all felt like it went away overnight. The haughtiness they bore over the others of Spira, lain low. Few stood up for themselves when various survivors of Seymour's evil (...and theirs) spat at them, or worse.
Gon, one of Seymour's worst enablers brought back from the brink by the courage of his daughters, feels that crushing ennui consuming everyone that has been harder and harder to not fall into. As one of the few older and experienced Guardians still alive, he's been by Trommel's side as both men seem at a loss to figure out what to do now.
Then, there is singing.
It starts with the younger among them. Though exposed to difficult truths and sights at a tender age, Pani still finds peace in the Hymn. As a once-aspiring Summoner, there is a moment in all this that reaches out to her.
Timu, her older sister trying to grow into the job of a dedicated healer due to her gift of the magic of 'prayers' (Althenian White Magic, to be specific), isn't far behind her - knowing they fought for better but struggling to get to the other side of all that.
The Guado people lacked a true leader in the months that followed the chaos underneath Guadosalam. Gon gives Tromell a look as he hears his daughters - and others' daughters and sons - take up the Hymn.
It is not long before he urges Trommel to go join them, only to find within the span of time he looks away from him that he already has, once again leaving Gon at the backfoot. Even a collective moment of a shared wish of salvation finds its way to make light of him.
Though much is yet to be answered for, perhaps Guadosalam can one day become a place where life is celebrated, rather than merely mourned and pined for.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
"I never said I was throwing in the towel, Blitzboy," Cyre answers with what is by now a characteristic amount of sass. But at least it's affectionate sass? Yet more tentacles sweep out to try and batter him to the ground, but this time the shaman has a better eye on them. They slam into him, knocking him back-- and no further. He bends in mid-air, twisting into a three-point landing. "Tch. This is weird. It doesn't feel like we're fighting a force of nature here. It's too... calculating...?"
Too calculating indeed.
Riesenlied reveals the situation for what it is: this is not Jecht, the storied Ballerfather of Blitzboy. This is...
"You," Cyre's voice drips with... Just, utter contempt. "You... ugh. Of all the ways you had to be stubborn about dying, it had to be the most apocalyptic possible!" He reaches out, making a claw with one hand. The air around the sinspawn abruptly turns... thick. Like molasses, or perhaps even thicker than that. This thing doesn't care about breathing, Cyre is pretty sure, but it definitely cares about moving. And he can stop that, for at least a time. "Is this what you wanted to do with Desperation, or was that just a trial, Seymour!? You get yourself out of my ley, before I have to drag you out!"
Cyre-- he does not like this man. Not one bit.
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Seymour Guado with Air Cancel! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action. GS: Seymour Guado solidly guards Cyre H. Lorentz's Air Cancel for 26 hit points! GS: Drowsy, Hex, Interrupt, and Poison applied to Seymour Guado! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"... I have all the faith that you'll both punch Death in the face for me," Lunata grins to the both of them, even if it sounds a bit sad. "... but it's true. We've got this cycle to break first. Then we can say we've got some experience doing it."
Jacqueline informs her she'd like to go to melee range, and she nods in turn. Fei also states the same. "All right! I'll keep your six clear, Fei, Jay!" Fei and Jay rhymes, huh? She didn't even think about that.
Lunata huffs very quietly at Shalune, though, nattering, "Come on, Shalune, you want paychecks? What happened to doing crime to get paid? You've gone soft! Citan, don't encourage her!"
... should you really boast that in front of Jay, Lunata?
Elly's power comes into light, though, and there's a strange resonance with the Black Box of Rephaim itself -- but it seems to intuitively recognise El Regulus' circuitry and power, along with Elly's own... and the Pulse Shift barrier is optimised further.
There's a deep-set frown as Lunata watches her projectiles clash against shimmering barriers; so there's even more defences, huh? Well, she's accepted that it won't be easy. "Copy that, Ethius," she says as he strafes along to avoid getting barraged by the same blasts.
A moment later, however, it's water that comes roaring towards her -- she's piloting for her darn life here, trying to swerve with verniers on maximum to try to not get caught in its orbit, but where she manages one she's hit by the other, driven back by the superior torrent of force. "Ghh...! The power difference's overwhelming, but... it's not going to be helpless like in Azado...!"
With Sin's own barriers, they're going to get ground down before they make headway and be forced to retreat -- leaving the on-foot team in mortal peril if their backup and distraction's been led astray. She needs even the game... but fortunately, barriers are actually something the Rephaim is a forte at.
"Everyone, I'm going to spread the Pulse Shift Barrier outwards, and give you some protectioon!"
Fervent typing; it feels weird to basically be typing on an ancient relic keyboard, but she's managed to make sense of the systems that even Shalune has limited luck dissecting. "Expand and shape the area, feed the IFF signals that Shalune and Jay gave me... synthesise the magic and-- go!"
The mysterious Zeboim Gear's arms brace into its chest for a moment, a powerful crackle of Ley energy erupting through the air as its Converters go into overdrive; and then, when it spreads its palms out, a light-blue barrier washes over the area, individually appearing as oscillating hexes of shielding over the Aiguille, the El-Regulus, the Weltall, Heimdall, Big Shal, Leviathan, and Issachar.
GS: Lunata Croze has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Pearl with Pulse Shift Barrier! GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Pulse Shift Barrier! GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Pulse Shift Barrier! GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Pulse Shift Barrier! GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Pulse Shift Barrier! GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Citan Uzuki with Pulse Shift Barrier! GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Shalune Amira with Pulse Shift Barrier! GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Lunata Croze with Pulse Shift Barrier! GS: Lunata Croze has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
After Tidus slashes Genais's tentacles, he lands nimbly nearby--just in time to hear Riesenlied's announcement through the empathite everyone is carrying at least a fragment of. "What?!" he utters, freezing up for a second--Cyre's sass will go unaddressed for now. Instead, several emotions war within him: shock, fear, worry, with ultimately fury coming out on top.
"SEEYYYYMOOURRRRR!! CAN YOU JUST STOP!!!" he roars.
He doesn't say anything about Jecht, and the state he's apparently in. Not here, not now, not in front of Sin and everyone. But he *thinks* it, and keeps it there in his mind and heart.
~ * Meanwhile, somewhere on the horizon... * ~
Belize stands in the sands of Bikanel; nearby, the waters of the oasis ripple. High up in the sky, far in the distance over Bevelle, an airship floats... and from it, reverberates a song they know well. They hear it all the time as they tend to Leviathan's fayth as their only priest. The Hymn, after all, resounds through all of Spira, and even in their solitary seclusion, Belize and Leviathan's Fayth both remain a part of it.
And not just that. Sin's fury is easy to see, even from this distant island. Belize had sworn to put an end to Sin, and it was this hatred of Spira's eternal enemy that led them to be unable to walk a path with Seymour to the very end.
They'd hoped they could dissuade him. But it was not to be.
The wind picks up, and they push back their red-orange bangs as their braid and robes both flap behind them. Even so, they stand their ground and raise not just a hand but their voice to join in the song:
"Ieyui... nobomeno... renmiri... yojuyogo... hasatekanae, kutamae..."
It's not for Sin and far less for Jecht that they sing--but the hope that they might reach their friend in some small way, even still, even now.
With that little prayer, their voice joins the world's harmony.
GS: Lunata Croze heals Citan Uzuki! He gains 554 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Citan Uzuki! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Lunata Croze heals Pearl! She gains 570 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Pearl! GS: Lunata Croze heals Jacqueline Barber! She gains 572 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: Lunata Croze heals Lunata Croze! She gains 564 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Lunata Croze! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Lunata Croze heals Shalune Amira! She gains 562 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Shalune Amira!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Pearl can hear the voice from the speakers, that other woman who joined Yevon. Lunata... She cannot yell to be heard over the din of battle, but when she measures herself close enough to be seen, she holds up a fist in solidarity.
For now, the fight is with the allies she has- even if the Black Wolves themselves are a terrifying lot. But they are her allies of the moment. She will fight this foe with who they can, and none can seek to challenge her strength or kill her then and there without aiding Sin. They aren't all like that, to be true. But some leave an impression.
'Seymour Guado is in control of Sin.' Those words cause Pearl's eyes to widen, then refocus. Sin is controlled by Seymour. That's what killing him got them. Even sending him did not put an end to this. "If this is true... we have unfinished business to attend to."
Sin's fin lashes out out, and Leviathan is batted aside, dropping into a spiral- Pearl clings tight, trying to stay attached. "Pull up... Leviathan, I know you can pull up! We're not returning to the ocean today!"
And all of a sudden, the Pulse Shift Barrier arrests their fall and encases them. Leviathan flattens their fins again, and starts to rise slowly. Pearl casts her free hand forward wordlessly, and Leviathan opens their mouth- and unleashes a giant blast of water at Sin, hoping to catch up.
GS: Pearl has attacked Sin with Surging Waters! GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo! GS: Pearl gains 120 THP from Regen! GS: Pearl has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Lunata Croze heals Fei Fong Wong! He gains 725 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Fei Fong Wong! GS: Lunata Croze heals Ethius Hesiod! He gains 566 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Ethius Hesiod! GS: Sin takes a solid hit from Pearl's Surging Waters for 355 hit points! GS: Dispel! Cover and Mighty removed! GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Pearl! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated! GS: Lunata Croze heals Elhaym van Houten! She gains 562 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Elhaym van Houten!
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Noeline is not someone that sings often. When she does, it's usually either rowdy drinking songs she's learnt on her travels, or else as part of a story for the children. She's never had the best of relationships to hymns and worship, especially given the rather fractious relationship they've had with the Guardians. Even now, on good terms with them, she'd rather show her belief in other ways.
But if there's anything she believes in, more than any god, it's Riesenlied. The Crimson Noble is there with her, hands on the other Hyadean's shoulders. On one finger, her ring shines lightly as she shares what power and strength she has to give over their link, and her voice carries amongst the others as she sings along. And when Riesenlied reels, she is there to immediately catch and steady her partner through her warning.
"... well done," she murmurs gently, then picks up her expression to address the rest gathered on deck. "Keep going! Even if it only barely reaches - a little is better than not at all!"
* * *
"Oh, I'm-- ngg-- super ready to give Ge Ramtos a piece of my mind. And emphatically not a piece of my soul," Shalune mutters to herself, the hitch in her voice being the point at which Big Shal turns to face the incoming fin - and raises both hands to catch it, grounding its feet into Sin's body as it struggles against the sheer weight of the appendage bearing down on it.
There's a disorienting and mildly terrifying moment where Shalune realises she's stuck between a rock and a hard place, except both sides are actually a giant whale. All she's got is Big Shal's strength to save her from getting squashed-- but she catches herself, and her expression firms up into a mixture of sheer annoyance and a solid determination.
"We're holding up!" Shalune calls back to Fei, her voice only hitching a little as she rises from where she's ducked on the scaffolding. Her shotstaff almost writhes in her hands as she overcharges the thing, the entirety of the offbeat weapon's frame pulsing with energy. She's nearly knocked straight off of Big Shal from the recoil of the ensuing blast that pushes the fin away, only caught by the harness she's wearing as she yanks a lever to detach the spent battery off the end. "Believe me, I'm just writing out the invoice for later!" she tells Citan as she rams a new one into place with a satisfying click.
She allows herself a moment to breathe, not least because she's got the freedom to do so given the two of them aren't a Gear and its rider, but two separate entities working together. There's a faint huff over the radio. "You can't just rely on unstable sources of income, Lunie! The best crimes are the legitimate ones! Like padding your timesheets." At least her tongue is firmly in her cheek - hopefully. Either way, her voice is softer when she adds: "We'll be there to help you, I promise."
Big Shal was in melee range of Sin before it became fashionable; the golem is still picking up speed as she scales up Sin's back. While it isn't fast, it seems unstoppable - when Big Shal's footing fails it simply grabs onto a ridge and pulls, hauling itself higher up only to once more pick up speed the moment its feet touch down. The golem crests onto what might be Sin's head, or at least the zenith of its body - and unceremoniously brings two balled fists down to bear with all its might. Shalune herself follows up, craning forwards as the golem crashes down to sear a line of solid light across Sin's flank with her staff.
"Don't worry about me!" she calls to the others assembled. "Big Shal's got my back! We'll work around your attacks, so just go for it! If I need it, I've got--" her hand hovers over her pocket - but something makes her hang back. Not yet. She needs to bear the responsibility for that option, should it come to it, and landing Diablo on Spira still feels just a little bit too irresponsible for words.
