Chapter 28: Final Exam

Before they had found themselves on the Fallen Arm, the party rotated meal duties along themselves for the most part. Melia was excused because everyone understood she had never made a meal before in her life, and Riki was also skipped because he was content with eating flowers and fungi straight off the ground. Reyn's barbequing skills weren't bad, but he was hopeless when it came to anything that wasn't meat. Shulk and Dunban didn't know much aside from sandwiches and soups, which was acceptable if bland. Sharla was the best cook of the group, even though she had to constantly remind herself to not overspice everything.

But once Fiora joined them, she was happy to take over as the party's full-time chef. The three from Colony 9 were overjoyed, and the other three instantly learned to love her varied and perfectly-well-done dishes, even those formed of experimental ingredients they had collected from across the world. In Melia's opinion, she was certainly qualified to serve royalty on a regular basis, and in fact managed to get the palace chefs to provide a number of favourite recipes for her to try.

Of course, the painful irony was that Fiora had no stomach. Aside from a semiannual topping off of an internal vitamin dispenser, Face Mechon Core Units were designed to run off no nourishment but water, in order to remove the need for any sort of waste disposal systems. As a result, she could drink any sufficiently thin fluid, but anything solid would cause her Mechon innards to choke. She was barely able to even taste-test her own creations.

Until today. Two days ago, Shulk had found a juicer in one of the last remaining wreckage piles of Colony 6. He suggested to Linada that it be inserted into Fiora's input systems, allowing her to take in any sort of food as long as she drank enough liquid alongside it. It wasn't necessary in any way, but he just couldn't deal with her being unable to enjoy her own work any longer, watching her sit and gaze mournfully at the others while they ate. After careful investigation and consideration, the hour-long operation was completed this afternoon. And now it was time for the jury-rigged system to be put to the test.

Everyone sat at the table in Dunban's kitchen with their food untouched in front of them, waiting for Fiora to serve herself and sit down. Tittering with excitement, she took her first mouthful slowly with a look of immense pleasure on her face.

"It feels good to chew again," she said as soon as she had swallowed.

Her eyes suddenly widened as the juicer inside her started up, emitting a quiet whirr and causing her to shake a bit. "Oooh hooh hoooooh, that's a funny feeling. I hope I didn't accidentally use the jumping beans."

Everyone took the joke as confirmation of success and started eating their own portions.

As usual, the topic of conversation soon turned to tomorrow's plans. Shulk was in charge of documenting who they'd offered help to and where they stood for each request, using a notebook full of messy text and rough drawings.

"...So if I'm not missing anything, we've done all that the High Entia refugees have asked of us, and for now at least none of them have given us anything else." He looked over the index at the front to be sure. "So that's it for Alcamoth. I don't think we'll have to go back there."

"Actually," Melia spoke up somewhat nervously, "there is one more thing."

"Oh?" Dunban seemed surprised. "Who asked more of us?"

"...Myself."

The others exchanged curious and worried glances before looking back to Melia for an explanation.

She took a deep breath before beginning her long-prepared speech. "It is an open question as to whether anyone can live safely, let alone comfortably, in Alcamoth again. I feel that I must return to the palace in order to collect as many of my possessions as possible, in preparation for living in this colony for the foreseeable future."

The rest of the table nodded and murmured as they processed the request.

"How long you been sitting on that idea?" asked Reyn. "We couldn't do it last time we were there?"

"Moving out isn't that easy," said Sharla. "It's not the kind of thing you can do as a side job. You have to put all your effort into it."

"How many things do you have, though?" Shulk seemed to be envisioning something. "Like, how many trips will it take?"

Melia hadn't really considered exactly how much stuff she was planning to rescue; it was hard to recall what-all she had without having been in her chambers for quite a while. "I should hope we only require one trip, for whatever the most important items are and nothing more. Maybe later, if things become a bit safer, we could return for the less-important objects."

"If Melly wants last visit to get things, then that what friends do! Heropon's and sidekicks' number-one-job is to help others!" Riki began his third and final plate of food; Fiora had set a hard rule of "no one gets more than three portions", to try and stop herself from running out of ingredients too quickly.

There was assent from all around the table.

"So we'll need suitcases, and maybe a handcart." Shulk opened up his notebook to a new page, preparing to make a list of things they had to bring.

Something suddenly occurred to Melia. "That won't be necessary. I already possess suitcases." And I had always thought they were pointless, expecting to live in the palace forever. I'll never know what their intended purpose was, but it looks like they'll be good for something after all. "And I do not possess anything large enough to require a handcart."

"Oh okay." Shulk closed the notebook.

Fiora had been eating slowly and carefully, enjoying her first proper meal in a while, and so hadn't really joined the conversation until now. "So how about we leave tomorrow morning? I don't think anything we still have to do could be more important than this."

Everyone instantly agreed. Melia felt a sense of relief come over her. She had originally planned to undertake the task in secret during the night sometime, slowly sneaking back and forth through the palace carrying an armful of things at a time, but it didn't take long to realise how selfish and risky doing so would be. Having her companions along, not out of obligation but out of friendship, would make everything much easier.

Imperial Pinnacle was the topmost spire of Alcamoth. While it was structurally part of the palace, its centralised nature made it ideal for acting as a major transport hub between all parts of the city. Despite this, the average citizen tended to steer clear and stick to more localised transport centres, not wishing to deal with the incredibly high spire and its exposure to the elements. While very few High Entia were afraid of heights, many still felt a bit woozy from seeing the entire city laid out below them.

