Chapter Four: Riddle Me This
"You're so stupid!" The girl whacked the tall man with her rapier, while a slight breeze blew a handful of paper hearts on the ground towards Lloyd.
"Hello!" Colette said, and the pair froze and turned to face them. "Are you having a problem?"
Lloyd bent to pick up one of the paper hearts as the girl said, "What do you want?"
"We're just travelling," Colette said. "Are you guys ok? Is something wrong?"
"This idiot," the girl said, "cut up our map!"
The man pouted. "But Alice, I was just trying to surprise you!"
Lloyd looked down at the paper and on the back he saw the inked black lines he recognized as Flanoir's coast. He raised his head again and said, "If you guys need directions, I'm sure my dad can help out." He jerked his thumb at Kratos, who looked taken aback at suddenly being offered as a helper. "He knows his way around really well!"
"Lloyd…" Kratos muttered warningly.
Alice rolled her eyes. "I don't want your help."
The blue-haired man, however, jumped at the opportunity. "Yes! Could you please direct us to Palmacosta?"
Alice rounded on him and smacked him again. "Decus! Didn't I just say I didn't want their help?"
"I'm sorry, Alice! I was just trying to help!"
"Well, stop helping me you dumbo!"
"Palmacosta is southeast of here," Lloyd said. He knew Raine and Genis had been heading there first, and remembered exactly where it was from when Genis pointed it out to him on a map. "Why are you trying to go there?"
Alice glowered at him. "That's none of your business."
Kratos, with an air of one getting very tired of this, pointed back towards the trees and said, "On the other side of this grove you will find a crossroads. Take the road leading south and it will eventually take you to the coast. Once there, you will need to find aquatic transport to take you across the sea."
"Thank you very much," Decus said. "Come along, Alice, dear."
He started walked past Lloyd and the others, shortly followed by Alice, who glared at them. Kratos started walking again, as Colette said, "They seemed very nice. I hope we meet them again."
"I wonder who they were," Lloyd said.
"They're not important," Kratos said. "I will agree that they had a strange dynamic, but I wouldn't lose sleep over every odd traveller you come across."
Lloyd took a moment to ponder the possible definitions of the word 'dynamic', and concluded Kratos must have been referring to Alice's weapon. He'd never heard a rapier called a dynamic before, but then everyone did always tell him that his vocabulary was bad.
"You're probably right," Lloyd said.
"Kratos, what happened in your story?" Colette asked. "What happened when you guys got to the Tower of Mana?"
"Right, where were we…? The second day of walking was uneventful. We stopped for the night a couple miles away from the Tower, and reached it early the next morning."
Rowan stared up at the tower as they stood on the steps. "Well, sure, it's big enough," he said with arms crossed. "But the walk to get groceries would be a real killer."
Kratos and Spiritua stared silently at Rowan for a moment, until the boy stepped forward and opened the door of the Tower. Kratos and Spiritua followed him in, and they were immediately met by a sudden hush as a room full of librarians looked up at them in surprise. Kratos almost felt like he were intruding somewhere if he didn't already know that this library was public. The librarians were a motley group in matching beige robes, and all of them could probably fit under the broad term 'nerd'.
"Hello, sirs and madam," said one of the younger librarians. From the looks of things, he was one of the most recent people to join the library, and thus had not sacrificed all possible social skills in pursuit of research yet. However, as Spiritua stared at him with a warm smile, he did seem to be suffering from near cardiac arrest as he noticed that a girl was paying attention to him. As much as he hated to admit it, Kratos very much remembered those awkward days.
He remembered them from observation, of course. He'd seen his peers react in such blushing awkwardness upon attention from the opposite sex, while he himself had never been anything but calm and collected.
"Lloyd, if you do not stop snickering, I will ground you for a week."
Lloyd's giggles ceased as if someone had suddenly pressed a mute button. He didn't think he'd ever in his life seen a scarier expression on his father's face.
"How can I help you?" the librarian asked, sending Spiritua darting looks.
Rowan apparently also noticed these looks and loudly cracked his knuckles. The librarian gave him a startled glance as Rowan smiled at him, and then backed up a few steps.