GS: Shalune Amira has attacked Sin with Big Shal Hammer! GS: Shalune Amira has gained 5 Combo! GS: Shalune Amira gains 116 THP from Regen! GS: Shalune Amira has completed her action. GS: Sin solidly guards Shalune Amira's Big Shal Hammer for 114 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Sin gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
One of those orbs of water going for Rephaim graze off of the Aiguille in their movement - the decision to break his movement at that point saves him from that, but Sin has something else on (one of) its mind(s) for Ethius as he takes the moment to register the hits he lands.
"I've scored some hits at--" he rattles off whatever appropriate notation it is for its heading, but then the optical instruments are briefly blinded by the fireball formations above him. There's a short-lived chase as the fireballs twist and arc as he is forced to descend to try and clear them overhead.
He doesn't make it. They all gather and strike dead on from above, and static fills the communications channel for a moment as material glows, warps, and... even drips, removing significant portions of armor plating around the upper body of the Aiguille. (This is worsened a bit by some of the coloring agents used in what was an... attempt... to pass its presence off as local Al Bhed salvage not playing nice with high temperatures.)
"I took significant damage," he says when he's able to, "lower altitude than I'd like--"
Riese speaks of Seymour's presence. Seymour is of this land and by the laws of where Ethius comes from, in most circumstances this would be something that would have to be accepted... but time and time again, everything aobut these two worlds keeps pulling out of that morass of 'most.'
Helping Yuna and her friends against these odds is in line, with what variables he's aware of. Enough to keep him from punching out, even as the immense rise of temperature in his cockpit is dangerous.
"...I copy, Lunata," Ethius says as he clears his throat, as he moves up to be in the range of the Pulse Shift Barrier. It's shaky - the flight kit took some damage. He's looking over one of the few intact visual feeds to see how Shalune's holding up with her Big Shal, and she insists she's all right.
"I copy. Weltall, Issachar, I will be firing where you've been striking." The days of Ethius accidentally setting Fei on fire are... probably over. Probably. Not today, though. "From your left, Fei."
The laser rifle-staff is raised again, building power that culminates in a larger burst of singular laser fire that tries to pick through already damaged fins.
GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Sin with Shoot! GS: Ethius Hesiod gains 122 THP from Regen! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed. <SoundTracker> To Zanarkand (Piano) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNNgDpwv71I
Inside Yuna, the fayth are singing.
They do not often communicate in words, Yuna and the fayth; feelings are the medium of their united soul. And sometimes that can be a cacophony. Besaid's fayth is a young girl like herself; Kilika's fayth is a cop; Djose's an everyman; Macalania's a nun; Bevelle's the most unchildlike child imaginable; lately-of-Bikanel's a pirate; the Cavern's, a mercenary and a dog; Baaj's, her ex-husband's mom, which sucks on levels almost unimaginable to most people; and now Remiem has added a chorus of three sisters.
Needless to say, what makes each of them pleased or unhappy varies wildly. There is always an immense clamor from the peanut gallery whenever she does much of anything. And that's being facetious, because it implies a separation that does not exist, and really never existed; she has carried them for too long for that to be even vaguely true anymore, and in any case, having lived each of their lives in full at the moment of their unison, has always carried them too deeply for it to have been true in the first place. They are her, and she is them; their parts, and the whole.
Yuna hasn't become stranger with twelve ghosts riding with her. She has mostly become... larger. As though her endless capacity to give herself away has been rewarded with a greater and greater capacity TO GIVE AWAY. This, too, would have been a spiral of death, once.
If not for Tidus, and for everyone else.
Boudicca's wind embraces her, and to Yuna it's number thirteen. She does not become wind, but the way she moves, now, her native grace enhanced by the seraph's sublime, makes her feel closer to Boudicca, in the same way her quickly but deliberately cast Esuna made her feel closer to everyone. She is grateful.
"Wow," she says of Rikku's news, looking between Lulu -- she has to bring up an arm to shade her eyes from the brightness of the fire -- and Paine. She tucks Paine's reaction into the corner of her mouth, a little smile, then looks over at Tidus and gives him a bigger one, at his encouragement. "You too," she reminds him. Though this doesn't quite seem like the right moment to have THAT heart-to-heart. They'll know it when it comes, surely. When it's time to talk to Jecht.
Here they are at the end of the world -- if they fail, the likely end of Spira; if they succeed, the end of Spira as they know it -- and Yuna just can't stop smiling.
Buoyed by the Hymn, inside and out. Her whole self is at peace, acting as one.
In such a state, she can even walk through fire.
Don't misunderstand; the flame pours onto her and she does not come out unscathed. Surely it is a satisfying sight, the char on her beautiful raiment, the sea hibiscus climbing her skirt all blackened; blisters rising on her palms, which she thrust forth, with her rod, to not defend herself but advance, advance, advance.
And she's still confident, afterwards -- though a little confused, spotting with her sharp eyes the way the supposedly enraged and/or stunned Sin is fighting them with uncannily effective... and............ familiar.................... tactics -- until Riesenlied cuts in, and makes it fourteen.
Yuna's (singed) eyebrows shoot to her hairline.
And she's still entirely... one. One with herself. One with the fayth.
But she's no longer smiling.
If Nirvana were a staff she would slam its butt into the carapace. As it stands, she stomps her little booted foot, which is not that impressive. But that boot has traveled a thousand miles, and a thousand thousand to Filgaia, and back again. That boot has walked the depths of Guadosalam and the darkness of Baaj. That boot still knows the rime of Macalania.
Macalania, where it all began.
"SEYMOUR!" shouts Yuna, without her boyfriend's tendency to elongate. "HEAR ME NOW!"
The rod slides alongside her right arm, held one-handed, as she gestures enormously. She spins, and it might be right to infer that she is about to summon. Is that not the correct response? The classic response, even; Yuna killed Seymour with Shiva, originally.
But she does not call forth the maiden of ice.
More petals follow her motions. The Magus Sisters, again? Already? It's not impossible for the summoner. But... the petals... flow not like crystal but like light. Pink, violet, blue, white, white, WHITE, not the prismatic splendor of Delta Attack but something simpler, and gentler, and... more powerful, perhaps.
"I know this was your dream! Your 'freedom' from life for all of Spira! Your terminus of the spiral of death! Everything you've done has been to achieve this moment."
She pauses in her movement, and petals of light, of love, fall around her more densely, where before they had been sent out all across the battlefield. She gathers herself. She gathers her voice, which is ill-suited to being raised like this... though it emerges from her with unprecedented clarity and conviction. She is at the foot of Mt. Gagazet. She is before the Grand Maester, on trial. She is in the very heart of Zanarkand.
"But -- there is another dream! Another future! We will defeat grief itself! We will defeat Sin! And we will defeat YOU!"
And Yuna finds her smile again. It's not sardonic. It's earnest. It is easier to find compassion for Seymour ever since part of her became his mother. But it was never impossible. Yuna promised his father, and she promised his mother: she will stop Seymour. And she promised him too. This is her most sacred duty as a summoner. It does not come from regret.
Yuna smiles; Yuna swirls; and all those feelings surge forth from her at unstoppable strength, a fourth bloom that covers the entire platform in the spring of her youth. It fills everyone with just a hint of what it's like to be her -- the enormity of it, the complexity --
-- and, most of all, the)] --
"AND WE WILL DO IT WITHOUT FALSE HOPE!"
GS: Yuna has attacked Rikku with And I Will Do It Without False Hope! GS: Yuna has attacked Lulu with And I Will Do It Without False Hope! GS: Yuna has attacked Seraph Boudicca with And I Will Do It Without False Hope! GS: Yuna has attacked Xantia with And I Will Do It Without False Hope! GS: Yuna has attacked Paine with And I Will Do It Without False Hope! GS: Yuna has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with And I Will Do It Without False Hope! GS: Yuna has attacked Tidus with And I Will Do It Without False Hope! GS: Yuna has attacked Yuna with And I Will Do It Without False Hope! GS: Yuna has gained 2 Combo! GS: Yuna takes 26 damage from Poison! GS: Yuna has completed her action. GS: Yuna heals Cyre H. Lorentz! He gains 279 temporary hit points! GS: FP up! Yuna's Reload! activated! GS: Yuna heals Rikku! She gains 278 temporary hit points! GS: FP up! Yuna's Reload! activated! GS: CRITICAL! Yuna heals Xantia! She gains 365 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Mute and Poison removed! GS: FP up! Yuna's Reload! activated! GS: CRITICAL! Yuna heals Yuna! She gains 365 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Mute and Poison removed! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Yuna heals Lulu! She gains 280 temporary hit points! GS: FP up! Yuna's Reload! activated! GS: Lulu enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Sin sweeps its great fin towards Weltall and Elly feels her tension rise even as she sees faithful old Heimdall fire great weapons! A great surge of compressed water smashes into Regulus, the surface-tension breaking on the contact but nevertheless forcing Elly out of where she was standing, the Gear jerking violently; throwing Elly to the side, for -
Well, Regulus didn't have a safety harness installed. It's just a seat... in an empty space... and room to dream.
Sometimes that has negative aspects.
Soon enough Elly straightens, even as Empathite pulsates and -
Riesenlied tells them who it truly is.
Elly's heart falls out of her stomach. Oh god, she thinks (and it is a small but sincere prayer). It's not him. This is going to fail and Yuna and everyone will -- Bevelle -- Oh god, what should I -
No one tells Elly to shush, in a soft way with love, and no one is there for Elly for long moments as she forces herself to breathe. No one strokes her back, with sympathy. And no one fades away as Elly thinks: I can't change the plan on my own -- Weltall's still flying -- even if it's changed, going from a flawed plan to no plan is first-year washout tactics--
And Lunata's barrier ripples outwards. It interfaces with a subtle green limning around Regulus that's difficult to spot on its own, producing something with a soothing sea-scape color for a moment. Eased, Elly says, "Th - thank you, Lunata. I..."
What can I do?
I can't hack Sin.
Even the Neuro-Rectenna would be useless.
I could grasp Weltall, flee, but -
to where? And everyone else... I can't.
"I'm going to," Elly falters for a moment.
Did Odessa manage to do this?
To doom an entire world?
Is 'Jecht' still in there?
... or would Seymour have...
... no. No, he couldn't have.
I have to hope.
Elly's hands clasp together. The strange screens, in the style of a dead civilization's computer technology, flicker -- digital signal processing readouts. Her head bows for a moment.
... 'Jecht.'
Your son... even if you didn't get along.
Everyone...
Even if it hurts... just for a few moments...
Regulus pulsates. The Hymn fills the air. It pervades. Saturating, but perhaps it cannot reach some places. The air seems to quiver itself for a moment; a subtle electro-static crackle. Ether, carrying not air nor electric force, and perhaps not even sound, but a song and a plea.
... wake up...
... wake and hear what everyone's...
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Elhaym van Houten has attacked Sin with AHT - Signal Lullaby ~Dream of the Blue Girl~! GS: Elhaym van Houten gains 126 THP from Regen! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: Yuna heals Seraph Boudicca! She gains 281 temporary hit points! GS: FP up! Yuna's Reload! activated!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Lunata announces her faith in her and Shalune, and Jacqueline smiles. Well, if she believes in her, then she can't possibly come up short, can she? Shalune's comment gets a smile, too.
"I'm counting on you, Lunata." Jacqueline replies with a nod... and then chuckles, as she continues. Crimes, huh...? "...I'll just pretend I didn't hear that for now."
Sin's fin reels, and Jacqueline's eyes open wide. Issachar braces itself as the fin smashes against it in a deadly combination of power, weight, and speed. It's sent flying away from it. Within the cockpit Jacqueline is dazed, for just a moment - but soon enough, with a gesture she begins to weave wind around the Gear, counteracting the force and eventually slowing it to a stop.
"...We seem to be hurting it, at least." Jacqueline notes. And then, she hears a voice.
"Riesenlied?" Jacqueline starts... and then, frowns as she relays her news. "...Seymour. So that explains it."
The way he looked at her - suffice it to say he must remember.
And then, Jacqueline feel a ripple of Ley energy through the air. A light-blue barrier settles over Issachar.
"Thank you, Lunata!" Jacqueline says. Issachar directs a thumbs-up over to Rephaim. At Ethius's update, Jacqueline nods and frowns. "Alright. Just stay safe, okay? And - good plan."
She elects not to get right back into melee range with Sin just yet. Instead, Issachar holds up its right hand. A massive spike of earth earth begins to build in the air and then, Issachar's hand flicks toward Sin. The projectile goes flying, aiming to pierce right into Sin!
