Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to the Suikoden World, would it be the universe itself, the canon characters or the various concepts. All rights are the intellectual property of Konami. All the original characters and ideas that are part to this story are, however, mine and under no circumstances shall they be used without my prior knowledge and contentment. I would like to thank Konami for creating such a wonderful and epic series as well as my two friends Brittany B. who allowed me to use some of her ideas and Taylor V. K. for being the best critique there is and both their encouragements.
Author's Note: The events unfolding in this story happens about five years after the Second Fire Bringer War. This first chapter serves as the Prologue to the story, explaining what has happened and why everything has changed. Changes that will become more apparent in the future chapters. As you will notice, most of the characters involved in this story will be Original Characters and, while some will make appearances, very few Canon will be involved in the story, if but in passing.
RICOCHET
Chapter 1
The Last Battle
The sweat was dripping from his face. This was proving much more difficult than he had thought it would be. No, that wasn't quite right. He knew that, in the end, today would require all of his physical and mental power to live through it. No matter how much he had trained through his life, no matter all the hardship he had lived through the years, no matter how prepared he had been for today. No one could be fully prepared for a day like this. It was what one could call the final battle of a man's resolution. Maybe there would be many battles in his future, maybe the whole world would turn against him one day, but there was no doubt in his mind that today was the real last battle. It was win or die. There was no way that he could continue the fight if today was lost. Even if he was to survive the day, this was the one victory they could not afford to miss.
It was funny how, no matter how many battles he had won in the past, no matter how pushed in a corner the Holy Kingdom was, if this one assault was to fail, everything would crumble under him…. No, it wasn't just him now. He had thousands of followers behind him. People who had enough of the tyrannical regime, people who saw a light of hope in him and his army, even people who were still loyal to the Crystal Palace, but knew that the real way to stay loyal to their land was not to fight for it anymore, but to fight to change it back to what it had once been. Yes, all those people were hoping he would win that day. He couldn't afford to lose. A loss here wouldn't just mean the end of it all; it would mean the death for almost everyone backing him.
Still, in the end, he was feeling like a little child trying to fight a giant of rock. In a way, it really was what it was. Who would have thought that one day, a war orphan, through a series of impossible events, would have managed to raise an army against the most powerful nation of the world, Harmonia? Yet, this was what that had happen. Even now he wasn't quite sure on how everything had happen, but it wasn't time for asking questions anymore. He couldn't afford to be distracted as the sound of steel clashing against steel and the coppery smell of blood was surrounding him.
With all that atrocity surrounding him, it was almost ironic that the weather outside was the best the Holy Kingdom had seen in a month. If there were still people in Harmonia who were unaware of what was happening today, something that he doubted highly, surely they were currently outside sipping tea and eating cookies, chitchatting about how pretty the sky was and how fresh the air felt. Even here, as the light shimmered through the glass window and reflected on the many statues decorating the room he was in, he couldn't help but to think on how beautiful the palace was. Even the blood covering the floors, walls and statues didn't seem to remove any hint of glamour. Oh, how he wished to have seen the Crystal Palace under better circumstances.
It was then, as he reflected on the aesthetic of the palace that a voice kicked him out of his reflection. At first, he didn't understand what had been said, the noises and screams of the fight muffling the words. He just knew that someone had spoken to him loudly enough for him to notice their presence. "What….What was that?" he asked the figure standing near him. The man was of medium stature, slightly smaller than him.
"I asked if you were alright," the man said in a slightly worried voice. His short brown hair was sticking to his forehead due to a mix of sweat and blood. Even though he had seen that man's face countless of time through the last year, it still took him longer than expected to recognize him, especially considering he counted him among his most trusted friends and loyal companion… and that he had seen him last less than an hour ago.
"Ah… yes. Sasarai…. I'm alright," he confirmed to the bishop.
"Good to know, but you have the wrong one," the brown haired man replied with a stern face.
He blinked twice, trying to understand what the bishop had meant by that. What had he gotten wrong? Then, like a sac of brick being thrown at him, the realization of it hit him hard. Was he really alright? He couldn't even understand a simple sentence like that, much less tell his friend apart from the other members of his family… If one could really call that a family. Even among themselves they couldn't agree on what they were. Damn clones.
