Zero: Too tired to write anything correctly. I'm writing this story while I'm really tired, so don't be surprised if I make a lot of grammer/spelling mistakes. My muses are already asleep, so yeah…
Zero: I don't own Tri-Ace, Square Enix, and whatever is related to Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time. Enjoy.
Chapter 1
Dragons
"You know, you didn't have to come with me. I could have done this job myself," Nel said to the blue-haired boy.
Fayt smiled. "It's fine. I don't mind. Besides, it'll keep me occupied until the Diplo is ready for launch."
The two were walking through Kirlsa on their way to Airyglyph from Aquios. Nel was asked to deliver a message to King Airyglyph XIII. The contents of the message were not mentioned, but it was said to be nothing too important, so an officer of a lower ranking was to take it, but Nel wanted to complete the task since she enjoyed being busy. Fayt was waiting for Maria and the others to finish up on some last minute touches of the Diplo before they could launch again. Since they were doing it leisurely, it was to take a couple of hours. With nothing better to do, he decided to tag along with Nel.
Nel looked over at a store, and stopped walking. Noticing this, Fayt stopped too. "What's up?"
"We should stock up on some supplies. Aren't we running low?"
Fayt looked into his inventory. "Yeah, now that you mentioned it, it might be a good idea to stock up." After the battle with Luther, buying healing supplements and items of the sort didn't really cross his mind. With the Executioners removed from the Eternal Sphere, only normal enemies roamed, and they were no match to them now.
After shopping for a few minutes for the minimum requirements, the two continued on their journey through the cold, snowy road to Airyglyph.
Fayt cupped his hands over his mouth, and blew hot air into them. He then crossed his arms over his body. "Why do I always forget to bring a jacket every time I come here?"
Nel chuckled and shook her head at the same time. "You can't let a little slow like this phase you. Doesn't it snow where you live?"
"Not really. Where I live, snow isn't a really common occurrence. I saw snow when I was a child with Sophia once, but that was a while back. I can barely remember it."
"I see. Before the war, I would walk around here from time to time, so it doesn't bother me that much. I've gotten used to it."
Fayt sighed, pulling out his sword. "Looks like we're going to be interrupted."
"Seems so," Nel replied, pulling out her daggers.
A couple of dragons flew from the sky, hovering over their heads. "What the…?" Fayt questioned, "Are these Airyglyph's?"
Nel shook her head. "No, these look different. Take caution."
Fayt nodded. He rushed forward and executed a somersault kick on one of them, shooting it into the air. "Nel!"
Knowing what to do, Nel jumped into the air and initiated her Aerial attack, attacking with three horizontal slashes. As it fell to the ground, Fayt quickly used his Charge attack on it, as he crashed his body into the monster.
"This is it! Ice Daggers!" She magically formed three daggers out of ice and threw them at the dragon. It roared in pain as its hard skin was ripped open, blood spurting out, dyeing the white snow red.
Fayt looked up into the air, and managed to use his Aura to block the attack, at the same time stunning the dragon. "Tch, there're still two more."
Nel landed back on the ground, and threw a few more Ice Daggers at the two dragons that weren't stunned, but they easily dodged them.
"Explosion!"
Nel looked over at the source of the command, and saw Fayt with a glyph in front of his hand. She then looked up into the air, and saw a giant ball of fire slowly float down to the ground. The two quickly ran out of the way of the attack as upon impact with the ground the ball exploded into a giant dome of searing flames. Within the dome the two could hear the cries of pain from the dragons inside.
Taking this time to her advantage, Nel quickly charged up a ball of energy in her hand. "My turn." She pushed the ball forward as it finished charging. "Lightning Strike!"
Right when the fire dispersed, bolts of lightning struck down from the sky, electrifying two of the dragons until they fell to the ground, dead.
Fayt ran forward at the last dragon. "This is the finisher! Air…" He slammed his sword up into the air, slashing the dragon's head in the process. "Raid!" he then finished by striking down his sword along with dozens of arrows of air at the dragon, ripping its skin as it roared in pain.
The two looked around at the bleeding dragons laid to waste, as well as the red snow all around them. Fayt chuckled embarrassingly. "Looks like we went a bit too far."
"It not over yet." Nel's eyes narrowed at the sky.