- - -
Somewhere... a young Paladienne raises her voice in song, her voice joining and resonating with those around her as everyone's hearts unite with singular purpose.
GS: Jacqueline Barber spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Sin with Rock Formation! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber gains 130 THP from Regen! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
"Really!? Geez remind me never to invite him to an Al Bhed bash! We thought the Fahrenheit looked bad before!" And Tidus gets a dire retort at this gallows sort of humor.
Rikku just beams so big at Yuna. Despite the situation, despite Paine's Baralai like Zeal which takes Rikku aback at first glance, she's FAR TOO CHEERY about it, running forward with a hoot and a hollar as she calls back, "Sorry Paine you'll have to get in line~ Sin already called dibs!"
It'd be real easy for Paine to put a bullet at that exposed back right now, simplicity itself-! But~
Tendrils lash at her, and Rikku puts up her shield, as they slam into her. She skips to the side and gets struck again, the sheer weight rocking her back.
What really gets to her is when the Lightning strikes Paine and Rikku just, shrieks, "AAAAAAaaAAAaAaaaaaaa!" As she hits the 'dirt', before getting back up, "That... was not..." Deep breath before she calls out to Tidus to reiterate a well known truth, "... Your dad's a jerk!"
Brandishing her new Celestial Weapon, Rikku follows up with Tidus by trying to follow up with something real similar.
A curving feint, then a slam right into Genais at a similar point, the hydraulics of the Godhand going off to try and bury the knuckle in further to do some real damage.
Sadly 0% time magic in the move! She's never gotten that part figured out. Like would the game mechanics allow her to Copy Lulu's ultimate spells and Doublecast Flare? That'd be ABSURD!
Then Riesenlied makes an announcement. "I would like to make an announcement of my own." As Rikku releases the handle of the Godhand and cups both hands around her mouth, "SEYMOUR YOU'RE A DOUBLE JERK!"
And then Rikku listens, truly listens to Yuna's words as she keeps jogging on, feeling a swell of pride in Yuna growing within her even as the spring of Yuna's youth washes over her with extreme elation. Rikku nudges Tidus as she jogs on by, "Okay, her announcement was way better."
GS: Formation! Rikku has attacked Seymour Guado with Godhand! GS: Rikku has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rikku has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Boudicca's power fortifies Lulu, and she is appreciative of the Seraph's care. It leaves her free to do what she does best. And...
Perhaps Lulu is more accustomed to Rikku's antics. Perhaps it's something else. She will be amused by Paine's reaction later. For now, she is of the same mind as Paine; they must wait. They must wait, to see if they will live, or die, because their mission is worth such a possibility.
Yes, this mission is worth the terrific, freeing prospect of life without Sin. ...And Tidus's wink gets a look in return. "Tease later," she suggests. "Fight now." ...It has been a long time since he was just a know-nothing brat. She doesn't even chide him for the casual quality of his address.
She too notices the calculating nature of their foe's magic; it's very, very strange, for the other times she has seen Sin in action. "Be careful," she cautions Cyre and the others.
Jagged pieces of ice crash down for her, and they slam down against her shoulder, even with her attempt to dodge out of the way. No--this spell is too precise. But what could be in play? What could be the reason?
Lulu grits her teeth for a moment as she straightens back up from where the attack put her off-balance, Onion Knight still under her arm.
Seymour has taken control of Sin. It is the nightmare of Spira, realized before them, and Lulu's red eyes widen in alarm. "What?" she expresses, thrown for once despite her near-legendary composure. But Yuna calls forth. Yuna speaks of another dream, of another future, of the defeat of grief itself, as her feelings surge forth to empower Lulu. That smile comes. And...
"WITHOUT FALSE HOPE!" Lulu cries in echo, and lifts her hands to channel another spell, this one greater than the last.
Lulu is sure to avoid Xantia with her spells, as she strikes with her hands. It is not difficult to sense the blazing power of that woman. But she must use all of her power in order to combat such a foe. And so she uses it; a black sphere appears before the Sinspawn and the Core both, exploding into gigantic purple waves of gravitic force, Sin's own weapon turned against it, though far, far smaller, an echo.
And yet it is here, and the core, so maybe it will be enough.
GS: Lulu has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Lulu has attacked Seymour Guado with Graviga! GS: Lulu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lulu has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Yuna heals Paine! She gains 368 temporary hit points! GS: FP up! Yuna's Reload! activated! GS: Paine enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Even knowing she should be expecting this, a swarm of pyreflies erupting as her blow strikes home still startles Xantia, prompting her to leap backwards from the core immediately. Just as well, this is probably a sound tactical decision. Especially given that the immediate response is the ground heating up below her, and now she has plenty of space to jump aside when the fireball erupts. It still clips her all the same, which is enough to make her feel how much worse that could've been. Rolling across the frankly gross 'floor', she is quick to get back to her feet, fully prepared to strike again... when she hears an unexpected voice.
"...Riesenlied?" she questions, looking around in a reflex, despite how obvious it is that it is her mind that's being spoken to. The news causes her no small amount of dismay... though perhaps not for the same reasons as it might for most.
"Wha...? So, we're not even fighting actual Sin right now?" What about her vengeance then? It has to be actual Sin for it to count! She seems to waver for just a moment, when Yuna makes her declaration, healing her injury at the same time.
That's all the time needed for dismay to make way for anger. Who does this guy think he is, getting in the way of vengeance like that? Forget whatever dark designs he has, he's breaking so many rules by doing this. What rules? No need to get technical, there's just things you don't do, and this is clearly one of them. If that is the case... then it looks like she's gonna have to improvise.
"You know what, Seymour? Fine! Whatever! You wanna make this about you, let's make it about you! If you're in control, I'm sure you're gonna be the one to feel this!"
Again she charges. Again she leaves others to deal with the Sinspawn. She isn't really paying any mind to anything else, so it's a good thing that Lulu is actively avoiding here. All that matters to her is getting close enough to punch that core again - and this time, it's gonna be full force. And to make sure she hits it as hard as she possibly can, she's gonna imagine it's Seymour's stupid face. Judging from the explosion of brightly colored Ether on the point of impact, she's pretty good at imagining these things.
GS: Xantia spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Xantia has attacked Seymour Guado with Exploding Fist! GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xantia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei gets a message about Sin.
"Oh fuck," Fei says. "How the hell did he..."
Riesenlied gets a message back though: Oh good, we can kill him too. This might be ironic because Id and Seymour don't exactly have the most contradictory lifegoals here.
Weltall continues to take heavy damage too, maybe even more damage than it could take if it wasn't for Lunata's Pulse Shift Barrier.
"...Don't get jealous, Weltall." Fei says. "I'm sure uh. If I could fly your super mode it'd be almost as cool as the other Gears."
Fei frowns as he listens to Weltall a bit more.
"Well I mean, protecting others is just cooler to me than being able to punch and kick real good. And Lunie's a great friend..."
Any pretense of feeling bad about this being Tidus's dad is shed for the moment because it is actually Seymour doing it, and Fei while not wholly without sympathy, also is pretty against omnicide. For the most part of it. Lets say he's only like 33 percent on board with omnicide.
The fin SLAAAMS into Weltall but luckily it can still fly. Fei grits his teeth and charges back down towards Sin, not letting up. This isj ust something he has to go all out and hope he doesn't die for. There isn't an alternative. This kind of thinking helped his past life with Mother, so presumably here... It could also help!
"Since you're controlling it, you're the one feeling the pain aren't you?? Can even you endure this forever?"
And with that he brings up his arms, a black hole crackling around Weltall's limbs as he aims to slam it down into Sin's body. Rather than going for a spread of damage, he's focused on this one point, trying to open up paths to deeper portions of the ginormous beast!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Sin with Sympathetic Host Of The Slayer! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Fei Fong Wong gains 112 THP from Regen! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Sin partially guards Ethius Hesiod's Shoot for 259 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Sin gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Sin suffers a terrible blow from Elhaym van Houten's AHT - Signal Lullaby ~Dream of the Blue Girl~ for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Sin gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Entangle, Interrupt, and Shieldbreak applied to Sin! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
The lightning cracks down, and the wind is not quite swift enough to avoid it, though certainly Boudicca quick-steps back. (She's also a Tales! She can quick-step, too!) "I am all right," she's sure to assure Rikku.
"Though..." She frowns, to the Sinspawn. "... it is strange..."
Luckily, Riesenlied's voice reaches her heart to explain just why that is.
"... Seymour," Boudicca realises, and takes a half-step back, despite herself. "Even now, you still..."
But everyone is singing.
Everyone is singing.
Everyone is singing, and Yuna is SHOUTING, and Boudicca looks to her as those petals gather. She reaches out her hands; cradles one, gently, in her cupped palms. After she brings her hands to her chest, the magic fades. Perhaps it went into her.
"You would bring another Clymsian to bear against all these innocent people," she says, and she does not shout, but her voice still carries.
Ah, HERE'S where her voice rises up: "You -- would end all these songs!"
Boudicca gestures, with anger, as she steps forward. Where her greaves hit the grievous ground, a green seraphic glyph alights. "Yuna is right! We ill need your false hope of oblivion, Seymour--!!" And there, the invocation: "Blow, storm, and stopper misery! Howling Gale!"
This time, when the wind tears towards the Sinspawn, it isn't soothing or supportive in the slightest. It is a storm, whipping up a frenzy of violence... as well as Boudicca can manage, anyway. She's no Lulu. She's a red mage, after all!
GS: Seraph Boudicca spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Seymour Guado with Howling Gale! GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Sin suffers a terrible blow from Jacqueline Barber's Rock Formation for 410 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Sin gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mute applied to Sin! GS: Shield applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated! GS: Sin enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"My apologies, Miss Croze! But, I do believe you and she are owed something by this point...?"
Now may not truly be the time for such remarks, but perhaps this itself is a call to the tomorrow to come -- that they will be through this and see another day for Spira.
The shells don't all connect. But then, he had already anticipated that Sin would deflect his attack, as much as it was able. The important part is that some measure of it gets through, enough to perhaps tip the scales in their favor.
By the same token, however, he isn't able to get particularly far from it when Sin retaliates in kind if not in type: down comes lightning, and as he banks hard to the left, Citan realizes, too late, that here there comes more than one strike.
By his own admission, he has been seeking to sharpen his skills in piloting a Gear, claiming that he had become rusty from his many years departed from when he had served Solaris.
This is half true, and it is half untrue.
Some instincts don't entirely leave you, however long it's been. He's able to shift directions just in time to avoid becoming caught up in the second strike. Lightning, though, has a habit of calling out to metal and his Gear is largely just that. A portion of its charge reaches out for his machine as he skirts the strike, and only a steady hand keeps Heimdall moving in the direction he intended.
And the song still rings out. Has it reached Sin--?
It is Riesenlied's voice that reaches his mind in the next moment, as it does for everyone else here. The truth of the matter is that Sin is not of one mind, now -- it is of two. And the one that currently has entwined itself within the Clysmian is...
"...You are certain?" he utters, taken aback by this revelation. "No... of course you are right. The way that it is acting now... this is not the Sin we faced before! But, does this mean that..."
He knows this madness. This is the madness of a dream realized.
It is then that Lunata's barrier overlays his Gear as well, and immediately he can see -- and feel, from Heimdall's response -- the effect that it has had. "My thanks!"
He intends to make good use of it. It may well be that their plans have been dashed. So long as Seymour hold the reins to Sin, can the song still permit them to make that attempt to breach its shell?
But... they have no second chances. Giving up is not an option. They must still try!
Fei takes the fight directly to Sin, attempting to carve a way forward. "I will not permit you to face it alone, Fei!"
Light shines around Heimdall's right fist as he dives, as he joins Fei's side. As he drives that fist for the very same point.
GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Sin with Kenjin! GS: Citan Uzuki has gained 4 Combo! GS: Citan Uzuki gains 122 THP from Regen! GS: Citan Uzuki has completed his action. GS: Sneak! The true nature of Rikku's attack becomes clear! GS: Seymour Guado suffers a terrible blow from Rikku's Copycat for 195 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seymour Guado gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Seymour Guado enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seymour Guado suffers a terrible blow from Lulu's Graviga for 211 hit points! GS: Seymour Guado's Break Ward may block the effect! GS: Break blocked! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated! GS: Seymour Guado suffers a terrible blow from Xantia's Exploding Fist for 157 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seymour Guado gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Xantia! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Sin solidly guards Fei Fong Wong's Sympathetic Host Of The Slayer for 127 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Sin gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Seymour Guado takes a solid hit from Seraph Boudicca's Howling Gale for 184 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seymour Guado gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated! GS: Sin takes a solid hit from Citan Uzuki's Kenjin for 295 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Sin gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Weaken applied to Sin! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.
