Ramza and Alma showed Vaan and Balthier the passage in the cellars of the Orbonne Monastery that led to the Murond Death City. It was a race between his group, and Ammon's group. Ramza and Alma had the upper hand though since they actually knew where they were going. Ammon's Temple Knight had only heard of the methods to get there, so Ramza hoped that they could beat Ammon down there and stop him before anything happened.
They found the passage to Murond Death City though, and it appeared as if Ammon already beat them there. They continued deeper and deeper through the levels of Murond, until they finally came to the realm where the portal to the Graveyard of Airships was. And finally, they were face to face.
"Ammon! Stop this!" Ramza cried. "You're a fool to try to control Altima!"
"You know nothing about what we're going to do. And I know you just want to stop us, I have no reason to believe you!" Ammon yelled back.
"I know nothing about what you're going to do!? I was the one who defeated Altima last time she was summoned!" Ramza hollered.
"No matter, our decision is final," Conpichio said in his deep demonic voice, still controlled by the Lucavi. He looked at the Temple Knight and said, "Do it."
The Temple Knight nodded, and quickly drew his blade and ran it through the stomach of his fellow Temple Knight. The stabbed Knight was shocked and surprised at this betrayal, but in a moment, everybody in the room felt the place spinning, and in the flash of an eye, they were transported to the graveyard of Airships.
Ammon stood there with the remaining four Temple Knights and Conpichio, who still had Penelo slung over his shoulder.
"And now, a sacrifice must be made," The Temple Knight said. "The last ounce of bloodshed before the resurrection."
"No!" Ramza yelled, starting to run at the group.
But it was too late, Ammon had unsheathed his sword and stabbed it through Conpichio's chest. Penelo slid off Conpichio's shoulder and fell to the ground.
"Ammon," Conpichio gurgled. "What are you doing?"
"Idiot. There's no way I'm letting Nabradia become partners with Rozarria. I'm going to take it all for my home country. You were just my puppet," Ammon said evilly.
Ammon took the sword out and stabbed him several more times as Conpichio slumped to the ground. Then Ammon sliced the head off the dying Lucavi. Blood splattered on Penelo's unconscious body, and the stone of Virgo levitated from Ammon's hand as he pulled it out of his pocket. The four remaining Temple Knights looked on in excitement.
The stone of Virgo flashed and crackled and blasted a shock wave through Ramza that sent him flying backward. The stone infused itself in Penelo, and somehow, she was awakened and stood up.
"I.. am.. resurrected again?" Penelo said, standing up carefully.
"Penelo!" Vaan cried.
"No, Vaan. That is not Penelo. That is St. Ajora," Alma said sadly. "I was in the same position years ago."
"Finally, I have been given another opportunity to rise," The possessed Penelo, speaking for St. Ajora. "I will not fall again."
Penelo fell to her knees, and on the side of the Graveyard of Airships a light beamed down, and Penelo's body lay there motionless. Suddenly, she picked herself up though, dazed by what had just happened.
"Quick Vaan!" Alma cried. "Get Penelo! Now her body has been released by Ajora!"
And as Vaan ran to the weakened Penelo, the four remaining Temple Knights started to transform into large demons. They surrounded St. Ajora as the Graveyard of Airships started to shake violently. Streams of light flew from the sky like comets, and Ajora's host body started to glow purple and spray out purple rays of light. And then all of a sudden a blue shock wave pulsated outward from Ajora's changing body, and the host body had turned into a red-skinned Angel.
Ammon looked on in delight, ecstatic that he had succeeded in his endeavor.
"St. Ajora! You must now come with me to destroy my enemies!" He cried.
Ajora looked at him scornfully, "You think that I was resurrected to serve you!? No, you have been brought here to give me my power back! You are my Lucavi Demon!"
"No!" Ammon cried frightfully, "You are here to help me!"
Ajora let out a cackle as she slowly changed Ammon into his Lucavi demon. He roared in outrage, and suddenly Ramza and Alma were faced with a very familiar scene.
"Vaan! Balthier! I will fight St. Ajora, you must all destroy the summoned Demons!" Ramza yelled.
