Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

Chapter 4: Exorcism!

“Hey, good to see you again” Hank shouted waving a hand in the air. The well-built motavian was wearing a maroon-coloured robe with a black bow-tie. He actually had his feathers combed back neatly too, almost making him look like a different person.

Both hunters stepped out of the teleporter and made their way over to him.
“Autumn, you look stunning girl” he replied “Sorry I didn't spend any time with you I was catching up with some very old friends of mine. Old school mates to be exact”
“Thank you Hank, I appreciate it, but it was actually Elisa who made me look this good. I never would have gotten to this stage by myself”
Both Hank and Will laughed, Will then gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder.

Elisa then walked through the automatic door and her face brightened up when she seen all three hunters in their formal outfits.
“You all look magnificent!” she exclaimed running to the three.
As she arrived at the group the scent of fresh flowers could be smelt. It was clearly her perfume.

“Hey, who is this hunk?” a voice asked, in a somewhat sexy tone.
All four turned around to see Kyra walking toward the group, with a large book in her arms. She then arrived and slapped Will on the back, almost knocking him to the ground.
“Whoa!, what the hell WOMAN!” he shouted
“You're cute!” she responded “What's your name? I'm Kyra”
“I know who you are, Autumn told me, I'm William Walsh” he replied somewhat annoyed.
“Walsh hey, I know another certain someone with a surname exactly the same, he had blue hair too” Kyra gave Will a cheeky smile, ending it by poking out her tongue. “I'm just messing with ya Willy”
“WILLY!!!” he exclaimed in complete shock “It's Will”

Kyra all of a sudden turned her back on Will as he began correcting her and faced Autumn.
“This shouldn't take too long Autumn, okay”
Autumn nodded, she had a trusting smile on her face.

“Well I hate to be a party-pooper again, but Isa is home alone at the moment, so I better get going. Don't stay up to late it's nearly midnight” Hank waved as he left the group.
“See you later Hank” they replied.

“Oh and who are you sweetie?” Kyra asked giving Elisa a nice friendly smile.
“I'm Elisa ma’am, I'm friends with Autumn”
“I can already tell you're a very kind girl Elisa. I'm pleased to now know you”
“So how do we go about removing this Saccubus then Kyra?” Autumn asked eager to dispose of it.

“First we need a large area, I was snooping around the training room before it's mostly empty space, so in there would be good.” Kyra suggested.
“How did you get access to that room? it's private property, to non-hunters” Will asked.
“Oh, hush hush Willy”
“That's not my name and you didn't answer my question”
“Fine I know some people in this Hunter's Guild, I could however have gotten in using my esper powers but that of course would be breaking the law. Lets go then!”

---------------

All the hunters walked inside the room, Elisa shut the door behind her as she was the last one inside. They then all sat on the ground. Kyra untied her robe and it fell loosely back and formed a large white cape. Revealing her wearing a white long-sleeved shirt and blue leggings. She also had two very sharp looking slashers tied to her belt.

She then laid down the huge book she was holding on the floor, the other three crowded around it. Kyra began flicking through pages. Autumn recognised that the book was full of information on dark beings, she noticed the Chaos Sorcerer and the Gi-Le-Farg, even Medusa was in the book; the very same creature she killed almost three months ago.

Kyra came to a stop on the page that read Saccubus, the image looked very similar to the face of Dark Force but it had no body to it, making it a floating head, shrouded by some dark aura.
She then spoke to the group. “A Saccubus is a very special kind of dark being, they actually cannot physically harm the victims which they follow. They simply torture their minds often making illusions of what the victim fears most. However the victim can harm themselves while in this nightmarish trance.”

“I suppose that explains why my slap mark was still on me even after I woke up”
“Wait I though you said you ran into a tree, I knew you were a bad liar!” Will said folding his arms.
Autumn rubbed the back of her head laughing nervously. “Ah, well....”

“Ssshhhh” Elisa butted in holding a finger in front of Autumn's mouth. “Kyra was busy explaining stuff you need to know.”
“Oh right...sorry” she blushed

Kyra continued talking. “The main goal for a Saccubus is one of two things, to get the victim to give in and join the Dark Force cult becoming a mindless zombie who's only mission is to serve the beast. The other option is the victim cannot get over it and ultimately takes their own life.”

Everyone in the room went silent. The thought of Autumn committing suicide if this continued was horrifying, because there would be no way she would ever give in to the creature's desire to join Dark Force.

Autumn then managed to ask in a very chocked up voice “What if I never ran into you, would there have been another remedy to dispose of this thing?” she was very tightly clenching her fists, without even knowing.

“Some say if you pray enough, the gods of Rykros can cleanse your body, but a lot of prayers have gone unanswered, for many unknown reasons. Only they know what's going on with that Rykros planet since the Profound Darkness has re-emerged. But I'm not trying to make you lose faith in the gods, because they have on a number of occasions just with a single thought perished multiple dark beings.”

Elisa then piped up “You know about the Profound Darkness?”
“All of us espers do?”
It was a certain fact that Kyra never knew Elisa acted as it's host however.

“Back to this Saccubus, the very first one ever recorded down in a book was by the great Lutz himself. After Alis Landale and Lutz met each other his very presence was said to scare the Saccubus away from her. The whole time she was never aware it was following her. But she apparently mentioned to Lutz she encountered it in a dream not to long after arriving on Motavia.”

“Uh I don't mean to be ignorant, but I was born slow and stupid. Who is Lutz?” Autumn asked poking fun at her intelligence, even though she was far smarter than what she just announced she was.
“I'd like to know too” Elisa asked curiously.

