Run, Faith

As soon as Oberon ended his sentence, I couldn't even open my mouth with astonishment at his plan.

Everything was perfectly aligned due to Cynthia's interventions. She was putting together a puzzle for nine months, using Finlis to distract me and prevent me from solving the problem.

She had me beat.

I heard leaves in the shrubbery around me start to shift, and my heart began to pound inside of my chest.

"Faith Asterio, your body will be used for a good cause," Oberon told me.

[A.I. RECIEVED]

[Run.]

The Gaze of Wrath instantly activated and I found myself striking the ground with my heel, diving out of the way just in time to escape Oberon's extended hand.

I used my Iridescent Strands to sever his arm, causing blood to spill around me. It caked the bottom of my head in blood of viscous texture, getting in my mouth by a little.

I spit it out and immediately saw another warning go off. I slid on the ground to avoid a dense attack of a Strand Spear, allowing it to collide into the ground behind me. I attached Strands to it and launched it back in the same direction it came, bursting another one into Strands that was coming at me, and slashing the other one down as a normal projectile.

Several other attacks were being thrown at me, and before I knew it, both Ultima and Oberon were starting to attack again.

[A.I. RECIEVED]

I absorbed another one of the sisters and cocked my fist back as it became coated in black coloring. I struck Cynthia in the chest and kicked Oberon in the face with my heel, causing a shockwave to shoot out from both of them that was so intense that it crumpled cement in a quarter-mile radius around me. It split mountains and scorched trees to nothing but ash.

I landed on the ground, refusing to stop running in the plume of dust and dirt floating in the air around me. I was getting too close to a dangerous situation I wouldn't be able to avoid.

As soon as I passed a certain point while running, I came across Charlie, who was just as confused as I expected him to be.

Time slowed down as I passed by him with a look of fear in my eyes. 

I sent a message directly to his eyes with my own, thinking about it and delivering it telepathically.

[They are hunting me. You have to hide.]

Charlie grew stiff and immediately ran as fast as possible in the same direction as me. After a few moments, he split off to the right after I pointed that way. I realized that his growth had increased as well, as he was keeping up with my speed for a few moments as I ran further.

I bounced off of cliffs and thin rivers between what had been split and ruined, avoiding Strand attacks as often as possible. 

I cut down what was possible, and avoided what wasn't. I jumped between each attack and kicked the parents of Sky's friends out of my way.

I had never been in so much danger... and it kept getting worse.

Arthur and Finlis both appeared in front of me with their fists cocked back. Even if I was able to dodge this attack, the shockwave from their punches would send me straight into the people I was running from. I was cornered...

[It hurts, doesn't it?]

[What? Who are you?]

I began to receive messages in my eyes from an unknown person. It didn't have the color of Avie, Umbra, or Hikari that it normally did. It was something else entirely... colored with a moving rainbow... Iridescence?

This text was... coded in strange symbols... but I knew them? It was speaking directly to my brain without the need for my senses.

[Faith... what is going on?]

Umbra began to speak with me in the fraction of a second I spent flying through the sky. Iridescent Strands started to surround my body and encase my back with them.

Then.

My ribs popped out as if they were forced. Horns began to grow on my head. My body shifted and blood began to seep from the corners of my mouth as my canines grew in size.

Wait a minute... I know this... what is this...?

[Chroma Mode]

[The Pinnacle Form]

[Harness the Ultimate Power of the System]

I received something from the strange text that increased my senses. The Gaze of Wrath multiplied in pressure and the ground underneath me sank. Both Arthur and Finlis were brought to the ground, digging over four feet in while I flew over them.

An Iridescent Saber the size of a skyscraper came out of the palm of my hands and instantly was slammed downward into the ground behind me. 

Since Charlie ran to the right of my old position, I was able to safely strike the ground and disrupt my followers. When I hit the ground I felt an itch in my brain soothe and fade away. I wasn't sure what I hit, or what damage I did.

When I landed back on the ground, my form reverted back into simple Iridescence and I was met with a conversation between the sisters shooting off in my eyes. I ran forward.

[What the hell was that? My vision just went dark!]

[That wasn't any of us... Faith, what just happened?]

I was too focused on getting away and finding safety to pay any attention to the sisters in my head.

Then, as if an electrical shock was sent straight to the center of my brain. My body locked up and more words appeared in my eyes.

[Instillation... Complete...]

[Eternia Palm]

[Raida Fluidity]

The muscles in my leg went completely dead as the entire bone turned to liquid within my flesh. It was painless and unintentional, but upon doing it, I whimpered in fear. I wasn't sure what just happened to me.

[Faith, give me control!]

I gave up control of my body to Umbra and she picked me up, fixing my leg and continuing to run further into the forest, then turned into a cave.

"This will have to do," Umbra said. When she warped into my body, strands of my hair turned black. I was more than confused with what was happening with myself, watching in fear to see if anything else would occur.

Umbra picked my hand up where my White Stone left to be, and in its place, a mark was present...

And I vanished into Strands, warping somewhere else.