Vaan nodded and stood in front of Penelo with his sword and katana drawn, ready for combat. Penelo wrapped her arms around him from behind, trembling against his body.
"Do not fear, Penelo. Everything will be okay," Vaan comforted as Ammon's Lucavi and another Demon rushed forward.
The other three demons rushed to Balthier, and Ramza stood face to face with Ajora as Alma stood in the back ready to help cast some support magic.
Vaan ran at Ammon's Lucavi with a violent rage. He swung his swords wildly, ducking and agilely dodging the swipes of the Lucavi's massive claws. His strikes struck at the Demon's legs and arms, slicing the beast all over its body. The Lucavi ran forward and body slammed Vaan backward. Vaan fell on has back, and the two demons eyed the helpless Penelo. Vaan would have nothing happen to Penelo though.
He rocked backward and kicked his legs up and out, kickflipping himself off the ground, allowing himself to still hold onto his swords. He rushed at the Lucavi Demon and drove his two blades deep into the Demon's back. Ammon's Lucavi turned around in pain swiping once more at Vaan. Ammon's claw just missed Vaan's forehead.
"Oh no you monster," Vaan taunted. "You already slashed me across my left eyebrow once, you're not gettin' me again."
Vaan rushed forward, and as the Demon swiped one more time, Vaan swung Fran's katana downward, and caught the Demon's wrist, slicing his arm from the forearm down, off. With his momentum he fell into a slide and slid under the demon between its legs and jumped up to fend off the other demon that was edging toward Penelo. Vaan twirled and swiped his blades horizontally, slicing the beast across the chest twice. The demon howled in pain and reacted quickly spinning and jumping forward, trying to bite at Vaan.
Vaan saw this move though, and brought Fran's katana straight forward in a powerful thrust and ran the katana into the mouth of the possessed Temple Knight, through the back of its throat, and out through the back of its neck. Vaan quickly pulled the sword back out and let the Demon fall to the ground, dead, as he spun and confronted Ammon's wounded Lucavi. Vaan saw his chance to strike when the beast leapt forward. He did the same move as before and sliced off the other hand of the Lucavi violently. And in one final move, Vaan thrust his body forward, extending both swords in a deadly thrust that punctured the chest of the Lucavi. The blades stabbed through the rib cage, through the internal organs, through the vertebrae, and then out through the Lucavi's back.
Ammon's Lucavi slumped to the ground, also dead. The Lucavi transformed back into Ammon's human form, the zodiac stone lying on his chest. Vaan reached down and pocketed the zodiac stone, looking over at how his comrades were doing. He quickly realized that he needed to grab Conpichio's stone as well, so he ran over to Conpichio's fallen body and grabbed the stone lying on his chest. He glanced over at Penelo, and saw that she held the Virgo stone in her hand.
In the meantime of Vaan's battle, Ramza and Balthier were also battling furiously. Balthier was a machine, utilizing his rage and anger to fortify combat skills he didn't even know he possessed. He had drawn the bow and arrow originally, firing arrows rapidly at the three demons, driving them backward. Each demon had two arrows sticking out of its body somewhere, but that wasn't enough to kill them. So Balthier had his two pistols drawn next, and fired mercilessly at the Demons. One possessed Temple Knight fell to the ground, dead, but the other two were still driving forward. That's when Balthier unsheathed Fran's katana and his own dagger.
He raced forward and swung the sword at one demon, slicing at the claw that was coming toward him. As he passed the claw, he brought the dagger in his left hand up into the side of the neck of the other demon. He twirled and stuck the katana through the lower back of that Demon, and as the Demon fell to the ground, he jumped on its back and pushed off. As he pushed off he threw the dagger down and grabbed the katana in both hands. He jumped off the back of the falling demon with his sword poised high above his head. He swung the sword down quickly and sliced the head of the demon right down the middle.
With all the strength he could gather, all the rage he had inside, and all the anger he had bottled up, he twirled, swinging his sword at the waist of the demon, and cut the body of the possessed Temple Knight in half. He walked back over to his dagger, picked it up, scabbed it, and looked over to Vaan who had just killed his demons, and was now looking at Ramza battle St. Ajora.