Melia docked the Illustrious Alighting off the western side of the spire. With the city now infested with Telethia, simply flying into the city proper was exceptionally dangerous. But the Telethia seemed to have little to no interest in the extreme height of the pinnacle, keeping it clear as the safest place to begin operations from. Having dozens of transport pads that linked to everywhere they could want to go was a welcome bonus.

The mood was a fair bit more tense than the last several times the party had arrived at Alcamoth to fulfill someone's wishes. Of course, this made a degree of sense, as they weren't the desires of a stranger being carried out today. The group remained silent and alert as they disembarked the Illustrious Alighting and took the transporter that led directly into the palace - something they wouldn't be able to do if no member of the imperial family was present.

Immediately after transporting, Riki broke the silence. "Dinobeast!"

A bipedal Telethia was present in the transport centre. But as soon as it saw the party, it comically hovered out of the shattered window as if pulled by a string.

Riki went from panicking to blustering. "Heropon scare away Dinobeast! Heropon too strong!"

"Pipe down, furball," Reyn muttered. "For all we know it's gathering friends."

"Then let's not waste time," Dunban said. "Melia, you lead the way."

"Of course." Moving quickly, Melia directed the group through the palace.

It was a surprisingly calm journey. While they certainly made sure their presence was known, not even the largest of the Telethia roaming around were interested in giving the group a hard time.

"They don't seem interested in fighting us," suggested Shulk. "Something is making them back off."

"I'd back off if I was them," said Fiora. "They're not stupid. How many of them have we killed already? Maybe by now they know they can't beat us."

"Look at how they're shufflin' around though." Reyn pointed at one particularly quick specimen. "Tryin' to get behind us, like they don't want nothin' to do with Melia at the front."

Suddenly, all the Telethia nearby hastily backed off an extra few paces. A moment later, Shulk reached for his weapon and activated it. "I'll cover our backs then."

The group continued moving along, taking a few alternate routes to avoid the largest clusters of enemies. One of these alternate routes led the party across an outdoor balcony around the back of the palace.

"Blimey, would you look at that one!" Reyn pointed out a particular Telethia soaring around far above them. It was one of the snake-like ones, and it seemed quite large - at least twice the size of any others of that type they had seen before. "Massive. It probably can't even fit inside!"

"Size of Dinobeast no matter! If Dinobeast want inside, it make door to fit!" Riki was doing surprisingly well at keeping his position in the moving group; normally he would flit around as he pleased.

"That must be Osmotic Benjamin," said Dunban. "If what Kula said is true, it grows as it mindlessly absorbs its brethren."

Melia shuddered. It was bad enough that some Telethia had managed to retain the names of the people they used to be, and now they had found one that supposedly engaged in cannibalism. To be fair, science once believed that the different types of Telethia were part of a food chain, but recent events had shown otherwise - they didn't normally feed on each other.

Sharla estimated the beast's position with her scope. "It's too far away to see us, forget about it."

The party moved back inside and travelled along the upper corridors, which were surprisingly Telethia-free. It seemed like it took no time at all to finally reach Melia's chambers.

"Do you want us to stay out here, or come in with you?" Fiora asked.

Melia hesitated. She had been rigidly taught that her room was strictly off-limits to all but herself, the rest of the family, and guards and maintenance workers - and especially off-limits to anyone that might be considered a suitor. But given the current state of affairs, she saw no reason to hold to such a rule. It would be nice to have a few friends in to at least remember the place by.

"You may enter."

The room was basically untouched from when she'd last seen it, with nothing but a cracked window and a slight coating of dust suggesting that anything had happened to the palace. Melia was filled with a strong desire to leap onto the bed, but there was no way the others would ever let her live it down.

"Looks like something tried to fly in here and failed," Shulk commented, looking towards the window. He was pretty much the only one not mesmerised by the sensation of walking into a princess's bedroom.

"Right." Dunban was the first to break the trance. "Since nothing's been bothering us, I'd say you have as much time as you want to pack. But we can only carry so many things, and dragging a bunch of heavy boxes with us will make us a more inviting target. I suggest that each of us only carry one thing."

"Of course." Melia disappeared into the closet as the others stood around, half expecting something to barge through the door any moment and half gazing across the lavishly-decorated room, trying very hard to not touch anything.

It's time to finally put these suitcases to work. Activating the first suitcase's internal vacuum chamber, she began stuffing as many clothes as possible into it. Given the expansiveness of her wardrobe, she was surprised to find that she was able to fit well more than three-quarters of it inside, leaving out the most revealing getups. That should be good. A bit extravagant perhaps, but as long as I don't find myself out of room for more important things, it shouldn't be a problem.

Melia sealed the suitcase and attempted to lift it, but completely failed; she wasn't able to lift even a corner off the ground. She resorted to pushing it with all her might, slowly scuffling it out of the closet.

Reyn quickly stepped over and bent down to grab the suitcase. "Don't worry, I got th-OOOF!" He had to reach down with his other arm to get it stood on its thin end. "What on Bionis is in this thing, your rock collection?"

Melia tried to laugh in order to release tension, but only managed a single quiet chuckle. "The motivation unit in this suitcase appears to be non-functional. Normally it halves the weight of the contents, but when not operating correctly, it adds its own considerable weight."

"I'll have a look." Shulk opened a side panel to reveal a bunch of glowing nodules and started fiddling around inside.

