"I saw you die." Lyn said, extending her blade back to form a combat stance.
Teize giggled as she landed on her two feet, shrugging her shoulders in denial. "It's one of many of my illusions at play," She clarified as a ruse, pacing slowly from side to side before pointing at the large glowing black sphere formed in the center of where the Sand Sinker was built. "The desperate heights that humanity would go for power... has resulted into exactly what I was hoping for."
"You... you called me 'Sister,'" Lyn reminded her, gritting her teeth. "Who are you?"
"You don't remember me?" Teize asked, spreading her arms wide while grinning widely at her supposed sibling. With a snap of her left fingers, a slow transformation began to take place, starting with Teize's feet.
As a gleaming white aura arose towards her slender and alluring legs, swapping them out for more lean, muscular, and masculine legs instead. After reaching her hips, slim leather jet black pants that tightened her muscles to bring them alight. Teize's body expanded dramatically as the blinding lights reached her breasts, revealing a shirtless male body, bulked with muscular power, yet remained slim.
And as the final light reached the top of her skull, her face had finally morphed into the monster's true form; one of Krin's four clones, who stood in her path. With his pale complexion, voluptuous short white hair, sharp eyebrows, and thin red eyes, it was clear that it was the aggressive one out of all of them.
Lyn found it impossible to forget her nemesis's face. It was the third Krin, who had toyed with Alfaic and teased her toward her partial demise. "KRIN!" She roared.
"Whoa, feisty!" He chuckled, placing his arms by his side. "But my brothers call me Seth, now."
Without any prior hesitation, Lyn dashed forward with the instant resolve to execute him on the spot. But the power of red mystical energy in the form of aether stopped her in her tracks; Seth opened a portal of aether with his right hand, pulling out a golden and white feathered blade. He held it with both of his large hands, with the intent to snap it instantaneously.
It was none other than Alfaic, whose color slowly lost luster over the course of a few seconds. It slowly dulled down to a colorless husk, devoid of any sign of life.
"BLADE!" Lyn cried, reaching toward her long awaited ally with her hand.
"Don't... move," Seth said, snickering at the sight of Lyn's despair. "You wouldn't want your dear old sword in two pieces now, would you? You are the one who brought it in this mess, after all. It is your responsibility to control yourself."
After being instigated by the sight of her sword, Lyn stepped back and dropped her sword to the ground, indicating surrender. She closed her eyes in frustration and shook her head, angered to the point of no return. "Enough of this nonsense," She uttered. "Just tell me what you want."
Seth grinned, sending Alfaic away through another small aether portal. Lyn remained calm and watched deep within the portal, only momentarily, how it was void of color altogether in a different dimension. But once the portal closed, all traces of her ally vanished, leaving her and Seth alone. He turned toward the large black sphere in the center, amazed by its masterful appearance.
"Do you know where the Lifen Trees originates from?" Seth asked, raising his arm to the side to unveil the sphere's wake. "Small shards, semi-radiant pulses connecting us to Mother only reveal itself when the vessels of this world undergo a heavy transformation of pure emotion. Born from this vessel is a tree, and this tree gives birth the lovely creatures you see roaming this pathetic world. And our influence spreads, the more we give life to others."
Lyn knew he was referencing the Rots and their infectious capabilities.
"But we don't care for the smaller, insignificant kinds," Seth continued. "We only seek the Great Lifen, the largest and bountiful of all trees, which contain the shards to rebuild Mother's true form. And this can only be obtained through these so called Lords, you speak of," Seth paced around Lyn in a circular motion. She never averted her eyes from his incandescent gaze. "Do you know how these trees are formed?"
Lyn remained silent.
"Hate. Anger. Suffering," Seth spoke one at a time, emphasizing each word. "Those are the key ingredients in giving birth to our new life, and in those great trees, shall we be complete with Mother's guidance," He stopped and pointed toward the sphere between them. "Humanity is so interesting. The one wanted to rule the world, but had a weak and pathetic heart, dedicated to love. Greed overpowered him. Typical humans. They say they want something, but they do another in return."
Lyn couldn't help but realize hypocritical he was sounding, when he did the same exact thing to her at the fire station.
"But this one needs time to nurture and grow. Which is why I can't have you stop it."
Seth pressed his left palm out, sending out a surge of aetheric energy toward Lyn's still body. An invisible force seized control of her, constricting her body until it hovered off the ground, little by little. Lyn's throat closed up as she struggled to breathe. Her arms and legs were bound by this unstoppable force, leading her toward Seth's face up close.