St. Ajora was firing powerful magic at Ramza, but Alma was also using support magic to parry the blows. Ramza was more than a match for the Angel though, and ran his sword through the stomach of St. Ajora. Vaan and Balthier had ran up at that time, and they all hacked away at her body.
"No..." Ajora whispered under her breath. "I will not be defeated again!"
There was a massive blue shockwave that engulfed the entire Graveyard of Airships then, exploding blue light and energy. And when the blue light had settled, Altima floated there before them, a large skeleton with red wings.
"Again, you will see my true power!" Altima shouted.
Altima sent rays of magic flying everywhere, but Alma couldn't use her support magic much longer. Vaan, Balthier, and Ramza did their best to hack at her again, but Altima was much more resistant to the attacks. Altima eyed the helpless Penelo and laughed evilly.
"Ramza we cannot defeat her!" Vaan cried in a frightened voice.
"We have to try! I had more warriors here when I defeated her last time with different skills!" Ramza shouted back. "But we can't lose now!"
"Don't worry brother," Alma comforted, walking forward. "You are the descendant of the one who defeated Altima hundreds of years ago, but I am your sister, therefore I too, am the descendant."
And suddenly, in their great time of despair, Alma pulled out the Serpentarius stone.
"Alma, no!" Ramza cried.
Alma opened her will to the demon in the stone, utilizing its power, but imposing her strong will over the instincts of the Lucavi. Serpentarius was by far the most lethal Lucavi demon of all the zodiac stones. It was hidden deep within the Deep Dungeon, sealed away because of its power.
Alma transformed into the Lucavi quickly as Ramza, Vaan, and Balthier stepped away from Altima. Vaan ran to Penelo to guard her against any attacks, and Ramza ran to his sister to try to stop her. Balthier could only stand there in rage.
It was too late though, Alma already transformed. She sent a powerful spell flying at Altima, it looked almost as if a snake were flying through the air at the Death Angel. Then, in a moment, Alma summoned the Zodiac Summon. It focused its star light energy on Altima and then sent a blazing beam of destruction at the Angel. Altima was blown backward but was still alive. Alma's Lucavi flew at Altima, and upon their collision there was an enormous explosion, and the Graveyard of Airships started to shudder. There was a massive explosion, and Ramza knew from the last time that Altima had been defeated.
Suddenly, his vision went blank, and he could feel himself being transported out of the Graveyard of Airships.
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Ramza awoke in the Murond Death City, where he and Alma had awoken six years earlier after the defeat of Altima. His friends had all been killed in the blast last time, and hoped that he wasn't the only survivor this time. He sat up, and felt something in his hand. It was the Serpentarius zodiac stone. He looked left and right, and saw that Vaan, Balthier, and Penelo were laying unconscious nearby.
He crawled over to them and woke them all up.
"What happened," Vaan said rubbing his head.
"Altima has been defeated," Ramza said, sadly. "But Alma killed herself in the process."
"I'm so sorry, Ramza," Balthier consoled.
"Penelo!" Vaan instantly exclaimed. He meant no disrespect to Ramza's sudden loss, but he was overcome by relief that she was safe and sound.
"Vaan! I'm so happy you're here!" Penelo sighed, frightened and scared.
She fell into his arms, shaking in terror, laying there motionless.
"Ramza, what do we do now? How do we make it back to East Ivalice?" Balthier questioned. "There's no way we can get through the cavern without Fran and Alma."
"There may not be another way," Ramza replied. "Let's just settle here for a few minutes and recuperate, and then we can leave and explore our options."
And that's exactly what they did. Ramza tried to get over the loss of his beloved sister, while Balthier thought of Ashe and his promise to return to her, and while Vaan and Penelo hugged each other in relief.
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"Delita went WHERE?!" Ramza exclaimed.
"Apparently he's taken the entire army into the tunnel," The bartender replied. "He just exercised a draft not more than two hours ago and they left immediately for the East."
"How long were we down there for?" Balthier asked Ramza.
