"What is happening to him?" I said.
I knew Jessie could substitute anyone's perception of reality using her Aegis. When she came in with the helicopter, a sense of relief washed over me. Jessie's Aegis could slow down and even sent her opponents into disarray in almost an instant. But, instead of it weakening him, somehow, Kian seemed to be more... restless?
Apart from his piercing glare, the unbridled malice swallowed the entire area whole, suffocating me. A ragged gasp escaped my mouth as I tried my hardest to not faint from it. Lily was sucking air through her gritted teeth.
Somehow, Jessie's Aegis did something entirely different from what Lily and I had expected. The boon we thought had come for us immediately turned into a bane.
"Jessie."
I tap at my earpiece. "What's going on? What are you doing to him?"
"I... I showed Kian his deepest fears, the things that he is really afraid of. It's only that. I swear!"
Kian slowly rose up and looked at me. His snow white Aegis crystals popping out from every part of his body as time passed. Even Lily, who had an absolute advantage over Kian with her unique specialty, was reluctant to move from her spot. I understood what she was thinking right then since there was only one logical way to go about this.
In order to escape, we must defeat Kian. His sudden change in behavior was not something anyone of us had predicted beforehand. Aside from him, there was that flying fortress hovering near the transparent dome, with its large turret's muzzle pointing at us.
"You don't suppose that thing will fire, right?" asked Aegis in my mind.
"No. Though I'm pretty sure it's because Kian is here with us... If Amathelia is in that thing, then that means she's waiting for Kian to move out of the firing range before she can act."
Felicia was still trying to make Kian snap out of it, but unless Jessie willed it herself, such a thing would never happen.
"Jessie, stop it right now. You're making it worse," I said through my earpiece.
"S-Sorry. Then I'll deactivate my ability."
A moment later, Kian stopped moving, his mouth agape. It took him no time to recover as he cast a sharp glare at me.
"I have a bad feeling about this..."
Suddenly, Kian took a few steps forward before sending white spikes in my direction. Those spikes had popped out from the Aegis crystals underneath his uniform, so it appeared as if his stomach had just shot out rays of white light.
The spikes closed in with no time at all, when it crashed into Lily's crystallized body. She stepped in to block Kian's attack and then ran across the battlefield, sending sprays of snow up high in the air. Lily's agility was superhuman enough that a loud boom followed her the moment she started running towards Kian.
Kian didn't utter a word. Having Lily as his opponent, I expected him to be wary of her movements. But, his eyes were surprisingly calm after what just happened. To me, it appeared that he already found his reason to be fighting us here, aside from the fact it was an order from Amathelia.
Kian cracked his neck. "That nightmare I had experienced... I am sure of it this time. I don't want to lose anyone I care about. Not anymore. From now on, I will make sure that my daughter will be safe... for eternity."
He shook his head like he was talking to someone in his head. "I'm sorry, Mom. I now know that the only way for me to save those I love now is to kill them. This way, no one will be able to hurt them anymore."
Felicia, whose upper body sprouted from his back, nodded in agreement. However, Lily's figure was just ten meters away from them.
"..." The Aegis crystals Kian had spread all over the area started to glitter, which was a caveat of the worst to come from him. From now on, he intended to fight with full force.
Felicia also readied herself, when Kian stomped the ground, causing the snow underneath his Aegis crystals rose up in a huge wave towards me. Lily immediately countered with pink pillars which blocked the entire view of the white wave. After that, she closed in onto Kian as she shielded herself from his Aegis crystals slashing and whipping at her.
More waves of snow crashed into Lily, but due to her Aegis Full Form, it did nothing except for slowing her down. Tendrils and swords of white darted at her and exploded upon contact.
Every step that Lily took, she inevitably converted the Aegis crystals that Kian had spread below her feet into hers, and by the time she was just a few feet away, Felicia started her counter. Raising her palms, she manipulated the air around herself to constrict Lily's movement.
At first, it managed to do just that, but, since Lily was immune to Aegis's specialties and its effects, she broke free a few moments later.
Felicia moved in just in time to shield Kian and her physical, glimmering white body exploded into pieces from Lily's immediate punch. Lily was open to attacks after that, and Kian grabbed her arms quickly to hold her in place.
"You are a tough one," said Kian through gritted teeth.
Lily kicked at his torso, but instead of knocking him backward, it did nothing. The armor of Aegis crystals underneath his uniform definitely shattered into pieces from the desperate kick, but his torso itself had turned the color of gray.
"You..." Lily twisted her body. Her unexpected maneuver caused Kian to let his guard down, and a second later, she sent his body crashing onto the ground hard.
"Even if you hardened your body using Matter Manipulation, it can only do so much!"
Kian threw his legs upward and it grabbed hold of Lily's neck. Then, with his Aegis crystals wrapped around his boots, he seemingly willed the air to propel his legs and slammed Lily onto the ground as well.
"What do you know about me, huh?!" said Kian as he glared at Lily, "If you compare your suffering to what I had been through..."
Clusters of pink Aegis crystals emerged from the ground beside them and it instantly latched onto Kian. With it, Lily got back up on her feet and the clusters proceeded to imprison Kian within.
"All I hear is whining of a loser. If you put in the effort from the very beginning, most of this stuff you have brought upon your daughter would never have happened," said Lily.
A gray hand punched through the crystal prison and grabbed Lily's right leg. Then, a surge of white Aegis crystals burst forth from Kian's emerging figure, forming what seemed to be deformed sets of large claws protruding from his body. Half of his face was covered in his own crystals.
"You will never understand our pain!" he shouted.
