Here it is, the great battle of our age! Not quite, but I like to think so. The story is finally drawing to a close; only a few more chapters to go, I will be certain to make a note in the summary when the entire story is finished. My request this chapter is would you like to see other stories in the same continuity, as in stories after Dark Esper? I have a few ideas in mind, let me know what you think. Relax and I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Two days later, the Imperial army had still not assaulted Figaro Castle, concerned at the activity that made the place look like a beehive. Earlier this morning, all the activity seemed to have died, and except for the few soldiers that could be seen manning the battlements, the castle almost looked deserted.
In the confines of the command tent, the four generals met with Emperor Detrek.
"My lord," said the most senior general, "I believe that an attack now will crush the defenders. There are almost no guards on the battlements, and I believe we saw all of the castle's defenses in the previous attacks. Most likely, their wounded guards continued to fight with sheer willpower, and now the battles have ceased, their injuries and weariness have forced them down from their defensive positions. Now is the time to strike!"
"Lord Detrek," said another general, this one had been a captain under General Leo before the Day of Ruin, "you know that I am no coward, but we should not attack Figaro. The appearance of the Returners Sabin and Terra and their easy victory over the vampire generals of Thanatos has made the men uneasy. They fear that the power of the Dark Espers will not be enough to triumph.
"Also, this slowdown of activity could also mean that the defenders of Figaro have come up with some plan and are simply waiting for them to attack. My lord, do not strike. We have them under siege, eventually their supplies will run out and they will have nothing to do except surrender. Please think this over, Emperor."
Detrek nodded slowly, his violet eyes piercing into each of his generals, until they rested on the dissenter. "General Leo would be proud of you, having the courage to take the hard position and defend the lives of your men. Kefka, in his idiocy, would have killed you. But luckily, I follow the path of our Lord Gestahl and Leo, and appreciate your position. However, a simple victory by siege is not something we can use. We must break this mystical reputation of the Returners, and show that they too are mortal and can fall before an army. Gentlemen, lead the army forward."
"How many men, my lord?" asked the senior general.
"All of them."
Two hours later, the entire Imperial army had been assembled and organized into tight battle lines for the assault. Standards were raised for the soldiers to see, and then they marched.
When they closed into range, the defenses of Figaro rained havoc upon the Empire, as autospear-throwers and guards with autocrossbows composed a majority of the defense. Several generals were certain that the castle had run out of tek-missiles and power for their tek-lasers. Perhaps there were even more wounded than they had dared to hope.
Full of confidence, the senior general ordered the ranks closer to Figaro Castle. Suddenly lightning split the sky, and it seemed as though the gods of old came forth with all their wrath.
Nearly a dozen Espers mystically appeared in the sky and sands surrounding the castle. They released their power as one, slaughtering thousands of Imperial troops with ice, fire, lightning, pure energy, earthquakes and even more methods of destruction. The devastation was unimaginable as soldiers screamed in agony, feeling the electricity of Ramuh pierce their body, the fires of Ifrit boil their blood, or the ground beneath their feet swallow them from the power of Terrato.
Panicking, the rest of the Imperials hastily withdrew from the castle, devastated by the loss of nearly a third of their army in one charge.
But Emperor Detrek and most of his generals, certain that victory was in their grasp, once again ordered the army forward, and once again when they were in range, a half-dozen Espers were summoned releasing their powers yet again, reducing the attackers now by another quarter.
The senior generals rode to the front of the lines, bringing the Dark Espers Thanatos and Bhaal with them. The two magical creatures began hurling their own magic at the walls of Figaro Castle, only see several of them reflected from the top of the battlements at their feet. The general immediately realized the Returners had used magic to safeguard their walls from direct spells, but he knew how to get around that.
With a quick yell to Bhaal, the tentacled Dark Esper summoned a raging sandstorm that swirled about the Imperial army, completely cloaking them from the castle's defenders.
Once the Imperial army was too close for the defenses of Figaro Castle to be effective, the evil creatures brought down the sands, and the army of the Empire surged towards the walls.
