"I TOLD you five of us weren't enough Katmir!"
"Look, can this wait until later Xenif?"
"Well, at least it's even odds..."
"Sreaya, this would only be even if we were just as badass looking as they
were..."
"Regardless, Taelos...If it bleeds, I can kill it."
"...What if it has silver blood?"
"What?"
"These guys are bleeding silver, Quanzirman"
"Blood isn't supposed to act like that...is it?"
"Xenif, move."
"Erm....Why?"
"The blood....it's moving towards you."
"Oh, like a little bit of silver is gonn-....wha...? "
"Xenif!"
"Xenif!"
"Xenif!"
"Xenif, NO!"
Fxeni sighed. He didn't like the prospect that he had a less than perfect team going against a more than perfect enemy. Hell, he didn't like the idea of going against a perfect enemy at all.
"This place creeps me out." He said.
"We can always use you as a human shield if things get bad." Smirked Takmir.
"Except that he's probly too small to use as a soccer ball, much less a shield." Seryaa grinned as well.
Daleth sniffed the air: "Actually, I'm going to have to agree with Fxeni here...Cerulean doesn't seem too happy about this place either..."
"Nah, he doesn't like it cause it smells like dead tarus." Said Marzinquan.
Fxeni continued along the corridor. "I hate you all." He mused.
The group merely laughed, but it was a nervous laugh intended to fill the halls with something other than silence. While Fxeni did agree that the air was unpleasant, that was only because it had been stuck in this stupid castle for centuries. It was uncomfortable and musky, not evil. The walls of the castle, however...earlier on Fxeni had miscasted a spell, but when he missed and struck the wall, the walls merely bounced it around and then absorbed it. Most cement walls usually exploded or crumpled upon impact with magic, but these were cold to the touch and almost playful, although you wouldn't be able to tell. The castle was mainly nondescript, just big and gray. And filled with nasty beastmen.
Speaking of which: "Another damn goblin." Daleth drew his Lance and immediately made a charge for the goblin's nose. He had a particular hate for them. Seryaa, Marzinquan, and Taea were shortly after him, with axes and fists in tow. Fxeni didn't even bother casting, it was a waste of his energy, and he was busy thinking.
So the duchy of jueno had sent their group to fight the Shadowlord. He could live with that, the entire group enjoyed a challenge. It was the part about that they were being sent into the seventh circle of HELL just to get to him that bugged the Taru. He was sick of walking up stairs littered with skulls, trampling across beastmen that had decided to attack them, and worst of all, he was hungry. Tarus don't like being hungry.
Marzinquan gave the Goblin's corpse a final kick for measure: "Bloody bugger, they never give up, and they never drop anything worthwhile."
Fxeni shrugged. "I just like frying em with a spell or two, gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside."
Takmir snorted, and kicked the goblin out of the way as he continued walking down the hall. In a place like this, nothing was funny. The jokes were to lighten the mood. But Fxeni felt that no matter how much joviality he had, it could do little to lift the mood they were all in.
"I don't suppose any of you brought any pies? I'm starving..." His voice mellowed off as his stomach growled.
No one noticed, because the entire group just happened upon a very large, spike en-laced black door.
"The Throne Room, I assume?" Takmir sighed.
"This door is nearly 20 feet tall. What exactly are we going against?" Seryaa stared at the black, grated door.
No one answered. They already knew.
"Ok, so...uhm....how do we open it?" Fxeni asked
Taea glared at him. "YOU were supposed to get the key!"
"What key?"
"The Duchy in jueno? Remember, he said to get the key from Aldo!"
"Really? ....I wasn't even listening."
"Give me one good reason I shouldn't punt you like a football right now."
"Uhm....Because I can do THIS."
Fxeni gathered his energy into his hand, and a light red glow formed. Concentrating the glow into a fiery form, he imagined the fire burning the door to ash; imagined it burning into smoldering embers.
He released the spell, and watched it hit the door...only to see it bounce off. Fxeni blinked.
"I hate this place." He grimaced.
Daleth walked up to the door and took a rough measure of it. "Did you actually try to see if it was already unlocked?" He pulled on the door, which slowly opened.
Taea and Fxeni both went red, and then shrugged in unison.
"Home, sweet home..." Daleth looked around.
Obviously this place wasn't very well kept. The room had an eerie red glow to it, (which he actually thought was pretty cool) but the ceiling, which was black, was littered with cobwebs, spider webs, dust, and what looked like a silvery sinew.
In front of him, a small flight of steps lead down into the mainstay of the room, which had a red seal in the center. He had seen that seal before, when he had fought the dragon at Sand'Orias request. Beyond the seal was another small flight of steps, which lead up to a platform, which had a black tomb laying upon it. The tomb was enormous, nearly 12 feet in length, and Daleth knew exactly what it housed. There was something else too...behind the tomb, there was a curtain, and it was colored white. Someone before him had told daleth about this place, but they never mentioned the curtain. He shrugged it off.
"Ok, here's the plan." Takmir motioned for everyone to gather close. "We go in there, find the Shadowlord, kick his butt, and leave."
"Wow, is that all?" Seryaa grinned.