"We are here to visit the Seal of Light," Kratos said. "It is located at the top of the tower."
Since their arrival, the dozen librarians in the background had slowly started building up conversation again, only for it to cease again at Kratos' words.
The librarian in front of them said, "You want to go… up? But all the books you could possibly want are here on the ground floor."
Rowan rolled his eyes. "We're not here to look at your silly books. We just want to go to that damn seal."
"Yes, well, you see, we, er, we don't go up the Tower anymore. It's… dangerous."
"Oh?" Kratos cocked an eyebrow. "How so?"
"We believe that it has become… er, haunted."
Rowan and Kratos shared the same deadpan expression as they stared at the librarian and waited for him to start laughing and admit the joke. Spiritua's face didn't change, but then it was always deadpan so it was hard to judge if there was really a change in how she felt.
"So, wait, you're serious?" Rowan said, looking around the room. Not a single librarian in the place spoke up to refute him.
"Why do you believe it to be haunted?" Kratos asked.
"Well, you see, the rest of the tower used to be where we slept and stored more obscure books and such. But lately, things have started moving around without anybody there to touch them. It's most uncanny! It all started when that thing appeared on the roof."
Spiritua cocked her head to the side and wrinkled her eyebrows questioningly.
"There's this altar that suddenly appeared. We have no idea what it's for, but when Rodney went up to investigate, this horrible monster appeared and devoured him!"
Rowan and Spiritua shared a look, and then Rowan said, "So let me get this straight. An altar appeared that not only is screwing up your Tower, it's also murdering innocent people?"
The librarian nodded. "That's correct."
Rowan stared long and hard at the librarian, who looked very uncomfortable under his gaze. "Well, that settles it," Rowan said. "Chosen or not, we have to go deal with this altar. How do we get up?"
"Er, uh, actually we sealed the entrance closed."
Kratos sighed. Of course they did. Once more complication he would rather be without. "How do you unseal it?"
"Three of us would have to stand in on those three circles over there." The librarian pointed to three stone circles inlaid on the floor. "As long as we're standing there, the door will remain open."
"I see," Kratos said. "Then, may I request that three of you please stand on those circles while my companions and I enter the Tower?"
The librarian paled. "B-but then the ghosts will get out! We can't leave the door open!"
Kratos sighed. "Alright, then open the door and close it as soon as we're through."
"But then there would be no way for you to contact us and tell us to open the door again. The walls are very thick, you see."
This was already taking much longer than Kratos had been anticipating, and he was quite done with the conversation. "This is not a problem. We will find our own way out of the tower. Now please open the door."
He and the two children walked across the room to stand before the door. Three librarians cautiously approached the circles, giving Kratos and the others wary looks. When all three stood on the circles, the door slid open with a rumble.
"Excellent," Kratos said. "Thank you very much."
He started to walk through when the librarian said, "But, wait! How will you get out?"
Kratos looked back. "Magic. We will use magic to get out."
They walked away into the darkness as the door rumbled shut behind them.
"Be on your guard," Kratos said as they started up a winding spiral staircase. "I don't know how much truth there is to the man's story of a haunting, but just in case, we should be cautious."
Kratos himself pulled his sword out of his sheath, while the other two raised their weapons. Spiritua pulled an arrow from her quiver and held it in place on the bow without pulling the string back.
"Kratos," Rowan said, "as a member of Cruxis, what is your take on the news that Cruxis' altar is killing people?"
Kratos said nothing at first. This was a delicate situation that required careful handling. He finally settled on, "I am not aware of the precise details of this altar. I was not told precisely what the nature of each seal is." Admittedly, he was curious about this, too. Mithos had said that each seal would have a guardian, but he hadn't mentioned anything about the seals reacting to someone not the Chosen and attacking. He really wished he'd asked Mithos what each of the monsters would be.
"So it doesn't bug you at all that the organization you work for is causing innocent deaths?"
If Rowan was this upset about some random librarian getting killed, how was he going to react when he found out what was going to happen to Spiritua? Now he didn't have to worry about just how Spiritua herself would react, but her brother as well.
