Sariel
Vatican City
12/22/2026
Evening, Thunder
Originally Posted by
Sariel
"W-what is going on?"
"..."
---It takes awhile for Alyx to answer.
Certainly, the girl was different from Cosmos in a number of ways, their differing methods of dealing with their grief had been proof enough of that; where one shut down completely, the other had thrown herself into a frenzy of work, of distractions, all in the name of being able to think about anything other than the bizarre tragedies that had struck her and her family, and...
---While that is, perhaps, admirable in it's own way, the look on that girl's face is proof enough of the beginnings of self-destruction... Her normally kept hair was a mess, clothes torn and burned in places; eyes a sunken hollow that showed the results of days without sleep, eyes that also bear a certain inhuman spark to them that hadn't quite been there before...
Something that doesn't seem malicious no, but certainly inhuman...
Angelic?
Demonic?
Something else entirely?
Whatever it was... The girl felt different somehow...
Perhaps it was just the obvious state of extreme fatigue?
Either way, when she does answer...
"...A lot of things."
It's without a smile.
Just a tired, tired shrug...
"Lailah is trying to undo the possession on that Goddess over there, as for the barrier..."
Her gaze returns to the distance.
The blonde angel next to her -tall, inhumanly beautiful- smiles at you.
It's a smile that's impossible to read, but again, a flicker of something like nostalgia gnaws at your mind...
"There are... things out there. Legion-types. A sort of spiritual parasite... They're not very smart, tactically they just do the basics, attack the weak point, that sort of thing... So we put up the barrier and made the weakest point right here... They'll attack this place instead, easiest way, funnel them in so we can work as a unit."
She sighs.
Her voice is emotionless... Not out of choice, just...
It's like she's been drained dry...
"...Not that they will any more, they don't need too. It's almost the 24th... Even if that's only true for this place, that's good enough, it fulfills a condition in the cognition... Saviors can more easily appear on this day... And the definition of a Savior can be quite broad indeed..."
A humorless laugh.
"Ah damn... I'm doing it myself now. Being too damn complex and vague... Sorry. Isaac would know the mechanics behind it better than me, Mr. Perfect was always good at teaching... I guess you could say we're waiting for a final boss to come rolling through here?"
She says it bluntly, using banal terms, terms that are far too casual for the situation at hand...
"We forgot the mission. The X-Cross. Now they're pulling something right out of our heads, letting it grow here, in this city removed from the rest of the world... It won't be the real thing, but that won't matter much."
She shakes her head.
"Providence will descend here."
Her eyes narrow.
"All we can do at this point... Is hold it here as long as we can when it does... Sucks, but these things happen I guess..."
Providence?
That word again...?
The youth from before had said it, and now that you were hearing it again...
What was this... fear... Erupting in your chest?
It sends a shiver all throughout your body...
...And you can't place why.
[Sariel Intermission: God Slaying Sword END]