Duelist of Dawn: Hello, hello! Time of another good chapter! Sorry to say that no one is with me, because... they are on another world. I'm just alone in my personal Fortress of Solitude making sure that nothing goes in. Even Machina's taking a break with his folks, and he deserves it. Anyway, I thank all the reviews new and old for continuing to look up this story. I may have the presence of mind to go back and re-edit my previous chapter since I have gotten better in how I word things. And I do hate how when I upload, some words go missing... Still, my disclaimer stands...
DISCLAIMER: The Duelist of Dawn doesn't own Final Fantasy IX, or any music used in story. He owns his SI Ron and the OCs Lovrina Carol and Eclipse.
Duelist of Dawn: Party Time! Start the Chapter!
Chapter 51
Terra
(Play Terra from FFIX)
After being transported via a large teleporter inside Shimmering Island, I found myself in the great blue world that is Terra. It was nothing but a blue light around the skies and large stalks that made up what could be the only walkways of this world. I didn't want to chance how deep it was towards the real bottom, but I couldn't see any water, meaning only a wasteland ground could be waiting down there... or maybe a bottomless pit leading to space where you'll really get an unhappy ending to life. I also took notice to that why were it only these tall stalk things and no other places while I only stood on a hilltop... and that's when I remembered something...
"Yeah, this place is in bad shape..." I said to myself. "And with that failed assimilation all those years ago, I can see why there's nothing much to see here."
"Hey Ron!"
I turned around to see Zidane run up to me from on top of a ledge.
"Hey Zidane," I called out. "Is everyone okay?"
"No, I haven't seen them... you're the first person I found since waking up!" He replied, as he jumped down from the ledge and landed perfectly in front of me. "I think it's because we didn't exactly go into island together."
"Yeah," I nodded. "Everyone else was sucked in before us. And now that I remember, we were close to each other when we dived in. Did you wake up on top of the ledge?"
"Yeah..." He nodded back, "I guess that answers that question..." He then turned his attention towards the vast wasteland of the world. "Could this be...Terra?"
"The very same we went through all that trouble for," I replied. "I know you probably expected a lot more from another world, huh?"
"Well... yeah," the tailed boy shrugged. "I mean, from where Kuja and Eclipse are concerned I expected a little bit more advancement from Gaia... you know, the factories created Black Mages... the Iifa Tree..."
"That's why Oeilvert was made," I interrupted. "Remember those talking heads told and those projectors showing what happened to this world?"
"Right... I guess I thought there would be more to it..."
"From the changes made from my appearance, I guess I can't blame you." I consoled him. But then I saw him looking around with a seriously thoughtful look. "What's wrong?"
"I wonder...What's this light?" He asked. "I mean, I'm used to seeing blue skies and blue seas and all... but this place is kinda overdoing it." He then suddenly gasped and started to look over the place with quick turns of the head, as if he was seeing the same thing's all over again. I was about to ask, but then he whispered, Could it be..."
Suddenly, a blue flash assaulted our eyes, making us cover them with our arms. Then, we hear a sort of an eerie whisper in the wind and got our sight back in time to see strings on a large, split-open bonsai tree. An invisible force connected them together and created a portal that brought out a figure I've only seen in my dark dreams from the beginning. A bald, old man with a white beard dressed an all black suit with a cape and the thing that stood out about him, was a red jewel in the center of his stomach. My aura suddenly went off at the power he possessed, and I narrowed my eyes at the remembrance... Garland...
"So you both finally came," He greeted in dark voice. "The time has come at last... The ones who folds time and bend power are here."
'Yeah... he needs Zidane and me for our power, my aura and his soul...' I thought, remembering inside the game's motives.
Zidane looked indifferent, "Who the heck are you!"
The old man turned to the tailed boy with a curious stare in his pale, white eyes, "Ask my name, will you? Then let us ask... What is your name?"
Zidane pointed to himself. "Me! My name is-"
"What is your name?" Garland asked, interrupting the answer. The ex-thief clearly was angry from that...
"Hey, what's your problem! I'm trying to tell you my name." Zidane shouted.
"He already knows," I stated.
"Who is this guy then?" He asked me.
Before I could answer, Garland spoke up with, "So you believe a given name has meaning... Boy, you have been bewitched by the light of the blue moon." He then turned to me, looking pleased. "And you... you're finally coming out of your shell... I can feel the power you possess...
"Cut the games, Garland," I told him with a stern look, "You know why we're here..."
Zidane looked from me to Garland, with a confused look on his face. "What's going on here?" He turned to Garland, saying, "What do you know? You must be from Terra."
"You know nothing, and that is all." Garland stated, turning his back towards us. "Come and see for yourself... See what Terra is, and what you are..." He then went through to the portal, leaving us behind.
"H-Hey, hang on!" Zidane protests, but stopped when I touched his shoulder.
"Forget it... He's gone..." I stated as he turned to me.
"Alright, what's going on? Who was that?"
"Garland, a de-facto leader of Terra..." I explained. "He's the reason why I'm here and stuck me with Eclipse's DNA..."
"But what for?"
"He probably means to use me for something to speed up the process of assimilating Gaia into Terra," I stated. "Meaning we need to watch ourselves with this guy, as well as Kuja and Eclipse because they all will be here."
"What makes you say that?" Zidane asked. But before I could answer...
"Zidane! Ron!"
