OLD THREATS — RELATIONSHIPS OF NIMALIA

Chapter 11: Duel of the Hero and the Knight

“Man… you guys really are serious about meeting with the Dean, huh?”

“Did you think we weren’t?” Phoenix questioned.

“Oh, I knew you guys were serious, in general,” Liéhdan replied, “but I kinda hoped the whole ‘visiting the Dean’ thing was just a cover for a trip.”

“Figures you would say that…” Twy responded with a sigh. She, Phoenix, Kestrel, and Liéhdan all were currently standing on the top level of the tree city of Lédia, having just met to head down to the WTAC campus on the forest floor. The Academy’s campus was closed to visitors during the Fall Break, so the three Earthians had sought out Liéhdan’s help to get them in — and, much to their surprise, he had obliged.

“…Still,” the Relédiakian said with a frown, his posture casually slouched as he looked at each of the three women. “…You guys really want to waste a break day at the school? Why not just hang around Lédia?”

“We have been,” Phoenix countered. “And while the night life — and the company — has been better than I expected, that still isn’t what I came here for.”

“So you’re a party type? Really?” Liéhdan regarded Phoenix with surprise. “A serious person, like you?”

“Just because I know what I want and won’t take any shit doesn’t mean I don’t know how to let loose every now and then,” Phoenix retorted. “I’d bet I could drink you under the table, at least!”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Liéhdan remarked, and then glanced toward Twy and Kestrel. “And what about you two?”

“We just went sight-seeing,” Twy replied, with Kestrel offering a nod of affirmation. She then turned her gaze upwards at the sprawling forest canopy and the gigantic tree trunks that supported it as she continued, “the sights here, in Lédia… they’re unlike anything I’ve seen anywhere else. And there are a lot of nice painting spots…”

“Beautiful,” Kestrel stated.

“What is?” Liéhdan questioned as he looked up at her. “The trees, or the paintings?”

“Both.”

“H-hey,” Twy responded sheepishly, “I never actually said I did any painting…”

“No, but I saw you drop by that art supplies store when we first arrived,” Phoenix pointed out with a smirk. “Just own it, girl! Especially if Kestrel’s praising you — that’s when you know you’re good!”

“I suppose…”

“Well… at least you guys did enjoy yourselves, it looks like,” Liéhdan said with a shrug. “Nice to know you know how to relax. I can go ahead and take you to the Dean now, but, uh… her mood might not be the best, right now.”

“Why’s that?” Phoenix questioned.

“Hmm, well…” Liéhdan glanced to one side, and then shrugged again. “Ah, you’ll see. See you guys later.”

“Wait, what—?!” Phoenix began to respond, but just as quickly she found herself — along with Twy and Kestrel — suddenly standing on the dark campus grounds of WTAC instead of the shady, but still daylit surface of Lédia. “…Ooooh, he really gets on my nerves!”

“Very skilled…” Kestrel observed.

“He certainly is, if he can teleport us from topside down to here without even looking,” Twy agreed. “…But a warning still would’ve been nice.”

“As well as a proper explanation of what he meant by that ‘mood’ comment,” Phoenix replied with a scowl. “He better not have dumped us down here at a bad time—!”

“Fighting…” Kestrel interrupted, her attention directed elsewhere.

“What…?” Twy questioned, and then looked in the same direction as Kestrel. “…Wait, yeah. I hear something, like… thunder.”

“And ice.”

“The ice would be Rebehka,” Phoenix pointed out, “but if she’s fighting…”

“I hope there isn’t another outbreak, right now…” Twy muttered.

“If there was, we’d be hearing alarms. The fighting must be something else. C’mon!” Phoenix began jogging off toward the sounds of combat. “Let’s go check it out! She might need our help!”

*

Fierce lightning strikes brilliantly lit the entire gym as they blasted massive chunks of ice to pieces, rapidly cutting away at the thick protective dome fabricated barely two seconds earlier. A Dra’kis woman — so noted from her three-segmented legs and four-fingered hands — zig-zagged her way toward the dome to evade incoming ice projectiles while continually blasting at it with lightning. While the fact that her legs resembled a tilted ‘N’ when resting made her seem clumsy, in action, the raw power in her legs allowed her to bound across the gym with greater speed and precision than the “normal” legged members of the galaxy. Taking advantage of this power, she pressed onward, lashing out at the ice dome with lightning strike after lightning strike while lunging toward the main opening she had created — only for a massive spear of ice to nail her in her chest. A plane of brilliant golden energy flared up, preventing the spear from actually piercing her skin, but the force still sent her rolling backwards as a light-skinned, dark-haired Nimalian woman leaped out of the ice dome to continue raining ice weapons upon her opponent.

