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Chapter Text

It was just supposed to be a normal high-powered Nevron hunt in a cave system in the Stone Wave Cliffs. Verso knew of a Chromatic Nevron that resided in the area and wished to destroy it, especially since he knew there was an expeditioner log guarded by the crystal-clad monstrosity.

It took them several breaks from the fight to figure out that the crystal gave the Chromatic Hexga its power, but once they figured out they could simply shoot it about seven attempts in, it was no match for them and their combined might. Of course, Verso didn't get to join in the fun because he was laughing at one of Sciel's jokes and fell off a cliff. Monoco resolved to protect and retrieve his friend, and that was that. They were both out of commission for the next three hours.

Lune had many frustrating moments where she unleashed her Elemental Genesis on the Nevron, only for every single attack to bounce off harmlessly like it was never made. Sciel was at least able to stick cards between the Hexga's armor and could heal the group with her boomeranging scythe, but nothing seemed to stick in terms of damage. No matter how many times Maelle broke its barrier while the crystal was red, it would repel even her strongest attacks.

Bloodied and bruised, they made their way out of the cave with a new Expedition log in tow, and made camp for the day. Patching up their wounds and washing themselves had become standard end-of-day routine, and so they gathered around the fire to vent their frustration at Verso and Monoco, both of whom had done absolutely nothing. Lune was visibly shaking in rage. Maelle cut withering glares at the rest of them. Sciel was quietly stifling giggles as she cooked their rations.

"POUR L'AMOUR DE DIEU, VERSO, WHY DID YOU FALL OFF THAT FUCKING CLIFF!???" Lune yelled at him at some point. Verso cowered and even Sciel shot a concerned glance at the two of them. "Just because you're immortal doesn't mean you can get away with not paying any fucking attention!"

"Hey hey, Lune, it's ok. People make that mistake sometimes, I'm sure. It happened to me all the time when I climbed the rooftops in Lumiere!" Even Maelle was trying to console Lune now despite being included in the aggrieved party.

"People are more serious on the Continent, Maelle."

"Well, I saw several not-very-mutilated bodies in the water. Maybe Verso's not the only one who had this issue." Sciel's stomach lurched at the mention of looking down at the water. It was a fear she had yet to tame.

"In case you're wondering, I've only done it twice before. Let me tell you, it is painful inhaling salt water from the se-Ow!" Lune abruptly cut him off with a smack to the back of his head.

"Then be. More. Careful." She stalked off to retrieve her dinner and eat in solitude as everyone else gawked at her. "And stop gawking at me. He deserved it."

She must have been really mad about her Elemental Genesis, not to mention her already huge lack of trust for Verso, Sciel mused as she retrieved her simple rations and sat on a stump to eat. Verso stared into the fire, sullen, as Monoco whispered something in his ear that made his mouth twitch in amusement. Maelle looked at him sympathetically before also getting dinner and sitting between the two of them.

Once they had all finished up, a slightly cooled down Lune rejoined the team, enough so she wouldn't erupt again, but still boiling beneath the surface. They were about to each go their separate ways and prepare for the next day, until the world ominously rippled around them... then faded from sight.

Chapter Text

Calyx had just summoned Necron: fear of death manifest, a towering primal that wielded despair itself as a weapon. It seeped into the cracks of Cynthia Thila's consciousness, embedding itself like velcro. Darkness danced at the edges of her vision, but she pressed on with her teammates. Her best friends Kujala Kula and Lulala Lula unsheathed their blade and staff as the eternally young Cynthia drew her spear.

Unsatisfied with the lack of noise behind her, she turned around and found all of her comrades writhing in despair, unable to act. "Why..." She drew upon her will to fight, concentrating the dynamis into the palm of her hand as she wrapped her hands around-

The wrong object.

Not Azem's crystal. The key to interdimensional fusion.

Thank god it didn't have any terrible repercussions, it simply pulled existing souls with bodies from a different world to this one. Cynthia’s heroes this time took the form of a motherly-looking brunette, a black-haired woman with tattoos along her face and limbs, a red-haired teenager, a man with graying hair, and... some sort of construct made of wood, metal joints, and fur with a black and red mask.

As they all dizzily swayed to their feet, they beheld the Necron and, in unison, uttered a very confusing statement. "What a huge Nevron..."

