Dyss watched the comatose residents of the town briefly, unsure what exactly to make of them. It certainly seemed possible that the same fate that had befallen Izumi was affecting them, but they didn't seem quite so... Tortured... As Izumi. Or perhaps Dyss was imagining that...

The Memories in the center of town were of more concern. Recheov and Toushikyo were not surprising... But Illorex, perhaps, was. Had Illorex managed to flee, temporarily? Kyla and Hugh were a surprise, too... How many Memories were here, now? Assuming the two armored figures had been Memories that Dyss couldn't recognize, there were now likely more than a dozen, with the majority being under the Legionnaire's control...

Dyss continued to watch, his face taking on a sort of expression of urgency. He was watching something terrible, but was essentially incapable of affecting it... Illorex didn't seem in a condition to run under the best of circumstances... But Dyss couldn't stand by, particularly if Illorex was not yet under the Legionnaire's control. He couldn't risk going back for Illorex, and was incapable of getting there before the worst, anyway. What he could do, if the Legionnaire approached Illorex, was create a sort of invisible patch of infrared and microwave light between Illorex and the Legionnaire. If the Legionnaire tried to reach his hand through, it would feel somewhat like placing his hand directly into a fire...

Kyla and Hugh stopped once they were ten feet from the Legionnaire. The armored king reached his hand up to pat Recheov on the shoulder as he stepped forward, but Recheov avoid it, stepped to the side sharply and spat on the ground disdainfully. The Legionnaire didn't break stride, though. Rather than address that, he took the necessary steps to reach Illorex. They shared words, the Legionnaire confident, Illorex exhausted, and ultimately it led to the Legionnaire reaching his hand forward slowly, armored fingers outstretched for Illorex's skull.

And truth be told, Dyss's interference was less potent than Illorex's, though-- which wasn't to say it it was useless. In fact, Dyss merely added to the effect . . .

Showing the most emotion that he'd displayed in what might have been months, Illorex glared at the Legionnaire's approaching hand. The armored digits were only inches from Illorex's face when the man snapped back, fueling his own power through Dyss's, filling the air before him with a powerful ultraviolet light. But that was only a side-effect. The primary effect, rather, was a surge of power, vaguely resembling a focused explosion. It kicked up smoke all before Illorex, forcing Toushikyo and Recheov to dart away and downwind. Even Kyla and Hugh released Illorex to take cover.

Illorex fell to his hands and knees, panting, but he ultimately forced himself to stand, however strained it might have been. All before him was smoke, kicked up and covering half of the road, carried by the wind to progress down the street with quick procession.

It took a moment for the smoke to clear, and contrary to Illorex's desire at the time, the Legionnaire was still standing. In fact, it seemed he hadn't done so much as budged from his last position. His arm was still half-extended and his hand was open. Black dust covered his armored arm, but it didn't seem to bother him . . . not even in the slightest. With scarce reaction to Illorex's lashing out, the Legionnaire dropped his arm by his side.

The Legionnaire took a step back and held his right arm out from his side, hand open and outstretched for nothing. A rush of wind raced through the street in a circular break, nearly bowling over the shaky Illorex. Toushikyo, Kyle, and Hugh came out from their cover, and Recheov joined them. He'd only stepped away, daring to not follow the lead of the others.

The wind cycled and focused to a single point, right by the Legionnaire's open hand, where it burst and sent a gale down each end of the street, leaving behind two new figures. They were both girls and Dyss only knew one of them. She was the vehicle for this, the traveler that brought the other-- the only Memory that could move at such radical speeds or wield any power over the air. A girl of the Terra clan named Akizetsumei. A girl most often identified as Toushikyo's "sister." She was a short and frail platinum blond (which was styled into lengthy pigtails that fell down to the middle of her back), but she was undoubtedly physically on par with a human twenty year old. She wore a tattered red and form fitting Cizokian dress and knelt by the Legionnaire's side.