As the two women duked it out, another three watched on from the sidelines, having followed the sounds of Chaotic combat into one of WTAC’s practice gyms. Energy shielding protected the gym and its surroundings from damage, allowing the two Chaotics to go at each other with such ferocity that they still hadn’t noticed the three onlookers.

“Um…” Twy muttered uneasily, “should… should we say something?”

“That is Rebehka…” Phoenix commented, eying the Nimalian Dean as she formed another dome of ice around herself. Phoenix then shifted her attention to the Dra’kis woman, taking note of her light skin and light blond hair that was shaved on the sides of her head, but long and straight enough on the top and in back to be tied into a thick waist-length braid. “And that Dra’kis woman… we’ve met her before, right?”

“Major Nil’kin Dralis,” Kestrel said. “…Of the Chaos Knights.”

“Right. I remember that she and Rebehka didn’t seem to see eye-to-eye…”

“And now they’re fighting,” Twy pointed out. “Is this… shouldn’t we stop them?!”

“I don’t know…” Phoenix looked to the two sparring Chaotics again, noting that both were wearing fingerless gloves, sports bras, and gym pants — Nil’kin’s styled in the crimson and purple livery of the Chaos Knights, while Rebehka wore a more subdued combination of earth brown and nature green. “…They’re both in workout outfits,” Phoenix eventually stated. “I think this really is just sparring.”

“It’s awfully fierce, for sparring…” Twy muttered as she continued watching the fighting herself.

The thunderous echo of shattering ice promptly filled the gym, cutting off further conversation as a once-massive spire of ice collapsed into pieces. Nil’kin, having just blasted it apart, lunged through the resulting shower of ice to get the drop on Rebehka — who quickly fashioned a chestplate out of ice just in time to be struck by lightning and flung backwards. Nil’kin pressed the assault, but as Rebehka rolled along the ground, she seized control of the hundreds of ice shards in the air and forced them to rapidly coalesce on Nil’kin’s position, trapping the Dra’kis Electrotechnic under a pile of ice. In that brief respite, Rebehka jumped back to her feet and crafted a massive hammer of ice to swing down on the snow pile that trapped Nil’kin, but the Dra’kis blasted the pile apart and then rolled to the side just in time to miss being smashed by the hammer; instead, it slammed against the floor, generating an incredible energy shielding flare up that covered nearly half the gym’s floor.

Twy and Phoenix both jumped in surprise at the massive flare-up, but neither Nil’kin nor Rebehka seemed to pay it any mind. As the ice hammer fell to pieces under the force of its own attack, Rebehka fabricated a massive wall of ice between herself and Nil’kin — which the latter promptly blasted through with fierce lightning strikes. But in the time it took her to do so, Rebehka had formed a dozen floating spears of ice to launch at the Dra’kis, only for Nil’kin to fire off a fierce blast of lightning that chained between each of the spears before reaching Rebehka and launching her against the far wall — just as the ice spears slammed into Nil’kin and threw her in the opposite direction. Each woman hit the walls hard, generating the loud static noise and brilliant golden glow of an energy shield flare up both over their own bodies and over the gym’s walls. They both dropped to their knees, momentarily stunned… and in that moment, a sharp ping echoed through the gym, accompanied by golden static fuzz sweeping across both Rebehka and Nil’kin — the sign that both of their personal shields had been overloaded.

“…Hmph,” Rebehka grunted with exertion as she pulled herself back to her feet, her attention still on Nil’kin. “…That really all you have?” she taunted with a raised voice, “I’ve fought more skilled students than you!”

“Bold words, for one who lost their shields at the same time as me,” Nil’kin shot back, though she wore on her face a dangerous grin, and her fists were balled. “I think you’re the one who could use improvement! Half those moves were all show, no substance!”

“How amusing, to hear that from an Electrotechnic, of all people.”

“Ha!” Nil’kin scoffed, wiping her sweat-covered brow with the back of her hand. “…I can keep going all day, Dean. But I’ll let up, for your sake. Wouldn’t want to have you lose in front of visitors, now, would we?”

“For ‘my’ sake, I’m sure,” Rebehka drawled, finally relaxing her stance as she willed away all of the ice that remained in the gym. After taking a deep breath, she finally turned her attention toward Twy, Phoenix, and Kestrel. “…What are you three doing here?”

