When the fight began, Sandalphon wasted no time using one of her new abilities. A pulse radiated across the arena, scanning the Seekers’ opponents. Ultimately, this provided less benefit than the archangel would have liked. As one might expect, her foes were in top condition, and the various evasion, resistance, and defense buffs bestowed upon her teammates were so minor that she doubted that they’d notice. Still, when up against the likes of Karen Travers, Jetstream Sam, and a Consul, it paid to use every advantage at her disposal. What Sandalphon really craved was information. With the Septentrion, she could only assume that he possessed every psionic ability she’d documented throughout Midgar so far, courtesy of his parasitic Brain Eater power. On the other hand, C was a complete unknown, and the transformation he inflicted on Mephisto was rather alarming. Sandalphon could sense an immense amount of magical power emanating from his person, yet for now the Consul seemed content to use that pistol of his and a couple magic tricks. “Be wary,” she cautioned Midna and Roland through their sigils. “Work together, and don’t let him touch you.”
Out of the four, however, she kept her unblinking eyes on Sam. Unlike the others, she knew exactly what the Brazilian swordsman was capable of, and she did not like him menacing Roxas. For now the others didn’t need her support, though she did have Angelic Wings fully charged in case of emergency. So she stood by in Coordination Protocol, ready to intervene at a moment’s notice, but things took an unexpected turn as the two exchanged words rather than blows. Though unversed in reading emotions, Sandalphon could detect subtle changes in Sam’s face and posture now that she looked closer. It was clear that Nox’s capitulation affected him, just as it did Mephisto, and not even the threat of what C did to the young medic galvanized him into action.
With surprise negotiations underway, Sandalphon shifted her attention as the actual problem revealed itself: Mephisto the Singer. His toxic clouds were quickly covering the arena, piling up to create nigh-impenetrable banks of caustic smog. The pollution didn’t do much damage, but it would add up over time, slowly killing all the heroes present while the villains stayed hale and hearty. That wasn’t going to fly, and Roxas knew it, too. As soon as Sam turned tail, the keyblade wielder began to chase Mephisto down, navigating the other brawls throughout the arena. Sandalphon tried to cover him, but the haze crippled her accuracy, and the Singer quickly proved to be frustratingly evasive. Again and again the avian disappeared into the fog, showing up far away from Roxas to continue fumigating the arena. The effort of pursuit forced the boy to hyperventilate, gulping up the toxic gas, and it wasn’t long before the consequences caught up with him. Pit’s magic allowed him to lend a hand for a time from his perch atop the Guardian, but it wasn’t long before Tycoon shook him off. Worse still, Tycoon’s Magitek Crossray was poised to pierce through the fog. Roxas needed help, and if the others didn’t yet, they would soon. It was time Sandalphon took action.
“Your target flees when struck,” the archangel told Roxas. “You need to get close without attacking.” When the boy pushed himself to approach one last time, Sandalphon made her move. She blinked to his position, appearing only a few feet away from Mephisto’s flank. Stone-faced, she cast out her wires, then lobbed a Frost Lock at the Singer’s feathered back. The cold shock wasn’t enough to flash-freeze Mephisto, but he did jerk away, tightening the wires in the process. He struggled and strained against them, unable to teleport, but the wires just sliced deeper and deeper. Sandalphon lifted her staff, and four divine screens appeared around her. They rotated, picking up speed, as glowing circuits traced an intricate sigil beneath her. “Now.”
When the archangel brought her gunstaff down, the screens flared outward, and in the heavenly flash that followed her allies were healed for over fifty percent of their max health. Those suffering from poison found their affliction suddenly cleansed and their max health boosted by twenty percent in recompense. Completely rejuvenated, Roxas could now capitalize on the opportunity that Sandalphon provided.
And just like that - divine intervention. Almost literally in this case. Just as Roxas was struggling to think of his next move, the Nobody was suddenly healed right up, and the poisons of the gas was even cleansed on top of that. It was Sandalphon, offering a much needed heal and boost almost as if answering the Keybearer's prayers,
"Ah, thanks Halo!" Roxas said into his earpiece to Sandalphon. He zoomed up to the Singer and used another Cross Slash on it, then followed that with a flurry of Keyblade strikes. Right on schedule, the Singer teleported away from him. But rather than continue the chase immediately, Roxas realized that he was relatively near Sandalphon's position.
