---

Esben watched as Éliane paid him a small glance and looked back to the now-jammed swinging blades that she'd been staring at a moment before, lifting her rifle to them. He sighed. Worse yet, he couldn't entirely blame her; as uncomfortable as it was, he was at least used to the fatigue. He might be ready to collapse the second they were done, but that was a future problem.

"One moment," he bid the others, walking over to where his countrywoman stood, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Elly, this way," he quietly corrected, with a slight tug to get her moving the right direction before reaching down and turning the rifle in her hands so that she'd lead with the end that would actually fit the "keyhole." With the other, he reached into a pocket of his cloak, pulling out a small bag. He'd brought along more than a few snacks from home, things that essentially wouldn't spoil. Some of them he'd made a point not to take into the actual desert beyond Kugane, but they'd been with him since, and he'd had them packed well enough that even a couple dips in the ocean hadn't managed to harm them.

He'd been hoping to keep them to himself, or at the least, not to run the risk that Éliane might start to think she'd have free access. But, as always, the mission came first...

"Eat a few of these. They'll wake you back up a bit." Chocolate-covered coffee beans. He also had a tin of caffeine-enriched chocolate, but he wasn't willing to give that up yet.

"If only we had soy sauce..."

I let out a sigh.

Traps.

It's not so surprising, in some respects, but how exactly was anyone supposed to descend when it's so well-defended?

At least, well-defended in the eyes of most observers. I'm not an engineer, but I can comprehend how the mechanism of the swinging blades must work. Presumably, there is some form of gears that turn, and thus cause the blades to swing across the path at an irregular pace. The slots in the ceiling must also be wide enough to allow them to swing unimpeded.

And thus, the path to disabling the trap becomes obvious.

I clean the blood from my sword and smoothly sheath it, as I approach the first of the blades. They swing endlessly, back and forth, vanishing into a slot in the wall before re-emerging. The pace is too fast for most intruders to adequately evade. The gaps between them, too narrow.

Indeed, most would be cut apart and become little more then gore and stains on the stone floor.

---I am not such a person, but as long as my aim is true then that won't matter very much.

I am no engineer, but sabotaging mechanical things is hardly out of the range of my skills. And this is a very simple mechanism in the end, each blade is linked to all the others in order to keep the timing consistent and virtually inescapable.

First, a test.

I can see the slot through which the lengthy neck the first blade is attached to emerges from.

The mechanism must be there.

So, I draw one of my kunai, and carefully take aim---

It leaves my hand and hurtles upwards, vanishing through the gap.

A dull, metallic thunk.

The blade stops. So do the others, a sound of metal straining filling my ears for a few moments---

And then with an unpleasant grinding noise, they swing again.

My hypothesis on their functions was correct. While the kunai jamming the gears wasn't enough to stop them, it has demonstrated the rough expected strength of the metal used to fashion them as well as their location.

So I know that this should work.

The kunai on its own isn't enough, so I'll add a little something extra.

This time, a surge of heat flows into the edge of the kunai.

Then more.

Then more.

Even more.

I pour magical energy into the kunai, along its edges, more and more and more, searing heat radiating from the blade and starting to distort the air around it.

Then---

I take aim, drawing my hand back---

And throw.

It becomes a bolt of light as it rockets from my hand, burning the air as it hurtles upwards and disappears into the darkness.

The sudden injection of heat to the cold gears---

The sound that fills the air is quite different from the dull metal thunk from before, a screech filling the hall.

The first blade swings down and comes to a halt.

Then the next.

And the next.

And the next---

"We do possess some in the wagon's stores." Izayoi responded to Chisato as both she and Galahad set about disarming the blade traps after Rudolf and Miina had handled the floor, and Esben worked at the sliding block puzzle. After some more time passed, the Kirins were through and past the traps, moving on down further into the caverns.

They followed the rushing waters down to a massive stone structure built above where the rivers converged, the Crystal of Water simply floating in the midst of the temple complex. It...looked as though it had seen better days. Where Cid had described the crystal to be shining azure, the massive floating repository of aether they were presented with was barely a dull, light blue, with violet seeming to creep in at the edges. A sure sign of corruption if there was any.

Before the Kirins could even approach it to hold their crystals aloft, rumbling came from below. A blur of turquoise emerged out from the waters, landing with a crash atop the temple steps, holding the high ground. It was...

A massive, statue-like golem filigreed with gold, swinging about a tremendous jug of water on a chain as if it were some sort of demented, thematic flail.

"HALT." The apparent guardian rumbled, an aura of sickly dark purple surrounding its form. "I AM THE TOTEMA, FAMFRIT. AS I STAND, NO EVIL SHALL BREACH THE TEMPLE. TURN BACK, INTRUDERS. OR SUFFER MINE IRE. WHAT SAY YOU?"

"Tis as Cid feared." Izayoi hunched down, one hand falling to her sheathed sword as she prepared to draw. "The guardian is corrupted. We need not waste words bantering with it. To arms! The quicker this golem falls, the more time we've to prepare for the invasion aboveground!"



"YOU WILL NOT RETREAT? THEN COME! FACE THE RAGING WATERS OF THE DARKENING CLOUD!"

Miina stared dumbfounded at the golem for a second before falling back on what had worked so well for the mines: "Libra."

