We open up on The Party, and they are just outside the Akhine Temple
Vaniel: There’s no going back after this
Iris: Alright let’s go
Thanna: We have to get out powers back if we want to stand a chance
Neve: I’m about to have the most important conversation in my entire life…aren’t I…
Cynthus #2: Well let’s fucking go
The Party begins to enter Akhine Temple, mist is pooling around the pillars. The party looks around, the place looks deserted
Neve: Where is everyone?
Thanna: It looks like someone else was here first?
Vaniel: We don’t have much time to lose than, let’s go and go fast
Cynthus #3: The healing pools are where restoration rituals happen, we should get down there as fast as we can
Another Pionin comes into view
Neve: Huh, HEY!
But the growling they’ve grown so familiar with is heard
Erhan: The reunion has to be put on hold I think?
Neve: No….
A group of growling Pionin Priests appear ready to kill The Party
Vaniel: Alright guys follow my lead, the healing pools are on the fourth floor, so follow me
Thanna: I can work with that
Thanna and Vaniel take off and The rest of The Party soon follows suit
Descend through Akhine Temple
When you reach the second floor
Neve: I can’t believe that I found out I was not alone only to then have to kill off the people like me
Thanna: Yeah that must suck
Neve: At least this is a kind of cruel mercy
Vaniel: Maybe that’s how I feel about Armei
Iris: Let’s keep the philosophy for when we get into the pools
Cynthus #2: Saying what I’m thinking huh
Resume
When you reach the third floor
Neve: I remember once reading that an ancient Pionin belief was that when someone died, their soul went to a place beyond Life and Death, maybe they moved to this place because they thought it was some kind of after-life?
Thanna: Did they believe in layered after-lives?
Neve: That I don’t know, I only know so much about who I am
Iris: I can feel that too
Vaniel: I feel like our lives are shaped so much by what we don’t know, it’s pretty scary
Cynthus #1: Even as a respected scientific figure, I still have so much to learn
Cynthus #2: We’re not even fucking close to knowing about everything about damn near anything
Erhan: Neve, don’t despair because you don’t know the whole story
Resume
When you reach the fourth floor
Vaniel: The healing pools are just beyond here, just one more hallway to go
Erhan: I had no idea, they built temples so deep
Vaniel: Well now you do
Cynthus #3: Ok, so what we do when we get there is, you’ll both sit in the pools and they’ll heal your spirits therefore restoring your abilities.
Vaniel: I believe that it should work, barring any extraneous circumstances
Iris: Ok, got it
Thanna: Yessir
Neve: Onward
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They walk down the hallway to an closed door, Iris uses the spear to open the door, inside are two healing pools
Iris: So what do we do
Cynthus #2: If I understand correctly, you’d need to sit in the pools and then release your natural energy, this can be done by holding a tall object
Iris: So…I guess I gotta use this spear
Cynthus #1: That could work
Thanna: What about me?
Cynthus #1: Hmm, There’s a fairly large fire poker over there
Cynthus points to the fire poker
Thanna: So I grab this, and raise it when me and Iris get in the healing pools
Cynthus #3: Yeah
Iris: Alright…in we go
Thanna and Iris step into the pools
Thanna: Ok, so when do we do the thing?
Iris: Maybe wait a few seconds
Erhan: I have no idea what’s gonna happen…
The healing energies coalesse around the pools, healing their spirits
Neve: Woah…I wonder how this works…
Thanna: Alright, I’ll release the energy I have stored, I’ll release it now
Iris: Alright let’s do it together
Thanna and Iris raise the Spear and Fire Poker to the sky and color energy begins flowing out of Iris
Iris: Uhm…we might have done this wrong
The energy out of the fire poker begins hitting Iris’s energy
Thanna: Oh no what the hell is this
Vaniel: Brace for impact
The Party scatters as the colors explode out of The Spear and Thanna’s Green powers flow into it, the crest floats off of Iris
Iris: Oh I don’t know what’s happening to me
The colors shoot of in seven different directions, Iris falls, still powerless
Thanna: Iris, are you there?
Thanna staggers back as Iris gets up, seven humanoid figures that are each a different color of the rainbow now stand before The Party
Vaniel: What?
Cynthus #3: I think their powers are now permanently gone and have splitoff into seven different beings
Thanna: What the heck?
Iris: I can still feel them
Iris begins controlling the Humanoids
Iris: Ok, let’s go
Thanna: Hell yeah!!