Returning to the closet, Melia reached into the deepest corner and picked up the Heir's Coffer, an ancient box of unknown material that contained the most sacred imperial treasures, its contents written in the private half of her father's will and a mandated secret from all but the empress. The container normally remained within a safe in the emperor's chambers, but with Melia having not yet made the move there, she was told to keep it hidden in her wardrobe, as quick access to it was considered slightly more important than total security. She considered whether it would be worth the space to keep it, or simply leave it here to fade with the rest of the empire - after a moment, she determined that she might need proof of her status in the future, and so placed it inside the second (fully functional) suitcase. Hiding the coffer's presence from the others, she then took the suitcase into the room proper and emptied the contents of her dresser into it, filling the gaps with various trinkets and keepsakes that were dotted around the room. She wasn't really thinking about what to keep and what to leave behind, just trying to stuff as much stuff into the case as she could without breaking anything.

With the second suitcase mostly full, she dashed into the bathroom and loaded as many supplies as she could fit into a handbag. She gazed longingly at the shower for a good minute - it had been so long since she'd had what she would consider a "proper wash" - before reminding herself that the water supply was probably cold, broken, or unsanitary, if not all of the above.

Coming back into the bedroom, Melia took the staff cleaning kit out of the Protect Staff case and squeezed it into the second suitcase; there was no need to keep the staff case itself. She looked around to see if anything else was important. She wanted to keep her dreamcatcher more than anything else, but it was inaccessibly hung from the ceiling and frankly had no hope against the new series of nightmares that filled her sleep. The orange Practice Staff that stood against the wall was of no use to her anymore, as there was no longer any need for her to practice her more dangerous arts in confined indoor spaces. The bookshelf was still completely filled, but the vast majority of the books were either easily replaceable or no longer applicable to the new state of the world. The bass guitar hung on the wall was far too unwieldy to be worth trying to carry through a danger zone, which was a bit disappointing to realise, as it had grown on her a fair bit in the past few years. The Chozo interface was of no value outside a healthy Alcamoth. She closed up the second suitcase and determined she was as ready to leave as she ever would be.

"Got it!" Shulk flipped the panel closed on the first suitcase, which Reyn then lifted with one arm. "Just needed a few contacts cleaned, we're good to go."

"Let us make haste," said Melia. She wanted to get this over with as soon as possible; she could already feel a pang of fear and uncertainty.

The party started retracing their steps through the palace, with Reyn and Dunban carrying the suitcases and Sharla holding the handbag. The various Telethia they passed by certainly seemed more aggressive, picking up on how two of the group members were carrying large non-weapons, but still held back.

"Hold for a moment." Melia halted the group's advance for a few seconds while she considered something. "I do not wish for the Illustrious Alighting to attempt to return here, whether by intent or by accident. We should see what can be done about relocating its target of return."

"How would we do that?" asked Shulk.

Melia envisioned her vehicle's designated space in the palace hangar. She didn't pay much attention to it, but she did know that a white pyramid-shaped beacon with a glassy ball on top sat in one of the back corners. "I believe there is a beacon that acts as the vessel's home point. It should be simple enough to take it with us."

The rest of the party agreed and followed her as she led them down a new series of corridors towards the hangar. It was completely empty, presumably with all the vehicles taken by survivors, if not turned into Telethia.

Once they reached the space with the Illustrious Alighting's name painted on the floor, Melia pointed out the beacon, sitting exactly where she believed it to be. "Here it is."

"I can carry it." Fiora bent down and tilted the beacon onto its side, picking it up without much difficulty.

"And I'll carry this." Shulk had gone over to a workbench not far away and picked up a thick white book with an image of the craft on the cover. "Looks like an owner's manual. Should be useful."

Melia nodded at the two. "Thank you." I was unaware the craft had a manual, given that it is one-of-a-kind. Surely it must document features that I am unaware exist. I should read it at the next available opportunity.

A thought occurred to Dunban. "Perhaps we should also stop by the treasury? This may very well be our last visit here, and we shouldn't let a useful resource go to waste."

Melia considered the idea. With the state of the world now, with no economy to worry about and potentially no way to return in the future, she realised that she might as well try to take as much money as they could carry. She would have to hide it well, but there were a few good candidate locations, most notably the Regeneration Chamber near Colony 9 that only she could access.

"That is a good suggestion. Let's carry it out." Once she had acknowledgement from the others, she led them through another series of corridors through the abandoned palace.

The treasury was not much more than a series of vaults. Normally under constant armed guard and populated by stern-faced tellers and economists, being inside the empty room was even eerier than the rest of the palace. Melia tried not to think about what had happened to all the employees as she collected a large sack from behind the counter and stepped towards the first vault in the line, which acknowledged empress clearance and opened to reveal a boundless array of high-denomination coins and bills. Several of the others gasped.

Gems are useful, but most have little intrinsic value, and the best ones were likely in use during the invasion of Mechonis instead of being kept here, she thought as she started piling money into the bag. As a commodity, gold is the most universal resource there is. But banknotes are not to be ignored, as they are more efficient in volume and mass, and there are well enough survivors that their legitimacy as currency should be preserved. She felt distinctly like a bank robber, despite knowing it was basically already her own money.

Securely tying the overstuffed bag closed, Melia tried lifting it and failed miserably. Maybe I went a bit overboard. I estimate this to be over 150 million G, enough to rebuild Colony 6 seventy-five times over. Surely there's no way I can blow though that much money before-

"Heropon Riki will carry Melly's riches!" Grabbing the bag with all four arms, Riki successfully got the sack over his head after much exertion. "No amount of riches are match for Heropon! Riki may need push to get going though."

