CoWR Introduction
Chapter 8: FFII - Empy and the Brain
DISCLAIMER: I only own Maria. Everything else is property of someone other than I.
The woman noticeably relaxes as the army advances, signaling a phobia of some sort, whose effect rapidly dwindled as the cause of her discomfort left.
The Palamecian Army engages the guard posted in the external city, while Mateus slowly charges a spell, which takes the form of an ever growing sigil beneath his feet.
Meanwhile, the other unnamed woman promptly steps back a bit from the Emperor, even though she was in no danger. Just a reflex, really.
Finally, the dark ritual is complete.
"HEAVENS!" From nowhere, a massive burst of flame and rock descends from on high like the executioner's blade. The wrathful heavens have been unleashed, and claim their prey.
The gates to Fynn's Castle Sanctuary never stood a chance as the Starfall eliminates them from existence.
The woman just mutters something under her breath that sound like "Oh boy, looks like they're screwed." and decides to join the fray, and at the same time hoping that whatever is the root of her phobia manages to get through before she gets there.
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Firion runs outside of the castle, only to see the gates destroyed and a crater lying in its place.
"This magic, only one man could have done this," he alerts the guards and runs towards the army of monsters in the horizon.
Rose simply watches on as she strolls through the city being torn to shreds, casually swinging her daikatana one handed at any poor soldier who runs up to attack her. Rose then calls out to the shy young recruit in Chaos's forces.
"Tell "His royal majesty" that Bevelle is no longer. Can you handle that?" Another soldier tries to stab Rose from behind, to which she simply steps to the side whilst rolling her eyes and running a hidden blade through his back. "Good girl."
Rose whips around and runs off in a bolt of speed.
The woman rolls her eyes at the last statement and walks back to the Emperor, kicking and punching those who got in her way, or just jumping over them to get to her destination faster.
An Axe goes flying past Rose passing by her face, not touching her at all, and returns the same way. The man catches it and walks towards her slowly. "Next time, I won't miss. Now call off your soldiers and leave here at once."
The Blood Rose grins, drawing her Daikatana. "There shan't be a next time. And I'll not call off these soldiers, for they are not mine to command." In a flash, she lunges at Firion with a fierce uppercut, all while grinning sadistically. "You... I see it in your eyes... You're just like me."
Firion jumps backwards to dodge the attack, but with how sudden it was and all his heavy equipment, he nearly loses his balance. "I'm nothing like you. You take pleasure in taking the lives' of others. That is nothing like me."
He uses Rope Knife to send electrical knives forward, towards the woman.
Rose leaps over them and throws a volley of explosive knives downward and lands behind Firion as his own Rope Knives retract. "Is that so? Or do you merely hide your killer instincts behind superficial reasoning? If you have nothing to deny, then why defend what you are?"
Firion lifts his arm to block the bombs with his shield, but is knocked onto his knees from the heavy blast. He unsheathes his blade, spinning around as he gets up and swings at the mysterious woman. "Your mind games won't work on me. Killer instincts, be that as it may, I don't use them freely or with pleasure."
She spin slashes, clashing with his blade, and knocking them both away from each other. "Oh and when you don't use them? Do you feel alive? Face it. You only live when in combat! That is the warrior's way!" Rose splits her Daikatana into twin katanas and rushes towards Firion, leaps into the air and forward flips into a cross slash.
Firion staggers backwards as the blades clash and quickly takes his bow and uses Straight Arrow as she comes towards him with the cross slash. "My life is not spent on pointless battles."
Rose's speed cuts the attempt at Straight Arrow short, and she follows up with a tornado slash, then another cross slash that slams him into the ground. Rose lands on Firion's chest and points her blades to his neck. She leans in real close with that same sadistic demeanor she carries with her through battle.
"With all of these instruments meant to bring the end to others, what chivalrous cause could you possibly fight for? Indulge me with your last breath if you will."
As the woman knocks Firion down, he drops his blade. She lands on his chest and points her blade at his neck. "I fight... to fulfill my dreams!"
His two knives and his blade then begin to glow, then they do that thing from the DO scene where they float up and fly straight towards Empy, blades pointed at him, but replace Empy with Rose and instead of stopping, they go all the way.
Rose back flips off of Firion, taking slashes from the knives as she does. She takes the defensive, combining her twin katanas into a dual blade. "So your dreams are what you use to justify yourself..."