From behind us, we saw Dagger running and waving to us. Good, at least we know that everyone else made it to the world.
"Dagger!" Zidane exclaimed, "Are you alright? Where is everyone?"
The Summoner suddenly looked sad and said, "I'm okay, but I'm not sure about everyone else."
I gasped, "You sure?"
"Yeah, you two are the first ones I've seen since waking up," She replied.
"Damn..." I whispered to myself, "Alright, we got to find everyone... if Kuja and Eclipse have plans in this world, they either here already or waited for us to come here first."
"Then we should hurry up and search..." Zidane noted. "The more we hang around here, the less time we have in finding everyone..."
"Behind you!"
We heard a young woman's voice call out as we instinctively followed the order and saw a large spiked ring coming right for us, making us duck right away and watch it fly in a large arc.
"Who was talking?" I asked.
Zidane started right behind me and pointed out something, "Forget that for right now, we found the guy that tried to cut our heads off!" Dagger and I followed his line of sight and saw three figures flying towards us. All of them about three feet tall wearing a large white and green V-striped shirt, brown gloves and boots, and head that looked like a king's crown with narrow yellow eyes. Two of them hat the same large spiked ring around their necks, with the third just retrieving its own and placing it around the neck. "Are these the locals?"
"Monster locals," I said, getting into my fighting stance. "Ring Leaders..."
"Let's get them out of our way before we find out anything else," Dagger suggested as she held up her racket.
Two of the Ring Leaders removed their rings, but they only let it float above their heads with the spikes facing them. When they placed their hands together, I knew what they were doing...
"They're conjuring magic, move!" I shouted as we decided to head right for them, while I got my right leg ignited by flames. "Dragon Kick," I jumped up and kicked the flames from my foot and pushed over the one that didn't create magic, sending it clear across the skies. Still, the other two were finished casting, creating two familiar acidic orbs. "Damn..."
The Ring Leaders launched the orbs straight at me and there was no other way to avoid it without getting burned.
"Appear now, Ramuh!"
I heard Dagger chant and shout as I heard a large thunder boom from the skies and saw Ramuh's staff float right in front of me. Soon, massive thunderbolts shot out from the staff and pushed away the Bio Spells and shocked the Ring Leaders to the bone, while I safely landed on the ground.
"Thanks for the save," I thanked Dagger, who nodded back before noticing the monsters recover from the attack, albeit a little stunned from the shocks.
"I got 'em!" Zidane shouted as he ran past me and struck down the first Ring Leader with both daggers into the chest, and kicked it over the ledge into the pit. When the other two tried to advance, he swung his daggers outward to knock them backwards.
"Thunder Blades!" I rushed to the closest Ring Leader while creating the electric blades from my arms and slashed it in half. The third Ring Leader threw its spiked ring once more, but I jumped in its line of fire and knocked them back with the blades, putting some force and electrical current in it. It hit the monster in the stomach and shocked him once more, making him drop into the pit.
"Cut it close back there..." Dagger told me.
"Yeah, thought I would be able to swing my kick into all of them but, the flames just found its way straight ahead." I stated, "I guess this evolution of my skill was a lot different than I thought. Just hope I can get it right next time..."
"I hope in time to stop Terra's plan," Zidane stated, patting me on the shoulder. "But now back to another matter..."
"Like..."
"Who warned us about those monsters?" the tailed boy asked as he looked around the area. "Couldn't have been the others; they would've jumped in and helped us fight."
"That's true..." I muttered, as I looked around as well.
That's when we heard Dagger gasp and saw her point up to the ledge Zidane was standing on minutes ago. We saw a young woman peering down on us with her blue eyes, like she was analyzing everything she just saw. Her blonde hair was styled like Zidane's except two of her bangs were in pink tassels. She wore a pink and white shirt and skirt ensemble with shoes. Finally, what surprised Zidane and Dagger was the fact that she had a tail like Zidane's. Suddenly, she took off without saying a word...
"Hey...!" Zidane shouted after her. "Why did she run away?"
"She had to be the one that warned us," I stated.
"But still..." Dagger trailed off as she turned to me. "Is this something you know?"
"Yeah, but... I didn't think she was that young," I pondered, trying to remember the events of Terra. "But I don't remember a name..."
"Rather not spoil the surprise," Zidane interrupted me, "Like you said, we could be changing the events if you keep talking... besides we all came here for the same reasons and we should figure them out together, right?"
"Right," I nodded. "Let's just follow her and see we can get to the others. Chances are she could be the one leading us to them..."
"Then let's stay on guard then," Dagger replied as we continued on down the path.
Our next sight led us to an upper part of the world where we got our first look at a lake of water. Unlike the water of Gaia, there was no movement of it... even with an opening that would've let it flow and the angle of the lake, the water would recede.
"That's strange, the water's not flowing," Dagger pondered as she dipped her hand into the lake and pulled out a small amount before pouring it back. We noticed that there were no ripples... it was more like the water becoming a part of the lake, rather than entering it.
"Weird, but this is another world," I shrugged. "Of course we'd think that."
"Looks like it was in a container that stood still," Zidane stated as he squinted his eyes a bit.
"Something wrong?" I asked.
"Yeah, this blue light's just getting to me; that's all..." He replied. "Maybe it's all in my head... Let's keep moving, and hope we don't run into more of those flying guys... You think you can sense anything in around here, maybe someone's here."