"Damn!" Fayt shouted, looking at the direction Nel.
A small dot was seen, but became larger and larger until one could see what it was. The figure of a large, black dragon at least ten meters tall dropped onto the ground, roaring with anger. The shockwaves of the roar alone pushed the two of them back.
"Think it's angry we killed the other dragons?" Fayt asked jokingly.
Nel simply shook her head, amazed about how Fayt was taking this situation. "Are you ready?"
"Yeah."
The two rushed forward. Nel struck the dragon with her daggers, but it didn't even make a bruise. Fayt slashed at it with his sword as well, but with the same result. The dragon flapped its wings, as the force of the wind created from the flaps lifted Fayt and Nel off their feet and pushed them back. Nel slid across the snow as she fell, and Fayt crashed into a tree, snapping it in the process.
"Are you okay, Nel?" Fayt asked in pain.
She shook her head and returned to her right state of mind. She looked back at Fayt. "I should be asking you that instead."
He stood up slowly. "Ow ow ow…yeah, I'm okay." He returned to his fighting stance.
Nel stared down at the dragon. "I'm not sure how we're going to take this thing out."
Fayt raised his sword up into the air. "Buy me some time."
She nodded to him, and then rushed forward.
He took a deep breath, as a blue light appeared below him. "Divine…"
She dodged a fireball shot out from the dragon's mouth, and then threw some Ice Daggers that bounced off harmlessly from its skin.
A young girl with angel wings appears above Fayt. She held her hands out to his raised sword, as white light began to swirl around the sword.
Nel dodged yet another fireball, but lost her footing as the melted ice made her slip. She quickly tried to get back to her feet, but the dragon's arm was already in the position of a fist. Her eyes widened. She couldn't dodge it in time. "Fayt!" she screamed in her head.
"Blade!" Running full force, Fayt rushed forward at the dragon as glowing white feathers trailed from his sword. He slammed his sword into the dragon's incoming fist. Nel relaxed a little, staring at his light-enveloped sword.
"Cut…" Fayt pushed harder. "through!!" Eventually a small tear appeared in the dragon's skin. The tear quickly ripped open, as Fayt's sword cut through half of the arm. The two halves of the arm flapped around with the bones inside visible. The dragon roared in pain as it staggered back.
Nel tried to get up, but she quickly fell back down, wincing in pain. "Of all the places where I could be hurt…!" She placed a hand on her ankle. Her black leggings turned a shade of red as her blood was being absorbed into the material.
The dragon opened its mouth, as fire swirled around inside it. Suddenly, a torrent of fire shot out. Acting fast, Fayt dropped his sword and scooped Nel up in his arms as he ran away from the flames. As the fire hit the ground, a shockwave occurred, pushing them further back. Fayt fell on his back as Nel tumbled over him.
"Fayt!" she cried, staring down at his pained face.
"Get off me, please," he requested.
She rolled off, but still couldn't stand because of the pain. She closed her eyes and began to chant a healing spell, but once again, another burst of flames headed their way. She pushed off the ground with her good leg and dodged the attack. "Fayt, if this keeps up we'll…" she stopped, then looked around. "Fayt?" He was nowhere to be found.
She looked over at the dragon, and saw Fayt floating in front of it, arms wide open. The same angelic girl appeared again above him, but this time the white light was being charged into a glyph that appeared above his forehead. "Ethereal…" he said calmly.
Nel's eyes widened. "Fayt! No!"
The dragon finished charging another blast, as it fired it directly at Fayt. The boy stared down at the dragon, his own energy charged. "Blast!" he shouted out. A white beam of light struck down from the glyph.
The two destructive attacks met, as they canceled each other out upon impact, but the beams still continued shooting out from both of them. Eventually, the energy from the blasts gathered up, and created a small ball of light and fire, slowly growing larger and larger. The ball eventually could not stand the pressure, and exploded. Bursts of light and fire shot out in every direction, as well as an incredible shockwave, ripping trees from their roots and sending large boulders flying out in every direction.
"Fayt!" Nel screamed, outstretching her arm towards the boy with all her strength, as her body was shot away by the shockwave. Her consciousness slowly weakened, as she fainted while flying through the air…
Zero: Please R&R, k thx. goes off to bed