"Sorry… I suppose that I'm a bit overwhelmed by everything that is happening," he admitted truthfully.
"Don't be sorry and don't admit to it," replied the other male. His eyes were staring straight toward him, almost piercing him through his soul. They always seemed angry, but when one was to look more into it, sadness and loneliness could be found. After knowing what he had been through, it wasn't hard to understand why.
"Don't admit to it?" he asked his friend, not understanding what he had meant by that.
"If others were to know that you aren't to your full potential right now, moral would drop," the bishop explained. "And we do not want moral to drop right now, do we?"
He was right; he had to get a grip over it. Not only for his sake or for his friend's, but for the whole kingdom. He gave a quick nod and threw a small, but genuine smile to his friend. "You are right. We do not want that. Let's go finish that battle." For a second, no, less than that, he could have sworn he had seen a smile on the bishop's face, but that would have been too good to be true. Hell, it probably would have been a bad omen.
As they were about to leave the room to proceed further inside the palace, the large door behind them opened loudly, clashing against the walls perpendicular to them. Quickly, both men got into battle stance, one raising his weapon, the other starting to chant a spell. It wasn't because they had already advance to the center of the Crystal Palace that guards and loyalist couldn't surprise them from behind. After all, many of their members were still fighting in every other room, as well as on the fields and town surrounding the castle. They were but the advance guard, lead by him to dispatch of the High Priest before he had time to do anything drastic.
The little thing that came through the doors, however, was at the same time the least frightening thing in the world, as well as the most horrific that he knew. While knowing full well who it was, he still debated for a moment whether he should lower his weapon or not. With her, no one could be sure. If he was to lower his guard, she might do something terrible, like hug or kiss him. He was pretty sure he had achieved the maximum amount of time a man could be hugged in his life before all that remained of his pride had vanished. Still, in the end, he lowered his weapon, believing her to be smart enough to control herself in the middle of a battle like they all were. Judging by the battle stance of his friend, the bishop was thinking otherwise.
"Aaaaaaawwwwwhhhh, guuuuuuuuuuuuys. Why the horrible welcome? Did I just walk into your special alone time?" she chimed as she skittered through the hall toward them. Long red hair, large brown eyes, barely an inch or two taller than five foot and a body so lightly clothed that she might as well have been naked. Truly an incarnation of evil.
"Shut up," simply said the bishop before finally lowering his guard. He knew as well as anybody that there was nothing he could do to get rid of her. "What's in your hand?" he asked her, noticing a shimmering light coming from her hand as she walked through a ray of sunlight. In her right hand was her precious scimitar that she never went anywhere with. Judging by the deep reddish brown stain on it, she had done her share of killing in the battle. Obviously, this was not what the male had been asking about. In her other hand, however, was what would have appeared to be a helm.
She raised it above her head, almost shoving it in the brown haired man's face. "A helmet!" she exclaimed. "A Harmonian Helmet!" she specified.
"I can see that. I was asking you why you had a helmet in your hand. I believe it is too late to save your brain from any damages. That is, if you have a brain. I doubt it, but the world has so many mysteries, one can never be sure." The bishop kept a stoic expression as he mocked the young girl. His friends had been used to see him keep a stern expression through all sort of situations and it was not a rare thing for him to be sarcastic like that.
"Duh!" said the redhead before poking her tongue out at the bishop. "It's a spoil of war! I thought I could use it as an armour, to, you know, armour myself, but it's too big and keeps falling off, so instead, I'm going to sell it at the market! I should get a good fifty potch out of it!" She nodded furiously with a grin larger than a sane man could do.
"Sara…" said the other man for the first time since the girl had walked into the room. "You really are going to just drag that thing along through all the fights?" he asked her. "Isn't that a bit…. Inconvenient?"
She looked at him, blank expression on her face as the little wheels in her brain turned fast, very fast. "Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh… uuhhhhh… I suppose…. You're right. Dammit." Without wasting one more moment, she threw the helm above her shoulders, not caring about it anymore.
