This particular emanation of Dark Force was quite ugly and gross. It seemed to be made like an insect, a hard, black exoskeleton covering its giant body. As we approached, Wren put up a NRG Barrier and Rika cast Saner. As Kyra was about to use Warla, Dark Force lashed out and released a ShadowBreath on her. She flew back and was unconscious before she hit the ground with a massive thud. Rune dashed to her side and administered Arows, while Chaz unleashed a smashing blast of Nathu. Kyra was back on her feet in no time, ready to fight once more. She cast Tandle, a skill that she had just recently acquired, and combined it with a blast of Nawat from Rune, resulting in Conduct Thunder, a brutal attack combo. We plugged away at Dark Force, using Grand Cross and FireStorm, as well as Rika's dilapidating DoubleSlash. Wren got in one or two very good shots of Burstroc, one with the aid of Rune to create Shooting Star. Dark Force was attacking rather weakly, only hitting one member of the party at a time. This allowed us to make some rather nice and brutal attacks on it. "This thing is going down too easy," Chaz yelled, just before enclosing the demon in a cylinder of Gizan. "Yeah," Rune commented. "Something is not right here." Rune then added Nawat to the mix, concocting a brew of Blizzard. After the mini-snowstorm, Dark Force hit, this time the whole party, with a deadly attack of Light Shower.
We were instantly hit with thousands of tiny bolts of lightning, making our weapons conduct electricity, as well as any metal or Laconia armor we were wearing. We all dropped our weapons and cast off out armor, while Wren sparked and sizzled. Rune, not able to tear his SilverCirclet off in time, was overcome by the shocks and thrown to the ground in convulsions. Wren, somehow, managed to recover and used Star Dew on the party, who began to fight once more.
I ran to Rune's side and took him in my arms. I obtained a small vile from my pack, one Bindo had put there for this exact purpose. "An Esper should be prepared for anything," he would say. I forced Rune's mouth open and poured the purple liquid, called Sangian, down his throat. My eyes then moved away from my husband for a moment to the party, who was delivering what would be the final blows to Dark Force. I looked back down at Rune, whose convulsions were starting to calm down a bit, and kissed him on the forehead. He opened his eyes, just as the others started to come our way, fresh off a victory. "You're going to be alright, you just need to rest for a while," I said softly to him. "What happened?" Rika questioned. I explained how Dark Force's Light Shower shocks had conducted through his SilverCirclet before he had time to cast it aside. The energy had overloaded his telemental powers and sent him into convulsions. The Sangian, an ancient Esper potion, counters the effects of telemental disorders such as the ones Rune had suffered. We all did some minor healing with the help of Rika and her Sar technique. Then, with the help of Wren and Chaz, we carried Rune out of Garuberk and got the surprise of out lives.
As we walked out of the now crumbling tower, we saw something that hadn't been seen on Dezo for years…Algo. The sun was blazing, shining bright, reflecting off the snow. It was still cold, bitter cold, but Algo shone bright with brilliant radiance. "Well, I guess we know once and for all just what was causing the snowstorm," Rika commented. As we all piled into the Digger, Kyra stopped at the door. "I need to go back to Meese, they need me there. Now that the Black Energy Wave is gone from Dezo, the people of Meese and the refugees from Reshel need the help of the Espers." We all agreed with her and bid her farewell. I then got a horrid feeling in my stomach, and Rune looked my way concerned, and said, "You feel it too, don't you?" The party looked at us strangely, and Chaz was about to ask just what was going on, when a huge explosion shook the ground. In the distance, a chimney of smoke slowly rose over the now clear Dezolisian horizon.
