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So yeah, I did this up. Boom.
Moogle x Dragondemonthingy", "writing": " VOCT Round 6, Spectator Entry, Alternate ending. Tsumi vs. Erebus.\n\n© Tsumi Moogle 2009.\n\nCharacters © their players.\n\nMorning lay some hours off. The mountain top, scarred and shimmering in the moonlight from the savage attacks that had torn across it some time ago, still faintly smoldered. Standing at the base of the glassy crater where the final blow had struck, A short, hooded wallaby stood, his preparations complete to at least collect the remnants of the shattered essence that remained on the island. Rising his head to the sky to slip his hood free, the wallaby chuckled quietly. “All that travelling, and I arrived too late to be of decent help anyway.” He murmured to himself before gently raising his arms to begin the task of drawing those energies before him, to do as he would as a Reaper, to dispose of them.\n\nHis eyes closing to focus himself, the wallaby took a breath only to freeze in place and open his eyes once more. The energies were moving of their own accord. The ground giving an ominous rumbling beneath Shadow’s long paws, before the base of that glassy crater cracked with an unearthly blue light shining forth. A voice, deep and ancient as the earth whispered gravellishly from beneath the crack.\n\n“You are not too late to be of help, Reaper.” The crack growing as whatever lay beneath surged forward. Wisps of black flame, once too subtle to be seen, snaking along the ground and creeping up to fill that crater before with an earsplitting explosion; a grand beast tore from the earth and towered above the wallaby.\n\n“…Erebus.” Shadow growled, grasping his scythe behind himself.\n\nThe forest swayed gently in a soft, early morning breeze. The sea of leaves sounding like the gentle sigh of the ocean hissing back and forth steadily over the shore. Amidst the thick trunks of the trees, the procession of survivors, and the strikers, trudged for the boat, said to be waiting some number of hours-trek from where they were. Aside from Misa avidly chatting with her reunited Kitty friend, in Samantha, the trip thus far had been non-descript. Damien having hurried ahead with a small, form sleeping tightly bound in his white coat. Another striker, as they’d been informed. And Alex, having departed with the unconscious form of Jag over his back to retrieve better medical help aboard the ship. \n\nVerace lead ahead of Kyteriah, who continued to cradle the stirring, sleeping frame of Tsumi. Behind him, Samantha, who was talking, much more refined then her friend Misa. The slime cat animated and wild with her expressions and gestures of her adventures since their time apart.\n\n“So like, I tried to help Tsumi-kitty over there, you know, stop the meanie from attacking, and he threw me back! It kinda hurt, but then he blew off the mountain! It was the second time since I got here! It was so not fair!” Throwing her hands up in the air, to emphasize the explosive force with which she’d been blown away, Misa froze as in the distance an explosion rent the air. Lowering her hands precariously and placing her arms neatly to her sides, she mewled innocently. “That wasn’t me.”\n\nVerace frowned softly as he looked about at the echoing noise, flicking his large tails.\n\n“That came from the mountain… What is the Reaper doing up there?” He murmured, eyes scanning through the canopy of the trees above, trying to make out the mountain-top from where he stood…\n\n“His job, hopefully.” The dragon said, looking towards the mountain too, before Tsumi began stirring in his arms. A shuffle, a jerk and a little twitch, and Tsumi sat up with a gasp in Kyt’s arms, his pompom glowing the royal-blue colour it had pulsed with almost since they’d left the mountain. His eyes looking around in the gloom anxiously, chest rising and falling nervously.\n\n“The explosion wake you?” The dragon holding him murmured, nuzzling the strawberry-scented moogle’s hair. Gulping softly as where he was sank in, the moogle shook his head slowly.\n\n“…Bad dreams.” He admitted softly. “..I can walk now, I’m ok… Really.” And easing onto the ground, took a moment to collect his head and start walking with the dragon, eying over the twin tails of Verace as the fox walked in front of him before glancing off to the side, the forest stretching beyond them. “…How far are we from the boat, Verace?” He piped up tentatively, flicking his ears to the cool, still, morning air and the crunch of leaves underfoot.\n\n“A few hours yet. But no signs of life so far. Damien and Alex will be waiting for us there.” The fox said, shaking his head softly.\n\nSubdued by the ominous explosion, the group continued. Each set of eyes looking out into the darkness of the forest, catching the rare glimpse of the moon through the clouds above, or a rogue beam of light from the stars peeking through a gap in the trees amongst them. Tsumi paused as his pompom gave a little pulse. Looking about, he caught a flicker of movement in the gloom to the side of the path they’d been following.\n\n“…Verace?” He called softly, causing the Fox to backtrack.\n\n“What is it-” The fox’s voice trailed as he noticed what Tsumi was focused on. Stepping between the trees, the group followed him with bated breath, as the gloom parted slowly to Tsumi’s pompom glowing brighter. Hanging from a low branch, flapping gently in a soft breeze; a somewhat tattered looking, familiar black cloak. It was Samantha who stepped forward to retrieve it.\n\n“This looks like…” She murmured tensely, a solemnity in her eyes as she looked the group over.\n\n“Shadows’.” Verace finished grimly. Tsumi saw the fox gulp, before he turned to call to the Reaper.\n\nThe group all turned respectively outwards, looking for and calling to the Reaper, each hoping to be the one to have a weary voice call back to them as they walked outwards, searching. But with moments easing to minutes, Tsumi turned to head back from the clearing he’d entered. The sky above having a slitted gap in the thick clouds, the moon peeking hopefully through. He could feel Kyt but some meters from him, Verace on another side of him, but they too had been calling with less and less vigor. Taking a step, the moogle paused again, at a chill breeze whispering through the glade. Not just passing. Truly whispering. Turning cautiously back towards the clearing, he shivered at each wave of that soft, chillingly icy whisper creeping through. The voices soft; gentle sighs, illegible whispers… The noise compounding gently, steadily; a maddening, silent cacophony on his ears, causing the moogle to clap his hands over his ears to shut them out.\n\nThe icy brush of the wind though, could not be so easily beaten back. And shivering, the moogle drew his arms back around himself. The whispers had abated once again. Raising his head with timid breaths, he frowned at the trees on the opposite edge of the glade. Though black as the night permitted, they were gently back-lit, by something: A faint blue light that seemed to be getting stronger.\n\n“Shadow?” The moogle called out, stepping forward cautiously, before freezing. His pompom, still aglow with that ominous blue, changed to a firm orange. There was a footstep, or something akin. It was broad, heavy… The soft blue lighting, moving along the trees, finally broke the border of the glade.\n\nTsumi uttered a gasp that caught in his chest at the face of the beast stepping through into the clearing. It had a draconic shape and gait, with a trio of large horns formed in a tall, crown-like fashion atop its head. The hide of its sinuous, long and skeletal looking body, a tarry black. Broad wings lay draped, held along it’s back, and a thick tail carried along behind it. It would have been spooky enough, if not for long antennae-like protrusions along and around its neck. They carried on, hundreds of them, down it’s spine, interspaced in the thick-hide of the wings like decorations, and continued down to its tail, sleeked down to its body. Every one of them topped with a tiny, blue-glowing bauble, the size of a bead and looking as though they were crafted of the finest blown glass. Amassed, they backlit the dragon’s features like the trees it had stepped from. The beads tinkled, swaying as the beast moved. Like the leaves of the forest, they created a relaxing yet ominous noise. When the beast came to stop once more, the beads all swayed and came to a perfect halt, another wave of those sighs and silent voices assaulted the moogle’s ears.\n\nGlaring at Tsumi with piercing eyes, seeming lit with the same essence that each of those beads contained, the dragon broke into a wicked smirk.\n\n“I found you.” It whispered with a deep voice, gravelly yet smooth as satin, as though more than one person spoke through it.\n\n“Tsumi?” Called a voice from nearby. The moogle turning his head quickly, watching as Verace and the others broke through the trees, each freezing as they looked past the moogle to the massive dragon leering over them.\n\n“Hmph… This makes things easier then.” The dragon uttered gutturally, eyes panning over the face of each in the group before him, licking a broad and slimy tongue along his thin muzzle. “And you don’t need to worry any about your Reaper friend.” The dragon smirked. “He was an amusing appetizer. He actually thought I was beaten. You all did, apparently. Did you forget your poor rodent-friend? He was just what I needed.” Erebus reared his head back, before issuing a rattling, terrible belch as if to emphasize Sparky’s position. “And I hope you didn’t forget my little promise, moogle.” Those steely eyes held Tsumi with a paralyzing glare. “You, and those souls you contain, are next. …You others? Can watch, and wait!”\n\nThe dragon had reared itself up onto its powerful hind legs, towards the end of its wicked monologue. And with that final word thrown out, he surged forward onto all fours with an agonizing screech of a roar. The orbs along Erebus’ frame seeming to glow brighter, as the antennae over his form fanned out. The sound of those whispers joined the roar, growing in volume, in pitch, to screams. Sheer agony tearing into and gripping each of those before the dragon. Tsumi cowering with his ears covered, Verace staggering, yelling against the wind, Misa’s form quivering and losing definition, as she held to Samantha who bowed her head with a scream to the noise, Kyteriah too, shuddering and covering his ears.\n\nThe roar died down at last, but the screams of those souls, held trapped within the Dragon’s body continued to pierce the air and hearts of the gathered group. Looking pleased over his simple work, Erebus inclined his head. “How pathetic. Look at you all, cowering… Especially you, who brought down my vessel” The dragon snarled, eyes locked on Tsumi’s knelt form as the moogle shuddered under those terrible voices amidst the icy chill of an aura screaming around him. “But that’s easily remedied…”\n\nThe dragon snarled once more and arching his back, flexed his large, leathery wings wide. A single beat of them, causing a small hurricane to knock the others pell-mell back into the thick growth of the forest, where as Tsumi was held in place by the icy grip of Erebus’ aura. The noises around the moogle subsided, but the icy grip did not. It tightened, like a vicious hand grasping wickedly tight about his neck and torso, lifting him slowly. He scrambled, finding there was nothing he could grip at, claw at or bite; the dragon’s aura was tangible and being used as another appendage. The searing sensation of those tendrils trying to burrow, pressing in at the moogle’s frame, causing him to scream as he felt Erebus’ will trying like a pick-axe to rock, to shatter his will and claim those souls he held, protected unintentionally.