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kentuckywrites · 2 years

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Imperium 3: Chapter 6

Redi ad me. (Come back to me.)

Starr immediately began running back to the others, parts of the above stalactites beginning to crumble and fall around him from the impact. Some of the pebbles bounced off of his breastplate and head, but none were big enough to hurt him.

Everyone was waking up in the other room, with Elma being the most alert of the group. Her dual guns were in her hands, armed and ready for whatever came next. Starr stopped in front of her, explaining quickly.

“We need to go. We know what must be done to stop Corvhesperikon, but we need to get Vanala out of here first.”

“Friend found way to beat Corvie?” Sprinkle Sprinkle questioned, his mother now wide awake beside him. “W-Wait, what about friend Lumi?? Can’t leave her here!!”

Lumina smiled at this, surprised that anyone had taken to her wellbeing in the midst of the shaking cavern walls, the debris falling from the ceiling. “G-Go. I’ll be f-f-fine here, for n-now.”

The entire team looked between each other, eyes wide with pity, with remorse. Starr clenched his jaw, knowing that she was right, they couldn’t afford to waste any time here. If she had lived in his cavern for so long without the ability to move, then the reasonable thing to do would be to get out of this cavern, get out and draw Corvhesperikon away from her. And then…

“We made the promise before, and we promise you again: we will return for you,” Starr swore, quickly kneeling down and taking Lumina’s hand within his own. Her fingers slid between his, cold metallic joints that shimmered with the faintest golden light. “One way or another, we will come back, and we will find a way to heal you.”

Lumina sniffled, touched by his words, his sentiment. “I kn-know you will. Good luck…b-both of you.”

Both of you.

Starr’s shoulders relaxed. Mere hours before, he would’ve been confused, hurt, angry - but now there was nothing. Nothing but the overwhelming feeling of knowing that he couldn’t run from who he was. The Disgrace could run as much as he wanted, he could cower behind this façade and never speak again for fear that he would destroy more than he’d repair -

“Starr!”

He quickly turned around as Elma called his name, a slight bounce to her step as the ground shook once more and her anxieties became more visible. Starr squeezed Lumina’s hand once last time before letting go, hesitant, taking in her image one last time before joining the others. He scooped up Sprinkle Sprinkle as they all began to make their way out of the cavern, through another passage veering to the right of Lumina’s spot. More roars pierced through the mountain, deafening and rattling the stonework that created the cavern system. More stalactites tumbled to the ground around them; Elma sidestepped to avoid a large one as they ran through the darkness, illuminated by Vanala’s small flame.

It was nearly impossible to see the exit to the cavern once they reached it. The night had consumed the outer world, a dark void that no stars dared to alter. It was only the snow that indicated the transition, the white that counteracted the darkness from the ground up. The second that the snow crunched below Starr’s boot, Corvhesperikon screeched again, much closer than before. Everyone continued to run forward, with Elma holding her guns tightly, Vanala keeping her fire ether at the ready in her wings. With Sprinkle Sprinkle still in his arms, Starr wasn’t able to bring up either of his ether weapons, but he was afforded the chance - the risk - to look behind him. Sure enough, Corvhesperikon grasped the side of the mountain, neck outstretched to the sky and rocks crumbling under its uneven claws. Its wings stretched out to their fullest extent, far larger than the mountain it deigned to perch upon, and it shook its head rapidly as if it was trying to knock something off of its skull. At the same time Starr realized what the little figure on its head was, Sprinkle Sprinkle called out, “Dadapon!!”

Sure enough, Froyoyo was still in the midst of battling the fearsome feathered monstrosity, brandishing his broadsword above his head. The blade was coated in Corvhesperikon’s blood, inky black and dripping onto Froyoyo’s patterned white fur. He kept slicing and hacking at the yggralith with everything he had, and reassured that he’d buy them some more time to run, Starr picked up his pace. Starr thought this would be enough to keep the beast distracted while they made their escape, but like a moth to a flame, Corvhesperikon turned its attention to the group below. Beady eyes trained on Starr and Sprinkle Sprinkle, and despite his best efforts, Froyoyo was incapable of keeping it away. The yggralith screeched, its wings extending into the night, and as it dived from the top of the mountain, Froyoyo tumbled off, hitting the side of the cliff on his descent. The impact looked painful; it was like Starr could feel the rocks digging into his skin, drawing blood and ire from each blow.