Paine's covering fire meets with results that she seems content with, based on her grunt. With a loose gaze down the sights she seeks to maintain it. But something isn't right...
Before she met Lulu this would have just been lightning magic to her, now she'd call this one probably... Thundaga. If Rikku's right about her feelings for the black mage it's got little to do with this knowledge rubbing off. Others in the party have contributed, too, to Paine's increasing familiarity with magical spells. But the very definition of a black mage is a certain... focus, is it not? A specialization, and ideally, a raw power.
For once, Paine's not sure she wouldn't have rather Lulu cast the Thundaga on her.
Blown onto her back, Paine rocks gamely back and forth and flops onto her stomach again, not trusting her recently zapped muscles to kick out of this one. Getting to one knee, she reaches up to place a hand atop Rikku's head. Unable to speak yet, Paine cannot clarify for the Al Bhed girl how much of the little shake she gives her is rueful bullying over Rikku seeming more upset than the person that Thundaga actually hit, and how much is a big-sister sort of comfort. Perhaps she would not clarify it even if her vocal chords were fully active.
Regardless, Paine gives Rikku an encouraging push forward. Recent developments are making her determination ferment into something a little darker.
"Him," she mutters, with a glance to Yuna's back as she makes her proclamation. She follows Yuna partly because of this part of her, the one that still sees Seymour's feelings even as he encases himself in an invincible monster, that still remembers he was a boy with a mother, a young man with a dream. She was seen like that too, once, and it made all the difference.
But Yuna's influence has not gone so far as to convince Paine that she should care about Yuna's would-be husband, much less her would-be mother-in-law.
The rush of relief that comes with Yuna's ever-excellent healing accompanies a sudden will to violence just as well as it would accompany a more seemly heroic determination, and neither is particularly distinguishable on Paine's sharp-browed war face to begin with. Seeing the spell Lulu has chosen, Paine chambers her rifle in the crook of an arm and unhooks a grenade from her belt instead, in a wordless sign of the cooperation she has developed with the black mage. There is no sense in firing a bullet through bursting gravity and wondering where it will end up.
With a well-tossed grenade and its shrapnel, the answer is 'everywhere'.
GS: Paine spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Paine enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Paine has attacked Seymour Guado with Grenade! GS: Paine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Paine enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Paine has completed her action. GS: Seymour Guado takes a solid hit from Paine's Grenade for 160 hit points! GS: Poison applied to Seymour Guado! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Sin has posed.
Riesenlied speaks the truth.
Riesenlied's mind reaches out, delivering it to all of them. It is not Jecht, in this moment, controlling Sin. It is Seymour Guado, having claimed the moment he wanted most. The world seems to tremble with that.
But the Hymn goes on.
Refraim summons up the Ley. Energy swirls out -- protecting and lifting the Gears and Aeon fighting Sin. Leviathan lifts, and the Lord of All Waters sends forth a furious gout of water. It smashes into Sin -- battering the thing backward. Sinscales are hurled into the ocean, and there are pyreflies erupting from where it impacted. Big Shall flies in after, close to Sin's head (though, thankfully, not near the platform -- it's a massive head). The hammer blows and staff strike, smashing into the armored hide, and battering it even further.
Ethius's rifle-staff fires, again. The single laser beam fires across the heavens -- it sheers through an orb of water -- and then slashes into some of the smaller fins on Sin's side. It cuts them away, before dragging across the right fin.
Which is when Jay's rock fires -- and it slams into the right fin, at the base, where Ethius cut. The two Caravan Kinship members work together, and that stone slams into the fin at the base -- and then it drops, plummeting down into the seal below before bursting apart into so many pyreflies.
Weltall comes crashing down for Sin. The black hole around it crackles; pieces of Sin's battered armor tear off, as it slams into the now one-finned Sin, and sends up another burst of pyreflies. Heimdall slams down with Weltall, not a moment later, and the light-wreathed fist smashes into the armored hide.
The armored, mottled flesh shakes hard -- and there is a cry of anger.
And pain. Seymour can feel this.
Elly reaches out.
Screens flicker -- and then something utterly impossible happens. It's something deep, deep within Sin -- and it is physical. After all, Sin is made of pyreflies, but a thing of that size requires a core. There has long been speculation about what that core is.
So Elly may be surprised when the answer comes as text. It rolls across her screen, flickering and green.
>WELCOME TO THE ELDRIDGE MAINFRAME
>message received
>antitype recognized
>connecting.......
A moment passes. Then more text appears.
>yo what the fuck is this
>the only good part about being sin is MY FUCKING COMMUNICATION SPHERE DOESN'T BLOW UP WITH TEXTS
>and now that's true too just fucking great
>this is some shit lemme tell ya
>fine shit god ugh FUUUUUUUUUCK okay working on it
>tell them to keep playing the damn song
>.....thanks
A moment later, Sin's many eyes all twitch. There is a sudden jerk to them -- the left fin slams into Sin's own body. Then, with a bellow, Sin surges forward. It may take some effort for the group on Sin to keep their footing; more important, for the Gears, is the fact that Sin rushes at and rakes across all ofd them in a mad thrash.
But perhaps Seymour's control is not what they thought it was.
GS: Sin has attacked Lunata Croze with Sideswipe! GS: Sin has attacked Pearl with Sideswipe! GS: Sin has attacked Shalune Amira with Sideswipe! GS: Sin has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Sideswipe! GS: Sin has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Sideswipe! GS: Sin has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Sideswipe! GS: Sin has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Sideswipe! GS: Sin has attacked Citan Uzuki with Sideswipe! GS: Sin has gained 1 Combo! GS: Blind and Interrupt expired! GS: Sin has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Seymour Guado has posed.
Tidus launches himself at Genais. His new blade strikes true -- time magic seeps off the blade, into the Sinspawn. It makes the creature's movements slow; the arms have a drag to them, the whole thing seems to just move a couple of seconds behind. The slash causes a burst of pyreflies to erupt out of it.
Cyre's hand forms a claw. He speaks to Seymour -- and there are still rules about Sin. Even if Seymour's mind has a certain clarity, Sin cannot speak. He is a thing of unbridled destruction. But there is a defiance in Genais, even as the air condenses around the Sinspawn.
It is a defiance to him and Tidus both; a defiance that has always defined Seymour.
Several of Sin's eyes, above, turn to look at Yuna as she calls out. He hears her dreams; her hopes; her life.
And Sin roars again, shaking their bones, and telling them all what Seymour thinks of those things. He will destroy them.
Rikku gives her own cry -- telling Seymour that he is a jerk. And she buries the Godhand into Genais, punching into the Sinspawn. Pyreflies burst out, as the armored hide on the creature begins to crumble apart. Then, Lulu's gravity spell appears -- blossoms outward -- and gravitational force slams Genais to one side, while ripping into the Core's armored shell. Which Xantia capitalizes on, as she charges in -- punching the core hard.
The armor shatters, the shell exploding to reveal a triple-beaked mouth inside. The mouth opens, and there is a glowing core of pulsating gravitational energy within. (If that is Seymour's face, it is much uglier now, Xantia.)
Boudicca unleashes her wind. Her Seraphic glyph glowing, she unleashes a powerful wind -- and it slams into Genais and the Core alike, the wind ripping through both. Genais writhes under it, but being slowed by Tidus, it cannot immediately retaliate against Boudicca.
Paine's grenade flies, to hit the slowed Sinspawn. It strikes and explodes -- the blast sheering off half of its head, blowing through armor, and leaving it a crumpling and weakened thing.
Sinspawn Genais has been run ragged. Parts of the crustacean-like, bipedal Sinspawn are burning away; shell falls away to melt into pyrefly, and the thing lists. It screams in anger, perhaps made worse by the fact control of Sin is something being warred over.
And then it lashes out. Its tendrils sweep out, striking and raking across all of those here -- with the last of its might.
GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Tidus with Tendril Swarm! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Tendril Swarm! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Yuna with Tendril Swarm! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Rikku with Tendril Swarm! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Lulu with Tendril Swarm! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Xantia with Tendril Swarm! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Tendril Swarm! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Paine with Tendril Swarm! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 1 Combo! GS: Interrupt expired! GS: Seymour Guado takes 26 damage from Poison! GS: Seymour Guado has completed his action. GS: Rikku takes a glancing hit from Seymour Guado's Tendril Swarm for 76 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rikku gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty applied to Seymour Guado! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Rikku enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz takes a glancing hit from Seymour Guado's Tendril Swarm for 73 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Seymour Guado! GS: Gamble: Moderate! Lunata Croze solidly guards Sin's Sideswipe for 205 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lunata Croze gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Seraph Boudicca takes a glancing hit from Seymour Guado's Tendril Swarm for 75 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Seymour Guado! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Yuna solidly guards Seymour Guado's Tendril Swarm for 90 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Seymour Guado! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Paine suffers a terrible blow from Seymour Guado's Tendril Swarm for 136 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Paine gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty applied to Seymour Guado! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Moderate! Jacqueline Barber suffers a terrible blow from Sin's Sideswipe for 506 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jacqueline Barber gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Gamble: Moderate! Shalune Amira solidly guards Sin's Sideswipe for 207 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Shalune Amira gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated! GS: Shalune Amira enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Lulu partially guards Seymour Guado's Tendril Swarm for 95 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lulu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty applied to Seymour Guado! GS: Lulu enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Very High! Elhaym van Houten suffers a terrible blow from Sin's Sideswipe for 665 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Elhaym van Houten gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Gamble: High! Fei Fong Wong solidly guards Sin's Sideswipe for 204 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Yuna heals Tidus! He gains 287 temporary hit points! GS: FP up! Yuna's Reload! activated! GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated Force Action: Accelerate! GS: Tidus takes a solid hit from Seymour Guado's Tendril Swarm for 143 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tidus gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty applied to Seymour Guado! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Evade bonus activated! GS: Gamble: Very High! Ethius Hesiod takes a glancing hit from Sin's Sideswipe for 226 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Moderate! Pearl takes a glancing hit from Sin's Sideswipe for 235 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Pearl gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Jacqueline Barber used Force Action: Mystic on Lulu! FP up! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz used Force Action: Mystic on Yuna! FP up! GS: Xantia fully evades Seymour Guado's Tendril Swarm for 0 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Seymour Guado! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Xantia receives 100 temporary hit points. GS: Xantia enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Boudicca used Force Action: Mystic on Cyre H. Lorentz! FP up! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Low! Citan Uzuki solidly guards Sin's Sideswipe for 190 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Citan Uzuki gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
The news that Seymour is within -- and in control -- of Sin hits Lunata as well.
She's not certain how to digest it at first; she tries to pretend that she's busy piloting, but that thought is within her mind, worming inside and intruding. Living in there rent-free. "Seymour... darn it..." she sighs to herself, privately, for a moment.
"... I'd hoped that we'd freed you already. But... that's okay. That just means I -- we -- have to do it again, and make it stick. Because I owe you that much."
By all rights, she should be someone who should never forgive Seymour -- and she's pretty she she actually doesn't forgive him for what he did to her village; when he created that infant Clysmian, when he endangered the youths in her village, and even quashed her into little more than little goop that Shalune, Jacqueline, Yuna and many others had to help bring her form back.
...
But he was also the first person she met in Spira -- and someone who understood the despair she felt in her heart, on that day. Someone who she could relate to in those days, when the disgust she had at the world had reached its peak. She's moved on since then. Lunata believes he hasn't. Their paths diverged, in that way.
Lunata realised that her damage didn't exclude her from doing harm to others in turn; because that's the ugly truth of being wounded by the world. Because if she let herself slip further and further, perhaps all she had to look forward to was the fiery end of the world, just like Seymour wishes for right now. Perhaps the best way she can put it is that she won't forgive him, but she can understand the exact works in the system that created him... every point of failure along the way, and how it produces a person in the position she was in...
And that's why it's so important that they smash that very system, on this very day. The chains of the past generation must not bind Spira any further... as Yuna speaks!
"Without false hope," she echoes, seemingly silent on the topic of Seymour, but definitely not in her thoughts.
"Draw back if you need to, Ethius, I'll cover," Lunata announces in turn to Ethius' report of damage. "I'll try to lend more firepower on the breached points, but the Ley reserves are running thin too."
