Chapter X—The Fairytale Hero

Crono Zenan fearlessly brought up his blade and charged into the Naga-ettes with an intensity that made even Luca cringe. Crono sprang above the edge of the benches and sent pictures and holy relics of the cathedral crashing down into the midst of the demons. Wary of the red-haired youth swinging his sword in a brilliant wide arc of silver light, the creatures of the dark fell back and hatefully slunk away. Luca sprang to action then, guarded Crono and blasted the demons back with his guns. His leather jacket wildly waved in the gunfire. Turned aside by the bullets, a Naga-ette shrieked in pain as Luca launched a strange dart that struck her in the chest and knocked her to the ground in a heave of dust.

"Poison as vile as your words, demon!" Luca roared at the Naga-ette. He reloaded his toxic darts with a determined face in the flickering light of his flare. Terrified of these strange weapons, the other Naga-ettes shied away. Luca fired another wave of bullets at the Naga-ette to his right, but it dodged quickly and his shots ricocheted off one of the stone pillars bordering the sanctuary. The remaining creatures split up and formed a rigid ring around the two boys. Crono and Luca stood back to back as the demons closed in around them. The Naga-ettes hesitated, though, as their pale eyes fixed on Luca's guns. Then they suddenly sought refuge in their protective blue flames, and summoned the fire to their foul bodies. Their hateful eyes burned into the soul as they fixed on Crono and Luca.

"You arrive too late, rescuers of the queen! Only demise waits for those who defy Magus!"

"Go back to hell, you monster!" Crono furiously shouted as he fearlessly lunged into the flames and cut open the demon's stomach in mid-stride. But the creature tripped him and pinned him to the ground. Her venomous fangs longingly dripped for his blood, and her eyes lusted after his neck as her clawed hand reached out to slice his throat. Crono violently struggled as his ironbound muscles lashed out with the fury of a storm. The Naga-ette winced as the impossibly strong youth crushed the bones of her hand with his powerful grip. He twisted her arm away, grabbed hold of his sword, and cut into the demon's serpent torso. Luca risked turning around to help his pinned friend, and momentarily ignored the others charging after him. He fired bullets into the Naga-ette attacking Crono, but even bullets did little to harm the enraged monstrosity, and Luca had run out of poison darts. Before he could reload, he felt a sudden weight flatten him to the ground. Two of the scaled creatures attacked and slashed into his face with their clawed fingers.

Crono listened to Luca's pained screams and something in Luca's voice surged like living power into Crono's limbs. In savage disregard for his own life, he violently smashed his forehead into the face of the Naga-ette and stunned the beast. Crono's emerald eyes gleamed in venomous determination. His face streaked by ash and blood, he felt no pain as the demon's claws tore into his flesh. He separated himself from everything but the need to grab his sword and unite all his force into one lethal strike. He thrust the blade upward through the creature's heart. The demon painfully shrieked as green slosh poured out and oozed over Crono. Entirely spent then, she hissed before falling to the cathedral floor in death.

Pushing the carcass away, Crono rose to his feet and charged in to help Luca. But suddenly, one of the two remaining demons pounced lightning fast. Though half of the demon group died trying to take down Crono, the third maddened creature hissed in menacing determination as its hooked razor claws slashed into his arm, and the fourth Naga-ette ripped into the grounded Luca.

"Let us see you fight without a sword, mortal!" the Naga-ette shrieked, snatched away Crono's weapon and tossed it across the room.

By this time, Luca had lodged five bloody darts into the demon's face, with her skin almost in tatters from the persistent gunfire. Luca took hold of the creature's throat, shoved the gun into her mouth and fired his remaining bullets. Slippery green blood splattered most of Luca's clothes. Unable to reload, Luca grabbed hold of the cross of his necklace and jabbed its piercing silver tip into the creature's eye. "The power of Christ compels you!" he screamed, then scrounged around in his pack for a screwdriver to stab it into the demon's remaining eye. The now blind demon fell back in agony. Luca brought up his knee and smashed it into the creature's face to finish her off.

Blood rushed from Crono's slashed arm with alarming speed and leaked from countless cuts across his face and arms. Gashes pained his chest as the creature continued attacking him. But for Crono, he felt no pain, only numbness. He fought like an unfeeling weapon, bladeless, and proved even without a weapon he remained a deadly unstoppable tank refusing defeat. Thoughts of Nadia's doom offered him all the strength he needed. He kicked and punched the creature with every bit of his failing strength, matched his fists and might against the demon's claws, and cast her back. He boxed without relent, then fell and lost consciousness. He lasted just long enough for Luca to come in and finish the fight.

Black hair waving wildly, Luca fired lightning-fast bullets capable of splitting the sea, and blasted the demon until she could take no more. The claws rooted in Crono's chest slowly loosened as the last Naga-ette slumped to the floor and stopped twitching.

Empowered by adrenaline, Luca hoisted the creature off of Crono and dragged his friend over to a clear space behind a pew. He let Crono rest in the hushed solitude of the great dark sanctuary. They lounged in the silence, and didn't know if they slept or not. But Luca stirred first as he slowly reached into his backpack for two tonics. He brought the glass vials close to his friend's face.