"Well, actually, you might want to replace 'Kick his butt, and leave' with 'Get our butts kicked and die.'" Marzinquan groaned.
Daleth looked at the others and rolled his eyes. "Your team spirit inspires me, Marz."
Fxeni and Taea had already gone ahead to the tomb and were kicking it, poking it, throwing rocks at it, and trying to push it open.
"Man, those two..." Daleth rushed to catch up. After walking up the steps to the tomb, he worked with the other to try and get it open as well. After a quarter of an hour of grunting and wasting energy, they all sat down on the steps.
Fxeni started fidgeting with his cloak. He was eager to get started. "Ok...so now what?" he asked.
Daleth ignored him. "God, how do you OPEN that thing!?"
"All you had to do was ask"
The six of them whipped around to the large, booming voice, which emanated from the tomb. Taea drew her Axe, Marzinquan and Seryaa put on their knuckles, Fxeni started focusing his energy, Takmir readied his sword, and Daleth called his Wyvern to his side.
"I suppose you already know who I am."
The tomb's top slowly moved to the side, and a light, wispy cold fog emanated from the opening, prohibiting any sight to pierce its layer.
"I certainly know who YOU are."
The top fell with a loud crash to the side near the white curtains, and the fog finally dissipated.
"Taea, the Elvaan; Fxeni, the Taru; Marzinquan, the Hume; Seryaa, the Mithra; and Takmir, the Galka."
The Shadowlord rose out of his tomb like a scene from a vampire movie. He was very large, nearly 10 feet tall (if not more), wore Black armor, and had white eyes which weren't so much creepy as they were intimidating. His eyes suddenly flashed a black color as they focused on Daleth.
"Who are you?" The Shadowlord spoke without moving his mouth. It intimidated Daleth, but he tried to feign courage and hoped he looked unmoved.
"Daleth, the Elvaan." His voice dripped sarcasm.
The Shadowlord took no notice. "Hmm....You have none of your ilk here, so why did you come?"
"What are you talking about?"
The Shadowlord merely shrugged. "Well, I suppose I shouldn't expect YOU to know." He gazed back at the other aforementioned members, and his eyes gleamed white again. He cocked his head as he noticed they were just as confused as Daleth was.
"NONE of you know?" He laughed. "Excellent! That makes the sport all the more fun!"
"You may be big..." Fxeni said, "But we can still beat the crap out of you."
"I have no doubt whatsoever you can. However, I'm not talking about MY sport."
"Then what do you mean?"
"Haha!" The Shadowlord merely laughed. "It will be self explanatory, and seeing your personality, I think you will be more than happy with it...now, let's begin!"
The Shadowlord rose into the air and began rotating slowly, and started glowing gold. Daleth covered his eyes away from the blinding flash, and was forced to turn his head to the side to avoid the piercing light. In the process, he noticed the other members of the party weren't even slightly fazed by the glow. He tried once more to wince and look at the Shadowlord as he hung in the air, but the light was far too strong. The glow slowly dissipated, and Daleth looked to see that the Shadowlord was gone.
"The others may be far too strong for me." A voice came from inside Daleth's head. "I know that your party is destined for this, and that evil has plans for them, so I cannot destroy you all. As for the one you, Daleth, well...I am not hindered by any such plans."
Daleth spun around to find himself looking into the eyes of the Shadowlord who stood towering over him. The black demon's eyes gave off a black, enveloping kind of darkness, and before he could react, the Demon had knocked him flying and disappeared again before Daleth could even hit the wall.
It was painful, but quick. The Shadowlord was waiting for him at the wall and caught Daleth by the throat, then drew a very large Black Axe and swung at the helpless Elvaan in his hands. Daleth, however, was trained in agility as a Dragoon, and swung his feet up in front of him so the Axe passed harmlessly beneath. As the air rushed by Daleth, he cried out to his Wyvern.
"Cerulean, go for the eyes!" Daleth was beginning to see red from the lack of air. He managed to make out a blue form screech and swoop upon the Shadowlord, and Daleth was dropped to the ground. Seryaa ran up behind and picked up Daleth, and others in the party caught up and began to try and fight the Demon.
"Are you all right?" Seryaa was obviously worried.
"I've had better days." Daleth got up and rubbed his chin. After he focused, his ears picked up a large cry, and watched in horror as his Wyvern fly by him and hit the stairs, unconscious.
"CERULEAN!!!" Daleth turned back to the Shadowlord, who had again disappeared. The other members were clueless as the Shadowlord refused to fight them and instead dodged their attacks. Daleth looked around the throne room and noticed a torch on the wall, which he picked up and held in his right hand, with his Lance in his right. He then ran to the stairs and stood with his back to the rest of the room, then closed his eyes.
"If I can't find him, I will just have to force his own tricks upon himself..." Daleth formed a plan in his mind, and stood silent. The room grew quiet, and despite his basic instincts screaming at him to open his eyes, he stood calm and patient.
