The Fine Line Between Truth and Dreams.
By Xero and JSB
Disclaimer: The authors of this story do not own FFT or FFTA or the characters contained within. They belong to their creators, and Square-Enix.
Out of all the things in the world, perhaps one of the most curious is one of the most simple - Snow. A simplistic showering of little frozen flakes that rain down in place of rain if the weather is just right. Too cold, and you get hail. Too warm, and its more like slush. In St. Ivalice, the snow was always just right.
The snow covered everything in the city, from the large monumental buildings, to the small grass covered lawns. It snowed so often that the streets were often left alone, to be buried like everything else in St. Ivalice. It was truly mesmerizing, to see such a gray city become radiant when covered in the white snow.
However, with this mysterious, yet wonderfully beautiful existence of snow, also comes the chilling cold that cuts right to the bone. To counter this the citizenry tend to either stay inside, or bundle up and enjoy the beauty of the snow-covered city.
Those who are particularly fond of the cold white substance, namely the children of St. Ivalice, would often partake in friendly games centered around it. From constructing snowmen and forts, to snowball throwing matches, it was quite a common sight to see several of the younger citizens running about. However, there seemed to be one small group that was not partaking in such activities, and had instead were circled around a strangely old book in the warm comforts of a room shut off from the cold outside world.
This was understandable though, considering one of the four children was bound to a wheelchair, and wouldn't be able to enjoy the wonders of the snow covered city.
"So, did you bring the book, Mewt?" The only girl in the group asked, her tone lightly laced with an air of superiority. The red head was something of a bossy girl, used to taking an authoritative position - One would expect as much from a class head - but would often overplay the part.
"...Yes," The timid boy responded, holding tightly onto the book for fear of losing it somehow. His free hand rubbed the wetness from the melted snow out of his brown, curly hair. Or at least, he tried to.
"It looks pretty old, you sure we'll be able to read it?" The blond boy asked, looking at the strange book skeptically. The leather bound book had a strange design all around it, and it's pages looked rather worn to be a book of recent times.
"We'll find out when we open it, Marche" the boy in the wheelchair stated, causing his older brother to frown slightly, before shrugging casually. They were all curious as to what this mysterious book was about. It had an air about it, between its aged look and curious design, that made one think of fantasy stories.
Mewt, having set the book down while all of them gathered around it, opened the aged cover with care so as not to accidentally cause it to be damaged. Marche, having moved next to the timid boy, blinked as something became immediately apparent on viewing the pages within.
"I can't read this... What language is it?" The blond frowned, looking over to his brother. "Donad, you read a lot. Can you read it?"
"It's Latin" The girl pipped up in a matter-of-fact manner. "You'd know that if you paid attention in school."
"I'm new there, remember?" Marche pointed out, before blinking as something occurred to him. "Wait, you guys learn Latin here? Most places just teach you something easy, like Spanish."
"Of course." Ritz stated, puffing her chest out with pride, before deflating a little. "Well, we only learned a bit." She scratched her cheek lightly, feeling a little guilty for exaggerating.
"Alta... Oron, Sondus... Kamee?" The until-then silent Mewt spoke up, reading off a sentence in the book before frowning as he struggled with the last word. "...I can't tell what the last part is..."
Both the blond and the red head blinked at the interruption, surprised by the timid boy's apparent ability to read the book - At least, mostly.
"Feh, showoff," The redheaded girl stated, turning her head away from them.
Despite any of them not being able to truly read the book, they still looked through it, marveling at the strange, yet beautifully written words. They left it completely up to their imaginations as to what the words meant, and joked about them being magic spells. All too soon, their time was up, and Mewt and Ritz had to leave for home. They said their goodbyes before parting ways, knowing that they would see each other at school the next day. Well, except for Donad.
(-)
High on up on a balcony that looked over the capitol cit, stood the king. He was rather young to be a king, and possessed no royal blood to speak of. His sole claim to the kingdom was through his tragically cut-short marriage to the late queen, not a glimpse of noble heritage marking him. His golden armor practically glowed in the sunlight, giving him the image of a holy warrior, chosen by the gods to take upon the role of king. His red hair was combed back, allowing all to see his face that would show no fear. His eyes narrowed and his eyebrows furrowed scowled as he looked over his kingdom, not turning to face the man that had just walked on the balcony. He didn't like to be disturbed during his free time. He spent too much time as it was dealing with the affairs of his kingdom.
"Your majesty, a gift has arrived for you," the servant stated, standing by the entrance to the balcony. The king turned to face him, an expression of displeasure adorning his face.
"Who is it from?" He inquired, the question a mere formality as he held little interest in whatever object some noble had seen fit to try and win his favor with - An occurrence that had happened unendingly since his ascent to the throne.
"The messenger didn't know the sender's name, only that he is an old friend of your majesty's. The king growled angrily, snatching the parcel from the servant's hands before turning away to face his kingdom again.
"Leave," he commanded, not bothering to look at the servant again. He stared at the oddly shaped package, wrapped in leather, noting it's simplicity. It definitely wasn't a lord trying to gain favor. It was far too plain a package for that.
"By your leave." The servant said before obeying the command. The king slowly undid the hemp tie, before removing the leather covering. His eyes widened upon seeing the green stone, holding it closer to examine it. His eyes would have widened more were it in their power as he confirmed his suspicion on what the object he now held was. A stone of odd composition, with a zodiac symbol carved into it - This particular one bearing the marking of Sagittarius.
The meaning of this did not escape him, as the same zodiac sign marked the time of the young King's birth. It was not a difficult feat by any means to connect together how the pieces fit, as precious few people would be able to call him an old friend and know the time of his birth - As well as the fact of what it was that had been sent. Clenching the stone tighter in his grip, the King put a hand to his head, feeling a sudden sense of weariness overcome him.
"Ramza... What are you trying to do, sending me this? And... If not you, who? For what purpose?" The man muttered, staving off the memories that came unbidden. That was all behind him now, in the past to which he had thrown away. No, sacrificed was a better term. It was not for nothing, after all, that he had done what he had. Yet, it would seem his old friend was not yet done clinging to a friendship that by all rights should have ended several times over. He certainly would not have held on so tightly had their roles been reversed, and he would not begrudge the renegade heretic if he had disclaimed their friendship for all the suffering he had no doubt caused. Forcing down these ill thoughts, not wishing to dwell on the subject further, the King turned his steadfast gaze onto the lands below once more with determination.
"I do not regret the choices I have made. It was required if I was to insure none would step upon me again, and that there would not be another like Teta. This, if nothing else, I swear." Glaring at the stone in his hand, he frowned before addressing it as if the person he was aiming his words at. "Your attempts to shake me are fruitless. I do not know what result you thought might occur from this, Ramza, but it will not change anything. Still, this gift from you is one I shall keep - Out of respect for what we once held dear."
Giving his kingdom one last look, Delita Hyral, King of Ivalice, strode back inside his castle. He had more business to take care of before the day was through. He didn't have time to worry about the past, and the people he had known. He had a kingdom to run.
(-)
The door to the small room slammed shut, which was followed by the sound of masculine voice yelling. The teenage boy ignored the yells of his father, and threw his bag to the floor before sitting down on his bed. His face was once again covered in bruises from another fight he had gotten into due to his sharp tongue. Not that he wouldn't have been beat up anyway. He just felt it was better to point out the assaulter's lack of intelligence before it happened. Gave him a little joy to go with the pain.
The brown-haired boy unconsciously rubbed one of the spots, wincing slightly at the pain it caused. Those infections on the human race didn't seem to understand their own shortcomings. They would get their comeuppance one day, that was for sure.
