After passing through the portal, Lyn and Seth found themselves in the same colorless dimension where Kaiden endured. The two of them thrashed together until they kicked one another off, splashing through the water until they remained still.
As Seth stood up, the large water expanse drained itself automatically, revealing a clear block white terrain underneath. Eight large ivory pillars erected from the ground upward, infinitely stretching through the sunless sky. There was nothing but the sound of the two of them breathing. Even that was barely audible, at all.
"No more running," Lyn's voice broke the silence as she grabbed her bandit blade beside her. She stood up and approached Seth until they were several meters away, readying herself. "I'm going to kill you for what you did.. all the lives you've taken away, and what you did to Blade."
"You mean this?" Seth teased, summoning Alfaic in his hand once more.
"You..." Lyn hissed.
Seth chuckled, sending Alfaic away once again with the snap of a finger. "You really are remarkable, Lyn," He said as his red eyes shined through the sunless sky. He paused before opening his palm, raising it towards his cheek. With a swift flash, Seth dug his index fingernail into it, drawing grey blood on his finger before it rapidly healed. "Does this look familiar to you?"
Lyn remained quiet, fixated on how she would thrash him in the next few seconds. "I don't care." She coldly stated.
"You should," Seth pushed, pressing the grey blood against the tips of his index finger and his thumb. "Because it's exactly what you have inside you," He said, rubbing them the blood together before flicking it on the ground. "Mother's blood. You are one of us, Lyn, and I'm tired of watching you... pretending as if you don't know it."
"I know nothing," Lyn retorted. "All I know is that I want you dead."
"Then you should know that we are immortals," Seth said, opening his arms to Lyn, brightly grinning up at the white sky. "Because Mother's blood makes us whole. We cannot die, even if we are an inch away from a limb severed, or our hearts drained to emptiness."
Lyn's eyebrows furled down as she slightly lowered her bandit's blade to the ground.
"I know," Seth continued, firmly grinning at her, only this time, his grin was of empathy, rather than ecstatic sarcasm. "You've seen it, felt it... grown from it. And yet... we do not question it."
He was absolutely right, Lyn thought. She thought of the woman and her child in the cave, whom she saved after denouncing her goal of protecting the people and to serve a new purpose in doing so. Her shallow existence was not without cause. There had to be an original purpose, one that had to do with the lords of METIS.
But she knew that she was not normal, and to no avail, this bothered her. Tremendously. She could not help but want to learn more about it from Seth, despite having the hatred of a thousand sins against his vendetta of rivalry. She lowered her blade and kept quiet, believing that he would be able to give her the information she desired so long for.
"I know how you feel," Seth continued. "You've sensed it before, haven't you?"
"Sensed what?" Lyn asked.
"Humanity."
Humanity... what does it mean? To be human? Care? Love? Passion? Cethe... Blade...
"I feel it too," Seth said, pressing his palm against his chest. "Only momentarily, for we sons must endure the pain of humanity. Because you... and I... are all connected to a system of tethers, all created by Mother herself. A network, some may say, that allows us to feel the dread of humanity's pain and sorrow. And we must endure this... to remain immortal."
Seth extended his palm out toward Lyn, pointing it at her before cupping an invisible object with it. "We are connected, Lyn," He continued. "We are held together by this invisible tether which allows us to feel humanity... and we can sever it... just like this."
With a snap of a finger, Lyn's body began to flush in rapid heat, capturing her body in a blister of fire. Alas, after Lyn gazed down at her feet and arms, nothing was visibly burning her. That same fire, rage, and hate that stirred within her during the previous battles against her strongest foes returned instantaneously, allowing her body to degrade beyond normal capabilities.
After Lyn was aware of this feeling, she glanced at a cut on the back of her left palm and was instantly shocked after witness her grey blood and transformed into red. She gasped and watched the red blood drip down her hand, sensing a sharp pain within that seemed to bore through her bones.