Of course, as fate would have it, one couldn't throw something blindly without having it hitting somebody else. In this instance, it was a young boy bearing a striking similarity with the girl, if not for his shorter hair and half a dozen pounds in muscle more. "Dammit, Sara!" he exclaimed as the protective gear hit him on the shoulder. Before any of the other two men could do anything, the two siblings had started to bicker among themselves. It was as if they had both forgotten the battle they were in the middle off.
"Dag! Sara! Cut it out!" exclaimed the bishop, his short patience having run out a long time ago. "We have a High Priest to kill." He simply said before walking away. The other three shared a look before nodding in agreement and following behind him.
The High Priest…. He was their final target. Without him, the whole Holy Kingdom of Harmonia would crumble and they would all be able to rebuild it without all its previous flaws. It would be the end of the racial superiority, of the enslavement, of the needless cruelty. All around the Holy Kingdom people were praying for his victory against him. Even some of the High Priest most trusted bishops had joined his side, hoping to reform Harmonia. He was now within reach, in the inner room of the Circle Palace. Soon, everything would be over. He wasn't sure at one hundred percent that the victory would be his, but no matter what the outcome of the battle would be, it was clear that everything would be over after that. It was just a question of who would come out victorious of it.
Their travel through the palace was without much trouble. They did encounter the occasional group of soldiers, trying their best to protect what they had sworn an oath to protect, but in the end, it was nothing that the four of them couldn't handle. Or at least this was what Dag kept telling them every time they were fighting a new group of enemies. You had to give it to the boy; he sure knew how to keep seeing the bright side of things. In a way, it was a welcomed change. Soon enough they had made their way to the inner chamber of the castle. All that was left between them and their goal were two gigantic deep blue lead doors. Standing in front of them, he could feel his heart beating faster and louder than it ever had before. On his right hand, his True Rune was pulsating to his heart beat. It wanted to be let free. It wanted to show the world its own magnificence. He was reluctant to use it and, up till now, had yet to do so in the current battle, but he was no fool; he knew that the High Priest had a True Rune of his own and wouldn't be shy to use it. No doubt that he would have to use his own against the High Priest's.
It was no surprise that the two siblings had volunteered to open the large door standing in front of them; opening them with their feet, of course. As they were slammed opened with the twin's kick, they revealed to the party something that none of them were expecting. On the other side, greeting them, was not the High Priest like he was expecting. Instead stood in midair a giant snake, biting it's own tail as a bluish flame engulfed it. Shimmers of gold seemed to cover it's body, reflecting the light of the flame. However, as strange, powerful and scary it was, the real horrifying thing was not the snake itself. It was the giant eye in the middle of it, also floating in midair and rotating on itself as an acidic liquid flowed out of it to drip and burn the floor. It was a monstrosity in itself. It was the Ouroboros, the incarnation of the Circle Rune.
He should have known that the High Priest would have been able to create something like that with his True Rune. He had, after all, been the bearer of it for many centuries. It was more than enough time to master the secrets of the rune. He felt a chill go down his spine as his eyes were glued to the floating monstrosity. He wasn't sure what was more terrifying: That, or the thought of what would have been necessary to summon it. How many innocent had to die in order to bring forth the Incarnation? No, he didn't want to think about it. He couldn't think about it; not now.
For now, all he could do was draw his weapon with the rest of his team and hope to kill the snake before it killed them. He had to be confident in his abilities to do so. For his sake. For the world's sake. Once that was done, the High Priest himself would only be a piece of cake. It probably had taken him all his power to summon forth that horror.
However, before any of them had time to do anything, the giant eyes dissolved itself and the snaked opened its mouth and fell down to the floor, dead, as it disappear in a flash of blue smoke. He was a bit stunned as to what had happened. It had just…died? Just like that? He blinked. There had to be an explanation…
The loud laugh that came out of the room was explanation enough. All four of them knew that voice all too well. Giving a second look to the room, now with a clear view inside as the horror was not in their way anymore, he spotted two more of his closest generals. It would have appeared that the two men had arrived first and had been able to slain the beast by themselves. Knowing who the two of them were, it came to no surprise to him that they had been able to do so. He wouldn't have trusted anyone else but those two to do such a feat like that by themselves.