"Have you seen this primal before!?" Cynthia called.

All of them gave her looks. The man with the strands of white hair spoke up. "Isn't it a Nevron?" Meanwhile, Calyx was floating in the air, utterly bewildered at this strange outcome of the usage of his key.

"It's the primal Necron, manifestation of the fear of death. Ugh, for god's sake, I should have paid more attention when I grabbed "Azem's Crystal", but my hand landed on the key because I was spacing out. Easy to do so with all the fear of death here."

Calyx was getting impatient. "Well. Without further ado, shall we begin?"

"I believe introductions are in order. My name is Verso. These are my friends-Augh!" The black-haired woman kicked his shin before summoning her weapon, a wooden circle with a piece of patchwork fabric hanging off, a face embroidered on, and what seemed to be four spoons decorating the wooden circle. It seemed to appear out of thin air, petals floating around it as it flickered into existence. Verso tried again. "Ahem, my companions are Lune, Sciel, Maelle, and Monoco," gesturing to each in turn, "and we shall do our best to assist you in this battle."

"Well then," Sciel piped up, "shall we have another dance with death - or shall I say, the fear of death?" as she summoned her sleek black double-headed serrated scythe in a flurry of umbral aetheric particles, then drew a card from an invisible deck. Perhaps a cross between a Reaper and an Astrologian?

"Can we just get this over with?" grumbled Lune. She's obviously a mage, but how does she attack and channel aether?

"Let the dance begin!" Maelle summoned her weapon, an obsidian-black rapier with glowing purple runes. Strangely, she didn't seem to have a spell-casting charm, so she probably isn't a red mage.

Verso summoned his dagger and blade, glowing purple towards the end and gold filigree decorating the hilt, but otherwise unremarkable. "Bring it on."

Monoco looked as disappointed as he could be with a mask. A gravelly voice sounded from his construct-like body as he summoned a staff with a snow-dusted bell dangling from its tip: "This... Necron doesn't have feet, hmm... Very well then. This will be a glorious battle in the history of the Gestrals! Ahahaha!" before promptly turning into a humanoid monster with a glowing face-shield, slamming down the shield and fortifying his allies. What the hell.

Cynthia, Lulala, and Kujala looked at each other, shrugged with weapons in hand, and began assaulting Necron. Winry Fruitiwi dove in spear first, bringing it down with the force of a dragon's dive and twice the heat of its fiery breath. Winry Berry unleashed the might of ancient blade techniques passed down by generations of samurai, summoning peaks of ice to slash into bits. Cody Beary began to speed up his casting as he shielded the party from danger.

Calyx called to them from above. "You are bound by the limits of flesh. It will betray you." Necron targeted Verso as he artfully wove out of the way while the tanks got its attention.

"Not me. Who do you think I am?" answered Verso as he started shooting bolts of condensed chroma.

"Do you not see? Death is upon you." Necron set its sights on Monoco, charging a terrible beam.

"Say that again," Maelle shot back as she set the thing on fire without even needing to really cast a spell. It blew Monoco back with a mighty shockwave that everyone else barely dodged in time.

"You okay, Monoco?" Verso shouted over the chaos.

Monoco emerged from the smoke as a four-armed humanoid knight-like monster. "Yes, I'm fine, Verso. No need to worry when I'm the Dualliste." Then he launched into a powerful combo with his twin swords. The shapeshifter seemed to be able to handle himself.

"Drag them to their graves." A fresh wave of despair washes over the group, weakening them slightly as icy, obsidian black hands clawed their way out of the platform.

"The platform is made of bone..." Lulala mutters quietly as the hands reached towards the nearest person. Everyone but her dodged in time, while she was covered in ichor and knocked to the floor, wheezing.

"I'll handle her!" Lune called as she zoomed over and cast Rebirth on the fallen Lalafell. Green light and white petals enveloped her as she was raised to her feet, cleansed of the ichor and ready to fight again, without even being weakened.

Lulala glared at Necron. "You'll pay for depriving me of my Sen and Kenki, monster." Then she infused her blade with the power of the moon, flowers, and ice, unleashing it in a flurry of elemental strikes.