He felt a ripple in the air and ran forward, dodging the Shadowlord's Axe, whom had just appeared behind him. Daleth put a foot on the bottom step of the stairs, and using it as a brace, pushed back and flew through the air around towards the middle of the room. In mid flight, he drew his lance, placed it before him with the point down, and effectively pierced the skull of the Demon as he flew over the Shadowlord.
The Demon screamed in pain, but Daleth was not done. With his lance still in hand, he landed the flip and heaved his entire body's strength into his arms and used the lance as a lever to heave the Shadowlord across the room in a single, fluid motion. The air was silent for a moment, and then a shudder went through the castle as the Shadowlord landed on the other side of the room, dead.
After the dust settled, Daleth stood up and sheathed his Lance, then immediately walked over to his Wyvern. He knelt in front of the poor creature, gave the respective sign of the holy crest of the Wyvern, and then stood up.
Taea walked over. "He..." She bit her lower lip.
Daleth walked away without answering. He tried to restrain his feelings as he headed for the exit, but Fxeni quickly interrupted his thoughts.
"The curtain...is moving."
Taking it for another one of the taru's lame jokes, he turned around with a fire in his eyes that quickly changed into embers. The curtains WERE moving. No, they were actually taking SHAPE.
Daleth drew his already-bloodied Lance, and once again looked at the Shadowlord's body near the northern wall.
It was still there. "So who's doing the magic trick with the curtains?" he thought.
The curtains began to swirl, much like the Shadowlord did in the air. They did not shine like the Shadowlord did, but they did start to glow and change colors. A piece of the living cloth became black, and merged with a piece of the silver, which quickly changed to white, and then broke away and fell onto the ground in a puddle of molten metal. The rest of the curtain followed, eventually melding into a large, shining mirror-like surface that covered the floor.
"It's almost like blood..." Daleth was beginning to feel frightened. His Lance could pierce skin and bone, not liquid.
There was a flash, and a small piece of the puddle started to ripple, then shrunk into a smaller puddle, which started raising itself up into a form.
"A Mithra?!" The entire group was stunned.
The Mithra which had formed from the puddle had white skin and fur, and black armor on. She was beautiful, but the pale look of her made her looks an evil kind of fright rather than one of love. She merely stood there, dripping more of the liquid, when part of the black silver dripped into her hand and formed a shape of a one handed Axe. She wrapped her hands around the blade and beckoned to the rest of the curtain's remnants, which started to form in the same manner.
"Oh...My...God...." Daleth was in shock as she saw that an Elvaan formed with the same pale skin and black armor from the second puddle of silver. His weapons were different from the Mithra however; he was equipped with a black shield and a black sword.
Soon after, a Taru with a Black scythe the size of his body appeared as well. His pale skin was shaded by a black wizard's hat, and...
"He's floating!" Taea screamed.
Daleth stared; the Taru was simply hanging in the air without any sign of strain at all. Master wizards had been able to levitate themselves before, but it required insane concentration and energy. This Taru didn't even seem to notice that he wasn't on the ground.
Soon after, Daleth watched as the fourth puddle grow and grow until it was absolutely enormous, which then solidified into a Galka with Black armor and a Black Samurai's sword. When he became solid form, he stepped forward, picked up the limp Cerulean, and placed a single finger upon the wyvern's nose. The dead wyvern began to float, and opened his eyes. Daleth was almost ecstatic with happiness and started running to the wyvern, but was stopped when he saw Cerulean open his eyes. They had turned silver, and Cerulean was growing larger and turning white. Daleth's eyes filled with tears as he saw that his wyvern was no longer the friend he knew him to be.
Daleth was too focused on his lost pet to notice the final piece of the melted curtain take form into a Hume, which grew more black armor and pale skin. His two arms soon grew two black, crooked swords with runes engraved on them, and the Hume clashed them together in a large penetrating noise, which was emanated a thousand times over by the castle.
Meanwhile, Daleth's group stood agape, but poised for action. Daleth set his jaw and stepped forward, but his voice shook as he spoke.
"Who are you?" The five white warriors merely stared. "What do you want!?" Daleth started screaming. "Answer me!! ANSWER ME!!"
The five of them smiled in unison, which shook Daleth to the core. His anger finally overtook his fright, and he charged for the Galka. In a single, fluid motion, the Galka jumped into the air, placed his foot on the ceiling, and pushed down to meet Daleth with his sword. Daleth was going far too fast to change direction in mid-run, but he managed to roll out of the way, jump back, and lightly slash the galka across the wrist. The Galka seemed unfazed, and immediately leaped back onto the stairs where the other pale warriors stood, but Daleth noticed his attack had done some damage. The Galka had a light bit of silver dripping from the wound.
"Silver blood?" Daleth murmured to himself. He took a deep breath, gave a shout, and the battle began.
Author's Note: The "Pale Warriors" I mention in this story are actual bosses in Final Fantasy-11; known as the Ark Angels. I made up the way they appear and how they fight, however I did describe them like they appear in the game. If you wish to see screenshots, go to Allakhazam.com, click the pop up menu in the upper left, go to ffxi, scroll down to the beastiary on the left, click "By Family" and click "Special" under the right column. (whew) You can find their pictures by clicking any of their names there. (Courtesy of Allakhzam.com)