Chapter CXIX: The Cyborg ~Ark

Ark stopped Lich from falling onto the cold, marble floor by propping his hands under his armpits as his feet slipped from beneath him, then lay him down gently on the ground.
"Heratu's, Your Em-" Ark started.
"Please, call me Lumina here," it said.
Ark nodded, then looked around. He had never been in the Light Palace before - Lich always told him fervently to train himself up with the Spear at the Dark Palace while he trained himself up here. He did not know why he was so adamant about not being in his presence. Even though it was his first time, the smashed stained-glass windows looked very out of place.
"I don't mean to sound rude, but the décor here…"
Lumina looked around.
"Seems we've had some rowdy visitors. Never fear."
Its eyes closed, and a golden wave of light extended from the Light Elemental in all directions. Vandalism washed away and was replaced by brilliance - it seemed to extend further than the wreckage: the windows seemed to shine much better than they ever would have seemed to, the yellow bricks of its structure seemed more golden and the floor sparkled. It was an awesome sight to the magenta Yoshi.
"They do commission me to make gold for the city, you know," Lumina smirked. "This is nothing. Anyway, he'll need to lie down, his room is this way…"
As Ark took Lich's torso, to his surprise, his older brother began to levitate half a foot off the floor.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of it. Come."
Ark followed Lumina and his floating brother up a number of flights of stairs, past murals of cities and battles of which he had never seen before.
"What's this place?" Ark asked, pointing at a city with a temple.
"That's the Holy City of Wendel," Lumina replied. "It was a city in the Second and Third Ages. Terrible loss."
If it had a head, it would have shook from side to side.
"And a wise priest lived there?"
"You know your history well."
Eventually, after another few flights of stairs, they passed through a door into a small bedroom. Lich floated in before Ark and came to rest on the bed, then was turned onto his side.
"What happens now?"
"I begin explaining," the Light Elemental answered.
There were a table and two chairs in the room. Lumina gestured by floating towards them for Ark to take a seat, which he did. It "sat" opposite him.
"The eight jewels you're looking for were used as the power system for the Mana Fortress," it began. "It had four generators in which two opposing jewels were put, the jewels being of an element, so you would have put the Diamond and the Onyx in one, the Ruby and the Sapphire in another…get it?"
Ark nodded.
"As the jewels countered each other, putting them together would create a great deal of Mana fluctuation, and it was that fluctuation that drove the Fortress' systems. Put all eight together, and the Mana fluctuation produced is incredibly powerful. On Fa'Diel, the Sword's power is boosted by the Mana Seeds and the Tree, and that makes the Sword even more powerful. But without this backup, if the Sword's off Fa'Diel, then it isn't as strong. It's still very strong, but not enough to overpower the jewels."
"What do we do once we find them all? I mean, how do you fight the Sword with them?"
"Well, you put them together and - "
A loud groaning noise filled the room as Lich woke up, his Heratu's attack passed. He opened his eyes and looked at the two of them.
"Parano, Dyluck," Lumina greeted him.
"You know I can't teleport without getting sick…" he replied, turning onto his back.
"My apologies, it's the fastest way, and I don't have much time."
"For what?"
"To help you get the jewels so you can get the Sword back. You said that you wanted to come here to do some more refinement. Believe me, you're going to need it. Come, I'll explain as we go."
"Refinement," Lich said, looking up and seeing his brother.
Ark noted his surprise as he sat up, and could feel that he was invading personal space.
"Perhaps you'd better go to Mandala, Ark…"
Ark sighed, and turned to walk towards the door, his shoulders slumped.
"I can teleport you there if you wish," Lumina offered.
"No, no…I'll be right," he said, stopped, and sighed again. "It's just that I feel that," he turned and looked at his brother, "that I'm not welcome here. I don't like that feeling from you. You've always, always told me to go there when you train here! And I have trained - I trained up to my Ordination, I trained while on the Spectrum. I do not need any more training at this time, and I'm sure that you know that. You're my brother! There's something that scares you about my being here, isn't there? Why?"
Lich looked at the Light Elemental for support.
"Let him see," it said, then turned to Ark. "But, I can't guarantee that you'll necessarily like it."

Lumina repeated what it had told Ark to Lich as it led both brothers down into the basement floors of the Palace, built since the Resurrection. They stopped before a set of large metal doors.
"Are you still wanting to see this?" Lumina asked Ark, before receiving a nod in reply (Lich looked sour).
