spellbinders | here we go again...

[He's way too dizzy and disoriented to do anything but stay away, which may be a good thing given how stubborn Lenka can be about these things; what he does manage to do is climb to his feet, unsteadily, by the time the pressure starts letting up. It leaves his head ringing so fiercely he can hardly hear his own thoughts, never mind anything Julius is trying to communicate.

He takes a moment to shake it a little, wincing but somehow in one piece (the bias field is invisible, certainly, but it somehow feels like it should have left a mark all the same at that intensity; he'd be afraid to look under his gloves or in a mirror). There's only a moment or two to stare in consternation at what has taken Julius' place before the next wave of the Uvi attack slams into them, but the image burns itself into his memory all the same, even at a distance.

A form he's never seen before, but the construction of which he knows on an instinctual level, has known all his life as a clawing dread at the pit of his stomach -- something made solely to destroy, rend, devour. Aragami.]

Julius. [is all he manages in between trying to dodge the sudden waves of salt water, sea creatures and enemy blades; he's still not particularly well equipped for it, and is distracted besides. Still. He reaches out anyway, shoving aside the implications of what Julius has done and what he is or isn't -- a call, a question and an appeal all at once.

He doesn't know if he expects an answer.]

[ The Aragami hovers still for a few moments, Julius wrestling for control with the core that had now become exposed in the creature's heart - but this isn't the first time, and he's long since grown used to keeping it under control. He will stay himself for the sake of others.

He doesn't reply at first, the floating blades behind him coming together in some sort of flower formation before a laser arcs across the field; knocking an Uvi behind Lenka straight back into a wall. ]

If my presence make you feel ill, you should go.

It's better now.

[And it is, and if he's still a little unsteady it's more from trying to regain his balance after everything that's just crashed down on his head, is still messing with his head -- it doesn't seem possible that in completing his transformation (there's nothing left of the man he'd learned too much about, can he come back at all?), the wrongness of his presence had eased. Lenka stiffens when the Aragami moves and instinctively ducks away from the laser, gritting his teeth when the movement allows another Uvi's blade to press the advantage.

He blocks solidly with his knife, but is still pushed back quite a ways before he can gain purchase, trading an Uvi blow to the arm for the space to dive under the creature's polearm and behind it; it's just in time for one of the strange, flowing torrents of water to shoot between them. He pauses to catch his breath and a fish that comes flying out at his face; looks back to where the Aragami is still rooted like a too-large, too-fancy Cocoon Maiden.]

Julius. [he keeps repeating the name, reminding them both who he's talking to; because otherwise he has no idea who he's talking to] It's... You can fight like this.

[He has so many questions, mountains of questions; questions without end. If he started asking, he'd never stop. So he doesn't ask right now. But he also makes sure the Aragami is never at his back.]

[ The Aragami slowly detaches itself from the soil, roots retracting into its mantle and allowing it to hover a short distance above the ground. Julius' body (or what he remembers of it) doesn't move, though it would be hard to do so given how he was impaled into the monster's body. ]

For a while. Then, I must return... and I need your help for it.

[ In theory, it should work. But even if it didn't, this world lacked Aragami. He would be the only casualty. ]

Take my blade.

[Almost despite himself, Lenka slowly approaches the Aragami now that he can hear it speak -- an involuntary shudder goes through him when it moves, slow and horrible and with intent. But now he can see it more clearly and he can see the strange humanoid shape that he'd taken for its head. It still doesn't look like Julius, but that's where what was left of him must have been, fused with the creature like a bad parody of the first time they'd met.

He'd been able to do very little, then or since, but now Lenka forces himself to look away from the Aragami and focus on the words -- both familiar and unfamiliar in shared mental space.]

You can come back. [it's one part hope, three parts disbelief; the thing he isn't is reassured, because according to everything he knows and even according to their previous discussion, it's never that simple] How?

[Regardless of his misgivings, though, they're still in the midst of battle, and Julius is offering a weapon. Lenka remembers his blade, distracted as he'd been last time he'd seen him, and starts rummaging around in the surrounding debris and water for the wayward greatsword. If nothing else, he needs something that can at least slow down the Uvi.]

[ There is another reason why he had asked Lenka to take his sword, but it's something to be addressed later. ]

I had not told you. I'm sorry.

[ There's regret mixed into his voice, a presence flickering under the pressure of the Singularity much like a play of light upon water. ]

When I came here, I was already not human. I can only return... to a humanoid shape. I will never be a true human gain.