Reyn gave Riki a kick in the backside, which started him moving forwards at walking speed, able to turn but unable to stop. The rest of the party started heading back to the palace's transport centre as Melia closed the safe. It seemed like there were fewer Telethia in the way than earlier, but despite seeing that six of the seven were now emburdened, they were still not committed to attacking. It almost felt like a trap, aside from the fact that the creatures weren't quite intelligent enough to grasp the concept of traps.

Upon transporting back up onto the Imperial Pinnacle, watching her friends carrying all her things towards her ship in front of her, it finally truly hit Melia that she probably wouldn't be coming back to Alcamoth in years, if ever. A lump began to form in her throat.

Reyn was the first to hop up onto the Illustrious Alighting and unload his suitcase. "That wasn't so bad, but the dreary atmosphere here is killing me. Let's vamoose."

There was murmured assent from the rest of the group as they all boarded with their cargo. It was a bit of a tight fit, but the containment field would ensure that nothing would be lost overboard.

Now almost dragging her feet, Melia slowly marched towards her ship, trying to hold back the tears. The others let her take her time.

A great roar filled the sky. Everyone looked up to see Osmotic Benjamin, the giant snake-like Telethia seen earlier, at least thirty metres long and descending quickly.

Melia was slow to realise the threat. By the time she started dashing towards her craft, a green hemispherical barrier appeared, surrounding the fountain in the centre of the spire and cutting off her access to the ship and the transport pads. The others immediately leapt back onto the ground and started circling the barrier, trying to form some sort of battle plan, but Melia couldn't hear a thing they were saying - the barrier was apparently soundproof.

The Telethia phased through the ethereal wall and took up a position across the fountain from Melia, glaring at her.

Of course we couldn't get through this task without a fight. Melia stared down the creature, still trying to shift her mindset from gloomy departure to combat-ready. It didn't seem to want to make the first move.

"Osmotic Benjamin, scourge of Telethia and Homs alike! We will take down your mutilated body and free your soul!" She always made a variant of this speech when fighting prominent or named Telethia. It made her feel slightly better about killing her own subjects.

The reaction was completely unexpected though - the Telethia gave off a series of short roars that sounded vaguely like barks.

Is...is it...laughing at me? This was a new and disturbing development; every Telethia they had fought before had animalistic intelligence and no understanding of language. Perhaps its absorption of other Telethia has boosted its intelligence as well as its size. Its threat level has probably also risen to match...The number one priority is to down this barrier so I do not have to fight alone, but I may not be able to do that unless I incapacitate the beast somehow.

The enemy finally made the first move: a large but heavily-telegraphed ball of energy that moved in a straight line. It was trivial for Melia to dodge it, but once she did, it sped up, passed through the barrier, and headed straight for Sharla, knocking her over. It quickly fired another one, which was also easily dodged but proceeded to hit Riki. Feeling guilty, Melia passed Sharla a Healing Gift that also flew through the barrier without issue, followed by summoning an aqua and using Power Effect to ensure its effects were spread to everyone.

If this barrier is permeable to ether energy, then-

A Thunder Bullet and Monado Purge both deflected off the ethereal wall and into the sky, proving that arts could only pass through it in one direction. The Telethia continued to fire its energy ball attack, forcing Melia to dodge and allow it to hit her friends. She had to repeatedly use her healing and aura arts to reverse the damage. Shuffling around so much vitality in a short time was a mentally trying exercise.

I can dodge this art with no effort, but I can't allow the others to continually take the blows. I need to try something else.

The next time the ball of energy approached her, she stood firm and tried to intercept it with a bolt. But the two attacks simply passed through each other, and she was forced to dodge again, allowing the ball to attack Reyn. He bashed the attack with his shield, causing it to bounce back into the barrier and fizzle.

Melia took the unspoken advice. With another energy ball headed her way, she waited until the last possible moment and slapped it with her staff as if it were a tennis ball, deflecting it directly back into Osmotic Benjamin's face. The creature roared and fired three more balls of energy in quick succession, all of which Melia smacked back into it. As if desperate, the enemy then shot a total of ten balls all at once in different directions, all converging on her at once - but this time she was ready with Reflection, deftly redirecting every single projectile back at their originator.

Why didn't I use Reflection in the first place? I suppose I am conditioned to save it for significant moments, as opposed to using it as much as possible. That is not a bad thing; it is best used as a surprise.

The Telethia decided to move on to a new strategy: leap at its prey with a body-slamming attack. It turned out to not be very effective; Melia quickly summoned a wind to allow her to get out of the way and jump over the shockwaves, firing bolts and flares between each leap. She even snuck in a Hypnotise once or twice when she needed a break, which to her surprise was quite effective at first, but quickly stopped being worth the attempt.

This is a rather strange thing for a Telethia to be doing. It doesn't even seem to be using its telepathy to predict my movements. But it's still going to take far too long to bring down if I remain the only attacker.

The beast changed its tactics again, radiating waves of immense heat from its body. Melia surrounded herself with two ices to avoid heat stroke and pelted it with aquas, scoring critical damage with every strike. After about half a minute, it loosed a large fireball from its mouth, which Melia blocked by discharging one of her ices.

Before it could launch its next attack, the Telethia roared in pain for no immediately apparent reason. Melia looked past it to see that its tail had stuck out of the far side of the ether barrier, and Shulk had given it a Back Slash. In response, the creature gave Shulk a forceful kick with its tail, sending him flying across the spire and just over the near edge.

