Krin continued his smiling demeanor with Alfaic equipped in his hand, propping it upright before assuming a combat stance. His piercing and arrogant gaze mocked Lyn from a distance, taunting her silently to strike first.
Reminding herself of her meeting with him at the fire station when she had first been born, Lyn wished she could have killed him then and there; however, now that they were reunited, it was time to finish it all. She gripped Déraciné with her right hand and prepared herself.
"Let's finish this." Lyn stated.
The two of them lunged forward with a single charged dash and clashed blades, blasting a shockwave that rippled through the ground beneath them. The force of impact hurled them apart as their boots skidded across the stone platform. After the initial strike, Krin continued to mock Lyn with his amused smile. The sight gnawed at Lyn's resolve, enraging her beyond disbelief. She readied Déraciné once more.
"Have you realized just how weak you've become, Desir?" Krin's hollow voice came clear, goading Lyn into striking back. "You've forgotten your place in this world."
"Shut UP!" Lyn shouted, dashing forward without hesitation. She unleashed Déraciné with a storm of overhead slashes, and each one met with a burst of sparks as Krin intercepted them effortlessly with Alfaic. She watched as Krin held his stance, mocking her with an unshaken posture. She sensed little to no effort in his movements.
Lyn swept around his flank and sliced in a horizontal arc, clashing Alfaic once more. She sprang back and drove herself forward with a sudden lunge, hoping to pierce through him. But Krin flicked his wrist counterclockwise in a smooth manner, brushing against her strike as if it was nothing.
Krin's blade suddenly swept upward to take advantage of his parry, and in the same strike, his foot snapped toward Lyn's jaw to launch her in the air. A blur obscured his figure as he reappeared directly behind Lyn, sweeping Alfaic towards her back hoping to execute her. Luckily, Lyn reacted quickly enough by angling Déraciné behind her just in time, deflecting against the fatal strike. Yet the sheer force of his slash hurled her across the orbiting arena, spiraling towards the many stone platforms until she managed to recover herself by dragging herself through it with her hands and feet.
Her breath came in ragged bursts as she realized each of Krin's effortless and relentless strikes was sapping away her stamina. She gasped a single heavy breath of air as she watched Krin descend rapidly in front of her, touching down with Alfaic by his side.
"Don't you wish to know your purpose?" Krin asked. "Of your lineage? Of your true fate?"
Sweat streaked down Lyn's forehead as each word from Krin cut deeper into her to weaken her resolve. Using a lightning burst of speed, Lyn launched from the ground in a blinding flash of light, leaving behind shards of stone scattering in her wake. Upon impact, Lyn's blade tore through Alfaic, reappearing behind Krin afterward in a blink. She then noticed the shallow cut she delivered along his flank as Krin grunted momentarily in pain.
"Come, Desir," Krin spoke clearly as he held Alfaic with both of his hands. In an instant, he warped behind Lyn in an instant before unleashing a storm of punishing and brutal slashes. Each of his blows drove Lyn back as her defenses were faltering to keep up against his blistering high speeds. The final strike sent her off her feet, knocking her off balance away from him. "The frailty of betrayal and trust has destroyed you. That is what makes you weak. And I shall expose this weakness in you."
"Just try it!" Lyn spat, raising Déraciné in a preemptive guard.
Alfaic's edge flared crimson red, and with a single outward slash, Krin unleashed a wave of aether that spiraled toward Lyn. The unexpected strike knocked Lyn off of the stone platform, leaving her suspended in midair without a moment to recover. Before she could rotate herself or examine her surroundings to save herself, Krin materialized directly in front of her with precise speed, shooting his left palm forward to seize her face in a crushing grip.
"Let me show you how it feels to be betrayed twice," Krin's voice rose sharply. "Once from my blood, and twice from your foolishness!"
His final word uttered surged enough power to hurl Lyn into more of the orbiting stone platforms. She smashed against them one by one until the last platform broke her fall with a severe thud. A moment of agony seized her back as fresh cuts and bruises arose from her skin. Gasping with no breath left to recover, she lifted her eyes open only to witness Krin conjure the same sphere-shaped planet-sized mass of fused vehicles.
