Prologue
The cold air of the desert night sent a shiver racing through the sweat covered man as he slipped out of the damp cave he'd been in for the past few hours. Pulling on a sweatshirt to ward off the chill he brushed some sand off a rock, sat down, and looked out over the seemingly endless sand of the Bikanel Desert. It was nearly sunrise and the Al Bhed at the HOME restoration project would be getting up soon. They'd been slaving away under the brutal, pounding desert sun for nearly two years and they were painfully close to completing their project. Every time he entered the area he could practically feel the excitement in the atmosphere, like a small jolt of electricity running through his entire body.
Every time he thought back on everything that had taken place he couldn't help but admire the Al Bhed. Between Cid, Gippal, Rikku, and Brother the Al Bhed had managed to gather together their greatest minds just weeks after Vegnagun and Yevon had been dealt with. Since then nothing, thankfully, had threatened the planet and the little group had gone their separate ways, though they still met at least once a month for no better reason then to stay in touch. How much they'd all managed to accomplish in two short years still amazed him.
Matt and Sakura had a little girl a few months earlier, Andy had been wandering around for the past two years to get a general idea of just what had happened while he was gone, Nick had surprised everyone by staying in Besaid and helping coach the blitzball team, Seph and Rae had disappeared after getting Melody and JT to Kilika where they'd taken up the job of helping to sooth tensions that still existed between former Youth League and New Yevon members. Auron, without an explanation of his sudden reappearance, had resumed his role as the wise, quiet instructor to Tidus who had made astonishing progress. He and Rikku had, when the group split up, left for Bikanel Desert to help Cid with the restoration of Home, mostly in securing the area and fighting off the surprisingly resilient fiends.
Lusniec was still at large but nobody bothered chasing him. He was too powerful for anyone, save possibly Andy, and on top of that he wasn't doing anything as far as any of them could tell. At first they'd considered going after him, but after they'd stopped to think about it they decided not to aggravate the powerful angel unless they needed to.
"It's about to come up…" he whispered to the still air. Tendrils of pink, yellow, and red were starting to reach over the tips of the horizon lazily, a quiet display of small beauty to whet the watcher's appetite. Seconds ticked by as the tendrils expanded, then became fingers, then became something akin to the strokes of an artist's paintbrush as they slowly made their way across the sky. He sat quietly and watched one of the most beautiful sunrises he'd seen since setting foot on Spira.
"Sir Ryan?" the voice that snapped him back to reality was ice cold and monotone, a starch contrast to what he'd become familiar with at the HOME restoration project. The 20 year old angel turned his head to face nine oncoming figures, all of them wrapped almost obscured from view by a bank of fog. Alarms went off in his head immediately. There weren't any oasis's around here, there was no water around the area for miles. Even Seph wouldn't have been able to summon a bank of fog, even a light one like this.
"Who is it that's asking?" he replied calmly, hoping he was overreacting but somehow knowing he wasn't. It was too unnatural to not worry him.
"I shall take that as a 'yes'," one of the figures, Ryan couldn't be sure which, said as six of them spread out in a circle around he and the other three. "Prepare yourself, s'argt. Your time ends now."
"Oh, the hell it does," Ryan said as he stood up and turned to look at each of the six cloaked figures surrounding him before facing the three figures that stood before him. "Only nine of you? I think you may have underestimated me…"
"Unlikely." Ryan frowned at the statement slightly. His bad feeling was rapidly growing into a sense of dread as one of the three figures in the circle drew a giant scythe out from under its cloak. Immediately the air around him began to snap and hiss as it turned purple, and he got the feeling that he may have been a bit quick to judge the group's estimation of his skill as white lights began to drift into the weapon's blade. "Disappear, dhyn."
'This is bad…' he thought as he rested a hand on Wind Cutter and watched the three carefully. Something was odd about the whole thing. Though someone had clearly ordered the three to attack, none of them were doing anything. 'What's going on?'
A second later he found out as a chain adorned in spikes shot out of the ground behind him, shattering the rock he'd been sitting on and spraying him with sand. His instincts kicked in and he pushed off as best as he could while on the sand and rolled forward, drawing Wind Cutter and deflecting a shot from the scythe a second before it would have cleaved his face in two. "As you can see we've hardly taken you too lightly. If anything we've overestimated your strengths."