"I won't... let you... do this..." Lyn's utterance of her words were forced, only to be lost with time.
"You're such an interesting specimen, girl," Seth sarcastically complimented, caressing Lyn's cheek with his ringed palm. "I can't have you interfere with Mother's uprising. Your presence here provides me with no satisfaction. You are angry. You are scared. And you deserve to die."
Her snatched Lyn's chin and moved closer to her eyes, peering deeply with as their noses touched. Seth's eyes wriggled in insanity, while Lyn's teetered on half-closed. After nearly crushing Lyn's jaw with his oppressive hands, he released his grip on her, taking two steps backward with an unsatisfied expression.
"But you're unique. You're the only one I have ever seen to show signs of human emotion. Yet, you are an imperfect creature," Seth stated, lifting his right wrist above waist level. "The most beautiful Lifen Tree shall give birth within your soul the more you suffer, for time is the biggest consequence for defying Mother. And suffer you shall."
"NO! KRIN!" Lyn violently lashed out, attempting to break free from Seth's magical control. She spat in defiance, snarling at her nemesis with absolute zero remorse for his presence. Her lungs almost collapsed with her final scream, shooting her neck up to avoid even a single assault on his eyes. "I swore... I swore, I would KILL YOU!" She cried. "GIVE ME MY BLADE!"
While she continued to desperately cry and berate insults, Seth smiled one last time before seizing control of Lyn's head to face forward. He placed his enclosed knuckles against her forehead, resting his thumb against her forehead and index finger. "That's RIGHT!" He shouted. "Get angry! Hate me more! Your anger and suffering will bring Mother back to life!"
Lyn lost control of her breath, tensing her muscles up before relaxing altogether. She leaned her forehead against Seth's forehead before crossing her eyes with his one last time.
"I shall await your return," Seth said. "But for now, enjoy your dreary moment of solitude. I will truly miss our talks for a while."
As Lyn screamed at the top of her lungs for one final time, a pure, unadulterated detonation of aethereal energy sliced the field around them the moment Seth flicked his index finger against Lyn's forehead. It was a blast so mighty that even light could not keep up with its speed. In less than a second, Seth's finger ejected Lyn's body through the walls of the underground lair, splitting the cliffs that held the establishment together in two. Another section passed as ripples from the sky's puffy clouds formed and seemed to cut in half from the force of Seth's stunning awe. The planet's ozone layer failed to absorb the sun's heat in time from the attack, sending flames across all of the Wastes, incinerating wildlife, flora, and poor evacuated victims in its vicinity.
From above, Ardine, Dorothy, and Scabs witnessed Lyn propelled out of the area in a single blink of an eye. Ardine looked away in disappointment as Dorothy continued to stare at Seth below. Scabs slopped on the airship's deck, pained and grieved over Lyn's supposed loss.
Seth looked up at the airship and smiled before reverting back into his feminine Teize form. His masculine demeanor changed once again to reflect his ambitious disguise.
She stepped in front of Lyn's blade that she surrendered after witnessing Alfaic's return. She leaned over to pick it up.
"Hmm." She began, thinking of a marvelous plan to enact. After mere milliseconds, she acted upon it. She took the blade's edge and slashed her own palm, drawing her blood and staining the sword with crimson. She then conjured a portal to Aema's prison cell where she took her own life, and tossed it in there before sending it away. She briefly chuckled at the naughtiness of ruse before she turned around and stepped foot into the black sphere.
She entered a world devoid of color with a chained, bare and nude Kaiden shackled by chains formed from dark red light. His body slumped forward with his head shot down toward his knees, lost in limbo in the alternate dimension.
Out in the open, there was nothing but clear shallow water that stretched for eons away. There were no clouds, no sky, and no sign of life. A makeshift fake sun provided reflections casted upon the water, but none of it truly provided much life at all to a dying and failing Kaiden, armless in one.
"You're not the indominable warlord I thought you were after all," Teize insulted, flicking her seductive fingernails on Kaiden's bare shoulder. "A warlord devoid of strength and pride, and you call yourself ruler of the Wastes," She conjured a floating red chair, sitting comfortably on it while rocking her alluring legs back and forth. "Armless on his own burial ground."
Kaiden's mouth quivered as pure hate entered his system. "My... Aema..." He gruffly whispered, gazing upon his sliced arm missing from the battle.