Chuckling briefly, Krin was about to launch it effortlessly toward Lyn, until a shocking jolt of electricity from miles away broke his guard. The ball veered toward the opposite direction as his eyebrows knit in mild annoyance, turning his gaze past Lyn.
Turning around, Lyn found Ardine approaching the platform with his scarred hands riddled with burn marks. Even so, he utilized his rifle to save her from being crushed.
"Never seen you struggle before like this," Ardine joked as his eyes watched Krin descend from the ground meters away from him. "Came just in time, didn't I?"
"A couple minutes earlier wouldn't have been too bad," Lyn gasped as she struggled to catch her breath. She stood up and propped Déraciné upward to realign her combat posture. She continued to watch Krin's annoyed expression plastered on his face as he touched down. "He's strong."
"Yeah? Looks like I struck a nerve in him." Ardine sneered, cocking his rifle as he leveled into a steady aim. "And I'm itching to strike again."
Exhaling a breath of irritation, Krin dashed at supersonic speed toward Ardine, intending to end his life with a single slash. However, Lyn's sudden burst of strength caused her to retaliate in time, parrying the blow and locking him in position. Ardine lashed forward with his rifle and blasted a fiery bolt toward Krin's chest, sending him backward with his feet gliding against the stone platform.
Lyn lunged in, seizing the opening with a flurry of strikes, but Krin turned them aside effortlessly once again as his deflections indicated his control over the battle. Yet he miscalculated for Ardine's arrival as Lyn jolted her head to the side. A blast of electricity crackled forward as Lyn drove Krin's dominant hand down, pinning Alfaic's edge to screech against the ground in a violent halt.
In a sudden panic, Krin tore his hand from Alfaic and vaulted backward into the air with his left hand raised in the sky. A swirling vortex of aether stars formed in his palm shaped like a mini galaxy, hurling it forward in a single sweep toward the two.
"Do you all dream of Her?" Krin asked.
Realizing that she would not have time to save Alfaic before the attack struck, Lyn vaulted backward as the blast disintegrated the stone platform beneath them into dust. She grabbed Ardine and vanished as a burst of smoke arose from the detonation. Krin lunged back toward his initial position and seized Alfaic, performing a single vertical slash to clear the smoke.
Just then, a sonic grenade from Qliphos Tower arced straight toward Krin's face, leveling with him at eye level. The grenade detonated, forcing Krin to retreat with an immediate backstep. However, this was nothing but a trap for Lyn, who blurred behind him with a swift dash, rearing Déraciné to the side to gather force. In one fell swoop, Lyn struck Krin from behind, sending a surge of pain as he cascaded toward the air.
As he steadied himself midair, Ardine fired his rifle toward him to force him to block his bullets with Alfaic. The barrage of bullets stole his chance to retaliate as Lyn launched herself back into the sky, slicing down upon Krin with a powerful cleave.
"Careless!" Krin shouted, rotating himself to dodge Lyn's slice. He drove Lyn into the ground beside Ardine with her impact erupting in a storm of smoke and ash. Blinded by the haze, Ardine failed to catch the silhouette of Krin's shadow through the smoke. Before he could raise his rifle to strike in retaliation, Krin's hand clamped around Ardine's neck, hoisting him into the air as Alfaic's edge leveled down toward Lyn's forehead.
Ardine's breath was cut off with Krin's tightening grip, flailing his legs uncontrollably hoping to reach ground before he would suffocate to death. Krin smirked at Lyn as his gazed lingered on her helplessness to strike back. Both of her allies Ardine and Alfaic were in his control. She had no means of retaliation.
"Your strength betrays you," Krin hissed, raising Alfaic in the air with the intent to execute Lyn with a single slash across her skull. "No amount of effort you put in will ever end in my demise. For She is always there, granting me infinite strength!"
As Alfaic descended toward her skull, Lyn shut her eyes, hoping for a painless end. In that fleeting instant, regret entered her heart as the words she had spoken to Alfaic before binding him to his fate had struck her.
A heartbeat later, Lyn's eyes snapped open, realizing that Krin had frozen mid-strike with time halting his advances. She gasped as her breath almost lost itself from surrendering to death. She lifted her head and witnessed Claire advancing toward them from behind. With effortless grace, she closed the distance with her newfound ability of time-halting.