Starr surged ahead, realizing he’d been watching far too long. He couldn’t outrun Corvhesperikon and he’d be a fool to believe he could. But as the ground shook, as Corvhesperikon landed and charged after him, Starr sensed an incoming attack and dove into a somersault, narrowly avoiding Corvhesperikon’s claws while keeping Sprinkle Sprinkle out of harm’s way. He kept running, kept Vanala and Elma in his line of sight. Elma checked on Starr with a quick glance over her shoulder. She must’ve sensed his fear, or created some of her own, for moments later her steps began to leave a trail behind them. They were so hard to see, shadows amongst a shadowed world, but the Disgrace lent his knowledge to Starr. Ghost Factory. A decoy Art generated from dual guns, applicable to the self and every party member within a certain radius.

Starr watched as copies of him danced around his person, mimicking his appearance, his movements, his fear. Corvhesperikon screamed, attempting to grab Starr and knocking a row of clones out of existence. Just because he was under the effects of the decoy didn’t mean he was guaranteed safety. His legs burned, stumbling through uneven patches of snow, only barely scraping the true surface of Cocytios hidden beneath. He forced himself to keep his head forward, don’t look behind him, don’t look -

Wait, what was that, in front of them?

The white expanse of snow turned into pure darkness, the ground falling away into an endless pit. It was still far enough away that he didn’t have to be concerned about falling in, but…

But that was where the Disgrace died. Where Starr - the monster, the feared, the terrified and uncontrolled - was killed.

That little discovery, that moment of hesitation that followed, was enough for Corvhesperikon to swipe Starr from behind and knock him out of his path. He tumbled for a considerable distance, and he felt Sprinkle Sprinkle leave his grip despite his best efforts to hold on. The littlepon yelped, and Starr lost track of them, landing face first into the snow. His mask pressed up against his face at an awkward angle before it flew off, one of the teeth grazing his forehead. A moment of panic, needing to hide behind something so his face was obscured, and he was back on his feet, frantically looking for his mask’s signature blue and purple horns. Right when he saw the colored tinge in the snow, another screech emanated from the beast, and Starr didn’t have time to dodge yet another swipe from its massive talons. They tore clean through his cape this time, drawing blood along his back as he landed once more in the snow. This time, he was fortunate enough - unfortunate, maybe - to land on his back, facing Corvhesperikon head on. And even worse, a flicker of movement in the corner of his eye. Sprinkle Sprinkle, running towards Starr.

Thankfully he didn’t have to be concerned about Sprinkle Sprinkle’s interference for very long, because Vanala swooped in and scooped the littlepon up in her wings. She flew into the air, her wind ether carrying her up and away. Corvhesperikon was distracted, the short reprieve giving Starr enough time to stand up, to brace himself, to produce his water ether weapons. Two swords this time - the need for a shield would come, but in advantageous moment, the offensive strategy was the right call in his eyes.

He sprinted forward, climbing onto one of Corvhesperikon’s massive talons and plunging his blades directly into its leg. Corvhesperikon screamed, shaking its leg to try and throw Starr off. But he kept his blades firmly lodged into the blackened skin, the water ether connected to his gauntlets and ensuring he stayed put. A blast of wind ether drew its attention once more, and Vanala appeared, minus Sprinkle Sprinkle. He assumed that they’d been deposited with Elma, or at least taken somewhere safe and away from the chaos.

Vanala’s wings extended, the veins in her gloves glowing a bright green. “Come and fight, coward Corvie! Vanala refuse to run while Corvie hurt friends!”

The yggralith stared her down, but then it laughed, something hideous and sinister that made Starr feel sick to his stomach. “YOU THINK YOU STAND A CHANCE AGAINST ME?? PATHETIC LITTLE CREATURE, SO SMALL, SO FRAIL????”