"Mewt! Get down here!" His father yelled again. Quickly, the boy in question rushed to his door, locking it before his father could come up the stairs and enter his room. The man was definitely drunk again, letting the man in would probably result in more bruises from getting beaten. Though, he really couldn't blame the man, having gotten fired from his job a few days ago.
Mewt glanced around his room, hoping something would grab his interest since he had nothing to do now that he was home. His eyes lingered on the bookshelf he hadn't touched in a while, before deciding to give reading a book a try. He glanced at all the titles that were on each of the book's binding, not finding any of them to be of interest. It wasn't until he found a book with no title that his interest was piqued, and he pulled it off the shelf, dusting off the top of it. Mewt looked over it's leather bound cover, finding the strange designs oddly familiar. When had he bought the book?
Mewt shrugged, not feeling the need to wonder on it anymore. Opening it up, he was greeted with Latin text, and it all came back to him. This was the book he had bought years ago, and wanted to read with his new friends, Ritz and Marche, back when he was in elementary school. Of course, they were no longer friends, having split off into different areas of interest come high school
Ritz had worked her way to becoming the Student Body President, unsurprisingly. She had a drive to become a leader, as well as the attitude to command others. She now dyed her hair a multitude of different colors, besides just the red she had used to. Last he knew, she had entered a relationship with one of the most popular kids at school. Of course, she worked him like a slave. He almost felt sympathy for the kid. Almost.
Marche, well, he had tried to be his friend the longest, and had lasted to halfway through middle school The blonde boy had taken a liking to sports, more specifically hockey, and had devoted almost all his time to the sport. This left him with no time in which to spend with Mewt, and so their friendship had degraded to a mere friendly acknowledgement on the occasions they should bump into each other
As for himself, well... He had soon found out he was a genius in his own right. The only problem was that he really didn't see much point in applying himself, beyond what was required of him, but not any farther than he had to - Lacking any ambition to do so of his own initiative. His work was still perfect, even if it was done halfheartedly. It was possibly this ease in which he completed school work that had drawn even more attention from bullies down upon him, much worse than his earlier school years when bullying was mostly words - Hurtful, in their own way, but the hurt of an insult was somewhat preferable to the ache of a bruised rib.
Flipping the page, he came upon the phrase that he had tried to speak all those years ago, and yet couldn't finish it. Looking at it now, he laughed at his childhood intelligence of old, now seeing how simple the word truly was. Mastering Latin after a few classes in school might be part of the reason. Deciding to finish what his twelve year old had started, he read the words out loud, full of confidence.
"Alta Oron, Sondus Kameela."
(-)
"Delita! Get up!" A voice called through his dreams, causing him to crack open his eye. He was instantly assaulted by the bright light of the sun, streaming through the manor window. He closed it once more, annoyed that he had been woken so early, and rolled over to continue his slumber.
"Get up you lazy fool! You have to help serve our master's meal, before they make it to the dining room. Surely they'll punish you if you don't!" A deep voice said urgently, and Delita curled up in reaction to the man pulling away his covers. Cracking open both eyes, he groaned, stretching a bit before sitting up on his bed. It was nice that their lords gave their servants beds to sleep on. He glanced over to the man who woke him up, now getting dressed and prepared for the day's work.
"Thanks Lawrence, I doubt I would have woken without your help." Delita stated, rubbing his eyes, before he too got about getting dressed.
"You've been saying that since a year ago, and you still have not changed that habit of yours." Lawrence commented with a wry grin as he straightened his collar. "I'll meet you in kitchen. Don't be late!"
"Yeah, I got you." The redheaded man muttered, hurriedly trying to put his boot on. Who knows what the head servant would have him do today. Hopefully it wasn't anything too hard. Without worrying about it anymore, and finally finishing dressing, he rushed out of the servants' quarters, which was devoid of life by that time in morning. Hurrying on his way through the less than ideal hall that lead into the servants' quarters, being far too cramped to be a respectable passageway like the much more expansive halls in the castle proper, Delita arrived at the kitchen soon enough - Sooner than he usually would, at least, as he had made good time this particular morning.
"Hey, Hyral! You're barely late today, that's a first." The cook laughed. The redheaded servant rolling his eyes at the comment. They would never let him get over his tardiness, even when he was on time. The cook nodded in the direction of a serving tray, already prepared, and waved him along. "Well, hurry it up then, the Master will be expecting a meal waiting for him when he gets down to the dining room - Not the other way around."
Delita, with practiced ease, scooped up the tray and was on his way - Easily keeping it balanced at his quick pace, though there were a few close calls when he took a corner slightly faster than he should have. Unlike the servants quarters, the main sections of the castle were full of life and movement - Various servants performing various jobs - and the young man was forced to carefully dodge this way and that in order to keep moving and avoid running into anything or anyone.
Finally, after much maneuvering and quick feet movement, Delita had finally arrived at his destination; The family dining room. Thankfully he had made it before any of the family members had arrived. Quickly, and yet skillfully, the young man placed the platter down on the table in its rightful spot, before backing away. He had just made it to his spot in the lineup of waiting servants before the master of the house had stepped inside the room, who looked over the table with an inspecting eye. And Delita had thought he was early too.
The master soon sat down at the head of the table, his posture straight, and waited silently as the rest of the family to come to breakfast. Despite how critical of the servants Master Sadalfas was, he was also very kind to them. It was his children the servants had to watch out for. Some went out of their way just to mess with the poor servants, which was something Delita had much experience with, as much as he hated the treatment. It was a living though.
Soon enough, all of the members of the family had made it down for breakfast, most still half asleep as they trudged to their seats and all but flopped into their seats. Oh how he wished he could be so lucky, to take it easy and rest as long as he would like. However, he didn't have that option, and he and his sister, Teta, had to work as servants in order to survive.
The meal finally started, and the mealtime servants all waited in a line next to the wall, ready to be called upon at any moment to assist the family members. Even in a drowsy state, one of the family members still had enough wit about him to maintain his usual rituals. That ritual being to annoy Delita as much as possible, generally in a manner that left him no recourse but to go along with it. The second of the Sadalfas siblings, a young man his own age by the name of Algus, looked over to him with a cruel twinkle in his eye but otherwise lacking expression. Raising a hand, he gave a motion for him to come over.
Delita would have groaned if that wouldn't have gotten him in trouble, wondering what new annoyance the noble had cooked up for him. Make him re-cook his meal even though he didn't know much about cooking? Make him fetch some menial thing that would most definitely not be in any easy place to find? He wouldn't put it past him, well remembering the time Algus had ordered him to fetch his handkerchief only to dismiss it as being unneeded once he had actually found the blasted thing. The prank, though of a meaner sort, had caused him to be behind on his entire days duties and ended up quite nearly getting him in trouble.
"Yes, Lord Algus?" Delita asked, feeling annoyed by the need to be so formal with the other youth.
"It seems this fork has a spot on it. Be a good lad and fetch me a new one?" The noble asked, only the barest hint of humor betraying his true intention. Delita sighed mentally, but let no outward sign show, and took the fork that Algus flippantly handed to him before moving to fetch a new one. He could already see how this one would play out, and he was slightly amused by the fact that Algus seemed to have run out of good ideas. Really, this one was just petty and not the least bit clever. Though, it would be no less annoying.
After having switched the fork for a clean one, Delita made his way back to the table, and held the for out for the lordling. The man looked it over just barely right before he smiled in a most maniac manner, and opened his mouth to speak.
