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Turned On	By : blackwaltz0 Category: +M through R > Phantasy Star Views: 2172 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Phantasy Star, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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Like so many events in Chaz Ashley's small little life it was something that was never meant to happen. Rika's blood dripped warmly from his fingertips as he stared blankly at his handiwork, vacant and yet seeing, the information registering in his brain as a scrambled jumble which held no meaning to him. He sensed that somebody was coming up behind him. He turned his head slowly to look.

For Wren many things had occurred and it was quite a trial to keep track of all of them, it filled up most of his taskbar. Rika had been critically wounded by Chaz and he needed to get to her as soon as possible and perform first-aid procedures, and Chaz himself needed attention as he was clearly not in his right mind. However, Wren was aware that Chaz's condition was not singular and that Kyra and Rune were also affected, the former actively targeting him as an enemy. To top it all off Lassic had not yet been eliminated as a possible threat.

Needless to say he had a lot on his plate right now. Chaz watched him with that glazed expression as Wren approached him, then the slightest of motions caused the corner of his mouth to twist upwards into a smile. The android grabbed Chaz by the upper arms and glared back over his shoulder to check out the scene. Kyra was staring at him and Rune was looking at nothing at all as he slowly shuffled to the edge of the platform. Lassic merely watched with a permanent smile stamped onto his face, his possession spell requiring effort to maintain.

Wren didn't hold Chaz for long; he nudged him out of the way and went straight for Rika, dropping to his knees and removing her armor with precise haste. Their armor produced in the heartland of Dezoris could withstand just about any kind of enemy attack, but it had never been taken into consideration that the armor would need to repel their own weapons as well. In this case Chaz's sword had been top-of-the-line, able to cut through anything.

Rika's armor fell away in a series of complicated plates, revealing her tight black bodysuit underneath. Wren worked quickly and reached around to snag a gleaming dagger from the hunter's belt that he knew lay there. He did not think that Chaz would protest and he didn't. With the knife he cut into Rika's clothing and removed a patch of clothing very carefully covering the wound, examining and gauging the extent of the injury.

He hesitated when he saw the results of the sword strike, his worst fears confirmed. Internal and external bleeding with moderate organ damage. Nevertheless, he tried to staunch the bleeding and treat her but it was a difficult thing to do on one's own. Rika moaned when she felt the sharp pressure. If only Chaz could do more than just stand there like a brainless idiot, if they didn't do something soon the girl was going to bleed to death! She hardly had five minutes left to her name.

Above them Chaz barely paid any attention to his bleeding love and his diligent lover trying hard to save her life. He was watching Kyra as the girl slowly approached. His mission was complete but she still had hers to do, and he was not going to stand in her way. Kill him. Lassic whispered in an immaterial voice, Chaz whispered, Rune whispered. Kill the golem then kill yourself, kill yourself, kill yourself�

To be nothing was bliss, to give yourself to another and expect nothing but calm, gentle disassociation. Nothing mattered anymore, there was no soul. That was the dark magician's spell. Chaz stood back and waited for Kyra to come, but in the meantime his steady puppeteered hand came up to grasp the last dagger concealed in his belt. There was no more use in this world for him, not anymore.

But Wren had kept half an eye, or more accurately a few sensors left on Kyra for observation, for when she got too close. He had to remove his hands from Rika's wound and the bleeding continued unrestrained, but with bloody hands Wren stood and grabbed Kyra's wrist just seconds before she could cast another spell. He applied pressure, squeezing until the pain must have been unbearable and her bones were on the verge of snapping, yet she did not even bat so much as an eyelid at him.

There was simply no time to engage in a long, complicated duel between the esper girl. He had to get back to Rika as soon as possible. Wren released Kyra and shoved her away, but before she could recover her balance the android closed the distance between them and attacked. It was unethical to hit a woman but he still pulled back his fist and struck a blow to the side of her head, hitting Kyra hard enough to knock her out and leave only a deep bruise.

The moment after the blow landed awareness came back into her eyes, short-lived as they slipped closed and she fell to the ground in unconsciousness. Good, so that was one thing out of the way. A strong enough shock seemed enough to shake his friends from their zombie-like state. Kyra and the others were not zombies, not objects, and not machines. For Wren, as a machine himself it was unnerving to see his friends behaving in such a way. He relied on them to remain palman, because that was all he could never be.

