|| The Harbinger's Guest ||

|| Part 5 ||

Quick Author's note:

I may not be the best at writing fight scenes. Forgive me.

I also recently realised that Scaramouche really did burn his doll. I debated just forgetting that fact, maybe just making up that I just changed the actual lore to suit myself, but I caved and edited it. If you noticed that, good job for reading the lore. If you didn't, phew.

💜💜

~

Traveler?

Traveler, can you hear me?

"Traveler!!" a shrill voice screamed.

Aether looked up at the giant machine— a puppet controlled by another puppet. He had done his best to fight just the upper half of his body. Now, he was twice the size he was before. Aether glanced back at his floating companion, clinging to his shoulder. Her eyes were alight with pure fear.

"Traveler, what are we gonna do?" Paimon stammered.

"It'll be alright, Paimon. Don't worry," Aether reassured her, his breathes heavy. His words didn't do much to aid himself.

The metallic sounds of the machine's limbs moving echoed throughout the endlessly tall room. Aether tried to focus, but all his senses were heightened. His eyes were wide as he tried to look at the machine all at once. The sounds were overstimulating him, and Paimon's whines weren't helping. He clung onto his sword, keeping it at the ready. It had seen many fights before. This was just another one of those fights. His eyes narrowed in focus.

The Balladeer's voice boomed through the room.

"Die."

Aether ran forward, sending shocks of electro towards the puppet's metallic feet. It did little to falter it. Aether jumped back as the Balladeer sent waves of electro down in response. Being down here wouldn't help, Aether decided. He needed him to be at his level.

Aether's wrists and chest armour lit up with a yellow glow as pillars of golden rock shot up from the ground, creating a pathway for the Traveler. He ascended them rapidly, and yet he couldn't make enough of them to climb up to the top. No, he'd have to manage with what he had.

He jumped from pillar to pillar, dodging the machines and the blasts of elemental power the Balladeer sent down. He watched the movements of it, trying to predict it's next move. Aether's thoughts were interrupted by the machine's foot, suddenly knocking down Aether's pillar of geo.

Aether clung on to the little rock he had left as he started tumbling down. His eyes looked at the boulders around him. He remembered a certain moment— a move from another user of geo, jumping between rocks.

Never thought I'd use something Itto showed me, Aether managed to process before acting.

Aether leapt forward as the machine's foot still motioned towards him, and darted from rock to rock, closer and closer to it. He jumped off of the final boulder, his sword ready to swing. Aether leapt past the machine's foot, his sword slicing through the metal and through to the other side. Aether dived forward, rolling onto the ground before turning back to see just how affective his risk was.

The machine tumbled forward, knocked off balance by it's limb being completely severed.

Paimon reappeared as the puppet's body fell backwards, and the two of them watched as it toppled over, almost as if it were in slow motion. Aether ran forward once again, leaving Paimon behind.

He jumped up onto the puppet's falling body and ran across it. His strength from when he had all his power was slowly but surely returning, and each fight he had between a Harbinger only proved that further. He ran towards the giant electro symbol on the robots chest, and stood on it. He looked up at the puppet's head, and he couldn't find Scaramouche inside of it. He looked around him.