"Lyn! Are you okay?" Alfaic shouted, hovering beside Lyn who was still struggling from recovering from her lightspeed collapse. He hovered beside Lyn's right arm, to which she used him to prop herself up slowly after the fall. "Here, let me help."
"I'm... fine." Lyn stuttered, pushing herself up from the ground. Blue sparks suddenly ignited, shifting her balance and causing her to tumble to the ground further.
Parts of Lyn's combat suit were damaged in the collision, softening pieces of her weakened armor. The elastic fibers on them were sifting apart from the heat of her onslaught, and due to its over usage, it was only a matter of time before her weakness was exploited.
Staring ahead of the scenery of the engineering hallway, Lyn noticed a conjured red barrier that separated both of the rooms apart. Cain spoke to Ardine and Claire in an incoherently garbled state that was impossible to make out. But her vision was fine, for she saw him snap his fingers. Afterward, Cain approached the red barrier and stepped through its permeated energy easily as if it wasn't there at all. From the distance through the barrier, Lyn noticed four unusually shaped droids rampaging toward her allies. She couldn't help them.
Lyn used Alfaic to prop herself up once more, standing straight to face Cain head on. She held Alfaic by her side and gripped him firmly.
"She has yet to unlock her true potential," Cain said, gesturing his hand toward Claire. "All she needs is a little push and she will understand that he true loyalty lies within Mother. But you, Gemma. You've given up hope."
"Enough of this," Lyn spat, slicing down toward the ground in irritation. "Let's end this."
Cain chuckled, showing no remorse for the damage he caused to Ardine and Claire. His eyes then traced upward, scanning the top of the engineering hall and its extraordinarily distant and spacious transparent vista of a ceiling.
The rustling of a foreign tree grown artificially and bred to host the dark matter established a sense of horrendous hostility in the premises. Off in the distance where the light of the sun was threadbare, a tree that resembled to one similar from Elaina's defeat in Llafiella grew black fruit that resembled the color of the matter. The major difference of this tree was that it was nearly ten times the size of Elaina's tree, and its bare fruit was exactly the memories of the fallen Qliphosians in the form of a fruit. After the rustling of the tree stopped, the blue-hued leaves began generating dark ink, which expunged and lingered from the top of the tree like a black smog. The smog lifted itself and expanded itself until the same darkened shadow that covered the top of the station was present.
"Of all of Mother's influence that deigns supreme throughout this world, this tree one of the absolute strongest," Cain stated. "And with enough time, her will shall consume this world," He then pointed at Lyn and Alfaic, sporting a cunning smile. "You all have something that belongs to me. A fragment of Mother's will."
Lyn remembered. When Elaina was defeated, Lyn and Alfaic entered the tree that formed as a result of it all ending. She remembered a blue fragment that stung her senses, remembering her true name was Gemma.
But she didn't have it, nor did she know where it all was.
"It was Seth's, but now you have pillaged it. Give it to me." Cain commanded.
Lyn lied upon the idea of having his fragment. "Come and get it."
She dashed forward with Alfaic extended, only for her to phase completely through Cain as he shifted his balance to the side. She regained her balance at the end instead of toppling over as she once did, turning to face him with an impudent glare.
"So quick to resort to violence, Gemma," Cain said, sweeping the back of hand on his shoulder. "Must you always be this barbaric? I guess, if this is what Seth saw before he was murdered by you, then I might as well stoop to your level as well."
Alfaic's handle vibrated in Lyn's palm, deterring her from her anger against Krin. "Calm down, okay?" He insisted. "My brother's trying to get to you-"
"Shut up!" Lyn yelled, although Alfaic was unsure if she was speaking to him or Cain. She leaped into the sky and slammed down with a spinning slash against Cain, who immediately drew Lyn in with a gravitational pull from a single hand gesture. He held Alfaic's edge, pulled Lyn close, and jammed his foot into her with a solid kick in her gut. She flew back and released Alfaic, leaving the two on the ground.
"But of course you've forgotten," Cain laughed. "I'm immortal."