"Who knows, it's kind of a different dimension. Time passes oddly," Ramza replied. Then he turned back to the bartender and asked, "Do you remember the last time that we can in here?"
"Yeah, it was earlier today. I'd say seven or eight hours," The bartender replied. "Why," he laughed, "What're you, too drunk to remember when you came in here?"
"No, no," Ramza replied seriously. He turned to Vaan, Penelo, and Balthier, "Okay, we need to find this tunnel and follow Delita. That scares me that he brought the entire Western Army through that tunnel to the East."
"Well, the tunnel isn't too far from here. It's just south, maybe a thirty minute ride by chocobo," The bartender replied. "Here, I'll draw you a map."
The bartender did just that, and the group bought some more chocobos and found their way to the underground tunnel, unaware of what Delita's full plan was.
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"Queen Ashelia?" the Archadian noble spoke.
Ashe was sitting at her throne at that moment, and before her stood representatives from Archadia and Rozarria.
"The Archadian Senate has decided to give you the rights to power in this time of need," the Archadian noble spoke. "They have agreed to your ideas of peace, understanding the plausibility and liklihood that you can attain it."
"The Rozarrian government has ruled the same," The Rozarrian noble then spoke up. "It has been over a week since the death of Al-Cid and Larsa Solidor. We've had time to think of our decision, and we want to let our nations all unite under your rule, much like King Raithwall many years ago."
Over a week since their deaths? Ashe thought to herself. That means that about six days have passed since the departure for Penelo. I hope everyone is okay.
"I thank you for your messages, and I would like you to relay my message of extreme gratitude to those in power of your nations," Ashe replied.
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Balthier, Vaan, Penelo, and Ramza raced through the underground tunnels. There were millions of footprints stomped in the dirt, and it was clear that the army had in fact come through the tunnel. The bartender said that the travel under the tunnel was made in a straight line with no fiend encounters. It was estimated that the journey would take almost two days on foot, but only one day by chocobo. Since Delita had about five hours of a head start, the group knew that eventually they would encounter the rear of the army, and they wanted to avoid being seen at all costs.
The traveled on in the silence and darkness of the tunnel. Along the tunnel walls were burning lamps, most likely kept lit by some kind of fire magic, but the tunnels were very bland. They sped along anyways though, eager to find out what was going on and what was going to happen.
After many hours of traveling though, they needed to take a break. They dismounted their chocobos, tied them up, and slept on the dirt floor of the tunnel. It was most certainly almost night time, and they were a little more than halfway through the tunnel.
They all woke up hours later, eager to mount and continue riding. Ramza doubted that Delita had made his army rest. If Delita was bringing an army, he'd want to get them out as soon as possible. He could only imagine what was running through Delita's head though.
Many hours later, after just riding in a straight line, they started to hear the voices and stamping feet of the soldiers. Balthier motioned for everybody to slow down.
"How are we going to circumnavigated these soldiers?" Balthier whispered. "We need to somehow get out in front of them."
"You haven't seen the various exits along the way?" Penelo whispered back in question.
"Exits?" Balthier said, a confused look sitting on his face.
"Yes. Periodically there is a hole in the dirt ceiling on the side of the cavern with a ladder going up it. It makes sense," Penelo replied. "When digging this tunnel, they needed somewhere to put all the dirt, so they probably had a few holes every long distance or so in order to move the dirt above ground."
Balthier was stunned by her keen observation, "Well, okay then. Let's head back a little to the last exit. We'll crawl through, see how far we are from East Ivalice, and with any luck, maybe we'll find one with a ramp so our chocobos can get up too."
So the group followed those instructions, and with much luck, they did find an exit with a steep slope to the exit. They could lead their chocobos out of the tunnel easily. When they reached the surface, Balthier recognized the area immediately.
"We're on the western outskirts of Rozarria," he said intuitively.
"How do you know that?" Vaan asked.
"Vaan, a sky pirate has traveled all over the place. You'll know geography as well as me someday, mate," Balthier replied.
Ramza nodded silently, and the four of them rode their chocobos toward the perimeter of Rozarria, hoping to get to Dalmasca as soon as possible.