“I'm not surprised you don't know who Lutz is, he's mainly in this day and age just talk amongst espers. He is considered to be the only true telemental which is basically the highest class any esper could ever reach. His powers and his intelligence is what made him a great role model for all of us espers, we still everyday can learn a lot from his magnificent teachings”

“Wow, Kyra you speak very highly of him, and to think he knew the Alis Landale as well.” Elisa commented taking in what Kyra just said.
“So you espers obviously hold Lutz as highly as us hunters hold Alis?” Will commented

Kyra simply nodded, then she slammed the book shut. “Now then enough chit-chat, I plan to rid you of this Saccubus here and now Autumn” Kyra said standing up raising out an arm.”
“Wait!” Autumn exclaimed, do Elisa and Will have to leave them room?”
“Nope”
“Uh, Is it going to hurt?”
“Nope, but you may feel some difficultly breathing for a little while”

Kyra then began whispering some sort of chant, it was very hard to make out what she was saying. It was possible she was whispering on purpose so it wouldn’t be memorised by regular people, who weren’t espers.

Suddenly Autumn felt as though her throat was closing off, her chest began moving in and out of her body extremely fast.
In Kyra's eyes she could see several of the purple markings on her body fading away, meaning it was working, she continued chanting.

Then she stopped. It took a while for Autumn to realise she was breathing normally again. Everyone in the room began to look around expecting to find something.

“So that's it huh?” Will asked
Kyra nodded “Yes your body is no longer branded by the Saccubus it has left you now Autumn”
just as Autumn was about thank Kyra, Elisa screamed.

Everyone turned her way to see a massive floating demonic head at the far end of the room it was huge. It was staring straight at the group it's eyes piercing their very souls.

“Holy crap!” Will exclaimed
“The Saccubus” Kyra said holding her hands over her mouth in shock.
Elisa seemed frozen in fear.

Autumn however looked rather angry. She began walking toward the huge head.
It then spoke via telepathy it's voice was very deep and evil sounding. “Aren't you lucky!?” it said referring to Autumn. “I was hoping you would have slit open your throat and bled to death you worthless worm!”
Autumn clenched her fists, her eyebrow’s arrowed downward she was clearly angry now. Her mouth was also trembling holding back her rage.
“But fortunately for you the esper managed to meet you half way. I had no plans in getting you to join our cult, I just wanted to hit the girl where it hurt her most; the loss of her best friend was sure to throw her into madness. She would then have to accept the Profound Darkness as her host and in due time Dark Force would consume them both making him the ultimate ruler!” the Saccubus was looking at Elisa as he spoke.

It was quite clear that the dark beings were still after her, even if they had to kill Autumn to make Elisa give in to insanity. But what troubled her most was the Saccubus mentioning Dark Force consuming his own creator.

“You!...” the Saccubus was cut short by Autumn.
“Shut your hole, you've really ticked me off now, I couldn't care less about you dark beings!” the angry numan shouted.

Elisa was whimpering she had both hands pressed firmly against the side of her head, squeezing hard. Both her eyes were closed as tears ran down her face. She must have been really shocked that the whole time Autumn was being followed, it was just to get back at her for escaping the Profound Darkness.
Will then ran over to Elisa to try comfort her, he glared up at the huge dark head, looking over the four.
Suddenly Autumn turned and grabbed one of the very long sharp slashers form Kyra's belt.
“Wait Autumn!” Kyra shouted.

“Do you plan to kill me? It wont change anything Dark Force has everything playing out as he planned.”
“I'm well aware killing you won't stop Dark Force or the Profound Darkness you filthy freak!” Autumn then threw the long silver blade into the air. It spiralled toward the Saccubus and began automatically slicing through the dark being, purple blood sprayed all over Autumn who was standing the closest to the creature. It's now lifeless body lay in huge pieces on the floor of the training room.
“Killing you however makes me feel a whole lot better!” Autumn replied with purple blood dripping in big blobs from her long hair. Her dress was now ruined due to the staining of the blood.

None of the group spoke they all just stared at the mutilated corpse of the creature that tried to tear apart their happy lives. It was clear now however that Dark Force had located them. Their short months of peace had once again come to a close.

---------------

It had been almost a day since the incident occurred and Kyra had returned to Dezolis along with the other espers it was a quick goodbye but she promised to see them again next year. Both Autumn and Elisa were standing in the soft beach sand looking out at a beautiful sunset on the glittering water however no one was really enjoying it.

“Maybe that Saccubus was lying? you know maybe the Profound Darkness hasn't really found you again. We shouldn't trust what these creatures tell us” Autumn exclaimed with a somewhat forward tone in her voice.
“I truly hope so.”
“Also, that Saccubus, do you think what it said... about Dark Force consuming the Profound Darkness was true?” Autumn asked not being able to get over the fact Dark Force would back stab his creator like that.
“It's possible, those creatures are just full of hatred, you could say they are hatred given a physical form. It wouldn’t surprise me if they all hate each other.” she replied still starring toward the sinking sun.
“And Elisa do you think what that creature said about you rejoining the Profound Darkness if I died was true?”
Elisa paused before answering “I'm not sure how to answer that question Autumn” the sea breeze gently blew through her hair as she spoke. “Autumn will we be ready for their next attack?” Elisa held her hands close to her chest.
Autumn paused for a moment, then whispered in a somewhat disappointed voice “As much as I’d like to say yes, truth is we'll never know for sure.”

End!