Lyn collected herself and stood up once more. Her hair was messy and entangled from all of the hardships she faced with Krin. Now that she knew that Alfaic was their brother, however, she wanted to play into it to learn more about the truth.
"So what does that make Alfaic then?" Lyn began. "Your brother?"
Cain chuckled. "What?" He said.
"Alfaic. Your brother." Lyn repeated. "Or was that so ages ago that you've become daft to it all? Does that word 'brother' make you afraid, Krin?"
Cain scoffed. "I have no patience, nor the time for cowards," He said. "Yes, I knew all along that he was one of us. Hidden from us in sight in the form of a sword... just so. It's engraved in my memory, and it will forever do so."
"Then you should know... that you have a father, right?" Lyn interjected.
Cain's eyes swiveled to the side, thinking that Lyn was crazy for stating such an outrageous belief. "These games that you play... will get you nowhere." He said. "Abandon it."
"Oh, you're in denial," Lyn continued to pressure him. "Or are you truly that closeminded?"
Alfaic watched in awe as he immediately took notice of Lyn's expansive vocabulary and demeanor shift, speaking as if she were an actual human instead of a robot. He wasn't entirely sure how she was able to achieve such a drastic change. Was it the perception of her past? The exasperated feeling of seeing Krin repeatedly, like a broken record? Or was it the amount of stress bottled within her released, after witnessing those around her fall after being subjected to the death of thousands of innocent Qliphosians? Perhaps it was all of them combined. Either way, it was nearly impossible to differentiate the current Lyn now compared to her first arrival.
Alfaic remembered how dense she was the moment she wielded him. Something unexplainable had caused her to evolve to this very moment, where there not only are glimpses of humanity within her, but truthful and honest feelings within. But he recognized that those feelings needed to be controlled, which Lyn definitively lacked.
There was nothing holding her back from exuding these emotions. There was nothing to lose, nor was there anything that could stop her from how destructive she could be. Alfaic knew after their initial altercation the dangers of it all; how it could be manipulated. Weaponized. And the end result of it all was that if Lyn truly wanted to find the truth of her past and creation, then nothing was stopping her.
"You can't accept it," Lyn stated, flipping her ponytail to the side to shake off the entangled mess from her bangs. "Because you're just so rooted in your Rot Mother, you've closed out all possibilities of anything in this point. And that just makes you weak."
"W...Weak?" Cain's voice faltered at the intimidation tactic. His intellectual and calm demeanor was beginning to fade. "You dare insult me...? After everything Mother has done for you and I?"
Lyn kept quiet as Alfaic rose toward her grasp. She gripped him and assumed her combat stance.
"Gemma... you insolent... little... worm..." Cain mouthed off. His shoulders lay tense, and his veins bulged in spite. "You have a gift given to you by our God runs rampant in your veins, and you waste it!? This time... I truly... have NO remorse for you!"
Before Cain could lash out, a detonation of godly energy quaked the entire engineering hall. Lyn nearly tripped, while tree above the both of them began to rustle, leaving a number of dark matter fruit raining from the sky to plant the hall with its numerous memories. Cain's widened in shock and failed to move. He knew the energy had come from the entrance hall, where Claire and Ardine were previously trapped.
The quaking energy sent a wave of golden aether toward the engineering hall, passing through the red barrier Cain conjured. The moment it connected with both Lyn and Cain, their tethers of immortality were completely severed, rendering them vulnerable. Cain, who realized it was the first time his tethers were removed, clutched his chest in agony after sensing the littlest of his heartbeats. His eyes convulsed, and his face shriveled up in terror.
Lyn, however, remained her usual self. "I don't need your remorse." She said. "Nor do I need your God."
Cain screamed at the top of his lungs and charged directly at Lyn, pinning her and shoving the two of them into one of the dark matter fruits. They entered the memories of the workers of the space station, who watched the Council of Seven declare their speech to supply the droids with their sacrificial power.