…

Well, that could have been more informative. Well, she supposed it was useful to know that it wasn't really a giant metal contraption (probably), but just some eidolon or other… but "oh yeah, it's water" was pretty obvious. It had even announced it! And its own corruption.

"It's m-m-mostly water aether… n-not quite Leviathan," she rattled off, head tilting. Did that mean anything to most of them? Uh… well, it should dissuade anyone from attempting to burn it, which was probably only the small rabbit, and maybe something Éliane had on hand, "It's c-c-corrupted… oh, and it's c-casting."

For her part… well, lightning had worked well against Leviathan, but she didn't want to do that sort of strategy again against something with even fewer obvious places to stab. It had hurt quite enough the first time, and this time they knew there would be extra fighting. But, if they were going to be magically assaulted by a water-aligned enemy…

There was the familiar white magic feeling of a barrier settling on the various party members. _{"…Nulfrost."}

It had better not pull out a fireball or something, corruption or no. That would be rude.

---

A few more quiet words passed between Esben and Éliane, before the moment was over and they got the puzzle-locked door to open. While his expression was as guarded as ever, everything but his weapons carefully stowed back within his cloak, he was glad that he'd had his back to the others and that none of them had a clear view to whatever went on between the Skaeller pair. With that, there was nothing further to impede their progress—and he was glad that there wasn't some new assailant immediately behind the puzzle.

Miina's Nulfrost was joined by the pair of fairies that flitted around the group, bestowing their own small aid without any orders necessary. Heightened speed and reactions from Selene, and from Eos, despite none of the Kirins being wounded and needing healing—just enough of a boost to restore strength to aching limbs, clarity to tired minds. Esben almost had to smile at that; while she clearly wasn't the brightest of their fairies, she at least understood the group and her own magic well enough to prepare them for battle in her own way.

Sometimes it was just as important to be able to take a hit in the first place as to have the care available after it landed, and even if they didn't know all the details or the importance of the Kirins' quest, both of the fey creatures would strive to make sure they could complete it.

Now, how to deal with the spirit in front of them. That it was water aspected akin to Leviathan was expected; if it was akin in other ways, it was bound to be a long battle. She hadn't been difficult to harm, but despite however much damage they'd done it didn't seem to slow her down. If Famfrit could take anything approaching a similar level of punishment, then even if they could get back up from anything it could dish out they'd be at it for some time.

Somehow, he doubted it would be quite as easy to deal with as Adrammelech.

"Spread out! Éliane, Chisato, break its concentration!" he commanded just after Miina, Selene, and Eos's spells settled over the group, feet already carrying him away from where they were all clumped together. "Galahad, Izayoi, try and knock it off its feet!"

Naturally, he was the first to advance, testing his work before any of his peanut gallery risked the sahuagin's fate.

"Well yeah," The youth flippantly snorted, offering a shrug's affectation to the dry, falsified anecdote from their lofty-minded spearman as the lot of them crept past their first obstacle. "As I said, ancient ruins, crypts, and grottoes. Good on the Caradocs for starting small— your mausoleum's still rather contemporary. Wouldn't want to dive off the deep end before you're ready."

He didn't turn back to press the issue after that, instead falling silent and stepping aside once they hit the minefield, giving Miina her room to work. He supposed it was a rare war hero that high in the social strata that had time, let alone means or cause, to get their knees dirty in the stripes of dungeons he'd been referencing to begin with— they had more important things to worry about.

And no less did the Kirins. Soon enough, the traps had been solved, shut down, or sorted out, and their motley crew was on the move once again. Only fitting that the repartee fell away, once Eliane had been chaperoned over the finish line¹ and they'd descended towards the chamber proper— he found his hands drifting to his knife, as the long and dark shadows that surrounded the torchlight guiding them drew themselves an uncomfortable, familiar path about the riverbanks. Darkness, ever malleable, ever dancing, seemed to almost mix with the rushing water. He knew this feeling. What lied ahead was... nothing good. For what felt like the hundredth time since nightfall, Rudolf found himself quietly thankful for being an old hand at skulking off to train in the dead of night. With the unease coaxing out his instincts, he felt no duller for the late hour.

A pale, dull blue glow greeted them, as the rapids coalesced into a pool ringing an ancient grotto of worn stone, the crystal suspended above tinged at the edges not with radiant azure, but rather... an almost sickly violet, like a day-old bone bruise. Rudolf still held no true command of magic, not the way Miina, Eve, or Neve had, but now that he was confronted with the corrupted orb up close and in person... the twisted aether that swirled about it struck him as the taste of blood and bile, at the back of his throat.²

Like he could feel the wrongness. He'd never known that to be on his table.

Is that what they sense off of me, with you here? He ventured, as the presence on his soul shifted contemplatively. Thinking back to every time it had been sniffed out, starting with Eve, it had always seemed like it had registered to the aether-attuned as a pervasive aura of disquiet.

...No. came the reply a moment later, as they began to cautiously approach. He could feel the flame begin coiling outward from where it sat, dripping through unseen pathways, towards his arms. It was not at his command. Had he not already heard the war drums begin to beat in his chest, he would have taken umbrage. This is different in nature to what our deal grants you. Death and corruption taint this crystal's light, they poison and warp the arrangement of its aether. I deal in the decomposition of such structure wholesale. Grinding, dissolution, putrefaction, and calcination, it's why your brother is likely to have bruised near as much as he burned. That is profane because it begets chaos in a world deemed Ordered by Light. Night, shadow, the void, the basest state of all— it is unknowable potential. Everything lurks within nothing, impossible to pin down. Impossible to—³ Esoterics later. Company now.