Sciel, meanwhile, had been busy lodging cards into the Necron's wings and torso while swiping at it with her scythe occasionally. "Death's a friend!" she called to Calyx, grinning, as she spun in the air several times to send waves of umbral aether at the deadly primal.

Calyx looked at her, abhorred and somehow paler than his usual bleached complexion. "W-what did you just say!? Death, a friend!?"

While still slashing at Necron and throwing cards, Sciel responded. "It's easier for me to GRAH fight when I see death as a friend, who will GYAH welcome me with open arms."

Calyx just gawked at her for a solid ten seconds while the team continued pummeling his primal's face in.

Then Necron raised its hands, one cloaked in shadow, bringing them down onto the platform. The shadow spilled into the middle, grasping for victims - Sphene, who had recently rejoined the fight along with the young Elezen twins, was barely too slow, her leg sinking into the muck. "Augh!"

"Not a problem." Verso's blades glowed an incandescent white as he dispelled the darkness with astral aether.

"Thank you!" Sphene continued her barrage of spells with the twins. Wuk Lamat was next to join in, followed by the other three casters in quick succession.

The three Warriors of Light danced in perfect harmony. Kujala handled patching up anyone who was taking hits, mostly Wuk Lamat, G'raha, and the now Dualliste-form Monoco. Lulala focused on herself, summoning a barrier whenever an attack would hit her and shrugging them off gracefully. Cynthia darted between attacks, avoiding hits entirely, and zoomed across the battlefield like a dragon, leaving trails of fire and blade-scars on the bone-carved pedestal.

"Perhaps this..." Calyx mused as Necron closed its hands around the ring framing its chest, projecting a pattern that looked like a bar going vertically through the middle with two electrope cubes dancing within. Cynthia, as always, is the mechanical expert here.

"Dodge to the sides and group up, half and half! Foreigners and Warriors with me, everyone else together!" She darted to the left side of the battlefield with the Expedition and the other two Warriors in tow, the rest of her allies sprinting to the right side. A great beam of light tore through the arena, and beams spread damage across the entire party.

Lune, noticing the shift in aether (chroma), cast her level 1 gradient spell: Tremor. "This ends... NOW!" A mass of thorned vines wrapped themselves around Necron, tearing through some of its physical defenses and removing a plate of armor. Then she cast Revitalize on the party, healing them with fire from leftover magical essence from her previous spells.

Necron charged another ring, but this time, it stored it for later. It displayed the opposite of the previous one: a filled circle with a vertical strip in the center unfilled, four cubes orbiting the center. Cynthia called this one too. "Remember what it was before, and then split into groups of four to share the impact damage!"

Above them all, Calyx sighed. "Bothersome." Hands reached out from the platform again as they grasped towards people. This time, the party was prepared for the first set. Soon after, clouds of dark energy appeared around them. "Drop them onto the original puddles!" Everyone followed Cynthia’s orders with no collisions, then dodged the much slower hands.

G'raha and Wuk Lamat were both blown back by another powerful shockwave, but Lune's Healing Light and Alphinaud's Diagnosis* gave them much-needed energy to continue fighting.

Y'shtola, Sphene, Lune, and Alisae bombarded Necron with elemental fire and dark spells, while the Lalafells, including Krile, charged in weapons first to deal massive damage. Attempting to break the ring had proved fruitless before.

"Kill them." Necron began to charge up its next attack, the quadruple cubes swirling around the indicator again.

"In the middle, then split up into four people per party except the Warriors of Light!" Everyone immediately dodged the attack and absorbed the shockwave afterward. The Warriors took the brunt of the assault but were able to individually mitigate the damage and have Cody nearby to assist.

Monoco had transformed out of Dualliste form and turned into a towering monster covered in moss, with a decaying plant matter cloak and a massive glowing orb in the center that must have been its core. Monoco summoned a spear of vines and plunged it into Necron's fleshy body, barely piercing the skin but distracting it.

Lune called out to him. "Will you please stop transforming into Eveque? It does nothing and brings back horrible memories."

"Not my fault this fight needs it."

"Just turn into a Lancelier or something!"

"It is done, my lady." He really did transform into a Lancelier, a humanoid Nevron made of vines and stone, plus an orb on its head again. He walked up slowly to Necron and plunged a spear of ice into where its gut probably should be.