“Well… we just had a few questions for you,” Phoenix replied.

“But, um… if you’re busy, then we can come back at another time,” Twy quickly added.

“No… we could use a break,” Rebehka stated, passing a quick glance toward Nil’kin before walking off of the main floor to join the Earthians on the sidelines.

“We have been dueling all morning,” Nil’kin declared as she joined the group on the sidelines.

“Wait… all morning?!” Twy responded incredulously, watching as the Dra’kis readily grabbed a large water bottle and began taking large gulps out of it.

“Yes,” Rebehka affirmed with a nod. “Whenever we have a disagreement that we can’t resolve with words, we come here to fight it out.”

“A catharsis technique I’ve picked up from my Siion colleagues,” Nil’kin asserted. “Usually, it works. And yet, whenever I’m fighting you, Dean, I can’t help but get even more riled up… ha! It’s the one thing I actually enjoy doing with you!”

“Trust me… the feeling isn’t mutual,” Rebehka retorted. She then turned back to face the Earthians. “So. What did you need?”

Twy and Phoenix exchanged a wary glance. “…We wanted to ask some more things about the, uh… metallic infection,” Twy said.

“I already gave you a lecture on everything we know,” Rebehka replied. “Is there something else SERRCom wanted…?”

“Not for SERRCom,” Kestrel stated.

“Yes, we were curious on our own,” Twy added, and then passed a doubtful glance toward Nil’kin. “Mostly about, um… the Nanocreature War. And Hero Machina’s role in it.”

At this, Nil’kin loudly scoffed; Rebehka merely passed her an annoyed look before sighing in resignation. “…This has something to do with Archoné Culana’s prophecies, doesn’t it?” Rebehka questioned.

“Supposedly, we’re supposed to finish what Hero Machina couldn’t,” Phoenix said. “I still don’t know how I feel about this ‘Key’ thing, but if we’re going to be in this for the long haul, then I’d really like to know exactly what kind of mess we’re getting into.”

“Right…” Rebehka took another deep breath before looking over the three. “…Why me, though? You could ask Davídrius, or Christeané — they’re still back in Treséd. I heard Kaoné went back, too.”

“Kaoné’s busy shoring up Tresnon’s defenses,” Twy explained, “and we’ve never really met Christeané. As for Davídrius, well, uh…”

“You’re a lot easier to approach than he is,” Phoenix stated bluntly.

A small smile of amusement appeared on Rebehka’s face. “Fair enough.”

“And I have to ask…” Twy added, “well, it seems like you and the other Deans always avoid the topic of your old exploits as Hero Machina. Is there a reason for that…?”

“I assume it’s because they’ve grown tired of the rest of the galaxy calling their story for the bullshit that it is,” Nil’kin declared.

“There is nothing ‘bullshit’ about what we did back then!” Rebehka shot back. “You weren’t even there! How would you know the truth of the matter?”

“Exactly — no one was there. No one except the members of Hero Machina,” Nil’kin replied. “A very convenient ending to the war, I must say.”

“You don’t believe the official story…?” Twy questioned warily.

“The ‘official story’ is ridiculous on its own,” Nil’kin asserted. “But what the Dean here claims is the ‘real’ story is even worse.”

“The official story isn’t the real one?” Phoenix looked to Rebehka in confusion. “What’s going on?”

The Dean sighed again, this time in exasperation. “…What do you three know about the Nanocreature War?” she eventually questioned, “how much of the story do you know?”

“It began 20 years ago… when Morcii revealed himself as the leader of what we now know as the Nanocreatures,” Twy responded. “He immediately waged war on the CSA, and managed to take almost all of their Transpace Worlds in a single month. The initial invasion ended with the Battle of Neticen, where Christeané used the Chaos State to kill Morcii.”

“But then, three months later, Morcii returned,” Phoenix added. “His Nanocreatures led a targeted strike on every planet that had a Chaos Ayas, allowing him to claim all but one of them. With the last Ayas, Hero Machina — you — went to confront Morcii on the Nanocreature Homeworld, where you killed him for good. Or at least… what you thought was ‘for good’.”

“And you can see the problems with that story already, can’t you?” Nil’kin insisted. “The Nanocreature Homeworld… pah! As if killing Morcii in a particular location would be any more effective than destroying him over Neticen! And you expect me to believe that Hero Machina — with only a single Ayas — managed to best the leader of the Nanocreatures, who had all of the other eight? It doesn’t make a single bit of sense.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Rebehka replied. “Because the official, public story was shortened, sanitized. It removed all of the parts that made the overarching story make sense, just because the NSD didn’t think the galaxy would accept our word that those things happened.”