Suddenly, the first several ranks of Imperials charging the main gate were sliced in half, then hundreds, thousands of Domans and Figarans, concealed by magic at the base of the castle, rushed into the disorganized ranks of the Imperials, with the Returners at their heads.
"Follow me against thine foes!" cried Cyan, leading a horde of Domans towards the generals who had huddled together. With him were Gau, Setzer, and Strago, with the objective to incapacitate the Imperial generals.
"Doma eterna!"
Cyan and the senior general spied each other from the start and cared nothing for those who got between them. The two men met with a fierce and angry display of swordsmanship, both of them possessed of amazing skill.
The king of Doma spun, twirled, cut, and thrust, never managing to gain an upper hand in his battle, and finding himself almost as injured as his enemy. Finding a spare moment to catch his breath, Cyan lunged back in, cutting his enemy once against the chest, then spinning around before he could react to stab him from the side, then he leapt to slice him across the back, and once more, severing the man's left arm, in his Quadra-Slice technique.
The general screamed in agony, and tried to charge Cyan once more. But Cyan spared no more effort and ran the man through.
Strago in the meantime, was dealing the dissenting general, who had served under Leo, and now possessed magic that he used against the old man. But despite how much more powerful he was compared to his fellow soldiers, the general soon realized that he was by far the inferior spellcaster. Having only the ability to use the intermediate powers over fire and lightning, he was easily overmatched by the old sorcerer's more powerful magics, as well as his freezing spells and slow spells. Soon, the general was rendered unconscious by a well-timed sleeping enchantment.
Gau had charged his opponent with recklessness born from the wilds, biting, clawing, and kicking with incredible power. His opponent, though a good swordsman, was no match for the young man, and quickly fell from the barrage.
Setzer had little trouble with his own foe, laughing as he kept out of sword range, happily throwing his razor-sharp darts until the man stumbled forward and fell into the sands. The gambler stood over the body and laughed, "Read 'em and weep!"
"Where is the damn thing?!" yelled Locke.
"I don't see it!" cried Celes, cutting through yet another nameless Imperial soldiers. Her white bodysuit and cape were stained red with the blood of countless enemies this morning.
Edgar held his ground next to Terra, his autocrossbow in hand, putting down screaming Imperial soldiers one after another. Terra, finally tiring of hunting for Bhaal through the confusion of the battle, let loose with a fire spell that mowed down all of the Imperials in front of her for a good two hundred feet.
Standing alone in that conflagration, howling in a hideous tone, was Bhaal. Without a word, the four Returners charged forward.
The creature was waiting for them, and as they approached, waves of fire rolled off its body and slammed into them, searing their skin and scorching their clothes. But they had fought creatures with this kind of power before and did not let the heat phase them. Celes let loose with her most powerful ice spell, sending powerful blasts of cold into Bhaal that then seemed to encase him in a pillar of ice.
The Dark Esper's own powers caused the ice to vanish almost immediately, but it was clear that steam was still rising from the creature.
Edgar ripped his chainsaw to life and spun it around, gaining momentum until he gouged a piece of the being's side away. At the same time, Locke let loose with his full moon blade, slashing the creature across the face before the weapon returned to Locke's hand.
But Bhaal wasn't through yet, and using his powers to manipulate the ground, trapped Edgar in quicksand and swirled the sands around himself in a concealing shield.
But that defense was worthless against magic, as both Celes and Terra let loose with Flare spells, firing powerful bursts of solar power into the creature, before the excess seemed to fire out its mouth, ears, eyes, and open wounds as almost blinding sunlight.
Trapped in the sand, Edgar switched back to his autocrossbow, until a full clip of arrows were sticking out of Bhaal's hide. Locke let fly with his moon blade again, and once again Terra turned to her pearl spells, as she watched the balls of white energy fly from her hands into Bhaal.
Letting loose with a horrifying cry that caused everyone nearby to grab their ears, Bhaal exploded in a blaze of white light. When the four of them turned back, there was a shard of Magicite hovering in the air.
Thanatos flung its staff up to parry Shadow's wild charge. The ninja's gray eyes glittered with dark humor.
"Well, hello Death, I believe we met once before," he quipped.
The Dark Esper pulled down one hand and scraped a bony claw across Shadow's chest. He felt himself flying backwards as it felt like his chest was splitting open.