\n\n“Give it up, moogle! And give them to me!” The dragon roared in annoyance, gripping the small frame before him savagely, drawing ever closer. Erebus paused, eyes flicking aside as something hurtled through the trees: a small, glimmering trinket. Rounded.. The base of Sefra’s Hammer, blinking with an odd green light and faint beeping. It stopped dead in mid-air, bare inches from Erebus’ face, caught in the Dragon’s aura before he smirked. “You think to stop me with This?” He yelled with a smirk that harbored no amusement to the faceless assailant in the trees. As a streak of white caught the dragon’s attention from the other side, he turned in time to see Verace leap and cover Tsumi with his body. A moment of realization crossing the dragon’s face before the now rapidly-beeping hammer-base pulsed red and lit up the night sky with an explosion of searing light. Rag dolling before the explosion, Verace tumbled, holding Tsumi tight, before slamming back into a tree with a yell. Sliding to the base, the fox sat, wincing and panting, looking to the moogle.\n\n“Are you ok..?” he asked urgently, lifting the moogle’s face to look into the pained blue eyes.\n\nDrawing a shakey breath and with the dragon’s aura no longer holding him, the moogle nodded, eyes clenched against the remaining light of the explosion. The aches of the phantom grasp leaving faster then he would have thought. He realized more than that; the air was warm again, the icey bite of the early morning gone before whatever that explosion had been and every breath of the warmth air was heartening; bolstering. Nearby, Kyteriah stepped from between the trees he’d been thrown, raising a paw against the bright like still burning in place of that explosion, like a small sun and looking about, seeming relieved to see Verace letting the moogle stand.\n\nThe fox too, stood with a little more difficulty, and cricking his neck. “Samantha and Misa should be heading for the others like I told them.. But it might be a while before the cavalry gets here…” He drew a paw into his cloak to retrieve a small vial that Tsumi had noticed once before. He watched curiously as the fox drew liquid metal into the air from it, and intricately formed a pair of silvery gauntlets, which he slid his arms into. “You can go with them too, if you want.” The fox said, eyes narrowed as the searing orb of light shrank steadily.\n\n“And risk another incident, like Shadow?” Tsumi frowned quietly, moving aside from the fox and turning to face with the vulpine, towards the orb. “…That’d be foolish of us.”\n\nKyteriah gave a soft nod and flicked his feline-ears as he lifted off the ground a foot or two. “One soul, or a hundred, we can’t let this disgusting thing claim anyone else.” And flicking his thick tail, frowned, whiskers starting to steam and glow with a soft crackle.\n\nThe stood tensely, watching the orb shrinking, and at last, flicker out like a flame. The hammer-hilt dropping to the ground before a knelt form far smaller than the grand dragon they had faced bare minutes before. It was that same inky black colour, body cloaked in thick wings. It’s bowed head was topped with those crown-like horns still, it’s eyes closed and breathing deep. There was smoke or something akin rising subtly off its form. For a moment, everything was still, before the beast opened its eyes sharply, reigniting that unearthly blue-glow in the steely orbs, and with a rush, the gently tinkling orbs down it’s body.\n\nErebus stood, snarling in a vicious manner as he spread his wings, settling them behind himself once more as he stared, this time at Verace.\n\n“A parting gift from your wretched friend?” He spat, his voice higher, carrying with it the many tones of the souls inside him.\n\n“Just leveling the playing field.” The fox half-smirked, before clenching his fists and charging headlong for the beast before them, Tsumi beside him, pompom glowing brighter.\n\nErebus snorted, even without the use of his aura, they underestimated him. Spreading his arms in preparation, his eyes focused on Verace. Taking a great swing of his arm, he tore a rising spire of blue fire through the ground to displace him. Head turning aside as Tsumi leapt to deliver a heel drop, the beast spread his arms, soul-orbs dulling a moment in their glow as his body pulsed out a shocking wave. Already in mid-air, the moogle’s red-glowing pompom was too late to assist, and Tsumi crashed into the solid barrier, only to be knocked back.\n\nGrinning at an enraged snarl from the air above, Erebus threw his hand toward its source, that same shimmering blue aura shielding him from a sharp blast of lightning from Kyteriah. A simple flick of his wrist, and the charge redirected towards Verace. The beast narrowed his eyes as a familiar, predictably timed wall of earth surged before the fox to cover him.\n\nTsumi panted as he turned again in his dance, feeling Erebus facing him, the world, a shimmering haze of colour and noise, before the earth’s golden glow beneath him was rent with more trailing pillars of fire. Rising his own arms and throwing them forward, the earth roared in his ears as it surged forward to meet the flames and cancel them out with a grand explosion. \n\nBeyond, Verace had leapt in to grapple Erebus, and shockingly, seemed to be steadily overpowering the beast. The wind cried out at a perversion evanescing through it. The beast was channeling energy into his muzzle…\n\n“Verace!” Tsumi yelled in warning, before Erebus smirked. Flexing his muscles, he gripped verace’s hands, and hauled him around bodily as Kyteriah worked a paw feverishly through the air, runes searing in the gloom. The Beast threw Verace with a roar, barreling him headlong for the dragon above just as Kyt pushed his hand through his completed runes. Quicker then he’d thought though, Erebus launched away from his standing point, as the air around it exploded violently. The beast’s eyes set on the dancing moogle, he smirked and planted a foot, leaping over a surge of jagged spires and landing before the mog. Even with his eyes closed, Tsumi’s face was shocked, as he was displaced from his dancing, in putting his efforts into avoiding a flurry of brutal strikes and kicks from the beast. The moogle’s vision entirely red, he saw Erebus’ tail sweeping for him, and leaping aside over it, caught a knee to his abdomen followed with an arcing kick into the air. Erebus was atop him again in a heartbeat, and a moment too late to defend himself, The moogle received a blinding punch that slammed him back to the earth.\n\nLooking up as he replaced Verace back on the ground, Kyt’s red eyes widened, seeing the Moogle hitting the ground and laying still. Erebus, smirking in a wicked manner as he turned to face the dragon and fox.\n\nKyt’s screaming roar of rage had the beast hesitate for a moment, as something tore from the dragon’s back. They appeared to be wings, but the most obscure wings he’d ever seen. Jagged and intricate, they were assembled of many pieces of pure crystal and solid light; like a lead-light pattern. His eyes, searing with a white light, replacing the normal scarlet.\n\nThe beast smirked, impressed with the display, and turning to face the dragon, Erebus licked his lips. \n\n“Interesting. But wholly ineffective!” He snarled, and dashing forward, the soul-orbs tinkled ominously, before going out. The beast vanished with a scream of wind. Snarling, Kyt’s wings surged around him like an armor, and just in time, as Erebus appeared behind the dragon, the crystals sang and tinkled as a rush of unseen strikes buffeted them. Turning and leaping back before a terrible swing from the beast, Kyt landed by Tsumi, kneeling quickly to grasp his shoulder.\n\n“Tsumi..!”\n\nVerace growled as the beast smirked at him, and leaping forward, The fox swung a wicked punch, Erebus catching it, but still staggering a step, his clawed feet skidding on the leafy ground. With a determined look of spite on his face, the fox kept swinging. Erebus growled, dodging many where he could and knocking glancing blows aside. Ducking under a punch that would have knocked him flat, the beast raised his head, snarling, to meet Verace’s maw open wide, the air within the jaws rippling with a searing heat. His chest expanded, Verace surged the breath out as a great torrent of white-hot flame, engulfing the beast.\n\nBeneath him, Erebus seemed to be withdrawing, from pain perhaps, the fox couldn’t tell, but a flicker of blue amidst the flame caught his breath in his throat. The flames died out in an instant, before Erebus rose, fanning his arms and wings wide with a surge of that terrible aura once more. Knocked back, Verace cursed, before being jarred to a dead stop, a steel-clad grip squeezing his neck as Erebus snarled. His form smoking here or there, and many of his soul orbs looking blackened from heat, the beast leant his muzzle towards the fox, scrambling at his arm.\n\n“This has been fun, really… But I think it’s time, for you to join your Rabbit friend!” He whispered, before standing straight and lifting his arm, with Verace. The orbs lighting up brilliantly, Erebus’ arm glowed an ominous blue, before Verace started screaming as the beast channeled that aura through him. Like an electric current, his body jerked and kicked, feeling the beasts’ will breaking into his own…\n\nWith the terrible screams calling into the air, Tsumi stirred. His body shaking as he slowly rose onto hands and knees. Feeling Kyteriah’s hand on his shoulder, the moogle lifted his head, panting raggedly. His pompom alight and blinking haphazardly, the moogle stood proper, the dragon beside him.\n\n“…Enough…” The moogle murmured, looking unstable on his feet, ears flicking to Veraces continued yells of agony.\n\n“Tsumi.. you should stay down.. I’ll finish it..” Kyt urged, squeezing the moogle’s shoulder, until the mog turned to look at him. There was a trickle of red from the corner of his muzzle, his blue eyes determined in a way that shocked the dragon. There was rage on the moogle’s face, and something deeper, in his eyes.\n\n“…Focus everything… together… …One chance.” Tsumi murmured, turning back to the beast as his fur shimmered a moment with a glow akin to his pompom’s. “W-.. We won’t… …let him take… another friend…”\n\nTaking a step, and another, the moogle broke into a run, charging towards the dragon with a growing yell of rage. Blinking after Tsumi, Kyt closed his eyes, his wings flaring out and beginning to hum.