“And they were right — what you claim to have happened is even more absurd. Really, Dean. When you are going to come out with the real story?”

Rebehka responded only by shooting Nil’kin an irate glare.

“Now that I think about it… the official story really is missing some pieces, isn’t it?” Twy commented. “The last time we were here, you said something about your friend, Siyuakén, being involved… but you don’t hear her name in the official story, at all.”

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“And Prior Arcán…” Kestrel said.

“That’s right… Pallan mentioned something about a ‘Prior Arcán’ when we met with him in Riverana,” Phoenix stated. “I didn’t think much of it at the time, but that’s missing from the official story, too. Who’s Prior Arcán?”

“Siyuakén… and Arcán…” Rebehka muttered. “…Well, first of all, ‘Prior’ is a title. And the Priors are a set of, um… well, it’s hard to explain exactly what they are. Just think of them like they’re the ‘minds’ behind the Chaos Ayas. There’s one Prior for each Ayas, after all.”

“’Arcán’ is the name of one of the Ayas, isn’t it? And the name of Austin’s sword, too,” Twy pointed out. “So they’re all connected?”

Rebehka nodded. “Right. A Prior, an Ayas, and an Ayas Weapon — they come in threes, and all go by the same name. And Arcán was the Prior that we — uh, that Hero Machina discovered a month or so before the Nanocreature War.”

“Something that you Nimalians hid from the rest of the galaxy until the end of the war, might I add,” Nil’kin interjected.

“We didn’t even know his importance, until then,” Rebehka countered. “Don’t tell me you disbelieve the existence of the Priors altogether!”

“I’ve heard enough reports to know that Priors — or least, AI-like entities calling themselves Priors — actually exist. It’s everything else about them that I doubt.”

“Can’t say I’ve heard much about them…” Phoenix commented.

“There’s only as many Priors as there are Ayas,” Rebehka pointed out, “and to my knowledge, most of them haven’t been found, yet. I’d bet that they’re hiding out on their Platforms.”

“And here we go…” Nil’kin threw her arms into the air as she rolled her eyes. “The Platforms again. Right. Very credible!”

“The Platforms are real,” Rebehka insisted. “I’ve been there. Only once, sure, but I saw the galactic disk myself. We were outside of the galaxy, for sure.”

“So you say, but by your own admission, you saw only a hologram of the galaxy.”

“Well, yes, but still…”

“Sorry, but what’s a Platform?” Phoenix questioned in confusion.

“The Platforms are massive space stations orbiting the galaxy beyond its edge,” Rebehka explained. “There’s one for each Prior, for each Ayas. The one I’ve been to — the Arcán Platform — it was the size of a moon, and not a small one. And according to Arcán, the Syn Platform is even larger than that.”

“Which raises the question: why can’t we detect them, hmm?” Nil’kin pressed.

“The Prior Platforms have incredibly advanced technology,” Rebehka insisted. “Arcán’s platform alone could instantly disable any of our fleets. It had the power to instantly teleport me and the rest of Hero Machina to a location across the galaxy! These are massive structures that are linked to the Chaos Ayas themselves, I don’t doubt for a second that they would be able to avoid detection by our sensors. All it would take is the kind of cloaking system that SERRCom has on that one Battlecruiser of theirs.”

“And I trust you’ve seen all of this amazing technology in action?”

“I mentioned the cross-galaxy teleport, didn’t I?”

“Right. And the rest?”

Rebehka faltered for a moment. “Well… no, I didn’t see them.”

“You’ve been there, though, right?” Twy questioned, “why can’t you go back?”

“Supposedly, the coordinates are blocked,” Nil’kin replied with a derisive snort.

“There’s no ‘supposedly’ about it,” Rebehka countered. “I remember the Gate coordinate that Arcán supplied us to reach his Platform. And I know that there was an Interstellar Gate there. And dialing the coordinate even establishes a Gate connection! Matter and energy transmission is blocked from the other side, sure, but the fact is that the coordinate works!”

“You know, the interesting thing about Gate coordinates is that they correspond to an actual galactic grid,” Nil’kin pointed out. “With a set of Gate coords, you can map out exactly where in the galaxy that Gate should be. And the coordinate you’ve given for this ‘Platform’ corresponds to an empty location outside the galaxy. CSA scouting ships have been there — there’s nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

“…Look, I don’t know what to tell you,” Rebehka eventually responded, her tone filled with frustration. “The Platform exists. I know it does. I was there. We all were!”