The two workers assaulted each other with a barrage of punches, with Lyn's possessor being the victorious one. She kicked Cain out of the fruit and charged out with Alfaic in hand, stabbing Alfaic directly above his armpit to bleed him dry. Cain cried out in agony, lifting his feet and kicking Lyn behind him toward another dark matter fruit.
Lyn possessed the memory of one of the Council of Seven members, holding a grand event of celebration to recognize the creation of the space station. Titled "D's Space Station" originally, there was an unknown woman who stood amidst the stage shrouded in mystery who held the ceremony to its utmost and highest regard. Before Lyn could get through to see who it was, Cain's possessor knocked her out of the matter fruits, sending them back to reality.
Alfaic ignited his engine system in the blade, propelling Lyn further away from Cain to save her from harm. As soon as Cain left the matter fruit, he lashed out crazily with several red aethereal bolts of energy, trying to strike Lyn directly to seize her. As Lyn landed successfully, she found herself landing on the opposing side of another dark matter fruit, with Cain on the other side. Without another word, they rushed toward the fruit and dove inside at the same exact time, clashing together with the possessors of a male and female couple who visited the space station for an affectionate date.
Though the clash was outreigned by the energy being emitted from the entrance hall. The waves of light vanquished the dark matter fruits, leaving both of them exposed out of the illusions. With Cain caught off guard, Lyn slashed Alfaic down against Cain's left hand, slicing through midway to nearly sever his limb. Cain snatched Lyn's neck and drew her close, pinning her to the ground to suffocate her. As Alfaic tried to ignite himself to push himself out, Cain stepped on Alfaic's handle and pressured him further.
"I... will NOT... LET YOU... KILL ME!" Cain cried.
Just before Lyn was about to lose consciousness, a final wave of energy shattered the red barrier, revealing Claire in her newly acquired transformation. The four droids that assaulted her and Ardine had been vanquished. Ardine, who had held Claire before she could collapse on the ground, snatched the power of her left hand and imbued his rifle with the penetrating power of her energy.
With a single inhale of his soul, Ardine primed his rifle, aimed it toward Cain, and fired it through the center of his chest. Cain released his weakened grip on Lyn and Alfaic, sending him shuddering against the walls of the engineering hall. After regaining her poise, holding Alfaic by her side, she watched as a staggered Cain clutched his convulsing wound; an entire fist-sized hole punctured through his chest, leaving nothing but blood dripping through the void of nothingness.
"I..." Cain begun, quivering in his voice. "I will not... lose..."
Before Lyn could make any sudden movements to execute him, the GLAIV Droid descended from the skies and snatched Cain swiftly with its bulky mechanical arms. It held him tightly underneath its muscular frame and leaped toward the wall, ascending it with its monkey-like climbing ability.
Ardine, who rushed toward Lyn's aid, began bombarding the GLAIV with energy-filled bullets to strike them both down. But the GLAIV was too fast for any of it, and they escaped toward the top of the engineering hall and out of sight.
"Fuck," Ardine mouthed off, setting his rifle by his side. "Lyn, are you good?"
"I'm fine," Lyn said, letting Alfaic go to hover beside her. "Is Claire okay?"
"She's... fine," Ardine stuttered. "Something happened. She did something to save me. Grew wings... and changed entirely in front of my eyes. It was all some kind of magic... that I can't even quite explain at this point."
Lyn looked over Ardine's shoulder, watching as Claire feebly stumbled over through the entrance to the engineering hall. She rushed over to her aid with Alfaic and Ardine by her side, noticing that the "magical wings" that he had spoke of were nowhere to be seen. Ardine moved toward her and supported her shoulder by letting her lean on his flank.
"We're good," Claire whispered. "I'm... I'm so tired."
Ardine chuckled. "Saved me, yet again, for the umpteenth time..." He said.
"Krin's getting away," Lyn said, looking above the engineering hall until the visible matter tree was in her sight. "I have to go after him."
"He's not gonna get far," Ardine said. "If he's going up, then we'll catch him."
"Ardine's right," Alfaic chimed in. "There has to be some safe haven here. This station was built exactly for that for the lower levels, I'd guess."
