[Indignation blasts past one of the pillars, sends it tumbling off its gravitational perch. No one much notices, or cares, except that the shock of it landing makes Kratos grunt. He stares at where it was, hardly breathing; and Yuan's urgent mental voice down cuts through the fog in Kratos's head, his words shaking something loose. 'Start pulling back.'
[And Yggdrasill is there, furious, artes already in his hands and mana sparking all around him. This one tastes of fire, flames lancing out toward Yuan in roaring billows.]
You're a nuisance. You always have been -- lurking around her, thinking you could take her away from me. I should have killed you a long time ago.
[Colette levers at Kratos's shoulders and this time Kratos actually responds, somewhat, pushing himself up shakily. Lloyd means to join them, but a blast of light makes him yelp, rolling to dodge and taking cover behind a pillar. So much activity here, where it should have been quiet, nearly enough to hide the sound of the Seed beating under Kratos's hands.
['Start pulling back.' No, not again. Last time it had been Kratos holding Mithos's attention.
[Mithos wouldn't keep Yuan alive afterward.]
Mr Kratos, come on!
[The girl -- Martel -- no, Colette -- heaves him bodily up, but Kratos resists it, planting his hands back on the seal. His wrists are still manacled, raw under steel, and the floor is stained with the life that had been pouring out of him -- still is, if much slower.]
Raine! He isn't coming!
[He'll kill you. This, directed vaguely up at Yuan, a stubborn objection to letting him fight Yggdrasill alone. Kratos can keep Yggdrasill's attention better. Yuan's whole party of rescuers -- they shouldn't suffer because of him. He closes his eyes and this time he lets his mana loose, rolling out of him into the seal below.
[Wrong seal. His mana stoppers almost at once, trickling into the seal only because he'd spent such a long time bleeding on it; not enough to unlock anything. But enough to make the lock tremble. The tower rumbles, abrupt, stone cracking and light spurting up from the floor; the stairwell shakes, threatens to destabilise.
[Mithos turns, fury combined with righteous fear.]
no subject
[And Yggdrasill is there, furious, artes already in his hands and mana sparking all around him. This one tastes of fire, flames lancing out toward Yuan in roaring billows.]
You're a nuisance. You always have been -- lurking around her, thinking you could take her away from me. I should have killed you a long time ago.
[Colette levers at Kratos's shoulders and this time Kratos actually responds, somewhat, pushing himself up shakily. Lloyd means to join them, but a blast of light makes him yelp, rolling to dodge and taking cover behind a pillar. So much activity here, where it should have been quiet, nearly enough to hide the sound of the Seed beating under Kratos's hands.
['Start pulling back.' No, not again. Last time it had been Kratos holding Mithos's attention.
[Mithos wouldn't keep Yuan alive afterward.]
Mr Kratos, come on!
[The girl -- Martel -- no, Colette -- heaves him bodily up, but Kratos resists it, planting his hands back on the seal. His wrists are still manacled, raw under steel, and the floor is stained with the life that had been pouring out of him -- still is, if much slower.]
Raine! He isn't coming!
[He'll kill you. This, directed vaguely up at Yuan, a stubborn objection to letting him fight Yggdrasill alone. Kratos can keep Yggdrasill's attention better. Yuan's whole party of rescuers -- they shouldn't suffer because of him. He closes his eyes and this time he lets his mana loose, rolling out of him into the seal below.
[Wrong seal. His mana stoppers almost at once, trickling into the seal only because he'd spent such a long time bleeding on it; not enough to unlock anything. But enough to make the lock tremble. The tower rumbles, abrupt, stone cracking and light spurting up from the floor; the stairwell shakes, threatens to destabilise.
[Mithos turns, fury combined with righteous fear.]
Stop that!