I turn to the Spirit King, though, and I see it is too late. The red crystal explodes and the Spirit King rushes toward me, trampling over Merava's freshly dead body.
He must be used to having a weapon and not used to fighting barehanded, because his technique is clumsy. I parry him with my sword, but I take a few cautionary steps back. We have no idea what this thing is capable of.
His skin is a dark pink color, and it seems to be made of…ew. His flesh is made up of a mass of writhing worms. They are all holding up a humanoid form, though. The Spirit King itself has short, stumpy legs, and long arms. Even with the deformities, though, it is still in the general shape of a person. About the only things not made of worms on this monster are its clothes, its long white hair, the lips, and the eyes. Everything else is a swarming mess of bug.
Kavella uses an Animus technique and the Spirit King bursts into flames. I hear thousands of tiny screams, but when the flames are gone, it doesn't look too damaged. The Spirit King has only just awoken, and there is no way it is at full power. His joints, if he even has any, must be sore from an imprisonment of a hundred years. He must be out of shape and at least a little groggy. If we don't kill him before he recuperates, we'll be done for.
I kick Merava's beheaded body out of the way. I don't want to trip on her, after all. I wonder why it's taking her so long to turn to ashes, but I don't care. All that matters is that we kill this grotesque monster before me.
Laela runs in alongside Noah. They are carrying Cabel with them. He looks to be in very bad shape. When she sees the Spirit King, she quickly abandons Cabel along with Noah, as they lay him off to the side and rush up to assist me. Noah is much too eager to help, and he slams both of his swords into the Spirit King's chest.
The Spirit King is screaming, or at least his worms are screaming. Noah's blade is buried all the way inside of the Spirit King, and the amount of smoke pouring out of him from the burning is astronomical. Unfortunately the Spirit King has even quicker reflexes than Noah, and he mashes one of his frothing, meaty hands against the young fighter. Noah is blasted to the center of the cavern, and he yells out in pain when he lands. I feel terrible. That was a long, perilous fall. I hope he'll be okay…
The Spirit King starts to pull the sword out from him, but the handle of the sword is also causing him extreme burns. The Spirit King wails and at that moment, his arm is completely blown off. I don't know how it happened, but Kavella managed to sync an Animus technique with Laela and it caused enough damage to completely remove the Spirit King's arm.
I hear a gun go off, and I see a bullet lodge within the Spirit King's head. It doesn't seem to affect him, but hey…she's trying, right? Wait. She's got that scythe, now. Why the hell is she still shooting?
I glance over to the left and I see Portia drop her gun and start running up toward us with the scythe. I appreciate her gusto, but she doesn't know how to use that thing.
The Spirit King tries to attack me, and I block it with my sword. I stumble, though. He attacks with so much force it is hard to stand. Laela and Kavella try to use another synced Animus technique, but the Spirit King seems to have remembered that he can dispel Animus. That trick won't work on him again.
As he's recovering from the attacks, Portia reaches him. I hold out a hand to stop her as she goes in swinging her scythe, but it doesn't seem like she's able to be stopped. I close my eyes as the Spirit King raises up a hand to strike her. I don't want to see Portia get pounded into the ground by this hulking monster, but there's nothing I can do. I'm too far away. I—
I expect to hear a blood curdling crunch, and to see Portia flattened on the ground, but I hear none of these things. Instead I hear the whiz of a blade and I hear the entire wormy army scream in pain. I open my eyes and I see that the Spirit King is in pieces before Portia. She…did she really just slice him to bits with that scythe? But…why does Portia even know how to use one of those things!?
"It's all over," Portia says. "It's…over."
What was once fear in my eyes has turned directly into happiness. I drop my sword and I rush over to Portia and embrace her in a huge hug.
"Oh my god!" I cry. "I thought you were about to die, Portia!"
"I'm not that stupid," she laughs back. "Sigmund, you're embarrassing me."
She turns her head to Kavella. I do as well. Kavella looks pretty beat up, but there's nothing quite like the look on her face. She doesn't look like she's just seen a victory. She looks defeated.
Kael walks up to us. He looks a little more hopeful, but there's sadness in his eyes. I know why. I rush down to Laela, who is already in between Noah and Cabel.