They continued pummeling Necron as it charged up its next attack. "Fear compounds fear, eroding your strength." The platform began to melt into the background, leaving only the center circle pattern safe.

"That's a lot of people for one platform... Split up! Melees northeast, tanks northwest, ranged southeast, healers southwest!" The melee team comprised of Lulala, Cynthia, Maelle, and Verso. The tanks team had G'raha, Wuk Lamat, and Monoco (now in Boucheclier form, fortifying the party). The healers Kujala, Alphinaud, Lune, and Sciel headed southwest. Finally, the remaining four, Y'shtola, Sphene, Krile, and Alisae slid southeast.

Each team headed to specific intercardinals of the platform as puddles of ooze bubbled up behind them, thankfully stopping a reasonable distance from the edge before disappearing into the aether. Lune noticed the amount of lightning aether in the area and began to channel it, using her tattoos as a conduit. Spells like Lightning Dance and Thunderfall dealt massive damage despite the primal's resistance to the element.

Everything afterwards was chaos. Four planet-like azure aetheric orbs coalesced around the platform and began to spin, projecting lasers between them. The newer fighters Sphene and Wuk Lamat, along with the Expeditioners, each got singed by a laser or got miasma dropped on top of their heads, but it was nothing a little healing magic couldn't fix. Lulala had to stop slashing for a bit to dodge everything, and even Cynthia needed to pause her assault as Kujala  remained on overdrive attempting to heal everybody.

Calyx, obviously a little impatient, called to them: "I *will* reduce you to aether." Necron charged up a powerful blast of fire as the healers worked to shield the team, thankfully amassing enough mana to keep the fiery attack at bay. Maelle stood there, frozen in terror for a moment, before shaking it off and continuing with her flawless bladework, spinning in deadly yet elegant circles.

Sciel, unfortunately, took quite a hit. "If I die here... then so be it." Calyx looked at her, mildly stunned, before resuming ordering his primal.

"You will die for me now." Suddenly, clouds of miasma formed in the sky, pouring onto the platform as hands erupted from the bone again. Some were larger, others the standard size. Cynthia yelled instructions to the team.

"Gang up on the hands! Pairs of two on each of them and one tank on each of the big ones! Get their attention so they hit you! And try not to get grabbed by them!"

Monoco, Verso, and Maelle took one large hand. G'raha, Y'shtola, and Sphene took another. The last large one almost went unhandled until Wuk Lamat crashed into it axe-first, Alphinaud and Alisae close on her heels. The little ones were handled together between groups: Lune and Sciel were fast despite both being supporting classes, while the rest of the groups mixed and matched to various levels of success.

Before long, all of the hands had retreated into the platform as Necron unleashed its ultimate attack. "Accepting death is the greatest sin a life can commit," Calyx declared from the shoulder of the primal as the battleground was engulfed in shadow.

The last thing each party member saw was a mound of their friend's corpses, before collapsing into the abyss.

Chapter Text

Sciel woke up within a mass of swirling dark energy, scythe lying at her side and cards scattered on the ground around her. As she regained her bearings, she noticed she was on a bone platform again, but smaller and less ornate. In front of her were two puddles of dark, grasping hands, creeping ever closer and threatening to drag her in.

Above her, she felt more than heard a muffled voice. "Death will consume your flesh. There is no escape." The image of the corpses came back, amplifying the despair closing around her. But she continued to resist as the hands closed in.

Suddenly, golden dynamis radiated from Sciel, pushing the hands back as they disintegrated into dark particles, and the abyss parted for her. "I'm not afraid of death. It's been my partner for years now, and it is more of a friend than a mortal enemy." She hopped across platforms and out of the abyss, emerging on the original bone platform.

Necron was nowhere to be seen, and neither were her allies. Calyx appeared in the center of the platform. "Well. Necron is busy trying to kill your friends, and I'm incorporeal. It seems I am stuck with you for a couple minutes while your friends fight their way out of the abyss. How did you do that, by the way?"

Sciel took a breath. "I don't know... I guess I felt... warm, and suddenly there was golden light pulsing out of me and the hands all withered away like the Gommage." She paused. "Hmm. I suppose we've all grown to fear the Gommage, which is fear of death, in a way. The Gommage brings - is - death, and we fear it, like all living beings should. But in that moment, I had accepted death, and transcended that fear? Maybe? I don't really know how I did it."