She spares a moment of light-hearted glumness for Shalune. "Really, Shalune?! You want to turn to white collar crime?! You want to just skim off the top and do grifts?! Where's the excitement in that! Shalune Amira, Wanted For Tax Evasion! The sheer dullness of that!"
... where is this side conversation going??
Lunata doesn't miss the falter in Elly's voice, but... the Regulus starts to emanate with the Hymn, and she believes in Elly to do what she's planning to -- even if she's not attacking along the wavelength of guns and fists the way they are. "You can do it, Elly," she encourages.
If Lunata could hear Weltall she'd probably have encouraging words for it too, but perhaps Weltall will just have to be patient until Disc 2. Though the price will be high... "Thanks for taking the front, Jay, Fei, Citan." There's that spike from Issachar... the way in which Jacqueline can just channel her specialty sure is reassuring.
"Okay, think, Lunata... the Ley stores are low after that. The Rephaim's onboard weapons can't function well without high amounts, what do you-- oh no"
Sin starts to agitate, and the mottled armour cries in anger, and its own left fin slams into its own body. Lunata looks shocked at this turn of events. "W-what happened? Is it-- are they wrestling for control?"
She has absolutely no time to think about this, because Sin's rushing and raking against them, and the Rephaim gets physically bodied and loses a good one hundred meters of elevation, threatening to crash close against Bevelle's docks; she course-corrects in time and fires her verniers up, up and alights herself into position, but the barrier's looking extremely weak.
"Shalune, I'm gonna use that break-glass-in-case-of-emergency button now! It's now or never!"
What the heck did Shalune make.
Lunata cracks the panel and pops the top open, and presses a button that only reads: USE ONLY IN CASE OF LUNIE EMERGENCY . (This is a Lunie emergency. Multiple Lunies are in peril, after all.)
There's a mysterious noise, all of a sudden, as the Rephaim reaches into its back, as if reaching into a JRPG inventory that it had all along and procures...
~*~ A Most Colourful Bomb! ~*~
It's a very round and bulbous bomb, painted with a chibi-icon of Shalune with a dodgy face with her tongue out and her thumbs up, along with Big Shal's head on the side.
There's a fuse on the top, and it's already lit. It's not very long, either.
"W-why is it a bomb?! Why's it already lit before I even started it up?! Aaaaah, Shaluuuune!! Heeeelp!!"
The Rephaim does an overhead throw, and the Colourful Bomb slidewhistles as it collides against Sin's body and
~ * ~ K A B O O M ! ! ! ! ~ * ~
Explodes with shocking devastation, along with a smattering of confetti and streamers, because it's just not the Lunie Way if it isn't one half comedy and one half just-below-warcrimes (?).
GS: Lunata Croze has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Sin with The Saturday Night Shalune Special! GS: Lunata Croze gains 130 THP from Regen! GS: Mighty expired! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
"Tell me about it," Tidus shoots back to Rikku--Lulu might just give him a light chiding these days, but Rikku's always been the one he could actually banter with, as they've been doing just now. In another timeline, Wakka probably would be his best friend, but he and Rikku have had so many opportunities to josh around--been in the active party at the same time, you might say--that she's easily taken that place instead.
Similarly, it's common for Tidus to admire Yuna's strength of heart. Right now, with the power that reverberates from her voice, he might also swoon. He grins at her as she tells her ex off. He's never liked Seymour and he's especially never liked the relationship he had with Yuna, regardless of the form it took, and there's always a satisfaction in seeing Yuna express that her greatest wish for him is to see him gone forever. Even Lulu's moved by it--openly moved by it, one should say--chiming in on without false hope with her voice loud and ringing.
Yuna's just inspiring like that. He's thought this a thousand times already, but he could fall in love with her again on the spot.
"Absolutely," he agrees with Rikku, nudging her back, more a light push sending her onwards as she jogs by, maybe second in a line after Paine. Boudicca echoes Yuna's righteous indignation, but Tidus isn't nearly so eloquent as either of them. Louder, he shouts, "You wanna butt in line, Seymour?! Fine! We'll make sure you get Sent for good this time! We got sick of your reappearing act six reappearances ago, so it's time for you to go up in a puff of pyreflies once and for all!!"
As if in response, Sin twitches, then *hurls* itself forward, and it's only by stabbing Caladbolg into the platform and hanging on for dear life--something he's gotten much better at than he would've ever wanted--that Tidus manages not to get hurled from the massive creature. He shoots a look of concern at the others also on the platform as he's thrown from his feet, but he's not in a position to go to anyone else's aid right now.
At the same time, Sin ROARS, as if telling them all their defiance is as motes of snow before a mighty forest fire. Not like his own defiance. Surely Seymour's defiance is good and noble and--PBBBBTTTHHHPT.
"KEEP TELLING YOURSELF THAT, SEYMOUR!" Tidus yells.
Maybe in response to *that*, a veritable storm of tendrils smashes up from out of Genais, battering into Tidus while his footing is lost and he has no hope of evading them.
He's left groaning at the end of it... but even if his *body's* beat up, his *spirit* is still kicking. Elly's prayer, so silent and at the same time carrying so far, taps into something--or rather, some*one*--deep within Sin, and... It's not like he can hear it. Or read it. But as he staggers, bronzed skin an ugly purple from all the bludgeoning he received, he can sort of... *feel* something.
At least, it feels like he can feel it. He's not really sure. Maybe it's just his imagination. Or a hallucination, like all those stars circling his head.
He shakes his head like a dog shaking off water, then looks up to focus. Genais' on its last legs. Tentacles. Whatever. He bends his knees and lowers himself to reduce air resistance; then he launches himself into another attack--this time aiming himself not directly at Genais but at its side, slashing Caladbolg's azure blade into it as he passes, screeching to a halt, hurling himself in a new direction and slashing again at Genais as he passes, again and again and *again* until he finally screeches to a stop.
Whether there's anything left of the Sinspawn in his wake, and everyone else's, is to be seen.
GS: Tidus spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Tidus enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Tidus has attacked Seymour Guado with Slice and Dice! GS: Tidus has launched an attack Link! GS: Tidus enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Tidus has attacked Seymour Guado with Quick Hit! GS: Tidus enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Tidus has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Sin suffers a terrible blow from Lunata Croze's The Saturday Night Shalune Special for 489 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Sin gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Cripple and Weaken applied to Sin! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated! GS: Tidus has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Tidus has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Seymour Guado suffers a terrible blow from Tidus's Slice and Dice for 179 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seymour Guado gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: CRITICAL! Seymour Guado suffers a terrible blow from Tidus's Quick Hit for 132 hit points! GS: Delay applied to Seymour Guado! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune's promise that she'll be alright appears to be borne out by the way Big Shal moves; even the double-fisted hammer isn't done with enough power to shake the mechanic off its back, and as a Sinspawn dives in to try to dislodge both of them, Shalune twists aside just in time for the golem to form an impromptu wall to block its trajectory. It manages to screech once before Shalune flicks her staff upwards, tearing it away.
Somewhere behind her, the Regulus echoes its own wave of feeling as if in answer to Riesenlied's efforts. There's a tiny little moment where Shalune feels a little bit-- inadequate. It thankfully only lasts an instant, because Shalune is fundamentally a realist. She might be a realist with more knowledge about ancient metals and gadgets than anyone else on Filgaia, but a realist nonetheless - and she knows that the perception and communication of feelings and empathic feeling isn't everything.
But it is something she thinks about sometimes, especially when Riesenlied tells them that the true driver of Sin is Seymour. If there's anyone she'd really like to get some feelings across to, it's him - it still smarts, remembering their journey through Spira, their defence of Lunata's village. She's not sure she'll ever forget the manic look in Lunata's eyes as they faced each other down, nor the destruction that was nearly wrought on a people who just wanted to keep to themselves, nor having to call Lunata back from-- from whatever brink it was. Unfortunately, Sin is a little big for her to punch in the face, but at least she can leave that to Big Shal.
But it may not have been the right time for a contemplative pause. Big Shal is able to guard against the worst of the mad assault that Sin unleashes, and what it can't is made up for by the relatively small stature of the golem and its awkward position on top of the creature making it harder to hit. Even when Sin's entire body rocks and rolls like an earthquake the golem is able to hold on. The problem isn't there: the problem is that her harness, already at its limit from some of the stress it has had to endure, chooses this moment to split with an awful sound of stressed metal, and next she knows Shalune is spiralling through empty air.
DC: Shalune Amira switches forms to Girl of Blue Skies!
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
--which is kind of less terrifying than she expects, actually?? It occurs to part of Shalune's brain that this sort of thing happens a whole lot, especially when one of your hobbies is riding around on top of a very open and stupidly maneuverable scooter. Her falls aren't always this big, but at least there's sea underneath her. It could be worse, except for the fact that Sin would probably eat her.
But she's got other options, and all of a sudden she feels a lot less insecure and conflicted about using them. It almost seems like tradition, but just before she hits the surface of the water, she pushes the goddamn button.
Immediately the space below her froths and boils - and when she lands, it isn't with a splash. Instead she bounces, rolling amongst the churning waves in a confusing way before finally managing to grab for purchase at whatever it is that is surfacing. It is a dark shape, crimson and black, bulky and much larger than Big Shal. It is Diablo, somehow on Spira to fulfill its duty, and Shalune is hanging onto one massive flamethrower pod in a way that she's quickly realising she shouldn't.
She drops off onto its shoulder, spins down into a cowering crouch, and immediately slams her hands over her ears - just in time, as the ancient golem bellows as the two containers at its shoulders hinge open. There is a palpable gathering of power and heat, before Sin is engulfed in two enormous blasts of flame. She manages to open one eye, but everything in front of her is conflagration, and when she speaks it's through gritted teeth.
"What else is it gonna be?! You blow yourself up on the regular, so I just throught you'd appreciate it! I'm not used to you waiting before you pull the trigger! Just don't hit Big Shal!" This is a little rich of her to say after what she's done to assault Sin, but thankfully the golem can be seen at water level, as a giant inflatable ring of orange and white keeps the golem afloat and bobbing away from Sin's side. It gives Lunata a thumbs up of reassurance as the colourful explosion engulfs the creature.
GS: Shalune Amira spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Shalune Amira enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Shalune Amira has attacked Sin with The Crimson Wind - DIABLO! GS: Shalune Amira has gained 1 Combo! GS: Shalune Amira enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Shalune Amira gains 63 THP from Regen! GS: Shalune Amira has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Sin suffers a terrible blow from Shalune Amira's The Crimson Wind - DIABLO for 547 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Something has changed. It's not something that Cyre can understand in the moment, but something has whipped Sin into a frenzy-- a state much closer to what they had expected to find when they came charging up in here. But that makes it no less dangerous. Tendrils flail and swipe, and it's all Cyre can do to deflect them while he maintains focus on his spell. Battered and bruised, he pulls back just long enough to seal the sinspawn in its bubble of Canceled Air.
It will only need to last a moment. The others are piling in. He can't let them do all the work.
His gaze flickers towards Yuna. How much has she spent already so far? With a gesture, the air around her stirs and cycles. Oxygen levels spike, giving her the opportunity to take a rejuvinating breath. All while he continues his work.
What work?
He's... petitioning.
"It's now or never, Fengalon," Cyre mutters, lifting his right hand high overhead. "You can stand back if you like. Let fear keep you from doing your duty. You can go ahead and keep being a scaredy-cat if that's what you really, truly want." Cyre grunts, focusing his will upon the wind. Gathering it with as much of his own spiritual strength as he can muster, "I'm going on ahead, though."
"If you've got it in you to stand up to this thing with me," he makes a fist, the swirling air forming a helical comet of emerald light around his knuckles and wrist. "--Then you'd better keep up before I leave you behind."
He draws back his fist and kicks off the ground, rocketing forward with a thunderclap. With a roar, he throws a single punch--
It'd break his hand. Probably his arm, if he's being honest. Under normal circumstances, that is.
But at the last moment, there's a flash of emerald light. Cyre's arm-- the arm of a beastman-- is consumed by a flood of ley energies, replaced with that of a massive, divine tiger--
Fengalon... has decided to lend a hand.
And the result is all the power of a hurricane-- something on the order of a terawatt-- focused into the space of a singular, catastrophic blow.
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Seymour Guado with Tornado Fang! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 1 Combo! GS: Burst, Mighty, Quick, and Shield expired! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action. GS: Seymour Guado suffers a terrible blow from Cyre H. Lorentz's Tornado Fang for 282 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seymour Guado gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated! GS: Strain! Cyre H. Lorentz takes 80 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Sin's body slams into Leviathan, and the smaller Aeon is sent flying and Pearl can do nothing to stop it, clinging tight. This is a being that has almost ended civilization time and time again, as part of a ritual to sustain itself. Even with the hymn, it's too fast.
