Dark Crow Rising

"LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET! MEEEEEEEE! OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT!" I scream with growing viciousness. Answering my cry for help, God's power lends me its strength and the shackles begin breaking. They splinter and crack further into powder, bouncing off of me and catching in my hair. Breathing heavily at first, I secure my position as whimpers over come me.

I can almost feel my eyes grow and narrow with each heartbeat, with each little bit of blood that pools out of my limbs. My gaze snaps to my chest, slightly exposed by all the mania. The gap at the top of my shirt is all the more taunting with what it shows. Torment of years past, dotted across my breasts with innumerable frightness.

Even my means of becoming a mother is...

"AHH!" I scream, snapping magic covered hands to anything I can grab. The rock and sway of the giant seems to stabilise enough for me to get down and I stand alone. My hair falls in a straight stream, gravity overtakes my tail in much the same way. Turning the way of my back only entwines both around my body.

Panting and moving a hand close to my heart, I secure myself to what seems to be a handle bar. My gut starts to move with accelerating momentum. Looking its way, I follow the flow of my stomach juices. We're moving...

God's magic bursts to life, locking me in place and taking in the shock. Rubbing my head, I receive no time and am thrown the other way. Whimpering my safety into a tighter form, I wait apprehensively. The giants are fighting, Nin is fighting.

Turning my head towards where Nin kept on going, I blink with uncertainty. He no doubt needs to focus and if I go up there, I will just get in the way. But what good am I here either? I thought I could help. I told Nin I would. Yet, with needles being the means, my fears got in the way.

Memories of a time long gone, evils caused by a people now ash on the winds.

"With how much we're being shaken about, I should still check on him..." I mutter, nodding along with my words and dismissing the magic. Digging my fingers in where I can, I get going along this nauseating path. An impact rocks the giant to its core, throwing me to the floor. Crying at the pain, warm liquid trails down my forehead.

I wipe it and stare, letting its ominous existence push me on. Of all the things I need to ensure right now, my will to go on is the one thing that needs it most. Not even just for Nin or myself, for all in the city. We're in this giant to stop the other one.

To do that, I need to make sure Nin is safe. I can finally return the deed that set me free all those years ago. Maybe he will finally... No, now is not the time.

'Ah'-ing my way upright, I maintain a tight grip and loose arms. All these shakes and impacts, I need recoil control. Freedom of movement, I need to make the best use of it as I can. All the way up to him.

Freezing up at another blow, I can't help but look down the tunnel of this arm when a noise roars down. Cracking stone. It is not long before the sound of dropping, immense weight follows. Nin's panicked roars are immediate.

"I'M COMING!" I cry out, perhaps pointlessly. The students of Suhurlodst become a blur on my right and the blows don't so much as trip me. Stumbling to a stop, I latch onto a pillar as pale-blue light erupts with crackling eagerness. More panicked voices.

I know what this is. It's the dark giant's magic aura. The same thing that has been reducing the land to sand and dust. It's what nearly killed me, Nin and Baltanthan back when... It's rushing for us with the same viciousness as a high-pressure, unclogged pipe!

Whispering a quick prayer, I throw up the power of Iderim-Ovi in an attempt to stop this power. Keeping myself sealed initially, I run with all I have as it becomes clear the aura is reaching people. The end of the tunnel starts to become clear. The light of day is filling out a chamber.

A gash in the rock, from the right arm socket and up the neck to the face...

Leaping ahead, amulet in hand, I seal the gap. Bouncing along the ground, I come to a thankful stop. The locked up student next to me muffles something and I nod, assuming its meaning. A voice roars.

"INERISH!? INERISH!? I'VE LOST THE SWORD ARM! THE AURA IS GETTING IN! DAMMIT, ANSWER!" Nin howls in desperation, the loss forcing us all to run. Positioning myself somewhere sturdy, I watch in horror as he seemingly burns up. Past the floors and into the torso. The fires of raw magic igniting at the unacceptable evil of a magicless world.

But not mine. Not God's. With widening eyes, I clutch my amulet and look at it. I'm the only one who can do this.

"CAN ANYONE IN SUHURLODST HEAR ME!? WE CANNOT FIGHT! SEGAANSALLIS IS GOING DO- DAMMIT, I CAN'T SEE A BLOODY THING LIKE THIS!" Nin howls with an increasingly gnashing jaw. His clothes blowing away into ash. No, sand.

"NIN!" I scream, sending out God's power to seal the chamber from this aura. Rushing in after the magic, I secure the hole and hurry over. Grabbing onto his face, I direct it my way, turning the whole head around! Letting go, he puts our giant's focus where it needs to be. One of his eyes, however, works independently.

He watches me carefully, his pupil calming down while I try to smile.

"It's going to be ok... You can do this... You can..." I find myself sobbing quite pathetically. Tears with no end in sight and the looming shadow out there, striding over the desert. I latch onto Nin when our giant leaps and rolls. Whimpering my fears, I refuse to budge even the slightest, no matter how much the stone scrapes from my skin.

"Liada- Liadanann..." Nin mutters and I bring my head up.