The machinery unfolded like a mechanized clockwork, spiraling upwards and outwards until a surreal clockwork angel stood before me, a towering figure of cogs and clockwork gears whirring and purring, its bronze-gold wings unfurling to blot out the sky. It held up a hand, and the sky overhead turned into a reflection of a starry night, and streaks of light headed downwards as I looked up into the blackness overhead.

“Oh come on!” I protested feebly. “Meteor swarm right away?!”

“I will not test you at full power right away. Perhaps a lower power challenge will convince you.” Sky responded, its voice thundering and ticking with metallic echoes.

I clutched my staff, and hurriedly spat out the words to {Barrier}, the honeycomb shell of light appearing around me just as the rain of light fell around me. I could feel each hit, the thundering explosions of Sky’s power almost deafening me, the flare of white light as the projectiles hit my {Barrier} filling the whole world.

I felt a stab of pleasure, the mana drain was high, I could feel the Barrier sucking at it, but it held. My {Barrier} held against the nonsense infinity attack of a boss!

Something tickled at my mind, a thought that was important, but I couldn’t take the time to chase after it, not now.

Sky spread it’s wings once more, and then swept them forward, a hurling buffet of power. I hunched forward, feeling the blades of wind stinging at my face, my hair streaming behind me in the gale, and shuddered.

How can this feel so real?! Where am I?! A trickle of blood tickled my cheek as it slowly ran down my face. I touched it, looking at the red stain in horror. It feels real because it is real! I looked up at Sky in horror.

“Stop! What are you doing! I’m supposed to be the Avatar, aren’t I?!”

“If you are the Avatar, you are a poor one indeed, unable to muster up control or sense the currents of power.” For an impassive clockwork face, it had an impressive sneer.

“You refuse to fight the battle that is in front of you, and you refuse to punish those enemies who are guilty. This is a war, and you must fight!” It declared with ticking metallic logic.

“I don’t want to fight!” I shouted back.

“That is irrelevant, when others fight you.” Sky declared.

I pressed my lips together and squeezed my hands around my staff so hard my knuckles went white.

So now we’re having a philosophical discussion in the middle of a combat. How intensely jrpg. I thought with frustration.

“Fine! Fine!” I shouted, and began the chant of {Holy White}. “I’ll show you my true power, and finish this in one shot! Then we can go back to reality!”

{Holy White} is bound to be insane in this imaginarium mind space we’re in, right? I thought to myself as I finished the chant.

The pillar of light was twice as intense as I expected, my hair and clothes were blown tight against me with the pillar of intense light that should have burned my eyes clear out of my head, and I swore I could feel the pure energy of the cosmos burning through me. The form of Sky vanished in the single white coloumn of light that pierced the sky to the ground. I could feel the roar of the winds of possibility and energy flowing outwards, and it seemed to last twice as long as I’d ever experienced before. I felt an exhilaration, an almost savage joy, at the release of energy and the surety of my victory.

And then the light faded, and Sky stood before me once more, fully intact, it’s gears and intricate machinery flickering and whirling, slowly reassembling itself while I watched, until it appeared that nothing had occurred at all.

“Impressive.” Sky said. “Most impressive indeed. You have mastered the white arts, refined the perception of healing and warding into a single coherence event.” It seemed… almost disappointed. “And yet you are still too weak to summon up true strength.” It said.

It gestured with an arm and wing, hurling cogs of glittering bronze death at me, stars that shattered through my {Barrier} and dug spikes of pain into my sides and arms. I gasped in agony, desperately chanting a {Heal} to close my wounds.

How?! How could it do that?! I felt a stab of fear and then confusion. Am I… not supposed to win? But how?! My mind gibbered at me. Impossible, that was a {Holy White}, the spell that can sink an airship!

Yet Sky stood before me, unharmed, a monstrous angel of clockwork and ticking order, unaffected.

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“Disappointing.” Sky took a step towards me, and I scrambled backwards on my hands and knees to get away from its thunderous footsteps. “Is this all you are? All you possess?”

I could feel the bubble of panic swelling in my chest, but another emotion was rising as well, crushing the bubble down.

Fury.

It dared? It dared to use the words that Deacon so casually hurled at me, so hateful and barbed?! I was not a useless pink arm accessory, the plot coupon the hero had to cart uselessly behind him!

My heart hurt briefly as I thought of Eshaan, and dearly wished he was here.

There was a brilliant slice of light, a silvery white flash from left to right, as when Eshaan used one of his sword techniques. Sky staggered backwards, cogs and gears dripping from a wound in its leg.

I gaped at it in shock, my heart in my throat looking around wildly, hoping against hope that Eshaan had come for me again.

What just happened?! Was that Eshaan?! But where? How?!

“Good. Very good” Sky spoke, it’s tone unchanged, as though a wound torn through its fabric meant nothing to it.