"Oh right," I said, closing my eyes and focusing on the auras. One thing I noticed a moment later, was that this whole world's aura was blue... go figure. But then, I noticed two different colors... a black and a bright white aura coming towards us from a set of stairs behind us. I opened my eyes and said, "Someone's coming... two people."
"Is it bad?" Dagger asked, getting ready to summon. "If they are anything like the last band of monsters, we may have to keep an Eidolon out for extra precaution."
"Not a bad idea, but it's friendly... more importantly I think I know who's coming..." I replied quickly as the footsteps got closer. Suddenly, we were greeted by two friendly faces...
"Zidane! Dagger! Ron!" Eiko called out as she ran over to us, with Vivi running behind her.
"We finally found you guys!" Vivi added, looking at all three of us.
"It's a good thing Zidane reminded Ron of the Aura Sense," Dagger stated. "Otherwise, we would have passed you and chased after this other girl."
"Other girl?" Vivi parroted.
"Think of Zidane in a skirt," I said, snickering. After a look of visualization towards the tailed boy, the kids started to laugh and even Dagger had her right hand cover her mouth a little to suppress any giggles coming from her. Zidane just stood out of it, surprisingly and opting not to protest it.
"Really?" Eiko asked.
"Yeah..." Dagger added. "Now do I think of it, she did look like Zidane... the hair and the tail... except a little younger."
"You think she could be a relative of Zidane's?" Vivi pondered. "I mean, none of us have seen someone like Zidane with a tail like his. The hairstyle could be anybody's..."
"He's right," Zidane spoke up. "The only way we can find out about that girl is to follow her... we'll run into everyone else along the way, I just know it..."
"Then, let's get a move on," I stated as we headed onwards.
Along the way, Vivi and Eiko told us how they ended up separated from the gang. Both of them ended up alone, believe it or not, with Eiko by the lake and Vivi finding her while coming from a secluded area with glowing spider webs. He never actually saw them; quickly getting out of harm's way before meeting with the creepy crawlers or whatever that could've made the webs. Eiko being at the lake, decided to stay where she was and if anything bad were to cross her, she'd summon and Eidolon to defend her. With Vivi's arrival, that wasn't the case and they decided to move when they heard us talking.
Soon, we found ourselves to a white bridge that was seemingly made of thick white thread... and right at the entrance was the girl from before with her back turned.
"Is that her?" Eiko asked.
"Yeah," Zidane nodded as he went to approach her, "Excuse me?" But as soon as she heard that, the girl took a quick glance behind to see Zidane before running across the bridge. "Hey, wait up!" He shouted, running after her.
I groaned and turned to the others, "Let's go after him."
"Hey, guys... a little help over here!" Zidane shouted from the bridge. "There are some weird looking red blob things with eyes, and they blocked us off from the girl!"
Hearing that, we ran even faster until we made it to the halfway point where Zidane was holding his own against five red blobs covered head to toe in eyes. They were called Hecteyes and were currently in a circle with the girl in the middle of them. Everyone thought she would be scared, but she carried that same stoic expression on her face.
"Isn't she scared?" Vivi wondered, readying his staff.
"Living here, she must have seen every monster around this place," Dagger pondered. "But still, I understand... at close range and nothing to defend herself, I would be scared."
"Let's just help Zidane out..." Eiko interrupted as she played her flute.
"Power of Gaia, protect yourself with your earth! From the full moon, come Fenrir!"
(Play Sun's Song)
A massive howl bellowed from the skies, letting the appearance of the Earth-based wolf eidolon appear from the other side of the monsters. Seeing this, Dagger also called forth her reinforcements.
"Beast of the flames, bring the power of Purgatory to my oppressor! Come forward, Ifrit!"
In the air, a portal of flames opened up and released Dagger's eidolon of fire. The beast jumped out and landed on his hind legs next to Fenrir, both of them snarling at the two Hecteyes they were currently facing.
The one in front of Zidane struck first, firing yellow lasers from its topmost eyes, sent him skidding back several feet. I retaliated by using the Kaiser Knuckles' spikes and effectively blinding their sight. But of course, when some eyes are closed, the others will retaliate; and I felt it when the other two Hecteyes up front try to fire blue lasers from the midsection. Knowing that the eyes would be on us at all times, I took that into consideration and jumped out of the way.
"Firaga!" Vivi shouted as he cast the massive flame tornado against the one on the left side, making it flail around madly.
"Holy!" Eiko called out as she played another tune, unleashing a bright beam of light that blasted itself against the one on the right.
Dagger then used her racket to throw a magic ball of air to further blind the one in the middle, while Zidane recovered from his attack and retaliated with a double slash across the monster's bottom torso, leaking the blood on the bridge ground.
On the other side, Fenrir and Ifrit were dealing with the two on their side and were constantly dodging every beam attack the Hecteyes' were throwing at them, going at an omni-directional pace. The Earth Eidolon decided to make his move by stomping the ground and creating pillars of rock to block his way towards the Hecteyes monster on the right. With every pillar broken, Fenrir was able to get into the monster at close range and flip it over to pounce.
The Flame Eidolon covered himself in a cloak of flame and charged in headfirst. The Hecteyes on the left kept pelting him with various beams, and Ifrit felt every one of them, but refused to give in. Once close enough, he grabbed the Terran monster by wrapping himself around it and making it feel the flames.
