Denningrad Trap

(Written Listening to Jenova Absolute)

Note: I don't know if the message shows up in other places, but "story" is called "LoD Fragments" because I only wanted to write fragments of what I think happens in the Dragon Campaign. While I'd like to think I have the basic timeline for what happened during the Campaign mapped out in my head, it is often times music that gives me the image of what is going on. So, I decided to write these fragments while listening to certain songs that always make me imagine certain parts of LoD. Point being: this isn't supposed to be complete in any way, so remember that (especially when and if you read about the Virage Embryo)!

"Uh, guys…" Syuvuil started, "I think they're coming back…and I see something with them"

"Shit" Joan said, running to a window "no wonder this place was so easy to get into."

"Syuvuil, back on that control panel, shut all the doors!" Diaz shouted.

Through the windows of the palace, the shadows of several dozen Winglies could be seen whizzing up towards the vaulted ceiling.

"What are they doing!?" Jaz shouted

"The windows must be enchanted like the doors," Joan said, "it's literally easier to go in through the-" She was cut off by a quake that went through the entire palace, causing everyone to lose their balance.

Diaz jumped up onto the center table, "Several dozen Winglies and probably a Virage! Joan, Jaz, if some debris falls, can you take care of it? Syuvuil, this would be a great time to get your act together and TRANSFORM!"

Another quake.

A dot of light appeared on the ceiling, it grew brighter and bigger until that spot on the ceiling broke in, giving way to the beam of a Virage. Once through, it started cutting slowly around in a giant circle.

Diaz put both hands on the hilt of his sword for a moment. Then, in one great motion, he unsheathed it – unleashing the power of the Burning Gem and causing a beam of fire to emanate from the tip of his sword, which he pointed up at the ceiling. "Any ideas about the about-to-fall-ceiling?!" He shouted. "Suyvuil?!"

A few Winglies were able to make their way through the hole created by the breadth of the Virage's beam. They were met quickly by Diaz's beam and by ice spears cast by Joan.

The Virage's beam had gone almost half-way around the ceiling when it stopped. Another quake shook through the palace, this time causing two giant, pointed crystals to fall. One of them might have hit Joan, if Jaz had not cast out onto them. Bringing them under this control, he pointed them towards the ceiling and held them there, waiting for the attack.

"We're almost out of time!" Joan shouted, moving towards the spot where the Virage's beam had begun its path. Jaz, and crystals, followed slowly. "Diaz! Get over here! It's safer than the freaking middle of the room!"

Diaz tapped out of the power of the Burning Gem, and caused the beam to stop. He looked over at Syuvuil, who was holding his Dragoon Spirit, which seemed to be inert. The beam of the Virage started back up again, picking up where it left off.

"Syuvuil," Diaz said calmly, "remember how you owe me more than a few favors? I'd consider this to be-"

The ceiling began to cave in on its own. The Virage ended its beam, and struck the roof of the palace. The ceiling crumbled, falling nearly on top of Syuvuil. Before it hit the ground, Winglies started to rush in, swords in one hand and fireball in the other. All of this, Syuvuil saw in slow motion as his Dragoon Spirit opened up to him. He ran to Diaz, while a magic wind engulfed him. Jumping up onto the table, he grabbed hold of Diaz. Just in the time it took to get to and grab Diaz, his transformation was complete. Using his wings, Syuvuil made one jump from the table to the opposite end of the room with Joan and Jaz.

Syuvuil tapped into his magic, and created a gale storm, which blew the Winglies back out of the building, one was even impaled through an exposed crystal. The Virage remained, looking down into the room like a curious child, a light in its one eye reappeared. It was charging its beam.

Jaz fired the two crystals he had under his spell, and Diaz tapped back into the Burning Gem, this time creating a fire ball that he sent straight towards the Virage. All three projectiles hit the Virage, but didn't seem to do much damage.

"I think we got this," Joan said, preparing an arrow, "go take care of the Winglies."

"With pleasure!" Syuvuil said. His wings started to glow, and he took off. On his way out into the open, he flew past the Virage, scathing it with his spear. The trio below continued their onslaught, aiming for what seemed to be the only weak spot – the eye.

Syuvuil rose up above the building, and saw a Denningrad that was mostly destroyed. He did not, however, see the Winglies that were just about to kill him. When a fireball whizzed past him from below, he looked down – and saw that they were all rushing back up the sides of the palace, converging on him from every side. Syuvuil raised his hand, holding a green ball of energy, in the air. From that green ball, a green spear grew – the middle of the spear being located within the ball. Syuvuil threw the spear at a Wingly, and hit him! Another spear grew in its place just as quickly as its predecessor left. Syuvuil threw this one too, and another. Two Winglies went down this way.

