Procastination FTW! Now we see what College mid-terms do to my free time. Ah well.
Here we go with the next chapter, sorry this took like a week and a half or so, i'm used to coming up with something faster then this... at the very least, I was able to refine this for a bit longer then usual.
Disclaimer: I ain't Square-Enix.
Galuf made his offense, spinning around, he sliced straight through the chest of a Magitek Armor, then raised his sword to block the attack of a Gestalt footman. The footman's sword fell onto his own weapon, and the footman tried to push, but he lacked the strength of fighting battle after battle of endless battle like Galuf had, even with damaged memory his instincts hadn't faded.
With a swift motion, Galuf raised his sword up, repelling the Gestalt footman's attempt, and made a downward slice across the soldier. Without even checking the extent of the damage he inflicted, Galuf immediately turned around, and his sword caught a blast of electricity generated from Terra. The blast flew off of his sword, going straight up toward the ceiling.
The blast struck and flowed over the ceiling, the entire room shuddered as miniscule bits of rock dislodged from the top of the room.
Nothing to note yet, but Galuf briefly felt a small drilling effect in his gut about the possibility of a cave-in. Though the two Magitek Armor that came from behind him took precedence over everything else.
The shudder hadn't been limited to the room, however, as it was also felt just slightly above them. Garland's offense toward Jecht was briefly halted as the floor he was standing on shook for a moment. He quickly looked around the room, but saw nothing that would have likely caused a small tremor… and then he suddenly flew forward. Garland felt a searing pain across his back, burning him up as he flew forward, right past Jecht, he regained his equilibrium before he landed, and managed to flip himself around, causing his feet to land firmly on the wall of the room he was in.
He crouched down on the wall before the momentum stopped, but then he straightened up and jumped back, turning his head up to see where he was looking at, and so he could see his assailant.
He couldn't see him immediately, however, as Jecht moved his sword across his field of vision, apparently expecting Garland to injure himself by flying directly into it. Garland simply swatted the sword away with his left arm, an action that had the added effect of knocking Jecht off-balance and out of the way entirely, allowing Garland to see the attacker… Kefka?
Garland flew forward as Kefka launched a blast of ice at him, clearly the first blow wasn't a mis-aim on his part… a swing of Garland's sword shattered the chunk of ice into a thousand harmless pieces, and the he flew forward, his left hand out-stretched, and grabbed Kefka by the neck.
"I hope you had a good reason for that." Garland's grip slightly tightened around the clown's neck, seeming as if he could snap it at any time. "Not that you act like a creature capable of reason."
"I… I will have my favorite toy back, Garland." Kefka struggled against Garland's grip, but the reality was that a mage wasn't going to break a warrior's grip. Yet maybe if the mage offered a bit of magic to his resistance…
The point became moot after a moment when Garland swung around and tossed Kefka across the air, ungracefully crashing into Jecht, who had been just starting to stand up.
"This is your second insubordination Kefka, do not test my good humor with a third." Garland marched forward, his sword dragging across the ground behind him, stopping about ten feet from Kefka and Jecht, both starting to get up. "I want you to take care of Jecht, I shall determine Terra's location."
"Why should I do as you say?" Kefka's fingers crackled with electricity, scowling at Garland, oblivious to the risen blitzball ace behind him.
Kefka might have made another charge at Garland… but Garland's weapon morphed into an axe, with an angry scowl, Kefka got the message and turned around to Jecht, a blue Ultima orb flaring into existence in his palm.
Garland, on the other hand, heaved his axe above him, and swung down, the blade of the axe connecting to the ground, creating a massive crack around the impact point… the cracks extended to the base Garland was standing on, and with a sudden shake, the foundation crumbled under his feet. Garland fell through the hole… the earlier tremor had come from Terra, which means that by logic she was below him.
Jecht swung at Kefka's back, only for the clown to quickly jump forward and flip around in the air, landing squarely on his feet, face toward Jecht.
Jecht leaned his to the side, loosening his grip on his sword to get the chance to crack his fingers, which had grown stiff as of late. "So Garland thought an ace wasn't worth his time…" Jecht made a sigh out loud, eyeing up his new opponent, "But really, he left me with the half-time entertainment?"