"Sometimes," Kratos said, "sacrifices must be made in the name of the greater good."
"I thought Martel was supposed to protect people? Or is it because the librarians aren't Martelists, so it's ok for them to be killed?"
Spiritua was the one to answer that question. From behind them, she quietly said, "Accidents happen. And Martel is very sad that she can't prevent them."
Rowan grumbled, but didn't argue the point.
They walked for a long time in silence. Spiritua hugged the wall of the tower and refused to look towards the long drop down, while Rowan absently whistled the tune to some song Kratos had never heard. After ten minutes of this, the whistling began to get on Kratos' nerves. Perhaps it was because Kratos' hearing was so much stronger than a normal human's, or maybe the silent emptiness of the tower just amplified it, but for whatever reason it just bothered him.
"Please stop," he said when he could take it no more.
"Stop what?" Rowan asked, thankfully ceasing his tune.
"Whistling."
Rowan piped a few notes. "What, this?"
Kratos eyed him. "Yes. That."
"Does it annoy you?"
Kratos stared at Rowan's smug grin. To answer yes would be to give Rowan the key to bothering him, to answer no would give Rowan permission to keep whistling. "Not at all, I just fear it may attract an-"
Kratos felt rather than heard the arrow flying by his ear. His head whipped around to see a shadowy spectre in a purple cloak reeling. He glanced quickly at Spiritua, who was silently loading a second arrow, and then rushed forward, embarrassed that the girl he was supposed to have been protecting had made the first move.
As he hefted his sword in preparation for a strike, a twinge of pain ran through his hand from where Rowan had cut him the other day. It was healing already, but still stung and hindered his ability to fight. Because of this, he used his left hand to support his right when he had to block a swing from the spectre's scythe.
Rowan slashed his ring at the ghost and knocked its hood back, revealing nothing underneath. Rowan took a surprised step back. "What?"
"Don't get distracted!" Kratos barked as he swung his sword across the spectre's chest. The ghost seemed to fold around his blade rather than be cut by it, and Kratos realized that this situation called for magic. "You hold it off while I cast" he said, taking a few steps back.
Rowan nodded silently and kept up a background noise of clangs as rings met scythe while Kratos charged a spell. It only took him about ten seconds before he said, "Thunder Blade." A giant electrified sword smashed down out of nowhere and pinned the spectre's purple cloak to the stone steps. The cloak flapped wildly for a couple seconds before the sword faded away and the cloak fell still.
"Is it dead?" Rowan asked, kicking the cloak. "Well… what do you call it when you get rid of a ghost? It's already dead."
"Exorcism," Kratos said, walking over and picking up the two arrows Spiritua had fired. "Although that generally has a more religious connotation." He handed the arrows back to Spiritua, who smiled slightly in thanks as she put them back in her quiver.
"Oi, Kratos," Rowan said, staring behind Spiritua's shoulder.
Kratos followed Rowan's gaze and saw dozens of small, stuffed creatures clambering over each other in an effort to speed up the steps towards them. There were bears, little girls with porcelain faces, rabbits with gaping mouths and an assortment of other stuffed creatures. The only uniting thing between them were the glowing red eyes that were all trained on the trio.
There were far more creatures than Spiritua han arrows, and trying to fight all the possessed creatures would be impossible. "Rowan," Kratos said softly, "take your sister and run."
Both siblings shot him a look. "Are you sure?" Rowan asked.
Kratos nodded. "I'll hold them off. You get the Chosen to safety."
"I can stay and fight with you," Rowan said, bracing his rings. "I can help."
Kratos gritted his teeth. "I never said you couldn't. But your sister needs you much more than I do right now."
Rowan glanced at Spiritua, who had her bow ready to fire as soon as the creatures got too close. Rowan nodded. "You're right. Come on, Spirit, we're getting out of here." She put away her arrow and let Rowan take her by the hand, and then the pair was running up the steps as fast as they could.