“I don’t trust the rest of Hero Machina any more than I do you.”

“Um, this ‘Platform’ aside…” Twy interjected uneasily, “what, uh, do the Priors have to do with the Nanocreature War…?”

“…Right. Sorry,” Rebehka replied, passing Nil’kin an annoyed look before turning back to the Earthians. “…You girls know about the Chaos State, right?”

“You could certainly say that,” Phoenix retorted.

“Hmm…? Oh, right, you fought a Chaos State Chaotic a couple weeks ago, didn’t you? I’d heard about that from Kevken.”

“An impressive feat for novices, I must admit,” Nil’kin added.

“Uh, thanks…?” Twy responded uneasily.

“Since you fought a Chaotic using the Chaos State, you three must know its power,” Rebehka said. “Even at just the First Tier, the Chaos State is a powerful game-changer. But, believe it or not, the Chaos State isn’t the only state of enhanced power that a Chaotic can use.”

“…Are you talking about Overdrives?” Phoenix questioned.

“No. Well, I suppose you could view Overdrives like a weaker version of the Chaos State… but that’s not what I was talking about,” Rebehka refuted. “Remember how I said that the Priors and the Ayas are linked? Well, it turns out, you can also use a Prior to boost your power, like how you use the Ayas in the Chaos State. It’s called the Prior State, and involves a temporary merging of your mind with the Prior’s. According to Arcán, the base-level Prior State is supposed to be as powerful as the Second Tier Chaos State, and after seeing it in action, I think I can agree.”

“Though no one else in the galaxy has witnessed this ‘Prior State’,” Nil’kin interjected. “No one can reproduce your claims.”

“Because no one can find the Priors,” Rebehka retorted. “I don’t even know where Arcán is, let alone any of the others.”

“Wait, weren’t you working with Arcán?” Twy pointed out, “how do you not know where he is?”

“Uh… hold on. I’ll get to that in a second,” the Dean responded, massaging her brow in exasperation. She then took a few moments to collect her thoughts before continuing, “anyways… the Prior State is just one piece of the picture, I’ll come back to it in a second. The more important piece is Siyuakén Wanléon… an old friend of mine.”

“The friend of yours that betrayed the galaxy?” Nil’kin retorted.

“She didn’t have a choice!” Rebehka snapped, this time whirling around to glare at the Dra’kis directly. “She was corrupted! Her body’s movements were no longer hers…”

“Yes… an infection that she suffered from for several months before finally succumbing, supposedly. An infection that you were aware of, for most of that time.” Nil’kin turned to match Rebehka’s glare. “You do realize just how astoundingly foolish it was to allow your friend to wander the galaxy while corrupted? She must have been shedding nanites everywhere. It’s a damn wonder that she didn’t spread the Nanocreatures to everything she touched!”

“Hold on, hold on, what?” Phoenix questioned, looking confusedly between Rebehka and Nil’kin. “I don’t understand. Are you saying that Siyuakén was corrupted for a while, but no one knew it? I thought if you were corrupted — or infected — you lost control of yourself?”

“…In the early phases of the infection, it can be mitigated.” Rebehka finally tore her attention from Nil’kin to address the Earthians again. “Especially when Morcii isn’t around to enforce his will. Siyuakén was an Electrotechnic, too, which allowed her to periodically overload the nanites in her body. It wasn’t enough to destroy them all, but she was able to delay the infection’s spread across her body for a long time — during which she was still in control of herself. She didn’t lose control until… until after Morcii appeared.”

“At which point she flipped, and started corrupting worlds for the Nanocreatures,” Nil’kin declared. “A pawn she may have been, but she still directly led to the loss of dozens of lesser worlds while the CSA focused its fleets on defending the Transpace Worlds!”

“Morcii forced those worlds to fall, not Siyuakén!” Rebehka snapped. “She was corrupted, she couldn’t control what she was doing! Do you really think she would have chosen to attack those worlds of her own volition?!”

“I think that allowing herself to live so long with the infection — and you allowing her to ignore it! — is what directly led to that situation,” Nil’kin countered. “If you had purged her as soon as she showed symptoms, then the Nanocreature War wouldn’t have been nearly as one-sided as it was!”