"But this won't be your burial ground," Teize continued, stroking Kaiden's chin. "I won't let that happen to you. You are weak, my lord, and you need time to grow. Your arm-"
Kaiden roared at the top of his lungs, sending ripples and shockwaves of the water through the stretches of the colorless land. "WHO IS SHE?" He bellowed, referring to Lyn, the one responsible for taking away his right hand. "She sought to crush every little dream I had ever had of becoming the ruler of the Wastes! Who is she, Teize?" He growled. "I'LL KILL HER!"
Teize giggled, pacing around Kaiden's chained body. "She calls herself Lyn," She said, elegantly stepping around him mischievously. "And you'll be delighted to know the truth about her and what happened to your lover."
"The truth?" Kaiden asked, pulling on his chains. "What do you mean, the truth?"
"The truth is that she lied to you," Teize emphasized. "Your beloved Aema did not take her own life. The one we call Lyn… she killed her in cold blood."
"You lie!" Kaiden yelled, rampaging his arms through the chains as a way of attempting to cope with Teize's lies. "That's…"
"Am I?" Teize said, creating another aetherial portal beside her hand. It opened a passageway to the exact jail cell Lyn had invaded prior to their battle, revealing Aema's lifeless body, rotted to the core from the Rots parasitic and infectious disease. Her body was plagued with pus while infected rats feasted upon her, causing Kaiden to hurl and vomit upon closer contact.
When one of the rats escaped the portal and seemingly touched Teize's foot, she stomped on it and incinerated it with aether. She then pointed toward the body, gesturing Kaiden to look.
"A stab wound and a body festering with age." Teize continued.
She then enacted her previous plan, kneeling down and picking up Lyn's sword that stained her blood upon it purposefully. "And look at this. This is her sword, stained with the blood of your woman. Make no mistake, this was her doing. This is the truth."
Kaiden furiously roared, pulling his shackles outward to reach the opened portal. But Teize closed it upon him nearly reaching his destination, setting him back down again to watch his suffering unfold.
"I'LLKILL YOU, LYN!" Kaiden shouted, spitting across the colorless dimension. "I'll tear you apart! I'll eat your heart out! I'll destroy that face of yours and pummel it to DUST! I will… I will…"
After watching Kaiden lose his strength, Teize approached him and kneeled down to match his height. "But you see, my love," She began. "You can't do any of those things like this. You are weakened. You've lost your ability to fight, and you require a more drastic resolution to increase your power."
Kaiden's eyes looked toward Teize's as she bent toward his ear before whispering.
"I can give you that power." She said before backing up.
"How?" Kaiden asked, desperately begging. "Please. Tell me how I can kill her. Tell me how I can grow stronger."
Teize chuckled. "The method to gain this power is life or death. If you fail, your spirit shall perish and be lost in death. But win, and you shall gain everlasting power to rule the world. You truly shall be the Warlord of the Wastes," She grinned pleasantly, revealing her impish fangs. "Do you accept?" She slyly asked.
"Yes…" Kaiden whispered back, before reverting to his normal voice. "Yes…! I do. So tell me. What must I do?"
"The method is simple," Teize continued. "I will promise you can personally deliver her death so as long as you stay in this realm long enough to nurture your strength back. In this realm, time moves quicker than usual. You must wait until the exact time is nigh, and your powers shall unlock itself on its own."
"I don't… understand," Kaiden said. "How will this give me power?"
"You see, my lord… your body harbors the indomitable spirit of a warrior, unmatched by any in the world. But you harbor vengeance, rage, anger… and sorrow. These emotions, along with time, will grow and consume your body in this realm, culminating in great power. Enough power to destroy the girl," Teize tapped on his shoulder before moving away. "Yes, you will age rapidly. Yes, your body will decompose. But at the end of this journey lies the final step into becoming an immortal warlord. You will be unstoppable. You will be invincible. You will be a god of METIS. And I shall guarantee this with my own life."
Kaiden's head slumped down after hearing her conditions to his vengeance. Teize marveled at the pain and lengths he was willing to push himself towards his goal, making it merely joke and pure amusement for him to relish in.
"Very well," Kaiden said, lifting his head up. "Then stay I shall." He concluded.
"Good," Teize said, opening up the portal back to METIS. "Then I shall return home and prepare the Wastes for you. Solitude, until then, my love."
"Will you come back?" Kaiden asked as Teize took a single step through the portal.
Her face was overshadowed by her true identity, masquerading her intentions. The combination of Seth and Teize's face split their faces in half, shrouding it from Kaiden's view. She nearly exploded in extreme laughter, relishing in humanity's cluelessness for conquest and power.
Before stepping through, she turned back to Kaiden with an adorable and innocent expression.
"Of course, my love." She finished.