I stepped forwards and let the lean muscle of my shoulder do the main work as I slammed Cyper forwards again. Lloyd backed up quickly away from Cypher, but I continued to step forward, and with each step we resumed the status quo. Each step, each back step, each step again, it was a free flowing simplistic dance.
“Are we just going to continue this?” I asked. “For I do not have time for your stupidity.”
Lloyd gave me a sharp look that the lesser nobodies almost cringed at. With this sudden registered look, I understood that he was no meaning to defeat me but merely stalling. I quickly summoned more lesser nobodies as guards for if those blasted Renegades and Yuan showed up, it would only hamper my progress further.
“So this is your intention,” I said into the silence of the area. “You are indeed weak and desperate then. I will not give you time.”
Lloyd didn’t say anything, but tightened his grip around his blades.
“You said it yourself,” Lloyd said calmly. “No time for talk.”
“Interesting,” I answered. With one motion of my hand, I began summoning. The pure shock on Lloyd’s face made me smirk a bit. “I call upon the summon of the eternal flames, Effrette.”
The fires that roared around us came suddenly and violently. Effrette’s summon was one of the most violent of the summons, and the air became instantly arid and nauseating even to me. As the summon ended, Effrette’s roar ran though nothingness. Lloyd was in complete shock. I smirked a bit as the giant finally stepped out of the flames.
Of all the summons, Effrette looked the least comparable with either human or beast. The best I could ever compare him with would be the form of a genie. Extremely muscular arms stretched out from an extremely muscular torso that seemed to suddenly get caught off into red flames that took not even the slightest form of feet. Atop his shoulders sat a human head with horns that seemed to sprout right from his temples and the come forwards like a ram’s.
“Pactmaker,” was the only thing that came from Effrete.
“I adhere,” I answered. “As always.”
There was no answer to this except a roar. I breathed out a bit and then turned my attention back to Lloyd. It was then that I noticed that he had slid one blade into its sheath and was clasping the other blade with one hand on the handle and the other hand on the blade. The feeling that was radiating out of Lloyd made me confused for a moment, but then as the information came together I smirked.
“What is this Lloyd?” I smirked. “A weakling without a pact couldn’t even begin to try and summon.”
Lloyd did not answer. Instead, I felt the energy within him rise once more to call forth a summon. Effrete felt this as well and tensed. The flames around us grew hotter, but both Lloyd and I kept our faces composed like two people playing chess.
“I summon thee,” Lloyd said. “Corine.”
“Cornie…” I mimicked. There was no summon named Corine. I had made pacts with all of the summon sprits. How was it that I had not heard of this summon? No. He was lying. There was no summon named Corine. It was some sort of taunt. My fingers closed even tighter around Cypher.
But when the summon around Lloyd faded, one of the lesser nobodies I was using to see through noticed a small fox like animal with a bell around it’s neck by Lloyd’s foot. As the information of sight continued to come into my mind, I saw that the fox had two tails that curled backwards on each other making a figure eight, and instead of paws, this ‘Corine’ had what could only be described as hooves. The fox creature growled and seemed to run straight up Lloyd’s side. Once at his shoulder, the creature spoke.
“I am Corine! Summon of Mana!” the fox all but squeaked.
“Summon of Mana?” I repeated. The last time I had heard the word Mana it had been when the Karlan tree was still thriving and Martel….. “Blasphemy,” I finally answered. “There is no summon of Mana. What are you?”
“I already stated it. I am the summon of Mana, Corine,” the creature answered.
I turned my head in the direction of Effrete for he seemed to be considering this himself.
“Kratos,” Effrete said calmly. “I sense a fragment of Mana within this ‘Corine’ Should I still attack?”
I turned my head back to Lloyd and glared at him considering this. If Lloyd had found a fragment of Mana and this fragment became a summon…..then Lloyd truly did have a summon partner. But there was no way to anticipate what this summon could do.
Cypher wailed at me begging for me to make a quick kill, but I continued to think. As I directed my thoughts at Lloyd, I found just what I had expected. Yuan had trained him to try and reflect my mind away. What a nuisance, but I knew it would only continue as long as Lloyd had the strength to keep his mind away. That would be his weakness, his fatal flaw.
“Effrete,” I commanded. “Let us deal with these two and continue. Make this fight as quick as possible and end both of them.”
“As you wish Kratos,” Effrete answered.
The ground began to crack as fire exploded in every direction. Waves of flames started at Lloyd and his puny summon. I smirked a bit but caught myself frowning more than intoned.
“You had your chance to live Lloyd,” I said darkly. “You should have run.”
With a quick snap of my wrist, I sent Cypher following the trail of the flames at Lloyd. Before either the flames or Cypher’s nine heads hit Lloyd, the crashed into some sort of barrier. I retracted my wrist a moment and then sent another crack forwards, and Effrete once again launched out his flames. Still the barrier approximately five inches around Lloyd and Corine remained firm.
Then I noticed something. With all my stress on receiving mental images from the lesser nobodies, I had forfeited my original senses namely hearing. As I retracted the stress on sight, I began to hear the low tones of a bell chiming ever so slightly. It seemed to dissipate from every direction, but as I focus more on hearing it, I found that it was indeed coming from Lloyd’s direction…from Corine’s direction.