He had medicine in his inventory but that wouldn't be of any use; the wound was too deep and critical. It would be like wrapping a bandage around an untreated snake bite and just hoping for the best. Wren did not have the equipment nor the appropriate medical training to save her. Rika was going still now, becoming quiet as her consciousness threatened to slip away. "Rika!" Wren said firmly, trying to keep her in this world. "Rika, listen to me! You must stay awake!"

"� I � ah� hurts�" The girl whispered back faintly, probably losing track of where and when she was. She sounded so sleepy, so weak, and there was so much blood on the floor�

And it was getting everywhere, too. Wren raised a hand for a moment to brush hair out of his eyes and accidentally left a bloody smear across the side of his face. He wasn't certain what to do, he couldn't quite think of a way to save her. He did not know any restorative techniques save for his own. If only Demi were here, or if only Chaz were capable of assistance. He wasn't an exceptional healer but he would have to do. "Rika, please stay with me! Please respond!"

Her response wasn't so much as word than it was merely a noise which sounded like a word. It sounded like she was trying to call for Seed. That really affected Wren for some reason, made him feel something that was almost as strong as what he felt for Chaz, but different. Seed had entrusted Rika's future to him and if he failed now� it would be more than losing somebody he cared deeply for, it would be like losing a part of himself.

So in those moments Wren honestly felt afraid. He turned to Chaz for help, looking up at the youth standing quietly by his side. He paused suddenly, relaxing the pressure on Rika's wound just a little. The hunter had his short-bladed dagger clasped in both his hands, raising the point of the blade carefully up against the hollow of his throat. He tilted his head back invitingly.

Rika dropped down a priority on Wren's list. There was not much he could do for her but he at least could stop Chaz from hurting himself. The knife pierced Chaz's skin and could have sunk in deeper to slice into his veins and puncture his throat had Wren not grabbed Chaz's wrist roughly, firmly, and stayed his hand. The dagger was drawn back but not nearly far enough. "What are you doing?" The android asked even though the answer was obvious.

Chaz just looked at him blankly and attempted to bring the knife back to slit his own throat again. Wren had trouble holding the boy back, all of a sudden he was just so unnaturally strong that it could be nothing other than Lassic's influence. There was no time, Wren had to stop him without hurting him but he didn't know how. A weak stream of blood began to trickle down Chaz's throat as the knife bit in deeper.

Wren's other hand which trailed the torn connector wires came up but instead of wrapping it around Chaz with the other to restrain him the android did something very different instead. He placed his hand on top of Chaz's gently and spoke in the same soft tone that the boy seemed to love so much, that in normal circumstances would have set off a warm feeling in the midst of the hunter's chest. "Chaz, please. Listen. Think of nothing else save for what I am saying. I would like you to look at me."

That was nothing something that Chaz was capable of doing while trapped under Lassic's spell, just as Wren's words were unable to reach his forebrain intact. He no longer understood sophisticated speech, but the dark-haired machine had already guessed that. The words were not important so much as his voice was, to relax him. It passed straight through his forebrain but his hindbrain caught onto it timidly, the only thing Chaz had left to keep himself Chaz. Wren's voice reminded him of good things and he experienced the altogether distant yet pleasant sensation of the android brushing his thumb over Chaz's knuckles. He relaxed.

It was enough to pull the knife safely away from Chaz's throat. He wasn't hurt very badly, the shallow cut upon his neck was barely a scratch. Wren knew what to do next but he was momentarily sidetracked by an unusual emotion, seeing Chaz standing there so trapped and helpless made him want to actually take up the boy in his arms. It was merely an impulse, not strong enough for him to consider it as an option, but it made things slightly harder for Wren to draw his hand back and slap Chaz smartly across the face.

But he did it anyway, leaving a faint handprint high up on the hunter's cheekbone made mostly from the blood on his hands rather than the force of the impact. Chaz grunted and dropped the knife, his face tilted to the side from the blow. When he looked back there was anger and hurt in his bright green eyes, cradling his stinging cheek. "W-what the hell was that for?" He demanded loudly. "Geez!"

The android didn't reply but Chaz stopped and started when he noticed the blood. There was an awful lot of it on Wren's armor, hands and face. He could also smell faint traces of it in the air. Immediately he realised that his own hands were wet and when he looked down at them the boy screamed. What had happened? Only a second ago he and the others had been talking to Lassic! "What's going on? Blood� this is blood! I-is it mine?" The thought of that made his head swim a little.