Calyx furrowed his brow. "I assume you heard me when I said accepting death is the greatest sin a being can commit?"

Sciel nodded. "Yes. I did. And it's true - when we don't accept death, when we will do anything to get out of it, miracles happen." Images of her best friend Lune flashed in her mind. "But at the same time, we can't be picky about avoiding death. Sometimes, we do have to welcome it with open arms, and simply accept it."

Calyx's brow furrowed further.

Sciel noticed Calyx's brow looked like it would start cramping. "Well, what are your thoughts on the matter? Your giant... primal? Looks like a Nevron from our world, but you guys call it a Necron."

Calyx just looked confused. "Are you- actually, what is the Gommage? A fancy way to dress up death?"

Sciel paused. There is no way that someone wouldn't know about the Gommage in her world. "What? You don't know about the Gommage? Where did you live?"

"I lived in Alexandria during the Storm Surge, when Lindblum invaded our forces. Eorzeans and Turali knew nothing of Alexandrians, but if you were to come here, you must know you're in Alexandria, unless..." Calyx trailed off.

"...what?"

Calyx's head snapped up. "Winry managed to activate the key to interdimensional fusion in this arena. Soon after the surge of energy, you and your four teammates appeared. Meaning you are from a different world." Sciel didn't notice the pen in his hand earlier, but the laser tip was now pointed directly at her chest. "Does this track?"

"Yes. Which would explain why you don't know about the Gommage, because it's a giant countdown on a giant stone in the distance we call the Monolith. Because, you know. It's a single giant stone. It tells you when you're about to die. Every year, the Paintress erases the current number and replaces it with that number minus one, and everyone of that age or above dies. We all fear it. It's a rational fear. I'm 32. The number this year says 33. Next year, in about nine months, I'll float as petals along with the breeze."

Calyx paused for a moment. "Do you wish to transcend this fear? Do you accept that the Gommage will simply happen, and sit idly by while it consumes you and everyone around you?"

"No. No, of course not! We send expeditions out every year to kill the Paintress. They all head out at the beginning of the year just after the Gommage, and we try to end the Gommage once and for all by destroying its source. As for accepting death? We have to, or grief will haunt us like a shadow. We have to accept death, or when it inevitably strikes, we won't be prepared."

"So it's more "I'm going to die, but there are things we can do about it" and less "I'm perfectly content with death"?"

"Yeah, something like that. Of course, there are other ways to die..." Sciel trailed off, reminded of Pierre, and of herself, once upon a time. "...but these days, the two most common causes are the Gommage and whatever threats are out on the Continent. Especially since nobody really lives past the age of 33 now."

"Hmm. I think I understand you a bit more."

"Mm. Dark and personal, if you read between the lines. How about you? Any stories you'd like to tell me while we wait for my dear snail friends to come out from the abyss? I'm seriously starting to get worried."

Calyx pulls up a screen with his laser pen. "They're all still alive. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on who you ask. They're not struggling, but they're being tested. Necron won't be back for at least another few minutes."

"Ah, that's good to know. I have faith in them, but it has been several minutes already. Now then. Dark and personal?"

"You're all going to die anyway. I'm bored. Why not?" Calyx took an unnecessary breath. "When I was a child, I was diagnosed with a disease that left my life expectancy under 25 years from birth. I hated the knowledge of my own death, staring down at me. I endeavored to transcend the limits of mortal flesh, for myself and for every Alexandrian.

"That was why I founded Preservation: to help mankind evolve out of their fragile, mortal bodies and become impervious to death. Countless brilliant lives were lost needlessly to the Storm Surge as lightning and Lindblum's bombs rained upon our country. The Queen of Alexandria at that point, Sphene, was afflicted with levin sickness while inside an airship, trying to save another one filled with civilians.

"We endeavored to preserve her memories so she could live on, forever ruling over a happy Alexandria. And we succeeded. Queen Eternal Sphene lived with her people for centuries as she ruled them with a kind and open heart, always willing to listen to their struggles. A near-perfect leader, preserved in time so she may never fade away.

"As the head of Preservation, I labored to spread this evolution to other people. I invented regulators, which spared the populace the pain of loss by taking away the memories of the departed so they wouldn't feel their absence." Sciel's eyes widened. "The regulators also recorded their memories and uploaded them to the "cloud" when they died for the final time.