“Vanala not small!!” She shouted, launching another torrent of wind ether directly into Corvhesperikon’s face. Starr grimaced, realizing it didn’t leave nearly as much of an impact as it had before. Corvhesperikon bared its teeth at Vanala, mimicking a smile with its beak.

“SMALLER THAN FIRST ENCOUNTER,” Corvhesperikon said, “TOO SMALL TO TARGET NOW.”

That made Starr freeze. He’d heard Corvhesperikon calling out, telling the “little godling” to stop, to give up. Though he’d never vocalized it, he’d always assumed that the yggralith was targeting Vanala, just as it had all those years ago. The confession made Vanala’s eyes widen, mixed with her scowl of abject confusion.

“Corvie too scared to fight Vanala, then?”

Somehow, Corvhesperikon’s smile grew wider.

“NOT SCARED. PRIORITIZING.”

And then, its large neck swiveled, positioning its head so that its smile, its teeth, its vicious gaze were pointed straight at Starr. All at once, Starr understood.

“WE TOLD YOU TO SLEEP, LITTLE GODLING.”

Oh no.

Corvhesperikon raised its leg, carrying Starr closer, closer. The distance was so short that Starr made the quick decision to jump off, which proved insightful when Corhesperikon attempted to bite him from his former position on his leg. He landed on the yggralith’s upper arm, his ether swords digging into the feathered flesh with little grace. He had to dislodge himself again as Corvhesperikon attempted the same maneuver, biting at him and coming up short. Now he was gaining ground, close to surpassing Corvhesperikon’s arm and climbing up onto its back. Though its neck was long, it wasn’t long enough to reach Starr at this point, and he silently thanked whatever entities had granted him such luck.

He must’ve jinxed it somehow, or the gods above that had bestowed such kindness decided that enough was enough, because mere moments later Corvhesperikon took to the skies, a feat that Starr didn’t think it could complete as fast as it did. The ground grew further and further away, Vanala chasing the yggralith up into the night sky. Starr felt the wind beating against his back, practically pushing him into Corvhesperikon’s matted feather hide. Frozen, clinging for dear life, he couldn’t hear anything beyond the wind. He attempted to look up, locate Vanala in the ascent. She was still blasting ether attacks at Corvhesperikon’s face, enormous boulders this time in lieu of the wind ether from before, but still the yggralith was unfazed.

And then, Corvhesperikon ducked its head towards its stomach, its body following in circular fashion. No amount of strength could have saved Starr, not against the force that ejected him from its hide. Starr plummeted back down to Cocytios, tumbling and turning in the air with no certain grace. Too late he tried to concentrate his water ether to create some form of appropriate landing, perhaps a slide that could catch his fall. Too late, and his back slammed into the snow, his body bouncing from landing point to landing point until he slid ungracefully into his final resting place. The Disgrace sent a wave of emotion through the pain, a hint of familiarity at the event, a memory from a mission gone wrong in Oblivia. That had cost him an arm. Starr wished he’d been granted the mercy of a clean source of pain, but it was everywhere, radiating through his very being and pulsing with every second through his veins. He took a second to feel it, let it become him - nothing was broken. He could feel the pain, he could feel it, and that in itself was a blessing and a curse.

Starr tried to push himself back up, biting his tongue and biting back the pain. It shot through his spine like lightning, an electrical current on the verge of short circuiting the entire machine. He could only afford to crawl forward, away, away -

Cocytios’s white snow gave way to a deep and dark abyss.

Starr had landed mere feet away from where The Disgrace had died. Where, in a sense, he’d been born.

He stared into the darkness. It would be poetic to say it stared back at him, but no, to characterize the void was to give it power over him. And yet, that was exactly the vice it had over him; it knew his past and it knew it had a vice-like grip over his conscience. It would’ve laughed at him, if it had been given a voice to laugh with, but it could only use the impending wind to mock Starr and his untamed thoughts.