"Hey, Halo?" he asked her,
"I think it's time we give that oversized bird a little divine wrath."“I am not angry,” Sandalphon replied, switching to the Eye of Sol as her pupils turned to crosshairs. “Just disappointed.”
“Light!” In moments Roxas was using his StepSword dash to move away from the Archangel, who herself teleported to a new position. Then Roxas aimed his Keyblade and shot a beam of light out of its tip that lanced through the air across the platform and right through the Singer. From her position, Sandalphon fired a blazing tracer round that also pierced the transformed Mephisto. From above, the pair of piercing beams looked a like a radiant X, with the Singer caught in the center of Heavenly Crossfire.
With a shrill shriek, the Singer crashed to the ground in a heap, badly wounded but still alive. Sandalphon approached and crouched beside the infected monster, leaning on the butt of her rifle. She pursed her lips, her brows slightly furrowed as toxic gas began to exude from the thing’s body. What happened to Mephisto wasn’t fair. She couldn’t imagine what terrible things he’d done as an accomplice of Jena Anderson and member of Reunion, but neither could she imagine what he’d been through. How much pain, loss, and despair, even before Consul Y shattered his hopes last night? And then in desperation he’d fallen victim to C as well. Even with all he’d done, he was just a boy. A child failed by this city. By this world.
Everyone says angels aren’t real, ‘cause if they were, they’d come down and help us…As the smog began to thicken, Sandalphon manifested a friend heart, and in a brilliant flash Mephisto was restored. When the flare receded, the boy lay on the floor amidst the dispersing gas, breathing heavily. His wild eyes focused on the archangel. “Be not afraid,” she said as she knelt, her voice gentle despite the toxic irritants. She extended her hand. “I want to help.”
“Liar!” There was the sound of a gunshot, deafening. Sandalphon froze, her eyes wide, as blood flew from a fresh bullet wound. As smoke rose from the barrel of his pistol, Mephisto let out a burst of insane laughter, his eyes wide. “Who’re you trying to fool!? Huh!? Not me! Never again! I’m nobody’s pawn! You hear me!?” He fired again and again. “You hurt me! Hurt
her! Took them from me! How d’you like it? Huh? Self-righteous Sankta! How dare you pity me!” Completely manic, he aimed his final shot at the archangel’s head.
Sandalphon’s gaze swiveled toward him, eyes refocused, and she burst into dazzling light. It faded a moment later, leaving behind a being of majestic beauty, white wings spread wide. In order to survive, Sandalphon had become
Heavenly Wings, a holy draconic angel that towered over friend and foe alike. Only Tycoon, standing at thirty feet compared to her sixteen, still eclipsed her.
When she turned her face downward she found Mephisto paralyzed by shock on the floor. She also saw little black vortexes appear around the battlefield, cast by Tycoon. Sadness lingered on her face as she thought about him, as well as the little girl in Zone 09. Even now, she had no idea whether or not the girl or her dog survived the catastrophe that Mephisto helped unleash in Quarantine Valley, and that worried her. Once this was over with, she would have to go check. For now, though, Mephisto had found the wherewithal to move again. A new magazine clicked into place in his gun. “Forgive me,” the archangel echoed, her voice oddly resonant. “You’re right, of course. Salvation is not mine to offer.”
She beat her wings and flew backward, leaving the battlefield. Mephisto chased her off with a couple shots, missing them all, then stooped in a hurry to collect his fallen cane. When he bent down, he saw the vortex at his feet suddenly expand to a massive size, far too big for him to escape. “What the-!?” The next moment, the unfortunate boy disappeared, sundered by the raw destructive might of Artificial Gravity.
Sandalphon did not look to see what became of him. Instead she focused forward, dedicating the holy light of Heavenly Wings to the fight for Midgar’s future.