Firion runs towards her, and jumps into the air. "It's not an excuse. It's my motivation. My drive. If I didn't have it, I'd have been dead by your first attack."
As he nears her, he uses Weaponmaster, sending all his weapons forward to attack and shred the opponent, before knocking them away in a single, simultaneous strike.
Rose spins the twin blade in front of herself to block, but is overwhelmed by the torrential onslaught of Firion's weapons, knock her into a wall. Weakened, Rose slumps to the wall.
"So much idealism..." Rose stands back up, and laughs. "Till our next dance, love."
She blows Firion a kiss and throws a black crystal into the air, which vanishes in a flash of light, along with her.
Firion watches the woman disappear. When she does, he turns around and runs to stop the soldiers that are attacking. Who was that woman? Whoever she is, that will have to wait. I must rid the city of these Soldiers.
Firion attacks a Soldier who was attacking an innocent child. As he struck down the soldier, he began to remember the woman's words. "No...she's wrong..."
Firion then looks again at the soldier, and his eyes widen with fright and anger as he recognizes the soldier armor and the symbol it bore. The man was a soldier from Palamecia. The realization of this brought to his mind another realization. He had returned.
"But...I...We ended him in Pandemonium!" He began to run towards the city gates, helping anybody who needed it whenever he saw.
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The Palamecian Army begins its siege of the Castle. As Mateus floats above his advancing army, he spies out of the corner of his eyes someone he was very, very glad to see. "If it isn't the rebel. How appropriate."
He stretches out his hand and a ball of blue energy begins to form.
"Run amuck."
The Blue Flare is launched and charges towards Firion. Mateus is well aware of the speed of his flare spell, so he gathers energy to the tip of his staff, which begins to form a larger and larger orb.
"FALL!" The orb is fired like a cannon and begins to draw in enemies towards it.
Suddenly, Fang jumps down, PS to Sentinel and uses Mediguard to block the Flare. She turns to Firion and says "Hey, I'll keep him attacks at bay, you hit him, got it?"
Firion knocks away the smaller ball with his axe and continues forwards, passing by Fang as he does. "Got it!"
He jumps into the air, and as he does so, he is high enough to shoot without anything getting in the way. He grabs his bow, and takes aim at The Emperor and fires Straight Arrow.
The woman, noticing a while haired man with many weapons firing at the Emperor, does the most logical thing to help him, and that is to shoulder tackle the black haired woman with a spear. Sadly, since she doesn't know that this woman is Oerba Yun Fang, she doesn't know how effing screwed she is. Then again, this is the Introduction; villains always win early on...right?
Fang kicks mystery-woman-totally-not-named-Maria-because-that-would-be-confusing-if-there-were-two-Marias off of her and says, "Change of plan..." Realizing she didn't know Firion's name, she said, "Pretty Boy!" She PS to Commando and unleashes a Blitz on Not-Maria to knock her back. "You got some stones to challenge me!"
Meanwhile, Mateus decides he doesn't particularly fancy being hit by the magical arrow, and creates an orange version of the Flare from before. This one hovers in front of him and incinerates the arrow as it flies towards him. He then floats through the flame, the smile on his face only illuminated by the blazing heat of the Flare.
"A magically enhanced arrow? You truly believe that an insect like yourself can trade Magics with me?" He raises his hands and the air begins to hum around him as electricity gathers to his outstretched arms. "Learn how truly wrong you are."
He unleashes the gathered electricity in a mighty Thundaga spell which rains down on Firion.
Firion tanks through the Thundaga, and lands on the ground. He looks towards the woman and hears her message. "It won't hinder me too much...Mateus! How are you still alive?"
The woman raises her arms to protect her body from the Blitz. She just ignores Fang's words and yells to the Emperor "Hey! Bevelle's fallen!" she delivers an Uppercut to Fang. Fang recovers from Not-Maria's attack and strikes against both sides of Not-Maria's ribcage with her spear.
The woman (still using it cause I'm a technical biatch) blocks one of the strikes but is hit on the left side. She winces and tries to hit Fang in the jaw. Fang rolls with the punch and jumps back and uses two Ruin attacks, shooting the non-elemental energy at Ma-The Woman. The woman, however, just dashes through the Ruin attacks and delivers a punch to Fang's gut.