"SHULK!" Melia reflexively screamed. She ran towards his direction as far as she could and pressed her face against the barrier, seeing no trace of him. Normally he would have been caught by the safety field, but it very well could have fallen into disrepair by now, given how the pinnacle was under no weather-shielding. She thought there might be one or two edges below that could possibly be hung onto, but she wasn't at all certain. As far as she could tell, her best friend had just been launched to his death.

While the rest of the party ran over to peer over the edge, she turned back to the monster, with golden energy cascading out of her eyes.

"YOU GROTTY QUIM!"

Her burst aura exploding into being, Melia gripped the Empress Staff harder than ever before and launched her remaining ice elemental at the Telethia, which tore through the air at breakneck speed leaving a trail of snowflakes in its wake, detonating directly on the monster's left eye and filling it with icy shards. She followed the unexpected attack by linking together Burst End and Mind Blast, buffeting the enemy with immense damage.

Osmotic Benjamin continued its list of unusual strategies, beginning to channel mass quantities of lightning with its fins. Melia linked three earth elementals together and used them to ground the creature, draining it of its charge before it could fire, before loosing them to inject significant quantities of poison. It attacked with its jaws, but she moved out of the way and applied Shadow Stitch to stop it from following. Once it was freed from the trapping dark ether, it produced a large quantity of thick clouds to obscure its position, but they were quickly blown away by discharged winds. All the while, she unloaded a variety of elementals into its hide. It seemed that Melia had an answer to every trick it could pull - almost like everything the enemy was doing was tailored to her exact skill set.

A vision!

/_Osmotic Benjamin‾/ /_Polychromatic Assault X‾/ /_Melia‾/ /_10365‾/

/_‾_‾_‾_‾_‾_‾_‾_‾_‾_‾_‾_‾_‾_‾_‾_‾_‾_‾_‾_‾_‾_‾_‾/ /_‾_12‾_‾/

Melia saw a yellow flash from outside the barrier. Glancing at the source, she saw that Shulk had returned from the edge and covered the party with Monado Shield, surrounding everyone but her in a golden sphere.

Putting aside the relief of Shulk's survival for a moment, she started thinking quickly. That can only mean one thing: a talent art of extreme damage is incoming in about eight seconds. She raised three ice elementals to defend against what was surely an ether art, but she couldn't assume it would be enough. Talent arts can't be reflected. Hypnotise has been gradually less effective. I can't daze it, but maybe... She knew that most flying creatures could not be toppled, but it felt like her only chance.

Melia dashed towards Osmotic Benjamin, which was hovering low to the ground and seemed to be charging an attack inside its mouth, and jabbed it at the base of one of its fins with Spear Break. Leaping back, she followed it up with Starlight Kick, scoring a critical hit and sending the Telethia into a series of aerial rolls before landing on the ground upside-down.

The barrier around the battle finally shattered, breaking into a million pieces that faded into whisps. The rest of the party bellowed as they ran in to join the fight, pounding the helpless creature with a variety of attacks.

Melia finally had the opportunity to take a breather, simply allowing some idle elementals to boost the group's attack power. It occurred to her that this was the first time in her life she had legitimately swore, out loud or otherwise, aside from tactfully asking what a word might mean. Yet despite it being one of the most egregious profanities she knew, and having promised to herself over and over that she would keep her speech clean for all time, she was forced to realise that she had no regrets whatsoever about this one incident. There could be no clearer indication of how important Shulk was to her.

After a few minutes of flopping around on the ground, Osmotic Benjamin finally lifted back into the air. But instead of proceeding to return fire, it regurgitated something solid and rectangular into the fountain and shot up into the sky. After it became a tiny dot in the distance, it exploded into a multicoloured display of gaseous ether.

A voiceless phrase in Hightongue pierced into Melia's mind. Exalted empress...I acknowledge your mastery. Go forth and defy the universe itself!

Riki turned his head quizzically. "Hm? Riki thought he heard a thought speaking, but full of funny words that Riki not understand. Did Melly hear it?"

Still blanketed in adrenaline and her burst aura, Melia considered for a moment what to say. "I did indeed perceive a message, but its meaning is...obscure at best. I cannot explain it as anything but a general vote of confidence at the moment." She slowly started to wind herself down.

Shulk had rolled up his sleeves and was fishing in the fountain for whatever the beast had expunged, the water having washed off all the gunk it was previously covered in. After a moment, he pulled out something that looked very much like the black staff case that Melia had chosen to leave behind in her room, except coloured a royal purple with silver trim. "Looks like another staff. We don't usually find them in cases though."

"Intriguing." Melia took hold of the case and opened it up, expecting to find another Meteor Staff or Century Staff - fine weapons, but they paled in comparison to the Empress Staff she currently held.

The staff inside was visually indistinguishable from her first staff, the Protect Staff, with the obvious exception of lacking minor battle damage. She plucked it out of the felt interior and instantly felt a strange sort of kinship, like she had owned it her whole life, or like it would refuse to function for anyone else. Spying a small slip of paper in the box, she snatched it up and read it.

CRAFT ORDER - Mr. Karl Swiddle

Subject: Ether staff

Requested raw materials:
Bloodstone, 1 (see notes)
Scupperwood, 2.0m x 0.5m x 0.25m

Notes: There is nothing wrong with the Protect Staff you have crafted for Princess Melia, but I think it is time to make a staff for Empress Melia. Please ensure that the Bloodstone acquired is of the absolute highest quality available (I think Prince Kallian will cover the costs if necessary), and then come see me - the imperial Seer has provided me with a substantial amount of Lady Melia's own blood with which to prime it, collected in secret from the day of her assassination attempt in the training rooms, saved in the hope that this very order would later be made. Should we lack the necessary amount we shall have to consider another option. P.S. I have met with Prince Kallian, and he has agreed to reimburse for the Bloodstone. He has also suggested this be named the "Hope Staff". I see no reason to disagree.