Once she recovered from her surprise skewering with the aid of the Ripened Heart, Nadia resumed her deadly dance with the Radiance. By now, she could feel herself getting a hold of a definite pattern in the angelic insect’s fighting style. Her sheer output of luminous lasers, homing orbs, and airborne swordblades boasted a serious intimidation factor, especially at first. They dictated the pace of the battle and demanded that the Seekers stay mobile, preventing anyone from getting too comfortable. Gradually, though, what started as a panicked scramble became controlled chaos as the heroes memorized the patterns–as well as their answers. The Radiance showed off over a dozen different attacks, teleporting between each onslaught, but they all proved to be somewhat one-dimensional, devoid of creativity or interplay. Once Nadia realized that, newfound courage pumped through her veins. For all its eldritch power, this effulgent entity seemed to be a problem that the Seekers could solve, and glimpsing a path to victory fired the feral up like nothing else.
That wasn’t to say the road would be easy, though, so Nadia couldn't be too gleeful just yet. Those who could cast, spit flame, shoot, or throw boulders had it easy compared to melee fighters like her. While her energy lasted, Nadia made her way through the Radiance’s unrelenting bombardment, dodging dozens of lances and lasers. Not being a machine, she couldn’t execute perfectly every time even when she knew what to do, and as the fight went on the feral racked up her fair share of burns and bloody gashes. Still, Nadia had one massive advantage in her corner: being part of a team. There was nowhere around the arena that the Radiance could teleport to where one or two Seekers couldn’t reach her. If her impetuousness left her hurting, she could ease up for a minute while the others picked up the slack, and when someone else stepped back she made sure to cover for them in turn.
When Nadia managed to get her claws on the bright-eyed bug, Nadia sprang up to deliver a short-lived air combo, punctuated by a blockbuster like Feral Edge or Purrge of Vengeance if her stockpile of Dramatic Tension permitted it, or New Moon if she had it off cooldown. Again and again her claws and boxcutters drew blood, spilling ichor that shone like the sun. Whenever a close combatant finally got the chance to dig in, shreds of moth fuzz drifted down like snow. Slowly, her team began to turn the tide. The Seekers could adapt, using their various powers for defense or mobility as well as offense, while the Radiance didn’t. Its incredible efforts still took a toll, but the price it exacted slowly decreased, while the heroes’ damage piled up.
Finally, just as Nadia’s energy began to flag, the Guardian seemed to reach a breaking point. Until now it barely reacted when the Seekers shot or struck her, but when Ganondorf -empowered by Abyssal Resurgence- landed a mighty blow, her poise suddenly shattered. She reeled back and fell from the sky, slamming into the platform face-down in a burst of light that radiated in all directions. The wave shattered the steely battlefield along its seams and cleared away the rolling hills of ethereal clouds all around. For a moment she just lay there as the team looked on, wondering if it was over. As those tense seconds ticked by, the sky of the dreamscape seemed to darken, as if the dimming sun had slid behind the horizon to turn the peachy heavens orange, scarlet, and finally a deep indigo. The broken monolith began to shake, and around it, a black tide rose from the depths below. When she noticed it encroaching on the arena’s edges, Nadia froze, reminded of the tar from the Orphan’s beach. This seemed somehow worse, though. It didn’t look like liquid so much as a pitch-black mass of indescribable bodies, piled together, hopelessly entangled, squirming and clawing. If the Radiance existed in the domain of dreams, then surely this abyssal darkness must be the stuff of nightmares. As much as she wanted to finish off the Radiance, Nadia didn’t dare make a move while this new threat loomed.
So she watched, struck dumb, as twisted limbs and barbed tentacles stretched up from the mire to grasp and ensnare the fallen Guardian. In a way it made sense that this darkness, whatever it was, would abhor this mind-searing light as well. Before the living darkness could fasten its grip however, the Radiance regained her strength. Light blazed from her eyes, scorching the shadows, and the second their grip slacked the Radiance teleported upward. She hung in the air for a moment above the broken arena, scarred and tattered, staring down at the Seekers and the abyssal limbs that reached and flailed below her. Then she flew off in a burst of speed, rattling the heroes with a sonic boom left in her wake. In seconds she disappeared into the distance, and there she stopped, a
brilliant and unreachable star.
Around Nadia and her allies, the limbs of the abyss receded. The feral looked around, perplexed. She hadn’t considered the possibility that the Guardian could just leave, fleeing beyond the heroes’ reach. Beneath the clouds, a sea of roiling blackness now stretched out in all directions, but every fiber of her being told her not to touch that living darkness. She looked around at the others. “Well…what now?”