The four orbs that rested on the Light Elemental's flame moved in a complicated knot pattern among themselves, before a jet of steam escaped the crack between the two doors. A klaxon hooted as the two doors slid back, revealing the room's contents. Inside, it designed in the same manner as the rest of the palace, minus the stained-glass windows. Ark could immediately sense a large amount of Mana inside it. As the klaxon stopped sounding, he could see an array of strange machinery and a large open space. There was even a small bed, with a monitoring machine sitting beside it.
"This is it?" Ark asked. "You didn't want me to see all that?"
Lich was silent as he stepped reluctantly, yet purposefully into the room, Ark walking in beside him. He had since changed from his robes into his normal outfit, but Ark still remained in his. He could notice fear in Lich's eyes.
"Uh…you okay, Dy?"
"Never felt better," Lich muttered, almost instantly.
Lumina hovered near what seemed to be a cylindrical, golden and brown pedestal. The two walked towards them, Ark noting that the pedestal had many lines etched into its brown surface on top, in particular, one in the shape of a boomerang.
Then he heard Lich sniff. Looking to his older brother, he could see that his eyes had begun to redden and his breaths were taken in ascending series of gasps.
"Dy…are you-"
"Never felt better!" Lich yelled, his voice echoing around the room as he turned towards Ark. "Didn't you hear me the first time? Sit on the bed over there!"
Ark followed the direction of Lich's pointing finger and made his way towards the bed, shaken by the sudden outburst. Was it his presence that was causing this or was there something in here he was afraid of?
After a tearful gasp for air, Lumina's voice reverberated, "Was that really necessary? I know how you feel about -"
"Where's Shero?!" Ark heard Lich demand in another outburst. "I need Shero here. Now."
"I'm already here, Dyluck," the old man's voice entered the chamber, seeming to have a soothing tone.
Ark looked towards the Guardian of the Light Palace as he walked into the room, still dressed in his ceremonial robes, like himself. Ark felt extremely out of place, dressed in his black Ebony Lance robes and wielding the Spear of Darkness in this Palace devoted to its opposite. The two Guardian's eyes met each other.
"So, you've let him see it then?" Shero asked Lich, replied to with a nod.
"I take it that 'it' refers to what's called Refinement," Ark said.
"Yes. I heard him tell you to sit on the bed over there. I suggest the same."
Ark sat on the bed as Shero continued to walk towards the pedestal. Lich crouched down and let Shero's arm rest across his shoulders as what seemed to be words of encouragement - or the like - were communicated. It seemed to be almost ritual, from what Ark could gather.
"Nuclear radiation," Lich's voice suddenly ended the muttering as Shero's arm retreated. "That is considered to be light by you, isn't it?"
"Indeed it is," Lumina would have nodded.
"I want an attack of that sort."
"That's pretty dangerous, Dyluck," Shero told him. "It could make the Arc unstable. You know that it's a delicate balance as it is."
"Then counter-balance it."
Silence filled the chamber except for a low, quiet humming noise. Shero looked thoughtful.
"A light converter with a radiation shield around it…that'll probably do it," he nodded.
"And a light converter beam to remove radiation poisoning."
"It can be done," Lumina replied.
Ark drummed his fingers on his knee as the conversation continued for some time about additions to the Arc. Then, Lich took it from his belt pensively, and placed it on what Ark guessed was the boomerang-shaped etching on the pedestal. He then took a deep breath, and placed his outstretched hands, palms down, before it. A pair of metal cuff-locks rose from the pedestal around his wrists, and clamped themselves down. Lich turned his head and looked at Ark, his eyes full of concern.
"You may want to look away," he called softly.
"No, I'll watch," Ark called back, a slight frown on his face.
Lich seemed to be taken aback by that comment, before he turned back towards the Boomerang.
"Start," he muttered.

Lumina hovered opposite him as the low humming noise started to increase in pitch. White lights around the pedestal began to glow in a rhythm, their tempo increasing with the pitch. Ark saw Lich grit his teeth and wince. He could feel the room's aura - something bad was about to happen, and he had to stay out of it, as if for the sake of reverence.
White light burst in beams from the top of the pedestal as the noise whirred and the pedestal lights reached a feverish glow. Lich's voice cried out loudly in three ascending bursts, before he let loose an ungodly scream, the light from beneath him giving him the appearance of a ghoul. Ark winced and shielded his eyes, but Lich's torturous screaming continued, echoing around the chamber and inside Ark's skull. He bent over, shut his eyes and clamped his hands to his ears, but still his brother's horrible cries of pain found their way to his eardrums and into his brain.
