I'm sitting in a grassy field. Unlike last time, my head is clear and I can remember what's happening. I know I'm in another of those strange Oblivion visions.
Unlike last time, I'm no longer in control of my body. It's not like when I dissociate though. That's like hiding in my own head, and everything just flies past. Instead, I'm chained down, with someone else holding the reins. Like that time I got corrupted.
“Mei, it's time.” The voice draws me to look at it. The thing though, I don't even know how to describe it. I'm not sure I can even see it. It's more like a ghost, or a shadow of a form than anything that actually exists. Just an impression of its existence in front of me.
“I don't want to,” says the one in control of my body. Without a word of response, the thing extends outward. Unable to see it, I can't even tell what's happening, before it drills through my face.
“AHHHHH!” I shriek from agony beyond anything I've ever experienced. Far more than should be possible in this game.
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At some point, it ends. I don't know if it even registers. It feels like half of my face is missing. I can feel my eye and surrounding matter all gouged out. I can't think through it at all, it's league's beyond me. Yet I rise, and follow after the thing. As if my body should still be functional like this.
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We arrive somewhere else. I think there's grass, but I can't be sure. Everything is hazy. There are others here. They have bodies. Shapes with sharp angles and claws, in a variety of colors. As much as I try, I can't understand them. They're kicked into the middle in pairs and made to fight. They tear and hack at each other. When the fights end, only one leaves, more mangled and twisted than when it went in.
Then I get kicked in. A ball of colored fangs dives into me, shredding my flesh and shrieking into my brain. I don't want this. I kick at it, try to get it off me, but that only enrages it further. There is no thought, only death and pain.
I don't want to do this.
But I won't die.
I grab the thing. It eats my hands, teeth of every angle snapping and crunching through my flesh and bones. Shoving myself further into its maw, I pull with all my might, until the entire thing shreds apart around me. It explodes away, teeth splattering, flesh oozing.
I leave the ring.
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More fights follow. Every one a gruesome ordeal, tearing and shredding away at me as I scream and hack and claw like a beast.
Every time, I win. And I leave, a little more twisted. A little harder.
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Then, I'm the only one left. What little of me is left. A lucent core.
“I told you I'm strong enough,” the one in control seethes up at the thing above me.
But I don't want to be. I don't want to have to be.
That's what makes you weak.
It stomps down on me from above. I crunch beneath it, body breaking away around me. I revolt. Slash and claw, but there's so little left. It stomps again, stripping me down further. More of me falls away with each hit, until there's nothing left to fight back. Only me.
But I am pure.
Everything breaks.
Everything dies.
It keeps hitting me. Drills, knives, crushing explosions. But when it doesn't work, it screams and rages, angrier with each blow. But nothing will work.
I am unbreakable.
I have no way to fight it, but neither can it beat me.
Everything will fall to Oblivion!
With its irate shriek, the sight retreats. The world filters away, and I'm sitting once more on the ground, the corrupted core crystal before me. My hand rests on its surface, darkness rolling out at me, beating on my mind and scattering away in broken shards behind me.
But I'm not to the Oblivion core yet. It... It must have given up attacking because neither of us can defeat each other in that strange vision world. So now it's hiding, deep inside the cloud of darkness. Shielding itself while its minions fight instead. Coward. I rail at it silently.
I push harder, fingernails scratching against the crystal surface. I bear the weight of the corruption as it floods over, draining off the vast sea of darkness inside the core crystal. With righteous fury, I will myself to pull at it faster, dumping it all away into shimmering shards of crystal.
The battle continues behind me, loud clashes and shouts as the army of Oblivion crushes in on us from all sides.
So that's its plan. It knows it can't beat me, so it's trying to overwhelm us before I can destroy it. And with it in command, the Oblivion aren't all charging for me and ignoring my allies, to their own detriment.
However... As I look back, gazing past my own endless torrent of glowing crystal, I don't feel good about our chances. No matter how much darkness I pull out of this thing, it's going to take a while. More time than it looks like we have. Lara has already pulled out her Overdrive form in a bid to hold back the tide, but her timer is quickly ticking down.
Isn't there anything I can do? Some way I can help more? Glaring back at the core, I cast Cleansing Touch. The crystal glows beneath my palm, and the darkness shrieks, evaporating away away even more rapidly. There's an unearthly screech, and the entire town shakes beneath us.
All at once, the Oblivion charge. Their wall of bodies crash into our defenders, trying to overwhelm them with pure, endless numbers. Like the Oblivion core, they aren't strong enough alone, so they're just trying to throw bodies at the problem.
And it has the audacity to call me weak.
Fucking coward.
I keep hitting it with cleansing magic, boiling away the darkness and the evil. Delving deeper and deeper. It begins to lash out, throwing attacks to stun and stagger me. But I contemptuously push through, letting the attempts slide off my mind and blow away behind me with the rest of the rose crystals.
