Disclaimer: All rights to the name "Tales of Eternia (Tales of Destiny II in US release)" belong solely to Namco. I do not own this franchise nor do I profit from the writing of this story.
Author's Note: One of my favorite RPG's to play, I find that this series relatively unknown as most people are more familiar with "Tales of Phantasia" and such. Figure I'll write something about it. Haven't see anything else like this out here so might as well do it myself. Enjoy.
Undine knew that her presence would be required concerning the Grand Fall and consequences it would have on not only the physical world but the Craymel World as well.
While her world would not be destroyed, it would be discombobulated and volatile, making for a very harsh, unpleasant place to live in.
Of course she was very happy with her dwelling to the far northwest of Morle. It was often nice, sunny and warm and she could enjoy herself. Watching the water run down stream, hearing the waterfalls, sinking into the whirlpools, she was at total peace.
Humans would attempt to violate her sanctuary with rumors of great treasure. Their insolence often cost them their lives as Undine had many monsters dwelling about her domain. No need to show herself to humans if she could help it.
Yet, with the Grand Fall, her world was in danger and when she spotted the four humans that had the audacity to tread upon her domain, kill the monsters and wildlife and demand that she enter a craymel cage, she was quite furious.
But she knew the reason of their coming. She sensed no malice in their hearts, only that of concern for their planet and lives. She would not give herself to some weaklings though. The mastermind behind the Grand Fall had terrible power and she would not be a slave unless she knew the ones who asked for her cooperation were strong enough to take on the task.
Needless to say, she was impressed by their strength. They could not kill her, (it is impossible for a human to kill a greater Craymel) but they managed to subdue her to bring her low.
So she joined them with hopes for stopping the Grand Fall.
Still, she was nervous.
No, it wasn't because of the Grand Fall. When she heard their plans to go to Celestia, her heart (or the equivalent to a heart that a Greater Craymel would have) started to pound tremendously.
She was on good terms with two of the Celestian greater craymels but there was one that terrified her, one that had bent her to its will over 2000 years ago before the splitting of the planet. One that forced her to do...terrible things to it and herself.
Celsius.
Of course, her team of humans managed to subdue Gnome, whom she always thought to be cute and funny but with their course pressing to Mt. Celsius, her unease grew greater. She did not want to be near the ice craymel if she could help it. She hoped that Keele would take her in his craymel cage, along with Sylph and Efreet.
Efreet.
Many humans believe craymels to just be elements but that is far from the truth. They have their own wants, desires and pleasures.
As so with the Greater Craymels.
She loved him. She wished that he would pay her attention. With huge arms of molten muscles and a chest of chisled yet still molten basalt, he was the epitome of power. Sure both Rem and Maxwell exceeded his capabilities but neither could hold a candle (pun completely intended!) to Efreet when it came to brute force.
She often wondered how it would feel if he placed those scalding arms about her. Such thoughts made her dreamy but she knew that Efreet did not feel the same way about her.
He respected her and was a good friend but ever was his sight ever on Celsius, even so far back over 2000 years ago.
Undine could not understand it. Why was Efreet so bent on wooing Celsius?
She cold, callous, and, for lack of a better word, a bitch all around. She poked fun at Efreet, made cruel jokes about him and was so cruel as to lead him on before suddenly turning him down, making the mighty fire craymel shrink in his hurt and pain.
Undine wondered why Efreet made her do such things to him. He could subdue her easily, even in her own domain at full strength. As a ice craymel, she is inherently weak to fire yet Efreet's own desire for her gave her an advantage, in which she used over and over.
In any case, Undine felt that Efreet deserved much better. If Celsius froze his flaming heart to ice, she would thaw it out with hot geysers to iginte the mighty fire craymel once more.
It was not long before the battle against Celsius commenced.
Undine hoped that the humans would not use her craymel artes. They should know better, that water freezes under ice. Better to use the earth, wind or fire artes, which are not affected by the ice.