A chuckle escaped Jecht's mouth, Kefka remained silent, and closed his eyes, and then opened them again, a look of sadistic glee gracing them. "Hmm? Your assessment of me over? Good." Even if his favorite toy wasn't his right now, he could have some fun with this brute.
"I hate self-justified brutes only slightly less then goody-two-shoes, I'll have you know." Kefka raised his hand up, revealing the blue Ultima orb again, "I suppose you don't know what I did to General Leo… I'll just show you first hand!
Kefka shot the Ultima Orb several feet forward, only for Jecht to cross the distance and a very unexpected speed and slice the orb in two with his sword. Another swing came from him, intending to slice through Kefka, only for Kefka to jump straight up into the air… and hang. Simply floating up in the air, Kefka unleashed a blast of fire straight for Jecht, who leapt back from the attack, the ground between them scorching to a fine black.
Jecht smirked suddenly, and charged forward again, his sword arm ready, the front of him was suddenly coating by some strange red energy. Jecht jumped up and lunged forward at Kefka, he thrust forward, falling into a spinning attack, only for the attack to miss as Kefka jumped to the side. Kefka would have countered right there, except that when Jecht reached the wall, he spun his body so that he landed his feet against the wall, and rebounded back at Kefka, once again making a spinning thrust, going straight into Kefka's back.
A shrill cry escaped Kefka as Jecht's attack forced Kefka forward, until at last the attack ended suddenly, hurtling Kefka beyond Jecht's reach, yet even through the sudden pain. Kefka still managed to turn around in the air and fire a blast of electricity toward Jecht, which struck dead-on on the chest.
Thus both combatants fell back onto the ground in clumsy positions, though Kefka was clearly the one who had suffered more.
The fight was not over just yet, Kefka picked himself back up to a standing position with his magic, and Jecht sprung up with just a single movement. Charging forward with an intended swing, Jecht's sword instead had electricity flow into it from Kefka's hands, yet for all the pain it would have caused to the common man, it only elected a small cringe from Jecht's face, and his charge advanced, and the edge of Jecht's sword went into Kefka.
Feeling the pressure of the blow, Kefka falls back through the air, tumbling for a moment, but stops himself and begins to float above the ground, a crackle of fire begins to appear over him… but then it fizzes out.
As it disappears, the room they're in begins to rumble, more then hard enough to break the concentration of both combatants. A deep rumbling sound, coming from… below.
The fight between Galuf, Terra, and the Gestalt Soldiers was put on a slight hold at as a distinctive sound came from overhead, a sound of breaking stone. Galuf turned his gaze upward, taking a moment to marvel at the sheer height of this room, and then noticed a hole that had been punched right into the ceiling, and falling out of the hole is…
Garland. The knight's axe converted from an axe back to a sword as he witnessed the room he had broken into was the excavation, he also noticed that he had found what he was looking for, but his attention was more drawn to the massive chunk of crystal taking up the side of one room.
Lodged deep within the crystal was the power that Mateus had sought, something from his world, called the "Ultima Tome". The Tome was no larger then a typical book, it seemed almost ridiculous that the enormous chunk of crystal was being used to house just that single item. Yet according to Mateus, it took extraordinary power to keep it sealed, something more powerful then the "Cyclone" Mateus sometimes talked about.
Garland took his eyes off the Tome and directed his attention back to the floor, twisting himself upright allowing himself to land on his feet.
"What th-" Galuf stammered as Garland fell to the ground directly in front of him.
The sudden stop resulted in him initially falling into a kneeling position before getting back up. With virtually no delay, Garland swing his sword across his field of vision, inciting Galuf to suddenly drop back.
Garland was in a hunched battle position for a moment, but then it registered on him that Galuf had his back to the excavation, a certain finesse was in order. Garland straightened himself to a more standard standing position, and raised an arm into the air, giving a stand-down order to the Gestalt soldiers and Terra, and made a harmless thrust towards Galuf with his free arm, a wordless gesture to insinuate that Garland could crush the old man any time he pleased.
Which, of course, he could. There was just the small quirk in the fact that he had been instructed to not let anything happen to the excavation, at best he could try to bluff Galuf into stepping away from the mass of crystals. His fighting style had a tendency to cause particularly massive collateral damage.
"You have no hope to win in your situation…" Garland spoke with an authentic evenness, even though he was in a worse position then he looked, Garland had no true fear. Never. "Surrender, and I'll go as far as to return you to your allies. Your role in this war is not yet over."