The two of them approached the group. One was tall and, by all the definitions of it, handsome. Even in his advance forties, he still looked as handsome as a man of twenty. He had medium length brown hair that he kept out of his face with a blue bandana. In fact, most of his clothing was blue. That, along with his trademark lighting rune on his hand, had earned him the nickname 'Blue Lightning' a long time ago. He was one of the most well known men on the northern continent. How many times had it been now that he had taken arms for justice? The reputation of Flik the Blue Lightning really preceded him.
"Well! About time you lot showed up! I was getting tired of waiting for your sorry asses, so I decided to get some action for myself!" laughed the other man who, by all account, was everything that Flik was not. Loud, rude, brash and smelled worst than a barbarian from the nameless lands. How the two of them could be friends was a mystery to him. Still, no one would doubt Viktor's skills with a sword. His technique was unrefined, but it sure got the job done. There had been rumours in the past that he had once held a legendary weapon that could cut through anything and kill any beast of the night, but if there was any truth to it, he had discarded such sword a long time ago for a regular broadsword.
"Such impatience," stated the bishop as he walked into the room and passed the two of them, not even giving them a second look. "Truly fitting for a child like you."
"Oi! What do you mean by that?" asked the bear of a man. The bishop didn't even replied to him. He didn't have time to amuse simple minded people like him.
"Sorry about that…. Viktor here can be hard to control when he gets excited," said Flik.
Before anyone else could say anything, Sara had made a jump across the room and was now holding him by the left arm, rubbing her face against his shoulder. "Oh, sir Flik! Aren't you handsome? Slaying such a beast on your own? Oh, you are so muscular! You should show me your muscles! All of them, teehee~!"
Dag sighed heavily. Having enough of his sisters antics, he grabbed her by the ponytail and started to drag her toward the set of door on the other side of the room. "Is he in there?" he asked Flik and Viktor, talking loudly to be heard above his twin's shrieks.
"Yeah, bastard disappeared behind them after summoning that crazy snake," answered the more brash of the two.
"He shouldn't have gotten far. He would have needed to stay close to maintain the Rune's incarnation," the bishop said, "That… and I can feel him behind the door."
They all looked at each other. They knew that finally the real final battle was there. They just had to open the door and it would be the end of it all. The six of them walked to the door and, in a deep breath, opened it.
It took them a few seconds to have their eyes get used to the sudden darkness. Unlike the rest of the palace that had countless windows and multiple surfaces to reflect the sunlight, this room was pitch black. Not a single window or candle in it to brighten up the room. Still, probably due to magic in a way or another, it wasn't hard to see in it. The room was mainly empty with the exception of a shrine to the back. Some glyphs seemed to have been drawn on the walls, but it was hard to tell what exactly they were without being able to examine them closer.
Standing in front of the shrine was the High Priest, dressed in his fancy clothing and strangely calm for a man backed up to a corner like he was with his most powerful weapon just destroyed by only two men.
"And so you are all here, inside my chambers, without any sort of invitation. You people are quite rude you know that? Fitting of second and third rate citizens like you," he said in a very calm voice. Viktor, Dag and Sara all took grip of their weapon, trying hard to control their anger toward the man who was calling himself Hikusaak, High Priest of the Holy Kingdom of Harmonia. The other three stayed calm.
"Your reign is over," said the bishop, who was a perfect likeness to the man standing in front of them. If it wasn't for the difference in clothing and the slight hint of madness in the High Priest's eyes, no one would have been able to tell them apart. "Please return the Circle Rune to the shrine and leave to never return again".
The High Priest had other plans. He laughed at the suggestion, amused by the foolishness of it. "You think it's funny? All those people who suffered because of you!" exclaimed the red haired boy. He, like many others, had lost someone close to him due to Harmonia's strict policies and many invasions.
"Why, yes, I do!" admitted the High Priest, sill laughing. "Thinking that the six of you can come here and really believe you can disrupt the precious order of the Circle Palace? It is quite funny! Now please, all die and let us be done with it." He raised his right hand and in a flash of bright blue light, the Circle Rune, one of the twenty seven True Runes, shone. All of them immediately guarded themselves, not knowing what was coming their way other than it would have been something powerful. Well, all of them but one. He didn't guard against the attack. Instead, he raised his own right hand and called forth his own True Rune, the Time Rune. He hated using it, feeling the life leaving his body every time he did so, but right now was not the time to doubt himself. He was the leader of the revolution and the other five in the room with him where his friends, he had to do everything he could to help them. He would use the power of his rune to trap the High Priest's rune in a time lock, rending it unusable for the battle. It might take him all his will to achieve it, but even if it was the only thing he would do for the whole battle, it would help greatly protect his friends until they won the fight.