Of course that foolish Celestian girl would use her artes, casting a Maelstrom in Celsius' domain, which nearly led to the disaster of her team as the arte froze solid, giving Celsius more ice to work with.
She wished she was in Keele's Craymel Cage. He seemed to know what he was doing, constantly casting Fireballs and Eruptions in the hopes of getting Efreet to assist them, regardless of his feelings towards the Ice Craymel.
Unfortunately, Keele was not fast enough as Undine felt herself getting summoned on the battlefield.
Already the temperature was getting to her.
She did not feel cold but the temperature was freezing her solid. She had to get in and get out as soon as possible before Celsius spotted her.
With trident in hand, she struck the permafrosted ground and summoned a waterfall out of nowhere. The temperature rose to almost normal temporarily as Undine prepared to blast Celsius with a wall of highly pressurized water.
So she did so, while the waterfall behind cured her human companions of any ailments that they had been suffering thus far.
"I never thought I would see you again my little pet. It has been over 2000 years, I bet you have missed me, haven't you?" asked Celsius as she managed to get behind Undine before she could get back to the Craymel Cage.
Undine gasped in shock. Apparently, her attack had not hit Celsius at all as she felt the icy craymel grasp her from behind, holding her tight with those icy arms about her waist.
With pressurized water sprouting all over the place, along with the strong Blizzard Celsius casted to obscure the humans' vision, she used the small amount of time to get to Undine.
"L-Let me go Celsius." stammered Undine, struggling but it was no use. Celsius trained herself in the most difficult of fighting arts. She was physically stronger than Undine.
"I think not. You know, fighting those humans has stressed me quite a bit. Oh yes, coming onto my domain and daring to challenge me. I think I need some relief. Humans use a stress ball to ease their nerves. I don't have one on me but I have found the perfect substitute." said Celsius as she gripped one of Undine's watery breasts with her icy hands and squeezed hard.
Undine gasped both from shock and pain. Already she felt her left breast beginning to freeze.
"S-Stop it Celsius. You know better than to do this." said Undine as firmly as she could.
"So soft, so watery, even when it is threatened to be frozen under my grip. You are still as delectable as ever my little pet." said Celsius as she squeezed even harder, making the water craymel yelp a bit in pain.
But before Celsius could get too carried away, Keele managed stop the Blizzard buy using an Air Thrust to scatter the Blizzard away.
Being the one to halt the Blizzard, Keele was the one who saw Celsius molesting Undine, whom Meredy just summoned earlier. He noticed that the others did not see this but he would not tell them what he saw. As arousing as it looked, he simply could not believe his eyes.
What he did believe, though, was that Celsius was a sitting duck right now and knowing that an Eruption would not hurt Undine but definitely hurt Celsius, he took the time to cast the spell.
Celsius noticed the temperature spike to unusually high levels and looked below her to see molten magma beginning to form under her feet.
"No!" screamed Celsius.
At once she pushed Undine off to escape but it was too late. The magma engulfed her as cinder blocks came raining down her form.
She screamed in agony as steam was coming from about her.
Undine silently thanked Keele for his quick thinking and immediately dissipated to make her way back to Meredy's Craymel Cage.
Reid, having heard the scream coming from the ice craymel, came over to support Keele. He ran in as soon as the spell was lifted to a severely weakened Celsius and cast a Megasonic Thrust on her.
Celsius was too weak to use a Mirage technique to avoid it and got hit hard from the front and then felt the sharp blade thrust her icy back as she was sent flying.
Then, to make things worse, she flew right into the green haired girl, who had a nice Chi attack waiting for the flying ice craymel. Celsius felt her very foundations shake from the impact.
Celsius managed to get back up, however, and was pissed.
She would teach the girl how to launch a REAL Chi attack. Celsius gathered energy from within and was about to blast the poor girl out cold (pun yet again!) before she got hit from behind, once again, by Keele, with an annoying Fireball attack and that was when Celsius felt her strength sap. She knew that it was over and that she lost.