"Algus! You don't have time to be having fun with the help." Lord Sadalfas yelled from his spot, glaring at his son. Delita might have been shocked that the Lord of the castle had defended him, except there really wasn't much time to fool around. The Prince was coming to visit after all. Algus, now angry and upset he didn't have his morning fun, grabbed the fork and went about eating with the rest of his family. Soon the meal ended, and the servants went about clearing the table before they moved onto their next daily chore.
Delita let out a sigh of relief, happy that his next job was a simple and quite easy, considering how tidy Lord Sadalfas was. It would take far less time to clean than Algus' usual mess of a room. The young servant wasn't certain if it was the similarly aged lordling's natural inclination to be messy, or the fact that he had servants who would clean for him and thusly didn't bother with watching his rooms state. Of course, it could also be typical Algus making things harder for the servants than it already was. The Sadalfas heir seemed to believe the lower commoner class to be some form of lesser creature, judging from the way he tormented them - Though a great deal of his cruelty was aimed in a more overt and focused manner at himself, when there was nobody around but them lest someone betray the truth to Lord Sadalfas - plus his harsh words regarding the merits of nobility and the "place" of commoners.
Pushing aside such unpleasant thoughts, not wishing to anger himself over mere memory of words, Delita set about tidying up the small mess that the Lord of the castle had left in his waking. It really wasn't that much at all. The sheets and blankets for the bed were unkempt, though hardly strewn about like the ones of Algus' sister, who was apparently a fitful sleeper and would miraculously manage to knot the bedding up into a ball during the night. There were a few things out of place, a sock hanging over the edge of a half-open drawer for example, but literally nothing that wouldn't take ten or so minutes to get back into perfection. Of course, after this he had to polish up Lord Sadalfas' armor, said Lord allowing such on learning the youth enjoyed being around such objects - No doubt the Lord believed it was out of some desire to wear such armor and possess the standing that came with it, and that would not be far from the truth in the least.
While adjusting the various objects on the bedside table, mostly consisting of trinkets of varying worth - Though no doubt being of value to Lord Sadalfas, as many of them were mementos of some manner or other - including a rusted pendant whose chain had long since been broken, a twinkle of something green caught his eye. It had been brief, when he had shifted out of the way just long enough for a ray of sunlight to strike the ajar drawer of the table. A good servant would merely shut the drawer and be on their way, putting it out of sight and out of mind, but youth has a irresistible fascination with all things curious no matter what ill might befall them due to indulging in such fancies.
"What is this, then?" Delita wondered, spotting the source as he gently slid the drawer open the rest of the way and spotted the thing that had caught his eye. A stone, it seemed... But a most curious one. It was green, and made of some form of material he couldn't place. There also seemed to be something carved into it, but he was not able to make it out due to it being half-hidden by the stones round curve. Having the presence of mind to look around first, the youth spotted no one in his hurried glance before sticking a hand down to grasp the mysterious green stone.
A light flashed before his eyes, and random images began to flow through him and the memories that came with them. After what seemed forever of a lifetime of events, Delita shook his head before rubbing it with his free hand. He...He was king, and yet, here he was being a servant. It was all so confusing to him, how he should be king right now, how his sister had been murdered, how he had killed that bastard Algus.
This wasn't right! He shouldn't be a servant! He should be king! Or should he? He didn't know anymore, but he knew he was going to think about it more, maybe talk it over with someone. Teta would listen. Delita knew for sure she would listen, and wouldn't think him completely mad. With that plan in mind, Delita left his master's room, stone in hand, without completing the task he had come in to do.
(-)
Ritz shivered slightly as a cool wind blew along her body, and she reflexively cuddled closer to the other source of heat. That source would be her boyfriend, Lyle, who had stayed the night due to the massive amount of snow. They didn't do anything "special" of course, just ended up sleeping in the same bed. Of course, she had him whipped enough to not try anything or his life would get much worse. It was too bad that the light of the morning sun was too bright to keep awake anymore, and so, Ritz squinted her eyes, still only seeing blurred images due to just waking up. Finally being able to take in her surroundings, she immediately started to panic, realizing she was not in her room anymore. In fact, it looked like she was laying down on a patch of soft grass, with her shirtless boyfriend.
She stared up at the blue sky trying to figure out how she had gotten there. Obviously Lyle had taken her here in the middle of the night. He probably even did unmentionable things to her unconscious body, like touching, feeling, li...She shook her head violently to remove the dirty thoughts from her mind, causing her navy blue hair to move about. Damn Lyle for using her in such sickening ways! Turning to said boyfriend, she was about to scream at him to wake up, only to stop when she noticed two things.
One: His body was completely gray, completely ridden of the normal pink fleshy colors of a normal human being. And Two: His body was cold to the touch. Panicking more, and muttering to herself how he couldn't be dead, she checked for a heartbeat, feeling nothing on his chest above his heart. She instantly stood up, almost hyperventilating as she backed away from her dead boyfriend.
If he was dead, then that means people would think she killed him! Her breathing got faster and faster, and she held her hands against her chest, in order to try and calm herself, with little success. After hearing a moan come from him did she finally start to calm down. That one noise seemed to be all the rational she needed to believe he was alive, despite all the evidence that was against it. When Lyle's body began to finally move, she smiled, knowing that his cold body and lack of heart beat were just tricks of her mind. Said smile vanished however as her previous anger returned and she gave a heavy smack to the back of the unnaturally colored boy's head.
"Lyle, you jerk! What did you bring us out here for?" The blue haired girl huffed, ignoring the odd moan that the boy gave in response as she continued her rant. "Honestly, I don't even know why I put up with you. I told you what would happen if you did anything strange, so now I guess I'm going to have to show you I meant business!"
This rant was cut off, however, as the boy turned his face towards her and she caught a glimpse of his glazed expression - His facial features being slack and limp, as if no muscle was being used to put them into a proper expression. Stepping backwards in surprise, the girl faltered. What was with that look? It was really unnerving, and in combination with all the other things she had noticed since waking up, pointed at one particular thing. She refused to consider that, however, as that was an absurd notion and it would be silly to entertain it for a moment. This was probably just some dumb prank by her idiot boyfriend and his two idiot friends.
"Oh cut it out, Lyle." Ritz dismissed, crossing her arms and huffing in annoyance. "I'm not going to fall for that stupid joke. What do you take me for?" The only response she got was another long and drawn out groan. He was still trying to keep the act up huh?
"Stop it Lyle, it wasn't funny before, it's not funny now." She pointed her finger at him to emphasize her point. She was still met with the same response as Lyle stalked slowly closer, clear liquid dripping out of his mouth. She frowned, annoyed that he was still trying to act this out, despite how it had failed. She smirked slightly as she thought of the ultimate initiative to make her boyfriend stop this charade.
"Okay! If you stop this now, I'll let you touch these!" She said, leaning forward to give him as good a view as she could. It had to work, and if it didn't, well...things had gone from bad to much, much worse. She'd sooner believe the option she was ignoring than consider that Lyle would resist such an offer over a lame joke. And unfortunately for her, she was met with another low groan. And then she could do the only thing she could think of, now realizing she was face to face with a real, honest-to-God zombie.
She screamed.
And then she ran like a bat out of hell.
(-)
"Teta...what's taking so damn long," the redheaded young man muttered as he waited outside the servants' quarter. He had told her almost a half hour ago to go pack her things so they could leave. This place wasn't real, it shouldn't be real. Heck, his sister was supposed to be dead, and he idly wondered why he felt the need to bring her with him. Teta was his sister, and he could not leave her behind, even if his memories told him she was dead.
His thoughts were pushed aside when he saw his sister round the corner, and picked up what little supplies he had packed. Looking at her, she was just as she was before, and had nothing with her, which was odd considering she had told him she would be ready to leave.