However, something unexpected happened. Instead of the rune shading away, locked away in a time that was not this one, he saw his friends slowly becoming transparent and then vanishing from the room. First it was Viktor, then Flik, the bishop, and finally the twins. Following them was the very room they had been standing in, then the castle, the field, the Holy Kingdom itself and soon the whole planet. All that was left was him and the High Priest, both with their True Rune activated, facing each other with the whole universe surrounding them.
"Wha-what is happening?" he asked, not understanding what had just happened.
As for the High Priest, he was still laughing. "Did you really think you could use your rune against me? Fool! You had it for what? A year at the most? I had mine for centuries! There is no way you can overpower mine like that. You thought you could use your Time Rune to control my Circle Rune? No. It is I that is controlling yours," he explained with a large smirk on his face. "The Circle Rune represent Order. You brought chaos to our land and so with the power of those two True Runes, that chaos shall be erased from time and you with it."
It was then that he understood. It wasn't his friends and the world that had vanished, but him. The High Priest was using the power of the runes to remove him from history. By doing so, the revolution would never have started and Harmonia would still stand big above the other countries of the world. He had no idea that such a thing was possible, but he wasn't doubting that the power of two True Runes being used by one as skilled in magic and who had spent centuries with his own rune could make it happened.
But it couldn't happen. He had to stop it. He didn't care if he died or if he was erased from existence, he just couldn't let Harmonia go back to what it was before. However, he had no idea what he could do. He truly was powerless in front of the High Priest. He knew that there was no way he could control both runes, he knew that now. Slowly, every star in the universe surrounding them faded away. Soon, nothing would exist anymore and his very existence would be no more. He would be alone in that darkness at the end of times.
It was then that he saw it, a small glimmer in the distance. No matter how much time passed, it was still there, present. A star was still shining… no, more than one. Multiple stars were as bright as ever in the sky, not fading in the slightest. One hundred and eight of them, watching over him, guiding him. It was then that he remembered the words of the seeress: "Destiny is the fate of all things, but a strong man with strong friends can move the wheel of destiny and change fate itself".
With new resolve, it was clear to him what he had to do now. The only solution at the point was not to reverse the process, but to break the link itself. If the two True Runes were not in sync anymore, there was no way the High Priest would be able to achieve what he was trying to do, no matter how skilled or powerful he was.
In a scream of determination, he used all of his will power to control his own rune and break the link with the other rune. He could feel all hundred and eight star in the universe backing him up. The smirk on the High Priest face slowly faded away as he understood what was happening. "No!" he screamed a mere moment before the link could be broken. To ensure that it wouldn't, he pushed more of his own rune's power, but it was too late; the link was broken.
But it was more than just broken. The High Priest's last push had still destroyed the balance. The energy of it came rushing right into the other rune's bearer. He didn't feel a thing as his body shattered into billions of dust particles, leaving only the True Rune of Time behind. But it wasn't all. The High Priest himself felt his body projected through time and space, making him crash in a land and time unknown.
Yet, it still wasn't all, as the shock wave of the Circle Rune was still ricocheting through time. Attracted to the other True Rune bearers through history, every one of them were affected by it and critical decisions in their lives were changed. In the island nation to the south, a certain pirate decided to use his Rune of Punishment before his time, making him die years earlier. In the grasslands to the west, a young boy was able to control his True Fire rune, winning him a battle, making him lose a war. In the far south, a Queen lost self control on the power of the sun and soon half her country was but a harsh desert. In the scarlet moon empire, three True Runes joined together in the final battle, instead of two, creating unknown carnage through the land. And in the city states, two friends decided to stick together instead of fighting for what they believed in, resulting in both their deaths.
It is in this alternate time line, where everything went wrong, that our story truly begins.