Flickering motes of color, cracks in the endless grey blackness around us teased at my eyes, and for a moment I could swear that I saw Eshaan, standing there, his sword drawn, calling to me.

Sky moved forward, the wound in its leg already knitting itself together again.

“Show me more of this, and you may yet prove yourself.” It waited, poised.

I waited as well, holding my breath, wondering if Eshaan would come.

But nothing happened.

“Disappointing.” Sky said, a very faint tone of emotion coloring its voice. “I had hopes of a true Avatar.” It advanced on me, it’s wings hurling storms of cogs at me, shards of light and bronze-gold that cut my flesh, pierced my {Barrier} like knives through paper.

“Where is the strength you boasted of? Show me the might of the avatar!” Sky demanded, it’s voice ticking and roaring in the endless emptiness.

What happened?! Why did Eshaan… but he hasn’t come… but how could he come?! How could he even know where we are?!

The niggling thought that had been pricking at the back of my mind suddenly blossomed into full color.

Where we are… this is a mind scape. This is an imaginary battlefield of emotion! That’s why those explosions that destroy the landscape do nothing. Eshaan… I imagined Eshaan rescuing me, and his sword attack appeared.

“How disappointing. I suppose it is time to show you how this ends then.” Sky raised its arms and its wings upwards once more, and brilliant streaks of light started to fall, larger and larger, enormous planets and celestial bodies raining towards me in impossible clarity and size.

I hurled a {Barrier} upwards, feeling it’s pitiful smallness, the explosions of planets and stars colliding and exploding tossed me like a rag doll, and I spat blood onto the nothingness of the ground we battled on.

No, I can’t… {Barrier} can’t solve this. I need… I need Eshaan. I need my friends!

Once more, a flash of light, joined by the cheerful chaos of Lakshmi’s weapon and the boom of Diaboli cutting a brilliant streak of gold and red through Sky’s torso.

I felt another surge of hope, and then stepped on it hard. That was what had tricked me last time! I was’t… here. I was somewhere else. These… were my memories. I gritted my teeth and swore quietly.

Of course. I need to call on my memories of my friends. My bonds of friendship. Princess Celestia must be so disappointed with me for not figuring this out sooner.

I closed my eyes, and let my {Barrier} vanish. Thought of my friends. Clasped my hands in front of me, and let my staff vanish. Thought of my own strength, and how my friends protected me. How I protected them.

Ghostly shadows flickered into existence around us, faint afterimages of my friends, ghostly colors but partly real. They dashed in, and I smiled as I saw them wound Sky.

Sky faltered, staggered for a moment, and then lashed out. Blades and spikes of bronze-gold shot outwards like a deadly flower. The ghost images of my friends flickered like a special effects hologram, and then vanished. I tightened my hands together and focused. Lakshmi’s laughter as she tinkered. Camaxtli’s faintly quizzical and oddly endearing expression. Soriya’s loud flamboyant laughter. Daniyel’s quiet strength, and the soft smile when he thought no one was watching him.

“My friends.” I said softly.

More, my town. My mother. The people in my town.

Images flickered into existence around Sky, more and more of them. Lashing out again and again, the images vanished to be replaced instantly by my memories.

“I understand.” I said, my eyes glowing softly. “I understand now! This was never a battle about physical strength!” I said.

Sky said nothing, as my memories of my friends and family tore it apart in our mindscape.

“This was about determination. This was about the strength of my friends for me.”

“An Avatar’s bonds must be beyond reproach. Bonds for your friends will do as a suitable value judgement for the strength of the bonds you create with your Arcanum. The System requires it of you.” Sky spoke as though it was not falling to pieces. And I suddenly understood, it wasn’t. It was, after all, entirely in my head.

Suddenly, I was back. Dangling upside down, my hand outstretched to the space where the physical machinery of the Arcanum ticked and whirred, and then suddenly came to a stop.

The soft glow of active Ancient’s machinery vanished at the same time as the false double Avatar of me. Eshaan reeled me back through the trap door in the ceiling, as the guards went into a full panic mode, searching for the vanished Avatar, suddenly turned to a high pitch as they realized that the Arcanum they had guarded for so long was now an inert hunk of bronze-gold metal.

In my head, Sky spoke softly. “You have earned the right of reprieve for now. The others trust you. Why, I cannot say, as they do not understand the War. But you travel with a third faction, and Oak is gravely injured… your quest, at least, aligns with my own. I begin to understand there is more to this War than simply my own perspective. The mission is all. The System must be restored to functionality.”

“Wait, wait, what?!” I yelped. “The system is malfunctioning?!”

“Of course. Critical components are damaged. Critical components are missing. How could it be fully operational?” Sky said.

In my mind, I could feel the wordless agreement of the other Arcanum.

“Was nobody going to tell me that I needed to repair the System?!” I demanded in my head.