Signed: Ben Reddel

Melia's eyes darted back and forth between the paper and the staff. Bloodstones were one of the rarest possible staff cores, and had fallen out of favour in modern times as they had no power until saturated with a large quantity of a sentient's blood. They tended to function best with passionate users, especially the one whose blood they were primed with. It stood to reason that this would be the most powerful staff she had held thus far.

At the same time, it sunk in that the Telethia she had just defeated was almost certainly that of her ether staff instructor. The battle had served as her final exam, forcing her to utilise every art she knew to its fullest potential, including the demonstration of Spear Break leading to a topple. It occurred to her that she never had the chance to tell him she had discovered the power of Starlight Kick. It must have been the shock of her success that tickled his consciousness out of the mindless creature's grasp, perhaps in combination with the speeding ice elemental she had unleashed in rage, defying all known laws of physics.

"Uh oh." Reyn looked into the distance. "We got a problem."

Several Telethia were beginning to rise up to the level of the Imperial Pinnacle. They were still quite distant, but they were on their way.

"We must leave immediately." Melia replaced the Hope Staff back into its case and boarded the Illustrious Alighting, everyone else right behind her. With her friends and possessions all crammed onboard, she lifted off and began trying to manoeuvre towards Colony 9.

Things turned hairy very quickly. Telethia were filling the sky like a swarm of bugs, coming out of seemingly every nook and cranny of Alcamoth to block her path earthwards. It would not be long before all paths led to a Telethia.

"Far too many to fight, but letting them pursue will simply bring them with us to wherever we go." Dunban surveyed the landscape. "Any ideas?"

Melia pointed to the owner's manual that Shulk had placed on the floor. "I cannot read and pilot through these circumstances at the same time. Shulk, see if you can find anything of use in the manual."

"Okay." Shulk picked up the book and flipped to the table of contents. He could read the Erythscript it was printed in, though slowly.

"So what do we do while we wait for him to find something?" Sharla asked.

Before anyone could respond, an unseen Telethia from the port side fired a beam of ether that cut across the Illustrious Alighting's engines. The impact delivered quite a jolt to the ship and its occupants, knocking Riki off his seat and causing the Hope Staff's case to jam Reyn in the elbow. The screen flashed yellow and displayed a message: Warning: High-frequency engine coils misaligned. Speeds of above 100 km/h unavailable. Estimated completion of auto-repair: 12 minutes

Melia looked through the swarm of Telethia. Some of the smaller ones were beginning to charge, breaking out of the crowd and ready to attack.

"We fly."

Setting the speed multiplier as high as the damaged engines could go, she floored it and aimed straight between the nearest two Telethia. Only able to read her intent to manipulate the controls, they could not make the connection to predicting the ship's movements, causing them to clumsily turn around as she passed through the space. She continued to spin in place and shoot the gap between pairs of enemies, staying above the largest mass down below while ensuring that those close enough to chase were too disoriented to accomplish anything. It didn't take long for some Telethia to decide to open fire, shooting blasts of ether of all description across the sky, but Melia continued to jolt the craft in various directions and thwart their efforts. In her opinion, she was still an inexperienced pilot that needed several more months of practice to be considered reliable, as shown by her evasive manoeuvres being jerky straight-spin-straight motions, and had considered undergoing some official training in Alcamoth before everything went wrong. But it was clear from her ferrying the party around the world that she had a natural skill at controlling her vessel around the sky.

After two or three minutes of dodging, Shulk finally spoke up. "I think I found something. There's a button on the right underside of the dashboard under a safety cover."

Without waiting to hear the rest, Melia felt around underneath the dashboard until she found a cover. She opened it and pressed the button hidden inside.

An elliptical blue shield appeared around the Illustrious Alighting as the display turned orange. "Combat Mode" hung in the top-left corner, with the engine coil warning now part of a list of two.

Melia read aloud the second warning that had appeared. "Weapons system not installed."

"Uh...I'll keep reading." Shulk was furiously scanning through the pages.

Melia allowed a smaller ether shot to hit the newly-risen shield to test its effectiveness. It collided with a satisfying "plonk" and no recoil to speak of. The shield percentage on the display dropped from 100.0% to 97.6%, which some quick mental math converted into about forty such hits.

"Okay I got it." Shulk pointed to a nondescript hole in the floor just behind the pilot seat. "Stick a staff in there."

Allowing the shield to absorb a few hits while the ship was sitting still, Melia took the Empress Staff from her belt, extended it, and placed it upright into the hole. Once it was in place, a pair of clamps extended from the seat to lock it in.

A curious feeling came over Melia's body. Now that her staff was connected to her ship, she could sense a new link between herself and the vessel, as if she had been plugged into its systems. She could feel the engines humming in her chest, the auto-repair systems clamouring for energy from the battery, and the shields' durability without having to look at the number on the display.

The screen displayed two progress bars. Scanning staff...Empress Staff identified. Downloading viable arts...16 arts downloaded. Weapons system successfully installed.

A satisfying "ka-chunk" heralded the extension of two cannons from either side of the craft and a lance-like protrusion from the front. Melia felt two triggers pop out from the underside of the steering wheel as the display listed sixteen different arts for selection.