"They're both hurt very bad," she says quietly. "If I don't heal them now, they'll die. We need to get them out of here and to a doctor, but…I don't know how we're going to do that."
I kneel beside Laela and she says one other thing. "I can stabilize them. We need to figure out a way to get them back to Whitewind, though. I can heal them enough where they'll be safe on the journey."
Portia looks like she's about to say something, but she instead looks up. She lets out a quick gasp and turns to the entrance to the cave.
I look over and I see a man standing there. He looks like a Vitarine employee. He's got the orange jacket, the white pants…
Portia nods to him and runs over to him. I stand up and call back to her. "Portia, what are you doing!? Who is that?"
The man looks over to me and gives me a light grin. "Sigmund Felice. It's a pleasure to see you again."
"Again?" I start to say, but I immediately recognize him. That's the man from my dream. This is the man who picked me up at my house, two years ago. What the hell is he doing here!?
Laela looks up from Noah and Cabel. She is desperately trying to heal the both of them at the same time. "Wh-holy hell! Teumi!?" she bolts upright, completely disregarding her patients. She holds out a hand in his direction, and she looks like she's about to cast an Animus technique.
"Teumi?" I say. "Is that…is that your name?"
The man glares at me. His eyes look so dark and so void of life. Portia is standing at his side, but I see she has tears in her eyes. Why…why did she go to him the moment she saw him. Kavella runs up to my side and braces her staff.
"I don't know who the hell you are, but get away from us," Kavella growls.
"What are you going to do, you ugly bitch?" Portia calls out. I'm stunned to hear her say such a thing. Kavella rushes at the two of them, swinging her staff. She hits Portia in the head and knocks her down, but Teumi stops her and disarms her.
The man known as Teumi grabs Kavella by the hair and looks into her eyes. "My, my, my," he says upon seeing her eyes. "This color…your eyes, your hair. Why, you're Kealie Madera, aren't you? We've been looking for you for quite some time, girl. Your father will be pleased."
"T-that's Kealie Madera!?" Portia exclaims as she stands up.
"Get away from Kavella!" I roar. I don't have my sword though. Damn, why did I leave my sword all the way at the other side of the cave!?
Teumi snaps his fingers and there is an explosion. I'm certain it had nothing to do with the snap of his fingers. I saw some sort of device in his other hand. This cave was rigged with explosives. I am blown backward, and there is a huge burst of dust. The cave doesn't seem to collapse, but it is filled up with debris and I can hardly breathe or see.
As I am coughing, I race to try and find my sword. I need to get it, I need to get this sword and find that man. I don't know who he is, but he has Kavella.
By the time I get my sword, I am at the entrance to the cave. It is no longer dusty and foggy, but Teumi is gone. So is Kavella. So is Portia.
What the hell is going on here? I turn and I see Laela is distraught, still trying to recover her friends. Kael is standing in between the two of us, looking just as confused as I am.
"He took Kavella," Kael states. He's way too calm about this. "And Portia betrayed us."
Laela nods. "Do you two know that man?" she asks. She coughs, probably from all of the dust. "That man…he is named Teumi. He was…my lover."
"Your lover!?" I shout. "What the hell? Why was he here? Why did he take Kavella!?"
Laela looks up to me. "You have to go after him," she states. "It doesn't matter who he is or why I know him. He needs to be stopped!"
"W-what?" I say. "Aren't…"
"I can't go with you," she says, looking from Cabel to Noah. "I need to heal these two. They'll die if I go. That man, though…he…he's become something terrible and evil. I've been hunting him for a very long time, but I've never found him. Not until now. Please, you have to get him! You have to stop him!"
"What is he trying to do?" I ask. "What the hell is going on!?"
Kael grabs the collar of my shirt and drags me over to him. "It doesn't matter what's going on, Sigmund," he growls. "That man took Kavella. Are you just going to let him get away!? We have to help her!"
I nod. "R-right!" I say. "They can't have gotten far, they only just left. Let's go!"
"Now you're talking," Kael smirks, and the two of us run out of the cave after him. I don't know why that man was here. I don't know why Portia ran off with him, and I don't know why he took Kavella…he called her Kealie, though. I don't know any of these things, and yet I have to follow him. If I catch him, I might just figure out the answers to all of these things.