Seth cackled crazily after witnessing the same blood of his turn from grey to red. "Ahh... YOUR FACE," He begun. "YOU must FEEL the sun crashing down upon you, now that you know the truth. We are the same, you and I, and we are connected by that feeling that Mother binds us with these tethers."
"That's..." Lyn whispered, watching the blood continue to trickle down. She couldn't accept it at all. She couldn't! How could she associate herself with Krin, after all this time? And even if she had been associated with him, their goals were completely different. She didn't care about this Mother figure at all.
"But what makes you special, I've noticed, Lyn... is your ability to ignore these tethers," Seth continued. "You FEEL... without punishment. Where my brothers and I must sever these tethers to survive temporarily, day by day... you survive without this tendency. And I must say..." He placed his hand on his forehead and leaned back in glee.
"I've never been more jealous before, during my existence." He finished.
"Tethers..." Lyn's voice increased in volume. "We are nothing alike. So STOP comparing you and I together."
"Lyn..." Seth began.
"All of this useless verbiage, this garbage you spit from your mouth... is nothing but a lie," Lyn denounced as she slashed down her blade until it swiped on the ground, slicing a piece of the floor away. "This is just another one of your games, and I'm done playing them. Because I've said it before, when you took Blade away from me; I'm going to kill you. All of you. And when I'm through with you, your three other brothers are next, and there's NOTHING you can do to stop me."
Seth chuckled, letting her insult brush by his cheek like nothing. He placed his hands by his side, relaxed while his eyes closed in thought. "So, even you would deny your own existence," He said, laughing throughout his words. "Even when the truth is in front of you, you would blindside yourself by it. And I... I am disgusted by this."
Red aethereal energy piled up beside Seth's body, surging through his fists and arms like cracks in a tree. He shackled himself to the ground as he summoned his greatest strength in preparation.
"You take Mother's blessing for granted," He continued, forming tethers of energy that floated by his hands like chained whips. "You forget your true purpose, and now you defy Mother and I. And now, you'll die."
"No, YOU'LL DIE!" Lyn roared, swinging her blade at Seth immediately.
Seth extended his armed whip out in retaliation, snatching Lyn midair. He attempted to drag her down, but she severed it in half to escape. After successfully falling down from midair, Lyn charged at him once again, rearing for a precise stab. Yet he was prepared, dodging to the side and delivering a boisterous kick towards her chest, sending her toward the ivory pillar to crumble it into pieces.
"Sloppy, sloppy," Seth insulted, approaching her slowly with his fists primed. "I'm disappointed. Still you learn nothing. Our power doesn't match. I am-"
The dust and smoke from the crash dissipated, leaving Seth confused as to why Lyn did not appear on the other side of the shattered pillar. He suddenly paused, turning around him to locate her. After swiftly turning to the right, Lyn's elbow met with the flank of his neck, sending a volatile blow to his body, stunning him as he struggled to keep up with her speed. Lyn sent her blade overhead, clashing with his extended armored fist to block it.
He met his eyes with her, watching the crazed incandescent gaze upon her shrunken pupils press against his eyes with malice intent. She pressed down upon his fist once more, leaving her lower half exposed. Seth shot out his whip and wrapped it around Lyn's shin, dragging her to the ground. With her successfully wrapped in his wake, he flung her toward another pillar, leaping into the air to follow for another attack.
The two of them clashed once again, this time with Seth pressuring Lyn's blade with his knuckles. He grinned like a crazed fiend, rapidly swiping away her blade to deliver punches towards her face. Yet the adrenaline caused him to forget his and her mortality, leaving his own stomach area exposed.
After taking several hits to the face, Lyn slashed her blade outward toward his stomach, sending him riling back in pain. She stood back up again and charged at him with another overhead slash, clashing with his knuckles with enough force to send them both back. Lyn screamed in complete devastation at her inability to kill Seth, sending her in a frenzy of speed to overtake him.
With a swift dash, Lyn reached toward his left flank with a sweeping slash. Seth attempted to slide over to send a punch down at her head, but Lyn was two steps ahead, leaping after the initial dash to slice down upon his right shoulder. She kicked him back several feet away, leaving him clutching his bleeding limb.