"No, no," Claire said, approaching the three while adjusting her posture to be as straight as possible. "I'm fine. More than fine, actually. I feel... relieved."
"Relieved?" Ardine asked. "Over?"
Claire giggled, refusing to answer the truth about her professed happiness. Her family had successfully passed on with the help of herself, and the promise that Szene entrusted to her made her giddy and hopeful. She looked up at Ardine with gleaming eyes, promising herself not to tell despite it being a new formulation. "It's a secret." She said.
After ascending to the third floor of the space station, the four found themselves in a large scale reflective room filled to the brim with light beams. The floors, walls, and ceilings were made of reflective glass, giving the dark matter tree sufficient light to thrive. The ten-fold scale tree stood in their wake, surrounding nearly all of Qliphos Station's radius. After closer examination, the dome shaped station from the outside, including the Rot-infused cable system to hold the obelisk-like tower, seemed to be designed as a purely supplemental creation to support the tree's lengthy shape.
What seemed like an endless stretch of the sky was nothing but an illusion to support the tree. The four approached the base of the tree and shot their glances up to the top, hoping to see beyond the expanse.
"This tree looks a lot like..." Alfaic began.
"Elaina." Lyn said.
"Elaina?" Claire asked.
"Someone we had to save in the past," Alfaic elaborated. "When she passed, a tree was created in her wake. And it contained... a fragment of the Rot Mother's energy."
Ardine's eyes lit up. "So that's what it was." He said.
"You know what we're talking about?" Alfaic asked.
Ardine reached into his leather pouch and unveiled two of the same exact fragments inside. They were duplicate fragments that emitted a light blue hue, teeming with energy within. "I found two of them after Lyn stopped Kaiden in the Bountiful Sands," He said. "Krin must have been hiding them."
"What are they used for?" Claire asked.
"Don't know..." Ardine said, zipping up his pouch. "But I have a hunch that this tree has one too."
Lyn approached the dark matter tree, but stopped as soon as she collided with an invisible barrier surrounding it. She examined it much closer, noticing the darkened violet hue permeating through the bark and how it tingled the back of her neck as it tried to escape. Whispers began to surface through once more, collected from the memories of the deceased. She turned around to face Claire with a solid resolve.
"I've seen it myself," Lyn began. "This tree is made up of the memories of all the dead Qliphosian who once stood here. Their inability to pass on... their cries and screams... I can still hear them. They're being tortured endlessly by the Rot."
Claire's face sunk in utter depression, knowing that her race was all but alive. It was extinct.
"But... we can change that," Lyn continued, looking exchanging glances with Claire. "Only you can set them free, Claire."
"Me?" Claire said.
Ardine approached her from behind and rested his palm on her shoulder. "Lyn's not wrong," He begun. "All of the people who've suffered in the past deserve to move on. It's about time, don't you think?"
Her allies gathered around her, but left her sufficient space to make her decision. Claire recalled the same exact memory of the razing of Szene's village, along with the endless mistakes the Council of Seven created for the populace. It had been two long years ever since then, and to know how those poor lost and fallen souls were used to fuel the one thing that created their demise was all that it took for her to accept the responsibility. Claire clenched her left fist tightly, summoning the golden glowing aura that once angelically took control of her. She approached the invisible barrier and pressed her palm against it, repelling the force that protected the dark matter tree.
Silver bindings shackled Claire's left hand, preventing her from pushing forward. Whispers of the deceased began to cloud her mind, preventing her from using the full utilization of her power. Those hardships that were mentioned two years prior began to take its course through one mind. Whispers of death, loss, and tragedy befell her ears. Her senses were being overloaded, and it seemed there was no point in pushing forward.
Yet, there was. Lyn, Ardine, and Alfaic stood behind her and pressed their combined might forward to join Claire's. The burden was shifted among all four, giving Claire ample energy to strike. Tears in the invisible barrier were clear as day now, and the tree's energy was dissipating from attempting to shield itself from harm. After the whispers of the dead rose to its maximum state, all of it ended the moment the barrier shattered, sending fragments of energy down toward the glass floors.