We both know who's going to win at this rate, so it changes tactics again. The surging mob retreats, replaced with new creatures, unlike anything I've seen. They're small, only about knee high, but they scurry through the legs of the larger monsters, leaping in from every angle to latch and bite anywhere they can take hold.
Lara cleaves through them like butter before they can reach her, but some of the others get dragged down under the sudden assault. And then our allies start turning. The things apply corruption?! As soon as Nolen turns on the others, everyone backs off. Lara can't use cleansing magic in her overdrive form, can she? And Hask is still gone.
I could, but the mana cost! Clenching my teeth, I close my hand into a fist, and keep casting on the crystal. The moment she sees that, Lara's body turns into a blur, hands and blade flying so fast I can't see them as she rips through the crowd to cut down all of the corrupting creatures she sees.
That doesn't stop them from turning Mary and Taryn first. The two young Nirvallans back away in terror. Mark keeps firing, flipping, dodging, and weaving in a dance that unbelievably keeps him from getting hit by anything, but once the small monsters are gone, three of the seven Guardians have been turned against us.
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Emma makes it through with the help of her summons and Zykael, but there's only so much she can do, being the lowest level besides me.
Out of everyone, Winter is doing the best, with his seemingly endless mana and powerful ice magic. He just keeps dropping his huge spells, even if their long cast times leave them somewhat infrequent.
The next Oblivion to push through the crowd are large. They look like metal knights, wielding a range of weapons. Lara cuts them down like anything else, but before her Overdrive even times out, her cheap two-handed sword shatters against their hard metal bodies. It just wasn't up to the task.
With it gone, she reverts to her normal form early, weaving between the Guardians to cleanse them, even as she starts taking more wounds. Surrounded on all sides and with most of her strength spent, Lara doesn't have much left to give.
Taryn is the next to fall, impaled by a metal knight that gets too close. With the situation rapidly devolving, all I can do is keep focusing on my task. But one look at the crystal tells me how this is going to end. There's just too much corruption for me to cleanse in the tiny sliver of time I have. This isn't going to work.
I realize something.
I made the wrong choice earlier. We should have backed off as soon as we saw the core. Even moreso when we realized we were up against powerful invasion monsters. We aren't strong enough to win here. We are going to lose.
And then I look at the two Nirvallans, backed up from the surrounding battle to stand right beside me. They're still casting to help contribute, but there's very little they can do here.
Watching them keep up the fight despite everything, my heart sinks. I can already tell that we can't beat the Oblivion Core. We don't have enough time or fighting strength left to hold out. I watch as Nolen finally succumbs to his injuries, and we're down to five Guardians.
I gulp. We could just give up, shrug, and die. Respawn back in Pollton in a few hours and try again, or circumvent the city since we're not strong enough to take this on now. Because it's just a game to us.
But what about these two? For Koru and Azra, this is not a game. No respawns. These two kids are going to die. The end.
I draw my hand back from the crystal. I take up my gear from the ground and turn to my party, “Guys. I messed up, we can't win here,” I admit. “But we have to save Koru and Azra.”
“No offense, but that sounds like wishful thinking,” Winter sighs between spellcasts.
“We have to try,” Mary actually speaks up for once to counter him, but that's all she gets to say before a giant beast lands a staggering blow against her shield and she falls back. Lara barely manages to dive in and deflect the fatal follow up, but she's out of energy for more healing magic, leaving Mary with nothing but potions. I put an arrow in the thing's face right after.
“I can try something with my golems,” Emma pants out, despite being nearly out of mana. “Clear a path somehow.”
“Thanks.” I know it's asking a lot, but I can't just watch two people die. We have to at least try. I keep firing to cover her retreat.
Emma backs off, standing in the rapidly decreasing space between our ragged group of Guardians, and the three of us standing by the crystal. Just as she begins her summoning chant, one of the knights shoulders past Mary, the gap in the frontline too wide without Emma to fill it. Mary drives her sword through it, all the way to the hilt, and I blast a Power Shot in its face, blowing the high level monster away. But not before it plunges spear out in a powerful thrust, straight into Emma's throat.
Our summoner collapses immediately. With a cry, Azra kneels down, trying to heal her, but her magic isn't strong enough, and within moments, Emma dies, her mind flying skyward in a streak of light.
I'm stunned for a few moments. What now? There are seven of us left. Mary is straining under an assault from far too many enemies for her to handle, Lara is dangerously wounded and out of mana, and just as I look to Mark, one of his dodges finally puts him out of position, and he takes a bad wound across his back. He staggers, barely panic-weaving around the next attacks that come while downing a potion.
Again, Winter is the only one in decent condition, standing back and casting an endless stream of magic over the surrounding crowd, even though it's not enough against their numbers.
I watch helplessly, as Mary falls, then Mark. Just like them, all I can do is keep casting and shooting into the crowd, my mana and stamina rapidly running low. Lara is hanging on by a thread, her high level and larger health pool the only thing keeping her going at this point.