Like Kyla and Hugh, there was something missing in her expression. Something lacking. But anyone who knew this girl would be able to see that much. Akizetsumei was one of the most energetic citizens of Memoria. She was consistently happy and did everything in her power to make those around her smile, even if her efforts were frequently in vain. She had a problem, of course, and it was known throughout Memoria: she had a memory span of five to ten minutes and nothing more. Even her long term memory was subject to inevitable loss.

Akizetsumei had her arm wrapped around another girl's shoulder. She was much more tattered that Akizetsumei. Beaten to a pulp, in fact. This one, Dyss would not recognize. She was over average height and wore her hair at shoulder's length. The similarities she shared with Illorex were absolutely uncanny, however. She wore segmented clothes just like Illorex: two different dresses sewn together in the middle. A casual dress on one side and a formal dress on the other. And just like Illorex, she wore a mask. The same type of mask-- the same design, the same size. Everything. Except while Illorex wore his over the right side of his face, this girl wore hers over the left.

There was something wrong with her, though. Something wrong beyond how beaten to a pulp she was. It was her essence. Her everything. It was as if she existed in a haze. Every color about her was muted. Her skin, her hair-- even her clothes, as if she was physically incapable of holding much color at all. The blue-gray shades to her body directly mirror the color of the two soldiers' armor, in fact.

Illorex could do nothing but stare at this girl, wide eyed and slack jawed. He tried to reach out to touch the girl, but as Akizetsumei stood up, the girl stepped back, out of Illorex's reach-- and rather than placing his hand upon her arm as he struggled to try for, he wound up taking the Legionnaire's hand, instead . . .

Dyss hated his powers at the moment. He could watch something terrible happen, but had no ability to change it. Illorex was powerful, but even he couldn't stand against the combined forces of essentially every Memory, it seemed. Dyss wasn't the most powerful Memory by a long shot. He was lucky to meet Recheov and Toushikyo without having been subdued...

Watching Illorex reach up to touch the Legionnaire was the last thing Dyss could watch. Once he had grabbed the hand of the foul "king", Dyss moved his perception back to the lake; he couldn't stand to see any more. Milos wasn't there, which was odd... And made Dyss worry for Attis. If anyone could persuade Attis of anything, it was Milos. While Dyss had no proof that Milos had been converted by the Legionnaire, it seemed almost certain at this point.

Moving as his perception came back, and switching to normal vision to look for Aria, Dyss stirred with a somber look on his face. It was only natural, after all. They had only a single ally who was admittedly ineffectual against the Legionnaire, and Galaens wasn't even an option for fleeing to any more. Not to mention Izumi's comatose state, and Aria's ghostly state... How the hell could Dyss set this situation right?

Aria didn't notice that Dyss was starting to get up. She was mildly preoccupied. At some point, some time after she tore off a piece of the bottom of her dress to wrap her shoulder up, Aria decided to get her feet wet. It was a constant source of temptation for her. She kept looking out into the woods, watching for someone to come after them, but then she'd glance back at the water and once again find herself mystified by it.

For all her life before Ozrik, Aria was content with the city. The Unreal city. She was fine to live in her tiny house in Memoria. But then Ozrik came into her life . . .

He told her about his dreams. He told her about the colors. The trees, the mountains, and the sky. He told her about lakes and oceans. He told her there was so much more outside of their unreal city. And for the first time, she was seeing how right he really was.

Aria stood with her back to Dyss and Izumi, her arms down by her sides, and her feet in the water up to her ankles. It wasn't only a moment ago that she finally decided to step into the water. It felt . . . nice. Really nice. The water was warmer than she expected. Invitingly so. But she couldn't justify going out there. She had to get back to Dyss eventually. Had to forgo these small thoughts and desires in light of responsibility. Besides, Aria didn't know how to swim, anyways . . .

Dyss, as his perception returned, quickly scanned the nearby area, just in case someone was approaching. Aria was maybe not the best lookout, but Dyss didn't anticipate they had been chased this far. Galaens and Illorex seemed to be their major concerns, anyway...