She kneels down and presses her hand to Leviathan's scales. "...I feel we are far enough out now. Show this nightmare why you are the Lord of All Waters. Even here."
Pyreflies gather in the sea near Bevelle. And then the water swells and starts to rise... And rise.... And rise!
For a few moments, the tides pull away from the dock as an unthinkable tsunami of water and magic grows outside the city. Leviathan *roars*, echoing in the sky-
And the magicked wave surges toward Sin, it's sole target, large enough that even this giant wave can crash only against a portion of it. But it crashes nonetheless, with the weight of those who have died at seas.
And then the wave disperses, and salt water rains down on the area. It may have been mostly magic- but there was more than enough water to not simply disappear.
GS: Pearl has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Pearl spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Pearl has attacked Sin with Overdrive: Tidal Wave! GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo! GS: Pearl gains 130 THP from Regen! GS: Pearl has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"We appear to be making progress," Ethius' voice over comms might not be heard because of that cry of anger. Maybe Sin can 'speak' for itself there. "Something is going on with their eyes."
Something quickly goes on with the rest of them, as the left fin slams into itself and just goes at them. Ethius guns the controls to put a bit of extra push into the otherwise heatless dash jets. 'Otherwise,' because the extra power does flare into a blip on thermal scans. Trivia, at best.
It prevents him from being crushed head-on by the sideswipe, though he's tagged low and sent spiraling off-balance in the air at g-forces he can tolerate and hold onto consciousness with, plating and some smaller bits shearing out of the left leg of the Gear from where Sin does collide.
"I am still in the fight," Ethius responds to Lunata with 'fight' being slightly longer and drawn out from a momentary bout of dizziness and whiplash and also now a huge array of bright colors and shiny baubles and-- well that's a thing that happened, that bomb.
When his view clears up, he sees Diablo. There's... that's going to be another thing entirely. As he forces back control of Aiguille, he doesn't have much time to coordinate his next movement. Sin's moving quickly beneath him, and the other fin is right there - it's a shot he has to take, now.
So Aiguille plunges downwards, the rifle-staff flickering and overheating with stored energies where ventilation measures are at risk of failing, jabbing down less with the intent of using a physical strike but more to try and discharge the entire charge as close to point-blank as he can muster.
There will (or rather, may) be time to recalibrate and consider next movements if they are still alive by whatever countermeasure Sin might muster next. There's colorful pyreflies everywhere, blinding, as if inviting whatever pyreflies an imminent death might produce to join that swarm.
Where sound and sight fail in the spectacle as useful senses, a sense of duty is what he holds to navigate the plunge and shot.
GS: Ethius Hesiod spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Sin with Neutralize! GS: Ethius Hesiod gains 126 THP from Regen! GS: Riposte expired! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: High! Sin suffers a terrible blow from Pearl's Overdrive: Tidal Wave for 754 hit points! GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Pearl! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Sin's eyes... twitch? Is it because of everything they've been doing so far...? Jacqueline isn't given much time to dwell on it as Sin rushes toward them. The Clysmian thrashes and slams into Issachar. The power is immense, and the Pulse Shift Barrier that Lunata shared flickers - but it holds. Jacqueline breathes out a sigh of relief, whispering another grateful prayer of thanks to Lunata. If it weren't for that, things could've been very serious.
"No problem." Jacqueline replies with a nod as Lunata thanks her. She's momentarily stunned as, in sequence, Lunata attacks with a brilliant rainbow bomb, and Shalune is rescued by... Diablo?
"...You brought it here? I'm kind of impressed..." Jacqueline remarks, blinking.
She recovers quickly, though, and brandishes her spear. Sin is wounded - now to capitalize on it. Issachar charges and, as it moves, the pinion feathers detach from Issachar's wing unit - each one like a Gear-scale blade in its own right. They fly alongside Jacqueline, guided by her mind and her will, as she soars across Sin's hide, spear and bladed feathers slashing out at the Clysmian in tandem. And then she flies away from Sin. The feathers return to the wing unit for the sake of one final attack, as Jacqueline accelerates back toward Sin. She drives the spear into it once more, a motion is soon mirrored by the now bristling-with-blades wing unit, which rakes across Sin's flesh before both make their retreat.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Jacqueline Barber spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Formation! Jacqueline Barber has attacked Sin with Omnidirectional Sequence! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 2 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber gains 114 THP from Regen! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: Sin suffers a terrible blow from Jacqueline Barber's Omnidirectional Sequence for 445 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Battle rages. Elly can see Leviathan - perhaps the most massive Aeon Elly has ever witnessed. The spectacle, the grace. Even in the semi-peripheries of her vision they're undeniable... and they seem so small, compared to the enormous reality that devastated Azado. Perhaps it's hopeless. They can reach Jecht.
They can't reach Seymour Guado.
Elly feels panic in her stomach. She thinks of the people on the Fahrenheit, the Fereshte. Bevelle. Would the other Summoners out there even be able to stop Seymour? He knows them. He is alive, vibrant, malicious.
He would destroy the temples, Elly thinks, wouldn't he? Or he'd pursue them, and -
One of the cream white screens turns black.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaTSDpimnIg
Elly looks at it, blinking away tears she hadn't known were forming. The text blurs a little, before a parallel feed begins showing Elly what it says - in Solarian: her eyes go to the easier thing to read, as strange words appear.
Eldridge? Elly thinks. El-Dridge? Is Sin - is it an Omnigear? Is there one inside of Sin? They've found several, but the 'Relics' -
New text appears.
Elly reads it and while the first line doesn't follow well, the next -
and the next -
and the next -
and the next -
The tears run down her cheeks as Regulus pulsates, and Elly says with a small voice, "He hears you. He hears all of you!"
It's one of those strange quirks of fate: Elly only knows Jecht as a silent presence, one Tidus wasn't comfortable with. Perhaps there were many sides to him. There are many sides to anyone, after all. Jecht doubtless had many fans - and one of them, somewhere, had to be the first. Who was it? Who knows. But it can be known, at least, who his last fan was:
Elly van Houten.
Of course, Elly does have a problem. Even as she repeats, louder and with more vigor, "He can hear all of you! Keep - keep singing, playing, everything!" the great and massive bulk of Sin swings towards the side of Regulus and so it is that the Omnigear is *bodychecked* by the enormous and almost inconcievable bulk of Sin. Sin! A creature of unmatched size; perhaps the largest living organism in the entire system, if you can call it living.
To it, a Gear is but a particularly large flea. And perhaps that analogy helps Elly, for most of the force of the impact comes almost as if she were SLAMMED against Sin's side; wild mentality reaches out and the thrusters pull away, and while there is a clipping glance against the great Fin that slightly distorts the angle of the head-antenna upon the top of the Omnigear, it is not crushed to expensive and precious metals.
Almost immediately after rebounding, Regulus reaches out wordlessly towards Sin. It might seem impotent, except that something invisible is happening... EM-frequency radiation, the same bandwidth through which electricity and other mysterious phenomena travel, is being excited. Soon enough it flickers, and shortly thereafter it becomes a scorching streak of searching heat against Sin's flank!
"Fei! Fei, are you alright?" Elly calls, even as she turns her head round. "Shalune-- oh no did she land ON Sin??? Dr. Uzuki, hold on--" The Omnigear drifts to the side, warily watching Sin (won't sneak up on HER again, that's for sure) as it draws nearer to Heimdall and Weltall.
GS: Elhaym van Houten spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Sin with Ether Diathermy! GS: Elhaym van Houten gains 122 THP from Regen! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: Sin suffers a terrible blow from Ethius Hesiod's Neutralize for 426 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Sin suffers a terrible blow from Elhaym van Houten's Ether Diathermy for 419 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
'It may take some effort for the group on Sin to keep their footing.'
Yuna falls on her ass.
Or -- well -- she almost does. Yuna basically defines the distinction between being a graceful dancer and being a agile PERSON. She has beautiful movements... when she's moving deliberately.
When she's moving UNEXPECTEDLY, because the entire bulk of Sin just surged out from underneath her, she is pretty much the signature party klutz.
Sin's -- Seymour's -- eyes, are all over her, and his tendrils, too, are coming for her, and she cannot decide, in that moment that she's falling towards them, which are more disgusting.
But impact... potentially many impacts, horrible impacts... it never comes.
Yuna's back slams into a strong arm, and she is scooped in the nick of time, and set back on her feet.
She looks back, over her shoulder, at her savior.
And, in that moment, her smile is only for Paine.
"Thank you, Paine... Let's go find Lulu," she suggests. It isn't hard. Just follow the explosions.
<SoundTracker> In The Blood - Hades OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojx8dyes__8
Squaring up beside her Dame Guardian, they wind up back to back; it's the safest way, and anyway, directionality hardly matters here, their entire battlefield is their enemy. Yuna's a little wild-eyed, a little radiant; a little driven past all endurance, and this only the front door of the castle they must storm. For all that she grandly shouted down Seymour, for all that she and the fayth are united in their determination to kick him out of Sin and then kindly but firmly usher him out of existence with the Sending that is so long overdue... Yuna is thrown, and not just by Sin's bucking surface.
She knew she would have to face him here, but she didn't realize it would be RIGHT AWAY.
Yuna wants, desperately, to reach out and hold Lulu's hand. That Lulu, and some others, taking strength from her strength barely registered; she feels... light, and not in an entirely good way. Lightheaded. Giddy, but not silly-fun giddy like Tidus, merry giddy like Rikku.
But also light in a literal way.
Yuna is starting to glow.
She remembers the lessons of the great mage at her back, and, wavering, draws herself close, makes of her awareness a rope instead of a cloud, and focuses.
This is bigger than her. Bigger than all of them.
She can't let HIM get to her. They have to get to HIM.
She closes her eyes, but the light sears through her lids, an eerie effect. Power wells within her, and the will to use it. No more pink, purple, blue sparkles; only a white so pure and profound that it casts her body in black silhouette against her flowing raiments. It casts shadows across Sin that are not shadows at all -- a light so pure and strong that it is incapable of creating darkness; it can only reveal it. And it does, around the core, exposed and horrible, revealing it not truly as an instrument of Seymour, but of Death itself.
Yuna answers with the opposite.
Radiance pours out of her tear ducts, her ears, even her nostrils. From beneath her fingernails, sending ten spotlights into the sky above. When she opens her mouth to speak, it emerges from there too.
"Lulu," she echoes, from before, when they were on the deck of the Fahrenheit together, "I'm ready."
She has invoked this power only once before, in the very heart of Zanarkand.
It is not a spell. It follows none of the rules of the Goddess' Blessing. It is an expression of herself -- and of something greater than herself -- distilled -- channeled -- made form. It pours out of her in all directions, close to feathers, if the light was anything physical at all. But it isn't really.
It soars away in all directions...
...and then pauses...
...and then turns inward.
The core is at the invocation's heart, and where they meet, they detonate, in bursts of sacred radiance that are like stars being born.
No, that isn't true. Sin's core could never be Yuna's heart.
She is so much bigger than that.
And so is the world.
The world that this power came from.
The world that this power is for.
The world that Yuna loves even more than Seymour hates.
H
O
L
Y
!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Yuna has attacked Seymour Guado with H O L Y! GS: Yuna has gained 2 Combo! GS: Yuna has completed her action. GS: Seymour Guado suffers a terrible blow from Yuna's H O L Y for 257 hit points! GS: Purge! Hex removed! GS: Purge explodes for 68 damage!! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated! GS: Strain! Yuna takes 69 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei brightens as he hears Citan's words. "Heck yeah!" He actually uses 'Heck Yeah' because he's still, ultimately, a farmboy at heart. Fei is slammed into AGAIN by the fin but Fei just throws Weltall back in there, still pounding against the thing as hard and viciously as he can like there's tommorow--because if they fail here, there might not be one. Not for the people of Bevelle anyway.
It's probably for the best that Fei doesn't know that the Eldridge is involved here. That sort of stuff makes him psychically fragile and the reason Fei doesn't reach out to people the way Elly and Riesenlied can is because when Fei reaches out to touch people psychically, they suffer--they die. Even Id is wary and sad about it and so avoids it at all cost. Besides, why rely on empathy when you can rely on telekinetic obliteration? It's like empathy but you don't feel sad afterwards and your mind stays mostly in one piece.