"Here, Crono, drink this. It will ease your pain." Luca winced as he surveyed the critical wounds marking Crono. His friend's entire face appeared whipped and bloody with cuts and slashes that dully shimmered in crimson streaks. "Crono!" Luca exclaimed, but his friend did not respond. Blood seeped through Crono's chest and clothes, and soaked even his outer robes. With his eyes closed, he seemed to have passed into the next life. "No!" Luca cried out, and slapped Crono's face. "Crono, wake up! Look at me." Slowly Luca brought Crono out of unconsciousness. "You can't go to sleep. Stay with me, buddy." Luca felt Crono's pulse then, and reached into his backpack to pull out a first-aid kit. "I have to take off your shirt and robe. These wounds must be treated."

"I'll be fine," Crono weakly responded, then coughed.

Luca shook his head no. "You won't be fine. Look at yourself. You're going to die if I don't help you. This bleeding has to stop." He began unfastening Crono's robe. "Try to stay awake." Slowly Luca tended Crono's wounds, sutured the ones most severe, lathered his friend in ointment that numbed pain and prevented infection, and helped Crono drink a tonic while he worked. He bandaged a section of Crono's arm where a deep streak of blood marked a wound which would eventually heal into a scar.

"Do you know why doctors use white bandages instead of any other color?" Luca asked as he tried to keep Crono awake. Crono shook his head no. "Because white has no dye in it. If you ever get hurt like this again and I'm not around, be sure to wrap your wound with a white sock. Blood causes dye to leak into a wound. Any other color but white can cause an infection and make the wound worse. You're lucky I brought these medical supplies. Otherwise you might be dead. You're living proof it's better to be lucky than smart." Crono softly laughed, but Luca poked one of his wounds and made him wince. "Don't laugh. It won't help you heal. Save your strength." Crono glanced around the cathedral. "Don't turn your face to the wall, either. I don't want you moving at all."

Crono faintly smiled, but Luca's sharp blue eyes fixed on him. "That includes smiling. Don't do that. You're not allowed to do anything." Crono didn't move after that, but only stared up at his rude, medically qualified friend.

"You'd make a good doctor, Luca," Crono said. "But little kids would fear your name." By now, Crono had finished his tonic. He turned to Luca, who handed him one more. "What about you? You're not having one?"

Luca shook his head no. "I'm okay. I don't really like tonics."

Crono saw through his lie. "You need one, too." He held out the vial to his friend. "Here, Luca, take this. I don't need two."

Luca held up his hand to stop him. "You need it more than I do."

Certainly not wishing for Luca to poke one of his wounds again, Crono drank the last tonic without arguing. After resting an hour or so, the pain faded and Crono's wounds seemed to heal as quickly as they formed. Aside from a dizzying sensation of weariness, Crono felt whole again. He quickly dressed himself and pulled on his tunic and robe.

"Close encounter," Luca ventured after a time. "I thought you had died, Crono. Don't ever scare me like that again."

The candles remained unlit and Luca's flare had already died, so the two friends waited in the dark. Luca still had flares in his backpack, but he would save them for more dire situations. The moon glowed through the windows and provided enough light for them to see.

The silence shattered in a matter of seconds as another blaring shriek rang through the chamber. A huge Naga-ette, larger than the others, appeared in a sweep of blue demonic flame, and lumbered towards the two boys with gleaming red eyes. A mirror of the demons they fought before, it transcended their height twofold. The creature stood ten feet tall with gray rotting hair. The beast slithered over and sounded an earsplitting shriek. Crono and Luca frantically reached for their momentarily discarded and forgotten weapons, though too late, as the creature rushed in with hungering eyes. The two boys backed away but found themselves trapped between the creature and a corner of dried pools of blood and gashed walls.

Suddenly, someone in a green hood and cloak swooped down from the cathedral rafters, and cut off the demon's passage. A brilliant white sword materialized in the air and protected Crono and Luca. The blade shimmered with moonlight as the cloaked figure cast the demon away. So this must be the small spider-like critter that flitted along the ceiling when Crono first entered through the window. Crono and Luca could not make it out as man or woman. Its face remained hidden behind the hood and the growing commotion. The cloaked figure's long beautiful sword rose high from its radiant sheath and gleamed with the light of a second moon that seemed to shelter the boys from evil. The green-clad stranger called out like a powerful knight. "Lower thine guard!" He raised his sword higher. "And thou art allowing the enemy to prevail!"

Then, seemingly impossibly, the little figure jumped twenty feet across the cathedral, leaped the benches and ricocheted off the walls to attack the Naga-ette with astonishing speed and a supernatural hop no ordinary man could perform. Entirely neglecting Crono and Luca, the demon hissed as it met the figure head on with its sharp claws extending for the kill. Its razor-sharp fangs darkly glistened from its snakelike face. The stranger in green proved quicker, countered the creature's assault with a mighty broadsword no simple man of that size could carry, slammed the demon against the far wall, and thrust its broadsword through the demon's torso. Permitting one final shriek from the huge Naga-ette, the attacker sliced off its head, which dropped to the floor in blood and defeat.