"Get away from them, you bastard!" She cried, before hurling the curved beam like a hammer throw, tossing a frozen Krin toward a set of floating vehicles in the sky. His collision sent a blast of smoke across the skies. Ardine escaped his grasp before she had done so, forcing him to gather his loss of breath to recover in time.
Coughing to clear himself, Ardine snatched his rifle and stood up, using Claire's shoulder as support. "Thanks, kiddo," He praised. "Came just in time."
Claire extended her hand toward Lyn with a confident smile and Lyn grasped it, rising to her feet. She lifted Déraciné from the ground as a new surge of strength was reborn inside her, fortified by her allies standing by her side. "Good to go, Lyn?" She asked.
The smoke from Krin's impact tore apart he slashed furiously outwards in the sky once more. Below, the three raised their eyes to him in unison, witnessing his irritated expression laid bare as he failed to end the battle. They braced themselves for the final clash.
"Let's end this," Lyn said, stepping forward with her blade in hand. "Together."
As Krin descended downward again, he unveiled his eyes towards the three collectively huddled together like a pack. Alfaic's edge gleamed in red and white as Claire's eyes aimed straight toward him, believing Krin to be possessing him to prevent him from retaliating.
Although she didn't trust him, she felt bound to save him, for Lyn's trust in him was sufficient.
"We have to separate Alfaic from him," Claire stated, unleashing her folding blade in hand. "He'll be weaker without him."
"Easier said than done, kid," Ardine muttered. "What's the plan?"
"We fight." Lyn uttered Claire's Qliphosian motto as Krin touched down upon the ground in front of them.
Lyn surged forward first with her muscles and prowess reinvigorated with renewed strength. Her blade met with Krin's once more, but her rapid strikes that followed after were much faster now. He twisted backward, deflecting her assault before flicking aether-shaped stars against her chest, blasting her backward.
Claire lashed forward with her folding blade, attempting to strike him with her time-halting beam. Ardine planted his feet beside her with his rifle braced ready for impact. He hailed fire toward him, hoping to cut through to create an opening for Claire's beam to strike. Lyn recovered with a swift sweep and leaped over him with immense speed; the three struck on all fronts in unison without a moment for Krin to breathe.
Krin snarled in irritation as he was forced to defend. He deflected Lyn's blow, allowing several of Ardine's bullets to pierce through his flesh. Blood splattered across the bridge before he vaulted into the sky, twisting and turning to evade Claire's halting beam. His glare locked in on her as he streaked directly in front of her, plunging Alfaic into the ground at her feet with explosive force. In an instant he reappeared before her with a flurry of slashes. Claire projected her barrier, slipping past his frenzy.
As Krin delivered an overpowering slash overhead to sever the barrier, Claire deactivated it in time and fired her beam with a single palm raised gesture on her left hand. She froze Alfaic mid-swing, locking Krin's blade in place. Lyn seized the opening as Krin was unable to move, driving Déraciné into Krin's side.
The blow staggered him, but Krin refused to let his life hang in the balance. He roared and sent a shockwave of aether toward three, severing the halting beam for enough time to retreat upward in the sky.
Summoning his full strength, he aimed Alfaic in the sky before slicing the clouds in half. A torrent of obsidian colored meteors infused with aether rained down before him like an apocalypse, aimed directly at the three with the intent to kill.
"Scatter!" Krin cried before gesturing the meteors to strike.
As they descended, Lyn shoved Ardine down away to protect him as she lunged straight into the air for Krin. Using Déraciné, she carved a clean pathway through the meteors with intense precision, cutting through them without collision. She pedaled off of the orbiting stone platforms to gain momentum as she leaped off for a final moment, battling Krin in midair as the meteors continued to descend.
Seizing the distraction as an opportunity, an epiphany struck Claire. She lashed her time-halting beam toward one of the meteors and hurled it back toward Krin's direction like a slingshot. She shouted to build strength before watching it soar toward the battle's direction.
"Lyn, MOVE!" Ardine shouted, aiming his rifle for an accurate shot toward Alfaic to knock him out of Krin's grasp.
