The group made their way down the sword-scratched hall into an enormous room. It was dark at first until the parasite activated several floodlights, which lit up the tendril-snaked room for the group to see. Strung up along the far wall was Akiba. Zydre scanned him, relieved to see that he was breathing, but only barely. The tendrils attempted to grab at the group again, but Ezaz put a quick stop to that with a breath of fire. Afterward, it was silent as the party made their way over to Akiba.
A high-pitched noise rang out that made them stop in their tracks. Akiba cried out in pain as he fell off the wall. Tendrils snaked toward him over the floor, carrying bits of metal armor that assembled over him and wrapped tightly in place, leaving just half his face exposed. The remaining eye glowed a bright red while the two mechanical eyes on the other side of his face lit up bright blue. His gaze flicked to the party, unfocused and wild, only focusing when it fell upon Zydre, and even then only for a moment. "You are all going to die." He spoke in a whispered tone.
The group milled about, unsure about whether or not they should attack before the infected Akiba answered that question for them. He leapt at the group and separated them with a shockwave fist to the ground. The first to respond was Isken, who fired at him with several rounds from his gun. Akiba growled as the rounds hit his armor, exploding into large dust clouds. He jumped out of the dust without a scratch on him, and before Isken could react, he had slashed several gashes clean through the lizard's armor with his clawed hand before balling the claws into a fist, punching the side of Isken's head hard enough to send him careening into the wall.
Tralsar took cover with Nightshade, not even able to think of a way to potentially disable Akiba without killing him. The white dragon ran after Naga next. The snake attempted to coil around Akiba, but the infected dragon jumped up and over the coils, then slashed down at them. The group could see him grin wildly as blue blood splattered over his armored body. Naga shot forward, grabbing Akiba's head and throwing him into the ground. Akiba shot back up almost instantly with a slash to Naga's chest, more blood spraying from the wounds. Naga cried out in pain and clutched at the wounds.
Akiba laughed at him insanely before kicking him in the side of the head hard enough to knock him out cold, sending the demon sprawling. Next was Ezaz. The bomb dragon rushed Akiba and slashed at him, the insane dragon summoning a modified twinblade. It was black with a red edge, one side pulsing with a mastered version of RelliK's lightning and the other engulfed in black flame. Akiba gave him a wide grin, showing off his even sharper teeth as he parried Ezaz's slash. Ezaz jumped back as Zydre fired a shot at Akiba, which glanced off his metal armor. Akiba took a sideways look at Zydre before attempting to fry him with lightning, which narrowly missed the Vex.
Ezaz jump at Akiba again, which is exactly what the infected paladin wanted. He twirled his twinblade around and stabbed the fiery end into Ezaz's stomach, detonating him, the force of which wasn't even enough to push Akiba back slightly. He simply stood through the explosion. He turned to Zydre, revealing the exposed part of his face as he did so, his eye focusing on the Vex instantly. He hesitated slightly as he turned, twitching slightly. The armor wrapped a bit tighter around him as he jumped at the Vex. Zydre parried Akiba's initial slash but was too slow on the uptake to block Akiba's kick to his chest, which hit hard enough to dent the chassis and force Zydre to back off.
Ezaz recovered from his explosion and grabbed Akiba from behind. The dragon smirked and turned to Ezaz, driving his blade through the bomb dragon's chest. Ezaz grunted in pain and grabbed it, only to be electrocuted. Akiba laughed madly as he did so, his exposed eye wide and wild. "Yes, everything will die!" He screamed in insane ecstasy. "Life, death, in between, it doesn't matter! We all return to the Earth! Everything shall die!" He cried out before laughing again. He left the electrocuting blade in Ezaz's chest and summoned black fire into his hands, engulfing Ezaz in it. The bomb dragon cried out. "Mmmm... I've waited so long to hear that aria, and you perform it perfectly." He mocked the dragon before pulling his blade out, Ezaz's orange blood spraying over him and mixing with Naga's blue blood.
He then kicked Ezaz in the side of the head hard enough to elicit a loud crack from it, sending Ezaz sprawling, unconscious. He then turned to the doubled-over Zydre, slowly approaching him. Zydre jumped up and half-heartedly slashed at Akiba, who walked by the attack and grabbed Zydre's head, squeezing hard enough to crack his chassis slightly. "This is your fault." He whispered menacingly. "You let this happen to me. You weren't fast enough. You hesitated. And now we'll both die."
Zydre struggled in Akiba's grip before stopping. "You're wrong." He said. "You wanted to die before. That much is certain. But not anymore." He replied. His words seemed to have an effect on the white dragon, as his grip loosened ever so slightly. "You have found a reason to live in me. In us."
"I don't understand." Akiba said softly, his expression slackening somewhat, going from insane to sad. "What do you mean?"
"I mean you don't have to die anymore." Zydre replied in a measured tone. "You can come with us. You have to fight this."
Akiba blinked, twitching. "I... I don't have to... I... I don't want to fight you... I don't... ARGH!" He cried out in pain, backing off from Zydre. He roared and clutched at his head as he fell to his knees, the armor pulsing around him, attempting to restrain him almost. "Get out of my head! Get out! GET OUT!" He roared. He let out another cry of pain as the parasite activated his absolution ability. His body began to glow white, and everyone else's began to glow as well. Even Tralsar felt his body grow heavy as his soul began to be slowly extracted.
Zydre was the only one unaffected. He saw the group's souls exiting their bodies. He knew he had to act fast. He grabbed his rifle and ran at Akiba, aimed at the armored side of his head, and fired. There was a bright flash of white light, and then everything was still. The group's souls returned to their bodies. Zydre walked over to the still-armored Akiba, viewing the smoking hole in the armor that he'd left. Akiba's face was slightly burnt, but mostly unharmed. He had broken the part of the armor that was interfacing with Akiba's mind, severing the parasite's connection. Akiba groaned and awoke, both of his eyes still glowing, but blue now. "Zydre...?" He coughed. "I had the weirdest dream... I attacked all of you... I was laughing..."
"It's over now." Zydre said. Now it was a simple matter of getting him to reject the parasite. "You didn't like it, right?"
Akiba shook his head. "No, not at all... I feel sick..." He groaned and got onto his hands and knees. He then clutched at his head again, the armor exploding off of him, leaving him unscathed. He panted for a moment and vomited, leaving a pile of red tendrils on the floor that Zydre quickly stamped out. "Th...That wasn't a dream, was it?"
"No. But you're safe now. That's what matters." Zydre said. He briefly hugged Akiba before turning to tend to the others. None of them had life-threatening injuries thankfully, and Tralsar and Nightshade were able to patch up their rather resilient friends. Now it was simply a matter of waiting for RelliK.