Character

I stretched a bit as the sun shined over us. Kressiah walked beside me as we kept our eyes upon Specula Imperatoris. The Garleans assembled a presentable force which would likely cause the resistance some issue. Even so, with my presence, it was clear they were adamant to stay away from weapons with flight. I heard someone climbing up the side of the mountain and looked to see some of my friends.

Krohman, Cleo and Lyse waved towards us. Quickly walking by me, Krohman smiled a bit as he approached his mother and gave her a long hug. Lyse stretched herself smiling as she noticed the miqo'te family together again. Her eyes moved towards me and I merely nodded as I motioned towards Specula Imperatoris.

"Time is fleeting. The longer we wait, the more reinforcements they gain."

"Nice to see you as well."

Krohman stated as he walked past his mother, crossing his arms in irritation. I merely ignored it as I walked towards the edge.

"Pleasantries will wait. Lyse, go see Conrad. He has a decent plan.

"And what of you? Why not just go down their and destroy them before we start?"

Krohman asked as his mother placed her hand upon his shoulder.

"Calm thy self."

"Not this time. I am sorry, but their is no reason for many to suffer if You alone could easily overcome this place."

I raised an eyebrow and turned my head towards Krohman whom stood his ground.

"You're right, I could Krohman, it just so happens that I wish to see many die instead."

He growled until I pointed my finger towards the tips of the towers built for Specula Imperatoris.

"Look closely to the sides."

He glanced at them and noticed a lining of corrupted crystals. He in turn raised an eyebrow as I shrugged towards him.

"It would seem they found an intriguing way to help block my aether to an extent. I admit Master Denz and I may have gone a bit... overboard on the hunting. Though I suspect the real problem started when they turned my doppelganger into an insane psychopath."

"Right..."

Krohman stated before his ears twitched and he glanced back at me.

"Wait... what?"

I blushed a little bit before turning away.

"Nothing... let us just leave that be for now.. With Master Denz out for the moment, we are left to our own tactics. I apologize but this is not a fight I can particularly help with. Instead, I intend to head beyond and secure the sultry. I suspect the garleans will not treat them well during this attack."

Kressiah nodded and crossed her arms as she stood beside me.

“Yes, and I shall be with her behind enemy lines. I don’t intend for their reinforcements to get through”

Krohman began to protest before he was stopped by her gaze.

“I’ve held my own against armies before, I intend to do so again and again till I can no longer breath, or Ala Mhigo is free. The Garlean Empire has much to answer for, from my daughters death to the loss of the years I could have had with my son.”

He sighed to himself as he turned around.

“Very well, take care, both of you, I will stand with the resistance.”

We both nodded as they all began to follow Lyse down towards the town. I turned to see the beyond and quickly jumped down to the grounds below. Kressiah followed as we began out trek to the sultry. Before we knew it, the Garlean forces were after us. Clearly as I suspected, they had been keeping an eye upon us all night.

Slamming my fist to the ground, I caused a quake and petrified earth to pierce through the surface. Kressiah kicked through several more between us and the sultry. The path was clear as we walked towards it. I stopped and placed my arm in front of Kressiah when I noticed a cloaked being standing at the small town. She glared toward the person as well then to me.

“Keep the people safe. This is my fight now.”

I stated as I began to walk forward. The cloaked person quickly began to walk forward, meeting me in the middle of the field between us. She moved her arm as the cloak flapped free and blew off in the wind, a sand storm began to engulf. Her orange hair seemed to glimmer as if fire flowing freely with her blonde highlights. Her amber eyes told a story long lost to the screams she endured many years ago.

Being elezen, she stood taller then I as she met me and glared down.

“Isha.”

I called her name out as she her face formed a frown. The elezen was a captured young woman from Ala Mhigo much as myself. Her parents were executed in the streets as she watched. Being early in her teenage years, she was far to out spoken for a slave girl. In return for her mouth, they did constant experiments upon her.

I watched in horror, thinking they would do the same to me. Months into my own capture, she disappeared and I thought her dead until Elidibus revealed the remaining Magitek Knights. Simply calling her the only other aether user in the group. Though it revealed little, the fact she was an elezen and had amber eyes told me more, and I had hoped it was not true.Yet here she was, the sweet girl she once represented, gone beneath the hatred in her.

A mask appeared over her mouth and she began to speak.

“That name does sound familiar. It sounds like the name of a child who disobeyed her masters till they tore her mind to shreds.”

I backed away slightly, while she quickly placed her hand upon my shoulder. Her eyes wide with fear and hatred.

“They tore me apart piece by piece, and put me back together. This suit keeps me alive now, and thus I am bound to be loyal.”

“Isha, fighting me isn’t not what you want. I can take you to the eorzean alliance, we can help-“

“I want to die.”

Before I could react, she jabbed her right arm into my stomach and released a blade which pieces through my back.

“I have been so close to death, so close to returning to the lifestream to be with my parents.... and every time... every time I was brought back, and denied my ever respite. Now I have my chance... but I can not stop my body from tearing you apart... And I kind of like watching others suffer!”

I held my hands around her arm, trying to pull her blade out. She twisted it and made me scream in pain.

“Stop!”

“I want to destroy you.... I will destroy you, or you will destroy me!”

The blade began to heat up and sear my flesh from within. Immediately I blast her away from me, leaving her arm to hang limp in my gut. Finally I pulled it out and let it fall to the ground, my body slowed as the wounds healed. She glared down to her discarded arm and sighed as she walked up to it, picking it up. Placing to her arm again it began to seal and rebuild with the suit sealing around it.

“Their is not much life left in you is their? You are no more then a husky wearing her face.”

She nodded towards me as she held up her fixed arm.

“Tossing body parts into the trash in front of me as I watched helpless to stop them. I was nothing. Nothing but garbage to them. Now I am the machine they want.”

Duel blades appeared around her knuckles as she prepared to leap.

“That’s how you kill the savage in savages, cut it all out of them... make them into the perfect army to control.”

She pounced and appeared beside me. I moved in time and again as she tried constantly to slash through my neck.

“Their are far worse things then death. I have experienced the darkest parts of man and no matter how many times I begged... I was ignored. They loved my defying voice as it begged for mercy. Right up to the moment Lord Zenos tore my throat out and crushed it before me.”

As I tossed sharpened ice toward her, she dodged it, effortlessly and revealed her glowing eyes.

“You’ll not be able to defeat me Esper. I possess an enhanced echo. Lord Zenos gifted me when he found out I was an echo user. ‘Tis why I still breath in a sense.”

She slowly moved as I tried to smack her head. Grasping my hand as she crushed my hand bones.

“AAAHHHHHHH!!!”

She crushed again as I tried to back away, moving her hand up to my forearm and crushing the bone again.

“Perhaps, I can make you feel every bit of my own torment before I remove your head.”

She began to tear at my muscle, trying to rip my arm off completely. I did not struggle, I let her try, though I screamed in horrific pain until she stopped. Unleashing my ruling form, I quickly grasped her neck and twisted her head as she fell to the ground.

“Ahhh!!!!”

I held my arm as the bones began to heal and the flesh and muscle return to normal. I heard the sickening sound of her twist her head back in place. Clearly the machine part of her was far more the I had imagined. She stood up as she cracked her neck, looking angry at me.

“Maybe next time you will rip my head from my body!”

“Would that kill you? Or is their more in your head keeping you alive?”

I asked as she thought for a moment and became even more angry. Rushing at me, I flew next to her ready for another strike.