Kratos stayed behind, facing down the small army of plush toys. This was really quite ridiculous. He was a soldier, for Origin's sake! But he didn't have a choice when it came to the nature of his enemies, so if he was going to be tried with a possessed teddy bear, so be it. This was going to take magic.
He honestly wasn't that experienced with magic. He'd had the ability to use it for about a hundred years, but since they'd been living in peace for so long up in Welgaia he'd never had to use it for actual combat before. When it came down to a fight, he was much more comfortable using a sword the way he had trained for years, but with his hand injured and the vast number of flammable opponents before him, that would just be stupid.
He closed his eyes and concentrated, picturing the flames leaping about before his mind's eye. He summoned all the mana he had and released it in one blast of, "Fireball." It was simple. It was sweet. It was effective. The fabric bodies of the living dolls were, after all, extremely flammable.
With a screech, the red-eyed army went up in flames. The fire spread from one doll to another, and the mindless possessed toys weren't smart enough to spread out and flee from their burning brethren. It was almost comical, Kratos thought, as a plush bear waved its fake paws in the air to try and put out the flames. Then a little girl with a porcelain face frozen in a cheery smile and a fire incinerating her hair caught his eye, and he decided that as comical as parts were, it was also fairly disturbing.
Kratos remained watching the dolls burn in case any of them got through. After ten minutes, the fire began going out and all that was left of the ghostly army were the non-flammable bits, like beady glass eyes and discarded porcelain arms that littered the charred steps like a bloody battlefield.
Kratos turned and pulled out his wings, wishing all his opponents in the past had been made of fabric.
He flew up the centre of the tower, glad that he could avoid walking up the endless steps. He'd already walked up them once before when he came through here with Mithos and the others to make the pact with Luna, and it was just as tedious now as it had been then. In fact, one of the reasons he was most perturbed with Rowan's presence was that without him, Kratos and Spiritua could just fly for the rest of the journey whereas now they were stuck walking with him.
When he reached the top and entered the room beyond, he froze at the sight before him. Rowan lay on the ground, leaning against the wall and clutching his left arm with blood running between his fingers, while Spiritua struggled to keep her feet on the blade of a sword that she had pinned to the ground. Of course. He left them alone for five minutes and they got themselves hurt.
"Nice of you to show up," Rowan said through gritted teeth. "Go help Spirit."
"Chosen, I am going to use magic to get rid of that ghost. My magic will be all around you, but it won't harm you."
Spiritua nodded. Her face was surprisingly calm for a little girl holding down a possessed sword with nothing but her body weight.
After a minute of casting, Kratos said, "Eruption." Fire and rock boiled to the surface around Spiritua, who looked at the fire consuming her with curiosity. Rowan sputtered in amazement when the fire died down and Spirit stepped away completely unharmed, the sword lying uselessly on the ground.
As Kratos reached into his bag to pull out bandages to treat Rowan's wound, he asked, "What happened?" Kratos did have a couple Apple Gels, but this wound wasn't nearly serious enough to deserve one of them.
"Spirit and I got up here just fine," Rowan said as the bandages were wrapped around his arm. "But that crazy sword thing attacked us. I tried to fight it off, but what are you supposed to stab when the entire thing is a blade? Anyway, it got me. Spirit shot it down with an arrow and then pinned it there until you showed up."
Rowan stood up and pulled the sleeve of his shirt back down over his arm. The sleeve of his brown jacket was stained in blood, but he didn't seem to mind. "Well, are you guys ready to face whatever monster it is at the seal?"
"Don't get cocky," Kratos said. "Now both of us are injured. This fight might be more difficult than you think."
"Ha," Rowan said, marching towards the other exit. "I never took you for one to get scared, Kratos."
Kratos just sighed. Really, it was stupid to get so bothered by the words of some arrogant teenager, but he couldn't help it. Something about Rowan just rubbed him the wrong way. In any case, he followed Spiritua through the doorway and onto a balcony.
"How do we get across?" Rowan asked, standing by the open gap where a bridge ought to go. He leaned on the railing that was there, no doubt contemplating whether he could make the jump or not.
