Chapter Six - Cruelty of the Champion
He lost count of the number of times his skin had been scorched black with dark flame. His entire body felt as though it had been crushed over and over again by bruising magic, and each time he'd been thrown into the unwelcome embrace of the spell by his brother's implacably strong hands. He found himself battered to the ground over and over again with the combined might of brutal physical attacks that flowed as one with devastating magical ones that was Golbez's signature fighting style. He endured the savage assaults for as long as he could, dodging and deflecting what he could of the attacks, but it availed him nothing. Over and over he would regain his senses and find he was prone on the ground, while his brother stood over him – laughing.
Just when the blackness would reach up to mercifully give him relief from the torment, that was when this pitiless foe would summon white light between his massively gauntleted hands, and send healing force over and into him.
Cecil had once longed for the kindness and gentleness of this action to be directed his way by his brother – but now he cursed it. He felt bitterly betrayed by his own absurdity to have ever wished for such a thing.
Golbez only healed him enough for him to regain some of his strength. Enough to stand. Enough to take up his weapon again. It didn't matter which form he assumed – dark knight or paladin – his brother's sheer power and ruthless determination made shreds of his defenses, and battered away even his strongest attacks.
Cecil's entire world narrowed to the painfully tight focus on this battle – and the feeling buried in his heart that it was wrong. That his brother would never devolve into this state of darkness, again. But, there was no reason for Golbez to attack him – certainly no reason for Golbez to be even more ferociously vicious than he'd ever been before. Cecil needed to know why Golbez was behaving this way again. Perhaps, if he could understand it, he could help his brother fight through whatever demons were driving him to this level of brutality. More than anything else, Cecil wanted to save his brother – no – help Golbez save himself, pull himself from the darkness and into the light. But, this senseless battle with his brother invited despair that he could ever see his wish fulfilled to creep across his heart. It was an unwelcome touch of gloom chilling across his soul – the utter despair and darkness he hadn't felt since his father bestowed the light upon him. Cecil had only a moment to recognize the soul-killing bleakness before the battling started again.
"Brother... Why?" Cecil managed to climb up to his hands and knees, pushed his blood-matted hair from his face, and directed his pitiful plea up toward his tormentor.
"Insect. There is no 'why' – no reason to do this to you. It is – a game. To see how long it takes me to break you." Golbez's reply held vast amusement.
"Once before, when we battled and you had reduced me to a state of helplessness on the ground before your feet, you stood over me in triumph – but stopped before taking my life. I asked you then why you stayed your hand... Now, I beg for you to finish this. Beating me, then healing me just enough to beat me again... Over and over... It is a cruelty I had never suspected to find in you, my brother. Release me from this torment." Cecil locked his grief-stricken eyes on the obscuring slit in the deliberately malevolent helmet his brother wore, hoping his plea would reach the heart of the one hidden behind it. "Take my life."
Golbez loomed over him and stared down at him for an eternally long moment. "As you wish." A shadow dragon coiled around his brother's shoulders and spat biting cold at him. The true battering began, hit after hit of wracking magic and sheer physical might sending wave after wave of shocking agony through him that finally shattered every bone in his body. Cecil gasped in torment as his heart, pierced through by a shard of one of his own ribs, spasmed weakly. The physical pain, as intense as it was, paled in comparison to his mental anguish that his brother would do this to him. Brokenhearted in every sense of the word, Cecil welcomed the darkness that rushed toward him. The blackness reached up greedily for his consciousness and this time, this final, merciful time, the dreaded white light of healing didn't thwart its triumph.
Sephiroth, wearing Golbez's form, made two realizations. First, Golbez held an incredible amount of power in check. Sephiroth now knew how destructive Golbez could be if he ever used his full power in earnest. Secondly, breaking Cecil had been even harder than he had anticipated – and, most surprising to him, ultimately distasteful.
"A quick death, Cloud. I promise I will simply kill you – rather than try to break you – if our conflict comes to it."
Author's note –
I hope it's obvious that Cecil believes by this point that the person battling him so fiercely is Golbez, even though he started the fight knowing that it was actually Sephiroth disguised as his brother. Just imagine how long and dreadful the fight must have been for Sephiroth's continued cruelty to erase Cecil's awareness of the truth so completely!
Golbez doesn't appear to officially possess White Magic in the FFIV/Dissidia canon, but it always seemed logical to me that he would, in the same way Tellah commanded both White and Black Magic. I would guess that White Magic could be harder for Golbez to manifest. Alternatively, during the very brief time that Sephiroth is a 'playable' character in FFVII, he used a materia that granted him healing magic, and within Dissidia, his final attack appears to be entirely magic-based at the end. Perhaps, after so much time manipulating magic via materia, and augmented by his dip in the Lifestream, Sephiroth is able to work magic directly.
So, was Sephiroth able to heal Cecil partially multiple times in order to break him more fully using Golbez's magical skill – or his own? I'll leave that decision up to each reader.
Next chapter – Chapter Seven – Woe of the Warlock