Sitting up, Dyss used the new filter to watch Aria for a moment, the girl seeming perhaps as awed as he had been when he first arrived in the real world. And still was, really. When Purgatory was pretty much all he had owned... Dyss realized that with a moment to breathe, and having Izumi next to him, the world seemed... Different. He could see colors before, but they were more like... Patterns. His normal sight was elegant, but beautiful... No, this was beautiful. Seeing it as a normal person saw it seemed to inspire feelings that he didn't get when he saw everything at once. The colors, the vibrancy... Even the special corrections that seemed to be made in a normal person's vision... Fantastic.

Still avoiding looking at himself or Izumi too directly, Dyss sat up, picking the girl up and moving her towards the water's edge. Dyss couldn't swim, like Aria, but he didn't really want to. Instead, he removed the cloth he had placed over her feet, taking the girl's feet to wash and hopefully relieve them somewhat. His face was frowning and a touch strained, the knowledge of the situation sinking in as he tried to nurse Izumi's torn feet, waiting until Aria was definitely facing him to try to talk...

Aria was well aware of the fact that she shouldn't be out here like this. What she was supposed to be doing was sitting near Dyss, where she could keep an eye out on the tree line. But the water felt too great. It almost pained the girl to do it, but she finally turned around, fully prepared to step out of the water and back to where she had sat to keep watch-- only to find Dyss at the water's edge.

"Ah! Dyss!" she exclaimed, surprised (though her voice only indicated that by how unintelligible it became).

Suddenly she felt terrible. Guilty. That she'd done something she knew was wrong and was subsequently caught in the act. That always made guilt feel so much worse.

"I-- I am sorry," Aria said with a frown.

She knew she should've been keeping watch and it wasn't like she had stepped away for all that long-- but Aria knew it must have looked irresponsible of her to step away at all in the first place. For that, she owed Dyss a sincere apology.

Dyss's face lightened up a bit at her guilt. He certainly didn't have anything against Aria. She wasn't at fault... And didn't know that the armored figures had already left. Or any of the terrible things Dyss had seen...

"No, it's okay. You are fine."

He wasn't sure how much to tell Aria. What could he say, really? We're screwed? It seemed half of Memoria was here, and set against them. He was lucky Recheov and Toushikyo hadn't attacked, as Illorex seemed to have faced... With Recheov and Illorex gone, as well as Milos, almost certainly, and Galaens torn by something... Hope seemed a far thing right now...

"Things are bad. The Legionnaire has almost everyone. Toushikyo, Recheov, Milos, Kyla, Hugh, Akizetsumei, Illorex... And others I can't even recognize, like the armored pair that attacked us before. Galaens is besieged by some sort of green fire, in opposition to some sort of great darkness..."

Dyss turned somewhat more of his attention to Izumi, trying to get his mind off what exactly they were face. Izumi, of course, was in a bad state, and Attis, he had no idea about...

"I have no idea where to go."

That really was bleak. Aria felt something tugging her heart down into the pits of her stomach, and before she knew it, she was walking out of the water to sit on her knees again. It was horrible to imagine the state of Memoria now. Now that the Legionnaire had effectively drafted everyone, that is. Just thinking about it also made Aria well aware of the fact that all her friends must have been dead by now.

Then a select few names struck a chord somewhere in the back of her mind.

"Wait . . ." Aria held out her hand as if to somehow break Dyss's train of thought and call him to pause for her.

It might have been a dramatic change of subject, but Aria had a great deal on her mind. A simple yes answer to this, regardless of how rhetorical the question may have been, would've actually given the girl a wee bit more hope than she currently had.

"Toushikyo, Milos, and Illores are . . . they are alive? . . . Still?" Aria asked, clearly surprised enough by that development that it was worth breaking from the already dismal topic to inquire about.