"I'll carry you," Kratos said as he pulled out his wings.
Rowan turned around and made a face. "I'm not getting carried."
"Then you will wait here as the Chosen and I make the pact."
Rowan's face became even more disgruntled. He muttered something under his breath that Kratos couldn't make out but guessed were swear words, and then said, "Ok, fine, you can carry me."
"We're… flying across?" Spiritua said, looking down at the floor far below with a pale face.
Kratos nodded. "Yes, it is the most convenient method."
Rowan took a few steps over to her and put his hand on her shoulder. "Hey, I'll go first and make sure it's safe, ok?"
She nodded slightly, though the apprehensive look never left her face.
Kratos pulled his wings out and wrapped his arms around Rowan's chest. Rowan stiffened uncomfortably as Kratos took off, and then a few seconds later they landed on the other side of the gap. Kratos turned and was about to take off again when Rowan reached out and grabbed his arm.
Kratos looked back in annoyance. "What?"
"Just so you know, Spirit's afraid of heights. Try not to scare her."
Kratos nodded as he took off. If she was afraid of heights, this was going to make his planned exit from the tower difficult. He could only hope she'd get over it once she got wings.
When he landed, he stood before Spiritua and said, "This is perfectly safe. I just carried your brother with no trouble and he's heavier than you."
She nodded slowly with wide eyes as Kratos carefully lifted her. He decided to carry her bridal style, because carrying a girl with your arms wrapped around her chest was just a bit more awkward. She was very light, though, so Kratos barely even noticed the extra weight as he carried her across the gap.
When they were all on the other side, Kratos stepped to the warp. "I'll go through first in case whatever comes out of the altar appears and is dangerous. You follow right behind me."
As he came through the warp, Kratos drew his sword. His hand ached and he had a slight worry that this fight was going to be more difficult than he had been expecting. He'd been out of practice for a long time, after all.
Spiritua came through right after him, shortly followed by Rowan. All three of them drew their weapons and looked around the top of the tower, expecting some hideous beast to emerge at any moment. Spiritua was still pale-faced from the glance she took over the side of the tower, while Rowan had a serious expression as he waited for the fight.
"Chosen," Kratos said, "approach the altar."
Spiritua nodded and slowly walked forward. Rowan was instantly at her side, not about to let her go marching up to a potentially deadly altar. Kratos was close behind them as the tower rumbled a bit and a burst of light shot up out of the purple altar. A couple seconds later, a quadrupedal figure appeared. It walked slowly off the altar and then sat back on its haunches.
It appeared to be a large golden lion, but instead of a lion's head, it had the head of a beautiful young woman with light brown skin and enchanting golden eyes. She smiled as she watched them, revealing pointed teeth. Kratos braced his weapon, waiting for the sphinx to attack.
"Greetings, travellers," the sphinx said. "Do you desire access to the altar?"
Kratos frowned. No one had told him that the seal guardians were going to speak.
Spiritua nodded slowly.
"In order to get passed me, you must answer a riddle. Because there are three of you, I will ask you three riddles. If you answer them correctly, I will allow you to pass. If you decline to answer, you may leave unbothered. If you are incorrect, I will devour you." Her paws twitched, revealing razor sharp claws. Combined with her teeth, Kratos had little doubt that she could be quite a threat. And considering both he and Rowan were injured, this had the potential to be a very dangerous fight. Their best bet would be to just answer the riddles correctly.
"Alright," Rowan said, "let's hear these riddles. I hope you guys are good at riddles, because I suck at them."
The sphinx gave them a coy smile and said, "Riddle the first. What creature goes on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?"
Kratos almost smiled. He had almost been worried, but it was nice to know that the sphinx was sticking to the classics. Kratos had heard this riddle many years ago and remembered the answer easily. "The answer is a man," Kratos said. "He crawls on all fours as a baby, walks upright as a man, and walks with a cane in his old age."
The sphinx nodded. "That is correct."