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There was a loud, steady knock at Ashe's door. She sat up in her bed, startled by it.
"Queen Ashelia!" An advisor's voice said loudly.
"What is it!" She hissed back. "It better be good to wake me at this hour!"
The advisor swung the door open, standing in front of Balthier, Vaan, Penelo, and Ramza. Ashe's face lit up in surprise and delight.
"Penelo!" She exclaimed, leaping out of bed, dressed in her nightgown, her hair all over the place. "Thank goodness you're safe!"
She ran toward Penelo and gave her a big hug, then looking at Vaan, nodding approvingly, and giving him a hug as well.
Then she looked at Balthier.
"Where's Fran?" Ashe asked.
Balthier sighed and replied, "Fran was killed saving my life. She died happily. Smiling even."
Penelo nodded sadly, "They told me the story on the way. It was a noble death."
Ashe stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Balthier's neck, tightly embracing him, whispering, "I'm so sorry for you loss."
"It's more than just my loss, Ashe," Balthier replied softly. "It's Ivalice's loss. The world lost one of the greatest beings I know."
Ashe looked deep into his eyes, kissed him on the cheek, and hugged him again. She did it to comfort his own sadness, but it was also to comfort her own relief that he was okay.
"Ashe, we come to you at this hour not just to tell you that we're back," Vaan started, "But Delita has brought his army from West Ivalice. Apparently, he is the king of all of West Ivalice."
Ashe gasped and replied, "The entire army?"
Balthier nodded, looking down at her in his arms. "They're already through a tunnel that Delita had been digging secretly for the past six years. It's located west of Rozarria's borders."
"Then, we must alert everybody immediately, and gather up the armies. I've been given the command of all four nations," Ashe replied. "I fulfilled my end of the promise just as you did yours, but now we need to stop this onslaught."
"We'll be in contact with them right away," Balthier nodded. "So get to sleep. We need to be rested and ready for an attack tomorrow."
Ashe nodded and added, "Just one last thing. Balthier, Vaan. I want you two to become Judges. I want the two of you to lead the armies."
Balthier sighed in disagreement.
"Please Balthier, pick up your Judge duties again, and resume the responsibility given to you years before," Ashe begged.
"I'll absolutely do it," Vaan stated.
"Zargabaath was relieved of his position years ago," Ashe stated. "Balthier, I want you to take up his armor. And Vaan," she continued, turning to the young man. "I want you to take up Basch's armor. Judge Gabranth's armor. I had his armor and sword sent here after the funeral earlier this week." Then Ashe turned to Ramza, "And I have the stone that Larsa used on himself as well."
Ashe walked over to her dresser, opened a drawer, and took out the stone of Gemini. She placed it in Ramza's hands.
"I also have some stones for you," Vaan added. He pulled out the stones of Aries, Cancer, and Scorpio and gave them to Ramza.
"And I have the Virgo stone," Penelo added, handing it over.
"This is excellent," Ramza thanked. "The only ones Delita has left now is Tauros and Leo."
"Alright, Ashe," Balthier interjected. "I'll resume my duties as Judge."
"Very well, Judge Bunanza," Ashe said seriously.
"Bunanza?" Ramza questioned. "Your last name is Bunanza?"
Balthier nodded.
"Funny, I had a good friend back six years ago who had the same last name," Ramza chuckled.
"And Vaan," Ashe started, "I'm sorry, but I don't think I know your last name."
"That's because I don't have one," Vaan replied. "My brother never told me out last name after our parents died. He said we had to move on from our family."
"Well, then we'll have to call you Judge Vaan, won't we?" Ashe smiled.
"Doesn't matter what you call me, I'm still going to do what needs to be done," Vaan smiled in return.
And with that, Ashe went back to bed, and her companions slept over in the castle so when morning came they would all be ready to assemble.
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Alright everybody, that chapter may have flew by a little bit, but I didn't wanna spent a lot of time talking about running in a tunnel for hours on end haha. If it seems a bit rushed, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make it that way, but I've still got a few more twists and turns in my story, action, and plots unveiled. Hope you stay tuned :D