Fei says, "So he can hear us...huh... Sorry about this Jecht, but I'm guessing you're liking what we're putting down well enough!"
Is he okay? "I'm fine Elly! Keep at it! What you're doing is working!"
Fei flexes out his hand as dark energy pulls into Weltall's hand.
"That's enough of that, Seymour!" Fei shouts. "I won't let you--or anyone else--take advantage of this monster any longer!"
Sin, that is, not Jecht. Jecht is just a dad.
The black energies swirl as Fei punches outward, unleashing a swath of cosmic ether that endeavours to rip, tear, and open a path forward!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Fei Fong Wong spends 4 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Sin with Hand of the Event Horizon! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong gains 122 THP from Regen! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
If that can be called Seymour's face...
Boudicca doesn't have anything nice to say, so she doesn't say anything at all.
"I do not enjoy these sequels," she agrees, with Tidus's anger. "It is time to end your tale, Seymour!"
The tendrils lash out, and Boudicca moves through them. Some of them catch at the edges of her armour, but she is the wind, and she's still quite, quite swift. She has the same idea as Tidus, it seems -- because she pulls out her tonfa, and springs TOWARDS Genais, lashing out with a strike from below, and leaping upwards to bring it down from above. Whether she can knock the Sinspawn about is immaterial, as much as it would normally knock her foes into the air; Boudicca, herself, can get more than enough airtime.
And she has more than enough alacrity to get out of dodge before Yuna's astounding display lights up the room. Time enough to admire it. And, of course, time enough to --
Boudicca's breeze finds Cyre, as he gives Fengelon his ultimatum -- a little carrot to go with the stick, the immediate environment a little friendlier. He'll find his step lighter. He might even be able to...
Float! Boudicca can cast Float as a free action! Obviously Boudicca can cast Float as a free action.
GS: Seraph Boudicca spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Seymour Guado with Cerberus Strike! GS: Seraph Boudicca has launched an attack Link! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Seymour Guado with Soaring Blast! GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Sin suffers a terrible blow from Fei Fong Wong's Hand of the Event Horizon for 621 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: CRITICAL! Seymour Guado suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Boudicca's Cerberus Strike for 229 hit points! GS: Seymour Guado's Disrupt Ward may block the effect! GS: Disrupt blocked! GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive and Sufferer activated! GS: Seymour Guado suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Boudicca's Soaring Blast for 79 hit points! GS: Slow applied to Seymour Guado! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia's 'Plan', if you want to be generous and call it such, goes off without a hitch. As the saying goes: 'you break the rules, I break your face'. Don't you just hate it though, when you break a face and behind it is just another face? Xantia doesn't actually, more faces to break is a good thing. Besides, even she can tell that this is the real thing that needs to be hit to end this. As such, she doesn't hesitate to call out to the others present.
"Now, everyone! It's wide open!"
She doesn't actually continue her own assault, not right away. Instead, she steps back, nearly losing her footing as Sin's body suddenly lurches forward. She's only dimly aware of the greater situation that the Gears have a better view of, but somehow... somehow she can tell that they're not the only ones fighting Sin. Sin is fighting itself. This is just the opening they need. Everything is aligned to give them one shot at this, to succeed at what was thought to be impossible. And to think... they have the likes of Vinsfeld and Seymour to thank for putting Sin in this position. That's a little distasteful. She's not about to not take advantage of it though.
In one last ditch effort, Sinspawn Genais seeks to stop what's about to happen by lashing out with all of its tendrils. Xantia has gone untouched by them so far, and she's not about to let that change. She's making it look effortless, the way she darts aside at just the right moment every time, even though it's anything but. It takes all her focus, not allowing her to get by and strike the core. Thankfully, there are others to solve that particular problem, and create that opening she needs. This is good, because what she plans to do is going to take some time.
As soon as Xantia is afforded the opportunity, she stands in place, closing her eyes as she focuses energy within, as well as without. Those magically sensitive may be able to tell what it is she's doing. No matter where you are, there is always a certain amount of ambient energy present in the atmosphere. Xantia is drawing that energy out, and into her own body, leaving the air directly surrounding her stagnant and lifeless. She, on the other hand, is glowing with a bright light as the energy is converted into additional Ether, required for the effort to come. When her eyes reopen, she is ready.
"Sin! Seymour! This world rejects you! For those who died, and those who still live... BE GONE!!"
It begins as a giant two-handed blade of pure light is formed in her hands. She charges forward, swinging the Ether construct - light in more ways than one - rapidly and effortless towards the core several times, before plunging it forward, piercing first, then exploding. Thrown back by the force of the impact, Xantia's aura shifts to a frosty blue, and a veritable hail of daggers made of pure ice launches out of her palms, bombarding the core with an onslaught of magically constructed weaponry. Finally, to end it, what else could it be but an enormous hammer made up out of pure electricity, large enough to be clearly visible even by the Gears on the outside. It isn't visible for very long though, as it violently explodes the moment it's brought down onto the core.
GS: Xantia has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Xantia spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Xantia has attacked Seymour Guado with Transcendent Etherforger! GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Seymour Guado suffers a terrible blow from Xantia's Transcendent Etherforger for 278 hit points! GS: Purge! Blind, Disease, and Weaken removed! GS: Purge explodes for 59 damage!! GS: Hyper applied to Xantia! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Strain! Xantia takes 81 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Without false hope. No, he will not allow such to persist.
He's gotten in close, which is a good place to be insofar as the options available to Citan now with this Gear. It is a touch regrettable with a foe of this size, however, as it doesn't quite afford Citan with too much room to maneuver out of the way of incoming attacks. The only defensive advantage he now has is size, and the possibility that it may be trickier for Sin to aim at figures at even a Gear's size.
'May be', for it doesn't much matter if there's nowhere to run. He has seen the aftermath of Sin's gravity magic: there is no chance for those caught up within it. It may be less likely it would use such magic so close to itself, but, ah, that isn't the only trick the Clysmian has.
And then there's the sheer scale of Sin -- its mass, its strength. This, too, is a weapon, and far trickier yet to evade at this range, for here they are...
And so is Sin, convulsing in its -- Seymour's -- rage.
Evasion might be possible even so. But it would mean giving up what little advantage they now have. Instead, Citan focuses the barrier Lunata had bestowed upon his Gear, using it as a shield to blunt away Sin's blows as he focuses his efforts on maintaining his position atop Sin.
It just about drains the protection granted to him. Or so he thinks as the gambit pays off and Heimdall is able to resist being knocked aside. Is that barrier of Lunata's regenerating itself slowly?
What other miracles were the people of Zeboim capable of?
He looks -- or rather Heimdall looks -- up towards the heavens as that message from Elly arrives.
He hears them. He hears all of them.
Jecht is still in there.
"...Then... the song must not cease! --Elly!"
He has seen her Gear get struck. Even an Omnigear--
But she is alive and it is functioning, yet. "We are as well as can be, considering! Still, we cannot--"
Continue this forever, is what he might well have said, in another time, another place. But there is no more time for such things. They don't have forever.
There is only the present moment. Heimdall wheels about as sharply as a Gear of its origin might and drives a hand towards Sin's flesh. There is no blade: no trick of the light would fool anyone into even thinking such a thing were happening. Yet, at this speed, at this angle...
It's a strike with a Gear's hand, and it may still rend.
GS: Citan Uzuki spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Sin with Hakai! GS: Citan Uzuki has gained 3 Combo! GS: Citan Uzuki gains 124 THP from Regen! GS: Citan Uzuki has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Perhaps it would be better if Lulu had cast the Thundaga. If she knew Paine was such an attentive student, perhaps she'd have said what she did earlier... but probably not.
As it stands, the grenade that accompanies her spell is certainly well-timed. She knows she can trust her to match her spells.
But soon--The armor finally shatters. There is a glowing core, and Lulu's gaze seizes upon it. Finally--an opening. A weak point. So, as Boudicca unleashes that powerful wind, as Paine lets loose her grenade, Lulu narrows her eyes. And the tendrils rake and sweep across all of them.
Lulu rushes through them, letting them batter at her, simply toughing through the great force arrayed against her. She takes wounds for it, worse than the ice on her shoulders; even her armor, even the magic of her bangle, does not prevent the slash from cutting across skin. It does not prevent the impact and the shaking from jarring her leg with a sharpness. She accepts the pain. She uses it. It sharpens her senses.
"Yuna!"
But Paine has her. ...Paine, the latest of Guardians. But she is thoroughly one of them now. Just as Tidus is, wielding his extraordinary sword with his charming wit. Yes, it's charming. And it's effective. He keeps going.
But Yuna comes and finds her. Lulu nods to Paine, shallowly, meets her eyes for just a single moment, though it is a moment enough that there is an energy there. But then, "Yuna," Lulu says, and she takes up her position near her, at her back. As Yuna glows, so too does Lulu.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOmzkZjVGyA
"Then it's time."
Lulu begins to focus for the greatest spell that she has ever cast. She draws upon the lessons of every Elemental Shrine she has meditated upon. And she invokes the beginning of the working, back to back with Yuna.
The world quiets. Everything, for Lulu, calms to a standstill, and others sensitive to magic may detect it as well--it is not merely perception, but the world itself beginning to thrum with power. The world itself answers Lulu's call. The air vibrates. And Lulu presses her hands together. It is not a prayer, though to look at it it could be. It is not a prayer, but it is an entreaty to Spira. The source of Lulu's power has never been only a distant Goddess--hers is the power of the earth and the sky, the storm and the wave and the hearth. And now she draws upon it once again, in the face of their greatest foe, at the side of her most precious person. She draws upon it now.
BGM CHANGE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5TGj4uBmso
In time with Yuna's magic, Lulu begins to move her hands, channeling elemental force through them. It is so fierce that it burns within her already, but she betrays none of it, wastes none of it on wincing. She simply extends her hands to either side and--for a brief moment--touches the sublime truth at the heart of all elements.
Her arms lift to the sky, phantom force rising with them, and the spell begins.
u l t i m a
Bursts of light flicker into being about Sin, focused on the core. There is another flash, and a point of radiance--a tiny sphere, growing--begins to shimmer in aquamarine and purple light. From it emits green beams of force, and an aurora of blue-white. It does not grow. It shrinks, beginning to compress about the core, the green rays emitting widely as the aurora rotates on its way to a compression.
It implodes, and becomes like unto a star, green and blue and white, filled with the power of every element and none. The explosions begin, even as the new star expands, rings waving off of it in all directions. The explosions of red and white and cyan begin to rock not only the core and the Sinspawn, but to radiate across Sin's gigantic form.
For a barest instant, a black mage transcends. She nearly falls--but there is Yuna, at her back, and Lulu remains. She is mortal once more.
GS: Lulu has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Lulu spends 4 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Lulu has attacked Sin with Ultima! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Lulu has attacked Seymour Guado with Ultima! GS: Lulu has gained 2 Combo! GS: Lulu has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
Rikku's always been drawn to Tidus because of how he just hasn't conformed to the social mores of Spira.
How she's always felt he'd have her back when it comes to Yuna's welfare, even going against the pilgrimage... but its turned into a bigger friendship over time in just how comfortable they are bantering, messing around with each other.
The hand atop Rikku's head is one she instinctively understands isn't threatening, despite the shake that follows, and the encouraging push forward, "Whoa- hey!"
A stumble step, pivot. Then a look at Paine brings just this infectious smile and a double point towards her mouth as if posing for some Sphere Recording, "See? Who could stay mad at this face!" With a laugh, she turns back to the battle at hand in the nudge with Tidus.
"I'm good too now! Thanks to Paine! She's always been a pal!" Rikku calls to Boudicca as she goes.
Tendrils sweep at her, and she hops over one, before landing and rolling under another, springing up right as another thuds a glancing blow against her side.
A brief moment is taken where Rikku bends over and puts a pendulum like object that she bribed off of Azoth with his own stolen part (Shhh) into a Sphere, then adds a little razzle dazzle to the combination.
"Yeah!" Rikku calls out after Tidus, "Hey Seymour!" Standing up, she takes a hop, a step, and throws her creation/crime against humanity right at that triple beaked mouthed core of Genais. "Have a confession of my own! I want to show you how I really feel about you!"
It bursts into one wave after another of concussive force and biologic fury, one color after another in a rainbow of seven blasts of color, and in the aftermath if one looks they might see vague letters for a brief moment.
NUMBER ONE JERK IN ALL OF SPIRA
How does she even do that, especially on the fly!? That's Al Bhed ALCHEMY FOR YOU!