"Perhaps some of it. Chaz, we must act quickly. Help me save Rika, her pulse is too weak. Please heal her." Wren said curtly as he attended to the fallen numan again. The brief interval alone had not been good for her, her heart was practically running on empty now and she had lost her consciousness.

When Chaz saw Rika lying on the ground beside his bloody sword all the pallor drained away from his face to match her own. He had his bright moments now and then, he put two and two together in a matter of seconds. The bloody sword, his bloody hands, the seemingly missing portion of time, and the love of his life lying there and dying by inches. Chaz burst into tears and let out a long, tortured wail, grabbing the sides of his head in shock.

He was not responding in the speed of which Wren preferred. He could not tolerate it when somebody else's life was at stake. He grabbed Chaz by his belt and ignored the pitiful sound the hunter was making, pulling him down to his own level. "Compose yourself or I will slap you again!" He threatened sharply, detecting Rika's heartbeat or in this case the lack of it. No heartbeat, no pulse, no blood left to spill.

They couldn't give up on her. They had to jog her heart into working again, somehow! "Ply your healing technique to her wound and I will try to restart her heart. If there is no marked success then you must attempt cardio pulmonary respiration upon her." He instructed as he took the dropped knife again and made further cuts to her black bodysuit in order to expose more skin. Meanwhile Chaz, with tears dripping down his cheeks and streaking the blood-mark like cheap makeup placed his hands above the wound and began a shaky gires treatment.

Hundreds of years ago in the Motavian military Wren had picked up a trick or two through careful observation. He had seen platoon medics use defibrillation to jump-start biological soldiers using an electrical overload to stimulate the heart. Furthermore, he had also seen other androids use electrical charges to save lives in tight situations. The spark skill which he bore could kill other machines but could potentially save the life of his friend. It was worth a try, even though he had no certain idea of what he was doing.

Chaz was trying to treat the wound and not having much success when Wren coaxed an electrical surplus into his hands and held them over Rika's partially exposed chest. Chaz looked up to see what was going on and flushed a deep red when he saw more of Rika than he had ever expected to see. "Y-you can't touch those�" He protested weakly, losing hope.

"Do not touch Rika while I am attempting this." Wren cautioned then waited a moment for Chaz to relinquish contact, pressing his hands against her chest, touching skin to metal. Her whole body convulsed from the shock, lifting off the ground for a moment before flopping back to where it had been. No response from her heart. Wren pumped her chest half a dozen times while he tried to withdraw more electricity from his stores. Still nothing.

The situation was extremely tense. Chaz was trembling horribly as he watched the android trying vainly to resuscitate his love. His own heart was beating like a tribal drum, full and deep and rapid. He could practically hear it hammering with his own ears. For the second time Wren forced electricity through the girl's body with the same result; nothing. No heartbeat, no breathing, no pulse. She� she was dead.

And it looked like he had killed her.

"Stop!" Chaz cried out pitifully, his emotions and panic getting the better of him. He knew that he was losing it but he couldn't stop himself and frankly he didn't care. He dove out in front of Wren towards Rika and held the quiet, lifeless girl in his arms, hugging her to his chest and sobbing. She was so soft, still warm, but it would not take long for it to change. She was really, truly gone. He couldn't believe it, he couldn't�

"No!" He bawled and shook her as if to resuscitate her that way, disturbing the pristine white flower which had been threaded into her hair. It fell to the ground practically unnoticed. "Rika, please! Wake up! I love you! Please wake up!"

"I am very sorry. I could not get to her in time." The android said beside him in a quiet and odd tone. He felt responsible, but he might as well have been talking to the wall for all that Chaz heard of him. For the hunter the world had narrowed down into a fine aisle and Wren was no longer a part of it. Kyra, Rune and Lassic were also no more than just a memory. Kyra still lay on the floor, harmless, while Rune was on the verge of his death.

Lassic was enjoying the show. He couldn't cast a fresh spell without canceling out his delightful possession snares and he didn't care about the other people save for the Lutz; they were merely extras. Rune was on his way into the soupy firewater but he had to take his time, after two thousand years burning in hell Lassic wanted to see a revenge worth waiting for. The heat was so intense around the edge of the platform that Rune was sweating heavily, making it seem like he had been in a light rain, blue hair limply plastered to his face.