At Ardine's decree, Lyn dove just in time to witness the meteor slam into Krin's body. He swung desperately but failed to cleave it in half. With a defiant snarl, the meteor shoved against his body and overwhelmed him, driving him backward as it carried him away. As Krin staggered to wield Alfaic, he restored his resolved and sliced the meteor into surgical pieces. Destructive arcs of aether flung outwards from Alfaic towards the trio, but Lyn met them head-on, countering as many of them as she could with focused slashes.
"CLAIRE!"Lyn cried.
Krin gasped in horror as he realized the meteor had bought enough time for Claire to reposition herself behind him. The beam caught Alfaic directly and forced him to suspend himself midair, vulnerable to every last strike possible. Intending to release his grip on Alfaic to release the halting beam, it was only a split second before witness Lyn ascending toward him once again at lightning speed, irises dilated and mouth agape for the final strike.
"You're MINE!" Claire shouted before looking directly at Lyn's ascension. "Finish it, Lyn!"
Lyn flickered in blinks of flashing lights, delivering fatal slashes from every angle toward Krin until he bled profusely. Cornered, and choosing to accept his defeat, his final rage manifested in the forms of a final impulsive explosion that would tear the entire bridge and all life within it apart. Yet for the brief second he had to even think of doing so, the three answered with unity between their attacks.
"Got you, you son of a bitch." Ardine whispered before firing a bullet directly towards Krin's fingers. Krin released Alfaic from his grasp. Intending to sweep into catch it himself, Ardine however watched Lyn seize Alfaic with her left hand, dual-wielding both blades as she doubled her entire speed.
After endlessly slicing through his resolve, Lyn performed a final strike that tore through Krin's guard, sending him spiraling toward the skies. His body cascaded upward before being swallowed by the fractured light in the sky. The three watched him crash back down in a storm of dust and silence.
Lyn released Alfaic from his possession and held him firmly. As Ardine and Claire reunited with him, Alfaic returned to his human form, endlessly grazed by the torment Krin inflicted upon him. He laid upward, meeting Lyn's gaze with his own momentarily.
"I..." Alfaic whispered.
"Welcome back." Ardine commented.
"Blade." Lyn greeted with a brief smile. That smile alone moved Alfaic's heart beyond control.
Krin reappeared before them once more, summoning astral stars as a last ditch gambit to annihilate them into ash. Yet from a distance that no one had noticed, Arisz's spear whistled through the air and pierced the back of his left hand, halting the attack in an instant.
Alfaic witnessed his brother's weakness, widening his eyes as there wasn't a moment to spare. "TAKE THE FRAGMENT!" He cried to his allies.
Lyn and Claire assaulted Krin in unison as Arisz teleported behind him from his deceptive portals. Together, the three delivered the final blows against Krin's body, pummeling him until there was no return. Claire pickpocketed the Rot Mother's fragment from behind him and hurled it over to Ardine.
Yet there was not enough power behind the throw. Ardine watched as it toppled at an unusual angle, descending towards the abyss of the orbiting bridge. It was only five seconds before it would be lost forever.
Arisz bolted back and fired a portal toward the fragment to give it air toward Ardine. "GRAB IT!" He commanded.
Just as Lyn delivered a final overhead slash towards Krin to end the battle, his fusion separated as white silhouettes of Abel and Joy returned once more to the fray. They staggered backward, glaring at the Rot Mother's fragment in defiance as they snarled in shame of their defeat.
Alfaic reached the bottom of the stone platform and raised both of his hands, conjuring a portal with red aether imbued in body, seizing the opportunity for their last ditch effort to escape.
Four seconds.
Claire launched herself backward with Lyn as Alfaic entered the escaping portal.
Three seconds.
Arisz kicked off, launching himself into Alfaic's portal as he laughed in utter joy at his old friend's return.
Two seconds.
The Rot Mother's fragment fell off the bridge and into the portal. Ardine punctured himself through the portal as Abel and Joy lunged forward toward it, leaving Lyn as the last one to enter.
One second.
With her back to the portal, Lyn watched the two Krins falter, unable to reach her in time. Yet Abel did not look defeated. Her final glimpse of him mirrored their first collision when they battled; his eyes were gleaming with malice and a smug smile etched across his face, as though she had already lost.
The portal sealed itself with Lyn passing through, ending the battle.
From afar where they had slipped through, the hooded figure reemerged before slipping away into shadow with Abel and Joy.