"Ice Tomb," I decided to end it all by slamming my fists into the floor, making the ice erupt and piercing into all five Hecteyes monsters, missing the mystery girl. "Somebody, get the girl out!"
"On it," Dagger announced. "Ifrit!"
The flame eidolon nodded and jumped into the middle of the ice spire filled tomb and picked the girl up in his arms and took her out and landed on same side as he and Fenrir.
"Vivi, finish it!" I shouted as the black mage conjured up his magic.
"Thundaga!" He called out and unleashed massive dark cloud over the ice to rain down a thunderous storm upon the skewered monsters, making them writhe in the full force from the inside out until they disintegrated into ashes.
"Dismiss!" the Summoners called out as both of their Eidolons vanished back into their mistresses' weapon in red and brown lights. The tailed girl still looked with a blank stare, but I noticed a small glimmer of acknowledgment towards Dagger and Eiko as if she just found out something.
"Hey, are you okay?" Zidane asked the girl. "I noticed that during the fight that those things didn't even attack you."
"Not that we wanted it to happen," I added.
"Right, right," the ex-thief grinned sheepishly at me. "Why are you putting me out like that?"
"Just didn't want her to feel scared," I shrugged. "I wouldn't wish any kid being attacked by a sea of blobs with many eyeballs."
"Oh, this is just like how you nearly killed that Zaghnol during the Festival of the Hunt!"
"You won, didn't you? Stop complaining..."
"Uh, guys?" Eiko interrupted.
"What?" I and Zidane asked, stopping out argument.
"She's gone," Vivi pointed behind us, and sure enough we saw the tailed girl crossing the bridge.
"What's your problem...?" Zidane asked staring down the path, before turning back to us. "Well, let's see where she stopped next."
As we walked across the bridge, Dagger asked another question. "Do you think it feels weird that every time we find her, a monster's nearby?"
"Oh man, you're right," I groaned. "The flying clowns with the rings and now the multi-eyed blobs... and in the fact that she never was harmed."
"She's setting up a trap," Vivi stated.
"Then let's take her down before another one comes up," Eiko exclaimed.
Once across the bridge, we all leaned across a strange blue wall and got ready to turn the corner.
"Alright, we should capture her and not destroy her," Zidane spoke up softly.
"Yeah, good idea..." I nodded.
"Why not destroy her if she's out to destroy us?" Eiko asked.
"We're not certain that she is out to kill us," I replied. "For all we know, she could be setup in the same number of circumstances Kuja set us up in the Desert Palace. So, we have to make sure she's safe for questioning before deciding she's a threat."
"Then let's make sure she didn't hear us and capture her," Dagger stated, as everyone nodded and scooted close to the corner. I peered around the corner and saw the girl with her back towards us. Turning to the group, I gave them the symbol to keep quiet and then counted to three and get the drop on her. At three, we all jumped around the corner and saw that she was gone.
"What the-?" I muttered. "Where'd she go?"
"Look," Zidane pointed and lead me to some glowing webs. "She must have climbed down those webs."
"Oh great, are there going to be mutant spiders in this world?" I groaned as I walked up to it and started searching for some.
"Come on man," Zidane said, nudging me on the side with elbow. "You're stronger and scarier than anything we see in this world after killing the two sets of monsters we faced."
"Also, it doesn't look like any bugs larger than us would create a web like this," Eiko added, examining the web's thread. "If anything, they'll be up to your legs."
"Then, I'll be stomping on them like crazy. I'll go on ahead and signal you." I muttered climbing down the web like a ladder, hoping the shaking wouldn't attract the spider that made it. Lucky enough, it didn't come to that. After climbing down a second set of webs, I found the girl again... who was waiting at the start of another bridge.
"So, the vessel for Eclipse has finally come..." she suddenly spoke.
I raised an eyebrow at her statement, "Wait... vessel?"
"That's right," She replied. "Along with the other destined Angel of Death that came along with you, Terra will be able to finish its master plan."
"No offense, but we're going to stop Terra from assimilating Gaia," I declared. "There are already lives on that planet so move on to another that's not occupied."
"Yeah, you tell him!" I heard Zidane shouted as he, Dagger, Vivi and Eiko walked up. "Who are you?"
The Mysterious Girl sighed, "You don't remember anything, do you?" After seeing Zidane's confused look, she just shook her head and turned around to face the bridge. "Follow me, and you will understand us. ...and maybe your own heritage as well..." She then runs off again.
"Hey, wait! Hold on a sec!" Zidane shouted, but to no avail. He then turned to me, "What did she say to you?"
Still staring at the girl running from us, "She called me Eclipse's vessel and I think you an Angel of Death."
"What?" Dagger, Vivi and Eiko shouted.
"What did she mean by that?" the ex-thief asked.
"Meaning, we're about to be in some serious mess involving the two of us," I replied. "And now I want to make sure that it won't involve something bad for the rest of you."
"And we haven't found everyone else," Vivi stated. "There's no telling where they are now..."
"We can't back track with all that's happened back at the first bridge," Dagger added.
"That is strange," I stated. "Choco or Lovrina could've found us a lot easier with their methods of tracking... meaning something's up..."
"Then let's get a move on," Zidane finalized as we followed after the girl, who surprisingly didn't go far down the bridge. "Okay, now I think you're waiting on us... what's your deal?"