“At that time, we had no way of knowing that the metallic infection would turn into the Nanocreature threat! Did you really want me to kill my best friend, just because she was infected with what we thought at the time was only a disease?!”

“Don’t rewrite history. We knew full well that the ‘metallic infection’ was actually self-replicating nanomachines by that point in time. And you, yourself, as a member of Hero Machina, had fought against multiple Critical Infection incidents! You had to have known the end result of allowing your friend to live!”

“You—!” Rebehka snarled, her brow furrowed with rage as the air around her rapidly cooled. In response, Nil’kin assumed a battle stance, sparks beginning to wreath her arms — but before either woman could do anything else, Kestrel silently stepped forward, her hands extended toward the Dean and the Major. In her hunched over battle-ready stance, even the normally over-six-feet-tall Nil’kin stood shorter than Kestrel, contributing to the Aerotechnic’s imposing stature.

“…Tch.” A second later, the sparks around Nil’kin’s arms ceased and she drew into a more neutral stance… only for her to then shake her head, her lips pursed in frustration as she turned to stomp out of the gym. “Your foolishness would — no, has already ruined the galaxy, Tchiréon!” the Dra’kis shouted over her shoulder as she left, “and for the sake of us all, you Earthians had better remember that!”

Rebehka watched as Nil’kin stormed off, her own brow furrowed and her arms crossed. Once the Dra’kis was out of sight, Rebehka took a deep breath, her eyes closed as she attempted to calm herself. “…Sorry,” she eventually apologized, glancing up at Kestrel with a sheepish smile. “The Major and I tend to… rile each other up, sometimes.”

“I— I can see…” Twy responded uneasily.

“And she seems like a bitch, yeah, but… it kind of sounds like she had a point,” Phoenix pointed out. “It sounds like your friend went around with a dangerous infection, not telling anyone she came across… that seems hella reckless.”

“I… won’t deny that we made foolish decisions,” Rebehka admitted. “And under no circumstances would I allow an infected person to walk around freely now, given what we all know about the infection and the Nanocreatures. But back then, it actually worked out for us.”

“But I thought your friend was corrupted…?” Twy questioned in confusion.

Rebehka nodded. “She was, yes. And as much as I hate to admit… the Major was right about Morcii using Siyuakén to help conquer a handful of worlds during the Nanocreature War. That’s why her role in ending the war is cut out of the official story — because all the CSA knows of her, is the ‘her’ that enabled the Nanocreatures during the war.”

“That’s… fucked up,” Phoenix remarked.

“It is… especially since Siyuakén is the one who saved us all.”

“How…?” Twy asked.

“Siyuakén was corrupted by the Nanocreatures — and deeply so,” Rebehka explained. “From what I recall… at least half of her entire body, by volume, had been replaced by Nanocreature nanites. But despite that, on the night that Morcii launched his surprise invasion that claimed most of the Ayas… Siyuakén managed to break free of his control.”

“That does sound convenient…” Phoenix muttered.

“I can understand the incredulity, but it does make sense,” Rebehka countered. “At the start of that attack, the Nanocreatures didn’t have any of the Ayas — they had lost them all after the Battle of Neticen. So Morcii couldn’t control nearly as many Nanocreatures as he could during the main part of the war; I suspect that he was testing the limits of his control by attacking nine different planets at once. It was due to that weakened control that Siyuakén was able to break free, and before Morcii was actually able to claim any of the Ayas, we had fled to the Arcán Platform — where the Prior Arcán was able to shield Siyuakén from Morcii’s influence.”

“So this is where the Prior comes into the story, then?” Twy questioned.

“Right. Going back to the Prior State… according to Arcán, not just anyone can use it. Most Chaotics would die if they tried to activate the Prior State. But — again, according to Arcán — Morcii’s existence was based on the Priors, and since Siyuakén had spent so long corrupted, she had developed a sort of ‘connection’ to the Priors that no other Chaotic could have. That connection allowed her to activate the Prior State with Arcán, which also suppressed her corruption.”

“But Morcii had already claimed eight of the Ayas by that point, right?” Phoenix pointed out, “If the Prior State is only as powerful as the Second Tier Chaos State, and you only had one other Ayas with you… how did you beat Morcii?”

“Well… there’s a catch, there. Yet another thing that the official story omits,” Rebehka said. “You see… Morcii isn’t actually the main threat. He, along with the Nanocreatures, were created by someone else — Ikirom, the leader of the Morikai. Apparently, the Morikai were an enemy of the Aldredas, and used the Nanocreatures to fight them. But Ikirom was too powerful for the Aldredas to put down for good, so they used the Chaos Ayas to seal Ikirom and the Morikai away, instead.”