When he was struggling before, I had crept in close to his side. He didn't notice my presence, not even an iota of it. Without hesitation, I threw my flames at him from his rear and it swallowed him whole. Lily got away from his grasp quickly.
She formed a large pink lance from the snow and wielded it. But since she couldn't separate her Aegis crystals like Caesar, the lance had a cord connecting it to the crystallized ground. I amassed my multi-colored flames, coalescing into the shape of a carnivorous beast with multiple rows of sharp teeth.
"Aaaaargh!" shouted Kian. The ground cracked suddenly and the flames engulfing him disappeared, revealing a pair of white claws still protruding out from his body.
Though, something was different. Lily, with a quick motion, stabbed her lance forward.
Kian grabbed hold of it with both hands, but even his strength was not enough to stop Lily, as she pushed the lance with all her might and it pierced Kian in the torso.
"You will never understand us!" he cried, blood pouring out from his mouth.
I followed Lily's attack with my flames and it slammed into him. For an instant, my vision was blinded with glowing rainbow flames when it swallowed him, but a few moments later, it dissipated. Kian's flesh was charred, his hands still holding onto Lily's lance.
However, aside from some parts of his body that were covered in his melting crystals, his skin was turning into gray in a flit. Not only that, the crystals itself had changed color from glowing white to reddish black. His bloodshot eyes glared at Lily.
"Thish is ntuhginng!" he yelled as my flames burned his body.
Lily was about to deliver the killing blow when Jessie interrupted. The warning came in with a desperate shout.
"Get away from there!" Jessie said through my earpiece. "That flying fortress is—"
A blinding light flashed from up above. I didn't turn my head to look at it. My feet moved by itself and a moment later, I found myself already a dozen feet away from Kian. Lily too had escaped just in time before a rainbow beam exploded in front us.
"Aaaah!" My body got thrown backward and spinning a few times like a ragdoll— before it landed on a thin layer of snow with a bone-cracking thud. My breath was sucked out from my lungs and my eyes opened wide from the pain.
"Ack... Raaghh!"
I tried to get up quick, but the force of the impact was so powerful that it felt like an earthquake just happened right there, in the middle of the snowy battlefield.
"That flying thing, Ava," said Aegis in my mind. "It shot a beam from that huge muzzle. It looks like a concentration of Aurora... Like a rainbow."
The ground had melted from the beam attack, and by the time I could see again through the smoke, Kian was still standing on his feet. His whole body had turned gray, with the exception of his black Aegis crystals flickering and red veins pulsed on its surface. As if his Aegis was alive, the ominous black crystals shimmered along with Kian's bloodshot eyes. Combined with his grin, Kian almost resembled a demon from a storybook I once read.
"What is happening to him...?"
My Aegis answered quickly, "His Aegis went out of control. I can only guess it's like Ivar's case. Though, as for the cause, it has to be his emotions. He wants to surpass Lily's Aegis, so he took his own ability to its utmost limit."
"Aegis Catastrophe... It happened to Kian as well..."
The pink lance was poking out of Kian's torso and he tried to pull it out. But, the lance destroyed his hands when his fingers merely brushed over it.
"Lily's crystals are still immune to him, huh. Then that thing will be his weakness from now on."
I took a deep breath and rushed towards him, my multi-colored flames burst forth. When he looked at me, his grin turned into a wry smile. Of course, he prepared himself to receive my attack head-on, but what he didn't notice was a certain Lily right behind him. She had formed another lance.
"Grrrrrgh!"
He swung his arm and it cut through my flames, his other arm took the brunt of Lily's lance directly. To overcome the arm shield, Lily twisted her weapon as she pushed forward. Even though Kian had hardened his body with his specialty, it didn't stand a chance against the lance and it pierced through his arm and chest instantly.
I shaped my flames into gigantic scythes. It then merged together to form a large shear and I used it to attack Kian— a mass of heat far surpassing the boiling point descended towards him. He thought his hardened body would be enough, but after being weakened by Lily's nullifying specialty, Kian almost split into two from my flaming shear attack.
Even then, his eyes didn't waver in the slightest. The scorching heat hurt him physically, but other than that, it did nothing.
"Not yet!" The melting ground cracked once again and it turned into pale gray liquid. The air became extremely heavy and I fell on my knees, but it had no effect on Lily.
And then, blue light started to swirl above us. I knew what it was just from looking at it.
"He can form plasma?! At this time?!"
"Aaaargh!"
The plasma beam shot down at us and the newly formed lake underneath our feet burst upwards. Lily nullified the plasma easily when she touched it, however, the lake turned into a thousand spikes and almost skewered my body. Luckily, I protected myself with a crimson shield.
"This is not enough. Not—"
Kian coughed blood and his legs exploded all of a sudden. The small area around him turned into solid again, the air turned back to normal after a few moments.
"What... "
I approached him slowly. The black Aegis crystals of his started to disintegrate into thin air bit by bit.
"Ava." Lily gestured for me to not move as she made her way to Kian's side. The two lances poking out of his body in an awkward angle were pulled out by her.
"Aegis Catastrophe, as the name said, is destructive to the User. Unlike Aegis Takeover, this one can destroy the User if he lets his Aegis run wild to some extent. Try to restrain your Aegis, Ava so you will not become like him..."
Kian muttered some incomprehensible words through his bloodied mouth.
"Still..." Lily wielded her two lances and it bore two clear holes on his arms, locking him in place. "I'm sure you can't do anything in your current state."
"Hmm?"
I tap at my earpiece when Odval's voice came through unexpectedly. "Odval? What is it—"
"Ava, Lily! You two have to get here at the camp! T-That girl, the other Pillar... She's here. She's attacking the camp—"
The connection cut off after that and my eyes turned in the direction of the camp.