So this was what the summon could do. Mana’s summon…it still didn’t make any sense at all that Corine should exist. The Karlan tree was dead. DEAD. There should be no reason that Corine lived, and yet here he was…a summon of Mana…that could only mean that the tree lived somewhere…
I realized it then, Yuan was hunting for the remains of the Karlan tree wherever it might be. And if Martel’s resurrection was to come full circle, the tree’s last remaining trace would probably be elapsed by Martel.
“It seems you’re being used Lloyd,” I smirked. “Yuan is using you for his own foolish game. Martel is revived, I will personally go and pay Yuan a visit.” I made a wave motion with my hand, and Effrete’s flames shrunk. “Why not help me Lloyd?” I asked.
“I will not be used by ANYONE!” Lloyd answered. “I am only allied with Yuan because we both share common interest in stopping you.”
“Your ‘hero’ charade is getting annoying Lloyd,” I answered. “I will put an end to this.”
“Corine! Let’s go!” Lloyd said.
“You got it Lloyd!” Corine answered, and suddenly I felt the barrier go down.
Before I could react, Lloyd had taken several large steps and broken my whip barrier. I suddenly found myself face to face with the boy his swords against the handle of Cypher in an X formation. I backed up just enough and slid the blades away with Cypher’s heads. Lloyd backed up as well as to avoid the heads.
“Effrete!” I ordered sharply. “Fight!”
The flames were instantly raised and roaring once more. Effrete charged Lloyd, but Corine jumped from Lloyd’s shoulder and met Effrete. Both seemed to come at each other with the intent to end the other. Effrete had both hands in the formation of claws ready to smash Corine, but the fox formed a barrier around itself at the last minute. No matter how hard Effrete tried to clasp Corine, the fox’s barrier prevented him.
“Enough of this Effrete!” Corine yelled. “How dare a summon attack another summon!”
“Silence Corine!” Effrete answered. “The Pactmaker has ordered it! And I will adhere to the pact!”
“Effrete!” Corine yelled, “Would you honestly adhere even when it will kill so many???”
“It is a contract!” Effrete yelled back.
I turned my head for a moment to feel Effrete’s battle, but I could barely get even a small feel before I heard Lloyd yell out again. I brought Cypher up just in time to block up as Lloyd tried to bring both blades down at my head.
“You’re being serious Lloyd,” I smirked.
Lloyd didn’t answer but brought his sword up to slash at my shoulder. One of Cypher’s heads beat it back. My ears trailed back even then to Effrete and Corine. It had never been heard of that two summons fight, and a strange curiosity had wrapped around me.
“Corine what will you do?” Effrete challenged.
I blocked Lloyd’s upward thrust and sent three heads after him.
“I will protect Lloyd as part of my pact,” Corine answered.
“How dare you make a pact with a human! It is a disgrace to all summoning!” Effrete growled.
“You are disgraceful for pacting with a Pactmaker who has obviously fallen!” Corine shot back.
I continued my attacks on Lloyd.
“I pacted to revive the Goddess!” Effrete yelled.
“I pacted to recover Karlan.”
Lloyd blocked two of the heads instantly, but the third came close to slicing open his jugular vein.
“Karlan is dead you fool,” Effrete answered.
I stepped forwards to try and edge the last of Cypher’s head at Lloyd to finish him, but he backed up once again.
“Karlan lives!” Corine answered. “Martel is the one who is dead!”
“Martel is not dead,” I roared at both of them.
There was an almost eerie silence that suddenly consumed the area. Lloyd who was out of whip reach almost seemed to freeze in his sword stance. Both Effrete and Corine turned their heads towards me, and all around the panic of lesser nobodies ran through my mind. I dissipated all this excess random noise, and all that was left was silence.
Even breathing was hushed to where the ear could not detect it. Every muscle seemed frozen in perpetual space. My fingers tightened around Cypher to the point that I knew that the knuckles were white. Each flick of my wrist and each snap of each head of Cypher whistled the silent tune of death.
“Martel is not dead,” I repeated. “She is alone….she is suffering in a prison….And I will save her.”
“Kratos….” Lloyd said quietly. “You need to stop…and think…”
“She is suffering in a prison of nothingness…”
“…Martel wouldn’t…want it this way…you need to think….”
“Lloyd,” I cut in sharply. “I have stopped, and I have thought. Over and Over and Over again. This is the way I have chosen.”
“If you would stop letting your feelings rule you and actually think!” Lloyd yelled.
“I HAVE NO FEELINGS LEFT!” I yelled. “All I carry right now are memories of feelings.”
“So? You shouldn’t let them rule you! You must try logic!”
“I have used logic! I have used logic for centuries! You were an infant when this war began. You have no right to judge Martel, me, or anything.”
“I have no right to judge?” Lloyd repeated. “I HAVE NO RIGHT?”
“Yes and now look who is letting his emotions slip.”
“That is where you are wrong Kratos. WRONG. WRONG. WRONG. I have every right to judge you. I have every right in the worlds to.”
“Shut up now Lloyd,” I answered. “Go to sleep for a while. I might even revive you some day after Martel is revived. I will end this now.”
I flicked my wrist and Cypher hissed and screamed out death threats. They were met instantly with metal, and they roars of anger rang out in the silence. The sound of deflection followed sharply. I raised my whip again. I would end this.
“MOTHER WOULDN’T WANT THIS!”
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Cliff hanger <_< or is it? Dun dun dun dun dun *shot*
;A; gah my nerves are shot now. *bangs head on desk*