He was standing on the very edge, one more step would lead him into death. Lassic urged him on silently, the perverse pleasure he gained from this act one of a kind. Go on� He whispered. Jump in� Take the plunge� Your dead friends are waiting for you back in hell� Go see them� Die� die� die�

When the white flower fell from Rika's hair it landed in a small pool of the girl's blood. It didn't stain, it remained as clean and pure as when it had been growing innocently in the snow, or when it had lain in Raja's hand when he had placed his blessing and a prayer over the petals. If only the priest were there now, he'd be able to set everything right. What they needed now was a miracle, only a miracle would be able to turn this battle around.

Wren was the only one in the correct position to see the flower fall. Chaz was sobbing and pressing Rika hard against his chest, Kyra was unconscious and Rune was out of touch. His eye was attracted to the stark whiteness, unique compared to the rest of the dark in the room. When it touched Rika's spilled blood it flashed, that was the best way Wren was able to describe it, but it wasn't necessarily a visual phenomenon; it was something else.

For a brief moment the perfume of the white snow flower swept through the room like a fresh gust of wind, washing out the sulfur, the rotting flesh and the scent of blood. Vanilla engulfed the room and then vacated just as quickly as it had arrived.

Chasing it right afterwards was the sound of laughter, hearty and ambient, but this time not the work and rusty grating of Lassic. Wren and Chaz lifted their heads when they heard the unexpected noise, confused, for they too recognised the sound.

Raja.

The flower evaporated and converted itself into a bright green light, bouncing up from the ground as if it were made of rubber and launching itself high into the air. A trail of soft, feathery sparks followed it about wherever it went like a comet's tail. It continued to rise until it seemed no more than a small moon in the sky, then with a pulsing green supernova of energy it erupted into five smaller comets and trailed down again, seeking out and striking into its respective targets.

The first one dove into Kyra and settled into her body like an invading spirit, meeting no resistance whatsoever. A second later the esper girl sat up from where she was lying and rubbed at her head in confusion, wondering where she was. The next one smacked into Rune's chest and knocked the Lutz onto his backside, thankfully away from the current of molten lava. Rune blinked. He was himself again and suddenly everything seemed clearer� clear.

Wren wasn't sure whether to recoil or allow the alien lights to touch him, or let it anywhere near his internal systems. The choice wasn't really his, there was no way he could repel the light anyhow. When it whispered down upon him nothing horrible happened, only his systems came in contact with an unknown input and then just� reset themselves. As the light faded from his body his sensors now told him that his system was back to optimal condition. It was as if that lightning strike never had happened.

The last two streaks of energy were meant for Rika and Chaz. The young hunter lost interest in the light very quickly and dropped his head back to where it had been before, pressed against his lost love. It didn't matter anymore, nothing did; Rika was gone. What did he matter either? It would be better if Lassic just killed him now and put him out of his pitiful misery. Maybe he could do it himself, after all he had a knife at the ready and knew exactly which arteries to cut�

But then it felt like something warm touched him through his back and an equally warm sensation brushed down against his arms. It made things feel better, somehow. An overwhelming feeling of peace flowed over him like warm water, telling him in an unbroken loop of reassurance that everything would be okay. It's alright, don't despair, everybody is here for you. Everybody loves you. It will be okay�

Chaz relaxed and let out a shuddering sigh. Raw emotion just poured from that long, breathy sound. Thoughts of suicide left his mind but no amount of good feelings could make him forget about the girl in his arms. All it was able to do was bring him some calm, some semblance of composure. He had loved Rika so very much�

"Chaz�"

If only things had been different�

"Chaz!"

If he could just get one last, second chance he'd never make the same mistakes twice�

"Chaz! Let go of me! You're squeezing me so tight I can't breathe!" Rika complained, squirming.

It was then that he realised the lifeless bundle in his arms wasn't so lifeless anymore. Chaz pulled away and his eyes went as wide as saucers when Rika looked back at him grumpily. He was so surprised, in fact, that he dropped her. The girl made an 'oof' noise as she thumped to the floor and that just made her grumpies even greater. One minute Chaz had been attacking her despite her protests and the next he was trying to squeeze the very life out of her instead.

