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Chapter 5: The Crystal City
🕑 Added 2025-09-29 16:04:26 +0000 UTCCrystarium was a breathtaking impossibility.
The city was carved directly into the face of a mountain, its crystalline structures and gracefully arching towers resembling a geode cracked open to reveal a city of gems. Its only entrance was a single, impossibly long bridge that spanned a chasm thousands of feet deep, a dark abyss where the roar of rushing water echoed from below.
Even from a distance, Leo could see multiple checkpoints dotting their end of the bridge, all of them heavily guarded.
Ashem's cat ears twitched, her head tilting as she listened to something Leo couldn't hear. "The water in the canyon," she murmured, more to herself than to him. "It's saturated with Light Aether. The chasm itself is part of the defense."
Leo just stared. A magical moat, a fortress city, and a massive, glowing tower that seemed to hold up the sky. It was no wonder the merchant had called this place safe. It felt like the safest place in any world. Unless you could fly, there was no way you were getting past the guards on this side, and even if you did, a shimmering, almost invisible barrier seemed to hum with power over the city on the far side of the bridge.
"The Crystal Tower on the Source," Ashem said with a note of awe, "it never had a city as magnificent as this beneath it."
"Stop."
As they reached the first checkpoint, a figure stepped out to block their path. The guard was a tall woman with tanned skin and a cascade of snow-white hair, from which two long, elegant rabbit ears stood alert. She was dressed in practical light armor over a red tunic, with a pair of deadly-looking chakrams hanging at her waist. Her expression was severe, her posture radiating an authority that demanded respect.
Leo, who thought he was getting used to the strange new realities of this world after meeting Ashem, still found himself doing a double-take. This wasn't some cute, fluffy bunny girl; she looked like a battle-hardened general.
Noticing his stare, the guard closed the distance between them, stopping a few feet away. She crossed her arms, her sharp eyes scanning them from head to toe.
"You're not from around here," she stated, her voice crisp and questioning. "Your clothes are strange, and you, sir," her gaze fell on Leo's bloody arm and leg, "you're covered in blood."
She stared them down, her presence utterly intimidating. "This is the Crystarium. It is a sanctuary, not a place for just anyone to wander into. I am Lyna, commander of the guard. If you wish to enter, you will answer my questions." Her eyes narrowed. "So… where are you from?"
"The city-state of Gridania, in the Black Shroud," Ashem answered immediately, her voice clear and confident.
Leo hesitated, then wisely decided to say nothing.
"Grid…ania?" Lyna repeated the word as if it were a foreign object in her mouth. Her brow furrowed. "I have never heard of such a place. Are you mocking me?" The temperature seemed to drop several degrees. "We of the Crystarium hold no prejudice against origin or identity, but we do not welcome liars."
Her expression hardened from stern to dangerous. In a single, fluid motion, she unhooked one of the chakrams from her waist and threw it.
Leo's heart leaped into his throat. He instinctively threw his good arm up to defend himself, his mind screaming. She's trying to kill us just for giving a weird answer?!
A silver flash whistled past his head. The sharp clang of metal on metal rang out from directly behind him. A split second later, a heavy impact slammed into his wounded arm, making him cry out as phantom pain flared through his nerves.
He spun around to see a monster, a hideous creature that had appeared from nowhere, its claws locked with Ashem's bare arm. She had intercepted its attack, and Leo knew with sickening certainty that the pain he'd just felt was a psychic echo of her own. He couldn't fathom how Ashem, with her slender frame, could so easily hold back a creature nearly three times her size.
Lyna's chakram, having ricocheted off the canyon wall, flew back and sliced deeply into the monster's twisted head. Ashem seized the opening, a one-handed sword materializing in her grip. A flash of light from the blade sent the monster staggering backward, but it didn't flee. It let out a shriek and lunged at her again.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Leo's own body moved on adrenaline. He raised the Glock, his hands surprisingly steady, and squeezed the trigger three times. The shots struck the creature's white hide, but instead of punching holes, they erupted in brilliant, searing flashes of light, leaving three glowing, cauterized wounds. He stared at the pistol in his hand. It had changed. The dull black metal was now etched with faint, glowing blue patterns that pulsed in time with his heartbeat. It felt like it was humming with a power that wasn't his.
Ashem glanced at him, her eyes wide with surprise. She could feel it—the energy Leo's gun was consuming with each shot was her own Aether, her own life force.
But she didn't stop. As the monster paused to roar in agony, she swung her sword in a vicious arc.
"Verflare!"
Pillars of raw, crimson energy erupted from the ground beneath the monster, engulfing it in a silent, devastating explosion. The creature swayed, then collapsed in a heap.
Only then did Leo get a proper look at it. It was vaguely humanoid, but with leathery wings, a lashing tail, and a grotesquely twisted head. Its entire body was a stark, unnatural white, and it pulsed with a cold, ominous light that felt like the opposite of everything pure and holy.
The monster's body glowed brighter and brighter until, with a final flash, it dissolved into a shower of Light Aether and vanished.
"A Sin Eater," Leo breathed, the merchant's fearful words echoing in his mind.
Where the monster had disappeared, a single, dim ring lay on the stone ground.
Lyna walked over, her chakram already back at her waist. She looked at the ring and sighed, a flicker of sorrow crossing her stern face. "It seems it just claimed another victim." Her jaw tightened. "This is the fourth this month. I wonder who the poor soul was this time."
As she spoke, the gem on the ring flickered to life, projecting a final, ghostly image into the air.
The merchant. He was leading his Chocobo through the forest when two of the creatures appeared. He fought bravely, killing one, but his warding ring flared and died. The final, silent image was of a Sin Eater's claws punching straight through his chest.
"It's him," Leo whispered, his stomach turning to ice. "The uncle…" He could still see the man's tired smile, hear his voice talking about his family.
"You knew him?" Lyna asked, her voice softening slightly.
Ashem shook her head, her own expression somber. "We met him on the road. He was a good man. We tried to get him to come with us."
"Alas," Lyna murmured, a familiar sadness in her eyes. She had clearly seen this too many times. "We will send a party to retrieve what's left. We can only hope he does not rise again as one of them."
She turned back to Leo and Ashem. "Killing a Sin Eater proves you're not allied with Eulmore, at least. But you still have questions to answer."
Ashem opened her mouth to explain, but a rush of footsteps from the bridge interrupted her.
"Lyna! Are you alright?"
A gentle male voice drew their attention. The newcomer wore a loose, hooded robe that obscured most of his face, and a long staff was slung across his back. As he drew closer, Leo could see that parts of his right arm and neck weren't skin, but were made of a deep blue, crystalline material.
Lyna immediately straightened, her demeanor shifting to one of deep respect. "My Lord Exarch. I am fine. It was just a stray. There was no need for you to come yourself."
"It is a relief it was not a larger swarm," the Crystal Exarch said, his voice calm and soothing. "But we must remain vigilant." He turned his hooded head toward Leo and Ashem. A faint smile could be seen in the shadows of his hood, and the crystals on his skin seemed to shimmer.
"Lyna," he said, his voice carrying an unquestionable authority. "These two are my guests. I will be taking them into the city now, if you don't mind."
