We open up on The Party, and they are just outside the Akhine Temple

  Vaniel: There’s no going back after this

  Iris: Alright let’s go

  Thanna: We have to get out powers back if we want to stand a chance

  Neve: I’m about to have the most important conversation in my entire life…aren’t I…

  Cynthus #2: Well let’s fucking go

  The Party begins to enter Akhine Temple, mist is pooling around the pillars. The party looks around, the place looks deserted

  Neve: Where is everyone?

  Thanna: It looks like someone else was here first?

  Vaniel: We don’t have much time to lose than, let’s go and go fast

  Cynthus #3: The healing pools are where restoration rituals happen, we should get down there as fast as we can

  Another Pionin comes into view

  Neve: Huh, HEY!

  But the growling they’ve grown so familiar with is heard

  Erhan: The reunion has to be put on hold I think?

  Neve: No….

  A group of growling Pionin Priests appear ready to kill The Party

  Vaniel: Alright guys follow my lead, the healing pools are on the fourth floor, so follow me

  Thanna: I can work with that

  Thanna and Vaniel take off and The rest of The Party soon follows suit

  Descend through Akhine Temple

  When you reach the second floor

  Neve: I can’t believe that I found out I was not alone only to then have to kill off the people like me

  Thanna: Yeah that must suck

  Neve: At least this is a kind of cruel mercy

  Vaniel: Maybe that’s how I feel about Armei

  Iris: Let’s keep the philosophy for when we get into the pools

  Cynthus #2: Saying what I’m thinking huh

  Resume

  When you reach the third floor

  Neve: I remember once reading that an ancient Pionin belief was that when someone died, their soul went to a place beyond Life and Death, maybe they moved to this place because they thought it was some kind of after-life?

  Thanna: Did they believe in layered after-lives?

  Neve: That I don’t know, I only know so much about who I am

  Iris: I can feel that too

  Vaniel: I feel like our lives are shaped so much by what we don’t know, it’s pretty scary

  Cynthus #1: Even as a respected scientific figure, I still have so much to learn

  Cynthus #2: We’re not even fucking close to knowing about everything about damn near anything

  Erhan: Neve, don’t despair because you don’t know the whole story

  Resume

  When you reach the fourth floor

  Vaniel: The healing pools are just beyond here, just one more hallway to go

  Erhan: I had no idea, they built temples so deep

  Vaniel: Well now you do

  Cynthus #3: Ok, so what we do when we get there is, you’ll both sit in the pools and they’ll heal your spirits therefore restoring your abilities.

  Vaniel: I believe that it should work, barring any extraneous circumstances

  Iris: Ok, got it

  Thanna: Yessir

  Neve: Onward

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  They walk down the hallway to an closed door, Iris uses the spear to open the door, inside are two healing pools

  Iris: So what do we do

  Cynthus #2: If I understand correctly, you’d need to sit in the pools and then release your natural energy, this can be done by holding a tall object

  Iris: So…I guess I gotta use this spear

  Cynthus #1: That could work

  Thanna: What about me?

  Cynthus #1: Hmm, There’s a fairly large fire poker over there

  Cynthus points to the fire poker

  Thanna: So I grab this, and raise it when me and Iris get in the healing pools

  Cynthus #3: Yeah

  Iris: Alright…in we go

  Thanna and Iris step into the pools

  Thanna: Ok, so when do we do the thing?

  Iris: Maybe wait a few seconds

  Erhan: I have no idea what’s gonna happen…

  The healing energies coalesse around the pools, healing their spirits

  Neve: Woah…I wonder how this works…

  Thanna: Alright, I’ll release the energy I have stored, I’ll release it now

  Iris: Alright let’s do it together

  Thanna and Iris raise the Spear and Fire Poker to the sky and color energy begins flowing out of Iris

  Iris: Uhm…we might have done this wrong

  The energy out of the fire poker begins hitting Iris’s energy

  Thanna: Oh no what the hell is this

  Vaniel: Brace for impact

  The Party scatters as the colors explode out of The Spear and Thanna’s Green powers flow into it, the crest floats off of Iris

  Iris: Oh I don’t know what’s happening to me

  The colors shoot of in seven different directions, Iris falls, still powerless

  Thanna: Iris, are you there?

  Thanna staggers back as Iris gets up, seven humanoid figures that are each a different color of the rainbow now stand before The Party

  Vaniel: What?

  Cynthus #3: I think their powers are now permanently gone and have splitoff into seven different beings

  Thanna: What the heck?

  Iris: I can still feel them

  Iris begins controlling the Humanoids

  Iris: Ok, let’s go

  Thanna: Hell yeah!!