Rowan breathed a sigh of relief. Kratos could tell he was putting on a brave face, but the injury to his arm was much worse than the cut on Kratos' hand, so he obviously knew that a fight would be bad news. Kratos was pleased that he at least knew enough to realize he wasn't in any shape to fight, even if he did seem to look forward to fights under normal circumstances.
"Here is riddle the second," the sphinx said. "There are two sisters: one gives birth to the other and she, in turn, gives birth to the first."
Kratos hesitated, his early confidence gone. He felt like he'd heard this riddle before, but couldn't place it or recall the answer. Obviously the riddle was metaphoric and there weren't literally two sisters, but then what could it be referring to? He stroked his chin, deep in thought. Next to him, the Praetor siblings stood silently, staring at him and hoping he came up with the answer.
Kratos was determined to figure this out. The sphinx was an ancient creature, so the riddle probably drew from myth. What were two sisters from myth? Well, the thing that jumped out to his mind immediately was the sun and the moon. He was pretty sure those both of those were feminine in Trietan lore, and the sphinx originated in Triet. But the sun didn't exactly give birth to the moon. But perhaps it was tied to that…?
A gasp came from Spiritua. Kratos looked down at her just as she said, "It is day and night."
Kratos clutched his sword. He wasn't nearly as confident in this answer as he was last time, so he waited with bated breath as the sphinx stared at them with unreadable eyes. Any moment now he expected the sphinx to lunge at them at any minute. Rowan's hand twitched, ready for the sphinx to attack.
"That is correct," the sphinx finally said, and the trio let out a collective sigh of relief.
They just had to answer one more riddle and then they'd be in the clear. Kratos was confident that between him and Spiritua they could come up with an answer. The sphinx almost looked like she was smiling as she began the next riddle.
"Here is riddle the third: Alive without breath, as cold as death, never thirsty, ever drinking, all in mail never clinking."
This was definitely not one Kratos had heard before. He looked down at Spiritua, hoping maybe she had heard it before. Her face, however, was as blank as his own. They were going to have to just work this out, then, but it didn't make any sense to him at all. Each line of the riddle seemed to contradict the one before it.
They stood silently for almost five minutes. Kratos racked his brain for an answer, his eyes trained on the wickedly sharp claws on the ground right before them. The sphinx made no move to attack despite how long they were taking, just waited silently with a patient look on her face. It didn't matter how patient she was, though, because in the five minutes of waiting, Kratos had not thought of a single thing.
"I feel like it's on the tip of my tongue…" Rowan said, scratching his chin.
Kratos looked down at him. Rowan was an uneducated kid from a small town who spent most of his life on a boat smelling like fish who was self-professed to be bad at riddles. Kratos thought he could be forgiven for doubting that he had the answer.
At the moment, Kratos was entertaining the idea of a fight with the sphinx. It would be a difficult fight, but he thought they would be able to manage. If they gained the element of surprise, they might be able to make it work. The sphinx was waiting for them to answer incorrectly to attack, but if he struck now he could catch the sphinx by surprise and gain the advantage. The trick would be to finish the fight fast before they lost that advantage.
He looked down at the kids. Spiritua was still stumped, Rowan's face was screwed up in deep thought, and no one leapt forward to provide an answer. It had been long enough; he wasn't going to figure this out. It was time to act.
"Double Demon Fang!" The sudden attack surprised the sphinx, and gave Kratos enough time to grab Spiritua's arm and push her back out of range of the sphinx's claws. At the same time, Rowan shouted in surprise and threw his rings up to brace for an attack.
The sphinx roared and sprang forward, outstretched claws glinting in the sunlight for a fraction of a second before they crashed into the green shield of Guardian that had been summoned an instant before the sphinx hit it.
Kratos pulled out his wings as soon as the shield disappeared and flew straight into the air. He felt the claws of the sphinx graze his ankle, but he was too fast for her to manage a cut too deep. With a loud twang, Spiritua released an arrow that flew true straight into the sphinx's shoulder. This drew the lion's attention, and Kratos swore under his breath as her attention turned to the Chosen. He tried to cast faster.