After a moment, her answer arrived. With everyone already on high alert against the verminous ocean, even if it seemed inclined to help them somehow, the team noticed the moment something began to push its way out of the murk a couple hundred feet away. Instead of some aberrant monstrosity, however, the shape that emerged from the squirming morass seemed to be blocky and angular, formed of aged metal and plastered with dull green paint. It turned out to be a train, four cars with glowing yellow windows led by a
rundown engine, and it slid forward atop the writhing mass to pull to a stop by the broken arena as if it were a train platform. Nadia hopped across the fragments like stepping stones, approaching the locomotive, and when she drew near, a purple crab with a single red eye and a starry wizard’s hat popped up in the window. “Magikrab!” Nadia laughed, her expression delighted but bewildered. “What are you doing here? I mean, how are you even here?”
“Let me explain,” the crustacean began officiously, his childlike voice unusually serious. “...Uh, actually, that would take too long, let me sum up. As you know, egregores -or archangels, as you call them- are beings borne from humanity’s collective thoughts and desires…”
“I didn’t know that at all,” Nadia muttered, scratching her head.
Magikrab cleared his throat. “Ahem! Collective thoughts and desires, yes. Meanwhile, that thing…” He stared across the dreamscape, through the twilight, at the blazing beacon in the distance. “The Radiance. It’s the end of thought itself. Of individuality. Egregores can’t truly die as long as humans exist to give them form, but the infection spreads, that’s curtains. So on behalf of all egregores, the Stagmer-line sent me here to help.” Clacking his claws, Magikrab ducked inside and pulled the whistle, which resounded across the ink-black sea and night-stained clouds. “All aboaaaaaard! Now boarding at Platform A!”
This was shaping up to be another ridiculous situation. Nadia couldn’t help but smile as she shook her head. This world really was a gift that kept on giving. “Hehe. Hell, why not?” She glanced at the others and gave a helpless shrug. “Not like we got any other options we could choo-choo-choose. Ready for another wild ride?”
Unfortunately, the train featured no doors, so everyone needed to climb on top of it. Nadia jumped aboard with enthusiasm, fresh excitement coursing through her, but for some of her friends riding a special train to fight a giant bug wasn’t as novel an experience as one might think. Once everyone climbed aboard, the train began to move. It pulled away from the arena as the fragments sank into the darkness, then chugged along across the surface of the sunless sea. Dead ahead loomed the Radiance, like a lighthouse on a distant shore “Looks like we’re on track,” Nadia called over the rushing air. Her hair, ears, and tails flapped in the wind, making her glad she got her hair cut. “But that thing’s not getting any closer.”
“It’s fleeing as we approach!” Magikrab shouted up at the Seekers. “Time to pick up the pace. Hold onto your hats!”
A moment later the train lurched forward, suddenly picking up speed. Nadia dropped to all fours, burying her claws in the roof of the train car for grip, and after another moment the locomotive began to angle upward. Soon the whole train left the living darkness behind, soaring into the air on invisible tracks. Above the sea of clouds, the pinpricks of light that teemed in the night sky became shooting stars, a million cosmic arrows hurtling backward as the Seekers forged ahead. Nadia’s heart raced as she grinned from ear to ear, not even questioning it at this point. Now
this was a boss battle, worthy of a war to save the worlds.
Right away, brilliant lasers like sniper shots began to fire on the train, forcing the team to take evasive action, but the barrage didn’t last long. In less than a minute, the train caught up with the Radiance. Having more or less shed its insectoid trappings, it shone like the sun, little more than a singularity of baleful light. Judging by the clouds that zipped past and the stars overhead, it must be moving at an absurd speed, but the Stagmer-line’s train could keep up with it, and thanks to inertia (and a little dream logic) the Seekers could stand up on its roof and fight. Recognizing the danger at last, the Radiance attacked, spitting out light rays, orbs, and swordblades with twice the speed, quantity, and intensity of before, made all the more dangerous by a much narrower arena that would curve to follow the Guardian’s path. But the heroes had come this far, and they weren’t about to back down.
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TokyoPewPew,
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