\n\nTurning his head from Verace’s slowly weakening form at the sound of the cry, the beast grinned wickedly, seeing Tsumi barreling for him. He spread his wings and with a great beat, lifted into the air, to mock the youth. The beast blinked, though, as the ground seemed to quake with each step the moogle took.\n\nTsumi threw an arm forward, causing the ground to split and crack, before surging up in great craggy serpents. The moogle’s small frame running along the back as the beast soared higher to avoid the livid frame. The ‘head’ of the rocky serpent flung itself up violently as Tsumi stepped upon it, and launched him high into the air, turning and spinning in the air with the wind shimmering about him. Erebus, snarling, raised his free hand, forming that shimmering blue shield once more, only to watch with shock as Tsumi’s heel-drop shattered clean through it and slammed with a hurricane-like force into his shoulder. The arm gripping Verace released as the beast hurtled with a terrible screech of pain, back to the ground to land with a dull rumble that shook the ancient trees to their roots.\n\nGrasping around Veraces’ chest, Tsumi landed much smoother, The earth rippling into sand to buffet the landing. The moogle panted as he eased the fox back, still wincing and gasping, he nodded with relief; he hadn’t been too late. Staggering back to his feet, Tsumi watched as across the glade, Erebus tore from the earth, snarling incensed. Seeing the beast rearing his head back to channel a retaliatory attack of his own, the moogle lifted his arms and clenched his fists tight, watching the earth splitting around the beast, with numerous thorny vines tearing free to wrap around his body, up his limbs, around his wings, even taught around his muzzle to fizzle the shimmering attack forming within Erebus’ jaws.\n\nBeside the moogle, Kyteriah had summoned the extent of his energy, wings vibrating and humming with a rising pitch that reverberated into the very hearts of those present.\n\n“Not enough…” The dragon growled, his searing white eyes glowing as he shook with the effort of containing the force.\n\nWincing with his own struggle of keeping the beast bound, Tsumi closed his eyes tight and swung his arms down hard. As a roll of thunder growled in the clouds above, a single jagged bolt tore from the sky, and slammed between the dragon’s back between his shimmery wings. Kyteriah’s body jerking, The extra energy surged through him, his wings splintering into hundreds of thousands of pieces, ringing with an almost deafening screech.\n\nTime seemed to slow down as the dragon drew the energy all in, Erebus’ eyes widening as Kyt brought his arms out, only to throw them forward. The night-sky light up as the energy was released in a terrible wave that tore through the bared frame of Erebus before it, and into the forest, obliterating trees, earth and stinging the air as it evanesced into silence. Groaning as they collapsed, Tsumi smiled feebly to the dragon, gulping wearily and shaking softly.\n\n“You ok, kupo?” He murmured reaching to pet at the dragon’s shoulder. He paused though, noticing the searing steam coming from the dragon’s form. Kyt’s head was bowed, breathing deep. His wings had vanished, and his eyes were their scarlet hue once more.\n\n“Felt better..” The dragon groaned, cricking his neck, before looking up as they heard footsteps crashing through the forrest behind them. \n\n“Verace!” Shouted a familiar orange rabbit, Alex looking about, with Damien, the black fox hot on his heels. Both looking over the glade, to the moogle and dragon resting, over to Veraces’ collapsed form some yards away. Alex started for his sibling, as Damien crouched, looking Tsumi and Kyteriah open. \n\n“What happened..? We heard an explosion from the mountain, and came back to inspect, meeting Samantha and Misa on the way… they said something had come out of the trees.” The fox spoke worriedly, before Tsumi nodded.\n\n“…Erebus wasn’t quite finished.” The moogle sighed. “He.. got shadow, and came for us… But I think this time we-” He trailed off, looking to the fox’s face, his face seeming to pale.\n\n“You what?” Damien urged, before pausing as a chill breeze coursed through the glade. The smoke lifting from the scorched ground dissipated slowly, baring a frame across the clearing. It’s skeletal hide nicked and oozing a faint black liquid. A number of the soul-orbs across his back and wings cracked with fine, spidery lines, and all completely dulled.\n\n“…You thought you had me.” The beast spoke with an eerie chuckle. Rattling his wings and seeming to flex his body with another wave of that chill wind. The silent voices, sighing and whispering along the wind starting to press in on the ears of those gathered. “But it seems you took too long… A small price to pay, to survive that attack of yours, Dragon.” Shaking his head, Erebus rattled the dulled orbs that framed his head. “But as always…” The dragon snarled, lifting a hand. “…Easily Remedied!”\n\nWith his pompom glaring an urgent red, Tsumi’s eyes widened as that familiar, icey grip enclosed around his body again. Hauled forward and into the Beasts’ grasp proper amidst yells of shock from the group, the youth scrambled feebly, gasping and whimpering as so much easier, now he was exhausted; the maddening feel of the beast’s aura stabbed into his body. In his head, he heard the voices, hazed through the pain, rallying him not to give in. But with his heart and mind bared before Erebus’ smirking frame and the Beast opening his jaws wide, terror struck through his form before a pain such as he had never felt tore through his body, like shards of ice gripping every portion of his being. He screamed as through the pain, there was a rush of sensation, emotion, visions of people and places and sounds that were not his own. \n\nMultiple lifetimes of memory were torn from his mind, the moogle witness to each and every one. All leading to the island, and stopping there. The eternity lasted truly only for a moment, as Erebus snapped his jaws shut, and swallowed. The Orbs along his frame flickering and bursting back into life as he looked to the group all paralyzed before him, bound in place by that strengthening aura of his, licking his lips viciously.\n\n“I’ve thought of a prize for you, moogle. After I finish devouring the souls of everyone here, and burying your dear friend to the depths of the earth… I’m going to take your body home… and let you watch me feast on your family. Your brother first. What was his name? Juli?” The dragon mocked wickedly to the moogle sobbing in his grasp, Tsumi’s hand trembling and trying to raise for Kyteriah’s knelt frame. The hand went rigid, and the moogle’s eyes, wide as the beast’s jaws descended again.\n\n“Tsumi!!” The purple dragon yelled as Erebus’ maw drew a long, ponderous breath over the moogle’s face. His body jerked, eyes flicking and pompom pulsing weaker and weaker as the beast drew a long trail wisp of familiar blue light from the open muzzle of the moogle. Easing past the beasts’ lips, the group heard over the other voices pressing silently on their ears, a faint, final cry before Erebus closed his maw simply, and pausing with Tsumi’s body slumping in his grasp, smirked… and swallowed once more.\n\n“…Mmh… Tastes like strawberries.” The beast grinned, trailing his tongue along his lips with relish, and looking from the body in his grasp, to the shocked, and angry faces kneeling before him. “Heheh… No need to look so upset. You’ll all join him soon. Well, almost all of you.” His eyes focused on Kyteriah maliciously.\n\nThe beast paused after taking a step, looking to the body in his hand. The pompom atop its head had pulsed again. Grinning softly, he lifted the body again, looking into the open, staring eyes. “…Let’s see you dance now.” He muttered darkly, before moving to throw the body aside. He froze, with his arm outstretched as the moogle’s body had gripped his arm with a vice-like grip. “What..?” Erebus snarled softly, watching the pompom blinking, and flare into a brilliant white light.\n\n“…We don’t have to dance.” The body spoke. Not with Tsumi’s voice, nor with a voice that anyone in the group recognized. It was a voice, soft as a breeze and hard as diamond, supple as water, yet searing like an inferno. Tsumi’s head raising, the once-empty eyes burned with an inner light that matched the glow of his pompom. Boring into Erebus’ eyes, the beast found himself holding something terrible, like when he had held Tsumi’s pompom, hours ago atop the mountain. The moogle’s body hurt to handle, and releasing the thin neck, he stepped back, watching the body as it stood in mid-air.\n\nThe moogle seemed to be considering himself, frowning. “An eternity as the pulse of the cosmos… and we stand here and now, within this body…” Lifting his hands a moment, he flexed them, turning them over, and then returning that burning gaze to the beast. Lowering slowly to the ground, the moogles’ fur shimmered and began glowing with the same light of his pompom. His clothes starting to unravel from his body, and evaporated into thin air as the body started glowing brighter. Wreathed in that coronal light, he stepped forward. The beasts’ aura was once more chased back, warmth and peaceful silence returning to the ears of those trapped. Kyteriah started forward, as did Verace, before the moogle raised an arm, holding it to one side.\n\n“Please, stay back. We will handle this now, as this beast has overstepped his boundaries for the last time.” The voice was gentle, but at the same time, there was a wavering tone that carried the most tangible anger the group had felt.\n\nEven Erebus seemed stunned by the statement, snarling. \n\n“What are you?! I destroyed that moogle!” He snapped, but seemed to subconsciously step back as the small, shimmering frame matched pace. Footsteps leaving patches of sprouting flowers and grass.\n\n“We are the power he wielded. The flow that with millennia’s passing weave new worlds, and new life. Focused though, as we are now, we are the voice of the earth. You, who have corrupted and disjointed our flow for too long, will be tolerated no longer. We, are the Terhad and we will restore our balance. Your existence, Forfeit.” They came to a stop, looking up to the dragon, patiently, as Erebus seemed to struggle to comprehend for a moment what he’d unleashed. With a vicious roar, he lashed out.\n\n“Liar! You’re just a remnant of that moogle! I’ll finish the job, and then your so called precious world will be Mine!” Before starting to attack with a vicious string of strikes and kicks. \n\nThe Terhad seemed impassive, as they moved with the lightest grace. Each strike passing within a whisker of the small frame as they avoided each blow, before throwing a hand to catch a strike. Erebus’ clenched first impacted with a hand of stone, causing him to wince a moment, before the hand melted back into that shimmery light, and forced forward with a sudden blast of howling wind that threw the beast back awkwardly.