The hooded stranger motionlessly stood for a time, then resheathed its sword in a fluid effortless motion. The flowing cape softly fluttered in the moonlight as the swordsman turned to study the boys. Its face remained hidden in the thick shadow of its hood, but Crono thought for just a moment he noticed green skin. He might be Evanheart, Crono thought, but he didn't sound like him, either in the voice or the accent. No woman would speak so deeply. Slowly the stranger pulled off its hood and stood revealed. Then Crono and Luca identified their savior as not even a man.

"What the?" Luca exclaimed in disbelief. "It's a . . . it's a frog!" Indeed, the fellow stood upright like a man, small in stature but with proud eyes so vibrant and yellow they reflected almost gold in the soft moonlight. He possessed the face and smooth green skin of a small river frog. His strut suggested his fighting brilliance, but he stood no more than five feet and appeared not strong at all. Yet this little fellow carried a weapon heavier and more cumbersome than any blade Crono could lift.

Both Crono and Luca realized at once why this strange fellow could hop to such extensive reaches.

Luca inched away from the frog, tightly held to his gun, and prepared to shoot. "Watch out for its sword, Crono! It may flick faster than you think! He's one of the servants of Magus!"

The frog frowned. "My guise doth not incur thy trust." He turned away. "Do then as thou wilt, but I shalt find the Queen of Guardia!" The frog jumped then all the way back up to the rafters and disappeared into the shadows.

Crono sprang out and lifted his arms. "Whoa, wait a minute, buddy! Come back down here!" He waved his hands but received no response. Crono glared at his friend. "Way to go, Luca. You scared him off." But surprisingly, the frog jumped back down and attentively faced Crono. Crono hesitated and regained his senses. "Hey, we're searching for the queen as well!" The frog quietly studied him. "We're friends of hers. We want to help you find her."

Luca uncertainly shook his head. "Crono, don't be so eager to trust the frog! It might be a trap. You're not seriously considering joining this creature, are you? Look at him. He's a mystic! Everyone with half a brain knows mystics hate humans!"

"Luca!" Crono shouted. "If not for your failure of a lifetime, Nadia wouldn't be lost! You're going to do everything in your power to get her back, and that includes helping a frog find Queen Leene!"

Luca glanced at the mystic. "He looks like one of the demons," he responded, although the supple little frog fellow didn't appear frightening at all. "Magus, the master of deception, could easily create a trick that may cost us our lives. I know mystics, Crono. They'd kill a human as soon as look at one."

"Not all mystics are bad!" Crono refuted. "Hundreds of them peacefully coexist with humans! You're just repeating an old stereotype."

Luca glared. "No kidding, an old stereotype! Guess where we landed, genius?"

Crono recalled that mystics lost their hostility towards human beings only after the battle of the Middle Ages, but Crono sensed something different about this one, and the little mystic seemed honored by Crono's words. "You judge him with your eyes and not your heart, Luca. You're a scientist, but you can't always think with your brain. You have to use your heart sometimes, otherwise you lose all sense of true understanding. Notice how he so willingly came to our rescue? I think he deserves more than your too-quick judgment."

"Well, I'm sorry," Luca apologized to the frog. "You just scared me. I could not catalog your species, bouncing off the walls like that, swinging your sword."

The frog nodded with rising hands. "Nay thy heart be troubled, young sir. Tis the vestment by which all men judge me. No fault of thine own, for thou art no enemy of mine."

Luca awkwardly nodded. He could barely understand what the frog said. But from the sound of his voice, Luca assumed the frog had forgiven him. "Umm . . . I didn't catch your name. You have one, don't you?"

The fellow shook his head. "Not the name of my past. But both of ye may call me Frog, my common label." He quietly stared into one of the stained-glass windows of the cathedral. His lantern eyes shimmered with memory, then sadly gazed at his body. "And thus I shalt remain."

"Can we help you find the queen, Frog?" Crono asked.

Frog nodded yes. "Mayhaps a hidden door lurks nigh? Let us search the environs!"

Crono uncertainly paused. Either Frog knew Nadia only mimicked the real queen or he never heard they called off the search. But what reason led a mystic to search the haunted cathedral for the missing human Queen of Guardia? From Crono's and Luca's understanding, all mystics swore fealty to the Dark Lord, so why did Frog hang out here? Crono quietly studied the mystic. The fellow's green skin shimmered emerald in the silver moonlight, and his eyes shone so gold and pure like twin suns. Crono found only trust and honesty mirrored within them. Whatever Frog's reasons, Crono smiled at finding yet another companion. Funny, he had more friends here than in his own time.

Crono and Luca introduced themselves and took Frog's suggestion to begin searching the area. Crono nodded in determination. "We're ready, Frog. I hope we arrive in time." His words rushed away like a broken memory, and the mystery of the cathedral began.