"Once you go on, you'll see..." the girl stated, pointing further along the path. "You will see what Terra is for yourselves. Your friends are waiting for you as well..." We all gasped as we heard what we've been worrying about all along.
"Wait, everyone else is beyond the bridge?" Vivi asked.
The girl nodded, "They are currently fighting an army of monsters called Movers... if you want to help them, then you must hurry."
"All I needed to hear!" I shouted as I ran past the girl and headed straight across the bridge.
"Ron, hang on!" Eiko shouted as I heard everyone else's footsteps behind me.
After I crossed the bridge with everyone, we were greeted by the sight of a giant mountain with a myriad of steps with so many twists and turns. During the time I took to take in the sights, we all heard the sounds of battle further up and wasted no time reaching the site. Just like the little girl said, we found Lovrina, Freya, Choco, Steiner, Quina, Lani, and Amarant fighting near a strange looking gate with a green light inside. The opponents they were fighting... were small red blobs... strike that, about hundreds of little blobs!
"There they are!" Vivi exclaimed.
"Yeah, but they are not looking too good..." Zidane added.
(Play Master of Shadow from Persona 3)
And he was right... We all could see all of them feel fatigued yet still fighting, wondering why. Choco started to fly up and swoop down on the Movers and pick off any of them that they could before his wings started to give out. Lovrina jumped into the sky and threw several shuriken at the blobs causing them to drop where they stood, only for her to get down on one knee. Amarant and Freya dealt quick successive slashes with their lance and claws while running, but then they started to drop their arms and felt their legs give out. Steiner and Lani waited for their enemies to come to them and started hack and slash them in half, and soon they started to pant heavily. Finally, resorted to alternate using her Blue Magic to get at the Movers before coming to her, or stab with her fork and eat them whenever they did get close. Yet like all the rest, she started to slump down and felt tired.
The problem was, there were still many of the little Movers left to the fight and they were going to give up so easily. They started to group together by threes and make an upside-down triangle shape, and something told me that was not good.
Dagger and Eiko didn't waste any time in conjuring up their white magic and then waved their weapons over the tired crew. "Curaga!"
The healing magic washed over the fatigued crew and revitalized them with newfound strength and stood up. Once they saw us, they immediately joined up and stood defensively.
"Where were you guys?" Freya asked.
"We were wondering the same about you seven," I replied. "But enough talk about that later, let's kill these things..."
"Problem," Lovrina added. "You see the ones that grouped up into threes?" I nodded. "These little monsters are more resilient than the others in this world; one hit and they'll counter with a near fatal attack... if it wasn't for Amarant and Quina, I'd probably be dead."
"Yes, but what are we going to do?" Freya wondered, smacking away the individuals that came up with Lovrina and Quina. "There's no end to them."
"Is there a way to knock them off?" Amarant asked me.
"First thing is to break up the groups, so they can't use that killing attack," I stated. "We need to hit them hard and fast... is there anything they else that they did we should know about?"
"They also used the Firaga spell," Steiner spoke up. "And with their numbers they were able to deal enough to exhaust us."
"Alright then, let's make them use it," I say, turning to Eiko. "Can you summon Carbuncle to reflect it when it happens?"
"I don't think she can handle it all..." The youngest Summoner replied.
"Then we'll destroy enough to so she can," Zidane stated. "Right?"
"Right!" I grinned. "Choco, get me up in the air... I just solved the separating problem... everyone else attack after I hit the ground."
After receiving the affirmative, I hopped on Choco's back and he flew me up into the sky. When some of the Movers tried to jump and catch us, Vivi gave us some cover with his own Firaga spell, burning them to ashes. Seeing that I was high enough and in the middle of the Movers, I stopped Choco.
"Get ready to dive when I hit the ground," I told him.
"Kweh!" Choco called out.
Soon, I jumped off his back and dropped straight down, getting into a spinning motion and let the air surround me. "Air Stomp Drill!" Suddenly, I felt like being in a tornado as I spun more rapidly than normal. Getting closer to the battle, I can feel the force of my attack strengthening until...
My foot alone killed about six of those Movers, but the force of the attack sent a big gust that blew nearly everyone away. Luckily, I saw Quina setup a Mighty Guard when gust came blowing. Once I stopped, everyone came charging in to attack the many Movers that were stunned. Zidane, Lani, Steiner, and Amarant quickly went in and started to slash some of them into pieces.
"Firaga!" Vivi shouted as he cast a tornado of flames that caught hundreds more and incinerate them.
"Ninja Art: Shadow Shuriken!" After a string of hand signs and a toss of a single shuriken, Lovrina created a storm of shuriken clones that pierced every mover in her path.
"KWEEEHHH!" Choco stay in the skies and then flapped his wings faster and harder until his wings glowed crimson red underneath. He unleashed his Choco Meteor attack, raining scattered burning rocks among the field and blowing up Movers by the groups.
"Cherry Blossom!" Freya announced, waving her lance around and blew a scattered storm of cherry blossom petals across the field, blowing all the remaining Movers in one group. All of them were looking mighty pissed at that and started conjuring up magic. It soon became a massive Firaga spell as Steiner told us it would be, so Eiko and Dagger got ready...
"Spirit of defense! I call upon your shield! Help us, Carbuncle!"
(Play Sonata of Awakening from Majora's Mask.)