Wait, hadn't she been in horrendous acute pain moments earlier? Rika was no longer sure, maybe it had been a dream after all. She propped herself up on her elbows and realised that she was lying in a puddle of drying, sticky liquid. Along with that there was blood all over Chaz and Wren too. They were both looking at her strangely, the hunter far more so than the android. Rika became concerned. "Hey are you both okay? Chaz, you're crying."

"Y-you're the one that I'm worried about, Rika�" Chaz breathed as he reached up and wiped the tears away from his face. He smiled shakily, unable to believe that the girl was still alive to speak with him. She didn't even seem hurt anymore, the bare patch of her stomach where the wound had been was smooth and flat again. It didn't make any sense but he was not one to question a miracle. "I thought you were dead! You were dead just a minute ago!" He cried.

"Well I'm okay now, no thanks to you. You turned into a zombie then you stabbed me!" Rika proclaimed back to him, her memory returning. It was nice to see that Chaz had come back to reality but she was still miffed at him for attacking her in the first place. She looked down at herself and uttered a little squeal, sitting up and desperately trying to cover herself with her arms. "Eek! Who cut up my clothes?"

Before anybody could answer her Lassic started to howl. His perfect spell had been broken and the Lutz was no longer his to control, Rune getting up and stumbling away from the lava, running to where he had dropped his precious staff. No time for questions about what the hell had happened to him, if the furious howl Lassic was making meant anything then he wasn't going to remain idle for long.

Kyra rose to Rune's side as he retrieved his lost weapon and turned to face the black magician. Meanwhile Wren was helping Chaz up as the poor boy looked like he was going to faint at any minute, and Rika was hastily re-equipping armor to hide the cuts in her clothing. Why did Rune feel like he had been walking around in the desert for an entire day? And why on Dezoris had it felt like Raja had been following him all the way?

"Have we been� sleeping? I feel like I've been asleep." Rune commented, wiping sweat from his brow. He had that odd groggy and dim sensation he usually got after a long nap. He actually had a bit of a craving for his morning cup of tea.

"I know I just woke up lying on the floor. I can't believe I did that." Kyra yawned. Some fearless warriors laughed in the face of their enemies but Kyra just yawned at them. Maybe she'd make Lassic feel sleepy instead.

"I hate it when that happens." He agreed as the other three joined their ranks, Rika a second or two behind and still tightening a buckle on her armor. Her usually pale blue cape was soaking wet and discolored to burgundy. Rune turned to Chaz. "What happened while we were out?"

"You do not wish to know." Wren answered in Chaz's place, because obviously he had a better idea than the hunter ever would.

"You fools!" Lassic screamed when his howls came to an end. "I offered you a relatively painful death and you have rejected it! In that case I will send you all far away from here, to the place where my master resides!" He raised his bladed halberd and began to chant a foul-sounding spell, all guttural noises and bitter cries. Rune felt his hackles rise, it was a bastardized variation of his own native esper tongue. It was, it sounded a bit like-

"Massive gravitational flux detected! Everybody grab onto something quickly!" Wren suddenly shouted. He couldn't understand whatever it was that Lassic was chanting but his sensors rarely lied. To their left and to their right, on either sides of the platform an energy signature similar to that of a dimensional worm was forming. But larger. Much larger.

Staggeringly larger.

Rune realised what was about to take form. It was the same curse that had damned Lassic two thousand years ago and had trapped him in that form of living death, unable to die, unable to rest until the service of his master would be complete. When Lassic had poked a small hole in the seal he had ultimately met whatever force that lay behind it. He had sold his soul to it. Now he was going to feed Rune and the others to it and remove them from the world that way.

The heat was sucked from the room. Immediately everything went cold, went dark. A bright flash lit things up for a moment, imprinting the skeletal grin and bloody socket-eyes of Lassic into their vision. The chanting stopped and then the suction started.

The five warriors instinctively knew what to do. Rika grabbed Chaz, Chaz clung onto Wren, Wren took Rune by the hand and Rune wrapped an arm tightly about Kyra. The pressure to be sucked into those two dimensional rips was almost unbearable. Being pulled to the left and to the right simultaneously made Chaz feel like he was about to be ripped in two. His head felt like it was about to split open. He had to close his eyes because the pain was just too much for him to bear. Having Wren's arm about him was only a very small comfort, but still a comfort nonetheless.

If they got sucked into that rift they might never see each other ever again. They could fall into the giant gaping maw of some otherworldly beast. There was no telling of what might happen, honestly, but it would be okay as long as they stuck together. The five of them, as long as they remained strong then everything would be okay.