"Once uploaded, their soul goes through a memory-stripping process and is distributed to the general public in order to revive them in case of an accident. Then their memories are given corporeal aether to become Endless, the pinnacle of my work: immortal beings only limited by the amount of fuel they have for life."

Sciel had a bad feeling about where this was going. "And... what is the cost?"

Calyx sighed. "The cost is other human lives. Specifically, corporeal aether in order to create a body for the Endless, which they recycle and lose small amounts of every now and then.

"As for my current goal, I am converting five thousand Alexandrians into Endless, and using another portion of the population as aether for the new population to become Endless and then maintain their form. The key to interdimensional fusion will allow me to take aether from other worlds too, mostly the other reflections that we live on."

He paused. "I imagine a good chunk of that went straight over your head. Do you know what a reflection is?"

"Uh, no. Does Cynthia know? I'd rather ask her."

"She does. She's traveled to three so far: the First, Thirteenth, and Ninth."

Sciel took a steadying breath, yet she couldn't suppress the waver in her voice. "My husband... died in an accident. He drowned on one of his routine deliveries as a sailor. Could you... bring him back? I'd do anything to see him again, even just one more time..."

Calyx gazed at her sympathetically. "I'm afraid I cannot. I need to have access to his memories before he dies - in other words, have him wear a regulator up to his death. I wish I could help for those who do not wear regulators... but that is beyond my power."

Sciel looked up with determination blazing in her eyes.

"Then I cannot condone your actions.

"Making people forget their loved ones sounds horrible. Not knowing the faces or the memories of Gustave, of Lune, of Maelle, when they all fade away with the Gommage - and Maelle, who would have to watch everyone else disappear before her, and not even remember the care of those who loved her. We value that. And we are willing to endure the pain of loss, because those memories will carry us through to when we destroy the Paintress and free our world from the Gommage.

"I understand the desire to transcend death, to stop having to worry about it constantly. That's what we're doing right now, and nothing can shortcut us through it. But in "taking away" the pain of loss, you morph it into something worse: uncertainty. How did those people care for you? Who were they? What did they do with you to make you happy? Did you even have those people in your lives? So many questions, and none of them will ever stay answered for long. It would become an empty void, gnawing at our souls without cease.

"And the worst part... you have to sacrifice lives to make the others live on. I said I'd do anything to see my husband again, but not kill someone else. I would never take away their future so I could catch a glimpse of someone I once loved. Why do this, Calyx? The concept is noble, but killing people and stealing away their lives? Inflicting the very thing you are trying to avoid? I will not stand for that!" Sciel's raised voice cut through the abyss as Calyx closed his eyes, contemplating.

"In the end, nothing changes, does it? Those people would die anyway. One second from then, a day, a year, a decade. It matters not, for they will always eventually suffer the rotting fate of all flesh. Cutting their lives short that they may not be spoiled by their hope is a mercy, not a cruelty."

Sciel's voice dipped a little lower, resonating throughout the arena. "Then, Calyx, you will never understand why we live. We live to enjoy the moment. We live to be a community, and to pass our lessons onto others. To know pain and grief, joy and love in equal measure. Not to be immortal and undying while everyone around us crumbles!"

At that moment, almost as if it were an answer, Cynthia's spear cut through the void as she skidded into the center of the platform.

"I heard all of that. All these lives you cut short, they'll never know the joys of life, even mortal. Why don't you try to save all of them? If you don't save all of them, then at least don't cut everyone else's lives short! There is so much potential in every single person, regardless of their flesh!"

"I wish to preserve that intellect," Calyx stated decisively. "Potential shouldn't be wasted because of an accident that took a split second to happen and was out of control of every party involved. This is how I wish for mankind to evolve. Natural selection can only get us so far when the rare positive mutations are so cruelly pruned. Their memories shall live on for the next generation to benefit from."

Lune was next, splitting the fog with a massive bolt of lightning. She was battered and bloodied, but alive.