* Ramming Thrust: Ramming charge attack. Inflicts potent knockback, slows target, and paralyses target.
* Midnight Backblast: Expels harmful engine byproducts. After Ramming Thrust, forces daze.
* Signal Jammer: Creates interference waves. Forces target into sleep mode and clears all its buffs.
* Imperial Eclipse: Deploys impermeable cloud of darkness. Binds and blinds all targets in range.
* Serenity's Blessing: Donates shield integrity to ally (potentially to above maximum).
* Reliable Comrade: Duplicates all current buffs to all allies.
* Honest Rejection: Temporarily reflects all damage and status back to attacker.
* EMP: Reduces the offences and defences of all targets in range.
* System Overload: Seals arts and auras, and has a minor chance of instant long-lasting daze.
* Redoubled Passion: Utilises stored auxiliary power to quickly re-use last-used art.
* Pinnacle Bolt: Discharges electrical energy. Raises ether strength on hit.
* Eternal Blaze: Detonates massive conflagration. Raises physical strength on hit.
* Oceanic Fury: Blasts target with hydraulic torrent. Raises shield integrity on hit (potentially to above maximum).
* Hurricane Force: Fires blast of compressed air. Raises agility on hit.
* Regal Regolith: Pummels target with earthly force. Raises physical defence on hit.
* Reticence Ray: Targets foe with beam of absolute cold. Raises ether defence on hit.

Melia recognised that the arts available were essentially powered-up versions of what she'd been using for the past several years, though with an interesting change: instead of elementals that provided temporary buffs until discharged for damage, they were direct attacks that provided more permanent buffs upon dealing damage. It was more straightforward, but would undoubtedly be confusing for a short time.

She moved her hand to tap the icon for Honest Rejection on the screen, but the system acted on her intent, turning the ship's solid blue shield into a complex hexagonal lattice for several seconds. All the ether attacks launched by the approaching Telethia bounced back to strike their originators, turning them away for a moment. The icon then turned dark and indicated how close it was to being usable again.

Ready to fire back, Melia spun the craft around to face the nearest foe and depressed the two triggers under the wheel. Magenta shots pulsed out of the two cannons and curved through the air to batter her target, which didn't take long to explode.

Now aware that their prey could retaliate, all the other Telethia raised the stakes, coming in with more speed and more attacks. But with the new connection between Melia and her vessel, her piloting confidence was much heightened, allowing her to fly around targets in circles, dodge attacks smoothly rather than joltingly, and perform evasive inversions that revealed the presence of an anti-gravity system, ensuring that nothing would fall from the floor even when suspended upside down. All the while, she continued to fire the cannons' basic shots, as well as trying out every one of the craft's new arts that didn't rely on having allies. The physical attack combo was effective at disabling single targets, but not very efficient for dealing with a sky full of foes. The status ether arts had immense range and lasted for quite a while. The damaging ether arts were blindingly bright and massively powerful, with System Overload obliterating scores of Telethia with one use, but had to take a very long time to recharge (though this could be dodged occasionally with Redoubled Passion). The elemental arts were every bit as effective as her personal ones, multiplied by an order of magnitude: a chilling ray that froze enemies solid, an earthly beam that brought a powerful toxin with it, a cutting jetstream that sliced through foes in a long line, a blast of water with immense knockback, a fiery explosion fifty metres in diameter, and a bolt of lightning that chained across several targets. The craft's basic weaponry by itself would stand little hope against such a crowd of enemies, allowing its shields to be quickly overwhelmed - it was the injection of Melia's arts that turned it into a one-ship armada.

Of course, not every attack could be dodged, shield power was not an infinite resource, and the only method of restoring it took just too long to recharge. When Melia looked through the mass of Telethia to estimate that she had cut through about a quarter of them, she only had about 20% shields remaining. She didn't need to kill every last Telethia to escape Eryth Sea - once the engines had full power again, she could just fly away far faster than they could follow. But with all the power she was drawing to fight with, the auto-repair had slowed down, and was now estimated to require 24 minutes.

Shulk had also recognised things were not going to end well if they didn't change, and continued to page through the manual looking for something useful, though he kept losing his spot whenever a major blast hit and shook things up. Eventually he found something promising.

"Is there a double gear icon on the screen?"

"There is." Melia had seen the two gears sitting in the centre of the sixteen art icons, but it didn't seem to do anything when tapped, and it had no description visible. Now that she looked closer, though, she noticed that the front gear had a small 86% inside, while the back gear had a radial gradient that suggested similar.

"Okay, so that's basically your talent gauge. Fill it up by doing things."

"Understood." Eschewing waiting for a perfect opportunity for each one, Melia quickly fired every art that was available. The central number rose as each attack landed, finally reaching 100%. "Now what?"

"Activate it. It'll overclock all systems."

Melia tapped the icon, which lit up as the gears began spinning and "OVERDRIVE ACTIVE" appeared above it. She could feel a surge of energy flow through the ship much like her burst aura, providing masses of additional power to all its components. The engine auto-repair estimate shot down to 3 minutes.

From there, the Illustrious Alighting's true power was unleashed. Each shot fired from its cannons homed in to a Telethia to destroy it in a single hit of brilliant magenta light. Every art launched dealt incredible damage to every target within its range, casting shadows across the abandoned city below, only to be ready again in short order. The shields held fast with heightened resistance to damage and slowly regained power by themselves as time went on. Melia had to start going after foes instead of letting them come to her, pulling off manoeuvres with even more precision and finesse.

Just as the craft's overdrive ran out of power, the Telethia finally decided they'd had enough. With half of their numbers wiped out, the survivors began filing back into the recesses of Alcamoth. In no time at all, the skies were clear once more.