"Stop, please stop, please…" he whispered.
As if he was heard, the whirring decreased in pitch and the lights subsided. Lich stopped, and began to breathe quickly and heavily.
"Merging complete," Shero said.
Ark looked up and removed his hands from his ears. He could see the cuff-locks slide back into the pedestal. Lich held on to the sides of it, regaining his breath.
"We're going to need to modify the system so you can utilise the light converter," Lumina said.
"I felt it go into the Arc - isn't that enough?" Lich asked.
With that, Ark realised what his brother had told him before: "The Arc is part of me and I am part of it." The merging process was how additions were made to the Boomerang…obviously Lich could feel that addition, which Ark guessed was the source of his pain.
"It's like the locator beacon," Shero replied. "Remember, we had to add on the receiver to your cerebral unit."
Time seemed to stand still for Ark after Shero spoke. He mouthed the words, "Cerebral…unit…"
Lich nodded then said, "While you're at it, could you please check the bone reinforcements in my legs?"
Ark whispered, "Bone…reinforcements?"
"How come?" Shero asked.
"I'm probably going to be using Fleetfoot a lot."
"Are you going to refine that technique while you're here?" Lumina asked.
"I guess so. I've got it down to 130 points now, Speed 0.02, six seconds duration on average. I'm aiming to get down to 100 and 0.4 by the end of this Fa'dieli year and break the eight second barrier."
"Well, let's get started with the re-calibration," it said. "We'll put in the radiation shield in your throwing unit."
Lich moved over to a table and lay down on it. Shero hooked him up to a cardiogram and placed a Yoshian breathing mask on his nostrils and mouth. He then produced a syringe and began to ease it into Lich's left arm. Lich was soon out.
Ark felt that he was invisible to both the Elemental and the Palace Guardian as he looked on. He saw Shero produce some sort of device that fitted over Lich's legs, then turned so his back was to Ark, and pulled the device down to Lich's ankles.
As Shero moved out of the way, Ark saw that his brother's skin and muscle tissue had disappeared from his legs. In its place was a complicated metal structure that went the full length of Lich's legs, seeming to come out from the hip area and down into the ankles - part of Lich's bone reinforcement system. Ark's stomach began to turn, but what came next was something he would dread seeing for the rest of his life.
Shero moved the device down Lich's right arm. Inside, there was nothing organic whatsoever - there was a complicated system of metal pieces, hydraulic joints, some sort of glowing unit where his palm would be, and many, many wires.
Ark leapt from the bed and ran for the door, trying to find the nearest toilet or bin to regurgitate his last meal into - he did not find any in time, and he threw up on the stairs leading up to the ground floor.
"My…my…brother is…is a-a-a-a-a…cyborg," Ark stuttered.
Normally fascinated with anything robotic, he had an utmost feeling of repugnance for them at that moment: cybernetics was something that he did not like - he felt that the natural body was mutilated. Hence, his brother had to undergo humiliating mutilation to continue his profession - now he knew why Lich felt trapped by the Arc.
Another feeling kicked in - fear. He was now very, very afraid of his brother - he was a hideous monster to him now. And in von Kippo tradition, when faced with something entirely hideous and frightening, even to the spirit within, there was only one thing to do, and he did it.
He ran.
Ark found his way out of the Light Palace and kept running across the small island coated with gilt until he reached the Cannon Travel agent.
"Kippo! Now!" he demanded, breathless.
"You seem to be in a hurry, Guardian" the agent replied, noting Ark's robes. "We can only go as far as Matango."
"I don't care! Send me now!"
Two long minutes later, Ark was flying across the ocean to Matango. He landed a short time later, his adrenaline still pumping. He found the cannon there that pointed to the towns in Pandora, and demanded Kippo again. Another two long minutes later, he was flying home.
But not home, as in the Navel Falls View, he was going home.
He landed in the village green of Kippo and ran south, weaving through the trees. Soon he reached the hole that the river spilt into, and jumped.
He landed in the deep pool at the bottom, the place he had come to many years before, and climbed out. He found a dark corner, the Guardian robes wet and cold, plastered to his skin. Sitting with his arms around his knees, he buried his head in them and began to sob.
Suddenly a bony hand was placed on his shoulder. Looking up behind him, he saw a skeletal spectre with piercing red eyes and a black heart in its ribs, a green stole draped around its shoulders, a blood-red cloak that had faded to pink, and where its legs would have been, an assortment of stars and moon crescents on blackness.
"Welcome home," said the Dark Lich.