"Teta...where is your bag?" He asked, getting a really bad feeling from the saddened look she gave him in response.
"I'm sorry brother, but you know the rules," She said, her eyes downcast. It was then he noticed another figure appear from around the corner, wearing that obnoxious grin he couldn't stand anymore.
"Claiming to be king is one of the greatest crimes against the kingdom, as you know. As a member of the Sadalfas family, I'm afraid I must kill you where you stand." Algus said, walking forward towards the two siblings.
Delita could hardly believe it. He was betrayed by his very dear sister. This couldn't be right, his sister would never let him be killed, would she? One glance at the saddened face told him she wasn't going to stop it. At that point, the man who claimed to be king knew that this was all a lie, and began to laugh.
"Hehehe...haha...I see. So it is true then." He stated, before grinning to himself. "Teta, my dear sister...You are dead to me!" Delita shouted angrily at his sister, causing her to gasp in surprise. Tears immediately formed in her eyes, and she ran off, leaving Algus and Delita behind.
"Wow...now that was just mean. I mean, you love your sister don't you?" Algus questioned, still maintaining the humored expression he showed up with. Those siblings were just so much fun to mess around with. "You know, if you beg for forgiveness, and work for no pay, I'll find it in my heart to forget this whole thing about being king. It's the least I can do for your services so far."
"I'd rather be dead than work for an asshole like you for any longer. Also my sister has been dead for 6 years."
Algus' amusement faded in the face of the insult, but confusion mixed in with his ire at the ending comment. Only two ideas came to him to explain such a odd statement, and that was that either this was the most absurd lie he'd yet heard, or the servant had really lost his mind. Delita, from what the noble knew of him, wouldn't have treated his sister in such a manner for some lie, so that left him believing the alternative. "So you really have gone mad? You believe that absurd lie? How... pathetic."
Delita ignored the other man's obvious attempts to bait him, though he himself still wasn't absolutely sure he hadn't gone insane - He was in some kind of horrid delusion after all. Out of a overconfident sense of safety, nothing having ever resulted from their confrontations in the past, Algus stepped closer and looked down on the servant as he placed a hand on the hilt of the sword at his side. "What was it, I wonder, that caused you to stick to this sad state - Even for a servant? I could almost understand it, the life of chattel must be a grim one if you flee to some fantasy. A sign of a weaker man, that you run from your troubles. This world has no place for weaklings such as you, and I shall be quite willing to rid it of one!"
The noble youth's hand grasped tighter on the blades hilt, moving forward to draw and strike in one movement. The blade didn't even make it completely out of its sheath, however, as the servant/king swiftly stopped the movement with one hand, already being in range to do so thanks to Algus' foolishness, while the other slammed forward into the Noble's windpipe. As the blonde released his grip on the blade, eyes bulging and gasping for breath, the redhead pulled the sword free while delivering a knee to the off-guard man's stomach.
Algus fell to his knees, clutching his throat and stomach, as Delita looked down on him with a cruel smirk at seeing such a hated person helpless before him. "I never could stand that prattling of yours. Like the incessant baying of sheep, thinking itself a wolf. You might wear a wolfs clothing, but you are far from one."
The downed man glared, and managed to choke out a single shout of "Guards!" as he struggled to his feet and backed away as several armed men rushed into the room and separated the two. Delita took a step back in surprise, frowning in annoyance. He had forgotten, for a moment, that Algus had a group at his beck and call - The entire guard force of house Sadalfas if need be. Cursing silently, he lifted his stolen sword in preparation for defending himself should the guards attack.
Algus meanwhile had managed to regain his composure, somewhat, and shouted a furious order. "Disarm him, beat him if you must, but leave him alive - So that I might have the pleasure of breaking his spirit before extinguishing his pathetic, traitorous life."
The guards rushed towards him, shields ready for whatever Delita would do. There was was only one attack that came to mind. Swinging his sword towards the group, Delita attempted to gather the holy magic he believed he had.
"Stasis Sword!" The man yelled, fully expecting to see the Holy Ice descend upon his foes and stop them mid run. Unfortunately, the soldiers kept running towards him, not even reacting to his yell. If his holy knight magic didn't work, this fight would be much harder than he had first expected. They were almost upon him, and the only option left was to strike. However, upon trying to lift it to strike, he realized it was far heavier than he remembered swords being.
"Shit!" he yelled, jumping back. There was no way he was going to be able to attack with such a heavy sword. If this world wasn't real, then why was he such a weakling? With only one option left, Delita ran towards the servants' quarters. While he hated the fact that he had to leave without giving Algus his just deserves, he knew that he didn't possess the strength he once did.
The guards chased after him, leaving their blond leader behind, still gasping for breath. Algus smirked despite the pain he was in. That servant would die, it was only a matter of time until his guards caught him. He was only a servant after all, what would he be able to do?
"In the mean time, I think I'll pay his 'Dead' sister a visit."
(-)
A brown haired youth eyed the woman before him, the expression on his face an unnerving mixture of apathy and dominating superiority, as he admired the woman's form with casual blatancy. Had the man seen this scene from an outward perspective, he likely would have rightly noted the sheer self-importance that seemed to emanate from the male, but his inward focus prevented such. Instead, he was idly wondering what he should do with this newest opportunity that had occurred to him. As a man of greater quality than others, thanks to his mental strength of the genius level, it was only natural that he should be allowed certain accommodations
Why it had not worked in the past was of little note to him, having put such unpleasantness behind him and whole-heartedly his new, rightful station in life. His genius was rewarded, and so he felt it was only fair that he indulge in that reward when the fancy struck. His object of attention now was the woman he was gazing at, and he felt a desire to exert his greatness over her. With a small smirk, he spoke in a haughty tone.
"Dear Ovelia, you truly are a beautiful rose amongst a rabble of mundanity."
The woman blushed out of an embarrassed glee from the compliment. "Thank you, Prince Mewt. You flatter me."
"Flatter? I merely state the true and obvious." Mewt practically dismissed the response with a metaphorical wave of his hand, before leaning in close to Ovelia's face. "As such a fair rose, I believe it only right that you should be plucked by a great man. And, who greater, than myself?"
"If you say so, Prince Mewt," the lady called Ovelia turned her head away, not entirely confident with the compliment. She could hardly believe that she was engaged to such a great man. All she could do was blush to his praises, and there was nothing she could do for the prince. She truly didn't deserve his love, but she would be damned if she didn't return it.
"You know very well that my word is truth, my dear Ovelia." The prince's smirk turned mischievous, and he inched closer, drawing the woman into his embrace. His smile grew even wider upon hearing her contented sigh as she melted into his hug. Finally...finally he would be able to grant one of those wishes that he had for the longest time. His hand moved cautiously up her body until it pressed against an area that was usually reserved for those who had exchanged their marital vows. In an instant his hand was slapped away, and he found himself growing as he looked at Ovelia's hurt face.
"I'm sorry Prince Mewt, but I cannot allow that until we are married," Ovelia stated seriously. Mewt watched as Ovelia left the room all too quickly, his frown growing longer as he got angrier. He was Prince! This was his kingdom, and yet he was still denied that which he had been yearning for for years. They were to be wed soon, so why could she not let him find some enjoyment.
"Bitch," he muttered, raising his head in a superior-like fashion He would just have to speak to mother about this. Truly she would understand his desires and have a word with Ovelia about her duties as his soon-to-be-wife. Yes, that is what he would do. With his mind made up, he also left the room and headed to the throne room to have a few words with his wonderful mother.
