Izska, son of Ramza, was sharpening his Materia on a peaceful morning, like all the others in Ivalice ever since the defeat of the Zodiac Demons. He didn't know why he was sharpening it or why it was dull; he had never used it since he got it from a family friend named Cloud, or as Izska called him "Blonde Mystery." Being in his mere twenties, Izska was a cadet, he was hoping to get a job protecting someone of royal lineage one day in the wild.
Deep in his thought he didn't hear the goblins until they were almost upon him. 'Doppelgangers, lots of them, I don't know if I can take them but I should be able to.' With that thought he lunged at the closest doppelganger and sliced out one of its arteries, after that another just ran up and punched him hard in the ribs, he heard a crack. 'Good thing these goblins are so primitive or else I'd be a bleeding mound right now.' Still more to go Izska let out a loud, and hopefully intimidating, roar and took a wild swing as he was being hit in the face by another goblin, luckily his swing struck two doppelgangers, one in the chest and the shorter one was a clean decapitation. Out of nowhere four arrows struck the goblin about to attack Izska, it was Imtehl, Izska's archer friend. Already Imtehl was unloading his entire quiver into the goblins, it was like having streaks of blurred vision, and you couldn't even see his hands; that was why Imtehl was top of the class for archery.
"You weren't gonna start the party without me now were you eh, Izska. The whole town is infested, we don't know who is controlling them but," he grunted pulling his arrow out of a doppelgangers hide," we know it might have something to do with the sudden disappearances of nobles and their parties. We should go get Tag and Erod, and then go rid this place of the goblin hordes. I mean there is an army of goblins out there at the gates pounding on the doors, it's a stupid thing to do, but it's effective. C'mon, let's get out of here its starting to smell of rotting flesh."
With that they went and got their friend Tag, the mage, who was sleeping in a circle of bloodied pulp, obviously they used to be goblins before they messed with him. After that they were off to get Erod, the very skilled ninja. They found him standing over rotting bodies, they lost count around 40, and he was quite calm about the attack. Erod almost never talked unless it was a dire time, like a sneak attack or things like that, so no one ever knew what was on his mind.
They made their way to the city gates, facing the occasional goblins, and were terrified at the sight of near two hundred and fifty goblins pounding the gates. Everyone in the city who could wield a sword was waiting or holding the gate, they knew a few people but by the most part they hadn't seen a lot of them. They heard the crackling sound of reloading guns as the gate splintered a little bit more, the goblins were more than halfway in and pouring in through other entrances.
Finally there was a snap and the goblins came rushing in, guns fired, swords clanked, spells went off, and blood ran like a sea on the city floor. Erod, moving quickly as usual, sped into the fray and was on a killing spree, Tag was firing off ice balls in every direction, but often getting hit. In minutes it was a bloody, festering, war zone, and Izska was in the middle of it. Standing back to back with Imtehl, Izska's blade was flashing in many directions and slaughtering those on the receiving end of the freshly sharpened blade.
"So much for our time of peace, huh Izska" yelled Imtehl over the blasts and clanks," What's it been, around 30 years of peace and it's over."
"Well at least it's not the Zodiac Stones again, or at least I hope its not, could it be?"
"I doubt it, if it was them there would be worse than goblins."
Izska responded but Imtehl couldn't hear it over the loud bang. After that bang, all of the goblins dropped dead on the ground and someone appeared in the mist. It was a humanoid, and it was carrying a gigantic blade, the figure was wearing a long cape with a strange insignia on it. The insignia was a black sword with red letters on it surrounded by flames, clouds, and a red substance, probably blood. The mist lifted and they saw a boy, around the age of Izska, holding a giant blade in black and red armor, with more strange letters on it, the blade was red and curved like a serpent trying to make a question mark shape.
He was tall with long, spiky, black hair that went down past his breastplate, he was scarred in many places along his face, half of his right arms plating was ripped off and you could see his muscles bulging. He opened his eyes, they were red as his sword, and he looked through all the people and pointed straight at Izska.
"You, come with me, I have some things to tell you of," he said in a slow, droning, and deep voice sounding much older than he appeared. "Bring someone if you wish but I will not harm you."
Izska followed him, holding the stranger to his word, to a cliff far away from the hearing of the town's people.
"Do you know who I am?"
"No all I know is that you use a Materia Blade, like me"
"At least you recognized that" he chuckled as he spoke, "I am Aen Rou, the black knight of Zhanarkand. I came looking for you so that I could ask you to come on a journey with me. It will be perilous, but there will be rewards more gracious than you could ever imagine, rewards beyond your wildest dreams."
"I agree to go with you, as long as I can take my friends with me, they are very talented and wont be a burden."
"I will agree to that, I guess. Oh, this is not a Materia; it's a cleaver, made from the ashes of Bervania Volcano and enchanted to make me stronger. Gather your 'friends' and lead them hear at dawn, I will sleep here with my chocobo. Goodbye Izska."
"Hey! How do you know my name?"
"I know more about you than you do about yourself. I will have time to explain some other time."
Izska told his friends and they prepared for the journey in anyway they could. None of them could sleep that night because of the excitement, the thought raw on their minds was, 'What is the journey for?'