Spiritua backed up, another arrow already being pulled back. At the same time, however, the sphinx was stalking towards her, leaning down to get ready to pounce. Spiritua didn't show any concern on her face, but even if she released her arrow right now, it wouldn't be enough to keep the sphinx from attacking.
Clang, clang, clang! "Here, kitty!" Rowan banged his rings together to make a loud clanging, and successfully drew the attention of the sphinx. Her head snapped to him, her eyes locking in on the irritating noise he was making. Rowan continued, backing away across the tower. "That's right, stupid cat, look over here!"
The sphinx charged at Rowan, and Kratos took his chance to cast the spell he'd been charging. "Grave!"
The sphinx darted to the side, getting away with only a scratch to her side. She growled, and continued her beeline for Rowan. The boy gave up trying to distract her and turned and ran. He took off across the tower, sphinx hot on his heels. Kratos followed, dive-bombing the sphinx from above. He landed on her back like he was riding a velocidragon, and plunged his sword between her shoulder blades.
The sphinx yowled and bucked her hind legs, throwing him off. Kratos landed gently on his feet thanks to his wings, but he had left his sword behind in her back. The sphinx glared at him, her human eyes filled with an animal-like fury. Kratos waited for her to fall due to the sword still in her back, but she just crouched low and prepared to spring at him. Meanwhile, Kratos took a second to notice that the wound he'd inflicted on her side with Grave had already healed, leaving only a patch of blood to show that she'd ever been injured.
An arrow pierced her between the eyes, distracting her enough to give Kratos the chance to take to the air and yank his sword out of her back. The wound was already healing. This might turn out to be a more difficult battle than Kratos had been hoping for. How could they kill something that healed faster than they could wound it?
Kratos landed and faced the sphinx, watching for any sign of weakness. The sphinx stared right back, the arrow still stuck between her eyes. Kratos noticed Rowan, standing still a few feet away with a look of thought on his face. The sphinx crouched, ready to pounce. "Double Demon Fang!"
He should have used Guardian. The second he casted, the sphinx leapt, dodging the ground-based attack. He was still only half-way through saying 'Guardian' when the sphinx hit him, her claws digging into his chest. Kratos grunted as he hit the ground, his fingers clutching the hilt of his sword tightly. The sphinx roared in his face.
"You have broken the rules of engagement."
He was at a bad angle. From his present position it would be difficult to wound the sphinx even if she didn't heal so quickly.
"Wait!" Rowan shouted, running forward. "Fish! Fish! It's fish!"
Kratos and Spiritua both stared at Rowan, who was flailing his rings wildly and shouting 'fish' over and over. Kratos wondered if perhaps he was trying to distract the sphinx again, when the large cat lifted her wait from Kratos' chest. She sat back on her haunches and smiled.
"That… is correct."
The sphinx walked back to the altar, sat back, and slowly dematerialized.
In the sudden stillness, Kratos was acutely aware of all three of them panting for breath. His chest hurt, but it was bearable. Kratos pushed himself to his feet and sheathed his sword. Rowan dropped his arms and Spiritua lowered her bow.
"I told you!" Rowan shouted, storming towards Kratos. "I told you! I said I had it! I said I was a second away from getting it! Why the hell did you attack when I said I had it?"
"You didn't seem terribly confident at the time."
"But I had it! Couldn't you wait just three seconds and given me a chance? For Origin's sake, you nearly got us killed!"
Kratos didn't bother responding. He wasn't about to be lectured by some kid who happened to get lucky. He still felt justified in assuming Rowan wouldn't know the answer, because the only reason he'd gotten it was because if there was one thing Rowan was familiar with, it was fish.
"Chosen, approach the altar and offer your prayers."
"Nothing's gonna jump out this time, right?" Rowan said as he glared at Kratos with suspicion.
"The guardian has been defeated, so I would assume not."
"Well, last time you told her to go to the altar, a crazy cat lady tried to kill us."
Spiritua ignored their bickering and walked up to the altar. Kratos gave Rowan a dismissive glance and then went to stand behind Spiritua. Rowan just stood back and glowered.