Even as the blur burst from below the waves, Rudolf drew his paired swords and stepped to the front of the line, feeling the hairs on his neck rise as the spirit, Famfrit, introduced itself— it too was tinted by that deathly violet, corrupted as the crystal it guarded. Miina's Libra came a moment later, the information it gleaned confirming that intuition even as the familiar feeling of her Nulfrost⁴ settling atop his frame, flanked moments later by Selene's haste and Eos's awakening.

So Hydroponic Adrammelech then, but corrupted and at what they could only assume had to be full-bore, rather than merely testing their valor. Great way to warm up for an imminent siege. A twelve meter statue, at the base of the city they were due to protect, turning all the animus that had been breathed into it onto protecting the crystal from them.

A grimace painted itself across Rudolf's face, as he assumed a fighting posture. Already at the fore, he listened carefully as Esben about-faced, peeling off and barking orders the moment he'd heard their foe was already beginning to channel the ambient aether of the massive grotto into some spell— all of them ideas he could get behind. He swung the Wings in a wide arc, aligning them with the two burnished dots that appeared as eyes on the golem, but stayed put otherwise— if the rest of them fanned out, as they all very well should've, the Kirins would still need a man up front.

The black blaze, when it billowed forth from the slash, seemed to drink in the gloom. It swelled and spread, losing concentration as it melted outward⁵, but even a curtain that barely reached, barely caught...

"That's wool over its eyes. I have you a window!" he called to the diminutive ninja, wherever in the chamber those opening seconds had seen her leap. With what had already come and what was still on the way, the two youngsters both knew damn well to shelve their mutual disdains— for now. Mostly. Most likely.

He needed to ready his materia next. The moment Izayoi and Galahad found their mark and toppled the giant, he would need it to ensure it couldn't get back up.

---

---

• _{1. Final Score is a Six out of Ten. Three or four of them coming in at the very, very end.}
• _{2. It hasn't quite come up yet, but this is part of "hearing a lot more from me". Before all this, I spoke in whispers and inklings of impressions, the dark and scared parts of the mind. It shouldn't be shocking.}
• _{3. Making a long story short here. A long story very, very short, as this all relates to fundamental truths of the two predominant schools of magic— wouldn't you know it, the one that emphasizes maintenance of structure and rigid ordering is given a "pass" where the one that focuses on reduction from composition to components to fundamental, closer to the prima materia, is reviled, shunned, and feared.}
• _{4. Barblizzard, we've been over this. For that matter, why the hell are we doing Barblizzard? Do they not teach Barwater any more? Is that one lost to time? What happened here?}
• _{5. Everything melts into the darkness. See?}

---

With the traps and trials thus far proving to be rather doable for their party, Galahad had relatively high hopes that they could find the Crystal without much difficulty. Chisato working with him to disarm the blades, and Esben taking the lead on the last puzzle made things go by rather smoothly- much smoother than things had been going for them for the past week or so. Not long after, they'd found the Crystal of Water, in a sorry state, but still intact. All they had to do was grab it and be on their way. Perhaps their luck was finally turning- they'd had nothing but bad luck thus far, it was about time something finally went their way.

If only he could kick his past self.

Galahad came to that realization as they stood before the Guardian- Famfrit, it called itself- that they were perhaps destined suffer at the hands of fate. Resigning himself to said fate, Galahad rolled his shoulders and sighed, spinning his halberd in a simple flourish as they stood off in the face of the Totema. There was some small relief, in the form of Miina's nulfrost, and Esben's summoned companions.

With their short preparations complete, the Kirins spread out to minimize the effect any large area attacks these monsters seemed to love. Calls were made and Galahad was quick to respond- as sound a battle plan as any he could think of. Toppling it seemed doable enough- given its massive size and comparatively small legs.

"Go for its legs, I'll hit it from the top." Galahad said to Izayoi as he sprinted forth, his pace broke into one bounding step, then a second, and threw his halberd like it weighed little more than a javelin, sending it careening towards the face of the Guardian before he planted his feet and shot off the ground, a plume of water exploding behind him. He turned mid air as he burst through the air, ready to plant his feet and kick off the face of the totema a second after his halberd made contact.

---

Éliane winced, making a chagrined face when she realized her mistake at Esben’s direction. She really was running on the last bit of fumes, wasn’t she? After correcting her mistake, she raised her eyebrows he pulled out a few chocolate-covered coffee beans. It wasn’t her favorite snack, but it was pretty high up in her rankings. “I didn’t know you still had some of these,” she replied, bobbing her head lethargically in thanks before immediately popping the bittersweet treats in her mouth. The caffeine was hardly going to be immediate, but hopefully she was going to have the energy a bit later when it mattered. “Thanks.”

At the rate they were going in this awful country, and with their luck, the guardian was going to be fully corrupted.

Yes, Éliane still was a bit excited for an interesting battle like that, but her energy was still low, you know?

It didn’t take long for them to reach the crystal in question. The moment she and the others put eyes to it, though, it was clear that corruption was involved.