\n\nSnarling as he eyed the Terhad straightening up, the beast threw his arms wide with a pulse of his stolen aura to stop himself in the air, and narrowing his eyes, threw the collective force forward. The Terhad seemed to consider the attack for a moment before with an inclination of their head, a thick, writhing tendril of wood, a tree growing as if in fast forward, whipped up to shield them from the attack. Exploding forcefully as energy met wood, They bowed their head from smoking shards flinging out before pausing as Erebus smirked, standing behind them in a flash. The smoke rising from the stump of their defense suddenly surged forward, and they staggered back at an unseen flurry of blows. The beast grabbed around the glowing form, snarling as their essence burnt his hide. Ignoring the pain and leaning his muzzle over their face as they looked up, he chuckled.\n\n“Mine.” He uttered viciously and gaped his jaws wide. Unflinching, the Terhad’s eyes flared a moment, and with an explosive hiss, the ground beneath Erebus cracked and burst forth with an immense spire of pressurized steam, knocking the beast bodily into the air.\n\nThe beast screamed with frustration, and spread his wings, beating them firmly, glaring at the small frame below watching him.\n\n“Damn you Little wretch! You’re Nothing!!” He screamed incensed before arcing his back, body elongating and thickening out to his beastial shape. The huge beast landed amidst the still smoldering scar through the forest that Kyteriah’s attack had torn, with a dull echoing rumble and snarled as he focused on the Terhad’s frame, as they turned to walk towards him once more. “The hell with you and your little friends! I’ll annihilate you all, souls left to wander this wretched plane! Alone!” The beast drew a great breath, holding it in his chest, as the orbs along his body began fanning out and humming ominously. Digging his huge claws into the charred earth and spreading his wings, Erebus focused a terrible look of concentration on his maw, the edges of his sharp muzzle shimmering with a ringing blue light.\n\nThe Terhad stopped once more, and spread their stance. As Erebus reared his head back, a wicked smirk of victory leering on the edge of his muzzle, they slowly lifted their arms out, crossing them before their face. Towering in front of them, the beast screeched as it unleashed the energy it had channeled, in a pulsing orb of blue-white light, screaming towards the awaiting frame, and the assembled group behind them. The Terhad’s hands curled, gripping the air and throwing their arms wide. The air seeming to tremble as the beast’s blast began slowing, and started to unravel as it went. By the time it reached the Terhad’s frame, it merely rippled their form, as a firm breeze.\n\n“Even smeared with your stolen energy, the wind is still a part of what we are, regardless of what shape you try to force it into.” Starting to walk forward once more, they spoke slower, seeming to concentrate. “We will toy with you no longer… This body will not take much more, so we will end this now. You should have stayed down, when your vessel was defeated… Contented yourself to an eternity in imprisonment…” And with the next step, they vanished into the air, rippling, as into water and evanescing from sight.\n\nTensely, the beast stood, turning his head anxiously, waiting and watching. Snarling and gripping the ground as for once, a look of hesitation, almost fear was evident on his face. Moments passed, the early morning silent… Before the ground began to quake. A terrible force that threw Verace and the others to the ground. Erebus staggered as he looked around, eyes wide. The ground surged beneath the beast suddenly, and formed as it rose. It split and spread into a great maw beneath him as a head and neck, shoulders, torso and arms formed of the earth, as an immense elemental colossus, trees and misshapen boulders falling from its massive body. It’s form of hardened rock, Eyes blazing with fire. The titan, shaped as a moogle, but sized to challenge the Island’s lone mountain, snapped it’s jaws and claimed Erebus’ thick tail and hind legs. The beast screaming in terror, clawed great lines in the granite face devouring him. Unperturbed, the colossus threw its head forward, another snap of those great jaws, and a swallow. Though made of rock, it rippled all the same, Erebus’ movements completely muted inside.\n\nSupporting Verace, the strikers and Kyteriah stared at the gargantuan form devouring the ancient beast. Erebus’ head writhing and screeching, bare moments from being claimed. It spewed a great jet of eerie blue flame into the Morning-sky, before the titan snapped it’s jaws forth a final time, and with an ominous, grinding sound, swallowed and finally, went still. The stillness, the complete silence and finality of the act was almost ominous in its own right. Damien looking to Alex As Verace looked to Kyteriah, before all looked up, as the side of the massive stone form started trembling, and with a gentle ripple from the air, the Terhad reshaped themselves.\n\nThey stood for a moment, regarding those gathered, and turned, to look at their work. Reaching with a hand, they spoke firmly as they touched the base of the massive stone figure.\n\n“…Instead, you will now become as nothing but a memory to those you terrorized. Return to the flow, forever lost, and forgotten.”\n\nThe colossus remained for a moment, before it began crumpling in upon itself, collapsing in great boulders into a jagged heap and kicking up a great dust cloud. As it settled, the group could see remnants of the rock, sinking, being reclaimed slowly by the earth, and taking with it, a tarrish black ooze. The Terhad turned to look the group over.\n\n“…Our job is not yet complete. Before we vanish, we must return to life, those that were lost here. This place, a testament to the horror they witnessed, will not remain. Our balance will continue; restored.”\n\nAnd closing their eyes, the Terhad sighed, the unearthly glow that enveloped them, fading to reveal a softly panting pink moogle, naked as the day he was born, with his pompom still the pearly white sheen. Kyt stepped forward, as the small frame opened his eyes and gave a weary smile.\n\n“…Kyt.” Tsumi murmured, stepping forward and sinking against the dragon as Kyt hugged him firmly. “It was dark… nothing but.. endless.. cold darkness…” The moogle mumbled faintly, resting against the familiar, welcomed chocolatey scent. “But they came… the voices… and they appologised...”\n\nThe dragon blinked softly.\n\n“They appologised..?” He asked softly, watching the mog lean back.\n\n“Yeah… They said.. they were sorry that they had to use my body… to fix things… That… things would be alright, though…” He smiled feebly, before gulping and closing his eyes again. “I’m… so tired, Kyt. …Can I sleep for a little longer, beside you, kupo..?”\n\nThe dragon blinked and smiled, nodding as he softly brought the moogle against his chest again. \n\n“Sure.” The moogle nodded and smiled, sinking against the dragon, before with a sigh, his body trembled, The light in his pompom speading along the small, sleeping frame. Kyt’s eyes widened a little, whiskers flicking as the energy started dispersing, and with it, small parts of the moogle against him, too, seemed to be vanishing like dust in the wind. “Tsumi..!!” But the sleeping form remained still and silent, until a gentle breeze glided through, and washed the body away in the blink of an eye. \n\nThe dragon shook, looking to his hands that had just held the mog, panting heavily, he had been there, right there and it was finally over... Not given time to mourn though, the island, for the final time that night, began quaking anew. Growing stronger and stronger, trees fell steadily, as from the tip of the mountain to the edge of the beach, the ground turned to light. As the Mountain’s illuminated form started vaporizing, much as Tsumi had before it, The group watched amidst the threads of light that were once the mountain as shimmering wisps were guided high into the brightening morning sky, to be carried where they belonged followed by a soft voice on the wind.\n\n“This island holds terrible memories amidst the souls that now flow in its embrace… We will remove it and from your hearts the pains it has caused… The morning will greet you all, again.”\n\nAnd with a great surging rush, the island dissipated, lost to all but those who would remember it.\n\nThere was a sound of birds chirping merrily, as a ray of sunlight beamed in over his face. Groaning at the noise and light, the form stirred and rolled over, pulling a pillow over his head. Feeling as sleep began encroaching once more, his eyes snapped open as a song started playing crisply in the morning air, and with a gasp of shock, Tsumi sat up, his pillow rolling and flumping sadly on the floor.\n\nHe sat, heart racing as he recalled his memories, that all-embracing darkness, the voices, finding himself in front of the Strikers and Kyt. He’d felt so weak, and as sleep found him, he’d dreamt the most vivid and soothing dreams of soaring with the waking sun, and sinking into a deep familiar warmth. The phone on his bed-side table continued to ring audibly, as the moogle sat, looking himself over before reaching up to his pompom as it blinked. It was a welcome glow, coming from the bauble.\n\n“You are awake.” The voices said, fainter than normal. “If you are wondering, we brought you here. As an apology.” Tsumi blinked as he watched the pompom pulsing as they spoke.\n\n“You’ve apologized a lot, kupo.” He murmured, drawing his eyes along the familiar view of his room, sunlight creeping over the clothes-covered floor.\n\n“For not seeing ancient ties in the flow of that island. We put you at risk, which in the end, destroyed you.” The moogle froze a moment at those words, flicking his ears.\n\n“…Pardon?”\n\n“We were drawn to the emptiness of your body, when Erebus claimed your soul. As you were still channeling us when it happened, the path was there, and with no guidance or direction, we took your place. We used your body, to fight, to reclaim everything that he had stolen. …But your body is not designed for the strain that a consciousness like us places, when in a vessel. No mortal is. We knew the danger, and hoped to end it as quickly as possible, but your body broke apart in the end…” They spoke with a somber tone that Tsumi felt through his entire body.\n\n“But I’m still..” The moogle hesitated, looking out his window, to the warm green grass and flower beds outside.\n\n“Alive, yes. Your soul was unaffected, and as we left to handle the task of returning the other souls whence they came, we chose to gift you another body. We cannot do this again though, as you are aware of much more than one should be. …We will still warn you of danger, and permit to you the empathy you are familiar with… …But this is the last time you will hear us, directly until it is your time. …Good bye.”\n\nAnd falling to silence, the pompom’s glow faded, leaving Tsumi silent for a moment in quiet contemplation, before the growing volume of his phone snapped him from his haze. Reading Kyteriah’s familiar number on the screen, he flipped the mobile open, answering as his eyes fell upon Reed’s goggles and Charlie’s pendant hanging on the back of his door.\n\n“Hello?”\n\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": " VOCT Round 6, Spectator Entry, Alternate ending. Tsumi vs. Erebus.