As Eiko played the tune, the ruby floated in mid-air and opened up a portal with light shooting out. The light formed around the ruby and brought out the glowing, light-green fox Carbuncle.
"Ruby Light!"
The ruby on Carbuncle's head brightened up and created a barrier big enough to cover all 13 of us. Once the mass of flames reached the barrier, Eiko and Dagger poured their magic into Carbuncle's reflect magic and strengthen it more to repel the Movers' joint Firaga spell. After it bounced, the spell engulfed the rest of the monsters without as much as a squeak coming from them. Eiko's eidolon disappeared afterwards.
Immediately, we all took a breather and even savored the moment of defeating an army of monsters despite the size.
"Finally," Lani sighed as she turned to me. "What happened to you guys; all of us ended up near this mountain, why didn't you?"
"We suspected it was how we dropped onto Shimmering Island," Dagger stated gesturing to the seven we just met up with. "I noticed that you guys were close to each other when you entered the portal."
"That would mean you were closer to us when you found Ron and me," Zidane added, to which the Summoner nodded.
"Anyway, we were chasing this girl and she led us all the way here." I said. "I don't whether to see her as an ally or foe, because it was either she got us out of trouble or helping us out, in addition to getting us here to help you all."
"It's a good thing you all did come just in time," Lovrina smiled. "Not long after the seven of us woke up from being transported, those little monsters came in great numbers."
"We had to fight two other kinds of monsters on the way here," Vivi spoke up. "Well, Zidane, Ron and Dagger had to... Eiko and I heard the commotion and met up after the fight was over."
"Still, it's a little too early to rest," Amarant stated. "Any second we waste here is another chance some more indigenous monsters come to kill us."
"He's right," Freya added. "We actually fought three waves of these monsters before it seemed like an endless amount came out to attack; it may be their dwelling."
"That should explain our condition," Steiner nodded.
"Good! They were no yummy-yummy!" Quina exclaimed, lashing out her tongue in disgust. "Hope we find good food soon!"
"I just hope with everything we learned about Terra in Oeilvert, there's a town left in this place," Zidane stated.
"There is," I stated, with everyone turning to me. "If there's inhabitants that are able to live that can talk and think like the girl we chased all the way here, it's no doubt about it..."
*Squeak!*
Everyone suddenly turned around to see only one little Mover staring back at us.
"We missed one?" Vivi wondered.
"In all that chaos, it's possible..." Lovrina stated.
"Or else it didn't come out when we were attacking," Eiko shrugged.
Lani groaned as she readied her axe, "Who cares, let's kill the little thing and get it over with!"
With that said, something inside the little red monster set it off as it started breathing hard and red eyes started glowing yellow.
"What now?" Zidane wondered, feeling on edge.
"Let's just kill it now!" I shouted as I ran over to the monster as fast as I could, and get ready to smash it down with my fist. But during halfway, the Mover shined crimson red and started attracting the dead bodies and remains of the other Movers everyone had killed, absorbing them into its body. Still, I got ready to drive my fist into the small monster. But soon, as my fist reached it, the little Mover wasn't so little anymore! It grew to be 20 feet tall! "Oh snap..." Suddenly, the monster somehow shot out many of small Movers from its body and I was met with hard shot to my face, sending me flying back to the group and landed on my side.
"Ron!" Lovrina cried out as she ran to my side.
"Damn, wasn't fast enough," I grumbled as she helped me up. "That hurt nearly as much as I thought."
"You okay," she asked.
"Yeah, the surprise was what really got me." I stated. "Let's just get this thing and press on." Soon, I saw Zidane and Amarant charge the giant Mover, hack and slashing away at it. Both of their blades couldn't deal as much as a scratch on them.
"Oh man, our attacks are no good," Zidane groaned. No sooner, the Mover pulled the same trick on them with me and summoned a storm of small Movers to 'punch' them away. Luckily both of them were able to recover from the fall and land on their feet; Amarant used that time to throw a sharp disk at the monster, as soon as it started to retract the minis. The disk hit at the same time the Mover reformed, but it bounced off and fell harmlessly on the ground.
"Damn," the red head growled. "Was sure it would work... but let's see this... Lani, get ready to back me up..." He then gathered his hands and created a white orb in between them. "No Mercy!" Once fully charged, Amarant fired the orb as the giant Mover created its 'shield'.
"I get it now," the axe-wielder grinned as she conjured up some black magic. "Blizzara!" She then placed the magic on her axe and threw it right past Amarant's attack. The shield was created once the axe was close enough and took the blow, but this time it left an opening for the No Mercy attack to slam right into the giant's face. "It worked!"
"Let's try some magic!" Vivi stated as he quickly focused on his staff, "Thundaga!" He announced as he created a giant dark cloud over the monster's head and started growing larger. Once it covered the giant Mover, the cloud unleashed thousands of thunderbolts... but it was quickly thwarted by the monster created more little Movers and molded them into a shield that blocked the bolts effortlessly as the cloud disappeared.
"It can block that too?" Dagger gasped.
"Kweh!" Choco flew up high and decided to dive right for the monster. Of course, the giant Mover decided to deploy more of the little guys as its shield. The golden chocobo saw it coming and quickly pulled up to avoid any contact.
"1000 Needles!" Quina shouted as she launched the cactuar needles at the monster, but this time it retaliated with a Firaga Spell larger than any of imagined. Freya was able to push the Qu down as we all ducked for cover.