But a chain was only as strong as its weakest link. Lassic swung his halberd up and brought it down upon the cluster of his enemies. His target was, as usual, the Lutz. Rune saw the attack coming from a mile away, but the esper only had a second or two to react to it. He was caught between a rock and a hard place but if he could choose between the two the hard place might seem a little softer when compared to being bashed over the head with a rock.

Wren's hand was slicked with blood anyway, so it was hard to hang on. Rune wrenched his right hand away and shoved Kyra towards the android with his left, already sliding away from his friends only moments after he let go. Wren caught the girl and backed away one agonizingly difficult step, then the bladed staff came down in the space where Rune had once been. The halberd would have gutted him, slitting him down the front.

He had saved himself from an impaling but he might have cursed himself to an even more horrific fate. Rune watched his four friends with an amazingly calm expression as he continued to slide away. Kyra looked back in a panic. "Rune!" She cried. "Come back!"

The esper smiled and then started to laugh. At the most dangerous and deadly moment Rune somehow seemed unconcerned. His boots could garner no traction on the ground as molten lava from either sides of the room was slurped hungrily into the dimensional rifts. It was as if the fiery waters were parting. "It's alright, I'll be okay! I'll be gone for just a little-"

He was cut short mid-sentence when the gateway to darkness swallowed him alive. One moment he was there and the next he was gone, winking out of existence like a candle flame snuffing out. The remaining four warriors watched him go, Rika, Chaz and Kyra clinging to Wren as their anchor in this storm. Once it had devoured Rune the suction died down and the rips sealed themselves, taking the cold and part of the dark away with it.

They let go of one another. The magician was now gone from the world. "Rune�" Chaz said faintly, feeling a lot worse then he ever thought he would over losing the esper. He always thought that he would jump for joy and make a smart comment or two on the day that he would go, but Rune wasn't a bad person; he was just a really annoying one. He never thought he'd admit this to himself, but he'd miss him. He was on the verge of tears again because of him.

Lassic was just as surprised as the others seemed to be. He had done it! The Lutz was gone! His master had seen fit to swallow him up himself! He started to scream with wild laughter, the halberd jiggling in his hand as he giggled. With the loss of Rune the others looked at him with equally dark expressions. They couldn't give up just because they had lost one person, Rune would never want it that way.

Rika stepped away from Chaz and flexed out her claws. The blond hunter followed her example and drew his sword. It was a little splattered with Rika's blood but he tried to ignore that, it wasn't important now. Wren and Kyra no longer had ready access to a handheld weapon but they altered their stances and were prepared to activate their weapons systems or cast a spell. The battle wasn't over yet.

"I� I could cut him into a dozen pieces but I don't think it'd matter, he'd just keep coming back." Chaz muttered. That was all he was really good for, and if that made no difference then he was pretty much useless.

The boy sounded really dazed and tired. Rika felt like she wanted to cry over the loss of Rune but she'd have to do it later. Anger was the only acceptable emotion here. "If we can't shred him to pieces then we'll just have to take him out in a different manner. What else can we do?"

"He's the undead. Us espers got rid of the black wave zombies in Reshel by burning them on huge pyres, but fire might not be enough. He needs to be exorcised by a powerful magician. I was hoping that Rune would be able to do it, but he's gone now. Gods, poor Rune�" Kyra lamented softly. With Rune gone she had been upgraded into the most powerful magician in the room. Any kind of exorcism was now up to her.

"Can you do it?" Chaz demanded. He'd like to hope that it was possible but they were quickly running out of miracles.

"I don't know, that's not my area of expertise! I'm barely out of my acolyte robes, they only grant that kind of knowledge to high-level espers!" She admitted with some panic. After a moment Kyra seemed to reach some kind of inner compromise and let out a nervous breath. "I could try but don't expect much from me. I don't know what to do."

"I will offer you cover fire while you concentrate, Kyra. Chaz and Rika must evade and act as Lassic's decoys. Activating burst rockets unit. Get behind me, please stand clear." Wren said in careful monotone. It sounded like he had devised himself a plan. Well, they didn't have a plan right now anyway so that would have to do.