"Yes..." Seth whispered to himself, letting his arm go to watch the bleed drip to his knuckles. "There it is... I see the hate, the anger, the fire... within you, as expected." He took several steps back and snapped his left fingers, sending the ivory pillars to rotate around the two. The pillars collapsed to create a walled arena of white, trapping them both in the unknown expanse. "But I am enjoying this. Watching you grow, severed from Mother's tethers... and hearing you call it nothing but a lie? I'm thrilled you would even say such a thing!"
Lyn coughed up several droplets of red blood onto the ground, swiping her sweaty hair away from her forehead. She paid no heed to the change of herself. She was hellbent on killing the one who haunted her nightmares.
"Let's make this more interesting, shall we?" Seth hummed, snapping his left fingers again. A small red portal opened beside his torso, facing the opposite direction of his flank. He placed his right hand inside and slowly dragged out Alfaic, a reddened and blackened version of his blade enhanced with red energy from his body. He slashed outward completely, sending a wave of wind toward the ground and toward Lyn.
"Blade!" Lyn cried, clenching her teeth in defiance.
Seth placed Alfaic's edge on his palm and held him up toward Lyn like watching a child give a treasure to their elders. "Do you like what I've done with him?" Seth chuckled. "Once he wakes up, he won't be able to remember anything, now that I've tethered Mother within him as well. Our roots are now connected to him, and he shall never be the same again!" He sliced down toward the ground. "Poor sword. All he ever wanted was to find his true owner."
"SETH!" Lyn's overbearing voice nearly shattered the dimension they stood upon with her bitter rage. "I'm going to KILL YOU!" She yelled, sending a brief shockwave with a stomp of her right foot.
"FINE THEN!" Seth yelled back, pointing a corrupted Alfaic toward her. "But know that if you strike me down, you'll be taking your damned friend along with me! COME THEN! FACE ME, LYN!" He roared at the top of his lungs.
As Lyn rampaged toward him with the last of her strength and stamina, Seth summoned an illusion of Teize beside him who had also carried a copy of Alfaic. Teize charged at Lyn as well, attempting to slice down upon her, but Lyn slid down toward the ground until she was on her knees, reaching for Seth's lower half.
Before her attack could connect, Teize snatched Lyn's ponytail back and threw her into the skies. As her opponent leaped along with her, Teize held Alfaic outward, leaving Lyn a choice to either strike down upon her ally or to leave her exposed.
Lyn's mind was too slow to decide. Teize snatched Lyn's face with her palm, tossing her down toward the ground of the arena. She bounced back up slightly with the collision, watching Seth reappear with Teize to send two fatal stabs toward her. With the force of her body and what remained, Lyn spun around, taking a direct stab toward her shoulder but kicking Teize's sword away.
"Too SLOW!" Teize chuckled, kicking Lyn towards the wall of the arena and leaving her exposed. She smiled along with Seth by her side, coordinating with him to rush toward Lyn once more.
Seth's knee met Lyn's cheek with fatal force, sending her nose bleeding out as the back of her head collided with the wall. Teize pulled her back from the wall slightly before pinning her shoulders from behind, leaving Seth to pummel her body with punishing blows with his fists. Seth laughed before sending a final punch toward Lyn's cheek. He summoned Alfaic and sent a final stab toward Lyn's body, but Teize could not anticipate her jolting to the slide, sending it through Teize's palm instead.
Lyn stepped back with her bandit's blade to recover. Seth pulled Alfaic out of Teize's hand, shocked by his carelessness.
"What are you DOING?" Teize insulted.
"Leaving me, to do everything?" Seth whined back. "You ALWAYS do this!"
Lyn suddenly phased in between the two clones midair, spinning both of her legs outward like a corkscrew. Seth and Teize failed to react in time. Lyn sent her legs flying against both of their faces, separating them with brutal force and watching them crash against opposite sides of the arena.