The pink-haired Skaelan had a little more energy in her now at least.

She didn’t need to be told what to do; she already had her rifle out, keeping it in a low ready position. Without further prompting, the weapon immediately came up as she moved to a more advantageous position right behind some ancient stone rubble.

Instead of firing off rapid shots, she tested it for weak spots—with several paced bangs, she fired at its limbs, chest, and head, seeing where it would react the most while simultaneously trying to distract it.

"Acknowledged!" Izayoi cried out in response to Esben's order, charging forward the moment Rudolf's smokescreen and Galahad's throw gave her an opening. She surged forward, taking advantage of Famfrit's distraction and it swinging its jug-flail around to meet Galahad's jump to unleash a battojutsu cleave against its legs, Chisato's kunai and flash bombs crashing into its upper half as she did so.

The guardian wasn't as much of a golem as she'd feared, and her strike found some measure of purchase, forcing Famfrit to stagger back as Eliane's shots pelted it. The bullets deflected off the chest and found only slight purchase in the limbs, but the sole shot to the head that landed caused the corrupted guardian to stagger again, roaring.

"THOSE WHO WOULD PREVENT ME FROM PERFORMING MINE SACRED DUTY WILL. BE. EXPULSED! GRAVIGA!" It abandoned its original, massive spell, though the accumulated aether was seized up and instantly reformulated into a lesser one, orbs of raw gravity materializing around each member of the party to attempt to crush them within.

For her part, Izayoi snarled and whirled around in a spin, her strike shattering the Gravity orb that had been forming around her. Any counterattack she would have made was stymied as her eyes widened and she dove to the side to avoid the sphere of water firing out of Famfrit's jug like a cannon, the ewer now held up on its shoulder as it fired sphere after sphere of water at several Kirins to follow up on the Graviga.

"Dispel," the cat hissed, ears flat and glaring at the golem for a second. Eugh, how did someone like Isolde do it to an entire group? That would be so handy but… no, of course it could repurpose into something completely unrelated to water. Why expect the stupid guardian thingy composed almost entirely of water aether to stick to it?

At least this was fast enough to let her start dodging the spheres of water and not getting pummelled by them.

Well, Rudolf had had the right idea, and making it easier for everyone who wanted to stab Famfrit to not get shot was probably better than directly attacking herself, so… how about if she turned around one of her usual pieces of assistance? And gave this guardian a taste of its own medicine at the same time?

"Slow," Miina said. There… well, for however long this held, if it even worked at all. If it worked, this dodging would probably be easier. Hopefully.

The split-second imposition and reversal of light and dark upon Famfrit's field of view proved to be, for all he and Chisato had basically drawn it up on the fly, about as effective an opening salvo as they could have realistically hoped for given how these fights always seemed to go— Izayoi and Galahad's synchronized strikes to the golem's base and head connecting uninterrupted and undefended in those split seconds of total visual scramble. The water spirit stumbled and teetered away, only barely catching itself and forced to abandon the aether it had been swirling into a massive spell. They had the momentum. All it needed was just a little more help, and it'd topple completely...

Below, Rudolf reached for the pouch at his hip, intent on leveraging the materia within so that their foe would not only fall— but never rise again, either. Keeping it pinned for the crucial seconds they needed to deliver a coup de grace, bypassing what could otherwise be an energy-sucking, time-wasting affair with Valheim on the way—



A wrenching feeling in his gut, markedly different from fear, closer to vertigo than anything else. His footing slipped inward rather than out, like you would expect from the slick surface of the grotto's stone floor, as if pulled by an unseen force. By now, with all the times he himself had leveraged his materia, familiar enough. Only... even when he put it into his attacks, he had never quite done so this directly.

It was less like his weight had tripled to pull him down, and more like the world had gripped him in an immense fist. Even as the spheres were beginning to visibly be drawn upon the space around the Kirins, Rudolf could already feel the squeeze. Ice ran through his veins, the spheres of raw gravity crumpling inward, inexorably, around them all, the arcane energy pressing them down from every angle, to close toward a single point— he felt like he was trapped in a pestle and mortar.

He grit his teeth, attempting to channel his blackened aether through the purple orb in his palm once he realized what was happening. Burning this resource here stung, but it beat trying to free himself the hard way. If he could just negate the point of attraction—

Maybe it was the fact that weight moved differently than he was used to, within the sphere of the Graviga.

Maybe it was the climate. Hot, humid, and in the midst of a tense battle— creating slick palms that he couldn't count on for manipulating a marble-smooth surface that resulted when you compressed and refined aether into structure.

Maybe it was simply the price of admission, for all that he'd burned to make it this far.¹

In the moment, it was impossible to say, impossible to know. There was only the concrete reality of the result— that Rudolf's heart all but stopped, as in the act of pulling free his gravity materia... he felt it slip through his fingers, and rocket along the swirling eddies of that selfsame gravity magic and dash itself along the stone, with a deafeningly quiet clatter. His words slipped out of his mouth unbidden, warped and strangely reverbed by the twisting of space around his body.

"You're shitting me."

Another ten kilos to the vicegrip upon him eked out a grunt², and his mind raced for a second solution. Ahead of him, Izayoi and Miina had already freed themselves; the latter by way of her training in White Magic, dispelling the effects of Famfrit's attack, and the former...