“How powerful is ‘too powerful’…?” Twy questioned warily.

“Very. Ikirom is a Realitechnic… a Chaotic with the ability to warp reality itself.”

“Well that escalated quickly…” Phoenix muttered.

“Fortunately, he’s still a Chaotic, so his reality-warping is limited by Chaos Energy — and he doesn’t seem to be able to break the Ayas Seal himself,” Rebehka explained. “Morcii’s ultimate goal is to claim all of the Chaos Ayas so that he can undo the seal, and free Ikirom and the Morikai to ravage the galaxy again.”

“So there’s a threat even more dangerous than the Nanocreatures that we have to worry about?! Great…”

“Is this related to how you were able to beat Morcii, then…?” Twy asked.

“It is,” Rebehka replied with a nod. “You see… Morcii wasn’t using the Ayas to strengthen himself. He was actually using them to undo the seal. And he even succeeded, at least in part; I, and the rest of Hero Machina, saw Ikirom himself appear before our eyes. For some reason, though, Morcii wasn’t able to fully undo the seal, so Ikirom’s powers were limited… allowing Siyuakén, using the Prior State, to stave him off for long enough for the rest of us to seal him away again.”

“That must have been one hell of a fight to watch!” Phoenix remarked.

“That’s the thing… we couldn’t,” Rebehka admitted. “Ikirom shoved the rest of us into… I don’t know, pocket dimensions of some sort, or something. I couldn’t see or hear anything while Siyuakén was fighting him. It wasn’t until Kevken realized that Chaos Reset would undo Ikirom’s reality warping that we were able to break free and reseal him, and by that point, the fight between him and Siyuakén was already over.”

“What happened to Morcii during all this?”

“I don’t know… remember, I couldn’t see or hear anything, or even feel anything. But after resealing Ikirom, I and everyone else were able to claim several of the Ayas and use them to activate the Chaos State. In the end, Morcii was only able to recover two of the Ayas, and had to use those two to fight all seven of us — Siyuakén in the Prior State, and everyone else in the First Tier Chaos State. After a tough fight, we defeated him, and then Siyuakén used a special ability of the Prior State called a ‘Link Drive’ to, supposedly, sever Morcii’s consciousness from the, ah… ‘material realm’, as Arcán put it.”

“Sever his consciousness from… from the what?” Twy echoed incredulously.

“Look, it’s hard to explain,” Rebehka responded with a sheepish smile. “I said earlier that the Priors are… weird, right? Apparently, they don’t actually need a physical form to live. And when a Link Drive is used on a living being, it supposedly forces them into that same sort of dissociated state, where they don’t have a physical form anymore… and therefore, can’t affect the physical realm anymore.”

“That just sounds like Morcii is still alive!” Phoenix exclaimed.

“I know, it does… but removing his ability to control the Nanocreatures or otherwise interact with matter at all should still have been the same as killing him,” Rebehka insisted. “He isn’t a Prior… he was based on one, according to Arcán, but that doesn’t mean that he is one… he shouldn’t be able to come back. Shouldn’t…”

“And yet, the Nanocreatures are making a resurgence…” Twy muttered.

“Yes. It’s… worrying,” Rebehka replied. “If Morcii really is gone for good, then what remains of the Nanocreatures should be manageable. They were only truly dangerous under Morcii’s control; without him, they’re just a dangerous infection. They can’t even infect other creatures through the air without Morcii. But… if Morcii somehow found a way to come back…”

“…Then the Nanocreature War wasn’t as final as we all hoped that it was,” Phoenix finished.

“Exactly,” Rebehka responded with a nod. “Now, as much as I hate Nil’kin’s utter disbelief of the truth… the fact is, even I doubt some of the things that Arcán told us. For most of the time we knew him, he acted cagey with his knowledge, and even lied to us about how much he knew — supposedly because he was afraid of the Nanocreatures getting his knowledge. And after Siyuakén used Arcán’s Link Drive on Morcii, her Prior State ended, and Arcán disappeared to… well, I don’t really know where. We haven’t heard from him since, so we can’t ask him more about what he knows.”

“So all we have to go on are Pallan’s prophecies, then…?” Twy questioned.