Spiritua clasped her hands to her chest and closed her eyes, silently praying. Within half a minute, light glowed from above and Yuan made his entrance. Kratos smirked a bit as he saw that Yuan's hair was down. It seemed he had been taken by surprise and rushed down here as fast as possible. Probably playing with his computers again.
"Good job, Spiritua," Yuan said with a small smile. "You've completed the first step towards becoming an angel." He waited to see if Spiritua would say anything, but she didn't. "In the name of Cruxis, I grant you the power of the angels."
Glowing orbs of light appeared above Spiritua's head and swirled through the air as they descended. Rowan tensed as they approached Spiritua, but the Chosen herself remained placid and stared down the approaching light with steadfast determination.
The light hit her, and Spiritua closed her eyes and grunted slightly as her body began to glow. She arched her back as she was lifted a few feet into the air, and then deep blue blades of light sliced out of her back. The sparkling segments of wing were blue like the night sky and speckled with shimmering pinpoints of light.
"You've done well so far," Yuan said. "I will see you again at the next altar. Good luck." The light around him grew in intensity and then he floated upwards and gradually disappeared.
"Spirit…" Rowan said, coming up next to her as her feet reached the ground again. "Are – are they real?"
She nodded, and turned slightly to let Rowan reach up and gently touch the edge of the largest segment of her wing. Rowan had a blank expression on his face as he struggled to make sense of this turn of events. Rowan did not believe in Martel, or angels, or the Chosen of Mana. Now his sister inexplicably had wings that were very tangible and very real. Kratos could scarcely imagine the crisis of faith going on in his head.
In any case, it was time to get down from the tower. Kratos walked over to the edge and looked down. It was a long drop, but the entrance they had come in through had been sealed shut. He looked back at Spiritua and Rowan, and remembered what Rowan had said earlier about Spiritua's acrophobia. She was not going to like his chosen method for exit.
Lloyd could see mountains on the horizons. They were going to have to cross them eventually, but hopefully not for a few more days at least. Most notably, though, was the fact that the sun was beginning to set behind those mountains.
"It's getting late," Kratos said. "We should stop for the night."
"Yeah, probably," Lloyd said as the trio stepped off the road to sit down. As Lloyd helped the other two set up camp, he was reminded of the old days back at the very beginning of the journey. If only Genis and Raine were here… As he sat in the grass with Kratos and Colette, he could almost pretend they were still naively running around and breaking seals, just like Spiritua and Rowan were doing in the story.
"I hope those people we met earlier are ok," Colette said as Kratos prepared the campfire.
Lloyd smiled. "Are you still thinking about them Colette? That was hours ago."
Colette returned the smile sheepishly. "Heh, sorry. I just hope they don't get lost again. After all, they did lose their map."
"Don't worry about them, Colette," Lloyd said. "I'm sure they'll reach Palmacosta in no time.
Once the pile of kindling was in place, Kratos used a quick fireball to light the fire and soon their camp was lit by the merry dancing of flames. Lloyd leaned back in the grass and rested his head in his hands.
"Hey, Dad, can you keep telling the story?"
"I'm sorry, Lloyd, but I'm tired. I've been telling it all day."
"Oh, that's alright, I understand." Lloyd stared up at the stars, waiting to get tired enough to actually fall asleep. Looking at the stars had been fascinating ever since the worlds combined. He was now seeing constellations he'd never even heard of before. Even if his dad did have to leave, at least combining the worlds had brought this small joy to distract him of that.
A/N: Warning: the following note is terribly nerdy.
Anyways, you may be interested to know that the second riddle offered by the sphinx in this chapter is actually the rarely seen second riddle of the sphinx. Most people know the first riddle (the one for which the answer is a man) but some obscure accounts of the legend say that there is a second riddle. Actually, the riddle that has been passed along as the riddle of the sphinx was not even included in the legend until many centuries after the myth was first told. So, there might be a different riddle that's even harder that is the 'true' riddle of the sphinx, but we may never know what it is. Also, the sphinx is supposed to devour herself if you answer her riddles and not simply leave, but I thought that was bit... disturbing.
The more you know!
Also, the third riddle is from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.