[The raw lightning strikes hard, adding to the confusion. Kratos feels it but doesn't know, precisely, what it's hit or what it was for; all the vague awareness he's managed to gather is draining out of him, his elbows trembling while trying to keep him upright. But for all that, he's smiling under the curtain of his hair.
[That should keep him off balance. It's a vague thought, aired without meaning to.
[The very last thing Kratos does before he has no more mana to spare is to reverse the flow between worlds, so the mana from Tethe'alla begins to spill into parched Sylvarant. It's easy for him, like this, now he's not caught between the worlds; now he's got his hands on the seal which has owned his life for so long. That's what Colette is here for, surely. Too important to forget, that. Colette shouldn't have to worry about it anymore.
[Kratos doesn't have to worry anymore. He sinks into a half-state of oblivion, barely noticing Yuan's presence sweeping him up except for the familiarity of his mana.
[The tower trembles as the worlds shake in their moorings. Colette stands up to hurl her chakram at Remiel, and Lloyd takes that measure of cover to sprint toward the rest of them. Yggdrasill vanishes, but only to reappear by the Eternal Sword, still thrust bloodied through the stone dais overhead; too focussed on stabilising the worlds to bother pursuing as the Chosen's party vanishes through the warp.
[But Remiel does.
[Sheena is running up the tremoring stairs when suddenly they appear. She yelps, jumps aside as Yuan blows past with someone over his shoulder, the Sages close behind. Lloyd is last through the warp, barely halting in his run and looking frazzled.]
That first guy's still coming!
I got it!
[Sheena grabs a smoke-ball and throws it toward the warp, and it explodes squarely in the face of -- something with wings -- before Sheena pelts down the stairs beside Lloyd. It isn't a guardian seal, so surely whatever-that-was-that-looked-alarmingly-like-an-angel will get through it soon enough, but they have other problems.]
The rheairds aren't working! I dunno about you, but I don't wanna try and escape these guys on foot!
[They can't fly the rheairds without the benefit of a mana influx. That had been part of the plan -- for Colette to open the seal, so they could escape on the rheairds. The fact that Lloyd blanches at the news does not bode well.]
They're not what?
It's okay!
[That's Colette, soaring past the stairs, turning every so often to throw a chakram behind them.]
The mana's been reversed -- it'll be okay.
[She sounds like she's trying to convince herself, but Sheena doesn't argue, with all these damned stairs. The exit looks large and brightly lit, and too far away. And then it isn't.
[Outside the tower proper, Botta looks up at its height, swaying like a cord under stress; the ground under his feet is unstable, but not dangerously so. The moment he sees the silhouettes of the group in the doorway he mounts one of the humming rheairds, pulling it up and around, an arte already spinning around him. On their heels, his stalagmite erupts from the floor of the tower, and he hears the frustrated shriek from whatever had been pursuing them.
[The other rheairds -- three of them, only -- are waiting at the foot of the stairs. Botta casts again, intending to keep casting until either the doorway collapses or the others are in the air.]
no subject
[That should keep him off balance. It's a vague thought, aired without meaning to.
[The very last thing Kratos does before he has no more mana to spare is to reverse the flow between worlds, so the mana from Tethe'alla begins to spill into parched Sylvarant. It's easy for him, like this, now he's not caught between the worlds; now he's got his hands on the seal which has owned his life for so long. That's what Colette is here for, surely. Too important to forget, that. Colette shouldn't have to worry about it anymore.
[Kratos doesn't have to worry anymore. He sinks into a half-state of oblivion, barely noticing Yuan's presence sweeping him up except for the familiarity of his mana.
[The tower trembles as the worlds shake in their moorings. Colette stands up to hurl her chakram at Remiel, and Lloyd takes that measure of cover to sprint toward the rest of them. Yggdrasill vanishes, but only to reappear by the Eternal Sword, still thrust bloodied through the stone dais overhead; too focussed on stabilising the worlds to bother pursuing as the Chosen's party vanishes through the warp.
[But Remiel does.
[Sheena is running up the tremoring stairs when suddenly they appear. She yelps, jumps aside as Yuan blows past with someone over his shoulder, the Sages close behind. Lloyd is last through the warp, barely halting in his run and looking frazzled.]
That first guy's still coming!
I got it!
[Sheena grabs a smoke-ball and throws it toward the warp, and it explodes squarely in the face of -- something with wings -- before Sheena pelts down the stairs beside Lloyd. It isn't a guardian seal, so surely whatever-that-was-that-looked-alarmingly-like-an-angel will get through it soon enough, but they have other problems.]
The rheairds aren't working! I dunno about you, but I don't wanna try and escape these guys on foot!
[They can't fly the rheairds without the benefit of a mana influx. That had been part of the plan -- for Colette to open the seal, so they could escape on the rheairds. The fact that Lloyd blanches at the news does not bode well.]
They're not what?
It's okay!
[That's Colette, soaring past the stairs, turning every so often to throw a chakram behind them.]
The mana's been reversed -- it'll be okay.
[She sounds like she's trying to convince herself, but Sheena doesn't argue, with all these damned stairs. The exit looks large and brightly lit, and too far away. And then it isn't.
[Outside the tower proper, Botta looks up at its height, swaying like a cord under stress; the ground under his feet is unstable, but not dangerously so. The moment he sees the silhouettes of the group in the doorway he mounts one of the humming rheairds, pulling it up and around, an arte already spinning around him. On their heels, his stalagmite erupts from the floor of the tower, and he hears the frustrated shriek from whatever had been pursuing them.
[The other rheairds -- three of them, only -- are waiting at the foot of the stairs. Botta casts again, intending to keep casting until either the doorway collapses or the others are in the air.]