Panels and plates of his metal armor folded away to reveal Wren's rocket mortar cannons. A soft whining noise came from the machinery as he powered up and calculated rocket trajectories to mark Lassic as the sole target. The others stood back, Kyra behind the android with Chaz and Rika now standing at his sides. Once the fire died down against the dark magician they would attack. Kyra had her eyes closed firmly, her arms folded tightly until they were practically wrapped around herself. She was concentrating very hard.

Lassic lashed out with his halberd and would have ripped into the android like tinfoil if Wren hadn't raised a hand and caught the weapon in mid-strike, the blade slamming against the palm of his hand. His palm cracked, biting into the tough metal tendon-cables beneath. He gritted his teeth and fought to keep the attack from completing itself, while at the same time making preparations for his own attack to be completed.

Not all of Lassic's staff was made of metal. As Wren's napalm rockets fired Chaz immediately had a great idea and moved forward, bringing his sword up and slicing through the wooden shaft of the weapon. It was a tough, rich wood which met the edge of his blade, probably grown on the planet Palma two millennia ago. Still, it was only wood and Chaz sliced it like any other kind, chopping the halberd in two.

All the force in the weapon Wren was resisting suddenly fell away. Moments later charges of fire rained down upon Lassic and the magician could not spread out his heat-resistant cloak in time, burning even deeper and further than Rune's nafoi had ventured. Other charges fell harmlessly into the remaining molten lava and onto bare patches of floor. Chaz looked up, saw that he was in a danger area and the dropped into a crouch and rolled away. The patch of ground he had been standing on burst into flames seconds later.

Wren hadn't expected Chaz to jump out into the line of fire like that only seconds after he had instructed the boy to remain behind. It was fortunate that the weapon was gone but did he really have to scare him like that? "Chaz, don't be so reckless!" He scolded, annoyed.

Chaz grinned at him and Rika. He was fine. Wren didn't need to worry so, though it was sweet that he did. Lassic's scream tore through the area like a dagger through cloth, the napalm clinging to his body and continuing to burn like hot wax, like acidic fire. Brushing it off meant brushing off huge chunks of his own flesh as well. Worms and other parasites wriggled out of the affected areas and fled across his body to safer zones. Lassic hurled his broken weapon to the ground and clawed at the burns, trying to make the pain go away.

Taking her cue Rika ran forward to catch up with Chaz and together they tried to attract all of Lassic's attention and draw it away from Kyra. They had to make the girl seem absolutely invisible. Wren didn't move, blocking Kyra from the enemy's view, but he could hear her murmuring something he couldn't understand under her breath. Her breathing was shallow, she seemed distressed. "Is something wrong?" He asked without turning around.

The chanting stopped but the shallow breathing continued. Kyra stood there on the verge of tears. She wouldn't cry, not even after they had lost one of their own. She had more pride than that, but she was still panicking. "I can't do it. I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. I don't know how to exorcise an evil spirit�"

Lassic picked Chaz up and threw him away, but the very moment the hunter hit the proverbial dirt Rika had smoothly taken his place. The two took turns distracting the dark magician and slowly, gradually, they began to wear him down. Lassic only had two hands, well, one now that Chaz had sliced one cleanly off. Anyway, it was difficult to keep track of them both at the same time. Wren wanted to assist but he stayed with Kyra. "Is it possible to defeat Lassic without the aid of an exorcism?"

"I don't know�" Was all Kyra could say in reply.

With a brutal cry Lassic became fed up with the continuous annoyance that was Chaz and Rika and cast a spell without the use of his magical staff, striking the two with a bolt of raw lightning. It looked like it had really hurt them, Chaz went all wobbly in his legs and then they gave out beneath him, the boy stumbling to the floor. Rika helped him up but Lassic was already raising his hand again for a second strike.

"Tandle, you dried up piece of shit!"

Lightning tore from above but this time it was not under the control of Lassic. It fried the parts of the zombie that were not already burnt or sliced off. Lassic screamed, the conductivity of his armor and helmet bolting the energy through his decrepit and rotting body. Somebody had cast a spell and it certainly hadn't been Kyra, the girl was standing there and acting just as surprised as the others seemed to be. They looked to the direction of that shout.

For a moment it seemed like some kind of weird optical illusion. Rune's staff and only the end of Rune's staff was hovering weightlessly in the air. It was growing, the staff was, until it showed a black-gloved hand gripping the laconia alloy, then an arm. Rune was reappearing piece by piece as if he were slowly passing through a portal and coming back to the normal plane of existence. It swept through him and at last Rune was standing there at the edge of the platform, tall and proud.