  Vaniel: Let’s show those assholes who’s boss

  Neve: Now where are they

  Suddenly, a familiar creeping shadow begins sneaking up on the party

  Kutakahra: Missed me?

  Vaniel: Not at all, where did Phote go?

  Kutakahra: She ran away again…so my only opponent right now is you lot

  Thanna: You’ve got a lot of nerve to face us again after what you’ve done

  Cynthus #2: Prepare to bite it asshole

  Fight against Kutakahra

  When he’s at 75% health

  Kutakahra: An actual decent challenge, alright, I’ll actually try

  Kutakahra summons torrents of mist while slinging ringed hands to drag Iris in

  Iris: Nice try

  The Green Humanoid comes and blasts Kutakahra in the face

  Kutakahra: Heh

  Resume

  When he’s at 50% health

  Kutakahra: Your strong combat abilities will make you fine puppets

  Thanna: Keep dreaming

  Thanna thrusts The Fire Poker into Kutakahra’s right eye before kicking him in the neck

  Resume

  When he’s at 25% health

  Kutakahra: Darn, maybe I won’t win?

  Thanna: Normally they’d be acting all high and mighty and stuff

  Vaniel: Seriously, those types are so damn annoying

  Cynthus #1: I’ve realized the fact most people would rather live in denial than face reality means that more people will prolong their defeat

  Resume

  When he’s finally defeated

  Kutakahra: Oh…I may need a minute

  The Mist entirely dissipates, making the area more visible

  Vaniel: The mist is gone?

  Kutakahra: I’ve been defeated so the mist left…ugh…

  Thanna: So what now? Do we kill you?

  Kutakahra: I think not

  Kutakahra remerges with Shadow and leaves

  Vaniel: Damn it he got away

  Cynthus #2: What NOW

  Iris: I feel like there’s one more left

  And at that moment, a massive mech comes roaring through the temple and all the foundations, leaving just the healing pools and a massive mech that looks unfinished

  Erhan: Welp, we've fought worse

  The cockpit opens

  Phote: Hello hopeless nobodies, I’m here in a personal creation of mine, The Morningstar, it is rather incomplete, but once fully built, it will be able to defeat your entire guild effortlessly and just this should be able to kill you

  Cynthus #1: Seems like quite the endorsement

  Iris: I have a feeling this mech isn’t all that

  Phote: Oh all my critics will be dead soon so who cares?

  Fight Phote in The Morningstar

  When it’s at 75% health

  Phote: I feel just the oddest sense of Deja Vu right now?

  Iris: Uh didn’t ask

  The Red and Indigo Humanoids blast an exposed hole in the Morningstar

  Thanna: I wonder how fall your mech can fall?

  Resume against Phote

  When she’s at 50% health

  Ehran: Hey think fast

  Erhan creates noises that indicate engine decay in the mech

  Phote: What the heck is this?

  Cynthus blasts a massive collum of flame at the now exposed engine, causing massive internal damage

  Phote: I’m gonna get you for this!!

  Resume

  When she’s at 25% health

  Neve: I got one in me too

  Phote: Please don’t

  Neve releases a toxic spore directly into the cockpit

  Phote: Rude

  Vaniel: Two can play this game

  Vaniel throws a shroud of night into the cockpit obscuring Phote’s vision

  Resume

  When she’s at 10% health

  Erhan: Thanna, you got one in you?

  Thanna: I do

  Thanna hucks a massive rock at The Morning Star

  Phote: What was that supposed to?

  Suddenly, the legs of the machine start to give way

  Thanna: I don’t miss

  Resume

  When she’s defeated

  Phote: The mech says the system is failing…that can’t be

  Neve: Yeah it can, we fucking won

  Thanna: Now how far will you fall

  Thanna picks up a disposed weapon from the mech and blasts the legs to bits, the entire thing caves in and Phote is crushed by the metal

  Vaniel: Well she looks dead?

  Neve: So what now?

  Iris: I’m going to have to say goodbye

  Iris suddenly vanishes and the seven humanoids turn from colors in the shape of humans into what look like actual humans. They fall still on the ground.

  Thanna: Did she just become seven different people?

  Vaniel: I think she was already seven different people and just used the last of her life force to fight with you one more time

  Thanna: That’s oddly sweet, I’m gonna miss her

  Erhan: Maybe not, it looks like she left behind a little bit of herself in those humans? Maybe we’ll see her if they ever wake up?

  Neve: So do we go home?

  Cynthus #2: I’ve actually got one more inquiry?

  Thanna: What?

  Cynthus #1: Maybe leave the portal open, I’d like to fight alongside you again some day?

  Vaniel: Me too

  Thanna: Alright,we’ll leave the portal open

  Neve: Right…

  Neve takes the portal out of her armor and opens it, and The Century Corps go home, carrying the comatose human beings with them