We can cut through it? he asked, tightening his grip on the blade in his right arm without waiting for confirmation. He had to try no matter the answer.

We can. came the reply, as a line of burning ink ran through the veins of his arm and into the steel of the sword, the voice already moving mana after feeling the spike of intent. That second you burned away fumbling with the Gravity Materia gave the magic enough time to coalesce into a sterner structure than you could break without me. No choice but to put this one on your tab.

The blaze burned to life, and the young swordsman wrenched its unreadable weight into the inner boundaries of his would-be prison. There was a moment of war in that contact, as the umbral flames clashed with the shifting of space, but in the end... the scourging dissolution burned its way through the bounds of the current, and the steel wedged through the gap as he forced it along. A gash, bordered by licking tongues of blackflame, was torn through the side, wide enough that he could just about force his body across.

He leapt through, a grimace on his face, and dashed to the side as a massive orb of water flew by, one that would have pulverized him if not for being Slowed just in the nick of time. Good old Miina, always there to crack open the tight spots they'd found themselves in, one way or another. Were they not so pressed by all this, he'd have found it remarkable how often the many magics she'd picked up made that crucial second's difference.

Invaluable versatility. Something to remember. Remembering could be done later, though— execution ruled the Now.

He thrust his palm into the materia pouch again, and raced forth, cutting through the gap between him and the statuesque cannoneer, even as he weaved past the net of projectiles from that massive gourd it carried. He would find the lost orb of purple before they were out of here, come hell or high water³, but those seconds it'd take were precious enough as it was.

When he had a way he could cut the attacks off at the source, scrambling for it was downright untenable. Grip full-palmed and white-knuckled this time, he channeled his aether again, into his most ill-conceived idea for disguising the abilities he had been so haphazardly flinging around at this point, cooking down his own connection to the god, to the world. Perhaps it was the dim light from when he'd last seen the orb of polished emerald, but... in the instant he held it aloft, he could swear it was more lustrous when he'd thrown it Arton's way.

Maybe... No, don't worry about it.⁴

He skidded to a stop, a mere ten feet from the hulking guardian, and projected his will along his gaze, into the mouth of that immense ewer. A new light cast itself upon the bronze that lined Famfrit and its weapon; the next shot it fired, if it didn't catch what he had done in time, would be surely plugged right at the mouth, as the impenetrable white-gold barrier of Shield placed a lid on the jug.

---

---

• _{1. You'll notice, dear reader, that there's nothing mutually exclusive about any of these. Fate abandons you all sorts of ways when the chips are down.}
• _{2. Don't be a baby, most of that's just explosion soreness.}
• _{3. Heh.}
• _{4. There are a few ideas that buzzed across my face in that pensive 'maybe', but I'll address one of them clearly. Rudolf's memory isn't failing him. Neither regarding the hue nor how materia tends to not concern itself with any Blight Infections the person who's been recently carrying it suffers from.}

---

"Shit." was all Galahad managed before he was swatted out of the air by a jug the size of a particularly large chocobo. He flew through the air before skipping across the surface of the water like an oversized, oddly aerodynamic rock. He ended up somewhere in the shallows, but hardly had the time to recollect himself as spheres of gravity formed overhead, sinking down to crush him underneath. Galahad threw his hand out, desperately willing his halberd back to his hand, the paired materia crackling bright blue. The heavy halberd whipped through the air, shattering the gravity orb as it flew into Galahad's hand with enough force to pull him off the ground and back to his feet.

Galahad stumbled for a moment, collecting himself as he watched from a distance, Famfrit launching orbs of crushing water at his fellow Kirins. Only for a moment, however, before he was sprinting back towards the action. He made short hops to the left and right to pre-emptively dodge any sphere the guardian might have shot his way, looking for, waiting for some sort of opening.

He didn't have to wait long, as Miina hit the guardian with a slowing spell, reducing its speed and reactions. As Rudolf sprinted up to Famfrit to stop its ranged attacks, Galahad aimed to render its weapon useless in a melee as well. Conjuring lightning into the tip of his halberd's spearpoint, Galahad took a running leap and hucked his halberd with all his might at the chain, right where it connected at jug. While the jug itself was still a heavy dangerous thing to be hit with, snapping the chain would reduce its use and range considerably.

Tch---

Being slowed down and locked in place is death. I can't allow that to happen. Even without the crushing pressure that would easily shatter my limbs, it would be enough to keep me in place so Famfrit could kill me swiftly and without further incident.

The kunai slide from their spot in my pouch, clutched between my fingers as I direct heat and light through them, setting each of them ablaze before the pressure can begin collapsing inwards on me. I only have a moment. Throwing them is already likely to be futile, I can feel the weight pressing on my shoulders and limbs. There's not much of a chance that I'll be able to make them penetrate the gravity sphere like I need to with that in mind. I'm running out of time to act with every passing moment.

It's like I'm being enwrapped by an enormous hand.

Cutting off escape routes and squeezing down on me, crushing me, cornering me---

I won't let this happen. For the sake of my duty, I can't let this happen. I won't be cornered or crushed or kept down...!

But I don't have many options. Simply swinging my sword may not be enough. I can't use my bombs at this close range.

However, I can use a different way of accessing explosive force.

My own attack won't impair me too much to fight. I know that for certain, and it's far better than the alternative.