"Alright, this isn't getting us anywhere," I mumbled as I saw Freya attack next with her Lancer technique. She managed to get through a small hole made into the 'wall', but her weapon was caught by the rest. The 'wall' suddenly transformed into a 'tentacle' that slammed her against a part of the mountain.
"Electric Blades!" Not wanting this to continue, I jumped back in and created by hand-swords and chopped down the 'tentacle' and freed Freya. But because I chopped down a part of the giant Mover, it retaliated by unleashing another Firaga straight for us.
"Ninja Art: Wall of Earth!" Lovrina shouted as the ground in front of us rose up and blocked the flames. She then threw several kunai with a paper bomb attached to them and stuck them inside the beast without it noticing. Seconds later...
*KABOOM!*
The wall of earth went down and next we saw the giant Mover, a chuck of its head was missing as it roared in pain!
"That's it!" the ninja/summoner cheered. "It has to notice the attack coming to defend and counterattack, that's how we can destroy it for good!"
I grinned at her logic, "I know just the attack! Ice Tomb!" I slammed both of my fists into the ground, and the Mover suddenly created another 'shield' of minis at the front. I immediately thought stupid move; even if this attack wasn't evolved like the rest, it wouldn't matter if anyone or anything blocked because that's when I heard the sound of ice spires erupted and from the sound of the pain it was making, the giant Mover's underside was pierced and ripped more off the skin.
"We should provide a big enough distraction with a frontal assault and then everyone with magic should hit him with everything we have." Freya stated.
"Or rather we can use our eidolons to provide a big enough attack for the monster not to stay alive," Eiko smirked.
"Way ahead of you, little sister," Lovrina said, with her thumb already bleeding and started going through a series of hand signs. "Guys, attack now while we summon the eidolons!"
"Water!" Vivi shouted without missing a moment and surrounded the monster with the liquid's hard pressure. That's when the giant Mover retaliated by creating more tentacles, seeing us all charge after the magic was cast. Zidane, Lani, Amarant, and Freya started hopping all over the tentacles to draw their attentions. Steiner then saw his chance and held out his sword for Vivi to focus on. "Firaga!" the black mage then surrounded the Alexandrian Knight's blade in a brilliant shrine and let him charge in. Another tentacle went in for the kill, but Steiner used his magic-powered blade to charge in and slash it down with a powerful force that burned off the mini-Movers that created it.
"Mustard Bomb!" Quina conjured up a red ball of fire and fired it at one of the eyes, blinding its sight.
"KWWEEEHH!" Choco got in behind the giant monster and then unleashed his Choco Meteor attack and fired all over the back of its body.
"Dragon Kick!" I stretch my foot straight ahead and let out a torrent of flames that hit the face dead on, blinding the other eye and making the monster unable to see. "Now girls!"
Lovrina slapped down her hand on the ground and chanted: "Elements of Fire, Ice, and Lightning... combine to create the Beast of Protective Destruction! Rise, Kjata!"
I noticed a ripple appear in the ground in front of the giant Mover, and soon conjured up a giant flame, a spire of ice, and then a bolt of lightning. All of it hit the monster without setting off its shield, blowing off more and more off its body. Then, the remnants of those powers combined and created a massive, brown bull with six slit, yellow eyes, two giant black horns, a red mane and a long, blue tail.
Eiko then played her flute for the next eidolon to make its appearance.
(Play Bolero of Fire from Ocarina of Time)
"Sacred beast of the flames! Bringer of life! I call upon thee, Phoenix!"
A red light shined from above and from its portal, brought out the rainbow and crimson colored phoenix to hover over the mountain.
Finally, Dagger focused her thoughts on her racket and chanted:
"Knight of ancient times! Reveal yourself to destroy my foes! Come forth, Odin!"
A portal of darkness opened up next to Phoenix and from it, the frightening eidolon Odin appears on his horse. Freya, Vivi, Zidane, and I couldn't help but recall the last time he was brought out. Luckily, we remembered that Dagger is the rightful owner and saw the eidolon land on the ground.
"ATTACK!" the Summoners shouted.
"Rebirth Flame!" Eiko commanded Phoenix to let loose red sparkles that erupted into a massive torrent of flames and the eidolon flapped its wings for a firey tornado before disappearing. Everyone started to move away as the giant monster wailed in pain.
"Tetra-Disaster!" Lovrina commanded Kjata to raise itself on its hind legs and then slam into the ground, shaking it like ocean and the flame tornado erupted into more flames, along with ice shards, and lightning bolts. Kjata dismissed itself afterwards.
"Zantetsuken!" Dagger commanded as Odin raised his sword, while riding down on the horse. A dark force surrounded the blade and as he passed by the giant Mover, he dealt a very quick slash and disappeared like the others. Three seconds later, the giant Mover erupted into a pillar of energy and disintegrated.
(End music)
All 12 of us suddenly dropped to the ground in exhaustion, using up so much power and magic on, what I figured, an entire population of Movers... we've committed genocide!
"Well, that was a tiring ordeal," Steiner huffed.
"Those little bugs were tougher than we thought..." Lani muttered. "Are all the monsters in this place that tough for all twelve of us to destroy?"
"Nah, it can't be..." I stated. "The other monsters, Zidane, Dagger, Vivi, Eiko and I fought weren't nearly as tough as these... even in groups."