"As a self-proclaimed bearer of "genius," Calyx, I'd like to make my own point," she shouted. "We die. We bleed. We grieve. We feel pain. Every Gommage, we lose another hundred people as it whittles away our population. Every year, another hundred people's lives are cut short. Every year, we send a new brigade of Expeditioners out to kill the Paintress. Why do we stop the Gommage? For this very reason. The Gommage serves no purpose, unlike your killing sprees, but the reason we stop it is the same: to give everyone else a future. You want to give people their futures too, and we work day and night for years to become strong enough to give them that. We'll still die one day when we grow old, but we'll at least have a future, and that's far better than what we have right now."

Calyx twirled his pen between his fingers. "You are anchored by the Gommage. For you, anything is better than the giant number in the sky, forever ticking down once a year to your doom. For us, anything is better than the limits of flesh, because we have to live with that. But one day, when the Gommage is gone and your life has been increased to an upper limit, you will seek more - you will seek immortality, not just living longer than the number. And that is what I seek. I looked beyond my anchoring - laboring not to live longer by myself, but for everyone to live as long as I could. I've been here for centuries pursuing this goal for every person on the star, and I will not falter."

Lulala freed herself from the abyss, wheezing and barely alive, held up by Kujala, who was also on the brink of collapse. Lune took a break from the conversation and went to assist them with healing, giving them strong healing and energy tints to restore their aether reserves.

Sciel held her head high and confidently spoke: "We will bring you down, Calyx, for the good of those you wish to slaughter! No amount of endless life will ever outweigh the price of another soul!"

One by one, all of their allies filtered back into the main platform as Necron began to coalesce again.

"Still alive. But there are ways to change that." Necron's form fully solidified as it appeared before them once more. Lightning crackled around Lune's fingertips, and everyone else got into their battle stance after the healers made their rounds.

"For Lumiere!" The Expeditioners all charged into the battle, ducking and weaving through the attacks.

"FOR ETHEIRYS!!!" the rest of the party yelled in unison before joining the fray.

And thus did the battle against Necron rekindle, hope blazing in each fighter's chests as they continued to attack the primal in a blitz of spells and steel.

Chapter Text

Unfortunately, everybody was exhausted after the Lightless Abyss, save for Sciel and Lune, who were both early to the party. Sciel's blade carved deep gashes into Necron, which healed slowly because of the dynamis still rolling off of her. Lune had all of the electricity in the Meso Terminal to herself, so firepower wasn't an issue.

This did not mean they weren't unprepared several times in the fight. Enormous hands too large for even Necron reached out of the abyss from the sides of the arena, causing anyone hit to sink back into the Abyss and be taken out of the fight for a minute at a time. Sphene and Wuk Lamat were pulled in on the first set of hands and re-emerged after multiple other sets of smaller hands appeared.

"Those who do not resist death deserve it." Necron charged its ring with energy, but this time it showed four different patterns in quick succession: line through the center, large circle, gap in the center, sides covered.

Cynthia was already on top of all of this. "Out out in in safe! Get together and be ready to spread into 8-person or 4-person stacks!"

"Kill them." Soon after, the stored moves began spinning and settled on a different order, with the fourth attack coming first. A split second later, Cynthia called "In out out in!" as everyone scrambled to adjust.

Just after the callout, Sphene and Wuk Lamat emerged from the abyss. "What's going on?" Wuk Lamat yelled as she charged axe-first.

Necron's ring swirled with four cubes. "Get to your four-person parties, everybody! In out out in!"

Thirty seconds later of healer overdrive and people messing up the order of attacks every single hit, the mechanic was over and the stacks resolved. Alisae took a bad hit, her hair visibly singed, while Y'shtola wasn't fast enough and missed her stack, which hurt everyone else in it more. Cynthia was the only fighter who still looked like the battle just started, with everyone else being in various states of disarray.

"Will this Nevron primal thing please die!?" Lune yelled as she leapt into the air and executed Lightning Dance, one of her most devastating attacks, capable of inflicting massive damage with a little bit of luck. "I've been pumping all the lightning in this unholy place into it and it's just not budging!"

Despite her words, Necron was obviously showing signs of wearing down. "I am prepared for you." Suddenly, five orbs of azure aether spawned in an X pattern on the floor as the ring around one expanded, then began to narrow.

"Get next to the orb, it's about to radiate energy outwards!" Everyone slid underneath the orb of aether just as it detonated and the next one began to expand its ring. Nobody had time to cast spells as the healers quickly healed anyone who got clipped by the orb explosions, especially when they also needed to avoid gigantic hands spawning on the sides of the wall.