The party was generally speechless from witnessing the massive dogfight. Even Riki couldn't figure out any words to say, though he did begin dancing in his seat.

Reyn was the first to find his voice. "Well, um...t-that was...uh, sure something. Where was all that power earlier? We coulda blasted through so many battles easy with this thing!"

Melia had an answer quickly. "We simply did not know this ship was capable in battle. Besides, imagine the collateral damage that could be caused if we were not so high in the air. I would never fire such weapons at ground level."

"It is indeed a shame, but it can't be helped," Dunban responded. "What matters is that we had what we needed at the right time."

The engines completed their repairs, stating so on the display. Without waiting for anyone else's comments, Melia fired them up to top speed and set course for Colony 9. The thought entered her mind that Alcamoth might be a fair bit safer now that she'd eliminated half the Telethia population, but she'd made her decision, and now was not the time to be revisiting it.

"So if this ship's weapons are so strong," suggested Sharla, "do we still need the help of Junks to get into the Bionis' chest?"

"Yes, we do," Melia replied. "It would be improper to turn down the offer. In addition, Junks can reach the area were are aiming for without firing weapons to clear a path. I do not wish to discharge the amount of energy we have seen inside a cramped space of the Bionis. Once Junks has cleared the way, then yes, I can pilot back and forth without issue."

Shulk still had his nose in the manual, now purely out of his own interest. "So this thing uses a six-crystal balance to provide proper resonance to the engine coils? Wow, I thought three of equal therm was the best resonance you could get. Even just four might stop the Defence Force carriers from losing balance if an engine cuts out. I guess we'd need two of one therm and two of the other-"

Fiora playfully prodded Shulk in the arm. "Oh give it a rest, you big gearhead."

Riki finally managed to unblock his speechlessness. "Melly prove skills in air! Melly best swooshzoom pilot ever, and with shootpow skills as well! Riki commission song about big sky battle when friends next in Frontier Village! Can go there soon?"

"Perhaps once we unload my effects." Melia considered where she was going to put all her stuff. "On that note, I must admit I am at a loss as to where it can be stored. I do not wish to take up space in Colony 6 from the refugees who need it more, Fiora's room is already quite cramped, the Weapons Development Lab is not a private area, and the Regeneration Chamber is quite out of the way for anything that needs easy access. And of course nothing can be left aboard the vessel if we wish to continue using it."

Fiora shook her head. "Don't be silly, Melia, I have enough room for some suitcases and bags. Besides, wouldn't you hate to have to leave the house just to get changed?"

Melia reluctantly nodded. "Yes, I suppose that is true." She didn't want to turn down the hospitality, but she also strongly felt like she was overstaying her welcome in Fiora's room. After all, she hadn't slept in the same room as someone else since she was a baby, which she couldn't even remember - sharing a foreign room with two others caused her to lose at least half an hour of sleep to anxiety every night, and at least double that on nights where Fiora's body acted up. It was a problem of her own doing, of course. When the party had originally decided to make Dunban's house their headquarters, Dunban had offered Melia the unoccupied master bedroom to herself, and Fiora had independently made the same offer once she realised what the situation was. She felt she had no choice but to decline; she knew the feeling of a parent's empty room, and couldn't dream of disturbing someone else's such memories just for her own selfish desire to sleep alone.

As the ship descended, Alcamoth vanished over the edge of Eryth Sea. There was a fair chance they would see it again, should they need to return to the area, but watching it go filled Melia with an all-too-familiar sense of loss. Even though she had just collected her most important possessions, it still felt like the last remnant of her old life had vanished. Her family was gone, her dwelling was gone, the people and empire she was supposed to rule were gone. Really the only things she had left were her memories and her arts.

She often wondered how much of a coincidence it was that she had selected the ether staff as her weapon, only to eventually be the one to take the Imperial Staff and use it in combat for the first time since its rumoured creation alongside the empire's foundation - and mere weeks before its collapse. It was a choice she made without input from anyone else, and while it may not have been a difficult decision, she happened to select the one that gave her the best chance in future trials.

Now piloting almost subconsciously, it got her thinking. What would have happened if she had selected a different weapon of choice all those years ago? The most likely candidate, the revolver, came to mind. Assuming she found a similar level of success, she would have had a much easier time taking down the assassin in the training room. Taking care of the Bunnit infestation would have gone about the same. She might not have been sent to trade with the Mechon, at least not with weapons in hand. Probably the first true stumbling block would be being captured by the Diamonts Syndicate; she likely wouldn't have been able to summon her guns into her hands the same way she could a staff. But by the same token, if the public knew she was a sharpshooter, events might have progressed altogether differently. The biggest diversion from known history would be with Telethia; without Mind Blast she would never have been chosen to go kill the one in the forest, and never have met Shulk and the others until they came upon Alcamoth by themselves. She would still have been put through the Trial of the Tomb if her father still knew what was about to happen, but with no reason to allow her to join the party, Colony 6 would still be a mess, and Zanza would have had his way easily.

As much as luck has played a part in my life, skill is far more important. If I did not have such exceptional ether affinity, things would have proceeded so differently that Zanza surely would have succeeded in his plans to destroy the world once more. The six others aboard this craft are of the same way - every one of us has channelled our unique skills to save the lives of the others enough times that no other group of seven could have reached even this milestone of success. It would be terrible to consider the possibility that not even such a convergence of luck and skill could accomplish our ultimate goal of stopping this crazed being.

Just as with today, we shall need every one of my arts to succeed.