Gun fire rang out from behind him, and with considerable effort Starr positioned himself so that his back was facing the pit. Corvhesperikon was returning to the continent’s surface, though it hadn’t landed. Elma fired every round in her dual guns at the beast, bullets piercing through its neck and body. She tossed both guns aside when they’d run out of ammo and exchanged them for her dual swords, charging Corvhesperikon’s leg just as it landed in the snow. Vanala swung around from the side, now shooting bolts of charged lightning ether from her wings while keeping herself afloat with her wind ether. Starr’s eyes widened when he spotted a third figure coming from behind Corvhesperikon, greatsword swinging up towards its tail. It was hard to make out Froyoyo’s condition from so far away, but judging by his enthusiasm in attacking the yggralith, he had more than enough fight left in him.

It was a shame that practically none of their attacks did any lasting damage on Corvhesperikon, who was still trained on Starr. It roared, a menacing and spine-tingling thing. It raised its front leg, about to clear the distance between itself and Starr in one massive stride, but then, another burst of wind ether blew against its skull. It wasn’t nearly as powerful as Vanala’s had been, and considering she was still using her lightning ether…

FUCK!

“Get away from friend Starr!!” Sprinkle Sprinkle shouted, their voice so little and weak in comparison to the mighty yggralith’s. Corvhesperikon bent its head down, its neck twisting to its right and meeting the furious gaze of the littlepon still on the ground. Sprinkle Sprinkle’s wings were balled up into fists, glowing wind swirling around their form. Fuck, they looked so tiny paired up against Corvhesperikon, there was no way in hell they’d survive an attack, there was no way they’d live to see another day and Starr was fucking helpless to stop it from happening, so fucking useless and pathetic and gods above why the fuck couldn’t he get up -

Mira spoke quickly, urgently.

Starr. Behind you.

“What is it?”

If you fall into the pit, we can enact the plan.

“We will die if we fall down there?” Starr swallowed hard, resisting the urge to look behind him. He did, however, bring himself up and onto his knees, kneeling in the fallen snow. Was that his blood, staining the white below him? Was it his shadow, his impending doom, the destiny he couldn’t escape? His hair, fraying out of his braid, clung to his cheeks and to his breastplate, begging him to reconsider. Starr gasped against another wave of pain originating from his chest.

Yes. That is how Nessa killed Pongo, after he…

It all made sense again. Mira had begged Nessa to send him into the pit, to reunite him with it so it could begin the process of recreating and restoring his body - a body he gave up to Starr in a moment of incomprehensible sorrow and rage. Starr couldn’t help the tears streaming down his face now. Fate was a funny thing, though it didn’t deserve characterization either. This was what he had agreed to do, and this was the path he would continue down.

“Corvhesperikon!” Starr used the last of his strength to call out to the yggralith, whose face was getting too close to Sprinkle Sprinkle for comfort. Its disgusting maw had opened wide, drool pouring out from between its sharpened teeth. Sprinkle Sprinkle hadn’t moved an inch, waiting for it to get closer. Both turned to look at Starr when he yelled. Every noise, every crackle of lightning ether and every slice into Corvhesperikon’s body, all of it became muted and soft.

“Goodbye,” He said softly into the night.

He closed his eyes, and he let gravity claim him. One last wave of pain, and he fell backwards into the abyss. Corvhesperikon screamed, the ground shaking as he flew in after Starr. Froyoyo nearly took the dive with it, but at the last second he jumped off and landed on the cliff, only able to watch as both descended into the darkness.

Starr asked a silent question before every sound dimmed into silence, before every feeling dimmed into numbness.

Did I make you proud?

Neither the planet nor The Disgrace responded.

#xenoblade x #Imperium 3: Chapter 6 #yeah so I hate writing fight scenes #i'm so sorry this chapter is a little short but #god chapters 7 and 8 are gonna be a doozy #and yes I made myself cry again #also fun fact: froyoyo was originally supposed to go down in the pit with Corvie and Starr #last second I decided it wouldn't work so #be happy that the heropon won't suffer lmao

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