By the end, everyone is winded from having to sprint across the entire platform, though they get a much-needed reprieve when Necron channels a new season attack, this time telegraphing a line through the center. "You struggle in vain."

As Necron continued to falter, its movements becoming more and more sluggish, circles spawned on the floor with slots: two with four in the center, and four each of two- and three-dot circles. The total number of people required to soak all of them is 28, far more than their little party. "Fight if you must," Calyx calls from above.

Before Cynthia could fully enter panic mode, her Lalafellin companions drag her into one of the circles and yell for Krile. Pain flares in their feet and leaves a lingering ache, but nobody even bleeds. "Everyone stand in a circle and move to others! Prioritize the bigger numbers first, and wait for the ache to subside before soaking any more magic!"

Somehow, everyone except Alphinaud is alive at the end of the sequence despite the deluge of sludge that shot through the middle, dividing the team, and the enormous shockwaves directed at Monoco, G'raha, and Wuk Lamat. Unfortunately, the healers are running out of mana and can't keep up with the attacks, and Alphinaud is face-down on the floor from getting hit by a shockwave.

"Remind me to meld some Piety onto our gear next time we try to end a world-threatening monstrosity?!?!" Kujala yelled as Sciel attempted to summon a card, but grabbed empty air twice before succeeding. Lune was still channeling lightning aether into her tattoos, but was running out of internal mana to push out her attacks.

Despite this, Lulala glared daggers at Kujala as her arms shook with exertion. "Don't you DARE speak of piety materia in this group, Kujala! You know it brings you bad luck and low crit rates!"*

"Enough, you two! Try to concentrate on fighting please!" Cynthia growled at them while circling Necron's death halo, using the electrope circuits to build a terrifying amount of momentum before plunging straight into Necron's body.

Necron staggered in the air as Calyx's eyes narrowed slightly. Any party members who had energy left prepared for a final strike as Cynthia took a deep breath. "NOW!"

Lulala went first, a built-up flurry of ice and petals erupting from her blade as she carved a star pattern into Necron's chest. Sciel shot the last of her cards into the deep gashes and leapt forward with her scythe raised, bringing it down on Necron's face. Lune conjured a massive bolt of lightning, electrocuting Necron so thoroughly its lightning resistance didn't even matter.

Kujala, Sphene, and Y'shtola formed a triangular formation, building each other's umbral magical energies - thunder, ice, and stone - and brought the resulting orb of pure mana down onto Necron's head.

The tanks G'raha, Wuk Lamat, and Monoco in Dualliste form jumped up all together and brought their blades down on various parts of the primal's body.

Maelle, panting, leapt up with Alisae and danced around Necron's back in a flurry of slashes and flower petals before they landed around either side, striking matching poses.

Krile infused Verso's blade with holy white chroma, which Verso charged with his own magical energies to pierce through Necron.

As this was all happening, Cynthia ran to the back of the platform to get a running start for her Dragonsong Dive. She conjured a specter of a mighty dragon, leapt into the air, and plunged spear-first into Necron's carved chest.

Necron screamed before disintigrating into umbral particles. The hazy fear faded from the arena, leaving only the exhaustion of battle. Calyx floated near where Necron was, observing the team, without a hint of dread on his face.

"Is that it...?" Wuk Lamat breathed.

"I'm pretty sure we've done it *this* time..." Maelle panted.

"Don't invite misfortune, Maelle," Verso quipped as he checked himself for missing body parts. The entire Disaster Expedition experienced a flashback of the Lampmaster rising from the ocean after its supposed defeat, and they all shuddered at the bitter memories of that day. Lune brushed it off and cast Rebirth on Alphinaud, who was still incapacitated.

Calyx smirked subtly as Necron began to reform from the Alexandrian's fear of death, combined with the lightning aether in the Meso Terminal.

"W-what's going on!?" Wuk Lamat cried.

Necron appeared with its wings in front of its face, surrounded by the miasma of fear and weakness, before outstretching them again and releasing it upon the party.

"Misfortune..." the Expeditioners, except Monoco, groaned in unison.

"It is time for round three!" Monoco cried excitedly before promptly collapsing as the fear of death took hold of the party once more...