"Still, this place is very dangerous..." Freya added. "Especially if any intelligent life has caught wind to our battle..."
"Come to think of it," Lovrina said, looking around, "Our battle should have attracted attention; no one would ignore something as large as the eidolons."
Vivi turned to Zidane, who had a thoughtful looking on his face as he stared at the glowing green gate. "Zidane..."
"What the heck...? What is with this place?" the tailed boy started to notice.
Dagger seemed to agree. "It looks so artificial... so different than before."
"Yeah... But it doesn't seem very lively. Well, after we killed those monsters..." Zidane shrugged. "But... why does this place bother me so much?"
Before anyone could make a comment, we heard light footsteps come from behind us and saw the girl that lead us here. She just walked past us with that emotionless expression on her face and walked up the last flight of stairs, turned around and gestured to both me and Zidane and said...
"Welcome home."
Everyone gasped in shock, but none so more than Zidane. I only raised an eyebrow knowing that I'm not here, but I soon chalked it up to Eclipse's DNA inside me. Still...
"This is where you belong," the mysterious girl continued. "The place to which you shall offer yourself... is here." Everyone soon turned to tailed boy and started commenting on the situation.
"Zidane... you're from here?" Eiko asked.
"That does explain why that girl looks like him," Vivi wondered. "Do you think she's his long-lost sister or something?"
Zidane suddenly rushed near the stairs and shouted at the girl with... "Hold on a second! What the heck are you talking about? How can I be from here, when all I know was Gaia my whole life?"
We all saw how emotionally distraught he was... even I noticed it in his anger. He seemed to now overlook his entire life and remembering his story from when we first visited the Black Mage Village, Zidane just found the birthplace he searched for... but he wasn't happy with what he found...
Suddenly, we felt a rumble in the ground and the sound of an airship flying nearby. "Wh-What the-" I muttered.
Dagger, who was closes to a ledge, looked over it and gasped. We all ran over to the ledge to see some blue and gold castle points rise up from the ground. My eyes widened, knowing what was coming...
"Ia that a... castle?" Amarant wondered.
I shook my head slightly, "No... It's the..."
They all finally got it when the structure rose up more to see a large, blue and gold airship rise to the sky. And we all the familiar sight of a red glass eye that hovered over Alexandria back when Dagger was about to become Queen...
"The Invincible..." I whispered and suddenly felt my veins flare up lightly to which everyone jumped back.
"Ron, it's happening again..." Lovrina warned me.
"Yeah, I know..." I said, a little painfully. "It's alright... nothing big is happening that'll cause me to double over or faint due to the pain." And while I stared at the Terran airship, I had to wonder why if I'm connected to it by Eclipse's power, why did it hurt so much? Every time it unleashed its power on something, I'm taking the pain of it all along with everyone that was involved... Madain Sari when the Summoner race nearly died out, Brahne and her Alexandrian fleet outside the Iifa Tree, and Alexandria. So much destruction of one world just for the sake of the survival of another... I moved my eyes and saw that Dagger wasn't the only one staring hard at the Invincible... I knew she was remembering everything tragic that happened to her because of this airship... a lot of pain. But then, she suddenly looked pale and then fainted on the spot, causing me to finally move and catch her before she fell over the cliff.
"Dagger, wake up!" Zidane shouted, as I shook her lightly to rouse her from sleep, but to no avail. The tailed boy growled in frustration, "Dammit! What the heck is going on?"
"You are completely oblivious." Everyone turned around to see the girl speak out again monotonously, "Just like a newborn child." I could tell everyone was thinking along the lines of 'what is she talking about?', "You don't know why you were given life, or for what purpose you exist... You simply shout to emphasize your life...your own existence. You are completely oblivious." She finally turned around and left us to our own accord through the portal. Having enough Zidane finally ran up the stairs and tried to go through the gate, but it suddenly bounced him back slightly.
"Zidane!" Lovrina shouted as she and I walked up to him with Dagger in my arms. "We gotta find a place for her to rest!"
"Yeah, forgot about that girl for now," I told him. "She'll come around and talk; remember this place has nowhere to hide for long."
Zidane sighed, "Yeah, you're right. There's gotta be some place around here..." He looked around and saw something over to his left. "There's a town... Watch over her, guys! I'll be right back!" He stated as he ran off in that direction.
Seeing him so emotionally torn between finding out his own existence and then Dagger fainting without notice, I could tell he's in for a rough time now...
"Ron, go after him..." Lovrina pleaded as she gently took Dagger out of my arms. "We need to make sure he's alright, too."
"Yeah," I agreed. "He's taking a lot in right now... just like how Dagger was with learning her heritage and the destruction of life on Alexandria at the same time." I took a deep breath as turned in the direction Zidane went. "I'll be back soon..." And with that, I followed after Zidane, hoping he wasn't thinking of anything drastic.
Alright, another chapter done and it almost became 10,000 words... WOW! Now for our next time viewing...
Next Time: We all are welcomed into the only town inside Terra... Bran Bal... (Scene of a town with an unusually low life to it...)
The townspeople here, are all blank and dull for some reason... (Scene of the townspeople talking to Ron logically but emotionally)
But soon Zidane and I are getting down to the heart of the matter with Garland about these plans for Terra. (Scene of a dark castle with Garland standing outside it.)
Next Chapter: Bran Bal and Pandemonium: Garland's Ambition
Please Read and Review! Later!