Galuf's eyes flittered around the room, examining the situation before him, two Chaos Warriors, and soldiers he had never seen before today… deep beneath the ground in a mine, his back against a massive crystal, it was not a desirable situation by any means.
Fighting his way out was likely impossible, yet he had no faith that Garland would keep his word on his deal, therefore the best choice was… go out with a bang.
Galuf made a charge forward, catching Garland off-guard, the knight had most certainly expected a more rational decision, though he could admire the fearlessness. What troubled Garland the most, was Terra's response to the charge, she charged a blast of Thundaga, but when she fired at Galuf he dodged, and the lightning struck against the crystal.
Not troubling in of itself, but the Gestalt soldiers followed suit, the M-Tek lasers from the Magitek Armors fired wildly, perhaps blindly, all the blasts went in Galuf's general direction, but few came even moderately close to the target, instead, many went right past him and struck at the base of the crystal… completely…
Completely destroying the foundation. The enormous chunk of crystal toppled over as it now lacked the ability to stand up straight, and the massive wall of crystal had only one way to fall, right onto the combatants. There was zero chance to dodge, the huge block wall landed right on top of them, splintering as it landed, breaking, shattering, shrapnel flew every which way… and the Ultima Tome was free.
Free… but not in the way it was supposed to be. Even as the combatants began to wearily get back to their feet, the Ultima Tome was in motion, having been broken free from the confines of it's crystal prison, the Tome levitated in the air… and then a small pulse of electricity erupted from it.
The Ultima Tome, one of the greatest powers in all the worlds, was unstable. It certainly wasn't supposed to be knocked around like that, Garland reached a unsteady arm towards the Tome, even though he was half the room away, it's not like magic was consistent or all that understandable in the first place, such sacred powers even more incomprehensible… the Warriors were left only to stare at the Tome for a moment, and then it exploded.
The forgotten power of antiquity erupted with power those surrounding it could not have foreseen, a shockwave broke apart the ground to start it off, and then the true explosion began, ripping apart the already damaged ground, and continuing in all directions outside off the original nucleus that the Tome itself had once resided in. It took only a few seconds for the explosion to completely cover the room, trapping the combatants in an inferno.
Feeling the pressure of the blow, Kefka falls back through the air, tumbling for a moment, but stops himself and begins to float above the ground, a crackle of fire begins to appear over him… but then it fizzes out.
As it disappears, the room they're in begins to rumble, more then hard enough to break the concentration of both combatants. A deep rumbling sound, coming from… below.
The rumbling grew greater in it's intensity, forcing both fighters to lose interest in the other. With a few mutters of confusion, Jecht felt an increase in heat on the rocks he was standing on, and then… it was like something was pounding on the rocks beneath him, and he suddenly lost his footing as the foundation of the ground was lost.
Fire erupted from beneath both fighters, engulfing them in a blast of power greater then anything Kefka could muster, or Adel, or Terra, maybe even the Emperor…
Narshe stood peaceful above ground, but the sudden tremor would be the town's final gasp, as the explosion that started far in the underground reached the surface, ripping apart the town, blowing the buildings to pieces and incinerating the locales not immediately destroyed by the display, eventually, what was left was left of the mine entrance was effectively just a giant crater, and the town itself had fallen into a state it could never recover from…
Rubble and debris was strewn as far as the eyes could see, except for the slightest signs of life.
To their credit, the Warriors of Cosmos, and the Warriors of Chaos, minus the Gestalt soldiers, survived. Buried under rubble, but alive, and rubble alone was a minor annoyance to them at this point.
The only one not buried was Terra, who had fallen into a fairly undamaged clearing, a weak moan escaped her unconscious lips, the slave crown that had been earlier wrapped around her head lay a few inches from her hand, ripped to pieces from the force it had just been introduced to.
Yet this blessing would not alone stop her from continuing to be a pawn to Chaos. With a sudden flash, Exdeath appeared. He would have towered over her even if she was standing, but lying down only made the difference in size all the more apparent. The nihilistic knight reached an arm out, and at once Terra's body began to levitate and be drawn toward his outstretched hand, firmly grasping her lower back, he made one final look over the scene before him, and then turned and teleported away, with the Esper-girl.
Shall be continued.