© Tsumi Moogle 2009.

Characters © their players.

Morning lay some hours off. The mountain top, scarred and shimmering in the moonlight from the savage attacks that had torn across it some time ago, still faintly smoldered. Standing at the base of the glassy crater where the final blow had struck, A short, hooded wallaby stood, his preparations complete to at least collect the remnants of the shattered essence that remained on the island. Rising his head to the sky to slip his hood free, the wallaby chuckled quietly. “All that travelling, and I arrived too late to be of decent help anyway.” He murmured to himself before gently raising his arms to begin the task of drawing those energies before him, to do as he would as a Reaper, to dispose of them.

His eyes closing to focus himself, the wallaby took a breath only to freeze in place and open his eyes once more. The energies were moving of their own accord. The ground giving an ominous rumbling beneath Shadow’s long paws, before the base of that glassy crater cracked with an unearthly blue light shining forth. A voice, deep and ancient as the earth whispered gravellishly from beneath the crack.

“You are not too late to be of help, Reaper.” The crack growing as whatever lay beneath surged forward. Wisps of black flame, once too subtle to be seen, snaking along the ground and creeping up to fill that crater before with an earsplitting explosion; a grand beast tore from the earth and towered above the wallaby.

“…Erebus.” Shadow growled, grasping his scythe behind himself.

The forest swayed gently in a soft, early morning breeze. The sea of leaves sounding like the gentle sigh of the ocean hissing back and forth steadily over the shore. Amidst the thick trunks of the trees, the procession of survivors, and the strikers, trudged for the boat, said to be waiting some number of hours-trek from where they were. Aside from Misa avidly chatting with her reunited Kitty friend, in Samantha, the trip thus far had been non-descript. Damien having hurried ahead with a small, form sleeping tightly bound in his white coat. Another striker, as they’d been informed. And Alex, having departed with the unconscious form of Jag over his back to retrieve better medical help aboard the ship.

Verace lead ahead of Kyteriah, who continued to cradle the stirring, sleeping frame of Tsumi. Behind him, Samantha, who was talking, much more refined then her friend Misa. The slime cat animated and wild with her expressions and gestures of her adventures since their time apart.

“So like, I tried to help Tsumi-kitty over there, you know, stop the meanie from attacking, and he threw me back! It kinda hurt, but then he blew off the mountain! It was the second time since I got here! It was so not fair!” Throwing her hands up in the air, to emphasize the explosive force with which she’d been blown away, Misa froze as in the distance an explosion rent the air. Lowering her hands precariously and placing her arms neatly to her sides, she mewled innocently. “That wasn’t me.”

Verace frowned softly as he looked about at the echoing noise, flicking his large tails.

“That came from the mountain… What is the Reaper doing up there?” He murmured, eyes scanning through the canopy of the trees above, trying to make out the mountain-top from where he stood…

“His job, hopefully.” The dragon said, looking towards the mountain too,  before Tsumi began stirring in his arms. A shuffle, a jerk and a little twitch, and Tsumi sat up with a gasp in Kyt’s arms, his pompom glowing the royal-blue colour it had pulsed with almost since they’d left the mountain. His eyes looking around in the gloom anxiously, chest rising and falling nervously.

“The explosion wake you?” The dragon holding him murmured, nuzzling the strawberry-scented moogle’s hair. Gulping softly as where he was sank in, the moogle shook his head slowly.

“…Bad dreams.” He admitted softly. “..I can walk now, I’m ok… Really.” And easing onto the ground, took a moment to collect his head and start walking with the dragon, eying over the twin tails of Verace as the fox walked in front of him before glancing off to the side, the forest stretching beyond them. “…How far are we from the boat, Verace?” He piped up tentatively, flicking his ears to the cool, still, morning air and the crunch of leaves underfoot.

“A few hours yet. But no signs of life so far. Damien and Alex will be waiting for us there.” The fox said, shaking his head softly.

Subdued by the ominous explosion, the group continued. Each set of eyes looking out into the darkness of the forest, catching the rare glimpse of the moon through the clouds above, or a rogue beam of light from the stars peeking through a gap in the trees amongst them. Tsumi paused as his pompom gave a little pulse. Looking about,  he caught a flicker of movement in the gloom to the side of the path they’d been following.

“…Verace?” He called softly, causing the Fox to backtrack.

“What is it-” The fox’s voice trailed as he noticed what Tsumi was focused on. Stepping between the trees, the group followed him with bated breath, as the gloom parted slowly to Tsumi’s pompom glowing brighter. Hanging from a low branch, flapping gently in a soft breeze; a somewhat tattered looking, familiar black cloak. It was Samantha who stepped forward to retrieve it.

“This looks like…” She murmured tensely, a solemnity in her eyes as she looked the group over.

“Shadows’.” Verace finished grimly. Tsumi saw the fox gulp, before he turned to call to the Reaper.

The group all turned respectively outwards, looking for and calling to the Reaper, each hoping to be the one to have a weary voice call back to them as they walked outwards, searching. But with moments easing to minutes, Tsumi turned to head back from the clearing he’d entered. The sky above having a slitted gap in the thick clouds, the moon peeking hopefully through. He could feel Kyt but some meters from him, Verace on another side of him, but they too had been calling with less and less vigor. Taking a step, the moogle paused again, at a chill breeze whispering through the glade. Not just passing. Truly whispering. Turning cautiously back towards the clearing, he shivered at each wave of that soft, chillingly icy whisper creeping through. The voices soft; gentle sighs, illegible whispers… The noise compounding gently, steadily; a maddening, silent cacophony on his ears, causing the moogle to clap his hands over his ears to shut them out.

The icy brush of the wind though, could not be so easily beaten back. And shivering, the moogle drew his arms back around himself. The whispers had abated once again. Raising his head with timid breaths, he frowned at the trees on the opposite edge of the glade. Though black as the night permitted, they were gently back-lit, by something: A faint blue light that seemed to be getting stronger.

“Shadow?” The moogle called out, stepping forward cautiously, before freezing. His pompom, still aglow with that ominous blue, changed to a firm orange. There was a footstep, or something akin. It was broad, heavy… The soft blue lighting, moving along the trees, finally broke the border of the glade.

Tsumi uttered a gasp that caught in his chest at the face of the beast stepping through into the clearing. It had a draconic shape and gait, with a trio of large horns formed in a tall, crown-like fashion atop its head. The hide of its sinuous, long and skeletal looking body, a tarry black. Broad wings lay draped, held along it’s back, and a thick tail carried along behind it. It would have been spooky enough, if not for long antennae-like protrusions along and around its neck. They carried on, hundreds of them, down it’s spine, interspaced in the thick-hide of the wings like decorations, and continued down to its tail, sleeked down to its body. Every one of them topped with a tiny, blue-glowing bauble, the size of a bead and looking as though they were crafted of the finest blown glass. Amassed, they backlit the dragon’s features like the trees it had stepped from. The beads tinkled, swaying as the beast moved. Like the leaves of the forest, they created a relaxing yet ominous noise. When the beast came to stop once more, the beads all swayed and came to a perfect halt, another wave of those sighs and silent voices assaulted the moogle’s ears.

Glaring at Tsumi with piercing eyes, seeming lit with the same essence that each of those beads contained, the dragon broke into a wicked smirk.

“I found you.” It whispered with a deep voice, gravelly yet smooth as satin, as though more than one person spoke through it.

“Tsumi?” Called a voice from nearby. The moogle turning his head quickly, watching as Verace and the others broke through the trees, each freezing as they looked past the moogle to the massive dragon leering over them.

“Hmph… This makes things easier then.” The dragon uttered gutturally, eyes panning over the face of each in the group before him, licking a broad and slimy tongue along his thin muzzle. “And you don’t need to worry any about your Reaper friend.” The dragon smirked. “He was an amusing appetizer. He actually thought I was beaten. You all did, apparently. Did you forget your poor rodent-friend? He was just what I needed.” Erebus reared his head back, before issuing a rattling, terrible belch as if to emphasize Sparky’s position. “And I hope you didn’t forget my little promise, moogle.” Those steely eyes held Tsumi with a paralyzing glare. “You, and those souls you contain, are next. …You others? Can watch, and wait!”

The dragon had reared itself up onto its powerful hind legs, towards the end of its wicked monologue. And with that final word thrown out, he surged forward onto all fours with an agonizing screech of a roar. The orbs along Erebus’ frame seeming to glow brighter, as the antennae over his form fanned out. The sound of those whispers joined the roar, growing in volume, in pitch, to screams. Sheer agony tearing into and gripping each of those before the dragon. Tsumi cowering with his ears covered, Verace staggering, yelling against the wind, Misa’s form quivering and losing definition, as she held to Samantha who bowed her head with a scream to the noise, Kyteriah too,  shuddering and covering his ears.