[By this point, Lenka's finally gotten his hands on the greatsword; its blade is deeply buried beneath a pile of tarp that must have once been a Palai market stall, and... a lot of crustaceans. It's hard to tell whether the mess is Palai wares or part of the Uvi attack, but there's certainly enough water to make extraction difficult. He needs to get to higher ground before the Uvi move again, but instead, his hands still on the hilt as Julius' words sink in.

So, he'd lied. The part of him that had so decisively revealed his own secret understands why, of course: even a partial truth is better than what Julius is saying now, something beyond imagining for him nor any of the God Eaters he knew. Humanoid. A humanoid Aragami, walking and talking amongst them, calling itself a God Eater. A God Eater, living a dream of still being human, losing everything he was and would ever be.

Lenka tightens his grip, pulls the sword but doesn't raise it.]

... What else haven't you told me?

[He still doesn't have great control over telepathy, so the question comes out only mostly calm; a little dangerously so. There's an edge to it. That same part of him is also angry, inevitably so, but the question is pragmatic. If he has to fight with whatever Julius is now, he really, really does not need more secrets rearing their ugly heads when he has fifteen Uvi on his tail.]

[ If Lenka chooses to leave him, then so be it. Duty comes first. ]

The sword has my blood on it. You can use it on me. [ It should work. Even if coming here had altered the Bias effect of his body, it should work. ] I intend to use this form to kill as many of the Uvi as I can. You can speak to me through telepathy, I have no voice.

[ In contrast to Lenka's coldness, his own mind is devoid of anything but blinding conviction. It's the only way he's still remaining himself, after all. ]

Should I falter, then kill me.

[The coldness in his words was only surface, thin ice over stormy water; but the more Julius goes on, the more it spreads through his insides and seizes his thoughts. By the time Julius reaches his conclusion -- Lenka's hands tighten convulsively on the hilt of the greatsword, but his fingers feel numb. For a split second, he can't feel anything at all.

Kill me.

Leave me.

Sometimes, you have to make a choice.

The world slams into roaring focus again with the barest shadow of movement out of the corner of his eye; he moves before his thoughts can catch up, finds himself swinging the greatsword he'd been worried about wielding without access to Bias Factor or anything else. His arms strain against the weight, but the blade bites smoothly into and through the ribs of the Uvi trying to pull a sneak attack while they're both distracted. It's sent smashing into the wall of a nearby establishment like a bad mascot costume, splashing into the gutter in a pile of scales and ooze.

Lenka is left staring blindly after it, breathing hard. Instinctively, he reaches for telepathy again; he doesn't want to talk to an Aragami out loud right now.]

I refuse.

[There's the faintest tremor through it; telepathy betraying him still. But telepathy means the steel in it still comes through clear and true. He leaves the sword's point where it's fallen; any more stray Uvi in the area can be cleared out with magic, or the Aragami's long-distance attacks. He turns his furious stare back on the Aragami, or what he thinks is the Aragami's head. It doesn't matter.]

I'm not going to die here. You aren't, either.

[It's both a reiteration and a promise. Some things are simply a part of him, and while he's still struggling with this one, may always struggle with it; he's keeping to it.]

I'll stop you.

[ What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? This is what.

While Lenka punches an Uvi into a building, Julius busies himself with picking off those at range. The Singularity's lasers are powerful enough to burn through flesh if he tunes it a little: his aim might not be good with all the interference, but at least he can act as some sort of deterrent.]

You know as much as I that Aragami cannot truly die. The cells will endure, it's a matter of who controls them.

[ As calm as his voice is, there's a taint of static to it; as if scrambled by noise of radio (or in this case, the mind of the Singularity itself). These were the truths that he had come to know once the cocoon had swallowed him and he had lost consciousness that first time.

It has to work. Even if it didn't, he'll have to go on to make it work. ]

By knocking it out, you'll be doing me a favour. I can regain control over my body.

... You want me to extract the core.

[Your core, he doesn't say, since it's actually debatable what the core is tied to when Julius puts things like that -- but also because he's still struggling with connecting Aragami to human (pseudo-human, now, perhaps). The rest of the explanation seems reasonable, certainly, according to the basics of what he knows about Aragami structure and formation. If he ignores what it's explaining.

But.

