15[21:03] Xia Lan leaps, the armored figure tenses, Prakka rears up... in a shadowland among the layered dead, battle is joined. 15[21:15] The armored figure ignores Xia Lan, their terrible green blade arcing past her to Prakka, who almost falls off his lizard avoiding it. "XIA! RUN!" [21:20] 13Xia Lan ignores Prakka's shouts in the heat of the moment, swinging her twin hook swords wildly against the armored foe. "THIS IS FOR KANA," 13she shouts as her strikes clang off the faceless enemy. 15[21:22] "KANA WOULD WANT YOU TO LIVE!" Prakka shouts. His voice is strained and desperate. [21:23] 13She turns her face towards him, briefly. Her glare is harsh. "You have no RIGHT--" 13Her voice cracks, and she spins back around to keep her eyes on their foe. How DARE he. 15[21:29] "Xia--" He doesn't talk anymore as his lizard finally gives in to its animal panic and carries Prakka's bottom half away, leaving the rest to stain the ashen ground bloody. [21:40] "Prakka!" 13Oh, gods. She looks around for a way out, a way away, but she can't just - leave them here. Prakka was right. She has to get out of here, but... She circles around the monster that just casually slew her friends and tries in vain to lift Kana's body out from the sand and dust. She can't just leave her here! [21:48] 13She can't... but she also can't seem to lift Kana Kavu. She manages to drag her slightly away from the - demon, devil? Whatever this monster is, grunting with effort. 15[21:54] She barely ducks out of the way of a thrust that would've got her through her ribcage. She's prone against the ground now, beside Kana's body. What does she do? [22:04] 13She hesitates for a long moment before scrabbling to her feet and dead-on sprinting away from the monster. She couldn't even save their bodies. Xia Lan won't slow down until she can't hear it behind her anymore. 15[22:10] Xia Lan finds herself blinded by the morning sun, the ground heat-baked already, the shadowland a mirage behind her. With no water, no compass, and no drive to go on, she must get home. 15[22:13] She makes it over hardpan and past ancient dried lakebeds, and through mile after mile of featureless red desert. She finds the strength to stay on her feet, her will refusing to let her "ssSSSSSSSS" a snake emerges from the brush, mottled black and tan! It lunges at Xia Lan! [22:19] 13She stumbles back, lashing out with her hook sword as she dodges away from the snake. Something about facing death makes you less likely to shriek in terror and fall over yourself to get away from a single, puny snake. 15[22:21] Her blow strikes home! Xia Lan hears the serpent scrape hideously against her hook sword, but it can't cut through. Instead, the serpent winds against the blade, sliding along it as if it were smooth as a tree branch. She has no hope of avoiding the bite. [22:22] 13Oh no. 15[22:22] Xia's vision swims. Her arm burns. Her shoulder burns. Her chest burns -- every breath comes in like fire. She collapses, on her hands and knees in the desert, as the snake winds itself free. 15[22:24] The serpent cuts a path through the dusty ground into the brush. Xia watches it insinuate itself into the branches of a barren brown bush. Xia and the bush alike cast no shadow. The sun is directly overhead. 15[22:26] Xia sees the bush ignite, red and gold and white, a flame that pillars high into the sky but doesn't spread through the underbrush. It's then that Xia hears a voice. A voice that comes from everywhere. A voice that calls her name. 15[22:26] Xia Lan. 15[22:27] My daughter. My herald. My best self. [22:30] 13She can't even muster the energy to cry. She chokes out the words, mostly to the ground: "Let me die in peace." 15[22:32] No. 15[22:33] No death. No peace. Not for you. 15[22:34] You suffer as I suffered. To fail and be failed. To touch the ruins of what we loved and turn away. 15[22:35] No more. 15[22:36] You are not lost. You are not defeated. You are not alone. 15[22:38] Know that I am the Sun Unconquered. You will rise. You will find kin. [22:49] 13Xia Lan manages to look at the burning bush, leaning on her side. This has to be some dream her body's cooked up to make her last moments less miserable. She waves an arm towards the desert expanse, dropping it back down at her side; Not lost? Not defeated? Not alone? "I'm already dead. Save somebody else." 15[22:50] I will not save you. 15[22:50] You will. 15[22:50] You will save yourself and then you will save me. [22:52] 13She squints at the bush. "You... really are the Sun?" 15[22:54] The burning in her chest is almost unbearable now. 15[22:56] The bush flares white-hot, impossible to ignore. Xia's eyes burn and sting. 15[22:56] I AM. I AM 15[22:57] DOUBT IF YOU MUST. BELIEVE WHAT YOU MUST. BUT YOU ARE MY CHOSEN AND YOU WILL MARCH INTO THE FLAME. [22:59] 13She winces, but does not turn away. Instead, she begins to crawl towards the burning bush. 15[22:59] Xia might interpret the tremendous heat and pressure she feels bearing down on her body as pain. It's as if all the world's caught fire and it's all converging on her at once. 15[22:59] WALK INTO FIRE. RISE UNFETTERED. BE REBORN. 15[23:00] Breathe in. [23:12] 13Glorious golden hearts shine down from on high, blindingly brilliant in the noonday sun, shimmering and dancing, rising ever higher as more and more appear. The desert wind whips at the sand, but she can't even feel it. Her anima surrounds the Unfettered Xia Lan, who rises to her feet and faces the Sun.