'What the hell is this guy?' Ryan wondered before he pushed everything out of his mind. Focusing completely on the man in front of him he spun to the left, disappearing from underneath the scythe's blade almost instantly and causing the man who'd been trying to overpower him to lurch forward for a fraction of a second as the resistance that had kept him standing disappeared. Not wasting the chance Ryan spun around, a pure red blade cutting through the air towards the cloaked man's neck until a chain wrapped around his wrist and pulled him backwards with nearly enough force to dislocate his shoulder. He cursed as he regained his footing, deep punctures in his arm from the spikes of the chain bleeding him to death slowly. 'Well this could be going much better…'
"You're beginning to understand, yes? That you cannot defeat them? They're the strongest three to every live. You're powerful, sir Ryan, but even you pale before their might."
"You're all a bunch of arrogant fools…" Ryan said with a chuckle as he raised Wind Cutter with his good arm and pointed it at the scythe wielder. "Next move… I'm shattering that scythe of yours pal."
"A bold assumption," the monotone voice stated.
"A declaration of the future," Ryan corrected as he lowered Wind Cutter. "Well? Come on. I haven't got all day you know."
"Very well," the reply came from all of the members of the group that had surrounded him at the same time.
"Geez, it's like dealing with the Fayth all over again…" Ryan muttered before the three warriors charged forward again. A chain flashed in at his head but he simply stepped to the side and let it fly by so closely that it tore the shoulder of his sweatshirt. Ducking he watched as the hammer passed over his head harmlessly while he slid towards its wielder quickly. He saw the cloud of sand that appeared around where the head of the hammer landed and felt a second of resistance as Wind Cutter's blade sank deeper into the man's flesh before flashing out through his side in a bloody arc as Ryan spun in a full circle to cleave the man in two. "Alright… so maybe I cleaved this guy in two rather than breaking the scythe…" he said with a sigh. Even when the people were trying to kill him it left a bad taste in his mouth.
Still, this group wasn't normal. He couldn't afford to hold back, especially with his magic so low. It was hard enough just to stay far enough ahead of them to avoid dying as it was, as much as he hated to admit it. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to retreat…?"
"Do not be a fool," one of the hooded figures shot back as the scythe wielder took at a slash at Ryan's stomach that the angel simply stepped back to avoid.
"No matter how powerful you are you can't defeat us all," another figure added as Ryan ducked under the chain.
'And no matter how powerful your servants are they can't even touch me…' Ryan noted as he slipped out of reach of the scythe. Flipping backwards he pulled an elixir out of his pockets. He'd hoped that it wouldn't come to this, but he really did need to test it out in real combat anyway and this group seemed like the perfect people to try it on.
"End it!"
"Gladly," Ryan replied simply as downed the elixir. Almost immediately the ground in a mile wide area hardened into a black, crystal-like surface as a massive blast of air seemed to explode in a circle around the Angel, sending all of the cloaked figures flailing backwards as he leveled his gaze at the pair in front of him. "I'd advise against blinking…"
888
A chill shot up Lusniec's spine as a wave of immense holy power appeared. He turned back towards HOME again, wondering what was going on. It didn't seem possible that someone else could use that… or was it him? There was one other person he knew of that could've summoned that much power, and it wasn't Ryan. "What in the name of Spira would he be doing here…? Unless he was preventing collateral damage he'd have no reason to go that far…" Lusniec mused as a powerful blast of sand slammed into him, partially burying him underneath of it.
'Should've seen that one coming…' he thought regrettably. It'd been so long since he'd used or seen someone use that technique that he'd forgotten about that. The sudden explosion of power throughout the user's body tended to blow all the nearby things away, regardless of what they were. Letting out a sigh as he stood up and shook himself free of sand he looked longingly towards the massive spike of energy. It was probably best that he didn't go. He wouldn't have enjoyed seeing Lusniec, not now and not after how they'd left. "Ah well," he stated cheerfully as he headed towards the source of power anyway. What was the worst that could happen after all?
888
"Ready?" Ryan questioned as he glanced around at the peopled gathered around him.