Once the battle was over, Efreet came over to see if the ice craymel was still okay. He had hoped that after 2000 years that she would be kinder to him.
He couldn't be any further from the truth.
"Get away from me!" shrieked Celsius in fear. She was very weak right now and she knew that she could not withstand Efreet in her condition. Just being near him was torture.
Efreet frowned as he once again reduced his size.
It was then that Gnome appeared out of Meredy's Craymel Cage and took his place next to the ice craymel.
"Heey, back off will ya? You're scaring her." said Gnome to Efreet.
"But I did not mean...very well." said Efreet sadly as he returned to Keele's Craymel Cage.
The humans in general did not seem to notice Efreet's sadness but Keele took notice. Visions of what he saw with Celsius and Undine just earlier seems to prove that these Greater Craymels have their own desires and wants.
"Could Efreet possibly be infatuated with this Greater Ice Craymel? And what of Undine and Celsius? Was what I saw consensuel or possibly...?" thought Keele.
"So, which Craymel Cage should she go to?" asked Reid.
"Oh, how 'bout mine? Two girl craymels together. They'll be best friends!" said Meredy excitedly.
"I...I think Celsius should come into my cage." said Keele, thinking that Undine wasn't quite so willing to be near Celsius.
"No way. Didn't you hear the Earth Craymel. She's scared of Efreet. She won't go in there unless you take Efreet out." said Reid.
Keele thought for a moment. He really did not want to relinquish Efreet. Fire spells were a particular favorite of his and he has gotten his casting time for his fire artes down to a tee. By giving up Efreet for Celsius would require much time on his part to learn the ice artes.
And he did not like ice very much. He much preferred fire.
"Very well then." said Keele.
While nobody saw, Celsius suddenly smiled in complete and utter delight. She was going to be in the same Craymel Cage with Undine.
She would have nowhere to run.
Celsius gladly accepted her duty as she found herself shrinking down and entering the Craymel Cage.
Undine could not help but feel utterly fearful when she heard that Celsius was to join her. She couldn't blame the humans though. They could not possibly know that the Greater Craymels were more human then they give them credit for.
At once the entire Craymel Cage's temperature dropped dramtically. She was not going to like this.
"So, it seems that we are going to be all to ourselves my little pet. I can't wait to make you mine again, like before 2000 years ago." said Celsius as she once again gripped the water craymel from behind.
"Gnome is here. He won't allow you to do this to me." said Undine in the hopes of discouraging Celsius.
"Gnome is an idoit. If he ever sees us I'll tell him its a game that only we can play. He'll believe anything." said Celsius as she moved her arm up to cup the cheek of Undine.
Undine was not going to give up without a fight. She would not allow herself to submit.
At once, Undine pried herself from Celsius grip and cast a Spear of Baptisim at Celsius.
The Ice Craymel laughed as the spear of water froze as it neared the Ice Craymel and fell to the ground.
"Such an attack won't hurt me." said Celsius to Undine.
Undine knew that her water artes would just freeze against Celsius. She knew that she would have to engage Celsius in hand to hand combat to win.
But Celsius forte IS hand to hand combat.
Still, Undine had no choice as she launched forward with her trident and attempted to spear Celsius as she pressed forward.
"You are still as slow as ever. Here, let me take that away from you before you hurt yourself." said Celsius as she grabbed the trident and yanked it from Undine's grasp. With a Mirage, she slipped behind Undine and used the length of the trident to pull Undine in from the neck.
All of this took a matter of seconds to occur.
Undine knew that she was beaten.
"Now, I think its about time we get started." said Celsius as she dropped the trident and turned Undine around and placed her icy lips frimly over the water craymels lips.
Undine could never beat Celsius and Celsius knew that. Undine felt tears sting her eyes, she could not believe that she was going to be reliving this nightmare again.
If only Efreet could protect her. She would show him the love and kindess he so deserved.
If only...
Author's Note: How's that for a start? More explicet material in the next chapter. Hope you all enjoyed.