The roar died down at last, but the screams of those souls, held trapped within the Dragon’s body continued to pierce the air and hearts of the gathered group. Looking pleased over his simple work, Erebus inclined his head. “How pathetic. Look at you all, cowering… Especially you, who brought down my vessel” The dragon snarled, eyes locked on Tsumi’s knelt form as the moogle shuddered under those terrible voices amidst the icy chill of an aura screaming around him. “But that’s easily remedied…”

The dragon snarled once more and arching his back, flexed his large, leathery wings wide. A single beat of them, causing a small hurricane to knock the others pell-mell back into the thick growth of the forest, where as Tsumi was held in place by the icy grip of Erebus’ aura. The noises around the moogle subsided, but the icy grip did not. It tightened, like a vicious hand grasping wickedly tight about his neck and torso, lifting him slowly. He scrambled, finding there was nothing he could grip at, claw at or bite; the dragon’s aura was tangible and being used as another appendage. The searing sensation of those tendrils trying to burrow, pressing in at the moogle’s frame, causing him to scream as he felt Erebus’ will trying like a pick-axe to rock, to shatter his will and claim those souls he held, protected unintentionally.

“Give it up, moogle! And give them to me!” The dragon roared in annoyance, gripping the small frame before him savagely, drawing ever closer. Erebus paused, eyes flicking aside as something hurtled through the trees: a small, glimmering trinket. Rounded.. The base of Sefra’s Hammer, blinking with an odd green light and faint beeping. It stopped dead in mid-air, bare inches from Erebus’ face, caught in the Dragon’s aura before he smirked. “You think to stop me with This?” He yelled with a smirk that harbored no amusement to the faceless assailant in the trees. As a streak of white caught the dragon’s attention from the other side, he turned in time to see Verace leap and cover Tsumi with his body. A moment of realization crossing the dragon’s face before the now rapidly-beeping hammer-base pulsed red and lit up the night sky with an explosion of searing light. Rag dolling before the explosion, Verace tumbled, holding Tsumi tight, before slamming back into a tree with a yell. Sliding to the base, the fox sat, wincing and panting, looking to the moogle.

“Are you ok..?” he asked urgently, lifting the moogle’s face to look into the pained blue eyes.

Drawing a shakey breath and with the dragon’s aura no longer holding him, the moogle nodded, eyes clenched against the remaining light of the explosion. The aches of the phantom grasp leaving faster then he would have thought. He realized more than that; the air was warm again, the icey bite of the early morning gone before whatever that explosion had been and every breath of the warmth air was heartening; bolstering. Nearby, Kyteriah stepped from between the trees he’d been thrown, raising a paw against the  bright like still burning in place of that explosion, like a small sun and looking about, seeming relieved to see Verace letting the moogle stand.

The fox too, stood with a little more difficulty, and cricking his neck. “Samantha and Misa should be heading for the others like I told them.. But it might be a while before the cavalry gets here…” He drew a paw into his cloak to retrieve a small vial that Tsumi had noticed once before. He watched curiously as the fox drew liquid metal into the air from it, and intricately formed a pair of silvery gauntlets, which he slid his arms into. “You can go with them too, if you want.” The fox said, eyes narrowed as the searing orb of light shrank steadily.

“And risk another incident, like Shadow?” Tsumi frowned quietly, moving aside from the fox and turning to face with the vulpine, towards the orb. “…That’d be foolish of us.”

Kyteriah gave a soft nod and flicked his feline-ears as he lifted off the ground a foot or two. “One soul, or a hundred, we can’t let this disgusting thing claim anyone else.” And flicking his thick tail, frowned, whiskers starting to steam and glow with a soft crackle.

The stood tensely, watching the orb shrinking, and at last, flicker out like a flame. The hammer-hilt dropping to the ground before a knelt form far smaller than the grand dragon they had faced bare minutes before. It was that same inky black colour, body cloaked in thick wings. It’s bowed head was topped with those crown-like horns still, it’s eyes closed and breathing deep. There was smoke or something akin rising subtly off its form. For a moment, everything was still, before the beast opened its eyes sharply, reigniting that unearthly blue-glow in the steely orbs, and with a rush, the gently tinkling orbs down it’s body.

Erebus stood, snarling in a vicious manner as he spread his wings, settling them behind himself once more as he stared, this time at Verace.

“A parting gift from your wretched friend?” He spat, his voice higher, carrying with it the many tones of the souls inside him.

“Just leveling the playing field.” The fox half-smirked, before clenching his fists and charging headlong for the beast before them, Tsumi beside him, pompom glowing brighter.

Erebus snorted, even without the use of his aura, they underestimated him. Spreading his arms  in preparation, his eyes focused on Verace. Taking a great swing of his arm, he tore a rising spire of blue fire through the ground to displace him. Head turning aside as Tsumi leapt to deliver a heel drop, the beast spread his arms, soul-orbs dulling a moment in their glow as his body pulsed out a shocking wave. Already in mid-air, the moogle’s red-glowing pompom was too late to assist, and Tsumi crashed into the solid barrier, only to be knocked back.

Grinning at an enraged snarl from the air above, Erebus threw his hand toward its source, that same shimmering blue aura shielding him from a  sharp blast of lightning from Kyteriah. A simple flick of his wrist, and the charge redirected towards Verace. The beast narrowed his eyes as a familiar, predictably timed wall of earth surged before the fox to cover him.

Tsumi panted as he turned again in his dance, feeling Erebus facing him, the world, a shimmering haze of colour and noise, before the earth’s golden glow beneath him was rent with more trailing pillars of fire. Rising his own arms and throwing them forward, the earth roared in his ears as it surged forward to meet the flames and cancel them out with a grand explosion.

Beyond, Verace had leapt in to grapple Erebus, and shockingly, seemed to be steadily overpowering the beast. The wind cried out at a perversion evanescing through it. The beast was channeling energy into his muzzle…

“Verace!” Tsumi yelled in warning,  before Erebus smirked. Flexing his muscles, he gripped verace’s hands, and hauled him around bodily as Kyteriah worked a paw feverishly through the air, runes searing in the gloom. The Beast threw Verace with a roar, barreling him headlong for the dragon above just as Kyt pushed his hand through his completed runes. Quicker then he’d thought though, Erebus launched away from his standing point, as the air around it exploded violently. The beast’s eyes set on the dancing moogle, he smirked and planted a foot, leaping over a surge of jagged spires and landing before the mog. Even with his eyes closed, Tsumi’s face was shocked, as he was displaced from his dancing, in putting his efforts into avoiding a flurry of brutal strikes and kicks from the beast.  The moogle’s vision entirely red, he saw Erebus’ tail sweeping for him, and leaping aside over it, caught a knee to his abdomen followed with an arcing kick into the air. Erebus was atop him again in a heartbeat, and a moment too late to defend himself, The moogle received a blinding punch that slammed him back to the earth.

Looking up as he replaced Verace back on the ground, Kyt’s red eyes widened, seeing the Moogle hitting the ground and laying still. Erebus, smirking in a wicked manner as he turned to face the dragon and fox.

Kyt’s screaming roar of rage had the beast hesitate for a moment, as something tore from the dragon’s back. They appeared to be wings, but the most obscure wings he’d ever seen. Jagged and intricate, they were assembled of many pieces of pure crystal and solid light; like a lead-light pattern. His eyes, searing with a white light, replacing the normal scarlet.

The beast smirked, impressed with the display, and turning to face the dragon, Erebus licked his lips.

“Interesting. But wholly ineffective!” He snarled, and dashing forward, the soul-orbs tinkled ominously, before going out. The beast vanished with a scream of wind. Snarling, Kyt’s wings surged around him like an armor, and just in time, as Erebus appeared behind the dragon, the crystals sang and tinkled as a rush of unseen strikes buffeted them. Turning and leaping back before a terrible swing from the beast, Kyt landed by Tsumi, kneeling quickly to grasp his shoulder.

“Tsumi..!”

Verace growled as the beast smirked at him, and leaping forward, The fox swung a wicked punch, Erebus catching it, but still staggering a step, his clawed feet skidding on the  leafy ground.  With a determined look of spite on his face, the fox kept swinging. Erebus growled, dodging many where he could and knocking glancing blows aside. Ducking under a punch that would have knocked him flat, the beast raised his head, snarling, to meet Verace’s  maw open wide, the air within the jaws rippling with a searing heat. His chest expanded, Verace surged  the breath out as a great torrent of white-hot flame, engulfing the beast.

Beneath him, Erebus seemed to be withdrawing, from pain perhaps, the fox couldn’t tell, but a flicker of blue amidst the flame caught his breath in his throat. The flames died out in an instant, before Erebus rose, fanning his arms and wings wide with a surge of that terrible aura once more. Knocked back, Verace cursed, before being jarred to a dead stop, a steel-clad grip squeezing his neck as Erebus snarled. His form smoking here or there, and many of his soul orbs looking blackened from heat, the beast leant his muzzle towards the fox, scrambling at his arm.

“This has been fun, really… But I think it’s time, for you to join your Rabbit friend!” He whispered, before standing straight and lifting his arm, with Verace. The orbs lighting up brilliantly, Erebus’ arm glowed an ominous blue, before Verace started screaming as the beast channeled that aura through him. Like an electric current, his body jerked and kicked, feeling the beasts’ will breaking into his own…

With the terrible screams calling into the air, Tsumi stirred. His body shaking as he slowly rose onto hands and knees. Feeling Kyteriah’s hand on his shoulder, the moogle lifted his head, panting raggedly. His pompom alight and blinking haphazardly, the moogle stood proper, the dragon beside him.

“…Enough…” The moogle murmured, looking unstable on his feet, ears flicking to Veraces continued yells of agony.

“Tsumi.. you should stay down.. I’ll finish it..” Kyt urged, squeezing the moogle’s shoulder, until the mog turned to look at him. There was a trickle of red from the corner of his muzzle, his blue eyes determined in a way that shocked the dragon. There was rage on the moogle’s face, and something deeper, in his eyes.