That doesn't mean it won't be painless, however. I suck in a deep breath, drawing the burning kunai clutched between my fingers back in a fist, and then---

I thrust them forward.

My fist strikes the sphere. The kunai explode, shattering, sending heat surging over my arm, burning the straps of my gauntlet and sending it uselessly to the ground, searing away my glove and the sleeve of my kimono. For a single instant, every nerve ending in my left arm cries out---

And then they're silent.

Just as I thought. Not enough harm to impair me in this fight.

I'll have to fix the gauntlet, though.

The spheres of water are certainly a problem, but a lesser one that Graviga had been. With the orb shattered, I can move freely once more. The kunai are burning white hot between my fingers, the residual energy streaming off of them.

The world streams by as I hurl myself to the right, a crushing, whirling sphere of water whipping past me as I send the kunai hurtling for Famfrit. The sheer heat, on contact with the water-soaked figure's head, should at least do some damage---!

---

As Esben dashed away from the entrance, the others rapidly peppered Famfrit with their opening salvo; the golem reared back from the strikes, shouting out in rage, before he felt his speed starting to lag—weight beyond his own and the exaggerated fatigue trying to settle over him. He saw the faintest shimmer in the air, unconsciously raised his blade to fight back against it—

"Huh?"

"That was smooth..."

Esben, his thoughts catching up with his reactions, contemptuously cut himself free of the aetherial orb forming around him as Eos and Selene grumbled about Famfrit's rapid shift in spells, the point of his sword slamming into the magic as his steps continued to carry him forward. He'd rather have had it lose control of its aether as well, rather than having to find some other way to release it, but such a haphazard attempt at hindering the Kirins was far preferable to whatever it may have been planning to start with. He continued darting forwards, his fairy-boosted speed returned without the unnatural weight dragging him down, easily avoiding the guardian's water blasts.

"What I wouldn't give for Leviathan to rear up out of those waters right now," he muttered to himself as Galahad, Rudolf, and Chisato all took steps to either disarm, disable, or distract the golem. Let the Eidolon fight the crystal's guardian for them, or at least hold it still enough they could manage something. As it was, the only one that he had any capacity to call on would be Ramuh, and even that only for an instant. If he could do it, he'd have to make it count. The trouble would come in setting it up.

Trying to grapple Famfrit like they had with Adrammelech wouldn't work nearly so well. Knocking it over would be nice, but given the way it had maintained its footing already, it might take more effort than it would be worth. "Éliane, explosive rounds!" he called back at the riflewoman. "Izayoi, call up a storm like you did on the ship! Eos, keep her in one piece while she does!" The green fairy darted away, to hover next to the samurai. Coupled with whatever damage the other four had already done, Esben hoped that would provide ample opening for himself to step in as he started to close the distance himself, pulling his notebook out of one pocket and flipping to the page that had Ramuh's sigil emblazoned upon it.

It was getting tiring, have to think all the time, but at least Galahad had the right idea trying to use electricity against the guardian made of metal and water. Couple that with making a short burst of a storm around it, dashing its water to spray and ideally leaving it wide open with everything else coming its way—hopefully one good hit from Ramuh could get them on their way a bit faster.

---

The retort of her gun as it shattered the gravity sphere made Éliane wince in pain. The firearms she wielded had already tended to be loud weapons, but reflected in the temporary bubble of Famfrit’s magic, the amplified sound was dreadfully painful against her eardrums.
Most of the dim of combat was replaced by loud, constant ringing sound, drowning out any of the shouts from her companions as she hastily dodged the follow up water spheres that came after the failed gravity orbs. Ironically, to her these would be more troublesome. Just like her battle with Leviathan, if she got overly wet then her guns would start misfiring.

Éliane could see Esben shouting something at her. Her hearing was slowly recovering, but it was still unintelligible. Whatever halfway useful bit of information he could shout wasn’t something she truly needed, though—she knew her kit and her own tactics well enough.

Rolling to dodge another barrage of high-pressure water, she returned fire with explosive shells in her rifle, letting the rounds explode against the golem.

That wasn’t nearly going to be enough.

She reached into her pouch, producing the remaining grenades she had. Instead of batting the explosives with her guns again, she opted for her wind materia.

She wasn’t going to be caught out like an idiot with a blast of water by trying to get into a batter’s stance, after all.

Lobbing two of them right into Famfrit, one after the other, she tapped into her materia and accelerated the metal objects straight into the corrupted guardian at high speed.

Once more, it was lit up in crimson and orange as it ate yet more high explosives.

"Tch!" Izayoi bit back the instinctual retort that that particular technique was useless in pitched combat. But he could have inferred that from last time. And tactically, he'd shown he knew what he was doing thus far. Fine. She'd play along.

"Hold tightly." She murmured to Eos, waiting for the fairy to latch onto her kimono before practically disappearing in a burst of speed. The samurai reappeared next to Miina, quickly snatching her Wind materia back and slotting it into her kote before dashing straight towards Famfrit this time.

Meanwhile, the guardian in question snarled as Miina's Slow took effect, though its sheer magical presence blunted the spell's effect. It slowed about as half as much as it should have, its movements at least somewhat sluggish as it attempted to fire again, only for Rudolf's Shield cast to block the water's exit from the ewer, causing the vessel to crack as the spell detonated inside. Galahad's halberd cut through the chain right after, causing the oversized jug to crash to the ground, and already cracked, shatter.