She set her eyes upon Teize's weakened body, leaping upward for an overhead slash. Teize recovered in time and used Alfaic to block the clash, sending a shockwave flying outward.
"WOO-HOO!" Teize cackled before sending Lyn flying toward the air with a push again. Yet as she was about to seize control of Lyn's face again, Lyn's speed weaved against her arm and instead dodged by her side. She then sliced Teize's entire right arm off, leaving the copy of Alfaic to vanish in thin air.
"AHHH!" Teize cried, unable to control the profuse bleeding that rained the skies with her blood. "YOU WRETCHED..."
Lyn grabbed Teize's face with her left palm and roared at the top of her lungs, sending the both of them towards the white ground. The force of the collision smashed Teize's skull into pieces, leaving her brain matter splattered across the ground. She then kicked her corpse toward Seth, who attempted to approach her to save his duplicate.
Seth instead dodged Teize and cried out in anguish, using Alfaic to break Lyn's composure and posture with several punishing slashes. "WHY?" He cried, spitting saliva across the two of them with each decree. "WHY DID YOU KILL HER!? YOU'LL PAY!"
A sudden jolt from Seth's hand stopped him from pushing another slash down upon Lyn's face. He gasped, watching Alfaic reject his strength to push down upon him with some invisible force. He was left exposed, pondering at why Alfaic suddenly failed him.
Lyn, whose blade was on the verge of being shattered through heavy use, slashed upward against Seth's right wrist, cutting Alfaic away from his grasp and sending him away to the ground. Seth, who attempted to seize Lyn with his left hand armed with his red whip, failed to grasp Lyn's leg in time as she leaped behind him. The pain of his shoulder and wrist rooted him to the ground, unable to move as Lyn slid back and pushed the final bit of pressure and strength she had in her system.
Seth's eyes dilated in somber.
The force of her final stab was so mighty that it pierced through Seth's torso, sending scarlet red blood gushing out of his body like confetti blasting through a celebratory act. Through non-stop sheer pressure, Lyn rammed the blade deeper through, causing him to choke on his own blood with it rapidly flowing down his lower lips and neck. As Seth regained one final hope of consciousness, he attempted to grab the edge of the blade that passed through his body with his left hand, hoping to snap the blade to remove it from him.
Yet Lyn did not give him the opportunity. She closed her eyes and screamed at the top of her lungs, driving it deeper, deeper, and deeper until her blade's cold hilt touched upon Seth's skin. She clenched her teeth in anguish, as the pain of her previous attack seemingly wounded her beyond disbelief. But she continued to push, push, and push, wanting to expel the thought of Krin from her mind forever with each forceful push.
O, marvelous beauty. Please take my hand and forever pass through what lies ahead.
Seth grunted in shocking pain as he still attempted to snap Lyn's blade.
What kind of recital is that?
Lyn closed her eyes, never backing down from her stab. Her shoulder seemingly touched against Seth's back with how far she drove her sword through.
Sorry, sorry. Just wanted to be poetic, Teize.
You didn't have to be. I've already accepted you _______. Just promise me one thing.
Seth's eyes widened as more blood spouted through his mouth, coating the ground around them in a pool of red.
What is it?
Her sweaty hands began to slip, so Lyn briefly released control of her blade and regrasped it, angling it toward Seth's hip. She then summoned her strength one last time, attempting to slice through him so that his attempt to break her blade would seize.
No matter what happens to me, you'll be there for me. Okay?
I...
Okay? You promise?
Okay.
Okay...?
I promise.
You do?
I promise...
The edge snapped.
But it was too late.
Lyn severed Seth's left hip with her broken blade, spilling his guts across the blood-soaked ground. He gasped in short cold breaths before kneeling on the ground, staining his black leather pants. Lyn stood by him and watched in horror as he attempted to crawl away from her. Parts of his intestines had reached by his arms. He would get no further than several feet away, soaking in his own demise.
"Mother... Brothers..." His faltered voice almost gave in. "I... failed you... Teize. I'm... coming... home..." He finished, collapsing his head on the ground one final time before an exhale came through. His eyes suddenly stopped moving, leaving his stone cold lifeless corpse against the ground in death.