“…Focus everything… together… …One chance.” Tsumi murmured, turning back to the beast as his fur shimmered a moment with a glow akin to his pompom’s. “W-.. We won’t… …let him take… another friend…”

Taking a step, and another, the moogle broke into a run, charging towards the dragon with a growing yell of rage. Blinking after Tsumi, Kyt closed his eyes, his wings flaring out and beginning to hum.

Turning his head from Verace’s slowly weakening form at the sound of the cry, the beast grinned wickedly, seeing Tsumi barreling for him. He spread his wings and with a great beat, lifted into the air, to mock the youth. The beast blinked, though, as the ground seemed to quake with each step the moogle took.

Tsumi threw an arm forward, causing the ground to split and crack, before surging up in great craggy serpents. The moogle’s small frame running along the back as the beast soared higher to avoid the livid frame. The ‘head’ of the rocky serpent flung itself up violently as Tsumi stepped upon it, and launched him high into the air, turning and spinning in the air with the wind shimmering about him. Erebus, snarling, raised his free hand, forming that shimmering blue shield once more, only to watch with shock as Tsumi’s  heel-drop shattered clean through it and slammed with a hurricane-like force into his shoulder. The arm gripping Verace released as the beast hurtled with a terrible screech of pain, back to the ground to land with a dull rumble that shook the ancient trees to their roots.

Grasping around Veraces’ chest, Tsumi landed much smoother, The earth rippling into sand to buffet the landing. The moogle panted as he eased the fox back, still wincing and gasping, he nodded with relief; he hadn’t been too late. Staggering back to his feet, Tsumi watched as across the glade, Erebus tore from the earth, snarling incensed. Seeing the beast rearing his head back to channel a retaliatory attack of his own, the moogle lifted his arms and clenched his fists tight, watching the earth splitting around the beast, with numerous thorny vines tearing free to wrap around his body, up his limbs, around his wings, even taught around his muzzle to fizzle the shimmering attack forming within Erebus’ jaws.

Beside the moogle, Kyteriah had summoned the extent of his energy, wings vibrating and humming with a rising pitch that reverberated into the very hearts of those present.

“Not enough…” The dragon growled, his searing white eyes glowing as he shook with the effort of containing the force.

Wincing with his own struggle of keeping the beast bound, Tsumi closed his eyes tight and swung his arms down hard. As a roll of thunder growled in the clouds above, a single jagged bolt tore from the sky, and slammed between the dragon’s back between his shimmery wings. Kyteriah’s body jerking, The extra energy surged through him, his wings splintering into hundreds of thousands of pieces, ringing with an almost deafening screech.

Time seemed to slow down as the dragon drew the energy all in, Erebus’ eyes widening as Kyt brought his arms out, only to throw them forward. The night-sky light up as the energy was released in a terrible wave that tore through the bared frame of Erebus before it, and into the forest, obliterating trees, earth and stinging the air as it evanesced into silence. Groaning as they collapsed, Tsumi smiled feebly to the dragon, gulping wearily and shaking softly.

“You ok, kupo?” He murmured reaching to pet at the dragon’s shoulder. He paused though, noticing the searing steam coming from the dragon’s form. Kyt’s head was bowed, breathing deep. His wings had vanished, and his eyes were their scarlet hue once more.

“Felt better..” The dragon groaned, cricking his neck, before looking up as they heard footsteps crashing through the forrest behind them.

“Verace!” Shouted a familiar orange rabbit, Alex looking about, with Damien, the black fox hot on his heels. Both looking over the glade, to the moogle and dragon resting, over to Veraces’ collapsed form some yards away. Alex started for his sibling, as Damien crouched, looking Tsumi and Kyteriah open.

“What happened..? We heard an explosion from the mountain, and came back to inspect, meeting Samantha and Misa on the way… they said something had come out of the trees.” The fox spoke worriedly, before Tsumi nodded.

“…Erebus wasn’t quite finished.” The moogle sighed. “He.. got shadow, and came for us… But I think this time we-” He trailed off, looking to the fox’s face, his face seeming to pale.

“You what?” Damien urged, before pausing as a chill breeze coursed through the glade. The smoke lifting from the scorched ground dissipated slowly, baring a frame across the clearing. It’s skeletal hide nicked and oozing a faint black liquid. A number of the soul-orbs across his back and wings cracked with fine, spidery lines, and all completely dulled.

“…You thought you had me.” The beast spoke with an eerie chuckle. Rattling his wings and seeming to flex his body with another wave of that chill wind. The silent voices, sighing and whispering along the wind starting to press in on the ears of those gathered. “But it seems you took too long… A small price to pay, to survive that attack of yours, Dragon.” Shaking his head, Erebus rattled the dulled orbs that framed his head. “But as always…” The dragon snarled, lifting a hand. “…Easily Remedied!”

With his pompom glaring an urgent red, Tsumi’s eyes widened as that familiar, icey grip enclosed around his body again. Hauled forward and into the Beasts’ grasp proper amidst yells of shock from the group, the youth scrambled feebly, gasping and whimpering as so much easier, now he was exhausted; the maddening feel of the beast’s aura stabbed into his body. In his head, he heard the voices, hazed through the pain, rallying him not to give in. But with his heart and mind bared before Erebus’ smirking frame and the Beast opening his jaws wide, terror struck through his form before a pain such as he had never felt tore through his body, like shards of ice gripping every portion of his being. He screamed as through the pain, there was a rush of sensation, emotion, visions of people and places and sounds that were not his own.

Multiple lifetimes of memory were torn from his mind, the moogle witness to each and every one. All leading to the island, and stopping there. The eternity lasted truly only for a moment, as Erebus snapped his jaws shut, and swallowed. The Orbs along his frame flickering and bursting back into life  as he looked to the group all paralyzed before him, bound in place by that strengthening aura of his, licking his lips viciously.

“I’ve thought of a prize for you, moogle. After I finish devouring the souls of everyone here, and burying your dear friend to the depths of the earth… I’m going to take your body home… and let you watch me feast on your family. Your brother first. What was his name? Juli?” The dragon mocked wickedly to the moogle sobbing in his grasp,  Tsumi’s hand trembling and trying to raise for Kyteriah’s knelt frame. The hand went rigid, and the moogle’s eyes, wide as the beast’s jaws descended again.

“Tsumi!!” The purple dragon yelled as Erebus’ maw drew a long, ponderous breath over the moogle’s face. His body jerked, eyes flicking and pompom pulsing weaker and weaker as the beast drew a long trail wisp of familiar blue light from the open muzzle of the moogle. Easing past the beasts’ lips, the group heard over the other voices pressing silently on their ears, a faint, final cry before Erebus closed his maw simply, and pausing with Tsumi’s body slumping in his grasp, smirked… and swallowed once more.

“…Mmh… Tastes like strawberries.” The beast grinned, trailing his tongue along his lips with relish, and looking from the body in his grasp, to the shocked, and angry faces kneeling before him. “Heheh… No need to look so upset. You’ll all join him soon. Well, almost all of you.” His eyes focused on Kyteriah maliciously.

The beast paused after taking a step, looking to the body in his hand. The pompom atop its head had pulsed again. Grinning softly, he lifted the body again, looking into the open, staring eyes. “…Let’s see you dance now.” He muttered darkly, before moving to throw the body aside. He froze, with his arm outstretched as the moogle’s body had gripped his arm with a vice-like grip. “What..?” Erebus snarled softly, watching the pompom blinking, and flare into a brilliant white light.

“…We don’t have to dance.” The body spoke. Not with Tsumi’s voice, nor with a voice that anyone in the group recognized. It was a voice, soft as a breeze and hard as diamond, supple as water, yet searing like an inferno. Tsumi’s head raising, the once-empty eyes burned with an inner light that matched the glow of his pompom. Boring into Erebus’ eyes, the beast found himself holding something terrible, like when he had held Tsumi’s pompom, hours ago atop the mountain. The moogle’s body hurt to handle, and releasing the thin neck, he stepped back, watching the body as it stood in mid-air.

The moogle seemed to be considering himself, frowning. “An eternity as the pulse of the cosmos… and we stand here and now, within this body…” Lifting his hands a moment, he flexed them, turning them over, and then returning that burning gaze to the beast. Lowering slowly to the ground, the moogles’ fur shimmered and began glowing with the same light of his pompom. His clothes starting to unravel from his body, and evaporated into thin air as the body started glowing brighter. Wreathed in that coronal light, he stepped forward. The beasts’ aura was once more chased back, warmth and peaceful silence returning to the ears of those trapped. Kyteriah started forward, as did Verace, before the moogle raised an arm, holding it to one side.

“Please, stay back. We will handle this now, as this beast has overstepped his boundaries for the last time.” The voice was gentle, but at the same time, there was a wavering tone that carried the most tangible anger the group had felt.

Even Erebus seemed stunned by the statement, snarling.

“What are you?! I destroyed that moogle!” He snapped, but seemed to subconsciously step back as the small, shimmering frame matched pace. Footsteps leaving patches of sprouting flowers and grass.

“We are the power he wielded. The flow that with millennia’s passing weave new worlds, and new life. Focused though, as we are now, we are the voice of the earth. You, who have corrupted and disjointed our flow for too long, will be tolerated no longer. We, are the Terhad and we will restore our balance. Your existence, Forfeit.” They came to a stop, looking up to the dragon, patiently, as Erebus seemed to struggle to comprehend for a moment what he’d unleashed.  With a vicious roar, he lashed out.

“Liar! You’re just a remnant of that moogle! I’ll finish the job, and then your so called precious world will be Mine!” Before starting to attack with a vicious string of strikes and kicks.

The Terhad seemed impassive, as they moved with the lightest grace. Each strike passing within a whisker of the small frame as they avoided each blow, before throwing a hand to catch a strike. Erebus’ clenched first impacted with a hand of stone, causing him to wince a moment, before the hand melted back into that shimmery light, and forced forward with a sudden blast of howling wind that threw the beast back awkwardly.