(-)
Delita breathed heavily as he continued to run through the dense forest, not caring at all that the soldiers chasing him had given up not long after he had entered the forest. He wasn't even able to prepare for leaving the city like he had originally planned. Finally, after many instances of looking behind him to see if he was still being followed, he decided it was time he stopped and rested. Despite the training he knew his body had gone through, it had retained none of it when his world was flipped completely upside-down on him.
"Damn that Algus," he cursed, panting for breath while leaning over. The redheaded youth hated that he was no longer in shape, and he was going to make a point of fixing the issue later. First he needed to find a city so he could find a more wieldy weapon, seeing as this one was far too heavy for a person whose only role in this wacky world was being a servant.
However, his thoughts were pushed aside when he heard the screams of terror that seemed to originate from a woman in the distance. His eyes narrowed as he placed the direction the scream seemed to have come from, and briefly weighed the possible outcomes should he investigate. In his unfortunately pitiful state, it was unlikely he could handle much head-on... But in a place such as this, away from the city, it was likely the only danger was petty bandits or a monster - And it would be a cold, cold day in hell before he ran away from something as weak as that.
Straightening up, Delita set off after the scream, another scream helpfully sounding out a few moments later to help him track down the source. Rather than sprint, and get himself out of breath again and likely run headlong into things in the process, he moved at a careful, quick pace so at to be able to assess the situation once he came upon it.
It was not long after that he came into view of a slightly odd sight. At a glance it wasn't too strange, not even for back home. A young woman, with the oddest blue hair, was frantically fleeing from what appeared to be some sort of undead person. The odd part, however, was that the woman stopped to throw something at the undead creature, which would take the object face-first and seem to be about to fall over - At which point the woman got a confident look and seem sure of victory - only for the animated corpse to regain its balance in a disturbingly flexible manner and shamble after her again.
Delita would have laughed at the quickly vanishing confidence that the blue-haired woman had shown over so small a attempt, but he was not one to take much amusement in things - Not to say he never laughed, just that doing so was a rare occasion. Seeing how pathetic the undead being was, and finding it even more pathetic that the woman seemed unable to flee from it entirely or just kill the thing for good, the red-haired man stalked forward quickly, placing himself behind the zombie, and readied his sword as he swiftly approached. A quick stab should do it, and he had the strength to manage such even with this heavy sword he had taken possession of.
Using all the strength he could muster with his unfortunately weak body, and twisting his body for extra momentum, he swung his sword horizontally across the undead's abdomen. He watched as the sword cleaved through the dead skin, only to stop halfway through the body. Frowning, the man-who-claimed-to-be-king pulled his sword out of the living impaired body, reading for another attack with the heavy mythril sword. Why did his body have to be [i]this[/i] pathetic? Couldn't he be allowed to kill an undead being of this level with one hit?
Unfortunately, the zombie was faster than he had originally thought, and had turned around ready to lunge at him before his sword was ready to strike again.
"Shit," he cursed, bringing his sword up as quickly as he could to block the decomposing claws of the undead monstrosity. There was no reason this thing should be giving him such a problem. It should have died already! He growled angrily, before letting out a yell of desperation. He didn't even notice his sword beginning to glow eerily as he felt himself get stronger, realizing that the sword was not as heavy as it was before. He pushed the zombie back, before ripping into it with a flurry of slashes and thrusts, cutting one of it's arms off in the process. In one final attack he finished the zombie off, thrusting the mythril sword through its head. He watched as the body seemed to lose all support and fell to the ground in a bundle of dark skin and bones.
"Jeez, that took far more effort than it should have," Delita mumbled, shifting the sword in his hand to a more comfortable position. It was heavy again, which confused him greatly. Why had he been able to pull off that stunt with his pathetic strength. He shook his head, deciding it was best to ignore it for now. Now that that monster was dealt with, it was best to figure out where the heck he would go from here. Probably the nearest bar to get some information. With that in mind, he started heading in the direction of the next nearest town. He would have thanked the gods for giving him enough knowledge of this world to know where the next city over was from Cyril, but he was sure those gods didn't exist anymore.
Ritz blinked at the red headed man that had come out of nowhere, and torn her boyfriend-turned-zombie apart. While he was a jerk sometimes - Most of the time - she hadn't ever wanted him to die or anything like that. So seeing him, even if it was a zombie-him, get ripped to pieces in a few short seconds was naturally unnerving.
"Y-you killed him!" The blue headed girl yelled, losing her fear after the first word as she went into full-on scolding mode - Being the student body president, and even back when she was just a class head, had gotten her used to scolding people. Of course, she was forgetting that he had just saved her from a zombie that was trying to kill her, but that didn't change that she'd just seen a person get sliced to bits with a sword. "What the hell is wrong with you! Who goes around stabbing people with a sword? And who even has a sword, anyways?"
Delita frowned as the woman he had saved started yelling at him. Could nothing go the way he expected it to in this world? Honestly, who yells at someone for saving them? Irritated and not in any mood to put up with the blue headed girls continued ranting, he rubbed the side of his head to ease his forming headache while snapping at her. "Is that anyway for someone to thank their savior? Mayhaps I should have left you to be eaten by that creature, then?"
Ritz opened her mouth and got an indignant look on her face, but thought better of what she was about to say and changed tracks with a huff. "Hmph. Fine, thank you... Umm... Where is this, anyway? I can't think of anywhere near Ivalice that looks like this."
Delita clucked his tongue, not sure what to make of the situation. Apparently he had found himself face to face with someone who knew nothing about this joke of a world, and his world. He wasn't far from doubting it at this point. After having two different lives stuffed into his head, he wasn't going to be doubting anything that seemed far too out of place. "You're in Nubswood, if that helps you any. Now if you excuse me, I have something that I need to do."
"Don't you dare!" He heard the girl yell, and stopped midstep before sighing. Just great, a girl that didn't know when to give up. "First you kill someone with something as mundane as a sword, and then you plan on leaving an innocent girl lost in unfamiliar woods? How inconsiderate can you be?"
"Plenty, I'm not required to help you. I have things that are far more important than dealing with weaklings like you." Delita continued to walk in the direction he believed the next town was, ignoring the mumbling of the girl. He was having enough problems as it was, all in one day, and wasting any more time was not on his list. At least things couldn't get any worse.
"Fine, then I'm just going to follow you! Hmph!" The navy-haired girl said, before running to catch up with him. There was only one thing that went through his mind at that point.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF...
(-)
The large wooden door slammed open, the noise attracting the attention of all the patrons of the bar, most of them members of the sentient lizard race known as Bangaa. Soon two very peculiar humans could be seen, bickering as if they were a married couple. Shrugging it off as a normal occurrence, the patrons went back to their drinks and conversations. They didn't even pay attention to what they couple was yelling about, not that they would care. There were some loopy people out there.
"I'm telling you, this world isn't real! It can't be! Ivalice is a city, not a country!" The woman yelled, pretty much demanding that the male take her opinion.
"Are you trying to say I'm not real then? Because if I wasn't, you'd be dead now, eaten by the undead creature way back in those woods. Stop bothering me with your nonsense." The man waved her off, not even giving her consideration. He sat down on the stool in front of the bar, glancing around the room, noting that there was quite the array of races here. From his understanding, mostly all of the races besides humes should still be keeping to themselves in their own little countries. What were they doing in Ivalice all of a sudden? It didn't help him that his self of this world didn't know much about them either. A servant's ignorance was quite the curse.
"This...that's different. This world can't exist! I-I must be dreaming..." The girl trailed off, grabbing her head as if it would fall off at any second.
"You just keep telling yourself that, princess," the redheaded male scoffed, grinning slightly. It was oddly amusing to see this girl break herself. It wasn't the first time this trip that she did this too.
