{This is spoken in Sin's telepathy.}
Final Fantasy X belongs to Square Enix, not me!
As Yuna and her guardians began to take a step further into the woods, the Besaid Aurochs joined them. While traveling through the woods, Wakka made himself handy by whacking the Killer Bees with his Blitzball. Lulu doused Yellow Elements passing by with her Water spells, and Yuna would occasionally freeze any Killer Bees that dodged Wakka's attacks with her Blizzard spells. Patravi would often spill bloody guts whenever she struck a Dinonix with her sword. Yuna also found some use of herself by burning Ragoras with her Fire spells after Kimahri learned its Seed Cannon by performing a Lancet on one of them. Soon, they started to ascend the stairs that lead to the temple.
"These stone steps have a history, you know," said Wakka, "yep, Lord Ohalland trained here at his peak."
Yuna could hear Letty and Datto chuckling.
"Are you challenging me to a race?" asked Patravi.
Letty and Datto chuckled even louder as they and Wakka lined up.
"Ok then," affirmed Patravi, "I accept your challenge!"
Patravi got in line as well.
"Yuna," said Wakka, "if you would."
Yuna decided to go along with their race challenge, taking role as a referee as she raised her arm.
"Ready?!"
Yuna felt too energetic to stand by, so she started speeding up the next flight of stairs, causing Wakka, Datto, Patravi and Letty to dash in pursuit. While racing up the stairs, Yuna felt happy and even excited, until…
"Look out!" cried Datto.
To her surprise, there was a massive black parasitic monster at the platform at the base of the next flight of stairs. It resembled some sort of massive worm with stumpy legs at its base and had doll heads dotted around its body and was also embellished with some mechanical parts. Lulu, Wakka, Kimahri and Patravi charged at it immediately, only to find that battling it is very tricky. Patravi and Kimahri attempted to slash at the monster, but it turns out that it is made out of goo. Lulu cast her elemental spells, but it wasn't enough against the monster.
To add insult to injury, the monster pursued Patravi, and she couldn't outrun it as it caught her. Patravi struggled to free herself as the monster tried to swallow her. To her surprise, it suddenly dropped her, but she sustained a few gashes.
"Patravi," called Wakka, "are you ok?"
"Yeah," replied Patravi, "but how do you beat this thing?"
"Don't ask me!" said Wakka.
Yuna pulled out the Eyestaff, and she noticed that the orb started to glow as if it was storing up energy. She aimed the Eyestaff at the monster, and with just enough concentration, the Eyestaff fired a powerful beam of energy at the monster, which destroyed a couple of the doll heads on its body. Yuna's face lit up, now that she figured out how to fight this Ruin creature.
"Everyone," called Yuna, "I know what to do; take out the heads first!"
"Good advice," replied Kimahri.
Kimahri swung his spear at the monster and took out another doll head, which soon gave Patravi, Wakka and Lulu the same idea. Wakka knocked out the rest of the doll heads with his Blitzball. Without warning, the monster revealed three pipes and began charging at the party as it spewed out fire. However, Yuna managed to stop the Ruin creature by firing another beam of energy at the monster, which finished it off.
"That was the strangest fiend that I've ever seen!" commented Wakka, "where did this one come from, anyways?"
"I don't think there was any tale in Spira that talked about this creature," replied Lulu.
"Well," objected Patravi, "someone must know about it. That thing looked colossal!"
Kimahri glanced at Yuna.
"Yuna," asked Kimahri, "do you know?"
"I've seen similar creatures like this one before," explained Yuna, "according to Sin, they are called the Ruin. They usually spawn from places that are struck by disaster. That's all I know."
"Interesting," breathed Lulu.
Yuna and her guardians continued their trek to the temple. Before long, they arrived at the forecourt, where they came across the Luca Goers, who just came out of the temple.
"You here to pray for victory too?" asked Wakka.
"Who needs to pray?" scoffed Bickson, "the Luca Goers always win! So what's your goal this time? Are you gonna 'do your best' again?
"Not this time, you asshole!" barked Patravi, "we're playing to win!"
"Ooh," commented Bickson, "such naughty words from a little girl like you."
Bickson and his teammates then sauntered off as Patravi stuck her tongue out at them.
"See you in the finals!" hollered Wakka.
As Yuna and her guardians enter the temple, they came across another summoner with only one guardian.
"A summoner," said the summoner, "are you?"
"My name is Yuna," admitted Yuna, "from the Isle of Besaid."
"I'm Dona," replied the summoner, "you must be the daughter of High Summoner Braska? That's quite a name to live up to. And these people are your guardians? Braska only had two. I am in need of only one guardian, right, Barthello?"
"I have as many guardians as I have friends," objected Yuna, "I trust them all with my life. It is as much of a joy and an honor as being the daughter of a High Summoner."
"Do what you want," smirked Dona, "Barthello, we're leaving."
Dona and Barthello left the temple in a heartbeat.
"Sounds like we've got some competition," commented Patravi.
"Let's go," interrupted Yuna.