After grasping the end of Seth, which took Lyn nearly a millennium through her fazed mind, she suddenly snapped control of her wits and slammed her broken blade down. She dove towards Alfaic, whose red and black color began to slowly fade away, leaving his golden original exterior to return. She grabbed Alfaic by the edge and his handle, holding him up in utter disbelief. Her knees were pinned to the ground.
"Blade!? BLADE!" Lyn's voice nearly cracked at the sign of her missing ally. She had been separated from her first interaction with a sign of life, and she couldn't help but sense the fear that she was too late to save it all. She seized Alfaic's handle tightly and held him close to her chest, embracing him. "Please. Don't leave me." She whimpered as she closed her eyes tightly.
She shed a single teardrop on Alfaic's edge.
"Please, wake up," Lyn repeated over and over again. "Please, wake up... I...
Alfaic slowly budged.
"I miss you." Lyn's voice uttered.
Alfaic gently floated out of Lyn's grasp and hovered slowly in front of her. Lyn gasped softly.
"Do you really... mean that?" Alfaic asked.
She had almost forgotten the sound of his voice.
"Blade..." Lyn whispered, gently and naturally smiling at him. Her heart raced as she adjusted herself, kneeling on one knee instead of two. "You're here... you're finally here." She said.
"Lyn... I... guess so," Alfaic's voice feebly spoke out, turning around to watch the scenery around them. "I... What happened? All I remember seeing was you, and Krin, and... voices. So many voices were whispering. Have I been asleep this whole time?"
Lyn nodded, extending her hand out gently. "I was searching for you all this time, and I thought I had lost you forever," She said, clutching her palm against where her chest was. "Krin took you. I traveled far. But now we're here."
"Where are we?" Alfaic asked, before finding himself toward Seth's lifeless body, amazed by the level of brutality Lyn inflicted upon him. "Is that..."
"Krin, only a part of him." Lyn stated.
"A part of him? You mean... I wasn't just hallucinating those different version of him...?"
"No," Lyn clarified. "They called him Seth. He could transform into a copy of himself with female DNA, named Teize. Together, they destroyed a part of METIS lands... until now. And he kept talking about... his mother."
Mother. Mother.
Alfaic shook to the sound of Lyn's final word, jolting back toward the ground. Lyn caught him out of sheer reaction. "What happened?" She asked.
"I don't know..." Alfaic whispered. "I feel... really weird. Something's wrong."
"Blade, I..." Lyn spoke softly before suddenly feeling strange herself as well.
"You're bleeding." Alfaic said. "Red? Red blood?"
The two of them watched as Lyn's wounds began to close up from her regenerative powers. Her red blood had suddenly changed to a dull grey, and her eyes suddenly expanded to normal standing. Her grazes and wounds suddenly healed themselves, reverting her back to her normal state. "We need to get out of here." Lyn said, her dense robotic attitude returning once again.
"Wait, I... I have so many questions," Alfaic said, escaping from her grasp. "I can't even process this right now. And how are we supposed to-"
A red aethereal portal suddenly opened on the far side of the white arena, away from Seth's corpse. Lyn held Alfaic by the handle and gazed toward the portal, reminiscing about the feeling of him by her side again; only, it was a brief moment of respite before she questioned the opening of the portal.
"A way out?" Alfaic asked.
"It would seem so." Lyn said, approaching it and noticing the exit led to the Wastes, with the sun and heat blistering through the entrance. "Let's go, Blade."
As Lyn and Alfaic stepped out of the portal, it sealed itself, disappearing from existence. From faraway, Seth's corpse began to rapidly decompose, transforming into miniature cubes that suddenly rose up in tandem. The cubes of Seth began to huddle towards a single direction, eventually mixing and absorbing into a hooded figure's palm, away from sight until there was nothing but his blood drenched on the ground.
The figure absorbed all of Seth before turning away, opening a portal of their own to leave.