"You want something sir?" The hume bartender asked, drying the inside of a glass with a towel. Delita smirked, taking out some of the gil from his small stockpile. Servants of the Sadalfas family got paid almost nothing, but at least they were actually paid. He'd be lucky to be able to buy any weapons after this.
"Yeah, give me your cheapest Ale." He said, slamming the ten gil coin on the table. He really needed this, and then tomorrow he'd start on taking over the kingdom. Again.
"Alcohol? You're drinking alcohol at a time like this? Are you mad?" the navy-haired girl questioned. He turned his head to acknowledge his companion again. If one could say they were companions.
"Could you be quiet for one moment? You are not the only one with a crisis. I have many...MANY things that I need to do, and your incessant blabber isn't helping." He state, turning back to the bartender as he was served a nice glass of ale. He was so going to enjoy this drink of the gods.
"What would you know about it? I don't know what is-" She suddenly cut off as she was pulled by the collar of her shirt, finding herself face to face with a very angry face.
"Just because you are a woman does not mean I will not kill you. Believe me." The glare he gave her as he let go was enough of a sign for her to keep her thoughts to herself. The bartender eyed the pair warily, before sighing, not exactly wanting to get involved with the pair at all anymore.
"Anything else you need?" He asked, as it was his job to serve.
"Yes, I need some information."
"What kind of information?"
"Nothing much, just wondering what the Royal Family has been up to. I like to keep track of things." Delita asked in a casual manner.
"Ah, lots of folks like to keep track of those kinds of things." The man nodded. "Plenty of gossipers come through these parts, spreading the news around."
The bartender paused to set down the finished glass before picking up a new one. "Latest thing I heard would be... the Prince's engagement. Young Mewt is being married to... Olivia? Ovelia? It was one of those. A fine lass, I hear."
Delita tensed at hearing the name of the apparent princess-to-be, his gaze hardening ever so slightly. It was entirely possible it was a coincidence, or the name WAS Olivia, but he didn't believe that. Not with how this world seemed to love jerking him around. While the red haired man was busy not killing something, Ritz had perked up at the name of the prince and was currently trying to give word to her thoughts.
"W-what? Mewt?" The blue headed girl managed to say, her memories drifting back to that odd little kid that used to get picked on all the time. He also turned out to be a Einstein or something, because he ended up the smartest kid in school... Something that still grated on her nerves whenever she happened to think about it. Thoughts of Mewt, however, led back to other memories involving times several years past - And she suddenly realized where she had seen some of the things in this odd little world before. "No way! He did this? That's... impossible!"
"Could you please shut up when I tell you to?" Delita spoke through his teeth, his anger and annoyance mixing together into a twitching urge to hurt something. However, his own focus was derailed as exactly what she said dawned on him. With one swift movement, he grabbed the blue haired woman and pulled her close before hissing out. "You will tell me more of this... Mewt, and whatever it is he did. Later, alone, but you will."
"Ouch, hey, don't grab me like that, jerk!" Ritz complained, shoving his grip off her and rubbing her probably bruised shoulder, before turning her nose up at him with another of her practically patented huffs. "I don't see why I should. You've been nothing but an ass since I met you."
Turning back to face the bartender, he tried to just ignore his recent act and pretend it hadn't happened - The bartender more than happy to do the same. Taking a drink of his ale, Delita briefly mentally cursed at the slightly off taste - Not really tasting much like Ale at all - before addressing the bartender once more. "I'd like to know something else. Do you happen to know of some easy ways to make money?"
"Well, lately groups of people have been forming clans in order to complete problematic jobs that the judges and royal army don't have the time to deal with. Most pay well enough, but it depends on the difficulty of the task." The Bartender said before pointing the board behind him, covered with parchment.
"Those are all the quests I have available. Quite a few I might say, since I haven't had any active clans come in." He said, stroking his goatee.
"I see, thank you" Delita said, glancing over at his companion before looking at the man again. "Is there a room open?"
"Yes, there is. I assume this is for the both of you?" The hume questioned, not really caring if it was or not. If not, it was more of a profit for him.
"Yes. How much is it?"
"One hundred gil," the bartender grinned as the money was placed down on the counter, before he fished a key off of the wall that was covered with room keys. "Thank you very much. Enjoy your stay."
With a nod, Delita snatched the key out of the man's hand, grabbing Ritz's wrist with his other hand, and headed up the stairs to their room. He was lucky the woman didn't complain this time.
(-)
The navy-haired girl, known as Ritz by very few people in this world looked into the small room from the hallway, rubbing her wrist where the man had roughly grabbed her. Didn't chivalry exist in this universe? Even Lyle was much better than this guy, but that was only because he did just about everything he asked him to. This guy seemed ignore her completely, except when it benefited him.
The room that she stood outside of looked really small, containing one bed, and little walking space. Though, the bed looked as though it could fit three people on it, and looked fairly comfortable with those wool blankets...and was that a feather stuffed pillow? No one uses those anymore.
Suddenly Ritz squealed, finding that Delita had once again grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the room, slamming the door shut behind them. Suddenly she felt frightened again, noting their situation. Here she was, alone with a guy in a room with one bed, and the redheaded male was between her and her only exit. It didn't help that he glared at her with some type of determination.
"N-no! You can't!" She said, flinching as he stepped forward, reaching his hands towards her. Before she could even thing of moving away, those hands had latched onto her shoulders, pulling her closer to him, until she was staring right into his eyes fearfully.
"You will tell me all you know about this 'Mewt'!" He demanded, finding that her fear in him would only help in his goal. Unfortunately, her fear had completely disappeared the moment he had made his demand, and was replaced with a confident smirk. That was not a good sign, and it only served to irritated him more.
"Oh? I will, will I?" Ritz replied flippantly, her stance no longer being one of fear and now one of haughty confidence. "I don't have to tell you anything, and dragging me around like that isn't the way to convince me otherwise, either. Don't mistake me for some weak-willed little kid, either, I'm not telling you a damn thing unless there's something in it for me."
Delita growled for a moment, anger flashing across his face, and for a moment he considered taking more... painful methods, but thought better of it. Reluctantly, he released the blue headed woman and responded gruffly. "Fine, what is it you want in exchange for this information?"
Ritz made a show of tapping a finger on her chin, before responding a moment later. "What I want... Is for you to take me along with you. This is no place for a lady such as myself to be wandering around alone, where who knows what could pop up. In exchange for being my bodyguard, I'll tell you all about Mewt."
The red haired man frowned at that. He had no desire to have her following him around... However, she definitely knew something of what had happened... He could always just ditch her anyways, couldn't he? He had no reason to keep such a unreasonable promise. "Fine, you can tag along IF you tell me about this Mewt and IF it proves to be useful information."
"Of course it's useful." The girl huffed, crossing her arms. "I wouldn't be bargaining with you if it wasn't, would I?"
Several moments passed, Delita pointedly staring at his short-time companion, before he sighed and spoke up. "Well? Out with it!"
Unhurried, Ritz idly polished her fingernails on her clothing, before speaking. "Well, I haven't really known him that well or long, so what I know is pretty limited. He's quiet and kind of a dork, but he's apparently really smart. Anyways, you probably don't care about that."
Delita's narrowed glare indicated that he did not care about it, and Ritz smirked at the small irritations she was able to inflict on the man so easily. That's what he got for being rough with her.
"Like I was saying, I didn't know him for very long but I recall something that probably has to do with this weird world. A couple years ago, Mewt showed me and a few others this book he had come across. It was a weird fantasy book of some kind, I guess, but it was written in Latin. We couldn't really read it, but Mewt was almost able to say an entire line. Anyways, I think the book had something to do with it because of the pictures - Those lizard things were in it - so that means we're in the book somehow. I wouldn't believe something that stupid normally, but things seem to add up that way... Mewt being a prince, and he was the one with the book. The only thing I don't understand is why it didn't do it when he read it and instead happened years later..." Ritz trailed off, wrapping up her brief explanation.
