Tales of Zestiria: The World Beyond

Chapter 26

(These fight scenes are killing me. For some reason, I can't imagine four fights with similar aspects. I'm going to combine two boss fights because they're not going to be any longer, the characters figured out the pattern and I'm too lazy to mix things up right now.)

Shirei was next on the list, the third one. Thanks to the second one's short time, the party had plenty of time to deal with the next two. However, they couldn't get too confident. If they stumbled even a bit, they would lose time faster than they gained it.

Arthur, Mikleo, and Rokurou joined Vanessa and Sorey to fight Shirei, a team of people who could work together. Rokurou was a wild card. He tended to work on his own accord and didn't take into consideration what the others did. Only Velvet was known to control his temper, but she wasn't present to do so. Instead, they had Arthur and Rokurou arguing over what step was the best for them. 

The five entered the water earth pulse and got ready for a fight. Rokurou was the one to break Shirei's containment to start their fight. Their priority was to exhaust the Phoenix enough to get it down so Sorey could use the silver flame to calm him down.

Arthur began with an arte to freeze the walls and ceiling as Mikleo shot ice spikes at the Phoenix. Rokurou attacked from behind when the Phoenix was distracted by the casters. When the Phoenix was lower to the ground, Vanessa struck him hard with her halberd and got him to stay down.

"I told you that would be easy," Rokurou said.

"Don't get be so sure," Arthur said as Shirei started to rise.

"Oh come on," Vanessa sighed. "Not this."

"Vanessa?"

"Take cover!"

Vanessa held her halberd above her head and the others followed suit. Shirei flapped his wings and made the ice around him shatter. He gathered energy in his wings, causing the shards to reform into spikes, then shot them at the group. Arthur dashes toward the spikes; he raised his sword and charged its energy, making it glow in a light blue hue. He cut the spikes into smaller pieces, but it wasn't over.

Shirei continued his attack and made the smaller icicles go after Arthur. Rokurou, Vanessa, and Sorey helped Arthur in cutting the ice to pieces small enough for Shirei to give up using them as a weapon. Instead, Shirei shot a blast of ice at them to freeze them in place. Mikleo countered by using a water arte. Both attacks clashed with each other and created a clump of ice between them.

Arthur jumped and sliced in half, then propelled himself off it and struck Shirei hard enough to send him crashing into the ground and hard. Sorey used the silver flame to purify him and he regained his senses. He told the party the story about the man who attacked him. He didn't know anything beyond the first few minutes and gave Vanessa a blue feather to help her out.

Last was the Phoenix in the earth's pulse of the earth element. They had an hour and a half left before the timer went to zero.

"You did this faster than I expected," Lucilius said as he showed up behind the party.

"No thanks to you," Velvet retorted.

"Now, now, don't be so upset darling. You're doing great."

"You did this in the first place, why tell us to stop what you started?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"No..." Vanessa responded.

"If you get out alive, which I know you will, I'll give you the answer." The man left without a single word after that.

"Is it okay to say I hate him?" Vanessa asked.

"I don't see a problem, I think we all do," Arthur sighed.

Sorey, Vanessa, Edna, Eizen, and Magilou, were the final team for the fourth Phoenix, Mo'ona. They started strong, with a plan in mind, and the team to fulfill it. Magilou and Eizen stayed in the back to cast Artes while Eizen, Sorey, and Vanessa took the lead on the frontal attack. With the help of earth Artes, the fighters were able to get high enough to reach the phoenix to deal damage.

Mo'ona used her power to break the platforms Vanessa and Sorey were using and made the ground unstable to stand on. Rocks would shoot out randomly and holes would be created without warning. Edna and Eizen tried to fix the ground to help their allies as Magilou shot Mo'ona with artes of different elements. Since the party was having a hard time standing still, she used her cards to act as platforms instead. Which also painted a target on her back.

Mo'ona went straight for her. She dodged all attacks from the Phoenix and yelled for Sorey and Vanessa to hurry up before she got tired of it all and left. Eizen sighed, it was typical of Magilou to not care about the situation at hand and leave when she saw fit. He jumped off the card he was standing on and punched through the rocks in his way to reach Mo'ona. He didn't care if he got hit on the way down.

He punched Mo'ona to stop her attacks and threw her in the attack she was preparing for him. His bad luck activated and as she tried to get up, a piece of the ceiling broke off and hit her. She was stuck underneath it and too weak to control it. Edna pointed her umbrella at the rock to break it; she turned her back to the Phoenix and held her umbrella over her shoulders. It was over by that point, no question about it. Sorey purified Mo'ona and Vanessa got the last feather, one that glowed in orange light.

The five returned to the inn where the others waited for them. With the timer at zero and no causalities, it was safe to say the threat of the phoenixes was gone. All that was left was the one who started the problem. Arthur went through the Requiem to try to find answers and asked if he could be alone while had read through it.