"What is this…?" One of them hissed as it held up an arm to stave off the brilliant light emitting from Ryan. "This power, where did you get it?"
"Nope, that's not part of the game!" Ryan replied with a slight smirk as he raised Wind Cutter. "Now… here we go. Don't blink…" he added with a chuckle before glass and blood flew in every direction, leaving the men gathered around the battlefield stunned and awed as the last two of their warriors dropped to the ground in hundreds of pieces.
"Bastard!" one growled in reply as it wiped away a line of blood that had landed on its face. "Such arrogance in a human is… disgusting. We'll end it he-"
"The only thing you'll be ending with your arms held up to cast as slowly as that…" Ryan replied smugly as he pulled Wind Cutter out of the clothed man's stomach, leaving him to drop to the ground twitching in pain. "Is your life."
"I see… so your specialty is high speed combat. However…" Ryan turned and found vacant, grey eyes burrowing into him. "You're talent is not unknown to me. You're just a Blademage like that annoying pest Lusniec."
"What I am doesn't matter. What I'm going to do to all of you for randomly attacking me like this does…" Ryan replied as he turned to face the man. "Ready to die?"
"I'm always ready to die. Death," the man smiled broadly, revealing rotted and hole-filled teeth, "is just another part of life."
"What the hell do you eat…?" Ryan asked to himself as he pointed Wind Cutter at the man and narrowed his eyes. "I'll do you a favor. I'll cut out all those rotten teeth before I kill you."
"Fashkan d' elghinn lu' paxi," Ryan's eyes widened slightly as the air in the dessert turned ice cold and began to smell like decaying corpses left unattended for far too long, "vress'lven d'lil cha'kohkev, dregzt nindol wael ulu dosst phreng..."
Before Ryan could do anything a high-pitched screech tore through the area, dropping everyone except the man who'd spoken in the odd dialect to their knees. A shudder coursed through the Angel's body as bony, ice-cold, vice-like hands wrapped around his body. Screaming in agony at the touch he tried to pull away from them but only succeeded in tearing the back of his sweatshirt off. Something impossibly cold drove its way through his stomach and another through his back, shattering three ribs and puncturing a lung.
The world blurred as a numbness began to spread through is body like a wildfire, only to be replaced seconds later with a comforting warmth that enveloped him in a flash.
888
Formerly vacant grey eyes filled with confusion and horror. His spell had surely ensnared the man and was most definitely killing him in a most painful and slow way but…
Something was wrong. The very air, which should have been filled with the glorious scent of rotting flesh and decomposing corpses, was clean and crisp and warm. Not to mention there was that soothing light emitting from him. It burned his eyes to look at it, but at the same time he couldn't help but look at it as it slowly, but surely, enveloped the man. Blonde hair turned magnificent silver before a wave of light pulsed out of him, incinerating the claws that were so wondrously bringing his life to an end.
Covering his eyes at the last second he could hear the wind howling in protest and outrage, like a tornado bent on a city's destruction. It lasted for seconds, but it seemed like hours to the corrupted Lord of Demise. Even after the presence of the man was gone it continued to protest loudly, threatening do deafen the group despite its decreasing intensity.
"Nergal, wasn't that over-kill…?" the voice was uncertain, on edge, and feminine.
"Silence, Sirrion," Nergal snapped back as he surveyed the area cautiously. He couldn't feel that wretched Angel's "pure" presence anywhere, but at the same time he couldn't believe that someone who'd completely destroyed his spell would disappear so easily. "That man… if his allies are as powerful as he is we'd be wise to be wary of them. At the very least we should flee this place at once, lest we find ourselves under attack from a bunch of enraged, adolescent demi-gods heaven bent on avenging their fallen guardian." "I suppose your mind hasn't decayed as much as the rest of your body," Sirrion shot back, her melodious voice carrying its customary hatred. Nergal snarled in her direction, but his mind was too preoccupied for any more of a retort. What exactly had that one done to his spell? He'd never seen a reaction like that before. Was it just the fact that he was holy being? Or was the spell inadequately tested? He'd have plenty of time to figure it out later. For now they needed to disappear, wait for the rest to come to their own deaths like sheep to the beautiful, bloody slaughter…