Vaniel: Let’s show those assholes who’s boss
Neve: Now where are they
Suddenly, a familiar creeping shadow begins sneaking up on the party
Kutakahra: Missed me?
Vaniel: Not at all, where did Phote go?
Kutakahra: She ran away again…so my only opponent right now is you lot
Thanna: You’ve got a lot of nerve to face us again after what you’ve done
Cynthus #2: Prepare to bite it asshole
Fight against Kutakahra
When he’s at 75% health
Kutakahra: An actual decent challenge, alright, I’ll actually try
Kutakahra summons torrents of mist while slinging ringed hands to drag Iris in
Iris: Nice try
The Green Humanoid comes and blasts Kutakahra in the face
Kutakahra: Heh
Resume
When he’s at 50% health
Kutakahra: Your strong combat abilities will make you fine puppets
Thanna: Keep dreaming
Thanna thrusts The Fire Poker into Kutakahra’s right eye before kicking him in the neck
Resume
When he’s at 25% health
Kutakahra: Darn, maybe I won’t win?
Thanna: Normally they’d be acting all high and mighty and stuff
Vaniel: Seriously, those types are so damn annoying
Cynthus #1: I’ve realized the fact most people would rather live in denial than face reality means that more people will prolong their defeat
Resume
When he’s finally defeated
Kutakahra: Oh…I may need a minute
The Mist entirely dissipates, making the area more visible
Vaniel: The mist is gone?
Kutakahra: I’ve been defeated so the mist left…ugh…
Thanna: So what now? Do we kill you?
Kutakahra: I think not
Kutakahra remerges with Shadow and leaves
Vaniel: Damn it he got away
Cynthus #2: What NOW
Iris: I feel like there’s one more left
And at that moment, a massive mech comes roaring through the temple and all the foundations, leaving just the healing pools and a massive mech that looks unfinished
Erhan: Welp, we've fought worse
The cockpit opens
Phote: Hello hopeless nobodies, I’m here in a personal creation of mine, The Morningstar, it is rather incomplete, but once fully built, it will be able to defeat your entire guild effortlessly and just this should be able to kill you
Cynthus #1: Seems like quite the endorsement
Iris: I have a feeling this mech isn’t all that
Phote: Oh all my critics will be dead soon so who cares?
Fight Phote in The Morningstar
When it’s at 75% health
Phote: I feel just the oddest sense of Deja Vu right now?
Iris: Uh didn’t ask
The Red and Indigo Humanoids blast an exposed hole in the Morningstar
Thanna: I wonder how fall your mech can fall?
Resume against Phote
When she’s at 50% health
Ehran: Hey think fast
Erhan creates noises that indicate engine decay in the mech
Phote: What the heck is this?
Cynthus blasts a massive collum of flame at the now exposed engine, causing massive internal damage
Phote: I’m gonna get you for this!!
Resume
When she’s at 25% health
Neve: I got one in me too
Phote: Please don’t
Neve releases a toxic spore directly into the cockpit
Phote: Rude
Vaniel: Two can play this game
Vaniel throws a shroud of night into the cockpit obscuring Phote’s vision
Resume
When she’s at 10% health
Erhan: Thanna, you got one in you?
Thanna: I do
Thanna hucks a massive rock at The Morning Star
Phote: What was that supposed to?
Suddenly, the legs of the machine start to give way
Thanna: I don’t miss
Resume
When she’s defeated
Phote: The mech says the system is failing…that can’t be
Neve: Yeah it can, we fucking won
Thanna: Now how far will you fall
Thanna picks up a disposed weapon from the mech and blasts the legs to bits, the entire thing caves in and Phote is crushed by the metal
Vaniel: Well she looks dead?
Neve: So what now?
Iris: I’m going to have to say goodbye
Iris suddenly vanishes and the seven humanoids turn from colors in the shape of humans into what look like actual humans. They fall still on the ground.
Thanna: Did she just become seven different people?
Vaniel: I think she was already seven different people and just used the last of her life force to fight with you one more time
Thanna: That’s oddly sweet, I’m gonna miss her
Erhan: Maybe not, it looks like she left behind a little bit of herself in those humans? Maybe we’ll see her if they ever wake up?
Neve: So do we go home?
Cynthus #2: I’ve actually got one more inquiry?
Thanna: What?
Cynthus #1: Maybe leave the portal open, I’d like to fight alongside you again some day?
Vaniel: Me too
Thanna: Alright,we’ll leave the portal open
Neve: Right…
Neve takes the portal out of her armor and opens it, and The Century Corps go home, carrying the comatose human beings with them