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Blossom startled and flinched as Derrin suddenly began to speak, still held tightly against her. She tried to relax, letting out a shaky little laugh. "D-Derrin...! You're awake, oh gods, y--"

"H-Hi, Blossom what's the..."

She followed his gaze up to the sky, her eyes widening again in open fear. "N-No, it's-- Derrin??" She winced as if struck as he yelled at her, trying to demand she calm down. It was irrational, she knew it; what point was there in being frightened? There wasn't anything they could do about it, but... but her body wouldn't stop shaking, as if overtaken by extreme cold, despite the suddenly-overbearing heat of summer. She thought of the city boiled alive by the heat of the meteor, consumed by dark energy. Crushed under the weight of a mighty stone-- okay, that thought, being crushed alive, was enough to nearly make her shriek in fear, and it took all of her willpower to simply tremble there, harder than before. "I-I'm sorry, I... I-I can't...!"

"I'm not going to let this thing fall on me! I won't die so easily! Watch me!"

Blossom grabbed on tightly to Derrin's arm, trying to pull him back again. None of his Thunder spells would be strong enough to save them from that meteor, there was nowhere to run or hide, and neither of them knew of a spell or barrier strong enough to even redirect the meteor, let alone destroy it. And yet, she only felt even more frightened by being all alone when it happened. "H-How... h-h-how long d-do we have until i-it... i-it hi-hits...?" she managed out, clutching a little more tightly to his upper arm and elbow. Her blue-grey eyes, previously focused on the sky, tore away from their impending doom to look at Derrin, as if he actually did have the answer they needed.

With the enemy retreating it was a pretty good sign that Kiote was going to be fine. He had backed himself against a wall away from the main gate after his short time fighting before lowering himself into a sitting position. He was injured, but that was to be expected for a ranger who only had so much skill with a sword. Kiote watched with a grim expression as the enemy forces, of which he still wasn't sure of their name, retreated. His arm was killing him, but now that he was sitting it didn't hurt so much because he wasn't moving. It really made a world of difference. Kiote had started to relax when suddenly the sky got darker, in fact everything got darker. At first, Kiote didn't move, but then slowly his eyes looked upwards at what he couldn't call anything other than a meteor. It was huge, to say the least.

Kiote might have stared at it a bit longer except that Grave suddenly appeared at his side in his humanoid form. The wolf was watching the sky intently before looking down at Kiote with his dark eyes. He was injured, but not so badly as to move obviously. " I don't think I can outrun that." Grave stated bluntly to Kiote. The ranger cracked a faint smile as he chuckled and turned his eyes to the sky again. Grave was right, they weren't going to outrun that thing. He had no idea what was going on, but it wasn't looking good. "I know. It's ironic really. We escaped one deadly fight to get drawn into another. The only difference is I don't think we're going to make it out of this one. It was good while it lasted, eh? Anything you want to say?" Kiote asked as he looked over at his friend.

"We're not done yet. I'll tell you when the end finally does come, but that's not now. There's still a chance, though how I don't know." Grave responded. Kiote nodded as he closed his eyes and sighed. He was tired. He hadn't fought so much in his entire life. He wanted sleep, except that if this thing was going to hit them, he was going to watch it hit them with eyes open. If he was going to die, he was going to face death in the process. "Well, I can't deny you that. Fine, we'll see."

The more time she spent watching the meteor falling towards them, the more Blossom could feel that something was not right. If that was a real meteor, especially a magically-summoned one, one would think that it would have fallen by now, to crash down to the ground and destroy literally everything. And yet it was still falling. It didn't seem natural, somehow, but hey, what did she know? She was busy being terrified of the damn thing!

"It's not going to fall on us Blossom, I will not let it." Blossom continued to tremble against his arm, holding on more tightly, but as he finally looked back to meet her gaze, she relaxed a little. The eye contact helped. "S-So stop shaking Blossom. Y-You'll be fine." His face was getting red. It was starting to get hotter around here, what with the rising sun...

"Blossom!"

Blossom's eyes snapped away from Derrin and met gold, and the mixture of shock and relief washing over her face was probably one to laugh about later. "Lance! Lance, you're a-all right!" She smiled weakly and squeezed Derrin's arm a little, as if to reassure him that maybe things would be okay. "I-I'm so glad you're a-all right...! I s-saw Ghis and St-Steely Dan earlier, they--"

"Thank goodness you both are all right! I was worried sick! But now we have another issue at hand!"

Blossom fell silent to let him speak, deciding that telling him about the Watch and Guard Captain's fates could be dealt with later. He sounded very serious, even more so than he usually did when he was serious about something, and it seemed almost impolite to interrupt him.

"...Stop it...?" Blossom looked not frightened now, but confused. It was a relief to have her vague suspicions confirmed by someone who knew more about magical constructs than her -- he did have those coins of his, after all -- but to actually stop it? They were a Mage, a Hero, and a... what was he? A Thief? I think he said he was an Errant once, whatever that is... "What are we supposed to be able to do? I-I mean... I don't think I can slice a meteor in half with my sword, magical or not..."