Before he could make another throw, the Winglies were upon him. He repurposed the energy in his hand. He released it, and a small wind storm surrounded him, causing most Winglies to lose control of their flight when next to him. He killed 3 more who tried to approach him with his spear. The remaining Winglies retreated and regrouped. This time, rather than approaching him, they simply shot fireballs and beams of fire at him. Syuvuil easily dogged these by changing his altitude, in fact his armor could easily take the fireballs that they were throwing at him. But he didn't want them to know that. Syuvuil responded by playing the same spear trick that he did earlier. Their numbers were now visibly reduced.

Down below, Joan, Jaz, and Diaz were having some trouble with the Virage. They were lucky that it was too big to get into the room, but that didn't stop it from trying to destroy the building. It scratched, punched, and shot its beam both at the walls and at the heroes below. Jaz was exclusively occupied by catching the falling debris and shooting it back at the Virage. A useful, but not very accurate task. Diaz couldn't keep the power of the Burning Gem active all the time, but when he was able to respond to the Virage's beam with his own, he found that the Virage simply held his hand up to protect his beam from hitting his eye. And it didn't seem to do much damage to the skin on his hand. With all this going on, Joan tried to take advantage by running about and shooting arrows at the Virage's eye from another angle. But even if the Virage was blocking Diaz's beam, it still had a free hand, not to mention its beam. It put Joan back on the defensive by causing more crystals to fall or shooting at her with its beam.

"There has to be another way!" Joan shouted.

"Maybe!" Jaz replied "cast fire with me? Diaz, join in if can."

Facing each other, the two Juras clasped each other's hands. Between their four hands an intense fire started. Meanwhile, the Virage took the time to start charging his own beam.

"uhh…where are we aiming?" Diaz asked, tapping into the power of his sword.

"Anywhere!" The two said together.

With that, the Juras released their doubly-charged beam of fire. Their lack of aim caused the beam to hit the Virage in the shoulder. Not a second later, Diaz joined in with his own beam. The Virage made some sort of noise, and tried to cover the beam with its other hand like it had done to Diaz's. This stopped the beam from hitting its shoulder for a moment. But only a moment, as the strength of this combined beam was enough to burn a hole through its hand. The Virage fell back, and plummeted towards the bottom.

Syuvuil, and the remaining Winglies, heard a collective "YES!" being shout from down below. When the Winglies saw what had happened, a few of them went towards the Virage – but most of them decided to take up attacking Syuvuil's friends.

"FROM ABOVE!" Syuvuil shouted as he once again summoned spears, this time with both hands, to throw at the Winglies. Syuvuil hit 4 Winglies this way, causing them to crash into the meeting room lifeless. Joan reacted first, followed quickly by Jaz. The two sent giant spears of ice, not unlike Syuvuil had done with his magic, at the Winglies. Diaz was engaged in direct combat by a Wingly, whose sword came crashing down from several angles – always coming in from above, never making stabs or horizontal sweeps. Diaz raised his sword and held it like a baseball bat, and sidestepped the Wingly's next attack. The Wingly had put so much force behind his attack that his timing and balance was thrown off when Diaz didn't block it, which gave Diaz just enough time to swing his sword and decapitate the Wingly.

There weren't many Winglies in the room left. But Diaz did see that both Jaz and Joan were each in a sword fight with one. He ran at the Wingly attacking Jaz, but the Wingly saw him coming and in a swirling motion, sent a fireball hurling at Diaz with the other and attacked Jaz with his sword with the other. Diaz was almost hoping this would happen, quickly he raised his sword so that its point was in line with the fireball. The sword absorbed the attack and glowed red. Diaz then, even though he was far from the Wingly, swung his sword in a huge vertical motion. The point of the sword drew a red line in the air, and when Diaz finished his swing, that curved line hurled straight forward. Unfortunately, the Wingly was no longer standing in that spot – but it did afford a distraction, which Jaz used to place a fireball of his own on the Wingly's face.

Diaz turned to see Joan standing over the body of the Wingly she was fighting a second ago, looting its corpse. Right when he wondered where Syuvuil was, his question was answered when he saw Syuvuil hovering in the air, besides the building. He was creating what looked like a green-colored shield in front of him, against which the beam of the Virage was pushing. Syuvuil looked like this was giving him a hard time, but the beam eventually broke and Syuvuil responded with yet another magic spear. Diaz heard something that resembled a dying roar.

Then all seemed quiet.