Relm screamed as she watched her father fly backwards from the monster's spell. It looked as though Thanatos had sliced Shadow across the chest and everything inside was trying to explode out. Terrified for a moment that she was about to lose him, she was amazed when the wound seemed to close on its own and Shadow's eyes fluttered open.
Thanatos came at them again, but was blown sideways as gusts of wind from Mog's Desert Aria dance hurled tornado-force winds at the creature. While it was off-balance, Sabin leapt forward with one of his new blitzes, the Rain of Blows. Every strike landed in the immortal being's midsection until Sabin flung it back with a powerful roundhouse kick.
Shadow pushed himself up as Relm completed the chanting for the most powerful healing spell.
"Thanks, honey," said the ninja quietly.
"Pop, how did you..."
"First, don't ever call me that," growled Shadow, "and second, preparatory life spell. I think you were the one to lend me the Phoenix Magicite to learn it."
Relm could almost see him grin behind that mask, and then he spun, releasing a trio of ninja stars that disappeared under Thanatos' robes.
"Less talk and more hitting please!" called Sabin as he continued to fight unarmed against the hordes of Imperials, "In case the two of you hadn't noticed, we're still heavily outnumbered here!"
Sabin let loose with a Hurricane Blade that mowed down thirty Imperials. "Of course, if you really want to relax, buddy. I'm sure we can take the time to set up a nice little hammock, maybe some iced tea and a good book. What do you think?"
Shadow laughed as he fought his way to his friend alongside Relm and Mog. "Sounds too good to be true, what's the catch?" he asked, throwing a powerful lightning bolt at Thanatos, who had just finished forming another vampire.
"We have to kill all our enemies first!" yelled Sabin, hitting the vampire with a powerful white beam from his Aurablast.
"Keep fighting, kupo!" yelled Mog as he continued the ritual for his dance again, sending those powerful winds hurling into Thanatos.
"I don't like dead things!" cried Relm, moving her hands to unleash a powerful spell, "So why don't you just go away!"
The powerful fires of the sun blasted into Thanatos, and with a deathly scream, it seemed to fade into nothingness, until all that was left was a dark spot on the sands, and a shard of Magicite hanging in the air.
Shadow quickly grabbed it and put it in a satchel. The four of them continued fighting until the other two teams finally made it to them.
"To victory!" yelled Sabin.
The dozen Returners turned into the remaining Imperial forces. With power befitting their legendary reputation, they cut and slashed and spell-blasted their way through three thousand Imperial soldiers. With the Returners at their head, the Figarans and the Domans behind them were unstoppable, and the Imperials turned to flee, their ranks broken as the heroes made their way towards the tent city.
"Waroo! Bad guys run for airship!" yelled Gau.
Looking forward, they could indeed see Detrek, Vargas, and the two remaining Dark Espers boarding their airship well ahead of the approaching wave of angry soldiers.
"That art the sign, King Edgar," yelled Cyan, "Let thy light shine forth!"
With Gau and Mog on either side to protect him from stray Imperials, Edgar pulled out his light-flashing tool and turned towards Figaro Castle, hitting the switch to activate the light.
Watching the battle from the castle walls was safe, but the Chancellor of Figaro was reminded of his youth, when he would gladly had drawn sword and spear and charged into the massed hordes alongside his king. But those days were long over, he knew, smiling sadly. He almost missed the thrill of battle.
Suddenly, outside the Imperial tent city, a bright flash of light blinded him for a moment. That was the sign.
He turned to the man standing next to him, holding a hooded pigeon. With a single nod, the man removed the hood and flung the pigeon into the air. The Chancellor kept his eyes on the bird as it flew directly towards the rising airship. With the help of a spyglass, he could see the bird perch on one of the wires, out of sight and danger.
As the airship turned and flew quickly to the south, the Chancellor allowed himself the first smile in several weeks.
Having seen their Emperor and their single advantage flee the battle, one by one, groups of Imperial soldiers began to lay down their weapons and surrender.
The victorious defenders let out a cry of joy and triumph, thanking the Ancients and praising the glory of the Returners.