The energy shattered parts of the glass across the entire room, shaking the entire foundation that supported the obelisk-like tree. Now that the tree was free, Claire extended her left hand forward, combined with all the strength of her allies imbued within it. But it wasn't just them.
The ghostly illusions of Szene, Thatcher, Mossen, and Pirelle, along with all of the fallen Qliphosians in their prime, stood behind her wake and pressed their hands together to lean against Claire's shoulders. Claire shouted to summon her full power and pressed against the tree one last time to vanquish it from existence.
All of the dark matter fruits and their gelatinous compositions exploded after being transformed into white blobs. One by one, the thousands of fruits popped, releasing clear and crystalline silver liquid that rained down upon the four. As soon as the viscous liquid reached the glass floors they stood up, yellow glowing energies began to rise up from beneath them, clouding the atmosphere. It wasn't long until Claire and the others knew what was going on:
The Florians, the same yellow glowing flowers with jellyfish-like tentacles, rose through the sky all collected and bound together. Millions of them weaved together to create the illusion of the deceased Qliphosians floating in mid-air. Their joyous faces scattered across the fruitless tree, hovering and soaring through the skies like comets in outer space. All of the thousands trapped within the hollow tree collectively looked down upon Claire, smiling and approving the release of their souls. Even the ghostly image of Szene, Thatcher, Mossen, and Pirelle reappeared again, saluting to her without speaking a single word.
Lyn, Ardine, and Alfaic all watched as the Florians, whose true identities where the souls of the Qliphosians, departed to the heavens. Their golden aura, matched exactly to Claire's supreme display of power, created a column of light that pierced through the base of the matter tree. After all of them combined to create the final piece to destroy the tree, a massive detonation of light vanquished the ten-fold tree in an instant, scattering silver water across the atmosphere. The spirits disappeared, and were passed onto heaven.
"It's finally over," Claire spoke aloud to herself. Her hair and body, all dripping with the liquid from the tree, gazed up to catch the same blue fragment of the Rot Mother, gently hovering down into Claire's embrace. She caught it and let it rest on her hands, examining its detail much closer to see what it really was. But she couldn't piece it together. She clenched it tightly in her hand and turned around to face her comrades. "I can't hear them anymore. They've all moved on."
"It's about time we did too," Ardine said, patting Claire's shoulder with pride. "We should catch up with-"
The serenity of the passing of souls ceased immediately after the vanishing of the tree signaled a massive earthquake. The foundation of the entire space station was beginning to implode and cave in, sending the large pieces of architecture down toward the bottom in a scene of colossal destruction. The glass floors began to crumble all at once, leaving their footing weak.
"We have to get out of here!" Ardine shouted.
"Take the orbit elevator!" Alfaic cried, paving the way toward the exit. "Krin's still up there!"
Lyn snatched Alfaic's handle and Claire's hand, dragging them into the elevator as fast as she could. Large chunks of the ceiling caved in behind Ardine before he could make it in time.
"WARNING, STATION OVERLOAD," The automated voice of the station stated. "ORBIT ELEVATOR REACHING EMERGENCY LEVELS. ASCENDING TO FINAL LEVEL."
The orbit elevator completely shut before Ardine could make it. The flickering of lights inside made it impossible to see. Lyn jammed Alfaic through the small crack of the elevator door and pried it open, watching as Ardine held onto the bottom of the base with both of his hands.
From below, a gust of wind blew upward to signal the elevator's movement. The collapse of the bottom floors of the entire station was imminent; it all caved together in a torment of explosive disaster. The four skyrocketed up the elevator with Ardine still teetering on the brink of death.
"Grab my hand!" Claire cried, extending her right hand outward.
Lyn joined her as well, seizing both of Ardine's hands to pull him up. With their combined strength, they were successful in pulling him inside. The cable wiring above the top of the elevator increased rapidly in speed as the door shut behind them, leaving the four ascending to the top of METIS at an accelerated pace. It wasn't long until they would reach the top, where they would finally meet Cain and the origin of the Rot's influence in Qliphos for a final confrontation.