Derrin was speaking up, then, and she looked up to his face. "I'm all for doing something... but there's an entire army at those gates. Maybe we should go back to the castle and see what's being done there? I'm all for going out and cracking some Mordache skulls right now, but... Blossom, you decide."

Her eyes widened in sudden surprise."M-Me? Why me? Of everyone here, you or Lance could do a lot more to help...!!" She paused, looking back at Lance, then closed her eyes for a moment. If anything, she should... be grateful they were including her to begin with. "If we can find out more about wh-what's going on, and somehow do something to help, then we're probably... probably going to find the most information a-at the castle." She slowly rose to her feet, pulling Derrin up with her. She kept one hand clutching onto his, as if to ensure that he wasn't going to run off, and held her sword in the other, her whitened face set into a look of determination. "...We sh-should hurry."

Oh, thank goodness, she was conscious. Aeolus flipped back his ivory hair with a sigh, relieved to see that she could at least roll her head. He kept a solid vigil, a little uncertain of the wyvern rider nearby and, frankly, a little too unnerved by the situation to introduce himself. Something was telling Aeolus he would soon have something else to be unnerved by, as well. It was tugging on the fringes of his senses, and it made him bristle anxiously.

He knew what it was when the sky changed. Aeolus snapped his head back, wide-eyed at the unnatural phenomenon that was unfolding. Tremendous, sinister power hurtled from the earth and seemed to crack the sky apart, and the ex-slave ducked his head, fearful of the presence of Mordache. He had just been the servant of lowly artisans and merchants, some with peculiar tastes, but there was no telling how close he had been to partaking in the circle of human sacrifice.

~

Soren witnessed it too. Needless to say, just about everyone did—it was too big not to miss. He screeched to a halt when he felt the fluctuations of magic in the air, spirits of Reason in an uproar as the wind scattered, flames flickering and battered in its wake, the clouds and earth crackling with an otherworldly movement. He held Orthrus close to him as he gazed off toward the source. Ed stopped beside him, chittering nervously.

The sight was breathtaking. It should have seemed small with its distance, but it was enormous, too entirely enormous, and they knew immediately that it came cradling death and ruin. But what could they do beyond gawk at the meteor? All three went still, their breaths caught in their throat, eyes locked on what would be the end of everything they knew.

"...that was a bit of an anti-climax."

After the entire buildup Lance had going, the meteorite seemed to be pushed back by a mysterious ray of light. It's not like he minded, but it seemed...too convenient.

Well never the ******** mind then.

"Right, I don't know if that's the problem solved, but I'd say we just gained more time. Let's hurry back to the keep to the others. If that beam can save us, we better be ready with the rest of the resistance to beat back anything still after us. Come on, let's get moving."

With that said, Lance motioned for the keep, waiting for hopefully Blossom to start making her way to the castle first. At the same time, he looked over at Derrin with a gaze, as if telling Derrin something only two men could understand.

*******************

Though you know, I wish, I could...

You know there ain't no rest for the wicked...

Until we close our eyes for good...

There were somethings a man had to do, for the good of those around him. As much as Derrin didn't like it, as much as he wished the battles would stop choosing him, as much as he thought it was useless, he still had to do it.

Although light was shooting towards the meteor, it was unknown whether or not it would be effective. Lance had the right of it and Blossoms answer had shown she was scared, it would be best if she went back to the castle in order to gain her bearings. Derrin was aware it was a bit of a mean trick to play on her but... she'd be safer this way.

The moment her back was turned he nodded back at Lance and started walking. Away from the castle.

Blossom slowed after just a few more minutes of running, turning to look back at Lance and Derrin. They would easily be able to keep up, right? Especially with her breathing; while admittedly somewhat recovered, it was still rather labored from her earlier exertion, and her pace was equally slowed. "Derrin, Lance, do--"

Derrin was moving after her, notably slower than her, while Lance was moving away from them, down the road and towards the outer areas of the city, rather than its center. She strapped her sword hurriedly to her back, finally remembering that Oh, right, I have a strap for this thing, why haven’t I been using it before hurrying over to Derrin. She grasped onto his forearm and watched Lance for a few more paces before looking up to the Mage’s face, confusion overtaking anything else she might have been feeling at that moment.

“Wait… what about Lance? Shouldn’t he be coming with us?” She gripped a little more tightly, stalling in the middle of the street. He’d said to go to the castle, and she was more than glad to listen to him on that front – it was a good idea, get everyone ready to defend the city against the remaining invaders – but the only reason she could think of for him to head towards the walls alone would be if he intended on taking on any of their enemies on his own. “Is he trying to fight alone? Or is he just trying to scout out? Did he say to let him go off on his own?” She tried to use the moment to catch her breath further, leaning subtly against Derrin’s weight, clutching securely onto his arm for support.