She also seemed to mispronounce Illorex's name--but the girl was deaf and prone to habitual pronunciations. For as much as she knew how incorrect her pronunciation of Ozrik's name was, she never stopped using it.

"Yes, they're alive..."

Dyss thought it was sort of an odd question, but he realized he hadn't been away from Memoria as long as Aria had. He declined to add that yes, they were around, but they were on the Legionnaire's side now...

"Attis is the only person we can count on right now, though, if we can find him..."

Dyss hadn't bothered to learn much about the area around Galaens or Hillcrest, and it was perhaps coming back to haunt him. Both cities were now lost to the Legionnaire or other supernatural forces, and he had nowhere to take Izumi. Of course, the last time he had trusted someone to watch over her, Recheov had turned to the Legionnaire...

"How did you get to this world, Aria? Do you know anything about this place?"

So that was it, then? Attis was their only hope. Aria suppressed the need to sigh. She'd been in that position before. Attis tried; he fought hard. He always did. But he was always against something he could neither control nor defeat.

She decided not to think about that, and instead answer Dyss's question.

"Ahsrich . . ." she replied, sulking her shoulders as she did.

Aria had to struggle to keep her eyes on Dyss's lips. She quickly wanted to hold her knees to her chest and tear up. There was so much she didn't understand . . .

"He stirred and spoke to me. He said someone was coming and that I needed to be somewhere safe. I . . . I told him that I'd take him someplace safe, and he said 'there's no time for that' and grabbed my hand," Aria recounted the story, feeling worse and worse about it with each passing second, "I opened my eyes and . . . and I was here, in this world."

It was clear to her that Ozrik had somehow sent her to this world. It was the how and why, on the other hand, that struck her the most. How, she had no clue. And why-- because they weren't safe there, nestled within the infinity that is the River Rubicon? For all intents and purposes, she could have kept them both safe. Unless the threat to their lives could, too, wield the power the Rubicon offers, but Aria knew of no one but herself that could harness the power of that river of energy.

"I know nothing of it. This . . . this is my first time seeing it for myself." She admitted, "Ahsrich used to dream about it. He told me of those dreams. It looks exactly as he remembered them . . ."

Though her voice could not change in tone or pitch at her unconscious willing, it was very clear by her wording and body language (how she dipped her shoulders down, how her eyes were moistened by the thought of Ozrik, and how her jaw clenched during pauses), at least, that she wished she could have seen this world with him. That he was here with. And especially that she could know what happened and if he was still safe.

All she could do was hope and pray.

That was somewhat surprising to Dyss... The figure who had been draped under a sheet had sent her to the real world? Dyss still didn't understand the nature of Memories; was Aria a ghost? She seemed to physically affect the world, but didn't alter light. Dyss couldn't see her normally... Or maybe everyone could see her except Dyss, and she was just hidden from him in that method of viewing...

"He must have had a good reason. I could use your help..."

Dyss was almost tempted to give the girl a hug, but he wanted to stay next to Izumi, and it somehow felt wrong to even think of such a thing while she was laying there... Making someone feel helpful was the next best thing. Dyss wasn't sure what Aria was helping with, but he was pretty sure he could use all the help he could get. He wasn't sure what exactly Aria was capable of, either, but she seemed to... Sing? That seemed very strange, but Dyss was technically blind, as much as he controlled light... Perhaps not that strange, after all...

"You sing, Aria?"

"If . . . that is why I was sent here, then I will do the very best I can to help . . ." Aria trailed off; she strongly doubted this conclusion of hers, but there was really nothing more she could do than help out here in this world. It was the right thing to do, anyways.

From what she remembered, Ozrik was rushed and hasty. He had told her someone was coming and that she needed to go someplace safe. This . . . this was not a safe place, but if Aria could actually do something to make it a little safer, even if it was only mildly helpful-- something like inspiring confidence within the heart of someone who could make this place safe again --then that is what she was set to do.