Delita frowned more, not at all pleased. He hadn't gotten nearly what he had wanted, just some half-baked theory. Still, magic was very real - He had enough experiences with it to keep an open mind about its abilities - so it wasn't too hard a story to buy. That meant this world was some kind of illusion crafted by Mewt, using the book's magic. Of course, this idea could be entirely wrong... But he had nothing else to go on at the moment.
"So what's your story? You seem quite different to be a native of this world." Ritz commented, hoping now that she pretty much shared her side of things, he would share his. Not much luck on that end, not that she was surprised.
"That's none of your business. Now it would be best if we got some sleep, we'll have some work to do in order to prepare." Delita stated, moving towards the bed.
"Hey! It's only right that you should sleep on the floor, leaving the bed to a poor girl like myself." Ritz said, placing a hand over her chest in indication. The man only stopped briefly to glare at her, before continuing with what he was doing.
"Look, I paid for the room, I don't have the money to pay for two rooms and buy us functioning weapons in the morning, and I'm not going to sleep on the floor. So either you enjoy the floor, or you use the other side of this bed. I'll allow you that much." He said, placing his sword in the corner of the room, still irritated that it was too heavy. He had a lot of work cut out for him, and this woman wasn't helping him calm down any either.
"H-How..." Ritz trailed off, finding that anymore arguing wasn't worth the effort. She couldn't demand anything from this man unless she had something to trade, and she was out of information. "Fine."
With that said, both were silent for the rest of the night, and prepared themselves for another day in the world that was not their own. Sleep was a welcome distraction from the stress that the day had caused.
(-)
"When's our buyer coming, boss?" A soldier in red garb asked in a bored tone, tossing a rock into the air before catching it. They had been waiting on this stupid hill for a few hours, hiding from those that passed through the mountain path. Their buyer had yet to make an effort to show up to buy the product from them.
"He'll get here when he gets here. You need to be more patient." His boss stated, a hume thief Standing from his position high above the pass, he could see all the travelers that went by, ever suspicious of possible threats. It was then that he heard a strange voice complaining from below.
"I can't believe this world. Stealing a thesis of all things...Is everyone really that well off that the only thing you can steal is ideas?" The leader smirked as he watched the man look around, noting he only had one companion. Was this all that old bag could send after his group? Two young upstarts? They should know better.
"Up and at'em boys. We've got company," he said, smirking as he drew his dagger. This would be a quick battle. Once all his men were in position on the mountain side, he called down to the pair that was apparently searching for him and his crew.
"Hey! Do you young'ns need something?" He called down from the cliff edge, smiling like he had just caught tonight's dinner. He'd rob these guys of all they had once they were unconscious It's funny how those judges couldn't do anything once the battle ended.
Delita looked up, cutting himself off mid-sentence to locate the unexpected voice. His eyes narrowed as he noted the dress of the man, and the not exactly pleasant look he was wearing. Stopping in his tracks, he sighed in annoyance when Ritz blatantly responded to the man with the stupidest possible response he could imagine.
"Hey, are you one of those morons that stole a thesis?"
"Subtle." The red haired man muttered under his breath before preparing himself encase they were attacked - Which they very likely would be. The man up on the cliff paused, face turning into an expression of anger, before responding with an irritated shout.
"Who's a moron!" The thief leader barked. "This thesis is going to get us a nice reward!"
Ritz grinned, drawing her new short sword. She didn't really intend to use it at this point, but thought it would be effective for intimidating the lone thief. "Well, hand it over and we won't have to beat you up first."
Delita rubbed his forehead with his free hand, feeling completely annoyed by his companion's stupidity. Naiveté was more close to the truth, and probably inexperience with such situations, but it wasn't a good thing either way. Hissing at her as he readied his own sword, he didn't take his eyes off the thief for a moment. "You idiot... If he's even remotely smarter than you are, he wouldn't be up here by himself. Didn't you notice he said "us" earlier? It would have been better to not give away who we are and why we're here..."
Ritz had the decency to look mildly abashed, but only for a moment, before huffing. "Well, whatever. Let's just take the thesis so we can get paid."
"Hah! As if." The thief yelled, having overheard the last comment. "We'll be the ones taking things around here! Go ahead and show yourselves, boys!" On cue, people started appearing on the sides of the cliff face, obviously hiding in order to ambush their pursuers. Delita growled as he counted them, noting the difference in numbers.
"Four to two," he noted, trying to think up a sound strategy. At least they were spread out enough that he wouldn't be overwhelmed all at once. Well, he hoped he wouldn't. The only problem was dealing with that archer, which he could probably leave to his companion while he took out the rest of the group that he would have to go through to get to the leader. The bastard definitely knew his geographical advantages.
"Alright woman, I'm going to head up the left path, while you head up the right path." He stated, unsheathing his mythril sword, ignoring the complaint he got from his companion about having a name. He really didn't care if she had a name. "You should only have to deal with that archer, so it should be simple enough at close range. Just don't get shot."
In a blinding flash of light, a figure appeared to Delita's right. As the dust cleared, the redhead glared at the figure, his irritation blowing straight into a full rage. That man was supposed to be dead, along with his whole family. There was no way he could misplace that face and hairstyle. It was just too odd to see anyone else with it.
Why the hell was Dycedarg here? And why was he riding a chocobo while wearing such heavy armor? It just didn't make any sense.
"Now that both sides are ready, I will now announce the rule of this battle." Dycedarg said, looking briefly at both sides of the battle. His eyebrows rose curiously upon looking at Delita's group, finding it odd for just a team of two to be fighting. Shrugging, he decided it was best to get back to his job. "There will be no Ganging up whatsoever. Now let this battle begin!" Signaling with his hands, accompanied by a whistle, Dycedarg officially started the battle.
Instantly Delita and Ritz split up, heading in their separate directions. Delita smirked as he looked at the two people he would have to go through to get to the boss. A swordsman and a thief shouldn't be too hard right? Even in his pitiful shape, he could still out maneuver any novice, and a thief would not be a problem. He only hoped that his partner would be able to take out that archer before he could be shot unsuspectingly
As he drew close, the swordsman came forward with his own attack, hoping to catch him unprepared. Delita's blade intercepted, and the resulting impact jarred his arms far more than he would have liked. Ignoring that for the moment, he quickly moved his blade against his opponents, pushing it with some effort before directing it down and to the left in a swift half-circle movement. The technique caught the swordsman by surprise, who now found himself all crossed up with his sword arm on the opposite side of his body, when the red headed man finished with a thrust into the swordsman's torso. The blade hit armor, but still caused enough damage to force the man to stagger back.
Delita had little time to follow up on this, as the thief chose his companions exit from the immediate fighting to jump in and slash towards his face with a dagger. The former king barely managed to heft his annoyingly heavy blade into position to block, the dagger glancing off of it harmlessly. Far too sluggishly for his liking, he moved from the block into a sidestepping slash, hopping to take out the lightly if at all armored thief. The other man was faster than he looked, however, and bent himself out of the way before grabbing a hold of Delita's shirt - And in a movement he would never quite understand, managed to take it right off of him.
Filing that away for things to ponder on later, along with where the shirt had vanished too once it had been taken, Delita struck out at the triumphantly smirking thief once more, this time his anger allowing him to ignore the swords weight and move fast enough to force the other to attempt a block with his pathetic dagger. Attempt, because all it took was Delita altering his swing slight to hit the exposed shoulder of the thief and deliver a major injury that sent him straight to the ground.