Snarling as he eyed the Terhad straightening up,  the beast threw his arms wide with a pulse of his stolen aura to stop himself in the air, and narrowing his eyes, threw the collective force forward. The Terhad seemed to consider the attack for a moment before with an inclination of their head, a  thick, writhing tendril of wood, a tree growing as if in fast forward, whipped up to shield them from the attack. Exploding forcefully as energy met wood, They bowed their head from smoking shards flinging out before pausing as Erebus smirked, standing behind them in a flash.  The smoke rising from the stump of their defense suddenly surged forward,  and they staggered back at an unseen flurry of blows. The beast grabbed around the glowing form, snarling as their essence burnt his hide. Ignoring the pain and leaning his muzzle over their face as they looked up, he chuckled.

“Mine.” He uttered viciously and gaped his jaws wide. Unflinching, the Terhad’s eyes flared a moment, and with an explosive hiss, the ground beneath Erebus cracked and burst forth with an immense spire of pressurized steam, knocking the beast bodily into the air.

The beast screamed with frustration, and spread his wings, beating them firmly, glaring at the small frame below watching him.

“Damn you Little wretch! You’re Nothing!!” He screamed incensed before arcing his back, body elongating and thickening out to his beastial shape. The huge beast landed amidst the still smoldering scar through the forest that Kyteriah’s attack had torn, with a dull echoing rumble and snarled as he focused on the Terhad’s frame, as they turned to walk towards him once more. “The hell with you and your little friends! I’ll annihilate you all, souls left to wander this wretched plane! Alone!” The beast drew a great breath, holding it in his chest, as the orbs along his body began fanning out and humming ominously. Digging his huge claws into the charred earth and spreading his wings, Erebus focused a terrible look of concentration on his maw, the edges of his sharp muzzle shimmering with a ringing blue light.

The Terhad stopped once more, and spread their stance. As Erebus reared his head back, a wicked smirk of victory leering on the edge of his muzzle, they slowly lifted their arms out, crossing them before their face. Towering in front of them, the beast screeched as it unleashed the energy it had channeled, in a pulsing orb of blue-white light, screaming towards the awaiting frame, and the assembled group behind them. The Terhad’s hands curled, gripping the air and throwing their arms wide. The air seeming to tremble as the beast’s blast began slowing, and started to unravel  as it went. By the time it reached the Terhad’s frame, it merely rippled their form, as a firm breeze.

“Even smeared with your stolen energy, the wind is still a part of what we are, regardless of what shape you try to force it into.” Starting to walk forward once more, they spoke slower, seeming to concentrate. “We will toy with you no longer… This body will not take much more, so we will end this now. You should have stayed down, when your vessel was defeated… Contented yourself to an eternity in imprisonment…” And with the next step, they vanished into the air, rippling, as into water and evanescing from sight.

Tensely, the beast stood, turning his head anxiously, waiting and watching. Snarling and gripping the ground as for once, a look of hesitation, almost fear was evident on his face. Moments passed, the early morning silent… Before the ground began to quake. A terrible force that threw Verace and the others to the ground. Erebus staggered as he looked around, eyes wide. The ground surged beneath the beast suddenly, and formed as it rose. It split and spread into a great maw beneath him as a head and neck, shoulders, torso and arms formed of the earth, as an immense elemental colossus, trees and misshapen boulders falling from its massive body. It’s form of hardened rock, Eyes blazing with fire. The titan, shaped as a moogle, but sized to challenge the Island’s lone mountain, snapped it’s jaws and claimed Erebus’ thick tail and hind legs. The beast screaming in terror, clawed great  lines in the granite face devouring him. Unperturbed, the colossus threw its head forward, another snap of those great jaws, and a swallow. Though made of rock, it rippled all the same, Erebus’ movements completely muted inside.

Supporting Verace, the strikers and Kyteriah stared at the gargantuan form devouring the ancient beast.  Erebus’ head writhing and screeching, bare moments from being claimed. It spewed a great jet of eerie blue flame into the Morning-sky, before the titan snapped it’s jaws  forth a final time, and with an ominous, grinding sound, swallowed and finally, went still. The stillness, the complete silence and finality of the act was almost ominous in its own right. Damien looking to Alex As Verace looked to Kyteriah, before all looked up, as the side of the massive stone form started trembling, and with a gentle ripple from the air, the Terhad reshaped themselves.

They stood for a moment, regarding those gathered, and turned, to look at their work. Reaching with a hand, they spoke firmly as they touched the base of the massive stone figure.

“…Instead, you will now become as nothing but a memory to those you terrorized. Return to the flow, forever lost, and forgotten.”

The colossus remained for a moment, before it began crumpling in upon itself, collapsing in great boulders into a jagged heap and kicking up a great dust cloud. As it settled, the group could see remnants of the rock, sinking, being reclaimed slowly by the earth, and taking with it, a tarrish black ooze. The Terhad turned to look the group over.

“…Our job is not yet complete. Before we vanish, we must return to life, those that were lost here. This place, a testament to the horror they witnessed, will not remain. Our balance will continue; restored.”

And closing their eyes, the Terhad sighed, the unearthly glow that enveloped them, fading to reveal a softly panting pink moogle, naked as the day he was born, with his pompom still the pearly white sheen. Kyt stepped forward, as the small frame opened his eyes and gave a weary smile.

“…Kyt.” Tsumi murmured, stepping forward and sinking against the dragon as Kyt hugged him firmly. “It was dark… nothing but.. endless.. cold darkness…” The moogle mumbled faintly,  resting against the familiar, welcomed chocolatey scent. “But they came… the voices… and they appologised...”

The dragon blinked softly.

“They appologised..?” He asked softly, watching the mog lean back.

“Yeah… They said.. they were sorry that they had to use my body… to fix things… That… things would be alright, though…” He smiled feebly, before gulping and closing his eyes again. “I’m… so tired, Kyt. …Can I sleep for a little longer, beside you, kupo..?”

The dragon blinked and smiled, nodding as he softly brought the moogle against his chest again.

“Sure.” The moogle nodded and smiled, sinking against the dragon, before with a sigh, his body trembled, The light in his pompom speading along the small, sleeping frame. Kyt’s eyes widened a little, whiskers flicking as the energy started dispersing, and with it, small parts of the moogle against him, too, seemed to be vanishing like dust in the wind. “Tsumi..!!” But the sleeping form remained still and silent, until a gentle breeze glided through, and  washed the body away in the blink of an eye.

The dragon shook, looking to his hands that had just held the mog, panting heavily, he had been there, right there and it was finally over... Not given time to mourn though, the island, for the final time that night, began quaking anew. Growing stronger and stronger, trees fell steadily, as from the tip of the mountain to the edge of the beach, the ground turned to light. As the Mountain’s illuminated form started vaporizing, much as Tsumi had before it, The group watched amidst the threads of light that were once the mountain as shimmering wisps were guided high into the brightening morning sky, to be carried where they belonged followed by a soft voice on the wind.

“This island holds terrible memories amidst the souls that now flow in its embrace… We will remove it and from your hearts the pains it has caused… The morning will greet you all, again.”

And with a great surging rush, the island dissipated, lost to all but those who would remember it.

There was a sound of birds chirping merrily, as a ray of sunlight beamed in over his face.  Groaning at the  noise and light, the form stirred and rolled over, pulling a pillow over his head. Feeling as sleep began encroaching once more, his eyes snapped open as a song started playing crisply in the morning air, and with a gasp of shock, Tsumi sat up, his pillow rolling and flumping sadly on the floor.

He sat, heart racing as he recalled his memories, that all-embracing darkness, the voices, finding himself in front of the Strikers and Kyt. He’d felt so weak, and as sleep found him, he’d dreamt the most vivid and soothing dreams of soaring with the waking sun, and sinking into a deep familiar warmth. The phone on his bed-side table continued to ring audibly, as the moogle sat, looking himself over before reaching up to his pompom as it blinked. It was a welcome glow, coming from the bauble.

“You are awake.” The voices said, fainter than normal. “If you are wondering, we brought you here. As an apology.” Tsumi blinked as he watched the pompom pulsing as they spoke.

“You’ve apologized a lot, kupo.” He murmured, drawing his eyes along the familiar view of his room, sunlight creeping over the clothes-covered floor.

“For not seeing ancient ties in the flow of that island. We put you at risk, which in the end, destroyed you.” The moogle froze a moment at those words, flicking his ears.

“…Pardon?”

“We were drawn to the emptiness of your body, when Erebus claimed your soul. As you were still channeling us when it happened, the path was there, and with no guidance or direction, we took your place. We used your body, to fight, to reclaim everything that he had stolen. …But your body is not designed for the strain that a consciousness like us places, when in a vessel. No mortal is. We knew the danger, and hoped to end it as quickly as possible, but your body broke apart in the end…” They spoke with a somber tone that Tsumi felt through his entire body.

“But I’m still..” The moogle hesitated, looking out his window, to the warm green grass and flower beds outside.

“Alive, yes. Your soul was unaffected, and as we left to handle the task of returning the other souls whence they came, we chose to gift you another body. We cannot do this again though, as you are aware of much more than one should be. …We will still warn you of danger, and permit to you the empathy you are familiar with… …But this is the last time you will hear us, directly until it is your time. …Good bye.”

And falling to silence, the pompom’s glow faded, leaving Tsumi silent for a moment in quiet contemplation, before the growing volume of his phone snapped him from his haze. Reading Kyteriah’s familiar number on the screen, he flipped the mobile open, answering as his eyes fell upon Reed’s goggles and Charlie’s pendant hanging on the back of his door.

“Hello?”

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