“Right. Like I said earlier, I’ve never been one to put much faith in the Oraculm. But…” Rebehka looked doubtfully at each of the Earthian Chaotics. “…You Keys really can do things that no Chaotic should be able to do — such as summoning an Ayas Weapon without holding an Ayas. There’s no denying that you’re special. And if you are… it may just be true that you can finish what we couldn’t.”

“You realize that’s a tall fucking order, right?” Phoenix responded incredulously, “you just told us about a lot of powerful shit that apparently no one else knows about, including some evil sealed-in-a-can reality warping maniac who’s even more dangerous than the Nanocreatures — which, themselves, are by far the most dangerous threat this galaxy has ever seen! And you want us to fight that?!”

“I know it’s asking a lot. And I fully understand not wanting to be a part of this mess…” The Dean paused for a moment, looking down in contemplation before returning her gaze to Twy, and then Phoenix, and then Kestrel. “…It was us, Hero Machina, who started everything. In a roundabout way, you might even be able to blame us for the Nanocreatures claiming enough Ayas to start the Nanocreature War — since we failed to find all of the Ayas before the Nanocreatures could. And while we thought we had ended the war… even that seems to be getting undone.” She laughed sheepishly, though it was obvious that her laughter was directed at herself. “To think… even after Siyuakén’s sacrifice, the Nanocreatures might come back… we really didn’t do anything at all, did we? Just pushed back the inevitable by a mere 20 years…”

“…I guess I can see why you and the other Deans don’t like to talk about the war…” Twy responded quietly.

“No…” Rebehka slapped her cheeks and then shook herself off. “No, I’m just being miserable, right now. Don’t worry, you three. Even if we — Hero Machina — weren’t actually able to stop the Nanocreatures in the end… we’ll help you succeed where we didn’t. You won’t have to face the Nanocreatures alone. Be it them, Morcii, or Ikirom… we’ll prepare you to face them to the best of our ability, and when the time comes, we’ll fight them alongside you, too.” The Dean’s gaze then drifted off, as if staring at something in the distance. “…Anything less would be a disservice to Siyuakén’s sacrifice.”

Phoenix and Twy exchanged an uneasy glance, only for them both to look up at Kestrel as the latter placed her hands on each of their shoulders.

“…I’m sorry. I probably said too much, today,” Rebehka commented, smiling sheepishly after watching the three Earthians’ response. “I know that most of what I said might be hard to swallow, especially since there’s no proof for any of it… damn it, I should’ve asked the others if it was fine to divulge this much…”

“No… thanks for telling us,” Phoenix replied. “I’d rather you be upfront than cagey, like Pallan is.”

“Ha, true, the Archoné certainly doesn’t like sharing information he doesn’t think you need to know… it’s really quite aggravating, sometimes. Like he’s looking down on you.”

“That’s exactly it! That’s exactly how I feel when he talks to us.”

“But if everything the Dean just said is true…” Twy muttered, “…maybe Pallan is right…”

An uneasy silence fell over the group, none of them able to come up with a response to Twy’s voiced thought. Eventually, however, Rebehka took a deep breath and began winding her shoulder. “…Well,” she said, “I won’t claim to know what you all are going through, with the Oraculm, and suddenly going to school on Nimalia, and all that… but if you ever feel like you need to talk about anything, feel free to let me know. I may not be in charge of teaching you, like Davídrius and Kaoné are, but I can still make time for you when I can.”

“Really? You’d be willing to do that? For us, a bunch of outsiders?” Twy questioned.

“’Outsiders’…? You really have been spending a lot of time in Treséd,” Rebehka remarked. “But yes, of course I can. It’s the least I can do after dropping such a bombshell of a story on you, today, ha ha…”

“That’s certainly one way of calling it…” Phoenix responded.

“True… tell you all what, it’s about lunchtime, right? Let me wash up real quick and change my clothes, and I’ll treat you all to lunch. Think of it as thanks for hearing me out…” Rebehka then passed a glanced toward Kestrel. “…And for diffusing the thing with Nil’kin. How’s that sound?”

“Mm… lunch is good,” Kestrel commented.

“Well I can’t very well say ‘no’ if Kestrel’s in,” Phoenix said with a resigned sigh. “I still don’t know what to think about everything you just told us…”

“But at least a meal might help us think,” Twy pointed out, and then offered Rebehka a nod. “I’ll take you up on that, too.”

“Good to hear. I’ll meet you three outside!” Rebehka replied cheerfully, and then began heading out herself, leaving Twy, Phoenix, and Kestrel to ready themselves for lunch — and to mull over all they had just learned.