"YOU DARE?! BLASPHEMERS, HERETICS ALL! OH DANUBE, OH PURIFYING TIDE, GRANT ME-" Its voice cut off, twisting and corroding into a deeper, wrong tone.

"-DEVOURING DARKNESS. VOID UNENDING, CORRODING!"

Famfrit let a cry of rage loose, the corrupted aura around its figure darkening. Chisato's burning kunai and Eliane's explosive rounds detonated against the aura, dimming it slightly before Famfrit burst into action. It reached out, orbs of corrupted, blackened magic materializing around its form before shooting out indiscriminately in all directions, aiming to overwhelm the Kirins in sheer volume.

Izayoi screamed in pain as one of the orbs crashed into her body, but grit her teeth and didn't relent on maintaining the storm while rushing Famfrit, Eos doing her best to heal her and purge any lingering darkness from her body.

"Damn this wretch! Miina, with me! Help me maintain this storm until Esben is prepared!"

The dark orbs overwhelmed all thought of fighting back for a second, Miina doing her best to dodge and generally stay out of the way… although not in any way that left her open to retaliating. Dropping to all fours might get you out of the line of fire but it was hard to think of anything more restrictive to your ability to fight. Hands were useful. Including for scrambling out of the way, as it turned out, pushing herself closer to the action.

But Izayoi's instructions came through before she had chance to think of anything else. Maintain the storm, huh? That should be easy enough, the older Mystrel had already saturated their surroundings with air aether. To keep it going would only take more haste… but maybe she could add a little something else? As corrupted as it was, Famfrit was still water-aligned, and as Galahad had already shown, lightning was effective…

"On it."

So why not push that into the vortex? Maybe it would be useful leveraged to attack, or maybe it would just harass the construct. Best case scenario was that this would become a proper storm. Or maybe they'd all get shocked, that would be bad. But it was too late to second guess, and she was already committed, the redhead wanting to know what would happen. Wind and haste to whip the water into a hurricane, and a charge building…

Had anyone ever created a true thunderstorm underground?

---

Esben wasn't sure if he should have been concerned or not at the momentary blank look he got from Éliane as he shouted at her—that consideration was somewhat overshadowed by the schadenfreude he felt as he realized that she might have finally learned just how painfully loud those firearms of hers could be. That in turn was completely eclipsed by the attack that Famfrit loosed upon them next, with him having to divert his course to avoid getting bowled over by any one of the corrupted blasts flying his way.

He was lucky he was so light on his feet, the way he had to dance and leap around the slick stone as he ran to come in reach of the golem. "Sorry, Selene, but you two will probably miss the ending of this," he said to the purple fairy as they were able to rush in a straight line again. She glanced at him, wordlessly, as he glanced down at Ramuh's sigil. There was no way he could maintain the fairies while calling on Ramuh. He wasn't even certain that, after having barely rested from the fight with Adrammelech the day before, and having strained himself all night, he could even call on Ramuh fully to defeat Famfrit for them.

The sigil glowed as he focused on it, willing the minute flow of aether he could command to open a channel to the Eidolon. Busy as he may have been with Cid and Zacharias, surely all three would understand that they couldn't waste time with the crystal's guardian with an invasion force on the way. Ramuh, now's as good a time as any for you to help us!

Most uncouth, young warrior. Surely thou couldst beseech mine aid in a manner more seemly?

Selene flickered next to him, pulling on the remaining aether that was allotted to her to maintain the Kirins' haste a moment longer. Esben's brow furrowed in consternation. Warden of Thunder, it would greatly behoove me if you would lend us your strength to strike down this corrupted guardian! He almost had to wonder if Eve ever had such trouble drawing on more of Bahamut's power...given the way the pair were linked, though, maybe the Dragon King didn't need much appeasement.

The creases in his brow grew deeper as he thought he heard laughter coming from the great bearded sage. Whether at his phrasing, or his other thoughts, he couldn't say—

Thine arm is mine, and my strength is thine. Warrior of Light, smite this corrupted Totema and let the weight of my judgement fall on it like a fell blade!

Perhaps both. While he couldn't transform like Eve could, he certainly wouldn't mind having an Eidolon's backing to his attack. He leapt to the side, dodging another sphere of darkness, before raising his blade high. His shadow lengthened as he stepped into the storm that Izayoi and Miina had made for his attack, a spectral shade of the Warden of Thunder raising up around him, obscuring his own form within the tempest. Selene's purple glow disappeared within the swirling wind, freed into loose aether as Eos faded away from where she grasped at Izayoi's kimono. Lightning arced, the glow of the electricity in the air matching the angle of his blade, the scent of ozone filling the space around him.



Esben lunged forwards, slashing his blade to cut through Famfrit's aura, hoping to strike through to the heart of the aetherial golem. Thunder clapped as the lightning surged with his strikes, burning an afterglow into his vision as he swung thrice into the benighted guardian.

Being effectively right in Famfrit's face after their two-pronged disarmament measure, Rudolf hardly had a moment's rest, let alone room to celebrate, as the ringing snaps of Eliane's gunfire was drowned out by the thunderous bell-tone of splitting bronze filling the chamber and his ears alike. He had hoped to only serve as a stopper for the flood of projectiles with that Shield, but damaging the urn with the rebound of its own attack was even better—

And yet, as a fetid, putrescent¹ mist began to swirl around the enraged golem, their success brought little comfort.

