The voices don't come any clearer, but the beat is louder, closer. Are you looking anywhere in particular?

[can he see behind them, see more of where they're standing? also can he get any better sense of what that beat is?]

The beat comes from all around you now. It fills the air. Behind them is just darkness... the islet is held in darkness. The water doesn't reflect the firelight, it's just... black. It doesn't move like water, either.

[a few deep breaths as the canoe drifts up. the unnaturalness of it all is starting to make him wonder about just...what this is. but if he's about to walk among the dead, well, maybe he's not entirely out of place.]

Can you...understand me?

They reply cheerfully, but without any sense to it, and as you draw close, you can see that they are not quite right. Their faces change constantly, flickering between Islanders and people you've seen in Aather -- a dark skinned woman in a grass skirt turns toward you, smiling, wearing Cassie's face, which turns into Cahle's...

[blinking a bit as he notices that, a little unsettled, and then accepting it, smiling back and waving]

They all smile and wave back, beckoning; an island boy a little older than Mau who becomes Josh and then Ven and then Daphne... a woman in her early thirties with Mau's eyes, who becomes Hakkai and then a tall, muscular island man... except one figure, a grown man, who does not change, and is standing a little way a way from the others with his back turned, looking up.

(Have you disembarked?)

[yeah noticing that guy]

[and...disembarking now, yes]

The islet lurches as your feet touch the sand -- lurches up.

Somewhere behind you, someone is screaming your name.

[--turning!]

It's Mau, and he's running toward you, running like something is chasing him, skimming across the surface of the water like it's flat turf -- but the islet is still rising, lurching away from him.

"Ven! Ven!"

[flinging himself off the islet and into a glide, keyblade flashing into his hand in case he needs the glider]

Mau! What's wrong?

[can I see anything behind him]

There's nothing behind him -- he's flinging himself at something behind you with an expression of panicked fury.

"No!"

[wheeling around in midair--what is even going on, he has no idea right now, but he's got Mau's back]

The islet is still rising into the air -- but now that you're not actually on it, you can see that it's cupped in a pair of enormous hands, which are slowly closing around it. And greyness is closing in on every side, with a rush of air... the great wings you could hear beating before are closing around you.

The people on the islet are calling out in fear now. You hear screams of confusion and pain... but that one lone figure is still looking up eagerly into the face of death.

Mau has thrown himself at the closing fist, prying and beating at it, but each finger is much, much bigger than he is.

[closing the distance in an instant, sliding through midair, and attacking alongside Mau, a furious storm of blows with his keyblade to the base of one thumb]

The hand twitches open, like five great trees crashing outward.

[and as that happens, a circle of light flares around Ven, a hum of magic flaring up around him, and he starts glowing greenish-white, trailing energy behind him; darting through midair again in a thoroughly physics-defying fashion and attacking the base of the other thumb. on the one hand (hurr), it's not a special attack like the last assault, but on the other, he's hitting harder and literally twice as fast as normal due to the power-up he just activated, every six or eight blows or so punctuated with a spiraling charge attack.]

The attacks don't seem to be doing much damage, but they do seem to be causing pain -- Locaha draws his hand back, and now the other hand is sweeping over to grab you. It's about four stories tall.

Meanwhile, Mau has scrambled up into the hand that's still holding the remains of the islet, and is trying to claw people out of the sand.

[keeping an eye on Mau as much as he can, but jfc this is a press X to not die sort of fight. that. hand.]

Wind!

[that hand is getting a tornado thrown against it. does what it says on the tin.]

The tornado blows itself out against the hand -- it seems to do less than the direct keyblade attacks -- but it at least pauses in midair, and now you can feel Locaha's attention focused on you.

(There are survivors in the sand, and Mau is gathering them together...)

And the empty hand is sweeping toward you again, unbelievably fast for something so big, to close around you.

[just because he would die to save people doesn't mean he wants to right now--have to keep living--but he's not dumb, he knows he's bitten off way more than he can chew, but he'll survive as long as he can]

[raising his keyblade again for another high-level spell, the strongest he knows, pouring all his determination into it]

Light!

[and pillars of solid, blinding light, the same stuff that gives his keyblade bite, burst out around him, maybe thirty feet tall, spreading out from him and rotating in a great radiant circle. (this would also heal him but he hasn't actually taken any damage yet.)]

Locaha's closing hand spasms open again, but just the movement of it, at speed, creates a blast of wind, strong enough to send you tumbling.

But the light did more than just push him back... it brought back the world. You're no longer fighting in pitch blackness, but in ordinary night, with ordinary stars in the sky above you and ordinary sea not too far below you.

[tumbling with a yelp, yes--letting himself fall out of the immediate shadow of that hand, and then flinging out his arms and legs and activating his glide to level out]

[but, good--looking around, trying to very quickly take stock--where are Mau and the survivors, where is ground, exactly how ridiculous will the platforming and aerial work be to keep up this fight]

[and pretty much automatically as a result of casting that spell, a circle of light flares around him again, and his glow changes to pure white, light boiling off his skin, six swords of crystalized light bursting into existence, orbiting his shoulders like wings]

There is no ground in sight, but Locaha... well, it's hard to make out what is going on with him, exactly, since he seems to have no real body, and bits of him are indistinguishable from the night, but he is the equivalent of waist-deep in the water, his great grey wings still taking up the sky, and the hand containing Mau and the sandbar is cupped close to his body... it's a long fall to the sea from there, but certainly not a deadly one.

(Mau is coaxing everyone who is able to make the jump, and Locaha, focused on you, does not seem to have noticed.)

But that free hand is smashing through the air towards you again, preceded by a shockwave, attempting to smash you into the surface of the water as if you were a mosquito.