Mateus laughs at Firion's confusion. "Perhaps you are not quite the hero you thought you were if you could not destroy me fully."
He unleashes another tracking flare, and behind the light of the Flare draws a symbol into the ground that lances towards Firion and expands into an electrically charged seal that holds him in place if it connects.
Firion jumps over the slow moving ball of flame. "That will not be enough."
However, as he lands, he lands on top of the Thunder Crest. As he is being zapped, the Flare draws ever closer to him.
Fang grabs the woman's wrist and switches spots with her. Fang then proceeds to kick the woman in her back and readopt her stance.
One would expect Mateus to destroy Firion now that he is trapped and helpless, and indeed, even toys with the idea momentarily, allowing the Flare to come exceptionally close to Firion.
However, that is not part of the plan, as is Fang gaining something of an upper hand. He dismisses the Flare moments from hitting Firion, and while he is still trapped in the Thunder Crest, begins re-channeling the magic.
Once again, a number of concentric magical seals appear beneath him. "Heavens!"
The magic calls the blazing meteor into existence once more as he fires the mighty destructive force towards Fang and Maria.
The woman, who just looks up at the Meteor and grins "Nice knowing ya." she says to Fang.
As time passes on, the Thunder Crest disappears, setting Firion free. He looks over and sees the huge meteor fall upon the two women, and uses his Rope Knife to grab and pull away Fang, saving her from the large rock. "Apologies, but that was the only way I could think to save you."
Fang shrugs and turns to Maria "Eat this!" She fires Ruinga. Maria just shrugged off the Ruinga "If the last three spells didn't work, what made you think that one would?"
Mateus is beginning to be slightly annoyed by the way that his plan is going off schedule.
His calculating mind thinks through the scenario. Though the spear wielding woman has proven somewhat formidable against Maria, her reliance on magic would do her no favors. The possibility was good, though not certain, that Maria would be able to hold her off until he completed his task.
Unfortunately, the inclusion of the rebel in the equation could not be resolved as easily.
"It seems once again you are destined to be a thorn in my side. Though that should be remedied very soon."
At his subtle signal, a group of Black Guards gallop down the street and converge on Firion. Mateus does not expect them to win, but calculates that they are almost guaranteed to last long enough to finish his objectives. The odds were good enough. He leaves the battle and heads into the Castle.
Firion sees the 4 Black Guards move in on him, and he readies himself. "I have no time for this!"
He throws his axe at one, but it misses. However, on its return, it jams itself into the back of another knocking him off his horse and onto the ground. It shakily gets back up. "You will not stop me here!"
He fires 3 arrows into the same Guard, laying him for good, and runs over to grab his axe. However, there are still three left, and they surround him.
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Mateus enters the Castle, and heads up to the throne room. Where he is greeted by Hilda and Gordon. And by greeted, I mean Gordon grabs a lance and charges him. This gets him trapped in a Thunder Crest for his troubles.
"Secure the room gentlemen." The Royal Guard enters and restrains all the individuals in the room, as Mateus goes over to the corner of the throne room.
"Wait here for my return. Ekmet Teloess!" The door on the wall opens, and reveals a passageway beneath the city.
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Sometime later, Mateus and his guard exit the city. He transmits his thoughts to his army (And Maria). "The item has been secured. All forces leave the area. Fynn's time will come, but not now."
With that, Mateus and his royal guard enter a portal and leave the area.
Several unidentified measures of time and a message later, Maria just shrugs off all the stab and cut wounds, though still physically fatigued by the fight "Looks like we'll continue this fight another day." she says, and crushes a Teleport Crystal which does...guess.
Fang scratches the back of her head "Jeez, I'll make magic work. Come to think of it... where's weapon-lad?" She looks about for Firion. She might as well exchange pleasantries.
Firion finally finishes off the Dark guards. He had to head to the castle. What could Mateus have done? "Mateus is at the Castle. The Princess is in trouble!"
Fang sighs "Still no name? Then don't cry if you get a ridiculous name." She follows Firion.
Firion continues to run towards the castle, he turns his head slightly and gives his name. "My name is Firionel. I prefer Firion, though. And yours?"
Fang nods "Firionel? That's ridiculous itself. I'm Oerba Yun Fang. Just call me Fang."
Me: Maria
Sun Tzu: Mateus
NinjablazerZero: Firion
WhiteLycan: Rose
Goblim/Dartheal: Fang