"-DEVOURING DARKNESS. VOID UNENDING, CORRODING!"

Okay, what the hell?! he demanded, stowing the spent materia and ripping his rondel free from its' neighboring home on the bandolier, splitting an orb of corroding darkness that was inches from slamming right into him. Pointedly, he didn't even think to will his own blackflame into the steel. Darkness, Void, Corrosion; I thought we were differentiated, me and him! What happened to that?

NOT the same. came the hurried retort, even as a flood of information was being delegated behind impulses and instincts, helping Rudolf thread his way through what he could of the barrage, and carve through or endure the rest². You're going to need to trust me that these are separate and that this is markedly worse than what we do. Getting into the epistemology problem would distract you and we'd all be in a hell of a lot of trouble. Shorthand is calling it decomposition versus death itself.

Rudolf grit his teeth, wincing as he was forced to catch the brunt of a second orb along the flat of his accursed greatsword when Selene's haste faded, in time with the howling winds and coalescing stormcloud that Esben had called for. Part of him wished that maybe the corrosion of the twisted magic would have some sort of weakening effect on the curse that had been overlaid— the rest of him dashed the notion against all the good fortune he had burned already coming back to bite him in the ass. It'd sooner wreck the steel itself.

But the weight hadn't changed, and he could still move after it, the hair on his scalp standing on end as the all too familiar scent of ozone and feeling of fuzz permeated the air around him, as he leapt clear of his comarade's blade of light, charged with the divine lightning of Ramuh itself— that must have been what he was doing, Rudolf belatedly put together, when he was chatting with Cid and the Eidolon that evening before. Rudolf had caught him out of the corner of his eye, between his attempts at catching lightning.

Gods, Adrammelech had only been the evening before, hadn't it? Even getting nose flattened this morning felt like a lifetime ago by now— they'd never even given themselves enough time to fix it. By the time this siege was over, Rudolf foresaw the lot of them that weren't already hanging on by a thread like Eliane to just about keeling over and dying for the next day and a half.

Something to look forward to, then...³

His Gravity materia was somewhere on the tile behind. His Shield was spent. While Famfrit was cloaked in this aura, he was sure that whatever his pact had blunted of its corruption, it would see his flames checked in turn. He could not manage Gungnir without lance and haste both in hand, and Svalinn... honestly, he wasn't convinced he had it in him. What could he do, to drive this forward?

Truth be told, the impact of the dark magic he'd absorbed had knocked his balance loose, given that he'd been in the middle of what should have been a narrow dodge when he'd lost speed. "Getting out of the way" of Esben and Ramuh was really only in relative terms because of that— and because he was so close, he was far from clear of the stray arcs of lightning that spilled away from the SEED's blade. Most people could easily escape regardless, but...

One filament, guided by the whims of misfortune, perhaps Dhinas's anger, streaked towards a close length of grounded metal, colliding with its feathered tip as it trailed its wielder.

Raijingeki.

Who then whirled, as if automatic, and cast that comparatively meager spark into the wake of Esben's final slash, lending that extra bit more to the cause. Still far from perfect, but if there was a bright side to getting good at ignoring a growing pile of fatigue, it was that you stopped letting perfect be the enemy of workable.⁴

---

---

• _{1. This is why I describe my boons as calcination. Putrefaction paints a much different picture of melanosis. Never you mind that this is still decompositive processes versus literal, actual, act of killing death.}
• _{2. I'll be perfectly honest. I'm not doing terribly much, not in the way any of the barspells their Red mage chucks around does. There are enough shared elements that I can work to take the edge off of these shots, but little more than that. It's a little like being used to furnaces when you're closer than you should be to a volcano. To keep these comparisons going, think on the difference between tenebrae and smoke, cooking and charring, submersion and drowning somebody, my comical exaggerations and Rudolf's ability to lie to himself, etc. , et cetera.}
• _{3. I love foreshadowing. Speaking of foreshadowing...}
• _{4. I love foreshadowing.}

---

While their combined effort was enough to disarm the guardian- stripped of its ranged and melee weapon didn't necessarily strip it of its fighting ability- its pool of magic seemed limitless, at least as far as this fight was concerned. Black orbs of energy sprayed across the field wildly, and despite his best efforts to dodge them all, more than one struck- a few glanced off his armor, while one struck true, sending Galahad reeling in agony.

Despite this, the Kirins were still rallying and rising to the occasion- Izayoi split the water around the blasted thing with Miina's assistance, and Esben with the help of his summon was prepared to deliver an incredible blade of electricity, with Rudolf not far behind. They had the guardian was powerful, certainly, but there was something truly frightening about the amount of targeted destruction the Kirins could bring to bear at any single target.

It was tempting to dive right into the mix, but even if his armor helped him resist some lightning, it wasn't exactly rated to dive headfirst into lightning of that caliber. Instead, Galahad reared back and threw his halberd once more. The throw was just as hard as before, but like the strike against the chain, the goal was not to deal incredible damage. Aiming for the heart, with any luck, metal rod would act as a conductor- a literal lightning rod to help in delivering the full force of Esben's lightning directly into the heart of the totema.