Something about the static in Julius' mental voice doesn't sit right with his nerves, they're already raw, and every instinct he has is still rejecting this course of action. Destroy the Aragami to restore its human form. There's too little he knows about what Julius is and how the damnable process works, and a large splinter in the trust he's been giving.

He can still fight with the Aragami; he's been given no choice at this point. It's his responsibility as a God Eater to keep an eye on it and deal with it if necessary.

Fighting the Aragami is... they both know at this point that it's a more than likely scenario. Almost absently, Lenka reaches out to add his own magic to the laser show going on around him, crushing any stray Uvi that escape the Singularity's considerable net. His thoughts are moving again, albeit slowly.]

God Eaters who have been infected can't come back. That's what we know. You're saying it's different. How do you know?

[It's less a request for more technical knowledge, and more a need for assurance that they're not both going into this blind. He's not sure how much stock he can put in Julius' answer. But he has to ask.]

Most God Eaters are infected due to lack of flawless compatibility with their Bias Factors... I had a different case.

[ He sweeps the perimeter with the laser again, the static growing ever so slightly stronger in the background; closing upon him each second that they spend speaking instead of working. There's bound to not be enough time. ]

I was brought back once. I can give you details once we're off the field.

[ It worked, because his team did not leave him to die. It worked, because they spoke to him just as how Lenka is speaking to him now... because they believed. And with the people who believed in him here, he could at least feel some measure of confidence at surviving.

It will work. It has to work. ]

Edited 2017-09-08 13:25 (UTC)

[He freezes briefly, a missed beat in his steps as he takes up the greatsword again -- his summoning powers can stop Uvi in their tracks and occasionally knock them out if he's lucky, but most of them eventually get back up and require further pummeling -- because Julius' focus on lack of compatibility snags at his awareness.

What exactly was different about Julius' case? What's different about his?

But Julius is right when he says that it's not the time to go into detail, even if Lenka is still uneasy about all of it. They won't be off the field until the Aragami is, and what's eating at him isn't going to resolve itself tidily, if at all; but if he's going to be tasked with controlling an Aragami that he understands next to nothing about, with a makeshift God Arc he isn't even sure counts as makeshift... Even as stubborn as he is, that's asking for a lot of faith at once.]

You were brought back with God Arcs. This... [laboriously, he swings the greatsword again, slamming an Uvi polearm against a piece of rubble; the Uvi itself is caught on the backswing and sent staggering, but Lenka staggers with it, still not used to the heft of the thing] If it doesn't work...

[If it doesn't work, then they wouldn't have anything else to use against an Aragami. They'd have to blindly hope some form of magic could work, somehow, even just to slow it down. He doesn't like those odds at all.]

Later. Later...

[ The Singularity hums as it raises its hand, spearing the Uvi with a single beam of searing light. ]

Not God Arcs. The Aragami controls its body by its own mind. A task done from within. I just need time...

[ It works, right? The theory was sound, the facts... well, it does point in the same direction. Surely, he can do it. At the very least, he wouldn't cause an Apocalypse here. ]

[If it doesn't work, there is no later! a part of him wants to yell, but it would be fruitless: there had been no turning back since Julius had made his decision, sweeping aside all obstacles, and that meant it had to work. He had to make it work, even if it meant putting himself bodily between the Aragami and whatever it threatened. And it would threaten everything, if Julius' contingency plan came to pass.

At some point, he'd stopped really thinking of it as an if. The resolve, at least, was already there -- simple as breathing. He would stop him no matter what it took. At least that part was easy, the willing part.]

So it's up to you. [maybe it's the increasing noise in Julius' telepathic voice; maybe it's his own disordered thoughts; but his words seem more scattered, less smooth] I'll make time. So...

[So, what? In the end, he has to wait and see. Faith. Hope. Always easier said than done. Easier, when he has a blade in his hands and something to face.

Still, he shivers when he feels the heat from the Singularity's beams, passing so close it makes his hair flutter and seems to concentrate all the heat and weight of the Aimintas atmosphere along its path. Everything smells and tastes burnt. He scrambles away from what little is left of that Uvi, using the greatsword to propel his movement. Forces himself to swing at the next one, and the next.]

I can do it.

[ Just like Lenka has his resolve to stop Julius, the blond man has his own. His willpower is far stronger than he knows it to be, for that six months of torment had not yet come to pass.

But he cannot do it alone, and it's a fact that will soon be pressed home. ]

Let's go. There's someone we can yet save...

here we go again...

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