“It was a good run,” Winter comments, offering a small smile. “See you back in town. I'm sorry about the Nirvallans though.”
“I'm sorry, Mei,” Lara apologizes, her tattered shortsword hanging limp at her side as she backs toward us, and the Oblivion close in.
I swallow hard. I'm out of mana, and barely have enough energy to stay upright. With my bow still in one hand and an arrow in the other, I finally stop firing and wrap my arms around the two Nirvallan kids instead. “I'm really sorry, Azra. Koru. I'm sorry we couldn't get you through this.”
The kids have no words, they just stand there, shaking, with tears running down their faces.
Damn it... I glare back at the Oblivion Core hiding in the town's crystal.
Thinking back on what it said, what it did to me, I clench my fists. With indignant rage, I turn back, drawing my bow one more time. I will not let this thing beat me. Not without ripping and clawing and tearing at it to the very last moment. I refuse to believe there is no way to save Koru and Azra. Not until I watch the life leave their eyes.
I draw up the very last of my energy and aim straight for the oblivion core, deep inside the crystal. “Assassinate!” I scream, and blast it from point blank. The arrow crashes into the crystal surface with a shrieking explosion, and everything stops.
There's an unbelievable instant, confusion passing as the world simply halts. With Koru and Azra still pressed to my sides and my body frozen in the motion of firing, an overwhelming urge sweeps over me.
What is going to happen? That's what it's asking me.
I'm going to save Koru and Azra.
A chorus bursts out, like a million bells and gongs, and people speaking all at once, and the whole dark plaza lights up in a blooming, prismatic glow.
Suddenly, I know exactly what's happening. It's Faith.
This is what Faith does.
With a final narrowing beam of light, I feel myself whisked away.
When I blink my eyes open once more, I'm in a dark forest. I still have my bow held aloft, one hand back from shooting, with the kids close at my sides. Then the stamina cost from that last shot hits me, and I nearly crumple.
While I'm panting and gasping, mind reeling, I feel Lara and Winter die.
It takes a minute, the kids holding me upright until I can recover. When my breathing slows, I bring my hands up and settle against their backs. I'd take their shoulders, but they're taller than me.
I... kind of can't believe that all of that just happened. For Faith to kick in right there, allowing me to save the lives I wanted to save no matter the situation... No wonder why the Skill costs so much.
Worth every single point.
“Come on,” I finally speak. “It's not safe here. It's late, we need to keep moving.” The words just come out, I barely feel like I'm the one speaking them. I haven't had the time to feel any of this. I'm probably in shock. Still running on pure adrenaline. The kids go along with it.
They're definitely in shock.
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We start walking.
It takes a couple minutes moving through the underbrush to come to terms with my own instinctive decision on our heading. I can feel that we're southeast of Mebin now, and I'm taking us eastward. With our party gone, we're making for the border. They'll all be respawning back in Pollton, at least three hours from now, and then it's at least a day's travel from there to Mebin.
Even if Lara can track me from her friend list to meet up again, we have a day or two minimum, that we'd have to hide out before anyone could reach us. I think I can faintly feel somewhere inhabited coming up far to the southeast. Based on Hask's map, it should be a town called Thrun, I think.
All alone, it's a hell of a long shot, but we're stuck out in the dangerous wilderness with minimal supplies, surrounded by horror monsters, so I'm thinking it's our best chance.
I do note that Hask is still alive at least. When he got split up from everyone else, maybe he decided to help protect the townspeople. Get them out of town or something. He's too far away to feel any indication of where he is right now, but I'm glad to know that he's still around.
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“I'm sorry about everything,” I eventually apologize after we've been walking for a little while. We haven't let go of each other the entire time, and something tells me it's better like this. They must still be terrified, and the night is getting really dark around us.
“It's fine,” Koru replies weakly. “You saved our lives.”
“Thanks, Mei.”
I shake my head guiltily, tears welling up as the regret finally begins to hit me. “I was the one who put you in danger. I shouldn't have told everyone to go forward, I should've had us back off. There were too many monsters, and they were way too strong. I didn't realize we couldn't win, and I almost got you both killed. I wasn't taking it as seriously as I should have. I'm really, really sorry for that.”
We're quiet for a while afterward. I know I have nowhere near the experience I need to make a good call back there, but I still feel awful. My decision nearly cost two people their lives. Why was I the one calling the shots anyway? I'm literally the least experienced from our whole group... God, what was I thinking?
At the same time, it wouldn't have been an issue if I could beat that core.
But I couldn't, I just wasn't strong enough. Even if I can hardly understand what happened in most of that vision, or mental battle, or whatever it was, I clearly was nowhere near strong enough. It doesn't matter if the Oblivion can't break me if I can't fight back.
The first core warned me I wouldn't be enough as I am, and it was right... I can't help but agonize over that as we march on.