Sweating more than he should have been for such simple combat, Delita turned just in time to see the swordsman he had injured before ready to strike him with a powerful downward swing. The surprised servant/king moved to get out of the way, all too aware that his body was to slow to actually do so. A whistling sound followed by a thunk distracted him, and the swordsman paused with his sword mere inches from him before slumping ever and falling to the ground in a crumpled heap.
"Hah! Headshot!" He heard someone shout, turning over to see Ritz not far off with a bow in her hands and posed as if having just fired. Delita quirked an eyebrow in her direction, which the navy-haired girl noticed. "What? Just because I'm bad with swords doesn't mean I'm useless! You should have asked!"
Delita shook his head, trying to hide the smile that was forming on his face. Apparently she wasn't as useless as he had previously thought. That was a pretty damn good shot from that distance, he was honestly impressed. "We still have one more to deal with. So don't get cocky." He called back, beginning his trek up the hill. It wouldn't be long until he was able to beat that bastard thief senseless.
"I think you miscounted," A voice said from behind him, along with the familiar sound of a sword being drawn. Spinning around as quickly as he could, he was barely able to block the struck aimed for his neck, his sword at an extremely odd position. Delita growled, angry that he had completely missed someone. He should have known better, especially considering all that he had gone through in the past.
"I guess I did..." He said, pushing against the other sword with all his strength so he could shift his weapon to a more beneficial position. The swords grinded against each other as they strained against the strength forced on them, but Delita was able to prevail in his shift. Before the soldier could react, and in another skillful movement, the former king was able to disarm his opponent by slashing the other man's sword hand with the tip of the mythril sword.
"And now I've fixed my error." Gripping the sword with both hands, he struck against the weaponless man, aiming for his exposed head. The man fell to the rocky ground as he lost his consciousness Now that the last distraction was gone, his final target was in sight. Running as fast as his pitiful legs would take him, he finally made it to the top of the cliff, and found himself watching as his companion launched arrow after arrow at the thief
"I take it back, you're still useless." He commented, brandishing his mythril sword. It was time to end this ridiculous battle. With that, he charged in.
"Hey! I am not useless!" Ritz yelled, stopping her shooting to let Delita take care of the thief. "It's just that he kept blocking my arrows!"
Delita could have cared less about her excuses. This was just one small step towards his ultimate goal, and he was getting real tired of it. As soon as the thief was in range, he slid to a stop, all the while swinging his sword around, using his momentum to his advantage. To his surprise he found the sword blocked by the enemy thief's knife, without any sign of waning under the stress.
"You're pretty weak, you know that?" The thief smiled at his insult, enjoying the look of anger that spread across Delita's face. He was weak a long time ago, so weak that he could only watch as his sister was shot before his eyes. He had promised himself that he would never be weak again. There was no way he was going to let this amateur get away with calling him weak.
"I..." Gripping his sword tightly in his hands, he glared defiantly at the thief that had insulted him. "Am Not..." Pushing harder, he drove the other man's knife back, not paying attention to the fact that his sword started to glow again, just like that other time. His arms began to flow with strength once again, the sword no longer feeling as heavy.
"Weak!" Delita cried, finally pushing the thief's knife away, leaving the man wide open. His arm moved quickly, slashing the man from all directions, before giving one final thrust to the man's chest. Breathing heavily, he pulled the sword out, and watched the man fall to his knees, somehow still retaining his consciousness
A blaring whistle caught his attention, and he watched, confused, as the Chocobo mounted Dycedarg came running towards him.
"Ganging Up law infringement. Punishment: Yellow Card," He said, throwing a yellow piece of paper in Delita's direction. The paper moved rather quickly for being a piece of paper, and had immediately attached to Delita's shirtless torso.
"Gah!" The former king cried in pain. That had hurt like hell. Rubbing at his chest in irritation, even though the pain hadn't really been centered there, he glared at the Judge. Gritting his teeth, he barely restrained himself from attacking the man. This world was an illusion of some kind, and that meant this Dycedarg was another fake like Teta had been. Ignoring the obvious hostility the shirtless man was showing, Dycedarg examined the area before raising a hand.
"Battle Concluded. Victors..." The blonde man stopped, hand still raised, before turning his head slightly in Delita and Ritz's direction. "What Clan do you two belong to?"
"We don't." Delita grunted, eying the Judge warily. Obviously this version of Dycedarg had some sort of power, with those cards. He didn't know what they could do beyond the "Yellow Card" hurting like hell, but he wasn't curious enough to find out if he could help it.
"Hmph. Missions are meant for clans. Taking one while not a part of a clan is forbidden. I would send you to jail, but it unfortunately isn't an official law." The man on the chocobo drawled, before turning his mount around so his back was to them.
"Does that mean that thievery isn't against official law either? What kind of system is this?" Ritz asked after fishing a sheet of parchment out of the thief's robes, holding it up for the judge to see.
Dycedarg's head tilted slightly to indicate he heard, but he made no move to turn to face them again. "A Judge's place is to enforce the law, not question it. I suggest you do not, either."
That said, the Judge and mount vanished just as suddenly and in the same manner as they had appeared. Delita took the opportunity to rummage around for the shirt that thief had taken from him, oddly finding it in a bag. When had the thief had time to do that? Whatever, he hadn't ever figured out how thieves in his world managed to steal some of the things they did, and he doubted he'd figure out how they did it in this world. Maybe it was some kind of Thief-Magic? Actually, the servant/king mused to himself as he looked over the unconscious foes, Dycedarg had all but said thieving was allowed. Nobody would care if he took a few things from these deadbeats anyways.
"Umm... What are you doing?" Ritz blinked as Delita started to remove the armor of one of the soldiers. The man ignored her for several moments until he had put it on himself and picked up the soldiers sword to give it a few test swings.
"What does it look like? These thieves are better equipped than we are. You shouldn't talk anyways. How did you get that bow, after all?" The red head snapped lightly, not really putting much anger in it. "I suggest you loot some better armor yourself."
"Point." The navy-haired girl stated, shrugging as she made her way to the archer she had taken out. It was probably best that she took what she would use. Although, she wouldn't mind if they robbed the thieves of all they had. They deserved it after all.
Finally having found himself fitted with a sword he could actually use effectively, and armor better than the servant's shirt he had started with, Delita finally didn't feel all that pitiful anymore. He still had a long way to go though, and that judge didn't make him feel any more comfortable with this new world.
Glancing towards the setting sun, he frowned as he realized the implications of Dycedarg's existence If Dycedarg was alive, that also probably meant that the entire Beoulve family was alive once more. He growled as he remembered Zalbaag, Dycedarg's younger brother, ordering Algus to shoot his sister. That's one person in this world he would have to kill along with Algus.
But that also meant that Ramza was still alive, and while they were friends in the past, he didn't know how this world would have affected him. He would probably have to go through his former friend to reach his goal. It didn't matter who it was, if they stood in his way, they would be cut down.
"Woman! We're leaving," the former king called, starting to head down the path, not caring if his partner was following.
"Hey, what did I tell you about calling me 'Woman'! I have a name, you know!"
(-)
A/N:
JSB: As you can see, we took some liberties considering FFTA canon, since we needed the heroes of FFTA to be older in order to be problematic for Delita. Delita vs. 12 year old Mewt would barely be a challenge, crybaby that he is.
Xero: We also took a bit of liberty in general to make it work better as a story, but hopefully it comes across in a decent way. A lot of the key elements, such as what the Auracite did to the warped Delita, is pretty much made up bull. We think it works though.