This time mercifully she doesn't ask Paine to record, but she definitely raises a hand to solicit a brief high five from Tidus, but only once he's recovered.
Meanwhile she gets to be dazzled by Yunie's Inner light, in this expression of herself, combined with Lulu's...
Rikku stands agog with the 'What even is that spell' before she says...
"Okay. I want that in a bomb."
GS: Sin suffers a terrible blow from Citan Uzuki's Hakai for 425 hit points! GS: Purge! Entangle, Mute, Shieldbreak, and Weaken removed! GS: Purge explodes for 75 damage!! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Sin has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Rikku spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Rikku has attacked Seymour Guado with CHAOS GRENADE! GS: Rikku has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rikku has completed her action. GS: Sin suffers a terrible blow from Lulu's Ultima for 480 hit points! GS: Cripple and Mute applied to Sin! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated! GS: Sin has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Seymour Guado suffers a terrible blow from Lulu's Ultima for 257 hit points! GS: Seymour Guado's Mute Ward may block the effect! GS: Cripple applied to Seymour Guado! GS: Mute blocked! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated! GS: CRITICAL! Seymour Guado suffers a terrible blow from Rikku's CHAOS GRENADE for 310 hit points! GS: Seymour Guado's Mute Ward may block the effect! GS: Blind, Drowsy, and Poison applied to Seymour Guado! GS: Mute blocked! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Seymour Guado has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.
The grenade Paine sent sailing the Sinspawn's way met it at a bad time in its life. Genais would be the first to admit it. It's no surprise that it did not handle the encounter in a way it could be proud of. At moments like this, little things that would roll off your back normally can cut to the bone.
This time, however, the reprisal does not catch Paine by surprise. Even Sinspawn hate to die; no wonder humans who accept it too readily are so disgusting. As the tentacles rush forward en masse towards the Guardians and others gathered here, Paine lets her carbine drop. The grinding sound of her sword being drawn is abnormally harsh; the edge of the aged old blade cannot be sharpened smooth anymore, and its slate-grey blade is brutishly heavy. Paine herself wields it with practiced unbalance, hauling it into the path of the first tentacle coming her way and splitting it. As she parries, others manage to thump her or lash her, but she is already moving. If the tentacles are after anyone and everyone, they are sure to reach...
Yuna. The Summoner. The only place where sentiment and mission align perfectly in combat: protecting her matters more than anything.
"Hmf," Paine vocalizes the weight of Yuna on her extended arm, much as Auron might. She had to lunge to catch her, and now she risks just slowing rather than ceasing the fall. Stabbing her sword downward behind her, Paine anchors herself with it rather than attempt anything too acrobatic, and ends up with the Summoner's big butterfly bow floppily askew all over her arm and bent against her torso.
Paine does not even decline Yuna's thanks, so unnecessary does she consider it; she just ignores it, levering Yuna's lower back up again so she can find her feet. Her sword is yanked from the ground with a hasty jerk, and comes up to bar passage to Yuna with more than the usual professionalism; there is a hostility there towards their enemy.
"Lulu can handle her..."
Paine looks at Yuna's face.
"Oh," she says. "Got it."
Yuna is deposited by the black mage after a short jog, Paine releasing her hand to let her finish out the run, in a gentler echo of how one might release a bowling ball. Paine shares that brief glance with Lulu, before flipping her sword, Gravestone, up into a ready position that hides one of her eyes, in lieu of a verbal excusal. It's time for her to rejoin the blondes up front.
As Rikku's spectacular display of violence and immaturity batters her eardrums and flashes at her vision, Paine lowers her head a little to keep steady as she runs. She does not get to witness the casting of the spells that are about to make that concussion look like a matchstick, but as they begin, she alters her course to slow her approach without having to slow her movement, lest a rogue tentacle wound her on the way. "Lusehk drnuikr," she warns Rikku thoughtlessly as she goes. She's watching the impact of these massive spells, waiting for the moment it's safe to approach. And when it comes, she does so at a leap, reverses her sword, and bears its tip down into whatever those spells left behind.
Whether this is 'mopping up' a foe or just mopping up a mess at that point, Paine does not consider a dealbreaker.
GS: Paine spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Paine enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Paine has attacked Seymour Guado with Swordplay! GS: Paine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Paine has launched an attack Link! GS: Paine enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Paine has attacked Seymour Guado with Gravestone! GS: Paine has gained 3 Combo! GS: Paine's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Paine enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Paine has completed her action. GS: Seymour Guado suffers a terrible blow from Paine's Swordplay for 198 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seymour Guado gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple applied to Seymour Guado! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Seymour Guado has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Seymour Guado suffers a terrible blow from Paine's Gravestone for 127 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seymour Guado gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Slow applied to Seymour Guado! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Seymour Guado has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Seymour Guado has posed.
Seymour can't answer Tidus. But there is a rumble through Sin, under his feet; a rising anmger.
Caladbolg, ever true, slashes into Genais. Tidus cleaves through it, again and again. Each blow sends out bursts of pyreflies. He is joined by Boudicca, who throws herself forward. Tonfa strikes rip into it, bashing it about. The Sinspawn staggers, and this is when Cyre leaps forward -- but it's not just Cyre. Fengalon supports his shaman, and Cyre's fist slams into Genais. Together, with Tidus, Boudicca, and Cyre in unison, the Sinspawn explodes apart into pyreflies.
Which leaves only the core.
Xantia was already on the core. A blade of light forms in her hands -- and she leaps. The blade slashes into the core, repeatedly, shredding through its defenses; armored plating around it is torn away, the beak is cut into, and pyreflies are flying every which way as that massive blade chops into it.
Lulu summons Ultima. There are multiple bright flashes -- focused on the core, but growing. Starbursts of color, which rip through the core -- and higher -- as the spell rips into and assails the core. Magical energies rage around it, striking into it, and pyreflies erupt around this immense spell of Lulu's.
Then, Rikku throws her grenade at the damaged core. It explodes into huge bursts of color around the beak. There is a mighty shriek from the core, perhaps in anger from Seymour, and core is direly weakened now.
Paine drives her sword into it, after grenade and Ultima are done. When she rips it free, the core sags -- the beaks broken, pyreflies wafting. It's nearly done.
Yuna draws on the power she drew on in the heart of Zanarkand, and only once before.
It is no less remarkable this time. It is an expression of herself; it is raw power, given form. Something that taps into the Goddess Althena, or maybe something higher. If it is the Goddess, it certainly suggests she is on. White light explodes out of Sin's core. It explodes through Sin's core.
It rises out from it, engulfing it, and Sin's core explodes into so much light. Pyreflies drift away -- and there is something beyond Sin's core. Or rather, an absence is to be found.
It is a tunnel. It leads deeper within Sin, and mist rises up from it. Here, Yuna, Tidus, and their Guardians and friends find an answer: where they must go next.
Where Seymour awaits.
Where Jecht awaits.
Where the end of their story is.
<Pose Tracker> Sin has posed.
The Colourful Bomb flies free, slamming into Sin. It explodes with confetti and streamers (not really a problem) and fire (moreso). The huge blast of flame makes Sin jerk hard to the side.
Diablo rises, at Shalune's command.
The great red Golem ascends -- terrifying and mighty, in its own right. Elw power is pitted against Spiran horror. Fire explodes off it, flame roiling over Sin. Sinscales explode into pyreflies; flame washes over Sin, and drives him backward, as pyreflies continue rising high into the sky.
Fire is followed by water.
Leviathan summons their seas. The oceans swell and rise -- and then a tsunami crashes down over Sin. It smashes the whale-like creature down, hitting the ocean with enough force to make another wave, which splashes mightily against Bevelle. Sin bellows, a roar of pain and anguish.
And Aiguille plunges after it. The rifle-staff fires, shots slamming into it, until one final point-blank shot blows off the left fin. It's shorn away -- separating and falling down into the sea, until it, too, dissolves into pyreflies.
Issachar's pinion feathers and spear strike into Sin, repeatedly. Jay flies the Omnigear by at speed, spear and feathers striking repeatedly; bursts of pyreflies explode after, as she soars away from the wounded terror.
Regulus sends a burst of radiation -- a scorching blast of heat -- that slams into the side of the thing. It roars, again, as fire slams through it. Pyreflies explode up high into the sky, again. Weltall's fists slam into Sin. Black energy bleeds off them -- burning into Sin -- and blasts the armor away, sending off chunks of it. Energy rips through Sin, and pyreflies erupt with each blow.
Citan flies Heimdall in close. With one blow of the Gear's hand, he carves through the flesh. It cuts -- and pyreflies burst out as he slashes down through it with the knife hand blow.
Near the head, multi-colored lights explode. Lulu's Ultima spell rises higher. Larger explosions -- further from her group -- rip into and assail Sin. Chunks of it are burnt away; armored hide vanishes, and more pyreflies join all of those falling away from Sin. The creature is gravely wounded.
But it is not dead.
The Hymn continues to play. Elly's words provide the inspiration that people in Bevelle -- across Spira, and even Filgaia -- need. The song echoes onward, broadcast through speakers and into the heart of Sin. It echoes off the stadium of Luca; it thunders through the Thames; it rings over Meria Boule's belltowers; it fills the caverns of Guadosalam; it rises to a crescendo over the harbor of Bevelle.
And, in the end, that is what carries the day. Sin lurches, suddenly, to a stop -- in the harbor over Bevelle. The thing's back arches, and it glows brilliantly.
And then it lowers. It hovers over the water. It is an eerie sight. Sin hovers, still, over the water.
Onboard the Fahrenheit, Cid swallows. "...Don't see that every day," he says.
"You sure don't," Lilka answers. "Mister Cid, I think... we better get in there. And get them out."
"Yeah. We need to regroup."
The Fahrenheit takes off -- soaring in closer, to pick up those still on Sin.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline stares down at the wounded Sin as it swims into Bevelle harbor in comes to a stop - and then... it glows, and begins to hover. Jacqueline frowns.
"...I don't think it's dead. Just... wounded." She comments after a moment. "...But still, good work, everyone. You were all incredible. Let's regroup back on the Fahrenheit for now. We should... probably figure out what to do from here."
The job isn't done yet. There's no telling what waits ahead of them - but whatever lies in wait, they'll face it together.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
This time, Diablo doesn't crash back into the seas after its attack, nor does it get lanced by Mother's claws and crash to the ground below. There does appear to be some sort of consideration for its human rider as it attacks; the inferno around it is not as strong as it could be, and directed away from its immediate vicinity at least until Shalune can unfold the Little Dipper and make good on getting clear.
"Ahaha," comes Shalune's laugh over the radio, a sure-fire sign that whatever she says next is going to give Jacqueline and Lunata a headache. "Um, I didn't exactly _bring_ it here myself. I was just fairly sure it'd work? I'm okay, I'm okay, I promise!" she hurriedly adds onto the end to try to quell Elly's panic. There is probably a very specific kind of 'okay' that includes 'is sat on top of a small flying scooter with Sin anywhere within reach', but for what it's worth she does seem to be handling that particular situation better than expected as the little speck rockets back towards Big Shal's bobbing form.
Only once she's clear does the golem appear to be satisfied with its work; it is one more giant figure diving back down into the water, but unlike Sin's hesitation Diablo sinks fully under the waves.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius disengages from Sin's bulk after the rifle-staff's shot is discharged, also making sure he doesn't end up riding the shorn fin into the ocean. Smoke rises visibly from the upper 'body' of the Metal Demon-era Kattelox region salvaged machine, and this turns out to be an excellent call because of the sorcerous powers that are churning in there.
What Elly says in that small voice... 'he hears you. he hears all of you!'
There is a part of him who still has enough humor, or at least presence of mind, to wonder where the ears are in that bulk, but it's not a time to doubt or mock that as the Aiguille disengages and hovers back shakily.
Another side-glance over to Diablo, for a moment.
"...I copy," is all he can offer in the moment.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Just like that, moments after the brilliant lights of Ultima dazzle in the sky, all is still.
But not quiet. The Hymn continues, on and on, an endless song to pacify Sin.
"...It appears that we have... succeeded. You were able to reach him, Elly. Were it not for you..." On this point, Citan choses to muse no further, instead settling back for the moment in his seat and closing his eyes.
"We should regroup before we venture forth. I do not believe we will have long," he says after that briefest of moments. Heimdall already turns towards the inbound Fahrenheit. "But I believe it is important that we do so. We must not enter Sin unprepared."
In another situation, such a remark might well have provoked him to smile or even laugh. But not here. Not now.
"Let us hurry."