Dyss's question struck her as odd, but only because no one had said a word about that for as long as she could remember. She once sang recitals in Memoria, entertained the dozens of folk that lived there to the very best of her ability, and was actually quite well received. It brought her problems a couple of times, but for the most part-- at least before she met Ozrik --singing was the only joy she found in living.

"I do, yes," she said with a nod.

Dyss nodded, sighing a bit as he thought about the situation. Their prospects against the Legionnaire were, optimistically, extremely poor. The only person in this world he trusted was currently incapacitated by the Legionnaire...

"Thank you, Aria. I'm glad you didn't fade..."

Dyss finished tending to Izumi, wrapping the girl's feet up again in the stray cloth. He felt a twinge of anger as he did... Taking Izumi's shoes, or otherwise forcing her to run without them was an indignity and cruelty he couldn't really abide, not to mention the way she was now comatose...

"Aria... Could you sing something?"

They had to take a bit of a rest, and this seemed as good a place as any. Dyss would watch the local forest periodically, but he laid back next to Izumi and put his hand on top of hers, often wondering if Izumi was still conscious inside...

"I am, too," Aria said with a smile.

It was the first time she'd smiled in awhile. Like this, at least. It was like a joke had been told and she acknowledged the positive humor of it all.

Soon, she nodded to Dyss. He wanted her to sing for him. In the past, it sometimes felt as if it was the only thing she could do for someone, but when Aria finally saw the many positive effects it had on her listeners, it quickly became a non-issue.

The last song she'd sang was a sad one, one about giving in and succumbing to the inevitability of darkness; that all things were born and thus they died, and in the end, all things were forgotten; and that all monuments, physical, literary, and historical, all crumbled eventually. It was a solemn song about giving up, sang when she felt horrible enough to give in. But now she didn't. Now she saw the problems around her and she wanted to help Dyss sort them out. If singing was the most she could do to help him right now, then so be it.

But she was going to sing him a happy song.

For all the girl's disability, her inability to hear and the harshness in which this impeded her ability to speak, when she shut her eyes and focused, she could put angels to shame with the quality of her voice. She sang like that of an opera singer, but where standard opera singers had raw force, she had a vibrant youthfulness. She was a natural soprano, but could reach her voice down to the range of a lower alto whenever necessary.

The song she chose to sing usually had piano accompaniment. It was a longer piece, one of the select few songs she wrote with narrative intent. Piano accompaniment always helped her; the vibrations of the instrument told her what she needed to correspond with. During longer piece, she sometimes lost sight of where her pitch needed to be-- but no matter. Aria had been a perfectionist all but twice in the entirety of her life, and those days were far gone.

The narrative began dim. A man of chaos crossed a desert into a nameless, hopeless town. He carried a grim past of deceit and moral decay; he'd done horrible things to people for no better reasons than simply perpetuating the chaos of life, but succumbing to guilt, he settled within this town at the edge of civilization. He met a girl quite the opposite of himself, a girl riddled with self-generated obligation. She put order to her life in every way, and invited this man of chaos into her home for a glimpse into disorder.

Instead, he gave her comfort, warmth, and respect.

Dyss listened to Aria's song, listening carefully and trying to get his mind off all the terrible things that were happening around them. The narrative was somber to start, but the moral was a good contrast... Dyss thought it felt right, except... Where was his restitution for the wrongs he had done? Was it in his treatment of one girl...?

However, Dyss didn't quite hear the end of the song. As he listened, he suddenly found himself drifting off, the stress of events both witnessed and not witnessed was catching up to him. While it may have been better if he kept watch with his powers, he couldn't help himself.

Dyss's breathing became slow and rhythmic, though his eyes couldn't be seen and didn't relay whether he was asleep or awake anyway. After a minute, he would turn sideways in his sleep and put on arm protectively over Izumi. Dyss wasn't awake to apologize to Aria, as he likely would have done, whether she took offense or not. Depending on her personality, she might be upset that he fell asleep, or flattered that he was comfortable enough to fall asleep...