Yuna led her guardians up into the Cloister of Trials while the Aurochs stayed behind to pray for their victory. They had to step onto the elevator which brought them down into a lower level, which led to a door to the Trials. At the beginning of the Trials, Yuna took a Kilika Sphere from a nearby pedestal and placed it in the slot next to the overhead door, which caused the door to burst into flames.
Seeing these flames made Yuna cringe as it reminded her of the fire from ten years ago. Patravi removed the sphere while Yuna was reminiscing her past, which extinguished the blaze. The next thing that Patravi did was placing the Kilika Sphere into the slot on the north wall, which revealed a Glyph. While Lulu removed the Kilika Sphere to set it aside on one of the side walls, Yuna touched the glyph, causing the wall to slide open. As Yuna and her guardians proceeded into the fiery chamber, Patravi stepped onto the floor switch on the right, which teleported the pedestal from the previous room, while Kimahri was holding a Glyph sphere.
Yuna took a Kilika Sphere from the right wall and placed it into the pedestal. As she pushed the pedestal towards the floor switch, Kimahri placed the Glyph Sphere into the empty slot at the right wall, which revealed a secret room. After the pedestal locked into the floor switch, a section of the platform dropped, extinguishing the flame. Kimahri took out a Destruction Sphere from the secret room and placed it in a slot beneath the ledge, revealing a small chamber as he obtained an armlet from a treasure chest. Yuna moved the Kilika Sphere to the slot next to the exit door, and removed it after the sphere destroyed the door. Soon, the Trials were complete as Yuna led her guardians through the exit into the antechamber.
"This is your next visit," said Patravi, "right?"
Yuna nodded as she entered the chamber. Inside, she came across another vivid spring just like the one in the Chamber of Fayth in Besaid. This time, Ifrit came out.
"So," said Ifrit, "you must be the daughter of Lord Braska?"
"Yes," replied Yuna, "does anyone else in Spira know of the Ruin?"
Ifrit shook his head.
"Not many people in Spira are aware of the existence of the Ruin," said Ifrit, "they do not show themselves that easily, but recently these monstrous creatures are appearing more frequently."
"Well," replied Yuna, "we were ambushed by this one Ruin creature on our way here. One of my guardians described it as colossal. Luckily, we figured out how to destroy it."
"That creature is a Colossal Ruin," explained Ifrit, "but there are even more of them."
"I see…" sighed Yuna.
Ifrit then summoned a sphere of energy before disappearing back into the spring. Yuna touched it, which merged with her. After that, she emerged from the chamber and led her guardians out of the temple. The trek back to Kilika Port felt like a breeze, and before long, they were at the pier, where the S.S. Winno was waiting.
"All right," smiled Wakka, "off to Luca at last!"
Yuna and her guardians boarded the ship, along with the Besaid Aurochs, the Luca Goers and the Kilika Beasts. It wasn't long before the S.S. Winno left the pier and departed Kilika.
During the ride on the S.S. Winno, Yuna got a restful sleep. As the sun came up, the boat was already arriving at Luca. Yuna stood on the bow as she observed the bustling boats at the coast of Luca as the boat headed for Dock 2. The Kilika Beasts, the Besaid Aurochs and the Luca Goers made their bustling appearance as they disembarked. Yuna and her guardians also disembarked as they headed out of Dock 2. It wasn't long before they heard that Maester Mika was arriving at Dock 3.
"So," suggested Patravi, "how about we pay the Maester a visit?"
Yuna and her guardians then headed on over to dock 3, where they observed a huge vessel that had Yevon symbols on its sails. Soon, the band started playing as a Guado with long blue hair began to disembark, accompanied by Nero Guado, whom Yuna instantly recognized right off the bat.
"It's Nero!" thought Yuna, "what is he doing here?"
"That's a Guado," said a civilian, "right?"
"Who could it be?" pondered another civilian.
"Isn't that Maester Seymour?" assumed another civilian.
Seymour soon turned towards the ship and performed the Yevon bow, as well as the entire crowd, as Maester Mika began disembarking the vessel.
"People of Spira," announced Mika, "I thank you for your generous welcome. Rise, Maester Seymour, and all of you as well. I present to you the son of Maester Jyscal Guado, who departed for the Farplane a fortnight past."
The crowd rose up on their feet.
"Of course," continued Mika, "as some of you already know, he has been officially ordained as a Maester of Yevon."
"I am honored to receive the title of Maester," smiled Seymour, "in life, my father Jyscal worked to foster friendship between man and Guado. I vow to carry on his legacy, and to fulfill my duties as maester to the best of my abilities."
As the crowd gave the Yevon bow, Seymour, Nero and Mika headed out of the docks while Yuna secretly gave Nero the stink-eye.
"Is something the matter, Yuna?" asked Patravi.
"What is Nero doing here?" inquired Yuna.
"I'm not sure," answered Patravi, "but I do know that Nero is Seymour's uncle."
"Uncle?"
Patravi nodded.
"All right," declared Wakka, "last meeting before the match! Hustle!"
Wakka soon led the Aurochs out of the docks, heading for the stadium. Yuna, Patravi, Lulu and Kimahri also headed inland. Lulu headed for the Aurochs' locker room while Yuna, Kimahri and Patravi began meandering through the streets of Luca.