Tall and proud by effort only. The poor magician was on the verge of exhaustion, but that only made his startling re-emergence all the more awesome. Rune looked like he had aged five years in the short minutes that he had been absent. Residual crackles of electricity danced about his staff as a side-effect of the spell. He was panting as if he had been through a gruelling physical workout. "You think that you can throw me into Hell and not expect me to crawl back out again? You don't know Rune Walsh very well, zombie boy." He breathed with satisfaction.

Lassic glowered at the Lutz as he tried to hold his traumatized body together with his one remaining hand. His undeath meant that he would not fade away, even if his enemies reduced him to ground meat. That was both a bad and a good thing. He would never yield, and so eventually he would inevitably end up as the victor. The Lutz coming back was merely a taunt. But how had he evaded his master? It didn't make sense. Lassic refused to accept it or to even think about it.

Rika broke out into a huge, bright smile as she continued to hold Chaz up. "You're back! Where did you go?" She called. Rune looked terrible but at least he was still alive.

"Someplace I don't want to remember." Rune replied to Rika weakly without taking his eyes off Lassic. He limped forward a few steps and flashed a sharklike grin. "Look, Lassic, I've had enough of this fiasco. My friends have already done a good enough job at tearing you to pieces. All that remains is to rip your soul from that corpse you call a body. I've got something special planned for you� Just gotta do it before I pass out�" He laughed.

All of Lassic's attention was now upon Rune. Chaz, Rika, Kyra and Wren had become spectators in the battle. The dark magician's deformed face was a study in hate. "I will not die! I will reincarnate again and again! I must work for Him! As long as He exists I will continue to bring calamity to the future of Algo!" Lassic raved madly. It was not the end. It would never be the end.

Rune was calm. Even so the bandages wrapped around his forehead were staining a deep purple. He was proud. This was what the very spirit of the Esper stood for. Lassic was not the only one with eternal life, recurring life. "In that case," Rune said austerely as blue light began to shine from his weapon, "come back as many times as you like. There will always be an incarnation of Lutz waiting for you when you crawl back out of your grave. I can promise you that. Do try again in your next life, now get out of my sight!"

That voice, the way he talked, that special kind of arrogance, it was like Rune but it was not. Somewhere deep inside of him was the memory of the spirit of Noah, venerated esper of the past. He had been his bitter enemy when his heart had once beat, had saved the life of the Heroine when she had been but a squalling babe, and he had been instrumental in making that Heroine queen. A history of failures which would echo through the ages, continually unbroken. Lassic would never be able to win against the Lutz.

It was far too much for him to bear.

"Legeon!"

The light which flashed from Rune's staff was purifying, cleansing. Lassic was already screaming moments before the spell actually struck him, out of anger, pain and frustration. He would have to live with his failures for the rest of eternity. His flesh liquefied, his bones dissolved, his armor rusted and his robes were rapidly worn away. It was hideous to watch, but also somehow fascinating. "You fiend, Lutz!" He gurgled as he reached into his robes. "You may have defeated me, but you'll never get�"

A green light shone in his rotting hand as he raised it high above his head. He turned slightly, facing the remaining bubbling lava and bent his arm back to hurl the holy light into the fiery soup. Chaz started. That was exactly the item they had been searching for. "The eclipse torch!" He shouted, alerting the others.

He realised that Rika had been missing for several crucial seconds. As Lassic raised the torch way up high in preparation to throw it Rika pounced him from behind, leaping like an acrobat and flying over Lassic's dissolving body. "Aha!" She cried triumphantly as she snatched the torch from his hand, making away with it and landing in a graceful crouch with the torch safe and intact. It was a hardy little thing and it was theirs.

Lassic could not protest the theft and the final humiliation to his rapidly ending life. His screams were becoming strangled, gurgled, just as his body was not a body anymore but a mesh of altered chemicals. The light from Rune's spell was intense, it was destroying him. With one great, final burning push Lassic was exorcised, at last banished from the world. In the end all that was left of him was a pile of dust and a few specks of rust.

And of course the horrible, horrible memories. Rune left with him, if only momentarily. He lurched forward and fell flat on his face in a faint, or merely a deep sleep. It was hard to tell.

The room became quiet and it was finally over. Lassic was gone.
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